BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 04:28 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: Steve Shaw
Date: 08 Nov 19 - 04:24 AM

This post surely should be about Thousand Island dressing...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 08:49 PM

Steve, I learned all that calculation in Grade 9 science at the age of thirteen, and promptly put it right out of my head. Like most Canadians, I live with three different systems of measurement simultaneously, hardly ever bothering to convert because each system applies to only certain aspects of life.

So temperature is Celsius unless it’s the oven, in which case it’s Fahrenheit because the stove is American. Beer comes by the Imperial pint (20 fluid ounces) at the pub because the glass is British, and many Canadians still have a vestigial memory of what a real pint and quart are. Milk comes in four-litre packages, put up in three plastic pouches in a plastic bag. Why three plastic pouches and not four? Because when the system was designed, people were accustomed to Imperial quart bottles, and 1.33 litres is quite close to that. I weigh myself in pounds, but I buy cheese and meat by the kilo. I buy gasoline (petrol) by the litre, but understand fuel efficiency best when expressed in terms of miles per American gallon.

When the government converted us to the metric system back in the late ‘70s, the change was supposed to simplify our lives. It did no such thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 06:49 PM

Using olive oil is the Mediterranean way. You could also throw in some unpeeled garlic cloves and a sprig or two of rosemary. In fact, you could even skip the par-boiling. We do it that way quite a lot! Just cut the unpeeled spuds up quite small and bake them for half an hour. My family love spuds done that way to accompany barbecues, but with anything really.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stanron
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 06:48 PM

Charmion wrote: I don’t know what that is in the other money

I learned this between 55 and 60 years ago so it might have got a bit twisted since then but I seem to remember -32 x5 /9.

400-32= 368

368/9 = 40.9

40.9 x 5 = 204

call it 200 C

Off topic reference to another thread but this is a result of a Grammar school education.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 06:07 PM

I made a variant of Steve Shaw’s oven chips the other day, using the teeny-tiny potatoes that French-speaking Canadians call “grelots”.

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.

Boffo, I tell ya.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 02:56 PM

I used to be a moulder! My instructional poem, from WalkaboutsVerse, "Diedactic"

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Nov 19 - 02:50 PM

I made a tool to make an impression in tin foil for a mold and not to eat the impression tool. You silly goose, I guess you are not a tool and die maker or death mask maker or hollywood face mold maker.

I suppose you could mold your exact face for a birthday cake but the notion of eating one's face seems morbid.

We have about 10 recipe channels on TV and the food looks scrumptious

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Raedwulf
Date: 06 Nov 19 - 05:31 PM

Peperonata. I say peperonata, but I'm sure some will have conniptions about what I made! The recipe I have (naturally, I don't follow it; where would be the fun?!) says a couple of red bell peppers, a can of Pomodoro tomatoes, the right amount of chili (it doesn't say "the right amount of chili" but that's what it means, as every recipes does, right?).

So, naturally, I ignore this. Green peppers are added because A) they're to hand & B) Why not enjoy the contrasting colours? Onion. Oooo! Wrong! Yet, the first google you hit for peperonata has garlic & basil in the ingredients. Can't stand garlic meself, but onion I love, so why not. And yes, basil was included (the plant will not last much longer; it's already dropping leaves all over).

So, peppers (various), onion, tomatoes (not Pomodoro), basil, chili. It won't be peperonata by somebody's standards, but it's damn tasty! ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Janie
Date: 06 Nov 19 - 04:03 PM

One can certainly use regular milk instead of evaporated milk to make pumpkin pie. But there will be some differences. Pumpkin contains a lot of water. It will often require longer cooking times, and the texture and flavor of the custard will be different and less creamy if regular milk is used.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Nov 19 - 10:21 AM

The risk of someone accidentally eating clay or epoxy is great - why not use a jelly bean or something the right size and shape that is food?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Nov 19 - 09:42 AM

Use a hardening clay instead of epoxy paste like I did if you are more familiar with clay.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 06 Nov 19 - 09:30 AM

I used to make Xmas treats like whiskey balls or schwedy balls but now I make a treat inspired by Monty Python called Crunchy Frog.
I take whole half walnuts, that look like the body of a small frog and in a double boiler I melt Dove chocolate to dip the walnuts and set down on wax paper. For the chocolate head I make a head out of epoxy, this takes bit of sculpting skill, to make a mold out of several thick aluminum foil sheets and pressing the head shape into the foil. I dab the chocolate into the mold and attach the head with some more melted chocolate. For the eyes I use a tiny round confectionary before the chocolate is cold.

You can make brown red or brown green versions but who cares, they taste alike unless you add peppermint oil to one batch or a hint of cinnamon to another.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Nov 19 - 08:06 AM

Mrzzy, you should eat more in Italian, Chinese (actually, Cantonese) and Japanese restaurants if you are in search of brothy soup. Their cuisines have never heard of the blender as a soup-maker’s tool.

Tortellini in brodo and egg-drop soup are my faves.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Nov 19 - 06:56 PM

Chicken soup is the one I'm most likely to leave "brothy," with mostly stock, though I'm as likely to make chicken pot pie (very thick/stewlike) as I am to make chicken soup these days.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Nov 19 - 06:39 PM

Well we had the Marcella pesto stirred into spaghetti this evening. It needed to be loosened with a splash of pasta water (Marcella suggests that), and we grated a bit of extra Parmesan on top. It was an utter class act, and so simple. That woman was a bloody genius. I have her book and will rely on it muchly from now on!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Nov 19 - 05:48 PM

I miss brothy soups in restaurants. They seem to think thick and full of stuff is better. And while a good stew is delish, it is not Soup. (I feel like Eeyore or zpooh or Piglet here.)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Nov 19 - 11:42 AM

I made a robust batch of tomato beef vegetable soup last night; I sometimes use a ham hock in soup, but didn't want to dig one out so did a mix of a half-pound of beef chuck roast and two slices of thick-sliced hickory smoked bacon, run through the grinder attachment on the stand mixer. Because of the recent freezer change out I had a quart of tomato juice (from garden tomatoes last year or the year before) to use as much of the liquid, along with a couple of pints of canned tomatoes that I need to finish up this year.

I started out sauteing chopped onion, then added the meat to brown along with it, then started adding vegetables according to how long they take to soften. Diced carrots and green beans spent the most time that way, then I added a bit of water so other things could steam (potatoes, kidney beans I prepared a couple of days ago) and then started adding the tomato stuff. I dehydrated mushrooms last year so I threw a handful in. The rule of thumb that I *think* came from Lynne Rossetto Kasper (The Splendid Table cookbook and long-running radio show) is to not add any tomato products until things like onion are at the point you want them, because once tomato is in the onions won't soften any more. Seasoning was (as usual) a hefty grind of black pepper, salt, oregano, and a dollop of Balsamic vinegar.

I finished with slivers of cabbage stirred in. It's a nice beefy/smoky/tomatoey soup. Great smell, great mouth-feel. More stuff than liquid, but not as thick as a stew.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Nov 19 - 10:50 AM

Yikes, omission red alert!!! Right at the end of making Marcella's, you add about an ounce of soft butter (I melted it slightly in a pan), just after the cheese. I mixed it in with my fingers again. What Mrs Steve's eye don't see...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 05 Nov 19 - 09:59 AM

I don't buy shop pesto. I've never tasted any that wasn't greasy, salty and a little bit bitter. I happened to have three or four windowsill pots of basil lying around so I've used them up today before they went downhill. I have done pesto the traditional way with my pestle and mortar, but I honestly can't be arsed these days as I have a very nifty hand blender with its own jug.

I made one lot of Marcella Hazan's, which I'll stir into some spaghetti this evening after the fireworks at the old people's home. The ingredients are fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil (my best Tuscan), pine nuts, garlic and salt. That gets whizzed into a paste, then I added a hearty grating of parmesan cheese and a slightly less hearty grating of pecorino Romano. Following Marcella, I worked the cheese in with my hand (which was very clean), which keeps the mix airy and light. The bonus is that you can lick your fingers after you've finished.

I made another lot which we'll have on crostini on Friday evening. This is one of Gino d'Acampo's recipes. It's basil, pine nuts, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, parmesan and a goodly amount of sundried tomatoes drained of their oil (I hate the salty, dry-packed ones). You can whizz it all in one go but it's better to do the whizzing in two steps, leaving the cheese and oil until stage two. The paste is quite thick, ideal for spreading on to bruschetta or crostini. The finishing touch is to sprinkle some deseeded, finely-chopped tomato and some baby basil leaves on top. I'll need another topping for Friday night but I haven't decided on one as yet. I'm a bit weird with my bruschetta and crostini. I always brush both sides very lightly with garlicky oil before toasting. The rubbing with garlic method can tear the bread, but that's just me being clumsy, and I'm not changing now. The bread quality is paramount. I normally use Crosta Mollusca pane pugliese, but if I haven't got any a nice sliced ciabatta will do the job.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating
From: Charmion
Date: 04 Nov 19 - 03:42 PM

I always make cranberry sauce from the berries; it’s easy and far better than what comes out of a tin. And you can buy fresh cranberries for cheap at the supermarket at this time of the year (the harvest is on now) and chuck ‘em in the freezer for future reference. Commercial cranberry sauce is always too sweet, and I like to put just a bit of orange zest in it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 04 Nov 19 - 03:33 PM

My grandmother used to make cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries... We have the recipe. Someone makes "gran's cran" every year... My only job this year is a dessert that is both chocolate and not pie, as we have apple, cherry, maybe pumpkin, and pecan, at least...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Nov 19 - 01:44 PM

Mrs Steve makes cranberry sauce every year. I think the cranberries come from the US. I'm not that keen on sharp, sour things on a plate of what is generally comfort food, but I always have some of hers. Much better than what comes out of jars.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Nov 19 - 10:51 AM

I started making my own cranberry sauce from fresh berries a couple of years ago - there is a world of difference and it's much better than the jellied can stuff.

I have a container of defrosted sweet potato so this afternoon will steam my pumpkins and make some pumpkin/sweet potato bread and freeze it. I have whole dates here to chop and walnuts and butter - it all comes out quite rich.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: EBarnacle
Date: 02 Nov 19 - 12:18 AM

Thanksgiving is coming. Lady Hillary and I have agreed on a pumpkin risotto [Arborio rice] with pine nuts.
We also generally make a tomatillo, cranberry and jicama salsa in place of ordinary boring, cranberry sauce. We're adding some pomegranate vinegar to the salsa.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Nov 19 - 11:19 PM

There's a recipe I like in the old Better Homes & Gardens cookbook a friend gave me in 1974 that I still use. No branded products, and though it calls for evaporated milk (that I did actually buy last year and still have) I often just use regular milk for the entire amount. I have no idea why evaporated milk is called for, it's just a custard.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Black belt caterpillar wrestler
Date: 01 Nov 19 - 06:55 PM

Well, we had soul cakes.

Interesting taste, probably the vinegar that does it.

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 01 Nov 19 - 05:55 PM

I can’t remember when I last made a pumpkin pie, but Himself came home yesterday with three little pie pumpkins instead of one of the great watery ones we normally use to make a jack-o’-lantern. So this morning I steamed them in the electric pressure cooker (a Very Useful Device) and ended up with a little over a kilo of orange mash.

Now, until today I was under the impression that pumpkin pie is a fairly standard item — custard with mashed pumpkin stirred into it baked in pastry. I was so wrong. I made the mistake of Googling for recipes and ended up with at least ten variations, some requiring a pre-baked shell and calling for molasses, bourbon and fresh ginger root, and others forbidding a pre-baked shell and calling for maple syrup, heavy cream and extra egg yolks. Finally, in desperation, I Googled for the recipe that used to be printed on the label of Libby’s canned pumpkin, a staple of Ontario cuisine circa 1965, which called for evaporated milk (how post-war!) and always worked, especially if you doubled the ginger.

And I found it. The Libby trade name now belongs to Nestlé (boo!), and the recipe irritatingly tells you to use branded ingredients, all from the Nestlé stable. So I used what we had in the house — except evaporated milk, which I haven’t bought since about 1968 — and it just came out of the oven both looking and smelling precisely as it should.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Nov 19 - 02:06 PM

We're having bacon and three-bean risotto tonight. I'll use about half chicken stock and half veg-boiling water, which I won't salt. The "three beans" are a variable feast. Tonight it will be 150g each of broad beans, sugar snap peas and peas. They get boiled first in enough water to give me about 400 ml water, and I'll have to use an organic stock pot this time as I haven't got any stock in the freezer. I need around 700 ml on standby. I put a big knob of butter in my cast-iron small casserole and fry about 100g snipped streaky bacon or pancetta until almost crisp. Then I add about three chopped banana shallots and fry for another five minutes. Into that goes a few sprigs of fresh thyme and about 275g of risotto rice. I turn up the heat and add a small glass of white wine. After this toasting of the rice I add the hot stock.

Now here's the cheat. I add the stock all at once. That much rice needs about 600 ml of stock, keeping a bit in reserve. Season (easy on salt) stir like mad, bring to a gentle simmer and put the lid on for fourteen minutes. Drink the rest of that bottle (share). When time is up remove the lid and stir really vigorously for at least two energetic minutes. Test for al dente. When you're happy, add the cooked veg, a big grating of fresh Parmesan cheese, some chopped fresh parsley and either a big knob of butter or two tablespoons of full-fat creme fraiche. You may need a bit of extra stock, depending on how you like your risotto. Stir and allow to sit off the heat for a few minutes. As long as you've done that vigorous stirring, it will be just as good as a risotto made the laborious way.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 01 Nov 19 - 01:31 PM

Big noodly soups. Getting cold.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Oct 19 - 04:12 PM

The old freezer died and some things got soft, but not too much defrosted completely, and today the new freezer was delivered, set up, and after chilling for four hours, is stuffed with the perishables that were in coolers since this morning when I emptied the old one. It was still working, but barely. Now that 50-year-old freezer is going to be recycled.

And I have some cooking to do with things that should be used soon. I can make baked goods and refreeze them, to start with. I do a mix of pumpkin and sweet potato in a spicy bread that is amazing, and some of the frozen sweet potato can go in with the fresh pumpkin here that I'll steam soon. The original recipe is just pumpkin, but I was short on the recipe a while back and added sweet potato to make up the volume and the results were mindblowingly good!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Oct 19 - 01:45 PM

My Scandihoovian mother who grew up in the relatively white bread Pacific Northwest made awful curry. It involved one can of Coleman's curry that was in the cupboard, and though I lived in NYC for several years and ate in Indian restaurants, I need to work on developing an interest in anything called "curry" because of those early years. You don't want to know what her chili tasted like (think spaghetti sauce over beans). There were several other attempts at international cooking, more or less successful, but usually mispronounced. My Puerto Rican husband was in stitches when I told him about growing up with Mom's 'Arrows con polo' (pronounced that way).

How mild was the Northwestern diet? I remember what a big deal it was when you could finally buy bagels.

There was a lot of Asian food, primarily Chinese and occasional Japanese, when I was growing up in said Pacific Northwest, but not a lot of curry (not in those places.)

I've had a lot of interest in the wide range of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean foods, and most of the ingredients are easy to get here (so is Indian and Asian, because this is a highly multicultural area in urban North Texas).

This isn't to say there was nothing good to eat there. After all, when the tide is out the table IS set. Clams, oysters, crabs, mussels, etc., and lots of fresh and saltwater fish.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Oct 19 - 12:57 PM

Lots of things are better reheated. Mom said to leave things overnight so the flavors can marry.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Oct 19 - 10:05 AM

Himself loves curry, which his mother learned to make in Malaya (as it then was) where the family was posted in 1958. (By herself, my mother-in-law travelled by air from Colchester Barracks to Singapore with four children, including Himself in nappies. I remain amazed.) I grew up on an Anglo-Indian version of curry that my father's family learned from one Mrs Mott, who had been in service in Poona before becoming my grandmother's cook circa 1930.

Most curry dishes are even better reheated, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Oct 19 - 07:44 PM

We don't have curries very often and I get fed up of throwing out jars of spices that I bought in a flush of enthusiasm, used once, only to discard years after they expired. We get our spicy hits mostly from chili con carne or from Italian dishes such as arrabbiata or orecchiette con cime di rape. Or from Spice Tailor cheat recipes. ;-)

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

BobL, try Spice Tailor curry mixes. There's a good number of varieties and, to my way of thinking, they are better than those jars of curry sauce, which I find are overcooked, dull and claggy. A typical pack consists of a sachet of dried spices, including a dried chilli, a base sauce that you stir-fry the meat/veg with and a main sauce to do the final simmer until the meat/veg is cooked through. If you like it hot, the Fiery Goan is very nice. I've been known to add a dash of creamed coconut and I always cut up the spices a bit with scissors. Very good with diced chicken breast, chick peas and whatever rice/naan/pappadoms you prefer. And mango chutney and raita, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Oct 19 - 10:46 AM

I ask because I made something once with lots of spices and when it was done it tasted like curry. Accidentally but deliciously.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: BobL
Date: 13 Oct 19 - 08:17 AM

I used to make curries from scratch using the individual spices, but gave up when decent bottled sauces such as Patak's appeared on the market and gave better results. How do you tell which are the decent ones, other than by trying them all? Rule of thumb: check the list of ingredients, and if they include modified starch, reject.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 12 Oct 19 - 04:11 PM

Yes, Mrrzy, I mix curry spices for each recipe. I buy them ready-ground — I’m not sufficiently hard-core to roast and grind whole spices at home — but the variations from recipe to recipe are great enough that I don’t bother with mixes except garam masala. Southern Ontario has so many people who make South Asian food at home that most supermarkets carry ground and whole turmeric, cumin, coriander, cardamom and cinnamon in large cellophane packets.

I have a couple of Mahur Jaffrey books and I’m not afraid to use them.

Can’t remember when I last had any use for pre-mixed curry powder.