Cooks in the Playground!

[El'the Ellie]

Hello folks! I've recently started taking up cooking most of the dinner for my family (Ok, more like half) and I'm quickly running out of things I'm interested in making. But this is 2016, and crowd-sourcing the the only way anyone does anything any more! So what are your favorite foods to make? My hope is that enough people are interested, I can compile a cook book either here or in PDF form.
Note: I know there are cookbooks everywhere online. I'm curious to what you guys like to make.

I'll get us started!

Spoiler: Spicy Chicken Chowder

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Prep Time: ~20 minutes
Cook Time: ~30 minutes
Servings: 6

Ingredients:
6 Cups chicken broth/stock
3 Medium russet potatoes
1 Large white onion
1 Large red bell pepper
1-2 Jalapenos
4 Cloves of garlic
1/3 Cup flour
4 Tablespoons of butter
1 1/2 Cups half & half
1 Pound boneless skinless chicken
2 Bay leaves
2 Cups of corn
6 Slices bacon
Green onions to taste
Salt and Pepper to taste

Cooking:
Dice jalapenos, and remove about half of the seeds (Remove more seeds for less heat, remove fewer seeds for more heat). Dice white onion and pepper. Finely dice or mash cloves of garlic.
In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat. Add jalapenos, white onion, and pepper and saute for about 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook an additional minute, mixing continuously. Add flour and mix for a few seconds. Add chicken broth and stir. Bring soup to a boil. Peel potatoes and slice into 1/2 inch cubes. Add potatoes, bay leaves, and salt and pepper. Return the soup to a boil, then let simmer uncovered for 10 minutes.
While soup is simmering, cook chicken and bacon in a pan. Make sure to slightly overcook the bacon, so it will crush easily. Pull the chicken (or cut into bite-sized pieces), and crush the bacon.
Add the chicken, bacon, corn, and half & half to the soup, and let simmer uncovered for 15-20 minutes.
Add chopped green onions just before serving.

Note: This soup can be made omitting a number of things if you're missing one or more of the bacon, chicken or potatoes. Also, it keeps and reheats wonderfully and packs well for lunches as long as it can be microwaved!

Slightly modified from this recipe.

Feel free to include anything: Breakfasts, lunches, dinner, snacks, desserts, alcoholic/nonalcoholic drinks, etc.

[factotum]

Some stuff already posted in this thread over in Mad Science and Grumpy Technology you might want to look at:

http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showt...the-Playground

[Crow]

When I get bored of things that I normally cook, I give my family a cookbook and let them pick.

[Mister Tom]

Kitchri!

Straightforward, cheap, reasonably delicious, probably healthy, just the one pan to wash up, and vegetarian. ( vegan too if you swapped out the butter for coconut oil). But you _will_ want a spice grinder for Christmas ( we use a coffee grinder which coffee is not allowed to approach). You can use pre-ground but it's not the same.

Total time to cook is around 40 minutes.

Spoiler: To Serve four or so...

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Ingredients:
1 mug red lentils (I guess around 200grams but this isn't a precise science)
The same mug of white basmati rice
1 reasonably sized onion, sliced thin across ways
1 chunk root ginger (size of your thumb joint or so when peeled), finely chopped
50g of butter
Dry spices:cumin seed coriander seed and green cardamom seeds. mix to taste but I would think a heaped dessert spoon in total.

Dollop of mango chutney and juice of 1/2 lemon ( you can use 100g tamarind paste if you are a traditionalist! But we prefer the former)

Start off by rinsing the mug ( literally what we use)of red lentils and the mug of rice.

While they are draining, take a thick bottomed saucepan and dry-fry the dry spices until you can smell the toasty spice aroma. Remove the spices, put a kettle on and grind the spices while frying the onion and ginger on a moderate heat unti in half the butter (aim for a nice golden colour). Add the lentils, rice, rest of the butter and dry spices and mix around. Then add 3 1/2 mugs of just boiled water from the kettle ( yep, same mug again), plus the remaining ingredients ( Ie probably the mango chutney and lemon).

It's a lot simpler from here on in!

This wants to cook down for 10 minutes until the lentils are softened and the water is absorbed- stir occasionally to prevent sticking and add more butter if needed. Then leave on a very low heat for another 15 minutes( we actually turn it off for 10 and then put on a low heat for a few minutes at the end.

Serve with, according to taste, any or all of hot fried onion, chopped fresh coriander, or poppadoms.

[Togath]

Ramen/ready-to-use-yakisoba noodles?
I'm not exactly sure of the amounts but...

Spoiler: Tea and soy sauce noodles

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Ingredients:
A package of either ready to instant ramen noodles(unseasoned), or about the same amount of mostly-pre-cooked/instant yakisoba noodles(no seasonings again).
1 cup of black tea
1/4 cup of soy sauce
1 Teaspoon of Five Spice powder
1 Teaspoon of Powdered Paprika
5-8 Allspice berries(ground)
2 medium green onions(including whites)
2-3 eggs(to taste and depending on size).

Steps:
Run the noodles under warm water to soften(instant but dry)/loosen(mostly-pre-cooked), then add(unbroken, if using the dry type) to a shallow non-stick pan with the soy sauce and (warm/hot)black tea. Let sit while you chop the onions, adding about half now(sturdier whiter pieces tend to be better at this point) along with the spices to the noodles, turning the burner to medium heat. Continue cooking(and string to avoid sticking and mix in spices) until the liquid has mostly evaporated. Now push the noodles to one side and add the eggs to the pan, letting the whites just barely begin to set before starting to scramble the eggs(it is at this point, you might want to add a little brown sugar/honey and/or soy sauce to the eggs, to add more flavour). Continue cooking until the eggs are to your liking, and the noodles have a very thick sauce, and still in the other half of the onions(weaker greener parts tend to be better here, as they wilt otherwise) to serve.

Notes:
If you lack the spices/want something easier, a standard "beef" ramen packet or packet of "teriyaki" seasoning from instant noodles tends to add a decent flavour(though stir it in right before starting the eggs, to retain the maximum flavour).

[Archonic Energy]

Salmon en croute with potatoes dauphinoise.

much easier than it sounds.

[Razade]

I just made a curried pork loin wrapped in chapati the other night, was pretty good. The week before I made chicken enchilada onion rings, which were onion rings with some cheese and ground chicken in the middle and then deep fried. I like to do crazy things that push me closer to death usually.

[Madbox]

Homemade Burritos! Cheap, easy to make, delicious.

Ingredients:
1lb pinto beans, dry
1lb of the spiciest sausage you can get
1 onion
2 bell peppers
2 jalapenos
Spices to taste (cumin, garlic, seasoned salt, whole peppercorns)
Tortillas
Cheese, if desired

Put the beans in a container, fill with water. Let soak overnight.

Drain water, put beans in a Generic™ brand stoneware slow cooker. Add water until beans are covered.

Dice vegetables, add to cooker. Break up sausage into small chunks, add to cooker. Add desired spices. Mix well.

Put cooker on the High setting. Let sit for 8-12 hours.

And now you have burrito mix! Add a scoop to a tortilla, add cheese if you want, and dig in! Goes well with a tall glass of milk.

[trueexciting]

I love Tacos, it's so easy to do and you can do a lot of variations with it.

[FinnLassie]

When I have no idea what to make, my go-to is always home made pizza. The dough is easy to make and you can always make up different kind of combos based on your and your family's tastes. Recently I've been experimenting with lots of different meat and adding stuff like carrots, cauliflower and such. It doesn't have to be "traditional"!

[thorgrim29]

Smoked salmon pizza with pesto as the sauce is pretty good. And even easier than making your own dough is to keep a bag of naan bread in the freezer.

[FinnLassie]

Making your own dough is the cheapest way to go, though.

[Togath]

Delicious drink recipe arriving now!~

Nectarine Tea:
You'll need water, a large coffee mug, and a nectarine(a larger one provides more flavour. I tend to go for roughly large apple sized ones), and possibly a little dark brown sugar to season if you have especially tart nectarines.

First, slice the nectarine, getting as much of the flesh off the pit as you can(but slicing is important, even if the pit pops out, you still want rings of nectarine at least), then fill the cup about 3/4 of the way full with water and bring to near boiling(or you can just pour in boiling hot water, either way works). If you want a sweeter drink, now is where you mix in 1-2 tablespoons of dark brown sugar, before adding all of the nectarine flesh and giving it a light stir.
After 2-3 minutes(or however long the water takes to cool to a decently warm-but-not-hot temperature) you can start drinking.
When finished drinking, you can either eat the nectarine pieces as a snack, or if they've softened enough use them like a jam on toast or cake or some such thing.

[Marillion]

Salmon en croute with potatoes dauphinoise.

much easier than it sounds.

Potatoes with dolphin noses!? You monster! At least use the whole dolphin!

On a busy night, I like to do rotisserie chicken quesadillas. Buy a whole rotisserie chicken from the store, shred it, and simmer it with a little bit of your favorite barbecue sauce and/or hot sauce. Put a tortilla on the griddle, top it with chicken and cheese, and place another tortilla on top. Flip until both sides are crispy. Serve with guacamole salad. You can save the bones to make soup with, too!

[BWR]

Simplest salmon/trout recipe ever.

Filets of said fish
marinate in lemon juice with black pepper and chili flakes (I let it sit an hour or so on each side because I like the lemon flavor to soak in)
fry in some olive oil (medium--high heat so it gets a nice thin crust)

[Arcane_Secrets]

When I have no idea what to make, my go-to is always home made pizza. The dough is easy to make and you can always make up different kind of combos based on your and your family's tastes. Recently I've been experimenting with lots of different meat and adding stuff like carrots, cauliflower and such. It doesn't have to be "traditional"!

How do you make the dough? I've _always_ wanted to make calzone myself and that's sort of the next step afterwards for me.

[FinnLassie]

Hum. I use a Finnish recipe that I found by just googling... I'll translate it here, though:

Spoiler: pizza base

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• 25g fresh yeast (though I oftem use dry yeast, can't remember what amount rn)
• 2dl of hand temperature water
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 3 tablespoons of oil (olive, sunflower, whatever, I just use the cheapest one from the shop :P)
• 5dl wheat flour

- Mix the fresh yeast with hand temperature water. If using dry yeast, mix that together with the flour.
- Add salt to the flour and mix.
- Before adding water, place your flour to the sides of the mixing bowl creating a crater to add your water in.
- Add little by little whilst mixing/kneading the flour into the water. Try to keep the crater form for as long as you are adding water.
- When all of the water is in, keep on kneading for a bit.
- Add the oil and mix together.
- Let the mixture sit under a towel for about 30 minutes.

Then you just use a rolling pin to make it an even surface to slap your toppings on. And uh yeah. I never make round pizza (rectangular ones are easier to cut, ok?!), that amount of dough there is good enough for a standard oven pan. Or at least a standard one in Finland.

And remember, always put in a tad more flour if the consistency isn't as it's supposed to be / the dough is too sticky. I always use somewhere between 5 and 6 dl.

.... I learnt the crater technique thingy watching Jamie Oliver doing some series in Italy. Hmm. Ah well, it's handy!

[Cuthalion]

I'll toss in the pizza dough recipe I've been using since I was a kiddo.

Spoiler: For three large round pizzas

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8 cups flour
3 and a bit cups water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast

Combine salt and flour in a bowl. Shove that to the edges to make a little volcano crater, and pour water into the middle with yeast. (Yeast and salt don't get along super well). Mix together with a fork until everything is fairly well incorporated, and then knead it in the bowl for as long as you can. Definitely past the point where you can tuck it into a ball, and you can't really overknead, so. If it starts getting sticky, just add a little more flour. Once you're done kneading, turn it so the smooth side is on top, take a little bit of oil, and rub that on the top so it doesn't dry out. Cover with a cloth or a plastic bag and let sit out on the counter for a few hours. This can be as short as 3 hours or as long as 6, I tend to make it an hour or so after lunch. Shorter if it's hot out. Grease pans and toss a bit of cornmeal on if you have it around. To spread, divide dough into three parts, pinch around the edges of these balls, lightly flour your hands/said balls and rest it on your knuckles while flicking it up into the air. It should be pretty elastic, and stretch out quickly. Once you are intimidated to go further, it rips, or it gets as long as the pan in any direction, put it on the pan. Spread it with the bottom edge of your hand, like you're shutting a book and your hand is the right cover, until it's the right shape. Rolling can degas it more than you want.

Note: this is really flexible. You can rise for however long is convenient within pretty wide parameters. You can add up to a tsp more yeast. You can add up to a tsp more salt. You can add more water. You can add a bit of oil to the water after you put in the yeast for a softer/more pliable dough. You can use up to half whole wheat, if you add a bit more water.

It's not technically traditional, but it has a good result and I've had people who know how to do pizza dough traditionally compliment it, so I figure it's a tradeoff of ease for authenticity. Traditional is a lot wetter dough, which is cool but harder to handle. This works.

If you want a decent sauce recipe, I can chip in there, too.

But basically pizza is very flexible on pretty much all counts and you can do it so many different ways. It's great.

EDIT:Finn, for clarity, I'd replace "crate" in your post with "crater".

[factotum]

Does a calzone use exactly the same dough as a pizza base, though? The ones I get from my local pizzeria seem to be thinner and less, well, doughy than a standard pizza.

[FinnLassie]

EDIT:Finn, for clarity, I'd replace "crate" in your post with "crater".

To my defense, my brain was reading it as "crater" the whole time. My brain just didn't agree as it was, well, not a normal time to be awake.

Does a calzone use exactly the same dough as a pizza base, though? The ones I get from my local pizzeria seem to be thinner and less, well, doughy than a standard pizza.

Yes? Why would it not be the same? ... though, I guess it completely depends on the place that makes the pizza. I'm used to the so called thin crusts, I don't understand thick bases.

[Tentreto]

I'm not exactly a good cook, but I do know a few quick easy meals.

Fajita Pizzas.
Simply get a fajita, and cover it in tomato puree, and put cheese on top plus anything else you may want like ham. Then grill it for a minute and Enjoy.
This has saved me multiple times as a student.

[The Succubus]

West Country Mushroom Stroganoff. The secret ingredient is cider. ^^

[factotum]

Yes? Why would it not be the same?

I don't know--I'm just going by what my local takeaway provides, and the calzone seems very different from the regular pizza.

[Eldan]

Well, doughy is the keyword here. I've had American pizza before and compared to the stuff you get over here which is closer to Italian, they are ridiculously thick. 4mm is the normal guideline, after baking. That's 0.15 inches.

[Razade]

I'm not exactly a good cook, but I do know a few quick easy meals.

Fajita Pizzas.
Simply get a fajita, and cover it in tomato puree, and put cheese on top plus anything else you may want like ham. Then grill it for a minute and Enjoy.
This has saved me multiple times as a student.

The UK must have a different thing they call fajita than the U.S because what you're describing sounds nothing like a fajita. I don't even know what this is supposed to be. It sounds like a tortilla (is that what you mean when you say "get a fajita"?) with some cheese and tomato sauce on it. I guess someone might call that a quesadilla. Certainly not a fajita. Fajita refers to grilled skirt steak, usually with onions and bell peppers, with tortillas on the side. It also usually has diced tomato, cheese and lettuce you can add on.

[FinnLassie]

Remembering some easy stuff now:

Mashed potatoes & meatloaf go well together! Accompanied by steamed veggies.

Being Finnish, the absolute must and nationwide favourite (though it's a kind of a love it or hate it thing, mostly love it): Macaroni casserole! Boil macaronis, fry up some minced meat together with onions. Sometimes I dice carrots and fry it with them, but totally optional. Then just mix them together in a deep oven pan/bowl/casserole pan/whatever you call it I don't know, and then add an egg&milk micture on top of it and let it seep in. After that sprinkle breadcrumbs on top generously (some add cheese but ugh I hate it). Shove it in the oven, I'd say about 200°C for 45 minutes. Best way to serve it is with grated carrots & pinapple salad (honestly, those two work together super well)... and a lot of people like to put ketchup on the casserole as well.

[factotum]

It sounds like a tortilla (is that what you mean when you say "get a fajita"?) with some cheese and tomato sauce on it.

Fajitas are usually served *on* tortillas, so I can see where the confusion probably arose there.

[shawnhcorey]

Something simple: Ginger Tea.

• 1 mug hot water
• 1 thin slice of ginger root

Place the ginger in the water and let it steep until it gets the strength you want. Remove slice. Enjoy.

[Razade]

Fajitas are usually served *on* tortillas, so I can see where the confusion probably arose there.

Yes I know. I live in the South West, I'm well acquainted with Tex-Mex food.

[Tentreto]

Fajitas are usually served *on* tortillas, so I can see where the confusion probably arose there.

I did say I wasn't a good cook...
To be honest, if its cold, I call it a tortilla; if its hot, I call it a fajita.
It does use a tortilla, but 'fajita pizza' sounds better.