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Post by tod2 on Aug 17, 2021 16:01:18 GMT
I confess I doubled the amount of bulgur wheat and used what parsley I had but it was not as much as three bunches - maybe two and a bit. I also only added five mint leaves scrolled up and thinly sliced. I love mint with lamb but not too keen on it otherwise. We had the remainder of the tabbouleh tonight with BBq'd lamb chops and farmers sausage. I thought the lamb a bit suspect and think by the size of the bones, it was mutton. A bit tough too. Also did baked Apache potatoes and those orange flesh sweet potatoes.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 17, 2021 16:04:06 GMT
So you actually kind of had a hybrid version between the eastern and western styles. Maybe you can start a trend. (Or maybe that's what they eat in Libya...)
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Post by tod2 on Aug 20, 2021 12:03:59 GMT
I roasted a nice piece of pork belly on the bone last night. Served with roasted potatoes, green beans, shredded green cabbage tossed with garlic and butter, Spanish rice and the last sweet potato. I did not have apple jelly or sauce so put a dab or two of Thai sweet chili on my plate but too hot for me so switched to Melon & ginger preserve. Hit the spot.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 20, 2021 16:46:40 GMT
I wanted to have an entrecôte with fried potatoes and then I suddenly discovered that I am out of potatoes. So I had my entrecôte with spinach and mushrooms, which was probably healthier.
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Post by rikita on Aug 20, 2021 19:06:44 GMT
randomly mixing things again - a kind of soup with quinoa and potatoes and tomatoes (from a can) and a little bit of curry paste and some champignons, oh, and also i used garlic powder and it kind of slipped, so there was a lot of garlic in there ...
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Post by rikita on Aug 20, 2021 19:07:21 GMT
oh, a little bit of grated cheese was in there, too.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 20, 2021 20:14:48 GMT
There can never be too much garlic.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 22, 2021 14:12:30 GMT
Agreed! Garlic is the king of flavour!
Yesterday I thought I had created a new dish. Well, it was new to me and I have never seen it in a recipe, but all it consisted of was stuffing big Queen prawns into baby calamari hoods. The prawns were de=veined and all I had to do was take the shells off. The calamari which is from Argentina, was able to accommodate two prawns in each hood after seasoning them. I pan fried the stuffed hoods in butter and then served them up with a spicy Spanish rice. I though the hoods a bit chewy and I think if I do this again I must poached them in a sauce for an hour to soften.
Today however I made a vegeterian spaghetti in a roasted garlic sauce. The sauce was store bought from Woolworths Foods and was extremely good.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 22, 2021 17:18:02 GMT
Bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich for dinner tonight -- a rare moment since I am not a big sandwich eater and certainly not for dinner. But it was quite good even though I had to slice some cherry tomatoes in two to put on the sandwich since I was out of real tomatoes.
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Post by rikita on Aug 22, 2021 18:25:38 GMT
baked bread today, and since i also had some baked beans left over, i had some bread with those and melted cheese - and then after that i had some bread with tomato, vegan sucuk and blue cheese ...
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Post by tod2 on Aug 24, 2021 15:32:52 GMT
A kind of "Leftovers" dinner but not quite. To the Spanish rice I added a diced whole bell pepper and half a diced onion plus about 10 mushrooms. They are the small white mushrooms. To enhance the leftover dinner rice, I grilled some pork sausages in the air-fyer and boiled some of Mr.Tods little new baby potatoes from the garden. Oh they are so creamy and yummy with butter!
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Post by lugg on Aug 24, 2021 20:24:30 GMT
Nothing better than new potatoes - I guess Spring is on the way Tod.
I have made a salad of tomatoes, spring onions, mint, chives, spinach and water melon to go with a slice of courgette focaccia which I will probably have with some thing grilled possibly ... not sure if or what that will be yet.
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Post by rikita on Aug 24, 2021 21:20:24 GMT
corn on the cob, and fried halloumi. usually i buy precooked packaged corn, but today i got fresh corn - apparently a. likes the precooked one better, shame, as the fresh one is not wrapped in plastic ...
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Post by tod2 on Aug 25, 2021 10:20:40 GMT
Yes indeed Lugg, Spring day is 1st September!
The usual garden veg with a rack of lamb. I made my own homemade mint sauce with brown vinegar and, sugar and fresh mint leaves.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 25, 2021 14:27:19 GMT
I boiled and then slowly simmered a kilo of fresh chicken gizzards from the Chinese butcher. (The actual butchers who work there are Africans.) They are now cooked to perfection and will be wonderful in salads or mixed with noodles or beans.
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Post by bixaorellana on Aug 25, 2021 14:28:03 GMT
today i got fresh corn - apparently a. likes the precooked one better, When fresh corn is harvested, it immediately starts turning its sugars into starch. Thus, frozen or precooked corn from the supermarket may well be sweeter -- and more attractive to a little girl -- than the fresh corn from the supermarket. Corn is at its prime eating quality after being picked from the cornstalk for only 72 hours (3 days) before \losing it's sweetness. The most important factor is cooling it as soon as possible after harvesting it. ... Modern corn varieties have been bred to have very high sugar levels, which gives those ears the crisp sweetness. But outside of a refrigerator or being covered in ice, enzymes present in the kernels quickly turn those sugars into bland starch. sourceThe above is why some people put sugar in the water when they cook corn on the cob.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 25, 2021 15:35:54 GMT
I don't think I've eaten corn on the cob in at least 15 years. However I was quite impressed today when I saw somebody eating corn on the cob while riding their bicycle. I am one of those people incpable of letting go of either or both handlebars.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 25, 2021 15:58:54 GMT
Kerouac I am very interested to know how much cleaning you had to do to those gizzards? Here they are bought frozen but have a ton of un-digested corn in the gizzard. It put me right off ever cooking them but by son adores Portuguese cuisine and that is BIG on their food list.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 25, 2021 16:37:06 GMT
In France, the gizzards are sold totally clean. At worst, you might find a little piece of hard gristle attached to one of them. I did rinse them a bit before cooking them but just to remove any unnecessary blood.
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Post by lugg on Aug 25, 2021 20:39:36 GMT
I love corn on the cob , fresh with butter and salt. My grandson does too although he has his minus the butter and salt
I think I have tried gizzards but have never cooked them myself.
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Post by mickthecactus on Aug 25, 2021 20:51:03 GMT
My corn on the cob from the veg garden are almost ready for picking. Just a few more days.
Only lizards eat gizzards.
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Post by lagatta on Aug 25, 2021 21:05:27 GMT
Our gizzards are usually clean as well. The chicken gizzard butchers are Moroccan, but for duck gizzards they are Vietnamese. I think I overcook them; I find them rather hard.
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Post by rikita on Aug 25, 2021 21:25:02 GMT
i suppose i have to buy the packaged corn, then, as with the fresh one in the store there is no way of knowing how long ago it has been picked ... it's one of our regular meals (corn with butter and salt, and fried halloumi, and bread), as it is very quick to prepare and one of the few cooked vegetables she likes ...
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Post by mich64 on Aug 25, 2021 22:56:39 GMT
I like corn on the cob done of the BBQ. I soak it (in the husks) for a half an hour, then peel back gently to remove the silk and put the husks back in place. Place the cobs directly on the grill turing after about 10 minutes or when you see the husks charred and repeat on the other side. I slather with butter and add salt and pepper.
Tonight I had a left over BBQ sausage. I put some small potatoes in the microwave, topped them with sour cream when on the plate.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 26, 2021 7:14:51 GMT
The above is why some people put sugar in the water when they cook corn on the cob. Corn in the green husk is sold mainly at roadside stalls or from the back of the farmers truck. That is what South African call "mielies" (me - lees). The yellow sweet corn is available in all supermarkets freshly wrapped sans any husk, in a container with cling-wrap. For the mielies I remove the husk and silky thread and pop a single cob into a plastic bag which I microwave on high for a few minutes - same goes the the sweetcorn. This way no flavour is lost in boiling water.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 26, 2021 10:31:41 GMT
Gosh I'll try that Huckle! Never thought that fine silky stamens? would part company with the cob after cooking. I won't need the husk/leaves part as a managed to find those little yellow plastic cobs with the metal prongs. One on each end and you're set.
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Post by kerouac2 on Aug 26, 2021 11:24:25 GMT
All supermarkets here sell the precooked vacuum-packed cobs but one of them also sells fresh cobs still in their leaves. I think I might have a Cobb salad instead.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 26, 2021 15:59:58 GMT
Tonight I made us a stir-fry with broccoli from the garden plus carrots, green beans, turnips and mushrooms. I added the diced chicken thighs which were left over from last nights dinner. The noodles came from Woolworths Food and are so just right! Soon I'll jump into bed with a slice of my newly baked zucchini cake and a nice cup of tea!
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Post by rikita on Aug 26, 2021 20:44:01 GMT
we were invited at my dad's for dinner. there was a salad with cauliflower and pomegranate seeds and feta and couscous, and a green salad, and there was focaccia, and bread and cheese, and for dessert pancakes and a sauce made of some special type of plums
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Post by tod2 on Aug 27, 2021 7:55:27 GMT
That sounds a delightful dinner Rikita - who cooked/prepared all that?
I'm planning to grill the other 4 pork sausages from a pack I opened a few days ago. Mr.Tod is busy digging up new potatoes before it gets to the 31C predicted today. I think I will do the vegetables Dutch style - my mom used to cook a lot in that style because of my dad liking it so much. I don't always go the whole way with the preparation but the main style is you cook sliced/cut green beans and mix them with crushed or mashed potato. The same goes for the carrots. One can add cooked diced onion to either mixture but I'm too lazy.
This way of vegetable cooking is known in the Netherlands as Stamppot. I tried it when we were in Amsterdam. Also had sausage with it.
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