BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 04:28 AM

I know off by heart all the temperature conversions within the UK meteorological limits. Beyond that, if I'm reading an American recipe I just ask Siri what it is in Celsius!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: BobL
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 04:34 AM

I printed a little conversion chart (degC, degF, gas#) onto a label which I stuck to a kitchen unit next to the oven. I'm still trying to invent one for calculating microwave times at different power levels.

OTOH when the computer world went metric half a lifetime ago, I had to learn the 25.4 times table...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 04:45 AM

I bought a cheap second-hand copy of Nigella Bites on Amazon. It was the American edition! I still can't get my head round this "cups" malarkey. Mrs Steve bought me a set of "cups" measurers!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 07:50 AM

Steve, if you were Canadian (of a certain age), you would have, not only the American cups, but also the Imperial gill/pint/quart measures that belonged to your English immigrant grandmother, the government-approved beakers with both American and metric graduation on them, and an electronic scale that does both metric and U.S. Standard, and for all you know troy weight as well.

So, with all this clag in your kitchen, of course you measure everything with your Mark I human eyeball and your good right hand.

Many of my recipes, especially for bread, have metric weights written in over the American cups and tablespoons. Weighing the ingredients is far more precise (important with baking) and saves washing up all those volume measures (important when one is lazy).

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 10:23 AM

I weigh more food than I used to, but haven't gotten to the dry ingredients yet.

Charmion, you wrote:
Boil the potatoes till just tender, then crush them slightly with the back of a spoon on a plate, or between your hands. Toss them in olive oil, season with salt and pepper, then spread them on a baking sheet. Bake at 400F (I don’t know what that is in the other money) until brown and crisp.

I'm sure I described the boil the small potatoes until just tender in my "smashed potato" recipe that I probably shared here. But my version (from Martha Stewart) is that once it is slightly smashed, then slip it into a skillet with melted butter and saute it on both sides. That buttery goodness makes the edges crispy, and all it needs is salt and pepper to make it perfect.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 01:48 PM

I have been known to order wonton soup, hold the wontons.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 06:04 PM

To be honest I'm not a weigher or a measurer. When I follow a recipe for the very first time I'll stick to the prescribed amounts, but after that I'm a rebel. I never stick to prescribed cooking times for meat. Big joints are always slow cooked at really low temperatures (not chickens). I never look at those so-many-minutes-to-the-pound-plus-20-minutes-over suggestions.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 07:05 PM

That works with most things, but not baking (breads, cakes, pies, souffle, etc.). That's the chemistry formula you have to be careful with, in many instances.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 07:08 PM

Very true, but those things are definitely Mrs Steve's department!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 09:40 PM

With big joints, I usually do like you, Steve, with the low temperature method, but the single most important getting-it-right tool I have for meat is an instant-read probe thermometer.

With birds, I roast at a fairly high temperature, baste like a bastard, and leave em in the oven or barbecue until the ankles look right.

Yeah, I know. Not very precise, but in some 50 years of making dinner I have yet to poison anyone.

With any large piece of meat, or even a thick steak, I find things go better if I take it out of the fridge well in advance so the middle isn’t near frozen when i5 goes in the oven. Himself is not a fan of overly rare anything.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 10:59 PM

Tonight we had meatloaf flavored with Mideast spice from the corner market. It was delicious.


1/4 cup oatmeal
one-half of a can of diced, salt free tomatoes
1 tsp mideast spice
about 1 1/4 lb ground beef (we like the 80%, more flavor)

In a big bowl, stir together the oatmeal, tomatoes and spice. Add the ground beef, breaking it into lumps about the size of a tangerine, so it's easier to mix. Spray the beaters of an electric mix with Pam spray for easier clean-up, then mix the batch at low speed.

Put parchment paper (for easier clean-up) on a rimmed baking sheet, mold the meatloaf into a meatloaf shape and bake at 350 for one hour.
===========
Make a second meatloaf with an additional 1.25 pounds ground beef, the second half of the tomatoes and one tsp dried rosemary or Italian seasoning. You can bake both loaves side by side at 350 for one hour.

After the hour, gently transfer loaves to oven rakes over a second pan or tray to rest. When pans have cooled down, drain fat into a grease can, then discard on garbage day. Roll up parchment paper and put in a plastic bag left over from something else, freeze and discard on garbage day.

These freeze well in a one-gallon plastic bag.
===========
On a day when you're feeling tired, it's so nice to simply take a meatloaf out, warm it in the oven 300, zap a vegetable or two, and dine.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 09 Nov 19 - 10:00 AM

Baking parchment deserves an ode in its honour. I started using it much too late in life; when I think of the hours wasted in greasing and scouring bakeware over more than 40 years of cooking, I heave a sigh of regret. But it just wasn’t widely available in Canada until recently, although my 1935 English cookbook mentions it as The Thing for covering pudding basins and baking meringues on.

I used to use the broad side of a paper grocery bag, but then the supermarkets all went to plastic.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 09 Nov 19 - 01:44 PM

Looking for a good flourless chocolate cake recipe. Dont want to try all the internet ones...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Helen
Date: 09 Nov 19 - 06:24 PM

I haven't read this thread or posted to it for a while so I can't remember whether I have posted this recipe here before but I made them again a week ago and they are tasty and satisfying.

I tried frying some in the frypan but they were a bit mushy so I added an egg, but then I had the oven on for something else the next day so I baked the rest of the mix anyway.

Note: If you are vegan, try using aquafaba instead. That's the water from a can of chickpeas or white or butter beans - not sure if the water from the black beans works. You can whisk the bean water until it resembles egg white and use it as an egg substitute. (Makes great meringues too. You'd never guess it was not egg based and it doesn't taste like beans at all.)

Black Bean-Quinoa Burgers

Black Bean-Quinoa Burgers

Serves 8
Here's a delicious veggie burger you can whip up from scratch. Any steak seasoning (which is just a combination of herbs and spices) will work to give the patties a rich, hearty flavor. Stash a few in the freezer for busy weeknight meals. For super-easy cookouts, bake the patties ahead, then reheat them on the grill. Serve with your favorite burger fixings.

•        ½ cup quinoa
•        1 small onion, finely chopped (1 cup)
•        6 oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and finely chopped (¼ cup)
•        1½ cups cooked black beans, or 1 15-oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained, divided
•        2 cloves garlic, minced (2 tsp.)
•        2 tsp. dried steak seasoning
•        8 whole-grain hamburger buns

1. Stir together quinoa and 1½ cups water in small saucepan, and season with salt, if desired. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer 20 minutes, or until all liquid is absorbed. (You should have 1½ cups cooked quinoa.)
2. Meanwhile, place onion and sun-dried tomatoes in medium nonstick skillet, and cook over medium heat. (The oil left on the tomatoes should be enough to sauté the onion.) Cook 3 to 4 minutes, or until onion has softened. Stir in ¾ cup black beans, garlic, steak seasoning, and 1½ cups water. Simmer 9 to 11 minutes, or until most of liquid has evaporated.
3. Transfer bean-onion mixture to food processor, add ¾ cup cooked quinoa, and process until smooth. Transfer to bowl, and stir in remaining ¾ cup quinoa and remaining ¾ cup black beans. Season with salt and pepper, if desired, and cool.
4. Preheat oven to 350°F, and generously coat baking sheet with cooking spray. Shape bean mixture into 8 patties (½ cup each), and place on prepared baking sheet. Bake 20 minutes, or until patties are crisp on top. Flip patties with spatula, and bake 10 minutes more, or until both sides are crisp and brown. Serve on buns.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 09 Nov 19 - 08:18 PM

For two.

Cut 300g free-range skinless boneless chicken breasts into strips. Stir-fry them fairly gently in 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan. After four minutes, add a glass of dry white wine and let it bubble for a minute or two. Then add 150g of chopped-up dolcelatte cheese and about 150g of creme fraiche (if you have the low-fat stuff, throw it in the bin and rush to the supermarket to get the real stuff). Simmer for three or four minutes, remove from the heat, add 2tbsp snipped chives and season (easy on salt, plenty of freshly-ground black pepper).

In the meantime you need to boil up 250g of flat pasta. It could be pappardelle or fettuccini, in which case you need to sit at the table, or something shorter if you want to eat it off your knee with a fork in front of Strictly. But flat it must be. Gigli would be good. When al dente, drain quickly and throw into the chicken sauce. You may or may not need a bit of pasta water, so keep some back just in case. Mix well, add a bit of pasta water if it needs it (it tends to thicken as you eat it), put it in warm bowls and top with more freshly-ground pepper. The ultimate winter comfort food. Flavours incredible.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 09 Nov 19 - 10:11 PM

Aaah, Steve. The day I find crème fraîche in a supermarket in Stratford will be the great gettin’-up mornin’ after the Foodie Party finally seizes power in Ontario. For that matter, dolcelatte is a thing I know only from reading the New York Times cooking pages — on line, of course.

I might try making your chicken dish with cultured sour cream ... but then it would not be your chicken dish. Sigh.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Helen
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 12:58 AM

Mrrzy, this is my favourite flourless cake recipe. It's not chocolate, but I've used similar ingredients but less eggs and added melted chocolate to make chocolate brownies. I have used the processed almonds & eggs idea for a few different experiments including a crumb base for a chocolate ganache tart and I've liked the results of everything I've tried so far.

The main idea is to use processed almonds or almond meal instead of flour and lots of eggs to bind it together and slow cook it in the oven to allow the eggs to do their thing. Variations on flavour can be made by using a different fruit, e.g. stewed apples, peaches or apricots, etc.

Orange & almond cake

Note: I also make the orange syrup from a slightly different cake recipe to pour over the cake. See below.

Makes 1 cake
Ingredients
•        2 large navel oranges, (choose oranges with unblemished skins as the whole fruit is used in this recipe)
•        5 eggs
•        1 1/4 cups (250g) caster sugar
•        2 1/2 cups (250g) ground almonds OR whole almonds processed in a food processor to the desired crumb size
•        1 tsp gluten-free baking powder*
•        Pure icing sugar to serve
Method
1.        Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease and line the base of a large cake pan.
2.        Place the two whole oranges in a large microwave safe bowl, cover with water and put a plate on top to keep the oranges under water. Bring to the boil and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes ensuring that the oranges remain covered with water. Drain and cool. Chop the oranges into quarters, discard any seeds, then place the chunks including the rind into a blender and puree until smooth.
3.        Beat the eggs with the sugar until thick, then add the orange puree, ground or processed almonds and GF baking powder and mix well.
4.        Pour into prepared pan and bake for 1 hour. Leave the cake to firm up in the pan for 20 minutes then turn out, remove the baking paper and turn over to finish cooling right way up. This cake definitely mellows with a little time and can be prepared up to 48 hours in advance.
5.        To serve, sift icing sugar on top and decorate with orange zest and almonds. OR poke a some holes in the cake pour orange syrup over the top. See recipe below for orange syrup.
Source

Orange & almond cake

Orange Syrup
•        1 orange
•        155g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
To make the orange syrup, use a zester to remove the rind from the orange. (Alternatively, use a vegetable peeler to peel the rind from orange. Use a small sharp knife to remove white pith. Cut rind into thin strips.) Juice orange.
7.        Step 7
Place rind in a saucepan of boiling water and cook for 5 minutes or until soft. Drain. Return to pan with orange juice and sugar. Place over low heat and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until the sugar dissolves and the syrup thickens.
8.        Step 8
Turn cake onto a serving plate. Use a skewer to gently prick the top. Spoon over syrup. Cut into wedges to serve.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 06:15 AM

Charmion, use double cream instead. If you can't get dolcelatte, use Gorgonzola (either piccante or dolce). The original recipe was cream and Gorgonzola, but we just like it a bit lighter, that's all, which is why I changed it to creme fraiche and dolcelatte.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 09:41 AM

That cake sounds marvy, thanks! How much chocilate (dark, I assume) do you add when?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 10:05 AM

I'm glad Steve and others are about the joy of cooking and not the precision of cooking. The sense of transient accomplishment is far more pungent and delicious than mowing the lawn.
Many of the skills take only a few extra minutes to do with grand results. I was briefly an Italian cook but never a chef with a myriad of techniques.
For those willing to devote the time to writing a cookbook I would like chapters on how to feed 20 or more or how to feed 2. Then instead of recipes a series of skills that would apply to many recipes at a time so people could mix and match.
Some-many failsafe recipes would build confidence and ambition.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Helen
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 02:08 PM

Now you are asking, Mrrzy. I would probably just use one block of dark cooking chocolate for that amount of cake. To ramp up the chocolatey-ness you could also add a couple of heaped teaspoons of cocoa.

I would mix the cake ingredients together and add the melted chocolate at the end.

I usually melt chocolate on half power in the microwave one minute at a time and stir it after each minute. It usually takes about 3 minutes all up.

I'm tempted to try this out, but using the orange as well. I love orange and chocolate flavours together.

Also, when I boil the oranges I keep the water in a bottle in the fridge and add a bit to cold mineral or soda water, usually with a splash of Angostura bitters. Yum in summer. Very refreshing.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Helen
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 03:06 PM

Mrrzy, I meant to say a block of cooking chocolate in Oz is 200 grams or 7 ounces. I usually go for the type which is a high percentage of chocolate, i.e. not as much sugar.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 05:13 PM

Orange chocolate is a foundation of my marriage but I've never boiled an orange before.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 05:51 PM

There’s a first time for everything, Donuel.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Helen
Date: 10 Nov 19 - 06:01 PM

Boiling the whole orange makes it nice & mushy to add to the cake mix, but also incorporates the tang of the orange peel without being overpowering.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Nov 19 - 02:49 PM

Ever since Mrs Steve bought me the book a couple of years ago, I've become a massive fan, a disciple almost, of Marcella Hazan. To be honest, the first time I follow a recipe I'm a slave to it (after that I'm a terrible rebel). So tonight I followed, trepidaciously, her recipe for beef braised with onions. Normally, if I have a hunk of a cheap cut of beef, it gets browned, then put in a pot with carrots, onions and celery, with some stock and/or red wine and a big bunch of herbs, then bunged in the oven for several hours at low temp. Very nice....

Well forget that. This was a revelation, so simple, and so different from those general (very nice) beef casseroles...

You need a heavy pot with a good lid. You need a piece of brisket weighing about two pounds. Don't even think of using a cheap topside roasting joint. It won't work. Get brisket or forget it. I know that yanks can get flat brisket. I much prefer to roll it and tie it with string, but it's up to you.

You need to incorporate about two ounces of pancetta/streaky bacon into the meat. Just shove some bacon pieces into the ends. She suggests using one of those needle jobbies that can thread the bacon deep into the joint. Sod that. She says to shove a few cloves into the meat. I didn't have any and I concluded that it matters not a jot.

Next, you need three or four big onions that you slice very thinly. Put the onions into your casserole. Layer a few rashers of pancetta/streaky bacon on top. Put the piece of beef on top of that then season well. It goes in at 150C for about three and a half hours. It needs turning occasionally. Just mash some spuds and boil up some greens. Voila.

The big thing is the lovely, slushy, brown onion sauce. No other gravy needed. This sets this dish apart from all those lovely pot roasts and casseroles.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: BobL
Date: 12 Nov 19 - 02:59 AM

Steve, could the bacon be laid on the flat brisket and rolled up with it? Easier than using a larding needle, especially if you don't have one.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Nov 19 - 06:13 AM

Why not? In essence, I was just shoving the bacon into the folds at each end of the roll. Which is sort of what you're suggesting, except that my method is less efficient! I wasn't going to cut all that neatly-tied string... I think Marcella wants the bacon to be in more intimate contact right through the meat. The recurring philosophical kitchen question arises: do I buy a special piece of kit just for one recipe that I might use once or twice a year at most...?


...Unless, of course, I can dig out a few more dishes that call for a larding needle... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: BobL
Date: 13 Nov 19 - 03:16 AM

I always asked myself three questions before buying stuff that had taken my fancy:

1) Do I really need it, or can I get by without it?
2) Can I afford it?
3) Have I got somewhere to keep it?

To go ahead with the purchase three yesses were necessary whilst I was married, thereafter two sufficed.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Nov 19 - 10:24 AM

I, too, worship at the shrine of Marcella Hazan. Her big book, "Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking", is a revelation, not least because so many of her dishes are not only supremely delicious but also not at all difficult to make. Marcella leads my personal household pantheon along with Mark Bittman, who also came to public attention through the New York Times. Unlike Bittman, who never saw a new food he did not want to wedge into (North) American foodways, Marcella never strayed from her native heath, the cuisine of Italy.

Tonight we are eating lamb, specifically a Norwegian soul-food dish called fårikål -- literally, lamb with cabbage. Mr Wrong, to whom I was married for a few frankly unpleasant years, was Norwegian, and the silver lining of that cloud was that he was nice to cats and a good cook. I owe this recipe to him.

The essential ingredients are lamb, bacon fat, cabbage, peppercorns and salt. Nice-to-have extras are lardons (instead of the bacon fat), minced garlic (which is not canonical but a major umami booster) and celery root. Some people add water to reduce the risk of scorching and flour to thicken the gravy, but I do not.

Take a kilo or more of lamb shoulder and cut it up into hunks a bit bigger than bite-sized. Core and slice a small cabbage into fork-manageable pieces. Crack the peppercorns -- a tablespoon or so.

In a dutch oven or a large skillet with a close-fitting lid, brown the lamb well in the bacon fat, and salt it liberally. Scatter the cracked peppercorns on the lamb, then pile the cabbage on top. Put on the lid, and turn down the heat to minimum or put the pot into a low oven. Leave it alone for at least 45 minutes, then take off the lid and stir up the pot -- juice from the cabbage will have generated a fair amount of gravy by this point. Check the texture of the cabbage (and celery root, if used). If it's tender, the dish is ready to eat; if not, put the pot back on the hob or in the oven until it is.

If you want to use lardons, add them to the pot first and render out as much fat as you can without scorching them, then add the lamb. If you want to add garlic, slice it (if you're Steve Shaw) or mince it finely and add it to the pot while the lamb is browning. If you want to add celery root, peel and dice it into one-inch cubes and mix it into the lamb before piling on the cabbage.

Serve fårikål with boiled potatoes, which you mash into the gravy with the back of your fork, and red wine or any kind of beer you like.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Nov 19 - 10:31 AM

That lamb with cabbage sounds marvy.

I also try to follow recipes the first time and then add my spin but it doesn't aways work, and there I am, spinning.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Nov 19 - 11:37 AM

I always do the recipe by the numbers the first time, but I almost always end up changing the order of tasks and the proportion of some ingredients, especially sugar, salt and fat, which can often be cut without harming flavour. Veg content and herbs I usually increase, sometimes by a lot.

The big exception is baking with non-yeast leavens, a chemistry-based process with which I am reluctant to meddle. I understand the workings of baking soda well enough to know how much of what is necessary, and most published recipes get it right.

Baking with yeast is quite another story. Flours can be highly variable, and temperature has a strong effect on yeast performance, so the behaviour of a specific recipe can differ sharply from winter to summer, say. So I add "enough flour to make a firm dough", one of my favourite phrases from Victorian cookery. Yesterday's bread was made with no-name flour from the supermarket, and I must have used a good half-pound more than I did with the last batch I made with the stone-ground stuff from the Arva mill. The weight difference probably comes from water content; the supermarket flour is much drier.

But the real thing is you have to pay attention to what your ingredients are doing. A decent cook can't be asleep at the switch!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Nov 19 - 02:00 PM

Garlic is very cheap. Any dish that I cook that undergoes longer or slow cooking that has garlic in the recipe will contain far more garlic than you could ever add if you minced it - but it will not have that harsh whiff or acrid garlicky taste. I just peel a small handful of cloves and either bash them with my fist or squash them with the flat of a knife. In they go, more or less whole but busted a bit, and in that state they release their lovely fragrant sweetness slowly and gently into the dish. Finely-sliced garlic is best in pasta sauces that sauté in the same time as the pasta boils. Garlic mincing is just brutal. Almost as brutal as using dried basil. That stuff should be illegal.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Nov 19 - 02:20 PM

I agree with you on dried basil. Also dried chervil, marjoram and parsley.

I smash and dump my garlic, too, mostly on account of laziness. But the over-trained in our midst will often default to the most labour-intensive preparation method available to them, thus qualifying as Stakhanovites. I have moments when I slip in that direction.

Minced garlic does have a true home, however, and that is in Indian food, especially dal. The blandness of boiled peas cries out for the brutality of minced garlic in large quantities, not to speak of vicious little chillies, lots of grated ginger, lashings of lime juice and heaps of chopped coriander leaf. Bring it on!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Nov 19 - 06:34 PM

I don't really do Indian food from scratch so I'll take your word for it apropos of the garlic, sceptic though I am. Dried oregano is indispensable. We've had a dingdong here about dried thyme. I won't use that. I have several pots of lemon thyme in my garden at all times, and that's the stuff I always use. Mint too, though it needs a bit of management if you want it in winter. I have a pot of sage, though I seldom use it, and there's always a rosemary bush if I need a sprig or two for roast lamb or for Mediterranean roast potatoes with whole garlic cloves. It's fresh or nothing. We appear to agree on other dried stuff. The point is that you can always leave herbs out if you haven't got fresh. Another good thing to do is think ahead and freeze chopped herbs. I always have some frozen parsley. As for basil, you can buy windowsill pots all year found. It's admittedly not quite as good as your own, but it's not bad at all. I've found that most cooked dishes that require basil don't suffer too much if you just leave it out. Basil is indispensable for tearing raw on to tomato and mozzarella salads, on certain pizzas and on bruschetta toppings. The baby leaves are always the best. And pesto of course. Basil cooked for a long time might as well not be there, unless you go for the abominable dried version. Note that Marcella agrees with me on this!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Nov 19 - 08:59 AM

Baking is chemistry. I don't mess with those recipes.
I like dried marjoram.
I love garlic and often mince it.
I am a heretic.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Nov 19 - 12:01 PM

We like drinks too? DC is apparently serving subpoena coladas. I laughed.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Nov 19 - 10:23 AM

Good one, Mrrzy! (Too bad I'm allergic to coconut)

Last night I made a batch of the chicken and vegetable filling that goes in chicken pot pie (onion, carrot, potato, peas). Alas, I didn't have any frozen peas to add, and to give it more heft I added a single parsnip, not usually featured in my chicken pot pie.

When my children were small and I started making this from scratch instead of buying store-bought highly-processed pot pies, they were at first reluctant to eat the stew. So I made pie crust, rolled it out, and used cookie cutters to create shapes to bake. They sat down to dinner the first time I did this and wanted to dive into the crust characters but were told they had to be placed on top of the bowl of stew. This worked well, and as often happens, was something they insisted upon and participated in for future chicken pot pie meals. There were lots of holiday shapes used over the winter months. Making an entire crust and baking this dish like a pie is just too much work and too many carbs. I didn't make pie crust for myself last night, I used some of my favorite large whole wheat crackers instead.

I don't usually add garlic to this did, but did last night. I grow my own and it saves very well in a paper bag in a dark place in the pantry. It added a nice bright touch.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Nov 19 - 10:58 AM

I am currently making soup from the last iteration of left overs.
Chicken cheese and veggies. The cheese is added last before serving on very low heat.
Because much of the added chicken was made with sour cream there was plenty of room for seasoning with sesame oil, celery salt, garlic powder, pepper, carrot threads, old bay and salt to taste.

Its a white soup with lots of color from multi colored peppers, corn, carrots and a few peas. I give it a B.

Anybody heard of grains of paradise? great name.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Nov 19 - 11:27 AM

"Grains de paradis" is how I have it written on the masking tape label in my spice drawer, most likely because I bought this wonderful pepper from a French-speaking Burundian woman selling central African products in the By Ward Market in Ottawa. It is particularly good on pan-fried salmon, and I reserve it for that purpose as I have no idea where to find more here in Perth County, where the people of central Africa do not tend to settle.

Today's supper is a vegetarian lasagne featuring portobello mushrooms and three kinds of cheese (ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan). I doubt that Italians would recognize it as food fit for their families, but it works for us, not least because it goes well with our favourite red plonk and the Le Creuset baker I make it in holds enough for six ample servings. Himself easily vanishes two servings at a sitting, so one batch does two meals.

As Steve Shaw reminds me, dried oregano is a critical staple. Without rather a lot of it, our veggie lasagne would not be worth eating.

The essential ingredients are: olive oil, two bell peppers (I like the red ones), one yellow onion, two or three celery ribs and about a pound of mushrooms, all diced; oregano and thyme ad lib, with salt and freshly ground black pepper; a large (28 fl oz) tin of diced tomatoes; eight raw lasagna noodles; and 500 g of ricotta, 350 g of shredded mozza, and rather a lot of grated Parmesan.

Discerning punters might like to jazz up the sauce with a couple of anchovy fillets mashed into the olive oil at the beginning, a sprinkle of dried chillies, and a small (5 fl oz) tin of tomato paste. I also put garlic in the sauce, and I know Steve would not because of the onion.

Sauté the diced veg in the olive oil, add the herbs and salt and pepper, add the tomatoes, simmer for a few minutes. To assemble, take a large flat baking dish and ladle in enough sauce to cover the bottom, then put down the first layer of lasagne. On top of the raw noodles spread half the ricotta cheese and half the grated mozza, then ladle on another layer of sauce evenly across the cheese. Next, the rest of the noodles, the rest of the ricotta, about half the remaining mozza, and the last of the sauce. Finally, dress the top with the last of the mozza and all the Parmesan, carefully covering the entire top surface with cheese. Sprinkle dried oregano liberally on top of the Parmesan.

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes and rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Nov 19 - 02:21 PM

If your Parmesan is genuine Parmigiano Reggiano, I have to tell you that it can't be vegetarian. The law states that it must be made with calf rennet. That's fine for you and me, but if I'm cooking a pasta bake or anything else that is meat-free for vegetarians I ask them in advance without pressure whether Parmesan is acceptable. You may need to check out your mozzarella on this score too. Several other cheeses are, as far as I know, always made with animal rennet, including pecorino romano, emmenthal, Gorgonzola, manchego and gruyere. Of course, what the eye don't see... But I can't work that way!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Nov 19 - 06:38 PM

Yes, our Parm is the real thing, and the mozza comes from an Italian-method cheesery.

Fortunately, I am not at present cooking for any doctrinaire vegetarians, so rennet is not an issue today. But I’m glad to know, as we have veggie friends who I do not wish to offend.

The anchovies are also problematical for those who prefer not to eat anything with a face.

So maybe I should call this dish less-meat-arian.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Nov 19 - 07:48 PM

I tend to avoid onion in most pasta sauces as I feel it makes them a bit claggy. Ragu for Bolognese is different. In that case the cooking is so long and slow that the onions are completely assimilated. I wouldn't put garlic in there but Mrs Steve wants it, and it's caused furious rows. My compromise is to throw in a handful of bashed garlic cloves. That way, we get the sweetness of the garlic without the acrid harshness that the minced thing adds. I think that if garlic is ever the point of the thing, then it has to be the fresh young cloves of spring garlic that haven't even had time to grow a papery skin yet. I adore the whole garlic cloves in olive oil that come Marché style in jars. I can easily eat half a jar of those at a sitting. I say this to emphasise that I'm a garlicophile par excellence. But mincing garlic is akin to drinking dry white wine at room temp or decanting warm champagne until it's as flat as a witch's t*t. Philistinism personified.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: BobL
Date: 16 Nov 19 - 02:40 AM

I'll have to dig out my infamous Garlic Soup recipe sometime - six cloves per person, crushed and lightly sautéed before being simmered in chicken stock. I got it from Car magazine of all places - the author, a car stylist, used it as an unfair way of winning arguments.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Nov 19 - 11:15 AM

I looked up "claggy." I don't think American tomato sauce does that, Steve. :-)

I'm preparing to store some fresh mushrooms for myself; I slice them then saute them in butter till wilted and freeze them in the small takeout plastic containers in portions that can go on some of my favorite dishes (topping on pizza, put into soup, etc.).

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 18 Nov 19 - 04:39 PM

Thick, sloppy, sludgy...My tomato sauces might have garlic but not onions, except for Marcella's onion and butter sauce, but you take out the onion at the end anyway.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 19 Nov 19 - 09:34 AM

Last night I made our clay-pot version of baked chicken and rice, in which I replace the Arborio called for in the original recipe with brown rice. It took me a while to figure it out, but the brown rice comes out perfect if you parboil it for about ten minutes before putting it in the pot.

This technique involves a cooking vessel made of unglazed terra cotta. Ours is the type called a Romertopf.

Essential ingredients are rice, chicken stock, onion, bone-in chicken parts, salt, pepper and thyme. The advanced class may choose also to add lemon juice or white wine (dry vermouth works well), garlic, mushrooms, bell pepper, and Old Bay seasoning.

Put the clay pot in the sink to soak for at least 15 minutes, but half an hour is better. While it is soaking, parboil one cup of brown rice in two cups of chicken stock, smash the garlic, and dice the onion, mushrooms and pepper.

When the pot has finished soaking, put the parboiled rice with its stock in the bottom. Add the lemon juice or wine, the thyme, salt and pepper, and all the vegetables, and stir it all up. Lay the chicken pieces skin-side-up on top and sprinkle Old Bay seasoning all over them.

Put the lid on the clay pot and put it in the COLD oven. Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for about an hour, maybe a tick more.

This reliably delicious dish is both cheap and particularly nice in winter. It also reheats well.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Nov 19 - 10:12 AM

I don't get the issue with minced garlic. Tastes fine to me...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Nov 19 - 12:21 PM

It is far too assertive in any Italian dish I've ever cooked. All the powerful and strident raw garlicky hit is released into the dish at the beginning. Way too harsh for me. Gently squashed or finely sliced garlic releases its lovely aromatic sweetness into the food. Squashed for long cooking and sliced for a 10-minute sauté. You can also bake whole cloves, skin on, for half an hour wrapped in foil with olive oil, then squeeze out the lovely soft middles for mixing into a bruschetta topping. Or you can just throw whole unpeeled cloves into your baking tray with 1/2-inch diced unpeeled potatoes, seasoning, olive oil and rosemary sprigs for Mediterranean-style roast potatoes to go with your grilled burger. You can put two whole heads' worth of cloves in there and just suck out the middles as you eat the spuds. We fight over them. I tend to give the garlic a bit less time than the spuds so as not to burn them. Someone mentioned garlic soup. Delicious.

I do make Delia Smith's seafood sauce with minced garlic, used with caution, but I always make it the day before so that the garlic and other flavours blend. It's an assertive dish with horseradish and cayenne as well as the garlic, so the garlic sits quite well in it. Apart from that my garlic crusher never gets used. A small amount of garlic goes into my mini-blender when I'm making pesto, but I emphasise a small amount!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Helen
Date: 19 Nov 19 - 02:07 PM

Charmion, I think I'll try your Romertopf recipe. I bought one so long ago I can't remember when but it has been in the cupboard unused for quite a while. I used to roast lamb with rosemary and garlic surrounded by veges in it. Yum!

Steve, I don't know the science of it, but years ago I was told to pre slice or mince garlic and leave it for a few minutes before using it. Some strange alchemy to do with the air changing the chemicals in the garlic. When I say that I mince the garlic, I mean by cutting it fairly fine and crushing it with the flat of the knife.

Allright, well that was a test of my Googling skills but here is one article by Tara Parker-Pope about leaving the minced or chopped garlic for a while before using it, however this is to boost the beneficial health effects:

"Many home chefs mistakenly cook garlic immediately after crushing or chopping it, added Dr. Kraus. To maximize the health benefits, you should crush the garlic at room temperature and allow it to sit for about 15 minutes. That triggers an enzyme reaction that boosts the healthy compounds in garlic."

I also throw the garlic in for the last few minutes only after I have fried the onions to the stage that I want them so that the garlic doesn't burn and get that bitter/acrid flavour.