Food - Part Two!

[Michelle]

Continued from this thread (http://bookclubforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=256&sid=3edf993cb992552f321e6ba232087b9c).

So what's for dinner tonight? For us, it's an Indian take-away! lol

[Kell]

I made toad in the hole & oven chips - yummy! Tomorrow, I'm considering either a huge pot of chilli or chicken cacciatore...

[sf1818]

I made toad in the hole & oven chips - yummy! Tomorrow, I'm considering either a huge pot of chilli or chicken cacciatore...

Way ahead of you Kell. I'm having a huge pot o' chili in a few minutes!

[Maureen]

Hey anyone has a great recipie for Chilli?

[Maureen]

Other half cooked today, as I was otherwise busy! He did one of his specialities - Pieces of chicken tossed in flour and pepper, and cooked with bits of bacon and chunky pieces of marrow/courgettes and onions. The sauce of this dish really tastes delicious - I love dipping crusty bread in it! Yummy!

[Angel]

ours tonite was rather simple - genuine homemade Cornish pasties. Delicious.

:alc:

[Freewheeling Andy]

Tomorrow I go to Poland and get to eat pierogi and golonka and stuffed cabbage.

[Kell]

I made a beef Rogan Josh tonight which was delish.

I have to say, on the chilli thing,I don't actually follow a recipe - I jstchuck it all in a pot & i seems to turn out fine. :)

[Mamacita]

I usually do this in the crockpot and use whatever meat I have on hand. Ground beef, ground venison, ground turkey, whatever...usually a couple pounds.

Brown the meat in a skillet with a little olive oil, then throw the whole thing into the crockpot.

Add cooked pinto, kidney or pink beans if desired...2 or 3 cups worth.

Chop up a large onion and a couple large cloves of garlic (or to taste), and throw that in, along with a couple good sized pinches of whole cumin and a couple cans of chopped tomatoes.

Add one or two cleaned ancho chili pods with the seeds and stem removed.

Add enough beef broth to cover and cook on low in the crockpot 6 to 8 hours, stirring occasionally.

Serve with cornbread.

[Maureen]

mmmnnnnnnnn

[Acesare*]

I'm going to have sweet chilli chicken stir-fry with a jacket potato for my din-dins tonight. I'm cheating and using a Sharwoods sauce though - can't be bothered to 'cook properly' on a friday night!

Jo xx

[Maureen]

I made a beef Rogan Josh :)

I tried this once Kell, I was watching some programm on BBC and Ainsley did this recipe. It turned out quite ok. Forgot to do it again though!

[Kell]

I'll admit I cheated a bit with my one & used a jar sauce - Asda does a particularly nice one ;)

[Mamacita]

I made a beef Rogan Josh tonight which was delish.



The hell's beef Rogan Josh????

[Maureen]

I forgot how it is done. Have to fish out Ainsley's recipie and try it again. I remember it was good!

I am cooking chinese today. I already prepared the chicken and sweet corn soup (phew!) I bought the other stuff - wantons, spring rolls, spicy chicken breast, pork balls etc, would not even dream of trying to do those from scratch.

[Mamacita]

Not sure exactly what we're having...but it will include cornbread. I made some really yummy cornbread for the party last night and ended up bringing some back b/c the person bringing the chili arrived very late. :grr:

Don't know if you have "Jiffy" cornbread mix over there, but this is the recipe:

1 can cream corn
1 can whole kernel corn
1 16oz sour cream

2 boxes Jiffy Cornbread Mix

Drain whole kernel corn. Mix together corn, cream corn and sour cream.

Next mix up 2 boxes of Jiffy cornbread mix according to box directions in a large mixing bowl. Add the corn and sour cream mixture.

Pour into a greased 9X13 casserole and bake at 400*F until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (about 35 to 40 minutes).

[Kell]

What is cream corn?

[Kell]

The hell's beef Rogan Josh????
It's a kind of curry - medium hot/spicy & very yummy. I usually make chicken-based curries, but we'd had roast beef the night before, so I used the rest of the roast in it & it was gorgeous.

[Maureen]

The one I tried was with lamb.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/lambshankroganjosh_7375.shtml

I managed to find it online. Let's see if this link works

[Maureen]

What is cream corn?

I use cream corn in the chinese chicken and sweetcorn soup. It is loose canned corn (not on the cob) in a creamy liquid (I guess cornstarch and water)Here I find it in the chinese section of the supermarket.

[Maureen]

2 boxes Jiffy Cornbread Mix

Don't think we get that - although to tell you the truth never looked for it specifically. What would you serve with that?

[Libertate]

I set my kitchen on fire...:banghead: again.

Well, not the whole kitchen just my favorite whistling tea-pot. :cry:

Going to make some Chicken Marsala. :)

[Maureen]

Does it still whistle? :)

[Kell]

I'm fortunate in that I've never set fire to the kitchen. Dale, on the otherhand, has made a habit of it (I think it was 4 times at the last count - aol prior to living with me). He's not allowed to have a chip pan or any kind of deep-fryer in my kitchen in case he does it again. no toaster (he once did it with one of those) or sandwich maker (again, yes, much flamage ensued!).

I prefer to keep a flame-free kitchen. And there are no curtains or blinds in there either - just in case! LOL!

[Mamacita]

:rofl: about the flaming kitchens. I did that the first year I was married, but haven't done it since. Dd ( the younger) however, managed to set fire to my range hood when she was sixteen and she and her gaggle of friends decided to cook burgers on the stove. :grr:

Cream corn is corn cut off the cob and thickened with cornstarch and the corn "juice". It's pretty yummy but not exactly the lowest thing on the glycemic index.

Here's a recipe for cornbread. This is a pretty standard recipe.

2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons sugar or honey, optional
3 eggs, beaten
1 tablespoon vegetable, for skillet
2 cups milk
1/4 cup melted butter
melted butter for brushing top

Preheat oven to 425°. Put oil or shortening in a 10-inch iron skillet and place in the oven to preheat while making batter.

In a mixing bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and sugar, if using.
In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and butter(and honey if using instead of sugar). Combine with dry ingredients and stir until all ingredients are moistened. Batter will be like a thick pancake batter.

Carefully, with heavy oven mitts, lift skillet out and turn to coat all of the inside surface with oil. Pour in batter and return to oven. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes, until browned. A toothpick inserted in center should come out clean.

[Mamacita]

Oh, Maureen, almost forgot to answer your question. My favorite thing to serve with cornbread is chili. Although it's really good with beef or lamb stew.

If you have leftovers you can heat some milk up the next morning and pour it over a square of the cornbread and it makes a nice substitute for breakfast cereal.

[Freewheeling Andy]

I've just spent the weekend eating. Polish food is lovely. But it's very very heavy, and now so am I.

[Maureen]

Polish food is lovely

Andy. Elaborate!!

[Freewheeling Andy]

No.

Mostly simple.

[Freewheeling Andy]

Oh. Sorry.

Pierogi dumplings (which are sort of half-way between ravioli and dumpling). Golonka pork knuckle. Golabki stuffed cabbage leaves. Bigos pork and cabbage stew. Kielbasa, smoked grilled sausage. Zurek, fermented buckwheat soup. Barsch betroot soup. Smoked cheeses, grilled.

Basically, very heavy on the meat and cabbage, and then some potato.

Ate one meal in a Jewish restaurant in the old Jewish quarter of Krakow and had the most fantastic piece of carp, which was flavoured with something, although I don't know what.

[Kell]

Well, they served a Xmas dinner in the staff restaurant today (they'll be doing it again tomorrow too), so I'm full of turkey & cranberry sauce, skirlie & roast potatoes, roast parsnips & carrots (I skipped the pig in a blanket). I even chanced a taste of the clootie dumpling with rum sauce, but the pud was dry & the sauce was lumpy, so rather disappointing. Ah well, the main course was nice enough,. I think I might give the vegetarian option a try tomorrow - they've got these lovely looking little mushroom tartlets topped with potato rosti...

Has anyone else been served the traditional Xmas dinner at work yet? Our official office lunch is supposed to be this Thrusday coming, but I don't think anything's been finalised, so I haven't a clue if it's actually going ahead!

[Maureen]

We don't even get free coffee at work, let alone food!! :(

[Kell]

Oh, it's not free - it cost the princely sum of £5.45 (we get heavily subsidised, I guess) for 3 courses. As i only had 2 courses, it was £1 cheaper. If I just go for the main course tomorrow it'll be £3.45 (special menu for Xmas with slightly higher prices than usual).

[Angel]

I don't get coffee or even water at important meetings even if they are arranged in the lunch hour (whatever that is !) ........but it is the NHS so I should consider myself lucky to sit down let alone think of eating uninterrupted - but that's a different story!!

What is skirlie??????? :coffee:

[Mamacita]

I just learned what this is myself a few days ago.

Skirlie is a Scottish stuffing made with--oats--naturally! :)

I'm tempted to try it one of these days...maybe I can convince dh it's worth eating...he's such a bore when it comes to food...no sense of adventure at all. :roll:

[Kell]

I found this basic recipe for skirlie:

Ingredients
4 oz fat or 4 tablespoons of oil (traditionally a good flavoured dripping or beef suet would have been used)
2 onions, finely chopped
1/4 pint chicken stock
8 oz medium oatmeal, lightly toasted
Salt and pepper to season

Directions
Melt the fat or heat the oil in a large frying pan. Add the onion and cook until soft and golden. Add the oatmeal and mix in well. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the stock and allow it to be absorbed by the oatmeal. Seaon well and serve with light creamy mashed potatoes.
Skirlie may also be used as a stuffing for any kind of game bird or poultry. It is also a very good accompaniment to rich meaty and gamy stews.

(You can use butter or olive oil in place of the dripping or suet, but it's not as nice made with oil. It's also nice if you bake it in the oven for a while till it gets a nice toasted, crispy crust on top...)

[Kell]

Well, yesterday's team Xmas lunch wasn't exactly what I was expecting. Every other Xmas lunch I've been to, you go somewhere that has a special festive menu & decoration (complete with crackers to pull) & you take the whole afternoon off. Not so here - we went to a tiny little place ina back street which had no festive ambience, no crackers, no special menu. THere was a choice of soup or sandwiches/paninis. The only concession to the season was the offer of mulled wine, which we declined because we had to go back to the office afterwards!

I feel like I've been conned a bit here!

[Maureen]

I ate a huge amount of "Krustini", and am now feeling like a complete pig.

(these are traditional hard biscuits with whole almonds which are not sweet, some people dunk them in tea)

They are really nice - and because they are not sweet, you do not end up with that queasy feeling after you eat too much of them.

[Angel]

These sound nice Maureen, they sound a bit like the Italian's amaretti biscuits, but not so sweet. They are lovely as well

[Maureen]

Yep that's right. If you want, I found a recipie(that's why I wanted some!) and can post it for you. I have never baked them myself though - I buy them from a bakery, so am not sure how these turn out.

[Angel]

That would be great Maureen - it's half term next week and Thomas has already stated that he wants to do some cooking!

[Maureen]

Rice is probably the world's single most important foodstuff. It is consumed over two billion people as their staple diet. Cultivation originally started in India and progressed towards the West, mostly into Spain and Italy. In fact, these two countries have the widest repertoire of rice dishes, Paella and risottos respectively.

Rice can be divided into two main types; long grain and short grain. With regards to its nutritional value, you can calculate 103 calories per half-cup of white rice and 108 calories per half-cup of brown rice. It's cholesterol free, fat free and also is gluten free. It is however packed with complex carbohydrates.

Jo - read how good for you it is!

[Maureen]

That would be great Maureen - it's half term next week and Thomas has already stated that he wants to do some cooking!

Angel - have popped the recipie in the other thread. Hope Thomas has fun. Here half term is at the end of the month - maybe I could do the same. I will let you try it out with Thomas first, and you can let me know the amount of damages we are talking about.

[Angel]

Thanks Maureen. Will do! With the pair of them doing it the kitchen will look a bombsite!

[Maureen]

Thanks Maureen. Will do! With the pair of them doing it the kitchen will look a bombsite!

Hmm. Am I crazy for even considering this?

[Angel]

Maureen wrote

Hmm. Am I crazy for even considering this?

Probably!!

But, one has to suffer this torture to teach them how to cook!!! Still they enjoy it - thats the main thing :roll:

[Maureen]

Guys - anyone has a simple recipie for gingerbread men? :chatter: