What new concoction have you learned to cook since staying home?

[Trueblue Texan]

I've learned to make my own version of carne guisada, roasted eggplant sauced and topped with sauteed onions and mushrooms. Also, have gotten really handy with garbanzo bean salads for lunches. What about you guys? Share?

[Freddie]

1. Smoothies

Got a new blender. Just frozen fruit, skim milk and yogurt but filling and healthy. Nothing green (kale, spinach etc) please!
I got a stand mixer for Christmas and have been anxious to use the paddle attachment to make bread, and there was no yeast to be found. Giant finally has it now so that’s today’s project.

[Kali]

17. go ahead and toss a handfull of baby spinach in there

you won't even be able to taste it, I swear - make it really healthy. it will affect color of light colored fruit, but just drink out of a coffee cup and you won't notice.

[MaryMagdaline]

2. Banana bread

[Ohiya]

3. Irish soda bread

It's pretty easy and tastes great! I bought a twenty pound bag of flour in March. I quickly ran out of yeast and haven't been able to find any. So, I thought I'd try making soda bread and I'm glad I did!

[global1]

4. I've Mastered The Art Of Making Tamales &....

also taught myself how to make sausages. I've become very proficient in the use of my pressure cooker as well.

Every weekend since March I make two new dishes/recipes so we have leftovers the rest of the week. I haven't duplicated a meal. Every week something different. I collect cookbooks so this is relatively easy to do. We also watch a lot of food & cooking shows and try to replicate some of the dishes that look appetizing.

We've been eating very healthy meals and watching calorie intake. Not going out and eating at restaurants I've lost 22 lbs during stay-at-home. Using a lot of good and healthy veggies in the dishes.

Don't want to brag but we're eating many gourmet meals and I'm becoming quite a chef.

One learns a lot of cooking techniques watching the cooking shows.

If I wasn't so old and retired I'd think about opening a restaurant or food truck when we're past this Covid thingy.

[Trueblue Texan]

13. sounds wonderful!

...all except the restaurant part! Too much work! I think you should share your recipes and expertise on youtube though.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. I made stuffed manicotti for the first time and learned a new trick for preparing the pasta.

Instead of boiling the pasta to the al dente stage before filling, I put them in a large bowl, covered them with hot water and let them soak until they became softened a bit. I changed the water a couple of times and moved them around so the didn't stick together. Then I proceeded as usual.

It worked great. The pasta was easy to handle and didn't tear or break while I was filling it. My sauce was a little looser than I would ordinarily use on cooked pasta, but excess liquid was absorbed by the pasta. When it came out of the oven it was perfectly cooked. I plan on trying it with lasagna noodles and jumbo shells.

[GigiBird]

6. Cast Iron Skillet

I bought a cast iron skillet and have made several of the most wonderful cakes! It's the perfect size for me and my husband.

[marble falls]

12. Gitcherself some more!

[Fortinbras Armstrong]

7. Fish pie.

I first made it using a New York Times recipe

It was OK, but not more than that. Puff pastry (I had bought some at Trader Joe's) makes a terrible bottom crust. Nobody in my family particularly liked the rice at the bottom, and both my youngest son and I thought that salmon wasn't the greatest fish for a pie.

So, last night I made another pie. I used regular pie dough, and since it's no more difficult to make dough for a double crust pie as for a single crust, I used that for both top and bottom crust.

I used cooked couscous instead of rice. I used cod fillets for the fish.

We all agreed this was a much better pie.

[Trueblue Texan]

14. interesting!

Never heard of fish pie, but we make fish tacos here in Texas...they are much tastier than they sound!

[marble falls]

9. French onion stuffed peppers. Pogac. Fresh fruit tarts. Ratatouille.

[Trueblue Texan]

15. Oh God!

What's Pogac? and tell me more about those french onion stuffed peppers!

[marble falls]

16. Scroll down to the Czech pogac ...

https://slaviccooking.com/pagach/

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/french-onion-stuffed-peppers

I use red/yellow/orange peppers.
I use plenty of gruyere.
I cook the rice in beef broth.
Make plenty of stuffing and put the extra around the peppers.Put a good glug of broth in.
Fresh herbs is important. I like tarragon rather than thyme.

[Trueblue Texan]

19. Those peppers look amazing!

[marble falls]

20. I've done them three times in four weeks and the gruyure and fresh Taragon is on the shopping ...

list for a fourth making.

I love pogac reheated with bacon grease for breakfast.

[Wawannabe]

10. Haven't yet but goal is hand pulled noodles

My fav restaurant that does this closed Dec 31, 2019. I have been looking for a new one but nothing even comes close. I then researched and found some golden tips. One is alkaline water. I picked some up the other day, so Sunday I am gonna pull noodles for the first time. I’ll let ya know how it goes.

I can make reg egg noodles but the technique is totally diff as is the recipe. No egg in Chinese hand pulled noodles. Hope the alkaline water helps a newbie be successful! Lol.

[PJMcK]

11. Homemade pizza dough

My wife love to make her own pizzas and she has a rather complicated, multi-step process to make them. Before the quarantine, we would buy the dough from a local NYC pizzeria. But now, she's figured out how to make her own special dough recipe and the results have been marvelous. One key element is to have a proper pizza stone to cook the pie on.

I'm getting hungry just writing about it!

[Retrograde]

18. Pineapple upside down cake!

For some reason I never made one before. But my husband came back from one of the early quarantine shopping trips with a whole pineapple (the grocery store ran its line to get in past the outdoor produce display) and I had to do something with it. Came out ok, although it could have done with more pineapple. And like most baked goods it froze well, which is important when there are only 2 people in the household.

I've been making a lot more desserts lately. And a lot of combinations purists would scoff at because I don't want to do any more shopping trips than necessary. They usually turn out OK (and if a bunch of Alsatians had settled in Cajun country I bet they'd make their choucroute garni with andouille if that was what was available). Fusion cooking at its most, uh, creative.