Cooking In General

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I was thinking about your taco question LKD. When I was a kid I used to eat those tacos that you make using the boxed kit, ground beef, veggies, cheese etc. I imagine that if you want to make that seasoning mix then you could probably use a mixture of onion powder, garlic powder, chili seasoning, paprika, salt and pepper and probably come up with something that tastes similar. If you are not sure of the quantities then just use a little bit of ground beef and experiment.

But if you are interested I can tell you how to make a taco that tastes way better and is probably a lot more like the authentic thing.

 

The boxed kit with Hot & Spicy seasoning is actually pretty good with added black turtle beans and mozzarella on top of the finished product.

Damn, now I want to eat Tacos. Thankfully, I have buisness at the commercial center tomorrow...

 

Addinig a little chipotle to your tacos can add just the right oomph! to it. If you dont want to mess witht the peppers themselves tabasco has a very good chipotle sauce that has a good flavor & isn't to hot.

 

I am interested -- instruct away, Dragonfly!

 

Tacos

Ingredients:
-One large onion
-one large carrot
-1/2 stick celery
-one or two large simmering steaks
-2 or 3 cloves of garlic
-2 or 3 medium tomatoes or small can of tomatoes
-one chipotle chili from a can of chipotles
-salt and pepper to taste

Generally when I make tacos I use soft tortillas not the crunchy ones. If you are really partial to the crunchy shells, I'm sure this meat mixture will still work.

First of all is your meat ingredient.
I generally buy a nice looking simmering steak to start. Cut the steak in one inch strips so that the grain of the meat is going across the thin part of the strip. There is no need to cut the meat in small pieces because when you are finished cooking it, the meat will shred apart easily with a fork.

Brown your pieces of meat in a large saucepan with a little olive oil, or cooking oil of choice.

Finely chop one medium- large onion depending on taste, grate the carrot and celery, crush and finely chop 3 garlic cloves and add in one whole chipotle pepper from a can. You can add more chipotles or other chilies if you like it spicy or just add the liquid from the can of chipotles of you don't want it too spicy. Add all of those ingredients with the can of tomatoes and enough water to cover the mixture by about an inch. (probably 3 or 4 cups) Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for about 3 or 4 hours. Keep an eye on it and add water when it gets a little too thick. If you have a slow-cooker you just might want to put all the stuff in there and let the slow cooker do its thing.

After the meat has cooked in its broth for several hours you will find that it easily separates with a fork. Take your tortilla and warm it up in the microwave for 15 sec. Take some of your meat, some hot mashed potatoes, some cheese, some salsa, and some lettuce and roll it up and eat it. You can play around with what you like to put inside your taco but I like that combination.

 

Turkey Sausage

Found this in a diet cookbook and found it better than I pessimistically expected. It's not my favorite pork sausage but has a lot less fat and, I think, less sodium, despite having salt added.

1 pound ground turkey
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon ground sage
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Combine all ingredients in large bowl, using your hands to gently blend spices into turkey. Divide mixture into 8 pieces [original recipe called for 12 but they looked kind of small to me]. Preheat a large, heavy nonstick skillet over medium heat for several minutes, then wipe with oil [original recipe called for nonstick spray but I don't use that stuff]. Cook patties until cooked through, about 5 minutes per side.

They come out browned in spots and whitish in spots but not unattractive, and the spices do make you forget you're eating plain old ground turkey.

 

I am shocked, shocked, to learn that apparently on Fri, 23rd Jan '09 6:52pm Sorcerer's Place stopped cooking.

Now that cannot be - so let me revive the thread with the recipe for Ragusa's simplistic sort-of lemonade

You need a jug of water,
the peeled off skin of an untreated (with herbicides, wax or whatever else comes to their mind) lemon,
and the slices of the rest of the lemon.
No sugar or sweetener

Put the lemon suff into the water, and let it rest for two hours or so; you can refill once or even twice with longer resting periods. It will have that nice lemon taste and scent but it won't be as sour as if you squeezed out the lemon. Very refreshing generally.

Works with oranges, too. You can also add simple vinegar and then neutralise it with natron, and then add sugar to get more traditional lemonade. The vinegar will extract more from the lemon than water does. Personally I think that's too much of a hassle.

 

great idea! i recentli made porkchops in a pan!

i am not completely sure about ammount of ingredients though, so remember to taste

i made this for 3 ppl

4 porkchops: around 500 grams total
1 tin of chupped tomatoes (350-400 grams)
4 big cloves of garlic (take less or more if you feel like it, but you could def. it in this
200 grams of frozen spinach (i guess you can use fresh as well, but frozen is easier to have around
1 large onion
50 grams of bacon (just for taste)
a bit of cream 18% (i used about 1/8 of a litre)
fresh time
sambal olek ( a strong chilli paste)
potatoes(optional but i like it for this meal, you can also use rice or bulgur i suppose)

alright on with the cooking part

brown pork chops in butter, salt and pepper about 2 min on each side depending on heat, they don't have to be cooked the whole way through here though

while theyre browning chop bacon and onions

put porchops in an oven pan(like a porcelain platter with high edges that can go in the oven)

put bacon on pan, fry for about 2 min.
but onions on pan, 1 min i guess
garlic on pan
add 1 large table spoon of sambal olek(it was quite spicy, so take less if you do not like, always taste what you put in before)
add time 1 teaspoon
fry it together
add tomatoes
add spinach
add cream

when it is nicely cooked together, add it to the pan with pork chops in it and put it in the oven for about 40 mins on 200 degrees C ( i have a gas stove from like WW2 so i am not sure about this

the potatoes

i finely sliced about 700 g of potatoes (2-4 mm thick i think)
put in a ban with a bit of oil(not olive or other cold pressed oils as it gets a bad falvour) and a bit of butter, salt and pepper and stuck it in the over 5 mins. before the pork chop pan, and they enden up being perfectly done when the other thing was.

if it is a question about one thing not being ready when the other is, the only thing that really needs cooking in the oven is the potatoes and the porkchops, and since the porkchops are almost done when they enter the oven, just pull it out when the potatoes are done

 

Vodka cream sauce

I occassionally make the following Vodka Cream Sauce, usually with Rigatoni. It's my wife's recipe and we both now make various versions. I prefer to use my own homemade tomato sauce as a base, as it's pretty chunky.

1/2 lb of imported proscuito, diced
1 cup of vodka (my wife frets when i use the Grey Goose!)
64 ounces of Tomato sauce(my homemade sauce has lots of ingredients mixed in. Garlic, Onion, Carrots, Parsley, Oregano, etc... you could just use a base tomato sauce, but the flavors will not be the same. We have tried some name brands, "Emeril's Roasted Garlic Sauce" was ok, but i prefer my own.)
4 cloves of Garlic, diced(or just used mince if your feeling lazy)
1 cup of Heavy Cream
1/2 cup of parmesean cheese
1 tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

- Start by sauteeing the the garlic and the proscuito in the EVOO on a low heat, about 5 minutes.
- Add the Vodka and reduce for another 5 minutes
- Add your tomato sauce base. Let it cook for about 20 miunutes
- Add half your Heavy Cream and all of the Parmesean cheese. Now let this slow clook on a very low heat for a about an hour, stirring occassionally. slowing adding in more Heavy Cream.
- Make any kind of noodle that you desire to mix-in, i prefer Rigs!

Mix and enjoy... Red Wine and some fresh bread n butter, you're good to go! This is the meal my wife made me and next thing you know, i was proposing!

 

Steak ... fire.

What else do you need to know?

 

How much is a cup? Is it about half a pint?

 

DMC, the butcher is the ONLY place to buy your meat. Nothing like a fresh cut! Always befriend the town butcher, ya can't go wrong... especially when you can pay cash, if you get my meaning.

 

I love doing beef in my slow cooker.
Just put a joint of brisket in the cooker along with a few shallots and baby carrots. Add enough Oxo (or whatever) tocover the bottom of the cooker to about 2". Turn the cooker on low when you go to bed and by lunch time the next day you have a really tender piece of meat that just falls apart

 

Yes, a cup is equivalent to a half-pint. It is 8 fluid ounces or approximately 236.5 ml.

 

Okay, so this recipe is something I just decided to try the other day. I made it up, and it turned out pretty good. I am still experimenting with it though, so if I find a better version of it, I will update it:

Cucumber Salsad (Salsa/Salad):

Ingredients:
2 large cucumbers
1 red bell pepper
~1/2 cup green onion
2-4 medium sized tomatoes
~1/2 cup cilantro
Red wine vinegar
Ground pepper

Procedure:
- Dice the cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes (to about the size of your thumb nail or whatever seems manageable to you for eating) and put them in a bowl.
- Slice the green onions until you have about 1/2 cup (you can add more if you like) and add them. (http://farm1.static.flickr.com/123/345577995_46c5922e22.jpg?v=0 for an example of what they should look like; I am bad at describing how to slice onions )
- Cut the cilantro up as finely as possible and add that, stirring the entire mixture.
- Put the mixture in the refrigerator for 30 minutes - 1 hour (optional)
- When serving, individually put on as much red-wine vinegar and ground pepper as you want. Without the vinegar it tastes bland, but adding even a bit makes it taste very good.

(DO NOT (just a suggestion) add oil to your dressing - the point of the dressing is that it is just the red wine vinegar with a bit of pepper. It is healthy and tastes great )

 

How about a good pulled pork sandwhich...

What you need...
4-5lb Pork Shoulder (Boston Butt)
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Pepper
Salt
Kuman
Peperika
And other seasoning as seen fit....
1 to 2 bottles of your favorite BBQ sauce

There are a few ways to go about cooking the pork shoulder, smoking, oven or crockpot. For a smoker and oven the temperature should be at 250 degree F. For a crockpot you want to set it to the lowest setting.


Smoker/Oven - Mix all of your dry seasoning into a bowl to form a nice dry rub. Rub the dry rub all around the pork shoulder. Placed the shoulder into tin foil. Make sure that no juices will escape. I usually have 3 or 4 layers of tin foil. Place in the smoker/oven for 6-7 hours. Once the time has passed take the meat out and let it rest for 30 minutes. After that take the meat out of the tin foil, put it into a bowl and pull it apart. Add BBQ as desired.

Crockpot - Depending on the type of pulled pork you want (spicy or sweet) you can go ahead and add the BBQ sauce right to the crockpot with the pork shoulder (you may have to trim it down depending upon the size of pork or crockpot. If you want a really sweet pulled pork I recommend adding a can of soda to the BBQ. If you want a spicy pulled pork I recommend adding a mixture of Buffalo sauce and water to the BBQ sacue or use a Spicy BBQ and a little bit of water. Let the pork cook for 6-7 hours. Once the pork is done cooking place into a bowl (sauce and all) and pull apart.

I like to serve my pulled pork on toasted Onion rolls with cole slaw (on the side or on top of the pulled pork). This meal will serve between 4-6 people depending upon how much pork is used per a sandwhich.

I have yet to cook mine in a smoker as I am slowly saving for a really good one.

 

Burgers....

Take 2 lbs of Lean Ground Beef, add 2 tbsp of Ground black pepper, 1 diced onion, 1 tsp of Garlic powder, 1 diced green pepper, 2 Large eggs. Mix.

Make patties, adding small cubes of Mozzerella cheese into the middle of the patty. Grill away!

 

*wipes drool off the keyboard* that sounds gorgeous!

It's nice out here, and I am absolutely itching to get my hands on a grill and some mtes so I can make these Lamburgers

The Epic Lamburgers of Doom

1 lbs of ground beef
2 lbs of ground lamb
2 eggs
1 cup of sour cream
1 cup of bread crumbs
1 clove of garlic
1 small red onion
chili powder
Fresh tarragon, rosemary and thyme to taste
Optional: Soft goats cheese

In a bowl, mix the sour cream and bread crumbs (you can also replace half of the sour cream with soft goats cheese) and let it soak for about 15 minutes or so. In a pan, quickly saute the onion and garlic for 2, 3 minutes or so and drain.
Add the beef and the lamb into the breadcrumbs, mixing gently. Add the onion and garlic, and herbs + chili to taste. Lastly, mix in the egg, beaten.

The mixture should be solid and only stick into your hands a little at this point. form into patties or other desired shapes, and grill until done. At this point, you can also glop some goats cheese in the middle of the patties for added tastyness. (Or, if it starts raining... the mixture can go into a baking dish and makes for a pretty good "meatloaf" too )