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  • I'd love go make chana masala, my favorite indian dish. but it just takes too long to make...

  • Gonna take a detour here and mention the time that I tried to make tofu from scratch, starting with making soy milk from dried beans that I'd ordered just for the task:

    The soy milk turned out surprisingly well, with the help of a semi-automated device, but I realised on the spot that most commercial soy milk has a tonne of sugar added to it, and I didn't want to go down that route. In fact, it just about turned me off of soy milk permanently.

    Anyway, I moved on to the tofu-making stage, and realised that both coagulants I tested (lemon juice and nigari powder) imparted a huge, unwanted taste to the tofu, on top of neither being all that great at coagulating the soy milk. In the end, I think I could have improved on this cooking disaster, but my motivation was gone at that point, and I wanted to move on.

    There's also the fact that no matter what a versatile food tofu is, it's also a significantly processed one, and I wanted to move in the opposite direction. That said, I understand that fresh-made tofu in Japan and other places can be incredibly tasty, almost worth wolfing down straight with no cooking or spices.

  • Papa reyeñas(sp?). They're so good, it's basically mashed potatoes with ground beef mix inside, then fried/seared and baked until it sorta looks like a potato again. Then you take finely sliced red onions and soak them in lime juice for 12 hours so they get less harsh and use it like a topping

    Honestly, I know how to do all off the top of my head except how long to boil the potatoes...I just would never put that much effort into my meals, so I would need a reason to cook it for others. There's also a lot of cleanup, you need a frying pan you need a frying pan you wash twice, a big bowl, a masher, an oven dish, a lime squeezer, Tupperware (or a ziplock, but I get enough plastic), a knife, a spatula, and whatever serving dishes

    I don't enjoy cooking, but I'm pretty good at it when I want to be... But I have to want to be

    • Sort of like a deluxe, Peruvian version of Scottish cottage pie, no?

      And... gotta love those thinly-sliced red onions (and for me, habanero slices) soaked in lime juice in the fridge, overnight. I used to use them as a topping on all kinds of meals before my stomach finally gave out, lol.

      • Yes and no... They're very similar conceptually and ingredients wise, but the experience is very different. Frying the outside really firms it up like a French fry, and you get that flavor and texture all around. They also sometimes will add weird things like olives and raisins to it, which is still good, but I don't particularly like those to start with so I might be biased

        You've got the right idea of what it is, but you really have to experience it for yourself - a lot of South and Central American countries have their own versions that are very similar, so if you go to a Latino restaurant that isn't Mexican or Peruvian chicken, you'll probably be able to find it.

        I've never tried adding jalapenos to the onion topping though... That sounds delicious. I might have to make that, it is a great topping and adding some heat to it sounds even better

  • protip : you can cook anything. maybe you don't cook it well the first time. but if you're not completely freeballin it, and are following an established well reviewed recipe, once you cook it poorly or not to your taste, you can always make notes, and adjust the next time. be fearless in your experiments, there's a lot of freedom (and cost savings) in learning how to cook what you like to eat, the way you like to eat it, at home.

144 comments