Psycho's Crazy Recipes

psycho_666 · June 10, 2017, 12:24am

024. Pork with Vegetables.

Yeah, it's literally just oven baked meat and vegetables.

So I wanted to make Banitsa today. After another crap day at work, I decided to skip it and do something fast and easy. I already had some pork, had a zucchini from yesterday, got some mushrooms today, had some carrots from God knows when, had a few cloves of garlic left from yesterday... Basically what people call "leftovers".

Everything diced on large pieces, basically bite sized, mix up everything, add spices and vegetable oil and put in the oven with some water...

That's all there is to it... Chop and throw in the oven. And then eat...

OK, next time - traditional Bulgarian banitsa...

psycho_666 · June 11, 2017, 12:40am

Oh, lucky you... I'm going in a series of traditional cuisine...
025. Banitsa.

So that's easy enough to make as long as you have one specific crucial ingredient...
We usually use this as either breakfast in the morning, snack during the day or desert after dinner. So we eat it all the time basically. You can walk around any Bulgarian town, village or city and you can always find a place, that sells those things... So yeah... It's like hot dog or burger for the American people.
So here we go.

So, the two main ingredients - eggs and white cheese we mix up together. I usually just break the white cheese with my hands, but if you wish, you may chop it up or grate it or whatever...

What's in the pack? Well, that's the tricky part...
It's dough sheets. Very thin dough sheets. You know lasagna? Similar, just raw dough, thinner, much thinner and larger. Much. Larger...
Oh, I didn't know I've gotten those ones...

Those aren't completely raw, they are baked, but aren't completely baked either. They are somewhere in the middle. There are baked spots, and there are raw spots as well...

Keep in mind it's a simple dough sheet. You can make it at home and use it even completely raw.
Now, the trick here is the shapes.
If you have a round baking tray, you may want to roll it up and spiral it out from the middle. However, I have rectangular tray. Here you have many many different options. You may use each sheet as a layer, similar to lasagna. It will work. Or...
Triangle. You need a square sheet for that.

A thin layer of cheese and egg all over...

Fold up to a triangle shape.

Long roll...
Put some at the end, roll the edges, then roll the rest...

Now put them all in a baking tray, put some vegetables oil or fat or something in and bake for a bit.

Baking is not really an issue. The sheets are thin dough, the only thing, that actually needs serious cooking is the egg, and an egg doesn't really need a lot of cooking anyways.
My favorite type is the lasagna-like layered one. But the triangle and the rectangular one, the ones I am making currently, you can buy almost everywhere in Bulgaria. So I made the most popular ones.
People here eat it with yogurt, airan (yogurt, mixed with water and ice, so it's both easy to drink and cold and refreshing in the hot summer) or Boza, that I can't really explain what it is...
Anyways...

OK, if everything goes according to plan, tomorrow I will make another traditional Bulgarian meal, "Kavarma". So yeah...

PS: Yeah, you may want some more filling. They ended up pretty dry, but that was basically all eggs and white cheese I had...

Old_Snake · June 11, 2017, 12:46pm

Btw that white cheese. Is that Feta?

psycho_666 · June 11, 2017, 1:37pm

Not really. It's harder than feta. Feta is made by sheep's milk, so it contains more... Fat I guess is the correct word? In any case, what I'm using is made from cow's milk, it's harder than feta, but it's similar.
You can use feta no problem.
I asked Google, and it translated it as "cottage cheese", so you can use that as well...

PS: Change in the plan. Tonight I will make Pamagiurski style eggs. Another traditional meal. It's fast and easy, and I don't have a lot of time. The promised Kavarma I will cook tomorrow.

psycho_666 · June 11, 2017, 10:38pm

OK, before I start today's recipe, I have to make a small change in the last recipe.
When you add the egg and cheese mix, you also may want to add about a table spoon of oil, spread on the entire dough sheet. Otherwise the banitsa will become dry and difficult to chew.

Now onto today's adventure...
026. Panagiurski Style Eggs.

It's probably the easiest meal I have cooked.

It's basically poached eggs with yogurt on top.
I like garlic sauce instead of yogurt, but you may easily use plain yogurt. Also, there could be white cheese mixed with the yogurt or separately, but I forgot to get some, so I have none.
Anyways, you need to poach the eggs.

If I throw the yogurt on top, that would be still considered a done meal. However I prefer it with garlic sauce. You know how to make garlic sauce, right? Yogurt, finely chopped garlic (I don't grate it), some dill and a pinch of salt...

Now... You just cover the eggs...

At that point you again can call the meal done. We sometimes do something extra. We fry, basically burn, red pepper powder or flakes...

And that's it. That's the final meal... Poached eggs with yogurt garlic sauce and white cheese with some burned red pepper flakes on top...
Or just poached eggs, covered in yogurt...
Next time - kavarma. I promise.

psycho_666 · June 12, 2017, 5:24pm

027. Chicken Kavarma.

STORY TIME...
When I was a new green student (university student), my mother decided, that her child must eat home made food, because he can't cook (to be fair, she was right). So she started making different things for me. One of them is the great recipe 006 - Sausage cake. The other one is this. Chicken kavarma. She have never made kavarma before, and I loved that meal ever since she decided to start cooking it for me.
OK, this is a bit tricky, but not too much.
So here are the main ingredients:

Throw the rice to boil up. Best choice - dry non sticky rice. I used the last remains of the crap rice I already had, but if you are starting this a new - you want non sticky rice, and when it's done - you want it dry. All the liquid needs to be from the sauce...
Anyways, while the rice is boiling, chop the chicken to a bite size chunks.

After that, chop fairly finely some onions, carrots and red, repeat, red pepper. You don't want the flavor of the green one. You want the sweetness of the red one.

Then mushrooms. I love mushrooms, so I use a lot of them...

Now, the standard recipe is using grated tomatoes. I lack the will to grate tomatoes, so I just chopped them.

By that point the rice should be prepared for a while. So just use a pot and throw in the chicken with a bit of oil.

When the meat is almost done, add the onions, mushrooms, carrots and the pepper...

Now, add some liquid and cover up. Leave it to boil for about 15 minutes. You want everything in the pot to fully cook. You also want to stir every now and then. The amount of stuff in the pot will reduce massively, almost to half... So whenever the carrots are soft and everything is cooked, you add the tomatoes.

Keep steering and let it boil. The tomatoes will release a lot of liquid.
What we, meaning Bulgarians, usually do to reduce the liquid is add a bit of flour. It thickens the tomato sauce. So with the flour I also added some spices. Spicy red chilly pepper powder, savory, basil and black pepper. Also, salt...

Add some hot water to that mix, stir it well and add it to the pot...

Boil it for the next... 10 minutes... You want the flour to be cooked. Raw flour can lead to stomach pain and digestion issues in general.

OK, there are different ways people here plate the Kavarma. Some make a ring of rice and add the kavarma in the middle, similar to what I did in recipe 013 - Chicken Curry with Rice and Vegetables. Other like to put the rice on the bottom of the plate and cover it up with the kavarma, similar to most Chinese recipes, like 021 - Chicken Zucchini Stir Fry. I just like to put the rice on the side and cover only part of it with the kavarma...

Now, this thing can go through some changes...
You want garlic? Add garlic, no problem. TBH I just forgot.
The original recipe uses leek with the onions. The leek will add a lot of liquid to the mix. The reason I didn't use leek is, that I couldn't find any in the store today.
My mother don't eat mushrooms, so she uses none when she cooks for herself.
There is also pork kavarma, that is almost the same recipe, it just uses pork, and it cooks it a bit longer than the chicken. The pork meat needs more cooking.
It can go through changes. Just make sure you follow the main skeleton of the recipe. The meat, when done add the mushrooms/vegetable mix, after 15 minutes add the tomatoes, then flour with spices. 10 minutes to cook the flour and you are done.

I have no idea what I'm going to cook tomorrow. I have a choice between 3 dishes, so I just need to chose one...

PS: I'm really fucking proud of myself... I almost had a feeling of bliss when I ate this.

psycho_666 · June 15, 2017, 12:04am

Traditional from the olden times...
028. Kachamak.

So it's kind of the western porridge or something? Not really sure what porridge is, so I'll just share this one...
It's basically boiled corn flour with cheese.

What you want to do first is to diffuse or dissolve, not sure which word is more appropriate, the corn flour in water.
There is a simple proportion - 1:3 flour to water. Half the water goes on the stove to start boiling, the other half gets mixed up with the flour. So basically I used 2 cups flour, so I mixed them up with 3 cups water, while 3 cups water were on the stove trying to boil. It is essentially flour, so you do want to mix it up well and make sure there are no chunks.

when that is done, take care of the cheese. I used my hand to crush it, but you may grate it or dice it, or you may just want to slice it up and use slices. Your choice. Cover the entire bottom of the plates, you will serve this in. The original recipe says "cheese on top", I say cheese on the bottom.

I also like to put some butter on top of the cheese.

I put some spicy chilly pepper powder in one of the bowls. A little bit.

The original recipe does the same thing as the 026 - Panagiurski style eggs - burns some red pepper powder in an oil and pour it over the finished meal. Too lazy for that. Need to wash a frying pan on top of everything else - I rather not.
OK. Once the water starts boiling on the stove, lower the heat, add some butter and pour like a quarter of the flour water mix. Constant steering. It's a flour. It will sink to the bottom of the bowl, it will stick to the pot, so always, constant steering. Give it a minute of cooking and add another quarter of the mix. Keep boiling, add another quarter...
When all the flour is in the pot you keep steering and scraping the bottom. You want to give it at least 10 minutes of cooking. It's a raw corn flour. It needs cooking. It will become very thick and difficult to stir. You need strong hands for this.

Anyways, there is a really simple sign for when the meal is done. While you steering and scraping, you will notice, that the thing is removing itself from the wall, leaving them clean with no traces. It will be like a dough. So at that point it's completely done. Shouldn't take more than 15 minutes. Pour over the cheese and butter plates/bowls/whatever you use.

You just want to serve this cooled. Not hot. Cool it up. Not refrigerator cold, but not hot. Warm is fine, just not right after cooking. Give it some time to melt the butter and cheese.

For the cheese you may use whatever white cheese you wish. I use cow milk feta style cheese.

OK, FETA is Greek cheese, made specifically from sheep's milk. In Bulgaria we do that kind of cheese from every kind of milk. Goat, sheep, cow, doesn't matter. We use every kind of milk we have. Some people don't even care and home make cheese from mixed milk, let's say cow and sheep. So yeah...

Again, I don't know what I'm going to do next time, but I am having some bean stew with sausage cravings for the last 3-4 days, so I may finally get to that.

psycho_666 · June 15, 2017, 5:56pm

029. Shopski Style Cheese.

STORY TIME:
OK, so when i was a tiny little psychopath, slowly growing into my role, my grandfather, God rest his soul, was making this thing for me sometimes. I was thinking "man, this is really nice egg meal". I was so wrong. I was looking at the eggs and considering them the main course ingredient, I completely ignored the fact, the eggs were boosting the cheese as a main starter/appetizer course ingredient...
It was a few weeks ago, when at work somebody ordered that meal, and the Chef said "we don't serve it, but i will make it" and then I finally understood what my grandfather have been doing all this time for me.
Anyways teary eyes , here are the main, and basically the only ingredients.

Yeah, that's it...
So the original recipe uses clay bowls with a clay lid.

Those are made in either single portion size or 4-5 portions size...
So the idea is to layer tomatoes, cheese and again tomatoes, crack an egg on top and bake...
Slice the tomatoes like half inch thick slices at most. Cover the bottom.

Yeah, I am not using the clay stuff, but it's kinda expensive. Especially keeping in mind they sell them set of 6 small ones, and the large one is not cheaper either. But basically cover the bottom, then you use white cheese to cover the tomatoes. Feta works, cow cheese works, coat cheese works... You don't want the melty yellow cheeses. You want something, that will not melt entirely. You may grate it, dice it, crush it, or as I did, just slice and put in order.

Then cover with another layer of tomato slices.

Throw in a pre-heated oven for 10-15 minutes.
The more eagle eyed among you may have noticed the absence of any kind of cooking oil, vegetable oil, olive oil or whatever. Yeah, that's fairly healthy meal. It's just baking.
The tomatoes will release a HUGE amount of liquid, so using deep baking tray or even glass baking pot. Deeper tray/pot will also allow you to make another cheese and tomato layer before the finish. So, after the initial baking is done, you crack an egg on top.

And back in the oven it goes...
If you like spicy good, you may throw in some chili peppers or something. I rather not.
So when the egg is done - you are ready to serve.

Give it time to cool down. You want it not to be hot. Keep in mind, the liquid in the middle will keep the heat on the inside and will not really release it quick. It will take it's sweet drooling time...
That's an appetizer. It's not suppose to feed you. You still may need a main course, unless you eat 2-3 of those. Like I did.

Anyways, I have made decisive steps towards finally cooking myself the so craved bean stew with sausage.

Sh17Fac32 · June 15, 2017, 9:51pm

psycho_666 · June 15, 2017, 9:54pm

I can make it with bones and meat balls, but that would be even worse, so better with sausage...

Sh17Fac32 · June 16, 2017, 10:38pm

So did you make it?

psycho_666 · June 16, 2017, 10:59pm

030. Bean Stew With Sausage.

Pre-pre-preparations...
OK, so you may use canned beans or something. I use completely raw beans. If you use raw beans as well, you want to make a couple things.
You want to soak them in water for a few hours. Best way - put them in water to soak in the morning, cook them in the evening.
They will expand and increase. Not as much as rice, but still...

So here are the main ingredients...

OK, when the beans have been soaked for a few hours you need to wash them well and set them boil on a stove. After about 15 minutes of boiling, throw away the water, wash the beans and let them boil again in fresh water. Repeat that a couple times.
Basically the beans are serious digestion stress meal. They are known to cause gas and digestion discomfort. Soaking the beans and throwing a couple boiling waters will dramatically decrease the amount of chemicals, that cause digestion issues. Basically you are making the meal easier on your stomach.
While the beans are boiling, you want to chop one onion head, one red pepper and one carrot.

Then I remembered I have only red/orange ingredients in. So i got a green pepper and chopped it as well...

If you use canned beans, your cooking begins now.
When the beans are done, you throw all vegetables in the boiling pod and lower the heat to medium.

At that point, you want to also chop some tomatoes.

Now, when the onions become half way transparent, you add the tomatoes.

The tomatoes will dissolve in the liquid. When that is done you will basically have a soup. But we don't want a soup, do we? We are here for a stew like meal. So I dissolved some flour in warm water. I also added spices to the flour. Mainly a bit of spicy chili powder, savory and a thing, that beans absolutely love - spearmint...

Throw that in the pot and stir for about 10 more minutes. You need the flour to be cooked.

When you do that, now you have a big choice to make. You may want to pan fry or grill meat balls or you may use sausage. I opted for sausage.
I sliced it half way through...

Then threw it in the oven with a teaspoon of oil on top for like 15-20 minutes.

So now you plate as you wish...

On top of it you put the sausage.

Bon Apetit.

Now, I made 2 mistakes.
1. Not enough beans. The stew seems to be more vegetables than actual beans. You want more beans in your beans meal.
2. I needed to add 2 table spoons of flour. I added 1 spoon and the meal was still more like soup than a stew.

You have a choice.
You could use pork or beef bones, boil them and then use the meat and bullion to make this meal. No sausage, obviously.
You could use meat balls instead of sausage.
OR
You could use nothing, but beans, onions and tomatoes and thicken it up, and then stuff peppers with it...

What? You never had peppers, stuffed with beans?
Oh dear...

No, obviously

psycho_666 · June 17, 2017, 11:33pm

031. Stuffed Peppers with Rice and Meat.

Simple meal. Tasty. Need some work though.

Now, throw the rice in a pot and let it boil until, as Italians call it, "al dente". Basically you don't want the rice to be fully cooked. You will fry it and then you will bake it, so you don't want your rice to be 100% cooked.
Meanwhile, chop up some onions and I chose mushrooms.

I wanted to add some carrots, but lacking any, and cooking in 1AM, I didn't add anything.
When the rice is done, put the onions in the frying pan.

Fry for a minute, then add the ground meat.
Fry until the meat is done and add the mushrooms.

Don't forget to season with some salt and pepper.
I also added some spicy chili powder. And then add the rice with some water.

Let it cook for a few minutes. While it's cooling down, you need to prepare your peppers. I use just standard peppers. No fancy bell pepper stuff or whatever. You can use whatever pepper you have.

So at that point your best bet is to use a tea spoon and put as much filling in the pepper as possible.

Fill them all up. Then if you have any filling left over, you just add it in the baking tray, filling any possible holes left...

Final last touch. Pour some oil on top and sprinkle with some salt. It adds both flavor and texture.

Then just put it in a pre-heated oven. I have started only the bottom heater in the oven, so the peppers will not burn out on top, when they were done, I also turned on the top heater, so they will have a nice coloration and bake on top as well...

There we go...

psycho_666 · June 20, 2017, 12:50am

032. Chicken Stroganoff Improvisation.

So I found this recipe online and decided to try it out. I had all ingredients I needed, and what I didn't had, I could easily replace.
So here are the main ingredients I used:

The original recipe also uses chicken stock, or chicken bullion, but I just used plain water. So let's just start with the liquids then.
Some flour, salt and pepper, parsley, I used dried, cause i have dried. If you have fresh parsley - just use fresh one.

At that point add warm water or chicken stock or bullion. Warm, so it can dissolve the flour. You don't want any large lumps of flour in the mix.

OK, with that out of the way, I chopped the chicken breast on large pieces.

Very roughly chopped some garlic and onions...

And then I chopped WAY more mushrooms than I had to... But I had way more mushrooms than i should have and they have started to dry out.

At that point, I just mixed everything together and added some salt and pepper.

After that i poured the sauce mixture on top. Then added more water. The goal is everything to be at least touching the liquid, if not entirely soaked in it.

The original recipe uses clay pottery with lid, but lacking that equipment, I am using deep metal tray with alumin(i)um foil on top.
Throw in medium high pre-heated oven for a couple hours. If you use clay pot, keep in mind it takes some time to heat up the clay, so add like 30-40 minutes baking time. It should look something like this, before you add the pasta.

As soon as I took the foil away, I realized I had used WAY too much flour. I used 2 tablespoons. So my guess is 1 tablespoon will be just fine.
So I added the pasta. Original recipe says "egg noodles". Yeah. I'm using whatever I have in my storage at the time. Today that happened to be fusilli.

After I mixed all that up, I just added extra water. There is simply too much flour and the sauce is too thick.

Back in the oven it goes for about 25-30 minutes, and steering every 10 minutes.
It's uncovered now. We don't want anything burning out. We just want the pasta cooked.

At that point, the meal as it is, it's done.
However, you may want to add some cheese. The original recipe uses melted cheese. I have just a regular cheap a** yellow cheese, that I have left from some couple weeks ago from something and it's starting to catch mold. So yeah. I used it, so I don't have to throw it away. The original recipe also uses sour cream. I don't have any, so I skip it.

And that's it. Bon apetit.

Now, instead of explaining what I have changed, I will just give you the original recipe...

Yeah, I am looking at different recipes and improvising

PS: Wow, that tastes amazing...
I believe Laura used different kind of mushrooms, so her meal had white color, while mine had dark gray. Oh well... It still tastes great, even though it's practically completely different recipe from hers.

psycho_666 · June 20, 2017, 11:56pm

033. Chicken Fan with Vegetables.

So I had a chicken boob out of the fridge. And I thought to myself "what can I do with it, that I haven't done before"... I asked a colleague at work and he said "Julienne some veggies, throw them with the chicken in the oven and in 30 minutes you will eat...". So I did.
Here are the main ingredients:

I didn't use the zucchini... I had plans, but I didn't use it at the end, so you don't need it.
I took the boob, sliced like a centimeter of slices, but not all the way. Basically I opened up the chicken meat for stuffing.

Sliced some carrots, stuffed every third opening with them.

Then I did the same with the mushrooms...

Then I julienned red and green peppers and did the same thing...

At that point I had a chicken breast, stuffed with vegetables and a large amount of leftover vegetables. So I just put them in another pot. Chopped some garlic and put it on top of both the chicken and the vegetables.

Covered them with alumin(i)um foil and threw them in the oven on medium high for 20 minutes.
After that I removed the foil and let them brown up on top...

All the spices I have used are just salt and pepper.
Damn, that thing is good.
It very heavily reminds me of the spiked pork I made some time ago. I may have to share that recipe as well.

Anyway, this thing doesn't need sauce. It's great by itself and the breast is juicy and delicious after 30 minutes. The mushrooms, pepper and garlic have flavored the meat amazingly well.

It was just an experiment when I started... It's heavy recommendation now, after I have finished eating it.

psycho_666 · June 23, 2017, 10:46pm

034. The Strandja's Meal.

Story Time:
Strandja is the nickname of an actual person in my country's history. He was a freedom fighter (literally) somewhere in 1800's. After time, his nickname was used in our literature and became ... well ... famous.
So there is a local restaurant, that's using his name. And this is their specialty.

The original recipe uses beef, but lacking beef and having pork, I used pork.
Shopped it up to bite sized pieces and put it on the stove to boil with spices.

Next up - I sliced the onions, cut the mushrooms to 4 pieces and chopped the tomatoes fairly finely. If you don't want to work with tomatoes, you can use tomato paste and dissolve it in the pork bullion, or if you use the original recipe - the beef bullion.

OK. Once the meat is really really really gone, to the point of overcooking it, you remove the pot with the meat and put on a frying pan with a little bit of oil. In it, you put the bite sized chopped sausage. Now, the original recipe and me as well, are using what we locally call "karnache". It's a ground meat mix of pork and beef, stuffed into sheep or pork guts. They are very thin, not thicker than a finger. They are perfect for everything - frying, baking, grilling, using in stews... Everything. So I just poked a hole in them and threw them in the pan for a bit.

After couple minutes add the onions and the mushrooms. The sausage is thin enough and there is a bit more cooking, so they just need to release some juices in the pan and soak the flavors from the other ingredients.

Added some spicy chili powder. I would have used a chili pepper, but I don't have any. So there...
Throw in the tomatoes and the boiled meat.

Now cook until most liquid evaporates. Or just until you are happy with the thickness of the meal.

Now, if you wish to add extra bit of flavor, throw it in the oven for 10-15 minutes when it's done. All you need is the top to darken up it's color. Baked tomatoes have different taste than fried ones.
I didn't do that, because i was hungry and it was already 17 billion degrees Celsius outside.

Bon Apetit.
It's a bit spicy, it made me sweat like crazy. Beer turned out to be a great fit for this meal.

Next time I'll stuff some mushrooms...

psycho_666 · June 24, 2017, 8:15pm

So I posted today a poll in the lounge, where I asked "what should i cook for dinner".
https://forum.level1techs.com/t/the-lounge-2017-06-june-still-waiting-for-vega-edition/116410/15211?u=psycho_666&source_topic_id=115845
It was a tie all day long between 2, 3 or some times all 4 answers. At 10 p.m. I gave up and made those:
035. Cheese and Vegetable Rolls.

OK, here is the thing. I wanted to troll the poll. The meat bread roll with sauce option had the lowest score, while the other two had been tie-ing all the time. So i started on the path of meat bread roll...

What you see in the middle is ground pork in a refrigerator plastic bag. I throw it in a frying pan with some oil and I immediately smelled the vegetable meal I was about to make. I bought is about 24 hour ago and it have already gone bad. So I threw it away.
Chopped up garlic, julienne some red and green pepper and some carrots...

Sliced some mushrooms and threw them in a frying pan with the chopped garlic.

After a couple minutes I threw in the carrots and peppers. Added salt, pepper and spicy chili powder.

Didn't cook for too long. Just soften the vegies and you are done. All ingredients could easily be eaten raw, so there is no issue what so ever. I just wanted the carrots a bit soft.
With that done, I set it aside to cool down, chopped green onions (I have planned for the sauce), cheese and ... cheese ... (I have planned also for the sauce) ...
And I started rolling.

So I used the dough sheets I have used before in recipe 025. Banitsa. Exactly the same brand. They are fairly thick, almost as thick as standard lasagna sheets.
So I put some of the fried mix on one side, sprinkled green onions and the cheeses on the rest of the dough sheet, put about half table spoon of vegetable oil on the inside and rolled...
All of them...

It's basically the 025 recipe all over again, just different stuffing.
Roll up, put on a baking tray, pour some oil on top, bake for about 35-40 minutes on medium heat (you want all that cheese to melt), then take out.

Give it like 15-20 minutes to cool down and ...

Bon Apetit.

Now, the peppers are overpowering almost everything else. The mushrooms flavor is almost entirely lost between the two cheeses, all the pepper flavor and the green onions. Surprisingly enough, the green onions gave more flavor than the mushrooms.
But damn, that was amazingly tasty anyway.

So vote in my poll and tomorrow I will either do the winner of the poll, or the stuffed mushrooms I had 2 days ago and didn't find time to publish here...

anon94261841 · June 25, 2017, 6:04am

Where I live the bell peppers are normal and the ones you are using are the fancy ones.

When cooking for my family I've found that a stroganoff/goulash hybrid is usually well received.

Beef (or really anything)
Onions, Peppers, Mushrooms, Tomatoes
Salt, pepper, herbs, paprika
Broth/Stock/Water
Egg noodles or potatoes, not both

I've never seen stroganoff with cheese in it before...

I might have to show this to my brother. Him and his fiancée are on some stupid diet for their wedding that's a year away, and this looks like something that actually tastes good and is within their diet.

psycho_666 · June 27, 2017, 11:44pm

https://forum.level1techs.com/t/the-lounge-2017-06-june-still-waiting-for-vega-edition/116410/15211?u=psycho_666&source_topic_id=115845&source_topic_id=115845
The poll have spoken...
036. Stuffed Mushrooms.

Just kidding. That's next time... This time:
036. Lasagna Bolognese.

Now, I was about to make it the way I usually make it. Then I talked to the Chef in our restaurant. He gave me some ideas, and since I haven't done it that way before, I decided to try it out.

So I started with the onions. Grated them...

I usually chop them fairly finely, but Chef just said "grate them", so I did.
I also used FMV (Frozen Mix Vegetables) with carrots, green peas and sweet corn.

Then I grated the tomatoes as well. It helps with 1) removing the skin and 2) becoming an actual sauce.

Sorry for the bad quality.
So I fried the onions for a bit.

Then I added the ground meat. In my case, I bought pork and chicken mix...

When the meat is mostly cooked but not fully cooked, add the veggies.

Give them a couple minutes. Basically the goal here is to finish cooking the meat. When that is done just add the tomatoes. Tomato paste or puree are a better choice than fresh tomatoes, but all i have are fresh tomatoes, and I have always done it with fresh tomatoes, so yeah...

Your goal here is to dry up the sauce as much as possible. The bolognese sauce is suppose to be dry. As little liquid as possible.
When that is done I made the bechamel sauce.
Melted butter, added flour, turned out the flour was too much for the butter, so I just added vegetable oil. When the flour starts to change it's color, about 30 seconds of frying, I start to add a bit of milk. Stir like crazy. Add more milk. Stir like crazy. Keep doing this and give it some time to start boil. When done - add some salt and pepper.

OK. I don't have lasagna sheets. I have Banitsa sheets. I use thick banitsa sheets, that are a bit thinner than the lasagna sheets. It's just larger, so it covers the entire baking tray and the are not requiring boiling or soaking in water or anything...
So I prepared my tray. Oiled the bottom and put a sheet inside.

Put some bolognese sauce and spread it a bit.

Another sheet on top...

Bechamel sauce, spread a bit...

Sheet on the top, bolognese, sheet on the top, bechamel...
The goal is, the top layer to have bechamel sauce.

Then I grated some yellow cheese on top. Italians use Parmesan, but I'll be honest - the Parmesan, especially the quality one, that is actually Parmesan is quite expensive luxury item here... So I just used cheap yellow cheese.

In the oven, high heat, 40 minutes...

When done - take out and let it cool down for about 20-30 minutes. If you cut it now, the still liquid inside will leak out, the thing will fall apart and the dinner will be a mess... Let it cool down a bit. It will thicken and will allow easier portioning.

Bon Apetit...

psycho_666 · June 28, 2017, 11:33pm

I have promissed the stuffed mushrooms, so here they are. Next time - the bread ball with ham and cheese stuffing, I have shown in the Lounge today.
But for now - the stuffed mushrooms.
037. Stuffed Mushrooms.

So you need a few things for this. First off you need large, as large as possible mushrooms, and then you need the stuffing. Since each mushroom will not really take much stuffing in, i recommend using flavorful ingredients - garlic, chili, cheese...

For comparison I have put a large soup spoon on the table.
So I chopped finely the onions and the garlic.

Then I diced the ham on fairly tiny cubes.

Washed the mushrooms, took the stems away and chopped them finely.

I put some salt on the inside of the mushroom caps and put them in the oven for like 5 minutes on medium heat.
That will allow the salt to draw out part of the liquid, so the mushroom opens up and can take extra stuffing inside.

OK. With that done, heat up a frying pan, fry the onions and garlic for about a minute, add the chopped stems, then add the ham, if you wish add chili (I used chili powder), seasoned with pepper and slight pinch of salt. Remember, you salted the mushrooms.

When everything is well cooked (the onion is transparent and soft), just stuff the mushroom caps with the help of a tea spoon.
I put a slice of cheese on the top, poured some liquid, so the bottom is not dry and put it back in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the cheese melts and changes color.

Give it a couple minutes to cool down and dig in.

That is not a main course. That is an appetizer. Something you make when you have friends coming over or you are making a nice dinner, that needs couple more hours of cooking or something.
This will not feed you. It is a huge flavor bomb however. If I remove the ham, everything else gives dtrong flavor to any meal - garlic, onions, chili peppers, mushrooms, cheese... I added a splash of soy sauce after I stuffed the mushrooms right under the cheese. It's so rich taste of... everything. And there are no spices. Just salt and pepper. It's tasty though. Really good...
Next time - the promised bread ball...