cooking

[dilla]

Yesterday i made blackbery and plum jam - 5 jars and a dozen blackberry muffins. All produce used was either from my own garden or picked from the hedgerows.

Scrummy and dirt cheap.

 

On Monday I made marrow and plum chutney. The marrows are 89p in Lidl at the moment again, so cheaper to make 6 jars at home than by 1 in the shops.*
If you've got loads of plums then making plum vodka is a must.dDo it the same way as sloe gin(1/3 plums,1/3 sugar and 1/3 cheap vodka)Oh yeh and you need to use old sweet jars with a big mouth as trying to squeeze plums into a bottle is impossible

 

[Wessexy Witch]

My plum tree was pretty pants compared to the last couple of years. I think it had puffed it's self out !
I hope next year I will be back to collecting 2 washing up bowls of plums every day so I can really go to town on the jams.

[Bunny]

My plum tree was pretty pants compared to the last couple of years. I think it had puffed it's self out !
I hope next year I will be back to collecting 2 washing up bowls of plums every day so I can really go to town on the jams.

I am seriously biting my tongue with a Carry On-esque one liner. Someday I hope to reach maturity!!

[cthulhu]

kick out the jams!
;-)

[Wessexy Witch]

My plum tree was pretty pants compared to the last couple of years. I think it had puffed it's self out !
I hope next year I will be back to collecting 2 washing up bowls of plums every day so I can really go to town on the jams.

I am seriously biting my tongue with a Carry On-esque one liner. Someday I hope to reach maturity!!

OOOoh Matron !!

 

[Rusco]

Nice thread, Amandistan.

I really love cooking nowadays. It became a special thing for me when I turned on to veggie diet as a 18 year old chap. I had to learn everything from the start (but not again because before turning vegetarian I ate mostly basic convenience foods). So now it takes for 24 years vegetarian diet and recently a year being vegan.

I'm interested in orient food culture. Their long and ancient tradition with wheat gluten "meat", or seitan as it's renamed since 60's is interesting. Hoi sin sauce is lovely. I also like to bake food in an oven. Potatoes, herbs, etc. Edible seaweed, sprouting beans and seeds is interesting. My wife picks up berries and mushrooms from the forests. They're edible here in Finland and super healthy.

[cthulhu]

I started a little experiment today. Wanted to test some footage of cooking for advertising purpose.
This time the food didn't work out as planned, but it should have been an omelette with mushrooms, bacon, potatoes and cheese.
I wanted it to roll it in the pan when you shake it, so you can make a nice roll.
But here it is to see, for your entertainment 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI-TwbhqKoE

[Master Ray]

I started a little experiment today. Wanted to test some footage of cooking for advertising purpose.
This time the food didn't work out as planned, but it should have been an omelette with mushrooms, bacon, potatoes and cheese.
I wanted it to roll it in the pan when you shake it, so you can make a nice roll.
But here it is to see, for your entertainment 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI-TwbhqKoE

I'd eat that.   

[cthulhu]

I did
But the question is: Would you buy that?;-)

[Master Ray]

I did
But the question is: Would you buy that?;-)

I would.

[cthulhu]

Hooray, it works!!

[cthulhu]

A wonderful dish for the hot days, easy to do and very tasty:

Watermelon + Sheeps's Cheese + Fresh Mint

Well, this could have looked a little better on the foto, but this wasn't the best watermelon, it lacks some of the deep-red colour and i've kept my fresh mint in the fridge for almost two weeks, rolled in wet kitchenpaper, so it has lost some of the nice green colour, but it still tastes good. The basil shows you how it could have looked.

Still hope to maybe inspire some of you to try this out. I love this!

[cthulhu]

For the burger fans...
I got this present for christmas, a box with special salts from around the world. In there i discovered: mexican smoked salt!!
Wow, what a taste explosion! This is incredible..salt that was smoked with wood and it is black and tastes so smokey wonderful..
Inspired by that i bought some smoked sweet pepper (paprika)

And then i did this:

and that


For the burger i mixed the meat with some smoked pepper and normal salt, put in some very fine cut onions and let it rest for a while.
I made some joghurt+lemon+parsil+garlic+smoked salt creme ( i always combine joghurt with some sour creme, because it has more fat and the consistence is better) and i had some bacon prepared.

In one of the burgers you can see some paprika, which i potted in oil, vinegar, pepper, sugar and i used the smoked salt again for that and it tasted so good (put paprika in the oven with 180 degrees, let the skin become black in spots (like about 30 min) and then you can peel the skin right of. prepare a mix of the ingredients i just wrote about, make it more than you can take in the taste, because the pepper is going to make it more sweet and the juice of the pepper will make it more soft)

The burger meat ( i used mixed pork and beef and also only beef) with the smoked paprika had such a great taste, it will become my standard now for doing burgers.
Cut some onions in big rings, put them in flour and roast them in the pan (in the picture it shows a normal onion, that's also ok, but if you go that extra mile with the flour..and you can add some spices too )

So i had a potted smoked paprika, with some good meat and some fried onions, a little mustard on the beef, some cheddar cheese put on the beef while cooking, a joghurt sauce with smoked salt, some potted cucumber...and a good beer!

[Master Ray]

Open up a restaurant serving that kind of food and I'll be right over, buddy!   

[cthulhu]

Open up a restaurant serving that kind of food and I'll be right over, buddy!   

...and i was so close..

I really find the only hard and difficult thing about cooking, is to cook for yourself. If you have friends and guests coming over or you live with somebody together you try to make this effort for them, go that extra mile to prepare something good, but when alone this motivations lacks like hell and you get your fastfood or just heat some pre-processed food just up. Well, that's my experience;-)

Here i want to share and maybe give some tips and also some inspiration to cook something for yourself at home.

So, where are your creations or foods you love to do?

I wanted to show you the salt i was using, look at this:



I think this little box would cost about 10€ and that could seem much for salt, but you really get some taste out of it. Well, if you like smoke..;-)
I used a mortar to make it more fine.
(While writing i found a set containing 3 different styles of smoked salt for 22€)