Entries tagged with question

Entry tags:

Question of the day

What would you recommend putting in a quarantine quiche?

Alternatively: [assuming you had sufficient eggs,] what ingredients do you currently have in your home that you think would make a good combination for quiche?

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Pizza Dough from Scratch?

I'm cooking with a co-conspirator this evening to whip up dinner for 30+ people (yes, I'm back to affiliating with that previous co-op), and am hitting a brain fizzle on a key element of ze master plan: good pizza dough recipe?

I need one I can make in quantity for 3 large trays of pizza, and obv. one that doesn't require a super-long rise time; 4-5 hours at most would be ideal.

Any suggestions? I've got all the usual kinds of ingredients to work with, plus lovely industrial-size mixer + bowls. Vegan recipe strongly preferred.

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Chicken Stock from Scratch?

'elp! 'elp! Some assistance much appreciated

I'm setting aside some time today to batch prepare most of my household's meals for the week, and would love to actual use the leftover chicken bones to make stock instead of tossing them out. Does anyone have any experience making stock from such bones? and/or a reliable recipe they might point me to?

ETA: success! Details here: Adventures in homemade chicken stock (FOR SCIENCE)

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Openface sardine sandwich / other uses for sardines?

I have discovered that I like this simple openface sardine sandwich moderately well.

Ingredients
2 slices of bread
1 tin of sardines packed in olive oil
A little lemon juice

Instructions
Toast two slices of bread.
Open tin of sardines, remove sardines with fork and put them on the toast.
Split sardines down the middle so they're closer to flat, and arrange them on the slices of toast.
Put a little lemon juice in a spoon (so as not to accidentally pour too much onto the food) and drizzle it over the sardines.

I don't love it, but I like it well enough that it's a convenient quick meal, especially when trying to avoid dairy and non-fish meat.

Any other suggestions for quick and simple things that can be done with sardines, or minimal-effort ways this simple sandwich could be varied?

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What to Cook For Dinner? The Vegetable Dilemna

Hey all--

I'm signed up to cook with my friend D- at the Co-op tonight, and I'm not sure what I want to do for our two vegetable dishes. (For starch we're doing wheat rolls, for protein some kind of chili.) To give you some context, we're cooking for 25 - 35, and the cook's assistant will be making a basic salad of some kind. We usually start cooking ~3pm EST (i.e. in about 2 hours as of this post) and serve dinner at 6:30pm.

What we currently have ingredients-wise in the walk-in refrigerator:

some kind of yellow-hued squash with skin as tough as pumpkin -- maybe spaghetti squash?
parsnips
beets
carrots
lemons
grapefruit
okra - tagged 'use me!'
zucchini
celery
brussels sprouts
eggplant [we had this last night, so I'd rather not use this as a primary ingredient]

Assuming as you should that we've got all the usual kitchen basics (e.g. onions + garlic + various oils) and then some, any suggestions? Both D- and I are good cooks; sometimes we do fancy dishes, sometimes simple, but in general we like to bring out what's uniquely delicious about particular ingredients (as opposed to drowning them in batter or otherwise masking the taste.) My default would be grilling the brussels sprouts with a little veggie oil and sautéing the zucchini, but I'm in the mood to do something different - I just don't know what.

ETA: For those interested, I did do the beet burger recipe several nights later. Here's the aftermath report in a comment thread.

Entry tags:

meat,
question

Meat recipes good cold?

Hi, I've been watching this community for a few months, but just joined. I'm looking for good recipes (preferably fairly simple, though I might be able to handle a more complex one) that contain meat and are good eaten room temperature/cold. I have a feast coming up that will be sort of picnic-style, without much chance to reheat food. (There is a microwave, but it may be pretty busy with other people trying to reheat things, and I'd rather not get into that competition.)

A few restrictions:
-No nuts or peanuts (pine nuts are okay, though)
-No hot pepper or black pepper

(In my inquiries elsewhere, the best candidate recipe so far is salami rolled around cream cheese, which has been suggested by two different people.)

Current Mood: confused

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Making pasta in the microwave?

Hello all!

I'm hoping to pick to your collective brains in the hopes that someone has the answer to this question. I have recently acquired a 20L microwave/grill/convection oven and am now facing the cold hard truth that I don't know how to use it other than re-heating things. (Oops.)

The weather here in Germany is getting colder, and I am craving PASTA! Hence, my question to you all: how can I cook pasta in a microwave? What kind of dishes/equipment do I need to purchase? (I have, quite literally, nothing.) Are some sorts of pasta going to be harder than others? I do own an electric hot water cooker, so I can boil water ahead of time, if that helps.

In other important information, I share a tiny room, have next to no storage space, have almost no prep space, have a sink, share a tiny under-the-counter-fridge, do NOT have a freezer, have two hot plates but do not use them (hence the microwave/oven) due to fear of burns, do not currently have any storage containers but can get some when I get cooking dishes/equipment if it's recommended.

I am disabled, hence the not cooking on hot plates, use crutches and hand/arm braces, and have reduced motor skills in my hands/arms/legs. Spoons vary wildly by day and time of day.

I need to eat more and eat warm food. I turn to you in hopes of being able to start having pasta. If I can cook pasta, I can make a batch and refrigerate it, and then re-heat it and make sauces or dress it as my stomach permits (I have weird food things due to a chronic illness) and a lot of things would be better. At least one of my closer friends and her mother would stop bitching (they bought the microwave).

I thank you all in advance and look forward to being able to have pasta! X-posted to

cookability

Current Mood: cheerful

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ideas for chicken thigh recipes?

Hi everyone! I'm new to this comm, and I've got a question. I need to make something for dinner tonight, and I have no idea what--except that I've got six chicken thighs (about 2 pounds) of chicken thighs in my freezer, and I'd really like to try cooking them.

I've never worked with chicken thighs before, only breasts, so I don't even know where to begin. They're not deboned, nor probably deskinned (I can't recall, off the top of my head), and while I can remove the bones and skin, I'd rather not go to all that work today. Does anyone have a reasonably easy (I'm feeling pretty lazy today), flavourful recipe they could recommend? I'd appreciate it so much. ♥

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Freezing cooked ham?

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

Entry tags:

flour,
question

Density versus fluffiness of pumpkin bread

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!

Entry tags:

equipment,
question

Cooking with a cast iron skillet

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?

Entry tags:

question,
recipe

Recipe software?

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!

Current Mood: curious

Entry tags:

garlic,
question

Question about garlic

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: confused

Entry tags:

question

(no subject)

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!)

Entry tags:

question

(no subject)

Apologies for this post being similar to

cesy's earlier post, but here goes.

Does anyone here know of any simple savoury dishes that are both suitable for vegetarians and lactose-free? Being lactose-free is actually the more important of the two, as I can nearly always find a way around using actual meat (Quorn is an absolute lifesaver).

Another thing to keep in mind is that I'm using pretty basic equipment - I don't currently have a microwave, and I broke my blender a while ago (long story) - so I'm basically just working with a stove and an oven (as long as I don't break those too).

Entry tags:

question

freezing cooked filo pastry

Hi, I have a question... can you freeze cooked filo pastry and cooked ricotta cheese? I want to make some bolognaise triangles I found the recipe for in a magazine, but I want to make them tommorow and freeze them for next week so I can just thaw a couple to throw in my sons lunch box. I know you can freeze uncooked filo, and uncooked ricotta (as I've bought frozen spinach and ricotta filo triangles) but I'm unsure about freezing the cooked versions. The filo is so flakey that I think it will go soggy when it thaws... am I right in thinking that?

Entry tags:

main dish,
question

Easy main course

Does anyone have a favourite easy main course, to cook when you're short of spoons for anything fancy? I'd like to learn more things that are nearly as easy as a ready meal, while not being a ready meal.