Be Excellent To Each Other

My girlfriend made me bin my basil plant.

It was practically a tree, to be fair. I bought another one. Won't let it get out of control this time. Probably.

Pinch the centre sprouts out of the main stem(s) when they get to "optimal" height - doing so forces it to sprout next to existing side-sprouts resulting in a bushier plant.

Works with chilli plants too; I really should do that, some of them are hitting 3 feet tall again.

Speaking of chillis, I can recommend Gusto Purple; it's running away with the abundance award this (shittily be-climated) year and gives a nice, slightly-fruity tingle from the compact fruit. Plus it's purple on the outside, white on the inside.

That looks like the one. Helen does it slightly differently though:

1) Slice the aubergines, drizzle/rub reasonably liberally on both sides with oil and place on baking trays in a single layer, and bake until browned and softened.
2) Make the tomato sauce by cooking a tin of tomatoes in a bit of olive oil, seasoned and with a few cloves of garlic (and no sugar).
3) Layer and bake as described.

It's stunning how much flavour and texture comes out of so few ingredients and such little effort. I don't even consider hiding chillis in it (any more).

I love it when this happens. Seems to be particularly common in Italian cooking. Tomato butter sauce is one of my favourite examples.

How many aubergines do you use to serve the two of you?

I've made that tomato butter sauce before. Fantastically simple.

The painful bit was taking that onion out at the end and throwing it away. But it totally did its job.

We do 48 med rare, 52 med, 60 med well 68+ well. Seem to me to look right. Pinkness and that. And touch too. I think it differs place to place.

Two "supermarket"-size ones and a 150g (or whatever the not-supermarket-brand-therefore-reasonably-sized one is) mozzarella ball should do* 4 servings. Four servings from only 100g means that recipe must be using pressed (or wrong). It's definitely implied by the 'or grated'.

* Never, ever does.

I bought three aubergines and 6 big-ish fresh tomatoes. I'll see how I get on with those proportons!

"Fatter".

So, I made this. The Silver Spoon one.

I cut the aubergine a bit thick to overlap the layers, and I didn't have a suitable sized pan[1] either, so we ended up forming them into stacks (like these rather than into the sort of pseudo-lasagna that seems to be more common. This naturally meant the beaten egg just run straight off and into the bottom of the pan, whereupon it baked into a sort of plain omelette with the stacks of aubergine/cheese/tomato poking out of the top. Still tasted good, but looked a bit weird. I do think the egg was a nice addition, however (although I found a number of recipes that left it out -- does Helen add egg, Bik?)

We didn't have enough parmigiano-reggiano, so I bulked it out with a dessicated lump of percorino I'd forgotten I had and this hard goat's cheese I bought on a whim (it's very parmesan-like). Also, I made the tomato sauce from scratch, including skinning and deseeding the tomatoes. Combined with the salting, resting, and frying of the aubergine, that was a bit of a long-winded faff for a weeknight where I originally planned to play videogames, not cook all night.

Edit -- I used two medium-sized aubergines (about 600 g total) and five big fresh tomatoes (about 500 g total). We felt the proportions were off and it needed more tomatoes.

[1] I need a lasagna pan. All my about-6"x9" baking dishes are no more than a couple of inches deep, which is too shallow, in my opinion. I prefer my lasagna taller.

Just so you know, my family force me to make that pulled pork on average about once a month. It'd probably be even more regular if I could face the hassle of getting the skin off a pork joint more often. I generally serve it with spicy "cajun" rice the day it's made, then in soft rolls with coleslaw the day after. Not only does it taste brilliant but it's relatively easy to make and uses super-cheap cuts of pork so yeah, cheers Craster.

Pulled pork really is basically one of the greatest things in civilisation.

Apparently it freezes really well. I'm going to do a big joint on the BBQ at some point -- 8-10 pounds or so.

The morning after when the alcohol has worn off must be a hell of a shock though.

I've done ordered a slow cooker from that there argos, and plan on doing this, so I'm just quoting to make it easy to find the recipe

Can I do all the prep tonight and put it in the fridge overnight, then just put the dish in the cooker and turn it on tomorrow morning?

Yep.

awesome.

Shut up shut up shut up.

Otherwise I'm going to end up doing pulled goat instead of curry goat.

Pulled curry goat.

HM.

I might give that pork a go. All the spoon measurements are tablespoons, right? With three different ways of writing it?

Yeah. Oddly.

Belm.

Anyone know a good recipe for sweet potato fries, when you don't have a deep fat fryer. The ones I do in the oven are more squidgy than crispy.

I'm pretty sure the moisture content is too high for them to ever properly crisp up. Even deep-fat fried ones would be a poor approximation. The suggestions that apply to potatoes probably apply to sweet potatoes too, mind - freeze then defrost, parboil before roasting etc.

I've never managed it in the oven; always softer than I wanted. I've sautéed them, with somewhat greater success.

Whenever I have tried in the oven they burn quicker than normal potatoes, the best results I have tried involve a lower heat (6or7) and frequent turning.

Malc

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/378235

A million different opinions and no consensus.

"Cut them into thick wedges or batonnet (classic fry)...Whichever you prefer. Soak in water for 5, 10 minutes...An hour...As long as they can soak for a bit. After soaking, dry thoroughly and preheat oven to 450F. In a bowl, combine 2 parts flour to 1 part cornstarch. Season with whatever you like...Chili Powder, brown sugar, garlic powder, jalapeno powder, salt, etc...In another bowl wide enough to fit your cut of fries, lightly beat together 3-4 egg whites (or more, depending) with some salt. Through some tabasco in there too if you like the heat.

Dredge the fries in the flour mixture - Shake off excess - Roll in egg whites and full cover. Place on a baking sheet with parchment paper and leave enough space between the fries. Bake and watch...10, 12, 15 minutes. Might have to turn them. If you're doing wedges, bake them skin side down on the pan and you shouldn't have to turn them at all."

This looks interesting though.

Tonight was my first attempt at velveted chicken. Huge success; succulent and tender stir fry.

What about the maelanzane?

I'm going back to Sicily a week on Monday.

I wrote about it a few posts back.

All ready to go. Smells very boozy at the moment, I think the wine I used was a bit too old and strong. Hopefully that'll cook off a lot tomorrow

oh yeah. I missed it somehow. Yes, Helen uses egg. When it stays where it's sposed, it helps the binding and texture.

it is Awesome, I think it will be a meal on Saturday or Sunday...

I'm goingto have to buy a slow cooker at this fucking rate.

It's easy enough to do in the oven. Just do it on about 100 and make sure you get a good seal on the lid - a pastry seal is ideal, or use foil. About 4-5 hours, I reckon.

I got a Breville 4.5L one for £20 from Argos.

http://www.tesco.com/direct/crock-pot-5 ... s_203-6527

This is mine, I used Tesco vouchers and got it for free.

Kate love the pulled pork, I thought it was ok...

Texture was great, but the sauce was a bit too "fruity" for my taste, it's certainly a good base to work from though. I might play around with some of the ingredients a bit.

A 4.5L one was £15 in Sainsburys last time we saw. More than enough for Crasterification.

You can put whatever on earth you like in the sauce. It's the long slow cooking time that makes it pulled pork.

There's no fruit in that sauce though, you mentalist.

It's a bloody good job the supermarkets are shut or I'd be off to buy a couple of kilos of pork about now.

I have 2 kilo of pork in the fridge now. About to put it on for 8 hours now

Objection! Tomato!

Grapes!

It was nice, i'm just not a huge fan of that type of sauce I'm going to go with something a lot more "smokey" and robust next time I think.

House smells of slow cooking pork now......

New idea!

PULLED PORK COOK-OFF!

At the cottage, obv.

Is the winner the one which hospitalises most people?

Need BBQ.

I don't know which lunatic genius first decided to put Parma ham with melon, but bloody well done to them!