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 ......

Macaroni cheese 3m? When the fridge is empty it's a good back up meal! Cheap as chips! ;o)

GF got it about him today...... must be a change in the weather or his diet...... lol
As for butternut squash...... you can keep it. You cant beat a good stew, cheap veg, cheap meat and i make and freeze about 9 portions, having one tonight witha gurt dumpling..... oooohhh arhhh.,.

Stew and dumps with HP sauce........................ACE.

your probably right but i prefer worcestester sauce to give it a bit of bite.

Worcestester sauce, hmmm never tried it with stew and dumps but will do cheers.

More like a meal than these bean peas lentils Hays and co cook. Bet they are never away from the bog.

Ham and Bean Soup or Stew.

Gives you character and Fs.

Just goes to show doesnt it a thread in the right hands just like the TALK thread can work.

Just needs a captain to steer it in the right direction.

Cyners are you listening.

GF>

Manuel is either sulking or has had a stroke on the golf course.

Or perhaps he has found a basic wage paid job commensurate with his talents!

I absolutely adore suet dumplings, suet crust and suet puddings but the old heart attack has had to make me think, no! to a lot of things although I am naughty sometimes. I shall be thinking about all you lucky dumpling eaters tonight, (scrumptious).

Some sort of Friday afternoon Euphemism?

Just what i was thinking , if i was the Captain of the TALK thread i would make Fred walk the plank [ one plank on another ] , or set him adrift with just a copy of Das Kapital

And as per usual Fred and his bitch GF can't help themselves, just have to jump in and attempt to destroy yet another thread with their mundane polititical crap. A packet of 20 fags average price is £9, you can buy food daily for £9 many prefer to buy fags.

Chris

Good point , and when you add alcohol , lotto tickets and in same cases drugs

in my youth, fish was most assuredly cheap, though i'm sure one didn't oten see the likes of halibut or turbot or monkfish and other species that we now consider fairly commonplace

fish on a lb/lb basis is now every bit as expensive as meat, though there is often far less waste - and nutritionally, almost certainly the more healthy option

fish prices have rocketed, partly because it is an awfully tough way of earning a living, but more because of over-fishing and the lily-livered approach that has been taken by the whole EU (and UK) to controlling this, linked to backdoor skulduggery of licences being traded to non-resident vessels and fishing conglomerates

iceland (the country!) has categorically proved that with proper controls, fish (cod) populations can be restored to former levels in a relatively short time - about a decade i think

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can't cook f+c in animal fat?
what absolute codswallop to make a rather bad pun
beef dripping remains the cooking medium of choice of many top quality fryers

dried up f+c?
shows what that local community will tolerate, as there is no excuse for it - merely lack of care

i'ld be interested to hear how many of you still have genuine fishmongers in your towns ... or even a regular van that offers fresh fish


Yes , i have one because i live on the south coast

a small dressed crab £3.50 , a large whole crab £7.50 all local catch

our little town had a fishmonger in the high street for about 150 years, as well as a quality butcher and a greengrocer and a proper hardware store

it now has none of these, or at least not in the high street
these excellent local shops were forced out of business, primarily through soaring rentals and also because the local populace did not support them properly, preferring the lazy and fractionally cheaper option of going to the supermarket
of course, once these shops closed, everyone wrung their hands in distress and sorrow, but conveniently forgot that the demise was much of their own doing

in fact, the top quality fishmonger, who is also a better than average butcher, has moved about a mile out of town where he shares a site with the local farm shop
to my surprise, he probably does more business now than he used to - and if the farm shop was better run, that would do far better than it already does

the hardware shop has moved a few hundred yards away, and struggles along, primarily i think, because the boss, his wife and son all work there

we have no delicatessen at all, and i'm afraid the baker in quality terms, is a shadow of what it was 20 years ago

Golfing this afternoon cynic, or nodded off under the paper???

halibut or turbot or monkfish

In 50 and early 60s frequently ate Halibut, Turbot, Hake,and more upmarket Soles, Dover Sole.

These fish were plentiful but more expensive than Plaice, Cod, Herrings, Sprats Kippers and Monkfish, the latter in the UK often being used as fish bait or thrown back, until some bright spark started selling it as "Scampi" in the Basket, or similar and the price started to rocket.

But the over and indiscriminate fishing, the use of fish, as fertilizer and chicken and animal feeds along with the overseas consumption because of easier transportation etc. ruin the fish base population and breeding grounds.

A pity, but there has been some revival and Fish farms a blessing with problems.

But how many families could afford salmon at the weekend in the 50s unless they poached it.

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But still enjoy buying fish in France at the port markets at Etaples or Saint-Valéry-sur-Somme.

If you like fish get there before 10am.

a very enjoyable game of golf this morning (1/4-final tomorrow); came back to the office and tidied up some bits and pieces, and then wasted some time and effort on here :-)

PS

Butter for cooking fish. Olive oil for the chips.

(Cheat by adding a little rape seed oil to the butter, and drop in finely chopped Fennel Fronds.)