The OFFICIAL cooking thread

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AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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The OFFICIAL cooking thread

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

I've gotten into a habit of cooking a meal over the weekend because 1. it's enjoyable and 2. the family has to eat so it might as well be something good instead of frozen pizza. Admittedly during the warmer months, the vast majority of stuff was cooked on the grill and/or smoker including sides.

But, with the colder weather and close of football season, I've started spending more time cooking inside which is....okay but completely different. So, I've gone down the rabbit hole of trying to find good stuff to cook inside. And have really gotten into soups, sauces, and stocks.

Over the weekend, I made a chicken noodle soup kind of following a mixture of this guys recipe and my own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74tZ-yOOPy0

Basically, instead of creating a stock and then adding then taking out the unsavory parts of the chicken and putting some back in later, I just got a whole chicken and boiled it with the turnips, parsnips, celery, onion, garlic, leak, etc. Took out the chicken when it was cooked, strained the stock, cooked the chopped onioins, celery, carrots in the pot then added the stock back in. Pulled the chicken meat and re-added it. Then, in a separate pot cooked the noodles with the chicken soup.

Overall, it was awesome. I'm not a big CNS guy but if you're looking for something to cook in the cold weather that takes about 5 hours and is kind of fun, this is a good thing to do.

Anybody have any good/fun recipes to cook inside?

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ZigZagCardsFan
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Re: The OFFICIAL cooking thread

Post by ZigZagCardsFan »

Perfecting a chili recipe is always something worth working on during these colder months.

I love cajun cooking too and I have a healthy but delicious jambalaya recipe that I've really enjoyed making a few times this winter. Can't go wrong with a good gumbo every once in awhile too.

https://fitmencook.com/low-carb-cajun-j ... et-recipe/
Last edited by ZigZagCardsFan on January 16 18, 12:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: The OFFICIAL cooking thread

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

I love fitmencook. Dude is great.

Some of his stuff rocks (e.g. the stuffed tomatoes especially if you add cajun seasoning to the stuffing). Sometimes I feel like he's trying to serve too many gods though and sacrifices obvious stuff to keep it healthier and/or simpler. Recently he put out a gumbo recipe without a reaux. I mean, I get it, using chicken broth and a little bit of starch is healthier and easier than a cup of oil and flour browned for an hour. But, come on, that's not gumbo. And, even if he's trying to keep it simple, there are reauxs available commercially.

Still a great source of inspiration and knowledge though.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: The OFFICIAL cooking thread

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Also, this is a great starter recipe for chili. Double the meat, use colored peppers, tinker with the seasonings and it's tough to beat.

http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/awa ... ili-105865

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haltz
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Re: The OFFICIAL cooking thread

Post by haltz »

I buy a lot of stuff from modernist pantry for work for beverage stuff (xantham, versawhip, agar, and pectinase mostly) and that little bag of tricks comes in pretty handy when I cook as well. Eg, xantham would work in a healthy gumbo as a thickener.

As far as one pot cooking goes, I've always liked Bourdain's beef bourguignon recipe. All I can find on a google search is that it's on the techniques episode (s6e11) of No Reservations.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: The OFFICIAL cooking thread

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Sounds good. I'll have to that bourguignon recipe out.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: The OFFICIAL cooking thread

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

My mom got me a mandoline slicer for Christmas and I've only used it for one thing: slicing brussel sprouts for ceaser salads. Everyone hates brussell sprouts, i get it, but they make a great base for a salad. And, they make you fart non stop and I find it hilarious.

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Re: The OFFICIAL cooking thread

Post by tlombard »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:My mom got me a mandoline slicer for Christmas and I've only used it for one thing: slicing brussel sprouts for ceaser salads. Everyone hates brussell sprouts, i get it, but they make a great base for a salad. And, they make you fart non stop and I find it hilarious.
They have had brussel sprouts a few times recently in the cafeteria at work and I have to admit that I'm coming around on them. The first time I couldn't avoid them as they were mixed in with a bunch of other vegetables. The next time there was a ton of bacon in them so I gave them another shot. Now, I will actually order them just because I'm starting to like them more. That's how bad the variety is in our cafeteria. I actually started eating brussel sprouts just to get some variety.

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Re: The OFFICIAL cooking thread

Post by tlombard »

AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote:My mom got me a mandoline slicer for Christmas and I've only used it for one thing: slicing brussel sprouts for ceaser salads. Everyone hates brussell sprouts, i get it, but they make a great base for a salad. And, they make you fart non stop and I find it hilarious.
The mandoline is a great idea in theory but how is the cleanup on the thing? I can think of plenty of stuff that I would want to use one for but every time I think of one, I think of the big lettuce slicer we had at Fazoli's when I worked there in high school and that thing was the worst to clean. It took forever to clean. You could chop up all of the lettuce that you needed for the salads in less than five minutes and then spend over half an hour trying to get all of the little pieces of lettuce stuck to all of the blades and in the nooks and crannies.

Obviously the madoline is much smaller and wouldn't be as bad but just the idea brings back nightmares. Prep would have been the best job in the place other than cooking pasta in the evenings if it wasn't for that stupid lettuce chopper.

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Swirls
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Re: The OFFICIAL cooking thread

Post by Swirls »

And, you know, the whole "crazy easy to cut your finger off if you aren't paying attention" part.

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