The General Chat Thread

RacoonQueen

L1011 wrote: »

Ah, snow. I knew there was a reason I bought some extra flour :pac:

(I don't even buy bread anyway, let alone stockpile it)

Ha I went to buy flour as I had completely run out just so I can bake in the event of being snowed in.

RasTa

Right, that's it. I'm moving

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/real-life/764985/asda-pizza-deal-st-patricks-day-irish-stout-steak-offer-discount-reduce

Graces7

as I cannot get to shops any more, am enjoying the challenges ,

ordering online from Holland and barrett,,, all items i chose were "buy one get one half price" and if you order e20 or more, free shipping .

Malt extract, flaked barley ( great porridge and milk puddings) peanut and coconut butter and pitted dates, all doubled up for the reductions, and the parcel arrived in record time by An Post. Just over e20

BaZmO*

Was cutting some chillies for a curry last night and my fingers are still burning today.

Didn’t know that was a thing as it’s never happened before. No wonder some chefs wear gloves when chopping them.

Dial Hard

Yeah, depends on the chilli. For fresnos, jalapenos etc I don't bother but for birds eyes, habaneros etc bet your ass I'm wearing a glove. You only need one, though, on the non-knife hand. Washing up glove is fine if you're like me and suffer from the single-use plastic guilt and don't want to be using disposable ones.

L1011

Some day, I will develop a Chrome plugin that removes recipe results from Americans who use premade mixes/boxes as core parts of their recipe

Just found a marinade recipe that was "1 cup yoghurt, 4 tsp spice mix". What is the bloody point of putting that up there?

There's brilliant, detailed, tested and proven recipes from Americans so they can't be fully deleted but it does seem the bulk of them are useless.

L1011

L1011 wrote: »

Some day, I will develop a Chrome plugin that removes recipe results from Americans who use premade mixes/boxes as core parts of their recipe

Just found a marinade recipe that was "1 cup yoghurt, 4 tsp spice mix". What is the bloody point of putting that up there?

There's brilliant, detailed, tested and proven recipes from Americans so they can't be fully deleted but it does seem the bulk of them are useless.

In your future plug in, can you please include common substitutes for ingredients.

L1011

Dónal wrote: »

In your future plug in, can you please include common substitutes for ingredients.

Imperial-Metric auto conversion would also be useful; also American names for things (arugula, cilantro, etc)

Now, to re-learn programming from college!

oscarBravo

L1011 wrote: »

Imperial-Metric auto conversion would also be useful...

Yeah - wtf use is "1½ cup chopped cabbage" in a recipe? How much cabbage do I have to chop up to get to a cup and a half? How has an entire country completely failed to grasp the concept of kitchen scales?!

Faith

oscarBravo wrote: »

Yeah - wtf use is "1½ cup chopped cabbage" in a recipe? How much cabbage do I have to chop up to get to a cup and a half? How has an entire country completely failed to grasp the concept of kitchen scales?!

In recent times (helped in large part by the political landscape), I’ve come to realize that the USA is not quite the bastion of progression and intellect it’s led the wold to believe it is... They do some great things over there, but a lot of their ways of doing things are batshît crazy, like volumetric measurements and their persistant use of Fahrenheit.

RacoonQueen

oscarBravo wrote: »

Yeah - wtf use is "1½ cup chopped cabbage" in a recipe? How much cabbage do I have to chop up to get to a cup and a half? How has an entire country completely failed to grasp the concept of kitchen scales?!

Yes. Please can your plug in convert to actual weights. One baker I follow on youtube does convert but the measurements are so odd, you would get like 238g of flour. :pac:
I watch some Epicurious videos on youtube and sometimes the professional will weigh ingredients citing it as a must do for baking.

I really like Beyond the Butter on instagram but her recipes are all cups etc. Usually if I find an american baker I like on instagram, I will instantly unfollow them if they use cups. :mad: I still follow Beyond the Butter because I like the look of her recipes but I'm never going to make any of them. I've tried baking by 'cups' once before. Never again.

Faith

Yesterday I found out - much to my horror - that sweet potato fries are not a healthier or lower calorie option that regular chips :eek:. We were having lunch at a chain restaurant and I switched out my fries for sweet potato, thinking I was doing the calorie-conscious thing. But nope, when I plugged it into myfitnesspal later, sweet potato chips were a whopping 510 calories compared to 370 calories for normal fries, and loads more fat too. I’m devastated because they taste so good and I thought they were the better choice

BaZmO*

I thought that was well known at this stage. It always made sense to me that they’d have more calories due to their sweetness.

It does highlight the absolute nonsense that goes into food marketing though, especially with regards to “healthier” options.

Faith

BaZmO* wrote: »

I thought that was well known at this stage. It always made sense to me that they’d have more calories due to their sweetness.

It does highlight the absolute nonsense that goes into food marketing though, especially with regards to “healthier” options.

Well, in most forms, sweet potatoes have fewer calories and more nutrients than regular potatoes (https://universityhealthnews.com/daily/nutrition/sweet-potatoes-vs-potatoes/) but that all changes once you fry them. Cooking them at home, you’d be arguably better off to have sweet potatoes. But when chopped, coated and fried, they seem to retain more fat than normal potatoes and hence are higher in calories.

caviardreams

Not really, per 100g raw normal potatoes have slightly less calories (77) than sweet potatoes (86) so they are much of a muchness, or in purely calorific terms, healthier! I don't know where the idea that sweet potatoes are much healthier came from tbh - perhaps a few more / different micronutrients but really they are small enough amounts in the big picture, and normal potatoes have micronutrients too.

They might have a slightly lower GI if eaten by themselves but it's the GI of the whole meal that matters and in most cases you are mixing the (sweet) potatoes with either fat or protein which lowers the overall GI anyway so it's not a factor in and of itself.

igCorcaigh

Sweet potatoes have a *lot* more vitamin A (all your rda in just 100g) and also antioxidants (notice the orange colour).

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=64

Personally though, if I were eating chips/fries, I wouldn't consider them to be a healthy choice anyway, and would go for whatever I prefer.

Graces7

I hear you re fries, but

sweet potatoes are about a lot more than calories. They are classed among superfoods

https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/a48026/sweet-potato-nutrition/

The Hill Billy

I was down in Kilcullen at the weekend & took the opportunity to pop in to Nolan's Butchers (a wee gem). I picked up a massive stuffed breast of lamb for €4.90. When I say "massive" - 4 hungry Billys only managed to get through 3/4 of it. Not bad for less than a fiver. It was delicious.

Dizzyblonde

The Hill Billy wrote: »

I was down in Kilcullen at the weekend & took the opportunity to pop in to Nolan's Butchers (a wee gem). I picked up a massive stuffed breast of lamb for €4.90. When I say "massive" - 4 hungry Billys only managed to get through 3/4 of it. Not bad for less than a fiver. It was delicious.

I keep meaning to go down since I saw them featured on Nationwide or some such programme. I reckon it would be worth the journey if I let the freezer run low

L1011

Had customers in Kilcullen in a previous job, always filled up on the way back!

igCorcaigh

Parsley makes for a great salad leaf, mixed with rocket. Forget lettuces.

For Corkonians, head down to coal Quay Market on Saturday mornings and check out killbrack farm for excellent herbs. You get a big bag of organic parsley for €2 that stays fresh all week. Their coriander is amazing too but not in season now.

New Home

Not recommended for pregnant women!! It's very tasty, but it is not indicated for everyone (not only pregnant women) in "salad" doses - a few leaves are ok, but a whole bunch won't be good for you.

Gloomtastic!

New Home wrote: »

Not recommended for pregnant women!! It's very tasty, but it is not indicated for everyone (not only pregnant women) in "salad" doses - a few leaves are ok, but a whole bunch won't be good for you.

What? Parsley? No way. I’ve just used a whole bunch in a pasta dish for dinner. :eek:

New Home

In large doses it can cause uterine contractions, it stimulates blood flow, it's not suitable while breastfeeding, and for people with kidney problems.

BaZmO*

Large doses beyond what you would normally eat in food may be harmful, but unless you’re taking large amounts of parsley oils or derivatives I think you’ll be fine. General common sense really.

L1011

What level of premade/preprepared laziness do you let yourself away with? I generally cook everything from scratch but have recently given up on making pizza dough as Supervalu have quite decent Irish made chilled ones that freeze and defrost perfectly - bit dear (€4 for 2) but perfect for quick meals. If I was having people over making the dough would be vastly cheaper so I would then.

Today I defrosted a premade stew and actually bought a tray of chilled mash in Centra to go with it

Was fine, not as good as my own but may do it again... but it just feels wrong somehow

Lady Haywire

I can't do a good lasagne so I just buy the fresh ones....:pac:
Also curry pastes, ain't nobody got time for that!! Mr Curry sachets all the way.

Gloomtastic!

L1011 wrote: »

What level of premade/preprepared laziness do you let yourself away with? I generally cook everything from scratch but have recently given up on making pizza dough as Supervalu have quite decent Irish made chilled ones that freeze and defrost perfectly - bit dear (€4 for 2) but perfect for quick meals. If I was having people over making the dough would be vastly cheaper so I would then.

Today I defrosted a premade stew and actually bought a tray of chilled mash in Centra to go with it

Was fine, not as good as my own but may do it again... but it just feels wrong somehow

I used to always make naan breads but now just buy them. Also Aldi have a few types of pancakes for the kids’ weekend breakfasts. They just cover them in sweet ****e so it makes no difference to them that i don’t make them anymore!

Oh the shame! :rolleyes:

L1011

Gloomtastic! wrote: »

I used to always make naan breads but now just buy them. Also Aldi have a few types of pancakes for the kids’ weekend breakfasts. They just cover them in sweet ****e so it makes no difference to them that i don’t make them anymore!

Oh the shame! :rolleyes:

I buy frozen Pakistani made naans (Taza brand I think) in an Asian shop because I decided thats OK due to not having a tandoor in my house :pac:

In my earlier post, by "premade stew" I meant I made it myself and froze it; the other use of premade meant bought in a shop; should that have confused anyone - cause it confused me re-reading my own post.

Stargazer7

L1011 wrote: »

What level of premade/preprepared laziness do you let yourself away with? I generally cook everything from scratch but have recently given up on making pizza dough as Supervalu have quite decent Irish made chilled ones that freeze and defrost perfectly - bit dear (€4 for 2) but perfect for quick meals. If I was having people over making the dough would be vastly cheaper so I would then.

Today I defrosted a premade stew and actually bought a tray of chilled mash in Centra to go with it

Was fine, not as good as my own but may do it again... but it just feels wrong somehow

I love love love all things bready and also enjoy making same....that said I think the rule of if homemade tastes better I'll go with that, obviously real life permitting. So I would usually make my own pizza dough and naans....I really love the flavour of the latter when fried in a hot pan. I haven't made pittas yet and I find the M&S white pittas warmed are excellent.

I wouldn't bat an eyelid at buying spice pastes provided they are of decent quality / ingredients. It's just taking the faff out of toasting spices and processing down the rest of the bits.