What are you cooking now?

[french frank]

Not sure whether my recipes have put people off cooking or eating but this was an interesting thread for other people's suggestions …

[Barbirollians]

Not sure whether my recipes have put people off cooking or eating but this was an interesting thread for other people's suggestions …

Salt cod with cannellini beans and fresh tomato , garlic and rosemary sauce on the menu tonight .

Easy to make your own salt cod - cover with layer of sea salt in a Tupperware or the like box - turn over and put more salt on. Leave in fridge for 24 hours.

Pour salty juices away and wash off any sea salt stuck to the fish under the cold tap . soak in cold water for 24 hours - changing water after 12 hours and it is ready to cook.

[Serial_Apologist]

I need to start shedding weight quickly, and get the cholesterol down again, so from today until autumn it's to be salads - no more cooking other than fish on Fridays and X for brekkers 3 times a week.

[french frank]

I need to start shedding weight quickly, and get the cholesterol down again, so from today until autumn it's to be salads - no more cooking other than fish on Fridays and X for brekkers 3 times a week.

Not sure that salads and no cooking are the most interesting possibilities (cooking with olive oil should be ok). I'd go for the eating less, exercising, veganish (not too extreme!) with occasional/once weekly treats. And oat-based muesli with fresh fruit every morning. And one daily 8-hour gap/fasting between meals.

I like the salt cod idea, barbs. Might try that when I get fresh fish on my weekly Coop offers …

[hmvman]

Making a sourdough loaf - on its first proving now. I was a bit worried about the starter as I haven't used it for some weeks but it re-activated very well overnight after feeding.

[french frank]

Not actually cooking at the moment but, following this discussion, I have bought a packet of dried marrowfat peas. Watch this space

Re hmvman's sourdough, I've never cooked sourdough because I haven't quite fathomed how to make the starter, so I just use (dried) yeast. I wonder why sourdough has become A Thing. Is it because it's actually easier (contrary to my impression) to bake successfully than ordinary bread? Or just different?

[HighlandDougie]

I have a sourdough starter (in France) which has survived various bouts of being deep-frozen, much to my surprise. Thawed out and fed (always with some rye flour) it comes back to life. It makes a very good base for pizzas and for pissaladière but, pace all the hype, anyone who can make decent loaves with it has my full admiration. I seem unable to do so, despite slavishly following instructions about folding and stretching etc. I have a similar problem with choux pastry. As for marrowfat peas, the texture of them when cooked can be a bit challenging. But, if bruschetta with cooked and mashed broad beans, flavoured with mint or savoury and with some good olive oil (and some Pecorino), can work, there is little reason why marrowfat peas can't do the same. Skip the malt vinegar though.

[french frank]

As for marrowfat peas, the texture of them when cooked can be a bit challenging. But, if bruschetta with cooked and mashed broad beans, flavoured with mint or savoury and with some good olive oil (and some Pecorino), can work, there is little reason why marrowfat peas can't do the same. Skip the malt vinegar though.

I was thinking of not overcooking to mushiness, just mashable.Then adding olive oil, chopped chilli and perhaps some lemon juice. Plus a herb if I can think of one (yes, mint of course).

As for yeast bread, I confess mine isn't great, but it's edible and mine own. But with the price of electricity it's probably cheaper to buy from the local baker. Better bread too.

[Bryn]

Not something I am currently cooking, sadly, but I have just been listening to Radio 4's The Food Programme on the subject of wild deer venison*. I m very fond of deer venison and the programme argued the case for its promotion very well, I thought. At least I now know why it is so hard to find culled wild venison in supermarkets. They only offer uneconomically low prices to those who cul the expanding wild population which is the bane of foresters. Interesting, though, that the base price of this meat has not gone up in the past few years in the way other (farmed) meats have.

* As mentioned during the programme, etymologically, "venison" refers to the meat of any hunted wild animal but has, in modern times, come to be understood as meaning deer meat.

[vinteuil]

As mentioned during the programme, etymologically, "venison" refers to the meat of any hunted wild animal but has, in modern times, come to be understood as meaning deer meat.

... yes : from Latin venationem hunting, from venari to hunt. OED has "The flesh of an animal killed in the chase or by hunting and used as food; formerly applied to the flesh of the deer, boar, hare, rabbit or other game animal, now almost entirely restricted to the flesh of various species of deer."

I was interested to see that in my OED (1933) they state that "... the pronunciation (venz'n) is now usual in England. The fuller (veniz'n) or (venizən) is current in the United States, and (venis'n) is common in Scotland."


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[french frank]

and (venis'n) is common in Scotland."

That's how I pronounce it. I thought that was standard?

[vinteuil]

That's how I pronounce it. I thought that was standard?

... 1933 was ninety years ago

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[french frank]

... 1933 was ninety years ago

.

Yes, I checked the online OED and the chap pronounced it like wot I do

And I've put some marrowfat peas to soak overnight. I've been looking at recipes and am really not enamoured of mushy textures. I'm going to see if I can get them more like haricot or flageolet beans to which I could add some chopped saucisson sec.

Which reminds me, how do people pronounce flageolet (bean and instrument? I've always pronounced them both as if they were French but OED he say fladʒə(ʊ)ˈlɛt with the French version a possible for the bean but not the instrument.

[vinteuil]

Which reminds me, how do people pronounce flageolet (bean and instrument? I've always pronounced them both as if they were French but OED he say fladʒə(ʊ)ˈlɛt with the French version a possible for the bean but not the instrument.

... for the bean I wd pronounce as if it were French; I ca'n't say I often have to pronounce the word for the instrument - if I ever have to, I expect it wd be something like - /fladʒʊˈlɛt/

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[Jonathan]

Flourless Chocolate brownies (because we decided this was a good idea for a Sunday night before work tomorrow)