Matricians: Show Your Recipes

[Teelio]

I've grown fond of cooking the past few years and enjoy experimenting with ideas. Granted, I'm no real chef (worked in an Italian restaurant for some time, but that's as far as it goes), but cooking has been one way for me to express some form of creativity.

If you have any signature recipes or favorite dishes you like to make at home, please share them! Doesn't matter if you're vegan, pescatarian, or a hardcore carnivore....

Also, if you'd like to request me to make something specific one evening, I'll take on the challenge so long as it isn't something outrageous or ridiculously expensive.

Foods I can make:
- Italian
- Mexican (authentic or Americanized)
- Polish
- Japanese (to an extent)
- American

Foods I have yet to make but willing to try:
- English
- Mediterranean
- Asian etc.
- Any other genre I haven't named

On top of what's listed, I'm an avid from-scratch baker (breads, desserts etc.)...


To start, I fooled around the other night and made what I call the "Big Ass Burrito" (shown below). For those familiar with joints like "Moe's Southwest Grill", "Chipotle", "Qdoba", this was my take on their burritos, and only spent around $20 on all the ingredients.

The ingredients are as follows (from bottom layer to top)

- Corn tortillas
- Shredded chicken with chipotle seasoning
- Cilantro lime rice
- Seasoned black beans
- Shredded Monterey Jack cheese
- Avocado spread
- Mild (store-bought) salsa
- "Tapatio" hot sauce

Used a loaf glass pan and layered the tortillas on the outside, over and under to "simulate" a giant burrito. Quite delicious. Baked on 325 for 15 minutes. The chicken, beans and rice was cooked prior to layering.

I am quite curious to see what you all come up with.

[insert x amount of Mega Man emojis]

[TheRedPriest]

I'm quite good at fried chicken, burritos, spaghetti, pork chop sandwiches, and ham and fried potatoes.  I might post some recipes for them when I have more time.

[Johncarllos]

I have my Vegan sister over for dinner pretty often and one of my favorite dishes to make is

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

My favorite way to make this dish is with:

Sweet Potato
Potato
Pecans
Maple Syrup
Brussels Sprouts (obviously)
Light Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 425F

Clean all the veggies first.
Cut the stems off of the brussels sprouts and then HALVE them.
Cut the potato and sweet potato into roughly dice sized pieces, leave the skin in tact.
A good ratio is 1 part potato, 1 part sweet potato, 2 parts brussels sprouts.
Take all the veg and throw it into a big bowl. Douse it with a bit of olive oil, just enough to give everything a light sheen when tossed.

For spices: I generally just use rosemary and steak seasoning (Black Pepper, Salt, Garlic Powder)

Crunch up the rosemary in your hand first, just a few pinches worth. Add the spices onto the oil coated vegetables and toss it around until you get a light spackling.

Spread the whole mess out on a baking sheet, 1 layer deep, with a few little spaces in between. I've generally been okay as long as all the pieces are toughing the pan and NOT sitting on top of one another.

Total cook time is 20 minutes or until the edges of the Brussels start turning from lightly toasted brown to dark brown. Loose leaves will start to char in the pan, that's normal.

The pecans are optional, but I generally throw pecan halves in at 12-15 minutes. Just raw, right on top, a light spread of them.


Lastly, drizzle a little maple syrup on it when you serve it to give you a sweet contrast to the earthiness of the pecans, rosemary, potato, and sprouts.

It's healthy, it's easy to prep, it's quick, and it's one of my favorite sides with Steak.



BTW Teelio, I make something similar but I do it like a lasanga, layering it from bottom to top with burrito ingredients at each layer in a pie pan, using flour tortillas. I'll have to try the corn tortillas wrapping it next time.

[Teelio]

I do love a good brussel sprout. The only chance I would have at recreating that recipe would be at my mother or sister's house. My wife is picky with vegetables and has yet to develop mature taste buds. [insert sexual innuendo here]

Another recipe I've started to perfect was making queso, for all you cheese-lovers. It's quite simple, but not as trivial as just "melting cheese". The list of ingredients/seasonings I use are pictured below. I go for a spicy chili-esque kind of flavor in mine, but can easily be tailored to suit your own preferences.

1. Melt 2-3 tbsp. butter in pot
2. Mix in salt
3. Add the corn starch (flour can be substituted) and mix into a thick rue
4. Add 1 can of evaporated milk, stir to blend the rue
5. Stir in extra seasonings (onion & garlic powder, cumin, cayenne, paprika etc.)
6. Add a hearty handful of shredded cheese; stir until cheese melts

I'm also sure regular milk could be used instead of evaporated.

[Johncarllos]

I'm all about sharp american blend when it comes to cheese sauce. I never use corn starch though, always flour. I can see how it would be sweeter and thicker, though.

[Mikero]

I've been cooking steaks and chicken lately that break minds. I tend to just figure out recipes by smell, instead of looking them up. I haven't botched anything yet, so I guess I have the nose for spices. I'm working on getting my chicken recipe down to a static set so if I ever get actual measurable quantities of what to do I'll post it here!

[Teelio]

When it comes to steaks, it's either a blackened seasoning or Montreal for me. Something about that dill flavor never gets old. As for chicken, it's gotta be a spicy or Italian herb kind of deal.

I still can't create a solid seasoning batch for meats, though. Usually throw everything and the kitchen sink into a bowl with either an oil or vinegar base, and end up butchering it. [/pun]

I'm a sucker for tart flavor... Could drink yellow mustard straight from the bottle!

But I won't. Maybe.

[LCrazy11]

I don't know much since i'm 13 but I do know how to use ketchup instead of butter in a sandwich

[Johncarllos]

Fun tip: If you ever need to make something baked/fried with breading on it, don't do the egg-then-breading dip. (unless you're actually using a batter)

The easy method: Mayonnaise. Mayo is just whipped egg whites and oil, so slather a thin layer onto you meat of choice, then dip in bread crumbs, then bake.

Best chicken tenders I've ever made were with avocado oil mayo. The oil helps seal the moisture in, the egg makes everything stick together.

[Teelio]

Interesting. I moved on from eggs when I noticed they don't cling the breadcrumbs onto the meat of choice that well. I've since then used buttermilk... and it's an excellent product, especially for a good chicken-fried steak.

I would have never considered mayo as an option in a million years... But you have indeed fascinated me with that idea.

I'll have to try it for chicken next time and show the product here.

[Johncarllos]

I thought it was bizarre as hell too. Tried it once and got hooked.

I'll definitely keep buttermilk in mind the next time I do chicken fried steak, as mayo does it better than I have otherwise, but not as good as I've had it elsewhere.

Great idea for a topic, by the way. My girlfriend grew up in a house that over cooked all the veggies and didn't season the meat. The best meals she ever had were from restaurants. Since living with me she has been able to learn the basics and even go beyond.

It's great because it means I don't always have to do the cooking now. Still trying to teach her the grill, though.

[Fatso]

The most common breading method in restaurants I've worked at (AKA just two so take with a grain of salt) is flour, egg, crumbs. The flour and egg make a sort of batter which keeps the crumbs on remarkably well and tastes delicious and crispy, but of course that entails even more effort than just egg. Another benefit is you can season the flour instead of the meat and get a potentially more even coating of seasoning depending on how well the flour is mixed.

[Teelio]

My parents (mostly my dad) weren't aware that seasonings existed either. My mother's cooking came out really bland most of the time while my dad never seasoned or marinated steaks or burgers. Worse, there was no care in his grilling methods... Meaning all the red meats always came out well-done or black. Charred, dry.... But he truly enjoyed putting A1 Steak Sauce on everything.... I imagine to mask his ##### cooking.

My wife was no different. The first time she cooked for me was a kitchen tragedy.

Get this, she thought it would be a good idea to take Tyson frozen BBQ chicken wings and add a thick application of Cajun dry rub on them, then pop them into the oven....

On the plus side, my wife does excel with her round bottom roast!

Fortunately, her dad was the best cook in her family, and had a huge binder full of recipes passed down from his Italian grandmother. That's where I started to learn, then looked up recipes and techniques on my own.


Fatso, I do the seasoned flour only for pork chops on the cast iron. Unable to taste the seasonings on anything else.

Posted on: 27 April 2018, 22:42:07

Years ago, I turned my small grill into a make-shift smoker. Bought a 3.5 pound pork shoulder and smoked it with hickory for 6-8 hours... I think the rule of thumb is to smoke 2 hours for every pound?

Pre-coated with salt and pepper beforehand. I'm thinking of smoking more often now (aside from the reefer kind).

Have any of you tried smoking? All the cool kids are doing it...

[Johncarllos]

Always wanted to try it! I add smokey flavor by using wood chips alongside charcoal when I have the rare chance to cook over a coal grill.

The grill at my house is 800 degrees of PROPANE.

[Teelio]

Apparently you can smoke meats in the oven if you put a bed of wood chips in a bag or just on a pile on the bottom rack. I never tried it... Prefer to keep it as "real" as possible with smoking.

Aside from hickory, cherry wood is also an excellent product.