mC's "Cooking for Dummies" Thread

[pip]

Then you can drink the Guinness

[raisindot]

Its not bad. We have many recipes here which involve hurling whatever you can find into a pot

You've just put me off Irish cooking forever, Pip.

[pip]

Well hurling means something completly different in Ireland than in the states .
Here it means beating each other over the head with sticks while a lump of leather flies through the air

[raisindot]

Well hurling means something completly different in Ireland than in the states .
Here it means beating each other over the head with sticks while a lump of leather flies through the air

Oh. Well, in that case, serve me up a bowlful.

[The Mad Collector]

Coddle is really good and I had beef in Guinness in Bewleys last year so they were still doing it then

Doing rabbit in cider tonight, the smells from the kitchen are wonderful

[shegallivants]

Vegetarian here, so no meat and more meat recipes from me

For a fuss-free, one-pot meal, I strongly recommend soups. You can make your own stock and freeze it, which, mostly for one, will last ages. And soups can feed you for a few days. I shall go dig up some of my favourite soup recipes for you, MC Curried carrot is a particular favourite, as is old cucumber soup.

I love pastas, which can be ridiculously simple and filling, and I cook that all the time, but they say your childhood meals are the last memories that can be taken from you, and I find that sometimes, only Asian food can do it for me.

Some noodles in miso soup (Just some kombu and miso paste, easy peasy!) or some garlic fried rice, claypot vegetables, tofu in sweet chili sauce or eggplant curry and enoki mushrooms with sesame oil, and you have a very happy shegs! Best thing- none of these even require recipes. I feel that asian cooking is unlike when I rustle up other cuisines, in that it's very instinctive.

[spideyGirl]

Heres a good ol Dublin recipe. Everyone knows about the Irish stew but its nothing compared to a proper Dublin Coddle.
Grew up with this stuff.
You can throw it together on a monday and keep it in the pot til friday eating it each day. And it gets a better flavour day by day.
Its a proper winter warmer food.

This will produce eight decent servings. You can get a big pot and do twice as much. German sausages can work but good ol Dennys are the best


Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Total Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes
Ingredients:

1-1/2 pounds pork sausage
1-1/2 pounds smoked ham, cut into 1-inch dice
1 quart boiling water
2 large yellow onions, peeled and thinly diced
2 pounds potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
4 tablespoons chopped parsley
Salt and Pepper and stuff

Preparation:
Place the sausage and ham in the boiling water and boil for 5 minutes. Drain, but reserve the liquid.

Put the meat into a large saucepan (or an oven-proof dish) with the onions, potatoes, and parsley. Add enough of the stock to not quite cover the contents. Cover the pot and simmer gently for about 1 hour, or until the liquid is reduced by half and all the ingredients are cooked but not mushy. You may need to remove the lid during the last half of the cooking process. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot with the vegetables on top and fresh Irish Soda Bread and a Pint of Guinness or a bit of Whiskey

OMG Coddle!! That takes me back to being a kid

[Tonyblack]

Vegetarian here, so no meat and more meat recipes from me

For a fuss-free, one-pot meal, I strongly recommend soups. You can make your own stock and freeze it, which, mostly for one, will last ages. And soups can feed you for a few days. I shall go dig up some of my favourite soup recipes for you, MC Curried carrot is a particular favourite, as is old cucumber soup.

I love pastas, which can be ridiculously simple and filling, and I cook that all the time, but they say your childhood meals are the last memories that can be taken from you, and I find that sometimes, only Asian food can do it for me.

Some noodles in miso soup (Just some kombu and miso paste, easy peasy!) or some garlic fried rice, claypot vegetables, tofu in sweet chili sauce or eggplant curry and enoki mushrooms with sesame oil, and you have a very happy shegs! Best thing- none of these even require recipes. I feel that asian cooking is unlike when I rustle up other cuisines, in that it's very instinctive.

As another vegetarian, I agree.

[meerkat]

Try The Real Witches Cook Book by Kate West.

It has all the Wiccan element (oils, cold cures, love potions but you don;t need that, etc), but the food is fantastic as are the soups. It is written sensibly! I've tried many of the soups and the biscuits and they are tasty.

Edited cos I forgot: Vegetarian and meat options and SO EASY!

[chris.ph]

i was a chef in a passed life if you need any tips mc pm me and i will try to sort you out

[michelanCello]

i was a chef in a passed life if you need any tips mc pm me and i will try to sort you out

Whohhooo! A real chef in our midst Thanks, Chris!

[michelanCello]

OK, I should really be doing something else and more useful, but I just don't feel like it so here's my recipe of today:

Creamy curry sauce with chicken and corn and rice
(it's a lot easier than it sounds )

I like this because it doesn't take much time to do it, you don't need many ingredients, most of which a well prepared kitchen (khmm... ) already has or if not, it's just a quich shopping experience
So what do you need?
-Half a chicken's breast (for one person, that is... or, depending on how hungry you are or how much meat you want in it, it can be more/less...)
-A package of cooking cream (I think I used the 250 ml edition, but I'm not sure a little package )
-A can of corn
-An oninon
-And rice, of course
-That's it, really

First of all, cut the chicken in little pieces (really small, that way it's quicker ready), throw some salt over it and than let it be while you're doing other stuff.
I continued with the rice. You can, of course, use quick rice, which is ready in 10 minutes, but I think if you make it yourself it tastes better. So take a pan, doesn't have to be too big and then take your favorite mug. Thing about rice is that you need twice as much water as the rice, so that's why it's easy to use a mug. I have a Discworld one, there's Death on it and the text: There is no justice, there's just me. (got it from Sjoerd ) So for two people, one Discworld mug of rice is enough - it really is. But before you cook it, put some oil in the pan and stir the rice in it for some time, until all the rice gets a bit yellow-ish. Then add the water and some salt, and that was the rice. You can already put some pepper and curry in the water, if you like (I do ) Stir it sometimes, and when it gets thicker (a bit like the semonlia pudding, really ) but when the water is not yet all gone, turn off the fire, or electricity, or whatever it is you're cooking on (otherwise the it'll burn down), and rice's ready. The rice will function like a sponge and will absorb the water, no worries
As for the sauce:
Chop up the onion into tiny little pieces and fry it a bit on the fire in a bit of oil in a middle-sized pan. When the onion's getting opaque, you can add the chicken and fry it until it's all white. If you want your chicken to be nice and soft, you can add a small glass of water. You can also already add pepper and curry and some more salt (there's never enough salt, if you ask me... I put salt in everything, and even like this it was not salty enough ) Meanwhile, mix the cooking cream with a little spoon of flour (in your mug, if you like ) and add the spices (salt, pepper, curry, whatever...) If the chicken's ready, add the corn first, let it get to know each other and then add the cream. Stirr until everything's nice and warm (shouldn't take long) and ready!

Hope I didn't leave out anything

[polythenegirl]

My biggest life saver for quick and easy but yummy and some that are noit your run of the mills tuff try Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals. I know a lot of people don't like him and stuff but leave that aside and the recipes and processes in it are really good.

My own personal favourites asdie from that is Japanese/Wagamamas style cooking - quick and easy but soo much flavour!

That and from my Mum - Stovies! On nom nom!

[chuckie]

I really miss my mums stovies

[shegallivants]

Making your own vegetable broth/stock, the basic building block of any lovely, healthy, non-high fructose corn syrup (and other scary additives) inclusive soup

It's super easy, uses cheap and easily located ingredients, takes a maximum of 15 minutes of chopping/prep time and then you can just leave it on the stove to do its thing.

This recipe makes about 10 cups of stock.

Ingredients

- The mirepoix of french cuisine: 1-2 chopped Large onions, 5 roughly chopped celery stalks, 1 lb/4 carrots/3-ish cups roughly chopped carrots (unpeeled is fine!). Plus! This will make your kitchen smell amazing.
- 3 cloves garlic
- 1 bay leaf (Or whatever other herbs you have, 1 Tb fresh=1 tsp dried)
- 10 peppercorns
- 3 Tb Tomato Paste
- 1 gallon of water

- Salt/Soy sauce to taste

And then also use whatever clean/fresh vegetable scraps you have- mushroom stalks, celery leaves, carrot and other peels, and whatever other vegetables you'd like to add in- I usually throw in some dried mushrooms, peppers and a potato for good measure.

1. Heat up some olive oil and you can chop and toss into the pot as you go along. Start with the onions and work your way down.

2. When you've tossed in all the ingredients, pour in the water.

3. Cook, covered, for 1 hour, turning the heat down once the broth starts boiling.

4. Salt/soy sauce to taste and let it simmer uncovered for another 15 minutes, uncovered.

5. Strain broth.

You can freeze them in ice cube trays for easy storage. It can last for about 2 months in the freezer and 5-7 days in the fridge.