You Could Totally Cook This @youcouldtotallycookthis - Tumblr Blog

Posts

Chana Saag

Full Disclosure: Nothing I make is “authentic” simply inspired by.

Ingredients:

2 cans full fat coconut milk

1 bag frozen chopped spinach

1 large can of chick peas

1lbs ground chicken/picked rotisserie chicken (optional)

1 small onion

1 nubbin of ginger (grated)

A healthy amount of garlic

Avocado oil

Kosher salt

Turmeric (smoked is ideal)

Garam Masala

Trader Joe’s Mushroom Umami powder (if you have it)

Jasmine rice

Chop your onion, garlic, and grate your ginger. Cook down the onion until soft (season with your spices a little) then chuck in your garlic and ginger. Let that cook a minute until aromatic and dump in the frozen spinach with one can of the coconut milk. When the spinach is soft, blend until smooth (or leave chunky if you’re into that).

Cook up your chicken if it’s raw, season, throw in rinsed chick peas when it’s almost done. If using rotisserie chicken, just sauté the chick peas a bit and throw in the chicken at the end and season. If you’re not using chicken at all, just make sure you season those chick peas.

Toss your liquified spinach back in and add another can of coconut milk. Season again to taste. I don’t do amounts, just go wild...but easy on the Garam Masala that shit is bold. Heat through but do not bring to a boil or you’ll lose the creaminess of the coconut milk.

Serve over jasmine rice.

#recipes

Dried pumpkin seeds, splash of olive oil, seasonings, and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.

Also I super don’t recommend breaking down and cleaning six fucking pumpkins in one day.

Hungarian Goulash

1.5lbs beef chunks (like you buy for stew)

2 cups beef bone broth

1 large onion (sliced)

3oz of tomato paste

5 cloves of garlic (smashed)

2tbsp smoked paprika

2tbsp seat salt

1tbsp cracked peppercorns

Sour cream

Parsley to garnish

Throw some olive oil in your Dutch oven and let come to heat while slicing up your onions and garlic. I like to keep the onion in big slivers so I can avoid them while eating.

Sauté them in the in the oil until soft, about 5 minutes. Put your beefy cubes into a large tupperware or baggies with the smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Shake vigorously to coat and dump into the pot with the garlic. Stir the meat on medium/high until browned, another 5 minutes or so.

Dump in the broth and tomato paste (it’s about half of that tiny can, you can eyeball it and freeze the leftover tomato paste). Lower to medium/low and leave it for 2 hours.

At the 1.5 hour mark I took a peek and it seemed a bit thick to me so I threw in about 1/2 cup of water but that’s a personal call. I wanted it a little saucy.

Boil up your egg noodles and slop some goulash right on top. The dollop of sour cream is another personal choice but I like a bit of creamy to cut spicy dishes. And to be clear this isn’t spicy like burn your mouth spicy, it’s just heavy on the spices. I fucking loved it. Next time I’ll experiment with making this in a crockpot or maybe as a quick dinner option with ground beef. Stay tuned.

Pasta Fagioli

Pasta Fagioli is by far my favorite food on this earth, you know that moment in Ratatouille where the food critic is instantly transported back to his childhood with a single bite? That’s this food for me. For the record, it’s pronounced “fah-zool” OR “fah-jo-lee” but the most common way in America is the first way. I have no idea if it’s a regional thing but since it’s a peasant dish it’s pretty open to interpretation. Some families make it as a soup, others a pasta with sauce, some even make it with barley instead of pasta, but none of that matters as long as you keep it simple. Here’s my family’s version.

Ditalini pasta (yes, it has to be that specific shape)*

19oz can of dark red kidney beans*

6oz can of PLAIN tomato paste*

3-5 cloves of garlic (I like the tube shit for this because I don’t like biting into chunks of garlic)*

Fresh Italian Parsley (it may be called Curly Parsley but just sure as shit make sure it isn’t cilantro)*

Salt and olive oil

1) Put your big pot on to boil, filled 3/4 the way with water, add in a palm full of salt (about two tablespoons), lid on.

2) Open the can of kidney beans and dump into a blender, do not drain and scrape the bottom of the can clean because the red beany sediment is important. Fill this can with hot water from the tap to the line closest to the top (so it is almost a full can of water) and add this water to the blender as well.

3) Open the tomato paste and get a tablespoon (the utensil kind not the measuring kind) and scoop almost to the bottom and pull up so that you take out MOST of the paste in the can but not all. Add that to the blender and put the rest aside*. Add a tablespoon (the measuring kind) of salt to the blender and blend until smooth (or if you like it a little chunky that’s cool too)*.

4) Take out a medium sauce pot with a lid, put in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil, garlic, and with scissors snip off a good palm full of parsley leaves. Don’t overdo it on the parsley though, less is more. Put on medium heat and let it sizzle. Use a wooden spoon to get things moving and when your garlic has a golden color go ahead and dump in the contents of the blender. Give everything a good stir making sure to loosen everything from the bottom of the pan. Raise the heat until it bubbles, do not leave it unattended and do not let it boil you will burn the shit out of it and beans are unforgiving. Once you see a few bubbles immediately turn it to the lowest setting and stir well, then leave it with the lid cocked open a little.

5) By now your pot of water should be boiling. Add your ditalini and set the timer for 10 minutes. You want this shit al dente. If you used some other brand then use the al dente time on the box. Stir to prevent sticking, do not add oil. Clean up while it’s boiling maybe?

6) When the pasta is done and tested, drain, do not rinse*, just return to the pan and dump all the sauce over it. Congrats, you’re done! This was super easy. Hopefully you didn’t offend my mother*.

Opinions and tips:

*I find Barilla to be the best of the dried pasta brands but you do you as long as it’s the ditalini shape.

*When buying canned beans buy Italian brands for Italian dishes as a general rule.

*Contadina has the best tomato paste, only use shit like Hunts if there is literally no other option.

*With tube garlic it’s hard to measure, just visualize the approximate size of a clove of garlic per blob...or go balls out like I do.

*Fresh parsley comes in big bunches or tiny plastic boxes in the produce section. If you choose to buy a bunch just shove it in a ziploc bag and stick it in the freezer after, you can still cut fresh parsley from the frozen hunk for recipes, just avoid stems and throw it out if it get’s freezer burnt. Don’t try to keep this in the fridge.

*Put the leftover tomato paste in a little baggie and stick it in the freezer, it’s a great boost to a broth for a chicken soup.

*The more whole your beans are...the more farts you will have. Fair warning.

*Only rinse pasta if you’re making it cold for a pasta salad or something.

*She would only be offended if you put parmesan cheese on top, but even then I only imagine it would be a confused glare. If you used some shelf stable shit like Kraft she might full on haunt your ass though.

#recipe

See this shit right here? This bright green sauce is like fucking velvet but super light and chock full of enough spinach to sneak in a whopping does of vegetables and iron. Show your kids that green food can taste fucking incredible. They’re going to lick the plate clean.

Ravioli with Spinach Cream Sauce

1 package of your favorite ravioli

1lbs chicken cutlets

1 pint fat free half and half

1 jar alfredo sauce

1 bag of fresh spinach leaves

pecorino romano (or parmesan I guess...but really...branch out more)

olive oil

salt and pepper

Prep your chicken by either pounding out chicken breasts until thin, or slicing into even halves. Or if you’re lazy like me, just buy them like that. Salt and pepper each side. Cook in a skillet in two batches (or three, don’t crowd them) until cooked all the way through.

While the chicken is cooking boil up your raviolis. It’s ideal that the chicken finish first so it can be removed to rest but whatever. Shit happens.

When everything is cooking away on the stove make your sauce real quick. Just blend the spinach with a little half and half, just enough to blend easily. You will not use the entire pint of half and half, maybe only a cup or so. You’ll do best if you blend the spinach in small batches but eventually that whole bag will be reduced to a small amount of shockingly green liquid. Add in the alfredo and blend once more. Since we’re using jarred sauce there’s no need to salt it, but a little cracked pepper isn’t a bad idea.

Drain the raviolis, return to the pot with the sauce (don’t worry it’ll heat up) and fold gently. Top your dish with sliced chicken and a little pecorino romano.

Saffron Risotto

16oz aborio rice

32oz chicken or vegetable stock

1 large yellow onion

2 cups of dry white wine (I prefer cooking wine)

1 cup pecorino romano

saffron threads

4 tbsp butter cubed

1/2 cup cream or half and half

olive oil

salt and pepper

In a medium saucepan, put the broth on to simmer and cover. You don’t want it to boil, but it should remain at a steady simmer. In a very deep skillet or large sauce pan add a good amount of oil to coat the bottom and put on medium heat. Finely chop the onion and add to the skillet, increase the heat to medium/high and cover. Allow the onions to get tender but not brown. Season with salt (about a tablespoon) and add in the rice. Stir until it starts to sound like it’s really cooking (after about 3 minutes there will be a slight crackly sound).

At this point add a big pinch of saffron threads to the broth, it should be a good sized pinch, maybe a lump a little bigger than a quarter. Stir gently and make sure no threads cling to the utensil.

Add in most of the white wine, reserve about 1/2 cup, and simmer. Once that is absorbed add two ladles of broth, stir until absorbed, repeat until all the broth is gone and do the same with the remaining wine. At this point your rice should be tender. We’re not looking for soft, but it definitely shouldn’t be hard and stick in your teeth. If it’s still got a little bite in it, just keep stirring on the heat and tasting. When it is tender, drop the heat to low and throw in the cubed butter, stir till melted, then add in the pecorino and cream. You can add in more cream if you want a looser consistency. Check for seasoning, add salt or pepper if desired.

Do you have a substitution suggestion for sausage for the Rigatoni with Vodka Sauce and Hot Sausage recipe to make it vegetarian. I have tried to use meat sauce recipes without the meat before and it always tastes like its missing something. Thank you.

Try sausage soy crumbles, add cayenne pepper, black pepper, smoked paprika, red pepper flakes, and of course garlic. How much soy sausage crumbles you use will determine the exact spice amounts needed, you’d need to google “spices for hot Italian sausage” to see. The spicy sausage in this is really what makes the vodka sauce taste like something completely new.

#Anonymous

Guys, I know these look fucking terrible (because children) but I swear to fuck they were SO GOOD. This was a quick activity to do on a school holiday but oh man, my life has changed.

Easy Donuts

1 can of regular biscuit dough (pop and bake)

4tbsp butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1.5 cups powdered sugar

water

food coloring

vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375. Pop open that dough can and cut the middles out of your donuts, I used a measuring cup from the kid’s medicine box and it worked perfectly. Save the donut holes. Melt the butter (15-25 seconds in microwave), and pour the granulated sugar into a shallow bowl. Add a tiny splash of vanilla extract to the butter, maybe like 1/2 a teaspoon or less. Dredge the donut in the melted butter, and then through the sugar on both sides. Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment. Once I finished the big donuts I added some cinnamon to the leftover sugar, and used that for the donut holes. I put everything on the same sheet to bake.

Bake 12-18 minutes. They shouldn’t get very brown but you don’t want them to be wet and soft. A light golden color and mostly dry looking is perfect. While baking, mix up your icing. Add a tablespoon of warm water and stir, be careful not to make it too wet. It should look like regular glue before you add your food coloring.

As soon as the donuts are out of the oven, drizzle a spoonful of icing over the top and let cool for about a minute. They’re best served warm but you want the glaze to cool for the best effect.

I fulled expected sugar dusted biscuits and that’s not at all what I got. The butter/sugar/vanilla makes a Krispy Kreme like texture on the outside and I got a damn good donut with very little effort.

#recipe

Taco Rice

1lbs ground turkey (or chicken or beef)

Yellow rice

Taco cheese

Black olives

Tomatos

Avocado

Sour cream

Salsa

Roasted peppers

Whatever else you would put on a taco

This isn’t rocket science, make taco meat but use less water (like half) or your taco rice will be soupy. Make some yellow rice, mix, throw in any taco toppings.

Eat out of a bowl in front of the couch.

#recipe

Coquito

1.5 cups white Bacardi rum

1 (12oz) can of evaporated milk

1 (15oz) can of coconut milk

1 (14oz) can of sweetened condensed milk

1/2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of nutmeg (totally optional)

1.5 tsp vanilla

Shake the can of coconut milk well, open and blend on high for 30-60 seconds to ensure that all the fats have been broken up. Add all the rest of the ingredients and mix on high for another 30 seconds. Chill completely before serving.

This recipe makes enough for about 8 people drinking conservatively. If you’re family is big and likes doing shots, you’re going to need to double or triple it. The medium bottle of Bacardi makes enough for two.

#recipe

Texas Roadhouse Butter

1 stick of butter

1 tbsp honey

1/4 cup powdered sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

If using an electric or stand mixer, the butter should only be slightly softened, too soft and you will have a greasy mess.

If doing this by hand, consider buying a hand mixer for like $10.

This can be made ahead of time if the butter is covered with saran wrap touching the surface. Allow to come to room temp before spreading on bread.

#recipe

Herb Crusted Chicken in a Cream Sauce

Chicken:

1.5 lbs chicken breast

4 tbs dried parsley

2 tsp dried thyme

2 tsp dried rosemary

salt and pepper

Sauce:

1 pint fat free half and half

2 tbs butter

6 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp dried thyme

1 tsp dried parsley

salt and pepper

1 tsp cornstarch

Additional:

1 box Near East wild rice blend

fresh chopped parsley for finishing

First start the rice, because wild rice takes fucking forever to cook. You can use whatever rice you want but the best way to eat wild rice (which is much healthier) is in a flavorful creamy sauce so you might as well.

Once the rice is going, blend all the seasonings for the chicken into a shallow bowl and coat your chicken. Depending on how much you coat, you might need to mix up more of the spice blend. If you aren’t sure about this recipe, then just do a light coating. If you’re totally fucking down to go to flavortown then mash that shit into your chicken flesh and go crazy. In your cast iron skillet (or other big mofo pan) heat up some olive or avocado oil and start cooking your chicken. Depending on how thick your chicken breasts are this can take a bit, try to get some nice color on there without burning them. This is not a meal where we cook on full blast heat you guys. Be patient.

After you’ve cooked the chicken remove it to a plate so we can make the sauce. If your pan has a lot of brown shit in it, probably scrap like 90% of that off. You want some for flavor, but too much will make your cream sauce dark. Again, use your best judgement. If you’re satisfied with your level of chicken residue dump in the butter and garlic. Cook that up a bit but don’t fucking burn it. Toss in your half and half. Whisk that shit up with the spices. NOW FOR THE CORNSTARCH. Don’t think you can just dump that in, you can’t. That’s wrong. Make a little slurry with a bit of water first, then pour that into the pan. It should thicken up immediately. Put the sauce on low and throw your chicken back in there.

By now your rice should be done, so just assemble the dish and enjoy. This is one of those few meals where we have to fight the urge to lick the plate.

#recipe

Autumn Turkey Meatballs

1lbs ground turkey

2 medium carrots

1 small onion

1 egg

1/2 cup almond meal (or bread crumbs)

2 tbsp smoked paprika*

1 tbsp turmeric*

1 tbsp cracked pepper

1 tbsp salt

Preheat the oven to 400.

Peel and grate your carrots, finely chop your onion, then add to a cast iron skillet with a little oil. Saute until soft but do not add too much oil. Set aside to cool.

Mix the egg, turkey, and almond meal before adding the veggies. Once everything is all mixed use a 1 inch scoop and place meatballs on a parchment lined cookie sheet. They can be close together but not touching. Yes, your hands are stained yellow from turmeric. It’s fine.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes then let cool. You will notice oil left on your parchment sheet, this is no problemo.

Keep in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for 6 months. Perfect to add to salads, wraps, or with eggs and toast for breakfast. My favorite thing to do is make little sliders with those King’s Hawaiian rolls but usually I just eat them cold out of the fridge as a snack.

*Yeah, that’s a lot of spice for 1lbs of meat. Ground turkey is bland as fuck.

#recipe

Korean Beef Stir Fry

1 large, good quality steak

1 onion

4 cloves of garlic (or more if you wanna just get fucked up)

2 tbs brown sugar

1tbs pepper

3 tbs sesame oil

1 cup soy sauce

Trim the fat off your steak and slice it as thin as you possibly can, like paper thin, make a fucking effort. Dump that shit in a bowl. Throw the rest of the ingredients in the blender and liquify before adding to the bowl. Ideally you should do this in the morning and let it marinade all day but we know how that goes. TRY to give it an hour. Or not, I don’t really care.

Stir fry it in a pan with a little oil until the meat is cooked. It’s cooks pretty fast as long as you sliced it thin. Add some broccoli or shredded carrots towards the end. Top with sesame seeds. That’s not just some fancy shit, it’s a whole textural thing. Trust me.

Bingo blamo.

#recipe #dinner #gluten free

Quick Coconut Curry with Coconut Rice

2 cups jasmine rice

2 cans coconut milk

1 cup broth (veggie or chicken)

1 bag frozen broccoli

1 cup frozen peas

2 shredded carrots

protein of your choice (I used the Thai chicken meatballs but any cooked protein like chicken breast, tofu, or shrimp would work)

2-3 tablespoons red curry paste

soy sauce

toasted sesame oil

2 cloves of garlic, smashed

shiracha

salt and pepper

Put your jasmine rice on to cook, I use a rice cooker but you can just follow the instructions on the bag for cooking times and liquid amounts. Just replace water with canned coconut milk and sprinkle on a little salt.

Saute up those carrots and garlic, add in the curry paste and stir. When the pot gets hot, throw in the broth and cook for a few minutes. Add in your veggies, protein, and spices. Protein should be pre-cooked. Let simmer for a bit but don’t overcook those veggies. Before serving dump in the other can of coconut milk. Putting it in too early will make it lose the creaminess.

Since the rice cooker did all the work and I cooked the meatballs yesterday, this recipe seriously took 10 minutes tops. And it’s so fucking good.

#recipe #dinner #gluten free #vegan

Thai Chicken Meatballs

1lbs ground chicken

1 cup almond meal (or breadcrumbs)

1 eggs

1 onion

shiracha

2 teaspoons turmeric

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

2 teaspoon soy sauce

1 heaping spoon of red curry paste

2 teaspoon smoked paprika

1 teaspoon chili lime seasoning (Trader Joe’s is amazing but other brands make it too, I highly recommend because it’s not spicy, just super flavorful)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 425. Finely dice that onion and saute it in a little butter until it is super soft. While that’s on the stove put all other ingredients in your stand mixer, food processor, or a bowl with a spoon because you lack small appliances or are lazy. (no judgement)

Once the onions are done, throw those bad boys in and mix on low. We are not making fucking whipped chicken here, so go easy. The mixture will be a little wet, that’s cool. Hopefully you have a 1 inch scoop, if not then make 1 inch balls by hand and consider getting a scoop next time you’re at Target. They’re like $6 honestly. Fill up a foil lined baking sheet and shove that shit in the oven for 14 minutes.

Meatballs can be kept in the fridge for 3 days, or for 6 months in the freezer. Use a few on a salad, make some stir fry, throw them in a wrap, whatever.

*note: When I say 1 teaspoon what I really mean is I dumped some in, go with what you feel. Go apeshit with some paprika. It’s cool. You’ll be fine.

#recipe

bujnik

Trader Joe’s Curry

Last time I was at Trader Joe’s I spotted these curry chicken tenders. I’m picky about my curry so I only bought the one packet to try it out. Then I promptly stuck it in the freezer and forgot about it until this week when I sent Mike to the store to pick up some chicken breast to throw on the grill and he comes home with thighs instead. Ugh.

So I de-skin, de-bone and cut up the chicken thighs into manageable pieces and throw them in a pot with the pre-marinaded curry chicken tenders. I give it a good stir so everything is well coated with curry sauce and let it cook on medium until the chicken is lightly seared on the outside and no longer looks “raw”. If you cut one open it would definitely be raw but just a bare sear until it starts looking less nasty.

After that I dumped in a can of coconut milk and let it all simmer for about an hour while I put some jasmine rice in the rice cooker. Then I steamed the broccoli and let it sit.

The chicken was fall apart succulent and perfect to the taste but the sauce had gotten thinner instead of thicker so I drained about half of it and dumped in a new can of coconut milk. I added a heaping spoonful of Trader Joe’s curry powder, salt, and pepper to bring the flavors back up. I should find a better way to do that but recipes are all trial and error. I’m open to suggestion.

After I brought the heat back up I stirred in the broccoli and dumped a big ladle of it over a bowl of rice and let me tell you how good that shit was.

The meal probably cost $13 and fed 6 people.

#recipe #dinner #gluten free

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

You Could Totally Cook This