What Have You Cooked Recently?

[Nonconsentual Pronouns]

Have you considered just doing it as a frittata instead?

Yeah, I've made them in my cast-irons. I'm iffy on using spinach in mine, but it's probably just something I'm doing wrong.

 

[naaaaiiiiillllll!!!]

My first attempt at chicken peri peri (piri piri? Those Sef Effrikins spell their Portuguese-bbq-larp inconsistently). Trying to make bbq chicken on a stovetop is not as fun as doing it outside, but it turned out really good. I can see why the Britbongs love their Nandos chicken.

 

[EnemyStand]

Steak, a chonky thick NY strip. The rare doneness was a necessity; it was cooked in a cast iron pan from start to finish in a soy and worcestershire sauce reduction with the peppers and onions tossed in near the end of the cook. Not a bad way to get my protein and carbs.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Thighs (and leg quarters) are the most underrated bargains in chicken (especially now that even whole chicken is through the roof). Leg quarters especially because even though the drumstick is the least versatile part of the chicken, often leg quarters are priced so that the drumsticks are essentially free. I also think it's the best part of the chicken fried when bone-in.

Thighs and legs really are the best and the pricing makes them the obvious choice in many dishes. In addition to that, a lot of people don't even know how to make a good chicken breast anyway but they buy them because they are chicken breasts. With a thigh you really fucked up if it comes out dry, it would have to be a massive kitchen disaster.

Another overlooked part that is hard to get hold of these days is "salmon scraps". When they debone a salmon they cut out what is essentially baby back salmon ribs and throw them away. Used to be the equivalent of 20-30 cents per kilo because no one wanted them, they were going to be made into cat food. But sprinkle some salt on them, slap them on a very hot and smoky grill for 10 seconds per side and ooooh. Smoked/grilled salmon fins(the queens fin) are a delicacy but people have slept on the ribs for decades.

 

[TC-P]

Thighs and legs really are the best and the pricing makes them the obvious choice in many dishes.

Another overlooked part that is hard to get hold of these days is "salmon scraps".

You are correct on the thighs and salmon bits. I miss being able to get the ham bone from the deli counter. For some unknown reason, they stopped stores allowing customers to buy them. It was great for making a soup and still had enough meat on it to make it worth the effort.

 

[AnOminous]

Steak, a chonky thick NY strip. The rare doneness was a necessity; it was cooked in a cast iron pan from start to finish in a soy and worcestershire sauce reduction with the peppers and onions tossed in near the end of the cook. Not a bad way to get my protein and carbs.

Nice. I had a New York strip yesterday (and the second half of it for breakfast because I couldn't finish it). Very brief tamari marinade and rubbed with crushed garlic during cooking in a cast iron skillet. Turned out really well, which it should have, since I broke my usual cardinal rule and bought USDA Prime full price because fuck it, I needed a damn steak.

 

[deerPropaganda]

Made sushi night with my SO’s family tonight. It was good

 

[Retink]

I was going to make Mabo Dofu but realized I was missing some important ingredients I didn't restock so I just made chili instead and it came out rather nice. I'd post pictures, but it's chili so I'm sure you can imagine chili slop on top of spaghetti and shredded cheese on top of that, it all looks the same. Though I did make sure to say it looks like shit and add some green stuff to the sides so I could be a real pro chef.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Made sushi night with my SO’s family tonight. It was good

Sushi is surpsingly hard to make because it's so easy to eat them while making them.

You are correct on the thighs and salmon bits. I miss being able to get the ham bone from the deli counter. For some unknown reason, they stopped stores allowing customers to buy them. It was great for making a soup and still had enough meat on it to make it worth the effort.

My father was a butcher and he was concerned about the lack of bones, not only for soup/broth(they used to sell just bones in the stores) but with whole cuts in general. Times had changed of course and fewer people had the saw/axe to cut their meat. At least if you cut it yourself you can't curse the cheap fuckers that left bone chips in the cuts.

 

[Monkey Shoulder]

Had some whale meat lying around, cut it into steaks and seared it with some greens and mushrooms.
Pretty good

 

[Usb2200a]

Red chile enchiladas with shredded brisket.
This is my first Mexican dish and I’m planning to try a lot more.

 

[DankSmoker]

Never really fucked around with deep frying so I tried a can of oysters, didn't make a mess like I expected. Only thing I'd do different is popping em in the freezer for a bit before breading to ease the process.

 

[Nonconsentual Pronouns]

Never really fucked around with deep frying so I tried a can of oysters, didn't make a mess like I expected. Only thing I'd do different is popping em in the freezer for a bit before breading to ease the process.

Please just be careful so they don't explode and burn you with splashes of oil. Temperature shock is a hell of a thing and emergency services have lots of Thanksgiving stories about exploding turkeys that some inexperienced deep-fryers try out for the novelty of it.

 

[Polystyrene Glioblastoma]

Cheesy rice and shrimp.

Slopped together Italian five cheese blend, jasmine rice, and air-fried shrimp. Seasoned with spicy garlic, Bachan's Japanese BBQ sauce, and ponzu sauce. Strawberry banana nectar to wash it down and cut the heat.

 

[DankSmoker]

Please just be careful so they don't explode and burn you with splashes of oil. Temperature shock is a hell of a thing and emergency services have lots of Thanksgiving stories about exploding turkeys that some inexperienced deep-fryers try out for the novelty of it.

Yeah that was another thing I was concerned about. I almost boiled over since I was using the smallest saucepan I could get away with and overloaded because I was impatient/hungry. Tomorrow I'll try some mini corn dogs using vienna sausage to get some more use out of the oil and clear more of my bum food out of the pantry.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

Cheesy rice and shrimp.

Slopped together Italian five cheese blend, jasmine rice, and air-fried shrimp. Seasoned with spicy garlic, Bachan's Japanese BBQ sauce, and ponzu sauce. Strawberry banana nectar to wash it down and cut the heat.

A quick and lazy rice thing I've been doing for a while is making some ordinary garlic/herb/spice butter, then put half a portion of hot rice in a bowl, pop some of the butter in there, add more rice and then add the dish on top.
It's really nice for whole grain or wild rice mixes that are a bit drier and chewier. It doesn't get sloppy or greasy as you might expect, the rice absorbs it and it becomes sort of of steamed from the inside with all flavor. It is a pleasant taste breaker when reaching it and I'm going to try out various spices to see what can be achieved, a saffron combo of some kind would probably be fantastic.

Another lazy garlic thing is coring regular potatoes like they were apples, stuff some smashed up garlic in the hole and bake them in the oven with olive oil and salt on top. Comes out fantastic.

 

[onitheif]

A quick and lazy rice thing I've been doing for a while is making some ordinary garlic/herb/spice butter, then put half a portion of hot rice in a bowl, pop some of the butter in there, add more rice and then add the dish on top.
It's really nice for whole grain or wild rice mixes that are a bit drier and chewier. It doesn't get sloppy or greasy as you might expect, the rice absorbs it and it becomes sort of of steamed from the inside with all flavor. It is a pleasant taste breaker when reaching it and I'm going to try out various spices to see what can be achieved, a saffron combo of some kind would probably be fantastic.

Another lazy garlic thing is coring regular potatoes like they were apples, stuff some smashed up garlic in the hole and bake them in the oven with olive oil and salt on top. Comes out fantastic.

I like lazy rice dishes as well, a ginger rice with scallions and some seasoned oils goes well. New Orleans styles like dirty rice are also great.

 

[Kosher Salt]

Please just be careful so they don't explode and burn you with splashes of oil. Temperature shock is a hell of a thing and emergency services have lots of Thanksgiving stories about exploding turkeys that some inexperienced deep-fryers try out for the novelty of it.

Moisture is the cause there, not temperature. Don't put wet things in hot oil, frozen or otherwise. The water will turn into steam and cause the oil to splatter.

Always make sure that you're deep frying relatively dry food stuffs, and always, always make sure you have room in the pot/pan for the level of the oil to increase when the food's put in. Overflowing the oil is a good way to start a grease fire.

 

[TheRedChair]

One of the things I have been mentioning for the past 2 years is the value of saving money via cooking.

There is so much more than just to cook. When I was little my mom, grand parents, baby sitters who look like witches coming out of a fantasy story book, would cook me lunch using left overs. Then at age 7 I had to learn how to cook for myself (and my siblings) as mom and dad had to work and at times they could not get a baby sitter.

I learned how to sift flour, making tortilla's from scratch making sandwiches, salads, even using a hot oven when I would stand on a small step ladder which I still have. It is at least 75 years old and it is my keepsake now.

Over the years I've learned the lessons of cooking from people that were born/lived in the depression. Starvation was real. Food was hard to get at times so not only you had to learn how not only use your left overs but make new and different from those left overs instead of just reheating them. A lot of my recipes are from already cook food as well as make do with what you have.

When I was homeless and struggling afterwards I was a pretty damn good dumpster diver. Making things out of nothing and making meals out of throw a ways.

I have said that shown that you can eat well if you put your heart into it. To rethink on cooking and how to reuse your meals to create new and good tasting meals.

One of the things I will say is: I do not give ONE FUCK on how the food looks like. That is a later issue. The order goes is.

1. Does it smell good? The sense of smell is “the first sense” that goes off when you walk into a kitchen. If it smells good then it should taste good.
   
2. THE most important thing is that it tastes good. Too many times we have people go overboard on their spices or make the meal pretty instead of focusing on the most important thing is DOES it taste good. Man I have made kids eat their veggies when I minced the veggies and used it in making a meatloaf, which I've already posted on this site.
   
3. Then texture. You can have something that smells good and might taste good but the texture is waaaay wrong. Okra and peas are examples of those slimy vegetables if not prepared really sucks to eat because of their texture.
   
4. The finally sight. All of my meals prepared are not sloppy. I can definitely make it fancier looking but wifey wants me to cook MORE on things and can care less on the fancy looks.

Now as I placed this for viewing up you will also notice that I use the best paper china that money will allow. Heh Actually I use the cheapest paper plates and place them on top of a wicker plate. Wifey (and everybody else) wants me to cook more and wash dishes less.

I've been taking photos of what I have been cooking of late and writing down my recipes into one cook book for wifey to have. She too grew up in some rough situations so she understand why I cook in this way.

This is nothing but a modification of the style of cooking that has been done for 150 years or more.

When you really had to cook with what you have.

So lets start off with this meal because this is a perfect example of making something different instead of just reheating left overs.

ALSO this happens to everyone who cooks. You make a meal for 2 and in the end you have extra leftovers but only enough for only 1 person. Yea this happens a lot so you have to understand on each flavor composition of food you make, so you can create something else different.

This is what happened I had 3 servings of Meat Loaf 1.5 cup of meat and 1 serving of rice-o-roni. ½ of a cup.

I'll be using all of the rice-o-roni and about 1 cup of meatloaf. The remaining ½ cup of meatloaf I'll post up later on what I did with it.

So here something I'm going to share.

Momma's Meat Loaf Burrito... or for the food snobs this is a meat-rice- wrap. Heh.

This is the approximations of how this burrito is made.

Left Overs.
1 cup of meat loaf. This is Wifey's meatloaf which contains big onion and mushroom chunks made with her own special method she won't share with me. I chuckle on this but that's fine. Any meatloaf will do.

½ a cup of cheesy rice-o-roni

Added material.
½ cup of white rice. Note: Every Latin, Asian, Cubano, Mexican, and even many in the South have their signature rice that they serve to their family. I will give my recipe of “my” version of signature rice that was created during the hard times of my life. But regular basic cooked white rice will do nicely.

2-13.5 inches tortillas.

4 to 8oz of shredded mozzarella cheese.

Your added sauce. It could be a gravy, a pasta sauce or in my case a home made barbecue sauce that I make from time to time. You can be the cheap BBQ sauce at the store and that's fine too.

I included one of my takes on a simple barbecue sauce. Again don't make it hard on yourself when you cook. Everyone finds their style of cooking so there is never a wrong way about it. If you like your style of cooking then that is all that matter.

Home made Barbecue sauce.
Lasts over a week in the fridge. I just freeze what I don't use and use it for later.

Change up to your sauce to your liking however this is how mine is done. So experiment to your hearts content.

Mine is made out of cheap materials you can get/pick up.

1. Ketchup packs. They should be enough for 1 or so cup of Ketchup.

2. Up to 1 teaspoon of black pepper from pepper packs that you get from eating out.

3. ¼ cup of vinegar. White or whatever you have available.

4. Up to 3oz of Dark Brown Sugar. Light brown Sugar will do as well. Regular Sugar will work as well We are thinking that you use what you have on hand.

5. Up to 1 teaspoon of paprika.

6. Up to 1 teaspoon of cumin.

7. Up to 1 table spoon of Worcestershire sauce You may want to try A-1 Steak sauce instead if you have it

8. Up to 1 teaspoon of powered garlic.

9. Up to 1 teaspoon of powered onion.

10. Up to 1 teaspoon of turmeric


Again you use what you have. Some people add Molasses to the mix as well as chili powder. Molasses gives you that dark rich semi sweet flavor that is great for making BBQ sauce. I have all of the ingredients above because you can get it rather cheaply at Wally World.

First mix up all of the dry material together in a bowl. Next mix all of the wet stuff in a pot over a stove on medium heat. Add 2oz of water first to the wet mixture in the pot. Then slowly mix in the dry material into the pot. Keep up to another ½ of a cup of water on hand to achieve your desired thickness of your mix.

I generally use about a total of 1/2 of water into the mix to make my barbecue sauce. However there are times when I was not paying attention and it thickens too much on me. Depending on the heat, it takes between 15 to 30 minutes to make. I like to get the sauce to a slow boil while making sure I don't burnt the bottom of the pan.

Make use with what you have on hand. You don't have to go to the store to get the things for this sauce. By all means experiment with this.

Making of the Burrito

1. Mix the Rice-o-roni and Rice together and place it in a microwave container and microwave it until it is warm.
   
2. Place your meatloaf into a microwave container and microwave it until is it warm.
   
3. Get your tortillas ready to place your food on it.
   
4. Rice mixture is first then meat, then barbecue sauce and then the shredded cheese
   
5. Folded it up to a burrito and microwave it again to it is nice and hot to your liking. Then serve.

The first picture is all of the ingredients together the second of course is the completed burrito ready to eat. Yes it does not look like much but that is a 13.5 inch tortilla that the food is piled up on.

If you want to get fancy this is where you can get fancy by making a wet sauce, add extra cheese and fresh herbs and so on. The second picture is a fully wrapped burrito For us its about eating. We don't care about it being fancy. We just bone sticking good food and that's all.

What does it tastes like? Very Good. You will get the cheesy rice-o-roni flavors through as well as the rest of the different flavorings coming from the other food components. . The texture is right. The rice is not mushy nor is any part of the burrito is dry. We are getting all of the spices, onion and mushroom taste from the meatloaf.

Wifey loves it as it is finger food off of her left over meatloaf. Our BBQ sauce is how we like it but again go ahead and experiment. there is plenty you can do from here. You can create another sauce and make it a "wet" burrito, add more cheese of veggies. Whatever you wish.

We cook up her meatloaf once a month so this is a normal secondary meal afterwards for us from the left overs. By using the left overs in different ways we extend the cost of the savings of eating in. As well as reducing the chance of throwing out food that gets old because you forget using it because what is left will not fully feed a person or two.

In Ending this is just another example of using up the left overs that you have on hand.

To make a full meal for two instead of using left overs for a meal for one.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

"When I was little my mom, grand parents, baby sitters who look like witches coming out of a fantasy story book, would cook me lunch using left overs."
There are dishes that are practically made to be refried as leftovers to the joy of children.