Currently Eating

[Rusto 0]

Tonight I'm gonna make some kind of pasta thing with mince, herbs, veg, garlic, tinned tomatoes and pasta, with chips on the side.

 

NOM

[Rusto 0]

Eating it now, and its AWESOME. A few other odd ingredients went in as well, I wont say what cause you'll think it sounds wierd, but believe me it worked! Along side is an ice cold kronenburg 1664, mmm blissss =)

[gogoblender 3,070]

lol

what's not good with an ice cold kronenburg

props

 

 

gogo

[Bondbug 32]

- and a bottle of Real Ale (English from Harveys of Lewes)

 

I forgot to mention that the Real Ale is at least 11 years old ... for more on this subject see here

[Rusto 0]

Must be different when in bottles to standard keg, as normally its still alive and fermenting lol, so if its not drunk it will go off.

[Bondbug 32]

True. Standard pub storage in kegs can be a problem. Keg Mild went off the market probably because it keeps for a shorter period than 'Bitter' and was less popular. Odd that women would, given the chance, have preferred it to Bitter, but it was the lager (not a Real Ale) being brought into British pubs for the women that pushed out the Mild. Mild served in the now standard gas pumps would have been pretty nasty.

 

On another subject, we had stew and dumplings today. I am sure other people have things similar to our suet dumplings which I think of as typically north of England fare.

 

What was pleasing was that the boss woman was pleased that the dumplings were noticeably much better than if made with commercial packet "shredded suet", and that she has at last found a satisfactory method for producing good suet.

 

Dumplings are basically balls about 2" diameter of a mix of flour and suet dropped into the stew 15-20 mins before the stew is ready.

 

I have said so often that in France they do not condescend to use the dry fat wrapped round beef kidneys except to wrap it round beef joints to stop them from going dry in the roasting. So we get it free and the butchers cannot understand what possible use it can be. Viv has tried various ways of preparing it, all successful but none entirely satisfactory to her.

 

Last lot we got was so copious that we split it into smaller lots and stuck them in the freezer. She now finds that if she takes it out of the freezer and mixes it with the flour while still frozen, then shreds it in the mixer it works out perfect.

 

Probably only of interest to expat-Brits living in France. However I offer the info for what it is worth.

Edited May 13, 2010 by Bondbug

[Rusto 0]

Currently eating:

 

[Bondbug 32]

You still alive there Rusto?

[Rusto 0]

*nom nom nom*

 

 

Man the sugarz, they give me NRG

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry, I'm maybe a little bit drunk too, and I hate the whole 4chan thing, so the picture is unforgiveble. (but still kinda funny)

[Bondbug 32]

Good to see you havin fun - with that face on your avatar I had begun to wonder

[Rusto 0]

Is that better?

[Bondbug 32]

Less terrifying

 

But I bet he has some nasty sneaky spells up his sleeve.

[chattius 2,526]

Wetzsteinklöße

 

Whetstone dumplings. Selfmade Damplings from one half raw potatoes and one half Pellkartoffeln. Pellkartoffel are potatoes cooked with skin on. After cooking the skin is peeled off (pellen-Pellkartoffel). Then all the raw potatoes are grated and mixed with the cooked ones and pressed through a sieve.

Wrap the mass in a piece of linnen, put it in a spin dryer to remove some water. Add an egg a bit flour and form damplings which look like whetstones and not like a ball. The raw grated potatoes will turn gray so the colour fits for a whetstone. Cook them in salt water.

 

Cut some bacon into little cubes, put them in a pan, till half of the fat is out, Add some cut onions and wait till they and the bacon are cross, bacon containing nearly no fat anymore (Grieben).

 

Pour the oil , Grieben and onions over the dumblings.

 

You can of cause buy dampling half and half, but they remain white

Edited May 14, 2010 by chattius

[Bondbug 32]

One little question Chattius. Why cook the potatoes in their skin then peel it off, instead of peeling first?

(I ask as someone who never peels his potatoes, even for mash. It seems purely aesthetic.)

 

And I don't understand the "whetstone" shape. It sounds a bit like what I call "patties" (the Wiki link is too American for my taste ) or in the case of fish .. "cakes", that is flat and disk shaped ?

 

And our "dumplings" are dropped into the stew (not wrapped) when it is nearly cooked. Not quite the same. Though I have seen "dumplings" much larger, made of a variety of ingredients, wrapped in a cloth and cooked in the stew. The Scots would call this "cloutie", a cloth being a "clout".

 

These potato dumplings are very 'Irish' too.

 

I find "dumplings" have a wide range of variations world-wide. You have to look for British examples to find my north of England dumplings in the Wiki notes here.

Edited May 14, 2010 by Bondbug

[chattius 2,526]

The whetstones used for scythes look like this.

 

After decades of use they are more rounded. Just form a ball and roll it 3-4time between your hands.Then you have approximeatly the shape of a whetstone.

 

The linnen is only to take some water out of the mass with a dryer.The mass is then formed like whetstones and put in boiling salt water.

 

The taste of a potatoe is normally near the skin. If you cook the whole potatoes skin on it looses less taste and its better cuttable for example potatoe salad.

 

Fresh potatoes can be eaten with the skin on. But this time of the year the potatoes in our cellar have a skin which isn't nice to look anymore. Harvested nearly 9 month ago.

[Bondbug 32]

Yep. That is precisely what I understand by whetstone - I couldn't quite see how it applied here, but now I understand.

 

Looks like a shape that would break easily if not carefully handled.

[gogoblender 3,070]

heh, here it is...my FAVORITE desert of all time:

 

http://instantdosamix.com/appam-the-south-indian-dessert/

 

it's made from Jaggery... treacle? for a long time not even available here. My relatives make it as a kind of pudding... so rare so delicious.

 

 

gogo

[Bondbug 32]

Yep, we know them. Will get on to it right away. Stick them in the post Monday, or Tuesday if the Post Office is closed Monday. I see it has coconut included, in which case the wife might eat half of them. Get a hammer ready to break them when they arrive. Dunking might do the trick.

 

Wonder what we will have to put on the Custom's declaration - in French - .............

 

Perhaps, on second thoughts, some good samaritan Quebecois could deal with this for us?

 

Didn't know you were into these "Healthy Recipes" Gogo!

 

Don't think Jaggery can be treacle. If your treacle is the same as our treacle and syrup, 'grating' it could be a problem

Edited May 14, 2010 by Bondbug

[daemonrocks23 17]

Its the best!

Edited August 31, 2010 by daemonrocks23

[Lord of the North 10]

Its the best!

No high fructose corn syrup in these drinks, and only available for a short time so I stock up on them.

[gogoblender 3,070]

that's so cool! I didn't think there'd be such a big difference.

 

Is there?

 

 

gogo