TMD Recipes

[Necrologia]

Thinking about pasta salad reminded me of one of my favorite things to mix up for parties - Texas Caviar. It's surprisingly good, and anyone with a can opener can make it.

Drain and rinse a can of corn, black eyed peas, and pinto beans. Drain a small jar of pimentos, and an 8-12 oz jar of jalepenos depending on how much heat you want. Dice up some green onion and bell pepper and toss everything in a large bowl.

Dissolve a 1/4 cup of sugar in 1/2 a cup of apple cider vinegar over a bit of heat. No need to boil it or anything, just dissolve the sugar. Add in 3/4 cup of olive oil and toss it over the veggies. Let it marinade in the refrigerator overnight. Drain the next day before serving and serve at room temperature. It's colorful, tasty, and something different from that 7 layer Mexican dip that everyone else always brings.

[orgcandman]

Necrologia:
  That sounds good. I'll be making that sometime soon.

On a different note, does anyone here have any good chicken piccata recipes? I'm planning on making that on friday, and have a recipe here to fall back on, but was wondering if anyone has one they really like.

[The Chosen One]

I use www.allrecipes.com for looking up some good stuff.. here is a good one for chicken piccata Aaron:

INGREDIENTS
6 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup dried bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons dry white wine
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
2 lemons - cut into wedges, for garnish
DIRECTIONS
Flatten chicken to 1/4 inch thickness between plastic wrap or waxed paper. Mix egg and water. Mix bread crumbs, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Coat chicken with flour, dip into egg mixture and coat with bread crumb mixture.
Heat butter or margarine and oil in 12 inch skillet over medium heat. Cook chicken for 8 to 10 minutes, turning once, until juice is no longer pink when centers of thickest pieces are cut. Remove chicken from skillet using tongs; keep warm.
Stir lemon juice and wine into drippings in skillet. Heat to boiling; pour over chicken. Sprinkle with chopped fresh parsley, and serve with lemon wedges for garnish.

[Hi-Val]

Fine Cooking has a recipe here:

http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/recipes/chicken_piccata_fried_capers.aspx

The capers are clutch in piccata : ) I've never made this recipe so I cannot vouch for it but FC thoroughly tests their stuff so it's probably safe.

[policehq]

Hi-Val are you still up for giving that grilled pizza recipe?

I'd be interested in reading about it, even though the offer wasn't originally for me.

-hq

[Hi-Val]

It's really easy-- you just take regular pizza dough, any recipe will work. You roll or press it out really thin and get a freaking hot fire going. Oil the grates on the grill with a paper towel or dish rag soaked in oil and hold it with tongs. Put the pizza dough round on the grill. This is where the fun begins. Give it about two minutes, I'd say, and then flip it. You're looking for the top to look somewhat dry while the bottom isn't charred and black. It'll bubble up a little. Flip it, sauce it, put toppings on and cover it and cook for about 2 min more, tops.

My biggest suggestion is to have everything in place when you are going to cook. It bakes very quickly so you have to work fast. You'll probably burn the first few crusts, but they don't taste bad when lightly blackened. Also, this isn't going to be good laden with toppings. You're looking to put a thin layer on so they get hot and melt before the pizza burns. It's really rustic in approach. I hope you enjoy the technique!

[orgcandman]

Fine Cooking has a recipe here:

http://www.taunton.com/finecooking/recipes/chicken_piccata_fried_capers.aspx

The capers are clutch in piccata : ) I've never made this recipe so I cannot vouch for it but FC thoroughly tests their stuff so it's probably safe.

I used this recipe last night. It was amazing. I definitely recommend.

[Hi-Val]

I made it last night too! Definitely turned out well. Cooking the chicken for 1-2 minutes per side was critical.

[policehq]

I'm going bass-fishing this weekend and would really love to hear an interesting recipe or two if anyone has something up their sleeve.

I am not sure, but I don't think grilling will be an option.

-hq

[orgcandman]

Since this is grilling season, here's one that goes great with seafood and burgers.

Pineapple Salsa (I think I saw it on a wolfgang puck episode, but I've modified it a bit)

1 Pineapple, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch steaks
2 red onions, peeled and sliced into 1/2 inch steaks
2 green jalapenos
2 red jalapenos
1 green or yellow ancho chile
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 T chopped mint leaves (use only fresh mint) -optional-
1 T chopped italian parsley (fresh is better, but this will work with dried)
1 juiced lime
fresh Black pepper and kosher/sea salt

Directions:
- Firstly, proper grilling requires that you season your grill by oiling. A lot of people skip this step, and that creates three issues:
  - One is that cleaning your grill becomes more difficult, as the carmelized and burnt food remnants are less likely to release from the grill grates
  - Two is that because of one, you can get funky tastes mixing with your grilled food. You don't want to grill up scallops only to find that they taste like burnt hamburgers.
  - Three is that your grill grate is more likely to rust, as the burnt food will eat away at any protective coating on your grates.
  - OIL YOUR GRILL GRATE! This is easy to do. Add Extra Virgin Olive Oil to a designated cloth, and wipe the grill grate while its cool.
    Repeat once the grill has come up to heat.

- Bring your grill to high heat, and grill pineapple slices for 4 minutes on each side. They should be very fragrant, and have good grill marks. Then remove from grill.
- Gently toss onion steaks and peppers in olive oil. Then grill for 3 to 4 minutes on each side. The chiles will blister, and the onions will carmelize.
- remove from grill and peel chiles. This consists of scraping the knife down the sides of the chile to remove the blistered and burnt skin to get at the pulp. Split and remove seeds.
- Cube the pineapple, and remove the inner core. Cube the onion, and mince the chiles.
- Combine all grilled ingredients with chopped herbs in a large bowl.
- Add Black Pepper, Salt, and Olive Oil to taste.
Serves 4-6
Good with: Seafood (scallops, grilled grouper, grilled snapper, and probably good with pacu but I haven't tried that), Burgers

A few more notes about grilling:
 - A lot of people like to flip things on their grill a bunch of times. This is a NO NO. Leave your stuff to grill until it naturally releases itself from the grill grate. Then flip.
 - If you want to get a good score mark pattern, you can rotate your grilled food 90 degrees, once it has released from the grill. DO NOT FORCE THE RELEASE. And remember, once you flip it, don't flip it back.
 - Grilling different things requires different temperatures and techniques. I like having both a charcoal grill and a propane grill (I have a small webber charcoal, and a charbroil propane).
   The charcoal is great when I want to char something. The propane is great when I want precise temperature control. Remember, the more tools you have available, the better equipped you are to handle different
   types of foods, and their prep/cooking. Alton Brown's dislike of unitaskers and redundancy be damned!

[Imsomniac101]

I heard that using Extra Virgin Olive Oil for cooking is bad for a reason I can't recall. That and the price of the stuff

[Almighty]

I heard that using Extra Virgin Olive Oil for cooking is bad for a reason I can't recall. That and the price of the stuff

Cooking with extra virgin diminishes the flavor of it the flavor of it. You may as well have been cooking with canola oil or some other neural flavored oil.

Also, Olive oil has a very low smoke point in comparison to other fats (<375 F if I recall correctly). You can't sear or sautee over as hot a flame as nessisary to achieve an optimal finished product. A perfect sear with virgin olive oil will always have a burnt tinge to it because to properly sear something, you must go beyond the olives heat capability.

[orgcandman]

Cooking with extra virgin diminishes the flavor of it the flavor of it. You may as well have been cooking with canola oil or some other neural flavored oil.

Also, Olive oil has a very low smoke point in comparison to other fats (<375 F if I recall correctly). You can't sear or sautee over as hot a flame as nessisary to achieve an optimal finished product. A perfect sear with virgin olive oil will always have a burnt tinge to it because to properly sear something, you must go beyond the olives heat capability.

I hadn't heard of either of these before. What I know is that when cooking with a grill, seasoning it by oiling the grates is a must, and I've always used virgin olive oil to do that, since reuse of the oil (and I know some will be left on the grates) is less likely to result in transfatty acids (which I know to be unhealthy).

Kyle, what would you recommend for seasoning a grill?

[Almighty]

Any non-hydrogenated fat (shortening, margarine) doesn't have trans-fats in it. Canola oil or Soybean oil should be fine to use (not to mention incredibly cheaper).

I will add that I am unaware of weather or not the intense heat of the grill hydrogenates the oils to a point where trans fats are present.

Still, my tricks to seasoning the grill involves pouring a small bed of kosher salt into a bowl, then adding canola oil to it  and mixing until you have a thick paste. Then instead of using a cloth to spread it across the grill, cut an onion in half, jab a fork into the back end of it, and use that to season the grill when it is hot. The bittersweetness of it adds is very subtle, but a good palate will pick up on it and should find it very enjoyable.

[Hi-Val]

I read about that onion trick just last night! Good for using up the root end that you'd throw away/compost otherwise. I'd also read that rubbing a cut baking potato on it will put starch on the grates and prevent things from sticking, but I have never tried it.

I cringe when I see TV cooks use virgin olive oil for things like pan-searing a steak. The very high heat will degrade any of the flavors in an EV olive oil and extra-light olive oil has a higher smoke point anyway. Has anyone tried grapeseed oil? It has an even higher smoke point and I hear that it is a very finely flavored oil.

I'm fortunate enough to have an herb garden (although the rabbits deforested my dill) and I'm thinking that today is pesto day for my burgeoning basil crop.

[Almighty]

I've had grapeseed oil. It is very neutral and somewhat expensive. It does have a very high smoke point, though. If you were specifically looking for a neutral oil to cook with or make dressings, I'd definetly reccommend it.

Peanut oil is my oil of choice for a quality to price ratio. Of course there is the food allergy risk, but it isn't usually a problem unless you are cooking for a mass amount of people.

[Hi-Val]

I made my pesto. If you haven't had pesto, it's the food that God eats on his days off. It's best on toast, bruschetta, pasta, eggs, roasts, basically anything that is not a dessert. This is what I did:

I blanched 1.5c of packed basil leaves. This means putting them in boiling water for about 5 seconds and then pulling them out and plunging them into ice water. I put those in a blender after a brief chopping. I put in a chopped clove of garlic and a little under 1/4th cup grated parmesan cheese (use the real stuff). I toasted some pine nuts, also called pignoli (pin-yo-lee) and put in 1/4th cup of those. I blended it with a little ice water so it was roughly chopped. I then ran the blender and drizzled in some olive oil, I'd say less than 1/4th cup, until it was a smooth and thick sauce. Seasoned with salt and pepper, spread on turkey sandwiches.

Pesto making is an inexact science but it's hard to really screw it up. The blanching set the color as bright green instead of the dark, muddy green that it usually is. I think my recipe needs more basil leaves but I didn't want to deforest my garden today.

Pesto is indescribable. If you've only had it canned, make it fresh.

[Necrologia]

Over the last week I've spent a hour or so everyday picking blueberries from my backyard. The first batch I made into fresh blueberry sauce.

1/2 cup Sugar
1 Tbl Cornstarch
1/3 cup Water
2 cup Blueberries
Up to 3 Tbl Lemon juice *

Combine the sugar, cornstarch and water in a small saucepan. Add the berries and (if needed) lemon juice and bring the mix to a boil over medium heat. Cook 3-5 mins stirring occasionally until it thickens up and turns a consistent color.

* Blueberries can vary greatly in their tartness. 3Tbl is the most lemon juice you'd need for extremely sweet berries. This year the berries have been so tart that I actually left the lemon juice out entirely. Taste the berries you'll be using before making the sauce and judge how much you need. When in doubt leave it out. You can always stir in a bit after the sauce has cooled if the sweetness is too cloying.

It's wonderful on pancakes of course, but my favorite use for it is to pour on top of cheesecake.

Crust:
Graham Crumbs
Melted Margarine
Filling:
1.5 lbs Softened Cream Cheese
12 oz sugar (about 1 + 2/3 cup)
1 lb Sour Cream
5 Eggs
1 Tbl Lemon Juice
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

For the crust, melt a stick of margarine in a microwave safe bowl. Once it's melted, start dumping graham crumbs in. I'm honestly not sure how much it takes as I've never measured. You're looking for a consistency like wet sand. Not soggy or anything, but still moist enough that you can pack it together and have it hold a rough shape. Pour your graham crumbs + marg mix into the bottom of a 10 inch cheesecake pan.  Press it down with your fingers until you have a consistent layer on the bottom of the pan. How thick you want it to be is up to you. Some people like a ton of crust, others just a light dusting.  Once that's done, throw your crust into a 350 degree oven until it starts to brown. ~10 minutes depending on how thick your crust is. Take it out and let it cool.

For the filling, mix together everything else except the sour cream. Make sure the cream cheese is softened, or you'll end up with little lumps of cheese in the batter. Once everything's reached a smooth consistency, gently fold in the sour cream. Next, dump the filling onto your freshly made crust. Bake the cheesecake at 325 for 2 hours in a water bath**. Once the top starts to turn golden, it's done. Let it cool over night to set. Remember, it's rich. Cheesecakes should be cut into 12-16 portions rather than the standard 8 from a pie.

**For a water bath, just find something oven safe large enough to fit the cheesecake pan and fill it up with water. The idea is to keep the temperature even, and leave the cheesecake moist. The pan doesn't have to be filled up to the top. Even halfway up the sides of the cheesecake is more than enough. I usually use one of those foil disposable baking pans people cook their Thanksgiving turkeys in. It's cheap and easy to find one large enough.

[policehq]

What is "fish sauce?" Is it in the Asian food isle of supermarkets?

-hq

[orgcandman]

fish sauce is anchovy + salt + sugar.

Basically, they brine anchovies for a year or so. The fish sauce used in cooking floats to the top of the brine, and they siphon it off, add sugar, and package it. It's probably more involved than that, but that's what it is.

As for what its used in: almost every thai dish under the sun.

[Matt]

An old friend of mine used to make amazing scrambled eggs with some kind of Vietnamese fish sauce.

[LordHomerCat]

Honestly you're probably better off not knowing.  Descriptions I have heard involve soaking lots of either dead fish or fish guts or other assorted parts for long periods of time, like, a year or more, and it doesnt get much more appetizing after that.  However, as stated, it is used in basically every Thai dish, and should be available at your local upscale grocery store, or if not, any asian market will surely have it. 

Personally, I'd have rather just assumed it was because there's a picture of a fish on the bottle usually, rather than knowing it is made from liquified fish guts =/

[Imsomniac101]

Just got back to TMD after a long hiatus from Magic and am sad to see that this thread died.

I'm real sorry to necro an old thread, but this is one of the most helpful topics I've seen in the Community Forum to date. And I think a duplicate thread won't really have any substance, as all the posted recipes are on this thread.

I'm posting in this thread to request if anyone has a good recipe for making curry from scratch. I live in a small country, so quality ethnic food is ridiculously hard to find and expensive. Besides, I'm moving out of my University Halls of Residence and will have to fend for myself in every aspect of life, including cooking. Any help is appreciated.

[Almighty]

Out of curiosity, are speaking of some real curry or "tamer" western versions of curry? I'd have to look through my notes from school, but I'm sure I can find a recipe in there that can help you out.

Personally, I can't stomach the real stuff. The harshest chilies I find pleasurable, but curry is too complex for my weak western palate.

Speaking of Western variations of Indian food, here's a good recipe for Satay.

What you need:

Tender cuts of your choice of meat cut into strips. (Tenderloin works best, any animal will do. I like pork tender satays myself, although chicken is a bit more accessible and less expensive)

1/2 cup Curry Powder. The grocery store stuff works well enough.
1/4 cup Coriander
1/4 cup ginger powder. A half cup of grated real stuff would be best, but powder works well too.
Tablespoon Garlic Powder
2 Tablespoons salt
1 Tablespoon Black Pepper

1 pound of peanut butter
1 cup of rice wine vinegar(white wine vinegar will work well too)

Skewers, a grill, and a oven set to a low temperature


First, and I can't stress this enough, toast all the spices in a pan. You will bring out more aroma and flavor then you ever knew existed in those cheap grocery store bottles. Plus your kitchen will smell amazing. Consider hiring security to fend off the neighbors who will try with all their might to smell your house from close up.

When the spices are done toasting, mix them with the peanut butter and vinegar and add the meat. Let it marinate for a couple hours, skewer them and grill them till they are done. Good stuff, and goes really well with a nutty lager like Stella Artois or Ficher and strong ales like Unibroue Terrible or Chimay. Anise Liquors like Jagermeister or Sambuca pair really well also.

Enjoy. I've run these as specials multiple times and they always go over well. Beef Satays tend to be the most popular, but any meat will be really good and delicious.

[Imsomniac101]

That actually sounds delicious. I'm looking for any and all recipes for curry. That way, I'll have an idea of how to tailor the curry for certain tastes. My flat mates don't have  "heavy" tastebuds like I do.

Super simple crostini: ( made this in 15 min last night for dinner)

French Baguette slices ( thick, about 2 knucles in width)
Olive Oil
Chicken breasts, cut up into semi small pieces.
Dried Oregano seasoning.
Parmesean Cheese grated or sliced thinly ( or brie if you don't like parmesean)
chopped garlic (optional)

Heat Olive Oil in a pan
Fry the Chicken breasts and before they dry,
toss the garlic in for about half a minute ( be sure they don't turn brown)
pan fry the bread in the same pan turning both sides, till the outside is crispy.
Season with oregano ( you can add this in during the frying)
top the french toast with parmesean cheese and serve.

Super quick and easy meal. Serve with salad of choice.

[orgcandman]

If you're looking for a good curry, this is something I made last night. It's a veal and Mushroom curry.

Ingredients:
3/4 lbs veal, pounded thin and cut into bite-sized pieces and seasoned with salt & black pepper.
1 Portobello mushroom, rough diced into simliar sized pieces and seasoned with black pepper.
1/2 cup milk
2T curry powder (again, store bought works fine here)
1/2T ginger (powder or paste)
1/2T cumin
3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 cloves, finely ground
chilli paste / chilli powder to taste
1 1/2C Basmati rice (I used american)
3C water, and another 1 1/2 C water
1T Almond oil
1 1/2 T rice wine vinegar

Start by heating a pan over medium - low heat, adding oil and vinegar. When they come up to temperature (on my stove this takes 2-3 minutes, but YMMV), add the garlic and let that sweat for a while to release the flavor. Add curry powder, ginger, cumin, clove, and chilli and integrate with whisk. It should be a semi-dry thick paste at this point. Add the milk to the pan, keeping it at low heat to avoid scalding, and whisk until integrated. Set your oven to 400 deg, and in a baking dish, add the sauce, veal, mushrooms and 1 1/2C water. Make sure that the veal and mushrooms have a nice even coating of the curry sauce. Bake for 30-40 minutes.

In another bowl, add 1 1/2C basmati rice and 3C water. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, then drop the heat to a simmer and let the water become absorbed (again stirring occasionally so that the rice doesn't burn). This should yeild a fluffy & creamy rice.

The whole thing takes about 1 1/2 hours to make and is delicious.

As a bonus: The weirdest thing I ever drank that tasted great!
1-2 spoonfuls ricotta cheese (or double amount of yogurt works for people who can't get past eating putting in their drink)
2, 1/8" thick slices of kiwi
lots of orange + pineapple juice (enough to top up the glass)
Blend this together very well. It's creamy, fruity, and refreshing. You might want to put some salt in to bring out the flavor.

I work with a lot of indians and vietnamese, so I'm pretty familiar with different curry dishes.

[The M.E.T.H.O.D]

Anyone here have any cool ideas to maximize the usuage of my foreman grill thats been collecting dust for the last couple of months? (i have the large family one)

[Matt]

Anyone here have any cool ideas to maximize the usuage of my foreman grill thats been collecting dust for the last couple of months? (i have the large family one)

Sandwiches.

Make any sandwich.

Then grill it.

Thank me later.

[Hi-Val]

Do you have a blender? That opens up a lot of curries. I like saag a lot, it's made with spinach. Googling it online will give you some recipes to try. It's really nutritious and you finish the dish with butter and cream so it's hard to hate.

As far as a foreman grill, grill some vegetables! Brush with a little oil and put them on. Imagine grilling some onions, tomatoes and peppers and then when they're cool, dicing them into a salsa. You can grill eggplant too. You can grill bread by brushing slices with olive oil and throwing them in there too.

I'd experiment with grilling different cuts of meat, too. Pork chops would be good, but they can be tricky to get right. You can get flank steaks, hanger steaks, flat-iron steaks of skirt steaks, all of which are very cheap and delicious and cook like any other steak.