All new food thread - recipes, pics and more!

[kernow]

birds out tonight so its maybe fish fingers chips and sweetcorn or something stoopid but easy, mm

[PeteJ]

Wow, thanks. Will let you know how it turned out!

Thanks again, was the best I've done by far Needed more spice, but I'll know for next time!

[hudson]

Baked Bean Hash.

One of my specialities

Chop 800g of potatoes into small (approx 1.5 cm) cubes.
Boil for about 5 mins. Preheat oven with a big baking tray in there.
Lash onto hot baking tray, drizzle most generously with olive oil, sprinkle some chilli powder across them (optional), then toss the potatoes carefully to get them all oiled up

Bake in oven until nice and brown and a bit crispy on the edges (or however you like em).

Next, fry half an onion in a blob of butter or olive oil (I like to fry mushrooms in there too) in a deepish frying pan. When a bit brown add potatoes and then pour in a can of Baked Beans.

Heat it all for a bit, then grate some cheese and throw it over the top and put in the oven until the cheese melts.

Serve with Broccoli (or whatever you like )

Baked Bean Hash.

[Unwell Cat]

Traditional ham, egg and chips with two slices of buttered bread and some daddies sauce for me.

[k0pp0]

Didn't go for the toad in the hole tonight, it was actually chicken, corriander, tomato and potato 'thing' sort of a brothy thing.

Bloody nice though!

[Anpanman]

Oxtail soup for me, which followed chicken soup for dinner (lunch if you are a southerner)

[MatWoods]

American Hot pizza express takeaway from Sainsbury with a good helping of BBQ sauce -mmmmmm, tasty!

[IainMcC]

wierd, my bird said exactly the same thing about cooking chilli, the longer the better. god I love chilli

It is absolutely true - chilli always tastes about three times better when you reheat it the next day. The same applies to most tomato-based sauces, actually - my spag bol always tastes better the day after I cook it, too. I find it's just a great excuse to make twice as much as you actually need - provided you don't mind eating the same thing two days in a row.

[IainMcC]

I'm going to be cooking some comfort food tonight. Baked potato shells, filled with bacon, mushroom and cheese mash.

For two people, I use a pack of bacon (maple smoked back bacon), and about 6-8 button mushrooms (or if I'm feeling fancy, a pack of oyster mushrooms), and a couple of large baking potatoes each.

The first bit's easy: Prick the potatoes in a fork and bake them in the oven for an hour at 200 degrees C.

Once the potatoes are done, cut them in half and use a spoon to scoop out the flesh of the potato into a bowl, being very careful not to tear the skins. Put the potato skins back on the baking tray with the hole you've scooped out facing downwards, so that the skins keep their shape. Now put them back in the oven to crisp up.

Chop up the bacon into strips, and thickly slice the mushrooms (into pieces about 0.75cm thick), and fry them in some olive oil, seasoning with a lots of black pepper. (You don't need to add salt - there's plenty in the bacon already)

While the bacon and mushrooms are frying, grate about quarter of a pack of really strong cheddar into the potato and mash it through (Farmhouse, Canadian or Scottish cheddar is preferred - something really at the top end of the "mature" scale), again adding plenty of black pepper. When the bacon and mushrooms are done, mix this through the mash, until you've got a fairly even distribution of bacon and mushroom.

Now comes the fun part: By now the potato skins should be getting pretty crispy, so take them out of the oven and use a spoon to refill the skins with the bacon, mushroom and cheese mash.

Turn the oven up to 240, and then put the filled skins back in the oven for 10 minutes, so that the cheese in the mash starts to toast. Then serve with lashings of HP sauce.

It takes quite a long time to cook and is a little bit of a faff, but boy, is it worth it!

[kernow]

It is absolutely true - chilli always tastes about three times better when you reheat it the next day. The same applies to most tomato-based sauces, actually - my spag bol always tastes better the day after I cook it, too. I find it's just a great excuse to make twice as much as you actually need - provided you don't mind eating the same thing two days in a row.

Very true, tis the same with a nice stew too, we always make too much on purpose.

This thread has inspired me to cook more , a mates coming around to do toad in the hole tonight though, proper bo.

[Dirty Sanchez]

Thanks again, was the best I've done by far Needed more spice, but I'll know for next time!

What you need in there is

- Chipotle Chillies (they give it a real smoky heat), get them dried from Tesco.
- Smoked Paprika
- and essential - Cumin

That will pep up the flavour a fair notch.

[Anpanman]

I had a ripe pear for my dinner & then tried to show off by going for an apple - big mistake.

For tea it's mashed potato.

[kernow]

uh, thats a bit sparse isn't it?

[PeteJ]

I am now proud to say I have somewhere to keep spices, I'm so chuffed

Unfortunately when I was up Tesco earlier I had no idea what I was doing so didn't buy any. Is there a simple guide anywhere which says what spices are good for what food? Honestly, I'm such a newbie when it comes to cooking but I don't want to fall into the trap of takeaways and frozen pizzas every night!

On another note I bought some Jack Daniels hot BBQ sauce at Tesco, which is mega awesome, but going through their funky self-service till it chimed up saying I had to have an age check. I chuckled.

[Nijo]

Meh, just start with the basics:
Basil, oregano, coriander, chilli powder, paprika, cumin, black pepper, ginger & fresh garlic.

You can cook most things with that.