haresfur

Early in the Australia & New Zealand forum fish and chips topic, barramundi was compared to eating a dishcloth. I have heard that wild barra is much better than farmed.

Baked Chicken katsu curry and smashed cucumber salad. I made chili oil for the salad using Korean-style flakes (from China) so it was not very spicy but the flavour is decent. Salad was on a bed of lettuce that needed to be used up. The curry was from a previous meal and rescued from the freezer. Manageable but better not frozen and thawed. Served on brown rice. Sorry about the messy counter top.

I do quinoa in my Sanyo rice cooker using the basic white rice setting. It turns out perfect

Convection ovens are ubiquitous here so almost all pre-pack food comes with conventional and fan-forced temperatures listed. Also our ovens have a heating element at the fan, are you saying yours do not? So there is a difference between fan-forced which uses that element and the fan and a different setting for just the lower element and a third for lower element plus fan but not the convection element. Gets very confusing what works best for various things. Also my Bosch oven manual encourages not preheating for many things as energy saving, just start timing when it reaches temperature. I find that works pretty well, except for baking. For my brownie baking project, I found that I had to reduce the temperature about 15 degrees C but that could be due to other differences.

I grew up eating it year round. I mean not eating a lot of it but we had it in the house and my memory is shaving off thin slices of cold butter to eat with it. I wasn't brought up Jewish, we just ate a lot of Jewish food. I mean why else would they sell matzo that isn't kosher for Passover? It's really just big square Carr's Table Water Biscuits.

Pasta con Costco, originally created to use up those huge jars of stuff you buy there. I'm not a member anymore so unfortunately no 4 bean salad, but the name lives on. Semi-dried tomatoes, semi-dried olives in oil, roasted red pepper and artichoke hearts. Served with unexpected food gift tomatoes, bocconcini, and basil.

Boxing day is the start of hot cross bun season

As if pizza flavoured Shapes biscuits aren't a bad enough idea

Decided to make another attempt at learning to sharpen with stones. I have a Spyderco Sharpmaker which is ok for some things. I realised I needed to start over when the 1000 grit stone I had been using to learn was incredibly dished but the knives weren't exactly sharp. I had shelved that for a while. Anyone running a sharpening service where I live seems to be in the tool destroying business. Except maybe for the people sharpening sheep-shears, but that's a whole other ball game. So I bought a 500 grit Shapton glass and a 1000 grit Shapton Rockstar and realised, in for a penny, in for a pound, I needed an Atoma diamond flattening plate. Then spent a few days watching videos, which of course don't agree with each other so you have to figure out who seems to make the most sense. Haven't tackled the good knives yet but some of the cheap ones turned out much better than they were, although not what I would consider really good. One of the things I learned is that starting with a relatively coarse stone is a good idea. Much easier to figure out if you are screwing up the angle or haven't apexed yet. Feeling a burr is much more obvious to me. Once that is right, it doesn't take too much with the 1000 to get an ok edge. I feel like I'm a long way from wanting to attempt my carbon steel petty, though. I can see how people get into sharpening as a hobby but frankly, I just want to be able to do a decent job slicing a tomato.

Absolutely. On the show, the guest chef put it into the mushroom risotto he made.

A family favourite, "turkey slop". Normally, I wouldn't post such an ordinary meal but I decided to give the technique of microwaving mushrooms before frying a shot. A relatively challenging test since I started by browning the turkey mince then adding the microwaved mushrooms when the mince was partly cooked. Had to cook off some moisture but the shrooms browned up surprisingly well. Would work really well doing the mushrooms alone. Some onions, garlic, a load of paprika, and chopped parsley then sour cream at the end. Served over pasta. The main problem was that the Aldi turkey mince is shockingly bad.

If I recall, Teeling's Irish whiskey has done whiskey aged in stout casks and their whiskey barrels are sent to a brewery to age stout. Kind of a closed-loop goodness.

A mushroom tip from The Cookup With Adam Liaw, which is one of my favourite Australian cooking shows because there are lots of tidbits about technique, either from him or from his guests. It seems like they are genuinely learning from each other. Before frying mushrooms in oil, he microwaves them for about 4 or 5 minutes. The idea is that the air pockets in mushrooms are what suck up the oil and by microwaving them first, the pockets collapse but the mushrooms don't break down because they are basically chitin. Spoon the mushrooms out of the stock that drained during microwaving and they brown right away without getting oily. I'm going to give it a shot. Seems like it may have more or less the same effect as dry-frying the mushrooms before adding to a dish.

How do I cut brownies? I shelved my efforts to get my mom's recipe working where I live now and have made a few batches of the Washington Post's Ultimate Brownies. When I cut them, I end up with a knife full of glue and broken crust on top, and can't get decent squares. I tried increasing the flour a tiny bit and giggling with the temperature and time to no avail. Any hints?

I used to go to Horsham, Victoria, quite a bit but confess I had never heard of a florrie. I'd try one, though. Mocked by outsiders but loved by locals, how the steak 'florrie' has become part of Horsham's culture

Do leeks caramelise? Making some cauliflower-leek soup and most of the recipes call for you to saute them, cauliflower, and the onion (if used), in the oil/butter for a few minutes then add the stock to simmer. I'm wondering if they just assume no one wants to take the time to caramelise them properly, or if it's not worth the bother.

I stand corrected. I'm sure I've been to a supposedly gluten free bakery selling spelt products, not that that means anything. Any gluten free substitute for flour that would work?

Is there any reason I couldn't substitute spelt flour for all purpose in brownies? Any alteration to amount you would suggest? I'm baking them for a sale and it would be nice to expand the market to include gluten free.

At first I thought these were for garnishing martinis - a bad idea. Then I realised they were supposed to taste like gin & tonic and tasted one, confirming they are a very bad idea.

Targeted advertising worked to get me to an Australian purveyor of Spanish tinned fish. Beautiful labels just might serve their purpose in getting me to explore the contents, too.

I guess it is part of the software that generates the labels. But there are a lot of biosecurity laws that growers have to watch out for. All cattle and I think now sheep have to have ear tags so they can be traced through to the abattoir. I believe all eggs sold have to be stamped with the producers identification and people have been fined for selling unstamped eggs in their little stand at the end of their drive.

My beef guy took a well deserved break last month so I had to stock up. Here is a steak I didn't buy. Scored some pretty good sweet corn, avocados, heirloom tomatoes, and some other odds & ends.

Recipe? I wing it. My father never shared his method with me except I learned you need decent marsala and a heavy hand with the bottle. Cut chicken breasts into cubes about 2-3 cm diameter. Dredge in flour, salt, and pepper. Brown. Pull chicken out. Turn down heat and saute chopped onions with salt and pepper to taste. Chopped shallots are nice, too but I think using only shallots is too much so a mixture with onions if you go that way. When onions are soft add sliced mushrooms and chopped garlic and cook until soft. glug in, oh, a third to half bottle of marsala per 2 breast halves and deglaze the pan. The flour from the chicken should be enough to thicken the sauce. Adjust salt and pepper. Serve over pasta. Keep it simple.

Note the power-point and rice cooker

I suppose the original could have been plantains given Baltimore is a sea port and had a booming spice trade with the Windies