cooking

[marcros]

Anybody cooking anything interesting at the moment, Christmas related or not?

I have just cold smoked some salmon for the first time. It needs 24 hours after smoking to settle down but I couldn't resist a taste as I vacuum packed it and it was fantastic!

 

[billw]

I've been experimenting with chilli con carne a lot. Steak and pork belly chunks instead of minced beef, tinkering with the spices, and this stuff....

Mad Dog 357 - 5 Million Scoville Pepper Extract: Amazon.co.uk: Grocery

 

[marcros]

I've been experimenting with chilli con carne a lot. Steak and pork belly chunks instead of minced beef, tinkering with the spices, and this stuff....

Mad Dog 357 - 5 Million Scoville Pepper Extract: Amazon.co.uk: Grocery

is that the real price?

 

[billw]

is that the real price?

I bought mine in the States and it was about half as much.

You literally use a drop at a time off a toothpick though, that bottle could last decades lol

 

[billw]

*double post*

 

[disco_monkey79]

My brother sent me some of that from the US - it came with a teeny tiny spoon, about the size of a pinhead. It was still too big...

 

[Just4Fun]

What are people cooking for Christmas lunch? Traditional turkey or something else?
Even a small turkey is just too much for us, with only 2 of us eating it. Ham is traditional here but again Christmas hams are huge and anyway I dislike it. So we will be having elk for Christmas lunch, same as last year. For us it is a better option.

 

[Dalboy]

Just come in from the kitchen after making two Victoria sponges for family who do not like Christmas cake. I somehow don't think they will last until Christmas day knowing them as they can not resist trying them and next thing is they have gone It did give me chance to play with my new mixer which was not a Christmas present.

 

[marcros]

We will be having a turkey if I can get one from the supermarket. I can take it or leave it but the wife and daughter insist.

 

[Darrenp]

Fillet steak chips and mushrooms for us !!!

 

[Nigel Burden]

The Hairy Bikers steak and ale pie. Much tastier than turkey, and I don't get to suffer cold turkey, turkey curry, turkey sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, turkey sandwiches. Yes, you get it, I don't like turkey.

Nigel.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Even a small turkey is just too much for us, with only 2 of us eating it.

There are five of us. My wife has decided we need a duck. And a goose. And a leg of lamb. I have no idea why.

 

[Bm101]

Rolled ribeye of beef for the 25th here. Sous vide that with port and garlic. Spent an hour yesterday making a Michel Roux port sauce. Luxury cooking. Love it. Feel like Floyd lol. *Swigs*
Nowt for boxing day lunch here. Have some cracking proper sausage, black pudding and bacon from the same butcher. Late cooked champagne breakfast then picking at few bits in the day. Only two of us plus the kids. Got some nice wine. Love it.
I bought some bone marrow from the Christmas Butcher on a online order whim. Need to find a good way to cook that up.

 

[AJB Temple]

Usually we have goose on Christmas Day and Beef Wellington on Boxing Day. This year I was too late to order a goose (we usually buy them in Germany, since that is where we usually are). Our local farm shop butcher is doing turkey breasts wrapped in bacon. There is unsurprisingly a bit of a glut of massive turkeys so this is a good way of using them up. Surprisingly cheap (small free range bronze turkey is £80 round here - and al sold out) as £27 got us enough for two full turkey dinners. (Half in freezer to cook in a week or two).

Mrs ATB will not eat Christmas cake as it has raisins and sultanas in it, which are apparently vile. Therefore I am making tiramisu for Christmas pudding. Never made it before but looks dead easy. Had to buy Marsala especially.

With the kids locked down abroad, and us in tier 4 here, it will be a very simple Christmas. I will be baking bread and doing furniture repairs and a bit of French polishing.

Only a few days until I can get shot of the flipping decorations again

 

[Bm101]

Don't really get the whole Turkey thing tbh. It's not even traditional in any proper sense let's not start on it being 'Americanism etc' Not after causing any friction. Had it's moment, far as I can see it was just a 70's supermarket swiz a bit like modern bread. It suited them to produce turkey large scale. Took hold but lots of people seem to be disregarding it a bit now. Alright in it's way a bit like overcooked veg and Angel Delight. Yeh but no thanks.
Interesting to see such a range of Christmas dinners on here.
Having said that. I bought a small frozen crown because the Mrs makes a pie out of it just so 'it's Christmas'.
Sigh.

 

[Nigel Burden]

Don't get me started on decorations. As I'm retired, I do most of the housework. Can't clean any sense with decorations up. And another thing, they go up too early.

Back to cooking. My wife informs me that our "grandchild", the daughters dog, is having mashed parsnip and mushy peas with his meal, and that after scrambled egg and bacon for breakfast.

Nigel.

 

[Nigel Burden]

Years ago when my wife worked in the local fish and chip shop, they had a customer who used to shoot in the season. We often had wild goose which is nice and lean with dark coloured meat, and is nice and tasty.

Nigel.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Mrs ATB will not eat Christmas cake as it has raisins and sultanas in it, which are apparently vile. Therefore I am making tiramisu for Christmas pudding.

I found a recipe about 25 years ago in a newspaper for a steamed marmalade pudding - my m.i.l. made it every year. I no longer have the exact recipe, but I still do it - with Seville marmalade, muscovado sugar and some brown flour it looks like a Xmas pudding.

 

[Nigel Burden]

I like Christmas pudding, but as I'm the only one in the family that does, it's not worth making one. The same with Christmas cake. My wife is watching her weight and leaves cake alone as she doesn't want to put weight on again, so we don't bother to make one, and besides I have taken a dislike to icing, I just find it too sickly.

Nigel.

 

[Bm101]

Oohhhhh!
That (well this one ) looks the nuts Phil.
https://thehappyfoodie.co.uk/recipes/steamed-marmalade-sponge-and-whisky-custard
Sticky Toffee Pudding here this year.