Cooking thread

>>Two sausages, diced.
It ain't worth the time to dice the sausages. Cutting them into cubes ain't so tedious but painting the dots is really time consuming.
>>Shredded cheese
Too expensive to buy it already shredded.
>> or shredded carrot with lime.
Sounds like something that would go best with ice cold gin.

I made burgers with barbecue sauce.

Really, I should have paid more attention to the recipe as I was making it up, as then I'd have amounts to share. As it is:

Ground beef
chives
a mix of grated/shredded marbled jack and asadero cheese (you can use any white, melty cheese instead)
1-2 cloves garlic minced
eggs as needed

Beat the eggs and add them to the ground beef. next add the chives, cheese and garlic to the beef and mix everything well. Then add some sauce and mix again. What sauce? this sauce:

1 bottle BBQ sauce your choice of style
1-2.5 tablespoons yellow mustard
1 tsp paprika
black pepper to taste

Whisk everything in a bowl. Add about five tbsp. of it to the burger mix.

Cook the burgers about medium rare on a pan or a grill. Next place them on an oven safe baking dish. Cover them with the sauce, then place a slice of cheese on top of each burger. I used Philadelphia individually wrapped cream cheese slices (I don't think it's real, actual cream cheese, but the flavor is good). If you like add some thoroughly cooked onions on top either the burgers of the cheese.

Place in an oven at about 150-160 C (If you want F do the conversion) for about 25-30 minutes. For the last 2-3 minutes, switch the broiler on at low to further melt the cheese on top. Careful if your broiler stays on after you switch it off (mine does for about 15-25 seconds), then turn it on later.

The result, in any case, was delicious.

I ate them plain out of the baking dish. but they'd go well with rice, mashed potatoes, or on a bun with more mustard, lettuce and onions.

Smoking meats:

I will preface this with the fact I am pretty much a terrible cook with no patience and I mainly eat meat and potatoes.

Because it is considered all American for a man to be able to BBQ food on an outdoor grill, and I can't, I decided to buy a smoker. My thoughts are that it should be pretty easy and rather hard to screw up smoking meat. If the weather cooperates this weekend I am going to have a pool party and invite 10-15 people over. They will be my guinea pigs for my first smoking experiment. I am going to start simply with just smoking some burgers and hot dogs.

The burgers will be 80/20 one third pound with a light drizzle of Worschestire and a dry rub smoked for 90 minutes at 225 degrees.

The hot dogs will be 3 ounce dogs spiral sliced with a little dry rub. I expect the hot dogs to only go on the smoker for about an hour at 225 degrees.

Hopefully I don't kill anybody this weekend.

Hot dogs are already cooked and processed. Beef is low on the danger scale for fatal pathogens. And being that we're first world and now have "free" healthcare, no one's likely to die from a bit of tapeworm. I've eaten (attempted to eat) raw beef on a few occasions. Other than jaw pain from near impossible chewing, I suffered no ill effects.

If it makes you feel any better, I've never grilled a thing in my life =p

Quote: DRich

I will preface this with the fact I am pretty much a terrible cook with no patience

Impatience is the way to the Dark Side of the Kitchen ;)

Quote:

My thoughts are that it should be pretty easy and rather hard to screw up smoking meat.

I've never tried that, though I like smoked meats (no room in the apartment). But I've read a bit about it. Apparently the really important ingredient are the wood chips used in the smoke. I really recommend talking to someone whose smoked meat you've eaten and liked (or tolerated), and ask for pointers.

I have to thank Nareed. I hate cooking and sometimes don't even bother eating. Cooking "a meal" is something I do maybe twice a decade. As a result, unless I had a mom or g/f present, I mostly ate processed junk.

I just started cooking for real, and it's been a revelation. Mostly because of an idea picked up here, that being "you can do what you want". It's been fun, and I might even have made a "recipe" or two ;)

Fighting chicken - A ziplock would be handy, as you're gonna need something for the sauce. I guess a bowl would do just as well. Dice some "Man Peppers". Don't use banana or jalepeno; use a pepper you can be proud of (chili, habanero, ghost, whatever). Mash em to release the spirit. Add a shot of firewater. Kentucky bourbon works great. Then just toss in a bunch of stuff to make it an actual sauce. Touch of garlic, bit of ginger, dollop of molasses, onion powder, salt, black pepper, red pepper, brown sugar, you know, the good stuff. Mix it good then slather it over the chicken and cook it, reapplying every 10-15 min or so to keep it moist.

Easy peasy, and it's fantastic. It's the first thing I've ate and actually looked forward to since the elk steaks some two years ago. The sauce also goes great on plain brown rice. I liked it so much, I even made a side for it...

Potato Craps - Chunk potatoes into bite sized pieces. Now you need a randomizing element that produces a low number. I suppose you could use dice; I just use the number of times I've urinated that day =p Whatever the number, go to your spice rack and blindly pick that number of spices. Dust your potato chunks, cover in butter, and wrap it in a tinfoil pouch. Likely that the potatoes and chicken will cook at the same rate, making it the perfect combo.

Last night I had chili powder, garlic salt, and cinnamon. And they were orgasmic.

Thanks, Nareed. You may have just added years to my life =)

Quote: Face

I have to thank Nareed.

You're welcome

I don't know what to say.

It's a start?

I made pasta primavera.

Half the recipe I'll leave partly blank. See, the point is to mix vegetables with the pasta, so choose a mix you like. But since it's an Italian dish, you should add garlic and lots of it ;) And of course some kind of pasta.

For the record I used two bell peppers (one red and one green), 2 cloves of garlic, chopped onion, a carrot cut into small sticks and a piece of broccoli.

Saute the vegetables to your liking and remove them from the pan.

In the same pan add some oil or butter, plus:

1 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream (I used whipping cream; NOT whipped cream. the former isn't sweetened)
1 cup milk
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese, grated or shredded, or more if you like (I actually added a bit more after the veggies).
pepper to taste.

Simply add the wine and chicken broth and heat at medium flame until it barely begins to bubble. Add the cream, milk and cheese. Stir well. Add the pepper an stir again. Lower the flame to low. Stir on occasion until it begins to bubble. Add the vegetables and stir. then add the pasta and stir.

This recipe is goof for about 1 lb of pasta. I used spaghetti, but any kind can be used. I recommend a big shape, like fettuccine, penne, etc.

Quote: DRich

Smoking meats:

I will preface this with the fact I am pretty much a terrible cook with no patience and I mainly eat meat and potatoes.

Because it is considered all American for a man to be able to BBQ food on an outdoor grill, and I can't, I decided to buy a smoker. My thoughts are that it should be pretty easy and rather hard to screw up smoking meat. If the weather cooperates this weekend I am going to have a pool party and invite 10-15 people over. They will be my guinea pigs for my first smoking experiment. I am going to start simply with just smoking some burgers and hot dogs.

The burgers will be 80/20 one third pound with a light drizzle of Worschestire and a dry rub smoked for 90 minutes at 225 degrees.

The hot dogs will be 3 ounce dogs spiral sliced with a little dry rub. I expect the hot dogs to only go on the smoker for about an hour at 225 degrees.

Hopefully I don't kill anybody this weekend.

You can sort of smoke burgers and dogs, but they are better grilled; you want the Maillard reaction that comes from high heat. You can toss some wood chips onto the fire for some smokiness; thin cuts 2" and less don't need a lot.





If you want to smoke, do tougher cuts like ribs, chuck roasts, briskets, pork shoulders, and of course all the birds. Go to AmazingRibs.com, where Meathead Goldwyn is the Wizard of the barbequeing world.

I gots me some "hot" salsa that is simply too hot. How do I cool it down a bit? Its not a condiment, its a poison.


On edit: Is there anything else I can put on a flour Tortilla other than hot sauce to make it taste good?