The great Gordon Ramsay wannabe thread

So Who cooks?

OK I know as IT pros we normally have the cooking skills of reach for the take-away menu and dial the number, but I know for a fact that some of us like cooking! And I thought we should get together sharing our recipes.

Last week I hit upon this wonder:

Chili, Garlic, Mushrooms!

You will need;
  • Mushrooms (enough to your personal taste).
  • 3 Large cloves of garlic (can adjust to taste).
  • 1 Scotch bonnet chilli per person, this is essential.
  • 1 Tablespoon of oil,
  • 50g of butter per person.
  • Some sea salt and a little black pepper.
  • Really good bread to toast and serve on (optional).

Method.
  1. Take a decent portion of mushrooms and slice thinly.
  2. Take a bunch of garlic cloves and sprinkle with salt and then chop or mince as fine as you can (if you use a blender or coffee grinder add a table spoon of water).
  3. Chop the Scotch bonnet as fine as you can, use one bonnet per person (the butter removes the pain and leaves the flavour).
  4. Add the oil and butter to a frying pan on a medium heat, and melt the butter.
  5. Once the butter is melted, add the garlic, chilli and mushrooms to the pan and raise the heat to as high as you can.
  6. Fry for a about 2 - 5 minutes; this is really subjective, when you consider the mushrooms cooked, it's done.

Serve in either a small bowl, or on really nice toasted bread with some salad, it makes a perfect starter or a beautiful make me up breakfast.
 
Thanks for sharing. It sounds easy enough and I love the ingredients, so I'll be sure to try it. I do have one question though: since the chillies are meant for flavour rather than heat, are there any other peppers you'd recommend in their place? Scotch bonnets are rather hard to come by in my neck of the woods.
 
Hi @fonz,

Yep you sure can, I would recommend though that you use the hottest chilies you can find as the butter knocks all the heat out of them.
 
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Does anyone know of a good alternative for olives? There's this dish I wish to try, but it has (black) olives in it. And I'm not particularly fond of olives.
 
You must not be European; olives are great, specially black ones. I can't really think of an apt substitute, but obviously something salty. What's the dish? Might help with suggestions.
 
nanotek said:
You must not be European
Click to expand...
I'm Dutch, that counts as European. :p The funny thing is that while I like most food items, there are a few very strange ones I don't like. For example, I must be the only person in the world who does not like chocolate :r
nanotek said:
What's the dish? Might help with suggestions.
Click to expand...
It's sort of a meatloaf thing (Italian style, not American). In a nutshell, it's mince, onion, breadcrumbs, herbs and spices, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella and olives wrapped in prosciutto. Sounds pretty good, except for the olives.
 
Maybe you could substitute lentils for those. Just an idea.
 
Crivens said:
Maybe you could substitute lentils for those. Just an idea.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion. The girl in the store recommended capers, so I went with those. They're salty, so it makes sense I suppose.

Anyway, I'll be making it tomorrow. If it turns out to be any good, I can post the recipe if anyone wants it.
 
fonz said:
nanotek said:
You must not be European
Click to expand...
I'm Dutch, that counts as European. :p The funny thing is that while I like most food items, there are a few very strange ones I don't like. For example, I must be the only person in the world who does not like chocolate :r
nanotek said:
What's the dish? Might help with suggestions.
Click to expand...
It's sort of a meatloaf thing (Italian style, not American). In a nutshell, it's mince, onion, breadcrumbs, herbs and spices, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella and olives wrapped in prosciutto. Sounds pretty good, except for the olives.
Click to expand...

That is strange -- especially being Dutch.

Capers actually were a very good suggestion. I didn't think of that. In fact, I couldn't really think of a suitable substitute. How was the meatloaf?
 
nanotek said:
How was the meatloaf?
Click to expand...
Richer than I anticipated (so I'll probably finish it tomorrow at lunch), but quite good actually. I'll post the recipe later tonight (or tomorrow).
 
STUFFED MEATLOAF, ITALIAN STYLE

As part of a meal I'd say it serves two to three adults with average appetite (or one modestly hungry adult male Scot).

Ingredients:
  • 500 g minced meat
  • 1 egg
  • 3 tbsp breadcrumbs
  • 1 large onion
  • ~ 1 tsp paprika
  • ~ 1 tsp nutmeg
  • (sea)salt and black pepper
  • 100 g black olives (without the stones)
  • 100 g sun-dried tomatoes (on oil)
  • 250 g mozzarella
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 100 g parma ham (prosciutto crudo), thin slices

Preparation:

  1. Finely chop the onion and keep apart.
  2. Finely chop the olives, tomatoes, mozzarella and garlic. Can be kept together.
  3. Preheat the oven at 180 °C.
  4. Put the mince into a bowl. Add the egg, onion, breadcrumbs, paprika and nutmeg. Season with pepper and salt and kneed into a solid dough.
  5. Cover a chopping board with a layer of cling film (the purpose of which will become obvious soon enough).
  6. Spread the mince mixture over the cling film, approximately 1 cm thick, more or less square.
  7. Thoroughly mix the other chopped ingredients and spread over the mince, but be sure to leave about 2 cm free around the edges.
  8. Carefully roll the whole thing into a cylindrical loaf. This is where the cling film comes in (remove after use). Press the ends together well.
  9. Wrap the prosciutto all around the loaf.
  10. Lightly smear an oven tray with olive oil and bake the loaf for 30 to 40 minutes.

Variations:

  • Add some finely chopped garden herbs, e.g. parsley or basil.
  • To make a complete meal, I'd suggest serving it with potato wedges (put some herbs on and chuck into the oven with the loaf) or ciabatta. And possibly some green veggies, e.g. broccoli or green beans.

meatloaf.jpg

The result shown in the picture is somewhat sloppy, but not bad for a first attempt ;)
 
fonz said:
nanotek said:
You must not be European
Click to expand...
I'm Dutch, that counts as European. :p The funny thing is that while I like most food items, there are a few very strange ones I don't like. For example, I must be the only person in the world who does not like chocolate :r
nanotek said:
What's the dish? Might help with suggestions.
Click to expand...
It's sort of a meatloaf thing (Italian style, not American). In a nutshell, it's mince, onion, breadcrumbs, herbs and spices, sun-dried tomatoes, mozzarella and olives wrapped in prosciutto. Sounds pretty good, except for the olives.
Click to expand...

Sooooo... just don't add the olives. :)
 
This started out as Spanish rice, not sure what it is now. Easy to cook, most time just spent in chopping things up, and frozen pre-chopped stuff works fine.

1 or 2 bell peppers, chopped
4-6 stalks of celery, chopped
2 onions, chopped (can be sauteed first, but it doesn't really add anything)
.25 cup white rice (yes, only a quarter cup)
1 14.5-oz can of diced tomatoes (purists can use fresh tomatoes, may need to add salt)
1 to 1.5 cups water (adjust depending on rice)
.5 package (.675 oz) of taco seasoning mix
one or two teaspoons of sugar (or the equivalent amount of stevia)
1 teaspoon dried basil (or more)

Throw it all in a pan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to minimum and cover. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 20-25 minutes or until rice is done.

Add a little grated parmesan cheese. Serve with the warning that this stuff somehow retains heat and will be approximately the temperature of lava for the first few minutes.
 
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