BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 12 Feb 21 - 05:26 PM

The Barcelona tapas bar programme (I have been to Barcelona tapas bars, and it would have shown me what I already knew) was on at the same time as the Stonehenge programme, which was the one I chose (I have been to Stonehenge, but the programme added to what I already knew).

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 12 Feb 21 - 05:42 PM

Thanks - I shall watch that on Catch-Up tomorrow.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Feb 21 - 06:36 PM

I know all about how to snap asparagus spears, Raggytash. I've made asparagus soup many times. I have a feeling that the Liverpool joint didn't really understand it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: BobL
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 03:47 AM

New topic, let's see if anyone has some answers.

My breadmaker makes excellent pizza dough, but far too big a batch - enough in my case for 6 pizzas. Easy-bake yeast doesn't seem to survive freezing, so the spare bases must be fully proved and baked for 5 minutes before being frozen. Pizzas made from these frozen bases are OK, but not brilliant.

Once upon a time, when I made pizzas the old-fashioned way using fresh or dried regular yeast, the dough could (if I remember right) be frozen raw, and would prove on thawing. The results were excellent. Also I have, in the past, bought frozen croissants and the like, which would thaw and prove overnight at room temperature.

So - is it down to the yeast? And if so, could I use regular yeast in the breadmaker by making up a starter first? Any suggestions welcome.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 05:16 AM

BobL, you don't have to use your breadmaker, just because you have it. You say:
"Once upon a time ... I made pizzas the old-fashioned way using fresh or dried regular yeast. ... The results were excellent."

Could that be the answer?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 07:48 AM

I’m with Jos on this one.

Lots of people use bread machines for dough preparation, but I just don’t understand why — it’s a big, clunky, expensive gadget that does a task that I have always managed nicely with a wooden spoon and my two hands.

It’s easy to over-think yeast baking. I suggest reverting to the most basic technique you know, and making just enough for immediate consumption.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 08:35 AM

I've baked my own bread for over 20 years all by hand, plain white, wholemeal, granary, rye, no knead white [ brilliant bread ] and of course sourdough, I can make ciabata but it's such a pain I buy it now when I fancy some.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 10:47 AM

My ancient Panasonic bread machine makes a lovely "ciabatta loaf." All it takes is 500g organic strong white flour, a teaspoon of salt, a teaspoon of sugar, 3tbp extra virgin olive oil, a teaspoon of yeast and 350 ml water. Yeah, it feels like a loaf and looks like a loaf, but it tastes like ciabatta (and lets face it, have you ever bought even a half-decent shop ciabatta? All crust and big holes just where you don't want 'em...)

I've yet to make my own pizza dough. I'm not a lot of use with a rolling pin and I feel strangely inferior when I see those Italian chaps making a pizza base by swirling a piece of ever-thinning dough round their heads. One day, one day...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 11:10 AM

Made something vaguely resembling coleslaw... Had a quarter head of cabbage which became a huge bowlful when food-processed, added some raw carrot, and my vinaigrette. Yum.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 11:13 AM

I've rarely eaten coleslaw that didn't get me thinking of worthy rabbit food with added watery white liquid. I'm sure yours is delicious.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 02:03 PM

I made something new last night. It was a hit with the DH.

Slice cauliflower into pieces about half an inch thick. (They will probably fall apart. That's okay.) I used one half of a head to make 2 generous servings.

Melt 2 T of butter in a big skillet.

Sprinkle in 1 T fennel seeds. Sprinkle them all over, don't leave them in a pile.

Place the cauliflower on top of the butter and fennel seeds, flat side down.

Don't go off - this dish needs watching.

Saute at fairly lively heat till side one is browned somewhat. Turn, cover, and cook at somewhat lower heat till tender. Listen to the sizzle. An experienced cook can tell when a dish is sizzling dangerously fast, and we are all experienced cooks.

I believe I cooked it covered for about 12 minutes, but that's just a guess.

Tip: the goal is to caramelize the surface of the cauliflower to make a fascinating new taste. The inside should be cooked through and tender.
================
I buy fennel seed in an Indian market and keep it in the freezer.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 02:04 PM

For something else to do with fennel seed, see my Pork Meatballs of Feb 19, 2020.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 03:24 PM

Steve Shaw, I agree with you on most coleslaw. But yeah, this was delish [I have detailed my vinaigrette before].

Took some of my not-quite-coleslaw and added a handful of almonds and a trout fillet I had left over, flaked. A different delicious thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Feb 21 - 07:25 PM

Yeah, crunching in a laboured manner through raw shredded carrot, onion and wodges of cabbage, incl stalky bits, in watery mayo (or is it salad cream...)...I mean, what's that? Prison food?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: BobL
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 03:16 AM

Decent mayo doesn't contain water. You have to make it yourself, as all the commercial brands do. BTW I would love to be corrected on this.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 06:50 AM

Well there's a bit of water in the egg yolks and in the wine vinegar/lemon juice. When you mix the mayo in with all that carrot, cabbage and onion, a fair bit of water will inevitably come out of the cut veg. The upshot is that typical coleslaw is a fairly runny mix, the runniness contributed mainly by water, I should think.

Munch, munch, munch... Nurse, I believe I have RSI of the jaw...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 07:01 AM

By the way, if I'm given it I eat it. But I'm not going to be looking for it, let alone making it...

Another thing that I can't understand people wanting to eat is cold pasta salad.

Or bread sauce.

Or Branston Pickle. Burnt.

Or certain things in 1970s salads. Cold rice, peanuts and little flecks of tinned mandarin orange...

Or a pineapple ring on top of a slice of gammon.

Or thick-crust pizza. Even worse, those vile stuffed-crust pizzas (can you still get them?), or chicken on a pizza...

Glad to share! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 07:11 AM

I love bread sauce, especially cold on Boxing Day with other cold food from the Christmas dinner. And some interesting pickles (not Branston).
Otherwise, I can happily live without the other things in Steve's list.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 07:28 AM

I'm in a minority of one in our house when it comes to bread sauce. I have the same joke every Boxing Day: "Is there any bread sauce left over from yesterday? There's a bit of wallpaper peeling off up there..."

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 09:14 AM

No mayo in my slaw. No onions. Thought about some celery and green pepper, which might go into the leftovers.

A quarter wedge of a cabbage head usually makes enough cabbage for one side-dish serving. Somehow in the food processor it inflated into needing my biggest mixing bowl, and made three full meals.

*Magic!*

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 03:54 PM

My cole slaw

Two parts veg oil (I use Smart Balance)
One part lemon or lime juice
A few gratings of black pepper
A flavoring - dried basil, dried tarragon, poppy seeds, dried dill
A tiny bit of sugar so the citrus juice isn't too sour.
Whisk well.

If it's in the house, add a tiny bit of mayonnaise to emulsify so the oil and juice don't separate. (I simply dip the end of the whisk into the jar and pick up a little mayo.)

Add to chopped cabbage. The cabbage does not need to be in the near-liquid state that they serve in restaurants. You can add celery or carrot, but be warned that the carrot will turn it a funny color if you don't eat the cole slaw up promptly.

Whole cherry tomatoes are nice too. Don't cut them up, because people don't like pinkish-green food. Cherry tomatoes left in the batch will get soggy after a while, (24 hours or more) so drop them in right before dining and be sure to eat them all up.
==================
Amounts: to make cole slaw for two people, I buy the smallest cabbage I can find, and I use half of it. For the dressing, I use 4 tablespoons of oil and 2 tablespoons of lime or lemon juice. This makes more than we can eat in a meal, but not so much that it gets too old in the fridge.

It's so nice to have cole slaw ready so you don't have to make salad when you're tired.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 05:30 PM

Haven't tried it yet but I think we can buy both a vegan mayo and coleslaw now; Koreans, of course, would insist on fermenting the cabbage - Kimchi.

Have never made any kind of bread but agree with Steve re the ciabatta I've bought. I prefer baguette consumed the day of purchase or, if not, sliced and put under the grill.

When I was living in Newcastle upon Tyne, I loved a stottie - especially stuffed with chips.

But, most of the time, I have Warburton's sliced bread.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: keberoxu
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 06:26 PM

Louis Armstrong was said to swear by red beans and rice,
so when the dining hall served it for supper tonight,
I cheerfully ordered a portion.

Supposed to have a happy combination of amino acids
in between the legumes and the grains.
And the nice complex carbohydrates
satisfy the appetite
and prevent, hopefully,
the dreaded Midnight Munchies.

Goodnight, Mr. Armstrong, wherever you are.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 06:46 PM

I enjoyed frijoles y arroz/refried beans and rice when I visited Mexico.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Feb 21 - 06:53 PM

Well if there's one thing I will never be doing, it's fretting about what combination of amino acids I'm getting or about whether the carbohydrates I'm eating are complex ones, etc. I just like good grub. I do understand that some people have to wrestle with these things...


By the way, I'm thinking of becoming gluten-intolerant... (google it - you'll get the funniest YouTube ever...)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Feb 21 - 09:49 AM

I like red beans with brown rice, cooked with a Louisiana-style mirepoix of onion, celery and sweet red pepper, and well spiced. It really does need hot sauce to be worth eating.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 15 Feb 21 - 02:19 PM

Apart from the red peppers, Charmion, that sounds tasty to me.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: keberoxu
Date: 16 Feb 21 - 09:35 PM

Brown rice: I can see the point of spicing it up,
as brown rice is kind of hard work, chewing-wise.
A bit of a penance eating it and getting it down.
Of course my digestion is happy to get the fiber,
but brown rice does not make my mouth water.


The red beans and rice dish from the other evening
was in fact mouth-watering good.
The rice was NOT brown.
It was some sort of long-grain hybrid ,
similar to basmati but probably not exactly basmati rice,
and it was a pale color.
I don't know what it had been cooked with, but
it darned near melted in your mouth.

The sort of dish that gives the illusion of being light and fluffy
and before you know it,
you have gobbled up two big servings of the stuff.

No,actually, I didn't eat two servings,
which would have meant going back to the dining hall kitchen.
Although it was so tasty that I wished I had done so.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 17 Feb 21 - 03:26 AM

Today I be mostly eating chips.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 17 Feb 21 - 12:04 PM

I, too, like chips, Dave, but have never cooked them.

Rather, yesterday, I got some new potatoes and, today, prepared them this one-pot way:

Boiled and drained before adding a mug of instant veg soup; then, after stewing a while, baked beans, chopped iceberg lettuce & portobello mushrooms, some sauce and spices, plus fresh mint leaves - the plant I grow in my flat needed a hair cut!

Photos (including a mashed option) added here "One-Pot Cooking"

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raggytash
Date: 17 Feb 21 - 12:21 PM

Made Parkin today, haven't had any for years. I made one for us and one for my son. Just need to leave for 3 or 4 days to mature before eating.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Feb 21 - 12:37 PM

Ok I looked up Parkin.

Made a surprisingly good soup with leeks, zucch, onion celery green pepper, garlic, sauerkraut, some of its brine, and some chicken stock. Oregano marjoram hot pepper. Really good reheated.

My Instacart person found me an avocado that is *perfect* today. Already ate half with vinaigrette in the hole. Gonna put crab and horseradish in the other half's hole for afternoon snack.

As I am no longer eating pork chops with my usual apple sauce, I have started putting more things on the pork chops. Yesterday it was a generous rock salting pressed with onion and garlic powders and smoked paprika, fried in my garlic-infused goose grease. Followed someone's instructions to flip every minute instead of really searing one side before flipping, and basted with the grease. The chops were juicier than usual this way, I recommend it. Quick sauté of market spinach with hot pepper in the pan for a side.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 19 Feb 21 - 12:58 PM

As I may have mentioned above, for an avocado sweet, I've done similar to Mrrzy with golden syrup.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 19 Feb 21 - 01:51 PM

I've been known to halve two avocados and just eat them both out of the skin with a spoon for my lunch. Getting them in perfect eating condition isn't always the easiest thing. You see people in the shop picking them up and giving them a squeeze. That's no guide. If the avo yields a bit when you press your thumb into the stalk end, and there are no soft spots, you've got a good 'un. If it's rock-solid all over, it won't ripen properly and it'll go all stringy with black bits inside.

A really good thing to do with them, especially in summer, is to make a tricolore salad (tricolore, the three colours of the Italian flag). You need for two, at least 11/2 avocados, if not two, thinly sliced lengthways, a 250 g lump of drained mozzarella (Galbani good), cut into coin-sized slices, and half a pound of the best cherry toms you can get your hands on, each one cut in half. You can just chuck the whole lot together and mix it up, or you can get all arty-farty and arrange it all nicely in a big salad bowl. Sprinkle a small amount of salt and a generous grinding of black pepper over, drizzle your finest extra virgin olive oil over the whole lot and tear some fresh baby basil leaves on top. You absolutely must have the best avocados and tomatoes you can find. On a hot summer's evening, it can be a main course in itself.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 19 Feb 21 - 04:13 PM

thanks for the tip about the stalk of the avocado, Steve. I'll try that.

Last night's dinner took two gadgets. I used the spiralizer to turn zucchini into mock-pasta. The sauce had Italian sausage in it.

Recently the DH bought escarole. I sliced it up crossways and sauteed it in olive oil. I used the second gadget, which you might call a shredder, to shred a carrot lengthways and add to the escarole. After a while I added chopped red onion. It turned out well.

The shredder is a souvenir from a trip to Florida, specifically to a big outdoor flea market. I can feel the warm and sunny skies now.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 20 Feb 21 - 06:35 AM

Can anyone tell me how to get celeriac right? I always seem to decide it's ready too early; the resulting stuff is nice, but it's not the texture of mash.
Keboroxu, if your brown rice is chewy, you're not cooking it long enough, and maybe not adding enough water. There's a nice dish where you use rice (I use short-grain brown rice) and lentils, adding them to caramelised fried onions, with a sprinkle of salt. If you squeeze a bit of lemon over the top it's heavenly.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 20 Feb 21 - 07:22 AM

...add a chowpatty & you have pretty-much the staple diet of millions of Indians (& mine on my visit there: dahl and rice; "China and India in 1988"

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 20 Feb 21 - 09:26 AM

Thompson, how are you cooking celeriac now?

I’m no fan of mushy food so I don’t mash anything, including spuds. I like celery root diced quite large and braised with cabbage and lamb in the Norwegian style, or in a dish of roast veg with carrots, parsnips and crushed garlic.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Feb 21 - 02:23 PM

Tricolore is the three colors of the French flag, too. Or any 3 colors.

Got some overcooked broccoli as a side with my support-your-local lunch delivery today, set it aside to make yummy soup with. Curry style, I think - found all *kinds* of things cleaning out my spice cabinet!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 20 Feb 21 - 11:33 PM

I made a new kind of salad tonight, and I think it's good enough to impress company once the quarantine is over.

I made a conventional tossed salad - lettuce, tomato, green onion, red onion. Then I opened a small jar of artichokes in a brine that includes oil. I mixed some of that liquid with mayonnaise along with some dried basil (thyme would be good too) and black pepper. Then I put all the artichokes in the salad. What luxury! The salad was delicious.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 21 Feb 21 - 05:04 AM

Sounds good, Leeneia, but no vinegar/something acidic as is usually added with vegetable oil..? Maybe enough from the mayonnaise..?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Feb 21 - 01:00 PM

The curry was excellent. Making stuffed cabbage with the leftovers:
Carefully take outer leaves off head of cabbage, as intact as possible. Nuke 2 mn to soften. Separated veg from sauce of curry. Put veg into cabbage leaf, roll, tuck, put in dih for oven as crowded as possible but in 1 layer. I made 3. Meanwhile I fried up some Irish-style bacon, ate the big meaty parts, and stuck the fatty ends among my cabbage rolls. Deglazed bacon pan with liquid from curry, poured over cabbage. Whole thing now in oven for 45 mn.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 21 Feb 21 - 08:55 PM

Beautifully browned. Served with dollop of sour cream.

Hungarian curry? No paprika, but cabbage bacon grease sour cream...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 23 Feb 21 - 12:44 PM

Good question, Walkie. The vinegar is already in the marinade that the artichokes are bottled in.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 Feb 21 - 01:18 PM

Got that, Leeneia - sometimes I use the excess vinegar from a jar of pickled onions or gherkins.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Feb 21 - 02:38 PM

I had two packages of beef and one of pollock in the freezer that was frosty when the power finally came on, so I cooked it. I made a batch of a nacho filling (I use it in tacos, burritos, nachos, etc.) and much of that is in the freezer now. I made a small pot roast the next night, and on Sunday night I made whiting stew (celery, carrots, potatoes, onions). It made a lot of the soup/stew, so I've shared it with a friend. I have leftovers for the rest of the week now.

My big upright freezer is only a couple of years old and was a real champ - after three days my next door neighbor with a generator realized they had extra capacity they could send my way so we ran an electric cord and the freezer was plugged in. When I finally opened it I was glad to see that it held up well. I have lots of frozen berries in there and none of them had melted into blobs - they're all still frozen hard and individual berries. I bought this to replace a 50-year-old mid-century modern harvest gold freezer that has in the past been less good about keeping things frozen solid in power outages.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Helen
Date: 23 Feb 21 - 03:12 PM

We made lahm bi ajeen last night. It's a recipe in the Claudia Roden Book of Middle Eastern Food which I first bought in the '90's but had to upgrade to a newer edition because the first book was falling apart from overuse.

new edition

Lahm bi ajeen is a soft doughy pizza or pide style pastry with a lamb or beef and tomato and onion filling which is delicately spiced and topped with some lightly toasted pine nuts.

Quicker and less complicated than a home made pizza, but it's a bit like basil pesto for me because as soon as the thought of lahm bi ajeen enters my head I feel compelled to make some. Yummo!!

Darnit! I just thought of basil pesto. I love it. So now I'll have to make some. The store-bought jars are nowhere near as addictive as home made pesto.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 Feb 21 - 04:06 PM

The closest thing I've had to that, Helen, is Manakish Zaatar in the wonderful Museum of Islamic Art, on a Doha stopover between Manchester and Sydney to visit my family in 2017.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Feb 21 - 05:34 PM

I won't buy shop pesto. It never tastes right, and is never anywhere near as appetising as home-made. I suspect economies in their choice of oil and cheese. Unless you can grow your own basil, awkward in the Cornish climate, you have to buy the potted growing stuff, which isn't too bad if it's glossy and fresh-looking. I don't bother if all I can get is a bunch of limp leaves in a plastic bag. The pine nuts are a bit pricey too. So it isn't the cheapest, but I agree, it has to be home-made, even with a pot of fresh shop basil if that's all you can get. The one thing I think can be overdone if you're not too careful is the garlic...

I bought a huge pot of basil last weekend for a pasta recipe that calls for a basil sauce, which is just basil, a touch of garlic and quite a lot of extra virgin olive oil, all whizzed up. Then I suddenly got ill and didn't do the recipe. I think I'm OK now and the basil still looks good. So it could be Friday night with a good glug of the ould Italian red...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Feb 21 - 08:03 PM

Should have said I'll post the recipe after I've done it.