recipes

[land_of_bo]

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.

[flammableBen]

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.

[BANGKOK RED]

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

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.

[Fred Elliot]

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.

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

High time you made some more

[BANGKOK RED]

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.

[land_of_bo]

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

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.

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....

[A Gent Orange]

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.

[Jamiesfuturewife]

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!

[Fred Elliot]

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

[Jamiesfuturewife]

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

[Fred Elliot]

[Ralphy]

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.

[Sippo]

My missus cooks kedgeree. Now that is good stuff!

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

Topped with Ketchup. Mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[oxford_fan]

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!

[flammableBen]

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.