The Cooking Thread

[Bluto11]

Good stuff, that's pretty much exactly how I do my beef madras, substituting the chicken for beef obviously. :)

Apart from that, it's specific madras curry paste instead of general curry paste. I like it hot so that means 5-6 tablespoons instead of the reccomended 2-3 and half a can of coconut milk instead of the water.
i will give that stuff a try.

i mess with the recipe I posted by adding other veggies. i like some peppers in it and I kinda want to try some potato but I'm not sure at what point to add them.

[sdotsom]

Can I ask, are either of you Indian?

As an Indian guy myself, hardly any of my non-Indian friends go through the effort of making their own Indian food. Just wondering if you guys do.

Best Indian I can cook is Channa Masala - spicy chickpeas. It's actually really good if I may say so myself, though it took 3 tries till i finally got it right.

[Bluto11]

Can I ask, are either of you Indian?

As an Indian guy myself, hardly any of my non-Indian friends go through the effort of making their own Indian food. Just wondering if you guys do.

Best Indian I can cook is Channa Masala - spicy chickpeas. It's actually really good if I may say so myself, though it took 3 tries till i finally got it right.
nope, not Indian. half Irish and half Polish!

i had some chicken curry at a friend's place one time in London (he's not Indian either) and instead of just asking him for the recipe I asked big soccer.

[Republic of Mancunia]

i will give that stuff a try.

i mess with the recipe I posted by adding other veggies. i like some peppers in it and I kinda want to try some potato but I'm not sure at what point to add them.

Think I'll give yours a go too. It sounds 'lighter' than what I usually make, both because of substituting the red meat for white and the absence of the coconut milk which can be creamy and quite heavy on the stomach at times. Whilst the coconut milk kind of cools things down a little it's more in the aftertaste and you still get that initial hot kick that I like.

Can I ask, are either of you Indian?

As an Indian guy myself, hardly any of my non-Indian friends go through the effort of making their own Indian food. Just wondering if you guys do.

Best Indian I can cook is Channa Masala - spicy chickpeas. It's actually really good if I may say so myself, though it took 3 tries till i finally got it right.

I'm not, but Indian food is extrememly popular here. Chicken tikka masala, which I believe was actually invented here in the UK, has been declared by many to be the national dish in the past. Saw something recently that said there were 8000 Indian restaurants here or one for every 6000 of the population.

The only things I've personally made are that beef madras and chicken tandoori. I'm not sure how authentic my tandoori is/was (isn't a tandoor technically an oven? :confused: ) but it involved marinading my pieces of chicken in tandoori sauce mixed with natural yoghurt overnight before cooking it in the oven, still covered in the sauce. I always warm up some naan bread wrapped in foil before putting the chicken in there along with rice and green salad and make a kind of 'wrap' thingy with them. On the odd occasion I've used fajitas (or is is tortillas? getting even more confused with my foods of the world now) instead of naan bread or added some tandoori sauce to the rice whilst cooking it. More salad on the side and plain yoghurt with or without a hint of mint to use as a dip.

For both these I used the Patak's range of sauces, don't know if they're a worldwide thing or UK only but they seem to have a decent range of sauces/pastes etc. and am definitely keen to try more.

[Sapphire]

Not Indian either, but I've made curried lamb without using curry paste or powder -- mixed up the spices myself and it still turned out really well. I think the recipe's in Ray's favorite cookbook.

[FIFARay007]

Not Indian either, but I've made curried lamb without using curry paste or powder -- mixed up the spices myself and it still turned out really well. I think the recipe's in Ray's favorite cookbook.

Woot! GO my favorite cookbook! :)

[sdotsom]

Haha, I love it. Although I'm biased, I think Indian food is the best in the world.

RoM, you are spot on about the Tikka masala. The Indian dish is Chicken Tikka, I actually heard a story that a Bangladeshi cook in the UK just poured some tomato soup into the original dish to make the masala.

[Rakim_22]

Being a vegetarian (not for religeous reasons, I just am) and all I'd have to say the best food is Indonesian/Indian food. There are a myriad of way which you can utilize tofu and other "vege-meats" in those dishes. Not to mention ROTI is the king of all!!! :) But I'm heavily biased.

[sdotsom]

Spot on Rakim. Numerous vegetarians I know all believe that Indian food is the best for them. There are so many things we can do with just veggies is damn near incredible.

[prymetyme]

Annies is the best food to cook ever.

[Chaz Striker]

Has anyone ever made mulligatawny? I made it the other day and it was incredible. My favorite soup by far. You can get the recipe from disney on line. I make mine with chicken but a lot of people make it with lamb. I'll have to try it with lamb next time. It also has curry in it.

[Teso Dos Bichos]

Oh shit! :eek:

*runs*

[Teso Dos Bichos]

Pasta - Overcooked
Sauce - Destroyed (luckily I had just made a batch so meal 'saved')
Garlic bread - Nuked

Teso's meal rating = 1/10

Thanks BS...


EDIT: Not tried it yet CS but I'll take a look for the recipe

[Holy__Joe]

I need to hire a chef! Mums Left me for 6 months and I've been having to cook for myself......meaning ive been buying ************ food, Take away, plenty of tortellini (sp) and the like too...........


But then ******** it only 18 once! means Awesome House parties after Exams next week :)

[Chaz Striker]

I need to hire a chef! Mums Left me for 6 months and I've been having to cook for myself......meaning ive been buying ************ food, Take away, plenty of tortellini (sp) and the like too...........


But then ******** it only 18 once! means Awesome House parties after Exams next week :)

Hell yeah. Hope you dont live in a nice house though. People didn't seem to give a **** about pissing on my floor when I was in high school.

[Teso Dos Bichos]

I need to hire a chef!

What have you been making?

[johno]

I need to hire a chef! Mums Left me for 6 months and I've been having to cook for myself......meaning ive been buying ************ food, Take away, plenty of tortellini (sp) and the like too...........


But then ******** it only 18 once! means Awesome House parties after Exams next week :)


Take the opportunity to cook for yourself. Its a great skill to have that will endear you to your significant others.

Buy a cookbook or search for receipes online. Its amazingly easy to follow a receipe and achieve what you need.

For beginners the most important thing is to perfect a meal.

I'd suggest finding some receipes you'd like to try that are relatively simple like 3 or 4 and then going out and shopping for the things in those receipes.

What turns off most new cooks is getting excited about making something and then discovering they don't have the right ingredients.


Some really easy meals...


Tuna Casserole - a bachelor's favorite... pasta of any kind (boiled), half cup of milk, 2 cans of tuna, 1/4 cup of onions, green peas and maybe a can of corn mixed together in a casserole dish, topped with cheese and baked for 25 mins on 375...

Baked Chicken - corn on the cob, steamed vegetables or something like baked asparagus is a great add on to this meal that is not messy and quite healty/tasty.

Corned Beef and Cabbage - usually white rice is the carb that accompanies this.

Pasta and Meatsauce - easy as making the sauce and boiling the pasta

[Chaz Striker]

Pasta and Meatsauce - easy as making the sauce and boiling the pasta

Spagetti is one of my favorites. Also just to add:

Tacos. just grab a taco seasoning packet at the store some beef and salsa, cheese, tomatoes, etc... awesome.

I don't know where you live but hamburger helper is always easy if your lazy like me.

Also packaged red beans and rice from zataran's (misspelled).

All of these are easy and tasty IMO.

[StrikerCW]

Spagetti is one of my favorites. Also just to add:

Tacos. just grab a taco seasoning packet at the store some beef and salsa, cheese, tomatoes, etc... awesome.

I don't know where you live but hamburger helper is always easy if your lazy like me.

Also packaged red beans and rice from zataran's (misspelled).

All of these are easy and tasty IMO.

Easy and tasty, but not real cooking. Be a man.

[Chaz Striker]

Easy and tasty, but not real cooking. Be a man.

Haha. What do you know about cooking. I was giving easy tips that i used at first and still do sometimes. The only thing you cook is easy mac!