Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations

B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
The Sichuan one is brilliant, but agreed that it's difficult to make more than a handful of the dishes in there without some very specialist shopping. I need to find a supermarket with some very helpful staff, to be sure I'm buying the right things ...

This one is £17 on Amazon - deal done.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
whos tried sicuan peanuts? packets of peanuts with chilli and sichuan peppercorns. theyre good with beer.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
luka said:
whos tried sicuan peanuts? packets of peanuts with chilli and sichuan peppercorns. theyre good with beer.
Click to expand...

We don't get them here, not in packets anyhow that I've seen. You get given peanuts in the mainland restaurants sometimes but they're not as good as yours sound.

We do however have jerk chicken flavour 'prawn' crackers round our way at the moment, which is inspired and quite nice, if a bit of a weird idea.
 
N

Numbers

Well-known member
baboon2004 said:
Has anyone got a good recipe for Sicilian caponata? I tried it last night, but it was a bit too bland - maybe the quality of British vegetables just doesn't cut it, and the tomatoes need roasting to bring out any flavour....
Click to expand...

We made a very nice caponata last week, and then this weekend again. It was that good or better: we liked it that much. I don't have the recipe in front of me, but it should be the following:

Cut two eggplants in rather large dices, do the same for 2 red peppers. (Stir-)fry first the eggplant, than the peppers in a little bit of olive oil and keep apart. Mince two onions and let them soften in a bit of oil. Take five celery stalks and cut them in pieces of about 1 cm. Cook them quickly (3 minutes) in salty water, drain and keep apart. Now add the eggplants, the peppers and the celery to the onions, stir and add about 150 ml of peeled tomatoes. Stir again and add 3 spoons of red wine vinegar. Put on the heat till the vinegar has evaporated. Add a spoon of sugar and stir again. Now add 25g of pine seeds, 25g of sultana raisins, 50g of capers and 100g of minced green pitted olives. Stir and add a handful of shredded basil leafs. Add salt and pepper according to your taste and let the caponata cool off a bit.
Click to expand...
It's best served lukewarm on a piece of roasted bread and tastes even better the day after.
 
Last edited:
blacktulip

blacktulip

Pregnant with mandrakes
Slow cooked a pork neck on Saturday in an oven bag with lemon, olive oil, roasted garlic, and anchovies (about 4 hours). Then grilled it lightly for a bit of Maillard reaction, and had it with pan-fried summer carrots and foraged dandelion bud pickle.

Then today: chopped leftovers on a fresh pumpkin seed roll with roast garlic spread and copious amounts of finely sliced summer veg, liberally doused in homemade barbecue sauce. It was really great.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Bloody hell, that's some serious cookery dedication. Sounds great.

Had smoked mackerel with raspberry compote (?? anyways, crushed raspberries with sherry vinegar and brown sugar) on buttered toast a couple of times this weekend - marvellous.
 
blacktulip

blacktulip

Pregnant with mandrakes
Girlfriend in a Michelin-starred restaurant = had to up my game.

Would like to recommend The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
ah i see...i thought there must have to be a further reason...

Used it on Saturday in fact for the mackerel with raspberry!
 
V

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
baboon2004 said:
ah i see...i thought there must have to be a further reason...

Used it on Saturday in fact for the mackerel with raspberry!
Click to expand...

I had barbecued mackerel with pickled rhubarb ar the weekend - definitely works with something a little sweet or sweet/sharp. (Often put with gooseberries also I think).
 
blacktulip

blacktulip

Pregnant with mandrakes
Excellent! It did sound like something that might be in there. It also partly inspired my breakfast: banana/cardamom/coconut oil/yoghurt/whole fat milk/apricot kernel/spelt flake smoothie.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
@viktor - was thinking about gooseberries, but couldn't find them. Think the vinegar needed to be added to the raspberries to get that sharpness, whereas I guess with rhubarb it didn't need any help? Any other smoked mackerel recipes gratefully received - I was reminded that it's one of my favourite foods.

@bt - sounds like that recipe has the Signit seal of approval to me. So many good ideas in there - watermelon with pork belly is one I'm keen to try soon.
 
V

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
I made the steamed chicken with chinese sausage and shittakes last night from the FD book and it's wicked. Really easy, although she seems to complicate things slightly by adding some ginger to some water or something so I'd day miss that bit. I also added chilli which may be a bit of a deviation as I think the dish is supposed to be quite gentle and soothing but couldn't resist.

It takes about 15 mins to steam, so you can stick rice on, put it together, cook some veg whilst it's steaming and everything is done about the right time, quick. I normally think chicken can be really bland but steaming seemed to suit it somehow, nice and gentle.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I'm pathologically opposed to chicken breasts usually as they're so tasteless, but this is possibly my favourite easy dish that I can cook:

Marinate chicken for as long as possible with crushed coriander seeds, cumin, turmeric, juice of a few limes and lots of mint. Fry it up and serve in toasted pitta breads with a 50-50 mix of hummus and thick yoghurt, and strips of red bell pepper.

remidns me of another idea from Flavour thesaurus: instead of lime and mint in a mojito, replace the lime with watermelon. not tried it yet, but sounds great.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Yeah, and so easy too, five minutes tops. Might mine the Flavour Thesaurus for some more simple but unusual combinations like that.
 
V

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
baboon2004 said:
I'm pathologically opposed to chicken breasts usually as they're so tasteless, but this is possibly my favourite easy dish that I can cook:

Marinate chicken for as long as possible with crushed coriander seeds, cumin, turmeric, juice of a few limes and lots of mint. Fry it up and serve in toasted pitta breads with a 50-50 mix of hummus and thick yoghurt, and strips of red bell pepper.

remidns me of another idea from Flavour thesaurus: instead of lime and mint in a mojito, replace the lime with watermelon. not tried it yet, but sounds great.
Click to expand...

Exactly. I like thighs and drumsticks in curries but breast is so whack. (I have poached it for coronation chicken before but that's about it). Yr recipe sounds good tho, and easy.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
It's definitely worth trying, and i think it looks/tastes like much more effort has gone into it than is actually the case (always useful for guests)
 
I

Immryr

Well-known member
for brunch today i had a salad of puy lentils cooked in just a little stock with some bay and a whole clove of garlic in, runner beans cut into thin diagonal strips and small florettes of broccoli dressed in olive oil, cider vinegar, a little garlic, english mustard + salt and pepper. served at room temperature with some parsley, a tin of sardines and some nice bread and butter.

it was very tastey. i made the dressing quite strongly mustardy and vinegary which went really well with the oily fish.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top