So, pretty sure everyone likes eating stuff sometimes, especially when stuff is tasty. It also helps to make it good for you, and look good, and smell appetizing. All of this can be pretty hard to do, and I hope this thread is going to help people do that.
If you feel good about something you recently made, feel free to post it. If you have ingredients around but don't know what to do with them, post it here. If you have a recipe, but want opinions on what you could do differently, ask around. If you want to get some feedback on something you're working on, etc etc.
I don't want it to stop there though. Not only the cooking process, but things like what ingredients to get. When I went to local spice store, I saw so many things that I had never heard of before, from so many different parts of the world, and if you have something you'd like to share, go for it.
I don't want this to be reserved only for main meals either, and I want people to be free to discuss whatever dishes they want. Maybe you've made a nice desert dish, or baked a really nice cheesecake. Even though people have probably had cheesecakes before, doesn't mean they've made one before, and tips are always welcome. I'm not vegetarian, but I'm sure some people on this site are, and they'd probably be happy to have some new stuff to work with.
While I'm currently not in any food science field, I am personally studying it a bit, so questions in fields such as molecular gastronomy and the process by which we can taste so many flavors are welcome. If you've learned something interesting about it, you can post it here as well.
So, some ground rules:
No fighting please. Feel free to disagree with someone about preferred tastes, but don't start insulting each other about having inferior tastes etc. If you want to post a picture, please put the name of the dish and spoiler the image. If there is more you want to put (ingredients, instructions) then please place that in the spoiler as well.
And yeah, that's it. I hope this thread manages to help people out and let them learn a few things about the vast world of cooking.
Good first. I'd probably spice up the cucumber a bit, salt and pepper, and put it in the oven for at a really low temperature (ex. 230F). It's not going to have that same crunchy texture, but the idea is to watch it and take it out before it gets too mushy (test it yourself for what you want). While I haven't tried myself, I've heard of it being used in stir-fry as well. It's a bit crunchier than most vegetables, so it adds a nice new texture along with the refreshing taste.
Lately I've been eating a lot of simple orzo. About 5/4 cup orzo; 7/4 cup water. 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon; 2 tbsp. vegetable oil spread (which is like butter) Makes nice and fast, tastes good, very inexpensive.
Probably my favorite dish with cucumber is a cold Chinese chicken pasta salad. Julienne cut cucumber and carrots, and throw them into chilled noodles and chicken. Then mix with a spicy sesame sauce. Fairly easy to make as long as you get the sauce right (Chinese tahini, soy sauce, dark vinegar, and hot pepper oil).
EDIT: It's a Sichuan dish for those wondering. Very authentic and nowhere to be found in American Chinese restaurants =(
On April 03 2014 07:24 zlefin wrote: Lately I've been eating a lot of simple orzo. About 5/4 cup orzo; 7/4 cup water. 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon; 2 tbsp. vegetable oil spread (which is like butter) Makes nice and fast, tastes good, very inexpensive.
Any idea what kind of store you'd get orzo from? Don't see it much at grocery stores. I might not have looked hard enough at the market near me though.
On April 03 2014 07:12 hellokitty[hk] wrote: Nom nom nom nom nom nom nomnomnomnomnomnomNOM. I like eating food it's my favorite.
What to do with cucumbers, if you don't want to eat them raw?
Just thought about that question while cooking, trying to remember when I used cucumber in a cooked way.. It definitely does not happen often. The only ones I could think of was that I once used it in a rice dish mixed with other vegetables, then noodles with salmon and cucumber and as third, cut in half and filled with ground meat, mushrooms and gratinated (?) in the oven.
cooking with cucumber is definately rare, usually a lot of people with use zuccinis instead. I prefer fresh cucumber in salad/dips or simply for fancy meal presentation.
often you will see zuccinis filled with cheese(its actually very good with parmegiano) and broiled in over. you can probably do the same with cucumber but they contain more water so i don't know about the texture they'll have.
classic for raw cucumber would be in a greek salad : red onions cucumbers tomatoes feta cheese pepper olive oil
Something I learned from cooking recently: hungarian paprika seems to give that perfect mix of sweet and spicy to not disagree with anyone. Even just sprinkling some on potatoes a bit before serving gives it such a great taste. I actually really like the mix of it and a bit of dill weed, the aroma is awesome.
On April 03 2014 09:13 Dark_Chill wrote: Something I learned from cooking recently: hungarian paprika seems to give that perfect mix of sweet and spicy to not disagree with anyone. Even just sprinkling some on potatoes a bit before serving gives it such a great taste. I actually really like the mix of it and a bit of dill weed, the aroma is awesome.
There are definitely hotter varieties of hungarian paprika, but yeah it is pretty fantastic.
Maybe in some stir-fry recipes where you put them in a bit before the end (don't want them too dry). Or (and I don't know if this works, I might try it sometime) cook it slowly to drain out the water and juices and use it the same way you might heat a tomato.
On April 03 2014 07:24 zlefin wrote: Lately I've been eating a lot of simple orzo. About 5/4 cup orzo; 7/4 cup water. 1 tablespoon chicken bouillon; 2 tbsp. vegetable oil spread (which is like butter) Makes nice and fast, tastes good, very inexpensive.
Any idea what kind of store you'd get orzo from? Don't see it much at grocery stores. I might not have looked hard enough at the market near me though.
I just get it from the supermarket; it seems fairly ubiquitous in the supermarkets in my area. There's a pasta section, with a whole bunch of kinds of pasta, orzo is always in there, though it seems to be one of the less common types. I prefer barilla or prince to the store brand, but it's all pretty similar. I use a 'stop and shop' and a 'market basket' store primarily. While I just eat directly as a meal; you can also use it basically the same as rice in other recipes. The only downside is that it doesn't reheat so well; so unlike rice, I can't make a big batch and refrigerate the extra to reheat later.
Tried this today. I didn't turn out the way I wanted to, but I think I know how to make it work. Bacon Potato Wrap with sweet egg filling. + Show Spoiler +
Boil potato until you're able to mash it. Spread it over strips of bacon, and make a hole to allow sweet egg (scrambled egg with sugar and soya sauce) to go in at one of the ends. Roll it, and wrap it in tin foil. Put it in the oven at 350F and let it cook until bacon is cooked.
I put paprika and oregano in mine, but I screwed up. I thought I should cook the bacon a bit because I didn't want the egg to solidify too much, but I cooked the bacon too much and it shrinked too much. And I didn't cook it enough because, the bacon was too cooked.
EPT
