The 'Here's what I had for dinner last night' thread - Part I

the beer revolu

reallyrose wrote: »

I made chicken chilli tonight.
This one!

And I used a pale ale instead of beer, mostly because I picked up the wrong bottle by accident and put it in before I noticed my error. D'oh!
I don't think the ale did anything bad to the chilli, I'll have to make it again with the lager I originally meant to use.



For a learning cook, I think this was a good recipe to try. I learned how to deglaze a pan and I learned that those brown bits in the pan are not meant to be cursed and ignored as a freakish error. And I learned how to saute!

*adds to little notebook*

Firstly, pale ale is beer. And secondly rather than not doing anything bad, I reckon it will have added a nice light fruity spiciness to the dish.

And while I always warn novice cooks off randomly picking recipes from the internet, that is a very sound recipe with good basic skills and techniques.

Next step is to make your own chilli powder:D

reallyrose

the beer revolu wrote: »

Firstly, pale ale is beer. And secondly rather than not doing anything bad, I reckon it will have added a nice light fruity spiciness to the dish.

I don't know a lot about beer. Other than drinking it is fun!

the beer revolu wrote: »

And while I always warn novice cooks off randomly picking recipes from the internet, that is a very sound recipe with good basic skills and techniques.

Oh? I thought the internet would be perfect for learning to cook because there are so many recipe sites around. What should I do instead? I'm useless at just throwing things together, I need a recipe or I just end up with something horrible!
I love the Cooking for Engineer's site though. I've made a few things from it and they are always delicious.

the beer revolu wrote: »

Next step is to make your own chilli powder:D

:eek:

the beer revolu

reallyrose wrote: »

Oh? I thought the internet would be perfect for learning to cook because there are so many recipe sites around. What should I do instead? I'm useless at just throwing things together, I need a recipe or I just end up with something horrible!
I love the Cooking for Engineer's site though. I've made a few things from it and they are always delicious.

Well the problem is that there are a lot of bad recipes as well as good recipes out there. If you have a trusted site, that's great but be careful about picking random recipes unless you have the knowledge to spot the good ones from the bad.
If I'm looking for a particular recipe for something, I'll read over lots of different recipes for the same dish to see what's common amongst them and choose the one that seems best or make up my own using an amalgamation of them.

Getting there

Last night was baked salmon with ginger and soy, garlicky hasselback potatoes, and some sugarsnap peas.

The potatoes turned out really well. I was getting a bit fed up of the slippery feckers when trying to put the garlic slices in but so glad I persevered! Id go a little easier on the garlic next time though.

Tonight is lamb biryani...yum yum comfort food!

Minder

Chilli salt squid, lotus root crisps and mussels in a spicy coconut soup.

kenco

Thai style prawn stir fry with loads of veg!

Thought there would be far too much of it but it worked out fine for two of us which is good as Im on the 'reduce food waste' drive which is grand but with two young kids can be difficult!

psycho-hope

turkey burgers and oven chips:D

_feedback_

I didn't fancy a sit down meal this evening so had a first attempt at chicken wings:



They were bloody messy but I really enjoyed them! Would like to make them a bit hotter next time. I used BBQ sauce, tobasco and worcestershire sauce. There was no big kick off them but very tasty all the same.

neuro-praxis

Garlicky roast chicken with lots of veg and mash and gravy. Heavenly comfort food to the max. Am considering making some cupcakes now...

Minder

Prawn laksa with glass noodles and a side salad with some pan fried prawns.

UrbanSea

Good old fashioned roast chicken dinner with mashed potatoes,roast,mushy peas,turnip and gravy. Hard beat.

squeakyduck

My boyfriends mother whipped up some burgers....She makes them herself...so yummy! Not little crappy pieces of burger like you would get in the chipper, so thick that you have trouble trying to bite it NOMMM!

neuro-praxis

Dinner today was striploin, salad and the best damn potato cake I have ever eaten in my life.

If I ever go on Come Dine With Me, I'm serving this potato cake.

Faith

I had goulash and mashed potato done with my ricer. I can't believe how much of a difference the ricer makes! I thought mash was good before, but I had no idea. It was such a tasty and comforting meal - and relatibely low in calories and high in protein .

the beer revolu

neuro-praxis wrote: »

Dinner today was striploin, salad and the best damn potato cake I have ever eaten in my life.

If I ever go on Come Dine With Me, I'm serving this potato cake.

Tell us more about your potato cake, please.


Tonight was:
Pan fried/grilled quail with red wine and stock cooked puy lentils, black pudding, ginger and lemon braised cabbage, honey and butter braised carrots and roast garlic.

It all worked really well together (will definitely be doing the cabbage again).

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PS note that it is quail with lentils and not on a bed of lentils - I can't stand the cheffy insistence of always putting food on food rather than beside. The first thing I (and, I guess, most people) do with a restaurant plate of food is 'dismantle' it so I can actually eat it!

The Hill Billy

Dinner last Thursday was worth a mention as I was treated by some Ukrainian colleagues in celebration of 'Old New Year'. Nibbles consisted of home-cured wild boar, salted pork fat, homemade cheese, gerkins. The main meal was roasted wild boar & garlicky potatoes served with a Olivier Salad.
Washed down with lashings of vodka & followed by pathetic attempts at cossack dancing. * hopes vids don't make it to YouTube *

neuro-praxis

the beer revolu wrote: »

Tell us more about your potato cake, please.

That's a good looking quail by the way.

So I had a bowl of leftover mashed potato from last night. It was about a breakfast bowl's worth. It had been mashed last night with a little butter, warm milk and salt and pepper.

Today to make the potato cakes, I fried up some smoked lardons with half an onion, very finely chopped, until the bacon was crisp and the onion was soft. I then beat one egg in a cup. I took a fairly large bowl and added the potato, egg, bacon and onion. (I would have used chives also but I had none.) I then added about 2 heaped tablespoons of flour. I mixed the whole lot together and formed into 2 large patties, which I fried in a mixture of olive oil and butter. They were absolutely phenomenal. The texture was so good and they tasted rich and comforting. I'll be making extra mash from now on specifically for this purpose!

carraghsgem

homemade chilli con carne;

pound of beef mince from the butcher
1/2 tin of kidney beans
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 knor beef stock pot
dried mixed herbs (havent any fresh at moment unfortunately)
tomatoe paste
1 red bell pepper
1 thai chilli pepper
1 scotch bonnet chilli pepper
1 jalapeno chilli pepper
button mushrooms
salt and pepper...

served in a warm tortilla

squeakyduck

My first attempts at shepards pie

kenco

Roast leg of lamb with roast hasselback spuds and roast veg. It was lovely!

Carved up some of the left overs for sambos for a few days and froze the rest for use in a curry next week.

reallyrose

squeakyduck wrote: »

My first attempts at shepards pie

That looks so good.

I had chicken drumsticks with a sticky glaze.
I put soy sauce, garlic, balsamic vinegar, ginger and water into a pan with the chicken. Brought it to the boil and reduced it down til it was delicious.

It was another internet recipe. It was one of the top rated on the site, so I figured it was a good bet.

Had it with rice and a bit of steamed veg. (yay rice cooker!)

I meant to take a picture but .. *licks fingers guiltily* :pac:

The Sweeper

Lamb madras, basmati rice by absorption, red lentil daal, Jamie's quick lemon pickle (which was... crap, tbh.)

mike65

Lidl spare ribs in some sort of sticky brown sauce, chips and peas

(I promise I'll make my own meal tonight)

the beer revolu

Last night was Jerusalem (f)artichoke and garlic soup followed a few hours later by some of the lentil stew (from my quaill dinner) with brown basmati rice and runner beans.

If you have Jerusalem artichokes in your garden, or access to them, this is a ridiculously easy and extremely tasty and refined soup.
Just peel your artichokes and cook them gently in a bit of butter with some garlic until lightly golden and starting to break up. Add some vegetable stock (I use the knor stock pot), simmer for a few minutes, blitz and check for seasoning.
I serve it with a dollop of Greek style yoghurt and a drizzle of brazilnut oil.
Amazing flavour, texture (and farts!)!:D

neuro-praxis

Don't feel bad mike65, we all have those days. I had fish fingers and oven chips last night!

emaleth

The Sweeper wrote: »

Lamb madras

Yum. Could we have a recipe, please?

Minder

Home early today, so I made a French apple pie with frangipane; had some apple left over, so made apple and blueberry muffins. Dinner was a previously frozen salmon en croute and asparagus with a beurre blanc sauce. Side of boiled salad potatoes. Now for a slice of pie...:D

January

squeakyduck wrote: »

My first attempts at shepards pie

Why has your shepards pie got cheese on the top of it :eek::eek:

neuro-praxis

January wrote: »

Why has your shepards pie got cheese on the top of it :eek::eek:

Come on, it ain't shepherd's pie without the cheese!

Tonight a friend took me to Wagamama for some yasai yaki soba (fried buckwheat noodles, dressed, with lots of veg and topped with pickled ginger, sesame seeds and egg) and green tea. Perfick.

S.R.F.C.

January wrote: »

Why has your shepards pie got cheese on the top of it :eek::eek:

Why not?!

Influenced by a recent thread on here, i felt like some carbonara tonight, and no it was not authentic! Certainly was delish though!