Cooking in general

[Catherine]

I love to cook, anything and everything. Not cakes or sweet things just savoury food. I can't count how many cook books we have. But more often than not its the things that you make up in your head that come out better.

Tonight we have had a Moroccan Veggie one pot with rice and fruity couscous. We are not vegetarians but we do eat alot of vegetarian recipes.

The veggie one pot is something I saw in the Good Food magazine and have made it several times. If anyone wants the recipe please pm me and I will send it to you its lovely.

I make couscous all the time, we had it in Skipton in a veggie cafe last week. It was so good I decided to make it at home with no recipe just imagination. Couscous, mint, chopped nuts, parsley, mixed lemon and lime juice, cranberries in juice, sultanas and garlic. I know that if I want to make this again I will never be able to match how I make it the first time.

I love doing this, does anyone else have recipes that they make up and everytime they make it it tastes different?

[Monika]

Yes, Catherine, ""central European winter soup"! Into it goes anything that happens to be handy in winter, usually carrots, parsnips, celeriac, potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, leeks, kale, a little onion, flavoured with some fresh thyme, bay leaf, sage, winter savory and parsley. If it's a bit too runny, I bung in some yellow lentils. At the end it's all mixed with the blender and a dash of low fat creme fraiche added.

I promise you, it tastes different every time.

[lizzie]

I love to cook too......anything and everything i'll have a go at. My signature dish is sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce. I don't make it too often cos there are a serious amount of calories in it, but I make it at Christmas time. I make one for Grockie, one for another friend, one for my old mum and one for us.

I always take Grockies round on Christmas Eve and she has it for pud on Christmas Day. I like to give gifts that i've made.

[Westi]

Yep - I'm one for loving it! I also have more cook books
than is healthy so must be an obsession, in fact I have
to sneak them in the house.
I really try to use all the veges I grow and love looking
at recipes to see how I can convert the ingredients into
something I have available. I never follow recipes exactly
as don't always have all the spices and stuff and never
measure so consequetly every dish is different This can
be a pain when you have made something brill as can't
replicate it next time.
Consequently my new year resolution is to keep my own
notebook of recipes just like my gran did then will transfer
them at a later date onto the computer and will have my
very own family cookbook.

Catherine - put the recipe onto the forum for all to enjoy -
please!

Westi

[Catherine]

No sooner said than done Westie. I will add a few more that I use all the time as well.

[Shallot Man]

HELP. My late mum was always able to get a nice crust on her "Bubble & Sqeak" what am I doing wrong, I put a spot of dripping in the pan, but finish up with it stuck to the pan and no crust.

[Johnboy]

Hi Shallot Man,
I have a Hamburger press and make the Bubble and Squeak into small burgers and always cook with extra virgin olive oil and because they are small I can easily keep turning them and ultimately you get a sooooper crust on them and slightly burnt as I prefer them.
JB.

[Shallot Man]

JB manythanks.

[macmac]

We had a version of bubble and squeak on boxing day.I think it was Jamie Oliver who suggested left over roasties,I chopped sprouts,carrots and roast potatoes all left over from the big day.Softened some finely sliced onions and made up a bit of paxo-I know it sounds dreadful but fried like conventional b&s and it was lovely,it didn't look too pretty .

[Mike Vogel]

Like you, Catherine, my wife loves to cook and her curries almost make it pointless going out for one. She has an exquisite knowledge of the various spices and she often makes the curries from the raw ingredients. The following conversation can often be heard:
"Mike, come here and taste this. tell me what it needs."
" Yes, great. Perhaps a bit more cumin/fenugreek/nutmeg [whatever]."
"What?!! No it doesn't! I'll put a bit more stock ..."

I do the soups. Cook the squash till soft and liquidise it. Add celeriac and parsnip or Jerusalem Artichole [also previously liquidised]. Plus herbs, seasoniong and perhaps other stuff if you want a meal-in-a-soup. It works.

She's Cordon Bleu. I'm more Cordon Bennett!!