Topic: Who here cooks?

[Antares]

If so, post some of your favorite/best recipies.  I love to grill and make good marinades, but I tend to just improvise with whatever happens to be around at a given time.  Here's the basics for an an apple and cheese stuffed chicken breast that I like to make.

Ingredients:

• Boneless Chicken Breasts
  
• Apple(s) - I prefer the granny smith green variety
• Mozarella Cheese

Cube the apples as well as the cheese, mix together in a bowl and either pound the chicken flat and roll cheese and apple inside and hold with a toothpick, or slice the chicken breast in the middle and fill with cheese and apple.  Place remaining cheese and apples on the top and bake in a pan at 400 degrees for around 40 minutes (or however long it takes to bake chicken...)

Technically after the chicken comes out of the over you're supposed to do something with the juice at the bottom of the pan to thicken it into sauce, but I have no idea how to do it, so I usually just spoon some of it over the chicken.

I usually eat this with Brocolli and mashed potatoes, but It should go well with just about anything.

[TheOtherBelmont]

Damn that sounds pretty good, I'll have to try making some when I'm not too lazy to cook it.  I cook occasionally but I don't really have any recipes, I cook simple stuff like tacos, sloppy joes, hamburgers, spaghetti, chili, and some other stuff, so nothing to share really.

[Ghandi]

Fresh tomatoes, onion and green pepper (all diced), cilantro, lime juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. Add hot peppers to desired hotness. Eat with chips.

[scottws]

The most complicated thing I ever made was a pepperoni pizza bagel.  I also made jambalaya once but it was really bland.

[Antares]

mmm... I never really considered making my own salsa.  Based on that it doesn't look very hard either.  I'll have to try it out one of these days.

[ScaryTooth]

I love to cook. We actually mess around a lot in the kitchen. I made one of my favorite things ever tonight. Pot Roast! I made it in a slow cooker.

3 pounds of good stew meat. Or 3 pounds of good rump roast.
1 whole onion
3 or so stalks of celery
3-4 potatoes
1 package of baby carrots

Basically. You put the celery, and the onion in the cooker. Don't add the potatoes and carrots until later. As it will cook down to much. Throw in your meat. If it stew meat, mix it up, if it's a roast, just sit it on top. Cook on high for about 5-6 hours. At about hour 3 you add the potatoes and carrots. use whatever seasoning you like. I personally just like kosher salt, and black pepper.

It was delicious. I also like to make Shredded BBQ chicken with it. 3 skinless, boneless chicken breast. Wash it, put it in the cooker. Coat it with your favorite BBQ sauce. Or make your own. Whatever you like. Put it on high for 3 hours. around hour 2 you should be able to shred the chicken with a spoon or fork. Throw it on some kind of bun. Good sammich.

[shock]

I just made my most complicated dish yet: Noodles with vodka sauce and a ton of spinach.  It was really damn good. I think I am going to add some mushrooms next times.

[Quemaqua]

I love me a good pot roast.  And yeah Ant, your apple chicken sounds delicious.  Have to try that sometime.  We actually do a lot of cooking here, and since Julia gets tired easily and has all her physical issues, it comes to me to cook an awful lot.  Fortunately, I greatly enjoy it, so it isn't a problem.  I think I cook at least twice a week, sometimes more.  Just sort of depends.

I do a lot of winging it, though.  I don't have a lot of bonafide recipes because I rather enjoy variations on things and just using what's in the house, but I do a lot of pseudo-stir fries, beef stroganoff (generally over noodles, but sometimes rice... last time we put it over mashed potatoes), some casseroles... uh... hmm.  It's funny, because I cook all the time, but I honestly can't think of much in particular I do frequently or that's really a favorite (outside of breakfast stuff, which we do a lot of).  Plus a lot of times Julia starts cooking stuff and I just hang out, which almost always turns into me doing the work just because I don't like standing there and she never minds me taking over.

[JacksRag(e)]

I've been practicing this Chicken Karaage (Japanese fried chicken) recipe lately.  Trying different ingredients to see what works best.

1 or 2 Boneless chicken breast or thighs cut into cubes or small chunks, whatever your preference.
half a tsp of salt
2 tbsp of soy sauce
1 tsp rice wine or sake (this part is up to you)
1 tsp garlic powder or 2 cloves of finely minced garlic
1 tsp sesame oil
about half a cup of corn starch.

Add all the ingredients minus the starch together and let the chicken pieces marinade for a little while (half an hour, at least)  The longer you marinade, the better the chicken tastes.
Then coat the chicken in corn starch and deep fry it.  Drop the chicken in while the oil is at around 160 degrees or so.  When it floats up, pull it out of the oil and let it sit for about 2 minutes.  Then let the oil heat up a little more (at around 180 degrees) then deep fry till it's golden brown and crispy.  And that's it!

This double frying method makes the chicken come out crunchier and tastier.  It's simple and fried.
You can do simple things to it to try out different methods, too.  Like adding All Spice to the corn starch.  Trying different rice wines and sakes, it all adds up to deliciousness.
Another thing you can try to change the consistency of the crunch is to use about 2 parts flour to 3 parts corn starch.  Or differing ratios.

A simple dessert is banana and manga egg rolls.
Basically just chop and dice up bananas and mangos into spoonable portions.  Mix them together and get some egg roll wrappers.  These wrappers should be somewhat long and squarish...about six or so inches long and wide.  Just cut them into two triangles.  Scoop the banana manga mix into one corner, fold the sides and roll towards the other corner.  You should try to make them a little bit skinny, gives them a good crunch and you don't want to over-fill the egg rolls.  Since the filling isn't raw, you can fry them up pretty quickly.  Then serve them with nutella as a dipping sauce.  It's awesome.
They do get soggy rather quickly because of the filling, so try to prepare them an hour before they're to be eaten.  They taste great warm.

[Pugnate]

Boiled Angry Keebler. Tastes like shit, but the boiling part is fun.

[Antares]

wow jack, that makes me wish I had a fryer, those both sound good.  I always surprises me how easy stuff can be and still be delicious.

[JacksRag(e)]

You don't even need a fryer.  All this can be done with a wok or something deeper than a frying pan.  Like a pan that's maybe 2 or 3 inches deep, or even a pot.  That's what I use to cook them in.  The results are still the same.  Crispy deliciousness.  Frying in corn or vegetable oil is the simplest way.  Cooking it in some olive oil gives it a more pungent aroma with a bit of a richer taste, I've noticed.  Peanut oil is good to use, too.

And one way to keep eggs from splattering when you fry them is to add some corn starch or flour to the oil before cooking the egg.  It keeps the oil from splattering and it gives the egg a crispy outer edge and whatnot.

As you can tell, I like crispy things.

[Ghandi]

Ah, thanks for the egg tip. I cook eggs every morning - I use butter instead of oil but I'm sure that the end result of adding the flour is the same.

As for the frying, I can attest to the deep pan method. Vegetable oil has worked best in this situation, although corn oil is healthier I believe.