Voodoolily's Snacktastic Recipe Thread!!

[apocrypha]

How the hell do you clean pizza stones? We got one recently and while we do make pretty damn good pizzas with it, it is *impossible* to get all the burnt cheese off afterwards! Or do you just say to hell with it and treat it like a cast-iron griddle pan or a wok and expect a patina?

[Sky]

Scrape off what you can and the rest is patina imo. Usually just coming up to temp will eradicate anything that gets on the surface and smoke off any oil. If stains offend you, don't use a pizza stone :)

[Nebu]

Heat the stone to 500 degrees, let it cool and try to scrape the cheese off.  Charring cheese is often the easiest way to remove it. 

[Ookii]

I'm putting this in here since it's food related:

[apocrypha]

Cool, nah not bothered by stains, it was lumps I was more concerned about 

And lol @ cookie monster!

[Signe]

Aww, too cute.  Did you eat it now?  Did you eat the eyes first?  Did you leave the cookie in it when you ate it?  Are you okay?

[Bunk]

Make sure you do get the cheese lumps off of the stone - the dough will stick to those lumps like a bitch if you don't

[rattran]

Or simply don't put so much cheese on that it gets on the stone.

[Sky]

Or simply don't put so much cheese on that it gets on the stone.

Unpossible. Especially something like the stromboli I did Sunday, you've gotta cheese over the top of that, and it'll get everywhere.

Srsly, by the time the stone is heated up, anything organic on it is a charred crisp, easy to scrape off. Usually it's in that state by the time it cools down after use.

[voodoolily]

The self-clean setting on our oven gets so hot that it cooked the non-stick coating right off our baking rack. 

[Sky]

Sounds like the perfect temp for making pizza! 

[Ookii]

There is a guy who does that, in fact he's absolutely batshit crazy about making pizza.  If you read his webpage you'll know more about making pizza than any human should.

http://www.varasanos.com/PizzaRecipe.htm

[schild]

I don't know why he'd use dasani. That shit has a flavor.

[Engels]

So, tonight I made super easy enchiladas, slightly different than the usual recepie:

Buy:

1-2 packs of corn tortillas
2 pack of frozen spinach
2 cans of garbanzos
Enchilada sauce of your preference
Oregano
Garlic powder/garlic paste
1/2 teaspoon of cumin (optional, since most bachelors don't have this lying around and its sorta subtle anyway)

So, you throw the spinach, garbanzos, oregano, garlic and cumin into an olive oil slicked frying pan. Heat thoroughly, and if you want, even 'brown' the spinach a bit.

Dip tortillas in a soup plate filled with the enchilada sauce till both sides are coated.

Lay first layer of tortillas into a deep baking dish (one of those lazagna baking trays works best). Cover the bottom with one layer of tortillas.

Lay down one layer of spinach/garbanzo goop.

Grate Cotija and/or sprinkle mexican cheese mix (normally jack and cheddar) all over this first layer.

Lay down a second layer of enchilada sauce coated tortillas.

Now, here you can stop and leave it at one layer, or add another layer of spinach/garbanzo goop.

On the last layer, lay the cheeze on super thick, and then drench the whole mess with whatever amount of sauce you have left. Remember, even if it looks soupy at this stage, baking it will evaporate a lot of the liquid.

Heat oven to 350 F and bake for 1/2 hour, and presto, you're done.

It's great straight out of the oven, and can sometimes taste even better after the 1st day.

[schild]

Ok, I was wrong, Pizza hut lasagna may NOT be the worst lasagna for you. Exhibit A: Mexican Lasagna.

Do you have any pictures of this heart-destroying monster?

[Ookii]

Chickpeas, spinach and corn tortillas are now considered heart destroying?

I'm sure it would have to be something besides the cheese.  Also this is a casserole.

[Engels]

I do have some left overs, but even out of the oven, its not pretty, and there may be minors around, so no photo (seriously, its not all that to look at)

As to the health factor, that's the beauty of it; you can make it as healthy or unhealthy as you want, using the sliding cheese-o-meter. Also, I think it may be good with meat, but I haven't decided which kind would work best.

[schild]

Chickpeas, spinach and corn tortillas are now considered heart destroying?

I'm sure it would have to be something besides the cheese.  Also this is a casserole.

The cheese and tortillas, absolutely. I can't imagine this is a dish that you only eat 3 bites of.

[Sky]

Corn tortillas, heart-destroying? Don't be ignorant.

I would agree that laying on the cheese "super-thick" is not a good idea for any dish. Just enough to provide flavor and browning if you want to go that way.

[Engels]

Its not a good idea if you, uhm, don't like lots of cheese or are weight/health concious. For those of us who have a cheese fetish, this dish is the perfect excuse to get that crusty cheese bomb explosion in your mouth.

[voodoolily]

Ok, I was wrong, Pizza hut lasagna may NOT be the worst lasagna for you. Exhibit A: Mexican Lasagna.

Do you have any pictures of this heart-destroying monster?

This is one I made last year, but I used pasta instead of tortillas.

[Sky]

Its not a good idea if you, uhm, don't like lots of cheese or are weight/health concious. For those of us who have a cheese fetish, this dish is the perfect excuse to get that crusty cheese bomb explosion in your mouth.

You can get that without a shitload of cheese, though. Trust me, I have a cheese fetish, I love cheese. But I started making dishes with less cheese for my fiancee, and whenever I'd try her's, it would be better than mine in most cases, because the cheese just weighed things down without adding any more flavor.

I generally do not make sacrifices in the name of "health", for me it's all about tasty foods. But I love when I can intersect the two, and it's an interesting journey.

[Engels]

Pure anti-cheese propaganda.

[Ookii]

Pure anti-cheese propaganda.

Fight the power.

[Ookii]

Space Invader cookies!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/27064046@N00/sets/72157603857787202/detail/

I like the technique there, very cool.

[apocrypha]

Awesome! It's ideas like that that make me want to have kids. Luckily that desire fades fast 

[Nebu]

Ok.  I broke down and bought myself an Atlas pasta press and started playing with it last night.  I've made a million sauces in my life but haven't attempted pasta in years.  When I went to cook the pasta, it almost seemed to disintigrate after about 2 mins.  Am I boiling the pasta too long?  Am I overworking the dough?  Too much flour?

Standard pasta recipe (4 eggs, 2 cup flour, standard volcano technique, let rest in the refrig for an hour before running through the press, etc.)

Help!

[voodoolily]

Fresh pasta should be dried for a while before cooking - old Italian ladies drape it all over the kitchen, including on the chair backs. Cook the pasta only until it floats. Hope that helps! SuperPopTart can weigh in as the token wap around here. 

[Nebu]

Fresh pasta should be dried for a while before cooking - old Italian ladies drape it all over the kitchen, including on the chair backs. Cook the pasta only until it floats. Hope that helps! SuperPopTart can weigh in as the token wap around here. 

Thanks for the thought.  I never found any information that states the pasta needs to dry.  It doesn't make any sense to me really as you a) are just going to rehydrate it in water and b) you've already worked it enough that more resting won't really up the gluten level much. 

I think I may have just done a combination of overworking the dough and cooking it too long.  The pasta floated almost immediately in boilign water and I still cooked it another 2-3 mins.  I think next time I'll just cook it long enough to kill any bacteria in the eggs.  I may also see if adding olive oil to the dough helps keep it more pliable.

Keep the suggestions coming!

[NowhereMan]

I think it needs to be dry so it doesn't totally water log and fall apart while you're leaving it long enough to actually cook through. Could be totally wrong though and maybe you can just get it slightly warm without drying.

[Signe]

My mother, who was from Italy, used hang pasta all over the kitchen.  My aunt lived next door and she would make pasta the same day.  We used to sneak in the kitchen and pretend we lived in a pasta cave.  I don't know why.  Sausage day was much less fun, especially at my aunt's.  She made liver sausage.     It really smelled.  Of course sausage day wasn't nearly as bad as baccalà day.  Don't ask.  We had a lot of smelly days in my family.

[Trippy]

Fresh pasta should be dried for a while before cooking - old Italian ladies drape it all over the kitchen, including on the chair backs. Cook the pasta only until it floats. Hope that helps! SuperPopTart can weigh in as the token wap around here. 

Thanks for the thought.  I never found any information that states the pasta needs to dry.  It doesn't make any sense to me really as you a) are just going to rehydrate it in water and b) you've already worked it enough that more resting won't really up the gluten level much. 

I think I may have just done a combination of overworking the dough and cooking it too long.  The pasta floated almost immediately in boilign water and I still cooked it another 2-3 mins.  I think next time I'll just cook it long enough to kill any bacteria in the eggs.  I may also see if adding olive oil to the dough helps keep it more pliable.

Keep the suggestions coming!

Cooking times vary widely depending on the width and thickness but 3 minutes is almost certainly too long.

I made a clip of Jamie Oliver making a super quick version of fresh egg pasta using a food processor and pasta machine from his show Jamie at Home (the "Eggs" episode). His tagliatelle pasta cooked in one minute and he didn't rest the dough or dry the pasta either. He used the Barilla Type 00 flour -- aka "farina di grano tenero tipo '00'" flour and added one egg per 100g of flour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0XVDpPBHho

Recipes for fresh egg pasta, of course, vary. Lidia Bastianich added a bit of olive oil and used a food processor on her Lidia's Italy show to combine, kneaded it by hand longer than Jamie did (but not as long as recipes where you bring the eggs and flour together by hand), let the dough rest and also let the pasta dry. Marcella Hazan, on the other hand, doesn't add olive oil, doesn't recommend using a food processor and combines and kneads by hand, doesn't let the dough rest but does let the pasta dry.

[Nebu]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0XVDpPBHho

I'm in awe.  That guy is not only amazing, he's funny.  Thanks for the vid.  It was both funny and educational.  After I get over feeling REALLY stupid, I'm going to give it another go. 

[apocrypha]

Sausage day was much less fun,

I... I can't help just quoting that. Sorry.

[voodoolily]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0XVDpPBHho

I'm in awe.  That guy is not only amazing, he's funny.  Thanks for the vid.  It was both funny and educational.  After I get over feeling REALLY stupid, I'm going to give it another go. 

Jamie At Home is a great show. He really makes everything so simple and brings it all down to the basics: good ingredients, minimally fucked-with. Also, I'd hurt a kid for his rustic kitchen.