I Need a Recipe!

[annzeepark914]

Re: tofu? Quite a few years ago I tried a recipe using tofu in which it was supposed to sub for ground beef. I had to freeze it first. Then I thawed it, broke it up like ground beef, & cooked it with onions, garlic, bell peppers, seasonings, & marinara. It was good on spaghetti. But I don't think I made it again.

 

[chessiegal]

My extra firm tofu is in a landfill somewhere. No takers from my post on the neighborhood FB page. Blue Apron doesn't advertise it, but you can un-choose the food they decide to send you and pick from about a dozen meals they have available that week. I was so tired of them sending hamburger variations almost every week. I've chosen my meals through July, and am considering suspending it for while.

[Brookside]

11 hours ago, annzeepark914 said:

Re: tofu? Quite a few years ago I tried a recipe using tofu in which it was supposed to sub for ground beef. I had to freeze it first. Then I thawed it, broke it up like ground beef, & cooked it with onions, garlic, bell peppers, seasonings, & marinara. It was good on spaghetti. But I don't think I made it again.

 

Which goes to my point, you were trying to make tofu into something it isn't - i.e. ground meat.

[annzeepark914]

28 minutes ago, Brookside said:

Which goes to my point, you were trying to make tofu into something it isn't - i.e. ground meat.

I was trying to create a meat sauce minus the cholesterol (probably using a recipe in Cooking Light). It wasn't bad. If I had to eat tofu, this recipe made it palatable. Thank goodness for statins (& 93% lean ground beef...an occasional treat).

[Mittengirl]

I have a carton of ricotta that is closing in on its expiration date and lasagna just doesn’t sound good to me during the 90 degree weather.  Does anyone have a tried-and-true ricotta cookie recipe for me?  The weather is never too hot for cookies.

[biakbiak]

15 minutes ago, Mittengirl said:

Does anyone have a tried-and-true ricotta cookie recipe for me?

Giada’s have always hit the spot for me.

[PRgal]

On 7/13/2020 at 2:05 AM, biakbiak said:

Giada’s have always hit the spot for me.

Whoa!  It makes 44 cookies??!!    

[Brookside]

On 7/12/2020 at 11:05 PM, biakbiak said:

Giada’s have always hit the spot for me.

Am I the only one who reads "hits the snot""  Coronavirus is completely messing with my mind.

[Lovecat]

On 7/17/2020 at 8:27 AM, PRgal said:

Whoa!  It makes 44 cookies??!!    

I see no problem here.

[buttersister]

I’ve made something very similar, but turned them into thumbprint cookies and filled that space with lemon curd. 

[larapu2000]

On 7/21/2020 at 10:57 PM, Lovecat said:

I see no problem here.

Same.  I wish every cookie recipe was like that.  Eat 2 dozen myself, freeze the other 2 dozen.  Defrost 2 days later since I have eaten all of the first 2 dozen.  Repeat.

[WendyCR72]

On 7/17/2020 at 8:27 AM, PRgal said:

Whoa!  It makes 44 cookies??!!    

Awesome! Oh, wait. That's bad?!

Oops.

[Bastet]

Any favorite coconut cookie/bar recipes?  I hate coconut, but my mom loves it, and her birthday is coming up, so - since she doesn't want anything other than my presence (which she always says but I ignore), most stores are closed to browsing, I'm stressed the fuck out and not in the mood for online shopping - I'd like to make a For Mom Only edible treat (my dad hates coconut, too) to take with me as a gift.

 

[biakbiak]

1 hour ago, Bastet said:

Any favorite coconut cookie/bar recipes?  I hate coconut, but my mom loves it, and her birthday is coming up, so - since she doesn't want anything other than my presence (which she always says but I ignore), most stores are closed to browsing, I'm stressed the fuck out and not in the mood for online shopping - I'd like to make a For Mom Only edible treat (my dad hates coconut, too) to take with me as a gift.

 

These are similar to my family’s recipe and part of the process is you freeze the dough so you can cut it so when my grandmother would give them out she would bake off some but also give the person a log to keep in their freezer so they could bake some whenever they wanted. 

[Quof]

Coconut browned butter cookies

[larapu2000]

8 hours ago, Bastet said:

Any favorite coconut cookie/bar recipes?  I hate coconut, but my mom loves it, and her birthday is coming up, so - since she doesn't want anything other than my presence (which she always says but I ignore), most stores are closed to browsing, I'm stressed the fuck out and not in the mood for online shopping - I'd like to make a For Mom Only edible treat (my dad hates coconut, too) to take with me as a gift.

 

What about nanaimo bars?  I've heard they are a cult classic in Canada.

 

[Quof]

Nanaimo bars are a lot of work if one only person in the household will eat coconut.  

[biakbiak]

16 minutes ago, Quof said:

Nanaimo bars are a lot of work if one only person in the household will eat coconut.  

I have never found that to be the case and I make them frequently because they are my favorite. However, they aren’t really coconut forward so it wouldn’t be my first choice for something to highlight coconut.

[Quof]

I once made a coconut bread, a sweet bread like banana or zucchini.  It was yummy, but I can't find the recipe.

[GreekGeek]

These are coconut blondies that I've made many times. You can halve the recipe and bake it in an 8 inch square if you think the 13x9 batch is too much.

[Bastet]

Thanks, folks.  I wound up making a half batch of the coconut browned butter cookies, so hopefully my mom likes them.  The batter tasted delicious before I added the coconut (how could it not - sugar and browned butter).

[chessiegal]

I've been using Blue Apron since March. I don't always make the recipes as given, and have ended up with a gallon zip bag of spices, little bottles of vinegars One thing I have is 2 packets of saffron, and am looking for ideas on how to use it. Saffron rice? Anything else?

[Bastet]

If you're a rice fan, paella is a delicious way to use saffron.  There's also bouillabaisse, or tagine, as traditional uses of saffron.  (I've never made any of these, just eaten them.)

I like to roast chicken with saffron and lemon.  I also make a Rachael Ray (I know, I know) dish with shrimp and scallops whose white wine sauce uses saffron.  Sometimes I incorporate saffron into a cream sauce for pasta.  And I use it in aioli sometimes.

Oh, and I once had crab cakes with saffron.  I liked them, because I love a good crab cake (meaning lots of crab and very little binder), but I'm a traditional Old Bay gal, so I didn't seek out the recipe.

If you like its flavor, you can use it in many things; just be sure not to have very many other strong flavors.

Edited October 8, 2020 by Bastet

[MargeGunderson]

Ina Garden has a nice butternut squash risotto that calls for saffron. Also a tomato soup recipe that I like.

ETA: I just saw in the Barefoot Contessa board that you got her new cookbook. I think the tomato soup recipe in it has saffron as well (it’s on my list to try).

Edited October 8, 2020 by MargeGunderson

[Bastet]

In another thread, @WinnieWinkle asked about non-tiramisu recipes that use mascarpone.  Food and Wine has an article called "23 Mascarpone Recipes That Have Nothing to Do With Tiramisu" (as one who likes mascarpone but not tiramisu, this amuses me). 

Lots of sweets, of course, but some entrees, too.  The shrimp fettucine sounds good.  And the pasta with mushrooms and mascarpone sounds wonderfully indulgent.

[WinnieWinkle]

15 hours ago, Bastet said:

In another thread, @WinnieWinkle asked about non-tiramisu recipes that use mascarpone.

Thank you for those links!  I like the idea of using it in an entree.  I'm thinking I'll try the shrimp fettucini - purely in the interest of experimentation of course - not because it sounds gorgeous!!

[StatisticalOutlier]

At the risk of offending real cooks, I'm trying to figure out a dish I used to make that I can't find the recipe for any more.  It was chicken breasts cooked in rice in the oven.  What I can't figure out is how much I need of some of the ingredients. 

Other than the bone-in, skin-on chicken (which I'm thinking of changing to thighs because--yum), it has one can of cream of chicken soup and one can of cream of mushroom soup, some brown rice and some water.  That's all.  I'd lightly mix together the two soups and water, and pour it over the brown rice that I'd put in the bottom of a glass 9x13 baking dish.  Then I'd put the chicken breasts on top of that and bake it, uncovered, for what I recall as a pretty long time.   

What I don't know, and don't know how to calculate, is:

1.  How much rice?  (How much would be an amount that would end up nestling the chicken when everything is cooked?)

2.  How much water?  (I know how much water for X amount of rice, but do the soups account for any liquid, or do they cause this to need more liquid than only what would be necessary for the rice?)

3.  What temperature and for how long?

I looked through a bunch of recipes online, but they all had ingredients other than these, and I know that the flavor was just fine (actually, extremely delicious) with just this, so I don't want herbs or spices, or anything other than just what I've listed.

Anybody want to tackle this? 

 

[MargeGunderson]

@StatisticalOutlier, maybe this recipe will help with the timing and proportions?

[StatisticalOutlier]

24 minutes ago, MargeGunderson said:

@StatisticalOutlier, maybe this recipe will help with the timing and proportions?

Aah, I believe it does.  She says you can skip the sauce she made and use two cans of condensed soup instead, which is exactly what I want to do, and that apparently doesn't change the rice : water proportions, which look to be pretty standard.  That's what I needed to know.

I did notice that she cooks hers in a 9x9, while I used (and will use) a 9x13.  I'll probably go with 2 cups of rice instead of her 1-1/2, and assume I can still use 375 degrees and just increase the cooking time to account for that.  I wouldn't be surprised if took upwards of 2 hours.

Thanks!!

[Bastet]

For my latest batch of soup (I make a steady supply of stock, so I regularly make soup for convenient lunches), I was leaning towards asparagus soup, but wound up going with lemon chicken and cauliflower rice soup.  Light and bright for when it's not at all soup weather.

Next time will be asparagus, another spring favorite.  I have a couple of different versions I make, but I'd love to hear if anyone has a beloved recipe in case I'm in the mood to try something new.

[buttersister]

StatisticalOutlier and MargeGunderson, thank you for the trip down memory lane! My mother used to make that long ago (with canned soup, white rice and chicken breasts) in a 9" or 10" square glass-covered piece of Corning Ware. That, and a chicken, onion and rice combo in a skillet on the cooktop (water, no soup, so it made chicken soup as a sauce). One of these days, I'm getting that CW down from an upper cupboard and going after this.

 

 

[Bastet]

I hate potatoes, so I only have a few potato dishes I make for other people.  My dad loves potatoes, and I'd like to do something new for Father's Day dinner (which will be grilled rib-eye steak, a Swiss chard gratin, a mixed greens salad with blue cheese, and potato something).  A few weeks ago, I came across Bobby Flay making smashed (not mashed, smashed - boiled and then smashed with that handheld tool) potatoes with buttermilk, scallions, and bacon.

My dad loves those ingredients, so I'm going to make that.  Because this was basically an aside on someone else's show, there's no exact recipe online, and what is out there upon searching for "Bobby Flay smashed buttermilk potatoes" isn't consistent  I'm comfortable experimenting and having my mom taste as I go, and I'll just slowly add buttermilk to create a good consistency, but backing up to the beginning - what kind of potatoes would be good for this?  Bobby's were red.  (I have no idea how many kinds of red potatoes there are.  When I do roasted potatoes with rosemary and garlic, I get fingerlings, purple, and then some sort of white and red potatoes that are the same size as the purple potatoes.) 

[RealityCheck]

Bastet, based on your description, this recipe sounds like the one you are looking for.  If so, it sounds delicious.  But then, I love potatoes.  My waistline agrees. ;-)

[Bastet]

Right, but other recipes for the same dish made by the same chef are all slightly different, so there's nothing from him saying, "Here's how to make what I made."  But it's a straightforward idea, I just need to know - since I know nothing about potatoes other than I hate them - what are good types of potatoes to use in a "smashed" potatoes dish? 

(And that write-up is weird, because why would I make 3/4 cup of a buttermilk/cream combination and then just use "a touch" of it?  I know the exact amount used is going to depend; you put some in, check the texture and taste, and maybe add more.  But suggesting that "a touch" may be all that's needed only makes me ask why the hell I'm making almost a cup of it.)

[biakbiak]

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

what are good types of potatoes to use in a "smashed" potatoes dish? 

Basically any new potato will work red bliss or Yukon golds, for smashed potatoes you typically want ones on the small side like a walnut or a little larger. 

[Mondrianyone]

Thank you, @RealityCheck! I love potatoes, too, and that recipe is plenty good enough for me. (I probably shouldn't mention that Bobby Flay is my TV husband, so even if it turned out to be a crappy recipe, I'd still be fine with it.)

Edited June 16, 2021 by Mondrianyone

[MargeGunderson]

Small red potatoes, Yukons or fingerlings would all be fine. I think the key is to use a potato with a thinner skin. I’ve made them with red potatoes.

Edited June 21, 2021 by MargeGunderson

[annzeepark914]

A spinach, chicken sausage & onion frittata, plus salad and Ina's Confetti Corn. No dessert needed!

[Bastet]

Thanks, all.  I used red potatoes and my parents said it came out great.  I managed not to eat too much of the bacon while I was waiting to add it in.  😋

[MargeGunderson]

31 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Thanks, all.  I used red potatoes and my parents said it came out great.  I managed not to eat too much of the bacon while I was waiting to add it in.  😋

Am I the only one who makes an extra piece of bacon for the cook?

[Bastet]

4 minutes ago, MargeGunderson said:

Am I the only one who makes an extra piece of bacon for the cook?

If you eat the cut-up pieces, instead of a slice, it doesn't count - even if it adds up to a whole slice.  😉

(I used eight slices for one pound of potatoes, and ate probably half a slice worth.)

[Mindthinkr]

29 minutes ago, MargeGunderson said:

Am I the only one who makes an extra piece of bacon for the cook?

I have to make an extra piece for the cats! Fortunately for all of us it’s a rare treat. 

[annzeepark914]

2 hours ago, MargeGunderson said:

Am I the only one who makes an extra piece of bacon for the cook?

I never heard of that 😁 I love bacon!

[Gramto6]

On 6/21/2021 at 5:48 PM, MargeGunderson said:

Am I the only one who makes an extra piece of bacon for the cook?

no, nope, never, bacon is life!! And one is due to the cook!! 😃

Edited June 26, 2021 by Gramto6
ttypo

[StatisticalOutlier]

On 4/1/2021 at 5:32 PM, MargeGunderson said:

@StatisticalOutlier, maybe this recipe will help with the timing and proportions?

A belated update...I used that recipe as a guide and it came out exactly like it was supposed to taste.  It made a lot of rice, so I froze it and I'm now having it with a rotisserie chicken I bought, and it's delicious all over again.

Several commenters complained that the rice wasn't fully cooked (I gather that brown rice takes longer than white rice), and actually, mine wasn't either even though I it was in the oven forever.  However, as I was eating it I realized that that's how it was back when I was originally making it--some of the rice is crunchy. 

Mr. Outlier actively liked it because the dish in general is pretty mushy, and the crunch adds a little something.  So I'm embracing the undercooked rice.

Oh, and the whole reason for doing this was because I came into possession of a can of cream of mushroom soup and a can of cream of chicken soup, which of course I could buy for like $2 total, but these were free!  🙄 

I was deploying them into the dish and happened to look at the best-by date, and one of them was 2017, which is fine.  But the other was 2010.  I don't adhere strongly to best-by dates (last night I ate a yogurt with a date of April 19 and it was fine), but I do notice decades.  But it's a can, and it was intact, and using a yogurt-years to canned-soup-years conversion (like dog years to human years), I decided it would be fine, and it was.

Edited July 15, 2021 by StatisticalOutlier

[Mindthinkr]

When I went (pre-pandemic) to visit my friend in New Orleans she was feted with a Chantilly cake. Loved it. I can Google or recipe search how to make one, but I’m wondering if any of you are familiar with this type of cake and maybe have hints. If you’re never tried it you should look it up because it is a light and refreshing cake. I’m also open to other suggestions. 

[larapu2000]

On 7/16/2021 at 9:52 PM, Mindthinkr said:

When I went (pre-pandemic) to visit my friend in New Orleans she was feted with a Chantilly cake. Loved it. I can Google or recipe search how to make one, but I’m wondering if any of you are familiar with this type of cake and maybe have hints. If you’re never tried it you should look it up because it is a light and refreshing cake. I’m also open to other suggestions. 

I just googled it and it sounds like perfection!!  I love a whipped cream filling/frosting over regular frosting, as regular is just too cloying for me in anything more than minimal amounts.  (I'm the best kind of friend to have if you're a frosting fiend, you can have almost all of mine!)

[Mindthinkr]

6 hours ago, larapu2000 said:

I just googled it and it sounds like perfection!!  I love a whipped cream filling/frosting over regular frosting, as regular is just too cloying for me in anything more than minimal amounts.  (I'm the best kind of friend to have if you're a frosting fiend, you can have almost all of mine!)

I’m not into frosting either which I why I love the Chantilly Cake. 

[Mondrianyone]

9 minutes ago, Mindthinkr said:

I’m not into frosting either

Me either. I always hear people saying that cake is just a delivery system for frosting. I think frosting is just an insulating system for cake.

[Bastet]

10 hours ago, icemiser69 said:

I also don't like to waste food.  So, any vegetables and herbs that are used to make the broth I would want to put to the side and eat later.

All their flavor will be in the broth. 

The no food waste thing works in reverse - making stock out of stuff that would otherwise have been discarded.  I keep a bag in the freezer with vegetable (lots of carrot, onion, celery, and mushroom) and herb ends, peels, stems, etc., the small garlic cloves I don't want to bother peeling, chicken carcass, and parmesan rinds and that's what I make my chicken stock with.  Dried bay leaves, salt, and pepper are the only things I add new - everything else is something that would have gone in the compost bin, but is instead providing flavor.