What do you like to Eat? Share your favourite Recipes!

glittersloth · 2020-02-22 02:50:01

johnraff wrote:

Get a proper chopping board of decent size and weight (ie bigger than a breadboard) and a decent cooking knife too - not one of those dinky things everyone in Britain seems to use. It will make the work of cutting ingredients vastly easier, as I discovered in reverse trying to manage without last December.

Yes!! A couple of decent knives, proper sharpening tool and chopping board are essential... and for the love of whatever fact or fiction you believe in, make sure they're steel. Nobody goes to war with a ceramic sword.

john wrote:

Not talking about haute-cuisine here, just trying to meet Glittersloth's criterion of quick preparation when you're tired of salads.

Sadly, I can't use a wok anymore since my stove went electric/glass-top. Woks on electric stoves will only cook you bouts of depression.

Döbbie03 · 2020-02-22 04:47:41

The other night I cooked some pork steaks, I think they were pork rumps. I made a rub of fennel seeds, garlic granules, black pepper and pink salt which I ground up in my mortar and pestle.

A quick fry for colour, then into the oven for 20 minutes. They came out medium rare (still pink but not bleeding which is okay). I had the pork with a slaw I made, dressing an all with pepperdews and tomato on the side.

It was tasty.

ohnonot · 2020-02-24 07:03:05

^ tell us about the slaw!

johnraff wrote:

^Try 50/50 if the sesame is much more expensive (as it is in Japan)?

No, it's not that expensive (or peanut butter isn't that cheap either). I just didn't have any tahini in the house and wanted to try it.

Jimbo_G wrote:

My other peanut butter related recipe is a sweet potato gratin. Thinly sliced sweet potato with chopped garlic, chillies, some cream, a few spoonfuls of crunchy peanut butter and the juice of one lime. Bake in the oven until the top is crispy.

With sweet potatos, otoh, peanut butter sounds like just the right thing!

Another peanut butter thing: I like to stir some into my favourite asian noodles

Wok: yes! Unfortunately I have an electric stove, I guess there's no woks for that...

Martin · 2020-02-24 07:22:24

johnraff wrote:

Get a wok
For a quick easy but healthy meal it's hard to beat a stir-fry. A wok with its high curved sides keeps the food from flying out when you're stirring it around. A pro who's doing 200 orders of fried swamp cabbage a day will scoff, but if you can find a non-stick wok it makes life easier and lets you use less oil.

So what is the best wokish option for western style stoves designed for flat-bottomed pots and pans? The woks I have seen in Asia and in Asian restaurants elsewhere would be no good in my kitchen, I think.

/Martin

johnraff · 2020-02-24 07:48:07

^I guess the best you could do would be get a frying pan with a flat bottom in the centre but high curved sides to keep the food in. A curved bottom works well over gas but no it wouldn't work on an electric stove.

I've no idea if they're any good, but I believe there are also self-contained electric woks.

Last edited by johnraff (2020-02-24 07:49:08)

Jimbo_G · 2020-02-24 08:00:03

I have a flat-bottomed cast iron "wok" which I use on an induction stove. It's not quite as good as a real wok on gas, but I'm quite happy with it. It does weigh a ton though!

johnraff · 2020-02-24 08:53:57

There seem to be two different approaches to frying pans - thick and heavy, evenly heating all over, vs thin and quick to heat up. Both are valid IMO.

BTW I only discovered this a couple of years ago, but with one of the thin beaten iron frying pans you can get something approaching a non-stick effect like this (but it might only work on gas I'm afraid):

Put it on a high heat with nothing in, wait till it starts to smoke a bit.
Put in a little oil, swirl it around and pour off the excess into a can or metal bowl.
When the little bit of oil sticking to the pan starts to smoke you're ready.
Now turn the gas down to normal, add as much oil as you need and start cooking normally.

Repeat as necessary.

Don't use detergents to clean the pan, just a bristle (not metal) brush and water, so you leave a thin film of oil on the pan. Never use scouring powder - it shouldn't be necessary and will cover the surface with tiny scratches and ruin the non-stick effect.

ohnonot · 2020-02-26 07:19:10

johnraff wrote:

Put it on a high heat with nothing in, wait till it starts to smoke a bit.
Put in a little oil, swirl it around and pour off the excess into a can or metal bowl.
When the little bit of oil sticking to the pan starts to smoke you're ready.
Now turn the gas down to normal, add as much oil as you need and start cooking normally.
Repeat as necessary.

How do you know it's necessary?
I heard about this "burning in" of pans.
The recommendation is to use an oil that starts smoking easily (so the exact opposite of what you'd use for frying) - e.g. linseed oil.
I should do it.
Actually, I should get another pan altogether. My cast iron pan is small, and the bigger one is not cast and not particulalry good in any way.

johnraff · 2020-02-27 01:13:27

^I think it works best with thin beaten iron pans that respond quickly when you turn the heat up and down. That's the kind I used it with anyway.

"Necessary" just means when the food starts sticking to the pan. That depends on so many things and could mean every day or two or every week or two. Stir-fried vegetables don't stick anyway, but fried rice or noodles for example go better after you've freshly burnt the pan. The burnt oil seems to make a kind of old-fashioned non-stick coating. Of course you can just use a non-stick pan - they seem to last pretty well these days, but eventally have to be thrown away. And some people worry about the teflon coming off in their food.

Jimbo_G · 2020-02-27 07:50:10

^Although if you're regularly heating oil beyond its smoke point, I'd be much more worried about the impact of that than about Teflon...

johnraff · 2020-02-27 08:05:27

^Really? Why? It's just a thin film.

Jimbo_G · 2020-02-27 09:11:26

Heating oil beyond its smoke point produces free radicals and other toxic substances like PAHs which you really don't want in your food, in your lungs or in an enclosed environment like a kitchen. I think even if it's small quantities of oil, if done regularly it is not good for you.

glittersloth · 2020-02-27 10:07:13

johnraff wrote:

^I think it works best with thin beaten iron pans that respond quickly when you turn the heat up and down.

Initially misread "pans" as "pants" and thought
Major heat John's packin' in his kitchen.

Last edited by glittersloth (2020-02-27 10:08:13)

johnraff · 2020-02-27 23:39:48

^ & ^^ thanks guys.

Martin · 2020-02-28 06:56:36

johnraff wrote:

^I guess the best you could do would be get a frying pan with a flat bottom in the centre but high curved sides to keep the food in. A curved bottom works well over gas but no it wouldn't work on an electric stove.
I've no idea if they're any good, but I believe there are also self-contained electric woks.

Like this?
https://royaldesign.se/cambridge-wokpanna-28cm

/Martin

johnraff · 2020-03-02 05:09:30

^That looks like a Frying Pan with Wok-like Characteristics that might work OK on an electric stove, yes.

But I thought there were also electric woks with their own built-in heating elements. As I said, I've no idea if they'd be any good.

johnraff · 2020-03-02 05:11:45

Jimbo_G wrote:

Heating oil beyond its smoke point produces free radicals and other toxic substances like PAHs which you really don't want in your food, in your lungs or in an enclosed environment like a kitchen. I think even if it's small quantities of oil, if done regularly it is not good for you.

Does this also rule out any kind of grilled meat? Kebabs, barbecue...

ohnonot · 2020-03-13 06:00:07

^ Looks yummy! How exactly do you do that? Full recipe please!

ohnonot · 2020-03-30 20:54:18

Some products are cheap & good. I'm always looking for the best possible price/quality ratio when shopping.
This means that over the years I developed a rather narrow list of products I buy in the same supermarket chain.
Currently exactly these products are almost always sold out, so I have to look for something else.
One something else I found is a fairly small package of fairly small chicken legs ("drumsticks" I believe they're called). 6 in a pack I think.

Here's a super tasty simple dish you can make in 1h.

What you need besides the chicken legs:

Vegetables: a carrot, onion or leek, garlic, bell pepper and whatever you like or have left in the fridge.
One package (500g) of crushed tomatoes.
Frying oil, spices
And most importantly, a big ol' steelpot with a fairly wide bottom:

Preparation:

Put the oven on at ~225 degrees Celsius.
Heat the pot up on the stove, put some frying oil in.
When it’s hot, put the drumsticks in. Turn them around after a while.
At the same time chop the veggies, put them in with the chicken.
Put some spices (I like to go mediterranean + Chili) and salt on top
Empty the tomatoes on top of everything
Now the oven should be hot - put the pot inside. First ~25min with the lid on, then another ~25min with the lid off

I make some Basmati rice to go with it.
Mmmmm!

ohnonot · 2020-04-02 05:20:50

Thank you so much!
That's easier than I thought.

misko_2083 wrote:

Add tomato sauce.

Just pour it on top? How much?
What sort of tomato sauce is that? You mean like crushed tomatoes from a can?
I don't see that in your photo either.

#21 2020-02-22 02:50:01

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#22 2020-02-22 04:47:41

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#32 2020-02-27 09:11:26

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#34 2020-02-27 23:39:48

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#35 2020-02-28 06:56:36

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