Now eating/drinking - The Bear and Badger

ShabbyMcCrabby

GooberTheHat wrote:

I'm going to try and eat more grains and pulses this winter. I've already mastered a veggie chilli that my wife doesn't realise is veggie until I tell her.

Recently I've had some dishes with mushroom "meat". Sort of shredded and packed together. Really nice chewy texture really sells the meaty vibe it's going for.

Diluted Dante

GooberTheHat wrote:

I'm going to try and eat more grains and pulses this winter. I've already mastered a veggie chilli that my wife doesn't realise is veggie until I tell her.

What do you use for the 'meat'?

poprock

This is a beautiful thing to read on a Friday. Brought an actual tear to my eye when I reached the bit about patties and American Chip Spice.

The hyper-regional chippy traditions of Britain and Ireland

It’s far from exhaustive, and in many places it’s far from being right, but it’s a lovely collection of personal opinions and memories. Delightful, I think might be the word.

Kazuo

Just finished reading that and was on my way to post myself. Ooft, imagine putting forward the Blue Lagoon to represent Scotland not once but twice. Bleugh.

poprock

Yeah, that’s a shocker. The Blue fucking Lagoon, for fuck’s sake. Far from being right in some places, like I said. But for anyone who has lived in a few parts of the UK, there are some lovely slabs of deep-fried nostalgia in those descriptions as you read through.

Every single one of us could write a totally different piece on our own home towns and adopted homes, correcting these injustices.

Kazuo

I was shocked nobody in Glasgow thought to include munchy boxes, though to be fair a couple of months back the same site did publish an excellent essay on them and the way they mirror a particular Hong Kong food tradition. Doubt I'd survive eating one these days.

Diluted Dante

There were two chippies in Royton, with queues snaking around them almost every day. However, neither of these two chippies were the ones my family frequented.

Man, these guys missed out. The one on Middleton Road was legendary.

GooberTheHat

Diluted Dante wrote:

GooberTheHat wrote:

I'm going to try and eat more grains and pulses this winter. I've already mastered a veggie chilli that my wife doesn't realise is veggie until I tell her.

What do you use for the 'meat'?

Nothing, just lots of finely chopped veg, mushrooms and a mix of beans.

poprock

Kazuo wrote:

I was shocked nobody in Glasgow thought to include munchy boxes …

Or the Scooby snack.

I was thinking about what I’d include in my own version of that article.

They got Hull about right – patties, scraps and American Chip Spice. I’d maybe add garlic chips – never seen those on offer anywhere else, but they only came from one particular chippy.

I’d maybe want to talk about breakfast cobs in Derby, and the famous Bless Stottie, but those are from greasy spoons and a particular pub, not from chippies. So they’re ruled out.

I’d cover Piccante in Edinburgh – the techno chippy. Not for their food, but for the vibe.

And probably Big Luigi at Val d’Oro here in Glasgow. Again, not for the food but for the man himself.

Tempy

GooberTheHat wrote:

The hairy bikers do a good healthy (ish) supermarket friendly version. I tend to use decent bacon lardons in place of whatever pork is in the recipes if I can't be bothered to mess about.

I assume you're talking about this one and if so, yeah it's really fucking good. One of my fave things to cook, even my partner loves it and she isn't super hot on meat.

Dubs

I did this Indian butternut squash last night. It contains an intimidating amount of coriander but is actually nice, honest. Really easy as well.

Served with naan or chapattis and a couple of these delicious pea balls each. That makes 10-15 but they freeze well so you can just pop a few in the oven whenever you have curry.

GooberTheHat

Tempy wrote:

GooberTheHat wrote:

The hairy bikers do a good healthy (ish) supermarket friendly version. I tend to use decent bacon lardons in place of whatever pork is in the recipes if I can't be bothered to mess about.

I assume you're talking about this one and if so, yeah it's really fucking good. One of my fave things to cook, even my partner loves it and she isn't super hot on meat.

Nope, that's a casserole, not a cassoulet, although it is really good.

I'm talking about this one.

regmcfly

Yeah, I've made the hairy bikers one too. Doesn't get quite as thick and unctuous as the Delia one, but it is nice. I like their orange zest garnish.

SpaceGazelle

Nina wrote:

Is it called Three Good Things? Might get that then, the only cookbook I have here is Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible which was also recommended by Kow I think, and I love that book. It does have curry pastes in it as well, but I'm missing things for all of them.

When there's only 3 things a lot is going to depend on the quality of the ingredients. The good news is that if you find one ingredient that looks amazing the other two probably will be too. We're shit at it in the UK but in places like France, Italy or Spain it's learnt from an early age what to cook and when, and they have proper markets which makes things miles easier. Posh California is up there with the best of them but it's pricey compared.

I found this way you learn to know what things go together, and the book is great at that. Then when you go shopping you can just see what looks good and you'll know what goes with that, I've found. One ingredient can sway tonights meal and I tend to not know what I'll be cooking before I go to the shops. It's normally a case of remembering what goes with what so you don't have to think too hard if you find something that looks great.

The book is also quite good at store cupboard staples that are available all year round. Enjoy!

Nina

The quality of items is very hit and miss here I find, specially since lockdown started in March (but that might be because I go to different supermarkets now, to do bigger shops. Before it was almost always TJ's). I've had spoiled onions, mushrooms, bell peppers, chicken and probably more by now. Most of the times there's mold on the inside, so hard to tell when buying.

Book should be here next week, I'm looking forward to it.

Am very uninspired food wise today, think I'll ask B to pick up some pho tonight. That's always comforting.

Kow

I've read that Americans don't generally cook, they tend to eat out as it's relatively cheap. And so most typical rental places don't have much in the way of kitchens. If it's true it would explain why the quality of fresh ingredients is so hit and miss.

Nina

Pretty sure a lot of people do take out here. The kitchen we currently have is barely functional, kinda happy in the end we had to get our own fridge, at least that's ok.
Stove/oven and the dishwasher aren't great.

There's usually plenty of people near the fresh section in supermarkets, but sometimes they're a bit weird. Like that guy who wanted to show me the carrot he picked.

yourfavouriteuncle

Doing some pumpkins carving later an do normally discard the vile stinky flesh but just wondering if anyone here has had pumpkin pie and is it delicious?

poprock

I quite like pumpkin pie, but I’ve never tried it made with actual pumpkin. It’s usually made with tinned pumpkin purée that wobbles out of the can in a worrying gelatinous lump.

The flavour is more about the spices than the pumpkin, really - hence the strange fetish for pumpkin spice coffees … those don’t taste of pumpkin either.

yourfavouriteuncle

Ah right. So I’m going for the nutmeg and and cinnamon rather than the actual pumpkin. Most recipes so far do suggest actual pumpkin though so i’ll give it a go.

GooberTheHat

Pumpkin pie is delicious, but that has very little to do with the pumpkin.

n0face

Roast the seeds with a little oil and salt and make soup out of the flesh, add seeds as garnish.

yourfavouriteuncle

n0face wrote:

Roast the seeds with a little oil and salt and make soup out of the flesh, add seeds as garnish.

That sound grown up, sensible and fairly delicious. I’m looking for childish, sickly and sweet.

poprock

Then American cooking has your back. Pumpkin pie will be bang on.

SpaceGazelle

I made an old school sweet and sour dish tonight and it was, if I do say so myself, absolutely awful.

regmcfly

Recipe out of the new Roasting Tin book tonight - Russian meatballs with a tomato and sour cream sauce. Made some quick courgette fritters to go alongside it and mop up the sauce

GooberTheHat

SpaceGazelle wrote:

I made an old school sweet and sour dish tonight and it was, if I do say so myself, absolutely awful.

I've never liked that Chinese (I'm not convinced it's in any way authentic) sweet and sour flavour. There is something deeply suspicious about a sauce with that combination of consistency and opacity.

LivDiv

I dont mind sweet and sour pork/chicken balls where the sauce is more of a dip.
Can't do it as an actual dish though.

g.man

Sweet and Sour sauce is the devil's bile.

b0r1s

g.man wrote:

Sweet and Sour sauce is the devil's bile.

Sweet chilli sauce on the other hand is divine... in moderation. Perfect dip with some chicken balls

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