[SA Chris]

..but what about the dried piece of meat??

Boom tish. I set them up, you nod them home, you goalhanger you.

Although the dried piece of meat joke could be extended, let's not go there.

[SA Chris]

She doesn't hang round Bristol occasionally does she?  Told me to go in and do Shape Up once when we'd never been down t'leap before. 

Not guilty m'lud. She's only ever been to North Pembs.

I'll embace any delicacy although I've never been a great egg fan at the best of times, I have given haggis (normal and veggie), black pudding, white pudding, cockles etc a go, and rate them. Draw the line at offal like tripe etc, and cod roe though.

[Bonjoy]

What about flash fried herring milts? Pretty tasty if you ignore what you're actually eating

[SA Chris]

Mustard mitt I had to google to find out what milt is. Doesn't sound very nice at all, but in the interests of embacing gourmandie I would have to try it should the opportunity arise.

[jfw]

had to google to find out what milt is.

me too good grief, how do they, ahem, extract it??

[soapy]

oh jfw,


don't go all shy shy shy now




just spit in a teacup

[LucyB]

I've been doing the wildstar food vegi box thing, it's been great so far.

However, this week I have a bucket load of sprouts.

What am I going to do with them? Although we do now eat meat, our diet is still mainly veggy style pasta/ risotto type stuff. How am I ever going to persuade the big lad to eat sprouts?? They taste like boiled poo.

Anyone got any recipes that make sprouts palatable?

[Paz]

The only one I've seen on the telly is to a) not over cook them and b) drizzle them with a bit of ginger and mustard seeds fried in oil just after draining. 

[SA Chris]

me too good grief, how do they, ahem, extract it??

Would have thought that as they have no external genitals and fins, they would be happy to let anyone who knows how do it for them.

[chappers]

I have a bucket load of sprouts.

What am I going to do with them?

shred them finely (in a machine).

In a wok: fry off some good quality dry cure streaky bacon (small dice), chuck in the shredded sprouts, stirfry like mad. then throw in some pine nuts that you have been toasting in a dry heavy pan, (optional: glug of double cream and a grate of nut meg) - some liberal seasoning (rick stein style).

sprouts dont need to be boiled! (disclaimer: they will still make you fart whatever you do with them).

[chappers]

Or alternatively…make shed loads of bubble and squeek. No self-respecting men will turn that down.
Ramsay’s “Sunday lunch” book has more stuff to do with them, ill dig it out tonight and get back to you…

[LucyB]

Great ideas, chappers! I discovered a similar recipe using cabbage, bacon and pine nuts (I wasn't that keen on cabbage either), served with risotto.

I doubt it'll make much difference on the farting front, our house is always pretty bad!!

[jfw]

hey lucy - thanks for being my slab guru at cratclif - still yet to go back and finish that egg problem

i looked at the website for your box company - and they say on their FAQ page that if you hate sprouts - you don't have to have them!!

also saw this and thought of you

jo

[Paz]

I love how lots of standard recipies that try to make vegetables exciting, basically either fry them, curry them, or serve them with meat.  Veggies wrapped in bacon?  I'll have the bacon for breakfast and you can keep the veg for the minute thanks.

I'd go with understanding the standard 6 basic flavours - salt, sour, sweet, bitter, heat and spice, plus maybe texture, to correct or balance or contrast the flavours in any dish.  MSG's `umami' is the seventh (I think, but I could be forgetting something) but I can't taste that, I only notice it by its residue at the bottom of your Chinese tray. 

As well as my previously disclosed Mackeson's tip, something else I learnt off my grandparents is the following:  Chip shop malt vinegar costs 30 pence maximum and goes with anything, especially greens.  Balsamic, red wine, white wine, cider, and raspberry(!wtf) vinegars are nice but are basically over priced poncy condiments if all you want is zing. 

[Bonjoy]

 Paz, Paz, Paz, what an ugly world you live in. -Using none-brewed condiment instead of balsamic is on a par with using ready grated 'smelly-sock' parmesan in a tub rather than the real stuff. One will make a good meal the other will ruin one.

[jfw]

but it is good on chip-shop chips!

balsamic all the way for salad dressing though, most people bring back wine from france - but i also have to go looking for olive oil, balsamic vinegar and dark chocolate.

0.39 euro  for a bar of 72% dark chocolate (carrefour's own) - equivalent to tescos version - which costs 90p a bar - and i only bought 10 bars!!!!! 

was buying in a rush on the way to the ferry - hadn't yet tried the cocolate so figured if it was bad - i could give it away as xmas presents - needless to say i've been back about 2 weeks and i'm well on the way to having noshed the lot! 

[Paz]

If I'd never seen such riches I could live with being poor.

Alright then, you don't have to put it on your strawberries, or even on your salads, not that I'd be very upset if I had to use normal vinegar in a salad dressing.  But in spag bol or dahl, it'll cook out anyway and you've got that many other strong flavour's in there, you won't notice.   

I'm there on the Dark Chocolate front.  The number of so called `chocoholics' who don't like Dark Chocolate beggars belief.  I had this 99% stuff once, with an essay in french on the inside. I liked to think it told you `Don't stick it all in your mouth at once dick head' but it was just waxing lyrical in a Gallic fashion, about how good the chocolate was and why you should appreciate it, and take dainty bites. 
It's not organic, and it's not fair trade, but if I'm not going to buy Green and Black's which unless it's on BOGOFF I'm not, the nicest cheaper stuff I can find is in Lidl.  It's from various plantations, like Ecuador, Madagascar but The Amazon's the nicest eating strength one (that's the green one). 

[LucyB]

still yet to go back and finish that egg problem

Would it be possible to harness the power of a fart to help propel you up a slab?  Perhaps you could try eating more sprouts

The only reason I ended up with the dreaded small green food items is because they mixed up my box order one week, so sent me a freebie the next week which was nice.

As to balsamic vinegar, of course it tastes different to the chip shop stuff - its made of different stuff. Heres a lovely recipe for green beans:
Fry some onion, add a little sugar until it caramelises. Add some balsamic vinegar, then a tin of tomatoes and some torn basil leaves. Add some blanched green beans, simmer for 10 minutes. Add some chopped black olives, simmer for another 10 minutes.

Just wouldn't be the same with chip shop vinegar.

[Sloper]

I've just had a decent delivery of foie gras, and can recommend stuffing a phesant breast with F-G, wrapping in pastry and serving with puy lentils (cooked with some stock and then fried with pancetta and butter).

Ps is there a reason I'm not losing any weight?

[soapy]

yes slopes, i believe shit weighs more than either fat or muscle..










fistive greetings btw 

[Paz]

That Bean recipie - you won't taste the Balsamic after you've simmered it for twenty minutes unless you have a shit load.

I think this is also symptomatic of people's desire to ponce about with veg recipies when they should be sorting out the main and not creating so much washing up.  Even given that few of us make pastry in the first place - who in their right mind is going to put veg in it instead of chocolate?

Where's the wad called Saltbeef?  I've just got some salt beef today and it's awesome - I'm adding it to my Really Good Things To Eat With Beer List, which up until now has mainly consisted of fried or pickled products. 

In the same butcher's they have heart and about three different livers.  Now I've tried many diffferent liver methods (not chicken) and not overcooked it the best I can, and unless it comes straight out of your own pig, the best recipie I can come up with is to leave it in the shop.  Whatever you do with it it's still Liver.  But heart - what the hell do you do with that?

[moose]

saltbeef.... sounds good: is it similar to beef-jerky.  If it is a whole new taste sensation does anyone know of any supermarkets / online places that sell it?  I recently got around to actually tasting some of the jerky I had accumulated in my cupboard (presumably in the event of a nuclear war judging by the quantity) and was pleasantly surprised.  Like more-ish shoe leather... though to be honest you could dip pretty much anthing in a soy-sauce type marinade and I'd like it.

[SA Chris]

As mentioned earlier, if you like beef jerky, you will love biltong. Go forth and seek, you will not be disappointed.

[Paz]

Saltbeef's not dry and hard like Biltong/ Jerky etc.  It's more like ham made of beef, way way better than corned beef, and pleasantly salty like I'm guessing Salt cod or Salt ling is like (I can't eat 'em). 

[SA Chris]

I know; salbeef is not far from pastrami (another of my faves)?

Just saying biltong is much nicer than jerky.