food chat

[luke]

its got a bit quiet in here recently, so i thought i'd start a general food chat for posts that don't really warrant their own thread.

so anything you've cooked or anything you've eaten out that you want to share, post it up

last bank holiday i had curried goat. i'd never tried goat before, and i don't think i've even seen it in the shops, but it was really nice - the meat was lovely, just melted in the mouth, nice flavours without being overly spicy hot. along with it i had some rice and peas ( which is actually rice and beans ) and that was surprisingly really nice. i mean its just rice and beans, but it was really tasty, its cooked with coconut, and there was different types of beans. i'm going to try and get the recipe for that and i'll share it here. i eat rice quite a bit but i haven't since then because once you've eaten it cooked like this normal rice is just boring!

another thing i had recently that i'd never tried before was oxtail. i've had oxtail soup before, but never a proper chunk of oxtail! it was cooked really nice, the meat just feel apart, it was cooked in this spicy sauce that kinda warmed you from the inside as you ate it. i'm going to try get the recipe for that as well, apparently oxtail is quite cheap, and the sauce was great - but i'd like to try it with a bit more sauce.

something i want to try cooking soon is nasi goreng. i'd seen it about but never tried it, but i picked up some frozen stuff from lidl a few weeks back and loved it! its an indonesian fried rice dish with vegetables ( and the lidl version has chicken in as well ) cooked with spices and coconut. i've looked about for recipes, and they all differ quite a bit, and you can get nasi goreng sauce/paste, but nothing really matches the lidl version so i've written down the spices and will be experimenting soon!

on the sweet side of things, i'm currently addicted to aldi turkish delight - its a chocolate bar filled with lovely gooey turkish delight goodness*

* the goodness aspect of this may be a complete lie

[Skylace]

Can't say I'm a fan of Turkish delight, but I'm not a big fan of the rose taste. However, I do like lavender and violet. Rococo (a chocolate company from the UK) makes a great Violet bar. They also have some other fantastic, unique flavors. Their orange confite is fantastic and the basil and Persian lime is amazing.

I've been on a pad thai kick lately. But I haven't been making it. Just getting it at my favorite Thai restaurant. However, with my training kicking back in I probably need to stop that LOL

[luke]

i don't think i've ever tried any chocolate with lavender or violet - i'll have to keep a look out, and basil and persian lime sounds interesting

ive been going through a bit of a thai phase recently, i've been experimenting with thai style fish dishes, i want a nice thai coconut sauce, but one mild enough or that works so as not to overpower the fish. i had a bit of a mishap the first attempt when i mixed up teaspoon and tablespoon ... that was one seriously spicy sauce!

[eefanincan]

Oh, how I miss pad thai -- can't eat it now as the peanuts give me migraines. I've tried a version without it, but somehow, it's just not the same.

The first time I ever had it was when I was working nights at the hospital - the girls convinced me to give it a try and we ordered in. Fantastic! (it was probably the best part of the night shift! )

[Skylace]

That's a shame you can't have it anymore eefan. I would think it would be quite different without the peanut. Is it just peanuts that do that? Could you try a different nut, like cashews or pistachio?

[eefanincan]

[luke]

could you try some chopped/crushed seeds instead eefan? some seeds can be quite nutty in flavour. might get your pad thai tasting a bit more like how it did with nuts

[eefanincan]

A good thought, I'm thinking that a peanut flavored sauce (well, soy nut!) should be ok as it's mostly the flavor I'm after.

Anyone have any idea what seeds would have a nutty flavor? I know quinoa is a grain with a nutty flavor, but I don't really use seeds.

[faceless]

Aren't nuts just seeds? Or is there some difference?

[Skylace]

[eefanincan]

Interesting!

[faceless]

I tried Quorn for the first time tonight. It was in sausage form and tasted fine. The texture was surprisingly good and chewable.

[SpursFan1902]

What is quorn....other than a great scrabble word...

[faceless]

It's some kind of manufactured fungus that they make into a meat substitute. That sounds pretty foul, but it's not bad at all

[SpursFan1902]

You are right....it sounds foul!