what are you cooking for dinner tonight, recipe and all?

[lynsosaurus]

Just like small asteroids, all my sauces are a little meatier.

hehehehe!

[tompony]

The sauce was very good! The sherry vinegar definitely gave it an edge that my previous sauces had been lacking, although the fact that I remembered to put some sugar in this time (I ALWAYS forget!) may have also contributed. Not convinced by the "don't mix onion and garlic" thing though. I missed having nice red oniony chunks.

[lynsosaurus]

i adhere rather strictly to the 'no onions and garlic together' rule and it has generally served me well. in fact, i would pretty much dispense with onions in tomato pasta sauce. the best ones i've made have been garlic only and have dispensed with the idea of chunky veg entirely. i remember once i strained the tomatoes through a sieve, crushed the garlic really finely and cooked it for ages and it was bloody magic.

sorry, this post helps nobody.

[skywriting]

This evening I ate the yummiest food. It's an Italian dish: Pork with Mushrooms and Rosemary (sorry veggies, there's really no way of making this without meat). It takes all of five minutes to cook and is so delicious.

Ingredients (per serving):

- 150g pork steak
- 100g chestnut mushrooms (quartered)
- 1 sprig rosemary (chopped)
- 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
- juice of half an orange
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- salt to taste
- 1 tbsp olive oil

Heat the oil in a hot frying pan and place the pork steak in for 2 minutes until it is nicely browned on one side and flip it over.

Immediately, throw in the mushrooms and rosemary and cook for two more minutes.

Add the chilli flakes, orange juice, red wine vinegar and salt to taste cover and cook for a final 2 minutes.

Serve with a green vegetable (tonight was steamed broccoli)

Eat.

Smile.

[roundbitsofplastic]

Today I was a right dick and left my lunch at home, so I'll be having that for my dinner. It was leftover from last night. It was this..

Pasata
yellow pepper
garlic
salt & pepper
chickpeas
marjoram
tiny bit of chilli

with wholewheat spaghetti & sliced veggie sausage (asda somix!). And a banoffee cereal bar. Bah.

(For my lunch I got a Boots meal deal thingy. Bugsy Sandwich (Averagely bland), Innocent pomegranate, blueberry & acai smoothie (tasty), wasabi peas (far superior to crisps).)

[humblebee]

Do you know, I just can't get on with yellow peppers.

[a layer of chips]

RACIST.

[stolenwine]

i just can't get on with peppers, full stop. unless they're from el burrito near goodge street.

[islandhopper]

I tend to throw peppers in everything. Because it's easy. And because my crappy local sainsburys only sells them in sets of three.

[roundbitsofplastic]

Do you know, I just can't get on with yellow peppers.

Green are my least favourite - when cooked at least, raw's fine -they taste werid (except stir-fried).

[stolenwine]

i think i can handle all colours raw, as long as there is a dip as an accompaniment. but cooked, most of the time, they just turn really gross. unless you saute or roast them or do whatever el burrito people do. maybe it's all in the seasoning?

[Colin]

I've been cooking a bit more recently and I'm looking forward to having a go at this hot and sour mushroom, cabbage and rice soup:

[stolenwine]

actually, i just remembered my mom used to fry up some onions and diced green peppers and add them to our kraft dinner (or boxed macaroni and fake cheese, for those not familiar with this canadian/american/scottish culinary delight). that was good, from what i remember.

but yeah, mostly peppers are bad. celery on the other hand: delicious in all formats. and still adds that satisfying crunch.

[stolenwine]

OH MY GOD. that looks amazing. damn, i haven't had lunch yet. why do i always go on food threads/blogs/watch food shows when i'm hungry? it never helps.

I've been cooking a bit more recently and I'm looking forward to having a go at this hot and sour mushroom, cabbage and rice soup:

[Colin]

It does look great, doesn't it?

This spinach, aubergine and chickpea curry is what I made last night. I more or less stuck to the recipe except I did it without the spinach (Mrs Colin doesn’t like leafy greens) and added a bit of water along with the tomatoes because it was looking a bit dry. Four tablespoons of oil is a hell of a lot too so you might want to put in less.

It was pretty good overall, although I prefer my curries a bit hotter.

Ingredients
• 1kg/2¼lb fresh spinach
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 2 medium red onions, chopped
• 200g/7oz tinned chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 fresh hot green chillies, halved and thinly sliced, seeds included
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds, ground
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds
• 1 large aubergine, approx. 400g/14oz,cut into 2cm (3/4in) dice
• 400g/14oz tinned chopped tomatoes
• salt

1. Cook the spinach in boiling water for two minutes, then cool it under cold running water and squeeze gently to remove most of the liquid. Place in a food processor and chop the spinach to a coarse purée.
2. Heat half the olive oil in a large pan and cook the onion, chickpeas, garlic, chilli and spices for five minutes over a medium heat.
3. Add the remaining olive oil and the aubergine. Cook for ten minutes, stirring often, until the aubergine is coloured.
4. Add the tomatoes and a pinch of salt, then cover the pan, lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes until the aubergine is soft. Stir in the spinach purée and serve.

[roundbitsofplastic]

I've been cooking a bit more recently and I'm looking forward to having a go at this hot and sour mushroom, cabbage and rice soup:

That looks really nice, but it's precisely the sort of thing I will never cook. I don;t even know what a crimini mushroom looks like (other than like a mushroom).

[crystalball]

I've been cooking a bit more recently and I'm looking forward to having a go at this hot and sour mushroom, cabbage and rice soup:

That looks really nice, but it's precisely the sort of thing I will never cook. I don;t even know what a crimini mushroom looks like (other than like a mushroom).

I bet you can use any type of mushroom though. I love the sound of that soup too, although first I'd need to get over my childhood association of rice soups with illness.

[Colin]

I've been cooking a bit more recently and I'm looking forward to having a go at this hot and sour mushroom, cabbage and rice soup:

That looks really nice, but it's precisely the sort of thing I will never cook. I don;t even know what a crimini mushroom looks like (other than like a mushroom).

From what I can tell from looking at google, cremini mushrooms are just the normal mushrooms you can buy loose here. I don't think they're anything fancy, just a fancy name!

I had to look them up after getting a cookbook called Appetite for Reduction, which is pretty good but calls for a lot of fussy ingredients that I can't easily get.

Sometimes what sounds like an exotic ingredient is just something you know by another name though, as with the mushrooms. It's baffling to me how America, a country that has been mostly English-speaking for hundreds of years, can have so many names for food that differ from the ones we use.

[roundbitsofplastic]

Isa Chandra Moskovitz does it again!

Thos mushrooms look darker than the cheapo ones I usually buy.. Are they called Chestnut mushrooms or something over here? I only buy brown mushrooms when they're on offer/I'm feeling flash.

I found a list on wikipedia of US/UK/Australian names for different foodstuffs. I read the whole thing because I am a big loserface. I can;t find the list now, though :-/

[humblebee]

I'm making spinach cannelloni tonight. It's a bit of an old favourite in our house.

The filling is, um, spinach, with whatever else you fancy - today's has got garlic, mushrooms, cheddar and a bit of Quorn mince with it. There's gonna be like a thick tomatoey sauce under the cannelloni as it bakes, and a creamy sauce on top with mozzarella.

Garlic bread, and a bit of lettuce to pretend it's healthy, and bingo. Happiness.