experimentation in ze kitchen

[cosmo105]

and i don't mean of the naked kind. not that there's anything wrong with that.


do you ever find yourself without a set plan for a meal, with a kitchen full of ingredients just aching for a home? when you have a basic knowledge of techniques and flavors, it's easy to toss together something halfway decent from odds and sods. when it comes out fantastic, well, you've got yourself a new recipe.

i always keep on hand some frozen vegetable mixes - i really like trader joe's Nasi Goreng rice dish. i think it's indonesian. it's rice, carrots, pea pods, and mushrooms, and it makes a great stir-fry base. i added frozen peas and corn, and found i had some frozen tofu. (when you freeze and then thaw tofu, it takes on a really mealy, chewy texture. it makes great "tuna" salad.) i stir-fried all of this together in a little hot oil, and added spices - some turmeric, some coriander, some nutmeg, a dash of cayenne. then i remembered i had a coconut in the fridge just begging to be used. i had no idea what to do with it, and bought it on a whim, so i figured now was as good a time as any. after some struggling, matt got it open (speaking of which, how do you open/use coconuts? i'm a coconut n00b :o), and i poured some of the juice straight into the pan. realizing it was becoming a thai dish, i poured on more turmeric, and added a dash of salt and pepper.

when all was said and done, it was one of the best new meals i've made myself in a long while.

what are some of your mad scientist moments that have come out better than you expected? :)

[CJM]

well, i'm a lazy person when is come to making food. i love eating, but i'm impatient. one time, though, i was cooking eggs (over-easy)for some friends the morning after. i toasted up some bread, and at the last moment i decided to bake some hash-brown patties, and melt cheese onto the eggs. it made a damn good sandwich.


and one time i was making chili, and wasn't sure about the spices to use (after second thought, this happens every time i make chili), so i mixed in the spiciest i could find. i always put it into the fridge for a day before eating it (i prefer a thick texture for my chili). i must admit, i make a damn good chili.



er.....i hope you didn't want these cooking stories to be animal-friendly, and yeah, these are weak stories.

[Lorentzson]

Sometimes when noone has gone shopping for a while there are mostly tins and cans left.
We always have either rice or noodles at home so I usually make this chinese wok using pretty much anything I can find.

I boil the noodles/rice, and heat up my wok-pan. Then i start to rip out anything that I can find. Don't know all the names in english but: tomatoes, carrots, onions, shrimps (if im lucky).
(I use much more, it's just, these are all the names i could think of).
I chop everything into small bits and wok them with some oil. When the noodles are done I de-water them and pour all the veggies and noodles in a big bowl. I make some gravy with tabasco, soy sauce and some other stuff and pour it in the bowl. (y)

[cosmo105]

i had a recipe for sauteed collard greens and tomato that called for dry mustard, which i did not have. so i messed around a bit, and crushed some white pepper in my mortar, and added a little turmeric (probably could have done without it but eh), garlic powder, and a dash of cayenne. doused it with lemon juice while it was sauteeing, and when it was done sprinkled nutritional yeast and roasted garlic nuggets over it. it was quite tasty.

[hitmonlee]

i made up my own sauce recipe and everyone was genuinely impressed (y)

i cooked chicken schnitzel in a pan, then put them in the oven to keep them warm. melted some butter in the pan, added garlic, fried the garlic. added some french mustard and stirred until it was smooth. added some white wine and lemon juice, brought to the boil. once that had boiled i added some salt and pepper and then some cream. brought to the boil, then reduced it to a simmer until the cream reduced.

the result was a creamy/lemony/mustary/garlicy sauce. yum!

[jabumbo]

i very rarely use recipies when i cook. most times i don't need it for what i am making, but even when i do look something up for an idea of what to do with said ingredients i usually just fudge my way through since i usually don't have all the right stuff anyway...

i've only had one bad esperience with this, which was when i had a can of bean sprouts in a stir fry type dish while using sesame oil.

generally i pull out what i have, and end up frying some sort of meat and mixing some veggies together and putting it over pasta/rice/lettuce. i think my best was when i used some leftover sweet and sour sauce and mixed it with some chicken and whatever veggies i had and had that over rice. it smelled so good too.

[abcdefz]

If only we'd written the ingredients down...

I was camping on the Oregon coast with a friend, which was a great time in and of itself. But we wound up getting high, then hitting this local store and grabbing whatever sounded good -- clams, potatoes, other vegetables, some herbs and spices... Went back to the campsite and made a fire, put the clams in foil and then put everything else in a big old pot. I'm not usually a big fan of soups or stews or whatever, but this was just awesome. Even while we were eating it, we were saying we wished we had written everything down.