BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Nov 18 - 07:31 AM

I'm doing a risotto this evening, based on scraps of sausage, chicken and stuffing rescued from our last roast chicken dinner that I'd kept in the freezer. There'll be bacon in a t and I'm using by home-made real chicken stock. I'll let you know how it goes.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 11:44 PM

Oooh, those sound good! Last night I made one of our standard soups: saute onions, shallot and garlic in coconut oil, add a rake of grated carrot and keep going on low-ish heat, add chicken stock (well, I use chicken usually, or sometimes vegetable stock from cubes), then chopped-up broccoli and some flakes of dried hot chilli pepper, and finally a couple of fillets of hake. Simmer till any non-grated bits of carrot are soft and the hake has broken up and disappeared into the soup. Very nice with brown soda bread on the side.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 06:25 PM

This takes ten minutes max. We've had a busy day today and this is what I chucked together. With thanks to Nigel Slater, who provided the idea.

Put a pan of your favourite short pasta on to boil in salted water. 250g for two people.

Drain a jar of tuna in olive oil, preferably yellowfin (albacore). If you have tuna in spring water, throw it away unopened.

Put tuna in a bowl and add the following: a tablespoon of nonpareil capers (never use any capers bigger than those). Two cloves of garlic, finely sliced (throw your garlic crusher away - worst bloody invention ever). A helping of chopped fresh parsley (don't arse about: tear the leaves off the parsley, put them into a mug and snip away like mad for one minute with a pair of scissors). Freshly-ground black pepper. A little bit of salt, only if your tuna is unsalted. Five tablespoons of full-fat creme fraiche. Nigel uses double cream, but trust me on this. Mix up everything roughly. You want a few visible tuna flakes.

Drain the pasta and retain a mug of pasta water (you'll need some to loosen the sauce).
Mix the pasta and the tuna mix together. Use pasta water to loosen. I've never managed without it. Serve in warm bowls. Heresy coming up: serve with Parmesan. True Italians would kill me for that, but it works.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 04:41 PM

I just made a large pot of my friend E.V.'s Hot & Sour Chicken Soup -- most of it for the freezer as, well, winter's coming! This soup is truly both tasty and beneficial if I come down with one of winter's maladies.

E.V., like me, doesn't so much use a recipe as use an ingredient list and guide.

Thinly slice (today I varied it and used bigger chunks of everything except the carrots) onion, red bell pepper, carrot or zucchini, garlic, ginger and saute in coconut oil until tender.

Add chicken broth and pulled chicken meat. (I cheated and used a supermarket rotisserie chicken -- and put the carcass along with some veg scraps in the freezer to make stock one of these days, also for the freezer.)

Then add Asian fish sauce (nuc mam, nam pla, etc.), chili-garlic paste (or Sambal Olek or other hot pepper sauce), and rice wine vinegar -- all to taste. Adjust the three sauces for your preferred taste or amount of heat. Oh, salt and black pepper.

Believe me, if you're in the throes of a head cold this works a treat. And I find it also settles the stomach and will coax me to eat if nothing sounds good.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 11:07 AM

Hmm, must check the ginger stocks; haven't been shopping for a couple of weeks - flu.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 09:35 AM

Chickpea and squash stew with couscous, from a recipe by Mark Birman. It’s a less-meatarian dish that somehow manages to get winter squash into Himself. Durn it, I’ll have to hit the supermarket for ginger root, courgettes and a red sweet pepper.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 08:46 AM

That link isn't working for me, try this one

The fish wouldn't go down here but perhaps I could try something on those lines one day IF feeling really keen.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 08:33 AM

Mmmm, sounds good! I was watching one of the English chef programmes the other day and they were making "cauliflower steak" - basically frying a big slab of cauliflower as if it's a steak. Must try it! Again, my man Yotam has a recipe.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 08 Nov 18 - 06:57 AM

I did a sort of spicy cauliflower/broccoli. I think it ran fry some onion, add 1 tsp each of ground cumin and corriander and 2 tsp of mild chili powder. Bit of garlic paste, 1 jar Patak Korma sauce, and a Knorr stock pot (or two?) Add some water and cook the brassica in the mix. Cooked the evening before for consumption the next tea time.

Served with basmatti rice. A typical bodge job of mine but it turned out quite well liked.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 07 Nov 18 - 11:42 PM

Oh, goodness, good luck with the colonoscopy. (Here, I think they're moving more and more to colonography instead, which can be done without anaesthetic, and is supposed to be more accurate… whether it's so or not…) Waiting for that chicken pot pie recipe.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 07 Nov 18 - 11:04 PM

Alas, it's the "liquid diet" portion of prep day leading to tomorrow's colonoscopy. Ask me again tomorrow after I get back home! (Sorry to do an immediate side-track on your topic - in my refrigerator I have a wonderful batch of chicken pot pie I made on Tuesday that I reheat and serve with whole grain crackers on top instead of making a crust.)

Subject: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 07 Nov 18 - 11:00 PM

What are we eating today? I made a Yotam Ottolenghi chickpea dish and it was yum. Two tins of chickpeas with the liquid poured off. Caramelise a couple of onions and garlic to taste; add the chickpeas and then about a tablespoon each of chopped rosemary, thyme and sage, and a tablespoon of anchovies. And slivers of lemon zest - the yellow part of the skin of a (washed) lemon. Let it all simmer and combine; add a couple of cups of chicken stock and simmer a bit more. Mash some of the chickpeas a bit. Just before serving, add a tablespoon each of chopped parsley and chopped mint, the juice of the lemon and a tablespoon of za'atar, and stir them in. Very moreish indeed.