BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jan 21 - 01:52 PM

Steve, did you ever get your hands on any of that Coastal Rugged Mature English Cheddar that I buy here but that is made near you? (It was discussed a long time ago in this thread.) This weekend I grated some to pile on slices of a kalamata/onion yeast bread I was given by a friend, and it really makes it perfect.

I experimented with oatmeal yesterday. I usually make it overnight in an old low-power crockpot, but I hadn't and I wanted some and my rice cooker was out, so I cut up dates, added a little salt and the oats and water and 30+ minutes later I had very nice oatmeal not scorched to the pot in any way. It still is easiest to set up overnight in the crock pot, but if I decide to make it the morning I want to eat it, I'll switch to the rice cooker instead of a pot on the stove.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Jan 21 - 05:54 PM

I haven't seen it here and it's very unlikely that the major supermarkets would stock it around here, as we don't really have their big flagship stores here in Cornwall. What I can tell you is that it's made at the same dairy at Ford Farm as my absolute favourite Cheddar, Wookey Hole cave-aged. If that's anything to go by, the one you can buy over there must be superb. I'll keep my eyes peeled...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 25 Jan 21 - 08:21 PM

I have taken to eating the local cheddar on toasted whole-meal bread spread with apple butter made in the next township over. The intense apple flavour goes a bomb with the cheese.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 07:56 AM

Last evening for our locked-down Burns supper, haggis and tatties take-away from Deacon Brodies(sic) Pub. (For those of you who know Ottawa, that's the former Mayflower on Elgin Street that has been sold and transformed into a restaurant with a whisky bar.)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 08:44 AM

I have no idea where one could procure a haggis in Perth County. Not enough Scots in these parts.

So Burns Night chez moi amounted to a solo performance of "My Love Is Like a Red, Red Rose" addressed to the cats, and a small shot of Famous Grouse before bed.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 11:34 AM

Grouse!!

Urhhh !!

Fit only for cleaning drains.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 01:37 PM

I'd drink it if you gave it to me. But I will not part with money in exchange for whisky that contains grain spirit, or even for one of those bland "blended malts."

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 02:27 PM

Whisky ? Lagavulin, Ardbeg and Laphroaig, the worlds finest.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 03:20 PM

Dave H, it sounds as if you have a peat fixation--as do I, although I tend to Bowmore 12, as it's a damn sight cheaper than Lag in these parts. Laph and Ardbeg do not have the same appeal for me. MacLellan is little better than training whisky; I think it gets all its peat flavouring from being in a location downwind of the other distilleries.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 03:21 PM

I'm right with you there, but I'd add Talisker Ten (definitely not the grossly inferior Talisker Storm or Talisker Skye, and spare me from Laphroaig Select). Ardbeg Ten is gorgeous, but if you can get someone to treat you, you simply have to try Ardbeg Uigeadail.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 03:23 PM

That was to Dave. Bowmore too if you like, but that's a bit down my pecking order.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 06:16 PM

Cut avocado in half, looked at it, filled the hole with vinaigrette and ate that. Soft, but not soup.

Tomorrow I get to chew.

My sister reminded me of our post-op mom being fed puréed iceberg lettuce.

I have not yet stick-blended a salad, but I was tempted.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 06:21 PM

Mrrzy,

I have never thought of blending a salad ............

however I think if you got the ingredients just right .............

I'll think I'll have a play at the weekend.

I'll let you know next week!!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 06:22 PM

There is a very helpful thread called Question about Scotch, started by Kendall several years ago.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 26 Jan 21 - 07:37 PM

I just reread that whole thread. I'm very biased towards the island malts, but 'twas not always thus. I worked my way through some much lighter and unsmoked ones first. I always found Glenfiddich to be thin and a bit sharp. I could never understand a friend's obsession with Glenmorangie, and I must say that I regarded Aberlour as somewhat dull and characterless. For a light, floral one I'd occasionally go for The Glenlivet. I don't bother with any of those these days. In a whole year I might drink about six bottles of malt and I don't drink other spirits. I never buy them, always relying on my nearest and dearest to know what I like and get them for my birthday and Christmas (which, conveniently, are six months apart).

One man's fish is another man's poisson...

Anyway, I did a cheat's short-cut chili tonight. Starting with a ready-made batch of bol sauce from the freezer, I cut up and fried a red pepper with a good sprinkling of dried chilli flakes. To that I added the bol sauce, a small pack of red kidney beans, a spoonful of sundried tomato paste, a handful of cherry tomatoes and a hearty sprinkling of hot chili powder, dried oregano and sweet smoked paprika. I cooked basmati rice while that was simmering, and bingo, it was very nice and very inauthentic. We had it with a tub of soured cream and a bit of grated cheese. It's quite healthy with all those tomatoey things in there as well as the onion, celery and carrot in the soffritto that started the bol sauce (last July!). Sometimes a freezer raid is all you have the energy for (I'd just spent all afternoon mending someone's boiler, which was of a type I was totally unfamiliar with. Only got sprayed by a jet of water the once!)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 08:58 AM

By "small pack of red kidney beans", Steve, do you mean the frozen article or some kind of fresh ready-to-use product?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 09:35 AM

A little tetrapak box of them, in unsalted water, about 350g I think. Many years ago I was poisoned by raw red kidney beans that I'd been soaking. You need eat just a handful of raw ones to give you the worst vomiting and diarrhoea this side of cholera. Which, of course, I didn't know, but I do now! I've never lost my aversion to soaking the dried beans. Not on my watch!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 11:15 AM

I have been told that after soaking the red kidney beans you must boil them for at least ten minutes before further simmering, to destroy the poison.
Does anyone know at what stage runner beans from the garden might become poisonous? Would it only happen if they are dried and then soaked, or are they a different variety of kidney beans?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 11:17 AM

I put 2 cups of red kidney beans to soak last night so today I'll consider what all to put into that pot. I add a little heat, but mostly it's a typical sofrito (onion, green or hot peppers, seasonings) and a meat (sausage or ground beef), tomato base (whole tomatoes mashed or tomato sauce, from my home-canned or from cans purchased that are in the pantry). I have sausage in the freezer that I can use, so I'll save the beef for another day (the sausage is already sausage, the beef needs to be thawed then run through the grinder on the stand mixer.) When this is finished I'll freeze most of it in 12 ounce jars for meals in the future.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 05:17 PM

Cheat? Shortcut? From someone who called me out for using powdered onions and garlic instead of flour to thicken things? I snicker, and tee-hee while I'm at it. But that chili sounds deyum.

So yeah, chewing. Am kinda scared of it!

Also falling back in love with salmon. Which does not need chewing.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jan 21 - 06:51 PM

Thicken things with powdered onion and garlic? Buy a bag of flour and buy fresh garlic and onions. Dunno where you live, mid-Antarctica perhaps, with no shops, in which case I could sympathise... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 Jan 21 - 08:24 AM

I don't use flour. I use flavory powders instead.

Why did you do a shortcut chili?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Jan 21 - 10:56 AM

Because I'd spent all afternoon at an old friend's house fixing her boiler, which is of a type I'm completely unfamiliar with, and needed to grab something quick for tea. It was fine. I know that chili recipes are a bone of contention: tomatoes or not, minced beef or chopped beef, fresh chillis (and which type) or chilli powder, add chocolate or not, which herbs and/or spices, accompaniments, which rice...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Jan 21 - 12:24 PM

Well, though I admit to being vaguely interested in how on earth powdered garlic or onion could possibly thicken anything unless used in indigestible quantity, and am absolutely up for being wrong, those items will never appear on any shopping list of mine. If you don't like flour, use a spud.

I'm cooking a green tortilla tonight. For two it will contain a banana shallot, two garlic cloves, four eggs, 3/4lb frozen peas, chopped fresh parsley, chopped fresh thyme, half a pound of baby spinach and seasoning.

Starting with a big pan because of that spinach: I'll fry the chopped shallot in extra virgin olive oil until it's soft, then throw in the sliced garlic cloves, the peas, the thyme, the parsley and the spinach. A bit of seasoning.

In a big bowl I'll beat the eggs, not too much, and season. When the veg is softened and cooked down, I'll throw it all into the egg bowl and mix thoroughly. There you go. Cook that in a frying pan in the usual frittata manner, including a deft flip for the last couple of minutes. I've been known to grill the top instead if I lose the courage to do the flip, but beware of burning the bottom.

This is very healthy. We have it with a few home-made mini baked potatoes, dine in o,I've oil and cooked in a hot oven for half an hour. The tortilla is great cold for to orrows breakfast.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Jan 21 - 12:27 PM

I thought I'd hit the review button but hadn't, hence that dodgy final paragraph.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 29 Jan 21 - 08:02 AM

I’ll make that for myself, Steve.

Though I have to ask — why call it a “tortilla”? Until today, I had never seen that word used to signify anything but a Meso-American flatbread.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Jan 21 - 08:19 AM

Dammit, I meant frittata!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Jan 21 - 08:22 AM

A tortilla can mean that here, too, but it's also what we call a Spanish dish, like a frittata made with eggs, sometimes an onion but with the addition of hunks of potato.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 29 Jan 21 - 09:25 AM

I've always thought of a tortilla as a Spanish omelette, and I only came across 'frittata' fairly recently - a frittata seems to be just the Italian version of a Spanish omelette.
Does it depend on which side of the Atlantic you are?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 03 Feb 21 - 01:34 PM

I'm quite sure from a visit to a Barcelona tapas bar a couple of years ago that their word for an omelette - with potatoes and, maybe, onions - is tortilla.

Mostly, I have oats in the cupboard which I add to my pottages, as in this poem but, for a change, I buy rice, fusilli or, on my last 3-weekly visit to the local supermarket, couscous:

The packet recommends 4 parts couscous to 5 parts water but I added half a cup of couscous and a full cup of instant veggie soup to the onions I had already sweated in the pan; then simply garlic powder, salt, pepper, a splash of soy sauce, and tofu for a bit of protein. It's, also, worth saying twice, one feels, yum-yum!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 03 Feb 21 - 05:32 PM

So Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers... Yay NOT New England again. So for the Bucs I decided to make a single osso buco [no party, boo] and for KC I figured anything with bbq sauce... But then I found out Russel Stover is headquartered there, so Imma cheat and buy chocs.
Boy am I glad not to have to hunt up Yet Another New England dish!
And I read several osso buco recipes but will use my mom's. No tomato.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 12:48 AM

I treated myself to breaded chicken tenders last night and had a few leftover to heat in the toaster oven this evening. Flour, dip in egg, then roll in seasoned bread crumbs. Heat shallow oil (no more than a half inch in a small skillet) and add a couple of tablespoons of butter for better flavor. Don't crowd the meat, do just a couple at a time, and let them cool enough so they don't burn your mouth when you start munching on them.

I started making these because when the kids were small because the take-out ones we used to buy at a local chicken restaurant were expensive and the grease was cloying. I'm not sure what they fried in, but I knew I could do better. I make these now when my son comes home to visit. It's a compliment to the cook when an arm snakes around the corner and grabs one off of the paper towels they're cooling on. :-) Just have to get him to leave enough for the rest of us.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 04:51 AM

WAV mentions the very popular fusilli pasta. I've always found it to be a bit dense in a slightly repressive way, so I thought I'd mention a new discovery I've made, fusilli bucati. It's a similarly short pasta made of tight little spirals of hollow tubes (like bucatini, which, like fusilli, I don't get on with). It's lovely with any sauce that calls for short pasta, much lighter than fusilli. I've been buying up bags of it in Waitrose. It's interesting that pasta shapes in all their variety, not withstanding the fact that they're basically all made of the same thing, make all the difference if you select the "right one..."

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 07:26 AM

And it's all durum wheat, so it should be all the same price but it's not !

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 08:23 AM

This chocolate lava cake recipe includes a history of lava cakes and a comparison of frozen vs undercooked middle for the lava, if you are interested.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 09:50 AM

I have been told that after soaking the red kidney beans you must boil them for at least ten minutes before further simmering, to destroy the poison.

Does anyone know at what stage runner beans from the garden might become poisonous? Would it only happen if they are dried and then soaked, or are they a different variety of kidney beans?

Didn't see an answer to this (apologies if someone has & I missed it), Jos. The 'poison' in red kidney beans is something called phytohemagglutinin (AKA 'muck'!). Boil for 15 minutes after soaking; for 30 minutes if unsoaked is the usual advice.

It seems that ALL beans contain this compound to some degree. It's only bona-fide toxic in high doses, but I can speak from personal experience here. I can't remember now whether the salad I made included home-grown broad beans or green (French) beans. I do remember I had to cry off my game of squash after work. Two to three hours after eating it, I threw up the entire bloody lot! Red Kidney beans have a higher concentration of Muck, but all beans contain some of it, so never eat 'em raw! No, the concentration won't increase once harvested, whatever the bean. But equally, always cook the raw bean!*

*Canned beans were cooked before canning...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 10:06 AM

Thanks, Raedwulf, for a very helpful reply.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 10:20 AM

You can eat raw broad beans (fava beans) to your heart's content. I eat pounds of the things as I'm shelling them and the old boys in southern Spain, doing the same, often don't let them get anywhere near the kitchen. I haven't eaten raw French beans. Why would I!

As for pasta, Dave, there is more than one grade of durum wheat and one of them makes higher quality pasta. On top of that, some pasta is made using bronze dies, which roughen the surface and help the pasta to pick up more sauce. The fact that some pasta is "big brand" is another factor in price. Look for "pasta Di Gragnano" on the label. Gragnano is a town in Campania, between Sorrento and Naples, in the hills overlooking the Bay of Naples, the place of my dreams. Gragnano's claim to fame is its pasta. The Waitrose one I mentioned is from there. Sainsbury's and Tesco also sell theirs. A very good short one is Gigli from Tesco, fantastic with a sauce made from tuna, capers, garlic and creme fraiche, but I've never eaten a disappointing pasta from Gragnano. They are very proud of their tradition. These ones generally cost about £1.70 for 500g, easily enough for two people twice. As with rice, even expensive pasta is cheap, and I don't go for very low-priced ones. Everyone seems to eat De Cecco in Italy but I find it a bit so-so. It's a lot cheaper there than here. And don't be deluded by Napolina. It isn't an Italian company at all, owned as it is by Princes. Last time I looked, their HQ was on the waterfront in Liverpool! Their bronze-die spaghetti is fine but I don't care for their tinned tomatoes at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 10:45 AM

As for recent meals... If you look after them, real onions last an incredibly long time. When I say "real onions", what I mean is not something you bought from a supermarket that's been in store for months & months, and consequently go off 3 weeks after you paid for them. I've given up trying to grow the bloody things, but I haven't bought more than the very occasional one in more than a decade.

I get to pick them off the fields after harvesting (gleaning, not scrumping! ;-) ). Or off the road side from what spills when the over-filled trailers behind the tractors going to the storage sheds over the river at the end of my road drop the inevitable few.

I've still got probably 30-odd red onions that are about 18 months old (I've not even started on what I garnered from last years harvest!), so I'm a bit of a "what can I make that involves an onion" cook at the mo. It's not difficult, let's face it! ;-) The last few days, because I've been feeling lazy, have revolved around microwaving:

A) Onion that needs using up;
B) Protein component (properly fried bacon bits, or several thick slices of corned beef that simply melt under heat...);
C) Other veg (handful of home-grown carrots from the freezer, sliced stick of celery, etc);
D) Other flavours (paprika; the spice that's fallen off the biltong (home-made) onto the greaseproof in the fridge; half a can of tom's + herbs, etc)
E) Spud, if I can be bothered to scrub & chop one (yes, home-grown again).

I cheerfully admit to being an impromptu cook. I have maybe 3 dozen cookbooks of one stripe or another. I rarely look at them. "I have this, I have that, I can make a meal..." Isn't that the joy (AND the Art AND the science of cookery?). And I'm in no way cordon bleu. Food should please the nose & the tongue. I do just plonk food on a plate; what does it matter what it looks like? But I only have to feed me, and I am well fed! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 11:09 AM

I can't grow onions because my soil contains white rot. I might occasionally buy a big white onion to make Marcella Hazan's onion and butter tomato sauce, or for a pasta bake or for patatas a lo pobre (poor man's potatoes, a superb Andalucian dish). Otherwise I've taken to using banana shallots instead of onions for almost everything. They cook down much more quickly and have a lovely sweet flavour. Red onions take ages to cook down and I absolutely will not eat raw onion in any shape or form. I gave up decades ago on those disgusting pub "ploughman's lunches" with their cheap cheddar hunk, wilted lettuce and cucumber and raw cabbage and onion slices. I'll use spring onions in a recipe if I really have to, but do not ask me to eat a raw one. I once grew a six-pound-plus onion for our local flower and produce show. I wiped the floor with all the opposition and the judge told me that it was the biggest onion he'd seen in years. Once home, I decided to cut it up and cook it. No way, José. It was bloody disgusting.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 11:14 AM

Steve - Oh, the temptation to point out what a poisonous swine you are, so obviously they wouldn't make you sick, etc... ;-) It was probably raw French beans that did for me. I've grown both regularly, but broad beans are an early crop & I think this incident would have been later in the year.

As for why I would eat raw French beans? Because I grew them! And because I was making a salad!! And there they were!!! Never again... :o

Broad beans, incidentally, do also contain Muck, but apparently in "relatively low concentrations", which may explain why you've never experienced any adverse reaction. Broadly (see what I did there? ;-) ) speaking, in light of previous experience, I'd be rather reluctant to eat a raw bean these days. To each their own!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 11:50 AM

Mmmmm… Interesting. I do actually like raw onion; onion in any state from straight out of the ground through to "how more cooked could this be?!" Onion marmalade, mmmmmmmm….

But, I grant you, whilst sweet onion is an oxymoron frankly, you don't want too pungent an onion if you're eating it raw. It's always a bit hit & miss (& the sulphur increases with age, which is the "Arrrgh!" part of proceedings), but every lunchtime work salad I've ever made included a chopped raw onion...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 12:02 PM

Yes, Steve (05 Feb 21 - 04:51 AM), the dry pasta packets I've tried always say Durham Wheat Semolina (same as couscous, by the way, which folks don't usually think of as a pasta).

The reason I like fusilli is that I can easily see when they have enlarged enough to be al dente; but I shall look out for fusilli bucati...among goodness knows how many shapes the Italians have come up with...?!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 01:15 PM

I like big tube shapes such as pennoni. They go very well with my spicy versions of arrabbiata. Oddly, I never use ordinary penne though I once found a smaller version called mezze penne that I haven't found since. Pity. I'm rather fond of those big short tubes called paccheri, great with a meaty, spicy sauce that includes Italian sausage or 'nduja. I also use orecchiette ("little ears"), traditionally made by the old ladies in the village streets of Puglia as they gossip away the hot afternoons. It gets used in the traditional Puglian dish orecchiette con cime di rape. In Puglia they relish that with rather stringy turnip tops (I know, because I ordered it in a backstreet restaurant in Lecce called "Mama"), but I cheat and use purple sprouting broccoli instead (and untraditional cherry toms, just a handful). Orecchiette is also really good used in the traditional pasta bake they eat all over Italy, the one with loads of mozzarella, Parmesan, basil, and home-made tomato sauce. My favourite dish using spaghetti is a Sicilian sauce containing chilli, garlic, prawns, white wine, sun dried tomato paste, lemon juice and chopped wild rocket. We have to have spag bol because Mrs Steve insists on it, even though the Italians would laugh. I prefer pappardelle for that as the sauce sticks better to the pasta, but that's a battle I've lost. I do sneakily include minced pork in the sauce, and big bits of garlic - it shouldn't have garlic in it at all but she insists, but I do refuse to use a garlic crusher. One has to keep the peace...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 01:22 PM

Spag bol in Bologna is like a needle in a haystack, apparently.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 03:37 PM

Raedwulf, I've never heard that about kidney beans, but then, I would never try to use them without a great deal of cooking, so the problem has never arisen. The two methods of preparation in my household are, if I think of it the night before I sort, wash, then put to soak overnight. That water is poured off and fresh added before cooking. If I am using them the same day I sort, wash, boil for 2 minutes then let sit for an hour. I pour out that water and fill the pot with fresh and then they need to simmer for at least an hour before I start to add anything more than a bay leaf or ham hock.

Onions - I can grow onions here, and I have some that have been in the same spot for a couple of years; I cut off stalks and use them as needed, they don't have the bulbs (though I suppose if I thinned them they'd form in later generations). I'll start the bulb onions from seed or sets, though every time I plant onion sets I swear it's the last time; that's one garden activity that kills the back.

I am so disappointed with the length of time store-bought onions keep these days. It used to be they were kept in a dark cupboard or even the fridge and kept for a long time. My home grown hard-neck garlic (in this case, as much leek as garlic, the sort they call elephant garlic) I have some in there that is three years old. Store it in a dark paper bag in the pantry.

One of my dishes that I created to use much of my garden produce (tomatoes, onions, green peppers, zucchini squash or yellow squash) has crumbled Italian sausage, onions and peppers chopped and sauteed, then squash cut in irregular shaped chunks so it is easily turned in the pan (slices just lie there); when the onions are the way I want them and the squash softened I add tomatoes. Sometimes I add cheese, or sprinkle Parmesan over the top. Lately I've been boiling a few frozen cheese ravioli and mixing them into the bowl of the squash mix. Other times I make it with enough tomato juice (from my canned tomatoes, in particular) and add whatever pasta is handy at the end so it cooks long enough to be tender.

There are some things that are better kept cool and dry but not in the refrigerator, but here in Texas I have a difficulty with cool anywhere in the house for about six months of the year (since I don't want to run the air conditioner at such a low level and break the bank with the bill). I've thought about how to invent some kind of cooler cabinet that has air circulating through and no moisture problem. There are some coolers that would work the way I want, that can run on an auto battery but they are incredibly noisy. This would be my answer to the basement or root cellar of northern locations. Think "pie safe" for vegetables.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 04:38 PM

Spag bol in Italy is heresy, I've been told. Wrong shape of pasta. Horrors!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 04:46 PM

SRS - Yep! That sounds like my standard "Anything" recipe! And isn't it amazing how it always turns out so tasty... ;-)

Veg & ground are funny things. Here's something daft that'll make folks grin. And produce quite a few "I never..." or "So that's why..." I can grow onions. I can grow snowball turnips. I can't grow purple-top / Milan turnips. Now, isn't that daft? I don't know why. When I moved here a dozen+ years ago, my neighbour told me the land was no good for e.g. swedes. They rot in the ground before they're worth harvesting. Ditto Milan turnips, but not snowballs. Isn't that silly? I've no idea why it should be so...

I can grow onions, but... You lose 10% to wastage anyway, and most of the rest, size-wise... I dunno, it's probably me, but they never seem to make any size. I can pick up more than a year's supply from gleaning. I'm back to where I was. When I lived in suburban London, onions & potatoes were a waste of my small garden. They're cheap supermarket staples. I can pick bigger & better off the fields & the verges, so why bother? I do grow potatoes (if anyone wants a decent multi-purpose Main-crop spud, I recommend Lady Balfour; don't believe the seed spud F1 nonsense; I've been replanting spuds from last year's crop for more than a decade!), but it's leeks for me.

Again, they don't usually reach anything like s/m size. But, swipe me, are leeks ever easy to grow! Easier even than onions. And whilst mine don't reach s/m size, leeks are relatively sodding expensive in the shops. Oh, plus leeks will happily stand over winter, if your winters are none too harsh. Much depends on how much space & time you have. But if you're trying to grow your own, always start at value for money.

Potatoes, onions, carrots are all dirt (!) cheap sm staples. So grow an unusual spud, something else from the allium family, etc. Higher value crops like tomatoes & peppers will grow very happily in containers, so even if you've not got a garden, just a sunny windowsill...

Etcetera! Sorry, this is supposed to be a recipe thread, not a gardening one...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 05:06 PM

I look out on allotments but don't have any kind of garden; my dad says that, if I ever do, start with potatoes as they will naturally till the soil as well as giving a first crop.

I do, however, grow mint in my studio flat, which goes great with new potatoes.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Feb 21 - 05:36 PM

Well I can't agree about Lady Balfour. They appear to be several supermarkets' organic staples, but I find them tasteless and too watery. For my money you can't really get a good all-rounder. For years I've been growing the second-early Nicola. It crops early so it beats the blight, it bulks into a heavy crop, the spuds are clean and tasty and are high in dry matter and they keep. They are not good for mashing, that's all, but they are superb for any other purpose. I also grow the first early Sutton's Foremost. They are lovely as new potatoes and they still taste as good right into August. I'm scoffing them in the first week of June if I get my skates on in March. I won't grow maincrops as I get blight, and it gets on to my tomatoes.   

I'm not going to bollock you for constantly replanting your kitchen spuds, but you really shouldn't be doing it. You will get a build-up of virus diseases which aphids will spread to your neighbours. That's almost as bad as parking a caravan in your front drive for fifty weeks of the year for your neighbours to "enjoy," or to deliberately feed street pigeons in your pocket handkerchief back garden.