Cooking enthusiasts

Lestratcaster

Anyone else fancy themselves in the kitchen? I find it quite therapeutic actually to be cooking stuff and rather enjoy it, its a bit like songwriting and putting everything together.

I been cooking a fair bit of pasta and chicken/fish meals lately, running out of ideas and stuff so just wondering what you like to make and signature dishes, etc.

capo4th

Thai food.

You can build a basic store cupboard for about £30-40 add garlic chilli and ginger noodles vegetables prawns beef or chicken and you are in Bangkok.

duotone

Had a go making pasta with a rolling-pin a while back, surprisingly it turned out really well

mgaw

i like to cook a bit in fact i liked it so much back in the day i worked for Gordon Ramsay, Marco White and Michel Roux jr, that soon sorted out any enthusiasm i had for the job

octatonic

Yup.
We cook a lot of French and Asian, make our own bread and pasta.

Tonight was a beef stir fry with kimchi and coconut rice.

WezV

I like to cook and bake.   Current project is curing bacon, which makes me want a smoker, which makes me want some salmon.....these things escalate.

I am enjoying simple pizza making at the moment.... with beer dough, sauce, mozzarella and bacon all made from scratch.

octatonic

WezV said:

I like to cook and bake.   Current project is curing bacon, which makes me want a smoker, which makes me want some salmon.....these things escalate.

I am enjoying simple pizza making at the moment.... with beer dough, sauce, mozzarella and bacon all made from scratch.

We have a smoking gun that gets used a lot.
It works brilliantly on mashed potato.

WezV

i thought I might be able to rig something up from a chiminea, some ducting and another container.  I chopped a load of big chunks off my apple tree earlier this year too

octatonic

This is the one we have: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Polyscience-POL-GUN-The-Smoking-Gun/dp/B008O4MSJU

WezV

Yeah, I just googled it.  Looks like you can do a lot with it with very few ingredients.   I assume it allows you to be a bit more subtle than a full on smoke

octatonic

WezV said:

Yeah, I just googled it.  Looks like you can do a lot with it with very few ingredients.   I assume it allows you to be a bit more subtle than a full on smoke

Yes, although if you want full on smoke then you can do that too, and in about 5 minutes.

ESBlonde

I enjoy a bit of that cookingery thing. That way the food you eat is to your liking!
Stir fry is great in that you can think 'hungry' and prep/cook/eat in less than 30 mins with minimal washing up. I make bread sometimes in a bread maker which fills the house with a lovely smell. I'm bad at following recipies but can usually create something edible from whats to hand. Not good at pre planning the food really, but it's all made better by having an allotment that produces fresh organic seasonal fruit and veg (unless we cock that up too).

Axe_meister

Get the heston at home book, some great recipes that are a little more involved (his pork belly is to die for) but most can be done with basic home cooking equipment.

TheMarlin

My wife is Italian, she's a stunning cook.  She's as comfortable cooking complex meals for two, as for 20 (which is not uncommon).
I am also pretty damn decent in the kitchen.  I turned vegetarian as a teenager, and my mother forced me to start cooking for myself.   I never looked back.
Every meal, every day, is cooked from raw fresh ingredients.  The only tins in our cupboard are coconut milk, tin toms....and some chickpeas (for easy humus).   No processed foods.

I'm working my way through some Ottolenghi recipes at the moment.  Loving those!

Marlin 

stickyfiddle

I cook loads, though with a stressful job I don't enjoy it for relaxation as much as I used to. Being coeliac is a pain too as obviously I can't use normal flour. That said, being a good cook helps massively with the coeliac as I know exactly what I'm eating. 

Almost everything we have at home is from scratch. We have a LOT of cookbooks...

Steffo

Pizzas every Saturday.
Only problem is that now that the kids are growing they seem to have bottomless stomachs, it takes the whole morning to get all the different toppings sorted out. Nevertheless, the plates at the end make my day, well worth the effort!

fields5069

I sort of like cooking, although what with that and walking the dog I don't seem to get any spare time in the evenings. I don't particularly find it relaxing and am extraordinarily happy when my wife cooks from time to time.

Lately I've been a fan of "one tray" oven meals. Jamie has quite a few recipes, one which is rather nice involves chicken thighs, cherry tomatoes, ripped up ciabatta, basil, olives, and whole cloves of garlic, finished off with rashers of pancetta for the last 10 minutes or so. Cook until cooked on 180 fan.

I also like one with belly pork slices on top of chopped potatoes and onions. Again cook until cooked on about 200 fan.

WezV

fields5069 said:

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I also like one with belly pork slices on top of chopped potatoes and onions. Again cook until cooked on about 200 fan.

I did one like that last week.      

Normally I do it with sausages, but surprisingly had some belly pork slices left over after a BBQ.   I normally chuck a few extra peppers, courgettes and cherry tom's in at some point too

fields5069

WezV said:

fields5069 said:

.

I also like one with belly pork slices on top of chopped potatoes and onions. Again cook until cooked on about 200 fan.

I did one like that last week.      

Normally I do it with sausages, but surprisingly had some belly pork slices left over after a BBQ.   I normally chuck a few extra peppers, courgettes and cherry tom's in at some point too

I just cooked some green beans separately I think, if only to trick my daughter into believing that I care about healthy eating.

fretmeister

I love to cook.

And I'm obsessive about proper low and slow BBQ

capo4th

Jerk Pork Ribs six hours in the oven.

I can't begin to tell you how delicious they are on the day and the day after.