Share your recipes

[Seppia]

Sorry for the wait, I had promised to open this thread long ago.

Let's share our recipes here, I'll start.

Ok so this is a recipe that appears to be insanely stupid but it's actually great.
I love low temperature cooking, especially for white meat.
Main advantages are
- no stink as you're cooking below 100C: you can have a piece of meat in the oven for hours and it will make no smell.
- no/limited loss of weight: the liquids do not evaporate nearly as much.
- meat stays moist.
- no need to add fats.
- the taste of the meat stays intact.

First, buy a chicken breast



Then, marinate overnight.
I like to keep it very simple when it's chicken, so I use my own aromatic salt



And some good extra virgin olive oil


Recipe for this aromatic salt is:
Take salt
Chop finely some rosemary and some sage
Add a bit of grated lemon peel
Mix
Leave open for a couple days so the salt sucks out the liquids from the herbs
Put in jar



Wrap in aluminum foil and store in the fridge overnight

The following day, take out the chicken about one hour prior to baking, set the oven at 90C - 195F, and cook it still in the aluminum foil till the center of the meat reaches 68C - 155F (you need a thermometer obviously).

A 1.5lbs chicken breast takes around 2-2.5 hours

The cool thing about it is that you will also be able to eat this chicken cold the next day, it will taste like chicken ham, only much better.



Works amazing also with pork loin.

[Seppia]

Now, my free lesson "how to cook pasta" for culinarily challenged non-Italians

1- use lots of water, minimum 1 gallon per pound

This is a 3.3 quarts pot for a half pound



2- bring to boil and put a lot of salt in the water. My way of explaining this to non Italians is: put as much salt as you think is sane, then double it.
You want to put salt in the pasta, not in the sauce, it makes for a more homogenous taste.
This is the amount I put in the 3.3 quarts pot



3- cook the pasta al dente, and drain it a bit before your linking.
Also, when you do the sauce, leave it a tad more liquid then you'd like.
Mix the pasta with the sauce and sautée for a minute.
Pasta will be cooked a bit more




4- before all excess liquid disappears, toss a bit Parmesan




5- put in plate and add a bit of extra virgin olive oil at the very end



Important: do not go cheap when buying pasta. Even expensive ones (without going crazy) are still at a very low cost per portion, and a good quality product has dramatically better performance.
I suggest using De Cecco, or Barilla at a minimum.

[Did]

Spiralised zucchini is a low carb alternative to pasta.

I cook often from Marcella Hazans books (recipes googleable).

Chicken two lemons.
Chicken Rosemary white wine olives and cherry tomatoes
Chicken with red cabbage
Chicken Rosemary and garlic
Beef, pancetta and onions
Beef, pancetta, vinegar, anchovies mustard
Lamb vinegar and green beans
Zucchini and onion
Zucchini and oregano
Zucchini gratin
Green beans and Parmesan

Many others. Also huge fan Madhur Jaffrey for Indian.

[Solvent]

I've done a broccoli, cauliflower, and leek soup recipe a few times recently that my wife let me know has quickly become one of her new favourites. All these vegetables are in season at the moment in Europe, I believe.

1 head cauliflower
1 head broccoli
1 leek (or 2 if they're small)
Optional, a potato or part of a sweet potato

Finely chop the leek, and fry it in olive oil and butter for a while until it caramelises a bit. You can add some bacon/lardons too. Use a big pot.
While this is happening, break/chop into big pieces the heads of cauliflower and broccoli, the potato/sweet potato too if you're using it.
Put all these vegetables in the pot and pour over hot water until they're almost covered.
Add in three sprigs of rosemary, a few sage leaves, and a fair bit of salt.

After 20-30 minutes, remove the herbs, and use an immersion blender to mix well. Add a bit of cream fraiche, and plenty of cracked pepper.

Serve with accompaniments you like. It's great to add for example, a bit of good olive oil, or some extra cream, or even chilli flakes after you serve. Let people do as they will. It's not super photogenic, you can probably imagine what it looks like.

[Riggerjack]

OK. Rotisserie chicken soup.

Go to Costco, buy a few rotisserie chickens, strip the meat. Everything other than the elastic band goes into the pot. Skin, bones, fat. Add some water, carrots, celery, potatoes. Simmer for a few hours, to overnight. Pour over a colander into another pot. The potato acts as a thickener, but your carrots and celery are gone. All the veggie goodness, and no veggie texture, for those that like that kind of thing.

Now you have your broth, dress it up as you wish, add more veggies, egg noodles, gluten free noodles, whatever. Add your chicken back in. Salt and pepper to taste. If you aren't careful, it can go from soup to stew to casserole pretty quickly...

This is a batch cooking activity. Eat for a week, or have plans for leftovers.

Also, using the broth to make rice is pretty good too.

[BRUTE]

1)put some beef tallow in a pan and turn heat all the way up
2)drop any amount of ground beef into the pan
3)occasionally stir to ensure even browning of aforementioned ground beef
4)put some tomato sauce in crock pot, add salt + pepper + random other herbs
5)put browned beef in crock pot
6)cook any amount of hours over 2 and under 8
7)let cool a bit
8)add massive amounts of grated cheese and stir
9)delicious

[Seppia]

1)put some beef tallow in a pan and turn heat all the way up
2)drop any amount of ground beef into the pan
3)occasionally stir to ensure even browning of aforementioned ground beef
4)put some tomato sauce in crock pot, add salt + pepper + random other herbs
5)put browned beef in crock pot
6)cook any amount of hours over 2 and under 8
7)let cool a bit
8)add massive amounts of grated cheese and stir
9)delicious

Suggestion: before dropping the ground beef, try chopping some garlic, celery and carrots and let them simmer in the tallow at low/medium heat for 20 minutes.
This in Italian is called "soffritto", and it gives some "depth" to the taste of the sauce.

[BRUTE]

brute will definitely try this. thanks.

[Seppia]

Tuscanian soup, as done this last weekend.

Mix various types of beans, lentils, and grains in a more or less random way, and soak them overnight



In a large pot, put oil, lots of garlic, bay leaves and a bit of pancetta or guanciale or non smoked bacon (basically: something tasty), and cook on low flame for a bit, till the bacon is ready:



Add some carrots and eventually other random vegetables you have leftover (I used zucchini in this case)



Pro tip: use a potato peeler to clean the carrots



Drain and rinse thoroughly the bean lentil grain mix



Drop in the pot, add water and salt.
It has to be less salty than you want it to be at the end, as some water will evaporate.
If you want a stronger flavor you can use cubed broth instead of salt, or real broth instead of water.



Super pro tip: don't EVER throw away your Parmesan crusts. Cut them in small bits and toss them in your soups.
They make for an amazing flavor enhancer and taste fabulously when cooked (they soften up quite a bit)
Pic lifted from the net



Cook till it reaches this state

[BRUTE]

fyi, brute let garlic and onions simmer in tallow for 15 minutes before searing his steak in it, and it was by far the best steak brute has ever made. unclear if it was just due to the flavored fat, but it probably helped quite a bit. thanks!

[Seppia]

Awesome! Happy it worked out for you

[BRUTE]

new recipe:

1)heat tallow (probably better to put in crushed garlic now, brute forgot)
2)cut 5 strips of bacon into small pieces
3)fry bacon in tallow
4)add 1lbs ground beef (fattest variant available)
5)add whole bunch of spices, salt, crushed garlic
6)turn up heat so ground beef gets all tasty
7)add cream to bind fat
8)delicious

[7Wannabe5]

@Seppia: I finally got around to trying your simple recipe for eggplant on some of my bumper crop. It was great on its own with fresh pita bread, and even better on top of pasta with garden fresh chopped tomatoes, basil and a bit of garlic sauce.

Other dishes we prepared from garden produce recently would be:

1) Beet soup:
Pre-cook some white beans like Great Northern.
Clean and rough chop a lot of beets and cabbage, moderate amount of onion and potato, some carrot, little bit garlic.
Lightly saute onion, garlic in olive oil. Salt to taste. Add beets,cabbage, carrots, potatoes for few minutes.
Add beans. Cover with quantity of water or beef broth if you have it.
Cook until done. Salt, black pepper to taste.
Serve topped with fresh grated horseradish and sour cream.

2)Cheddar/Beet greens spanakopita

Defrost some filo leaves.
Melt some butter.
Clean a paint brush.
Finely chop some walnuts.
Shred some cheddar cheese.
Wash, clean, chop some beet greens.
Chop some onion and garlic.
Saute onion and garlic in butter and olive oil.
Add beet greens, cook down and salt pepper to taste.
Brush baking pan with melted butter.
Put down layer of filo. Brush with butter. 3X-ish
Sprinkle with crushed walnuts.
Then layer of beet greens mixed with shredded cheese.
Repeat. End with filo. Bake moderately hot oven (380-ish) until golden brown.

3)Patty-pan squash nutmeg bread.

Follow standard recipe for zucchini bread, but use melted butter for part of the fat, and substitute over-size patty-pan squash for zucchini, and use less cinnamon and add some nutmeg. Save the seeds to roast or plant next year.

4)Spicy potatoes

Quarter, boil potatoes. drain. Chop very hot peppers (remember to wear glasses!) Saute peppers in olive oil/butter. Mix with potatoes. Mush with your fork and eat.

5) Gleaned fruit oatmeal

Go glean some ugly apples and pears that nobody would buy at the market. Cut out the ugly parts. Chop up the good parts. Throw some of the good parts in a pot with some oats. Cook until done. Top with walnuts and maple syrup and cream or whatever you have that you like.

[steveo73]

Falafel's in pita bread

I don't use pita bread because I typically don't buy pita bread. I tend to use wraps - like a burrito wrap.

Ingredients
Chickpeas - you can also use cannellini beans or some combination of these beans. The dry beans work a lot better than beans from a can. I also use black eyed peas.
Herbs - I think parsley is the best but you can use whatever herbs you have.
Cumin - dried. You could also add Tumeric as it's healthy.
Onion - roughly chopped. In quarters is fine.
Salt/Pepper to taste.
Garlic.

If you are using dried beans you soak them overnight or for even say 4 hours. You then chuck them in a blender (I have a Vitamix and it's awesome but I think any blender would work) along with roughly chopped herbs, onion, garlic and spices. The majority of the recipe should be the beans. This relates to how wet the mixture actually gets. I honestly have no idea how much of each item that I use. You will probably get this wrong a couple of times but soon get the hang of it.

At this point it's basically done but you have to check how wet the mixture is. This is why it's better using dry beans and soaking them. The canned beans are a little too wet. If it's wet you can add flour but I've been adding rolled oats. You just add it until it's a nice texture.

To cook them you could roll them in flour and deep fry them but I find you use too much oil and it's not as healthy. It may be the best tasting option though. I though just fry them in a fry pan with a little oil of your choice.

I serve these typically in a wrap but often leftover's are just served with no wrap.

I also have them with chilli to taste, Tahini sauce and a simple salad.

Tahini sauce - garlic, lemon (it available) & Tahini sauce. Stir together. Add warm water to get the right texture for you.
Salad - chop onion, tomatoes or red capcicums and add corn kernels (I use these from a can). Just stir together. You could add some salt and pepper and even some fresh herbs but I don't.

This is a great dish. It's really healthy and it tastes great.

[CactusSurfer]

Chicken Drumstick Pilaf

Cheap, easy, and not too terrible if your body needs carbs.

Ingredients
5-6 chicken drumsticks
~1.5-2 cups long grain rice
Twice as much water as rice
Cumin, turmeric, black pepper, and/or paprika to taste
Small amount of oil (e.g. sunflower oil)

Add a small amount of oil to a skillet, and turn the heat to medium. Brown the drumsticks, turning periodically to ensure that the whole surface is browned. Remove the drumsticks, and pour most of the oil and fat that came from the chicken into the garbage. Add the rice and spices, and stir for about 1-2 minutes, until the rice starts to become more opaque. Add the drumsticks and water. Cover the skillet, and turn the heat to low. Let cook for 20-25 minutes, or until the rice and chicken are fully cooked. Add ~1/4 cup of water if the rice is too dry, and leave for another few minutes. Serve with defrosted frozen vegetables for a complete meal.

[Solvent]

@steveo73
I've been doing pretty much that recipe for quite some time too. Falafel is great. I agree the chickpeas work best going from dry - the canned ones retain too much moisture. Cumin, turmeric, coriander, parsley, chickpeas, red onion... mmmm.

[steveo73]

@steveo73
I've been doing pretty much that recipe for quite some time too. Falafel is great. I agree the chickpeas work best going from dry - the canned ones retain too much moisture. Cumin, turmeric, coriander, parsley, chickpeas, red onion... mmmm.

I'm trying to eat more healthy food and I realise it's as simple as coming up with recipes that taste great and are still healthy. That is a classic example. Fairly easy although cooking is easy, it tastes great and it's healthy.

The internet also has a tonne of ideas for you to use.

[Seppia]

@Seppia: I finally got around to trying your simple recipe for eggplant on some of my bumper crop. It was great on its own with fresh pita bread, and even better on top of pasta with garden fresh chopped tomatoes, basil and a bit of garlic sauce.

3)Patty-pan squash nutmeg bread.

Follow standard recipe for zucchini bread, but use melted butter for part of the fat, and substitute over-size patty-pan squash for zucchini, and use less cinnamon and add some nutmeg. Save the seeds to roast or plant next year..

Great! Yes I like the eggplant on top of pasta, it's simple, healthy and quick.
I'll definitely try your number 3 here, sounds like something my wife would love!

[Seppia]

I am long overdue a post here, sorry for going MIA

I did some pork shanks yesterday.
Extremely easy to prepare
Just sizzle them quickly in a pan
Add carrots, bay leaves and 1/3 of a bottle of white wine.
Leave heat on high so that the wine boils out the alcohol quickly.
Once the smell becomes alcohol free, put the heat on minimum and close the pan.
After around 3 hours they will be ready, just turn the heat back on high to reduce the sauce.



In the plate

[Farm_or]

Beer bread

3 C sifted flour
3 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/4 C sugar
12 oz beer
2 T butter

Mix dry ingredients, add your favorite beer at room temperature. Mix, but don't overmix. Put in greased loaf pan and top with pad of butter. Bake 350 for 50 minutes.

Variations: onion soup mix for equal measure of flour, whole wheat flour, add oatmeal, flax seeds, or even sawdust