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What's everyone cooking this week?

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Gillthepainter » Sun Jan 10, 2021 3:01 pm

How I wish I could, K2C.
I'll have to plan what to grow in my garden. It's just a rectangle of grass at the moment.
I'd like herbs, I always grow herbs (in pots). But I have room for more. I've successfully planted lettuces before, that grew faster than we could eat them.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Badger's Mate » Sun Jan 10, 2021 6:17 pm

Tomatillos are similar in their requirements to outdoor bush tomatoes. They're not frost hardy, appreciate reasonable soil but otherwise no trouble. :D

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby WWordsworth » Sun Jan 10, 2021 6:36 pm

J is in charge of dinner tonight so it's "man food."
Pot roasted brisket with potato and parsnip cakes, plus cabbage and cavalo nero from the garden.

No doubt accompanied by a robust wine.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby karadekoolaid » Sun Jan 10, 2021 7:41 pm

Tomatillos are similar in their requirements to outdoor bush tomatoes.

Absolutely. they grow in Mexico - which does not, generally, have a tropical climate.Lots of sunshine, some rain!

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby KeenCook2 » Sun Jan 10, 2021 8:50 pm

That's interesting, we do get good sun in one part of our very small garden.

Maybe I'll move my questions to the gardening thread! I'm wondering if you can buy plants or if you have to grow them from seed. If it's the latter, then I think it'll be one step too far for my non-green fingers!!

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby herbidacious » Sun Jan 10, 2021 8:57 pm

I'll grow some for you :)

Apparently you need two plants (for pollination) but no more than two.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Stokey Sue » Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:02 pm

Tomatillos are a New Zealand obsession - definitely not a tropical climate, though slightly longer and brighter summers than here I think

My kiwi chum waits eagerly for UK grown ones in late summer

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Badger's Mate » Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:21 pm

but no more than two


That must be where I'm going wrong... :D

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Badger's Mate » Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:24 pm

If we are ever allowed out again, and have a meeting in the London area in the late summer or autumn, I'd be happy to bring a bag or three of fresh tomatillos.

ETA it's very difficult to judge how many plants to grow of crops that you need few of. The same applies to courgettes, marrows, chillies and in our case Brussels. It's that little law that if you aim to raise two plants, they will die. If you grow six in the hope of getting two, they will survive. :D

Obviously a surfeit of seedlings can be used for charity plant sales but there still needs to be an excess planted to assure the crop. Two or three spare tomatoes isn't a big deal if growing twenty anyway, but a couple of extra courgettes or chillies is a lot of spare produce. It is possible to find food charities these days of course.
Last edited by Badger's Mate on Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:36 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby herbidacious » Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:29 pm

Ha! How many did you grow?

I had too many inca/cape goose berries last year. I still have the plants - they were on year two last year - and really should discard because I hardly ate any of them. I could offer the plants to neighbours but a) they are in big pots which I really don't want to give away (they are not cheap) and b) I can't guarantee the plants will fruit a third year. I suppose I could offer them up with those caveats.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby herbidacious » Mon Jan 11, 2021 12:50 pm

I have a good sized bunch of purple sprouting broccoli that I want to make the centre (main) of tonight's dinner. As things stand, it will probably be au gratin with cheese, possibly garlicky breadcrumbs, pine nuts. Jury is out on whether it will involve a little bechamel too. Cannellini beans? (Not sure, esp not if I do use bechamel.)
Any alternative suggestions?
I am out of onion until tomorrow.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby KeenCook2 » Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:01 pm

herbidacious wrote:I'll grow some for you :)

Apparently you need two plants (for pollination) but no more than two.


Thx, herbi :thumbsup :)

Badger's Mate wrote:If we are ever allowed out again, and have a meeting in the London area in the late summer or autumn, I'd be happy to bring a bag or three of fresh tomatillos.



Here's hoping .....

ETA in the spirit of the thread, last night we had yet more of the delicious slow-cooked chicken we made on Friday, with dried tomatoes and polenta with lots of (bought) basil.

I'd never done a slow chicken before and it was very successful. About 3 hrs at 140 degrees fan oven, evoo, s, p and fennel seeds on the skin, surrounded by tomatoes and halved garlic bulbs. It was a Sainsbury's corn-fed. Rosemary inside and oregano with the toms.

We've still got quite a lot of it left - it was about 1.55kg+ I think.

I don't really want more chicken tonight, but if we don't have it, maybe I should freeze some of it. We'll probably have eggs for lunch and OH isn't keen on eggs and chicken on the same day :?

Maybe I'll try and make some sort of minestrone for lunch. I've got some cauliflower leaves and kale, and 3 carrots as well as potatoes. Hmm .... we'll see what happens! I think StokeySue posted her standby minestrone recipe, I must look for it :thumbsup
Last edited by KeenCook2 on Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Badger's Mate » Mon Jan 11, 2021 1:02 pm

I normally raise 20-24 plants and plant out half a dozen. The spares are sold for charity.

However, if I identify any seedlings springing up where they were grown last year, I will also keep those. :roll:

PSB! I was surprised that mine was breaking forth, but all my brassicas got pecked early on and have responded in odd fashion, such as my three headed cabbage or my flowering January Kings.

In this house, alternative PSB dressings not involving fish or meat include serving it with toasted almonds, EVOO & sumac. Sesame oil & (veggie) oyster sauce. A herby green sauce like salsa verde (without the anchovies) or chimichurri.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby herbidacious » Mon Jan 11, 2021 2:59 pm

Thanks! I am having it as a main. I guess carbs can be consumed on the side by hungry husbands.

I have had my cavolo nero under net all along. It might be a bit tough by now though... I should eat it more. I am afraid I have not being going down the garden much of late, and it's a bit out of sight, out of mind down the bottom beyond the camelia and rhododendrons. The small lake is a deterrant too!.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby OneMoreCheekyOne » Tue Jan 12, 2021 11:24 pm

Last night we had an all in one oven tray easy dinner of chicken thighs, chorizo, new potatoes, peppers, vine tomatoes, feta and finished with basil and some oil from a jar of peppers.

I tried to recreate a favourite Pret lunch today which is teriyaki salmon, edamame, soy, spinach, sesame seeds and sticky rice. It was rather nice and both girls loved it too.

Tonight we had venison haunch steaks with fries, braised red cabbage, sprouts and a red wine sauce.

Some kind of risotto tomorrow.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Earthmaiden » Wed Jan 13, 2021 12:26 am

Wow! That really makes my jacket potato with beans and salad look sad. (It was nice though).

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby karadekoolaid » Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:17 am

I had too many inca/cape goose berries last year

My Cape Gooseberries grow wild. Here they´re called "Uchuva". I put them all in a ziploc bag and straight into the freezer. When I´ve got a couple of kilos, I make jam with them. the jam is absolutely delicious.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Earthmaiden » Wed Jan 13, 2021 11:30 am

Herbi, do they grow easily in pots? To me they are a really exotic tropical fruit and if I get one as a decoration on something I feel as though I've hit the jackpot. Would they really grow in my garden?

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby herbidacious » Wed Jan 13, 2021 1:05 pm

They are really easy to grow, EM, and they self seed very readily. I had a load growing in the cracks of my patio in spring. Also very easy to take cuttings - as in cut off a stem and push it into a pot of compost with no further ceremony.
I bought my first plants two years ago (Suttons, I think) and overwintered them in bubble wrap jackets. They fruited earlier and more prolifically the second year.
They can keep fruiting until December. (Actually I think I still have fruit on the plant now. I should tend to them.)
I don't think you need more than one plant to pollinate but that's worth checking.
This all said, you can have too many. I used to take them into work for my colleagues.
I have not put jackets on my plants this year. I should cut them back. Will then just see if they survive. If not, I will have a year off them.

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Re: What's everyone cooking this week?

Postby Earthmaiden » Wed Jan 13, 2021 1:19 pm

I think I'm going to try them! I'm a bit of a fairweather gardener but would love to have such a treat. I'll read up on them to make sure they won't be totally unsuitable for my tiny garden (like my 2 x 'dwarf' mulberry bushes :lol: ).

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