Who here enjoys cooking?

[Sgt. Cookie]

I don't mean a particular thing, like cup cakes or spaghetti, I mean people who don't see cooking as a chore, but people who volunteer to cook, just because they like it. I don't mean the "I can make a cake rather well" type of people I mean the people who cook for the hell of it! I know I'm one of the types who cook 'cause they can.

So amateur chefs of GITP, let us discuss our fascination with the flame of a hob, the beauty of a cake, rising in the oven and most importantly. Recipes that the average person may not even realise exist!

As for a recipe, here is one I discovered a while back.

Perfect, fried potato cakes. Creates about three cakes/

Ingredients:
Instant mash, any kind will do.
One egg for a half bowl, standard, ceramic breakfast bowl

Instructions:
1. Pour in enough instant mash to fill half a bowl when finished. Usually this is about a fifth of a bowl, but it will vary from brand to brand.

2. Add the egg to the instant mash. Mix the egg and mash together as much as you can. This should create a porrdgey like substance.

3. Prepare the instant mash as per normal, making sure that it is not too puffy. If all of the instant mash powder, for lack of a better term, is gone and the result is sticky, but holdable. That is the perfect consistency.

3.5 If white globules appear, that is simply the egg.

4. Fry the patties till both sides are browned.

5. Serve in a sandwich or as part of another meal.

Why the egg? You may ask. It simply helps fry it a lot better.

What other odd or unique recipes have you playgrounders come up with?

[Derjuin]

I enjoy cooking when I have actual ingredients with me (for some reason using mixes/premade stuff gets on my nerves, 'cause I usually don't like the way it ends up tasting). Unfortunately, my family lives by the exact opposite principle (less "work" for them!) so I don't get to cook very often, especially with all the money I have to shell out for things other than food.

I don't know if I qualify as "amateur" anymore, since I've recently obtained an AA in culinary, but I have made up a nifty dessert as I went along once before.

The ingredients list looks like this:

Pastry cream (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Pastry-Cream-351010)
Whipped cream (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/whipped-cream/detail.aspx)
Muscat wine OR grand marnier (you don't need a lot)
Almond lace cookies (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Almond-Lace-Cookies-103403) (1 or 2 per)
Fresh strawberries (appr. 1 per)
Fresh blueberries (4-8 per)
Mint leaf (1 or 2 per)

Optionally, chocolate sauce and mango sauce for plate design.

The links above should only be used to figure out ratios; I had a different set of recipes with me at the time of making it. The overall steps go something like this:

1. Whip together pastry cream + whipped cream (about 2:1 ratio) to make creme mousseline (basically really light and fluffy pastry cream), then add the muscat or marnier (remember, not a lot (ESPECIALLY with the marnier), unless you want to get tipsy from your dessert :smalltongue:)

2. Bake the almond lace cookies, and after you take them out of the oven, put them on upside-down muffin tins while they cool - they should form into cups as they cool and stiffen.

3. Wash etc. the strawberries/blueberries, then slice the strawberries.

4. Add some of the creme mousseline to the cooled cup-shaped almond lace cookies, then fan out a strawberry per cup; add blackberries on top, then stick a crisp-looking mint leaf or two somewhere along the top.

Here's a really crappy picture of the finished product made for an exam in school, except this one was made into a tower by making half of the almond lace cookies into smaller cups. You can spot a half-devoured one to the left as a testament to its tastiness :smalltongue:


http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/xilobucket/IMG_0023.jpg

[Chainsaw Hobbit]

Not only do I love cooking, but I'm pretty damn good at it. I make spectacular, and popular, pumpkin pie.

My Relatively Healthy and Amazingly Yummy Pumpkin Pie
Components:

Just over two cups pure pumpkin.
Five large eggs.
A bit less than a cup of coconut milk.
Two pinches of salt.
Two pinches of allspice.
Three pinches of cinnamon.
A pinch of nutmeg.
A pinch of powdered ginger.
Four tablespoons of honey.
Three tablespoons of maple syrup.
A sprinkling of sugar (as much as you see fit).
Some almond and coconut shavings.
Crust (optional).

Directions:
Mix all the ingredients, save the coconut and almond, together into a consistent sludge.
Put in greased pan, with or without crust.
Sprinkle coconut and almonds on top.
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, or until you think its done.
Eat hot or cold. Its better cold.

[Sgt. Cookie]

@Derjuin: I may have to try that at some point. It certainly looks delicious.

And I am in envy of your "actual ingredients" the only ingredients I have are those scrounged up from the kitchen. Often this includes things like the aforementioned instant mash.

[Eldan]

Actually, I love cooking the most when I have a bunch of random stuff from the fridge and mix them into something vaguely weird, but hopefully tasty. It's more fun trying a strange combination you'd never have thought off.

Mince-meat filled bananas. Yum.

[Coidzor]

Yes. It's why I'm bad at cleaning.

[Savannah]

I do. Mind, I haven't been doing as much cooking as I should lately, as I like snuggling my dog and hanging out online more :smalltongue: That being said, I did discover tonight that I can make a passable pizza in less than 20 minutes (not great, just passable, as the crust was, obviously, not ideal).

[DeadManSleeping]

I like cooking sometimes. Other times I don't. All my good recipes are just twists on published material, really.

Oh, and some advice for bakers: if the recipe calls for vanilla, an extra quarter teaspoon of vanilla is pretty much always a good idea.

[ShortOne]

I love cooking, and I'm finally doing it completely on my own (without my family's enormous spice cabinet/gluten free flour collection) to help me. Unfortunately, I'm baking without an oven. Does anyone have any recipes for someone who can't eat gluten or meat/fish? I've been making a lot of potatoes and rice pasta. :smallbiggrin:

[Coidzor]

I love cooking, and I'm finally doing it completely on my own (without my family's enormous spice cabinet/gluten free flour collection) to help me. Unfortunately, I'm baking without an oven. Does anyone have any recipes for someone who can't eat gluten or meat/fish? I've been making a lot of potatoes and rice pasta. :smallbiggrin:


No...oven? What is your heat source then? Can do a lot with a rice cooker, IIRC, or similar heat source. Just dpeneidng on how much aluminiumnumnumnum foil that you need to use to construct an oven-like-thing out of your heat soruce.

[thubby]

*looks at cooking channel playing in background*
ya...

i generally loath baking, but other than that im all for it. sauces in particular. still fiddling with the perfect spaghetti sauce.

[Moff Chumley]

For the most part, I love the idea of it, don't enjoy the application. :smalltongue:

However, I make a mean goddam quesadilla. I will challenge any one of you to a quesadilla-contest. I mean this completely seriously.

[thorgrim29]

I like cooking, but I don't do it often because my mom is incredibly amazing at cooking. I do have a few recipes that work well, last week I did pork surloin in a mustard and cream sauce, it was amazing, I'm also pretty handy with anything based on a tomato sauce.

[Heliomance]

I quite enjoy cooking. As the only person in my house that can be bothered to do it regularly, and that actually cares about nutrition, I've become the de facto chef for the household.

[Nix Nihila]

I find cooking to be very enjoyable and relaxing. I find that it's more fun to make things I've never eaten or made before, but there are few things that I make regularly, because I enjoy them so much (like acorn squash, pear and azuki bean soup). I've been meaning to post some of my recipes in one of the cooking threads, but I've been a little busy (and lazy).

[ShortOne]

No...oven? What is your heat source then? Can do a lot with a rice cooker, IIRC, or similar heat source. Just dpeneidng on how much aluminiumnumnumnum foil that you need to use to construct an oven-like-thing out of your heat soruce.

I have a stove and a microwave, but no oven. Apparently also a deep fryer? :smallconfused:

[DeadManSleeping]

A stove is pretty good. A deep-fryer...well, if you like potatoes, there are many ways to fry potatoes. But, really, most decent dinner dishes are stovetop. Sautee vegetables! Grill veggie burgers! Brew beans!

[Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll]

For the most part, I love the idea of it, don't enjoy the application. :smalltongue:

However, I make a mean goddam quesadilla. I will challenge any one of you to a quesadilla-contest. I mean this completely seriously.

He will challenge you to a quesadilla contest. He's challenged me, like, 5 times.

[Weezer]

I love cooking but don't really enjoy baking. Very few of my favorite recipes involve using the oven, there's just something about the intimacy of stove top cooking that baking doesn't have. I also have a thing for soup, it's just so comforting. Overall I love cooking because it relaxes me, it's just like chemistry (which is my job) but without any of the stress.

As for my favorite recipes, I tend to like making Chinese dishes, I got a really good traditional Chinese cookbook that has some really yummy recipes in it last Christmas. I'd say the 'oddest' recipe I make on a regular basis is tomato pie. It's basically just a pie crust with layers of caramelized onions, fresh tomato and fresh basil, topped with a layer of a shredded cheese (mozzorella/parmesean/cheddar) and mayonnaise mixture. I also added just a hint of hot sauce to give another layer of flavor. It's an amazing summer dish, especially when my garden is producing tomatoes and basil.

[Savannah]

He will challenge you to a quesadilla contest. He's challenged me, like, 5 times.

I volunteer to judge :smalltongue:

[ShortOne]

As for my favorite recipes, I tend to like making Chinese dishes, I got a really good traditional Chinese cookbook that has some really yummy recipes in it last Christmas. I'd say the 'oddest' recipe I make on a regular basis is tomato pie. It's basically just a pie crust with layers of caramelized onions, fresh tomato and fresh basil, topped with a layer of a shredded cheese (mozzorella/parmesean/cheddar) and mayonnaise mixture. I also added just a hint of hot sauce to give another layer of flavor. It's an amazing summer dish, especially when my garden is producing tomatoes and basil.

Ooh, that sounds delicious. I love fresh tomatoes and basil. I'll have to keep this in mind for our garden next summer!

[shawnhcorey]

As for my favorite recipes, I tend to like making Chinese dishes, I got a really good traditional Chinese cookbook that has some really yummy recipes in it last Christmas. I'd say the 'oddest' recipe I make on a regular basis is tomato pie. It's basically just a pie crust with layers of caramelized onions, fresh tomato and fresh basil, topped with a layer of a shredded cheese (mozzorella/parmesean/cheddar) and mayonnaise mixture. I also added just a hint of hot sauce to give another layer of flavor. It's an amazing summer dish, especially when my garden is producing tomatoes and basil.

Your tomato pie sounds a lot like pizza to me. :smallsmile: I love to cook but lately, I usually end up just making stone soup.

[valadil]

Love it. I'm one of those creative types who has to be making things all the time. Cooking lets me do that every single day without cluttering my apartment with finished products that sit around. It's healthier than eating out, cheaper than eating out, and, if I say so myself, tastes better than eating out. What's not to like?


still fiddling with the perfect spaghetti sauce.

Marinara sauce is one of my favorite things to cook. I've been perfecting mine since college. I think I've got it just right, but I'm biased. Here's my recipe:

Brown .5-1.0 lbs ground meat (preferably beef) in olive oil.
In separate pot, heat 1 lg can crushed tomatoes, 1 can tomato paste on low. Alternatively replace crushed tomatoes with 2 cans San Marzano pealed tomatoes and crush them with potato masher.
When meat is brown, dump it into tomato pot.
(optional: If you're using real garlic, mash up 4 or 5 cloves and put them in the pan the meat was in. Warm the garlic (rather than browning it) and then dump it in the pot)
Dice an onion and heat that in the meat/garlic pan.
When onion starts to brown, add 1 cup red cooking wine
When wine starts bubbling, pour it all into tomato pot
(optional: stir in 1-2 cans sliced mushrooms)
(optional: stir in 1 diced bell pepper)
Stir/simmer a while
Add 1tbsp each basil, oregano, parsley, chopped garlic (unless you already added garlic) (fresh herbs preferable),
Add .5 tbsp fennel seed (crush it first in mortal/pestle though)
(optional: add pinch of black pepper)
(optional: add a couple shakes of parm or moz)
Add salt to taste. Start with 1 tsp.

[Weezer]

Your tomato pie sounds a lot like pizza to me. :smallsmile: I love to cook but lately, I usually end up just making stone soup.

I guess if you define pizza as "crust, tomato and cheese", then yes it's a pizza. But it's pretty different in feel from pizza. Actually the other food that it seems the most like is quiche, if you took out the egg.

[shawnhcorey]

I guess if you define pizza as "crust, tomato and cheese", then yes it's a pizza. But it's pretty different in feel from pizza. Actually the other food that it seems the most like is quiche, if you took out the egg.

Actually, I define pizza as bread, tomato, and cheese. After all, that's what the original ones (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_pizza) were.

Tomato and basil quiche sounds yummy too.

[Trog]

Put me down for another person who likes cooking but doesn't enjoy baking. I don't know that I'm all that good at it but I like to experiment with sauces and such quite a bit - I'm a bit of a curry fiend. >.> Also, I recently bought myself some new pots and pans and I'm loving them. :smallsmile:

[Savannah]

I, on the other hand, tend to prefer baking. Which isn't to say that I don't like other kinds of cooking, but when I'm stressed and want to fix something for fun, it's always baking.

[shawnhcorey]

I bake, therefore I eat. :smallbiggrin:

[UnluckyPotato]

I cook a lot. It's enjoyable except when I have to do it 5 times a week or more. I mainly bake and make stews though, and occasionally other stuff.

Random question: I've had the inability to properly digest chlorophyll all my life, but in the last 2-3 years it's gotten pretty bad so that only really canned vegetables work. Are there any other vegetables or fruit I can substitute for green vegetables? I am sort of getting sick of carrots and need a change.

[Coidzor]

I cook a lot. It's enjoyable except when I have to do it 5 times a week or more. I mainly bake and make stews though, and occasionally other stuff.

Random question: I've had the inability to properly digest chlorophyll all my life, but in the last 2-3 years it's gotten pretty bad so that only really canned vegetables work. Are there any other vegetables or fruit I can substitute for green vegetables? I am sort of getting sick of carrots and need a change.

Hmm. Not up to snuff on my knowledge of the things you'd be needing alternate sources for from green vegetables other than fiber.

I presume you've explored red cabbage, onions, sweet potatoes, and rubatbagas as options?

Really though, if you've got that kind of adverse reaction, you'll probably want to consult an expert, since I can't think of any relatively straightforward and reliable way to get the information you'd need to know about potential vegetables.

[ShortOne]

So I made pancakes yesterday. Considering I was substituting ingredients, trying to swap metric for standard, and lacked any measuring supplies, I think they turned out very well! The recipe actually forgot to call for milk, but luckily I'm a good enough cook that I realized it was missing it.

New favorite meal: potato starch pancakes with pesto and creamy goat cheese. :smallcool:

[Savannah]

Fortunately, pancakes are one of those things where if you get anywhere near the correct proportions, they work just fine :smalltongue:

[shawnhcorey]

I presume you've explored red cabbage, onions, sweet potatoes, and rubatbagas as options?

Tomatoes, parsnips, squash, cauliflower, radicchio, coloured peppers, bean sprouts, radish, daikon, eggplants, garlic, mushrooms, palm hearts, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, wax beans, beans, beets, pumpkin, corn (maize).

Is that enough?

[ShortOne]

Fortunately, pancakes are one of those things where if you get anywhere near the correct proportions, they work just fine :smalltongue:

Yes, except where you don't know if what you bought is yeast or baking powder. I know a lot of French, but not the difference between those two. :smalltongue:

[Savannah]

Yes, except where you don't know if what you bought is yeast or baking soda. I know a lot of French, but not the difference between those two. :smalltongue:

Um, open it up and look? They tend to come in different package types, too (although I suppose french ones might not).

[Kneenibble]

Random question: I've had the inability to properly digest chlorophyll all my life, but in the last 2-3 years it's gotten pretty bad so that only really canned vegetables work. Are there any other vegetables or fruit I can substitute for green vegetables? I am sort of getting sick of carrots and need a change.
I've never heard of that. Could you describe this condition a little more please? -- & as you well know tons of vegetables don't have chlorophyll, but how can you substitute anything for the refreshing greenness of greens? If you took a shot of wheat grass juice would you die?


Yes, except where you don't know if what you bought is yeast or baking soda. I know a lot of French, but not the difference between those two. :smalltongue:
And yet is the difference not readily apparent to the senses?

[ShortOne]

Um, open it up and look? They tend to come in different package types, too (although I suppose french ones might not).


And yet is the difference not readily apparent to the senses?

When you're in the only store you've found that had even heard of the word, and the only packages are individually-wrapped and then sealed in plastic, that's not possible. When I got home and opened it up, it was obvious.

[thorgrim29]

Yeast is levure, baking soda (arm&hammer right?) is bicarbonate de soude

[ShortOne]

Yeast is levure, baking soda (arm&hammer right?) is bicarbonate de soude

Except that Baking Powder is levure here! The worst part was that there was some supposed translation for Great Britain and it said "Baking Yeast" which really worried me.


I made a modified version of Sgt Cookie's potato things today for dinner. Two small, microbaked potatoes mashed (skins on) with one egg, chopped garlic, salt, and pepper, then fried in a combination of olive and sunflower oils. Damn good with goat cheese. I need to try the remaining ones with balsamic vinegar tomorrow.

[thorgrim29]

Except that Baking Soda is levure here!

Wait what? Levure means yeast... Unless you bought "Levure chimique" AKA baking powder (Baking soda with acid). Baker's yeast is "levure de bière" or "levure du boulanger"

[ShortOne]

Wait what? Levure means yeast... Unless you bought "Levure chimique" AKA baking powder (Baking soda with acid). Baker's yeast is "levure de bière" or "levure du boulanger"

Herpderp, I meant baking powder, which is what I'd been looking for. It just said Levure, though, no extra words and no helpful ingredient list with sodium bicarbonate on it.

[UnluckyPotato]

I've never heard of that. Could you describe this condition a little more please? -- & as you well know tons of vegetables don't have chlorophyll, but how can you substitute anything for the refreshing greenness of greens? If you took a shot of wheat grass juice would you die?


And yet is the difference not readily apparent to the senses?

I basically just get severe stomach cramps + more if the green vegetable isn't cooked enough, sometimes to the point I'm bed-ridden for a while, so i have to cook them to the point they lose most of their color and nutritional value (which is what i was told to do by my doctor, but another one said to try other options and basically just shrugged and said "carrots?".) I'd like to find some way to replace their nutrition that I can't get after cooking them to sad and soggy shadows of their former selves.



Tomatoes, parsnips, squash, cauliflower, radicchio, coloured peppers, bean sprouts, radish, daikon, eggplants, garlic, mushrooms, palm hearts, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots, wax beans, beans, beets, pumpkin, corn (maize).

Is that enough?
Yeah. I've never seem some of these at our local grocery store, so I'll have to make a list and see next time I go into town.

[Moonshadow]

I love cooking... I just hate cooking for people who don't enjoy it. I hope one day someone listens and gets me a nice knife set for my birthday, as owning my own set of high quality knives would be awesome :smallbiggrin:

[Heliomance]

Am I the only one troubled by the juxtaposition of "I hate cooking for people who don't appreciate it" and "I want knives"?

[Dr.Epic]

I enjoy making and eating food. Does that count?

[Moonshadow]

Am I the only one troubled by the juxtaposition of "I hate cooking for people who don't appreciate it" and "I want knives"?

Hey, I happen to enjoy cooking for myself :smallwink:

[Weezer]

Am I the only one troubled by the juxtaposition of "I hate cooking for people who don't appreciate it" and "I want knives"?

You will appreciate his cooking... or else.