Food, Glorious Food

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marymary
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

Post by marymary »

Christmas is a bit of a nightmare for my nut-allergic daughter. Christmas pudding is one of the foods she, and everyone around the table, needs to always avoid.
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Little John
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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SRD wrote:We've been making Christmas puddings today, a ritual that takes place very 4 or 5 years as we like the puddings to mature before consumption. The recipe calls for Stout as part of the liquor and I like to follow my mother's advice and use Courage Imperial Russian Stout. Youngs/Wells bought out the old Courage names a few years back and started making IRS last year but I'm using the remnants of a 2 dozen case that I bought about 20 years ago. I'll be damned if the whole bottle is going into the pudding so I poured about a quarter of it into a port glass and I'm sitting here enjoying it whilst the rest of the liquor is absorbed into the mix.
I might be able to help you there. I seem to remember someone talking about an alternative source - totally separate from Wells'. It was one of two people wot told me. I'll see them tonight and ask them.
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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Little John wrote:
SRD wrote:We've been making Christmas puddings today, a ritual that takes place very 4 or 5 years as we like the puddings to mature before consumption. The recipe calls for Stout as part of the liquor and I like to follow my mother's advice and use Courage Imperial Russian Stout. Youngs/Wells bought out the old Courage names a few years back and started making IRS last year but I'm using the remnants of a 2 dozen case that I bought about 20 years ago. I'll be damned if the whole bottle is going into the pudding so I poured about a quarter of it into a port glass and I'm sitting here enjoying it whilst the rest of the liquor is absorbed into the mix.
I might be able to help you there. I seem to remember someone talking about an alternative source - totally separate from Wells'. It was one of two people wot told me. I'll see them tonight and ask them.
How about Sweetheart stout , or is it too sweet .
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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marymary wrote:Christmas is a bit of a nightmare for my nut-allergic daughter. Christmas pudding is one of the foods she, and everyone around the table, needs to always avoid.
The advantage of making your own Christmas puddings is that you can control what goes into them, ours are wheat-free yours could be nut-free.
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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Damn! I forgot to ask. If I see them tonight - which is possible, I'll try to remember to ask.
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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Bit late now, I know. But I wish I'd mentioned who they were back then because I could still ask them. If they remember.
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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There are lots of versions of this but this is my take on a classic French recipe.
Cut a quantity of floury potatoes into 1cm dice put them in a saucepan, add a lightly crushed garlic clove and cover with water. Bring to the boil and cook for a couple of minutes, drain, remove the garlic and leaving the lid off the pan allow them to dry.
For each portion add half a teaspoon each of finely chopped rosemary leaves and olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss through to lightly coat the pieces of potato.
Turn the potatoes out onto a metal baking trayor an ovenproof frying pan and fry until they are just taking on a little colour. Place in an oven set at 200C (or 180C for a fan oven) and roast for up to 30 minutes 'til nicely browned & crisp.
Meanwhile finely chop a teaspoon of parsley with quarter of a teaspoon of lemon zest per portion. When the potatoes are done stir in the chopped parsley & lemon and serve.

They're especially good with roast chicken but I served them dotted through griddled spring onions and topped with thin slices of roast lamb fillet dressed with a bit more of the parsley & lemon mixed with a little olive oil.
Griddled Lamb, spring onions & potato Parmentier.jpg
Griddled Lamb, spring onions & potato Parmentier.jpg (47.65 KiB) Viewed 4077 times
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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marymary
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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Sounds yummy.
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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Drooling.
Must show this to the chief.
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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For many years I bought my marmalade (thick cut Seville for weekdays & Seville, ginger & ginger wine for Sundays) from a lady at Frome Farmers Market. A couple of years ago she retired to Norfolk so I stocked up before she left but those supplies are now running short so yesterday I made marmalade using the following recipe:
Marmalade
Ingredients
1.3kg Seville orange
2 lemons, juice only
1 kg jam sugar (with added pectin)
1.6kg preserving sugar (special granular shape to aid dissolving)

Method
Put the whole oranges and lemon juice in a large preserving pan and cover with 2 litres/4 pints water - if it does not cover the fruit, use a smaller pan. If necessary weight the oranges with a heat-proof plate to keep them submerged. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer very gently for around 2 hours, or until the peel can be easily pierced with a fork.

Warm half the sugar in a very low oven. Pour off the cooking water from the oranges into a jug and tip the oranges into a bowl. Return cooking liquid to the pan. Allow oranges to cool until they are easy to handle, then cut in half. Scoop out all the pips and pith and add to the reserved orange liquid in the pan. Bring to the boil for 6 minutes, then strain this liquid through a sieve into a bowl and press the pulp through with a wooden spoon - it is high in pectin so gives marmalade a good set.

Pour half this liquid into a preserving pan. Cut the peel, with a sharp knife, into coarse shreds. Add half the peel to the liquid in the preserving pan with the warm sugar. Stir over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved, for about 10 minutes, then bring to the boil and bubble rapidly for 15- 25 minutes until setting point is reached.

Take pan off the heat and skim any scum from the surface. (To dissolve any excess scum, drop a small knob of butter on to the surface, and gently stir.) Leave the marmalade to stand in the pan for 20 minutes to cool a little and allow the peel to settle; then pot in sterilised jars, seal and label. Repeat from step 3 for second batch, warming the other half of the sugar first.

You can use ordinary granulated sugar but I find the added pectin allows less cooking thus giving a fresher flavour, if you prefer a more 'Oxford' style marmalade use only non-pectin sugar and allow it to cook a bit longer to get a darker finish.
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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Little John
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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Sounds good apart from removing the pips and pith. That seems like it might be a bit more difficult than it sounds.

But we prefer out marmalade with whisky.
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

Post by Lady P »

I do like ginger in marmalade but Lord P is not keen.

I have never felt inclined to make jam or marmalade, what puts me off, is the jar stuff, first having to acquire them and secondly all that sterilising. Saying that I do like a good marmalade/
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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There is something about the smokiness that whisky imparts that is pleasant but I like a real sharp belt in the tastebuds of a morning and whisky also tends to sweeten the marmalade.

We keep our jars and run them, and their screwcaps, through a hot wash in the dishwasher, sometimes they need a second go through if they've held strongly flavoured foods and I try to match like with like so jams go into jars that have held sweet things and pickles & chutneys go into ones that have held savoury stuff. The lids don't last too long (they rust) but are easy to replace if your jars are standard sized ones. Clean jars are stored with caps loosely on in wine boxes. Sterilising's easy, separate the jars & lids, give them a quick rinse in hot water to remove any dust etc. drain, then pop them in the oven, the jars on their sides and the lids upside down, with the temperature set just below 100C, for 5 minutes. You need to warm them anyway before pouring contents in so it just becomes part of that process.
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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Little John
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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Good tips. But what about the pips?
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Re: Food, Glorious Food

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Little John wrote:Good tips. But what about the pips?
SRD wrote: Scoop out all the pips and pith and add to the reserved orange liquid in the pan. Bring to the boil for 6 minutes, then strain this liquid through a sieve into a bowl and press the pulp through with a wooden spoon - it is high in pectin so gives marmalade a good set.
Children are like Slinkys - not much use for anything, but it always brings a smile to your face when you throw them down the stairs. Chinchilla
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