h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

bake a carrot cake and use it to sandwich the layers (or make little buns and make them into butterfly cakes using it)

What are borlotti beans?

I've decided to make dumplings for the stew today and not add any more veg to it (will have some veg or a salad on the side instead) but all the recipes I've found for dumplings call for self-raising flour, which I'm not sure I'll be able to find on a Sunday...

RF, doing the Moroccan thing with honey and spices is a great suggestion - if I can't find any flour I think I'll do that.


az

My spag bol that I cooked for 2 or 3 hours yesterday and kept overnight in the 'fridge tastes absoluely gorgeous. I'm cooking it for another couple of hours or so today, a la Heston, on a very very low heat. The addition of milk seems to have made all the difference in bringing all the flavours together and enhancing them. I'm sold on adding milk now to all future spag bols.

az, you can add baking powder to plain flour for dumplings

Effers: good to hear it about the bol. I couldn't get to add milk to the one he made yesterday, but it tastes gorgeous and we're not eating it until tomorrow so I'm expecting it to get even better.

Hmmm... my baking powder tin says 'best before June 2004' on it. Might also be hard to find that at the only supermarket open on Sundays. Maybe they'll sell me some at the breakfast bar (they also do baking there).

Agree that spag bol is much better after a couple of days in the fridge.

az

speaking of food snobbery: I'll be making mayonnaise today because I want to make some salad sandwiches.

We've been here before you and I, haven't we, Sho? You know, I still haven't been able to make decent mayo from scratch. But I make a fabulous caesar salad dressing, which is basically the same procedure, so I can't figure that out.

Orcus told me the other day that he's started making his own alioli. Mmmm... garlic!


az

Yes I've made alioli too. But homemade mayonaise that's too scary for me.

It was dead easy blend a couple of cloves of garlic and the yolk of a couple of eggs (plus a bit of chilli in the one I did) then as you blend pour in, slowly, about 250 mL each of Olive oil and Lemon Juice (or white wine vinegar). As you blend it just turns into Mayo. One of the easiest things I've ever made. It must have been pain in the butt before the electric blender though

Oh, sorry, you've made it before. Why scary then?

ok, but I make a bastardised version of mayonnaise because I hate to waste the egg-whites... I use a whole egg.

And yes, az, I remember we've discussed it before: that's why I think of you EVERY time I make it. Which is about every other week.

We're eating a Chicken-Korma-Stylee dish (made up by ) today, so he's going to make some nan (or is it naan?) bread too.

Just make a meringue for pudding

Sorry Orcus I got confused with rouille, not aoli

alioli

I don't do puddings, generally, hence not wanting left-over eggwhites

however, I've just been in the kitchen to discover... we're having my favourite food in the universe today: Crème Brulée

Success!

The 24-hour place had normal flour *and* baking powder, so it's going to be dumplings. I'm reckoning I can use a bit of finely chopped spring onion in place of chives?

az

Going a bit mental on the dumpling front. Help?

The recipes themselves seem pretty standard - in general it's just flour, baking powder, butter and water (or milk) with parsley or chives added. But I've seen two cooking options - either bake on baking tray in oven first before adding to stew, or cook directly in the stew. And Delia has a third option - one recipe for 'crusted dumplings' that is a combination of both methods - "When the stew is ready, remove the lid, place the dumplings all over the surface, then transfer the casserole to the highest shelf of the oven (without a lid) and leave it there for 30 minutes or until the dumplings are golden brown and crusty."

I'm all agog. Whodda thunk making dumplings would be so complicated? Though those crusty ones sound rather nice...


az

I would definitely bake them first. Dumplings aren't dumplings without crispy bits.

B

I agree, but I think I'll try the Delia method, which seems like the best of both dumpling worlds. Crunchy on top, soft underneath...


az