The General Chat Thread

Graces7

Freely admit to a ready meal once a week... bacon and cabbage being favourite as I can no longer access Dunne's for their salmon version. I am on my own and low in stamina due to illness.
Preparing vegetables is often too hard.
Starting to bake again slowly. buying bread still.

RacoonQueen

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 get the mccain baked potatoes. It would take the same amount of time to do a baked potato from scratch but single potatoes are so hard to find and I live alone so don't want to be buying big bags of potatoes and trying to find freezer space for them or throwing most out.

caviardreams

I know what you mean about the single potatoes thing :mad: I also like being able to pick potatoes of a certain size even if I am buying a few. Thank god for supervalu and their loose potatoes, long may they last hopefully!

beertons

Peking duck and hoisin sauce flavoured Pringles.

Not bad.

rubadub

Tesco have a whole new range of "fire pit" burger rolls just in today. They are relatively expensive for burger rolls though.

4x70g potato buns are 1.75.

that is fairly big for a bun, those "super bundy" type ones are 80g, aldi brioche bun is 50g.

Anybody who looks at US burger making videos may have heard of Martin's potato rolls, they are often recommended. Might be worth a try for those who hate brioche ones.


They have "fire pit" meat products too, which I saw before but no sign of those rolls yesterday.

oscarBravo

I saw a YouTube recipe for sweet potato burger buns recently, I might have to try it.

I'm in the unfortunate place where I'm really starting to master bread making, while also being on a low-carb diet.

bolgbui41

Hi all. I've a vegetarian friend coming to visit me in a couple of weeks and I'm looking for a couple of recommendations. She's going to be turning 30 while she's here so I'd like to take her out somewhere in Dublin for a really nice dinner. I know I can google this, but because I never eat out in Dublin and there seems to be so many nice places the choice is a bit overwhelming!. Is there anywhere in particular that you'd all suggest? I'm fairly flexible price-wise.



We'll be doing a couple of day trips while she's here but want to eat at home wherever possible, so I'm also looking for things to cook in the slow cooker while we're out. She's not a massive fan of curries or spicy food, and I have very little imagination when it comes to vegetarian food. Any suggestions very much appreciated!

rubadub

these posts of mine quoted below are nearly a year old, I am still very happy with the salter wok which is coming up for sale in aldi on thursday for 20euro

https://www.aldi.ie/salter-wok-pan/p/014367283207701

and a regular "pan for life"
https://www.aldi.ie/salter-frying-pan/p/014367283207902

I use it a lot more than a 12" cast iron pan I got around the same time which is very heavy and takes a long time to heat up. I got the cast iron primarily for burgers and also pizza, but the wok is great for burgers too as you can get it roaring hot and the high sides mean no spattering everywhere, but it can be very smoky at that high a heat. The cast iron pan holds a lot of heat and can be brought outside. If I had to give up one I would keep the wok. Note my comments about warping and induction, I have not had a go of it on an induction hob yet.

rubadub wrote: »

I got myself a flat bottom salter brand wok in tk maxx. It is seasoned carbon steel, -i.e. there is no nonstick coating on it. I think it is the first time I saw one. Any with flat bottoms usually have a non stick coating.

Cooking in woks is meant to be done at really high temps, so no nonstick coating is ever going to last.

I have yet to use it, gets good reviews on amazon.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Salter-BW04196-Life-Carbon-Steel/dp/B013G96A96/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1528134936&sr=8-2&keywords=wok+salter+pan+for+life

note 26% give it 1 star, and many 5 star reviews rightly reckon they did not season it correctly, if at all. Many 5 stars have had pans requiring seasoning and say this one is great.

rubadub wrote: »

Mine also ended up warping!, when hot, then it flatted itself perfectly again when cold...

It warped while seasoning and when cooking in it. So it might not be good on induction. I suppose a test is to fill with water and heat on induction and see where bubbles come from, BUT if water is in it then it is not getting to a high temperature so might not warp.

One with a narrower diameter flat bottom is probably less likely to warp, or thicker.

Mine worked great as a wok, nothing stuck to it in the slightest and stuff was going in while it was roaring hot without too much oil, as as it is so light I could easily shake stuff about in it.

Shenshen

bolgbui41 wrote: »

Hi all. I've a vegetarian friend coming to visit me in a couple of weeks and I'm looking for a couple of recommendations. She's going to be turning 30 while she's here so I'd like to take her out somewhere in Dublin for a really nice dinner. I know I can google this, but because I never eat out in Dublin and there seems to be so many nice places the choice is a bit overwhelming!. Is there anywhere in particular that you'd all suggest? I'm fairly flexible price-wise.



We'll be doing a couple of day trips while she's here but want to eat at home wherever possible, so I'm also looking for things to cook in the slow cooker while we're out. She's not a massive fan of curries or spicy food, and I have very little imagination when it comes to vegetarian food. Any suggestions very much appreciated!

I can't help you with eating out in Dublin (I'm down in Cork).
But I can help with some slow cooker recipes.

My favourite would be Black Bean Stew, you'll need :

1 onion
1 green bell pepper
1 - 2 sticks of celery
2 - 3 cloves of garlic

ca 1 cup of black beans (dried)
1 tin of kidney beans

1 tsp Cumin
2 - 3 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
Chili to taste
2 Bay leaves

Vegetable stock

First, roughly chop the onion, pepper, celery and garlic. Put them in a a blender or food processor and blitz until they're almost a paste.
Heat some oil in a large frying pan, and add the paste. Fry it until it goes dry and slightly browned. Now add the spices and warm them through.
Scoop the paste in the slow cooker, add the black beans and fill with stock until the beans are well covered.
If you want to cook this while you're out, put the slow cooker on "warm", and it should take around 5 hours. On "high", it takes around 3.
Once the beans are soft, add the drained can of kidney beans. Season to taste - if the mixture is too runny, you can thicken it with a bit of veg gravy powder.

Burritos :
Serve with boiled rice, sour cream, cheese, salsa, lettuce and anything else you might fancy, wrapped into a tortilla.

Burgers :
If you have leftovers, you can turn them into black bean burgers the next day by simply adding an egg and some breadcrumbs to the mixture. Form patties and fry.

The slow cooker is also great for a lovely Pasta Sauce. You'll need:

1 onion
1 grated carrot
1 - 2 sticks of celery
2 - 3 cloves of garlic
2 tins of tomatoes
ca 1 cup of red wine (not the best, but not the cheapest either)
1/2 punnet of mushrooms
1 aubergine
1 bell pepper
Dried oregano (to taste)
Dried thyme (to taste)
1 bay leaf

Chop the mushrooms, aubergine and bell pepper and fry them in some olive oil (you'll need to do this in batches if you want good caramelisation). Set them aside.
Chop the onion, garlic and celery and add it to a food processor together with the grated carrot. Blitz until everything is really finely chopped.
Fry the mixture in the same pan you fried the vegetables in until it's dry and starts caramelising. Add the red wine and let it reduce down a bit.
Add everything to the slow cooker, plus the tinned tomatoes. Add the dried oregano, thyme and bay leaf and leave it all to simmer away in the slow cooker.

This is best with some fresh tagliatelle.

bolgbui41

That sounds great, thank you!

Dizzyblonde

I'm not vegetarian myself but Cornucopia on Wicklow Street has a great reputation.

oscarBravo

Dizzyblonde wrote: »

I'm not vegetarian myself but Cornucopia on Wicklow Street has a great reputation.

I used to work around the corner from it and my veggy colleagues ate there all the time.

edit: hell's bloody bells, I just realised that that was more than twenty years ago.

I'm old.

cefh17

I'm back from a two week trip to Japan and thought I would post here instead of clogging the What I had for dinner thread.. The food, oh my god the food I'd go back tomorrow for some of it. Plagued a regular poster here on Whatsapp with pics as I took them and he suggested posting here:

Tonkotsu Ramen:


Conveyor belt sushi (Cheap as chips, still better than in Ireland):


Yakitori (L-R: Chicken cartilage [rank], chicken thigh and leek, karaage):


Okonomiyaki:


And finally, the best of the bunch and the tastiest meat I've ever had in my mouth (heh) was Matsusaka Beef. We had the platter for two, garlic rice, beef sushi and also tongue. I can't describe how delicious it was, melting like butter was an understatement. Death row meal, definitely.

rubadub

http://www.itica.ie/chipper_directory

https://www.facebook.com/irish.traditional.italian.chippers.association/photos/a.10151900929080059/10155994421625059/?type=3&theater

Gremlinertia

^^ Not a galway one in the directory

sammyjo90

Gremlinertia wrote: »

^^ Not a galway one in the directory

The chipper in clarinbridge used to be a member. Im guessing its not now so!

Muahahaha

cefh17 wrote: »

I'm back from a two week trip to Japan and thought I would post here instead of clogging the What I had for dinner thread.. The food, oh my god the food I'd go back tomorrow for some of it. Plagued a regular poster here on Whatsapp with pics as I took them and he suggested posting here:

Great pics, thanks for sharing. Are there any apps that are useful for eating out in Japan? Something that could take a photo of the menu and translate it even? Japan strikes me as an excellent country for food but knowing what you're ordering is not easy from what I understand

cefh17

Muahahaha wrote: »

cefh17 wrote: »

Great pics, thanks for sharing. Are there any apps that are useful for eating out in Japan? Something that could take a photo of the menu and translate it even? Japan strikes me as an excellent country for food but knowing what you're ordering is not easy from what I understand

Thanks, glad you enjoyed them

To be honest most of the places we found were from TripAdvisor and watching YT videos, I know Tablelog is the main app over there as opposed to Yelp. We didn't have any issues with translations as a lot of places have English menus of some description, if not a point at the picture/plastic food in the window approach is universal. I know Google camera has a translate option but it's a bit clunky

rubadub

Gremlinertia wrote: »

^^ Not a galway one in the directory

many will still take part, many did and still do from the start, check if you local has a social media page. My theory is some chippers hated being forced into taking part, and so ditched their subscription to the association, which I imagine they paid for.

They left the announcement very late this year, no radio ads or anything when years ago you heard "look outta for de logo" constantly, weeks in advance, so I reckon they want to keep it low key.

but it might not be half price, Liberos in deansgrange dropped out of the list a year or more ago, and had special deals on the day, but not half price.

Another (now closed) chipper in deansgrange had half price the next day too, I guess they got in too much fish.

Gloomtastic!

^ Queue for f@cking ages to get a reduced size portion. No thanks!

Muahahaha

A mate in the UK highly recommends these Stay Fresh bags that are sold over there in Lakeland
https://www.lakeland.co.uk/1094/20-Lakeland-Stayfresh-Longer-Vegetable-Storage-Bags-25-x-38cm
Reckons he gets up to six weeks from a bag of carrots if stored inside one of these bags and then inside a fridge. Is there anything similar available here?

oscarBravo

You can get them from Amazon.

RacoonQueen

Has anyone seen jars of cookie butter anywhere in Dublin lately? Could always get it in Dunnes but haven't seen it in ages

B0jangles

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Has anyone seen jars of cookie butter anywhere in Dublin lately? Could always get it in Dunnes but haven't seen it in ages

Like biscoff cookie spread? It's usually in dealz, but it's only a dinky little jar for 1.50.

dudara

Muahahaha wrote: »

Great pics, thanks for sharing. Are there any apps that are useful for eating out in Japan? Something that could take a photo of the menu and translate it even? Japan strikes me as an excellent country for food but knowing what you're ordering is not easy from what I understand

I have the Waygo app on my phone which translates Chinese, Japanese & Korean. I use it in a lot of the Chinese restaurants on Capel Street. The Google Translate app should also do the job, I’d imagine.

Graces7

enjoying a microwaved 5 minute chocolate cake-in- a- mug . Would not have believed it worked, but y;day needed chocolate cake.. brilliant

sammyjo90

Anyone made gluten free pastry and had good results?
I found jus rol's GF puff pastry in dunnes and tried it for sausage rolls. Was very chewy, didn't like it at all.

cgap

Does anyone know where I can buy wheat suitable for milling at home, preferably in Co. Wexford or somewhere close?

Or if this is not the right forum to ask, which one should I try?

Mystery Egg

cgap wrote: »

Does anyone know where I can buy wheat suitable for milling at home, preferably in Co. Wexford or somewhere close?

Or if this is not the right forum to ask, which one should I try?

If you don't have any joy getting an answer to this in the food forum, try the wexford forum.

rubadub

cgap wrote: »

Does anyone know where I can buy wheat suitable for milling at home, preferably in Co. Wexford or somewhere close?

most health food shops will have whole grains. They usually just have 500g packs on the shelves but I have asked mine to get large bags in (this was an independent place, I doubt holland & barrett would). A 4kg bag was less than half price per kilo than the 500g ones, and I reckon they could have gotten bigger if I wanted.