BS: The other recipe thread is too long

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 07:37 PM

I made the traditional Portuguese soup caldo verde tonight. I had about 150g of dolce chorizo, which I skinned. I chopped up two-thirds of it small and fried it for five minutes in some extra virgin olive oil in my big sauté pan. Then into that pan went some sliced onion and a couple of cloves of smashed garlic (squashed with the flat of a knife blade). While that was softening up I peeled about six good-sized spuds and cut them up into 3/4 inch cubes. The spuds went in the pan along with about a litre of stock (I used half-strength home-made chicken stock, but you can use just water).

After about 15 minutes the spuds were cooked. I carefully fished out about half of them, then I whizzed everything else in the pan until smooth. Then I put the reserved chunks of spud back in along with half a pound of very finely-shredded greens (I had a sweetheart organic cabbage, but anything leafy will do). While that was simmering away (do a seasoning check), I cut the rest of the sausage into thin circles and dry-fried them until quite crispy in a separate frying pan.

Once the greens were cooked I ladled the thick soup into bowls, topped it with the chorizo slices and sprinkled extra virgin olive oil on top. Delicioso!

So far, fairly authentic, though I confess to having cheated in order to make this a hearty meal and not just a big bowl of soup. In Portugal they'd have it with corn bread, but instead of that I threw in a can of cannellini beans with the cabbage. Not exactly purist but begod it did the trick.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 12:22 PM

Things to do when you live alone but cooked a whole rabbit:

Take all the meat off the other arm and put it on a salad. Lettuce cukes almonds, vinaigrette.

Take all the meat off one leg and stuff a pepper.

Eat one leg cold, like cold fried chicken, outdoors in the sunshine, like a picnic.

Make an entirely different stew, curry or something, with the saddle and the liquid from the original stew.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 10:10 AM

I find all stock cubes to be too salty. By the time you've used enough cubes you've got too much salt... I used the beef cube in that recipe along with the porcini water, enabling me to use just half of the cube. And I think that Marigold bouillon powder is the spawn of the devil.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 08:16 AM

I like Better Than Bouillon. Glop, not cubes. Analog rather than digital amount calibration.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 04:34 AM

I use the Kallo organic ones, not because I think they have the best flavour (I don't know) but because they're organic. I always make my own veg stock and I usually have enough of my own chicken stock, but I rarely get the chance to make beef stock.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: BobL
Date: 08 Mar 21 - 03:08 AM

beef stock from a cube
Steve, whose cubes do you use? I gave up on Oxo cubes and their ilk after examining the ingredients list: nowadays I use Knorr Stock Pot, which my aging taste buds find not bad.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 07:09 PM

I looked out of the bedroom window this morning at the heavy hoar on the grass and thought to meself: "pot roast."

I had a hunk of brisket weighing in at one kilo. Now I know you yanks like to cook a brisket weighing about ten pounds, but there are only two of us, and my hunk yields enough for two meals.

So I get my smaller Le Creuset, whack up the heat, melt a big knob of butter and brown the meat all round. I stick that to one side and then fry for five minutes some big hunks of carrot, celery and onion. I put the beef on top of that and insert into the pot a bouquet garni (a bunch of fresh parsley, bay leaf and lemon thyme, all tied with string), and add half a pint of beef stock from a cube, half a pint of the soaking water from a handful of dried porcini and half a pint of some home-made veg stock I happened to have lying around. Something of a variable feast, but I reckon you can use whatever liquids you happen to have. It just needs to come well above half-way up the piece of meat. A touch of seasoning, then at least four hours in a very low oven (120C, yanks go figure).

We had that with me home-grown, well-frosted parsnips, roast spuds, cauliflower and a few carrot batons. The gravy in the pot was exquisite, though I extracted enough for two and thickened it ever so slightly with flour. It was a feast to remember, and I have enough beef left for tomorrow with a very buttery jacket spud and some roasted tomatoes.

Good living!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 07:09 PM

Yeah, Mrrzy. The things you get away with.

I, for example, just ate a Sunday dinner of smoked oysters and crackers.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 05:43 PM

Ooh I love living alone:

When my stew was done (I totally forgot the thyme and parsley) I fished out the flanks and ate'm, fished out an arm and ate it, and then stood there and, with my fingers, ate all the cabbage off the top.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 02:23 PM

Bonzo's recipe was moved over here to make more sense than being a one-off, and in order to still let Mrrzy's post start this recipe thread I've transcribed Bonzo's chronologically earlier post and am adding it here.

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Subject: How to prepare Argentine Asado!!!
From: Bonzo3legs - PM
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 03:28 AM

How to prepare Argentine Asado!!!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jos
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 02:14 PM

Rabbit can take a largish amount of garlic without it being too much.

The best paté I ever had was a rabbit paté bought in a small shop near the Mont-Saint-Michel. Next time, if you can resist eating it all, you could try making paté with those fiddly bits of meat.

Subject: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Mar 21 - 01:08 PM

I can't even load it enough to make a blicky to it without going away and coming back.

Blicky.

I did something different with my rabbit: when I cut it up usually I put it all in the stew, then do the take-meat-off-bones bit for the messy pieces.

This time I put all the messy pieces into a small pot with an unpeeled onion, some whole peppercorns, and some sea salt.

The plan had been to take the meat iff those bones and add it to the stew with the rest of the rabbit. Instead I stood there over the sieve and ate all that meat while the stew cooked.

And I ended up with an exact ice-cube tray-full of rabbit broth now freezing up for later cooking.

The stew involved browning the big pieces (dredged in onion powder, garlic powder and paprika, forgetting the salt, oops) in goose fat, deglazing with white wine, adding in onion and lost of garlic, put rabbit back in pot, cover with chopped cabbage, add some chicken broth, into oven. It is smelling marvelous. It will be finished with thyme and parsley.