What are you eating today?

[Stokey Sue]

Why people crave sugar post-alcohol, I don't know; physiologists, or a specialist in the field might know, there are complex hormonal and metabolic pathways involved in the processing of alcohol and in adjusting after its consumption

The calories are simpler - alcohol itself is a source of calories - ever set light to a spirit lamp or the meths burner on an old fondue set? If you can burn it in air, you may well be able to "burn" it (oxidise it with the release of energy) in your body, and other components of the drink may provide calories - in beer particularly there are carbs that are not sugar, from the malted grain.

We used to think you couldn't use the calories from alcohol in your body, but it seems that's no longer believed, You possibly don't use them very efficiently.

And of course if you drink alcopops and pre-made cocktails (much the same) which are incredibly sugary as well as alcoholic, you end up with the bigger girls from TOWIE; WKD is about 9% carbs, mostly sugar, so maybe that's where the idea that drinking alcohol will supply sugar comes from

[WWordsworth]

Just had a fabulous seafood rice with saffron, fennel seeds, celery, onion, squid, mussels and prawns.
Cooked by J.

I usually do that sort of dish but I'm happy to be sommelier and plongeur.

[WWordsworth]

I cooked this tonight
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/chi ... rd-lentils

I used a preserved lemon rather than fresh because that's what I had.
It looked like a dog's dinner but tasted really good.

I served it with a mixed salad but I think a vegetable would have been a better match.

[KeenCook]

I am making an Ottolenghi salad from Simple (not that any of the recipes actually are ...)

It called for roasted, salted almonds, so I found this recipe on the web. https://nordicfoodliving.com/salted-almonds/

However, the salt never actually dissolved in the water

Any idea why?

It has never, ever happened to me before although I've never made salted, roasted almonds before ...

[Earthmaiden]

How strange. Did you use fine table salt or granular/flaked?

[Earthmaiden]

I was in Sainsbuys yesterday and they had fresh tuna at a considerably reduced price if bought in conjunction with a Nectar card. I absolutely adore tuna but it has become too expensive to justify in recent times so I bought two packs. Just had some seared with lots of lemon and a lovely salad, plus a few frozen chips. Oh my, it was good. Not entirely sure it is currently a sustainable fish but it was a real treat all the same.

[WWordsworth]

I marinated a couple of chicken portions in a mixture of harissa, yoghurt and preserved lemon then roasted them.
They were shredded and served with sauté potatoes and salad.

Really tasty.

[KeenCook]

It was table salt, EM. Salad tasted v good, even though I didn't have any coriander (used parsley instead) and my garden mint is quite delicate

ETA, found a link: https://www.yetanotherguru.com/2021/12/ ... o-and.html

[Earthmaiden]

Looks nice.
Mystery re the salt. You don't often see recipes using decilitres, do you? 2 dl would be 2/10 (1/5) of a litre and there were 4 tblesp salt and hot water. That's quite a lot of salt to the ratio of water, perhaps it didn't stay hot enough to dissolve.

[Stokey Sue]

I think that recipe is odd - I have never seen a salted almond recipe that involved any water at all, Eliza Beth David’s recipe which I have used is basically to toast or bake the almonds, mix with salt, and leave a short time, keeping them as dry as possible

This is it
http://acravan.blogspot.com/2010/12/sal ... vored.html

I had tuna steak and salad too, but it was a sort of salade Niçoise made with a seared frozen tuna steak and some Jersey Royals and green beans cooked last night when I had lamb chops and veg.

[Earthmaiden]

Agree re the almonds, Sue. Assumed it was to soften them slightly as almonds can be quite hard.

[Stokey Sue]

If the recipe did work I think 200ml of a strong salt solution would coat them in a sort of shell of salt, a bit like sugared almonds! Very odd.

I wouldn’t want a soft salted almond, if properly toasted I find them more crisp than hard.

[KeenCook]

https://vidarbergum.com/recipe/simple-r ... d-almonds/

What attracted me to these recipes was that they didn't use oil.

The almonds were crunchy and tasty, btw.

Meant to say that I must give the Eliz David recipe a try, as well.

[herbidacious]

I wanted a simple light dinner, so I just had Jersey Royals with some sea salt crystal French butter, and some steamed broccolini with a smoked cheese, rosemary honey mustard and creme fraiche (with a dash of milk) sauce.

[Sloe-Gin]

I can thoroughly recommend this
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chi ... lack-limes
Made it for family and we all loved it

[Stokey Sue]

Yesterday I had M&S all butter cook-from-frozen mini viennoiserie for breakfast (no time on Sunday) I used to buy the Waitrose (Picard) croissants that seem to have vanished. You get 3x pain au chocolate, 3x pain au raisins and 3x croissants but somehow I got an extra croissant. Cooked 18 minutes at 200°C in the combi oven, which worked well, all were nice, excellent texture especially the pain au chocolat, but they didn’t have that lovely buttery aroma and flavour, and I note they are 20 to 24% butter, which is on the low side (I think my homemade were 40%). Will buy the full size croissants sometime to keep in the freezer.

I made the Tom Kerridge chicken tagine traybake last night, or a version thereof, I used thighs not breast which was planned, as was using ras-el-hanout in place of baharat, then discovered I’d forgotten to get courgettes, so subbed them with carrots, then found my sweet potato was a white one not an orange one, but it still worked well, I was sceptical about adding that amount of liquid but something to remember.
Learning point: Waitrose ras-el-hanout (it’s curry powder) the Suma version (mild sweet, kofte spice)

[Pepper Pig]

Are the Picard pastries now in M&S Sue? I ask because Ocado have done them for some time.

[Stokey Sue]

I don’t know if these are actually Picard or not, I know Ocado have a Picard section but I don’t currently use Ocado. All it says on the pack is Made in France for M&S

The Picard ones say they are made from DOP Charentes butter, which M&S don’t claim, same 24%, maybe the butter scent will be more noticeable for the full size ones which take longer to cook.

Certainly recommend, and pleased they worked so well in the little oven so I don’t need to heat the big one.

[scullion]

starter of the first globe artichokes of the season, from the allotment, followed by mushroom omelet with asparagus and jersey royals.

[herbidacious]

I made (sort of) Anna Jones' lemony chickpeas and halloumi.
Some tweaks. Chipotle flakes instead of turkish chilli flakes. I didn't use turmeric as I wasn't sure that the unlabelled jar of yellow stuff was turmeric - although pretty sure it was. Didn't fancy it anyway. I added some smoked garlic and smoked paprika. I had broccolini which I steamed, rather than fried greens.
The halloumi was fried in smoked rapeseed oil.
I used bottled chickpeas as suggested. Much nicer than canned but the saltiness seemed to disappear on heating.