tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36414395306544620162024-03-19T03:52:21.945+00:00snacks & the single manA light-hearted take on what it means, in this day and age, to be a single man who knows the value of home-cooked meals, rather than living on beer and takeaways.Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.comBlogger180125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-43874459147417294552021-12-26T16:15:00.005+00:002021-12-26T16:18:39.513+00:00Christmas Dinner Burritos<p>One thing my girlfriend and I have tried to do each year is make Christmas Dinner a little different. I've yet to complete a post about Christmas 2016's festive Salmon En Croute with Mixed Veg, which we prepared for my folks when we stayed with them for a couple of nights over the festive season, and last year's turkey burgers were a bit of a <i>disaster </i>because I'd foolishly assumed that a burger should be 100% meat, regardless of the type of meat.</p><p>This year, we didn't need much discussion to decide on our alternative Christmas meal style. I'd been considering burritos for some time before Courtney even brought up the subject of making Christmas dinner plans, so that was my first suggestion... <i>and she agreed straight away</i>. I then started researching options for Christmas-appropriate rice as part of the filling, while Courtney looked into seasonal 'slaw recipes. She opted to use <i>What The Cluck?</i> from <a href="https://www.thevegetarianbutcher.co.uk/" target="_blank">The Vegetarian Butcher</a>, while I picked up a couple of packs of Bernard Matthews turkey chunks. In place of a salsa, we both agreed that a dollop of cranberry sauce would be reasonably appropriate, and so the plans were in place.</p><p>For the rice, I came up with a shortlist of three existing recipes from around the internet:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Arroz-con-Gandules-Rice-and-Pigeon-Peas/" target="_blank">Puerto Rican Rice with Pigeon Peas, from Saveur.com</a></li><li><a href="https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/festive-rice/" target="_blank">Festive Rice, from Taste of Home.com</a></li><li><a href="https://www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/christmas-pilaff/" target="_blank">Christmas Pilaff, from DeliciousMagazine.co.uk</a></li></ul><p></p><p>After due consideration, the Festive Rice option was selected, but was prepared <i>in a pan, on the hob</i>, rather than by baking, the 1/4 cup of butter and the mint were both <i>entirely omitted</i>, while the Feta was added to the <i>burrito </i>rather than <i>incorporated </i>into the rice mix. Courtney's 'slaw was a mix of red cabbage and red onion (<i>both sliced quite thinly</i>) with pomegranate seeds, as well as lime and orange juice, seasoned with a little salt and pepper. She'd <i>intended </i>to also add some chopped Brussels sprouts - <i>which she'd bought especially</i> - but it slipped her mind at the time.</p><p>Now, since we all know that turkey tends to be a bit on the <i>bland </i>side, and mixing up some gravy <i>for the purposes of a burrito</i> seemed rather pointless and wasteful, I figured I'd heat it up in a pan after coating it with Peri-Peri Salt. This involved just dumping a bit of sunflower oil into a small frying pan and then chucking the coated turkey chunks in once it was heated up and stirring them about till they started to brown in places. I somewhat <i>underestimated </i>how much oil I'd need, which led to small pieces of turkey <i>adhering </i>to the pan, but it worked well enough aside from that.</p><p>Assembling the burrito was a simple case of serving out a portion of rice onto a tortilla (<i>warmed for 10 seconds in the microwave to ensure they were flexible enough for filling and rolling</i>), crumbling over some Feta, scooping over some cranberry sauce, then adding some of the slaw. Courtney <i>further </i>embellished her burrito with some jalapeños and coriander, <i>but neither are particularly agreeable to me, so I just had to make do with the basic ingredients</i>. As a finishing touch, the burritos were <i>returned </i>to the pan for a bit of browning, and to help <i>seal </i>the seam.</p><p>The end result turned out really well - we're <i>both </i>fans of burritos, but have previously tended to rely on supermarket-bought <i>sets </i>for making them, and we tend to <i>omit </i>staples like the rice, focusing instead on the seasoned meat (<i>or meat substitute</i>), packed-in salsa, some sour cream and, <i>at most</i>, a home-made guacamole. Having a <i>somewhat seasonal </i>rice recipe, <i>further </i>spiced up by the Peri-Peri Salt, then sweetened by the fresh pomegranate, it was a comparatively light and sweet burrito, but filling nevertheless. This was also probably the first time we - <i>or I, at least</i> - have tried to <i>properly </i>roll our burritos rather than turn them into <i>makeshift tubular pockets</i>. I had to look up a couple of YouTube videos for the technique, and <i>still </i>got a bit confused, to be honest.</p><p>All in all, this is one of the most successful 'alternative Christmas' ideas we've had so far, <i>yet it's still ripe for exploration into alternatives</i>. I'm particularly keen to try the Puerto Rican Rice option - I felt that was probably the best fit for a burrito, albeit at the risk of overpowering everything else, <i>but that was a risk I was willing to take with Bernard Matthews turkey chunks</i> - and, having thought about it a little more, I'm wondering if mixing up <i>a little</i> gravy for the turkey wouldn't be such a bad idea after all.</p><p>We have sufficient leftovers of the rice <i>and </i>slaw for a decent dinner tonight, as well... I'm considering some Boxing Day 'sushi' using some sliced salmon I picked up a few days back, along with some Christmas spiced streaky bacon acquired in Iceland... Hopefully will be adding a few photos of that in the next few days.</p><p>I'll leave you with a <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/bingingwithbabish" target="_blank">Binging With Babish</a></i>-inspired cross-section, <i>with apologies for the quality of the photo, as it was taken quite hurriedly, on my phone</i>:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjBY79CA-Np390cJSSrK1pw6ioeZ5C7xss_8NVeGHhiFo9PJauKM3D2QYRL15h9R_4bSRJ247KBQvKQiAM7sEJGA2ic2-YWtStfgPJNW601Bth7-1kAlRj7A3TWTOKNhpwwEUF1XqK8_DXcNTpj-S0WaTzUqU4DM9Nt6C8u9rssTk1yQblRwaTF5TqYdA=s4096" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2304" data-original-width="4096" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjBY79CA-Np390cJSSrK1pw6ioeZ5C7xss_8NVeGHhiFo9PJauKM3D2QYRL15h9R_4bSRJ247KBQvKQiAM7sEJGA2ic2-YWtStfgPJNW601Bth7-1kAlRj7A3TWTOKNhpwwEUF1XqK8_DXcNTpj-S0WaTzUqU4DM9Nt6C8u9rssTk1yQblRwaTF5TqYdA=w400-h225" width="400" /></a></div>Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-67694851875053467462021-09-27T15:04:00.000+01:002021-09-27T15:04:08.048+01:00Iceland/Ed's Easy Diner Selection<div style="text-align: left;">
I've been a bit of a fan of Ed's Easy Diner since a friend <i>dragged </i>me
into one some years ago. I'd seen them around -
<i>frequently wandering past a London branch while on the way somewhere</i> -
but, having eaten in a few diners of that style while on holiday in the
States, I had been understandably <i>reluctant</i> to sample a British attempt
at replicating the classic American Diner experience. Seemingly Ed's Easy
Diner has had some financial difficulties in recent years, and it appears all
the London branches have now <i>closed</i>... So perhaps it's
<i>fortuitous </i>that Iceland have partnered up with them to create a line of
microwaveable foodstuffs from their diner menu.
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />I picked up an <i>initial </i>selection of these
<i>almost two weeks ago</i>, and had <i>planned </i>to write about each one
individually, but ended up losing momentum and deciding to make a single,
<i>collective </i>post instead. Unfortunately, in the meantime, popular
YouTuber and microwave <i>gourmet</i>, Stuart Ashen has already covered some
of them.
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />Still, this is <b><i>snacks </i>& the single man</b>, so I'm
pretty much <i>obliged </i>to mention them, if only to break the excessively
long <i>hiatus </i>I've had from this blog.
</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">'Breakfast' Options</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<b>3 Pancakes with Bacon & Maple Syrup<br /></b>I'd always been a bit <i>dubious </i>about the sweet-savoury combination that is pancakes with bacon topped with maple syrup but when I tried it for the first time while while on holiday, as a hotel breakfast, I loved it. Pancakes, bacon and maple syrup <i>shouldn't </i>work, but it does... and the same - <i>more or less</i> - can be said about this frozen option. It works as pretty much a simple 2-stage process in terms of 'cooking' (<i>technically reheating</i>), with the pancakes going in separately, side-by-side, <i>then </i>the bacon going on the side with the pancakes <i>stacked</i>. Once everything's cooked, the bacon gets put on top and the maple syrup poured over the top.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I don't think I've ever had <i>microwaved </i>pancakes before (<i>then again, I wouldn't necessarily know, in some diners</i>) but these were surprisingly good, if perhaps a touch soggy due to condensate. The bacon is a little <i>undercooked </i>by my standards, and not <i>especially </i>flavourful, but I wouldn't tend to expect much from microwaved bacon. The maple syrup is actually <i>genuine </i>maple syrup rather than maple syrup-<i>flavoured </i>goo, and a decent amount is provided. Perhaps not enough for everyone, but certainly sufficient for me. I think my only <i>real </i>complaint would be that there's really not <i>enough </i>bacon... but, as a snack breakfast/brunch/lunch option <i>plucked from the freezer and prepared in so short a time in the microwave</i>, it's better than I'd expected.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A pretty good start to my experience of this new selection, overall, though my <i>second </i>experience of this was somewhat <i>less </i>positive due to the <i>very much not-crispy </i>bacon being, in fact, rather <i>rubbery</i>.</div>
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<b>Breakfast Muffin with Hash Brown & Sausage Pattie</b>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">This was in my second sampling of the Ed's Easy Diner range, and I had my suspicions that it ran the risk of being pretty <i>plain </i>even as I picked it out of the freezer cabinet. It's literally <i>just </i>a single hash brown, a sausagemeat pattie and a muffin. Frankly, I was surprised that <i>no sauce of any kind</i> was included and <i>somewhat concerned </i>by the absence of any form of egg. Hell, even <a href="https://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2011/07/iceland-ultimate-snacks-sausage-egg.html" target="_blank">Iceland's own brand</a> had a mini-omelette. A hash brown is nice, <i>but it ain't a proper breakfast muffin without some egg</i>. Cooking is another multi-stage affair, with each part getting some time in the microwave prior to final assembly.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The end result doesn't taste <i>bad </i>- the sausagemeat pattie is a touch <i>plain</i>, and the hash brown lacks <i>any </i>seasoning, but both came out moist after being blasted in the microwave. Even the muffin survived quite well, without becoming <i>overly </i>soggy at the bottom. However, the absence of any condiment, some egg, <i>or even a slice of burger cheese</i>, renders this a very <i>dull </i>snack. Pretty sure that, if this is on the menu at Ed's Easy Diners, there'd be a bit more to it than <i>this</i>. </div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Burgers & Hot Dogs</span>
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<div><b>Mac'n'Cheese Burger With Bacon</b></div>
<div>Here's where the selection started to go a little downhill, for <i>several </i>reasons. I have to admit that I wasn't sold on the idea of a burger with added bacon <i>and mac'n'cheese</i> that had to be prepared in a <i>microwave</i>, but this thing let me down before I even started cooking it. It's supplied with the bun frozen together, the <i>tiny </i>portion of bacon frozen to the <i>underside </i>of the bun, the burger stuck to the bacon <i>and the most miserly portion of mac'n'cheese you'll ever see</i>, taking up less than <i>half </i>the capacity of the plastic bag it's supplied in.</div><div><br /></div><div>Trying to <i>separate </i>the bun led to the top half breaking. <i>Microwaving </i>led the bun to become dry and crumbly. The mac'n'cheese just gets <i>dumped </i>in a bowl of hot water to thaw, then heated <i>briefly </i>in the microwave, while the burger and the bacon worked about as well as could be expected in a microwave. Assembling the finished burger probably would have been easier if the bun hadn't broken.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, since the burger is <i>part beef, part chicken</i>, it looks anaemic and has very little flavour - some additional seasoning <i>may </i>have worked wonders, <i>but an increased beef content would have been preferable</i>. The mac'n'cheese isn't so <i>vile </i>an addition to a burger as I'd expected, but it's both unseasoned <i>and </i>not particularly cheesy. The <i>main </i>disappointment was that there was barely enough bacon to add any <i>flavour </i>to the finished burger.</div><div><br /></div><div>There are instructions included for part-cooking this (<i>basically just the bun</i>) with a toaster rather than the microwave but, <i>personally</i>, I'd say the <i>better </i>option would be to set the bun aside ahead of time to thaw on its own. Toasting it at <i>that </i>point might prove more effective, but use of a microwave is absolutely <i>not </i>recommended for the bun.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Chilli Dog</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">This is <i>another </i>one I didn't have high hopes for, <i>not least because my relationship with hot dogs generally hasn't been great</i>. I like the <i>idea </i>of hot dogs - particularly the smokiness of a <i>really good</i> one - but some of the ones I've had, <i>even in bricks-and-mortar diners, let alone from supermarkets</i>, have been pretty awful. Add to that, my experience of any chilli other than <i>freshly-made </i>has been diabolical, and so-called 'nacho cheese sauce' is frequently <i>vile</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So imagine my surprise when this turned out to be <i>pretty delicious</i>... Although, thinking back, I can't say that any <i>individual </i>component was outstanding. The sauce is fairly inoffensive, <i>pretty bland, even</i>. The chilli is a little <i>thin</i>, but the flavour is OK and, coupled with a <i>halfway decent</i> hot dog, it works quite well. The main downside - <i>and this is kind of a running theme with the line </i>- is that the bun doesn't do well in the microwave. The <i>outside </i>becomes dry and flaky, and the cut for adding the hot dog isn't really deep enough so I ended up cutting it a little deeper before loading it up.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This one had also cooled down quite a bit before I took my first bite - <i>I wasn't very organised, and didn't bring a camera into the kitchen until after I'd assembled the hot dog</i>. These kinds of things really <i>have </i>to be eaten piping hot, lest the unnatural textures and weak flavour become too apparent.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Classic Hot Dog</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">My <i>subjectively positive </i>experience with the Chilli Dog encouraged me to give <i>this </i>version a whirl, since it's a more traditional, simple hot dog. Coming just with a sachet each of mustard and ketchup and a sachet of crispy onion pieces, its <i>preparation </i>is far simpler - thaw the sauces, irradiate the bun, <i>then</i> the hot dog, put the two together, add the sauces, and then sprinkle over the onion...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">...Unfortunately - <i>and surprisingly, given that the hot dog itself is surely identical to that included in the Chilli Dog box</i> - this one really <i>didn't</i> work for me. The bun dried out so much that it just <i>broke in half </i>when I tried to put the hot dog into it, the sauces were <i>beyond </i>bland, the onion was virtually flavourless <i>and not remotely crispy</i>, while the hot dog had the consistency (<i>and something approaching the flavour</i>) of rubber. I <i>was </i>able to finish it, but it's left me <i>less </i>enthusiastic about picking up the Chilli Dog again, in case I just got <i>lucky </i>with the first.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;">Pizza</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><b>Pepperoni Stonebaked Pizza</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">While I'm a <i>conscientious objector</i> when it comes to microwaving pizza (<i>with the exception of leftovers from the night before - they're fair game</i>), I'm quite a fan of frozen pizza <i>generally</i>, even though the excessive oiliness of some - <i>Iceland's own brand in particular</i> - can sometimes upset my stomach. My first impression of this, <i>just going by the box</i>, was that it was small to the point of being <i>wholly inadequate </i>as anything other than a snack, or as just one <i>part </i>of a larger meal. Opening up the box revealed - <i>to no-one's surprise </i>- that the pizza itself is appreciably smaller than the box, not least in terms of <i>height </i>when laying flat... You could probably fit <i>three </i>of them in the box, <i>two at least</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Nevertheless, after a brief burst of microwave radiation, I'd have the describe the pizza as <i>reasonably competent</i>. Naturally, it's more <i>base </i>than topping, and there's <i>a paltry fraction</i> of the cheese depicted in the product shot on the box. Naturally, the act of microwaving it leaves the underside a little <i>sweaty</i>, but the same can be said of <i>any and all</i> microwave pizzas.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Taste-wise, it's certainly <i>not bad</i>, though I found the pepperoni a little <i>anaemic</i>, lacking the punch even of some of Iceland's <i>own brand</i> products, and certainly not as good as the Chicago Town 2-pack mini-pizzas or pizza subs which, <i>I would say</i>, are one of this product's closest analogues. As expected, though, I was still rather hungry <i>after </i>polishing this off.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Desserts</span>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><b>2 Waffles with Chocolate Sauce</b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">I had a great sense of <i>foreboding </i>about this since, when microwaving things from frozen, there's a certain <i>inevitability </i>of one of two outcomes: it'll be too dry (<i>like the burger and hot dog buns above</i>) or it'll be desperately soggy... <i>and neither is conducive to the enjoyment of waffles</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Granted, as with the burger buns - <i>and even the pancakes</i> - there's the option to heat them in the toaster and, <i>upon reflection</i>, that would seem to be the better - <i>perhaps only</i> - method for this dessert. Because, following the microwave instructions <i>to the letter</i> here, the end result was droopy, soggy waffles. Sure, they <i>tasted </i>OK, but part of the waffle <i>experience </i>is the delightful, subtle <i>crunch </i>surrounding the still-moist innards, and the way they soften as the sauce or ice cream start to soak in. There's something truly <i>sad </i>about a waffle that sags, since their lattice structure is intended to keep them rigid <i>while minimising the amount of mixture needed to make them</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The only other let-down was the chocolate sauce, which was very, <i>very </i>sweet and not particularly chocolaty. This is fairly <i>common </i>with things called 'chocolate sauce', <i>which can sometimes be so sugary they burn the back of my throat</i>. This was was just a bit <i>gunky</i>, so I'll probably give the version with salted caramel sauce a go at some point... <i>Making sure I cook the waffles in the toaster</i>.</div>
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<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">The Ed's Easy Diner range presents very much a <i>hit-and-miss </i>selection, not just in its <i>individual </i>products, but in <i>repeat </i>experiences <i>of </i>those products. Having now had a second set of the pancakes'n'bacon, <i>I've been put off trying them again because the fat on the bacon was like chewing gum</i>. I wouldn't touch <i>most</i> pre-packaged burgers with a bargepole simply because my experiences of <i>supermarket</i> meat-based burgers have been largely regrettable. I <i>may </i>try the Chilli Dog again but, having disliked the 'Classic' version so <i>thoroughly</i>, I'm not convinced it would be worth the risk, <i>even at the typically low Iceland price</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The bottom line, I guess, is that none of these would be especially difficult or time-consuming to make from scratch, seasoning to taste, and adding such condiments as are desired. <i>Hell, I've already done it myself</i>. The Breakfast Muffin was <i>particularly </i>dull and, given that sauces were included in <i>pretty much every other product</i>, it's baffling that there wasn't even a sachet of ketchup included.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Your mileage may vary. Your <i>experience </i>and <i>expectations </i>of burgers, sausagemeat patties and hot dogs may be very different from mine. However, I can be <i>reasonably </i>certain that either thawing the buns naturally, rather than relying on a microwave, <i>or </i>using the toaster where possible, would yield better results.</div>
Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-71783577833453184702020-12-28T17:34:00.004+00:002020-12-28T17:40:38.986+00:00Christmas Dinner... Burger-style!<p>
I have to confess that, despite largely <i>eschewing </i>this blog this year, <i>in
favour of quick-and-easy, hashtag-enhanced Instagram posts</i>, I'd thought my
<a href="https://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2014/12/christmas-dinner-pizza-style.html" target="_blank">Christmas Dinner pizza</a>
was a more <i>recent </i>event than it actually was... Perhaps my recollection had
become 'slightly' <i>skewed </i>by the emergence this year of Pizza Hut's take on my
idea (<i>which is heartily recommended, BTW - the Red Wine Gravy base alone is
delicious, though the use of rotisserie chicken rather than turkey makes it a little less
authetic</i>), but it was way back in 2014... and I didn't even get round to <i>writing up</i> my 2016 magnum opus, the salmon en croûte with cream cheese, cranberry sauce and orange zest that Courtney and I made for my parents as Christmas Dinner <i>that </i>year.
</p>
<p>
Nevertheless, it had occurred to me a month or so back that it'd be nice to
follow that up with <i>another</i> form of <i>junk-food-ised</i> Christmas Dinner, and the
most <i>obvious </i>option seemed to be burgers... While Courtney and I have eaten
fewer burgers <i>at home</i> this year than previously, I did end up visiting the
McDonald's round the corner from my last Temping placement, in Islington, a little <i>too
</i>frequently while I was there.
</p>
<p>
She was very much <i>on board</i> with the suggestion, so I went ahead and started
looking into how best to <i>make </i>turkey burgers from scratch. In the end, <i>largely through lack of care and attention</i>, I made the most
basic option in the world - <i>just </i>turkey mince (<i>500g of 2% fat turkey mince
from Tesco</i>), seasoned only with salt and pepper, and formed into two patties. These were pan-fried, <i>one at a time</i>, in a little vegetable oil, with the use of a meat thermometer to ensure they were properly cooked <i>all the way through</i>, since I couldn't easily eyeball it.<br /></p>
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<p>
Turkey is only <i>part </i>of a good Christmas Dinner, though. I <i>also </i>wanted to add a patty of <i>stuffing
</i>and a Christmassy hash brown <i>at the very least</i>, while thoughts of cranberry
sauce and <i>lightly toasted</i> slices of Brussels sprouts seemed to round off the
concept nicely. Courtney mixed up a red cabbage coleslaw, because we had some red
cabbage, and it went well with her planned <i>vegetarian </i>option.
</p>
<p>
For the stuffing patties, I had the option of going for something simple, <i>like
sage and onion</i>, but ended up choosing a pork, chestnut and onion
stuffing from the Tesco Finest range - <i>a 400g pack divided up into four patties</i>. The hash browns were home
made, using a mixture of parsnips, rainbow carrots, onion and potato with egg
and potato flour added to aid binding. These were pan-fried and <i>still </i>didn't
hold together especially well, but the rainbow carrots added
some <i>seasonal colour</i> to what could otherwise have been quite <i>anaemic </i>hash
browns (<i>hash beiges?</i>). The sprout slices were simply <i>chucked in the oven, unadorned</i>, alongside my stuffing patties and Courtney's vegetarian sundries, while the hash browns and burgers were being cooked on the hob.<br />
</p>
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<p>
Of course, it wouldn't be <i>Christmas </i>without pigs in blankets and, rather than
buy them <i>oven-ready</i>, I decided to piece together my own using a combination of
Pork and Caramelised Onion cocktail sausages and Chestnut Smoked Streaky
Bacon, <i>both </i>from the Tesco Finest range. Weirdly, the packs were of different
sizes - <i>18 cocktail sausages versus 16 slices of bacon</i> - so I ended up with a
couple of unwrapped sausages. However, about 30-35 minutes in the oven created
a tray full of pigs in blankets, <i>with enough leftovers to cover my lunches for the following couple of days</i>.<br />
</p>
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<p><i>Bun-wise</i>, I'd originally ordered a pack of Warburtons' <i>Brioche </i>Burger Buns but, with the only delivery slot available to us being the 18th December, these would have been out of date and probably growing stale before Christmas Day, so we ended up using them for <i>other </i>things and buying a pack of <i>standard</i> sliced buns locally, a couple of days ahead of time.</p><p>The buns were assembled with a helping of Courtney's red cabbage 'slaw on the bottom, the stuffing patty, the turkey burger, some cranberry sauce, and the toasted sprout slices substituting for that <i>old burger staple</i>, the pickled gherkin slices. I only got <i>one </i>of the hash browns, because Courtney miscounted, and they hadn't held together very well anyway, so much of the mixture ended up in a <i>pile</i> on her plate. I served my pigs in blankets on the side, and nicked <i>one </i>of her Brie Bites (<i>Tesco's own brand</i>) for a bit of variety, since my plate was largely made up of <i>meat</i>.</p>
<p>The results were a little <i>mixed</i>... and, <i>unfortunately</i>, my hastily taken, blurry, poorly-lit photos don't help...<br /></p>
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<p>The pigs in blankets were <i>excellent </i>and, for once, <i>I was able to taste the difference between fancily-smoked bacon and the normal kind</i>, these rashers having a pleasantly <i>sweet, spicy</i> edge to them rather than just being <i>super-salty</i>.</p><p>The stuffing patties tasted <i>great</i>, but I misjudged their <i>size </i>before baking them: <i>their circumference shrank, while their height increased</i> - I'll know to take that into account if I try this again in future, and make them <i>shallower </i>and <i>wider </i>before putting them in the oven... though the chunks of chestnut might make that a bit tricky. Courtney's red cabbage 'slaw was nice <i>on its own</i>, but ended up becoming rather <i>overwhelmed </i>by the rest of the burger, <i>including the bun itself</i>. The hash browns turned out really well <i>other than their tendency to fall apart</i> - we'll really need to research how to make them stay together... Personally, I suspect a <i>mold </i>may be used for the shop-bought kind or, <i>at least</i>, some sort of press to <i>compact </i>them together rather more before they're cooked.</p><p><i>Less impressive</i> were the turkey burgers, since they ended up very <i>dense </i>and very <i>dry</i>. I'd definitely like to try making them again, <i>but actually following one of the myriad recipes out there, in the hope of a more succulent result</i>. At the very least, there should have been <i>some </i>additional seasoning - I had been reluctant <i>before </i>starting, since the <i>other </i>contents of my burger were, <i>theoretically</i>, going to be seasoning <i>of a sort</i>. Some of the recipes available online also feature things like egg white and breadcrumb, and these may have helped considerably. <i>Part </i>of the problem, though, was that I split a 500g pack of minced turkey into <i>two </i>250g patties, <i>which ended up being far too large in and of themselves</i>. Considering a Quarter Pounder burger would only be a little over 100g, I <i>really </i>overdid it. Another part of the problem is that minced beef - <i>the main constituent of a normal burger</i> - would tend to comprise <i>more </i>than 2% fat... and the <i>leanness </i>of this minced turkey contributed to the <i>dryness </i>of the end result. Topping the burgers with cranberry sauce added <i>surprisingly little</i> to the flavour but, <i>again</i>, a smaller burger may have made all the difference.</p><p>Possibly the <i>most </i>disappointing part was the toasted sprout, which ended up getting <i>utterly lost</i> in the burgers. <i>In retrospect</i>, I suspect they should have been <i>seasoned and oiled</i>... So I'll know better for next time.</p><p>We're <i>already </i>considering options for <i>next </i>year's non-traditional spin on the traditional Christmas Dinner, and a curry is the front runner. We just need to look into how things like nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger into a curry sauce that can accommodate both turkey <i>and </i>whatever vegetarian substitute Courtney ends up using...<br /></p>
Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-64331604563944443242020-06-08T15:58:00.001+01:002020-06-08T16:01:19.024+01:00Beaver Tails with Maple Buttercream IcingSometime after my girlfriend moved in with me, we started introducing each other to things like our favourite movies, books, TV shows and YouTube channels. In the <i>latter </i>category, one of Courtney's favourites is <a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/simplynailogical" target="_blank">Simply Nailogical</a> - <i>ostensibly </i>a nail art channel which has more recently branched out into a nail varnish brand (<a href="https://www.holotaco.com/" target="_blank">Holo Taco</a>) and a <i>stream-of-consciousness/discussion</i> podcast (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5FF_Ubkm8yohCIGQkq7bCg" target="_blank">SimplyPodLogical</a>). This may seem like a strange subject to bring up on what is <i>technically still a food blog (even though it's been without updates in over a year because I started using Instagram for the majority of my foodie output)</i>, but there's a connecton, <i>honest</i>.<br />
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Basically, one of the <i>recent </i>episodes of SimplyPodLogical was devoted to discussing some common Canadian stereotypes and, <i>during the course of the conversation</i>, Cristine and Ben mentioned a chain of pastry shops called 'BeaverTails'. <i>They </i>are purveyors of what is essentially <i>a flatbread version of the classic fried doughnut</i>, with a variety of toppings on offer, from classic cinnamon sugar to various types of icing, chocolate spreads, crushed biscuits, fruit, etc.<br />
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<i>Naturally, I was hooked</i>.<br />
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Since they don't have any UK branches (<i>and, y'know, there's the Lockdown to consider anyway</i>) I looked into recipes for making Beaver Tails <i>myself</i>, and realised it was something I could probably manage quite comfortably, <i>despite the fact that I've done very little cooking from scratch in ages</i>, and what little I <i>have </i>done used recipes from Gousto, where all the ingredients came supplied in the proper, <i>premeasured</i> quantities, and the instructions were given in clear, simple stages. I've not bothered writing those up <i>here </i>because it seemed a little rude (<i>not to mention legally shaky</i>) to recreate <i>their </i>recipes, and because it worked better to simply photograph and Instagram the results.<br />
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But Beaver Tails... They're <i>precisely </i>in line with the raison d'être for this blog, so I couldn't resist going the longform option... Not least because I can demonstrate how adaptable these fried delicacies can be.<br />
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<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
<br />
<b>Maple Buttercream</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Room Temperature Butter, salted <i>or </i>unsalted - I used salted (225g) </li>
<li>Icing Sugar (120g)</li>
<li>Maple Syrup (120ml)</li>
<li>Vanilla Extract (2 teaspoons) </li>
<li>Salt (a pinch, <u>only if using unsalted butter</u>)</li>
</ul>
<b>Preparation Time:</b> 5-10 minutes<br />
<br />
<b>Beaver Tails</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Hot Tapwater (60ml)</li>
<li>Sugar (50g)</li>
<li>Yeast (7g)</li>
<li>Milk (60ml)</li>
<li>Butter (3 Tablespoons)</li>
<li>Egg (1)</li>
<li>Salt (1 Teaspoon)</li>
<li>Plain Flour (335g)</li>
<li>Oil for Frying</li>
<li>Topping (cinnamon sugar being the <i>usual </i>recommendation)</li>
</ul>
<b>Preparation Time:</b> Approx 2 hours, including resting<br />
<br />
<b>Tools Required:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Large Mixing Bowl (for the dough)</li>
<li>Medium Mixing Bowl (for the icing)</li>
<li>Small, Microwave-safe Bowl</li>
<li>Stirring Implements, eg. spoon, spatula, whisk (some form of electric mixer is recommended for some parts!)</li>
<li>Sharp Knife</li>
<li>Rolling Pin</li>
<li>Frying Pan or Saucepan (of sufficient size to accommodate at least one portion of the dough)</li>
<li>Tongs (because you don't want to burn your fingers with hot oil!)</li>
</ul>
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<b>The Process:</b><br />
Let's start by making the <i>buttercream</i>, because doing that <i>after </i>making the Beaver Tails could be problematic. Cube the butter and dump it into the <i>medium-sized</i> bowl, then add the icing sugar and start to stir. While I'd <i>heartily </i>recommend some sort of electric mixer (<i>either a stand mixer or an electric whisk</i>), it's best to <i>start </i>this process off manually, <i>either with a spoon or spatula</i>, because the icing sugar will be inclined to <i>puff out all over the place</i> under the influence of an electric mixer. Once the icing sugar is at least <i>partially </i>bound into the butter, it'll be safe to switch over to electric. Add in the Maple Syrup, the Vanilla and, <i>if using unsalted butter</i>, a pinch of salt. <i>Personally</i>, I found it perfectly acceptable to cut out the middle-man and simply use salted butter - the combination of icing sugar, Maple Syrup and Vanilla is <i>easily </i>sweet enough to take the edge off the saltiness of the butter, <i>and vice versa</i>. Keep mixing till everything is as smooth as possible, then set aside.<br />
<br />
Note that this mixture will be inclined to <i>separate </i>over time,<i> and may not even bind into a particularly smooth consistency in the first place</i>. This is a common issue with adding <i>liquids </i>to buttercream, but we're aiming for an <i>authetic </i>Maple Syrup flavour, <i>and genuine Maple Syrup is very much a liquid</i>. As long as you're not seeing <i>clumps of butter</i>, it's probably good to go, and will just need a little <i>extra </i>stirring before it's applied to the Beaver Tails.<br />
<br />
Making the dough for the Beaver Tails themselves is rather more <i>complicated </i>a process than I've encountered for bread and cakes, largely because I've normally only dealt with <i>ready-made</i> mixtures. I think the only other time I've used yeast <i>anywhere </i>on this blog was in my failed attempt at crafting <a href="https://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2012/02/home-brewed-cream-soda.html" target="_blank">home-made Cream Soda</a>, but we seemed to have some more recently-purchased yeast in our cupboards.<br />
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Start by pouring the hot tapwater into the <i>larger </i>mixing bowl with a teaspoon of sugar (<i>this can be taken from the measured 50g - that still leaves plenty for the remainder of the recipe</i>), add the yeast, stir and set aside for a few minutes so it can proof. What you'll end up with is <i>an off-putting, yeasty-smelling, frothy beige mess</i>. Believe it or not, this is a <i>good </i>thing.<br />
<br />
Add the butter, milk, and the remaining sugar to a <i>small </i>bowl and microwave (<i>carefully!</i>) to melt it all together. Stir it up and allow it to cool for a few minutes before adding to the yeast mixture in the large bowl - it needs to be hotter than room temperature, but if it's <i>too </i>hot it could ruin the yeast. Stir the two mixtures together, then crack in the egg, add the salt and whisk together. Start <i>slowly </i>adding in the flour, <i>a little at a time</i>, and keep stirring until a dough is formed. Knead this for a few minutes, adding flour as necessary. The end result should still be quite sticky, but very definitely a <i>dough</i> rather than a <i>paste</i>.<br />
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Cover the bowl - <i>if it has a lid, so much the better, otherwise cling film will do the job</i> - and leave it aside somewhere warm to allow the dough to rise. About an hour should be sufficient, but I had to make way for Courtney to take an online cookery class at this point, and only returned to <i>my </i>dough quite late in the afternoon, by which time it was <i>very </i>puffy and smelt strongly of yeast. Beat the dough back down to its <i>original </i>size, then divide into eighths - <i>I rolled mine into a fat cylinder, as that seemed the easiest way to cut it into portions semi-accurately</i>. Roll these out flat, to something in the region of half a centimetre in depth, then set aside for frying. <i>Just for fun</i>, I cut a grid pattern on one side of mine... Not sure <i>why</i>, but the idea had occurred to me, and I was curious to see how they'd end up after frying.<br />
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Fill your chosen frying pan or saucepan with cooking oil, <i>just enough that the dough sections will be able to float</i>, then put on what's described as <i>"a medium heat"</i>. I gather from the recipes I found online that you'd be <i>aiming </i>for about 180°C/350°F, but it's a tricky thing to judge because hobs aren't <i>marked </i>that way, and they often have different sized burners available, each offering a different range of temperatures. For me, "a medium heat" <i>usually </i>seems to be the lowest setting on the mid-sized burner,<i> but that isn't entirely consistent so your mileage may vary</i>. I ended up tearing off a small chunk of the dough and using <i>that </i>to judge whether the oil was hot enough.<br />
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Place the dough pieces into the oil <i>carefully </i>to avoid spitting or splashing. Depending on the size of your chosen vessel, you may have to do them one at a time, <i>or </i>you may fit two or three. Fry each side till golden brown - depending on the <i>vaguaries </i>of the hob and the actual temperature of the oil, this may be anything between 30 seconds to a couple of minutes... <i>though I suspect I may have overdone a couple of mine</i>. Once done, pick them out of the oil (<i>allowing the excess to drain off</i>) and add the topping of your choice while they're still warm.<br />
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<b>The Results:</b><br />
<i>To be honest, this went better than I'd expected, albeit perhaps not perfectly</i>. For starters, I didn't get all my ingredients ready and set out <i>before </i>waking up the yeast, so that was left going rather longer than recommended in any recipes (<i>maybe about 15-20 minutes, while I got everything else together?</i>). I'm not sure if there's an <i>ideal point</i> in the proofing process, <i>after </i>which something can go wrong... but certainly <i>nothing exploded</i>. I actually started the yeast off in a tiny bowl of its own rather than in the large mixing bowl and, by the time I started bringing everything together for the dough, it looked as though it would have <i>overflowed </i>if I'd left it there much longer.<br />
<br />
Still, the dough came together very well, <i>but it did leave me coveting those mixers with dough hook options</i>, because mixing what ends up as <i>quite a tough, sticky dough</i> was <i>not </i>fun with a standard spoon. I also had trouble with the dough's <i>stickiness</i>... Sure, it's <i>described </i>as "sticky" in recipes, <i>but how sticky is that</i>? Once I'd mixed in all the flour and started kneading, quite a bit of the dough stuck to my hands. I suspect I <i>should </i>have added a little <i>more </i>flour at that point, but didn't want to overdo it. This is probably something I'd know better if I made bread regularly (<i>and from scratch</i>). Nevertheless, it rose <i>very </i>well in its covered-over bowl... and ended up being left for <i>several hours</i> rather than the recommended <i>"one hour or so"</i>. Whether or not this worked in my favour, I'm <i>still</i> not sure. Beating it down and dividing it up was easy enough, so I figure I can't have gone <i>too </i>far wrong. My only concern was that there was a <i>very strong</i> yeasty smell to what was <i>supposed </i>to be quite a sweet dough - <i>or so I thought</i>.<br />
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Frying went well, but I'm still pretty <i>vague </i>on hob temperature settings, <i>particularly with large quantities of oil</i>. Plus, the dough had a habit of developing pockets of air <i>underneath</i>, so some of the individual doughnut-things ended up with <i>patches </i>on the underside that looked undercooked. Still, they puffed up nicely, and I was pleased to find that my grid patterns looked pretty good after frying. I tried one 'bare' after letting it cool a little, and have to admit that the yeasty smell <i>persisted </i>after I tore it open. It was light and fluffy, though, so a coating of cinnamon sugar would probably have overpowered whatever yeastiness was left.<br />
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I was aiming slightly higher than <i>mere cinnamon sugar</i>, though... and my Maple Buttercream icing made for an <i>excellent </i>topping. However, I'd got a bit of a bee in my bonnet about the icing <i>the day before</i> I started making the dough. I <i>first </i>tried a small batch using a fraction of the necessary ingredients, and that turned out OK... But then I decided to make the <i>full </i>batch late in the evening, because I realised that my time in the kitchen would be interrupted by Courtney's cooking lesson, and I figured getting the icing done <i>ahead of time</i> would help. <i>Storage </i>presented a problem that I hadn't fully considered, though. I didn't want to leave it <i>out </i>overnight, so ended up stuffing it in the fridge. This naturally made it harder to dole out, <i>even after stirring it thoroughly again to undo the separation that occurred</i>, and it never quite became as <i>smooth </i>as one would normally expect of a buttercream icing.<br />
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I think I was <i>a little hyperactive</i> for a while after eating a completed Beaver Tail slathered with icing, so I didn't have a second. Later on came the sugar <i>crash</i>, which left me feeling a little unwell and headachy for part of the evening. The four Beaver Tails left after dinner were boxed up and stuck in the fridge, with the excess icing (<i>because there was quite a lot!</i>) scooped into a small plastic tub for storage in the freezer.<br />
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<i>Not even the threat of another sugar crash was enough to deter me from having one of the remaining iced Beaver Tails for breakfast</i>, and chilling them overnight certainly took the <i>cloying </i>edge off the icing, though the Beaver Tail <i>itself </i>had become a little dry and hard.<i> They're definitely a dessert to be best enjoyed when fresh</i>.<br />
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At Courtney's suggestion, I had another one - <i>topped with three rashers of unsmoked bacon</i> - for lunch, since the concept wasn't <i>too far</i> removed from some of the breakfast/brunch options I've seen available in American hotels. This, too, turned out to be delicious... <i>and I'm not normally one to mix sweet and savoury on a single plate</i>.<br />
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Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-77292649170274487152019-03-01T22:26:00.000+00:002019-03-04T18:35:13.313+00:00Cake Angels' TransFormers-Branded Chocolate Biscuit KitKnowing that I'm a bit of a fan of TransFormers,<i> not to mention chocolate biscuits</i>, my girlfriend bought me a boxed, TransFormers-branded kit for making my own choccie biccies with chocolate icing and printed wafer pieces featuring Optimus Prime and Bumblebee from the most recent TV show to carry the name <i>"TransFormers: Robots In Disguise"</i>.<br />
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The kit contains two separate bags, containing a biscuit mix and an icing mix. The former requires only the addition of butter, the latter only a little water... and yet, <i>despite how easy it would be to prepare</i>, I put off making the biscuits for absolutely ages - <i>one year, three months past its Best Before date, to be precise</i> - before making a start. In all honesty, it probably would have been <i>longer</i>, and the box would have languished, untouched, in a cupboard for <i>another </i>few years, were it not for the obvious <i>upset </i>in Courtney's voice the last time the subject came up: "I bought it for you as a present..."<br />
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<i>Part </i>of the issue, I guess, is that I <i>am </i>a fan of TransFormers, but really <i>not </i>a fan of some of the <i>random, licensed tat</i> that bears the name... and a biscuit-making kit certainly falls under <i>that </i>banner. Still, there was no good reason for <i>not </i>making them, and I had the time today, so I finally cracked it open and had a go.<br />
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Both of the mixtures were quite <i>strange </i>to deal with. According to the instructions on the box, the icing only needed about 15ml water. Added slowly - <i>effectively a half teaspoon at a time</i> - I seemed to be stirring <i>a small clump of powdery icing</i> through a <i>mass </i>of pale brown, chocolate-scented icing sugar for ages, <i>only for it to suddenly resolve itself into a thick, dark brown, glossy paste</i>. Similarly, the 40g of room-temperature butter - <i>cut up into small chunks so it'd soften quicker</i> - seemed not to be blending with the cake mix at all until suddenly I had <i>a lump of biscuit dough</i>. Well, I <i>say </i>'suddenly', but mixing it had taken absolutely <i>ages</i>, and <i>both </i>wrists were aching by the time it finally happened.<br />
<br />
After chilling the dough in the fridge for 10 minutes, it needed rolling out - <i>a thickness of 1cm was specified in the intructions, but I wasn't especially accurate with my rolling pin</i>. Two stencils are printed on the back of the box, to cut out and keep (<i>little stands are also included, to turn them into tiny standees once the biscuits are done</i>), and these are simply laid on top of the rolled dough so they can be used to cut out one of two of each shape with a knife. The dough then needs to be <i>balled up and re-rolled</i> to cut out another round of biscuit shapes. The box says it makes <i>six</i>, and I ended up with <i>slightly </i>more than one biscuit's worth at the end, so I simply <i>molded </i>it into the shape of the stencil.<br />
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The instructions then recommend placing the biscuits onto a <i>greased </i>baking tray, <i>but I object strongly to the washing up that requires</i>, so I simply put some greaseproof paper on a cookie tray and laid the six slabs of dough on <i>that </i>before slamming them into the oven.<br />
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About a quarter of an hour later, the biscuits were cooked, so I took them out and let them cool briefly before <i>battling </i>with the icing, <i>which preferred to stick to the spoons I was using to scoop it out of the bowl, rather than any of the biscuits</i>. Surprisingly, there seemed to be <i>far too much</i> icing, and it threatened to drip over the sides of the tiny biscuits... The final touch was a case of rushing to get the wafer pieces popped out of their pre-cut sheet and slapped into the icing before it started hardening.<br />
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The end result looked like this:<br />
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Bearing in mind these were meant to be <i>chocolate </i>biscuits, I was a little surprised - <i>and disappointed</i> - to find that the flavour was more <i>sugar </i>than chocolate... <i>So much</i> sugar, in fact, that they actually left a <i>burning </i>sensation on my tongue and at the back of my throat. The texture left something to be desired as well - <i>think gluten-free shortbread and you wouldn't be far off</i>... only these were <i>even closer</i> to sand. There was no <i>crunch</i>, just <i>crumble</i>.<br />
<br />
Whether this was due to being <i>over a year</i> past the Best Before date of the mix I'm not certain - it seems <i>unlikely</i>, given that such dry goods tend to last quite well. I'd say it was more due to the <i>miniscule </i>amout of butter, so there wasn't enough fat to <i>properly </i>bind the mixture and keep it moist through baking. The icing, <i>in isolation</i>, tasted <i>vaguely </i>of chocolate but, on the super-crumbly biscuit, that was all but lost. The wafers are basically <i>puffed-up rice paper</i>, and the print on them is very faint and faded - a shame considering the bold colours of the characters in the TV show.<br />
<br />
I'm going to <i>assume </i>that these things are aimed at young kids, to give them a <i>simple </i>introduction to home baking (<i>under supervision, given that a rolling pin, knife and oven are all potentially dangerous in young hands</i>), but I can imagine a lot of kids being as disappointed as <i>I </i>was in the <i>lack </i>of chocolate flavour. I'd <i>toyed </i>with the idea of getting some cooking chocolate drops to add in, or maybe molding the shapes <i>by hand</i>, perhaps creating <i>fewer, larger biscuits</i> with some sculpted detail... but, in the end, I'm glad I didn't. This wasn't an especially <i>good </i>product, and does nothing to change my low opinion of <i>TransFormers-branded tat</i>... I'm sure it's reasonably lucrative, <i>both for Hasbro and for Cake Angels</i>... but anyone interested in making biscuits would be <i>far </i>better off looking up a recipe online and making them <i>from scratch</i>, rather than using this dry, disappointing mix.<br />
<br />
In fact, <i>maybe I'll do just that</i>... I have <a href="http://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/search/label/Cookies" target="_blank">a really good cookie recipe</a> already, and I'm sure I could mold some <i>vaguely </i>TransFormer-ish shapes... Be interesting to see how they survive the baking process, though...Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-87809268529730787352019-02-25T09:18:00.000+00:002019-04-01T19:31:39.298+01:00Crispy Tofu Katsu CurryHot on the heels of the <i>shop bought</i> Wasabi dish - <i>and because I just haven't shut up about how good it is compared to supermarket own-brands</i> - my girlfriend decided to look into katsu curry sauce recipes. The <i>original </i>intention was that <i>she'd</i> cook something to accompany it but, the moment she mentioned it, I told her I was basically <i>honour-bound</i> to do it myself - partly because I've done so <i>little </i>cooking recently aside from the <i>occasional </i>Gousto boxes we've ordered.<br />
<br />
In all honesty, this was probably a bit more <i>advanced </i>than I'm used to, and the instructions were a little vague (<i>not great when my grasp of my own hob is still a little shaky</i>) and weirdly presented, so I'm going to detail it <i>all </i>here in my usual style...<br />
<br />
<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
<i><b>Kombu Dashi stock</b></i><br />
<ul>
<li>500ml water (approx. - a little more won't hurt)</li>
<li>Dashi Konbu dried kelp (1 section of approx. 10x10cm)</li>
</ul>
<b>Preparation Time:</b> About 30-45 minutes<br />
<br />
<i><b>Katsu Curry Sauce</b></i><br />
<ul>
<li>30ml Sunflower Oil</li>
<li>Red Onion (one <i>should </i>be sufficient - meant to be white, but we ordered Morrisons' Wonky Onions, <i>and that's basically pot luck</i>)</li>
<li>Ginger (for convenience, I used <i>ready-chopped, frozen</i> ginger - about 1 teaspoon)</li>
<li>Garlic (2 cloves, crushed)</li>
<li>Mild Curry Powder (1 tablespoon)</li>
<li>Plain Flour (2 tablespoons)</li>
<li>Kombu Dashi stock (<i>made earlier, using ingredients above!</i>)</li>
<li>Light Soy Sauce (2-3 tablespoons)</li>
<li>Honey (1 tablespoon)</li>
<li>Rice Vinegar (1 tablespoon)</li>
<li>Garam Masala (2 tablespoons)</li>
</ul>
<b>Preparation Time: </b>About 30 minutes<br />
<br />
<i><b>Crispy Tofu</b></i><br />
<ul>
<li>Tofu (I used Cauldron's - a 396g pack)</li>
<li>Egg (ended up using 2)</li>
<li>Plain Flour (about 100g will be <i>more than sufficient</i>)</li>
<li>Panko Breadcrumbs (about 75g <i>will be more than sufficient</i>)</li>
<li>Salt & Pepper (a pinch of each)</li>
<li>Sunflower oil (sufficient to fill a frying pan to a depth of a little over 1cm)</li>
</ul>
<b>Preparation Time:</b> About 10-15 minutes, <i>once the tofu is drained</i><br />
<br />
<b>Additionals:</b><br />
Rice (for convenience, I used a 250g pack of Morrisons long grain rice, microwaved)<br />
Spring Onions (to garnish)<br />
<br />
<b>Tools Required:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Sharp Knife</li>
<li>Garlic Press</li>
<li>Grater (if using fresh stem ginger) </li>
<li>Chopping Board</li>
<li>Frying Pan</li>
<li>Saucepan</li>
<li>Measuring Jug</li>
<li>Funnel</li>
<li>Coffee Filter </li>
<li>Receptacles for all the ingredients</li>
<li>Stirring Implements (<i>several required!</i>)</li>
<li>Heavy Book (to aid the draining of the tofu)</li>
<li>Kitchen Roll (also to aid the draining of the tofu) </li>
<li>Tongs (to get the tofu <i>into/out of</i> the frying pan) </li>
</ul>
<b>The Process:</b><br />
<i>First and foremost</i>, the Kombu Dashi must be prepared. Cut a section of the kelp, about 10cm², and wipe off any salt residue with a damp cloth. Pour about 500ml of water into a saucepan, immerse the kelp and heat on a low setting on the hob - the idea is to get the water <i>hot</i>, but not let it <i>boil</i>... you're essentially <i>brewing a weird, kelp-based tea</i> - and simmer for about 25 minutes. Scoop off the <i>froth</i> that will start to build up every so often. After about 25 minutes, you should have a <i>yellowish </i>liquid, which you then need to filter into a jug for the time being. The easiest was is to stuff a coffee filter into a funnel and pour the liquid through. Set this aside to drain while you proceed with the other steps.<br />
<br />
Next, the tofu will also need to be drained - it's generally packaged with <i>a lot</i> of water and <i>absorbs </i>quite a bit, but will need to be <i>reasonably </i>dry for this. Take the tofu out of the packaging and set it on a plate covered with some kitchen roll or a dishcloth. Cover the tofu itself with more of the same, then put something heavy on top (with some kind of <i>non-absorbant barrier</i> if you're using a book like I did - I used a small chopping board under a copy of <i>How to Cook Everything Vegetarian</i> by Mark Bittman). Leave this to squeeze the water out of the tofu, and move onto the sauce.<br />
<br />
Start by <i>dicing </i>the onion, <i>crushing </i>the garlic and, if using a chunk of ginger, <i>chop </i>or <i>grate </i>about a teaspoon's worth. Add 30ml of sunflower oil to a saucepan and heat over a medium setting on the hob. Add the onion, ginger and garlic to the saucepan and cook for 2-3 minutes, by which time the onion should start to become tender. Add the curry powder and stir thoroughly, allowing it to cook for <i>about </i>another minute - <i>a wave of curry scent will let you know it's ready</i>. Slowly add the flour, stirring constantly to blend it into the mixture, but try to avoid letting it cake on the sides of the saucepan.<br />
<br />
Next come the first of the <i>liquid </i>ingredients: <i>slowly </i>add the Kombu Dashi, mixing in the soy sauce and honey as you go. Allow to simmer so the sauce thickens, stirring <i>occasionally </i>to avoid a skin developing on the top. Finally, add the rice vinegar and garam masala and cook for about another minute. This now needs to be set aside - <i>but kept warm</i> - until the tofu is sorted. <i>The aroma will start to whet your appetite, so it's best to move quickly from here on</i>...<br />
<br />
By this point, the tofu should have had <i>most </i>of the water squeezed out of it, so slice the block into strips about 1cm thick. Sprinkle or grind over a little salt, and leave them aside for about 10 minutes, on a sheet or two of kitchen roll. During this time, start preparations for the Panko crumb coating.<br />
<br />
You'll need <i>two </i>plates and <i>two </i>shallow bowls. Pour the flour onto the plate and mix in a little salt and pepper for seasoning. Break an egg or two into the <i>first </i>bowl and beat it - adding a little salt here, if you wish. Into the <i>last </i>bowl pour the panko crumbs. Take each slice of tofu and <i>first </i>coat it in the flour. <i>Next </i>coat it in the beaten egg <i>as evenly as possible</i>, then quickly transfer it to the panko crumb bowl and try to ensure it's <i>thoroughly </i>coated. Put the coated strips onto the <i>second </i>plate, then fire up the hob with a frying pan filled to a level of about 1-1.5cm with oil. Once it's hot, transfer in as many of the crumb-coated tofu strips as you're comfortable frying at any one time (I managed <i>three</i>, though my frying pan could probably accommodate a couple more!). Fry each batch until they're nice and golden (<i>depending on the temperature, it'll be about 1-2 minutes</i>), then transfer out and allow to rest on some kitchen roll to dry out a little.<br />
<br />
Stick the rice into the microwave and cook according to the pack's instructions - you'd generally be looking at 2 minutes but, <i>obviously</i>, if you prefer to cook your rice the <i>traditional </i>way, you'll need to start that a little <i>earlier </i>in the process, in <i>another </i>saucepan, and have it set aside for this step. Add half the rice to each of a couple of bowls, top with the fried tofu strips and pour over the sauce. If you're feeling fancy, you could add some sort of <i>topping</i>, like spring onion or grated carrot. <i>Serve up, and scoff down</i>.<br />
<br />
<b>The Results:</b><br />
This was probably one of the more <i>involved </i>processes I've tried, but still reasonably easy to break down into stages <i>so I didn't have to split my focus between two tasks</i>. Having to <i>make </i>the Kombu Dashi stock was quite frustrating, and I'm <i>not </i>convinced that worked properly - the photos I saw online showed <i>a clear, yellowish liquid</i> but, even after <i>filtering</i>, mine was quite <i>cloudy</i>. Additionally, the packaging recommended steeping the kelp for 6-8 hours <i>before </i>heating it. Since neither Courtney nor I had seen <i>or anticipated</i> this instruction, we ended up using a 'plan b' method which took only half an hour... It's entirely possible this method wasn't as <i>effective</i>, so I may try to make another batch of the stock by the <i>recommended </i>method at some point.<br />
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Everything else is pretty <i>straightforward </i>- the sauce is really easy to make, <i>though it does use quite a lot of different ingredients that have to be added at specific points</i>. Personally, I'm always wary of adding any <i>powdery </i>ingredients into a pan containing very little in the way of <i>liquid </i>ingredients, since it tends to just <i>stick to the sides of the pan</i> and become <i>really </i>difficult to wash up afterward, but this one worked out OK. Once the sauce had thickened up, the rest of the recipe was quick enough that I was able to take the sauce off the heat <i>entirely </i>until just before serving up. It <i>stayed </i>warm, and needed only a little <i>stirring </i>now and then to prevent a skin forming. Admittedly, I put it <i>back </i>on the hob briefly just before serving, but only to ensure it was <i>piping hot</i> rather than just <i>warm</i>.<br />
<br />
I'm still not used to working with tofu, and I'm not convinced I drained it sufficiently... but it's a difficult judgement call: <i>it has to be able to pick up the flour, but it shouldn't immediately soak through the flour</i>. The egg part was <i>very </i>frustrating, because it should apparently only need <i>one </i>large egg... but I ended up beating a second because, with <i>nine </i>strips of tofu to crumb-coat, I'd run out of egg by the sixth or seventh, <i>even though some of the strips weren't as thoroughly coated as I'd have liked</i>. The egg didn't bind very well with the flour-coated tofu, <i>but ended up getting my fingers very sticky</i>. Consequently, I ended up with more panko breadcrumb on my fingers than on the tofu strips... <i>or so it felt</i>. As it happened, I think they <i>were </i>all sufficiently coated. Frying them was nice and easy, though I ran out of sunflower oil and had to supplement it with some <i>Crisp'n'Dry</i>... which, <i>upon reflection</i>, would probably have been the better oil to <i>start </i>with, as we'd just got a new bottle that morning. Since I'm <i>also </i>not used to shallow frying, there was quite a range of <i>shades </i>in the finished crispy tofu strips - from <i>slightly anaemic</i> through to <i>"Oh, shit! I'd better get that out of the frying pan now, or it's gonna burn!"</i> - as the last batch seemed to need less cooking time than the previous batches.<br />
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Now, clearly I'm quite <i>fussy </i>about my katsu curry... While I certainly <i>enjoyed </i>this - <i>particularly the delayed kick of spiciness in the sauce</i> - I'm not entirely convinced it was actually <i>katsu</i>. Maybe it was the use of <i>red </i>onion rather than white, maybe I needed to add a bit of additional <i>seasoning </i>to the sauce (<i>I was quite conscious of the salt being added to various things already!</i>). Not to say it wasn't <i>nice </i>- I really liked it... but something about it wasn't <i>quite </i>according to what I think of as 'katsu curry' flavour. I think the quanity was <i>just about as perfect as it could be</i> for two people - enough to <i>cover </i>the tofu strips and rice without <i>utterly swamping</i> it. What was interesting - <i>both to me and to Courtney</i> - was that there's nothing especially unusual or unique about the curry itself: it uses a <i>standard </i>mild curry powder and garam masala. Perhaps using <i>both </i>is a little odd, but even the use of honey in something that's meant to be <i>savoury </i>isn't without precedent.<br />
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<i>What I don't enjoy is wastage</i>... and if wasting most of the second egg used for the crumb coating wasn't bad enough, the <i>original </i>recipe specified <i>125g</i> of plain flour and <i>100g</i> of breadcrumb. Frankly, I think one could easily get away with <i>half </i>that considering how much was left over - <i>which is why I've reduced the quantities above and noted that they'd be "more than sufficient"</i>. I'm guessing the original quantities were given more to ensure sufficient <i>volume </i>of flour/crumb to roll the tofu around in rather than as any indication of <i>actual usage within the recipe</i>. One of the reasons I'm not used to shallow frying is that <i>I really hate
working with that much cooking oil</i>. We've taken to filtering and
<i>recycling </i>ours but, obviously, it has a limited lifespan (<i>unless you
want to turn it into biofuel for a car</i>). Additionally, putting this together <i>also </i>piled up an awful lot of washing up even <i>before </i>the food was served up and eaten. <br />
<br />
Still, <i>if you can put up with that</i>, it's actually quite a fun recipe and I'm <i>definitely </i>going to try this again sometime, perhaps ensuring I use <i>white </i>onion and truly <i>fresh </i>ginger, maybe adding some salt to the curry sauce... <i>Certainly trying to do better with the crispy tofu</i>.Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-30146901656811739942019-02-18T21:28:00.003+00:002019-02-18T21:28:44.834+00:00Wasabi Chicken Katsu Curry with RiceSince I've not posted in a few months, I figured it was about time to put <i>something </i>up... and, in the absence of any new cooking (<i>other than what's been going up on <a href="http://www.instagram.com/snacksandthesingleman" target="_blank">Instagram</a></i>), it's going to be a <i>conveniently quick</i> post about a <i>conveniently quick</i> ready-meal.<br />
<br />
It seems that the restaurant chain <i>Wasabi Sushi & Bento</i> have started producing packaged ready-meals, <i>for cooking either in the oven or the microwave</i> and, of the five boxes currently available, I found <i>two </i>options in my local branch of Sainsbury's: Chicken Katsu Curry and Sweet Chilli Chicken. Considering the number of <i>own-brand</i> Chicken Katsu Curries I've picked up in various supermarkets over the years - <i>and having been thoroughly disappointed by all of them</i> - I figured that I owed it to myself to try one that carries the brand of <i>an actual restaurant chain</i> that I frequent.<br />
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Approaching it with <i>low </i>expectations, I elected to cook it in my microwave - <i>instructions are given for 700w and 900w, so I had to pick a mid-point for my 800w model</i> - since cooking it in the oven requires one to decant the contents of the plastic packaging within the waxed cardboard box into <i>separate, oven-friendly</i> containers, to be covered over with foil (<i>or lids where available</i>). Since that would only add to the washing up I'd have to do <i>later</i>, the simple act of <i>piercing the film lid and sticking the plastic tub in the microwave</i> seemed like the most logical option.<br />
<br />
It takes about 6-7 minutes to cook, and then has to be transferred to a plate, bowl, <i>or my personal preference, the platey-bowl</i>, which is a bit of a mission, as the rice and chicken have to be served up before the sauce can be poured on from the container... This still seems a <i>little </i>faffy for my liking, and I wonder if putting the sauce into a <i>sachet</i>, to be laid over the top of the rice and meat for shipping and storage purposes, might be the better plan. Nevertheless, <i>here's the end result</i>:<br />
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The first <i>major </i>difference between this and the average supermarket-bought Chicken Katsu Curry is the presence of <i>large chunks of potato, carrot and onion</i> in the sauce. In most others, there are no solid bits of veg at all and, on those rare occasions they <i>are </i>present, they tend to be fairly small. <i>Straight away</i>, this product looks better than the <i>average </i>supermarket fare.<br />
<br />
I must confess that I was a little <i>underwhelmed </i>by the size of the katsu breadcrumb-coated chicken piece, and was a little concerned initially that the portion of rice was <i>also </i>on the small size. <i>Conversely</i>, when the sauce was poured over, it looked as though there was far too much, and that it would <i>swamp </i>the chicken and rice. Upon reflection, I'd say it's <i>not </i>as excessive as I first thought, but I could still stand to lose a few spoonfuls, while the quanity of rice is just right. A bit more chicken wouldn't go amiss, but the <i>overall portion size</i> is pretty good.<br />
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As to <i>flavour</i>, I find the sauces in most supermarket ready meals are Katsu Curry <i>flavoured</i>, rather than having the <i>bite </i>and <i>spiciness </i>of a <i>true </i>Katsu Curry. I'm happy to report that <i>this </i>bucks the trend completely. I can't quite remember how it compares to what a Wasabi <i>restaurant </i>would serve, but it's so much better than anything else I've bought from a supermarket. The chunks of veg in the sauce add to the texture and make the overall package that little bit more filling in the absence of a larger portion of meat, and I found this package very satisfying. The rice, <i>sensibly</i>, is plain but cooks very well in the package, while the chicken is prone to drying out at the edges. It doesn't become <i>inedible</i> or <i>rubbery</i>, just more difficult to <i>cut</i>, so perhaps I should try heating the package in two stages, <i>reorienting </i>it on the turntable halfway through.<br />
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Weighing in at £4.50 in store, or £4 via the website, it's in the same ballpark as Sainsbury's own '<i>Taste the Difference</i>' line, <i>but unlike the supposedly high-end own-brand</i>, I really <i>could </i>taste the difference versus Sainsbury's cheaper, own-brand Chicken Katsu Curry tubs. <br />
<br />
In fact, it's got me thinking that I should look into Katsu Curry sauces <i>generally </i>- either buying it ready-made or seeking out a recipe - and trying to make something like this myself, it get a better idea of how to get the spiciness<i> just right</i>. The only downside is that Courtney, <i>being veggie</i>, would not appreciate a <i>chicken </i>Katsu, so I'd need to identify an alternative... Perhaps Quorn or Tofu would suffice...<br />
<br />
I've also tried <i>Wasabi</i>'s Sweet Chilli Chicken box, which is nothing special <i>overall</i>, but the sauce again has a <i>real </i>kick to it. I think I'll need to seek out a <i>bigger </i>branch of Sainsbury's if I want to look at the <i>rest </i>of the line... Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-79923496859896725642018-09-26T10:18:00.002+01:002018-09-26T10:18:36.233+01:00Experiments with Gousto #9: Mediterranean Fish Stew & Sunny AioliHere we are with the final entry in the <i>current </i>run of Gousto recipes, and any others will be appearing on Instagram, while my more 'experimental' efforts, or anything particularly fun or interesting, will continue to appear - sporadically - on this blog. This recipe is the one where I ended up eating <i>both </i>portions because my girlfried was away - I had one portion on the Friday, <i>when I did the actual cooking</i>, and the second for lunch on the Saturday.<br />
<br />
This turned out to be a Very Good Thing as <i>it didn't all go according to plan on the Friday</i>. <br />
<br />
As before, I got the chopping out of the <i>way </i>ahead of time, <i>attempting </i>to be clever and using the mandoline for the onion, but mistaking the 'julienne' attachment for the 'fries' attachment and consequently setting the blade too low. This still gave me sliced onion, <i>but with deep grooves cut into it rather than allowing it to separate into nice, small chunks</i>. I did the carrots the old-fashioned way and chopped the garlic as finely as I could (<i>news flash - still not that fine</i>), where I'd <i>grated </i>it for a couple of the previous recipes and got uncomfortably close to grating my fingers. I should, <i>perhaps</i>, have used the garlic press for <i>broadly </i>similar results, but that didn't occur to me at the time.<br />
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The second step of this recipe confused me: <i>heating a frying pan with "a drizzle" of olive oil and 15g of butter</i>. Why so <i>vague </i>with one measure and so <i>specific </i>with the other? And using oil <i>and </i>butter? Surely one or the other would be more usual? Nevertheless, I followed the instructions as described. The stew part of the fish stew was easy enough, but puzzling on at least one <i>other </i>point: the inclusion of star anise. Now, <i>clearly</i>, I'm no expert in culinary matters, but star anise is described online as <i>"one of the central spices in Chinese cooking"</i>, and supposedly has a strong anise flavour - <i>whatever that may be</i> - and a licorice-like aroma. I'm a <i>big </i>fan of licorice, and I have to say there was <i>no </i>licorice aroma. I couldn't say whether its presence in the making of the stew had <i>any </i>effect on the final flavour, but it had none that was discernible to <i>my </i>palate. I'd have to try cooking this again <i>without</i> star anise to be certain.<br />
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As with the previous recipe, I started preparing the <i>stock </i>ahead of time as well, though this one required the addition of turmeric to turn it into the required "yellow stock". Turmeric may well be <i>the bane of my existance</i>, but we'll get into that shortly... <i>For now</i>, let's focus on the stew. Any recipe which can be completed in <i>one </i>frying pan or saucepan is always going to be a winner, so I <i>really</i> liked that every stage of preparing the stew was simply a case of <i>adding the next thing to the frying pan</i>. With the onions, carrots and garlic cooked to the point where the onion was softening, the tomato paste went in, followed shortly by the stock and the olive, and the whole thing was left to reduce on a low heat while I switched over to preparing the sunny aioli and baking the rolls, <i>which I'll go into separately</i>. The fish caused an <i>interesting </i>complication, in that I was preparing the stew in a frying pan which has no lid, so I had to <i>improvise </i>- upending a wok and balancing it on the rim of the pan for the few minutes required to cook the fish. The final stage was simple enough - add in some of the fresh parsley, remove the star anise (<i>which took longer than expected because it had managed to disguise itself very successfully</i>), then serve with more of the parsley as a garnish, a ciabatta and the sunny aioli...<br />
<br />
...<i>Which is where it went awry for me</i>. It's not often, <i>even with an amateur like me working in the kitchen</i>,
that a recipe goes <i>so </i>wrong that something actually <i>breaks</i>. Sure, I've
had cheap-and-cheerful bits of kitchen equipment break (<i>most recently
the Ikea can opener that was part of my kitchen starter kit, basically dissolved thanks to
its cheap, plastic construction... it's almost 10 years old, but barely
used</i>). The sunny aioli seemed to be going swimmingly, too, until I lost my
grip on the bowl I was using to mix it, allowing it to tumble to the floor - <i>trailing sunny aioli</i> - break unrecoverably <i>and
spill what little of the sauce wasn't already staining the white
plastic/rubber of my fridge</i>. Hence, the first photo features no sunny aioli.<br />
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It's <i>probably </i>a good thing my girlfriend wasn't around for this one, because I came <i>very </i>close to losing my temper over the breakage and spillage, and spent the evening <i>grumbling </i>to myself and <i>cursing </i>the bowl for its slipperiness. It had all been going <i>really </i>well up until that point, so falling at the last hurdle was a huge disappointment.<br />
<br />
My second attempt, <i>for lunch the following day</i>, went far better, and the sunny aioli really added to the overall flavour. I may have to figure out other ways to use a similar sauce. This is a really lovely fish stew, and I'd <i>definitely </i>like to try making it again... though I'm not quite sure what the ciabatta adds to the meal, other than being something to soak up the last few drops of the stew. <br />
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In retrospect, I'm puzzled by the instruction to drizzle olive oil over the ciabatta rolls before sticking them in the oven. I ended up doing one <i>with </i>and one <i>without </i>the oil and, yes, there's a massive difference in the result... but the one with oil ended up <i>extremely tough and crusty</i>, while the other was more like what you might buy in a shop. I'm not massively keen on super-crusty bread, but each to their own...Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-83234671698364698302018-09-25T17:04:00.000+01:002018-09-25T17:09:58.328+01:00Snackshots...Something I've realised while working on Gousto recipes over the last few months is that <i>writing up my experience of cooking these meals has actually become a little dull</i>. I've always much preferred doing things from scratch, and documenting the whole thing like a scientific experiment. It's also been a little <i>repetitive </i>as I tend to have much the same impression of each recipe: dealing with the chopping ahead of time is advisable as I'm not that quick or accurate, and I can never quite match their timings as I still haven't got used to the temperature settings on my hob.<br />
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To this end, I've set up an Instagram account so that I can at least <i>show photos</i> of each recipe I try, adding a few pertinent notes to the caption.<br />
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Still, it's actually been fun to <i>do </i>the cooking so, <i>once I get back into the frame of mind where I feel confident about getting a bit more experimental in the kitchen</i>, hopefully I'll be able to post something a bit more <i>detailed </i>in this blog. For the time being, have a quick look at <a href="https://www.instagram.com/snacksandthesingleman/" target="_blank">my Instagram account</a>, and perhaps you'll see more frequent posts there.<br />
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I've got one more Gousto recipe as a draft, and hope to finish that at some point... but further recipes of that sort will likely be Instagram only, unless there's something particularly exciting about them. Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-90464126438837512742018-05-31T12:30:00.000+01:002018-09-25T17:08:09.814+01:00Experiments with Gousto #8: Wholesome Haddock & Apricot Tagine with BulgurAnd so we come to the <i>penultimate </i>post in this new round of Gousto recipes... <i>and if there was a duffer in the selection, this would be it</i>. Not that it was bad, just not as outstandingly <i>good </i>(or fun to prepare) as the others. This recipe <i>also </i>featured a couple of tasks that had to be kept on the go at the same time, <i>which isn't something I find particularly easy in the kitchen</i>. The daftest part, for me, was the opening instruction, which breaks down into <i>three </i>separate tasks: boil a kettle (<i>the quantity of water isn't specified, but is more than my kettle can handle, for reasons I'll explain shortly</i>), peel and chop the onion, peel and dice the carrot. Since I <i>knew </i>that peeling and chopping/dicing the veg would take more time that the boiling of a kettle, I did that - <i>along with pretty much all the other chopping</i> - before even <i>filling </i>the kettle, and feel that's the safest option. It's not as if step 2 (<i>actually steps 4 and 5, if we're being fussy</i>) makes <i>use </i>of the boiled water, and step 3 (<i>AKA steps 6 and 7</i>) doesn't start with "Meanwhile...", yet the actions in step 2 take 5-8 minutes. Thus, following the recipe to the letter would result in the water cooling off during that stage, <i>throwing off the timing for the rest of the recipe</i>.<br />
<br />
Going from memory, I <i>think </i>I also prepared the
vegetable stock before starting to cook the carrot and onion pieces,
because step 4 (<i>steps 8-11</i>) includes making the stock as its <i>last
</i>instruction before switching <i>back </i>to working on the onions and carrots
in the pan.<br />
<br />
I did, for a while, have the bulgur wheat and the early stages of the tagine cooking simultaneously, but the alarm going off for the wheat <i>pretty much shattered my concentration</i>. I also found that the full kettle of water I started out with wasn't sufficient for the 10-15 minutes cooking time... Not sure whether that means I cooked it for too long, <i>or </i>just that I need a bigger kettle (<i>or to boil the water in the pan rather than using the kettle at all</i>), but I had to boil the kettle <i>again </i>to top up the pan at about the halfway point, because it looked as though it would boil dry otherwise.<br />
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Like the previous recipe, the instructions say to add a lot of dry stuff to the pan <i>ahead </i>of the stock and, <i>again</i>, I find this counterintuitive. Not to say I didn't do it that way, or that I don't think it works, just that it doesn't make <i>sense </i>to me to add <i>three lots of ground spices, chopped garlic and ginger and a relatively small quantity of tomato paste</i> to a pan of onion and carrot, cooked in a <i>drizzle </i>of olive oil. Granted, the onions will start to sweat <i>some </i>of their fluids out, but it's still a fairy dry pan, and the spices will tend to clump. The next instruction is to cook "until fragrant"... which is tricky to follow, as I'm not sure I trust my nose in the kitchen...<i> particularly with allergy season in full swing, and not long after chopping the onions</i>...<br />
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Nevertheless, from here on, the recipe became much easier to follow, <i>except inasmuch as I really need to figure out what constitutes 'low heat', 'medium heat' and 'high heat' on my hob</i>... Its highest setting always seems a little <i>too </i>aggressive, but the general idea at this stage was to boil off some of the water to thicken up the sauce. That said, the instruction to aim for "a curry-like consistency" isn't especially <i>helpful </i>to one who doesn't tend to <i>eat </i>a lot of curry. I had a <i>broad </i>idea of what was meant, and did a fair job, I think, but still wasn't convinced by the finished product.<br />
<br />
Probably the <i>hardest </i>part came when the fish was added, because ensuring white fish is cooked through <i>when it's in a strongly-coloured sauce</i> is a bit of a fine art - it needs to get to the stage where it <i>flakes </i>easily, but not so far along that it starts <i>drying out</i>. Since the instructions say to chop the coriander and mint at this late stage, I made sure to do it in advance to avoid any last-minute stress, <i>or</i> the risk of over-cooking the tagine.<br />
<br />
Curiously, while the instructions say to "serve the haddock & apricot tagine <u>over</u> the bulgur wheat", <i>all the photos show the two served side-by-side and very separately</i>. The problem with following the <i>instruction </i>rather than the <i>images </i>is that the sauce is inclined to soak down into the wheat, so what I served up looks much less impressive... <i>and not just because of my haphazard chopping of the coriander and the mint</i>. It also seemed very <i>anaemic </i>- the photos depict a tagine that's bold and warm-looking, all browns and reds... mine ended up more <i>beige and orange</i>.<br />
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<br />
Now, I described this as the duffer of the set and
should explain <i>why</i>. I <i>liked </i>this meal - <i>as did my girlfriend, who
actually had her share when she got back home late that evening</i> - but
the flavour wasn't as <i>captivating </i>as some of the other recipes. By
comparison, I have to say I found it a little <i>bland</i>. It's worth noting
that the recipe describes "diced apricots", but what was <i>supplied </i>was a
bag of diced, <i>dried </i>apricot, so it's possible that working with <i>fresh
</i>fruit would yield better results. Haddock doesn't have a particularly
strong flavour of its own, but it didn't really pick up as much from the
sauce as I'd hoped... and then the wheat was <i>extremely plain</i>. My
girlfriend suggested some kind of <i>seasoning </i>for the wheat, so perhaps
cooking it in <i>another </i>batch of vegetable stock would improve it... or,
<i>at the very least</i>, adding more than just <i>salt </i>to the water.<br />
<br />
With the end result of this being so underwhelming, I'm <i>somewhat </i>keen to try it again sometime - perhaps I missed something, perhaps the incredients weren't quite ideal in some way, perhaps I needed to chop the onion and carrot a little more finely. I'd <i>also </i>argue that, going by the photos on the recipe card, the quanity of mint and coriander supplied for the garnish was far in excess of requirement. Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-48400300202330444282018-05-30T19:16:00.006+01:002018-09-25T17:08:57.756+01:00Experiments with Gousto #7: Crispy Baked Tacos, Refried Beans & Pineapple SalsaApologies for the delay in following up the <i>continuing </i>experiments with Gousto - it's been a good couple of weeks since I cooked the <i>last </i>of this latest batch (<i>and ate all of it myself, as my girlfriend was away for the weekend</i>). There's no particular <i>reason </i>for the delay, I just haven't felt like writing about my cooking efforts lately.<br />
<br />
Not that they went badly (<i>until the last one - but more on that when I get to it</i>), just that I've been trying <i>and failing</i> to get all kinds of things done, and I wanted to give this the attention it deserved, rather than <i>bashing out</i> three perfunctory posts. This was, I think, the first recipe for the relevant week that my girlfriend and I flagged as a <i>definite </i>choice. <i>Everything </i>on offer looked great, but we're <i>both </i>big taco fans, and we'll often make the fillings from scratch anyway, so this wasn't a <i>massive</i> departure from the sort of thing we've made in the past, <i>just a specific recipe we hadn't tried yet</i>.<br />
<br />
The <i>first </i>thing I need to say about this recipe is that it <i>really </i>needs some way of ensuring the tortillas keep their shape during the baking. I spent quite some time trying to even up the distribution of the tortillas in the dish, and ensure they were as close to U-shaped as possible, <i>only for them to curl up, flop over and basically do their own thing in the oven</i>. This led to several of the tortilla/tacos being very difficult to fill when the time came, and at least one had to be <i>cracked </i>to get it open far enough to drop in the refried beans. The salsa, being quite <i>chunky</i>, proved even more tricky.<br />
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<i>On the whole</i>, preparing this one went smoothly and was fairly easy - the 30 minute estimate is probably quite accurate though, <i>as usual</i>, I did a lot of prep work ahead of time. The salsa was the <i>first </i>thing I made up, since it required only chopping, mixing and then keeping aside until it was time to dish up. The cherry tomatoes and pineapple rings only needed to be chopped <i>roughly</i>, which is always a good thing in my books, as chopping <i>finely </i>is something I have still yet to master. Next time I do this, I'll probably <i>quarter </i>them as halves are a little <i>too </i>chunky... and, <i>to be honest</i>, I'm not sure <i>cherry </i>tomatoes were necessary, as normal tomatoes could be <i>more easily</i> chopped into smaller pieces while remaining suitably chunky. I'd also query the necessity of adding a teaspoon of juice from the tin of pineapple because, <i>unless the chunks are fully drained</i>, they come soaked with quite enough juice for a reasonable salsa, and deliberately adding <i>more </i>just seemed to leave me with way too much <i>fluid </i>in my salsa - <i>it includes a tablespoon of olive oil as well, after all</i>.<br />
<br />
The only really <i>substantial </i>task in this recipe is making up the refried beans, which is surprisingly simple... <i>So much so</i>, in fact, that I may take to doing it more often, since my girlfriend and I both like refried beans. The specifics of the process, <i>as dictated by Gousto</i>, seem a little strange to me - adding the dry stuff (smoked paprika, ground cumin and chilli flakes) <i>before </i>the chipotle paste, tomato frito and the hundred millilitres of water was more than a little <i>counterintuitive </i>as the powders tended to <i>clump </i>rather than properly <i>mixing in</i> with the beans. I think I ended up cooking the beans for longer than the 5-8 minutes suggested, but I'm still not entirely sure what constitutes "a medium heat" on <i>my </i>hob, and probably spent too long adjusting it up and down, according to how it seemed to be going. The final stage - adding in the lime juice, seasoning and following the instruction to "gently crush a few of the beans" - is very much a <i>personal taste</i> thing. When ordering refried beans in a restaurant, you can expect anything from a full-on <i>bean mash</i> to something where the individual beans are still easily discernible... The photos on the recipe card seemed to suggest a middle ground, slightly beyond the "gentle" crushing of "a few of the beans" the text described, so I just aimed to mash them up to the exteny that I, <i>personally</i>, prefer.<br />
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<i>I do feel obliged to quibble the quantities</i>, as a single tin of beans (<i>plus the other stuff</i>) ended up equating to approximately <i>half </i>the quanity of refried beans I would want to divide between <i>six</i> tortilla/taco shells... perhaps that just proves what a <i>porker </i>I can be but, like I said, <i>I really like refried beans</i>. Put it like this: The first <i>three </i>tacos each received a heaped tablespoon of beans... after that, I had to start getting <i>stingy </i>and, by the <i>last </i>taco, I was <i>literally </i>scraping the bottom of the pan for a decent portion.<br />
<br />
As mentioned, actually transferring the beans <i>into </i>the part-cooked tortillas was troublesome, and I think what's <i>really </i>needed is a sort of toasting rack, where the tortillas can be wrapped around a framework to ensure they keep the optimal <i>U-shaped-ness</i> for the 5-minute initial bake. Once done, these can be <i>transferred </i>to the oven-proof dish to be (<i>ahem</i>) filled with the refried beans, and returned to the oven for the final 5-minute bake.<br />
<br />
Given that - <i>as mentioned at the start</i> - the salsa was rather more <i>fluid </i>than it needed to be, the finished and garnished tacos were somewhat <i>flooded</i>, and really didn't need <i>any </i>additional lime juice to be drizzled over. Portion-size aside, though, the tacos were very tasty, and I'll <i>definitely </i>be giving this recipe another try at some point.<br />
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One <i>huge </i>advantage to this sort of thing is that the recipe for refried beans is so easy to <i>embellish </i>- more or less of the herbs or the chilli flakes, dark chocolate could be added, pinto and/or kidney beans could be used along with the black beans, etc - <i>so the possibilities in that alone are virtually endless</i>. I'll certainly double the quantity of beans next time, even if I don't add another <i>variety</i>. I'll likely chop the pineapple a little more, use <i>normal </i>tomatoes rather than cherry, <i>and absolutely not add any additional juice</i>. A standard onion - brown <i>or </i>red - could be used in place of, <i>or as well as</i> the shallot, too... so, really, this whole recipe encourages <i>experimentation</i>.<br />
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Aside from the <i>frustrations </i>caused by the uncooperative tacos, this was great fun to prepare and, being very simple, could easily become a go-to, either <i>in and of itself</i> for a quick veggie meal, or as a component of a more diverse, Mexican-themed dinner, since both the refried beans <i>and </i>the salsa could be served on the side.<br />
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One sidenote is that, where a recipe card states, for example, "this is your pineapple salsa", I've previously been inclined to read an <i>emphasis </i>on "your", because it's often come straight after the bit about <i>seasoning</i>... Looking at this particular recipe card, I suspect I have done so <i>in error</i>, as this seems to be more <i>matter-of-factly</i> stating "this is your <i>x</i>" by way of saying <i>"this portion of the recipe is concluded"</i>.<br />
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Puzzling...Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-29306155173142203862018-05-16T19:42:00.000+01:002018-05-30T11:22:54.542+01:00Experiments with Gousto #6: Sweet Mixed Pepper & Chive RisottoOf all the <i>Gousto </i>recipes I've tried so far (<i>cooking myself, that is</i>), this is probably my favourite so far. It turned out to be <i>pretty much</i> as quick and easy as the recipe suggests, but there were still a <i>couple </i>of things I didn't get <i>quite </i>right...<br />
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For starters, I've got into the habit of doing as much chopping as possible <i>in advance</i>, since I can never be sure I'll be able to keep to the timings if I have to chop on the fly. For this one, I <i>also </i>put the sweet tomato stock together in advance. This <i>almost </i>came a-cropper before I'd started, as my usual jug is far smaller than the 700ml required, so I had to resort to a crappy (<i>but larger</i>) plastic jug from my Ikea kitchenware set. I don't particularly <i>like </i>using it - <i>especially for hot things</i> - but there's really no rational reason for that... I just <i>prefer </i>working with glass/Pyrex jugs where available.<br />
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I got my girlfriend to explain how she would go about <i>dicing </i>onion, because my 'method' invaribly ends up making a lot of <i>mess </i>and leaving me with streaming eyes. In fact, in a previous recipe (<i>not one I've documented, as far as I can remember</i>) I diced an onion using our mandoline with the additional blades <i>intended </i>for slicing potatoes into French Fries. This time, I just used a standard kitchen knife, though I did have to sharpen it beforehand.<br />
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I was a little concerned by step 4 of this recipe, where smoked paprika, ground turmeric and chopped garlic are added in along with the <i>dry </i>arborio rice, as I don't feel especially <i>confident </i>about adding dry rice to <i>anything </i>where there's not much liquid available. One of these days, I'm sure I'll just end up with <i>Rice Krispies</i>... Not this day, though... <i>thankfully</i>...<br />
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Also, <i>to be honest</i>, it's only in the pan for about a minute before the stock is gradually added in, and this stage takes about 15-20 minutes for it to be absorbed by the rice, while the sliced peppers are being roasted in the oven. I <i>think </i>I started this stage a little too late - <i>with only about 17 minutes remaining on the peppers' cooking time</i> - so I ended up switching the oven <i>off </i>for the last few minutes of the risotto's cooking time.<br />
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The fact that almost everything for this recipe comes together <i>in a single frying pan</i> is a huge bonus. It means less to keep an eye on, <i>and </i>less to wash up at the end. I do have a few <i>objections </i>to the act of adding <i>cheese </i>to something that's already <i>a hot, sticky mess in a frying pan</i>, because I know from <a href="https://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2015/03/experiments-with-gousto-1-introduction.html" target="_blank">previous experience</a> how troublesome that sort of combination will be to clean <i>afterward</i>. I also found the cheese supplied to be <i>extremely </i>crumbly, which made grating it an absolute chore, <i>and I came dangerously close to grating my fingertips whenever a chunk broke off</i>.<br />
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To be perfectly honest, I'm not certain whether or not any <i>pepper </i>was added for seasoning, along with the cheese and chives, but I'm pretty confident - <i>having tasted the end results</i> - that it would work well enough without. The final stage was a bit of a <i>rush</i>, as I had to dish out the risotto, add the remaining peppers, cheese and chives, drizzle on a bit of olive oil (also, <i>I strongly suspect</i>, surplus to requirement), <i>and take some photos before announcing that dinner was ready</i>... and I hadn't even brought the camera into the kitchen in advance this time...<br />
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This is the <i>first </i>of the new batch of <i>Gousto </i>recipes that arrived yesterday, <i>so the rest have a hard act to follow now</i>. The next few will be interesting as, after tonight's, I'll actually be cooking for myself for a couple of nights, as Courtney's out for the evenings, then away for the weekend... and I'm not sure keeping some of the ingredients till she's back - <i>even keeping them in the fridge</i> - will be viable. Chances are, I'll be cooking up the whole recipe as usual, but keeping a portion in the fridge (<i>or the freezer</i>) till she's back.Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-54100350596023965432018-05-16T15:41:00.001+01:002018-05-16T19:42:45.106+01:00 Experiments with Gousto #5: Scandi-style Mackerel & Potato Salad with SpinachThe final recipe of the first new <i>Gousto </i>box didn't really require that much actual <i>cooking</i>, and yet I still managed to balls up one of the <i>simpler </i>tasks on my hob. This is <i>partly </i>due to the wonky timings in the recipe - <i>something of a running theme, I'm finding</i> - but <i>mainly </i>due to me splitting my attention between two small tasks that <i>shouldn't</i> have been attempted simultaneously. Nevertheless, this turned out to be a rather <i>anticlimactic </i>finale to my first foray into preparing evening meals for two again.<br />
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It probably would have been a lot simpler to break this up into <i>two entirely separate tasks</i> - the potato salad being one, with everything else in the second. The potato salad is the most complicated task, in that the potatoes have to be chopped in half, then boiled for about a quarter of an hour, then drained and, ideally, <i>allowed to cool</i>. It's entirely possible, <i>given the length of time it generally takes me to chop things</i>, that the whole <i>point </i>of the recipe <i>as it's presented</i> is that you <i>complete </i>step 1 (cooking the potatoes) before even <i>starting </i>on step 2 (preparation of the spinach salad). <i>However</i>, since I wanted to ensure everything was ready <i>ahead of time</i>, I'd chopped the dill, the spring onions, the garlic and the potatoes <i>as one task</i>, a couple of hours earlier than necessary, and put the results back in the fridge till they were needed.<br />
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Then again, this particular recipe was a little 'pre-disastered' by the fact that the yoghurt container had apparently <i>exploded </i>in transit. It was in a small, sealed plastic pot - a miniature version of the average yoghurt pot you can buy in a supermarket - contained within a plastic bag of its own. When we unpacked the box all the ingredients came in, the inside of the plastic bag was <i>coated </i>with yoghurt, so the whole thing had to be <i>thrown away</i>. Thankfully we had a large, open container of essentially identical yoghurt already in our fridge, and we had more than the 80g worth required by this recipe. I was <i>a little</i> worried during the last stage of preparing the mustard dressing, in that it <i>initially </i>seemed as though the lemon juice was <i>curdling </i>the yoghurt. Thankfully a good <i>stir </i>sorted that out. The real problem - <i>but still not the balls-up I mentioned at the start</i> - was that the potatoes were still quite warm when I added them to the dressing, so it immediately got <i>thinner </i>and <i>runnier </i>than it should have been.<br />
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Where it went <i>undeniably wrong</i>, and mostly down to my mismanagement of the tasks, was with the almond toasting, believe it or not. It should only take about 2-3 minutes according to the recipe, <i>but it was at this point that I realised I hadn't sorted out the mackeral</i>, so I started to remove the skin and flake the fish <i>while the almonds were still on the hob</i>, resulting in a selection of flakes ranging from 'lightly brown and toasted' to '<i>utterly burnt</i>'. Next time I do this - <i>and there almost certainly will be a next time for such a simple and delicious meal</i> - I'll make breaking up the mackerel one of the <i>first</i> tasks because, once flaked, it can be put back in the fridge till it's needed. I'll <i>also </i>be sure to boil the potatoes <i>further </i>ahead of time so they have a chance to properly <i>cool</i>, and possibly put them in the fridge at <i>that </i>stage, rather than just after chopping them. Everything else is quick and simple - <i>preparing the entire meal is timed at about 20 minutes, after all</i> - though I reckon a more generous portion of mackerel would improve it no end. The other issue is that the spinach salad seems like a bit of an afterthought - a plate-filler - compared to everything else. I<i>t's literally just baby spinach drizzled with olive oil, then seasoned with salt and pepper</i>. A more complicated dressing <i>may </i>have helped but, obviously, you wouldn't want it to <i>clash </i>with the mustard dressing in the potato salad.<br />
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The <i>next </i>batch of Gousto recipes arrived yesterday, and I've prepared the first of them already... but expect a slight <i>delay </i>in posting about it as I'm trying to get <i>other </i>stuff done in the meantime.<br />
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I just hope I don't leave it <i>too </i>long, resulting in <i>another </i>batch of drafts that I can't finish...Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-15631161446737469732018-05-11T22:32:00.000+01:002018-05-16T17:10:41.372+01:00Experiments with Gousto #4: Roasted Portobellos, Garlic Bean Mash & ChimichurriIn an attempt to get back into cooking while I'm not working, I ordered a box of four Gousto recipes but, <i>due to a bunch of 'real life' issues leaving me a little frazzled the week they arrived</i>, my girlfriend ended up having to cook the first <i>two</i>. For the third, since she was headed out around the time we'd <i>normally </i>be eating dinner, <i>necessity dictated that I get my act together and do some proper cooking</i>.<br />
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Now, the distinct lack of new <i>posts </i>on this blog over the last couple of years has been partly as a result of a distinct lack of <i>cooking </i>on my part. Lack of <i>practice </i>has left me feeling a little <i>uncertain </i>of myself in the kitchen - <i>perhaps moreso than when I started this blog because, back then, I had the benefit of ignorance</i>. Having done a fair bit of cooking back then, I learned a lot... and a lot of what I learned was how <i>complicated </i>some recipies are, even when they <i>purport </i>to be 'quick and simple'. Hell, when I left my job, one of my leaving gifts was Jamie Oliver's book <i>'5 Ingredients'</i>. Reading through this, it becomes quickly apparent that the five ingredients are normally <i>supplemented </i>by some sort of seasoning or oil that, <i>in any other cookbook</i>, would count as another ingredient. Sure, <i>some </i>can be considered kitchen staples, but I wouldn't think that <i>red wine vinegar</i>, for example, is quite as common as salt or pepper.<br />
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<i>But I digress</i>.<br />
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Interestingly, while both <i>Gousto </i>and <i>Hello Fresh</i> seemed to be operating a
subscription model when I first used them, <i>Gousto </i>now has an additional
'dipping in' option, whereby you can simply pick a number of recipes -
four being considered optimal - which will be delivered, along with all the required ingredients (<i>bar kitchen staples like salt, pepper, olive oil, etc.</i>), precisely measured and securely boxed.<br />
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Courtney and I picked four recipes more on the basis of how <i>delicious </i>they looked than anything else, but we did also keep an eye on the preparation times, aiming to keep to about 30 minutes, since that often equated to more like <i>50 minutes</i> when I was doing the cooking.<br />
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By sheer coincidence, the first of the four recipes <i>I </i>cooked - <i>since Courtney was working her usual hours today, with an appointment in the evening when we'd normally be having dinner</i> - was centred on mushrooms, just like <a href="http://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2015/03/experiments-with-gousto-1-introduction.html" target="_blank">the first <i>Gousto</i> recipe I ever attempted</a>. It didn't require any particularly fussy chopping, though it did require potatoes to be peeled, and it did require a couple of things to be on the go at the same time, with some <i>fairly </i>precise timing to get everything onto the plate while still warm.<br />
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The design of <i>Gousto</i>'s recipe cards has changed quite a bit since 2015, with clearer and more detailed nutritional information on the front, along with the inclusion of allergen information, with the trade-off being <i>even smaller images of the individual ingredients</i>. The steps in the recipe, on the back, are now <i>vertically </i>sequential, rather than horizontally, but they're just as clearly numbered as before. I've yet to encounter a recipe that goes beyond <i>eight </i>steps, <i>but I think that's largely down to the creative way they define a 'step' in each process</i>. It's perfectly acceptable to group tasks that need to be done around the same time, and using a specific group of ingredients, but some of these recipes do resort to starting a new step "Meanwhile..." so it's <i>imperative </i>that one read through the <i>full </i>guide and assess the tasks <i>logically</i>, rather than attempting to follow the steps <i>on the fly</i>, which is my usual, carefree method. For example, with this one, I prepared the chimichurri <i>several hours ahead of everything else</i>, and stashed it in the fridge till it was needed. I also peeled and chopped the spuds and garlic <i>well </i>ahead of starting the oven so, <i>technically</i>, I followed the recipe by starting at step 4-5, then skipping back to the <i>middle </i>of step 1, and only really started at the <i>beginning </i>of step 1 when it was time to heat up the oven.<br />
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Considering how frazzled I've been of late, <i>and how nervous I was of taking the reigns on an evening meal after relying on my girlfriend to prepare dinner for so long</i>, this actually went really smoothly. It's certainly not the most <i>complex </i>recipe, but it does feature two "Meanwhile..." steps, and it's a little <i>imprecise </i>in some directions - "drizzle with olive oil", for example, is used for preparing the mushrooms on a baking tray <i>and </i>for preparing the potato/cannelli beans to be mashed. I suspect I should have 'drizzled' a little <i>more </i>olive oil into my mash but, to be honest, I'm more used to using butter and milk in mashed potato (<i>when I'm not copping out and using instant mash, to the eternal horror of my girlfriend's family</i>)... It ended up OK... not <i>dry</i>, but not properly <i>creamy </i>either. It's also tricky to judge seasoning, particularly when there's something like this chimichurri involved. I didn't want to add <i>too much</i> salt or pepper to the mash, even, but I could probably have added more than I did without any ill effects.<br />
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Another thing I kind of take issue with on these new recipe cards is their wishy-washy guidance on the seasoning, mashing and dressing. The phrase "this is your x" comes up <i>alarmingly </i>often. I get what they're trying to say - <i>that one should make it according to one's own preferences</i> - but I tend to think it's better to follow a recipe <i>precisely </i>the first time, and make alterations the <i>next </i>time based on how it turned out. For example, I've never even <i>heard </i>of a 'chimichurri' before, let alone <i>made </i>one, so telling me to "Season generously with salt and pepper - this is your chimichurri" doesn't seem very helpful. I don't know what it's <i>supposed </i>to taste like, nor do I know what effect salt/pepper will actually have on the end result.<br />
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Still, this was fairly simple - <i>easing me back into the kitchen reasonably comfortably</i> - and the end results were delicious. I'm not <i>entirely </i>certain of the merits of the tomato as a component of the meal (<i>hell, it doesn't even rate a mention in the title!</i>), and I think I'll aim to cut the coriander a little more <i>finely </i>next time (<i>perhaps grinding it, and the shallots, a little longer with the mortar and pestle</i>), but I'm broadly happy with what ended up on our plates...<br />
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<i>Hopefully </i>I'll be cooking the last of this batch over the weekend, and we have <i>another </i>box of four recipes arriving next week... Round two of my attempts at <i>Gousto </i>recipes is definitely off to a good start.Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-76053624611609070332018-05-11T22:16:00.000+01:002018-05-11T22:18:19.266+01:00O Hai, Food Blog......<i>Long time, no see</i>.<br />
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The last couple of years have been pretty bizarre and, <i>to cut a long story short</i>, I have deliberately left full-time employment to recover a little of my sanity and, <i>with any luck</i>, get a bit of cooking done.<br />
<br />
Due to the hours I was working and the length of my journey into work/back home, it just hasn't been <i>feasible </i>for me to cook evening meals for myself and my girlfriend over the last few years. Thankfully, until the end of last year, Courtney was mainly at home, studying for her degree or working at a part time job. Having successfully completed the course last year, she quickly found a full-time job in much the same area as me, <i>but with more favourable office hours</i>, so she continued to prepare evening meals for the both of us.<br />
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It might have been fun, at the start of this year, to document our foray into <i>Veganuary</i>... but, frankly, I added meat to <i>my </i>plate at every opportunity, so I wasn't very successful. A colleague asked me if I felt any <i>healthier </i>during Veganuary and I really didn't. Granted, <i>most </i>of the time I was physically and emotionally exhausted (<i>I actually handed in my notice toward the end of that month</i>), but the only really <i>significant </i>difference I noticed in myself - or, more accurately, <i>my digestive system</i> - is probably not something I should be writing about on a food blog.<br />
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But, to get back to the point, when my girlfriend and I discussed the idea of me leaving my job, it was agreed on the basis of her being in full time employment (<i>thankfully her 3- and 6-month appraisals were extremely positive</i>), and me taking on more - <i>if not all</i> - of the household chores, cooking included. The good thing about <i>that </i>is that taking on the cooking would mean that I would once again have reason/opportunity to post to this very blog.<br />
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And so, here I am again... I'm <i>not </i>going to say <i>"I'm Back!"</i> because I wouldn't want to imply that I'll suddenly be posting more often <i>or </i>more consistently. Pretty much the first thing that happened once I finally got out of my old office for the last time was that my computer died... <i>and that's not even the first unexpected and stressful occurrence this year</i>. I'm still not <i>quite </i>back on track with anything, as I'm just trying to <i>relax </i>for a while... But I did, <i>finally</i>, do some cooking today, and I'm hoping to do some <i>more </i>over the weekend.<br />
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<i>Watch this space</i>...Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-38437945826543968072016-10-27T18:19:00.001+01:002016-10-27T18:27:51.999+01:00Smoked Haddock Paella (sort-of à la Slimming World)I'd <i>like </i>to call it a <i>tradition </i>that I cook dinner while I'm off work but, over the last couple of years, Courtney and I have usually been doing something - <i>like taking a holiday</i> - which means there's actually not much of an <i>opportunity </i>to cook, and when I'm off work due to <i>illness</i>, cooking couldn't be <i>further </i>from my mind. This week - <i>coming at a bad time for going away</i> - has presented the first <i>good </i>opportunity (other than, y'know, <i>every frickin' weekend</i>) for me to get back into the kitchen and prepare some meals <i>from scratch</i>... But it didn't happen without a struggle. We'd <i>talked </i>about it a while back but, in the run-up to the week, Courtney became reluctant to pick meals for me to cook. I had previously become a little <i>stressed </i>during other stints in the kitchen and she felt that she wanted to <i>spare </i>me the upset.<br />
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<i>Nevertheless</i>, a handful of recipe suggestions were eventually teased out of her and, on the Wednesday, I tried my hand at an adaptation of a 'Syn-Free' <i>Slimming World</i> recipe for a vegetarian/vegan paella, with a bit of fish added <i>because we happened to have it in the freezer, otherwise unused</i>. There were a couple of <i>other </i>changes to the recipe, so I'll give this the <i>full </i>write-up...<br />
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<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Smoked Haddock (a couple of small fillets <i>should </i>be enough)</li>
<li>Onion (one of a decent size is sufficient, to be sliced)</li>
<li>Garlic (a couple of cloves, to be crushed)</li>
<li>Peppers (one red, one yellow, to be sliced)</li>
<li>Tomatoes (four, to be sliced - the original recipe specifies <i>plum </i>tomatoes, but I used the normal kind)</li>
<li>Lemons (one to be juiced, one to be cut into wedges) </li>
<li>Peas (200g, frozen)</li>
<li>Artichoke Hearts (one 400g tin - equating to about 240g of artichoke when drained)</li>
<li>Arborio Rice (largely because we couldn't find anything called 'Paella Rice', 350g)</li>
<li>Paprika (2 teaspoons)</li>
<li>Cumin (1 teaspoon)</li>
<li>Turmeric (half teaspoon)</li>
<li>Saffron (just a pinch, however one measures that...)</li>
<li>Vegetable Stock Cubes (3 should be sufficient, to be dissolved in about a litre of water)</li>
<li>Salt & Pepper (to taste) </li>
<li>Cooking Oil (to lubricate the wok in the initial stages)</li>
</ul>
<b>Preparation Time:</b> About an hour, less if you're better at slicing and chopping - or generally more organised - than I am<br />
<br />
<b>Tools Required:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>1 Large Wok or Frying Pan</li>
<li>1 Saucepan (large enough to comfortably accommodate 1 litre of boiling water) </li>
<li>1 Kitchen Knife</li>
<li>1 Mandoline (because it makes slicing the onion far easier on the eyes)</li>
<li>1 Garlic Press</li>
<li>Miscellaneous receptacles to contain the ingredients prior to adding to the wok</li>
<li>2 Stirring Implements (one for the wok, one for the stock)</li>
</ul>
<b>The Process:</b><br />
This is one of those recipes where it pays to <i>prepare in advance</i>. Before even <i>firing up</i> the hob, I cooked the two haddock fillets (<i>thawed overnight in the fridge, then approximately 5 minutes in the microwave, breaking halfway to drain the excess water, and then removing the skin and flaking the fish at the end</i>), mixed up the spices in a small bowl (<i>since it's easier to mix in the paprika, cumin, turmeric and saffron evenly if they're already mixed up and ready to be dumped into the wok</i>) <i>and </i>chopped up <i>all </i>the veg. While I would never say that I've got chopping things down to a <i>fine art</i>, I do find it easy enough to deseed and slice up things like <i>peppers</i>. Slicing things like <i>onions </i>has become far easier for me since we acquired a mandoline (<i>the Chef'n Pull'n'Slice mandoline from <a href="http://www.lakeland.co.uk/" target="_blank">Lakeland</a>, specifically</i>) but, <i>even so</i>, I had to cover over the onion slices once finished to avoid getting all <i>weepy</i>. The tomatoes were <i>slightly </i>more complicated to slice up because they <i>also </i>needed to be deseeded, <i>and that's the gooiest portion of the tomato</i>. On the upside, none of the slicing needs to be especially <i>fine</i>, and all I did with the artichoke hearts was drain them and halve them. I made <i>a lot</i> of extra washing up by using bowls and plates to store things once prepared, so I could simply <i>line them up</i> and <i>add them into the wok as I progressed</i>. The frozen peas were measured out, then stored in the fridge till needed. <i>One </i>of the lemons was juiced, while the other, <i>which only needed cutting into wedges</i>, was set aside.<br />
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I <i>also </i>dealt with the <i>stock </i>before the main part of the cooking, putting <i>just over</i> a litre of water into a saucepan, dropping in the three vegetable stock cubes and bringing it to the boil. Stirring <i>occasionally </i>to help the stock cubes break up, I then made a start on the main event.<br />
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The wok received a spraying of cooking oil before turning on the hob to a medium heat. <i>As a side note</i>, I'm <i>slowly </i>learning how to set temperature levels on the hob - high and low being <i>obvious</i>, but 'medium' sitting somewhere <i>below </i>the median - so just about every stage of this recipe proceeded as intended. <i>First </i>into the wok were the sliced onion and the crushed garlic, these being cooked gently - <i>and kept on the move to prevent them sticking to the wok</i> - till the onions started turning golden (<i>a little over five minutes</i>). I <i>did</i> splash a spoonful or two of the stock in early as I <i>suspect </i>I didn't spray in quite <i>enough </i>cooking oil.<br />
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Next up came the peppers, with the whole lot continuing to stir-fry for <i>about </i>another five minutes. The next stage <i>starts out</i> with a flurry of activity before settling down for <i>a long simmer</i>: the tomatoes, rice (<i>added dry</i>) and the spice mix go in next, along with a <i>small </i>amount - <i>about a tablespoon or so</i> - of the lemon juice and then stirred up. The <i>final </i>part of this stage is adding the <i>stock </i>and, <i>since I wasn't quite sure of myself on this point</i>, I ended up adding it <i>gradually </i>rather than all at once. I ended up not using <i>all </i>of it, as the extra was just a <i>precaution</i>, but very little was left over. This then needs to simmer down for around a quarter of an hour or so, to allow the rice to absorb water and cook. It's worth giving it all a <i>stir </i>once in a while, as I did find that my rice sank to - <i>and then stuck to</i> - the bottom of the wok.<br />
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The <i>final </i>stage starts by adding the frozen peas and chopped artichoke, then simmering for <i>another </i>ten minutes or so, <i>leaving you with something resembling paella, rather than a chunky vegetable soup</i> - you want it <i>moist</i>, but not <i>waterlogged</i>. The <i>last </i>thing to be added to the wok, <i>preferably in the last couple of minutes before serving</i>, is the flaked haddock. After that, it's simply a case of serving up, seasoning to taste, then chopping the remaining lemon into wedges to squeeze over the top.<br />
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<b>The Results:</b><br />
Given the time I'd put in to preparation <i>before </i>I started, I was pleased to find this all progressed <i>very smoothly</i>. Because my worktop space is fairly limited, I'd dotted bowls and plates around the available space, piling them up as I emptied them into the wok. My <i>biggest </i>concern was getting the hob temperature right for boiling off the excess water to ensure the correct texture/viscosity in the end result, but the only <i>problem </i>with the simmering stage was that <i>I didn't keep the rice moving</i>, so quite a bit ended up as a <i>congealed, crispy mass</i> at the bottom of the wok... but even <i>that </i>wasn't a <i>complete </i>disaster, as Courtney <i>likes </i>crispy congealed rice.<br />
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The original <i>Slimming World</i> version of this recipe suggests garnishing with shredded parsley, but that's not something we tend to have <i>in stock</i> as it's not something we <i>use </i>a great deal of - it seems like a huge <i>waste</i> to buy some only to tear up a small amount to sprinkle over something like this. I seasoned mine only very slightly - <i>a little salt and a touch of pepper</i> - as I wanted to try it with as little extra flavouring as possible. I was a little concerned, <i>for example</i>, that smoked haddock might have too strong a taste <i>in its own right</i>, but that turned out OK - <i>blending in</i> without losing its own flavour. While the tomato pretty much fell apart, <i>becoming part of the sauce and leaving only the strips of skin</i>, the other veg held together well, maintained <i>some </i>of their bite and kept their individual flavours <i>to a degree</i>. Adding a squeeze of lemon juice didn't do <i>much</i>, and I suspect a sprinkle of fresh parsley <i>may </i>have been a worthwhile addition after all. I'm not entirely sure what the difference is between 'paella rice' and the arborio rice I used, but I can't imagine the results would have been <i>massively </i>improved by using the 'correct' rice.<br />
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Aside from all the preparation work and small amount of waste due to the rice getting stuck to the bottom of the wok, this was a simple recipe that turned out very well<i> and restored some of my kitchen confidence</i>. The recipe in the book isn't exactly <i>comprehensive</i>, assuming a certain amount of experience, but I was able to read between the lines and keep things progressing, <i>without </i>getting stressed out by re-reading the same lines over and over, trying to discern what I might be <i>missing</i>.<br />
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This is, at heart, a <i>vegetarian </i>dish, so it would be perfectly acceptable in its unadulterated form, yet it could easily support <i>other </i>white fish, or perhaps a full-on meaty component... <i>as long as it's not something too strongly flavoured in its own right</i>.<br />
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The quantities specified are <i>meant </i>to serve four, but we both had fairly <i>generous </i>servings, and Courtney took the leftovers for today's lunch. She had it cold, and reported that it was <i>still </i>quite flavourful, though she felt a bit of extra salt and pepper would have improved it, and hadn't taken any with her. She <i>also </i>reckoned it had reached the consistency where it could be turned into rice balls or patties, so that's perhaps something to investigate <i>further </i>in future.<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp3HbRbD481UOPn6AX7fstvzLUpXfeatRFHW_oT5RMf6bQZ8tOkvgaDwEfsNXbSa9Ig5LYj1GBNIlFH1OEReywo3Xe_OhezVrCXK7qLzvMpuERH3lE0dNtmsX6MHAJzh3n_qt6I-_xC53U/s1600/DSCF3911.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhp3HbRbD481UOPn6AX7fstvzLUpXfeatRFHW_oT5RMf6bQZ8tOkvgaDwEfsNXbSa9Ig5LYj1GBNIlFH1OEReywo3Xe_OhezVrCXK7qLzvMpuERH3lE0dNtmsX6MHAJzh3n_qt6I-_xC53U/s400/DSCF3911.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Snapped prior to the addition of a little salt and pepper...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-27590505375093325792016-09-20T23:00:00.000+01:002016-09-20T23:00:02.156+01:00Birds Eye "Stir Your Senses" Tagliatelle con Porcini<i>Having singularly failed to note the sixth anniversary of this blog (12th September)</i>, despite setting a reminder in my phone <i>and </i>receiving <i>several </i>prompts from my girlfriend, I actually have a good opportunity for a quick post this evening. Courtney would normally be out at a Slimming World meeting on a Monday evening, so there's a good chance there will be several ready meal/quick snack posts coming up (<i>not to mention an under-discussion post about Slimming World, if only so I can joke at length about how it comes across as some kind of cult whenever anyone I know talks about it, and there are quite a few Slimming Worlders at work</i>).<br />
<br />
The upshot of this is that I was recently <i>vaguely </i>organised and picked myself up one of Birds Eye's new <i>"Stir Your Senses"</i> collection - a range of seven <i>ready-to-cook-from-frozen, bagged meals for one</i> which take about ten minutes (<i>or less</i>) to cook. Given that I generally get home too late to start cooking anything substantial <i>from scratch</i>, that's a very tempting prospect, and I'm always happy to try out something that purports to go from freezer to plate in a very short time <i>and by a very simple process</i>. That is, after all, just one <i><span class="st">raison d'être</span></i> for this blog.<br />
<br />
According to the packaging, this particular bag invites one to <i>"Be inspired by the truly magical tastes of Tuscany. Our chefs have combined ribbons of fresh egg pasta in a delicately light creamy sauce and the earthy richness of porcini and champignon mushrooms"</i>. The cooking process described is nothing more than emptying the contents of the bag into a non-stick pan or wok with two or three tablespoons of water, heating on high until the frozen bricks of sauce <i>begin </i>to melt, then turning the heat <i>down </i>for the remainder of the 7-8 minutes cooking time. The <i>full </i>duration depends mostly on how thick one wants the sauce to be or, at least, <i>a fine balance between that and how hungry one is to begin with</i>. The <i>most</i> complicated part is <i>remembering to keep stirring</i> once the sauce has fully melted, lest the pasta start to stick to the outer edges of the pan/wok. Once the desired consistency of sauce it achieved, the contents of the pan are simply decanted onto the desired receptacle for eating.<br />
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I have to say I was <i>very </i>surprised by this - not only was the <i>process </i>of cooking it <i>precisely as quick and simple as the packaging suggests</i> - granted, it's only <i>barely </i>more involved than simply <i>chucking something into the oven for a few minutes at a particular temperature</i>, but it's been a while since I've done much of anything in the kitchen - but it didn't take much effort to ensure it <i>didn't</i> go horribly wrong. I was worried initially that <i>some </i>of it might burn at (<i>or to</i>) the bottom of the pan before the rest had even <i>thawed</i>, but a small amount of stirring kept everything under control. <i>Not only that</i>, but it was a remarkably tasty meal - one tends to expect that mushrooms, in particular, <i>cooked from frozen</i>, will be soggy and pretty much flavourless, but the subtly nutty flavour was not overwhelmed by the plentiful and creamy sauce and their texture retained a certain firmness. The <i>real </i>hero of the dish, though, was the <i>onion</i>, which offset the <i>sweetness </i>of the sauce and added a pleasant <i>bite</i>. If I had a complaint, it would be that the <i>size </i>of this 'Meal for 1' was rather <i>smaller </i>than I'd prefer, <i>but I know I tend to be a bit of a porker</i>. It's likely a <i>healthier</i> portion size than I'd serve myself if I was cooking something like this from scratch.<br />
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Looking over the <i>rest </i>of the range, there aren't many others that I'm <i>especially </i>keen to try - "chef inspired" they may be (<i>whatever that's supposed to mean</i>), but they're not incredibly varied <i>or </i>imaginative. <i>Four </i>are Italian-styled pasta-based dishes, <i>the other three</i> involve chicken and <i>one </i>of those adds prawns - <i>one of my culinary </i><span class="st"><i>bêtes noires</i>. Nevertheless, they have apparently been awarded 'Product of the Year' in a 2016 consumer survey of product innovation, and it's not hard to see why - the simple presentation <i>(bagged rather than boxed, making them somewhat more convenient to store </i></span><i>in the freezer compartment of an average fridge freezer)</i> along with the fact that it's so simple to prepare <i>and </i>so surprisingly tasty mean that such plaudits are <i>well-deserved</i>. I'd certainly grab one of these again if I need a quick dinner, and may yet try other options in the range.<br />
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I'll also add this to the list of meals I'd like to try cooking <i>from scratch</i>, at some point...Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-5928567427492530352016-07-04T22:54:00.001+01:002016-07-04T22:54:19.649+01:00Kanikama Luxury Sushi CollectionI'm quite a <i>fan </i>of sushi, <i>as long-time readers may be aware</i>, so when I popped into my local Iceland today and discovered they now stock a <i>seemingly heretical</i> frozen variety, I was surprised, not to say <i>utterly dumbfounded</i>.<br />
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But this is <i>occasionally </i>a blog about <i>convenience foods</i> as well as about <i>making things from scratch</i>, and this <i>appears </i>to be a convenience food (<i>until you read the instructions, that is</i>). It's also a rare day that I'll say <i>no </i>to the idea of eating sushi. <br />
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The <i>first </i>thing to remember about sushi is that, <i>ideally</i>, it's prepared <i>fresh</i>, and preferably <i>right in front of you</i>. Most folks in the UK with experience of sushi will have eaten in at the likes of <i>Yo! Sushi</i>, though London is certainly not <i>lacking </i>proper sushi restaurants. The very idea of <i>freezing </i>this form of Japanese cuisine is surely <i>anathema </i>to those who spend years <i>training </i>to prepare it in a restaurant, but I'm hardly going to let <i>that </i>stop me, am I?<br />
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Well played, Iceland - <i>challenge accepted</i>.<br />
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And so, <i>first</i>, we address the elephant in the room, the disparity, <i>the downright oxymoron</i> that is 'fresh frozen'. The Kanikama Luxury Sushi Collection describes itself as <i>"Authentic Hand Crafted Sushi"</i> and, more specifically <i>"Ready to eat cooked rice with raw salmon, cooked shrimp, crab flavour surimi, wasabi, soy sauce and vegetables."</i> The basic instruction is to <i>"Defrost & Serve"</i>, but therein lies the <i>first</i> problem. According to the <i>detailed </i>instructions, it takes 2-3 <i>hours </i>to defrost the product <i>"at room temperature"</i> (and one has to wonder <i>which </i>room, and <i>at what time of year</i> they use for their <i>definition </i>of 'room temperature'). Alternatively - <i>and especially for high summer</i> - the set can be defrosted by storage in the fridge, <i>but this takes between 6-8 hours, followed by 5-10 minutes at room temperature</i>. For those who just can't wait, it <i>can </i>also be defrosted in the microwave, in about 2 minutes on Medium power... <i>followed by 10-15 minutes at room temperature</i>.<br />
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All the while, the condiments - wasabi paste, soy sauce and pickled ginger strips - must be defrosted separately <i>"under cold running water for 5-10 minutes"</i> or <i>"at room temperature for 20-30 minutes"</i>... so, even when using a microwave, this is hardly a <i>quick </i>snack. It's <i>also </i>worth noting that the instructions basically caution <i>against </i>using a microwave, on the grounds that it's likely to start <i>cooking </i>the salmon which, <i>as everyone but Sainbury's seems to know</i>, is not what you <i>do </i>with sushi. I used the microwave for mine as I didn't fancy waiting 2-3 hours for my dinner when I got home this evening, and I must confess to <i>deliberately </i>overdoing it in the microwave, just to ensure it was properly <i>thawed</i>.<br />
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The end result, <i>perhaps surprisingly</i>, is <i>not </i>as vile as one might expect. The rice isn't waterlogged, the fish has a decent <i>texture </i>though it's very light on <i>flavour </i>versus what you might experience in a restaurant. The salmon is <i>ridiculously </i>easy to overcook by microwave thawing, but that's true of just about <i>any </i>piece of frozen salmon you'd care to risk defrosting in a microwave.<br />
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In each pack, you get 3 California Pinwheels (<i>small rolls with seemingly random content</i>), 3 Salmon Nigiri (<i>fairly bland, but not offensively so</i>), 2 Shrimp Nigiri (<i>never my favourite, not least because of the tails</i>), 1 Salmon Hosomaki (<i>which looked suspiciously blobby</i>) and 1 Surimi Hosomaki (<i>essentially fake crabstick pieces in a seaweed-wrapped roll</i>). It's a decent selection, but presents only <i>a light snack for one</i>. The set <i>also </i>includes its own chopsticks, for convenience, and, while there's a reasonable <i>quantity</i> of wasabi (which was, <i>for my preference</i>, of better than reasonable <i>quality</i>), the sachet of soy sauce was <i>insufficient</i>, and hand to be topped up from my own supply. I didn't try the pickled ginger because I'm not a fan... <i>and </i>because I accidentally left it in the packaging during the microwave thawing, so it ended up a bit <i>soggy</i>.<br />
<br />
I certainly wouldn't recommend this to anyone as an <i>introduction </i>to sushi. <i>Please, try it first made properly fresh from a halfway decent restaurant (or, failing that, Yo! Sushi)</i>. For a sushi <i>connoisseur</i>, this would probably be <i>inadequate </i>in every sense, if not outright <i>insulting</i>... but, for £3, this is certainly better than I'd <i>expected</i>. I'm not sure I'll ever choose to have it <i>again</i>, given that I work near a <i>Yo! Sushi</i> and have access to the <i>myriad </i>sushi restaurants in and around London, but I suppose it's nice to know it's <i>available </i>in Iceland's cabinets, should one find oneself craving <i>a better brand of junk food</i>.Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-32456521203978257152016-03-30T22:17:00.003+01:002016-03-30T22:17:30.312+01:00Rouleaux Niçois/Cannelloni Niçoise-Style (à la Khoo)<i>Another </i>of my little whims while on holiday around Easter was to leaf through <a href="http://www.rachelkhoo.com/" target="_blank">Rachel Khoo</a>'s delightfully quirky recipe book, <i>'My Little French Kitchen'</i> for something <i>reasonably </i>simple, but <i>more </i>complicated than the <a href="http://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2012/07/croque-madame-muffins-la-khoo.html" target="_blank">Croque Madame Muffins</a> I tried last time (<i>being almost four years ago now</i>). I've actually tagged about <i>a dozen</i> things that I <i>intend </i>to try but, on this occasion, wanted something <i>not too taxing</i>, but still <i>reasonably adventurous</i>.<br />
<br />
Since I quite like Italian food, but the closest I've ever come to actually <i>cooking it from scratch</i> is that staple of the single man's repertoire, <a href="http://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2011/11/dolmio-days.html" target="_blank">Spag Bol</a> (<i>which isn't even really Italian</i>), I thought I'd try this French take on an Italian dish. The recipe called for the purchase of fresh ingredients - <i>even, for preference, fresh lasagne sheets</i> - but, <i>thankfully</i>, didn't require an awful lot of <i>chopping</i>.<br />
<br />
Back when I did those Croque Madame Muffins, I noted that the instructions in <i>'My Little French Kitchen'</i> aren't always presented in the most logical - <i>or strictly chronological</i> - order and, <i>yet again</i>, I fell foul of this <i>foible </i>when working through this recipe. I did <i>most </i>of the prep work in advance, <i>as I strive to do as often as possible</i>, but there was a rather <i>critical </i>instruction regarding the lasagne that is placed as a <i>footnote </i>to the recipe,<i> in smaller type</i>, which I shall quote here:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><b>Les petites astuces - tips</b></i> if your lasagne sheets are a little dry, pop them in a bowl of boiling water for 30 seconds or so. When they are supple, drain them and pat dry with kitchen towel or a clean tea towel.</blockquote>
Now, considering that 'fresh lasagne' sheets, <i>as bought from most supermarkets</i>, are typically <i>pretty dry</i>, one would <i>tend </i>to think an instruction like that isn't merely one of <i>'the little tricks'</i>, but <i>an integral part of the recipe</i>, and should be inserted more prominently <i>within the main text of the recipe</i>... OK, <i>sure</i>, I remember being taught in High School that <i>one should read through all instructions before commencing (and what a great laugh that lesson was)</i>... but <i>that </i>exercise did not involve <i>footnotes</i>.<br />
<br />
And I'm clearly <i>less </i>patient <i>now </i>than I was <i>then</i>.<br />
<br />
<i>Unbelievable</i>, I know.<br />
<br />
So, having peeled long ribbons of courgette and sliced the cooked peppers and artichoke (<i>both from jars, and not as successfully drained as they could have been</i>), it didn't occur to me to dunk the lasagne in hot water before staring to pile stuff onto them and, <i>consequently</i>, when I started to <i>roll up</i> my cannelloni, the lasagne sheets cracked <i>quite spectacularly</i>.<br />
<br />
That wasn't the <i>worst </i>of my errors, though. When we went shopping, the punnet of cherry tomatoes we picked up was <i>slightly short</i> of the 500g specified on the recipe, the parsley we'd bought was soggy and browning slightly by the time I came to start cooking this, <i>and I entirely forgot to spread the black olive tapenade onto the lasagne before adding the other stuff</i>, so that ended up getting dumped into the tomato sauce.<br />
<br />
While I wasn't <i>far </i>short of the 500g of cherry tomatoes, it seems I was <i>sufficiently short</i> to ensure there wasn't quite <i>enough </i>sauce to adequately douse the cannelloni so, <i>once in the oven</i>, the dish never reached the <i>'golden and bubbly'</i> stage, because what little fluid there was seemed to boil off too quickly.<br />
<br />
I <i>also </i>forgot to grate any lemon zest <i>or </i>add any lemon juice but, <i>after all my many cock-ups</i>, the end result was surprisingly edible. As learning experiences go, it wasn't <i>half </i>so annoying as <a href="http://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2015/06/experiments-with-hellofresh-2-double.html" target="_blank">my <i>first </i>attempt</a> at that <i>HelloFresh</i> Peanut Satay thing, and I'm <i>very </i>keen to try thing again sometime soon with the <i>right </i>weight of cherry tomatoes (<i>with perhaps a bit of added water, just in case</i>), and remembering to spread the olive tapenade over some <i>freshly-dunked</i> fresh lasagne sheets. It was a remarkably simple <i>and fun</i> recipe, so it's a little frustrating to have <i>ballsed it up so stupidly</i>, but it proves I really need to get more <i>practice </i>in the kitchen...<br />
<br />
...<i>and read the bloody recipe more thoroughly</i>.<br />
<br />
This is the only dish of the three I cooked recently that I remembered to <i>photograph</i>, so <i>enjoy</i>...<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQGvr4XrSwTMNNaTB0CGyYpkCqwwvsVA1hVk6RB2t7mnTeQvVWVOIA_dGXgsfiiyXlwSxkd6leaeYU_7e4jnQgXQ_4z4U1BB4YkyKsHn_XjqdYGiItYJq3tBwrB2TUe2f1Ir72GkXx56zw/s1600/DSCF1810.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQGvr4XrSwTMNNaTB0CGyYpkCqwwvsVA1hVk6RB2t7mnTeQvVWVOIA_dGXgsfiiyXlwSxkd6leaeYU_7e4jnQgXQ_4z4U1BB4YkyKsHn_XjqdYGiItYJq3tBwrB2TUe2f1Ir72GkXx56zw/s400/DSCF1810.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"Green salad? We don't need no stinkin' green salad!"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-30181527788901884852016-03-25T00:07:00.001+00:002016-03-30T22:48:41.666+01:00HelloFresh Revisited: Double Peanut Satay Stir Fry with Thai Holy Basil & Bok ChoyClearly <i>I </i>haven't been doing a great deal of cooking recently, but I've been off work for most of this week - <i>by choice, this time, rather than through illness</i> - and my girlfriend and I had been discussing for quite some time that this would provide the <i>ideal </i>opportunity for <i>her </i>to take a break from slaving over the hot stove, and for <i>me </i>to get in some more practice <i>over that same hot stove</i>.<br />
<br />
Since my last couple of stints of cooking dinner were both sets of three dishes (one from Gousto, the other from HelloFresh), I figured I'd <i>start </i>by looking over their recipe cards, and my eyes <i>naturally </i>fell on <a href="http://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2015/06/experiments-with-hellofresh-2-double.html" target="_blank">my biggest failure</a> from that batch of experiments. <i>I always say that one learns more from a single failure than from any number of successes, but I've yet to put that properly into practice in the kitchen</i>. The <i>first </i>change I made was <i>obvious </i>- using products I already had in stock, or were bought at the supermarket - basically <i>things that didn't have to be wrestled out of weird 'portion-sized' packets</i> and things that I'd gone and got for myself based on the ingredients list.<br />
<br />
My <i>biggest </i>gripes about HelloFresh generally were <i>the imprecise </i>and <i>illogical </i>measures they used for some items, and <i>the wonky order of events presented by the instructions</i>. Having cocked it up <i>once</i>, I had a better idea of <i>how </i>and <i>where </i>to start, so I <i>began </i>by mixing the Satay sauce - 2 large tablespoons of peanut butter<i> straight out of my kitchen cupboards</i>, 1 tablespoon of the sweet chilli sauce <i>lurking in my fridge</i>, and a tablespoon of soy sauce (<i>light or dark is not actually specified in the recipe, but the first bottle I picked up was light, so I used that</i>) all stirred together in a small bowl. This was an interesting step, because the peanut butter in my cupboard had <i>separated </i>when I last used it, and stirring it thoroughly <i>still </i>left it roughly "the consistency of runny honey", which description was the source of just <i>one </i>of the issues I had the <i>first </i>time round. Adding the two sauces thinned it out <i>further</i>, but then I left the sauce aside... <i>and while I worked on the other steps, it thickened up considerably</i>. By the time I was doing the noodles, I really <i>did </i>need to add some of the boiling noodle water, but the recipe's estimate of "a couple of tbsp" <i>wasn't</i> entirely sufficient to correct the consistency - I ended up using <i>four or five</i>, and could probably have used a couple <i>more </i>without overly diluting the resultant sauce.<br />
<br />
Next up came <i>the chopping of the veg</i> - which, <i>as usual</i>, took far longer than it <i>should </i>have done because <i>I'm still terrible at chopping veg</i>. I did save <i>some </i>time and effort by <i>grating </i>the ginger rather than chopping it finely, because <i>attempting to chop things finely still really pisses me off</i>. I put the grated ginger <i>and </i>the discs of the <i>white </i>parts of the spring onions into one small bowl since they're added together, then the red peppers (<i>sliced not quite to half centimetre matchsticks, but close enough</i>) and the sugar snap peas into a <i>second </i>bowl since they're <i>also </i>added together. Next up, I sliced the bok choy (<i>or 'pak choi', as Morrisons call it</i>) and set <i>that </i>aside in <i>another </i>bowl, then chopped up the <i>green </i>parts of the spring onions and put <i>them </i>an a small bowl of their own.<br />
<br />
Finally, <i>in this pageant of proper preparedness, primed to prevent a plural of poor performances</i>, I poured a handful of dry roasted peanuts into the mortar <i>I barely use</i> and lightly crushed them with the pestle <i>I rarely touch</i>. Hey, they <i>look </i>nice in my kitchen, <i>OK</i>? <br />
<br />
<i>Then and only then</i> did I start on the noodles. My girlfriend has shown me a neat trick where you boil your water in a kettle <i>before </i>putting it in the saucepan, and that does seem to cut down the cooking time simply because <i>a kettle boils water far quicker than a gas hob</i>, so the noodles could be <i>added </i>sooner, so their four minutes were <i>up </i>sooner. <i>Again</i>, I followed the advice of HelloFresh and put the cooked noodles into a pan of <i>cold </i>water to keep them ready (<i>and loose</i>) till they were <i>needed</i>.<br />
<br />
The actual <i>cooking </i>part is very quick - <i>part </i>of the problem I had the first time round was that the fourth step of the recipe,<i> the stir-fry</i>, takes only a little over five minutes, <i>but everything has to be ready and to hand so that things actually happen in the necessary quick succession</i>.<br />
<br />
When it came time to add the Satay sauce, I <i>still </i>managed to fluff things up <i>a little</i>: it looked at first as if there <i>still </i>wasn't enough (<i>hence the impression that I could have added more of the noodle water</i>) and by the time it was bubbling, <i>some </i>of it had already stuck to the bottom of my wok. Still, it mixed in nicely enough and everything seemed to get a decent <i>coating </i>of the sauce, so things were looking positive. I had, <i>of course</i>, singularly failed to tear up some basil (<i>the normal kind, as the Thai variety was nowhere to be found in the supermarket or my local grocers</i>), but that was soon enough accomplished. The final steps were sprinkling over the crushed nuts and the green bits of the spring onion. <i>Still </i>no prayers to the gods of Thai cooking, <i>but equally no colourful oaths muttered under my breath</i>... and my girlfriend was pleased to find I wasn't <i>utterly losing my rag</i> over dinner this time.<br />
<br />
Oh, and it tasted <i>fantastic</i>... Much, <i>I suspect</i>, as it is <i>intended</i>...<br />
<br />
I was <i>especially </i>pleased with the sauce, as I really could taste the note of ginger and the sweetness of the chilli sauce in the Satay - <i>even the shredded basil wasn't utterly overwhelmed by the large quantity of peanut butter</i>. The red peppers and sugar snap peas had retained some <i>bite </i>and the noodles were nice and soft without being <i>gooey </i>or <i>gummy</i>. It may have taken me most of a year, but I feel that I've managed to turn what I very <i>generously </i>considered <i>"a kind of success"</i> in retrospect, into the success it <i>deserved </i>to be, <i>without half the stress I'd expected considering how long it's been since I last cooked</i>. It all proceeded far more <i>smoothly </i>than the first time, I felt <i>calmer, more confident and in control</i> all the way through... the only <i>downside </i>was the <i>mess </i>left over in the wok... but most of <i>that </i>will come off through <i>soaking</i>.<br />
<br />
This is <i>definitely </i>a recipe that I'd like to try again sometime, making a few <i>subtle </i>changes: the ginger was possibly grated a little <i>too </i>finely, <i>almost to a paste</i>, and I'll <i>probably </i>add a bit more water to the Satay sauce as I cook the noodles... <i>maybe even use different veg</i>.<br />
<br />
My biggest <i>regret </i>with this second attempt at the recipe is that, <i>yet again</i>, I didn't take <i>any </i>photos. To be honest, though, <i>what I served up wasn't as tidy-looking as the photo on the recipe card, so it still wouldn't have looked half as good as it tasted</i>.Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-10097706867292832312016-02-15T22:59:00.000+00:002016-02-15T22:59:12.760+00:00A Flippin' Late, Flippin' Short Blog PostIt comes to something when I can't even be bothered to write the most <i>underachieving </i>post in the <i>underachieving </i>history of this <i>underachieving </i>blog... But, last week, my girlfriend and I did some <i>pancakes</i>. Courtney made the batter, but had trouble with the <i>flip</i>, and the first few pancakes out of the pan were rather <i>bunched up</i>. Flipping things in frying pans is something I do <i>well</i>... Quite <i>bizarrely </i>well, in fact, because <a href="http://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2010/10/adventures-in-omelette-1-mushroom.html" target="_blank">I've flipped <i>omelettes</i></a> in the past.<br />
<br />
I am, however, a bit of a <i>sad traditionalist</i> at heart, so one of my pancakes just got topped with sugar and freshly-squeezed lemon juice. The other was a <i>bit </i>more daring... if you consider attempting to spread Nutella on a hot, freshly-made pancake 'daring'.<br />
<br />
<i>Which I don't</i>.<br />
<br />
So I don't know <i>why </i>I wrote that.<br />
<br />
<i>Anyway</i>. Photos:<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkQgkKLNuNiwtxUe3eRtFilE43vvltzeuop8Iv67G8s5xtitorZTeTu9slsljXOfKdFLP1wHTs7iwHVj314X45kSWYECamr7Gx7QDtGPTQFNL2j6eH938f-ZkThGVBeQCYViDQi9nXWicK/s1600/DSCF1559.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkQgkKLNuNiwtxUe3eRtFilE43vvltzeuop8Iv67G8s5xtitorZTeTu9slsljXOfKdFLP1wHTs7iwHVj314X45kSWYECamr7Gx7QDtGPTQFNL2j6eH938f-ZkThGVBeQCYViDQi9nXWicK/s400/DSCF1559.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">One very nicely done pancake</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg339jttcwZmK6LtmFO3B5Ppc7wqRhB0pVWqq7PPaoKiDzHtO4P5cAJSwe1qQaT9n6Uqf20_WKJgx_zb1jDZQ7zXIK8kLhNRDq_00-g5zUIAQF-4LP1R00_mIiiet4ikL_y-TXUh94Bzc8o/s1600/DSCF1557.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg339jttcwZmK6LtmFO3B5Ppc7wqRhB0pVWqq7PPaoKiDzHtO4P5cAJSwe1qQaT9n6Uqf20_WKJgx_zb1jDZQ7zXIK8kLhNRDq_00-g5zUIAQF-4LP1R00_mIiiet4ikL_y-TXUh94Bzc8o/s400/DSCF1557.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A liberal sprinkling of sugar with half a lemon at the ready... <br />
Which reminds me, I really must set up an appointment with my dentist...</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Df-D6_zkbn0Ye3yYyoO8-rddcbD-xnugIrrFUFuakIDqoyCrRYbur3cyBrBQUhXPKihSztH9HAwmZpMViyZW2CN-vwpLA7rLySxIxvpPesQSpvykgRElfOX5saEJ0a5V2J8goUAX2zW-/s1600/DSCF1558.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-Df-D6_zkbn0Ye3yYyoO8-rddcbD-xnugIrrFUFuakIDqoyCrRYbur3cyBrBQUhXPKihSztH9HAwmZpMViyZW2CN-vwpLA7rLySxIxvpPesQSpvykgRElfOX5saEJ0a5V2J8goUAX2zW-/s200/DSCF1558.JPG" width="200" /></a>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzXnghSYuFKAjIfG98YB91ElwotSoqFQs55crhpnU91BqANoNKoveT5mkqmZgxkXoAxcFcPnMZEbrRtI-2Z_PNrt2Pn8bG_M2WGEei0l1htVBTan4fhDN5hRpOotbqZGKDgJDbi-paXQXP/s1600/DSCF1560.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzXnghSYuFKAjIfG98YB91ElwotSoqFQs55crhpnU91BqANoNKoveT5mkqmZgxkXoAxcFcPnMZEbrRtI-2Z_PNrt2Pn8bG_M2WGEei0l1htVBTan4fhDN5hRpOotbqZGKDgJDbi-paXQXP/s200/DSCF1560.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
Not that you can tell from these photos, but the one on the <i>left </i>is the sugar'n'lemon one and you might <i>just</i> make out a slight <i>oozing </i>of Nutella on the <i>righthand </i>pancake.Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-20452397327138972612016-01-08T15:16:00.002+00:002016-01-08T15:16:22.380+00:00Sriracha Tuna MeltI am a <i>big </i>fan of the tuna melt and, <i>despite having previously only done one write-up for <a href="http://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2012/09/tuna-melt-cheaty-way.html" target="_blank">a very cheaty home-made version</a> and one <a href="http://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2011/12/iceland-ultimate-snacks-tuna-melt.html" target="_blank">shop-bought frozen version</a></i>, it's something I <i>have </i>made for myself, <i>from scratch</i>, quite a few times by mixing up a tin of tuna, some mayonnaise and some capers, then slapping the result into what would <i>otherwise </i>be a humble toasted cheese sandwich.<br />
<br />
<i>This week</i>, while I've been away from work due to a lingering illness, I had a moment of <i>inspiration </i>while searching my fridge for the capers: I noticed a small, squeezy bottle of Sriracha sauce (<i>acquired from Yo Sushi months ago, as a result of ordering one of their specials</i>) and wondered what <i>that </i>would taste like in a tuna melt...<br />
<br />
...<i>And so, here's the first post of 2016</i> - a quick, simple <i>and spicy</i> variant on an old favourite. <i>Enjoy</i>!<br />
<br />
<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Bread (<i>2 slices per melt</i>, I used Kingsmill 50/50) </li>
<li>Tuna Chunks (160g tin - <i>120g drained</i> - makes 2-3 melts, depending on how <i>generous </i>you are with the tuna mix)</li>
<li>Mayonnaise (1.5 to 2 heaped tablespoons,<i> depending on your preference and how high you heap</i>)</li>
<li>Siracha Sauce (about 2 <i>generous </i>teaspoons, but basically <i>according to your preference</i>)</li>
<li>Mature Cheddar Cheese (grated or sliced according to your preference, I used Tesco ready-sliced from a 250g pack, <i>but had to use just over 1 slice per melt due to the size of bread</i>)</li>
</ul>
<b>Preparation Time:</b> Less than 10 minutes in total<br />
<br />
<b>Tools Required:</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Tin Opener (<i>duh</i>)</li>
<li>Toaster (<i>duh, again</i>)</li>
<li>Small Bowl</li>
<li>Mixing Implement of Choice (such as a fork)</li>
</ul>
<b>The Process: </b><br />
Preheat your grill to about 170C. Open the tin of tuna, <i>drain thoroughly</i>, then empty into the small bowl. Add mayonnaise and stir, then add the Sriracha sauce and stir in so it's all nice and even. Toast a slice of bread for the base of the melt, then spread the mix over evenly. Top with cheese, then place under the grille <i>and start another slice of bread toasting for the top of the melt</i>. While the timing may not be perfect for <i>everyone</i>, I've found that <i>my</i> toaster, <i>on my preferred setting</i>, finishes toasting at <i>precisely </i>the right moment for a <i>nicely melted</i> cheese topping, so the moment the second slice pops up, I took the melt out from under the grill and topped it with the <i>second </i>slice of toast.<br />
<br />
The quantity of tuna mix makes <i>at least</i> 2 melts, so the most <i>efficient </i>way of doing it would be to make 2 simultaneously: toast 2 slices of bread, add the mix to <i>both</i>, top with cheese and pop <i>both </i>under the grill while toasting <i>another 2</i> slices of bread.<br />
<br />
<b>The Results:</b><br />
My <i>only </i>concern, going into this, was whether cheese was still a <i>suitable </i>accompaniment for <i>a tuna melt imbued with the spicy power of Sriracha</i>, but I needn't have worried. Just as supermarkets have <i>so-called</i> 'Mexican Cheese' which is basically <i>cheddar with added chilli</i>, the combination if spicy Sriracha and sharp mature cheddar is excellent. I'm not sure whether capers might <i>still </i>be able to add something worthwhile, or whether they would clash with the Sriracha, but I suppose there's no harm in finding out at a later date...<br />
<br />
And if you're <i>not </i>a fan of the tuna melt, this concoction works equally well as the filling for a baguette, or if you fancy something hot in <i>temperature </i>as well as in spiciness, I'm sure it could be used as the topping of a baked potato. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihooQaZCGrBm0Zy4rC_ezTBbvZ39fsWIBo3ti2zJsFNCfpr8uQpp04ahFDLTMp8jogRn-r5pPzJrN7TiYxTlSsorSmPX3UsGm7e93jT4qcd_XoXQssXhyKMhJhd5fBItTReogAGOSqr_E7/s1600/DSCF1494.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihooQaZCGrBm0Zy4rC_ezTBbvZ39fsWIBo3ti2zJsFNCfpr8uQpp04ahFDLTMp8jogRn-r5pPzJrN7TiYxTlSsorSmPX3UsGm7e93jT4qcd_XoXQssXhyKMhJhd5fBItTReogAGOSqr_E7/s400/DSCF1494.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spicy Tuna Melty Perfection!</td></tr>
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Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-52010155536956716332015-12-13T22:11:00.001+00:002015-12-13T22:13:48.775+00:00The Great Root Beer Tastathon (Part I)Ever since my first visit to the USA (<i>Florida, specifically, about 16 years ago</i>) I have been a <i>massive </i>fan of Root Beer. For the uninitiated, it's a dark brown fizzy drink, <i>but most definitely not a Cola</i>. Its flavour is not for everyone - many feel it's too <i>sugary</i>, some describe it as <i>medicinal </i>(in fact, even <i>I </i>think some kinds of Root Beer tastes exactly the way Germoline - <i>an antiseptic cream</i> - smells) - but I appreciate that it has a <i>flavour</i>, rather than being just <i>a sugary, syrupy carbonated beverage</i>.<br />
<br />
But while Root Beer is (<i>almost</i>) as ubiquitous as Coke in the States, it's not <i>quite </i>so common in the UK. <i>Some </i>of the larger supermarkets will carry the bigger brands (<i>A&W turns up all over the place</i>), and my local Tesco carried imported Boylan's for a while (<i>still available at the larger branches, just not the Express branches</i>). What really prompted <i>this </i>post was something of a quest for my new <i>Holy Grail of Root Beers</i>: <a href="http://smalltownbrewery.com/" target="_blank">Small Town Brewery</a>'s "Not Your Father's Root Beer", the draught variety of which I tasted - <i>in all its 10.7% ABV glory</i> - at <a href="http://www.woodieschicago.com/" target="_blank">Woodie's Flat</a> in Chicago, the evening my girlfriend and I went to see some live improv at <a href="http://www.secondcity.com/" target="_blank">Second City</a>. So impressed was I that I had to ask the waitress if it was available to buy anywhere... she had to ask the manager (<i>who had ID'd both my girlfriend and I at the door! I took it as a compliment!</i>), who revealed that there <i>is </i>a bottled kind (5.9% ABV) which is widely available, but the stronger version was, <i>at the time</i>, only available on draught, <i>and only in Illinois</i>. According to their website, Small Town have <i>since </i>started producing "limited runs" of the 10.7% version but, <i>as a UK resident</i>, I'm not sure how I'd get my hands on <i>either </i>version...<br />
<br />
<i>Coincidentally</i>, slightly <i>less </i>than 16 years ago, a couple of friends and I would occasionally visit the O2 Centre at Finchley Road and spend the evening drinking in a cocktail bar <i>that has since been replaced</i>. I don't remember the bar's <i>name</i>, but I do remember <i>it had a piano</i>. Their extensive menu included a drink named 'California Root Beer', made with Kahlua, Galliano and Coke. I have <i>tried </i>to mix the cocktail at home <i>many </i>times, but never quite get the mix right... And the <i>point </i>of this digression is that, while 'California Root Beer' tasted <i>almost nothing</i> like yer average Root Beer, <i>I was reminded of that cocktail by my very first mouthful of the rich, almost chocolaty "Not Your Father's"</i>.<br />
<br />
In common with the difference between <i>Coca </i>Cola and <i>Pepsi </i>Cola (<i>not to mention the myriad supermarket own brands and the Colas produced by smaller beverage companies</i>), each brand of Root Beer is very different and so, <i>urged on by my girlfriend</i>, I'm going to do a comparison of those we've been able to find...<br />
<br />
<u><b>A&W</b></u><br />
This is basically your <i>bog standard</i> Root Beer. I <i>believe </i>this is the make that's available on tap at the likes of McDonald's in the States, but the canned variety is (<i>naturally</i>) stronger of flavour. It's <i>very </i>sugary, and the 'Germoline' flavour is <i>very </i>strong in this one. Not <i>bad</i>, but certainly not the best soft Root Beer I've tried.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Boylan</b></u><br />
Imported from the States by <a href="http://www.empirefoodbrokers.com/" target="_blank">Empire Bespoke Foods Ltd</a> in Northolt (<i>quite near my neck of the woods</i>) and sold by Tesco, this is an "All Natural" Root Beer, made with cane sugar, several natural ingredients and some 'colors' and 'natural flavourings' that are <i>troublingly unspecific</i> on the labelling (<i>neither the importers' labels nor the original US label deign to elaborate</i>). The flavour is far more <i>subtle </i>than A&W, cleaner and less sugary making it more <i>refreshing </i>to drink, but it lacks the <i>kick </i>and is also <i>substantially less aggressively</i> carbonated. Of the flavours involved, none are more prominent than the others, making it seem a little <i>wishy-washy</i> in comparison.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Bundaberg</b></u><br />
In recent years, Australia seems to have had the attitude that if it can take over <i>Hollywood</i>, it can do <i>anything</i>. Australian bars would pop up in the most <i>unlikely </i>places, and this Aussie-brewed beverage has even appeared in the chiller cabinet <i>in a slightly poncy café near where I work</i>. Like Boylan's version, it's a more <i>natural </i>approach to the drink, <i>properly </i>brewed and not <i>excessively </i>fizzy. I'd have to say the sarsaparilla is the most <i>prominent </i>note on the flavour - <i>almost fruity</i> - followed by a very <i>subtle </i>touch of licorice, but <i>without a hint </i>of the ginger mentioned in the ingredients list... It's not necessarily a <i>better </i>flavour than Boylan's, but it's certainly very <i>different</i>. It comes in <i>weird, squat bottles</i> that look for all the world like medicine bottles, but definitely doesn't <i>taste </i>medicinal.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Hansen's Natural Cane Soda</b></u><br />
Not simply 'Root Beer' but '<i>Creamy </i>Root Beer', the taste of Germoline is strong with this one - <i>stronger, perhaps, even than A&W's</i>. It's also just as fizzy, but <i>not </i>as <i>shockingly </i>sweet - I actually drank a couple of cans of this <i>which hadn't even been refrigerated</i> (other than having been delivered on a <i>slightly </i>chilly day), <i>and the sweetness didn't overpower the flavour</i>. Curiously, it <i>wasn't</i> exceptionally creamy... <i>at least, compared to the diet variety</i>. Possibly the big selling point of this brand, <i>stated boldly around the bottom of the can</i>, is that it has <i>no </i>caffeine, <i>no </i>preservatives, <i>no </i>sodium <i>and all natural flavour</i>... The <i>big</i> question is whether that <i>particular </i>flavour is what you <i>want </i>out of your Root Beer.<br />
<br />
<u><b>Diet Hansen's Sugar Free</b></u><br />
Not simply '<i>Diet </i>Root Beer' but, <i>following the established Hansen's pattern</i>, '<i>Diet Creamy</i> Root Beer'. This one is <i>substantially less</i> Germoline-flavoured <i>and substantially more like Cream Soda with a hint of Root Beer</i>. The former is the <i>first </i>flavour that hits and the <i>majority </i>of the aftertaste (<i>with the addition of that slightly nasty tang left by artificial sweeteners - specifically Splenda, in this case</i>), but the <i>typical</i> Root Beer flavour surfaces <i>briefly </i>in between. <i>Were it not for the aftertaste, I think I'd prefer this to the regular kind</i>... but that may be because <i>I also really like Cream Soda</i>...<br />
<br />
<u><b>Hartridges Celebrated</b></u><br />
Whereas <i>most </i>of the Root Beers sampled herein are made of a <i>mixture </i>of flavours, Hartridges pins <i>all </i>its hopes on the sarsaparilla, making it taste <i>almost </i>unique. It's <i>somewhat </i>similar to Bundaberg, in that the sarsaparilla is accompanied by hints of licorice (<i>very brief for me, lasting longer for my girlfriend</i>). It is, however, <i>fizzier </i>than Bundaberg... which won't necessarily be to <i>everyone's</i> taste.<br />
<br />
<hr />
<br />
There <i>will </i>be more to come in this - <i>as soon as possible in the New Year, basically</i> - because there are quite a few root beers that are <i>only </i>available in 24s or 32s, so we decided to hold off ordering them for a while. I'm aiming to get to 'em all, though... Maybe not in the <i>next </i>round (which may end up being only one or two additional Root Beers), <i>but it is definitely my intention to be as complete as possible in my assessment of fizzy beverages sold as 'Root Beer'</i>. Already on the list are Dad's (<i>possibly </i>the source of the name of Small Town's alcoholic version?), Old Dominion (which I've tried in some restaurants) and Dr. Brown's, <i>amongst others</i>.<br />
<br />
<i><b>And if anyone knows how I can get my mitts on imported "Not Your Father's", please drop me a line! </b></i>Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-36968759136176701352015-11-05T23:56:00.003+00:002015-11-05T23:56:37.466+00:00Morrisons Kitchen Made to Share SelectionWell, who'd have thought it? <i>Another Thursday, another post about guilty pleasure foodstuffs</i>. Generous readers might be tempted to credit me with <i>foresight</i>, or think I actually <i>planned </i>this.<br />
<br />
Truth be told, when I picked out a selection of (<i>reasonably</i>) quick and easy things from the <i>Made to Share</i> range at my local Morrisons, <i>my girlfriend did suggest I could write it up for this 'ere blog</i> but, since the <i>last </i>choice in my "3 for £5" selection was their Smoky BBQ Mini Ribs, there seemed a strong chance I was in for a very <i>disappointing </i>meal and I'd basically decided there would be no write-up. After all, long-term readers if this humble blog will know that my experience with ribs <i>in the UK</i> has been <a href="http://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2012/01/waitrose-slow-cooked-pork-loin-rack-of.html" target="_blank">decidedly</a> <a href="http://www.snacksandthesingleman.com/2012/09/tesco-grill-bbq-glazed-succulent-slow.html" target="_blank">mixed</a>.<br />
<br />
The full <i>Made to Share</i> snack dinner I cooked just for myself this evening, aside from the ribs, featured the amusingly <i>alliterative </i>BBQ Pulled Pork Pockets and the old favourite Loaded Potato Skins. Setting them all up to cook <i>should </i>have been very easy, but my attention <i>lapsed </i>on the final stage and, having timed everything carefully up to that point (25 minutes for the ribs on their own, adding the potato skins for two minutes, then finally adding the pockets for the remaining 13 minutes of the 40 minute total) I neglected to <i>activate </i>the kitchen timer and had to <i>guess </i>when the final 13 minutes had elapsed. <i>If anything</i>, it all stayed in the oven <i>a little too long</i>, though. On the upside, I <i>did </i>notice that the instructions for the ribs state that they should be allowed to stand for a minute before serving. <i>I doubt that's where I've gone wrong in the past, but it's something I'll look out for in future</i>.<br />
<br />
As far as the Loaded Potato Skins go, there's really not much to say... They never work especially <i>well </i>when home-cooked, <i>often sticking to the baking tray and splitting apart when removed</i>. They're ultimately <i>just </i>slightly hollowed out thick slices of potato filled with cheese and bacon and, <i>in the case of this package</i>, supplied with a soured cream and garlic dip. This kind of this is good and filling, <i>but never really outstanding in any way</i>.<br />
<br />
The BBQ Pulled Pork Pockets were something <i>reasonably </i>new... kind of like miniature Cornish pasties, but filled <i>only </i>with pulled pork. I can't say the BBQ aspect was particularly <i>impressive</i>, but the pockets were at least <i>properly full</i>... if rather <i>small</i>. Probably the <i>most </i>outstanding feature of the pack was that it contained <i>nine </i>pockets - I guess they're acknowledging that a pack of these<i> might actually be bought as part of a selection to be shared between three people</i>, rather than the more usual two or four...<br />
<br />
<i>And so we come to the ribs</i>... which were actually <i>pretty good</i>. Each rib had a decent <i>quantity </i>of meat attached and I didn't find <i>any </i>large blobs of gristle or fat (<i>though there were one or two bone fragments</i>). The meat <i>looked </i>good - with none of the <i>rubberiness</i>, <i>toughness </i>or <i>over-dryness</i> that can occur with supermarket ribs - and, while it didn't actually melt off the bone, <i>it tasted more or less as I'd expect pork ribs to taste</i>. The sauce was even fairly impressive for a supermarket <i>own-brand</i> product - not the strong barbecue taste that I <i>prefer</i>, but certainly not the disappointing <i>non-flavour</i> that is so often applied to this kind of thing. It was possibly a little <i>oversweet</i>, given the lack of <i>full-on smoky</i> flavour, but it wasn't <i>sickly</i>. Had I actually set them out in a more <i>sensible </i>ovenproof container than the small, <i>circular </i>Pyrex bowl I pulled out of the cupboard, <i>so that they were all laid out flat rather than jumbled up</i>, and given <i>equal</i> access to the sauce, <i>they might even have turned out the way they look on the packaging photograph</i>. As it was, the sauce didn't have much of a chance to <i>crisp up</i> anywhere. It did actually <i>adhere </i>to the ribs fairly well, though, and I didn't have to <i>scoop </i>the sauce out of the bowl to <i>drizzle it</i> over any of the ribs.<br />
<br />
So while I was <i>expecting </i>something bland and disappointing, <i>what I got actually went some way towards restoring my faith in supermarket ribs</i>... and, having tried Iceland's Jim Beam chicken tenders, I'm <i>far</i> more inclined to give the <i>boozy-sauce-enhanced</i> ribs a try than I was <i>before </i>this evening.Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3641439530654462016.post-16132838921435256592015-10-22T22:04:00.002+01:002015-11-05T22:00:13.594+00:00Iceland Let's Eat American Loaded Burger with Pulled Pork & BBQ Sauce<i>One </i>of the guilty pleasures of the occasional evening when my girlfriend goes out is the option to eat something <i>quick and dirty</i>. More often than not, I've tended to pop to one of the local takeaways, or the local KFC but,<i> since the latter recently gave me a case of food poisoning that lasted through at least half my recent holiday to Chicago</i>, I'm starting to think <i>better </i>of all that.<br />
<br />
Yet, <i>still</i>, the urge to have something quick and dirty is strong, <i>almost undeniable</i>... and so, while trawling my local Iceland for something <i>vaguely </i>sensible (<i>their <a href="http://groceries.iceland.co.uk/search?text=pizza+pala&view=list" target="_blank">Pizza Pala</a> range, while currently small, is worth a look</i>), my <i>wandering eye</i> alighted upon a selection called <i>Let's Eat American</i>. Having only recently been <i>in that very country</i>, you can imagine my curiosity was <i>piqued</i>. There's quite a variety of products in this line, but there's nothing <i>quicker </i>or <i>dirtier </i>than a burger that you cook in the <i>microwave</i>.<br />
<br />
Nothing, that is, other than a burger <i>with pulled pork slapped on top </i>that you cook in a microwave.<br />
<br />
The product comes in a (<i>frankly, oversized</i>) cardboard box containing <i>two </i>separate bags - <i>one with the burger and pork in a plastic tray, the other with the ready-cut sesame seed bun</i> - which must be irradiated separately, the <i>former </i>taking four minutes, the <i>latter </i>a mere thirty seconds. After that, it's just a case of <i>opening the bags, removing their contents, and throwing them together</i>.<br />
<br />
The result is, naturally, <i>nothing like the picture on the box</i>. For starters, the edges of the burger/pork <i>crisp up</i> and <i>stick to the sides of the tray</i>, so it doesn't look as <i>moist </i>or <i>appetising </i>as the promotional image. There's also some <i>weird, gelatinous stuff</i> in there which I generously presumed to be some sort of cheese component. The packaging does describe the contents as <i>"A cooked quarter pounder beefburger, topped with a BBQ flavour sauce, pulled pork, fried onions and grated red Cheddar cheese"</i>, but it's clearly a <i>miserly </i>quantity of cheese that ends up as <i>a mildly disturbing goop</i> that's not even plentiful enough to <i>ooze</i> convincingly... it just sort of <i>lurks</i>, looking unappetising. And, if there <i>are </i>fried onions in there, <i>I can't say I encountered any</i>... but then, <i>in all honesty</i>, I can't say I encountered anything <i>"BBQ flavour"</i> either.<br />
<br />
The pork itself is <i>not bad</i>, but it certainly lacks flavour - <i>and not just the BBQ flavour of the questionable sauce</i>. The texture is good and, <i>for something that's been microwaved from frozen</i>, it was nice to see it didn't turn out <i>too soggy</i> or <i>too dry</i> - microwaving frequently goes one way or the other, <i>and it's very difficult to fine-tune the timings for a better result</i>. The burger, meanwhile, was decidedly <i>average </i>for this type of product... which is to say <i>of limited flavour, dubious texture, and with a quantity of gristle/bone flecks sufficient to make the likes of me wary of the next bite</i>.<br />
<br />
That said, <i>for a mere £1.50, it's not offensively bad</i> - the burger is certainly a decent size (<i>slightly larger than the bun, in fact</i>) and the <i>quantity </i>of pulled pork is reasonable - but given the underwhelming <i>flavour</i> and the <i>typically rubbery</i> nature of the microwaved bun, this isn't a product I'll be picking up again in a hurry.Gordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06528405483770868212noreply@blogger.com0