The good news is that stir frying wasn't that hard in the end. the big issue was that at points i had the pan entirely full and could definitely use a big wok for future attempts.
i guess the next step is learning how to make my own sauce. the bottle stuff is very sweet even cutting it a bit and my family always made a really nice stir fry sauce so I'm gonna have to figure out that recipe by calling my mother.
all you really need is soy sauce, mirin (sweet rice wine), sesame oil, and red pepper flakes and garlic, or a garlic-chili mix
after that you can add brown sugar to get to the sweetness level you want if you don't get enough from the mirin
corn starch to thicken if needed
anything beyond that is just adding more flavor complexity if you want to
I, specifically, prefer dark soy sauce, but I mostly do more Thai style stir fry
The good news is that stir frying wasn't that hard in the end. the big issue was that at points i had the pan entirely full and could definitely use a big wok for future attempts.
i guess the next step is learning how to make my own sauce. the bottle stuff is very sweet even cutting it a bit and my family always made a really nice stir fry sauce so I'm gonna have to figure out that recipe by calling my mother.
all you really need is soy sauce, mirin (sweet rice wine), sesame oil, and red pepper flakes and garlic, or a garlic-chili mix
after that you can add brown sugar to get to the sweetness level you want if you don't get enough from the mirin
corn starch to thicken if needed
anything beyond that is just adding more flavor complexity if you want to
I, specifically, prefer dark soy sauce, but I mostly do more Thai style stir fry
Oooo, that reminds me: I love throwing mam prik pao (aka Thai roasted red chili paste) into stir fries. It's a total flavor bomb.
I tend to cook my mushrooms first, get them good and cooked down.
After that, it goes on what cooks longer. Carrots go in before corn kernels, for instance.
But yeah, depends on your end goals
And how much time you want to spend, really.
If your veg are all roughly the same size, you could get away with all at once. But the higher density tends to go first for me
there is a cool mushroom technique where you shallow-boil mushrooms with a little oil or butter, and just keep them cooking after the water boils off until they're well-browned. It really teases out great mushroom flavor, especially on white/ button mushrooms (which often don't have a lot of flavor)
Sounds like basically the same thing I mentioned above. Basically steaming the mushrooms in a pan until all the water boils off to deflate them and then you keep going with a little fat for browning.
one thing you can do is start with low heat and a dry pan, and slowly cook them out, tilting the pan and reserving the liquid. eventually the mushrooms will dry and intensify, and the liquid can be used as a mushroom stock. it's great for substituting chicken stock for a veggie mushroom risotto.
those mushrooms are great when fried with a bit of garlic butter, or they hold up super well in lasagna.
I tend to cook my mushrooms first, get them good and cooked down.
After that, it goes on what cooks longer. Carrots go in before corn kernels, for instance.
But yeah, depends on your end goals
And how much time you want to spend, really.
If your veg are all roughly the same size, you could get away with all at once. But the higher density tends to go first for me
there is a cool mushroom technique where you shallow-boil mushrooms with a little oil or butter, and just keep them cooking after the water boils off until they're well-browned. It really teases out great mushroom flavor, especially on white/ button mushrooms (which often don't have a lot of flavor)
Sounds like basically the same thing I mentioned above. Basically steaming the mushrooms in a pan until all the water boils off to deflate them and then you keep going with a little fat for browning.
one thing you can do is start with low heat and a dry pan, and slowly cook them out, tilting the pan and reserving the liquid. eventually the mushrooms will dry and intensify, and the liquid can be used as a mushroom stock. it's great for substituting chicken stock for a veggie mushroom risotto.
those mushrooms are great when fried with a bit of garlic butter, or they hold up super well in lasagna.
Hmmm, I have some blueberries and strawberries in the fridge. Crisp? Yes!
Hmmm, this recipe calls for an 11x7 dish, but mine appears to be 13x9.
*obsessively shops for affordable 13x9 pan on amazon, gets distratced and does not make crisp*
Damnit.
Even worse: "This calls for a _______. I do have a _______, but now that I'm looking it's not the best type of _______. I should really exhaustively shop around for a better _______."
*three weeks later*
"I've lost interest."
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
This may end up being a stupid idea, but I intend to make my own instant soup mix for work. I'm so sick of cup noodles and really want something with fewer calories and more nutritional value than the frozen crap I've been buying. My goal is to make up a bunch of containers/bags of different veggies, tvp, beans, rice, noodles and seasonings. I'd empty that into a bowl/mug, add boiling water and wait a few minutes for it be become soup. There is hardly any variety in the instant soup mix space these days. It's mostly either ramen or chicken noodle and all loaded with crap I don't want. The natural stuff is so expensive that it seems ridiculous to buy.
To this end I have been shopping around on Amazon and other sites and found this 6 lb pack that comes with 32 different kinds of veggies, beans and tvp. While kind of expensive, it did come with everything I wanted and should end up being around the same price as those premade soup mixes with much better ingredients once I combine everything together. I'm planning to get some broth powder, instant rice, and instant noodles to round everything out.
I figure I should be able to get around 100 meals out of this whole project.
I tend to cook my mushrooms first, get them good and cooked down.
After that, it goes on what cooks longer. Carrots go in before corn kernels, for instance.
But yeah, depends on your end goals
And how much time you want to spend, really.
If your veg are all roughly the same size, you could get away with all at once. But the higher density tends to go first for me
there is a cool mushroom technique where you shallow-boil mushrooms with a little oil or butter, and just keep them cooking after the water boils off until they're well-browned. It really teases out great mushroom flavor, especially on white/ button mushrooms (which often don't have a lot of flavor)
Sounds like basically the same thing I mentioned above. Basically steaming the mushrooms in a pan until all the water boils off to deflate them and then you keep going with a little fat for browning.
yeah very similar. the shallow boil knocks the air out of the mushroom, which means that that phase in the saute where the mushroom just keeps giving up liquid is sort of truncated. steaming might do the same thing idk
I tend to cook my mushrooms first, get them good and cooked down.
After that, it goes on what cooks longer. Carrots go in before corn kernels, for instance.
But yeah, depends on your end goals
And how much time you want to spend, really.
If your veg are all roughly the same size, you could get away with all at once. But the higher density tends to go first for me
there is a cool mushroom technique where you shallow-boil mushrooms with a little oil or butter, and just keep them cooking after the water boils off until they're well-browned. It really teases out great mushroom flavor, especially on white/ button mushrooms (which often don't have a lot of flavor)
Sounds like basically the same thing I mentioned above. Basically steaming the mushrooms in a pan until all the water boils off to deflate them and then you keep going with a little fat for browning.
yeah very similar. the shallow boil knocks the air out of the mushroom, which means that that phase in the saute where the mushroom just keeps giving up liquid is sort of truncated. steaming might do the same thing idk
You can apparently do something similar to quick drain tofu. Pouring boiling water them forces it to squeeze out it's liquid, per Kenji.
This may end up being a stupid idea, but I intend to make my own instant soup mix for work. I'm so sick of cup noodles and really want something with fewer calories and more nutritional value than the frozen crap I've been buying. My goal is to make up a bunch of containers/bags of different veggies, tvp, beans, rice, noodles and seasonings. I'd empty that into a bowl/mug, add boiling water and wait a few minutes for it be become soup. There is hardly any variety in the instant soup mix space these days. It's mostly either ramen or chicken noodle and all loaded with crap I don't want. The natural stuff is so expensive that it seems ridiculous to buy.
To this end I have been shopping around on Amazon and other sites and found this 6 lb pack that comes with 32 different kinds of veggies, beans and tvp. While kind of expensive, it did come with everything I wanted and should end up being around the same price as those premade soup mixes with much better ingredients once I combine everything together. I'm planning to get some broth powder, instant rice, and instant noodles to round everything out.
I figure I should be able to get around 100 meals out of this whole project.
I feel like this is going to succeed or fail primarily based on your "seasonings". If you're not using broth or adding bullion it's going to taste like wet vegetables. But I'm not sure what you could use here that's not going to end up tasting like instant soup broth with extra seasonings.
Have you considered making full-on soup at home, freezing it, and then heating a serving in the morning to be put in an insulated container to still be warm at lunch?
PSN,Steam,Live | CptHamiltonian
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Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratormod
This may end up being a stupid idea, but I intend to make my own instant soup mix for work. I'm so sick of cup noodles and really want something with fewer calories and more nutritional value than the frozen crap I've been buying. My goal is to make up a bunch of containers/bags of different veggies, tvp, beans, rice, noodles and seasonings. I'd empty that into a bowl/mug, add boiling water and wait a few minutes for it be become soup. There is hardly any variety in the instant soup mix space these days. It's mostly either ramen or chicken noodle and all loaded with crap I don't want. The natural stuff is so expensive that it seems ridiculous to buy.
To this end I have been shopping around on Amazon and other sites and found this 6 lb pack that comes with 32 different kinds of veggies, beans and tvp. While kind of expensive, it did come with everything I wanted and should end up being around the same price as those premade soup mixes with much better ingredients once I combine everything together. I'm planning to get some broth powder, instant rice, and instant noodles to round everything out.
I figure I should be able to get around 100 meals out of this whole project.
this is an interesting project. if you want a little more flexibility in terms of ingredients, you might consider making "concentrates". You can freeze them into big-ass ice cubes and just store them in big freezer bags.
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
My goal is to have something that I can leave at my desk at work and turn into a quick meal with as few steps as possible. I am currently sharing a freezer and don't have the space. I don't really have a problem chicken/beef base powder. I'm not really trying to replicate the taste of freshly made soup. I don't mind the taste of other instant soups, they just lack variety and nutritional value. If I'm making the packs myself, I can control the amount I use and what seasonings go in with it. My pantry is already full to the brim with dried herbs and spices.
My first few ideas are, potato and onion, split pea, chilli, chickish n' veggie, beefish 'n veggie. beans and rice, and minestrone.
This may end up being a stupid idea, but I intend to make my own instant soup mix for work. I'm so sick of cup noodles and really want something with fewer calories and more nutritional value than the frozen crap I've been buying. My goal is to make up a bunch of containers/bags of different veggies, tvp, beans, rice, noodles and seasonings. I'd empty that into a bowl/mug, add boiling water and wait a few minutes for it be become soup. There is hardly any variety in the instant soup mix space these days. It's mostly either ramen or chicken noodle and all loaded with crap I don't want. The natural stuff is so expensive that it seems ridiculous to buy.
To this end I have been shopping around on Amazon and other sites and found this 6 lb pack that comes with 32 different kinds of veggies, beans and tvp. While kind of expensive, it did come with everything I wanted and should end up being around the same price as those premade soup mixes with much better ingredients once I combine everything together. I'm planning to get some broth powder, instant rice, and instant noodles to round everything out.
I figure I should be able to get around 100 meals out of this whole project.
this is an interesting project. if you want a little more flexibility in terms of ingredients, you might consider making "concentrates". You can freeze them into big-ass ice cubes and just store them in big freezer bags.
Is this just a case of boiling down stock and then just adding water when you need to use it or is there more to it?
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ChanusHarbinger of the Spicy Rooster ApocalypseThe Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered Userregular
This may end up being a stupid idea, but I intend to make my own instant soup mix for work. I'm so sick of cup noodles and really want something with fewer calories and more nutritional value than the frozen crap I've been buying. My goal is to make up a bunch of containers/bags of different veggies, tvp, beans, rice, noodles and seasonings. I'd empty that into a bowl/mug, add boiling water and wait a few minutes for it be become soup. There is hardly any variety in the instant soup mix space these days. It's mostly either ramen or chicken noodle and all loaded with crap I don't want. The natural stuff is so expensive that it seems ridiculous to buy.
To this end I have been shopping around on Amazon and other sites and found this 6 lb pack that comes with 32 different kinds of veggies, beans and tvp. While kind of expensive, it did come with everything I wanted and should end up being around the same price as those premade soup mixes with much better ingredients once I combine everything together. I'm planning to get some broth powder, instant rice, and instant noodles to round everything out.
I figure I should be able to get around 100 meals out of this whole project.
this is an interesting project. if you want a little more flexibility in terms of ingredients, you might consider making "concentrates". You can freeze them into big-ass ice cubes and just store them in big freezer bags.
Is this just a case of boiling down stock and then just adding water when you need to use it or is there more to it?
This may end up being a stupid idea, but I intend to make my own instant soup mix for work. I'm so sick of cup noodles and really want something with fewer calories and more nutritional value than the frozen crap I've been buying. My goal is to make up a bunch of containers/bags of different veggies, tvp, beans, rice, noodles and seasonings. I'd empty that into a bowl/mug, add boiling water and wait a few minutes for it be become soup. There is hardly any variety in the instant soup mix space these days. It's mostly either ramen or chicken noodle and all loaded with crap I don't want. The natural stuff is so expensive that it seems ridiculous to buy.
To this end I have been shopping around on Amazon and other sites and found this 6 lb pack that comes with 32 different kinds of veggies, beans and tvp. While kind of expensive, it did come with everything I wanted and should end up being around the same price as those premade soup mixes with much better ingredients once I combine everything together. I'm planning to get some broth powder, instant rice, and instant noodles to round everything out.
I figure I should be able to get around 100 meals out of this whole project.
I think this was one of the first Serious Eats "recipes" I "followed".
They recommend Better than Boulion brand for broth, and give insights into types of noodles that will easily soften with risidual heat from the boiling water, and things like, add beef jerky!
Burtletoy on
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MortiousThe Nightmare BeginsMove to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
This may end up being a stupid idea, but I intend to make my own instant soup mix for work. I'm so sick of cup noodles and really want something with fewer calories and more nutritional value than the frozen crap I've been buying. My goal is to make up a bunch of containers/bags of different veggies, tvp, beans, rice, noodles and seasonings. I'd empty that into a bowl/mug, add boiling water and wait a few minutes for it be become soup. There is hardly any variety in the instant soup mix space these days. It's mostly either ramen or chicken noodle and all loaded with crap I don't want. The natural stuff is so expensive that it seems ridiculous to buy.
To this end I have been shopping around on Amazon and other sites and found this 6 lb pack that comes with 32 different kinds of veggies, beans and tvp. While kind of expensive, it did come with everything I wanted and should end up being around the same price as those premade soup mixes with much better ingredients once I combine everything together. I'm planning to get some broth powder, instant rice, and instant noodles to round everything out.
I figure I should be able to get around 100 meals out of this whole project.
I've been trying to make a shelf stable microwave mug cake mix that will only require added water or milk (i.e. things available at work) that I could keep in my desk. So same general goal, though yours if obviously healthier.
This may end up being a stupid idea, but I intend to make my own instant soup mix for work. I'm so sick of cup noodles and really want something with fewer calories and more nutritional value than the frozen crap I've been buying. My goal is to make up a bunch of containers/bags of different veggies, tvp, beans, rice, noodles and seasonings. I'd empty that into a bowl/mug, add boiling water and wait a few minutes for it be become soup. There is hardly any variety in the instant soup mix space these days. It's mostly either ramen or chicken noodle and all loaded with crap I don't want. The natural stuff is so expensive that it seems ridiculous to buy.
To this end I have been shopping around on Amazon and other sites and found this 6 lb pack that comes with 32 different kinds of veggies, beans and tvp. While kind of expensive, it did come with everything I wanted and should end up being around the same price as those premade soup mixes with much better ingredients once I combine everything together. I'm planning to get some broth powder, instant rice, and instant noodles to round everything out.
I figure I should be able to get around 100 meals out of this whole project.
I've been trying to make a shelf stable microwave mug cake mix that will only require added water or milk (i.e. things available at work) that I could keep in my desk. So same general goal, though yours if obviously healthier.
I've actually got a pretty good mug cake recipe I've been using for a while. It's not fancy by any stretch of the imagination but it's cheap and easy to make with stuff I have on hand. You're welcome to mix the wet ingredients separately and it comes out better but I usually don't bother. I typically use cake flour. Now mine uses egg but you can always buy that pasteurized egg product in the carton at the grocery store and it'll keep for at least as long as the milk.
MortiousThe Nightmare BeginsMove to New ZealandRegistered Userregular
Yeah the problem is the egg and oils though, since I want zero wet ingrediants that isn't water or milk. And while you can make it like that, it's a lot more bland than the ones that use eggs/oil/butter.
I had a week or two where I had a lot of microwaved cakes when trying out different recipes :P
I'll note that commercial cake mixes have saturated fat built in, in a way that's difficult to reproduce at home. If I was trying for a shelf-stable mug cake mix, I'd start with a boxed cake mix, then just add a shelf-stable emulsifier as a replacement for the eggs. From a quick internet search, it looks like the oil isn't really needed on a technical level, and adding milk instead of water should compensate for any flavor loss.
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
Yeah the problem is the egg and oils though, since I want zero wet ingrediants that isn't water or milk. And while you can make it like that, it's a lot more bland than the ones that use eggs/oil/butter.
I had a week or two where I had a lot of microwaved cakes when trying out different recipes :P
You could use powdered milk and powdered egg in place of fresh. I've seen single serving packets of olive oil for salads that you could use.
I wonder if maybe mayo would be a good substitute for the oil and eggs. That comes in shelf tale packets too.
Yeah the problem is the egg and oils though, since I want zero wet ingrediants that isn't water or milk. And while you can make it like that, it's a lot more bland than the ones that use eggs/oil/butter.
I had a week or two where I had a lot of microwaved cakes when trying out different recipes :P
You could use powdered milk and powdered egg in place of fresh. I've seen single serving packets of olive oil for salads that you could use.
I wonder if maybe mayo would be a good substitute for the oil and eggs. That comes in shelf tale packets too.
I've done this before with baking cakes, I usually take the eggs and oil, and make a mayo then fold it into the mixture. shelf stable mayo should work the same way, but would require a bit more mixing to get the consistency right.
powdered milk and egg should work, just make sure to increase your liquid amounts to fully rehydrate the milk and eggs. There's even the extreme of making your own oil powder with maltodextrin, but I've never tried to rehydrate it back into a liquid.
I remember doing some marketing research, and the old cake mixes used to have everything in them, you just had to add water or milk. but the customers didn't like it as it seemed "too easy" and not "real" baking, so they switched out powdered egg and redid the recipes to add fresh milk and eggs to increase customer engagement.
so strange.
Regardless of whether it worked or not, I can see some side effects of you assembling microwaved cakes from mayo packets and boxes of powder at your workplace. Depends on how much you care about coworkers mocking you (which often depends on how much you like/hate them).
This may end up being a stupid idea, but I intend to make my own instant soup mix for work. I'm so sick of cup noodles and really want something with fewer calories and more nutritional value than the frozen crap I've been buying. My goal is to make up a bunch of containers/bags of different veggies, tvp, beans, rice, noodles and seasonings. I'd empty that into a bowl/mug, add boiling water and wait a few minutes for it be become soup. There is hardly any variety in the instant soup mix space these days. It's mostly either ramen or chicken noodle and all loaded with crap I don't want. The natural stuff is so expensive that it seems ridiculous to buy.
To this end I have been shopping around on Amazon and other sites and found this 6 lb pack that comes with 32 different kinds of veggies, beans and tvp. While kind of expensive, it did come with everything I wanted and should end up being around the same price as those premade soup mixes with much better ingredients once I combine everything together. I'm planning to get some broth powder, instant rice, and instant noodles to round everything out.
I figure I should be able to get around 100 meals out of this whole project.
All the beans, veggies and tvp arrived on Saturday. On Sunday I picked up some sodium-free broth powder, fast cook pasta, instant rice and powdered mashed potatoes. I made a couple of test batches just to make sure this was going to work how I wanted. Boy howdy did it work. I first made Potato Leek. For that I combined dried potato, leek, a touch of japapino, chickenish TVP, 1/4 of a both packet, mashed potato powder, a touch of cornstarch, salt, pepper and, a dash of italian herbs that I've had in the cupboard for way too long and need to eat up. I added a couple cups of water, microwaved for 5 min and let it sit for another 5. Upon retrival, I had a nice hot, creamy potato leek soup, better than any instant soup mix I'd ever had. I weighed everything out and kept the total dry weight to about 2 oz, similar to the instant mixes I saw elsewhere. For my next trick I made red beans and rice. That also turned out really good. Satisfied that my idea may be more expensive than I initially thought, but not totally dumb, I decided to make up a few different blends to take into work. I have 2 bags of potato leek, 2 bags of red beans and rice, 2 bags of lentil spinach and pasta, and 1 experimental bag of chili and pasta. I am storing them in plastic bags just for ease of transport. In the future I want to use mason jars so I can make the sup in the container I keep the dry stuff in.
Gourmet instant soups sounds like a pretty decent business idea.
If I had millions of dollars to open a soup factory, I would totally do that. Small scale like I'm doing, I'd have to charge like, $5 per serving which no one would pay. I need to get on Shark Tank or something.
I steamed some asparagus (not so exciting, but stay with me), but I tried using Jacques Pepin's tip to peel the outside off the lower portion of the stem rather than to snap it off. I just trimmed off the bare minimum of the dried out part. This is great, because I always felt it was very wasteful to throw away an inch or two using the "bend it and it will snap where it's still tender" method.
Looking forward to getting even more out of my asparagus when it decides it's warm enough to start throwing off shoots. Speaking of which, if you like asparagus and live in a climate where it will grow, look into planting them. They're a perennial (even here in Minnesota), and are mostly maintenance free. At least, that's been my experience. Maybe in other places there's more problems with bugs or diseases. I feel like if ours were in a raised bed, they'd be even easier because we wouldn't have to worry as much about the creeping charlie trying to invade them.
I've found that two plants produce plenty of asparagus for us. That's once they get established, which does take a few years. But these two plants have been going strong since I moved into the house 15 years ago. They can last for decades.
Edit: To clarify, I have no idea when the previous owners planted them. They were just here and firmly established. Could have been another 10+ years for all I know.
dennis on
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Irond WillWARNING: NO HURTFUL COMMENTS, PLEASE!!!!!Cambridge. MAModeratormod
made something called "depression burger" this weekend. the term basically refers to stretching hamburger with onions and there are different ways to do it.
the way I did it was:
1) slice onion very very thin
2) salt onion slices and mix salt in. leave to sit for i dunno a half hour
3) mix onion with burger meat. i think i did 2 onions for a pound of burg
4) make burger in "smash burger" style - smash down very flat on very hot surface, salt pepper, flip, slice of cheese.
5) serve the way you like burgers - I did american cheese, tortilla, hatch green chiles, tomato, lettuce mayo.
the onions caramelize and scorch beautifully. it's just a great burger.
made something called "depression burger" this weekend. the term basically refers to stretching hamburger with onions and there are different ways to do it.
the way I did it was:
1) slice onion very very thin
2) salt onion slices and mix salt in. leave to sit for i dunno a half hour
3) mix onion with burger meat. i think i did 2 onions for a pound of burg
4) make burger in "smash burger" style - smash down very flat on very hot surface, salt pepper, flip, slice of cheese.
5) serve the way you like burgers - I did american cheese, tortilla, hatch green chiles, tomato, lettuce mayo.
the onions caramelize and scorch beautifully. it's just a great burger.
That sounds akin to an Oklahoma Onion Burger. Which I have done and do recommend.
The only difference is that the onion burger doesn't mix the onions into the beef, they're combined on the griddle and smashed together, so one side is crispy charred onions and the other is charred beef. They're insanely good and need no condiments (only a single slice of american cheese melted on.)
Also, having one cold the next day. oh my god. Heavenly!
made something called "depression burger" this weekend. the term basically refers to stretching hamburger with onions and there are different ways to do it.
the way I did it was:
1) slice onion very very thin
2) salt onion slices and mix salt in. leave to sit for i dunno a half hour
3) mix onion with burger meat. i think i did 2 onions for a pound of burg
4) make burger in "smash burger" style - smash down very flat on very hot surface, salt pepper, flip, slice of cheese.
5) serve the way you like burgers - I did american cheese, tortilla, hatch green chiles, tomato, lettuce mayo.
the onions caramelize and scorch beautifully. it's just a great burger.
You're really just a few breadcrumbs and an egg away from meatloaf. :biggrin:
I made sloppy joes yesterday, but didn't have any bell peppers so I just went with onions. I really should just skip the bell pepper. Those things are always a pain in the ass to dice (sometimes I just whip them through the food processor) and I can't say I actually notice/miss them. I wonder whose idea it was that we should all put them in there to begin with? It feels like a similar thing to try to stretch the meat. It's like, "How can we get rid of these bell pepper we planted so many of?" I guess it was either that or zucchini...
I also wound up with a 1:1:1 mix of beef:pork:turkey. The pork was because I didn't get around to using it and had to throw it in there. I think I neutralized any health benefit of putting the turkey in there. And at 3 lbs, I really regretted my choice to cook it in the 12 inch skillet. My thought process was "hey, I want to brown as much of this meat all at once." But then I wound up only being able to fit 2 lbs in and had to do two batches anyway (plus another for the onions/garlic). *facepalm* Should have just stuck with the 4 quart saute pan. That skillet was filled to the brim with sloppy joe. I could not possibly have fit more in it.
It's just ground beef plus flavourings (onion, garlic, spices, etc). Also what's really nice is you can easily adjust the flavour by changing the amount of sugar and vinegar you add. I like mine slightly less sweet. Still comes out super tasty.
The trick of using a little baking soda to turn the onions almost instantly into mush is always kinda insane to watch happen. It's absolutely ridiculous how quickly they fall apart.
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I, specifically, prefer dark soy sauce, but I mostly do more Thai style stir fry
Oooo, that reminds me: I love throwing mam prik pao (aka Thai roasted red chili paste) into stir fries. It's a total flavor bomb.
Get some shin if you can. And some marrowbone.
Beef marrow makes amazing risotto.
Yeah it will be an interesting conversation, as long as I end up with as little ground beef as possible I'll be happy.
i like to keep mine elevated
Hmmm, I have some blueberries and strawberries in the fridge. Crisp? Yes!
Hmmm, this recipe calls for an 11x7 dish, but mine appears to be 13x9.
*obsessively shops for affordable 13x9 pan on amazon, gets distratced and does not make crisp*
Damnit.
one thing you can do is start with low heat and a dry pan, and slowly cook them out, tilting the pan and reserving the liquid. eventually the mushrooms will dry and intensify, and the liquid can be used as a mushroom stock. it's great for substituting chicken stock for a veggie mushroom risotto.
those mushrooms are great when fried with a bit of garlic butter, or they hold up super well in lasagna.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BretonBrawler
Kenji has a recipe on Serious Eats for roasting Mushrooms in the oven:
https://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/12/easy-roasted-mushroom-food-lab-recipe.html
It produces a stupidly delicious mushroom liquid that you should drain off and use for something.
Even worse: "This calls for a _______. I do have a _______, but now that I'm looking it's not the best type of _______. I should really exhaustively shop around for a better _______."
*three weeks later*
"I've lost interest."
To this end I have been shopping around on Amazon and other sites and found this 6 lb pack that comes with 32 different kinds of veggies, beans and tvp. While kind of expensive, it did come with everything I wanted and should end up being around the same price as those premade soup mixes with much better ingredients once I combine everything together. I'm planning to get some broth powder, instant rice, and instant noodles to round everything out.
I figure I should be able to get around 100 meals out of this whole project.
yeah very similar. the shallow boil knocks the air out of the mushroom, which means that that phase in the saute where the mushroom just keeps giving up liquid is sort of truncated. steaming might do the same thing idk
You can apparently do something similar to quick drain tofu. Pouring boiling water them forces it to squeeze out it's liquid, per Kenji.
I feel like this is going to succeed or fail primarily based on your "seasonings". If you're not using broth or adding bullion it's going to taste like wet vegetables. But I'm not sure what you could use here that's not going to end up tasting like instant soup broth with extra seasonings.
Have you considered making full-on soup at home, freezing it, and then heating a serving in the morning to be put in an insulated container to still be warm at lunch?
this is an interesting project. if you want a little more flexibility in terms of ingredients, you might consider making "concentrates". You can freeze them into big-ass ice cubes and just store them in big freezer bags.
My first few ideas are, potato and onion, split pea, chilli, chickish n' veggie, beefish 'n veggie. beans and rice, and minestrone.
Is this just a case of boiling down stock and then just adding water when you need to use it or is there more to it?
that's basically all it would take
I think this was one of the first Serious Eats "recipes" I "followed".
https://www.seriouseats.com/2014/09/diy-instant-noodle-cups-food-lab.html
They recommend Better than Boulion brand for broth, and give insights into types of noodles that will easily soften with risidual heat from the boiling water, and things like, add beef jerky!
I've been trying to make a shelf stable microwave mug cake mix that will only require added water or milk (i.e. things available at work) that I could keep in my desk. So same general goal, though yours if obviously healthier.
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
I've actually got a pretty good mug cake recipe I've been using for a while. It's not fancy by any stretch of the imagination but it's cheap and easy to make with stuff I have on hand. You're welcome to mix the wet ingredients separately and it comes out better but I usually don't bother. I typically use cake flour. Now mine uses egg but you can always buy that pasteurized egg product in the carton at the grocery store and it'll keep for at least as long as the milk.
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
4 tablespoons sugar
A Pinch of Baking Powder (not soda) (optional)
Mix
2 tablespoons oil
1 & 1/2 tablespoon water or milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
Salt
Mix
Chocolate Chips (Optional)
Microwave 1:20 to 1:45
I had a week or two where I had a lot of microwaved cakes when trying out different recipes :P
It’s not a very important country most of the time
http://steamcommunity.com/id/mortious
You could use powdered milk and powdered egg in place of fresh. I've seen single serving packets of olive oil for salads that you could use.
I wonder if maybe mayo would be a good substitute for the oil and eggs. That comes in shelf tale packets too.
I've done this before with baking cakes, I usually take the eggs and oil, and make a mayo then fold it into the mixture. shelf stable mayo should work the same way, but would require a bit more mixing to get the consistency right.
powdered milk and egg should work, just make sure to increase your liquid amounts to fully rehydrate the milk and eggs. There's even the extreme of making your own oil powder with maltodextrin, but I've never tried to rehydrate it back into a liquid.
I remember doing some marketing research, and the old cake mixes used to have everything in them, you just had to add water or milk. but the customers didn't like it as it seemed "too easy" and not "real" baking, so they switched out powdered egg and redid the recipes to add fresh milk and eggs to increase customer engagement.
so strange.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BretonBrawler
I expected about twice what we got
Delmonico steaks are ribeyes
All the beans, veggies and tvp arrived on Saturday. On Sunday I picked up some sodium-free broth powder, fast cook pasta, instant rice and powdered mashed potatoes. I made a couple of test batches just to make sure this was going to work how I wanted. Boy howdy did it work. I first made Potato Leek. For that I combined dried potato, leek, a touch of japapino, chickenish TVP, 1/4 of a both packet, mashed potato powder, a touch of cornstarch, salt, pepper and, a dash of italian herbs that I've had in the cupboard for way too long and need to eat up. I added a couple cups of water, microwaved for 5 min and let it sit for another 5. Upon retrival, I had a nice hot, creamy potato leek soup, better than any instant soup mix I'd ever had. I weighed everything out and kept the total dry weight to about 2 oz, similar to the instant mixes I saw elsewhere. For my next trick I made red beans and rice. That also turned out really good. Satisfied that my idea may be more expensive than I initially thought, but not totally dumb, I decided to make up a few different blends to take into work. I have 2 bags of potato leek, 2 bags of red beans and rice, 2 bags of lentil spinach and pasta, and 1 experimental bag of chili and pasta. I am storing them in plastic bags just for ease of transport. In the future I want to use mason jars so I can make the sup in the container I keep the dry stuff in.
If I had millions of dollars to open a soup factory, I would totally do that. Small scale like I'm doing, I'd have to charge like, $5 per serving which no one would pay. I need to get on Shark Tank or something.
Looking forward to getting even more out of my asparagus when it decides it's warm enough to start throwing off shoots. Speaking of which, if you like asparagus and live in a climate where it will grow, look into planting them. They're a perennial (even here in Minnesota), and are mostly maintenance free. At least, that's been my experience. Maybe in other places there's more problems with bugs or diseases. I feel like if ours were in a raised bed, they'd be even easier because we wouldn't have to worry as much about the creeping charlie trying to invade them.
I've found that two plants produce plenty of asparagus for us. That's once they get established, which does take a few years. But these two plants have been going strong since I moved into the house 15 years ago. They can last for decades.
Edit: To clarify, I have no idea when the previous owners planted them. They were just here and firmly established. Could have been another 10+ years for all I know.
the way I did it was:
1) slice onion very very thin
2) salt onion slices and mix salt in. leave to sit for i dunno a half hour
3) mix onion with burger meat. i think i did 2 onions for a pound of burg
4) make burger in "smash burger" style - smash down very flat on very hot surface, salt pepper, flip, slice of cheese.
5) serve the way you like burgers - I did american cheese, tortilla, hatch green chiles, tomato, lettuce mayo.
the onions caramelize and scorch beautifully. it's just a great burger.
That sounds akin to an Oklahoma Onion Burger. Which I have done and do recommend.
The only difference is that the onion burger doesn't mix the onions into the beef, they're combined on the griddle and smashed together, so one side is crispy charred onions and the other is charred beef. They're insanely good and need no condiments (only a single slice of american cheese melted on.)
Also, having one cold the next day. oh my god. Heavenly!
I need to go through his list of burgers. The amount of burgers and variations out there is great.
You're really just a few breadcrumbs and an egg away from meatloaf. :biggrin:
I made sloppy joes yesterday, but didn't have any bell peppers so I just went with onions. I really should just skip the bell pepper. Those things are always a pain in the ass to dice (sometimes I just whip them through the food processor) and I can't say I actually notice/miss them. I wonder whose idea it was that we should all put them in there to begin with? It feels like a similar thing to try to stretch the meat. It's like, "How can we get rid of these bell pepper we planted so many of?" I guess it was either that or zucchini...
I also wound up with a 1:1:1 mix of beef:pork:turkey. The pork was because I didn't get around to using it and had to throw it in there. I think I neutralized any health benefit of putting the turkey in there. And at 3 lbs, I really regretted my choice to cook it in the 12 inch skillet. My thought process was "hey, I want to brown as much of this meat all at once." But then I wound up only being able to fit 2 lbs in and had to do two batches anyway (plus another for the onions/garlic). *facepalm* Should have just stuck with the 4 quart saute pan. That skillet was filled to the brim with sloppy joe. I could not possibly have fit more in it.
The ATK recipe from here is the one I've been doing since I saw it and it's fucking delicious:
It's just ground beef plus flavourings (onion, garlic, spices, etc). Also what's really nice is you can easily adjust the flavour by changing the amount of sugar and vinegar you add. I like mine slightly less sweet. Still comes out super tasty.
The trick of using a little baking soda to turn the onions almost instantly into mush is always kinda insane to watch happen. It's absolutely ridiculous how quickly they fall apart.