BS: The other recipe thread is too long

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Jul 21 - 09:01 PM

I've been growing potatoes for the last forty years or more. I gave up on maincrop ones because I've always had blight every year, nearly always in late July or August, and the maincrops haven't reached a decent size by then. Besides, the slugs become a menace after the end of July.

For many years I've grown only Sutton's Foremost as my first early. We've been eating them now for a couple of weeks. They have a wonderful flavour, they bulk up well (given enough water), they keep their flavour and texture for a long time and they generally crop early enough to beat the blight (as soon as I see it I cut off all tops straight away, which means I'll get all the tubers in good condition).

The second early I've settled on for years is Nicola. It's waxy and dense with a great flavour, better than Charlotte in m'humble. It stores well and it makes superb oven chips (made with groundnut oil) or Mediterranean potatoes (made with extra virgin olive oil, a big sprig of rosemary and a big scattering of unpeeled garlic cloves) and fantastic jacket potatoes (they are not good for mash, but it's summer, dammit). I do get blight on it but not before the tubers are a decent, but not massive, size. Some shop potatoes aren't too bad and I rely on them through the winter as I can't grow anywhere near enough of my own to keep us going. But home-grown are incomparable when it comes to texture and flavour. I'm strictly organic with my spuds, by the way.

I have filleted red mullet (my all-time favourite fish) in the freezer and we'll be having that with my thinly-sliced Nicola at the weekend, the slices brushed with extra virgin olive oil, seasoned and baked in the hot oven in a single layer on greaseproof paper for fifteen minutes while I fry the fish in butter. The fish, with its skin well crisped, goes on top of a little mound of the potatoes skin side up, and we have that with a little scattering of black olive tapenade round the edges. That's easy to make but it's just as easy and just as cheap to buy a decent jar of it, enough for two, from M&S. We got the idea from a Rick Stein episode.

Tonight we had some Alaskan sockeye salmon (fried in butter) with some green beans and my Foremost potatoes, simply boiled. Plenty of butter, salt and pepper on that lot and it's food fit for the gods. And it was!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 12:37 AM

All those food sound so good!

Safety thing:

Some recipes say to crush a clove of garlic with the blade of a knife, but I've thought of another way to do it. There's a tool called a bench scraper which I really like - not that I've ever scraped a bench with it. We call it the lifter, because after we chop food, we use it to lift it into the pot.

It occurred to me that I could use the lifter to crush garlic. I put the garlic under the lifter, make a fist with my right hand, step slightly to the left of center and WHAMMO! There's plenty of room for the blow, there's no knife blade, and if I do it twice, the garlic is well and truly crushed. And then the lifter can go in the dishwasher.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 04:13 AM

Point taken re knife blade (though I still live dangerously). I have several broad-bladed silicone-coated gizmos I suppose I could use instead. Squashed cloves are my go-to for stews and other slow-cooked things, but for those quicker tomatoey pasta sauces I slice the peeled cloves into thin slivers (using my thumb as an anvil - more danger!) which are sautéed for two or three minutes in olive oil ((often with chilli flakes if called for) before adding the tomatoes/parsley/capers/whatever. What I never want is for the garlic to go brown. I haven't used my garlic crusher for years. I'm not a kitchen vandal...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Raggytash
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 05:00 AM

Wild Salmon are on the west coast of Ireland at the moment. I bought a whole Salmon for 12.50 Euro last week ($14.86 or £10.79)

Last night at a bar I was asked if I wanted a any Salmon, an acquaintance could get me some so I asked for two more to cut into stakes to freeze. That will keep my good lady very happy!!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 05:30 AM

In 1977 we stayed near Cloghane, over the Conor Pass from Dingle, for two weeks at the wonderful Nellie O'Neill's B&B. We laughed out loud at breakfast every morning when I got two fried eggs with my fry-up but Mrs Steve, "the little woman," only got the one! We didn't need any more food until the evening! Her sister ran Murphy's Bar, four miles down the road at Brandon. One evening Nellie asked us furtively if we'd be going down to the pub. We said we would be, so she asked us to deliver a huge parcel wrapped in thick, plain brown paper, to be handed to no-one except her sister, no names, no pack drill, ask no questions get no lies. We complied, of course, increasingly suspecting from the odour that the parcel contained something, er, fishy. The sister was very grateful, gave us a free Guinness and disappeared off with the hefty parcel into the back room. A while later she emerged with a huge tray of paper plates and forks, each holding a generous chunk of the finest salmon I've ever tasted, before or since - free of charge to the couriers. We didn't ask...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Raggytash
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 08:44 AM

Nora Murphys bar !! Run then by Mary Murphy the nearest thing to an Angel on this earth.!!!

The bar itself has to have the finest location in the world, it is now run by Mary's newphew.

I could regale you with loads of stories about Mary's kindness and generosity, I still get a Christmas card every year.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 09:08 AM

Mrs Steve has confirmed that it was Nora who had the place at that time (I'm not good with names!). It was/is indeed a superb pub. The old boys always sat on wooden benches drinking Guinness straight from the bottle, and a small girl regaled us one evening with some of the finest tin whistle playing you'll ever hear. The weather didn't play ball that August, we got three punctures in the Morris Minor in four weeks, and I became infested with over thirty sheep ticks sucking me dry, but hey ho!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Raggytash
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 09:36 AM

Yes Steve, in 77 it would have been Nora, my first visit there was 95.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Jul 21 - 07:41 PM

You're making me feel like I should be planning a sentimental journey...

Now I have to confess that I used an Old El Paso fajitas kit for tea tonight, the hot and fiery one. I fried up some onion, a red pepper and some strips of free-range chicken breast, added the seasoning from the kit (not all of it, as there are just the two of us), laid it on the warmed-up tortillas with a bit of lettuce, spooned on the salsa provided and rolled 'em up. We had a little bowl of soured cream and a little pot of guacamole to optionally spoon on (which we did, to add to the mess).

I tell you, that was utterly messy to eat (I think I overloaded the tortillas) and utterly delicious... And I have three tortillas left over. I might stuff a couple with scrambled eggs for breakfast in the morning...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Raggytash
Date: 14 Jul 21 - 08:35 AM

If you ever go on that sentimental journey give me a shout, I'll join you there for a pint .................... or several!!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Jul 21 - 05:19 PM

Nellie was 77 at the time we stayed with her at the B&B, so she'd be 120 by now! We never booked ahead anywhere on our travels, and after three days' leisurely driving in the Morris Minor across the south we ended up by chance at Nellie's place. We stayed for a few nights then decided to move on, via Galway Bay to Clifden. But we missed the "Nellie experience" so much that we haretailed back the next day and stayed for summat like another two weeks! Each morning Nellie's granddaughter Ellen knocked on our bedroom door and piped up in her singing voice "The breakfast 'tis ready!"

Solid gold, going into my autobiography if I ever get round to it!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 11:53 AM

I was poking around in Google Earth to do with the archeology thread, so I querie "Nora Murphy's bar Dingle" and got a hit. Now it is Murphy's pub, bed and breakfast if the business on Strand St in Dingle is the one you're discussing.

Steve, I think the only way to eat fajitas is in an over-stuffed tortilla. There is a store north of me that has a tortilla bakery inside so I buy them when they're still warm. Both flour and corn are available. A trick that is helpful in particular for the corn tortillas is to lay two of them down with a huge overlap. Maybe an inch on each end being a single layer, the rest of it doubled. Put your ingredients on there and it's easier to eat before it falls apart. I suppose you could do that with flour tortillas but they're larger and thicker and that's a lot of carbs.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Raggytash
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 12:27 PM

Not the same bar SRS, here is a link to the bar

Murphys

It really is very basic, door into the premises, bar to the left, fire to the right and a door opposite the front door out to the toilets. The floor is uneven there is little furniture but you will never find a better bar anywhere in the world.

The view from the front door looks over a (very) small harbour right up Bay of Tralee with a range of mountains which form the "spine" of the Dingle Peninsula to the left and is absolutely stunning.

It is said that St Brendan who Brandon is named after sailed to America even before the Vikings got there. His voyage was recreated by Tim Severin in 76/77 and if you can find his book "The Brendan Voyage" it is well worth the rad.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 12:50 PM

Ah, St Brendan's Voyage

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 12:58 PM

Raggy, that link won't load - my Internet Provider's software says it isn't safe to surf there. I suppose like a lot of bars it's "enter at your own risk." :-/

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Raggytash
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 01:08 PM

Cannot imagine what it can find wrong with the site, it is just a quite basic advert for the bar.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jos
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 02:42 PM

The link opened for me without any warnings, but it wasn't a bar advert. It was a YouTube of Christy Moore singing 'St Brendan's Voyage', illustrated with photographs of Ireland, a view from space, and images of Saint Brandan, a sailing boat, the Pope apparently asleep on the job ... (some recurring again and again).

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jos
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 02:49 PM

Oops - sorry, I opened the most recent link, which wasn't about the bar.
I have now opened the Murphy's bar advert link, which also worked OK with no warnings about it being unsafe.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 06:07 PM

The B&B was at Cross Cloghane, which is about four miles from Brandon - not in Dingle. I'd be amazed if it were still there. Nellie was Nora's sister, which we discovered only via the fishy parcel incident. Raggytash's description of the bar is just as we remembered it. The atmosphere in Nora's time was truly magical. The salmon trafficking incident ensured that Mrs Steve and I were never treated as tourists! We did climb to the top of Brandon Peak while we were there. Sadly, it was a bit foggy on top, but the cliff scenery is majestic.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Jul 21 - 06:43 PM

That's a good tip, Maggie. Thing is, I made the mix to go into the tortillas and wanted Mrs Steve to have her fair share of it (I'm that kind of chap, don't you know...). But she wanted only two (I wanted three...) so I think I over-stuffed hers somewhat. To be honest, just get in there with your hands, sit over your plate and gorge. Life's too short!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Jul 21 - 05:07 PM

My okra plants are growing large (chest high at this point - they can reach upwards of 8-10 feet) but they aren't making as many pods as plants in the past. Maybe they're waiting for the heat of August. I made brine for picking and cut up a 4" poblano pepper and one of my homegrown garlics and trimmed the skin off of the tops of the okra (leaving them closed so seeds don't float out). I packed on pint jar and filled with brine then processed it for 10 minutes in my asparagus steamer pot. There was another equivalent amount that I took next door to my neighbor who loves this fried, boiled, etc., (I eat it fried and sometimes use it stir-fried - I'm not a fan of the consistency of boiled okra). I'll pick more as the plants keep growing and next time I have enough I'll warm the brine, cut up another pepper and peel another garlic, and do it again. This works so much better than trying to save a bunch to make a big recipe, so much gets too old and goes to waste.

I'm thinking about making another batch of the Ball Blue Book Zesty Salsa. It has been a hit with the family members who have gotten a taste. I made a gallon before, but it goes fast when divided among several households. This time it depends on if I have enough peppers or have to supplement my supply from the grocery store.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Jul 21 - 11:52 AM

I got a lot of fresh herbs today... Parsley, mint, dill. Gonna make my noncarb tabbouleh with cuke tomato cauliflower rice parsley dill and some mint with lemon juice and olive oil, and mojitos with the rest of the mint.

Also ran into a friend whose *name* is Parsley, whom I had not seen in years, but I did not bring him home.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Jul 21 - 02:30 PM

Parsley was sandy.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Jul 21 - 10:00 PM

This evening I used tomatoes that were imperfect (so I couldn't use them for canning) in a favorite dish called Hirino Me Melitzanes (Pork with Eggplant)

I went poking around online and found the recipe transcribed on a cooking site, it comes from the same cookbook. They didn't use US measures (2 cups of diced peeled tomatoes, 2 pounds of pork) but it's the same recipe. I didn't have mashed potatoes, but I have red lasoda potatoes from my garden that I cut up and pan fried the other day and I used leftovers with the pork. Amazing!

Hirino Me Melitzanes.

If you want a marvelous cookbook, The Complete Middle East Cookbook by Tess Mallos is it. She offers techniques and, where needed, substitutions. I go to this book all of the time. I made hummus last week, I'm going to be making babaghanouj next week. I make some of her rice dishes and her lamb dishes and her vegetarian dishes. I use Bookfinder.com to find copies. I always keep extras here to give to people when the urge strikes) and you can find used hardcover copies much cheaper than a new perfect-bound (soft cover) volume. And though it doesn't make sense, if you search on the title with "The" at the beginning you get much better results (the search database should filter that out, but it doesn't.) Don't search on "Complete." Search on "The Complete."

Anyway, its a great book. Mallos is a cookbook author from Australia. Her ethnic background is Greek, and I don't know much more about her than that.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: JennieG
Date: 18 Jul 21 - 04:54 AM

Tess Mallos

Her books have been popular here for a long time. I bet if you checked the local Rotary Club used book sale (just down the road from me) you would find several; I don't know if they are still being published though.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jul 21 - 11:46 PM

Thank you for the link!

Sad to see she isn't still writing - died 9 years ago. The book I sent links to appears to still be in print, or at least in stock, for sale new in bookstores. On Wikipedia looking at her oeuvre, and oooooh! She has a filo pastry cookbook! Now that might be a real treat!

Just today my ex was over to deliver some groceries and taste test the next batch of salsa. It's a mild recipe, and it seems this Puerto Rican has developed a taste for some heat (I used to have to make "false alarm" chili for him), so I advised that he mix in a couple of teaspoons of Tabasco sauce when he opens the next jar. (There is some in the recipe, I'll make a note to add a little more - I also like a bit of heat in the salsa). While he was here I pan fried a few cut up small potatoes from the garden and gave him a bowl of the eggplant and pork dish to try with them. He loves it - "could you make this with lamb?" - I'm sure you can. I've seen variations on My Fitness Pal, people make it with beef and lamb is bound to be good also.

As far as the heat, I think both of us over the years have broadened our willingness to have heat as part of a dish. I grew up in a no-heat world at the time in the Pacific Northwest; recipes spread and restaurants flourish with lots of stuff up there now. And elsewhere. We talked about that - I won't hold back on the heat in some of the things I make that I know he's going to want some of. We'll see what happens. (I hear from my son, who was the original picky eater, that he goes full-tilt on the Thai food with curry paste and peppers. And he's in the Pacific Northwest where, as a kid, I remember it being a big deal with a few places started carrying bagels.)

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: BobL
Date: 19 Jul 21 - 03:20 AM

Whilst we are on the subject of cookery books, does anyone have a particular book (or books) without which they would be lost? About half-a-dozen in my overlarge library fall into that category.

Among them is a disintegrating paperback by Bon Viveur (Fanny & Johnny Cradock), which I regard as akin to Holy Writ. Which does not, BTW, mean infallible.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 19 Jul 21 - 02:51 PM

Among my cookbooks are Nora Ephron's Housekeeping and all the Edward X. Delaney novels...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Jul 21 - 11:58 AM

I have a few that I always seem to cook from, though I have several shelves of them because I inherited cookbooks from my mother. The first book I bought for myself was the Fanny Farmer cookbook, eleventh edition (the one I grew up with at my mother's house), the Joy of Cooking (one I found in the shelves at my dad's house when doing his estate), and the Better Homes and Gardens loose-leaf book from about 1974, given me by one of my best friends who knew I was going to be setting up my own apartment soon and needing to cook. That was the first book I had until Fanny Farmer came along in 1978.

I ended up with mom's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and have made a few of those recipes. She does chicken like nobody else. I have a little wooden card box mom gave me when I was maybe 11 - with home recipes I used to make, cookies, cakes, frosting, and as I got older, a few dishes like chicken teriyaki, casseroles I liked, etc. I have a larger plastic box probably intended for storing the large floppy disks (6" x 6" or so) that I put in folded printouts of online recipes and quite a few I've printed from Mudcat cooks. That box is a history of what I've been making because I use the recipe then tuck it into the front, so flipping back through the sheets shows me what I've made lately. My turkey brine and roasting recipe, cranberry sauce, Martha Stewart's pizza dough recipe that is my favorite, Puerto Rican rice and pigeon peas is in there, folded pieces of notebook paper with hand written recipes from watchin my mother-in-law cook and literally catching her hand to measure what she was putting into the dough or filling for things like empanadillas. My jelly making recipes are in there, as is Lady Bird Johnson's pickled okra recipe. And much more. I probably cook out of that box as much as I do the other cookbooks combined now.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 22 Jul 21 - 01:32 AM

Hi, SRS. I too have my boxes, full of the recipes we like best. I have two for my own recipes, one for meat dishes plus bread, another for everything else, mostly salads and desserts.

When my husband's parents passed away, we accepted their collection of recipes. There are the old favorites - beef in red wine, coq au vin, quiche Lorraine, Hungarian goulash. Another favorite is chicken thighs roasted with lime juice and paprika. It's very tasty.

My father-in-law was a great one for clipping recipes out of the newspaper and then never cooking them. That recipe for chicken was probably one of those. It looked like it had sat in the box for thirty years.

Often I cook those old European recipes in a slow cooker. There's less fuss and the meat gets very tender. I put the herbs and spices in at the end, so they don't get cooked to death.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Raggytash
Date: 22 Jul 21 - 05:54 AM

Two books formed the basis of my cooking years ago

1. Practical Cookery by Cesarini & Kinton

2. Reportoire de la Cuisine by Gringoire & Saulnier

The latter is a brilliant book

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Jul 21 - 07:13 PM

For a change, I found some rather tasty shop-bought full-size tomatoes this week. My own tomatoes are nowhere near bearing as yet, so this was a bonus. I made a batch of salmorejo, a tapa that we've had many times in Granada, Córdoba and many a little village bar in Andalucía. I had to battle with Mrs Steve even to make this, as she associates it exclusively with sitting outside Spanish bars on hot August evenings with a glass or five of the best local red... However, just for once I prevailed.

Salmorejo is the thicker, creamier and tastier cousin of gazpacho, and must be served very cold and in small dishes or wine glasses. It's very easy to make, as long as you have those really good tomatoes. Here goes:

You need (for four):

a pound and a half of the best full-size tomatoes
Two fat garlic cloves, peeled
100 ml of the best extra virgin olive oil you can get your hands on. Compromise is not possible.
A really good glug of sherry vinegar
A teaspoon of sugar
Salt
The bread from a smallish baguette, crust removed

Blend everything except the bread to a fairly smooth paste. Crumble up the bread and put it into the tomato paste and let it sit for ten minutes. Blend again, achieving a pretty smooth consistency. You're done!

Now you really must chill this thoroughly. And here are two golden rules: first, don't bother peeling your tomatoes. Absolutely not necessary. Second, soak your bread in the tomato sauce you've made and ignore those stupid recipes that have you soaking the bread separately in water. I mean, why would you do that...

Now when you serve this as a tapa or a starter, the tradition is that you crumble a small amount of cold hard-boiled egg and a few slivers of Serrano ham on top. I find Serrano ham to be a bit chewy and the sort of thing I'm picking out of my teeth all the next day, so I substitute some crumbled-up crispy pancetta or streaky bacon. No-one's ever complained!

In Spain this is often served with little breadsticks, but I don't think you need those if you're serving it as a starter or as as part of a platter of tapas.

Finally, I made a double batch tonight, and I'm experimenting with the leftovers to see if it freezes.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Jul 21 - 07:49 AM

Yikes, my ingredients list omitted the yolks of two hard-boiled eggs (they go into the mix - the chopped eggs to serve are extra!). Sorry about that. It was well past my bedtime...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Jul 21 - 10:10 AM

Looks yummy!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Janie
Date: 30 Jul 21 - 04:53 PM

I rarely fix fish, because I so rarely fix it that I nearly always ruin it. For me, fixing fish and other sea foods is kind of like making bread or pastry, have to do it often enough to get a feel for it. Thing is, flour is a lot cheaper to waste while one learns than is fish or seafood.

Splurged and bought scallops - yes, frozen, but even so, still quite pricey. Enough for more than one meal for a few people. First go round turned out great. 2nd go round was ok but not as good as the first, and last night, with just enough left to feed myself, I botched it completely.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jos
Date: 30 Jul 21 - 05:09 PM

Helen, When you say 'fix fish' do you mean 'cook fish'?
I am used to 'fixing' meaning 'mending' or 'putting right', so 'fixing fish' would mean sorting out the fish when something has gone wrong with it. Your post suggests that it goes wrong when you are fixing it. I am confused.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jos
Date: 30 Jul 21 - 05:10 PM

Oops, sorry. That was meant for Janie, not Helen!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Jul 21 - 07:29 AM

We had a wonderful fishmonger (sadly, he died far too young) who got us into fish in a big way. From being scared of a piece of raw fish and not knowing what to do with it a few short years ago, I now cook many different kinds, and you're right, the more you do it the more confident you get. The biggest mistake possible is to overcook it because you're scared of it being still raw in the middle. Only the very thickest hunks of fish need more than five or six minutes, and thin fillets need a lot less.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 31 Jul 21 - 08:18 AM

Have you not tried sashimi Steve ?
Pepople often think that sushi is just raw fish but it's a lot more than that whereas sashimi is raw fish, and delicious too.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 31 Jul 21 - 08:46 AM

If you served it to me I'd eat it, but I'm not attracted.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Aug 21 - 09:21 AM

I've discovered that salmorejo freezes perfectly, just needing a good stir when thawed out. That means I can make it when I find the perfect tomatoes, which isn't often!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Aug 21 - 11:35 AM

I made my first batch of granola yesterday, ending up incorporating a couple of recipes. The one with the original ingredients I wanted didn't bake the mix long enough to even begin to toast it all so I turned down the oven (from 300 to 250^o) and baked it for another hour, turning every 20 minutes.

Most recipes call for coconut, and often for coconut oil. It's no problem substituting oil and I simply add extra oats instead of coconut (I'm allergic - I get a wretched case of dermatitis on my hands). This batch had oats, sliced almonds, chopped pecans, and when it finished baking, adding raisins. I have some sunflower seeds (no hull) to try in the mix next time. The baking time and temperature come from a recipe from Alton Brown, who can be relied upon for good advice. He does the math and science in the kitchen.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Aug 21 - 08:16 PM

I mentioned on another thread that I tried Marcella Hazan's "chicken with two lemons" (page 347 if you have the book). I happened to have a fairly small organic chicken in the freezer (I got it half-price). The method is ridiculously simple: two lemons, salt and pepper and nothing else. The timings and temperatures are so different from my usual roast chicken ones, so I was worried...

We had it with my own new spuds and my runner beans, with lashings of butter and the rather sparse juices from the lemony chicken. It was the best thing I've cooked in months. Marcella, God love yer, gal!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Aug 21 - 08:32 PM

I was so enthused by the success of Marcella's chicken recipe that I was moved to look her up on wiki. I discovered that she died, at a ripe old age, when Mrs Steve and I happened to be on holiday in Sorrento, one of the finest holidays we've ever had. Dammit, it seemed appropriate to me anyway... :-(

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Raggytash
Date: 12 Aug 21 - 10:02 AM

Yesterday I bought have a leg of Lamb from our local butchers, who supplies superb meat. Today I have studded it with Anchovy fillets, and sprinkled a selection of herbs on it ...... no salt ..... the Anchovies will provide that. Tonight it will be served new new season potatoes and a rather nice glass (or 3) of Red wine.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Aug 21 - 10:32 AM

We had the family round for a shoulder of lamb roast last weekend. Just salt, pepper and rosemary, into the oven mid-morning at 110C then forget it until spud-roasting time in the evening. It fed seven of us and there was enough left over for cold meat for five next day. It weighed in at 8lb and came from the farm of our butcher, five miles as the crow flies.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 12 Aug 21 - 10:40 AM

Imma try that lemon chicken with my game hen later.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 14 Aug 21 - 10:23 PM

I invented this today.

EGGPLANT WITH TOO-HOT ITALIAN SAUSAGE

Recently we bought some I. sausage which proved to be too hot. (Why do they make that stuff?) I had cooked it in a conventional way - onion, garlic, tomatoes. You know the drill. This is what I did with the second half of the batch.

Get out half a small box of dairy sour cream to come to room temp.
(Don't use the fat-free; it won't get the spices off your tongue.)
Peel some of the skin off an eggplant.
Slice it diagonally into half-inch slices.
Put a handful of flour on a plate.
Heat the sausage and sauce in a saucepan.
Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a big skillet over medium heat.
Dip the eggplant in the flour, fry for about 5 mins per side.
You want it browned but not burned.

To eat:

Put an eggplant slice on your plate.
Slather it with sour cream.
Spoon the Ital. sausage plus tomatoes mixture on top.
Slice bite-size pieces vertically with fork and steak knife. The sour cream will neutralize the hot-pepper in the sausage.

It's good.
Spread sour cream on the eggplant. Be generous.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Donuel
Date: 15 Aug 21 - 06:45 AM

At Jersey Mike's my wife asked what the tiny pimiento-stuffed thing in my cheddar-bread sandwich was. Without thinking I said: Maybe a "Wee olive in my yellow sub, Maureen."

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Aug 21 - 08:46 PM

Cod fillets, nice thick ones (no skin)
Home-grown french beans
Home-grown Nicola potatoes unpeeled
Butter
Groundnut oil

Apart from seasoning, that was it!

I turned the spuds into oven chips in 35 minutes by cutting into wedges, parboiling, roughing up and baking in a very hot oven in groundnut oil. I fried the cod in butter. The beans were topped and tailed, snapped in half then boiled for ten minutes. No sauces, just extra butter on the table. So simple, so healthy and so damned tasty!