Food

[Johann]

felt like this topic could be given some rebirth.

i've been cooking for a long time, and now cook for a living...

some real simple cream soup recipes that don't take any time at all

take a simple stock (you can use chicken stock paste to substitute)

stock: increase ingredients to produce a stronger flavor or more stock, this is about enough for two
1 onion quartered and unpeeled
1 stalk celery rough chop (take off the part with the leaves, they tend to make things bitter)
2 to 3 carrots rough chop
1 chicken breast, or some meat, meat scrap works even better and is far cheaper for something you'll just toss to the wayside or feed to the dog
add a desired amount of salt, maybe onion and garlic powder and just cook down until you reach a desired flavor.
2 quarts of water (roughly 8 cups)

(takes about an hour)

now, take your sweet potato. i like to have just a bit more than less so i don't have to go through the trouble of making a slurry

take your sweet potatoes and peel them and then give them a medium chop, your gonna end up blending this.

(if you made your own stock, strain it and then put it back on the stove with your sweet potatoes)

then i just let it cook down until its soft, i tend to use fairly a lot of whatever my main ingredient is so it is generally going to seem like maybe there isn't enough stock to make it a proper soup. but your gonna end up adding heavy cream so keep that in mind (this is actually also great with coconut milk)

now put your sweet potatoes and stock in the blender and blend them until smooth, put them back on the stove and add in your heavy cream (or substitute), turn down the flame to a low heat and just allow the soup to simmer, at this time you can add your spices (such as nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, brown sugar and cayenne- if you decided to sub with coconut milk i strongly suggest red curry paste)

and then i add a can of crab...

ready to serve.

this is pretty much the base for all cream soups, they are incredibly easy to make and filling. especially great in the winter months

i'll try to post more recipes and such in the future, and hopefully some pictures too.

[Johann]

here is a really simple BBQ sauce recipe

ingredients:
two slices of bacon chopped
half a white onion diced fine
a table spoon of garlic minced
1 large bottle ketchup
molasses
liquid smoke
brown sugar
salt
cayenne

throw your bacon in a sauce pot and render the fat (slightly cook it until there is some grease in the pan)
add your onions and saute those until translucent and then add your garlic (last, so it does not burn)

after those are all cooked, and you have a great aroma rising from the pot take a bottle of ketchup (get one of the really large ones. 64 oz or whatever) and dump it into the pot, turn on the flame to a very low heat and stir it until it gets hot and begins to simmer

now add in about a cup of molasses (you want the ketchup to start to turn from red to brown, the more molasses the darker the bbq sauce)

then add in desired salt, and maybe start with a quater cup brown sugar

keep it stirred so the bottom doesn't scorch

start with a table spoon liquid smoke (increase if needed, you want it to have that flavor, but using to much can give you some bad indigestion)

teaspoon of cayenne (or to flavor)

and just let it simmer for 20 minutes or so, spread it over chicken, ribs, sausage or whatever you please.

you may have to add a little bit more of said things (mollasses, sugar, liquid smoke etc) until you get it to a flavor your happy with, but this is a simple start and from here you can get as creative as you'd like with it

[FreakAnimalFinland]

I had a plan to make tar tar, but half way there, decided that raw cow meat and half of sliced onion will do it. Brilliant. Raw meat is something what doesn't go so well with "western" culture, but if you ask me, it's great. No spices, or little black pepper and salt and that's all good.

[Johann]

I had a plan to make tar tar, but half way there, decided that raw cow meat and half of sliced onion will do it. Brilliant. Raw meat is something what doesn't go so well with "western" culture, but if you ask me, it's great. No spices, or little black pepper and salt and that's all good.

Have you had Kibbeh Nayeh? If not, it is essential, my father turned me onto it (he always majorly praised steak tar tar) a major staple of my diet when i lived in Michigan...It's basicly raw ground lamb with wheat crack and spices, served with raw onion and you put olive oil, salt, pepper and a little cayenne, eat it with fresh pita. I however do not care for the Halal versions of it i've had (my fav. is the Christian Lebanese) there is just far to many spices in the Halal and it really detracts from the purity of the product itself.  

Speaking of raw red meat, while working at a restaurant in brooklyn i got to work with the BEST ground beef my eyes have ever seen...god the color was just amazing, it was totally beautiful and i deeply regret never having eaten it raw though it was often spoken about between myself and the fellow line cook...the provider of this amazing product was http://www.lospaisanosmeatmarket.com/ i highly recommend this place. if you live in NYC you have NO EXCUSE.

Their Duck Sausage is to die for, absolutely incredible

the way i served it at home when it was gifted to me was:

i simmered it in shallowing boiling water just shortly and then threw it on the grill

served it on french loaf smeared with goat cheese and a peach syrup i made

for those who want to make a simple candied fruit, just take a small skillet, slice up whichever fruit you desire and add just a little bit of water (probably about an inch or less) and some sugar (as desired, but not to much) and just turn the flame to high and just stir it until the fruit begins to break down and it starts to tighten up...gosh, that was easily one of the best meals i've ever eaten, and it was just so simple

[Johann]

On another food related note, do any of you Scandinavians or germans have an affinity for Speck? My fathers family are german saxons from Transylvanian and while growing up my oma would always have me assist in making sausage and then smoke it in the garage with juniper...there was always an abundant supply of Speck in her home and i remember just being able to slice a piece off and put it on fresh bread with onion, salt pepper and paprika...i have not had, or come across it in many years but it is among my favorite foods (as is much of what she introduced me too durning my early years)

my father has yet to send me a copy of the cook book that the old german women at his church compiled, but you can rest assured that when i get it i will post many of these incredible old world recipes for those interested 

[Nyodene D]

authentic lebanese for dinner tonight, pho for lunch tomorrow... stoked.

My partner's girlfriend as of late has upped from vegetarian to vegan so i've been cooking a lot more vegan stir fries, tofu, tempeh, sweet potato dishes, etc

[Levas]

The last recipe I've tried. Quite simple and good.

500g of pork
3 tomatoes
2 pickles
2 onions
1 clove of garlic
spoon of tomato paste
spoon of soy sauce
200g of sour cream
spices

cut pork into small pieces, roast 5 minutes on the pan, add onions and garlic in small pieces, roast for 3 more minutes, add tomatoes and pickles cut in also not big pieces, mix tomato paste, soy sauce, sour cream and spices and add to the pan. let it roast/boil/whatever for 15 minutes. here you go.

[ConcreteMascara]

damn, that sounds delicious. I know what I'm doing for dinner tomorrow.

The last recipe I've tried. Quite simple and good.

500g of pork
3 tomatoes
2 pickles
2 onions
1 clove of garlic
spoon of tomato paste
spoon of soy sauce
200g of sour cream
spices

cut pork into small pieces, roast 5 minutes on the pan, add onions and garlic in small pieces, roast for 3 more minutes, add tomatoes and pickles cut in also not big pieces, mix tomato paste, soy sauce, sour cream and spices and add to the pan. let it roast/boil/whatever for 15 minutes. here you go.

[RG]

If I had to pick one food item as my favorite it would have to be mushrooms. I could eat them with every meal and some days I do. Sauteed with onions/shallots and butter (and maybe a little salt, pepper, and thyme) they pair well with just about any kind of meat. Great in scrambled eggs. Excellent pizza and burger topping. They are essential in any kind of Asian dish I make. For me they are nature's perfect food. Just the other night I made a simple pureed mushroom soup using three different kinds of mushrooms (store bought and wild) and it's excellent. Addicting, even.

I've never gone mushroom hunting but I want to. I'm not sure they can be found around where I live. When I was going to school and living in a different city I knew people who claimed to regularly pick wild morels but they were very secretive about where they found them. Assholes.

I've seriously considered just growing them myself. I remember finding a russian website one time that had directions on how to grow them in your bathtub. You fill a large plastic bag with damp hay, seal it up, and inject it with spores. Wait a while and you'll have big mushroom clusters growing out the sides. The only reason I haven't tried it yet is because a) it might attract bugs and b) I live in an apartment building and if the building manager or maintenance man had to come in for some reason and saw a huge trash bag of mushrooms growing in my bathtub they would probably think they were the magic variety and call the cops, haha.

[martialgodmask]

Risotto with chicken livers is on the menu for this weekend, picked up a bargain pack and very excited for it.

[Levas]

This one is called "man's dream" in here. You'll need:

Ingredients:
~5 potatoes
several pieces of pork (loin preferred, but ham or so would do)
~200-300g bacon
~200g champignon (damn that's a difficult word)
mayonnaise
cheese
salt, pepper other spices

Process:
Boil potatoes for 10 minutes and let them grow cold or so
Prepare pieces of pork with spices etc.
Cut bacon, potatoes and champignones in pieces
Now take the baking tin and make layers that goes like that. From the bottom: bacon - potatoes - pieces of pork - mayonnaise - champignones
Put it into oven for half an hour in ~200 degrees and go listen to some awesome new noise album. When it's done, take the baking tin out, grate the cheese on top of it and put once more in the oven for 15 minutes and while doing some serious shit like reviewing cvlt HNW album, limited to 12 pieces, wait for it to be done.

That's it. You'll get fat, strong, happy and have a heart attack perhaps pretty soon, but at least you'll have tasted this deliciousness

[tisbor]

This is almost self-promotion, but my wife recently started a blog for her recipes/experiments.
She's a cook with quite a lot of experience, and since it's stuff made by an Italian in Norway it could be interesting for many of the Nordic fellows on this forum.

http://mammachefame.tumblr.com/

Needless to say, I'm more than happy to work as a tester for her dishes.
Enjoy!

[Jordan]

I had a plan to make tar tar, but half way there, decided that raw cow meat and half of sliced onion will do it. Brilliant. Raw meat is something what doesn't go so well with "western" culture, but if you ask me, it's great. No spices, or little black pepper and salt and that's all good.

I've really wanted to try tar tar for a long time. Need to stop being so lazy. I like beef so lightly cooked it's almost raw, and raw beef in pho, but that's cooked somewhat in the broth. If you get pho takeout, they usually give you one container with beef, onions, noodles etc. and another with broth and the broth is supposed to cook the beef when you pour it in, but I like to let the broth cool down a little before adding it to the rest of the ingredients. I find that makes the beef much better.

[Levas]

Preparing AZU. Nice title, heh. It's form Tatar cuisine. There are many versions of this meal. Mine is:

* Fry 300-400g of beef with 3 onions then put all that to a pot with water or broth (so that the meat and onions would sink in it, but not too much). Add sliced tomatoes, salt and spices and simmer for 30 minutes.
* Fry some potatoes and add them to the pot with meat and onions
* Add sliced pickles and boil until the potatoes are soft enough.

Enjoy. It's said that it must be served with chopped garlic. It's up to you.

[Jordan]

All of you would fail the Reichian character analysis food test for the fascist personality type, expounded in ' The Mass Psychology Of Fascism' har har. I used to fall firmly into that camp, not eating "ethnic foods" as a child, but then I got the idea that we had to adapt to the diet of the future, consisting entirely of processed foods and no water, as a teeny bopper. Nowadays I'm pretty open to pretty much any food, even enthusiastic for food, which I used to see as just a method of refueling, but then again, I was largely raised by an olde tymey Irish grandmother, so rather bland meat and potatoes was the norm.