Bachelor in the kitchen....

Ok..Got a question for you wonderful people here...I am working on cooking supper at the moment and have really no idea what I am doing! Decided today i was going to try and cook homemade beef soup. Everything is in the pot and I am curious as to how much corn starch(or whatever you add) you need to add in order to thicken the soup into a stew. Any info would be appreciated. Also;Does anyone know how to make fried corn bread?

Also..and I didnt see the point in wasteing terminal space on a new thread..any suggestions on porkchops for tommorrow?Got 4 lbs of meat and only potatoes onions carrots and some tomato sauce for ingredients.Thank the Creator Monday is grocery day!lol

Just add it bit by bit while stirring until you get the right thickness you want

Wait until the stew is ready before adding the corn starch as it will sneak up on you and most likely get too thick.

Here's what I do:

Mix your corn starch in a separate bowl with water first. Add a tsp of the mixture a little at a time to your stew...wait a few minutes to see how the thickness is progressing and then add more if needed. A little at a time.

All depends on the stew size of course.

Good Luck!

use a little corn starch at a time, stir and simmer till you achieve the thinkness you need

don't know from cornbread...google?

One thing I do whenever I am making spaghetti sauce, chili, soup etc. is to bring everything to a boil, then reduce to simmer for at least an hour. Then I turn the heat off and let everything soak in for about a half hour and then bring back to simmer. Doing this will show how much liquid is still going to be present, and / or how thick it will be.

Although it is soup and not stew, dumplings would be a fine addition.
My word, a good dumpling is worth it's weight in gold.

Thank you all for the timely responce..now before anyone goes too far..I have a new issue....the potatoes look nasty like they sucked up all the grease from the meat...i drained the meat before i put it in the pot(its ground chuck)..have I killed the stew?

I usually flour the beef cubes before I brown it and then add the other ingredients and then if it need thickening later after the potatoes have had some time to starch it up then I'll add it via a roux.
I rarely make cornbread but when I do I use the creamed corn recipe from food network

I made porkchops the other day and they turned out really well (my husband doesn't like porkchops but he loved these). The day before you're going to make them put porkchops in a bag or container and add a lot of sage, some garlic powder, some onion salt, ordinary salt and pepper and let it sit in the spices overnight. The next day pull out a crockpot, add seasoned pork, drizzle on some EVOO or Grapeseed oil, on top of and around the pork add 1 large or 2 medium onions in big chunks (split the onion into 8ths),
3 apples chopped to same size as the onions,
3 sweet potatoes again the same size as the onions and apples,
and finally a few cups of water or chicken broth.

Leave on low all day or leave on high for a few hours and take the temp of the pork to make sure it's done, the meat should fall off the bone. The sweet potatoes, onions and apples will soften like stuffing and they will sweeten the pork and sage goes well with everything, you may want to add more salt or pepper toward the end once it's cooked and you're tasting it. There are recipes online that use brown sugar in it and I'm sure that would be yummy but I tend to overdo it with brown sugar and I wanted my husband to at least try them so no brown sugar for me.

In all seriousness crockpots can make so many easy and delicious meals, chicken with Italian dressing, chili, stews, roasts, if you don't have one I recommended getting one. They're worth it!

reply to post by kittendaydreamer


OMG! Thank you! I really am no cook but that sounds great and that website is going in my favorites.Now that I have time to do things I think I am going to enjoy useing cooking as a new hobbie. Will yams work,canned,or is it totally different from sweet potatoes? Thanks again to everyone

You really should have come on here before you got started because there is , in cooking, an order to things...lol. For any good soup, you must brown the meat with the onions first, to tenderize the meat. Step 2 is adding the water and seasonings and step 3 is all your vegetables, in the order that they will cook. For example, carrots & potatoes first because they take longer, softer, quick-cooking veggies like beans, last. But since you are already in the process, if I were you I would decide whether those potatoes are just too ugly, or if they're salvageable, just add the water and simmer on low for a couple of hours and see what happens. If you have a good flavorful broth. great...if not, add some dry stock powder or sometimes simply salting a bit more will help. I hope this has been some help.

as for your pork chops, leave the tomato sauce out this time...it doesn't go so well with potatoes and carrots. Remember on grocery day that dried herbs are your best friends in the kitchen if you can't get or afford fresh. I would never be without garlic powder, onion powder, basil and rosemary. I'm kinda old and have been doing this a long time. U2U me if need any help, anytime.


Sorry...just couldn't resist this:


NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/101508b84f1c.jpg[/atsimg]

reply to post by kittendaydreamer


I need a female that cooks like you, bless ye cotton socks.

reply to post by Tasty Canadian


Thank you much..and i will probeably drive you nuts when i start u2u you in the days to follow.lol. Beleive it or not..the soup is starting to look great now..i added a little celery salt and my tounge had an orgasm!lol

I've never used canned yams...it feels like cheating lol but if you were going to use them I'd say add them toward the end since they're already so soft. I usually have sweet potatoes on hand for sweet potato fries

Eocrow- I would have loved to choose cooking as my profession, I love to cook for myself and others so noone will ever go hungry when visiting me but when I was little I was told by a professional chef to not become a cook because you'll end up burning yourself a lot and there are so many cooks out there it's hard to get paid what you deserve. I wish I hadn't listened to him but what's done is done. I'm hoping to take a sugar sculpting class in the future, that looks like fun but I will for sure end up with lots of burns

Originally posted by Cyberboiraves
reply to post by Tasty Canadian

 

i added a little celery salt and my tounge had an orgasm!lol

You thought celery salt added flavor, try these Sir and you will be hooked.
fusion flavored salts They're pricy and I haven't been able to try them all but the Merlot salt makes lamb and beef divine and the balsamic or smoked with chicken *drools* I recommend a sampler