Be Excellent To Each Other

I'd do anything for meat, but I won't do that.

So you only took a photo of it raw?

Home-cured and home-cooked salt beef!

:0)

How was it?

Laverly.

I overdid the spices a little though. I tend to be heavy handed with that sort of thing, but a nearly two weeks in the brine was long enough to impart a loooot of flavour into the meat. I'll be more gentle next time.

I had already received "The Look" for going that far. I decided not to push my luck. Besides, it pretty much looked exactly the same cooked, only browner.

What is the best* way to devein a prawn? Is there a chefs secret I'm unaware of? That's twice this week I've had to do a batch, first for jambalaya and tonight for steaks with tasty prawns. Was worth it though. Yum yum.
Also, while I'm here, when is Objection, Salad! coming to our screens? I'm fair looking forward to it, I love seeing Gaywood and Crasters food pics!
*quickest/most efficient

My method is cook, peel, try one, if it's a bit sandy/gritty then I'll devein the rest by running a knife up the dark intestine & wheech it out. Basically unless you care that much about their appearance then don't bother, unless of course they're full of grit

Help.

Today I decided to treat mummy to one of my roast dinners. This means very well cut perfectly rounded potatoes, roasted carrots, decored roast parsnips and all the trimmings. I went to the butchers and they had these absolutely fucking monstrous duck breasts for £9. However, upon returning home I realised that I had never cooked duck breast before and now I'm scared shitless at ruining £9 worth of bird.

Now the butcher reakons that I should criss cross slice the fat, rub rock salt into it to dry it somewhat then sear the fat semi crisping it and put it in the oven for 25 mins. However, after looking around it seems that people only cook it for 10 mins

I *don't* do my duck pink. I wants it well cooked..

Advise me do.

Well, 25 minutes would be pretty much well done, but check how your mum likes it cooked, because a well done duck breast is pretty much a shoe.

Yeah that's what concerned me. Mum likes hers chinese style (brown and well done) too. Duck is nice and fatty, doesn't need to be rare to be tender IMO..

I think I'll sear it in some butter and rosemary from the garden then pour the buttery rosemary over the tatties.

True of every bit except the breast, unfortunately, because the fat isn't 'in' the meat. Still, you know how you like it.

I'm not even sure what type it is. I wasn't aware there were loads..

Can't wait though.

As I made this again today I wish to share my incredibly easy creamed veg soup recipe. I apologise in advance for my total lack of conventional measurements. This will make two very large bowls.

6 medium sized carrots, one medium sized potato, a leek and a clove of garlic.
Chop roughly, and fry in a large glug of olive oil and a big dollop of butter for 5 mins to make them sweat and bring out the flavour.
1l of stock made with Marigold Swiss Vegetable Bouillon Powder* and add in a couple of drops of maggi concentrated seasoning*
Add herbs, salt, pepper. Bring to boil and simmer for 40 mins.
Blitz with a blender and add a large glug of milk, put back on heat for a bit but don't let it boil.
Serve.

*I cannot stress enough how amazing these two are for all your kitchen needs.

*The sound of Zardoz gnashing his teeth*

Do you lot not like the taste of meat then? You have to add all sorts of crap on it to make it taste "nice"?

I did 4 meats over christmas (pork, beef, lamb and turkey) and all of them were fine just on their own.

Malc

Cheeseburger, Malc-style:

Yes, that's right. The massive plethora of cooking styles over five different continents are predicated on people not liking the taste of the ingredients.

Next week, Malc wonders "Why would you want to do anything different when the missionary position is fine just on its own?"

Brilliant.

Play nice!

That's not the same at all. I like the taste of meat, I don't feel the need to add extra crap to it whilst cooking.

I mean I like the taste of weetabix too, should I go and add some tomato sauce to it just to liven it up?

most of the time the (traditional) reason that people added stuff to their meat was because it was bland meat, perhaps it was rat, or some other rodent, but if you're eating nice meat in the first place, just enjoy the taste of it!

Malc

Life is full of things we don't need to do. We do them for interest, and variety.

You didn't need to cook that beef joint, but I'm guessing you did, because that's how you prefer it. Did you put gravy on it, serve it with trimmings? Seriously, do you not eat things that involve combining ingredients at all?

You seem to be advocating a shockingly boring approach to life, here.

Add to that the fact that you don't always know if you're getting a nice bit of meat until after you've used that butcher/supermarket range a few times.

Malc -- are you one of those people who, presented with a cooked dinner, eats all the peas, then all the carrots, then all the potatoes, then all the meat? And do you never combine elements on your fork? Do you season anything?

I'm one of those. I'm not much of a food-lover though.

Malc is exceptionally fussy with food, from what I recall of speaking to him, so I wouldn't bother arguing with him on this

Dinner last night; Beef Casserole, braised red cabbage, home baked bread and far too much wine.

It was lovely and well worth the four hour wait for the casserole. I was most pleased with the cabbage dish. I had to improvise a recipe as we had no apples or red onions, both of which seemed to be the staple in every recipe I could find. I used cabbage, white onion, sultanas, Muscovado sugar, balsamic vinegar, red wine and a knob of butter and crossed my fingers. Turned out very well indeed. I will certainly be making it again but would will try and remember to buy red onions and apples and see how it turns out.

mostly yes, and I don't really season anything.

I don't like spicy food, (BBQ sauce is too hot for me 90% of the time) and I'm very funny when it comes to textures.

However, I can understand that others like things that I don't, but what I don't get is the need to season ALL the time, I have a girlfriend whose parents were from the West Indies, and she loves her spicy foods. In the past at christmas we've had two different meals. I do a traditional turkey and stuff (just no gravy) and she did spicy chicken and rice and peas.

Two years ago it was decided that I would do the traditional christmas meal on christmas day, and she would do her meal on boxing day (her sisters tend to come to us over christmas). They were all moaning that it would be really bland, but they enjoyed it so much (as I cooked them really well!) that they wanted to do the same last year. They were so used to having seasoned meat they'd forgoten just how nice meat can be on its own. I think a lot of people do that these days...

And that's all I'm suggesting really, people should give meat (on it's own) a chance

Malc

I will be the first to agree that a nice piece of meat, cooked simply, can be beautiful on its own.

But you didn't say that. You said that using other ingredients means that you don't like the taste of meat, or that you are trying to mask the taste of rotten meat - which is an idiotic assertion.

That duck was fucking amazing. I could have eaten a metric ton of the crispy fat

Gave it 15 mins in the end. Very very light brown all the way through and the most gorgeous liquid came out when carved.

Oddly when I got them out (ooer) they were fucking huge. So we only needed one.

Up next - duck in ginger sauce with egg fried rice

Oh and hoorah for goose fat. Fucking wonderful stuff (and not just for swimming the channel either !)

Nice one.

Goose fat is ace for roast potatoes.

My last set of goose fat potatoes proved categorically that you can have too much of a good thing. My last batch, by comparison, where entirely roasted in the meat dripping. Even more flavoursome than goose fat.

Stop. Right. There.

You have no place in a food thread.

WTF? Weetabix are awesome.

Eurgh. No.

See, that's a step too far for me. Miss Malabar likes to baste the potatoes with the meat juices, but they end up tasting a bit too much like the meat itself then. I much prefer them to taste like potatoes, but I'm very particular about how they should feel and taste ( )

Today I made a Lamb & Veg Achar curry. It has a tangy sour taste through the use of lemon juice (or in my case lime juice) and it went down a fucking treat. No pics sorry.

Funnily enough, my wife made braised red cabbage tonight to go with the pork tenderloin we were having. I must admit to not being a cabbage fan really, but it was ace stuff - sweet and tangy and really tasty.

Anyone read this yet?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0596805888/

It's all about cooking with, like, science and shit. Plus it has graphs.

You can probably pirate a PDF version if you want to see what it's like before you buy it.

WTF is a maker?

One who makes.

Yeah, there's some pretty interesting stuff in there. Doc went a step beyond that this Christmas, with this:

McGee on Food and Cooking

And I've gone for a step further still with this:

Modernist Cuisine

£300.47!

It's six books. The Encyclopaedia Brittanica of Food Science.

http://modernistcuisine.com/

That's £50 each. It needs to be sixty books.

You wouldn't understand.

I know I should be slapped for posting about something so obsenely basic but I just had to share this one. I think I have found my new misstress.

Now what with me being mildly autistic I love repetition. So much so that for four years I have had the same sandwich, with the same ingredients, every single night (unless I have been away from home). This consists of -

Turkey slices.
A slice of Red Leicester.
A squirt of light mayo.
A roasted pepper.
On brown bread.

Sadly though the fridge has taken a shit so I had to dig into the cupboards.

Hmm.. I wonder what a PB&J with fluff would taste like? or a fluffernutter with jam/jelly? Only one way to find out !





Ir probably has about a zillion calories in but tbh? it's worth it

, and double

Crazy wanker.

I didn't make this but it deserves a special mention in this thread. It's a mixed grill kebab, tandoori chicken and lamb covered in chili and garlic sauce wrapped in a naan bread. To be honest this is exactly half a kebab Ill be having the rest for supper. Immense value for £5.45