2012-03-23, 20:14 | Link #82 |
Blooming on the mountain
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light....
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As regards to the question of how in the world I find time to cook ... well, the short answer is I don't.
The long answer is I set aside time to cook large amounts of food when needed, and that does the trick for a while. When inspired (like in advance for the meal I mentioned above) I have to do some planning ahead is all, although it is not always easy!
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2012-03-23, 20:49 | Link #83 | |
Juanita/Kiteless
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: New England
Age: 40
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A lot of my dinners are just run of the mill things and things that don't take too long. More involving meals and/or ones that will take a good amount of time, I plan ahead and try to do them on a day that would be good for me. Also, a lot of times with meals like them, I have to buy certain ingredients to help bring the meal together.
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2012-03-23, 21:14 | Link #84 | |
blinded by blood
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2012-03-23, 21:42 | Link #85 | |
Juanita/Kiteless
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: New England
Age: 40
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- brown cubed beef or whatever meat you want in pot, set meat aside - in same pot, saute onions, garlic & tomatoes - put meat back in, add fish sauce, black pepper, tomato sauce & lots of water... bring to boil - simmer til beef is tender (took me 2.5 hours) - add sliced plantains & potatoes, cover - ~2 min. before potatoes are done, throw in a bunch of cabbage on top & cover (one small cabbage cut into quarters, cut away hard center pieces) - serve hot I might give this recipe a go, and look up formal recipes of this dish online to get an idea of how much water to add, as well as meat and veggies.
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2012-03-25, 22:32 | Link #86 |
Blooming on the mountain
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light....
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Well ... I got inspired again and attempted to throw together a Japanese cuisine stye meal for over 20 people. Had 3 other people helping me with the food preparation over the course of two days, and each of us probably spent a total of 8 total hours each in preparation. Man.... -_-
My first time ever, but I absolutely enjoyed every step of it. What did I make? 1. Onigiri - rice balls with umeboshi, a strip of nori and nori/toasted sesame seed seasoning sprinkled on the outside. 2. Miso soup - solely a veggie based stock of "julianed" mushrooms, celery, grated carrots and wakami, then add the miso (I used brown rice based miso) and before serving add a sprinkling of chopped scallions and teeny tofu cubes. 3. Tempura - veggie mostly, including eggplant, zucchini, mushroom, carrot and yam. 4. "Sushi rolls" - no meat in them per se, only veggie content. Made close to 90 of them. So exhausting. 5. Shrimp, Clams (whole feet), and Squid tentacles (all cooked, of course) ... so sad I could not find pre-prepared bbq'd eel and octopus (my fave). We arranged the "sushi rolls" all in the middle of the plate and the various seafood meats around the outside of the plate. I decided to have people simply put a piece of the meat on top of the roll if they wanted rather than making a separate "finger" of rice, place the meat on top and then wrap it together into one whole with a piece of nori. 6. Plates with pickled ginger slices and wasabi paste on separate halves. 7. Bowls with tempura dipping sauce. 8. Individual tiny plates for mixing soy sauce and wasabi for roll dipping. 9. Fried Hizhiki seaweed with sesame seeds and various flavors - absolutely scrumptious (I love Hizhiki). 10. Sweet Bean filled Mochi on top of which I placed a sakura flower that was still wet from the rain (so it stayed stuck to the mochi). 11. A small glass of sake lightly flavored with "melon" (?) ... that's what the bottle said. We heated the sake up and it tasted a little like plums to me, but oh well. Annddd ... I think that's it. :\ It was totally exhausting but it tasted absolutely delicious and everyone really liked it. Maybe I should mention that although I am fully American (i.e. white and non-Asian) I grew up with parents who cooked according the macrobiotic system of food analyzing and preparation (as my dad has tons of food allergies). So I had the opportunity to be exposed to LOTS of Japanese and Chinese cuisine ... I even used to bring umeboshi filled, nori wrapped onigiri to elementary school in a lunch box - I kid you not. So anyway for me being able to prepare this meal was a little nostalgic for me as well ... I am already a fan of Japanese culture and the like, so all this made it extra special in a way. I tell ya though ... I got LOADS of respect for those folks that prepare such food every day now. The wife of the family I stayed with in Japan when I visited for a month in April of 2010 used to make this kind of home made stuff for me EVERY ... SINGLE ... DAY. I have a whole 'nother level of respect for her now. Man. Talk about time consuming!
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2012-03-26, 00:39 | Link #87 |
blinded by blood
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Sushi with only vegetables is still sushi, as long as the rice is prepared and seasoned correctly. Sushi's defining characteristic and ingredient is the rice, not the filling.
If the rice is not seasoned it's closer to Korean kimbap.
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2012-03-27, 05:43 | Link #91 |
Hail the power of Fujoshi
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: hahahahahahahahaha
Age: 35
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I love making soups. It's the easiest. Just throw in the ingredients into the boiling water, and that's it! Oh, and salt as well.
Boiling vegetables is another of my favourite choice when it comes to cooking. It's healthy, easy to make, and I love it! Recently, I made tangyuan (colourful stuff made from glutinous flour) Spoiler:
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2012-03-28, 01:44 | Link #94 |
Kaiba
Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: David Tennant's bedroom in the TARDIS
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I don't cook very well
but I bake all the time. My friend and I made rainbow cake today. I'll post a pic when I can get it uploaded from my phone. Here's the recipe: it pretty much looks like that except not as clean http://www.marthastewart.com/256688/rainbow-cake
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2012-03-28, 06:27 | Link #95 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Deutschland
Age: 39
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Maybe because I don't really like sweet stuff |
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2012-03-28, 06:34 | Link #96 | |
Dai-Youkai
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Vienna
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The issue with baking is, that unlike cooking, you cant improvise as easily. Baking is a far more accurate science than cooking. If you dont mix the ingredients in the right manner, it wont come out right.... sometimes you fail even if you follow the recipe to the letter. Also, is it just me, or do you guys alos get "full" just by inhaling the sweet smell? I mean, on the rare occations that I do bake something (such as xmas cookies or bday cakes) I pretty much never touch it afterwards. My head is spinning from all that sweet smell and the idea of eating it repulses me. So if I ever bake anything for my loved ones, it is indeed just for them. |
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2012-03-28, 07:15 | Link #97 | |
Underweight Food Hoarder
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But it has to be dark semi-sweetened chocolate. Only cake I've made was cheese cake, the amount of sweetening you have to put in it makes my legs quiver. |
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2012-04-01, 03:55 | Link #98 |
Dai-Youkai
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Vienna
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Today I finally had the necessary discipline to take photos of what I cook. Usually, the way it works is, that I start cooking and get so absorbed in the task that I totally forget about the original intention of making a step by step of it with pictures.
Todays menu was: Chicken skewers with tabboulah salad: Preparation and ingredients: Marinade for the chicken: 1. A shot of olive oil 2. Juice of one lemon 3. generous ammount of honey (the marinade should be sweet and sour) 4. teaspoon of french mustard 5. One minced garlic clove 6. salt and pepper 7. Corn starch Whisk the ingredients together until they combine and set aside. Cut 2 chicken breasts in about 1,5 inch sized pieces. Try to make the cubes equally large. Mix with the chicken with the marinade in a bowl, cover with foil and put into the fridge for at least 2 hours, but the longer the better. In the meantime, prepare the rest of the ingredients for the skewers. You will need half an onion and 2 peppers. As for the peppers, you can work with bell peppers, if your supermarket has no other, but it is much easier to use the pointed peppers, simply because they tend to be more flat. Bell peppers have a round shape and as such, it is difficult to cut flat squares ouf of them. As for the onion, you cut it in half and then carefully seperate the layers. Then you proceed to cut squares from both the onion and the peppers. Keep in mind that the squares should be smaller than the chicken pieces. The reason for this is, that if the pepper pieces are bigger then the meat wont have contact with the frying pan during cooking and it wont cook properly, aka it wont turn golden and will be raw inside. After the chicken marinaded in the fridge, you mix corn starch into the marinade to make it thicker. This will add a delicious coat to the chicken pieces when fried. You can put the prepared skewers back into the fridge, while you prepare the salad: And now for the tabbouleh salad. The origin of this very tasty salad is the middle east and it is a VERY refreshing salad for the hot summer days. You will need the following ingredients: 1. Tomatoes 2. spring onion, parsley (loads of it, the more the better, be generous), a few mint leaves, basil or corriander leaves 3. one lemon 4. Olive oil 5. salt and pepper 6. a small bowl of cooked couscous, quinoa or bulghur. Couscous and bulghur are wheat products, you should be able to find it in any bigger supermarket. Dont feel discouraged if you dont know it. The same goes for the non wheat quinoa. If you really dont like the idea, you can substitute with some fine pasta. I used couscous in my recipe. When preparing the tabbouleh salad, keep in mind, that you should combine the ingredients directly before serving, because otherwise it gets soggy. Also, when you cut the tomatoes, strain them, you dont want any extra liquid in the salad other than the lemon juice and olive oil. The preparation is relatively easy: 1. Cut the tomatos and strain them, put them into a bowl. Cut the spring onion is super thin slices and add it to the tomatoes and do the same with parsley, mint leaves and corriander leaves (alternatively basil). If you dont like mint, dont worry about it. The salad is literally a taste explosion and the mint is just a small taste foot note in the background. 2. Mix olive oil and lemon juice, add salt and pepper to it. 3. Cook and let cool down the couscous/bulghur/quinoa (or small pasta) It can go like this into the fridge, until you are ready to serve the salad. Do not mix beforehand, if you want it to be fresh and have a bite! Last step is frying the skewers..... nice and slow, keep turning them, so they dont turn black. You have to be careful because of the honey and corn starch added to the marinade, it burns relatively easy. Enjoy!!! Btw, this recipe is also perfect for BBQ days. Instead of frying the skewers in a pan, throw them on the grill. But be even more careful with not burning them Last edited by warita; 2012-04-01 at 05:04. |
2012-04-01, 20:35 | Link #100 |
Obey the Darkly Cute ...
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: On the whole, I'd rather be in Kyoto ...
Age: 66
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Ok, Warita wins the daily prize for "best presentation of food and how to cook it"
I just realized I've never come back and posted dishes/recipes that interest me
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