What are you cooking now?

[JasonPalmer]

Sainsbury steak ale pie and oven chips for dinner. Oh yes, I can put things in an oven...tarrraaa drum roll.

[french frank]

Princes seem to have stepped up to the mark with fish and meat paste, with Tesco and Sainsbury's stocking alternatives (or the same under a different name). I think there might be more exciting home made equivalents

Memories of the Shippams factory in Chichester during childhood hols in Selsey. It closed in 2002, but the wishbone sign survives in situ to this day.

[Keraulophone]

What was about to be a fairly ordinary beef casserole yesterday hit the spot after receiving the contents of three one-third-full bottles of leftover wine (+ carrot, red & white onion, celery, tinned tomato, mushroom, tomato purée, garlic, thyme, oregano, paprika, apricot harissa, thick balsamic vinegar, sugar, s & p). 1hr on top, 2hrs in oven.

[french frank]

Crumbs! You'll want a pretty hefty red to go with that one, K!

What was about to be a fairly ordinary beef casserole yesterday hit the spot after receiving the contents of three one-third-full bottles of leftover wine (+ carrot, red & white onion, celery, tinned tomato, mushroom, tomato purée, garlic, thyme, oregano, paprika, apricot harissa, thick balsamic vinegar, sugar, s & p). 1hr on top, 2hrs in oven.

[ahinton]

What was about to be a fairly ordinary beef casserole yesterday hit the spot after receiving the contents of three one-third-full bottles of leftover wine (+ carrot, red & white onion, celery, tinned tomato, mushroom, tomato purée, garlic, thyme, oregano, paprika, apricot harissa, thick balsamic vinegar, sugar, s & p). 1hr on top, 2hrs in oven.

What did you say is your address?...

[Keraulophone]

Crumbs! You'll want a pretty hefty red to go with that one, K!

Agreed!

Rasteau, Domaine Soumade 2010 - last bottle of the case; the southern Rhône providing a customary bargain at £11 at the time.

"Dark ruby. Deeply pitched dark berry, cherry and licorice aromas and flavors, with a floral nuance adding vivacity. Plump and seamless in the mouth, with good back-end power and sneaky, fine-grained tannins adding grip. Becomes increasingly plummy with air while maintaining vivacity; this could handle strongly seasoned red meat dishes with ease". Josh Raynolds, Vinous.com
.

[Joseph K]

'Quick' jackfruit korma with the now obligatory added tofu. It's called quick but I managed to listen to all of the albums Filles de Kilimanjaro, In A Silent Way and Devotion from the time I started prepping stuff to the time I switched off the heat, since it is a new recipe for me and I wanted to add fried tofu, which wasn't in the recipe.

[french frank]

Not exactly cooking but ... I'm really getting quite cross. Not content with inventing my black bean tapenade, now They've already invented my random cold remedy. Just about to retire to bed, I fancied a hot milky drink and the only things I had which I thought might go with hot milk were cardamom powder and then stir some honey which had gone very hard into the hot milk. Indian Times says this is good for coughs and colds. It also helps with sleep. So good-choo! night!

[Joseph K]

Not exactly cooking but ... I'm really getting quite cross. Not content with inventing my black bean tapenade, now They've already invented my random cold remedy. Just about to retire to bed, I fancied a hot milky drink and the only things I had which I thought might go with hot milk were cardamom powder and then stir some honey which had gone very hard into the hot milk. Indian Times says this is good for coughs and colds. It also helps with sleep. So good-choo! night!

Interesting that you should mention cardamom powder... one of the fiddlier aspects of the above meal I made was having to grind up the cardamom pods, and trying to separate the ground-up pods themselves from the crushed shells. I didn't see ground cardamom in the supermarket but seeing as according to you it is a thing, I might have to see if it's available to buy online...

[french frank]

Interesting that you should mention cardamom powder... one of the fiddlier aspects of the above meal I made was having to grind up the cardamom pods, and trying to separate the ground-up pods themselves from the crushed shells. I didn't see ground cardamom in the supermarket but seeing as according to you it is a thing, I might have to see if it's available to buy online...

Definitely available online. I also have some nutmegs - freshly grated nutmeg would have been a good alternative for my drink and … dash my wig! They've thought of that too

Lunch today will be soupe au lait with grated nutmeg (traditional) and toasted almonds (me).

[Pulcinella]

Tidied the herbs and spices shelves yesterday (some horrendously out of date!) after a search to find some ground ginger and mixed spice for a Pear and ginger skillet cake.

Basic principle:
Peel and core pears and lay on bottom of cake pan (I actually used loaf tins!) in halves or chopped smaller.
Coat with melted sauce (butter, brown sugar, honey).
Dollop cake mix on top (butter/sugar creamed together; beaten eggs and black treacle blended in; dry ingredients added to mix: flour/baking powder/ground ginger/mixed spice).
Bake until done (knife comes out clean).
Cool and invert onto a plate.

Delicious warm with cream/yogurt, etc.

[french frank]

Sounds excellent, Pulcie. I put a cinnamon stick in with poached pears (vanilla pod with peaches). I'll not admit how long I'd had my ground cinnamon (all right, I'd dated it 25/02/12 ). They do say that it 'loses its aroma' but fortunately this was still quite flavourful to me, even with a cold.

Tidied the herbs and spices shelves yesterday (some horrendously out of date!) after a search to find some ground ginger and mixed spice for a Pear and ginger skillet cake.

Basic principle:
Peel and core pears and lay on bottom of cake pan (I actually used loaf tins!) in halves or chopped smaller.
Coat with melted sauce (butter, brown sugar, honey).
Dollop cake mix on top (butter/sugar creamed together; beaten eggs and black treacle blended in; dry ingredients added to mix: flour/baking powder/ground ginger/mixed spice).
Bake until done (knife comes out clean).
Cool and invert onto a plate.

Delicious warm with cream/yogurt, etc.

[french frank]

I've been in the laboratory this morning, working on a mushroom stew. I had a box of exotic mushrooms, white, yellow and pink oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms and I think chestnut mushrooms (rather than shiitake). Lightly sautéed the mushrooms with a shallot in Flora's new plant 'butter' (free pack from Coop) and added some garlic, chili flakes and thyme. Then a glass of white wine. It's usually a bit watery so I thought I'd mix up a bit of cornflour with … something else. As caradamom was the only spice in powder form I mixed it with the dry cornflour and then added cold water to dissolve without lumps. Currently on a very low simmer with the cover on. Nice pale yellow colour. Shall serve with rice. Off to greengocer to get some fruit for afters.

[Joseph K]

I've been in the laboratory this morning, working on a mushroom stew. I had a box of exotic mushrooms, white, yellow and pink oyster mushrooms, enoki mushrooms and I think chestnut mushrooms (rather than shiitake). Lightly sautéed the mushrooms with a shallot in Flora's new plant 'butter' (free pack from Coop) and added some garlic, chili flakes and thyme. Then a glass of white wine. It's usually a bit watery so I thought I'd mix up a bit of cornflour with … something else. As caradamom was the only spice in powder form I mixed it with the dry cornflour and then added cold water to dissolve without lumps. Currently on a very low simmer with the cover on. Nice pale yellow colour. Shall serve with rice. Off to greengocer to get some fruit for afters.

Sounds good.

[french frank]

Sounds good.

Work in Progress