What's cooking?

Blujixapug

@Sena If you want it to look more appetising you could always cover it with chocolate.

Trilliana

So... since tomorrow is St Patrick's day, and also my daughter's (3rd!) birthday, I do St Patrick's day dinnerstuffs the day before (TODAY!)

I found a recipe from my aunt on Irish Soda Bread... now, afaik, authentic Irish soda bread has no fruit, butter, or frills, and this recipe is just self rising flour and beer, I did Guiness. I forgot to grease my loaf pan, but it still turned out really good. And right now I have imitation shepherd's pie in the oven- I say imitation because I'm using ground beef instead of lamb since we can almost never find lamb of any sort nearby.

Anaidiana

Beer Brisket:

1 crockpot

1 can beer

1 brisket

water

potatoes, carrots, and cabbage as desired

chop potatoes and carrots and layer in bottom of crock (if desired, they usually don't taste awesome afterwards, but some people are funny about having meat on the bottom of the crock). put brisket in (fat side up) with seasoning packet (or pickling seasoning). pour one can (12oz) beer into crock. Fill with water (to cover brisket). cook on low for at LEAST 8h (mine'll be in for 12h, give or take). Add cabbage leaves during last 30m. DO NOT open crock at any other point!

Another awesome way to do potatoes (which i'll be doing tomorrow night) - 

scrub and dice red potatoes into bite size chunks. put in saucepan. cover with water. Add dash or three of salt. Bring to boil, cut heat to simmer, cook for 15-20m. Drain. Slather with 4tbs butter/margarine. parsley for presentation. TADA. herbed potatoes that are full of nom. Hub didn't want baked potatoes tomorrow. 

And then there's the Bailey's fudge...

edit: forgot one thing

Sybilla

Ah the soda bread I make has always been equal parts (maybe 250g?) wholemeal self-raising flour and plain flour, bit of salt, pinch of bicarbonate of soda (hence the name), and buttermilk (probably around 500ml? Sorry don't have the recipe on me, it's in one of my boxes).  Mix it all together, 200°C oven for 30 min, and there you go. So simple and quick, now I've a hunkering for it.

I've been ill for a week and have mainly been surviving from noodle soups and what have you. Last Sunday my dad made me lamb and egg soup:

Cut the lamb into small pieces, rinse and dry it.

Soften a finely chopped onion in a saucepan with some butter. Combine the lamb, turning it to brown on all sides and season with salt and pepper.

Dissolve a spoon of plain flour in a ladle of hot (meat) stock and pour it over the lamb. Add the rest of the stock to cover the lamb well, cover the pan and cook over low heat for about an hour, adding more broth if it goes dry.

After that, pick out the lamb pieces and keep them aside, in a warm (but turned off) oven maybe.

Beat 2 eggs with the juice of a lemon (or half a lemon, depending on how much you're making). Add it in the broth in a steady trickle, whisking constantly so that it breaks apart. It's supposed to have the consistency of egg drop soup.

Add the lamb again, make sure it's lovely and warm, and serve up. You can add finely chopped parsley too if you like it.

Trilliana

My recipe is quite literally 2 2/3 cups of self-rising flour (which is flour, salt, and baking powder) and a 12oz beer. 

Silas

Shepherd's pie with beef is a cottage pie. Also, why is nobody making potato farls?

Kyrra

Cottage pie is delicious. The lady that owns the diner near my office makes it once a week. She really inspires me to want to cook.

Hyraeth

My first try @ making French Onion Soup was a moderate success (aka "girl too sick and skint to go grocery shopping but with an abundance of onions" soup), even w/ limited ingredients, but then again the main ingredient's the caramelised onions and I love caramelising onions, it's fun watching them change.

Since my recipe isn't definitive and needs some tweaking, here's what I based it on, minus the Gruyere. I made the croutons in the oven with some parmesan and toast.

Trick to quick caramelising, a sprinkle of brown sugar and french sea salt (or kosher salt, or whatever salt you have handy) over the onions as they soften. I didn't have bay leaf, but thyme was good enough. Another recipe suggested a squeeze of lemon juice, and since I love lemons, I did just that. Lifted the flavour nicely.

Valden

I tried to microwave a cookie last night, managed to put it on for 2:00 minutes instead of 20 seconds...

Krypton

<P>I was in charge of making the dessert course for my friend's fancy birthday party. They are, in order, spice cake w/ ginger meringue, walnut tea cookies, and wild strawberry panna cotta.</P>
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<P><IMG src="https://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/530991_2733203249203_890734019_n.jpg"></P>
<P><IMG src="https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/559044_2733224729740_1665976203_n.jpg"></P>
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<P> </P>

Eld

@Krypton My birthday's in just over two months. That's enough time to make a new friend, right?

Berenene

Wow. That's so cool.

Kresslack

What's cooking? Two steaks, and some steamed broccoli. That's it!

Kyrra

I keep thinking about brownies and I haven't baked in a while but I wanted to share my recipe.

Brownies

200g butter
½ cup cocoa
¼ teaspoon salt
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 eggs
1 cup flour
½ cup chopped walnuts

1. Turn over to 180°C (350ºF). Grease a 30x18cm tin.

2. Put butter and cocoa in a big pan. Melt gently over very low heat. Don't boil it!

3. Add salt, sugar and vanilla. Stir it really well.

4. Take pan off heat. Sift in flour. Stir it in.

5. Add eggs. Beat them in really well.

6. Add chopped walnuts. Stir in.

7. Spread evenly in tin. Bake 20-25 minutes.

8. When cool, ice with chocolate icing.



I never actually thought to take pictures after they were done cooking and I had sliced them up. My brownies always turn out incredibly moist, very rich in flavour, and they just melt in your mouth. I might joke about them being toe curling, but they are seriously that good. >_>

Kyrra

Apricot Loaf

½ cup finely chopped dried apricots
½ cup milk
125g butter
½ cup sugar
3 eggs
2 cups self-raising flour
1 teaspoon grated lemon rind
¼ cup chopped walnuts

1. Put apricots and milk in a bowl. Set aside for 30 minutes.

2. Turn oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease 23x13cm loaf tin.

3. Beat butter and sugar well until smooth and creamy.

4. Add eggs. Beat them in very well.

5. Mix in apricots and milk. Stir in lemon rind.

6. Sift in flour. Mix it in well.

7. Spread mixture all evenly in the tin.

8. Sprinkle walnuts on top. Bake 55-60 minutes.

Before the oven:


After the oven:


My apricot loaf turned out a lot more dry than anticipated. I put this down to the motor in the mixmaster being wet because some idiot decided it would be a fantastic idea to clean the entire machine and not dry it out before putting it back in the cupboard, and the machine blowing up. I had to mix everything by hand which either resulted in too much airation or not enough. The consistency of the dough wasn't that great and the loaf should have turned out much more moist.

Berenene

Looks and sounds almost like a chocolate hedgehog.

Kyrra

Berenene said:

Looks and sounds almost like a chocolate hedgehog.

They were cut up into squares and the walnuts were really broken up. It made for nice texture and a little bit of crunchiness.

Less mental images of chocolate coated hedgehods with walnuts impaled in spines.

Berenene

Kyrra said:

Looks and sounds almost like a chocolate hedgehog.

They were cut up into squares and the walnuts were really broken up. It made for nice texture and a little bit of crunchiness. Less mental images of chocolate coated hedgehods with walnuts impaled in spines.

What? You don't eat chocolate coated hedgehogs with walnuts impaled on their spines?

Kresslack

Epic Steak Sandwich 

Tania

Carrot cake! I used this recipe, only I did the changes recommended in one of the comments.

Pre-icing:

After icing and slicing:

Om nom nom. So tasty.

Drauka

Ended up being my dinner as I had to take someone to the hospital. No complaints! My rasta egg is kinda cool.

Eld

Drauka said:

Ended up being my dinner as I had to take someone to the hospital. No complaints! My rasta egg is kinda cool.

How does having to take someone to the hospital not involve complaints?

Tania

Update on the carrot cake: total success. I brought it into work, and had a bunch of people ask for the recipe and tell me how good it was.

Drauka

@Eld: like it didn't ruin my night or anything, just doing what you gotta do. (difficult for me to get bummed out)

Tania

I made a pot roast!

It was delicious. But there was so much of it that I made my roommate have a lot of it.

What's in it: 2 onions, half a bag of baby carrots, a bag of baby potatoes, some celery a chuck roast, a can of condensed beef broth, a can of some cream of something soup (mushroom is the popular choice. I used potato because I hate mushroom), a package of dried onion soup mix, some uncondensed beef broth (to make sure the roast was halfway covered), and garlic, salt, and pepper. I forgot to add rosemary and thyme until I made the gravy with the liquid. 

Sear off the veggies until they've got some char, do the same with the roast after generously salting and peppering and flouring it. Put the condensed broth, cream soup, and dried onion mix into the pot and mix it up. Add some veggies, stick the roast on top of those, add veggies around the side and top of the roast, fill with some beef broth until the roast is halfway covered, and stick in a 275F oven for four hours. If you want (I did), thicken the liquid with flour (in a separate pot, pouring it off, because otherwise you're digging out a lot of food before you can do anything with the liquid). I added some rosemary and thyme at this point, because I meant to earlier. And then eat! I didn't need a knife, the meat was so tender.

And because how much of it there was, I made it into a stew the next day.

That's just the leftovers with the addition of peas. It made that much food. I also added even more rosemary and thyme and garlic at this point, because it still needed more herbiness to make a good stew.

And it made a really good stew! Mmm.

All of this food cost less than $20 to make (the roast being the most expensive at ~$13, since it's a cheap cut), and it will be feeding me and my roommate for many a day. Hurray.

Trilliana

I've raved about them before, but tonight I'm caving on my "eating somewhat healthy" thing and eating mint chocolate meringue cookies. So that's what's cookin for me!

Skye

I forgot to take a picture. I made a leftover nacho beef pasta thing.

everything was leftover except the pasta.

Some strips of panfried beef,
1 diced tomato
nacho cheese.
milk

add the beef and tomato into a small pot, stir it around a bit on high heat as it starts to sizzle. dump in the cheese and lower heat, keep stirring while melting the cheese. add milk to desired consistency and peri salt to taste.

Pour on pasta, pray leftovers hadn't actually gone bad, and serve.

Trilliana

not perfect, but damn good

Sybilla

@Trilliana are those cinnamon swirls?

Augh, for various reasons I've hardly cooked from scratch in over a month. You lot are all making me jealous. The furthest I got was trying tea-stained eggs, but ended up eating them hard-boiled and forgot about the tea... Very scatty, recently!

Trilliana

@Sybilla Cinnamon Rolls! it was a 90 minute recipe and it basically lived up to it.