Cooking thread

[Felicity, I guess so]

We bought some diced goat from a farmer's market which I needed to cook on Sunday. 1st thought was curry goat but Ms F not over-keen on heat so instead I found a tagine recipe- heavily spiced but not so hot with chilli.

It was lovely- marinade in ras-el hanout; cumin; turmeric; saffron and oil; brown well then add cinnamon stick; honey; preserved lemon; garlic; onion and dried apricots with some tinned tomatoes and water- 2+ hours simmer and it was very tender and tasty. Even better next day with flatbreads and salad (ate it with herby couscous the 1st night).

[Gangster Octopus]

How is Herby Couscous doing these days?

[Nocturnal Submission]

Just had a vegan non-chicken kiev from M & S. Very nice. Even my fussy daughter liked it, much to her chagrin.

[ad hoc]

Isn't a chicken Kiev a chicken breast stuffed with cheese? (never had one for obvious reasons but that's my vague understanding). I confess to struggling to understand why there is a vegan version of that.

[ursus arctos]

Traditionally butter rather than cheese, but the question stands

[Nocturnal Submission]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.hea...-chicken-kiev/

[ursus arctos]

Those crazy kidzz

[Toby Gymshorts]

TLMG made a risotto for dinner containing courgette, asparagus, peas and mint. A bit of Parmesan stirred through and it was, well, mint.

[Felicity, I guess so]

How is Herby Couscous doing these days?

He was steaming

[Giggler]

I'm an absolutely abysmal cook. Can someone please recommend a very, very, very easy to follow recipe book containing a few standards and other recipes a touch more out of the ordinary? I'm sure my girlfriend is sick of either chicken curry, spaghetti bolognese or M&S chicken pie with oven chips when it's my turn to cook.

[treibeis]

I'm an absolutely abysmal cook. Can someone please recommend a very, very, very easy to follow recipe book containing a few standards and other recipes a touch more out of the ordinary? I'm sure my girlfriend is sick of either chicken curry, spaghetti bolognese or M&S chicken pie with oven chips when it's my turn to cook.

I bet I'm a worse cook than you are (even though, as I've undoubtedly never mentioned on here, I was top of the year in Cookery three years in a row at school, i.e. 40 years ago).

I recommend baked fish fingers, spinach (deep-frozen) and mashed potatoes (real, not instant). I'd also recommend toad-in-the-hole, but I've never met anybody here who doesn't pick out the sausages and then describe the batter using language that would have had your grandmother reaching for the carbolic soap.

Or do what Lang Spoon does and make Pot Noodle casseroles.

[Lang Spoon]

A vicious slur.

[treibeis]

A vicious slur.

Then add some porridge oats to them before you put them in the oven. It helps to soak up excess liquid.

[Balderdasha]

After slimming world yesterday morning, I've gone into batch cooking mode.

Made:
- 19 mini omelettes with grated courgette, fresh basil, sweetcorn and cheese, for breakfasts and mid-afternoon snacks
- 8 portions of linguine with veggie bolognese (onions, garlic, grated carrot, tomato passata with basil, Quorn mince, red lentils, veggie stock) and parmesan. 4 already eaten. 2 left in the fridge, 2 in the freezer.
- 2 portions of stir-fried tofu, green peppers, spring onion and soy sauce with rice and peas (petit pois). 1 eaten, 1 in fridge.

Been eating lots of fresh fruit and I've stayed away from any chocolate, cakes, biscuits and bread for two days.

The trouble is that I don't always have the motivation to cook everything from scratch like this and if I ever revert to pot noodles, pizza and ready meals, I'm screwed.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Put a sausage casserole mix into the slow cooker for me to take to work. Very simple and it tasted nice before, added some chilli flakes as I'm the only one eating it. It'll give four portions so I'll only buy one ready meal this week, cutting down on them helped me lose a little weight I'm sure.

[Balderdasha]

Almost run out of my veggie bolognese so today I made 7 portions of:
- couscous with flaked almonds, dried apricots, raisins and fresh coriander, grilled halloumi (reduced fat), roasted butternut squash and sweet potato, beetroot, green peppers, chickpeas, pomegranate, and reduced fat houmous.

For the record, when presented with identical plates like that, my daughter will eat the beetroot, green pepper, houmous and pomegranate, while my son will eat the halloumi, apricots, raisins and possibly some couscous. They do trade deals across the table sometimes. I wonder if they'll ever eat the same things.

[Nefertiti2]

Kimchi pancake

[Balderdasha]

Ran out of my last batch of mini omelettes. They weren't very flavourful but they did help with hunger pangs. So I've made a new batch of 15 and tried to pack more flavour in this time. They contain:
- 4 chopped cloves of garlic cooked with a tin of sliced mushrooms, five wheels of frozen chopped spinach and a teaspoon of vegetable oil
- 100g of chopped sun-dried tomatoes
- 4 slices of Quorn ham chopped into little squares

I thought I might have put too much spinach in, but just tried one and they're pretty yummy. Breakfast and snacks sorted for the next 4 days.

[San Bernardhinault]

My mac and cheese test last night went spectacularly well. The trick, it appears, is to make a massive, super-creamy roux with an absolute load of butter, and then to add cream to it. And to torch the breadcrumbs on top to get a nice little crunch and char.

[Balderdasha]

My batch cooking continues in earnest. Current tally of meals ready to eat includes:
Fridge:
- 2 portions of slimming world spinach, cheese and tomato crustless quiche with new potatoes and green beans
- 3 portions of sweet potato wedges with spring onion (I add fat free fromage frais when I want to eat them) with cauliflower, flaked almonds and raisins
- 1 portion of lettuce, rocket, cherry tomato and green pepper salad
Freezer:
- 1 portion of 2 bean and aubergine chilli with rice
- 1 portion of Mediterranean couscous, halloumi and veg

In-between I also made burritos, tacos, teriyaki tofu, peppers, water chestnut and spring onion with noodles, and a tomato and mascarpone pasta with veg, but I've eaten all of those already. My husband has also made veg korma with rice, and egg fried rice with green beans recently.

It's definitely more healthy and less wasteful making everything from scratch like this, but I'm not convinced it's any cheaper. We spend a lot of money on fresh fruit and veg.

[Sporting]

Mediterranean couscous

Is there any other kind?

[Balderdasha]

Is there any other kind?

Moroccan? I guess technically that's Mediterranean too!

[Balderdasha]

We made sushi. This may sound relatively simple but involved the following steps:

Step one: remember to order nori sheets, sushi rice and rice wine vinegar in the online shop.
Step two: start cooking sushi rice, then discover that bamboo roll mat is missing (my son likes to pretend it is a shield and play with it).
Step three: interrogate 4-year-old son, who denies all knowledge of the bamboo roll mat, which I put back in the kitchen drawer earlier today, expressly so that I could make sushi.
Step four: set daughter the task of chopping cucumber in long thin slices while I embark on a half hour search of the house.
Step five: find bamboo roll mat in my bed with an elephant puppet, obviously.
Step six: discover that daughter has ignored the suggestion to cut cucumber in long thin slices and has cut it in short thin slices because sushi rolls are short and she thinks she knows better. Resist urge to strangle her.
Step seven: let daughter eat all the short cucumbers and then cut my own long thin strips of cucumber, pepper and carrot.
Step eight: mix sushi rice with rice vinegar, sugar and salt. Mix mayonnaise with rice vinegar and soy sauce.
Step nine: resist urge to strangle husband who enquires whether using mayonnaise isn't more American than Japanese.
Step ten: get daughter to help layer nori sheets, sticky rice, Japanese mayonnaise, and crudités on the bamboo roll mat and roll up.
Step eleven: realise I should have left a space on the edge of the nori sheet to make it easier to stick together.
Step twelve: hunt out the cling film and spend five minutes trying to find the end of it. Wrap sushi roll in cling film.
Step thirteen: make another roll, with extra sesame seeds and a gap at the edge. Wrap in cling film.
Step fourteen: slice, unwrap and serve with more soy sauce for dipping.

Whole process took about two hours. Son wouldn't try the resulting sushi rolls, wouldn't even try just the sushi rice and crudités. Daughter and husband liked them so much that they both declared them delicious and that we should make them far more often. I need to go and sit in a darkened room on my own to recover.

[slackster]

Ha ha, Balders. 2 out of 3 thumbs up isn’t to be sniffed at. We’ve got a sushi making “kit” somewhere at the back of a cupboard. It’s a bit of a faff, but your post has made me think about digging it out again soon.

[ursus arctos]

Sorry, Balders, but I would have asked the same question on the mayonnaise