Hufflepuff Kitchen and Cookbook

[KoNeko]

Alright, so here's a place where we can put a list of all our favourite recipes in one spot. And this thread is also RPG so you can have a go at making something from this recipe book (although I can't think of a way to index our recipes or anything).

The pots are over there in the corner. Let us know how your creation turns out.

[Rue]

We could do the most common "Recipes in white while everything else is in color." That way the recipes will stick out more, and most people have adopted a color for themselves anyway.

Okay, my mom's going away for a week to go to North Carolina one more time. Usually when she's home we never cook anything beyond elbow noodles, spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, toast, pizza rolls, and grilled cheese sandwiches. But those get boring after a while, and my mom's going to take us to the store tonight to pick out some food for ourselves...

*looks hopefully at Robin* Can you think of any easy recipes? Since we're going to the store, it can involve pretty much anything. I just need easy recipes so I'll be able to manage them. And I can use the stove, oven, microwave, toaster, and whatever else is in the kitchen, so don't worry about that.

(P.S. A few nights ago I made dinner- french fries, fish sticks, and peas , but I put Teriyaki sauce and a little bit of some spice on the peas and they tasted really good. ;D)

[Robin_Sprouts]

Here's a quick and easy dish that Karen and I do alot - a chicken casserole kind of thing - some chicken (we use boneless, skinless breast, but anything boneless would work), rice (uncooked), sour cream, cheddar cheese, broccoli (if you want) and enough milk to cover the chicken (so the rice cooks). Throw it all in a baking dish and bake at about 350 until the rice is completely cooked. BLT's are a good, quick, easy option to grilled cheese. Make your mac & cheese and throw some tuna and/or veggies in it. Homemade pizza bread is always better than store bought pizza. Get a loaf of french bread, some GOOD spagetti sauce and whatever you like on your pizza. Cut the french bread in half and throw ingrediants on it. This also makes it easy for picky eaters. Hopefully that's enough ideas to get you started! Oh, also, the cheap & easy ramen noodles - make a package and scramble an egg in - that's a good one, too. Also, Rue, most grocery stores now have frozen pasta options that are more exciting than spagetti. Our locally owned stores have their own brand of ravioli, cheese, spinach & artichoke, portabello mushroom and meat. Lots of options and again, really easy.

[KoNeko]

That's a good idea about the colours, Rue.

I read your thing about the teriyaki sauce and felt really hungry so I dug out my favourite Japanese recipe. Neko's sister wrote this one out for me- it's like, a family recipe thing so they had to translate it for me! ;D
This is a snack sort of thing in Japan, but you can make big pancakes for dinner and cut serves for people out of it.

Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pancake)
Serves 2

Ingredients
-1 egg
-250g Pork/Beef mince (if you're a flesh eater, otherwise subsititute it with 1 chopped carrot, a small tin of corn and 1/3 cup peas, or any other vegetables you want)
-1/4 cabbage sliced finely (close to shredded but not quite- and try to make the slices really long so they hold the pancake batter together)
-1 clove garlic (crushed)
-2 teaspons finely chopped ginger
-1 spring onion sliced finely
-2-3 cups stock (chicken or vegetable are best)
-Flour (usually about 2-3 tablespoons suffices but it depends on how thick you want your pancake)
-Salt and Pepper to taste

Method
1. Brown the mince and separate the lumps so it's of an even consistency. (If you're using vegetables, stir fry them in a bit of butter for about 3 minutes)

2. In a separate bowl, mix 1 heaped tablespoon of flour, the egg, a pinch of salt, dash of stock, some pepper and the garlic and ginger. Whisk until smooth, adding stock and flour. The mixture should be smooth but not runny.

3. Add a big handful of cabbage, minced meat (or vegetable) and spring onion to the batter. Mix.

4. Heat a teflon pan and cover the bottom and sides with oil (about halfway up the sides of the pan).

5. Pour the mixture into the pan, spread evenly and press down onto it with a spatula/flipper. Cook on one side for a few minutes, when the bottom is golden brown, cut the pancake into quarters and flip the quarters individualy (it's easier to turn that way). Cook the other side for a few minutes until it is golden brown, pressing down on the pancake with the flipper.

6. Serve immediately with Japanese mayonaise and tonkatsu sauce (use BBQ sauce if you don't have Tonkatsu, they're pretty much the same).

[Robin_Sprouts]

Oh, Oh, Oh!!! I love Okonomiyaki! I haven't had them since I lived in Janan! Thanks for the recipe Koko!!

[coldmercurywitch]

OK...um.... KoKo wanted to get a Bread and Butter Pudding recipe off me, so I figured I'd post it here so you could all see it in case you liked the sound of it..

This is a pretty simple recipe too, so anyone should be able to do it. The only thing is I don't cook with measurements, so this is gonna be rough estimates.

Bread and Butter Pudding

You will need:

• 1 x loaf of white bread (it just goes better in B&B pudding than brown )
  
• 1 x tub of butter or margerine, whichever you prefer (Note: we won't be using all of it so don't panic :
  
• 4 x large eggs
  
• 2 cups of milk (add 2 cups and if it doesn't look to be enough add a little more :
  
• ground cinnamon
  
• ground cloves (optional)
  
• soft brown sugar (just grab a small bag at the super market cos i have no idea how much all of you will want to use)
  
• lots of sultanas (optional)
  
  OK, so now for the steps.
  
  1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius (i have no idea what that would be farenhieght(sp?))
  
  2. Grease a good sized and fairly deep cake tin with some of the butter (this helps with the flavour, i've experimented )
  
  3. Start buttering slices of bread and laying them in the cake tin. You can butter both side or just one depending on how buttery you want it, and you can cut them up to fill in gaps if you want, though I find a few gaps here and there help with the liquid. Before laying each new layer of bread sprinkle a mix of brown sugar and a little cinnamon, (and cloves you decided to incule that, but remember cloves are strong and you only need a pinch) about a teaspoon of cinnamon and about 3-4 table spoons of brown sugar for the mix, over the bread. If you wanted to include sultanas (i suggest it, cos it just makes it nummier ) scatter a few of them between each layer of bread as well. Keep doing this till the cake tin is pretty full.
  
  4. Get the 4 eggs and the milk and beat them together in another bowl till they are well mixed and starting to go a little frothy looking. You can do this with a whisk or a fork. I often add a little cinnamon to it as well.
  
  5. Pour the egg and milk mixture on top of the bread slowly. Stop if you have to so it doesn't overflow and wait til it soak into the bread. Make sure you have it filled pretty much to the top, but not quite submerging the top slices of bread.
  
  6. Sprinkle extra sultanas and plenty of brown sugar and some cinnamon over the top of the pudding. The brown sugar should be reasonabley thick (like 2-3mm). This will make a lovely crispy golden top on the pudding.
  
  7. Put it in the oven for about half an hour. Keep checking it so the bread doesn't burn. When the top is golden and crispy remove and sit for 5 mins before serving. Serves about 8-10 people if you use a larger cake tin.
  

[KoNeko]

YAY! Ele, I'm making that B&B tonight. That sounds so scrummy... I've been thinking about (read: craving to the point of salivating!) it all week and I really need to get it out of my system.

Robin, I didn't know you lived in Japan! Anyway, there's the recipe. Hope you and Karen like it.

Oh! Here's one I'm trying out as we speak. It was in the newspaper today so I thought I'd test it out. Of course, me being the impulsive person that I am. I've tweaked the recipe a bit because Neko insisted on helping me and ended up stuffing up his half of the recipe. Seriously, he's got no culinary skills. Last time he tried to do something, he set fire to my toaster.

Rocky Road Slice
Makes about 40 pieces, so this is not recommended for people who are on diets.

Ingredients
250g Copha block (Copha is vegetable shortening, like a vegetarian lard sort of thing)
3/4 Cup icing sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 250g bag of marshmallows (approx 1 1/2 cups) If the marshmallows are big, you can halve them.
1 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecan nuts

Method
1. Melt the copha over a low heat in a saucepan. Remove from heat once it is melted and sift in icing sugar and cocoa.

2. Add vanilla and mix with a wooden spoon until smooth.

3. Add the nuts and about 3/4 bag of marshmallows. Mix until smooth. (Note: be careful that the mixture isn't too hot when you put the mallows in or they'll melt and the slice will be overly gooey!)

4. (Optional- I added this bit) Eat the remaining 1/4 bag of marshmallows! ;D

5. Pour the mixture into a shallow 20cm square tin that has been lined with foil/baking paper. Refrigerate it for about 2 hours or until set, and then cut into squares.

[Robin_Sprouts]

Koko - your rocky road slices reminded me of the rocky road fudge that we used to make when I was a kid - it's really yummy too!

Rocky Road Fudge

1/3 cup unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 cup evaporated milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup slivered almonds, toasted
1 cup mini marshmallows
Combine butter, evaporated milk, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan. Bring to a hard boil for 5 to 7 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in the chocolate until melted and smooth. Fold in the almonds and marshmallows. Pour into an 8 by 8-inch square baking pan. Chill until firm, about 2 to 4 hours. Cut into 12 squares.

Yield: 12 servings
Prep Time: 15 minutes

[En]

Help! What do you do with asparagus if you don't have a steamer? *is desperate*

[Rue]

Do you like asparagus soup? Chandra has a really good recipe for it, just she's sick right now so I can't wake her up to ask. I'll try to get back to you on it though.

Um, are you still not making hot food in your apartment? Or, could you elaborate on what devices you are using to aid in food preperation?


*edit* Chandra woke up. Her recipe is sort of weird because she made it up, and doesn't have any exact measurements because the amount she makes always changes, but here it is:


Clean the asparagus and chop the woodsy part off
Cook the asparagus until tender (Chopped or whole stalk, depending on your preference)
[boil- retain asparagus water]

2-4 Tbsp butter (depending on how fatty you want it and how much you're actually making)
[melt the butter over medium to medium-low heat]
Stir in 1 Tbsp of flour and some salt and pepper
[stir together for at least one minute over the stove]
Slowly stir in milk (atleast 2%)
Add asparagus and water
[Stir until well-blended]
Then slowly stir in some cream (half and half or heavy or whatever)
Cook until hot; don't bring to a boil; add salt and pepper to taste

[Robin_Sprouts]

Nialle - There are lots of aspargus options, the first being, of course, come over and use our steamer, silly!! You can always improvise a steamer - a metal colander inside a pot - or even a sturdy bunch of aluminium foil over the edges with holes poked it. Call me - we'll do 'spargus!

[KoNeko]

En, my mum used to make blanched asparagus with butter and a bit of pepper- It's really easy.

All you have to do is prepare the asparagus (she cuts the end bit off and the little bits along the sides of the stick, and then cuts them in half), drop them in a pot of boiling water for a few seconds until they're bright green and just going soft, and then pop them in a heated frying pan with a knob of butter.
Stir fry for maybe a minute, then put in a teensy bit of water (to cover the bottom of the pan, so it makes a butter sauce type of thing) and sprinkle ground black pepper and some herbs (if you want) over it.

Yummy! We actually cook most of our vegies like this- sometimes we make a garlic butter sauce for a bit of variety from pepper.

[coldmercurywitch]

I don't really like asparagus. But I do know that asparagus grows really really fast though. It can grow several inches over night. I know, I've watched it! Or...measured our asparagus patch when we had it anyway. Seriously. Asparagus is weird. It's growth rat in unatural.

En, do you have a microwave? Just cos if you put asparagus in the microwave wiht a little butter for the right amount of time it's like it's gettign steamed. That might be an option for you.

[KoNeko]

Hmmm. You know, I don't like asparagus either. It makes your pee smell funny.

My favourite vegetables are potatoes. Especially mixed in some form with cream, cheese, spring onions and more cheese. ;D I usually just bake them and scoop out the insides, mash them and mix the butter, cheese, spring onion and a bit of milk and pepper. But that gets boring after a while. Anyone know any good potato recipes involving the above?

[coldmercurywitch]

Easter is creeping up on us, so I was thinking of making hot cross buns for my little brothers and sister. So I went looking a recipe and found a good one and figured I'd share it with all of you.

HOT CROSS BUNS

400g (1lb) plain flour
25g (1oz) fresh yeast
250ml (1/2 pint) milk
4 teaspoons water
75g (3oz) castor sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
50g (2oz) melted butter
1 egg beaten
25g (1oz) chopped peel
100g (4oz) currants

Mix 100g of the flour with the yeast and a teaspoon of sugar. Warm the milk and water and add to the flour. Mix thoroughly, cover with a cloth and set aside in a warm place for 10 - 15 minutes until the mixture is frothy.

Mix the remaining flour, salt, spices and 50g of sugar. Stir the egg and butter into the yeast mix, add the flour mixture and fruit. Mix together. Place the dough onto a floured surface and knead. Leave to rise until double the size (approx. 1 hr). Turn out dough onto a floured surface and knead again.

Divide the dough into twelve pieces and shape into buns. Mark a cross on the top of each. Arrange them on a baking tray and leave to rise for 30 minutes. Cook in oven 190 C, gas mark 5 for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Glaze buns with a mixture of water, milk and sugar and leave to cool.

My personal suggestion: I'm going to be putting lightning bolts on them instead of crosses so they can have Harry Potter Buns.