[Yossarian]

unless of course you are Yossarian or Sloper and can pretend that you don't have a small army of cooks, butlers and maids to hand for your first culinary experiments.

I appear to have turned into Little Lord Fauntleroy...

[Houdini]

Great! 

Mine's a Warres '77 

[grumpycrumpy]

Warres '77 .... Unusual choice of a crisp white .....

[Houdini]

Ha-wah?

Yoss knows.

[Joepicalli]

Crisp white...with wild mushroom risotto Spare Me. Big red every time. The classic being Barolo but any Nebbiolo or weighty Piedmontese. I also find wm risotto is one of the best veggie matches with your best Bordeaux. (I can feel a discussion of veggie food for fine wines coming on on the fine wine thread, anyone?) 

[grumpycrumpy]

Strangely a nice semillion chardonnay works with a mushroom risotto .... And as white wine is already present in the dish a further white only succeeds in enhancing it .....

[grumpycrumpy]

Sorry that should be sauvignon ..... Haven't had a drink for a while and have started daydreaming .....

[Houdini]

I'd love to meet you halfway on the wine/veg food trip, Joe . . .  But I drink to get drunk, not to compliment my food.

 

[Joepicalli]

Not getting my head round the white and wild mushroom thing- practically all risottos have a half -glass or so of white as the first liquid added to the rice/onion mix it is traditional to use a very neutral white (until relatively recently all Italian white have been bone dry and neutral it was the way they liked it), and it is possible that a faint tang of something alcoholic remains, but by the time you have added a liter of stock, plus the mushrooms plus the dried porcini soaking mix (if you are not fortunate enough to have a selection of fresh wild mushrooms) the type of wine used is lost in the mists of time. I think the reason that wine is used at the start has nothing to do with taste but acts as a volatile liquid which will evaporate off quickly, reducing the temp of the ingredients so that the stock can be added with out it scalding.

[Houdini]

Delia uses madeira in her wild mushroom risotto, but dry white in another recipe.  Personally, I would never waste madeira in food . . .

 

[Joepicalli]

Houdini, from memory Delia uses madeira in an oven baked risotto. The reason I remember this is that she points out that it turned out that there is a ligurian rice dish which is similar and that her made up one was therefore somewhat authentic. The original dish was a childhood staple (the Picallis being of ligurian stock). If you oven bake your risotto you don't get that immediate rapid evaporation of cold liquid hitting hot pan so the flavour of the wine is retained in the risotto; thus it is woth using a strongly flavoured wine like madeira (I've done something similar using Marsala).
 

[Houdini]

Now Marsala I'll cook w/.   But not a superiore, that should be drunk.  I like the cremova (w/ egg variety) when cooking.  You are right about the oven baked risotto.  Never tried it, will soon.

[Fatleg]

Well well what a debate old Delia has sparked.
This board is probably mainly read by fit people who are interested as to what goes inside their bodies - and in the main will cook their food themselves often from scratch - thats a common thing about almost all people who participate at a reasonable to high level in any sport. So things like tinned mince fill us with horror - it must taste like dog food???

The vast majority of people in the UK eat shit  day in, day out. Delia is probably trying to make things easy for these people and at least introduce them to the concept of using a kitchen. Either that of she is trying to make even more cash.

The odd thing is, that in the past Delia's books have been pretty good. I've inherited a couple from elderly relatives - and granted some of the recipes are pretty old fashioned - but if you want to know how to make Apple crumble, Yorkshire puddings or similar traditional things there will be an easy to follow recipe using wholesome ingredients. I've not seen the new book but I would be interested to see what else is actually in there- just to see if all the dishes sound as horrid as cottage pie with tinned mince and potato.

[nik at work]

Wow, this has run a bit hasn't it?
I've just skimmed through so may have missed some points but here goes..
I don't hate Delia (beyond the desire to shoot her). I understand what she has contributed to UK cooking and whilst it's not to all tastes it has in the past represented honest grub. But this new series fucking stinks of a cash in.
Grumpycrumpy seemed to put it quite succinctly a couple of pages back so suffice it to say I agree with him (or her?).

And yes improving the standards of cookery in the average home would be a great aim, but I think she has seen the pot of cash and this has meant she missed to target completely.

So in summary lets shoot her.

[grumpycrumpy]

Not getting my head round the white and wild mushroom thing- practically all risottos have a half -glass or so of white as the first liquid added to the rice/onion mix it is traditional to use a very neutral white (until relatively recently all Italian white have been bone dry and neutral it was the way they liked it), and it is possible that a faint tang of something alcoholic remains, but by the time you have added a liter of stock, plus the mushrooms plus the dried porcini soaking mix (if you are not fortunate enough to have a selection of fresh wild mushrooms) the type of wine used is lost in the mists of time. I think the reason that wine is used at the start has nothing to do with taste but acts as a volatile liquid which will evaporate off quickly, reducing the temp of the ingredients so that the stock can be added with out it scalding.

Ah I see where  our  differences lie , I add the wine at the end of the process after all the stock has been absorbed ,  that was  the way I was first shown how to cook it and as it seemed to work I've stuck with it ..... Open to suggestions on other/better methods though ....

[andy_e]

And in other news- Four and twenty blackbirds "came out of a tin" according to Old Mother Delia