Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations

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viktorvaughn

Well-known member
Slothrop said:
Tasty, tasty cheating.

Baboon: it's fairly possible in general, it's when you add in the constraints of being reasonably healthy (ie not just halloumi) and reasonably quick and straightforward that it becomes a bit of a task.

Viktor - yeah, but I think most of those add a different sort of richness. There's more to it than umami, in other words. Maybe it's something about texture or integration of the fat with the body of the food or something, as well as a big fat umami kick.
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Deffo. It's never quite the same is it, sometimes a good approximation. I do think it's the animal fat perhaps - i fried some turnips in duck fat once and they were delicious, the meat flavour and that umami kick you mention was definitely there..
 
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viktorvaughn

Well-known member
Mr. Tea said:
Lentils might be the biggest cliché going in vegetarian food but they carry flavour really well. But maybe that's the effect of the butter/ghee they're cooked in. They're the kind of thing I really enjoy whenever I cook them but for some weird reason hardly ever buy.
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Last night I stuffed a squash with some lentils and bulgar cooked with some stock, sage, chilli, dried porchini, onions and garlic and then topped with cheese and breadcrumbs - had a proper 70s vegetarian vibe! Like you say, the lentils just suck up the flavour, lovely.
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
Lentils are good.

Dairy often adds something as well.

I think this is why it's easier to make satisfying vegetarian indian stuff than chinese.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Lentils are wonderful, especially puy ones which keep their shape.

Love bulghur wheat, but recently I've swapped over to freekeh, even nicer. It's pretty expensive - £3 for a bag, but it goes a long way and it's perfect for soaking up middle eastern-type stews
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
viktorvaughn said:
Last night I stuffed a squash with some lentils and bulgar cooked with some stock, sage, chilli, dried porchini, onions and garlic and then topped with cheese and breadcrumbs - had a proper 70s vegetarian vibe! Like you say, the lentils just suck up the flavour, lovely.
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Sounds lush, Mrs. Tea is cooking something squash/sage/onion/garlic-y (not entirely sure what yet) right now, smells good. It'll have ementhaler in it too, I think. *drool*
 
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Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
OK, this might not win any prizes for earth-shattering originality but I cooked the best fucking risotto ever yesterday. Garlic and onion fried till golden in oil and butter, arborio rice added and cooked in the grease for a bit, then a glass of white wine, then gradually added fish stock a bit at a time while the rice cooked. Crumbled in some smoked mackerel fillets (already coated in pepper and chili) when the rice was 3/4 cooked, threw in fresh basil and parsley and finally stirred in some cream. Served with lemon juice, pepper and parmigiano on top. OH MY GOD it was good.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I'll try that - smoked mackerel is always a favourite.

I'm looking forward to duck fesenjan (walnuts and pomegranate molasses) later this week,when I can be bothered to put it all together. Hopefully I won't be disappointed/disappoint myself - it's sublime when done correctly
 
Slothrop

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
On a mackerel tip, my current top lazy dinner when the veggie's away is a baked potato with a mix of fried onions, peas and tinned mackerel fillets, possibly with a bit of horseradish mixed in and some grated parmesan (or just cheddar) on top.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
baboon2004 said:
I'm looking forward to duck fesenjan (walnuts and pomegranate molasses) later this week,when I can be bothered to put it all together. Hopefully I won't be disappointed/disappoint myself - it's sublime when done correctly
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We've cooked that a few times after my GF got the recipe from a half-Iranian friend of ours. It's bare lush, can be labour-intensive though if you have to grind your own nuts, so to speak. But totally worth it.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
My flint hand-axe broke last week, so I'm having to get by without it.

PS Hand-held blenders are super cheap and just as good in my experience - wouldn't be able to live without mine. Well obviously I would....
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Oh I've got one of those, it's great for liquidizing chunky soups and whatnot but I dunno how useful it would be for something like walnuts.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
The fesenjan was good, with a couple of reservations, one specific, one general:
(1) I had it with chicken before, and compared to that the duck was a bit dry. I barely ever cook duck, so maybe I didn't do it right. Come to think of it though, I had the same complaint the last time I had it at a restaurant, so maybe I just don't like it as much as I thought.
(2) (This applies to lots of things I cook) Since I tasted the sauce all the way through, I'd kinda got used to the taste, and so I was less impressed by the final dish. From my initial reaction to tasting the sauce by itself (amazing), when I was eating the final dish I was much more blase/finding fault with it. Also: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...sep/17/serving-temperature-affects-taste-food
this seems obviously true to me, but I'm bad with being patient, especially when I'm hungry...

PS the blender was fairly good for this
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
Slothrop said:
Achtung Tea:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24159029
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Ha, yeah, I saw this. I for one welcome our squeeky, salty overlord.

Baboon, I find it odd that you've had a duck recipe come out 'dry', I mean duck is generally massively fatty, isn't it? If anything I find fesenjan tends towards greasiness, but that's probably a function of the amount of butter I use.

We got a metric fuckton of blackberries and elderberries over the weekend, already made some into sorbet but I really want to try this now: blackberry and port trifle. *drool*

Also, beef gravy flavoured with blackberries and field mushrooms is some NEXT LEVEL SHIT. Taste and believe.
 
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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I often find duck dry, now I've thought about it. Used duck legs - maybe that's the reason. I'm too hungover to think about it further.
 
Mr. Tea

Mr. Tea

Let's Talk About Ceps
baboon2004 said:
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...sep/17/serving-temperature-affects-taste-food
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A brand-new study by Charles Spence at Oxford has found that, more often than not, we can tell whether a liquid is hot or cold just from hearing it being poured into a cup.
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Ha! I've always thought this. I guess water is going to be less dense and probably also less viscuous when it's very hot. There's a very particular sound just-boiled water makes when being poured into a teacup that you don't get with cold or tepid water.

Also, I'm glad someone else has picked up on the bizarre American fetish for having to drink water that's at exactly zero degrees C and gives you a headache.
 
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