Overcooking the pumpkin caused it to merge with the broth making it thick and orangey but it didn't affect it's taste as it was still fantastic. You can't see the noodles as they're underneath so at one glance you'll think this is roast pumpkin soup served with cherry tomatoes topped with a sprinkling of coriander and mint leaves!
According to the government, we [The UK] are a nation of foodwasters and it's time we stopped. So how to avoid chucking out the leftovers? Tim Hayward asks top chefs for their tips ... we have asked a number of chefs for top tips on how to save those unloved remnants lurking in our fridges. Bare in mind, though, that most of the experts we spoke to agreed with Wrap that the single best way to cut down waste was the simplest - write a shopping list.
Iran, Iraq, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Cuba - these are the countries that in recent history the US government has considered to be "rogue states"; outposts of tyranny and all-round enemies of democracy and wholesomeness. But what does their food taste like?
Instead of a pound of pasta for two to four people, make a half, or even a third of a pound. Instead of a cup or two of sauce, make it four cups, or more. Turn the proportions around.
What do you wind up with? Pasta more or less overwhelmed by sauce, which you can view as a cardinal sin or as a moist, flavorful one-dish meal of vegetables with the distinctive, lovable chewiness of pasta. (There is, of course, a tradition of this kind of pasta dish in Italy, but it falls more under the category of minestre, which is closer to soup.) It’s also an easy way to significantly increase your intake of vegetables without adding too many refined carbohydrates, and may, if you’ve abandoned it, get you back into pasta again.
1 Timing. So many people misunderstand timing ...
2 Seasoning. Salt and pepper are the building blocks of any kitchen. It’s the first thing I teach my new chefs – to season with confidence ...
3 Cooking fish. Given how popular sushi has become, I’m amazed at how squeamish people are about eating their fish anything other than nuked. Believe me, if the inside is a bright white, the outside will be dried out and woolly ...
4 Cooking meat. The secret of cooking meat is in the resting. I find it so dispiriting when I cut into a steak and watch all the juices leak out on to the plate because it hasn’t had time to relax ...
5 Perfect custard. It’s worth perfecting your egg-custard recipe as it is the base for so many things ...
Each porridge is a unique interpretation of the basic ingredients of oatmeal, salt and water (though some prefer to cook with milk). My own preferred combination is three parts water to one part oatmeal. Soaking your porridge overnight is an absolute must to ensure the perfect consistency; and vigorous stirring, with a spurtle, if you own one, is essential to obliterate any offending lumpiness.
You may believe yourself an addict of big-brand crackers and plastic-wrapped oatcakes - and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with them - but try baking your own and I guarantee you'll convert yourself, setting new benchmarks in crisp, crumbly, oven-warm yumminess that no shop-bought contender can ever quite meet.
Traditional British food has a reputation for stodge. But a new generation of chefs and cooks show how to take a no-suet approach, with ingredients such as herrings and oats, so that typically British dishes can be healthy, too.
When I came to prepare the fish they were still stiff (a sign of a truly fresh fish). A classic dish of pan-fried trout with a squeeze of lemon and some buttery browned almonds seemed ideal. My copper pan outperformed the usual non-stick pans; it was faster and the fish was crisper.
Not very sweet, these can be enjoyed with coffee or tea or as a cocktail nibble.
Lamb shanks come from either the forelegs or the lower hind legs of a lamb, which get a lot of exercise, and therefore are great cuts for stews and slow-cooked braises. The long cooking time is needed to break down the tough connective tissue in the muscles. At the end of cooking the meat should just fall off the bone.
Once peas are plucked, the sugars convert to starch relatively quickly, so they should be cooked as soon as possible. If not, rather than being soft, sweet and succulent, they will be firm and mealy and have to be cooked a long time before they soften. I would encourage anyone with a garden or planter boxes to grow peas simply for the pleasure of eating them in spring.
These recipes are new-ish:
Brandy Snap Basket
Broad Bean Paté
Butternut Squash Kebabs
Roasted Beetroot
Croque Monsieur
Leek and Cheezly Gratin
John Weldon crosses the West Gate Bridge in search of the best delis and diners ... Following is Epicure's guide to fine food and wine well worth travelling west for.
1. St Albans Market, corner St Albans Road and Princess Street, St Albans
2. Little Saigon, Nicholson Street, Footscray
3. The Chilean Sausage Man, Laverton Market, 8-18 Leakes Road, Laverton, Sat and Sun
4. Sunbury wineries, www.sunburywines.com.au
5. Joseph's, Mansion Hotel, Werribee Park, K Road, Werribee
6. Aqua e Vino, 18A Anderson Street, Yarraville
7. The Morning Star Hotel, 3 Electra Street, Williamstown
8. Heather Dell, 7 Anderson Street, Yarraville
9. The Good Room, 148 Victoria Street, Seddon
10. Bharat, 580 Barkly Street, West Footscray
# Spicy Garlic Ginger Roti
# Kashmiri Roti
# Kulcha
# Moongdi
# Roghni Naan
# Sheermal
# Palak (Spinach) Phulka
# Tandoori Roti (Without Tandoor)
# Crisp Jaadi (Fat) Roti
# Naan
# Phulka
# Spicy Roti
# Puffy Roti
# Layered Roti
Like many true comfort food classics, a grilled cheese sandwich comes trailing clouds not of glory precisely, but of memory.
Fresh herbs are not only tasty, but they can also be exciting when used in a dish with some conviction and a bit of attitude!
One of my favourite methods of cooking is poaching, and yet so many people associate it with bland and boring diet food. The fact that it results in lighter, healthier dishes is just a bonus, if you ask me.
It's also a convenient way of cooking, because you can poach the garnish along with the food and serve both without losing heat or running the risk of over-cooking the ultimate all-in-one method.
Grilling tips
# Though pretty much any fish can be grilled, the higher the oil content and the meatier the texture, the easier the process will be. Especially if you're new at this, stick with fish such as sardines, mackerel, swordfish, shark and tuna.
23. Posh cheese on toast
Grill one side of a slice of baguette. Cut a log of goats' cheese with rind into rounds, cover the untoasted side with cheese, and grill until browned and bubbling.
Testing that fish is done: This is easy provided the fish is cooked while the skin is on. Push the skin gently with your fingertips: if the flakes can be felt just beginning to slip apart under the skin, the fish is done. For skinless fillets, look for opaque on the outside, but still slightly translucent in the centre.
Arugula, also known as rocket, rucola, and roquette, is a spicy, bitter, and peppery salad green with diverse culinary uses.
Tortellini, White Bean and Spinach Soup
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper ...
The recipes below appear in French Women Don't Get Fat and are referenced in French Women for All Seasons ... Blueberry Baby Smoothie ... Snapper with Almonds ... Cold Beet and Yogurt Summer Soup ... Salmon à l’unilatéral ... Grandma Louise’s Oatmeal with Grated Apple ... Basic Vegetable Soup ... Pork Chops with Apples ... Flourless Chocolate Cake.
But it seems that many people are afraid of cooking fish at home. Americans eat only about 15 pounds of fish per person per year, but we eat twice as much fish in restaurants as at home. Buying, storing, and cooking fish isn't difficult; it just requires a little knowledge.
CHOOSING BLUEBERRIES
Check the base of the blueberries carefully: even the slightest hint of pink means they’re not ripe enough and probably sour.
Asian rice vinegars are made from fermented rice, often with the addition of grains such as wheat, millet and sorghum.
Rice vinegars are less acidic than Western styles.
There are four main types ...
And there were the posts in the “I wish I’d thought of that” category. My favorites, not easily achieved in the average American kitchen, were along the lines of this one: “Spread homemade lard (or goose fat if you have any) on slices of farmhouse bread; sprinkle with salt and paprika. Eat as is, or with scallions and/or Hungarian wax peppers.” (Try substituting the phrase “lardo di colonnata” for “lard,” and you will quickly understand how trendy this simple idea is.)
Oysters natural
Shucking oysters takes practice but the results are stunning.
* Use a firm brush to scrub the oysters.
* Place the oyster on a tea towel.
* Cover the hand holding the oyster with a tea towel and, using the tip of an oyster shucker at the narrow end of the shell where the lid begins, push down firmly and then twist to release the lid.
* Slide the oyster knife along the lid to remove without disturbing the oyster.
* heck for any broken shell.
* Set the oysters on crushed ice and serve with lemon wedges.
* Offer guests an oyster fork so they can cut the muscle to remove the oyster from the shell.
The mixture of the texture of the lentils with the creamy sharpness of the cheese and the sweetness of the beetroot is wonderful.
But what about those pesky sides? Do you worry that the fresh greens will wilt or the mayo in the potato salad turn rancid in the heat? Will the beans be cold even before that last game of bocce? Fret not. There are some super salads you can prepare that you can heat up or cool down as the day dictates.
I AM often asked how much one should spend on wine to use for cooking.
There are a few points to consider. Firstly, I never cook with a wine I would not drink.
Pale ale and pearl barley soup
Vintage braised oxtail ragout with white polenta
Stout and rye sourdough ice cream
Rabbit and stout casserole and Coopers damper
How to Cook and Use
Rarer Vegetables and Herbs
A Boon to Housewives
Fourth Edition 1919
—PUBLISHED BY—
VAUGHAN'S SEED STORE
Pot au feu is a classic, old French dish of various cuts of beef (some lean, some gelatinous, always some on the bone) gently poached in a pot with root vegetables, leeks and herbs, sometimes with chicken. There is usually an order to when the various ingredients go into the pot, depending on how long they take to cook. Apart from the sequence of ingredients and skimming the pot to maintain a clear broth, the pot au feu is left to simmer slowly and gently by itself.
To make Almond Milke.
Take a rib of Mutton or Veale, or rather a Chicken, boyle it in faire water, put thereto French Barley, a Fennill root, a Parsly root, Violet leaves, Strawberry leaves, and Cinquefoyle leaves, and boyle them all together, till the meat be over boyled, then strayne out the liquor from the rest, while they are boyling blanch a proportion of Almonds answerable to the liquor, beat them well in a clean stone Morter, and then grind them therein with Rose water and Sugar, and when they are well ground put in all your liquor by little and little, and grind with them till they be all well Compounded, and then strayne it into a faire glasse, and use it at your pleasure.
To make Snow.
Take a quart of thick Creame, and five or six whites of Eggs, a sauser full of sugar finely beaten, and as much Rose water, beat them all together, and always as it riseth take it out with a spoon, then take a loaf of Bread, cut away the crust, set it in a platter, and a great Rosemary bush in the middest of it, then lay your Snow with a Spoon upon the Rosemary, and so serve it.
For a paine in the ears, or deafnesse.
Take a hot loafe, of the bignesse of a Bakers penny loaf, and pull or cut it in two in the middest, and lay the middle of the crummy side to the middest, or to the hole of the ear, or ears pained, as hot as they may be endured, and so bind them fast together on all night, and then if you find any pain in either or both ears, or any noyse, put into the pained ear or ears, a drop of Aqua vitæ, in each, and then againe binding more hot bread to them, walk a little while, and after goe to bed; this done three or four dayes together, hath taken away the paine, hearing noyse in the ears, and much eased the deafnesse, and dullnesse of and in many.
To bury a slender chicken, to raise an old feather, to surround a garland and to bake a pole splinter, to suggest a repose and to settle simply, to surrender one another, to succeed saving simpler, to satisfy a singularity and not to be blinder, to sugar nothing darker and to read redder, to have the color better, to sort out dinner, to remain together, to surprise no sinner, to curve nothing sweeter, to continue thinner, to increase in resting recreation to design string not dimmer.
Slice the onion very finely, keeping the slices root to tip. Generously butter two of the bread slices, scatter onion evenly over each slice and season sparingly. Spread the other two slices even more generously (but not ridiculously so) with yogurt. Put the yogurty tops on the buttery bottoms to complete the sandwiches. Slice, and eat.
Whether you're talking apples or oranges, just about any fruit can take the heat of the barbecue. The grilling helps bring out the natural sugar by caramelizing the surface, and the juices become a sweet, brown syrup.
I love the gentle, nutty flavour of chickpeas and the way they sit so comfortably with the heat of chillis, lemon juice, olive oil and herbs such as mint and coriander. I love them partly pounded with olive oil and finished with lemon juice, chilli, garlic and tahini paste to form a rough type of houmous eaten on toast or simply with flat bread.
Most tamales that we have the occasion to eat here in the US are wrapped in corn husks, the method typical of central and Northern Mexico. In the more tropical areas of Mexico and Central America, you'll commonly find tamales wrapped in banana leaves or plantain leaves, which have their own unique and subtle flavor.
He uses only coarse sea salt and black pepper. "I season it aggressively, like a coating," says the chef. Then the burgers go onto a gas grill.
Crab's deep flavour - it is often the very essence of the sea from which it came - is not easily hidden by hot, sharp or even spicy seasonings. If anything, they make the flavour more potent. Which is why only a few minutes ago it was sizzling in the wok with hot red chillies, fresh ginger and a splash of Vietnamese chilli sauce.
The Fourth of July is not a time for creating shocking new dishes. It is a time when people hanker instead for All-American favorites - hamburgers and hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, corn on the cob, ice cream.
Brush four ramekins with butter. Cut four discs of silicon paper slightly larger than the base of a ramekin...
Despite its aggressive nature in the garden, zucchini is sensitive and bruises easily.
A great way of eating up your recommended dose of fresh veg is in a vegetable tart. It's quick and easy to put together, and is perfect served cold at a picnic.
Richly flavored with bacon, molasses, ketchup and vinegar, these not-really-baked beans have plenty of the baked bean goodness you expect, and are great with hot dogs.
Mezze, a delicious first course of several little dishes, is the best part of an Middle Eastern meal.
There's nothing worse than coming home after a wearisome day at work to be met with the prospect of more hours of toil in the kitchen.
To satisfy the mid-week need for culinary speed, Epicure has come up with five tasty recipes, one for each day, that require minimum fuss for maximum mouthwatering appeal.
The only trick with these 10-minute dinners is that you need to be prepared.
Slow roasting encourages all of the fabulous flavours and spices to infuse together to create something bigger than all the individual parts. And it's not just meat and poultry that respond well to slow cooking. Many vegetables release their true flavours and sweetness when slowly braised, and long-cooked sauces can be the beginning of many a welcoming, hearty stew.
One of the benefits of slow cooking is that you can use cheaper, more unusual cuts of meat as well as whole chickens, which allow for nothing to be wasted.
A sunny windowsill is all you need to grow your own herbs. The secret is to treat them mean - and then spoil yourself. Nigel Slater hooks a fragrant supper
There's nothing like a chicken soup to warm you up on a cold winter's day.
Superstar chefs are betting that Melbourne's casino precinct will be the next big thing in dining ... Crown's move to turn its Yarra-side promenade into a "world-class dining precinct" has attracted an impressive group of names to Melbourne. The combined pulling power of Neil Perry, Nobu Matsuhisa, Maurice Terzini and Guillaume Brahimi will serve Crown well in two ways: by satisfying the current dining criterion that a casino needs to be noticed internationally; and, after 10 years of relative indifference towards the casino's restaurants by Melbourne diners and critics, making Crown virtually impossible to ignore. A whole new crowd might start to look casino-ward.
This is a very simple, highly flavorful salmon dish, using a classic Japanese yakitori marinade with the addition of some finely grated fresh ginger. The dish benefits from sitting in the marinade for a long time, overnight is best, but at least 2 hours minimum.
In a world where you can find anything on the Internet, the newest way to learn cooking is from a genre called vlogs ... Local cooks Nina Simonds of Salem, Kathy Maister of Boston's Back Bay, and two preteens near Chicago are getting into the act. Pull out your chopping boards, start peeling an onion, and left click.
Think super-green, herby, thick omelette/frittata/tortilla, perfect eaten warm or cold. This is one versatile dish, and contains the prize-winning triumvirate for all the best recipes: quick, cheap and easy.
Sage is an herb many people associate with stuffing, turkey and Thanksgiving, but I can't wait that long to use it. In my family's herb garden, the abundant patch of sage is thriving, and I'm wondering what to do with it all. If you've dug yourself into the same hole, here are seven ways to use or preserve sage ...
Food on sticks is a "craze" many throughout the world have embraced, so what's holding you back?
Don't forget to soak bamboo skewers in water to prevent them burning when cooking.
I did this for the first time and made two mistakes which I will NOT repeat. First, I chose not to use gloves when picking the seeds out and handling the peppers. PAIN. Next, I did not let the chili mixture cool completely when I put the slop in the blender. The heat and steam forced the top off and my curtains are still splattered with red. I got very lucky that the stuff didn't fly towards me. Shudder. It's a very labor intensive dish, but even with all of that, it was still densely flavored and luscious. I chose to serve it in some Chile Colorado.
For years now I've enjoyed finding recipe cards and cookbooks (among other things) at second hand stores. In 2000, I found Katie's Kitchen in a used record shop in Seattle's Pike Place Market (accompanied by Listener Jim) and after reading that there was a recipe for a Crab Meat Nut Sandwich that I could serve with Lime-V8s it was easy to plop down the five bucks. Never did put the record to use in the kitchen, but I plan to someday soon.
And now there's a grilled cheese sandwich that gives children a reason to want to visit me.
To make classic Thai dipping sauce: Place chopped chilli into mortar with a pinch of salt and sugar and, using a pestle, pound to a paste. Add lemon juice, palm sugar and fish sauce and combine well. The taste should be a balance of salty, sour, sweet and hot.
To prepare squid, grasp the body in one hand and pull out the tentacles firmly with the other. Pull any greyish membrane off the outside of the body, and take out the "quill", a clear plastic-like bone inside.
In scandinavian cooking kohlrabi is quite common. It is used in stews and soups, but my personal favourite is mashed kohlrabi. It has a more distinct taste than mashed potatoes, so it's a very good company to salty, smoked mutton and richly flavoured sausages. You make it much the same way as you would make mashed potatoes. Peel and slice it, cook it until its soft and mash it with an unhealthy amount of butter, cream/milk, salt and pepper. Some like a bit of nutmeg in and the more adventorous use vanilla. Good luck!
SPRATS BROILED
Sprats
Flour
Salt
Melted butter
If you have not a sprat gridiron, get a piece of pointed iron wire as thick as a packthread, and as long as your gridiron is broad; run this through the heads of your sprats, sprinkle a little flour and salt over them, put your gridiron over a clear, quick fire, turn them in about a couple of minutes; when the other side is brown, draw out the wire, and send up the fish with melted butter in a cup.
Peaches
125g butter
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup milk
Vanilla essence
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
Raspberry jam
100ml whipping cream
1 x 85g packet jelly crystals (your choice of flavour)
There's a lovely piece of gammon on the stove, sitting in a deep pan surrounded by onions, bay leaves and sweet young vegetables. It's not boiling, more progressing at a slovenly simmer, an occasional blip-blop and a low sigh every now and again as it reaches tenderness.
Crepes can be eaten as a savory entree, filled with anything delicious, or as a sweet dessert. They're easy to make, and they freeze beautifully, so you can have a few now and freeze the rest for later.
While the penne is cooking, rub the inside of a large serving bowl with the mashed garlic. Discard the garlic.
The woman who taught Australia how to cook in the 1960s is giving us a little reminder. In her latest book - her 25th - Margaret Fulton has chosen her most cherished recipes ...
NOTE: Do not eat flowers from florists, nurseries or garden centers. In many cases these flowers have been treated with pesticides not labeled for food crops.
Ingredients (serves 6)
* 200g couscous
* 200ml chicken stock
* 1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
* 1 Lebanese cucumber, seeds removed, diced
* 1/2 red onion, finely sliced
* 1 yellow capsicum, seeds removed, diced
* 2 vine-ripened tomatoes, seeds removed, diced
* 2 tbs chopped flat-leaf parsley
* 2 tbs lemon juice
* 1 tbs hummus (optional)
We had loads of extra pineapple, and all the other ingredients for a great salsa, so naturally we put them all together, and voilá! A great combination. Use the tomato pineapple salsa with fish tacos, or over grilled steak or pork, or even wrapped up in a heated flour tortilla with a few slices of avocado.
RL Well, what you call common sense is, without being too flattering, actually a sort of genius, but I think it’s also the advantage of your auto-didacticism, in that you haven’t taken on this huge body of received knowledge and that gives you a clarity of vision. I just wonder how you learnt the technique of cooking.
FH Well, I do have the benefit of seven years of architecture, which has proved quite useful.
You know, when in times of dire need/upset in college my best friend and I used to make a nutella and mild cheddar cheese sandwich, on white bread, and then fry it.
Round oatcakes topped with sliced cheese (I use red leicester) and sliced jalapenos, microwaved until the cheese is all melty and the oatcakes a bit bendy (about a minute)served with Rowatts Mixed Pickles - difficult to track down. Fantastic.
Also, cooked pasta (any kind) heated up with beans, mushrooms chilli flakes and veggie mince, covered with grated cheese and stuck under a hot grill until it's bubbly is genius.
I also pull out the stalks of closed cup mushrooms and fill the hole left with a mixture of english mustard and salad cream and eat them raw while waiting for things to cook.
For Hangover comfort food you can't beat tomato juice, lucozade, fried egg rolls with tomato & chilli ketchup and salt and vinegar macoys.
Place 1 tblspn mixture in middle. Pinch it up into round dumplings that look like dim-sim.
Steam for 10 mins and serve with chili.
We were going to give you just 20 simple turkey-cooking tips, but we realized there are far too many turkey questions, so instead we created this comprehensive "Handbook for The Perfect Turkey."
Tak a mallard and pul hym drye and swyng over the fyre draw hym but lat hym touche no water and hew hym in gobettys and do hym in a pot of clene water boyle hem wel and tak onyons and boyle and bred and pepyr and grynd togedere and draw thorw a cloth temper wyth wyn and boyle yt and serve yt forth.
25.—Japanese Eggs.
Cook some rice in a rich chicken stock; place on a platter. Fry 6 eggs and trim neatly; sprinkle with salt, black pepper, chopped parsley and lemon-juice. Put the eggs on the rice and pour a little hot tomato-sauce over the base of the platter and serve.
In my part of the country, chitterlings come in 10 pound buckets.
The fact is, one cannot make a blanket assertion about the smoke points of individual oils.
Pepys had a posset on occasion but his was flavoured with sack (the drink, not an actual sack). It is claimed posset was the precursor to both syllabub and trifle. Such a great pud - so quick, easy and yummy.
Like Brussels sprouts, cauliflower can get bitter if overcooked, so unless you are pan roasting it (which sweetens the flavor), keep cooking times brief and serve these tasty vegetables tender-crisp.
Dear Lynne: Call me a clueless new cook, but what is the difference between "boil" and "simmer"? Why do you do either, and would it be a big deal if I boiled instead of simmered?
New to the Kitchen
Dear New to the Kitchen: The quick answer to the difference is temperature. When water boils at sea level ...
Don't be a slave to recipes.
Instead, use them merely as a guide. Better yet, follow your taste buds or let a particular ingredient be your prime motivator.
And, true to the American way, we've organized cheese-eating. There's an annual cheese week, and a cheese month (October). We even boast a mail-order Cheese-of-the-Month Club.
# Main Meal
# Salads and Vegetable Dishes
# Starters and Snacks
Apple Cheddar Pizza / Cumin-Crusted Chicken and Cheddar Quesadillas with Basil Sour Cream / Stewed Okra and Tomatoes
Usually cheese tacos just have cheese in them. Add some salsa and you're done. My cheese tacos tend to be a little more elaborate. I stand by my rule that you can put almost anything in a tortilla and call it a taco.
Let your left hand go limp. Now use your right forefinger to press into the flesh between your left thumb and forefinger; you should find the flesh soft and easy to dent. This is what rare fish feels like.
Make sure your cutting board is clean before you chop anything. Herbs can absorb "off" flavors from remnants on the board, and hard ingredients, like chunks of peppercorns or seed spices, can damage the fine edge on knives.
Baked parsnips ... Parsnip soufflé ... Parsnip Soup ... Parsnip Chips ... Andrew's Roast Parsnips.
Andrew Cox wrote to Burke's Backyard saying that as a child he was forced to eat parsnips, and he hated them. However, three years ago he discovered that if you roast parsnips under a leg of lamb they taste entirely different. Andrew invited Don over for dinner with his family. He served a lamb roast, complete with parsnips. Don had to admit that the parsnips tasted pretty good, but Katie, the youngest member of the family, said that she did not like parsnips and didn't think kids should have to eat them.
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The crisp crust on the thin, boneless, skinless chicken breasts in Lemon Chicken With Bok Choy is the result of dredging the meat in a combination of flour with cornstarch. When you use just flour, it often seems heavy and sometimes gummy, but this will remind you of the crust you get by using tempura batter.
Hours after picking, the sugar that makes a pea so sweet starts to turn to starch. Pea pods picked one day, then shipped to supermarkets and sold days later, are sad shadows of the sweet packets that were pulled from the vine.
Makes 10-12
900ml (1½ pints) Warm Milk and Water, mixed
225g (8oz) Fine Oatmeal
Flour and many other carbohydrates become explosive when they are hanging in the air as dust. It only takes 1 or 2 grams of dust per cubic foot of air (50 or so grams per cubic meter) for the mixture to be ignitable.
Inspired by Jamie Oliver’s favourite Ribollita published in Jamie’s Italy.
The key to the perfect tart is pre-baking the pastry before adding the filling.
This is especially true of an egg-based tart of the quiche lorraine type.
Whatever some recipes say, the oven temperature required to cook the pastry is too high to set the eggs to creamy perfection, while the right temperature for the eggs won't cook the pastry properly.
Cooking oil used to be so simple. There was vegetable and there was olive.
Today, simplicity has been supplanted by overwhelming options that can trigger almost comedic dilemmas. Dressing a salad? Will it be almond oil or walnut? Grapeseed is good. So is hazelnut. And if fried food is on the menu, canola is nice, but avocado would be a cool twist.
Although it's a member of the beet family, chard has a gentle flavor profile that is similar to spinach. Both stem and leaf are edible, but the majority of dishes use just the leafy part, directing cooks to remove the stalk before cooking. The leaves can be blanched, steamed or sauteed; the stalks can be blanched, gratineed or braised.
Swedes can be blissful cooked with stock or butter till meltingly soft. I wanted a dish with the simplicity of pommes boulangere but the richness of pommes dauphinoise. Perfect with cold roast lamb or beef.
For a really simple treat, slice it really thinly, brush with oil and roast in a hot oven until you get sweet beetroot crisps, or bake it whole in the oven in foil with balsamic vinegar and serve with couscous.
* Beef stock
* Chicken stock
* Crab stock
* Crawfish stock
* Fish stock, or fumet
* Ham stock
* Shrimp stock
* Turkey stock
* Veal stock
* Vegetable stock
From a light lunch of steamed hake and artichoke hearts to a late snack of piquant anchovies, Simon Hopkinson is hooked on warm fish dishes for hot weather.
Salad of white fish with aioli dressing and artichoke
Prawn salad with haricot beans, onion, olive oil and parsley
Piquant smoked anchovies on toast
Question
I love the taste of leeks in cooking but am never sure when using leeks myself what part is to be used?
— Libby
The author has kindly shared these recipes:
* Uszka - Polish dumplings with Mushroom filling
* georgian meatballs with pine nuts and sour cherries
* prune and walnut cheesecake
This recipe for tofu ranchero calls for slicing, crumbling and pan-frying extra-firm tofu.
The result is golden-brown chunks with plenty of appealing crispy edges. Vegetables, black beans and jarred picante sauce deliver vibrant flavour.
My main course was the 200g Blackmore Wagyu ribeye steak which at $110 surely must be a contender for the most expensive steak in Australia. Wagyu is an intricate beast, a breed celebrated for its high density of intramuscular fat which in Australia is graded from 1 to 10 with 10 the highest. On offer at Rockpool is Wagyu described as having a marbling score of 9+, obviously VERY high.
"I like the recipe because it is a hearty meal that doesn't take long and the ingredients are inexpensive. It will fill up a family and keep them warm on the inside in the winter on a low budget. Also, it has a colorful presentation. My mother got it from a woman who came from Texas; she met her in the 1940s and has made the recipe ever since. My mother was Lydia Carnecke Naiman."
There is, I think, a subtle art to pot roasting, or rather an understanding required of the method and careful attention to the amount of heat and liquid. However, once you understand the basic principles you are free to go ahead and make up different dishes and flavours without being tied to the exact quantities and measures of a particular recipe.
Start with a heavy casserole pot that will fit snugly around the meat you are using. The best choices are secondary cuts - the pieces of muscle with a little gelatinous matter and fat throughout, such as leg or shoulder. A whole chicken works beautifully but a small one is easier to turn in the pot.
Are you a Foodie?
1. Do you consider shopping for food and wine to be 'quality time'?
2. Do you take an enthusiastic interest in the preparation and consumption of good food?
3. Are you always searching for the newest food shops, restaurants, take away’s and ingredients?
4. Do you plan holidays and weekends away around food festivals, winery walkabouts and regional food experiences, good wineries and country restaurants?
The Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation has been set up to seek funding for and oversee the development of Kitchen Garden projects in primary schools across Victoria.
Using the program at Collingwood College as a model, our aim is to pleasurably engage and encourage young Victorians in growing, harvesting, preparing and sharing delicious and healthy food in the belief that such skills are essential to the development of life-long joyful and healthy eating habits. Many young people have little sense of where their food comes from, and little experience of sharing a meal convivially with others around a table.
Well-designed knives become an extension of the most important of all culinary commodities - the hand.
These days it is not unusual for self-respecting foodies to devote serious cash and energy to truffling out exciting new foodstuffs. However, according to the professionals this could all be wasted as the result of the mistakes we make in preparing the food. Here, a smorgasbord of top chefs tell us what makes them shudder when watching other people cook.
The culinary colossus Joël Robuchon was voted chef of the 20th century by his peers. He believes simplicity is the key to good food – and, to prove it, he introduces recipes from his Michelin-starred London restaurant, L’Atelier, that are straightforward enough to do at home
LENTIL SOUP WITH NUT OIL AND SMOKED LARDONS ... SCALLOPS WITH WATERCRESS SAUCE ... CHOCOLATE, CARAMEL AND PEANUT TART
