BS: The other recipe thread is too long

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: 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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 - 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: 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: 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: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Jul 21 - 12:07 PM

The first of the big garden cooking productions came last night with the weighing in of ripe tomatoes, green bell peppers, poblano peppers, and garlic, all from the garden, plus onions, cilantro, salt and apple cider vinegar from the store rounding out the mix for homemade canned salsa. "Zesty salsa" the recipe is called in the Ball Blue Book and it's many shares on the Interwebs.

It's a slow motion marathon, back and forth between the sink, counter, and stove, and I started out dicing peppers by hand but soon shifted to the food processor to speed the job. Peeling and coarse dice of all of those tomatoes much be done by hand (in my opinion - otherwise you're going to make tomato sauce in the processor). The only glitch in the operation was that I sat down at the table to read on the phone as I waited for the timer to signal 15 minutes of processing. Some time later I realized the timer not only hadn't gone off, it no longer retained the setting I had given it so I don't know if it needs new batteries or is on the fritz. I *think* the Rachel Maddow Show was just starting when I sat down and it was about 22 minutes in when I turned off the pot and removed the salsa. Processing an extra 5 minutes isn't a problem, I just don't want to under process it.

The kitchen sink was piled high with the large pots and bowls and food processor parts, so this morning my first job as tea brewed was to put all of that away. At least it goes pretty quickly - the pile looks huge but each item is large so putting just 3 or 4 away makes the sink look much better. Mind games to get through a job.

The house smells wonderful. I worked my way through most of the peppers I'd picked so far (I went out to pick a fresh bell pepper when I realized a couple of the ones I intended were getting a little wilted - always try to used the freshest best crops when canning). Those wilted ones will be diced and frozen later today, they won't go to waste. I have a large cardboard flat (Costco's 35 can sparkling water packaging) full of ripening tomatoes and the window sill is holding another dozen at least. I'm visiting the garden two or three times a day and picking any that have started a rosy color - they are officially vine ripe at that point and I hope to keep them from the sharp eyes of birds and squirrels.

The recipe offers diced measurements as well as approximate weight of ingredients (cups vs pounds), and this time I weighed everything. The recipe output says six pints, but having weighed all of the ingredients to be precise I got eight pints in the hot water bath and another pint and a half unprocessed in jars in the fridge.

After finishing cleaning the kitchen I did a victory lap around the kitchen. I need to head out to the garden to pick more tomatoes and my next decision - canning diced or sauce? And the next batch of peppers will go into jars with okra for Lady Bird Johnson's Pickled Okra recipe. You can look it up. Simple and delicious. I'm collecting a few okra a day, and soon it will be dozens a day since I recklessly put in six plants.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 05 Jul 21 - 11:42 AM

Made an odd salad by julienning a yellow squash and sitting it in parsley lemon juice garlic for an hour, then adding mostly defrosted green beans and a bunch of cucumber, letting that sit another hour, then adding a bunch of riced cauliflower and some olive oil. Yummy.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 03 Jul 21 - 02:13 PM

Yes, sorry, 1 T = 1 tablespoon.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 03 Jul 21 - 12:51 PM

I invented a tangy side dish to go with meat loaf.

Black bean salad

Drain but do not rinse one 15-oz can black beans
Make dressing: Put in a medium-size bowl and whisk well.
2 T veg oil
1 T apple cider vinegar         
1/2 t dried leaf oregano
a few grinds of black pepper
1/4 t mayonnaise (optional, aids mixing)


Chop finely 1/4 cup yellow onion
Chop coarsely 6-8 cherry tomatoes or one medium-size tomato

Mix all together. It is better to make this ahead so the flavors can blend.

The DH really liked this.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Jul 21 - 12:07 PM

Mods, oops wrong thread

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Jun 21 - 05:31 PM

T=Tablespoon
t or tsp=teaspoon

My mom used to make totally delicious salmon croquettes that I've never managed to duplicate. There were a lot of other things that weren't so fabulous, but those were. (For example - she often burned the grilled cheese sandwiches when making the total comfort food lunch of cream of tomato soup and grilled cheese - perhaps it's because she was making the meal for 4 kids and had distractions?)

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jos
Date: 30 Jun 21 - 05:08 PM

I assumed that 1T means 'one tablespoonful'.
I could be wrong.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 30 Jun 21 - 02:22 PM

What does ' 1T ' mean ?

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: leeneia
Date: 30 Jun 21 - 12:47 PM

Now that's a totally new recipe, Mrrzy. Thanks for posting.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 29 Jun 21 - 02:23 PM

Ok tried two new things at once.

I have read that ground nuts can sub for breadcrumbs.

I also read several recipes for sardine cakes.

So I ground 1T pecans 1T walnuts 2T almonds to a fine powder.
Food-processed an onion, the oil from the sardines, a clove of garlic, some paprika and cumin. Shoulda only used some of the oil, it was way too runny. But I thought to do the nuts first at least.

Mashed the tinned sardines with the goop and added about half of the crushed nuts. Made patties (ish) and used the rest of the crushed nuts to coat the outsides of the 4 patties.

Toaster-ovened at 400, turned down to 350 after 10 mn for burning the tops, took out after 20 mn total.

Ate on a bed of cherry tomatoes with lime juice and a blob of sour cream.

Totally yummy.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Jun 21 - 08:42 AM

In the same vein, there's also a lot of inferior risotto rice around. I have yet to find a decent supermarket own-brand version. My go-to is Gallo carnaroli rice. It's often on offer somewhere for a shade over two quid, and a box gives two of us two generous risottos. At that price it's not worth economising and risking chalky or drop-to-bits rice!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 28 Jun 21 - 07:18 AM

I've forgotten the name but, from quite a while ago, I recall trying something other than basmati (a long-grain home brand, I think) and it was not good.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 28 Jun 21 - 06:58 AM

As with Steve, I do get good quality rice. Usually Tilda, but I've also found Kohinoor good. My own feeling is that getting the consistency with rice is more a factor of this than choice of cooking method.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Jun 21 - 06:55 AM

Another thing is that I never freeze cooked rice or any dish containing it, even though it's sometimes recommended. Freezing does something to the texture of the rice that I'm not keen on. If it's a soup with rice in it, I'll freeze the soup without rice, then cook some rice when I thaw the soup and throw it in for a minute of two. Much nicer.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Jun 21 - 06:50 AM

What Jon and I do is far more chilled than using careful rice-water measurements. Different batches of rice, different amounts of water. Not for me! The only measures are the amount of rice needed for one or two or three or four people (a bit left over is great next day, fried up in butter with an egg and some peas and mushrooms) and that exact twelve-minute boil. I stopped measuring the water years ago after many irritatingly-inconsistent results. The only other thing is to never buy cheap rice. There's a lot of dishonest "basmati" around that's been cut with other (and inferior) long-grain rice. Even expensive rice is cheap. It's the big brands only for me when it comes to basmati.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 28 Jun 21 - 06:36 AM

Sorry - I didn't read Steve's post carefully enough - "strain the rice in a sieve" is not the absorption method, as you suggest Jon.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jon Freeman
Date: 28 Jun 21 - 06:15 AM

Absorption methods use measured quantities of both rice and water? Steve, like me, uses a plenty of water and boil away (OK before draining and standing) version?

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 28 Jun 21 - 06:08 AM

For just myself, I place half a mug of rice in the pan, rinse it a few times, then add a mug and a bit of boiled water from the kettle, similar to Steve. Let it boil for a bit then turn the heat down for the rice to gradually absorb all the water - all done by eye rather than a timer.

Rather than salt, I may add a bit of vinegar to the hot water, similar to what some Japanese do - sushi is vinegared rice.

The three of us are using slight variations of the absorption method.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 08:21 PM

My rice-cooker is a "saucepan-with-lid."

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 07:32 PM

Or, you can rinse the rice (because the package says to) then add it to your rice cooker, add whatever ingredients you want, add the amount of water the rice cooker instructions say and wait until the little lever flips from red to green. Perfect!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 07:10 PM

Browned pasta sounds like burned pasta to me. I don't know why you'd mix rice and pasta. I agree about basmati. I use it for everything (except risottos) that calls for rice. By the way, there is a lot of tosh written about how to cook rice. Here's a method guaranteed to work every time with basmati:

Measure out the amount you need. Put it into a capacious pan and rinse it in cold water at least three times (crucial). Don't bother sieving it, as the rice stays on the bottom and you can just decant out the water. Boil a kettle of water and turn on the ring full. Salt the rice to taste, then add *an excess* of boiling water (you can check the saltiness later). As soon as you pour in the water, set your timer for twelve minutes. Get the pan to a simmer, give it a stir to prevent sticking and put on the lid. After exactly twelve minutes, strain the rice in a sieve, put the sieve over a pan and wait for one minute minimum. There you go. Perfect rice every time, nice and fluffy, no stickiness. Ignore those recipes that have you measuring precise amounts of water-to-rice. They are received wisdom from people who don't cook but who just copy from ancient, outmoded gurus!

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 04:21 PM

...if it "tastes like rice" (SRS) it would be a "test for the taste buds" (me) to distinguish between them.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 04:07 PM

Make it like vermicelli and rice but use orzo instead. Not a tough "test" - it tastes like rice but has the added color of the browned pasta.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 01:16 PM

...never tried them together - a test for the taste buds, maybe..?

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Jun 21 - 01:06 PM

Orzo doesn't replace rice, it complements it. I first learned how to use it from a Lebanese friend who browns the orzo in olive oil then adds the rice to heat it up a bit then adds the liquid. You have the classic browned pasta amongst the rice (I use Basmati most of the time now). Those in the US (at least) think "Rice-a-roni the San Francisco treat" for a similar boxed approach to this.

Cook orzo and rice with chicken broth and it's almost a whole meal like that. In winter I make that mix (adding the browned pasta and rice to my rice cooker) with lightly sauteed chicken breast and sliced mushrooms and it comes out a perfect comfort food.

Today I have the carcass of last week's chicken simmering to make a rich broth. I'll freeze some of it and use the rest this week.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 24 Jun 21 - 11:54 AM

I'm not a fan of the calabrese type of broccoli, but (given careful cooking) I do like tenderstem and purple sprouting broccoli, both of which I grow. I'm also fond of that new veg which started off being called flower sprouts but which the commercial chaps now dub "kalettes," presumably because "sprouts" in the name might have put off sprout-haters, of which there are many (more fool them: simply choose only tight sprouts and watch them like a hawk in the cooking - and no cutting crosses in the bottoms!).

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Jun 21 - 09:53 AM

I prefer cauli to brocc too.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 24 Jun 21 - 08:25 AM

I much prefer cauliflower to broccoli.

The cheapest & quickest meal I prepare is with a 14 pence packet of curry flavoured instant noodles from Tesco - with the curry powder first stirred in a mug of boiled water, into a pan with some sautéd veg, soy sauce plus tofu for protein; total cost would have to be below 50 pence/63 cents.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 08:05 PM

I don't eat riced cauli as rice but as cauli that takes mere seconds to cook.

I am not a fan of raw cauliflower. But I love the texture of it riced, especially in soups.

I love cauliflower steaks, roast whole cauliflower, pretty much any form thereof, including riced. But not grating no more.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 05:49 PM

Ditto.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 05:31 PM

I eat so much cabbage/cauliflower/broccoli core when I'm chopping the veg that I'm often in danger of spoiling my appetite.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 05:29 PM

Orzo serves a different function to rice in Italian cuisine, though I do make a devastatingly tasty "orzotto" with bacon, peas and Parmesan. I don't think that rice-avoiders, on the grounds of carbohydrate content, would gain much succour from orzo...

I'm not a fan of fusilli. Get thee to a Waitrose and buy a bag of bucatini spirali (it's a pasta from Gragnano). I think it's far superior to fusilli and can be used instead of it every time.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 05:19 PM

If there's a jar of mixed pickles in my house, and I get there first, there is the severe danger that anyone hoping to find pickled cauliflower therein will be severely disappointed...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: WalkaboutsVerse
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 04:20 PM

"It amuses me to think that anyone would try to make something that isn't rice into fake rice, just because they won't eat the real thing" (Steve)...Italians have done it with orzo, of course...but I much prefer fusilli pasta.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 03:32 PM

Steve, Charmion comes from a family in which she had to compete with her siblings for pieces of raw cabbage core.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 12:50 PM

You can eat rice if you have diabetes as long as you don't overdo it.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Charmion
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 09:10 AM

I agree with you, Steve, because l like cauliflower pretty well any way it can appear on a menu, starting with raw in a hunk. But I also get that some people want a ricy texture and bulk in a dish without the carb load of real rice.

Lots of diabetics in my family, see.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 09:05 AM

I'm definitely more with Jos here on the cauliflower front. They're just as keto left in nice big chunks are they are messed about with. Steamed cauliflower, lightly salted, is a thing of beauty as long as the cauliflower is (a) firm and fresh, (b) cooked to just the right level of bite. It's also very nice roasted in bite-sized florets with olive oil, green olives, onions, paprika, pumpkin seeds and chorizo slices for half an hour, with a sprinkling of fresh parsley at the end. I tried cauliflower steaks once. Waste of good cauliflower in m'humble. It amuses me to think that anyone would try to make something that isn't rice into fake rice, just because they won't eat the real thing. I once saw some vegan "lamb chops" in a supermarket that were the same shape and colour as real lamb chops. I mean, do me a favour...

Incidentally, smashing your raw veg into smithereens does absolutely nothing for its vitamin content.

Still, whatever stirs yer loins...

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Charmion
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 08:44 AM

How nice for you, Jos.

People who try ricing cauliflower typically do it because they (a) like cauliflower and (b) are seeking creative ways to cut back the amount of carbohydrate in their diet.

I have never tried it at home because I am lazy, but a local restaurant serves a “keto bowl” made up of riced cauliflower, quinoa and zippy grilled veg with poached eggs on top. It’s obviously labour-intensive, but delicious and therefore worth paying somebody else to make it.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Jos
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 08:12 AM

I like cauliflower the way it is. I can't see the point of trying to turn it into pretend rice.

Subject: RE: BS: The other recipe thread is too long
From: Mrrzy
Date: 23 Jun 21 - 08:01 AM

Oh, did I make a huge mess trying not to have to clean my food processor.

Decided to try grating cauliflower into riced cauliflower. It went EVERYWHERE. Then decided to follow the advice of wringing out the extra moisture. It all STUCK to the towel and I made even MORE of a mess trying to get it off.

Food processor next time.