What are you eating today?

[Stokey Sue]

Haven't posted all week

Sunday I made a thing I make every so often - it's supposed to be chicken thighs, lemon, canned artichoke hearts, canned flageolets but I had a jar of Turkish artichoke quarters in brine (better than the canned hearts, a keeper) and I had no flageolets either, so I cooked some little haricots (tasted much the same, not such a pretty colour) and I have changed to using salted lemons instead of fresh.... a good version, 2 portions frozen.

Monday I had a bit of lamb neck fillet so I marinated it and cooked it on the grill pan with a bulgur wheat pilaf, the kind of pilaf with both tomato and pepper pastes in it so bright red.

There was unexpectedly leftover lamb (it was a bigger bit than I thought when I bought it) so on Tuesday I had a meze plate of cold lamb, cacik, kisir made with pilaf intentionally leftover for the purpose, sald, and I grilled an aubergine and made aubergine salad,

Leftover kisir and aubergine repeated in lunches with other bits

Second portion of chicken on Wednesday, a sausage sandwich when I came in at 8:45 yesterday

So that was all carefully worked out, no idea what comes next, I think tonight will be Italian sausage with Puy lentil via the freezer

[scullion]

last night was a veg/lentil/chickpea soup with african hints via suya powder.
tonight i'm thinking of a Chinese sort of thing with these as an accompaniment/starter - with a couple of subs to the filling as we don't have a couple of the things but i think they'll still work.
the rice paper wrappers are not a sub - i bought those at the thai asian supermarket last week.

[Norfolkman]

Apple cake muffins.

[scullion]

with a couple of subs to the filling

ok, more than a couple but they were still really good.
after i'd made the sauce it occurred to me that much of the flavour of the veg filling would be subdued by the flavour of the sauce.

i don't know whether to take it as a compliment or not - my partner thought i'd bought them ready made...

[WWordsworth]

I had a red pepper and other stuff to use up so I decided to do a vegetably risotto with sausages on the side.

Everything was going swimmingly until I had been cooking the risotto for about 25 mins and it was still quite chalky.
Then I realised I had used basmati not arborio.

So I ladled more stock in, turned the heat up and put a lid on it for 10 mins.
It was edible but not great.

In my defence I was working this morning so had been up since 0540.

[RockyBVI]

Oh dear WW. I remember a housemate at uni trying to cook a risotto with brown rice…..

We were going to have fish last night but with all the sport on needed something I didn’t have to think about so we had sausages and cauliflower cheese (and broccoli). Tonight will either be fish and chip (HM) or pea and prawn risotto inspired by the risotto thread.

[WWordsworth]

trying to cook a risotto with brown rice…..

I think that's a bit worse than using basmati

[Badger's Mate]

Interestingly, you can make a passable risotto in the IP using grains other than, or should I say, in combination with risotto rice. Gallo sell a ‘Rustico mix’ of rice, spelt & barley especially for risotto for instance, and I’ve used short-grain brown rice to supplement arborio or carnaroli if I ran out of the proper stuff. This is the sort of admission I wouldn’t have dared to make on the BBC board

[Badger's Mate]

I suppose congee is made with long grain rice, it’s not risotto but perhaps not irredeemably bad.

[Ameew]

I always think it’s interesting how far away you can go from the original recipes components , but still call it the same thing . The outrage of some of the BBC posters was quite ridiculous though

[Badger's Mate]

I guess it depends how far you take it either way. Authenticity is a rather elastic concept, I suppose we all draw lines somewhere.

[Kacey]

Spotted my Vegan Cajun cookbook that I'd not really used, so tonight was dirty rice with a side of loaded skins filled with cheese and 'bacon bits' made with flakes of dried coconut. Delicious.

[Stokey Sue]

It's the porridge fetishists that irk me, "you haven't eaten real porridge unless it is made with only water, oats and salt, you are an evil person if you add dairy or anything sweet" - I don't think most of them have even been to Scotland (or Ireland).

The other thing is that authenticity is surely specific to a time and a place? If (going I admit in the opposite direction to the above) you have no idea when or where you "authentic" version comes from, how do know what's right? This usually emerges in any discussion of chilli con carne

For the record, my porridge is made with milk and something sweet as I want to enjoy it, and my chilli con carne is fairly authentic to Bloomsbury in 1973 where I first had it made by a US exchange student - except that I use more garlic and mix my own spices instead of using McCormick

Let's not go near chain restaurant Caesar salad, loaded with mayo and paprika

[Binky]

We had pancakes for breakfast with maple syrup and berries. Coffee and fruit juice to follow.

Lunch was corn-on- the -cob followed by vegan pastrami sandwiches.

Dinner was marinated chicken thighs baked in the oven, with new spuds and broccoli. Pud is pecan pie and fresh cream. Having a final cup of tea now watching the sun go down.

[Badger's Mate]

We had the most incredibly salty porridge at a B&B in Stornaway. If that’s authentic I am happy to diverge from the true path. As it happens we have his & hers porridge, neither would go well with the purists.


ETA I make my chilli with cubed pork. Or minced deer.

[Suffs]

Ill eat porridge anyway it’s made …. OH adds various spices nuts and seeds to his … I tend to do half and half milk and water and a pinch of salt, DS likes it creamy with golden syrup.

Saturdays supper was a ‘prawn cocktail’ salad with homemade dressing, lots of Baby Gem and local new potatoes made into a potato salad.

Sunday we had a pot roasted farm shop chicken in the slow cooker with more local new potatoes and green beans. Lots of cooking juices saved to use as stock for a chicken and asparagus risotto tonight.

[Earthmaiden]

It's good to see this discussion. Particularly now we live in a 'global' world, dishes are going to be adapted to local tastes and available produce. Not everyone has been educated to understand the 'original' recipes either. I dislike the snobbishness which goes with demanding authenticity but also think that knowledge of original recipes should not be lost.

My early experiences of Chilli Con Carne was from tins we sold in our shop. Later, I used recipes from popular cookery writers of the day, some vegetarian which is why, I suppose, it tends to be known as Chilli these days! I've no idea, apart from a very good south American cookery book I bought in the USA, what it really should be like (haven't eaten it for years). I'd say a large % of the population would be the same with spaghetti sauces and curries.

I like sweet milky porridge and thick water based. Both require salt.

I resorted to an Aldi ready meal lasagne yesterday - busy week .

[herbidacious]

There are some things I make which I have made so often, and which are not authentic, that I prefer them to the authentic. e.g. chilli and pizza.

I imagine most Indian meals eaten our are not authentic, and they differ according to which (not in India) country you eat them in.

I would be somewhat suprised if there wasn't a recipe for brown rice risotto in one of the old Sarah Brown or Cranks recipe books

I have not eaten anything worth mentioning since I broke my wrist Today will be no exception, alas.

[Stokey Sue]

I had a pork chop last night, marinated, gently fried and a little gravy made in the pan with the marinade. I had real new potatoes from the farmer’s market- so new it was easier to scrape them than to scrub the mud off I also had some broccoli and the rest of the lovely baby broad beans steamed in the pod and eaten like edamame from the pod.

No idea what I’m eating for the rest of the week.

[RockyBVI]

Ha ha Herbi. Yes - Cranks probably did / does!

We had our hake as a Thai green curry last night with loads of veg.

We bought some pork and venison meatballs yesterday at the market so Ihave browned them and made a tomato sauce with roasted peppers to have with it with pasta