BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 05:28 PM

My experience years ago made me uneasy asking about recipes. Perhaps its just me but I have wondered if anyone has ha a similar experience.

I was offered a small portion of ribs and non chalantly popped it in my mouth. Suddenly the meat liquified and fell off the bone, all my senses turned into a river of flowing bacon and weak kneed I craved a second bite. I impetously asked "what is the recipe for this" at which point the lady stiffened and acted as if I had asked for her wallet and social security number. She said with tight lips and glaring eyes "This is a secret family recipe!".
It was if I had tried to steal from her ancestors and future grand children's fortunes and destroy the dreams of franchises for centuries to come.
Clearly my question was inappropriate and tantamount to felony.
I assumed that one should never ask except as a compliment not meant to be answered.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 06:28 PM

Recipes are like Irish tunes in a single line of notation. Not even bare bones, but possessing a whiff of an idea. Something to build on, rebel against and stray badly from. I just get meself up into the kitchen, vaguely recall something I once read in a book, then do my own thing. I have one golden rule, which is that no one ingredient, except for the main meaty or fishy one, should EVER be the point of the thing. I do not want every mouthful of any dish to taste mostly of basil/mint/garlic/chilli/apple/onion/thyme. I want integration of flavours, team work from the ingredients. I have few rules, but just a couple are that dried basil has no place in any kitchen, that garlic should NEVER be crushed, and that, if your dish tastes herby, you've got it wrong. Another thing or two I've learned are that the microwave rarely yields decent food and that steaming most vegetables is going to give you inferior results. I'd make an exception for chopped cabbage, but nothing else. Boil your veg in water half way up the veg, always with a pinch of salt, don't overcooked them, and you'll never look back. Sod the vitamins. You'll get plenty of those anyway if you live in the West like me. Food is enjoyment, not medicinal.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 06:33 PM

Don't worry, Donuel. That was an usual experience. Most people are happy to share recipes. It is a compliment that a diner likes a food so much that they ask for it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 07:59 PM

I shop at an unusual one-of-a-kind grocery store in town; they buy from chain stores' warehouses with products nearing the sell-by date, and from independent grocery suppliers who were overstocked; when there is meat, poultry or fish it is frozen. The groceries are discounted, often quite deeply, and they have what they have and when it's gone it's gone. I buy a lot of my dairy products there (excellent cheeses, high-end yogurt quarts, bulk packages of eggs, yogurt cups, etc.) and veggies. Fresh veggies are anything you can think of, along with fresh flowers, flowers in vases, flowers in pots, etc.

I had some salmon today for lunch that I picked up there; I only bought one salmon package because I didn't know anything about it the supplier and it's just as well. It was quite oily (which is good) but not particularly tasty. I have resolved not to buy any more salmon there unless it's labeled as wild-caught sockeye or better; this experiment confirmed my mostly-formed suspicion. The unsold the dog salmon comes from wherever.

I cook enough of some dishes to use them for several days - this week it has been split pea soup and rice with chicken for dinner with various other small side dishes. I'm doing a "no-spend" month so these are all things that came from my shelves or out of the freezer. Given the challenge of not buying new ingredients, it's interesting to see what I can come up with.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stanron
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 08:14 PM

Is it just me or does anyone else link this thread with the Barrett's oesophagus thread. In the interest of expanding threeness how about a thread about the drugs we all took when we were not ill in any way at all?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 09:41 PM

When I was not ill in any way, I was 23 and in the armed forces. Being afraid of arrest and imprisonment in those days, I used no drugs at all.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Jan 19 - 10:38 PM

I have never added a sacred or magical mushroom to any recipe except for tea with full disclosure. Some things are better in their fresh and anticipated original organic form like in a salad with your favorite dressing. Although convenient, dried shrooms are tough on the tummy.

Ayahuasca is not one of those things. They say it is like all bitter alkaloids with MAO inhibitors and that it tastes like a dog shit shake with alfalfa flavor and will cause vomiting. I do not believe vomiting is a required gateway to an epicurean psychoactive journey. Besides the idea of saliva as an ingredient turns me off. but that's just me. There are better ways to share spit.

Most of us would prefer a nice crab bisque.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 12 Jan 19 - 05:29 AM

A dogshit shake isn't an appetising description, to be honest.

I'd personally be nervous of any of these hallucinogenics - even cannabis, now that it's been genetically engineered to be much more stoney than it was in my youth. Not that I was any great toker then either…

But with how little we know about the brain and its workings, it seems foolish to me to be seeking what are essentially artificially-induced psychotic experiences.

Incidentally, talking of mushrooms, does anyone else occasionally buy stuff in the wholesale fruit and vegetable markets? It's always super-fresh, you get things that you won't get in most shops, and the prices are extraordinary. You're buying in bulk, but not that much bulk - I sometimes go halvers with a friend or two for a box of something.

And is anyone doing any pre-Brexit stocking-up-just-in-case, and if so what are you stocking up on?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 12 Jan 19 - 03:42 PM

Apologies - in my post on 11 January I meant 'herring roes', not 'herring rows' (I woke up in the night worrying about it, imagining herrings lined up in a row, or even herrings having a row and fighting noisily).

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Jan 19 - 04:02 PM

Find some reliable food banks. Did you know a practicing Mormon is required to have a year of food stored?

There is a big difference between artificial/chemistry and billions of years of evolutionary organics. As temporary psychotic episodes go I would not place the sacred mushroom experience into that category of experience. It is a surprise I would not spoil by an attempt to define.
I would only recommend having a theme question or questions and be sure to ask.

As a bucket list experience it is in the top 10. Now they use it for geriatrics having a hard time transitioning.

Its been over 30 years since I even tried a joint but there are several gourmet cooking shows that feature pot as an ingredient.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 12 Jan 19 - 06:52 PM

https://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/lobster-or-crab-bisque-229275

double the lump crab meat to 1 lb
salt and mushroom to taste

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Jan 19 - 07:21 PM

I'm a bit bloody annoyed. I did a great big long post about mushrooms this morning but some git pulled the website just as I hit send, and even my "select all-copy" didn't take. Grr.

Anyway.

In a nutshell, I was rabbiting on about the abuse of mushrooms in cookery. Nasty rubbery things in the "Full English Breakfast." Nasty little tasteless buttons in casseroles and stews, I love sautéed mushrooms on toast but they must be thinly sliced and fried in butter with salt and black pepper. Add a fried egg or two, done in the mushroom butter, and you have a breakfast to keep you going until mid-afternoon. If I want to be antisocial for 24 hours, I add parsley and fist-smashed garlic cloves to the sautée. Delia's pork chops recipe, done with cream and chopped mushrooms with thyme and lemon, is a thing of beauty too. But, for a casserole or stew, I use only dried porcini. I soak the fungi in boiling water for half an hour and use the beautiful liquid in the stew, and I chop the ceps finely and add them too.

I don't understand people who use mind-altering substances such as psilocybe or cannabis, still less people who brag about using them. It isn't big and it isn't clever. I use booze with caution and that's more than enough for me, thanks.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Jan 19 - 07:55 PM

Tonight I did a dish that was inspired by, but somewhat distant from, the very last one in Nigella's book Nigellissima. It's a one-pot job that leaves very little washing up, which is highly nutritious and which you can eat out of a bowl on your knee in front of the telly.

For two people with seconds. Get your heaviest pot and put 100g chopped-up pancetta in it. Brown the bacon, then add two chopped carrots, two chopped celery sticks and a chopped onion. You will need to add a good glug of olive oil. Your best. Sautée that lot gently for a good half-hour. You are making what is known as a soffritto. I added a small pinch of dried chilli flakes to mine. Free country.

Weight out 200g of green or brown lentils. Not the red ones. I used puy lentils. Rinse them then throw them into the pot. Add a can of plum tomatoes and a splash of water and 750ml of chicken or veg stock. I used turkey stock. Throw in a handful of chopped fresh parsley and a bay leaf. Smash four garlic cloves with your fist, peel, and throw them in. No chopping and definitely no crushing. Simmer for half an hour with the lid on.

Check and adjust seasoning and make sure the lentils have softened. Then the coup de grace: throw in about 125g of small pasta. It should be something like ditalini or ditaloni, or mini-macaroni. Not the tiniest soup pastas. They wouldn't be right. I don't like tbat cheap little shell pasta much. I mused about whether to use orzo but thought better of it. If you have only bigger pasta, put some in a plastic bag and smash it up slightly with your meat mallet or rolling pin. Anyway, turn up the heat a bit, leave the lid off and get it to a jolly bubble until the pasta is al dente. It takes a bit longer than boiling it in plain water.

Ladle into bowls, drizzle with your finest olive oil, turn the telly on and devour, preferably with a bottle of Italian red.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stanron
Date: 13 Jan 19 - 02:32 PM

Back in the halcyon days when my waistline was less than 30 inches, I had that generosity of spirit that accepted anything anyone ever offered me. There were lots of oversized, funny smelling hand rolled cigarettes, all sorts of pills, and, fortunately, no developed opiates. I remember preferring stuff that kept me awake to stuff that sent me to sleep though more recently non alcoholic sleep assists would have been welcome.

I suspect that if cannabis becomes legal I would buy some occasionally, and in all honesty it's not the illegality that stops me right now as much as not knowing how to get it and not being sufficiently bothered to find out. This is going to sound weird I know but I can, and do, get 'high' doing Killer Sudoku puzzles and drinking Green Tea, not necessarily at the same time.

What I get from these three threads is to tell the doctors as little as possible. This stratagem has, so far, enabled me to avoid things being stuck into either end. and has not yet led to my untimely end. I did have a spell, many years ago now, of frequent and unpleasant indigestion, and recognised the term hiatus hernia from that. I can't remember what, if anything, I did about it but it no longer happens. No doctors were involved and it went away. I'm not actually recommending this as a way to go for others but I do remember someone once said, "when they get you, they don't let go".

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Jan 19 - 02:59 PM

A few people Steve does not understand

The misunderstanding about British cuisine being dreadful is defied in this thread. Most dishes here sound very desirable.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jan 19 - 03:54 PM

Not interested, Donuel. Now where's that bloody corkscrew...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Janie
Date: 13 Jan 19 - 05:26 PM

Fixing a beef stew to take to Amos tomorrow for some respite from hospital food.

Sauted onions and garlic until translucent and removed from dutch oven. Cubed a 2lb. sirloin tip roast and browned it in batches in the dutch oven, deglazed the pan with a cheap red wine, added the meat, onions and garlic back to the pot, added more wine, beef broth, bay leaf, thyme, salt and pepper. Has been simmering about 90 minutes. Will add carrots and potatoes when the meat is nearly as tender as I desire. At the very end, will taste to see if more salt or pepper are needed and thicken slightly with a flour paste.

I think I was in a bit of a rush and did not brown the beef as well/dark as would have made for the very best flavor. Still, likely to be better than hospital fare.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jan 19 - 07:52 PM

Now here's a beef stew that is delicious and trouble-free. Thanks to the sainted Elizabeth David.

For four people. You need two pounds of top rump cut into half-inch thick slices about as big as your palm, 100 g streaky bacon or pancetta, two tomatoes sliced, two carrots cut into rounds, two onions roughly chopped, a few garlic cloves smashed with your fist (NOT crushed), extra virgin olive oil, a glass of red wine and seasoning. If you have some pork rinds, the kind of thing you might trim from pork chops, that's great, otherwise have a couple of rashers of really fatty bacon to hand. Finally, you need a goodly bunch of fresh herbs tied with string. Thyme, parsley, sage, bayleaf sort of thang.

Once you've assembled that lot, the method is ridiculously easy. Everything just goes in cold.

Put a good glug of olive oil into your heaviest casserole. Chop the bacon and throw it in. Put the carrots, onion and tomatoes on top of that. Put in the bunch of herbs and the smashed garlic. Layer the pieces of beef carefully on top. Season well then put the pan on to medium heat for about fifteen minutes. While you're waiting, do the fun bit. Put the red wine into a small pan, bring to the boil and set fire to the alcohol vapour. Watch your eyebrows. As soon as the flame goes out, pour the wine all over the meat.

Cover tightly (foil under a lid), put into the oven at 160C for two and a half hours and forget it. Beautiful with mash and greens. Boeuf en daube as in rustic France. The recipe also includes thin slivers of orange zest, but I don't like that so I always leave it out.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 13 Jan 19 - 09:00 PM

I'm going to print out and try some of these recipes. Thanks.

It snowed here. Snow is about 6 inches deep on lawns and sidewalks, and it has piled up on tree branches to make lovely white fans. We celebrated by having homemade gingerbread cake with lemon frosting.

We now have two little girls on our block, and there are two snowmen in the neighborhood.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jan 19 - 09:32 PM

We had a piece of pork this evening, boned and rolled shoulder with a goodly cover of rind, weighing in at about 3lb-plus. I have a trivet which I put the pork into, then placed that in a big roasting tin. Into the bottom I put a pint of water, two sticks of celery, two carrots, two chopped shallots and some herbs. I rubbed salt into the rind (no oil) and then put the meat into the hottest possible oven for 20 minutes. I then turned the oven down to about 130C and went out for the afternoon (I did top up the liquid before we left). After about four hours I ended up with the most gorgeous roasted meat, tender as the driven snow, topped with crackling to die for. And the liquid beneath, once I'd sieved it and skimmed some fat off (I used it to roast my spuds and parsnips), was totally divine.

I have uses for pork fillet (tenderloin), which can be cooked fast, but I won't buy leg of pork. Tasteless waste of money. Shoulder, belly and hocks for me. I bought my pork at Gloucester Services. The breed was Gloucester Old Spot. Damned fine butcher. They sell good brisket too.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Jan 19 - 10:29 PM

I live in a part of town with lots of Mexican and Central American groceries, and one store in particular has a large tortilla factory in place. I stopped by tonight on my way home and picked up two packages of fresh tortillas, still warm. They're in my freezer now and will be used for lunch with friends in a couple of weeks if I don't get a chance that morning to swing by and get more fresh.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 14 Jan 19 - 05:32 PM

Dad had an unusual meal yesterday. I’d just done the Quorn Fillet meal with a jar of Korma sauce/can of chopped tomatoes for the sauce. When I sat down to eat mine, he said “you haven’t had any chutney” and offered to pass me the jar I’d put out.

The problem was that the “chutney” was a (clearly labelled) jar of home made plum jam that I’d put out to go with the Ambrosia rice pudding mum and I (dad doesn’t like this and was having a yoghurt) were having for afters. To make matters worse, he’d been quite liberal with the “chutney” on his plate.

While I do think a spoonful of jam can go quite nicely with rice pudding, I gather it wasn’t the best to go with his meal...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 14 Jan 19 - 09:08 PM

Fab gammon joint yesterday, cooked for my husband's birthday. Used a recipe from BBC Good Food: not for those on a January detox (as my daughter and son-in-law professed to be!)
2kg gammon grain simmered in full-sugar Coca-cola and various veg for over 2 hours, then baked in a dressing of maple syrup, whole grain mustard, red wine and cloves. Yummeeee!
(the recipe actually said red wine vinegar, but none in 2 supermarkets I tried, so just red wine had to do!) Served with roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese and fresh mini-sprouts.
Followed by birthday cake and lemon tart and ice-cream.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Jan 19 - 09:33 AM

Heavens, Tattie, that's quite a recipe. What does the Coke do to the veg? Are they edible when the joint is cooked?

After a bit more than a year of consistent use, I think I've about broken the code on the convection oven in our new stove (cooker). It has certainly taken me long enough.

Baking is easy, since I stick to bread, but roasting has been a bit more of a challenge -- especially chicken, which seems to dry out when the oven is hot enough to produce the crackly skin I like. I had a blinding flash of the obvious the other day and put the battered old pan I use in the barbecue on the bottom rack of the oven and filled it with water, then heated the oven to 375 Fahrenheit with the fan on.

I split a four-pound chicken down the back and flattened it (spatchcocked it), laid it out on a rack in a flat roasting tin, and seasoned it with salt, pepper, thyme and dehydrated garlic. I gave it an hour at 375F, then cranked up the heat to 400F for another ten or fifteen minutes.

Result: perfect chicken, thoroughly cooked in all its parts, even the joints, and with moist, flavourful breast meat. Spatchcocking makes it easy to quarter, so I'm not wrestling with the carving knife and slopping dish gravy all over the table.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 15 Jan 19 - 09:38 AM

That's given me an idea. I have a gammon joint in the fridge. I also have a can of shandy that I bought by mistake in Lidl (or possibly Aldi) without reading the teeny-tiny print. The main label is in German and I had bought two cans thinking it was cheap beer, and intending to use it in slug traps, but even the slugs turned their noses up at it.
However, I may try cooking the gammon in it. Fingers crossed, it might taste quite good.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 15 Jan 19 - 05:02 PM

Simple cassoulet

Put a liner in a large slow cooker (easier cleanup)
Set 3-4 chicken thighs in it, flesh side down
Drain but don't rinse 1 or 2 cans great northern beans. Add.
Chop one half of an onion, add it
pour on one can tomatoes. I prefer them without salt
slip in some bay leaf
cut up carrots into 2-inch pieces. add them
cut Polish sausage into 2-inch pieces. put on top

Slow cook on low till the chicken is tender and the carrots are how you like them. Remove chicken from bones.

Just before dining, add 1 or 1.5 teaspoons dried leaf thyme.

This is a good dish for when you forgot you were having company until the morning of the day of the dinner.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 17 Jan 19 - 06:30 PM

In answer to Charmion, I saved the (somewhat overcooked!) veg (onion, garlic, carrot and leek) from simmering the gammon and was going to put them into our next pot of soup, but husband found them first and threw them into a meatball casserole! Something of a mix of flavours in the latter but not bad at all!
ANd Jos, yes, why not? Though I would tend to use cider with pork or gammon and beer with beef (when not using Coke, that is!) But then shandy would be sweeter than beer. Let us know how it turns out!
Leeneia's cassoulet sounds good too!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jan 19 - 08:03 PM

Now that its getting down to 4 degrees F outside were making good basic chili.
Kneed 2 tsp ground pepper into 2 lbs lean hamburger and cook with onion and peppers. Put 1 can kidney beans in croc pot with a small can of Mexican corn and combine with meat & veggies. Add a pinch of cumin and a cup of salsa. Add desired amount of picante sauce or for the bold ground ghost pepper. Slow Cook on low for 4 hours and keep warm.
Serve with French bread & butter.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 17 Jan 19 - 09:06 PM

4 F - that's cold! All this time I thought you live somewhere warm.

Not last night, but the night before we had something we haven't had in 40 years. Wieners, whole-wheat buns, home-made cole slaw. It wasn't our idea; the wieners were a gift.

We hauled out all the extras - ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, chopped onions.
=============
Steve Shaw, I made your pork roast today. It was delicious.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Jan 19 - 10:15 PM

Opps I forgot the can of Tomato sauce. You can double the cans of beans and Tomato sauce to stretch it out.


Leenia, On Monday the DC beltway will be hit by an Arctic blast into the single digits. Upstate NY rarely goes below zero but while in Rochester I experienced a windchill of -63. I ran for cover in less than 5 minutes. Buffalo can drift 6 ft of snow in a single hour!
I've never had visible body hair, its transparent, but I think I have caveman genes. In the cold I am motivated but in the heat I wilt.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 18 Jan 19 - 03:47 AM

"shandy would be sweeter than beer"

Well, yes, but compared with the gammon being "simmered in full-sugar Coca-cola and various veg for over 2 hours, then baked in a dressing of maple syrup ..."?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 19 Jan 19 - 12:01 PM

Potato and leek gratin from the bbc good food site today. It’s a recipe I’ve used before and we enjoy. I find I need a bit more cooking time (say 45 minutes both with and without the foil) than the recipe suggests and some comment on par boiling the potatoes to reduce cooking time. I just slice the potatoes, I don’t peel them.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 20 Jan 19 - 07:23 PM

We had a dinner party for six yesterday after a snowy day. Served Swedish meatballs, broccoli, thinly-sliced carrots with ginger butter.
A friend brought a fruit tartin and ice cream.

Still, Swedish meatballs are a nice, comfy food for a cold day. It was a relief to dispense with a salad.

I won't share a recipe because I thought the meatballs needed revision.

Donuel, I'm sorry you are getting such harsh weather. We were supposed to be clobbered with 6 to 12 inches of snow, but "dry air", presumably from the desert southwest, pushed the storm to the east. I hear Ohio got it instead.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 20 Jan 19 - 08:16 PM

Right. This is one of the best things I've ever done. If you're having people round, and you start with nibbles and finish with a pud, this is ideal as a main, as it's not heavy at all and is simplicity itself to prepare.

BUT: you can't compromise on the quality of the ingredients. Try to go cheap and you'll be sorry. I know. I've tried.

For two people (which is what I did tonight) you need:

Six very thin slices of the best sirloin. All six together should weigh about 250-300g. I said sirloin and I mean it. Not rump or some unspecified cheap slivers. SIRLOIN.

300g of cherry tomatoes, the best you can find.

Two tablespoons of capers, rinsed. Only the smallest ones will do.

Two cloves of garlic, smashed with your fist then peeled. Do NOT crush.

A pinch of dried chilli flakes, to taste. Heat is not the point of the thing.

A generous teaspoon of dried oregano. Crucial.

About 60 ml of extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper

One scant teaspoon of sugar

Put the smashed garlic, whole, into the olive oil in your best casserole pot. Sprinkle in your chilli flakes. Heat gently for a few minutes until your kitchen is full of lovely garlic aroma. Don't let the garlic go brown.

Remove and discard the garlic and turn up the heat. Fry the slices of beef in the hot oil for THIRTY SECONDS EACH SIDE. Any more and your dish is ruined. Put the beef into a dish and keep it warm somewhere.

Throw the cherry toms into the beefy, garlicky oil. When they start to go soft, throw in the capers, oregano, sugar and seasoning. Squidge the tomatoes down into a kind of rough sauce and leave the lid off.

After a few minutes put the pieces of beef into the sauce and cook it all through for three or four minutes. Voila, it's done.

So you have some lovely beef in a lovely, spicy tomato sauce. You can serve this up with crusty bread, or you can do what I do, and what they do in Sicily, serve it up with home-made skin-on oven chips. It doesn't come any better than that and it's so easy. Just don't overcook that steak, that's all.


And happy seventieth birthday to my favourite ItaIian cook, Gennaro Contaldo!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Thompson
Date: 21 Jan 19 - 02:43 AM

OMG, that sounds sinfully good, Steve. Going to try it the day after tomorrow. (Tonight's my cooking night, and I'm going to make an old hippie dish I haven't made for years - a stir-fry with brown rice mixed in at the end, with lots of vegetables, including chopped Brussels sprouts and sweet peppers and tinned/frozen corn (maize) and dried chestnuts (previously soaked and boiled, then chopped up), and lots of julienned carrots; I'll throw in some leftover frozen chicken meat that's been looking accusingly at me in the freezer - not an essential part, but what the heck) and then sauces to taste, probably soy sauce (or soya sauce as it was called in those days, or tamari by us weirdos) and oyster sauce.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: BobL
Date: 21 Jan 19 - 04:35 AM

cherry tomatoes, the best you can find
That might be a job at this time of year - supermarket toms can be so flavourless. Fortunately there's an excellent Italian deli in Dunstable, my nearest big town, I might try there.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 21 Jan 19 - 05:09 AM

The Piccolo ones from M&S, the ones from Portugal, have been very good lately and the ones from Sainsbury's, grown in the Netherlands, have been quite good too. I should have mentioned that the originator of this recipe, Rachel Roddy (though it's a traditional Italian dish), suggests cutting up the tomatoes first. That way the bits of skin in the sauce aren't as big. That doesn't bother me one way or the other but I thought I'd mention it. If the toms aren't quite up to snuff the addition of the small amount of sugar makes a miraculous difference. Many Italian cooks do that even in the height of summer when the tomatoes are at their best. You could always use your favourite tinned toms. The sugar is an automatic addition to any tomato-based sauce I ever make.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Jan 19 - 11:40 AM

Who eats mutton? Need recipes since the Rams are in the Super Bowl. The US is fairly mutton-free but there are African markets...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: leeneia
Date: 23 Jan 19 - 04:38 PM

My supermarket sells lamb...
========
Last night we had barbecued pork. Take sliced pork left over from Steve's slow-roasted pork, heat gently in a heavy saucepan with home-made BBQ sauce. Serve on good buns. Make cole slaw. Add things to nibble on.

Midwestern BBQ sauce

one small can tomato paste
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons molasses
generous amt of freshly-cracked black pepper
secret ingredient - choose one

   1/2 tsp ground cloves
   grated zest of one orange (buy a zester at a liquor store)
   1 tsp dried rosemary leaves
   or invent your own.

Add water as needed for the application at hand.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Jan 19 - 10:07 PM

Lamb, yeah. Mutton?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 03:31 AM

I used to be able to buy mutton in shops in Exeter in the 1960s but I haven't seen it for years. When mad cow disease happened I did wonder if mutton had been quietly removed from sale because of scrapie - a disease in sheep that is similar to BSE.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 05:13 AM

Gloucester Services sell mutton. It's one thing I haven't bothered to buy there because my local butcher's lamb, reared on his own farm, is as good as it gets. I buy the biggest whole shoulder, on the bone, that he can get me. Be wary of "whole shoulders" in supermarkets because they often remove the fillet to sell separately, which is the best bit. My shoulder usually comes in at seven or eight pounds. I'm not interested in small cuts of lamb (except for shanks) such as those little half-shoulders because I can't get the desired cooked texture in the reduced cooking time needed (for the same reason I don't buy smaller chickens than 2kg for roasting). Cooking the large shoulder is as easy as it gets. Put the meat skin side up in a large roasting tin. Season, then add a few small sprigs of rosemary. Put into a very low oven (120-130C) for about five or six hours. If you like you can turn up the heat for the last 20 minutes to crisp up the outside to get the lusted-after Maillard reaction. After that it needs a good resting, an hour in a warm place not being too long, though half an hour will do. The sticky bits left in the roasting tin make superb gravy. I tend not to roast veg with lamb. Instead I'll boil up some carrot, onion, celery and herbs for half an hour to make some veg stock and use that for the gravy (Mrs Steve always gets that job). It doesn't get any better than that. I'm not a fan of legs of lamb because they are not as tasty as shoulder, they're pound-for-pound more expensive and the meat next to the bone never really gets there for me somehow. I know that some people push garlic cloves into the meat. That's very nice for the hot roast but if I have leftovers for two or three more meals I don't necessarily want a garlicky whiff every time. In our house we can never have enough cold roast lamb. It's good for four or five days in the fridge.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 24 Jan 19 - 06:13 AM

Mutton makes an excellent curry.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 25 Jan 19 - 07:44 AM

Yes, I see almost *only* curry recipes, as is nobody else ate mutton. Thanks for recipes!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Jan 19 - 11:45 AM

I love grilled lamb, or sauteed in a skillet, but boiled - nope.

Last night a friend came over for dinner so I rolled the barbecue grill (LP gas) out of the greenhouse and grilled a spatchcocked chicken. In this instance (and after trial and error, the way I usually do it) I split it down the middle of the breast and flattened it with the backbone in the middle. This way the breast is more likely to finish with the rest of the bird; some of the chickens you can buy these days are so big that the breast meat all together takes considerably longer than the rest. Since the point is to take the entire bird off of the grill at once, I don't want to turn the leg quarters into charcoal.

The chicken was perfect. Served with a side of basmati brown rice (and browned vermicelli) in the rice cooker; in the last few minutes of rice cooking I put the steamer pan on top and put fresh broccoli). Salad on the side and a glass of wine (brought by the guest - a nice Pinot Noir).

Primarily I mention this now (January 25) because I was able to grill while many of the rest of you are hip-deep in snow. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 25 Jan 19 - 12:23 PM

Stilly, you're an evil woman. The snow in Stratford is going sideways, and our barbecue is in a big, fat drift.

The only dish I make that involves boiled mutton or lamb is Irish stew, and the technique there is really blanching. You put the meat in a soup pot with just enough water to cover and bring it just to the boil, then strain it off and rinse it in cold water. Then put the meat back in the pot with potatoes and onions (NO CARROTS!), with water only about half-way up the solids, cook until the potatoes can be mashed against the side of the pot. At the end, add salt, pepper, rather a lot of minced parsley, a little minced garlic, and a tablespoonful of Worcestershire sauce.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 Jan 19 - 09:31 AM

I shall have to make lamb. Rats.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Jan 19 - 03:28 PM

This weekend I planned to make blintzes when friends were here for lunch, but we were all so full from the pizza we'd already made (we each put our preferred toppings on quarters of large Iraqi flat bread so it's a crispy thin crust) that we didn't make them. I did this morning; I'd never made crepes before but I've cooked pancakes all my life, so it didn't take much adjustment to the crepe requirements.

That said, this was the recipe I posted above, and while the crepes were good and the raspberry sauce was nice the cheese (mostly ricotta, with a little creme chese) was so bland as to be disappointing.

I see a couple of options - find a different mix of cheeses to use in this recipe or go in a different direction entirely and put something else in the crepes.

What would you do with this recipe?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 28 Jan 19 - 10:06 PM

I make blintz filling with dry-curd cottage cheese, an egg, and lemon zest to deal with the bland issue. I got the recipe from the early 70s edition of The Joy of Cooking.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 29 Jan 19 - 08:36 AM

I’ve started making a very basic soup using the multi-cooker. They are quite nice for a lunchtime meal (our main meal is tea time) on some of these miserable winter days.

Put 500ml water and 2 crumbled veg stock cubes in the bowl. Add peeled and chopped veg (so far, various mixes of carrot, parsnip, celery, onion and calabrese have been used), enough to sort of come over the water level a bit. Set on “soup/stew” for 15 minutes and forget about it – the machine will enter “keep warm” when done.

Later, put contents of pot in blender and give a whirl. The soup should be pretty thick. Add salt, pepper, cream, milk… if/as needed/desired and give another mix. Have with some thickly sliced buttered toast.