Gin Learns To Cook

[MrSquishyDBC]

Upgrade #4: whisk together a little bit of milk (or butter, or cream) and egg yolk in a separate bowl; mix into the pasta noodles when they're fresh out of the water. Sprinkle with pepper and squirt with the juice from a fresh lemon. Add seared ham and you have spaghetti carbonara.

Damn, it's really that easy to make carbonara? Sweeeeeeet. I know what I'm making next time I'm cooking.

[Toby]

Well you can make a ghetto version just using bacon bits, or you can make a slightly classier version by tossing in sauteed shallots and grating a bit of lemon zest on top. But yes, spaghetti carbonara is really, really easy.

[kleptoman]

Ghetto spaghetti carbonara? Riiiiiight.

[pie]

Toby I used your soup recipe, it was awesome. The addition of cream cheese is inspired.

[Toby]

Glad it worked out for you! And, yeah, adding the cream cheese just occurred to me one day and I have never looked back. It's also fun to use flavoured cream cheeses sometimes (like the chive and onion one, for example).

Okay, here's another super-easy beginner recipe:

Butter chicken (the white man's curry):

- Two chicken breasts
- About 4 tbsp of natural yogurt (the lower the fat, the better)
- Some milk (how much depends on you -- see the recipe for details)
- Tomato additive of your choice! You can use a can of pureed tomatoes, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, or even a can of Campbell's tomato soup. It all depends on how thick/chunky/creamy you want your sauce to be. The most saucey is made by the soup, so you can start from there and experiment if you're not sure.
- An onion
- 3 cloves of garlic
- A knob of ginger about the size of your thumb.
- 2 red chillies
- Cumin, garam masala, turmeric, and paprika (all of which should be available in the foreign foods aisle for at least half the price as the McCormick variety in the baking aisle)
- Basmati rice (about half a cup's worth per serving)
- optional: 2 tsp of almond extract. Adds a little something but isn't necessary for those with nut allergies.
- optional: a side of naan bread or papadum; naan bread should be available in any good grocery store - usually around the pita varieties. Papadum should be available in the foreign food aisle; they come in a slim pack and require a bit of preparation, but most of the time you can microwave them.
- optional: a cup of natural yogurt, a cucumber and some lemon juice.

Cut your chicken into bite-sized strips; finely chop the onion, garlic, and ginger.

OPTIONAL: you can marinade your chicken before hand (preferably for a few hours) by tossing them in a zip-lock bag with the onion, garlic, and ginger, as well as a few glugs of olive oil and about a the optional almond extract.

OPTIONAL: If you bought naan, spread some butter on a slice and sprinkle with garlic powder. Wrap in tin foil, shiny-side in, and plop in the oven at 400 F until ready to eat.

Get your basmati rice going, either in a rice cooker or in the microwave, or the stove, I guess, if you're one of those. If you don't know how to cook rice, read the instructions on the bag. Make sure to add a glug of olive oil and 2 tsp of turmeric to the rice when you start cooking.

In a large pan, heat a few glugs of extra virgin olive oil and the optional almond extract (if you didn't add it to the marinade). Add chicken chunks to the pan; add finely-chopped: onions, garlic, and ginger (peel the ginger first, obviously) When the chicken is cooked all the way through, add chopped red chillies; season with about 2 tsp of cumin, 2 tsp of garam masala, and 2 tsp of paprika. Stir until coated evenly.

At this point, you want to add your tomato additive. I recommend beginning with the soup if you're really not sure. If you do use the soup, be sure to mix in some milk to thin it out before adding it to the pan. Use the whole can, and as much milk as you think is right; keep an eye on the consistency and keep in mind that the heat will reduce it somewhat. If you're using any other sort of tomato additive, make it creamier by stirring in dollops of natural yogurt. As above, it's really your call how much you use; just stir in spoonful at a time until it looks like your cup of tea.

Once you've added your tomato whatever, heat to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer for about 7 minutes. At this point, taste your sauce and make sure you don't need any more spices. Cumin will make it muskier, garam masala a bit sweet, and paprika a bit woody. Feel free to add cayenne pepper or curry powder if you feel it needs more heat, and salt and pepper. It's also not too late to add milk or yogurt to adjust the consistency of the sauce, but be sure to stir it in completely.

Serve over rice and naan bread.

OPTIONAL: Raita

To make raita, simply combine about a cup of natural yogurt with half a shredded cucumber and a tsp of lemon juice. Stir, and add to the side of any curry to cut the heat.


That's like the easiest curry recipe I know, so hopefully someone can make use of it. If you want, I can post something a bit more advanced next time.

[Desov2]

Ya know, I might try cooking one day. This doesn't seem all that difficult...
This thread should be renamed, Toby teaches everyone how to cook.

[ninja-pie]

Also, if you don't have a lot of meat/you REALLY like curry, you can add potato. You don't need to cook it, just cut it into pieces about the same size as the chicken. I'm not entirely sure when you'd add it with this recepie, because the one I use simmers for nearly 20 minutes. I'll cook it soon and see. Otherwise, parboiling it then adding with the tomato would probably work.

[Toby]

Potato does need to simmer for a lot longer than the chicken to get nice and chewy. If you wanted to make it with potato, I'd say start off with it simmering in a bit of olive oil and water over medium heat for like 15 minutes before adding the onions and whatnot and going from there. Keep making sure to add more water to the potatoes if it starts to dry out in the pan, and be sure to salt and pepper them nicely. When you start to add the onions, drain out the excess water.

You can try and do the softening in the sauce process, but potatoes are absorbant and if you wait until then they will use up a lot of your sauce in the process.

Alternatively you can also use tofu, which you can just be prepared exactly like the chicken.

Or you can make aloo gohbi, which is a potato-and-cauliflower curry. I can post that recipe after work.

[Toby]

DOUBLE POSTAGE OMG.

Thought I'd post what I made for dinner tonight, just as an example of how easy some stuff can be if you have a little imagination.

The only prep I did was pulling some frozen chicken from the freezer last night; I had to work all day so I wasn't really sure what I'd make until I got home and saw what I had lying around in the freezer.

Salad:

Spinach
Red onion
Golden delicious apple
Sunflower seeds
Havarti cheese
Poppyseed dressing

Combine all of the above and toss.

Meat:

I took about half a packet of cream cheese, a hunk of borgonzola cheese, some fresh basil leaves (chopped), and some bacon bits and mixed them all together. Then I cut the chicken into filets, spooned on some of the mixture, then rolled up the chicken and held it together with toothpicks. Put it onto a baking tray with some tin foil, drizzled olive oil and white wine on top; sprinkled with more basil, a little bit of garlic powder, paprika, salt, and pepper. Baked in the oven at 350 F for about 45 minutes.

You'll be left with lots of left-over borgonzola spread; I'm gonna eat it with kalamata olives and wheat biscuits as a tasty, tasty snack later.

Side:

Baby potatoes, sliced red onion, garlic, and fresh thyme roasted with olive oil, white wine, salt and pepper. Cooked at the same time (for the same time)

Pretty delicious, though if I wasn't so lazy I might've breaded the chicken, first or turned the left-over borgonzola spread into a sauce to eat on the potatoes.

[Pirate Jack]

Oh, hey.

Congrats on moving out, Gin!

[ksdjhjkfg56]

I'd recommend investing ten bucks in an enamel/teflon frying pan, that way eggs and whatnot won't stick whether you're using cooking spray or not. Just a bit of butter for flavour will do it. And get a silicon or wooden spatula to flip your eggs with too, so you don't scratch the pan all up.

So after two months of instant ramen and restaurants, I figure I should learn how to cook. I like to cook, I'm just terribly lazy bad at it

South Park Box set

[Toby]

More people need to post in this thread so I can talk about food.

[Tekkactus]

Today for lunch I ate a sandwich with peanut butter and strawberry jaaaaaaam.

[Bronze]

Remind me later to share with you my knowledge of mince. I can make like a billion things with it, guys.