The cooking thread

[shauni]

We could do one that was for cake decoration. The best one wins. The photo would have to have a set item in it, like a pokeball or something. A theme.

[Metalheadz]

Cake decoration? I can be the judge of that category!

[shauni]

It would have to be a forum vote; we can’t have a single judge, as that would purely be one person’s opinion, even if the rest of the forums disagree.

[Stevenson]

It may surprise some of you, but I actually cook quite a bit. The first recipe I will post here will be for my most requested piece of culinary work; the Stevenson chocolate cake special!

1 (one) bunt pan
Flour and oil for stick-proofing said pan.
1 package chocolate cake mix
1 small package instant chocolate pudding (that's the 3.9 oz size)
4 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1.5 cups chocolate chips or chunks.(I plan to experiment with peanut butter chips at a later date, though.)

You preheat the oven to 350 degrees, throw everything but the chocolate chips in, mix, fold the chocolate chips in, mix some more, pour in to the bunt pan, and cook away.

It's delicious. Trust me.

[Josiah]

Here's my popular anman recipe (Chinese steamed buns filled with red bean paste, a popular Japanese snack). This version tastes pretty much exactly like the ones you can buy on the street in Japan. These amounts make 10 anman, with plenty of azuki paste left over for later.

Azuki (Red Bean) Paste
1 1/3 cups azuki beans
4 cups water
1 cup sugar (do no substitute)
1/2 teaspoon salt

Buns
1 1/3 cups flour (all white or half white half whole wheat)
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar (or other sweetener)
1 pinch salt
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/3 fluid ounces milk
3 1/3 fluid ounces water
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening

Directions

Making the Azuki Paste.
1. Put the azuki beans in a large pot and fill with water. Let them soak overnight.
2. Bring the beans to a boil.
3. Turn down the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
4. Remove the beans from the pot and drain them.
7. Put the beans back in the pot and add 4 cups of water.
8. Brings the beans to a boil.
9. Turn down the heat and simmer the beans for around an hour, until they're soft.
10. Drain the beans again.
11. Put the beans back in the pot and add the sugar and salt.
12. Simmer and stir the beans until they're thickened.
13. Remove from heat and cool.

Making the Buns.
1. Combine the flour, suar, salt, yeast, and baking powder and mix well.
2. Add the milk and water and mix well.
3. Add the shortening and knead the dough until it's smooth (add a little extra flout if it gets too sticky).
4. Let the dough rest for around 30 minutes, it will rise slightly.
5. Divide the dough into 10 balls and flatten them.
6. Take 1-2 spoonfulls of azuki paste, roll into a ball, and place in the center of one of the flattened dough balls.
7. Wrap the dough around the azuki and pinch it closed on top (twist if needed).
8. Repeat for the remaining dough balls.
9. Let the anman sit for 15 minutes.
10. Steam the anman for 15-20 minutes (a bamboo steamer works best). Add a little bit of white vinegar to the water to prevent discoloration.

The buns are great right out of the steamer and can also be saved in the fridge for several days and reheated or eaten cool. Extra azuki paste can refrigerated for about a week, frozen, or used as a spread.

Note: They're normally a pale white color. The ones in the photo are black because I put takesumi powder in them (a special bamboo charcoal used in Yakitate Japan! to make the black Japan bread).

[Kaida]

It all looks so yummy. ^_^...

I wish i had a bigger kitchen so i actually felt like cooking something...

As for the cooking competition, it would have to be cake decoration or just appearance and everyone would have to cook the same thing.

[shauni]

I've always wanted to try steamed buns. I'd really like to try the pork ones. Those look really nice. I've never seen them black before.

[Josiah]

There's lots of different things you can put inside them. Azuki paste is very common, as is a pork-veggie mix. I've also seen just veggies, beef, and chicken. As I said in my post, they're usually a rather pale white (though, depending on what type of flour you use, they can end up rather brownish too). The ones in that photo are black because I put in takesumi powder. Takesumi is a specially made bamboo charcoal that's used for many different things in Japan (one of the most popular uses is as an ingredient in various cosmetics). It actually isn't eaten all that much in Japan but in the anime Yakitate Japan!, it's baked into bread. The reason being that it's actually extremely good for you for a variety of different reasons. My dad's company Supreme Nutrition Products is, as far as I know, the only US distributor. I've gotten into the habit of putting it in nearly every bread type thing I cook (bread, muffins, waffles, etc). When used in a dough or batter, it turns the final result a dark black color but has no noticable impact on the taste or texture.

[shauni]

I bet that would be impossible to get here without importing it. I can't even buy real pocky anymore. I had to go miles just to get that to.

[*^_^*kako]

Yummy Ice Cream Rice Balls

Surprisingly this has noting to do with rice balls. I name this because of its shape.

Anyways you'll need:
Favorite ice cream
Pop corn
peanuts
M&Ms
And any other yummy treats you like to put on ice cream.

Frist crush up all the ingredients you whant on the ice cream and leave the ice cream in teh freezer for now. Your going to whant to crush this up in some kind of pan so that later you can roll the ice cream on it. After your done crushing up all this then get the ice cream up and roll it into a ball. (Make sure you have clean hands) Onece in a ball roll it through the ingredients and then place ball on a plate. After this you just need to wrap the plate in plastic and put it in the freezer. There soooo yummy.

[Josiah]

I bet that would be impossible to get here without importing it. I can't even buy real pocky anymore. I had to go miles just to get that to.

I highly doubt you could find takesumi in a normal store anywhere outside of Asia. Even there, it's usually not sold in powdered form. There's a few websites that will sell various takesumi products internationally, but not in powdered form (usually in cosmetics or in large chunks which you can use to purify water or as an air freshener of sorts). Supreme Nutrition Products would probably ship Takesumi Supreme internationally though. Actually, there may be some doctors in the UK who use my dad's treatment methods (he's rather famous in his field and has a newsletter that goes out to a couple thousand practitioners internationally) that stock Takesumi Supreme. Though I wouldn't know any off-hand.

[Doodleshark]

Here is the recipe for the greatest chocolate icing ever:

Ingredients
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 squares (1 ounce each) unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
1 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon milk

Directions
Mix butter and chocolate.
Stir in pwdered sugar.
Beat in vanilla and milk until smooth and of spreading consistency.
Frosts two 8- or 9-inch layers.

I usually double the recipe, that way you can spread it thicker over the cake.



The cake itself was made from one of those cake-mix packets.

[PoisonWing14]

Hey! Well, I've seen some pretty interesting recipes/things on here, and I am pretty interested in baking andthings of the sort so I might post some of my family's recipies on here.
....In fact....I will!

(This is a recipie for a Polish dessert called Krusciki*. I think they're awsome, but I very rarely get to make them.)

1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk
1/2 pint of Sour cream
3 tablespoons of sugar
1 stick of Butter (Melted)
1 tablespoon of Vanilla
4 cups of Flour
Powdered Sugar

Mix all ingredients together to form a smooth ball. Divide into 3 or 4 small balls. Roll out on floured board/table and cut like this:

Krusciki pattern.png

and each piece should look like this:

Krusciki shapes.png

Fold each piece into itself through the small slit. It should look like...a bowtie or something...

Fry them in hot oil (It should only take a few seconds if the oil is hot enough) untill golden. Put them on wax paper or something like it. (Something you don't mind getting oily n' stuff)
When cool, sprikle powdered sugar on them.

And, Enjoy!


*Pronounced Kur-sh-tic-ee*

[Josiah]

I totally forgot about this thread. But, since I just spent half the day cooking and all...

Yakitori!!!

Makes 8 skewers.

Sauce:
1 1/2 cups mirin (a rice wine, you can substitute sake but will need to add extra sugar if you do)
3/4 cup soy sauce
4 tablespoons sugar
1 garlic clove, pressed
1 tablespoon ginger (freshly grated or powdered)

Skewers:
1 lb boneless chicken thighs (beef or other meat can be used instead, anything you can cut into moderate sized chunks)
1-2 green onions, in inch-long pieces
8 bamboo skewers

Put all the sauce ingredients into a small pot or sauce pan on medium heat. If you want to paint the meat, cook it down till there's only about half left and it's rather thick. If you want to marinate the meat instead, cook it down to 80% or so.
Meanwhile, cut the meat into moderate sized cubes (an inch or two, something that you can easily fit several of on a skewer) and slice the green onions. Leave the skewers in a big bowl of water to soak for a while (helps keep them from burning later on).
If you want to marinate the meat, place it in a bowl and pour the sauce over it then let it sit for at least an hour.
Divide the meat and onion pieces into eight sets and put them on the skewer (alternate between meat and onions). Place the skewers on a hot grill and turn them occasionally until the meat is fully cooked. Make sure the skewers themselves don't catch on fire (if you soaked them long enough they probably won't). If you didn't marinate the meat, use a cooking brush and paint the meat with the sauce every time you turn it (at least several times).

[Kaida]

Revival!

Okay so Black and White isn't released for another 2 days yet here in Aus (we always get things last, at least it wasn't a month or two likw it normally is).
So Robert decided to get a couple friends over tomorrow and have a battle royal sortta time with teams made up from the 1st-4th gen. There's no point to it really, just because we can.
You're probably wondering what this has to do with cooking right, well because I feel like it I made a cake. Its and basic Butter cake and tastes pretty nice, it's best fresh out of the oven, but that might just be my opinion. Anyways here it is.

I present my cake;

041.2.jpg

And the Recipe;

Ingrediants;

185g Butter, soft
1cup Caster Sugar
1tsp Vanilla Essance
2 large eggs
2cups self-raising flour
1/3cup milk

Method;

Preheat oven at 180c and grease tin.
Cream butter, sugar and vanilla.
Add eggs one at a time (mixing in).
Add shifted flour alternativly with milk.
Bake for 50-60 mins, or untill skewer comes out clean.

I'm still messing around with the recipe alittle as this is the second time i've made it, I altered the amounts for some things and I used Vanilla Bean Paste instead of Vanilla Essance, and I have another idea for it too, untill next time then. ^_^

It took me almost 2 hour's to do the icing. I'm happy with it although theres a couple things i which i'd done better, the shadings not as obviouse for one thing and I missed a line where the tail is behind the body... but... it's not there... I'll have to fix that in the morning.