Cooking thread

[hobbes]

[Balderdasha]

"Dino" pesto recipe.

Handful of basil leaves. Two handfuls of kale. 2 tablespoons each of pine nuts, grated parmesan and olive oil. Pinch of salt and pepper. Blitz with a hand blender. Stir into pasta. Yummy.

[Lang Spoon]

Not a recipe from Hazan but the interwebs. Bucatini alla Caruso. Fried courgette, red pepper and tomato sauce, just lovely.

https://memoriediangelina.com/2018/0...i-alla-caruso/

[Balderdasha]

I can recommend three out of four of these recipes (the cauliflower almond milk tagliatelle is disgusting): https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.the...miguel-barclay

[Vicarious Thrillseeker]

Not cooking as such, but I took ownership of a 7kg leg of pork last week. It's now being salted before being wrapped and hanged to make a jamon serrano for Christmas.

[Balderdasha]

This is quite a good flapjack recipe for using up old bananas: http://gemmasjournal16.blogspot.com/...jacks.html?m=1

I used honey and sugar instead of golden syrup because that's what I had available, an extra mashed banana, an extra tablespoon of pumpkin seeds, and added a tube of smarties to persuade the children that it didn't have any actual health benefits.

(For anyone following the weight loss thread, this is absolutely not slimming world friendly and is purely for the kids for after they've been splashing about in a cold paddling pool).

[ursus arctos]

Never realised there was a transAtlantic divide on "flapjack"

Over here, it is another name for pancake. Those would probably be called something like "oat bars" here.

[Balderdasha]

This is a lovely recipe for harissa roasted aubergine with cumin rice: https://instituteofhealthsciences.co...s-olives-rice/

Made a few substitutions due to available ingredients. Used white rice instead of brown rice. Used mild curry powder instead of cumin seeds. Didn't have rose water. Only had 100g of baby plum tomatoes instead of 200g of cherry tomatoes. Used a few extra olives instead. Used parsley instead of coriander.

[caja-dglh]

This is a lovely recipe for harissa roasted aubergine with cumin rice: https://instituteofhealthsciences.co...s-olives-rice/

Made a few substitutions due to available ingredients. Used white rice instead of brown rice. Used mild curry powder instead of cumin seeds. Didn't have rose water. Only had 100g of baby plum tomatoes instead of 200g of cherry tomatoes. Used a few extra olives instead. Used parsley instead of coriander.

I love these kind of five star reviews on websites. I try to post them where I turn it from a carbonara into a lasagne or some-such.

[hobbes]

Mo bread

[Levin]

I did Olney's pork chop with apples, cream and mustard for my birthday last week. It's ridiculously simple but tastes amazing.

[Felicity, I guess so]

Hobbes will be on bake off next!

[Forest Gump]

Lovely stuff Hobbes. After about five attempts, I finally made some decent rolls on the weekend. Not a patch on yours though.

[hobbes]

Those look great, FG. They're a beautiful colour. I bet the crumb was good, they look perfectly proved. (Proven?)
If you wanted them less lumpy (and there's no reason why you would unless you're an aesthete) you need to knock them back to get all the air bubbles out before shaping then make sure there are no splits in the top.
This was where I got shaping tips.

[hobbes]

For today's experiment, macaroons (as opposed to macarons.)
Lessons learnt:-
*You can turn desicated coconut into shredded coconut by adding a tablespoon of icing Sugar and one of hot water to every 50g of coconut.
*I can make meringue just fine. (This recipe uses a meringue base that you fold all the ingredients into)
*I'm really not very good at drizzling melted hot chocolate onto things

[San Bernardhinault]

Did an online cooking class with a local chef today (the bloke has been on Top Chef a few times, so is comfortable in front of the camera). It was a load of fun - it helped that it was also a wine tasting and they sent three bottles of wine in advance, so now I'm a little bit hammered even though we only drank maybe half the wine (the pinot from Edna Valley, on the coastal side of Paso Robles was the best stuff).

What I learned today (apart from to prep as much stuff as possible in advance, and that different thickness steaks cook at different speeds) is that making a tarragon chimmichurri is a great way of getting bearnaise flavour with much less effort. Really. Half parsley, half tarragon, and it's amazingly good.

And, more importantly, if you boil your potatoes in a extra thick cream (whipping cream in the UK) with a stick of butter, and then mash/blend them, it's more delicious than potatoes cooked in water. You use most, if not all, of the liquid in the blending/mashing process, too. If I have a heart attack in two hours I won't be surprised, but I'll die with a very happy palate.

[Felicity, I guess so]

For today's experiment, macaroons (as opposed to macarons.)
Lessons learnt:-
*You can turn desicated coconut into shredded coconut by adding a tablespoon of icing Sugar and one of hot water to every 50g of coconut.
*I can make meringue just fine. (This recipe uses a meringue base that you fold all the ingredients into)
*I'm really not very good at drizzling melted hot chocolate onto things

Can you make them just fine, or am ah wrang?

[hobbes]

They came out all white I suppose...

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Signora Rogin made a chicken, bacon and leek risotto last night flavoured with lemon juice and thyme and it was one of the nicest things I've ever eaten. It was the thyme that made it, I don't think we'd ever used it in anything before. Well it was clearly about thyme.

[Balderdasha]

Edit: repeated post.

[Balderdasha]

Edit: repeated post

[hobbes]

First go at a bread piggy.

[Balderdasha]

Cute looking piggy.

We made a banoffee pie.

[Balderdasha]

[Sporting]

Another "pie" with no pastry!