Cooking In General

Remove all ads!

Apparently we're going to have to keep this thread going a while longer, if we want it to be closed and a new one started.

Today is our office holiday party, and it promises to be a GOOD one. There's been a potluck for the past few years, but this year management decided to spring for the entrees while we bring in the appetizers and desserts. Everything is so good, I eat more than on Thanksgiving!

My contribution is a cappucchino cream pie. I was whipping the cream for the topping at 4:30 this morning!

 

Ok, I've just finished my contribution to the Christmas Eve dinner: mushrooms au naturel and au garlic butter and then I also prepared all the meat. We're doing the gourmet thing, so I made tiny burgers with onion and parsley and also mini cheeseburgers. Also seasoned and cut the rest of the meat which would be turkey slices, steak slices, something called white sausage, mini lamb chops and bacon. I hope the rest they like.

I love playing with food.

 

Cooking in General #2

There should be lots of good recipies with the holidays. Good time to start an new cooking thread.

 

Indeed Dragonfly.

Garlic soup, roughly after Paul Bocuse's cookbook. No worries, it is simple and fast:

* The soup:
20 cloves of very fresh garlic
1 1/2 l of water
salt, pepper
4-6 or so cloves
large spoon of sage leafs

Take the cloves of garlic, don't mash them, just squeeze them so they crack. Put them into the boiling water. Add the sage, salt, pepper. Let it boil on high heat for 15 minutes. Then pour it through a sieve and remove all cloves, sage and garlic from the soup that should be totally clear.

* The bread:
one baguette, olive oil and cheese (edam, or parmesan). Take baguette slices, drop olive oil on them and then put some cheese on them (common way to eat soup in France). Gratinate in a very hot oven.

* Serving the soup:
Take the gratinated bread, put it into the soup plates and pour the very hot soup over it. Enjoy. The soup is surprisingly spicy.

As for the breath of death that might be the result of the soup, it might be that my pariah status after eating it was largely imaginary. My flatlass ate it too and she went out after dinner and her friends didn't believe she had eaten garlic at all. It is possible, if it is not for peculiarities of her metabolism, that not mashing the garlic, and removing it from the soup before serving has an ameliorating effect. That would also be in tune with what one expects of 'high cuisine'

 

Probably because the other one has over 500 posts...just guessing though.

 

No matter what thread, garlic soup is still a darn great, spicy recipe ...

*Hint!*

 

Well, having plenty of time on my hands gave me a chance to try the butter chicken recipe Rally posted some time ago. I'm not the best cook in town, but DAMN, that was good stuff! I made Basmati rice instead of the regular Minute Rice, and it was a perfect fit.

This one definitively earns a spot in my cookbook.

 

Traditional Southern Cornbread
(my mother's recipe)

2 cups white self-rising corn meal
1/2 cup self-rising flour
pinch baking soda
3 eggs
2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup corn or canola oil - not olive oil, it will taste very odd

Ideally this is made in a well seasoned iron skillet, 9-10 inches in diameter, that is liberally greased with shortening and preheated in the oven as the oven preheats to 450 degrees. Not everyone has the iron skillet, though, including me, so I've experimented and found that it works OK in an 8 - 9 inch square cake pan, also liberally greased but not preheated (the pan is likely to warp).

Combine dry ingredients, then beat eggs in a separate bowl, add the buttermilk and oil, then combine with the dry ingredients. Pour in prepared pan (or skillet, if you are so blessed) and bake at 450 F for about 25 minutes or until browned. Serve hot, with plenty of butter. It doesn't keep very well so plan on eating it the same day you bake it.

Note there is no sugar in this recipe. Sugar in cornbread is an addition of effete Northerners.

However, if you just can't stand the slightly bitter taste, add 1-2 tablespoons of sugar.

When I lived in New England the white corn meal and even the buttermilk were hard to find. You can use 2 1/2 cups of a cornmeal mix (don't omit the baking soda) but it won't be quite as good.

 

About the only things I don't use my cast-iron skillet for are egg dishes, and boiling pasta.

 

Ahh, no iron skillet because:
The family heirloom skillet went to my seriously cooking sister - we know for sure it's more than 50 years old, probably much more.

As for me:
My arthritic wrists have trouble picking one up.
I forget and use soap.
The sun was in my eyes.
My tummy hurts.

(Actually my father consistently cooked scrambled eggs in this pan, so it can be done if you are very diligent about how you clean it and oil it.)

 

My better-cooking kinfolk all assure me that a properly cared for iron pan will indeed become nonstick over time. With the pans I've had in the past I've always found it a challenge to get over the initial patient seasoning. And they are indeed heavy, the big ones too heavy for me to use comfortably now.

But you can't beat a good iron pan for stovetop to oven recipes.

 

...and to bash someone on the head with it. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Anyway, following the rather satisfying outcome of the butter chicken, I've decided to venture further in the Indian cooking vein, so I'm looking for some more recipies - like Tikki Masala chicken, for example.

I'm not a fan of vegetables, so I'd prefer recipies who do not include them, or if the recipe still can be made without any.

 

Hey I did start another cooking thread about a week ago but it seems to have disappeared!. I'm going to post Cooking In General 2 so this thread doesnt get too long.

 

Oops , sorry I wasn't paying attention... Hit me with a rubber hammer guys, and throw some pancakes on me too so that I'm not getting off topic here... I guess I'll have to start making my regular visits back to the BOM again to get with the menu.