Who can cook?

i can cook mostly anything - from meats, poultry, and fish to sauces, marinades, and gravies.

i used to cook all of the time but now the wife does most of the cooking due my work and school schedules. but i have a thread here at cfc (link in sig) w/ a whole range or recipes, both posted by me and by others here :yumyum:
 
I can cook and do so whenever I wish to, leaving the servants for other duties. I prefer Northern European recipes, moreso from the West than the East, and like to dabble in historical stuff. A fair bit of Edwardian occurs.
 
I do all the cooking in my household, don't really know if I have a speciality, except maybe a bit of a talent for going through the cupboards and improvising from whatever I can find.
That is a very useful talent!
And this one. I call duplicate thread.

I love cooking. I cook every day that I'm alone in my student flat, and almost every day when I'm in the family home. I can cook all sorts of stuff; over the last week we've had:
1. Roast beef with yorkshire pudding, braised carrot and celery, roast potatos, gravy, and sugar-snap peas.
2. Cauliflower cheese with fresh pasta, stuffed peppers and spinach.
3. Baked potatos, cold beef, roast vegetables, and salad.
4. Casserole of pheasant with peas, mushrooms and new bread.
5. Stir-fried beef with ginger; straw leeks (cut in thin strips and fried gently to a crisp), rice, and stir-fried chinese vegetables (gai lan and tong miaow, or somesuch: they're brassica family, and the sprouting leaves of new peas).
6. Chinese-style soup, with ginger, fish, and a few bits of vegetable floating around in it.
Tonight we're having sole, probably fried in butter and herbs, with Charlotte potatoes and some vegetables.

Oh, and I made an orange-and-ginger cake, with orange zest, ground and crystallised ginger, and marmalade.
 
I can't claim to cook anything too fancy, but I do seem to have an ability to make food that tastes pretty good without relying on any sort of recipe.

I am pretty proud of a potato, ham, and cheese soup that I came up with off of the top of my head. I think the real secret behind this one was the addition of red pepper flakes, not enough to make it hot, but just enough to give it a little kick.

Then there was last week, when I came up with an idea that will probably shorten my life by several year if I continue to make it, but it was really good. I sliced and fried some potatoes (leave the skin on) in vegetable oil, and added some onions after the potatoes were mostly cooked. From experience I've learned to not add onions to frying potatoes right away, if you do, the potatoes will get mushy. Then I fried some breakfast sausage (good breakfast sausage, the hog was butchered by my dad, not the really fatty Jimmy Dean stuff), and made gravy, and then put the gravy over the sausage and potatoes. Fried potatoes are great, and mashed potatoes and gravy are good, but fried potatoes and gravy are amazing.

And maybe the best of all, grilled deer loin, start to finish.
1. Buy a hunting license, shotgun, ammunition, etc.
2. Shoot the deer, preferrably in an area that doesn't damage the meat. You want a doe, a buck with a big rack might look more impressive, but meat will be tough and have a strong taste.
3. Field dress the deer, being very careful not to rupture any of internal organs that might make the meat taste bad.
4. Hang and skin the deer.
5. Cut out the loin with a good butcher knife. The loin is basically located along the back, between the backbone and the top of the ribcage.
6. Marinate the loin overnight, either red wine or Italian dressing make good choices.
7. Rub with your choice of spices, I like to include chili powder, but salt and pepper are essential.
8. Start up the grill (charcoal, not propane). Once the fire is going good, arrange the coals in such a way as to create an indirect heat source. I usually make them into a ring.
9. Cook loin over indirect heat for approximately 25-45 minutes, turning about every ten minutes. Cooking time can vary drastically depending on how hot your fire is, use a meat thermometer to make sure than you don't overcook the loin. Use the temperature guidelines for beef, I reccommend medium-rare so that the meat doesn't dry out.
 
As I said in the other thread I am the head chef of this restaurant though I am leaving in a week. Infact I am posting from work right now (it is slow and I am bored, my cooks think I am doing "paperwork"). Let me see if I can find a couple of my favorite recipes...

Bison Chili

12 lbs Bison stew meat (1 pkg)
8 lg white onions
2 #10 can peeled whole tomato
10 red bell peppers
16 dried chipotle peppers
2 qt dry red beans
6 tbsp of ground coriander
13 tbsp of ground cumin
flour
salt/pepper

1.The night before, remove the rocks from the red beans, wash and soak overnight in cold water.
2. Rehydrate the chipotles in boiling water; remove the tops and puree the peppers in the blender with the rehydrating liquid.
3. Cook the beans in simmering water until soft, probably about an hour and a half, cool in the freezer.
4. Puree the cans of peeled tomatoes.
5. Julienne the onions and the red peppers, keep them separate.
6. In a rondeau, sweat off the onions in a little oil on a medium flame.
7. Salt and pepper the bison, then dredge it in flour.
8. Turn up the flame on the onions, add the bison to the pan and brown it.
9. When the bison is browned add the tomato puree, red peppers, chipotle puree, coriander and cumin; cover the pan and simmer for 3 hours or until the bison is tender.
10. Remove from heat, add cooked beans and salt and pepper to taste; cool and refrigerate.


Professionally I am most known for being good at making pasta from scratch. I've taught it to dozens of people. It is hard to make it from a recipe because so many factors change the recipe slightly - size of the eggs, humidity, the nuances of the flour (how it is milled, variety of grain, where in the world the grain is grown). I make it by feel but I came up with a recipe that is a good starting point:

Basic Pasta

4 Eggs
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 Tsp Salt
1½ + cups of All Purpose Flour
¾ + cups of Semolina Flour

1. Place eggs, olive oil and salt in a Robot Coupe and mix.
2. Add 1½ cups of All Purpose Flour and ¾ cups of semolina to Robot Coupe.
3. Mix until it forms a dough ball.
4. Add a little bit more Semolina and All Purpose flour until the dough ball breaks up into tiny pieces.
5. If too much flour is added and the dough becomes too dry add a little bit of water and work it into the mix until a dough ball forms again. Then add flour and semolina flour in a 2/3 to 1/3 ratio until it becomes smallish pieces again.
6. Form the pasta into loaves and immediately wrap in plastic.
 
over the last week we've had:
1. Roast beef with yorkshire pudding, braised carrot and celery, roast potatos, gravy, and sugar-snap peas.
2. Cauliflower cheese with fresh pasta, stuffed peppers and spinach.
3. Baked potatos, cold beef, roast vegetables, and salad.
4. Casserole of pheasant with peas, mushrooms and new bread.
5. Stir-fried beef with ginger; straw leeks (cut in thin strips and fried gently to a crisp), rice, and stir-fried chinese vegetables (gai lan and tong miaow, or somesuch: they're brassica family, and the sprouting leaves of new peas).
6. Chinese-style soup, with ginger, fish, and a few bits of vegetable floating around in it.
Tonight we're having sole, probably fried in butter and herbs, with Charlotte potatoes and some vegetables.

Phesant? Whatever happened to students being broke? Shouldn't you spank any avaiable funds on loose living? You do have a tradition to maintain.
 
Phesant? Whatever happened to students being broke? Shouldn't you spank any avaiable funds on loose living? You do have a tradition to maintain.
This was at home with the parents. ;) When I'm off in Birmingham, I mostly live on pasta with vegetables and whatever else I can be bothered to make to go with it, and stir-fried this and that as a vaguely Chinese meal. Anyway, we didn't exactly buy that pheasant, as such :mischief: (ran it over, and decided to eat it as revenge for eating so many of our plants).

My available funds mostly go to renting my lovely flat, and textbooks, and chocolate. :D
 
Oh, I'm an awesome cook. I know some recipies but usually I just buy a whole bunch of ingredients and innovate.. It usually works wonders ;) I have a whole bunch of different sauces and spices in my kitchen.. and usually let my instincts take over.

I've made awesome lasagna (with chicken and ricotta+mozza), I make quite good pasta, awesome stirfry (i have a huge wok for that purpose and like 3 different teriyaki sauces AND lots of garlic), i make excellent steak (i bake it first, then fry it in butter).. what else have I made.. oh yeah, I am currently baking pollock.. but the best fish I ever made was catfish.. I smothered it in butter, worceshire sauce, garlic, salt, and pepper.. and baked it.. mm was that ever good!

That's all I remember off the top of my head, but I'll cook pretty much anything, I just need the motivation and ingredients and I'll give it a try.
 
Are you willing to share those?

Fairly easy, really. Spread the bottom of the plate with diced tomatoes, and put your first layer of pasta on top of that.
For the meat, buy meat with at least 15% fat - you want fat or it'll be too dry. Mix it with pureed tomatoes, parmesan cheese, herbs, garlic, salt. (italian seasoning is good). It should be fairly liquid - again you want to avoid dryness. Alternate layers of meat and layers of pasta. On top, put more diced tomatoes: did I mention you want to avoid dryness? :)
Then sprinkle some grated cheese on top of that, and put in the oven at 350 for around an hour, covered by aluminium foil. After than turn the oven to broil, remove the foil and let the cheese melt for 30 min.

For 5 people, a pound of meat is enough.
 
Fairly easy, really. Spread the bottom of the plate with diced tomatoes, and put your first layer of pasta on top of that.
For the meat, buy meat with at least 15% fat - you want fat or it'll be too dry. Mix it with pureed tomatoes, parmesan cheese, herbs, garlic, salt. (italian seasoning is good). It should be fairly liquid - again you want to avoid dryness. Alternate layers of meat and layers of pasta. On top, put more diced tomatoes: did I mention you want to avoid dryness? :)
Then sprinkle some grated cheese on top of that, and put in the oven at 350 for around an hour, covered by aluminium foil. After than turn the oven to broil, remove the foil and let the cheese melt for 30 min.

For 5 people, a pound of meat is enough.

:drool: that looks good
 
Right now I'm chopping veggies for a beef stew. I'm a pretty good cook, next to italian meatballs that'll knock your pants off, this is one of my best dishes.

Can you cook? Do you cook? What's your best dish? If it's not plain easy mac, what's your secret? (CFCOT won't tell ;))

Ummmm thats some cooking :lol:
I cook, italian style spagetti and meat sause, potato bakes, pasta bakes, homemade pizza, sushi, bangers and mash, stir fry, flavoued rice, etc etc

the secret is taking time in preperation and not rushing everthing. :king:





CHINESE DUMPLINGS:
Plain poweder + self rising powder + salt + suger + water to make a dough
rest 30mins, hand kneed 20min, Rest 30mins, kneed 5mins

Insides:
Choice pork, (I like pork belly or you can use rashers make sure fat is not to little or too much)
Beef is optional , chicken is also optional (a mixing and choosing is fine sometimes fish ball meat is also mixed in)
Spices including, chili, chinese basial, chinese mint, soy sauses, salt, oystersause, fish sause, suger
Onion chopped finely, baby carrots, chineses bok cho hearts, small amount of gow chow.
Vegtables mixed and blanched, then mixed into meat (I normally fry up a bit and test it for taste)

Sauses: Black vinager, seasme oil, oysater sause and soy sause, chilli to taste

Cooking:
Dough is rolled into large sheets then circle mould used to punch them out. (yes I know not the traditional way of doing this but time saving device and I know having made hundreds of dumplings)
Place meat insides each circle mould close it up (repeat)
place dumpling into boiling waters till they rise (make sure you turn them)
rest dumplings
hot wok and oil then sear the dumplings till golden.

EAT (yum)
 
Of course I can cook!:p My best dish would be pumpkin custard :yum:
 
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