Food

Meanwhile my Globals of 5 years suffered dishwasher fatality. (In basket and usually the intensive washing run) I have since refrained and now only handwash the replacements.

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Wow!

My globals survived twenty years of dishwashers (when I didn’t know better). Current knives are micarta handled Damascus VG10 and don’t even see above hand hot water.

Get the top one welded roughly for the full punk wabi look! I did that to a little LeCreuset pot when the handle broke off when I dropped it onto a stone flagged floor.

I dropped my Lecreuset casserole on the floor and the handle broke off. It was just under 15 years old. I messaged them and they sent me a brand new one for free. No receipts or proof of purchase or anything. Amazing

LeCresuset's customer service is amazing. We have had 2 replacement milk pans for free when the non-stick coating started to deteriorate. Same with some oven gloves that tore as well. Simple "give me your address and we'll send you another one for free." Really impressive.

Wow! I should give that a go - I have a couple of pans where the non stick is failing a bit. Thanks for the heads up!

Wish I’d known this when I cracked our rectangular casserole dish by putting it on the hob (I’ve already called myself and idiot, so no need for you to), brought another one on sale, which currently has a long crack in the glaze and I’m sure is going to bite the dust soon..

That reminds me, I need to go back to Le Creuset on the chef's pan I have where the non-stick has failed. After I first sent them an email with the issue and a few pictures they've asked for this:

To fully understand the issue, how it has occurred and how it might be resolved it would be useful to see photos* of the affected item:

• Full item view (please include a piece of paper with your name and case number)

• Affected area

• Item base

• Please do not include zip files, links to cloud storage or any attachments larger than 6MB each as these may prevent your email from being delivered.

Please could you also provide the information below, so we can review your case and advise further:

Contact Details

• Name

• Address

• Telephone number

Item Details

• Purchase location

• Purchase date

• Item shape, colour and size (in centimetres from inner rim to inner rim)

• Batch code

Issue Details

• What is the specific issue

• How was the item being used when the issue became apparent

o Please include as much information as possible – e.g. Heat source, utensils, ingredients used/added, cleaning products/tools etc.

Wow! I should give that a go - I have a couple of pans where the non stick is failing a bit. Thanks for the heads up!

For clarity - the nature of the failure was that the non-stick was de-laminating from the edge of the pan. So definitely a design / mfg issue.

Worth asking, the worse that they can say is "no"

In fairness to the Global and John Lewis they replaced both of them for me. Although the Lady at JL was baffled by the smaller broken knife, which she could not find on their assortment. Days later it transpires we didn't actually buy that knife there, they replaced it with an alternative anyway.

anyone got any experience of using fermented bean curd ? I bought some recently and tried a nibble as a side... mmmm pungent. should I be throwing it in things instead ?

Do like the sign says.
https://www.grainger.ca/en/product/OILY-WASTE-CAN%2C-6-GAL%2C-SELF-CLOSING%2C-RED/p/JRT09100

1.5kg of Korean Fried chicken.

Under estimated the amount of sauce I needed, but still epic.

50/50 wheat and cornflour mix, with a plenty of salt, pepper, bit of ground ginger and sesame seeds for a touch more crunch.

Gochujang glaze was made the Korean home cook way, with ketchup. So good.

Next time, slightly bigger portions of chicken thigh, and potato flour for even more crispiness.

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Finally got around to doing a cola ham for the weekend, it’s a simple recipe and hard to mess up

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Banging page.

I caught some Rick Stein earlier and shed a tear. Cote de boeuf cooked over wine-soaked vine trimmings with marrow bone jelly and shallots seared into it with a hot iron.

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Cheat day was it 🤪

Oh yeaaaaahhhh!

Daughter’s birthday party day and some friends visiting, so did a spicy batch, and a non spicy batch for the kids.
Not a crumb left uneaten.

Also Oreo cupcakes, and some aromatic crispy duck for dinner.

Just catching up on all the festive flesh. Strong work all. Am really intrigued by the Korean chicken recipes too. Will def try once i'm back on the meat.

We've gone veggie for a bit just to see how it feels. Been thinking about our meat consumption and and thought it'd be a fun experiment to try going totally without for a while. 10 days in and I just managed to cook the kids bacon sandwiches without feeling the need to cheat. We're eating lots of veg curry, dahl and the like. Loads of roasted veggies and lentils. Not much pasta yet. Definitley way too much cheese. All in all it doesn't really feel like missing out so much as just thinking a bit more about other fun things we can try. Recommend.

Will def go back to meat at some point but my plan is to cut out all "unnecessary" meat and just stick to occasional, top quality treat stuff like a proper grass fed, aged rib roast once in a while. We used to eat a roast every sunday so that does feel like quite a change. I do miss gravy.

All in all, it's been fun. I can't see us going back to regularly eating processed meat. Or least I can see us eating a lot less of it after this experiment.

oh and top tip: anything which purports to be a "plant based meat substitute" has proven utterly gross. I'll be sticking to just eating actual plants thanks.

Making delicious sauces helps a lot I think.

The Korean fried chicken spicy sauce is vegetarian, and makes anything taste good really. Particularly with ‘buchim’.
Korean style courgette fritters, spring onion pancakes, or vegetable tempura.
Also good with a simple toasted sesame and soy sauce dip.

I do miss gravy.

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/vegan-gravy/ this takes a bit if time, but is incredible. You can use red wine instead of port and I've just wacked in whatever jam we have in the fridge.

This book is worth getting for inspiration, brilliant as everything is one tray in the oven, some quick recipes prob good for kids.

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Or if you like Indian food, then Made in India or Fresh India by Meera Sodha are great.

I've been vegetarian for 20 years and I've relaxed quite a bit about meat substitutes lately. I blame Linda McCartney sausage rolls, they're a gateway drug.

Things like smoked paprika and smoked cheese can be great for creating proper savoury tastes.

Also try using nutritional yeast flakes. They look like dried fish food but add umami flavour enhancement a bit like Parmesan.

Great for vegan risotto.

Nutritional yeast flakes are awesome. I make a vegan white sauce for lasagna with it, it's good.

Also great on kale crisps. One supermarket bag of curly kale with stalks removed. Tablespoon of oil, teaspoon smoked paprika, couple of tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes and a good pinch of sea salt. Smosh it all together in the bag and whack on a baking tray in a single layer in the oven 160c and check and shake every few minutes until crispy. Umami delicious.

Or if you like Indian food, then Made in India or Fresh India by Meera Sodha are great

I'd add Prashad to this too. That, and Fresh India, are my absolute gotos at the moment.

Things like smoked paprika and smoked cheese can be great for creating proper savoury tastes.

Kombu (or just straight MSG) are your friends for upping the umami meatiness. Truffle oil for sheer unctiousness.

If you're not doing the vegan thing, truffle butter (Carlucccios, not Niki Minaj) is amazing, and parmesan with all the things. Boil the heels in milk to add to stuff.