Products I've liked

[snooky]

Evening Stravaig,
I buy the Smoked Haddock from Costco and it is rather nice.I am bored with shallow frying and mash and peas so could you post your Creamy Smoked Haddock recipe filling for Baked spuds,Ta.I also,amongst other stuff,buy 600gram tubs of MARMITE from Costco for £5-89.Best buy in in my shopping!!

[Stravaig]

Hi Snooky,

I'd be delighted to assist. I don't actually do recipes but I can tell you what I do with stuff. As a Scot, I eat a load of smoked haddock.

I do all kinds of things with it ( in a culinary way).

But it's Friday night - the start of the weekend and it's goodbye from me! Just want to down tools right now and get fed from the chippy. Our easy to walk to chippy is quite crap so husband drives to one a wee bit further away. That's good. But if you don't have a car I guess you don't have a choice. Sad really.

[Stravaig]

Hi Snooky,
I expect you know how to make a roux. (If not, here's an explanation https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-make-roux )

I just make a basic roux, then I add a daud (maybe half a teaspoon) of English mustard and then I cook the smoked haddock in that sauce*. I use it for lots of things - baked tattie filling, crepe filling. I love it! You can serve a salad on the side if you want or maybe a couple of sprigs of watercress.

Thanks for asking!

* I skin the smoked haddock and cut it into smallish pieces, pop it into the roux/sauce and simmer it gently until the fish is cooked.

[Stravaig]

I have a so-called whipping syphon which is powered by nitrous oxide, ie N2O. Also known as laughing gas. Maybe I'm just too old to even think about inhaling that far less to do it. It never occurred to me!

I ordered some of the N2O 'bulbs' online and husband traipsed half way across London to collect them. When he got there, they (Nisbets) told him they had cancelled the order because they don't sell it to retail customers. Meh. That's bad enough but they could have had the courtesy to say they'd cancelled the order and saved him the time and money of the trip across London.

Anyway, this gas seems to be dangerous and malicious so I can kinda understand some places reluctance to sell it - and if they do sell it to someone who uses it for illegal purposes then they, the seller, are liable to face a criminal charge too. But that doesn't excuse cancelling someone's order and not bothering to tell them.

Our next step was to tell our local fishmonger, ie not a retail customer. They were more than happy to oblige and take delivery of the stuff for us to collect from them.

[Stravaig]

Asda's potato daupinoise is really good!

I've often made daupinoise because it's not always easy to find in other countries so if that's what you want then you have to DIY. I was just feeling lazy (or drunk?) and I spotted that Asda sold it. Oh well, try just about anything once. Actually if was really very good and we've had it a couple of times since.

It needs to go in the oven as it tends to split in the microwave, but even so it's a lot less faff than making your own. I like it!

[Stravaig]

Want to buy humus rather than make it?

We've tried all the major supermarket's versions and reached the conclusion that Tesco is best, both for taste and texture.

[Westi]

I generally make my own using tinned chickpeas as like it pretty garlicky & not too runny; actually mostly prefer to see some wee chopped up bits in it. I find the supermarket ones over processed & basically sloppy. Don't have a Tesco close by though to compare.

[Westi]

PS: Welcome back, been a bit quite without your input! x

[Stravaig]

I asked our fishmonger in Kent to get me a flat fish. Whatever he thought was good. He gave us a filleted lemon sole. (I didn't know until very recently that the lemon sole is one of the plaice family.)

Anyway, the lemon sole was super delicious! Remarkable, memorable. So, when I saw that Waitrose was selling lemon sole fillets I thought it would be worth getting one. No, it wasn't. It just wasn't nice. Not recommended.

OTOH their (very small) rainbow trout was very good. Not that I had the chance to try much of it as gluttony husband scoffed it up before I had much of a chance.

[Stravaig]

I very rarely like shop-bought or so-called restaurant-bought pizzas. But sometimes you get desperate.

This is the best I've had!
https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/pro ... rence-490g

Yeah, I would buy that again.

[Westi]

I find the big name pizza outlets are pretty bland & sorely lacking in the amount of topping in relation to the price & Mr is not so keen on them either. The supermarket ones better but limited toppings. I buy plain Margherita bases & them pimp them to what we are in the mood for, be it seafood with anchovies or pepperoni or whatever but extra mozzarella! I am also probably considered a heathen as I like my topping right to the edge!

[Stravaig]

Sorry for disappearing again. Been ill - the usual, anxiety, stress, vomiting. Of course when you're chucking up every 15-20 mins and can't even keep water down, there's no chance of eating or sleeping, which makes matters worse.

Anyway, husband noticed Coquilles St Jaques in M&S. You just have to take 'em out of the foil container and heat in the oven. We like them! They're even better that the ones we occasionally got from our wonderful fishmonger in Kent. I can make my own, of course, but they're very handy if you're feeling lazy or not very well. Plus you get nice scallop shells with them which you can reuse. (£13 for six scallop shells on Amazon.)

[Westi]

Welcome back Stravaig! Good to hear your back on form again.

I had a question for you before you went offline for a bit, but gone out of my brain currently but be assured I will remember.

[Stravaig]

Thanks, Westi. I'm not really back on form. Just able to get to the laptop in my home office instead of being glued to the bed. Oh well, it's a step in the right direction

[Westi]

I'll break you in gently Stravaig with one question I thought off today! Please don't feel you have to answer until you are back on form, I'm just writing it down now as I'll forget.
I have loads of apples but most desert varieties so don't store very long. I have tried just juicing but they go a horrible unappetising brown colour. I read you can add Citric Acid which I have but couldn't find much on ratio of citric acid to juice & most posts seemed like full orchard harvests. Then I found another one from Northern Europe where they soaked the cut up apples with skin & seeds in boiling water leaving it to cool & sit for 24/36hrs, but the water itself was processed with fruit which seems like you might have mild apple flavoured water, not juice.