Food

[SeanMacGabhann]

Where do you get it?

What do you do with it?

Who do you eat it with?

etc

[mockney piers]

It really takes no time to chuck a bit of garlic, chilli and bacon (or whatever) in a saucepan full of plum tomatoes and simmer for half an hour while vegging in front of channel 4 news. Pasta sauces are bad enough, but the pre-prepared pasta dishes?!?!

I think we should all be forced to hunt/grow our food at least once a year, just to keep us in touch or something.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Oops - I should have started.

My food is history is pretty appalling. At a very young age (about 4) I started to eat nothing but breakfast cereal with very occassional concession to chicken and chips (maybe once a week). Like so many things, ignorance was bliss but once you start to learn.. it's impossible to go back. No more ready-meals or even sauce-in-jars.*

Doesn't mean I'm a health nut. I eat lot's of bad stuff - I will usually fry instead of grill for example.

So I don't buy from supermarkets and I cook everything myself - tends to be on the spicy side for too many people tho

* All of this goes out the window with take-aways. I know , I know.... hypocrite.

[*Bob*]

Meat from the butchers. Fish from the fishmongers. Veg from the greengrocers. It's so easy round here.

We go to Sainsbury every couple of weeks or so to get bulky and heavier stuff, and stuff we can't get on LL.

I do the cooking, Mrs *Bob* does the eating, and little Master *Bob* eats the same as we do (or throws it on the floor).

We've invested in an enormous kitchen table which is really coming into its own.. eight or ten for dinner. 12 at a squeeze! Sitting at a table makes such a big difference.

[mockney piers]

Yep, prone to takeaways for time constraint (usually having been out for a couple of afterwork beers) and am not a health nut (see also kebabs), but cooking is the only way forward.

I'm a big believer in that as long as you have a balanced diet then there's almost nothing that can't be eaten without ill effects.

Blimey is that a quadruple negative, I'm not sure that's right, brain in sleep-mode today.

[SeanMacGabhann]

Agreed on the table *Bob*

Macgabhann Manor is pretty darn small so the large dining table we had when we moved in had to go. I did acquire the small black table with the green marble-effect from EDT a couple of years back which allows the 2 of us to dine in a civilsed fashion. But usually it's laps... shame on us

If I recommend just one thing to everyone (well, meat-eaters anyway) if you have a quiet weekend day, get plenty of bones (they are free) from William Rose and make

a) plenty of stock

b) plenty of demi-glace

b) takes ups most of one whole day and a bit of another but is worth it. You don't have to do much, just keep an eye on it so fire up the xbox or DVD box set, open a bottle of wine and you will be so pleased next time you make any kind of sauce

[TillieTrotter]

Agree with you there Mockney. The old fashioned saying everything in moderation still works today, as do alot of old fashion sayings actually.

[Annasfield]

My housemate and myself make and freshly prepare all our food and we never buy microwave meals. I used to be a chef, which helps with all this. The only thing in jars in our fridge is homemade jam (my grandma makes this and it's bloody lovely), homemade red onion marmalade and a pot of Thai Green curry paste - admittedly the latter is not home prepared.

We often cook a meal, e.g. fish pie or spaghetti bolognaise, and make a load extra and then freeze it. You then have a convenient microwave dinner that is actually good for you.

I like the bones idea - you can then make a lovely jus with the stock.

Riverford deliver a nice box of organic veg every other week and we find that this makes us eat our 5 a day.

[mockney piers]

I challenge anyone to make a homemade chilli quite as spectacular as Dragon's blood

[SeanMacGabhann]

Well to be fair Dragon's Blood is a chili sauce and not a chili as in "bowl-o-chili"

I haven't even tried adding it to my own beef chili yet for fear of recrimination...Maybe with a more robust audience

[TillieTrotter]

Running for that glass of water just at the mention of DB!!

[Doodles]

Yup, try to avoid supermarkets but sometimes fail, go to Sainsbury?s and feel cross with myself.. Much happier foraging in Lordships Lane. Have heard too many stories about what goes into prepared foods to fancy eating one.

Grow veg, mainly ?cos its fun. And really fresh picked sweet corn tastes like nothing else. And agree about sitting at a table. Except for home made popcorn which has to be eaten watching a film or Ugly Betty and spilt down the back of a sofa.

[Fear 'n boozin]

Hey Sean,

How do you make the stock (no idea), and what the hell is demi-glace? - It sounds good.

[Jah Lush]

A family that eats together stays together. Having said that I live on my own. Doh! I love to eat out with friends in the local restaurants or uptown, although that can at times prove to be incredibly expensive but it's usually worth it. Rarely get takeaways these days, always cook for myself, always fresh and never anything from out of a packet. I try to use the local shops as much as I can but confess that I have a weakness for the excellent Waitrose near where I work.

[SeanMacGabhann]

For the stock I sprinkle the bones with some flour and tomatoe puree and roast for about 45 mins

Chuck in to a large (I mean large - 2 litres plus) pot of water with some roughly chopped onions, celery (incl leaves), carrots and sometimes I use leeks. 1 part celery, 1 part carrot, 2 part onion. I part in my case = about a big coffe mug full

Add 2 bay leaves, fresh parsley & thyme, a couple of whole peppercorns

bring to the boil and the reduce to simmer, uncovered for about 12 hours. Yep, that's 12 hours. On a slow slow simmer. Just enough to "bloop" at you once in a while. Get's all the marrow out of the bones

Let it cool down for a while and then strain - that's your stock. Good enough to replace orrible stock cubes

For the demi - well, that takes longer but let's say you take all that stock, some shallots lots of red wine and reduce it till it slides off a spoon. The I freeze that in an ice cube tray (I get about 12 cubes from all of that stock) and pop a cube or two into a chili or bourginon when I'm cooking.... depth of flavour mmmmm

[Fear 'n boozin]

cheers, sounds good (and 12 hours sounds like a great excuse 'I'm not idly playing the PS2, I'm COOKING!).

[TillieTrotter]

Blimey, I am IMPRESSED.

[RosieH]

I LOVE that someone on this site makes demi-glace.

having recently spent over 24 hours making the Heston Blumenthal oxtail stew from the Guardian Weekend mag, I feel I have come home.

I should perhaps clarify that some of that time the stew was in the oven and I was in the bath, but you know...

(incidentally very good oxtail from William Rose - cheap cut, takes ages to cook, but gorgeously yielding and savoury and gelatinous and gooey and the sweetest meat in town)

[SeanMacGabhann]

proper Oxtail soup.... now there's a thought seeing as winter refuses to bugger off

[TillieTrotter]

Ive just left my husband in the kitchen preparing a beef wellington for my folks tonight!!! Ambitious for a non-cook, fingers crossed for him, any tips?

[Jah Lush]

Yeah! Phone up Le Chardon, see if they'll do a takeaway for six.

[Fear 'n boozin]

wine!

[SeanMacGabhann]

let the beef rest....

I presume the beef is being cooked on it's own for a while first, then being wrapped in the pastry et al?

If so let it cool down a lot before moving on to the wrapping etc and then when you put it back in the oven, finish cooking and then let the whole thing rest for another 10 mins before serving

[TillieTrotter]

Cheers Jah, very helpful

Cheers Fear, extremely helpful

Blimey Sean, are you really committed in this relationship of yours?

[SimonM]

We use oxtails from William Rose to make stock too - overnight in the bottom of the Aga >:D