Wall of Mouths

This has gone down a storm every time…

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/4351/chocolate-souffls

You are all bad people!! Putting up recipes like that and I’m on a poxy diet :-)~

I might give that a go, I think I should be able t source everything from Sainsburys, not a mile away!

Did you have it with pasta or anything else?

MisterHoppy wrote:

I collected the walnuts last year from near a job i do that’s 4 miles from me house

Oh god… your walnuts are way to old!!

soul doubt wrote:

Oh god… your walnuts are way to old!!

Have to disagree with you here An, did wonder if they would have gone off but out of the 20 or so i’ve opened i’ve only had to throw 1 away (which had shrivelled to dust), i’ve eaten quite a few now with no ill effects and they taste fine. Did ask my local greengrocers and they get theirs with a sell by date about 10 months from purchase.
Having said that if you mean as wet walnuts then yes, bit too late (but i find them not to my taste).

I can dig out a few recipes.. depends what you want, i can do posh nosh or just tasty filling stuff. I have a easy and tasty fajita recipe beats the shit out of El Paso.

Citizen Erased wrote:

I might give that a go, I think I should be able t source everything from Sainsburys, not a mile away!
Did you have it with pasta or anything else?

I haven’t actually got round to making the 2nd batch yet, been too busy working/sleeping, but the first lot i tried with pasta, bit too walnutty but not unpleasantly so, be better on something meaty (steak) but hoping the new batch will go better with pasta. I think heavy on the watercress and light on the walnuts is the way to go, with as much cheese as you like, and i’ll add the oil last as the walnuts are fairly oily.

Chr1s: Gonna try that pasta on the weekend, but with butternut squash instead of chicken, and less chilli (don’t eat it everyday any more and my body won’t thank me for a whole scotch bonnet, let alone the Bhut Jolokia my mate imports and wants me to try).

Divers wrote:

I have a easy and tasty fajita recipe beats the shit out of El Paso.

Well, tell us then!!! :)

Not that there is anything wrong with masterchef style food i should add.

”Her best friend asked once and got told to get fucked!”

Ha ha, that’s what I was expecting to get told but thought I might as well ask, might take you up on the August delivery, let you know closer to the time.

”I don’t buy any jar or packet stuff so I know what is in it and tastes better.”

Couldn’t agree more, from scratch is the way to go (saying that i’ve used stock cubes recently for risotto), have conversations with people i know who tell me they don’t want to cook when they’ve finished work as they need the time to relax whereas for me the cooking is relaxing and it means less time in front of the tv /pc.

MisterHoppy wrote:

Realised after a bit of searching that Alex started a thread (a few years ago) i could have posted in instead, never mind. Going to try another go at my version of Pesto this evening. Basically a walnut / watercress / goats cheese / rapeseed oil pesto with everything as local as possible. I collected the walnuts last year from near a job i do that’s 4 miles from me house, the cheese is from a farm just down the road (2miles), the watercress is from a village maybe 5 miles away and the oil is from Northampton (so not that close but not bad, 40 miles at most). Had a go a last week but tried smoked goats cheese and that didn’t really work, that and i used too many walnuts and whilst the end result is ok it tastes far too strongly of walnut.

forgot to get goats cheese so used pecorino and just had olive oil instead of rape seed oil but it’s the first time I’ve made pesto and it was really really nice :-)

That chilli chorizo chicken pasta is great Chr1s, made it the other day, bottled it on the Scotch Bonnet (and i used to eat Harbanero every day, how times change) and used some dried chillies I grew last year, bloody lovely and I added a mass of salad to the garlic bread on the side (helps me deal with the chilli and I just like salad).

Jerusalem Artichoke and Rosemary Soup:
Elegant and simple soup, makes about 4-6 bowls for a starter, one of my favourites for Christmas dinner starter.
500g or so artichokes, couple of inch sprig of fresh rosemary, leek (optional).

1: Peel artichokes, do this underwater and put them straight into a pan of cold water otherwise they discolour. They don’t need to be perfectly peeled, a little bit of skin won’t hurt.
2: Chop roughly, make sure water covers the artichokes, cover with a lid and bring to the boil.
3: When boiling reduce heat to give a gentle boil, add rosemary sprig whole.
4: Should be done after 20 mins or so. Remove from heat, remove rosemary and discard.
5: Blend with hand blender or potato masher or fork until smooth (ish, it’s up to you).
6: Add more water and blend until you get your desired consistency.
7: Season if you want, I don’t.
8: Serve with cheese on toast style croutons.

If you want a slightly green soup rather than a beige one add some finely chopped green bit of a leek before putting on the heat.

Any suggestions for an easy starter to preceed the following:

Toad in the hole, mashed potatoes, mustard cabbage & glazed carrots
Salted caramel chocolate tart w’ either cream or vanilla ice cream.

And does that sound like a red-wine meal or a white-wine meal to you?

Lemon Curd: (NOTE CONTAINS RAW EGG)
3 Large lemons / 4 smaller ones (unwaxed!), 175g caster sugar, 125g unsalted butter, 4 free-range eggs.

Method:
Cut butter into pieces, beat the eggs & sieve, zest and juice lemons.
Set a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water (not touching), just like for melting chocolate.
Add sugar, butter and juice to bowl and stir until butter has melted.
Add eggs a bit at a time, stirring as you go.
Continue to cook stirring regularly until it all thickens up - this takes around 40 minutes in my experience, be patient otherwise you curdle it and it looks like very messy scrambled eggs! It thickens when it cools as well so don’t let it get too thick (lightly coats the back of a spoon apparently).
About 10 mins before the end add the zest.
Put / Pour into small jars / ramekins, let it cool a bit and then seal / clingfilm.
Refrigerate. Keeps for a couple of weeks.

Damn fine stirred into lightly whipped cream and then chilled. Can be done with Serville oranges, limes, grapefruit, oranges.