johndiii's Journal: Slashdot Cookbook, Chapter 1

I haven't had much time for JE's lately, but I noticed that there are a fair number of recipes floating around out there. So this is an effort to collect them. Partly for my own benefit, so that I don't lose the links. Saige gave us Spaghetti with Pecorino and Black Pepper. This looks easy and really good. I suspect the quality of olive oil and the cheese are the keys to this.

SolemnDragon posted a recipe for Chinese Pearl Balls. This one is a bit more involved, but I suspect that the results are quite worth it.

BBQ Brisket from slothdog is easy, if not quick. Be sure to read the variants in the comments, particularly the one from Cy Guy.

Saige returns with Ga Xao Bun Tau (Chicken with Cellophane Noodles), a Vietnamese recipe. I'm growing to like Vietnamese food; the city where I live has a strong Vietnamese and Chinese presence. Not what I would expect from a suburb of Dallas. But I like it.

In a comment attached to Saige's JE, Ethelraed Unraed posted a recipe for Rinderrouladen. I grew up with a lot of German food (being from Milwaukee), and this looks really good. BTW, I really like Spaetzle.

Potato Salad from eglamkowski is on my list to try in the near future. I'll have to make it when my wife is out of the house, though. One problem that I always have with potato salad, though, is getting the potatoes cooked correctly. Not too hard, not too soft. blinder adds a blinder adds a tip for this, along with his own potato salad recipe.

Saige's Turkey Burgers with Garlic and Cilantro look like a great item for summer grilling. I've really been enjoying the new Weber grill that I got for Fathers' Day (built into a small cart, with a gas charcoal starter), and these are going on it some time very soon. I'll probably double the size, since I love leftovers (and this looks like a recipe that will improve overnight), and make half with the ginger that I suggested here.

And, of course, I ought to post a recipe of my own. This is a simple one that I made up last week. The goal was a sauce that was quick, easy, and inexpensive. It's designed to be compliant with the Atkins-like diet that my wife is on (no starches or processed sugars, but pretty much unlimited fruit). The original "target" for the sauce was a half a Cure81 ham that was deeply discounted at our grocery store (I just can't pay $3.99 a pound for ham, which is the regular price, even really good ham). But I'm planning to try it with chicken or duck at some point in the near future, and it would be good with pork as well, I think.

Cherry-Orange Sauce

• Two regular (15-oz?) cans pie cherries. The tart kind are what I used, packed in water. I would avoid the ones packed in syrup; they'd likely make the sauce too sweet and/or too thick.
• One and one-half cups orange juice.
• Two tablespoons finely chopped fresh ginger.
• Two small cans mandarin oranges, drained and rinsed.

Combine the cherries, orange juice, and ginger in a medium saucepan. Bring to a boil (not too hard), and reduce by one half. After the sauce is reduced, add the mandarin oranges, and return to a simmer carefully. The mandarin oranges will disintegrate very quickly. Remove from heat and serve.

Variations:
I have not yet tried any of these, but I plan to.
Add black pepper (probably a half teaspoon, freshly ground).
Add garlic (probably two to three cloves, finely chopped), and/or onions (one small white or sweet, minced). Saute in a small amount of olive oil as the first step in the recipe. This would be particularly good with pork, I think.
Basil, oregano, or herbes de provence. Likely I will do this if I try it with duck.
Add a thickener (one to two tablespoons of corn starch, well mixed in a small amount of water), possibly decrease the ginger (to one or one and a half tablespoons), add some sugar (probably a quarter to a half cup, perhaps light brown sugar), and server over ice cream.

I may well have missed some recipes posted outside my circle of friends. Please feel free to reply with additional recipes or links (if a link, I will probably add it to the original JE).

Good idea

[blinder]

This is a good idea actually :)

If anyone ever needs/wants vegetarian/vegan advice, tips, pointers, alternatives to meat etc. just let me know! :)

Veggie

[Ethelred Unraed]

If anyone ever needs/wants vegetarian/vegan advice, tips, pointers, alternatives to meat etc. just let me know! :)

Heh -- as it happens I'm your average meat-eater, whereas my wife is a kinda-sorta-maybe vegetarian (she prefers not to eat meat, but will do so if it's put in front of her and she doesn't want to offend someone). Sometimes to keep my wife happy I make her some, for example, stir-fry with tofu or whatnot.

Thing is, I also have a friend and former colleague who's an all-out vegan. Back in the

Re:Good idea

[johndiii]

I'd love to see some vegetarian (or even vegan) recipes posted, despite not being of either of those persuations. I'm always looking for more variety in the vegetable portion of my diet. The couple of cookbooks that I have looked at just weren't very good.

Re:Good idea

[blinder]

Here are some meat-alternative products, these often make up the "foundation" of a lot of the dishes we prepare:

Quorn [marlowfoods.com]
Quorn makes chicken alternatives that are simply amazing. Everyone I know that has tried it can't believe how good this stuff is. Its based on a mushroom and was only available in Europe before the product made its way to the US. You can get it in many whole-foods markets (like Whole Foods) I really like the "tenders" and "cutlets." The patties and nuggets are great for quick meals. The la

Re:Good idea

[ces]

While I like many vegitarian/vegan dishes I've had I tend to stay away from anything with pseudo-meat in it.

For whatever reason far to many people think they've got to "substitute" for the meat in a given dish rather than coming up with something that doesn't need a meat like thing in it.

Indian and various Asian cusines like Thai and Chinese have many very good examples of meatless main dishes. In addition there are plenty of "classic" French, Italian, Mexican, Mediterrainian, etc. dishes without meat tha

Re:Good idea

[blinder]

I tend to stay away from anything with pseudo-meat in it.
why?

meat alternatives are made from either TVP, soy, grains or mushroom (or combinations).

think they've got to "substitute" for the meat in a given dish
For someone who practices what he preaches, I tend to support this in that I would rather support products that are not made by the slaughter of animals.

Indian food makes me physically ill, to me it stinks, and tastes even worse, and yes i have had *good* indian food in well respected places.

I u

Re:Good idea

[Saige]

I agree. Collecting recipes from various users' journals will make more available to those of us who read yours.

I plan on making a habit of posting recipes of various types in my journal, since I do enjoy cooking quite a bit, and like variety in my food. I've got some more vegetarian recipes I can post some time. (I say more because the Pecorino pasta is vegetarian) Perhaps I'll try and remember to post the recipe I have for Biscuit Pie with basil, plum tomatoes, and Gruyere cheese. I also made a reall

recipes

[eglamkowski]

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aloha_recipes/
rec. food.*

I could post a recipe a day if you want :-)

Re:recipes

[johndiii]

Go for it! As you can see from the title of the JE, I intend this to be a regular feature.

Blackened (sort of) Steak

[baldass_newbie]

Basic outline here [slashdot.org].
If the steak is thicker, leave it in the oven a minute or two longer.
It's called blackened, but it's usually just nicely seared.

Spaetzle

[Ethelred Unraed]

Here's the thing about Spaetzle: as far as my experience goes, in the States you really have to make them from scratch, which is a bit of a pain. You can get noodles in many American stores that claim to be Spaetzle, but in my experience they aren't even remotely close to the real thing (the worst case was they took plain flat egg noodles and slapped the name "Real Amish Spaetzle" on the label).

You can get dried Spaetzle in Germany that are pretty good, but God forbid if you say such things in front of a

Re:Spaetzle

[johndiii]

You're right about making them from scratch. I've had very good ones in German restaurants, and my father-in-law did a creditable job once (pretty good cook, despite being basically evil as a person). I haven't tried it yet, though.

Chili Challenge

[Saige]

Oh, and anyone who has a favorite recipe for Chili, get them ready... At some point I'm going to post my Chili recipe, once I get some sort of measumrement for everything I add, and see what other recipes people can toss in. I want to get a Chili lover's thread going with as many varieties and ideas as I can.

Re:Chili Challenge

[johndiii]

I'll be there for chili! Of course, that means that I will have to figure out exactly what I do - it tends to be a little different every time.

We once went to an event that was a chili cookoff and a chili-naming contest at the same time. One of the best names was for the chili that one guy brought - a can of chili in a pan - named "Richard Nixon Chili - I Am Not A Cook". :-)

And they joke about geek diets...

[SolemnDragon]

It appears that we eat pretty well, doesn't it?? I'm pretty impressed by everybody else's stuff. Thanks for pulling it together- that's really useful, actually, because my memory is awful and i kept forgetting whose recipe had the cello noodles and i wanted to try it finally. So thanks, and my recipe was only a response to everybody else's but now i feel obliged to go find another... *humming happily while i look in kitchen cabinets...*