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The Cooking Thread

quietrob

Extraordinary
Sweetheart is exhausted. She worked a long day that started badly so I'm cooking for her. Things a bit tight here so I'm going cheap.

I'm making chicken soup from scratch. Except for the chicken.

Chicken Bullion for the broth.
2 Carrots, chopped well.
1 Half onion, diced.
2 potatoes, skinned and chopped.

Any ideas for this stone soup would be appreciated. :D
 

quietrob

Extraordinary
Thanks @Janet! Normally I only cook on holidays as we carry on with some typical male/female stereotype roles. But I just get a big kick out of watching her (or anyone else) enjoy food that I prepare. The fact that while I cook, the kitchen is a forbidden area that is ruled by an iron fist means nothing!

I also forgot to list one ingredient. The leftovers of a roasted chicken that I prepared, helped eat and then reduced to a bone carcass to save all of that valuable chicken meat!
 

quietrob

Extraordinary
My god no! It's too salty! What do I do? In all of my years of cooking I've NEVER made anything too salty! What do I do?:eek:

@Faery_Light That is a GREAT idea!! I'm adding garlic right now! Normally I save it for my Manwich sauce but this is better. I want this to be a subtle cavalcade of flavors!

@Janet! LOL! That's what my mom used too!
 

quietrob

Extraordinary
Although I threatened her with punishments too gruesome to mention, she rolled her eyes, fufu'd me away and invaded MY kitchen and tested the soup. She added water. I think it's still a bit too salty. Isn't there something like Bay Leaves that can take out that too salty taste without destroying the rest of the broth.
 

Janet

Dances with Bees
Contributing Artist
Add a slice of potato, it's supposed to take away some of the salt.
 

quietrob

Extraordinary
I added two potatoes beforehand. I also added some egg noodles and more water. The instructions said, 1 teaspoon for every cup of water. That is clearly too much...

Failure. She heated some miso soup and is eating leftovers.

I'm saving the soup and will add water to taste when its time for late night snacking.

But for right now. Fail.

@Janet @Faery_Light My Thanks for not letting this thread die an undeserved death with no replies.
 

Faery_Light

Dances with Bees
Contributing Artist
I usually add just a bit of salt for cooking and add as needed at the table.
And 1 tsp of salt per cup of water is extremely more than needed.
I don't think we even use a full tsp full per 6 quart pot of foods.
 

Faery_Light

Dances with Bees
Contributing Artist
OOh yeah, and adding extra salt...whew!
I can't eat salty foods, used to love pretzels but the salt causes blisters in my mouth.
And we all have either high bp or prone to congestive heart failure so we have to reduce it anyway.
My dad was a great cook and he always went easy on the salt in food but he would eat salt out of his hand.

Most times you can omit extra salt in cooking if using bullion cubes and salt to taste at the table.
 

quietrob

Extraordinary
Full disclosure. This was my first time ever using bullion. I don't use salt until AFTER the dish is prepared. I also like fake salt. Unlike fake sugar, it tastes like the real thing but is much better for your body.

@glennf Of course I was lectured about the amount of bullion I used AFTER she invaded the kitchen and shook her head in disgust over my wasteful preparations. Now I know all there is to know about bullion and will tread carefully if I ever use it again. I've already been told to use Chicken Broth the next time. I guess all of the success gets me another chance to make chicken soup right. I've baked cakes, lasanga, fall off the bones ribs and every type of omelet known to man (except chocolate chip). I've even made pizza and all endeavors were a win! There is something wonderful about watching her or way back in the day, my son roll his eyes and say, "I didn't know you could cook, dad!" Sigh! Big Sigh!! I'm not used to this Fail.

I'm keeping the chopped vegetables, chicken and noodles and tossing the super salty broth so I can make another try. In the meantime, I've heard a request for sushi from Sweetheart. I've never made sushi before.

How hard can it be?
 

quietrob

Extraordinary
OOh yeah, and adding extra salt...whew!
I can't eat salty foods, used to love pretzels but the salt causes blisters in my mouth.
And we all have either high bp or prone to congestive heart failure so we have to reduce it anyway.
My dad was a great cook and he always went easy on the salt in food but he would eat salt out of his hand.

Most times you can omit extra salt in cooking if using bullion cubes and salt to taste at the table.

Dads are often secret great cooks. My mon went on strike and Dad stepped right in. We had the colonel cook for us and then Dad filled in the rest of the week until Mom ended her strike (With a blueberry pie!). None of us kids knew that Pop (As I call him) could even cook something besides corn flakes.

Blisters in the mouth from salt. Ouch! I can't even imagine. Still, I do understand. I lost weight to lower my BP. To be honest, I liked the extra weight and power when I weighed more but it's better to be healthy than look amazing as I approach 60.
 

HaiGan

Energetic
Contributing Artist
Congratulations on making the soup cooking effort, even if it didn't work out quite right. Practice makes perfect (taste at each stage, and remember that all flavours will become more concentrated during cooking as water evaporates off).

The partner is on a low-sodium diet, so normally we don't add any salt to cooking at all but add flavour with seasonings like mustard, black pepper, paprika and herbs. We make bones are carcasses into well-flavoured stock. If it needs some extra saltiness, soy sauce works.
 

quietrob

Extraordinary
Thanks! Chalk this one up to a wonderful failure. It just broke my heart a bit to see Sweetheart and those giant eyes waiting expectedly for another Robin success and then not to deliver. It does happen. We've both had wonderful failures before and I know I have learned from this one. Next time, just say no to the bullion, and get a can of broth. I just like making stuff from scratch. Heck, I would grow my own wheat just to make bread and noodles. But sometimes, it's best to just let Campbell do the broth or the mushroom soup.

We generally have an asian diet and soy sauce is a must. I can't tell the difference between low sodium and regular. As far as salting other foods. Light is better and better for you
But there is nothing like heading down to the Japanese market and getting yakisoba and tako yaki. I don't know how much salt is in it but don't change a thing!

Mustard, Paprika, Herbs and black pepper? What kinda herbs and what are you making? I'm surprised they even have Soy Sauce in the UK!

Edit : Sweetheart just informed that she often uses seaweed and Japanese pickles to make for NOT using soy sauce.
 

Miss B

Drawing Life 1 Pixel at a Time
CV-BEE
I would watch the can of broth too Rob, as canned goods are usually high in sodium. Your best bet is to check the labels, and see if you can find one that's lower in sodium than the others.
 

HaiGan

Energetic
Contributing Artist
Yep, we have soy sauce (and gluten free soy sauce), and wasabi (well, the fake wasabi that's mostly horseradish and green food colour), sushi rice, miso, mirin, nori, sake, canned red bean and tofu. Mochiko, umeboshi, bonito, matcha powder and dashi are harder to find but there are mail order places that sell them- and Amazon- along with readymade furikake and a variety of dried seaweed. No idea if anyone does natto. Japanese ingredients that can't be packaged and stored for a while don't come in such variety. I might have to try using seaweed instead of soy sauce (I'll probably already have eaten any pickles I made! I like making pickled carrots cut to look like tiny goldfish)

Mustard, black pepper, and whatever herbs will go best almost always go into any stew or casserole I make, plus a little paprika unless it's fish, maybe a pinch of chilli or ginger- I'll generally fry chopped onion (maybe with garlic and/or finely-chopped chorizo sausage) for a base, then brown any meat that's going in, add stock or wine/beer/cider (or maybe milk and cream if it's fish) and chopped veg, perhaps a spoonful of condensed tomato puree for red meat, whatever spices, then let it simmer for an hour or three, tasting near the end and adding herbs and whatever else it needs to balance the flavours, like a squirt of lemon juice or a dash of soy sauce. If there's no potato in it I might add rice for the last half hour. The ingredients are whatever I have, so maybe what looks nice or what's in season or what we need to use up or what was on sale or what was in the freezer, as long as it will go together okay. It was more fun when I still had the old garden, because I grew vegetables and herbs. I've just got to the top of the list for an allotment now (=community garden plot?), so as of the start of this month I have somewhere to grow things again! I like to use parsley, bay leaf and thyme with beef (maybe with a stick of cinnamon), rosemary and thyme with lamb (maybe with lemon as well but I'm not a fan of mint with lamb), tarragon and parsley with fish- perhaps with nutmeg if I used milk rather than stock- maybe oregano and basil for a dish with tomato, juniper with venison or cabbage. If I want to get more adventurous I've got about 40 herbs and spices to choose from.

I also like do do North African dishes, Japanese dishes, Indian dishes, food from medieval Europe (which is a lot nicer than many people assume), seafood and anything I haven't tried before, especially (sorry, vegetarians) unusual meat (I've tried alligator, kangaroo, ostrich, hare, water buffalo, bison, springbok, camel, goat, zebra, ants and scorpion). Oh, and I like making cakes and biscuits (cookies). My Christmas present to my nieces and nephews was making stained glass window biscuits with them.
 

Janet

Dances with Bees
Contributing Artist
Sushi isn't that difficult to make. Just be sure to buy fish especially for it - they do something to kill all the bugs. If you put some sweet vinegar in the rice it comes out great.

That's one thing about the area I'm in, there isn't a top notch sushi restaurant. That's one thing I miss about where I used to live. I used to go there all the time: Home - Ijji Sushi and Habachi
 
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