Here's What I Had For Dinner - Part III - Don't quote pics!

Grandeeod

Surreptitious wrote: »

What supermarket is that from? I always make my own spice bags.

Tesco and all the majors. Made by McDonnells. I used to make it myself too, but this is awesome.

anewme wrote: »

What was that one like?

The spice of life tub is great for this, much nicer than the Chen Chen one.

There’s loads of portions in it too.

Cook up a few Rosie and Jim chicken gougons (southern fried)and slice them in! With the other bits.

Then the curry Sauce or gravy for chips by mayflower on the side,

You’ve got me hungry now but I’m supposed to be in a diet!

It was great. I used to buy one in an Asian shop years ago before the "spice bag" was invented. I used it to make my salt and chilli chicken. Started making my own from five spice, salt and chilli powder. But its great to see this McDonnells version available. Check it out.

Surreptitious

That's exactly what I use, five spice, salt, fresh chilis then as well. I will look out for it, thanks

BaZmO*

Cleared out the presses the other day and there was a kit for making Thai Green Curry that was hitting its best before date, or was just past it. No big deal as it was just spices. I bought it ages ago. Don’t know why as I would normally just make it from scratch.

Anyway, I made it and it actually wasn’t that bad. Only downside was it called for reduced fat coconut milk, which I would never use (go full fat or go home!). It made it really watery, but the flavours were still nice.

georgina toadbum

Any of those homemade spice bag mixes always taste way too much of 5 spice to me. I never get the taste of 5 spice from the Chinese takeaway.

anewme

georgina toadbum wrote: »

Any of those homemade spice bag mixes always taste way too much of 5 spice to me. I never get the taste of 5 spice from the Chinese takeaway.

The spice of life life one is the nearest to a real spice bag Chinese for me.

The Chen Chen one was overpowering- I thought it was just too much star anise, but you are right it's five spice.

Grandeeod

anewme wrote: »

The spice of life life one is the nearest to a real spice bag Chinese for me.

The Chen Chen one was overpowering- I thought it was just too much star anise, but you are right it's five spice.

I've tried the Chan Chan one which gets a lot of good press. I've never heard of the Spice of Life version despite using a lot of the sauces and marinades. Have you a link to it?

Dizzyblonde

Made myself a Buddha bowl type dinner with cajun spiced chicken, sweet potato cubes, lentil & chickpea salad and tomato & onion salsa. It was great

georgina toadbum

anewme wrote: »

The spice of life life one is the nearest to a real spice bag Chinese for me.

The Chen Chen one was overpowering- I thought it was just too much star anise, but you are right it's five spice.

I'll give the Spice of Life one a try, thanks.

Mystery Egg

Ribye steak, fried onions and oven chips. Didn't even bother with a sauce!

Grandeeod

Mystery Egg wrote: »

Ribye steak, fried onions and oven chips. Didn't even bother with a sauce!

Just the juices of the steak to mop it up.:D

BaZmO*

Given all the talk of spice bags in this thread recently, I happened upon one of the seasoning pack this evening and decided to give it a go for dinner. Now, not that I’m a spice bag type of person but it was ridiculous how similar it was to what you’d get in a Chinese. It was actually really nice.

Grandeeod

BaZmO* wrote: »

Given all the talk of spice bags in this thread recently, I happened upon one of the seasoning pack this evening and decided to give it a go for dinner. Now, not that I’m a spice bag type of person but it was ridiculous how similar it was to what you’d get in a Chinese. It was actually really nice.

Which one was it?

BaZmO*

Grandeeod wrote: »

Which one was it?

McDonnells Spice Bag Classic Flavour

It was reduced to €1 in Tesco. Also picked up the Chinese one

Shenshen

Cottage Pie with lentils and cheesy mash

treenytru

Shenshen wrote: »

Cottage Pie with lentils and cheesy mash

Recipe please

kylith

Quarter pounder with cheese and garlic cheese chips.

I was not in the mood to cook.

Afterwards I was too stuffed to do anything.

Shenshen

treenytru wrote: »

Recipe please

Oh, tricky, I don't actually have one, so the quantities below are guestimates:

Filling:
1 onion, chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
1 or 2 carrots, sliced
Frozen peas (to taste, I've used around 2 cups)
Red lentils, ca half a cup
Green or brown lentils, ca half a cup
Vegetable stock
1 tbsps of tomato puree
2 bay leaves
2 tbsps of paprika
1/2 tsp of cumin
2 tbsps of vegetable gravy granules

Topping:
4 floury potatoes, cooked or steamed (for mash, I usually chop the potatoes, place them in a plastic bowl, add a splash of water, cover it with a plate and microwave for 10 - 12 minutes)
Ca 200g of grated cheddar
Ca 50g of butter
Pinch of nutmeg
Salt
Milk (if required)

For the filling, add the onions and celery into a large pot with a bit of oil. Fry over medium heat until they are soft, then add the carrots, lentils, bay leaves, paprika, cumin and enough stock to cover all. Simmer until the lentils and carrots are soft, adding more stock if it becomes too reduced. Once the lentils are soft, add the frozen peas. Add the tomato puree and vegetable gravy granules to thicken it up, and season to taste. Remove the bay leaves, add it to an oven dish and let it cool a little.

In the meantime, make your mash from the potatoes (ideally while they're still hot, as it'll allow the cheese to melt) by mixing everything except the milk and mashing it up. If the mixture is too thick, add a bit of milk to loosen it up.
Spread the mash over the filling and bake at 200 degrees for around 15 - 20 minutes.

Whispered

Lentil cottage pie used to be a favourite meal of mine, then I got sick shortly after eating one and even though they were totally unrelated I can't eat it anymore.

Your gorgeous looking pic has me wanting to give it a try again.

Mystery Egg

Mashed potatoes in the microwave??? Genius!

So peel and chop, splash with water, cover and cook? Does it taste the same?

Shenshen

Mystery Egg wrote: »

Mashed potatoes in the microwave??? Genius!

So peel and chop, splash with water, cover and cook? Does it taste the same?

It does taste the same to me. The only problem I sometimes have is that if I microwave them for a bit too long, the exposed outsides of the potato pieces can go a bit rubbery, but once all is mashed up I don't usually notice that any more.

Tar.Aldarion

My dinner was a case of opposites. First up a salad of roast butternut squash + broccoli + beetroot, spinach, semi-dried cranberries, vegan goats cheese, Worcestershire sauce, chickpeas, haricot beans and dutch beans.


Then friend made me this Easter egg filled with honeycomb and mini crunchies, so good.

Gloomtastic!

Prawns with linguine

the beer revolu

Tar.Aldarion wrote: »

My dinner was a case of opposites. First up a salad of roast butternut squash + broccoli + beetroot, spinach, semi-dried cranberries, vegan goats cheese, Worcestershire sauce, chickpeas, haricot beans and dutch beans.

You do know that most Worcestershire sauce is not vegetarian?

Mystery Egg

the beer revolu wrote: »

You do know that most Worcestershire sauce is not vegetarian?

You can buy veggie worcestershire sauce. Tar is a seasoned veggie and will know this.

You can also now buy gluten free worcestershire sauce which is great for coeliacs.

Tar.Aldarion

The Worcestershire sauce in Tesco is vegan.

anewme

Homemade doner courtesy of Padraig Mor s recipe. Oven chips with spice bag seasoning. Pink gin and Prosecco cocktails.

beertons

First bbq of the year. Sausages were amazing, from Aldi. 2 types, black pudding. And spicey. Yum.

Whispered

A really disappointing hotel dinner. The menu read

"Grilled Flat Mushroom, Red Onion Marmalade, Roast Tomato, Smoked Cheddar in a Waterford Blaa, Dressed Salad"

What i got, I guess was pretty much what it read, but done without any care. The bun was not a blaa, but a seeded bun like you buy in Tesco and fire in the freezer for a lazy dinner. The mushroom was about 1/3 the size of the bun, sat to one side of it and was cooked in such a way that the bun was soggy with juice, the onion marmalade was nice but that and the half cooked tomato was on the bun beside the mushroom rather than stacked and the smoked cheddar tasted plastic and synthetic.

To top it off, the "dressed salad" used items well past their prime. Soggy limp leaves, scallions which were chopped very chunky and beginning to brown at the edges, a clump of grated carrot and one slice of green pepper - served with the scallion, carrot and pepper on the plate, covered with the leaves and no dressing.

The whole thing felt thrown together with less than quality ingredients and absolutely no care. I'm genuinely not fussy and love simple food. I get out for a meal on my own maybe once every 6 months, I'm so disappointed I wasted a rare evening out on that meal.

Shenshen

Whispered wrote: »

A really disappointing hotel dinner. The menu read

"Grilled Flat Mushroom, Red Onion Marmalade, Roast Tomato, Smoked Cheddar in a Waterford Blaa, Dressed Salad"

What i got, I guess was pretty much what it read, but done without any care. The bun was not a blaa, but a seeded bun like you buy in Tesco and fire in the freezer for a lazy dinner. The mushroom was about 1/3 the size of the bun, sat to one side of it and was cooked in such a way that the bun was soggy with juice, the onion marmalade was nice but that and the half cooked tomato was on the bun beside the mushroom rather than stacked and the smoked cheddar tasted plastic and synthetic.

To top it off, the "dressed salad" used items well past their prime. Soggy limp leaves, scallions which were chopped very chunky and beginning to brown at the edges, a clump of grated carrot and one slice of green pepper - served with the scallion, carrot and pepper on the plate, covered with the leaves and no dressing.

The whole thing felt thrown together with less than quality ingredients and absolutely no care. I'm genuinely not fussy and love simple food. I get out for a meal on my own maybe once every 6 months, I'm so disappointed I wasted a rare evening out on that meal.

I feel your pain - We don't go out often, either, for simple lack of funds. And there just isn't anything more disappointing than getting poor food on one of the rare evenings out. I always feel cheated being asked to pay €15 for something I could have made better at home for €4.

Dizzyblonde

We had a really good Chinese takeaway last night, the first in months. There were lots of us so plenty of different dishes. I made a strawberry and mascarpone cream Victoria sponge for dessert.