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Posted by richard

Why is it that of all the organic food that is cheaper than normal food, it’s canned tomatoes? 35p for a can, yet some of the normal canned tomatoes are going for 60p+!

I can understand that growing things naturally, without fertilizers, additives, and so on, is going to be more expensive. Generally, I don’t buy them either. But tomatoes, of all things… And, I think, that’s the only thing organic that is cheaper.

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Posted by richard

I had some bananas that were going the south side of their natural yellow colour, if you know what I mean. I hate throwing them away, so I found this recipe for banana nut bread, altered it, and here it is. It called for pecans, but I use almonds since they’re easier to get hold of, and cheaper.

  • 3 or 4 bananas, mushed
  • 8oz plain flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 4oz sugar
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1oz almonds, flaked/broken
  • 3oz butter, melted
  • vanilla extract
  • salt

Turn the oven on to 190C, or 170C for fan ovens. Butter up a bread tin.

Put flour, sugar, pinch of salt, baking soda, cinnamon and a few drops of vanilla extract in a bowl. Pour in the egg, butter, mashed bananas and nuts. Mix together. Pour into the tin, put in oven for 40-50 minutes and voila!

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Posted by richard

So I offered to cook for my parents tomorrow evening, it’s Father’s Day after all. I have it planned all out, and decided that today I’d do some cooking in advance to get it out of the way to make it easier on the day.

Problem is, I chose to cook the desserts. So marmalade muffins and chocolate fridge cake are now ready and filling the house with their smell. God what an idiot I am, I can’t eat this stuff but I have to torture myself with it until tomorrow night!

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Posted by richard

The news had an article about the new purple tomatoes that they are showing off, supposedly packed with far more anthocyanins (antioxidants) than normal tomatoes. They raised the dreaded spectre of genetic modification saying it could be harmful etc.,

Great news if you want to help with fighting cancer, higher levels of antioxidants have been proven to make mice live longer.

What drives me crazy about putting these anti-GM people on the news is that they don’t know half of the vegetables we eat are modified and bred over countless centuries, but I guess that doesn’t matter to them.

Carrots weren’t always orange for example – before 1700 they were purple. Wheat has been selectively bread for centuries to produce higher yields. Parsnips weren’t always as big as they currently are.

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Posted by richard

This is a quick post for teeni, mac, et al, about the cooking blog. Let’s talk this through and see if we can agree on domain name, style and so on. I can provide the design and hosting. We can cover a wide degree of categories from normal cooking, through veggie cooking, styles like chinese, russian, mexican etc., and also the tools to cook with such as slow pots, pan-frying.

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Posted by richard

Maybe not ‘young’ in this case since I’m talking about meatballs I made yesterday, but you know when you’re a kid and growing up, you have your favourite recipes? You know when you grow up and although many of us take precious little interest in cooking, we eventually come round to it, and long for those same recipes we had when we were young.

What I’m talking about is something I had when I was visiting the northeast of the US, a business trip and I had some meatballs in spaghetti sauce as this little restaurant, a mom-and-pop kind of place. They were amazing, and although the ones I cooked last night were great, still not the same.

My spaghetti bolognese recipe, nearly got that right. This despite the fact I even have the same recipe as my mum used, still doesn’t taste the same as I remember it. I have now ditched the wine, the cinzano (she used cinzano though, not wine), and added mushrooms and I’m so very close.

I think I’ll still be another year before I get it right, another ten or so times to cook it to the point of where it’s the same as my memory reminds me.

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Posted by richard

Well not just recently mind you, but apparently real Scottish haggis is banned from the US! Can you believe that? Hmm, yeah I suppose I could really, knowing what’s in it…

The reason why? The Beeb fills us in:

Imports of Scotland’s iconic dish were banned by the US in 1989 in the wake of the BSE scare because it contains offal ingredients such as sheep lungs.

Such as … you have to love that little wording. There’s more than just a little bit of it. The whole thing is held together by a sheep’s stomach I believe. These scots, they’ll eat anything…

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Posted by richard

Sunday dinner here in the UK is a pretty big thing. It’s traditional. Living in the US for so many years I realised that Americans don’t have that same kind of tradition, and certainly not the same kind of food. Here, it’s usually a joint of beef: topside, silverside, brisket, etc.,

I’ve never cooked one. I’ve done a lot of cooking in the past year or so, but I’ve never delved into beef joints.

Tomorrow is going to be different: I bought a 2lb joint of topside and I’m going to cook it with all the trimming, roast ‘tates, roast parsnips, carrots, yorkshire puds. Sounds delicious doesn’t it? I’ll write and update with all the juicy details (and pics).

 

Posted by richard

My god this stuff is amazing.

Crunchie Bar Ice Ceam

  • 2 large tubs of double cream
  • 2 tins of condensed milk
  • 9 crunchie bars

Whisk the cream in a dish until nearly thick, then add condensed milk and whisk gently until smooth. Then add the crunchie bars which have been rushed quite small. Put in a lidded container (or multiple containers) and freeze for 7-8 hrs (resisting the urge to crack one open and eat some). PS: make sure the crunchie bars are stirred in well and evenly distributed.

 

Posted by richard

Here’s a definition of temptation: walking past the output vent of a chinese restaurant’s kitchen. Twice a day. And not buying anything from there at all.

I’m telling you though, I was seriously tempted tonight…