The CMON Cookbook

[Naukhel]

Let\'s all thank the \"barbecue?\" thread for this idea....
I\'m sure we\'ve all cooked something, experimented in the kitchen, and all...
I\'ve already posted a recipe in the barbecue thread, for home-made hamburgers...

What\'s your specialty, and how do you make it?


Reposted here, my hamburger recipe, to kick off the CMON cookbook.....

Home-made hamburgers:

Serves: Varies -- It depends how big you make the burger patties, and how many burgers each person has.



What you\'ll need (utensil-wise): A large mixing bowl, measuring spoons (those of you with children will find these in the sand box in the back yard), a measuring cup, a ladle, waxed paper.

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef (mince to you brits)
2 cups bread crumbs (crushed croutons can also work)
1 oz. Worcestershire sauce
1 oz. garlic powder (or garlic salt)
1 oz. black pepper
1/2 oz. salt
1/2 cup milk
1/2 red pepper (finely diced)

First, be sure that your ground beef (mince) is completely thawed out, if you had it frozen. Break it into small pieces and put it in the mixing bowl.
Add the bread crumbs and milk to the bowl, and mix all thoroughly (using your hands works best).
Add worcestershire sauce (spread as evenly as possible) and mix again.
Add spices and diced pepper, and mix again. Let stand for 10 minutes.
(This lets the meat absorb the spices and worcestershire)

Lay wax paper on a cookie sheet.
Press mixture of meat and spices into ladel firmly, then remove. Flatten \'half ball\' of meat from ladel into a patty shape, and set on waxed paper.

The waxed paper will keep the patties from sticking together and coming apart when you\'re picking them up, as stacking them directly against eachother does.

If using a charcoal bbq, raise the grill so that it\'s about 2 inches above the coals.
If using a gas bbq, use low heat.
In both cases, turn burgers frequently. This helps to keep the juices in the meat.

Spices listed can be substituted to preference.

Adding a half bottle of beer to the mince, and letting it sit for an hour, before any of this begins can also do nice things for the flavour (remember to drain the beer out again before the mixing begins).

 

[Naukhel]

Veal Cannelloni

This recipe is my actual specialty...

What is Cannelloni?
Most of you know, but for those that don\'t... imagine lasagna noodles rolled into tubes around the rest of the ingredients, instead of laid flat.

What you\'ll need (Utensils):
Large mixing bowl, collander, spatula, frying pan, sharp knife...

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients:
1 box cannelloni pasta (pre-made is easier, but if you make your own pasta, more power to you)
1 lb. ground veal (or ground beef if you object to using baby cows over full grown ones) -- vegetarians can use that soy-mince stuff instead
2 cans pasta sauce (pick your favourite - I use plain for this)
1 onion (chopped)
1 pepper (pick your favourite colour) (chopped)
Shredded Mozzerella Cheese
1 container Ricotta Cheese
1 garlic clove
Olive Oil

Directions:
1 - Lightly coat frying pan with olive oil, and, on low heat, begin cooking the meat. Break up the meat as much as possible. The finer, the better.

2 - Add chopped onion, chopped pepper, and chopped garlic clove, to frying pan. Spice further to taste, if you wish. I recommend a tablespoon of Oregano, personally. Cook all until meat is lightly browned, but still mostly \'grey\'. You don\'t want to over-cook it at this stage.

3 - Empty frying pan into collander to drain off excess oils and meat fat. Let stand for now.

4 - Mix your Ricotta and Shredded Mozzerella together thoroughly in the mixing bowl. Once mixed, add the contents of the collander to the bowl, and mix thoroughly again.

5 - This is the tedious part of preparing this meal. Using a fork or a spoon, stuff the cannelloni pasta with the contents of the mixing bowl.

6 - Pour pasta sauce into pan before placing stuffed cannelloni in. You want the sauce to be both over and under the pasta, to avoid burning. Coat the bottom of the pan, place the stuffed pasta, and then pour the rest of the sauce on top. Spread evenly.

7 - Garnish top with parmesan or a little more Mozzerella.

8 - Cover pan with foil, and bake at 350 F for 50 minutes.

Serves well with steamed vegetables, roast potatoes, and a nice red wine.

 

[airhead]

Meatless Sandwich:

Take one slice of bread - spread peanut butter on it.

Take another slice of bread - spread your favorite jelly or jam on it.

Put the two together - bread side out.

enjoy, feeds one if under the age of 10.

 

[Einion]

Geez dude, how many do you want?

Since you mention beefburgers I\'m firmly of the opinion that they should be as simple as possible: good-quality lean beef (if you wouldn\'t eat it as a steak don\'t make a burger from it) ground at home, seasoned with salt, black pepper and a good grating of nutmeg. Firmly form the patties together with dampened hands and no other ingredients are necessary for them to stick together; don\'t press flat with the spatula during frying, this makes them dry.

I also like them made from lamb, flavoured with garlic and rosemary (plus seasoning of course).

Any burger should ideally be cooked till medium-rare over moderate heat, too hot and the outside will burn before the middle is up to temperature, about four minutes a side.

:idea: Now that I\'m good and hungy it\'s time to go make the bread and sauce for tonight\'s pizza.

Einion

 

[green stuff]

I\'m more into cakes : chocolat and walnut pie, brownies, cinnamon apple pie, ...

If people are interested, I could translate my receipes and convert the metric system mesures.

 

[ilynx2k4]

Originally posted by Einion
I also like them made from lamb, flavoured with garlic and rosemary (plus seasoning of course).

When I make mine from lamb I prefer to falvour them with mint. With ham/beefburgers I use some horseradish. Kinda like having your traditional sunday luch in one hand!

Perhaps I need to try pork and apple.

 

[leopardpixie]

MMMMMM Pie

 

[marineboy]

I refuse to start with innuendo, LP...yet.

Rolls or buns:

Ciabatta flour mixed with yeast dissolved in warm water with sugar and salt, salt to taste and water -- add:

herbs -- thyme, sage, rosemary, basil etc, dried or fresh, pepper

chopped or ground spices -- garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, black olives

salt to taste.

Continue kneading water into the dough until it is elastic and pliable without being sticky, the more water the better.

After letting the dough rise once, divide and form the dough into small balls about 2\" in diameter, place them at interval son the baking sheet and let them rise again. If you place them in a hex pattern and flatten them out, they rise and meet each other at their edges so you can easily judge the size they\'ll become.

Bake at 225 degrees Celcius (times 9 divided by 5 plus 32 for fahrenheit) until golden...break apart, split and use to serve all those burgers you guys are making me hungry with.

 

[Margo]

Oh, great thread. I love cooking and, actually, cook quite a lot. Don\'t have a slightest idea of which of my favorite recipes to share with you ... Maybe you lot could give me a clue? Fish, chicken, vegetables, deserts (no meat, though)

 

[marineboy]

Anything, Margo.

Come the beginning of August, I\'ll be doing my siemiannual vegetarinan-for-a-month diet, perhaps you would share a recipe for a vegetable dish? Local specialty would be great!

 

[Equus]

Originally posted by Margo
Oh, great thread. I love cooking and, actually, cook quite a lot. Don\'t have a slightest idea of which of my favorite recipes to share with you ... Maybe you lot could give me a clue? Fish, chicken, vegetables, deserts (no meat, though)

My vote\'s for anything but vegies. My theatre company is full of vegie-nuts, so I get more than enough vegetarian stuff from them. One of them makes a mean meatless fajita.

@ greenstuff - Please do share! I think that would be great.

I have a couple of recipes that are my faves. I\'ll post some in a bit. :bouncy: Probably will start with the beef chili cheese dip recipe that I sent Dawn.

 

[Margo]

Originally posted by marineboy perhaps you would share a recipe for a vegetable dish? Local specialty would be great!

Sure! Only I don\'t do Russian cuisine, so if that\'s what you meant by \"local\", I\'d have to disappoint you.

However, if by \"local\" you meant Armenian (that\'s where I come from), I can share a couple of recipes. For instance, the following one.

Serves 4.

Ingredients:
6-8 tomatoes
3-4 eggplants
3-4 sweet green peppers
parsley, coriander
salt, black pepper, garlic
sunflower oil

Remove 1-2 cm wide strips of skin from the sides of each eggplant with a vegetable peeler. Then cut each eggplant lengthwise into 6-8 slices. Then cut each slice in half and fry on sunflower oil from both sides (1-2 mins for each side) in a large pan. When ready, put in a bowl for a while.
Then, slice down the green peppers in rings and fry for a couple of mins. Now, take a large bowl and put a layer of eggplants and a layer of peppers, adding chopped coriander on the top of each layer.

Sauce:
Put the tomatoes in boiling water for 2 mins, then peel the skin. Cook peeled tomatoes for about 10 mins in a casserole, adding chopped garlic, chopped parsley, salt and black pepper. When the sauce is ready, pour it into the bowl with vegetables.

 

[Equus]

Beef Chili Cheese Dip

The recipe calls for 2T cayenne pepper. I used 1T in the first batch, and ~1.5T on the second. So, if things were too hot, that\'s a good start for toning it down. Also, the \"hot sauce\" portion can be more or less depending on taste. Keep all the rest for proper flavoring.


Ingredients:

2 lbs ground beef
3 T chili powder
2 T ground cayenne pepper
1 T paprika
1 large onion, diced
1 T minced garlic
1 t soy sauce
2 lbs Velveeta
3 cans (5.5 oz) Spicy Hot V8 juice
1 T Worcestershire sauce
3 T Dave’s Hurtin’ Habanera sauce (or suitable hot sauce)

Instructions:

Set up a crock pot and put the Spicy Hot V8 juice, Velveeta, Worcestershire sauce, and hot sauce in it on high while you prepare the ground beef. This helps speed the melting process for the Velveeta. It also helps to cube or slice the Velveeta.

Brown the ground beef with the chili powder, cayenne pepper, and paprika. Add the soy sauce, onion, and garlic when the ground beef is mostly browned and continue cooking until the onion starts to turn translucent.

Add the ground beef mixture to the crock pot and mix everything together thoroughly.

Cover and switch the crock pot to low for a minimum of 1 hour. 3 hours is about right… it lets the flavors blend. Serve hot with tortilla chips.

Notes:

Yes, use 3 tablespoons of chili powder. If you want a milder chili dip, cut the cayenne pepper back to 1 tablespoon. 2 T makes a dip that has some kick to it. You can generally judge the spiciness of the end result by the ground beef as you’re preparing it – the end result will be less spicy than the ground beef by itself, so go ahead and push your limits a bit on the beef. Velveeta really sucks the kick out of the spices.

No, Tabasco isn’t a suitable hot sauce. If the first ingredient is vinegar it doesn’t count. Use a sauce that has at least one kind of pepper listed before vinegar.

Chili Dip tastes best if refrigerated overnight and then reheated before serving.

 

[Margo]

Ok, so another one for Equus.

Serves 4

4 chicken breast halves
200-300 grams of unshelled walnuts
4 big onions
1 spoon of flour
1 spoon of lemon juice or vinegar
Sunflower oil
Black pepper, garlic, ground coriander, saffron, salt

Dice the onions and fry in a large pan. At the same time, boil the chicken breasts. When ready, cut chicken into smaller pieces (not too small, though).

Put cooked onions into a large bowl. Then mince walnuts through a meat-grinder twice or thrice and add to the onions. Also, add chopped garlic and all the spices, lemon juice/vinegar and flour.

Cook everything except chicken in a large saucepan for about 5 mins, then add chicken pieces and cook for about 2 mins more. Serve chilled with dry red wine.

 

[Equus]

Cool...thanks Margo! Since the chili cheese dip recipe is pretty much useless to you if you don\'t eat beef, I\'ll get some good Japanese or Hawaiian recipes for you when I get home.

 

[Margo]

Equus, that would be lovely, thank you!

 

[Equus]

Any preferences? I probably have more Japanese recipes (or pseudo Japanese...most of my family\'s cooking is second generation). Do you prefer fish, chicken, veggies? All of the above? Hawaiian stuff also have some great pork recipes. Most of my recipes are also blessedly simple.

 

[Sakura]

I have a very nice recipe for a hot days salat and a dessert.

cold chicken in sesamsauce

400g chicken breasts
1 cucumber
2 dried chillis.
2 SP cooking-oil (is that the correct shortform for soup- spoon?)
1 Sp Sichuan pepper
For the sauce:
4 SP sesame seeds
3 Sp soysauce
2 Sp sesame oil
1 tea spoon sugar

1. Put the chicken in a pot and cover it with water. Salt it and let it boil slowly. Put the lip on and let it boil on low heat for 10 minutes. Led it cool down in it\'s own juice.
2. Wash the cucumber, cut it in half lengthwise and remove the seeds with a spoon. Cut it in small slices. Crumble the chillis with your hands or a mortar.
3.Put the oil in a pan and roast the pepper and the chillis. Put the cucumberslices in the pan and roast for 2 minutes on high heat.
Salt it, put it on a plate and let it cool down.
4. Take the chicken out of it\'s sauce and pluck it in small stripes. Put it over the cucumber.
5. For the sauce, roast the sesame seeds in a pan, without oil, till they get slightly brown and smell good. Put the in a mortar and grind them as fine as possible. Mix them with the soysauce, the sesame oil and the sugar so that it\'s not to solid, if it is, mix a bit water in. Put the sauce over the salad and your finished.


Soymilk- jelly

Soak 15g gelantin- powder in 1 SP water.
Heat(not boil) 200ml Soymilk with 40g suger on low heat. Put the gelantin in, and let it cool down a bit.
Mix 50ml cream und the stuff that\'s in 1 vanilla- stick with the soymilk, fill it into a small container, preferably rectangular and put it into the fridge for some hours.
When it\'s solid, put it on a plate and cut 1 cm thick slices. Best served with fresh fruits like kiwi, peach, or strawberry.

I also make good spring- rolls, I like asian cookery, and when it\'s cooler, I back all the time.

 

[Margo]

Equus, vegetbles would be great

 

[Equus]

Sounds good Margo! There\'s some good shabu shabu and tempanyaki recipes that I have that could use veggies or meat or both or whatever. My favorite involves a big griddle-like cooking surface where you cook meat/veggies/seafood in butter and dip into a sauce. Neat communal meal...if you can deal with the \"butter coma\" that usually comes afterward.