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

doctorwhogirl

Seaneh I'd love the recipe for the base please. Tried a cauliflower base this week but it was bit shmushy!
How do you bake it particularly?

Seaneh

doctorwhogirl wrote: »

Seaneh I'd love the recipe for the base please. Tried a cauliflower base this week but it was bit shmushy!
How do you bake it particularly?

Here ya go!

OK, this is enough to serve 3 - 4 adults, depending on how greedy they are, maybe 6 if you served it with a salad or something.

For the Base:
1 Head of Cauliflower
150g of grated cheese (I used chedar, I've been told using half parmesan and half mozzerrela is lovely and the parm makes the base crispier)
2 eggs
salt
pepper

For the Butternut Squash:
One Butternut squash
Some dried Basil
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
2 eggs

for the onions:
3 medium onions thinly sliced
Some Balsamic Vinegar
2 table spoons of honey
Salt
Pepper

Sliced Chorizo/whatever meat you want (I used about half a 180g Chorizo thinly sliced)

Extra Cheese to top.
I used a mini-wheel of St. Killian's Goats Cheese from Wexford.

Butternut Squash Sauce:
Get a butternut squash, cut it in half Length ways, scoop out the seeds, drizzle the cutside with oil and then rub it in, sprinkle on the sale, pepper Cayenne and basil. put it on a baking sheet/tray cut side down in a pre-heated oven at 190c (180c if it's a fan oven) for about an hour, after an hour, test it with a knife to see if it's done, if it's ready the knife will slide through easily. If it's not ready, give it 5-10 more minutes and try again.
Scoop out the flesh into a pot, throw away the skin, mash the flesh with a little butter or olive oil and season to taste, I added a little more dried basil at this stage too.
Put aside for later

Base:
Grate the cauliflower.
I did mine in a food processor with a grater blade, you can use a cheese grater if you don't have a good food processor, don't try to use a normal blender or a knife, it has to be really fine and rice like.

Once it's grated put it in a microwavable bowl and bang it in to microwave for 9 minutes, stirring half way through.
When it's out of the microwave after 9 minutes add the salt, pepper and cheese and stir, let it cool for a wee bit and then add the two eggs and stir until you have a sort of batter and the eggs and cheese are well mixed in.
Don't add the eggs too soon or you will scramble them!

Spread the mixture onto a baking sheet/tray lined with greaseproof paper, try to get it all level, this makes a pretty big pizza base so use the biggest one you have. if it doesn't fill it, don't worry, mine was a few cm from the edges on all sides, just straighten up the edges and try make the surface smooth.

Pop it into a pre-heated oven at 230c for 20-25 minutes, but check it after 15, just to make sure it's OK.
When it's ready it should be kinda firm and dry, if it's wet and loose, let it go for another 5 minutes and keep doing that until you're happy with it, then take it out of the oven and turn it onto a flat surface and peel the paper off and then put it aside until you need it.

Balsamic Caramelised onions:
Take your thinly sliced onions and put them in a pre-heated pan at medium-high heat with a good glug of olive oil and a big pinch of salt and pepper.
Keep stirring them for about 10 minutes as they start to brown, once they get to a kinda nutty brown colour turn the heat down to medium low and continue to cook them for another 15-20 minutes, stirring them every now and then.
As you cook they should go from what looked like a massive mound of onions to a fairly small pill of brown sweet gooey stuff, when you are happy with the colour just throw in a few glugs of balsamic and the honey, cook for another minute to so and you're done. put them in a bowl and put aside for later.

Now it's assembly time.

Take your base and put it back into the baking sheet/try with a fresh sheet of greaseproof paper under it, I like to flip it and use the part that was on the bottom as the "top" of my pizza so that it's more level and easier to spread the sauce on and get it evenly coated.

Spread your butternut squash sauce (really it's just a puree) all over it, making sure to get right to the edges!

Scatter your onions over the top of it, trying to make sure every bite will have some on it.

Scatter your sliced Chorizo over the top of that.

Lay your cheese over everything else, if you're using a strong cheese like me, don't try and cover it all, it's not needed, if you're using mozzarella or something, go mad and use as much as you want.

Hopefully you'll have kept the over at 230c, if so, back into the oven for about 7 minutes until your cheese starts to bubble and brown and your meat gets a little colour. this is enough time to heat the base, sauce and onions through as well.

And you're done!

Toast4532

Tonight we are having Rack of Lamb, buttery mashed potatoes, carrots, broccoli and spinach. Yum.

fussyonion

Chicken jalfrezi (entirely home made, even the curry paste)
Boiled rice
Naan bread

gjc

Some gorgeous food here I'm ashamed to say I've had chipper and takeaways and snatched sandwiches lately nothing worthy enough to go on here. Next week I'm back on track if anyone has a spare place setting I'm available . I know I'm going to get shot for not being in the right forum but I've posted enough here (so if i go to another forum i go to an unknown audience) and I value the foodie friends here but a while ago in a restaurant I got curry bread ( made into little babs) does anyone have a link or recipe that they ve tried ta !!!! Seeing as I'm not in the right forum perhaps pm me

Faith

Can't be bothered taking a picture, but we had shepherd's pie. I've started adding some mint to the lamb mix and it really adds a lovely flavour. Unfortunately I had to buy bad quality potatoes so my mash wasn't up to my usual standard .

MissFlitworth

Just back from a break away and it turned out the fridge got accidentally plugged out in a furore of 'if it's not plugged in, we're not paying for it' economising at bleary eyed 6 in the morning. So using airport likker to make margaritas while we decide whether it'll be chippers or just straight to bed for dinner

Musefan

Had a nice simple dinner of dececco mezzi rigatoni, and a sauce made from passata, Italian plum tomatoes, chilli, garlic, and basil simmered for ages (I used to have the bad habit of adding sugar, now I just leave it for a good 45 minutes to sweeten). Bought good sausages, skinned them, added chilli, salt, pepper and dried herbs to make sausage meatballs. Served with a nice wee salad and garlic bread. Very little skill involved!

Faith

andym1 - seriously, it's in the thread title - NO PICTURE QUOTING. There's a discussion about it a few posts up, and we've already snipped a quoted picture from another of your posts. I've deleted your post as it added nothing. This is a final warning - don't quote pictures in this thread again.

andym1

Faith wrote: »

andym1 - seriously, it's in the thread title - NO PICTURE QUOTING. There's a discussion about it a few posts up, and we've already snipped a quoted picture from another of your posts. I've deleted your post as it added nothing. This is a final warning - don't quote pictures in this thread again.

ok sorry.

kenco

Friday night was roast duck breast (pre seasoned with what I dont know but tasty)

Served with mash, baby carrots and a caramelized half pear.

All quite tasty on a cold night!

mickgotsick

Marinaded a chicken in a Swiss Chalet marinade (Canadian restaurant chain that serves rotisserie chicken) and served with Swiss Chalet dipping sauce that I bought from the internet. I love Swiss Chalet.

MissFlitworth

Creamy, garlicky, tomato-y chickpeas & rice. With cheese. José Cuervo did a number on me last night and I am sorely in need of comfort food. There was going to be broccoli but broccoli was way more hassle than I could handle (The cutting! Filling the pot! Cleaning up all the escaped bits!)

Twee.

Hermione* wrote: »

Since M&S started stocking it, I'm totally obsessed!

It's great value in the Asian supermarkets too! I think it was €4 and it's a 740ml bottle. I might have to try the M&S one though, yum!

TeletextPear

Last night was roast beef, fried mushrooms & onions, duck fat chips and creamed leeks.

Tonight the leftover beef became a stew with onions, carrots, mushrooms & spinach, perfect food for a cold day like today!

mike65

Winter warmer! (come on spring!)



Sausage fried stew, mixed beans, onion, red pepper etc.

Danii86

On friday night we had a''poshed up" bangers and mash....sausaged from o'flynns in the english market and sweet potato and ginger mash with sweet caramalised onion gravey. It was all sorts of deliciousness!

Then last nigh we had filet steak with a mushroom and red wine gravey and dauphinoise potatoes...again totally yum!! Hadnt had dauphinoise in ages and had almost forgotten just how good it is!!!

Dizzyblonde

Last night we had spaghetti with meatballs. You can hardly see the meatballs under my 'chunky' tomato sauce.
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Tunage

Homemade wheaten and Italian herb dough pizza with bacon lardons, red onion, red pepper, pineapple, half chorizo and loaded with mozzarella.

Salad on the side with honey-mustard dressing. ohhh yeah:pac:

There'd usually be mushrooms and yellow pepper on too but they fell into the mop bucket when I was taking them out of the fridge! oops!

Mrs Fox

Tonight I made Spice Lamb Pie topped with Potato & Sweet Potato Mash, with peas. It's from the A Year at Avoca cookbook, again -- my cookbook du jour.
This week's Cooking Club Apple Tart is baking in the oven now for late night snack later.
Took photos but won't be able to put it up for now.

Toast4532

Chicken stir fry for dinner tonight.

Asapargus, baby corn, red onion, white/green onion, garlic, carrot, ginger and mushrooms, served with couscous. Delicious.

Danii86

Used up the lefter over o'flynns sauasages i had from The bangers and mash on friday to my sausage pasta, added a bit of white pudding to bulk out the sausages as there was only 2 left, made a white wine and creme fraiche sauce and tossed in some roasted veg. I always mix it up when i make it, its never the same as the last time but i think this version 4.0 could b a winner!lol

Toast4532

Bolognese sauce with rice for us tonight

Hermione*

I had a bag of frozen peas to use up and a craving for curry. The result was a Thai pea and chickpea soup with ginger, chilli, garlic, spring onion, lemongrass, coconut, fish sauce and soy. Served with toasted seeds for texture.

Faith

I'm back in my parents' house for Easter, so I couldn't plan my meals with the military precision that I usually employ! I ended up knocking together some pan fried chicken with onions and peppers, in a creamy sauce, served with orzo. It hit the spot!

Dizzyblonde

Tonight we had my most successful beef stew yet from the slow cooker. It was thick and flavoursome with lots of barley. I'd almost finished eating it before I thought of taking a photo :rolleyes:

nozzferrahhtoo

Quick and nasty one for me tonight as I was low on equipment and had no internet for the recipe so did it from memory. I believe this is called something like "God eunge o jorim" in Korean.

Dicing garlic and ginger is hard when all you have to hand is a bread knife so I was a bit nasty and cut it as small as I could and then zapped it with a hand blender. Anyone good at dicing or has the tools for it probably will wanna do it right.

I was also armed with my friendly Russian doll measuring cups with American Cup measurements. Say hello to the ladies lads:



I also had 4 relatively (for mackerel) happy looking fish which you can see I have gutted and de-tailed before I decided to photograph the process. I then de-headed them but left the bones in as this dish benefits from the flavours the bones give off. This was about 900g Mackerel before I started the gutting process:



Forgot to photo the next steps but I I chopped each fish into 4 pieces about 2 inches each. Then got the same weight in Radish (the lovely long white ones that look like overgrown parsnips) again 900g and chopped them into 2x2x1 pieces. I chopped two medium onions into slices. I then placed the radish at the bottom of a pot, covered in the onions, covered in the mackerel:




I then made a sauce using my Russian Dolls. About 3/4 cup Soy Sauce, mixed with half that of hot chilli flakes. Tablespoon of sugar, Tablespoon of minced ginger and a bulb of garlic (for me about 8 cloves) minced.



I zapped that with a hand blender as my mincing was crap but do what you will! Poured this over the mackerel then added about cup of water to the pot, put lid on, and brought to the boil on good heat for about 15 minutes. Dont over do the water here even if you think it seems too little. It goes a lot further than you think and you don't want it too water at the end.



At this point you get down at the broth with a spoon and spoon it over the fish and radish as many times as you can before you get bored. Making a well for it to collect is the easiest way for this. Get it over everything anyway a few times. Then add a chopped red and chopped green chilli (more to taste if you like your chillis. I went for a second green myself because they were relatively smaller than the reds for me. I would have added 3 or 4 stalks chopping into 1 inches Spring Onions if I had had any but I stupidly used them up in a beef stew on Sunday.




Close lid and low simmer for 30 until the radish is cooked, is browney colored from absorbing a lot of Soy, and has a translucent look about it. With the lid open up the heat to boil again and do more broth scoop and pour every so often for about 5 more minutes. A good bit of broth will boil off at this stage but that's expected. Serve this with a side of your choice of nice rice or bread or whatever you go for with a dish like this. Kimchi would be ideal if you have any about, but I went with Rice and Lettuce. Koreans I have seen eating this tend to spoon whole lumps of it into lettuce, wrap it closed and pop it whole.... but they are less squeamish about eating the bones than I am. I always pick them out. But the bones are boiled down so soft here I can imagine swallowing them does not come with the same dangers of perforated oesophagus as you might get with a grilled mackerel.




As you can see I finished it without even touching my wine, I enjoyed it that much. Were I to make it again I might user a different grade of soy to end up with a redder sauce than my dark brown as can be seen in this image I just found on google here. I might also scale back a little (but not hugely) on the cup of water as my sauce was a _little_ too watery at the end but I didnt want to boil it off for TOO long.

The sugar added to the sauce caused bits of the Radish to caramalise too. So periodically throughout the dish I would suddenly get hit with an almost honey like taste off it which was surprising and very welcome in contrast to the head of the chillis and hot pepper.

Dizzyblonde

It looks amazing nozzferrahhtoo, and I just love those little measuring cups

nozzferrahhtoo

It is the little dimple on smiley fish number 2 that got me though. He almost looks jolly.

gjc

Cheese and onion pie with salad ......pastry recipe : credit goes to confusticated http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056908333

I made her apple tart recipe yesterday which can be seen on her post and then today adapted this and used her pastry recipe and the filling was cheddar/mozarrella/onion only nothing else except some fresh black pepper. Many thanks. gjc