Recipes and foodie treats?

[Selkit]

Hey there, boys and girls. I'm afraid I didn't spot anywhere else appropriate for posting this (Doesn't seem to be a "General hobbies" subsection somewhere); What I'm curious about are recipes you may want to share, and if you lot would be interested in receiving a few recipes, as I experiment with various foods. How about I start, with a little content, from tonight's dinner:

Selkit's simple altered borscht

3-4 reasonably large parsnips
6 good-sized beets
1/2 head cabbage
24-36 peppercorns
4 bay leaves
6 tbsp wine vinegar
2 tbsp beef soup stock powder
1 tsp celery salt
1-1/2 lb beef steak
Sour cream (Or better yet if you can get it, smetana)

Peel beets and parsnips. Dice parsnips finely, smaller than 1/2". Grate or shred beets, and shred cabbage finely. Start bringing 3 litres water to a boil in an appropriately large stockpot, add vinegar, peppercorns, bay leaves, stock, and salt to water. Pan-brown beef, and cube in manageable pieces. Add vegetable ingredients and meat to stockpot. Bring to a full boil, then simmer for ~60-90 minutes (Dependant on how finely you cubed your parsnips; They're rather unpleasant raw). Remove bay leaves if you can get at them, later. Serve with a spoonful of sour cream or smetana mixed in, with additional black pepper to taste. Goes quite well with varenyky or perogi. Alternately, try it with diced turnip or potato instead of parsnips, for a somewhat more traditional recipe.

I'd love to see a few more recipes if the rest of you are willing to contribute, and if the thread's a regular feature, I'll post more recipes of my own in future. Cheers, and good eats!

[Renwaldo]

Why waste a perfectly good half head of cabbage? Why not just toss the whole thing in?  :P

[Ember]

Whiskey. Ice cube (optional!)

[Sikkab]

First you gotta close your eyes, and then suck it out of a long hose.

[Selkit]

Why waste a perfectly good half head of cabbage? Why not just toss the whole thing in?  :P

If you insist. If you ask me, though, cabbage is just filler, in borscht. :P

[Silvermink]

I made chicken rendang on the weekend - I've done it a few times and it's always come out really nicely, and I've found a few shortcuts I can take that make it less onerous to prepare without having any significant impact on the outcome. We had it with rice and a green salad and a bottle of Dr. Loosen Riesling which cut through the richness of it pretty effectively (it's got both coconut milk and coconut cream in it, so as you can imagine it's pretty rich). I might try an ever-so-slightly-sweeter white next time, though, as the rendang itself is really savory, with a shallot-based curry paste.

It's not my recipe, I admit - it's from Les Huynh's Blue Ginger - and you can find it here (hopefully that link works for everyone). It's a fantastic book and I've made a number of recipes out of it, always with great results. The Vietnamese turmeric chicken (with deep-fried basil on top - nom) is another favorite of ours.

The recipe says to make the curry paste with a mortar and pestle, but I highly recommend using a food processor unless you want to spend most of your natural life doing it. ;)

"Foodie treats" made me think of something else - anyone else had rugelach from Siegel's Bagels? Holy hell are they good.

[Zythren]

First you gotta close your eyes, and then suck it out of a long hose.

Sure sure ;D

[JestersKing]

it's Dahl time, baby!

Dahl:
1 whole red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
garlic, to taste, minced
3 semi-soft roma tomatoes, diced (I like to take the skins off of them, but that's not wholly necessary)
1 can (400ml) coconut milk or cream
(around) 1 cup veggie stock/broth
*freshly squeezed* lemon juice, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
1/2 cup red or yellow lentils
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder

I. on a medium heat, cook (sweat) onions and peppers about 5 minutes, until tender; do not caramelize.

II. add spices and minced garlic, as well as enough veggie stock to barely cover the mixture, then allow to simmer for about 10 minutes; don't let the stock evaporate! if it's getting too dry, add more.

III add tomatoes, lentils and the rest of the stock. Bring the whole thing to a boil, then reduce to a slow simmer and pour in the coconut milk. Cook until lentils are tender.

IV if the soup is too thick, thin it out with more veggie broth. season to taste with lemon, salt and pepper.

[Selkit]

Ooh! I may have to give that one a try, Jester. Come to think of it, I have all of the ingredients save the tomatoes handy. Tomorrow night's dinner, perhaps. Now, as for tonight's dinner and what it was? Simplicity, but tasty:

Mirin chicken over noodles:

3 boned and skinned chicken breasts, cut in thin strips
6-8 shallots, minced
2-3 large carrots, thinly sliced.
1/4 pound mushrooms, quartered or sliced. Oyster or shiitake are especially ideal.
Black pepper, to taste
1 tbsp minced garlic
1/3 cup hon mirin (Hard to find; Aji mirin or kotteri mirin are acceptable substitutes)
1/3 cup dark soy sauce (or even better, if you can find it, memmi)
2 tsp cornstarch
1/2 pound shanghai or udon noodles
Peanut oil or sesame oil (~1-2 tbsp)

Start by mixing cornstarch into soy sauce (It will blend more smoothly if the liquid is cool), and blend until smooth. Add mirin to sauce base. Set it aside for now. In wok, heat oil over medium-high heat; If it's smoking, it is now too hot. Start heating a second pan while you're at it; the second pan is for your noodles, and should either be a large frying pan or a second wok. When wok is heated, add chicken, then add (carefully and quickly!) a splash of hot water for steam. When chicken is seared white (this won't take long at all; if it is, your heat's far too low), add carrots, mushrooms and shallots. Keep your heat reasonably high; you want to maintain a good head of steam and keep your ingredients moving frequently; If the pan goes fully dry before you have added the sauce, add another splash of water. Dust ingredients with black pepper to taste (This is one of those 'the more the merrier cases', absolutely!), or optionally stronger peppers if you are so inclined. Add garlic and sauce mixture, mix well, then cover the wok and turn the heat down to medium low or so. In your second pan, start the noodles, and fry them crisp for 3-4 minutes; do *NOT* add water to this second pan, or your noodles will devolve in a hurry into a glutinous mess. Dust noodles lightly with black pepper. Let the chicken and vegetables simmer for a few minutes until the sauce clarifies slightly; stir periodically. Serve chicken over a bed of noodles. Should only take you 15-20 minutes.

Relatively simple and tasty recipe, though some of the ingredients are difficult to locate if you only have a western chain supermarket available to you. For mirin, try T&T, though you will be unlikely to find hon mirin, even there; You will need a Japanese specialty store to acquire actual mirin. T&T carries substitutes like kotteri mirin, however. You will also be able to find the memmi at T&T. Whatever you do, do not skimp on the shallots, however. They bring this one together nicely. Enjoy!

[Renwaldo]

You guys eat so. . . foreign.  ???
My family is so white. We have potatoes with a side of dead animal for almost every meal. Sometimes we'll flavour it with a bit of salt and pepper if we're in an adventurous mood.

[JestersKing]

You guys eat so. . . foreign.  ???
My family is so white. We have potatoes with a side of dead animal for almost every meal. Sometimes we'll flavour it with a bit of salt and pepper if we're in an adventurous mood.

that's...
so..
painful v.v;;
:hug: hugs for you, to make it all better.

One of these days you should just surprise your family with something like that chicken recipe up there -^
Which looks awesome and yummy.

[Renwaldo]

They wouldn't eat it and my ma would beat me for wasting a perfectly good frying chicken.  :(

[JestersKing]

ooouuuch >.o

[zenia]

My favorite thing at the moment...

Rice medley cooked in chicken broth, sauteed mushrooms, slivered almonds (they get tossed in the pan with the mushrooms), either chicken or steak (pork would be good too) cooked and cut up into tiny bits all mixed together once they are cooked, then seasoned with garlic powder, soya sauce and hot sauce. Num num.

[Kithop]

"Foodie treats" made me think of something else - anyone else had rugelach from Siegel's Bagels? Holy hell are they good.

Before I went vegan, yes. :O And yes.