Voodoolily's Snacktastic Recipe Thread!!

[Mazakiel]

Most of it is, but occasionally you'll find a place that actually puts effort into it, and the results can be fantastic.  Some of the best queso I ever had was at a little place in Carlsbad that I can't remember the name of.  A place here does a corn chowder queso that's just awesome as hell. 

As mentioned above, follow Paelos' advice and you should be set. 

[Paelos]

If you want a really really easy tex-mexy-american version I also make this for my friends at new years:

32oz of velveeta chilled and cut into 1/2 cubes
1 can of Wolf brand chili with no beans
1 can rotel, drained (i prefer the hot version, but for some it's too hot)
1 tbs onion powder
1 tbs garlic powder
1 tbs chili power

Toss all that in a crockpot or large pot on medium-low and rock it until it melts. Stir periodically. I like to serve it with fresh pico and warm tortillas.

[Selby]

Paelos' 2nd recipe is how I've always seen it made "homemade" by Mexican families in Texas.  A very similar one to the 1st recipe was made for me once and I wanted to lick the bowl it was that good.  Sadly I can't get the stuff outside of Texas or New Mexico...

[Paelos]

I should mention I grew up in Texas and lived there for about 15 years.  

[NowhereMan]

Hmmm... This thread jumped back to the front page just after I put up a SA Newbie Iron Chef entry. You can't vote for me or anything but I figured it'd be fun to link to it here, if anyone's interested in anything I'll happily post recipes.

[stu]

That is one helluva sandwich. Wow.

[Paelos]

I tried my hand recently at a southern Hoppin John and it turned out pretty well.

1 lb black eyed peas, soaked overnight
2 cups uncooked brown rice
1 lb andouille sausage, cut into small bits
Large can of crushed tomatoes
Regular can of petite diced tomatoes
1 Onion and 1 Bell pepper diced
1 bag frozen collard greens
1 tbs of garlic powder, 1 tbs onion powder, 1 tbs paprika, 1 tbs cajun seasoning, 2 tbs salt

Put everything except the rice in a 5qt dutch oven. Top it off with water. Simmer for 2 hours with the lid on. Take the lid off. Add the rice and simmer until the mixture thickens up and the everything is really tender. Usually it's another hour. If you like to get it even more tender, you can keep topping off the water and just let it roll. Add more salt to your tastes, and hot sauce if that's your bag.

The bonus is that it's cheap and tasty, and you can eat off of it for 5 days. I think all in to make it, you're looking at $9-10.

[Khaldun]

Made a really satisfying pastilla (bstilla is another spelling) last weekend. Basically, you lay down phyllo leaves in a pie pan going around in a circle and brush them with butter, with about half the leaf overhanging. Then you put in a big layer of wet shredded chicken that's been cooked off the bone in a broth full of Mediterranean spicing (I used smoked paprika, turmeric, coriander primarily); then a layer of sauteed onions, sesame seeds and currants; then a layer of scrambled eggs that have been cooked in the leftover broth from the chicken; then a thin layer of fried almond slivers mixed with a small amount of confectioner's sugar. Fold the phyllo overhang up over the whole thing and lay a couple of leaves down over that, and then bake in the oven. Just before serving invert onto a cookie sheet and cook a bit more to brown the top.

Every bite tastes slightly different because you get a slightly different mix of the layers--just a great dish.

[apocrypha]

Hmmm... This thread jumped back to the front page just after I put up a SA Newbie Iron Chef entry. You can't vote for me or anything but I figured it'd be fun to link to it here, if anyone's interested in anything I'll happily post recipes.

Bugger me that sandwich looks awesome.

[NowhereMan]

Having never made a pie before I feel secure in saying it's exactly like making a pie without the tricky pastry/baking part. Instead squash that bitch good. I'm wondering about variations now, something like getting in a good bit of slightly softened apple slices and doing thick pork loin steaks. The only problem is it's a difficult one to decide to make for yourself since I'm pretty sure I'd end up eating half of it and feeling really sick.

[Paelos]

I guess it don't get the sandwich thing. Then again, I'm not a huge fan of Stilton. It's like getting impressed by the guy who puts soup in a bread bowl for me. 

[NowhereMan]

The stilton was magical extra stuff. The excitement it gets is, I think, really down to seeing awesome foodstuffs being put in a bread loaf and then squashed. It's quite a visceral thing to see.

Plus like I said it's pretty much a pie. Who doesn't love pies?

[Bunk]

How did the squashed bread hold up vs the liquids inside (especially fat off the steak)? One thing that just turns me off is soggy bread. Otherwise, the idea sounds good, sort of an exagerated Panini.

[stu]

I was about to say that it looks like a hearty sandwich that would probly hold up over a day's journey in a ruck. For me, that's a big part of the attraction and it even holds a sort of romantic notion of food. Given the context of a day out on the lake, eating a slice of that baby would feel like a reward to me. I love sandwiches but I rarely take them out the door with me because I loathe soggy bread.

[NowhereMan]

How did the squashed bread hold up vs the liquids inside (especially fat off the steak)? One thing that just turns me off is soggy bread. Otherwise, the idea sounds good, sort of an exagerated Panini.

There wasn't too much liquid and the bread held up fine. It came out a bit like a slight stale pie crust (in the soft, chewy sense). It also held up very well to travel, I made it on Thursday evening, sliced it on Friday morning and we ate it Saturday lunch. I don't think it really changed much and I wasn't somewhat pleasantly surprised that the filling from the slices hadn't all fallen out and left me with a bundle of bread slices and parts. It's a really good idea for outdoorsy stuff, especially when its cold and you want stodge.

[voodoolily]

Does anyone have a recipe for the metled, white cheese dip you get in Mexican restaurants? The stuff they give you with a basket of corn chips. I've tried melting down Monterey Jack and Queso Blanco to no avail.

It's just Rotel and Velveeta, melted in a crock pot. I love that shit.

[JWIV]

I did a practice run of Game of Thrones Lemon Cakes last night.   Oh god they are good.

[Sky]

Last night I had some andouille with banana and jalapeno peppers, onion and garlic all sauteed up with some lime squoze over the top. Slapped it on a plate with a mix of baked beans and brown and wild rice. Zomnomnom. I call it 'the night my fiancee works late and I can eat whatever crap I feel like'.

[Morfiend]

There are no recipes to go with these, but if one looked good you could probably find it easily.
40 Unique Grilled Cheeses.

[Paelos]

Just made some baked ziti I really liked:

Sauce
1 lb italian sausage
1 lb 90/10 ground beef
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes with garlic and basil
1 onion, diced

Brown off the meet, and saute the onion in the juices until clear. In go the tomatoes and top it off with a full can of water from the large tomato can. Bring to boil, stir, and cover. Reduce heat to low. Cook it for 3 hours, stirring every 45 minutes or so. After that, I stir in about 2 tbs of italian seasoning, a tbs of salt, and some Sriracha to taste. Adjust the salt to your prefs, based on how much was in the other ingredients.

Boil off 2 pounds of pasta. Get a huge bowl. Put in half the pasta, half the sauce, and half a 24oz tub of ricotta. Mix it up, toss it into a casserole dish. Top with mozzarella shreds. Repeat for the other half into another dish. Bake for 30m at 350 degrees or until cheese is golden brown.

I serve it with a chopped salad made of Romaine, cucumber, black olive, grape tomatoes, and hearts of palm with a balsamic vinaigrette.

[Sky]

We had some of my quick sauce over riggies a couple nights ago. We've been using wheat pasta for about a year now, and I had a box of regular riggies to use up. Amazed how much better the wheat pasta is, once you get used to it. Just a nicer bite to it and more flavorful.

Quick sauce is:

28oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, drained and torn into bits manually
28oz can of crushed tomatoes
small can of tomato paste
onion, large dice
garlic, crushed
bell pepper, large dice
italian seasoning blend
red pepper flakes
maple sugar (to cut the tomato acidity)

For this sauce, I had a little ground meat mix left over - about 50/50 beef/turkey with some garlic and italian seasoning mix. I just added a bit of cream and browned it, set aside.

In olive oil over medium high heat, cook down the onion and pepper until the onion is softened. Crush in about 6 cloves of garlic and stir for about 30 seconds. Pour in the crushed tomatoes and tear the whole peeled and add to the mix, discard the packing juice. Mix in the paste and add the dry ingredients. Mix in the meat and simmer until the pasta is ready. We usually use a wheat penne.

[Engels]

Sounds very nice.

Speaking of sauces, I gave a home made BBQ sauce a shot this weekend.

The base is pretty common:

Blackstrap molasses
Tomato paste
bit of vinegar
bit of salt

Then I added tamarind paste and cumin to give it a bit of complexity.

Turned out pretty good, if I may say so myself.

[hal]

Ok a question. Do you think ziti has a meat component? I allways make small meat balls with mine but I am a pig. Ok, meat balls, the recipie I know for dago meatballs is 1/3 ground beef, 1/3 ground veal, 1/6, bacon or the dago equivalant if your bleeding money. 1/6 country ham or parma ham if your bleeding money. I'm not bleeding money. And i don't do veal, I wont buy it. You don't gotta torture baby farm animals in order for me to have dinner. So leanish 1/3 ground beef. 1/3 ground chicken or turkey ( watch this, it can be ground skin, witch will make a good burger but is to fat for meatballs), and 1/6 country ham ( this is very dry and very salty , if its the least bit moist thats city ham and you lose) and 1/6 bacon. The difference in the dago and american meats is the american are smoked, the dago arent. I dont find bacon and country ham to have that smoky a flavor to warrent the expence. Ymmv. lots of garlic and oregano. Put them in the sause layers and there ya go. Whats your opinion?

[Engels]

That's a good question about smoked vs non-smoke, just cured ham. I think that there's fatback, the 'meat' portion of it, rather than the fat, is just cured, not smoked, so maybe that would do the trick. I don't know what it is about americans and smoking every danged pork product they get their hands on, tho. I have a butcher here who makes his own guanciale but the fucker -smokes it- like a dumbass. Still tastes amazing, but really, wtf.

[Bunk]

While visiting the parents last week, we stopped by a fish market and discovered some frozen sushi grade Ahi loins. Decided to take my first attempt at Tuna Tataki, and I think it came out amzaing. First time I've ever gotten my mother to try raw fish, and she kept coming back for more.

I removed the skin from the loin, added a little salt and pepper, and gave it a generous shake of sesame seeds on both sides. Ten seconds or so on either side in a med/hot pan with just a little oil.

Made a vinnegrette of:
2 tsp lime juice
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp minced garlic
1 Tbsp Balsalmic
1 tsp lemon juice

Shredded up a carrot and a cucumber and layed that out on the dish. Thin sliced the tuna, layed it out, and doused the whole thing generously with the dressing. Actually ended up making a bit extra dressing, as what I got from the messurements above wasn't quite enough. Would probably experiment with various ingredients for the slaw underneath - I just had limited ingredients at the time.

[Sky]

Round steak on a big sale, and for some reasons I decided to make burgers. Hand-chopped the steak and added an egg and some breadcrumbs for cohesion; a bit of my bbq rub for flavoring, but not much at all.

It was so ridiculously flavorful with an amazing texture. Chopping the steak wasn't too bad, not sure I'd do it every night but it's definitely worth it for the occasional special burger night. Best lean burger I've had, too.

[Sir Fodder]

Frosty Peach Custard

Ice cream maker
Cooking or candy thermometer

3 peaches
3 c. milk
3/4 c. sugar
3 egg yolks
1/4 tsp. salt

Heat milk with salt gently in pot, stirring with silicone spatula so that it doesn't scorch, lower heat when it comes up to temperature (about 150°F), stir often so it doesn't scorch.

Put yolks in blender with enough sugar to blend and form a light-toned paste, ~30 seconds to a minute.

Pour ~1 c. steamy-hot milk into an easy-pour container and slowly drizzle into the still blending egg paste (to temper eggs without scrambling), add remainder of sugar then pour blender contents into milk pot while stirring

Peel peaches, sometimes its easier to use a paring knife, sometimes a vegetable peeler. Pit peaches and add some milk to blend well, extra frothy well.

Add peaches to milk on stove and, stirring with silicone spatula constantly, heat to 167°F. Remove from heat and continue stirring so that it doesn't overcook, it is possible though not necessary to cool off the pot at this point using an ice water bath.

At this point pour the still cooling though not too hot liquid into food storage containers about the size of your ice cream maker- I have a freezer style maker that is about a quart capacity so 2 four cup size containers works for this amount of a recipe.

Let chill at least 8 hours in the refrigerator, this is important! 24 hours is better.

Freeze mixture in ice cream maker, I stick the whole thing in my freezer 'cause it goes faster and dampens the noise. Takes about 15 min. - scrape out with spatula- it helps to have a really stiff one (Williams Sonoma has one) to scrape the sides and mix it up well at this point, takes some work but well worth it. Bananas (strain through food strainer and add lemon juice), chocolate, peanut butter, mangoes, simmered spices, etc, etc... will all work, but when the peaches are ripe (we get the CA ones here in AZ) there is no gourmet gelato I've ever had that is better, nothing beats it.

[Jimbo]

Since I posted this in another thread

Home made beer bread, great for the cold nights.
Made these for a class I was teaching today.

Recipe:  Beer Bread

Pre-heat oven to 375

Ingredients: 
3 cups self-rising flour
1/2 cup sugar
12 oz beer (the better the beer the better the flavor)
2 tablespoons of melted butter

Mix flour, sugar, and beer in a mixing bowl, I usually do 2 cups of flour and then add beer and mix, then add the rest of flour and sugar, makes the dough easier to mix.  The dough will be sticky, place dough into a greased bread loaf pan.  Place pan in oven on middle rack, cook @ 375 for 50 minutes.  Remove, top with 2 tablespoons of melted butter, and return to oven.  Cook for 3 minutes more tops!  Check about 1 to 2 minutes, looking for a golden brown top.  Remove and let cool for about 10 minutes.  Then serve hot.  Is wonderful with soups, stews, and salads.  I'll bet it would be awesome with Welsh Rabbit!

I've been using Blue Moon, Blue Moon Pale Ale, Blue Moon Pumpkin, and Sam Adams, all have done great so far.  I'm gonna try a local honey wheat beer and maybe some seasonal Christmas type beer (I'm wishing I could get the blackberry happy monk beer from belgium or holland...man that was good!)

Happy Holidays!

[Paelos]

A honey wheat beer would make it great for my pumpkin bread pudding with maple whipped cream recipe!

[voodoolily]

I have just discovered the joy of bread baking recently. I have some leftover ham and some gouda that I'm thinking of turning into a lapeshka for dinner tonight. Not very kosher for a traditional Bukhari Jew food, but fuck. Ham.

[Evildrider]

These are some of the best store bought pickles I've had in a long time.   

[ghost]

Alright, so I thought I would dredge this thread back up from the dead because lately I've had an.........unhealthy attraction to hummus.  In the past I've had some absolutely amazing hummus in restaurants and, quite rarely, from store bought hummus.  My current favorite is Grandma's Hummus, which seems to get that balance of garlic, lemon and tanginess just right.  My favorite hummus of all time is from a small restaurant in Dallas.  My preference is very smooth, moderately garlicky and lemony with a bit of tanginess.  But I've never been able to reproduce this taste with my own hummus.  Something is either always missing or too much.

So.....let's have it!  If you have any good hummus recipes let's see them (maybe I'll get lucky and Voodoolilly is still around to pitch in  )

[Paelos]

Cafe Izmir in Dallas?

[Ingmar]

I would just suggest making a few batches and raising/lowering the amount of garlic/lemon/tahini til you find a balance you like. And use a food processor instead of a blender, if you aren't already. It comes out more even that way (IMO).

[ghost]

Cafe Izmir in Dallas?

Bingo.  It's fucking awesome.

I would just suggest making a few batches and raising/lowering the amount of garlic/lemon/tahini til you find a balance you like. And use a food processor instead of a blender, if you aren't already. It comes out more even that way (IMO).

I've done this a billion times.  It never seems right to me.  I have a suspicion that some of these hummuses that I've tried are adding something interesting in, like yogurt.