Gastro Thread

[Butters]

The kitchen is the best room in the house and I figured a thread for food matters was way over due. I think about food a lot, planning meals to delight the taste buds and engorge the gut. I also like to learn about the eating habits of people in other places. What’s the food of your area? Favourite dish, recommended recipes. Food you miss from childhood. Favourite restaurant, favourite tv chef. Cooking tips and techniques. Tried anything new? What you having for tea? How will you make it?

Tonight we’re having a traditional Sunday roast. Chicken with vegetables. I usually make the chicken more interesting by cutting garlic in to thin strips and placing it within incisions in the chicken leg and breast infusing the meat as it cooks. I also rub salt in to the skin so that it comes out crispy. It’s then a race to eat the skin before anyone else realises that it’s out the oven.
The potatoes I’ll parboil for ten minutes, drain and allow to dry a little. Coat with oil, and maybe some basil and rock salt, and add to the meat pan. The chicken will be done before the spuds are perfect, so I’ll toss them in the chicken juices when the meat comes out to fully coat. Then put them on a clean tray to roast on a higher heat.
The other veg, leafy veg like cabbage or spinach, or red cabbage, broccoli or Cauliflower will be boiled in one large pan and the cooking water goes in to the gravy. This time of year, I’ll roast the veg more, and parsnips in honey are delicious.

That should all be done in time for Dr Who.

Talk food!

 

[Kilana2]

Sauerkraut is popular. But I don't like it. You eat it on New Year's Day.

I still love Sushi, but it is expensive. And I can't prepare it myself, I usually go to a Sushi restaurant.

I love to prepare a chicken myself. As it is too much for a single household, I put the leftovers into a freezer. The chicken is filled with garlic and apple.

 

[Butters]

I only had sauerkraut once. Think we had it as a side to pork chops or something. I didn’t not like it, but it didn’t impress enough to try it again.

With chicken. I used to stuff them with lemons at one point but I couldn’t tell if it was adding anything to the taste or texture.

 

[Pondwater]

This sounds like a thread for Teacake!! @Teacock.

 

[Butters]

Mmmmmm. teacake

Is there anything finer than a hot toasted teacake. Saturated with melted salty butter, and served with a strong cup of tea, in a greasy spoon cafe, on a cold wet wintery morning? Not in a greasy spoon cafe on a cold wet wintery morning there isn’t. Except maybe a bacon toastie.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

would you care to share the recipe? I've always wanted to try a teacake.

Santaman and I were guests of ElanaM for a week once and she made this absolutely awesome roast chicken
IIRC she cut potatos, carrots onions and parsnips into big junks and placed the chicken on top of it. A drizzle of olive oil, a few garlic cloves and I think some rosemary (and tomatoes? I am not sure anymore). She put it in the oven when she left the house to fetch us from the airport and when we arrived she served this absolutely splendid slow-cooked tender chicken and the juicy veggies =) I'm afraid we tucked in as if we'd just escaped a famine *blush*

 

[Marynator]

Yesterday I was making pizzas for my Hallowe'en get together, but my coworker who was one of my guests is on a keto diet and he can't eat carbohydrates. So I made him a pizza crust from a chicken breast, what I did was I used my mallet to pound it out really thin (I got it to about half a centimeter) and it was about ten inches wide. I then baked that, and I broiled it on one side so it'd be a little crispy for the bottom of his pizza. Then I coated it with olive oil, and I sprinkled garlic powder and italian seasoning on the bottom. I then topped it like a pizza, with sauce, shredded mozzarella, pepperonis, parmesan cheese and parsley. He loved it! He said it's the best he's ever had, and he was able to eat it like a normal pizza once it was sliced up. I was very glad, it was my first time trying this and I didn't know how it would turn out.

I don't usually eat a lot of food, and I haven't gotten into cooking much yet this fall. I'm feeling a little overweight right now (I used to be about 120 pounds, I was up to 150 but now I'm down to about 145, but I still have a looong way to go!), so I basically just eat an egg with toast and cheese for breakfast, then I eat a small dinner later. I've been using spinach in a lot of my cooking lately, I feel it enhances almost everything.

 

[Kilana2]

Today I had another chicken. I'm stuffed now. I was watching a Voyager episode while eating it....

 

[Kor]

I'm going to try my hand at some old-world recipes using game meats. There's a shop in a semi-rural area about forty minutes from me where I can obtain these.

Kor

 

[Butters]

would you care to share the recipe? I've always wanted to try a teacake.

I’ve never made a teacake from scratch, in fact bread is one of my food failings. My most successful attempt at making bread was generously described as more or less edible. Some things are best left to the bakery.

Santaman and I were guests of ElanaM for a week once and she made this absolutely awesome roast chicken
IIRC she cut potatos, carrots onions and parsnips into big junks and placed the chicken on top of it. A drizzle of olive oil, a few garlic cloves and I think some rosemary (and tomatoes? I am not sure anymore). She put it in the oven when she left the house to fetch us from the airport and when we arrived she served this absolutely splendid slow-cooked tender chicken and the juicy veggies =) I'm afraid we tucked in as if we'd just escaped a famine *blush*

Sounds delicious. There’s something very honest about one pot cooking, and you can’t beat the flavours that just happen, effortlessly.

ETA: I just bought a large chicken, an onion, parsnips, carrots, potatoes, garlic and rosemary. They’ll be in the slow cooker tomorrow.

 

[rhubarbodendron]

LOL some recipes tend to be infectuous I have to admit that I make Elana's chicken at least 4 or 5 times a year, particularly when it's cold outside.
I always baste the chicken with a mix of butter, salt, pepper, mild curry powder and sweet paprica powder. It gives a very crispy skin and the flavour is delicious =)

 

[J.T.B.]

I have a wife whose hobby is cooking and baking, and is also very organized, so we have planned dinner menus for a week and generally shop once, on Sunday. She doesn't like to repeat dinners in less than a month, and usually more like two months. I cook two nights a week. I am also in charge of getting rid of leftovers, which is usually not a problem.

I usually make a two-pound wheat Pullman loaf on the weekend for sandwiches, toast or whatever, and it lasts a few days. Lately I have been making flour tortillas whenever necessary because all the store-bought ones taste like chemicals to me. I am getting better but the perfectly round article is proving hard for me to achieve!

Harvest time is over. We froze bags and bags of jalapenos, serranos, roasted Anaheims and tomatillos this year, till one day around the first of October my wife said "Don't bring any more peppers or tomatillos in the house." She also froze eight bags or so of a tomato-pepper mixture she uses to make Mexican rice. I put up eight pints of tomatillo salsa and seven pints of raspberry-rhubarb jam. I tried pickling jalepenos for the first time, too, but the peppers are completely mushy. But I kept them because you can throw them in a recipe if you need a little heat and they break down and mix in almost immediately.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I don't cook much except to boil pasta and rice, but recently I've been experimenting with combinations of spices to make food taste better.

Some of my favorite combinations:
Thyme, Tarragon, Sage, Garlic Powder, Turmeric, Black Pepper
Type, Oregeno or Marjoram, Paprika, Cardomom, Cumin or Coriander

 

[Butters]

One of my favourite ingredients is red wine. Whether it’s a casserole, pot roast, or a gravy. It does get a bit pricy though, so I’ve tried a canned cooking sauce to see how it goes, if nothing else, I don’t have to wait for it to reduce.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

Red wine is awesome! So is ghee. I used that last week to make Crockpot chicken curry. I sauteed the vegetables in ghee before I put them in the pot with the curry mix and chicken breasts. Oh, my gosh, that was awesome...

 

[cosmic mouse]

Cooking with alcohol is fantastic... red wine is the bomb in many Mediterranean dishes and beer is great with a bunch of stuff too. A friend of mine makes this chicken and beer recipe that is

 

[Kor]

I've fallen in love with Scotch eggs. They are kind of tedious to prepare, though. I made some using spiced lamb sausage.

Kor

 

[Butters]

I've fallen in love with Scotch eggs. They are kind of tedious to prepare, though. I made some using spiced lamb sausage.

Kor

Spiced lamb sausage. Do you make that too? Thoroughly intrigued.

We had a scotch egg factory in my villiage many years ago. It replaced the mine as the default school leaver destination, put me off scotch eggs for a long while.

 

[Kor]

Spiced lamb sausage. Do you make that too? Thoroughly intrigued.

We had a scotch egg factory in my villiage many years ago. It replaced the mine as the default school leaver destination, put me off scotch eggs for a long while.

I'm a little too lazy to make my own ground sausage meat. I bought it from a gourmet grocer.

Kor

 

[cosmic mouse]

you guys across the pond have cooler-sounding food than we do over here... we got some slammin' quahogs in Beantown though!