The Sad Bastard Cookbook

I would have laughed about it if had seen it on Reddit.

>Would love recommendations for other sauces that allow me to squeeze a nationality of cuisine over my template to make it taste like that country's food (kinda).

Yeah I got you:

We're going to use two different basic techniques. The first is extremely simple: throw everything into a blender and then blend until your desired consistency (normally smooth).

Mexican: Combine tomatoes, jalapeños, cilantro, lime juice, and salt for a fresh salsa.

Mediterranean: Blend olives, capers, lemon juice, and olive oil for a tapenade.

South American: Mix parsley, garlic, vinegar, oil, and chili flakes for chimichurri.

Greek: Yogurt, cucumber, garlic, lemon juice, and dill for tzatziki.

Middle Eastern: Blend tahini, garlic, lemon juice, and water for a basic tahini sauce.

Technique 2 is a little more complicated but once you get the hang of it trust me it's worth it. Call it stovetop simmering.

In a saucepan, combine the base ingredients and bring to a simmer. Add primary flavor agents/spices and continue to simmer for the desired time until flavors meld. Adjust consistency if needed (e.g., with a slurry or additional liquid).

Italian: Start with crushed tomatoes, add garlic, basil, and oregano for a marinara sauce.

Chinese: Combine soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, garlic, and ginger; thicken with a cornstarch slurry for a basic stir-fry sauce.

Indian: Start with tomatoes and onions, add garam masala, turmeric, and cumin for a basic curry sauce.

French: Start with a roux (butter + flour), then add broth and reduce; season with herbs for a basic velouté.

Thai: Coconut milk with red curry paste, simmer and season with fish sauce and sugar for a basic Thai curry.

If you want to be really lazy, I recommend wrapping all those ingredients in foil so you don't have to clean the pan and can cook at higher temperature. You can use the same method when camping by burying thr foil pack in the coals.

It's a Moulinex Cookeo (French brand). They have multiple varieties, I'd skip the ones with a phone connection and pretending to do 500 recipes, and go for the basic one. It's a big bowl that gets hot. That's it. I'm not convinced this is fundamentally better than a random old-school pressure cooker, but in my case, the apartment I was renting at the time had a shitty electrical stove, so it helped a lot. The self-timer is also nice.

I usually save recipes on my phone, editing out the fluff and keeping the ingredients and directions, so I don't have links for them anymore.

My favorite recipe is the "picadillo", and this is the actual recipe: https://www.skinnytaste.com/instant-pot-picadillo/

The recipe says "serve over rice". In my case, the picadillo tends to have a lot of sauce. What I like doing is cooking the right amount of rice for the whole batch, then dumping it with the rest of the dish. It'll soak up most of the sauce. The rice may not end up what people typically call "well-cooked rice", but I don't care and actually prefer it this way. You can also replace the rice with a quinoa mix. Or do both rice + quinoa, but this is a pain because their cooking times are different. It goes great with pasta, too. Also, as filling for tortillas, but you have to manage the sauce, or it's annoying to eat. In all cases, adding some grated cheese is great, but not necessary.

I also do a pasta one. I think this is the recipe: https://eatinginaninstant.com/instant-pot-ground-beef-pasta/ Bonus points for not requiring to cook the pasta separately.

Can't find the link to the one with the beans, but here's one which looks so good I might give it a try: https://www.simplyhappyfoodie.com/instant-pot-red-beans-rice...

I've initially found those randomly searching for "instant pot recipe" on google. Some general recommendations: don't be afraid to dump in a lot of vegetables. If the recipe calls for "half an onion" or "small onion" and you only have big ones and nothing to do with the remaining half, put it all in. Same for peppers and tomatos. If it asks for tomato sauce and you only have big containers (they tend to be cheaper), dump it all in and just cook for a bit longer with the top off. Also works if the recipe calls for tomato paste, it's sometimes cheaper to make your own from tomato sauce.

Generally speaking, you don't have to follow recipes to a T. What I like to say is that "given what you put in, it's hard to get something bad out". The worst that happened to me was when I dropped too many peppercorns in. The taste was still great, but it was a PITA to fish them out one by one.

Concur. This is a great book. I got it after an HN recommendation a while ago and have been using it ever since. I've been cooking for all of my adult life but have picked up a lot of useful basics about underlying cooking processes. The recipes don't start until page 279; the preceding content is cooking basics and processes, structured around the eponymous salt, fat, acid and heat.

Its recipe for granola has become an instant family favourite.