Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations

[Mr. Tea]

They were tucked in with all the chilis and obviously originally meant for 'medicine' rather than food because the label simply said 'Rural Amorous Feelings' :slanted:

TBH the labelling on Chinese food is as much a part of the fun of buying it as the actual cooking-and-eating part.

 

[viktorvaughn]

Alright dissensus people I'm gonna re-break my lurk hymen for this thread since I've got so many meals out of it.

First: Chinese Sausages. These are amazing! Chuck them in with your rice (use a method where all the water gets absorbed) and they impart a lovely flavour, then just slice them up. and serve them on top. You can cut them up and stir fry them too but they're extemely sweet and fatty so steaming them with the rice is best. I got some with duck liver in which is nice but does rather dominate, I'll be getting the plain ones next time.

Second: HEADS UP FELLOW SICHUAN HEADS. After years of searching I recently found some Sichuan peppercorns worthy of the name in Loon fung on Gerard street. They were tucked in with all the chilis and obviously originally meant for 'medicine' rather than food because the label simply said 'Rural Amorous Feelings' :slanted:

Thanks for the tips, that all sounds good.

Steamed Chinese sausage with ginger, boned chicken thighs and fresh/tinned shittake mushrooms is amazing with white rice, some soy.

 

[baboon2004]

Winter is here, so root veg are kings again.

Gnocchi with roasted beetroot and butternut squash (in olive oil/balsamic/fresh rosemary dressing), and goat's cheese. Worked a treat, very little effort aside from the headache of cutting the raw butternut squash open.

Celeriac chips with garam masala are favourites too.

 

[jenks]

Spent half term rediscovering my love of soup. Simplist one and favourite of my wife and kids is just blitzed carrot/garlic/onion/celery - sweat the mush for ten minutes. then add three rashers of smoked streaky chopped up for about five minutes then a bay leaf, a handful of 'soup mix' (pearl barley, lentils, split peas - that i have soaked for a while), season then add water to the top of the pan, stir and return in thirty minutes - real simple stuff. Didn't even need a stock cube but one could be added. As could dumplings or any number of things.
Probably a bit too simple for this thread maybe.

 

[baboon2004]

any recipe where you're cooking up a mirepoix/soffrito type thing sounds pretty complicated to me. May give that a go - got some pearl barley hanging round that i never quite knew what to do with

 

[viktorvaughn]

good old pasta with pumpkin and sage/chilli butter is a good standby classic.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Is the pumpkin that you can use in recipes exactly the same fruit that people use to make Jack-o-lanterns?

 

[luka]

those arent what people usually cook with no. there are many varities of pumpkin and some people refer to squashes as pumpkins too

 

[luka]

australians usually use butternut squash or japs when they are talking about pumpkins i think

 

[Mr. Tea]

I'm not big on courgettes or marrows but butternut squash is fucking boss.

 

[luka]

the always use that when the recipie say pumpkin

 

[baboon2004]

yeah, the world of squashes is confusing. I know Americans use pumpkins themselves, but obv it differs in other countries.

@Tea, try courgettes on the barbecue, with goat's cheese (not BBQ-ed), or more appropriately for this time of year, courgettes cooked in loads of olive oil for about 20-30 mins (?) with lardons/pancetta, and then lots of lemon juice, over pasta. I think butternut squash has the better flaovur on its own, but courgettes and marrows hoover up other flavours brilliantly. Marrows makea a great veg for Thai curry.

 

[viktorvaughn]

I'm not big on courgettes or marrows but butternut squash is fucking boss.

Fried courgette is the biz! Done for five minutes with garlic, chilli, olive oil is nice on it's own, or chuck in some feta and put with pasta.

Big slices of fried courgette done in a pan with some good bacon and had a sandwich with some tomato relish or just ketchup is wicked too. Takes on the bacon fat flavour a bit.

 

[viktorvaughn]

Is the pumpkin that you can use in recipes exactly the same fruit that people use to make Jack-o-lanterns?

You can eat any of them so, yep can be. However most veg start to taste a bit rubbish when they get massive and old, and since the halloween ones are grown to be as big as possible i don't think they would be great for eating. They go a bit watery. But I have eaten halloween pumpkins and they are totally edible, just a less concentrated flavour.

Small versions of them or butternut squash are the ones to go for i guess... There are lots of other cool looking squashes too but they tend to be a bit more dear or pop up in health food shops etc, whereas you can get BNS down the market quite cheap.

 

[Slothrop]

@Tea, try courgettes on the barbecue, with goat's cheese (not BBQ-ed), or more appropriately for this time of year, courgettes cooked in loads of olive oil for about 20-30 mins (?) with lardons/pancetta, and then lots of lemon juice, over pasta.

This.

Courgettes were basically made to go with loads of olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. You can make a paste out of the same ingredients (courgette slowly fried with garlic then all mixed together and liquidized) to spread on toast for a pretentiously pseudo-rustic but otherwise excellent starter...

There's an amazing Fuschia Dunlop thing for courgettes with black vinegar and garlic as well, although that sort of has to be a side dish as it gets a bit monotonous on its own. She salts them to draw out the water, which also seems to work well if you want to put them finely sliced and raw into a salad...

 

[Slothrop]

I advise everyone to buy a nagaimo. You can grate it to use in okonomiyaki batter, which'll make everyone think you're dead clever and sophisticated but is actually no more complicated than a tortilla, or you can just peel it, thinly slice it and then fry the slices until they're brown and crunchy and server them with (eg) salt and sichuan pepper or a dipping sauce or something.

THBAPSA

 

[Slothrop]

Winter is here, so root veg are kings again.

Gnocchi with roasted beetroot and butternut squash (in olive oil/balsamic/fresh rosemary dressing), and goat's cheese. Worked a treat, very little effort aside from the headache of cutting the raw butternut squash open.

Ooh, that sounds interesting.

Last night I did a Hugh Fearnley-Whatsisface recipe for lasagne with butternut squash, fennel and blue cheese. Surprisingly non faffy to make because it doesn't involve much beyond the veg, the bechamel and the pasta, and you basically cook the veg (roast the squash and fry the fennel) at the same time as doing the bechamel and then just assemble it an bake it. The squash / fennel / cheese combination is brilliant, though - the comforting warm blanketyness of the squash (plus the bechamel) makes a really good background for more pokey and challenging flavours of fennel and blue cheese. Would probably work really well on a tomatoless pizza as well, or in some other situation that I can't think of at the moment...

 

[baboon2004]

Ooh, that sounds interesting.

Last night I did a Hugh Fearnley-Whatsisface recipe for lasagne with butternut squash, fennel and blue cheese. Surprisingly non faffy to make because it doesn't involve much beyond the veg, the bechamel and the pasta, and you basically cook the veg (roast the squash and fry the fennel) at the same time as doing the bechamel and then just assemble it an bake it. The squash / fennel / cheese combination is brilliant, though - the comforting warm blanketyness of the squash (plus the bechamel) makes a really good background for more pokey and challenging flavours of fennel and blue cheese. Would probably work really well on a tomatoless pizza as well, or in some other situation that I can't think of at the moment...

Sounds nice. HFW does some good recipes, though I have heard a revolting story about him that I couldn't possibly reproduce here, partly because it would inhabit your nightmares....

 

[mistersloane]

Sounds nice. HFW does some good recipes, though I have heard a revolting story about him that I couldn't possibly reproduce here, partly because it would inhabit your nightmares....

TELL TELL TELL TELL

 

[baboon2004]

i'll email you. i saw this same story mentioned elsewhere on the net, but the person wisely decided to PM it rather than put it out there on the forum....not that he (probably) reads Dissensus, but, y'know....