Prawncrackers

Hear! Hear! I'm tired of the same old jokes revived every year about this time ← Look if mincemeat pies were any good, we'd eat them all year round! They're not so we don't

My wife's birthday coming up and as it's always the one day of the year that i don't cook, we like to eat out as well we can! So question is for those Brummies in the know, do we go to Simpsons again (always very enjoyable) or do we try somewhere else? In particular i'm thinking about splashing out on a tasting menu at Simpsons, how do the ones at Purnell's compare? Or for that matter anywhere else, i'm open to suggestions.

DING! That's a great idea, a nice blob of melty cheese in the centre - fontina or tallegio. I am so doing that next time i make croquettes.

What are the other 3? ← Pestilence, famine and war of course!! mmm, pestilence pie Me, i'd eat anything - all foods have a virtue. Some more than others though, for example Courgettes, what is that all about? I don't find it offensive but to me it has a negative flavour, it's frustratingly bland!

A found a lot of her earlier shows very enjoyable to watch. She was a fresh personality, naturally very beautiful and had a wicked way with words. I could ignore the obvious escapist nature of the shows and the choreographed flirting to camera as the food she cooked always appeared so generously homely delicious. However, her latest series on the BBC: ‘Nigella Express’, is simply dreadful. Once the novelty of her personality has worn off you focus on what she’s actually cooking and the way the program is made. The pretext of the show is that she is on a crusade, as most TV cooks here in the UK are, to show people that great food can be made in an <<Express!>> (buzzword alert). Cut-away to Nigella waiting at bus-stop then cut again to her drinking <<Express!>>-made soup from flask on the back of the bus. Look I know you’re not serious Nigella, I didn’t for an iota think you were being serious. But you’ve let the director or the producer pepper your show with so much fluff that whilst half your audience is rapt with the fantastical details of your lifestyle the other half are drowning in saccharin to a soundtrack of lounge-jazz muzak. Every link has to be about your kids or your celebrity friends popping in, it is all so distracting and superfluous to the food. Actually thinking about it maybe the hideously excessive amount of fuzz in the show is there to intentionally hide the terrible food. Oh dear this has become a Nigella bashing rant! But I’m sure for every basher like me there are five who adore and will stand up for her… I have two of her early Domestic Goddess books and they are fantastic, well-thumbed and full of ideas. But it is plainly obvious to me and to anyone who actually pays attention to the content of the show that the food on it is just awful. Nigella has never been a technical cook (she couldn’t dice a shallot - fact) but uses great ingredients simply often taking shortcuts but never to the detriment of the food. The nature of this <<Express!>> program however means she’s taking shortcuts of those shortcuts! The resulting food is so compromised it’s almost embarrassing. Maybe it is the constraints of the show but I expect so much better from her. It is a solid half hour show with no ad breaks on the BBC. Each show has 4 or 5 dishes, considering these are <<Express!>> dishes you can see how much padding there is. I’m not persuading anyone not to watch it after all I watch it myself. I’m just deeply disappointed with it on a weekly basis. It’s so off the mark for me that I’m doubting everything she’s ever done in the past! What do other viewers of this show think? After this dumbed-down series I hope that she does one that allows her to show her extravagant side. But please, less fluff! It’s just so nauseating.

Aha, posted this photo in the UK forum not long ago! From Top to Bottom: Masamoto 270mm Yanagi Korin 180mm Ginsan-Ko Deba (thanks Bob Octaveman for the recommendation) Itou 240mm Gyuto with Stag Handle Takeda 210mm Gyuto Carter 180mm Funayuki Global 180mm Flexible Boning/Filleting Itou 120mm Petty Left: Leung Tim Heavy Chopper Right: Shun Cleaver That's it, i'm pretty satisfied with my lot. The most used is the Shun Cleaver, my fave is the Itou Gyuto and the sharpest is the Takeda. ...and er, balls to you Fugu

I bought a load of sweetbreads about 8 months ago and froze them raw in batches. Only just finished them off a few weeks ago, the last batch was fine. I don't see why you couldn't freeze them cooked. The texture may not be as good but it should be okay.

I love my crab & chorizo croquettas! To me there has to be as little binding agent as possible - just enough to keep the shape, anymore would be diluting the main ingredients. That's why i always use plain thick white sauce then chill the mixture down. Once it's chilled i use metal spoons to make quenelles, then flour, egg, panko and repeat. Crab has that perfect texture to make croquettes with, here is a photo of some i did a couple of months ago:

Delicious Peter, not had winkles for donkeys! They have a slightly more iodine-y taste than whelks and not as chewy. You look like you have big hands too, maybe half a palm o'bacon next time eh Today was surprisingly bright and sunny so i decided to go with a Spanish style meal. Fried Squid, Breaded Sprats, Spanish Tortilla, Saffron Aioli, Choricitos and bread:

That's right by the cricket ground, I've driven past that place 100s of times and have never noticed it! Thanks CFT, definitely worth a squint, if they have fresh bagels it could be a regular stop-off after market shopping.

That's right isn't it, you use schmaltz to make those Jewish dumplings - kniedlach (sp?). I don't think i've ever seen a Kosher butcher-shop, maybe in London or Manchester - definitely not around here though! Mmm rendered Chicken fat - my folks would be horrified. Lovely juicy ribs and broccoli DylanK, right up my street.

Yup i basically do that too. I grab the fat from around the cavity hole of the chicken and render that down. I gently fry scallion whites and/or shallots in the rendered fat till they are very brown. Then i add some minced garlic and ginger, fry that off briefly then add the washed rice and toast-toss that in the aromatic chicken fat. Transfer to the rice cooker and top up with the chicken stock that's just been made by poaching your chicken. Conveniently this time there was enough fat in the chicken to fry the aromatics and rice to go with that chicken. What to do if next time if there isn't? You can't buy chicken fat can you?!

Thanks Sheetz, getting better at it - still not as good as my mum though!

I think steaming with ginger and scallion suits all white-fleshed non-oily fish. I tend to always steam fresh whole fish very simply like this, just with very young ginger and scallion. In my mind it preserves all the goodness of fresh fish and accentuates the "xian" taste. Simply can't think of a better way to cook it. Sometimes i bake whole bass italian style, you know with garlic lemon herbs etc as it looks so nice when the chefs do it on telly. But whenever i eat it i'm always disappointed as it never tastes as good as steaming like this! For fatty or oily fish like Salmon, Sardines or Eels though i prefer to steam with black beans and garlic. Also for fish that have been frozen. In fact i have some halibut collars that are both frozen and fatty that will be delicious like this! Never tried blue-eyed cod, don't think we can get here in the UK, I'm afraid we don't have the natural bounty of seafood that you appear to have down-under! Can you tell i'm jealous? As for Rendang, my recipe is from Cradle of Flavour and to avoid dry meat you must use well marbled beef - do not scrimp. Tepee is right about overnight rendang, it was so nice just gently warmed through in the rice cooker - yum! BTW the exotic green stuff next to the Chicken is cucumber!!

Not as bad as shoving the end of the salt/peppermill into the raw cavity to season it!! Filthy.

Thanks NancyH you're too kind! The trimmings with the Chicken Rice were just the standard ginger/scallion/coriander dip, a chilli dip with fresh lime and some cucumbers. The real star of the show is the rice, i'd forgotten how good it is in this dish.

Here are a couple of Chinese dinners from yesterday and today. Simply delicious back to basics food that makes me glad i'm Chinese Yesterday steamed Gilt-head Bream, stir-fried mange-tout (and leftover rendang - ok not Chinese!) Today, Chicken Rice with all the trimmings:

Tonight we had ultimate Chinese comfort food - Chicken Rice (Hainanese Style). For some reason i've not cooked this for years, i must have lost my mind! Chicken + Rice = Perfection in any language...

I found the black pepper to be unrelentingly spicy, quite different to the complex fruity heat of chillis that most of us on this thread crave Maybe it was the fairly fresh tellicherry pepper i was using but then i did compensate by only using 3 heaped tablespoons of it. It still overwhelmed the sweet crab though. As for adjusting the recipe i could cut down on the pepper even more but then it wouldn't be black pepper crab! Maybe somebody should try this recipe and give a second opinion. Having never had this dish before i can't really compare it with anything.

Here's one to cross off the list, Black Pepper Crab: This was far too spicy for my poor wife who took one bite and almost exploded! I have to admit that i didn't enjoy it as much as i thought i would. To my mind a little one dimensional. Still plenty more dishes to try though, fancy the Chicken Rendang next.

I used to find myself preaching to the unwashed all the time. As I get older I've stopped doing this as I've found that it's simply not worth the aggravation. You cannot convince anyone with a closed mind about anything, not just regarding good food but in all aspects of life. You just have to be true to yourself, be open and maintain an example for others to follow should they choose to. In the context of this topic, I would never serve a guest anything that I wouldn't be happy to have myself. Simple as that! Why would you ever lower your standards for particular groups of people. If one week you entertain gourmet couple A with fresh lobsters, how would non-gourmet couple B feel the following week when you give them frozen breaded prawns? Couple B may normally be perfectly happy with the prawns but knowing what couple A had the previous week, they would think you liked them less! I’m not saying I pull out all the stops every time I entertain but at the very least you give your guests what you yourself would be happy to receive. Using the example above, couple B may not fully appreciate whole lobsters with their scary claws and beady eyes, but they will appreciate fat juicy prawn-tails that I’d breaded myself dipped into fresh home-made tartare sauce. If you cheat your guests you are cheating yourself.

I've been looking for a good Mexican (in particular Mole Poblano) and this seems to fit the bill, thanks for the review. Any reason for the phonetic spelling of Oaxaca?

Why that's such an unusual opnion for Cantonese to have! Keep up the good work, if i could plant a suggestion.... roast.... goose....

Could this be Bacalhau, as in Portugese Salt Cod? The white flakes do look like it, interesting and delicious sounding dish.

I'm in full agreement, MiFi's left-over pasta looks scrumptious. Such a thing would not exist in my house, how could that be left-over?! Tonight a Saffron Prawn Risotto, wonderfully bright dish for a particularly grey day here in Brum: