The General Chat Thread

Lovely Bloke · 04-09-2014 09:48AM

Gavin, for meatballs use 2 meats.

Get a pound of sausage meat off the butcher, combine with a pound of mince, grated onion and an egg - season to taste.

Roll into balls, you can get about 20 decent sized meat balls from that mix.

Fry them off to seal them, then cook them in the sauce.

Sauce

soften an onion in olive oil on a medium heat for about ten mins, don't let it brown, add some garlic and cook out for a further 5 minutes.

add some dried oergano or basil, or both

500ml beef stock
tin of chopped toms
tbsp of tom puree
s&p
couple of dashes of worcester sauce

bring to the boil, then add the meatballs and simmer until it reaches a consistency you like, I also add quartered button mushrooms at this stage.

simple

Lovely Bloke · 04-09-2014 09:50AM

edit, I just saw "no onions" - what? why? are you allergic, if you aren't and just "don't like" them, then bite the bullet and just start cooking with them, the depth of flavour just isn't there in dishes where onion is omitted.

for the sauce above, you could use a couple of chopped up leeks, or even a couple of bulbs of fennel at a push.

you can leave the grated onion out of the meatballs too, if you wish

Mrs Fox · 04-09-2014 10:36AM

Faith wrote: »

I'm about to go to a place I never thought I'd voluntarily go to... The vegetarian forum :eek:. Meat in Canada is really expensive, and not a patch on what we have in Ireland so we need to adapt to including vegetarian meals in our diet. This will be... An experience.

I thought you were turning pescetarian so not having meat meat wasn't going to be an issue, or was that someone else?

Faith · 04-09-2014 05:22PM

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

jaysis, this is my second time to mention this to you in a few hours, but seriously, try Rice & Peas.

Mod hat: do you work for rice and peas? Are they paying you to recommend them?

:pac:

Mrs Fox wrote: »

I thought you were turning pescetarian so not having meat meat wasn't going to be an issue, or was that someone else?

Yeah, that's me. I'm not 'turning' anything, but I am trying to stop eating so much meat for various reasons, and eat more fish and vegetarian meals. Most of the reason that I'm asking advice is to ease my carnivorous fiancé into a change in diet without him noticing too much

Merkin · 05-09-2014 11:54AM

Here's a dish we make a lot and I know you like pasta so I think you'll like it. It still feels quite moreish so you won't feel deprived......especially if you have it with a nice chilled Viognier or something equally yum

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1269/chilli-prawn-linguine

Also, as it comes into winter try the Kevin Dundon recipe for fish pie, it's delicious.

What kind of fish are readily available where you are?

Faith · 05-09-2014 04:46PM

I make a very similar dish myself with a bit of cream about once a week

Sockeye salmon is the big thing here, Dungeness crab, spot prawns... I was in the local fishmonger the other day but I didn't take much notice. I think the usual are mostly available here - definitely sole and halibut anyway. I'll be waiting until I'm working to get too familiar with the fishmonger!

Loire · 05-09-2014 06:16PM

Merkin wrote: »

Here's a dish we make a lot and I know you like pasta so I think you'll like it. It still feels quite moreish so you won't feel deprived......especially if you have it with a nice chilled Viognier or something equally yum

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1269/chilli-prawn-linguine

Hi Merkin.

That looks lovely and I have some frozen tiger prawns I'm looking to use up so will try this soon!

Loire.

Merkin · 05-09-2014 06:24PM

It's yummy Loire, so simple but so tasty!

Faith · 05-09-2014 09:52PM

We had baked potatoes for lunch today. I fried up some bacon. I put the bacon in a dry pan, and this is what it looked like after about 2 minutes:

fioPLLMl.jpg?1

It ended up deep frying itself. I had to drain it in a colander because kitchen paper wouldn't have been absorbent enough. Meat here is shyte!!!

lisalights · 05-09-2014 10:01PM

Today made coconut loaf cake, it's so yummy, top it with jam and more coconut. Also made a quiche for dinner, well it was aldi pastry. Yesterday made a Victoria sponge filled with jam, cream and berries and pork burgers with fennel slaw. A very successful two days

Merkin · 05-09-2014 10:05PM

Fair play! It's great when you get on a roll and there's no coming between you and your kitchen!

How did you make the pork burgers as a matter of interest please?

lisalights · 06-09-2014 06:37AM

Merkin wrote: »

Fair play! It's great when you get on a roll and there's no coming between you and your kitchen! How did you make the pork burgers as a matter of interest please?

It was sausage meat, toasted fennel seeds, chilli flakes, some beaten egg and breadcrumbs. Roasted them in oven for twenty mins. Think it was rudds sausages I used, with 75%pork, almost no fat came off them cooking, really tasty

StripedBoxers · 06-09-2014 10:59AM

Heading to Bison BBQ for lunch and can't seem to decide what I want. FML.....

Gavin "shels" · 06-09-2014 12:55PM

StripedBoxers wrote: »

Heading to Bison BBQ for lunch and can't seem to decide what I want. FML.....

Ribs, pulled pork, beans and chips! Always my pre blood donation meal!

StripedBoxers · 06-09-2014 01:24PM

Ended up going for chicken, sausage, chips and onion rings. All washed down with a cold pint of Paulaner. Delicious.

Tom Dunne · 06-09-2014 02:29PM

In the Irish Times magazine today, there's a recipe for gammon steak and parsley sauce (page 27). The recipe calls for 400 ml of cooking liquor. Any idea what that is?

Is it alcoholic? Just curious.

oscarBravo · 06-09-2014 02:32PM

Tom Dunne wrote: »

In the Irish Times magazine today, there's a recipe for gammon steak and parsley sauce (page 27). The recipe calls for 400 ml of cooking liquor. Any idea what that is?

It usually just means the water you cooked the meat in.

Tom Dunne · 06-09-2014 02:36PM

oscarBravo wrote: »

It usually just means the water you cooked the meat in.

Really? I would have been a complete numpty going around the shop looking for it.

Markcheese · 06-09-2014 02:37PM

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Really? I would have been a complete numpty going around the shop looking for it.

Could have been good for a laugh in the off licence...

Tom Dunne · 06-09-2014 02:39PM

Markcheese wrote: »

Could have been good for a laugh in the off licence...

I had a feeling it couldn't be booze as the recipe calls for 400ml of it. That would be one hell of a sauce.

StripedBoxers · 06-09-2014 04:07PM

At the craft beer festival in the RDS and I'm on the coffee already.......:o

Tom Dunne · 06-09-2014 04:40PM

StripedBoxers wrote: »

At the craft beer festival in the RDS and I'm on the coffee already.......:o

You legend. Very jealous.

Zaph · 06-09-2014 05:23PM

Tom Dunne wrote: »

You legend. Very jealous.

Just back from there myself. You'd like it.

Stheno · 06-09-2014 10:21PM

My trip to Yawl got cancelled at 2pm, regatta out the window.

So I shopped and cooked.

Now have:
Veg soup with ginger and chilli
Shepherds pie
Beef casserole
Tomato sauce

all finished and ready to be frozen/scoffed.

Gloomtastic! · 07-09-2014 03:07PM

Epic Yorkshire Pudding recipe here http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9020/best-yorkshire-puddings

Cooked them in a separate oven so they didn't get disturbed.

Tom Dunne · 07-09-2014 03:38PM

Zaph wrote: »

Just back from there myself. You'd like it.

Damn it, I like the sound of it.

I'd be like a kid in a candy shop.

iwantmydinner · 07-09-2014 05:32PM

Frying veggies to make a tomato sauce and having awful trouble deciding if I want to make pasta bake or spag bol...

StripedBoxers · 07-09-2014 11:09PM

iwantmydinner wrote: »

Frying veggies to make a tomato sauce and having awful trouble deciding if I want to make pasta bake or spag bol...

This is why I always make more mince mixture than I need and freeze it in portions so I can do both.

When it comes to mince mix, I can never decide what it is want to do with it.

Speaking of mince mix, I made up the mix last week for cottage pie, and froze it without potatoes, so now I have some defrosting to have with penne tomorrow for dinner...........:o

Faith · 08-09-2014 03:04AM

Our new local here is a bar/restaurant that specialises in oysters. I've never had an oyster, and frankly, never wanted to try one. I've heard they taste like sea water with the texture of snot, so I wasn't enamoured with the idea. We popped in this evening for a cold one, because it was sweltering outside. Got chatting to the oyster shucker and he asked us if we wanted some oysters. I mentioned I'd (happily) never had one, and next thing I know, he's shucking an oyster, putting stuff on it, and sticking it in front of me. To be a good sport, I tried it (even though I was whimpering "No, please, I don't want it"). It... wasn't that bad! Didn't remind me half as much of snot as I expected it to! I wouldn't be ordering dozens of them, but at least I can say now that I've tried oysters

.

Mellor · 08-09-2014 03:57AM

I had a similar idea in my head. That they'd be salty and slimy. I had no interest in then for a long time. But as I've got more and more into seafood, I recently decided to give then a go. I've only ever had 1 oyster, but it was much nicer than I expected. Not slimy at all. Texture kind of like a softer scallop. I can get the taste of the sea description, but it's was more like a "freshness".

Will try then again tbh. Prob a 1/2 dozen Kilkpatrick

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