Grilled Lamb Chops by PaganMama

I marinated lamb chops in lemon juice, a few drops of olive oil, chopped garlic, and chopped mint for about 90 minutes. Grilled them for no more than three minutes on each side. Served with grilled zucchini and peppers on a bed of couscous. It was beeyootiful and oh my tasty.

Asparagus Risotto by Aquarius

1 bunch asparagus, woody ends snapped off and discarded
1 can LeSueur peas
Approx. 2 cups chicken stock
1 tsp. olive oil
2 strips bacon, sliced crosswise into julienne strips (chilling bacon first makes it easier to slice)
1 shallot, minced fine
1 clove garlic, minced fine or pressed
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 cup arborio or carnaroli rice
1 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Steam or blanch asparagus until crisp-tender. Remove tips from asparagus; set aside. Cut stems into pieces approximately 1" long and put in blender with peas and their liquid. Puree. While continuing to puree, add enough stock to total 3.5 cups total liquid. Place liquid in a saucepan and bring to a simmer. Hold at a simmer while risotto cooks.

2. Heat olive oil in large skillet until shimmering. Add bacon pieces and cook over medium-high heat until the bacon is crispy and the fat is rendered out. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and set on paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 2 T of the bacon fat.

3. Return skillet to heat and add shallot and garlic. Cook over medium-high heat until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add rice. Toast the rice grains in bacon fat until translucent around the edges and displaying a white dot in the middle, about 3 minutes.

4. Add the wine and 1 ladleful of the broth/vegetable mixture. Allow rice to absorb liquid. Continue adding 1-2 ladlefuls of broth/vegetable mixture at a time and stirring until liquid is absorbed, then adding more. Be sure to keep broth/vegetable mixture at a simmer.

5. When the rice has reached a creamy, al dente texture (broth/vegetable mixture should be all gone or almost gone), remove the rice from heat. Stir in the pat of butter and the parmesan cheese, as well as the reserved bacon pieces and asparagus tips. Add salt and pepper to taste; serve immediately.

Roasted Beets by Aquarius

Roasted beets (much better than boiled, IMHO) cooled and sliced thin, served over arugula and curly endive, and topped with a disk of chevre that I'd coated with breadcrumbs and Herbes de Provence and fried, to make a warm melty crouton. It was dressed with balsamic vinaigrette.

Pea Soup by Madeleine Powers

The crockpot made it a dream. I doubled the recipe and filled the whole sucker up. 10 cups of water, 4 cups of peas, 2 cups of onions, carrots, and celery. Herbs n' such. Fuckton of leftover ham. Hours later, nirvana: obtained.

Dublin Coddle by McGuffin

Serves 4

Ingredients
8 oz. bacon
1 c. chicken stock
1 c. heavy cream
1 lb. sausages, preferably Irish breakfast variety
6 medium potatoes
2 medium onions
2 tbsp. parsley
Salt
Pepper

1. Cut the bacon into one-inch squares.

2. Bring the stock and heavy cream to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add sausages and bacon, replace the lid, and simmer for about five minutes.

3. Remove sausages and bacon, reserving the liquid. Cut each sausage into four or five pieces.

4. Peel the potatoes and cut onions and potatoes into thick slices.

5. Assemble a layer of potatoes in the saucepan, followed by a layer of onions and then half of the sausages and bacon. Repeat the process once more and finish off with a layer of potatoes. Pour the chicken stock and heavy cream over and season lightly to taste.

6. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer gently for about an hour.

7. Salt and pepper to taste and serve warm in a casserole dish topped with chopped parsley.

Tuna Noodle Casserole by curly

Boil a pound of egg noodles or other pasta (preferably not long noodles like spaghetti, but whatever)
Mix in one can cream of mushroom (or chicken or celery or whatever) soup
Add one bag frozen peas or other mixed vegetables
Add one can tuna
Mix it all up
(Some people like to top it with cracker crumbs, if you have them)
Pour mixture in buttered baking pan and bake at 375 for 30 minutes.

You can change any of it, too. It occurs to me that you could make it with sardines in tomato sauce instead, and add fresh tomatos, onion, parsley, and celery (maybe capers) and use tomato soup instead. It's really flexible.

Tuna Noodle Casserole by Claire Carpenter

A simple version is to combine two large cans of tuna (drained), one pound of pasta (cooked), two cans of cream of mushroom soup, and one pound of frozen peas (cooked in the microwave). Adding a clove of minced fresh garlic wouldn't hurt. Top with grated cheese if that's what your kids clamor for. No need to bake, just warm the undiluted canned soup with the tuna and mix them with the hot pasta and peas.

Improvising by bookseller

You know, one of the things I like best about cooking is the acquisition of basic principles, which then permits a certain amount of confident improvisation. For example, protein and pan sauce. Take a boneless piece of chicken, season it with salt and pepper, saute it in butter till it's done. Remove the chicken from the pan (cover it loosely with foil to keep warm), add a glug of white wine to the pan, and bring the wine to a boil while scraping up all the brown bits that the chicken has left on the bottom. Once all the bits are scraped up and the liquid in the pan has reduced to a glaze consistency, you have a sauce. Pour it over the chicken and eat.

That's perfectly good. But you could do the same thing with steak, with pork, with fish, with veal. You could use red wine or chicken stock or beef stock or fish stock or cider or coffee or orange juice or...any liquid (or combination of liquids) that you like. You could saute some shallots or garlic or onions (or ginger or scallions or lemongrass) in the pan before adding the liquid. As the liquid's reducing in the pan, you could stir in some mustard or some cream or some jelly or some capers or some chopped pickles or some peanut butter or some hoisin or some orange segments. That's your improv. But it's all based on the extremely simple technique of Cook a Piece of Protein and Use the Fond (the bits left in the pan) and a Liquid to Make a Pan Sauce. If you like, you can turn it into a hugely complicated dish -- various vegetable garnishes, minced herbs, toasted nuts, sit the whole thing on a crouton (fried bread) or a potato cake, etc. But even if you just use the very basic ingredients -- protein, salt and pepper, fat, liquid -- you'll have a really tasty dinner. And once you latch onto that basic technique, you can make substitutions easily, depending on what looks good and sounds good.

Spices That Go Together, by Tamarind

When I do indian, i typically do garam masala + turmeric + red chili powder + cumin seeds + cumin + coriander, added to chopped onions sauteed in oil w garlic and ginger.

Li, Penzeys is a mail order brand with really good, CHEAP spices and blends. I hear they have really fun spice blends and it's easy to just sprinkle them on veggies or whatever you're making. They have physical stores too, but i don't know if there are any in the LA area

http://penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/shophome.htm

Spices That Go Together, by Pickelhead

Salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary: basic roast chicken seasoning. (add breadcrumbs to make nuggets or flour to make fried chicken)

Salt, pepper, thyme, basil: basic tomato sauce seasoning.

Salt, pepper, thyme, fennel, oregano: pizza sauce

Cayenne, chili powder, paprika: hot and warm - I throw some into meatloaf when I have a head cold, to give it a nice kick.

Bay leaves, cloves, cumin, cardamom, cinnamon: warm and sweet Indian

Cumin, coriander, ginger, cayenne, garlic: basic Indian masala

Spices That Go Together, by Verbal Remedy

Cumin & oregano & chile powder (Mexican)

Rosemary & garlic & lemon (Italian)

Star anise & garlic (Vietnamese)

Thyme, rosemary, oregano, garlic (good ol' fashioned meat seasoning)

Lavender, marjoram, rosemary, sage, tarragon (Provencal)

Sage & garlic (yum)

How to Harvest Pomegranate Seeds by Verbal Remedy

I learned the trick to harvesting these little suckers without looking like a murder happened in your kitchen when I was at the cooking school @ Rancho La Puerta last Nov. Fill large bowl with cold water. Slice pom in half. Pick up pom half, plunge into cold water and pull the seeds out with your fingers underwater. Easy as pie and they're just as pretty as can be.

Whatcha Got On Hand Salmon by PaganMama

Li, here's a quick 'n' easy fish dish you might like to try. It's very much a whatcha got on hand dish more than a recipe. But basically I take a couple of salmon filets and cut a slit almost all the way through the center, horizontally, to make a pocket. Then I chop up fresh spinach (or frozen would work just fine) and mix that with (here's the DYI part) garlic, chopped onion, chopped red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes, maybe some feta, black olives, pine nuts -- whatever goodies you have on hand and think would taste good together. Stuff as much as you can into the "pockets" and put the rest under the filets in a pan. Roast until the fish flakes easily -- not long, probably 8-10 minutes. With some rice or couscous on the side, this makes a yummy and good-looking meal.

Spanish-style Salad by Bookseller

I had an incredible Spanish-style salad last week that would go really well with that. It was endive and watercress, thin slices of skin-on red apples, thin slices of manchego cheese, TOASTED walnuts (really important to toast them), and -- the best part -- a healthy sprinkling of pomegranate seeds. The seeds were beautiful and Valentines-y, like little red jewels, but they were also delicious, little pops of sweetness. The dressing was just a basic herb vinaigrette, maybe a little thyme -- no mustard, no balsamic. It was one of the best salads I've ever had. Subbing fresh goat cheese for the manchego would probably work well also.

Japanese Pickles (asazuke) by Sammy

What I usually make is called "asazuke" which means "shallow pickling." This means it can be eaten even after just half-a-day of pickling, and it's not as salty as regular Japanese pickles so you can eat lots of it almost like a salad.

It helps if you have a container like this to press the vegetable down while pickling, but as long as you have some kind of weight on it (a big stone?), it'll do.

So. You just cut up the vegetable you want to pickle -- Japanese turnip (sliced thin), cucumber (chopped in chunks), carrot (sliced thin), and cabbage are good ones to start with -- and place them in a container. If using a container size like what I linked to, you mix in about 1.5 teaspoons of salt -- mix well -- and about 1 tbsp sugar, 2 tbsp vinegar, some chopped ginger, 1 whole chili pepper (small one), and you're done. If you have access to it, you can also add kombu , cut in 2x2 inch squares to the mix. (Sometimes kombu has this white powdery stuff on it. If so, wipe it off with vinegar before adding it into your pickle mix.) Done.

Kat's Book Recommendations

Ooh, I loved Balzac and the Little Seamstress for those who have yet to read it. I was glad to be reminded of it by the Otter. My neighbor wrote Eat the Document which was finalist for the National Book Award last year. Even if she weren't my neighbor, I'd recommend the book. It's about a woman who went underground and created a new life post-Weatherman type of stuff and the issues that arose. Great writing.

Wade's BBQed Beef, by Laliita

Hey Otters, I have to tell you about the awesome beef Wade made last night. It's about the third or fourth time he's done it, and it's always drool-worthy.

Smoked/BBQed beef:

Buy smoker chips (of your prefered "flavour"; Wade used both apple and hickory last night) and make three foil packages of 'em, using about one Cup of chips per packet. (Be sure to use heavy duty foil.) Put two or three holes in each package.

Put two packages on either side of ONE burner, where they'll be exposed to the flame. (As long as you're using heavy foil, the flames won't burn through.) DISABLE THE OTHER BURNER.

Place the third package on the rack above the functioning burner. (It will take longer to heat up, and will add lots more smoke later in the cooking process.)

Rub your roast with olive oil and whatever spice you'd like. (Wade used Montreal Steak Spice last night.)

Place the roast on the "cold" side of the BBQ (where you've disabled one burner).

Aim for a BBQ temp of 350°, and smoke/cook the roast for as long as it takes to cook to your desired doneness.

We used a rather cheap cut of roast last night (it was an eye of round), and man oh man did it turn out tender, and the smoked flavour is to die for.

Wade used our electric meat cutter to carve thin slices, and we served the meat with crusty buns and mustard and horse radish etc. (with salads and whatnot as well). People couldn't get enough of the goodness!

Tourtiere by Bibbety

Tourtiere (from the "Canadian Living Cookbook")

Pastry for double crust pie (9 or 10 inches). Traditionally, it is lard pastry.

1 1/2 lb. ground pork I onion chopped 2 cloves garlic minced 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp each pepper, dried thyme and savoury 1/4 tsp cloves 1/4 tsp allspice I small crumbled bay leaf 3/4 cup chicken stock

In skillet, brown pork, stirring with fork to break meat up finely and draining fat. Add onion, garlic, salt, and spices and saute further until onion is softened. Add stock. Cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. Cool.

Pour filling into prepared pastry lined pie plate. Cover with top crust, seal and flute edges. Cut a few slashes in crust to let steam escape. Bake in 425 oven for about 30 minutes, or until well browned.

Variations:

You can use a mixture of different types of meat. Obviously pork should predominate, but veal or beef can make up part of the mixture. I'm using half a pound of ground lean beef, for example.

The original recipe specified water as the liquid, but I find using stock give a real richness to the pie.

You can also vary the spices. It think though, it's important to have cloves and allspice.

I cut out little pastry stars for the top and do an egg wash.

You can also make tiny little tarts with this. The cookbook says this will make about seventy-two 1 1/4 inch tarts.

Tips on Roasting Turkey Quickly by bookseller

If you do decide to roast, rather than going in the bag route [a roasting bag had been suggested earlier in the discussion. ed.], you might consider cutting the beast up into breast halves and thighs and drummers and wings. It would cook much more quickly that way. And FWIW, if you decide you absolutely have to make it the day before, I'd take the breast off when the turkey is done, and refrigerate it in turkey broth. THe next day, slice the breast and reheat it on the stovetop in the broth -- otherwise it will dry out like crazy. If you think the white-meat people will miss the crisp skin, take the skin off before you slice the breast, and stick it in the oven with the dark meat. The skin will crisp up, and the dark meat can handle the oven's dry heat a second time.

My No Bake Fruit Cake by Grizzled Adams

3 shots of Black Seal Bermuda Rum

3 Maraschino Cherries

Ice

Throw that all together in a nice Old Fashion glass and enjoy. If ya gotta have cake, dip a twinkee init.