I knew somebody who thought that if their visitors knew exactly what was in haggis ("awful offal") they wouldn't have eaten it - however they did enjoy their "special spicy mince" .
My mashed swede never tastes as good as if I have it out - they probably add butter/cream, etc which I don't.
Highland Jeannie, if you are talking about Neaps then yes you add butter cream and seasoning, we had haggis and neaps every new year and I am talking about 100 people or so, very few refused, probably the Dram o single malt helped or by the time we ate it several with some wild dancing to get up an appetite. Posh try dicing an onion into the meat dish and I use lard not oil then pop in the sausage to brown a little and turn up the oven to 210 fan for a couple of minutes then in goes the Yorkshire pudding mix with chopped herbs in it close the door leave it shut timer on ten minutes when it rings turn down the oven to 180 fan and time another ten minutes meanwhile the onion gravy should be well on its way. Potato and carrot boiled together then mashed adds more flavour and as you are not eating it every week add some butter and cream or milk to the mash, a nice Savoy cabbage lightly cooked makes it a nice rounded meal. Have you tried signing out and back in to the board, when I was having trouble that is how I did it, be prepared for it to refuse your pass word a couple of times although it is correct then stay signed in. Got your carrier pigeon mail will reply.
Jennie: offal does't bother me, so it wasn't the ingredients that I was less keen on - it was the overall taste. Spicy/peppery which was good, but not much else to recommend it, I'm afraid. Perhaps it would have been better after a dram or three of a single malt as recommended by Frank Not sure about the wild dancing though!
The toad-in-the-hole had onions and bacon lardons sizzling in the dish before the sausage and batter were added, Frank - and you're right that it makes all the difference. Because of the starch of the Yorkshire, I didn't serve potatoes, creamed or otherwise, but extra large helpings of carrots, broccoli and leeks. Very tasty. Who says the British can't cook?
Having been brought up on a small holding and farms, offal was often what we looked forward to, it was fresh tasty and a welcome addition to the meat ration. Cooked properly by cooks who handled offal on a regular basis and who were also adept in using spices and herbs it was good food. modern cooks tend to over cook offal, liver and bacon where the onion goes in first then the bacon and lastly the liver (lamb's though we also used pigs) which goes in the pan a quick sear whip it over and done in a couple of minutes, pour some cream in the pan a minute and you have a nice creamy sauce. At my age posh I just eat less but cook it all fresh no made up supermarket dishes in this house. We killed an animal and ate everything that came out even heart and sweetbreads. In Tospots yesterday I looked at a very sad looking Shepherd's pie and read the ingredients, I know a bit about chemicals having worked at ICI and it was not good news, making a batch yourself and freezing some down would be cheaper and healthier by far.
I'm with you all the way on that one, Frank. Stuffed baked lambs' hearts are delicious, and liver and bacon is a real treat. It's years since I made brawn which had the most superb flavour, like pressed pork. I wonder what happens to all those pigs heads nowadays? Probably scraped clean and used in supermarket "value"pies, I guess.
My freezers (one upright in the kitchen, one chest in an outhouse) work very hard for me, and various dishes are frozen down for future use. Why make one when you can make two, is my motto - which means there are always ready meals, home-made, that can be re-heated when required.
Tonight it's ballotine of pork wrapped in pancetta. Redcurrant and red wine sauce will make it extra yummy.
Dear Palaisglide, is Tospots possibly the same shop that I call 'Ispiton'? Have only just dicovered this thread and am thrilled to read that so many of us make proper food, though of course we would after growing it. Jamie Oliver is doing a programme on food waste in a month or so; my local farm shop was visited by the TV company who are doing the programme to ask if his customers would buy misshappen carrots, he thought not; I suggested that he market them as ideal for juicing. He also tells me that the local primary school have to provide salad, and the cook says that ALL of it is binned every day as the children won't eat it. How sad is that?
Sausage casserole (carrots, mushrooms & onions) and roast potatoes. Had a box of those belgain chocolate seashells which we are not really fond of so I melted them in the microwave and stirred in some fruitty, nutty muesli and a few cornflakes and set them in paper cake cases - turned out very nice.
Artjak, As I refuse to advertise I give my own interpretation of the supermarket names hence S&M reverse it although to me shopping must be similar Dingleberries a large southern lot Clopshop once in every town co-operating number 14956 for the divi how could you forget if you got a thick ear for not getting the little ticket and Tospots a large concern who have suddenly taken a dip. Tonight I cooked lamb chops from my local butcher sweet tasty tender and no more than a pack of skinny tasteless chops from Tospots. We have a farm shop a quarter of a mile away and though we have all suffered from the weather their own produce still tastes far superior. Of course with the modern folk being in one heck of a hurry at all times the big concerns will prosper selling rubbish fast food with more chemical content than is good for them. My daughter told me the kids would not eat meat, I cooked Sunday lunch for them and they ate the lot, my grandson putting his foot in it by saying "why can we not have good food like this at home mum" that did not go down well. We form the eating habits of the next generation and being brought up during rationing we learnt to make the best of what we had, I am afraid the next generation will be dropping off the planet a lot sooner than we are.
Posts
I knew somebody who thought that if their visitors knew exactly what was in haggis ("awful offal") they wouldn't have eaten it - however they did enjoy their "special spicy mince"
.
My mashed swede never tastes as good as if I have it out - they probably add butter/cream, etc which I don't.
Highland Jeannie, if you are talking about Neaps then yes you add butter cream and seasoning, we had haggis and neaps every new year and I am talking about 100 people or so, very few refused, probably the Dram o single malt helped or by the time we ate it several with some wild dancing to get up an appetite.
Posh try dicing an onion into the meat dish and I use lard not oil then pop in the sausage to brown a little and turn up the oven to 210 fan for a couple of minutes then in goes the Yorkshire pudding mix with chopped herbs in it close the door leave it shut timer on ten minutes when it rings turn down the oven to 180 fan and time another ten minutes meanwhile the onion gravy should be well on its way. Potato and carrot boiled together then mashed adds more flavour and as you are not eating it every week add some butter and cream or milk to the mash, a nice Savoy cabbage lightly cooked makes it a nice rounded meal.
Have you tried signing out and back in to the board, when I was having trouble that is how I did it, be prepared for it to refuse your pass word a couple of times although it is correct then stay signed in.
Got your carrier pigeon mail will reply.
Frank
Jennie: offal does't bother me, so it wasn't the ingredients that I was less keen on - it was the overall taste. Spicy/peppery which was good, but not much else to recommend it, I'm afraid. Perhaps it would have been better after a dram or three of a single malt as recommended by Frank
Not sure about the wild dancing though!
The toad-in-the-hole had onions and bacon lardons sizzling in the dish before the sausage and batter were added, Frank - and you're right that it makes all the difference. Because of the starch of the Yorkshire, I didn't serve potatoes, creamed or otherwise, but extra large helpings of carrots, broccoli and leeks. Very tasty. Who says the British can't cook?
Having been brought up on a small holding and farms, offal was often what we looked forward to, it was fresh tasty and a welcome addition to the meat ration. Cooked properly by cooks who handled offal on a regular basis and who were also adept in using spices and herbs it was good food. modern cooks tend to over cook offal, liver and bacon where the onion goes in first then the bacon and lastly the liver (lamb's though we also used pigs) which goes in the pan a quick sear whip it over and done in a couple of minutes, pour some cream in the pan a minute and you have a nice creamy sauce. At my age posh I just eat less but cook it all fresh no made up supermarket dishes in this house. We killed an animal and ate everything that came out even heart and sweetbreads.
In Tospots yesterday I looked at a very sad looking Shepherd's pie and read the ingredients, I know a bit about chemicals having worked at ICI and it was not good news, making a batch yourself and freezing some down would be cheaper and healthier by far.
Frank.
I'm with you all the way on that one, Frank. Stuffed baked lambs' hearts are delicious, and liver and bacon is a real treat. It's years since I made brawn which had the most superb flavour, like pressed pork. I wonder what happens to all those pigs heads nowadays? Probably scraped clean and used in supermarket "value"pies, I guess.
My freezers (one upright in the kitchen, one chest in an outhouse) work very hard for me, and various dishes are frozen down for future use. Why make one when you can make two, is my motto - which means there are always ready meals, home-made, that can be re-heated when required.
Tonight it's ballotine of pork wrapped in pancetta. Redcurrant and red wine sauce will make it extra yummy.
Tonight cod from Lidl-creamy mash from Tesco potatoes- peas from a tin
I have made toad in the hole with onion, and I often put herbs in the batter, but not with bacon lardons. Will try it next time I make it.
Tonight spag bol and WW fromage frais with fruit. Had enough of apples!
Dear Palaisglide, is Tospots possibly the same shop that I call 'Ispiton'? Have only just dicovered this thread and am thrilled to read that so many of us make proper food, though of course we would after growing it. Jamie Oliver is doing a programme on food waste in a month or so; my local farm shop was visited by the TV company who are doing the programme to ask if his customers would buy misshappen carrots, he thought not; I suggested that he market them as ideal for juicing. He also tells me that the local primary school have to provide salad, and the cook says that ALL of it is binned every day as the children won't eat it. How sad is that?
Sausage casserole (carrots, mushrooms & onions) and roast potatoes. Had a box of those belgain chocolate seashells which we are not really fond of so I melted them in the microwave and stirred in some fruitty, nutty muesli and a few cornflakes and set them in paper cake cases - turned out very nice
.
Artjak, As I refuse to advertise I give my own interpretation of the supermarket names hence S&M reverse it although to me shopping must be similar Dingleberries a large southern lot Clopshop once in every town co-operating number 14956 for the divi how could you forget if you got a thick ear for not getting the little ticket and Tospots a large concern who have suddenly taken a dip.
Tonight I cooked lamb chops from my local butcher sweet tasty tender and no more than a pack of skinny tasteless chops from Tospots. We have a farm shop a quarter of a mile away and though we have all suffered from the weather their own produce still tastes far superior.
Of course with the modern folk being in one heck of a hurry at all times the big concerns will prosper selling rubbish fast food with more chemical content than is good for them.
My daughter told me the kids would not eat meat, I cooked Sunday lunch for them and they ate the lot, my grandson putting his foot in it by saying "why can we not have good food like this at home mum" that did not go down well.
We form the eating habits of the next generation and being brought up during rationing we learnt to make the best of what we had, I am afraid the next generation will be dropping off the planet a lot sooner than we are.
Frank.