Anyone Can Cook: 1st (Official) Night

Good Morning Everyone!

It’s amazing what a movie can do. It took four of us; just four. With the smell of Thai lingering in the air, a bottle of red wine, unopened and still black-bagged on the table, food settling and stomach digesting, the customary banter beyond half-progressed, “if it has something to do with food, I watch it.” Maybe inspired by a wing-eating contest from the night before, combined with the fare just partaken, she continued to say “we should start a cooking contest.” And so it began. Rules were set and the following week; the first cooking-night (the practice run). Since then 3 more (official): one kitchen, one circle of friends, one main ingredient, several other ingredients, and approximately 3 hours of cooking time…and I’ve always said that “three hours spent cooking fare, is a well three hours spent.”

Cooking-Night #1: Spinach

Dish #1: German-Style Chard
Cook: Bawarchi

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 package fresh spinach
2. 1/2 largeonion, chopped
3. 2garlic cloves, minced
4. 2 tablespoons butter
5. 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6. salt to taste
7. pepper to taste
8. 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

Sauté onion and garlic in butter until brown. Add spinach, seasoned with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Stir until cooked.

Dish#2: German-Style Chard
Cook: Bawarchi

Ingredients:

1. ½ package frozen chopped spinach
2. ½ large onion
3. 3 green chilies
4. 2 tbsp butter
5. 1 tsp vinegar (white vinegar otherwise it’s a disaster and only I can save it)
6. 1/2 teaspoon coriander powder
7. 2 minced garlic cloves
8. 4 eggs
9. cheese to your taste

Wilt spinach in water. Drain water. Sauté onion, garlic, and green chilies in butter until brown. Add salt & pepper (to taste) and coriander. Add cooked spinach, cook till dry. Add vinegar, then eggs with constant stirring. Stir for 5-7 minutes. Serve, topped with cheese.

Dish #3: Stir-Fry Chicken & Spinach
Cook: Corn (YuMi)

Ingredients:

1. butter
2. 10 oz .spinach
3. 1 tbsp. ginger
4. 1 finely chopped onion
5. 3 bell peppers
6. 2 jalapeno pepers
7. 2 cups chopped mushrooms
8. 2 tbsp. rosemary
9. 2 tbsp. lemon pepper
10. 2 tbsp. oregano
11. 8 oz. coconut milk
12. 2 tbsp. corn starch

Sauté ginger, onion, peppers, spinach and mushrooms in butter. Season with salt, black pepper, rosemary, lemon pepper, and oregano. Once cooked, remove from heat, and set side. Sauté chicken in butter. Season. Add coconut milk and corn starch. Stir. Add vegetable mixture and season to liking.

Dish #4: Spanikopita Meatballs
Cook: Daisy M. Clouds

Ingredients:

1. 1 chopped onion
2. 3-4 minced cloves garlic
3. 10 oz. spinach
4. 2 lbs ground chicken
5. 1 egg
6. 1 cup feta cheese crumbles
7. ¼ cup oregano
8. 1 tsp thyme
9. 1-2 cups bread crumbs
10. plain Greek yogurt
11. 1/2 cubed cucumber
12. 1 tbsp. lemon juice
13. 1 tsp garlic powder

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Coat frying pan with a thin layer of olive oil and warm oil. Gently sauté garlic and onion until the onion is translucent. Add some more oil to the pan, and begin adding spinach slowly. As the spinach begins to wilt, add more oil and more spinach little by little until you have wilted all of your spinach completely, and make sure the spinach is nicely coated in oil. Add some lemon juice for flavor.

Remove the spinach/garlic/onion/oil mixture from heat. Put ground meat in large bowl and punch a small groove in the center of the meat. Put egg, bread crumbs, feta cheese, thyme, oregano, salt and pepper into groove. Mush the mixture all together. Make sure it is mixed evenly. Add some more bread crumbs to firm it up if too sticky. Next, add the spinach/onion/garlic/oil mixture and mix with meat. Shape the meat into meatballs of desired shape and bake in the oven for 20-30 mins until completely cooked.

While the meat is cooking, combine Greek yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, and garlic powder for your meatball topping. Serve it on the side of your meatballs.

Dish #5: How to Make Me Eat Spinach
Cook: Miss Cook

Ingredients:

1. canned tomatoes
2. 1 medium onion
3. 6 tbsp sour cream
4. 1 tsp garlic
5. 1 tsp ginger
6. 4 cloves
7. 4 cardamoms
8. 1 cinnamon stick
9. 1 tsp cumin seeds
10. 1 tbsp coriander powder
11. 1 tsp turmeric powder
12. 1 tsp chili powder
13. 1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves
14. tofu cut into cubes
15. boiled spinach (as little as possible because I don’t like spinach)

Brown chopped onions in butter. Add garlic, ginger, and all the dry ingredients (except fenugreek leaves). Add the canned tomatoes and stir till it forms a paste. Add the sour cream and some water. Add tofu cut into small cubes. Added the boiled spinach. Simmer on the stove. Add the dried fenugreek leaves.

Dish #6: Spinach-Stuffed Chicken
Cook: Penny Picayune

Ingredients:

1. 12 oz. spinach
2. 6 boneless & skinless chicken breast halves
3. 6 minced garlic cloves
4. 1 shallot
5. ½ cup cubed green apple
6. 7 tbsp of ricotta cheese
7. ¼ cup half & half
8. ¼ cup bread crumbs
9. 2 tbsp butter

Sauté garlic, shallots and spinach in a pad of butter. Season mixture with salt and freshly ground black pepper and other spices to your liking. Once spinach has wilted, remove from heat, add green apple cubes, bread crumbs, ricotta cheese and half & half. Mix well.

Preheat oven to 400 °F. Make a slit on the side of each chicken piece. Season chicken breast to your liking (I’m liking salt, pepper, paprika, nutmeg, cinnamon, cumin, chili powder). Fill slit with spinach mixture. Brown chicken on each side in a pat of butter. Top chicken pieces with ricotta cheese and bake in oven for 45 minutes.

Dish #7: Orange-Spinach Pasta
Cook: Wash Your Hands

1. 1 lb pasta
2. 2 oranges (juiced and, 1 zest-ed)
3. 1 cup chopped scallions
4. 12 oz. spinach
5. 1 tbsp butter
6. 1 cup half and half

In a large pot, add water and salt, bring to a boil. Cook pasta according to package directions. In the mean time, friendly banter with random group of people. While chatting away, zest one orange and then juice the two oranges. By this time, your pasta should’ve been cooking for 5 mins, add spinach and continue cooking to package directions.  Continue talking and wait for pasta to reach the tenderness that you like. Then ask Penny for help to drain pasta.  Also remove pulp from orange juice (Penny suggests using a towel, which semi-works, but not really. The other people don’t care whether there’s pulp or not).

Add butter to a pan, and melt the crap out of it. Add orange juice and scallions. Reduce orange juice to nothingness. Add half and half. Then add orange zest. Cook for a few mins. Remove from heat, throw in pasta and mix until to your liking. Add sh*t loads of Parmesan cheese because the recipe failed to add salt and pepper like normal people do. If you don’t like cheese, combine with Miss Cook’s recipe (which can be found above). That’s it!

The pictures will get better with upcoming affairs. We promise! Next up, what was our 2nd cooking-night.