The General Chat Thread

IvyTheTerrible

MissFlitworth wrote: »

I think Fiddlechic might have been pointing out that the BBC site ain't great for Ling recipes as they bring up search results where 'ling' is part of another word. Microwave spaghetti is the top search result because it has 'boiling' as part of an ingredient name

Would searching for ling followed by a space in quotation marks work?

Merkin

To be honest it is pretty interchangeable with cod so I wouldn't worry about not finding specific ling recipes. What works for cod will work for ling.

fiddlechic

Thanks for the advice guys! Yes, pan fried ling fantabulous.

StripedBoxers

Anyone have any nice recipes or tips for scallops? I've never had them but lately I've had a craving for them for some reason.

What do they taste like? What's a good way to cook them?

I don't like chorizo so would appreciate any recipes/tips/ideas for cooking, seasoning them etc.

Normally for sea bass I'd put a drop of olive oil in the pan, and sprinkle the fish with garlic (chopped or a whole clove maybe), some chilli flakes, salt, pepper and lemon juice. Would this work for scallops?

tmc86

You can pan fry them with some butter, but you have to watch them as they can be tricky enough to cook without overcooking them. A nice meaty fish flavour, I wouldn't season them too much.

They pair beautifully with black pudding.

Loire

tmc86 wrote: »

They pair beautifully with black pudding.

+1

I'd have everything ready to be plated before frying the scallops though - they're done in no time and require you to be standing over them when cooking.

Frying in butter would be how I cook them, especially for the first time. Yum!

dipdip

They're sweet, and meaty. Make sure the pan is screaming hot. Pat the scallops dry. Lightly score the tops and bottoms if you like. Season with salt and pepper. Add lots of butter to the pan and as soon as it foams, add the scallops. A minute a side and you've got yourself an incredible treat.

Goes with everything, but salad and garlic bread is an easy and delicious accompaniment.

Loire

dipdip wrote: »

They're sweet, and meaty. Make sure the pan is screaming hot. Pat the scallops dry. Lightly score the tops and bottoms if you like. Season with salt and pepper. Add lots of butter to the pan and as soon as it foams, add the scallops. A minute a side and you've got yourself an incredible treat.

Goes with everything, but salad and garlic bread is an easy and delicious accompaniment.

Hi dipdip,

Would you add a little oil to the pan too to stop the butter for burning?

Loire

dipdip

Loire wrote: »

Hi dipdip,

Would you add a little oil to the pan too to stop the butter for burning?

Loire

I find if the pan is already hot the butter melts quickly and all is well. I think when butter has burned in the past for me I was using a crappy pan and I also let the butter heat up slowly and for too long. A little drop of oil is never any harm though!

the beer revolu

I always slice scallops in two to form medallions. I find they cook really quickly and easily that way.
As said they go with anything really.

I love them with Asian flavours - I do a really fine stirfry of spring onion, ginger, garlic and chilli, dash of rice wine/dry sherry, bit of soy sauce and a few drops of sesame oil. I serve the scallops with a squeeze of lime juice and a little of the stirfry.


I usually fry them hot with butter and oil.

While I think the roe looks lovely, I really dislike the texture and taste.

StripedBoxers

Thanks everyone. I got them and the guy said butter, garlic, salt, pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice and they will be gorgeous, just a minute on each side.

Would garlic butter work or would it need to be garlic and butter separately?

Going to have them with baby spuds. Getting hungry thinking about them. Mmm.

Gloomtastic!

^ Good luck with those little puppies. All seafood is fantastic but scallops and giant prawns are my favourite!

Moving on to breakfast......

To try and save a bit of time on weekend mornings, I've taken to cooking my sausages and bacon in advance then nuking them when needed. Personally I think the sausages taste better.

Anyone else do this?

StripedBoxers

Dunnes Stores and their reduced bloody meat.

Bought two rib eye steaks today for €9, thought "great, they'll do for dinner", all grand until I got home and opened them, put them on the plate to season and thought there was a funny smell, but thought it was just me, so I went ahead cooked the dinner and just as we started eating the steaks we knew they were gone off. It was as if I had sour feet in my mouth, the smell and taste was vile.

fussyonion

My mother learned her lesson the hard way, Striped.

She always bought her meat pre-packed and it became a running joke because everytime she opened the pack, the meat was gone off.
She bought a turkey from Dunnes last year and it was off when she opened it on Christmas morning.

Just avoid the pre-packed stuff-meat sweats, and go to your butcher.

StripedBoxers

fussyonion wrote: »

My mother learned her lesson the hard way, Striped.

She always bought her meat pre-packed and it became a running joke because everytime she opened the pack, the meat was gone off.
She bought a turkey from Dunnes last year and it was off when she opened it on Christmas morning.

Just avoid the pre-packed stuff-meat sweats, and go to your butcher.

It is beyond a joke at this stage to be honest. This is the third time in about two months, twice with Dunnes and once with Supervalu, and after the Supervalu incident my boyfriend was sick for four days.

I always, always buy from the butchers but every so often I buy from the supermarket and I swear after today its the last time I will buy from them.

It's most definitely worth spending the extra and buying fresh from the butchers.

fussyonion

StripedBoxers wrote: »

It is beyond a joke at this stage to be honest. This is the third time in about two months, twice with Dunnes and once with Supervalu, and after the Supervalu incident my boyfriend was sick for four days.

I always, always buy from the butchers but every so often I buy from the supermarket and I swear after today its the last time I will buy from them.

It's most definitely worth spending the extra and buying fresh from the butchers.

I used to buy the odd pack of chicken fillets too but more often than not, they'd be dodgy looking.

I've never had a problem when I've bought from the butchers.
Nothing more annoying than taking meat out for dinner and realising it's gone off and you don't know what to cook :mad:

StripedBoxers

fussyonion wrote: »

I used to buy the odd pack of chicken fillets too but more often than not, they'd be dodgy looking.

I've never had a problem when I've bought from the butchers.
Nothing more annoying than taking meat out for dinner and realising it's gone off and you don't know what to cook :mad:

I never buy chicken fillets because as you say they are usually dodgy. I only buy whole chickens from them, and even that is rare these days because well......they're sometimes gone off :rolleyes:

I wonder what it is with Dunnes and their meat going off so quickly. I just can't understand it.

Aye, I've never had a problem with meat from the butchers either so I will be sticking to them in future, I'd rather pay a bit extra and have meat that I will be able to eat.

Jezek

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

^ Good luck with those little puppies. All seafood is fantastic but scallops and giant prawns are my favourite!

Moving on to breakfast......

To try and save a bit of time on weekend mornings, I've taken to cooking my sausages and bacon in advance then nuking them when needed. Personally I think the sausages taste better.

Anyone else do this?

No but if you're brave some chefs (Jaques Pepin) do the bacon in the microwave. You could try that and report back.

leahyl

Are ye serious?? My mum buys chickens and red meat from dunnes all the time and it has never once been gone off. If it's that's bad shouldn't you report it to Dunnes - I'm sure they'd like to know, especially if people are getting sick from it.

We find the meat to be quite nice from there actually - beef, steak etc.

Chloebeag

I buy lots of meat in Dunnes too and find it great. I especially like their 95% extra lean mince and their free range chicken fillets. I always buy well within the use by date though.
However last week I went to the butchers and got a great deal. €20 family pack: 1 whole chicken, 1lb diced beef, 1lb sausages, 1lb lean mince, 4 burgers and 4 pork chops. I think I'm converted now to the butchers.
Last nights dinner was a beef casserole (using the diced beef) which was cooked with carrots, turnips, onion, thyme and bay leaves in beef stock, red wine and worchestire sauce. Large helping of mashed potatoes with plenty of brown sauce too!

leahyl

Definitely, butchers have great deals too - we buy from both, whichever has a good offer at the time.

pampootie

I'd speak to someone in your local Dunnes as well, I buy lots of my meat in dunnes and never have trouble, even when I buy from the reduced to clear shelf. Sounds like they're not keeping it chilled properly or something

GalwayGuy2

Reduced meat is grand in my opinion.

But, sometimes they put out steaks that are going black/green around the edges

confusticated

Used to get my meat in the English market, never had a problem with supermarket meat other than price though. Oh, and Tesco chicken fillets just weren't very nice I found. Aldi and Lidl have been serving me well lately.

Bought another cookery book last night...despite the fact that I get most of my recipes online. But it's Chinese cookery, and since I wouldn't know the names of a lot of dishes, I'd never even think to search for them, so hopefully I'll get a few new things from it. Trying to justify it to myself when I still haven't brought up my other cookery books from Cork!

Loire

fussyonion wrote: »

go to your butcher.

+1

Haven't bought meat in a supermarket since before Xmas. Once you make the switch you'll never go back. Same price (or cheaper) but the quality is so much better.

rubadub

GalwayGuy2 wrote: »

Reduced meat is grand in my opinion.

But, sometimes they put out steaks that are going black/green around the edges

those off colour steaks to not bother me much. I wouldn't buy fish or chicken near the use by though. My tesco has fridges that are not particularly cold, even the most well in date chicken fillets can have a slight off smell. A supervalu near me was done up and all the fridges have doors now.

As for butchers, you have to find a good one, people go on about them as though its a chain of identical shops, I find it really weird the faith people have in them. A butcher in a supermarket does not have much vested interest in doing bad practices, i.e. if meat has not sold he throws it out, no skin off his nose. A dodgy independent butcher might still try and sell it.

StripedBoxers

leahyl wrote: »

Are ye serious?? My mum buys chickens and red meat from dunnes all the time and it has never once been gone off. If it's that's bad shouldn't you report it to Dunnes - I'm sure they'd like to know, especially if people are getting sick from it.

We find the meat to be quite nice from there actually - beef, steak etc.

pampootie wrote: »

I'd speak to someone in your local Dunnes as well, I buy lots of my meat in dunnes and never have trouble, even when I buy from the reduced to clear shelf. Sounds like they're not keeping it chilled properly or something

Yup I am deadly serious. I've bought plenty of meat in Dunnes and its only recently (the last two months maybe) that I've been having problems with it. I've bought from Tesco without any issues.

I've bought reduced meat from Dunnes before without any issues but as I said, its only in the last two months that I've been having issues. I will definitely be speaking to them about this.

GalwayGuy2 wrote: »

Reduced meat is grand in my opinion.

But, sometimes they put out steaks that are going black/green around the edges

Yeah those meats with the black/green edges I always avoid, I rarely see anyone buying them tbh. Can't imagine bringing one home and tucking into it. Ewww.

pleasant Co.

As a rule I avoid dunnes for my meat purchases, find them to be consistently disappointing with their better cuts, so if I can't get to a good butchers it'll be something else rather than dunnes meat - that's my own view anyway.

Dizzyblonde

I came across 2kg crates of cherries in Supervalu yesterday and couldn't resist. Then I realised we'd never eat them all so I made a cherry pie. Haven't tasted it yet, it's cooling - but it smells good.

the beer revolu

I wish supermarkets would all use vac packs for all their meat - like the Aldi premium steaks. I hate the big plastic packs they use for most of their meat. Too much packaging and the meat doesn't keep well.
But I only occasionally buy meat from the supermarket.