What's cooking? part 4

z s - try "the simplest and best shrimp dish" from the mark bittmann app (which i also recommend.)

triple-sign tacos, get you into the chopping/prep work groove but only one v. simple thing to actually cook.

Pineapple w/red peppers is pretty much the best flavor combo

ZS when I moved out I "cooked" stir frys only until my grandma gave me a recipe of hers that I liked for tuna, Parmesan & rice. Sounds so terrible but tastes great. It was the first recipe I followed and I used to make it twice a week (nutrition, yeah!) and be melodramatically meticulous about the directions but now I wing it. It's so hilarious to me, looking bad, what chaos I could wreak on a kitchen then. Bonus, this is cheap, too, saffron aside. This is roughly the same: http://southernfood.about.com/od/tunarecipes/r/bl30104m.htm

I love cooking now. But it's mostly based around meat, so I haven't many ideas to share. Tonight I made a bomb broccoli slaw with slow-cooked ribs & Yorkshire pudding. Living large after a good rib sale & a Christmas crockpot.

I was always into watching cooking shows as a kid and messed around making omelets with tons of horrible junk in them or whatever but I really got seriously interested in cooking when I was really stoned at my boss's apartment in Detroit in 1997 before going to a Kraftwerk show and started reading his copy of the Joy of Cooking that was on the coffee table and everything in it sounded delicious and I bought a copy soon after that.

I moved to Arizona soon after that and found The Border Cookbook and started to try to make things that I liked from Mexican place, which gave me a reference point. I made a shitload of recipes from these books and learned a ton of fundamentals.

I'm not necessarily "good" technique wise but I've done it so much and trial and errored along the way that I feel really comfortable cooking now and have memorized basics about how things work and go together that it's really pleasing to me that I can just make a whole lot of things without having to read or study or anything, just knowing from past experience.

I'd be so happy to be able to play music this way, having practiced regularly for years until it becomes second nature but I just can't and never will. Needing to eat every day really forced me to learn cooking and I never needed to play music.

Get one decent pan and a sharp knife. I couldn't work out why some easy dishes took ages to make then I used my friend's sharp knife and it was a revelation.
BBC goodfood is another good site with loads of really easy stuff. I kind of hate having heavy hardback recipe books out while i'm cooking!

Z S the other option is to do what my uncle does, which is to make a big stew of all your favorite things (i.e. like barley, rice, oreos, peanut butter, ginger snaps, cream cheese, sriracha, soy sauce, lentils, pop tarts, and coffee ice cream) and cook that on the stove for like 5 hours and then just eat from that for the rest of the week (via reheating using a microwave)

I basically do that and call it "lentils" or "black bean soup." Skip the ginger snaps tho.

yeah they get a bit soggy

I'm not necessarily "good" technique wise but I've done it so much and trial and errored along the way that I feel really comfortable cooking now and have memorized basics about how things work and go together that it's really pleasing to me that I can just make a whole lot of things without having to read or study or anything, just knowing from past experience.

I'd be so happy to be able to play music this way, having practiced regularly for years until it becomes second nature but I just can't and never will. Needing to eat every day really forced me to learn cooking and I never needed to play music.

thanks for typing this out so i didn't have to. have thought this so many times and tried to remind myself that cooking with ease is something. it's something!

like, my cooking is not gonna blow anyone's mind or anything, but it'll make life more pleasant currently and in the future. that's something.

I had a big lunch yesterday and was way lazy and just ate some white rice that had been in my rice cooker for two days. I put soy sauce and sriracha on it. That's a meal, right?

kind of feeling I should have ground up some oreos and sprinkled them on top

i dunno
if you had some edamame in the freezer you coulda nuked it in there for a little added health/bulk/color, add some spinach after you heat and then some of those fluorescent red pickled ginger thingies and it's a meal.

that's what i woulda done
to me that is not cooking -- that is assembly

oreos ok too, maybe some grape jelly and nutmeg?

these are good ideas

Z S the other option is to do what my uncle does, which is to make a big stew of all your favorite things (i.e. like barley, rice, oreos, peanut butter, ginger snaps, cream cheese, sriracha, soy sauce, lentils, pop tarts, and coffee ice cream) and cook that on the stove for like 5 hours and then just eat from that for the rest of the week (via reheating using a microwave)

A good idea if it was just me eating, but I want to make something nice and fresh for mah gf

Downloading that app you all recommended though!

oh if that's the case you can still make the stew just add everything I mentioned plus some raw kale and spirulina powder

i think finding your own personal groove is essential to confident cooking
for instance, i am v into assembly, pls do not ask me to make a roast because i don't even really know what that is or to whip up a [fancy french term] because i don't know what that is either

good luck to you!! and if i were making that stew, i would prob toss in some dog hair, for its unique proteins

nutritional yeast

nice, there's a vegetarian How to Cook Everything!

I haven't picked it up but I always am suspicious that it's the same cookbook without the meat

one of the most annoying parts about this venture will be playing Where The Fuck Is This Thing at the grocery store. it's especially annoying because about 25% of the time the answer is You'd Think We Have This Thing, But We Don't

it's got a lot of the same recipes but also new ones

ZS I am surprised to hear you are not fond of the NoMa Teeter; my spouse certainly is. Mostly because they always have giant briskets and bargain prices I guess.

So my latest venture is to make a new soup every day Mon-Fri why because I am unemployed and what else to do around the house all day in crappy weather? I will eat some for lunch and then serve it as a first course with dinner.

Today's soup-in-progress is that west african peanut soup from bittman. Tomorrow will be my first attempt at broccoli-cheese soup. Thursday needs to involve cauliflower why because I have some in the fridge. Friday may be some sort of spicy tomato concoction. Please post your favorite soup recipes here and I will make them and report back!

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1841660/moroccan-spiced-cauliflower-and-almond-soup
That is good btw!

Smoke #1 (pork shoulder) turned out pretty good. There's a learning curve, I didn't get it all right the first time, but not bad.

ZS I am surprised to hear you are not fond of the NoMa Teeter; my spouse certainly is. Mostly because they always have giant briskets and bargain prices I guess.

tbh i have an epic grudge against it because they have about 10-12 different kinds of DUMPLINGS!, and every single one of them is pork is chicken. i mean come the fuck on, can we get a single vegetarian option? (yes i know h mart is where i should be going for that kidn of stuff, and also for making your own DUMPLINGS! (which i'm cool with doing!), but i don't have a car so)

sorry, pork OR chicken

DUMPLINGS!

aha! don't have a car! that would change my cooking habits substantially!! i recently weighed myself with a full load of groceries in my arms and realized that it was >50% of my body weight that i carry up three flights of stairs on a weekly (or at least 10-daysly) basis. that's a lot of grocery shopping. could not do w/o a car. also i visit like 5 difft stores regularly.

people have different habits -- cook for your own taste and your own habits! that is my #1 advice.

That's a lot of food and a lot of stairs! Also why I have my food delivered to house.

yeah I shop at at least 4 diff stores, walking would change everything

beer and cantaloupes are very heavy!

I would go as crazy on bargain cans, that's for sure

wouldn't

ok, stolen from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, here is the tentative draft menu for thursday (i'm going to prepare some of this in advance):

Crunchy Corn Guacamole
Mexican Cheese Salsa
Tortillas
Chiles Rellenos
Black Beans and Chiles with Orange Juice

unfortunately i'm leaving out the Rice Salad because i don't have a rice cooker, and the buttermilk ice cream because i don't have an ice cream maker. i'm a little afraid of total failure on the chiles rellenos but i kind of want to go out on a limb and try it anyway. anyone have any suggestions to add to the menu? i feel like leaving out the rice salad and ice cream for dessert kind of leaves a hole in the dinner.

Wait...I can just BORROW a rice cooker! I'M A GENIUS

you can't make rice on the stovetop? It's v easy

Yeah, I guess I could!

WmC changed my life when he revealed the secret to stovetop rice:

1/2 c rice (2 servings)
toast a minute in a pot with a bit of oil (i usually forget this whole step, but it's a nice one)
add 1 c water
good pinch of salt
bring to boil with lid on
reduce to lowest setting for 20 mins
turn off heat and let sit for 10 mins
done

And no sticking! It really is the easiest thing ever.

I have 2 methods for rice, one is the toasting way and the other is low and slow for really gloopy rice which I sometimes enjoy too
but yeah rice on the stove is super easy

ZOJIRUSHI

Also you don't have to make that much food all at the same time. No wonder you're considering fatigue.

Yeah holy crap just make tacos with one meat item and a bunch of cut-up vegetables and some lime wedges, with rice and beans on the side.

but i want to start off with a bang, see

T/F

if a recipe serves 4, it's ok to halve all the ingredients to make it for 2

nah just make the whole lot and then you have dinner for the next night, too

^^ real talk