Things to cook

Thinking of things to make and eat is sometimes a chore.

Lazy meals

Well, they're pretty lazy -- but you still have to buy stuff for them.

Bagels

• With cream cheese and chives.
• With avocado
• Google groups search for "bagel toppings"

Felafel

You can make pretty reasonable felafels using “felafel mega bites” (great name) from Coles, lettuce, tomato, onion, and hummus -- but I can never find mega bites any more.

Pesto pasta

Barilla makes a delicious bottled pesto (I'd make it myself, but this is the lazy meals section :). All other bottled pestos I've tried are horrible – too oily, or not enough garlic, or just otherwise uninteresting. In a pesto pasta dish the pesto is basically the only flavouring so this is pretty much a cardinal sin.

Less lazy

Tofu Scramble

From “jewkunt” on LiveJournal

I keep on eating this all the time. It's easy and quick to make, and healthy too.

Ingedients:

• veggies that you like, such as mushrooms, red & yellow bell peppers, onions, spinach, basil (tomatoes and other squishy vegatables don't work too well)
• extra firm tofu
• olive oil
• fake frozen sausage patty

Instructions:

1. wash your hands
2. cook the fake sausage halfway in the microwave
3. wash the veggies and cut them up. you can dice them, or cut them in strips– whichever you prefer
4. dump the veggies in a large skillet
5. take a half thinger of tofu or so and crumble it up over the veggies. store the remainder of the tofu in the water in its container and a ziploc bag, or in tupperware or some shit
6. crumble the fake sausage over everything
7. pour a tbs or so of olive oil over everything. mix it up with your hands
8. turn the stove onto a lil bit hotter than medium, and let everything cook
9. do something productive while your food is cookin, like dishes or fillin the ice cube tray or wipe down the counter
10. stir it after a few minutes, then let it cook some more
11. it's all done when the veggies are softish and everything is a lil brown and crispy. season it all with salt, pepper, seasoning salt, hot sauce, or whatever.
12. EAT IT! YUM YUM

Savoury pancakes

Suggested fillings:

• Egg and $ham
• ${minced meat}, grated carrots, chopped onions
• Mushrooms, onion, peas, cheese — from http://www.cookitsimply.com/bread/pancake-recipes/dutch-savoury-pancake-0010-08v86.html
• Mushrooms and sour cream — from http://www.cookitsimply.com/egg/pancake-recipes/mushroom-pancakes-0010-08748b.html

Alice's congee

I made it with some fish stock
very dilute
then when it was done I added soy sauce, sesame oil and "garlic ginger and chive seasoning"
it's a pretty simple recipe if you want to try it :)
1 part rice to ~7-8 parts water
bring to boil
simmer for 20 minutes
turn heat to as low as possible
stir occasionally for the next 2-3 hours
add seasoning and other things as desired
another thing that is good in it
(slashr) love
also pickled cabbage
also fried tofu
oh my yes
also fried garlic and ginger
which i would have added if I had any
in fact ginger is almost mandatory

Sasha's recipe for anything (such as curry or daal)

16:52 < alice> penelly's recipe:
16:52 < alice> 1 can of lentils
16:53 < alice> onion
16:53 < alice> curry paste of choice
16:53 < alice> cook
16:53 < alice> :)
16:53 < slashr> actually that's my recipe
16:53 < slashr> for anything

Daal

• Three or four handfuls of lentils (a cup or so)
• One or two chopped onions
• Sufficient garlic and ginger.
• Seasoning: cumin, coriander, black mustard seeds…
• Star anise

Fry the garlic in oil. Add ginger and seasonings. Add onion and fry gently – cook but don't caramelise. Add lentils and cover with water. Simmer until soft (20 mins or so) with lots of salt and pepper plus star anise if available. Add coriander.

Cover lentils with water in a saucepan and simmer until soft (30 mins?).

UPDATE: I've screwed this up twice now. Things to avoid: too-chunky pieces of ginger, not enough seasoning.

Kitsune udon noodle soup

Udon with fried tofu, as eaten by foxes. Serves one but scales nicely.

• Udon noodles
• Soy sauce
• Shitake mushrooms
• Bonito flakes (for non-vego udon of course)
• Green onions (shallots)
• Baby spinach leaves
• Pieces of fried tofu

Start cooking the noodles while you make the broth (But when they're done, dump them in a bowl you'd like to eat from).

If you're using bonito: In another saucepan, heat 2 cups of water. Add bonito flakes (couple of tbsp?). Let simmer for a few minutes. Filter out the bonito flakes and keep the water.

If you're not using bonito: In another saucepan, heat two cups of water until simmering.

Add a generous handful of shiitake mushrooms to the possibly-bonito-flavoured water. Add a generous amount of soy sauce (to taste, but if you're not going to drink all the broth make it nice and salty to flavour the other ingredients) . Let the mushrooms simmer for a few minutes. Add tofu and baby spinach leaves. Cook for a few minutes. Pour over noodles. Garnish with sliced shallots. Delicious.

Making this more filling: add more vegetables! * Sliced carrot * Broccoli * Cooked onion rings Add these to the broth with the mushrooms. Serve with hot chilli powder to taste.

Catie's mum's chocolate pudding

Very tasty but you will probably feel guilty if you eat this for dinner. http://liedra.livejournal.com/40109.html

Tasty Farking Lentils

From Farkette “bobbette”, in a thread about the environmental impact of red meat. I have made this quite a few times now. If you get the berbere seasoning right (which as far as I'm concerned means finding at least 80% of the ingredients) it's really good.

I will try and convert you with deliciousness. Here is a recipe for lentils. It doesn't replace beef (nothing can) but if you eat lentils once in a while instead of beef, not only are you still eating yummy food, it's environmentally friendly.

I call this recipe Tasty farking Lentils. It's ethiopian inspired. You may need berbere spice mix. If you can't find it in your grocery store mix some up. Be adventurous.

Tasty farking Lentils (Ethiopian-inspired)

• Put 1 cup brown lentils in a strainer and wash them under the tap. Pick out any debris you might see.
• When they seem clean enough dump them in a pot with 4 cups of water and a 1/4 tsp of turmeric. No salt yet.
• Bring to a boil and let simmer on low. Ignore for about 45 minutes (taste test occasionally to see if the lentils are done yet.)
• Mix up your spices if you can't find berbere in the store. If you have berbere already you are a pro. Go watch TV or Fark for a while.
• Whenever your lentils seem almost done, chop up maybe half a cup onion, more if you really like onion. Fry this until it is light brown in a little bit of oil. Add a couple of cloves of garlic and fry some more. Chuck in a two teaspoons of berbere and a little more oil. Mix until it smells delishhh.
• You may also add vegetables (peas, bell pepper, tomatoes and tomato paste if you would like a more tomato-y dish) but this isn't required.
• Take lentils off heat, drain a bit if they are a little too watery, and dump the contents of the frying pan (oil and all) into the lentils. Stir and add salt and pepper to taste.
• Kitchen time is roughly 20 mins. Serves two or a rather greedy one. Goes well with a salad of chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, scallions and a tiny bit of salt and apple cider vinegar, and a cold hefeweizen.

Berbere recipe: (From Cyber Kitchen)

• 2 teaspoons cumin seed, or powder
• 1 teaspoon cardamom seeds (shell off husks), or powder
• 1/2 teaspoon whole allspice (or ground)
• 1 teaspoon fenugreek seed (or powder)
• 1 teaspoon coriander seed (or powder)
• 8 whole cloves, or ground
• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns, or freshly ground
• 5 teaspoons red pepper flakes or crumbled dried red peppers
• 1 tablespoon grated fresh gingeroot (or 1/2 teaspoon dried)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons sweet paprika (can use hot)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Toast all the seeds and whole cloves in a small frying pan for 2 minutes, stirring constantly (open window or turn on the stove vent--it can smoke). Grind the spices in a spice grinder. If you are using pre-ground spices, ignore and go on to the next step.

Mix all remaining ingredients. Place in a tightly covered container and refrigerate. This mixture can used with many combinations of legumes, rice or vegetables.

Black pepper green beans

Simple recipe from lj

I make this all time, it's my own favourite recipe. I wrote it out in a blog a while ago so here it is:

VEGAN FRIENDLY!!!!!

Szechuan(alternatively, Black Pepper) Green Beans

What your dumb ass will need:

FRESH!!! green beans Szechuan Sauce(Or Black Pepper Sauce, both are dope) China Lily Soya Sauce(Kikkoman Soy Sauce works too but I prefer China Lily as it is less sweet) Tender Loving Care

Step 1: Cut the ends of the green beans! For all I know they are poisonous!

Step 2: Boil your greenz in some water until they warm all the way through but still crisp. Use a fork to test, and by use a fork to test I mean use a fork to get a bean out of the water and put it in your mouth.

Step 3: Heat your wok. Use some peanut oil(olive works too but olive oil isn't legit azn cuisine) if you have some but if not you can heat it with the Szechuan Sauce in it, though you run the risk of scorching some of it if you do that.

Step 4: Drop them beans in like they're hot(cause they are). If you started with peanut oil, add the Szechuan Sauce NOW. Also add like an ounce of water. Stir all the shit around until the szechuan sauce is really watery.

Step 5: Add your soy sauce. How much is up to you. Mix it in real good.

Step 6: It's pretty important at this point to be stirring CONSTANTLY or else your shit will scorch. You gotta stir until there is virtually no liquid left in the wok, it should all have diminished and covered the greenz in a dope sweet spicy salty coating.

NOTE #1:: If you are taking the Black Pepper Sauce route you should add substantially MORE Black Pepper Sauce, and it should not diminish completely, it should actually look like the green beans are chilling in a sauce rather than being coated in delicious. To accomplish this, you can skip using water. Also, you should use less China Lily than you would with Szechuan cause the taste of Black Pepper Sauce is a lot more subtle than that of Szechuan Sauce and the China Lily may mask the taste of the Black Pepper Sauce completely. Other than that the directions are the same.

NOTE #2:: If you are using Kikkoman you should add more because it is not as strong as China Lily.

Step 7: Put 'em on a plate. They are done.

Word.

Chickpea pasta

This isn't especially complicated and is more to remind me of some ways to use chickpeas. :) It's based on this recipe. The only annoying part is preparing the chickpeas.

• Garlic, 3 or 4 cloves, crushed or chopped
• Onion, chopped
• Chilli, crushed
• Snow peas
• Pasta
• Olive oil
• Chickpeas

Prepare the chickpeas by soaking dry chickpeas in water overnight. Then ensure the chickpeas are covered with water and simmer for between one and two hours until they are delicious. You can add a little turmeric to the water for flavour and interesting yellow colour. :) When they are done, drain the water and season the chickpeas with salt and pepper. Set aside 1-2 cups of chickpeas for this recipe.

Alternatively you could ignore the above and get your chickpeas from a can. They seem to have less texture to them out of a can, but it's not a big deal. Also, preparing fresh chickpeas takes hours and hours whereas with practice you can open a can in about four seconds.

Fetch ye your pasta. I used spaghetti but I think rigatoni (little tubes) may be better because rigatoni has a higher surface area and thus presents more area for the delicious chilli garlic sauce you are about to make to stick to. Boil some water and put the pasta on.

Meanwhile, lightly steam the snow peas in the microwave (30 seconds or so, so they stay a little crunchy).

Meanwhile, heat some olive oil in a pan. Add the onion and cook until it starts to soften, then add the chilli and garlic. Cook until the onion is nice and soft. Add the chickpeas and snow peas and cook until everything is heated through. Serve over pasta.

Piri Piri Tofu

Via Alice. Original Web site here: http://aww.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=41586 -- but here's the recipe I actually used. Alice added salt (which I forgot about) but not paprika (which I had).

• 3 small red chillies
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 lime
• Olive oil
• 1/4 cup cider vinegar
• Generous dash of paprika
• Tofu

Roughly chop the chillies, then put them in a mortar and bash them to pieces. So invigorating! Convey the chilli pieces to a dish suitable for marinading. Add oil, vinegar, paprika, and olive oil. Crush the garlic into this mixture. Crush the lime over the top. Mix it all up.

Chop the tofu into smallish strips. Dry-fry it to remove some moisture. Place it in the marinade and let it sit as long as you are prepared to wait.

Fry the marinaded tofu until you are happy with the exterior. Delicious!

Portuguese rice

Seems to work with the piri piri tofu. Original Web site here: http://recipes.epicurean.com/recipe/15889/portugese-rice.html

I didn't do anything that complicated. Instead I fried some chopped onion in a saucepan, added a can of chopped tomatoes, added some salt and pepper, added 1 cup of rice, then stirred quite frequently and topped it up with water (probably 4 cups total). I ended up with something vaguely risotto-esque.

Fried eggplant

From the recipe here: http://thaifood.about.com/od/thaisnacks/r/thaieggplant.htm. It's listed as a side dish but it's easy to adapt to be a main dish by a) eating more and b) making more, and runnier, sauce. I have listed the recipe with my adaptations.

You will need!

• A red onion. The recipe calls for half an onion. Who is organised enough to cut half an onion, store it, remember within a day or so that they should use it up, and devise a recipe to make use of the onion? Nobody, that's who. Onions are seventy cents or so. Just make the recipe more onioney, and you can afford to use a whole one.
• 6 cloves of garlic. As per the recipe. You can never have enough garlic, though Catie and I got close one time with her unique recipe for garlic bread.
• A chilli, or multiple chillies. I just add one for the look of the thing, and add chilli flakes later.
• An eggplant, skin on, chopped into fairly small pieces (max volume perhaps 4 or 5 cubic centimeters -- they have to cook evenly).
• Water and soy sauce for stir frying.

The sauce needs:

• Couple of tablespoons of black bean sauce. The original recipe calls for fish sauce, but I'm vegetarian. I assume that using black bean sauce rather than fish sauce makes the dish taste totally different, and certainly not Thai. However, the new dish tastes delicious!
• Couple of splashes of soy sauce. The original recipe calls for oyster sauce, blah blah blah delicious!
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• Add a little water to this to make it less thick (to get back to the viscosity of fish sauce + oyster sayce rather than black bean sauce + soy sauce).

Mix the sauce up right now.

The thickener needs:

• 1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with 2 tablespoons of water. Or at least this is what the original recipe says. Double it.

Method:

• Start cooking some rice.
• Heat a small amount of oil in a wok or saucepan.
• Add eggplant, half the garlic, and chilli.
• Fry for a while, adding (a very small amount of) water when the mixture is looking dry.
• Splash in some soy sauce. Fry as before until the eggplant starts to look more translucent.
• Add the rest of the garlic. Add the sauce. Stir fry until the eggplant starts to take up the sauce.
• Add the thickener and stir fry for a very short time until it thickens up.
• Serve over rice.

Fried Eggplant Variation

This version is less salty.

• When cooking the onions, allow them to caramelise slightly.
• When cooking the eggplant, add the following:
• Start with a small amount (1 tbsp) of soy and the same amount of black bean sauce, mixed with about 200ml of water. Let the eggplant cook in this mixture until it is mostly evaporated / absorbed.
• Then add about 150ml of vegetable stock, and repeat the process.
• For the thickener mixture, combine 2 heaped teaspoons of corn flour with about 200ml of warm water. Mix thoroughly, then splash over the eggplant. Stir for a short time (10 seconds or so) so the mixture thickens slightly but is still quite goopy.

Catie's Amazing Black Pepper Noodle Simulacrum

(I haven't tried this yet). Catie writes:

I just cooked up a storm with some more asian ingredients, and managed to almost make a reproduction of that black pepper noodle dish we used to like to get in canberra from that noodle shop.

• 3-4 cloves garlic
• 1 onion, cut into biggish chunks
• 1/2 capsicum, cut into same size chunks
• ground black pepper (pref. freshly ground)
• chili paste (like a sambal oelek or something)
• oil
• "Vegetarian stir fry sauce" -- really that's what it's called
• noodles of your choice (I like it with those individual fresh udon packs, you need nice big fat noodles)

chop everything up

heat some oil and fry up the garlic, chili paste, onion When the onion is starting to go translucent, add in the black pepper, as much as you like, I did a good solid several grinds of the mill (probably about a tablespoon? maybe less). stir that around a bit to cover the onion etc. Add in the capsicum and a good sloshing of vege stir fry sauce Stir around, add in noodles, stir til noodles are broken up and covered with sauce.

Voila!

This can be pretty spicy :) Adjust to taste. Also the vege stir fry sauce is quite salty, i'm going to consider watering it down a bit instead of adding more.

om nom nom :D

Veggie Chili

There are lots of recipes for this out there. One which works for me:

• Onion, chopped
• Several cloves of garlic, crushed
• Capsicum, chopped into bite-size pieces
• Cans of things: corn (drained), five-bean mix (drained), whole peeled tomatoes.
• Cayenne pepper, ground cumin to taste
• Small amount of vegetable stock
• One or two cups of chopped mushrooms

Cook onion and garlic in oil in a large saucepan. Add everything else. :) Let everything simmer for as long as you are prepared to wait (at least 20 minutes, if you didn't precook the mushrooms). Serve over rice.

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