Cooking with Hannuman

A while back my sister bought me a cookbook for christmas. It was Jamie Olivers Ministry of food.
At first i thought it was a pretty average present but as i started to cook the recipes I realised just how awesome this present was.
The book single handedly created my love for cooking.
In the book they have this thing saying that by reading this you are obliged to teach one of your friends a recipe which will help them live better eat better and just generally have a more enriched life.
Now i liked this idea so i thought i would take it a bit further and tell all of you guys on 420chan all i know about how to cook.
I hope you find this useful.

So i'ma start with Dinner because that tends to be what you want to know anyway.
Dinners consist of
The Base:
This could be pasta, potatoes, rice, beans, bread etc etc. Its what makes up the bulk of the meal its the largely tasteless stuff that needs to have shit added to it for flavour.
The vegetables:
Now i chuck in vegetables normally not because of their flavour but to change up the texture of the meal. The vegetables i pick normally get cooked along with the Flavour so that they soak up the Flavour and eating one of the vegetables is like a burst of flavour instead of boring old vegetables
Brocolli is my favourite for this because if you chuck it into say a pasta sauce the sauce gets caught all in the buddy bits and eating it isn't like "ugh a bit of brocolli" You will actively search for the brocolli because it has taken on the flavour of everything around it.
The following vegetables can be chucked into just about anything and still taste good with the dish.
Mushrooms, Onions, Carrots, Brocolli, Bamboo shoots, Capsicum, spring onion, Green beans, Cabbage, Celery.
The Flavour:
Now this is where it gets a bit complicated and a bit easier to fuck up but there are a few things that just don't go wrong
Curry Pastes:
Meal in a jar. well. not really but the whole flavour of a meal can be made just with this shit. it'll cost like 7 bucks for a 200gm jar and that could be several meals.
They are so so so worth your money.
Cans of tomatoes:
Every fucking house needs to have like 10 of these at all times. They cost a dollar or like 1.50 per can and one can can turn tasteless base material into something worth eating for the overall price of like 3 per meal. (although that is like student food. if you want something worth not just serving to yourself you'll have to read on)
They are so goddamn versatile.
Additives:
This is what makes the meal taste like awesome.
Its hard to know at first what to use if you havent cooked much and so you will have to experiment alot with things to see what is good where. there are alot of spices that fill peoples spice rack that i just don't even understand (I'm looking at you Tumeric)
The thing is that you've just got to make meals and try it out. Also it helps to, when you are eating a dish you didnt make, ask what was in it or if you are at a restaurant try to figure it out yourself. When you start to realise what does what you can make it work with your cooking too.
Anyway. I can't really tell you any overarching things about how most spices work but i can for certain spices
Coriander:
This is a curry spice. Chuck it in just about any curry and it works. If you don't know what it will taste like go to the supermarket and find the fresh coriander. pick a leaf and rub it between your hands. Chances are youve eaten it before and it will bring back memories of a certain dish. it is very pungent and makes the whole room perfumed with its scent.
People fucking love coriander. just the smell of it makes people think you are a good cook.
It works particularly well with Green curry, Tikka masala, or anything with tomatoes in it.

Cumin:
I heard it called arabian pepper once and it certainly makes sense like that. The smell of Cumin is so typically arabic.
Use it wherever for an arabian tinge to your cooking. it works well in most things. its a very versatile spice. try a little in your cooking at first maybe a teaspoon then see whether you like it/need more
Oregano/Thyme/Italian herbs.
Use in Tomato dishes. it buffs up the flavour.

Hmm..
maybe i should just write some recipes to show you what i mean.

One of my favourite recipes goes like this:
 Hannumans Thai Green curry
Serves Four
300-400 grams of Chicken.
Crushed Ginger
Lemon juice

Fresh fucking coriander. (its not nessecary but it makes it so much better)
Three nice thick shoots of Spring Onion.
A handful of Green Beans for each person
1-2 onions depending on your taste.
Fresh chili (if that is your taste)
about 2-3 stalks of celery

Soy sauce
about 3-5 heaped teaspoons of Green curry paste (i do have a recipe for making the paste but i cant for the life of me remember it)

Coconut milk a 400ml can of it.
Bamboo shoots (not entirely nessecary but makes it much better)

Basmati rice (it really doesn't matter too much about what rice you take but i like basmati rice)
ith

So first off put some oil in the pan and get the stove going really hot.
Dice the chicken into small pieces then chuck the chicken in the pan with maybe 2-3 teaspoons of crushed ginger, the juice of a lemon and drizzle some soy sauce over it.

Put the rice on. ( i always forget the rice so i do it early but do it whenever you want)

Cut up the Vegetables
If the Chicken is well cooked through chuck the veges into the pan too then chuck the curry paste in. Mix the curry paste around to get as much

When the onions look cooked chuck the can of coconut milk into the pan and if it looks too dry add half the can of water.

Chuck however many bamboo shoots you feel like doing.

when the mixture starts boiling let it boil for a minute or two then take it off and serve!

Oh also add some coriander leaves to the curry fluid so they float around and look beautiful. Cutting up little bits of chili looks nice too.


deliciousmisio

Serves 3-4
250-400 grams of chicken.
can of chickpeas
1 can of tomatoes
Base of your choice (i used pasta) ( i wouldnt recommend potatoes for this but thats probably because i dont like potatoes much)
Veges of your choice. ( used mushrooms, celery, brocolli)
two teaspoons of red curry paste.
Additives (not nessecary but made it oh so good)
Coriander (about 6-8 shoots)
lime juice

dice the chicken.
Cut up your veges

Cook chicken stir the chicken so it dont burn homie. you might like to chuck some garlic in at this point or you might not. its up to you.
When the chicken is fully cooked chuck in The veges.
If you like your veges mushy leave them in for a bit. if not move straight on to..
chuck the can of chickpeas and tomatoes. At this point you might like to put in some chilli but again its up to you.
chuck the red curry paste in and stir it around make sure that the curry paste is well mixed in because no one wants chunks of curry paste
Boil some water, chuck the rice or pasta into the water. and cook that shit.
Once the flavour mixture starts to bubble put it on low temp and let it simmer so that everything gets nice and permeated with flavour.
Also add the additives now if yo are using them
When the base is ready you are ready to gorge yourself!