Plantes Vertes

Whipped cream desserts or individual serving baked desserts are fast. If you use prepared pastry you can also make tarts/pies/streudel. The microwave is convenient for melting chocolate and cooking fruit. Cake Brownies Cupcakes Molten chocolate cake Cookies Cooked fruit Crumble Baked/grilled fruit Individual clafoutis Poached pears Eggs Macaroons Souffle Custard Oeufs a la neige Dairy Cheesecake Creme caramel Zabaglione Syllabub/fool Chocolate Florentines Mousse Dipped fruit Torte

My goal is to put in more effort. I love cooking but I allow other pursuits and obligations to take over the time. I will also try (again) to express my values more explicitly through my food shopping. I hope to invite people more often, too.

Sylia, do join us in Spirits and Cocktails!

Tarka dal + rice Frittata/tortilla/souffle/omelette Fried rice Pasta puttanesca/carbonara Kimchi pancakes Tofu + ramen Risotto Pea soup Chorizo and lentil soup

If you want to eat feet there are various paya (cow/goat/sheep foot) curry recipes from Pakistan, or Nigerian nkwobi (spicy cow's feet), or else Mannish Water (goat's head soup) from Jamaica. The Nasty Bits column on Serious Eats might yield more ideas.

For the last day before my flatmates and I depart for our respective family celebrations, we cooked Brinjal Bhaji (aubergine and tomato curry), Aloo Gobi (cauliflower and potato), Rogani Kumbh (mushrooms and tomatoes), Saag Paneer (spinach and cheese), Raita (cucumber-yogurt sauce) and Pulau rice.

Bensonhurst was our Flatmas drink (we made the recipe below). 2oz Rittenhouse BIB rye 1oz Noilly Prat 0.25oz Luxardo maraschino 1bsp Cynar Chad Solomon, Pegu Club 2006 I'm going to try the alternative formula another time; this drink was not exactly right for my taste to start off although it grew on me. Initially it struck me as a tiny bit aggressive and too piquant. Will use Dolin as recommended and see what transpires. What is Flatmas, you all are dying to learn? That is our flat's celebration of domestic content. It falls just a bit before the other thing...

It's an agricole called St Aubin. I had never heard of it before - apparently it's quite new. I'll let you know what it's like.

Managed to conceal my misdeeds from Santa for another year and I was rewarded:

There's another thread about it here. Pot roast or braising would normally be indicated for a lean cut like that, but I have also read about barding and seasoning the meat and roasting it at 500 for 7mins/lb, then turning the oven off and leaving for 2 1/2hrs. Something tells me that Kim Shook has used this method but perhaps I'm remembering that wrong....

Mushy peas are a traditional accompaniment to fish and chips, it's basically what it sounds like, mashed up peas with some butter, salt, pepper and mint. Think of it like a very coarse pea puree. The pea puree is made from dried and rehydrated marrowfat peas.

I really want one of these. So I can make my vegetables, you know, thinner...

I will have three Christmasses this year We all like cooking so we'll share it. Christmas 1: Mezze - 12 friends Cut raw vegetables Cucumber-yogurt sauce - Cacik Walnut sauce Lentil soup - Mercimek Fried stuffed pastries - Borek Aubergines stuffed with tomato - Imam byaldi Vine leaves stuffed with rice - Dolma Aubergine in tahini sauce Flatbread - Lavash Bulgur pilaf Pickles - Turshu Honey-pistachio pastry - Baklava Tahini sweets - Helva Christmas 2: Christmas day meal with my mother Mushroom strudel Spinach sauteed with garlic Braised leeks Fondant potatoes Pavlova Christmas 3: Family meal in Paris with my mother, my brother and his girlfriend Minestrone Spinach rotolo Rosemary and lemon roast potatoes Courgettes grilled with garlic and oil Pears poached in wine with orange mascarpone

If your grinder comes apart then open it up so the air can get in. Then just stick it in a dry place!

You just have to let it dry out, then it should work again (this happens to me quite often...).

Seemed like time to kick this off. What will you cook this year to celebrate Christmas? How many will you be? What are your traditions, and what will you do new?

So do I. Don't tell anyone..

Yes, you're right. That's just not cricket, Rafa.

Rafa is a young man. It's natural for him to experiment.

Well I won't sniff at any sort of taste validation, but we should remember that he was working alphabetically and only up to A-F at that point... I used Macallan10yo again. It has a sort of nut-sugar-caramel flavour that worked really well in this drink.

In continuation of my Red Period: an Affinity from the Savoy book. 1oz Scotch 1oz sweet vermouth 1oz dry vermouth 2 dashes Angostura bitters Stir, strain, lemon peel twist So good. It has such a silky texture and a beautiful buttery, honeyed almost rum-like flavour. I felt dubious about the high proportion of vermouth but what do I know? It's great.

They're good in a stir-fry.

It's called a Scottish Breakfast. Morgenthaler misleads himself cruelly on that front I'm afraid.... (Yes. That's fried haggis.)

Franci, it was you who taught me about gnudi for the first time when I was reading this old thread!

Today I bought something I had never heard of or imagined: Bangladeshi olive pickle. Olives, oil, salt, garlic, ginger, cumin, chilli, coriander, turmeric, mustard, aniseed. PRAN brand. The olives in it are cut up but the fragments are gigantic. The whole fruit must have been a couple of inches long. Is this a traditional condiment? How would it normally be served? Are olives common in Bangladeshi cuisine? All information welcome. Preferably before I finish the jar. So soon. ETA I know that Bangladesh is not in India. This seemed the most appropriate topic...