The General Chat Thread

Mellor wrote: »

I've always been intrigued by Sous Vide cooking. Just the idea of a specific temp to get the perfect change in the proteins.

I'm not going to pay hundreds to do it at home if course. But heres my ridiculously simply set up. Pot of water and a digital thermometer. Toggle the lowest heat setting on/off to keep it to +/- 1degree.

First up, a test run. 62 Degree Egg.
It's been in there for 60 minutes now, time to come out.

Paulo Tullio has mentioned twice in the last couple of weeks (on Newstalk Moncrieff) a cheaper sous vide solution which I plan to try out soon and it looks like you have one of the key components!

Apparently you heat water to 63degrees in a container which will fit into one of those cooler basket yokes. Put your food of choice in a zip loc bag bung it in to the cooler basket. Close and wrap in a duvet or sleeping bag and 75mins later you have meat/fish sous vide! He said he did a rack of lamb and flashed it on a pan with garlic and rosemary after the 75mins and it was perfect (flashing gave it a bit of colour). Think I might try this with some butterflied leg of lamb I have in the freezer....

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

I'm looking for a tried & tested Tuna Pasta Bake - tasty with a nice sauce please.


Anyone?

This is ours, I believe it's a Mary Berry recipe, everyone loves it and with salad and garlic bread it's been a family favourite for decades which you can see from the "old money" measures! Hope you can convert OK because it's worth doing the sums.

"Italian Tuna Bake"

6 ounces of spaghetti (dry weight)
Salt & Black Pepper
2.5 ounces butter
2 ounces flour
1 pint milk
half level teaspoon mustard - dry or premixed
4 ounces Cheddar cheese - grated
1 large onion - thinly sliced
7 ounce can tuna - drained and flaked
2 hard boiled eggs - chopped

Cook pasta, drain and rinse.
Hard boil the eggs.
Gently soften onion in half ounce of the butter until just golden.

Make cheese sauce by putting milk, 2 ounces of the butter, flour, 1 level teaspoon of salt, good grinding of black pepper and mustard in a heavy pot. Whisk continuously until the sauce is thick then remove from heat and stir in 3 ounces of the grated cheese.

Place half the pasta in a buttered casserole dish, cover with half the sauce, then put tuna, onions and chopped eggs over the sauce. Finally, lay the remaining pasta on top and pour over the rest of the sauce. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese and cook at 400 deg. F for about an hour or until thoroughly heated through and the top is well browned.

I hope you enjoy it......and now that I've finished typing, I know what we're having tonight!

Faith wrote: »

I had lobster bisque at a fancy restaurant on Saturday night. I was disappointed with it . There was an odd sharp taste, but my fiancé said it tasted like a lobster bisque should. I suppose I've just never really considered the ingredients, and just thought "Lobster, yum!".

I don’t like the taste of bisque either but I love both lobster and prawns.

Hi all,

I've been kinda losing my way with food recently. I (my own fault) have been cooking the same things week in, week out. Kinda losing my mojo as it were. Then it happened....We invited close friends (6 of them) round for dinner next month. They know that I've an interest in food in the last while and one of them is actually amazing in the kitchen.

But anyway, it has really sparked my interest. Never before have I made a sample of a meal in advance but last Saturday night I made what is to be an Amouse Bouche for the night (adapted from a recipe in the Random Recipe Thread) - a poached quail's egg on a spoon, topped with hollandaise sauce and sprinkled with tiny pieces of fried-in-butter bacon - a mini breakfast if it were.

Mrs Loire and I spent about 2 hours at the table (with some nice wine) planning the meal and going through our books for inspiration. It was a great night.

All excited now and back in the game!!!

Loire.

Hi Merkin,

I just swirled a large pot of boiling water like bejaysus, removed from the heat and cracked the egg into it. Left it swirl for about 20 seconds and removed to a bowl with cold water in it. Seemed to work out OK. What I like about it is I can make them in advance as well.

Loire.

Loire wrote: »

Hi Merkin,

I just swirled a large pot of boiling water like bejaysus, removed from the heat and cracked the egg into it. Left it swirl for about 20 seconds and removed to a bowl with cold water in it. Seemed to work out OK. What I like about it is I can make them in advance as well.

Loire.

That makes perfect sense! I was wondering how you could put one on a pot on the hob because they are so little - will definitely try this, thank you!

I'd like to make mini scotch eggs as well from them.

Markcheese wrote: »

Takes a while to shell at the table though...

They are a pain in the bottom, so fiddly! Michel Roux Jr. came up with an ingenious tip on one of his programmes recently which escapes me but I will try and dig it up for you!

MissFlitworth wrote: »

Here, but, if you have 6 people in the house are you going to be able to take photos for us? You might have to designate a guest to be a photographer or cut down on the guest list

I might just do that

gg2 wrote: »

Dying to try this recipe http://www.budgetbytes.com/2013/05/italian-wonderpot/ . I have a bag of organic wholemeal farfalle I'm trying to use up, could I substitute it for the fettucine??

Looks very nice. I had to laugh at this bit though...

Also add your herbs and spices. A half tablespoon each of basil and oregano, just a dash (about 1/4 tsp) of crushed red pepper flakes, and as much freshly ground pepper as you’d like. If you haven’t started to use a pepper grinder yet, you need to. The flavor is worlds away from pre-ground black pepper. These little disposable McCormmick pepper grinders are only about $3 and it lasts quite a while.

It's a fair point, but they're calling for dried basil in the recipe. Fresh basil would work so much better.

nompere wrote: »

He put the boiled eggs in vinegared water, and left them for about 10 minutes. Then he shelled them, and said it was easy.

Aw well done you! I knew he had recommended some great way of doing it, thanks for that!