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I have done the chicken deal a couple of times. Pick your favorite beer. I have tried a few different ones. The best sweetest chicken was with a Honey Weiss.

I tied it once. I can't recall it being anything outstanding, though. Certainly tasty enough but not good enough to put it in our regular rotation of bbq ideas. We generally put a chicken on the rotisserie when barbecuing.

Adaven wrote:QUOTE (Adaven @ Jan 4 2010, 11:41 PM) I am in need of any good/creative recipes involving lean ground beef. My In-Laws' bull broke its @#$! and now I have a freezer full of hamburger.

Didn't read past this - but - shepard's pie (or "patte chinois"). It is very easy to make, and even easier to make variations on it based on whatever you have available, so long as you have meat, some type of liquid/juice that goes well with ground beef, potatoes and/or potato substitutes, and vegetables (corn is usually the best, but mixes work fine)

Here's a basic sample recipe...

Lightly pan fry the beef - it will be cooked more later, so don't overdo it. Add lots of liquids to it and any additional meat. Ketchup, HP sauce, bacon (works great with the grease). Some "meat flavouring" vegetables can be added in here too. Like a moderate amount of garlic, onions, mushrooms. They can be mixed in directly, or layered in later.

Boil potatoes, strain, mash well with butter and milk. (optional to remove skins or not. Tastes better without the skins, but has significantly less nutrients) I like to mix a little salt in with them too.

Boil/steam vegetables. (say.. oh, i dunno. Corn, with some peas and carrots)


Then get out a large ceremic pan with a removeable glass cover. Put the ground beef in first. Should be more than an inch of meat. Next step is the vegetables. Just put them in evenly over the meat. You can put a 2nd meat layer (ie bacon strips) or meaty vegetable toppings between them if you want. Last layer is the mashed potatoes. I like to put some seasoning on top, like some garlic pepper powder or something.

Okay, now when you cook it in the oven, everything is already partially coooked, so it doesn't need a lot of time. Most of this is for the flavours to mix together. (hence why it'll be covered by the glass lid).. But for the last 5 or so minutes, take the lid off. This will give the top potato layer a crispier crust, which gives it a neat texture and tastes better.

I love this meal, it's pretty balanced, and you can add basically any reasonable leftover cooking supply you want into it. It's more or less impossible to $#@! up and pretty quick.


I'd also suggest tortiere (sp), it's basically a ground beef pie - but I don't know how to make the crust. It's really tasty though, and seems simple enough.

I don't cook with exact quantities, or with same herbs every day, I do it by smell, and by feeling, so my recipies are little unorthodox, and I'm not internationaly kitchen educated so I don't know if these recipies are common knowlege

4 day chicken/veal soup. Not really a soup but I dunno how to call it

Idea is that if family wants soup every day, to not do the cooking every day, but to make the base first day, and then modify for every meal.
And also to use it as additions while cooking different meals, for that extra flavor

U need 8-10l pot, which U can put in the fridge. Sealed ones are the best.
A lot of different vegetables.
I usually go with minimum 6 large carrots, usually 9.
1/2 onion
1/2 Kohlrabi (that google says is keleraba )
1/2 parsley root
slice of celery
some parsley leaves
1/2 Parsnip root
sea salt
ground pepper
One chicken back (what U get when removing legs and white meat).
200-300g peace of nice veal, from the neck is good for cooking
Sometimes I put some leek in it, or some other vegetables I have in the fridge.

Water to 80% of the pot.
Boil for minimum 1.5h

That's the base. I keep it in the fridge in express pot, and take fluid, meat and carrots when I need it as addition for other meals.

For first few days, I just take the fluid and either:
1. Boil noodles in it, decorate with chopped parsley leaves, and few carrots from soup
2. Mix an egg in a cup, add some salt, chopped parsley, and then mix it slowly with boiling soup.
3. same as 2 but add a little milk to it. If U like sour broth, U can add sour cream.
4. add wheat dumplings to it. 1 egg , some salt, wheat gritz (I hope that's the word) and some chopped parsley, mix it in a cup. Has to be so thick to not fall out of upside down cup. Put it in fridge for 10min, take small dumplings with spoon and add to boiling soup.
5. mash the vegetables in soup, take the chicken meat from soup and separate it with fork in small strings, then add 2. or 3.

Fast macaroni tuna meal for parties or for lazy students. For 4 persons

Boil 1 package (400-500g) of macaroni in water with salt and some butter or sunflower oil.
boil 400gr of sweet corn, or use canned
Add 1 canned tuna (small pieces) 150g
200-400g of REAL mayonaise
400g sour cream
some salt
some chopped herbs

ground chillies or pepper if U like it

Mix it in large bowl.
It's a little heavy on stomach

Moussaka in Serbia
8 persons

1kg of potatoes. Sliced nicely
300gr pork, from the neck, minced
300gr veal, same

Mix minced pork and veal, add salt, pepper, ground paprika, maybe one small cup of rice if U like it to be more solid.
Fry it a little, just for meat to get brown.

Place 1/2 of potato slices as bottom layer and sides in a casserole, then meat over it, then other half of potato on top.

Mix 2 eggs, add 1/2l of milk, maybe some fatty sour cream, some salt and pour everything over mussaka in casserole, so that it tops it.

Put into oven, maybe some alu foil over it if U like longer cooking as I do, and bake till there's no more fluid in it, approx 2 hours at 160 C.
If U like crispier potatoes, make it 200C for last 10 min, without alu foil.

Serve with yoghurt or sour cream.

PS. I forgot to mention the secret ingredient. That's one cup of soup from my first recipie

Dusan,

The 'soup' recipe is good. The cooking term would be a "white stock". I definitely will be trying the last recipe, looks like an old Russian/Polish recipe she has from her family.

Well the origins of moussaka are from the East, and with Ottoman empire they spread throughout EU http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moussaka
There are many variations, in Serbia we make it, alongside potato, with zucchini or eggplant too, and with minced pork, which was not in the original recipe.
They have more fluid so U should compensate for that. Also they can be added as additional middle layer as potato makes very good crust on top, and solid bottom layer so the meal is compact, but eggplant and zuccini are a little squishy

Btw, nice potato crust can be made not with thin slices of potato, but grating it. I like it that way

I normally take my grandmother's suggestion of food preparation: Che cazzo? Cosa diavolo stai parlando? È che di lavoro non di una donna per cucinare e fare cose del genere? Tua madre è un idiota!

Seeing this theead reminded me of something I saw this morning.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8467045.stm
Milk in spag-bol?