What are you cooking now?

[vinteuil]

Naxos 8.570444 on from the music room...

... nice!

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.570444

.

[Roger Webb]

Not sure whether people have given up eating or whether they're just bored with my experiments. Tonight: seared fried salmon fillet with red cabbage steamed with apple, raisins and cloves. And I added some thinly sliced potato on top which doesn't take long to steam. Horseradish sauce on the side and finished up some crème fraîche which was exactly a week past its Use By date. Louis Jadot Macon-Villages 2023. No cheese after as I had cheese for breakfast.

We had salmon fillets (the chunky transverse types, not the 'fish-shaped' longitudinal cuts!) Saturday night, and I did them my usual, delicious way. Firstly has to be skin-on (were yours?) into a hot pan, a little olive oil, seared and then under the salamander...two minutes max!

I serve on a bed of creamed leaks - little rounds of leak, about half inch thick, in a saucepan on olive oil, salt, gentle heat, take about twenty minutes, then a tablespoon of crème fraîche...sometimes a splash of water to 'loosen' it up, cracked black pepper, done.

Served with a few baby potatoes.......and a glass of Rosé (still have a few bottles of Miraval left).

Naxos 8.570444 on from the music room, but winter dining is on our little octagonal in front of the woodburner (tut tut!).

[french frank]

Not sure whether people have given up eating or whether they're just bored with my experiments. Tonight: seared fried salmon fillet with red cabbage steamed with apple, raisins and cloves. And I added some thinly sliced potato on top which doesn't take long to steam. Horseradish sauce on the side and finished up some crème fraîche which was exactly a week past its Use By date. Louis Jadot Macon-Villages 2023. No cheese after as I had cheese for breakfast.

[french frank]

My experiment today was bamya - or okra stew. I bought a bag of okra from the Egyptian greengrocer round the corner and asked him how to cook it. Bamia: okra, garlic, onion, tomatoes - and meat. I skipped the meat and added cubed tofu. As I had a couple of pieces of sweet potato I added that too. I soaked the chopped okra in red wine vinegar for 30 mins to take out any sliminess (tip from internet), sauteed everything except the okra and tomatoes in olive oil for a bit (6 large cloves of garlic), then added the okra and vinegar, added some dried Mediterranean herbs and a tin of chopped tomatoes. No jalapenos (is that red chilli?), so I added a teaspoonful of Erős Pista, all simmered for about 30 minutes. Also cooked some brown rice.

When ready, add ground black pepper and I had a dollop of red pepper and garlic chutney which my brother gave me for Christmas last year and needed to be eaten. I'd eaten everything before I remembered I was going to put chopped basil on top. So I cut off a stalk and munched it afterwards. Malbec was the subject of recent posts on the wine thread. Coincidentally I had a glass of 2023 Pay d'Hérault Malbec with my bamya. I asked our local cave à manger for the cheapest French red and this was it: £11.60.

No cheese, as I had it for breakfast, just a banana before coffee. Bamya could become a regular recipe chez moi.

For those who follow Tim Spector’s 10-a-day régime, the bold ingredients (13) all count but some only count as a ¼ .

[HighlandDougie]

Stuffing ... maybe that should be "filling" ... canelloni shells (not enough hours in the day to make them from scratch today) and then making a béchamel sauce. Ragù for a change as filling rather than the usual ricotta/spinach/lemon zest/pine nuts/nutmeg mixture. Perfect musical accompaniment - Bruckner 8 (Leipzig GO/Andris Nelsons). Cheap plonk go-with (Crémant de Bourgogne with a large slug of Crème de Fraise - a terrible habit, I know).

[french frank]

Well, that was non-classic even by my standards. I intended to cook two lots of gratin champenois, one for now, one for the freezer. Half way through cooking the onions/ham I realised I would be short of potatoes. Looking in the fridge I saw what my brother had alleged were two beetroot. In good faith and because they looked like beetroot I had roasted them. But the first one was white inside and I chucked it, chopped, into a stirfry. They told me, Heraclitus, they told me it might be something weird my nephew had grown on his allotment, and because it was a white root vegetable I thought I would slice it and make it the lower layer of the gratin. But when I sliced it, it was ... a beetroot. Undeterred, I made it, in all its beetroot redness, the bottom layer of the second gratin and I shall discover in the months to come what it was like.

Meanwhile, I served the slightly more classic version with a dressed salad of sliced pak choi, garlic and tomatoes. I mopped up the gratin juice with baguette and poured the residue into my empty wine glass - because you can do this when you dine alone . Kiwi fruit (no cheese because chaource on main dish), black coffee. Not bad, all told.

Muscadet Sèvre et Maine sur Lie 2022 to cook onions and drink afterwards.
Weinberg, Violin concerto, Ilya Grubert, Russian Phil, Dmitry Yablonsky, on the gramophone.

[french frank]

I have a slight case of convert’s zeal, but keeping it under wraps as much as I can !!

Hasn’t made me run faster though

One helpful(?) idea is that it's not about cutting out anything: it's about adding to. Without a proper cooker atm I'm really existing 90% on fresh fruit and veg, with (artisan) bread, brown rice and whole grains. So some sodium matched by some potassium is a 'balance', for instance. Zoe lives!

[teamsaint]

Simple, tasty, wholesome (and with yummy Mozart too).



I've now complained twice to Coop HQ about our new Coop store: acre upon acre of sweets, chocolate, crisps, biscuits, 'industrial' cakes in boxes of six, 'Food on the Go', wrapped packets of white sliced bread sandwiches, ultra processed ready meals, convenience foods, flavoured yoghurt, pot noodles ... If they have a small quantity of not-unhealthy food it'll already be sold out. I failed with R3 and I shall fail with the Coop, but if a thing's worth doing ...

I’m afraid the supermarkets are just awful on this, and I completely agree with you about those products. Good work on your complaints FF. Having a go at a non UPF diet really opens your eyes to what is in even “healthy “ food, with emulsifiers and gums being big offenders.
Ultra Processed People is well worth a dip into,but only if one is prepared to either ignore Chris Van T’s evidence, or potentially change shopping and cooking habits.

There are “good “ Non-UPF products out there, EG some M and S Chocolate, Jasons Sourdough bread, but it is can be a struggle to find them I’m very glad I read the book and have put in some effort to make changes.

I have a slight case of convert’s zeal, but keeping it under wraps as much as I can !!

Hasn’t made me run faster though

[french frank]

Tonight.
Pot roasted chicken ( the working persons friend). A quick G and T and some Mozart Divertimenti to go with.

Simple, tasty, wholesome (and with yummy Mozart too).

We have been trying to follow a non ultra processed diet for a couple of months, which required some changes to shopping and cooking.

I've now complained twice to Coop HQ about our new Coop store: acre upon acre of sweets, chocolate, crisps, biscuits, 'industrial' cakes in boxes of six, 'Food on the Go', wrapped packets of white sliced bread sandwiches, ultra processed ready meals, convenience foods, flavoured yoghurt, pot noodles ... If they have a small quantity of not-unhealthy food it'll already be sold out. I failed with R3 and I shall fail with the Coop, but if a thing's worth doing ...

[teamsaint]

Tonight.
Pot roasted chicken ( the working persons friend). A quick G and T and some Mozart Divertimenti to go with.

Piece of cake.
We have been trying to follow a non ultra processed diet for a couple of months, which required some changes to shopping and cooking.

[AuntDaisy]

I've built some flexibility into the system so if your faves are out of sight I can bring them forward. I usually type them out as : smiley : so don't need to click on them.

Looks good to me. George would be proud of you.

[french frank]

It might be. I've only just discovered that you can upload them directly from your computer. I used to have to drag and drop them into an ftp app and then enter a filepath somewhere. I discovered by accident that I could Browse and Upload. I might delete the ones that don't get used.

I've built some flexibility into the system so if your faves are out of sight I can bring them forward. I usually type them out as : smiley : so don't need to click on them.

[french frank]

Is it via "Display Order"?

It might be. I've only just discovered that you can upload them directly from your computer. I used to have to drag and drop them into an ftp app and then enter a filepath somewhere. I discovered by accident that I could Browse and Upload. I might delete the ones that don't get used.

[AuntDaisy]

Testing testing



It would also be good to be able to group the smilies, but I do not know how to.

Is it via "Display Order"?

(The thought of ordering drinks raised a smile.)

[french frank]

We also serve beers but not spirits. Maybe a brandy balloon would be good.

Testing testing



It would also be good to be able to group the smilies, but I do not know how to.