General Chat Thread II

beertons · 09-02-2021 6:43pm

Found wonton pastry early, when in the local Asian shop. Looking forward to researching filling for it. And the eating.

the beer revolu · 10-02-2021 1:19pm

beertons wrote: »

Found wonton pastry early, when in the local Asian shop. Looking forward to researching filling for it. And the eating.

Pork mince, prawns, ginger is a good starting point!!

beertons · 10-02-2021 4:32pm

the beer revolu wrote: »

Pork mince, prawns, ginger is a good starting point!!

Will save that for the second go. Might do a culinary class for homeschooling, chicken, onions, soy, peanut butter. Garlic and ginger, maybe. I can go a bit funkier with sauces for dipping.

the beer revolu · 10-02-2021 4:57pm

beertons wrote: »

Will save that for the second go. Might do a culinary class for homeschooling, chicken, onions, soy, peanut butter. Garlic and ginger, maybe. I can go a bit funkier with sauces for dipping.

I'm not really that gone on prawns but I really like the minced prawn and pork in dumplings. A lot of Chinese dumplings use this combo.

Your chicken and peanut sounds lovely, too.
I loves me dumplings!

Mystery Egg · 10-02-2021 9:16pm

I'm dying to make dumplings but can't get skins anywhere within my 5k.

It's enough work making them when you have the skins. I don't want the added labour of making the skins too.

Faith · 10-02-2021 9:21pm

I've made dumplings, both from scratch scratch and with shop-bought wrappers. Either way, it is frankly not worth the effort*, IMO, when you can buy bags of excellent frozen ones. I'd only make them again if I couldn't get frozen ones.

*I'm speaking as someone who f*cking LOVES dumplings and would happily eat my own weight in them day in, day out.

conor_ie · 11-02-2021 2:17pm

Faith wrote: »

I've made dumplings, both from scratch scratch and with shop-bought wrappers. Either way, it is frankly not worth the effort*, IMO, when you can buy bags of excellent frozen ones. I'd only make them again if I couldn't get frozen ones.

*I'm speaking as someone who f*cking LOVES dumplings and would happily eat my own weight in them day in, day out.

Where do you get your dumplings.. as there doesn't seem to be any in north county dublin!

Gloomtastic! · 11-02-2021 4:29pm

conor_ie wrote: »

Where do you get your dumplings.. as there doesn't seem to be any in north county dublin!

You could try looking for Gyoza. They’re the same thing.

Mystery Egg · 11-02-2021 4:33pm

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

You could try looking for Gyoza. They’re the same thing.

The only dumplings I'm able to find at the moment are pierogi which are not quite the same. No Asian supermarket for many miles. Asian supermarkets online also are not delivering either skins or prepared dumplings/gyoza. They are so costly from the takeaway. Woe is me etc

brick tamland · 11-02-2021 4:37pm

Faith wrote: »

I've made dumplings, both from scratch scratch and with shop-bought wrappers. Either way, it is frankly not worth the effort*, IMO, when you can buy bags of excellent frozen ones. I'd only make them again if I couldn't get frozen ones.

*I'm speaking as someone who f*cking LOVES dumplings and would happily eat my own weight in them day in, day out.

My Chinese neighbours are adamant the 99% of dumplings you get in take-aways and restaurants (even the fancier Chinese places) are frozen ones that are just steamed/fried to order. Can be gotten in any Chinese supermarket and are very cheap for big bags of them. I do them in the air-fryer.

Alun · 11-02-2021 4:40pm

brick tamland wrote: »

My Chinese neighbours are adamant the 99% of dumplings you get in take-aways and restaurants (even the fancier Chinese places) are frozen ones that are just steamed/fried to order. Can be gotten in any Chinese supermarket and are very cheap for big bags of them. I do them in the air-fryer.

There was a small dumpling place in Bray, since closed down, called Double-8 and I can say with 100% certainty that the dumplings there were hand made. You could see them being made in front of you while you waited.

Faith · 11-02-2021 5:01pm

conor_ie wrote: »

Where do you get your dumplings.. as there doesn't seem to be any in north county dublin!

I confess to living in the UK until recently so haven't bought any in Ireland, but it looks like Jia Jia supermarket in Cork have them.

brick tamland wrote: »

My Chinese neighbours are adamant the 99% of dumplings you get in take-aways and restaurants (even the fancier Chinese places) are frozen ones that are just steamed/fried to order. Can be gotten in any Chinese supermarket and are very cheap for big bags of them. I do them in the air-fryer.

I would definitely agree with that.

Mystery Egg wrote: »

The only dumplings I'm able to find at the moment are pierogi which are not quite the same. No Asian supermarket for many miles. Asian supermarkets online also are not delivering either skins or prepared dumplings/gyoza. They are so costly from the takeaway. Woe is me etc

This is tending towards "life or death situation" so then I would support making them. Making the wrappers isn't hard, especially if you have a pasta roller. That's probably the easiest bit really, I find it's the sealing that takes the longest and is the messiest!

igCorcaigh · 11-02-2021 5:41pm

Alun wrote: »

There was a small dumpling place in Bray, since closed down, called Double-8 and I can say with 100% certainty that the dumplings there were hand made. You could see them being made in front of you while you waited.

Double 8 has just opened in Cork, can't wait to try them soon. Looks great.

Alun · 11-02-2021 7:44pm

igCorcaigh wrote: »

Double 8 has just opened in Cork, can't wait to try them soon. Looks great.

The place in Bray was definitely a small one off and had the most bizarre opening times, I don't know how they made any money to be honest. I can't imagine it was part of a nationwide chain or anything like that, although I'd heard a rumour that a larger company had bought out the name and idea, as they were supposed to be reopening in the new Bray shopping centre. I don't think the original owners would have been able to afford the rent. Hopefully the new owners stay faithful to the original concept but I wouldn't be optimistic.

brick tamland · 11-02-2021 11:01pm

Alun wrote: »

There was a small dumpling place in Bray, since closed down, called Double-8 and I can say with 100% certainty that the dumplings there were hand made. You could see them being made in front of you while you waited.

Theres definitely a few places alright. I've had amazing ones in M+L in Dublin. Back in the days when we were allowed go out. Not many better things to eat when you get good ones.

In the meantime the frozen ones done at home with a few beers are pretty good.

woodchuck · 13-02-2021 12:29am

We were planning on getting a takeaway from our local restaurant on Sunday for Valentine's Day. I normally don't give a hoot about Valentine's Day, but with everything that's going on, I thought it would be nice to have something to look forward to. We were planning to get 3 courses and had them all picked out, including a death by chocolate cake for dessert.

Turns out the opening hours they list are conflicted and now I don't think we'll be able to order our 3 course meal on Sunday

Looks like it's only takeaway carvery lunch on a Sunday.

I know this seems trivial, but I am really upset about it. In a world of uncertainty, I thought I could at least count on getting this takeaway for Sunday.

We've postponed our wedding once and will probably have to postpone a second time. So telling me I can't have my chocolate cake on Valentine's down is now the straw that has broken the camel's back.

sammyjo90 · 13-02-2021 1:17am

Aww woodchuck thats a right pain, its definitely ok to be disappointed by that if they dont have the normal menu on.
I'd make sure to ask though just in case!

PARlance · 13-02-2021 1:26am

Have it Saturday, spend Sunday in bed?

Muahahaha · 13-02-2021 1:57am

woodchuck wrote: »

Turns out the opening hours they list are conflicted and now I don't think we'll be able to order our 3 course meal on Sunday Looks like it's only takeaway carvery lunch on a Sunday.

Try giving them a ring in the morning. With a days notice Im sure they will be able to sort the problem out, even if it ends up being Death by Chocolate by taxi

woodchuck · 13-02-2021 12:59pm

Crisis averted. They're doing the fancy takeaway tomorrow aswell as the carvery, given the day that's in it. We didn't even have to stick to their Valentine's menu (you'd be paying extra for wine, which we don't drink). Their website is so confusing though. Can usually place the order online, but had to ring them up to place tomorrow's order.

Death by chocolate, whoop \o/

Sorry for the dramatics :P Emotions are very high these days and it was also messing up my weekly meal plan - the horror!

Dizzyblonde · 13-02-2021 1:08pm

I'm glad you got sorted woodcock. These things have a much bigger impact on us nowadays. My daughter has postponed her wedding twice too, and now we have everything crossed for November.

We'll need to see photos of your meal

New Home · 13-02-2021 2:39pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

Funny you mention that as Im thinking of getting a deep fat fryer myself for the likes of tempura prawns and fried chicken. One thing though Im uncertain about is how do you get the oil out of them after use? I know commercial ones have a drainage spout but I havent seen that on any of the ones for domestic use. Id imagine it would almost be a two person job trying to turn the unit upside down to drain it which puts me off buying one.

For those using woks/deep pots to deep fry are you measuring temperature with some kind of specialised thermometer? The small deep fat fryers I have seen usually have two settings at 170c and 190c.

In case anyone is still looking for one, LIDL have them (the mini ones).

https://www.lidl.ie/en/p/kitchen-essentials/850w-mini-deep-fat-fryer/p7014

zell12 · 13-02-2021 2:43pm

Dealz are selling Muller yoghurt 'made in the UK with British milk", product code indicates Shropshire origin
Must be costing them significantly to import it with Brexit

beertons · 13-02-2021 4:34pm

I bought a deep fat fryer a year or so ago, thinking about tempura this, beer battered that. I'd say I used it 3 times. More work than it's worth. Both myself and the family weren't overly impressed with the food. Much easier ways of getting fed.

awec · 13-02-2021 4:44pm

Local restaurant here is doing a cook-at-home 3 course beef fillet Wellington with all the trimmings for valentines weekend.

Ours arrived today and it’s now staring at me in the fridge, looks incredible. Cannot wait for tomorrow!

oscarBravo · 13-02-2021 5:01pm

We use our wee deep fryer quite regularly, maybe once a week or slightly less. We're fond of panko-coated things, so it's handy for those. We had pork katsu curry last night, and it was handy to quickly fry off the pork without having to worry about the oil afterwards. It also gets used for arancini (I'd honestly own it for those alone), scotch eggs, various tempura things, battered squid rings, croquettes... and the odd batch of fries.

It's a bit of a faff to clean it, but on balance it's still handy to have.

Muahahaha · 13-02-2021 5:51pm

oscar how does your fryer drain the oil, is there a spout or do you have to flip it upside down? If/when I do get one scotch eggs are definitely on the list, I also love the texture of anything coated with panko breadcrumbs too.

awec wrote: »

Local restaurant here is doing a cook-at-home 3 course beef fillet Wellington with all the trimmings for valentines weekend.

Ours arrived today and it’s now staring at me in the fridge, looks incredible. Cannot wait for tomorrow!

Thats handy as anytime Ive watched a video of beef wellington being made it looks gorgeous but a lot of trouble with the pastry. Me and delicate pastry do not get on very well, something always seems to go wrong

Dial Hard · 13-02-2021 6:02pm

Muahahaha wrote: »

oscar how does your fryer drain the oil, is there a spout or do you have to flip it upside down?

The oil reservoir is removable in every fryer I've ever seen. You wouldn't be able to clean it otherwise.

sammyjo90 · 13-02-2021 6:41pm

Ours we have to Remove the element. Take out the vat of oil...it has no drain so you would still have to lift it and pour it out to dispose of it.
Pain in the arse but ours gets a fair amount of use as himself hates chips thats arent deep fried

oscarBravo · 13-02-2021 8:57pm

sammyjo90 wrote: »

Ours we have to Remove the element. Take out the vat of oil...it has no drain so you would still have to lift it and pour it out to dispose of it.

Same as this. We had a smaller one before that required flipping the whole thing over.

It's a bit of a faff, but not that big a deal. It's also got the "cool zone" feature so any stray panko crumbs sink to the bottom where they don't burn in the oil below the element.

General Chat Thread II

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