Be Excellent To Each Other

The SD254 and SD255 are just off the bottom of the table in the screenshot.

I was eying up the Le Crouset ironware in House Of Fraser yesterday. It's stupidly expensive in there (much cheaper online). I am tempted by a big casserole dish and a griddle pan.

My griddle pan is used all the time. Any time I have steak, or lamb steaks like I did last night, I will do it on there. I think that's how I usually do tuna steaks as well actually and chucking asparagus in there is nice and easy if you are already using it anyway.

Thanks Rich and Craster.

Big casserole dish FTW! Esp with winter being here, or a slow cooker of course.

I have a Le Creuset casserole dish, and I never use it. I have a big metal thick-bottomed stock pot that is perfect for my casseroling needs.

I let the ex take the (cheap and nasty) slow cooker. I am attempting to resist buying more gadgets due to cupboard space issues, so I think I can make do without one. Plus I never found the actual slow cooking aspect that appealing, as I am rarely in the house at midday to start preparing my dinner.

I might get a new breadmaker though.

I have a £6 from Asda stock pot with an non-oven-proof lid. Which isn't ideal. I used it for that stew last night, but I had to use an improvised metal lid. Also, it's too tall for my oven -- I have to pull all the racks out and put it on the oven floor with just one inverted rack under it.

I never cook a casserole with the lid on. I want the cooking to thicken it up, after all.

The recipe was weirdly dry. I'd not make it like that again.

If only there were some casserole recipes in this very thread.

Remind me never to get lazy and oven-cook beefburgers again. While they were incredibly soft and yummy, they weren't half laden with fats and oils.

Le Creuset are very expensive but should last you forever (plus a bit more).

Then again, I noticed in Tesco t'other night that they had a cast iron casserole on offer for £17.50. The same one that I bought a year ago, must admit it's a pretty good alternative for the money.

I've got the Tesco cast iron griddle pan too which was about £20 and that's lasted well. I've even bunged it in the dishwasher a few times and its survived!

Iiiinteresting. I might go find a big Tesco.

If I know me -- and I do -- I'd rather buy a cheaper pan, wash it in the dishwasher whenever I want, and replace it every year.

Wait. I probably meant that mine is a Morphy Richards. I got confused by that yesterday as well.

We have a Le Creuset casserole and frying pan. They're awesome, and in a pinch you can club a rhino to death with them, and then make a lovely stew out of it.

Also, all breadmakers are the work of satan. Get yourself a Kenwood mixer with a dough hook instead. Makes amazing dough, and isn't a tool of the dark lord of hell.

If some fucker would sell me a split tin, I'd be all over that (actually, I'd just never use the bake function of my breadmaker). Until then, ENORMO-SLICES are me.

Chinny/BikPizza was an unqualified success.

Ham, pepperoni, mushrooms and olives. AWESOME. Also: garlic pizza bread with mozzarella.

That looks awesome. I'm chuffed the dough worked out (assuming you mean you followed my recipe, I don't remember what chinny said)!

I didn't make pizza this weekend. But I did make that chicken dhansak, as I mentioned earlier, and also chicken jalfrezi.

Plus, I can confirm that Craster's chilli jam recipe (which I encouraged to set with a second round of simmering and MOAR PECTIN) is fantastic with cheese on toast:

http://img2.yfrog.com/i/g38r.jpg/

Next dinner party I do will have goat's cheese crostini with chilli jam to start.

A fucking ramekin? What's wrong with spooning it straight out of the jar, exactly?

I was showing off for the photo because I'm going to use it on the Eggwan cookbook wiki. Also, I bottled it in a 1.5l Kilner jar and it's a bit unwieldly.

It was more-or-less your recipe for the dough, Chinny's walkthrough for the sauce. Thanks a lot, it was pretty much the best pizza I've ever had. The base was beautiful, nice and light and fluffy with lovely, slightly yeasty taste.

I made my own pizza tonight.
Sort of chinny's recipie.
However I couldn't get my hand on any yeast, so had to use just add water pizza bases.
But it turned out good, Fried onions + garlic, with some chopped toms and tom puree for the base. Some sliced mushrooms, ham and aldi mozzarella (49p for one bit, and did the whole pizza so not a bad purchase).
Turned out very yummy, and rather cheap

"Tonight Matthew, I'll be serving up a dish..."

"Ooh, isn't he a live one? And which dishy man will you be singing as?"

"... I'm terribly sorry. I think I'm on the wrong set."

Cooking time!

I'll be making Gratin Dauphinois tonight, with rather unusually ratatouille accompanying. Though simple dishes, there's about a billion different recipes for them on the net. Have any of you lot made them, and what stylee do you recommend?

Thinly slice potatoes, boil for about 10 minutes. Heat a pan containing half milk, half cream, seasoning, a good handful of grated gruyere, a mashed garlic clove or two, and a little ground nutmeg until the cheese has melted. Layer the potatoes in a dish, pour over the cream mix (and muddle the potatoes about to coat) and top with more grated gruyere. Pop in the oven for about 20-25 minutes at about 170degrees. Obviously quantities depend on how much you're making, but you should aim to cover the potatoes with the sauce.

Use waxy potatoes, not floury.

How astonishing that Craster knew the recipe for possibly the most decadent way to serve potatoes off the top of his head.

Roger that.

Heh. Ask me to do you a jacket potato and I wouldn't have a clue.

Yup Craster, you seem close to what I've been reading, only they say for me to dole out the cream mix cold onto the tatty layers after grating the gruyere and sprinkling the garlic directly onto it, and bake for an hour, dispensing with the pre-warming of the sauce.

Nah - melt the cheese in, then you get good flavour right the way through.

Bake for an hour? Do they not pre-cook the tatties?

Jacket potatoes:
Clean potatoes and jab all over with a fork. Place in microwave and nuke for about 7 minutes per spud (more if they're huge). Then convection oven as high as it will go for 30-40 minutes.

Whilst ridiculously hot, cut open potatoes and add lots of margerine (or butter), salt, pepper, raw onion, sweetcorn, branston pickle, cheese, baked beans, and/or home made chilli according to taste.

Om, and if you will, nom.

Rub olive oil and salt into the skin of the potato before baking. I'm dubious about the microwave-then-roast thing.

Depends how hungry you are. If you can wait two hours, I wrap them in tin foil and throw them in the wood stove.

I plant seeds six months before I want them. Therefore I am clearly a better gourmet than you.

I'm an anti-gourmet if anything. What is that, a gourmand?

Gournot.

I do that, too. I don't wrap them in foil either, as I like the skins to go really crispy. 90 mins in the oven if I've got time; 5 mins in the microwave followed by oil and salt/pepper dousage then 30 mins in the oven if I don't.

Well, success!

Mixed the cream, milk, pepper and salt. Buttered oven dish. Layered thinly sliced potatoes. Grated cheese and sprinkled crushed garlic bits and nutmeg onto tats. Poured some cream and milk over it. Layered more potatoes, repeat until top layer with extra cheese. Put in oven for an hour. Tats came out perfect, despite not being pre-cooked. Cream didn't curdle, phew, but could have been a little more solid. But it all tasted rich, creamy, flavoursome and perfect. Went down a treat with the four guests.

Ratatouille worked well too. Scored tomatoes, boiled for 20 seconds, then took out and peeled skin off. Diced yellow and red pepper, courgette and aubergine and onion. Browned each one in turn in butter, never cooking two together, and placed in covered bowls. Finally mixed 'em all together with some chopped parsley, sprigs of thyme, crushed garlic, a teaspoon of sugar, two tablespoons of tomato paste, two bayleafs and mixed together and simmered for ten minutes. Removed bayleafs and sprigs, served up with creamy Gratin and IPA beer.

It was fecking lush.

FTFM

Don't be. It works a treat.

Yes. Excited molecules is science, right?

I'll thank you not to speak about the Doc that way.

Tonight we're making peanut butter cups for christmas.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nige ... index.html

How are they supposed to hold my tea?

How will they support my tits?

and my axe!

How will they protect my gonads?

Well, the chocolate has set quite hard

I made cookies, but they're all crumbly. What did I do wrong?

Not enough cement?

I dunno, I've never made cakes. Not mixed properly would be my first guess though, failing that I think it's the eggs that hold it all together so use more eggs next time maybe.