Can cook, Will cook

[Royston]

If you have any of your 'own' culinary delights to share, post them here. I know for a fact there's some budding chefs on SFN, so if you have any special recipes you've conjured up, however simple, it would be great to hear about them.

 

I'll post a recipe soon, bit busy at the moment.

[GutZ]

I make a wicked grilled cheese.

 

 

...Sorry I had too.

[YT2095]

I do all the cooking here, but my Fave is Stuffed chinese squash (I grow them myself).

if you Really like Cooking, take a look here: http://www.discusscooking.com/

it`s one of the other forums I`m a member of, and you couldn`t wish to meet a friendlier bunch of people either, if it`s edible, there will be a recipe/advice for it

[Royston]

Gutz has got the meatball rolling (sorry), so heres my simple recipe that makes me suitably salivate...

 

You will need :

 

Pasta of your choice

3 rashes of lean bacon

Half a courgette

Red Pepper

A can of cheap tomatoes (not stodgy Napolina...need to be watery)

Tomatoe puree

Vegetable gravy

Dried Rosemary

Fresh Basil

A cheese of your choice for topping

Pepper

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

 

Boil some water in a saucepan, add Pasta and simmer. Dice the courgette and red pepper, or chop into thin slices, then place the bacon under a moderately heated grill.

 

Dribble some olive oil into another saucepan, and pour in the can of tomoatoes, and rosemary...heat gently. Bacon should be cooked now, so remove from grill, chop into bits (I use scissors for this) and add to the tomatoes, then stir in the vegetable gravy until you get a thick sauce...turn heat right down, then stir in the red pepper, courgette and basil.

 

When pasta is cooked, drain water and remove from saucepan. Put a little oil in the same saucepan, retain heat on the hob, then add pasta and a bit of a pepper and stir quickly. Stick pasta on a plate, pour on the sauce, then grate the cheese over the top, sprinkle on some pepper, and place under a moderate grill until cheese has melted.

 

Not incredibly exotic or difficult, but it's similar to something my Mum used to make, I just made a few additions.

 

EDIT: thanks for the link YT !

[GutZ]

Bami Goreng ( Dutch-Indonesian Stir Fried Noodles)

http://www.recipezaar.com/110266

 

Oh it's will probably be the best thing you have ever tasted. I'll try and get my fathers original recipe, since his mother lived in Indonesia for a while. My god it's gooddd...

 

Some ingredients are dutch, so if you have a dutch store nearby, that's a good thing. (i.e. kroepoek-Crook P(b'ish)ook), a secert is to get sliced ham 1/4 to 1/2 inch and mix it in cold after done cook, like a topping.

 

I warn you it takes a while to make. 6-8 hours (less if you force your kids to help. My father used the excuse of "teaching" me how to cook, you can use that one too.)

[ecoli]

I love making soups, sauces and chiles. And pretty much anything else under the sun. My most recent creation was a Korean soup made with Gochujang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochujang). It was pretty good.

 

Cooking is definately one of my favorite things to do. To me, it's relaxing, and there's nothing more rewarding than my family or girlfriend complimenting my cooking.

[Royston]

Ecoli, the article seems to of dissapeared from wiki, here's a link from answers.com...

 

http://www.answers.com/topic/gochujang

 

Did you also make the paste yourself, it sounds very, very good indeed, though anything with chili rocks IMO. I must admit I havn't tried much Korean food, I'll be on the lookout for it in future. Great responses so far, certainly more exotic than my humble dish...keep 'em coming. Think I may do a detour to the supermarket on the way home tonight.

[GutZ]

It's because the bracket is included in the link so it redirect to:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochujang)

 

but it's actually here.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochujang

[ecoli]

Ecoli, the article seems to of dissapeared from wiki, here's a link from answers.com...

 

http://www.answers.com/topic/gochujang

 

oops, I think the parenthesis was incorporated into the link by accident. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gochujang

 

Did you also make the paste yourself, it sounds very, very good indeed, though anything with chili rocks IMO. I must admit I havn't tried much Korean food, I'll be on the lookout for it in future. Great responses so far, certainly more exotic than my humble dish...keep 'em coming. Think I may do a detour to the supermarket on the way home tonight.

 

Unfortunately, I did not make it. A korean friend brought it for me from Korea, but I'm sure it available for purchase in certain asian markets. Unfortunately, I've used all of mine up now, so maybe I'll try and find a good recipe so I can make my own.

[aj47]

Cooking is such a great past time. In my house there's never really anything readymade to eat so i've got into the habit of cooking meals for lunch or just when i'm feeling stressed/bored. I'm suprised i'm not overweight by now.

 

For simplicity I usually cook pasta and tomato sauce as it can all be done in about 15 minutes and you can alter it quite easily depending on what ingredients you have.

 

To make the sauce it's quite simple. Fry some garlic and onion in olive oil, add a tin of tomatoes along with herbs and spices i.e. basil, oregano, chilli, bay leaf, parsley etc and a little red wine vinegar. Then bring to the boil and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. You can also add things like mushrooms, cheese, wine, olives etc or if you want to make a puttanesca (sp?) sauce, add capers, and anchovies along with the garlic.

 

Tuna pasta's also a great easy recipe. Just heat a tin of tuna in butter and olive oil along with chilli and lemon and add it to the pasta.

 

When i'm feeling a little more ambitous I cook alot of curries but I'm feeling lazy at the moment so i'll post a good recipe later.

 

...mmm I think I may go eat.

[Royston]

For simplicity I usually cook pasta and tomato sauce as it can all be done in about 15 minutes and you can alter it quite easily depending on what ingredients you have.

 

To make the sauce it's quite simple. Fry some garlic and onion in olive oil, add a tin of tomatoes along with herbs and spices i.e. basil, oregano, chilli, bay leaf, parsley etc and a little red wine vinegar. Then bring to the boil and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. You can also add things like mushrooms, cheese, wine, olives etc or if you want to make a puttanesca (sp?) sauce, add capers, and anchovies along with the garlic.

 

Absolutely, I cook pasta and tomatoes alot just because it's so versatile, and there's so many ingredients you can add that work...in fact I'm having minced lamb with pasta tonight. I can't believe I missed garlic out of my recipe earlier, utterly essential.

 

Tuna pasta's also a great easy recipe. Just heat a tin of tuna in butter and olive oil along with chilli and lemon and add it to the pasta.

 

Mmmm, I melt cheese on the top, have you ever tried a tuna melt (usually in a baguette) damn they're good.

 

/me grabs a mop to clean up all the saliva.

 

If anybodies wondering about the title of the thread, there's a programme in the UK, called Can't Cook, Won't Cook where people who never cook compete, with the help of a celebrity chef. Watching cookery programmes just before you about to prepare a meal is great IMO.

[Dak]

one thing i cook that i've not seen anywhere else is fish curry.

 

just get one or two cans of macrel and tuna, fry them up till they really brown, and then fry some onions and garlic up.

 

add ketchup and tomato purae with a bit of lemon juice and water for the base, then flavour with peppers (the hot ones, not the big greenuns), spices (standard curry powder, or chilly powder, work fine), garlic, worsterstershire source etc. add water as needed, and reduce it down till its just stopped being sloppy (but give the fish enough simmering time, ~ 10/15 mins to adsorb the flavours) and serve with rice or chips.

 

not that much effort, cheap, and reeeeally tasty if you brown the fish properly (just short of burning it)

 

oh, and the student favourit: tinned mackerel (i like fish), baked beans, cheese, butter, and pepper/spices, brought to the boil, on toast

[Royston]

Another dish I'd like to try...I did have a rather bad experience with fish curry a few years back, and kinda put me off.

 

I was at work do, having a rubbish time so I was trying to get through the free booze that was available as quickly as possible...anyway one of my old work colleagues sat down with a fish curry, she had a huge hairy wart under her lip, and the fish curry had an incredibly potent aroma. All I could concentrate on when she talked was little fleks of fish curry sticking to the hairs on her wart, she had a horrible throaty cough as well (heavy smoker) and what with the quick consumption of alcohol, and smell of pungent fish...I ran for dear life out of the hotel and chundered in the street.

[bascule]

One of my favorites is "Japanese Pizza", a.k.a. okonomiyaki:

 

200 g flour

200 ml water

2-4 eggs

Diced cabbage (lots of it, the more the better)

1-2 cups okonomi fruit and vegetable sauce (you should be able to find this at any asian/japanese specialty store)

1 chinese yam (yamatoimo)

 

Combine all of the above in a bowl. You can omit the yam if you want, but it will change the texture substantially.

 

Once you have the batter, you cook it into griddle cakes, kind of like a pancake.

 

The fun part is you can drop whatever ingredients you want into the griddle cake while it cooks. Cover the top, let the ingredients cook in, then flip it and cook them all directly.

 

Some common ingredients are:

(dice any of these that are large)

 

Aonori Powder - Ground seaweed (available at a Japanese specialty store)

Katsuobushi - Dried/shaved bonito (a type of fish)

Shrimp

Squid

Onions

Radishes

 

Once it's cooked, cover it with okonomi sauce and enjoy!

[aj47]

l.

Mmmm, I melt cheese on the top, have you ever tried a tuna melt (usually in a baguette) damn they're good.

 

/me grabs a mop to clean up all the saliva.

 

Actually before today I hadn't but I was inspired by your post and made one for lunch today. I ran out of baugettes and cheddar so I had to improvise and use pitta bread and goats cheese. It was tasty.

 

I'm tempted to make another but I've run out of tuna. Hmm I wonder if sardine melts would be nice.

[Royston]

Glad you enjoyed it aj47, exactly the reason why I started the thread. I'm sure there are plenty of food combinations out there that at first seem uncomplimentary, but work.

 

I remember a few years back, a student friend had nothing to baste her chicken with, so she used marmite, I didn't try it, but she said it worked really well.