Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations

Lichen

Well-known member
Mr Sloane

Your bolognese recipe comes from The Silver Spoon which seems to the non plus ultra of Italian cookery.

I'd love a copy. In fact I'm off to Amaz*n now.
 

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
I eat bolognese alot right, it's one of my favourite things. I've tried all recipes known to mankind, really. Ragu with added chicken liver, with extra pork trotter, without carrots, with beef mince, with bacon rather than proscuitto, without proscuitto.

THIS one is the business. I don't care what any of you say. This recipe is the fucking bollocks, try it. People will think you're a master chef. It's amazing. Don't forget the nutmeg, and use the best dried mushroom you can afford.

http://uk.phaidon.com/the-silver-spoon/recipes/2010/april/23/tagliatelle-bolognese/

We were kinda amazed. It's like the Aaliyah of ragu.

interesting - i'll check this out.

I too have tried the chicken livers thing (also in lasagne) and thought it was nice.

When I was researching what was the best recipe lots ask for cooking times of 2 - 3 hours and lots have milk in.

When i had this in Bologna it had almost no tomatoes in, very meaty, dark grey/brown meat and no real discernible veg in. Very nice.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Nutmeg is always a good idea.

Anchovy/lardons/kale/garlic/chili pasta, with the anchovies melted into olive oil at the beginning. With lime juice to serve.

Sauce of chicken stock/honey/lime juice/balsamic/double cream over grilled or roasted chicken thighs (ideally themselves marinated overnight)
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Mr Sloane

Your bolognese recipe comes from The Silver Spoon which seems to the non plus ultra of Italian cookery.

I'd love a copy. In fact I'm off to Amaz*n now.

There's two Silver Spoons - to my knowledge, mebbe more- one just for pasta and the other for, erm, everything. Very different recipes in both. The non-pasta one gets used round here at least once a week, and has done for about three years now, its tremendous and kinda perfect. Have fun :).

Not sure exactly what it is that makes that particular Bolognese good, but was imoressed, and it tastes most like stuff we ate in Bologna, that richness @viktor, y'know?
 

Lichen

Well-known member
I ordered the big one.

I've leafed through it before - the recipes seem really concise and manageable - which i guess is the nature of Italian food.

Have you eaten at Bocca di Lupo? I looked through their book recently - seems great.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Mr Sloane - is 200g of pork enough for that? Looks a bit on the light side for 6 surely? I think I will try it this weekend though.
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Mr Sloane - is 200g of pork enough for that? Looks a bit on the light side for 6 surely? I think I will try it this weekend though.

Not for six unless you're doing it as a first course. That recipe makes enough for three as a main course I'd reckon, you might wanna double if you're serving six. But yeah 200g is totally enough meat - I thought that it was too little as well but it works fine.

Havent been to the Bocca place, looks nice. Are there any other good Italians in London?

My favourites are the chicken recipes in Silver Spoon, so easy, soooo good.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
Thanks man. I'm gonna get the pasta machine out as well. Anyone here ever make pasta? It's easy enough but I've never found it to be so completely amazing as to justify the effort. This is normal pasta I'm talking about, not ravoli and the like which is a different bowl game.
 

Lichen

Well-known member
Not for six unless you're doing it as a first course. That recipe makes enough for three as a main course I'd reckon, you might wanna double if you're serving six. But yeah 200g is totally enough meat - I thought that it was too little as well but it works fine.

Havent been to the Bocca place, looks nice. Are there any other good Italians in London?

My favourites are the chicken recipes in Silver Spoon, so easy, soooo good.

There's the River Café but it's wildly expensive and it seems odd to pay huge sums for such straightforward food.

I suspect money is best spent on good ingredients, esp. with the Silver Spoon to hand.

The great maxim for Italian restaurants in Italy = the worse the lighting, the better the food. Strip lights good, candles bad.

My experience, albeit slight, has borne this out. Best nosh was a café with a stove in kitchen, mama at the hob etc.

Marine Ices doesn't do especially great food, but I do remember a wonderful retort from a waiter/son there when I complimented him on the fegato alla veneziana. I said it tasted like it had been cooked at home, he gestured to the kitchen "it pretty much has been sir".
I wept gently into my house Valpolicella.
 

Numbers

Well-known member
Re:ragu

For the best ragu recipe, head here. The Silver spoon recipe's good, but the cooking time is short (2h min - the ragu should be so dense your spoon can stand up in it). Also not a big fan of mushrooms in ragu. Maybe its more common in southern Italy.
 

slowtrain

Well-known member
I made ice cream with bay leaves and basil and a little bit of anise in it last night.

It is really fucking weird and I have no idea what I am doing, it tastes like nothing I have ever eaten in my entire life.
 

DannyL

Wild Horses
I made it on Saturday night. It was pretty good, but it tasted really amazing while cooking, and this didn't quite carry over - possibly cooked it a bit too long so I lost some of the flavour. Going back for seconds tonight so I'll report back.

Making fucking pasta though. Never again! :mad:
 

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Yeah I never made pasta yet, I'm scared to do it in case either I'm crap or it's delicious, either option would be devastating.

Sorry it didn't hold up Danny, not sure why that is. It does change dramatically after the nutmeg, maybe save that til 5 mins before serving? Just a guess though, absolutely no learned or factual basis for that suggestion!

LOl @ m99. Dissensus ragu wars. I'll give that one a go. I was at some Italians this weekend and we had like a hour long, very heated ragu discussion, with much secrecy and NONONO you DONT do it that way lol.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I made ice cream with bay leaves and basil and a little bit of anise in it last night.

It is really fucking weird and I have no idea what I am doing, it tastes like nothing I have ever eaten in my entire life.

There are some things mortal man was not meant to taste...
 

Dr Awesome

Techsteppin'
Re:ragu

For the best ragu recipe, head here. The Silver spoon recipe's good, but the cooking time is short (2h min - the ragu should be so dense your spoon can stand up in it). Also not a big fan of mushrooms in ragu. Maybe its more common in southern Italy.

Turns out I've just been making it with beef mince my whole life.
Will try it out that recipe one night this week.
 

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
Re:ragu

For the best ragu recipe, head here. The Silver spoon recipe's good, but the cooking time is short (2h min - the ragu should be so dense your spoon can stand up in it). Also not a big fan of mushrooms in ragu. Maybe its more common in southern Italy.

My last go came out like this, it's not that red at all.

PICT0012.JPG


onion, carrot and celery
beef mince, chicken livers and bacon in a ratio of 3:1:1
thyme and oregano
tin of tomatoes
large glass wine and same of whole milk
olive oil
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Thanks man. I'm gonna get the pasta machine out as well. Anyone here ever make pasta? It's easy enough but I've never found it to be so completely amazing as to justify the effort. This is normal pasta I'm talking about, not ravoli and the like which is a different bowl game.
I've tried a couple of times. I don't think I've quite got the technique down and I don't really understand the variables involved well enough to know what I'm doing wrong.

I'd like to be able to make stuffed pasta, but it doesn't really seem worth the investment of time and effort that it's going to take to learn to do it consistantly well by trial and error.
 

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
I'd never have thought of putting milk in a ragu.

Mine generally turn out pretty reddish but I tend to use quite a lot of tomato puree and sometimes sun-dried tomato pesto (or just paste) as well. Purists would probably gag at the chili I use - I guess it ends up being sort of a meaty arrabbiata, almost.
 
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blacktulip

Pregnant with mandrakes
My girlfriend turned her career on its head and now works in a Michelin-starred restaurant.

Yesterday she grilled up a couple of burgers for us, served with home-made slaw and roast potatoes done in goose fat and olive oil. The house was full of black smoke but my tastebuds saw God.
 
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