BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 07 Aug 20 - 01:45 PM

I put big pieces of meat in the microwave to warm them up from fridge temp to room temp, thus saving energy because the wave is so efficient. Also, it doesn't hurt to kill germs which could get transferred to surfaces and to implements before cooking.

After the nuking, it's the meat that's lukewarm, not the bacteria, which have been boiled to death from the inside by the microwaves.
===============
Steve, your pork recipes sound delicious. Loved the pun about crackling.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Aug 20 - 07:02 PM

Jos, oh yes, shoulder of lamb. I will not buy leg of lamb. Years ago, our butcher, with whom I'd cultivated a brilliant relationship (it helped that he was a bird and butterfly aficionado, as indeed am I, along with my penchant for wild flowers), bought his pork, free range, from Mrs Quicke MBE, her of Quicke's cheddar cheese in Newton St Cyres in Devon. She's a lovely lady is Mrs Quicke, which I can attest to from buying cheese from her in person from her lovely farm shop. A large part of Mrs Quicke's pigs' diet was the whey from her cheese making. I've never tasted pork that good before or since. Unfortunately, Mrs Quicke stopped keeping pigs, but our butcher tracked down another excellent source of pork. I never found out where he sourced his lamb (though here in Cornwall butchers nearly always source local), but it was amazingly good. Since he retired, I've been getting my lamb from a local man who farms his own sheep. His lamb is absolutely superb.

It has to be whole shoulder and it has to weigh in at at least six or seven pounds, or more. If you buy shoulder you absolutely must ensure that it's whole shoulder and that the fillet has been left in. I once bought a supermarket allegedly whole shoulder, only to find that that the fillet had been removed, presumably to be resold at a higher price.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Aug 20 - 07:11 PM

By the way, in m'humble the only way to cook a goodly piece of shoulder of lamb is very slowly. Chuck away those repressive cookery books that say "this many minutes to the pound and that many over..." etc.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 08 Aug 20 - 07:16 AM

A good leg of Lamb is a thing of beauty.

The best I have ever had was from Calveys Butchers on Achill Island, County Mayo.

Across the road from the shop is a grass sward down to the sea, this is where the lambs are reared. The meat is slightly salted due to the proximity of the sea blowing salt onto the grassland.

The leg of lamb from there I would put alongside the best of meat from anywhere and be confident it would be the top one.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Aug 20 - 08:51 AM

It must be a matter of regret for you that, while you were enjoying your leg of lamb, two other lots of people were enjoying shoulders from the same beast even more...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 08 Aug 20 - 09:03 AM

If I could I would send you one Steve, I'm fairly confident it would challenge your viewpoint! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Aug 20 - 09:10 AM

Nah, you can't tell me that a shoulder from the same beast as your leg doesn't taste better! Do feel free to send me one, however. Diced leg makes a superb Italian lamb stew... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 08 Aug 20 - 05:27 PM

That’s often what I do with a leg of lamb, too, Steve.

Perhaps the most challenging hospitality-related task I routinely undertake is carving a bone-in leg of lamb. It ends up in collops, every time; my Dad, a master carver, would be ashamed. But I know several delicious lamb stews — one is even Italian! — and serving stew is a no-brainer — trivet on table, pot on trivet, Bob’s yer paternal relative.

It’s a source of great sadness to me that other Canadians have discovered the lamb shank, and now they are terribly expensive. I used to be able to buy a whole beast’s worth of shanks for about ten bucks, but now they cost about that much per each! I buy them anyway, and gnaw the bones. I don’t dare eat a lamb shank in public.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Aug 20 - 06:10 PM

That's happened with lamb shanks here too. It amazing how stuff that you loved for its cheapness as well as its flavour suddenly gets all popular and expensive. It happened here with John Dory, one of my absolute favourite fish. Cheap as chips a few years ago, now so expensive that it's affordable only as a a rare treat.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Aug 20 - 11:00 PM

For a complete change and because I have 5 pounds of them I need to use I had a baked potato for dinner, served with sour cream, bacon, and chives. It was salad for lunch, and dessert this evening was a smoothie because I have some very ripe bananas to use. (Banana, big dollop of yogurt, a splash of milk, the rest of the bag of frozen blueberries, a little sweetener, and since I'm working on strengthening my fingernails, a teaspoon of dried gelatin.) It was at least 101^o today so the fact that I cooked anything is pretty phenomenal.

I have the end of a loaf of bread and a little in the freezer, enough to make a bread pudding tomorrow, and I have 3 cups of black beans soaking overnight. I'll cook beans tomorrow and freeze most of them, reserving some for a beef and bean mix I make that I use for nachos or burritos or tacos, depending on what kind of tortilla or chip I want to use with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Aug 20 - 09:55 PM

Sometimes you have to just muscle through a tough time, and turning on the stove when it's so darned hot out is a struggle. But today I took out a pound and a half of top sirloin beef from the freezer, onions, peppers, and black beans that I cooked this morning, and made a batch of my "taco/nacho/burrito" mix. I made enough that I put a couple of jars into the freezer.

Tonight I used up some leftover restaurant tortilla chips and scooped up my "nachos" - the filling on the plate topped with some thawed leftover guacamole (plus some of my homemade thawed to even it out - the restaurant stuff was awfully spicy hot), sour cream, and a few dashes of Tapatio hot sauce.

The beans had soaked overnight so they simmered for about 90 minutes this morning then cooled and I also put several jars of them into the freezer. If I'm going to do this I might as well make extra for later.

Tomorrow I'll make the bread pudding.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Aug 20 - 08:17 AM

I remember life without a decent freezer. Things are better now.

Himself has gone camping for a couple of days, leaving me (gratefully) at home, so I'm eating girl food -- toast, cheese, salad and tea.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 11 Aug 20 - 01:51 PM

SRS, I commiserate with you on the 101 temperatures. I've lived through heat up to 108, but this August has been milder here in Missouri. Bitter thought - with such a good summer, why aren't my tomatoes thriving?

I made some chili con carne yesterday. All the usual ingredients, but I season it at the end of cooking with chili powder and cocoa. Cumin seeds go in at the start.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 11:16 AM

Somehow I am supporting local businesses this week. Ordering out, eating on restaurant patios, not cooking...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Aug 20 - 08:49 PM

Using half of a tandoori flat bread (large) pulled from the freezer I made another pizza. Since I'm out of mozzarella at the moment it was an odd mix of cheddar, Swiss, and Parmesan. Lots of other stuff as I used leftovers and pulled a couple of other things out of the freezer. There is 1/4 of it left for lunch tomorrow. A glass of red wine with it, and I'm finished.

I caramelized some onion, cooked 2 strips of bacon to crumble, defrosted some sliced sauteed mushrooms, sliced a half of a baked chicken breast, used some Alfredo sauce, the cheese mentioned above, and some thawed slices of red bell pepper. Dried basil sprinkled over the top. It was stacked with goodies but since it didn't have tomato sauce it wasn't as sloppy as some pizzas can be.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Aug 20 - 01:31 PM

Tonight, we shall dine al fresco, on fire-grilled sausages and a salad made from some of everything in the veg bin. It's summer, by God, and we are RETIRED (sort of), and if we want to light a fire and drink beer 'til late on a Wednesday night, who's gonna stop us?

Besides, Environment Canada says the weekend will be wet.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 13 Aug 20 - 02:29 PM

Sounds good to me.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Aug 20 - 02:51 PM

Isn't it funny how sometimes retirement is just about as busy as when you were "employed."

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Aug 20 - 08:30 AM

Actually, Thursday night, but when you’re retired (even sort of) you sometimes lose track.

Yes, Stilly, it is funny — both peculiar and ha-ha. But most of all I think I’m living under Parkinson’s Law: work expands to take up all available time. Now that I have ten to twelve hours (including overtime and commuting) per weekday that are no longer contracted to the Department of National Defence, I find it necessary to do all kinds of things that never seemed important before.

Such as, for example, reading for at least a couple of hours in the afternoon and doing the New York Times crossword puzzle after breakfast.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Aug 20 - 10:19 AM

I'm not retired. I'm in my post-paid years

Stilly, your pizza sounds delish, but gow did you freeze sautéed mushrooms? I'm lucky if mine even make it to the table, I eat'm up so.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Aug 20 - 07:36 PM

Accidentally put this into peeves thread...

I started off to stuff half an avocado with crab salad, but it kinda took a sharp left... Now I have a big bowl of chopped lettuces tomato avocado celery dill parsley with crab and lemon on top, with vinaigrette and almonds. Yum.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: JennieG
Date: 15 Aug 20 - 08:18 PM

We make pizzas from Lebanese flat bread. Tonight Himself will spread ready-made pizza sauce (tomato based) on his, followed by sliced salami, sliced leftover roast white and sweet potato, liberally topped with a grated cheese mix - cheddar, mozzarella, parmesan. Mine will be spread with cream cheese (because I don't eat tomato), black olive tapenade, contents of a small tin of salmon, a few capers, amd finished with the same grated cheese mix.

Purists would probaby shudder. We like it.

You can also make crispy nibbly things with the same bread. Brush with olive oil, sprinkle with lemon pepper seasoning, bake until crispy. Break into pieces. Enjoy with dip or just on its own.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Aug 20 - 08:44 PM

I buy mushrooms in a large quantity at a favorite discount gourmet store (they buy from the grocery warehouses that didn't manage to send all of their stock to grocery stores). So when I can find them I slice them, then saute in butter and package them in plastic restaurant carryout containers (poor man's Tupperware) and into the freezer. I usually package maybe a 1/2 cup in each container so pull them out in multiples if I need more. They're very soft, but they work on the pizza.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 08:09 AM

Wonder if I could resist just eating them all long enough to freeze any. Gotta sauté in butter with thyme, though. Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 08:26 AM

Bread pudding for breakfast.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 11:27 AM

I sent Himself to the market yesterday, and now I’m knee-deep in tomatoes. The Romas will become pasta sauce, but what is to become of the dozen not-quite-ripe beefsteak tomatoes set out on a tray in the hope they might become ripe before they rot?

Anyone with a good chutney recipe, now is your time to be kind and share!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 01:55 PM

A touch of salt, a touch of italian seasoning and leave in a VERY low oven overnight and put into jars with some VERY good olive oil would be my suggestion! :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 16 Aug 20 - 04:12 PM

Raggytash, before they go in the oven, do I skin and chop them, and what sort of vessel should I put them in? And what constitutes Italian seasoning chez vous?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Aug 20 - 09:11 AM

Made a kind of ratatouille-y thing but there was an occasional bitterness. First time I've used eggplant; the recipes said no need to peel. Should I have pelt, though? To avoid bitterness?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 17 Aug 20 - 09:32 AM

Mrrzy, did you include courgettes / zucchini? They can be bitter if the plant they came from was under stress, such as short of water, or if it was from a seed resulting from cross-pollination from another variety of squash. This has been a problem recently, especially when people have saved their own seed from last year, but it has also happened with seed from commercial suppliers, who have had to recall some batches of seed. If it is bad, don't eat it as it could be poisonous.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 17 Aug 20 - 09:33 AM

Charmion, just cut in half, skins and all.

Italian seasoning can be bought here in jars. It is a mixture of dried Oregano, basil, red bell pepper, marjoram, thyme, rosemary, sage and parsley.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Aug 20 - 09:57 AM

I peel the eggplant, even the smaller ones, as a matter of course, though the small ones (under about 16 ounces) don't need the salt and sit an rinse treatment.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 07:23 AM

Yes zucch and yellow squash, but I et all of those. Then when I reheated my garlic-oil based slice of pizza I scooped out all the leftover garlic onion tomato from under the uneaten eggplant and put that on top, boy was that yum.

I'll give the eggplant one more try without the skin. I have half of it left

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 07:48 AM

I get the feeling there can be a bit of debate over the need to salt and or peel aubergines/ eggplants. I feel certain that there is no need with the baby variety I like to grow (but didn’t this year) but could wonder more with others. Sites including (I think) a BBC one I found up yesterday seem to suggest that just about all newer varieties are less prone to bitterness than older ones and others may reference the size of the fruit and the condition of this skin. The best speculation I’ll make there is that you need to make your own judgement call.

I did use a (supermarket) aubergine in a mix on Sunday btw. It together with our own courgette/zuccinni and a can of chopped tomatoes became a layer in an attempt at some sort of veg lasagne. I just cubed the unpeeled fruit for this and there was no bitterness.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 07:53 AM

As I do when confronted with a glut of anything edible, I consulted my favourite book of preserving recipes, “Put a Lid On It! Small Batch Preserving for Every Season” by Ellie Topp and Margaret Howard. Sure enough, this oracle had a solution to my tomato problem: Gingered Tomato Marmalade.

I’m pretty sure it’s an old Canadian recipe because it has Imperial quantities expressed in U.S. measures. It yields six 8-ounce jars.

5 cups (40 fl. oz. or one quart Imperial) chopped, skinned tomatoes
2 large oranges, rind and flesh, chopped very fine
1 large lemon, rind and flesh, chopped very fine
3 tablespoons finely minced ginger
4 cups white granulated sugar

To chop the citrus fruit, cut them in hunks to remove the seeds and do the rest in a food processor.

Mix the tomatoes, oranges and lemon in a large stainless or enamelled steel saucepan and bring to a full rolling boil. Add the minced ginger, and then stir in the sugar, keeping the boil going. Continue boiling to gel stage, then bottle and seal in a water-bath canner.

It’s a nice, mellow marmalade that will please ginger fans. Without the ginger, it’s like orange marmalade without the acrid bite of the Seville article, and not so achingly sweet as commercial preserves.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 10:58 AM

Well your post just got me looking again at the Victoria plum tree, Charmion. We still need to be sure there are no nasty things inside as we had one year but I've managed to pick 8lb of fruit that look good to me so there may well be plum jam on the way...

I've lost the gages but we have enough damsons to make something (mum will probably go for damson cheese) and the crab apple tree has done something this year so crab apple jelly could be on the cards.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 04:16 PM

If you have Damsons John .............. please, please make Damson Jam.

My Grandmother used to make it, it was the best Jam I EVER had, a thing of great beauty.

I now have my Grandmothers Jam pan, it must be at least 100 years old and on the rare occasion I manage to acquire Damsons I make Jam.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 05:02 PM

Well I've picked them Raggy but I'll leave it to mum to decide what she wants to do with them. She will be in charge of the making. I'll just provide whatever assistance she wants.

Incidentally, she reckons damsons were plentiful in her home county of Shropshire - something like every house had a damson tree.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 06:00 PM

Damson jam is indeed a fine thing. Unfortunately, nobody grows damsons in southwestern Ontario. At least, no one who's willing to bring them to market in Stratford.

I'm knocking off preserving until I can get my hands on some new crop Cortland apples, Flemish Beauty pears and Italian plums (the kind for drying into prunes) to make my justly famous Five-Fruit Chutney. (The other two fruits are Roma tomatoes and zanthe currants.) It's the best damned chutney I've ever eaten, bar none, and by George I have the recipe!

When the plums finally hit the market, I hope I will have sourced some more quarter-litre Mason jars. They're rare as hen's teeth this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 06:31 PM

Would that be half-pint jars to us in the US? Odd that they would be scarce, but I suppose this year more people could be canning.

The cucumbers are beginning to climb the fencing materials put out yesterday (those probing curly strands appear and cling quickly) and the okra have lovely blooms not swamped by ants. It is August and usually if these are planted in a regular garden they're huge by now, so there will be a diminished crop, but there will be a crop.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 07:18 PM

Damson jam me arse! Only make damson jam (which is lovely, and the stones all float to the top) if you have an excessively large amount of damsons. Otherwise, it would be criminal to not use your damsons to make damson gin. Grab a very large kilner jar and put in it one pound of pricked damsons and six ounces of sugar to each 75cl bottle of gin. Swirl the jar around every day until the sugar has dissolved. Then leave it until the week before Christmas, give it a last swirl, then either filter it through a muslin bag or just let it settle and decant it a few times. More of an and/or really, but you do sort of want it clear. Much better then slow gin. You'll live forever.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 07:20 PM

Slow sloe, quick quick sloe...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: robomatic
Date: 18 Aug 20 - 08:22 PM

I am working on my first moussaka right now. Giving myself today to start and tomorrow to finish. Right now i'm shaving eggplant and wondering why I bought an English cucumber...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 03:22 AM

I just checked my blackthorn bush. It has produced one sloe.
If it is still there in a couple of months time I shall put it in an egg cup of gin, and keep it until Christmas.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 03:29 AM

If you freeze sloes for a few days before making the sloe gin, you don't have to do all that tedious pricking. I bottle of gin, 12 oz sloes, 6 oz sugar. Use decent gin and a light muscovado sugar for the best result.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 03:50 AM

There's no need to do all that tedious pricking anyway, never mind freezing.
Just put the sloes in a jar, add gin, and the sloes swell up in the gin, which causes the skins to split.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 06:54 AM

We haven’t done sloe gin in a number of years but, as I cut a lot of blackthorn back this year to keep the farm track clear, I doubt if we’d have many to pick. Not in the nearest patch anyway, I’m not sure what’s happening further up the field.

I hope there is new growth and they come back well next year from where I cut it. I may no longer have use for the berries but the blossom looks quite splendid earlier in the year.

Not an excess of damsons btw but I got a very worthwhile to us just over 4lb of fruit from the tree.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 09:17 AM

Yes, Stilly, a quarter of a litre is quite close to eight fluid ounces or half a US Standard pint. On this side of the border, one pint is (still) twenty fluid ounces Imperial.

250-ml Mason jars (the jam size) usually get scarce in late summer, but they vanished earlier this year than usual, even from Wal-Mart. I doubt that people are canning more than in previous years; Canadian Tire and Wal-Mart have great stacks of the 500-ml and litre jars that are popular for putting up fruit, veg, pickles, tomato sauce and juice. I think it more likely that the manufacturers are making something else — ventilators, I hope.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 11:00 AM

No stones in MY damson jam, I pick them all out, tedious as hell, but makes for a much better jam.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Aug 20 - 02:07 PM

Damson plum jam is only rivaled by sour cherry preserves. Damsons win, but it is a contest.