Food

Looks great... I really fancied some hard fried chicken thighs with the leftover rosemary roasties I've got in the fridge... You can't get skin-on thighs out here!?! Not even on the bone...

Had to buy a whole bird, just a small organic one... Going in the oven in a minute...

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Can’t beat a roast chicken, I’d love that for lunch.

I realised that if I buy the bone in, skin on thighs here I can butcher them pretty quick and use the flesh for whatever but stick the bones straight in the oven for 40 mins and then make a simple stock for the week rather than dedicate a precious chunk of our freezer for storing bones from other meals. Bonus scoffed six roasted chicken skins to myself too, I hadn’t planned on confessing that to anyone but hey ho.

Ps. Good luck this weekend @Tenderloin

I haven't made any chicken broth for a while... Will have to remedy that situation this week, such a satisfying process...

I'm not even very hungry tbh, it's quite warm here tonight... Will probably rip off a leg and thigh and have that with the spuds... I've got a big bag of cheese and onion crisps for the football later tonight... 💙💙💙

M’cook

?

So was a pan purchased?

We're getting a new kitchen soon. I've looked back through the induction v gas hobs debate on here to try to get pros and cons, and it seems to be this:

Induction - easier to clean, renewable energy, more precise temperature, more child-friendly

Gas- burn aubergines, better for woks, won't necessarily need new pans.

Anything else?

“agro-food consultant for third millennium cuisine”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/sep/29/italian-tv-chef-carmelo-chiaramonte-on-cannabis-charge-new-flavours

Why not both? Bertazzoni and AEG do combination hobs with induction and a wok burner, and Bosch Domino are mix and match. Nice to have a gas backup in case of power cuts also

Induction is faster for boiling/heating, more energy efficient, depending on manufacturer only the area under the pan is activated. The one we have can combine heating zones which is great when putting a roasting pan on the hob for deglazing and making gravy.

I was anxious about going to induction but have not looked back. There are some cast iron woks that work great on induction hobs.

Use a blowtorch to burn aubergines

Any tips on where to buy animal rennet, I want to try and make my own mozzarella

@FixedCheese

Kings Cross recs for dinner? Solo and not dressy.

Veggie curry on Drummond Street?

^i concur

Diwana

I'm trying to do a bit of batch cooking to save some time in the evenings, but so things don't get too samey, just making sauces that will work in a few different dishes. So far I've done a generic tomato sauce and a katsu curry sauce. Any other suggestions?

A cheesey bechemel could be easily multi-purposed. Not necessarily a sauce but a vietnamesey dipping sauce type arrangement (garlic, ginger, sesame, soy, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar) can serve as a noodle sauce and in various other delicious ways. A basic curry flavour base (onions, garlic, chilli, ginger, spices) could go in different directions depending on whether you added chopped tomatoes or coconut milk...

Salsa verde is everybody’s best friend

A nice pesto (not necessarily basil and pine-nut - you can do a lovely almond and tomato one) would also be good and multi-purpose...

Nasturtium and walnut pesto is amazing if you can find the leaves. Our garden gets taken over with them (still growing at the moment) so it’s a double win to make them into banging fresh pesto

Good shouts, can you freeze salsa Verde / pesto with any success?

pesto freezes well. tend to make a load of wild garlic and hazelnut pesto each spring.

often when I want a quick cupboard meal i just boil some pasta and then put thin slices of frozen pesto on top, it quickly softens and melts onto hot pasta.

Nice one, I used to make that, never thought to freeze it for some reason.

we have a few huge patches of wild garlic so struggle to eat it while it's in season, given we also have loads of hazel trees it seems appropriate to make hazel and garlic pesto (though we never get to eat our own hazelnuts as we have so many fucking squirrels)

I do beef/pork ragu and freeze portions in freezer bags laid flat and stacked so they defrost really quickly

Tried a freestyle brine/marinade on a butterflied chicken today... Honey, soy, maple syrup (sugar overkill, I know), garlic oil and lemon juice and peel... Left it to marinade for three or four hours then onto the Weber, indirect heat with a handful of hickory chips at the start then moved the coals right under the bird as they faded... Came out great, lovely subtle smoke flavour had permeated right through the meat, very juicy, well seasoned but you couldn't really detect any of the marinade ingredients...

Anyone tried the pineapple marinade on secondary beef cuts? I bought small flank and skirt steaks to experiment on tomorrow... A couple of YouTube videos I've seen suggest it turns tough but flavour packed cuts into tender as fillet steak deliciousness...