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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
bread pudding
chicken-n-soy sauce
bread pudding
chicken-n-soy sauce
The Rules of Pacers Digest
Hello everyone,
Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.
A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.
Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.
Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.
Rule #1
Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:
"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"
"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"
"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"
"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"
"He/she is just delusional"
"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"
"I'm going to take a moment to point and
/ laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"
"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good?"
In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.
We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.
Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.
That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.
A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.
There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.
Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.
In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.
Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.
If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!
All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.
Rule #2
If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.
The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.
The right places to do so are:
A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.
B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.
If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.
Rule #3
If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.
When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:
A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.
B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.
To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!
Rule #4
Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.
Rule #5
When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.
An example:
If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:
http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star
Rule #6
We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.
The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.
Rule #7
Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.
It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).
We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).
However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.
Rule #8
We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.
Rule #9
Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.
Rule #10
We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.
Rule #11
Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.
A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.
Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.
Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.
Rule #1
Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:
"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"
"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"
"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"
"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"
"He/she is just delusional"
"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"
"I'm going to take a moment to point and
/ laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*""Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good?
"In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.
We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.
Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.
That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.
A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.
There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.
Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.
In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.
Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.
If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!
All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.
Rule #2
If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.
The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.
The right places to do so are:
A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.
B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.
If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.
Rule #3
If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.
When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:
A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.
B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.
To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!
Rule #4
Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.
Rule #5
When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.
An example:
If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:
http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star
Rule #6
We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.
The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.
Rule #7
Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.
It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).
We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).
However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.
Rule #8
We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.
Rule #9
Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.
Rule #10
We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.
Rule #11
Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
Grilled a pizza yesterday, burned the crust a little but it was delicious. Green and red peppers, vidalia sweet onions, baby portabella mushrooms, kalamata olives (not my favorites, but the girl helping me make it wanted them, they're easy enough to pick off), sundried tomato and roasted garlic pasta sauce, sliced tomatoes, boar's head pepperoni, and of course some cheese, we went with a five cheese shredded italian blend. Sprinkled McCormick's Select Zesty Italian Seasoning or something like that on top of all of this. The crust we used was the refrigerated crust in the can, think in the same vein as what a biscuit or a roll in a can would look like.
I would honestly recommend making the pizza on top of tin foil on the grill, but it's really up to you. It can be difficult to move if you don't have the right utensils. I cooked over med-high, but in the future I might go medium or even med-low and just let it cook longer. The flavor however was delicious and the crust really didn't burn that bad.
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
A VERY easy variation on this is to use a whole pita bread as the crust and make personal sized pizzas. The pita will grill up very thin and crispy and you can get just the right amount of char on the crust for your preference if you're careful. There's no need for tinfoil or special utensils, it's fast, and it tastes delicious.Originally posted by Indy View PostComment
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
Hey, I know Mark Bittman... not really but I recently bought a book of his...
Anyway I was looking to get into Cooking as a career and I was just wondering if anyone here has had experience working at "Nicer" restaurants or ever managed/owned their own Place?
I've looked into Cooking Schools but they are UBER-Expensive and, since I don't even know if I'd love to be a chef for the rest of my life, I can't really justify spending so much money on school... I mean I could end up working at Applebee's for a year then moving on to something else. Boy would I be embarrassed then.
And as far as cooking goes... try keeping your Soy Sauce on the side and dipping into it or dipping your fork/chopstick into it. Do this and you'll avoid eating so much sodium and still all the flavor since the food has no time to absorb the salt or water down its distinct taste... this is a good tip for those that have high blood pressure.
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
I made a first attempt at Indian cookery (not counting some simple curries with the popular curry in a box powder) today...started last night actually.
Turned out a chicken tikka masala, cucumber raita, naan bread....threw in some hummus on the side just because I love hummus. I only got adventurous enough to make the chicken and raita from scratch. The naan bread is storebought. Ditto the hummus (3 varieties).
This is the recipe I used for the chicken tikka masala. It has a nice discussion about this dish having not been born on the Indian subcontinent, but in England. Thanks, RasaMalaysia.com!
http://rasamalaysia.com/chicken-tikka-masala-recipe/
I marinaded the little-bigger-than-bite-sized chicken pieces overnight in plain yogurt, chili powder, cumin, ginger, cinammon, pepper and salt.
Made three varieties of cucumber raita this morning and refrigerated through the afternoon. Used plain yogurt, undrained for a more liquid Indian-style, rather than a thicker Greek, Persian or Turk style (For that, drain through a cheesecloth overnight so it's more like Greek yogurt).
Separated the yougurt into three bowls...with a cup or two in each. To the yogurt I added some cumin, a tbsp lemon juice (lime in one variation), dill weed (tarragon in one variation), and peeled, seeded, thin sliced cucumber shreds. Could have grated the cucumber...didn't think of it. In one variation, I added sour cream and a tsp of vinegar for the Turk / Persian slant..
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This afternoon I made the tomato base for the masala....minced cloves of garlic and sliced chili peppers browned in olive oil; added paprika, cumin, coriander, salt, red pepper flakes. After that all started getting thick, and the peppers softened, I added two cans of diced tomatoes. Simmered 'til the tomatoes were soft.
I began broiling the chicken pieces about 4:30. When they were done, added them to the tomato base, heated and when it began to bubble, added a can of evap milk. The recipe called for fresh cream, but our cow died. I served the mixture over rice. Again the recipe calls for bismathi rice; I used our usually on hand Korean sticky rice (which I prefer to the slick bismathi).
Brushed the naan bread with some olive oil, put in the toaster oven for a couple of minutes. Sliced a bermuda onion for garnish. This is the South, so we, of course, had sweet iced tea to drink...but it was green tea, so we were going exotic.
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The customers were well satisfied. Below you can see the chicken with the tomato base, the completed masala after the milk went in, the table setting with kester102 getting ready to enjoy, and a closer view of the menu items.
I can see this becoming an easy enough routine procedure to add this to my regular menu rotation. Good stuff. I usually only get to eat "indian" when I'm out on the road and happen to find a buffet for lunch.
Last edited by kester99; 05-16-2010, 03:05 AM.
[~]) ... Cheers! Go Pacers!Comment
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
That looks delicious, Kesty. You had me at naan bread . . . but really, that looks so good.Comment
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
I've never had any other chicken like this. Without the tomato base, it's just chicken tikka....supposed to be grilled on skewers, but I punked out and broiled it. That yogurt, cinnamon, ginger, chili powder, cumin marinade did amazing things to the flavor. Good mouth buzz.Originally posted by sweabs View Post
Next time I'm just going with the chicken, I think, without the masala (sauce / gravy) bit. I can make some hot indian veggie dish for the side. I know they use potatoes....got to look into that.
[~]) ... Cheers! Go Pacers!Comment
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
That looked and sounded amazing Kester.Comment
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
I'm very happy this thread has found a new life. Keep it going!“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill
“If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.” - Catherine AirdComment
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
Made some homemade burgers tonight, ground beef, worcestshire sauce, garlic salt, onion powder, crushed red pepper, italian seasoning, ground black pepper, and lawrys seasoning salt. Basically just season to your taste, make em into patties and grill em up. Delicious.
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
Had people over last night for what I called "cocktails and shrimp tails."
I'm recycling some previously used images, but took a couple of different turns that I'll describe.
After a quick round of Cornhole, I got everything set up and made the first couple of rounds of Aperol Smashes:
2 parts Vodka,
2 parts Aperol Italian bitters
1 part simple syrup
1 part fresh squeezed lemon juice
Muddled mint and green grapes.
Shake well in a cocktail shaker and serve over ice.
Now, I really regret not getting a photo of what came after that, so I'll just have to describe it.
1) Two packages of Black Forest Bacon from Whole Foods.
At $9 (plus tax) for a single pack of bacon, this is a fairly extravagant purchase, but it is so SO very worth it. I don't know what it is that makes this bacon arguably the best bacon in the world, I really don't. You'll just have to trust me. It has a great smoky flavor with a hint of sweetness. YUM!
While everyone snacked on the strips of bacon, I set aside the bacon grease in a small sauce pan. Get ready for it to come back later.
Prepare the grill. I got a cast iron hibachi style grill as a gift from a client and it is unbelievable. The maker is Lodge. I highly, highly recommend it. Once you get it going, you just feed it additional briquettes and it will maintain a perfect searing heat for hours. the grill top marks your food like nothing else, too.
Here's a picture:
And here's a link:
http://www.amazon.com/Lodge-Manufact...8861599&sr=1-4
I also use natural mesquite charcoal.
I made a marinade from:
1/3 cup fresh italian parsley (minced)
1/3 cup fresh mint (minced)
1/3 cup fresh basil (minced)
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 cup olive oil
Whisk it all together.
I then had everyone help in making skewers. Now a lot of people make kabobs and throw everything (different meats and vegetables) on one kabob. This isn't the best way to do it, in my opinion. I separate the different items onto different squewers so that each thing can be cooked for the appropriate amount of time. There were three types of squewers last night:
Vegetable skewers:
Red and yellow bell peppers, cut into 2"x2" chunks.
Red onion cut into 2"x2" chunks
Yellow squash bias cut into 3/4" slices
Zucchini bias cut into 3/4" slices
Everything thrown into the herb marinade and speared.
These go on the grill first when it is really hot. You want to blacken the edges of the veggies but leave the center crisp (not soggy)
Shrimp skewers:
Soak your shrimps in the same marinade.
Do everyone a courtesy and take that last bit of shell off the tail. Then thread them on by going through the body and then the tail to make kind of a cent sign and line them up flat kind of like this.
I know, maybe I'm being nit-picky and giving too much information here. But when your shrimp cook nice and evenly with beautiful grill marks across the sides, you just might thank me for this tip.
Finally, Scallop skewers:
Same marinade. The problem with these buggers is that they tear easily so they aren't exactly the best thing to do kabobs with. But they really are amazing when they are crisped up on a charcoal grill, so it's worth losing a few in the fire to eat this treat.
So everything's coming off the fire and we've reached the fun part. Remember the bacon grease? When your skewers come of the grill and are zesty and herb coated and ready to go, take a spoon and drizzle some bacon grease on top of the seafood.
Last step: Eat everything before everyone else does!!!
.Last edited by Los Angeles; 07-11-2010, 11:41 AM.“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill
“If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.” - Catherine AirdComment
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
Just found some photos from the last time I made a similar dish. note - this is before I figured out the "cent sign" method. Also, no scallops or bacon/bacon grease in this version either.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill
“If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.” - Catherine AirdComment
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
This thread is pure, unadulterated awesome.Comment
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
We made berry ice cream last night, and it's been pretty good.
1 quart of heavy whipping cream ($2.00 at Sam's)
2 cups whole milk (~$0.25)
1 cup sugar (practically free)
1 T good vanilla (no idea)
1 pack of frozen mixed berries, thawed (~$2.00)
Mix the first 4 ingredients and add to the ice cream maker. Go for 20 minutes, then add the berries. 25 minutes more, then pull it and pop it in the freezer.
I can't stop eating this stuff. It's REALLY good. After much practice, we finally got the consistency right, too. Not too hard, not too soft. Just perfect.This space for rent.Comment
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Re: The Cooking and Libations Thread
I just had two beers.
Should I tell Robert McDougal too?Comment
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