Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations
- Thread starter baboon2004
- Start date
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
apparently fennel and mushroom
mistersloane
heavy heavy monster sound
Steamed with Hollandaise sauce or butter, I tried an Italian dish frying it with breadcrumbs and stuff but it just seemed like a waste of good asparagus. I think our season's too short to fuck around with it, but if its around for like 3 months like in Spain I imagine you get a bit bored and experimental.
Heston says fry it then wrap a bit of smoked salmon round it and use it to dip in boiled egg like soldiers. I read that in a free Waitrose mag that was on my tube seat today. Sounds okaaay...for a 10 quid breakfast...
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Ha, you could invent any kind of sauce and call it that, I guess...
I'm going to repeat myself and say that if you want a really luxurious breakfast, you can't go wrong with scrambled eggs with some good strong blue cheese crumbled up and melted into them. As long as you like blue cheese - but we're all grown-ups here, right?
I learned this one from Alton Brown on one of his programmes:
Roast asparagus, sprinkled with nutmeg, lemon juice and salt, then put a fried egg on top.
He explains how one of the primary flavour compounds in nutmeg is this stuff called isoeugenol, which is used in the manufacture of vanillen (a vanilla bean extract that you also sometimes get by oaking alcohol). A lot of expensive chardonnays combine grassy flavours (like asparagus) and vanillen. So the goal is to reproduce those kind of flavours in your breakfast! Classy.
Roast asparagus, sprinkled with nutmeg, lemon juice and salt, then put a fried egg on top.
He explains how one of the primary flavour compounds in nutmeg is this stuff called isoeugenol, which is used in the manufacture of vanillen (a vanilla bean extract that you also sometimes get by oaking alcohol). A lot of expensive chardonnays combine grassy flavours (like asparagus) and vanillen. So the goal is to reproduce those kind of flavours in your breakfast! Classy.
more things to do with chorizo:
chop up the chorizo into little cubes
grate a carrot
chop a red pepper or a green peppino or whatever
chop a bit of red onion.
put in a bowl with a bit of honey and lemon and a bit of olive oil, salt pepper.
stir it all together.
eat on a baked sweet potato like a kind of crunchy spanishy coleslaw.
chop up the chorizo into little cubes
grate a carrot
chop a red pepper or a green peppino or whatever
chop a bit of red onion.
put in a bowl with a bit of honey and lemon and a bit of olive oil, salt pepper.
stir it all together.
eat on a baked sweet potato like a kind of crunchy spanishy coleslaw.
blacktulip
Pregnant with mandrakes
We did the Jamie Oliver asparagus lasagne last weekend and it was pucker, mate/darlin'.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
Yeah, I kind of agree with that, melted butter is pretty much enough in itself. Although I keep buying the stuff so I'm messing around a bit more - have tried mimosa with hard boiled egg and capers, and with pasta with mushrooms and a bit of egg, both of which were quite nice, and am planning to have a go at stir frying some with peanuts at some point as well.
Sick Boy's suggestion looks good, too...
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
blue cheese is the food that is most like good drugs. anyone who doesn't like a sauce made from Roquefort, Parmesan, spinach and milk is a damned fool.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Positively hallucinogenic if eaten before going to bed...
Sounds great, I'll have to try it. What would you serve it with?
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
WIth gnocchi it's a classic. Make the cheese sauce (not too thin, should cling to gnocchi a bit, but that's standard, i guess), pour over gnocchi then add wilted spinach. Needs nowt else.
Edit: Just thoughht that maybe the addition of nutmeg might work, but wouldn't risk it first time out, as it's perfect as it is. Pure drugs.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
I've been abusing dill a lot recently. I really love the flavour - sort of fresh and grassy but moody and windswept and scandinavian at the same time.
We originally got some to put in a salad with beetroot and onion. It was pretty good - south turkish, apparently, despite being blatantly russian sounding.
Dill comes in big bunches though, so I used up a bit more by doing a potato / pea / carrot salad with a load of dill and a sharp lemon juice / walnut oil dressing. This was absolutely ace - a great range of earthy and grassy flavours, although next time I do it I might leave out the carrots (the sweetness seems slightly out of place) in favour of green beans, asparagus, or nothing.
Some time in the next day or so I'll probably stick some in with marinated mushrooms and / or red kidney beans as well. Fish recipes are traditional, but are ruled out by the veggie.
Last night's other salad was bulgur wheat with toasted almonds, raisins and chopped onion, which also worked pretty well.
Any other dill thoughts?
We originally got some to put in a salad with beetroot and onion. It was pretty good - south turkish, apparently, despite being blatantly russian sounding.
Dill comes in big bunches though, so I used up a bit more by doing a potato / pea / carrot salad with a load of dill and a sharp lemon juice / walnut oil dressing. This was absolutely ace - a great range of earthy and grassy flavours, although next time I do it I might leave out the carrots (the sweetness seems slightly out of place) in favour of green beans, asparagus, or nothing.
Some time in the next day or so I'll probably stick some in with marinated mushrooms and / or red kidney beans as well. Fish recipes are traditional, but are ruled out by the veggie.
Last night's other salad was bulgur wheat with toasted almonds, raisins and chopped onion, which also worked pretty well.
Any other dill thoughts?
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
I'm on the fence with dill. Sometimes love it, sometimes (as with Scandi cooking) I find it overkill.
this works (from Moro):
Puy lentils, halved cherry tomatoes, red onion (soaked in milk with ice cubes to remove astringency and crisp it up), dill, vinaigrette.
what do you marinate the mushrooms in, Slothrop?
this works (from Moro):
Puy lentils, halved cherry tomatoes, red onion (soaked in milk with ice cubes to remove astringency and crisp it up), dill, vinaigrette.
what do you marinate the mushrooms in, Slothrop?
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
That puy lentil thing sounds good - might have to try that!
I haven't got a specific recipe for marinaded mushrooms but it was probably going to involve leaving them in some sort of olive oil / lemon juice / garlic / dill mix for a few hours or overnight. Although the salted mushroom recipe here looks quite interesting:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7870158
Tea - yeah, I know. I sent Alison out to buy it...
I haven't got a specific recipe for marinaded mushrooms but it was probably going to involve leaving them in some sort of olive oil / lemon juice / garlic / dill mix for a few hours or overnight. Although the salted mushroom recipe here looks quite interesting:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7870158
Tea - yeah, I know. I sent Alison out to buy it...
Got a good recipe for a sort of aubergene homous. really simple and begging for some modulation I reckon, I added some fresh chilli and ground corriander which was good.
Roast an Aubergene till its really soft, get rid of most of the excess liquid from it, and peel off the skin then wizz up with 2-3 table spoons of Tahini, juice of 2 lemons, 2 garlic cloves and then mix in a handful of fresh chopped parsley or corriander, very nice for a dip or spread.
Roast an Aubergene till its really soft, get rid of most of the excess liquid from it, and peel off the skin then wizz up with 2-3 table spoons of Tahini, juice of 2 lemons, 2 garlic cloves and then mix in a handful of fresh chopped parsley or corriander, very nice for a dip or spread.