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Philo_Vance

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Some great ideas there, rick. I probably would've defaulted to either sausages & mash (we tend to zhuzh up the mash with sweet potato and mustard), or to sausage casserole, which is good, but pretty obvious, I guess.

Really like the ragú and the meatballs idea. 

There's a Mauritian snack food called "catless" (basically the Mauritian creole corruption of the word "cutlet"), where they mix mincemeat (chicken, beef, lamb, or fish) with ginger, garlic, and spring onions, bind the mixture with egg, then make into flat patties to fry. Given what you've done with the meatballs, that might be what I'd do with leftover sausages (they'd be beef ones though).

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25 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

or to sausage casserole, which is good, but pretty obvious, I guess.

I'd just made a Sausage and onion casserole on Friday with some Pork and Leek sausages we got from the butchers!

33 minutes ago, King Coconut said:

There'd have been mash instead of toad in the hole on my list but that all looks tasty as fuck. 

We had mash too! And roasties, Carrot & Swede and Cauli. Big Sunday lunch (well, tea).

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5 hours ago, air_raid said:

Having some issues sourcing replacement labels for a bunch of my mums old Schwartz jars. Plenty to choose from online but actually finding one with all her needs is near impossible - fenugreek, Garam Masala, mace, mixed herbs and mixed spice seem to be mutually exclusive. On top of common ones, obviously, there are about 16-18 she needs. Found one set that had everything on eBay but the sellers sent it to the pickup shop Royal Mail no tracking so looks like it’s lost in a vortex and if it’s not got a collection code by 9th, eBay are going to refund us. Quite a few sets of 342 labels on Amazon but despite the labels coming with an index card none of the sites stocking them even carry a full list or a good quality photo of the list - there’s no point me buying a big pack with everything from Adobo to Coconut Oil if “mixed spice” is too much to ask.

Anyone had similar problems and found a solution?

Examples (review of 612 piece set : “Many labels of obscure items like bucatini and malt powder are there but common spices are missing like oregano , cloves and basil.”

Imagine flogging something claiming to cover every herb and spice (or seemingly tea, coffee, sugar and every other pantry item) that you could ever need and missing things like that. Yes, I need oregano for mama raid.

I bought some little black ones and a chalk pen when I was in the US. I got them from the dollar tree. Also got some little peg ones too that are for clipping on to baskets or plastic storage containers. I haven't used them but they look great when other (capable) people do it!

They were kinda like this. There's millions of them https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chalkboard-Joyoldelf-Waterproof-Blackboard-Removable/dp/B07SX2X1CG/ref=sr_1_6?crid=12D7OJC8D19MW&keywords=blackboard+labels+for+jars&qid=1699274548&sprefix=blackboard+labels%2Caps%2C239&sr=8-6

A pre-printed version of that look https://www.amazon.co.uk/Innoveem-Spice-Jar-Labels-Perfectly/dp/B09B3GS1SS/

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1 minute ago, King Coconut said:

Jam jars and a marker pen crew 4 life! 2 legit 2 quit. 

I just have mine in the jars they come in. I sometimes see someone who has bought matching spice/herb jars and transferred them all and get a bit wet but then don't bother. I basically like the idea of being one of those super organised tik-tok nutters but I can't be arsed.

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Excellent stuff @tiger_rick! I've made sausage ragu dozens of times. I wouldn't say it's better but it is different.  What else could you do? Pinch them into small sausage meatballs (they will already contain rusk) and toss with broccoli and chilli oil over pasta, flatten into patties for breakfast burgers, scotch eggs, serve whole with sauerkraut, skin and wrap in puff pastry for sausage rolls... using sausages as ready-seasoned meat is a really underrated tip.

A snap of my spice drawer is a hotch potch of all the ideas above: bought a ton of labels that are a mix of printed and blank, some in the pot they came in, other random jars. 

20231106_131343.thumb.jpg.3980ca12d08029b58b909a76df997c4d.jpg

The ground cloves have a record in my kitchen as they are best before February 2005. They've lived in 3 different kitchens. I have children younger than them.

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1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

I bought some little black ones and a chalk pen when I was in the US. I got them from the dollar tree. Also got some little peg ones too that are for clipping on to baskets or plastic storage containers. I haven't used them but they look great when other (capable) people do it!

They were kinda like this. There's millions of them https://www.amazon.co.uk/Chalkboard-Joyoldelf-Waterproof-Blackboard-Removable/dp/B07SX2X1CG/ref=sr_1_6?crid=12D7OJC8D19MW&keywords=blackboard+labels+for+jars&qid=1699274548&sprefix=blackboard+labels%2Caps%2C239&sr=8-6

Appreciated, but for a Christmas prezzie for mother I don't trust myself to go down a DIY route.

1 hour ago, tiger_rick said:

One of the ones I looked at. No Mace.

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1 hour ago, King Coconut said:

If I had my garam masala and my nutmeg in the same sized jars I'd have to refill garam masala several times for one dish. Or have centuries old nutmeg. 

All my Indian spices go in one of these, as is tradition, and I would have to hang my head in shame if it were to be labeled at all:

image.thumb.png.abf86c03c909303c38ae1e790c6e1091.png

I'll get a pic of the chaos that is the rest of my spice drawer when I'm at home, as it is truly an appalling mess. 

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1 hour ago, Chest Rockwell said:

All my Indian spices go in one of these, as is tradition, and I would have to hang my head in shame if it were to be labeled at all:

image.thumb.png.abf86c03c909303c38ae1e790c6e1091.png

 

Same, though mine has only half of the spices listed there.

The spice drawer has every weird and wonderful spice in it. Some mis-labelled and only I know what is really in there.

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I'm doing the Vineet Bhatia course on modern Indian cooking on BBC Maestro, and his first video breaks down all the spices in a way that helps a lot. I know my way around jeerah, garam masala, haldi, curry powder, dhaniya, chilli powder, cardamom, and cloves, but we don't tend to use lots in the way of methi, cassia bark, black cardamom, mustard seed, or black seed (aside from my dad having a teaspoon of black seed oil every day for medicinal purposes). 

One thing he didn't mention, that I've seen a lot of cooks on Youtube use, is tej pata - need to start doing recipes that use it. Also, panch phoron, but I'm aware that can be highly individualised.

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