Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff

voodoo

@nzzp said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:

@voodoo beef wellington? Can do most of the prep the day before, finish it in the afternoon and it always tastes amazing, even if the visual finish isn't perfect

I've never tried that - reading the various posts on here about keeping it dry etc, it sounds hard!!!

Snowy

@voodoo said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:

damn that sounds good - I have never successfully made a great curry,

Impossible to make a curry that everybody likes. Curry basically means gravy or sauce but most associate it with spice / heat. I don't make them for a group, you can't please everyone.

@dogmeat has it with the casserole / stew type idea though. I usually go with lamb shanks and you will have enough time. Some smashed / roasted (or mashed) spuds, greens. Sorted.

nzzp

@snowy spot on fella.

also, @voodoo roasted spuds - follow this recipe for a monster win

J. Kenji López-Alt / Serious Eats

The Best Crispy Roast Potatoes Ever

These are the most flavorful crispy roast potatoes you'll ever make. And they just happen to be gluten-free and vegan (if you use oil) to boot.

Snowy

@nzzp That's how I do them (didn't know about the soda though).

Earlier in the thread I said to add some polenta grains, it is a winner. Toss the spuds in polenta after par boil. Crunchy outside, and soft inside. Perfect roasties.

Crucial

@voodoo said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:

@dogmeat said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:

@voodoo I'm not a lover of pork so faced with your situation I would butterfly a leg of lamb rub it with smoked paprika salt and pepper and throw it on BBQ where it will be ready inside 30 minutes.

Save the hassle of gravy by finely chopping up a shit load of rosemary, oregano, thyme and garlic and spreading across your carving board with a glug of olive oil. Rest lamb on this board for 10-15 minutes then carve (i prefer thicker slices but personal preference) the herbs garlic oil and any meat juices will create a lovely moist finish to the lamb.

Just a bit less hassle and time than for your pork.

Cheers for that - I always find those butterflied legs a bit tough TBH - I've never butterflied one myself, but even from a quality butcher they always come out a bit chewy.

That said, my mouth is watering at then thought of one, so maybe I'm due another crack!

Hate entertaining without proper prep time!

That's because you are dealing with 4 major muscles that work in different directions with different grains. You will usually carve it in a way that means you end up going with the grain somewhere.
Trick is to separate the muscles.before slicing. If you cook it on the bone then post cooking butchery is easier as the muscles contract and you can just run your knife down the connective tissue.If you butterfly it the only way you get even cooking is to cut through the middle of a muscle lengthwise. You can still separate before slicing, it just isn't as neat.
Meat cooking 101. Always rest and always slice across the grain.

dogmeat

@voodoo If you can do bouef bourguignon you can definitely ace a killer ~~country~~ curry.

Ignore @Snowy 's well meant comments. If someone doesn't like your curry they're not worth knowing.

I've done this and it came out OK https://rasamalaysia.com/beef-rendang-recipe-rendang-daging/

I have also done her beef massaman but that requires a serious (7 hours or so) amount of prep.

dogmeat

@crucial that's what I do but I failed miserably with my explanation

Snowy

@dogmeat said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:

Ignore @Snowy 's well meant comments. If someone doesn't like your curry they're not worth knowing.

I have to admit the people that can't handle heat in my curries don't get invited anymore.

Bones

@voodoo look back for my bowl of red recipe. It's a winner.

MajorRage

Right, lots going in the MR household.

Right now, I'm slow cooking (oven) a brisket chilli, courtesy of Tom Kerridge. Nothing too out there, reasonably standard recipe, will post how it goes.

Saturday is 10 year wedding anniversary. There's a local fish monger called The Fish Shop (Camberly, about 20 minute drive) which is relatively famous. Everything is fresh, mostly from Cornwall and it generally sells out by 9am. So, I've ordered scallops, oysters, king prawns and crab meat. My gift to my wife is a gourmet 5 course dinner, fully cooked by yours truly. Thinking something like this

Raw oysters with home made shallot vinagerette
Scallops with horseradish and a root veg puree (not decided which one yet - an tips?)
Crab Linguine
Chili & Garlic Tiger Prawns with Sautéed Bok Choi
Sticky Toffee with Vanilla Ice Cream

Making everything from scratch ingredients except the ice cream. I know that's a bit of an odd dessert to have with this meal, but it's the wife's favourite.

Have some Moet, Cloudy Bay & a Poully Fumy to go with the seafood and a nice red to go with the dessert.

Wish me luck! Will post some photos if doesn't turn out extremely shit.

canefan

@majorrage All quick cooks, just before eating. As long as you prep well should be sweet mate. I love scallops, pea puree and black pudding personally. Or switch out BP for crispy bacon

Catogrande

@majorrage Not a root vegetable but cauliflower puree goes well with scallops as does haggis - little slices of fried haggis topped with a scallop and a shallot butter sauce.

Snowy

@majorrage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:

a root veg puree (not decided which one yet - an tips?)

Both of the other suggestions are great with scallops, but if you do specifically want a root vege, parsnip puree is good.

Crucial

@snowy said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:

@majorrage said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:

a root veg puree (not decided which one yet - an tips?)

Both of the other suggestions are great with scallops, but if you do specifically want a root vege, parsnip puree is good.

Give pumpkin and ginger a go . Then drizzle with Kecap Manis and top with fried shallot.

Snowy

@crucial said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:

Give pumpkin and ginger a go . Then drizzle with Kecap Manis and top with fried shallot.

Nice. Starter for tomorrow sorted. Will have to use frozen scallops though? Don't think ours are around at the moment? I will modify my pumpkin and ginger soup recipe (it's really good, so will stick with it, just less liquid). Nice touch with the Kecap Manis, haven't dug that out of the pantry for a while. A bit of crunch from shallots. What could possibly go wrong...

dogmeat

All the puree suggestions are great, so here's another one

Celeriac with crispy pancetta, lemon zest and shaved fennel. Marries well with the sweetness of the scallops - IMO.

Snowy

@dogmeat said in Recipes, home grown goodness, BBQing and food stuff:

All the puree suggestions are great, so here's another one

Celeriac with crispy pancetta, lemon zest and shaved fennel. Marries well with the sweetness of the scallops - IMO.

Now I'm just confused (again). Indecisiveness may lead to all of the above suggestions in a blender, that would not end well, so I may be having scallops for at least 4 nights now (which doesn't bother me). I might just follow @MajorRage lead...