What Have You Cooked Recently?

I attempted a roasted vegetable rigatoni, only I did what I always do and overcrowded the pan. Since it turned into soup instead of roasting I broke out the "well I fucked this up" tool that is the immersion blender and added a little cream cheese. It didn't really need it given how the chickpeas smoothed out.

24oz cherry tomatoes, halved
half a red onion
one zucchini, diced
one head garlic (should probably use less)
one can chickpeas, drained
one knob cream cheese

Fail to roast at 400F (or just sauté in a pan like a normal person), blend, then add in pasta water and pasta of choice. I've seen some variations on this for the purpose of hiding vegetables from your kids.
 
  • Feels
  • Like
Reactions: HamFan, CIS White Droid, Mesh Gear Fox and 2 others
Made some American goulash a little while ago (and plan to make some more soon) that turned out pretty decent. All you need is a stock pot and a skillet.

1lb ground beef
1lb macaroni (or pasta of choice)
1 regular tin crushed or stewed tomatoes
1 small tin tomato paste
1 clove garlic/jarred garlic to taste
shallots
Worcestershire sauce
Accent/MSG
table salt
black pepper
red pepper (I used crushed flakes, but use whatever you prefer, paprika is obviously nice too)

Boil pasta in stock pot, leaving roughly 1½-2 cups of water after draining. When pasta is nearly done, start onion and garlic in your skillet; once it's sweated, put in ground beef and brown (I usually just season it with salt & pepper plus some Worcestershire). Add browned meat to pasta and water, then add stewed tomatoes and tomato paste. Combine well, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer. Season to taste (again, I add a touch of MSG and a little more Worcestershire; last time I also used some gochujang for some body) and serve hot.
EDIT: Forgot I added some grated parmesan to the stock pot for some added flavor and body as well. Sharp cheeses work well but shouldn't overwhelm the meatiness or acidity too much ideally.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Winner
  • Feels
Reactions: rusty shackleford 1, Planetary Bombardment, Mesh Gear Fox and 5 others
I had some leftover rice, so I cooked a store-bought Mexican chicken tinga kit late night.

6000208622230.webp

Wasn't even sure what chicken tinga was. The description talks about shredded chicken in adobo sauce, but not that helpful since I don't know what that is either.

Adobo sauce seems to be some Mexican historic meat preservation method in hot temperatures with Spanish & Portuguese influences. It consists of chipotle and ancho peppers in sauce along with oregano, paprika, garlic, onions, etc.

81cFwI--1xL.webp

I dug out a can of refried beans I had around. I was a little disappointed the beans were more of a pink slurry rather than the more brown colour I've had before in restaurants. I wonder if it's because the can specifically referenced refried PINTO beans. They still tasted good but looked gross out of the can.

Ortega-Homestyle-Corn-Tostada-Shells-White-Corn-Masa-8-Count-Box_4f77db14-3abd-4203-a4c1-21a2...webp

I also heated some Tostada shells. About half the pack were shattered, so I served them in the bowl like taco salad rather than trying to use them as a true vessel.

I took the tinga kit out of the freezer about 2 hours before dinner, but it was still pretty solid at suppertime. So I placed the vacuum pack in a pitcher of hot water, which worked instantly to liquify it.

Unfortunately, the adobo sauce melted before the chicken breast did. I put the contents in a saucepan, but the chicken breast took another 10-15 mins on simmer to unthaw. I was too lazy to truly shred the cooked chicken, so it was more chicken chunks than shredded.

I placed the chicken tinga sauce, the crushed tostadas, the refried beans, the leftover white rice and sour cream in a big bowl and served.

It looked like a dog's breakfast but was quite tasty & filling.

Don't know if I'd buy chicken tinga retail again though since it wasn't cheap, had small portions and wasn't really distinct enough.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
  • Feels
Reactions: OrionBalls, Truman the Jewman, Planetary Bombardment and 3 others
Maker's Mark said:
I’ve got a pork loin in the slow cooker right now. I tried making Pork Belly and rice in my Rice Cooker after watching a YouTube video on it on Friday and it was a total fail. Pork did not get cooked through and was still raw.
Click to expand...
My personal pork belly recipe comes straight from Chairman Mao. It's probably why he was so fat. I only make it about once a year.
AnOminous said:
Got some pork belly (why is this not available anywhere) specifically for this. Chairman Mao's favorite dish, red-cooked pork. You can allegedly do this with pork picnic shoulder too but I wouldn't even bother. Pork belly is where it's at for this dish.

Dump in a pot of water covering the pork belly, bring to a boil, reduce temp, parboil for 20 minutes. Sift the scum off the top as this happens. Do you really need to do this? I don't know, but my grandmother always did so I do too. Anyway it's gross.

Remove the meat, let it cool down. Keep as much of the boiling liquid as you need. Maybe add some pork stock or other stock (I used vegetable stock).

Once it's cool enough to handle, chop it into cubes.

Boil a few tablespoons of water with the sugar of your choice to make a syrup. Keep this up until the color changes and it's slightly caramelized. Then fry the cubes of pork belly in it until they're nicely browned.

Now add back the couple cups of boiling liquid and stock, three whole star anise (remove at the end), three (or whatever) cloves of garlic (chop or mince them obviously), three tablespoons of tamari or other soy sauce, some chopped scallions, and really whatever else you like. Ginger is nice, so is five-spice powder, really whatever. I kept it simple and added only the most basic of ingredients.

Simmer this, covered, until it's done. Basically until it's knife-tender. This takes an hour and some minutes.

Once that's done, remove the meat again, and reduce the remaining liquid until it's the consistency you like. I like it somewhat thick, but be careful because it goes from perfect to charred in about 30 seconds, so tend to it and stir it nearly constantly.

Serve this fatty, horrifying, artery-clogging shit over rice and praise Jesus that you live in a world where making something this delicious is this simple.

(You might notice this has nearly no ingredients but the one semi-exotic is star anise. Do NOT skip that, it is the core spice of the dish and without it you are just eating a bowl of fat with some garlic and scallions.)
Click to expand...
Also my favorite Amish butcher has finally started actually selling pork belly. Apparently I was not the only person bitching about him not having it.

Also something I actually did cook today. Two filet mignon steaks, sous-vide, with mashed potatoes and gravy and Pillsbury crescent rolls on the side.

The sous-vide bag included Kerrygold butter, parsley, sage, rosemary & thyme (the Scarborough Fair mix), a couple bulbs of garlic smacked hard by hand, a bay leaf, and the usual salt and pepper.

Despite my usual bitching about well-done, the person who wants well-done got it. One of the great things about sous-vide is even insanely bad ideas like well-done work out pretty well.
 
Last edited:
  • Feels
  • Like
Reactions: rusty shackleford 1, HarveySperg41, Truman the Jewman and 5 others
I kinda want to brag first it was mothers day weekend. Mommy cooked so much for me! I don't need to make my own food. My mom hasn't eaten meat in 50+ years and she made me one of my all time fav's red beans and rice. Grandma basso still walks the earth so for moms day she chose dinner, Ham butt "what" or smoked ham shoulder with green beans and potatoes. Real PA dutch nigger food. (I also got tons of left overs).

I helped my mom make Marcons, they were heavy as lead but floated on the plate. Magic. We did so much whipping. But It paid off.
 
  • Feels
  • Like
Reactions: rusty shackleford 1, Planetary Bombardment, CIS White Droid and 6 others
So apparently, heating olive oil with garlic paste, and brushing French bread is the proper starting move for French bread pizzas. It appears to create a delicious sauce barrier, preventing sogginess.

Also, you can make turkey bacon almost good, by frying in butter for too long, on cast iron.
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: Dawdler, HamFan, Aiōn and 3 others
Rotter said:
Some nonsense I made this evening. It was good though.
Click to expand...
Personally, I prefer the classic Elvis, with peanut butter. Do some thick bacon. Lots of bacon. Then toast one side of the slices of bread in the bacon grease. Take them out, smear the toasted side with peanut butter, add the bacon and bananas, close the sandwich.

Now just grill the other side. The outside will grill much more quickly so don't let it burn.

Don't eat this more than once a year or two or you will die.

Something less heinous, and vegetarian, is have a panini grill, and grill Nutella (or hazelnut chocolate spread of your choice) and bananas. This is slightly less likely to result in you Elvising out and dying on the toilet.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Marvin, Rotter and Mesh Gear Fox
AnOminous said:
Personally, I prefer the classic Elvis, with peanut butter. Do some thick bacon. Lots of bacon. Then toast one side of the slices of bread in the bacon grease. Take them out, smear the toasted side with peanut butter, add the bacon and bananas, close the sandwich.

Now just grill the other side. The outside will grill much more quickly so don't let it burn.

Don't eat this more than once a year or two or you will die.

Something less heinous, and vegetarian, is have a panini grill, and grill Nutella (or hazelnut chocolate spread of your choice) and bananas. This is slightly less likely to result in you Elvising out and dying on the toilet.
Click to expand...
Yes, I did steal this recipe from The King - and left out the peanut spread. I'm not much of a peanut enthusiast.

There's a few Elvis cookbooks out there. "Are You Hungry Tonight? Elvis' Favorite Recipes" is one of them. Probably a fun and unhealthy read.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Mesh Gear Fox, Marvin and CIS White Droid
I like to make these for effort breakfast, I flatten canned biscuits and ball them up around a big spoonful of cheese egg and bacon mix. Four eggs with minced onion and a little mustard scrambled til just a little runny, five bacons chopped, more cheese than you think you need, one tube of biscuits. They reheat pretty good in the microwave and would probably freeze well. A lot of prep time for “holy shit are they gone already?” though lol
IMG_0764.webp
 
  • Like
Reactions: all is good, Aiōn, MerriedxReldnahc and 7 others
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back