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

I've been meaning to make a lasagna one of these days. Now I have even more motivation to do so.

Nah. Lasagne. Plural. Unless you intend to make a single sheet of pasta...

>Unless you intend to make a single sheet of pasta...<



Maybe I will do just that. One large noodly sheet, smothered in cheese and marinara sauce. It'd be easier.

Seriously, though, I've been apprehensive about making lasagne before, thinking it would be "too much work". I felt the same way about quiche, though, and quiche wasn't too hard.

Just had quiche for lunch and cottage cheese, pickled silverskins, beetroot and fresh carrots and some yummy roasted garlic dip..

mmm..

Off to work now...*sigh*

Thanks for the quiche recipes Ed, will check them out as soon as I can abuse my employers internet access at work in the next hour or so!

I like the sound of the lentils one..what does roux mean exactly?

Butter melted with flour and stirred around so that the flour becomes slightly cooked. (Not to be confused with the Cajun definition of a roux in which the flour is actually browned in oil.)

Dare I suggest...if you've never made a white sauce before, you may want to substitute something from a packet or a jar. But make sure it has a little nutmeg in it. It's not difficult, though. The secret is to use a balloon whisk.

I've only made a roux once, and it was the Cajun style.

Goodness, this thread- and Edward's recipes- are making me hungry!!

Latest recipe: http://flamingpiecafe.blogspot.com/

mmmmm! I love pakora.

But I don't have a deep fryer.

Nor I. I used to use a wok. I've just inherited a non-stick karhai.

The deep fat fryer was a reference to an apocryphal correction in a Greenock newspaper:

'Mrs McNaughtie would like us to make a correction to a report we printed yesterday of a fire in her house. We said that the fire had been started by a chip pan. Mrs McNaughtie wishes us to make it clear that it was a deep fat fryer.'

'When you visit a house in Glasgow, they put on the chip pan. In Edinburgh they put on the gramophone.'

Hmmm, I've never deep-fried in the wok before. I'll have to give it a go! It's certainly deep enough- a big old iron wok. Excellent suggestion, and one I'm going to try. Mmmm. Pakoras.

Are chip pans electric fryers? Or just a really deep stock-pot type pan?

All working-class households in the UK - including the one I grew up in - own a chip pan. Usually it's a flimsy aluminium (US='Aluminum') pot, the same size but not the same quality as a stock pot and containing a mesh basket. http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0001GRI9E.02._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg
They are kept permanently filled with vegetable oil (or, as in my family, lard).

Chip pans are a common source of domestic fire. Much public education is devoted to preventing chip pan fires, with sensible advice such as 'Don't throw water on it'; 'Don't throw it outside' and 'Don't whirl it around your head while gibbering dementedly'.

A deep non-stick skillet would work for pakora also. The trick, buy the way, is not to let them stick to the bottom when you first throw them in. Stir with a slotted spoon.

Also...keep a tap running. Hold the spoon in your right hand (if right-handed) and put in the pakora with your left. Then you can quickly stir them before rinsing your left hand. Saves getting gunk on the tap (US=faucet).

And don't let any gram flour batter set overnight!

Oh...and the joke didn't work. A deep fat fryer is a middle-class chip pan.

Oh... duh! I didn't get it. It's most likely a British-American thing.

Thanks for the tips, especially the one about the tap. That will come in handy with other meals as well.

Made some veggie chili the other night, using the chili powder I found at the Indo-Paki grocery, instead of the stuff I usually get at the Mexican grocery on the corner. Unfortunately, I also used the same amount as I usually use of the other stuff. So, about six quarts of chili later and it's too ing spicy for human consumption.

Will have to make a second batch, much milder, and cut them together. And then try to fit it all in the freezer... we'll not be wanting for chili this winter.

Still waiting for the summery weather to end (it's supposed to be in the mid-90s for the next few days) so I can make some bread and soup! Come on, chilly evenings!!

I use Indo-Pak crushed chillis instead of powder. They look deceptively like the milder ones you get in shakers in pizza restaurants.

The season has definitely changed here. I've just bought my first pumpkin of the autumn (US = Fall). I'm planning an experiment tonight involving roasting slices of it and serving with papardrelle. I'll keep y'all posted via PieBlog.

As promised: http://flamingpiecafe.blogspot.com

And it was absolutely fabulous!! Thank you!