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learn to cook

incorporating Recipes and Cooking
johnstevens77
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learn to cook

#511717

Postby johnstevens77 » July 4th, 2022, 10:10 pm

I am always astonished when I read that people throw food away!
Learn to cookwould be my advice.

Last week I bought a grain fed chicken which I processed as follows:
The legs were used for 6 portions of Thai yellow chicken curry. (Tip, use a hack saw to cut through the bones without splintering them).
One breast was left on the bone and frozen for a roast later on.
The other breast I boned out to freeze for home made chicken tikka kebabs.
(All spice mixes and marinades are home made).
The carcase was pressure cooked for stock with diced onion, carrot and celery then strained. The cooked vegetables were used with home made mayonnaise for a salad for dinner.
I put the stock in the fridge then removed the fat to use for other dishes, for instance we made a rice pilaf today and some of the chicken fat was used to saute the onions.
The stock went in the freezer for whatever we need it for although some was kept in the fridge for today’s pilaf.
The fat off the Thai curry was saved to make a spicy tomato pasta sauce.

Nowt thrown away except the cooked carcase.

john

Dod101
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Re: learn to cook

#511718

Postby Dod101 » July 4th, 2022, 10:19 pm

I am very impressed. Presumably you killed the beast before ‘processing’ it. That is about my ability at cooking. However I get a box once a week from Gousto. It includes the recipe and is a bit like painting by numbers and is therefore relatively foolproof.

Dod

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Re: learn to cook

#511736

Postby UncleEbenezer » July 5th, 2022, 1:49 am

How I learned to cook.

Several years in my later teens I did a summer job, and lived c/o my aunt while working. My brother did the same, and for a year or two we overlapped.

One year our aunt very reasonably pointed out that that we were three of us in the house, all working and earning. We could jolly well share the burden of shopping and cooking! We'd alternate weeks on and off on a three week cycle - so I guess my brother and I must have had about two weeks each when we were cooking for the three of us.

Give that task to two teenage lads, and of course it got competitive: each of us had to outshine the other. With the aid of recipe books - and doubtless with input from our aunt, though I don't recollect that - we learned to cook. In retrospect it was a great thing to have done: it gave me confidence in the kitchen, which has benefited me through my adult life.

Urbandreamer
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Re: learn to cook

#511741

Postby Urbandreamer » July 5th, 2022, 6:40 am

To be fair, the work described in doing the whole chicken thing is not insignificant. I know as I have done similar in the past.

A freezer does of course mean that you can regard the effort as simply shifting when the work is done. Small amounts being moved from the day of the meal to a day when you may have more time.

I would however draw peoples attentions to the simple statement "All spice mixes and marinades are home made". I have recently started doing so as it allows me to be more careful about salt in our diet*. It's both surprisingly easy and difficult. Easy in practice. Difficult in finding a recipe, identifying your own and substituting ingredients.

Very happy with my achievements with fajita's, getting there with enchiladas and improving on my curry choices.
Long practice with chilli.

With regard to work/effort I have found something that makes it a bit easier. I've downloaded a recipe/shopping/pantry/meal planning app called Papreka. It's great for extracting recipes from the internet, adding your own or modifying downloaded ones, planning meals in advance and remembering what you chose to do. It also can build a shopping list from your choices without adding things that it knows you have in the pantry. Check out a few youtube video's.

*The salt thing is a requirement, rather than an opinion or choice.

johnstevens77
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Re: learn to cook

#511757

Postby johnstevens77 » July 5th, 2022, 8:22 am

Dod101 wrote:I am very impressed. Presumably you killed the beast before ‘processing’ it. That is about my ability at cooking. However I get a box once a week from Gousto. It includes the recipe and is a bit like painting by numbers and is therefore relatively foolproof.

Dod

Nothing wrong with that. My bachelor son uses Hello Fresh.
As for killing the beast, been there, done that. Chicken and a lamb.

john

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Re: learn to cook

#511768

Postby bungeejumper » July 5th, 2022, 9:24 am

The last time I collected a takeaway was fifteen years ago, and it gave me food poisoning. Haven't felt the urge to slum it ever since. But I still don't get very much pleasure from cooking, and I really resent spending two hours on something that's going to be gone in fifteen minutes. (40 minutes is top end for me, unless I'm slow-cooking a casserole.) Admittedly, though, I don't have a supertaster's taste buds, so maybe I'm missing some of the finer points of my diet?

I learned to cook as a student, while starving in a garret in West Berlin, and I made a lot of naive but educational mistakes. One of which was to buy a kilo of red hot chillis :shock: :shock: :shock: because the supermarket was selling them off cheap as their use-by date approached. What can I say? Indeed what could I have said at the time? I couldn't speak for three days. :lol:

Raising my game a little, I tried a recipe for kidneys in red wine. (Again, the supermart had an over-supply of them.) I cleaned them and stripped and washed them, and all that stuff, but by the time I'd added the acidic red wine they were stinking the place out in a way that left no doubt as to the original function of the kidneys. :?

Messed about with baking cakes and suchlike, and actually I wasn't too bad at it, except that I quickly discovered that I didn't have a sweet tooth at all, so that was a great big waste of time and effort. In fact, I still avoid sweet foods to this day. Mind you, in my defence, I did have a near-death encounter while working at Cadburys in Bournville. Half a tonne of collapsing strawberry creams tried its best to kill me. Beat that, Willy Wonka. 8-)

These days I rely quite heavily on bottled cooking sauces, although I do stuff them with extra veg to bulk them out. Is that cheating? Maybe we should ask Marco Pierre White, who lives a couple of miles from here, and who still makes a lot of his dosh from flogging them?

BJ

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Re: learn to cook

#512028

Postby servodude » July 5th, 2022, 11:51 pm

Urbandreamer wrote:I would however draw peoples attentions to the simple statement "All spice mixes and marinades are home made". I have recently started doing so as it allows me to be more careful about salt in our diet*. It's both surprisingly easy and difficult. Easy in practice. Difficult in finding a recipe, identifying your own and substituting ingredients.


I'm going to suggest a site called https://www.recipetineats.com/
She gives really good suggestions for substitutions (or at least they were things I coudl find and would not have thought of) on most of the sauces in her recipes
I can never go back to store bought teryaki

johnstevens77
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Re: learn to cook

#512227

Postby johnstevens77 » July 6th, 2022, 6:33 pm

Urbandreamer wrote:To be fair, the work described in doing the whole chicken thing is not insignificant. I know as I have done similar in the past.
I would however draw peoples attentions to the simple statement "All spice mixes and marinades are home made". I have recently started doing so as it allows me to be more careful about salt in our diet*. It's both surprisingly easy and difficult. Easy in practice. Difficult in finding a recipe, identifying your own and substituting ingredients.

*The salt thing is a requirement, rather than an opinion or choice.


Yes the salt thing is also an issue with us, plus all those weird additions to ready made marinades. Also, having a stock of various ingredients can mean that you are forced to use them or throw them! So online recipes are very useful. The Thai yellow chicken curry (one of our favourites) came about because I have had galangal in the freezer for about 5 months now, about time to use some of it. The last lot was used after 4 years frozen, had lost some of its bight but was still ok. One ingredient I have problems using up are black cardamoms. I only use them for my garam masala and chicken khara.
Today I bought a veg box from Lidl which contained a lot of sliced mushrooms so I used some for the poached salmon today and the rest for a chasseur sauce for the freezer, I have a jar of tarragon that needs using.

john

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Re: learn to cook

#512274

Postby UncleEbenezer » July 6th, 2022, 9:09 pm

johnstevens77 wrote:One ingredient I have problems using up are black cardamoms. I only use them for my garam masala and chicken khara.
john

If you like herb teas, that's another use for them.

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Re: learn to cook

#512292

Postby Urbandreamer » July 6th, 2022, 9:45 pm

Ok, recipytineats Greek Chicken and Lemon rice is marinating overnight.

TBH, I had come across the website before.

I'm also greatly reducing the salt in the dish. We shall see if I go too far.

One big problem, it feeds 5. We are going to have leftovers!
The rice will be binned (though I intend to use less), because we are also on a low carb diet so using it up is a bad idea.
We shall see if I can use the leftover chicken.

I also need to find a use for black and white currents. This years crop is almost due and last years is untouched. I'm planning pork steaks cooked in a source, with a tiny amount of chips.

johnstevens77
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Re: learn to cook

#512296

Postby johnstevens77 » July 6th, 2022, 9:54 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:
johnstevens77 wrote:One ingredient I have problems using up are black cardamoms. I only use them for my garam masala and chicken khara.
john

If you like herb teas, that's another use for them.


Thanks for that, my wife only drinks infusions and they are expensive so I also make up concotions for her i.e. garden mint, lemon rind, ginger and honey. Fennel and ginger. Green cardamom with earl grey and anything else that I think may taste good.The black cardamom will be a useful addition, on its own or what do you think would go with it?
The lemon I keep in the freezer after using the juice, also orange rinds from fruit salads etc.
I also make an infused stock syrup of 6 ozs sugar to a pint of water, the rinds, lemon juice, cloves, cinnamon stick, coriander seeds and a bayleaf. That is mostly for fruit salads and my brandy sour.


john

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Re: learn to cook

#512298

Postby johnstevens77 » July 6th, 2022, 9:59 pm

Urbandreamer wrote:Ok, recipytineats Greek Chicken and Lemon rice is marinating overnight.


One big problem, it feeds 5. We are going to have leftovers!
The rice will be binned (though I intend to use less), because we are also on a low carb diet so using it up is a bad idea.
We shall see if I can use the leftover chicken.


I know that we have had this conversation before, but why bin cooked rice? Use what you need, quickly cool the remaider and freeze it in portions. We always do that and have never had any problems. Defrost in the fridge and reheat in the microwave. I like batch cooking and cooked rice comes into that category.

john

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Re: learn to cook

#512317

Postby Urbandreamer » July 6th, 2022, 10:31 pm

johnstevens77 wrote:I know that we have had this conversation before, but why bin cooked rice? Use what you need, quickly cool the remaider and freeze it in portions. We always do that and have never had any problems. Defrost in the fridge and reheat in the microwave. I like batch cooking and cooked rice comes into that category.

john


In this case the answer has NOTHING to do with food.

For example there are many dishes that are actually best made with leftover rice. If you want to make them without using leftovers you need to first cook the rice and ideally let it cool and dry. In this case the specific reason is to avoid using items with a high GI, just because they are there.

Sorry it's a medical thing rather than a cooking thing.

Of course my previous comments about freezers prove this wrong, but I'm still working to sort intake. Later I may think about planning over months so that leftover rice can be frozen and used. It's cheap, but the flavored leftovers should be worth using.

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Re: learn to cook

#512343

Postby UncleEbenezer » July 7th, 2022, 1:30 am

johnstevens77 wrote:
UncleEbenezer wrote:
johnstevens77 wrote:One ingredient I have problems using up are black cardamoms. I only use them for my garam masala and chicken khara.
john

If you like herb teas, that's another use for them.


Thanks for that, my wife only drinks infusions and they are expensive so I also make up concotions for her i.e. garden mint, lemon rind, ginger and honey. Fennel and ginger. Green cardamom with earl grey and anything else that I think may taste good.The black cardamom will be a useful addition, on its own or what do you think would go with it?

john

Hmm, I wasn't thinking of the distinction between colours of cardamom. Not sure I'd know one from another! :? Now you mention it I'll pay attention: might ask in the shop that introduced me to delicious black cumin!

If looking for inspiration, why not look at commercial blends? Here's one I have in my cupboard where cardamom is the #1 ingredient: cardamom*, fennel*, coriander*, barley malt*, liquorice*, peppermint*, ginger*, cinnamon*, black pepper*, cloves*

johnstevens77
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Re: learn to cook

#512407

Postby johnstevens77 » July 7th, 2022, 9:35 am

UncleEbenezer wrote:
johnstevens77 wrote:
UncleEbenezer wrote:
johnstevens77 wrote:One ingredient I have problems using up are black cardamoms. I only use them for my garam masala and chicken khara.
john

If you like herb teas, that's another use for them.


Thanks for that, my wife only drinks infusions and they are expensive so I also make up concotions for her i.e. garden mint, lemon rind, ginger and honey. Fennel and ginger. Green cardamom with earl grey and anything else that I think may taste good.The black cardamom will be a useful addition, on its own or what do you think would go with it?

john

Hmm, I wasn't thinking of the distinction between colours of cardamom. Not sure I'd know one from another! :? Now you mention it I'll pay attention: might ask in the shop that introduced me to delicious black cumin!

If looking for inspiration, why not look at commercial blends? Here's one I have in my cupboard where cardamom is the #1 ingredient: cardamom*, fennel*, coriander*, barley malt*, liquorice*, peppermint*, ginger*, cinnamon*, black pepper*, cloves*


Black cardamom has a smoky taste and aroma. We might try it with rice instead of green.
Discussions like this make one think outside the box, so to speak.

john

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Re: learn to cook

#537649

Postby redsturgeon » October 15th, 2022, 1:20 pm

johnstevens77 wrote:
Urbandreamer wrote:To be fair, the work described in doing the whole chicken thing is not insignificant. I know as I have done similar in the past.
I would however draw peoples attentions to the simple statement "All spice mixes and marinades are home made". I have recently started doing so as it allows me to be more careful about salt in our diet*. It's both surprisingly easy and difficult. Easy in practice. Difficult in finding a recipe, identifying your own and substituting ingredients.

*The salt thing is a requirement, rather than an opinion or choice.


Yes the salt thing is also an issue with us, plus all those weird additions to ready made marinades. Also, having a stock of various ingredients can mean that you are forced to use them or throw them! So online recipes are very useful. The Thai yellow chicken curry (one of our favourites) came about because I have had galangal in the freezer for about 5 months now, about time to use some of it. The last lot was used after 4 years frozen, had lost some of its bight but was still ok. One ingredient I have problems using up are black cardamoms. I only use them for my garam masala and chicken khara.
Today I bought a veg box from Lidl which contained a lot of sliced mushrooms so I used some for the poached salmon today and the rest for a chasseur sauce for the freezer, I have a jar of tarragon that needs using.

john


I use black cardamoms in aubergine curry and find the smokey flavour works well there. Used whole just crushed so they leach their flavour but can be taken out before serving.

John


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