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Author	Topic: The cooking/recipie thread
spideymj Registered: Feb '05	Date Posted: 2/19/07 4:35am Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	Hey Jon, I have another request. If you run across any easy and fast vegetarian recipes, let me know. My teenage son, decided a few month ago, he was no longer going to eat meat. (got stir fries, spinch stuffed shells, mexican beans down pat.) Its comming up with new things that are fast and easy to make while I am making the main dish for the rest of the family. Thanks -----signature----- Go Pack Go!
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twilek69 Title: St Louis FanForce Council Registered: Apr '05	Date Posted: 2/19/07 6:03am Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	Looks good as always Jon! Now I need to find the time to prepare one of these. -----signature----- I love it when a plan comes together! Goddess of Paper Mache' Proud Member of the NES
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VoijaRisa Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 2/19/07 7:28am Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	spideymj posted: Hey Jon, I have another request. If you run across any easy and fast vegetarian recipes, let me know. I've actually been looking at some vegetarian recipies as well recently for a friend of mine. Unfortunately, very little vegetarian food looks appetizing. I've got a few things bookmarked that I suppose I'll have to try. If they're edible I'll pass them on. -----signature----- "They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance." ~Terry Pratchett
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VoijaRisa Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 2/19/07 6:53pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	It's not vegetarian, but tasty: Name: Philly Cheese Steak Region: American Difficulty: * Cooking time: 20 minutes Ingredients: - Sirloin steak (sliced into thin strips) - french bread (sliced lengthwise) - butter - garlic salt - green pepper (diced) - Provellone cheese Instructions: 1. Spread a small amount of butter on french bread and sprinkle with garlic salt. 2. Brown steak until nearly cooked all the way through. 3. Top bread with steak, cheese, and peppers. 4. Bake at 400ºF until cheese is melted. Steak will cook the rest of the way at this time. Notes: This is a meal that I generally cook for myself without leftovers. I take a large steak, slice the whole thing up, and save the rest for later (if I'm using it soon, just refridgerate, if not, freeze). If you're into them, mushrooms are also good on here, as are different kinds of cheeses and onion. -----signature----- "They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance." ~Terry Pratchett
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VoijaRisa Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 3/1/07 1:52pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	Name: Meatballs Difficulty: * Cooking time: 15 minutes Ingredients: - 1 lb ground beef - 1/4 cup bread crumbs - 1 egg - 5-6 tbsp diced onion - ~1 tsp garlic powder - ~2 tbsp salt - generic italian seasoning Instructions: 1. Mix all ingredients in bowl. 2. Fry in oil until brown at center. Notes: Meatballs are wonderfully simple and add can add a lot to the right pasta dish. Spaghetti just isn't quite right without them. But those little balls of meat aren't only at home in red sauces and can also be found in other dishes like Swedish meatballs. If you're wanting the meatballs to stand out more from the sauce, or want to have them stand alone, then it's entirely possible to get even more creative than I have here. I personally tend to view meatballs as mini meatloafs. Given the number of variations there are on meatloafs, that should tip you off that there's many ways to kick up the flavor of meatballs. Consider adding powdered onion soup mix or shredded dry cheeses like romano. -----signature----- "They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance." ~Terry Pratchett
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jedi_runya Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jan '05	Date Posted: 3/1/07 2:20pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	Jon, you really need to make a cookbook. You have great ideas. I love making meatballs with rice and downing them in Mushroom soup. Yum!! -----signature----- "...Only now, at the end, do you understand." Emperor Palpatine--Episode VI "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it." -Henry Ford
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twilek69 Title: St Louis FanForce Council Registered: Apr '05	Date Posted: 3/1/07 2:42pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	Yum! I love meatballs and meatloaf! Looks like a really simple, yummy recipe too. -----signature----- I love it when a plan comes together! Goddess of Paper Mache' Proud Member of the NES
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VoijaRisa Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 3/1/07 2:57pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	jedi_runya posted: Jon, you really need to make a cookbook. You have great ideas. I love making meatballs with rice and downing them in Mushroom soup. Yum!! This thread is kinda a cookbook. I can hardly claim all these ideas as mine. It's mostly just an accumulation of suggestions from others, experimentation, and experience over the past decade. What you're describing with the rice sounds like a very quick and cheap version of swedish meatballs (which is my signature dish). I've done something similar, but instead of using meatballs, I use pork chops. I don't add any milk to the soup and just use the pasty stock from the can. Occasionally, I'll add ~1/4 cup of white cooking wine for a bit of a different flavor. -----signature----- "They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance." ~Terry Pratchett
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jedi_runya Title: Manager Emeritus Registered: Jan '05	Date Posted: 3/1/07 6:55pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	Yes it is. We also used to use Bison meat. Now, that was good. If you haven't tried Bison, and get the chance, do. It is very good and lean. -----signature----- "...Only now, at the end, do you understand." Emperor Palpatine--Episode VI "Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it." -Henry Ford
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VoijaRisa Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 3/6/07 1:44pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread - Date Edited: 3/6/07 1:55pm (1 edits total) Edited By: VoijaRisa
	I've been told that I need to learn to make a dessert dish known as Baked Alaska. For those that aren't familiar with it, it's cake (generally white or yellow) covered in ice cream, which is in turn, covered in merangue and then baked at high temperatures to cook the merangue quickly, which insulates the ice cream and makes for a hot outside, and cold inside. An alternative to the baking is to flambè the merangue using brandy or vodka. This is the alternative I'll be using. After all, fire is fun. Typically, flambèing requires alcohols between 70-90 proof. Higher can be used, but such high concentrations of alcohol are typically not considered safe. I'm going to be using vanilla infused vodka at 70 proof (35% alcohol by volume). I think this will go well with the vanilla ice cream and plain merangue (not lemon). I wasn't positive if this would burn, so before starting, I decided to do a test in a pyrex baking dish. In a lit room it's hard to tell that the alcohol is actually ignited, but flip off the lights, and it's a beautiful soft blue flame. It's like the aurora in a pan! An additional flourish to flambèing is to sprinkle cinnamon into the flame. Cinnamon is ground bark from a tree and burns as it's sprinkled in making the flame more colorful. I'm not going to be trying that for this recipe, but there's some other dishes I want to try in the future if this works out well. Anyway, look forward to the results from my baked alaska test here in the next few days. -----signature----- "They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance." ~Terry Pratchett
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VoijaRisa Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 3/8/07 6:38pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread - Date Edited: 3/8/07 7:27pm (1 edits total) Edited By: VoijaRisa
	Warning: This recipe involves large, open flames. If you cannot buy the liquor necessary, do not attempt this without adult supervision. Anyone attempting to follow this recipe does so at their own risk! Click on links to see pictures. Name: Baked Alaska Flambè History: This dish was originally invented in 1804 by the American physicist, Benjamin Thompson, who was studying the thermal conductivity of eggs. He realized that, because beaten eggs (in this case, in the form of a merengue) trap vast amounts of air, they are excellent insulators. This allows you to have a cold inside and hot exterior. The dish was originally called "Omlette Surprise", but the name was changed in 1876, to celebrate the purchase of the Alaska territory. Difficulty: ***** Cooking time: >4 hours Ingredients: - Cake - Ice Cream - 3 egg whites - 6 tbsp sugar - 1/2 tsp vanilla extract - 1/2 - 1 cup liquor (at least 70 proof) - Strawberries (optional) Instructions: 1. Prepare cake according to package directions and refridgerate until cool. 2. Cover cake in ice cream and freeze. 3. Blend egg whites, sugar and extract with an electric mixer until you have moderately stiff tips to make merengue. Refridgerate. 4. When merengue is cold, remove ice cream covered cake from freezer and cover in merengue, making sure not to leave any ice cream exposed. 5. Set oven to broil and place cake in middle rack, with door slightly ajar. Remove when peaks of merengue become dark brown and the rest is a light brown. To Flambè: 1. In a pan, heat liquor until small bubbles form near edge. Immediately remove from heat. 2. Using a long stemmed match or other similar device, ignite pan. 3. Pour carefully over cake while still on fire. Flame will extinguish itself as alcohol burns off. Notes: This is most definately the most visually pleasing recipe I've ever done. Wow.... flames are pretty! The first attempt I made at this Tuesday night was a monumental failure. I realized that I made two major mistakes that I'll highlight so if you try this, you won't make them. The first was that, before you put ice cream on it, the cake should be cold. None of the instructions I found actually said this. I figured you threw the ice cream on, merengue'd it, and baked it before it had time to melt. But ice cream melts fast. That's why there's so many steps in my recipe saying to keep things cool... at least till you're ready to heat it up. The second mistake was that I had no idea what a merengue was supposed to look like before you put it on the cake. If you've never made merengue, here's the answer: It's like whippped cream. If you pull the whisk out and it stands up on its own, sagging slightly, then you're good. Mine, on the first attempt, was runny as hell and didn't even come close to being able to stay on top of the ice cream. Knowing what the merengue was supposed to be like I corrected this problem. However, you'll notice that I say to refridgerate the merengue before applying it to the ice cream. In my second attempt, the latent heat from the merengue melted the ice cream enough that a large portion slid off the cake which I had to attempt to reconstruct just prior to broiling it. And for God's sake: When you make the merengue, use an electric mixer! I don't have one so I had to use a whisk and it took nearly a half hour. My arm was about to fall off. So there's my two main problems that I corrected for version 2.0. So now for some more general notes. You'll notice that in the ingredients list, I simply say, "cake". This is because you can really use whatever kind of cake you'd like. Easiest way to go is to just get the boxed kind. I used an 8" pan, and it was way too much for me alone. My roomate and his girlfriend tried it too, but there's still a lot leftover. So I think perhaps even smaller ones would be better. Perhaps with cupcakes. I also tried a few ways to ignite the cake. You'll notice in the centre in the pictures, is a hole. The reason for this is that I placed a shot glass with some of the liquor in to that hole. The idea is that will provide a deep resivoir that will stay lit and act as a pilot light for when you pour more on. Unfortunately, this wouldn't stay lit very well for me. Hence the reason I left this out of the instructions. Instead, it was much easier to just light a saucepan and pour that directly on. The liquor must first be heated because it causes more to become vapour, which is actually what's burning. If the liquor isn't hot, there won't be enough vapour to burn to release energy to continue to heat the liquor to produce more vapour. Also, note that this recipe involves raw eggs which may not become fully cooked in the process. As such, it is best to use very fresh eggs, and just to be safe, do not feed to those with comprimised health such as the very young or elderly. -----signature----- "They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance." ~Terry Pratchett
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twilek69 Title: St Louis FanForce Council Registered: Apr '05	Date Posted: 3/8/07 9:49pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	Jon, when are coming to cook for me? LOL! -----signature----- I love it when a plan comes together! Goddess of Paper Mache' Proud Member of the NES
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VoijaRisa Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 3/19/07 6:15pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	Hey spidey: Here's a very easy and very good vegetarian meal I tried tonight! Name: Artichoke Linguine Difficulty: ** Cooking time: 20 minutes Ingredients: - 1 lb linguine - 1/4 cup butter - 4 cloves garlic (diced) - 1 can peeled tomatoes (drained, cut into fourths) - 1/4 cup olive oil (extra virgin preferable) - 1 tbsp flour - 1 cup chicken broth - 1 tbsp lemon juice - 1/2 tsp salt - 1/4 tsp pepper - 1 can artichoke hearts (drained) - 3 tbsp parmesan romano - 1 tbsp fresh basil Instructions: 1. Cook noodles according to package directions. 2. In a saucepan, sautee garlic and tomatoes in butter. 3. Add olive oil and flour, stirring until flour is mixed in evenly. 4. Add chicken broth, lemon juice, salt, pepper, artichoke hearts, and romano. 5. Stir and then cover, allowing to simmer for 5-10 minutes. 6. Serve over noodles. 7. Garnish with basil. Notes: I wasn't expecting much out of this recipe. I was mostly looking for something different to try out, but this was really fantastic. I think it could be improved by adding some cooked broccoli (both taste and health wise). Also, if you want to make it a little more heartier, it would work well with some baked chicken. -----signature----- "They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance." ~Terry Pratchett
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VoijaRisa Registered: Oct '02	Date Posted: 4/1/07 10:34pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	I've been wanting to learn to flambè something fruity ever since doing the baked Alaska. There's no consistent sets of recipes for anything, and very little of the ones I found even had much in the way of ingredients in common, so I've been experimenting. I've tried about 5-6 different things now, and while none of them were bad, some were better than others. From what I've seen it seems there's 2 major components: the fruit and the sauce. These two pieces should compliment each other. For example, bananas and brown sugar go well, but strawberries are better with white sugar. Also, brandy and strawberries are just ick. Before I go any further, a few more warnings. As is the whole point of flambè, alcohol is flammable. Don't try this without adult supervision. Additionally, make sure you're not wearing loose fitting clothes, or doing this in a place with hanging drapes or anything else that could catch on fire. Also, although you're setting fire to the alcohol, as much as 75% of the alcohol can remain. For these recipies, most of the sauce runs off, so there's not much that would be consumed, but if you have recovering alcoholics, it might not be the best of meals. Now that that's out of the way, here's what I was playing with: Fruits: Strawberries, grapes, peaches, and bananas. Alcohols: Peach Schnapps (use for flavour), vanilla vodka (70 proof), rum (70 proof), brandy (80 proof), Grand Mariner (orange flavoured cognac, 80 proof). Other Supplies: Brown sugar, white sugar, vanilla extract, butter, syrup, lemon juice, ice cream And now for the things that worked out well: Name: Bananas Foster Difficulty: Cooking time: 15 minutes Ingredients: - 2-3 Bananas, sliced lengthwise then halved - 1/2 cup brown sugar - 1/4 stick butter - 1/4 tsp cinnamon - 1/4 cup rum (70 proof) - 1/8 cup banana liqueur (optional) - Ice cream Instructions: 1. Place ice cream on small stoneware plates and place into freezer. 2. In a skillet, melt butter. 3. Add brown sugar and stir until it makes a thick paste. 4. Add cinnamon and mix. 5. Add bananas and cover with sauce. Remove from heat. 6. Microwave rum in a seperate container for 10 seconds on high, or until slightly warm to the touch and pour over mixture. Ignite immediately. 7. When flames extinguish, immediately spoon over ice cream. Notes: I was hoping this would make the sugar carmelize a bit more, but alas, it was rather runny. It was still very tasty. I left the banana liqueur out since I didn't have any. Another option is to sprinkle the cinnamon on while the dish is still lit. The cinnamon comes from tree bark so it will burn red as it's sprinkled in which contrasts with the blue flame of the alcohol. Name: Peach Flambe Difficulty: Cooking time: 15 minutes Ingredients: - 2-3 peaches, sliced into quarters - 3 tbsp sweet butter - 1/4 cup brown sugar - 3 tbsp orange juice - 1/2 tsp lemon juice - 1/4 tsp vanilla extract - 3 tbsp peach flavour (in my case, the peach schnapps) - 1/4 cup tbsp Grand Mariner - 3 tbsp vanilla vodka - Ice cream Instructions: 1. Place ice cream on small stoneware plates and place into freezer. 2. In a skillet, melt butter. 3. Add brown sugar and stir until it makes a thick paste. 4. Add orange juice, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and peach flavouring. Mixing well. 5. Add peaches, spooning sauce over them. 6. In a seperate cup, mix Grand Mariner and vodka. Microwave on high for 10 seconds or until warm to the touch. Pour into skillet and ignite. 7. When flames extinguish, spoon over ice cream and serve. Notes: I had some difficulty trying to cut this recipe down to one person in that the alcohol spread out so much that it didn't light very well. As a result, not much of it burned off and it retained a strongly alcoholic taste. However, before I added the alcohol it was fantastic tasting. Name: Strawberry Flambe Difficulty: ** Cooking time: 15 minutes Ingredients: - 1 small package fresh strawberries, sliced into fourths - 1/4 cup Mrs. Butterworth's syrup - 1 tsp vanilla extract - 1/2 tsp peach flavouring - 1/4 cup Grand Mariner - 3 tbsp vanilla vodka - Ice cream Instructions: 1. Place ice cream on small stoneware plates and place into freezer. 2. In a skillet, mix syrup, vanilla extract, and peach flavour. 3. Add strawberries and other fruits. 4. In a seperate cup, mix Grand Mariner and vodka. Microwave on high for 10 seconds or until warm to the touch. Pour into skillet and ignite. 5. When flames extinguish, spoon over ice cream and serve. Notes: This one was definately my favourite. As with the bananas foster, I was hoping that the flambèing would crystalize the sugar and make it form a hard shell, but it didn't happen again. I think that in my next experiment, I will add some white sugar over the mixture and broil it for a minute to see what happens. Additionally, the sauce ran off the fruit, so I think next time I might also cover the strawberries in sugar and let them sit for a day or two to make them sweeter because they weren't much this time. And now that you sat through all of that, how about the video. It's quite pretty! -----signature----- "They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance." ~Terry Pratchett
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Jedi_Master_Medic Registered: Jul '05	Date Posted: 4/1/07 11:22pm Subject: RE: The cooking/recipie thread
	VoijaRisa posted: Name: Vanilla Fruit Salad Difficlty: * Cooking time: < 10 minutes Ingredients: - 11 oz can Mandarin Oranges - ~16 oz can peaches - ~16 oz can pears - ~15 oz strawberries - ~15 oz pineapples - 1 large apple - ~1 tsp vanilla pudding mix Instructions: 1. Open each can slightly to allow juices to drain. 2. Pour a small amount of juices from each into a measuring cup to have about 1/3 cup of mixed juices. 3. Add ~1 tsp vanilla pudding mix. 4. Mix well. 5. Drain juices from remaining fruits in a strainer, shaking to remove as much juice as possible. 6. Pour into large tupperware container and add reserved juices. 7. Shake to distribute juice and fruits evenly. 8. Refridgerate for a few hours before serving. Notes: This recipe works fantastically for dinner parties and is highly customizeable on what fruits to add, how much of each's juice to add to the mix, etc. The vanilla pudding adds a very nice little kick that ordinary fruit salads don't have. Banannas are also very good in this, but they get all brown and icky very quickly. Thus, if you want to add them, it's best to do so right before serving, keeping them on top, so that they will be eaten first and none will be left to go bad if there are any leftovers. THAT looks awsome! I have to ask, have you ever tried Fruit Fresh to keep the bannaz fresh looking?
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