Recipe Contest April 2020

[Wymondham]

Good Morning Osiris!!! This week we will be having a recipe contest. You get 2 submissions each because I'm feeling nice :p. Submissions close on Thursday 30th April with voting to follow after that. Best of luck everyone!!

[Masked Owl]

Cajun Crawfish Boil

Ingredients: 5-7 pounds (or more) of live crawfish per person

6 gallons of water

1/2 cup of kosher salt

3 yellow onions halved.

8 jalapeno peppers sliced about 1/2 inch thick with the seeds

6 lemons halved and squeezed into the water

2 new red potatoes per person.

1 1/2 ears of corn halved per person.

+ -1.5 lbs of powdered crawfish boil spice.

instrictions:
Add water to the pot and toss in the salt, spice mix, onions, peppers and lemons. Give everything a good stir and bring to a boil. Add the potatoes, stir and let them simmer for 20 minutes. Next, add the corn and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Finally, add the crawfish, give everything a good stir and turn the heat off. Cover the pot with a lid and let everything sit for an additional 15 minutes while the crawfish soak up the seasoning. After the 15 minutes is up drain the pot and serve.

[Wymondham]

Cacio e pepe (serves 4)
(Adapted from BBC good food based on my own experiences)
Ingredients:
360g linguine
Splash of olive oil
100g butter
2 or 3 tsp black pepper corns (crushed in a pestle and mortar) - if you dont have peppercorns, 3 tsp of black pepper will do
80g Parmesan (grated)
80g pecorino (grated) plus more to serve
Instructions:
(1) Boil a pan of water with a pinch of salt, add and cook the pasta
(2) Drain the pasta, reserving the water
(3) Heat the splash of olive oil and about 3/4s of the butter in a large high sided frying pan (needs to be big enough to fit all the pasta)
(4) Stir in the pepper with a wooden spoon and cook for 1 and a half minutes
(5) Add 2 ladlefulls of pasta water and whisk thoroughly.
(6) Add in the rest of the butter, half of the cheese and the pasta. Shaking as you go to mix everything together and release starch from the pasta.
(7) Add the rest of the cheese and shake until it melts and you have a smooth sauce. You can add more pasta water if you need to loosen the sauce.
(8) Season, with salt only there's enough pepper in the sauce as is, and serve straight away with extra pecorino.

[Anabelle]

Ratatouille


ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 yellow onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
4–5 medium tomatoes, sliced
4 small to medium zucchini, sliced
2 medium eggplant, stemmed, sliced
medium yellow pepper, sliced
medium green pepper, sliced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon dried dill
2 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chopped (or 1 teaspoon dried)

instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Brush olive oil onto a baking pan, set aside.

Add the onion, garlic, tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, and peppers to a bowl. Sprinkle seasoning and salt and freshly ground pepper over the vegetables and drizzle with the olive oil.

Layer the vegetables into the pan; cover tightly with foil and bake for an hour, or until the veggies are bubbling and the eggplant is soft.

Remove from the oven; sprinkle with fresh herbs and serve immediately. It is excellent as a side dish tossed with pasta or served on toasted slices of french bread. Add some ground meat for additional protein if you’d like.

[Malphe]

These all sound delicious! I'll just be entering two super variable recipes from the top of my head, nothing formal with super exact measurements or whatever.

CHICKEN TIKKA MASALA

Ngl i've made this so much that it borders on a massive lack of imagination but meh, if god didn't want me cooking it a lot they shouldn't have made it so nice. Two parts to this (and I also serve it with naan, can just get that from store), the marinade for the chicken and the actual main curry sauce thing. Note that this is totally off the top of my head, spices I cite here can be excluded or others included and it'll be just fine.

MARINADE: very variable, ngl I barely even have any idea what I usually put in this. Rough guide below.

Something like 600g boneless skinless chicken? A little over a pound is what I use, dice it every two inches into fairly large chunks.
4 tbsp natural yoghurt ish? High fat is better, no fat yoghurt tastes like depression
Some acid, I use lemon or lime juice, about 2-3 tsp would probably work
You can also just use a dash of oil (olive, vegetable, etc) if you like. I don't think it's necessary tho, I just do it out of habit, it does emulsify very easily
Spice wise, your call. I would usually use 2tsp fine salt, 2tsp black pepper, 1tsp paprika, 1tsp cumin, 2tsp coriander and 2tsp garam masala? World is your oyster tho, you can definitely just put in a bunch of masala and call it a day. Remember to taste it before you put the chicken in, whatever the marinade tastes like will be what the final product tastes like. Just toss the diced chicken in the marinade mixture.

OTHER INGREDIENTS FOR TIKKA MASALA SAUCE:

The marinated chicken
400g can of diced tomatoes
3-ish tablespoons of yoghurt
2 large onions, diced finely
Spice Mix (below)
I also like a squeeze of lemon/lime in the sauce

SPICE MIX FOR SAUCE: Similarly variable to the spice mix for the marinade, mainly make sure to include the coriander and masala. And the salt and peppers obvs, if you forgot that i'd worry for your mental health tbh

2tsp garam masala
4tsp ground coriander
2tsp ground cumin
2tsp paprika
1tsp black pepper
2tsp salt
1 and a half tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp chili powder/flakes (to taste)

METHOD:

After the chicken has been marinating for a few hours you should first cook it. This can be done a few ways, I usually fry it for like 10-mins until cooked around the outside but if you want it to be melt in the mouth tender you can also cook it on a rack in the oven, or even under the broiler/on a grill. I just find frying it gives it a bit more of a bite, which I like. It doesn't have to be fully cooked since you'll be simmering it in the sauce later anyways, just around the outside. Note that the marinade *will* leech into the oil somewhat so try to not move the chicken around too much. Put to one side when done, in a bowl preferably.

Once done with that, yeet in the onion and start frying at medium/medium high heat until it's all soft (remember that the onion should be very fine, think cutting it half a cm at a time; also, stir it a lot or risk burning it, it's very easy). When it's cooked throw in the full spice mix and let that fry for about a minute, stirring it into the onion, until fragrant.

Then throw in the chopped tomatoes and then the yoghurt until it has the right colour (it should be kinda yellow-ish from the turmeric but not too bright, just google tikka masala and go off that). With all that in it's ready to start simmering, just put in the chicken and stir in thoroughly and let simmer at a low heat for something like 10-15 minutes. Serve over pilau rice (a few cups of rice, some water, 1tsp turmeric, 7 whole cloves, 1tsp salt, 1tsp pepper, 3 cardamom pods, keep lid on while boiling and keep lid on for several minutes after cooking. fluff with fork. not real pilau rice but better than just regular bland rice) and with some nice naan, I like garlic and coriander.

FRYING FLOUR

Okay this one is even less formal tbf. tl;dr if you're pan frying something you can just coat this on both sides, it crisps up very nicely and covers all the seasoning you'll probably need too. I've only tried it with pork chops and salmon, worked both times (though I felt it needed more seasoning with the salmon). Think of it as the poor mans breading. Feel free to make edits wherever you like, this is just as I remember it but it should be nice

half a cup white flour
1 tsp paprika (can be hot or sweet or whatever, i used smoked)
1 tsp fine salt (maybe more salt, 2 tsp?)
1 tsp black pepper
1 and a half tsp onion powder
1 and a half tsp garlic powder
Could also add some hot powder or whatever to taste? I haven't tried that out but don't imagine it would be bad.

Coat both sides of whatever you're pan frying, fry on both sides MOVING IT AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE (very important if you want it to crisp properly) until golden brown. Could also exclude the flour and and use as an all purpose seasoning mix, has also worked well for me.

Also, protip if you're doing this with fish, lemon juice is your friend and you should be generous with it. When it's done and all crisped up just squirt some over, it'll be incomplete without it.

[Skies]

Kool Aid Pickles

Ingredients:
1 Jar
1 Kool Aid
1 Pickles
1 Fork

Instructions:
Pour Kool Aid into Jar
Place Pickles into Jar
Close Jar
Wait 2 Weeks
Take Fork, Remove Single Pickle
Eat Pickle



Purple Mush

Ingredients:
1 Microwave
1 Bowl
1 Powdered Mashed Potatoes
1 Ranch Veggie Straws
1 Walnuts
1 Purple Dye
1 Fork (Spork may be substituted)

Instructions:
Put Powdered Mashed Potatoes in Bowl (add water to taste)
Microwave Bowl to taste
Crush Ranch Veggie Straws and Walnuts (crush using preferred method)
Put Crushed Ingredients in Bowl
Mix with Fork
Put in Purple Dye (to taste)
Mix With Fork
Eat With Fork


Yum :)

[RaIsEpic09]

Cinnamon French Toast uwu

Ingredients:
1 egg
2 slices of bread
Cinnamon
Syrup (preferably maple, but you can do whatever you want <3)
Vanilla
Non-stick spray For every slice you should increase
your ingredients for whatever you feel is
right, (you can always make more coating if need be)


Tools:
Bowl/pan thing (preferably something circular with low walls, something large enough to fit a piece of bread into flat)
Something to cook in (you'll probably want a frying pan)
Spatula
Whisk
Plate

Directions:
1. In your pan thingie combine your egg(s), depending on how many slices you'll be making, a splash or 2 of milk, however much cinnamon you want, (but try not to overdo it), 2 caps of vanilla, not cups, caps, and a splash of syrup

2. Use your whisk to mix up everything and put your bread in. Make sure to fully coat it

3. Once all your slices of bread are coated spray your cooking pan and put your slices of bread in. You don't have to cook them all at once. Also if you have any extra coating you can drizzle it on your slices when you have them cooking

4. You'll want to put your stove on a low to medium setting as long as keeping a good watch on how they're cooking, making sure they don't burn and such

5. When you finish cooking however many slices you chose to make just place it up however you want, I personally use cinnamon, and lots of syrup and butter, but it's your choice. I hope you enjoy, have a nice day!


-Chair