General Chat Thread II

kylith wrote: »

Might have to drop Mega Milk a line, so.

Really jonesing for some custard or rice pud, but might try my hand at cheese.

Never heard that expression before. Had to Google it.

Has anyone seen the chilis in abobo sauce by the Cool Chilli Company anywhere in Dublin? Fallon & Byrne used to sell it but had a different product when I was in on Monday and I know the Mexican shop on Richmond St has a different brand that Im not a fan of as its not smokey enough.

Also fresh lemon grass, do any of the main supermarkets stock it? Its not in Aldi anyway, want to avoid a trip to the Asian shop miles away if I can and its the only ingredient Im missing to make a beef rendang.

Faith wrote: »

I thought milk wasn’t low carb?

I don’t use enough in my tea to make much difference, and it’s mainly for the toddler.

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Cannot. Get. Strong. Flour. Anywhere. :mad::mad::mad:

I just wanna make doughnuts.

Marriages strong white flour in your local Natural Health Store

I've been refusing to go to the shops to get a "big shop" as I'll only end up throwing out lots of unused stuff this time next year and it'd do my head in dealing with the crowds.

I've loads of stuff in the freezer anyway. Luckily enough I did a huge amount of batch cooking about a month ago.

Generally all the local Spars/Londis/Centras have the likes of pasta, eggs, etc. that people seem to be bulk buying in the bigger supermarkets.

Probably a mad time to ask for it but does anybody know where I can get Geeta’s Mango Chutney? Used to be able to get it in SuperValu but haven’t seen it there in ages.

Lidl and Aldi in gory are pretty much fine, or were on Saturday anyway. Lidl doesn’t have much in the way of cold meat or dairy, but Aldi is pretty well stocked. I did stock up a bit but mostly of things like tinned tomatoes, some pasta, and bread that we can freeze just in case, but most people have seemed to be just doing a normal shop.

L1011 wrote: »

Anyone got any odd dinner suggestions for a two person household that doesn't eat seafood and where the only person who cooks frequently is completely bone-phobic so will normally only cook with fully butchered meat. Veg*n recipes willingly accepted also!

This might work, we had it last night and we love it. It's a pork mince and aubergine stir fry. The mince goes a long way - we use less than 200g for two of us.

One onion, chopped fairly fine.
About 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped.
Thumb sized piece of ginger finely chopped.
One chilli finely chopped (I used a birds eye chilli).

Fry all the above in a hot wok and stir fry in a little oil for about a minute.
Add the pork mince and stir fry, breaking up any pieces.

Dice a whole medium sized aubergine and add the the wok and stir fry for a couple of minutes.

Add a good dash of rice wine or dry sherry - white wine will do - and let it reduce.

Add a good splash of both dark and light soy sauce.

Here, I used some reduced stock (mostly chicken) that I have in the freezer but a chicken stock pot would do fine.

Add a little water, depending on how wet or dry you want it.

As soon as the aubergine tastes cooked, it's done - in all, around 10 mins.

Finely chopped spring onion and/or fresh coriander stired through to serve.

We had it with rice and tenderstem brocoli.

the beer revolu wrote: »

This might work, we had it last night and we love it. It's a pork mince and aubergine stir fry. The mince goes a long way - we use less than 200g for two of us.

One onion, chopped fairly fine.
About 4 cloves of garlic finely chopped.
Thumb sized piece of ginger finely chopped.
One chilli finely chopped (I used a birds eye chilli).

Fry all the above in a hot wok and stir fry in a little oil for about a minute.
Add the pork mince and stir fry, breaking up any pieces.

Dice a whole medium sized aubergine and add the the wok and stir fry for a couple of minutes.

Add a good dash of rice wine or dry sherry - white wine will do - and let it reduce.

Add a good splash of both dark and light soy sauce.

Here, I used some reduced stock (mostly chicken) that I have in the freezer but a chicken stock pot would do fine.

Add a little water, depending on how wet or dry you want it.

As soon as the aubergine tastes cooked, it's done - in all, around 10 mins.

Finely chopped spring onion and/or fresh coriander stired through to serve.

We had it with rice and tenderstem brocoli.

This sounds delisch! Thanks for sharing the recipe! ...I love aubergine but never tried it in a stir fry - yum!

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

Not a recipe, but I tend to have pack of two da Piero pizza bases in the fridge and a tin of Mutti pizza sauce, both available in Tesco. Also grated and/or buffalo mozzarella and a couple of antipasti meats. It's almost as good as a takeaway and really quick to prepare, for when you're not bothered making your own dough.
It's much easier to source pizza bases than strong white flour these days!

We keep these in stock also!

If anyone's struggling for strong flour try Kells (kellswholemeal.ie) - they mill in ireland and if you can store 12.5kg of flour it's good value. Delivery is €5. We make a lot of bread and also sourdough so it's worth it for us. Usually use the Oland and the French

I've used the mutti pizza sauce a few time's but I think I prefer now to just use their plain chopped tomato's or passata. Only discovered Mutti in the last year, used to mostly just use supervalues own brand chopped tomato's pretty sure they are the same as roma.

Mutti are well worth the extra money I think. Meals taste better and need less seasoning. It means going to tesco though where I don't tend to shop much.

First world problems I know but fresh ginger seems to be impossible to get. Have looked out for it in Dunnes, Supervalue and Aldi for almost two weeks now and each time Im left gingerless. Tesco/Lidl is 15km from me so they're not an option. I made a chicken kung pao on Thursday night but it just wasnt the same without the ginger.

Muahahaha wrote: »

First world problems I know but fresh ginger seems to be impossible to get. Have looked out for it in Dunnes, Supervalue and Aldi for almost two weeks now and each time Im left gingerless. Tesco/Lidl is 15km from me so they're not an option. I made a chicken kung pao on Thursday night but it just wasnt the same without the ginger.

Have you tried the freezer aisles? I haven’t tried frozen ginger (well I usually freeze it myself but I haven’t bought it frozen and chopped) but I bought chopped frozen herbs recently and they were excellent so frozen ginger might be worth a try if they have it.

BaZmO* wrote: »

What about squeezy ginger that you can get in a tube? Always see it n Dunnes and Tesco

Its not great... I have used it when too lazy to deal with fresh ginger. Also the Very Lazy sliced ginger in vinegar (if its still available, as I've not seen it for a while), suffers the same not great issue.

Its still better than not having any at all, or using dried ground.

We ordered 16kg of strong flour after reading about it here. (Thanks for the heads up!) Might draw a face on it and give it a name. Not like we have anything else to do.

EDIT: That's ok!

#CrokesCommunity - To assist the community, Kilmacud Crokes has agreed to make our car park available to Pallas Foods. Ireland’s number 1 food wholesaler will be introducing a contact-free, next-day click and collect service.

This service is available now through www.pallascollect.ie, with all prices including vat and by credit card only.

This initiative will assist nervous shoppers, avoid shortages and bulk buying. Pallas Foods are also supporting the Crokes Community projec...t where we are ensuring vulnerable people will be able to source produce.

Pallas Foods are responsible for all controls and adherence to HSE guidelines, with the licence clear and strict.

https://kilmacudcrokes.com/club/kilmacud-crokes-supporting-community-pallas-foods

How is everyone copying with shopping less often and with the meal planning ?
For me:
Breakfast is easy: coffee and greek style youghurt with honey.
I am working from home, so lunch has to be quick: pasta with a ready made sauce (lots of good Italian ones out there) or with tuna.
For dinner, I don't want to eat meat every day, so I rotate meat with pulses: tinned chick peas and borlotti beans; also frozen peas.
And for side vegs, I mainly buy cherry tomatoes, and then frozen: spinach and leeks mainly.
Fruit: still eating oranges and mandarins/clementines. Looking forward to the first strawberries now.