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?

[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.

[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]

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.

[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!

[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.

[ambyr]

So I recently made this eggplant dish in a veggie variant, where the variant was basically, "Don't use meat and double everything else," and it was amazing. And these veggie balls take forever to make, but they freeze well, so it's worth making a big batch and then eating them over several weeks. The other (faster) thing I regularly do with lentils is this taco recipe, except I don't bother with the guac (I don't like avocado) and I usually use the filling for enchiladas, not tacos, unless I'm in a big hurry. It makes a big batch of filling, and I just stick it in my fridge for days and cook up enchiladas as needed.

[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]

Thank you! I admit I'm intimidated by Ottolenghi but if I have an endorsement of a specific recipe that seems a good place to start. And like a lot of his stuff it's full of flavours I love, so it sounds promising.

The tacos are unfortunately region locked, stupid future. Could I trouble you to cut-and-paste the recipe? I have been making enchiladas from a kit, which is all right, but if I had a good made-from-scratch filling recipe I think that would lead to happiness.

[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!)

[adrian_turtle]

"Greek yogurt" is yogurt with some of the water strained out of it, to make a thicker texture out of something lowfat or nonfat. Whole milk yogurt adds more richness than nonfat, obviously, but not everyone wants to eat cream. If you're eating the yogurt raw, "live cultures" can make a difference, but cooking it kills the bacteria anyway.

[ambyr]

Region-locked websites, wow, whatever nonsense will they think of next. Here you go (with my commentary):

Ingredients for filling
1 cup dry green or brown lentils
1 head cauliflower, cored and broken into florets (what ambyr actually does: use one pack of frozen riced cauliflower)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium yellow onions, diced (about 1 1/2 cups) (what ambyr actually does: use one very large sweet onion)
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
4 cloves garlic, minced (what ambyr actually does: use four teaspoons of pre-minced garlic)
4 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 cup canned tomato sauce (what ambyr actually does: thin a quarter cup of tomato paste with a quarter cup of water)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Rinse the lentils and drain well. (ambyr: who rinses lentils? not lazy me.) Combine the lentils and 3 cups water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer until tender, about 30 minutes. Drain of excess water and set the lentils aside.

Pulse the cauliflower in a food processor until reduced to pieces the size of rice grains. (ambyr: or just be lazy and start with pre-riced cauliflower like I do.) Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and jalapenos and cook until the onion is translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the cauliflower, garlic, 2 teaspoons of the chili powder, 1 teaspoon of the cumin and 1/2 teaspoon of the coriander and cook for 4 minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce and cook until the cauliflower is tender, another 3 minutes.

Add the cooked lentils to the cauliflower mixture. Add the remaining 2 teaspoons chili powder, 1 teaspoon cumin and 1/2 teaspoon coriander. Stir in the salt and pepper and cook for 3 minutes more to blend the flavors.

------------

For the actual enchiladas, I usually use 6" maize tortillas. I lightly coat the bottom of an 8x8" glass baking dish with canned green enchilada sauce, then brush a spoonful of the sauce on the inside of each tortilla, fill it with a couple scoops of filling, wrap it, and put it in the baking dish--five enchiladas in a row, and then a sixth at the bottom going the other way. Then I drizzle the top with a little more sauce, sprinkle some shredded cheddar cheese on top, and bake at 350F (180C?) for 15 minutes. That makes two ambyr-sized servings, one for lunch and one for dinner.

If "green enchilada sauce" isn't a thing you can buy in cans in the UK, I can suggest substitutions. Also, it occurs to me that I don't know if "chili powder" as sold in the US is a UK thing--it's a mix of paprika, oregano, garlic powder, and cumin, with a little bit of cayenne and chipotle to top it off.

[liv]

Thank you, that is helpful additional information! I think Monroe specifies natural yoghurt because they want you to cook with full-fat, unflavoured and that's most usually available in form of live yoghurt in this country. But I agree that there's no point caring about whether it's been previously pasteurized if you're going to cook it anyway.

[liv]

Thank you so much for the commentary as well as the information. This looks both delicious, and interesting adventure in what constituents I can find in the wrong continent. I am not convinced 'green enchilada sauce' is a thing over here, but I will have a search. OTOH I don't really cook green lentils from scratch, since they're easily available tinned. Jalapenos I suspect only exist in pickled format, I assume you mean a raw pepper?

[ambyr]

One of the things I miss most about world travel is wandering the aisles of grocery stores being boggled by the differences, so thank you for letting me do a little of that vicariously! (I'm pretty sure you can buy lentils in tins--or, well, in cans--in the US, but it's never occurred to me to do so, because the bags of store-brand dry ones are so standard.)

Yeah, the jalapeno would be a raw pepper--any raw hot pepper would do, if other varieties are more available. (I regret I have no way to send you one; my backyard bush is producing them much faster than I can eat them.) But I suspect tinned hot peppers would also work fine if that's what you've got.

Enchilada sauce is essentially (to my extremely non-Mexican eye) a very smooth, slightly watery salsa, so if you can buy a green salsa (either pepper- or tomatillo-based) you could just puree that to a smoother consistency and thin it a bit. There's also no reason you couldn't do the same thing with a red salsa if that's more available--I just don't particularly like tomatoes, so I always go with the less-tomato alternative. (ETA: having Googled more, I am apparently actually normative in not wanting tomatoes in my enchilada sauce, and red enchilada sauce is largely based on red chili peppers. So I'd stay away from tomato salsas. But if you can find a green pepper or tomatillo-based salsa, that should work.)

[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.

[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).

[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.

[ewt]

...Greek yogurt here is 10% fat unless it says otherwise on the label.

[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]

Yes, I am already really interested in regional differences between what's easily available versus specialist! The subthread about types of yoghurt is also amazing.

And your explanation of enchilada sauce led me to finally look up what tomatillos are; I knew it was a vegetable we don't really have in this country, but nothing more precise than that. But dilute green salsa is probably achievable.

I'm further grateful you explained 'chili powder' because to me that just means dried hot pepper and I would have got it completely wrong. That kind of spice mix is called 'curry powder' here, though ours has fenugreek and turmeric by default so might work less well in a Mexican-style dish.

[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.

[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.

[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.