The General Chat Thread

Markcheese

Mrs Fox wrote: »

Works for spicy dish too from my experience.

Nah, that much cayenne yr fe#ked, unless you like to feel the burn... You can try the spud and yogurt , both'll due a bit but have a plan B for those sensitive to heat...
I have way less tolerance to dried chilli/ cayenne than I do to fresh chilli... Different kind of heat ?

Animord

The Hill Billy wrote: »

I made a goulash yesterday for our dinner today. I messed up used cayenne pepper instead of paprika (similar tins on same shelf, in a rush, etc...) & now have tomatoey beef stew rocket fuel. Any ideas for how to save it other than adding a gallon of natural yogurt?

If it were me, I'd remove most of the solid stuff from the sauce, make a second sauce from a tin of tomatoes/beef stock etc and put the meat etc into it. I'd freeze the first sauce in portions that you could just add to goulash/beef stews in the future.

If that makes any sense at all?

Dubl07

Animord wrote: »

If it were me, I'd remove most of the solid stuff from the sauce, make a second sauce from a tin of tomatoes/beef stock etc and put the meat etc into it. I'd freeze the first sauce in portions that you could just add to goulash/beef stews in the future.

If that makes any sense at all?

+1

I add a dash of nam pla to a lot of savoury dishes. When Blue Dragon (think it was them) changed their packaging to pour rather than sprinkle, half a bottle of same went into a stew. I drained off the liquid and added more stock - it was grand. Needed tweaking with seasoning and herbs again but palatable.

Moody_mona

Booked Mothers Day Afternoon Tea after all the talk! Well excited!

MissFlitworth

Just knocked a freshly cooked 'Sloppy Giuseppe' pizza onto the couch. It lived up to its name :mad:

Faith

Moody_mona wrote: »

Booked Mothers Day Afternoon Tea after all the talk! Well excited!

Now that's a good idea!

dipdip

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Just knocked a freshly cooked 'Sloppy Giuseppe' pizza onto the couch. It lived up to its name :mad:

five second (minute hour day) rule!

MissFlitworth

dipdip wrote: »

five second (minute hour day) rule!

Oh I ate it. Then there was quite a lot of couch cleaning to be done. Cheese pizzas ftw

beertons

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Just knocked a freshly cooked 'Sloppy Giuseppe' pizza onto the couch. It lived up to its name :mad:

That would be one of my ultimate nightmares. We'd have to bin the couch, because the dog would end up licking it to a thread.

I was so bored today. Needed air, popped into tesco and came out with mince. An hour later, and I'm trying to create shepards pie with a biisto sauce. What I should have done was bought a battery for the weighing scales, but sure that can wait till I've tried this at least.

BaZmO*

How cool is this.

fiddlechic

BaZmO* wrote: »

How cool is this.

I'm probably late to this - but I finally started doing as Rachel Allen does : rolling out pastry between cling film rather than flour.
Truly revolutionary.

Merkin

fiddlechic wrote: »

I'm probably late to this - but I finally started doing as Rachel Allen does : rolling out pastry between cling film rather than flour.
Truly revolutionary.

Really, does this work? I've never actually heard of this!

dipdip

Merkin wrote: »

Really, does this work? I've never actually heard of this!

It does, it's great, particularly for very delicate pastry like sweet shortcrust.

fiddlechic

I've only seen Rachel Allen do it.
Really helps, particularly if you've sweet, or cheese pastry. Before I would have had to patch cracks etc but the cling film makes a huge difference.
It takes a tiny bit longer, but brilliant at avoiding cracks, and superb at lifting pastry to dish. It keeps it together and I am less covered in flour at the end.

Basically put flattened bit of pastry between 2 sheets of cling film and roll away, changing direction as usual.
Remove top sheet, put water on edges if going on top; flip over and place on dish. Perfect.

I'm on the look out now for wider cling film, as I find I need to go a couple of inches outside normal cling film to get enough pastry for the base of my favourite le cruest pie dish.

dipdip

fiddlechic wrote: »

I'm on the look out now for wider cling film, as I find I need to go a couple of inches outside normal cling film to get enough pastry for the base of my favourite le cruest pie dish.

Use catering cling film, which you can buy in any cash and carry.

Merkin

fiddlechic wrote: »

I've only seen Rachel Allen do it.
Really helps, particularly if you've sweet, or cheese pastry. Before I would have had to patch cracks etc but the cling film makes a huge difference.
It takes a tiny bit longer, but brilliant at avoiding cracks, and superb at lifting pastry to dish. It keeps it together and I am less covered in flour at the end.

Basically put flattened bit of pastry between 2 sheets of cling film and roll away, changing direction as usual.
Remove top sheet, put water on edges if going on top; flip over and place on dish. Perfect.

I'm on the look out now for wider cling film, as I find I need to go a couple of inches outside normal cling film to get enough pastry for the base of my favourite le cruest pie dish.

It's about the only thing I do go into Lidl for (I really hate Lidl), but they do an amazing supersize Bacofoil container of cling film which is wider than standard. http://www.baco.co.uk/products/easycut-clingfilm-dispenser.shtml

Markcheese

I was going to suggest going to a cash and carry and getting a roll of 18inch cling film (normal commercial stuff is 12)
At 300 meters a roll you'd have cling for life ..! Nearly ...
Lidl might be easier.... I like lidl (for somethings) and your round it in 10 mins...

Mellor

BaZmO* wrote: »

How cool is this.

I've seen "designer" kitchen rolling pins with those kind of features.
JosephJoseph do all sorts of clever gadgets but they are also expensive.
http://www.josephjoseph.com/product/adjustable-rolling-pin

Chewabacca

Anyone have an idea when the wild garlic will be out? Can't get enough of the stuff, so easy to forage as well.

Animord

Chewabacca wrote: »

Anyone have an idea when the wild garlic will be out? Can't get enough of the stuff, so easy to forage as well.

I noticed people posting twitter pictures of the first wild garlic of the season yesterday so I guess it is round now, probably in more sheltered and warmer areas.

Alun

Ah, wild garlic, love the stuff, and I've got a good source nearby too.

Anybody got any interesting recipes using it? I usually make some pesto from it, use it to stuff fish like trout, and put some in salads, but would like some other ideas as well. There's an Indian takeaway in Greystones that does wild garlic naan bread when it's in season which is nice too.

Gloomtastic!

Chewabacca wrote: »

Anyone have an idea when the wild garlic will be out? Can't get enough of the stuff, so easy to forage as well.

In St Anne's Park now and the place reeks of wild garlic, it's everywhere!

Markcheese

Seen loads of the thin leaved stuff over the last couple of weeks ... Haven't seen the broad leaved one yet, but thats probably cos I haven't been in the woods much ....

The Black Oil

Guy on the bus today. His phone was huge. I almost asked if he uses it as a vegetable chopping board.

Dr.MickKiller

The Black Oil wrote: »

Guy on the bus today. His phone was huge. I almost asked if he uses it as a vegetable chopping board.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6WuHzE-1fk

Loire

Did a splurge in Aldi and Woodies yesterday and bought a load of seeds. Gonna grow my own in raised beds. Anyone else doing this? The thoughts of pulling up home-grown carrots, onions and spuds has me all excited. Bought a walk-in greenhouse from Woodies for 29.99 and an on-the-floor-job from Aldi for 24.99. I bought other veg too such as Swiss Chard, Spinach, Runner Beans (which should be fun) and strawberries. The small one, when she saw the strawberries, asked me if they'd be ready for tomorrow

Dizzyblonde

Loire wrote: »

Did a splurge in Aldi and Woodies yesterday and bought a load of seeds. Gonna grow my own in raised beds. Anyone else doing this? The thoughts of pulling up home-grown carrots, onions and spuds has me all excited. Bought a walk-in greenhouse from Woodies for 29.99 and an on-the-floor-job from Aldi for 24.99. I bought other veg too such as Swiss Chard, Spinach, Runner Beans (which should be fun) and strawberries. The small one, when she saw the strawberries, asked me if they'd be ready for tomorrow

I do

I have a raised bed and I grow carrots, scallions, peas, onions, garlic, cabbage etc. Not all of those every year, I do a few of each. What I do grow every year is beetroot, it's really easy to grow and when I harvest it I make chutney. I've just finished eating my last jar from last year's batch. I buy one or two courgette plants in B&Q in June and they yield an amazing amount yet are very easy to grow. I make relish with some of them. I also grow Tumbler cherry tomatoes in pots, they're really easy to care for and yield lots of fruit.
I sow mixed lettuce in a plastic windowbox on the edge of the patch and pick the baby leaves as I want them.

I often grow a few sunflowers in the veggie patch, they look great especially if you're growing something tall like peas or beans. And you have the seed heads for the birds in the winter. When our daughters were young we'd have a sunflower growing competition - everyone in the family would look after the watering and feeding of a sunflower and whichever one grew the tallest was the winner

Merkin

We started growing tomatoes and aubergines last year and it was just delightful - we'd a steady crop of tomatoes throughout the summer and they simple don't compare to anything you buy in the supermarket, so juicy and sweet.

Going to include courgettes this year as they are easy to grow and grow in abundance.

Loire

Great tips!! Can't wait for the taste and also (carrots esp) the weird shapes!

Loire

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

When our daughters were young we'd have a sunflower growing competition - everyone in the family would look after the watering and feeding of a sunflower and whichever one grew the tallest was the winner

Definitely going to do that!!

Thanks,
Loire