14 votes

What are some of the best recipes you've recently discovered?

For me, it has to be ramen. It's so easy, yet so filling, and so tasty, and has practically infinite variations, so it can hardly get old! It can be done for one or more persons, and it replaces an entire meal: having noodles as replacement for bread, meat, vegetables, and broth to drink afterwards. Just an all-around great thing. My family certainly loved it.

12 comments

  1. [6]
    tae
    (edited )
    Link
    Glad you’re enjoying ramen! I tried throwing some ramen noodles into a veggie stir-fry for the first time last night, and it turned out well. My contribution: I don’t tend to love Thai curry, but...

    Glad you’re enjoying ramen! I tried throwing some ramen noodles into a veggie stir-fry for the first time last night, and it turned out well.

    My contribution: I don’t tend to love Thai curry, but man this is good!

    https://ohsheglows.com/2018/09/18/instant-pot-cauliflower-and-butternut-thai-curry/

    4 votes
    1. [5]
      MyTildesAccount
      Link Parent
      I think I should try frying noodles myself, that sounds intresting. That will also help with noodles sticking to each other after some time, since they'd be covered in oil/butter. Not sure whether...

      I think I should try frying noodles myself, that sounds intresting. That will also help with noodles sticking to each other after some time, since they'd be covered in oil/butter. Not sure whether adding said oil/butter to the meal would be good or bad, but it's worth a try.

      About the link you provided, you should definetely change the site you get recipes from. On mobile, I had to scroll two thirds of the way to find the recipe, going through a barrage of ads and two pop-ups. Not good.

      Anyway, does anybody actually care about the copious amounts of spices these recipes always seem to ask for? For me, that seems excessive and a little ridiculous. As if without them the dish is incomplete or lacking. I always add spices to compliment the taste of the main ingridient. A spice dominating the taste is seen by me as more an attemt to hide one's lackluster cooking than anything else.

      Even if the recipe understands that, it's always this oddly specific combination of spices with no variation accounted for. Why? There are countless ways to improve the taste, and you showing just one only serves to confuse those who don't understand this concept. The variation you can achieve with a simple dish and a small arrangement of tools is what makes cooking exiting for me. If you can, then you should. Because discovering the best arrangement of ingridients is what lead my skill to improve, not only through better understanding of ingridient's place and impact, but through practice as well.

      Now, this looks like an essay, plus on a topic miles away from what we started with. Anyway, never eaten a curry, would like to try it, but I'll probably find a better recipe first.

      1 vote
      1. [4]
        patience_limited
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        "Curry" refers to any of hundreds of different spice mixtures; there are some common components (turmeric for yellow color and flavor, cumin, coriander, ginger), but everything else is adjustable....

        "Curry" refers to any of hundreds of different spice mixtures; there are some common components (turmeric for yellow color and flavor, cumin, coriander, ginger), but everything else is adjustable. If a recipe includes spices like nigella, asafoetida, or mustard seed, it's aiming for a specific regional flavor combination.

        Indian (multiple regions), Thai, Singapore, and Indonesian curries taste very different from each other, so I'd try the recipe as written first and adjust from there.

        If you're not accustomed to heavily spiced food, Singapore-style fried noodles are a good place to start. Tinned Madras curry powder (usually only mildly peppery) is a consistent product that's widely available.

        These spices aren't added to hide flavors; they're nutritious or even medicinal ingredients in themselves. It's just that most cold-climate cuisines evolved in places where hot climate spices didn't exist or were very expensive (which is why gingerbread was a traditional luxury food, for holidays only).

        Footnote: the biggest mistake you can make in curry recipes is to use stale spices - everything is going to taste flat or weird, nothing like restaurant versions. If you don't have a big international grocery or store with heavy stock turnover, try Penzey's (good for buying in small quantities), or toast and grind whole spices if you can.

        4 votes
        1. [2]
          MyTildesAccount
          Link Parent
          Huh, I guess I do live in a colder climate where spices are harder to cone by. I'm sorry I went on a bit of a rabt there. I misunderstood the point of the dish. I still stand behind what I said...

          Huh, I guess I do live in a colder climate where spices are harder to cone by. I'm sorry I went on a bit of a rabt there. I misunderstood the point of the dish. I still stand behind what I said about specific spices: there is no way a Thai curry calls for just this arrangement, I still want recipes to have (optional) in them.

          1 vote
          1. patience_limited
            Link Parent
            Oh, absolutely! One of the most important "cooking school things" I ever learned was that you don't just execute a recipe verbatim - you taste and adjust as needed. Corollary to the footnote...

            Oh, absolutely! One of the most important "cooking school things" I ever learned was that you don't just execute a recipe verbatim - you taste and adjust as needed. Corollary to the footnote above, you're dealing with natural products that don't always have consistent flavors, so you have to make changes to get the taste you want even if it's a recipe or modification that's been reliable previously.

            2 votes
        2. Akir
          Link Parent
          I just wanted to second this. It's more important than people realize. The Deviled Ham I mentioned elsewhere on this topic was done in two batches, and one used old garlic and onion powders by...

          Footnote: the biggest mistake you can make in curry recipes is to use stale spices - everything is going to taste flat or weird, nothing like restaurant versions.

          I just wanted to second this. It's more important than people realize. The Deviled Ham I mentioned elsewhere on this topic was done in two batches, and one used old garlic and onion powders by mistake (I don't know why I had them around either) While the other batch wasn't using terrifically fresh spices either, it tasted dramatically different. I actually had to add more honey to balance that batch's flavors.

          1 vote
  2. patience_limited
    (edited )
    Link
    I'm fortunate to have a good-sized papaya plant, and needed to find something to do with the 2 kg fruit it's producing. When I was hunting for recipes, I learned a nifty trick for ripening papayas...

    I'm fortunate to have a good-sized papaya plant, and needed to find something to do with the 2 kg fruit it's producing. When I was hunting for recipes, I learned a nifty trick for ripening papayas quickly. Score the skin lightly several times along the length of the fruit, and stand it upright with the stem down, inside a drinking glass narrower than the diameter of the fruit. A green papaya was perfectly yellow and ready to eat after two days.

    I was surprised and delighted by how well this chicken and papaya stir-fry recipe turned out; it's a company-ready dish. Aside from the ripe papaya, none of the ingredients are particularly difficult to come by - I did substitute thigh for breast meat.

    https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chicken-and-papaya-stir-fry

    3 votes
  3. [2]
    Comment deleted by author
    Link
    1. MyTildesAccount
      Link Parent
      Speaking as someone who never liked american-style foods and dislikes excessive amounts of oils and grease coupled with hate for moist bread... That sounds awful.

      Speaking as someone who never liked american-style foods and dislikes excessive amounts of oils and grease coupled with hate for moist bread...

      That sounds awful.

      4 votes
  4. Staross
    Link
    Grilled zucchini salad: grill (or cook in a pan) long zucchini slices, when cold add a lot of basil leaves and parmigiano reggiano shaves, balsamic and olive oil (if not enough from cooking).

    Grilled zucchini salad: grill (or cook in a pan) long zucchini slices, when cold add a lot of basil leaves and parmigiano reggiano shaves, balsamic and olive oil (if not enough from cooking).

    2 votes
  5. Akir
    Link
    Deviled Ham. It's not the best recipe I have ever made, but it was surprising how amazing it tasted for one that used leftovers as an ingredient. I actually used a variation of the Serious Eats...

    Deviled Ham. It's not the best recipe I have ever made, but it was surprising how amazing it tasted for one that used leftovers as an ingredient.

    I actually used a variation of the Serious Eats recipie to match what I had in the house, so this sketch of a recipe is going to be a little odd.

    Toss some takuan into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Add in powdered onion, powdered garlic, hot sauce, worchestershire sauce, soy sauce, and roasted honey ham. Pulse until ham is the consistancy of ground beef, then add mayonnaise and mix together.

    This recipe is probably dramatically different from the original since I made so many changes, but the good thing about the recipe is that you can just change the spices however you want. I am actually regretting not substituting the worchestershire sauce for miso now....

    1 vote
  6. MayorOfMudville
    Link
    My own corn chip seasoning and method of evenly coating the chips. I like very hot and heavily seasoned chips which you apparently cannot buy in the US. I've tried them all, NONE are actually hot....

    My own corn chip seasoning and method of evenly coating the chips. I like very hot and heavily seasoned chips which you apparently cannot buy in the US. I've tried them all, NONE are actually hot. Probably because corporate attorneys are afraid of some poor sucker choking and gagging on their product, much like I do on my own formulation.

    It's also nice knowing exactly what goes into it, and that it won't turn my tongue red from the artificial dyes.

    The recipe varies, but generally lots of cajun/taco like seasonings with an absurd pile of cayenne pepper, some MSG, citric acid, and a huge amount of nutritional yeast, like half by weight. Salt too, but be aware that the chips may already have salt. Powder it super fine in a spice mill, pour in a large ziplock bag with plain corn chips, shake or tumble until coated. Let sit for a few hours in the bag so the oils from the chips adhere to the seasonings. Tumble again for a thicker coating.

  7. guts
    Link
    I'm a simple man and the moment i want to perfect my Fool Proof Pan Pizza.

    I'm a simple man and the moment i want to perfect my Fool Proof Pan Pizza.