A random thread for food things that don't really warrant a thread of their own

[Cudzoziemiec]

Looking for things to do other than banana bread with ripe bananas I stumbled across a "dried banana" recipe on the guardian's 10 best banana recipes

The recipe clearly says they will keep for months. This is not true as I just ate them all. That's 3 bananas in one sitting.

We used to eat dried bananas when I was a kid - my mum got them (bought, not made at home) from... well, if I knew where, I'd be very tempted to get some tomorrow. Delicious! In a surprisingly un-banana-y way.

[hellymedic]

Looking for things to do other than banana bread with ripe bananas I stumbled across a "dried banana" recipe on the guardian's 10 best banana recipes

The recipe clearly says they will keep for months. This is not true as I just ate them all. That's 3 bananas in one sitting.

We used to eat dried bananas when I was a kid - my mum got them (bought, not made at home) from... well, if I knew where, I'd be very tempted to get some tomorrow. Delicious! In a surprisingly un-banana-y way.

We had dried bananas from whole/health food shops.
Not had them for years!

[Arch]

I was grilling some courgettes to go with the salmon we were having for dinner tonight when I had a Nigel Slater moment and decided to tart them up a bit.

We had a jar of roasted red peppers in the cupboard, so I sliced them and chucked them in a bowl with the courgettes; added some red onion, garlic, preserved lemon, chilli, fresh mint and fresh parsley, all finely chopped; drizzled on a little olive oil, mixed it all up and voila - courgette and red pepper salad.

Rather good it was too, if I say so myself. I'll definitely be doing that one again.

I had a Nigel Slater moment on Friday. I'd bought some pork steaks for dinner, and I had blackberries to make a crumble, and then I remembered Nigel's recipe for pork roasted in a blackberry marinade. So I squashed some of the blackberries over the steaks and let them sit for a bit, then fried them, took them out to rest, mushed the blackberries in the pan and deglazed with cider. Strained the juice through a sieve and made a rather nice fruity gravy for the steaks.

 

[GothonaBrompton]

Sort of food related - does anyone know where you can get suitable drawer inserts for spice jars?  Most of ours aren't the round Schwartz ones, they are square Tesco ones.  I will be fitting a 600mm wide drawer set over the next couple of weeks as part of a kitchen refit and I want to get my spices off the worktop.

I have Googled but nearly everything I like the look of is based in the US.

[Eccentrica Gallumbits]

No idea. I am really cheesed off that Ikea discontinued their Grundtal hanging spice rack. I had one, realised I needed another and had to pay £30 for one on ebay. I have enough spices now that I could really do with a third, but they're like gold dust (or saffron) now.

[Bledlow]

My brother said his 22-month-old daughter eats more than he does.
Watching the two of them at brunch today, this would indeed appear to be the case.
What's the point of 'child ' portions?

No idea. Growing childer need lotsa food, to fuel all that running around and to make more child.

[hellymedic]

My brother said his 22-month-old daughter eats more than he does.
Watching the two of them at brunch today, this would indeed appear to be the case.
What's the point of 'child ' portions?

No idea. Growing childer need lotsa food, to fuel all that running around and to make more child.

Indeed.
2 year old usually is said to need 100kcal/kg/24 hours which adds up to about 1200kcal. Watching toddler, she seemed to pick multiple small portions ensuring maximum variety.
Her father might need 25kcal/kg/day but seemed to eat very little. I suspect he'd eat some other time, though not much. He's slim and a bit picky.

[CAMRAMan]

I am off on an extensive ale tour of the Black Country later. The route covers such delights as Coseley, Sedgeley and Dudley. The beers should include Bathams, Holdens and Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild at a hefty 6% abv. I'm also hoping faggots and peas are available. Bostin'!

[Arch]

There's a deli in York selling tiny tubs (maybe 100g at most) of "Hand Picked Wild North Yorkshire Brambles".  At a quid a tub! By that reckoning, I picked a tennersworth on my way home from work on Thursday.

I wonder how I can ponce up "Handpicked from a bramble sticking through a fence at the builders' merchant next to the tip, a former landfill site and the back of a traveller camp" and make a fortune...

I'd rather just make jam, really.

(The deli in question is perhaps a mile at most from where I was picking, and there may be decent brambles closer to it than that...)

[Cudzoziemiec]

I still find it slightly amazing that people pay for blackberries.

[CAMRAMan]

Why and how are Black Country chips orange?

[Arch]

I still find it slightly amazing that people pay for blackberries.

I wonder what the average distance is that people in this country live from a fruit bearing bramble. Even in the middle of a city, you can usually find some.  I've spotted a decent crop at the next-but-one tram stop to MFWHTBAB, along with some potential rosehips.

Oh well, free jam for me! Well, ok, I have to buy the sugar....

[Kim]

Why and how are Black Country chips orange?

They fry them in batter.  Even the Glaswegians never thought to batter their chips.

[Basil]

The first blackberry and apple pie of the season has just come out of the oven. 

[Ham]

Whoops. I appear to have had a finger-mouse-interface-click incident yesterday

http://www.sunshinebbqs.com/hog-roasts/extendable-charcoal-hog-roast-machine.html

(with a 40Kg motor upgrade)

Just been delivered. VERY nice piece of kit. I now have more BBQ than bikes. Something must be done about that.

(Step 1: convince Mrs Ham the answer is NOT selling a BBQ)

[hulver]

Cadbury's Chocolate seems to have changed recipe as well as shape. I know it wasn't "proper" chocolate, but I always used to like it. Now I just think that it's not very nice. It seems softer, without as much "bite" as before.

Maybe it's me, after not eating chocolate for so long, but I don't think so.

[clarion]

I'm boycotting Cadbury's anyway, as one of the sponsors of Sochi.

[rafletcher]

Cadbury's Chocolate seems to have changed recipe as well as shape. I know it wasn't "proper" chocolate, but I always used to like it. Now I just think that it's not very nice. It seems softer, without as much "bite" as before.

Well maybe it's now closer to "proper" chocolate, with an increase in milk fats and a reduction in the non-milk fats.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Cadbury's recipe has always varied from place to place anyway. In Australia (well it was Fiji actually, but I think it was made in Australia) it contains peanut oil, for example. I wasn't aware it had changed shape though. Gugle tells me this relates to the little bar, not the proper break-it-into-chunks bar, so I say it doesn't matter!

[citoyen]

I wonder what the average distance is that people in this country live from a fruit bearing bramble.

My main supply is just the other side of my garden fence. I get to keep an eye on them ripening and can go out and pick them ad lib. And there's no one else competing for them.

I know of several other good sources nearby that are mostly left untouched but I just don't have the time to forage them all. Such a shame to see so much good free food go to waste.

Mind you...

I still find it slightly amazing that people pay for blackberries.

Sainsbury's charge £2 for a 150g punnet. By that reckoning, I've just picked £20 worth of blackberries in half an hour, which works out as a better rate than I get paid by my employer.

And there are loads left, ripening nicely.

...maybe it would be worth my while to take a fruit picking holiday and sell the harvest.

[hellymedic]

David brought in a bowlful ( about 500g) of ripe blackberries this afternoon, then asked gardeners to remove bramble that had grown between fence and shed as it was 'in the way'.

[CAMRAMan]

Why and how are Black Country chips orange?

They fry them in batter.  Even the Glaswegians never thought to batter their chips.

Battered chips, eh? Well, colour apart, they were very nice.

My tomato plants have fruited* when the family is away, so are there any good ketchup recipes I can use to save wasting 5kg of toms?

*A combination of a very late spring and not having them covered.

[Basil]

Looks like it's going to be a bumper crop of blackers this year in Brum.  Two pies built already with signs of lots more to come.
But almost bugger all in my part of West Wales as usual.  For some reason they just don't seem to do very well at all here.

[CAMRAMan]

My raspberries did very well this year. I fed them well and had some lovely big, juicy fruit.

[hellymedic]

See the microwave thread for the fate of our blackberries...

There is still some compôte left...