Be Excellent To Each Other

Oh my! What flavour?

Chocolate and coconut.

That filling looks somewhat... Suspect.

Heh.

Oh, after seeing it in the metro I bought Hashi (by reiko someone or other) for Hel as a late Christmas present. Lovely book, and we're both excited about trying stuff out of it.

I got Maria a book by Paul A Young (one of the world's best chocolatiers), and am really keen on trying my hand at some of his crazy recipes.

So, you got YOURSELF a book?

Yes. I did warn her that it was mostly for me.

Braised brisket with root veg, because it's bloody cold out.

We found a supplier for Norwegian gjetost cheese. Happy days!

Cras -- guy who co-owns our local cheese shop (Madame Fromage in Cardiff) said the guy who runs Neal's Yard shop in Borough Market started working there. Also, they had that excellent Caerphilly you brought.

Yes, and the place he worked between there and Neal's Yard was over the road from my in-laws. It's a small world in cheese.

Have any of you guys ever bothered with fruit and veg boxes? Was thinking about trying the veg box from here:

http://www.riverford.co.uk/

It's £10.95 for 7 varieties of veg - it changes each week. The fact that they're choosing it for me might put me outside of my comfort zone when strange veg turns up. Not sure if £10.95 is expensive or not, though.

Considered it several times. However for us, I'm the one doing the cooking and I I'm busy at work that means a week of takeaway, and normally at short notice. Therefore I saw it as a potentially a pit of lost funds. Nice idea though, but as you suggest, check out online reports as to how good and varied the selections are.

I used Able & Cole for about 3 months. The stuff was OK, and it was an interesting way to make you use veg that you normally wouldn't buy. It was expensive though, and we stopped it after they delivered us a box with an ant's nest in it.

Ha! Bloody hell! I think it's one of those things that sounds all "nicey nice" in theory, but in reality it has a lot of negatives. Like ant nests. I might hold fire until I'm less skint.

edit: Also, catching up on the last few days: 1. Gaywood's deep pan pizza in the photo thread looks absolutely gorgeous. Yet another thing on my list for when I visit the US at some point in my life. 2. Craster, have you got any of that brisket left? Surely you couldn't have eaten all of that. I can send you a Jiffy envelope for the leftovers.

Finally got around to using the slow cooker. It'll be done at 8:30PM I reckon. Less than £6 for what looks like a stew that would feed more than four people...

I got some stewing steak, seared it coated in flour, beef stock, parsley, thyme and black pepper. I parboiled some spuds, swede and carrots. Then I added a couple of pints of water, the remaining flour/beef stock malarky, a leek and a couple of onions, along with some Worcestershire sauce. See how it turns out.

I'm surprised you didn't wrap it in bacon.

Stew was a bit underwhelming. The veg and the meat were cooked to perfection, but it lacked in overall flavour. I'm blaming the recipe. Someone give me a good recipe.

Get some Dairy Milk, and one Dairy Milk Caramel. Melt it in the microwave. Pour Rice Krispies in while stirring. Transfer to paper cake cases, and leave to cool.

Did you add any seasoning?

Edit. You did I see.

Add more seasoning.

Of course!

IDGI

I always go for heavily flavouring a casserole. Two things to my mind are key - a small amount of meat fats, and flavourings:

1) Meat fats - I usually start with diced pancetta, bacon lardons, or chorizo if I've got some handy. I fry that over a low heat to render some of the fat out, then add diced onions and garlic to soften in the fat. All of it goes in the stew pot.
2) Flavourings - There are a few things I never miss out of a casserole. Those are worcestershire sauce, english mustard, paprika, and usually a little tomato puree. I like to add diced anchovies usually, too.

If I do say so myself, pretty sure last night's dinner approached pulled pork perfection. Did it for fourteen hours sous-vide at 80C, but standard slow-cooker/low oven rules apply. The difference was that I brined it beforehand, and that made such a massive difference to the final flavour and texture. Highly recommended. I bagged it overnight in 2l of water with 300g salt and 200g brown sugar dissolved in.

It was indeed lush. Arguably, too good for us.

Oh, hold up. Pulled pork, potatoes, in a frying pan. Topped with a couple of eggs, cheese, and blasted under a grill. Pulled pork hash. I'm ready for my nobel prize now.

I'm sorry but any meal that involves 'x for 14 hours' is trying too hard.

I'm currently making ratatouille, with no recipe and with a max prep time of 10 minutes.

I appreciate there's probably a middle ground.

14 hours sitting in a sous vide with no human interaction isn't exactly stressful cooking. Do you freak out when you make a casserole for two hours?

Cras-- I've been meaning to try short meat brines. I've read that even a couple of hours can really make a difference. Also: I wish I lived close enough to you to eat your food more often.

We've made the tastiest gammon EVAR, even tastier than Craster's pulled pork (as made by me, at any rate).

I don't remember how we did it, now, apart from soaking most of the salt out beforehand. It's juicy, firm-yet-tender and extraordinarily tasty. I could happily sit and eat a huge lump of it, cold, without any accompaniments.

Well, I may as well put my ribs recipe in here!
1 Ribs
1 heaped tsp Colman's mustard
1 heaped teaspoon smoked paprika
3 crushed garlic cloves
salt and pepper
2 tbsp Tomato ketchup
Schwartz "Cajun" spice mix - a good shake
make up with Tiptree BBQ sauce - ie about 1/5-1/4 of a jar.
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Mix together

Place the ribs on foil. Smear the top (outer) ribs with most of the sauce, turn over, smear the under side with the remainder.
Fold the foil up so the sauce is in contact with the ribs, and rap with 2 further layers of foil, tightly packing all the way to ensure the sauce makes good contact with the oddly shaped ribs.
Leave in fridge overnight.
Take straight from fridge and cook directly in foil for 30 mins.
Carefully open the foil and cook for a further 5 mins, then turn and another 5.
Move ribs out of sauce and spoon sauce on top of ribs and cook for a further 5 mins (until sauce thickened).

Eat with chips.

Gamecube

N64

Nah, it really isn't. Also, it has the added advantage that we got home from the pub, took the bag out of the cooker, shredded the pork and ate it. Absolute miminum hassle.



Yeah, I honestly think it was night and day in this case.

How much pork for that much brine?

Edit: Though we really should finish off the last lot from the freezer (also: start on the goat, mutton, veal and wagyu) before doing more.

Editit: Did I mention that we did Osso Bucco? We did. It was lovely.

2.5K of pork, then trimmed. So probably 2.2K ish.

My folks are over on a Sunday soon.

Where is awesome in London to go for lunch. Expense not a consideration, ability to book at 2.5 weeks notice is.

Also, due to a logistical error it will just be them two and me, so no need to be baby friendly.

The Square.

Riles will say Roast.

Rules actually has a table booked at Roast that very day, so I shall be avoiding it like the plague.

I actually wouldn't suggest roast for Andy and his folks. Roast is good for the family friendly nature and the food, but it isnt a luxurious dining room- bit noisy with an open pass and bar.

I do like bleeding heart restaurant, or did when I last went there some years ago. Good food and proper French service (surly as fuck). However it is farringdon so an utter cunt to get to on a Sunday.

American-style "Mac" and cheese.


I got so scared of how unhealthy it was, I wimped out and didn't put enough cheese in. Me. I did that.


Bloody nice, but terrifying.

When I make mac 'n' cheese (one of Danielle's favourites), I'd say the sauce is about 70% cheese by weight. I once let some cool in the pan -- it was almost completely solid once it was room temperature. The trick I've adopted to serve it with stuff (green beans, garlic bread, asparagus, broccoli, etc), otherwise it's so rich you've had enough of it way before you're full.

Your's looks nice, Grim....

The recipe called for 230g of macaroni, and 510g of cheese

On another note, here is my new nut bowl:

I've just realised that's probably a squirrel and not two rabbits shagging.

I thought it was a rabbit shagging a squirrel.

Saturday's breakfast. HEALTHY!!!

I have now.

http://cooksuck.com/

Guy finds pictures of people's dinner on blogs and facebook, and rips them apart in a stream of vitriol. It's quite theraputic.

Brilliant.

Hi, Mr Fishmonger! Do you have any heads and bones?
No, we throw them all away when we fillet the fish.
Ah. You've got some whole fish there - would you be able to fillet them for me?
Yep, I can do that.
And let me have the heads and bones?
Oh no - we throw them all away when we fillet the fish.
Yes, I know that's what you normally do, but I want them.
But we throw them away.
*sigh*