Recipe Thread

I'm working on perfecting textured soy meatless picadillo. In the meantime I've found the near-perfect way to do oatmeal:

6 heaping tablespoons oatmeal
about 3/4 cup of milk.

Mix lightly and put in the microwave on high for one minute.

This works very well, and there's no saucepan to wash afterwards. Cooking directly on the plate, that's progress.

Also I've found my way for making rice. The last batch I cooked was just right in texture, though I may have used too much ginger and too little curry.

Quote: FleaStiff

Red Sauce: dump accumulated ketchup packages onto pasta and stir.
.

Do you have to cook this over the burn barrel
with the other homeless people, or can you make
it on the hotplate in your motel room?

me likes rum... Is the Rum Jungle still around? Banana rum and cola... soooo yummy!!!

Quote: EvenBob

Do you have to cook this over the burn barrel with the other homeless people, or can you make it on the hotplate in your motel room?

Don't got no hotplate. If I cooked it over a burn barrel then the other homeless people would eat it.

Rum Jungle? Yeah, it closed. I think creditors forced it into bankruptcy over a year ago.

Quote: odiousgambit

Hemingway's "Papa Doble".

Hemingway had the right idea! Drink Absinthe and throw knives at the waitress.

It turns out I'm a pretty good cook :)

Here's what happened. I took some left over soy picadillo and curry rice to eat for lunch at the office (there are no really good light alternatives at nearby eateries, except for variations on chicken breast). Three people at the office remarked on how good it smelled when I took it out of the microwave.

One asked to taste it. She said she had no idea you could cook textured soy so it would taste good. :) So here's the recipe I used:

Rice:

2.5 cups of water
2 chicken bullion cubes (low fat, low sodium)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1.5 tablespoon curry powder
half a teaspoon ginger
half a teaspoon turmeric
1/4 onion chopped in large pieces.
1 cup rice

Boil the water, add the chicken bullion cubes. When the cubes are dissolved, add the spices and the onion. Stir a bit then add the rice. Stir some more, reduce the flame tot he lowest setting and cover the pot. Stir occasionally and turn off the flame when the liquid is consumed. The rice ought to turn out yellow.

Meatless soy picadillo:

Textured soy protein, hydrated and squeezed (I didn't measure it, sorry)
2 packs of tomato puree (420 grams total)
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 onion, finely chopped.
1/2 bell pepper chopped
1 carrot chopped
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 chicken bullion cube (low fat, low sodium)
pepper to taste

Saute the onion and bell pepper, when they're done add freshly ground black pepper. Add the carrot and saute some more. Add the soy protein, stir a bit. Add the tomato puree, DON'T stir yet. On top of the puree add the garlic powder and the chicken bullion (but you must shred the cube so only powder goes in). Now stir the whole thing, set the flame low and let it heat until there's no runny tomato puree left, stirring occasionally.

I must say, though, that I'm not satisfied with the picadillo as is. I like it, but it's not quite there yet. I plan to substitute the powdered chicken bullion with beef broth next time.

Quote: Nareed

It turns out I'm a pretty good cook :)

Here's what happened. I took some left over soy picadillo and curry rice to eat for lunch at the office (there are no really good light alternatives at nearby eateries, except for variations on chicken breast). Three people at the office remarked on how good it smelled when I took it out of the microwave.

1 tablespoon garlic powder
1.5 tablespoon curry powder
.

It sounds great, but are these really tablespoons or just teaspoons? I'll give you a review after I try it. Thanks

Quote: timberjim

It sounds great, but are these really tablespoons or just teaspoons? I'll give you a review after I try it. Thanks

Tablespoons. I'm partial to a strong garlicky flavor. I also like curry. When I do have fresh garlic, I out two quartered cloves in the pot with the rice.

I did something new with the textured soy today. After hydrating it with water, I boiled it in beef broth (fat free, according to the package) for about 25 minutes. The results were quite good. It doesn't taste like beef, but it acquired a beefy flavor. then I made soy picadillo and chile sin carne with it (look up thread for those recipes). Both were quite good.

Of course I made a big mistake, which I realized as a I poured the beef stock over the hydrated soy. namely i hydrated the soy first, then tried to get it to pick up flavor from a liquid. Duh! Why not hydrate it with the liquid to begin with? good question. :)

All I can plead is habit. I've cooked a lot of soy, and the first step is always to soak it in water. Then squeeze the excess water out. I'll try it again soon, this time without water.

Soy alternatives done right, are soooo good.

There is this one soy chorizo that I buy. No meat, gluten free, not that it matters to me, but it IS AMAZING.

I can only find it at Wal-Mart though.

My fav simple recipe is to saute the chorizo, stuff it into a washed red bell pepper, broil in the oven for 4 minutes on high.

Top with favorite cheese.

MMMMM