Be Excellent To Each Other

Noice.

All the cool people make their own burger buns.

Hi5!

Dug up some potatoes today. Very vibrant and they keep the colour through cooking. I made some wedges.

I mostly grew these because I knew they’d amuse Bean.

What do they taste like? Potatoes?

Yes. There is no discernible taste difference from a normal potato. They are rich in anthocyanin, too, so they’ve supposedly got some health benefits in comparison to a normal potato, as well as being a bit fun

They go more blue than purple when cooked. I should have taken some pictures of the wedges but we ate them. I have some left so might do in the next few days. I did see someone made mash from them and that just looked grey, so I’d not recommend that so much.

They look fun! I've used purple carrots before, but I've never seen a purple potato

It’s Bean’s birthday this weekend, and he asked for a Jurassic World themed cake, which I’m currently making, but last night I made a few chocolate biscuits to go with the theme.

They're awesome!

Perhaps this says something about me, but my second thought was a little macabre


I cannot stress enough how amazing those biscuits are - they look like they must have taken hours of painstaking work!

Bloody HELL, Mimi! They’re too good to eat!

A thick set fruit jelly (like a fruit leather) might work for something like that, but introducing any kind of moisture after the fact would run the risk of affecting the icing/biscuit beneath. They aren’t for a party as such, as Bean changed to a new school this week (not for any negative reason — we have a three school system here where infant and junior schools are totally separate entities) so he doesn’t know his classmates well enough or long enough to get party invites organised in time.

He’s got one in his packed lunch today as a little surprise

Haha, thank you. I iced them whilst watching TV, so they aren’t perfect, but neither are Dino bones, amirite? They’re a chocolate biscuit with the bones iced on, so the icing to biscuit ratio shouldn’t be too overwhelming.

Give yourself a break, they look amazing!

Those are fantastic Mimi!

I'll take 20!

D asked for hot cross buns on Sunday, so I tried to make some. For whatever reason (tiredness was probably interrupting my common sense) I decided to adapt the tangzhong starter burger by. Recipe I to a hot cross bun recipe by adding sugar, spices and fruit. Somehow (and honestly, it was sheer dumb luck) they came out brilliantly (though far too large. I should have made them much smaller).

Do you mean adding agar? Or sugar?

They look great, btw.

Sugar. Sorry, clumsy typing

I thought it was some sort of vegetarian gelatine thing.

Hmm, is agar vegetarian??

It's the stuff you put on a petri dish before you introduce your bacteria or whatever.

There is probably an edible (to humans) version too.

Yes, it is used as a veggie gelatine substitute and for
thickening things like milkshakes.

Ha, get in!

I wonder what got cross buns would be like. Not enough to try, mind!!

The memory of the smell of agar plates means that I would not be keen to know if it were in my food. If I didn't know, though, I probably wouldn't have a problem. Ignorance is bliss!

One common ingredient in vegan cooking is aquafaba, which is used in place of egg whites or whole eggs in recipes. Aquafaba is simply the water that remains when you drain a tin of chickpeas, and it’s one of those smells that make me absolutely want to vomit. When I drain/rinse chickpeas I have to do it under running water because of the smell. One of the main uses of aquafaba though is in making vegan meringue. :| I’m sure it’s perfectly lovely and you’d never know, but that previous state of the aquafaba would stop me ever trying.

Agar used in cooking is a powdered agar, so you’d not have any smell from it, I reckon. It’s a culinary version, not exactly the same stuff used in labs. I think it’s derived from algae and seaweeds.

I use Chickpea water when I make espresso martinis for superb foam on the top. I don’t mind the smell and I’ve certainly never tasted it.

To grow bacteria, you commonly mix agar with LB and it is the LB which makes it smell. I don't recall agar on its own having a strong smell.

Of course it's RB to change weapons

up to jump

End of season sauce planning.

Wonderful! Do you can or freeze your sauce?

Pour it down my neck normally.

Nearest description is can, I think - sterilise bottles, pour sauce in, lid on, wait for the "pop". There's enough salt and vinegar to keep it safe for years in a cupboard.

I dehydrated and vacuum sealed quite a few the other week, during peak harvest. No idea what I'll do with those! Particularly the yellow 7 pots, which were extremely uncomfortable just in the handling...

That’s brilliant. Hopefully you’ll be well stocked for all things spicy for some time now.

I have a load of chillies still happily in the garden. I must go out today and harvest those. I think I’ll dehydrate them because I’m tired and not in a cooking mood today.

Peppers! Sauce!

The remnants bottle is delicious with a very quick, broad, short-lived, balanced heat, but very liquid compared to the other two, so hopefully I haven't split the flavours too much by not being able to ladel well.

It really is that vibrant an orange.

The colour is incredible!

Hi folks who know about cooking: I’m looking for advice, please.

I’d like to get a casserole dish. At the moment I’d usually make a stew or casserole in the instant pot and slow cook it, but occasionally I want to put a dish in the oven (like a stifado with a dumpling top, for example, or a pasta dish).

I’d like to get a lidded dish that would serve as many functions as possible, but a lot of the casserole dishes I’ve been looking at can’t go in the oven, and most that can are basically Le Crueset copies which, though very nice, are still too expensive (the copies I mean, as well as the originals).

SO: I’ve found these two. Would one of these serve my purposes, do you think? And if so, what are the practical differences between them? I don’t usually cook meat, but I always cook Russell a ham at Christmas and have the inlaws over so will make a turkey joint as well as veggie main, if that makes a difference.

Choice A

Premier Housewares Round Self Basting Roaster Enamel, Carbon, Blue, 28 x 30 x 12 cm https://amzn.eu/d/2GGjGnR

Choice B

Premier Housewares 0104591 Porter Casserole Dish with Lid, Enamel, 6 liters https://amzn.eu/d/gszRZnv

Choice C

Something else entirely, suggested by someone who knows more about this than I do.

Alternatively could hang on and ask for something like this for my birthday if anyone asks me if I need anything. Is the extra money ‘worth’ it? I usually ask Russell to get anything heavy out of the oven for me so if it’s significantly heavier that might not matter too much.

Deal: Cast Iron Pot with Lid – Non-Stick Ovenproof Enamelled Casserole Pot – Sturdy Dutch Oven Cookware – Blue, 4.7L, 24cm – by Nuovva https://amzn.eu/d/jhgOoGH

Dutch Oven for me.

I've got a cast iron dutch oven that I got from ikea, that wasn't too expensive I think.

Or, I just looked and it's more than I thought it was: https://www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/vardagen-c ... -00560671/

If you have a Bobby D's near you, they have some cheaper Dutch ovens

https://www.robertdyas.co.uk/kitchenwar ... casseroles

Finished up the harvest - all the peppers that weren't ripe, including green bell ones from the farm shop. Boosted with some aji limon, chocolate hab and either chocolate hab or chocolate douglah out of the freezer.

Not the recipe I posted, because I forgot to leave some of the ripe ones, so that "leftovers" bottle mostly went into it - which is why they're different colours, the right is in a clean bottle, the left is straight back into the leftovers bottle, which still had a tablespoon or two in it.

My first taste instantly made my ears and cheeks hot and left me salivating for... Well, I'm still salivating 15 minutes later. I'm putting it down mostly to the single teensy moruga scorpion (I think, or some other super hot).

It's delicious, in a more savoury way - the orange one is an absolute sweet, peppery delight.

Cheers, folks.

There’s no Robert Dyas near here, which is a shame as those look good. Russell bought the blue one before I really had time to think about things, but it looks like the best of the ones I saw, so it stopped me dawdling and will do well for what I need it for. Gosh only knows where I’m going to store it, though.

Your final batches of sauce look brilliant, Bik. Are they all for you or do you give some as Christmas gifts, etc?

Giphy "joey doesn't share food":
https://media4.giphy.com/media/37QHg0RoCFAiEJD0oV/giphy-loop.mp4

I like people using it but don't gift specifically. Effort and confidence are part of it, but mostly selfishness.

How did giphy ever get popular?

It didn't used to be so bad. It's awful now.

Red ones cook faster.

Well mine is blue.

We blue it

Hello! I've not read this thread in a while. What the fuck Z? The coffee in an espresso martini will absolutely form froth with no need for aquafaba or egg white. Shake it harder you lazy shit