Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations

luka

luka

Well-known member
i had to get my girlfriend to do that from memory cos weve lost the recipe we wrote down so although its defeintly 99% accurate we may have forgotten something or other. i think peking noodles are wheat noodles. they are not dried noodles. i think it is probably worth trying to get the right noodles. the seasame paste is from asian supermarkets, its not tahini. probably the authentic recipe has meat of some kind, i dont know, i assume my friend adjusted it for our benefit. the picture is of chilli oil. its not oil infused with chilli. its a mixture of chilli, msg, oil and other things. there is a few different ones. i like the one with soy beans in. the brand pictured is pictured becasue its the one we were told is the best. i have not got the time to try every brand availble and as this one is delicious i have stuck with it. i go through a jar a week. it is great mixed with rice. do not overdo it though as it can ruin the dish.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
luka said:
its just a meat subsititue. so cant you just use a meat recipe and put the gluten in? do you make it yourself? the stuff you buy in the shops is of variable quality.
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Yeah, it could be a quality thing. I might try tracking down a recipe and making my own.

But it's not quite a straight like-for-like meat substitute - I think it needs a bit more work to set it off nicely than something like duck or chicken that has a more complex flavour to start with.

Unrelated note, I've got two flavour thesaurus things on the go for lunch with friends tomorrow - horseradish / smoked mackerel / watercress / pea / bulgur wheat salad and (oh yes) goat's cheese chocolate truffles.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
ive never made it myself (gluten) but my vegan cousin used to, before he decided heating food was wrong and started to eat nothing but raw food. he now subsists on heads of cauliflower and the like. its a bit disturbing. his farts are horrific.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
I think the secret might be to marinade it like tofu, but I never tried to. There used to be (may still be) this incredible veggie Chinese place in New York which did amazing things, and so I bought a can of mock duck and tried it at home. And never ate the stuff again, it was gross. Seitan is one of those things you have to be a freemason or something to get the secrets of cooking it well.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
the one in a can is quite grimy. it may be that you can't get the good stuff in the uk. i dont know. there is an enormous range of these things in sydney (all different ones, fish, beef, ribs, pork, chicken nuggets, roast duck, etc etc etc all heavily seasoned naturally. they come frozen in a plastic bag.) and an enormous amount of restuaraunts using it. there is a tawainese woman who calles herself SUPREME MASTER. she started her own religion, televiosn station and jewelery line . she promotes vegetarianism. she has many vietnamese devotees and they have opened a lot of resturaunts. they are often very good indeed, much better than the buddhist-buffet places that sprung up around london about 10 years ago. (although there are things those places do well from what i can remember) as a result the vietnamese section of sydney (cabramatta) has a higher concentration of vegetarian resturaunts than anywhere else in the city.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
muser said:
chopped corriander + sweet potatoe mash is a big combo...
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I love fresh coriander leaf a bit too much, I think I might be slightly dependent on it. I have to make a real effort not to use it in almost everything I cook, so as to avoid making all my food taste the same. Trouble is, it's just so damn versatile.

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.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
More flavour thesaurus bizniz tried last night:

Parsnips and bananas roasted in the oven, with chili and star anise. Served with bacon.

Think it needs something sour or bitter to cut through the sweetness, but it has serious potential
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Ugh, parsnips get my nomination for the Devil's own vegetable - spiced roast bananas sounds like it could have potential though. I'd probably use plantain as it seems more suited to cooking. For a sour note you could just go with balsamic vinegar?

A combination I think I'm going to explore more is rich, grilled oily fish, spiked with garlic, parsely and lemon juice, plus dark wholemeal bread (maybe black/rye bread?) and pitch-black porter/stout-type beer. I'm thinking mackerel or pilchards battered with breadcrumbs and that amazing Nigerian Guinness, then pan-fried and served with crisp, bitter salad leaves, lots of lemon juice and a bottle of the same beer. Dark, malty beer with fish or seafood is a killer combo...any fans of oyster stout in the house?
 
M

muser

Well-known member
Mr. Tea said:
I love fresh coriander leaf a bit too much, I think I might be slightly dependent on it. I have to make a real effort not to use it in almost everything I cook, so as to avoid making all my food taste the same. Trouble is, it's just so damn versatile.

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.
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Thats sounds well good. defintiely going to try that one out. I love fresh corriander also, its nearly always wilted and going a bit where I can get it from close, unless I chance on the right day when its just come in, which is a bit frustrating.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
My sweet potato tip otd would be doing it in coconut milk with onions, carrots, chillies and a sweet / aromatic spice mix (cinnamon, nutmeg, turmeric, little bit of coriander) and a load of fresh coriander chucked in at the end.

Tea's thing sounds buff, but I don't think I could sneak the smoked mackerel past the veggie.

I am quite obsessed with smoked mackerel, though.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Well the stout batter worked pretty well with sea bass, although I'm going to try it next time with some proper oily fish like sardines. I packed the gut cavity with a kind of stuffing made from rye breadcrumbs, butter, garlic, lemon juice, pesto, parsely and coriander. The whole thing was pretty tasty, although a pain to eat because it turns out sea bass are bonier than Calista Flockhart.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
1000 apologis friends, we did make a mistake. you need a packet of yangchun noodles, not peking noodles. hope no one has made this yet and hates me as a result. i am eating them tonight as it was close to 40 degrees today.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
I impulse bought a horseradish root on the way to work today.

Does anyone have any idea what I should do with it? Preferably without meat or fish...
 
L

Lichen

Well-known member
I impulse bought a horseradish root on the way to work today.


Does anyone have any idea what I should do with it?


Shove it up...

Or I guess grating it is a start. It cuts through oily things, that's why it works with Mackerel and Eel. But no fish, so....

Horseradish and Avocado salad?

Grated into a bloody mary!
 
D

DannyL

Wild Horses
Slothrop said:
I impulse bought a horseradish root on the way to work today.

Does anyone have any idea what I should do with it? Preferably without meat or fish...
Click to expand...

I saw Nigel Slater grate this, put it with green lentils and some leftover beef, that'd been cooked very rare. It looked absolutely lush.
 
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