Cooking club

Khannie

Mod Note: Due to the popularity and success of this, there is now a dedicated subforum for the cooking club. All of the recipes can be found there. This thread will remain here as a reminder and guide to the club.

Anyone interested in a cooking club? A bit like a book club, but you try a new recipe every week. The suggestion for what gets baked / boiled / cooked / whatever is on rotation.

Week 1 - Flapjacks by Khannie

Week 2 - Brown Bread by The Black Oil

Week 3 - Goulash by psycho-hope

Week 4 - Spicy Thai Chicken Noodle Soup by Mr Magnolia

Week 5 - Chocolate Chip Cookies by Kimia

Week 6 - Chicken & Chorizo Rice Bake by nice1franko

Week 7 - Pesto Chicken by Faith

Week 8 - Italian Meatballs by Malari

Week 9 - Curry by joolsveer

Week 10 - Baileys and Malteser Cheesecake by kerash

Week 11 - Cornish Pasties by Des

Week 12 - Lamb Tagine with Lemon Couscous by foodaholic

Week 13 - Thai Beanburgers & Sweet Potato Wedges - by irishbird

Week 14 - Smoked Haddock and Leek Risotto by xxdilemmaxx

Week 15 - Tunisian-style Chicken Stew by Hill Billy

Week 16 - Fish Pie by olaola

Week 17 - Chocolate Brownies by janeybabe

Week 18 - Meringues by Novella

Week 19 - Hot-Smoked Salmon and Potato Salad by Procasinator

Week 20 - Chicken and Parma Ham with Steamed Asparagus by kikililly

Week 21 - Falafel Burgers by appleb

Week 22 - Vietnamese Roast Chicken with Lemongrass by Minder

Week 23 - Creamy pasta with salmon and broccoli by IzzyWizzy

Schedule so far:

Week | Date | Poster
1 | 04/01/2010 | Khannie
2 | 11/01/2010 | The Black Oil
3 | 18/01/2010 | psycho-hope
4 | 25/01/2010 | Mr Magnolia
5 | 01/02/2010 | Kimia
6 | 08/02/2010 | Nice1franko
7 | 15/02/2010 | Faith*
8 | 22/02/2010 | Malari
9 | 01/03/2010 | joolsveer
10 | 08/03/2010 | kerash
11 | 15/03/2010 | Des
12 | 22/03/2010 | foodaholic
13 | 29/03/2010 | irishbird
14 | 05/04/2010 | xxdilemmaxx
15 | 12/04/2010 | Hill Billy
16 | 19/04/2010 | olaola
17 | 26/04/2010 | janeybabe
18 | 03/05/2010 | Novella
19 | 10/05/2010 | Procrastinator
20 | 17/05/2010 | kikililly
21 | 24/05/2010 | appleb
22 | 31/05/2010 | Minder
23 | 07/06/2010 | IzzyWizzy
24 | 14/06/2010 | Flamed Diving
25 | 21/06/2010 | smallgarden
26 | 28/06/2010 | susanroth
27 | 05/07/2010 | molliesassy
28 | 12/07/2010 | Pembily
29 | 19/07/2010 | CJHaughey
30 | 26/07/2010 | Snow-Monkey
31 | 02/08/2010 | boodlesdoodles
32 | 09/08/2010 | No1XtinaFan
33 | 16/08/2010 | BaZmO*
34 | 23/08/2010 | janeybabe
35 | 30/08/2010 | TechnoPool
36 | 06/09/2010 | blueirishangel
37 | 13/09/2010 | smashey
38 | 20/09/2010 | Wantobe
39 | 27/09/2010 | shanagarry
40 | 04/10/2010 | Magic Monkey
41 | 11/10/2010 | CombatCow
42 | 18/10/2010 | catho_monster
43 | 25/10/2010|Moonbaby
44|1/11/2010|Monkeyfudge
45|8/11/2010|The Sweeper
46|15/11/2010|Thaedydal
47|22/11/2010|11811
48|29/11/2010|Sparks
1|10/01/2011|del88
2|17/01/2011|Cian92
3|24/01/2011|brian ireland
4|31/01/2011|Little Alex
5|07/02/2011|Cork_girl
6|14/02/2011|georgem25
7|21/02/2011|neuro-praxis
8|28/02/2011|angeldelight
9|7/03/2011|shazfla
10|14/03/2011|brumindub
11|21/03/2011|watna
12|28/03/2001|pampootie
13|04/04/2011|Khannie
14|11/04/2011|The Black Oil
15|18/04/2011|psycho-hope
16|25/04/2011|Mr Magnolia
17|02/05/2011|Kimia
18|09/05/2011|Nice1franko
19|16/05/2011|Faith*
20|23/05/2011|Malari
21|30/05/2011|Beetlebum
22|06/06/2011|joolsveer
23|13/06/2011|anthonno
*Hill Billy is unable to do his scheduled week next week, so I'm going to stand in for him. If anyone else can't do theirs, let me know. HB will act as a stand-in now.

As above, the schedule of recipes and list of contributers is now being maintained in The Cooking Club forum here.

The Black Oil

Yep, I'd be up for trying that. Good suggestion.

psycho-hope

yeah sounds good, would love to expand my recipe collection a bit

Mr Magnolia

I'd also be up for it.

Kimia

me too! Lovely idea

nice1franko

Me too

The Hill Billy

Great idea Khannie!

I'd like to participate as a lurker on this as I'm not getting to do much cooking these days (facilities in my apartment are poor to say the least). I only getting to cook properly when home at weekends & then I'm usually kept to cooking "family favourites" to treat my wife & kids.

Malari

Sounds like a great idea

Khannie

Sweet. Definitely enough interest so. Let's say you get to choose a recipe based on when you signed up in thread (i.e. I go first, then the black oil, then psycho-hope, etc. etc.).

I'd say one a week is about right. I'd suggest you post the recipe on a Monday, then you have the week to gather the ingredients, then you cook it over the weekend then we have a chinwag about what went well...disaster stories...etc.. Next person posts their recipe and so on. What do ye think?

Also, how would you rate your cooking prowess? Mine would be fairly low. I'm a total learner driver.

The Black Oil

Yeah, that sounds alright. Anything in particular to start off - dinners, desserts, etc, or does it matter?

The Hill Billy

Khannie wrote: »

Also, how would you rate your cooking prowess?

Pretty good actually. Always happy to try new things too. But I'm not a "fancy" cook by any means. I prefer good ol' rustic fare. Whether that be Irish-, Indian-, Thai-, French-, Swiss- or [insert nationality]-traditional food.

I also am a big lover of meat, especially offal (trotters, ox tails, liver, kidneys, you name it) & game.

joolsveer

Sounds good to me too. How would it work?

Mr Magnolia

I'm decent enough in the kitchen, the Mrs is an expert so if I get in trouble I'll generally just give a shout for help.

I'm experimenting with Indian once a week or more at the minute and intend to move on to Thai in a couple of months.

Haven't cooked with offal much so I'd be interested in that as well as anything else really. Would prefer if we stuck with main courses but whatever suits.

kerash

Sounds like fun, I'll join in

Khannie

joolsveer wrote: »

Sounds good to me too. How would it work?

I'd say you missed this post.

The Black Oil wrote: »

Yeah, that sounds alright. Anything in particular to start off - dinners, desserts, etc, or does it matter?

Totally up to yourself I'd say.

Malari

Khannie wrote: »

Also, how would you rate your cooking prowess? Mine would be fairly low. I'm a total learner driver.

I'm pretty good as a cook I'd say. I can make a meal out of whatever's in the cupboards and fridge most evenings and have people over for dinner quite a lot. I have a stock dozen recipes or so in my head that I can cook without consulting a book, and I like trying new recipes but if anything is really "chef-fy" I wouldn't be the most skillfull

Kimia

I am also a huge meat lover but can't stomach offal (:p) so I'll sit out any that are very unappealing to me and mine.

Thanks Khannie for a great idea!

_blank_

Excellent idea, and something I'd be well up for joining in with.

Erm. Would it be possible to keep the recipes to stuff that's available cheap enough, especially in the "current climate". I'm on the dole.

I'm good enough in the kitchen, and will try anything. Usually stick to the letter to recipes the first time I cook them, but them tweak for my tatses. I garnered most of my skills from this forum, and my OH.

I also make my own jams and bread.

Made a ton of blackberry jam this autumn, from blackberries picked locally (yes, locally in Finglas, there is wasteland behind my house, with a load of blackberry bushes), Strawberry jam from my own crop and Gooseberry jam from gooseberries given to me by a neighbour, which he grew himself.

Khannie

Des wrote: »

Erm. Would it be possible to keep the recipes to stuff that's available cheap enough, especially in the "current climate". I'm on the dole.

Yep. Definitely up for that. We could discuss the cheapest place to get the ingredients too.

Des wrote: »

I also make my own jams and bread.

Me too. Made a shed load of blackberry and strawberry jam much like yourself. Was very impressed with myself and the kids had great craic. Starting to get into making my own breads now.

What's the gooseberry like? I'm probably gonna get either raspberry or gooseberry bushes in the spring.

The Black Oil

Sounds good to me. One of the things that bugs me about some cookbooks is that there's always one or two obscure ingredients in there and your local supermarket may not have it. Sticking to some sort of reasonable budget would be good.

I'm not too bad in the kitchen. Can throw together some things pretty easily, casseroles, stir frys, etc etc. I try to keep things varied otherwise it's a bit boring. I find baking is a little more tricky because you've to be a lot more precise, but I'm learning.

foodaholic

so when are we gonna start. In the new year ??

_blank_

foodaholic wrote: »

so when are we gonna start. In the new year ??

I think that's a good bet, given that next week's "Meal of the Week" would probably be Xmas Dinner

Mr Magnolia

New year is probably the best time alright. Great idea/thread btw Khannie.

_blank_

Also, nothing vegetarian please.

John Mason

sounds great to me - we have become very boring with our food lately.


oh btw, i am a vegetarian so my recipe is going to be meat free

John Mason

Des wrote: »

Also, nothing vegetarian please.

oi you:eek:

nice1franko

Des wrote:

Erm. Would it be possible to keep the recipes to stuff that's available cheap enough, especially in the "current climate". I'm on the dole.

Damn, that's my lobster, caviar, foi gras and truffle stew out :pac:

I was looking into maybe doing a cooking course but wasn't anything really going locally plus they're expensive. This is ideal.

Great idea, WP Khannie.

Khannie

foodaholic wrote: »

so when are we gonna start. In the new year ??

Yeah, let's leave it 'til the new year.

xxdilemmaxx

Can I join too?! Sounds like fun

Miap

Great idea definitely signing up!!:D

olaola

Me too! Sounds like a plan!

brianthebard

nice1franko wrote: »

Damn, that's my lobster, caviar, foi gras and truffle stew out :pac:

I was looking into maybe doing a cooking course but wasn't anything really going locally plus they're expensive. This is ideal.

Great idea, WP Khannie.

Actually there was caviar for cheap in aldi recently.... I half agree with Des about keeping things cheap, but at the same time picking up food that's a little out of the ordinary for this could be a challenge in itself, shopping around for the bargains, etc. It would take a bit of the fun out of things if everything was mince and tinned tuna.

Great idea as alway Khannie, I'll be up for this. Only thing is I don't have a reliable oven atm so might not be able to participate every week but we'll see what happens.

Khannie

brianthebard wrote: »

Actually there was caviar for cheap in aldi recently.... I half agree with Des about keeping things cheap, but at the same time picking up food that's a little out of the ordinary for this could be a challenge in itself, shopping around for the bargains, etc. It would take a bit of the fun out of things if everything was mince and tinned tuna.

I think there's enough stuff that you can cook without expensive gear in it to keep things interesting. My recipe will come in under a fiver for sure (I have 2 in mind....one of them may come in under a euro :eek: - though it would require more effort).

foodaholic

we could use one animal at a time, but the deal is each recipe has to use a different cut eg rack of lamb, shoulder of lamb, lamb shanks, lamb kidneys ect.

and then we move onto to second animal.

Novella

I'm a total lurker in here, have picked up a few ideas and recipes actually! I love to cook so I'd definitely be interested in this Cool idea, Khannie!

The Black Oil

I think it would be good just to learn a couple of things like sauces rather than simply throwing in a jar of stuff that's already made. I don't know many sauces apart from tomato ones and marinades which are simple enough to throw together.

kerash

I'll try my hand at anything but Fish would be something I'd like to cook more often.
Will we be doing just a Main or a starter, main and dessert?
I think 2 courses would be the ideal?
And yes lets keep the expense to a minimum

Procasinator

Cool idea, count me in.

Procasinator

Maybe some type of rotation system would be good. Or, if we want to be a little adventurous, have a 3-course meal setup every week. 3 posters one course each.

As in, we could rotate a simple desert and starter, plus a main. While doing 3 courses at times might be too much, if we work in teams of 3 each week it could probably be done in such a way where a lot of ingredients are shared through courses and the timing needed for each dish can be considered.

Maybe a little over ambitious, but it'd be handy as more people might take part each week (as you could choose to cook the starter, main and/or dessert in any combination of you choosing).

olaola

And photos... or else it didn't happen

kikililly

I'm a lurker too for the most part but love cooking only getting into it the last year. I'm deffinately on for it, i love the idea.
Its kind of like a forum friendly version of come dine with me :pac::pac:

appleb

Just came across this thread. I would be up for it too. I always have great intentions to try something different every week but rarely happens! This might motivate me to do it....:)

Khannie

kerash wrote: »

Will we be doing just a Main or a starter, main and dessert?

I'd say let's start off with just one - at least for the first few weeks. If things get going and people are interested we can bump it to two.

Jeez....I'm feelin' the pressure to come up with a good recipe for the first week. I'm thinking it might be a dessert. Not sure though. The pressure!!!!

Minder

Great idea. Can I play? Don't limit the recipes - why exclude veggies, particularly as a vegetarian meal is easily cheaper than a meat dish? Anyone can choose not to cook the dishes if it doesn't suit their palate/pocket.

The Black Oil

I wouldn't mind learning some veggie recipes, either.

_blank_

Minder wrote: »

why exclude veggies, particularly as a vegetarian meal is easily cheaper than a meat dish?

The Black Oil wrote: »

I wouldn't mind learning some veggie recipes, either.

Calm down lads, my "no veggie" comment was a joke, my OH, irishbird, is a veggie and she was reading this thread when I posted that.

John Mason

:D:D:D

The Black Oil

Best not mention coriander, then!.

Khannie

The Black Oil wrote: »

coriander

Bant.

Definitely interested too

Flamed Diving

I'm in.