Food

my gravy brings all the boys to the yard

lel.

bought a bunch of oxtails for peanuts at dombeys in anticipation of inclement weather. Mrs Hell's Mum's yin yang rice and oxtail stew will make you doubt your own sanity.

Tempura celebration of what was in the garden. Little courgettes, their flowers and holy basil. With sweet chilli.

1 Attachment

Have we had some hob chat yet? I need a new hob, and weighing up induction or gas. Main pro of induction is power is renewable here, so no burning more fossil fuel. I've only ever had gas or shitty electric before. Should I get induction?

Yes.

Save the world and get to buy new pans. Win win.

I've always said i would only ever have gas. However, for everything other than stirfry I think i now prefer induction.

So yeah, get induction

Induction it is, thanks. Just need to find one with knobs, those capacitive touch things are horrendous.

Some are ok, test them out in the shop by smearing frozen sausages over them.

I just got back from 10 days in Campania.

I can see why all the kids in Naples are obese, they are very good at pizza, fried foods and ice cream.

I don't think I've ever eaten such consistently excellent food, and had such little trouble getting vegetarian food on holiday.

The cupboard shelves, and the shelves of Co-op look so unappealing now.

Really interesting article on restaurant as home.
https://www.theringer.com/2018/8/16/17692852/han-oak-restaurant-peter-cho-portland

Also for those of you who want to spend more time with David Chang, he’s got a podcast on the same website..

Pasta pomodoro, with tomato, garlic, thyme and basil from our own garden.

1 Attachment

Looks delicious.

https://m.youtube.com/user/pastagrannies

This channel is fantastic by the way. It's Italian grannies, often, in their 80s and 90s making traditional pasta. Sometimes they are recipes and methods which could otherwise die out with them.

They make it look so easy but I suspect it won't be when I try.

On that note, any suggestions where I could get a 'ferro' or bulrush reed for making hollow pasta? Or what I could substitute? Maybe a spare spoke?

And is there anywhere in East London where I could pick up some proper durum flour?

Years ago I would've said ask in Terroni's on Clerkenwell Road but they'd gone a bit posh when they reopened, might still be worth a try... Is it still run by the same family? You should be able to get tipo "00" durum flour pretty much anywhere now, even Tesco was doing it before I left...

Yardarm in Leytonstone had some a couple of weeks ago I think

Also this is awesome!

me and the missus, did this pasta making course when Burro e Salvia had a store front in east dulwich
http://www.burroesalvia.co.uk/workshop-page/the-basic-pasta-pgs39-rkdlr

they've got a store/restaurant out east on redchurch st, will probably be able to help you hone your technique if you feel the need.

I sent my wife on the two pasta making courses that Burro e Savlia do and she enjoyed them quite a bit. As others have mentioned, 00 flour is readily available.

I think those guys catered my friend's wedding, it was very good.

The Puglian grannies tend to use semola rimacinata (double milled semolina) rather than 00, which is a mixture of semola and wheat flour. That's what I was looking for.

I hate you.

Now want some...who am I kidding I always fancy this.

There are regional pasta that are made differently as tommmm mentions.
An example is that some areas add chestnut flour.

Part of me things that you have just invited geofox over ;)

Want to do pork belly how do I get crispy pork belly without deep frying?
Is it a two day job, cook, let cool/chill, then shallow fry the following day or is it possible to do it all in one sitting?

My current sitting thinking about what to cook tomorrow plan, is to pan roast/braise and then shallow fry to get the edges crispy.
Foolish or genius?

treat it like a general roast but keep an eye on it. one thing I've picked up here is lots and I mean lots of pin pricks in the skin you can score as well to stop it curling up. I generally do uncovered in the fridge night befor with a bit of salt, wipe clean fresh salt up to room temp, the blast in high for bit depends on how much meat, the turn down to 160 again time depends on how much. last 10 mins of estimated cooking time look at skin if not bubbling wack it up but keep a close eye on it.

Thanks for that,
I may have been a bit vague in my request, not worried so much about the skin/crackling, more with the flesh/meat.

ah cool, I've done pork belly half roast then crisped in a pan worked ok but was in chunks rather than a large slab....shadow fried pork can't go wrong really :)