Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations

[baboon2004]

Re: butter/oil - I dunno, it's a bit of basic gastro-alchemy I picked up years ago. Seems to work though.

I'll give the choc/wine sauce thing a shot, it sounds amazing.

It's always the way I cook omelettes (thanks Delia!), but hadnt' thought of extending that to other things. Good idea.

It does sound amazing, but I was sorely disappointed, so I think I missed a trick. Used good choc and good wine, but was a bit too, dunno, tart. Not smooth enough by quuite a ways. hence the butter thought.

 

[muser]

If you like your sweet potato, try this: boil and mash a load of it with chopped garlic, chili and rosemary all fried up in lots of butter [see Slater, Real Food], then stir in your coriander. Spread this out on a baking dish and top with cheese sauce (i.e. white sauce plus lots of burn-the-roof-of-your-mouth cheddar) with smoked mackerel crumbled up into it; then add a layer of extra cheese plus Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco or whatever you like. Stick under a hot grill until the cheese is golden brown. It's a sort of spicy/smoky/sweet upside-down fisherman's pie and it is IMMENSE.

This was banging, I highly recommend!

 

[mistersloane]

my apologies, I actually got the crushed/fermented yellow bean sauce that you get in a tin, quite different from tofu. I'm thinking of just chucking it in a stir-fry and seeing what happens.

chicken with yellow bean sauce! yum!

the yellow fermented beancurd thing is used like a condiment and put on as an addition to rice etc. I think zhao did a recipe with it here somewhere, maybe it was zhao, can't remember. I don't like it much. You also add it to some marinades - you can use it to make you own char siu alongside honey and five spice and whatnots, it kinda adds something but can also make it taste really wrong. It's fermented but that's the only difference from tofu. Comes in all sorts, squidgy, spongey, tough or smelly.

 

[Benny Bunter]

I make Thai meatballs sometimes, don't know if that's any help? Basically pork mince with nuff chillis, coriander, lemon grass, lime leaves, spring onions, add salt to taste and fry. They are super-delsih and go kind of gummy/burnt in places.. salty, savoury plus chilli plus thai flavourings = bliss.
pork

Yeah that sounds good, do you have them in a kind of soup/sauce? Coconut milk-based I suppose? Mmmm

 

[Mr. Tea]

This was banging, I highly recommend!

Great! It was one of those accidental inventions that somehow turns out just right...

Dan's meatball recipe reminds me of some I made recently - the meat was smoked Albanian beef sausage ('smoke' was listed as ingredient, which I found delightful) plus bacon (also smoked, of course) with the usual breadcrumbs and beaten egg to hold the mixture together and some herbs and spices, including paprika which gave it a decent kick. But yeah, Thai-style meatballs sound amazing, might give them a shot this weekend.

 

[nochexxx]

any idea if supermarkets sell chestnuts?

 

[baboon2004]

none, but most independent supermarkets (eg Turkish, Indian, Polish) should do. Go for chorizo and chestnut soup - I've been meaning to make it for about five years and wanna know what it tastes like (MOro recipe, online somewhere)

Flavour combo: Pork (sausages), grapes, rosemary

 

[nochexxx]

none, but most independent supermarkets (eg Turkish, Indian, Polish) should do. )

thanks, will investigate.

 

[Slothrop]

thanks, will investigate.

They seem like the sort of thing you can get on Cambridge market. Possibly not at this time of year, though...

 

[nochexxx]

They seem like the sort of thing you can get on Cambridge market. Possibly not at this time of year, though...

i don't recall ever seeing them there, perhaps during the mid week one.

 

[grizzleb]

I seen chestnuts in the (not huge) Sainsbury's near me the other day. In little packet, think it was near the 'fancy ingredients' bit along with olives and the like.

 

[slowtrain]

Chestnuts are just in season here (NZ) (well - they have tons of them in the organic vege store) so I would assume it's not the right time up in England...

 

[nochexxx]

found them in sainsbury's. made that one fat lady dish, which wasn't as great as i thought it might be.

going to make sushi today, there really is no better way to eat.

 

[DannyL]

Yeah that sounds good, do you have them in a kind of soup/sauce? Coconut milk-based I suppose? Mmmm

You could do, or in a Thai/lemongrassy broth I suppose. I tend to do them just fried with rice and a salad because I like the way they taste on their own, you know that gummy/caramlised effect that you can get cooking meat. It's a big look with Thai flavourings.

Ollie - if you don't getround to doing 'em this weekend, come round next time Anna's in town and I'll sort you out.

 

[Slothrop]

Idea nicked from Yotam Ottolenghi - fry wonton wrappers ntil they're crispy, then drain them on kitchen roll and break them into little flakes and sprinkle them over a finished stir-fry to give it a bit of greasy crunchiness.

Also, whoever suggesed marinading mock-duck, yeah that seems to help. A fairly standard soy / sesame oil / vinegar / maple syrup (okay, so the maple syrup isn't standard) / chilli paste marinade helped a lot.

 

[Dr Awesome]

Also, whoever suggesed marinading mock-duck, yeah that seems to help. A fairly standard soy / sesame oil / vinegar / maple syrup (okay, so the maple syrup isn't standard) / chilli paste marinade helped a lot.

Brown sugar should do instead of maple syrup.

 

[Slothrop]

Brown sugar should do instead of maple syrup.

Yeah, but the maple syrup was nearer the front of the cupboard.

 

[viktorvaughn]

i made cucumbers and chicken recently, quite a good combo i think

 

[baboon2004]

Hmm, I read in flavour thesaurus about cucumber salad (v thin slices), topped with goat's cheese slices and flat leaf parsley...

 

[nochexxx]

black mustard seeds are king for making currys, however there must be other types of dishes that do well with this ingredient?