Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations

[HMGovt’s Glorious Return!]

Laoganma - grilled smoked bacon, purple sprouting broccoli, an onion, laoganma and some vacuum-wrapped cooked noodles with a glug of madeira and soy sauce to loosen it up was like weaponized umami just now. I think the black beans partly dissolved which allowed some of them to undergo fusion in an over unity fashion on my taste buds. My bronchial tract had been toasted by the chilli fumes during the initial stir fissioning, so I was riding a good head & neck pre-load of endogenous opioids. The courtroom scene in Airplane 2 was on TV as I set about it.

I'm going to make it for my new girlfriend but with ginger and galangal grated on the work surfaces beforehand.

 

[baboon2004]

YES - the best foodstuff on the planet. Surprisingly excellent with baked potatoes and butter. In fact, a stellar combination.

 

[Benny Bunter]

can we have a peasant food thread? No poncey stuff, just hearty stews and stuff like that you can make a massive pot of and eat off it for days. Got the pressure cooker on right now making my first puchero, I'm well excited.

 

[viktorvaughn]

can we have a peasant food thread? No poncey stuff, just hearty stews and stuff like that you can make a massive pot of and eat off it for days. Got the pressure cooker on right now making my first puchero, I'm well excited.

Good shout - cheap/easy peasant food thread. I love this kind of cooking.

 

[Mr. Tea]

Sausage and winter veg casserole. Utterly sublime.

 

[baboon2004]

Puy lentils, lardons, onion and bay leaves in a pot. Boil til lentils done, then blend, and add lemon juice and cream. Technically soup, but consistency of a stew.

 

[Mr. Tea]

The word you're looking for is 'stewp'.

Excessive consumption can send you into a stewpor.

 

[Benny Bunter]

wait i'm gonna start a thread

 

[baboon2004]

A lentil stewpor, indeed.

Anyone got any recipes for split pea soups or stews - have a bag of them and not sure how to use them up?

 

[Slothrop]

Does anyone know a way to make roast winter veg feel a bit more like the focus of a meal and a bit less like a side dish? I really like them, and I'm sure that they'd make an easy veggie dinner with the addition of a bit of something, but I'm not sure what the something is...

 

[Mr. Tea]

Perhaps just the addition of some of the right sort of seasoning? Roast spuds (and, even better, roast sweet potatoes) love a bit of thyme. Try thyme, garlic and toasted cumin seeds, maybe. Balsamic for roast Mediterranean veg, obvs.

Or just coat the whole lot in a fuckton of melted cheese.

 

[Slothrop]

I've tried herbs / cumin / smoked paprika / etc and it's still not quite there.

I'm having trouble putting my finger on what seems to be missing, but I think it's partly contrast. Possibly a sauce (satay or salsa verde or something) and some sort of rice or cous cous might be the answer...

 

[muser]

i used to do that dish alot, choice of veg helps aswell I think, using whole garlic and onions in there, things suggested before like potatoes & sweet potato, rosemary paprika etc etc Sounds a bit basic to be honest but I always had it on cous cous with large amounts of mayonnaise, using the juice from the pan to pour on top..always pretty satisfying!

 

[baboon2004]

I've tried herbs / cumin / smoked paprika / etc and it's still not quite there.

I'm having trouble putting my finger on what seems to be missing, but I think it's partly contrast. Possibly a sauce (satay or salsa verde or something) and some sort of rice or cous cous might be the answer...

I think couscous/bulghur/freekeh etc is definitely the key, to soak up juices. Also, as you say, a sauce of some kind - I reckon the reason i find it easiest to cook Chinese vegetarian dishes is cos there's such a range of really interesting sauces/condiments (like the one at the top of this page), makes it less bland instantly

Ottolenghi idea: roasted butternut squash and red onion with thinned out tahini/lemon/garlic sauce, and topped with parsley and za'atar and pine nuts (or a combination of whatever similar things you have - as ever, Ottolenghi ingredient lists are not straightforward)

I end up eating way more meat/fish than I ideally would, precisely because a lot of vegetarian dishes i can make don't feel like a meal in themselves.

 

[baboon2004]

Tomato and fennel make a brilliant combination for roast veg, though not filling enough to be a dish in themselves really...

 

[DannyL]

Creme freche always makes a good accompaniment to roasted veg, makes the dish nice and rich. Citrus, pomegrante seeds, might be other additions if you want to take it into a more zingy direction.

 

[griftert]

The addition of a bit more winter veg and some gravy and you'll be laughing. You can do pretty big portions of roast veg when unconstrained by meat in my experience... Which is fine as it's so cheap.

 

[Mr. Tea]

What if I like being constrained by meat?

 

[Slothrop]

There are people who'll do that for you, but it won't be cheap.

Everyone else: thanks, good stuff. I think brown rice / cous cous and some sort of sauce - maybe creme fraiche or yoghurt based, maybe a tahini + lemon + garlic type thing - might well be the way to go. I think the key thing is that the veg won't absorb sauce so it has to be thick enough to stick to the outside... then something like rice mops up what's left of the sauce plus any veg juices etc.

I know what I'm having for dinner tonight...

 

[Slothrop]

Well that worked! Standard winter veg mix + paprika, chilli flakes and cumin seeds, brown basmati rice and a lemon juice / tahini / garlic sauce (as per Baboon's suggestion, although I remember having done something similar to swirl / blob into a carrot soup with ideas above its station once, too...). The result was pretty much exactly what I was after, although next time I might try to get some more protein involved by eg cooking some lentils in with the rice or chucking half a pound of halloumi at the whole arrangement.