Voodoolily's Snacktastic Recipe Thread!!

[voodoolily]

VL get on TV and don't whimp out.

Food Network is a tad family-friendly for my personality.  I might choke Rachel Ray or kick Guy "Fieti" in the nuts if I hafta meet them.

[Trippy]

How about "Chef Jeff"? Is he gansta enough for you?

[voodoolily]

Don't get this nigga twisted.

Seriously, I have a hard enough time stopping myself from dropping f-bombs around the office (where it's mostly forgiven).

[schild]

I think you should apply for Top Chef. For serious. I mean why the fuck not. Do it while you're young. There's always a black horse.

[MrHat]

I might choke Rachel Ray or kick Guy "Fieti" in the nuts if I hafta meet them.

You've got my vote.

[Oz]

There's always a black horse.

Hell, isn't Anthony Bourdein on food network (even if its just one of his older shows...can't remember the name  "a chief's tour"?).  and he cusses plenty.  Food network needs a show to give the sound engineers a chance to push that button taht goes bbllleeeeppp!

[Trippy]

A Cook's Tour -- not showing on Food Network anymore.

[Oban]

No Reservations on the Travel Network, never heard him swear though.

[Signe]

Voodoolily is MUCH too cynical and sarcastic for Food Network and Heather is MUCH too hot.  It just wouldn't work.  Top Chef might be fun, though.  She could rip the other contestants apart off camera.  She could make them cry.  That would be awesome.   

[voodoolily]

You guys are crazy, except Signe who is a beautiful genius that totally "gets" the real me. Now go over here and send me to Europe! 

[schild]

waitaminute

I was the one that said you should apply for Top Chef. Signe just agreed with me.

[voodoolily]

But Signe said I'm sassy and hot.

[schild]

Signe says that about everyone except DV.

[Der Helm]

Signe says that about everyone except DV.

Really ? That inflates my ego quite a bit.

[Sky]

Inspired by the pizza contest and cooling evenings, I whipped up my superfast simple pizza last night. Baste the dough with garlic-infused evoo, top with fresh basil, diced tomato and mozz. Easy and amazingly tasty.

I don't really get fancy in the kitchen :)

[voodoolily]

That sounds really good. I've been on a kick, too, and made a sauceless thin-crust pizza on Saturday with thinly sliced toms from the garden and shaved Walla Walla sweet onions, S&P, baked to crispy. Drizzled with black truffle oil when it came out.

[Sky]

Since I had the day off yesterday, I simmered a nice tomato meat sauce. Again, I'm a basic shmoe when it comes to cooking. Brown some ground meat (turkey and beef is what I had in the fridge), bell pepper, onion and garlic. Deglaze with some pinot noir. Toss in some herbs, maple sugar and cream and simmer that for a while to coat and bind to the meat. Then add in some crushed and diced (drained) tomato and I let it simmer for a few hours, stirring every now and again. Kinda bummed I was out of tomato paste so while it was a great sauce, it did leave a bit of water at the bottom of the plate, I normally go for a very thick and chunky sauce. Served with riggies.

[voodoolily]

That is basically the Bolognese I made last week, but I used a few spoonfuls of tomato paste and gochujang to thicken it up. The toms were from the garden, and the meat was a 2.5-lb. chuck roast that I ground up into chunky mince. I ended up canning four jars of it for later. I like mine on pappardelle. This isn't "basic schmoe" cooking, it's authentic Emilia-Romagna cuisine (well, except for the gochujang)!

[Sky]

I would've used some paste but my pantry is nekkid since I moved. I've been bad. New house has a cool little pantry shelf with a door, though I'd really love a walk-in. So I'm psyched to stock it up at some point.

But the stove...it's pissing me off. Electric with only one big burner. Who the fuck buys a stove with three small burners? Someone who doesn't cook, that's who. Hope to get a gas stove next year (ASAP, top of the list now) since there's a gas line over the kitchen. Who the fuck buys an electric stove with three small burners when they have a gas line? Someone who doesn't goddamn cook. Bonus is the line will run along the library wall so I'll set it up to add a gas fireplace in there while I'm at it! 

[Nebu]

Every time I think I'm a capable cook, I read something here that makes me feel like a rank amateur. 

I think I'll stick to adding things to my Ramen and calling myself clever. 

[Sky]

Read Cook's Illustrated or Cook's Country. I nab a lot of ideas from them and their cookbooks are decent. They like to discuss different recipes they try before they land on the one they print, it's pretty informative. And they throw in a lot of background stuff like Alton does.

[Nebu]

Read Cook's Illustrated or Cook's Country. I nab a lot of ideas from them and their cookbooks are decent. They like to discuss different recipes they try before they land on the one they print, it's pretty informative. And they throw in a lot of background stuff like Alton does.

Thanks.

Dumb question: How meat-oriented is it?  Beign a vegetarian, I don't care much about cooking meat and most cooking rags/books seem to focus pretty heavily on protein. 

[voodoolily]

The Cook's Illustrated people are assholes, though. One blogger tried one of their recipes, made a few modifications, then blogged it (giving full credit and linkage, and explaining the modifications), and she got nailed with a Cease and Desist. They were going to sue her! A lot of food bloggers are boycotting CI, and I admit I've even stopped testing their recipes.

Regardless, they are a font of information for the novice, and I find value in that. My money's on Joy of Cooking, though. Lots of background info on ingredients, recipes, techniques, etc. and the recipes are extremely easy to follow (i.e. you don't have to be psychic or a pro to understand what they want you to do).

Edit for Nebu's question - they are fairly meat-oriented, in that it's not a vegetarian publication. Joy of Cooking has meat chapters, but also has entire lists of recipes devoted to each vegetable (updated versions include lots of ethnic recipes too, which can be more vegetarian).

[Nebu]

What I've learned is that the fats in meat have a profound effect on taste/flavor profiles.  I'm learning to offset this by using other oils as flavor carriers, but find that it's tough to get both flavor and light dishes.  Have any recommendations for veggie books or sites?  I'll try to do some searching on my own to see what I can come up with. 

As for the ethnic comment, I agree. Sadly, a lot of ethnic recipes are tied strongly to the use of animal products as flavor stocks/bases. 

[voodoolily]

I'd look at Indian cookbooks - many are vegetarian (Hindu vs. Muslim). I used to swear by the old Moosewood (by Molly Katzen) cookbooks in my teenage vegetarian days.

[Signe]

My sister is a really good cook and she's mostly vegetarian - they eat some fish because her husband was having some issues.  She has a book she swears by.  I'll try and remember to get the name of it next time I talk to her.

[Trippy]

Read Cook's Illustrated or Cook's Country. I nab a lot of ideas from them and their cookbooks are decent. They like to discuss different recipes they try before they land on the one they print, it's pretty informative. And they throw in a lot of background stuff like Alton does.

Thanks.

Dumb question: How meat-oriented is it?  Beign a vegetarian, I don't care much about cooking meat and most cooking rags/books seem to focus pretty heavily on protein. 

Get this:

http://www.amazon.com/How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian-Meatless/dp/0764524836

[Nebu]

Thanks all of you... and I appreciate the link Trippy.  I'll see if I can find that at Barnes & Noble.

[voodoolily]

Bittman does good work, I second Trippy's recommendation.

[Sky]

I lost this in a move about ten years ago, but I think it was good: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-New-Vegetarian-Epicure/Anna-Thomas/e/9780679765882/?itm=2
I just got a Moosewood as a library donation. Nice perk of the library, if we have a donation, it goes on book sale for cheap and we get first dibs. Also have a couple old books, The White House Cookbook, 1999 reprint of the 1887 original; Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Julia Child 1967; Italian Regional Cooking, Ada Boni 1969; my shelf of stuff to take home at some point.

When I get some time, I'm definitely delving deep into Joy of Cooking, I borrowed the library copy, but with the move and renovation/repair stuff lately I just didn't have time to concentrate. One of my favorite theory books is On Food and Cooking. I also like to poke into the CIA cookbook. But my first cookbook and old stand-by is an old version of the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook.

We should make lists of our shelves :)

[Sky]

Last night I grilled some chicken with some chipotle-lime marinade. Basted a pizza dough with a cilantro-infused olive oil, added some canned petite diced tomatoes with chipotle, a shortcut I didn't care for, they were pretty bland and mushy. Added some roasted red peppers, the chicken, drizzled some of the marinade and topped with a chedder/mozz blend.

The interaction of the cilantro oil and roasted peppers was amazing.

[voodoolily]

added some canned petite diced tomatoes with chipotle, a shortcut I didn't care for, they were pretty bland and mushy.

Next time, if you have time, roast the canned toms in a shallow baking dish to dry them out a bit and concentrate the flavor. 45 minutes at 400 should do the trick. They'll go all sticky and caramellized. They're usually ready by the time you've got all your prep done and have had a beer.

I love the cilantro oil. Start taking pictures, man!

[Khaldun]

Yeah, Cook's Illustrated are indeed assholes, but I do like reading it, even as a non-novice. The recipes actually don't work out that well, but they do give a really good look inside how to think about what works and doesn't work in cooking. At some point, if you cook enough, you start to understand why recipes are constructed the way that they are, what you can and can't do differently about them, how to adapt them to some other purpose entirely, what to substitute, and how to build your own dishes up from ingredients you like. Cook's does a good job with that kind of thinking, and it's also not snobby, which I appreciate. I also like their consumer's reports-type pieces on cooking gear, foodstuffs and so on.

I recently made a pizza that i really liked, based partly on a description of some pizzas that a little upscale place in NYC makes--some fontina cheese straight on the dough with chopped roast lamb, fresh spinach, feta, smoked paprika and some fried eggs. The fried egg part is what works--you cook the pizza some in a very hot oven without the eggs while you fry the eggs very lightly and briefly, just enough for them to solid up but while they're somewhat still translucent--you want them to run out a bit on the dough. Then slide them onto the pizza (I use three), a bit of feta on top of them, and back in the oven until the crust is where you want it to be.

[Nebu]

Speaking of pizza, am I the only one here that partially cooks the crust before adding the toppings?  It's a nice way to keep the crust from getting soggy without having to use added fat to keep it crisp. 

[NowhereMan]

I threw together some stuff for dinner the other night since I had a load of chicken thighs that were on the way to being inedible. Fried some mushrooms, onions and garlic together for a while and added the chicken thighs (deboned and chopped). Threw on some salt, little bit of Cinnamon and some Paprika and let all that cook together for a few minutes. I then added lemon juice to deglaze and a few green cardamom pods, gave it a couple more minutes and threw in a couple of tablespoons of tomato puree and some basil. Finally I added most of a carton of natural yoghurt and let the whole thing simmer for a while.

Meanwhile I grilled (broiled) a chopped courgette and red pepper with a tiny bit of salt and olive oil and added those to the main dish just before serving with some basmati rice. I've not really done yoghurt sauces before but it came out tasting nice, creamy but not as rich as a real cream sauce would have been. While it all worked out I've got a feeling I either overloaded on the number of ingredients or needed more in terms of quantity of spice since there wasn't really any individual flavours that came through really strongly except for the lemon (very slightly) and cardamom when you got near one.