rarerollingobject

That sounds like an idea. Though I will probably miss on the Lao Gan Ma - it is the Heinz ketchup of southern China - so overdone here. Everything tastes the same. I'd be happy never to come across the stuff again. There are dozens of much better chilli sauces. Well, sheesh..OK then!

Ha! I'm pretty sure that's the exact article I got the remoulade idea from in the first place. Speaking of raw, you could do it a little like Sichuanese cucumbers..sort of a quick pickle in garlic, vinegar, sesame oil, sugar and Sichuan pepper or some Lao Gan Ma chilli oil.

Yes, per Ashen, I've used it like celeriac to make remoulade. Also steamed and mashed with butter. And diced small and roasted with chunks of skinned sausage, silver beet, hazelnuts and shallots.

Yeah, kohlrabi. They also come in purple. Some people say they taste a bit like broccoli stem. I quite like them roasted, but other than that, they're pretty mild.

Kim, that spread is incredible! And very nice galantine, Ranz, and beef, Peter and bmdaniel. It's 43C here in Sydney (110F) so too hot for anything but cold food..soba in sesame ginger sauce, with prawns, chicken, and shredded capsicum, green onions and cucumber. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must get back to melting in this hideous heat...

Now THAT is a thing of beauty..*swoon*

Beautiful as usual, Soba and Bruce. Quite literally the first breakfast I've eaten this year! Zucchini, feta and mint fritters (with green Thai birdseye chillis) cooked in duck fat, a sauce of Greek yoghurt, lime and more green chillis, and a Virgin Mary.

Inspired by myself on the Cooking for One thread (hehe) and Ottolenghi originally (recipe http://www.guardian....urt-dip-recipes) I made turkey cakes with wasabi guacamole. The turkey cakes were spiked with grated zucchini, green onions, cumin, garlic and coriander and glazed in ginger jam after browning. And three incendiary Thai green chillis added in too, which I received in a package mailed by my capsaicin-obsessed mother.

Re ideas, if anyone's looking for any..here's a list of meals I've cooked over the last year or so for myself. I keep a Google spreadsheet of meal ideas that take my fancy or things I've cooked and liked, so whenever I'm inspirationless, I look back here (or, more often, the Dinner thread!). Mostly low carb, because that's how I try to roll. Bossam (steamed pork belly, wrapped in lettuce leaves, with kimchi) Larb over lettuce Grilled prawns with anchovy butter Roast cauliflower with anchovies and panko Cauliflower kedgeree Mussels (Thai, cider and bacon, white wine and garlic) Cantonese steamed fish Tom kha gai soup Eggplant and pork crackling thai salad Scallop tartare Clams in XO sauce with ginger gai lan Blue eye with clams and broad beans Grilled Persian lamb backstrap on roast vegetables Lamb kebabs, salad and yoghurt Confit trout, fennel salad Wagyu wrapped around asparagus and enoki Roast prawns with cocktail sauce Squid, mint, shallots, bean sprouts, cucumber, chilli salad Poached chicken breast, green onion and ginger sauce Eggplant fries Tom yum soup Caramelised fennel with goats curd Duck confit Vietnamese meatballs Turkey fritters with wasabi guacamole Tuna tartare Sauteef fish pistachio paillarde Scallops with pan fried chorizo San choy bow Chicken breast spread with umeboshi and shiso and rolled up and sauteed Miso and ginger marinated chicken thighs Mushroom ragout and a bread roll Oysters kilpatrick and salad Sunomono (Japanese pickled seafood salad) with cucumbers Wasabi and soy sauce soba noodles with poached salmon on top

This is going to annoy you, as it’s basically just an exposition on cooking for one, but - I now live alone five days a week. While I started off by cooking big batches of things and freezing leftovers etc so that I’d never be stuck “without”, I realized that I too missed the experience of cooking every day. Plus, getting home tired at the end of the day, it seemed too boring and too much of a hassle to bother defrosting/reheating etc. And I didn’t want to load up big batches of fresh groceries at the beginning of the week that I’d then be in a mad panic to get through before they spoiled. So now what I do (or what I did before I got sick and stopped eating altogether) is shop every day. It’s a marvellous luxury..to think “What shall I have for dinner tonight?” and anything I can think of, I go get and make, revelling in the knowledge that I have only myself to please. Mussels? I’ll get some. Pork belly? I’ll do a little roast. Chicken wings? Delicious! Cauliflower cheese and nothing else? I’m an adult. I realize that this isn’t possible for everyone, in terms of location/time/budget but I’m really enjoying it. It’s keeping me eating well and keeping me interested in cooking. It meshes well with my inherent greediness, impatience and inability to plan properly. It might not be a useful idea to YOU at all, but to me, being able to say “I can have anything I want today, and I will!” takes the sense of hassle and the potential doldrums of cooking just for one. As for the making, I’ve never found using fresh produce especially difficult to cook for one. Dried beans or something, yes, why would you bother for a tiny portion - for that reason I actually avoid soups, braises, curries, stews etc – hate the leftovers. But small amounts of expensive protein and some fresh vegetables are never that complicated. Pay the money and spirit your goods gleefully home like you’re handling gold, and you’ll find a way.

Very nice!

Fantastic NYE's dinners, all! Loved the Burmese kick especially, Twyst. And Steve Irby, of all the beautiful things you've posted, that house-cured salmon looks especially beautiful.. And thank you to everyone for your kind words and well-wishes; I'm still taking food very, very slowly. Weaning myself back onto proper food and have had to make lunch my main meal, so it's my dinner for all intents and purposes. An old favourite; buffalo mozzarella, peach and coppa salad. With some balsamic and pistachio oil.

Thank you. I think it may really only be eG friends who'd understand how much it could buoy one's spirits to eat again.

I've been very ill for a long time now, the most upsetting effect of which has been completely putting me off my food! Unforgivable. So this it the first thing I've cooked for myself in a long time..cold soba noodles with wasabi, soy sauce, shredded nori and sesame seeds. MY version of "plain food". It may not look like much, but to be able to eat this again, to me..is a triumph.

pep - that dessert looks great. Did you make the cherries yourself? I've been pondering brandy-ing some cherries. radtek - gorgonzola, pancetta and tomatoes sounds amazing. robirdstx, it's because of you I first tried sriracha with chicken wings and now I like it better than buffalo style.. mm84321, ridiculously beautiful as usual. Scaling sweetbreads! Amazing. Dinner here was a new way with squid; pureed in the food processor with ginger, chilli and coriander and then fried as patties. With a shredded carrot/cucumber/ginger/chilli salad on the side. And more coriander.

A sort of retro but tasty salad of honeydew melon, ham, cucumber and hazelnuts. A dressing of wholegrain mustard, honey, lemon juice and pistachio oil. It got to 97 fahrenheit in Sydney this weekend, so salads are the go at the moment.

Everyone's food looks good, as usual. I personally love the variation between "high art" and every day meals I see here. I'm a total glutton AND a bit of stickybeak, so seeing what other people eat is always fascinating - so I say post away! There's room here for us all. I found an awesome kimchi shop today that had all different kinds, so dinner is a "kimchi sampler", if you will - or, as my less-kimchi-loving BF called it "a little plate of horror". Left to right, we have clam, squid, garlic shoot and then baby octopus kimchi. With steamed pork belly, soybean paste and lettuce on the side, this be bossam.

Beautiful duck breast, Franci, and patrickamory, that char siu is just about perfect. dcarch, incredible as usual. The crust on those scallops is drool-worthy. Creola, you had me googling po'boys. I've never fried an oyster..cooking them at all is generally considered sacrilege around these parts, but I think I could come at a po'boy. Are the oysters only JUST fried, so they're still all oceany and briney? Dinner here was disproportionately delicious for how easy it was..cubes of lamb leg marinated in a mix of peanut butter, sesame oil, soy sauce, honey and white pepper, threaded onto skewers with chunks of cucumber and then grilled for 4 mins each side until charred but still rare, just the way I like it. I saw it on some TV show, and I have to say, it's a keeper for 'brain-dead but hungry' nights.

Continuing my campaign to harden my arteries: eggs, fried in duck fat and piled onto a tortilla with tomato habanero salsa, and fried morcilla (black pudding). The tortilla was wholewheat, OK?! Followed by a very strong Vietnamese coffee with condensed milk.

Beautiful dish, and picture! THose chops look good Bruce, but adding to the chorus from before..those ribs were incredible! Dinner here..steak tartare, to be scooped up with endive. Witlof? Chicory? Anyway, this:

Hangover breakfast of champions..a double-dose bloody mary and a sausage roll. My exec assistant is an insane pork-hound (not a euphemism) and he tells me this is Sydney's top SR. I have been guarding this baby in the work fridge for a day and a half, just waiting for the right moment to bring it home and ravage it.

Howdy all, it's been awhile..not posting much lately, but still lurking for your food. robirdstx, that duck breast is stunning! Kim Shook, you should know that your dinner with meatloaf got me curious to try making it (which would have been a first for me), and thinking about solid walls of meat then morphed into a hankering to try making Scotch eggs, and here we are. I always think Scotch eggs with hen eggs are too big and unwieldy, so I got me some quail eggs, boiled them until just soft, and had at it. Hen eggs = too big, but quail eggs = life may be too short to peel a dozen of them. Delicious tho, topped with smoked salt and hot mustard.

Thanks, rod rock. Today I made a simple salad of mache and grilled prawns. The delicious part was anchovies, melted into butter and seasoned with lemon, drizzled over the top as dressing.

A sort of weird but interesting combination of sashimi octopus, salmon, cucumber, diced lemon flesh and pistachio oil over salad greens:

This picture was actually taken at lunch, but since I'm having the same thing for dinner, I think it's fair game to post. Steak tartare, a pretty standard preparation of beef, shallot, parsley, tiny capers, Dijon mustard and Tabasco. And egg yolk porn, to be sure.