Need new recipes....please!

OK.

We [my wife and I] have come to our creative cooking wits end and we are desperate for new ideas.

Chicken, ground turkey, fish, steak [on Saturday] and we've done it all a dozen different ways. We are at the point of the proverbial diminishing returns, menu-wise....and we need your expertise!

FoodTV.com doesn't help since most of what they do calls for expensive or exotic ingredients. We are but humble civil servants. Racheal Ray is evil and Emeril creams everything.


So....I beseech ye O fellow foodies....throw menus in the way of bored-with-food people. I bow to your superior culinary knowledge and ask for your kind indulgence.



Tim, burned-out [but still hungry] cook.

You will need to give us some direction:
Do your tastes tend toward the savory or mild?
Do you like to experiment with what might be called exotic (Thai, Indonesian, and the like), Mediterranean (Greek, Spanish, and the like), European (French, Italian, etc)?
Do you like dishes cooked a la carte or will you accept and prefer a melange?
Do you not like sauces at all, or is it just sauces with heavy creams and butter that you don't like -- how about cooking with spirits?
Do you accept that cooking with fruits is as credible as cooking with vegetables and they can be interchangeable?
Do you want meats that stand alone or would you like recipies that pair certain creations (e.g. anything with pasta -- such as bolognese; or anything with rice -- such as a jambalaya)?

When you say menus, what exactly do you mean -- main dishes or everythihng from soup to desserts?

Tim, one idea: try a new cookbook, one aimed at teaching a new style. There are many examples, but I'm touting John Ash's Cooking One on One.

The publisher's describe it well:

That which begins at a simple level grows more complex as you master technique and ingredient and apply layers of flavor. Ash leads the way with flair and confidence. Part Two covers basic cooking techniques--learning about soups, learning about oven-drying ingredients like tomatoes or cauliflower for maximum effect, learning about braising, grilling, creating soufflés (they can be assembled and frozen ahead of time!), learning about pasta in the West and the East. Part Three covers lessons in main ingredients: chicken, dried beans, mushrooms, salmon, shrimp, soy foods, desserts. The straightforward recipes reflect the nature of the lessons, the ingredients, the flavor profiles. This is a California chef with deep respect for culinary roots, whether they reach back to the Colorado barnyard or the French farm.

I cooked through it last summer, and the book really got my creative juices flowing. Two other advantages in your case: you can stop by his restaurant and even consider a cooking course with him.

Or, if you want a real treat, go to http://www.wineloverspage.com/ and in the search box at the top enter:

RC Jenise

and cook through her recipes. Any questions: just post them here and she is wonderfully gracious in answering them.



Regards, Bob

You will need to give us some direction:
Do your tastes tend toward the savory or mild?
Do you like to experiment with what might be called exotic (Thai, Indonesian, and the like), Mediterranean (Greek, Spanish, and the like), European (French, Italian, etc)?
Do you like dishes cooked a la carte or will you accept and prefer a melange?
Do you not like sauces at all, or is it just sauces with heavy creams and butter that you don't like -- how about cooking with spirits?
Do you accept that cooking with fruits is as credible as cooking with vegetables and they can be interchangeable?
Do you want meats that stand alone or would you like recipies that pair certain creations (e.g. anything with pasta -- such as bolognese; or anything with rice -- such as a jambalaya)?

When you say menus, what exactly do you mean -- main dishes or everythihng from soup to desserts?

There are very few menu items or cultural foods we won't try.

Basically, our philosophy is we will eat anything that won't eat us first, er....except brussels sprouts, of course [ack!].

Tim, one idea: try a new cookbook, one aimed at teaching a new style. There are many examples, but I'm touting John Ash's Cooking One on One.

The publisher's describe it well:

That which begins at a simple level grows more complex as you master technique and ingredient and apply layers of flavor. Ash leads the way with flair and confidence. Part Two covers basic cooking techniques--learning about soups, learning about oven-drying ingredients like tomatoes or cauliflower for maximum effect, learning about braising, grilling, creating soufflés (they can be assembled and frozen ahead of time!), learning about pasta in the West and the East. Part Three covers lessons in main ingredients: chicken, dried beans, mushrooms, salmon, shrimp, soy foods, desserts. The straightforward recipes reflect the nature of the lessons, the ingredients, the flavor profiles. This is a California chef with deep respect for culinary roots, whether they reach back to the Colorado barnyard or the French farm.

I cooked through it last summer, and the book really got my creative juices flowing. Two other advantages in your case: you can stop by his restaurant and even consider a cooking course with him.

Or, if you want a real treat, go to http://www.wineloverspage.com/ and in the search box at the top enter:

RC Jenise

and cook through her recipes. Any questions: just post them here and she is wonderfully gracious in answering them.



Regards, Bob

Excellent!


Thanks, Bob.

Another good one for these purposes is "Chef on Fire", by our own Joseph Carey. Tons of recipes as well as a little different way of looking at cooking in general (for us amateurs, anyway). You can find it on Amazon.


Mike

Another good one for these purposes is "Chef on Fire", by our own Joseph Carey. Tons of recipes as well as a little different way of looking at cooking in general (for us amateurs, anyway). You can find it on Amazon.


Mike

Cool.

But if I buy his book will this mean he'll start being nice to me?

But if I buy his book will this mean he'll start being nice to me?

I don't think you have to worry about that!



I highly recommend this book too. I've taken to buying it for gifts for young, new cooks (teens), people with their first apartment, and even some friends who are already good cooks. A very useful book with good, clear writing, a sense of humor that shines through, great information, and excellent recipes.

(No, he didn't pay me to say any of that.....)

Piling on, Cynthia -- especially on your first point.

But I like the book very much as well.

I gather that you really need inspiration more than recipes, since inspiration will guide you to the reicpes you want to make.

I get inspiration by regularly visiting the farmers market and trying new items. I also get inspiration by growing my own produce. Then, I like to go out to restaurants and try new dishes. Finally, I subscribe to several top cooking magazines. When I see something new, I follow up on the web and will occasionally place an internet order for new foods.

In a nutshell, ingredients is my inspiration.

But if I buy his book will this mean he'll start being nice to me?

I don't think you have to worry about that!

I dunno.

He's whammed me pretty good in the past....especially regarding a certain wine enclosure.

[*ahem*]

I highly recommend this book too. I've taken to buying it for gifts for young, new cooks (teens), people with their first apartment, and even some friends who are already good cooks. A very useful book with good, clear writing, a sense of humor that shines through, great information, and excellent recipes.

(No, he didn't pay me to say any of that.....)

He's a Veitnam War Vet...that's reason enough for me to support him.

I just hope the nastiness subsides some....


Thanks, Cynthia.

I gather that you really need inspiration more than recipes, since inspiration will guide you to the reicpes you want to make.

I get inspiration by regularly visiting the farmers market and trying new items. I also get inspiration by growing my own produce. Then, I like to go out to restaurants and try new dishes. Finally, I subscribe to several top cooking magazines. When I see something new, I follow up on the web and will occasionally place an internet order for new foods.

In a nutshell, ingredients is my inspiration.

You're probably right, Bernard.

I/we just need an infusion of some good vibes and reasonable menus.


Good post, my friend.

For recipes search as follows:

1. Click on "Search" above, select "The Kitchen Forum" and at Search for Keywords, type in "RCP". You will get at least 175 recipes posted here since this site was started.

2. Click on "WineLovers Discussion Group" at the top of this page. Under the top banner, click on "Search". When the Site Search window pops up, type in "RC". This will list all the recipes posted in the previous 10+ years in the old FLDG. You will get 94 pages of 20 recipes per page, 1,860 recipes.

Searching the FLDG discussions is a good idea to get you out of a rut.

I also logged onto the McCormick spice site and discovered hundreds of interesting recipes. And none used expensive hummingbird tongues and the like.

BTW, does anyone have the original link that went to McCormick's 2007 flavors of the year?

I hardly know where to begin, but a few suggestions off the top of my head:

Chicken

Curried chicken loaf
Chicken mole
Raspberry chicken breasts
Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic

Pasta dishes are almost infinite

Perk up your life with some New Mexican dishes

Tim, what I do is set myself culinary goals each New Year. For example, this year is the year for mastering sourdough, last year was the year for learning how to work chocolate, year before was experimenting with all things spicy.

I think Bernard's right, but my slant is slightly different - when I hit a rut (sooo easy with work and kids, and frankly, mince is almost always the easiest option), I try out a new cuisine I haven't experimented with before. I was telling Robin in the chatroom that I'm thinking of studying up on Mexican next, I know so little about Mexican cuisine, but I would love to know more. The last few months I've been experimenting with some Moroccan recipes, which are really fun and very different flavours from food I've had in the past.

I have a funny story which might amuse you. My 10 year old son learns the trumpet, and every week his teacher comes to our house to give him a lesson, and then stays for dinner. Last year Tom (my son) decided that the living room where he had his lessons was an ocean liner, and every Thursday we would dock at a different port. On Wednesdays we would print out pictures from different countries and stick them to the walls, and then on Thursday we would have a culturally correct dinner for the port we were "docked" at. So last year on Thursday nights we ate Greek, Italian, Moroccan, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese, Portugese, Japanese and Mexican. I told him Russia was landlocked - I know it's not true, but I had no idea how to cook Russian food ! :)

... I had no idea how to cook Russian food !

%^)

Shashlik

http://www.associatedcitrus.com/Recipes.php?id=29

Once you fix this "dish" this way, you'll never go back if you've ever cooked it any other way !

Clink !

%^)

... we are desperate for new ideas.

%^)

59 recipes utilizing the GREATEST condiment known to man - lemons !

Just click on the link below ...

Clink !

%^)

Another good one for these purposes is "Chef on Fire", by our own Joseph Carey. Tons of recipes as well as a little different way of looking at cooking in general (for us amateurs, anyway). You can find it on Amazon.


Mike

Cool.

But if I buy his book will this mean he'll start being nice to me?

If you want him to be really nice to you, then buy the book off of eBay where I got it for $2.71!!!!

I like your approach, Celia. I'm concentrating on Italian food this year, including a week long course at the Culinary Institute of American this summer.

It's a great way to learn and keeps the excitement alive.

Tim, what I do is set myself culinary goals each New Year. For example, this year is the year for mastering sourdough, last year was the year for learning how to work chocolate, year before was experimenting with all things spicy.

What a great idea, Celia...thanks!

I think Bernard's right, but my slant is slightly different - when I hit a rut (sooo easy with work and kids, and frankly, mince is almost always the easiest option), I try out a new cuisine I haven't experimented with before. I was telling Robin in the chatroom that I'm thinking of studying up on Mexican next, I know so little about Mexican cuisine, but I would love to know more. The last few months I've been experimenting with some Moroccan recipes, which are really fun and very different flavours from food I've had in the past.

I love to experiment.

In fact, when I cook I measure nothing...it is all by taste and feel....it's all part of the challenge for me

My/our problem is the recipes we want to play around with call for expensive ingredients or exotic seasonings. Finacially, we just plain cannot afford some of the stuff we want to try out.

I have a funny story which might amuse you. My 10 year old son learns the trumpet, and every week his teacher comes to our house to give him a lesson, and then stays for dinner. Last year Tom (my son) decided that the living room where he had his lessons was an ocean liner, and every Thursday we would dock at a different port. On Wednesdays we would print out pictures from different countries and stick them to the walls, and then on Thursday we would have a culturally correct dinner for the port we were "docked" at. So last year on Thursday nights we ate Greek, Italian, Moroccan, Chinese, Indian, Lebanese, Portugese, Japanese and Mexican. I told him Russia was landlocked - I know it's not true, but I had no idea how to cook Russian food !

Now that's funny

"In fact, when I cook I measure nothing...it is all by taste and feel....it's all part of the challenge for me."

Tim, I'm even more sure that my advice about reading Jenise's recipes is excellent for you and your wife. Jenise is the best "intuitive" cook I've ever followed. Somehow, she figures out how to make great dishes ... and then writes them down for other people to follow.

I made improving my ability to do that last year ... a miserable failure, I must admit.

Two problems: first, my only customer wants me to make a wonderful dish exactly the same way the next time.

Second, I really lack a creative spark. There's a bit of good luck in every successful recipe -- and I better write it down in order to duplicate it next time -- I just don't have that ability.

REgards, Bob

My/our problem is the recipes we want to play around with call for expensive ingredients or exotic seasonings. Finacially, we just plain cannot afford some of the stuff we want to try out.

Oh, I'm with you now, Tim. We're not in a dissimilar position, with two young children, school fees etc. When we first moved into this house (our first home as newlyweds) - it was even worse - we were young, and wanted to spend all our money on old Persian rugs rather than food. We ate baked beans on toast for a while, until our neighbour, a most gorgeous elderly Italian nonna, took pity on us and taught us how to survive on minestrone, and pasta with chilli and anchovies.

My suggestion then is this - try and target peasant food from different cultures. There should be lots of cookbooks in the library. If you look at the cultures with strong village traditions - Italian, Greek, Turkish, some of the Asian cuisines etc. - you will find a gamut of recipes designed to be both interesting and economical. I think the problem with a lot of new vogue cooking is that it's designed to be super simple and quick to prepare, which necessarily means using more expensive and tender cuts of meat, and younger vegetables (think baby carrots, cherry tomatoes - all things that can be eaten without cooking). Many new dishes compensate for time by asking for exotic or quick cooking ingredients. But in the past, when ingredients were limited by the seasons and people lived a more frugal existence, they developed great skill in using cheaper ingredients, and bringing out flavours with clever combinations and slow cooking times.

I know I haven't really offered you any specific recipes, so here are some of the meals I prepare - please let me know if any are of interest, and I'll drag out a recipe.

Greek Pasticcio - basically a greek baked pasta made with lamb mince and a bechamel sauce enriched with egg yolks. Key ingredient is cinnamon and greek rigani. You can then use the whites to make meringues for dessert. :)

Indian mince and peas - a nice recipe that makes a spicy mince dish which is served on rice. Economical if you have a variety of Indian spices in the cupboard (they're not really expensive, and open up a whole world of Indian cooking and flavours).

Moussaka - probably naughty to call it that - but it's basically just mince cooked with a little onion, garlic, tomato paste and beef stock, and layered over boiled and sliced potatoes, grilled eggplant slices and topped with a white sauce. Really nice with a bit of bread as accompaniment.

Fried rice - the traditional Chinese staple. Such a great dish, as you can almost always make it with what you have in the fridge (ok, my fridge) - leftover cooked rice, ham or bacon, eggs, veges, soy or teriyaki sauce. But the nice thing about fried rice is that it can be anything you want it to be - obviously you can fill it with prawns or interesting veges, but I recently saw a menu advertising green curry fried rice, which I can't wait to try.

Finally, curries - these can be made quite simply - there are some pretty good curry pastes on the market at the moment, particularly from Thailand. They're as cheap as chips, and easy to cook. If you're in a hurry, you can use more expensive fillet cuts of meat, but they work equally as well with just vegetables, or with cheaper cuts of meat (chuck steak or chicken pieces) if you have a bit more time to cook them slowly. I once made a really nice Fijian curry from a Dave Dewitt book that used boiled eggs ! It worked a treat !

Ooops, yet another longwinded post... :)

Cheers, Celia

I like your approach, Celia. I'm concentrating on Italian food this year, including a week long course at the Culinary Institute of American this summer.

It's a great way to learn and keeps the excitement alive.

Bob, the other thing that's nice about focusing on one cuisine at a time is that it lets you stock up on ingredients economically - it's expensive to buy herbs and spices for just one dish, but if you're going to use them over the next few months, it makes for a wise investment (minor as it is !).

My/our problem is the recipes we want to play around with call for expensive ingredients or exotic seasonings. Finacially, we just plain cannot afford some of the stuff we want to try out.

Oh, I'm with you now, Tim. We're not in a dissimilar position, with two young children, school fees etc. When we first moved into this house (our first home as newlyweds) - it was even worse - we were young, and wanted to spend all our money on old Persian rugs rather than food. We ate baked beans on toast for a while, until our neighbour, a most gorgeous elderly Italian nonna, took pity on us and taught us how to survive on minestrone, and pasta with chilli and anchovies.

My suggestion then is this - try and target peasant food from different cultures. There should be lots of cookbooks in the library. If you look at the cultures with strong village traditions - Italian, Greek, Turkish, some of the Asian cuisines etc. - you will find a gamut of recipes designed to be both interesting and economical. I think the problem with a lot of new vogue cooking is that it's designed to be super simple and quick to prepare, which necessarily means using more expensive and tender cuts of meat, and younger vegetables (think baby carrots, cherry tomatoes - all things that can be eaten without cooking). Many new dishes compensate for time by asking for exotic or quick cooking ingredients. But in the past, when ingredients were limited by the seasons and people lived a more frugal existence, they developed great skill in using cheaper ingredients, and bringing out flavours with clever combinations and slow cooking times.

I know I haven't really offered you any specific recipes, so here are some of the meals I prepare - please let me know if any are of interest, and I'll drag out a recipe.

Greek Pasticcio - basically a greek baked pasta made with lamb mince and a bechamel sauce enriched with egg yolks. Key ingredient is cinnamon and greek rigani. You can then use the whites to make meringues for dessert.

Indian mince and peas - a nice recipe that makes a spicy mince dish which is served on rice. Economical if you have a variety of Indian spices in the cupboard (they're not really expensive, and open up a whole world of Indian cooking and flavours).

Moussaka - probably naughty to call it that - but it's basically just mince cooked with a little onion, garlic, tomato paste and beef stock, and layered over boiled and sliced potatoes, grilled eggplant slices and topped with a white sauce. Really nice with a bit of bread as accompaniment.

Fried rice - the traditional Chinese staple. Such a great dish, as you can almost always make it with what you have in the fridge (ok, my fridge) - leftover cooked rice, ham or bacon, eggs, veges, soy or teriyaki sauce. But the nice thing about fried rice is that it can be anything you want it to be - obviously you can fill it with prawns or interesting veges, but I recently saw a menu advertising green curry fried rice, which I can't wait to try.

Finally, curries - these can be made quite simply - there are some pretty good curry pastes on the market at the moment, particularly from Thailand. They're as cheap as chips, and easy to cook. If you're in a hurry, you can use more expensive fillet cuts of meat, but they work equally as well with just vegetables, or with cheaper cuts of meat (chuck steak or chicken pieces) if you have a bit more time to cook them slowly. I once made a really nice Fijian curry from a Dave Dewitt book that used boiled eggs ! It worked a treat !

Ooops, yet another longwinded post...

Cheers, Celia

Longwinded...not at all.

I read every word and I am inspired by your creativeness.


No kidding.