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Cooking in Isolation


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After the huge success of my  ‘ entertainment in isolation’  thread 🙄,  I thought I would dip my toe into the world of culinary creativity and start a thread about cooking. 

One of the few upsides of this lockdown is that I have made more of an effort to cook, nothing fancy or too time consuming , but not straight from a packet either.

I will share 2 recipes that are easy and hopefully others will follow. If you don't cook yourself but someone in your family does and they make something tasty,  then ask them to share it. 

I will say now,  I am NOT a cook, so dont expect any cordon bleu dishes from me , but they are tasty and simple. 

It would help if people could grade the difficulty of their dishes as follows :

  1. Pimpsy - opening a few tins.
  2. Basic - some chopping but involving no more than 2 pans.
  3. Experienced - involving 2 or more pans and/or a blender.
  4. Are you havin a laugh - any dish involving foie gras. 

I know folk could just google dishes but you don’t know if they really are good or not, whereas I have made these and they are good . 

Disclaimer : Anything I post I have nicked from someone else and of course cooking is very subjective. . 

 


 

 

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Chilli prawn pasta

 Serves 3-4 

Difficulty rating ; Basic

 

500g packet of spaghetti

100ml extra virgin oil

1 large bunch of parsley , stalks removed and leaves finely chopped

5 cloves garlic, peeled and finely sliced

2 tsp chilli flakes

1 fresh red chill, finely sliced and seeds left in

2 packets prawns, cooked or uncooked

 

Prepare all the above ingredients before starting. Then, on the chopping board, mix the parsley , garlic and fresh chill together and continue to chop it a little more ( just to mix the flavours through)

1. Put  the spaghetti in a pan of boiling water with salt in it and let it boil.

2. While the spaghetti is boiling,  pour the extra virgin oil into  a large, high sided frying  pan and add the chopped parsley, garlic, chilli flakes and fresh chilli. Turn the heat to medium high and stir as the ingredients begin to sizzle. Let the ingredients fry for about 1 minute then turn off. 

3. As soon as the spaghetti has cooked to al dente turn the heat back on under the garlic and chilli pan and add the  cooked prawns ( if you bought raw prawns cook them first then add to the pan)  

4. Using a pair of  tongs, transfer the spaghetti to the chilli pan. When transferring , let some of the water from the spaghetti pan drip into the chilli pan, ie don’t drain the pasta. Toss everything together and serve.

You could add things like scallops to this. If you do use scallops cook them separately,  then add at the very end as you don’t want to overcook them.

 

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Cajun cheesy chicken conchiglie

 Serves 4

Difficulty rating : Basic

 

 500 g Conchiglie pasta ( or any shell pasta) 

4 chicken breast - diced

Dozen baby plum tomatoes  - sliced in two

180g Packet Philadelphia cream cheese ( original ) 

2 spring onions - chopped

75 ml Chicken stock 

Clove garlic – chopped 

2 tablespoons Cajun seasoning

1 tablespoon  dried oregano

Bag spinach 

Olive oil

Before starting have the above ingredients prepared ( chopped etc) .

  1. Put the diced chicken in a bowl with the Cajun seasoning and oregano. Add some olive olive  and mix through.  Set aside.
  2. Put pasta in to boil in salted water.

3. In a high sided pan with a lid, fry the chicken until browning ( Big Ramy take note )  then add spring onion , garlic and tomatoes and fry for 5 mins.

  1. Add 75 ml of chicken stock and turn to a simmer.
  2. Add the full bag of spinach, cover pan with the lid and let it wilt in steam for 3 minutes.  
  3. Add the full pot of cream cheese, salt and pepper and simmer for 3-4 mins.
  4. Drain the pasta fully and add to the sauce and mix through.  Serve. You  may not need to use all the pasta, you will be able to judge as you mix it through.

 

If you find the sauce is too runny after mixing with the pasta,  just mix a couple of teaspoons of cornflour in a cup with a little  water then mix through the sauce to thicken it. Dont add the cornflour to the sauce directly or it will go lumpy, you need to mix it with a little water.

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1 minute ago, Huddersfield said:

Beans on toast. 

Difficulty rating:10. That tin opener is bloody useless & I keep forgetting to order a new one with the shopping. 
 

😂

Thank you Huddersfield for making me the most experienced chef on the thread ! 

I have chopped so much I ordered new chopping boards yesterday. I have had an email and they arrive between 19-21hrs tonight. The highlight of my day 😕

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1 minute ago, TDYER63 said:

😂

Thank you Huddersfield for making me the most experienced chef on the thread ! 

I have chopped so much I ordered new chopping boards yesterday. I have had an email and they arrive between 19-21hrs tonight. The highlight of my day 😕

Happy to help 😂👍

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I am interested in cooking and watch programmes like Sunday brunch, celebrity master chef, Fred, Gino and Gordon etc. The only issue I have is that I can't stand garlic and every recipe on the telly seems to have garlic in it. I wish some recipes were garlic free. Also, I'm not a fan of seafood (except fish in batter from the chippy). My Mrs say's I'm a fussy basta.d. Any recipes garlic or seafood free would be great to try and make.

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I’ve been making a beef madras. Nothing special, just shop bought spices and curry powder. Slow cooking since lunchtime though so high hopes 👍. Of course I puréed the onions, garlic, ginger and coriander too. Secret ingredient in with them to blitz up is a teaspoon of lime pickle. Oh and 2 chopped chillies in the pot. 

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21 minutes ago, Lairdyfaeinverclyde said:

I am interested in cooking and watch programmes like Sunday brunch, celebrity master chef, Fred, Gino and Gordon etc. The only issue I have is that I can't stand garlic and every recipe on the telly seems to have garlic in it. I wish some recipes were garlic free. Also, I'm not a fan of seafood (except fish in batter from the chippy). My Mrs say's I'm a fussy basta.d. Any recipes garlic or seafood free would be great to try and make.

😂 You sound like Mr Tidy , but I make him eat them anyway. Its either that or he starves. Mrs Lairdy is a special woman, hold onto her ! 😁

Hopefully someone comes along soon with a garlic and fish free recipe. 
 

 

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22 minutes ago, Big Ramy 1314 said:

Yassssssssssss!!! I am making mince the night. Out walking Wallace🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 at the moment.ill take a few pics of the mince. Just a warning they are coming..🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Canny wait Ramy , I am salivating at the prospect 😁

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3 minutes ago, killiefaetheferry said:

I’ve been making a beef madras. Nothing special, just shop bought spices and curry powder. Slow cooking since lunchtime though so high hopes 👍. Of course I puréed the onions, garlic, ginger and coriander too. Secret ingredient in with them to blitz up is a teaspoon of lime pickle. Oh and 2 chopped chillies in the pot. 

Wtf I need more than this. STEP BY STEP .Look at the effort I put in ! 
 I hope you explain things in more detail to the weans . 🙄

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48 minutes ago, Lairdyfaeinverclyde said:

Advised to use this web site. Need to look for garlic/seafood free.

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/easy

Lairdy stop directing people to the BBC , I am trying to build a cooking thread here 🙄

Most of those dishes are only getting between 50-100 people rating them, which is pretty shit out of a population of 50 odd million.
I have had 2O posts on my thread already. , although admittedly about 18 of them are me 😁

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4 minutes ago, TDYER63 said:

Lairdy stop directing people to the BBC , I am trying to build a cooking thread here 🙄

Most of those dishes are only getting between 50-100 people rating them, which is pretty shit out of a population of 50 odd million.
I have had 2O posts on my thread already. , although admittedly about 18 of them are me 😁

I do apologise, good thread apart from garlic. I wonder if your recipes will work without the G word?

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1 hour ago, Big Ramy 1314 said:

Yassssssssssss!!! I am making mince the night. Out walking Wallace🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 at the moment.ill take a few pics of the mince. Just a warning they are coming..🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Mince n tatties for me tonight. Simple but tasty.

Added some chopped onions and garlic (sorry Lairdy I love garlic) and a bit of tabasco sauce for a subtle kick.

First time ever I also added a few peas which was a nice wee extra.

Butter and milk for the tatties.

Mmmmmmmm.....

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3 hours ago, Huddersfield said:

Beans on toast. 

Difficulty rating:10. That tin opener is bloody useless & I keep forgetting to order a new one with the shopping. 
 

Ring pull tins not hit Huddersfield yet?

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4 minutes ago, fringo said:

Mince n tatties for me tonight. Simple but tasty.

Added some chopped onions and garlic (sorry Lairdy I love garlic) and a bit of tabasco sauce for a subtle kick.

First time ever I also added a few peas which was a nice wee extra.

Butter and milk for the tatties.

Mmmmmmmm.....

Add a half bottle of HP sauce (Brown) perfect. Garlic in mince and tatties you have issues.

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