The recipe thread

[Barrister]

I like to add some parmesan cheese to Kraft Dinner.  Maybe some pepper as well.

[MadImmortalMan]

Start here:

http://www.amazon.com/Way-Cook-DVD-Julia-Child/dp/0307593908/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1268338078&sr=8-13


I know it's cliche, but Julia is still the gold standard for showing you how to cook, rather than just giving you recipes. Once you have that much down, you know why things are done certain ways and how to apply them to invent your own stuff. Now there's a million celebrity chefs with cookbooks out. But The Way to Cook is still the most valuable one I've ever had. Now the TV version is out on DVD.


Recent acquisitions along the same vein: Keller's Bouchon cookbook (some of his stuff is damn easy to do, even my wife can cook it) and Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook (Also valuable for technique more than recipes.)




Most of the recipes I've had for a long time and liked--some of them the results of my own wacky experimentation--I'm now learning why doing it the way I did made it good. Hopefully in the future, I'll be able to make good things because I was trying to and not because I got lucky. 

[Syt]

Brown ground beef. drain,set aside.

Make one box of Mac&Cheese. After it is done, toss beef into Mac&cheese. Add chili powder. Stir

Voila. Bachelor chow.

Tuna and chili beans are also good in mac and cheese.

You can also buy a can or two of marinated tuna (the one that comes in sauce, with onion or such). Boil some rice, then put contents of tuna can and rice in a pan and stir-fry.

[citizen k]

[DGuller]

When I see some instructions that start with five different spices needing to be mixed together, my eyes glaze over.

Measure out the spices, mix them together.  Take you 30 seconds.

Shop for the spices: 2 hours.

[Jaron]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAn8zclX3Po

[sbr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAn8zclX3Po

I don't want to punch Paula quite as much as I did the first time I saw her, y'all.

[Barrister]

When I see some instructions that start with five different spices needing to be mixed together, my eyes glaze over.

Measure out the spices, mix them together.  Take you 30 seconds.

Shop for the spices: 2 hours.

Since when?

[MadImmortalMan]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAn8zclX3Po

I don't want to punch Paula quite as much as I did the first time I saw her, y'all.

My mother loves her.

[Sheilbh]

Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook (Also valuable for technique more than recipes.)

A superb cookbook.  And one every bachelor should own if he ever wants to entertain.  Nothing says 'I want to sleep with you' like tripe

I had a couple of recipes from Fuchsia Dunlop's superb 'Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook', I also recommend her 'Land of Plenty the former's largely Hunnanese cuisine while the latter's all about Sichuan.

Chairman Mao's red braised pork

Serves 4

500g/1 lb 2 oz belly pork (skin optional)
2 tbsp groundnut oil
2 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp Shaoxing wine
20 g/3/4 oz fresh ginger, skin left on and sliced
1 star anise }
2 dried red chillies
a small piece cassia bark or cinnamon stick
light soy sauce
salt and sugar
a few lengths of spring onion greens

Plunge the belly pork into a pan of boiling water and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes until partially cooked. Remove, and when cool enough to handle, cut into bite-sized chunks. Heat the oil and sugar in a wok over a gentle flame until the sugar melts, then raise the heat and stir until the melted sugar turns a rich caramel brown. Add the pork and the Shaoxing wine. Add enough water to just cover the pork, along with the ginger, star anise, chillies and cassia. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 40–50 minutes. Towards the end of the cooking time, turn up the heat to reduce the sauce and season with soy sauce, salt and a little sugar to taste. Add the spring onion greens just before serving.

It was absolutely cracking.  I had plain rice and salt chilli fried cabbage with it

[Jaron]

I don't like Bourdain 

[citizen k]

Chairman Mao's red braised pork

Couldn't find the recipe for Hitler's Sauerbraten ?

[Syt]

Chairman Mao's red braised pork

Couldn't find the recipe for Hitler's Sauerbraten ?

How about Stalin's Gingerbread instead?

[Caliga]

If Victory Gems and Freyberg Cakes don't keep their mouths shut they're going to suddenly disappear from that page one day.

[Sheilbh]

Chairman Mao's red braised pork

Couldn't find the recipe for Hitler's Sauerbraten ?

Ah, it was apparently one of his favourite dishes and is now a common dish for the many tourists who visit his home village.  More importantly it's simple and delicious.