How to Rate a Recipe

 Misc, Stories  Tagged with:
Jul 302011
 

Here’s a big question with plenty of answers:

Taste is already not very objective. Tastes good, bad or indifferent isn’t very reliable. Some like it hot and others sour and with some qualifiers things can become clearer: 5 chili beans, 3 lemons or 4 little tenderizers.

Can smell be rated? Does Harzer or Limburger cheese smell good or bad? How about garlic and onions? Ginger on your stir fry? Freshly baked muffins? There’s just no way to measure, the only way is to describe how it smells, or supposed to smell if things go wrong.

To judge looks is difficult in the frame of Cook-Like-a-Guy. Most of our efforts go into getting it done and getting the taste right. Presenting it on an oversized square plate, drawing smiley faces with the sauce and top the perfectly rounded rice ball with a mint leaf is just not going to happen. Unless it’s a high maintenance date, then we want to hear all the details, but you’ll have to get your recipe over there ->

Feel and sound would get all five senses engaged. And the sound of fajitas served on a hot iron skillet certainly adds to the atmosphere, but describing how that slice of pizza felt in your hand is clearly over the top.

Then there’s how difficult it is to make and the time how long it takes to prepare. How many ingredients are needed and does it need constant supervision while cooking. We want low scores here for our purposes.

Can the dish be salvaged when something goes wrong during the cooking? What happens if 3 more guests show up? And not to forget, important for the bachelor cook, can the dish be re-heated without much loss. What happens if an ingredient is missing, something not uncommon for the visitors of this site? We either didn’t have it on the shopping list, or we just forgot to take it out of the cabinet when we started.

And here’s one of my favorites: How many utensils do I need to prepare the dish? How much work is it to clean up afterwards. A single pot for stew is great, but knives, cutting boards and ladles count as well.

I haven’t come to a final conclusion, yet. Taste should be in there. You want to hear “Hmmm, that was yummy” or “I didn’t expect you can cook” as well as the scraping noise when they scrape the last pieces from the bowl. The second rating should certainly be how easy it is to make the dish and how low the chance is to create a mess. Two criteria. Sounds good to me so far.

Broccoli Stuff

 Recipes  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 292011
 

A recipe that came out of my broke early 20′s. I was living with roommates who were also usually broke, and we all lived paycheck to paycheck. I was usually the one to cook, and tried to make meals of cheap ingredients taste delicious. The most requested meal that came out of that time was a combination of broccoli, pasta, and parmesan cheese that eventually became known simply as Broccoli Stuff.

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Broccoli Stuff
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 4
 

Ingredients
  • 2-3 heads of broccoli
  • 3-4 cloves of garlic
  • 1 pound bite-sized pasta
  • 2 teaspoons butter
  • 1 teaspoon olive oil
  • Ground pepper to taste
  • ¼ to ½ cup shredded parmesan cheese (powdered won’t taste as good here)

Instructions
  1. Get a few heads of Broccoli, and break them into bite sized pieces.
  2. Fill a large pan ¾ full of water, and bring to a boil. Add a few splashes of salt, then toss in the broccoli florets. Cook for just a few minutes, long enough for the florets to green up, and the water to turn a light chartreuse.
  3. Scoop out the florets, and add the pasta – I like penne, but anything bite-sized will work. Cook the pasta until it’s al dente.
  4. In a large skillet, drizzle in the olive oil, and some minced garlic – I usually go for about 3-4 cloves – and let it start to get golden, then add in the cooked broccoli florets.
  5. Grind some pepper over the broccoli, and then add in the cooked pasta.
  6. Next, add a few pats of butter to the sides of the mixture, letting it melt down into it… mmm, butter…
  7. Toss the mixture around to get everything well-mixed.
  8. Turn off the heat, and sprinkle a good ¼ to ½ cup of parmesan over the pan, let it melt a bit, then stir it in.

Previously published in part here: http://cookingwithevil.blogspot.com/2010/03/broccoli-stuff.html

Pasta Pomodoro

 Recipes  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 282011
 

In a Hurry?
  • Cook pasta
  • Dice tomatoes, mozarella, onions
  • Cut basil
  • Mix, add olive oil, balsamico, pepper, salt
  • Pour over pasta
Many years back, I spent a month in summer in Sicily, invited by an Italian family. Among the greatest things I remember where the meals on the big table on the front porch. Of course, there were plenty of dishes I had never seen and the potential to learn a lot. But who knew that I needed those 30 years later or that I would even talk about them. One of the surprising dishes was pasta with fresh tomatoes. The tomatoes, balsamico and the basil gave the dish a light and refreshing flavor. A great meal for a summer day.

There are many variations of pasta pomodoro on the internet. Some of them are asking to heat up the tomatoes together with the onions, but using the fresh tomatoes is exactly what makes this dish a great dish to eat on a summer night on your porch. If you are feeling adventurous, don’t even saute the onions and the garlic, just add them raw. That makes it taste sharper, which might take the romance out of the meal, but it’s certainly tasty as well.

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Recipe: Pasta Pomodoro
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 4
 

Ingredients
  • 1 pound of pasta, spaghetti, penne, farfalle, your pick
  • 3 tomatoes
  • 1 medium sized onion, diced
  • 2 gloves of garlic
  • 1 cup of fresh basil, cut into strips
  • 5-8 oz mozarella (optional)
  • 3 tablespoons balsamico
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • salt
  • pepper

Instructions
  1. Boil the pasta
  2. Dice the onion
  3. Peel the garlic
  4. Saute the onions lightly and add the garlic using a garlic press
  5. Dice the tomatoes
  6. Cut the basil leaves into strips
  7. Pull the mozarella into chunks
  8. Put tomatoes, onions, basil and mozarella together in a mixing bowl
  9. Add the balsamico, olive oil
  10. Salt and pepper to taste
  11. Mix well
  12. Drain the pasta and let it sit for a moment.
  13. Serve the pasta in a bowl and top it with the pomodoro mix

Notes
If you don’t have mozarella at hand, leave it out of the base mix and just add grated parmesan when the dish is served.

 

Salsa Verde

 Recipes  Tagged with: ,
Jul 272011
 

In a Hurry?
  • Quarter tomatillos
  • Fry with diced onions, garlic and peppers
  • Blend, add cilantro, lime juice, spices
I got a small box containing about one pound of tomatillos from my CSA The Produce Box. Guess what, I’ve never seen tomatillos in my life before. I might have walked right past them at the produce stand without realizing what they were, nor did I really care. And if life hands you lemons, or tomatillos, you make salsa verde.

The tomatillos are green, about 1″ in diameter and have a husk. Removing the husk can get pretty sticky and I had to use a veggie brush to remove some of the sticky film.

I picked a large banana pepper for this recipe to keep it mild, and because I didn’t have any hot peppers. But that’s where you can add them. For the blending, you can use either a small food processor or like I did, a hand blender. I am using Cuisinart Smart Stick. The advantage of a hand blender is the fact that it is so much easier to clean them afterwards. Usually a rinse will do fine. However, you better make sure the pot or dish you are blending in has high walls and that you keep the blender upright. Otherwise, you have a lot of green flying through your kitchen and on your white t-shirt.

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Recipe: Salsa Verde
Author: 
Recipe type: Sauce
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 4
 

Ingredients
  • 1 pound tomatillos
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, sliced
  • 1 can chopped green chile (7oz)
  • 1 large banana pepper, stemmed, seeded and chopped
  • 1 cup cilantro
  • 1 lime
  • salt to taste

Instructions
  1. Remove the husks from the tomatillos. Rinse them well and cut them into pieces
  2. Fry them together with the onions, garlic, banana pepper and the chile in a pan for 15 minutes.
  3. Transfer the mix into a blender, add the cilantro, lime juice and salt and blend until smooth

 

My Cajun Spice

 Recipes  Tagged with:
Jul 252011
 

While this is a modification of Emeril’s BAM – I use it on just about everything. I’ve modified it to reduce the salt, and increase the flavor…

 

 

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Recipe: My Cajun Spice
Author: 
Recipe type: other
Prep time: 
Total time: 

 

Ingredients
  • 2½ tablespoons paprika
  • 1 tablespoons salt
  • 2½ tablespoons garlic powder
  • 1 tablespoon black pepper
  • 1 tablespoon white pepper
  • 1½ tablespoon onion powder
  • 1½ tablespoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
  • 1 tablespoon dried thyme

Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients and store in a recycled spice jar.

Pesto Genovese

 Recipes  Tagged with: ,
Jul 242011
 

I saw and tasted pesto for the first time in college. My mom didn’t make it and the Italian restaurants in my area didn’t offer it. Or I just ignored it, because I didn’t know about it. A group of students studying German stayed in the dorm for the summer. Some of them were Italian and occasionally cooked for the people who spent their summer there as well. I was among them. And they offered me some dark green mass to go with my pasta. Of course I had to taste it. Wow. It was a very intense and wonderful taste. I didn’t really know fresh basil until then either. I was impressed and eventually tried to find out how to make it. Here’s the result:

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Recipe: Pesto Genovese
Author: 
Recipe type: Sauce
Prep time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 4
 

Ingredients
  • 2 cups of basil leaves
  • ¼ cup of nuts (pistachio, pine nuts, even cashew or walnuts)
  • 3-5 cloves of garlic
  • 3 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese
  • 3 tablespoons of olive oil
  • ½ teaspoon of salt
  • ¼ teaspoon of pepper

Instructions
  1. Put the nuts and the garlic cloves into a small food chopper
  2. Pulse it a couple of times and start adding the basil leaves
  3. Add olive oil until it becomes a paste
  4. Add the grated cheese
  5. Add pepper and salt to taste.

Moussaka

 Recipes  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 242011
 

This is a rather involved recipe, but my wife loves it and I get to prepare it quite often. I originally discovered it at the southern food section of About.com. It’s a two part recipe. The first part is easy, layer a casserole dish with eggplant slices and fill it up with some ground beef mixture. See this article for some instructions how to prepare eggplants

It gets tricky for the uninitiated with part two. The first couple of times it felt more like I am doing a chemistry experiment, fearing to get the timing wrong. The first critical moment to me is already the mixing of the molten butter and the flour. It’s supposed to turn into a paste, but it usually is just a bunch of yellow clumps sizzling in the pan. And then I have to add milk. I hate hot milk. I hate the smell of milk boiling over. Who doesn’t? But that usually goes well, since you can just move the pan off the heat before it gets gross. Slowly adding the cheese is an easy step, but adding the egg to the mix is not. The eggs would quickly congeal if we just poured them into the sauce. Thus, we warm them up a little at first by adding some warm sauce into the beaten eggs. Once warm, we can pour them safely back into the mixture.

And honestly, I actually haven’t messed up the cheese sauce so far. Most of it is just stressing out, since you have to stay focused and keep moving once you get started. And the result is just wonderful. A smooth, cheesy sauce on top of your meat. Made me think of the time when I helped my dad leveling the concrete for the driveway.

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Recipe: Moussaka
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 5
 

Ingredients
  • 1 large eggplant
  • 1 pound ground beef
  • 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
  • 8 oz can tomato sauce
  • 5 oz shredded cheddar cheese
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 eggs or egg substitute
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon pepper
  • oregano
  • cinnamon

Instructions
  1. Slice the eggplant in ½” slices, prepared as mentioned above
  2. Butter a casserole dish and layer half the eggplant slices in the casserole dish
  3. Brown the ground beef in a pan
  4. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce
  5. Add minced garlic to the meat as well as salt, pepper, oregano and a dash of cinnamon
  6. Pour the mixture into your casserole dish on top of the eggplant
  7. Layer the remaining eggplants on top.
  8. Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl or use egg substitute
  9. Melt the butter in a saucepan and stir in the flour
  10. On low heat add milk slowly until it comes to a rolling boil
  11. Slowly spoon cheese into the mixture while stirring continuously
  12. Add a spoonful or two of the cheesy sauce to the beaten egg and whisk it in
  13. Now pour all of the egg mixture into the cheese sauce and stir until smooth.
  14. Pour the cheese sauce over the top layer of eggplant and smooth it with a spoon.
  15. Bake at 400F for 30 minutes

Spaetzle and Leek Casserole

 Recipes  Tagged with: , , ,
Jul 222011
 

I found this recipe by accident while looking for a Cheese Spaetzle recipe. By that time I had already some experience with casseroles and there wasn’t anything scary about baking something in the oven. We are also perfectly fine with vegetarian dishes and this one seemed perfect. What I didn’t know, was what an intense flavor leek adds to a meal. It is not as sharp as raw onions, but it gives the dish a distinctive flavor.

Note to self: Article/Rant about ethnic food pricing. $5 for one pound of noodles if your standard super market even carries it. Don’t despair. I’ve found Aldi is selling it for $2.29 or so.

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Recipe: Spaetzle and Leek Casserole
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

 

Ingredients
  • 1 pound spaetzle noodles
  • 1 large zucchini
  • 2 stalks of leek
  • 5 oz of spinach
  • 12 oz shredded swiss cheese
  • 1 table spoon butter

Instructions
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 375 F
  2. Butter a casserole dish (at least 2″ deep and needs a lid)
  3. Slice the zucchini and leeks in ¼” slices
  4. Boil the spaetzle in salt water, typically for 12-13 minutes.
  5. Drain the spaetzle and layer ⅓ of them on the bottom of the casserole dish.
  6. Next layer is half your spinach, half the zucchini.
  7. Push the half the leek slices apart into rings and add them on top.
  8. Salt and pepper this layer.
  9. Add ⅓rd of your cheese.
  10. Repeat this with another layer of spaetzle, spinach, zucchini, leeks and again cheese.
  11. You may have to push it down a bit, since your casserole dish is most likely full by now.
  12. Add the remaining spaetzle and top them with the remaining cheese.
  13. Bake it in the oven for 20 minutes, with lid on top
  14. Bake it for 5-10 more minutes without a lid
  15. Serve

Cheese Spaetzle

 Recipes  Tagged with: , ,
Jul 222011
 

Cheese Spaetzle, the German answer to Mac & Cheese with a twist. Or with onions. You’ll find this dish all over southern Germany, in a small Gasthaus or in not so fancy restaurants. It’s a quick fix if you don’t want to go for a fully featured entree. Or something used as a foundation if you are out to get some serious beer drinking done. Or get the munchies while drinking serious beer. You get the idea.

But it’s also easy to make in a hurry or in a bind and once you have the spaetzle covered, the remaining ingredients should be available in every kitchen.

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Recipe: Cheese Spaetzle
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 4
 

Ingredients
  • 1 pound spaetzle noodles
  • 1 medium-large onion
  • 8 oz Swiss or Emmentaler cheese, shredded

Instructions
  1. Boil the spaetzle in salt water, see bag for duration.
  2. Dice the onion and saute them in oil.
  3. Drain the spaetzle once they are done and put half of them in a bowl.
  4. Add one layer of onions (about ⅔rds) on top.
  5. Add one half of the shredded cheese.
  6. Add the other half of the noodles, the remaining onions and top with the remaining cheese.
  7. Serve.

Notes
Some variants call to bake the spaetzle for 20 minutes in the oven before serving. Go ahead, it won’t hurt.

Goulash

 Recipes  Tagged with: ,
Jul 222011
 

It’s strange how history influences what we eat, or where a certain dish is eaten. Just like pizza went wherever Italians went, you can find Goulash wherever the Austrian-Hungarian empire went and then some. Originally coming from Hungary it was quickly adapted throughout. It can be made cheaply and without much attention. The German speaking military calls their field kitchen goulash canons, because its properties are great to make goulash.

I grew up with goulash and it was part of my diet for many years since it’s been offered regularly in company restaurants, or as goulash soup in bars as typical bar food. This recipe uses the crock pot which is great to get the meat tender, once it’s been seared and browned a pan.

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Recipe: Goulash
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

 

Ingredients
  • 1 pound beef, diced for stew
  • 2 peppers, red preferred, but any color is fine
  • 1 large onion
  • 2 cans (14oz) of diced tomatoes
  • 3 table spoons of extra sweet paprika
  • 2 table spoons regular paprika
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • ½ tea spoon caraway seeds
  • 1 cup of water or red wine
  • olive oil
  • 3-5 cloves garlic

Instructions
  1. Heat up the crock pot on high.
  2. Dice the onion and the peppers.
  3. I prefer to slice the garlic here, but using the garlic press is fine as well
  4. Brown the beef in a pan.
  5. Drain the fat and leave some to saute the onions in.
  6. Transfer the beef into the crock pot
  7. Saute the onions and the garlic in the same pan.
  8. Add them into the crock pot.
  9. Add diced peppers and 2 cans of diced tomatoes.
  10. Add the spices.
  11. Add some water and mix thoroughly
  12. Once the mixture is boiling (takes 1 hour or so), set the pot to low heat.
  13. Cook for 5 more hours and stir occasionally
  14. Serve with boiled potatoes or noodles and a green salad

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