Cooking Thread~ Recipes & Things

[Gaemnomut]

A friend of mine has all sorts of allergies and food intolerances. Everytime I visit him and we eat together he cooks and substitute all the ingredients he can't eat with stuff thats ok for him to eat.
Makes for really interesting meals. They tast really good, but rather unusal at times.

He even produced and sold his own icecream for a while, marketed to people like him that had lots of problems with what they could or couldn't eat.
It was based on coconut milk, sweetend with stevia and similar stuff and was absolutely delicious.

Anyway, I usually cook without a fixed recipy and just use whatever I have at hand, but I do have one more of my favourites to share with you guys.

Spoiler: Browny in a Cup

Ingredients for one portion:
4 tablespoons of Flour
4 tablespoons of instant hot chocolate powder
2-4 tablespoons of sugar (depending on how sweet the instant hot choc. powder is and how sweet you want them to be in the end)
1 egg (optional in my opinion, I have tried it without and it works ok)
4 tablespoons cooking oil (prefearably oilseed rape because its flavour neutral, butter also works really well)
4 tablespoons of milk (you can use water if you don't have milk)

Put everything in a Cup.
Stir until ist properly mixed
Mikrowave for about 2 or 3 minutes
Serve with chocolate sauce and icecream if you have them, dig in without if you don't.

This is the base recipy, but it can be modified to your tastes. For example, I found that adding a little rum to the mix works well.

Its not the most fancy of cakes, but if you have a craving for hot chocolaty goodness this is perfect.
Its really easy, quick and only uses stuff one usually has at home. Also, its nice if you live alone and don't want to bake a whole cake just for youself.
If you do scale it up to more than one portion though, I would suggest either making them in seperate cups or adding some baking powder.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Rendering fat. Also know as making cracklings

I know, I know, you are wondering why I am posting this as a recipe/technique. The answer is simple, crackling/chicharon, also known as deep fried pork skin. Or chicken skin, as I am teaching both ways. If you follow my NSFWish story you will know that while not poor my family isn't swimming on dough, therefore I often do things to try and stretch out the budged and what we gain from what we buy.

We normally buy bone in and skin in chicken and pork, sometimes we get a sale on boneless and skin in thighs and leg 'steaks' of chicken or boneless and skinless chicken breasts. The bone and skin in and the boneless and skinless breasts are the norm as the prices change a bit putting one over the other in terms of price and we get the cheapest one.

When we get bone in and skin in chicken thighs and legs, normally sold as one piece, I normally do the de-boning and skinning myself, I keep the skin and bones to use. The bones get saved until I get a few chickens worth of bone to make stock that I use to make soups, rice, stews and generally everything that I can add it on. The skins I either save until I get half kilo or so, or I use then and there, the result from a pair of thighs and legs worth of skin is a little under half a cup of chicken fat that I use to stretch the vegetable oil.

I also get crispy fried chicken skin, really dry, crunchy and tasty with a pinch of salt, my personal treat for the effort of deboning and rendering the fat.

Now for pork, I understand that butchering is different from country to country, normally we get cuts from the pork leg, they usually cut it with bone and all and sell the two inches thick slices somewhat cheap. I often reduce the slab into smaller cuts or mince, the bone gets saved for stock and the skin gets saved for crackling and rendering.

Or we buy pork belly or another fatty cut with skin to render and make crackling. The norm is saving. Anyway, when I get enough of it I render the fat to cook with, cooking with lard is pretty tasty. The cracklings are also good when rendered well, I am not that good on getting the right crispness it still gets eaten or added to beans for extra flavor.


Ingredients

Skin of 2 chicken thighs and legs cut into two inches ribbons

Or

1 kilo of fatty pork skin, or pork belly, or any other cut of pork where the skin have a lot of fat attached to it, cut into two inches rectangles

Salt, optional for the rendering of the chicken skin


Directions

Chicken

In a large pan place the chicken skin pieces and turn the heat on to medium. Let it begin to sizzle and reduce to low, the fat will render out and begin to deep fry and render more fat from the skin. Flip the skin every now and then to avoid burning, drain the fat whenever it covers the skin. Save the fat in a ceramic or glass bowl and continue the process until the skins release next to no fat. The skins should get golden brown and not black. The fat should be clear but sometimes you might get it a honey like color if you cook it too long, it should be ok as long it doesn't burn.

When done remove the skins, they should be fairly dry, season with a bit of salt and other spices if you like, then enjoy the crispy skin. The fat can be used for stir fries, making rice, I occasionally use it to make my chili oil, it is a nice replacement for vegetable oil in savory recipes. My favored method is to use it to make rice, making it richer and tastier.

Pork

As above place the skin on a large and deep pot, I sprinkle a good couple of pinches of salt and mix on the pork, then turn on the heat and cook it stirring often until the skin begins releasing the fat. This process will take longer than the chicken, you will need to stir often and drain more often as well. The pork will release fat and liquid, drain only after the water juices are fully gone, it will splatter and I advise using long sleeved shirts for this. Once there is only fat you can drain it, use a ladle or just pour through a sieve, returning the skin to the pot if you use a sieve.

The fatty pork will release a lot of fat so the pan won't run dry. Some people render the pork as dry as they can here, cool the pieces and then deep fry them to get the crackling, others just do it in one go either by not draining the fat or by adding it back once the pork isn't rendering more. I try both ways and more often than not my crackling isn't a good as of this one bar from my childhood, then again they had the best crackling that I ever had so my standards are skewed.

As I mentioned before, you can use the pieces of rendered pork to add flavor to beans before you cook the beans, it can be used in similarly long cooking stews. If you get the pieces nice and crunchy breaking them and adding to salads or noodles don't hurt at all. Or you can just eat them by themselves when seasoned with a bit of salt.

The lard can be used for cooking, or as in any other way that you would use lard. I use for cooking, again on rice or stir fries. I haven't used lard for chili oil since I learned that I like chili oil after the last time that I had enough pork to render.

I hope that this little technique helps you and you enjoy the results. Use as much of your purchases as you can, money is hard to come by for us all and there is people who would do nasty things to get the bones and skin that we normally discard. Besides the crackings are great to eat while drinking.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Oral Re-hydration Solution, home made.

Last week I had a very, very bad case of diarrhea. I believe that it was these beans that I had that were slightly spoiled even if they didn't taste bad. If they did I wouldn't have eaten it. It was a really bad case beyond even my worse cases of lactose intolerance. After some meds for gas and diarrhea with very little effect I went to the nearby, fortunately very near like 3 blocks away, public clinic, where I asked for some packs of ORS and a measure spoon to make it at home. Sadly they didn't have the spoon, the ORS powder did help me to get rehydrated as the diarrhea was already gone.

Remembering this old, I do mean old, like over 25 years old, campaign that was on the TV when I was a kid, that was teaching how to make the ORS at home. I believe that back then the powder wasn't available easily, especially in more rural locations.

Ingredients

20 grams of sugar, I prefer using weight, but 2 level tablespoons should get the same amount

3,5 grams of salt, or around half teaspoon

1 liter of water


Directions

Mix everything on a bottle or jug until the solids dissolve. Use bottled water or filtered tap water, boiled if you don't trust the tap water. Depending of how dehydrated you are you might need more than one recipe. It should taste like healthy tears. Honestly it doesn't taste that great, but it does work.


Notes


Most sources advise a couple tablespoons per hour for children and no more than half cup for teens and adults. Other sources advise drinking as much of the solution as the volume of liquid that you are losing by vomit or diarrhea. I do advise that if you have no idea why you are vomiting or evacuating you should see a doctor for it. Make and drink the ORS to help you to get hydrated while you go to the nearest hospital, clinic or doctor.

Given my height and weight I did drink more than half a cup per hour. I drank 2 liters of it in six or so hours plus regular water. I did feel much better after I drank the ORS as I did lose a lot of liquid in the morning.

I am posting this recipe here because you might need it, if possible go for the weight measurements for the sugar and salt. Spoon sizes vary based on maker and country, even measuring ones.

I hope that you don't have to use this recipe, if you do I hope that it helps.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Egg pasta or Egg noodles

Once again I reference my story thread, in there in February last year I mentioned that I purchased a pasta machine, you know one of those that roll out pasta sheets and cut out the pasta into strands with cutting dies. I love the thing and my only regret is that it is a hand operated one and not an electric one. But that is life.

I don't make fresh pasta that often because my kitchen is small and I don't have enough space to hang the cut pasta to dry. However I make it once a month in slow months or more often when I feel like it. It doesn't replace the factory made stuff, it is convenient and my machine doesn't make extruded pasta, but when I feel like having ramen and I don't have any it does the job.

Sometimes I do dry a portion or two of the uncooked noodles for later use, or I freeze the noodles to have them freshish.

My main recipe works well for making Italian style pasta or Japanese style ramen noodles. My first time with the machine was going to be pasta but I felt that the noodles were better as ramen and I was right.

I will list three basic recipes for making the noodles/pasta dough, it will be the classic egg noodle, the alkaline "egg" noodle and a udon style water noodle.


Ingredients

Regular egg recipe, 1 portion

100 grams of flour, I use all purpose since here in Brazil bread flour is hard to find, you can use stronger flours if you like but I never used semolina flour

1 whole egg, I learned that one large egg weights somewhere around 45 to 55 grams, averaging 50 grams this is important for the next recipes

One pinch of salt

Recipe note: As mentioned before, this particular recipe can make Western or Eastern style noodles or pasta. It all depends on the cut, thickness and lastly the method of cooking the pasta. I prefer making my ramen as thin as I feel comfortable with my machine and cutting it on the thin spaghetti cutter, for pasta I leave a bit thicker and cut through wider dies.


Alkaline "egg" noodles

100 grams of flour

50 grams of water, in all eggless recipes I replace the egg with 50 grams of water per egg replaced

1 grams or less of sodium carbonate, this is what makes the water alkaline and naturally dyes the dough yellow.


Recipe note: Some Chinese and Japanese recipes use alkaline water, Kansui, to make the dough and use no eggs, yet call them egg noodles, rumor says that it is to cut costs as the water is cheaper than the needed eggs, so those places might not even use eggs at all. Some use some kansui and eggs. Lastly, I normally add 1 gram or less if using less than 500 grams of flour, it gives the noodles an odd feel. I am the only one who notices, but I rather not exaggerate on it.

To make sodium carbonate, bake baking soda for 1 hour or so. There are youtube videos and other places that teach this in detail. That if you can't get it from a store or another


Udon style noodles

100 grams of flour

50 grams of water

5 grams of salt

Recipe note: This recipe is an adaptation of the udon recipe that my Japanese grandfather taught me. So it is pretty close to the authentic stuff.


Directions:

The basic for all three recipes is to mix everything in a food processor for 1 to 2 minutes, then form the dough it into a ball with your hands. Leave it to rest for 10 minutes and cut the 150 dough ball in half, if you have a machine work it through 10 times on the wider setting, folding the dough three times per pass. After this reduce the distance between the cylinders, giving each setting one pass until you reach your desired thickness.

For lasagna and other wide pasta dishes cut the sheet into smaller sheets of the desired size, cook for a couple of minutes and then assemble the lasagna or cannelloni.

For noodles cut with the right sized die if you have it, or flour and roll the dough lightly and cut to the desired width.

If you don't have a machine, you will have to knead and work the dough by hand and with a rolling pin. I hate doing this hence why I bought the machine.


For the Alkaline recipe heat the water to a boil and add the carbonate to the water, dissolving it well, then add the water to the flour while the food processor is on. More often than not I leave a bit of the water unused as the dough forms before it is all used up, it is normal and is okay. Sometimes you might need to add a bit more water, add it with no carbonate.

It is actually quite interesting to watch the reaction of the alkaline water to the flour, the white flour turns yellow quickly. It reacts to either the gluten or something in the wheat starch, I don't remember which. Might be a fun 'experiment' to perform with kids around, and you can later eat the results.

For working and cutting the dough it is as with the egg dough.


Now the udon dough, it is just dissolving the salt to the water and mix everything, sometimes I heat the water, others I don't. I notice no difference. I do like to give this one a little extra processing time than the others.

Traditionally this noodle would be cut thick, both in die width and in sheet width. I like to make it thinner, normally using as a ramen replacement for when I don't have eggs or as a pasta substitute.

This is my 'last resort' slash 'emergency' noodle recipe, for when I run out of eggs, store bought pasta or ramen and have next to nothing else to use as pasta or noodle. This recipe was also more common used before I learned the baked baking soda thing and made half kilo of carbonate last year. So nowadays I make alkaline noodles instead of plan water noodles unless I want udon.

Since the dough is just salt, water and flour it can be used for anything.

As for cooking time, this recipe is tricky, depending on the thickness of the noodles it will take longer. I normally don't cook mine for more than 1 and a half minute, 2 tops. This is fresh pasta/noodles it doesn't take as long as store bought or dried pasta to cook.


Drying and freezing


To dry the noodles I know of two methods, the first is to make lines somewhere in your kitchen and hang the cut noodles or sheets on it, leave it there for a couple of days and it will get dry. The drawback is that it will take room if you don't have one or more of those fancy ass noodle hangers thingies. I use bamboo skewers and this steel wire multifunction rack over my sink to hang the noodles while I am cutting a batch, I normally make 500 grams batches at time. It isn't something for proper drying.

The second method is making the classing 'nests' of long strands, if the dough is on the dry side and you flour it well after cutting the strands won't clump while drying. It takes less space so it possible to do in smaller kitchens. After drying you can place on another container for storage.

Lastly freezing, when freezing I make nests and use a baking sheet that fits my freezer, after frozen the nests can be moved to containers or bags. The bags have the downside of risking breaking the noodles.

Since normally I make the fresh pasta/noodles and then eat them afterwards I don't normally dry/freeze and store the results, therefore I don't know exactly how long it lasts. But well dried and store in a closed container it should last at least 2 months. Here in my house we hardly leave pasta/noodles even store bought go that long without using so it was never an issue. Italian grandmothers and mothers kept making pasta and drying it at home for ages, so it shouldn't be that hard to figure how long it should be kept.

A final note, the measures here is what I was thought as making 1 portion for 1 person, personally I make 300 grams flour batches and most often than not it doesn't last 2 servings for me.

100 grams and 1 egg per person is the 'rule of thumb', so you can scale up this recipe easily, so six people would be 600 grams and 6 eggs, or 600 grams and 300 grams of water. If you and whoever you are feeding are big eaters then it could be 600 grams and 6 eggs for 3 or 4 people.


On colored pasta.

These pasta are dyed with vegetables, beets, carrots, spinach and so on. I was taught and saw more than a few methods of making it, I favor two.

First, blend the vegetable that you will use, strain through a paper filter or cheesecloth, use the solids on the already finished dough. This method is said to be better because it doesn't alter the water ratio of the recipe as much as mixing the unfiltered juice in.

The second method is to blend the vegetables with the egg or liquid of the recipe and then make the dough using the amount required for the recipe, it should have some leftover thanks to the extra fluid from the vegetables.

The one that I use the most the few times that I made colored pasta is the blending with the liquids of the recipe one, depending on the total liquid at the end I might make 1 or 2 extra portions of pasta at the end. Still I hardly make these colored pasta in the first place, so you might as well experiment and find your favored method.

I hope that you like this recipe.

EDIT:

I just remembered, actually I thought when writing the post but forgot to add it. The egg dough and the water dough, not the alkaline one, can be tweaked with to produce a nice and tasty fried snack. If you add some seasoning, spices or herbs to the dough before processing it, then work the dough and cut it in a spaghetti or tagliatelle width, then cut the strands every two or so inches, then fry the dough in hot oil you can make a very tasty snack.

I used to make it a lot, when fried add some salt and toss it on a bowl, serve it hot or room temperature. It is a nice drinking snack, nice and salty. I used to make in many flavors, sometimes using those seasoning packs from ramen, sometimes using powdered seasonings. They become very crunchy and a bit puffy. The cross cut is two pockets around a thin core in the center.

It is a cheap and easy snack, you can control how much salt and spice goes in it making it less unhealthy. This kind of snack isn't meant to be eaten with dips but it doesn't stop me when I have some around. Use softer creamy dips as the snacks are thin ribbons therefore rather fragile.

I recommend enjoying it with a cold drink, soda in my case, while watching something in the computer or TV.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Eggplant antipasto

Or at least it is what I was told that it is called. I was rummaging the fridge and saw some eggplants that my mother bought last week, since there isn't any margarine left we don't have anything to eat with bread. So I decided to make something to eat with it because we have a fair amount of bread left.

This recipe is quite heavy on oil, so be warned.


Ingredients

4 large eggplants, I cube mine but the original call for sliced

2 medium onions, I like mine sliced and I don't recall if this is the wrong cut

3 cloves of garlic, chopped and crushed

1 cup of flavorless vegetable oil

1 cup of olive oil, you can change the ratios of the oils if you like, normally I don't use olive oil, lastly add more oil if you need

Salt to taste

Oregano to taste

Italian style herbs to taste

Sugar to taste

3 tablespoons of vinegar


Optional stuff

Coarsely grated carrots

Cubed tomatoes, fresh, not canned

Red, green or yellow bell pepper

Red pepper flakes


Directions

Soak the cut eggplant in salt water for 30 min, drain and squeeze out the water. Add the oil to a large pot and add the onions to it, you want to cook the vegetables and not fry them. When the onions are soft add the eggplant and any other vegetables, cook the vegetables down stirring every now and then. Once everything wilted if the oil cover the vegetables season them, if not add more oil until they are covered and then season them.

It should take anywhere between 20 to 40 minutes to cook it. The result should be soft and kind of mushy. It should spread easily on a slice of bread or toast. The eggplants should be nice and soft, the flavor profile of this should be savory with a bit of sweetness and a moderate kick of the vinegar. Adjust to your preferences, if you want more acidic add more vinegar or remove some vinegar if you want it less acid. Same with the sugar. Be careful with the seasonings as this should rest a bit before being eaten so the flavors will mix and develop with time.

This can be stored for a few weeks, not that lasts that long here, it can be kept in the fridge in a jar with a tight lid. The oil will likely congeal a bit but is no issue, you can reheat this. Leave to reach room temp or serve cold. Your choice.

I hope that you like this recipe if you give it a shot.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Hibiscus tea

This recipe is a bit hard to teach, not everyone likes the taste of hibiscus tea. It is quite sour and quite often my mother takes a 2 liters bottle of it to work and some of her coworker try my tea and like it, then they say that they had hibiscus tea in the past and didn't like it. Yet they liked my tea.

I once heard that it is also called sour tea. Some compare the flavor to cranberry juice, I don't really know as I never had cranberry juice. My tea creed is this, cold, strong and sweet. It is a side effect from my childhood days where we made roasted mate tea, the most common type of tea here in Brazil, and I liked it cold so I had to add ice cubes to it. So I always made my tea strong, sweetened and cooled it before drinking.

My love affair with hibiscus tea began a while after my affair with homemade gatorade was going on. I found some bags of green tea and decided to have some, I then kind of lowered my gatorate consumption and began drinking green tea. The problem that I couldn't get good quality tea here without paying 30 bucks for 1 pound. The cheap stuff was full of branches and tasted like heated tree juice. It really tasted like chewing on a branch.

My favorite all natural food and spice bulk shop either began or I just noticed them selling hibiscus a while after my grandmother gave me a tub of hibiscus pickles that was originally created by the Japanese immigrants as a replacement for umeboshi. Getting the name of the plant that back then I didn't know I saw that you could make tea out of it. I purchased 200 grams of dried hibiscus and added some to my green tea.

After a while I stopped making green tea and adding hibiscus to it to just making hibiscus tea. Nowadays if I don't have at least 100 grams of hibiscus on the pantry it means that I need to buy another kilo of the stuff. It costs around 30 bucks the kilo and it lasts anywhere between 1 and a half month to 2 and a half months. I make 6 liters batches of tea at one time and it gets consumed in 2 days tops.

I also used to save the hibiscus used to make the tea to make the pickles that I mentioned before. Sadly the hibiscus that I buy is chockfull of dirt, it is likely air dried so very small dirt particles cling to it and I can't remove it easily, even washing it after the tea is made. Now I make the tea using a bag just for it so the dirt won't get in the tea.

Using the rehydrated stuff to make jam and pickles tend to kind of highlight the dirt particles there. Washing the stuff after you make the tea removes even more dirt from it, just making the tea removes a couple of sizeable pinches of dirt from the 'leaves' I used to be amused when seeing the dirt on the bottom of the pot that I used. Now I am just pissed at the sand as it bothers me a lot when I eat the product and feel it on my teeth.

I plan on teaching how to make the pickle and the jam, as the hibiscus is still good to eat after the tea is made. Because my small fridge I had to stop saving the hibiscus as I had containers upon containers of hibiscus taking space there waiting for processing.

BTW, this is my personal recipe and it is set to make 6 liters of tea. You will need to experiment with the ratios to find if you want it stronger, weaker, sweeter or unsweetened.

Ingredients

2 and a 1/4 cups of sugar

6 liters of water

Roughly one baseball sized clump of dried hibiscus, my hibiscus isn't chopped, it is halved or quartered. By using my thumb, index finger and middle finger in a baseball grip I get that much of it and add to the bag, often adding another pinch of hibiscus just in case. I don't weight this or measure it beyond this grip, feel and eyeballing


Directions

In a large pot, here we have this pot called leiteira, a type of pan originally made for boiling milk. That I purchased a 6 liters sized one for making my tea almost 10 years ago that I use for making the tea. I fill it two thirds of the way, boil the water on it, add the sugar when the water boiled, turn off the heat and then add in the tea.

Initially I tossed the hibiscus directly in the water and strained it to a jug, washed the pot and poured the tea back into the pot before filling the pot up to nearly overflowing. Now I use a cotton bag to hold the hibiscus to steep. The bag stop the dirt from getting into the tea. I keep the bag submerged with a heavy spoon and let the tea steep for 4 hours or more. I want to get as much of the essence out of it. Then I remove the bag, squeeze it to get more tea from the hibiscus, cut the concentrate tea with water until I get my 6 liters and then move the tea into bottles for chilling.

Another way of 'brewing' is the cold brew method. Put the pot in the fridge with the tea bag inside with the water and leave it there for 12 hours.

My initial way of making the tea was to throw the hibiscus on the pot with the room temperature water, turn the heat on and leave it boiling for 1 hours, adding more water as needed.

I admit that the different methods give the tea a different taste. The cold method gives the tea a sharper tang than the long boil method. However I think that the cold brew doesn't get as much of the compounds from the hibiscus, as I noticed that I needed far more hibiscus to get the same strength of flavor as the long boil method.

The steeping method of boiling hot water that I listed in more detail, gives for me the best of both the cold brew and the long boil methods. The taste of the cold brew with the intensity of the long boil.

I am also giving my once steeped hibiscus a second steeping with 1 and a half liters of boiling water and getting more tea from it. It is fairly surprising how much you can extract from the hibiscus. I guess that this is why the pickle and jam still taste of hibiscus even after used for tea.


Pickle

Ingredients

1 kilo of hibiscus, saved from making tea, it can be frozen as long it is still rehydrated

80 to 100 grams of salt

40 to 60 grams of sugar

1 cup of rice vinegar

Recipe note: The original recipe uses fresh hibiscus so it doesn't require the vinegar to get the tang, moisture and acidity. This recipe was altered to use dried hibiscus after used for tea making. Using "fresh" dried hibiscus you can reduce the vinegar to 1 quarter cup or less and rehydrate the hibiscus in a brine using the salt, sugar and water. Adding the vinegar if needed for extra acidity.


Directions

Wash the hibiscus well, I don't know if you will get hibiscus with dirt glued to it. Try eating one and if you feel the dirt on it wash it. On my case you can easily wash away a total of a small coffee spoon of dirt from the hibiscus and still have some attached to it. Once you are through washing the hibiscus, squeeze out the excess water from it and place inside a non-reactive jar.

Heat the vinegar with a bit of water and dissolve the salt and sugar on it. Once dissolved add it to the jar with the hibiscus. If needed add some extra vinegar or boiled water. Give it some time and taste and adjust the mix.

You can also boil the hibiscus with the vinegar mix to speed up the process.

It lasts indefinitely on the fridge, I have some jars of it from sometime a nearly two years ago in the fridge and is still good.

This recipe tastes similarly to umeboshi and was used by the Japanese that migrated to Brazil as a replacement for the pickled plum, so use it as you would use umeboshi. Eat it alongside rice, as a filling for riceballs or a side dish on a traditional Japanese meal.


Jam

1 kilo of hibiscus, again saved from brewing tea

1 kilo of sugar

Pectin if you want to


Directions

Again wash the hibiscus to remove the dirt. Once washed you have to decide if you want a chunky jam or a smoother one. For the smoother blend the hibiscus with some water to make the pieces smaller or paste like. If you want the chunky don't blend it. Place the hibiscus in a large pot, add the sugar and mix well. Now turn the heat on and stir the mix until the sugar dissolves and the mix thickens up.

The consistency of the jam is up to you, thin, thick, jelly like, you decide what you want. It will take a long time to get even to the thin point, at the very least 30 minutes after it begins to boil. Jam making is time consuming.

The flavor should remind a bit of sour cherry or strawberry jam. Sweet and tangy. Sadly this one recipe can be particularly bad on the dirt as the liquids are boiled away and concentrated, if not washed well you can get a lot of dirt in even a small sample of it.

Still it is a very tasty jam, I have no idea of how long it lasts. Every time that I make it or my grandmother makes it I hardly taste it because my brother, the ass, eats everything.


Bonus recipe, yes many recipes with hibiscus, the stuff is very versatile.

Furikake, AKA that savory powder stuff that the Japanese sprinkle on rice

500 grams of after tea making re-dried hibiscus

50 grams of toasted sesame seeds, black or white, or both

At least 1 teaspoon of salt


Directions

Wash the hibiscus after you made the tea with it, squeeze out the water. Spread it on a baking sheet, place it in the oven and turn the oven on, this is better with a gas oven, once the fire is burning move the dial as if you are turning off the gas, but don't turn it off. The goal is to try to get the smallest flame possible to use the oven as a dehydrator, once you get that leave the oven door slightly open and let the low heat work its way into drying the hibiscus.

Every now and then stir the hibiscus and put it back, after hours of this process the hibiscus should look and feel as if the dried stuff that you began making tea with. Let it cool off and grind it in a blender or food processor. The store bought hibiscus furikake have small rice sized pieces of hibiscus, but you can make it larger or try to make it a powder.

Mix with the salt and sesame seeds, taste for seasoning and add more salt if needed. It should taste sour and of hibiscus. Sprinkle over rice or rice balls.

An alternative method, as the salt often don't stick to the hibiscus pieces, is to boil the hibiscus with salt water, then squeeze the excess water out to then bake dry them. Adding more salt while they are still moist is an option as well. Process with drying, grinding and mixing as mentioned above.


Notes:

Dirt can be a issue if you don't wast the hibiscus well, I made some of this a while back and didn't get all out. I gave it away because if bothered me so much. The dirt is flavorless and after being cooked at least twice not harmful, unless it has something poisonous in it that I don't know about, it just bothers me something fierce. It is part of why I stopped making everything save hibiscus tea.

I honestly don't know if internet bough or ones from special retailers have the same issue with fine dirt so you will have to find out by yourself.

As usual I hope that you like any of these recipes if you do give it a try.


EDIT: I forgot to mention, but this hibiscus tea is pretty good for a lot of things, a warning is that is also pretty diuretic. Drinking it every day will cause you to use the toilet more often, it is annoying but it also helps to reduce bloating.

As mentioned on the gatorade recipe I drink a lot of this tea and I am losing weight regularly even with the amount of sugar on it. I also find that it helps me to eat less, maybe is the amount that I drink, or it can be the sugar or just the nutrients and stuff from the tea itself. Google for more details on what hibiscus tea is good for, as it is good for a lot of stuff.

You can also mix the tea with juices or add some lemon, lime or orange juice to it if you want to change the flavor a bit.

 

[Aleh]

So, well, while we're discussing recipes...

Pickled strawberries are reasonably tasty, but have a very, very strong flavor. Be careful with them. That said, one of the byproducts of making them is arguably better than the product itself.

What you'll need:

A 1 quart Ball jar or similar.
1 pound of ripe but firm strawberries, hulled, halved if large
1 1/2 cups white Balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
2 Tbsp kosher salt

Put the (washed) strawberries in the jar. Put all the other ingredients together in a saucepan, maybe with a bit of water. Heat and stir until everything's dissolved and the liquid starts to boil. Pour the fluid into the jar and over the strawberries. Let it cool a bit, then seal the jar and put it in the fridge.

Wait 3-4 days.

Fish the berries out of the fluid. Eat (carefully and with other things; they're quite sour).

Keep the fluid -- which is now basically Strawberry-infused Balsamic vinegar. Whisking one part of that together with two parts of olive oil makes an excellent salad dressing.

 

[Aleh]

So, as an experiment, I used some of the vinegar I mentioned above as the basis for a glaze for some beets. It turned out really well, so I might as well share.

Ingredients:

3 beets (you can use more), peeled and cut into eighths (once along all three axes).
1/4 cup of the vinegar mentioned above (or just white/white balsamic).
1 tbsp flour
1 pinch salt (optional)
2 tbsp butter
1/3 cup water (optional)

Combine all the ingredients save the beets in a saucepan or pot. Stir together and heat until everything melts/dissolves and bring to a simmer. Let it cook down a bit, then add the beets. Cook, stirring periodically and making sure to coat all portions of the beats with the mixture until the bubbling starts to slow. Serve (and maybe garnish somehow).

 

[Sinner_sb]

Sal de frutas, well I don't know the right name in English, but is similar to Alka Seltzer. Effervescent anti-acid. In short it is a home made cure for heartburn, mild sickness as in almost vomiting. So general stomach issues.

A couple months ago I ate something that didn't agree with me and I was feeling horrible. I didn't have any medicine for it so I looked on the interwebs and found a recipe. Look and behold I had everything needed to make the anti-acid on my kitchen. I mixed on the proportions and it worked. I wasn't feeling sick anymore. My mother before I made this found an old, I do mean old, sachet of stomach medicine that didn't work.

Sadly this recipe doesn't hold well. Just a couple of hours is enough to make the mix lose the effervescent power, it still works as an anti-acid but doesn't dilute as well. So I normally make when I need to drink some.

This recipe have two variations as far I am concerned, one the more down to earth emergency homebrew recipe where you are very, very likely to have everything you need at home. This one for making just what you need and no more as it involves one liquid ingredient.

The second recipe can be made in larger amounts and holds better as all the ingredients are dry powders, this one is my favorite recipe.


Ingredients

Single dose homebrew

1 tablespoon of baking soda

1/2 or less teaspoon of baking powder, yes, this is a vital part of the recipe even though it can be removed. 1 or so gram will work for this recipe

Juice of one lemon or lime, if you don't have either I would say that two tablespoons of any vinegar will work, this acid component is important and can't be removed.

1 and a half cup of water, or less this is for a single dose so use as much or as little water under this limit as you like

Directions

In a empty glass mix the dry ingredients well, add the water to your preferred level, it can be cold water. The add the citrus juice or vinegar, it will then react and make the mix fizz, drink once the raging beginning fizz is over.

Notes: This one is the basic single dose version to be made when you need to drink it, it can't be stored.


Dry version, can be stored for short periods of time

45 grams of baking soda

40 grams citric acid

5 grams baking powder

Optional

Powdered juice mix, sweetened or not

Sugar


Directions

In a mason or similar jar add all the ingredients and mix well.

To use add 1 to 1 and a half tablespoon of the mix in a glass of water, drink once the raging fizz is over.


Version notes: The sugar and powdered juice mix is to improve or add flavor to the final product.


Observations:

Sal de Frutas here comes in a few versions, the classic plain and unflavored version, and a few flavored versions, the most common of such Orange flavored. It isn't sweetened in the story bought versions in either flavored and unflavored version.

Even in a small airtight jar it will clump up, it doesn't have any of the stuff that makes the industrial stuff remain a powder even after unsealing the jar. Even clumped it will react once added to water but not as strongly as if it was freshly made. When I make this recipe I tend to drink one or two cups of it a day until it runs out.

At this amount if has no harmful side effects and it is actually good for your body as it helps to regulate your blood PH. Taste wise it is not the best thing to drink, but the salts and minerals of the ingredients help to replenish any loss because of sweating on a hot day. The flavored version has a nicer taste but I don't have access to unsweetened powdered juice mix.

I am believe that this is fairly low on the medicine scale, drinking baking soda to help with digestive issues is an age old folk knowledge and medicine. This recipe borrows from that.

This recipe isn't meant to replace stronger stomach medicines, this one is to help when you overheat and have heartburn or feel nauseous.

Lastly my preferred version is the dry powder version, it tastes better than the lemon juice one, at least for me. After making it a few times I got a good eye for making single dose mixes when eyeballing it.

So if you overindulge on something and feel bloated or with heartburn I hope that this recipe helps you to get some relief. God knows that it helps here at home, I might drink the stuff in leisure more often than not, but my mother and brother needed it for stomach issues more than I did.

EDIT:

Another note, I don't know why or if it is just me, but when I drink this effervescent anti-acid for some reason or another it peps me up. Not in an energy drink kind of way, it just gives me a boost of some king. Might be the 'burn' of the carbonation as it goes down my throat as I chug the stuff in one go rather than sipping or taking small swallows. One way or another it tends to get me a bit more attentive and less tired.

 

[Malaquez]

Does anyone have any good recipes that make use of coconut milk?

Click to shrink...

Make rice with it. You won't regret it. It's amazing with curry.
Just replace half/all of the water with coconut milk and boil for 15~18 minutes. If you want, throw in some herbs (pandan leaf, bay leaf, etc) or spices (tumeric?).

 

[Sinner_sb]

Coconut flan, we call it Manjar it is of the pudding family for us Brazilians.

My grandmother makes this recipe every time that we have a special meal, it isn't my favorite dessert but it is good.


INGREDIENTS:

Pudding:
1 liter of milk

1 200 ml of coconut milk

2 cups of sugar

6 tablespoons of corn starch

50 to 100 grams of finely grated coconut


Sauce
300 g of dried plums or prunes

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of water


Directions:

Add the liquids, sugar and coconut to a large pan, sieve the cornstarch and mix to the liquid ingredients for the pudding until it is dissolved. Turn to the heat and keep mixing the ingredients non-stop, after it thickens keep stirring for two more minutes. The mix should be thick enough that when you stir you can see the bottom of the pan. Pour the mix on a Bundt pan, smooth the surface and tap the pan to the counter a few times to remove air bubbles and firm up the pudding, and once cool place on the fridge for at least 3 hours.

For the sauce throw everything into a pot and cook it until it becomes a thickish syrup, somewhat thinner than the syrup that people put on ice cream or in those fancy coffees. Stir every now and then so it doesn't burn. Once done leave it to cool and add to the pudding before serving, the pudding should be eaten cold.


Note:

This recipe is traditionally made with plums here, however it can be used with other fruits. Red berries should be okay. Orange might be good as well. I suppose that you can experiment with other fruit infused syrups, maybe if goes well with coconut it might work with this.

 

[Sinner_sb]

So I have very limited income and I have to ration what I eat all the time, but at the expense of trying to stay thin.

Most food that are cheap and in quantity always have ether too much carbs or sugar.

But if I have a way to plan a meal a week in advance that is both grounded to the goals of my budget and my health.

Sometimes I wish there was an app that took all the ingredients on discount from my local groceries and also showed the meals that I could make with it that takes my dietime into account.

Click to shrink...

I feel you pain on trying to get food on a budget, I suffer the same here with a drain of a brother that doesn't care about budgeting and controlling his urges at all.

Being completely honest we haven't been able to purchase as much food for the money that we expend on it, so we end getting less while paying more for it. Potatoes, onions, carrots, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, cabbage, Chinese cabbage and the occasional daikon radish or eggplant comprises of the brunt of the vegetables that we purchase.

As for meats, we normally get discount or sale chicken pieces, more often legs and sometimes breasts. Then sausages and very few times pork and ground beef. Eggs are relatively cheap here in Brazil so we try to always have some around, we pay 10 bucks for a pack of 30 chicken eggs, it doesn't last long because we eat it a lot.

Then we get bread, rolls that last a couple of days, 2 packs of sliced white bread, some cookies and pre-made toasts. I always ask for 2 kilos of flour so I can bake more bread, make pasta or when I feel like a pie or a cake. I consider that we crossed a emergency threshold when I begin to dip deeply into my flour supplies to cook. Like making something like chicken and dumplings with more dumplings than protein.

Another staple is bulgur wheat for kibbeh making. It is very filling and nutritious. It is another of the borderline items that I use when there is nothing else to use or I want to stretch the pricier proteins. I have two main recipes with this that I use that fills you up good. It is a cheap food that we can buy in a wholesale food store nearby, I always ask for 1 to 2 kilos of it and it is fairly cheap for the amount. Since you need to soak it to use it, a little bit goes a long way.

Pasta and rice are staples here, it stretches proteins and is pretty good. Here in Brazil the standard plate has rice, beans, salad and meat. Rice and beans are a perfect pair according to the medical professionals, they complement each other nutrition. Bean also stretch well and can be purchased in bulk cheaply.

Now alternative stuff, I advise that you buy nutritional yeast. Powder and flakes if you can, the powder is good to make spreads or to add to breads before you make the dough to add extra nutrition to it. The flakes can be used to sprinkle on foods as if it was parmesan cheese. It is hard to believe but it does help to fill you up, or just give you the sensation of being full earlier and for longer. TVP if you can ger cheaply is also a good way to get protein on your diet if meats are too pricy. My issue with it is that is pricy here and I can't get a good flavoring on it when I cook it. But it isn't bad and if you make heavy sauces as curry or tomato sauces the TVP will get its flavor.

I don't know what kind of diet plan you are following, but as long you aren't eating a lot of fat and oils, eating the regular staples should help you lose weight. Hibiscus tea, green tea and the home made gatorade helped me to lose weight while I ate what I mentioned here and some occasional fried food.

Don't be afraid of canned stuff, canned corn is a common thing here, we use it for many dishes and it is cheap. Fritters, adding to sauces, making cakes, mixing with rice and other vegetables for a fried rice dish, and more uses. Canned sardines have a fairly strong flavor that you can use considerably little to make a lot of food. Flaking the sardines on some tomato sauce makes for a nice pasta sauce, and this is just one option.

If they are cheap canned tuna or other fishes can help to get more protein on the cheap, check the net for recipes and you can use the same canned stuff in different ways.

My final advice is that you purchase the ingredients rather than purchase pre-made meals, the initial cost might be a bit higher, but with a bag of rice, a bag of beans, some vegetables and a meat, you can get more meals that when you tally the total cost each meal costs far less than the factory stuff. It just takes time and effort.

Cooked beans freeze well, so when we have leftovers we freeze them to use another day. Rice can be repurposed into fried rice if you add vegetables and a bit of protein, meat or eggs to it. Leftover vegetables could be turned into soup, pie filling or used in stir fries with the rice. Same with meats, mix with the vegetables to make fillings or soups.

I don't know if this will help, I hope that it does even if just giving you a basic idea on how to start a new way to help stretching your budget.

 

[Biigoh]

So I have very limited income and I have to ration what I eat all the time, but at the expense of trying to stay thin.

Most food that are cheap and in quantity always have ether too much carbs or sugar.

But if I have a way to plan a meal a week in advance that is both grounded to the goals of my budget and my health.

Sometimes I wish there was an app that took all the ingredients on discount from my local groceries and also showed the meals that I could make with it that takes my dietime into account.

Click to shrink...

Pretty much what Sinner_sb said. Also.... Try getting bulk potatos and onions and dried lentils and beans/peanuts and sacks of rice. Lentil soups made with no name brand cream of tomato soup, potatos, and onions can be pretty good. Just make 2 liters and freeze the extra.

The peanuts and beans can be soaked over night and made into soup with onions, potatos and carrots.

Basically... You should be looking at vegetables before meat, going for bulk, dried legumes, and frozen meat on sale like chicken that you keep in the freezer for months and slowly portion out into meals when you cook.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Laranjada, AKA orange juice.

This recipe is a oldie, when a kid my aunt's husband used to make this for us when we got oranges for cheap. It is not pure undiluted orange juice. Maybe it is the oranges that we use that aren't that sweet, maybe it is that we want to stretch said juice for more than one or two people, one way or another we dilute the juice and sweeten it.

Since my family is on a budget and we got some oranges from a friend, said oranges were spoiling, they are likely quite old. My mother bitched that I should do something with them because it they are spoiling. I did eat some but I decided to juice them and get rid of the issue. Since I made the juice I decided to post this recipe, well technique, here for anyone who is in a budget or just want to stretch the orange juice.


Ingredients:

Oranges, as many as you want or have, I used around 12, I say at least 2 to make a couple glasses of juice

Limes or lemons, the secret ingredient is adding around one lemon for each 4 oranges, at least it is how I was taught, I always add it so I don't know how it will turn without it

Sugar or any other sweetener to taste

Water, I use the same amount of water to the final amount of citrus juice, you can dilute it a bit more if you think that is too strong


Directions:

Squeeze out the juice of the oranges and limes/lemons, I used a juicing attachment on my food processor, if you don't have one you might have to do it manually or use one of those hand juicers. Strain out the pulp if you don't like it on the juice. Mix in a jug with water and sugar, taste it to adjust the acidity and sweetness, store in the fridge and serve cold. Drink in two or three days at most.

I hope that you enjoy this recipe if you try it.

 

[aquinas]

Pork Paprikash

This is a favorite of my wife's, but its my family's recipe. It's best served in big bowls with a pile of buttered bread and pickles on the table to share. No really, you need the pickles and bread, the whole thing falls apart without them.

Ingredients:
2 Thick or 4 Regular Pork Chops
1 Large Yellow Onion
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Large Bell Pepper
1 Large Tomato - (For Body and to Boost Color)
1 Cup Rice
2 Cups Water
1 Tablespoon Butter (or more)
Salt, Pepper, Oregano, Sage, Sharp and/or Sweet Paprika

Sides (Required)
A Jar of Dill Pickles
Good Heavy Bread and Plenty of Butter

Prep
Dice Onion, Bell Pepper, Tomato and Set aside
Mince Garlic and Set aside
Trim and Cube Pork Chops

Instructions
1) Melt Butter on medium heat in a large frying pan (with a lid!)
2) Stir in 1 or 2 tablespoons of Paprika and let it cook until the world smells a bit like baking cookies
* Some people use a lot more paprika but if its reasonably fresh and you activate it properly you can get away with less.
3) Stir in half of the Minced Garlic, and wait ~ a minute
3) Add Cubed Porkchops and Brown. When about half browned add a pinch or two of salt. If the Paprika begins to blacken reduce heat.
4) Add Diced Vegetables and remaining garlic, cook until tomato has begun to break down and onion has cooked clear.
5) Season With Oregano, Sage, Etc.
6) Add Two Cups of Water and Rice, Cover Pan and wait ~20 Minutes Stirring occasionally

Serves 2-3 People.

 

[Puidwen]

Puidwen's chicken noodle raid soup

Boil yourself some elbow noodles.
Get a skillet and lightly cooked a few chicken tenders. (I'm paranoid about words like salmonella okay?)
Chop the tenders into bits.

Throw noodles and chicken meat into dutch oven with a few cans of chicken broth.

Raid your spice cabinet for anything you think might go well in chicken noodle soup. Put some of the spices in to taste. (Smelling them relly helps in the how much of this particular spice should i put in)

Let boil.

Recipe will vary every time but the family seems to like it.

And yes this is an actual recipe i use sometimes.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Corn/Potato starch pudding

Sometimes I feel like eating something sweet, a couple of months back I had this massive craving for chocolate pudding. So I went and looked for recipes and made some for myself. It is pretty easy and you can make this pudding with any flavor by replacing the flavoring agent. It is also surprisingly filling given that it has just four ingredients and one of them, the flavoring, might not even be that substantial.


Ingredients

1 liter of milk

6 to 10 tablespoons of sugar, add as much or as little over these as you like

3 to 7 tablespoons of corn or potato starch, I start with three and add more until it is on the thickness that I want

Use whatever flavoring you like, I used a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder a couple of times, then some vanilla essence, then strawberry ice cream flavoring powder, use whatever flavor you want as long it is not something that can curdle the milk, although if you add it after it thickened with the starch it might work...


Directions:

Place most of the milk in the pan and add the first 3 spoons of starch and the sugar, stir to dissolve and them turn on the heat. Keep stirring until it starts to simmer, if using a powdered flavoring add it before the mix thickens up the heat will help it dissolve into the mix. If needed or desired add more starch by mixing with the reserved milk and then add to the pan. If the thickness is of your liking just add the milk and cook some more.

I like my pudding thick and dense, once I get to the right thickness I take it off the fire and pour into a container to cool, when cool I refrigerate it and eat it cold. If you want it to eat it hot to warm you can eat it sooner.


Notes:

Depending of the flavor adding some sliced bananas to your portion before you eat it adds to the experience. But being honest I normally save the sliced bananas for when I make oatmeal, which I also eat cold.

It is still a nice and cheap dessert or snack, easy to make and tasty. Perfect for us that suffer under tight budgets. I can buy cornstarch in bulk for less than 4 bucks a kilo, so I purchase at least a full kilo of the stuff when I begin to run out of it. It can last for a while and I use the starch for other recipes as well. Making for a good budget item.

Here in Brazil we make mingau de maizena, which is pretty much the American style pudding just a little thinner, it is a good and filling food/snack for young children. A name brand one is fairly popular and well liked, it might have some egg yolks on it for extra richness and nutrition, it comes in the three basic flavors of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. We didn't get it often in my family, my brother and I were reared eating pretty much what the adults ate.

Oatmeal and this pudding were very rare in our family and maybe it is why I like oatmeal so much, whenever I have the rolled oats, milk and sugar I try making a batch to eat. It is part of the why if purchased a 1 liter bottle of vanilla essence, another reason is that it was just 3 bucks over the price of a small 50 ml bottle. Being a penny pincher I rather pay a little more now and not pay 3 bucks every few months for more vanilla. Especially since you always need to buy more when every shop is closed.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this recipe if you give it a go.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Sweet pickle relish.

Ok, this one have been on my to do list for a while now, but I never got around making it until yesterday. I love cucumber pickles, particularly sweet dill pickles, I even make some every now and then. Relish is something that I was curious about but never really got around making it. It isn't a common condiment here in Brazil. My recipe is also adapted as celery seed isn't easy to find here, I didn't have mustard seeds and I didn't use some of the powdered spices that most recipes ask for.

So this is my particular recipe and not the standard recipe. Still it tastes pretty good and I am left craving for some hotdogs and hamburgers to toss some on.


Ingredients:

2 large cucumbers, I used the Japanese ones that have less seeds than the normal, use seedless ones if you have them

1 large onion or 2 medium ones, I used normal white onions, some recipes call for sweet onions

2 large cloves of garlic

1 and 1/2 cup of sugar

5 tablespoons of salt

1 to 2 cups of white or apple vinegar

Ground ginger to taste

1 tea spoon of dried pepper flakes, the original recipes call for red bell peppers but I don't have any so I used a bit of dried chili for it

1 tablespoon of mustard


Directions

Chop the cucumbers into small cubes or process into a chunky paste with a food processor, place the results on a bowl and do the same with the onions and garlic. Mix the chopped vegetables with two tablespoons of salt and leave it covered to drain the moisture for a few hours, at least 2, I left mine overnight.

Using a cheesecloth and a strainer drain the liquid from the cucumber mix, squeeze as much as you can and reserve the solids. Discard the liquid if you want to. I suppose that if you adjust the seasoning you could make this liquid into a cold soup. Some recipes call for the solids to be washed to remove the salt. I didn't and just adjust the salt to taste later in the process.

For the brine pour the vinegar, sugar and spices on a pan, bring it to a boil and then add the cucumber to pan, stir and check the liquid level. It shouldn't be soupy but it also shouldn't be too dry. I don't know how to explain the level here, check the net for pics as reference.

Boil for 5 minutes and taste the relish, add more salt, sugar or vinegar to taste. As the name implies it should be on the sweet side, mine came sweet and tangy, with a hint of spice and savory enough that you know that it isn't a jam but a savory condiment that is sweet and sour.

I have no idea of how long it will last in the fridge, but as a pickle it should last for a few weeks at the least.


Notes: On its own and with some crackers it tasted pretty good. A bit garlicky and oniony in the end, but really good as a different topping for plain old crackers. I am guessing that it will be great on a hotdog or a hamburger. Might try with a potato salad as it is a commonly referenced recipe that used this relish. And it is a novel way to use cucumbers for me.

I hope that you like this recipe if you decide to give it a try.

 

[tEN]

Listen up, assholes, lemme tell you about bechamel sauce and why it is the best fucking thing you will ever put on your pasta. This shit is what makes mac and cheese so good. You know that hentai bullshit where they say they're cumming from their mouth? Those cocks must have been full of bechamel sauce. What you do is you take some goddamn butter, you melt it right down, you add just as much flour, slowly, so you don't get chunky jizz sauce, you stir it, and you make a goddamn roux. That's delicious enough on its own. Then you take some fucking milk, and you stir that shit in, followed by whatever fucking cheese you want, grated small, so it melts right in and makes your bechamel nice and thick. This is literally the cheese from a nice ass bowl of mac and cheese, and after you drain your fucking water from the pot, you can make it right on top of your pasta. You're welcome, assholes.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Bechamel or white sauce, classic recipe.


I was taught this recipe in a cooking class 5 or so years ago alongside the recipe for one of my favorite soups that use bechamel as the base. It is fairly simple to make.


Ingredients:

1 liter of milk, whole, low fat, no fat, as long it is dairy and not a non dairy milk

1/2 large white onion

1 bay leaf

One pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

Flour as needed, at least 1/2 cup to start

Butter as needed


Directions:

To begin place the milk in a pot, make a cut on the onion and insert the bay leaf on it. Add the onion to the milk, since it is whole it can be removed easily later. Bring it to a boil and lower to a simmer and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Add the nutmeg to the milk and reserve.

There are a few ways of begin this next part, I normally like to toast the flour in a dry pan first, some people like adding the flour to hot oil and then toast the flour as a paste, lastly some people just make the paste cold and then toast it. I even heard of some that bake the flour beforehand.

Anyway, toast the flour while mixing it all the time, you want to remove the raw flour taste from the flour. You can also toast the flour until it changes color to darken the final roux, but since this is white sauce you just toast it to remove the taste.

This part is another one with variants, you can move the flour to a bowl and then melt and heat the butter, or use vegetable oil, to then add the flour to make the roux. I add the fat to the flour in the pot, I like my roux a firm paste, a nearly solid thing that isn't runny. Some like the roux to be more liquid and runny, which requires either more fat or less flour. If making small batches this runny one is easier to achieve especially if you don't want to make a really thick final sauce.

With the roux mixed and toasted you can then add the milk, I normally make the roux needed for the recipe and it is always a large batch, I am unsure if making a large batch and using just a little of it would work. However if making a large batch of sauce you can separate some of the roux before adding the milk to the pan so you can adjust the final thickness of the sauce by adding more roux.

The teacher that taught the class claimed that his subordinates had to make a creamy and smooth bechamel without using a whisk, just a spoon. It can be done but a whisk makes the task much easier. Add the cold milk infusion to the roux, it will help dilute the roux without getting lumpy.

You can add small amounts of the milk while hot to the roux as long you keep stirring the roux and don't add more than two ladles of the infused milk at a time until you incorporate it all. This is how the guy taught us, it really does make a smooth sauce, but the cold liquid method is easier.

Once you achieve your desired consistency add the salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.


Notes:

The Bechamel is a mother sauce, read, a sauce that is the base for other sauces or soups.as the cheese sauce posted above. You add more ingredients at the final stage of the sauce making to customize it for your desired recipe. My favorite soup uses the bechamel process, it is a creamy onion soup. You caramelize a boatload of chopped onions in oil/butter/fat and then add the flour to toast there, once that is done you add equal amounts of infused milk and chicken stock. The final soup can be as thick or thin as you like, I like mine in the middle of the road, thick enough to be silky and rich, but thin enough that it isn't like custard. Serve it with croutons and chopped green onions, or a side of bread or toast.

Another use for bechamel that I frequently use is as both a layer and the final topping in lasagna, as the top layer it gets a delicious crust in gratin style dishes. Since this is a basic sauce its use is varied and widespread, many recipes use a bechamel style sauce on them.

 

[Sinner_sb]

DIY pasta drying rack

Ok, I admit that maybe this shouldn't be considered a recipe and in a cooking thread. But I was struggling to figure a way to dry noodles so I don't have to make it fresh every time that I want to eat ramen. Since it is to be used in cooking/food preparation I figure that it wouldn't hurt to post it here.

Ingredients, yeah it shouldn't be ingredients but roll with it

PVC piping, have the length that you want I am using a leftover half meter piece that I had from fixing some stuff here

Power drill

Hacksaw

Bamboo skewers or any sort of bamboo chopsticks

Drill bit that is the same width of the skewer or chopsticks

Hot glue gun and hot glue, optional

Something wide but heavy to make a base


Directions

Decide on the size of your central pillar and cut the PVC pipe to length with the hacksaw. Using a marker make dots on the pipe, one centimeter apart horizontally and one centimeter lower. These marks are meant to be the guides to drill the holes to place the skewers where the noodles will hang from.

Being careful to not hurt yourself drill the holes through the PVC, it needs to be through so the skewer has a proper support so it doesn't slip under the weight of the noodles. However if you hot glue the skewers on the pillar the holes might not need to be all the way through the pipe.

If you have it lying around or want to dish out the extra money for it, having connections and extra piping you can make the base for the rack using it. Since I am making with stuff that I have lying around in the house and to save money since pasta racks are pricy, like 50 bucks.

If you don't have extra piping and connections, you have to improvise a base. A wide and somewhat heavy object like a paperweight that you don't mind damaging or an old can that you can fill with stuff like beans, kitty litter or sand and then sealing it to make the weighted base.

I am using a old butter tub filled with clean and unused kitty litter, once full I will wrap it with electric tape and hot glue the shaft to the lid of the tub.

You could try give it a better finish by painting it, or making it of mostly PVC or wood, this is a improvised DIY version. As long it gets the job done it is ok that looks a bit shabby.


Notes:

This "recipe" complements my past post of pasta/noodle dough recipe, homemade pasta is still delicious even if is dry. Oh I like drying it in a place where the air moves but isn't windy, but I sometimes also dry it in a closed space, but in my experience the closed space drying takes longer than drying it where the air flows. It will still take some time to dry but less than the closed space, just remember that it will take some space and pets and kids might mess with the pasta if is in the open.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Stock/broth

Since I plan on starting a little "series" here I decided to post what I consider one of the most important ingredients of it before I begin said series.

Being completely honest I find that no one has any excuse to be unable to do this recipe, it is pathetically easy, unless they don't want to make it. Time is the factor that most would use to not make this, because it is not really labor intensive or complicated, it is very healthy, tasty and good for you in many ways.

Ten or so years ago I began making homemade stock for cooking. Since here in Brazil bone in chicken parts were much cheaper than deboned parts I had to debone the chicken breasts myself. Being a bit of a penny pincher I began to save the carcass to make stock, I don't remember if we used to get chicken like that before that period of time, most of my memories of cooking before that period were using processed stuff.

It was around the time that I began cooking at home everyday and my cooking skills had improved, we had moved out from my grandparents a few years before and times weren't as bad as they were now so we could afford beef, deboned chicken and other stuff. Once we moved from one apartment to another with a bigger kitchen we began cooking far more often, even then it took a while to things pick up. I honestly don't remember what we did for food back then save some minor stuff.

I would save 3 or so kilos of chicken bone to then cook it for hours to make stock. After 1 or 2 years of regular stock making we pretty much stopped using bullion cubes and other industrial stocks, including ramen soup packs. I once purchased a few kilos of beef bones to make stock, I made a mistake of not diluting the final stock and my mother got the runs and I got some but not as bad as she did.

It was too rich to be eaten as we did in ramen, which we drank the tasty soup, after that bump in the road the following times I did dilute the stock, and we had no issues with it.

Now you might be wondering why should I make stock at home, the answer is simple, it is healthier and generally cheaper than buying it from the market. Low sodium and or organic stock is pricy, regular stock is full of sodium and who knows what else. With homemade stock you know exactly what is in there, it has as much or as little salt/sodium as you want it to have, it has as much or as little fat as you leave on it, generally tastes better than what you purchase, it makes all sort of recipes richer, healthier and more flavorful, you are using more of whatever bone in meat that you purchased, and it is cheaper.

You can make large batches and freeze the stock in small containers taking just what you need out of the freezer, soups, rice dishes, gravy, sauces and stews all benefit from home made stock.

Nutrition wise it is better, long simmered stock with a couple of tablespoons of vinegar added before the boil makes the bones release some calcium making the final stock much more nutritious, it also has collagen, gelatin and much more. It is why the recent fad of bone broth picked up, as the general public learned from some source or another that stock made of bones is good for you.


Ingredients:

The largest pot that you own or can borrow, yes, it is listed here because it is important, a large pressure cooker works even better

Bones of the meat animal of your choice, beef, pork, chicken, lamb, a mix

Water


Optional:

1 to 5 tablespoons of vinegar, distilled white, apple cider or rice

Onions

Garlic

Carrot

Celery

Leek

Green onions

Spices


OBS: I consider the vinegar important but it isn't mandatory, everything else is for extra flavor and nutrition.


Directions:

Wash the bones well, roast the bones to add extra flavor and to remove any unpleasantness from beef bones, roast the vegetables as well if you desire, I skip the roasting half of the time. Once roasted toss the bones on the pot and cover with water, bring it to a boil. Now some people like to dump this first boil water, wash the bones and then add more water and then cook them again for stock. I don't do this, you decide if you want to do so or not. If not washing and ditching the water then you add the vegetables to the pot as well.

Once it boils, reduce the heat to low and simmer, remove any scum that forms on the top and keep it simmering for at least 2 hours. I simmer my stock for 3 hours at the least, I also use a pressure cooker to get even more out of the bones. The vinegar is added before the simmer of the second boil or of the first boil if you won't wash the bones. The boiling process will remove the acidity and flavor so it won't be noticeable.

Now it is up to you for how long you boil the stock, add more water as needed, if using a pressure cooker release the pressure now and then to add more water.

A 2 hours or less boil will make it a thinner stock that is likely to be light in color, longer than that you begin to get a milkier color. With a pressure cooker this milky color comes earlier. This is good, it means that you are getting plenty of collagen and nutrients from the bones.

You can pause the boil overnight to continue in the morning, I often did this in the past, I really did stack the hours before the pressure cooker.

Once you are pleased with the time you remove the bones from the stock, then strain the stock to remove any smaller bits of bone, loose meat and other solids. To remove any fat cool the stock in the fridge for a few hours, I save the fat and use for cooking while leaving the stock without fat.


Notes:

Depending of what you plan on using the stock you can add any mix of spices during the boil, when making a Pho like stock I used to add star anise, cinnamon and other spices. If you want a basic stock you don't add any spices to it until you use it to make a dish.

This stock is a basic stock that you can tweak to make different soups or dishes. Adding soy sauce, dashi powder, salt, sesame oil and green onions and you have two basic ramen broths. Add spices that go on pho and have you have a knock off pho stock.

Use it in place of water when making rice or curry to get a richer rice or curry.

My planned "series" is about using instant ramen to make better meals, so this stock recipe is a major factor on turning regular instant ramen packs into good and healthier meals.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Ramen series

Upping a instant ramen pack.

I began cooking using instant ramen, frying eggs and watching stuff on the net and TV. Turning a pack of instant ramen into a filling and heartier meal taught me a lot of basic skills that allowed me to upgrade from instant noodles to making pasta and red sauces.

I consider this recipe a good starting point to learn how to cook as you use quite a few skills on making a proper meal out of ramen using a stove top.

Ingredients:

1 pack of instant ramen noodles of your preferred brand and flavor

1 onion

1 bunch of green onions

1 carrot

1 or 2 sausage links

Soy sauce to taste

Sesame oil to taste

Salt and pepper to taste


Directions

Put some water to boil, while that boils prepare the vegetables. Here is where you practice your knife skills, strips, cubes, wedges, pick a shape and size and stick to it, try to keep everything in a similar size. I advise strips for the vegetables. Depending of the sausage you pan fry it or boil it. I used a type of smoked sausage called calabreza, I either boiled it or sliced it and stir fried it with the veggies. If boiled keep the water as the base for the stock.

Stir fry the vegetables and sausage, season with the soy sauce, salt, pepper and whatever other spices that you like. Reserve and cook the noodles, do not use the stock if you boiled the sausage to cook the noodles, you cook the noodles on its own water and discard the cooking water. This removes the excess fat from the noodles and makes them healthier.

For the stock you can use the seasoning packet of the noodles as a base on plain water or the sausage water, add a bit of soy sauce and salt to taste. Once it boiled turn it off.

In a bowl add the cooked noodles, then add the stir fried vegetables and sausage, drizzle a little of sesame oil over it, and then add the soup over it all. It is then ready to eat.


Notes:

This is my basic starting upgraded ramen recipe, with the vegetables and sausage it is more of a meal than just the noodles. While the flavor packet of the ramen still makes this recipe a bit high on sodium, by not using the noodle cooking water as the base you remove a good amount of oil/fat from the final product.

A step up for this method/technique it to replace the sausage by de-boned chicken breasts, pieces of beef or pork. The next recipe is similar to this but without using the flavor pack.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Ramen series

Upgraded ramen part 2

When I began making this my standard instant ramen recipe my cooking skills had improved considerably, still beginner level but at a point where I felt reasonably confident on making things a bit more complicated than just boiling water for noodles, frying eggs or frozen patties.

At this recipe I began not using the flavor pack from the ramen package, using frozen pieces of boneless chicken, beef or pork, I would make a simple and basic stock to use on my ramen, flavoring said stock fairly simply with soy sauce, dashi powder, salt and sesame oil.


Ingredients;

Ramen

Chicken breast or other meat of your preference

Same vegetables of the first part of this ramen series

Optional

Lime juice

hot sauce

Cucumber

Tomatoes

Bean sprouts

Cabbage


Directions:

As in the past recipe cook the ramen in plain boiling water and discard the water, rinse the noodles to cool them down and reserve, or just cook said noodles when everything else in this recipe is done.

At this part you decide if you want to pan fry your meat or not, if you will pan or stir fry it then you cut it into appropriate sized pieces doing the same with the vegetables listed on the past recipe. If you brown/pan fry the meat and the main vegetables you can then add water and cook everything to make the stock.

If you decide not to fry the meat just cut it into bite size pieces and boil it for half hour or so. The stock won't be the strongest one but will be good, season with salt, pepper, garlic, soy sauce and dashi powder until it is of your liking. At this point you have two options, use the soup hot or cold.

After an Anthony Bourdain episode I decided making cold noodles for myself and my mother, it was a breath of fresh air to our ramen and a wonderful thing in a hot day. If eaten warm you pretty much assemble everything into a bowl with a bit of sesame oil and if you want a touch of lime juice and hot sauce. The optional vegetables are as said optional and can be quickly stir fried or blanched. They are also quite good with the cold ramen, which is why I began using cucumbers and tomatoes as toppings.

If you wish to have it cold, put the soup and noodles in the fridge for a while, or freezer if you are in a hurry. Cut the vegetables into matchstick size, the tomatoes into wedges, make a thin omelette and slice thinly, assemble in a bowl with the toppings arranged into groups over the noodles. Add the cold broth and some lime juice. It is a very refreshing dish that my mother loved when I made for her and she would request it often. The cold soup and noodles with the lime juice made it very refreshing and cooling, a huge change from regular hot noodles.


Notes:

This was my main recipe for a long time, after a while making quick stocks I began using the stock recipe that I posted a couple days ago for this. A couple of years ago a cashier of the grocery store that I was a regular, the signs of you being a regular is that the cashier knows what your staples are and you recognize the cashiers as well, asked me why I always bought 12 packs of ramen since they are unhealthy.

I told her that I didn't use the flavor pack of them and didn't use the water that I boiled the noodles to make the soup for the noodles, making it much healthier. At that time I had accumulated over 200 flavor packs of ramen of several flavors and brands, most became useless, and I also didn't have bullion cubes at home either. My stock was homemade for years.

Just recently I began using bullion cubes again, after the recipes for them improved reducing their sodium and fat contents. I still prefer homemade stock over the factory stuff, for ramen and other noodle I still prefer making the stock than using the flavor packs or bullion cubes for it. But if I am in a hurry I will use the flavor packs.

 

[tEN]

When I was in a dorm room and any meals not from the cafeteria were in a microwave, I would get whole onions and jars of banana peppers. Dice up a quarter of an onion, add a few rings of banana pepper, and you just made your ramen a whole lot healthier and tastier with very minimal effort, with things that easily fit in a dorm fridge.

 

[Sinner_sb]

Ramen series part 3

Yakisoba

This recipe/technique explores and advances the basic skills that the past recipes of this series taught, since yakisoba is a type of stir fried noodles with vegetables you will practice your knife skills and making the sauce while easy will teach you how to thicken sauces using starch based slurry.

It might not be 100% traditional yakisoba, but it is the most common way of making here in Brazil, since it has loads of vegetables it is pretty healthy as well.


Ingredients

1 or 2 packs of instant ramen

1 carrot

1 onion

1 bunch of green onions

1 green pepper

1 red or yellow pepper, or half of each for extra color

2 to 3 cups, or more, of thinly sliced cabbage

1 or 2 gloves of garlic

200 to 400 grams of meat of your choice, the easiest is chicken, second easiest is beef, then pork, seafood is more advanced stuff, you can also use ground meat or sausages

Soy sauce

Sesame oil

Corn or potato starch

Ginger to taste


Optional/extra

Cauliflower

Brocolli

Spinach

Tofu

Fish products like chikuwa or kamaboko


Directions:

Cook the noodles until firm, you want them slightly under, they will cook more when you mix them with the vegetables and sauce, reserve for later.

Chop the vegetables, pick a size and shape and stick to it, some people like to cut them into cubes, others like thin strips. I like cutting the carrots into diagonal half moons, cubing the onions and peppers, the cabbage it depends, I go either thinly slicing/shredding or cubes depending on how lazy I feel. The thin slices are better since the stalk parts aren't big and cook easily. Reserve the vegetables for cooking.

Cut the meat into thin bite size strips, you can make a mixed meat one by using any two or three meats, a common one here is beef with chicken and shrimp.

Now that all the preparations are done we can move to cooking everything. In a large skilled or wok heat some vegetable oil I like frying the crushed garlic and sliced ginger first, then add the onion and let it soften before adding the meat. Stir often so nothing burns, add the carrot as it takes a while to cook through. Keep adding the vegetables by order of what takes the longest to cook to the shortest. Add small pinches of salt every now and then, just to compensate for the extra vegetables.

Once all the vegetables are in you toss the soy sauce, stirring and giving a minute to coat everything, then add the noodles. They will finish cooking with everything and get flavor from the sauce. Now here is where things get split, some like the yakisoba dry while others like it wet. Here in Brazil the most common is the wet/damp style with a thick sauce coating everything.

Because of the cooking and the soy sauce you should have around half a cup or so of sauce/juices on the pan, with that as a base you mix a couple of tablespoons of corn starch with water and add the slurry to the hot pot and mix, the sauce will thicken and coat everything ensuring that every bite is flavorful. At this point you add a splash of sesame oil and do the final taste for seasoning, if you tasted everything until now to check the doneness of the vegetables you will also know if it needs more salt, ginger or soy sauce.

I apologize but I don't really know how to make the dry kind without dumping out the sauce and letting cook a bit longer to toast the noodles.

Serve and eat it while hot or very warm.


Notes:

This recipe is very easy to make and the worse part is getting everything done and ready for the cooking, the cooking part only takes a few minutes, it is getting everything ready that takes time. Personally I find yakisoba to be a very light meal, as in 30 min to 1 hour later I am hungry again, so I rather making more filling options. However it is a very tasty dish and everyone likes it.

 

[Snake/Eater]

A lot of recipes I get online are from this blog Called "closet Cooking."

 

[Gaemnomut]

Here is something you can try.
Just chuck together some milk and flour until you have a creamy mixture. Then mix in some spices (I like to use curry and chilli powder).
Then get some vegetables or tofu, cut them up, dip them in and fry them in hot oil.
The cool thing is that, even though there are a number of recipes that do the same thing slightly better, this one is really quick, cheap and can be done with really basic ingredients.
I found that eggplant or zucchini, or the denser kinds of tofu/seitan work well.
I'm not sure if it works with meat, because you can only heat it for a short time before it gets burnt so you'de probably need to cook the meat beforehand somehow.

Another thing you can do is to basically make pancakes with it. Just pour the mixture into a pan with hot oil and fry it until until its nice and crispy. When I do that I like to make it really, really spicy.
Since its not so liquid the sharp spices don't disolve as much and you can use a lot more before its inedible.
Once its done, you can eat it with a cream of yoghurt with small chunks of sliced up cucumber, herbs and some garlic. The fresh taste of the cream mixed with the hot and spicy pancake is quite nice.
Its nothing really new, but something you can try when you're in a hurry and don't have much at home.

 

[Gaemnomut]

cheap and easy potato gratin

I recently came across this recepy and it works really well.

All you need is potatos, some soup broth, some cream, and cheese.

Here is what you do:
Slice the taters and layer the slices into your pan. Then add enough broth so the topmost potatoes are covered. Put the pan in the oven (190° C) until the potatoes almost have the consistency you want them to have ( about 30-40 minutes should do it, I like them a bit mushy and well cooked, but I know some other people prefer them differently). Then take them out of the oven and pour away the left over broth (you can reuse that if you want).
Now just pour the cream over it and add a layer of grated cheese on top and put it back in the oven.
Leave it in until the potatoes are done and the cheese is nice and crispy.

And your're finished.
It tastes really good because the potatoes take on all the spices of the soup and end up with a nice consistency.
Of course you can add stuff like broccoli, onions, mushrooms, more spices, extra cheese, whatever. But you don't have to.

 

[Gaemnomut]

Also, since I'm just now making it:

Fancy Curry

1-1,5 kg of beef
3-4 big onions
quarter litre of coconut milk
quarter jar of curry paste (Masala)
salt
pepper


optional but highly recommended:
5-6 pieces of garlic
2 green bell peppers
2 cm of a ginger root
1 can of peeled tomatoes
some mushrooms
some cashew nuts
5 Tablespoons of Italian herbs (gives it a nice and fresh taste)
1 cup of yoghurt
1 Tablespoon of curry powder
3-5 pods of kardamon

Cut the meat into small chunks and fry them in hot oil until they are well browned. Once they are nice and crispy, put them to the side and start on the onions.
Fry the onions at medium to high heat until they start glazing nicely, then add the meat.
Also add in half of the cut up ginger and garlic, the curry paste, the mushrooms, the nuts and the green peppers. Let it all fry for about five minutes.
Now add the peeled tomatoes and the coconut milk, a table spoon of salt, a teaspoon of ground black pepper, half of the Italian herbs and about 300 ml of water.

Stir well, put a lid on it and let it all simmer on low to medium heat for about an hour. The meat should be nice and tender when its done, depending on the quality of the meat that might take a little longer or shorter. Better meat usually takes a little less time.

Once the hour is up, add the rest of the garlic, ginger and herbs. By now the meat and vegetables should have soaked up the spices and become nice and tender while the sauce should be thick (you can cheat with a little sauce thickener) and have a nice mix of all the flavours in it.
Let it cool down a little and add the yoghurt (be aware though, that in my expirience things with yoghurt in them tend to go bad quickly. If you want it to keep for a while add the yoghurt on the plate) and whatever spices you think are necessary. I usually put in extra curry powder and some kardamon. No more than 4-5 pods of kardamon though since it will taste of nothing else otherwise.
Stir well one last time and serve it.

Goes very well with rice (if you want to be extra fancy, put some curry powder in the rice, it doesn't change the taste much, but the rice will be really yellow. Looks cool and when I was a kid I thought the yellow rice was the best thing ever ;-)) and naan bread.
Feeds 6-7 people or one person for a looong time XD.

Enjoy!

Edit:
Was delicious.

Spoiler: quick alternative (vegetarian) version

Fry tofu with curry past, make it really hot/spicy. Add mushrooms, nuts and green peppers if you have them. Then chuck in a jar of coconut milk. Serve with rice and little pieces of freshly cut cucumber.
Its quick and easy to make, and the spicy sauce and mild taste of the cucumber balance each other very nicely.