The Org's next top chef

[Fall_Child42]

Here is the cooking and food thread.

Can any of you cook?
What is your favourite type of food?
Any good recipes you can share?

Currently I am really digging hot and spicey foods. Trying all sorts of hot sauces from all over looking for that awesome kick of heat!

I hate brussel sprouts, but i found if you cook them with plenty of Bacon and blue cheese they become awesome.

[dreamawake]

I can cook, nothing over the top or anything but I've never cooked bad food. I make bomb ass breakfasts, bacon sausage omolets with pepperjack cheese. Delicious french toast with scramby eggs. So on and so fourth. I cook a pretty mean steak, too. Not that it's difficult.

[godix]

I can cook well enough to feed a single middle aged male, myself. I tend towards stir-fry mostly. It's easy. It's fairly nutritious. It's easy. It's pretty tasty. It's easy. People are far more impressed with it than it deserves really. It's easy.

Recipe: Take bag of frozen veggies. Defrost. Drain excess water. Throw in skillet. Toss in chunks of meat. Stir occasionally until meat is done. Add soy sauce, or other oriental flavoring of your choice.

[Fall_Child42]

I can cook well enough to feed a single middle aged male, myself. I tend towards stir-fry mostly. It's easy. It's fairly nutritious. It's easy. It's pretty tasty. It's easy. People are far more impressed with it than it deserves really. It's easy.

Recipe: Take bag of frozen veggies. Defrost. Drain excess water. Throw in skillet. Toss in chunks of meat. Stir occasionally until meat is done. Add soy sauce, or other oriental flavoring of your choice.

you defrost them?
I don't normally wait that long and just toss them in the wok.
also I add rice.
(sometimes an egg)

[godix]

you defrost them?
I don't normally wait that long and just toss them in the wok.
also I add rice.
(sometimes an egg)

Oh, a wok. Look at mr fancy-pants.

I defrost simply because I got tired of constantly having to drain the water from the thing as the ice melted. And yeah, sometimes an egg is good. Although I usually scramble it first then add veggies and meat, otherwise it tends to get stuck to the broccoli and stuff. But that adds another two or three minutes to cooking, and I'm too lazy to do that often.

[inthesto]

I snort lines of bacon salt off of my own ass.

[dj_ultima_the_great]

I've been teaching myself to cook off and on for the last year or two.

I made sushi over the summer, which came out okay, except that I used arborio rice instead of sushi rice, I didn't quite roll up my seaweed enough, and I didn't have a sharp knife. So, they kind of fell apart when I was cutting them. Here's a picture of my failure.

I also attempted Spanish paella. My host mother in Spain made the best paella ever as a special treat twice per semester, and I really wanted to have it again, so I tried to cook a modified version on my own. It came out okay, if nothing like hers. I would be content just to cook the rice, chicken stock, and chorizo. That part alone was delicious.

Oh, and I also attempted Mongolian grill, with water chestnuts, snow peas, tofu, mushrooms, shrimp, peanuts, rice noodles, a bit of fresh parsley, and a homemade peanut sauce. The sauce is amazing, but I need to thin it out. My noodles end up as one big glob of delicious and the other ingredients hardly get covered. I'm loathe to use water to thin it since it adds no flavor, but I can't think of what else would do the job and not be gross.

That's about it as far as any dishes with complexity go. I make a great breaded and baked chicken, and I can whip up a good pasta dish in short order. I'm going to try to learn to bake over the summer. I make stuff with my mom every once in a while, but I don't do anything on my own besides box mixes, and I figure it's a decent skill to have.


- Jen

[Ileia]

Oh, and I also attempted Mongolian grill, with water chestnuts, snow peas, tofu, mushrooms, shrimp, peanuts, rice noodles, a bit of fresh parsley, and a homemade peanut sauce. The sauce is amazing, but I need to thin it out. My noodles end up as one big glob of delicious and the other ingredients hardly get covered. I'm loathe to use water to thin it since it adds no flavor, but I can't think of what else would do the job and not be gross.

Try a beef or chicken broth. Add a little at first, some brands are actually quite flavorful.

[MycathatesyouAMV]

My signature dish includes putting dried noodles in a bowl and placing marshamllows on top, then cooking them in the microwave for a minute, until the marshmallows melt on them. Yum.....

[Ileia]

I have a few years of professional cooking under my belt, but when at home I just prefer to wing it. I'm less of an "exact measurement" and more of a "that tastes right" sort of cook. I recently baked about 12 dozen shortbread/sugar cookies (and some almond spritz) with buttercream frosting, and this week I'm going to make meals for the apartment for a few nights. Tonight, we're going to have my from-scratch tomato-parmesian meat sauce over penne rigate (my all time favorite pasta). Other meals this week include chicken alfredo, beef taquitos, a roast, and at some point, deviled eggs. For some reason, everyone loves my deviled eggs, so I try to make them when we have people visiting Chicago. (like Otohiko, for instance). Todd, you already know the recipe for them, but I'll share with everyone else:

Ileia's Deviled Eggs Recipe

Ingredients:

6 Hard-boiled eggs*
3 Tablespoons miracle whip (or mayonnaise, if you prefer)
1 Teaspoon mustard
1/4 Teaspoon salt
A pinch of pepper
Peel the eggs, then slice them into halves, scooping the yolks into a bowl. Blend yolks with miracle whip, mustard, salt and pepper until the mixture is smooth. Don't worry if there's a few lumps, that just gives it character. Spoon the mixture into egg halves, chill, then serve. (Tip: I like to make a piping bag out of a ziploc bag. Just spoon the mixture in, cut a little off an edge of the bag and squeeze into egg halves. Makes 'em pretty.)
* Place eggs in pot, fill with water (about 1-2 inches above eggs), boil for 18 minutes. Don't try to put the eggs in the water when it's boiling - you could crack them. Drain and run under cool water until eggs feel cool to the touch.