It seems like the metaphore between cooking ("spice it up", "bread and butter synth") goes beyond talking about music. I do a fair amount of cooking in the house.. actually I do most of the cooking. There's definitely a link between a well balanced mix / arrangement/ tune, and a great dinner, and I'm sure many of you guys have a couple of tricks up your sleeves too. So I thought it'll be interesting to share some ideas / recipes, especially since we're from all over the world.
1. Funky Garlic Chicken Soup (Taiwanese)
This soup is simple so I usually get it going at the beginning of preparing the meal, and leave it while I make other dishes.
* Assorted chicken parts, or a bunch of wings. Don't use breast because you will need some bones and fat (skin) to get the flavor going. Wings: good, thigh: good. For a pot worth of soup, imagine half a chicken worth of meat. So, in wings, that would convert to about 7-8 wings, or 4 thighs (with bone) cut into pieces.
* 4-5 buds from a clove of garlic.
* leek, or scallion. You only need about 2 scallions, or equal amount in leek. (2 scallion is about 25cm worth of leek)
The mix is simple, it's kind of like jazz. You only have several parts to play with. Water, chicken, garlic, scallion, and salt.
You obviously need enough water to serve however many servings you need. (half chicken is about 6 soup bowls full, or 3/4 of the pot) Add that much water, plus and extra cup or two (can add later if too much evaporates), and bring to a boil. Toss in garlic and scallion.
Toss in chicken. Add 2 tbl spoon of salt for basic taste.
Cover and cook for about 40 minutes. The garlic and scallion should be just about melted by then. Salt to taste. (remember, if soup is an appetizer, use very little salt, and more salt if it's the main) Thank God for the wonderful taste of chicken, and enjoy.
2. Tsukune (Japanese)
Tsukune is sort of like Japanese kebab, served on a kebab stick. I've only cooked it a couple of times, but it's a nice detour from the usual non-processed meats.
* Ground chicken meat (mix of breast and thigh, or just thigh, but not just breast), I found out recently that turkey works just as well too
* tofu
* optional: shiitake mushruooms (or any mushroom)
* just a bit of ginger
Pre heat oven to 350F or 180C. (or if you don't want to, just use the skillet)
Mix the tofu and chicken. Start with just a little tofu, and gradually increase the amount 'till the mixture is soft, but not sloppy. (so it holds itself together) Add diced shiitake or mushroom. Mix in about 2 tbl spoonds of ground ginger. Add 1 tbl spoon of salt per fist full of resulting mixture.
Make pingpong size balls with the mixture, and smush to a flat, miniburger size patty. You can make one huge one if you like, but keep it flat so it'll cook through.
Foil and oil a coocking surface for the oven, or oil the skillet. Start cooking the patties. Cook covered for about 8 minutes on meium strong heat. You can baste once in a while with soy sauce for added flavor. When patty is half cooked (you can see from the side), wait 3 minutes, and flip over. Cook covered again. Baste a bit, let it cook through. Optionally, make crip on high heat to finish up.
Trick: If working with a skillet, preheat the skillet to high heat before starting to cook. Toss the patties on and create a solid cooked surface on both sides first, to lock in the juices. And then continue on with cooking it through.
Serve with thin chopped scallions with soy sauce or ponzu.
So, those are 2 from me. Sorry I didn't start with any vegetarian dishes. I have some vegetarian ones that I really like, but I wanted to start off with two that had direct connection with my ethnicity.
I'm looking forward to hearing from everyone!
A symphony of flavors: musicians can cook
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kensuguro
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I once had a life time's worth of steak when my friend (a real chef) brought me a commercial pack of prime chucks because I was sick. The pack was a dozen pieces! Boy did I get good at cooking steaks. And yeah, I guess I wasn't sick by the time I finished the pack... but that was like more than a week later!
That's my style of cooking - minimum effort.
My personal favourite - falafels.
Purchase falafels... about £2 for 8 nice organic falafel balls around 2" in diameter. Also arm yourself with bread wraps, hummus and salad (lettuce etc). Note: if you have a surplus of time, you can make your own falafel balls - this is obviously more rewarding but of course more time consuming
Heat falafel under grill (turn halfway thru obviously) - around 1.5 falafel balls per wrap.
Wash and cut up lettuce, organic if possible.
Briefly heat up bread wraps (run off to turkish convenience store if out of wraps)
Spread wrap with hummus (obviously the nicer the better) and create a bed of lettuce on heated hummus-laden warm wrap. I prefer organic hummus but recently I've been digging a type of very smooth Israeli hummus.
Mash up grilled falafels and sprinkle on bed of lettuce.
Add more lettuce.
Add more falafel mash.
Add any remaining lettuce. Perhaps a little watercress.
Wrap up like a spliff.
Munch.
My personal favourite - falafels.
Purchase falafels... about £2 for 8 nice organic falafel balls around 2" in diameter. Also arm yourself with bread wraps, hummus and salad (lettuce etc). Note: if you have a surplus of time, you can make your own falafel balls - this is obviously more rewarding but of course more time consuming
Heat falafel under grill (turn halfway thru obviously) - around 1.5 falafel balls per wrap.
Wash and cut up lettuce, organic if possible.
Briefly heat up bread wraps (run off to turkish convenience store if out of wraps)
Spread wrap with hummus (obviously the nicer the better) and create a bed of lettuce on heated hummus-laden warm wrap. I prefer organic hummus but recently I've been digging a type of very smooth Israeli hummus.
Mash up grilled falafels and sprinkle on bed of lettuce.
Add more lettuce.
Add more falafel mash.
Add any remaining lettuce. Perhaps a little watercress.
Wrap up like a spliff.
Munch.
