Cookin' by the Book: The Big Dtoid Recipe Swap

RolanberryPrins

Aggressive Crybaby
May 10, 2020
40
53
18
churchcookbooks.jpg


Depending on where you live in the world and your community, you might know what those books are. However for most people they are a relic of a bygone age. That’s right, we’re talking community (normally church) cookbooks. The way this used to work is that every household in the church/community would submit a recipe – a potluck favorite, a bake sale award winner, an I-have-7-kids-and-a-farm weekday standard. The recipes would be organized and bound, and copies would be distributed back to the community. From then on, you were never alone in the kitchen. You had your neighbors’ favorite pie or your great Aunt’s wine soaked pork chop that – really Aunt Rose? Really? Isn’t that a little much?

gimmepls.gif


So by now you can probably figure out what’s up. I want the dishes. Give them to me. Bring me your cookout staples, your never-fail dinners, your three-ingredient midnight treats. We want it all. If we get to a point we have enough for a community book, we’ll throw it into a pdf and make it available for DL.

holup.png



But before you start linking me the entire BA youtube archive – some caveats. We specifically want your recipes. The actual text of what you cook and how – not “I follow this video but sub almonds for pecans and use 2/3rds the sugar” Like, that’s great fam but (besides getting into copyright stuff I don’t wanna deal with) I envision this thread as something people can bookmark and pull out their phone when they’re standing clueless in the kitchen or copy into their memos old school plaintext styles. No internet needed.

  • We would love to hear the backstory of your recipes and the modifications you’ve made but it’s not required.
  • I’ll mostly be posting in imperial and metric where I can but keep in mind kitchen scales (for gram measurements) are not common in the US. You don’t have to convert your recipes but be aware that if your recipe needs a scale that would be considered a special tool (see below)
  • Let us know the tags for your recipe early. Especially if it requires special tools, pans or techniques such as [Prins’ Follow Your Heart Spicy Meats (slow cooker/instant pot, easy, long cook time, one pot)]
  • Assume 0 knowledge and define any finicky terms ie. “Sweat your onions, basically put them in the pan over medium high heat, shoving them around until they’ve given up a lot of their moisture and a little translucent but not totally limp”
  • When using these recipes – read the whole thing first pls. Don’t start cooking, get halfway through and realize you need to let something rest for 45 minutes and dinner is in 20. Don’t be up to your elbows in batter and realize you don’t have a bundt pan. Not that that’s ever happened to me before…

Lastly – Anything goes! Don’t worry if it’s too simplistic or too niche. Post what you love to eat don’t say your partner and feel free to post as many recipes as you want. Have a soup recipe that takes three days? I’m in. Have the perfect way to spice up some boxed curry?
You have my ravenous attention.
impy.png
 

Anthony Marzano

Excel Sheet Strategy Game Enthusiast
Staff member
Robot
Apr 16, 2020
25
36
13
This is a great idea! I'll take a look through the recipes that have been handed down through my family, there should be one that won't get me excommunicated for revealing family secrets...maybe.
 

Gamemaniac3434

Fish Waifu
May 14, 2020
5
9
3
Right, so first I'm going to give my sauces for how I make pizza. If you lack any of the special tools I'm going to list here, I'd suggest checking out the video proper for how he suggests doing it. I crib heavily from both sources so if you run into issues or have questions, check them out for more advice or guidance. I can try to help too.


Heres the crust recipe I use instead of his recipe.


Heres the specialty tools you're going to need to do this:

A cast iron skillet-as the video will point out this isn't essential, but its an incredibly useful tool and you can get them for a good price.

A stand mixer-you don't need a stand mixer to do this, its just going to take a lot more muscle power to get it done.

A cooling rack-essential for baking, wire racks you allow things to cool on. Things like...pizza.

A food processor or blender-you're going to need this for making the pizza sauce. I highly, highly, HIGHLY suggest you do this. Seriously homemade sauce is great.

A sourdough starter-yeah this ones basically required for my crust. If you don't have this, you can use King arthurs guide to making one and do yourself a big favor for future or use the method in the video since he doesn't make a sourdough crust.

A pizza stone-this is an invaluable tool for cooking pizza

A glass bowl-metal etc isn't the best thing to use here, so make sure you're using a glass bowl. Glass measuring bowls are useful because they can give an easier idea of the rising of your dough

I want to remind you that if you lack any of the tools I mention, just think it through-in addition to my sources, I find part of cooking is figuring out how to use the ingredients and tools you have rather than the ideal ones.


INGREDIENTS:

DOUGH (Sourdough method)

  • 1 cup (227g) sourdough starter, unfed/discard
  • 1/2 cup (113g) lukewarm water
  • 2 1/2 cups (298g) Unbleached Bread Flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon instant or active dry yeast
TOMATO SAUCE
  • 1 28-ounce can of peeled San Marzano tomatoes
  • 2-3 cloves garlic
  • Dried oregano and basil
  • Red pepper flakes
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Olive oil (optional)
OTHER STUFF
  • A block of mozzarella cheese
  • Garlic salt
  • Lots of olive oil
  • Toppings of your choice (try to get higher quality ones for a better pizza)

So lets start with the crust. As a professional microboi I am of course enamored with using my own microbial stock of buggins. To that end I use a sourdough starter for my cooking.

Start by taking your sourdough starter out of the fridge and letting it sit until its doubled in "volume"-you want these little guys active to help the dough rise later. You'll be able to tell this is happening if you see "bubbles" forming on the side of the jar.

Now, add in 1/2 a cup to 3/4 of a cup of water to the bowl of your stand mixer-enough for everything to come together without dry clumps in the bowl during the mix. This is one of the parts of your recipe you'll have to feel out for yourself.

To this water, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast, and 1 teaspoon of KOSHER salt. Yes it matters.

Now, grab your jar of sourdough starter and mix it together with a spoon before collecting what you need. Grab a cup of this and and it to the bowl, then immediately feed the starter with about a cup of all purpose unbleached flour and 1/2 cup or more of water, mix it up till it is cohesive and then set it aside-you can fridge it at this point but if you let the yeast/bacteria repopulate the mix it'll rise faster even after storage in the fridge next time. If you do a lot of baking with your starter or plan to, this is a good method as long as you don't leave it too long as it WILL force its way out of the jar. Learn from my mistakes.

Now, add 2 and 1/2 cups of unbleached bread flour-you can use all purpose for this but I tend to find that the bread flour makes a better, stronger dough.

Attach your breadhook and allow the stand mixer to combine/knead your dough till it forms a cohesive dough ball that pulls away from the sides. It shouldn't be that sticky or moist, and should be easy to handle. Grease a large bowl (this things going to get larger over time than you might anticipate if this is your first time) with olive oil by pouring some in, wiping it all down, and drop your doughball in. Cover with saran wrap.

Now at this point, you have two options-you can put this in the fridge and let it cold ferment for up to 3 days, which can change how the pizza dough bakes to some degree and then do the next step, or you can just go right to the next step.

Take your bowl, and put it in the oven. If you have a "proofing" setting you can use this but if not, just turn the oven light on. I've seen some guides suggest cracking the door open to make sure it doesn't get too hot but my yeast never seem to mind the increased temp. Learn what your starter likes and go from there.

Let this sit for 2-4 hours, till the dough has puffed up and increased in volume. Part of baking is waiting, so make sure you're doing this in advance of when you want dinner and not at a stupid time that results in you cooking your pizza at 10 or 11 on a work night. Learn. From. My. Mistakes.

Now, once the dough has puffed up some take it out of the oven. Your pizza stone should be in place-turn your oven to 550 F-or as hot as you can get it basically. Let the oven sit at that temp for 1 hour. During this time, take your doughball and divide it into two.

Get your cast iron skillet, and pour olive oil into the bottom. Take your first doughball, and push it to the edges. Don't worry-it won't stay at the edges but after an hour sitting out it will slacken and push to the sides more easily. I would suggest rubbing olive oil onto the top as well for a better browning of the crust. Put this on a plate, add more olive oil to the pan and spread out the second doughball but leave it sit.

Cover both with saran wrap and leave until ready.

Now, grab your block of mozzarella and throw it in the freezer-30 minutes to 1 hour will suffice for it to harden up enough for easier shredding. Its important to use a block because as the video notes, pre-shredded cheese is covered in potato starch and won't cook nearly as well.

Now make your pizza sauce. Use San Marazono peeled tomatos from a 28 ounce can-yes the type is important, they have a particular taste to them. Pour these into your food processor, and then add 2-3 cloves of garlic/garlic powder, dried oregano/basil, red pepper flakes, kosher salt, and finely ground pepper. Theres no specific amounts to add here for everything but the cloves, just sprinkle as much as you feel looks/tastes right and adjust accordingly as you go on.

Pulse the mix a few times, then pour in a few glugs of olive oil, and after mix until things look uniform and not too chunky. Overmixing might make your sauce oranger than you might normally expect but this doesn't impact flavor at all.

Pour some of this in a bowl-depending on how much sauce you put on your pizza, make sure you have enough for two. The rest can be simmered on the stovetop in a pot for around 30 minutes, tossed in a jar, and fridged for a few days-I suggest making another dough ball to let it cold ferment same day, but you can wait a bit. Just keep an eye out for mold or off smells if you let it sit too long-if you see or smell that, toss it, its already ruined.

By this point, your oven should be about done. Unwrap the cast iron pizza dough, and press it to the edges. It should stay a lot better, and now you can add garlic salt to the crust. Add your pizza sauce and spread with a spoon, cover with a light layer of mozzarella cheese retrieved from the freezer and grated, and add your toppings. You can also drizzle olive oil on top for a little extra flavor and cooking.

Toss the cast iron into the oven on top of the pizza stone for 10 minutes-add or subtract time as needed for future bakes. Take out when the pizza looks done, and BE CAREFUL-cast iron heats up really well which means its incredibly hot. Use a spatula to remove the pizza, and put it on your cooling rack.

Pour in more olive oil, and add the second dough-push it to the edges but BE CAREFUL- the skillet and oil will be very hot so don't burn yourself here if its not perfect. Top the pizza same as before, and throw it in the oven for LESS TIME than the original-remember the cast iron is hot so it'll cook the pizza faster. Keep an eye on it to avoid an overly crispy pizza.

Take this out, move the first pizza onto a cutting board and the second to the cooling rack. Slice it when its cooled enough to remain cohesive after cutting, douse it in sriracha sauce and enjoy the fruits of your labor. If it doesn't taste as good as you were hoping, don't give up-just try again but adjust conditions. Part of baking/cooking is making mistakes so just try again tiil you get it right.
 

Gamemaniac3434

Fish Waifu
May 14, 2020
5
9
3
For some context for the above recipe:

I love pizza. Its basically the perfect foodstuff, and its eminently customizable. Over the years I have consistently had it as a staple but its gone through different iterations. The homemade recipes began with a ready mix of powder or premade/baked doughs. These are relatively unsatisfying however and for a long time I craved more-to make a pizza that I preferred to most restaurant pizzas.

Then came the gamechanger-using premade doughballs. While still not there in terms of what I wanted, these made good pizzas that I rather enjoyed. I would grab them from the local grocery or food co-op. But eventually friend and weatherboi Amna led me to try to make a sourdough starter. A fateful decision as it turns out I love baking and making different breadstuffs. And one of those things was pizza dough. Yet another leap forward, with an excellent dough. Yet current form still lacked...something. It was good, in my eyes. But it wasn't quite there.

It wasn't until last year that I stumbled upon Binging with Babish and it turned into a bit of a gamechanger for me as a cook. I've tried way more unique recipes, fermentations etc than I was before and at last I stumbled upon his pan pizza video. This was the final step to making pizza I thought was damn great. I've been very happy with my recent output and I'd like to share it with you that you might give it a shot for yourself

IMG_20191019_173754.jpg
 

RolanberryPrins

Aggressive Crybaby
May 10, 2020
40
53
18
If you wanted to fridge your doughballs for easy grab n go (like if you were cooking on the weekend for meals throughout the week) would you want to fridge dough pre or post proof? I know you said you can cold ferment for 3 days, but where in the process could you stop and fridge/freeze the dough for use when you needed it - or would that fundamentally change the taste?
 
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taterchimp

Member
Jun 8, 2020
25
27
13
Iowa
There's a Bosnian dish I like thats pretty easy to make called Burek.



You need phillo (get from the store, dont make yourself).

Your choice of filling - beef, cheese, potato, or any combo of the three works, so I have just been doing ground beef with onion, usually about a pound of beef for 1 pack of pre bought phillo dough. Cook it up in small chunks, then drain the fat (otherwise it will sog down the phillo dough). Good seasonings are salt, pepper, paprika, chili powder, and oregano, and garlic would play pretty well with it. Let the beef cool in the fridge until it is lukewarm at most.

In a bowl, combine some plain greek yogurt and butter in about a 1:1 ratio. It should be a thin paste, ideally.

Phillo is tricky-ish, so work quickly, and just discard torn sheets. You are going to want to make a little phillo beef burrito using two sheets at a time, so lay down the two sheets, add a thin line of beef in the center and carefully fold/roll into a log. Repeat until all the beef is used up. Then, take a log and make a spiral. Use each separate log to increase the size of the spiral more and more until you have a big ol beefy swirl. Baste the top with the yogurt/butter paste, and some flaky salt (I guess normal salt works). Bake in the oven at 400 for 20-25 minutes. The top should get a little blackened, and the dough should get crispy on the bottom.

Cut into quarters, or if you made a lot more, into pizza wedges. Serve on its own, or with sour cream and hot sauce to dip.
 

RolanberryPrins

Aggressive Crybaby
May 10, 2020
40
53
18
Pro Mom-tip for phillo dough - unfold it on a clean surface, then cover with a slightly damp towel while you work. So take a couple sheets, cover the rest with the towel, then fill/roll. This keeps the phillo from drying out and cracking. I'll see if she'll give me the recipe for bisteeya. It's an Advanced Course but its probably my favorite food ever. I'd slap Frosty in the face for it.
 
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Gamemaniac3434

Fish Waifu
May 14, 2020
5
9
3
If you wanted to fridge your doughballs for easy grab n go (like if you were cooking on the weekend for meals throughout the week) would you want to fridge dough pre or post proof? I know you said you can cold ferment for 3 days, but where in the process could you stop and fridge/freeze the dough for use when you needed it - or would that fundamentally change the taste?

Probably pre proofing generally-the dough won't expand much over three days of fridge sitting and you'll want the dough to remain cohesive enough to work with. Beyond that it'll be ok even a few days extra but it might impact how workable your dough is and how it rises etc. I'd also potentially caution against freezing, because that will likely kill some percentage of the population of yeast and potentially impact rising I imagine.
 

RiffRaff

Human Person, Maybe
Robot
May 11, 2020
404
394
63
Italy
Right, so first I'm going to give my sauces for how I make pizza. If you lack any of the special tools I'm going to list here, I'd suggest checking out the video proper for how he suggests doing it. I crib heavily from both sources so if you run into issues or have questions, check them out for more advice or guidance. I can try to help too.


Heres the crust recipe I use instead of his recipe.


Heres the specialty tools you're going to need to do this:

A cast iron skillet-as the video will point out this isn't essential, but its an incredibly useful tool and you can get them for a good price.

A stand mixer-you don't need a stand mixer to do this, its just going to take a lot more muscle power to get it done.

A cooling rack-essential for baking, wire racks you allow things to cool on. Things like...pizza.

A food processor or blender-you're going to need this for making the pizza sauce. I highly, highly, HIGHLY suggest you do this. Seriously homemade sauce is great.

A sourdough starter-yeah this ones basically required for my crust. If you don't have this, you can use King arthurs guide to making one and do yourself a big favor for future or use the method in the video since he doesn't make a sourdough crust.

A pizza stone-this is an invaluable tool for cooking pizza

A glass bowl-metal etc isn't the best thing to use here, so make sure you're using a glass bowl. Glass measuring bowls are useful because they can give an easier idea of the rising of your dough

I want to remind you that if you lack any of the tools I mention, just think it through-in addition to my sources, I find part of cooking is figuring out how to use the ingredients and tools you have rather than the ideal ones.


INGREDIENTS:

DOUGH (Sourdough method)

  • 1 cup (227g) sourdough starter, unfed/discard
  • 1/2 cup (113g) lukewarm water
  • 2 1/2 cups (298g) Unbleached Bread Flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon instant or active dry yeast
TOMATO SAUCE
  • 1 28-ounce can of peeled San Marzano tomatoes
  • 2-3 cloves garlic
  • Dried oregano and basil
  • Red pepper flakes
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • Olive oil (optional)
OTHER STUFF
  • A block of mozzarella cheese
  • Garlic salt
  • Lots of olive oil
  • Toppings of your choice (try to get higher quality ones for a better pizza)

So lets start with the crust. As a professional microboi I am of course enamored with using my own microbial stock of buggins. To that end I use a sourdough starter for my cooking.

Start by taking your sourdough starter out of the fridge and letting it sit until its doubled in "volume"-you want these little guys active to help the dough rise later. You'll be able to tell this is happening if you see "bubbles" forming on the side of the jar.

Now, add in 1/2 a cup to 3/4 of a cup of water to the bowl of your stand mixer-enough for everything to come together without dry clumps in the bowl during the mix. This is one of the parts of your recipe you'll have to feel out for yourself.

To this water, you can add 1/2 teaspoon of instant yeast, and 1 teaspoon of KOSHER salt. Yes it matters.

Now, grab your jar of sourdough starter and mix it together with a spoon before collecting what you need. Grab a cup of this and and it to the bowl, then immediately feed the starter with about a cup of all purpose unbleached flour and 1/2 cup or more of water, mix it up till it is cohesive and then set it aside-you can fridge it at this point but if you let the yeast/bacteria repopulate the mix it'll rise faster even after storage in the fridge next time. If you do a lot of baking with your starter or plan to, this is a good method as long as you don't leave it too long as it WILL force its way out of the jar. Learn from my mistakes.

Now, add 2 and 1/2 cups of unbleached bread flour-you can use all purpose for this but I tend to find that the bread flour makes a better, stronger dough.

Attach your breadhook and allow the stand mixer to combine/knead your dough till it forms a cohesive dough ball that pulls away from the sides. It shouldn't be that sticky or moist, and should be easy to handle. Grease a large bowl (this things going to get larger over time than you might anticipate if this is your first time) with olive oil by pouring some in, wiping it all down, and drop your doughball in. Cover with saran wrap.

Now at this point, you have two options-you can put this in the fridge and let it cold ferment for up to 3 days, which can change how the pizza dough bakes to some degree and then do the next step, or you can just go right to the next step.

Take your bowl, and put it in the oven. If you have a "proofing" setting you can use this but if not, just turn the oven light on. I've seen some guides suggest cracking the door open to make sure it doesn't get too hot but my yeast never seem to mind the increased temp. Learn what your starter likes and go from there.

Let this sit for 2-4 hours, till the dough has puffed up and increased in volume. Part of baking is waiting, so make sure you're doing this in advance of when you want dinner and not at a stupid time that results in you cooking your pizza at 10 or 11 on a work night. Learn. From. My. Mistakes.

Now, once the dough has puffed up some take it out of the oven. Your pizza stone should be in place-turn your oven to 550 F-or as hot as you can get it basically. Let the oven sit at that temp for 1 hour. During this time, take your doughball and divide it into two.

Get your cast iron skillet, and pour olive oil into the bottom. Take your first doughball, and push it to the edges. Don't worry-it won't stay at the edges but after an hour sitting out it will slacken and push to the sides more easily. I would suggest rubbing olive oil onto the top as well for a better browning of the crust. Put this on a plate, add more olive oil to the pan and spread out the second doughball but leave it sit.

Cover both with saran wrap and leave until ready.

Now, grab your block of mozzarella and throw it in the freezer-30 minutes to 1 hour will suffice for it to harden up enough for easier shredding. Its important to use a block because as the video notes, pre-shredded cheese is covered in potato starch and won't cook nearly as well.

Now make your pizza sauce. Use San Marazono peeled tomatos from a 28 ounce can-yes the type is important, they have a particular taste to them. Pour these into your food processor, and then add 2-3 cloves of garlic/garlic powder, dried oregano/basil, red pepper flakes, kosher salt, and finely ground pepper. Theres no specific amounts to add here for everything but the cloves, just sprinkle as much as you feel looks/tastes right and adjust accordingly as you go on.

Pulse the mix a few times, then pour in a few glugs of olive oil, and after mix until things look uniform and not too chunky. Overmixing might make your sauce oranger than you might normally expect but this doesn't impact flavor at all.

Pour some of this in a bowl-depending on how much sauce you put on your pizza, make sure you have enough for two. The rest can be simmered on the stovetop in a pot for around 30 minutes, tossed in a jar, and fridged for a few days-I suggest making another dough ball to let it cold ferment same day, but you can wait a bit. Just keep an eye out for mold or off smells if you let it sit too long-if you see or smell that, toss it, its already ruined.

By this point, your oven should be about done. Unwrap the cast iron pizza dough, and press it to the edges. It should stay a lot better, and now you can add garlic salt to the crust. Add your pizza sauce and spread with a spoon, cover with a light layer of mozzarella cheese retrieved from the freezer and grated, and add your toppings. You can also drizzle olive oil on top for a little extra flavor and cooking.

Toss the cast iron into the oven on top of the pizza stone for 10 minutes-add or subtract time as needed for future bakes. Take out when the pizza looks done, and BE CAREFUL-cast iron heats up really well which means its incredibly hot. Use a spatula to remove the pizza, and put it on your cooling rack.

Pour in more olive oil, and add the second dough-push it to the edges but BE CAREFUL- the skillet and oil will be very hot so don't burn yourself here if its not perfect. Top the pizza same as before, and throw it in the oven for LESS TIME than the original-remember the cast iron is hot so it'll cook the pizza faster. Keep an eye on it to avoid an overly crispy pizza.

Take this out, move the first pizza onto a cutting board and the second to the cooling rack. Slice it when its cooled enough to remain cohesive after cutting, douse it in sriracha sauce and enjoy the fruits of your labor. If it doesn't taste as good as you were hoping, don't give up-just try again but adjust conditions. Part of baking/cooking is making mistakes so just try again tiil you get it right.
That dough recipe is basically the same as I use. Well done :) Italian approved!
 
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RiffRaff

Human Person, Maybe
Robot
May 11, 2020
404
394
63
Italy
This is a copy/paste of one of my recipes from the other food thread. Too lazy to type out a recipe right now. But I do love to cook (used to professionally for 20 years, now it's just a hobby I'm passionate about). I love simple Italian foods, especially pasta, and vegetables so if you have any requests, just ask.

20200525_201434 (2).jpg


And here's the recipe:
For the 'Tzatziki' sauce:
2 cucumbers peeled and diced
1 onion (red or white will do) sliced (or diced if you prefer smaller pieces)
2-3 cloves of fresh garlic minced
400g plain yogurt (I tried with Greek yogurt and it's a bit too thick, plain works best)
salt and fresh course ground pepper (I love black pepper, so I like to go heavy here. White pepper is also nice as well.)
(This will get you about 3 rounds with about 250g of pasta. Stores fine for about 5-6 days)

The rest (for 1, 2 person serving)
250g of pasta (short, tubey pastas work best. Like Fusilli, Penne rigati, and Ziti rigati)
A bunch of cherry tomatoes (or similar small tomato) sliced in half
A bunch of Kalamata olives (or whatever black olives are available)
100g of Feta cheese diced or crumbled

Method:
For the sauce just toss it all in a bowl and mix. I recommend preparing this a few hours in advance to let the flavors marry.
To make the cucumbers even tastier, as you dice them spread them in a layer on top of a paper towel, sprinkle with a little salt, cover with a paper towel, and make another layer till all the cucumber is salted and sandwiched with paper towel. Let sit for about 30 min and then rinse with cold water.

For the pasta, cook it till it's al dente. Drain and chill. If you want the best way to chill your pasta, don't dump a bunch of cold water on it. Instead drain it in the colander and then pour water on the empty pot to cool it off, then put the pasta back in the cool pot and fill your sink with cold water with the pot with the pasta in it and toss the pasta in the pot till cool. This will prevent you from washing away all that sticky starch that makes it tasty and helps the sauce stick to the pasta. Of course if you just want to give the pasta a cold bath that's fine too as the dry cool method is kind of a pain in the ass.
Combine 1/3 of the 'Tzatziki sauce' and the rest of the ingredients. Mix well. Enjoy!
 
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RolanberryPrins

Aggressive Crybaby
May 10, 2020
40
53
18
Prins’ Follow Your Heart Spicy Meats

needs: ample cooking time (20 min + 6 hours, with a bit of intervention halfish way through), a crock pot or instant pot, blender or immersion blender


This is kind of a loosey-goosey, easy-breezey kind of recipe that has never done me wrong. It makes many days worth of meats (more on that later) and is very flexible with the spice mix. Customize it however you want! That’s what makes it a Follow-Your-Heart dish. Think the chili powder is too low – bump it up! Have some jalapeno powder? Throw it in! Love the complexity of some smoked paprika? Shine on you crazy diamond. The recipe is originally for a pork roast. Only have beef? I’ve done it, it’s delicious. Chicken? Tasty af. Tukey? Yes please. You wanna forget meat all together and throw in big chunks of root veg? Heirloom carrots, parsnips and the like? I mean, I’ve never done it and you might need to adjust the cook time but I’m into it. Go for it! Though I would recommend only changing one big thing at a time – don’t completely change the spice mix AND go full veg at the same time, if it’s rank you won’t be able to tell what exactly fucked things up.


spicymeats.jpg


I wasn't kidding when I said this was scribbled on the back of an old receipt. And it's missing...a lot. And that tells you how flexible this recipe is. Where’s the adobo? What meat am I supposed to use? WHERE’S THE BEER. None of that matters, as long as the center holds.



Ingredients:


Stuff that isn’t on the list:

Meatstuffs of your heart’s desire – I like a big hunk of pork roast, no I can’t tell you the exact cut. It has a nice layer of fat on one side that is instrumental in making some nice pulled pork, but I do trim any other big chunks of fat. It’s a habit. Don’t @ me.

One can chilies-in-adobo – if you’re sensitive to heat...I’m sorry this is a spicy meats recipe I don’t know what you expected. But you could pull the chilies out and remove any wayward seeds to make it less hot. But I don’t because I’m lazy. And I don’t want waste that adobo by smearing it on my cutting board. This is absolutely not an optional ingredient.

A can of beer – I normally get a tall boy of Tecate or a bottle of Dos Equis Amber. Not too light, not too dark. If you are alcohol-less then chicken or whatever broth (low sodium) would work. Water is fine too.


Stuff that is on the list but deserves some explanation:

1 onion, white – uh. so. Use however much onion you need to cover the bottom of the crock pot. 1 honkin big one or a couple mediums. Hell, I’ve even used a bag of frozen pearl onions that I had deep in the back of the freezer. Follow Your Heart my friend. Don’t get to fancy about it either. A peel and a rough quartering are all you need to do. Tickle it a bit and break it up so it’s not all stacked in layers any more. You could also slice it into thick rounds but uh, that takes more time and in this kitchen we are lazy and we call it efficiency. Oh but if you’re going the frozen pearl onion route just dump those bad boys right in the pot. Fuck it.


The Spice Mix

1 tablespoon cumin

1 tablespoon chili powder (it can be chipotle if you’re sassy)

1 teaspoon onion powder

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon oregano

salt n pepper to taste (though this could go on the meat if you’re feelin fancy see: meat prep)


In a small bowl, mix the spices together. Smell them. I’m not kidding. Smell them (don’t like, huff them though that shit is not kind to mucus). It should smell appetizing. If it smells like it’s “missing” something – add it! I would urge you to focus more on smokey/spicy tastes (smoked paprika, jalepeno powder) than sweet (nutmeg) or dry (rosemary) tastes. But a dash of cinnamon might be delicious! A couple pieces of super dark chocolate – classique! Follow. 👏 Your. 👏 Heart. 👏 I’ve been known to dash in some turmeric. The zest of a small orange sounds great right about now. And don’t go massive. Little tweaks. A dash here, a pinch there. A smidge more oregano, some cracked red pepper flakes. Make the recipe straight once just to get a feel for what the baseline is then just go ham on it the next time (see what I did there, “go ham”? it’s a pork dish? Okay fine)


Meat Prep

If you wanna be classy and good at cooking you could salt your meat and let it rest while you prep all the other ingredients and the pot. Salt does magical things to meat. Or you could take it straight from your freezer, let it sweat on the counter for the 5 minutes it takes you to rummage around in a spice drawer and then put it in the crock half frozen while sprinkling the salt from on high like salt bae. I’ve done it, I’m still alive, twas tasty. Though only go the frozen route if you are also going the low n’ 6 route.


Building it bigger

Once your spices have been mixed to your satisfaction, slather it on your meat. Really rub it in, getting all sides and every nook and cranny. Then nestle that baby (fat side down) into the crock pot on top of your quartered onion. Don’t worry about it touching the bottom of the pot, in fact I recommend it doesn’t. Don’t worry if it looks to dry at this point. The onion will give up a lot of moisture and the fat will rend. Oh! But do dump the whole can of chilies in. All of it. I like to drop it straight on the meat. Throw a couple cloves of peeled garlic in there if you’re not a vampire and cover that sucker up.

The meat will cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4. I recommend, especially the first time, just going with low for 6. Half way through, if possible, flip the meat. Add a can of Tecate or other amber beer (or half a tall boy so you can have some too) sometime in the last half. Whenever you remember or whenever you flip the meat. Wait impatiently until it is done.

Oh, you need an exact measurement on that beer cause you’re subbing with broth? Uh...I dunno? 2 cups? It should come up the sides of the meat a bit. This is the braising phase, if that helps.


Wait, you’re not finished.

At this point your entire kitchen should smell delicious. But we’re not through. Power through it. Carefully remove the pork/meat from the crock pot and transfer to a cutting board (or rimmed baking sheet. I recommend the baking sheet). The pork should be cooked through and pliable enough to pull. Pull it. Meanwhile, the cooling jus in crock pot should start to separate out into liquid fat and liquid gold. Once your pork is pulled, go back to the pot and use a spoon to skim off any fat. That big pad of fat from the roast should have fallen off when you took the pork out so pick that out too. Toss the fat. Don’t worry about getting every last bit of it but do get any big pieces. Now, depending on your tools you have a couple options. Use a ladle to scoop out the jus, onion, chilies etc into the hopper of your blender. Make sure there is sufficient liquid in there but do not over fill. Blend in batches until you have a thick sauce. If you have a powerful immersion blender you can do this inside the crock pot. With your pork in either the rimmed baking sheet or other receptacle (I use a long, high walled tupperware because I know I can’t eat all of it at once) pour the blended jus over the pork and toss to combine.


Use these spicy meats in tacos, over rice, in a sloppy-joe like bun the possibilities are endless. I love them in a tortilla with some chopped onion and cotija cheese. The meat-in-sauce will keep in the fridge for a while and tastes better the second day onwards if you can believe it.



Adapting it to the instant pot

In an abundance of caution I would say don’t. Pressure cookers are no joke. BUT if you are determined to proceed. 1. Don’t use frozen meat, I know what I said earlier but no 2. Build the pot like normal but add your beer/broth immediately. NEVER try to cook something in an instant pot without liquid. Maybe try and find a similar recipe for a pork or pot roast and follow their guides for liquid, temp and cook time. Let me know how it turns out.
 

RolanberryPrins

Aggressive Crybaby
May 10, 2020
40
53
18
Here's a quick mug cake recipe if you want something sweet but don't want to dirty a bunch of dishes....or wait for something to bake for longer than 2 minutes.

It's Midnight and I Want Something Sweet Mug Cakes

Ingredients

1/4 cup (c) flour
2 tablespoons (tbl) unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon (tsp) baking powder
2 tbl sugar
1/8 tsp salt
optional: a dash of instant espresso

1/4 c + 1 tbl milk
2 tbl vegetable oil

notes: milk or milk substitute, I've never tried it with straight water but lemme know. vegetable oil can be any but if you go for olive oil or other strong flavored oil the taste might come through so canola or neutral tasting would work best.

Instructions

Whisk all dry ingredients (the first section), then mix in the wet and stir until completely incorporated - no dry spots AT ALL. This is very important especially with that baking powder. If some of that baking powder is raw you're going to have some bitter bites. This is why you should combine everything in a different container and then pour it into your mug (so that stray bits of dry ingredients don't get caught in the edges) but uhh....I don't. Just stir it as much as you can stand. If you have a tiny spatula it makes it easier but meh. Spoons work. Once everything is wet, pour it into your mug if it's not there already. This is where you can add a BONUS! Either a spoonful of hazelnut spread (think nutella) or peanut butter or chunks of chocolate, whatever you fancy. Just add it to the top and let it sink. Or don't. I'm not your boss. Put a paper towel down in your microwave to catch any overflow but I've never had a problem with it. Then again we have soup bowls for mugs because coffee is blood in this household. Microwave for around 70 seconds or until no wet spots remain on the top of the cake. Enjoy!