Beef or Chicken, Fish? and cooking

[simon]

Well we don't have a cooking thread and it is becoming one of my hobbies so I figured why not create a thread where people can post some lekker recipies that they have made and tasted.

I recently made a lekker spaghetti bolognaise that I really enjoyed, (R200, serves 5, cooking time incl prep 1hour)
made this on my birthday for the family instead of the usual going out or ordering in.

Ingredients:
550gram mince
250gram bacon pieces
1 onion
2 tomatoes
1 punnet mushrooms
500gram spaghetti
2 sachet's tomato paste
1 small tub chili garlic mix
Grated Mozzarella cheese for covering (amount per taste)
1 Knorr Spaghetti Bolognaise sauce powdered sachet
1 Knorr tomato and bacon sauce powdered sachet
Some hot water

Directions
Cut up mushrooms, onion and tomatoes.
Start cooking spaghetti, add tsp of salt and a little oil.
Start cooking bacon (frying pan), spaghetti (pot) and mince (separate pot).
When bacon is about 70% done throw in onion, tomato and mushrooms after 5 minutes add one tomato paste sachet. By this time mince should also be about 70% done, add about 300ml hot water and the sachet's of powdered sauce as well as 2nd sachet of tomato paste.
2 minutes later add chili garlic as per taste to mince.
Take contents of frying pan and mix in with mince. Mix well. Consistency should be "blobby" (not sure of correct culinary term).
Dish out spaghetti on to bowls.
Take mince solution and gooi on top of spaghetti.
Sprinkle bits of cheese over food
Watch it melt
Serve and enjoy

Also does anybody remember the DSTV ad (think it was them) with the air hostess would come down the aisle with her serving trolley asking, beef or chicken, channel flipped and it would change to fish.
Well anyways when going to Spur or whatnot which do you go for with their Monday night burger specials. I always choose beef.

[ViperGTI]

Well, this is not exactly a recipe (or at all really), but I found this place on the internet last night that makes fresh food and deliver in Pta / Centurion area.
http://www.simplyfreshfoods.co.za

This is for the people like me, who are too busy (and/or too lazy) to cook.
I placed my first order with them last night so hope it is good. Will get it tomorrow evening.

[Ichigo]

I made my own mince recipe while experimenting with different things will have to find where I put it on the PC

Made my mince so tasty I couldnt stop eating it even though I am not that much of a mince fan

[C-Bear]

Here's an entertaining food blog by a fellow South African.

http://foodzfordoodz.com/

[JudeC]

my first meal (5 days a week) when I moved out on my own, was spaghetti bolosomething

fry up some mince and onions,
add tinned spaghetti in sauce

eat like there's no tomorrow

[Ichigo]

my first meal (5 days a week) when I moved out on my own, was spaghetti bolosomething

fry up some mince and onions,
add tinned spaghetti in sauce

eat like there's no tomorrow

lol its spaghetti bolognaise was even in the OP

[Mephisto_Helix]

http://mygaming.co.za/forum/showthre...s-cooks/page10 - It got to page 10 ........ in 2009, lol


But ye, I like to experiment with food when I'm in the mood. Chicken especially, it's so versatile and it almost just takes anything you throw at it. I used to cook way way more than I do now, I really should get back into it. Ditto the baking various things.

[GlacieredPyro]

Okonomiyaki recipe for all those not afraid of cabbage.
Found this quite some time ago and must say it's tops on a rainy day.

Ingredients
1 egg
1 cup flour
¾ c. or more of chicken broth (the batter should be the consistency of pancake batter)
pinch salt
1 c. shredded green cabbage
6 scallions, chopped
60 - 100g. precooked filling of your choice
1 T vegetable oil

Topping:
mayonnaise
Bonito flakes //can be found at chinese conveinient stores. Also used for ramen and onigiri
seaweed

Instructions
Combine the flour, eggs and broth in a bowl and stir until combined.
Add cabbage scallions, and filling, and stir until the vegetables and filling are thoroughly incorporated in the batter.
Heat oil in an nonstick span.
Add cabbage mixture, and cook until browned and crisp. Turn it.
Cook until other side is brown and no batter oozes out when you press.
Top with any combination of the toppings, and enjoy.

[nanonyous]

Ingredients:
* Fair chunk of bacon, cut up into small pieces (will measure next time)
* White button mushrooms, sliced (quartered in first version, would probably work better sliced thinly) (will measure this as well next time)
* 2/3 cups dry white wine (cabernet sauvignIcan'tspellthis used in first version - worked well)
* 250ml cream
* A bit of basil, chopped up (and this)
* Salt, ground pepper, chilli flakes to taste (and this...)
* A ring of plain, creamy feta
* Spaghetti
* Olive oil


Method:
Coat a saucepan with olive oil and fry the bacon until slightly crispy, keeping the pieces as well separated as possible. Add wine and either evaporate the alcohol if using an electric stove or turn up the heat on a gas stove and burn it off (I prefer this method - it's flashy). Once the alcohol has evaporated, reduce the heat, add the cream, mushrooms, basil, chilli flakes/salt/pepper, break the ring of feta into the sauce and stir while bringing to a slow boil.

Allow the sauce to boil for the 10min you're cooking the spaghetti according to its instructions, stirring the sauce occasionally to ensure nothing is sticking and burning to the bottom of the pan.

Drain the spaghetti, leaving some water on it so it doesn't dry out. Coat with two tablespoons of olive oil, cover with a lid until served.

Serve sauce over spaghetti in a bowl.

[nanonyous]

Ingredients:

2x 'Today' ready-rolled pastry (the blue pack) - 2x if using the thinner packs or one of the larger pack
4x chicken breasts - either shop's pre-cooked or cooked at home
1x small pack of brown button mushrooms
1/2 tub creamy black pepper feta*
1x Knorr 'cream of chicken' soup powder packet**
1x Knorr 'mushroom' soup powder packet
2x bushes/packs of spinach
At least one bottle/can of Castle lager or a similar tasting beer. Don't use any sweet beers like Carling Black Label for this.

Method:

Very thoroughly clean your spinach. The last thing you want is to bite into a piece of fuckin' epic pie only to chew on sand. Once cleaner than you've ever washed our own body, cut up and put into a big pot with only a little bit of water added. Boil your spinach over medium heat until it's all very soft, then drain and remove to a mixing bowl to cool.

Shred your chicken. How finely you shred your chicken is up to you - I prefer it to be only slightly chunky in strips. Add to mixing bowl. If buying store-cooked chicken with the crispy spiced skins, take the skins off and scrape out any excess fat still present on the inside, then cut up half the skins into very small pieces and add to the mixing bowl, adding only the crispiest parts. If cooking the chicken yourself, ensure you're using a method that gets rid of as much of the fat/grease as possible and have at least two tablespoons worth of Robertson's chicken spice in your pie sauce - these spices don't need to be cooked into the chicken skin. Don't add any of the chicken skin if cooking the chicken yourself unless it was cooked on a rotisserie.

Cut your mushrooms into quarters, set aside.

Empty your soup powder packets into a bowl and slowly add beer while mixing. You want your sauce to only be a bit more 'wet' than necessary for it to freely run off of a spoon/fork.

Once your spinach has cooled, add the sauce and thoroughly mix the spinach/chicken/sauce. Add the mushrooms, give another brief mix, add feta as thumb-sized chunks, mix through.

Line the bottom of your pie dish of choice (I use ceramic) with the one roll of pastry. The dish I use is of such a size that the pastry will only just cover the 'top', so the bottom layer needs to be rolled out slightly. You want the edges of the bottom layer to fold over the top layer, so roll it out enough for that.

Empty your sauce into the prepared pie dish thing. Place top layer of pastry over. Pierce generously all over the top layer. Fold the bottom layer's overlapping parts over the top.


Bake for minimum of 45min in the middle of an oven preheated to 180c with both top and bottom elements active. If the top crust is not yet golden brown, it's not ready. This is a bleeding pie, so don't use a dish that's not deep enough or you're going to dirty the rest of your oven.

Consume generous amounts of delicious beer while baking epic pie.

Serving suggestion: serve with sweet mashed pumpkin or gem squash. Also goes well with spiced roast/fried potato quarts. Goes very well with accompanying beer, if you have any left.

Freezes very well, but do not try to freeze uncooked spinach.
Every time you make this, it'll come out better as you get used to preparing it.



* the feta used is important. If you're not sure how a given tub's feta is going to be, get several different tubs and use the creamiest one for the pie. Store-bought feta consistency can vary, so if you've a chosen brand and know it's not consistent, check their batch numbers/expiration dates and try to get ones as different from each other as possible. If your feta is dry and crumbly, you can leave it in your fridge and check it every other week to see if it's become any creamier. Springy feta tends to just become more and more like an eraser and is not recommended for this pie at all.

** never use the Knorr onion soup packets, they are disgusting. You can alternatively use 2x of one flavour soup packet, chicken or mushroom, to taste.