Pseudo restaurant menu

Allow your home dinners to be more interesting.  Add a web based restaurant menu form you won local server..

Fake mayo.

Ingredients:

These are the ingredients you need:
1/2 cup of soy milk (100 ml)
1 cup of sunflower oil (250 ml)
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon of mustard
A pinch of salt & some pepper to taste

Please make sure you buy unsweetened soy milk. I like my soy milk made solely from water & soy beans, without any additives. You can replace the sunflower oil by any vegetable oil, but I believe the sunflower oil gives the best results. Some people like to use extra virgin olive oil.

Tools you need:

Grab your hand-held blender! Never tried it with an upright blender, but it should work just fine as well.

Method:

1. Blend everything except the sunflower oil.
2. Pour the soy milk + mustard + apple cider vinegar + salt + pepper in a jug.
3. Blend for 3 seconds, just to get everything mixed.
4. Then add sunflower oil while mixing as I like to pour the sunflower oil slooowly into the mixture while blending...  But that is because I like some kitchen drama. If you add the oil all in once, it still works.
5. Just blend and watch the magic happen!

It takes about 30 seconds to get your mayonnaise.
All done! Stored in a jar, it keeps up to 2 weeks in your fridge.

Tip: add some grated garlic, spring onion, rosemary or curry to your mayonnaise.  Perfect, try your snacks with this mayonnaise. You won't be disappointed! Enjoy!

Italian tostada.

We like to take traditional foods and shake it up a bit the the foods we grew up with. The Italian tostada, is like a polenta chip covered with lentils. mozzarella. cheese, and fruit. It is a snack you will certainly have over and over again. It is a bright change to the traditional tostada. Enjoy.

Step 1: Ingredients:

Tostada base
1 cup tortilla masa flour
1 cup warm water
1 pinch salt
1 pinch baking power

or

Corn Tortillas
Tortillas de Maiz

Serves: makes 12 tortillas

Ingredients

2 cups corn tortilla flour

Pinch kosher or coarse sea salt

1 3/4 cups water (or enough for a Play Doh consistency, may vary with climate)

Toppings
1/4 cup drain cooked lentils
14 cup cheese
1/3 cup salad
1 tablespoon or so fruit.
salt
pepper
etc.

Step 2: Corn tortilla base.

 

 

Add 1 cup warm water, 1 pinch baking soda, and one pinch salt for tortilla masa.
Mix with spoon till incorporateed.
Let siit in refrigerator for a while to rehydrate.
Take some of the mixture and make about a golf ball size golfball.
Squish flat with a frying pan or a tortilla press.

Gently lower ithe pressed tortilla into a screaming hot (oil-less) pan without your hands or finger touching it.
Let it cook for a minute on eash side.
Remove to a warm place till all the the dough is used in making tortllas.

Step 3: Lentils.

Boil lentils til tender. (a little baking soda can reduce cooking time).
Let cool in the fridge before putting in a plastic container.
Remove some lenils with a spider or holed spoon to drain the liquid thoroughly.
Lash with a potato masher or the like.
Put on top of a cooled corn tortilla.

Step 4: Cheese

You can wither use store bought cheese or make your own and freeze for later. (http://www.instructables.com/id/Yet-another-cheese-making-episode/).

Take the stire bought mozzarella cheese and top the lentils.
Optional: maybe a few seconds in the microwave.

Step 5: Salad, fruit and etc.

Add the salad on top,
Spoon some fruit on top of that.
You could add just a bit of pepper andd what ever else suits you.

Step 6: Done.

Hope you enjoy our Italian tostadas. They are great for game day. We had quite a few during the last playoff games. They are a nice change to the traditional pizza and you do not have to tip the delivery person. Yummy yummy yummy!

Spice rack.

Chemistry of cooking sort of. Saw these pictures and thought they were cute for a basis of a spice rack.

Superbowl eats.

A Fococcia (aka thick bread pizza) covered with American cheese slices.

Simple polenta.

Traditional method to make polenta was to get the water boiling and then slowly add in the polenta. That method now seems archaic to me. Just as slowly adding water or liquid to rice.

Ingredients:
1 - cup corn meal aka polenta
4 - cups water
plus whatever spices and other ingredients you choose to make it sweet or savory.

Method:

Take a large enough sauce pot  and pour in one cup of the polenta.
Add four cups of water.
Stir well till the polenta is absorbed.
Turn the heat on to high. (Watch carefully)
Stir as needed till you get the little volcanoes.
Turn down the heat.
Keep stirring as needed till the polenta thickens up.
Cover and turn off the heat.
Eat when ready.

Note: adding honey can make it sweet and safer than adding sugar.

Simple rice.

Ingredients

1 - cup white rice
2 - cups water
1/2 - teaspoon salt
1 - tablespoon butter or oil (optional)
1 to 2 - tablespoons Parmesan cheese
Tiny bit of pepper helps bring out the flavor in cheese and butter.
A pinch of baking soda can also speed cooking.
Optional:
Basil
Oregano
Garlic powder
 
Equipment

Small (2-quart or so) saucepan with a lid
Stirring spoon.
Measuring cup.


Method

Pre-cooking: It's good practice to rinse your rice in a tight meshed strainer before cooking. This isn't strictly necessary, but it will rinse off any dusty starch on the surface of the rice along with any leftover chaff or stray particles. (Some rices have more starchy coating than others.)

I. Measure the rice and water:
     For most rice, use a 1:2 ratio of one cup of rice to two cups of water. Measure a half cup of uncooked rice per person and scale this ratio up or down depending on how much you're making. Some rice varieties will need a little less or a little more water as it cooks, so check the package for specific instructions.

II. Boil the water:
     Bring the water to boil in a small sauce pan. Rice expands as it cooks, so use a saucepan large enough to accommodate. A 2-quart saucepan for one to two cups of uncooked rice is a good size.

III. Add the rice:
    When the water has come to a boil, stir in the rice, pepper, salt, plus butter and or cheese (if using), and bring it back to a gentle simmer (add the baking soda at this point).

IV. Cover and cook:
     Cover the pot and turn the heat down to low. If you use a good heavy pot or dutch oven, you can just turn off the heat.  Don't take off the lid while the rice is cooking — this lets the steam out and affects the cooking time. Approximate cooking time of white rice: 18 to 25 minutes

Start checking the rice around 18 minutes. When done, the rice will be firm but tender, and no longer crunchy. It is fine if it's slightly sticky but shouldn't be gummy. If there is still water left in the pan when the rice is done, tilt the pan to drain it off.

V.. Turn off the heat and remove the lid.
     When the rice is done, turn off the heat and take off the lid. Fluff the rice with a spoon or a fork, and let it sit for a few moments to "dry out" and lose that wet, just-steamed texture.

Rice keeps well in the fridge for several days (if it lasts that long), so you can make extra ahead to serve later.