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What's everyone cooking this week?

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Renee » Fri Sep 11, 2020 10:10 am

What lovely food you're having this week Dennis!

Hope, how nice to have all those home grown veggies! I haven't got a suitable garden now for growing anything like that, but do have pots of herbs.

This week has been a bit of a mish mash of meals, because I'm trying to use things that I have previously frozen down, some of which have labels and others might be a surprise!

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Earthmaiden » Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:46 am

I was thinking that dining with Dennis might be rather good too! Envious of the lovely fish and shellfish. I must find some.

GD was here yesterday and I cooked the simplest meal of meatballs, creamy mash and assorted veg. The first creamy mash of autumn and it was absolutely delicious. Simple pleasures!

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby halfateabag » Fri Sep 11, 2020 11:54 am

i found a large bag of fresh p's in the pods in the rtc shelf so with some help from him - de podding them the pods have been boiled, when cold will wizz them then sieve them for max flavour. fresh pea risotto with mint sometime in the next few days. can't wait, 1 of my fave summer recipes.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby dennispc » Sat Sep 12, 2020 5:40 pm

Renee, that’s the extent of this year’s home grown veg from our small garden, unless Devon daughter pops something over. A few herbs, but really rely on fresh herbs from Waitrose. We are thinking of getting one of those large plant 'trugs' (?), to grow more herbs.

EM, if I knew someone was coming I’d never try off the cuff stuff! The real pleasure of the sauce was achieving something edible with neither butter nor wine in the house.

Two trout are ready, stuffed with fresh thyme (Waitrose), leeks and a scattering of flaked almonds. Only enough for two i'm afraid! OH is doing a warm potato salad plus sugar snap peas. Left over spuds will go into a salade niçoise tomorrow - might stretch to three. ;)

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby karadekoolaid » Sat Sep 12, 2020 6:28 pm

What a coincidence that you should mention Salade Nicoise, Dennis.
I was wandering around the Grocer´s the other day ( local shop; only three aisles) and saw tins of tuna. Initially, as I´d just cooked some white beans, I thought " Oooh, Tuscan tuna and beans. Lovely lunch!" and bought a tin. When I got home I completely changed my mind and made a nicoise.
nicoise (2).JPG

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby jeral » Sat Sep 12, 2020 7:52 pm

Was there another vibe on the airwaves? I ask as I made a tinned tuna omelette thingy yesterday as it's my lazy option. Basically, drained tuna-in-OO into gently heating pan with teaspoon-ish of toasted sesame oil with fresh or dry ginger and green chilli, spatter guard on, then lightly beaten egg on top. Spot of tamari when egg set and ready to turn out.

Yorks Puds tonight with a ramekin of Paxo stuffing; with a gentle saute of mixed bell pepper pieces, red onion, tinned baby sweetcorns, jarred mini button mushrooms, thyme, saving a bit of that to blitz with bouillon, tamari and drop of fish sauce for gravy.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Earthmaiden » Sat Sep 12, 2020 9:18 pm

I was very close to opening a tin of tuna tonight too! Settled for my go-to stir fry with prawns and noodles as I had veg and coconut milk to use up.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby herbidacious » Sat Sep 12, 2020 9:48 pm

Roast tomato risotto with basil. I didn't grow the onion or garlic... :)

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby OneMoreCheekyOne » Sat Sep 12, 2020 10:10 pm

Love the look and sound of everyone’s food.

We got a table in our fave Italian last night. I had seared salmon on top of gnocchi in a herby tomatoey ragu. Eldest daughter stole a lot of it so I ended up also having some of her tagliatelle Alfredo which she abandoned in favour of mine. I shared a bit of a limoncello tiramisu thing but it was a bit too limoncello boozy for me.

Almond pastries with coffee this morning. Fillet steaks with brandy sauce, chips, garlic mushrooms and cavolo nero for dinner tonight. We had plans for chocolate mousse for dessert but we were too full.

Tennis and swimming in the morning between the four of us so we might have sausage sandwiches afterwards.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Stokey Sue » Sun Sep 13, 2020 12:52 am

Yesterday was Vaguely Japanese - a lovely bit of salmon fillet marinated in bottled teriyaki boosted with a bit of ginger and garlic, served with tenderstem broccoli and a few noodles in a sesame herb dressing

Tonight I made prawns with Thai basil from Chinatown Kitchen served with rice and more of the broccoli, using my homegrown basil

I also made the marinade for tomorrow’s half leg of lamb using a recipe from Anna Hansen’s Modern Pantry book, it required yogurt, garlic, thyme, spices and a salted lemon. It’s supposed to soak food 24 hours

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby KeenCook2 » Sun Sep 13, 2020 1:14 pm

We gave the Nigel Slater rercipe for roast tomatoes and za'atar a go last night https://www.theguardian.com/food/2020/j ... d-mograbia

The za'atar topping was excellent - definitely one for those of you with a glut of tomatoes (thinking Herbi here ... :D )

Unfortunately we didn't check the giant couscous as it was cooking and just gave it the 20 mins Nigel Slater suggested before tasting it; consequently it was very mushy. He also said cook it in salted boiling water, whereas on the packet it didn't say to use salt - we used salt. Maybe we shouldn't have.
The tomatoes took a bit longer than 30 mins

Otherwise it was a good recipe and we'd certainly recommend it and will do it again. Next time we'll pay more attention to the instructions on the packet, also re the method, which was slightly different - so no-one to blame but ourselves :lol:

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby dennispc » Tue Sep 15, 2020 10:37 am

This post comes under the heading of Recipes that went without!

Sunday, OH did Salade Nicoise, but we had no black olives, not even black grapes for the photo!

nicoise.jpg


Saturday, we had flaked almonds and fresh herbs, but I forgot the almonds and fresh herbs for presentation. :roll: Trout stuffed with fresh thyme and leeks. OH did the warm potato salad and the veg.

trout.jpg

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Stokey Sue » Tue Sep 15, 2020 11:07 am

KeenCook2 wrote:Unfortunately we didn't check the giant couscous as it was cooking and just gave it the 20 mins Nigel Slater suggested before tasting it; consequently it was very mushy. He also said cook it in salted boiling water, whereas on the packet it didn't say to use salt - we used salt. Maybe we shouldn't have.

That interested me, I’ve had very nice giant cous cous in bought dishes but my attempts to cook it following the package instructions have been pretty poor, I think it’s tricky stuff. I doubt the salt would affect anything but the saltiness

The Modern Pantry lamb was delicious :yum a very good recipe Anna serves with potatoes, carrots, and parsnips but I just had a few little roast new potatoes, green beans and a cabbage/leek combo Need to work on my roast new spuds

Had leftover lamb with rustic tabbouleh and homemade cucumber relish last night

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Amyw » Tue Sep 15, 2020 12:24 pm

That trout looks absolutely delicious Dennis

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Earthmaiden » Tue Sep 15, 2020 3:11 pm

Everyone's food looks and sounds delicious!

I think roasted new potatoes take much longer to brown than old ones. I had a craving for roast potatoes earlier in the week (perhaps someone posted about them?). I did the roast new potatoes, added chicken breast fillets and mixed all at the end in a mushroom cream (well, semi-skimmed milk but still very nice!) sauce and assorted veg. Delicious although I've been eating it since Sunday in various guises. The potatoes, although nice, didn't go on roasting well after I'd added the chicken. I thought they would.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Pampy » Tue Sep 15, 2020 3:15 pm

Adding the chicken probably introduced moisture into the dish so the potatoes would start steaming, rather than continuing to roast.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Renee » Tue Sep 15, 2020 6:55 pm

What a lovely trout dish Dennis! I haven't any trout, but after seeing the photos of Tuna Nicoise, that's what I'm going to make tonight.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Amyw » Tue Sep 15, 2020 7:09 pm

I think sometimes if a dish is too over crowded , then the potatoes don’t crisp up . I love roasted new potatoes . Sometimes I boil them , put them in a tray , give them a few whacks with a potato masher , so they crack open a bit and slightly crush then roast with garlic and olive oil

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby jeral » Tue Sep 15, 2020 7:33 pm

I've never succeeded in roasting or frying new potatoes that aren't tough rather than crisp or are just not nice, so I don't do either. Glad they work for some though. Salardaises (being slices) work for me, which I personally don't expect to go crispy crisp. Old potatoes on the other hand...

I'm making some salardaises tonight; might try adding an anchovy from a jar, for better or worse, and add cherry toms and black olives to the pan later plus nicking the mushroom sauce idea for broc and fine beans.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby KeenCook2 » Tue Sep 15, 2020 7:49 pm

Stokey Sue wrote:
KeenCook2 wrote:Unfortunately we didn't check the giant couscous as it was cooking and just gave it the 20 mins Nigel Slater suggested before tasting it; consequently it was very mushy. He also said cook it in salted boiling water, whereas on the packet it didn't say to use salt - we used salt. Maybe we shouldn't have.

That interested me, I’ve had very nice giant cous cous in bought dishes but my attempts to cook it following the package instructions have been pretty poor, I think it’s tricky stuff. I doubt the salt would affect anything but the saltiness


On the packet (Asda own brand) the instructions suggest adding 100g of couscous to 500ml boiling water. Reduce heat, stir, cover then simmer for 6-8 mins until it's still slightly firm. Drain, then leave for 10 mins.

That worked fine the first time we tried it - it was just Nigel Slater's boiling for 20 mins that messed it up! Good to know that the salt probably wasn't to blame!

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