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NeoGAF Learns to cook - Let's share recipes!

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Healthy, Cheap, Bulk meal for those looking to get some veggie in their diet.

Ratatouille

mPMeMxN.jpg


-2 Courgettes
-2 large peppers (1 red 1 green)
-1 large onion (maybe add another half if you like it strooonng)
-4 medium/large cloves of garlic
-500g carton of passata or tinned tomatoes (passasta is better)
-Tons of basil
-Olive oil
-Salt and pepper

1. 3-4 table spoons of oil oil in pan
2. add diced garlic and cook for 1-2 mins. do not burn it
3. add diced onion and cook for 3 minutes
4. add sliced courguettes for 4-5 mins
5. add sliced peppers and cook for 3 mins
6. add the passata, add lots if you like it saucy and a little if you prefer it thick
7. finally add basil (fresh is better but dry is fine) salt and pepper
8. cook for 10 mins on low heat and add more seasonings to taste

serve with pasta or rice and sprinkle on some cheddar if you want

I always found it to taste a lot better when each vegetable is cooked separately and only at the very end combined for 10 minutes cook.

And Ratatouille is great because you can bassicaly eat it for a week. Straight when started, then in next days with added potatoes and/or meat, a basis for a soup too. And in the end it makes for a wonderful and unique pizza topping.
 
Improvised a decent chicken bits in flour pan-fry with garlic and mushrooms today but overboiled the (frozen lol) veggies. Sticking to fresh veggies next time, i need my freezer for meat and ice cream
 
Winterblink, that curry looks amazing. I might just have to rustle it up one day. Would it be acceptable to put whats left over in plastic tubs and freeze, or do you think it would lose flavour?
 
Oven roasted tomato sauce with baked feta, ouzo flambéed shrimps and scallions

Tomato sauce ingredients:

- three garlic cloves
- three shallots
- two big cans of skinned tomatos
- two bay leaves
- one whole cinnamon stick
- salt and pepper
- 200ml excellent olive oil

Ingredients for the rest of the dish:

- 200g feta cheese
- three to five scallions
- two garlic cloves
- ten fat shrimps
- two table spoons fresh or dried thyme
- 2cl ouzo
- pepper

Tomato sauce directions:

Crush garlic, slice shallots. Drop tomatoes, cinnamon, crushed garlic, bay leaves into a pot and add as much/little water to cover it all. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add the sliced shallots, continue to simmer for another 20 minutes but uncovered. Sauce should have thickened by now so stir occasionally or it will burn easily. Add olive oil, season to taste with salt and pepper and give it another 15 minutes.

Rest of the dish:

Heat oven, 180C/356F. Crumble feta, slice scallions, crush the remaining garlic and clean shrimps. Move tomato sauce to a casserole dish (remove cinnamon stick and bay leaves, if necessary) and top with crumbled feta. Roast tomato sauce and feta until the cheese starts to brown a little. In the meantime pan fry garlic, thyme, half of the chopped scallions in a splash of olive oil. Add the pan fried stuff on top of the casserole. Same pan, stir fry the shrimps in the remaining (now well seasoned) olive oil until pink, then add the ouzo and set them on fire to flambé their crustacean asses. Top the casserole content with flambéed shrimps, add a bit of pepper and roast everything for another 5 minutes. Garnish with the remaining chopped scallions. Delicious on rice or with some pita bread.

Photo I took of this dish:

p1010287.jpg
 
Winterblink, that curry looks amazing. I might just have to rustle it up one day. Would it be acceptable to put whats left over in plastic tubs and freeze, or do you think it would lose flavour?
Thanks! To be honest I don't know, it never lasts long. :D One day, two at most and then it's all gobbled up.
 
Winterblink, that curry looks amazing. I might just have to rustle it up one day. Would it be acceptable to put whats left over in plastic tubs and freeze, or do you think it would lose flavour?

I think it would freeze okay. Just use freezer bags and get the air out. Avoid containers unless you like freezer burn!
 
Tomato sauce ingredients:

- three garlic cloves
- three shallots
- two big cans of skinned tomatos
- two bay leaves
- one whole cinnamon stick
- salt and pepper
- 200ml excellent olive oil
Wait. What‽
You seriously pour a fifth of a litre of olive oil in your tomato sauce?
Doesn't seem right.
 
That's pretty normal for mediterranean cooking, but there's also wiggle room if you want to use less.
No, man. No way Mediterranean cuisine would use 20 cl of olive oil at once, unless it's for frying things.

Look at these italian recipes, for example:
Tomato sauce base: just using tomatoes and basil, no oil.
Mezze maniche pastas with tuna fish: using above tomato sauce base, and only adding 4 tea spoons of olive oil. That's 2 cl. For 4 people!

Same goes with Spanish and French cuisines, for the ones I'm familiar with.

Olive oil is really good, but it's also pure fat.
Using so much in a single meal is terribly unhealthy, dude.
Just saying.
 
I always found it to taste a lot better when each vegetable is cooked separately and only at the very end combined for 10 minutes cook.

And Ratatouille is great because you can bassicaly eat it for a week. Straight when started, then in next days with added potatoes and/or meat, a basis for a soup too. And in the end it makes for a wonderful and unique pizza topping.

If I've got the time will do that.

And yeah it's highly versatile. Haven't made it in a while so might make it again soon.
 
No, man. No way Mediterranean cuisine would use 20 cl of olive oil at once, unless it's for frying things.

Look at these italian recipes, for example:
Tomato sauce base: just using tomatoes and basil, no oil.
Mezze maniche pastas with tuna fish: using above tomato sauce base, and only adding 4 tea spoons of olive oil. That's 2 cl. For 4 people!

Same goes with Spanish and French cuisines, for the ones I'm familiar with.

Olive oil is really good, but it's also pure fat.
Using so much in a single meal is terribly unhealthy, dude.
Just saying.
It's not for a single meal though, my recipe is for 4 servings. The two big cans of tomatoes weight in at 800g each.
 
It's not for a single meal though, my recipe is for 4 servings. The two big cans of tomatoes weight in at 800g each.
By meal, I meant recipe.

20 cl of olive oil is the lipid equivalent of 216 grams (7.6 oz) of butter.
200 g of feta is the lipid equivalent of 42 grams (1.4 oz) of butter.

So, lipid wise, there's more than a freaking 250g butter pack equivalent in your recipe.
I don't know, man. Even for 4 servings, it sounds ridiculously unhealthy.

__
If I were you, I'd start sweating the shallots in a bit (read: 2-3 cl max) of olive oil, and I would add the tomatoes next.
Then, if the olive oil flavour is what you're looking for, just add some drops once served in your plate, as cooking would kill most of the oil's aromas anyway.
This way, your recipe should stay tasty while being a lot healthier.
 
Hope this won't be taken the wrong way but can we possibly not do the 'healthy' thing in this thread and just stick to recipes without intervening to make them 'better' (except from a taste point of view)?

I do agree that 200ml of olive oil sounds slightly bonkers to me but I come at that purely from an inability to see how you're not left with a layer of oil sitting atop the sauce. But I consider fat a perfectly healthy source of calories and that's how I get most of mine, and if the chap wants to put 200ml of olive oil in then more power to him/her.
 
Okay it's been too long!

I just made my first attempt at a meatloaf and was happy with the results, so here goes:

Slow Cooker Meatloaf

Cost: Cheap, around $10 NZD, but YMMV in other countries

Time: This is a slow cooker recipe primarily, so it takes all day, but doesn't require any maintenance. Prep time is pretty minimal too.

Serves: Around 4 - the two of us had seconds and we have enough for a leftover meal each.

Skill Level: Easy

Flavour traits: Herby and meaty.

Nutrition notes:I don't use sausage meat, only lean beef mince, so it isn't too bad health wise.

Ingredients

For the Meatloaf:
Lean beef mince (ground beef) around 500g
Dry breadcrumbs (1 to 1.5 cups - I used panko)
Onion (1 medium, finely diced)
Egg (1 whole raw)
Garlic powder (1 tsp - can replace with two fresh crushed garlic cloves)
Onion salt (1 tsp)
Fresh herbs (I put in a good handful of parsley and garlic chives, as well as a little thyme)
Dried herbs (I used mixed Italian dried herbs, about 1 Tbsp, you could add a little more if you don't have fresh herbs on hand)
Mustard (1 Tbsp, any type works, I used Dijon)
BBQ sauce (just use your favourite and use a decent squirt, lol)

For potatoes underneath:
Potatoes (2 medium)
Salt and Pepper to taste
Olive oil (just a splash)

Cooking Guide

Dice the potatoes into 1cm-ish cubes. Put them in the bottom of the slow cooker, add a splash of olive oil so the base of the slow cooker and potatoes are lightly coated. Season with salt and pepper to your taste. If there's other seasonings you like on potatoes, you could add them too (garlic powder, herbs, paprika, onion salt, etc).

One of the beautiful things about mixing the meatloaf ingredients together is that you don't need to be super precise. Just throw everything into a bowl and get in there with your hands to mix it up really well. Use your discretion with the breadcrumbs, adding a little at a time and mixing to check consistency. If it's too sloppy, add more breadcrumbs. Shape it into a loaf and place on top of the potato layer - this helps keep it off the cooking surface so it doesn't burn at the bottom. Optional: Add a squirt of BBQ sauce over the top of the loaf.

Turn the slow cooker to low and leave for 8 hours. Some liquid will gather at the bottom with the potatoes. After 8 hours you can carefully lift the meatloaf out onto a plate, and remove the potatoes to a baking dish to roast in a hot oven until crispy (I did mine at 200C). Put the meatloaf back in the slow cooker and turn to low while the potatoes roast.

When your potatoes are nearly done, take out the meatloaf and carve it up. It'll be kind of hard to cut because it just falls apart, but you can attempt to do some thick slices.

Serve with baby peas or your favourite green veg! Sorry no photos this time, it got eaten too fast!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now for the leftovers!!!

Peagles' Epic Cheese Steak Wannabe Meatloaf Sub

Cost: Cheap, uses leftovers!

Time: 5-10 minutes!

Serves: As many as you want.

Skill Level: Easy

Flavour traits: Godly.

Nutrition notes: Probably best for a treat!

Ingredients

Leftover meatloaf as above
French bread - Sliced
Butter
Jalapenos - Sliced
Cheese - Sliced (I used Egmont but any cheese that grills nicely will do)

Cooking Guide

Slice the french stick into a sub sandwich size, and cut into halves, then butter them.

Heat up the meatloaf (I did mine in the microwave) so it's piping hot and lay it over one side of the bread.

Lay jalapenos over the top of the meatloaf (as many as you like).

Cover the jalapenos with cheese slices then put the bread in the oven to grill, take out when the cheese is melted to your liking.

Enjoy!


Disclaimer: I've never written these up before so if I've left something out or something's unclear, let me know! I have a bad habit of just making shit up in the kitchen or just assuming stuff is basic sometimes so call me out if I need to edit something in, cheers!
 
Hey guys! I'm still fairly a n00b at cooking, so this thread's been great for me thus far. I've made the Meatless Lasagna recipe a few times already to some great successes (friends loved it, and so did I of course), and I'm going to try a few more of them down the line.

Today, I just wanted to share this Chicken and Fried Rice recipe I found online. I'm not to the point of really making my own recipes yet, but this turned out pretty well for me, I'd say! Then again, I don't eat fried rice that often, so I don't know of the actual quality, but I liked it well enough.

The only real change I made to the recipe was to add an extra half tablespoon of soy sauce to the chicken marinade.

Chicken Fried Rice with Vegetables from My Recipes

Cost: Pretty cheap, you can get all the ingredients sans the chicken for around $10. I tend to buy chicken in bulk when it's one sale, so I dunno the real price for that, sorry.

Time: Probably a half hour from start to finish, including chopping the chicken and onions.

Skill Level: Easy

Nutritional notes: It's not very healthy, but frankly I don't think it's too terrible for a serving. The info's on the site.

Ingredients:
12 oz chicken breast, chopped
2 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce (NOTE: The recipe calls for 2 tablespoons, I added the extra 1/2 into this recipe)
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/4 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 (10 oz.) package frozen mixed vegetables, thawed
4 cups cooked white rice (NOTE: I cooked two cups worth of uncooked rice, didn't measure afterwards, seemed close enough)
3 eggs
Kosher salt
Black pepper

In a medium bowl, toss chicken with soy sauce and sesame oil. Cover and marinate at room temperature for 10 minutes.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and marinade and stir-fry until chicken is cooked through, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer chicken to a plate; set aside. Add vegetable oil to skillet and heat over medium heat. Add onion and cook for 3 minutes. Stir in vegetables and cook for 1 minute. Increase heat to medium-high, stir in rice until incorporated and cooked through, 3 minutes.

Using a wooden spoon, form a well in mixture. Add eggs and scramble within well just until soft. Then break apart and mix into rice; season with salt and pepper. Let cook undisturbed until a golden crust forms, about 1 minute. Turn rice with a spatula and cook other side. Repeat 2 or 3 times until rice is uniformly golden. Add chicken and stir to combine. Serve warm.

Here's how it looked for me when I was done (phone pictures and whatnot):


I think the consistency is a a little off (I think it's a little too sticky, I dunno? I like stickier rice anyway), but the chicken turned out awesome and the rice tastes good.

Am I doing this right? lol
 
bro you gotta stir fry that rice more wok-style

Hainanese chicken rice e-z mode was a failure... but it tasted good anyway lol. Love these 'can't fail' recipies.

Gotta figure out a better way to cook the chicken though... can't be having with these jury-rigged steaming solutions and i'm sick of pan-frying everything. (Came out alright and I was making do with chicken breast instead of an actual chicken, but still).

My Siu Yuk was also a failure, didn't leave the pork belly to dry long enough before cooking. Too damp, probably needed to cook a little more too. Tasted okay, but fat was way too chewy.
 
Holy shit guys, it's been months. What gives! Anyway, tonight's dinner:


Grilled pork tenderloin with some broccoli and mushrooms on the side. The recipe is the Alton Brown one you can get here, but I doubled it to do two tenderloins because this recipe is so. fucking. good. It was grilled on my indoor electric grill, though would also be great on a barbecue of course.

For the sides, cut up the florets and stems (used a peeler to strip the outer layers of the stems), and a thicker dice for the mushrooms. Put about a third of a cup of water in a non-stick, put the broccoli in there while it boiled to kinda steam it. When the water was gone I took the greens out, put a dab of butter in the middle and quickly sauteed the mushrooms. Once that was nearly done I pushed them to the side, put a dab of sesame oil in the middle with a minced clove of garlic, let that cook for a bit to get fragrant, then put the broccoli in and tossed the whole thing together. Season as you go to your taste.

Sliced up the tenderloins, plated with the vegetables. It was all delicious, holy crap. Best part, the tenderloins together were like ten canuckbucks, so not too bad overall for pricing.

Try it! It's great!
 
ooh, looks doable. I'm kind of limited cos I only have one pan and a pot and a shitty griller and a microwave... maybe I should buy another pan
 
ooh, looks doable. I'm kind of limited cos I only have one pan and a pot and a shitty griller and a microwave... maybe I should buy another pan
I only used one pan and the electric grill I have. You could certainly do both in one pan if you wanted to, the tenderloins were resting when I did the veggies.
 
I eat simply but I gotta try some of these.

My meal today was a fried egg on top of rice with some spam soy sauce and sesame oil.

The poor korean man style.

So good tho.
 
I have a question for you cooking pros. How do you know when to add more of an ingredient? To clarify, let's say the ingredients in the OP can only serve up to 3 people, what do I do to serve more people and achieve the same taste? Is it, if I'm serving 6 as opposed to 3 do I just double? Sorry if my question is still unclear.
 
I have a question for you cooking pros. How do you know when to add more of an ingredient? To clarify, let's say the ingredients in the OP can only serve up to 3 people, what do I do to serve more people and achieve the same taste? Is it, if I'm serving 6 as opposed to 3 do I just double? Sorry if my question is still unclear.

If you want to serve 6 you double. If you are trying to serve one person you divide by 3. It can be tricky when it ends up as "1/3 of an egg" for some ingrediants but for the most part it is simple.
 
Some Ramen I made.

The first is simply the red packet shin ryamun. I just added tofu, shiitake mushrooms and spring onions and finally some sesame oil on top. It actually tasted pretty incredible!


The second is a bit more homemade. The broth I made using chicken stock and then adding soy sauce. The meat is a pan fried chicken breast that I marinaded in soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil. I then sliced it. It again includes tofu, shiitake mushrooms, spring onions and sesame oil, but also some fresh chilli's too.


Whilst it was simple and very light to eat, the broth was lacking something to make it more flavourism. Will have a think about what that missing ingredient could be.
 
Some Ramen I made.

The first is simply the red packet shin ryamun. I just added tofu, shiitake mushrooms and spring onions and finally some sesame oil on top. It actually tasted pretty incredible!



The second is a bit more homemade. The broth I made using chicken stock and then adding soy sauce. The meat is a pan fried chicken breast that I marinaded in soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil. I then sliced it. It again includes tofu, shiitake mushrooms, spring onions and sesame oil, but also some fresh chilli's too.



Whilst it was simple and very light to eat, the broth was lacking something to make it more flavourism. Will have a think about what that missing ingredient could be.

I would make base,by frying some onions, garlic and ginger, and use roast chicken legs and thighs for the meat,. add some of the roast chicken skin to the onions garlic and ginger, and use a better chicken stock



If you roast some chicken thighs and drumsticks you can make a hybrid stock. when the chicken is done drain the excess fat from the roasting tray (but keep it) deglaze with water and add a chicken stock cube and reduce until you have the right flavour, you will then have a turbo charged chicken stock, and add some of the chicken fat back to it for extra yummyness. then add that to your onions,garlic, ginger and chicken skin pieces., u can drain it and discard the onions and stuff or leave them in.

that should bump up the flavour.
 
I would make base,by frying some onions, garlic and ginger, and use roast chicken legs and thighs for the meat,. add some of the roast chicken skin to the onions garlic and ginger, and use a better chicken stock



If you roast some chicken thighs and drumsticks you can make a hybrid stock. when the chicken is done drain the excess fat from the roasting tray (but keep it) deglaze with water and add a chicken stock cube and reduce until you have the right flavour, you will then have a turbo charged chicken stock, and add some of the chicken fat back to it for extra yummyness. then add that to your onions,garlic, ginger and chicken skin pieces., u can drain it and discard the onions and stuff or leave them in.

that should bump up the flavour.

Jesus that sounds incredible. I'm a complete novice at making anything that resembles non instant packet ramen.

The next time I have a spare day I will be coming back to this post.

Cheers!
 
Jesus that sounds incredible. I'm a complete novice at making anything that resembles non instant packet ramen.

The next time I have a spare day I will be coming back to this post.

Cheers!

yeah the thing you will have to watch out for is making it to fatty, so maybe you could fry the onions, garlic and ginger in the fat drained roasting tray, instead of a septate wok/pan. and you could use soy sauce instead of chicken stock cube to season the stock, if u wanted.
 
The second is a bit more homemade. The broth I made using chicken stock and then adding soy sauce. The meat is a pan fried chicken breast that I marinaded in soy sauce and a dash of sesame oil. I then sliced it. It again includes tofu, shiitake mushrooms, spring onions and sesame oil, but also some fresh chilli's too.



Whilst it was simple and very light to eat, the broth was lacking something to make it more flavourism. Will have a think about what that missing ingredient could be.

Ginger? White/black pepper?
 
i steamed some chicken drumsticks in a pot the other day and after I'd stored away the leftovers I was looking at the broth

"Huh..."

"Hmmm..."

Tasted pretty good. Next time I'll just toss garlic and salt and pepper in the boiling water to start with

*I didn't have any potatos or carrots so I couldn't make my standard ABC Chicken Soup
 
Just thought I would share my favorite recipe website. You can narrow down what you are looking for pretty well and so far, from the past few years of me using it (its been around since 08'), I've never been disappointed.

Foodgawker.com

:)
 
Not sure I get cooking chicken on a stovetop. It just ends up being black on the outside and uncooked on the inside. Any guides on that?
Here's what I do.

1. Take chicken (breast, say)
2. Put between two pieces of saran wrap on counter
3. Bash it flat (like to a cm or 1.5 cm thickness)
4. Preheat pan to medium-low heat and add a tsp or two of oil
5. Season the outside of the chicken with salt and whatever spices you would like (cumin and cayenne is nice, and simple)
6. Put in pan
7. When it's cooked halfway up the side of the chicken, flip

It shouldn't take a TON of time per side, but by cooking it at medium-low you won't get blackened outside and will maintain a juicy as hell interior.
 
Not sure I get cooking chicken on a stovetop. It just ends up being black on the outside and uncooked on the inside. Any guides on that?

Try this recipe. Use only a little bit of oil, and use something with a high smoke point (peanut oil is what I use). First time I did this I used too much oil and used vegetable oil, and while the chicken was delicious, I ended up setting off the smoke detector. Make sure you get the right size of breasts as well. Some of the ones I see at the grocery store are huge and will absolutely be raw on the inside and burnt on the outside if you try this. This article explains all the theory, but I personally like the lemon rosemary sauce of the above recipe better than the white wine sauce he creates in that article.

I'm by no means an expert, but I have done this successfully several times, so if you have any more specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.
 
Hey guys, stupid question probably but I've never made any type of Curry (Chicken or otherwise) myself.

I usually have my curry without onions (including when I order from our local Chinese, I always ask for it without onions) since I'm not a fan of Onions.

But I wonder does that affect the overall flavour? As in, can I make curry and just not use onions or does it affect the flavour enough that I should make it and then manually remove the onions after it's done.

yeah, that sounds stupid but despite how long this thread has been up, I haven't made much food myself >.> that's changing now though since I'm going on a diet and eating out every night is not the best way to lose weight. <.<;
 
Tagliatelle al Salmone
serves 2.


  • 250g dried tagliatelle
  • 200g salmon fillet (without skin)
  • 1 shallot
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 100ml cream
  • 100ml dry white wine
  • 100ml vegetable broth
  • 200g chopped tomatoes
  • 1 teaspoon tomato paste
  • 1/2 lime
  • 1/2 teaspoon dill
  • 1 tablespoon parsley
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • salt
  • pepper
Start by cooking the pasta "al dente" in salted water.

In the meantime while the pasta is cooking, chop the salmon into 1-2cm thick cubes and put it into a pan with the olive oil. Cook until done.

Remove the salmon from the pan and put it aside.

Chop the shallot into small pieces and put it into the pan. Fry until transparent. Then squeeze the garlic into the pan and add the white wine.

Let it boil gently for 2-3 minutes, then add the vegetable broth and let it boil for another 5 minutes.

Add the chopped tomatoes and tomato paste into the pan and season with salt, pepper and lime juice. Let it boil gently for another 5 minutes.

Now add the cream and put the salmon back into the pan. Let it boil up briefly, then add the drained pasta and mix everything. Let the pasta rest for 1 minute so it can soak up some of the sauce.

Put on a plate and garnish with chopped dill and parsley before serving.

Buon Appetito.


Photo I took:

 
Hey guys, stupid question probably but I've never made any type of Curry (Chicken or otherwise) myself.

I usually have my curry without onions (including when I order from our local Chinese, I always ask for it without onions) since I'm not a fan of Onions.

But I wonder does that affect the overall flavour? As in, can I make curry and just not use onions or does it affect the flavour enough that I should make it and then manually remove the onions after it's done.

yeah, that sounds stupid but despite how long this thread has been up, I haven't made much food myself >.> that's changing now though since I'm going on a diet and eating out every night is not the best way to lose weight. <.<;

Is it the taste of onions you don't like, or the texture? Maybe both?

Onion does add a lot of flavour to everything IMO but it might not be 100% necessary in a curry depending on the type.

If it's more a texture thing you could put them in a food processor before you add them. I do this when I make chilli and you'd never know they were there. It also has the added bonus of cooking quicker.

I'd encourage you to experiment :P
 
Hey guys, stupid question probably but I've never made any type of Curry (Chicken or otherwise) myself.

I usually have my curry without onions (including when I order from our local Chinese, I always ask for it without onions) since I'm not a fan of Onions.

But I wonder does that affect the overall flavour? As in, can I make curry and just not use onions or does it affect the flavour enough that I should make it and then manually remove the onions after it's done.

yeah, that sounds stupid but despite how long this thread has been up, I haven't made much food myself >.> that's changing now though since I'm going on a diet and eating out every night is not the best way to lose weight. <.<;

Is it the taste of onions you don't like, or the texture? Maybe both?

Onion does add a lot of flavour to everything IMO but it might not be 100% necessary in a curry depending on the type.

If it's more a texture thing you could put them in a food processor before you add them. I do this when I make chilli and you'd never know they were there. It also has the added bonus of cooking quicker.

I'd encourage you to experiment :P

If you dice the onions finely and then caramelize them (sautee them over medium heat until they turn brown), they'll practically dissolve in whatever sauce you put them in while contributing a ton of depth of flavor. As Peagles said, experiment. Try all the things you suggested, along with our suggestions and see what you like best.
 
Well I honestly don't like the look of a lot of things (even things I like) but it may be the look/texture that I don't like. I'm sure I have tasted and not liked onions before though but it's been a long time.

Yeah, I should probably experiment. >_<
 
I cook a lot. I've got about 50 or so recipes back logged. I've managed to put up some of them on a blog.

Here is my Jambalya recipe. Personal favourite of mine.


Link
 
Well I honestly don't like the look of a lot of things (even things I like) but it may be the look/texture that I don't like. I'm sure I have tasted and not liked onions before though but it's been a long time.

Yeah, I should probably experiment. >_<
If it's the texture well that's tricky. But cooking them on low heat without color will cook out the acidity and turns the onions sweet, getting rid of that harsh oniony-ness. If you're going to experiment, try this and taste a piece every so often as it cooks and you'll see how the taste changes over time.
 
Here's what I do.

1. Take chicken (breast, say)
2. Put between two pieces of saran wrap on counter
3. Bash it flat (like to a cm or 1.5 cm thickness)
4. Preheat pan to medium-low heat and add a tsp or two of oil
5. Season the outside of the chicken with salt and whatever spices you would like (cumin and cayenne is nice, and simple)
6. Put in pan
7. When it's cooked halfway up the side of the chicken, flip

It shouldn't take a TON of time per side, but by cooking it at medium-low you won't get blackened outside and will maintain a juicy as hell interior.

Try this recipe. Use only a little bit of oil, and use something with a high smoke point (peanut oil is what I use). First time I did this I used too much oil and used vegetable oil, and while the chicken was delicious, I ended up setting off the smoke detector. Make sure you get the right size of breasts as well. Some of the ones I see at the grocery store are huge and will absolutely be raw on the inside and burnt on the outside if you try this. This article explains all the theory, but I personally like the lemon rosemary sauce of the above recipe better than the white wine sauce he creates in that article.

I'm by no means an expert, but I have done this successfully several times, so if you have any more specific questions, I'd be happy to try to answer them.

Thanks for the help. Definitely came out a bit better this time around.
 
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