many aeons ago, there was a thread on here about making bread .... it died, perhaps because man shall not live by bread alone ..... anyway, there seem to be a fair number of people on this site who enjoy cooking, so i thought to start a thread for recipes and associated topics.

i'm assuredly no expert, but i reckon i cook tolerably well, and i know that any recipe i paste here, genuinely works - even for those who can only shop from supermarkets!

a starter recipe follows ......

it would do .... so does oxtail or even beef cheeks!

I personally prefer my beef rare and only buy rib off the bone these days to save paying for the bone, sirloin or rib eye rolled and depending on the size probably cook on high for just over an hour or so, I always ask for an extra piece of fat to put on the top whilst cooking - brisket which I love is obviously different and slow cook that. I have never been able to cook silverside/topside successfully. I cannot seem to get it rare and tender so I gave up wasting money on those cuts. It is a good thing that we all differ.

Freezer...."we must be in the very small minority who don't even own one"......
I'm really surprised at that as even making stock, the only way to store it is to freeze it in cube size. Where the hell to do store your chips and peas then? ;o)

i reckon topside, let alone silverside and the like are too lacking in fat to be cooked rare .... the intrinsic meat grain is all wrong too

btw, you're kidding yourself if you think you aren't paying for the bone when buying it boned out

if you like long slow cooked beef, then it's certainly worth trying short ribs
as with oxtail and similar, these need very long and slow cooking, and as with oxtail, the meat will pretty much fall off the bone when cooked

if you can be bothered, you can then add a further layer of texture and flavour via bbq or grill with some sort of glaze

TOMATOES
in uk, it is only during the summer that you are likely to be able to buy - better to grow - tomatoes that have any flavour at all
i happen to grow some of my own, about 3/4 varieties, and inevitably more are produced than can be used at the time

therefore, at the back end of the season, or even when looking a bit over-ripe on the vine, pick them and freeze them whole
by doing that, they become very easy indeed to peel, purely by dumping them in some warm or hot water

when you have a stack, probably 1-2 kg, chop them up and it matters not if they are still frozen, and cook them down into a pretty thick thick paste
pour this paste into mould(s), ideally no more than say 2cm thick, so that chunks can be broken of fairly easily

i find this an invaluable and well-flavoured staple for any number of recipes

Not sure who wrote:

"you are frightfully full of self-importance for no good reason

i have indeed started the occasional thread, but unlike you, especially on the NOWT thread,i feel no need to commandeer them once they are up and running"

whoever it was, it certainly wasn't posted on this thread, so can't have anything to do with the subject matter here

Manuel.


I thought you were the subject of the thread.

You must be the object.

8-)

I went shopping this afternoon. One item I bought was Marsala. I like it in sauces. I considered Madeira, but it is generally a bit too heavy. I had a look on Google for a sauce. I found this

http://www.finecooking.com/recipes/pork-medallions-mushroom-marsala-sauce.aspx

The second ingredient was Kosher salt. Pork medallions with Kosher salt?

cynic
Talking of Madeira, have you ever tried Sercial? It is a very dry form of Madeira and quite drinkable as you would sherry. Another interesting one is white Port, also dry and a bit like Fino sherry.

i am very fond of old madeira, but it's not that easy to come by ..... sherry is also much under-rated ..... in my 20s, i used to drink it several times a week, but i have not bought any for quite a while as i'm not sure how long it will stay fresh once opened

along similar lines, i still have some 1927 banyuls, which is extraordinary, and somewhat like a really good tawny port

Sherry keeps for a very long time because it is a fortified wine. The Marsala was 18%.

You can buy very old Madeira at reasonable prices. There are sellers with bottles going back to the 1800s. I bought someone a bottle from somewhere in the Fulham Rd as old as that.

Has anybody out there grown new potatoes in their greenhouse and if so can I put them in large planters, I have read that a 1ft wide and 1ft deep container would do but I am not too sure. Obviously space is needed down at the bottom for the crop. I must be mental but I feel like having a go.

i grow potatoes in "potato growbags" .... the system works pretty well, but you have to keep the potatoes well-watered and fed if you want a decent crop

Thank you cynic.

if you need any more advice or tips on this system of growing spuds, just post here

Well as a matter of fact and seeing how you have kindly offered - what kind of compost do you use, I have bought some vegetable compost, or do you use soil? I have bought chicken manure pellets. They told me at the garden centre to use 3 sprouted spuds per vegetable bag, £6 per bag - but the bag instructions says 5!!!! Do you put holes for drainage in your potato grow bags for drainage or are they already there? Hope you have time to answer what may sound like stupid questions but this will be the 1st for me - they may be ready in time for my 66th Birthday end of June or before. Many thanks.

i use my own home-made compost, but leaven that with some standard multi-purpose stuff
chicken pellets, i am absolutely sure, are just very high nitrogen, which is NOT what is required.
something like growmore is fine, as is blood and bone and stuff like that
your garden centre will sell specialised (o'priced!) potato feed, but check out the feed balance in that - high potassium? - and then buy something sensibly priced

very important to keep the potatoes well-watered without waterlogging them
specialised potato bags should already have plenty of drainage holes in them

once they get going, i reckon to add feed perhaps once a month, but then i'm starting with very good quality compost anyway, so you may need to do every couple of weeks

don't expect too high a yield, but they're certainly fun to grow, and the taste of course, leaves supermarket spuds for dead

i like to grow things like pink fir apple and salad potatoes
there's also a strange one that is delicious, but very silly money unless you can find it on a late special offer deal - La Bonotte

bet they arent as good as sainsburys salad potatoes which are superb.

for pretty obvious reasons, there's nothing to beat home-grown veg picked straight from the garden and into the pot

my local siansbury's is interesting
about 3 years ago, they "stole" a really good site from waitrose, but stocked only relative rubbish and anyone who wanted quality, still went to the small local waitrose or to a large one about 15 miles away

however, the sainsbury's manager had a brain and registered what people were doing
accordingly, the quality of fruit and veg is now nearly always very good indeed, and it's brought in a lot of customers
that said, apart from beer on occasion, the rest of the stuff i really wouldn't want to touch - quality just isn't good enough for me