Cooking Thread~ Recipes & Things

Laranjada, AKA orange juice.

This recipe is a oldie, when a kid my aunt's husband used to make this for us when we got oranges for cheap. It is not pure undiluted orange juice. Maybe it is the oranges that we use that aren't that sweet, maybe it is that we want to stretch said juice for more than one or two people, one way or another we dilute the juice and sweeten it.

Since my family is on a budget and we got some oranges from a friend, said oranges were spoiling, they are likely quite old. My mother bitched that I should do something with them because it they are spoiling. I did eat some but I decided to juice them and get rid of the issue. Since I made the juice I decided to post this recipe, well technique, here for anyone who is in a budget or just want to stretch the orange juice.


Ingredients:

Oranges, as many as you want or have, I used around 12, I say at least 2 to make a couple glasses of juice

Limes or lemons, the secret ingredient is adding around one lemon for each 4 oranges, at least it is how I was taught, I always add it so I don't know how it will turn without it

Sugar or any other sweetener to taste

Water, I use the same amount of water to the final amount of citrus juice, you can dilute it a bit more if you think that is too strong


Directions:

Squeeze out the juice of the oranges and limes/lemons, I used a juicing attachment on my food processor, if you don't have one you might have to do it manually or use one of those hand juicers. Strain out the pulp if you don't like it on the juice. Mix in a jug with water and sugar, taste it to adjust the acidity and sweetness, store in the fridge and serve cold. Drink in two or three days at most.

I hope that you enjoy this recipe if you try it.

 

Pork Paprikash

This is a favorite of my wife's, but its my family's recipe. It's best served in big bowls with a pile of buttered bread and pickles on the table to share. No really, you need the pickles and bread, the whole thing falls apart without them.

Ingredients:
2 Thick or 4 Regular Pork Chops
1 Large Yellow Onion
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Large Bell Pepper
1 Large Tomato - (For Body and to Boost Color)
1 Cup Rice
2 Cups Water
1 Tablespoon Butter (or more)
Salt, Pepper, Oregano, Sage, Sharp and/or Sweet Paprika

Sides (Required)
A Jar of Dill Pickles
Good Heavy Bread and Plenty of Butter

Prep
Dice Onion, Bell Pepper, Tomato and Set aside
Mince Garlic and Set aside
Trim and Cube Pork Chops

Instructions
1) Melt Butter on medium heat in a large frying pan (with a lid!)
2) Stir in 1 or 2 tablespoons of Paprika and let it cook until the world smells a bit like baking cookies
* Some people use a lot more paprika but if its reasonably fresh and you activate it properly you can get away with less.
3) Stir in half of the Minced Garlic, and wait ~ a minute
3) Add Cubed Porkchops and Brown. When about half browned add a pinch or two of salt. If the Paprika begins to blacken reduce heat.
4) Add Diced Vegetables and remaining garlic, cook until tomato has begun to break down and onion has cooked clear.
5) Season With Oregano, Sage, Etc.
6) Add Two Cups of Water and Rice, Cover Pan and wait ~20 Minutes Stirring occasionally

Serves 2-3 People.

 

Puidwen's chicken noodle raid soup

Boil yourself some elbow noodles.
Get a skillet and lightly cooked a few chicken tenders. (I'm paranoid about words like salmonella okay?)
Chop the tenders into bits.

Throw noodles and chicken meat into dutch oven with a few cans of chicken broth.

Raid your spice cabinet for anything you think might go well in chicken noodle soup. Put some of the spices in to taste. (Smelling them relly helps in the how much of this particular spice should i put in)

Let boil.

Recipe will vary every time but the family seems to like it.

And yes this is an actual recipe i use sometimes.

 

Corn/Potato starch pudding

Sometimes I feel like eating something sweet, a couple of months back I had this massive craving for chocolate pudding. So I went and looked for recipes and made some for myself. It is pretty easy and you can make this pudding with any flavor by replacing the flavoring agent. It is also surprisingly filling given that it has just four ingredients and one of them, the flavoring, might not even be that substantial.


Ingredients

1 liter of milk

6 to 10 tablespoons of sugar, add as much or as little over these as you like

3 to 7 tablespoons of corn or potato starch, I start with three and add more until it is on the thickness that I want

Use whatever flavoring you like, I used a couple of tablespoons of cocoa powder a couple of times, then some vanilla essence, then strawberry ice cream flavoring powder, use whatever flavor you want as long it is not something that can curdle the milk, although if you add it after it thickened with the starch it might work...


Directions:

Place most of the milk in the pan and add the first 3 spoons of starch and the sugar, stir to dissolve and them turn on the heat. Keep stirring until it starts to simmer, if using a powdered flavoring add it before the mix thickens up the heat will help it dissolve into the mix. If needed or desired add more starch by mixing with the reserved milk and then add to the pan. If the thickness is of your liking just add the milk and cook some more.

I like my pudding thick and dense, once I get to the right thickness I take it off the fire and pour into a container to cool, when cool I refrigerate it and eat it cold. If you want it to eat it hot to warm you can eat it sooner.


Notes:

Depending of the flavor adding some sliced bananas to your portion before you eat it adds to the experience. But being honest I normally save the sliced bananas for when I make oatmeal, which I also eat cold.

It is still a nice and cheap dessert or snack, easy to make and tasty. Perfect for us that suffer under tight budgets. I can buy cornstarch in bulk for less than 4 bucks a kilo, so I purchase at least a full kilo of the stuff when I begin to run out of it. It can last for a while and I use the starch for other recipes as well. Making for a good budget item.

Here in Brazil we make mingau de maizena, which is pretty much the American style pudding just a little thinner, it is a good and filling food/snack for young children. A name brand one is fairly popular and well liked, it might have some egg yolks on it for extra richness and nutrition, it comes in the three basic flavors of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. We didn't get it often in my family, my brother and I were reared eating pretty much what the adults ate.

Oatmeal and this pudding were very rare in our family and maybe it is why I like oatmeal so much, whenever I have the rolled oats, milk and sugar I try making a batch to eat. It is part of the why if purchased a 1 liter bottle of vanilla essence, another reason is that it was just 3 bucks over the price of a small 50 ml bottle. Being a penny pincher I rather pay a little more now and not pay 3 bucks every few months for more vanilla. Especially since you always need to buy more when every shop is closed.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this recipe if you give it a go.

 

Sweet pickle relish.

Ok, this one have been on my to do list for a while now, but I never got around making it until yesterday. I love cucumber pickles, particularly sweet dill pickles, I even make some every now and then. Relish is something that I was curious about but never really got around making it. It isn't a common condiment here in Brazil. My recipe is also adapted as celery seed isn't easy to find here, I didn't have mustard seeds and I didn't use some of the powdered spices that most recipes ask for.

So this is my particular recipe and not the standard recipe. Still it tastes pretty good and I am left craving for some hotdogs and hamburgers to toss some on.


Ingredients:

2 large cucumbers, I used the Japanese ones that have less seeds than the normal, use seedless ones if you have them

1 large onion or 2 medium ones, I used normal white onions, some recipes call for sweet onions

2 large cloves of garlic

1 and 1/2 cup of sugar

5 tablespoons of salt

1 to 2 cups of white or apple vinegar

Ground ginger to taste

1 tea spoon of dried pepper flakes, the original recipes call for red bell peppers but I don't have any so I used a bit of dried chili for it

1 tablespoon of mustard


Directions

Chop the cucumbers into small cubes or process into a chunky paste with a food processor, place the results on a bowl and do the same with the onions and garlic. Mix the chopped vegetables with two tablespoons of salt and leave it covered to drain the moisture for a few hours, at least 2, I left mine overnight.

Using a cheesecloth and a strainer drain the liquid from the cucumber mix, squeeze as much as you can and reserve the solids. Discard the liquid if you want to. I suppose that if you adjust the seasoning you could make this liquid into a cold soup. Some recipes call for the solids to be washed to remove the salt. I didn't and just adjust the salt to taste later in the process.

For the brine pour the vinegar, sugar and spices on a pan, bring it to a boil and then add the cucumber to pan, stir and check the liquid level. It shouldn't be soupy but it also shouldn't be too dry. I don't know how to explain the level here, check the net for pics as reference.

Boil for 5 minutes and taste the relish, add more salt, sugar or vinegar to taste. As the name implies it should be on the sweet side, mine came sweet and tangy, with a hint of spice and savory enough that you know that it isn't a jam but a savory condiment that is sweet and sour.

I have no idea of how long it will last in the fridge, but as a pickle it should last for a few weeks at the least.


Notes: On its own and with some crackers it tasted pretty good. A bit garlicky and oniony in the end, but really good as a different topping for plain old crackers. I am guessing that it will be great on a hotdog or a hamburger. Might try with a potato salad as it is a commonly referenced recipe that used this relish. And it is a novel way to use cucumbers for me.

I hope that you like this recipe if you decide to give it a try.

 

Listen up, assholes, lemme tell you about bechamel sauce and why it is the best fucking thing you will ever put on your pasta. This shit is what makes mac and cheese so good. You know that hentai bullshit where they say they're cumming from their mouth? Those cocks must have been full of bechamel sauce. What you do is you take some goddamn butter, you melt it right down, you add just as much flour, slowly, so you don't get chunky jizz sauce, you stir it, and you make a goddamn roux. That's delicious enough on its own. Then you take some fucking milk, and you stir that shit in, followed by whatever fucking cheese you want, grated small, so it melts right in and makes your bechamel nice and thick. This is literally the cheese from a nice ass bowl of mac and cheese, and after you drain your fucking water from the pot, you can make it right on top of your pasta. You're welcome, assholes.

 

Bechamel or white sauce, classic recipe.


I was taught this recipe in a cooking class 5 or so years ago alongside the recipe for one of my favorite soups that use bechamel as the base. It is fairly simple to make.


Ingredients:

1 liter of milk, whole, low fat, no fat, as long it is dairy and not a non dairy milk

1/2 large white onion

1 bay leaf

One pinch of freshly grated nutmeg

Salt to taste

Black pepper to taste

Flour as needed, at least 1/2 cup to start

Butter as needed


Directions:

To begin place the milk in a pot, make a cut on the onion and insert the bay leaf on it. Add the onion to the milk, since it is whole it can be removed easily later. Bring it to a boil and lower to a simmer and let it simmer for 5 minutes. Add the nutmeg to the milk and reserve.

There are a few ways of begin this next part, I normally like to toast the flour in a dry pan first, some people like adding the flour to hot oil and then toast the flour as a paste, lastly some people just make the paste cold and then toast it. I even heard of some that bake the flour beforehand.

Anyway, toast the flour while mixing it all the time, you want to remove the raw flour taste from the flour. You can also toast the flour until it changes color to darken the final roux, but since this is white sauce you just toast it to remove the taste.

This part is another one with variants, you can move the flour to a bowl and then melt and heat the butter, or use vegetable oil, to then add the flour to make the roux. I add the fat to the flour in the pot, I like my roux a firm paste, a nearly solid thing that isn't runny. Some like the roux to be more liquid and runny, which requires either more fat or less flour. If making small batches this runny one is easier to achieve especially if you don't want to make a really thick final sauce.

With the roux mixed and toasted you can then add the milk, I normally make the roux needed for the recipe and it is always a large batch, I am unsure if making a large batch and using just a little of it would work. However if making a large batch of sauce you can separate some of the roux before adding the milk to the pan so you can adjust the final thickness of the sauce by adding more roux.

The teacher that taught the class claimed that his subordinates had to make a creamy and smooth bechamel without using a whisk, just a spoon. It can be done but a whisk makes the task much easier. Add the cold milk infusion to the roux, it will help dilute the roux without getting lumpy.

You can add small amounts of the milk while hot to the roux as long you keep stirring the roux and don't add more than two ladles of the infused milk at a time until you incorporate it all. This is how the guy taught us, it really does make a smooth sauce, but the cold liquid method is easier.

Once you achieve your desired consistency add the salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste.


Notes:

The Bechamel is a mother sauce, read, a sauce that is the base for other sauces or soups.as the cheese sauce posted above. You add more ingredients at the final stage of the sauce making to customize it for your desired recipe. My favorite soup uses the bechamel process, it is a creamy onion soup. You caramelize a boatload of chopped onions in oil/butter/fat and then add the flour to toast there, once that is done you add equal amounts of infused milk and chicken stock. The final soup can be as thick or thin as you like, I like mine in the middle of the road, thick enough to be silky and rich, but thin enough that it isn't like custard. Serve it with croutons and chopped green onions, or a side of bread or toast.

Another use for bechamel that I frequently use is as both a layer and the final topping in lasagna, as the top layer it gets a delicious crust in gratin style dishes. Since this is a basic sauce its use is varied and widespread, many recipes use a bechamel style sauce on them.

 

DIY pasta drying rack

Ok, I admit that maybe this shouldn't be considered a recipe and in a cooking thread. But I was struggling to figure a way to dry noodles so I don't have to make it fresh every time that I want to eat ramen. Since it is to be used in cooking/food preparation I figure that it wouldn't hurt to post it here.

Ingredients, yeah it shouldn't be ingredients but roll with it

PVC piping, have the length that you want I am using a leftover half meter piece that I had from fixing some stuff here

Power drill

Hacksaw

Bamboo skewers or any sort of bamboo chopsticks

Drill bit that is the same width of the skewer or chopsticks

Hot glue gun and hot glue, optional

Something wide but heavy to make a base


Directions

Decide on the size of your central pillar and cut the PVC pipe to length with the hacksaw. Using a marker make dots on the pipe, one centimeter apart horizontally and one centimeter lower. These marks are meant to be the guides to drill the holes to place the skewers where the noodles will hang from.

Being careful to not hurt yourself drill the holes through the PVC, it needs to be through so the skewer has a proper support so it doesn't slip under the weight of the noodles. However if you hot glue the skewers on the pillar the holes might not need to be all the way through the pipe.

If you have it lying around or want to dish out the extra money for it, having connections and extra piping you can make the base for the rack using it. Since I am making with stuff that I have lying around in the house and to save money since pasta racks are pricy, like 50 bucks.

If you don't have extra piping and connections, you have to improvise a base. A wide and somewhat heavy object like a paperweight that you don't mind damaging or an old can that you can fill with stuff like beans, kitty litter or sand and then sealing it to make the weighted base.

I am using a old butter tub filled with clean and unused kitty litter, once full I will wrap it with electric tape and hot glue the shaft to the lid of the tub.

You could try give it a better finish by painting it, or making it of mostly PVC or wood, this is a improvised DIY version. As long it gets the job done it is ok that looks a bit shabby.


Notes:

This "recipe" complements my past post of pasta/noodle dough recipe, homemade pasta is still delicious even if is dry. Oh I like drying it in a place where the air moves but isn't windy, but I sometimes also dry it in a closed space, but in my experience the closed space drying takes longer than drying it where the air flows. It will still take some time to dry but less than the closed space, just remember that it will take some space and pets and kids might mess with the pasta if is in the open.

 

Stock/broth

Since I plan on starting a little "series" here I decided to post what I consider one of the most important ingredients of it before I begin said series.

Being completely honest I find that no one has any excuse to be unable to do this recipe, it is pathetically easy, unless they don't want to make it. Time is the factor that most would use to not make this, because it is not really labor intensive or complicated, it is very healthy, tasty and good for you in many ways.

Ten or so years ago I began making homemade stock for cooking. Since here in Brazil bone in chicken parts were much cheaper than deboned parts I had to debone the chicken breasts myself. Being a bit of a penny pincher I began to save the carcass to make stock, I don't remember if we used to get chicken like that before that period of time, most of my memories of cooking before that period were using processed stuff.

It was around the time that I began cooking at home everyday and my cooking skills had improved, we had moved out from my grandparents a few years before and times weren't as bad as they were now so we could afford beef, deboned chicken and other stuff. Once we moved from one apartment to another with a bigger kitchen we began cooking far more often, even then it took a while to things pick up. I honestly don't remember what we did for food back then save some minor stuff.

I would save 3 or so kilos of chicken bone to then cook it for hours to make stock. After 1 or 2 years of regular stock making we pretty much stopped using bullion cubes and other industrial stocks, including ramen soup packs. I once purchased a few kilos of beef bones to make stock, I made a mistake of not diluting the final stock and my mother got the runs and I got some but not as bad as she did.

It was too rich to be eaten as we did in ramen, which we drank the tasty soup, after that bump in the road the following times I did dilute the stock, and we had no issues with it.

Now you might be wondering why should I make stock at home, the answer is simple, it is healthier and generally cheaper than buying it from the market. Low sodium and or organic stock is pricy, regular stock is full of sodium and who knows what else. With homemade stock you know exactly what is in there, it has as much or as little salt/sodium as you want it to have, it has as much or as little fat as you leave on it, generally tastes better than what you purchase, it makes all sort of recipes richer, healthier and more flavorful, you are using more of whatever bone in meat that you purchased, and it is cheaper.

You can make large batches and freeze the stock in small containers taking just what you need out of the freezer, soups, rice dishes, gravy, sauces and stews all benefit from home made stock.

Nutrition wise it is better, long simmered stock with a couple of tablespoons of vinegar added before the boil makes the bones release some calcium making the final stock much more nutritious, it also has collagen, gelatin and much more. It is why the recent fad of bone broth picked up, as the general public learned from some source or another that stock made of bones is good for you.


Ingredients:

The largest pot that you own or can borrow, yes, it is listed here because it is important, a large pressure cooker works even better

Bones of the meat animal of your choice, beef, pork, chicken, lamb, a mix

Water


Optional:

1 to 5 tablespoons of vinegar, distilled white, apple cider or rice

Onions

Garlic

Carrot

Celery

Leek

Green onions

Spices


OBS: I consider the vinegar important but it isn't mandatory, everything else is for extra flavor and nutrition.


Directions:

Wash the bones well, roast the bones to add extra flavor and to remove any unpleasantness from beef bones, roast the vegetables as well if you desire, I skip the roasting half of the time. Once roasted toss the bones on the pot and cover with water, bring it to a boil. Now some people like to dump this first boil water, wash the bones and then add more water and then cook them again for stock. I don't do this, you decide if you want to do so or not. If not washing and ditching the water then you add the vegetables to the pot as well.

Once it boils, reduce the heat to low and simmer, remove any scum that forms on the top and keep it simmering for at least 2 hours. I simmer my stock for 3 hours at the least, I also use a pressure cooker to get even more out of the bones. The vinegar is added before the simmer of the second boil or of the first boil if you won't wash the bones. The boiling process will remove the acidity and flavor so it won't be noticeable.

Now it is up to you for how long you boil the stock, add more water as needed, if using a pressure cooker release the pressure now and then to add more water.

A 2 hours or less boil will make it a thinner stock that is likely to be light in color, longer than that you begin to get a milkier color. With a pressure cooker this milky color comes earlier. This is good, it means that you are getting plenty of collagen and nutrients from the bones.

You can pause the boil overnight to continue in the morning, I often did this in the past, I really did stack the hours before the pressure cooker.

Once you are pleased with the time you remove the bones from the stock, then strain the stock to remove any smaller bits of bone, loose meat and other solids. To remove any fat cool the stock in the fridge for a few hours, I save the fat and use for cooking while leaving the stock without fat.


Notes:

Depending of what you plan on using the stock you can add any mix of spices during the boil, when making a Pho like stock I used to add star anise, cinnamon and other spices. If you want a basic stock you don't add any spices to it until you use it to make a dish.

This stock is a basic stock that you can tweak to make different soups or dishes. Adding soy sauce, dashi powder, salt, sesame oil and green onions and you have two basic ramen broths. Add spices that go on pho and have you have a knock off pho stock.

Use it in place of water when making rice or curry to get a richer rice or curry.

My planned "series" is about using instant ramen to make better meals, so this stock recipe is a major factor on turning regular instant ramen packs into good and healthier meals.

 

Ramen series

Upping a instant ramen pack.

I began cooking using instant ramen, frying eggs and watching stuff on the net and TV. Turning a pack of instant ramen into a filling and heartier meal taught me a lot of basic skills that allowed me to upgrade from instant noodles to making pasta and red sauces.

I consider this recipe a good starting point to learn how to cook as you use quite a few skills on making a proper meal out of ramen using a stove top.

Ingredients:

1 pack of instant ramen noodles of your preferred brand and flavor

1 onion

1 bunch of green onions

1 carrot

1 or 2 sausage links

Soy sauce to taste

Sesame oil to taste

Salt and pepper to taste


Directions

Put some water to boil, while that boils prepare the vegetables. Here is where you practice your knife skills, strips, cubes, wedges, pick a shape and size and stick to it, try to keep everything in a similar size. I advise strips for the vegetables. Depending of the sausage you pan fry it or boil it. I used a type of smoked sausage called calabreza, I either boiled it or sliced it and stir fried it with the veggies. If boiled keep the water as the base for the stock.

Stir fry the vegetables and sausage, season with the soy sauce, salt, pepper and whatever other spices that you like. Reserve and cook the noodles, do not use the stock if you boiled the sausage to cook the noodles, you cook the noodles on its own water and discard the cooking water. This removes the excess fat from the noodles and makes them healthier.

For the stock you can use the seasoning packet of the noodles as a base on plain water or the sausage water, add a bit of soy sauce and salt to taste. Once it boiled turn it off.

In a bowl add the cooked noodles, then add the stir fried vegetables and sausage, drizzle a little of sesame oil over it, and then add the soup over it all. It is then ready to eat.


Notes:

This is my basic starting upgraded ramen recipe, with the vegetables and sausage it is more of a meal than just the noodles. While the flavor packet of the ramen still makes this recipe a bit high on sodium, by not using the noodle cooking water as the base you remove a good amount of oil/fat from the final product.

A step up for this method/technique it to replace the sausage by de-boned chicken breasts, pieces of beef or pork. The next recipe is similar to this but without using the flavor pack.

 

Ramen series

Upgraded ramen part 2

When I began making this my standard instant ramen recipe my cooking skills had improved considerably, still beginner level but at a point where I felt reasonably confident on making things a bit more complicated than just boiling water for noodles, frying eggs or frozen patties.

At this recipe I began not using the flavor pack from the ramen package, using frozen pieces of boneless chicken, beef or pork, I would make a simple and basic stock to use on my ramen, flavoring said stock fairly simply with soy sauce, dashi powder, salt and sesame oil.


Ingredients;

Ramen

Chicken breast or other meat of your preference

Same vegetables of the first part of this ramen series

Optional

Lime juice

hot sauce

Cucumber

Tomatoes

Bean sprouts

Cabbage


Directions:

As in the past recipe cook the ramen in plain boiling water and discard the water, rinse the noodles to cool them down and reserve, or just cook said noodles when everything else in this recipe is done.

At this part you decide if you want to pan fry your meat or not, if you will pan or stir fry it then you cut it into appropriate sized pieces doing the same with the vegetables listed on the past recipe. If you brown/pan fry the meat and the main vegetables you can then add water and cook everything to make the stock.

If you decide not to fry the meat just cut it into bite size pieces and boil it for half hour or so. The stock won't be the strongest one but will be good, season with salt, pepper, garlic, soy sauce and dashi powder until it is of your liking. At this point you have two options, use the soup hot or cold.

After an Anthony Bourdain episode I decided making cold noodles for myself and my mother, it was a breath of fresh air to our ramen and a wonderful thing in a hot day. If eaten warm you pretty much assemble everything into a bowl with a bit of sesame oil and if you want a touch of lime juice and hot sauce. The optional vegetables are as said optional and can be quickly stir fried or blanched. They are also quite good with the cold ramen, which is why I began using cucumbers and tomatoes as toppings.

If you wish to have it cold, put the soup and noodles in the fridge for a while, or freezer if you are in a hurry. Cut the vegetables into matchstick size, the tomatoes into wedges, make a thin omelette and slice thinly, assemble in a bowl with the toppings arranged into groups over the noodles. Add the cold broth and some lime juice. It is a very refreshing dish that my mother loved when I made for her and she would request it often. The cold soup and noodles with the lime juice made it very refreshing and cooling, a huge change from regular hot noodles.


Notes:

This was my main recipe for a long time, after a while making quick stocks I began using the stock recipe that I posted a couple days ago for this. A couple of years ago a cashier of the grocery store that I was a regular, the signs of you being a regular is that the cashier knows what your staples are and you recognize the cashiers as well, asked me why I always bought 12 packs of ramen since they are unhealthy.

I told her that I didn't use the flavor pack of them and didn't use the water that I boiled the noodles to make the soup for the noodles, making it much healthier. At that time I had accumulated over 200 flavor packs of ramen of several flavors and brands, most became useless, and I also didn't have bullion cubes at home either. My stock was homemade for years.

Just recently I began using bullion cubes again, after the recipes for them improved reducing their sodium and fat contents. I still prefer homemade stock over the factory stuff, for ramen and other noodle I still prefer making the stock than using the flavor packs or bullion cubes for it. But if I am in a hurry I will use the flavor packs.

 

When I was in a dorm room and any meals not from the cafeteria were in a microwave, I would get whole onions and jars of banana peppers. Dice up a quarter of an onion, add a few rings of banana pepper, and you just made your ramen a whole lot healthier and tastier with very minimal effort, with things that easily fit in a dorm fridge.

 

Ramen series part 3

Yakisoba

This recipe/technique explores and advances the basic skills that the past recipes of this series taught, since yakisoba is a type of stir fried noodles with vegetables you will practice your knife skills and making the sauce while easy will teach you how to thicken sauces using starch based slurry.

It might not be 100% traditional yakisoba, but it is the most common way of making here in Brazil, since it has loads of vegetables it is pretty healthy as well.


Ingredients

1 or 2 packs of instant ramen

1 carrot

1 onion

1 bunch of green onions

1 green pepper

1 red or yellow pepper, or half of each for extra color

2 to 3 cups, or more, of thinly sliced cabbage

1 or 2 gloves of garlic

200 to 400 grams of meat of your choice, the easiest is chicken, second easiest is beef, then pork, seafood is more advanced stuff, you can also use ground meat or sausages

Soy sauce

Sesame oil

Corn or potato starch

Ginger to taste


Optional/extra

Cauliflower

Brocolli

Spinach

Tofu

Fish products like chikuwa or kamaboko


Directions:

Cook the noodles until firm, you want them slightly under, they will cook more when you mix them with the vegetables and sauce, reserve for later.

Chop the vegetables, pick a size and shape and stick to it, some people like to cut them into cubes, others like thin strips. I like cutting the carrots into diagonal half moons, cubing the onions and peppers, the cabbage it depends, I go either thinly slicing/shredding or cubes depending on how lazy I feel. The thin slices are better since the stalk parts aren't big and cook easily. Reserve the vegetables for cooking.

Cut the meat into thin bite size strips, you can make a mixed meat one by using any two or three meats, a common one here is beef with chicken and shrimp.

Now that all the preparations are done we can move to cooking everything. In a large skilled or wok heat some vegetable oil I like frying the crushed garlic and sliced ginger first, then add the onion and let it soften before adding the meat. Stir often so nothing burns, add the carrot as it takes a while to cook through. Keep adding the vegetables by order of what takes the longest to cook to the shortest. Add small pinches of salt every now and then, just to compensate for the extra vegetables.

Once all the vegetables are in you toss the soy sauce, stirring and giving a minute to coat everything, then add the noodles. They will finish cooking with everything and get flavor from the sauce. Now here is where things get split, some like the yakisoba dry while others like it wet. Here in Brazil the most common is the wet/damp style with a thick sauce coating everything.

Because of the cooking and the soy sauce you should have around half a cup or so of sauce/juices on the pan, with that as a base you mix a couple of tablespoons of corn starch with water and add the slurry to the hot pot and mix, the sauce will thicken and coat everything ensuring that every bite is flavorful. At this point you add a splash of sesame oil and do the final taste for seasoning, if you tasted everything until now to check the doneness of the vegetables you will also know if it needs more salt, ginger or soy sauce.

I apologize but I don't really know how to make the dry kind without dumping out the sauce and letting cook a bit longer to toast the noodles.

Serve and eat it while hot or very warm.


Notes:

This recipe is very easy to make and the worse part is getting everything done and ready for the cooking, the cooking part only takes a few minutes, it is getting everything ready that takes time. Personally I find yakisoba to be a very light meal, as in 30 min to 1 hour later I am hungry again, so I rather making more filling options. However it is a very tasty dish and everyone likes it.

 

A lot of recipes I get online are from this blog Called "closet Cooking."

 

Here is something you can try.
Just chuck together some milk and flour until you have a creamy mixture. Then mix in some spices (I like to use curry and chilli powder).
Then get some vegetables or tofu, cut them up, dip them in and fry them in hot oil.
The cool thing is that, even though there are a number of recipes that do the same thing slightly better, this one is really quick, cheap and can be done with really basic ingredients.
I found that eggplant or zucchini, or the denser kinds of tofu/seitan work well.
I'm not sure if it works with meat, because you can only heat it for a short time before it gets burnt so you'de probably need to cook the meat beforehand somehow.

Another thing you can do is to basically make pancakes with it. Just pour the mixture into a pan with hot oil and fry it until until its nice and crispy. When I do that I like to make it really, really spicy.
Since its not so liquid the sharp spices don't disolve as much and you can use a lot more before its inedible.
Once its done, you can eat it with a cream of yoghurt with small chunks of sliced up cucumber, herbs and some garlic. The fresh taste of the cream mixed with the hot and spicy pancake is quite nice.
Its nothing really new, but something you can try when you're in a hurry and don't have much at home.

 

cheap and easy potato gratin

I recently came across this recepy and it works really well.

All you need is potatos, some soup broth, some cream, and cheese.

Here is what you do:
Slice the taters and layer the slices into your pan. Then add enough broth so the topmost potatoes are covered. Put the pan in the oven (190° C) until the potatoes almost have the consistency you want them to have ( about 30-40 minutes should do it, I like them a bit mushy and well cooked, but I know some other people prefer them differently). Then take them out of the oven and pour away the left over broth (you can reuse that if you want).
Now just pour the cream over it and add a layer of grated cheese on top and put it back in the oven.
Leave it in until the potatoes are done and the cheese is nice and crispy.

And your're finished.
It tastes really good because the potatoes take on all the spices of the soup and end up with a nice consistency.
Of course you can add stuff like broccoli, onions, mushrooms, more spices, extra cheese, whatever. But you don't have to.

 

Also, since I'm just now making it:

Fancy Curry

1-1,5 kg of beef
3-4 big onions
quarter litre of coconut milk
quarter jar of curry paste (Masala)
salt
pepper


optional but highly recommended:
5-6 pieces of garlic
2 green bell peppers
2 cm of a ginger root
1 can of peeled tomatoes
some mushrooms
some cashew nuts
5 Tablespoons of Italian herbs (gives it a nice and fresh taste)
1 cup of yoghurt
1 Tablespoon of curry powder
3-5 pods of kardamon

Cut the meat into small chunks and fry them in hot oil until they are well browned. Once they are nice and crispy, put them to the side and start on the onions.
Fry the onions at medium to high heat until they start glazing nicely, then add the meat.
Also add in half of the cut up ginger and garlic, the curry paste, the mushrooms, the nuts and the green peppers. Let it all fry for about five minutes.
Now add the peeled tomatoes and the coconut milk, a table spoon of salt, a teaspoon of ground black pepper, half of the Italian herbs and about 300 ml of water.

Stir well, put a lid on it and let it all simmer on low to medium heat for about an hour. The meat should be nice and tender when its done, depending on the quality of the meat that might take a little longer or shorter. Better meat usually takes a little less time.

Once the hour is up, add the rest of the garlic, ginger and herbs. By now the meat and vegetables should have soaked up the spices and become nice and tender while the sauce should be thick (you can cheat with a little sauce thickener) and have a nice mix of all the flavours in it.
Let it cool down a little and add the yoghurt (be aware though, that in my expirience things with yoghurt in them tend to go bad quickly. If you want it to keep for a while add the yoghurt on the plate) and whatever spices you think are necessary. I usually put in extra curry powder and some kardamon. No more than 4-5 pods of kardamon though since it will taste of nothing else otherwise.
Stir well one last time and serve it.

Goes very well with rice (if you want to be extra fancy, put some curry powder in the rice, it doesn't change the taste much, but the rice will be really yellow. Looks cool and when I was a kid I thought the yellow rice was the best thing ever ;-)) and naan bread.
Feeds 6-7 people or one person for a looong time XD.

Enjoy!

Edit:
Was delicious.

Spoiler: quick alternative (vegetarian) version

Fry tofu with curry past, make it really hot/spicy. Add mushrooms, nuts and green peppers if you have them. Then chuck in a jar of coconut milk. Serve with rice and little pieces of freshly cut cucumber.
Its quick and easy to make, and the spicy sauce and mild taste of the cucumber balance each other very nicely.