Quarantine Cooking

[deluxestogie]

In the spirit of quarantine cooking*
*(or what you might have had to eat as an impoverished student)

Spam Fricasée aux Croûtons

Ingredients:

• Spam (real or house-brand) - 1/7 can
• Condensed Mushroom Soup (Campbells or house-brand) - 1 can
• Whole Wheat Bread (definitely house brand) - 2 slices per person
• Milk, if you have any. Else water.

Instructions:

• Dice 1/7 can of Spam into tiny cubes, put into pot (save the remaining 6/7 of the Spam in the fridge, for meals the rest of the week)
• Add condensed soup, and thin with on ¾ can of milk (milk can be scarce)
• Season (with whatever you happen to have). [I added garlic powder, black pepper and oregano.]
• Stir until thoroughly heated
• Dump heated stuff into however many bowls need food
• Toast bread, cut into cubes, and pile onto stuff in bowl(s)

Serves up to 4 (or 6). This usually tastes better than the canned tuna version. If you have kids, and they don't yet have a drivers license, then this makes a quick dinner in a pinch.

Bob

 

[wruk53]

Good old spam! It's very versatile. I've used it on pizzas, spam fried rice, spam omelets and just plain fried spam sandwiches. Spam is one of those things that you either love it or hate it. I love it but my wife and grandson won't touch it. When I was a kid working on the farm for my dad, he would alternate between spam one day and corned beef the next. He would make a campfire, vent the can and put it on the coals to warm it up and make sandwiches. For dessert we always had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (Welches grape). Probably not the healthiest thing to eat on a daily basis, but it sure hit the spot after a hard morning of work.

 

[tullius]

Ça alors, great title

 

[GreenDragon]

Fast chicken pot pie

Filling:
Leftover chicken meat from a whole roasted chicken
3 cups chicken stock (made from above chicken carcass, canned, or bullion)
1/4 cup cream or half & half
1/2 Onion, diced
2 sticks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 tablespoons flour
1 bag frozen mixed vegetables
Parmesan cheese (the real stuff, not that powdered abomination in the green plastic container)
S&P, Thyme, Rosemary, and Sage to taste

Crust:
Two rounds of pie dough. (The frozen ones from the grocery store is a staple in my freezer - there is no shame in this! )

Prep:
Thaw pie dough. Preheat the oven to 400F. Sauté' the onion and celery in your fat of choice. Once transparent and slightly colored add the frozen mix veg. Continue to cook until veg reaches desired doneness / texture. Sprinkle the flour over the veg and cook for one minute. Add the garlic, chicken stock, and herbs. Cook until thick and bubbly. Add cream. Take off the heat and add shredded chicken.

Place one round of pie dough in the bottom of your casserole dish of choice. Add filling. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese, top with the other round of pie dough and crimp the seams. Cook 30-40 minutes or until crust is golden brown.

Variations: there is an infinite number of ways to change this up to prevent boredom
Add some diced peppers(hot or mild) in with the onion and celery for a kick.
Use puff pastry instead of pie dough - delish!
Substitute cheddar or other cheese of choice (ie whatever you have in the fridge)
Add any leftover cooked veg in the fridge to the filling. Great way to use them up.
Add a cubed a leftover baked potato to the filling.
Substitute different spice mixtures for the herbs. My favorites are Peri Peri, Berbere, curry powder, or red thai curry paste.

 

[tullius]

Spaghetti w/ red pepper, peach and lemon sauce, garlic butter shrimp

 

[tullius]

Pasta w/Red Pepper, Peach, Lemon and Shrimp


Shrimp:

1/3 lb 16-20 ct. wild caught shrimp
½ squeezed lemon carcass from the sauce, sliced finely
Water, enough to cover by one inch


Pasta:
Liquid reserved from simmering shrimp
2-4c water
2 t coarse sea salt
½ lb dried spaghetti, preferably made in Italy


Sauce:

2 T extra virgin olive oil
2 T butter
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 ripe peach, halved, pitted and diced
½ lemon, juiced and zested
½ t Italian seasoning
½ t dried thyme
½ t red pepper flakes
½ t ground black pepper

1 handful flat leaf parsley, stems reserved for bisque
Pecorino romano cheese, finely grated
2-4 lemon wedges


Put shrimp in a 1.5 qt sauce pan w/ water and lemon slices, bring to a boil for 1 minute, drain, reserve liquid, and chill shrimp. Head and peel shrimp, reserving & freezing heads/shells to make bisque later.

Bring a 5 quart stockpot with the reserved shrimp liquid and water to a rolling boil, add salt and spaghetti, simmer at medium for 8-9 minutes.

While the pasta is cooking, sautee the garlic in oil and butter in a pan for 1 minute, then add remaining sauce ingredients and simmer well on medium high heat. Pluck and rough chop parsley.

When pasta is al dente, reserve 2 c of the pasta water, drain and add pasta to the saute pan, along with the shrimp and 2/3 of the parsley. On medium heat, toss continuously, adding pasta water as necessary to make an abundant sauce. Correct seasonings, plate and garnish with pecorino romano, remaining parsley, and lemon wedges.


Yield: serves 2 generously, or 4 for primi piatti in the Roman manner

This is an original recipe

 

[deluxestogie]

New Food Pearing

Dinner tonight: fried Spam (actually Great Value "Luncheon Meat"), toaster waffles topped with margarine and a diced, ripe pear from the yard.

Bob

 

[tullius]

I suspected we were going to see some pears in here shortly. Favorite pairings here are gorgonzola, walnuts, bread, grapes, toasted almonds, pomegranate, hot peppers, pecans, smoked ham, caramelized onions, bacon, arugula, tea, pork chops, ginger, butterscotch, vanilla ice cream, or as a nicely altered Bellini (not all together though). This may be the first pear waffles w/spam dish I've ever seen, now I want to try it

 

[deluxestogie]

Cheese, Cheese, Pears, Pears and Peas, Please.

Ingredients

• 1 small, ripe pear, diced
• 1 handful of tiny, yellow pear tomatoes, sliced in half
• 1 sprinkle of random, shredded cheese (I used official, "Mexican" blend)
• 1 sprinkle of a sharper, grated cheese (I used Parmesan)
• 1 sprinkle of uncooked, green peas
• olive oil
• lemon juice
• salt
• black pepper
• dill weed

Pairs well with ice water

Bob

 

[tullius]

Hatch chili pepper cheddar cheeseburgers, not bad

 

[GreenDragon]

The holidays are coming - time to give this thread some love!

It’s a hot, humid, rainy day here. I was going to work on the fire pit I’m building, but those plans have been cancelled. Bored I decided to inventory the freezer. Well, I found bag after bag of chicken bones saved for stock.

(I generally buy whole chickens and break them down as it’s a lot cheaper than buying pre-cut pieces. And because I’m so cheap I always save any bones for making stock. So much better than any store bought and free!)

Anyway, I found so many bags that I had to break out my beer brewing pot to fit all the bones in! Next I threw in a few onions, carrots, and celery along with a bay leaf, and a teaspoon each of celery seeds and brown mustard seeds. Bring to a boil then turn down the heat and let it just simmer all day. Let cool and strain. Portion into plastic containers and freeze till needed. Makes the best soups, stews, beans, gravy etc you’ll ever have.

Here’s the pot ready for the stove. Can of pumpkin for scale.

 

[Plinsc]

Same weather down the road in Union, SC
I have bags of chicken, duck, and rabbit bones in the freezer, a good day for that!

 

[deluxestogie]

Lottery Splurge
I did not win the 2 billion dollar Power Ball Lottery prize. My probability of winning (out to 5 decimal places) was actually the same as for those who purchased a lottery ticket. I did not. Nonetheless, I went ahead and splurged on a brand new kitchen device: a Spam slicer. [Having not won the lottery, I was forced to test this new wonder gadget on generic Spam, rather than the brand name Spam®Hormel Foods Corporation.]

Bob

 

[Plinsc]

Toss some of that on your smoker for a bit, really low temp, better cold smoked if you are set up for it.
Then fry it up with fresh mushrooms and a maple syrup based bbq sauce!
Goes great with a mug of bourbon and finished with an English blend in the pipe!

 

[GreenDragon]

Tonight is Pizza night! Cooked in cast iron pans the crust always comes out crispy.

 

[deluxestogie]

I may need to go into quarantine cooking rehab. I now officially suffer from a case of long quarantine cooking hangover.

Tonight, I dumped a can of navy beans and a can of whole Vienna sausages into a small pot, along with molasses, brown sugar and salt. Then, without even stirring it, I covered it and placed it on the stove. It should be "ready" in about 15 minutes. Since it is two meals worth, I will be forced to spoon some into a bowl for dinner.

It will be satisfying and tasty. But I clearly need some culinary therapy.

Bob

 

[Knucklehead]

I may need to go into quarantine cooking rehab. I now officially suffer from a case of long quarantine cooking hangover.

Tonight, I dumped a can of navy beans and a can of whole Vienna sausages into a small pot, along with molasses, brown sugar and salt. Then, without even stirring it, I covered it and placed it on the stove. It should be "ready" in about 15 minutes. Since it is two meals worth, I will be forced to spoon some into a bowl for dinner.

It will be satisfying and tasty. But I clearly need some culinary therapy.

Bob

I've been able to satisfy my quarantine tremens (QT's) by binge watching Cowboy Kent Rollins recipe videos on Youtube. Then I eat Vienna Sausages and soda crackers with a glass of milk. It's similar to eating, but different.

 

[GreenDragon]

I may need to go into quarantine cooking rehab. I now officially suffer from a case of long quarantine cooking hangover.

Tonight, I dumped a can of navy beans and a can of whole Vienna sausages into a small pot, along with molasses, brown sugar and salt. Then, without even stirring it, I covered it and placed it on the stove. It should be "ready" in about 15 minutes. Since it is two meals worth, I will be forced to spoon some into a bowl for dinner.

It will be satisfying and tasty. But I clearly need some culinary therapy.

Bob

Bob,
Clearly an intervention is in order - you forgot the mustard!

 

[Radagast]

I've been able to satisfy my quarantine tremens (QT's) by binge watching Cowboy Kent Rollins recipe videos on Youtube. Then I eat Vienna Sausages and soda crackers with a glass of milk. It's similar to eating, but different.

Just don't start binge watching Anthony Bourdain shows or you'll be whipping up midnight phô.

 

[deluxestogie]

Universal Cookie Prototype

This is a skeletal recipe for ending up with a cookie that has no flavorants or decorations. Just a sweet little, baked thing.

For about 3 dozen cookies:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• ¼-½ cup sugar (up to 1 cup)
• 1 cup butter or margarine (1 cup of butter = ½ pound of butter), softened
• ¼ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp baking soda (up to 1 tsp when adding 1 egg)
• enough water, milk, or cream to create a stiff dough
• roll into 1" balls (or flatten sheet, and cut to a shape)
• Oven at
  • 325°F for 18-25 minutes OR
  • 375°F for 10-14 minutes

Optional Embellishments before baking:

• flatten, and cut to a shape
• flavorant (flavors, extracts, cocoa powder, etc.)
• nuts; coconut; chocolate bits; sprinkles; etc.
• candied fruit bits

Optional Embellishments after baking:

• granulated or powdered sugar
• topping or icing
• icing or ice cream sandwiched between 2 cookies

Bob