What's your favorite cuisine/dish to cook at home? (ingredients, restaurants, diet)

[andywire]

I tell ya, Asian food has to be one of my favorite cuisines to cook at home. You can be as creative as your little heart desires with the ingredient choices and you really can't go wrong.

Personally, one of my favorite components of the preparation is the shopping experience. I was reminded of this today when I visited the Asian market. Isles of sauces, noodles, and even sweet dessert treats. I personally skip the prepared items and move right for the ingredients. I don't shy away from the strange stuff. In fact, I gravitate towards them. Oyster flavored sauces? Heck yes! Preserved duck eggs? Bring it on!

I went a little overboard today. $65 later, I walked away with bags of wheat noodles, pad Thai sauce, baby spinach, sesame seed oil, bean sprouts, freeze dried miniature shrimp, kimchee, dumplings, those buttery flat cookies they give you beside fortune cookies... Much more that I can't seem to recall. Oh yes, and a frozen durain, which I have not been able to find in ages! Goodness, I spent at least 1/2 hour looking through that place, and I had a blast

So I spent about 2 hours preparing pad thai tonight. I made sure everything was done just right. I've had the quick fix fake pad thai before. Yuck. Way too much salt, less than authentic flavor, and not even worth the little bit of effort required. Tonight's freshly prepared meal however actually rivaled what I've had in the many Thai restaurants I have visited. All I needed was some of those crumbled bits they usually sprinkle on your noodles, or perhaps some calamari.

I'm going to be eating Asian food for at least a few days yet, and I can't imagine I'll get sick of it. Definitely worth the effort. A great balance between meat and veggies that western dishes often lack. Best part, it's not even that expensive to create a satisfying, even unique dish.

[ccm123]

For us, Italian is easy to cook at home and tasty!

[momtothree]

I've been exploring Korean cuisine lately. I stocked up on from our last trip to the Asian market, soybean paste, Korean pepper paste, black bean paste, asian pear, ginger, Napa cabbage, and various items.

So far I've made kimchi, steamed buns, douchang pork, bulgogi, next will be black bean paste pork and spicy stuffed cabbage. I really like the maanchi site for recipes.

[chiroptera]

I cook a lot of vegetarian dishes at home and do a lot of Indian-style dishes as well as some Thai, Middle Eastern type foods. (Thai because it so often involves coconut milk which I ADORE! Same goes for peanut sauce, mmmmmmm.) The last thing I made with coconut milk was a spicy lentil-mung bean stew. I added a can of rich coconut milk at the end and it was so good I ate three bowls, and shared some with a couple of friends.

I agree the shopping is fun. Every month or two a friend and I stock up with staples, spices and fun stuff (such as pistachio halvah, fresh dates, baclava,) at area Indian or Middle Eastern grocery stores.

Another plus for Indian cuisine: it can be amazingly inexpensive if you're on a budget. As long as you have the right spices on hand you can make a delicious, healthful and low-fat meal with just a couple of potatoes or other cheap veggies, a couple of cups of dried lentils, veggies in season with just a smidge of meat or fish...

nb: Indian and other "ethnic" cuisine does NOT have to be hot. Maybe this is just a misconception around where I currently live but I encounter it a lot. Just leave out the hot peppers or chilies and it's tasty-spicy, but mild.

[mainebrokerman]

I like to cook, and will make or create some new dishes- i do like experimenting, and i do like cook different ethnic dishes


I always come back to my favorites,,, the simplistic flavor of the food itself

deer, moose
steaks, Seafood (lobsters and clams)
pork ribs, whole chickens, lamb

[momtothree]

Originally Posted by chiroptera

I agree the shopping is fun. Every month or two a friend and I stock up with staples, spices and fun stuff (such as pistachio halvah, fresh dates, baclava,) at area Indian or Middle Eastern grocery stores.

Another plus for Indian cuisine: it can be amazingly inexpensive if you're on a budget. As long as you have the right spices on hand you can make a delicious, healthful and low-fat meal with just a couple of potatoes or other cheap veggies, a couple of cups of dried lentils, veggies in season with just a smidge of meat or fish...

nb: Indian and other "ethnic" cuisine does NOT have to be hot. Maybe this is just a misconception around where I currently live but I encounter it a lot. Just leave out the hot peppers or chilies and it's tasty-spicy, but mild.

I adore Indian cooking! I agree it's so inexpensive to cook. Especially if you stock up on the basic spices to create all your own blends. I buy bags of spices from a brand called Swad which are delicious and cheap. Plus I use ghee for everything instead of butter, burns less.

[chiroptera]

Originally Posted by momtothree

I adore Indian cooking! I agree it's so inexpensive to cook. Especially if you stock up on the basic spices to create all your own blends. I buy bags of spices from a brand called Swad which are delicious and cheap. Plus I use ghee for everything instead of butter, burns less.

Do you make your own ghee, or buy it?

I've ordered spices from zamouri.com and they're very good, but expensive. Last summer a new store opened not far from me - they sell all sorts of Middle Eastern, Asian and Indian foods and spices for way cheap. Plus it's fun to look at all the weird and interesting items they carry - basil seed soda pop, all sorts of interesting sauces (including a fish sauce that has bits of fish and fish eyeballs floating in it ) and all sorts of canned goods and Indian frozen dinners I've never seen in regular grocery stores.

[momtothree]

Originally Posted by chiroptera

Do you make your own ghee, or buy it?

I've ordered spices from zamouri.com and they're very good, but expensive. Last summer a new store opened not far from me - they sell all sorts of Middle Eastern, Asian and Indian foods and spices for way cheap. Plus it's fun to look at all the weird and interesting items they carry - basil seed soda pop, all sorts of interesting sauces (including a fish sauce that has bits of fish and fish eyeballs floating in it ) and all sorts of canned goods and Indian frozen dinners I've never seen in regular grocery stores.

I am blessed with huge stores of different ethnicity here close to me. So we have Patel Bros which is amazing to shop in for what you described. And while I love to cook, I am a lazy cook so I don't make my own ghee! But it's cheap to buy at Patel. I buy a huge can of it and then scoop out as needed in a smaller jar. The kids get all sorts of snacks, there's one that is their favorite, Aloo Bahdiju (I am butchering the spelling but here is a picture)

[sskink]

Alas, I no longer get to cook what I really like as my wife's diabetic diet won't allow for a lot of it, and she's turned against Indian, which I was pretty good at. So no pastas, potatoes, rice, et.al. She'll still do Mexican entrees, but no tortillas or beans, which makes it less interesting for me. A nice firm white fish veracruzana is still a favorite, but these days sadly I'm settling more and more for experimenting with meatloaf.

[Cubanchic]

I love to do either of three things:

1. The days I work from home and in between calls I visit my foodie porn site (tastespotting) or city data thread what is for dinner and what inspires me I will either make that night or plan for the next night.

2. I food travel and want to learn new dishes and break out my ethnic cook books and do a string of either Thai, Indian, Peruvian, Caribbean ( Guyana, Jamaica, Haiti, etc.)

3. I plan for special dinners on Sunday and that is when I have all day to make long and slow or really ambitious recipes.