noneedforaname
New member
@iono I could do with that char siu recipe, the Chinese takeaways are crap down here
Dinner time!
- Thread starter lizcam
- Start date
OK, how to make kick ass char siu:
The meat - It's easiest to do this with pork fillet, but once you've had a few goes with that, you will find that you can do awesomely tasty things with other cuts too, especially pork belly. For now though, I recommend you get at least a few good sized pork fillets... the more the better really. You'll find this is amazingly moreish and you'll get through it quick. Also, you can keep some in your freezer. It's very versatile and can be added to loads of dishes.
The finish - most of this stuff from takeaways is very red because they add food colouring to the marinade but I don't see the point. I prefer the natural look. I guess if you wanted you could put in some colouring. The glaze I use is different to takeaways too. I don't use maltose because adding honey in just adds to the flavour sooo much. If you wanted to though, you could opt for maltose.
Aaaanyway, the marinade for 1 fillet - mix up the following in a pan and then heat until the sugar disolves.
5 tablespoons of honey (squirty stuff is fine, doesn't have to be amazing quality)
5 tablespoons of light soy sauce
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
4 tablespoons of good quality hoisin sauce (don't skimp on this, you can totally tell the difference between good and bad. It's probably the key thing to a really good marinade)
3 tablespoons of mirin (rice wine)
3 tablespoons of sugar
Ginger (about a thumb sized piece)
Garlic (5 or 6 average cloves)
1 teaspoon five spice
While this is warming, get a cocktail stick or wooden skewer and repeatedly stab it into the meat. This is a little trick I started doing that helps the marinade really permeate into the meat. Fill that fillet with holes then put it in a sealable Tupperware tub and pour the warm marinade over it. It will probably already smell heavenly!
Now you need to let it cool, stick the lid on, and refrigerate overnight (24 hours gets a really intense flavour going on)
So, when you are ready to cook, put a wire rack in a roasting tin and fill the tin with an inch of water. Put the pork on the rack, baste it with its marinade, and put in an oven pre-heated to 210 degrees c for 20 minutes.
Turn the oven down to 180. Baste the pork all over again, turn it over and back in the oven for 10 minutes.
Baste, turn and back in for a final 10 minutes.
By now the kitchen's going to smell amazing. If you've only done 1 fillet you'll be wishing you did more! It's time to finish the char siu with a glaze.
1 tablespoon of palm oil (or vegetable if you don't have palm)
2 tablespoons of runny honey
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
Keep the meat on the rack but put it in a tin lined with foil (if you don't use the foil lining the glaze will bake to your tin and be a nightmare to clean up) glaze it with the above mixture then stick it under the grill. Keep an eye on it and once it starts to colour and caramelise, turn it, re-glaze and repeat the grilling.
That's your char siu done. It's easy, and tastes utterly sublime.
The meat - It's easiest to do this with pork fillet, but once you've had a few goes with that, you will find that you can do awesomely tasty things with other cuts too, especially pork belly. For now though, I recommend you get at least a few good sized pork fillets... the more the better really. You'll find this is amazingly moreish and you'll get through it quick. Also, you can keep some in your freezer. It's very versatile and can be added to loads of dishes.
The finish - most of this stuff from takeaways is very red because they add food colouring to the marinade but I don't see the point. I prefer the natural look. I guess if you wanted you could put in some colouring. The glaze I use is different to takeaways too. I don't use maltose because adding honey in just adds to the flavour sooo much. If you wanted to though, you could opt for maltose.
Aaaanyway, the marinade for 1 fillet - mix up the following in a pan and then heat until the sugar disolves.
5 tablespoons of honey (squirty stuff is fine, doesn't have to be amazing quality)
5 tablespoons of light soy sauce
2 tablespoons of dark soy sauce
4 tablespoons of good quality hoisin sauce (don't skimp on this, you can totally tell the difference between good and bad. It's probably the key thing to a really good marinade)
3 tablespoons of mirin (rice wine)
3 tablespoons of sugar
Ginger (about a thumb sized piece)
Garlic (5 or 6 average cloves)
1 teaspoon five spice
While this is warming, get a cocktail stick or wooden skewer and repeatedly stab it into the meat. This is a little trick I started doing that helps the marinade really permeate into the meat. Fill that fillet with holes then put it in a sealable Tupperware tub and pour the warm marinade over it. It will probably already smell heavenly!
Now you need to let it cool, stick the lid on, and refrigerate overnight (24 hours gets a really intense flavour going on)So, when you are ready to cook, put a wire rack in a roasting tin and fill the tin with an inch of water. Put the pork on the rack, baste it with its marinade, and put in an oven pre-heated to 210 degrees c for 20 minutes.
Turn the oven down to 180. Baste the pork all over again, turn it over and back in the oven for 10 minutes.
Baste, turn and back in for a final 10 minutes.
By now the kitchen's going to smell amazing. If you've only done 1 fillet you'll be wishing you did more! It's time to finish the char siu with a glaze.
1 tablespoon of palm oil (or vegetable if you don't have palm)
2 tablespoons of runny honey
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce
Keep the meat on the rack but put it in a tin lined with foil (if you don't use the foil lining the glaze will bake to your tin and be a nightmare to clean up) glaze it with the above mixture then stick it under the grill. Keep an eye on it and once it starts to colour and caramelise, turn it, re-glaze and repeat the grilling.
That's your char siu done. It's easy, and tastes utterly sublime.
............
ChemicalFencer
Lost in the desert
@Einion - going to have to try that one - been looking for a half decent chilli recipe
@Lizcam - how about chicken satay? I don't have the recipe at the moment but off hand but here's what I remember
fresh coriander (hand full - stalks and all),
fresh chilli (as many as you like - but one is enough for me),
clove of garlic,
3 heaped tbsp of crunchy peanut butter,
2 cm piece of ginger,
zest of 2 limes and juice of one,
soy sauce
Shove everything into a blender and blend away. Should be a spoonable paste. If its too thick you can as a bit of water. You should be left with a small bowl full of satay paste. Smear it over chicken kebabs (I did mention that already right? Thigh meat work best in my opinion - remember to soak the skewers in water first), drizzle them with honey and grill for about 10 minutes each side. Remember to add more honey when you turn them. Serve with more satay paste (whatever you have left over - or make more).
@lono - :weep::crying: can't get pork in Qatar :weep::crying:
@Lizcam - how about chicken satay? I don't have the recipe at the moment but off hand but here's what I remember
fresh coriander (hand full - stalks and all),
fresh chilli (as many as you like - but one is enough for me),
clove of garlic,
3 heaped tbsp of crunchy peanut butter,
2 cm piece of ginger,
zest of 2 limes and juice of one,
soy sauce
Shove everything into a blender and blend away. Should be a spoonable paste. If its too thick you can as a bit of water. You should be left with a small bowl full of satay paste. Smear it over chicken kebabs (I did mention that already right? Thigh meat work best in my opinion - remember to soak the skewers in water first), drizzle them with honey and grill for about 10 minutes each side. Remember to add more honey when you turn them. Serve with more satay paste (whatever you have left over - or make more).
@lono - :weep::crying: can't get pork in Qatar :weep::crying:
DannyBoy2k
New member
And, I quote:
Lasagna Valiant
by Captain Utena Tenjou
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 pound ground beef (85% lean)
2 jars (1 pound 10 ounces each) Prego Flavored with Meat spaghetti sauce
12 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 pound ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon chopped oregano
1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese (4 cups)
Before we begin:
This recipe evolved out of one that's been in my family for a while. I've made modifications to it over the years to accommodate changes in where I lived, what kind of ingredients I had access to, and so forth. This version is reasonably stable; it can be made mostly with things that can be found in the standard galley supplies on an IPSF starship, and everything that isn't standard can be ordered through Quartermaster at any supply depot - or just bought at Tesco, which is what we usually end up doing when we get to Gamma Hydra and realize we're out of oregano.
Culinary purists might be surprised that bottled spaghetti sauce is one of the first things on this list. I was originally one of the homemade sauce brigade myself; I only started using the bottled kind with great reluctance, mainly because I just don't have time to keep an eye on a boiling pot of homemade sauce for most of a day aboard ship. I served the first batch of jar-sauce lasagna with sheepish apologies, and to my surprise, it was a huge hit. I'm not sure if that means Prego's better than my own homemade sauce or just that my crew has weird taste in red sauce. Either is entirely possible. Anyway, I've used it ever since, and never had a complaint.
Some other ingredient selection tips:
- It's not necessary to buy bulk sausage, but if it's available, get it. It saves you the step of getting the sausage filling out of the casing, which is an absolute must.
- Fresh grated Parmesan is better than the kind in cans. You'll want to use a bit more of the canned kind to make up for its relative lack of flavor if you have to use it.
- I don't cook the noodles first; it saves a step and makes building the lasagna easier. The noodles come out a bit al dente, but my crew and I like it that way. If you like softer noodles, I don't think it would hurt anything to boil them first, but I've never tried it, so you're on your own there.
- Don't skimp on the cheese. Get real ricotta, not that low-fat stuff, and real mozzarella. It's OK to use the pre-shredded mozzarella as long as you don't stoop to the all-skim kind. This is meat lasagna. It's not supposed to be good for you.
Preparation:
Brown sausage and ground beef in skillet over medium heat. Drain. Combine sausage, ground beef, and spaghetti sauce in large bowl.
Heat oven to 350°F.
Mix ricotta, half of the Parmesan, and the oregano in another bowl.
Cover the bottom of a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish (I use a white Corningware dish I've had forever) with the sauce/meat mix. It should take about two cups.
Cover the sauce with four noodles, then slather that with the cheese mix. Cover that with the shredded mozzarella - a nice, even layer, as if you were topping a pizza. Now put on four more noodles, cover that with the rest of the ricotta mix, then another layer of sauce, then another layer of mozzarella. Add four more noodles, the rest of the sauce and then the rest of the mozzarella, then sprinkle on the leftover Parmesan.
I don't keep track of the exact amounts of the cheeses and sauce mix as I'm doing this - I just kind of eyeball it based on how much it takes to give each layer some solid coverage. And don't get too upset if you get the cheese and sauce layers in the wrong order. As long as the noodles end up separated by enough sauce and cheese to cook them properly, it'll all work out in the end.
Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Bake for 45 minutes. Take the foil off and bake for another 15-20 minutes. The top layer of cheese should be melted (and browned, if you like) but not burned, and the sauce should be bubbling all the way around.
Let the lasagna stand for 15-20 minutes before cutting, or it'll be too hot to serve in one piece, let alone eat. My crew refers to this as the torture phase, since if you've done it right the smell is filling the whole officers' mess (or wherever) and driving everybody crazy by now.
Closing notes:
This is a pretty forgiving recipe for the results it gives, and it makes a lot of food. If you're not feeding a large and ravenous group like I usually am, you can refrigerate or freeze the leftovers without difficulty. It keeps about 5 days in the fridge; frozen, it'll keep just about indefinitely if it's wrapped right.
We on the Valiant hope you enjoy our house lasagna as much as we do. Before I go, I have to acknowledge the debts I owe, since no recipe ever comes out of nowhere: Thanks to everybody's favorite aunt, Belldandy Morisato, for making clear the importance of cheese, and to the Chief, Ben Hutchins, for making the winning sauce recommendation when I cried to him about being forced to resort to store-bought sauce.
Enjoy,
- U. Tenjou
Lasagna Valiant
by Captain Utena Tenjou
1 pound sweet Italian sausage
1 pound ground beef (85% lean)
2 jars (1 pound 10 ounces each) Prego Flavored with Meat spaghetti sauce
12 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 pound ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon chopped oregano
1 pound shredded mozzarella cheese (4 cups)
Before we begin:
This recipe evolved out of one that's been in my family for a while. I've made modifications to it over the years to accommodate changes in where I lived, what kind of ingredients I had access to, and so forth. This version is reasonably stable; it can be made mostly with things that can be found in the standard galley supplies on an IPSF starship, and everything that isn't standard can be ordered through Quartermaster at any supply depot - or just bought at Tesco, which is what we usually end up doing when we get to Gamma Hydra and realize we're out of oregano.
Culinary purists might be surprised that bottled spaghetti sauce is one of the first things on this list. I was originally one of the homemade sauce brigade myself; I only started using the bottled kind with great reluctance, mainly because I just don't have time to keep an eye on a boiling pot of homemade sauce for most of a day aboard ship. I served the first batch of jar-sauce lasagna with sheepish apologies, and to my surprise, it was a huge hit. I'm not sure if that means Prego's better than my own homemade sauce or just that my crew has weird taste in red sauce. Either is entirely possible. Anyway, I've used it ever since, and never had a complaint.
Some other ingredient selection tips:
- It's not necessary to buy bulk sausage, but if it's available, get it. It saves you the step of getting the sausage filling out of the casing, which is an absolute must.
- Fresh grated Parmesan is better than the kind in cans. You'll want to use a bit more of the canned kind to make up for its relative lack of flavor if you have to use it.
- I don't cook the noodles first; it saves a step and makes building the lasagna easier. The noodles come out a bit al dente, but my crew and I like it that way. If you like softer noodles, I don't think it would hurt anything to boil them first, but I've never tried it, so you're on your own there.
- Don't skimp on the cheese. Get real ricotta, not that low-fat stuff, and real mozzarella. It's OK to use the pre-shredded mozzarella as long as you don't stoop to the all-skim kind. This is meat lasagna. It's not supposed to be good for you.
Preparation:
Brown sausage and ground beef in skillet over medium heat. Drain. Combine sausage, ground beef, and spaghetti sauce in large bowl.
Heat oven to 350°F.
Mix ricotta, half of the Parmesan, and the oregano in another bowl.
Cover the bottom of a 9-inch by 13-inch baking dish (I use a white Corningware dish I've had forever) with the sauce/meat mix. It should take about two cups.
Cover the sauce with four noodles, then slather that with the cheese mix. Cover that with the shredded mozzarella - a nice, even layer, as if you were topping a pizza. Now put on four more noodles, cover that with the rest of the ricotta mix, then another layer of sauce, then another layer of mozzarella. Add four more noodles, the rest of the sauce and then the rest of the mozzarella, then sprinkle on the leftover Parmesan.
I don't keep track of the exact amounts of the cheeses and sauce mix as I'm doing this - I just kind of eyeball it based on how much it takes to give each layer some solid coverage. And don't get too upset if you get the cheese and sauce layers in the wrong order. As long as the noodles end up separated by enough sauce and cheese to cook them properly, it'll all work out in the end.
Cover the dish with aluminum foil. Bake for 45 minutes. Take the foil off and bake for another 15-20 minutes. The top layer of cheese should be melted (and browned, if you like) but not burned, and the sauce should be bubbling all the way around.
Let the lasagna stand for 15-20 minutes before cutting, or it'll be too hot to serve in one piece, let alone eat. My crew refers to this as the torture phase, since if you've done it right the smell is filling the whole officers' mess (or wherever) and driving everybody crazy by now.
Closing notes:
This is a pretty forgiving recipe for the results it gives, and it makes a lot of food. If you're not feeding a large and ravenous group like I usually am, you can refrigerate or freeze the leftovers without difficulty. It keeps about 5 days in the fridge; frozen, it'll keep just about indefinitely if it's wrapped right.
We on the Valiant hope you enjoy our house lasagna as much as we do. Before I go, I have to acknowledge the debts I owe, since no recipe ever comes out of nowhere: Thanks to everybody's favorite aunt, Belldandy Morisato, for making clear the importance of cheese, and to the Chief, Ben Hutchins, for making the winning sauce recommendation when I cried to him about being forced to resort to store-bought sauce.
Enjoy,
- U. Tenjou
Einion
New member
Welcome peeps, hope you like it if you try it.
And for some support of using instant coffee from further up the, ah, food chain: no less a personage than Heston Blumenthal uses it in one or two recipes!
Einion
Cocoa or chocolate are used in a number of Mexican savoury recipes, the most famous of them probably mole. In Mexico if they're using chocolate it's usually Mexican chocolate (which is flavoured, primarily with cinnamon, but also has ground nuts or seeds in it sometimes) but for chilli the main thing is to get the cocoa in there; you can of course add in the other ingredients in Mexican chocolate by hand if you think they'd make enough of a difference to the final flavour.Dark chocolate? Very interesting that's a new one on me
Don't know what dark syrup is, sorry. Molasses is essentially the dark stuff they extract from processed sugar cane when making white sugar - it's black in colour, very viscous, and has a sort of sweet-edged bitterness. If your stuff is something like that then it should work okay.
Never tried coffee in something like this, although I'm using it more and more in deserts containing chocolate. I've been meaning to try making red-eye gravy though, looks interesting although I'm not sure I'll like it!
Not all instant is a sad reflection of fresh-perked ya coffee snob ya! :cute: I prefer instant coffee and actively don't like "the real thing" so I'm a good judge of when an instant captures that flavour and I happened to have some just the other day; I'd never have known it was an instant if I'd tasted it blindfolded.
And for some support of using instant coffee from further up the, ah, food chain: no less a personage than Heston Blumenthal uses it in one or two recipes!
Einion
DannyBoy2k
New member
What he means is, more or less, treacle. It isn't as dark as molasses, but more so than golden syrup. From which I think it would work, but not quite be the same.
Braised oxtail. This is from memory, so apologies if it's not a perfectly structured recipe!
Wot you need:
2 oxtails (jointed and cut into lengths)
4 carrots
3 cloves of garlic
2 large onions
4 shallots
1 bouquet garni (you can buy this, but I make my own with 3 sprigs of parsley, 1 sprig of thyme, 2 dried bay leaves and 1 sprig of rosemary tied into a bundle)
- First you need to peel the veg and then dice them finely so they will make your mirepoix.
- Season the oxtail with salt and pepper then seal in a pan with a few tablespoons of oil until browned all over. Best to use an ovenproof saute pan for this, but anything that you can get a lid on will work. Fast and at a high heat.
- Remove the oxtail and drain it on some kitchen paper, then brown the mirepoix in the same pan over a medium heat.
- Add the oxtail back, along with 600ml of beef stock and a bottle (yup that's one whole bottle) of full bodied red (cabernet, chianti, cornas etc.) and your bouquet garni.
- Bring to the boil, then cover and either turn the heat right down or move the pan to the oven.
- Cook it for 6 hours, skimming it every so often to remove the gunk that floats to the top.
- Let it cool, then in the fridge overnight (or you can freeze it, which does no damage whatsoever to the flavour).
On the day, you can prepare it to serve in various ways but the quickest is to just heat it up again in the pan. Add a good bit of butter to the sauce as you reheat to add a richness and velvety texture. Serve it with mash, bread, pureed celery, pasta even.
Wot you need:
2 oxtails (jointed and cut into lengths)
4 carrots
3 cloves of garlic
2 large onions
4 shallots
1 bouquet garni (you can buy this, but I make my own with 3 sprigs of parsley, 1 sprig of thyme, 2 dried bay leaves and 1 sprig of rosemary tied into a bundle)
- First you need to peel the veg and then dice them finely so they will make your mirepoix.
- Season the oxtail with salt and pepper then seal in a pan with a few tablespoons of oil until browned all over. Best to use an ovenproof saute pan for this, but anything that you can get a lid on will work. Fast and at a high heat.
- Remove the oxtail and drain it on some kitchen paper, then brown the mirepoix in the same pan over a medium heat.
- Add the oxtail back, along with 600ml of beef stock and a bottle (yup that's one whole bottle) of full bodied red (cabernet, chianti, cornas etc.) and your bouquet garni.
- Bring to the boil, then cover and either turn the heat right down or move the pan to the oven.
- Cook it for 6 hours, skimming it every so often to remove the gunk that floats to the top.
- Let it cool, then in the fridge overnight (or you can freeze it, which does no damage whatsoever to the flavour).
On the day, you can prepare it to serve in various ways but the quickest is to just heat it up again in the pan. Add a good bit of butter to the sauce as you reheat to add a richness and velvety texture. Serve it with mash, bread, pureed celery, pasta even.
lizcam
New member
I'm going to make sweet potato stew for the next kid's night and then if I'm not laid up from my knee operation probably chili after that.
Sweet Potato stew is good pork cut in cubes. I tend to use both loin for the meat and a bit of shoulder for the connective tissue (it gives it that rich flavor). Brown the meat and cook in chicken broth and spices for 45 mins.
Then add cubed sweet potatos or yams, fresh corn cut off the cob, fresh green beans snapped short, a can of black beans (drained), Garlic and onions (I like pearl onions but a lot of the kids as well as Roger don't like onions so I've been using a small amount of brown onion). Add more spices and cook untill the sweet potatos are soft.
Then mix flour with tomato paste and add a bit of the liquid from the stew pot to thin it a bit an add that in to add a tomato flavor and thicken the broth.
The spices are (to taste, which for me is a fair amount);
Black pepper
rubbed sage
cloves (go easy here)
ground mustard sead (a fair amount)
Thyme
pinch of rosemary
tad of lavander
savory (be careful. It can make it taste soapy)
Bit of nutmeg
Old Bay seasoning
Salt to taste
Dash of celery sead
Taragon
I grind my own spices so I can't really tell you how much I use of each. I'm one of those people that don't normally follow recipes. I also rarely taste as I go along. I smell (and commondeer anyone around me to taste). I do add the spices in 2-3 batches, one with the meat, one with the veggies and often one just before it's done.
I serve this with cheesy biscuits (bisquick done drop style with cheddar, sage and garlic added dropped on a sheet pan and a healthy pat of butter on each one before baking. Huge hit with the kids and the butter keeps them soft and rich). This is also the perfect thing to eat with cidar. Bread pudding and custard for dessert and your set! And both the pudding and the stew can be made a day or two before. The stew only gets better with age.
Sweet Potato stew is good pork cut in cubes. I tend to use both loin for the meat and a bit of shoulder for the connective tissue (it gives it that rich flavor). Brown the meat and cook in chicken broth and spices for 45 mins.
Then add cubed sweet potatos or yams, fresh corn cut off the cob, fresh green beans snapped short, a can of black beans (drained), Garlic and onions (I like pearl onions but a lot of the kids as well as Roger don't like onions so I've been using a small amount of brown onion). Add more spices and cook untill the sweet potatos are soft.
Then mix flour with tomato paste and add a bit of the liquid from the stew pot to thin it a bit an add that in to add a tomato flavor and thicken the broth.
The spices are (to taste, which for me is a fair amount);
Black pepper
rubbed sage
cloves (go easy here)
ground mustard sead (a fair amount)
Thyme
pinch of rosemary
tad of lavander
savory (be careful. It can make it taste soapy)
Bit of nutmeg
Old Bay seasoning
Salt to taste
Dash of celery sead
Taragon
I grind my own spices so I can't really tell you how much I use of each. I'm one of those people that don't normally follow recipes. I also rarely taste as I go along. I smell (and commondeer anyone around me to taste). I do add the spices in 2-3 batches, one with the meat, one with the veggies and often one just before it's done.
I serve this with cheesy biscuits (bisquick done drop style with cheddar, sage and garlic added dropped on a sheet pan and a healthy pat of butter on each one before baking. Huge hit with the kids and the butter keeps them soft and rich). This is also the perfect thing to eat with cidar. Bread pudding and custard for dessert and your set! And both the pudding and the stew can be made a day or two before. The stew only gets better with age.
wiccanpony
Official Freak Bar Witch
"Oh Powers that Be" (that would be our leader Chern Ann) ........a CMON COOKBOOK thread. made a sticky would be nice ............. ALL in favor say aye
Aye!
Aye!
Torn blue sky
New member
This thread makes a mockery of my recipe for Super Noodles -_-
Einion
New member
Aye, and my innovation, beans on toast, is looking really slapdash and ordinary ^__^
Einion
Torn blue sky
New member
Whatever happened to the K.I.S.S rule?! Pffft, kids these days.
