I don't think we've done a cooking thread for awhile. Tonight I'm doing a variation on an old standby of my Mom's. Porkchops and mushrooms. 1) Heat up a pan. 2) Cook some porkchops for a couple minutes on each side. 3) Add in a thing of sliced mushrooms. 4) Once all that is nicely done, pour in a can of cream of mushroom soup, reduce heat, cover, and let the bugger simmer for...crap. I forget. I think 40 minutes or so. 5) Nuke some frozen peas. 6) Make up some instant mashed potatoes. Add some garlic to them. Serve with wheat bread, butter, and a nice amber beer.
I'm cooking lunch for me and my coworkers tomorrow. Meatloaf: 1. Mix 1 lb ground beef, 1/2 tsp of sage, 1/2 tsp dry mustard, 1/2 tsp ground pepper, half a finely chopped onion, 1 cup heavy cream, 2 loaves of white bread crumbed up by hand, and two cloves of minced garlic. 2. Put mixture into a glass loaf pan and pour 3/4 cup ketchup or bbq sauce on top. I happen to have some leftover A-1 tobasco and used that. 3. Bake in oven for 75 minutes at 350F. Lazy mashed taters: 1. Peel and quarter lengthwise 3 or 4 potatoes. 2. Add to sauce pan, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. 3. Drain water, run through a potato noodler, and mix with 2 Tbsp butter and 1/4 heavy whipping cream. May need to add more depending on the size of the potatoes. Cut corn: 1. Stop at Publix on way to work. 2. Buy corn that steams in its own bag while in the microwave.
I was pretty pleased with the potato salad I made yesterday. Gold potatoes. Very finely-chopped green onions. Chopped green olives. Chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Sour cream, mayo and a little Miracle Whip. Tasted even better than I thought it would and went great with the pork shoulder that I smoked all afternoon and the orange/pineapple-marinated chicken I grilled.
That's food? Anyway, my spicy peanut pasta goes something like this: Melt a half stick of butter, add a comparable amount of sesame oil. Saute 1 medium onion, chopped finely, and 1/2 to 1 garlic bulb, diced, over low heat until the onion is translucent and the garlic is mushy. Add a few shakes of salt, a few more shakes of curry powder, about 15 drops of Da Bomb Ground Zero or a comparably hot hot sauce, three large spoonfuls of peanut butter, and enough milk to get the sauce to the thickness you want. Keep stirring until it comes to a slow boil. Add maple syrup (honey or sugar can also be used) to taste to take a bit of the edge off the heat. When you turn off the burner, stir in one egg yolk. Add 1 lb. pasta of your choice, al dente. (You can use more pasta but I like mine heavy on the sauce). Stir until sauce is uniformly distributed. For some reason other people have been known to be scared of my cooking . . .
Here's a pretty good pizza. I can't believe it's actually relatively healthy too... 1 pita tomato sauce (or the pasta sauce you buy from the grocery) mozza cheese whatever toppings you want. Usually I use green peppers, mushrooms, and ground beef. If not, cut up an old hot dog or sausage into little round slices. Spread the tomato sauce on the pita. Add mozza cheese. Add toppings Add more mozza cheese. Cook it in a toaster oven for 8-10 minutes. Viola! A thin crust pizza! Don't just stare at it, eat it!
Brown bear is shot in Sweden in some amounts at the time of the yearly elk hunt. It's got a very strong game taste; classic things to serve with it would be rowanberry jelly, red cabbage, pickled cucumber, and some other stuff. When I've made the stew, I'll give you the recipe in English. The sauce contains many ingredients I don't know the English name for. It has to be prepared thoroughly, because bear, if served red, could contain nasty parasites (like pig), and also, it's very tough meat. However, we're making a stew where the meat is going to cook at least 3-4 hours.
As a side note, I thought I'd post a recipe for my favorite "night food", that also works as a side dish on a midsummer or Christmas party. Janssons Frestelse - Classic Swedish Sprat Gratin Ingredients: 3/4 kilos of potatoes 3 yellow onions 200 grams of tinned sprats cured in brine (plus the stock) 100 grams of butter 3 deciliters of cream dried breadcrumbs Put the oven at 175 degrees Celsius. Cut the potatoes coarsely. Chop the onions and the sprats. (You can also put both the potatoes and the onions in a food mixer, at the coarsest setting, and leave the sprats whole, if you're lazy.) Mix everything in a buttered tin. Pour on the sprat stock according to taste. Pour on two thirds of the cream and spread breadcrumbs on top of it. Dot on the butter and bake in the oven for about thirty minutes. Take out the tin and pour on the last of the cream. Bake for another 20 minutes. Serve late at night with a beer. (Obviously, salt and pepper to taste. However the sprat stock is quite salty.)
I knocked out some pork minestrone last week. Country style pork ribs Chopped onions Chopped celery Chopped carrots Garlic cloves 28 oz can diced tomatoes Green beans Squash Long grain rice Parmesan reggiano cheese Brown the ribs a bit, then remove them, toss in the onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Cook the veggies for a bit before adding the tomatoes, and a bit of the cheese. Also push the ribs down into this and simmer for an hour or more. Then add the beans and squash. Remove the ribs, shred the meat and toss back in. Simmer for another 20, then add the rice for the final 15 minutes. Serve with some shredded parmesan and enjoy. Up next, Chianti beef stew with mushrooms.
Boil water. Add pasta. Cook 7-10 minutes until done. Drain noodles. Dump jar of Ragu into saucepan. Simmer for 20 minutes or so. Dump sauce over noodles. Eat.
Quick n spicy steak sammiches Slice up some frying or minute steak into strips, fry it. Add a shitload of ground black pepper whilst cooking. When the steak is nearly done add a generous amount of fajita spices (or whatever you like, I sometimes use taco spices). When the steak is completely done pour over a generous amount of cream or soured cream and stir in. Serve in hot toasted pita breads and add some salad
I made spaghetti last night and I used butter. Of course, I serve my noodles and sauce separately, allowing the end user to decide their own sauce/noodle ratio. I brown and then drain 2lbs of Ground Round. While the meat is browning, I bring 6 cups of water to a boil with a dash of salt and about a teaspoon of EVOO so the noodles don't stick together. I put the noodles in the hot water and let them boil for 12-15 minutes until tender. I hate pasta cooked al dente. Immediately after putting the noodles in the water, I pour one large jar Prego "traditional" sauce over the meat, stir, and reduce to a slow simmer. After draining the noodles in the collander, I put them back in the pot and remove them from heat. That's where I stir in 2 tablespoons of butter, one real good squirt from my bottle of Italian salad dressing, about four good shakes from my bottle of garlic salt, 30 turns of my pepper grinder, and about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese.
My mom has always put a little....ok a good bit of butter on her spaghetti noodles right after draining them and, obviously, before adding the sauce. I'm not sure why though. I think it might be the whole her mother did it because her mother did it because her mother did it kind of thing. I broke the chain though, because I don't do it.
Well given that dinner for the Brit upper class like yourself apparently consists of cucumber sandwiches (with the crusts cut off) and buggery, I think I'll stick with my pork chops, thank you. Yeah, that's right. I've read my Oscar Wilde.
I always drizzle extra virgin olive oil and shredded basil over my spagetti, it makes it taste better....especially if the sauce is made properly.
Update on the stew. Me and my friend has just prepared all the ingredients and put the pot on the oven. Unfortunately we couldn't find any bear, so we had to make do with just elk and some calf liver. Ingredients: One kilo elk meat, diced 100 grams of calf liver Two big carrots Four parsley roots One celeriac Three big yellow onions One bottle of Porter (we used Samuel Adams Honey Porter) Ten whole peeled garlic clefts One ox bone Parsley Dried juniper Whole ground black pepper Preparation: Take a big pot (really big) that you can fry stuff in, add butter, heat. Throw in the onions. When the onions are soft, sprinkle some Muscovado sugar on top. Fry for another minute. Add the elk meat. Fry the meat until brown. Pour the porter over it. Put in the ox bone. Add water until covered. Chop the parsley root, celeriac, carrots and liver. Peel the garlic clefts. Throw this in the pot. Allow to simmer for 4 hours. Season to taste. Serve with potatoes, rowanberry jelly, cucumber, other stuff. Will be back with result.
