General Chat Thread II

Season's greetings cooks, I tried this on the Christmas forum and was recommended to try here.

Made my first ever batch of Christmas puddings about one week ago. Turned them out today to change the wrapping and although VERY tasty, if I do say so myself, they are a little wet.

Not falling apart, but very shiny and quite soft. I think when following my mother's directions, I should have used my discretion and not added more Guinness after the mix rested and prior to transferring to the bowls for steaming.

Anyway, I'm sure there is some way to gently remove some moisture between now and the big day, absorbant wrap changed regularly, or a very low oven on a rack for a spell?

Any suggestions from experience to dry my two pudds out a little would be greatly appreciated!!

I had a craving for soup from the 80s, specifically a packet of powdered oxtail soup with croutons. Scanned the entire soup shelf in Tesco and it seems they dont make soup with croutons anymore, back in the day you'd get a few different packet soups with croutons in them. Left disappointed and empty handed

rubadub wrote: »

... I am making a KFC type breading and it is one thing I cannot get and is one herb that Col. Sanders had revealed. Since there are loads of other herbs in the mix it is not essential that I get it on its own so might just get the schwartz mix if I am stuck. I already have thyme & oregano in my mix ...

There is a new series of Snackmasters starting on Channel 4. It's a show where prominent chefs try to recreate popular food and in the episodes I watched they made the Burger King Whopper Meal, Kit Kat and Monster Munch.

I saw an ad for the new series last night and I could see flashes of Domino's Pizza and KFC in it. Should be worth watching!

That program sounds great, will be especially interested in the Dominoes episode. Its starts on Thursday with Quavers

Im out of the delivery range of the takeaways so for me its both necessity and convenience. I could go on a 20km round trip to the chipper but I can have a far nicer burger on the table in under 15 minutes from scratch, same with pizza when you've dough stored up. With KFC you can make it even better than what they do. With Indian we have all the recipes the Indian takeaways are using anyway so you can create a curry that is pretty much identical and it doesnt cost 10 euro plus 3 euro extra for rice (a bugbear of mine). At this stage I only ever get a takeaway if I simply dont want to cook

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

Few of the reasons I do it.

1. Cost. Just one example - you go to that ****hole Nandos and pay €28 (probably more now) for a chicken that some spotty student has just thrown on a grill, sprinkling it with a bit of peri peri seasoning. You even have to go to the grill yourself to collect it! :eek::mad: I can do the same thing for a fiver. I'm feeding at least six adults here every day. A takeaway night every week is €90+

2. Control. If you prepare everything from scratch you know what's going in there. No E numbers, no preservatives, no dodgy colourings, the amount of salt etc etc.

3. You say to the kids (teens) they're having Portuguese Chicken for dinner, they go, Urgh, what's that? You say they're having Nando's, they go Yeah!

4. Because I can!

I know kids love Nandos and I can probably see why but I have never understood it’s popularity in general. Such an unnecessarily complicated way to order for a bang average serving of chicken. Even the sauces aren’t great. Was so disappointed the first time I tried it. Thought I was just unlucky and went back again, but no, that’s just what it is.

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Anyone experienced with making salsa?

I've found fresh salsa hard to find in the supermarkets recently, and the last time I tried making a chargrilled salsa at home, it was horrible.

The recipes look really simple, but I don't want just chopped raw tomatoes with onion and things.
The supermarket versions are much more juicy. I'm not sure if the tomatoes need to be cooked, or maybe I'm using the wrong tomatoes?

Anyway, after googling, there seems to be so many different types of salsa, with all sorts of fruits like kiwi, apricot, mango, tomatillos (€€€ here)

I wonder if it's more a cooked salsa you are looking for?
Anyway here's my house salsa - it's vaguely Mexican but goes with lots of things really.

1 Punnet of cherry tomatoes
1 Bunch of spring onions
1 clove of garlic
1 Chilli of choice
1 Mango
1 Bunch of fresh coriander
1 Lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon sugar
dash of tequila or other spirit (optional)
Salt
Pepper.

Just dice everything (as fine or as coarse as you like).
You can really play around with this. Add different fruits. Different chillies. Use shallot or red onion. Use different herbs (mint can be lovely in a salsa, or basil) Use lemon juice. Add different vegetables. Have fun.

What cut of beef would you recommend for slow cooking?

L1011 wrote: »

For what dish?

Shin is ideal for a lot of dishes but not some others for instance.

Pulled/shredded beef. The recipe calls for chuck, but it’s an American one and I don’t know what it would be called here.