• Life Advice & Visual Arts Welcome Guest
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
    🌌 Share Your Dreams! 🌌
    📸 15 Years of Photo Contests 📸
  • LAVA Moderator: Shinji Ikari

The Recipe Thread! Part II: Electric Mixaroo

euphoricnod said:
Johannes, don't you start with a base recipe and work upwards? I find thats the best, but yes you're right sometimes the amount, type and volume of spices you use can change. However, as I make sauces more and more I'm finding that I have a set of spices, tomatoes and what not that is pre-measured and very little changes.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I have a base that remains fairly constant. First, starting with how many people is it going to serve, that is the amount of tomato sauce used. From there, I meant that I don't use measuring cups or whatever, like you said, as I've done it more and more I pretty much know how much of everything to toss in. That list includes garlic, onion, and shallots sauteed in olive oil, fresh basil, fresh oregano, fresh parsley, (small amounts of other spices too, like thyme and marjoram), a little sugar (sometimes) and a generous portion of red wine. And of course, salt and pepper. I think I might be forgetting a thing or two.

Actually, more or less, that is the base. Those things are included 99% of the time. Occasionally its more of this or less of that, and its different when I am including meat, in the form of meatballs and/or sausage. Its cool because even though we mostly use identical ingredients, our sauces probably taste very different. My mom uses her mom's (my grandma) recipe, and I use my mom's recipe, yet all three of us make the same recipe taste different. In a blind taste test, my brothers or other family members could tell who what if given a sample of sauce made from the three of us (me, my mom, and my grandma).

Ah, how I love pasta. I'm a straight wop, so I eat it several times a week. Oh, don't even get me started on my lasagna recipe. ;)
 
Ok so this is how we're going to solve this, you will all come over to my house and make your sauces and I'll tell you whos recipe is best ;)
 
johannes, I love that your recipe for true wop tomato sauce is close to identical to the same one I've developed myself over the years. I tend to skip oregano though as I don't trust the concept of 'oregano' as a product name. I hardly trust cinnamon. Did you know that oregano can actually be one of a half dozen different plants, that merely taste somewhat similar and have somewhat similar phenolic content? Until I grow my own or find a source that knows what species the oregano is and where it really came from, I don't even bother.
 
Like has been said already...

Definitely don't used pre made tins / jars of sauce.
Use all fresh ingredients including real onions and garlic not powders.
 
*bump* for deliciousness!

I have a weakness for sauce - of any kind. One of the first things I learned when I learned how to cook was to make sauce. Unexpected guests who are hungry? Steam up some broccoli and serve it with some Alfredo sauce and pasta (ebola has a vegan variant of this which I will ask him to repost). Instant balanced, yet decadent, meal. I prepared this without the parsley this past week. Turned out perfect.

This recipe serves 4 as a side dish or 2 as a main dish. Good additions are grilled chicken, shrimp, or tofu. Adapted from somewhere along the way. Prepare to have your arteries clogged. ;)

Alfredo Sauce

1/4 cup butter (NOT margarine!)
1 cup liquid dairy of your choice (can be anything from heavy cream to skim milk; I get my best results with 2% milk)
1 1/2 cups freshly grated Parmesan, Romano, or Asiago (or any combination of the three; I get my best results from a 50/50 Parmesan/Romano mixture, asiago is too sticky)
1 - 3 cloves fresh garlic, minced/pressed (to taste)
1/4 cup fresh parsley (the recipe is just as good without it though)
Salt and pepper to taste (go easy on the salt, the cheese adds a good amount of salt)

1. Melt your butter over very low heat.
2. Once butter is melted, add dairy and whisk in slowly. Raise heat to simmer for ~5 minutes, being careful not to scald the mixture. Med-lo on most electric stoves and 1/4 in flame on gas stoves works for me, YMMV.
3. Add garlic and pepper, continuing to whisk.
4. Slowly add cheese, continuing to whisk. If you are doing it right, your sauce won't clump, the trick is to add it little by little and keep whisking.
5. Add parsley, taste, and add salt if necessary.
6. Serve over pasta, protein, or veggies of your choice, garnishing with a sprig of parsley if you like.

:)
 
Hm, sauces. I do a damn good vegan 'bolognese' with TVP, but that's one of my signature dinners. Can't be giving out all my secrets now ;)

But I do know of a darn good vegan 'chicken' gravy. Goes great with breaded and baked firm tofu fingers, mashed potatoes, or fries. If I could only figure out how to make it 'beefy', then I could have some vegetarian poutine-- one of the very few meat foods that I miss.

Vegan 'chicken' gravy, adapted from Crescent Dragonwagon's The Passionate Vegetarian

1 L (~4 cups) Veg broth (homemade is best, Knorr makes a pretty good tetra-broth)
1 head of garlic
1 onion
2 ribs of celery
1 good sized carrot
bay leaf
3 tbsp olive oil (or butter for non-vegans)
3 tbsp flour
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
sage
savoury
thyme
rosemary
(can substitute 'poultry mix' herb mix for herbs)
salt and pepper


1. In a large enough pot, bring the stock to a simmer with the onion (cut into quarters with the skin on), celery (broken in quarters) carrot (broken into thirds with the skin on) bay leaf and head of garlic (cut roughly 1/3 from the top-- as if making roasted garlic). Simmer covered for 45 minutes. If you've made a strong homemade broth, just simmer with the garlic.

2. After the 45 minutes, strain the mixture (discard the veg, keep the garlic). Set the garlic aside to cool. Once cool, squeeze the garlic cloves out of the head into the broth, and whisk to mix.

3. While the broth is boiling, prepare a basic roux. Heat the oil (or melt the butter) over low-medium low heat. Sprinkle the flour over the oil, and whisk vigorously. Let the mixture slowly cook until it turns a light golden brown. Set aside.

4. Once the garlicky broth is ready, re-heat the roux while stirring (until bubbly). While whisking, slowly pour in the broth. Keep whisking the broth for a little bit once all the stock is added to ensure a smooth gravy.

5. Now add the nutritional yeast, herbs (to taste, personally I go for 2 tsp each of the first 3 and 1 tsp of the rosemary, but YMMV), and salt and pepper to taste. If you want a velvety smooth sauce, pass it through a fine mesh strainer. If you're a non-vegan and want a 'giblet' textured gravy, add a finely chopped hard boiled egg at the last minute and stir vigorously.

Personally, I've never had real giblet gravy, but the egg adds a nice je ne sais quoi.
 
Dave said:
If I could only figure out how to make it 'beefy', then I could have some vegetarian poutine-- one of the very few meat foods that I miss.
Click to expand...

Tony Chachere's Brown Gravy mix is vegan, quite beefy in flavor, and my preferred gravy for poutine (my second favorite food)...

If you can't find it where you are, see here.

Damnit, now I am STARVING for poutine. I have everything in the house... hmmm.
 
I had to look poutine up. Here is a link for those of you that are like me and had no clue what it is.

I'm willing to try just about every thing once, but I don't know about that... The thought of it doesn't really sit in my stomach too well. :\
 
It's not light food, but it's the Quebecois national dish (more or less), and is DAMN tasty after a long day of skiing/snowboarding. I'd suggest waiting for winter to try it, unless you're really into heavy food.

Thanks for the link Mariposa! I'm not usually crazy about mixes, but I've ordered some of that and I'll try to reverse engineer it :) I've actually been working on a soy/mushroom gravy that's pretty snazzy, but just isn't quite poutine-worthy. Yet.
 
spork said:
I had to look poutine up. Here is a link for those of you that are like me and had no clue what it is.

I'm willing to try just about every thing once, but I don't know about that... The thought of it doesn't really sit in my stomach too well. :\
Click to expand...

i tried it years ago while on my first visit to canada. it looks totally disgusting, but it takes a lot like mashed potatoes w/cheese & gravy. it's pretty good, actually.
 
Jamshyd's Magical Magic Base

Ok, this is a base on which I build much of my cooking... a fusion of Indian and Mediterranean flavours with a slight Japanese influence. It basically involves all of my favourite ingredients combined to make a a sour, aromatic, and slightly spicy sauce. As with the other recipe, the amounts are approximate since I work with my sense of taste rather than number. It is vegetarian friendly substituting butter for a different fat, you can also make this vegan-friendly. It is also low-fat and salt-free!

Ingredients
- A tablespoon of butter (less or more depending on how greasy you like it)
- Several cloves of garlic (I like to use lots)
- A brown or white Onion (or more, so long as it does not overtake the garlic)
- A tiny, tiny hint of your favourite Curry
- Copious amounts of Turmeric (Enough for an unmistakable taste/smell, but not enough to go bitter - this is the main ingredient, actually... watch everthing - including the pan and your fingers - turn a delicious golden-yellow colour! See? Magic!)
- A bunch of cilantro (I use lots)
- White Wine (I usually use either Chilean or NZ Chardonnay or southern-European Suvignon-Blanc)
- Half a Lemon (fresh)
- A generous pinch of Saffron
- The finest Japanese Soy Sauce (note that Chinese is too heavy - I use Fine Kikkoman Koikuchi)
- Shiitake Mushrooms (as many as you'd like!)
- A hint of Matcha (Green Tea powder, you can use leaves if you can't find the powder)

Note that the last two ingredients serve to impart an umame flavour.

Magic!
- In a bowl, mix up approximately:
1 part soy sauce
2 parts freshly-squeezed lemon juice
3 parts white wine
4 parts water

- Chop up up the Garlic REAL GODDAM FINE (or better still, use mortar and pistil) , the Onion in stripes or half-rings, Mushrooms to your liking, and Cilantro finely.
- Heat butter in pan on medium heat, then add half of your garlic and all of your onion.
- Stir frequently until garlic and onion start taking on a slight caramel colour (note: DO NOT over-cook them!)
- Add the saffron and the curry while stirring. A sign that you've done the saffron right is that it starts to "bleed" (leaving orange stains here and there). If this doesn't happen, then you either have bad saffron or simply didn't do it right... what a waste of money ;)
- Stir more.
- Add the Cilantro, Turmeric, shrooms, and matcha.
- Stir to death until shrooms are soft.
- Add the second half of your garlic, then immediately the sauce you made above.
- Stir at low heat, then let sit.

How much you wait now is up to you. The more you wait, the thicker and more pungent it will be. If you feel it is too dry or too strong, it is ok to dilute with a bit of water.

Hint: If you actually want the alcohol flavour to remain, you might want to keep the wine till the very end.

This can be served on top of anything you like. It can be used to cook chicken, Tofu, beef, pork, and maybe even fish (but I haven't tried that yet).

----

One of my favourite applications of the above is to have it with fried noodles. Very simple, here is how:

Ingredients
- Jamshyd's Magical Magic Base
- Egg Ramen (the yellowish type)
- Butter or oil

Prepare the ramen as you generally would (boil till soft), then drain. In a big pan, heat up some fat and then add the ramen and the Magical Magic Base and fry till they become homogenous.

(giggle, he said "homo")

----

Another option is to serve on sticky rice. The stickier the better :).

----

Optional Ingredients:
- Potato
- Cherry Tomato
- More Citrus: Orange Juice, Zest, Lemon Peal, lime
- A hint of ground cloves
- Turn into a soup by adding more water, Tofu and Enoki (long, whispy-white, with tiny caps) shrooms.
- Substitute the Lemon for Malt Vinegar, but this is for truly hardcore sour-fans!

Promising but unexplored frontiers:
- Seafood (Calamari?)
- Tamarind
- Hashish

Note: I realize from the look of it that this tastes horrendously spicy. I assure you it does not if you mix the ingredients in rational amounts. The most important thing is to keep it SOUR. It is DESIGNED to be sour :).
 
Last edited:
Wow. That base looks amazing. I'd probably omit the matcha myself, since I already drink two strong bowls of the stuff a day.

And I'd bet good money that it would be super delicious with a little knob of hashish stirred in near the end. Mmmm, I can just imagine the piquant pungency infusing the smooth, spicy (but not necessarily hot) sauce. I bet it'd be great with tempeh, and served over quinoa.

/me runs to the kitchen
 
>>
Baqdunsieah (or Baqdunsiee in Lebanese Arabic).>>

Looks great! I will also make babaganouj, once I can be fucked to roast an eggplant.

Mock egg-salad:

ingredients:

~1 lb tofu (as firm as you can find. "high protein" is best. "Extra firm" is okay
~2 tbsp vegan mayonaise (I prefer Veganaise)
~1.5 tsp Dijon mustard
1 dash vinegary hot sauce (everything from Vietnamese chili sauce to Tobasco would suffice).
1 tbsp dill pickle relish OR diced dill pickles (you may sub sweet pickles or relish if you have problems. ;))
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1 tsp nutritional yeast
salt and pepper to taste
1 sprinkling parsley, fresh or dried

methods:

1. dice tofu into 1/2 in. chunks
2. mix ingredients
3. taste and adjust

modifications:

sub mashed chickpeas for tofu for mock tuna salad (it will be appropriate in texture but not taste. I would not try to approximate the taste of the worst human "food" on earth. ;)).

sub chopped seitan for tofu for mock chicken salad.

serving suggestion:

I like this in a tortilla with spinach, olives, and sriracha sauce.

ebola
 
Hehe thanks dave, I hope you enjoy :)

ebola: Sounds good! Baba Ghanouj (lit. "Mr. Promiscuous"), Tabouli, Bakdunsiee, Hummus, and at least ten other items are traditionally served in Lebanon as "Mezzi" (the mid-eastern equivalent of bar snacks - and in fact it is typical to eat these things while sipping Arak).

My favourite of all these is Kibbi Nayyi (Raw Kibbi), but I don't know how to make it. Apparently it involves grinding meat so fine with wheat so as to make a meaty dough... sounds grotesque (especially to a vegan, I imagine), but tastes heavenly... an acquired taste for sure...
 
ebola: Sounds good! Baba Ghanouj (lit. "Mr. Promiscuous"), Tabouli, Bakdunsiee, Hummus, and at least ten other items are traditionally served in Lebanon as "Mezzi" (the mid-eastern equivalent of bar snacks - and in fact it is typical to eat these things while sipping Arak).
Click to expand...

Again, America has the worst bar snacks, compared to either Lebanon or Japan. :)

My favourite of all these is Kibbi Nayyi (Raw Kibbi), but I don't know how to make it. Apparently it involves grinding meat so fine with wheat so as to make a meaty dough... sounds grotesque (especially to a vegan, I imagine), but tastes heavenly... an acquired taste for sure...
Click to expand...

Well, I am honest enough to admit that many meat dishes would still taste good. At the same time, I'd imagine that there are few meat dishes as disgusting as natto. ;)

ebola
 
I once was trying to make a fresh salsa, but didn't seed the tomatoes and it wound up being super watery. So, I made gazpacho out of it.

Rough method:

Take 3 L of botched (but still pretty tasty) watery salsa-- heavy on the cilantro and chili peppers, add a few slices of stale bread and puree with a hand blender until roughly homogeneous. Season to taste; I added more salt, pepper, cilantro, celery seed and lemon zest. Oh, and a bit of silken tofu to add a little bit of protein-- purely optional, but necessary if you want to make a meal out of it.

To serve it, you can be fancy and pass it through a strainer, or serve it rustically. Make sure that it is ice cold by keeping it in the fridge for a couple of hours before serving. Some suggest having it sit in a bowl in another bowl filled with ice and salt to get it super chilled, but IMO that's not really necessary unless it will be sitting out of the fridge for a while.

I like to add a drizzle of nice extra virgin olive oil and a sprig of whatever herb I used as a garnish in the bowl/glass in which the gazpacho is served.

But really, it's a pretty versatile method. All you really need is a watery fruit/vegetable puree, a bit of stale bread, and seasoning/herbs. I've heard of watermelon gazpacho, zucchini gazpacho, red pepper gazpacho, and so on.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top