Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations

luka

Well-known member
i like the crispy fried onion bits indonesians use. indonesians are th unidsputed fried rice champions. kepis manis or whatever its called, sambal.....
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I've never made a paella but I thought they generally included quite a lot of extra flavourings - saffron, paprika, herbs, stock etc - plus maybe some other vegetables and stuff, whereas the fried rice is only seasoned with soy, and is much more about the combination of egg, pea, onion and bacon.

Also with paella I think the rice is cooked in the stock with everything else whereas the rice for fried rice is pre-cooked and allowed to cool before using it.

Yeah, I realised I was talking bollocks as soon as I posted that - could just as well have called it a biryani.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
i like the crispy fried onion bits indonesians use. indonesians are th unidsputed fried rice champions. kepis manis or whatever its called, sambal.....
You make a compelling point.

Kecap manis - first word makes a lot of sense when you start pronouncing the 'c' as a 'ch'.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
This is an awesome Paella recipe (as long as you replace '1 tsp saffron strands' with 'pinch of saffron strands')

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/apr/12/foodanddrink.recipe

Easy and Lush

That looks great. I should get myself a bit pan for doing paella, they're so good. My mum makes an amazing one.

I cook risotto fairly often but I reckon paella's better. I love really over-the-top ones with langoustines, whole chicken legs, big chunks of chorizo and all the rest. And lots of lemons. Brilliant.
 

nochexxx

harco pronting
Look like field mushrooms to me - get stuck in. The only ones in that family that you can't eat stain bright yellow almost instantly when bruised and have a slightly unpleasant inky smell, but I'm pretty sure the ones in that photo are fine, I mean if they were bad they'd probably look yellowish already just from having been picked.

i decided to not to eat them as i think these suckers are the 'yellow stainer' variety. i bruised them and parts went bright yellow. they look almost identical to field mushrooms, be careful people!
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Well spotted! How did your old man fare? My book says "only some people are affected" - doesn't sound like great odds...
 
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nochexxx

harco pronting
the old man didn't eat them, he just left them in my kitchen for me to sniff/snuff out.

since had a word and he now realises the complexities of rolling field knowledge :eek:
i think he must have got lucky in the past.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Ah well they wouldn't have done him any serious harm - just given him a catastrophic case of the shits. :cool:
 

muser

Well-known member
can anyone recomend a good book on sushi? Or japanese cooking in general with a sizable section on suishi, its for a gift.
 

luka

Well-known member
i found a bottle of vegetarian fish sauce. i dont know if its good or not but im going to use it to make some thai salad stuff and see if it helps. im a bit exicited.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
apparently it's fairly common. never realised it existed before tbh.

Pancakes with date syrup, desiccated coconut and something sour (lemon juice would be the obvious choice I guess).
 

luka

Well-known member
that was more successful than i anticipated it being actually. done a good dressing with a couple of limes 4 cloves of garlic 5 chillis 1 stalk lemongrass palm sugar and th vege fish sauce. used some gluten in the salad. it was alright.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
that was more successful than i anticipated it being actually. done a good dressing with a couple of limes 4 cloves of garlic 5 chillis 1 stalk lemongrass palm sugar and th vege fish sauce. used some gluten in the salad. it was alright.

ok, i'm gonna do something similar this avo i think. with fish fish sauce, though.
 

luka

Well-known member
let me know how you go and what you have it with. i was actually over the moon with that meal. im not a good cook. im very inconsistant. i do fuck up sometimes so when i get it right it feels extra special.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
i haven't tried it yet because I couldn't find palm sugar, and I know it's quite distinctive/difiuclt to substitute for... I love lemongrass. Also, Kaffir lime leaves I bought the other week - probably amazing for soups where you can just leave them to stew for a while.

Instead I had aligot - potatoes boiled then pureed, with raw garlic and (ideally) Cantal cheese. Damn good, though mash with nutmeg, soured cream and butter still gets my vote. Haven't yet tried vanilla extract with mash yet though - meant to be excellent.
 

luka

Well-known member
i saw another recipe that i want to do that doesnt have palm sugar, it has tamarind juice... im not sure there is such a thing. i can only find puree. anyone know about that?
 

luka

Well-known member
lemongrass is amazing your potatoes sound great too but its summer so i might not gt into that for a while.
th recipe with the tamaind is from my favourite sydney restauraint. its for those thai apple aubergines and beef salad.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
could prob get away with brown sugar, but it doesn't have the same taste really...

as to the tamarind recipe, what would be the sweet element to replace the sugar? Tamarind juice - just buy a block of tamarind and mix a piece with boiling water and sieve the seeds/pulp out after 10/20 mins - I don' trust the tamarind puree, doesnt' taste good to me.

yeah, those potatoes are def not a summer recipe. Cumin and potatoes is great too, not necessarily in a curry.

I think lemongrass is one of my favourtie ingredients ever. Goes well with tomatoes, I foudn by accident.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Today's Viz style Top Tip - to create a delicious contrast in both flavor and texture, sprinkle chopped roasted walnuts over a bowl of creamy mushroom pasta.
 
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