The General Chat Thread

Brussels Sprouts have to be the Marmite of the vegetable world.

And I'm not a fan of either.

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

I love Brussels sprouts! At Christmas, when they're cooked I toss them in wholegrain mustard and bits of the ham. I cook extra so there will be plenty for my bubble & squeak on St. Stephen's Day

I love them

I boil them and then toss them into a frying get pan with chilli and garlic and panchetta...delish !

@MissFlitworth - from the "3 Course Dinner Party" thread

It's a very simple recipe, and very christmassy.

You'll need:

1 tub of single cream
2 - 3 lebkuchen - Aldi and Lidl sell really good ones this time of year, best to get ones without white base as that just gets sticky.
ca. 50 g of dark chocolate
1 - 2 tbsps of sugar, depending how sweet you'd like it.

First, you need to blitz the lebkuchen into fine crumbs, the finer the better.
Whip the cream with the sugar until it's just about stiff. Melt the chocolate and let it cool a bit until it's just warm
Stir the lebkuchen crumbs into the cream, and finally stir through the chocolate. The chocolate will slightly harden the cream and should turn it into instant mousse.
Keep in the fridge until serving - it goes amazingly well with a little stewed sweetened cranberries.

MissFlitworth wrote: »

That sounds unreal Shenshen! I love Lebkuchen so this is 100% up my alley.

Speaking of Lidl Christmas goodies - they've got big boxes of chocolate covered gingerbread, pretzels & stars at the moment.


I'm going to pick up a box and stash it away till Christmas TV time.

OH!! and for Swiss cheese fans - they have Tête de Moine! With the stand and the little spinny shaver thing. Going to hit that so hard.

Ooooh! Fantastic! I had some lebkuchen already, but hadn't seen the tete de moine yet. Good thing I was planning a shop today anyway

The Hill Billy wrote: »

Shenshen - Would you happen to know if coarse wholemeal flour (as one would use for making Irish-style brown bread) would be generally available in Germany? And if it were, what would it be called auf Deutsch?

Edit: Should have thought of Google Translate. Found it - Grobvollkornmehl.

Hehe - sorry I wasn't quick enough. Vollkornschrot might be a more common name, though.

The only problem you might run into is that Germans would use wheat flour pretty much exclusively for fine pastry and cakes, so Vollkornmehl is more likley to be rye as that's what's used for bread.

The Hill Billy wrote: »

It is for a couple of Russian pals living in Bern. They were over here on holidays & were given a recipe for brown bread by the owner of a B&B. They are gagging to make the bread, but didn't know what flour to get.

If it helps, in Russian it is Цельнозерновой хлеб.

BaZmO* wrote: »

That Tête de Moine cheese looks amazing. Never heard of it before but I love the way it's served.

Cheese is on the banned list in Casa BaZmO at the moment so I'd probably be unkind if I was to bring one home. Would still love to try it though.

I got one on the way home - it's absolutely delicious, but the little shaver thingy is quite useless, unfortunately. But a simple cheese slicer does the trick, just doesn't look as cool.

I got pistachio ravioli. I'm thinking a light creamy sauce with it maybe? I don't think garlic or any general "Italian" herbs would suit. Any ideas?

Thanks.

The Hill Billy wrote: »

It is for a couple of Russian pals living in Bern. They were over here on holidays & were given a recipe for brown bread by the owner of a B&B. They are gagging to make the bread, but didn't know what flour to get.

I wonder what brown soda bread made with wholemeal rye flour would be like - I suspect that it could actually be really, really good.

Now I need to find some wholemeal rye flour here to try that. Healthfood shop, I suppose?