Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Cooking

Cupcake Candyland

Juliet Banana — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:39:38 -0800

I'm throwing a Cupcake Candyland party that promises to be a sugar&booze fueled shindig of over-the-top girliness. I have questions about cupcakes that aren't really cupcakes, gluten-free cupcake recipes, frosting & decorating, and pink cocktails that utilize homemade grenadine. CUPCAKES THAT AREN'T REALLY CUPCAKES: I figure having nothing but a spread of different flavored cupcakes could get pretty monotonous and most people wouldn't even try them all, so I'm trying to think of anything that can be made in cupcake form. I'd like recommendations for savory "cupcakes" as well as other desserts that can be turned into cupcakes.

GLUTEN-FREE CUPCAKES: I'm definitely going to be making G-Free mini brownies from the excellent (and affordable) mix sold at Trader Joe's, but if anyone has any suggestions for recipes that don't require me to buy 9 different types of hard-to-find flours, I'd appreciate it.

FROSTING & DECORATING: I am a cook, not a pastry chef. I'm more comfortably sweating balls over a chipotle oxtail braise than doing royal icing floodwork, and as a human with tastebuds I am morally opposed to fondant. I'd like suggestions for candies or other decor, as well as recipes for fool-proof frostings that don't taste like pure sugar paste. What are the tips and tricks to making cupcakes look adorable with a minimum of effort and/or talent?

COCKTAILS: (previously) I like cocktails that require a lot of cooking, but not a lot of liquors. For example, my signature drink of 2010, the glorious Gin-Gin Mule, requires you to make your own ginger beer and chiffonade mint, but you only have to have gin on hand. I really want to make homemade grenadine and and use it to make some cocktails that pair well with desserts and are pink (the grenadine is red so the other ingredients just need to be clear). It's difficult, though, since I'm kind of a girl-drink snob and every terrible drink on earth has Rose's in it.

Mmmmm, Chicken!

AzraelBrown — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:32:13 -0800

I was given a large smoked-meat assortment pack for Christmas (thanks Grandma!) and one item is confusing me on what to do with it: an entire smoked chicken, intact and not cut up, purchased refrigerated and shrinkwrapped in plastic. Do I reheat it? Just carve it like I regularly would carve a chicken? Or is there some better use for a cold smoked whole chicken? Anything to watch out for so I don't mess it up?

Pimp my papas

mudpuppie — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 12:51:06 -0800

It's a cold, hard fact of life that when presented with a 10-lb bag of Russet potatoes for $.97, you can't NOT buy it. Please help -- need ideas for a more interesting baked potato (or other ways to eat Russets). My standard baked potato features butter, cheese, and yogurt (which I use instead of sour cream). It's not the healthiest dinner and, frankly, it's getting boring. What are your best baked potato toppings?

Aside from home fries and spanish tortilla, which I've already made recently, I'm out of idea on how to use up this phenomenally cheap bag of potatoes, so other ideas are appreciated as well. Help.

Vegetarian pressure cooking?

hilaritas — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:56:39 -0800

Give me your best vegetarian pressure cooker recipes. I just got a pressure cooker and I am excited to use it. I know pressure cookers are great for making beans, but what are your favorite vegetarian recipes for pressure cooking? I'm partial to seitan/tofu/tempeh type stuff, but I don't know whether those ingredients would do well in the pressure cooker. Give me your ideas, please!

Mindblowing vegan sandwich recipes?

archagon — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 16:59:00 -0800

I have no idea how to make a good sandwich without cheese or meat. What are some mindblowing vegan sandwich recipes?

Help me not have to eat a giant vat full of tasteless mush

Dormant Gorilla — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 15:41:18 -0800

Help me save this giant pot of soup I just made! So, I got a dutch oven for christmas and have been experimenting with making massive pots full of stuff. I just tried a recipe for lentil barley soup, and...it's mush. Just totally bland. There is a TON of it, at least six servings. It is currently sitting there on my stovetop, lurking, mocking me.

Here's what I put in-
Lentils
Barley
Low-sodium chicken broth
worcestershire sauce
cumin
black pepper
sauteed onions
sauteed garlic
carrots
lemon juice
a bit of tabasco

(This is what the recipe said to use- I got it from Epicurious.)

It tastes like nothing at all! Can anyone suggest something/things I can throw in to add some interesting flavor to it? It'd be an awful lot of food to waste, but I just can't see eating it as-is because right now it tastes like starchy mush with tabasco. Doesn't have to be vegetarian, and I have a pretty well-stocked pantry in terms of the Basic Elements of Food to use.

Thanks, everyone- my taste buds and food budget will appreciate any advice you've got!

no-oven veggie lovin'

threeants — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 13:39:23 -0800

Yummy one-pot, no-oven vegetarian meals? I currently live in a situation with one (rather small) cooking pot, one burner, and no oven. What are some delicious meals I can make? I'm more interested in written descriptions than recipes per se (because I'm not much one for measurements and usually end up ditching recipes in favor of their gists anyway), but of course either is fine.

I'm very interested in clever ways of maximizing efficacy with just my one burner-- for example, I often make stirfries by boiling vegetables in the same water as some rice noodles to tenderize them a bit, then empty those all into a colander, stir fry up some tofu/aromatics/sauces, and then finally add the noodles/veggies.

No-pot meals also welcome. I'd love some ideas for salads, with a preference for non-creamy dressings. Recently I've been making a delicious one out of lettuce/greens, goat cheese, and sweetened crunchy peanuts, with olive oil and balsamic lightly applied.

I love food from all around the world, but I live in small-town France and my options for international ingredients are more limited than I'd like, though I do have access to a very small East Asian market.

Bonus points if you can help me incorporate ingredients endemic to or common in France, like French cheeses or leeks.

Thanks in advance!

Can it be done successfully?

n'muakolo — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:44:10 -0800

Help me figure out how to make lasagna using Asian flavors and ingredients. I love Ming Tsai's Asian Sloppy Joes, but it has given me a hankering to try to make a lasagna type dish using Asian* ingredients and flavors. I'm most interested in using chicken or ground beef. What sort of noodle would I use? I was thinking of the wide rice noodles, or maybe wonton skins, but they both seem to pose challenges. What sort of sauce? And what could I use in place of ricotta and parmesan? And would I use any different cooking technique?

I guess I'm talking about an Asian pasta casserole, really. Any tips or ideas?

Would this be disgusting?

*"Asian" is obviously very broad. What Asian flavors and ingredients would most lend themselves to this sort of dish? Could I mix and match?

Is there a use for brine from pickles and olives?

kensington314 — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 22:14:35 -0800

This is going to sound weird, possibly gross. I was eating olives today, and the following question occurred to me: is there a culinary purpose for the brine and/or oil from products such as pickles and olives? Could it somehow be added to my cooking, or need I send it right down the drain before I recycle the jar?

Can I put my terracotta casserole dish on an electric hob?

penguin pie — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 11:07:20 -0800

Can I use my new terracotta casserole dish on an electric stove top? I just bought my first terracotta casserole dish. I think it's one of these, but with a yellow glaze (there's no glaze on the bottom). The label says it's suitable for direct flame with a heat diffusor, and for vitroceramic, but I have standard electric hobs. Can I use it on these, e.g. to brown the meat for my casserole before it goes in the oven?

As a secondary, just-out-of-interest question, I'm in the process of soaking it for 12 hours before first use as instructed on the label. Why do I have to do this for the first use only? The fact I don't have to do it before every use suggests that the initial soak will change the dish in some lasting way that will protect it for ever more, but surely it'll just dry out again?

Rendered Beef Fat: Just How Bad Is It?

biddeford — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:04:46 -0800

Lately I've been using a lot of rendered beef fat in my cooking. Is this a reasonable replacement for cooking with plant based oils, or am I flirting with a heart attack with every fried egg and handful of popcorn? I should note that this isn't fat rendered from organically raised, grass fed cattle, either; it's trimmings from run-of-the-mill Ralph's tri-tip roasts. If you've bought tri-tip before you've noticed that that untrimmed cuts have a huge slab of fat across the top. I was buying the untrimmed meat on sale & rendering the fat into crunchies for my dog when I found myself tempted to use the leftover tallow to fry eggs. From there I began using a couple of teaspoons to pop popcorn (heavenly!) & use in veggie stirfrys, and I find I'm using it instead of olive oil in a lot of circumstances.
From my googling around I've found sites that make claim for tallow being a 'healthy' fat, but I haven't found much that backs those claims up. Does anyone know how well it stacks up against other oils? And am I making a huge mistake by not going organic?

Cooking for the new year!

Junior687 — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 19:59:03 -0800

Improve cooking for the New Year! Hi everyone! Just want to wish everyone a Happy New Years! One of my resolutions for the new year was to learn how to cook better. I want to start off sort of small, but have the ability to impress my friends. I own a few cooking supplies, but I'm planning on buying a wok tomorrow. I really like stir-fry type recipes a lot. Any pointers on some recipes or websites would be great. Also a bonus if someone can give me a good Mac friendly application to organize my new found recipes! Thanks!

So this works because you add an acid to a base...

Hakaisha — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:13:18 -0800

Looking for books teaching the principles of cooking. Among my circle of friends, I'm a pretty decent cook (if it matters, I'm early 20s, female, college student). Thing is, usually for those get-together endeavours I pull up recipes from the internet, add/improvise as I see fit, and it usually turns out well.

However, said improvisation is usually because my kitchen is limited in ingredients/tools and not because I understand how to substitute one ingredient for another. While there are very celebrated recipe books out there (The Joy of Cooking is the first that comes to mind, among others), I'm more looking for books that teaches the principles behind cooking: how to complement notes and flavours, acids to bases, or whatever. (And as a chemistry student IRL, I'm doubly interested in what makes recipes work in the chemical sense.) My relatives are all more of the 'this works because it does' school and thus can't really teach me why a certain recipe works the way it does.

My boyfriend got me Alton Brown's Good Eats: The Early Years for Christmas, which I thought was fantastic--it explained a lot about where certain foods came from (I had seriously never known what the cuts of beef were called. No joke), but again, not really too much on how the principles of complementing flavours work. Or the theory of how cutting dry ingredients into wet is different from just blending the heck out of it with a blender. Basically, I'm looking for books that'd teach me the why and the how, and not recipes towards one particular cuisine or type. Baking, stir-frying, whatever--it's all good, as long as the theory's there.

So, hit me, MeFites! And thanks in advance. =)

Beat until stiff.

thebestsophist — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:06:48 -0800

What can I do with a bunch of egg whites? Complexity is not a vice. Every so often, I make creme brulee (like today). But I'm usually at a loose for what to do with the 8 egg whites that get left over (or when I double the recipe, the 16 egg whites). I thought I'd ask to see what everyone's favorite recipes are for using just egg whites. It can be simple as a favorite cookie recipe or deep into molecular gastronomy. Savory or sweet, my kitchen is well stocked, and my abilities love to be stretched.

What other awesome frugal cooking blogs are out there?

marsha56 — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:21:06 -0800

I've just discovered 30 Bucks a Week and I love it. What other awesome frugal cooking blogs are out there? (more detail inside on what I'm looking for.) What I love about 30 Bucks and what I'm hoping to find in other blogs:

Focus on cooking frugally. I'm NOT interested in other aspects of frugality right now.

Focus on fresh ingredients and very little processed food. No coupon clippers since they almost always are using lots of processed food.

Simplicity. I like recipes that don't have a long list of ingredients. Also prefer cooking to baking as baking often seems to require more time, more measuring, more precision, more ingredients.

Eclectic influences, including Middle Eastern, Asian, Indian, Mexican, etc, etc. Emphasis on interesting flavors.

Looking for meals with little or no meat, but would prefer not strictly vegan. I still enjoy eggs, yogurt and occasionally cheese.

I like lots of recipes and enjoy enticing pics of prepared food and/or food prep.

I really like it when the blogger explains how and where they shop and how much they spent and what they are eating for every meal, including breakfast, packable lunches and snacks, not just dinners.

Looking for blogs. I'm not asking for your own frugal ideas. Lots of other AskMe posts cover this.

Keep my skillet good and greasy all the time time time

liketitanic — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 21:59:26 -0800

Where can I get a skillet sandblasted? (General ideas about how to go about this--or specific recs for the SF Bay area--welcomed._ I have some rusty cast iron skillets that need to be sandblasted so I can reseason them. Where . . . do I take them? What kind of place does this? A body shop? Any body shop? Who should I even call? How much will it cost? Please hope me, the iron content of my food depends on it.

Breakfast: My best friend. My worst enemy.

Vorteks — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:31:35 -0800

What low-GI, high-protein, portable food can I cook on Sunday night and then reheat for breakfast Mon-Fri? To improve my health and diet, I need to be better about eating a good breakfast regularly. Lots of diet/exercise books and blogs recommend things like steel-cut oats, scrambled eggs, etc. The problem is... I hate getting up early, and will basically not do anything that adds any time to my morning routine, even 5 minutes. Even finding the time to eat a bowl of cheerios is difficult because I invariably wait until the last second that I could possibly get up and still get to work on time, then leap out of bed, get ready as fast as I can, and run out the door.

So, to combat this, what I thought would be nice is to create something ahead of time (the night before, or ideally Sunday night for the whole week), then refrigerate and brown-bag it. That way I could get up, grab my brown bag from the fridge as I run out the door, and then reheat (or whatever) the food at work and eat at my desk. I feel that if I could do this, I would be able to stick to a good breakfast routine.

So, finally getting to the point, what can I make ahead of time to eat for breakfast each day? I'm looking for recipes with step-by-step instructions. The ideal recipe will have the following traits:

Can be made at least 1 day, and ideally up to 5 days in advance
Can be prepared in roughly an hour or less
Involves no additional preparation on the day that it's eaten (other than microwaving or other simple things that can be done in an office)
Has a low glycemic index (GI)
Has at least 20% calories from protein (roughly 5g of protein per 100 calories)
Doesn't taste awful
Contains no artificial sweeteners

Does anyone have a good recipe that meets these criteria? I'm hoping to get at least 3-4 so I can make them in a weekly rotation. I have no food allergies, and I enjoy a wide variety of flavors. Other breakfast habit tips are also appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Stupid question that needs an answer

St. Alia of the Bunnies — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 19:24:00 -0800

stupidquestionfilter: I buy those foil muffin liners to use when I bake muffins. They always come with paper liners in between. Are those supposed to be discarded, or are they actually supposed to be lining the foil when I put the batter in? (I told you it was a stupid question but it's bugging me now and I wanna know.)

Do you have the new Lee Brothers cookbook?

mccxxiii — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 19:54:12 -0800

Xmas cooking emergency: Need a recipe out of the *new* Lee Brothers cookbook, titled Simple Fresh Southern. Have the ingredients for pork/figs/madeira with me but forgot to bring the book, and I can't find the recipe online. Can anyone help? Many thanks in advance!

Bruch dish with leftover roast beef?

bondcliff — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 07:30:43 -0800

I'm cooking an enormous standing rib roast for Christmas dinner. I expect to have a lot of leftovers. On Sunday I'm cooking a brunch. how can I use the leftover roast beef? Are there any good brunch dishes that use leftover roasts? Some sort of hash? An egg dish? Should I just serve slabs of cold roast?

How to lose weight when veggies are mostly off limits?

gilsonal — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 22:13:36 -0800

Looking for dieting help given several dietary restrictions. I have Crohn's disease and cannot comfortably eat most veggies and fruits. Also, does dieting automatically mean I need to be hungry all the time? I'm 25, female and approximately 75-100 pounds overweight. My weight gain happened over the course of about eight years, due in combination to antidepressant medication, a love of pepsi, low motivation to work out, extreme fatigue due to my illness and difficulty tolerating "healthy foods." Following a recent surgery I've lost about 20 pounds and feel much better, to the point that I have the energy to start working out again. So that's one tactic to get to weight loss. I'm also almost 100% soda and caffeine free, and drink way more than my 8 glasses of water a day. I've considered Meridia for weight loss but I'd like to do it without a pill and the accompanying risk of serotonin syndrome.

I'd also like to implement some diet changes, but I'm affected by residual digestive problems. I love tomatoes and broccoli but lots of veggies are hard to digest, even cooked. I'm not too excited about fruit, so I couldn't really say how well those fair with my gut. Safe bets are simple starches and carbs like pasta but that's not particularly healthy.

I'd love some recommendations for easily digestible healthy food, or perhaps foods that are good for you but not traditionally "diet" foods and perhaps I haven't considered them. I'm sure there are people out there with similar problems that might have some tips.

Also, am I naive to think that dieting has to mean being hungry all the time? I don't mind restricting myself from extra calories so long as I'm not constantly on the verge of starvation. I want to lose this weight responsibly, and in a sustainable manner. Bonus points for foods that are relatively easy to make, but I do enjoy cooking when I have the time.

Roast Beast

Miko — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 09:33:49 -0800

I recently bought a share of a pig from a farmer, and it came wrapped in various cuts. One of the cuts is a large, meaty, bony one called "chine end roast." How should I cook this? My Googling seems to indicate it comes from the back of the pig and includes some of the bones of the spine, and that it's kind of next to the rib roast. Should I cook it like a rib roast? Or maybe a pot roast? Or braised? I'm just not sure what kind of treatment might do this big ol' meaty cut justice. Thanks for any ideas.

What air fresheners are good but not overwhelming?

zombieflanders — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:45:30 -0800

My friends have commented on how strong the air freshener in my apartment is. What brands or methods are good for a place with poor ventilation? I'm a nonsmoker with no pets who has been trying to maintain a nice-smelling apartment using the Air Wick brand of plug-in fresheners, usually with whichever scent seems least likely to be overpowering. The apartment has four rooms: kitchen, living/dining, bathroom, and bedroom. Only the kitchen and the bathroom have ventilation shafts, while the living room and bedroom both have windows. My friends tell me that my place smells strongly of air freshener, and that they can sometimes smell it from outside my window (I live on the ground floor), or even worse, on my clothes. The thing is, it's usually on the lowest possible setting, unless I'm cooking. Whenever I try to cook anything with even moderate aroma, I can smell it for a day or two, although that's better than the week or so from before the freshener. This poor ventilation seems to be the main culprit, but I 'm not sure if there's anything to be done about that, certainly not by me. Plus, I get used to the scent after about a day, so I can't tell how strong it is.

So what can I do to neutralize odors and/or make my place smell good? It can be other brands of freshener, although I'm certainly open to other methods (including natural solutions) as long as they're not strong-smelling either. I'm somewhat of a brown thumb though, and my heating/cooling system seems to dry the place out. Also, I'm not sure if it makes a difference, but 90% of the apartment has carpeting that is vacuumed every week or two.

Anyone have some vegetarian Tagine recipes?

mizike — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:24:29 -0800

Hi all; so my parents bought be a nice le creuset tagine for xmas, but I'm not quite sure what to use it for as a vegetarian. I'm sure I could make something like ratatouille but I'd really like to try some recipes that are specifically meant for a tagine and am getting the impression that lamb and chicken are going to feature prominantly in most of the recipes I find online. To that end, can anyone recommend some vegetarian tagine cookbooks?

Utterly butterscotch recipes!

orange swan — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:53:38 -0800

Please hit me with your best butterscotch cake/dessert recipes. I'm planning a company dinner and when it came to deciding on a dessert, I found I had a hankering for something butterscotch. What are your best butterscotch cake or dessert recipes? I'm thinking something relatively simple that can be served with ice cream, because one of my company is four-year-old boy who loves his ice cream.