Cooking with Maintankadin

[katraya]

I'm trying to lose a significant amount of weight by next summer so I have been trying to eat better. I recently pulled out my South Beach Diet cookbook and have started making some recipes from there. last night I made this:

5-Spice Salmon
1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated lime peel
3 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon Chinese five-spice powder*
1 pound salmon steaks, cut into 4 equal pieces

Those are the amounts the recipe called for. I used one large piece of salmon and just added ingredients to taste.

Marinate salmon for at least 30 minutes. The recipe says to grill it but I just threw it in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes.

*Chinese 5-Spice Powder is fennel, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, and Szechuan peppercorn. I found it easily at my grocery store and I have seen several recipes call for it.

I served this with brown rice and spinach sautéed with garlic. The whole meal was really tasty and pretty darn healthy. Thankfully my bf liked the brown rice so I'll be making that from now on instead of white rice.


I am making a chicken recipe tonight that I will post if it is any good. I know Thalia is always looking for healthy food and I am sure we're not alone.

[katraya]

On a less healthy note I have recently found a magic trick that makes mediocre steaks pretty damn fabulous.
http://steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.html

I did this last weekend with a piece of London Broil. Usually, this isn't the most tender piece of steak but the one I made was amazing. I salted it for about half and hour like the instructions call for. When I rinsed it off you could really see how the meat had loosened up a bit if that makes sense. There was some separation of the meat fibers.

Once it was well rinsed and patted dry I rubbed it down with garlic, fresh tarragon and olive oil. Grilled it to medium rare, let it rest for 5 minutes and then sliced it against the grain. Way better than most of the restaurant steaks I have had and for $7 it fed two people for dinner and gave us both leftovers for lunch the next day!

[Thalia]

The most tender steaks Aergis ever made where due to us using a wooden plank to put them on in our grill. Never in my life have I had steaks so damn juice and tender.

We bought the Guy Fiorelli ones, was like 6 for 15 bucks. You can re-use them. The only thing is you have to soak them for a while in water before you put them on the grill. Great for any other meat too but we use them for steaks.

[Andurin]

I`ll be heating up my premade rice when I get home out of school around 10 tonight... And damn i`m hungry already... Maybe the burgers will not survive the evening aswell... *hungry mode*

[katraya]

This is the official recipe for what I made last night.

Spanish Spice-rubbed Chicken

Ingredients:
For the sauce:
1/2 cup white wine vinegar
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions
3 tablespoons finely chopped flat parsley

For the Spanish spice rub:
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon mustard seeds
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
3 tablespoons Spanish or regular paprika
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper

For the chicken:
8 boneless chicken breasts with skin
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Chopped fresh parsley, for garnish.


Directions:
1. To make the sauce: In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar and mustard. Slowly whisk in 1 cup olive oil until well blended. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add scallions and chopped parsley. Mix well, and set aside.
2. To make the spice rub: Using a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, grind cumin seeds, mustard seeds and fennel seeds, and combine. Add paprika, salt and pepper, and stir until well blended. Set aside.
3. To make the chicken: Heat a grill to medium. Brush chicken breasts with olive oil, and season both sides with salt to taste. Rub skin side of each breast with spice rub, and place on grill rub-side down. Grill until slightly charred and a crust has formed, 5 to 6 minutes. Turn breasts over, cover grill, and continue cooking until just cooked through, 6 to 7 minutes.
4. To serve, spoon some sauce on a platter, and arrange chicken breasts on top. Garnish with chopped parsley, and serve remaining sauce on side.



I used boneless skinless breats and just pan seared and then baked them. The Chicken was good but nothign special. I think more of the rub and grilling them as suggested would have been better. I loved the mustard sauce though. Having the leftover sauce over rice tonight.

[Andurin]

Spanish Spice-rubbed Chicken

Oh my that sounds good :O gotta try that sometime ^^

[mew]

I just discovered some frozen chicken strips that taste like catfish. This is amazing!

I need to catch up on this thread at some point. You guys always post the most awesome stuff.

[Fridmarr]

I just discovered some frozen chicken strips that taste like catfish. This is amazing!

I need to catch up on this thread at some point. You guys always post the most awesome stuff.

Are they supposed to taste like catfish? I mean my initial response to that comment is...gross!

[mew]

I just discovered some frozen chicken strips that taste like catfish. This is amazing!

I need to catch up on this thread at some point. You guys always post the most awesome stuff.

Are they supposed to taste like catfish? I mean my initial response to that comment is...gross!

They're not supposed to They're frozen (I don't know if they are precooked or raw) breaded chicken strips, and you just heat them in the oven. And they have the texture of catfish and their breading is reminiscent of catfish fry.
It's like you are getting both chicken and catfish at the same time!
I'm sure frozen, breaded, catfish sticks would taste a lot worse than this.

[Ruex]

Why did I read this thread when I was hungry? dumb dumb idea.

[towelliee]

Easy Bacon, Onion and Cheese Stuffed Burgers - Made this tonight for my GF was amazing

Ingredients

* 3 pounds ground beef
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 3 tablespoons barbeque sauce
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/2 pound bacon, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
* 1 medium onion, finely chopped
* 3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
* 6 hamburger buns, split

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the ground beef, salt, black pepper, barbeque sauce and garlic powder using your hands. Taking a small handful at a time (approximately 1/4 pound), shape into 12 patties. Lay patties out on a cookie sheet and cover with plastic wrap; place patties in the refrigerator.
2. Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown, about 5 minutes. Remove bacon from skillet with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Turn the heat down to medium and pan fry the onions in the remaining bacon drippings until soft and translucent and just beginning to brown. Mix together onions and bacon in a small bowl.
3. Prepare a grill or large skillet for medium heat.
4. As the grill heats, pull beef patties out of the refrigerator; top 6 of the patties with 1- 1/2 tablespoons of the bacon and onion mixture each, and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Top each with one of the remaining patties and press the edges together to seal.
5. Grill or pan fry the stuffed and sealed patties until cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Serve on hamburger buns with condiments of your choice.

[Mcduffie]

They're not supposed to They're frozen (I don't know if they are precooked or raw) breaded chicken strips, and you just heat them in the oven. And they have the texture of catfish and their breading is reminiscent of catfish fry.
It's like you are getting both chicken and catfish at the same time!
I'm sure frozen, breaded, catfish sticks would taste a lot worse than this.

Somewhere, Jessica Simpson is very confused right now.

[Nikachelle]

They're not supposed to They're frozen (I don't know if they are precooked or raw) breaded chicken strips, and you just heat them in the oven. And they have the texture of catfish and their breading is reminiscent of catfish fry.
It's like you are getting both chicken and catfish at the same time!
I'm sure frozen, breaded, catfish sticks would taste a lot worse than this.

Somewhere, Jessica Simpson is very confused right now.

[mew]

Easy Bacon, Onion and Cheese Stuffed Burgers - Made this tonight for my GF was amazing

Ingredients

* 3 pounds ground beef
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
* 3 tablespoons barbeque sauce
* 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
* 1/2 pound bacon, cut into 1/4 inch pieces
* 1 medium onion, finely chopped
* 3/4 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
* 6 hamburger buns, split

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, mix together the ground beef, salt, black pepper, barbeque sauce and garlic powder using your hands. Taking a small handful at a time (approximately 1/4 pound), shape into 12 patties. Lay patties out on a cookie sheet and cover with plastic wrap; place patties in the refrigerator.
2. Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown, about 5 minutes. Remove bacon from skillet with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Turn the heat down to medium and pan fry the onions in the remaining bacon drippings until soft and translucent and just beginning to brown. Mix together onions and bacon in a small bowl.
3. Prepare a grill or large skillet for medium heat.
4. As the grill heats, pull beef patties out of the refrigerator; top 6 of the patties with 1- 1/2 tablespoons of the bacon and onion mixture each, and sprinkle with shredded cheese. Top each with one of the remaining patties and press the edges together to seal.
5. Grill or pan fry the stuffed and sealed patties until cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Serve on hamburger buns with condiments of your choice.

Holy fuck. This sounds like one of the best things I have ever heard of. I am going to have to make this at some point.

[Aubade]

BUMP FOR LB'S RECIPE

[Fivelives]

Onion chili bhajis:

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 medium yellow onion, rough chopped
1 hot pepper (from jalapenos to ghost chilis, however much heat you like), seeded, peeled* and minced
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp curry powder
2 cloves fresh garlic, minced

Directions:

Combine the ingredients to form a loose dough. Roll 2oz portions into a ball and deep fry at 375 degrees for 2-3 minutes until cooked. Careful, the dough will be EXTREMELY sticky - if you have problems with it sticking to your hands, moisten them with vinegar water before rolling it into balls and dropping it in the fryer. Serve with garlic chili sauce or hot mustard.

When done, it should look something like this:





* To peel a pepper, roast it whole (preferably over an open fire, but broilers work for this too) until the outer membrane chars and flakes off easily. You could also make a small x-shaped cut into the flesh of the pepper, then blanch it in boiling water for a minute or so and shock it into an ice bath. This'll make the membrane contract and pull away from the cut, and you can peel it off from there.

[fuzzygeek]

Simple Tomato Cream Sauce
This is absurdly simple for how delicious it is.

• 3 cans diced tomatoes, drained
• 3 tblsp butter
• 1 med onion, diced
• a few cloves of garlic, minced
• a tablespoon of fresh basil, julienned
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• pasta of your choice

While the pasta is cooking:

Saute the onion and garlic in the butter until onion begins to brown. Add tomatoes and cook until tomatoes have broken down into a chunky sauce and a fair amount of the liquid has cooked off. There shouldn't be discrete tomato cubes. This may take 10-15 minutes or so. As any fan of Chopped is well aware, canned tomatoes need to be cooked for a while to get rid of the canny taste.

Once the tomatoes have broken down, add 1/2 cup heavy cream and fresh basil. Stir to combine, then fold in pasta. Use some of the pasta cooking water to thin sauce if necessary.

Finish with grated parm if desired, and you should because it is incredible.

This is absolutely ridiculously simple to make, and is one of the new house favorites. This works well with spaghetti and rigatoni variants.

You can also dice some bacon and render that down first, remove the bacon and saute the onion in bacon fat and butter, and add the bacon back in. Or, stir in julienned prosciutto along with the tomatoes.

And a tip: recipes almost invariably lie when they talk about browning onions. "It'll take five minutes!" they claim. Fucking liars. Caramelizing onions takes time, even if you go with the high heat + water (or stock) deglaze method. I've taken to just caramelizing the shit out of several pounds of onion (takes about an hour and a half on a Sunday afternoon), and individually quick freezing 1/2 cup portions in ziplock bags.

[bldavis]

Why did I read this thread when I was hungry? dumb dumb idea.

and getting hungrier

also, where is LB with his recipe?

[Fivelives]

a tablespoon of fresh basil, julienned

I'd chiffonade that. It's quicker and way easier than julienning things, since (especially with herbs) you have to do those one piece at a time. I hate hand-cutting julienned anything, so if I can't use either my combination peeler/julienne tool or the julienne blades on my mandolin, I look for other ways to do it.

To chiffonade, stack the leaves, then roll them into a long narrow tube, being careful not to bruise them. Once they're rolled, cut across the "tube" with 1/8" parallel cuts, then let them unroll on the cutting board.

Edit to add: also, since it's just going to be used as an ingredient in the sauce, might as well just rough chop what you need for that and save the fancy "harder" knife cuts for garnishes. Nothing in a sauce has to look pretty, as long as it smells good and is presented as a whole with a sense of proportion and taste on the plate.

[Fivelives]

Quick and easy stew:

Yeah, yeah, most people say you have to cook stew for hours to get that "stew taste" to it. To that, I say, BULLSHIT!

Take:
1 1/2 pounds of beef, cubed (pre-cubed by the butcher is fine, but I usually use a whole skirt or flank steak and cube it myself for better quality)
1 pound red potatoes, large diced
1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped fine
1 pound carrots, diced or cut into 1/4" rounds (you can substitute parsnips for part or all of the carrots, whichever you prefer. Just note that they have a longer cooking time than carrots, since the woody center takes longer to break down)
1 pound frozen peas
3 large leeks, chopped
5-7 thick slices of center cut bacon
4oz vegetable oil or melted butter
4oz (by weight) flour
6 cloves garlic, rough chopped
1lb pearl onions, peeled
1 quart beef stock
1 bottle of "table quality" red wine (if you're not a wine connoseiur, just look for something in the $12-$15 range. Never cook with something you wouldn't drink)

Directions (takes about 2 hours from start to finish):
Melt the butter in the "stew pot" (anything in the 6-8 quart range should work), then add all of the vegetables except for the pearl onions and potatoes (so leeks, yellow onion, carrots/parsnips) and sweat them until they're soft. Once they start to go, add the garlic - it burns easily, and doesn't stand up to long cook times over direct heat.
Render the bacon fat out of the bacon in a large saute pan. Remove the bacon and reserve.
Brown the cubed beef in the bacon fat, then remove and reserve.
Once the vegetables in the pot are soft, add the beef, bacon, and bacon fat to the stew pot along with the beef stock and half of the bottle of wine.
Bring to boil and reduce to simmer for 30 minutes.
After it's been simmering for 30 minutes, add the potatoes and onions. Bring back to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 30 minutes.
Bring the flour and vegetable oil (or melted butter) together and form a white roux*. Add the roux and frozen peas, along with "finishing" spices (I prefer 1-2 sprigs each of fresh chopped rosemary and thyme leaves along with 1tsp chopped fresh oregano). Bring to boil and reduce to a simmer for a final 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes, remove the stew pot from the heat and let it rest until the gravy thickens. If it's not thickening, add a teaspoon or so of filé powder and let it sit for 10 minutes. Filé powder is strong stuff and will thicken damn near ANYTHING, although it has a strong taste, so use just a little bit and give it time to work.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and a garnish of fresh chopped chives.
Check on the level of liquid at each stage - you might need to add more beef stock and wine (2:1 stock to wine ratio) if it reduces faster due to altitude. Yeah, that happens - water boils at a lower temp the higher altitude you are. Just, keep an eye on it.

* To make a roux:
Add the oil to a hot pan until it's warmed - you should see it start to shimmer on the surface and if you drop a pinch of flour in it should separate and bubble away.
Slowly stir in the flour. Keep whisking until all of the flour is incorporated into a sort of "slurry". Then immediately remove from the heat; white roux is best for thickening, but if you keep cooking it it'll get darker and darker and start to become more of a flavorant than thickener.

[Skye1013]

Hm... must be nearing lunch time *drools*

[Fivelives]

Every time someone tells me they're hungry, I tell them what I made for dinner. End result - people stopped bitching to me about being hungry.

Win/win!

[Skye1013]

Eh, you can tell me all you want, doesn't really affect my hunger. OTOH, if I can SMELL it...

[Fivelives]

I'm really really good at describing my food.

[Gracerath]

That "stew flavor" isn't really a flavor at all if you ask me but more of an unctuousness, that lips smacking goodness we know and love from things such as good bbq ribs. That does indeed take time and controlled heat to break the connective tissues down into collagen. It actually doesn't take that long to do though and an hour or two simmering should do the trick with smaller pieces of meat. Your stew will be "done" in 2-3 hours and cooking it longer wont really do much for the flavor/texture. It is a convenience thing though. You can start it early in the day and basically let it simmer all day with no ill effects until everyone is ready for dinner.