BS: The other recipe thread is too long

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Mar 21 - 11:47 AM

...I remember now - it was seeing groves of date palms on cycling's UAE Tour.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Mar 21 - 02:29 PM

I keep misreading Puny Lentils.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Mar 21 - 04:37 PM

After a cock-up last night, I've perfected my Parmesan crisps. Heat the oven to 180C. Get a big baking tray and cover it with baking paper. Grate Parmesan finely. Put heaped tablespoons of cheese on it at regular intervals. They can be quite close together because they won't spread. Persuade each blob of cheese gently into a disc about two inches across. Don't sweat it but make the discs roughly equally thick all the way across. The cooking time is crucial. Ten minutes, too much, burnt flavour. Eight minutes, pretty good. I might try seven next time, but eight was good. Very nice with the Prosecco aperitif. In fact, we devoured them. I can just see me of a summer night by the barbie, burgers and bangers a-sizzling, quaffing the fizz with a plate of Parmesan crisps and a bowl of nocellara olives... Nirvana calling!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Mar 21 - 04:52 PM

...not sure if that can be done with any of the vegan cheeses currently available, but I know Violife (with coconut oil) slices make a pretty good grilled cheese on toast - sometimes sprinkled with mixed herbs but always with tomato sauce, for me.

Maybe you could try a sprinkle of herbs next time, Steve..?

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Mar 21 - 05:01 PM

I'm not talking about cheese on toast. This is Parmesan on its own, made into crisps. Whatever "vegan cheese" is, and I won't be looking it up, it isn't cheese. Incidentally, Parmesan can never be vegetarian. If calf rennet isn't used, it can't be called Parmesan. I will not be consuming cheese with herbs added any time soon. The reason for this, as hundreds of my posts here will testify, is that I seek out the best cheese I can find, and I will not adulterate good cheese. Even if I have it on toast.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 12:56 PM

Mad household panic yesterday as our kitchen floor was inundated with water from an extremely inaccessible leaking pipe. Our plumber, after mucho turning of the air blue* - we're well used to him, and Mrs Steve knew him as a little lad in the primary school she taught in :-) - he managed after several hours to fix it, a few traumas on the way but without dismantling the whole kitchen.

So. I grabbed a bag of my bolognese sauce from the freezer, fried a chopped-up red pepper and some cherry toms and threw them into the sauce along with some dried ancho chilli and a dusting of hot chilli powder. A good dose of dried oregano also went in. We had that with boiled basmati rice, a blob of creme fraiche (we didn't have any soured cream or guacamole) and a sprinkling of El Paso green jalapeños from a jar.

Delicious. We'll be doing it again, panic or no panic!

Plumber quotes:

*"Oh f**k, I haven't got half the f**king kit I need to do this..."

"What the f**k have I f***ing done with that f***ing pipe bend..."

"Sh*t, I f***ing hate water...I'm a f***ing plumber and I f***ing hate f***ing water..."

"B***ocks, I can't f***ing do this b*st**d, what the f**k am I gonna f***ing do?"

"Jesus, it's a right f**king game is this..."

etc...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 04:10 PM

Things not to want to hear, like Oops from you surgeon, during surgery.

Did a lazy thing: got a container of lobster bisque from Wegman's soup bar, and some salmon and some tuna from the sushi counter. Fried an onion in butter with some cayenne, added the fish, deglazed with a smidge of white wine, added the bisque, brought to almost-boil. Chopped the daikon radish garnish on top. Yum.

Saved the hot mustard and ginger.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 05:09 PM

...re the language, you don't mind telling me to put a plug in it, Steve!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 06:16 PM

I don't recall railing against your language...?

That's right, Mrrzy, not quite what one wants to hear, but, as I said, we're used to him, and we know it helps him to fight through and get the job done...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 07:06 PM

Yesterday I was at my discount gourmet grocery and they had some large lovely unsliced loves of some kind of French bread, wrapped two to a parcel. I bought two of these, thinking I'd keep one for myself and donate the other three loaves to the community fridge I help stock. When I got to the fridge I realized I couldn't unwrap the pair without leaving the other one looking exposed or not professionally packaged by the store. So I donated both double packages and this morning made myself a loaf of my usual whole wheat/white flour mix bread. And on this bright but cool windy day I've finally started a pot of lentil soup for myself. I've been meaning to make some for a while, but kept putting it off. It smells wonderful! I'll probably have some pollock (floured, sauteed in butter, with lemon) along with my soup and a salad and another slice of bread.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Mar 21 - 08:58 PM

Gotta keep eating the fish! We eat tons of fish, smoked mackerel from the supermarket, unsalted tuna sandwiches, tuna with pasta, that lovely sockeye wild salmon from the cold Pacific, at least one dollop per week of (usually) chunky white fish from Tracey, our lovely fishmonger half a mile away at the beach house shop... It costs us, but bejaysus, if we didn't support the local fishmonger, we'd lose her... I'll eat any fish with relish...

In the last nine months I've had two really serious bouts of cellulitis, which totally pees me off. On Monday I have to have a blood test at my doc's behest to see if I have diabetes, which I haven't got. Sheesh. I shall eat fish and eschew puddings the night before. And no booze. I have cod. I have peas to mush. I have organic spuds to chip. I feel really well. Bugger the medics, eh...? Grr...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 01:24 AM

Neat new St Paddy idea: arrange fruit on round platter into concentric arcs of colors for the rainbow, with a little pile of golden something to one side for the pot of gold.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: BobL
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 03:25 AM

Mustard?????

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jos
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 05:22 AM

What will you use for the blue fruit?

A rainbow salad might be easier. A bit of cold cooked red cabbage goes a lovely clear blue.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 09:18 AM

Carrot and ginger soup today. It’s spring, so the onions are sprouting in their bin — time to use them or lose them.

The beer fridge has gone to the town dump, so my cache of frozen soup stock is now in the chest freezer. When moving it, I noted two litres of ham stock. The last time I boiled up a ham bone was well before the pandemic began, so I guess I had better use that.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 10:44 AM

Blueberries.

Not sure what the little orange fruit were. Smaller than grapes, bigger than blueberries. Had a kind of dark spot at one end, like a stem scar or strawberry seed thingie.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 11:01 AM

The fish was disappointing. I tried every way I could to see the contents of the box and it just said wild-caught pollock, but I think it was treated with that sodium tri -long name stuff that holds water. It was a sodden mess once it thawed. I'm going to have to thaw on a wire rack and see if that helps the liquid drain from the fish. One of the most dishonest treatments of fillets is to soak them in water with this chemical then freeze them and get a lot more per pound for that extra water.

The soup was great. The Lebanese restaurant where I first ate it serves it with some toasted strips of pita bread that I'd like to figure out how to fix next.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 01:53 PM

Mrrzy, kumquat? They look kinda like "honey, I shrunk the oranges."

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 02:00 PM

I can't stand repeating things too much, but I'm stuck on one recipe for sea bass.
Let it sit for a while with granulated (this is dried and chopped/ground/little-ized. It IS garlic, so THERE! And fresh doesn't work when coating the fish with it) garlic and salt. Let it sit, then fry it. I melt some butter, and add lemon, and pour it over the fish, and take 30 seconds to eat it. (Really, it's longer than that.)
The problem is that's so good, I don't want to try anything else. I love the fish. It's a very non-fishy fish.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 03:41 PM

Bingo, Jeri!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 04:12 PM

If I'm going to bake fish in the oven uncovered, I make a marinade containing extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, sprigs of fresh lemon thyme, a tiny dash of Tabasco and a clove of garlic that I've bashed with my fist. The fish gets a garlic kiss which is just right, but you're not eating bits of actual garlic. The marinade is just for about half an hour. Just before baking I might get a piece of kitchen towel and soak some of the marinade off the top of the fish, which avoids too much liquid sitting in the fish after cooking. It doesn't matter if you're frying and flipping. I don't want salt anywhere near the fish until it's in the pan, and even then not much.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 07:44 PM

Sounds like ceviche, Steve Shaw. Yum.

I seared a steak and while it was resting put some white wine to deglaze then added the mushroom sauce I had made with some onion garlic cayenne pickles and some Dijon mustard. Served with sour cream. Strogonoffesque. Yum. Some rabbit broth cubes to add a little liquid.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 07:46 PM

Forgot ... The mushrooms were sautéed in snail butter, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 08:00 PM

..and the steak was seared in duck fat..

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 08:15 PM

Ceviche? Er, did you see the bit at the beginning of my post when I said I did it before baking the fish??

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jeri
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 09:47 PM

I was wondering why you baked the ceviche'd fish, but decided not to get involved. Your fish. :)

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 10:04 PM

It was just a marinade! Anyway, as I've often said, one man's fish is another man's poisson. If the oven's on anyway, if you're doing home-made oven chips for example, open-baking a chunky piece of skin-on fish (as opposed to wrapping it in foil) is an excellent way of cooking it, and that bit of marinade adds subtle flavour and stops the top from drying out. You can even push the chips to one side (or put them on another tray), once they're nearly done, and just sit the fish on the oily tray for six or seven minutes. And come on, folks. Why are you using garlic dust on your fish when beautiful fresh garlic is so easy to obtain and use? A house without lovely, plump garlic bulbs is like a pub with no beer!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Mar 21 - 10:44 PM

Ceviche IS just a marinade. The lemon cooks the fish.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 05:25 AM

Ye gods...

A MARINADE FOR CHUNKY FISH (cod, hake, haddock, etc.)

Sufficient for two skin-on fillets. Mix together the juice of half a lemon, a glug of extra virgin olive oil, a sprig or two of lemon thyme (leaves picked if you can be arsed), three drops of Tabasco and a peeled clove of garlic that you've squashed but not chopped. Put this into a shallow bowl and put the fish in it for half an hour before you bake it, turning once or twice. Only season the fish, lightly, immediately before cooking.

Viola!

I will devour smoked mackerel, but smoked salmon in this country is invariably an inferior product made from farmed fish and I avoid it. I will not eat other forms of raw fish.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jos
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 06:37 AM

I'd been wondering what "snail butter" was (it sounds revolting), so I looked it up. I am relieved to discover that it neither contains nor originates from snails. It's just garlic and herb butter.
What a relief.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 07:20 AM

I can't imagine what I'd ever use that for. The only time I'll ever "mince" garlic is when I make pesto, and then only half a clove.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 07:43 AM

You should try gravadlax Steve, I make my own along with pickled herrings, the gravadlax recipe was originaly a salmon recipe but you can use it for any oily fish and it's always great I use it for sea trout and rainbow trout which I catch myself. Although I catch brown trout [ not on purpose ] I never kill them.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 12:28 PM

I can't think that I'd ever want to sully a lovely bit of wild red salmon by doing that to it. I don't buy any other kind of salmon. Can't say that I fancy it, Dave.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 04:26 PM

Jos, sorry! Yeah garlic parsley butter *for* snails. I make and freeze it in a long log, so when I want some I slice off a round. A Kerrygold butter amount usually lasts a couple of months.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 04:52 PM

Kerrygold? Grease.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 08:04 PM

I cooked a big pot of Elizabeth David's boeuf en daube today, to be consumed tomorrow evening with our bubble friend. Any stew or daube is ten times better the next day, which is the aim. That was enough cooking for one day, so we fraternised a new fish and chip outlet, Potters, in Bude tonight. Cod in beer batter, chips triple-fried in beef dripping and, of course, mushy peas. It's a restaurant which can't open right now, so they've done the enterprising thing of temporarily converting to a chippy takeout. It was superb. The daube tomorrow, probably untraditionally, will be consumed with mash and some greens. Despite the lack of liquid additions in the recipe, lots of rich gravy is always produced. The recipe is in her book French Provincial Cooking. You really must use the right beef, top rump, cut into little steaks about two or three inches square. The dish is easy, and it's a masterpiece.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 08:09 PM

You don't have to buy the book just for that. It's on the Guardian website if you google something like "Guardian Elizabeth David daube." Scroll down the rather lengthy article until you reach Rick Stein's bit!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 08:42 PM

There's a cultured butter out of Vermont I'm currently in love with. Kerrygold isn't bad, but the Vermont stuff is out of this world. (Maybe we should have a butter thread?)

The weirdest/best thing I did with salmon (it will surely offend someone) is poach it in liquid, the contents of which I don't even remember. I know there was scotch in it. Talisker 10-year old.(Iif the poaching doesn't offend, that surely will.)

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 08:55 PM

I've poached cod fillets in milk many times. It's wonderful with mash, home-made parsley sauce and something green. Best thing on earth if you happen to have toothache. The only thing I ever do with salmon is fry it in butter or cut it into small chunks and add it at the last minute to a spicy arrabbiata sauce, in which it's cooked in under two minutes. I'm never going to be buying pink salmon or any farmed salmon, and I always ask.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jeri
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 09:27 PM

I should stay out of these recipe threads. I'm really craving a nice piece of wild-caught salmon right now. I watch the TV show "The Last Alaskans", and they catch a massive amount of salmon to FEED THEIR SLED DOGS over the winter! Even when I was younger, I'd be crap at pulling a sled, but...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Mar 21 - 09:36 PM

It's expensive, but you don't have eat it that often.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 12:54 PM

I am trying something different because my farmer's market had duck eggs.

Fried some onions in snail butter and hot peppers. Into bowl.

Fried some mushrooms in same pan, with thyme. Into same bowl.

Fried some bacon. Decided it was too sweet, set aside, wiped out pan.

Wilted spinach in the pan. Ate bacon while doing that. Into bowl.

Mixed contents of bowl, then into over-safe dish previously greased with some goose grease.

Beat 2 duck eggs in bowl, poured over veg. Used utensil to push sticking-up bits down into egg.

Grated some cheddar for the top.

Into toaster oven at 350°F.

Not sure if it is a crustless quiche or a frittata or what.

Will report back.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 01:11 PM

Checked: it is pouffy but not browned yet. Smells marvy.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 02:38 PM

Just reminded of this whilst watching Jane McDonald cruising in Australia, and stopping for a pie topped with mashed potato, mushy peas, then gravy in a kind of well made by first pressing the ladle into the pile.

I used to work making wire ware in Adelaide, South Australia, with a chap who, every lunchtime, would follow the same routine so closely it may impress a Geiko in Kyoto practising chado/the Japanese tea ceremony:

He would neatly cut off the top of his pie, drench it with tomato sauce, before neatly placing the pastry lid back on.

(And I bet I've made your weekend with that bit of info!)

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Mar 21 - 03:36 PM

It was meh. But fun to make. I think it was closer to a frittata than a crustless quiche.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Mar 21 - 01:01 PM

Took a bite of the leftovers on my way to make something yummy, and it was WAY better. Go figure.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Charmion
Date: 22 Mar 21 - 11:05 AM

I know that daube, Steve. "French Provincial Cooking" was my first really good cookbook (still have it), and Elizabeth David is up there in my pantheon with Marcella Hazan.

I made a batch of carrot-and-ginger soup yesterday that will do me for lunches until maybe Friday. The kitchen was still deliciously scented with onions sauteed in butter when I got up this morning. Great way to start the day.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Mar 21 - 11:29 AM

I made a Spanish tortilla last night, more or less following Jamie Oliver. The spuds I used were all wrong, too soft and grainy. But I ate the leftovers for lunch today and it was thoroughly delicious. I haven't been and gone and figgered yet...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 22 Mar 21 - 08:05 PM

I know this isn't a recipe, but I've just eaten a guilty late-night tablespoon of Morrison's crunchy peanut butter straight from the jar (own up: it isn't just me...). I read the label: no added salt, no added sugar, no palm oil, 100% peanuts. That'll do me, I thought. Then I read the back label: "ALLERGENS: may contain nuts..."

"May." Bwahahaha!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Mar 21 - 09:58 PM

Boeuf en daube:

I can never see the words Boeuf en daube
without thinking of
To The Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf:


The boeuf en daube was a complete triumph.