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akamaisondufromage View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 01 2013 at 14:08
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

It's true; non-Cheddar is still 'Cheddar' even though non-Champagne is called 'sparkling wine'--  our English heritage I suppose.   Frankly I like White American cheese on my cheesesteak over Provolone or Cheddar.

Alas, cheddar cheese is deemed to be a generic name and not worthy of a PDO (protected designation of origin) which would have been the equivalent of Champagne's d'appleation contrôlée, it seems the lobby of non-Cheddar cheddar cheese producers killed that one stone dead (the USA produces 12 times more cheddar than the UK). So if cheddar is a generic name then cheesesteak is also a generic name regardless of what meat variety the steak is, much like hamburgers are not from Hamburg (or made with ham Wink). If non-Cheddar cheddar tasted like real cheese from the Cheddar caves then I don't think there would be much of an argument, unfortunately (and this isn't faux-patriotism as this is also true of many English generic cheddar-style cheeses) they don't.


'West Country Farmhouse Cheddar' does have PDO. I've had a very nice Cheddar from Canada though.   
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: January 26 2014 at 17:27
Just finished making this Chicken Hotdish from a recipe by one of the old ladies at my Mom's church.  Features deli rotisserie chicken chunks, a little rotini, fresh mushrooms, corn, onion of course, garlic, a few hot peppers and some sour cream and Parmigiano-Reggiano to rich it up nicely. 

With a crisp English ale it was a fantastic meal.  Comfort food in the face of the blizzard outside.  Blowing snow, 25 below zero tonight with wind chill around -50.  Love it here....another brutal winter....but thats the way we like 'em.  LOL




Edited by Finnforest - January 26 2014 at 18:41
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2014 at 16:31
I few months back in the some thread or other I commented on how buying one free-range oven-ready chicken is more cost effective than buying individual battery-farmed chicken portions since if you buy one whole chicken and portion it yourself you can get three or four meals worth of chicken.

Yesterday I spied a corn-fed free-range chicken reduced in our local supermarket to the princely sum of £4.00, which I duly purchased and, on arriving home, soon boned-out to two breasts, two thighs, two drumsticks, two wings and a pile of scraps of meat from those areas that don't come away cleanly when portion the bird . Sometimes I don't stop there and would have then boiled the bones with a roughly chopped carrot and an onion to make a chicken stock than can then be frozen for later use. However, last night I was pressed for time so the carcass was simply discarded. Having used the thighs and drumsticks for the evening meal, the breasts will be used tomorrow but tonight I used the meat from the wings and the odd scraps to make chicken burgers:


Since there isn't an awful lot of meat on the wings, a two slices of bacon and some breadcrumbs are used to bulk-out the meat to serve two people. The wings are de-boned and the meat and most of the skin (shredded) is put into a food processor along with the slices of smoked bacon (diced), a small handful of breadcrumbs and the juice from half a lemon, with a pinch salt and a grind of pepper and then blitzed to a course mince. Meanwhile heat a knob of butter with a little sunflower oil in a pan and gently sweat one finely sliced spring onion (scallion) and one equally finely sliced small leak, a roughly chopped clove of garlic and about 6 or 8 shredded sage leaves for about two minutes. Remove from the heat and add to the minced chicken along with two small cornichons (aka gerkins or dill pickles) [or one medium size one] and a few caper berries. Blitz one more time to achieve a fine mince. Remove from processor and form into two patties and chill in the fridge while you prepare a small green salad (or make chips or whatever). You can cook them as they are, but I prefer to coat them in panko¹ breadcrumbs (first cover in flour, then dip in beaten egg then in breadcrumbs). Fry in oil for around 6-7 minutes each side, serve in a bun with a fresh salad. 

These are seriously good, much better than anything you'll get in McDs or KFC because you know what went into them and you know the chicken didn't come from a battery farm. And you can customise them to your hearts content - add chopped chilli to the leaks and onions for a hit of heat, or finely diced chorizo sausage, or earthy mushrooms and drizzle of truffle oil, or some grated cheese of your choice. You can also replace the breadcrumbs with another bulk ingredient - mashed up chick peas or beans or cooked rice or left-over cold mashed potato or butternut squash or bell-pepper, even stale nacho chips that have been whizzed in the food processor. Just about the only thing I'd never put in them is tomato because they are simply too wet, but you can add a dash of tomato purée or ketchup of you wish. You can also play around with the herbs (tarragon goes especially well with chicken, as does dill) and seasoning, such as using celery-salt or paprika or cayenne pepper or Chinese 5-spice, or curry powder, there are no rules and no limits.



¹Panko breadcrumbs until recently were only seen in specialist asian supermarkets, but now the are available in most supermarkets. They are actually very easy to make at home - I take one stale baggette (french loaf) remove the crusts and cut into 1" cubes, these are then put into the food processor and blitzed to a course crumb. The crumbs are then laid out on a baking sheet and put into the oven at 150°C for about 5 minutes until they are dried but not browned. Once cooled they will keep in a storage jar for quite some time.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2014 at 18:08
^I'll be there in twenty with the ales and red.....Big smile
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2014 at 18:37
Originally posted by Finnforest Finnforest wrote:

Just finished making this Chicken Hotdish from a recipe by one of the old ladies at my Mom's church.  Features deli rotisserie chicken chunks, a little rotini, fresh mushrooms, corn, onion of course, garlic, a few hot peppers and some sour cream and Parmigiano-Reggiano to rich it up nicely. 

With a crisp English ale it was a fantastic meal.  Comfort food in the face of the blizzard outside.  Blowing snow, 25 below zero tonight with wind chill around -50.  Love it here....another brutal winter....but thats the way we like 'em.  LOL




Oh, yes, looks great.   I need to brush up on me casserole skills.


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 21 2014 at 19:15
That was a huge hit with everyone who tasted it.  Great fuel for this incredibly cold and snowy winter  we are having, one of many in recent years.  Just had another terrible storm that my body is recovering from dealing with.  Hundreds of car accidents and spin outs.  There's almost no where to push the stuff anymore.  First you clear your own drive and walk, then you help all the elderly neighbors shovel theirs.  Then you start raking off your roof because the snow is too deep up there and can cause ice dams. 

I have a 5 foot chain link fence that we put up because we had large dogs.  The snow drifts are now almost over that fence.  We all are buried man.  And it is cold cold cold. 

So yeah, it is hotdish time of year in the midwest. 

At least some of us have a sense of humor about it.....


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 23 2014 at 12:47
My wife has done most of the home cooking as of late, but my office at my current job has potluck events.  For the last one I made cold mixed cucumbers with liquid amino acids instead of the light soy sauce called for in the original recipe.  Sounds weird but it is a really good soy sauce substitute - http://bragg.com/products/la.html
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2014 at 00:46
Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

¹Panko breadcrumbs until recently were only seen in specialist asian supermarkets, but now the are available in most supermarkets. They are actually very easy to make at home - I take one stale baggette (french loaf) remove the crusts and cut into 1" cubes, these are then put into the food processor and blitzed to a course crumb. The crumbs are then laid out on a baking sheet and put into the oven at 150°C for about 5 minutes until they are dried but not browned. Once cooled they will keep in a storage jar for quite some time.


For a nice gluten free version you can process up some rice chex, I've done this and it is very similar to panko. Real panko is made by passing an electric current through the dough to cook a crustless loaf.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2014 at 02:33
Originally posted by zachfive zachfive wrote:

Real panko is made by passing an electric current through the dough to cook a crustless loaf.


That's inhuman.


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2014 at 02:41
Originally posted by Atavachron Atavachron wrote:

Originally posted by zachfive zachfive wrote:

Real panko is made by passing an electric current through the dough to cook a crustless loaf.


That's inhuman.


Aye, we are a cruel breed - have you seen how we treat vegetables? Take the case of root veg: they're covered in rotting excrement while they're growing, ripped from the ground while still alive and then have their skins stripped from their flesh with a sharp knife before being plunged into boiling water... 
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 24 2014 at 02:53
Hmm, yes, you make a fair point though, we do treat starches better than vegetables.  It's a travesty.

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 13 2014 at 02:04
California artichokes are in season so I did my artichoke & sausage pasta:  I cut all the leaves and the choke out, sliced the heart into pieces, fried them in olive oil and added sliced Andouille, tomato, a healthy squeeze of lemon, salt&pepper, and then toss with penne pasta.   Delicious early spring meal.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 13 2014 at 03:10
Aside from the penne (I have an irrational dislike of pasta with holes in, and yes I do know it is irrational), that sounds rather fine David. Approve

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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 13 2014 at 03:12
yes, simple and tasty, and I forgot to mention a splash of beer is optional (I used some tonight)
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 13 2014 at 03:17
Ooo... beer would add a hint of bitterness, that could be interesting.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 13 2014 at 03:22
It does, and also cleans the flavors and helps make a sauce.   Frying the sliced artichoke heart was a revelation, such a nice change from the usual (very Roman this dish, I suppose).


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 13 2014 at 03:27
I rarely eat them - cold in salads is mildly unpleasant and I could easily survive without them, scraping the fleshy part of the petals with a my teeth is not my idea of eating pleasure and the sorry specimens you get sliced over a pizza in some pizzerias don't inspire me much either, but cooked as you describe does sound appealing.  
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 13 2014 at 03:34
I don't like that either, the marinated hearts are especially unpleasant and anything canned is even worse; we of course get big, plump fresh ones in Cali, it's a much different experience.


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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 13 2014 at 03:39
Aye, over here they're about the size of a medium apple and after you've discarded the leaves, petal, choke and most of the stem there's not much fond left to eat, but freshly cooked they're still worth the effort when time and inclination permits even if what you're left with is little more than a garnish.
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 13 2014 at 03:44
Breakfast has for the last couple of weeks consisted entirely of banana and a large slice of rhye bread, the dark stuff. It's actually pretty good, especially if you toast the bread hoho.
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