Bloody superb-cook in goose fat with Garlick and Rosemary. Squash em to increase surface area. Best Christmas dinner I have had in years. See Channel 4 website for proper details.
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Bloody superb-cook in goose fat with Garlick and Rosemary. Squash em to increase surface area. Best Christmas dinner I have had in years. See Channel 4 website for proper details.
Sorry-move to food thread please mods.
Yep, Jerry, they're excellent! Did you try the goose to go with them? ;)
Honestly, roast goose is *the* best thing you can have for Christmas day. It knocks bland, boring, turkey (even the best free-range stuff) into a cocked hat!!
All you need to do is use a decent butcher and order it well in advance... We usually order ours at the end of September! :eyebrows:
Marco.
We normally go for a capon but couldn't get one this year so just a boring turkey. Did Jamies roast veg as well. He knows his stuff that lad.
This xmas dinner was much better than the last few years 'cos my wife cooked it instead of us going to the in-laws who dont believe in experimenting at all.
Anyway we are about to sit ten people down today to beef in beer with sweet potato chips. My job is to stack the chips up in a vertical lattice. :lol:
Haha... Love it! :eyebrows:
I hope your meal goes well for you - sounds nice.
Do try a goose next year; honestly it'll blow your mind (if it's cooked properly with all the fat rendered down) and you'll never eat turkey again! ;)
Historically, goose is the (genuinely) traditional meat to eat on Christmas day in Britain - turkey is a bloody American 'invention'!
Del's posting her recipe for the perfect roast goose later for anyone who'd like to try it :)
Marco.
As my wife keeps reminding me, I am now officially obese - the damage having been done since 1st Jan 2008 when I quit the ciggies - 4 stone later, I need to do something!
So, no more treats, and lots of healthy meals - Sue made a great impromptu meal last night - Sea Bass with a mature cheddar tomato, herb, garlic and caper crust (as simple as it sounds - put some chopped tinned tomatoes on the fish fillets, grate some bread on top mixed with a small amount of mature cheddar cheese and garlic, sprinkle with herbs and add some capers. Served with a vegetable medley of leaks, broccoli and carrots in the rest of the tinned tomatoes.) Lovely!
Tonight, one of the worlds quickest but scrummiest dinners - smoked haddock with poached eggs - is there anything more lovely than a soft poached egg? Yum!
Well I lost 4lb in my first week, so that's a good start - going to cut down the alcohol this week, then try and get out on my bike a bit as the evenings get lighter...
Right then!
Everything about this post is wrong wrong wrong!
I'm not a big chocolate eater - despite all evidence to the contrary (not least the fact that my x-axis has been growing well out of proportion to my y-axis since I was about 17), I don't have a particularly sweet tooth.
I drink tea every now & then, but I prefer very strong black coffee. If I do drink tea, then my preference is for Assam - I don't like all that flowery flavoured nonsense.
This thread is about recipes & I haven't got a recipe for you.
However, you must try this. It's a Belgian Earl Grey flavoured chocolate and it is just fantastic.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jn30IzZSRR...+chocolate.jpg
It's a strong dark chocolate, minimum 55% cocoa content (bejeeeezus!)
The flavours go together so well & so subtly the result is just indescribable.
Seek it out
We got it in a Booth's supermarket - one of the real pleasures of living in the northwest of England is the privilage of being able to use this place to shop in!
I slow grilled 2 beautiful 16oz.Range fed Fillet Mingnons,steamed asperauguss, baked potato and salad then my wife says to me,(I want last nights Tandoori chicken left overs):scratch:
So I'll be a drinking a couple of Moretti's while I try to understand this.:mental:BTW lots of sour cream,butter, mushrooms and crumbly blue cheese dressing.
I presume that you gave her a slap and told her to eat it or wear it!! ;)
Marco.
I think you should change your name to BIG DINNER MAN...you could feed a family of four with that lot:lol:
During these balmy days, we’ve been living on salads of various types. Here is a simple recipe for a rice salad I like to make.
Ingredients
300g long grain rice
2 cupful garden peas (frozen ones are fine)
300g sweetcorn niblets
1/3 cucumber
120g Italian salami (I use 40g salami Milano, 40g salami Ungherese and 40g salami Napoli)
1 handful of pine kernels
1 handful sunflower seeds
A few capers (optional)
Step 1
Play some Mozart on your audio system and turn it up so you can hear it clearly in the kitchen.
Step 2
Thoroughly wash the rice and add it to a large pan of boiling water. Turn down the heat so the water is simmering. Cook for 15 minutes, periodically removing the starch that floats on the surface. (If you don’t do this, the rice will stick together)
Step 3
Whilst the rice is cooking, cook the peas in a steamer for a few minutes.
Step 4
Cut up the salami slices into short strips, and cut up the cucumber into small pieces.
Step 5
When the rice has cooked, empty the pan into a large sieve and wash with boiling water.
Step 6
Distribute the rice into three vegetable dishes and gently fold in the peas, sweetcorn, cucumber, salami and seeds.
I don’t add any seasoning, as there is enough salt in the salami, however some fresh black pepper may be added to taste.
Step 7
Place in a fridge to chill overnight.
Enjoy with a glass of chilled sauvignon blanc, chardonnay or pinot grigio.
Anyone for cheesecake? :)
TOFFEE CARAMEL CHEESECAKE
Serves a family of 6 (or one bloke):eyebrows:
Crust
Basic graham cracker crust. Put 1/3 package of honey grahams, 2 oz butter and 1/3 cup of light brown sugar in a food processor and grind it up. Line the bottom of a spring-form pan (the ones with a removable base) with this and put it in the freezer.
Filling
4 packages Philadelphia Original cream cheese,
1 cup sour cream,
5 eggs,
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar,
Juice of 1/4 lemon,
1 tsp vanilla.
Mix all this up in a mixer until it is creamy and smooth. Then add two crushed up Dime bars and fold them into the filling.
Bake at 185C for an hour and 15 minutes. Then cool and refrigerate.
Topping
Make a caramel sauce by cooking a cup of sugar with 1/3 cup of water until it forms a light brown colour. Then remove from the heat and SLOWLY add a cup of heavy cream. It's hot. Don't pour cold cream into it quickly. Then a cut up 4oz butter and stir until melted. Cool.
When the caramel sauce is around 40-50 degrees pour it over the cheesecake, which should still be in the spring form pan. Shave some chocolate over the top and refrigerate the whole thing overnight before serving. It is about as good as cheese cake gets. Not only is it high in fat and cholesterol but also it is also fairly high in carbohydrates. Yummy.:eek:
Cookies For Engineers
Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingredients:
532.35 cm3 gluten
4.9 cm3 NaHCO3
4.9 cm3 refined halite
236.6 cm3 partially hydrogenated tallow triglyceride
177.45 cm3 crystalline C12H22O11
177.45 cm3 unrefined C12H22O11
4.9 cm3 methyl ether of protocatechuic aldehyde
Two calcium carbonate-encapsulated avian albumen protein units
473.2 cm3 theobroma cacao
236.6 cm3 de-encapsulated legume meats (sieve size #10)
Method:
To a 2-L jacketed round reactor vessel (reactor #1) with an overall heat transfer coefficient of about 100 Btu/F-ft2-hr, add ingredients one, two and three with constant agitation. In a second 2-L reactor vessel with a radial flow impeller operating at 100 rpm, add ingredients four, five, six, and seven until the mixture is homogenous. To reactor #2, add ingredient eight, followed by three equal volumes of the homogenous mixture in reactor #1. Additionally, add ingredient nine and ten slowly, with constant agitation. Care must be taken at this point in the reaction to control any temperature rise that may be the result of an exothermic reaction.
Using a screw extrude attached to a #4 nodulizer, place the mixture piece-meal on a 316SS sheet (300 x 600 mm). Heat in a 460K oven for a period of time that is in agreement with Frank & Johnston's first order rate expression (see JACOS, 21, 55), or until golden brown. Once the reaction is complete, place the sheet on a 25C heat-transfer table, allowing the product to come to equilibrium.
Conclusion:
Slowly macerate using mandible mounted pre-formed calcium matter destructors and allow to dissolve into solution with gastro-intestinal acids.
Now that we have Marrows in the shops, here is a delicious recipe that is a world away from just boiling or stuffing the poor things :eyebrows:
INGREDIENTS
Marrow
Oil or butter
1 large onion
Plain Flour
Half a pint of soured cream
Fresh or dried Dill
Bacon (smoked)
Chorizo (Optional)
Salt & Pepper
Peel, de-seed and roughly grate the marrow. Put in a large bowl, add a couple of tablespoons of salt and leave to stand for at least 30 minutes. This draws the liquid out of the marrow so you can control the consistency of the dish - you don't want to end up with a runny soup!
Peel and finely chop a large onion, sweat it off in some butter or oil in a large saucepan, but do not allow it to brown. Add a couple of heaped tablespoons of plain flour to make a roux paste, but don't make it too thick.
Drain the marrow and place in a clean tea towel. Squeeze as much liquid as is possible from the marrow, then add to the onions/roux mix in the saucepan. Add half of the soured cream and a little water to make the mixture "loose" but not runny. Add seasoning and some dill weed. Fit a lid to the saucepan and simmer gently for around 30 minutes stirring often until the marrow is cooked and tender.
Cut up the bacon and fry until brown and crispy, add to the saucepan just before serving, then add the remainder of the Soured Cream and some more dill weed to refresh the beautiful aroma of this wonderful herb. To add a dash more pep, finely chop up some Chrorizo and add it to the bacon.
Serve with fresh crusty bread and butter.
Lovely :eyebrows:
Yummy and reasonably healthy, this is currently my "signature sandwich..." (I'm rather partial to a sarnie!)
2 slices of seeded or granary bed ~ 150 kcals, 0.6g Fat, 0 Saturated fat
2 slices pastrami ~ 36 kcals, 0.8g Fat, 0.4g Saturated fat
30g Philadelphia Light or similar cream cheese ~ 47 kcals, 3.5g Fat, 2.3g Saturated fat
Baby Spinach, Watercress & Rocket ~ not worth counting!
Salt & Pepper
Total nutritional value: 233 kcals , 4.9g Fat, 2.7g Saturated Fat (<10% RDA for all 3)
Pastrami is a real low-fat, low calorie treat - a great alternative to ham or turkey for a change.
Spread the cream cheese on each slice of bread, add a little salt, and lots of freshly ground black pepper, and then place the slices of pastrami on one side, add a generous amount of the watercress, baby spinach and rocket leaves. Cut into triangle quarters - the only proper way to cut a sandwich, and enjoy! A lovely peppery taste complimented by the smooth creaminess of the cheese and the fresh green leaves.
http://i653.photobucket.com/albums/u...g?t=1279802694
Followed it with a summer-fruit salad of strawberries, grapes, blueberries and fresh pineapple, and a nice cup of Columbia Supremo coffee (black, no sugar = 0 calories, 0 fat.)
Who says losing weight has to be torture? :) (12lbs in the 3 weeks since I "got serious" on 1st July)
If I make a Quiche... do I become gay? :(
I've done that quite a bit lately and people are 'making comments'! :scratch:
Best to make them in secret. :)
In a closet?
And call them pizzas. :)
Stuffed Bell peppers:MMMMMMMMMM
Take a largeish Cast iron duch oven and sautee 3 large white onions and a bulb of garlic in butter.
8 Bell peppers cut the stems out then an inch or 2 down cut the top off and clean them out and rinse the inside.
Mix ground beef 4 to 5 pounds with 3 white onions and a bulb of garlic and 4 diced tomatos,put some chopolti season,oragono,tarrogon,Basil,salt,pepper and a table spoon of liquid smoke in the mix an kneed it all in good.
Make spanish rice a can of tomato soup rice and water and cook it half way till just softened and just getting the red color.Then mix it in with every thing else.
Then stuff the peppers with the mix and fit them into the large dutch oven and place the tops on the peppers,put the rest of the mix around them in the pot.
pour 4 cans or more of tomato soup or tomato sauce over the top and simmer on low for 3 hours.
Then laddle off the juice and wisk with white flour and a little beer till the gravy is thick then pour it back in and simmer for a few min.
Take the lid off and let it stand for 20 min. and eat.
more pics.
The last picture is the peppers upside down to dain the water out after cleaning.
This is pretty easy and tastes great. One pot job. You will however need a potato masher or blender. Makes about 6 portions.
One tablespoonful of margarine or butter
7 medium parsnips
1 cooking apple
2 pints of vegetable stock. Try to buy stock with reduced salt.
150 ml of single cream
Parsley and sage and black pepper and 2 cloves. Fresh is best. Get a pepper mill.
A couple of slices of wholemeal bread
Some stilton cheese. Nice, but not vital.
Prolly need the big pot.
Scrub or peel the parsnips and apple. Chop the ends off the parsnip and core the apple.
Cut both apple and parsnip into as small a pieces as you can manage.
Melt the butter in the pot. Want it hot but not burnt.
Tip in the chopped apple and parsnip and give it a stir. Put the lid on the pan and turn the heat as low as you can. Cook for about ten mins stirring occasionally to stop it sticking.
Use boiling water to make the two pints of stock. If you don’t have a measuring jug use a beer glass.
Add the stock and 4 sage leaves or half a teaspoonful, and the 2 cloves to the pot and turn the heat up so the pot boils.
Turn the heat right down and simmer until the parsnips are soft, about 25 mins.
After about 20 mins of cooking dig out the cloves and the sage leaves if you used leaves and get going with the masher. You’re looking to get most of the lumps out. You can keep it on the heat while you mash.
Once you’ve mashed, pour in the cream. Try not to boil it and add some black pepper.
Chuck in plaenty of fresh parsley right at the end.
This is good with very lightly toasted whole meal bread and a few small chunks of stilton cheese thrown in.
Its called Parsnip and apple soup.
Nice one, John - just right for this time of year! :)
Or make your own? ;)Quote:
2 pints of vegetable stock. Try to buy stock with reduced salt.
I do love parsnip soup. Curried parsnip soup is gorgeous. Have you tried that?
Marco.
Yum! Spicy parsnip soup's a regular in this house.
Marco.
“Or make your own? ;)”
Indeed Marco, you can’t beat home made stock but the making of it requires a bit of planning ahead; something I’m not known for :rolleyes:
I haven’t tried curried parsnip soup. I do make curries but I make my own paste and that’s fairly time consuming and of course, referring to the planning bit, I’ve usually run out of something :doh:
I prefer when possible to use fresh ingredients but it isn’t always practicable.
This goes well with fresh linguine pasta.
Pack of pre cooked mussels.
(Fresh mussels are even better but you need to know what you’re doing with them. Get it wrong and you’ll be ill. Read up on it if you’re interested in doing them fresh.)
It’s quick to make so you might want to get the pasta organized and cook both together. The sauce below takes about 20 mins. Cook in the frying pan if it’s deep. Makes enough for 2 or 3 portions.
1 large tablespoonful of butter or margarine. Butter tastes better for this or you can use olive oil.
4 large cloves of garlic
10 shallots
Black olives
2 tins of chopped tomatoes. I think its worth investing in good quality Italian tomatoes for this.
Sun dried tomatoes in alive oil
Capers
10 to 15 fresh basil leaves
Tomato puree
Fresh ground black pepper
Fresh washed wild rocket
Fresh parmesan
Peel and chop the cloves of garlic and the shallots. No need to mince, just rough chop.
Take about 20 black olives, take out the stones if necessary and cut the olives in half.
Open the tinned toms and drain the juice out of ONE can into a glass.
Roughly chop about ten of the sun dried tomatoes.
Roughly chop the fresh basil leaves.
Melt the butter in the pan. Don’t burn it!
Add the chopped garlic and onion and gently cook for 2/3 mins. You want to cook but not brown.
Add the mussels. Don’t add any of the water/juice that comes in the pre packed mussels..
Cook on a medium heat for about 5/6 mins. The art here is to cook without burning any of the stuff in the pan so you need to stir and watch lots.
Tip in both the tins of tomatoes and add 8 inch strip of tomatoe puree from a tube or 3 heaped teaspoonfuls from a jar and the sundried tomatoes.
Add the black olives, capers, chopped basil and loads of black pepper.
Cook this gently on a medium heat fro a further 10/12 mins stirring often. The sauce should be fairly thick. If it looks too runny cook for a bit longer, too thick, add some of the tomatoe juice from the glass.
Add a generous handful of the rocket and a generous sprinkling of parmesan to serve.
One of my favorite cold,rainy day dinners.
4.5 pounds corned beef,2 pounds babey carrots,2 pounds small red potatos and under the meat 2 heads of cabbage and one packet of dill weed,garlic,red pepper,black pepper corns and sea salt.
4 hours later and your eatting,one hour later and your crapping(cabbage is better than prunes).
BTW:boil the meat 3 hours ,then add the potatos,carrots 1 hour,then add the cabbage 30 min.
The only thing I ever ate that made my eyes water,not from spices but a powerful urge to vomit with every bite,a Balut.
Yet, I ate it with a smile like it was my favorite.
I didn't eat the rats,just the Balut all these pictures came from an online artical about strange foods.
But the 21 day duck egg called a Balut was offered to me by a coworker,who ate them all the time.
He is from Cambodia and even eats roasted Jerusalum crickets(potato bugs!)
How about a wine recomdation:
The Balut with champain for breakfast.
The Rats with a dry red like Merlot.
The crunchy soft centered bugs with a pink Zinfindale or Blush.
I think the right wine would be key,and even more importaint in large amount.
I nearly heaved up my breakfast.....! As they say in Glasgow, that is just PURE BOGGIN' :bog: :spew: :spew: :vomfest:
Describe the flavour, though......:eyebrows:
Marco.
well you know what the chineese say, "if it's back faces the sky, it's eddible".
anyway would any of you guys like an authentic recipie for chicken & chorizo paella, and also sangria to wash it down with?
Yes please, Mike! :)
Marco.
Ok this is for you Marco.
Chicken & Chorizo Paella
Ingedients
2 large chicken breasts
1/3 of chrizo ring (you can get good ones in lidle they're in plastic bags, and they are the same shape as mattersons sausages but thinner)
1/2 jar of roasted red peppers (once again availabe in lidle)
1 large red onion
3 cloves garlic
1 cup of frozen peas
2 cups rice (i like risotto type, but its up to you)
1 pint of stock (chicken or veg)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
4 or 5 saffron threads (powdered) or 1 tsp turmeric
salt / pepper
4 or 5 tbsp olive oil
So to start cut your chicken into medium cubes and cut your chorizo into 5mm slices, roughly chop your onion, peel and finely chop the garlic then powder your saffron with a pestle and mortar
then take a very large frying pan and heat your oil on a medium high heat and gently fry your chicken and chorizo for about 3 or 4 minutes.
Now add the onion, garlic and cayenne and continue to cook unit the onion softens. now turn the heat up and add the rice and saffron / turmeric and fry for about 2 minutes, now turn the heat down and add the stock.
leave the pan on the stove simmering (it need to simmer gentley) while you slice 4 or 5 of the roasted pepers up, they are packed in jars in there own juice so you could add a little of the juice to your paella (i do), after about 4 or 5 minutes add the peppers and peas and continue to cook until the liquid has been absorbed. now test the rice, if it still is a bit hard add some water and cook a bit longer.
Now turn the heat off, cover the pan and leave it to rest for about 4 minutes, add salt and pepper to taste and serve.
Sangria
1 bottle of the cheapest red wine you can find
1 can fanta orange
1 can fanta lemon
1 orange
1 lemon
Cointreau to taste
ok get yourself a very large pitcher, chop the fruit up into cubes, add the wine and fruit to the pitcher, then both cans of fanta, give it a stir, then add about 1/4 bottle of cuantreau stir again, stick it in the fridge for about an hour.
Take it out and get hammered drunk :cool:
Cheers, Mike - I'll defo give that a go this week and report back! :)
Marco.
Not sure about healthy, but we made a belter of a crumble the other night. Every year we go out and pick sloes to make sloe gin for Christmas. Simply cover the sloes with gin and sugar for about 3 months and bob's yer uncle. This year we decided to try damsons as well, but when it came to bottling time it seemed a waste to throw the damsons away after decanting the gin, so into the crumble they went.
Can't remember what it tasted like.....
..and don't stir the rice!!!
Or you'll end up with a mushy risotto, the missus is from Madrid and gets very stroppy when she spots someone stirring a paella.
Oh and the base should almost carbonised, nice and crunchy, use proper paella rice it helps.
It's very nice with rabbit, but the ones they use there are not as gamey in flavour.
'Bright eyes...etc'
First off mine was 21 days developed(the max before feathers start to imerge)
The egg is then left to ferment for some time mabey a day I'm not sure,I have also heard 3 days,this alows for enzimes to soften the little scull,and beak and bones.Then it is boild for a few min to kill bacteria.
You then poke a small hole in the bottom end of the egg and suck out the slightly sour ducky soup that rises to the top of the egg.When you peel it back some it exposes a yoke sack full of blood vessals and that tastes like a sour egg yoke,next you get to the baby duckie,it's texture is both mushie,and at times chewy,my freind was chomping with his mouth open and the little feet hanging out!I ate it alot slower, trying not to think about what it looks like but I don't think thats entierly possable.I thought it would stink horrabley but it smelled just a little stronger than a boiled egg.
The taste of the little guy was not as bad as the textures it really tasted like greassy duck but the crunch of the beak and little scull,the rubbery little bones.That never really go's away UUUUHHH!!!
What an ice breaker dinner for a first date,Yes the lady and I will start with two Baluts and a pot of tea.
Next will have the deep fried chewha on a stick and for desert prehaps some of the curd cheese made from human breast milk.
Jeff!! Really what a truly beautiful description ...
Have you seen the photos on wikipedia ... Really why would anyone want to eat something that looks like that ....
I'll give most things a go but line is definitely somewhere between chicken period and unborn dead chicken!!
I have been known to try alot of foods from different cultures,when a work mate offers something from his home country,I felt it would be rude not to give it a go.I did my best not to turn green,I even tried to smile a little but my watering eyes told a bigger truth,It was UNHOLEY GROSS!
I have eaten some pretty unusual meat (horse, crocodile, ostrich, buffalo come to mind) I'd try the rat or dog, but just no - a whole crunchy embryo is just plain wrong! The durty bastads (as Janice & Ray from the Catherine Tate Show would say... :))
I worked in Hongkong for about 4 years during the nineties, just before the handover, whilst in Macau for a weekend we went to a rather plush local restaurant, I ordered duck, when it arrived I assumed it was surrounded by little plumbs, or some kind of fruit, on closer inspection they were tiny roasted duck embryos...err I have to admit they were delicious.
The worst however came from my opening batting partner for 'Little Sai Wan Cricket Club'. We were getting padded up in the changing rooms, and he was wincing and moaning as he was trying to attach his box and thigh guard. The problem was bubons in his groin and armpit area...disgusting enough already! It transpired he'd come down with this after a business trip to Beijing. He'd been taken out to a 'theme' restaurant, the theme being the 'cultural revolution', and the subsistence food people were forced to eat. But you can't refuse to 'give face' as they say over there, i.e. to refuse generosity is bad form, and he'd have lost the deal, so he had to eat what was served up....
Starters; A plate of dying prawns, surrounded by grasshoppers with their rear legs removed, all still moving!!!
Main; A fellow arrived with a pot of boiling rice alcohol, a wicker basket, and a protective glove. He pulled a huge live rat out of the basket, and whilst holding its tail submerged it in the rice alcohol for no more than a couple of minutes. It was then skinned, quartered, and served!!!!!!!!!!! Might just be a connection to his ailments there I think...nasty.
...some very specialist bacteria out there I think :(
.........back to real food before someone gets ill.
This is what I prepared last night & it made it to the table this evening.
Chris’ Secret Spare Rib Recipe
Per Rack of ribs
Marinade:
4 squirts from a tube of tomato puree
2 heaped tablespoons of natural yoghurt
¼ teaspoon garlic paste
2 teaspoons unsweetened chilli paste (no vinegar either!)
2 teaspoons good French mustard
1 heaped teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 teaspoon oregano
Good pinch of fennel
Lots of fresh ground black pepper
Mix well
Coat the ribs in the marinade & leave in fridge for a few hours (24 if poss.)
Preferably stick ‘em on the barbeque or if it's December & minus 8 outside, then put them on a metal baking tray in the top of a hot oven (220 deg C) for ½ hour – 40 minutes.
All quantities are approximate depending on my mood!