Please see Styx thread on the Registered Shipmates consultation for the main discussion forums - your views are important, continues until April 4th.

Heaven: 2021 At The Table: Recipes and Food Discussion

12346

Comments

  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    @Pomona Minestrone. Spinach, potato, and lentil soup with a spritz of lemon. Fortifying without being too heavy.

    Oh that spinach and potato soup sounds great. I can handle a small amount of split lentils (cannot tolerate lentil or bean skins, or at least my IBS can't) so will use them.
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    Also, a relevant article from Jay Rayner making me feel relieved that I'm not alone in thinking that summer food is a bit rubbish compared to stews and pies. Doesn't help that most raw veg is a no-go for me, and I've recently developed a very annoying allergy to raw strawberries (related to birch pollen allergy) - unless you grow your own, summer veg in the UK is not particularly great aside from new potatoes. Sweetcorn is good but it's hard to find non-hybrid heirloom varieties here. I love summer fruit like currants and gooseberries, but inevitably want them in a crumble or something.
  • @Pomona Two things. First I forgot to mention that the chief seasoning is toasted cumin seed. I got the recipe from a paperback cookbook I bought from a very pleasant young lady selling them on the street. It was published by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. The Hare Krishna ashram here was purchased from a Presbyterian congregation. They have (or, at least, had) a public dinner every Wednesday or Thursday night at which you make a pay-what-you-can donation after dinner. It's years since I've gone, but tit was always a nice evening out.

    Second, the recipe calls for green lentils, which I guess are prohibited. Might I suggest chickpeas as a possible alternative? Just a thought.

    Bon appetit!
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    @Pangolin Guerre alas, any kind of whole lentil or legume is prohibited, but the split kind eg chana dal is OK.
  • Firenze wrote: »
    It's milky drinks and mashed banana, yogurt and porridge and soup bei uns* Mr F has had dental surgery and I have a stomach bug. The mere thought of anything pickled/spiced or even chewable has us both whimpering.

    *with us.

    The addition of a small amount of cheap whisky to the bananas or yogurt (or bananas and yoghurt) or the porridge might prove beneficial to both mind and body.

    Better stay away from this thread for a while. Colonoscopy in a few days.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Pomona wrote: »
    Also, a relevant article from Jay Rayner making me feel relieved that I'm not alone in thinking that summer food is a bit rubbish compared to stews and pies.
    I agree with Mr. Rayner. I was just thinking this afternoon, I'm really rather looking forward to the mercury sinking low enough to justify getting out the slow-cooker and filling it with a lamb-shank from the butcher's across the road.
  • Read the article and although I sympathise with Mr Rayner and his Ashkenazic genes I do pity those so minded who miss out on the fruits of the earth and sea so freely available in most of this scattered sunburnt land ( remote inland Australia excepted)

    Osso buco on the agenda today but come October/ November bring on the seafood, summer fruits and vegetables ( washed down with copious draughts of white and rose.

    Having said that until 40 or so years ago it was dreary meat & 3 veg or stew sans garlic, tomato and wine in Oz 364 days a year and spag bol was exotic!
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Sojourner wrote: »
    Having said that until 40 or so years ago it was dreary meat & 3 veg or stew sans garlic, tomato and wine in Oz 364 days a year and spag bol was exotic!

    Not so sure about the 40 years - 60 would be closer to the mark. My first spag bol was mid '50s, Madame thinks perhaps a bit later. Lots more from European cuisines in the '60s, Chinese was a restaurant only and other Asian came later.
  • Actually you are right; my mother served up spag bol & beef stroganoff ( to guests) in the early 60s after the parents returned to Canberra in about 1962 after back to back postings in NYC & Singapore. Quick and easy 1 pot dishes in the depths of a Canberra winter when the pubs closed at 6 pm. She had no interest in Malay or Chinese food: just as well since ingredients were unobtainable at that time. Neither she or my father cared for Indian food so I didn’t get to eat it ( unless you count horrid sausages in Clive of India or Keen’s curry powder-also verboten at home-till I was packed off to the gulag in 1965. Had to wait till the early 70s to taste the real McCoy.
  • An old friend ( recently 84) was brought up in The Gong (Wollongong to non-Australians) where many European migrants went to work in the steel mill at Port Kembla nearby). He recalls an Austrian-born friend who introduced him to wiener schnitzel at a hole in the wall place in central Wollongong which was patronised by the loval Hungarians who’d fled the country in 1956. The archaic licensing laws of the time meant that cider was the default drink.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Piglet wrote: »
    I agree with Mr. Rayner. I was just thinking this afternoon, I'm really rather looking forward to the mercury sinking low enough to justify getting out the slow-cooker and filling it with a lamb-shank from the butcher's across the road.

    I went to a friend's place last night and we had lamb shanks. They were delicious ( even more so because I didn't have to lift a hand to prepare them ). We dropped into a more upscale supermarket on the way over and I bought manuka honey ice-cream which was quite expensive but very rich. I left it at his place on purpose but I expect it will be gone by my next visit.

    If people from overseas are ever allowed back into the country I will definitely buy some when my brother and sister-in-law come as the combination is one she likes - in the meantime I can only send manuka honey soap, so at least she can enjoy the scent.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Sojourner wrote: »
    Actually you are right; my mother served up spag bol & beef stroganoff ( to guests) in the early 60s after the parents returned to Canberra in about 1962 after back to back postings in NYC & Singapore. Quick and easy 1 pot dishes in the depths of a Canberra winter when the pubs closed at 6 pm. She had no interest in Malay or Chinese food: just as well since ingredients were unobtainable at that time. Neither she or my father cared for Indian food so I didn’t get to eat it ( unless you count horrid sausages in Clive of India or Keen’s curry powder-also verboten at home-till I was packed off to the gulag in 1965. Had to wait till the early 70s to taste the real McCoy.

    Dreadful "curried sausages"! All but inedible.
  • Indeed but funny how many people of our vintage loved them ( and may still do if not poisoned)
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    Curried sausages??? Just no.
  • Up there with jellied eels🤢
  • Piglet wrote: »
    Curried sausages??? Just no.

    I once had a memorable haggis curry experience as a birthday treat. The minister who was invited swore he'd never dine with us on a Saturday ever again.
  • Are these curried sausages anything like the curry-wurst that are quite popular in Germany?
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    Piglet wrote: »
    Curried sausages??? Just no.

    I once had a memorable haggis curry experience as a birthday treat. The minister who was invited swore he'd never dine with us on a Saturday ever again.

    I'm sure that it was memorable and can totally understand the minister's reaction. Haggis is bad enough, but curried!!!!!
  • Are these curried sausages anything like the curry-wurst that are quite popular in Germany?

    I’d guess not; the ones I recall were swimming in a greenish curry flavoured puddle

  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Haggis pakora, haggis pizza, deep-fried haggis - all not unusual in Scotland. But I've never come across curry - 'tinterweb tells me it's possible, but it's not caught on.

    Besides, good haggis should have a peppery kick quite at odds with curry spicing.
  • Curry wurst in Germany tends to be floating in an red puddle not a green one, as it is traditionally a mix of ketchup and curry powder served with a pork sausage. My husband and son both say it is foul.
    My veg box delivery used to do some nice curry flavoured sausages but they don’t seem to have them any more.
    Haggis is great but certainly doesn’t need any curry flavouring as it is already well seasoned, as Firenze says.
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    Meera Sodha (a British Indian food writer who grew up in Lincolnshire) has a recipe for sausage curry on The Guardian - I believe her mum made it for her with Lincolnshire sausages growing up. And I know Goan chouriço curry is definitely a thing, so there is precedent.
  • Meera Sodha’s Made in India is a great book with really approachable cooking; it was the book that got me making samosas.
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    Here is Meera's Lincolnshire sausage and potato curry. It sounds a lot nicer than the type made with curry powder!
  • Pomona wrote: »
    Here is Meera's Lincolnshire sausage and potato curry. It sounds a lot nicer than the type made with curry powder!

    Sounds lovely! That is a close relative of my haggis curry. Why would anyone use curry powder? There is so much pleasure in the mixing and inhaling as you bring it all together and cook it.
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    Pomona wrote: »
    Here is Meera's Lincolnshire sausage and potato curry. It sounds a lot nicer than the type made with curry powder!

    Sounds lovely! That is a close relative of my haggis curry. Why would anyone use curry powder? There is so much pleasure in the mixing and inhaling as you bring it all together and cook it.

    I think some specific dishes need it, eg proper Raj style kedgeree and Singapore rice noodles (I know they have nothing to do with Singapore but they're delicious nonetheless). Curry powder is also good for enhancing cheesy baked things like cheese straws and cheese scones, especially if you're trying to make vegan cheese-flavoured things.
  • I have entirely given up on vegan cheese-flavoured things, they aren't remotely cheese flavoured. If I can't have cheese I'm not doing that recipe, because none of the alternatives are get near to the taste, or are even nice. The nicest cheese replacement mix I made for a savoury dish was with tahini, tamari, vegan/free-from Worcestershire sauce and Vecon stock, to produce a savoury tangy mix on a creamy base from the tahini. It's also gluten free, hence tamari instead of soy sauce. That one I use with shredded leek and carrot sweated down and then mixed up with this mixture (or cheese) and served with pasta.

    Vecon is also my nearest approximation to marmite for various recipes as well as making stock.

    The other thing we've found with my dairy intolerant daughter is that she can often eat aged cheese, over 2 years tends to reduce whatever she can't cope with to a minimum. Although this isn't every day, it's an occasional treat.

    In other news, I've been cooking with teenagers at a holiday club for kids on free school meals or in need. The County Youth Service, having sacked the caterers after the first week for their sandwiches being late and not that nice, the next week provided frankfurters and buns for quite a few days, then frozen pizzas, with bananas, apples, small chocolate bars and crisps. No, I didn't think this was particularly healthy either. Particularly when the fruit wasn't being eaten.

    So early last week, looking at a lot of uneaten apples, we made apple turnovers, using bought puff pastry, very much enjoyed by all concerned and I planned to make banana bread to do something with the pile of browning bananas on Friday, only to come back in after a couple of days off to find others had planned in my absence and the cooking was bought packet cup cakes and lemon drizzle cake. And we still had 15-20 bananas no-one was eating.

    This week we've so far made Jack Monroe's carrot and red kidney bean burgers served with salad in a bun, which they enjoyed, banana milkshake and banana muffins. all of which went down well. Today we had lempeng pisang (Malaysian banana pancakes) with strawberries for lunch, all of which got eaten by people helping themselves to seconds, and banana and strawberry milkshake. I'm just debating what recipe to add to the another day another banana recipe week we're having. And how to sensibly use frankfurters.

    Yes, I hold the Level 2 Food and Hygiene certificate. Had to renew it last week.
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    That all sounds great. Frankfurters are good with split pea or vegetable soup. Delia has a recipe online for German potato salad with frankfurters, and a recipe for German soup with frankfurters (also online).

    Mashed banana can be used instead of egg in cookies, which would keep better than banana bread.
  • North East QuineNorth East Quine Purgatory Host
    I made Irn Bru pulled pork for English visitors at the weekend - the joint was in the slow cooker overnight with quartered onions and 2 litres of Irn Bru. In the recipe, which I've made before, the Irn Bru and onions are discarded.

    This time I tried the onions- and they were lovely. An unnatural orange, but lovely. I might cook onions in Irn Bru again....

  • I made Irn Bru pulled pork for English visitors at the weekend - the joint was in the slow cooker overnight with quartered onions and 2 litres of Irn Bru. In the recipe, which I've made before, the Irn Bru and onions are discarded.

    This time I tried the onions- and they were lovely. An unnatural orange, but lovely. I might cook onions in Irn Bru again....

    When cooking corned silverside in the slow cooker, I use dry ginger ale for the liquid. I cut a couple of oranges in half and stud the flesh with cloves and drop them in. About seven hours later, after cooking on low, lovely tender beef with a really delicate flavour.
  • Gee DGee D Shipmate
    edited August 2021
    We shall try that this coming summer.
  • Pomona wrote: »
    That all sounds great. Frankfurters are good with split pea or vegetable soup. Delia has a recipe online for German potato salad with frankfurters, and a recipe for German soup with frankfurters (also online).

    Mashed banana can be used instead of egg in cookies, which would keep better than banana bread.

    Thank you for that @Pomona. I am not bothered about stuff keeping, any leftovers go home with the kids who've been cooking. They are from families who are struggling financially.

    I'm not sure I'll convince teenagers with little experience of food to eat soup, switching burgers for bean burgers still looks familiar enough to convince them to try it.

  • The other thing we've found with my dairy intolerant daughter is that she can often eat aged cheese, over 2 years tends to reduce whatever she can't cope with to a minimum. Although this isn't every day, it's an occasional treat.

    Lord P had a girlfriend who was dairy intolerant. She found she could eat goats milk cheese, and I think she could also eat sheep’s milk cheese.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    For supper this evening I concocted a rather nice risotto; sufficiently nice I think it worth sharing here.

    Prawn, Mushroom and Tomato Risotto

    For one reasonably hungry piglet:

    1 small shallot, peeled and finely chopped
    1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
    Olive oil
    Salt and pepper
    ½ cup Arborio rice
    A generous 1½ cups vegetable stock (made with half a stock cube and kept hot on the hob)
    A pinch of saffron threads, crushed into the stock
    A splash of white wine
    6 baby plum tomatoes, chopped
    2 large chestnut mushrooms, halved and sliced
    1 x 140g pack of cooked, peeled prawns

    Heat the oil in a heavy-based casserole or saucepan, add the shallots and seasoning and cook gently until they begin to soften, then add the garlic, making sure it doesn't catch.

    Add the rice, stir it around to let it get a little bit toasted, then add the wine. Once it's been absorbed, stir in the mushrooms and tomatoes. Set a timer for about 20 minutes.

    Add the hot stock, about a quarter cup at a time, stirring and allowing each to be completely absorbed before adding the next. About 5 minutes before the time is up, stir in the prawns to heat through.

    When the time is up, taste to check the seasoning and the doneness of the rice; it should be cooked, but with a little bit of bite. If it feels underdone, turn the heat very low and give it another few minutes, making sure it doesn't catch.







  • Paging @Gee D I think that once upon a time you posted a recipe for a beet and port relish. I can't find the recipe (I was certain that I had it in my recipe file). Could you post it again, please? (If it was in fact you.) I've recently come into a windfall of beets (if that is possible for a taproot ), and I thought that I'd make some relish as well as pickled beets and borshch. If anyone has any other ideas, especially of freezable, I would be stained but appreciative.
  • I'd be very happy to do so except that it was not from me, I'm afraid. Our pickles, relishes etc come from those at St Sanity who make them, then sell them for a pittance. Can't think of such a relish from them either.

    At least in Sydney, pickle making here seems to be a dying skill. One of the best makers died only a few weeks ago, aged well into her 90's. No new ones coming along as far as I can see. Perhaps they're still common in rural areas.
  • Paging @Gee D I think that once upon a time you posted a recipe for a beet and port relish. I can't find the recipe (I was certain that I had it in my recipe file). Could you post it again, please? (If it was in fact you.) I've recently come into a windfall of beets (if that is possible for a taproot ), and I thought that I'd make some relish as well as pickled beets and borshch. If anyone has any other ideas, especially of freezable, I would be stained but appreciative.

    @Pangolin Guerre it was my recipe. Peel your beets and shred them finely. Place in a pot, add Chinese five spice to taste, and sufficient port to cover. Simmer gently until tender and spoon into warmed jars. Refrigerate.
  • Sounds very straightforward, may even give it a try (but no fêtes coming up in the foreseeable future).
  • Gee D wrote: »
    Sounds very straightforward, may even give it a try (but no fêtes coming up in the foreseeable future).

    It goes really well with char-grilled kangaroo fillets, as well as other red meats. I only make small batches, as it is not a store cupboard relish, needing refrigeration.
  • Thanks Barnabas, whoever is going to do the shopping this week (we toss for it and the loser goes) can but some roo and we'll give it a go.
  • I'd really like to try kangaroo fillets...
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I'd really like to try kangaroo fillets...

    They occasionally turn up in Lidl (along with ostrich). Why, or how often, as with so many of their special lines, is mysterious.

  • @Barnabas_Aus My apologies for the misattribution, and thanks for the swift reply despite that. I remembered that the recipe was straightforward, easy preparation with great payoff, but I know that I would never remembered Chinese five spice.
  • @Barnabas_Aus that beet and port relish sounds heavenly and is just the thing for our row of beet in the garden! Thank you
  • Have I posted my easy slow-cooker corned silverside recipe before? If not, here it is.
    One piece of corned silverside, two oranges halved and studded with cloves, sufficient generic brand dry ginger ale to cover. Place a sheet of baking paper over the top, lid on the cooker and cook for 6-8 hours on low. Serve with creamy mash and seasonal vegetables. I have homemade cumquat relish on the side.
  • Sounds lovely
  • PomonaPomona Shipmate
    edited September 2021
    Hope this is the right place to ask, but any recommendations for specific slow cooker models available in the UK? A timer function and hinged lid would be nice but not essential. I would like something not too heavy and not awkwardly shaped - I'm short and can struggle with big appliances so after something wider than it is tall, but also not too huge volume-wise. I will be cooking for myself but in modest batches, so something serving about 4 people would be about right. As anyone tried digital slow cookers and found a big difference vs manual?

    Edited to add that I am willing to spend a bit more on something really worth it.
  • HuiaHuia Shipmate
    Have I posted my easy slow-cooker corned silverside recipe before? If not, here it is.
    One piece of corned silverside, two oranges halved and studded with cloves, sufficient generic brand dry ginger ale to cover. Place a sheet of baking paper over the top, lid on the cooker and cook for 6-8 hours on low. Serve with creamy mash and seasonal vegetables. I have homemade cumquat relish on the side.

    I have been reading through the thread and you did post it earlier, but missed the fuller details you gave this time. I thought about making it when I read your first post - now I'm determined, but I'll have to wait until I have someone to share it with,

    I tend to use my slow cooker mainly for soup these days - and Christmas puddings in season. I have two small metal bowls that fit in the crockpot nicely and there's less chance of them boiling dry.

    Soups are great, I pay someone to mow my lawns, but when he does extra bits of gardening or small things like replacing lightbulbs I often pay him in soup. He leaves plastic containers at my place so I can freeze some for him when I'm making mine,
  • Huia wrote: »
    Have I posted my easy slow-cooker corned silverside recipe before? If not, here it is.
    One piece of corned silverside, two oranges halved and studded with cloves, sufficient generic brand dry ginger ale to cover. Place a sheet of baking paper over the top, lid on the cooker and cook for 6-8 hours on low. Serve with creamy mash and seasonal vegetables. I have homemade cumquat relish on the side.

    I have been reading through the thread and you did post it earlier, but missed the fuller details you gave this time. I thought about making it when I read your first post - now I'm determined, but I'll have to wait until I have someone to share it with,

    I tend to use my slow cooker mainly for soup these days - and Christmas puddings in season. I have two small metal bowls that fit in the crockpot nicely and there's less chance of them boiling dry.

    Soups are great, I pay someone to mow my lawns, but when he does extra bits of gardening or small things like replacing lightbulbs I often pay him in soup. He leaves plastic containers at my place so I can freeze some for him when I'm making mine,

    We had it for dinner tonight @Huia, with mashed kumara, spiced with a grind of Asian spices, some steamed beans and zucchini.

    My most popular soup is pumpkin and kumara, cooked with vegetable stock, pureed with a stick blender and then a tin of coconut cream and a spoonful or two of curry paste stirred in. Goes down a treat every time I serve it.
  • Cooked beets overnight in the slow cooker on low. So easy, and now they are ready for Harvard beets for dinner and pickling the rest for later.
Sign In or Register to comment.