![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Second verse, same as the first:
This entry is all about cooking, baking and related disciplines.
Other entries:
Cleaning
Over the next few days, I will be trying to post one entry per day where people can share general tips and tricks they think could be valuable to others. No matter how basic they are or how few people you think would profit from them. Just think about how you do things and share this with others.
This entry is all about cooking, baking and related disciplines.
Other entries:
Cleaning
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 10:45 am (UTC)Here's some that work for us. Most involve some pre-prepared food, I've marked where this is so. Also, we are omnivores and these involve meat.
Coucous. Boil 1 cup water. Take off heat. Add 1 cup couscous and a small amount of oil or butter (1 teaspoon to tablespoon, say). Cover for 2 minutes ish (see packet). Done! You can stir through sundried tomatoes and olives for couscous salad and it's an entire meal.
Take a barbecue chicken (pre-prepared) and place in a saucepan. Empty a can of cream of mushroom soup (pre-prepared) over it. Add some olives. Heat through. Serve.
Cream of mushroom soup from scratch. Fry mushrooms, add cream/sour cream/milk/..., reduce, serve. (There's various recipes online, we tend to just google and go for it.)
Wraps. Buy pre-prepared tortillas. Fry mince with onion. Place mince on tortilla with some combination of chopped tomato, lettuce, salsa (pre-prepared) and yoghurt. Fold wrap up and eat.
We also do a lot of stir-fries, usually red meat, purple onion, carrot, capsicum and baby bok choy. Flavour added with either coriander+lime+fish sauce (so, Thai-style) or coriander+kecap manis.
Equipment we've found useful, and equipment we've found useless
Date: 2011-05-09 10:51 am (UTC)Useful:
A big terracotta tile! Recommended to us by a chef as an ideal pizza stone, and indeed it is.
A blender (we have a stand one and a stick one). Good for smoothies, also you can stir pancake or crepe mixture easily with it, also good for creamy soups (eg mushroom).
A rice cooker. We eat heaps of rice and it takes the guesswork out of it.
The Furi knife sharpener gizmos. Not cheap though.
Not useful:
Waffle maker, juicer, egg beater (OK, occasionally useful, just turns out we don't make stuff that requires the whites of eggs much), pre-filled spice racks.
Also, Scanpan is nice stuff, but the glass lids on Scanpan fry-pans are NOT made of safety/shatter resistant glass. This was found out the hard way. Not nice when there's a crawling baby in the house.
Re: Equipment we've found useful, and equipment we've found useless
Date: 2011-05-09 12:12 pm (UTC)Re: Equipment we've found useful, and equipment we've found useless
Date: 2011-05-11 12:14 pm (UTC)Re: Equipment we've found useful, and equipment we've found useless
Date: 2011-05-11 12:36 pm (UTC)i think this is rather obvious but just in case someone like me needs to be told ;)
Date: 2011-05-09 12:37 pm (UTC)Also this might also concern cleaning. when you have a pan with stuff burnt in and you don't want to leave it for many hours with water and soap just do like 5 minutes of water with some vinegar - and it will be really easy to brush away the burnt stuff.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 01:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 05:37 pm (UTC)The convection oven means that things like pizza and cookies and bread are cooked fast and healthily (especially things like fries - no oil and so good) and my slow cooker is normally used for making overnight breakfast.
Waking up in the morning to fresh breakfast is the best feeling in the world. Especially if you have a coffee pot with timer.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 06:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 07:39 pm (UTC)What I usually do is right before I go to bed, I pour rolled oats and cinnamon in completely covered with water and in the morning, use molasses to taste. That way it's sweetened with something full of nutrients.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 06:08 pm (UTC)1 tablespoon butter (margarine/oil)
1 flat tablespoon flour
1 cup milk (or other liquid)
Spices to taste
In a small saucepan, melt the butter or margarine or heat the oil. When it's sizzling, throw in the flour and stir, stir, stir a minute to cook the flour. I prefer a whisk but you could use a wooden spoon. Then pour in the cup of milk and stir, heating to a boil. Then lower to medium and stir, stir, stir until it thickens. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Now come the variables. Add a handful of grated cheese for cheese sauce. Pour over pasta or veggies. Add a couple heaping spoons of mustard for a mustard sauce. Add lots of dill and a squeeze of lemon and you have dill sauce for fish. Use the liquid from a can of mushrooms and add half-n-half to make a cup of liquid and you've got mushroom sauce. Add curry spices for an Indian style meal.
Then you can vary the liquid. Skim milk to full cream, including buttermilk. Use chicken or beef broth to add flavor and throw in a couple spoons of sour cream or yogurt once it's thickened. Use leftover strained soup. Whatever's in the fridge that might taste good.
If you fry meat in a pan, take the meat out and set aside. Eyeball the amount of oil left and pour off until you've got a tablespoon. Deglaze the bottom of the pan with as little liquid as possible (water or wine rather than milk). Add the flour and stir. Then a cup of meat broth. When it's thickened, add some sour cream if you like creamy gravies. Season to taste.
I've even made rice pudding this way when I had a late night desert craving. Using half-and-half with a little rum added. Then sugar, vanilla and cinnamon and leftover rice. It wasn't bad.
I mostly think of cooking as a) getting everything cooked and non-toxic (hello, meat thermometer). b) Then it's all about how do I flavor it? A tasty sauce is the easiest way to accomplish that.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 06:16 pm (UTC)So I cook rice like pasta and just drain it well when it's done. Put it back in the pot to steam itself dry for a couple minutes and it's done.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 06:46 pm (UTC)(Admittedly I do have one pan that is still slightly black from The Time We Got Doug Drunk, but rice for twelve on short notice with drink taken is extenuating circumstances, right?)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-09 09:50 pm (UTC)That's actually the rice:water proportion I used until I gave up. So not proof against this fool. *g*
no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 03:38 am (UTC)Oh..a neat trick with garlic if you use a lot of it... slice the whole thing across the circumference, wrap in tin foil and then bake for about 45 minutes. Take it out, let it cool a bit then squeeze out the garlic into a container. It lasts for a very long time.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 02:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 11:19 pm (UTC)Definitely not for someone going out on a date. *grin*
no subject
Date: 2011-05-11 03:01 am (UTC)Hmm... I've never made pizza. Maybe it's time to try it. *g*
no subject
Date: 2011-05-11 03:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-11 04:20 am (UTC)Not that your idea doesn't sound delicious, like a pizza quesadilla.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-11 05:02 am (UTC)Let me know how it comes out. :-)
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 03:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 04:18 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 03:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 10:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 04:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-05-10 06:47 am (UTC)Another use is with non-stick pans. It makes a great cutting/removing tool that doesn't scratch the non-stick, such as with baking pans.
I have also found it to work really well for cutting fat into flour when making biscuit or pastry. I like more than a professional fat cutter because it is so much easier to clean.
I first bought this particular scraper spatula merely as a way to get the minimum for free shipping. What luck. It's large size and rigidity have made it my favorite kitchen tool, no matter what I'm cooking, baking, or making.
no subject
Date: 2011-05-16 08:44 pm (UTC)A very simple sauce for boiled fish: mix some butter with sour cream --there shouldn't be too much butter in the sauce, add salt, pepper and a pinch of grated nutmeg. .
When breading meat, very lightly coat it with flour (shake the meat to remove the excess) before you sink it into raw egg. It will make breadcrumbs adhere better. You can make a perfect wiener schnitzel like this. Also the recipe for wiener schnitzel works with turkey, chicken and fish.
When you're on a diet you're often told to cook meat without any grease but sometimes meat becomes much less tasty without a little oil/butter. Besides limiting the amount of grease you put in your pan, you can also use kitchen papers to absorb as much grease as possible once it's cooked. This also works with some things you can cook in your oven such as duck filets, sausages, etc.
Mascarpone is a nice alternative to whipped cream. Fresh goat cheese can replace mayonnaise in sandwiches.
Bacon and leek quiche is delicious and very easy to make. :)