Jun21
Rub a dub dub, thanks for the grub!
It’s been a whole two years since our last cooking showcase. This lapse in delicious awesomeness is unacceptable. So, as a followup to our Y6 Anniversary Aniblogging Habitat post, I bring you… That’s right, none other than the Metanorn Y6 Anniversary Cooking Showcase! Sit back, relax, and try not to Jibril too much. =)
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Orange: I don’t cook much, but I think you guys will enjoy my addition to the Metanorn menu. Today I present… the humble orange! Directions are pretty simple. Grab your favorite mode of travel. Head to your local grocery store. Buy an orange. Heck, buy a bag of oranges. Go crazy. Go Florida (better than California). Whatever you do, make sure at the end of the day you have a big, juicy orange you can pleasure yourself with. Go home (or wherever you wish to consume the delicious goodness you just purchased). Wash the orange. Eat it. I prefer to cut the orange into six slices with a knife, but preparation can vary depending on your taste. And that’s it. Simple as that. Nothing beats a nice, simple dish, right?
But wait, there’s more! Show ▼
Just kidding. You guys didn’t really think I just put an orange on a plate and cut it, right? Actually, I made curry rice. That’s right, the staple of anime food. Le pièce de résistance of 2D cuisine. Except now in 3D because three Ds are better than two. The ingredients and process are fairly simple and straight forward. In fact, you can immediately spot almost everything necessary to make the dish: chicken, potatoes, carrots, and onions. The two other main ingredients that you can’t see so much are curry powder and coconut milk. But that’s how you make the sauce, duh! With the ingredients gathered, all you have to do is chop what needs to be chopped. And then throw everything into a large pot and let simmer for as long as you like (the longer you cook, the better it tastes). It’s really that easy. From there, you add rice as a side dish (while simultaneously making a K-On! reference) and now you have curry rice! Normally this would be it, and in fact if you stop here you’ve already accomplished the infamous anime curry rice. But I like to go above and beyond and also keep a balanced diet, so I threw in some garlic sautéed spinach for good measure.
Oh, and I still ate that orange.
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Strawberry-Rose Crêpes: On the other hand, I actually love to cook. You know what I watch on TV when I’m not watching anime? The Food Network. It’s weird because I always thought cooking was too girly, but realizing I could make bacon pies I quickly changed my mind. Not that liking cooking makes me a pro cook. I’m probably just decent overall. But I love to try new things (A+ for effort) so for the showcase I decided to make crêpes from scratch! I melted chocolate in a double boiler for the sauce, whipped some heavy cream with rosewater in my mixer to make rose whipped cream, and made my own crêpe batter from buckwheat flour and almond milk. I don’t know why I even tried to go healthy with the batter when I just smothered it with whipped cream. Anyways, here’s my ode to the delicious crêpes from Gochuumon wa Usagi desu ka?…or just about any anime with crêpes, I suppose.
As seen in Gochiusa: Show ▼
Mine was too loaded with whipped cream to hold upright like that lol
The cooking process…plus what happens if you don’t eat it fast enough!
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skylion’s grilled cheese insanity sammich: I’ve been a food service veteran for more than twenty years, and I’ve love cooking. You would think I would be good at it after all this time, but no! I kid, I no longer lose appendages making a salad. There were quit a few items I did consider before settling on this feature. Heh, maybe next time, I’ll do my Red Beans and Rice with Wilted Baby Spinach, as an onigiri, maybe? And I apologize on behalf of my camera, it was behaving badly.
Hot/sriracha sauce, Texas toast, nutella/hazelnut spread, shredded sharp cheddar and thick cut peppered bacon
Let’s into the kitchen! Band-aids ready? Show ▼
Well the first thing you need to know about the recipe; It calls for a mixture of nutella and sriracha sauce. Do not mix them together just as is. You will create a thick, gloppy, ugly, non spreadable paste. It still tastes good, but not on a sammich. Well, you argue, why it would be good on a sammich anyway? If you’ve come this far, then you’re in aren’t you? Essentially use a double boiler method. You want to combine water and the sriracha and bring it to a simmer. Then add the nutella, and stir until you get a nice creamy texture. How much hot sauce? It’s your innards! But a cup of 1/4 cup hot water to a 1/2 cup of nutella is what you are going after, spice to taste, habit, dare, vigor, etc.
I like a thick sammich, so that’s why I love using Texas toast style thick cut bread. You can use sliced sharp cheddar if you wish, but I like it most with shredded cheese. Sharp cheddar is best to use with this sammich as it complements both the nutella and the peppered bacon. At least that is my preference. I’ve tried it one of two ways in using the nutella/sriracha sauce. One is to spread it on one of the bread pieces before grilling, and then add the cheese on top of that, or not (depends on your love of cheese) , or grill both and add the sauce while the rest is cooking. You did remember to start cooking the bacon before grilling the bread right? Put the bacon on the sammich, close it up, and slice. I’ve served mine with sea salt pita chips (well the crumbly bits after the bag was apparently used as a sports ball). Use extra hot nutella sauce for dipping. If you wish to add more to the sammich, I recommend yellow peppers, or even sliced apple. Yeah, I know this stuff shouldn’t work, but it does!
NOM!
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Cream Mushroom Soup: I hate cooking, seriously. This is because I spent 3 years of my high school life working as anything in the mall’s food court, from being a cashier to being an assistant cook. I still remember hot air of the kitchen that is also humid… The amount of spices I had remember… But the worst of all, I had to eat the same thing every day for lunch in those 3 years (weekends are exceptions). This is why I don’t cook. This is why I prefer instant food that only needs to be boiled/fried/heated only or whatever that is. But since I’m in survival mode right now (living alone), I need to get creative with some of the instant ingredients, and thus the cream mushroom soup is born!
I eat this soup every time I’m on diet, which is every day Show ▼
The ingredients of the soup are not that hard to find. Just a pack of powdered instant mushroom soup, a pack of fresh mushroom, broccoli, and water. Firs is to (of course) heat the water. When it’s half-boiled, put the powdered soup into a glass then fill the glass with some water. Then stir the powdered soup until it’s dissolved, then pour the dissolved water into the half-boiled water. This is so that the powdered soup won’t be clumped, as it has the tendency to do so if poured directly into the boiling water. And that’s about it. Chop the other ingredients into small pieces then dump them into the half-boiling water-now-soup until it’s completely boiled. And viola! The soup is done! Dump it into your nearby bowl then eat it until you’re sick of what water. I got sick and still ate it. I even made a new one since I finished the first pan in 2 1/2 bowls! Now you know why I eat it when I’m on diet.
The broccoli was finished, so I decided to sprinkle some oregano with celery to make it taste good. Everything is good with tasted water…
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Fluffy Raisin French Toasts: I love cooking when I have time. I come from a very foodie family, where taste matters and we love all of our local and international cuisine. My mother is an excellent cook and I still remember following her around the kitchen and trying to help wherever I could when I was a kid. During university days I rarely had the chance to enter the kitchen; though, I experimented a lot afterwards. I was originally planning on making something traditional like a specialized Creamy Karri or Lamb Korma but I ended up touching upon an anime trope that has survived the test of time. Yes, indeed, I am talking about the Late for School trope. We have seen multiple renditions of it. Hell, I could write an editorial simply on this topic because running to school with a toast hanging from mouth is filled with moe depth. Though, my version of toast is no simple jammed/buttered toast but the fluffy kind with raisins that melt in your mouth.
Saber, just because I couldn’t find Shiki’s trope version >>;
Ingredients & Direction Show ▼
- Egg – 2 or 3
- Flour – one and a half tbs per egg
- Baking powder/ bicarbonate soda – 2 pinches
- Milk – Half cup
- Condensed milk – 1 or 2 spoon (depending on your sweet bud)
- Cinnamon stick or powder – either warm the half-cup milk with one medium stick or use powder as per taste
- Vanilla essence – add as per taste (I added 4 drops)
- Sugar – one tbs per egg
- Salt – one pinch
- Raisins – As many as you want to stick on while toasting
- Bread – 6 to 10 slices
Above is the complete ingredients list but you can always differentiate measuring in terms of taste or even add/subtract stuff you don’t have at hand or dislike it. The purpose of flour is to add coating for fluffiness and also to give substance to the batter rather than only depending upon eggs to magically produce some wonder. Once the batter is properly whipped with the above ingredients, have a small pile of raisins ready nearby. Preheat a nonstick pan with a light layer of oil. Dunk the bread pieces in the batter and soak nicely on both sides. Toast the coated slices with a smack of raisins as per your liking. Place them however randomly you like. Press gently once on the raisins-side and then turn the bread slices (I fried two at a time), for the other side to cook. While frying, make sure not to squeeze the bread slices too much with your spatula. Just do it once for raisins and lightly tap the sides later. Pile them up in a plate and if your bread slices finished like mine, you can always cook the remaining batter and present it with the toasts as a nice decoration. Enjoy this with tea or just as is! ^^
Meshi agare
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Are you drooling yet with our mouth watering offerings? Hope you enjoyed the slew of special posts on the occasion of our 6th anniversary. With Spring season almost to a close, expect the Summer Preview to be out in a week++. However, while you are at it, let us know if you have any recent kitchen stints to share. They don’t have to be Kitchen Nightmares caliber but we are definitely curious to know how many of our readers/lurkers cook and what are the kind of dishes they can muster up. Comment away.
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We live, laugh, enjoy and strictly believe on "more the merrier". When together, we usually come up with very chatty, conversation-based episodics and interesting posts.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
Kurumi would like to *eat* you.
..
…
And so would Jibril.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
We are happy to hear that 😉
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Thanks for bringing back the deliciousness, Sumairii. Your orange cannot be beat!
Ahhh using condensed milk for French Toast is such a great idea! I’m stealing that next time, Kyo :3c
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
The creamier that batter the better! 😉 And yeah, send me the recipe for crepe because it looks sooo delishhhh!
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
I’m incompetent in the kitchen so I exclusively eat at restaurants, typically a combination of Bagel for breakfast, Burrito for lunch, and some green curry for supper.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Keep your hands safe! Btw, what about eggs or simple sandwiches?
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Nice dishes, everyone. Don’t feel disheartened if people suddenly wanted to ransack your kitchens after what they’ve seen. Just because it looks tempting, I’d target OC’s Strawberry-Rose Crêpes.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Why am I not surprised? 😉
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
My kitchen is my territory! You’ll sit yourself down and wait…
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Strawberry-rose… <3
Makes me think of Yumeiro Patissiere <3
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
BTW I will understand if you don’t like my sriracha/nutella sauce. I you want, I can recommend another option.
POWUH: Meta Team and Meta-Analyst with 3844 comments
mmm… sweet LOLi spread..
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
The 2nd option might be quite unhealthy for some! 😛
POWUH: and LOLi Defender with 10997 comments
It’s only made from about 2%despair, the rest is filler…
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
Good food everyone! If we lived in one giant house we definitely won’t have a loss of chefs xD
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Oh definitely! Special treats every day.
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Imagine Meta’s Christmas table *~*
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
I can already imagine the scavenging.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
If we lived around each other, we could have opened up a side-business of a fusion food joint under Metanorn ventures. 😉
POWUH: Meta Team and PreCure Mastah with 9203 comments
hahaha yes!
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
That would’ve been quite incredible 😀
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
Uuuuu I’m so late for this >_<
Things look so delicious *~* As always, I'm gonna try out most of your recipes, guys. Besides the crepe, I doubt I'll ever be able to neatly make a crepe. EVER.
Hmmmm. What I'll offer today is a delicious mushroom soup with glass noodles and soy sauce <3
SO, what you will need (no exact measurements here, just eyeball and mend it to your own taste)
– Some mushrooms. Usually I use about half a kilogram.
– A couple of medium-sized potatoes
– A carrot
– Some green onions, some dill(fennel?, also you can add some coriander, if you'd like, but I would advise you to use very little.
– Your glass noodles
– Soy sauce
Aaaaaand I think these are all the ingredients, I hope I didn't forget any.
~ So, first of all you will need to boil all your mushrooms and get a nice stock. Just wash and slice them however you want and let them sit on a medium fire. Season them with salt and pepper, of course.
~ When the water will start to boil, throw in your sliced potato cubes and carrot discs(how you cut them doesn't matter that much, just do what you want).
~ Another method of cooking the potatoes and
carrots. You will need a frying pan. Put your veggies inside and pour some stock we got from the mushrooms over the veggies, put the lid on and let them sit over a low heat for about 20 minutes. It's depend on how finely you chopped them.
~ When the vegetables are ready, finely chop your onions and dill and set them aside for now.
~ Take the glass noodles, put them in hot water for 2 minutes, then strain them and put them in our soup.
~ Then sprinkle our greens over the top and you're done ^_^
My advise would be not to let the mushrooms boil throughout the whole process of cooking. That makes the stock simply incredible. Towards the end, check the stock for pepper and salt, since we added them at the beginning there may not be enough, but it's better being not enough rather than too much.
Pour the soup into a bowl, take your chopsticks and soy sauce and enjoy~! <3
I'll post a picture later
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Oh I just noticed your post! Thank you for sharing the recipe, it looks very yummy! :3
Btw, which type of mushroom did you use?
POWUH: Meta Resident and Metanorn's Hime-chan~ with 1758 comments
It’s okay c:
I don’t know what you call it in english, but ill describe them. they’re just plain white mushrooms, short, thick stem and a rounded top.
POWUH: Meta Team and Ringleader Extraordinaire~ with 6433 comments
Oooh, they are button-mushrooms then. We have Oyster mushrooms available here so wanted to know. 😉