Cooking thread

Quote: Nareed

I love soup. I especially love making it from scratch. Lately, though, I'm too tired on weekends to cook more than one dish.

My all time favorite is tomato soup, which I do make from scratch.

You can probably get good tomato's?

It is hard to find anything around here that isn't gmo'd with skins as thick as apple skins, or grown in hot houses with green or black insides. They look good, and ship well but are mushy inside and almost flavorless. So disappointing when you remember what good ones taste like.

My parents use to grow them [beefsteaks] where we would go outside with a salt shaker and eat them right off the vine, yum. Or make tomato sandwich's.

My dad taught me to mix fresh or processed tomato's with the last few slices of bread from a loaf and a pinch of sugar, [stewed tomato's]. It doesn't sound like much but is surprisingly good. About 50/50 with tomato's and bread, simmer and eat.

It get's so hot here, they burst on the vine.

Quote: petroglyph

My parents use to grow them [beefsteaks] where we would go outside with a salt shaker and eat them right off the vine, yum. Or make tomato sandwich's.

I hate raw tomatoes. I can't stand the consistency, and the seeds make me gag. I love them once they're processed into soup, sauce or salsa (but I repeat myself).

For soup I peel, core and seed them first. Then I cook them a rather long time on a pot with onions and garlic. Next I put them in the blender with some milk and cottage cheese. Then back in the pot to boil.

I like to have it mixed with plain white rice and lime.

I made chicken soup for the first time. it's something I ought to have tried a long time ago.

It didn't come out quite right, but contrary to my universal laws of cooking, I was able to fix it.

The problem was really that between having to go to the office and sneaking peeks at the game, I ran short of time. I had meant to cook some pasta and garbanzo beans to add to the soup. I had no time left. Well, I might have done it anyway, but by then it was late and I didn't want to wash more dishes. What with making soup, two kinds of salsa, preparing the chicken in one, coring and seeding red tomatoes, boiling the green tomatoes, etc., I spent about as much time actually at the stove as I did at the sink...

But I had a really good time doing all of this.

I need to find out the right ratio between chicken and water when making chicken soup. Also I'm sure thigh and leg are needed more than breast, which was one problem.

Anyway, the chicken was perfect for shredding. The salsas were simple:

Green. Cut up enough green tomatoes to fill 3/4 of the standard blender jar, put them in boiling water until they're soft and have changed color. Then put them in the blender with some cilantro, two quartered clove of garlic, one cup water, 1/4 cup white vinegar, and chilies (I used canned red jalapeños for a change).

Red. Blanche the tomatoes to peel them. core them and seed them, then cut them into quarters if you haven't done so already. Again, about as many to fill 3/4 of the standard blender jar. add garlic, cilantro, water, vinegar and chilies as above. This time I used canned chipotles.

I'm done with using dried chipotles. The flavor is about the same as the canned variety.

I then sautéed some sliced onion till they went really soft, added the shredded chicken, and then the green salsa. I let this simmer at low heat until it began to bubble. Once the mixture cooled, I used it as filling for enchiladas, which were covered with red salsa and cheese.

I think it's too much work and in the end one kind of salsa should be enough. But it was fun cooking this much from scratch.

Quote: Nareed

I made chicken soup for the first time. it's something I ought to have tried a long time ago.

It didn't come out quite right, but contrary to my universal laws of cooking, I was able to fix it.

The problem was really that between having to go to the office and sneaking peeks at the game, I ran short of time. I had meant to cook some pasta and garbanzo beans to add to the soup. I had no time left. Well, I might have done it anyway, but by then it was late and I didn't want to wash more dishes. What with making soup, two kinds of salsa, preparing the chicken in one, coring and seeding red tomatoes, boiling the green tomatoes, etc., I spent about as much time actually at the stove as I did at the sink...

But I had a really good time doing all of this.

Soup is fun, isn't it. : ) IMO, the secret to laughably delicious soup is making a good stock. I have been hovering around our kitchen for a year or so, waiting for a large turkey carcass. I can't take credit for knowing this, two fine women have told me the secret. I like to debone an entire turkey and smash the bones up until they fit in the crockpot well enough to mostly keep them submerged in water, and whatever vegetable trimmings I have. I put it out in my garage and let it simmer for about 2 days because it smells. : ) How do I say it, cayonda? That stock is the center piece of fantastic soup.

I don't think which meat light or dark makes a big difference but we usually only have dark meat, as the store here will sell it separately. That is also why I have been waiting for bones.

The problem you mentioned about time is also why I like the slow cooker so much. I can miss the perfect timing by an hour or two and it still comes out great.
Some people just throw everything in the pot and add heat. If I have time, I will cook several of the ingredients separately and add them when the soup is almost finished. I like to be able to taste each ingredient [sometimes] instead of everything so blended together it is just a large volume of "stuff" that all tastes the same. The noodles [large flat] are only in [separately cooked] for about a half an hour at the end, just until they absorb some of the flavor but still taste like good noodles.

I doubt any two batches I have made have been identical, there is little that is in the fridge that I won't try to incorporate in a soup.

Your salsa sounds wonderful.

Quote: petroglyph

Soup is fun, isn't it. : )

<nod>

Quote:

I like to debone an entire turkey and smash the bones up until they fit in the crockpot well enough to mostly keep them submerged in water,

I'm impressed that I can cook and handle meat at all. Messing with the bones other than by removing cooked meat from them is beyond me.

Quote:

I don't think which meat light or dark makes a big difference

Chicken meat has most of the fat in the dark meat areas. A lot of the flavor is in the fat (or the fat as mixed with everything else). This means keeping the skin on as well as limiting the use of breast. Next time I'll get two each of leg and thigh, but only one half piece of breast.

Quote:

Some people just throw everything in the pot and add heat. If I have time, I will cook several of the ingredients separately and add them when the soup is almost finished.

I cook everything together so the flavors will mix. The pasta and garbanzo beans have to be cooked separately, because they have very different cooking times. The pasta in particular is very sensitive about being overcooked.

IN fact, when I make tomato soup, I'll cook the tomatoes a bit with garlic and onion, then blend them with cottage cheese and milk, then return everything to the pot to finish cooking.

If I get the time today, I'll cook the pasta at least (that's quick). I'm less sure of the beans.

My plan for this weekend is tomato soup, an idea I had for pasta (w/veggies and olive oil), and I want to try to make hummus because I snagged another kilo of garbanzo beans.

I had a good time cooking tomato soup and pasta, but I misjudged which game would be worth watching. So I missed most of Denver's victory over New England. I turned off the Cardinals game right before half time, seeing it was going to turn into a blow out.

Anyway, the pasta is new:

1/3 onion sliced thinly
1 bell pepper julienne
1 small head of broccoli separated in florets (BTW, it's a fractal vegetable)
5-6 cloves of garlic quartered
Olive oil as needed.

The "sauce" comes later.

First fry the garlic in olive oil, set aside. Next sauté the onion and bell pepper in the same pan until the onion turns translucent, then add the broccoli. Aside from being fractal, broccoli is a hard veggie to stir-fry or sauté because visually it changes not at all. So keep going until you think your bell pepper is overdone. then set aside.

For the "sauce:"

1/4 cup olive oil.
The fried garlic, now chopped.
Juice of two limes.

Pour the oil in the pan (where else?) and let it warm a little. Add the lime juice and stir. Then add the veggies, then whatever pasta you prepared (and which I didn't list). Toss everything well, remove from the flame and serve.

BTW it's amazing I hated broccoli all my life, until I accidentally tried it at a Japanese restaurant. Sautéed or stir fried, it's quite good. Why, then, did everyone else in the world steam them or boil them? Same thing with cauliflower and cabbage.

This weekend I'll try making hummus.

I don't know what else to make, though. One option is to try chicken soup again, seeing as I'm going to cook plenty of chickpeas anyway, and then make shredded chicken in green salsa with plain white rice.

Or I could go simpler and just make grilled chicken breasts with some kind of marinade...

Quote: Nareed

This weekend I'll try making hummus.

I don't know what else to make, though. One option is to try chicken soup again, seeing as I'm going to cook plenty of chickpeas anyway, and then make shredded chicken in green salsa with plain white rice.

I wound up having four pots boiling or simmering on the stove at the same time.

I also discovered a blender is not the tool to make hummus with. It works, but once the bottom portion of chickpeas and oil have turned into a paste, the vortex simply disappears. Therefore the rest of the portions on top don't get blended. I had to stir, empty the blender, refill it, stir again, and I wound up with rather coarse hummus with some very intact chickpeas.

The chicken soup did improve, but it's still off. This time, though, I did add pasta and chickpeas.