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Bachelor's Weekly Italian Cooking

Thu, 2006-02-23 10:34 — UrbanChef

I have been experimenting with Italian food for the past two weeks. I bought the “The Sopranos Family Cookbook” from borders last week. (ISDN: 0446530573). So I am planning to have a “Sopranos Family Dinner Party” soon.

 

Here are some of the dishes I made.

  • Rossted Peppers with Anchovies
  • Fettuccine with Three Cheeses
  • Penne with Spicy Tomato Sause
  • Penne with Swordfish, Tomatoes, Olives, and Capers
  • Linguine alla Carbonara
  • Linguine Alla Vongole ( Linguine with White Clam Sause )
  • Baby Octopus in Tomato Sauce
  • Rigatoni with Broccoli
  • Baked Chicken with Potatoes, Lemon, and Oregano

Since this is the first time I made Italian food, I did figure out how to reduce the complexity of each recipe yet. However I did notice that those dishes are very easy to pipe line. For example, after you start cooking some pasta, you can let the water boil for a while and don’t have to attend it very often. It does not matter if the past is cooked for 12 minutes or 15 minutes. The same idea applies with the sauce. So it is easy to make food for a lot of people in a short time if you can get the timing right.

 

Highway Cooking - How to cook on your car engine.

Wed, 2005-07-27 06:36 — UrbanChef

My friend Steve introduced me to this new energy saving and time saving method of cooking for picnics. Basically prepare your food in aluminum foil and cook them on the engine while driving! It wasn't a new concept but it was great to try when you go on a road trip. Basically here is the direction: We marinated 4 pieces of lb+ steak and wrapped each 2 in three large layers of aluminum foil. Make sure you wrap them tight so that heat transfers well. Drive for a while first. Open your hood and find a place to put the steak. The Idea location is the place that is hottest and the most stable. You can use more aluminum foil to secure the steak in place. Avoid moving parts as well as air intakes. Now close your hood. Drive for about 160 miles. And congratulations, you just made 4 median rare steaks for lunch. You can also cook stuff like shrimp, fish, etc. If you can and have imagined cooking on your engine so far, I have no doubt that are able to imagine plenty of other stuff to cook on your engine.

Urban Bachelor Dinner Party

Mon, 2005-07-11 08:47 — UrbanChef

I had my second urban bachelor cooking dinner this past weekend. I only had one guest this time because I gave out a very short notice. I am experimenting with a new receipt my friend Keith gave me recently. It is basically some canned beans and tomatoes mixed together. Keith already simplified the recipe for everyone by combining two complicated recopies, and thrown out ingredients that are hard to prepare. Further more, he combined several cooking steps into one. The original recipe from Keith was: Canned Kidney Beans (fist size) Canned chunked tomato (large size) Hamburger Meat (fist size) Mixed Vegetables (fist size) Canned Pinto Bean (fist size) 12 Oz Beer (regular size) Chilly Mix (bag) Tomato Paste (small size) Mix them together and bring to boil in a pod. Set heat to low and let it boil for about 20 minutes. Food is about to ready when most of the beer is gone. Good luck. The dish tastes great with fresh bread. 

Tomato Spinach Cous Cous

Tue, 2005-06-07 08:46 — UrbanChef

I tried out a new vegetarian receipt from my friend Rhett yesterday. It is called: “tomato spinach cous cous” Here is the direction: “You get a box of cous cous and get the cous cous started. then while that is going, wash and cut up some tomatoes into small pieces, wash a bunch of fresh spinach and rip it up into bits (tear the stems out if you want). i usually make enough of these things so that there's about as much vegetable as there is couscous. Take a corn cob and with a serrated knife, cut the corn off the cob. Put some butter (or oil) in a pan, put the corn in the pan, and sauté it a bit until it's a little bit cooked. Add salt if you want. (This is also a much faster way to cook corn than boiling the entire thing.) Once the cous cous is ready, dump the tomatoes, spinach, and corn in, and mix it all together. You can also leave the corn separate, or add different stuff. This stuff is ok to eat later, and is good to take for lunch...” Here are some pictures. This is the only thing I made yesterday. It took me, all together, 18 minutes and 30 seconds.

 

In term of speed and efficiency, cous cous is very easy to cook. All you need to do is boil some water, dump the cous cous in the water and cover it for 5 minutes. Cutting and sautéing the corn did take while. If I were to change the recipe, I would use frozen corn to safe preparation and cutting time. It doesn’t taste as fresh but more efficient. Corn and tomatoes can be common ingredients of other receipts. If I were to cook this dish with others dishes that uses corn or tomato, I would save more preparation time. In term of taste, the recipe has a good mixture of vegetables so the dish has verity of good taste. Hence you can have it for a meal by itself. The cous cous is very filling as well.

New Recipe From Keith

Tue, 2005-03-29 09:41 — UrbanChef

I started working for Tripadvisor.com at the beginning of this month. I have been busy since and haven't done much cooking. However I got one really fast but healthy recipe from my colleague Keith. 

I tried it myself. It takes under 10 minutes to prepare. (Including cleaning the dishes). 4 minutes to get it microwaved at work. It is perfect for a fast lunch. The taste of frozen vegetables is very plain. You can add more ingredients to it but it is not recommended because that means the recipe will take longer to make. Same thing goes for the couscous. Tyson chicken wings/breasts taste very good. Fresh but make sure you microwave it long enough. How long depends on the power of your microwave and how many wings you plan to have. You should experiment. Besides speed, this dish is very healthy and the frozen wings and vegetables can be kept in your fridge for a long time.

 

Winter Morning Energy Breakfast

Thu, 2005-02-24 09:31 — UrbanChef

My friend Max is the master of microwave oven cooking. He gave the following breakfast recipes.

  • Winter morning energy breakfast

    • Max made one for me. See pictures. They are very good. The Winter Morning Energy Breakfast is a little complex than if you just mix hot water with oatmeal but since you are putting different fruits in your breakfast, you don’t get bored with the recipe for a while. The recipe is very scientific. It supposes to release energy over a long period of time. (I am not a bio major so don’t quote me on this.) Honey gives you instant energy boost, and then the fruits will start to kick in finally the oatmeal. So you will feel full and energized the instant after you had your breakfast. (Depends on how much honey you put in) and feel full for the entire morning. 

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