BS: The other recipe thread is too long

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Feb 22 - 11:44 AM

There are many substitutes of cauliflower for potatoes (mashed, etc.) but I can't see it as a regular thing. But maybe it would work for you?

And there are lots of types of potatoes. I wonder if some of the waxier ones might be better than a Russet, for example?

The double foil is just because. It seems more secure.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Feb 22 - 11:01 AM

Steve, you know I can't. If I eat carbs, my mental health goes out the window.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Feb 22 - 08:59 PM

Just bloody eat taters...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Feb 22 - 08:10 PM

Can't do taters, but hmmm, fish sounds yummy.

I worried that fish would be too delicate but feel reassured about that now.

I worry that the ground meat ideas I've been reading about, without the taters most recipes have but I can't, will make grease rather than gravy.

Speaking of taters, ever heard of mille-fries? Mandoline-thin taters layered like pommes anna but baked, *then* pressed while cooling, then the cooled cake is sliced, and the slices are deep-fried.

Drooling like Homer, now...

Homer Simpson, that is.

Back to hobo packets: recipes recommend against double foil, glad y'all think that's rubbish.

The idea as I read is bottom is a grease, then your protein, then your veg on top, seal well but leave room for steam? I would also dollop butter on top of the veg? Would that be bad?

Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Feb 22 - 12:59 PM

I've cooked fish in foil lots of times, mostly skinless fillets, and this year I intend to try it on the barbie. Last year I bought up, in a sale, a supply of special foil bags with little windows in, big enough to fit enough fish for two. The fish goes in with some butter, seasoning, a sprig of lemon thyme and a squeeze of lemon juice, maybe a hint of fresh garlic (you could steep a bashed clove in a spoonful of olive oil and just put the oil in the bag, though I still want the fat to be mostly butter), then you fold the bag shut. It's about 20 minutes in the oven but it should be a bit less on the barbie. I've cooked tuna steaks on the bars but most other fish tends to fall through. I have a cast iron plate that fits over half of the grill on my Weber 2200 barbecue, but it's the devil to clean after cooking fish on it.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Feb 22 - 12:46 PM

The halibut I had last night could be fixed in one of those "hobo packets." Double the foil, as Steve suggests.

I put a little dab of olive oil in the bottom of a Pyrex personal-size baking container (substitute the foil) then place a thawed piece of wild-caught Costco halibut (you can't get it fresh enough in Texas to make it worth trying to buy fresh instead of frozen). Slice a few strips of onion (I always seem to have a partial onion in a container in the fridge, so this is slicing a from one side of a half, creating strips, but you could do a whole round slice and break it up). A quick grind of black pepper, then apply a couple of tablespoons of sour cream (drop it around in spots on top of the onion) then sprinkle over some dried dill. Bake it about 20 minutes until it's finished (I put it in a toaster oven at 350^o and let it rest in that oven for another 10 minutes or so after it finished baking.) I add a little salt after it is finished baking.

If you've spread out the onion pieces enough and the dabs of sour cream enough you can pick up a bit of everything in each flaky bite. Mmmmm!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Feb 22 - 12:25 PM

I should have said that the garlic cloves can be added in after about 15 minutes. They don't need as long as the spuds.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Feb 22 - 12:23 PM

Get a nice big sheet of strong foil (could double it up). Scrub some waxy potatoes. Don't peel them but cut them into bite-size lumps. In a bowl, toss them in olive oil and seasoning. You could add some smoked paprika. Maybe a little pinch of dried oregano. Break a bulb of garlic into cloves but leave the skins on. Toss them in with the oily spuds. Wrap them securely in the foil (not too many together: could use more than one packet...). They can go in the embers or on the barbie (or even in the oven). Timing can be tricky but a good half-hour should do it. You might want to support the foil packs on an old oven tray or on a grill to stop them from accidentally coming open.

They're great, and sucking the soft, sweet middles out of the garlic cloves is a joy. I do a similar thing on a big tray in the oven, but with smaller pieces of spud uncovered and with a sprig or two of rosemary. I've been known to use Cajun seasoning for a change instead of the herbs and paprika. Don't leave out the garlic!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Feb 22 - 11:38 PM

Hey, hobo packet ideas? [Food in foil packets cooked on campfire]

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Feb 22 - 06:30 PM

Another hint from several chefs is to make the tomato sauce in an open pan, no lid. That way, it thickens up far more readily.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Feb 22 - 06:25 PM

Well I can't grow enough toms in the Cornwall climate to can or bottle any, so it's bought ones for me. The plum tomatoes are the same price as the chopped, and it's a cinch to snip them up into little pieces in the pan. There's more thick juice in the plum toms, and that's what I like.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Feb 22 - 10:17 AM

These are home-grown canned diced tomatoes, and the way to avoid them being to wet is to pour them through a sieve and drain off extra liquid, that can be added back as needed.

The home-canning groups have a bee in their bonnets about canning diced tomatoes, they prefer whole, halves, or sauce. But I use them most often this way, so I process them this way.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Feb 22 - 09:42 AM

I'm talking half a teaspoon of sugar in a large batch of sauce, made with around four cans of tomatoes. I'm no dietician but I should think that that amount of sugar would be dwarfed by the natural sugars in the tomatoes. However, it's fine to leave it out. I taste the sauce for acidity before adding it, then add as or if necessary. It's no deal-breaker.

Onion and garlic to taste. I dislike raw onion but we have raw garlic in seafood sauce, a tuna-with-pasta dish in which the pasta is the only cooked ingredient (Well, the tuna comes out of a jar...), and in pesto (added parsimoniously and the only time I ever mince it up). We violently disagree about whether garlic should go into bolognese rágù (I say no, the domestic goddess says yes), and authentic Italian chefs (discuss...) never add it (nor basil nor oregano). So I peel the cloves, give them a quick bash and in they go. They add a pleasant sweetness but not that acrid garlicky hit. All a matter of taste...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Feb 22 - 09:05 AM

I had to take the sugar out of my tomato-based sauces when cooking for a diabetic. I have not missed it, but yeah.

I like garlic and onion in the same dish.

Sometimes I like raw onion and cooked garlic, sometimes cooked onion and raw garlic, but often both cooked.

They do not go in at the same time, usually.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Feb 22 - 05:00 AM

It's mostly to do with photographing food.

I'll be making a big batch of tomato sauce for the weekend. I'll be using canned Italian plum tomatoes which are unsalted (I stopped using canned chopped tomatoes years ago as I find the ones here too runny). If I make Marcella's I use (as instructed) a whole onion cut in half which is discarded at the end. For other purposes I much prefer to use either minimal or no onion as I think onions can add a gloopiness to the texture of tomato sauce that I dislike. Garlic (thinly sliced and sautéed in extra virgin olive oil first) if the recipe demands it, but never garlic AND onion. Salt and pepper of course. If the recipe calls for basil I add freshly torn leaves right at the very end. Basil stalks can go in earlier but I fish them out at the end (count them in, count them out!). The magic ingredient every time is half a teaspoon of sugar. The nonnas often do that even with the best, ripest tomatoes, and who am I to argue!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Feb 22 - 11:21 PM

Food porn involves smell and feel and sight and sound and, arguably, poor taste.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 22 - 10:52 PM

The sauce is in the Ball Blue Book and has onions and peppers and seasoning, but no meat, so it can be hot water processed. This time I finely chopped the sofrito part so it really vanished into the sauce. I've in the past done it as a coarse chop, but I find I like it better the new way.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 14 Feb 22 - 09:59 PM

That sounds great, SRS. I like the idea of adding the ravioli.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 22 - 09:38 PM

I made a batch of Italian seasoning tomato sauce back in September that was really wonderful. I processed it and opened the last jar this evening. I'm going to use some of my diced canned tomatoes to make another batch with the same recipe, but since these were canned once, I'll have to freeze the extra from the next batch. I checked with my canning guru - not a good idea to can the same tomatoes twice.

Tonight's dinner was a link of Italian sausage, casing removed, sautéed and cut into bite-size pieces, submerged in a half cup or so of my tomato sauce, and then a half-dozen frozen Portobello ravioli were boiled and spooned into the bowl with the sauce and the sausage. Very nice! Nothing wasted. (This sauce is so good you won't see me washing a bunch of it off the plate and down the drain.)

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Feb 22 - 07:07 PM

Sex, even for trees, is a deliciously messy affair. Unless you have allergies. We are mostly on the seafood side of flavors.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Feb 22 - 04:26 AM

You can't "sound like food porn" as food porn is entirely visual.

My go-away-and-leave-me-alone food is a steaming heap of shell-on prawns dripping with garlicky butter. I reserve the right to get into a disgusting mess and ignore all the usual protocols of good table manners.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 22 - 12:43 AM

I remember in reading Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes, she has a line about finding pears that are so delicious that you feel the need to be private when you eat them. She's a poet and said it beautifully. :)

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Feb 22 - 09:16 PM

i've seen some pretty carnal recipes here.
Vegans do not despair. Eating a fresh fig can be erotic too.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Feb 22 - 11:52 AM

Have you ever watched Giada De Laurentiis cook? I read an article about her program and they said the camera work was the same kind they use in pornographic films.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Donuel
Date: 13 Feb 22 - 11:34 AM

I love all the recipes but why do I get the impression when Steve describes a recipe it sounds more like food porn?

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Feb 22 - 06:03 PM

Ok for the Super Bowl I got both teams in one dish: Cincinnati [-style] chili... but with *mutton* (terribly difficult to find here)!

I used (read rather than followed) the NYT recipe but did not measure anything.

Also, since the chili has more than one "way" --some star-shaped chocolate lava cakes. Hollywood: Stars, and Chocolat.

Ways: I can't do the beans, oyster crackers or spaghetti, but cheese and onions, yeah.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Feb 22 - 08:40 PM

I miss lentils most of all the bean/legume/family...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Feb 22 - 04:10 PM

Well the point of my soup was to avoid meat (which I do far too seldom), yet make it as nutritionally sound as possible. The soffritto base adds a lovely depth of flavour and the added spinach is a revelation. I do have lots of soups that contain animal protein.

As for those red lentils, my favourite use for them is to make a lentil sauce to go with spaghetti. It's half a pound of red lentils, a 440ml can of plum tomatoes, an onion that's been softened in extra virgin olive oil, a bit of chopped garlic, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of dried oregano. It all goes into a pan with enough hot water added gradually to make it sloppy by the end of the half-hour cooking. That gets dumped on a stack of wholemeal spaghetti and sprinkled with cheese. There's enough sauce for at least three people there. Very filling, very nutritious.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Charmion
Date: 06 Feb 22 - 11:56 AM

I make lentil soup much like yours, Steve, with bacon, leeks, and chicken stock instead of olive oil, celery, and veg stock. I have vegan relatives, however, so I shall take note of your version for them.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 06 Feb 22 - 11:51 AM

I make a very simple Egyptian lentil soup - grated onion, red lentils, added to pot of boiling water. Cook for ~ 45 minutes. Pepper, a little salt, a little ground cumin and a squeeze of lemon. Give it a light mix with the stick blender (I don't want it completely pureed). I like all of the stuff (carrots, ham hock, etc.) in split pea soup, but for lentil soup my taste buds dictate that less is more.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Feb 22 - 11:38 AM

I've been making a very nutritious vegan lentil soup for weeks now. I deliberately make it thin enough to drink from large mugs. A big dose of that plus a couple of tangerines/clems/whatever you want to call them equals lunch.

So for a big batch that will easily give us three big mugs each, this is how I proceed:

Get a vegetable stock pot going. You need two litres for my size batch but it doesn't need to be very strong. I won't buy stock powder or cubes as I have never found any that are not utterly disgusting. In the pot go carrots, carrot peelings, those coarse sticks from the outside of the celery that you don't want to eat, onion peelings and maybe one whole onion, fresh thyme, a bay leaf and a few peppercorns. That gets boiled for about an hour.

The soup ingredients are 220g dried lentils (I use small brown ones that are very cheap. I don't think I'd use red lentils for this, and definitely not split peas), 200g of fresh baby leaf spinach, two carrots, two sticks of celery and an equal amount of shallots or onions, and a big glug of extra virgin olive oil.

Chop up the onions, carrots and celery and fry them gently in the olive oil for about half an hour while the stock is simmering. Wash the lentils and throw them in. Stir them around for a minute, then ladle in the sieved stock, up to around two litres. Don't sweat the amounts. Simmer that for at least half an hour.

When the lentils are soft, throw in the spinach. It reduces down miraculously in no time at all. Let that simmer for five minutes, put the pan in the sink and whizz it with a hand blender. It needs to be well seasoned, a bit at a time, to taste.

The golden rule is not to eat it until tomorrow. You can reheat the whole lot every day until you've finished it. It doesn't hurt it.   Very simple, very tasty, very cheap and really good for you.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 06 Feb 22 - 10:27 AM

Hey any of you Yanks know how to get mutton, not lamb, here?

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Feb 22 - 10:32 AM

Yum!

I tried the risotto again with grating my own parm. Much better, a little too much better than bouiilon so added a lot of cherry tomatoes to the leftovers, yum.

Had a weird thing where I had combined a salad from my fave kebab place (tom cuke onion parsley in lemon redwine vinegar and olive oil) with my fave appetizer (cacik, kind of runny tzatziki, yogurt cukes garlic, it is supposed to be a dip but no pita for me) and topped it with pistachios.

The pistachios tasted like peanuts.

I *ran* to my kitchen and sniffed the cinnamon. Smelled like cinnamon. Whew.

So, weird but not covid! Wonder why it tasted like peanuts, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Feb 22 - 02:55 PM

We're in a cycle of particularly cold weather here, but it will only last for about 3 days, so I wanted to make a batch of comfort food pot roast (for one) that wouldn't last forever. I used a large saucepan instead of a Dutch oven, to confine the amount I ended up with, and was blown away by how good it turned out.

I rolled a piece of beef chuck roast in flour with salt and pepper, browned it, added beef bouillon and braised it for about 45 minutes (watching the liquid level and adding a little as needed). After braising I added onion, then carrots, then potatoes, each in for 20 minutes before adding the next. Then some Worcestershire Sauce and a glug of red wine. Ground some oregano in my hand and dropped it in. More salt and pepper and a little water with flour for thickening. This used only 1 pound of meat and will be about three meals.

(I remembered about this newer thread and moved my post.)

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 28 Dec 21 - 11:45 PM

I have successfully made risotto, but not for a while. Decided to try the cauliflower rice version.

Actually patiently made the mushrooms right.

Gauged the broth and cook time right for the cauli.

I had gotten romano instead of parmesan as it came more finely grated. I know, I should grate my own.

No, really, I should have. Wasn't till it was served, and to a guest, that I realized the cheese, added just before serving, was... off.

Blue cheese risotto is not a thing, and for a reason.

But there was extra bison steak and a lot of salad, and the $mas baking (cookies, marzipan, breads that are really cake) so it was ok, but Imma remember that initial This-is-not-what-I-thought-I-was-putting-in-my-mouth taste. Kinda like reaching for milk and getting the OJ. Surprise!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Thompson
Date: 26 Nov 21 - 04:14 AM

Oh, that sounds delicious, Stilly!
Here's a recipe that's fancier-dancier, but because it's precisely measured might give you an idea of what the heck a large tomato means!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Nov 21 - 07:11 PM

Thompson, yes, it is superb. I'm going to be steam juicing some cranberries and will see about setting up the camera and I can post it for you to see.

I'm ready to make some green tomato relish, and the recipe is incredibly imprecise. 24 large tomatoes, three red bell peppers, three green bell peppers, 12 large onions. So subjective! last summer I had some huge tomatoes that were almost a pound each, so I'm going to be conservative and assume that a standard large tomato weighs about half of that. And going from there to calculate the number of peppers, onions, etc to put into this. And if I did this math the last time I didn't leave myself any notes, so I'll jot down the calculations this time.

Green tomato relish is wonderful, and it gets made this time of year when the cool weather slows the ripening. They're picked before the first frost (you're not supposed to can tomatoes that have had the plants touched by frost - there is some chemical change that is a problem). I can let these sit in a flat box with a few sheets of newspaper or a paper bag over the top and they'll ripen slowly, but this is a higher use. The season of ripe fruit was during the summer, now is the season of relish.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Thompson
Date: 19 Nov 21 - 02:33 AM

Made a stir fry with a new mix of saucing: coconut vinegar, soya sauce, sesame oil. And we've taken to removing meat from its packaging and dividing it in half before storing it in the freezer, so we use half the amount. It actually makes a nicer stir fry.
This was a definite hit: a julienned leek, 3 julienned carrots, a julienned courgette, a stick of chopped celery and a chopped bell pepper and 300g diced beef for 2 people), and to accompany it a pot of quinoa simmered with a chicken stock pod and a low-salt vegetable stock cube, and then about half a pomegranate's worth of arils added. It was a big hit.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Nov 21 - 11:13 AM

Added some leftover salmon to my crab-and-asparagus soup. That worked a treat...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Thompson
Date: 15 Nov 21 - 03:24 AM

Still wondering… Stilly, have you made apple jelly with juice produced from a steam juicer?

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Thompson
Date: 13 Nov 21 - 12:15 PM

Hm. Watched a couple of videos of steam juicers; in one, the videoer was making apple jelly from juice extracted with a juicer like this, but the jelly wasn't the rich cherry read you get with my old-fashioned method but a kind of fawn colour. Mind you, I think she was using added pectin, maybe that makes a difference?

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Thompson
Date: 13 Nov 21 - 11:34 AM

Thanks, Stilly - looking at steam juicers now; I'm also wondering if the juice so obtained is as delicious and as nourishing as that from the older method…?
Steve - Mother Library is bringing me the book as soon as my request goes through.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Nov 21 - 10:45 AM

Thompson, the way to avoid a lot of that fruit processing fuss is to use a steam juicer. The juice comes out clear, not needing to be strained even once. I went looking for YouTube videos and the top ones are of people who are using them for the first time and making mistakes. I'll come back later and find better instructions and send along. I make grape juice for jelly (from wild grapes), strawberry juice for jelly and use the fruit leftover for jam, I make tomato juice and sauce, cranberry juice (and use the leftover pulp for other stuff), etc.

Yesterday I packed several jars with fresh cucumbers and added garlic pieces, spices, and brine and they're in the fridge for a couple of weeks before I start eating those pickles.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Nov 21 - 10:23 AM

Get Father Christmas to bring you the book! It's called The Essentials Of Classic Italian Cooking.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Thompson
Date: 13 Nov 21 - 10:17 AM

I've found a bunch of alleged Hazan recipes, but they vary wildly - for instance larger amounts of potatoes or smaller amounts of tinned tomatoes. Can't find an original.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Nov 21 - 07:03 AM

I made a big batch of Marcella Hazan's minestrone alla romagnola (the one she calls, in her book, "vegetable soup, Romagna style"). I followed the ingredients and amounts exactly as in her recipe, the one difference being that I used the stock I had, which was home-made chicken stock. You can get the list online quite easily as long as you're prepared to put up with all that American "cups" nonsense. Some food bloggers can't help messing about with recipes. I ignore ones that suggest adding rice or pasta (this one definitely doesn't need bacon either). Marcella doesn't, the soup is hearty enough as it is without, and if you do use such things you have to add them afresh every time you serve up the soup. No thanks. There's nothing worse than soup that's been sitting overnight with pasta or rice in it, and nothing better than soup that's been sitting overnight without... We managed nicely with some crusty bread...

It did us for two evening meals, the veg heaped up in bowls. There was quite a stack of delicious liquid left over (I served the soup with a slotted spoon). I heated it up, threw in a handful of red lentils and let them cook for 20 minutes, then threw in half a pound of baby spinach. Five minutes later I whizzed it with my hand blender. The result was four big mugs of delicious soup that did us the next two lunchtimes. Cucina povera!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Thompson
Date: 13 Nov 21 - 12:23 AM

That sounds delicious!

This is the season for making jams and jellies, so I've started making some Christmassy spiced apple jelly and quince jelly. Here's the method. It's a two-day job, with a couple of days' gap between the days. Another tip: all jam and especially jelly is much easier to make if you do it about a litre at a time, no more.

Apples:
First day. Do this bit in the morning. Preferably using crab apples, or sour apples, wash them, chop them, put them in a normal cooking pot, hold your hand on the top of them and fill with fresh water till it's up to your hand. (I don't know what the quantity I use in, but it's enough to fill a biggish pot about a third.)
Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for an hour or so, giving the odd mash down with a potato masher.
Take off the heat and pour the mush into a mesh bag and let the syrup drain off the apples. (If you're lazy like me, use a strainer first, then a bag.) Let them drain all day. If you have room and no mice, let them continue to drain for 24 hours.
Put the syrup in the fridge in a glass or ceramic container. I find that leaving it for three days or so works much better. If you have hens or know anyone who has, they love the discarded apple mush.

Second day. After the syrup has been aside a couple of days, take it out and assemble your tools: preferably a conserve pan (flared and heavy-bottomed), a chopping board and sharp knife, citrus squeezer, strainer, measuring jug, long wooden spoon, jam thermometer which you'll hang on the side of the pot, bowl and scales for weighing sugar, jamjars, beaked (preferably) ladle, skimmer, citrus zester (microplane), hot water ready to wash lids and ladle in near-boiling water, enough jars (heating in a 100C oven), paper to rest the jars on while you fill them. Labels for the jars.
Put the lids and the ladle into the hot water.
Assemble your ingredients: syrup, sugar (I prefer Demerara sugar and use 600 grams to a litre of syrup), a washed lemon, a washed orange, cloves, cinnamon.
Put your syrup in the conserve pan and bring it slowly to the boil. At the same time, put your jamjars into the oven at 100C (I usually have around five jars at a time); put your sugar into a shallow dish like a roasting pan and put it in the oven with the jamjars to warm. As it warms, occasionally open the oven and give the sugar a stir with your fingers.
When the sugar is warm, add it to the syrup and stir it in. Add the zest and juice of the lemon and the orange. Add the cinnamon (half a stick for a litre of juice) and cloves. Bring the syrup to a boil, then a raging, foaming boil, stirring occasionally so it doesn't catch. When it's at 105C on the jam thermometer, set a timer for 15 minutes. Keep it at the foaming boil, stirring occasionally.
At this point, you can test the set. Traditionally this is done by putting a few drops on a cold plate or spoon, leaving it a minute and then giving it a push with a finger to see if it wrinkles. I'm not great at this, so I just cross my fingers; if it turns out not to be perfectly set, you can always put it back in the pot and give it another hard boil for five minutes. At this stage you can skim the jelly to take out the cinnamon and cloves. I usually leave them in, though.
Put off the oven and take the jars out onto the door or onto a metal surface; I put paper under them so any dribbles land on it and don't have to be wiped up. Take your lids and ladle out of the hot water, and ladle the jelly into the jars. (If you don't have a beaked ladle for this, a clean wide-mouthed funnel helps) Go away and have a cup of your preferred beverage for a while. Screw the caps on and put the jars of bright red jelly on the windowsill where you can admire it with the light shining through it.
Assuming it's jelled perfectly, when it's cooled, label it (I use the name - "Apple jelly" - my name and the date, or at least 11/21.) You can also get fancy-dancy and put adorable gingham caps held with ribbons on the jars so they make nice presents.

It's also currently quince season. You can use quinces from the Japanese quince bush, or from a proper quince tree. At the moment they're dear - €2.50 in the cheapest local greengrocer I've found them in - but if you go to the fruit and vegetable market it's possible to buy them at a much cheaper wholesale price. Quinces store well, and are also delicious roasted instead of apples if you're having roast pork, being pleasantly astringent.

If you're making quince jelly, do more or less the same as with the apples. However, there's a secret: you can also make delicious quince paste/ quince cheese/ membrillo with the mush. To do that, rub off the nap from the surface with a thick cloth, chop and core the quinces, discard the core and pips and then continue with the jelly-making in the same way as with apples; I also add some cardamom seeds to the mix - about a quarter teaspoonful.

When you've made the jelly, put the mush into a heavy-bottomed pot (I use the conserve pan) with the same proportion of sugar - 600 grams to 1 kilo of mush - and bring it to a boil. Simmer it fairly fast, giving the odd stir with a wooden spoon, for 30 to 45 minutes, until it parts like the Red Sea when you draw the spoon through it. At this stage put it in a flat baking pan with baking parchment under it, stroke it down, and leave it to cool for a couple of days. (I use a couple of pizza pans, one under, one over). You can then wrap it in greaseproof paper with foil around it, or put it in jars. It's very nice as a relish, especially with cheeses, and most especially with manchego cheese.

If you don't want the palaver of coring but do want to reuse the mush, in either apples or quinces, you can pass the mush through a mouli instead. And if you don't have hens available, you can also make apple sauce with the apple mush.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 12 Nov 21 - 01:53 PM

That sounds good, Thompson, but my husband (the DH) hates capers, so I can't join you in the venture.
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The other night I woke up with a knee hurting pretty bad. I tried to withstand it, but finally woke the DH up and asked him to bring some ice. We wrapped it up, elevated it and iced it. (The RICE system.)

In the morning I looked for the ice in the bedding, and it turned out to be a package of sugar-snap peas, thawed but still cold. So, sugar-snap peas were on the menu that night.

After checking out a lot of dewy-eyed recipes involving sauteing sugar-snap peas from the owner's garden, I found one that I could use thawed, soaking-wet peas in.

Drain peas in a colander, at least 30 mins ahead of time.
Pat dry with a paper towel. Just one - there's a limit.
Mince one clove garlic.
Saute garlic in oil of your choice, or in butter.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Put peas, garlic and oil in a glass baking dish. Stir to coat.
Bake 8 - 10 minutes.
While peas bake, zest a lemon.
Just before serving, stir the lemon zest into the batch.

It was delicious.

The leg is much better.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Thompson
Date: 12 Nov 21 - 12:25 PM

I'm looking to perfect a chicken piquante version - with just chicken, lemon and capers, possibly a dash of Parmesan…

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Nov 21 - 09:59 AM

I am still totally in salads, even in the cold. But soups are getting thicker, like winter coats.