boilingwater | Recent Entries

So I was going to make tzatziki sauce to go with some chicken I was making for a social gathering, but then I cleaned my apartment instead.

So I have a quart of plain non-fat yogurt that I drained to make Greek-style yogurt... and no inspiration for what to do with it. A whole quart of it - all for me. That's a lot of dairy.

Other miscellaneous things I have in my fridge for it to go with:

leftover cooked rice - both brown and white
roasted garlic
lime
liquid from reconstituting mushrooms
pan juices from cooked chicken (what? I try not to waste - even if I am dieting-ish and the juices are mostly fat)
broccoli
a lot of salad greens - liek whoah
tortillas
harissa
a ton of random condiments from many cuisines
an acorn squash
new potatoes

rydra_wong

I thought I would post this recipe here as I'm making it for lunch, it doesn't require any skills beyond the ability to boil water, and it's always good.

(Credit where it is due: I think I originally found it in a book by Andrew Weil).

Put fillets of salmon in a big pot.

Cover them with cold water; add a pinch of salt if you feel like it.

Put on the hob and bring to the boil.

Turn down the heat and let them simmer for 5 minutes.

Then turn off the heat, do not move the pot, and leave undisturbed for 10 minutes.

Remove the salmon and eat or put in the fridge as you choose. Poached salmon is great hot or cold, and goes wonderfully with aioli or any other garlicky and/or mayonnaise-y type dressing.

mathsnerd

This is one of those things that comes up for me time and time again, and I never know how to deal with it. Now, I can ask you guys. YAY!

So, I have a recipe that calls for cooked ham. I got some at Whole Foods, from the deli counter, and it's a *huge* piece. I'm hoping to be able to use half of it in the recipe, and save the other half for a while. Of course, that makes me think of freezing it, but I do not know if that is possible.

So, dear knowledgeable residents of

boilingwater, can I freeze cooked ham? And if so, how would I best do so to have it come back out of the freezer in top condition?

Thanks in advance!

Yr obdt svt etc

mathsnerd

jaybee65

I made my very first ever attempt at baking something last night: pumpkin walnut bread. In the process, I discovered many things: Flour is messy! Walnuts work better in bread when you remember to crush them, rather than dumping them into the mix whole! Drinking alcohol as you struggle to measure ingredients precisely is probably not a good idea, but *does* make it less aggravating!

I followed the recipe (found online here) as carefully as I could, and the bread turned out pretty well for a first attempt. However, the texture is a lot fluffier and less dense than I was expecting -- it's rather cake-like, in fact. Is this likely to be due to the kind of flour I used? (The recipe called for All-Purpose flour.) Is there another type of flour that might produce something denser? Or is it something other than the flour that influences this? Any suggestions gratefully received!

libitina

It has been a few months since I read about double-boiler scrambled eggs, and I'm still a bit flabbergasted by the whole discussion.

So it's possible to get eggs wrong - they can be burnt or impossible to scrape out of a pan or unevenly cooked in a way you find icky. But once you get past that - you're doing it right.

There is no single perfect platonic ideal of an omelette for all occasions. There's the thick, sometimes browned, 2 egg omelette of the buffet line; there's the thin, custardy French rolled omelette; there's the even thinner folded short order grill omelette; and there're even the scrambled eggs you were hoping to serve as an omelette, but which are still tasty just the way they are.

Seriously, I don't care whether you pre-mix your scrambled eggs or just break the yolk in the pan. I don't care whether you turn with a spatula, fork, or just swirl the pan delicately. The eggs are still going to be delicious.

But here's the true secret to delicious eggs. It's the one thing that makes someone's fancy egg demonstration taste so much better than yours. The secret - the really important secret - is that you have to convince whoever is eating the eggs that the rest of the food is unimportant, and that they should be standing around - fork in hand - waiting to eat the freshly cooked egg the moment it leaves the pan. That, more than anything else, improves the eggy experience.

quackaquacka

I have just about mastered the art of covering a cake in royal icing when someone is trying to shove a spirit level up your nose ("is it level? I don't think that's level.") but I am now trying to come to terms with soft icing.

I usually go for the oh-so-technical art of cutting it in half and spreading a bit in the middle, and then bunging it on the top until it's covered but I always get complaints that there's too much icing (honestly, some people...)

So does anyone have any tips? I am planning on making a cake tonight (either German chocolate or strawberry, haven't yet decided!) so I can try it out!

Crossposted, sorry if you get it twice!

jjhunter

gentle readers, i have a conundrum.

( time made a fool out of me )

this is not a state of affairs that can be permitted to continue. my dignity, my self-respect, and the minor matter of my reputation as competent in the kitchen depend on closing the achievement gap between myself and those posting enthusiastic reviews on cooking websites with frequent resort to all caps. i have decided to throw myself on the collective mercy of crowd-sourcing. listen closely, dear readers, for i do not say this lightly: help me, omnomnom kenobi et al. you're my least embarrassing source of hope.

x-posted to

omnomnom

sasha_feather

My standard lunch for myself is something I make in my cast-iron skillet: I start with cut-up potatoes and add whatever vegetables I have in my fridge, and maybe some sausage. I use a bit of olive oil in the bottom of the pan, and add some spices on top. Cook over medium heat until the potatoes turn golden brown.

My problem is this: the potatoes stick to the bottom of the pan, making a layer of stuck-on food that I have to scrub off later. Should I be using less oil? More? Adjusting the heat? Should I simply resign myself to this problem and soak my pan when I'm done?

red_squared

Posted to

boilingwater and to

omnomnom:

Do any of you use software for managing recipes, and if so, can you suggest a good program (or unsuggest a bad one)?

I'm looking for something that will run on Windows Vista, and that lets you add your own ingredients, and that contains nutritional information for ingredients (at the very least, caloric information, but the more [carbs, carbs from sugar, fat, fibre, etc] the better!).

If it ties in with any of the iPhone grocery shopping applications, this is a definite bonus!

rivenwanderer

I cook dinner once a week for my housemates--6 people total counting myself. Usually another housemate and I work together, but she'll be out of town and I'm having a hard time coming up with a plan for making dinner on my own. What's a good one or two-dish (ETA: vegetarian!) meal for 6 that doesn't take more than a couple of hours to put together?

azurelunatic

Pork shoulder roast was on $0.99/lb sale this week. According to the internet, I can bake these mofos. According also to the internet, an hour a pound is probably sufficient for non-frozen items. (If you have a spear thermometer, it should be over 170°F internally by the time you're pulling it out of the oven.)

What I did:

One 3-and-change-lb roast
One large glass roasting pan
Several liberal shakes of Canadian steak seasoning/Montreal steak seasoning (about a tablespoon or two) fore and aft (on the pan below the roast and on top of the roast)
Several liberal shakes of garlic powder (a teaspoon or two) on top
A cup or so of water in the bottom of the pan
Four hours at 350°F

Results:

Tasty, a little dry on the inside (the internet recommended covering the pan with foil, which I might well do next time), and enough meat to last for a couple days. My aunt says I should boil the bone and scraps for broth.

I have another one in the freezer. Stocking up while on sale = win.

jame_alec

Yesterday I made soup again. In the past I had made the pasta with the broth, simmered the veggies separately, and strained and dumped them in. I realized I was probably losing nutrients by boiling them separately, so this time I simmered the veggies with the broth and strained and added the noodles. When I simmered the veggies I covered the pot with a lid.

And now my soup has a very noticeable sour taste. Nothing I put in it was particularly sour or expired... what could be causing this sour taste? And is there anything I can do about it now, or am I stuck with sour soup?

ETA: For the veggies I used a bag of mixed vegetables. It had corn, green beans, several types of peas, and carrots.

akite

What exactly is a clove of fresh garlic? Is it the whole bunch or just one of the little heads inside the bunch? I've never cooked with fresh garlic before, always used garlic powder, but I want to branch out, and I'm a little confused by the terminology.

ETA: Thanks, everyone!

Current Mood: curious

jame_alec

Finally, after three tries of soup making and only now getting one that's good, I thought it might be fun to share things we've learned the hard way.

Some of mine:

Bags of frozen mixed vegetables are not precooked. If you dump these in your soup at the end to allow them to thaw, you will have very crunchy soup.

You cannot freeze soup with pasta in it. It will all be mush when you thaw it.

I have to say, though, learning it the hard way has ensured I will never forget it!

sasha_feather

So I bought some bok choy today because it was so pretty. I thought it was funny that the clerk at the grocery didn't know what it was (not that I'm judging). This is the first time I've ever bought it.

I'm going to try cooking it in my cast-iron skillet with some olive oil, which is how I cook everything. I googled some instructions, but I want to also cook some potatoes and other veggies so I may just throw it in with them.

Any tips?

:D

Also I bought PLANTAINS.

I'm being experimental! Yay.

zarhooie

Do not stick your finger in the boiling water. No, this is not a good idea.

No, really.

<3,
Your mod who just did what she's telling you NOT to do

azurelunatic

First up, this is not a last minute dinner. This is an all-afternoon or all-day dinner. Plan accordingly. When you get a formulation you like, it makes excellent leftovers. This recipe is imprecise, and can be tailored to your personal needs in beef stew. This is how my mother made it, and it's still one of my favorite foods.

Ingredients:
Stew beef (not too much fat, cut in bite-sized cubes); you could use chicken but then it would no longer be beef stew -- in a quantity sufficient to let everyone have at least three good chunks in their bowl
a whole mess of potatoes, scrubbed or peeled and cut in chunks; about any kind of potato will do although I have not tried it with sweet potatoes -- about half a large potato per serving but you can fiddle with this.
Vegetable or vegetables of choice (I often use carrots and celery) cut in small pieces -- maybe 1/4 cup per serving but you can fiddle with this as you prefer
Onions in your preferred form (fresh cut in pieces, dried, or onion powder)
Garlic in your preferred form (fresh chopped or pressed, or garlic powder)
Italian seasoning, or as many as you can find/as you actually like of its usual components (bay leaves, basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, sage, marjoram, savory, coriander [I personally loathe it], red pepper flakes, parsley)
Water
Oil (optional)
Salt (optional)
Soy sauce (optional)

Serving suggestion: with bread

( Read more... )

yvi

So, I used to be a beginning cook. In fact, until one year ago. Since then, I have been learning cooking from my boyfriend and would probably be classified as intermediate.

Still, not cooking much does not mean one can't have tasty things. This is something I just made for myself because it's easy, fast and doesn't leave a mess. Oh, and it's yummy.

Scrambled eggs
with mushrooms and peppers

Difficulty: 2/5 (plain scrambled eggs would be less difficult)
Mess-factor: 2/5
Time needed: 2/5 - about 10-15 minutes

( On to the recipe )

angelikitten

This is going to sound like the stupidest question ever, but...

How much, exactly, is a 'cup' of something? Does it depend on what it's a cup of? I've never been able to find measuring cups, so is this just an American measurement?

(I warned you it was a stupid question!)

Current Mood: confused

exhausted_pigeon

My Grandma's traditional never-fail self-saucing chocolate pudding. It's the recipe that has never failed anyone in our family and gets brought out at every birthday unless we've made Grandma's chocolate/orange/lemon cake instead. I made it on Tuesday night for my cousin's birthday and thought I should share it. It takes five-ten minutes to throw together before you sit down to eat and it's ready at the end of the meal.

( Grandma's Self-Saucing Chocolate Pudding )