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With a risk of sounding like an old lady (shut up Si Pi  :twisted: ) at a WI meeting!
Has anyone tried any new recipes latley?

Im trying to be better with my cooking and try some new things as I cook the same old things all the time

Im going to cook that Jamies Oliver Hot cross bun pudding off the Sainsburys advert tonight!

Ben gave me a recipe for Brie and caramalised onion Filo tarts and they were lush.

Ill try and dig it out and PM you later !

Oh, and a green Thai curry which was equally mental

Ooh i did his new pasta n tomato one last night, was good!

What sort of food do you like to cook?

A easy one:-

Pasta (as usual)
cook chopped onions, mushrooms and bacon squares add in chopped tomartoes, bit of salt and pepper

Add in some garlic bread and your a winner every time

My missus cooks kedgeree. Now that is good stuff!

ha ha I did that pasta one too but added a bit of bacon to make it a bit tastier as I was mighty peckish!  

my boyfriends quite fussy so I have to cook quite simple things - nothing with fish either!

I made a mushroom stroganoff for mothers day. I didn't really follow a recipe, just had a quick look on the internet for ideas and added in things as I went along to get the flavour I wanted.

fry some garlic, add a tin of chopped tomato, throw in some fresh spinach pour over a bed on tagliatelle. Lush.

Or

Fry off a chopped onion add a packet of Pancetta, add some garlic. Rinse some frozen peas under the hot tap then add to your frying pan as its nearing ready. Then mix with some pasta with loads of parmasan cheese.

Id agree with him, fish is evil

This is one I do quite a lot, takes about 20 minutes

Minted Cutlets with Posh Peas

Ingredients
8-12 lamb cutlets
4 tbsp readymade mint sauce

For the potatoes
500g baby new potatoes
1 lemon
1/4 tsp sea salt

For the peas
250g frozen peas
1 small clove garlic
125ml vegetable stock
2-3 tbsp crème fraiche

1. Rub the lamb cutlets with the mint sauce and set aside to marinate for and hour or so.

2. Boil the potatoes in lightly salted water until tender. Drain and return to the pan. Grate the zest from half the lemon and scatter over the potatoes. Add salt to taste and shake the pan to distribute through the potatoes. Keep warm while you cook the lamb. Squeeze the juice from the whole lemon and set aside.

3. Heat a griddle without any oil until really hot. Cook the lamb for about 4 minutes on each side. If you prefer your meat well done, give it any extra 1-2 minutes. While the lamb is on the heat, cook the peas.

4. Put the peas and garlic into a saucepan and pour over the stock. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat, and simmer for 4-5 minutes, until just tender.

5. Simmer for 4-5 minutes, until just tender. Remove from the heat and transfer everything to a food processor and pulse until the peas take on a coarse texture. Stir in the crème fraiche and add seasoning to taste. Squeeze the lemon juice over the potatoes and serve with the lamb and the creamy pea mixture.









(Is it fuck)  :D

I love that stuff, especially with lots of chopped boiled eggs and parsley

My lady cooks scallops Charlotte, I love them, took the ingredients off the BBC A-Z Cookery, good site.

Seared scallops with sauce vierge


Serves 4

Cooking and preparation 20 minutes preparation, 10 minutes cooking

Ingredients
For the sauce vierge
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 garlic clove
sea salt
2-3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large ripe tomato
handful fresh tarragon
handful fresh basil
handful fresh coriander (you can substitute mint if you like)
½ lemon, juice only


For the scallops
8 large diver-caught scallops, roe attached
olive oil, for drizzling
salt and freshly ground black pepper


To serve
lemon quarters

-cook pasta
-while pasta is cooking, fry some onions, peppers, and cook some sweetcorn
-empty a tin of tuna into a bowl
- add mayonaise
- mix it all up together

yum yum

Singapore noodles so bloody simple and versatile they’re ace.

Just grab some thin Singapore dry egg noodles, boil them up for a couple of minutes) according to the pack and then just bash whatever you have to hand in a wok, stir fry, add a little stock and some flavour introduce the noodles for a couple of minutes.

I’m into my pies at the moment though.  I’m attempting to create the ultimate steak, egg and cheese pie.

Sounds lush  8)

Thai curries are easy to make and bloody good. Have to do coconut rice with them though.

There's an ace oriental supermarket in Bath and you can buy all the authentic thai ingredients.

I haven't made a pie for ages. I used to often make pies.

I might make a pie tomorrow. Maybe good old Steak and Stilton.

Most ingredients of Thai food are fairly common in the U.K. anyway I think, asides from things like fish sauce and fermented pork (Which smells of wee).

A good one which is easy to cook is "Pad kapow Gai", which is chicken fried with Sweet Basil, fry up (A wok is best) some chicken with oyster sauce, when the chicken is close to finished chuck in a handfull of  Basil, with some chilli and Garlic.

Sweet Basil is very very aromatic with a strong and distinctive flavour, you can often smell a dish of it being cooked up from down the road.

I am fairly sure that it is called "Sweet Basil" in English. But if you want to be sure the Thai word is "Kapow". (Ask a Thai restauranteer)

Give it a whirl, served up with plain steamed rice. You WILL NOT be dissapointed.

Your pies were legendary in the early years of TEF matey.

High time you made some more

There's a well known Irish pub (The Dubliner) in Bangkok that does an outstanding Steak and Guinness pie, served with Bubble and Squeak or potato wedges (Pint of Guinness optional)

And so I think that you should make Steak and Guiness pie's Ben. From memory I recall that you like your black stuff.

You can get Thai Sweet Basil at the place I mentioned, never seen it sainsburys though. Also lime leaves which seem unavailable in your UK supermarket.

Hmm, thai sweet basil. aniseedy....

I made coq au vin last night. It wasn't quite this recipe though - I'd made the stock earlier and used far more cognac and when I lit it I nearly took of what remains of my hair off. It was worth it though...  

Serves 4.

a large chicken, jointed into 6 or 8 pieces, giblets and carcass saved
an onion, a carrot and a few peppercorns for the stock
150g pancetta or unsmoked bacon in the piece
30g butter
2 medium onions
a large carrot
2 ribs of celery
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsps flour
2 tbsps cognac
a bottle of red wine
4 or 5 small sprigs of thyme
3 bay leaves
40g butter
12 small onions, peeled
200g small mushrooms

Put the chicken carcass, its giblets and any bits and bobs of bone and flesh into a deep pan, cover with water, add an onion and a carrot, half a dozen whole peppercorns and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down and let it simmer until you need it.

Cut the pancetta into short strips; they need to be thicker than a match but not quite as thick as your little finger. Put them, together with the butter, into a thick-bottomed casserole - one of enamelled cast iron would be perfect - and let them cook over a moderate heat. Stir the pancetta from time to time - it mustn't burn - then, when it is golden, lift it out into a bowl, leaving behind the fat in the pan.

Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper and place them in the hot fat in the casserole, so that they fit snugly yet have room to colour. Turn them when the underside is pale gold. The skin should be honey coloured rather than brown - it is this colouring of the skin, rather than what wine or herbs you might add later, that is crucial to the flavour of the dish. Lift the chicken out and into the bowl with the pancetta. By now you should have a thin film of goo starting to stick to the pan. This is where much of your flavour will come from.

While the chicken is colouring in the pan, peel and roughly chop the onions and carrot, and wash and chop the celery. With the chicken out, add the onions and carrot to the pan and cook slowly, stirring from time to time, until the onion is translucent and it has gone some way to dissolving some of the pan stickings. Add the garlic, peeled and thinly sliced, as you go. Return the chicken and pancetta to the pan, stir in the flour and let everything cook for a minute or two before pouring in the cognac, wine and tucking in the herbs. Spoon in ladles of the simmering chicken stock until the entire chicken is covered. Bring to the boil, then, just as it gets there, turn the heat down so that the sauce bubbles gently. Cover partially with a lid.

Melt the butter in a small pan, add the small peeled onions and then the mushrooms, halving or quartering them if they are too big. Let them cook until they are golden, then add them to the chicken with a seasoning of salt and pepper.

Check the chicken after 40 minutes to see how tender it is. It should be soft but not falling from its bones. It will probably take about an hour, depending on the type of chicken you are using. Lift the chicken out and into a bowl.

Turn the heat up under the sauce and let it bubble enthusiastically until it has reduced a little. As it bubbles down it will become thicker - though not thick - and will become quite glossy.

I made that Hot cross bun pudding thing - by the time I had made it my boyfriend had fallen asleep on the sofa so its mainly uneaten! just tastes like hot cross buns with custard on!

That would be why its called Hot Cross Bun Pudding then, I suspect

I think you might be right - particulaly as the only ingrediants are hot cross buns, custard and a little bit of marmalade!

:Ride On Fatbury's Lovestick:

Mix the following up in a jug..

4 tablespoons of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of sherry
1 tablespoon of worcester sauce
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1 teaspoon of lazy garlic
2 teaspoons of star anise

Lightly brush strips of belly pork with the mix and cook at 160 C for 20 mins.

Take the pork back out of the oven and generously brush and pour and remaining mix over the belly pork.

Cook at 200 C for further 20 mins and then turn upto 230 C for last ten mins.

Serve with stir fry and egg fried rice.

Topped with Ketchup. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

got a cracker and its dead easy

bring to the boil 2 tins of coconut milk, chopped spring onions and a small spoonful of thai red curry paste

add chopped sweet potato

cook until potato is done

squeeze half a lime into the lot

add sliced mango, cook for 2 min

add prawns, cook for 1 min

serve with noodles


it's the dogs testes!

Here's a basis for a decent chocolate brownie, it's from memory so I might miss something. It's not mine, I plagerised it from somewhere but I can't remember where. But it works.

300g Golden Caster Sugar
250g Butter
250g of high cocoa solids content black chocolate sexiness thingys (70%+)
3 eggs + 1 egg yolk
60g flour
60g cocoa
1tsp Baking powder

Get a the food processor out and whizz (cream) together 300g of golden caster sugar with 250g of butter (conveniently your normal sized block, save the paper wrapper thing for greasing your 12inchish squareish baking tin). Let it keep going until it's nice and light and fluffy. This might take a several minutes, especially if the butters cold so move onto....

... chocolate melting. get 200g of you chocy stash and melt it. Easisest way is to put it in a bowl resting over a pan with water. You can probably do it in the microwave if you want. As soon as the chocolate is melted take it off the heat and set it to one side (you don't want it too hot when it finally get's mixed in later on. But don't worry too much, it'll have cooled down by then). Smash up the other 50g into bits.

Whilst you're chocolate is melting and you're butter sugar mix is combining into a healthy mix, you might as well weigh out the flour and cocoa (just chuck them in together and add the tsp of backing powder). Also crack your eggs into a bowl, and mix em up with a fork.

Now gently add your egg mix bit by bit into the food processor, slowly pulsing the mixer on and off so it gradually combines it all together. Once this is all done empty the lot into a big mixing bowl.

Poor in the melted chocolate, mixing the lot together with a wooden spoon, try and be gentle. Chuck in your chocolate lumps and any other ingredients you want to add. You know, stuff like nuts or fruit or something. You could try bacon but it would probably be disgusting. Or would it?

Now sieve the flour/cocoa/baking bowder into the mix, and carefully fold it in until it's all mixed up. Just stir in carefully basically, but in more big slow stirs instead of small sharp whisking like stirs (Some pro-termonology their). It's basically so you don't knock the air out of the mix. Although it's pretty robust so don't worry to much.

Grease up a baking tin, I think the one I use is 12inch square, but anything which looks like it'll fit will probably be ok. Although you might have to make a judgement call on cooking times, which you'll have to do anyway. Line the bottom with some baking paper, just to make it easier to remove from the tin

Poor the mixture into the tin, and preheat the oven to 180C. Put it in the oven and forget about it for 30-35mins.

Check it's done by gently stabbing it with a knife. It's a pretty thick fudgy brownie so some of the insides will stick to the knife. If it looks like just wet uncooked cake mix then put it back in for 5-10mins, if it looks a bit more sort of crummy then it's done. Be careful you're not hitting a pool of some of the chocolate bits we chucked into melt. It will also firm up when it cools down.

Once it feels done, remove it from the baking tin (turn it up side down and shake until it slides out) onto a cooling rack, of just a plate. Let it cool down.

Eat.

Yum.

That's horribly over written

Short Version

Cream together butter and sugar.

melt 200g of chocolate save 50g and smash it up.

gently mix eggs into creamed fluffy mixture

fold in chocolate and any other ingredients

fold in sieved flour cocoa and baking powder

poor into lined and greased baking tray

cook for 30-35mins in 180 degree oven