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Philo_Vance

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  • 4 weeks later...
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Just treated myself to an electric pressure cooker like what was mentioned a few posts ago. Really pleased with it. Did ribs last night, took 40 minutes to cook in the things, slathered them with sauce and caramalised under the grill. Perfect fall off the bone goodness in less than an hour. Nearly as nice as what comes off my Weber.

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Just treated myself to an electric pressure cooker like what was mentioned a few posts ago. Really pleased with it. Did ribs last night, took 40 minutes to cook in the things, slathered them with sauce and caramalised under the grill. Perfect fall off the bone goodness in less than an hour. Nearly as nice as what comes off my Weber.

Awesome! I love making Ribs and wings in there. I make a TGI Friday Jack Daniels-alike glaze and caramelise them up afterwards! Did a slow cooker Chili in it as well

Edited by Nick Soapdish
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My family has decided to latch onto the fact that I enjoy cooking and consequently, every bloody thing I got this Christmas was a bizarre cooking utensil or ingredient (no, I don't need pomegranate molasses or half a kilo of tamarind). However, I did get a cooking blowtorch, which I have been after for a while. Did a slow roasted whole duck with potato fondants, roast parsnips and glazed carrots. Used the blowtorch to crisp up the duck skin at the end and it worked a treat. Then did a crème brule afterwards, solely to use the blowtorch a bit more.

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Chicken pilau in it tonight. Sliced some thighs, sautéed in the cooker with onion and garlic, threw in cumin seeds, coriander seeds, tumeric, garam masala, cassia bark, bay leaf and cardamom pods, fried till I got that smell, bunged in a cup of rinced basmati, a quick stir then in with a cup of water. Lid on, built pressure, 4 minute cook, 10 minute rest and it was frigging perfect. Everyone needs one of these bad boys.

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Gus - you can make great stuff with tamarinds, like sauces and pickles. My dad's from Mauritius, so I've had quite a few dishes in which tamarinds were a key ingredient. They're also quite nice as sweet snacks by themselves, a bit like dates.

 

Of course, English cuisine uses them a bit - you need them to make Worcestershire sauce and Branston pickle.

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Just treated myself to an electric pressure cooker like what was mentioned a few posts ago. Really pleased with it. Did ribs last night, took 40 minutes to cook in the things, slathered them with sauce and caramalised under the grill. Perfect fall off the bone goodness in less than an hour. Nearly as nice as what comes off my Weber.

Awesome! I love making Ribs and wings in there. I make a TGI Friday Jack Daniels-alike glaze and caramelise them up afterwards! Did a slow cooker Chili in it as well

Doing a chilli over the weekend, so looking forward to that, and will be giving a curry a go next week too. Great bit of kit.

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Gus - you can make great stuff with tamarinds, like sauces and pickles. My dad's from Mauritius, so I've had quite a few dishes in which tamarinds were a key ingredient. They're also quite nice as sweet snacks by themselves, a bit like dates.

 

Of course, English cuisine uses them a bit - you need them to make Worcestershire sauce and Branston pickle.

 

 

The stuff I have is an enormous block of them, which I am guessing are the dried version? Used a bit of it in a marinade for prawns, along with soy sauce, ginger, lime juice and chilli. Really nice combo and will take a look at using it for a homemade pickle/Worcestershire sauce (thanks for the tip). It was more the sheer quantity I was given. Seriously, It's like a car hubcap of dried tamarind!

 

 

Pomegranate molasses are heaven on ice cream

 

Haven't the foggiest on what to use my jar of it for, so will give that a go. Cheers!

 

One of the other utensils I have bought recently was one of those internal meat thermometers. Was going to wait until BBQ season to really utilise it, but this talk of slow cooking means I may well give it a bash at the weekend while doing some pork low and slow, as I have some family round. 

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Some pleasant things I've made that have pomegranate molasseses in:

 

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2013/05/fainting-imam-turkish-baked-stuffed-eggplant-recipe.html(it makes this recipe, and this should give you an idea how to use it in general - small amounts complimenting middle eastern spiced dishes)

http://www.ottolenghi.co.uk/muhammara-shop(awesome dip, the main flavours come from red pepper, walnuts and the molasses) 

 

It's not something I use a lot, probably a bottle a year - but it keeps so that's no issue. But it's generally a handy thing to have as an ingredient especially if you like making middle eastern kinda stuff.

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I love muhammara — always buy some as a dip most people haven't tried, for parties.

 

If you wanted to go the whole hog with it, this is a blinding recipe — http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lambneckfillettagine_91764. Not the exact same one, but similar to the recipe that lead to me getting my first bottle of pomegranate molasses.

 

This is a recommendation I could give to anyone interested in the breadth of Jewish cooking — http://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Jewish-Food-Odyssey-Samarkand/dp/0140466096/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452263046&sr=8-1&keywords=the+book+of+jewish+food. Just an amazing tour of Jewish cuisine, and very surprising with some of the recipes and cultures covered.

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One of the other utensils I have bought recently was one of those internal meat thermometers. Was going to wait until BBQ season to really utilise it, but this talk of slow cooking means I may well give it a bash at the weekend while doing some pork low and slow, as I have some family round. 

 

A meat thermometer transforms the way you cook. Catch everything at perfection rather than thinking "I'll just give that another five minutes..." and letting it dry out.

 

Great for set tarts, like lemon or custard too as again you can stop cooking at it's wobbliest.

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Chicken pilau in it tonight. Sliced some thighs, sautéed in the cooker with onion and garlic, threw in cumin seeds, coriander seeds, tumeric, garam masala, cassia bark, bay leaf and cardamom pods, fried till I got that smell, bunged in a cup of rinced basmati, a quick stir then in with a cup of water. Lid on, built pressure, 4 minute cook, 10 minute rest and it was frigging perfect. Everyone needs one of these bad boys.

Ha! It's funny. Despite growing up with English as my first language, in the kitchen I'm still finding out the English names for stuff for the first time even now.

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Chicken pilau in it tonight. Sliced some thighs, sautéed in the cooker with onion and garlic, threw in cumin seeds, coriander seeds, tumeric, garam masala, cassia bark, bay leaf and cardamom pods, fried till I got that smell, bunged in a cup of rinced basmati, a quick stir then in with a cup of water. Lid on, built pressure, 4 minute cook, 10 minute rest and it was frigging perfect. Everyone needs one of these bad boys.

Ha! It's funny. Despite growing up with English as my first language, in the kitchen I'm still finding out the English names for stuff for the first time even now.

 

 

It's odd - I remember Thunderplex posting years ago about how to give curries the "restaurant" taste by adding fenugreek, or methi, and you posted in reply that you hadn't known that that was the English name for it.

 

I don't know why I remember that.

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