Topic: A Cooking Thread? (Read 472252 times)

dr. nervioso · « **Reply #1150 on:** 03 May 2012, 14:28 »

Just looked black pudding up- it sounds interesting. Though I wonder what ittastes like with all the add ins and blood in it. I assume it has blood in it, since it is also called a blood sausage.

schimmy · « **Reply #1151 on:** 03 May 2012, 14:33 »

It is pretty much just a sausage made out of blood clot.* It is absolutely fucking delicious. I can't think how to describe it to the uninitiated. I guess it tastes like a really rich sausage? Very salty.

*My knowledge of how they are made is not necessarily completely accurate.

pwhodges · « **Reply #1152 on:** 03 May 2012, 14:39 »

It's really good stuff, but maybe an acquired taste (but then, isn't anything? - we just acquire most tastes in childhood). The best comes from Bury market - and I have a friend who lives in the outskirts of Bury

Of course, there's also a Bavarian blood sausage (Blutwurst).

dr. nervioso · « **Reply #1153 on:** 03 May 2012, 14:43 »

Yeah the saltiness is why I don't think I would like it. I really dislike th salty taste, Also the knowledge that I am eating blood. Now I know that meat is just as bad, but it's easier to remove myself from that thought when I am eating just regular meat. I don't think I can do that with blood

pwhodges · « **Reply #1154 on:** 03 May 2012, 14:48 »

Gravy is blood sauce. Also, I wouldn't say that all black pudding is violently salty - I'm happy with it, and as a preference I use no salt at all either in cooking or as a condiment.

LTK · « **Reply #1155 on:** 03 May 2012, 14:51 »

Baked a ham-and-cheese omelette for dinner. I think three eggs is one too many for one serving, because the topside stays slightly too runny when the bottom starts to brown, and I couldn't eat all of it, but it was still palatable. It's the quickest and easiest dinner I know how to make; beat a few eggs with a generous heap of grated cheese, pour it in a pan and lay a few slices of ham on top once it's a bit solid. Sometimes I do the same with slices of smoked salmon.

Scrambled eggs I don't really like, and poached eggs I need to try sometime. I fry eggs over hard and boil them hard. Tell me, what else is there to do with eggs?

pwhodges · « **Reply #1156 on:** 03 May 2012, 15:04 »

Soak bread in beaten egg and fry it (French toast).
Mix up eggs with crumbled bread (including crust) and fry the mixture in bacon fat; eat with the bacon (eggy bread).
Soufflés of various sorts.
Learn to like omelettes that still have part of the egg runny; it's their essence - to make an omelette, start frying in a little hot fat, then as soon as a layer forms (i.e. immediately), push it together into a wrinkled heap and tilt the pan to let more runny egg onto the pan, repeating continuously until there is a mass of cooked layers glistening with runny egg but no more running out (no more than a minute or so); flip over at the end for a few seconds to brown the top (did I mention that the pan must be really quite hot to do this). Adding cheese or tomatoes makes it much harder to do right, but finely chopped ham, mushroom, or herbs are fine. Eat quickly before the moist but not runny layers harden.

schimmy · « **Reply #1157 on:** 03 May 2012, 15:12 »

I've never heard that referred to as eggy bread before? Eggy bread in my experience is just a colloquial term for French Toast.

dr. nervioso · « **Reply #1158 on:** 03 May 2012, 15:16 »

Hard boiled eggs
There are some other less popular ways to cook eggs, but I have not tried them.
Now you can make more complicated stuff with eggs, which really aren't plain eggs anymore. Like egg custard, egg sandwiches, pickled egg, sometimes their even eaten raw in Japan with rice.

There's also this, if you're feeling kinky:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_boy_egg

pwhodges · « **Reply #1159 on:** 03 May 2012, 15:18 »

Quote from: schimmy on 03 May 2012, 15:12

I've never heard that referred to as eggy bread before? Eggy bread in my experience is just a colloquial term for French Toast.

The terms are not well defined - I distinguish as described; the results are quite distinct, so I find it useful to be clear in my mind.

schimmy · « **Reply #1160 on:** 03 May 2012, 15:37 »

To the whole "egg recipes" thing, just plain old hard boiled egg with mayo is a delicious accompaniment to any cold meal.

I'd never even heard of what you refer to as eggy bread before. However, it sounds exceedingly delicious, and I will definitely try it when I get the chance.

Papersatan · « **Reply #1161 on:** 03 May 2012, 17:28 »

Re: eggy bread. I would think of Challah.

lepetitfromage · « **Reply #1162 on:** 03 May 2012, 17:52 »

Quote from: pwhodges on 03 May 2012, 14:48

Gravy is blood sauce.

I've never thought of it that way! Hmmmm....

My favorite things to do with eggs are omelets with broccoli and cheddar (mmmmm), egg salad (i love it with lots of celery) and fried rice- obviously not as "eggy" but still has them in it.

I also saw something on Pinterest that was quite tasty- biscuit, egg and bacon in muffin tins. They're pretty good.

dr. nervioso · « **Reply #1163 on:** 03 May 2012, 19:45 »

Well then! It would seem that I am in a cooking mood today!
I just made scones. They turned out fairly well, but I lacked enough cream, so I ended up using half and half. And my currants disappeared, so I had to use raisins (which I don't really like in a scone but ah well). However, I was able to scrounge up some white chocolate chips, so that was cool. I just wished the scones looked like triangles, but ah well.

I also got an idea for a recipe, an oatmeal scone with raisins and milk chocolate chips. I do hpe to make that someday, but from what I have read, oatmeal scones are difficult to make well.

Carl-E · « **Reply #1164 on:** 03 May 2012, 19:54 »

Blutwurst! Paul, you've taken me back to my childhood - there was this German buthcher in the little Hudson river village where I grew up. My father loved the place, and introduced us to bockwurst (in spring), blutwurst, something he called sousse-salad (emphasis on the last syllable), which was actually head cheese, liverwurst (of course), and more that I can't even name. Oh, and the best frankfurters in the world. This guy made them all with meats from local farms.

*sigh*

OK, eggs. Does no one do soft-boiled? When I was a kid, my mom chopped them up in a bowl for us (no egg cups). I still like 'em that way, or over easy. Then there's the toad-in-the-hole, where you cut the center out of a piece of bread, set it in a hot pan with butter, and break an egg into the hole. Flip when cooked enough that the white's mostly solid, longer if you don't like runny yolk (like any fried egg). Voila! Buttered toast and egg together. I usually put the cutout part of the bread in the pan as well...

LTK · « **Reply #1165 on:** 04 May 2012, 00:03 »

Quote from: Carl-E on 03 May 2012, 19:54

Then there's the toad-in-the-hole, where you cut the center out of a piece of bread, set it in a hot pan with butter, and break an egg into the hole. Flip when cooked enough that the white's mostly solid, longer if you don't like runny yolk (like any fried egg). Voila! Buttered toast and egg together. I usually put the cutout part of the bread in the pan as well...

I know that one as 'egg in a basket'. V served it to Evey for breakfast in V for Vendetta. I wanted to make it as soon as I watched that.

MrBlu · « **Reply #1166 on:** 04 May 2012, 02:19 »

This thread needs more pictures.

(aka "Fuck Yeah, I'm a Chef")

Redball · « **Reply #1167 on:** 04 May 2012, 05:11 »

Aren't these supposed to be accompanied by recipes?

lepetitfromage · « **Reply #1168 on:** 04 May 2012, 11:19 »

Quote from: Carl-E on 03 May 2012, 19:54

Then there's the toad-in-the-hole, where you cut the center out of a piece of bread, set it in a hot pan with butter, and break an egg into the hole. Flip when cooked enough that the white's mostly solid, longer if you don't like runny yolk (like any fried egg). Voila! Buttered toast and egg together. I usually put the cutout part of the bread in the pan as well...

Yesssss, those are delicious! A friend of mine introduced me to what we dubbed "Pankeggs": a similar idea to toad-in-the-hole, but you start out by frying the egg and then when it's firmed up, pour pancake batter over top. The absolute BEST hangover food.

Sorflakne · « **Reply #1169 on:** 04 May 2012, 17:08 »

Making chili for the first time. It's a beanless recipe, since I hate beans.

dr. nervioso · « **Reply #1170 on:** 04 May 2012, 19:35 »

I hate beans normally too, but they do add something to chili.
And I am a huge chili fan. How exactly are you making it? (seasoning, ingredients, etc.)

Mister D Nomms · « **Reply #1171 on:** 04 May 2012, 22:56 »

After playing Metal Gear Solid 4, I decided to try sunny side up eggs. They're my favorite eggs now. Barely cooked.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #1172 on:** 05 May 2012, 00:26 »

I made curry last night by chopping up an onion, a courgette, a carrot, some purple sprouting broccoli and some potatoes, putting them with some red lentils, water and curry paste into my slow cooker, and leaving the whole thing for five hours. I think it could have done with an hour or two longer, or maybe less water, because it ended up being more like a sort of curried stew, but it was delicious. Served it with inauthentic co-op poppadums and wilted spinach to my incredibly sleep-deprived dissertation-writing friend.

lepetitfromage · « **Reply #1173 on:** 07 May 2012, 10:09 »

.......I don't know if this belongs in here or "Confessions", but I genuinely thought that a courgette was something that was not real and simply "invented" by the folks behind Neopets. It was only after Googling it that I discovered I eat them all the time and just call them by a different name. I also had no idea what a poppadum was. The internet is a wondrous place.

Carl-E · « **Reply #1174 on:** 07 May 2012, 10:29 »

It's the world that's wondrous. The initernet just lets you see it.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #1175 on:** 07 May 2012, 10:44 »

Glad to have enlightened you! Courgettes are marvellous. I have never quite got into calling them zucchinis, I always think of zambonis.

Tonight I'm having garlic and spinach spaghetti, because those are the foods I have in.

lepetitfromage · « **Reply #1176 on:** 07 May 2012, 11:05 »

Indeed, Carl-E...indeed.

I don't have a clue about what I'm doing for dinner, I totally forgot to take anything out of the freezer to defrost while I'm at work. I might end up making spaghetti too!

LTK · « **Reply #1177 on:** 07 May 2012, 11:20 »

Quote from: lepetitfromage on 07 May 2012, 10:09

.......I don't know if this belongs in here or "Confessions", but I genuinely thought that a courgette was something that was not real and simply "invented" by the folks behind Neopets. It was only after Googling it that I discovered I eat them all the time and just call them by a different name. I also had no idea what a poppadum was. The internet is a wondrous place.

Hah, imagine that. I thought the same thing about sporks.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #1178 on:** 07 May 2012, 11:46 »

Mmmmmm that was delicious! I boiled some spaghetti, sauted a clove of garlic in butter, added a bunch of spinach and then served it up with a bit of grated cheese. Fast, simple and so tasty. I have found my new go-to meal!

doombilly · « **Reply #1179 on:** 07 May 2012, 12:26 »

Hi, my name is Eric. I've been cooking since I was a wee lad. First thing I ever wanted to be was a chef. I really should have gone down that path.
Also, who likes pizza?

I think this is feta, clam, olive, onion, spinach?

Mister D Nomms · « **Reply #1180 on:** 07 May 2012, 14:44 »

I like pizza, but I've never liked clams. Spinach, tomato, and feta are really good on pizza.

The Seldom Killer · « **Reply #1181 on:** 07 May 2012, 22:58 »

Carl-E - I'm afraid I feel strongly compelled to correct you on a point. Toad in the hole doesn't contain any bread. Instead it is sausages cooked in Yorkshire Pudding batter.

Prick some good quality sausages and lay them out in a roasting tin oiled well with sunflower/vegetable oil (don't use olive oil, it's inappropriate for this) and put in an oven heated to 200c for twenty minutes. Pour in your batter and tip the pan to ensure equal coverage (you should have enough to reach almost half way up the sausages) and cook for another twenty minutes. Serve in single sausage slices with veg and gravy (which isn't really blood sauce).

pwhodges · « **Reply #1182 on:** 07 May 2012, 23:21 »

Gravy.

Type (a): Get a packet or bottle labelled "gravy" and follow instructions.

Type (b): Roast a joint and remove to carving disk. In the roasting pan remains the fat and (cooked and reduced) blood that have dripped out during cooking. Skim off excess fat. Add flour to make a roux. Add water from the cooked vegetables or other vegetable stock while cooking on the hob until the appropriate consistency. If more blood has dripped from the joint while resting, add that too. Hence "blood sauce".

Historical note on Yorkshire Pudding. Originally this was not made as separate rounds. The joint was cooked on bars, and the batter was in a pan below. The juices dripped from the joint into the batter to flavour it; a sort of solid gravy, I suppose you could say! Serving a solid meat-flavoured batter with it helped a small joint to go further. The relationship with (correct) Toad in the Hole is obvious, too.

Barmymoo · « **Reply #1183 on:** 08 May 2012, 01:32 »

Vegetarian gravy: get gravy granules. Heat vegetable stock. Stir granules into vegetable stock. Delicious sauce for your Sunday roast.

Alternative vegetarian gravy: fry onions. Do some kind of magic with flour and yeast extract (I have never actually managed to make this work). Add milk or something.

pwhodges · « **Reply #1184 on:** 08 May 2012, 02:40 »

Cut the oinons into thin rings, but not more. Fry gently in a suitable vegetable oil (e.g. rape oil, which in the UK is sold as cheap generic oil, but is actually one of the better ones to use for many things) until wilted, then good and hot so that they brown and start to caramelise. Take off the heat for a moment and then sprinkle the flour over the oily onions through a sieve; stir to combine the flour with the fat (forming a roux). Then stir in the stock starting slowly to avoid lumps forming, and heat again to thicken. I don't imagine it matters when you add the yeast extract.

Redball · « **Reply #1185 on:** 08 May 2012, 03:41 »

Whoever criticized British cooking deserves to be severely chastised. It's 6:30 a.m. here and I'm lusting for roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. My wife made it often in the 70s and 80s.

schimmy · « **Reply #1186 on:** 08 May 2012, 03:47 »

That's what I miss most about living with my mum - she makes the most magnificent roast dinners every Sunday. The only point of contention is that she refuses to serve Yorkshire puddings with anything other than roast beef. Everyone else (barring her husband) would rather that yorkshires were included in every meal.

Papersatan · « **Reply #1187 on:** 08 May 2012, 03:49 »

I am not generally allowed to talk about gravy, for the sake of cross Mason-Dixion line relations but,

Flour gravy all the way home. I was raised on gravy made in the pan from the drippings with flour. Then I got this damn allergy and found out other people were using cornstarch to thicken gravy. booo, no, what? packets also usually contain cornstarch.

The north and south can agree on this one thing, surely, gravy is thickened with flour.

Redball · « **Reply #1188 on:** 08 May 2012, 04:03 »

My wife came from Nashville. Her mom put bacon fat in lots of things, including what Clara called southern fried corn: corn sliced a little high off the ear to slice through the kernels, the remainder then scraped off with the back of the knife, the corn then thickened in a skillet (not truly fried) and with enough bacon fat to give it a great meaty taste. I still have some corn in the freezer. It just needs a little bacon fat to see if it's survived.

What other UK delicacies? I need a travel excuse. Are there still potato pubs there? Regional specialties in Cornwall if I should wish to visit the Doc Martin location? Wales if I want to hear good singing?

pwhodges · « **Reply #1189 on:** 08 May 2012, 04:08 »

Quote from: schimmy on 08 May 2012, 03:47

Everyone else (barring her husband) would rather that yorkshires were included in every meal.

Yorkshire puddings with other meats is a recent innovation, in my experience. I don't object to it, but they still work best with beef, I feel.

Papersatan · « **Reply #1190 on:** 08 May 2012, 04:16 »

If there is no roast, just make popovers.

<3 Yorkshire pudding and popovers.

pwhodges · « **Reply #1191 on:** 08 May 2012, 04:30 »

Quote from: Redball on 08 May 2012, 04:03

What other UK delicacies? I need a travel excuse. Are there still potato pubs there? Regional specialties in Cornwall if I should wish to visit the Doc Martin location? Wales if I want to hear good singing?

You shouldn't need an excuse to visit the UK; we have the greatest variety of landscape plus a huge amount of history in conveniently sized island.

I don't know the term "potato pub", though it is not uncommon for pubs to serve baked potatoes with a variety of fillings. But I would judge a pub by its Ploughman's. This should be good sharp cheddar cheese, a hunk of white bread, and brown pickle. Fripperies like butter for the bread, salad, or pieces of apple to contrast with the cheese are OK, but only so long as they don't obscure the quality (and quantity!) of the basics. The "cheese pub" in Didsbury (South Manchester) serves little else, except that the main cheese is Lancashire, with a choice of "crumbly" or "creamy"; the quantities served are such that they also provide doggy-bags. For some reason, Lancashire cheese does not travel well - eat it locally.

Cornwall - Cornish pasties, of course.

Look for a wide variety of stews and pies with stew-like fillings: Lancashire hotpot, steak and kidney pudding, etc. Around the coast especially, lots of fresh fish, whether as fish and chips (hard to beat, really - the best I've ever had was in Whitstable in Kent) or some kind of fish pie, or as soup (e.g. Cullen Skink). Kippers for breakfast; Arbroath smokies - similar, but haddock rather than herring.

Puddings and cakes I don't have time to go on to right now - but right now I fancy an Eccles cake!

Barmymoo · « **Reply #1192 on:** 08 May 2012, 06:03 »

Cornwall also does the best ice cream outside of Italy and possibly even then. And cream teas (go to both Cornwall and Devon to compare).

I don't know a lot about Welsh traditional food but the leek is their national vegetable so that's a good start.

If you go to any decent pub, you will discover traditional English food. If you go to the Golden Ball Hotel in Boxworth, Cambridgeshire, you will discover traditional English food at its finest.

Carl-E · « **Reply #1193 on:** 08 May 2012, 06:10 »

Quote from: Redball on 08 May 2012, 03:41

Whoever criticized British cooking deserves to be severely chastised. It's 6:30 a.m. here and I'm lusting for roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. My wife made it often in the 70s and 80s.

My dad would make killer Yorkshire puddings with his roast beefs (beef roasts?). And we spooned the pan drippings over it, delightful!
Been 30 years sice he made that... and I just have no idea. We don't do roast beef 'round here (my wife can't stand it), so I've never had the opportunity.

*sigh*

Well, off to work...

doombilly · « **Reply #1194 on:** 08 May 2012, 06:39 »

Quote from: Papersatan on 08 May 2012, 03:49

I am not generally allowed to talk about gravy, for the sake of cross Mason-Dixion line relations but,

Flour gravy all the way home. I was raised on gravy made in the pan from the drippings with flour. Then I got this damn allergy and found out other people were using cornstarch to thicken gravy. booo, no, what? packets also usually contain cornstarch.

The north and south can agree on this one thing, surely, gravy is thickened with flour.

This.
It is this simple. 50/50 fat to flour ratio. Brown flour in fat. Add cool liquid slowly while stirring to make gravy.
Corn Starch, I only find that acceptable to thicken Chinese sauces. That is what you find in most all "gravy packets." It works. But meh.
I've done Standing Rib Roast with the pudding under catching the drippings. It really is wonderful. If you are a carnivore.

Redball · « **Reply #1195 on:** 08 May 2012, 07:32 »

Quote from: Carl-E on 08 May 2012, 06:10

My dad would make killer Yorkshire puddings with his roast beefs (beef roasts?).]

Roasts beef? Like attorneys-general and mothers in law? But probably not bloodys mary.

pwhodges · « **Reply #1196 on:** 08 May 2012, 07:37 »

Roast beef - as a mass noun-phrase.

LTK · « **Reply #1197 on:** 08 May 2012, 08:24 »

Like roast sheep!

(That was unfortunate.)

idontunderstand · « **Reply #1198 on:** 08 May 2012, 08:26 »

Since Bounty is about the only candy bar I'll ever touch, my girlfriend baked me a Bounty cake for my birthday. Think the original recipe is from that Nigella show, but she won't tell me. Recommended, I never want to eat anything else again.

Carl-E · « **Reply #1199 on:** 08 May 2012, 09:07 »

Had to google it - not available in the US (too similar to Hershey's Mounds).

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Author Topic: A Cooking Thread? (Read 472252 times)