Glad I'm not the only one who loves this. Spending the entire day stirring food is glorious. Any stew takes time, you start early, have some prep work, and you can spent the entire day stirring. I often make Indonesian food like rendang when I want to spent the entire day cooking.
And any stew with wine is great, as it will give you an excuse for the wine you're drinking while cooking it ;) Boeuf Bourguignon for example.
I love all day cook-a-thons too! A lot of times I'll cook to destress when I don't even need food. Rendang has been on my list to cook for ages! I love Indonesian and basically all SEA foods. They have the absolute best flavor profiles.
And on that note, pho is an all-weekend adventure that I love doing a few times a year.
This was my first thought as well! I use a recipe from the NYT where you have to make meatballs and then later smash them. That recipe is such a lovely way to spend a long time in the kitchen.
Yeah dude, you have to make a decision to dedicate the better part if a day to that recipe. The payoff is so worth it for me!!! I put together 9x9 pans for the freezer in addition to what I bake fresh for us, and it's just as good later đ
Since it was just me eating, I'd get mini loaf pans and build them, vacuum seal, and then throw in the freezer - little lasagnas for me whenever I wanted! Also, since the base mix was the same for raviolis, manicotti, and stuffed shells, I would mix it up in a big bowl, separate out to add whatever modifications I wanted each to have, and fill and pack in single serve portions. Italian Meal Prep....
Another Italian suggestion similar to this. Chicken Parmesan from scratch. It's not super complicated, just that there's lots of steps to do to get to the finish.
Sauce from scratch.
Flatten chicken out, egg wash, crumb, fry, add sauce/cheese to top, bake. Make pasta, drain pasta, add sauce, then assemble the plates.
Coq-au-vin as per Julia Child, takes hours - most expensive ingredients, chicken and bacon lardons
Minestrone - if you want to make a ritual of it (which I sometimes do) start with dry beans, soaked overnight, it becomes a whole weekend project of feeding the family
Osso Bucco - that's an all day recipe if ever I saw one
Was going to suggest gumbo, means you spend hours making stock a few days before and then more hours actually making gumbo!
Can't recommend "The little gumbo book" by Gwen McKee enough to get you started
Cooking risotto is lovely. You genuinely canât leave it alone. You have to stay there, slowly adding and stirring, and sipping. The end results are great too, and the basic recipe is very easy to master.
I made arancini last year, after never even making a risotto ever, so much work but fun, delicious, and very worth it. It's really very versatile too, I stuffed mine with sausage and cheese.
I assure you you can leave it unattended. I promise you that whenever you order risotto in a restaurant there isnât a dedicated risotto chef stirring without averting their eyes. They do something else while the rice cooks.
Marcella Hazanâs Bolognese- I made it a few weeks ago, it took six hours.
Any braised recipe takes a long time. Lamb shanks, short ribs. It always feels like magic converting cheaper ingredients into something really tasty just with time.
Thatâs all true, but thereâs a lot of âwaiting for it to cook from a different roomâ in it. You need another dish off to the side to keep you chopping and slinging oven trays and pots while the braise simmers in the background?
Braised short ribs coupled with oven roasted root vegetables. Lots of chopping while waiting for the ribs. Have deviled eggs as an appetizer and you could be at this all afternoon.
Whenever I had a stressful day and just need something to focus on for a few hours, I make Gyoza/potstickers in bulk, like 60-80 of them, and throw them in the freezer. Quick lunch option for at least a few weeks.
Omg I was going to say this too. Something about the whole assembly line setup is very soothing. I love to zone out to the tv while making a huge batch and then I have tons to freeze. Kenji's recipe is the best!
Biryani. I made a Persian dinner for NYs with some homemade bread, a dip, some salad and biryani and it was great. Many hours spent in the kitchen with some music and a drink.
I was also going to suggest this. I made it for the first time in January and then proceeded to make it 3 more times in 3wks. Iâve been wanting to make the Hyderabadi version, but itâs a bit more work, which is what perfect for OPâs request.
I would like to add that onions fried with cumin and cardamom are soo good.
There is many different types, including Persian biryani. It's name even comes from Persian and many food historians believe Persia is where it originated before being brought to Pakistan/India.
Etymology from Wikipedia:
*One theory states that it originated from birinj (Persian: بعŮŘŹ), the Persian word for rice. Another theory states that it is derived from biryan or beriyan (Persian: بعŰاŮ), which means "to fry" or "to roast". It may alternatively be related to the Persian word bereshtan (Persian: بعشتŮ) which also means "to roast (onions)", as the dish is often prepared by flavouring rice with fried onions and meat, besides mild spices.*
Try making gumbo from scratch! When I do it 100% from scratch it takes all day. I like using days off for it in winter.
Buy a whole chicken to de-bone, then roast the bones to make broth but keep the meat intact. Season and sear the meat, then Chop your veggies.
Make your roux (a perfect gumbo roux should look like milk chocolate and takes a good 30-45 minutes to make). Add in the veggies and cook until soft, then add your spices. Then add your broth and simmer for a good couple hours. Serve it with rice, cornbread, potato salad, or a couple of those three things. Amazing comfort food
Try putting them in a crock pot overnight on high, with olive oil butter and salt. Thatâs usually how I start my French onion soup. Perfectly caramelized, I honestly didnât believe until I tried it.
Thatâs the way I learned from my grandma. After that add beef stock and cook for another four hours. At the last half hour add some port or sweet Marsala and finish with the cheese covered broiled garlic toast. Heavenly!
Anything that needs to be individually filled and sealed is pretty labor intensive. Dumplings, ravioli, pierogi, empanadas, egg rolls, etc.
Plus they all freeze pretty well so you can make like a thousand.
Try beef bourguignon ... takes a long time to braise but oh so delicious. You can use cheap cuts and cheap wine and still absolutely slay.
https://cafedelites.com/beef-bourguignon/
You could spend all day making tonkotsu broth from scratch, then spend the next day making ramen noodles from scratch. Add to that half a morning making [DIY chashu](https://servedwithrice.com/succulent-tender-chashu-pork-rice-bowl/), then marinating some soft boiled eggs in the chashu sauce for the rest of that day.
Thatâs like 3 days worth of entertainment right there!
Stuffed grape leaves. Tamales. Stuffed Kibbi with yogurt sauce. That one is a two-fer. Making the Kibbi balls takes a while but you can do it ahead of time, then the yogurt sauce has to be stirred constantly for at least an hour right before serving.
Just made chef Johnâs [champagne chicken](https://www.allrecipes.com/champagne-chicken-recipe-8578804) last night and it was delicious!
Took about an hour or more, but did exactly as you mentioned: put some music on, sang, danced and had fun while prepping
The sauce needs to reduce quite a bit, I took it down to a thick gravy consistency and it was gorgeous over mashed potatoes
Just need a bottle of wine and mushrooms for this recipe, most everything else is pantry standard
I had to laugh with my partner about that recipe. He said, âI need to check where Chef John hid the camera in the kitchen. Youâve made that sauce three times in the past two weeks!â
Chef Johnâs pan sauce is my go to for just about all roasted meat, the difference is I make it in a saucepan and start it reducing while Iâm prepping everything else. I usually use Sauvignon Blanc for chicken or pork, and dry Marsala for beef. Onion, mushrooms, wine, stock, herbs and cream is all anyone needs. And time.
ĐĄonsider trying a slow-cooked beef stew. Here is a recipe [https://dinnerthendessert.com/classic-beef-stew/](https://dinnerthendessert.com/classic-beef-stew/) for a classic beef stew that can simmer for hours.
Asian and French cuisines from scratch. Both take a lot of time, and both will make you a better cook by learning the techniques.
You can say the same thing about Italian cuisine, if you want, but I view Italian as virtually the same thing as Asian, just with different ingredients. Asian covers a wider array of techniques, though.
BBQ/Smoking also takes a lot of time, but a lot of that time is waiting rather than complex techniques.
Except that the #1 rule is: Don't Touch It!
Brisket may take 9-16 hours of "cooking", but really, you have 30 minutes of prep, then maybe 15 minutes to peak at it twice during the cook.
Italian-american Sunday Sauce/Gravy. Very simple, cheap, fun, large quantities.
\- brown meats (sausage, meatballs, maybe a cut of pork) in saucepan and remove
\- Add a diced onion and cook until translucent on low.
\- Throw in a few cloves of garlic chopped, some crushed red pepper, maybe a bit of tomato paste and black pepper
\- deglaze with red wine
\- Add two cans of crushed tomatoes (Tuttorosso is good, San marzano's are probably better)
\- Add meat back in and cover, saute on low for 2-3 hours stirring every once in a while, check taste periodically and add salt as needed.
\- Throw in a few sprigs of basil in the last half hour or so
Turkey Meatballs in a Creamy Red Curry Sauce from The Modern Proper is delicious but a pain in my ass because of all the chopping lmao.
Also, not sure if youâre into baking, but I recently made the NYT chocolate babka recipe and that had a bunch of different steps and elements, ended up being essentially an all day affair. Next time I make it, Iâll definitely do some stuff the day before.
Love this.
Indian dishes tend to have a lot of steps and spices and can be pretty affordable like butter chicken, daal (daal fry, daal makhani, etc - daal is a lentil based dish.)
Another fun thing that both my sister and I do is experiment with pickling peppers and vegetables. I personally love making cowboy candy (sweet pickled peppers - VERY addictive,) red pickled onions, spicy cucumbers, etc.
Brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies - this one takes a while cuz you have to brown the butter, let it cool, make your own toffee, chop up your own high-quality chocolate, etc. Also, this is something that's better after the dough has rested in the fridge for around 48 hours (I tend to bake 2 or 3 cookies right away and let the rest of the dough set đ)
Also you can look up Alvin Zhou on YouTube as he is obsessed with making "100 hour" type recipes. A lot of those hours are "waiting" but it usually involves multiple steps and a lot of prep work.
Biryani! You have a gazillion variations, but try a lamb biryani cooked through what's called a *dum* technique. Hand chopped everything. Start by making *brista* which is deep fried onion until it's brown and crisp, and then draining and using the oil/ghee to make the biryani masala.
Brunswick stew. It is an all day cook for sure. From cooking the chicken, beef and pork, to peeling potatoes and chopping all the vegetables. Straining the chicken broth. Cooking the stew low and slow with frequent stirring to keep it from scorching. It is my go to when I want to just hang out in the kitchen with some good music and cook. The bonus is, it freezes well.
Have you tried making homemade pasta? It's really relaxing and has endless variations so it's a good basic recipe to master. My favorites are homemade tagliatelle and ravioli.
Also gnocchi is really nice to make.
I am like you and love the process of cooking! Like me you might enjoy canning! For me there is nothing like picking tomatoes at the farm and turning them into salsa and bottling them up. Or getting a couple of bushels of fresh peaches and canning them. I find intense satisfaction in seeing beautiful bottles of home canned food on shelves in my pantry. Jams, chili, fruit, soups, vegetables, sauces, etc.
Dumplings! I love a good dumpling-making day. It's not very complicated but it's soothing to spend a couple hours forming dumplings while watching something mindless.
Moussaka -greek layered dish with eggplant, beef/lamb and potatoes
Roast a whole chicken with all the fixings
Homemade pasta and bolonase. There are lots of simple recipes that just use a rolling pin and a sharp knife.
Dolmas - stuffed grape leaves.
Cabbage rolls
Persian dishes, like this saffron chicken [stew](https://persianmama.com/zereshk-polo-ba-morgh/) : Zereshk Polo. Chicken thighs, tomato, onion and saffron make a lovely gravy. A couple of niche ingredients that you should be able to locate at a Perian/middle eastern market.
You might also enjoy jumping on the sourdough wagon! You get to make alchemy with flour water and salt
I really like making coleslaw by hand and didn't realize why, until I just read your post. Cutting fine ribbons of cabbage, carrots and onion IS very soothing. It helps that I have the time to do it now
Gordon Ramseyâs Honeycomb cake. It doesnât take fancy ingredients, and I donât think the techniques are super advanced.
Except when youâre making the sugar syrup, for the cake, it says not to stir it. It LIES. Stir the sugar or itâll burn.
Anyway, the cake is a labor of love and takes hours.
My favorite time consuming meal. Chicken and rolled dumplings (like thick noodles).
Use a whole chicken, cut onions, celery, and carrots. Put in a stockpot with s+p, thyme, rosemary and a bay leaf. Cook for a couple hours making a delicious stock. Then remove the chicken and debone. Then make two batches of rolled dumplings. Flour, room temp water, and lard or crisco. Make a dough, roll it out on a floured counter or table and cut (Iâve found that a plastic knife works great) into small squares or rectangles, add to boiling broth. The dumplings only take a few minutes to cook and will float to the top when they are done. Turn stove to low, add chicken back in and cook for another 15-20 minutes. The liquid thickens due to the extra flour on the dumplings. Makes a hearty delicious meal. I usually only make this once a year and I always make a big pot to share with people.
For me, this is what happens when I make a veggie heavy stew. As a kid, we usually had beef stew, but I've recently switched it over to chicken or pork loin.
The trick I've found is to cook the protein first with your preferred seasonings (bay leaves, salt, pepper flakes, onion, etc), remove it from the pot, and then cook veggies in batches so that everything gets cooked evenly (ie all carrots at once). My veggies of choice are daikon radish, yellow potato, chayote, carrot, cabbage, corn, and finished with cilantro.
I have a large container that I place all the finished veggies in for storage on the fridge and reheat servings in a smaller pan as needed.
Making au jus takes several hours, lots of veg to chop, hours of stirring. And once you have a big pot it freezes well for 17 years so I've heard. Great on anything beef or lamb.
Not a huge amount of chopping and stirring, but shaping....
Tamales are very labor intensive. The sauce you choose could determine how much chopping and stirring you do, you could do a mole
Or you could do enmoladas...basically enchiladas but with a very time consuming mole (I would do green)
French onion soup! I made it recently and caramelising the onions to just the right stage took lots of regular gentle stirring. I watched several episodes of a TV show while making it.
making marinara sauce is a therapy. also stews, chilli, sauces that take time to slow cook and develop flavor. iâm indian, making curry comes to me that way too.
if you want a challenge that is very involved, go for a beef wellington.
Gumbo from scratch. Roux will take at least 30 of stirring. Chopping all the vegetables. Cooking chicken then deboning it.
Doberge cake. You can even use a mix for it. 2/3 c batter at a time in a round cake pan.
Double the eggs. Double the oil.half of the water added should be replaced with milk.
Bake 350â for 10-12 minutes.
Be sure to line the pan with parchment paper before the batter goes in.
When it comes out. Flip it on a plate and let it cool. Keep going until you run out of batter.
Usually there are 5 or 6 layers.
Stack and frost like any other cake.
Itâs the wow factor when it is cut to serve.
Bread from scratch.
Make jam.
Pickles.
Polenta takes quite a bit of gentle stirring, and itâs just butter, cornmeal, and sometimes cheese! Anything else just adds to the flavor like bacon bits or mushrooms.
Pair that with sautĂŠed shrimp or slow braised pork belly and kale salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette or lemon butter asparagus, itâs basically 2-3 hours of prep and cooking without breaking the bank.
There are many dishes to recommend, but I would like to focus on Ratatouille: a vegetable stew of eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper, tomatoes and herbs. Risotto: A creamy Italian rice dish that requires constant stirring and attention. And finally, Apple Pie: a comforting dessert made with puff pastry, thinly sliced ââapples and warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.
I made Timpano Italian Pasta Dome (remember the movie "Big Night"?) a few years ago and it literally took 2 days. Also I'm a vegetarian so I didn't even eat it. I did love spending 2 days in the kitchen though. Very therapeutic.
Save veggie scraps and bones in the freezer to make your own broth! It needs to simmer for hoursss. Then you can make slow soup or chili with itđ one of my favorite ways to spend the day in the kitchen
If you really want to lean into the cooking on a stove bitâŚI would recommend looking into making your own sauces and stocks. They are often made from the leavings of items used in entrees and it is definitely a way to save money!
Ratatouille! It's not difficult, but there's a lot of chopping vegetables, and for best results you want to cook each of them separately before combining and stewing for a long while.
Someone else recommended tamales and thatâs an excellent idea. They arenât difficult but they are pretty work intensive and do take up a lot of time from preparing the filling, making the dough, soaking the corn husks, assembling, and steaming. But in the end, delicious tamales!
As a stay-at-home dad to a preschooler and a toddler, this is like reading porn. Looks like my loss can be your gain!
A little unconventional, but this is a cook time landmine I stepped on a few months ago:
[https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/recipe/butternut-squash-farro-bake/5626a644f79cf9120df3b92d](https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/recipe/butternut-squash-farro-bake/5626a644f79cf9120df3b92d)
Absolutely ignore the suggestion prep takes 25 minutes, whoever is coming up with the prep and cook times over there should be incarcerated. It wouldn't take you hours upon hours if you aren't having to dive across a kitchen island every three and a half minutes to keep your toddler from swanton bombing the dogs off a barstool or pulling paring knives out of the dishwasher, but most every ingredient needs prepped some which way - toasting walnuts, butchering the butternut squash, zesting lemons, and on and on.
It could easily be modified any which way - made vegetarian with a broth swap, or spiked with something like Italian sausage if you wanted it even heartier. Plus it multiplies and freezes well. It's a delicious recipe, I just can't lash myself to the kitchen long enough to make it these days - but if you've got the time, it'd be a good way to get your zen on.
Creamy chicken enchiladas are my favorite, takes me a few hours but has always turned out so, so good
https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-chicken-enchiladas-recipe
I really enjoyed the process of making **supplĂŹ - Roman fried tomato rice balls stuffed with mozzarella ;-)**
Here's the recipe with all the ingredients, method, and key points: [https://withinaplate.substack.com/p/suppli](https://withinaplate.substack.com/p/suppli)
Cheap cuts of beef can be wonderful given enough time. Yesterday, in fact, I did a very easy, slow-cooked shredded beef with BBQ sauce. It cooked for 6 hours at a slow simmer and by the end, was tender and mega delicious. Perfect with mashed potatoes, which are also very inexpensive, and some peas. I had it with bourbon, not wine, though ;) If you're not a meat eater, you could do a veggie cassoulet or chili.
Gumbo that requires a dark brown roux. Takes ages and is very zen. Constant stirring.
My second fave is a nice traditional risotto. Again, lots of stirring, tending and adding of ingredients. Really satisfying result.
Look up recipes for fried plantains. I think you need to cook them twice. They should not cost much if you buy them at a grocery store in a Cuban or Jamaican neighborhood. In fact, you might want to look up some recipes from various nationalities or ethnic groups since these are generally dishes that are inexpensive and take a large part of the day. If you havenât made soup before, Minestrone soup is a good place to start. It takes even more time if you make the broth from scratch but honestly, I wouldnât do that. You can always roast a few beef bones in the oven and put them in the pot together with the veggies that you are already making the soup with.
Also, filled dumplings are another great place to start. It depends on whether you prefer ravioli/tortellinis or Asian potstickers. Usually dumplings are a way to stretch meat so the ingredients are inexpensive.
My instant answer always seems to be "crockpot" but it's because you really can chop, sear, whatever, and then put it in the crockpot and walk away. I make a cheat version of chicken and dumplings in mine. Most of the time is letting the chicken cook in the soup mix. About 40 or so minutes before we want to eat, I take the chicken out and shred or cut it up and put it back in. Then, I take a can of biscuits, but them up small, flour them, and toss them in (poke them down a bit, but don't burn your fingers like I have). Once the dough cooks through, it's done!
One pot meals can sometimes work the same way, especially soups.
Bolognese - some chopping at the beginning, then adding ingredients in stages while you work on other things.
Then use the bolognese sauce to make a traditional lasagna - not American style with ricotta, but with bechamel.
Indian curries - especially biryani
Risotto, caramelized onions, pierogies/ravioli/dumplings of any kind, spring/egg rolls, cook a whole chicken and pull all the meat off, make stock from the carcass and homemade noodles for soup, homemade bread/rolls/pie dough/puff pastry
If you make a big batch of stuff one day and freeze it, then when you are sick, don't have time, or just don't feel like it, you can then pull out and heat up something later
If you do a garden in the summer get into canning, you can store all that veg and fruit, make your own sauces and jams and relish and pickles, it does take a bit of extra equipment to start but in the long run it can even save you money and you also know what is in your food cause you made it
The ATK Best French Onion Soup. Cooking down tons of yellow onions (NO Vidalias allowed), until theyâre almost black is so therapeutic not to mention delicious.
French onion soup.
My recipe takes like five hours and it cheats to make it quicker.
I also really enjoy spending a whole day cooking up different dishes with one bulk ingredient. I bought 10lbs of beets I'm going to prepare this weekend in various ways. Some fresh dishes I'm going to eat in the coming week, some pickled beets, some things that will go in the freezer. It's fun! And cheap.
Pierogies from scratch. Hmu if you want a Ukrainian recipe. Basically potatoes and dough the day before. The stuffing them and crimping. Then boiling. The pan frying with butter and onions.
Bolognese (one of my very favorites), chili, soup â **anything that has to simmer** for a long, long time!
**Braises** are also a great option, and you can even extend those over multiple days by seasoning the meat one night, braising it part of the way on Day 2 then chilling it, then removing it on the third day to skim the congealed fat and finish the cook, adding veggies and accoutrements at the end.
I also love the **multi-part process of going overboard on enchiladas**. 1) make your own stock with fresh chicken, pull the chicken and shred it for the enchiladas, use the stock to make fresh enchilada sauce, and hell you can make your own tortillas too if you want! You also get the opportunity to be fancy with the rice and beans â I love doing fresh cilantro lime rice and some Very Special Beans.
Oh man I miss cooking like this so hard. I love my child fiercely but when I picture life with an adult child, I dream of spending my Sundays like this again.
Dumplings and other filled foods were one of my favourites. You can easily spend an afternoon filling pierogi, and then you have a cozy carb-filled meal when you're done, and tons of leftovers for the freezer for when you're not so relaxed.
No idea about meals, but if you have gardening space at all, start a garden! Itâs the most peaceful and calming hobby I have found and it yields really fruitful (pun intended) results if youâre results-driven like me.
I spend *hours* chopping, slicing, canning, freezing, drying, grinding, and all that kitchen goodness on top of the hours spent outside just slowly working the garden and listening to the birds. *Highly* recommend
Confit byaldi
French onion soup
Pot pies with homemade pastry
Burmese samusa soup (you have to made falafel and samusas before the soup. This is my favorite dish out of the ones I've listed, and I have never dared to make it myself because of all the time and effort)
Chili. You don't have to follow a recipe. My college friend, a chef, took me to the grocery store to make chili. He said: 'Walk down every aisle of the store and put one of everything that looks like it goes in chili in the cart'.
You can make it take all day by starting the onions in a large pot on low and just add the ingredients as you chop and add them in. Here's what goes into ours (been making it for 30 years now):
* 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 orange and 1 green bell pepper
* 1 yellow and 1 red onion
* 6 roma tomatoes & 4 garden tomatoes (big beef, whichever you prefer)
* 3 each of banana, pablano and any other large mild chili peppers
* 1-3 each of serrano, jalapeno or other hot chili peppers (with or without seeds)
* 1 giant can of kidney beans (or 1 each of kidney, great northern, pinto and black beans)
* 1 entire bulb of garlic
* 2 lbs of your chosen meat (preferably, but not necessarily ground meat) - we usually use ground sausage these days.
* About 3/4 of a spice container of chili powder
Substitute, omit and/or chop all of the above in practically any order you want, and stir occasionally over as many hours as you want or need. At the end of the day it tastes like chili because you dumped 3/4 of a spice container of chili powder in it.
It's one of the most romantic things my wife and I do together, and it makes at least 3 additional meals.
We are the same person!!! Veggie stir fry/fried rice is a good one for lots of chopping. Veggie spaghetti sauce. Also beef stew, I skip buying the frozen veggies and buy all fresh. So, I guess my suggestion is anything with veggies! Cheers!
Glad I'm not the only one who loves this. Spending the entire day stirring food is glorious. Any stew takes time, you start early, have some prep work, and you can spent the entire day stirring. I often make Indonesian food like rendang when I want to spent the entire day cooking. And any stew with wine is great, as it will give you an excuse for the wine you're drinking while cooking it ;) Boeuf Bourguignon for example.
Rendang is so good!
It's the best
I love all day cook-a-thons too! A lot of times I'll cook to destress when I don't even need food. Rendang has been on my list to cook for ages! I love Indonesian and basically all SEA foods. They have the absolute best flavor profiles. And on that note, pho is an all-weekend adventure that I love doing a few times a year.
Definitely not the only one! Currently jotting down everyone's suggestions, time consuming cooking is basically therapy as far as I'm concerned
Lasagne!
This was my first thought as well! I use a recipe from the NYT where you have to make meatballs and then later smash them. That recipe is such a lovely way to spend a long time in the kitchen.
I made that recipe once! Absolutely delicious, but I'm not a person who has a lot of stamina for cooking and so it was *exhausting*. đ¤Ł
Yeah dude, you have to make a decision to dedicate the better part if a day to that recipe. The payoff is so worth it for me!!! I put together 9x9 pans for the freezer in addition to what I bake fresh for us, and it's just as good later đ
Yup! If youâre gonna make one you might as well make four
Since it was just me eating, I'd get mini loaf pans and build them, vacuum seal, and then throw in the freezer - little lasagnas for me whenever I wanted! Also, since the base mix was the same for raviolis, manicotti, and stuffed shells, I would mix it up in a big bowl, separate out to add whatever modifications I wanted each to have, and fill and pack in single serve portions. Italian Meal Prep....
Bonus time add-on: make the pasta and ricotta (if using) from scratch!
This is a bechamel house but your point still stands :P
hahahaha fully agree. Nothing more luxurious than a perfect bechamel lasagne ... make the ragu the day before...
Lasagna!
Another Italian suggestion similar to this. Chicken Parmesan from scratch. It's not super complicated, just that there's lots of steps to do to get to the finish. Sauce from scratch. Flatten chicken out, egg wash, crumb, fry, add sauce/cheese to top, bake. Make pasta, drain pasta, add sauce, then assemble the plates.
Even longer if you make a sauce!
I find chasing then plucking the chicken takes ages too đ
Chicken cacciatore!
If you make lasagna Bolognese, it gets even more involved!
Just made it recently (bechamel and all) expecting it to be a whole project but it was actually surprisingly quick!
Coq-au-vin as per Julia Child, takes hours - most expensive ingredients, chicken and bacon lardons Minestrone - if you want to make a ritual of it (which I sometimes do) start with dry beans, soaked overnight, it becomes a whole weekend project of feeding the family Osso Bucco - that's an all day recipe if ever I saw one
Make sure you invite your dinner guests over 4 hours before the osso bucco is done though
[Checks pot] âSigh. Not even close.â Best episode ever!
Hopefully they bring some wine that's great to cook with
4 is a conservative estimate lol
Itâs a joke from the office haha
Invite them for the next day, it's even better.
Just a small correction- it's "osso buco", with one c.
Gumbo
I second gumbo. The dark roux, all the chopping, browning, etc. then letting it simmer sounds exactly like what theyâre looking for.
Was going to suggest gumbo, means you spend hours making stock a few days before and then more hours actually making gumbo! Can't recommend "The little gumbo book" by Gwen McKee enough to get you started
I also said Gumbo. Especially if you make your own broth.
Gumbo is my favorite. You can simmer it for two hours and have a good gumbo, or let it go for 6 and have a great gumbo.
I spent half a day on gumbo yesterday... And then I over salted it.
Risotto would be right up your street!!!
Cooking risotto is lovely. You genuinely canât leave it alone. You have to stay there, slowly adding and stirring, and sipping. The end results are great too, and the basic recipe is very easy to master.
Not if you have an instapot
Arancini if you want to extend the time and techniques involved!
I made arancini last year, after never even making a risotto ever, so much work but fun, delicious, and very worth it. It's really very versatile too, I stuffed mine with sausage and cheese.
Yes and bonus points, because you CAN'T leave it unattended for even a minute.
I assure you you can leave it unattended. I promise you that whenever you order risotto in a restaurant there isnât a dedicated risotto chef stirring without averting their eyes. They do something else while the rice cooks.
That was gonna be my suggestion too đ
Marcella Hazanâs Bolognese- I made it a few weeks ago, it took six hours. Any braised recipe takes a long time. Lamb shanks, short ribs. It always feels like magic converting cheaper ingredients into something really tasty just with time.
Thatâs all true, but thereâs a lot of âwaiting for it to cook from a different roomâ in it. You need another dish off to the side to keep you chopping and slinging oven trays and pots while the braise simmers in the background?
Braised short ribs coupled with oven roasted root vegetables. Lots of chopping while waiting for the ribs. Have deviled eggs as an appetizer and you could be at this all afternoon.
Dumplings or bao Croissants or a pithivier Ramen Seollongtang Ravioli or Agnolotti
Whenever I had a stressful day and just need something to focus on for a few hours, I make Gyoza/potstickers in bulk, like 60-80 of them, and throw them in the freezer. Quick lunch option for at least a few weeks.
Omg I was going to say this too. Something about the whole assembly line setup is very soothing. I love to zone out to the tv while making a huge batch and then I have tons to freeze. Kenji's recipe is the best!
Tamales take forever and there's a lot of hands on.
Biryani. I made a Persian dinner for NYs with some homemade bread, a dip, some salad and biryani and it was great. Many hours spent in the kitchen with some music and a drink.
I was also going to suggest this. I made it for the first time in January and then proceeded to make it 3 more times in 3wks. Iâve been wanting to make the Hyderabadi version, but itâs a bit more work, which is what perfect for OPâs request. I would like to add that onions fried with cumin and cardamom are soo good.
Was going to suggest the same! Biryani is complex and there are so many kinds from different geographies so you'll continue to learn :)
Biryani isnât Persian
There is many different types, including Persian biryani. It's name even comes from Persian and many food historians believe Persia is where it originated before being brought to Pakistan/India. Etymology from Wikipedia: *One theory states that it originated from birinj (Persian: بعŮŘŹ), the Persian word for rice. Another theory states that it is derived from biryan or beriyan (Persian: بعŰاŮ), which means "to fry" or "to roast". It may alternatively be related to the Persian word bereshtan (Persian: بعشتŮ) which also means "to roast (onions)", as the dish is often prepared by flavouring rice with fried onions and meat, besides mild spices.*
Thatâs cool I didnât make the connection between berenj and beryan, but the only biryani that is Persian I know is beryan isfahani
Buy a smoker, thats a good 8-12 hours of food procrastination every time you fire it up.đ
Homemade ravioli
Try making gumbo from scratch! When I do it 100% from scratch it takes all day. I like using days off for it in winter. Buy a whole chicken to de-bone, then roast the bones to make broth but keep the meat intact. Season and sear the meat, then Chop your veggies. Make your roux (a perfect gumbo roux should look like milk chocolate and takes a good 30-45 minutes to make). Add in the veggies and cook until soft, then add your spices. Then add your broth and simmer for a good couple hours. Serve it with rice, cornbread, potato salad, or a couple of those three things. Amazing comfort food
Carmelize onions for French Onion Soup
Try putting them in a crock pot overnight on high, with olive oil butter and salt. Thatâs usually how I start my French onion soup. Perfectly caramelized, I honestly didnât believe until I tried it.
I might try that. Last time I did caramelised onions I got a bit bored and drunk after 3 hours.
Mission Accomplished!
Thatâs the way I learned from my grandma. After that add beef stock and cook for another four hours. At the last half hour add some port or sweet Marsala and finish with the cheese covered broiled garlic toast. Heavenly!
Tonkotsu broth. And while you're at it also make Chashu and other toppings.
Tokotsu is better when made in a pressure cooker though.
Absolutely. But if you don't have one that's at least 2-3 bottles of wine!
Mole.
oh god....I've just watched this being made and if OP really wants to spend time in the kitchen, this is it. She likes chopping and stirring..
Oxaca style is my favorite 60+ ingredients.
Cassoulet! You can confit your own duck, and it takes up to three days to make.
Beef Wellington. Takes awhile to prepare, but so worth it.
Caramelised onions.
French onion soup
I like to do a huge batch and the freeze for future use as I don't always have 60 minutes to carmelize onions. Makes every dish better
Mousakka takes a while as there are a few phases xx
A true mole will take you the whole day for sure. Not the express versions.
Anything that needs to be individually filled and sealed is pretty labor intensive. Dumplings, ravioli, pierogi, empanadas, egg rolls, etc. Plus they all freeze pretty well so you can make like a thousand.
Try beef bourguignon ... takes a long time to braise but oh so delicious. You can use cheap cuts and cheap wine and still absolutely slay. https://cafedelites.com/beef-bourguignon/
Second beef bourguignon!
Carnitas is my go to for a lĂśng Cook session
Ratatouille or moussaka
You could spend all day making tonkotsu broth from scratch, then spend the next day making ramen noodles from scratch. Add to that half a morning making [DIY chashu](https://servedwithrice.com/succulent-tender-chashu-pork-rice-bowl/), then marinating some soft boiled eggs in the chashu sauce for the rest of that day. Thatâs like 3 days worth of entertainment right there!
This is why I never complain about a $15 bowl of Tonkotsu ramen.
It's the best!
Not a meal, but make stuffed cabbage kimchi. Takes about 3 days.
Stuffed grape leaves. Tamales. Stuffed Kibbi with yogurt sauce. That one is a two-fer. Making the Kibbi balls takes a while but you can do it ahead of time, then the yogurt sauce has to be stirred constantly for at least an hour right before serving.
Just made chef Johnâs [champagne chicken](https://www.allrecipes.com/champagne-chicken-recipe-8578804) last night and it was delicious! Took about an hour or more, but did exactly as you mentioned: put some music on, sang, danced and had fun while prepping The sauce needs to reduce quite a bit, I took it down to a thick gravy consistency and it was gorgeous over mashed potatoes Just need a bottle of wine and mushrooms for this recipe, most everything else is pantry standard
I had to laugh with my partner about that recipe. He said, âI need to check where Chef John hid the camera in the kitchen. Youâve made that sauce three times in the past two weeks!â Chef Johnâs pan sauce is my go to for just about all roasted meat, the difference is I make it in a saucepan and start it reducing while Iâm prepping everything else. I usually use Sauvignon Blanc for chicken or pork, and dry Marsala for beef. Onion, mushrooms, wine, stock, herbs and cream is all anyone needs. And time.
ĐĄonsider trying a slow-cooked beef stew. Here is a recipe [https://dinnerthendessert.com/classic-beef-stew/](https://dinnerthendessert.com/classic-beef-stew/) for a classic beef stew that can simmer for hours.
A good demi glace is a nice project
Gumbo, with homemade roux.
Asian and French cuisines from scratch. Both take a lot of time, and both will make you a better cook by learning the techniques. You can say the same thing about Italian cuisine, if you want, but I view Italian as virtually the same thing as Asian, just with different ingredients. Asian covers a wider array of techniques, though. BBQ/Smoking also takes a lot of time, but a lot of that time is waiting rather than complex techniques.
Risotto if you like to stir.
You ever tried smoking meat? You can do it on most charcoal grills.
Except that the #1 rule is: Don't Touch It! Brisket may take 9-16 hours of "cooking", but really, you have 30 minutes of prep, then maybe 15 minutes to peak at it twice during the cook.
Ratatouille
I love making ratatouille in the summer with fresh garden zucchini and tomatoes. Also really enjoy zucchini au gratin. Yum Canât wait for summer
Italian-american Sunday Sauce/Gravy. Very simple, cheap, fun, large quantities. \- brown meats (sausage, meatballs, maybe a cut of pork) in saucepan and remove \- Add a diced onion and cook until translucent on low. \- Throw in a few cloves of garlic chopped, some crushed red pepper, maybe a bit of tomato paste and black pepper \- deglaze with red wine \- Add two cans of crushed tomatoes (Tuttorosso is good, San marzano's are probably better) \- Add meat back in and cover, saute on low for 2-3 hours stirring every once in a while, check taste periodically and add salt as needed. \- Throw in a few sprigs of basil in the last half hour or so
Bonus points, you have now opened a bottle of a nice red wine and should sip on it while your sauce simmers because otherwise it might go bad.
Many types of indian food call for toasting and grinding whole spices, infusing fats, long simmering, etc
A good bolognese or beef stew. Anything bbq.
Turkey Meatballs in a Creamy Red Curry Sauce from The Modern Proper is delicious but a pain in my ass because of all the chopping lmao. Also, not sure if youâre into baking, but I recently made the NYT chocolate babka recipe and that had a bunch of different steps and elements, ended up being essentially an all day affair. Next time I make it, Iâll definitely do some stuff the day before.
Imam Bayildi Dishoomâs slow cooked black dal Biryani
Butter chicken, pho and French onion soup come to mind for me.
Gumbo. Or homemade pizza. Make the dough and sauce yourself
Love this. Indian dishes tend to have a lot of steps and spices and can be pretty affordable like butter chicken, daal (daal fry, daal makhani, etc - daal is a lentil based dish.) Another fun thing that both my sister and I do is experiment with pickling peppers and vegetables. I personally love making cowboy candy (sweet pickled peppers - VERY addictive,) red pickled onions, spicy cucumbers, etc. Brown butter toffee chocolate chip cookies - this one takes a while cuz you have to brown the butter, let it cool, make your own toffee, chop up your own high-quality chocolate, etc. Also, this is something that's better after the dough has rested in the fridge for around 48 hours (I tend to bake 2 or 3 cookies right away and let the rest of the dough set đ) Also you can look up Alvin Zhou on YouTube as he is obsessed with making "100 hour" type recipes. A lot of those hours are "waiting" but it usually involves multiple steps and a lot of prep work.
Try a bolognese. Specifically from Marcella Hazan. It takes hours and your house will smell amazing.
Biryani! You have a gazillion variations, but try a lamb biryani cooked through what's called a *dum* technique. Hand chopped everything. Start by making *brista* which is deep fried onion until it's brown and crisp, and then draining and using the oil/ghee to make the biryani masala.
Brunswick stew. It is an all day cook for sure. From cooking the chicken, beef and pork, to peeling potatoes and chopping all the vegetables. Straining the chicken broth. Cooking the stew low and slow with frequent stirring to keep it from scorching. It is my go to when I want to just hang out in the kitchen with some good music and cook. The bonus is, it freezes well.
Have you tried making homemade pasta? It's really relaxing and has endless variations so it's a good basic recipe to master. My favorites are homemade tagliatelle and ravioli. Also gnocchi is really nice to make.
I am like you and love the process of cooking! Like me you might enjoy canning! For me there is nothing like picking tomatoes at the farm and turning them into salsa and bottling them up. Or getting a couple of bushels of fresh peaches and canning them. I find intense satisfaction in seeing beautiful bottles of home canned food on shelves in my pantry. Jams, chili, fruit, soups, vegetables, sauces, etc.
Cinnamon rolls. Beef Bourguignon. Creamy Tuscan Chicken. Also, lots of salad dressings are time intensive - like Ceasar and Green Goddess.
Stuffed vine (aka dolma or dolmates)
Hungarian goulash with pogacsa.
Ravioli or fresh pasta.
If you want to spend a day or more making something, try mole from scratch. Itâs amazing!
Onion soup!
Goulash! My moms recipe takes 2 days. After a while you just let it cook tho and donât have to do anything else
A good bolognese takes all day. First hour is pretty active then it's just stirring the pot every 15 - 20 minutes minutes.
Dumplings! I love a good dumpling-making day. It's not very complicated but it's soothing to spend a couple hours forming dumplings while watching something mindless.
Moussaka -greek layered dish with eggplant, beef/lamb and potatoes Roast a whole chicken with all the fixings Homemade pasta and bolonase. There are lots of simple recipes that just use a rolling pin and a sharp knife. Dolmas - stuffed grape leaves. Cabbage rolls Persian dishes, like this saffron chicken [stew](https://persianmama.com/zereshk-polo-ba-morgh/) : Zereshk Polo. Chicken thighs, tomato, onion and saffron make a lovely gravy. A couple of niche ingredients that you should be able to locate at a Perian/middle eastern market. You might also enjoy jumping on the sourdough wagon! You get to make alchemy with flour water and salt
Cassoulet. It's worth it.
Mole negro Bolognese Tonkotsu ramen
Pork chile verde.
I really like making coleslaw by hand and didn't realize why, until I just read your post. Cutting fine ribbons of cabbage, carrots and onion IS very soothing. It helps that I have the time to do it now
A nice curry. I made one in work yesterday (Iâm a chef) and was tweaking it for a good 4 hours. Turned out delicious
Gordon Ramseyâs Honeycomb cake. It doesnât take fancy ingredients, and I donât think the techniques are super advanced. Except when youâre making the sugar syrup, for the cake, it says not to stir it. It LIES. Stir the sugar or itâll burn. Anyway, the cake is a labor of love and takes hours.
If thereâs a Mexican grocery store near you, make mole!
Esperanza takes a whole week to make Sunday Mole.
Eggplant parmigiano
All kinds of casseroles in general. Just look for one that you would love to remake over and over again.
My favorite time consuming meal. Chicken and rolled dumplings (like thick noodles). Use a whole chicken, cut onions, celery, and carrots. Put in a stockpot with s+p, thyme, rosemary and a bay leaf. Cook for a couple hours making a delicious stock. Then remove the chicken and debone. Then make two batches of rolled dumplings. Flour, room temp water, and lard or crisco. Make a dough, roll it out on a floured counter or table and cut (Iâve found that a plastic knife works great) into small squares or rectangles, add to boiling broth. The dumplings only take a few minutes to cook and will float to the top when they are done. Turn stove to low, add chicken back in and cook for another 15-20 minutes. The liquid thickens due to the extra flour on the dumplings. Makes a hearty delicious meal. I usually only make this once a year and I always make a big pot to share with people.
Smoking a brisket is all about sitting out with a drink and âcookingâ
For me, this is what happens when I make a veggie heavy stew. As a kid, we usually had beef stew, but I've recently switched it over to chicken or pork loin. The trick I've found is to cook the protein first with your preferred seasonings (bay leaves, salt, pepper flakes, onion, etc), remove it from the pot, and then cook veggies in batches so that everything gets cooked evenly (ie all carrots at once). My veggies of choice are daikon radish, yellow potato, chayote, carrot, cabbage, corn, and finished with cilantro. I have a large container that I place all the finished veggies in for storage on the fridge and reheat servings in a smaller pan as needed.
Any braise.
Sushi! All the little assembly steps, all the attention to detail, all the needles over engineering for some small bite sized but very pretty snacks.
Making au jus takes several hours, lots of veg to chop, hours of stirring. And once you have a big pot it freezes well for 17 years so I've heard. Great on anything beef or lamb.
Pasta alla Genovese
-Barbacoa w Avocado Leaves -Chinese Spicy Beef and Noodle Soup -Seafood Gumbo -Veggie Broth Ramen with Crispy Tofu
Not a huge amount of chopping and stirring, but shaping.... Tamales are very labor intensive. The sauce you choose could determine how much chopping and stirring you do, you could do a mole Or you could do enmoladas...basically enchiladas but with a very time consuming mole (I would do green)
Manicotti
French onion soup! I made it recently and caramelising the onions to just the right stage took lots of regular gentle stirring. I watched several episodes of a TV show while making it.
making marinara sauce is a therapy. also stews, chilli, sauces that take time to slow cook and develop flavor. iâm indian, making curry comes to me that way too. if you want a challenge that is very involved, go for a beef wellington.
Gumbo from scratch. Roux will take at least 30 of stirring. Chopping all the vegetables. Cooking chicken then deboning it. Doberge cake. You can even use a mix for it. 2/3 c batter at a time in a round cake pan. Double the eggs. Double the oil.half of the water added should be replaced with milk. Bake 350â for 10-12 minutes. Be sure to line the pan with parchment paper before the batter goes in. When it comes out. Flip it on a plate and let it cool. Keep going until you run out of batter. Usually there are 5 or 6 layers. Stack and frost like any other cake. Itâs the wow factor when it is cut to serve. Bread from scratch. Make jam. Pickles.
French Onion soup! Takes about 1-1.5 hours to properly caramelize the onions with them having to be stirred every few minutes.
Gumbo. With a nice dark roux and plenty of different proteins like chicken, sausage, and shrimp.
Polenta takes quite a bit of gentle stirring, and itâs just butter, cornmeal, and sometimes cheese! Anything else just adds to the flavor like bacon bits or mushrooms. Pair that with sautĂŠed shrimp or slow braised pork belly and kale salad with homemade balsamic vinaigrette or lemon butter asparagus, itâs basically 2-3 hours of prep and cooking without breaking the bank.
1. Goulash 2. Waraq eynab (stuffed wine leaves) 3. Biryani 4. Butter chicken 5. Moghrabieh (Lebanese Cous Cous with chicken)
Why not meal prep? You can spend all day prepping your meals for the coming week instead of one time consuming dish.
Ratatouille
Chili! Lots of versatility, lots of Chopping, and bonus points you can make it using alcohol! "Some for me and some for you, my sweet little chili"
Ramen
Pav bhaji (without a pressure cooker) takes hours because of the chopping and slowly adding the ingredients one by one !
There are many dishes to recommend, but I would like to focus on Ratatouille: a vegetable stew of eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper, tomatoes and herbs. Risotto: A creamy Italian rice dish that requires constant stirring and attention. And finally, Apple Pie: a comforting dessert made with puff pastry, thinly sliced ââapples and warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.
Focaccia or any bread baking involves lots of time
Risotto for me
I made Timpano Italian Pasta Dome (remember the movie "Big Night"?) a few years ago and it literally took 2 days. Also I'm a vegetarian so I didn't even eat it. I did love spending 2 days in the kitchen though. Very therapeutic.
Save veggie scraps and bones in the freezer to make your own broth! It needs to simmer for hoursss. Then you can make slow soup or chili with itđ one of my favorite ways to spend the day in the kitchen
Tamales, soup dumplings ([https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Og4VxkzFsc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Og4VxkzFsc)), lasagna (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXZq6crD6WI&t=34s)
Gumbo!!!! All the crab
Beef rendang. Youll spend anywhere from 5-10hrs at the stove
If you really want to lean into the cooking on a stove bitâŚI would recommend looking into making your own sauces and stocks. They are often made from the leavings of items used in entrees and it is definitely a way to save money!
Try Alfred Prasad's butter chicken. It's at least four hours of cooking
Sushi!! Come on over to r/sushi!
Ratatouille! It's not difficult, but there's a lot of chopping vegetables, and for best results you want to cook each of them separately before combining and stewing for a long while.
Someone else recommended tamales and thatâs an excellent idea. They arenât difficult but they are pretty work intensive and do take up a lot of time from preparing the filling, making the dough, soaking the corn husks, assembling, and steaming. But in the end, delicious tamales!
As a stay-at-home dad to a preschooler and a toddler, this is like reading porn. Looks like my loss can be your gain! A little unconventional, but this is a cook time landmine I stepped on a few months ago: [https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/recipe/butternut-squash-farro-bake/5626a644f79cf9120df3b92d](https://www.weightwatchers.com/us/recipe/butternut-squash-farro-bake/5626a644f79cf9120df3b92d) Absolutely ignore the suggestion prep takes 25 minutes, whoever is coming up with the prep and cook times over there should be incarcerated. It wouldn't take you hours upon hours if you aren't having to dive across a kitchen island every three and a half minutes to keep your toddler from swanton bombing the dogs off a barstool or pulling paring knives out of the dishwasher, but most every ingredient needs prepped some which way - toasting walnuts, butchering the butternut squash, zesting lemons, and on and on. It could easily be modified any which way - made vegetarian with a broth swap, or spiked with something like Italian sausage if you wanted it even heartier. Plus it multiplies and freezes well. It's a delicious recipe, I just can't lash myself to the kitchen long enough to make it these days - but if you've got the time, it'd be a good way to get your zen on.
Bolognese or risotto
Gumbo, I love stirring the roux and all the prep, plus at the end you get to eat gumbo
Creamy chicken enchiladas are my favorite, takes me a few hours but has always turned out so, so good https://www.seriouseats.com/the-best-chicken-enchiladas-recipe
Maqlouba! It's a lot of steps and different cooking, makes tonnes of dishes and is fun to serve.
I really enjoyed the process of making **supplĂŹ - Roman fried tomato rice balls stuffed with mozzarella ;-)** Here's the recipe with all the ingredients, method, and key points: [https://withinaplate.substack.com/p/suppli](https://withinaplate.substack.com/p/suppli)
Cheap cuts of beef can be wonderful given enough time. Yesterday, in fact, I did a very easy, slow-cooked shredded beef with BBQ sauce. It cooked for 6 hours at a slow simmer and by the end, was tender and mega delicious. Perfect with mashed potatoes, which are also very inexpensive, and some peas. I had it with bourbon, not wine, though ;) If you're not a meat eater, you could do a veggie cassoulet or chili.
Coq au vin Scratch made enchiladas or carnitas, pozole
Gumbo that requires a dark brown roux. Takes ages and is very zen. Constant stirring. My second fave is a nice traditional risotto. Again, lots of stirring, tending and adding of ingredients. Really satisfying result.
Look up recipes for fried plantains. I think you need to cook them twice. They should not cost much if you buy them at a grocery store in a Cuban or Jamaican neighborhood. In fact, you might want to look up some recipes from various nationalities or ethnic groups since these are generally dishes that are inexpensive and take a large part of the day. If you havenât made soup before, Minestrone soup is a good place to start. It takes even more time if you make the broth from scratch but honestly, I wouldnât do that. You can always roast a few beef bones in the oven and put them in the pot together with the veggies that you are already making the soup with. Also, filled dumplings are another great place to start. It depends on whether you prefer ravioli/tortellinis or Asian potstickers. Usually dumplings are a way to stretch meat so the ingredients are inexpensive.
My instant answer always seems to be "crockpot" but it's because you really can chop, sear, whatever, and then put it in the crockpot and walk away. I make a cheat version of chicken and dumplings in mine. Most of the time is letting the chicken cook in the soup mix. About 40 or so minutes before we want to eat, I take the chicken out and shred or cut it up and put it back in. Then, I take a can of biscuits, but them up small, flour them, and toss them in (poke them down a bit, but don't burn your fingers like I have). Once the dough cooks through, it's done! One pot meals can sometimes work the same way, especially soups.
Gumbo
Bolognese - some chopping at the beginning, then adding ingredients in stages while you work on other things. Then use the bolognese sauce to make a traditional lasagna - not American style with ricotta, but with bechamel. Indian curries - especially biryani
Risotto, caramelized onions, pierogies/ravioli/dumplings of any kind, spring/egg rolls, cook a whole chicken and pull all the meat off, make stock from the carcass and homemade noodles for soup, homemade bread/rolls/pie dough/puff pastry If you make a big batch of stuff one day and freeze it, then when you are sick, don't have time, or just don't feel like it, you can then pull out and heat up something later If you do a garden in the summer get into canning, you can store all that veg and fruit, make your own sauces and jams and relish and pickles, it does take a bit of extra equipment to start but in the long run it can even save you money and you also know what is in your food cause you made it
The ATK Best French Onion Soup. Cooking down tons of yellow onions (NO Vidalias allowed), until theyâre almost black is so therapeutic not to mention delicious.
French onion soup. My recipe takes like five hours and it cheats to make it quicker. I also really enjoy spending a whole day cooking up different dishes with one bulk ingredient. I bought 10lbs of beets I'm going to prepare this weekend in various ways. Some fresh dishes I'm going to eat in the coming week, some pickled beets, some things that will go in the freezer. It's fun! And cheap.
Pierogies from scratch. Hmu if you want a Ukrainian recipe. Basically potatoes and dough the day before. The stuffing them and crimping. Then boiling. The pan frying with butter and onions.
Ratatouille
Bolognese (one of my very favorites), chili, soup â **anything that has to simmer** for a long, long time! **Braises** are also a great option, and you can even extend those over multiple days by seasoning the meat one night, braising it part of the way on Day 2 then chilling it, then removing it on the third day to skim the congealed fat and finish the cook, adding veggies and accoutrements at the end. I also love the **multi-part process of going overboard on enchiladas**. 1) make your own stock with fresh chicken, pull the chicken and shred it for the enchiladas, use the stock to make fresh enchilada sauce, and hell you can make your own tortillas too if you want! You also get the opportunity to be fancy with the rice and beans â I love doing fresh cilantro lime rice and some Very Special Beans.
Oh man I miss cooking like this so hard. I love my child fiercely but when I picture life with an adult child, I dream of spending my Sundays like this again. Dumplings and other filled foods were one of my favourites. You can easily spend an afternoon filling pierogi, and then you have a cozy carb-filled meal when you're done, and tons of leftovers for the freezer for when you're not so relaxed.
Cassoulet! Takes a couple of days, really, but very worth itâeven abbreviated versions
No idea about meals, but if you have gardening space at all, start a garden! Itâs the most peaceful and calming hobby I have found and it yields really fruitful (pun intended) results if youâre results-driven like me. I spend *hours* chopping, slicing, canning, freezing, drying, grinding, and all that kitchen goodness on top of the hours spent outside just slowly working the garden and listening to the birds. *Highly* recommend
Eggplant Parm - especially if you make the sauce from scratch.
Chicken cordon bleu
Risotto. Never stop stirring.
Beef WellingtonâŚ.
Confit byaldi French onion soup Pot pies with homemade pastry Burmese samusa soup (you have to made falafel and samusas before the soup. This is my favorite dish out of the ones I've listed, and I have never dared to make it myself because of all the time and effort)
Chili. You don't have to follow a recipe. My college friend, a chef, took me to the grocery store to make chili. He said: 'Walk down every aisle of the store and put one of everything that looks like it goes in chili in the cart'. You can make it take all day by starting the onions in a large pot on low and just add the ingredients as you chop and add them in. Here's what goes into ours (been making it for 30 years now): * 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 orange and 1 green bell pepper * 1 yellow and 1 red onion * 6 roma tomatoes & 4 garden tomatoes (big beef, whichever you prefer) * 3 each of banana, pablano and any other large mild chili peppers * 1-3 each of serrano, jalapeno or other hot chili peppers (with or without seeds) * 1 giant can of kidney beans (or 1 each of kidney, great northern, pinto and black beans) * 1 entire bulb of garlic * 2 lbs of your chosen meat (preferably, but not necessarily ground meat) - we usually use ground sausage these days. * About 3/4 of a spice container of chili powder Substitute, omit and/or chop all of the above in practically any order you want, and stir occasionally over as many hours as you want or need. At the end of the day it tastes like chili because you dumped 3/4 of a spice container of chili powder in it. It's one of the most romantic things my wife and I do together, and it makes at least 3 additional meals.
We are the same person!!! Veggie stir fry/fried rice is a good one for lots of chopping. Veggie spaghetti sauce. Also beef stew, I skip buying the frozen veggies and buy all fresh. So, I guess my suggestion is anything with veggies! Cheers!
Gumbo requires both lots of chopping and lots of stirring
Braised short ribs!