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Heaven: The 2020 Banqueting Table! Recipes to share.

jedijudyjedijudy Heaven Host
edited August 2021 in Limbo
Here's where we share our favorite recipes, old and new! Welcome to the 2020 recipe thread!
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  • Perfect timing! After all the holiday food, hubby and I making our favorite simple supper tonight: warming, easy on the stomach, simple to do:

    Heat 1 Tbs roasted sesame oil in a pot. Toss in 5 slices ginger root & 2 garlic cloves sliced thin. When garlic getting golden add 6 c broth (chicken, beef, whatever) + 2 Tbs soy sauce and bring to boil. Add 12 oz of chopped bok choy, or spinach or whatever greens you’ve got. Bring back to the boil then return to simmer. Crack 4 eggs, one by one, into a saucer and slide into the simmering broth, until they poach. Add anything ele that makes sense to you (leftover rice, or fish..... whatever.) Serves 2 or 4 depending on what you add or how hungry you are!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    That sounds like a relative of a house favourite - Thai Soup.

    The essential ingredient is commercially available Tom Yum stock cubes or paste. Make up a broth at whichever level of spiciness you favour and chuck in all or any of leftover chicken, seafood, julienned carrot, green beans, spring onion, frozen peas. Add small tin of coconut milk. Simmer for about 10 minutes, add the juice of a fresh lime, pinch of palm (or ordinary) sugar to taste.

    It should be hot and sour and light.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Nothing more refreshing than an Asian broth. I also use Tom Yum pastes (or a homemade Thai green curry paste if I have enough lemongrass and chillies as well as limes), plenty of herbs (Thai basil, opal basil, coriander, makrut or curry leaves, mint), spring onions, spinach, summer squash, fine beans, sweetcorn, broccoli, pak choi, daikon. Vegetable stock, light coconut milk (we get green coconuts from Mozambique, very luscious and rich juice and flesh), rice noodles, toasted sesame oil, micro-planed ginger, garlic and turmeric, sweet chilli jam, a little light soy. This sounds a bit like 'Ottolenghi does Asia' but except for time prepping, it is very quick and easy to simmer up and most of the ingredients are variable.
  • Tom Yum stock cubes.... available in specialty store or regular food market? They certainly sound handy! Any US based shippee know if they are available stateside? We've been into Thai cuisine for about a year and stock cubes sound just the ticket.
  • Try an Asian market. I found any number of cubes and pastes in ours.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I bought a jar of Tom Yum paste in a mainstream - if upmarket - supermarket today. The stock cubes I tend to find in Asian/Chinese shops. They're actually made by Knorr, who seem to have market dominance.
  • My weekly delivery veggie box today came with 6 lemons, I have 4 left from last week. Any ideas? Favorite uses for lemons? I do not want to make any desserts, I am over with sweets from Christmas. I was thinking of grating the peels, then squeezing the juice and freezing them both for later use, but I am open to using them now.
  • Lemonade's the obvious, but if you don't want that, I like your idea of freezing for later use. It's what I'm doing for ginger.
  • Roasted veg by themselves or in a casserole dish under some meat benefit from a lemon cut into wedges or thin slices before adding olive oil and throwing in the oven. Ever so slightly bitter but very tasty.

    Have done this several times recently, once with a celeriac which worked.
  • Lemonade's the obvious, but if you don't want that, I like your idea of freezing for later use. It's what I'm doing for ginger.
    How do you freeze the ginger Lamb chopped, whole or do you grate it? Good idea as I usually do not use the whole big root at once.
  • MooMoo Kerygmania Host
    Here is a site with recipes for lemon curd.
  • I peel it and then freeze it in chunks big enough for soup or what have you. In plastic bags.
  • I peel it and then freeze it in chunks big enough for soup or what have you. In plastic bags.

    Thank you. Lamb Chopped.

    Thanks Moo but I am sugared out.




  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Purgatory Host, Circus Host
    Preserving lemons in brine is quite easy. They keep for a while and are very delicious in North African tajine type dishes.
  • CactusCactus Shipmate Posts: 12
    Or maybe adapt recipes on web for Indian lime pickle and substitute lemons

    https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/indian-lime-pickle/34a44dcd-0475-48a9-82b4-fbc3aaa992d4
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Slice carefully and add to gin and tonic.

    Alternatively, all sorts of roasts/tray bakes benefit from lemon: chicken thighs, lemon, olives and new potatoes (or old ones, in chunks): mixed veg, as mentioned above: lamb steaks braised with lemon and garlic: pork chops ditto: fish baked in foil with lemon and such other herbs and aromatics as you fancy.

    I have just lunched on a veg and coconut milk curry - into which I put some slices of lemon in lieu of lemon grass.
  • We’re having a chickpea, mushroom & spinach type curry for dinner this evening, which I’ve used lemon juice for as I didn’t have any limes. It’s a lemongrass, chilli, ginger, curry powder, soy sauce and fish sauce sort of thing.

    If I had the freezer space, I’d slice the lemons and freeze them, then hey presto, nice cold and lemony G&T.
  • Ginger freezes really well, and it’s easy to grate just as much as you want when it is frozen.
  • Someone on another site has recently raved about a recipe for pasta with fried lemons and chilli flakes. There are quite a few recipe sites online where it can be found - such as this one [url=https://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/1935535032/pasta-with-fried-lemons-and-and-chili-flakes//[/url]
  • Someone on another site has recently raved about a recipe for pasta with fried lemons and chilli flakes. There are quite a few recipe sites online where it can be found - such as this one [url=https://www.keyingredient.com/recipes/1935535032/pasta-with-fried-lemons-and-and-chili-flakes//[/url]
    Oh I like this, will try it tomorrow and maybe throw in a few shrimp.

  • Roseofsharon, I made the recipe for pasta and lemons. Added shrimp and garlic. Big hit around the table. Will be doing it again.
  • Must try it myself someday, although the oil, butter and Parmigiano Reggiano put it on the forbidden list (for health reasons) at the moment.
    Some recipes can bear having their fat content reduced quite drastically, but I don't think that would benefit this dish.
  • I cut way down on the butter and increased the olive oil. and went light on the cheese. It was still good.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Had a disaster -- made cornbread with a small cup of polenta and self-raising flour, grated cheese, buttermilk, eggs, oil, baking powder. Very simple recipe that recommended any kind of polenta baked in a long slow oven. It came out out light, fluffy, browned on top, great aroma. Crunchy polenta that hadn't cooked at all. Like eating a sand dune.
  • I gave MrD a treat last night by making Nigella's emergency brownies. They were very nice, but I think I left them in the oven for just a few too many minutes, so they weren't very squidgey. I am failing miserably to insert a link, so just search "Nigella's emergency brownies". You should find them easily enough!!
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    I failed yesterday at cauliflower soup (how is that possible?)

    Today's ageing veg are chicory and fennel, which I will try roasting with garlic and Parmesan.

    The other culinary gamble of the day is in the bread maker - it's been a while since I last used it, and you Never Know with yeast.
  • CactusCactus Shipmate Posts: 12
    I find cauliflower soup tricky, I like cauliflower in a spicy tomato sauce but find my soup abit too gloopy
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    The chicory/fennel gratin failed too, managing to be both soggy and stringy.

    I just need the incubating loaf to turn out to be dwarf bread and my weekend will be complete.
  • AravisAravis Shipmate
    My favourite non-sweet recipes for lemons are:
    1. Nigel Slater’s chicken with lemon and olives. Marinate the chicken with lemon slices, turmeric, garlic and paprika, add green olives when cooking. I would have to look up the exact proportions but this should be possible to find online.
    2. My friend Paula’s courgette and lemon salad. Slice 2 garlic cloves thinly and place in a bowl with olive oil (not sure how much, maybe about 3tbsps?). Slice 2 courgettes thinly, fry in a tiny bit of oil very briefly on a high heat, then add to the bowl while they are still warm and stir. Leave to cool completely, then add the juice of a lemon and a pinch of salt if you want (I don’t bother as my salt tolerance is fairly low). Pick the garlic out before serving, and don’t add the lemon till the courgettes are cold. This goes well with salmon and new potatoes.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    @Aravis, that dish with chicken, lemon and olives is delicious, I've made it twice, using about 8--10 olives and one large lemon.
  • la vie en rougela vie en rouge Purgatory Host, Circus Host
    This weekend we had guests over. Husband en rouge had sourced a joint of beef at a bargainous price.

    The way the French cook roast beef is quite different to what the Brits do so I felt the guests needed to be introduced to the joys of rosbif à la rosbif, i.e. English style.

    My grandmother’s Yorkshire Pudding recipe: put two tablespoons of plain flour in a measuring jug. (Very important – no self-raising flour or it turns out like sponge. The egg raises it.) Add a pinch of salt and make a well in the middle. Crack an egg into the well and then incorporate it into the flour using a fork. TBH I think my grandmother used a fork because she didn’t own a whisk, but she made the most amazing Yorkshires I have ever encountered anywhere so I stay faithful to her method :smile:. Once the egg is all mixed in, add a quarter of pint of milk, little by little. Leave the batter to rest for an hour or so. Next add the fat to the tin. You can use either lard or sunflower oil depending on your taste and how much you respect your arteries. Stick the tin in the oven at 200° or so to heat until the fat is smoking hot. This is the most important bit – most Yorkshire Pudding fails are due to not having the fat hot enough. Remove your tin from the oven very carefully and pour the batter straight in. Return to the oven and cook for fifteen minutes or so.

    The French people were duly impressed.
  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    My mouth is really watering, @la vie en rouge 😋!
  • MooMoo Kerygmania Host
    Firenze wrote: »

    The other culinary gamble of the day is in the bread maker - it's been a while since I last used it, and you Never Know with yeast.

    I have a lot of experience baking with yeast, and I have discovered two factors that make yeast deteriorate. One is heat, and the other is exposure to air.

    Sometimes when you buy yeast it has already been exposed to heat in shipping or on the store shelves.

    Exposure to air happens when you buy a jar of yeast and don't use it all very quickly. When a jar is half full of yeast, it's also half full of air.

    I'm serious about baking. I buy pound bags of yeast from restaurant supply places. I repackage it in jars and store it in the freezer. I use two-ounce jars for current use. The advantage of buying from restaurant supply places is that they are very careful to make sure the yeast never gets hot. If a baker buys yeast and mixes it with a hundred pounds of flour, he will come back to the supplier for recompense if the bread doesn't rise. The supplier must pay not only for the yeast but also for the hundred pounds of flour.

    I realize that most people don't want to go to these extremes. I recommend that you buy yeast in cool weather in individual packets and store it in the freezer. Check the date before you buy it. It will keep in the freezer for years.

  • Moo, Thank you, did not know you could freeze yeast.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    My yeast is in sachets, in the door of the fridge.

    Loaf turned out fine.

    I spent some of today going through back numbers of a food/recipe supplement that comes with Saturday's Guardian. It's headlined by Yottam Ottilenghi and leans rather to vegetarian/vegan/Asian food. The last few issues have been rather drearily focussed on kale'n'quinoa healthy eating, but I weeded out a folder's worth of things I might actually make - beginning tonight with their take on bobotie.
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I buy yeast in small jars, which I keep in the door of the fridge, and I've mostly had good results.

    I hope the batch of dough for rolls currently on its first rise doesn't decide to prove me wrong ...
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    @Firenze, how did the revised bobotie work out? It is an old Cape Dutch dish (a savoury custard with spiced meat) and quite challenging.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    It was fine. I had only 1 egg, so it was more meatloaf with custard skim. And I didn't have raisins or almonds, so I substituted chopped prunes. But I added lots of Mrs Ball's Chutney.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    That good old standby, Mrs Ball's.
  • Perhaps I've never had a good one, but I'm not keen on bobotie. MaryLouise, have you any ancient Saffa secrets for me?
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    edited January 2020
    Pangolin Guerre, have you read any cookbooks by C Louis Leipoldt? His recipes look back to the influence of Cape Malay spices and seasonings rather than the later Afrikaner boerekos cooking that focused on sweet custards (melkterts) and too much fruitiness and sugar. In my own version of bobotie I use lemon juice and zest as well as lemon leaves, fewer raisins and toast almond flakes, a light custard, a tamarind-based curry paste more akin to SE Asian pastes, and not much chutney. Some turmeric with basmati for the traditional yellow rice served with bobotie at funeral feasts.
  • Aha! Thank you. I think for me the issues were the custard topping's flavour and the texture contrast with the meat. I like the idea of using tamarind. This was completely cheating on my part, but I've used a mashed potato topping, so it was more like a Cape cottage pie, and that was pretty good. I'll look up M. Leipoldt. Thanks for the reference.
  • In advance of Burns Night, I tried out a new recipe last night. It tasted like the Food of the Gods but it didn't look great.

    It was Haggis, Neeps and Gnocchi. The cubed neeps (turnip) were brought to the boil with butter, demerara sugar, whisky and enough water to barely cover, then simmered uncovered to reduce. The cooked gnocchi was stirred in, a good splash of cream added, then the cooked haggis was stirred in.

    The photo looked attractive, with orange neeps, white gnocchi and brown haggis, but mine came out a uniform sludgy colour, and given the amount of cream, the photo seems implausible - everything would be covered with the sauce. Possibly I had too much liquid, and didn't reduce the neep mixture enough?

    Possibly serving it with something bright - broccoli? kale? might lift it. Or reserving some of the cubed neep and scattering it over the top to look more like the photo? Or perhaps I should rename it Burns Night Stovies, so that no-one would expect it to look good. Although then I'd have to serve it with beetroot and oatcakes.

    The taste, however, was glorious!!! It was one of the best meals I've tasted in a long time.
  • Food stylists have a lot to answer for...
  • Kittyville wrote: »
    Food stylists have a lot to answer for...

    The neeps a were probably not cooked, so that they still had their bright colour for the photograph, and the haggis barely dipped into the cream, not stirred around at all.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Could you be more specific about the neep recipe?

    I try and gussie them up a bit, but so far that's just been turning them in the pan with fried onions and lots of black pepper.
  • Just the neep bit, or the whole recipe?

    The neep bit is -
    500g neeps, cubed, 50g butter, 50g demerara, 50ml whisky. Put in a pan, then barely cover with water. Bring to boil, then simmer uncovered until the water has evaporated and the neeps are tender and glazed. My cubes were roughly 1.5 - 2cm.

    The recipe came from the Foodie Quine blog. My end result was a lot more sludgy looking than the photo in the blog. Next time I think I'll try to reduce it a bit more; perhaps I had too much liquid.

    Neep and Nip soup is a family favourite - neep and parsnip soup, with a good pinch of mace stirred in, maybe a slug of cream if there's some in the fridge, generous amount of black pepper. I don't have a recipe as such, it's the usual onion fried off, add veg, add stock basic recipe.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Thanks. I'll try that . But otherwise just plain tatties and haggis - I never feel cream really goes.
  • The North East Man is now having conniptions over the discovery that I used malt whisky for the haggis, neeps and gnocchi. I have pointed out that if he is going to pride himself on not giving house room to a blend, he can hardly complain about me using a malt in cooking.
  • FirenzeFirenze Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Lidl is your friend: 'Ben Bracken' @ c £17

    I think the answer is more whisky-based cooking so that you can argue for a dedicated bottle.
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