What are you having for dinner today?

[Gandalph]

Thursday is Pizza night for me pops. I think I will have a good appetite after I've moved all this snow. 

[Irene]

Dinner menu - Thursday 1st March, 2018:

Steak & Ale Pie (Sainsbury's); Freshly mashed potato; Fine Green Beans; Carrots; Onion Gravy.

[Belatucadrus]

Yesterday was stew, baked spud and cauliflower Today Lemon and parsley smoked salmon fillets, new potatoes and perhaps mange tout. 

[-pops-]

Mixed fish mornay (as intimated yesterday) but I think I will turn it into a fish pie i.e. creamed potato topping and grated Parmesan cheese. Serving it with sugar snap peas.

[-pops-]

English breakfast for dinner tonight - Eggs, bacon, black pudding, sausage, mushrooms, canned tomatoes and bread.

[andsome]

Fetched a couple of chicken breasts out of the freezer. I will stir fry these with plenty of onion and garlic and a pack of Uncle Ben's rice. I will use a satay stir fry sauce and sprinkle on some Thai nine spice. We have not ventured out in this bitter wind, so I have used what we already have.

[Irene]

26 minutes ago, andsome said:

We have not ventured out in this bitter wind, so I have used what we already have.

Wise decision.  

[Irene]

Thick end of Cod for me, Haddock portion of choice for DH; Delicious Chunky Actifry Chips; Mushy Peas;

All accompanied by individual choice of Tomato or Tartar Sauce; and Lemon (if desired).

[andsome]

1 hour ago, andsome said:

Fetched a couple of chicken breasts out of the freezer. I will stir fry these with plenty of onion and garlic and a pack of Uncle Ben's rice. I will use a satay stir fry sauce and sprinkle on some Thai nine spice. We have not ventured out in this bitter wind, so I have used what we already have.

Posted while upstairs. The rice was Pilau rice. The spice is Thai seven spice

[AlanHo]

We had our butchers cumberland sausage, mashed maris piper spuds veg and onion loaf (A la Miller & Carter replica) with, as andsome oft says, lashings of gravy.

 

If you look on google for a recipe of Miller & Carter's onion loaf, you may not have been successful. Hence, last Sunday, I spent a couple of hours trying to replicate it and here is the best outcome :-

 

Make a batter with 1 egg, 100 g plain flour, 10 ml baking powder and enough milk to produce a batter mix the consistency of cream

Cut a Large onion into rings or petals as desired and place them into a plastic bag with 1/3 cup of corn flour. Give it a good shake to coat the onion pieces on all surfaces.

Put the batter into a wide bowl and tip the floured onions into it.

Stir them in the batter mix to coat all surfaces.

Drop them, in instalments, into a deep fat fryer at 180^oC and cook until golden brown. It takes 3 to 4 minutes. I use sunflower oil - you can use your favourite. They will try to float so carefully encourage them not to.

 

Now put the crispy battered onion pieces into a suitable oven-proof dish and squash them down to form a loaf.

 

Now bake in an oven at 180^oC for about 15 minutes to finish the masterpiece. I don't think that an Actify will work for this recipe - will it not batter the batter into oblivion?

 

It is truly yummy.

 

Those who have not yet tried Miller and Carters onion loaf don't know what they are missing.  Perhaps it's a Midland restaurant chain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[AlanHo]

andsome mentioned Uncle Bens rice which I find unpleasant. In fact any quick rice is for me a waste of money.

 

We buy long grain Basmati rice. You need 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of rice per person. Place it in a sieve which will nest inside a saucepan. Wash it with cold water - stirring the rice to release the starch powder. You need a minimum of three changes of water to ensure the last panful is not cloudy, otherwise you finish up with sticky boiled rice.

Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and tip the rice into it - make sure no raw grains do not stick to the pan above the water or in the sieve. Uncooked rice grains can split a tooth as I found to my cost a few years ago.  I leave the rice soaking in the final pan of water until I want to cook it.

 

Drop it into a pan of boiling water and continue to boil it for 7 minutes, then strain. You now have perfectly boiled fluffy rice ready to serve.

 

(Those people who mix a certain measure of rice with a prescribed measure of water and boil until all the water is absorbed are making life difficult for themselves).

 

[andsome]

More often than not, we have a mix of wild and basmati rice. I use a microwave rice cooker. It cooks the rice in ten minutes. I cook in stock, either chicken or beef depending on what we are having with it. The uncle Bens is what I add to a stir fry. The mixed rice we have with casseroles and curries. 

[Belatucadrus]

Bacon chops, M & S bubble and squeak and Cauliflower with a nice cheese sauce and a couple of cooked small tomatoes.

[-pops-]

As andsome, I use a microwave rice cooker and consistently get excellent results - apart from the time I forgot to include the water in the cooker the combined smell of burning rice and melting plastic was something to remember.

[-pops-]

Today is a fridge dinner - everything made from bits & bobs in the fridge + any extras such as  spuds. So it's fried eggs, bacon, mushrooms and my interpretation of Colcannon which I see as a version of bubble & squeak baked in the oven. I'm sure purists will disagree with that but, that's what we're having. Similar to yesterday's, I admit, but these weather problems do bring their difficulties in obtaining supplies.

 

The weather has not been exceptionally bad here but, we're not in the hub of civilisation so there can be problems in supplies from elsewhere.

[Belatucadrus]

Lunch is a Fridge lunch, tidy up the odds and ends and this evening the epitome of refined dining, the Lidl four cheese pizza some chips and a bit of salad.

 

Slight revision, after checking the dates on the frozen Pizzas we're going for an Aldi sourdough pizza Mozzarella and Basil.

[AlanHo]

Southern fried chicken (with home made coating), McCains Home fries and peas.

 

I have two deep fat fryers - located in my shed because management claims it makes the kitchen 'stink'. I admit it gives the kitchen an after-odour that lasts for some time - but who could reasonably complain about the fragrance of deep fried battered fish or deep fried chicken and chips all cooked in sunflower oil.

 

Management is having lightly smoked salmon with mashed carrots and swede (Yuk) and broccoli as part of her cunning plan to lose weight, and justify replacing all her clothes.

 

She goes to the fat club every Wednesday afternoon (she calls it Slimming World) and has lost 11 pounds in 3 months. She is now within sight of her target - another 5 pounds to go to get down to 10 stone 6 pounds (66 kg) and a BMI of less than 24. I encourage her for two reasons - she is looking slimmer and is more active and I get Wednesday afternoons all to myself.

. 

 

[andsome]

Roast sheep and mint sauce, with roast tatties, carrots,sprouts and onion gravy.

[-pops-]

Leek & Potato soup and crisp potato skins.

 

The potato skins are left from yesterday's Colcannon where I oven baked the spuds, used the middles for the mash (keeping plenty of the inside intact) for today where I'll place in a plastic bag with a bit of oil, salt, pepper and paprika, shake them up and spread on a baking tray for 15 minutes in a fairly hot oven.

 

The paprika is up to you: ordinary; sweet; hot; smoked or any combination you wish.

[-pops-]

Today's meal might seem a bit odd but, it's what I fancy having so, who cares? Welsh rarebit.

The cheese mixture comprises good Cheddar cheese, Worcester sauce, mustard, butter and cider.

I'm sure everyone knows how to make it.

[AlanHo]

I have made myself a beef and onion pastie whilst Libby is out with one of her friends.

 

I would have made two pies but she is determined to keep to the slimming World menus. She can have a small helping of beef casserole with loads of vegetables. 

 

We rarely eat the same things nowadays   - I would like to join her with her menus but I can't - you only live once and that is not my idea of living. I maintain my weight be eating small helpings of the food I like - and if my weight creeps up by a pound or so I simply either go out of my way to exercise more or cut back on helping size even further. It works. I don't need to cut anything out of my diet that way. If I feel like chocolate I will have some - but cut down on something else to compensate.

 

 

[andsome]

We had a casserole last night using up the remains of Sundays sheep. Tonight its stir fried cow, or bull with noodles.

[-pops-]

Salmon in cheese & parsley sauce with new potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli and mushrooms.

[AlanHo]

Tonight we had Libby's sister over for dinner and by special request I cooked my legendary cod, chips and marrowfat peas with home made Tartare sauce.

 

The batter recipe I had been given by the Japanese Chef in the Tapanyaki restaurant of the Sheraton hotel in Bahrain lived up to expectations - remaining gum cuttingly light, golden, crisp and crunchy for the duration of the meal. It enclosed the beautifully moist and flaky cod. I hate soggy batter.

 

The only downside is that she enjoyed it so much she will want to come again.

[Belatucadrus]

Butter chicken, Pilaf rice and some Focaccia