Psycho's Crazy Recipes

You should try Zucchini Pie.

You take the dough from pre-made crescent rolls, spread that out in a baking dish as though it was pie crust, spread a bit of brown mustard (poupon?) around on it, then add in sauteed zucchini, onions, and squash (more zucchini than onion or squash), mixed with cheese and a bit of egg. You top it with a few slices of pepperoni.

Great recipes though.

No idea what that is. No idea if I can use regular bread dough...

May I skip that?

Impossible to find in my country. Seriously. We have semi-equivalents, but nothing 100% like pepperoni, not to mention I have no idea what it's suppose to be or taste like so I don't know what to replace it with.

Long story short - I can't really make that thing...

I have a bunch of other things in mind, now that I can actually make dough...

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That's too bad. It's a really good recipe.

I'm considering trying that bacon wrapped roast thing you made, that looks delicious.

I'm not sure what kind of dough it is. It's basically just a substitute for a thin, crunchy pie crust. Also the squash kind of rounds everything out so I'm not sure what you would replace it with.

You could replace the pepperoni with some kind of semi-spicy greasy sausage sliced very thin. It's only there for flavor and the bit of grease it releases whilst baking.

Edit: Do you remember what kind of mushrooms you used in the bacon wrapped roast? It was onions, garlic, mushrooms and mashed up potatoes wrapped in bacon.

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Here's the thing. In my country we don't really have pies. We don't even have an equivalent peal. I don't really know what it's suppose to be, nor taste, nor anything...

Yeah, that's why I said we have some semi-equivalents...

I am waiting for my mother to send me a couple recipes she used to make when i was a tiny growing psychopath, so there will be way more things coming up.
I still need to post my most favorite meal of all time - Musaka, but that will be number 69 no matter what. So I will post until at least 69 recipes...

I always use the same kind... They are cheap, common and safe...

Thank you, Google. You are extremely helpful.


Also, you want thick cut bacon. I used thin slices, but you want thick cut bacon... And tie it up with a cord or something.
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You can make pie crust if you're interested.


It's very thin and flaky and slightly crunchy. The actual flavor depends on the filling and how they complement one another. The ingredients are fairly simple.

I've been meaning to try making my own bread.

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Pepperoni is an American invention, so the closest thing might be some sort of spicy salami. My Google-fu is showing that sujuk, téliszalåmi, or lukanka might be close enough? Pepperoni is really just pork and/or beef, salt, black pepper, red pepper, garlic, fennel, and sometimes paprika.

As for crescent roll dough, it's just a pastry dough that expands a lot when baked. Could probably get away with two or three layers of banitsa sheets...

Completely unrelated, but there's a Bulgarian girl that works in another department where I work.

Yeah, butter dough...
The issue is, now it's 4AM and it's 27 Celsius... Guess the temperature during the day... Guess how well the butter will take it... And I'm a pastry amateur. I will fuck that dough up like nobody's business...

No, it's a different thing.

Unfamiliar with that...

That's not it either.
I would say, from what I have seen on the internet, our local "shpek" is what I get in my head as the closest fit...



So what italians call "puff pastry" and what we call butter dough, that are basically very very thin banitsa sheets made with a lot of butter and they really "puff" and expand when baked (if the butter haven't melted away). I can just buy that from any store around here...

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As promised:

038. Stuffed Bread Balls

There are 2 things about this one - the dough and the stuffing.


The dough is really really simple, and the stuffing is basically your choice...

The dough


2,5 cups of flour (all purpose is just fine. Nothing fancy needed), about 1,5 teaspoons of baking soda, 1 teaspoon salt, all mixed up. Then add a tablespoon of oil an 3/4 teacup of water.



Knead a bit... It's extremely sticky, so flour it up well.

The dough is ready.

EDIT:
I have heard some people adding spices to the dough by mixing them with the flour. I will try that later on and will see what the final result is. If you do the flavored dough - share what have you made with it.

The filling
Before you even start with the dough you may want to prepare your stuffing.
I just used what I had left in my fridge - white cheese, yellow cheese and ham.
Diced the ham on small pieces, diced the white cheese on small pieces and grated the yellow cheese.




Then I made a small mix of spices - chili powder, black pepper, savory and some salt. If your cheeses are salty - skip the salt.

Stuffing and Rolling and stuff
Cut a small ball of the dough, spread it around with roller pin or like me - with hands...


Put some of the filling on top - the ham, the cheeses and a pinch of the spice mix.

Grab the ends, pinch them together and basically close the ball...

Now, in an oiled baking tray just put those with the opening downwards. This way it will not open while baking.


If you portion your dough properly, it should be enough for 6 fairly decent size balls. Don't laugh. I didn't portion it properly, so I only have 5 balls. Don't laugh.
Now ... bake for a bit, and when the dough starts to change color take it out and (this is optional) sprincle some grated cheese on top.

Keep baking, until the dough is fully baked.

If you don't like the crust and you want it softer - sprinkle with some water and cover up the steaming balls (stop laughing) with a clean towel, so the steam soaks up and softens the crust.

And there you go...

If you don't like so much cheese, just wrap the dough around a sausage (stop laughing damn it) and bake that...


We have a thing in my country, called "Kemerka". It is that kind of bread ball, but stuffed with fried ground meat and onions. "Marusia" is the thing with the sausage in it (Oh bloody hell), but it's regional. Where I was born we call it "krenvirshka", named after the sausage in it, but here, where I live now, it is "marusia". We have a large kinda meat pie thing, named "Luchnik", literally translated to "onion meal". It's a large pie with bread dough, stuffed with fried onions and meat. Basically larger version of the Kemerka with extra onions.
We have a lot of meals, based on that cooking technique. And that specific dough recipe is so simple to make and have few ingredients it's almost impossible to mess it up. The only drawback is, that it's sticky. Like, a lot...

Announcement:
My hand would like to be known it's not as fat as it looks. It said, that the camera is adding extra 5-10 lb.

PS: It was my first time ever working with dough. I have made the same dough twice since then - it is all perfectly fine. I was really worried I will screw it up, but that specific recipe is almost impossible to screw up. If the dough is too dry - add some water. If it is too soft - knead with extra flour. It takes like 5 minutes to prepare and it's nice and soft. I love it. It's perfect every time.

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I saw something like this once on TV where this old Italian guy baked a loaf a bread with spices, chunks of cheese and salami scraps he had around kneaded into the dough. I instantly wanted it.

You just reminded me of it :slight_smile:

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I'll buy new set of kitchen equipment today, so I will try a few things...
Pizza being one of them, caramel cream being another, if I find proper cups...
The Italians like kneading stuff into the dough. There is a thing, named Ciabatta, that is bread with olives in it... There's an idea...
So much to cook, so so small stomach...

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039: Poached Eggs In Tomato Sauce


So I was thinking about trying something like that for a while, and then I found the so called "eggs in purgatory" recipe, that is basically the same thing...
So here are the ingredients...

Yeah, that's all there is to it. It's easy for making and it could be even easier.
So just chop stuff...



I made the sauce chunky. You can make it way smoother by grating the tomatoes and the onions and smashing the garlic to a paste. Still, I don't mind chunky.
My pride and joy:

Onions and garlic in, seasoned with salt and pepper, added some chili powder just to spice things up a little bit.


Give it a couple of minutes to cook the onions and drop the tomatoes in...

Cover and give it time for the tomato juices to fill up the pan. Something like 5 minutes. Then add Basil and Oregano.
Stir and crack a few eggs on top.

Cover again and cook as much as you like. I like my eggs well done so I gave it a bit longer time than soft yolk may need.
If you wish you may chop some fresh parsley for color and flavor. I don't have any, but I would have used it if I had it.

Serve, and make sure you have bread for the sauce. A lot of bread.

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040. Braised Bacon Strips in Soy Sauce.


So here are the ingredients:

I recommend adding carrots to the ingredients list. I didn't have carrots, so I didn't use them. If I had them,I would have added them as well...
So I had the low quality bacon strips, that I cut into 10cm pieces.

The bacon was really crap, but I got a lot of it for 2 euro, so I will use it.
Throw the meat in my pride and joy frying pan on high heat and just brown the meat for a moment on all sides. I added some dry thyme and rosemary and a bit of black pepper.

When that is done, cover the bottom of the pan with soy sauce. Roll the meat in it and add water to almost cover the meat. Let it simmer lightly. Meanwhile peel the potatoes and cut them on large chunks. I just chopped them to 4 pieces.

Mushrooms, I chopped to 4 pieces as well...

At that moment just take a deep baking tray. If you have something, with a lid - that would be great. If not - do it like me.

Put the potatoes and the mushrooms in the tray. Then add the meat and the sauce.

Cover up with lid if you have, or alumin(i)um foil and throw in the oven, medium heat (250) for about 2-2:30 hours. If the meat is thicker - just give it more time.
I consider that to be the best combo. The bacon's fat will release oils, that the mushrooms will soak, while the potatoes will soak a bit of the saltiness from the soy sauce. I could have added carrots for color and a bit of flavor, but oh well...
At the end of the baking, the meat should be so tender, that when you touch it with anything it should fall apart. It takes time, but it's delicious. The meat have soaked the soy sauce flavors and it's so tender, it's unbelievable.

Now, you may serve it like that, or boil white rice and use it to soak the sauce and add extra flavor and texture to the meal.

I made some plain white rice with thyme and rosemary in order to strengthen the flavors of those spices in the meal.

Enjoy.

Couple hints:
1. You don't want to cook the meat in the pan. You just want to quickly brown the meat on the outside. The inside will cook in the oven. The browning is extra flavor.
2. When the meal is completely done, give it some time to rest. Don't take the meat out. Let it cool a bit in the sauce. If you take it out while hot, the outer layers will dry out from the heat. If it cools slowly in the sauce, the meat will soak the sauce up even more.
4. You may swap the soy sauce for lighter flavor, like chicken stock or some spice mix, like curry mix or something, but I love the punch of the soy sauce. It's flavorful enough, so you may completely skip all spices. If I have used bullion or something, I would have to add aromatic veggies, like garlic, celery, may be even onions, but the onions will become complete mush after 3 hours cooking in the oven, so may be not onions, and then spices. Thyme and rosemary are all fine, but nutmeg, cumin and coriander would be perfect with pork if there is no soy sauce to fill it up with flavor.

PS: It's not quite this (timestamped), but I didn't try to make it like this...


May be I should... Hm...
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Something I was thinking about for a while and decided to try to make for the first time today.
041. Chicken breast, stuffed with bacon and mushrooms and wrapped in bacon.


It's fairly simple recipe.

It's not bacon as people know it. The store lacked bacon slice. So I got what was labeled as ham bacon.
Anyways, I sliced the chicken breast in the middle almost all the way through and opened it up.


If you are making this, don't forget salt and pepper... I did. I had to take the stuffing out...
Anyways... Bacon on the inside, mushrooms in the bacon...


Then I used an alumin(i)um foil, put some bacon slices on it and the chicken on top, so when I wrap it up, the bacon will keep the breast from drying out.


Then I realized the bacon on the outside was not enough and I needed some extra if I wanted the entire breast wrapped in it.

Then I wrapped it up and cooked it, medium high heat about 30-40min.



Perfection... It wasn't that difficult to achieve perfection...

Made a bechamel with mushrooms and voila...


My plating skills suck, I know.
Anyway it was delicious. Chicken breast was moist and flavorful, the bechamel was a bit too salty,but that is perfect for me. I usually eat a bit too salty food. Basically it was perfect. Not the sauce, the chicken...

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@psycho_666 I love going through your thread. I like to cook as well, but that is not why I posted.

I see you like bechamel (is that how is is spelled?). We have a traditional dish you might like called pastitsio.

You might like it. It is one of my favorite dishes. Noodles/hamburger/bechamel essentially.

Ahhh, the memories of "cleaning" the bechamel pot... mmm.

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Is that what you mean? It basically looks like lasagne with macaroni instead of sheets. I will make that, yes...

I have absolutely no idea. I think I have seen it spelled many different ways. I believe it's a parmigiano / parmesan situation. It's the same thing, just different name.
I recently heard it named parmigiane giano, which completely killed me.

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My favorite part is the bechamel, but the hamburger is just as important.

Hamburger? It's just ground meat.

lol, yeah. We also call ground meat, hamburger sometimes. I know, hamburger is a sandwich :wink:

If you try it, let it cool if you want neat pieces. I make mine a mess before I eat it regardless of how neat it is cut when I first get it.

What I meant is that the better the ground beef tastes, the better the overall dish tastes.

F'ing hungry now. :slight_smile:

Same like lasagna and the local musaka...


And fritata for that matter.

Me to, but I sliced the fritata and it was raw in the middle. And I despise raw eggs.

I forgot to take pictures so I will not be sharing the recipe this time around.

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Love this thread, Seriously this is better reading then most of the cookbooks I have. I gotta try the bechamel sauce. The closest thing to the thin sheets we have here is Filo dough, paper thin and totally uncooked.
Bulgaria has a rich food history and I never knew that.
If you eat enough beans your digestion will adapt after a few weeks, it did for me when I was experimenting with cassoulet and other bean recipies.
I actually enjoy reading cookbooks, this thread is awesome, thank you

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