Beef Stroganoff

This is the easy version, as taught to me by my sister. It's all done to taste really, so feel free to experiment with it.

You will need:

Enough beef to feed the number of people you have (plus second helpings. My lot seem to like it that much)
One or two onions, sliced
Mushrooms, lots of
Paprika
Cream

How to make it:

Slice the onions and fry in a little olive oil. While they are frying, slice up the mushrooms and throw them in the pan as well. Once they've cooked for a little bit, add enough paprika to give a reasonable coverage, or experiment with more or less as you like. Set this aside once it's cooked through the mushrooms and onions. Slice the beef into strips and fry in a little oil in the same pan as you cooked the mushrooms and onions. Once cooked, add the mushrooms and onions back in, and pour over enough cream to make a nice sauce. Serve with anything you fancy. Boiled new potatoes and salad are good though.

Enjoy!

Fried Chicken and Rice

Also known as "What to do with the leftovers from your roast dinner". This is one of my Mum's recipes, and a definite favourite in our house.

You will need:
1 onion
leftover veggies (peas, sweetcorn, carrots, whatever)
Leftover chicken (it works just as well with turkey or ham)
1 tin peeled plum tomatoes
tomato puree
dried mixed herbs
garlic puree (if you want)
Salt and pepper
Rice

Set the rice to boil. Fry the onion in a large frying pan and while that is softening, strip the meat off the chicken and add to the onion. Add in the garlic and tomato puree, the tinned tomatoes chopped up and leftover veg. Add some herbs and salt and pepper to taste and leave to simmer in the juices till the rice is all done. When the rice is cooked, put it in a large bowl and pour the chicken mix over, then mix it all in and serve.

This really is a very easy dish to make and is very tasty. A nice alternative to chicken sandwiches for leftovers.

Chicken Teriyaki and Couscous

Ingredients:

teriyaki sauce
chicken (I slowcook mine, personally)
fresh vegetables (ones you will stirfry)
couscous



Couscous. I love it. Why? Cheaper than rice, and cooks three times as fast. One cup of couscous to two cups of water. You let the water boil, toss in the couscous and a tablespoon of butter, and let it puff up. I personally like to stir it after I can no longer see the water, to encourage it to dry out faster. The one thing I hate is watery rice, and watery couscous. At this point, I also add a large dollop of honey, stirring it in. Take it off the heat and let it finish fluffing.

Start stirfrying the veggies, and just before the veggies are done to perfection, toss in the chicken and the teriyaki sauce. I've worked the timing down to an art that at this point the couscous is ready to serve. Heat up the chicken and coat the veggies, then shove everything to one side of the wok and toss in the couscous on the other side. Crank the heat on the pot for a few moments, and it gives it chance to slighty burn any honey clumps that didn't melt nicely into the grain, making it a really nice additional flavour. Couscous retains heat really really well, and once you've browned the it slighty, everything is ready to serve.

I can cook this meal, with fresh ingredients, in a little under 10 minutes. Not including the meat (since I usually slowcook it), of course. This can be made with leftover meat, frozen vegetables, and still taste just as good. I personally love this meal. Love it. Couscous is generally served with a meat sauce on top, and traditionally, you scoop it up with your fingers. A North African dish with an oriental spin.

Fresh Veggie Macaroni Salad

Yes, this can be found on my personal blog...but it needed to find a more permanent home.

Chilled cooked macaroni pasta. Add enough mayo/miracle whip to coat all pasta. The key is to not have it absolutely soaking in dressing, but just enough to lighty coat all the pasta and to slighty coat most of the vegetables you're going to put in. Then add some dijon sweet mustard (I use a Swedish product you can find in Ikea, of all places), just enough to give it a small kick to make it interesting. At this point I like to chop up a ton of fresh vegetables. I find that a lot of macaroni salads tend to have entirely too much macaroni and mayo, and every now and then you'll get a forkful of veggies. Not so with mine.


Chopped fresh sweet pea pods
Diced baby carrots
Chopped up red/yellow peppers
Handfuls of cherry/roma tomatoes
Handfuls of fresh sweet corn
Chopped red onion
Handful of baby spinach leaves

When I made it, I loved having a variety of different tastes that weren't hidden by buckets of mayo. I also chopped up some pickles, and threw them in, but I found that I didn't enjoy it so much. I grated some cheddar, and also mixed it in just prior to serving. When I first made it, I made enough to last my household a week (for lunches and snacking). And it was so good that it only lasted a few days, since we used it for our main meals by just adding diced ham to it.

Why?

We have so many meals that come handed down to us through our families, recipes that we have fiddled with over the years and have perfected. Or dishes that we've begun to work on, the ingredients we want to utilize ready at hand but the inspiration is just lacking.

How many conversations have we had about food? About creating a meal out of nothing, and just dreaming about the possibilities?

That is why. So we have a place to work out our dishes. To record our triumphs. But, most importantly, to have a constantly evolving community and database to look up in our times of need.