BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 16 Dec 20 - 02:47 PM

Stilly: If you can't bear not to use chicken breasts (although thighs are so much better), at least use chicken with the skin on - for the flavour, tenderness AND health benefits.
According to a website I found (https://goodyfeed.com/8-reasons-why-having-chicken-skin-is-actually-healthy/),
"Chicken skin contains Omega 9 or oleic acid. It’s a monounsaturated fat that is also present in olive oil, and it encourages the formation of high-density lipoprotein, HDL, which helps to manage glucose sensitivity."

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 16 Dec 20 - 02:51 PM

Charmion, what's that you're saying about a PREVIOUS life?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 16 Dec 20 - 04:54 PM

"We’re you an editor in a previous life?"

Low-hanging fruit for an editor, if ever I saw it. :)

Charmion's fruitcake also goes well with whisky, whiskey, brandy, calvados, bourbon, applejack, Yukon Jack, and several other forms of "tea."

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Dec 20 - 07:19 PM

Give over, bro Andrew. That damned apostroph'e inveigles itself into everything due to the spell check/predictive text bully. Your sis is one of the most literate members of this parish, right up there with your's truly...

See what I did there...?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 16 Dec 20 - 08:22 PM

Otto Korrekt strikes again!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Dec 20 - 08:41 PM

Otto is an ares.

I am rediscovering the leek. Chop some clean ones, sauté in butter with whatever spices/herbs you like, add whatever broth, marvy 10mn soup. Sometimes also meat, or fish, or crab. If so brown meat before leeks, or add fish and coat before adding broth, or add crab just enough before serving to bring back to the boil. Other veg are good too, add with leeks. A little white wine cooked off before adding the broth, or lemon juice added after the broth, helps if it's too sweet. 15 mn soup if doing the wine step.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Dec 20 - 08:54 PM

Jos, I think you missed the part about where I frequently buy the chicken. It is a good quality discount store but they don't carry everything all of the time. Often what they have are skinless boneless chicken breasts, quite often organic, and despite the distaste that the author of that article holds toward chicken without skin, I can make it into many delicious meals. And unless it's crisp, there is no way I'm going to touch the skin. Making soup stock with bones and skin is how it gets used when I have a whole bird or quartered with bones and skin. The store in question sometimes have boneless skinless chicken thighs and those are marvelous for things like chicken teriyaki. There is still a lot of fat in the meat on those. At the regular grocery story I buy the minimally processed chicken (no injected salty crap) and it's usually breast or leg quarters with the skin and bones.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 17 Dec 20 - 02:49 AM

Stilly, I missed the bit about your grocery store because you posted it while I was checking up on the health benefits of chicken skin and then finishing my post, and I didn't go back and check for intervening posts before clicking 'Submit'.
I'm glad you are getting organic chicken - better for the environment, and for the chickens.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Dec 20 - 03:48 PM

Mrrzy, since you have discovered the leek, do you know about cockaleekie soup? It’s a traditional Scottish dish that need not be made with an “auld cock” or a worn-out layer, as my Scots Kitchen book recommends, but must contain barley if it is to be reasonably authentic.

(Rolling up my sleeves ... Ahem!)

For rather a lot of cockaleekie — it freezes very well — you need:

- Two or three rashers of side bacon, cut into lardons
- Enough garlic (I like four or five cloves, smashed)
- 750 g to 1kilo of skinned, boned chicken thigh meat, cut into bite-sized hunks
- 200 g hulled barley (not the pearl kind)
- Three large leeks, trimmed of their roots and leaves, and sliced as finely as you like
- About a litre and a half of chicken stock
- Thyme ad lib.
- Enough salt (quantity depends on bacon)
- A dash or two of Worcestershire sauce

In a large Dutch oven or heavy soup pot, brown the lardons and sauté the garlic in the rendered fat. Then brown the chicken pieces, working in batches so as not to crowd the pot. Put all the chicken back into the pot, and add the barley, stirring it about until all the grains are well-coated with bacon and chicken fat. Then add the sliced leeks, and stir about until they are a bit wilted. Add the stock and thyme, bring to a boil, and then simmer until the barley grains have burst. Add a splot or so of Worcester, stir, taste, and then add as much salt as it needs.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Dec 20 - 04:01 PM

Further to my last: “... bring to a boil, and then *simmer* until the barley grains have burst.”

---

Instructions corrected! ---mudelf

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Dec 20 - 04:24 PM

I just looked at my fruitcake recipe, and spotted a grievous error.

Where it says 2 1/3 cups of flour, it should say *3 1/3* cups of flour!!!

Most of the quantities in a fruitcake recipe can be fudged a bit, but not that much.

---

Again, fixed. ---mudelf

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Dec 20 - 04:28 PM

Charmion, I misread that as Need not be made with a worn-out lawyer...

Thanks! I do like cockaleekie soup. Also Vichyssoise. Closet leek soups.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Dec 20 - 07:28 PM

A good half of traditional Northern European soups have leek in them. If you live in even the rockiest parts of Wales or Scotland or France, you can grow leeks and kale, which explains la cuisine pauvre to my satisfaction.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Dec 20 - 08:48 PM

This reminds me that it's time to make a batch of lentil soup. It's always surprising how orange lentils turn green when cooked, and green lentils turn brown. My favorite recipe comes from Egypt, and I prefer it with water vs stock. Lentils, grated onion, water, and not much else (I have to pull out the book - there is salt and pepper and I think a little lemon.)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Dec 20 - 06:27 AM

Thanks, Mudelf.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 18 Dec 20 - 10:56 AM

Nice to see you back, Charmion.   

There are a lot of unfriendly jokes about fruitcake, but there must be plenty of people who like it. The Collins Street baker of Corsicana, Texas, takes orders from 196 countries.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Dec 20 - 11:46 AM

That Collins Street Bakery fruitcake is the industry standard, as far as I'm concerned. But those calories do go straight to all of the worst places. Maybe if I make my own I won't eat it so quickly. :-/

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 18 Dec 20 - 11:50 AM

OK I got the nuts dried fruit and other fruit.
What else do I need?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 18 Dec 20 - 11:55 AM

I have made 4 christmas cakes each weighing 4lb 4 oz. They now need to be smeared with Apricot jam to hold the Marzipan in placed and then be covered in icing.

One is for my son and his family, one will be halved for his mother in law who is single and might be overfaced with a full cake which leaves 2 and a half cakes.

One will be devoured in double quick time, the half will follow suit.

The one remaining .................. hmmmmmmmmmm ...........

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 18 Dec 20 - 12:03 PM

Firstly Donuel you should have started back in late September, early October. These cakes need to be fed with alcohol.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 18 Dec 20 - 04:51 PM

I am about halfway through my first attempt at yule log. The cake is rolled in a towel, cooling. I will report back...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Dec 20 - 05:12 PM

We prefer specialty fish treats for the holidays. My ex buys the salmon (either wild sockeye, or there is a very good quality of farm-raised Atlantic salmon from Norway) and cut it into the right sized pieces. I made the brine (two bowls because recipients like different levels of saltiness) and they're in the fridge till about midnight when they will be washed off and left on plates in the fridge to form a crust over the fish that then helps catch the smoke from the smoker tomorrow. Low-temperature smoke using a Little Chief smoker. We'll divide this batch between three of us this year because the most distant child isn't going to fly for xmas this year. So we sent him his own Little Chief smoker and for xmas he can open that and make his own fish. My sister lives up there and can point him to places to buy good salmon for this project.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 18 Dec 20 - 05:25 PM

What a cracking present!!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 19 Dec 20 - 08:53 AM

Today, I shall bottle the cherry bounce liqueur I put up last summer. My only problem is that I seem to have only three half-litre beer bottles with wired-on porcelain stoppers — not the sort of thing for which one just pops out to the shops in southwestern Ontario.

Crap. Must figure this out. Mason jars might work, for that hillbilly vibe, but it’s a bit of a challenge to pour a neat shot from a fruit jar into a Bohemian crystal pony glass.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Dec 20 - 01:05 PM

Do you have any faceted 1/2 pint jelly jars? They won't pour much better but they'd look very pretty. You could screw on one of these when it comes time to pour.

Fish is in smoking. I hadn't cleaned the rack last time (my bad) and had to scour the shelves and drip pan first, but I gave the fish extra time to form that outer skin and it looks really good - I may make a note to try to wait 10-12 hours and not the usual 8 before starting smoking.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 19 Dec 20 - 05:26 PM

Any Grolsch bottles about?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 09:00 AM

Any soft drink bottles such as those that come full of tonic or soda water should be strong enough to cope with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 09:44 AM

True, Jos, but how to seal them? I'm not a home brewster, so I don't own a crown capper -- and, for cherry bounce, which is about 40 proof and has a strong flavour, I need re-sealable bottles. Furthermore, I doubt there's a single soft-drink company in southern Ontario that still uses glass bottles in sizes larger than 355 ml, which is the typical single serving in North America.

After a major rummage in the Glory Hole, I came up with three 750-ml swing-top bottles to supplement the three 500-ml beer bottles. They had been down there a while, and one of the beer bottles had been used for be-herbed vinegar, so I had to do some plain and fancy cleanage, but the six bottles turned out to be precisely enough. Note to file: buy a bottle brush.

But -- lesson learned. If I'm to continue making cordial, I must find a reliable source of bottles. I used to accumulate enough Grolsch (and similar) empties over a typical year, but this household's primary beer fancier is now tipping his pint in the afterlife.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 10:26 AM

Amazon to the rescue. The rest of the search..

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 01:25 PM

Yup. That’s what I will need.

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

I had to look up the brand of beer (Grolsch) to be sure what you were talking about. I had a bottle that soy sauce came in one time, good sized, but I don't think you could ever get all of the flavor out of the bottle and rubber gasket.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Dec 20 - 09:32 PM

Ok, my first goose, my first bûche. The goose was superb: scalded, dried, oiled, salted inside and out, cloves from 3 heads garlic inside plus dusting of smoked paprika, forgot to prick till after the first baking time, set on cabbage steaks. Bake 1.5 hours covered at 350F, baste and remove liquid, cover again bake 1 hour ditto, crank up to 425, roast 1/2 hour uncovered, remove all liquid and the garlic from the cavity, roast another 1/2 hour while making gravy with the garlic.

Oh yeah I forgot, roasted neck rest of insides, kept for soup. Fried the liver in butter separately and ran through food processor with the garlic before putting in gravy. Liquid for gravy was what was in the bottom of the separator from the goose and some white wine.

The skin was marvy, deep, deep brown, so crispety crunchety, amazing. The goose itself was yummy, juicy, wonderfully flavored. I have 1 wing, 1 thigh, and the main body left.

The bûche was toute une histoire, but not delicious. The cake itself was problematic from the start: the volume said 1 1/3c and the weight said 160g but the two were miles apart, requiring way more flour to make the weight [should I have weighed then sifted?]. However the frangelico cream was yum as was the ganache so hey. And I made marzipan mushrooms and snowed vanilla sugar on it and it was beautiful.

I have taken notes on the recipe I used. I will totally do it again. Meanwhile any advice for a better cake part?

This was fun!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: BobL
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 03:39 AM

Never measure flour by volume, it varies too much. For example, sifting increases the volume. With weight, you know just how much you've got.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Monique
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 05:03 AM

Conversions page of "Chocolate & Zucchini" (interesting cuisine blog, I love her ginger cookies). A digital kitchen scale (~$15) is a good investment!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Dec 20 - 09:19 AM

That is what I thought, BobL, but it did not work in this instance. I have posted the question to the site where I found the recipe. I will report back. There were answers to recent posts so I have hope

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 04:42 PM

Ok I made soup with my goose caecass. How was I supposed to do it?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 08:20 PM

So it tastes good?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 08:23 PM

Whenever I think about what to do with a goose carcass, I find myself singing about soup to the tune of Little Deuce Coupe.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Dec 20 - 09:29 PM

Har!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 10:04 AM

Today, I must -- absolutely must -- make the Christmas pudding, and the hard sauce. The butter has been on the kitchen bench since yesterday, so it should not be totally brick-like in texture.

Here's the pudding recipe. It comes from Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, courtesy of an old Army buddy, who got it from his ex-mother-in-law (a very military relationship). It's the only Christmas pud recipe I know that is not designed to feed the five thousand.

- 1 1/2 cups of flour
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 to 1 1/2 tablespoons of "mixed spices" (I use allspice, nutmeg and a dash of cinnamon)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt

- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 3/4 of a cup of chopped suet
- 1 cup of raisins
- 1 cup of currants
- 1 cup of grated carrot
- 1 cup of grated potato

Prepare a steamer -- I use a large water canner with a trivet in the bottom -- and grease a medium-large pudding basin. I use a large water canner with a trivet in the bottom, and a No 24 Mason Cash pudding basin, the size that's 19 cm (7 1/2 inches) in diameter at the top.

Blend the flour, baking soda, spices and salt in a large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients in the order given and mix well. Work quickly, as the baking soda reaction begins on contact with the carrot and potato. Cover with foil or parchment and steam for 3 hours.

This pudding does not swell. The raw mixture is not a batter, but a sort of granular mess, and it solidifies and develops a cakey texture as it steams.

Let the pudding cool to room temperature and refrigerate it if you make it more than a day or so in advance. Reheat by steaming if you must, but I prefer the microwave. Turn it out into something fireproof, douse with warmed rum or brandy, and bring it to the table blazing. Serve with hard sauce (aka brandy butter), or hot lemon sauce.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 10:07 AM

Should have re-read and edited ... Sorry about that.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 12:56 PM

Hmm. Mrs Steve makes the Christmas puds in September or October, and they don't live in the fridge either. We've even had year-old ones before now. No problemo!

I'm keeping it simple for Christmas Eve. I have a one-kilo lump of boned and rolled free-range unsmoked gammon. I've soaked it for 24 hours and will throw away the first boiling, in the hope of getting a stock that's not too salty for soup. It will go into my biggest pot, covered with water to which I'm adding a carrot, a stick of celery, an onion, parsley, thyme, a bay leaf and a few peppercorns. I can't understand people who ruin the ham (and the prospect of good stock) with horrid things such as coca-cola or cider. I reckon it will take about 90 minutes-ish. It will go nicely with some greens, mashed potato and my home-made parsley sauce, which I'll make while the greens are cooking and the ham is resting. There'll be plenty of cutting for the next few days of cold turkey (the bird, not the withdrawal from anything). Can't wait! Just off to get it going...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 01:39 PM

In the past I have made a four bird roast. I bone out a Capon (castrated male bird) take the breasts from two Ducks, 4 pheasants and 8 Quail.

This year I have decided to let the butcher do all the work. Not only is a bought one a whole lot cheaper I don't have to spend several hours buggering about. So the butchers 4 bird roast in Turkey Duck, Pheasant and Grouse.

I also bought a whole fillet of steak ............ the cost of that made my eyes water!! and have taken the tenderloin from the centre to roast.

That little lot will feed us for days.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 24 Dec 20 - 02:04 PM

Ah, well, Steve, your Christmas pud is a different class of article. That recipe I posted above is a Canadian confection of probably German origin, but also influenced by English and Scottish foodways — not to speak of what happens to a recipe that has passed through several generations (including the Great Depression and at least one world war) and lateral transfers from family to family.

As written, it consisted only of the list of ingredients and the instruction to steam it for three hours. I have made it at least a dozen times, with my own adjustments. The sauce recipe that came with it is a real Depression artifact — consisting of brown sugar, butter and boiling water thickened with cornstarch and jazzed up with vanilla, it’s familiar to many Canadians as a component of « pouding chômeur » (pogey pudding).

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 12:15 PM

Recently I bought a leek, and now I can't find the recipe that called for it.

What do I do with a leek? Cut it up and saute, like an onion? Or what?
It looks like a giant green onion, and cooked green onion turns slimey - I hate it.

I have eight chicken thighs to cook, so any suggestions for a chicken recipe that uses a leek would be appreciated.
=================
Thanks for recipe, Charmion. Now I know what Christmas pudding is.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 01:56 PM

Chop it up and rinse the parts well, leeks can have a lot of grit. I put into a big bowl of water, swish, and remove from top of water, do not pour out. The grit will sink, the leeks float.
I recommend soup if you don't like the texture of some cooked veg. In broth, nothing is slimy.
But I would roast the chicken thighs...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 01:56 PM

This steamed pudding would be perfect in my steam juicer. I'll have to consider making it. How long does it keep (assuming it lasts long enough to be kept?)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 06:10 PM

I'll ask Mrs Steve for the recipe, Charmion, but there's no guarantee she'll let me have it... Some cooks are like that... ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 09:36 PM

Leeneia, I posted a recipe for cockaleekie stew a week or so ago. It calls for leeks, chicken thighs, barley and chicken stock, plus some optional stuff to enhance the flavour.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 25 Dec 20 - 09:38 PM

Stilly, that pudding keeps for at least a week in the fridge, and it freezes well.