General Chat

Oh, you knew the King did you, Rollo? Knew what he was like?
Or is it mere conjecture?
Same as your obvious opinion of my late father in law's cooking, and assumption that he 'would not have had much to do'.
Tasted his cooking, have you, to form such a grudging conclusion!!!

Well working for a boring self absorbed guy who never wanted to be king but just an obscure naval officer with snorkers for tea on Saturdays then he would not have had much to do.

On the other hand his father was quite fond of Paris ... so much so they named some of it after him :-)

http://goo.gl/Obx3zB

btw if you ever have to go to that large house nr Grosvenor Gardens make sure you are not very hungry and if it is winter dress warmly. You'll be ok for plain cooking though not much of it.

According to my late father in law, who was for many years, personal chef to King George VI, the King's favourite meal was roast lamb followed by rice pudding :-D

It was the first meal he cooked for me - and I have to admit, I've not tasted better.

The King also hated attending banquets.

We're having bangers 'n' mash too, later! There's an advert around where a bloke pours 'gravy' on his sausage and mash and it looks like brown water. Inspired me to make THICK onion gravy - caramelise the onions a little in olive oil, add flour to make a roux, then add stock and seasoning.

My late father in law was for many years chief sommelier ( wines ) at this little place in Paris. If you are not in a hurry excellent place for a meal but def. only one star for plain cooking.

http://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-giant-snail-at-l-escargot-montorgueil-restaurant-sign-at-rue-montorgueil-24978870.html

Just had Bangers Mash n Onions!!

oxo n cornflour to thicken the gravy a little....n a dash of lea n perrin

My daughter is moving tomorrow so we went to help pack over the weekend.
I packed four boxes, each about a foot square of spice jars, bottles of sauces, herbs and other stuff / potions even Harry Potter would have trouble identifying! :-D :-D

My mother was a lovely cook and her pastry was wonderful.
I had lots of veg from the garden with our meagre ration of meat especially during the war.loads of salads etc as well.
My father loved his food but frowned on my mum and me as we had brown sauce occasionally ...he said it was made from bad fruit!...and there was something wrong with our taste buds if we needed it!
What he would have made of today's food I shudder to think!
I went to Paris in 1951 with school and couldn't eat a lot of the food because of the garlic...these days I love it....tastes do change!

I love garlic and onions and don't mind fresh herbs.

Spices are a different matter and I have recently become very sensitive to cinnamon, which I now find quite unpleasant and I don't know why. As for chilli, well I can't see what the point of it is, it just overpowers the subtle flavour of other things but it is creeping in to our food more and more.

Garlic is the devils food.-vile smelly stuff........yuk.so eating out is limited as it seems no one is able to cook without it,,,,,,,,,,or peppers and other horrible tasting things.

I know all my veg is fresh as I fetch it from the allotment 10 mins away. :-)

The only herb I use is mint as a homemade sauce or in early fresh dug new potatoes.

Gravy browning comes in bottles and places like Morrisons sell it,along with other places I imagin.......

We dont eat anything that been doctored with flavours of other stuffs..

There’s nothing wrong with Plain Cooking – you’re more likely to savour the true flavours of the dish if it’s unadorned with garlic, herbs or spices. Once you get used to meals that have those additions, you lose the ability to identify the subtle, natural flavours.

My bête-noir is anything from the Chilli/Peppers family. Include that and you may as well have fed me a Scotch Bonnet. Carrying that forward, there are a similar number of people sensitive to other bulbs, herbs and spices.

Added - we use a lot of garlic, tomatoes, onions and home-grown herbs in our cooking.

I count garlic as an everyday ingredient.

The point I was really making I suppose is that even the best cooks need a few basics in the cupboard in order to produce a good meal. "Plain" or "Fancy" doesn't really matter, there's a place for both, but a good dish should be made from fresh ingredients, sourced locally if possible, and done enough but not overcooked.

I am glad you enjoy living in Holloway, Rollo, but even we country bumpkins can eat well out in the sticks. Fwiw, the worst, most inedible meal I have had in my life was in France (though, tbh, so was one of the best).
:-D

A few years back a German friend that I hadn't seen for around 10 years was in the UK for just 2 days, so we met up in London and the first thing she said was "Where can I get chips like the ones your mother used to make for me?"

my "little" brother often emails me, asking for recipes "like mum used to make".

I was just looking at his FB page and saw his latest post.....

https://shop.abc.net.au/products/way-mum-made-it-pbk?WT.mc_id=Commercial_Shop-ShopOnline|TheWayMumMadeItBook_FBP|over60


I look for recipes on the internet.... but there are few like "mother used to make".

I won't be buying the book, I still have my school cookbook from the early 60s!

:-D

We usually have a roast on Saturday for dinner (evening)........quite often a leg of lamb, with rosemary and GARLIC. :-D If I do roast beef, the roast potatoes usually are cooked with a couple of cloves of GARLIC.

During the week, we may have pasta with a sauce......... sometimes seafood, sometimes meat........ but most times with GARLIC :-D Stir-Fry at least once a week, lots of veggies.. and GARLIC.

These are often accompanied by GARLIC bread (made at home, not shop rubbish).


and........ I use real GARLIC, not that awful rubbish in a jar :-P

and......... I grow my own rosemary, oregano, basil & parsley!

Yuk every time the Eurostar comes out of the tunnel I get this sinking feeling at the culinary disasters to come ... Thank goodness I live in Holloway.

Ou est le garlic (Len Deighton 1974)

God so loved the English that he saw that they were sorely troubled and the lair of the biscuit dragon was in Carlisle so he sent a flood. He soon found out that there is no pleasing them and they delight in their fatness and tea. Armagnac

People after my own heart. Tonight was chicken with broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and New Potatoes. Steak or chicken and mushroom pie, stew and a roast every Sunday. We have to make homemade soups too. Usually chicken, lentil or Scotch broth.

My granddad didn't like any of that foreign muck as he called it so my mum always made "plain" food whenever he was around.

My DH loves lamb shanks.

That was an economical meal, until the yuppies found them!

I was often asked at the checkout...... "is this dog food" :-0.....

30 years ago you wouldn't find shanks on a restaurant menu, now they're everywhere...... you get ONE shank and a couple of scrapes of a veg.

I don't like going to "posh" places where little bits of food are arranged on a huge white plate.......... I want to be fed!

A woman after my own heart Vera :-D

I really can't be doing with all this 'fancy' food which wouldn't feed a flea. And as for all that dribbling sauces and coulis or whatever they are all around the plate, what a waste of time....makes the plate look as though it needs a good wash. :-|

The grandchildren enjoy my stews.......made in the pressure cooker :-D

I grew up until I was six in the fifties with a grandmother who was a brilliant cook. Having been a vege since the seventies, I have spent a lot of time working out how to replicate the dishes I missed.

Quorn is a godsend, it provides the substance without the suffering and exploitation and I can make a very good shepherd's pie but have also made pretty fair rasher roly-poly using vegetable suet. I don't do this very often because the palm oil plantations are not doing the wild orang-utans any favours but have also made the odd imitation of a steak and mushroom pudding as well as pies.

Custard too, got to have custard, and blancmange. Do people still eat them now, never mind make them?

Quick and easy chicken pie: Some leftover cooked chicken, diced, put in a pie dish with a tin of Campbell's condensed chicken soup, (don't water it down), Cover with ready made pastry and bake for about 40 minutes. If you wish, put a few button mushrooms in the microwave for a minute or so and add to the mixture before cooking.