#cooking basics

[excavatinglizard]

How to cook tofu! from someone who eats tofu as their primary protein and weeps for people who tell me they're eating flavourless tofu.

Tofu doesn't have much flavour itself. This is the first issue people run into. With a meat dish, you can just chuck the meat in with whatever you're cooking and it'll probably be fine, but tofu isn't going to have much flavour of its own. This results in two things:

Tofu has to be flavoured first with a thin sauce. Don't go chucking large chunks of tofu into a curry, you will be sad, especially if the recipe calls for meat. you cannot substitute because again, tofu will not be bringing any of its own flavours. This is why I also wouldn't recommend using chunks of tofu in like, pasta sauce. Season it with a thin sauce first.

Tofu is AMAZING at holding flavour. it will soak up whatever you put on it.

Toss some soy, mirin, sesame oil, teriyaki sauce (anything really) on it first to get some flavour in the bulk if you're going to be using large chunks. This can be fried up directly for dry tofu

If you want a sticky tofu, the best thing you can do is marinade, coat in a cornstarch batter made by literally adding cornstarch to your marinading bowl so the tofu gets covered in sauce+cornstarch, then frying up with a little oil

After this point add any thick sauce you want. Curries, glazes, hoisin sauce, the sky's the limit

if you're not marinading your tofu first (I often don't) just cut it in smaller pieces. crumble it even. More surface area for sauce.

'how long do I cook it for' I eat it raw sometimes. It's chill. Basically until it's hot enough and crispy enough for your taste. Chuck some oil in a pan, cook on medium to high heat, and you're golden. literally

you can also oven-bake tofu. Marinade first then brush your sauce on then stick it in the oven. Tada

I'm telling y'all this is the EASIEST shit to cook you just gotta not be biting into giant chunks of unseasoned tofu. No raw meat. No long cook time. Holds flavour like nobody's business because it's just a sponge to put your favourite sauce on.

[foodandfolklore]

Kitchen Basics and Essentials

Earlier I made a quick list of Kitchen Witch Essentials, and planned to expand on it later. However, my list was made with the assumption that you have the basics to cook with. So, I figured I'd go over them to ensure we're all on the same page moving forward.

I am not a professionally trained chef. I'm just a Canadian home cook who's had an interest in cooking since young. Not everything I think is important, other home cooks will think is important. But I think we can agree on about 90% of what I list.

Utensils

Knives. Any list about Kitchen essentials, the Chef's knife will be right at the top. But you'll actually need 2, maybe 3 knives. The chef's knife, as mentioned, or just a main working knife. It's knife used for cutting up everything from meat to veggies to garnish. If you prefer to use a Chinese Cleaver, go for it. Your second knife you should have is a paring knife. Basically a small knife. It's good for more delicate work like eyeing potatoes, cutting up berries, stuff like that. Now most people will tell you, that's all the knives you really need, but I recommend one more. Particularly if you are going to get into bread making. A serrated knife like a bread knife. It is so hard to cut bread with a flat edge, because you end up squishing it. The serrated knife will cut crusty bread without issue.

Pots and Pans. I think it's fair to assume you have at least two pots and a pan or skillet. You can boil pasta and cook sauce at the same time with the option to fry an egg if you wanted to.

Cutting Board. Protect your surfaces and your knives and use your cutting board! I see you quickly chopping up veggies on a plate. Having multiple cutting boards can be quite useful for when you are preparing something like meat. I like to use a plastic cutting board to do most of my meat cutting on so it can be easily put in my dishwasher when done.

Vegetable Peeler. There's a lot of different kinds of peelers. Some are fancy, some can turn vegetables into noodles, some are electric; I'm just talking the basic hand held vegetable peeler. It does a lot without taking up much space.

Measuring Cups and Spoons. Super important to have if you're following directions from another recipe. As you get more experience, you'll find yourself measuring every ingredient less and less. But if you're baking, or trying something new, measure.

Mixing Bowl. Your cereal bowls are only going to get you so far. A mixing bowl can hold Salads, marinating meat, pancake batter- just not at the same time. If you enjoy baking, you will want more than one.

Baking Trays. Ideally two of these. Most known for cookies, but used for roasting all kinds of things in the oven. It's also good to put one in under the rack of something that drips while cooking. Lasagna is bad for this. Catching the falling food on a baking tray makes clean up way easier.

Appliances

Stove. Doesn't matter if it's gas, electric, induction; how many heating elements you have; I'm assuming you have a stove.

Oven. Since most stoves are built into an oven, I am going to assume you also have an oven. I know not every place is allowed to have one, but chances are if you're interested in Kitchen witchcraft, you have access to these things.

Microwave. These days, they are everywhere. Some apartments will be built with a kitchenet which has no stove, but definitely a microwave. These are super helpful, melting butter, defrosting ingredients, while being very safe.

Fridge/Freezer. The modern standard of food preservation. Every home that consumes perishables has at lest one; and it's not uncommon for a large family to have more than one fridge or freezer.

Also

Salt. If you're cooking, you're gunna need salt. Especially if you're going down the route of Kitchen Witchcraft. Not a lot; I got excited one time and bought like 5 different kinds of salt. I'll probably be dead before I use it all. You don't need a bunch or even fancy salts. Just get a box of salt; Kosher, Sea, Pink, whatever. Even the finely ground iodize salt will work.

Oven Mitts. Pulling stuff out of the oven is hot! Protect yourself from burns.

[lildarkrecipebook]

Sauces

[cheshire-teeth]

[fuckingrecipes]

First time on a Stove

“ To your post about what parts of cooking I find challenging, I'm afraid to use the oven and the stove so I rather not cook at all. (Posting anon because, well, it's embarrassing.) “

Hey, no worries! If you’ve never done something before, it’s super normal to be unsure or nervous about it. Especially when there’s an element of danger, like the hot oil and water involved in a stovetop.  So! Here’s a quick walkthrough of questions to answer about your stovetop before you get started. You don't have to reply to me, just for you to get started.

1) Which dials go to the burners? There ought to be dot pictures that indicate which burner each dial turns on. The leftover dial, or buttons, is probably for the oven.

2) What kind of stovetop is it? Gas powered: When you turn a burner knob all the way around, you may smell natural gas, and hear a 'clicking' noise as the starter activates. Once turned on, there will be a ring of blue flames around the burner you activated.  Gas powered stoves usually have the dials on the front of the oven near your stomach, so you don't have to reach over an open flame.

Electric: You'll see either a flat plane with circles that will light up + get hot when turned on, or raised metal coils that will slowly get hot as the stove warms up.  Electric stovetop burners can be on the front of the oven near your stomach, or on the back display or 'head' of the stove.

The heat setting on any burner is shown on the dial itself, and the current setting will be referenced by where the arrow next to or above the dial, points to on the dial. The thickening line on the rim or front of the dial, or 'Low, Med, High' shows the available heat settings.  Thick line is hottest, 'High' is hottest.

3) Turn on the heat of one of the burners.

For gas, you turn the dial all the way and wait for the clicks to start until you see blue flame, then turn the dial back down to where you want the heat to be set to.  Sometimes you have to push the dial in before you can turn it. Gas-powered stoves are hot immediately.

For electric, you just set the temperature to whatever you want. No clicks required. Sometimes you have to push the dial in before you can turn it.  Electric stoves heat up slowly, and need time to rise or fall to the temperature you have in mind, when you adjust the dials. It should only take a minute for the proper change.

Some electric griddles (different from a stovetop) have both an 'on' button and a separate temperature dial. This usually isn't on a normal residential stovetop, but you may spot it on older models.

4) Turn off stovetop.

Once you're satisfied that you've turned on the stove properly, and can adjust the heat to your liking just turn it off until the arrow next to the dial is pointing toward 'off' on the dial.  

 ---

With those in mind, you can start cooking! A super easy first try on stovetop is to take some canned soup, and follow the directions on the back of the can for reheating it on a stovetop. Basically, put soup in a pot, add water if necessary (can will say), place on hot burner, and heat up while stirring. Turn off stove, then enjoy your hot soup!

[cinemaocd]

How to cook mushrooms

I spent the first 22 or so years of my life HATING mushrooms. I once had a boyfriend offer me ten pounds if I would eat a plate of mushrooms and I refused the offer. I was so broke at the time, too! Well, it turns out I just hadn’t had mushrooms that were cooked properly. Mushrooms should not be watery, slimy and flavorless. No! They should be a little chewy, almost meaty with a deep savory flavor. And the great thing is all you need to achieve this is:

1) Some mushrooms (any mushrooms are fine! You don’t need locally sourced, hand foraged expensive mushrooms.I use the cheapest crimini-type ones I can find and they are fantastic).

2) Some fat (butter, olive oil, sesame oil, what have you)

3) Salt

That’s it!

For expensive fancy cookware you will need...A FRYING PAN. (Cast iron, carbon steel, non-stick whatever) and something to stir/flip the mushrooms.

This is all in the method. And it’s so easy. But you need patience.

Preparation:

A lot of people fuck up their mushrooms by washing them. In the sink. With water. Mushrooms are like little sponges and you want to fill the sponge holes up with fat, not water. To wash your mushrooms, clean them with a paper towel. Any dirt that won’t come off, cut off with a knife. You are going to be blasting these babies in ripping hot fat, no need to worry about germs, ok.

Slice the mushrooms thin. Hold the mushroom on it’s side and start making slices 1/4 inch wide or thinner. 1/8 inch is really optimum. A nice sharp knife is super helpful here. You want little thin slices that have that mushroom silouette.

Preheat pan:

Heat your pan and get the fat nice and hot. You will need quite a lot of fat. For 8 ounces of mushrooms in a 12 inch fry pan START with 2 tablespoons and have another two ready to add. The object in using so much fat is not to prevent the mushrooms from sticking. It’s to fill all the little spongy holes with hot savory fat!

Sautee

Pour in as many mushrooms as you can fit in the pan without overlapping. Be a little fussy about this and stand there and scoot them together, but keep them flat against the surface of the pan.

Now just let them ride. You want them to develop a deep brown sear on both sides, so be patient. Don’t go knocking them around with your spoon. Let them go for at least three minutes before you even check one. When they are seared flip them and sear on the other side. Again, be fussy about it so they all make contact with the pan. They will SHRINK. If you want to make more, do them in batches. Don’t crowd the pan, give each little mushroom slice it’s time in the hot fat and it will not let you down.

Season:

Grate or sprinkle some salt on them, taste and adjust and serve them hot. Guaranteed to turn the mushroom hater into a mushroom fanatic. 

[haitianculture509]