AWKWARD ZOMBIE

Quesadillas are one of my favorite things in life. This tutorial thread thing is great.

2/10 not enough cheese.

relevant

Hey-ho, AZ. I just realized that I forgot to post anything last week. I'd say sorry, but whoops I forgot what I'm apologizing for. Welcome to my tiny-ass kitchen.


Today we're gonna make empanadas, or mini-pies, or homemade hot pockets that don't taste like cheddar-dusted cardboard.
They're pretty rad, and you can fill them with whatever you want really (potatoes, eggs and sausage, meat and cheese, peaches), but I thought I'd make some caramel apple ones for the recipe.


SHOPPING TIPS: You can use pretty much whatever kind of apple you want for this filling, so I usually just go with whatever is cheapest. Making pie filling is pretty much the only time that I bother with red delicious apples. (I happened to get the apples that I'm using today for free, so they're all fujis here)
===Virtually everything else is relatively inexpensive, but try to gradually stock up things like brown sugar and butter as they go on special.



ESTIMATED COST PER BATCH: $7.50 USD
ESTIMATED COST PER PIECE: $0.38 USD


INGREDIENTS:

CRUST:

4 Cups Flour
2 tsp salt
2 tsp Baking Powder
6 Tbs soft butter/lard
1-1/2 cups of Water

1 egg
a couple tablespoons of water


FILLING:

6-7 Large Apples
2 Cups Granulated Sugar
2 Cups Brown Sugar
4oz (one stick) Butter
dash of Salt
1-2 Tbs Cinnamon (depending on taste)

up to a cup of water
about 1/4 to 1/2 cup of corn starch (optional, but recommended for thickening)





Peel your apples however you see fit. I used a vegetable peeler because I'm too lazy to do thin knife slices.







Remove the cores and cut up the apples into tiny chunks so that they fit into the empanadas better.





They don't have to be super even, but the largest piece you have should be about this size:





Dump it all into a pot with your sugar, butter and salt, and if you feel like you need to, add up to a cup of water to make it easier to stir it in (you'll cook it out anyway)




turn your stove to medium-high (unless it keeps boiling over, in which case, drop it down a notch. You want the sugar to be bubbling, but not too far up). Now for those of you going "Holy hell, Riku, that is a lot of freaking apple", don't worry, it cooks down quite a bit. It'll look like this after about 60-90 minutes.





You'll know it's done when the apples are soft and the remaining juice is syrupy. but you'll probably want it a little bit thicker to keep it in the pies, so I like to add a bit of corn starch.




Pour it into a large bowl to cool down while you make the crusts.





Now, some people might have noticed "Oh hey, that ingredients list on the crust is just a double batch of the tortilla recipe." the more in-depth tutorial on that can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11985&p=1088050#p1088050
Once you have that dough made up (but not cooked), divide it into pieces that are slightly larger than a golf ball.




You should wind up with about 20 of them.




Roll them out to about 6-7 in/15-18 cm in diameter (I happen to know approximate measurement markers between my hand and forearm, so that's helpful)




Add a couple tablespoons of your filling to the dough. Be sure not to over-fill it. It will spill out everywhere.




Quickly, before the filling has a chance to spread, fold the dough over, pressing the ends together to seal it, and then folding the edges up and over to make sure that it is shut nice and tight.




Set the empanadas on the pan, and only once you're about to put them in the oven, cover them in an egg wash. Mix your egg and a couple tablespoons of water in a bowl, and coat the tops of the empanadas with it.
A pastry brush is ideal, but since I don't have one, and I imagine several other people don't either, here are some alternatives:
A sturdy napkin that you know won't shred (hah, right)
spread it with your index and middle finger.




Just kind of lightly coat them, although it's not a huge deal if you're a little messy about it. Anything that cooks off of these can easily be snapped off once they're cool.




I also like to dust them with cinnamon sugar before throwing them in the oven, just to make them a bit prettier.




Bake them at about 350 (I think? my oven is so out of whack that I'm never 100% sure what temperature it's actually at)
after about 15 minutes, they should look like this, with the bottoms beginning to brown, but the tops still white:



If you want to store some of them in the freezer, pull them out of the oven at this stage, and set them to cool before putting them into freezer bags (make sure that they freeze flat, with space in between them to ensure they don't get stuck together). Then, whenever you want to pull them out later, just pop them in the oven again for another few minutes).


They're done (it took about 25-30 minutes in my oven) when they look like this:




They reheat in the microwave well, and I like having them with vanilla ice cream like so:

yes good make pierogies pls 10/10

pop flyin' RUCKY Day, AZ! I've got Sloth here, so I didn't take the time to put comments on the images, but since I'm doin' a bunch of fancy cookin anyway, welcome to my tiny-ass kitchen!


I'm just putting a simple bread recipe up today, since I finally have a loaf pan! whoa! You can either make it plain for sammiches, or add stuff in it to make it a side, or use it as hamburger buns if you slice it thick enough (that's what Sloth and I are doing for dinner tomorrow night)!



ESTIMATED COST PER LOAF: $0.75 USD (without any additions like cheese and seasonings)


INGREDIENTS:


3-1/2 Cups Flour
2 tsp Sugar
2 tsp Salt
1/4 oz yeast (or half a tablespoon)
1-1/2 Cups warm water
2 Tbs Olive Oil



Possible add-in ideas:

3oz shredded mozzarella, 1 tsp each of dried basil and oregano (used in this set of photos)

1/4 Cup sugar (brown or granulated white), 2 Tbs Cinnamon

2-3 minced cloves of garlic, 1 tsp basil, a sprig of finely chopped parsely

3 Tbs brown sugar and 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.

1/4 chopped onion, sesame seeds, 2-3 oz Cheddar

3-4 oz Cheddar, 1-2 finely sliced jalepenos

(You can roll the sweet ones instead of the folding-style kneading to make the additional stuff look swirly and pretty)




Okay, so first you want to get your hot water at about 110 degrees (like bath water), and dissolve your yeast into it. It'll take some stirring.




After that, get your dry ingredients together like always




Then mix the yeast water and your oil into it,





And smoosh it until you've kneaded it into a cohesive dough, como eso.





pack it into a ball, coat it in a little more olive oil (to keep it from sticking to the bowl), and cover it to let it rise.




Leave it there for an hour or so, until it looks all delightful and poofy like this:





Add anything that you want (in this case, I've got a couple ounces of shredded mozzarella, along with about a teaspoon each of oregano and basil)




Knead the dough a final time for any necessary mixing, and coat a loaf pan with oil or butter, so that you can coat it in cornmeal to get it to release easier after cooking. Drop the dough into it and try to get it to fit into the corners.




Now, I apologize for the uncertainty here, but my oven is a pain in the booty and never heats consistently, so this is some guesswork. Heat your oven to 350-375 F/ 175-190 C. It took about 35 minutes at this estimate to get it all golden brown like this:




You need to cool the bread, so if you want to speed things up, but don't have a cooling rack, pull a grandma and stick it on the cold window sill.




While that's cooling, you can put together some delicious dipping sauce (particularly for the cheese and herb bread) by using a cup or so of tomato sauce and a chopped clove of garlic, and cooking it down until it's thicker.





Once your bread is cool (you should be able to hold the pan with your bare hands), the cornmeal coating around the base and sides should help it to release from the pan easily,





If you cut the loaf open, it should look deligtfully bubbly and bready like this:




Enjoy it as a side, or a lazy main meal with the tomato sauce.

Goddamn I love savoury breads

I might have to try later this week

Cooking skill has leveled up.

Hey-ho, AZ. Guess who's got two pickles, who's got two pickles, who's got two pickles, hey hey hey? That's right. Not me. Welcome to my tiny-booty kitchen.


Today we're making some fried deliciousness. This is a recipe that's really easy to make vegan (swap out the butter/lard for vegetable or peanut oil. bam.) if for some reason you are ascribing to such dietary restrictions.
Refried beans are pretty much just two steps beyond regular prepared beans, and the vegetables are a "throw in the pan and walk away for twenty minutes" type of thing. Super easy.


SHOPPING TIPS: Buying plain yellow onions (about $0.69 a pound) is a good way to pad this out if you don't have the funds or the taste for the other vegetables. Not only are they cheaper by weight than most, but they're also loaded full of vitamins that most people don't think about, because when was the last time any of the American users on the forum ate an onion as a vegetable rather than a seasoning?)
===Remember when buying cabbage that it is extremely compact when all in one piece. It will expand like crazy once you start cutting it, but then it'll cook back down quite a bit.
===The butter is probably the most expensive item in here, weighing in at around $3 a pound. Try to find it on sale, and hoard it in your freezer.




ESTIMATED COST PER BATCH: Vegetables: $6 USD Refrieds: $2 USD

ESTIMATED COST PER PLATE: $2 USD



INGREDIENTS:




2-3 cups of dried beans (depending on your cookware)
4-6 oz butter or lard
Salt
Cayenne, Chili powder, Cumin, Paprika

Some combination of 5-6 pounds of the following (it cooks down):
Cabbage
Bell Peppers
Onions
Garlic
Mushrooms
Tomatoes
Zucchini
(If you use Tomatoes or Zucchini, bear in mind that if you cook them for very long, they can turn into soup and vegetable skins. Which is fine for some people, but if you want them intact, add them at the very end of the cooking, on high heat)




Okay, so first, you need to prepare your beans. If you just need a quick reminder: Soak them over night in 2 cups water for each cup of beans, Then drain, fill with enough water to keep them covered, and cook for an hour on medium-high, stirring and adding water as necessary.
If you want a full tutorial, here's the link to the rice and beans recipe: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11985&p=1066602#p1066602

Chop up your vegetables into strips and chunks. They don't need to be all that even or fine at all.





Then, put 4 oz of butter or lard into a large skillet, or a soup pot, depending on what you have available.





Once it's al melty and delightful, add your spices according to taste. Remember that Cayenne is the one that will really add heat, so use it wisely. I probably used about a Tablespoon and a half of Chili powder, and a couple teaspoons of Cumin and Paprika.





Dump your vegetales in and stir them around to get them all coated in the spiced butter





Cook them on medium-high until everything is as tender as you want it. (it took me about twentyish minutes). Mine looks a tad soupy, because I cooked the tomatoes in there the entire time.





So pull those out and set them aside. Now it's time to refry the beans. You should still have some grease hanging out in the pan you used on the vegetables, but if you think you need it, feel free to add a couple more tablespoons.





Put the drained beans into the pan and stir and mash them around, cooking them on high. if you're using a soup pot instead of a wide, open skillet or frying pan, then you'll need to stir all the more to make sure that the steam is getting out and all of the beans get fried.



It was hard for me to get pictures because of the steam, but you should start noticing a bit of a crust on some of the beans without them actually being dry.




Plate it all up, possibly with some tortillas or rice, and enjoy!




And another note: If you have leftovers, mix the beans and vegetables together and add a little bit of water for a really good savory empanada filling. Way easier to take for lunch than a bowl of each.

Did someone say Veggie Tales?

Okay, so now that I am moved into a new place with two roomies (a.k.a. taste test dummies), I am slowly going through some of the recipes in this thread.

I made the beans and rice tonight. The rice came out great (used beef bouillon - would've rather used chicken but somehow the store I went to didn't have any???), but the beans were bland. I conferred with my partner and he said using onion powder, a little bit of garlic powder, and (if going for a Mexican feel) cumin would give it the flavor I was looking for. Unfortunately I have none of these spices on-hand, but I will buy them and try using them next time. On a positive note, I added shredded cheese and that did add flavor, but I want to have the beans stand on their own.

Overall, round 1 was a success. ROUND TWO SHALL BE the spinach and ricotta with penne on tomato sauce, aw yeeeah.

garlic powder is flavor master race

There are a ton of basic spices missing from this house's kitchen, but I shall rectify that.

For a basic spice rack I think I'd go garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, salt, red pepper flakes, and cumin.

I'm probably going to be trying one of these recipes very soon. Not the refried beans though, since that's my dad's domain and he's not likely to give it up any time soon.

(screeching brakes) Hey! I'm cookin' heah!
Welcome to my tiny-ass kitchen.

This week is Chicken Soup. It's very easy, and good for when you're on the verge of getting sick. Like me. If you really want to trim some of the cost off of this, the chicken isn't completely required, just recommended. This soup is basically just a chop and drop, so it should be really easy for everyone to put together. The largest effort is probably peeling the chicken away from the skin and bones if you buy your meat that way.


SHOPPING TIPS: Buying the boneless, skinless chicken breast is certainly a time saver, but consider getting some regular leg quarters if they're on a good sale (I got these ones for 99 cents/lb). Plus, dark meat adds more flavor to the soup.
=== Obviously, homemade chicken stock is going to be the best. But it's one of the few things that I just don't bother making from scratch. So boxed broth is usually the next best option as far as quality goes, but I usually just get dried bouillon, because it's cheaper, and when there's a bunch of stuff in your soup anyway, you can get away with it just fine.



ESTIMATED COST PER BATCH: $4 USD
ESTIMATED COST PER BOWL: $0.50-0.60 USD






INGREDIENTS:



1/2 to 1 lb of chicken (I prefer dark meat for this, but you can use what you like.)
either 4 scallions, or 1 small yellow onions
5-8 carrots
3-5 stalks of celery
6 cups of chicken broth

basil
oregano
rosemary
salt
pepper
paprika



If you bought your chicken on the bone, then peel off the skin and strip the meat from the bone. Chop it up into tiny little pieces.

If you want, you can save some of the chicken skin to add a little more fat and body to the broth.




Chop up the vegetables as rough or fine as you want. you'll be cooking them long enough that it doesn't really matter what size they are, as long as they're less than a bite.

A quick note on rosemary: I greatly prefer fresh rosemary, because it's less likely to be all hard and gross. plus, my rosemary shrub needs a haircut.



I took just a handful of sprigs, and just tossed them in with my vegetables. You don't even have to strip the leaves from the stems. Jutst throw them in all in one piece, and then it's much easier to just pull the stems out all in one go that way.



Drop the vegetables and chicken into the broth,




You can add pasta if you want. It doesn't have to be cooked before hand, i just had some leftover cooked up that I needed to use.




add as much of the seasonings as you see fit (remember, especially with salt, you can always add more later. But you can't take it back out as easily)



And after that, pop a lid on that baby and let it cook on low or medium-low for a few hours. Stir it every so often just to make sure that the broth doesn't separate too much and that the herbs stay mixed in.

You'll know it's done when the chicken meat is cooked, and everything looks warm and delicious like this:





After that, pour some in a bowl and serve it with crackers, or maybe some of that bread that was posted a couple weeks ago. viewtopic.php?f=2&t=11985&p=1090483#p1090483