Thank you 
I should just remember to take pictures of what I cook. Yesterday I made fritata, it was great, I remembered to start taking pics when stuff was already in the pan.
If I can just remember to take pics I could flood this thread with recipes. Like my cabbage sauce, that was a complete failure a couple days ago...
Anyways, today I will try scotch eggs and home made bread with cheese in it...
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042. Pastitsio with mushrooms.
OK, letās make one thing clear. This was not a successful recipe. However, the flavorā¦
So here are the ingredients:
This is not a classic recipe. I made some changes to it to fit what I have in my fridge.
So, I chopped onions and mushrooms,
Chopped some tomatoes, cause I try to not use canned food as much as possible, therefore using fresh tomatoes instead of tomato paste.
Meanwhile I boiled water with salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg in it. Nutmeg is kind of a running theme in this meal. Boiled some macaroni in it.
After that was done, I fried the onions and ground meat, seasoned with salt, pepper and tiny pinch of nutmeg.
Then I added the frozen vegetable mix and mushrooms.
Then I added the tomatoes, and honestly, I understand why they use pre-made tomato paste.
So with that done, I took my deep baking tray (letās face it, my only baking tray) and put a thick layer of macaroni.
On top of them I put the meat tomato vegetable mixture on top. Then I tried to put another layer of macaroni. Turned out I didnāt had enough macaroni for that.
Once I freed my pan from the meat mixture I made bechamel. Itās the simplest thing on earth.
Easy. Butter and flour 1:1ā¦
100g of butter - 100g of flour. It should be almost liquid.
Cook and fry the flour for a minute to kill the raw taste. Then start adding milk little by little until you reach the wanted thickness.
It was a bit too thick so I added a few drops of oil.
Warm the milk so you wonāt make lumps of flour. Also constant stiring. And season with salt, pepper and a pinch of nutmeg. It really helps the bechamel.
For this one you want it a bit too thick the bechamel. Itās just a top.
Itās fine. But in my head all I could think is "this is crying out for some cheese on top. So I grated some.
Put the cheese on top and put back in the oven for a few more minutes.
I gave it almost an hour and still it havenāt made a proper piecesā¦
Bon apetit.
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Like I mentioned previouslyā¦ I mash mine up regardless of how neatly it is cut. That looks fine to me.
The top layer looks a bit thin. I am not 100% sure, but the noodles might have gotten a bit too moistā¦ the vegetables add water to the recipe. Again, that looks good to me.
Oh wait, I just scrolled up to see that you did not use long noodles. That would be it.
ā¦and the cheese partā¦ this dish made with cheeseā¦ I want the cheeseā¦ my family always makes it with cheese.
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It is. I needed to prepare more pasta.
I just couldnāt think of a reason not to add them. They give extra flavor to the meat and give extra volume. Meat is expensive, you know.
What? I just used regular macaroni.
The cheese on top was really nice.
I like the corn and especially the mushroomsā¦ never tried it though.
The long noodles would normally span the length of the dish and as it layers creates that stable bottom. The cheese is often added on this bottom layer, before the topping. The bechamel will often not even play a big role in the stability of the carved pieces.
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043. General Tso Chicken
So here is what I do to make one of my favorite Asian meals ever.
Chop the chicken meat to a bite sized pieces. You can use breast as I do, thigh, mixture of both, whatever your heart desires. Marinated it with white wine, baking soda and black pepper.
Mixed all up and let it rest.
Then I made the sauce. It usually uses garlic chili sauce, but I just used garlic and chili flakes.
On top of that, I added some chili powder.
Added some soy sauce and sugar. Then vinegar. I just use wine vinegar, but you can use whatever. On top of that - a bit of white wine.
Now the sauce comes pretty liquid. So I added couple table spoons of flour. You may also use starch. I just had flour at hand.
Added some warm water to help dissolve the flour. The recipe uses chicken stock, but there are already like a billion flavors in this sauce, so I just added water.
Mixed everything up.
So the recipe uses a few dried chilies. I am new to the hot spicy food, so I just used one chili, chopped, mixed with garlic and thrown in a cold pan. Letting the aromatic ingredients to warm up with the pan and the oil allows them to release more flavor in the oil and therefore in the pan.
While the pan is heating up, I put some flour and one egg into the marinated chicken and mixed up the entire thing.
Then I remembered. What usually adds crispiness to a batter is bread crumbs.
I baked some bread crumbs for the scotch eggs I made a couple days ago so I used them.
Mix everything up and throw it piece by piece in the already hot pan.
The original recipe says ādeep fry the chicken firstā. I donāt have deep fryer and this works just fine for the chicken breast.
Fry for a bit and turn the meat around.
When the meat is done just add the sauce. Keep in mind the sauce will soak into the batter and will thicken in the matter of seconds, so it needs constant stiring.
Anyways. I had the rice pre-boiled, while I was making the sauce and marinating the meat.
Pot some rice in a bowl, put the meat and some of the leftover sauce on top.
Itās really hot. A little bit too hot for my taste. May be I donāt really need two chili peppers. One may be just enough for me.
Other than that - a gallon of beer helped me throughout this spicy hot culinary adventure.
Enjoy.
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