The Night Mail

[zarniwhoop]

7 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

I definitely agree with that. Garlic can also be problematic - although Mrs iD loves garlic (in fact I created a garlic based dish for her: a Garlic Risotto with a Spicy Tomato Coulis - the secret is to cook the sliced garlic low and slow in butter so that the sugars in the garlic caramelise).

I was reading about Tom Pidcock's recovery from covid last week (the guy who won the Tour stage on Alpe d' Huez) in an interview in what we club cyclists used to call 'the comic' (Cycling Weekly). He ate large amounts of raw garlic as part of his "get well for the tour" plan.

 

I used to work with a german lady who always had raw garlic in her lunchtime sandwiches. Currently trying a few raw garlic cloves a day, but not sure if I'll see any health benefits (apart from people standing clear of me when I open my mouth)

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

Latest from Tenby:

And very good it was too.

Ooh @Happy Hippoif in Tenby for ice-cream you've got to go to Fecci's Ice Cream parlour, it was a treat for me and my sister 40 years ago!  It'll be several days worth of calories but you'll thank me later.....

[Winslow Boy]

2 minutes ago, zarniwhoop said:

 from people standing clear of me when I open my mouth)

 

Is that code for something else.

[Happy Hippo]

7 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Definitely envious there.

 

Everything laid out neatly so that you can find things straight away and not having to stop and search for the right tool.

In a work shop that neat you'll end up losing the workpiece rather than the tool

[zarniwhoop]

4 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Is that code for something else.

No. If you've ever worked in close proximity to someone who has recently eaten raw garlic you'll know how their breath smells.

[Happy Hippo]

5 minutes ago, zarniwhoop said:

No. If you've ever worked in close proximity to someone who has recently eaten raw garlic you'll know how their breath smells.

Probably like Satan's groin.

[simontaylor484]

This is the guy

 

[jjb1970]

3 hours ago, Tony_S said:

I thought the hottest thing on the planet was a McDonalds Apple Pie. 

 

Even hotter than the inside of a Greggs cheese and onion pasty?

[Darlington_Shed]

1 hour ago, Happy Hippo said:

In a work shop that neat you'll end up losing the workpiece rather than the tool

 

The photo was taken shortly after it was kitted out. On the grounds that "you can't trust a man with a tidy workshop", I can assure you it's fully trustworthy now!

 

When lockdown was announced, oh... the things I was going to accomplish. Starting with a damned good tidy-up. Somehow that didn't happen. Now you can hardly move in there for wood - a load of sapele for a garden bench, another load of western red cedar for an Adirondack chair being the main obstacles. One day...

[simontaylor484]

Mc donalds apple pies have an internal temperature similar to the Earth's core

[simontaylor484]

I too have to admit to having a stock of timber in the garage ready for projects when I get a round tuit

[Dave Hunt]

12 hours ago, Darlington_Shed said:

 

 

Woodworking in general, and acquiring old tools, has been my main interest for the past 20 years. This picture of the workshop dates from around 6-7 years ago, when I retired - before that the "summerhouse" was my WFH office.

 

That's not a workshop, it's a show house surely? You can see through the windows, there are parts of the workbench surfaces that don't have anything on them, tools are hung on hooks or in racks in order of size and there are no post-it notes or scraps of paper with reminders and essential measurements on them lying around. Not only that but there aren't loads of part finished models in view so it can't be anything to do with a railway modeller.

 

(Actually I'm full of admiration and envious)

 

Dave

[Dave Hunt]

23 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

Even hotter than the inside of a Greggs cheese and onion pasty?

 

There's a pasty shop at Euston station that sells pretty good cheese and onion pasties that I sometimes buy. If I get the pasty about half an hour before my train leaves it is just about at an edible temperature as we pass through Rugby.

 

Dave

[Winslow Boy]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

In a work shop that neat you'll end up losing the workpiece rather than the tool

 

Your only jealous.

[jjb1970]

On food, probably nothing displays the difference between European and Asian food culture (actually, it goes beyond food, it is central to Asian culture) more than rice. Many European countries have famous rice based dishes. Britain has rice pudding, Italy has risotto, Spain has paella, pilaf is a part of food in quite a few countries. And the popularity of Asian food means people tend to eat a lot of rice nowadays. In much of Asia rice is more than just food, it's the staple of life. My mother-in-law doesn't consider that she has eaten if a meal doesn't include rice. To me basic steamed rice is a filler, it absorbs flavours and adds bulk but to be honest I find little to really enjoy is plain steamed rice but to my wife there are more types of rice than you can shake a stick at and even if just steamed each one is different. It's a bit like the difference between someone who drinks wine but isn't interested in wine, and a wine enthusiast.

What I do like are the various flavoured rice dishes. I've mentioned chicken rice (greasy rice), three other SE Asian rice dishes I'd recommend trying as:

 

Nasi kuning, rice cooked with coconut and turmeric, it has a distinctive orange-yellow colour from the turmeric, this one is a staple of special occasions like birthdays

Nasi uduk, rice cooked in coconut milk, uduk is the Indonesian dish, it's very similar the Malaysian nasi lemak and is incredibly popular

Nasi goreng, nasi is Malay/Indonesian for rice, and goreng is fried, so nasi goreng literally just means fried rice. However it's one of those things that every Malaysian and Indonesian cook has their own take on it and it will usually be flavoured with shallots, garlic and chilli

 

Something about these dishes is you need to be careful how you mix them as if you serve curry with chicken rice for example it just tastes wrong, the sauce and the greasiness of the rice doesn't match. Most of these dishes accompany dry foods such as BBQ or friend chicken, or satay etc.

[jjb1970]

5 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

 

There's a pasty shop at Euston station that sells pretty good cheese and onion pasties that I sometimes buy. If I get the pasty about half an hour before my train leaves it is just about at an edible temperature as we pass through Rugby.

 

Dave

 

Glad I'm not the only one who did that! 🤣

[Dave Hunt]

We decided this morning that we'd go to do some sorting out at Dad's house before it got too hot. So far so good. At 12.30 we came back home and had a salad lunch. So far even better. After lunch I sat down in a relatively cool lounge to do a crossword. So far pretty reasonable. At two o'clock Jill said, "You know, I think we should go and get that table, it would go just right in here." Bu**er.

 

I'm now lying down having had a shower and consigned my sweat soaked clothes to the laundry basket.

 

Dave

[iL Dottore]

8 hours ago, Northmoor said:

....It rather confirms the suspicion that TV celebrity chefs don't write their own books.

I think most will use a ghost writer,  that's understandable. The proof of the pudding (so-to-speak) is whether or not they have actually tried out the recipes in "their" cookbooks. Partly to check that the recipes does indeed produce the intended for dish and partly to see if a professional kitchen* recipe can be/has been adapted to domestic use. I have a number of cookbooks where it is clear that (a) the recipe doesn't work as written or (b) you need a semi-professional/professional kitchen in order to get the desired result.

 

I've found Delia Smith, Niger Slater and Gary Rhodes to be infallible and the few Heston Blumenthal recipes I've tried have worked well (although HB assumes that you will have an adequate culinary ability and [ii] you'll have the necessary equipment).

* professional kitchens have way more heat/power available to them than the average domestic kitchen. Even an inexpensive salamander will pump out 2000W, whilst professional induction hobs will start at about 2700 Watts and go up from there

 

5 hours ago, Tony_S said:

It is understandable why some recipes will be the same. Jamie Oliver received death threats for including chorizo in his paella recipe. 

Well it depends on what the recipe is for - if it is for, say, a classic crème brûlée the recipe will be basically same no matter who "writes" the recipe - although you may have tiny variations (vanilla extract vs vanilla bean vs vanilla sugar). I have bought some of Jamie Oliver's cookbooks in the past - and they are now awaiting recycling. He may have made good cooking more accessible to Britons, but he really (from my perspective) doesn't have a "feel" for other cuisines. His Italian cookbook is even less authentic than a spag-bol*. But whatever his shortcoming as a cook (JO is more a cook than a chef) his heart's in the right place

 

Now I am as passionate about good food as much as the next Italian foodie, but the sort of abuse JO received for his Paella is completely and totally unacceptable. Perhaps he could have avoided this opprobrium by referring to an "Paella Inspired" rice dish???  But if you want to cook authentic ________________ [fill in the blank], Jamie Oliver wouldn't be my first choice (or even my 10th).

 

One final thought: very old cookbooks (1900s or earlier) can be great fun - not only for the dishes (e.g. "Mock Turtle Soup") but also for the cooking instructions (e.g. "first, kill a fat hen...")

* which is actually a 100% British invention

Edited July 19, 2022 by iL Dottore
Typo

[jamie92208]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Probably like Satan's groin.

the famous line from a song "like a chinese wrestlers jock strap cooked in chip fat on a greasy day"   Roy Harper I believe.

 

Jamie

[Compound2632]

10 minutes ago, iL Dottore said:

I've found Delia Smith, ... to be infallible

 

Not on oven temperatures and timings; or at least, modern ovens are more efficient than the ones she was using.

 

A really good family cookbook would have an index by ingredient - or better, an associated ingredient app - so that when one has half a celeric and a packet of chives left over, one can find a recipe that uses both.  

[Happy Hippo]

26 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

 

Your only jealous.

GWR green with envy.

 

When I look at  the state of mine, I'm Midland red with embarrassment.

 

We'll not discuss the table saw which has now dried off to LB&SCR brown.

[Dave Hunt]

I want to know how HH knows so much about Satan's groin? As a hooker he didn't get as close to a lot of sweaty nether regions as did other members of the pack.

 

Dave

[iL Dottore]

4 minutes ago, Dave Hunt said:

... HH knows so much about Satan's groin? As a hooker he didn't get as close to a lot of sweaty nether regions as did other members of the pack.

TMI, Dave, TMI

[zarniwhoop]

9 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Not on oven temperatures and timings; or at least, modern ovens are more efficient than the ones she was using.

I think the temperatures of domestic (electric) ovens vary widely.  Unless you have been using an oven thermometer (in which case I will have to withdraw this comment) then I think it is necessary to expect to tune the recipe to the oven. My own oven at an indicated 230° has burned non-stick oven dishes rated to 230° and my secondary oven/grill  has made baked pumpernickel-style coarse rye sourdoughs at an indicated 80° (15+ hours, wrapped in foil).

[Compound2632]

1 minute ago, zarniwhoop said:

I think it is necessary to expect to tune the recipe to the oven. 

 

That is, of course, what we have done down the years. But that does not mean we have not speculated on what exactly was wrong with Delia's oven!