The BSN Adventures in Cooking Thread

Yes, just a hint of pink.  I am not a rare meat kind of guy either but it was not dry or over cooked.  Very good.

Who want's some chicken/shrimp fried rice? 

How to go from this


To this in less than 10 minutes


About a month ago I hand some chinese fried rice for lunch. I thought why can't I make that at home? I went online to purchase a wok. Watched videos on how to season a wok before using it. A few days ago I said to heck with it, and used a regular pan I haven't used in years. I washed it really well. Turned out the fried rice I made was very good. So good I ate the whole thing moments after making it. Ok. Enough of the backstory. People want to eat. 

Ingredients
onion - 1/2 cup of chopped onion  for this day I used red onion
chicken - 12-16 oz  In the photo, I marinaded the chicken using teriyaki sauce. Put in oven for 20 minutes at 400°. slice chicken into 1/4-1/2" pieces. I used boneless chicken. If raw, just slice chicken the same as the baked chicken
shrimp - I got a small bag of frozen precooked shrimp for $1.59
peas and carrots - 1/2 cup of frozen peas and carrots
peanut oil - about 3 tbsp
rice - 1 cup brown or white rice. I cooked the rice the day before. You don't have to if you don't want to.
worchestershire sauce - 2 tbsp the reason for this is soy sauce has too much sodium for me. Worchestershire is a good substitute

since I use an electric stove top, I turned the dial to 7 which is about med/high heat.  Once the pan is heated up, add the peanut oil. Make sure the oil covers the entire surface of the pan. Add your onions first. After about 45-60 seconds, add peas and carrots.  Keep stirring the ingredients for the whole time. After about 60 seconds, add the shrimp. 60 seconds later add the chicken.  After 90-120 seconds add the rice. Mix everything up well. Finally add the worchestershire sauce while continuing to mix the ingredients. Once everything is mixed well enough, empty the food onto a plate or place in a container. In my case, I don't want to leave it on the stove since it takes a very long time for the burners to cool down. Leaving the pan on could lead to the food being over cooked. Place any leftovers in the fridge. It should be ok up to 3 days.

Of course folks can add other ingredients as they see fit.  

bon appétit

And here's another little tip to make cooking a little bit easier and less troublesome:

When you crack eggs, there's a method that almost completely eliminates the risk of having pieces of eggshell in the egg goo.
Hold the egg with the fingers of one hand, then lightly knack around the middle of it (rotate the egg) with the backside of a cooking knife. Doing it closer to the tip of the knife is better, but anyway works. Now, even if the goal is to have a nice, neat crack all around the egg, it doesn't really matter if it's irregular and slightly smashed in places, you will still not get pieces of egg shell in your bowl. Put down the knife and gently break the egg apart to drop the contents. Small pieces of smashed egg shell will stick to the thin skin lining the inside of the eggs, not dropping down.

Just a coincidence you're sitting in the chair that also has the best view of the TV at the table right?

Didn't have the time to take pic's of the process but I made a Mexican Oven Bake from a recipe I found in a Retail Store magazine. I have made something similar that we called Tortilla Pie but this was a bit different.

It had 500g of Ground Beef, A Tin of Tomatoes, Tomato Paste a Tin of Red kidney Beans (I used half), A packet of Taco Seasoning (I used Burrito), 1 clove of Garlic (I used 3), Cheese Slice (that was a new one for me) and I added some Pizza Mix cheese as well. I also added some chopped Baby Spinach and half a chopped Chorizo sausage and left out the Chilli as the wife and daughter would have not eaten it.

It was pretty simple cook the Beef and other ingredients, layer it in a casserole dish, Beef, cheeses Tortilla and repeat topping it with Cheese Slices.

Cook at 180c for 30 minutes, the cheese slices on top started to brown at about 20 minutes so I turned it down for the last 10 minutes to 160c.

Was enjoyed by alll which was great I expected objections to the Kidney Beans and Chorizo.

This is what the Beef Mix looked like:



The Finished Product

That sounds like a cool way to do it. 

So last weekend made one of my favourite curries and the one the family likes the most even though it is really good for you.

I found this recipe thanks to the Chef at our Local Club who is Pakistani but I think his wife may Iranian based on a few of the "Specials" they have on the menu every now and then. We have become good friends as I helped him out when he first started at the club promoting the food etc. and the family and I went there regularly.

This curry is something similar to one he made, I could not find an exact like for like and to anyone who may understand the language heritage of this curry if I have it wrong, I apologise up front.

Khoresh-e ghomeh sabzi or Persian herb, bean and lamb stew.

I usually use Lamb but in this case I used Beef as I had some in the fridge and it needed using, was equally as nice but not probably as rich as it is with Lamb.

I only make it rarely because it is a lengthy process with a lot of chopping/prep.

Ingredients





















Basically, it all happens over 4 hours with the cooking of the meat in the stock and herbs then at the two-hour mark adding some more liquid if needed and the greens and the potatoes. The simmering it for 2 hours and letting it rest for 30 minutes while the rice cooks and of course I forgot to take a shot of it on the plate but could have sworn I did.

Here's a quick Sweet Potato snack: Peel a Sweet Potato until you get to the deeper orange color. Cut it in half, then split the halves in four, for eight pieces. Arrange in a circle on a plate, some salt and butter and into the microwave. It's tough to judge the time, but start with 2½ minute - 1 minute pause - 2½ minute, for one medium sized. Just like with microwaved potatoes, some parts are not going to become soft, but remain chewy.

I am a wizard with a knife and have very good knives, no knife injuries in 40 years of cooking but there is just a lot of stuff to be chopped. Close to 30 minutes all up not including the meat. I am no novice in the kitchen, he says defensively. 

The recipe says to put the greens in a food processor, I prefer the texture of the herbs and the vegetables just being cut. I have a knife sharpener and my daughter is a chef (my influence in being able to cook and enjoying cooking) and sharpens the knives with her fancy sharpening rod.

I'd guess I have watched 1,000's of hours of cooking videos at the very least.

I ad-lib with most of my cooking, curries I am still mastering so follow a recipe (not strictly) but I have adapted this one and if you look at the pictures in one you'll clearly see the garlic knob. There is no chilli in this recipe just black pepper. I only use chilli sparingly as it means only my son and I will eat it or we add chilli to our servings.

I use this when looking up recipes online to filter all the extraneous SEO garbage out. Works fairly well from my limited experience.

www.justtherecipe.com