EduCook: The Cookery Help and Ideas Thread

[StevieM]

Nice and easy.

 

Substitute 2 tbsp frozen chopped ginger for the fresh ginger if you wish

 

[ATTACH]57306[/ATTACH]

.....

 

I love the first instruction of that recipe:

 

Sweat an onion for 10 min.

 

My instant thought was this:

 

'OK, Onion. Time to 'fess up. We've got Garlic in the next room and he's told us everything. He said it was all your idea. You got anything to say? I'll give you 10 minutes to think about it...'

 

(There really is something wrong with the way my brain works!)

[StevieM]

I often make various 'noodle soups'.

 

Basic ingredients:

 

1 portion of dried noodles (broken up)

500ml of stock (vegetable/chicken/beef)

1 cup of frozen veg (peas/sweetcorn/mixed veg)

 

Boil up all the ingredients for about 5 minutes, et voila!

 

Optional ingredients:

 

Leftover chicken/beef (cooked!)

Mushrooms (sliced/quartered)

Cherry tomatoes (halved)

1/2 teaspoon chili powder (according to taste)

 

For pescatarians:

 

6 - 8 seafood sticks (torn into strips)

1 tablespoon of fish sauce (nam pla)

 

Cooked prawns could also be another option, although I've not tried that... yet.

Edited January 10, 2021 by elsiegee40

[elsiegee40]

Today’s invention:

 

CURRIED PARSNIP SOUP

 

Makes 8 portions. Will freeze.

 

3-4 teaspoons curry powder of choice.

1 large or 2 small onions - chopped

3 medium parsnips - peeled and roughly chopped

2 carrots - peeled and roughly chopped

1 apple (ideally cooker but eaters will do) - peeled and chopped

400g can chickpeas - drained and rinsed

250g dried lentils (doesn’t matter what kind)

Vegetable or chicken stock cube

 

NB If you don’t have a stick blender or liquidiser, I recommend chopping the veg more finely.

 

 

Fill a kettle with water and bring to the boil

 

Add 1 tbsp veg oil to a large pan and fry the curry powder gently for a couple of minutes stirring constantly.

 

Throw in all the veg and fry until the onion starts to soften, stirring frequently. Don’t have the heat too high or the curry powder will burn.

 

Add the lentils, chickpeas, stock cube and all the water from the kettle.

 

Cover, bring to the boil and then simmer gently until the lentils are soft (up to an hour). Stir regularly so the lentils don’t stick. You may need to add more water.

 

Blitz until smooth with a stick blender or in a liquidiser before serving.

Edited January 10, 2021 by elsiegee40

[elsiegee40]

Easy Quesadillas

 

Left over chilli

Grated cheese

Tortilla wraps

 

Leftover chilli is best for this as you need it to be quite dry. The Quesadillas will collapse otherwise

 

Reheat the chilli in the microwave

 

Start heating a large frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of oil in it.

 

Spoon some chilli onto a wrap

 

Top with grated cheese

 

Fold in opposing ends and then roll the wrap to make a parcel where the filling can’t fall out

 

Fry on both sides until golden

 

Serve with salad and a beer

Edited January 10, 2021 by elsiegee40

[LeMarchand]

Easy Quesadillas

 

If the end result is a parcel, wouldn't this be a fried burrito? /

 

Spookily, was going to use 2 spare tortillas to do a couple of (cheese only) quesadillas for lunch today.

[elsiegee40]

If the end result is a parcel, wouldn't this be a fried burrito? /

 

Spookily, was going to use 2 spare tortillas to do a couple of (cheese only) quesadillas for lunch today.

 

It’s neither really, but that’s what we call it at home for want of a better description

[jmak]

One of our regulars is veggie quesadillas.

 

Fry onions, green peppers, fresh chilli. Add dried oregano, and ground cumin. Cook until soft.

 

Meanwhile roughly mash two tins of black beans. Combine with the fried mixture once it's cooked and add grated cheese and fresh coriander.

 

Divide mixture into tortillas. (I cover half and then fold it over as it's easier to manage, but you can just sandwich the mixture between 2 tortillas if you prefer.)

 

Dry fry until tortilla is lightly browned and cheese is melted.

 

I then usually serve with home made guacamole, but couldn't get avocados last time I was shopping. Black beans were the only type of beans left on the shelf though. The only other essential non store cupboard item is the pepper and colour isn't essential. Substitute chilli powder or flakes if you don't have fresh. Spice and herbs help, but non essential.

 

Usually a breakfast dish for us.

Edited January 10, 2021 by elsiegee40

[Ditto]

You're all making me hungry! We had spag-bog tonight. I've never felt so opulent eating a big portion of pasta spaghetti and tinned tomatoes!

[Ditto]

Not quite a recipe but.. last year in my 5 sq metre vegetable plot, we had broccoli. I planted late but managed to to get a few heads. I didn't get around to pulling up the dormant plant, but they seemed to survive winter. Now i have just picked this

Normal, or more evidence of global warming? Either way, it's joining this evenings roast!

Edited April 5, 2020 by Ditto

[elsiegee40]

Journey to the back of the freezer. I made game pie from farmers market purchases that weren’t big enough to feed 4 adults. Venison, smoked pigeon breasts and.... kangaroo! It was really good [emoji3]

 

Dessert, made my daughter, was bread and butter pudding made with hot cross buns. Also yummy!

Edited January 10, 2021 by elsiegee40

[Djmonky1]

Journey to the back of the freezer. I made game pie from farmers market purchases that weren’t big enough to feed 4 adults. Venison, smoked pigeon breasts and.... kangaroo! It was really good [emoji3]

 

Dessert, made my daughter, was bread and butter pudding made with hot cross buns. Also yummy!

My dad did an amazing roast lamb with roast potato's, parsnips cauliflower and French beans

[john]

Sausage Plait was made this weekend with some sausage meat found in the back of the freezer

 

Nice and simple take a sheet of puff pastry,

Chuck the sausage meat in a bowl

Add in some softened onions and other items you like EG Pepper, sun dried tomato, mushroom, basic herbs if sausage meat is plain pork etc... and 1 Egg.

Spread the sausage meat down the middle of the pastry and then cut diagonal slashes each side of it and then brush with some egg and milk blend and fold over so it covers it all up

Bake in the oven 180 degrees for 40 mins-ish.

 

Serve hot or cold

Edited January 10, 2021 by elsiegee40

[elsiegee40]

Sausage Plait was made this weekend with some sausage meat found in the back of the freezer

 

Nice and simple take a sheet of puff pastry,

Chuck the sausage meat in a bowl

Add in some softened onions and other items you like EG Pepper, sun dried tomato, mushroom, basic herbs if sausage meat is plain pork etc... and 1 Egg.

Spread the sausage meat down the middle of the pastry and then cut diagonal slashes each side of it and then brush with some egg and milk blend and fold over so it covers it all up

Bake in the oven 180 degrees for 40 mins-ish.

 

Serve hot or cold

 

I made that at school.

 

That version was sausage meat, chopped onion and chopped bacon wrapped in puff pastry. I have some puff pastry and some sausagemeat in the freezer. I feel a plait coming on.

[jmak]

I made that at school.

 

That version was sausage meat, chopped onion and chopped bacon wrapped in puff pastry. I have some puff pastry and some sausagemeat in the freezer. I feel a plait coming on.

I usually make my own pastry, but it's easier to get ready made than flour at the minute. I'll be buying cheese sauce mix next...

[elsiegee40]

I usually make my own pastry, but it's easier to get ready made than flour at the minute. I'll be buying cheese sauce mix next...

 

I only ever buy puff pastry and filo. Shortcrust is well within my capabilities and so is rough-puff if I have time (and the ingredients )

[elsiegee40]

Having managed to buy plain flour today, but not self raising, I did some investigation into how to make my own self raising flour.

 

According to Nigella: Just add 2 teaspoons of baking powder for each 150g/6oz/1 cup plain flour. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl before using, to make sure the baking powder is thoroughly distributed (or you can put both ingredients into a bowl and whisk them together).

 

It might be useful to other bakers

Edited January 10, 2021 by elsiegee40

[Ditto]

Having managed to buy plain flour today, but not self raising, I did some investigation into how to make my own self raising flour.

 

According to Nigella: Just add 2 teaspoons of baking powder for each 150g/6oz/1 cup plain flour. Sift the flour and baking powder together into a bowl before using, to make sure the baking powder is thoroughly distributed (or you can put both ingredients into a bowl and whisk them together).

 

It might be useful to other bakers

The food scientist in me can't resist... If you don't have baking powder, then thoroughly mix half a teaspoon of cream of tartar and a quarter teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, which magically provides the equivalent of one teaspoon of baking powder. Chances are, if you are out of baking powder, you're unlikely to have these two other ingredients!

[elsiegee40]

Some useful ideas on baking ingredient swaps:

Baking Ingredient Swaps You Need To Know (HuffPost)

[6Foot2]

Link:

[Twitter UK Picture Tweet]

 

Missing your IKEA meatball fix? We’ve created a recipe for you to recreate this delicious dish in the comfort of your own home #IKEAmeatballs

 

Edited January 10, 2021 by elsiegee40

[LeMarchand]

Stir Fries are a great way to use up leftover veggies/that bit you didn't use in the other meal you cooked.

 

Tonight's special 1/3 bag kale left over from Sunday and 1/2 an onion from Saturday and some tofu that was on offer this week with standard (for us) store cupboard/fridge stuff. Rinse and drain kale and pick out any large stalky bits. Heat a tablespoon of sesame oil in the wok, add onion, roughly chopped until starting to soften, throw in roughly chopped red and yellow pepper (colour contrast) fry for a bit then add tofu. When tofu reasonably done throw in kale and stir until shrunk down a bit. Make sauce from a teaspoonful of gravy powder + 300ml ish of boiling water (or use stock), a couple of teaspoons of soy sauce and a few dashes of tabasco to taste. Pour into wok when all almost ready to serve and grate 1/2 a thumb of ginger over then top. Stir it all up and check it's all piping hot and serve with rice or noodles.

 

You can substitute/adjust spices to taste, though the above will be a lovely colour and fairly spicy/gingery.

Edited January 10, 2021 by elsiegee40

[elsiegee40]

Funnily enough we had leftovers stir fry last night too.

 

Ours was a quarter of a savoy cabbage shredded(leftover from last week),

 

half a red pepper cut into thin strips (leftover from Saturday),

 

slightly less leftover green pepper

 

half an onion chopped (leftover from yesterday),

 

A large handful of frozen peas

 

3 mushrooms sliced

 

2 half chillis pulled straight from the freezer and chopped

 

half a thumb of ginger pulled from the freezer and grated (thanks for this tip @LeMarchand; it’s dead easy to grate frozen)

 

All the scrappy bits pulled off Sunday’s roast chicken carcass

 

Pack of supermarket stir fry sauce that’s been sat in the cupboard (since let’s ignore the best before date it hasn’t killed us)

 

Served with rice

Edited January 10, 2021 by elsiegee40

[VeryPC]

Don't know if any of you saw yesterday but This Morning did a KFC inspired recipe and it looked finger lickin' good! And i'm sure plenty of the VeryPC team will be giving this a try today as it's treat Friday and we're missing KFC getting delivered at lunch time.

[elsiegee40]

As yeast is tricky to get hold have been experimenting with Beer Bread.

 

This requires self raising flour or plain flour with added baking powder rather than strong (bread) flour.

 

You will need:

 

A can/bottle of beer (any kind, but you do need to know the volume in millilitres.)

 

Depending on the size of the beer the ingredients are as follows

 

Preheat the oven to 180C fan.

 

Grease a loaf tin with butter, oil or margarine. You will need a 1lb loaf tin for the 250ml beer and a 2lb loaf tin for the bigger beers.

 

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them. Pour in the beer and stir thoroughly with a spoon until you have a smoothish batter.

 

Pour into the loaf tin.

 

Bake for 30-45 minutes.

 

Test with a skewer. If it comes out clean then it’s done.

 

 

 

I have got adventurous now. My most recent creation has Rosemary, crushed garlic and thinly sliced black olives in it [emoji4]

Edited January 10, 2021 by elsiegee40

[Ditto]

As yeast is tricky to get hold have been experimenting with Beer Bread.

 

This requires self raising flour or plain flour with added baking powder rather than strong (bread) flour.

 

You will need:

 

A can/bottle of beer (any kind, but you do need to know the volume in millilitres.)

 

Depending on the size of the beer the ingredients are as follows

[ATTACH]57866[/ATTACH]

 

Preheat the oven to 180C fan.

 

Grease a loaf tin with butter, oil or margarine. You will need a 1ln loaf tin for the 250ml beer and a 2lb loaf tin for the bigger beers.

 

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix them. Pour in the beer and stir thoroughly with a spoon until you have a smoothish batter.

 

Pour into the loaf tin.

 

Bake for 30-45 minutes.

 

Test with a skewer. If it comes out clean then it’s done.

 

 

 

I have got adventurous now. My most recent creation has Rosemary, crushed garlic and thinly sliced black olives in it [emoji4]

[ATTACH]57869[/ATTACH]

The bread looks very impressive. I'm wondering about trying that, but I'll get a large beer and drink until it fits the least amount of flour requirement and might try wild garlic. A rare thing happened yesterday. I cooked a banana bread - it was meant to be 4 bananas (Delia recipe) but I only had 3. So I added a little liquid but overdid it so it is a little heavy. The rare aspect was not the cooking, but that my wife did the same recipe the week before and hers was way better. I'm the one with a reputation for cooking, in part as I have a Catering qualification. On a positive, it gets me off cooking roast today!

Edited May 3, 2020 by Ditto

[mikeprice]

For those that are a bit stuck I thought this might help