Recipes--Your Specialty

[Demon Lung]

Looks good...

[mertzy]

Seared some ahi and served it cold with a lemon aioli, quinoa patties, and pickled fennel and shrimp.  Presentation is kinda fucked up cuz I was drunk.

What is in your quinoa patties?

[RAGER]

I seem to do them differently every time.  This time was just egg, s+p, scallions, and some parsley I think.

[black aspirin]

Good Lord, that looks delicious Rager.  I'm not much of a cook, but I think I do have a pretty killer chili recipe.  I plan on cooking a lot more often soon, so I'll asking for tips.

[VOLVO)))]

My girlfriend is vegan. So, I end up making a metric fuckton of vegan food. Lest I specifically seek out meats, I mostly eat vegan grub. I suppose cooking it so that it isn't bland bullshit is my speciality.

Vegan "Mongolian"  Tofu.

Cube extra firm tofu 1x1 style after letting it drain onto a paper towel for a bit.

Dump enough peanut or vegetable oil into your wok for some deep frying. Batter your tofu lightly only using the juices on the tofu. I use corn flower. Regular flower works fine, too. I usually don't mix a bunch of bullshit into my batter mix, and I use salt very sparingly in all of my cooking, but I usually dump in a little cayenne pepper for some kick, at this point.

Fry all the tofu until golden brown, just like every fried food. Drain it over paper towels. Set it aside.


Remove your frying oil, reclaim and reuse next time.

Put a little more oil in the wok, now is time for the veggies.

Sliced onion
In pod-peas
Baby corn
Green pepper
Whatever else you feel like, it's pretty hard to fuck this up.

Onions and peppers first, cook until caramelized, then toss in the rest.

While those are cooking, get a small saucepan, and make your sauce.

Start out by chopping a clove of garlic, and an equal amount of ginger root. Toss into sauce pan with a little vegetable oil, and let it cook for a minute or so. Pour in a quarter cup of Rice Wine, and let the alcohol cook off. Dump in a couple tbsps of low sodium soy sauce. (I will offer no exact measurements because it is hard to make this sauce taste bad.) Add twoish tbsps of brown sugar, and a tbsp of Hoisin sauce. Let it cook and it should thicknen a little bit. You can add spice here, or leave it sweeet. Girlfriend can't handle spicy, so dishes i make for us are usually pretty tame. I suggest Asian Chili sauce for that, if you do.

Veggies done, sauce done, tofu done. The tofu is probably not so warm by this point. Toss everything back into the wok at medium heat and bring it back to warm, add the now finished sauce. Toss everything so it gets a good coating. The sauce gets a little hard as it cools, has a very sticky, brittle texture to the bite. Great contrast with the hardened breading, and the soft tofu.

Serve over white rice.

/introandfirstcontributiontofoodanddrinkforum

[RAGER]

well,well,well   nice first post.  thanks

[VOLVO)))]

SHARPEN YOUR KNIVES AFTER YOU ARE DONE COOKING.

[black]

That recipe sounds delicious SunnO))).
Especially with something to give it a little spicy heat.

This thread has been one of the most useful things I've encountered on the innerwebs. Much thanks to all who have and will in the future, contribute. Y'all have saved me many times from resorting to endless suppers of grilled cheese sandwiches.

[RAGER]

Wait until I start cooking on slabs of granite and Himalayan pink salt.

[Lumpy]

my latest is simple, very basic and awesomely awesome..

1 lb Italian sausage
4 cloves garlic
1 can of cannelli beans [do not strain]
1 lb pasta..ziti or penne work best.

chop up garlic into really small pieces, remove all casing on sausage and chop/crumble up. sauté in olive oil until cooked. do not strain.
simmer beans and cook pasta. drain pasta and toss all together..
DO NOT strain the sausage or cannelli beans.

top with another little bit of olive oil, pecorino/romano cheese and crushed red pepper.     

Gonna try this in a couple days, gotta finish some leftovers first.

[RAGER]

Tri-tip I just made and smoked local bleu with some pan seared shrimp and buttermilk fried zucchini. We ate with our hands.



the aftermath.  DL photo quality, sorry

[Muffin Man]

Man, you chef's over here are really impressive! Nice work

[black aspirin]

My chili.  Old pic, it's too hot to be eating chili right now.



4.5 pounds of ground chuck (chili grind)
1.5 pounds of breakfast sausage
2 qty. 10 oz. cans of beef broth
1 qty. 10 oz. can of chicken broth
12 oz. Zing Zang Bloody Mary Mix
2 qty. 10 oz. (they might be 8 oz., can't remember) cans of Rotel tomatoes & green chiles (I like chunky, or you can use the spicy ones for more kick)
1-2 anaheim peppers, finely chopped
1 green, 1 red, and 1 orange/yellow bell pepper, chopped
1 large white onion, chopped

Seasoning:  If you want to make it simple, use 2 qty. '2 Alarm Chili' kits, usually in most grocery stores (skip the salt and the thickener).  I've started using one of those and then adding Gebhardt's chili powder, cumin, and cayenne red pepper to taste.  Hope to get a REAL custom seasoning going this season.

1.  Put the beef broth, chicken broth, Zing Zang, Rotel tomatoes & green chiles, anaheim peppers and the 1st half of the seasoning in a big, deep pan on the stove.  Bring almost to a boil.
2.  Brown the 1st half of the ground chuck in half-a-can of beer.  Add half of the onion, too.  Don't wait until it's actually brown, pull it when the meat is light grey.  It will continue to cook in the pot and be more tender that way.  Add that to the pot without draining.
3.  Brown the other half of the ground chuck in half-a-can of beer and onions.  Drain this time, and add to the pot.
4.  Brown the ground sausage.  Drain and add to the pot.
5.  Let simmer (it should be below boiling obviously, but not too far below...keep it pretty hot to cook and tenderize the meat).  I keep it covered most of the time.
6.  Cook about 2 hours or until meat is tender enough.  During that time, add the last half of the seasoning in little bits at a time and stir.
7.  Add the chopped bell peppers to the mix about 30 minutes before it's done, or even 15-20 minutes if you want them to have more crunch. 
8.  At the end, season to taste with salt, add more heat, whatever.
9.  Before serving, add the juice of 2 limes to the pot and stir.

NO BEANS, YOU DON'T PUT BEANS IN CHILI!!!

[RAGER]

I got up early and cooked this morning before work.  So my breakfast was a pan roasted chicken breast,pan roasted zucchini from the garden, fresh dug up tiny taters from the garden, with a sauce gribiche.

[RAGER]

Roasted and stuffed zucchini boats and thumbelina carrots, marinara, and a puree of zucchini guts, garlic, and preserved lemons.

[Soundgardenia]

Was going to sear some ahi tuna steaks but Trader Joe's discontinued them.. Plan B is mushrooms with clam stuffing. Going to "pair it" with some Portuguese vinho verde and then a Romanian rosé.

[ez]

Finally got around to making some tacos this year. Traded some of my pickled red onions for some frejoles from a friend who runs the kitchen in the only taqueria in town. Next step is getting him to make me tortillas so I don't need to use the store bought ones.

Cochinita Pibil Tacos

[RAGER]

No achiote?

[ez]

Separately? Individual seeds?

The pork was rubbed with a ton of achiote paste and left to marinate overnight.

[RAGER]

I couldn't tell if you used any.  Did you make your own paste?

[ez]

No, I got store bought. I hate to say it, but more often than not I am too lazy to make pastes using a mortar and pestle. I'll grind up dry stuff, but pastes - especially curries - I do not have the patience for.

Luckily I have some great connections for home made curry pastes.


[edit]
This is the achiote brand I use:

[RAGER]

I grind all my dry stuff with a coffee grinder.  Do you have a source for annatto seed?  Cuz I have a recipe for achiote paste that I use.

[RAGER]

Last night was Eastern European chicken and sausage with taters.

[ez]

I grind all my dry stuff with a coffee grinder.  Do you have a source for annatto seed?  Cuz I have a recipe for achiote paste that I use.

Maybe. I get my stuff from a store run by a mexican family. I'll check next time and hit you up for that recipe.

[Demon Lung]

Last night was Eastern European chicken and sausage with taters.

what makes it Eastern European. I was in Eastern Europe for a bit and I never once saw anything that resembles that.