Geekfood Mk2.

[MrGreen]

Tinned Mince exists?

If it does, I'd never buy it to make a meal with mince.

Fuck knows what it's for, like tinned chopped onions (I kid you not)

[Dog Pants]

Didn't say Winalot on the tin did it?

[FatherJack]

Was it M&S tinned lamb mince? I gonna have to buy it now to see what it tastes like, it had fucking better be the most deliacious mince ever.

[Roman Totale]

deliacious

[HereComesPete]

Proper fish pie - Fetch all this together and pretend delia never existed.

- 1 onion (smallish), thinly sliced
- 2 cloves
- 1 bay leaf
~ 1 pint milk*
- 10 fluid ounces double cream
- 1 pound un-skinned cod or haddock fillet
- 8 ounces un-dyed smoked cod or haddock (if it's dyed it'll make the sauce a funny colour)
- 4 hard-boiled eggs, peeled & sliced/quartered
~ 4 ounces butter*
- 1 3/4 ounces plain flour
- bit of finely chopped flat leaf parsley
- grated nutmeg
- 2 1/2 pounds peeled floury potatoes
- 1 egg yolk
- salt & pepper for taste

- Put the onion, cloves, bay leaf, 15 fluid ounces of milk, the cream, cod and smoked cod in a pan. Bring just to the boil and simmer for 8 minutes. Lift the fish on to a plate and strain the cooking liquid into a jug.

- When the fish is cool break it into large flakes, discarding the skin and bones. Sprinkle it over the base of a oven proof dish and cover with the eggs.

- Melt 2 ounces of the butter in a pan, add the flour and cook for one minute. Remove from the heat and gradually stir in the reserved cooking liquid. Return to the heat and bring slowly to the boil, stirring. Simmer gently for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the parsley and season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. Pour over the fish and leave to chill in the fridge for an hour.

- Make mash with the rest of the butter and milk. * I put 1 pint and 4 ounces of butter, that's about what I use.

-Put mash on pie when it's cooled a bit. 34-40 mins to heat through, bit of cheese on top if you really want, it's not needed though.

This'll do four and needs an oven proof that's a fair size, half it all and use a smaller dish for two people simple really.

[Sheriff Fatman]

Sausage casserole:

Fry sausages until brown. Chop onion and carrot.
Fry carrot and onion in same pan until onion is softened. Add in a few twists of pepper and a pinch or two of mixed herbs when you put these in to fry.
Turn kettle on, when boiled make bisto gravy (follow packet instructions).
Put all in an oven proof dish, cover and put in oven on gas mark 4 for 40 minutes ish.

I'd rather grill the sossidges, not particularly for health reasons, more because I just prefer 'em grilled.

If you are going to fry the onions bare in mind that to get tasty, caramelised onions it takes a long time; a lot longer than most people realise. Not sure about fried carrots. I like my veg crunchy (even in slow cooked stuff) so I'd probably just bung them into the cook pot before it all goes in the oven. Assuming you are using fresh herbs (which you really should be) again; no-fry please. Good herbs need to slowly infuse, frying will just de-naturalise them, whack them in the pot.

When you fry the onions throw in some garlic and when those are nice a gooey de-glace (I think that's the right term) with a slosh of red wine. Then, add some plum toms (canned is fine) and your stock of choice.

Seasoning and herbs to taste and bung in t'oven

That's just my take on it - it's been a while since I did my chefs courses tho

[fabyak]

cunning tip for making white sauces and so on:

Use potato flour rather than regular flour as it mixes in much easier and never leaves and lumps

[HereComesPete]

Or, just mix it properly.

[amblin]

.

[Sheriff Fatman]

Fresh herbs are the biggest win in good cooking. Honestly, if you do nothing else, use them. A good test is a simple green salad with a few fresh tomatoes thrown in. Make one with dried Basil and one with fresh Basil; the difference is amazing.

Dried herbs are just wrong. Take a good mouthful of any fresh herb and compare it to a good mouthful of dried stuff and you will be amazed. And, it's a piece of piss to grow; they are just weeds after all

[Dr. kitteny berk]

Fresh or dried is a funny thing.

Really just depends what you're doing.

I wouldn't think of putting dried basil into a salad, but i'd rather not piss about chopping fresh basil for a spag bol, as by the time it's cooked, it'll be somewhere between swamp and string, but dried will be fine, and add all the flavour. (bit of fresh basil on the top for serving wouldn't go amiss though)

Obviously, even with dried herbs/spices, quality and freshness comes into it, wouldn't keep any for more than 6 months.

[amblin]

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[fabyak]

This, hard, with a stick. To say one thing is always better is being inflexible.

I am interested though: how do you source your herbs? Do you have a greenhouse? The plants from supermarkets are pants, I either use them up in one go or they die in a week (which at £2 a plant is very expensive), I don't see any greengrocers selling herbs by the bunch out of season and I haven't had any joy growing them in pots outside - England's a bit too cold for lots of herbs to grow properly - I like Mediterranean herbs myself.

Every single one we have brought has died, the only thing we have had any success with is parsley growing in the ground (which we planted last October as we had managed to get our veg patch sorted and wanted to plant things. The upshot of the winter we've had is that none of the things we planted have been killed off by the cold (except the basil although to be fair it never came up in the first place. fucking stuff)

[FatherJack]

[Lateralus]

I had some basil that was doing quite well in a pot, but I didn't trim it properly so the stalks became all woody.

I agree with Berk though, dried herbs are great for certain dishes, and indeed many (such as spag bol) just wouldn't work properly without them. The other thing people tend to skip when making spag bol is that it needs at least half an hour of simmering, and it's a dish that improves a bit with time too.

One trick for fresh herbs is that if you buy a pack of, say, coriander leaves then you can freeze them and use them directly from the freezer. Might not be quite as tasty as fresh from the plant, but is probably more practical, and a good compromise for when dried herbs aren't appropriate.

I'll also confess to sometime using things like that Gourmet Basil Jack posted, and the jars of Very Lazy Ginger which is also excellent. However, as is normally the case with food, the fresher the better.

[fabyak]

We tend to keep a pot of shredded ginger as it's such a monumental pain to peel and grate normally. Also have some of the very lazy garlic as a backup in case we finish our supplies

[Roman Totale]

We tend to keep a pot of shredded ginger as it's such a monumental pain to peel and grate normally. Also have some of the very lazy garlic as a backup in case we finish our supplies

I also have both. I do, however, tend to keep some stem ginger in the freezer. It's a piece of piss to peel and grate it when it's frozen.

[Dr. kitteny berk]

I also have both. I do, however, tend to keep some stem ginger in the freezer. It's a piece of piss to peel and grate it when it's frozen.

ISTR that freezing ginger makes it more potent, it's recommended for figging.

[spoodie]

Some vintage Delia - http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fY8BiJMNJyU

/edit
I'm not embedding for reasons that may become clear

[HereComesPete]

Pffft, screwdriver!