Food and Drink

    I had a lovely salad lunch this gorgeous sunny day: grated carrot, toasted mixed seeds, chopped cucumber, diced red onion, quartered medium-boiled egg, slow-roasted tomato, torn dry back olives, olive oil/lemon juice dressing, a few teaspoons of Mrs B's beetroot hummus dotted around. Normally I can't stand beetroot but it's not too overpowering in this.

    Abandon all reason

    Like 1

    Fiery, molten vindaloo night. So looking forward to it. And I've just discovered beer from some German brewery that is phenomenal. First time I've tried a new beer (new to me; the beer has been made since the 14th century apparently) that I've thought was really delicious. The brewery is called Schlenkerla, they're in Bavaria. I had a lager and a rauchbier. Might be some new favorites.

    A nice lunch today: orzo cooked and allowed to cool, mixed with finely chopped red onion, sundried tomato, torn dry back olives, feta, diced gherkin, lemon juice and zest, olive oil, balsamic vinegar. Very easy to make and very tasty.

    Abandon all reason

    Like 1

    Thursday night - cooking time: cauliflower ragu pasta.


    Very easy to make: essentially, follow the same procedure as to a traditional ragu but grind the cauliflower and use it instead of ground beef. Lighter alternative but still very tasty. Added some cumin, ginger, all spice and a little ground chili to give it a bit of a twist.


    Paired it with a lovely dry riesling.


    Successful night.

    A comment seen on twitter: at a certain age, you will have had the best sandwich of your life. Every sandwich after that will be a futile attempt to recapture that fleeting bliss.


    One reply reckoned this was essentially something Kierkegaard postulated about it being one of the deepest flaws of the human condition (he was a cheery soul).


    If it's true, mine would probably be on a lovely sunny day in 2000, sat on rocks in Cadgwith Bay in Cornwall, water gently lapping, while I ate a sandwich of (locally caught that morning) rich fresh crab meat between two slices of cheap sliced supermarket bread.


    But even then, I've had very nice sandwiches since.

    Abandon all reason

    Like 1

    ...and speaking of sandwiches I just made a delicious one for lunch: a softie (scottish white roll with slightly sweet taste) filled with salt beef, cream cheese, sauerkraut and english mustard. Man it was goooooooood.

    Abandon all reason

    Like 1
    Quote from panopticom

    homemade wild garlic pesto

    What else do you put in?


    We have a footpath near us, following an old railway line. Parts of it are lined with wild garlic plants. I did some cooking using the leaves which were delicious but I realised it was making me feel ill so I stopped using them, sadly. I do love wild garlic bulbs (I have no problem with those).


    Today for lunch I repeated my salt beef sandwich as above but with the addition of sliced gherkin and I tossed the beef slices in the mustard sweetened with a little agave syrup.

    Abandon all reason

    Quote from Backdrifter

    What else do you put in?


    We have a footpath near us, following an old railway line. Parts of it are lined with wild garlic plants. I did some cooking using the leaves which were delicious but I realised it was making me feel ill so I stopped using them, sadly. I do love wild garlic bulbs (I have no problem with those).

    Pine nuts, salt (I use coarse salt,) olive oil, lemon, and some pecorino (slightly stronger than parmigiano so it fits better, imho.)


    I am lucky enough to have bits of forest at a walking distance from my house, so every year during this season you can find a lot of wild garlic around. I do wash the leaves a lot because I had similar experiences.

    Quote from Bluedemon25

    Speaking of forest I found a nearby one has lots of spruce. I want to try using spruce tips in stuff when they're in season.

    Interesting, I'd never thought of them as a foodstuff but having just looked it up I see they can be used in a range of ways. What would you do with them?

    Abandon all reason

    Like 1

    I'd like to try adapting for my dietary needs some of these recipes:


    Spruce Tips Archives
    Recipes and techniques for cooking with spruce tips and other coniferous ingredients like pollen, pine tips, pine cones, and more.
    foragerchef.com


    Maybe use lactose free low/no fat milk for dairy desserts. Not the same but at least I could eat it and it's probably still taste good to me.


    I'm really interested in the Panna cotta one for example

    Quote from Dr. John

    Spruce tips are lovely for tea (same with cedar).


    We also buy them pickled and they go great with smoked salmon and other smoked seafood.

    Can't help but think of smoked salmon most frequently as what I like on bagels. I wonder if since you say that combination works well the spruce tips would go well on a bagel. Sounds at least interesting. By any chance have you tried such a combination?

    Quote from thewatcher

    Fiery, molten vindaloo night. So looking forward to it. And I've just discovered beer from some German brewery that is phenomenal. First time I've tried a new beer (new to me; the beer has been made since the 14th century apparently) that I've thought was really delicious. The brewery is called Schlenkerla, they're in Bavaria. I had a lager and a rauchbier. Might be some new favorites.

    I really like their Marzen. Smoky Bacon beer.

    Quote from Bluedemon25

    Can't help but think of smoked salmon most frequently as what I like on bagels. I wonder if since you say that combination works well the spruce tips would go well on a bagel. Sounds at least interesting. By any chance have you tried such a combination?

    Yes, we basically use them in place of capers for smoked salmon on cream cheese and bagels. In Toronto, Canada, there is a company called Forbes Wild Foods that sells pickled spruce tips. The also sell various other pickled wild vegetables that go well with smoked salmon.