I made cake! Then I remembered it was my housemate's bday, so that was lucky. I eyeballed this, sorry. Approximated carrot cake: Preheat oven to 170°c ish. Ingredients: ~200g grated carrots (maybe less? I used 5 smallish carrots.) ~125ml yoghurt ~75ml vegetable oil 2 eggs 150g self-raising flour 60g wholemeal flour 150g brown sugar Pinch salt 1/2 tsp baking powder Orange zest Tsp vanilla extract Mixed spice (cinnamon, nutmeg...etc.) Beat together the yoghurt, oil, sugar*, and eggs. Mix in the grated carrot, orange zest (half an orange is enough), vanilla extract, and spice. Gently fold in the flour, salt, and baking powder. Pour into a greased/lined brownie tray and bake until you can stab it and leave no cake guts on the knife. Took about 20 mins for me. You can also put it in muffin cases, which take about 13 mins. Makes a nice moist, smooth cake. The zest and yoghurt make it a bit tangy. Edit: this would be good with a cream cheese frosting, but I cba. Edit 2: self-raising flour is ubiquitous in the UK. If you can't get it, just use plain flour with more baking powder. *Sieve the sugar. Don't be like me. It took fucking hours to mash the lumps out the batter.
@EulersBidentity wholemeal=whole wheat? also in case people are wondering, the ratio for self-rising flour is 1 cup flour + 1 1/2 tsp baking powder + 1/4 to 1/2 tsp salt
@Kaylotta yep. Although that's just to make the cake a bit denser, since I like to take it to uni as a snack and "light" just means "nope still hungry". It'd be fine to use all plain, although any more whole-wheat and I reckon it'd be a bit mealy.
Ehhh looking back over the recipe, I think I overestimated the baking powder. Splodey cake. A 1/2 tsp would be more like it.
Chicken-and-Italian-sausage thing I lost the actual recipe for and can't remember how to spell or pronounce: 1lb Italian sausage (I use sweet, any kind works.) ~8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs OR 1 whole cut-up chicken but let's be honest it all falls apart with cooking and no one wants to pick chicken bones out of food. 1 6oz can tomato paste 4-8oz sliced baby portabella mushrooms 1 sm diced onion 8oz grape tomatoes Garlic Balsamic vinegar Italian seasoning Salt & pepper Cut or form the sausage into meatball size chunks and brown in deep skillet. Transfer to crock pot, do not drain pan. Saute diced onion in sausage grease until translucent (3min) add garlic and saute for another minute or so. Add mushrooms, saute for another minute or so. Add tomato paste, balsamic vinegar (enough that it smells good, I have no idea how much anymore) tomatoes and Italian seasoning. Stir until well coated and layer over the sausage in crockpot. Do not clean the pan! Season your chicken thighs with S&P to taste and lightly brown in your tomato-glop coated pan. Layer over tomato-glop-and-sausage. Cook 4hrs on High or 8hrs on Low. Should fall apart into delicious thick stew-like glop.
I made rice balls! ^__^ Though I think the nori was less than the best (it tore a lot and tastes off). Spoiler: Pics
i made a pizza! i also immediately burned the hell out of my mouth because i ate some straight out of the oven. that is not a good idea, if anyone is wondering.
So here is a slightly depressing but v warm and filling meal for people on a budget. I just named it "mush". Required: Lentils (red or green. Red are mushier.) Rice Stock Optional (recommended) extras: Coriander & red chilies (I found these frozen in little boxes at the supermarket? Amazing.) Yoghurt Cook the rice and lentils together in the stock. Stir in herbs/chili/anything you think might work. Serve with a dollop of yoghurt on top. Full of protein from the lentils, fairly quick, very cheap and filling.
Oh hey, I'd hoped there was a thread like this somewhere. would it be OK for me to ask a cooking-related question? I am not much of a cook (low spoons and funds), but I want to make a certain bread recipe for Thanksgiving and a couple things in the recipe have me confused.
So I very much like cooking things, but I keep running into this problem where recipes I'm excited about require wine and I am still a year and a half away from legally buying that here. Does anyone know if there's anything I can substitute that's nonalcoholic? Also @The Mutant I very much love making bread and as such have spent a lot of time around bread recipes! Definitely ask away and I'd love to help if possible.
@Coriander you can sometimes buy de-alcoholized wine in grocery stores! you can also sub chicken broth for white wine in some recipes (won't taste the same, obviously), and you can also just sub any other fitting liquid, but again, it won't taste the same.
Huh, I did not know about nonalcoholic wine--I'll have to look into that. And thanks to you and to @IvyLB the liquid-replacement ideas :)
Easy way to use up leftover meat: Chop a big handful of mushrooms and throw them in a hot pan with butter or olive oil. Chop half an onion and a clove of garlic and toss them in the pan. (You could put in some chopped green peppers here too if that's your jam.) Cut the leftover meat (I had pork today, but it's also tasty with beef or chicken) into approximately 1 inch cubes and throw it in the pan when the onion has gone translucent. Add a splash of soy sauce or worcestershire sauce or both and stir it up. Maybe add some fresh or frozen spinach if you have some. When it's all hot, dump the mix in two tortillas, top with shredded cheese, and wrap up. Congratulations, you now have leftover wraps!
OKAY SO. The recipe I use, as with every Thanksgiving/Christmas recipe I've done for the last three years, are from the A Feast of Ice and Fire cookbook (yes I know I know, NERRRRRD). So here's the recipe, transcribed minus the flavor text and shoved under a spoiler because. Spoiler: Oatbread 1 1/2 cups warm water 2 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast (one packet) 2 tablespoons honey 1 1/2 cups rolled oats 2 1/2 to 3 cups all-purpose flour (feel free to use some oat flour here too) plus more as needed 1 tablespoon kosher salt 2 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature 1/3 cup diced dates 1/3 cup diced candied orange peel 1/3 cup peeled, diced apple Rolled oats for topping (optional) Makes 2 loaves. Prep: 5 minutes. Dough rising: 2 hours total. Baking: 30 minutes. In a large mixing bowl, combine the warm water, yeast and honey. Allow the mixture to sit for around 5 minutes, until it becomes bubbly. Add the oats, 1 cup of the flour, the salt and the butter to the yeasted water. Stir until completely mixed together, then add the fruits and work the mixture until they are evenly distributed throughout. Gradually add the rest of the flour until you have a cohesive mass of dough. Flour a board or your countertop, and turn the dough out onto it. Adding flour as needed, knead the dough for around 8 minutes. If you poke it and it bounces back, you're done. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover it with a clean dish town. Put it in a warm place until it has doubled in size. Then punch it down and divide it in half. Form the dough into two round loaves. Wet the top of each loaf with a little water, then sprinkle it with rolled oats. Using a sharp knife, lightly score the top with an X shape. Place these loaves on a baking sheet and allow them to sit, covered with a clean tea towel, for about 1 hour, or until they have doubled in size again. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bake the loaves for around 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown. -- OKAY NOW MY MANY DUMB QUESTIONS FOR I AM SOMEONE WHO SUBSISTS ON PBJ AND RAMEN 360 DAYS OF THE YEAR. -My mom says there's such a thing as vegan butter. Would finding and using such a thing mess with the recipe at all? I've got a couple vegan relatives (who are OK with honey). -do typical grocery stores have candied diced orange peel or is that some Whole Foods shit or whatever -does yeast have an expiry date? I've got a little leftover jar from, like, two years ago but I don't want to try it and find that it's lost its effectiveness :U -does anyone have any christing estimate of how big these loaves will end up/how many servings it'd be, going by the ingredients list? Thanksgiving's gonna have 8-9 people and I'd like everyone to be able to have at least one slice. Pretty much all the other recipes in the book have a servings estimate, this one just says '2 loaves' and the picture doesn't show the scale. >Bc also I dunno if it'd fuck things up if I tried increasing the recipe. - what do I grease a bowl with, butter or PAM or something? also how long roughly might the initial 'wait till it doubles in size' stage take, also also how do I tell if it's doubled, do I gotta take a tape measure to this thing - how do you even measure out honey, isn't half of that stuff gonna just stick to my tablespoon measure - is the tea towel essential or can I substitute a clean hand towel :V -any other protips from looking at the recipe? That's all the questions I can think of immediately :U any advice is appreciated!
