What Have You Cooked Recently?

[synthetic_glazer]

Made a gluten free pizza. It ended up being very cakey. I used the slightly chewy variation mentioned on the recipe (with tapioca flour) but it really didn't crisp up all that much, and I didn't get the color I was expecting. It tasted fine, though, and held together well.

(Recipe)


There was, unfortunately, something rather horrifying that occurred during the process of transferring the topped pizza from the baking sheet on the counter to the preheated baking sheet in the oven (between the second and third picture.) My horrible oven is at an angle so after I put it on the baking but before I slid the oven rack back into position, the sheet fucking slid off of the rack and the pizza flopped onto the floor. It folded like a taco and the cheese spilled everywhere. Because I'm a disgusting kitchen chud unworthy of clean food, I picked up the pizza, scooped up what sauce and cheese I could, and put it back on the baking sheet to cook. In hindsight, I probably should've discarded the floor cheese, kept the pizza, and put new cheese on it, but I wasn't thinking rationally. But hey, you probably couldn't tell from looking at it that the cooked pizza fell on the floor, and it didn't taste like it fell on the floor aside from a few hairs, so I'd call that a win

No pictures of the pizza on the floor because I was too distraught to think to photograph that grisly scene until after the fact.nAnyway, this is a horrible kitchen and the only reason it isn't the worst is because my first apartment's kitchen had onky one working burner and the oven would set off the neighbor's smoke alarm every time I used it, for some reason.

 

[indomitable snowman]

Made a gluten free pizza. It ended up being very cakey.

If you can find this get some. It makes the best gluten free pizaa.

https://caputoflour.com/products/caputo-gluten-free-flour

 

[JohnnyG]

My horrible oven is at an angle

Is it built into a cabinet, or a standalone range? The latter tend to have adjustable front feet you can dial up and down to level it (usually with a jam nut to lock things in place, so to raise the front you'd unscrew the feet a bit, then tighten the nut up).

 

[TheGreatDodongus]

Guinness beef stew, except I don't like Guinness, so I always use a different dark beer. Sapporo Black this time

 

[Rainbow Child]

Spoiler: First a little venting, you can skip this

I hate how every person who's all like "they don't season they food" is always using garlic powder, onion powder, and like an onion or a garlic somehow doesn't count. Or like, they got a jar of Ragu or Prego or whatever readymade sauce and they say they're using because they're too struggling to make a sauce from scratch. Nigga, a tomato costs 50¢!

The whole reason I'm posting this here and now is because I was trying to watch one of those "Whites and Blacks try each other's struggle meals" videos and rage quit when the first contestant was describing his dish.

I've been down on my luck this month, making struggle meals from what I got available, until I can get good again. Here's some of my recipes I've come up with.

PAN FRIED BANNOCK WITH BLUEBERRY JAM
-in a bowl, dump in a bunch of flour, a pinch of baking powder, a pinch of salt, and a spoon of sugar. Mix it up well
-boil a kettle of water. Add a splash of water. Mix everything with a fork. Keep adding a splash of water and mixing until you gotta shaggy ball of dough
-YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNEAD THIS! Bannock needs to be shaggy coz you got no yeast in there. The baking powder helps a bit.
-heat up some oil in a pan. Medium heat's fine. While you're doing this, form your shaggy dough into shallow pucks. They need to be shallow so that the insides cook before the outsides burn. Don't overwork them! They gotta be shaggy to get a good crust and to be airy inside
-panfry your pucks. Flip them when golden brown. Both sides brown? Take them out.
- Spoon on your blueberry jam. These are really good.
*FUN ALTERNATIVE: use more oil, to deepfry instead of panfry, and coat the deepfried bannock in sugar. These are called "Indian Doughnuts".

SHANGHAI NOODLES
-if you got more flour, enough to sprinkle the counter for kneading, make noodles instead of bannock.
-in a bowl, dump a bunch of flour. If you have eggs, use them as the liquid because it makes a tastier and firmer noodle. One egg for one cup of flour, ish. If not, use the boiled water as before. Mix it with a fork into a good sticky ball.
-dust your counter with flour. Knead the dough for about ten minutes. Keep adding flour as your ball gobbles it up. You'll feel when it's done: the kneading will get tough; this is the gluten bonds forming; but 10 minutes is a good number if you don't know what you're feeling for. Don't be breaking those bonds with your fingers, use your palm.
-cover your ball of dough with the bowl and let that gluten relax for 30 minutes ish.
-while that's relaxing, in a wok or pan, add a good glug of soy sauce, a splash of white wine (or a smaller splash of vinegar), a boullion cube, MSG if you got it (a packet of flavour from an itchiban will be the bouillion and the MSG both, if you got it), and something sugary like Marischino Cherries (and the juice), just sugar is fine, and any sort of chilis or pepper that you got.
-mix it all up in the wok, low heat, you're just evaporating the liquid and making a sticky sauce, smash the cherries into mush. This will probably be done before the dough is relaxed. If so, just turn off the heat, and warm it back up while the noodles boil.
-roll out your dough as thin as you can get it. Dust the counter with flour so it doesn't stick. Use your wine bottle if you don't have a rolling pin. Then cut your noodles as thin as you can. The noodles puff up in water, so those thick fat Shanghai Noodles you get at the restaurant when times are good? They shouldn't be that fat before they're boiled, they'll get that fat in the water.
-bring water to a boil. Toss in your noodles. 2 minutes, 3 max depending on your city's altitude, they'll be done. They float when they're done. They fall apart when they're overdone. Egg style's better than water style not just in flavour but also in forgiveness if you overcook them a minute. Give them a gentle stir every once and a while to prevent sticking.
-strain the noodles, toss them in your sauce, get em good and coated. Serve.

DUMPLING SOUP
-the OG struggle meal. Make a soup. I don't have to tell you how. Whatever you got goes in a pot and simmers.
-while that's happening, prepare a dough just like the noodles. BUT THE WATER KIND, NOT THE EGG KIND! Instead of rolling it flat, coil it into a fat snake. The fatter the snake, the bigger your dumplings. Snip chunks of your coil into little pucks of dough, with scissors. These are your dumplings, some people call them "klees".
-turn up your simmering soup to a boil, drop in your klees. If noodles took 2 minutes klees will take 3.

These three recipes will keep a struggling family full and going until your luck turns around. And when times are good, you can fancy them up with extra ingredients. Nothing like a tummy full of dough to feel full.

 

[AnOminous]

Guinness beef stew, except I don't like Guinness, so I always use a different dark beer. Sapporo Black this timeView attachment 8733421

My personal favorite for dark beer stew ingredients is an American beer called Kalamazoo stout.

 

[indomitable snowman]

I made a Gluten Free lemon pound cake in honor of Afroman.

 

[Rotting Femcel]

tummy is angry today, making congee with leftover chicken to calm it down

 

[There She Glows]

I've been on my dropping extra winter pounds grind which for me means a lot of vegan food and salmon (the superior lean protein). Last night I made some chana saag with kale instead of the usual spinach. Highly recommend, the texture is a big improvement.

 

[souschef]

Spaghetti aglio e olio and had a glass of wine with it

Too lazy to make anything that takes more effort than that, today

 

[SmokelessFire]

I was busy so I tried doing oven caramelized onions for the first time last night for a French onion soup today. It appealed to me just so I didn't have to nanny a stove top but the nature of caramelized onions meant that for the first 40 minutes I was just moving softened onions around every 10-15, but as it moves along that window get's smaller and smaller before burning. The recipe said 50 minutes at 400 but as we all know, online recipes are almost always lyers about time. If I do it again I think I'll do 300-350 and use my pyrex casserole dish instead of the ceramic. The ceramic had more capacity but I think the heat retention and transfer was too much for this kinda thing.

 

[Elderly beef taco]

Soup!

Started by cooking down some bacon and onions. Took them out of the pot, added butternut sqaush and potato and some chicken stock. Let it cook, then pureed. Added back in the bacon and onion, as well as some frozen peas, and then heavy cream and let simmer.

Added a chunk of slightly stale bagette as a nice texture/filling element when served.

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

This last week was mostly me discovering that you can oven bake Katsu and it doesn't have to be fried, something I try and avoid. As a result, I've been eating very well on good pork with cabbage salad and whatever other veg I had hanging around. Quick and easy to prepare and really punched above its weight in the taste department despite being so simple, and the cutlets kept well enough in the fridge for leftovers.

 

[AnOminous]

Spaghetti aglio e olio and had a glass of wine with it

This is such an incredibly lazy dish but I love it. It's so satisfying for a low-effort dish. Everyone should have this from time to time.

 

[WhatInTheActualFuck]

This is such an incredibly lazy dish but I love it. It's so satisfying for a low-effort dish. Everyone should have this from time to time.

That and cacio e pepe (Cheese, pepper and noodles? Yes please!) are absolutely my "not giving a fuck" go-tos.

 

[synthetic_glazer]

If you can find this get some. It makes the best gluten free pizaa.

https://caputoflour.com/products/caputo-gluten-free-flour

I'll have to try that. Thanks!

A few days ago I had a very productive cooking day. I started with bacon, eggs, and pancakes, with the pancakes being the most beautiful pancakes I've ever made. Used GF flour like usual and added a pinch of nutmeg.

The recipe is from a weird video game I'm have a strange fondness for (the recipes are in the instruction manual, all derived from Food Network's book, How To Boil Water.)

After that, I made a beef stir fry with a fish/ginger sauce, mushrooms, and carrots. The recipe calls it Japanese but to be totally honest, it doesn't hit many of the notes that Japanese stir fry does- imo it'd be more accurate to call it "Japanese-inspired." The recipe also calls for a comically small amount of rice. I make three time the amount (so 1.5 cups dry rice.)



More recently, I made a "puebla-style chicken mole" from that Cooking Light book I posted a while back. "Made" should be used loosely since I substituted (green chiles instead of ancho chiles, tomato puree instead of chopped tomato, cocoa powder instead of unsweetened chocolate) and omitted a lot of ingredients (I don't like almonds for instance, and I'm not going to buy an orange just to use trimmings from the peel.) It turned out great, even though I was very dubious about combining chocolate, tomatoes, cinnamon, and onions.

 

[Got Milk!]

I recently came into possession of a bunch of boneless beef ribs. I realize they're just chunks of beef I can do anything with but curious on ideas anyone might have. I'm making the first set now. Just seasoned and baking at 300f for 90 minutes.

Eta: I'll try to make some suggestions if they aren't outside my skill level or cookware limitations

 

[JohnnyG]

I recently came into possession of a bunch of boneless beef ribs. I realize they're just chunks of beef I can do anything with but curious on ideas anyone might have

One of my favourite recipes is instant pot braised short ribs, in a wine sauce, over mashed potatoes (which you can cook in a bowl above the meat/sauce). I've made them with "boneless short ribs" which I think are some kind of chuck/shoulder cut.

https://www.pressurecookrecipes.com/instant-pot-short-ribs/

 

[Toxic BRAAAAP Mask]

I recently came into possession of a bunch of boneless beef ribs. I realize they're just chunks of beef I can do anything with but curious on ideas anyone might have. I'm making the first set now. Just seasoned and baking at 300f for 90 minutes.

Eta: I'll try to make some suggestions if they aren't outside my skill level or cookware limitations

Also echoing braising, I prefer something asian like this and leftovers always make for great tacos.

 

[WhatInTheActualFuck]

I recently came into possession of a bunch of boneless beef ribs. I realize they're just chunks of beef I can do anything with but curious on ideas anyone might have. I'm making the first set now. Just seasoned and baking at 300f for 90 minutes.

Eta: I'll try to make some suggestions if they aren't outside my skill level or cookware limitations

Long slow braise (a couple of hours at 250F or so after a quick hot sear to maillard the surface and chucked in with whatever you wanna flavor it with) or chuck them into a smoker (same thing, but with wood chips). Basically do them up like either pot roast or pulled pork.