Welcome to the January Meeting of Eden Cooks! Eden Cooks is a cooking club for any interested members of the Eden community. We will meet on the forum to discuss everything from tips and pointers for less well-equipped kitchens, explanations of cooking terms, and important techniques. There will be a featured recipe each meeting, with pictures taken as I prepare it for you. I will cover some ingredient substitutions to make each recipe more friendly to people with dietary restrictions.


Feeling a little chilly? Don't fret---Eden Cooks has you covered from both sides as winter wears on. We'll be showing you how to make a classic American (and most sorts of northern European) beef stew, and for those who long for a taste of the exotic during these gray days, we'll also be showing how to make the Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup "Pho Bo." To warm you up, stomach and mood, there's nothing like a nice hot soup or stew---great for making in huge batches to serve to guests, or to freeze for yourself to have multiple lunches on days when you're too busy to cook, beef stew is one of the most classic wintertime meals. Pho, on the other hand, combines several delicious herbs to encourage you to take good, deep breaths even if your nose is a little stuffy. Come on in, enjoy the star anise and the Thai basil---or stay close to home and enjoy the potatoes, carrots, and pepper of an old-fashioned stew.

During the meeting, a $25 gift card will be awarded for the winner of a contest where you guess the lesser known kitchen implement from a series of photos that I take. Another will be given to the winner of a trivia contest from information that I will provide during the meeting.

The meeting will take place on the EdenFantasys forum in this very thread at 8 pm EST on Monday, January 16th. I'm really looking forward to this meeting, so I hope to see you there! And if you just can't wait til the meeting starts, drop by the Eden Cooks Sign-up Sheet and contribute a recipe---this is your last call before I'll start collecting the recipes! less

Pork and lotus soup, A warming broth for the cold, flavor to taste...
Boneless pork ribs marinade in soy sauce for 30 mins.
Brown in pepper, minced garlic, ginger powder, sasmee oil is tastey but olive oil is better for browning. So I mix the two.

Add boiling water or hot water. Add pork and vegatable bullion/broth. add chopped carrots or dried wolf berries.

Rince lotus roots with water then soak for 10 mins in vinger water. NEVER use the white vingar for cooking stick to vinagars that have a food item in their name like rice vinger, apple vinager, grape vinager. that is the most common mistake people make that are new to asian cooking. Add

Season to taste white pepper powder (yes it is differnt then normal black pepper makes me cough when I taste it plain kind of burns), chinese five spice, garlic powder, ginger powder. If you want it to be a bit more sweet and earth try some cinnamon. Soy sauce.

I have Pho soup base it is differnt from normal bullion or broths it has a white fatty substance as the bullion and they can come with season packets.
I don't cook Pho often it has a strong flovor and it needs the fresh ingrediants for the best taste.

My favorite soup is just beef stew toss in veggies. Noodle soups I love to add kimichi stuff. less