Cooking

[liv]

I decided to put in the effort to make a complicated multi-step curry for date night this week.

The main dishes were two of bootstrapcook's recipes. I find Monroe's recipes really helpful, not because of low cost (I don't need to be that careful about my food budget), but because they're honest. Like, they never pretend you can put together some complex dish in "just" 10 minutes, because they don't assume you have underlings to do the actually time-consuming parts and the clean-up. They don't assume you have ready access to an exhaustive range of fancy ingredients, or specialist equipment. The recipes aren't always perfectly written; sometimes they get distracted and forget a critical step like actually cooking one of the components, but unlike a lot of food blogger recipes, I can usually easily work out what they mean even if the words don't actually make it to the screen.

Among my favourites of Monroe's curries are this vegan shashlik. In a pandemic I wasn't able to get tofu at short notice, so I substituted mushrooms, which cuts out some of the preparation steps. I still made the sauce separately in one pan, and left it to meld while I cooked the other components, and then pan-fried the mushrooms in a different pan and added them to the sauce. Normally I'm too lazy to do that, I just throw mushrooms in to whatever one-pot thing I'm making.

Another Monroe classic is their lentil and spinach daal. I make daal a lot, but this one has a major innovation of having yoghurt in it, and it's just that much richer than my standards. Not difficult, works fine with frozen spinach. I put proper effort into browning the onions with the spices, which is a very skippable step but everything is much tastier when I can be bothered.

We recently acquired a rice cooker, which I was a bit skeptical about because I didn't think it would enough easier than just making rice in a pan to justify the countertop space. But actually it comes into its own when you're making a meal more complex than just chilli and rice. You can start the rice whenever and it's warm and ready when the rest of the meal is ready to serve. I decided to try if I could make my mother's pilau in the rice cooker. Because I was feeling committed, I fried the spices first in a little oil (turmeric, cloves, cinnamon, star anise, cardamom), and then transferred the flavoured oil to the rice cooker. I added some basmati rice, 1.3 volumes of water, and a stock cube, turned it on and didn't have to pay any further attention. Came out really well.

Also we bought some ordinary supermarket naan bread and some poppadums and a couple of jars of random pickle we had in the cupboard. So the end result was a proper curry night. Definitely Anglo curry, I wasn't even trying for anything authentic. And it was more work than my usual weeknight meals, but not vastly more; the biggest difference was that I used basically all the pans and all the spoons in the kitchen!

I am certainly not going to cook a multi-part meal from scratch every night, but now my life has no commuting and many of my social things are restricted, I more often have time and enthusiasm for that level of cooking. But I'm slightly bored of most of my repertoire. Now that I'm pretty confident our supply chains are robust and I can reliably get hold of even non-standard ingredients, I would like to try some new things.

Would anyone like to suggest or swap recipes? What do you make on a weeknight that's easy but satisfying? What do you make when you have time and energy to cook, but short of actual formal entertaining (which isn't pandemic-appropriate anyway)?

Comments

[ambyr]

That daal recipe sounds good, though I’m going to have to look up what “natural yogurt” is in US terms. (Also, now I want to know what constitutes “unnatural yogurt.”)

I’d be happy to throw out some recipes—are there any particular ingredients you’re looking to use?

[liv]

Natural yoghurt is yoghurt that still has live cultures in, and isn't flavoured. It might possibly be called 'live yogurt' or 'Greek yogurt' in America? I assume you wouldn't put strawberry yoghurt in your daal anyway, and anything else vaguely in the cookable fermented milk products family is likely to work ok for this daal.

Regarding ingredients, I am kind of looking for suggestions for new ingredients I might otherwise not think of trying, more than ways of using the ingredients I already have. I'm veggie, and I generally prefer honest vegetable protein over fake meat, so I like pulses and tofu more than seitan or Quorn. And if you suggest something I can't easily find in the UK I shall have fun working out appropriate substitutes.

[superborb]

If you like curries, I recommend making thai curries. You can buy little cans (or bigger jars) of the curry paste, and then just fry it up a little before adding your protein/veg and a can of coconut milk. I also use the curry paste to flavor stir fries when I'm too lazy to bust out my spice grinder.

The rice cooker is my most favorite unitasker, followed closely by the soy milk maker.

[liv]

Thank you, frying vegetables in Thai curry paste and then adding coconut milk is one of my go-tos. I should stock up on those. I am super impressed you have a soy milk maker!

[kass]

What are your household's dietary needs? I love to cook -- it has become my primary form of creativity (with a self-soothing element, also) -- and would happily c&p some of my fave recipes for you. (I keep them all in a giant google doc, sorted by type of food / protein, so I can easily find them.) I don't cook pork or shellfish, and I don't mix milk with meat, though I do consider chicken pareve which I realize is Not Normative. But I can tailor suggestions to your household's practices, whatever they are.

[liv]

I do really love reading your posts about cooking and how much joy it brings you. I think you might be quite a lot more skilled than me so maybe something towards the simpler end of your repertoire?

We are vegetarian, in my case because I just couldn't with fleishig when I started keeping my own kitchen, and in my husband's because that's his family's custom for three generations. Which worked out well because it saves having to think about the complexities of sharing a kitchen with a non-Jewish partner.

[damerell]

Re Monroe, I remember an episode of Kamikaze Cookery testing the assertion that a normal person could manage Nigella Lawson's recipes. "This is Susan, our normal person. She is a motorcycle-riding guitar-playing punk lesbian."

(Spoiler: they can't.)

[liv]

That sounds like a fun show. I like Susan who can't cook like Nigella already. (I think Nigella and Jack are Twitter friends even though they have very contrasting approaches to food!)

[nou]

I love this kind of post and discussion — thank you! I think I’ll be coming back to look for new comments over the next few days. (I know about tracking posts, but I don’t want all those email notifications.)

Nadiya’s beetroot pasta is an excellent easy post-work dinner, though I do tweak the amounts. It’s a bit confusing as written there (some of the amounts are allegedly doubled for freezing while others aren’t, but I think that puts the proportions off), so here are the quantities I use to serve two people for one dinner:

• 250g fresh pasta (usually Natoora linguine)
• 300g cooked beetroot, drained
• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp salt (this is less by proportion than the recipe, but I find it sufficient)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• some form of chilli product (but it’s also been fine the times I forgot, so this is optional)
• 50–100g feta (I like 25g, bob likes 50g, depends on your preference) (and I use Violife feta alternative for bob since he’s lactose intolerant — he thinks it’s fine, I dislike it, so I have real feta on mine)
• 15g fresh dill
• 1–2 tsp bottled lemon juice

[liv]

Yay, I'm glad the ideas are useful to you too. And wow, that beetroot pasta, it looks so pink and so easy! I am pretty excited to try that.

[liv]

And to report back likewise: tried this today and wow it is so good and so easy. I'm definitely adding beetroot to my regular shopping list! Really appreciate the tip.

[wildeabandon]

At the moment I'm making a lot of Asian food. Indian curries have been a big part of my repertoire for a long time, but I'm currently branching out across much of the rest of the continent, since my sister got me a copy of East, by Meera Sodha for my birthday.

My favourite recipe from it is this tomato curry, which is slightly faffy but totally worth it. If you're looking for something simpler then this chilli noodle recipe is amazing, although not for the faint-hearted (chilli can be adjusted down though).

[liv]

Thank you so much. I too have a fair amount of experience with colonial-Indian curry, but less with other Asian cuisine, including the kind of Indian food that actual contemporary Indians rather than early 20th century British housewives eat. Both the tomato curry and the peppered noodles look fantastic, I'm excited to try them, as they use techniques and ingredients that are new to me.

[adrian_turtle]

One of my favorite easy weeknight dinners is roasted chickpeas and sweet potatoes.

Preheat oven to 400F. Cut sweet potatoes lengthwise into thick wedges, and coat with a mix of olive oil and honey (roughly equal parts. This is easier if you warm the honey) mixed with smoked paprika. Spread on an oiled baking sheet.
Drain, rinse, and dry canned chickpeas. Coat lightly with olive oil, black pepper, cumin, and kosher salt. Spread in one layer on a baking sheet with a rim.
Cooks in about 40 minutes. After 30, flip the potatoes, stir the chickpeas around, set the table, and slice some limes or set out bottled lime juice to sprinkle at table.

[liv]

Woooow this sounds amazing. I ate my dinner before I read this comment but this is almost making me hungry again! I really want to try it and it sounds impressively simple.

[sfred]

I like roasting chickpeas with oil and ready-mixed fajita spice. I find they work well with roast cauliflower done in the same spice.

[liv]

That is a really brilliant way to cook sweet potatoes, thank you. Some of the glaze turned into accidental savoury caramel which I bet I'll never be able to reproduce deliberately.

[aldabra]

Our vegetarian weekly staples are avocado-based:

Avocado pasta: crush garlic into olive oil, add lemon juice. Put pasta on to cook. Chop one large or two small avocados, two mozzarella, pack of mixed baby tomatoes minus five. Strain garlic-lemon-oil on, to "marinade". Drain pasta, toss with avocado mix. Have remembered to put garlic bread in oven ten minutes ago. I think canonically you're probably meant to start the marinading in the morning rather than as the pasta is done, but I have streamlined this over many years.

Guac: Magimix avocado, spring onion, fresh coriander, the five tomatoes you saved yesterday, juice of a lime. Serve with tortilla chips, or tangy cheese doritos if you're insane, and sour cream, and grated cheese.

[liv]

Awesome, thank you. That sounds like an excellent plan for simple yet tasty pasta. I make a sort of spaghetti which is a bit like this but slightly more complicated (starts with sautéed onions and I add peppers and capers as well as the avocado and tomatoes). But I could get on really well with the streamlined version.

I also particularly like that your guac recipe includes a variation for the insane! Always a useful feature of a recipe.

[emperor]

I tag the occasional recipe post "recipe" when I DW them, so I can find them later; some of them might grab your fancy?

[wildeabandon]

https://emperor.dreamwidth.org/601255.html is in fact another one of my regular staples, and works well with vegan mince in place of the lamb.

[warriorsavant]

I agree the worst part about trying new, relatively exotic recipes is having to buy too much of ingredient xxx. There are some services that send you prepared recipe-sized amounts of food, which you cook (they send the recipe also). Badly phrased, what I mean is that they send you the recipe, with the right amount of each ingredient. We just placed an order, will like post about it in a week or so.

[liv]

That's a good idea, getting one of those recipe and ingredients boxes might work. I know one of my partners who isn't a confident cook used a service like that to build up their repertoire.

I don't mind buying a new ingredient if it's one meal's worth of a fresh vegetable; basically I just substitute something I'd normally buy anyway. Or one small jar of a new spice; if I end up not really cooking with it much, well, it can sit at the back of my spice cupboard not doing much harm.

More problematic for me is trying to follow a recipe when I can't really visualize what the recipe-writer wants me to do (because it's a new-to-me technique). Recommendations from friends often work better than just searching the internet because there's a higher chance that the recipe actually makes sense as written, or they'll warn me what needs to be varied from the instructions.

[mathcathy]

What a great idea! I think I will make that tofu recipe tomorrow. All ingredients to hand. And, actually, like you, I have been trying to cook new things since we have been at home every day, my usual repertoire doesn't cope with being home seven days a week. We used to get variety from eating out on with expenses, away from home, several nights a week.

So here are two recipes from me. Thomasina Myers:

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/jan/20/thomasina-miers-recipe-for-vegetarian-chilli-with-roasted-squash-and-black-beans

I usually roast the squash and celeriac well ahead and use red chillies target than bothering with soaking ancho chillies. I did that once and couldn't tell the difference.

And another Jack Monroe, but less likely to have at home ingredients:

https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/aug/18/chefs-secret-ingredients-turn-dinner-from-basic-to-brilliant

Last time I made it I accidentally had pork stuffing (one of the many issues I had when M&S swapped with Waitrose in my Ocado delivery), so I had to make my own, which was possible, but not desirable, so do try to buy it ready made.

[liv]

Excellent, I hope you like the shashlik. It's exactly right that variety is a problem, I'm not that adventurous a cook and I have done pretty much every dish I know several times since we were stuck at home, so I need to branch out. The chilli looks very good, I have been looking for a more new-world style chilli and that fits the bill really well. And the nut roast might well work for Christmas dinner; we don't always want to eat nut roast like stereotypical vegetarians, but a good one can be a real treat.

[sfred]

I post recipes that I've done from out of my own head, on the 'recipes' tag on my DW.

As far as other people's recipes go - I recently made this spicy, sticky tofu; it was more faff than my usual after-work meals, but delicious. The recipe misses a couple of steps but a moderately-experienced cook can work it out.

I've been making seitan for a while, and this pepperoni is delicious.

I enjoy making pizza from scratch if I have time. Oh and waffles! Sweet or savoury.

The cuisines I feel most comfortable cooking in are British-vegetarian corruptions of Kashmiri, Turkish and Italian. I've done a fair amount of (corrupted) Ethiopian-style dishes recently too, sometimes with rice or pitta as the carby bit, and sometimes with Staffordshire oat cakes as a substitute for injera.

[liv]

Thank you, this is super helpful. The sticky tofu just skips over the part where you actually make the sauce, but I have more need of detailed instructions for prepping tofu than making known ingredients into a sauce so that's fine.

I'm impressed you make seitan. I tried it once and never wanted to do it again, it took such a ridiculously large amount of time and physical effort to extract the gluten. But that was starting from wheatflour; it seems like you can just buy gluten, which makes it seem a lot more doable, and I love the idea of vegan pepperoni!

I have the basic technique of making yeast dough and I should do it more often and try more variations. Home-made pizza is brilliant when I am organized enough to plan the timing.

Using Staffordshire oatcakes as a substitute for injera is genius! Do you have any good Ethiopian recipes? I really like Ethiopian food but have no experience of cooking it.

[ephemera]

If it's helpful, I stash my recipes here, but it's mostly baking things - "slightly fancy for a weeknight" at the moment is making me thing of things that need prep + cooking time - anything in the way of pies, cobblers, etc - shepherd's pie, doubly so if you're mashing your own potatoes (I don't make it often, but when I do I often cheat, and use frozen mash for the topping.)

[liv]

Ooh, thank you! I agree, oven bakes are a bit more faff than just stove-top meals, but I can usually manage especially if I can 'cheat' with the topping, cos they don't need much attention once in the oven. I really like ready-made pastry, for example. Do you have a recipe for a cobbler topping? It's basically scones, isn't it? But that seems like it would be a nice variation on topping something with cheesy breadcrumbs or piecrust.

[quizcustodiet]

Two favourites from me:

Pasta e fagioli (vegan and super tasty!)

https://simpleveganblog.com/pasta-e-fagioli-pasta-and-beans/

Vegetarian Mole - easy as it uses sweet chilli sauce to approximate the mix of chillies you'd get in an authentic mole

https://www.food.com/recipe/quick-and-easy-vegetarian-mole-446874

[liv]

Thank you! I had absolutely no idea where to begin with making mole, so I'm excited to try that one. The pasta looks really satisfying as well, I think I will give that a go.