Beating your meat, fish, and veggies - Explained

[Lowky]

I recently made some spaghetti sauce Using Tabasco brand Bloody Mary mix,
two cloves of chopped garlic lightly sauted in olive oil, and 3-4 6oz cans of tomato paste.

coarsely chop two cloves of garlic and lightly saute in olive oil.
In a 3 quart sauce pan add 1 bottle Tabasco brand Bloody Mary mix
3-4 6oz cans of tomato paste. I prefer a thicker sauce so after seeing consistency with 3 cans i added one more. Mix in Sauted garlic. Cook on low heat until hot and serve over your pasta of choice. Optional add Itialian herb blend to taste.

It probably would have been better with the herbs, but I had just moved, and forgot to buy herbs. I strongly recommend not adding any salt to it at the table, I added a little bit of Garlic-pepper seasoning salt, and it was on the salty side, not unedible just a little too salty.

[Tellner]

If you have a crockpot, try this:

snip

The end result is some sort of cake. Very tasty.

Sort of a latter-day version of the British steamed or boiled pudding.

[Moo Cow]

Mmm, all this stuff sounds yummy!

I myself am good at making taco type stuff...Heavy on the tomatoeyness but that's how i like it.

I like to start with dried beans, pinto, brown, black, or kidney, and rinse and soak them for a day or so. Then boil and cook them. Start a pan with canned diced tomatos, add the beans and let some of the liquid cook off.. that's the base and from there you can add other stuff, like ground turkey or beef, texturized vegetable protein, and little bits of whatever kind of veggies you want. For seasoning I like using a bit of chili powder, but there's also garam masala and this really good 5spice powder that i get in Asian supermarkets.

With the mix you can make tacos, burrittos, whatever... but my favorite thing to make is Tortilla pie. you need the taco mix, small corn or flour soft tortilla shells, cheddar/jack cheese, and salsa of your choice. You'll need to use an oven or convection oven, i prefer the latter. You also need a pyrex type bake dish at least 6 inches high. Pour enough salsa into the bottom of the dish to form a thin layer, then put down a tortilla shell on top. Add a layer of taco mix and then put another tortilla on top, then put some cheese on that one, followed mby more mix. repeat the stacking with as much cheese and taco stuff as you want, and top with a tortilla and more cheese and salsa, then bake for maybe 30-45 minutes on about 350 degrees. Yum!

~Sara

[Lulujayne]

You people all eat the food of the Gods it seems!

I can cook basically.... the basics.... And heaven forbid that I would submit that on anyone I cared for. I enjoy it though - in moderation. But I get the feeling I'd enjoy a meal at any one of your kitchens much more

*shuffles feet, and looks at ground*

[RavenxDrake]

Hey. Cooking GOOD is easy... all it takes is a little bit of time, a little bit of effort, and some good ingredients.

If you sit down, before going to the grocery store, and make your menus out ahead of time, even just a few days in advance, and plan for what you want to cook, you'd be how surprised at just how easy it is to improve what you eat and how it's prepared dramatically. Not to mention learning alot about how to cook, and why.

None of what's been mentioned is anything more complicated than what you're talking about finding in a Ruby Tusday's or Applebee's. And if Johnny Minimum Wage* can cook it, sure you can too.

As for learning to cook... I can't vouch for the rest of my culinary peers here in the thread, but I learned to cook at my mom's knee in the kitchen early. She's old-fashioned deep south country cook. There isn't anything batterdipped and/or deepfried that I can't cook; Conversely there's nothing that can be cooked that I can't batterdip and fry for that matter.

That's not even counting the unique southern foodstuffs that nobody else would touch... Livermush, Brains and Eggs, Shrimp and Grits, Pickled Sausages, Gizzards and Dumplings, Chicken and Waffles with Hotsauce...

*This is not an insult directed at anyone in the forum who may have been a chef/cook/burger jerker and/or work for/used to work for minimum wage... heck I still do. It's simply meant to imply that no fancy degree or training is really necessary to do some simple cooking stuff that really tastes good.

[Error of Logic]

My personal recipe for 'rich 'n spicy' chili con carne. This does require a store-bought mix of chili con carne spices for the meat, but bear with me.

A:
1) Start by melting some margarine - or butter, you choice - in a frying pan. Add some salt and herbs Proven

[Lulujayne]

Ruby Tusday's or Applebee's

No idea what those establishments are, but anyways

I like your advice - and all this is making me hungry.
I come from a long line of women much more accomplished in other areas, but you're damn right, I'm off to learn me some cooking

[RavenxDrake]

Lulujayne:
Huh... I thought those were national chains... than again, I'm not positive you're in the US... I seem to remember you being a Foreign Correspondent, as it were.

Error of Logic: *twitch* Beans.. Peas... and-and-and tomato sauce... and it's supposed to be chili?

Sorry, sorry... I'm not trying to offend or belittle your cooking... it's just... I'm used to my mom's recipe for chili... all it requires is chunks of beef, spices, chile peppers, masa(corn flour, used in tortillias... just as easy to use tortillia chips if you can't find the masa) and beer in a preasure cooker.

But, hey, to each thier own.

[Dragoness]

Error of Logic: *twitch* Beans.. Peas... and-and-and tomato sauce... and it's supposed to be chili?

Sorry, sorry... I'm not trying to offend or belittle your cooking... it's just... I'm used to my mom's recipe for chili... all it requires is chunks of beef, spices, chile peppers, masa(corn flour, used in tortillias... just as easy to use tortillia chips if you can't find the masa) and beer in a preasure cooker.

But, hey, to each thier own.

Definately to each their own in the chili department. I personally can see both sides of the fence on the beans/no beans argument... I like teh beans, but if someone else wants to do without, it's still chili. But what you just described is "seasoned meat with beer sauce!" or some such.

It all depends on where you grew up, I think. And how passionate your family is about chili. People in texas tend to get wierd about it.

I'm glad to see there are foodies here!

I've turned into a bit of a Japanese food expert (at least, for a non-asian american, anyway...) so if there's any japanese dishes you guys want recipes for, let me know.

[Moo Cow]

Yah, i usually do the nonmeat options... because i'm really picky and tend not to eat much meat. Yay for nonvegetarian eating vegetarian food!

~Sara

[Tellner]

Chili is one of those things that can become a religion. The purists are utter fundamentalists. Some competitions only allow meat, chilis and seasonings.

[HentaiCat]

Chili is one of those things that can become a religion. The purists are utter fundamentalists. Some competitions only allow meat, chilis and seasonings.

Its safe to say you are the fist person I have ever heard compare chili to religion

[Squidflakes]

People in texas tend to get wierd about it.

Damn straight.

Tomato sauce? Corn.. the fuck are you making son?

[Lulujayne]

Not to be rude - but what is the US fetish for Chilli?
I know you guys aren't just munching on the jalepeno's raw... or are you?
I have the vague idea you mean the beany stuff you put in tacos, yeah?

*duck's her head down, in case a flying taco heads her way*

(btw, Dear RavenxDrake - I'm an Australian )

[RavenxDrake]

I thought I could count on Squiddy to back me up on the chili front. My mom's from Texas so...

Lulujayne:

Difference. There's Chile, with an E, which means any of the Capsaicin bearing berries(yes, BERRIES) of the Capsicum family, known for thier firey culinary sting.

Chili, with an I, is a regional Southerwestern dish, typically attributed to the monastaries in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and good old Mexico, as a hearty, filling dish composed of the two things they had in abundance besides sand and mustaches: Beef and chile peppers(With an E).

Actually, the Preasure Cooker is the key... it causes the fats to render and connective tissues(which contain collagen, which forms into gelatine) in the meat to break down into a stock-like liquid, which the masa thickens further. The beer is for flavouring, mainly. In the end, the beef practically disolves, the individual muscle fibers breaking down and seperating with no connective tissue to hold them in place, and you left with a rich, stew-like consistency chili. Typically, I'll add some vegitation, which varies depending on what I'm looking for. Usually If I'm stretching the pot I'll add beans and a jar of salsa, most of the time either Black beans or red kidney beans.

<.<

>.>

Ps.. don't tell anybody, but if you start four de-boned, skinned chicken breast fillets, chopped, a 2lbs bag of navy beans(pre-soaked for 8 hours), masa, 12oz of dry white wine, and a shot of chicken stock(not BROTH, Stock) some Cumin, ground white peppercorns, and about 3 whole ancho chiles(seeded, and whole is important, so you can fish them out later), in that same preasure cooker, you'll turn up a pot-ful of nice, healthy, Chicken Chili.

But you didn't hear it from me.

[Lulujayne]

I like the sound of the chicken one - but I won't breathe a word, I promise

[Mel Wong]

Here's a recipe for beef and beer stew. I typed this up while slightly tipsy on Sam Adams wheat and cherry, so it may be incoherent.

Mel's Beef And Beer Stew (serves about four. Or two hungry piggies, with leftovers for lunch tomorrow)

You need:
Two large potatoes. (I mean large hyooge large potatoes, you know, six-inch long Russets.)
Two carrots.
One large onion.
One cup mixed frozen vegetables.
Three ribs of celery.
Two stewing steaks.

One bulb of garlic, minced.
Two tablespoons of chili powder.
Four tablespoons of crushed black pepper.
One tablespoon of sage.
Two tablespoons of cinnamon.
Two pinches dill seeds.
One tablespoon dried oregano.
One tablespoon dried basil.

Two teaspoons of oyster sauce.
Soya sauce.

One tablespoon of butter.
Cooking oil.
Two tablespoons of roux. (If you need a recipe ask Iceberg 3k, he has teh best roux recipes evar.)

Two bottles of beer. (We used two bottles of lager from the 12 pack someone left in their shopping cart at Lowes', didn't claim, and that we ... uh, found, yeah, that's it, found and took care of.)

Instructions:
Trim the fat off your stewing steak. If it came with gristle, do that too. Chop the steaks into cubes. Marinate with all the spices, the oyster sauce, and the soy sauce. The soy sauce will act as a brining agent and tenderize the meat some.

Chop your vegetables into cubes, except the frozen ones, of course. Slice your onions into thin rings.

Heat a little oil in a large soup pot, and melt your butter in it. Dump your onion slices in and cook them until they smell heavenly and look translucent. Next, dump your beef in. Sear it in the butter, and then dump all your vegetables in. Pour one of the pints of beer in, and stir the mess, then pour most of the second pint in. Take what's left over, pour it into the container you've been marinating the beef in, and wash the remaining marinade in the stew.

Keep it covered on high for a while.

When the beef is cooking nicely, toss your roux into the gravy. Turn your stew to low for a couple hours or so. It's done when the gravy is thick, the potato cubes are soft-edged, and the onions are shreds that hang off your ladle.

Spoon out in large helpings. Serve with crusty wheat bread and butter.

And ale on the side if you want.

- Mel

[Error of Logic]

And now, the Coronary sandwich!

You start off with two slices of bread. One the one, you spread mayo, which you salt down. The other gets slathered with pepper spread, or similar. Slap cheese on the mayo. Put mustard on the cheese. Put a few slices of ham or, preferably, bacon, on the mustard. Put the pepper-covered slice on top of the bacon. Put the whole thing in the microwave with the bacon on the low side and let it heat up until the cheese drips down.
Eat, enjoy, and ignore the calories. ^^; I know I haven't been able to for a while, but somehow I seem to have lost my taste for most pork-related foods.

[Squidflakes]

I'm still trying to compile some of my favorite recipies, so until then, I'm going to present Death on a Bun, also known as "The Luther Burger"

1 lb. ground beef (80% lean)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tlbs. Tobascco sauce (or other hot sauce)
1 tlbs. Worshtishire or steak sauce
1 handful onion, diced
1 handful green pepper, diced
1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 egg
2 tbls. butter
4 slices american cheese
4 slices swiss cheese
4 strips of bacon
1 Krispy Kreme doughnut, sliced in to top and bottom halves

Place a large skillett over med-high heat and add butter and 3/4 of the minced garlic.

In a bowl, mix the egg, breadcrumbs, ground beef, diced onion, diced green pepper, remaining garlic, Worshtishire, and hot sauce until it is uniform in consistancy. Form the mixture in to a large patty, and place in your skillett.

Cook as you would a normal burger, flipping once or twice. Make sure the beef is cooked all the way though.

Place 4 slices of cheese, alternating between swiss and american on the glazed side of one doughnut half.

Place the cooked patty on top of the cheese.

Add remaining cheese, bacon, and doughnut half. Grill until cheese is melted. Serve.

Warning. Deadly.

[Tellner]

My cardiologist thanks you, Squiddy.