Food & Drink The Hangar Food Thread

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DERO said:
So does adding lemon juice/ lime juice as another example. What you are saying makes perfect sense.

That said, I am not actually sure where you draw the line. It is a bit grey. I think the point of a "raw food" diet is trying to eat fresh food as close to its natural state as possible. Less processed foods means less preservatives and other additives.
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I think staying true to an ethos is more relevant than avoiding specific foods, at the end of the day. If you're cutting out shop-bought processed and pre-packaged foods where despite labelling you can never be exactly sure what you're eating (i.e. loads of hidden sugars), power to you. If you're cutting out all heat-based processing as a rule without any solid foundation for doing it aside from "processing"... but you're totally fine with cold-processed pulp-free fruit juices (or dried fruit juice in a capsule?!) then you probably need your head read.
 
Lore said:
I think staying true to an ethos is more relevant than avoiding specific foods, at the end of the day. If you're cutting out shop-bought processed and pre-packaged foods where despite labelling you can never be exactly sure what you're eating (i.e. loads of hidden sugars), power to you. If you're cutting out all heat-based processing as a rule without any solid foundation for doing it aside from "processing"... but you're totally fine with cold-processed pulp-free fruit juices (or dried fruit juice in a capsule?!) then you probably need your head read.
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People will buy anything if you market it right.
 

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Have my own herb and veggie garden now, so here's a little recipe I knocked up the other day on the fly.

Salad:
1/2 a butternut pumpkin, diced
1/4 cup garlic crush olive oil
1/2 cup crumbled goats cheese
1 bag of spinach
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 a red onion, sliced thinly
Salt and pepper

Dressing:
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp sesame seeds

1. Place the pumpkin on a baking sheet and drizzle with garlic olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and roast in a 180 degree oven for 20 minutes.

2. Place the pine nuts in a hot, dry frying pan, and toast, tossing, until browned.

3. Literally just throw the rest together once the pumpkin and pine nuts have cooled down.

4. Mix all of the dressing ingredients together and toss through the salad.

Goes damn well with BBQ'd cajun ribs.

Ye.
 
Sometimes just very cold, crisp ice berg lettuce with your favourite salad dressing, mashed potatoes and a good steak is fantastic.
 
The Compromise.

This is a pasta salad that is both a cheat recipe and something of a compromise between the tastes of fussy kids and adults.

1. Boil your water and once rolling add a pack of spiral pasta along with a heaped teaspoon of salt (this is the only "additional" salt)
2. Finely chop a big handful of red capsicum and about half that of red onion. Put this in the bottom of your salad bowl.
3. When pasta is cooked, drain and then dump over the capsicum and onion. Give a good grind of pepper then stir together. The heat of the pasta will take the edge off the capsicum and onion.
4. While hot, dress with a combo of 2/3 thousand island dressing and 1/3 tomato sauce. Dress enough to cover everything, then leave to cool then fridge it until serving time.
5. At serving time the salad will be stodgy due to the hot pasta sucking all moisture out of the dressing. Simply dress again as per the 2/3 - 1/3 ratio until it is dressed to your liking.

Seriously, it is so simple and such a cheats recipe but I have taken it to so many bbqs etc and been either asked for the recipe or asked to bring the salad next time.
 
Pweter said:
The Compromise.

This is a pasta salad that is both a cheat recipe and something of a compromise between the tastes of fussy kids and adults.

1. Boil your water and once rolling add a pack of spiral pasta along with a heaped teaspoon of salt (this is the only "additional" salt)
2. Finely chop a big handful of red capsicum and about half that of red onion. Put this in the bottom of your salad bowl.
3. When pasta is cooked, drain and then dump over the capsicum and onion. Give a good grind of pepper then stir together. The heat of the pasta will take the edge off the capsicum and onion.
4. While hot, dress with a combo of 2/3 thousand island dressing and 1/3 tomato sauce. Dress enough to cover everything, then leave to cool then fridge it until serving time.
5. At serving time the salad will be stodgy due to the hot pasta sucking all moisture out of the dressing. Simply dress again as per the 2/3 - 1/3 ratio until it is dressed to your liking.

Seriously, it is so simple and such a cheats recipe but I have taken it to so many bbqs etc and been either asked for the recipe or asked to bring the salad next time.
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Sounds easy enough... and it's all stuff I have in the cupboard. Might give it a go one of these days :D
 
Pweter said:
I found it really hard to give measurements, it's a bish bash bosh type recipe but if you taste as you dress it's damn hard to screw up.
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Yeah that’s more my style than measuring everything :tearsofjoy: laziness>ocd
 
It does sound good except for the dressing. :p

I made this Jamie Oliver dish last night.
Squash_and_Spinach_Pasta_Rotolo_001.jpg


It's a pumpkin and spinach pasta rotolo. Didn't end up looking much like the picture but it was still pretty tasty. It really shits me when recipes aren't tested properly before being published though. The measurements seemed way out and there was one part where you have to put frozen spinach in with some onion you've been frying and cover for 10 minutes or until the water has evaporated.. uh the water isn't going to evaporate if it's covered?

Next one will look better and hopefully not take as long or produce as many dishes.
 
Beerfish said:
It does sound good except for the dressing. :p

I made this Jamie Oliver dish last night.
Squash_and_Spinach_Pasta_Rotolo_001.jpg


It's a pumpkin and spinach pasta rotolo. Didn't end up looking much like the picture but it was still pretty tasty. It really shits me when recipes aren't tested properly before being published though. The measurements seemed way out and there was one part where you have to put frozen spinach in with some onion you've been frying and cover for 10 minutes or until the water has evaporated.. uh the water isn't going to evaporate if it's covered?

Next one will look better and hopefully not take as long or produce as many dishes.
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Mate I know the dressing sounds wrong but hey, it works for reasons unknown to me.

I've read you say similar about Jamie Oliver recipes before but I guess he's encouraging people to cook which is great, and enough of them such as yourself are wise enough to know that a recipe is a basic guide and you then adapt to what works for you.
 
Pweter said:
Mate I know the dressing sounds wrong but hey, it works for reasons unknown to me.

I've read you say similar about Jamie Oliver recipes before but I guess he's encouraging people to cook which is great, and enough of them such as yourself are wise enough to know that a recipe is a basic guide and you then adapt to what works for you.
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Hey I may repeat myself but at least I'm consistent! :drunk:
 
Forgot to take a pic but uncle sent us some dhufish fillets he caught off Geraldton way. These things were so thick I sliced them length ways and still had decent fillets. Coated in flour and lemon pepper and pan fried in butter. Served it with a beetroot and roasted sweet potato salad that also had feta, walnuts, carrot and spinach leaves and a home made dressing of olive oil, dijon and red wine vinegar.

It was the ******* bomb. Round 2 tonight with the leftover fish!
 

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Had pancetta, roast pumpkin and baby spinach risotto on Saturday night. It was the first risotto I've cooked for at least 6 months I reckon and served as a reminder that I need to cook more risottos as everyone in the house tends to inhale them, this one was no exception.

The other ones I do are bacon pea and asparagus, and chicken, mushroom and tomato. The latter of these is done with red wine/beef stock instead of white wine/chicken stock.

For those that do a risotto, what other flavour combos do you do?
 
Pweter said:
Had pancetta, roast pumpkin and baby spinach risotto on Saturday night. It was the first risotto I've cooked for at least 6 months I reckon and served as a reminder that I need to cook more risottos as everyone in the house tends to inhale them, this one was no exception.

The other ones I do are bacon pea and asparagus, and chicken, mushroom and tomato. The latter of these is done with red wine/beef stock instead of white wine/chicken stock.

For those that do a risotto, what other flavour combos do you do?
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I’ve never made risotto but I did watch someone make one with chicken, spinach and mushrooms once... the addition of sour cream took it up like ten levels.

Mostly just posting to say I really want the recipe though. Please :)
 
Pumpkin, leek, pine nuts, feta with chicken stock. I have a recipe for an oven version of this somewhere which I will try to find and post as all you have to do is bang it in the oven!
 
Lore said:
I’ve never made risotto but I did watch someone make one with chicken, spinach and mushrooms once... the addition of sour cream took it up like ten levels.

Mostly just posting to say I really want the recipe though. Please :)
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This is how I do it, I haven't followed a recipe for risottos since I think the 2nd one I ever cooked and the only measured ingredient is the rice, it's really one of those "it's done when it's ready" type recipes. Having just typed it up, it sounds harder than it is, it's just a dish where you need to be prepared before you start, and once you start you can't really be interrupted until it's done. This one serves 6 adults.

Olive oil
4 slices mild pancetta ~5mm thick
Pumpkin (I by 1/4 Jap pumpkin, then use half of that)
~100g baby spinach
1 large celery stick, finely diced
1 medium onion, finely diced
2 cups Arborio rice
Dry white wine (I always use sav blanc)
4 - 5 cups chicken stock
2 large knobs of butter
parmesan cheese

1. Dice the pumpkin into ~15mm cubes - it needs to be bigger than you think you'd want as some of it will dissolve in the risotto at the end. Toss in olive oil, salt and pepper and roast until the edges start to brown.
2. While the pumpkin is roasting, cut the pancetta into thin strips (~15mm x 5mm) and fry in a small amount of olive oil over medium/high heat until starting to go crispy. Remove from pan and drain on paper towel.
3. Turn heat down to medium/low. Add one of the knobs of butter and the celery. Cook for a few minutes until just beginning to soften.
4. Add onion to celery and continue to cook until both are soft. While this is happening, bring stock up to a very gentle simmer in a separate saucepan.
5. Turn heat up to medium/high (erring on the side of medium) and add rice. Stir rice around to coat every grain in the butter/oil left in the pan. When you'll notice the edges of the rice go translucent, you're then ready for step 6 (this will only take 5 - 10 seconds).
6. Add white wine to the pan, I always start with a full bottle and you've added enough once the bottle has been necked. The rest is for you :)
7. Stir rice ensuring every grain is swirled around and through the wine.
8. Once wine has almost been absorbed, add 1 - 2 ladle fulls of stock. Stir more than occasionally until stock is almost absorbed.
There's a myth that you need to stir risotto non-stop. This is untrue, but you need to ensure the rice is kept wet and it doesn't stick to the bottom​
9. When stock from step 8 is almost absorbed, add another 1 - 2 ladle fulls of stock and stir more than occassionally. Continue this process of adding stock, stirring, stock absorbing, when absorbed, add more stock. This is the "grind" part of cooking a risotto but it doesn't take as long as you'd think.
10. When you've used 3/4 of the stock, maybe a bit more, add pancetta, pumpkin and spinach to the risotto. Keep cooking risotto by adding stock etc until rice is al dente.
This is why I have 4 - 5 cups. Ideally you'd need the same amount of stock every time but it varies slightly. Better to have too much than too little.​
11. Once rice is al dente (only way to be sure is to start tasting around the time you put the pumpkin etc in), make sure it's still very loose, too loose to consider serving but definitely not rice soup. Take it off the heat and immediately stir through the 2nd knob of butter, a small handful of parmesan cheese and black pepper to taste. Put the lid on and let it stand for ~ 2 minutes.
12. After ~ 2 minutes (giving time to tidy the kitchen a bit), serve immediately and chow down with some crusty bread and some of that wine you opened 10 - 15 minutes ago.

Note you don't need salt as the butter is salted, the pancetta is salty, the parmesan is salty, the stock may be salty depending on what you buy or how you make it.
 
DERO said:
Pumpkin, leek, pine nuts, feta with chicken stock. I have a recipe for an oven version of this somewhere which I will try to find and post as all you have to do is bang it in the oven!
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Yep. That's the way we do it. It's pretty much foolproof. Cook up the ingredients. Chuck in the stock. Chuck in the rice. Lid on. In the oven. Done. Perfect every time.

I wanted to ask about the feta though. How does that work? And what kind of feta? Soft or hard? When do you put it in?
 
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