Food

Also. Look up octodogs or Japanese bento hot dogs.

Maybe, but assembling them from the flatpack will be a pain.

Coming down to Londons famous London from Aberdeenshire and looking to meet a mate in Green lanes, any recommendations for Turkish food around that way?

Any of them! My personal favourites are Beyti and Testi but it's very hard to go wrong...

They're all pretty similar nowadays. I favour Selale. Devran and Hala are both good too but there isn't much to choose between any of them.

There's also Cyprus House http://tcca.org/cyprus-house/ which is a bit different but I've not been for a while and seems to be under new owners and bumped its prices up for the weekend menus so can't recommend that either way.

(EDIT: Bear in mind that myself and Owl are talking about different ends of Green Lanes a couple of miles apart.)

Ace, cheers, will report back where ever we end up!

Yup, the bit I know is south of Clissold Park - basically any of them between CP and Newington Green will do you very well. Some lovely pubs around there too, highly recommend the Shakespeare...

On Green Lanes itself my fav is Antepillar, but my actual fav is Umut on West Green Road, about half a mile off Green Lanes. Little family place, tiny menu, no chips, food is fantastic.

Recipe advice please!

Today is Satacoday (Taco Tuesday doesn't work, because we're out all day).

Out last taco day went well, but as we used masa harina, the tacos were too crumbly.

Adding strong bread flour to the maize flour is acceptable, right?

Until last night I'd never even tried, let alone made fondant potatoes. Glorious. Also cooking with cast iron really does feel like a joy...

Until today I'd never heard of them but it's gone in to the recipe list.

Ta.

Wait. White flour tortillas? Tortillas de harina?

Maybe you need more water in your mix? I've only made them once but they came out great... Add a tiny bit of oil maybe?

No oil. But more water yes and only in small amounts - wet your hands and then work the dough some more. If it gets too wet then add a bit more flour. The corn flour cannot be overworked because there is no gluten so don't be afraid to keep tinkering. It should be smooth and not sticky.

The dough felt ok last time, but when i cooked it, it was all a bit to flaky, rather than supple.

It was like the early days of gluten free baking, when it was all a bit rubbish.

I'll play with the water amounts then.

Thanks both!

I ended up adding 50g bread flour to 200g maize flour.

Result: soft, non-traditional tortillas.

Had them with guacamole, quick pickled red onion, slow pickled jalapenos, a chickpea & potato & chard & guajillo thing, and chipotle prawns.

Sounds delish, I should make some more... Time consuming but very rewarding...

Golf Club Thread Alert

"Boxes". What are your experiences of them? I've always avoided as they seemed not that convenient and pretty expensive but figure they've evolved a lot. I also no longer live in London and (comparable to say Green Lanes) there isn't a convenient local place to get vegetables or meat that isn't a supermarket.

Looking at meat from Pipers Farm - (guanciale and pig skin!) and veg from Riverford, both of which have optional upgrades for things like bread/dairy/cupboardy bits.

Any thoughts/experience?

I also like the idea that having something delivered may mean my weak will isn't tested when I go to Co-Op just meaning to pick up a bit of minced beef every couple of days and coming back with 50 quids worth of bacon, some brioche buns, a multipack of crisps and a selection of crafts beers. Because, ultimately, I'm fat and could do with eating a lot less and a lot better.

spenny and a bit underwhelming. get pally with your local mom and pop fruit and veg shop / butcher / fish botherer. walk there. everyone's a winner!

Riverford have been good for us for the past 4.5 years. We tend to get three meal boxes a week, started out two meat meals a week but realised we tended to prefer the vegetarian ones and now get mainly vegan or veg ones.

Convenient, minimal waste and often it’s not much more costly than buying the same (but non organic produce) from the supermarket.

We have had Abel and Cole deliveries for about fifteen years now.

We get fruit veg, eggs, butter and a pack of chicken drumsticks.

The two big upsides for me are : a) lack of plastic and b) becoming a better, more inventive cook.

I love being the kind of cook that is able to look at what we have in the box / fridge and can make a good meal out of it. As opposed to buying ingredients for a recipe that I already know I want to make. Obviously I can still do the latter...

I definitely wasn't that type of cook when we started getting the box, all those years ago.

"get pally with your local mom and pop fruit and veg shop / butcher / fish botherer. walk there."

This is ideal - but there's none for miles despite being in bloody devon. There are good bakeries but nothing that resembles a greengrocer / the nearest butcher is rough, as-is the nearest fishmonger. There's a decent staples place that does bring you own container pulses/pastas etc about 2 miles from us, so a 4 mile walk. There are some great, great butchers but they're a drive. Same for farm shops selling veg - looking for something that doesn't involve driving 30 mins or walking to the (not great but not terrible) covered market (about a 7-mile walk from either home or the studio which I don't really have the time for).

minimal waste = good
not too fussed by cost as it'll be cheaper than the current 'fuck we haven't planned, let's just piss away money at Co-Op and try and plan tomorrow'.
I like Guy Singh Watson's schtick (not always but for the most part) so Riverford appeals.

Also fuck it’s much better than going round the supermarket filling a basket to find one key ingredient is sold out. And saves the let’s buy chocolate/sweets/crisps to snack on when shopping hungry.

Also we have a very underwhelming local greengrocer who tends to not stock much organic or local produce and often of dubious quality. Often when we recreate Riverford meals with supermarket produce they are not as good due to lower quality less fresh ingredients.