Real men can cook (recipes) (Page 35) Corwin: Like last time then, but with bacon? Ooh... the page refreshed... ... it looks a little embarrassing if people only read this.   calybonos: Deep fried Captain Crunch with gravy has always been one of my Grandma's go to dishes whenever the family gets together. She calls it her Colon cleaner casserole. It's a little high class for some, but it's cheaper than an enema from the horse doctor.  jazzcat67: OK I'm going back to the root of this thread if no one minds. I can't believe I've gone my entire life and never once experienced bake beans in my house that didn't first come out of a can. All that changed recently and I feel a fool for not realizing how simple they are to make. 1 pound of dry navy beans (soak over night, I add garlic, bay leaf, anything to impart flavour) For the meat eaters this is where you dice up a pound of bacon and Sauté it in an oven proof dutch oven. Add a diced onion and cook till translucent and just before you start to add the rest of the ingredients put in a couple cloves of crushed garlic and a a finally diced jalapeño. Add any other spice you like. I enjoy smoked paprika, dry mustard, coriander, cumin. Again it's chef's preference. The sauce is made from ½ cup tomato paste, ½ cup brown sugar, ¼ cup molasses. Drain your beans in advance but reserve all the liquid and top it up to 4 cups with stock. Add all the bean/stock liquid and beans to the pot and bring to a boil on the stove top. Now you cover with a lid and put them into a 250 degree oven for 8 hours. ( stir it occasionally) It may look done after a few hours but the longer it goes the thick and richer the sauce becomes. I won't tell anyone how much seasoning to add because I'm doing this through out as I taste it. As I said in the beginning I can't believe I've never done this before but it's possibly my new favourite for the year and it couldn't be easier. OK opening a can is much easier then this 24 commitment but in the end there is no comparison on taste. It only requires about 20 minutes of actual time in the kitchen then the oven does the rest while you go for a bike ride, paint the living room or take the kids out for ice cream. A lot can be accomplished while you make this amazing dish from scratch....or you can still just open a can and nuke it in 2 minutes, the choice is yours. Enjoy! Corwin: Baked beans was another one of those Mennonite traditions, as back in the old days dried food was one of the only main alternatives to the readily available farm fare grown at home. But, as with most Mennonite recipes, it's extremely simplified. They just threw the pre-soaked beans in a baking pot with some roughly chopped or large chunks of bacon (raw), and/or chunks of fatty pork, sugar and molasses, a big can of tomatoes, salt and pepper and some dried mustard. My grandmother's recipe also included about 1/4 cup of vinegar... my dad would always add a splash of vinegar when he ate a store bought can of beans so it would taste more like Ma's. Just cover and bake for hours, until the beans have the desired texture. I make this often, and it's a taste of my youth... and nothing like you can buy at the store. The vinegar not only adds that Mennonite flavour that I'm used to, but it also somehow cuts down the fart factor considerably, and makes them easier to digest.  Peloquin Nightbreed: Awesome stuff, everyone. First off, thanks once again for keeping this going. Second, I love the tips for lowering the salt levels in soup. Great tip. Third...LOL@the funny remarks. I think I spit my diet Mountain Dew out with the "...came upon fried cheese." and Deb's response. Haha!  You know, I've been thinking that it might be a good idea to get into substitutions of foods here. Things like mayonnaise for eggs or oil or both, in some baking recipes. Since a lot of the members here, who might happen to look in on this thread, live in areas where they may not have access to everything we have in North American grocery stores for food recipes, they can get ideas for alternative ingredients. Plus, it can save us a trip to the store if we find a way to use what we have on hand. Ahhh, baked beans. Great friggin ideas on that, Steve and Cor! I agree, too, that it is a taste of youth rich in food memories. My mother (and later on, myself) would soak and then cook pinto beans. Cooked with them was hog jowel, thyme, garlic, onion, salt and pepper. She'd put the beans into a big mixing bowl, after cooking them, and added Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, tomato sauce, molasses, brown sugar, more chopped onions and garlic, crushed dried thyme, salt and pepper. After mixing, she would put them into a baking dish sprayed lightly with baking spray. To top it off, she would lay strips of good thick bacon across the top. She covered it in aluminum foil for 3/4 the cooking time needed...to get the flavors to mix and mingle. Then, she'd take the foil off, increase the temp, to get a good crispier texture to the top of the bacon and create a nice caramelization over the whole thing. Damn, I love this thread. Thanks again for keeping it so awesome, friends.  (Edited by Peloquin Nightbreed)  Calla ___Lily: http://food-life.diply.com/auntyacid/25-food-hacks-that-will-make-your-life-so-much/67719 Check this link out. jazzcat67: You know Peloquin, substitutions are a daily event for me. Full discloser for those that don't know, I've been following a plant based lifestyle the past few years. Not for ethical reasons but really just for the health benefits and I can't dispute how it makes me feel. So of course with every recipe I encounter that contains animal products, I need to find a substitution. The baked beans I prepared clearly had no bacon but I wanted to have it in the recipe for anyone that did want it because let's face it that's the tradition. I think what's shocked me as I've grown as a cook eating this way is that if there is a will you will find a way. Even not being plant based people can benefit from alternate takes on making things because how much fat can one consume. Making a Béchamel Sauce without milk or butter still gives the same end result, only with a lot less fat or guilt I suppose. I think the one thing I did miss was pizza. But then of course a local pizzeria here in BC went and created a veggie pie using Daiya cheese. Ok the stuff doesn't quite melt properly so it looks a bit weird at first but you can't deny the taste. The mouth feel which is what you want was spot on and since it tasted so good I eat a lot more then usual. I guess the only thing I did't have after eating the better half of a large pizza was the indigestion brought on by all that grease you usually get in pizza. Well I'm OK with that. I'm going to test out a pulled pork sandwich this weekend made from some exotic fruit called a Jack Fruit. Let the substitutions continue to inspire us to new and greater heights and I'll let you all know how it all turned out. Corwin: I'm reminded of a little trick I showed my mom when she went vegetarian: When making a vegetarian version of a dish that usually contains bacon, be it beans or borscht, a few drops of liquid smoke really does the trick.  It doesn't exactly add the pork flavour, but the slight smokiness suggests bacon to your taste buds... we associate that smokiness with bacon. (Edited by Corwin) jazzcat67: Liquid smoke is very useful I agree. I used it when I was cooking meat protein as well. A few drops in a stew or when you make BBQ sauce just adds a depth of flavour. Building a complex flavour profile in something I love to do. It's a simple as using wine to deglaze and reducing it down to syrup which gives an acidic element to any savoy dish without adding vinegar. When I make chilli I love to add odd things like a tbsp of Dutched coco or a ½ cup or expresso, not because you can taste them but it leaves people scratching their head not sure what's in the bowl because it makes it very rich and not one note.  Big Bopper: Real men can cook quiche equal volumes eggs and 10% cream, whipped with a fork black pepper salt to taste cheese cut into tiny cubes cooked and chopped bacon or ham chopped chives or green onions open pie shell or tart shells Fill shells half full with egg-cream mixture add a little of each cheese, ham and chives grind pepper on top bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes or until edges of tart brown and filling solidifies serve warm I think this is called Quiche Lorraine, but you can substitute any of the topping ingredients. It is best served warm. Good thread, guys! A few things I've learned: Brown your onions Mix flour in the oil after cooking your meat, then a bit off water makes an easy gravy It is worth making stock if you have a chicken carcass or lots of bones (Edited by Big Bopper) ~LoisLane~: You can also cut salt (I think it was Corvin that mentioned a potato) with a dash of lemon juice or vinegar, it totally works. Big Bopper: Absolutely you can. I'm so physically active and sweat so much that I need all the salts to prevent cramping: sodium, magnesium, potassium. I tend to use a little when cooking for this reason as well as flavour. Yeah, right. calcium too. (Edited by Big Bopper) calybonos: Capsaicin is useful for erections lasting more than four hours. Although I don't see why that would be considered a problem. Big Bopper: Four hour erections aren't a problem if my first aid kit is stocked up. You know, condoms, earplugs and nose plugs. We all know what the condoms are for... but I can't stand the smell of burning rubber and the sound of a screaming woman! (Edited by Big Bopper) Corwin: Capsaicin is the active component in pepper plants of the genus Capsicum, so you didn't really read that wrong. It's also great for pulled pork, which might also be the root of Caly's "problem". Big Bopper: Here is my Lamb Vindaloo 'recipe'. The actual volumes of each ingredient, even the ingredients may vary according to what you have and what your taste is like. It is impossible to be objective from my end of the spoon, but it may be the best I've done yet...and I do 4-6 curries a year. Plenty of capsaicin! It all started with a good deal on New Zealand lamb. Shoulder chops; so I boned them, chopping the meat in small bite size and reserved it in the fridge. I baked the bones hard for 1.5 hours at 425. I made a stock with those bones with some carrot and celery. Using a wok, I browned one medium onion chopped medium in several tablespoons of vegetable oil. While that was happening, I pureed another medium onion and put that in over the browned onion. I wizzed about two thumbs of ginger and five peeled cloves of garlic through the processor until fine. Once all the onion had several minutes to cook, I threw that in. I reserved the onion, garlic and ginger and threw in the meat...heavily seasoned with salt and fresh cracked pepper. Immediately, I chopped up a bunch of red and green chillies, adding them with dried coconut, paprika, chili powder, cayenne, ground coriander, ground green cardamom, black mustard seeds and coriander seeds. Add some squash and potato, chopped medium. Add a little water, one can of coconut milk and the stock and let it all simmer for a few hours, adding fine chopped carrot and celery. When it has reduced and thickened a bit, put the rice on. I use Basmati rice, a long grained and fragrant rice that is perfect with a curry. You could serve this with pappadums, chappati, naan or roti. Any flatbread is a nice accompaniment. Traditionally, different areas of India would use the bread or rice that is predominant in their area, but here in the Land of Plenty, any combination is good. Try this! Let me know what you are trying to do with which ingredients and with what equipment, maybe I have some ideas for you. (Edited by Big Bopper) | Off Topic Chat Room Similar Conversations |
