Recipes Worth a try
 

And so as I find myself (like I hope many of you) stuck in self isolation, I have decided to start experimenting with recipes. Note, that my OH would open a restaurant in his next life if he had the chance; he loves to cook and experiment! I would describe myself as a reluctant cook in that I am proficient at following recipes, but I do not have the same zeal to create or recreate meals I eat in restaurants (My husband loves to do this!)

Just found a very simple and yummy roast chicken recipe courtesy of Jamie Oliver. We used a head of garlic sliced horizontally along with red onion, zucchini, yellow and red pepper under the chicken. Next time I would use aubergine as well. Here is the recipe for those interested:

https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/...roast-chicken/

I served it with rice pilaf (for two people: 1/2 onion chopped finely, 1/2 cup rice, 3 tbsp butter and 1 cup of chicken broth. Sauté the onion in the butter for 5-7 minutes until soft; add the rice and cook for 2 minutes and then add the broth. Cover and cook on medium heat for roughly 18 minutes). Yummy :)

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Sounds yummy. :) Thanks for the recipe / idea! I love trying new recipes.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

As a reluctant cook, I have to say this recipe turned out really amazing. And for the record, I typically think whatever I cook was not worth my effort (I am tough on myself). That said, given my hopeless siblings, you would think I was Julia Child in the kitchen - that is how bad/sad they are in the kitchen!

To be honest, I am the youngest of nine, and my Mom was all about expedience and getting "something" onto to the table which was somewhat edible. And yes, we ate a lot of "Hamburger Helper" and "Tuna Noodle Casserole" back in the day! Ughhh!

Thanks to my husband, we make a fresh, non-preservative filled dinner each night. :D. I am amazed how easy it is to cook from scratch versus buying prepared sauces at the store. And this, from a reluctant cook ...who may be changing her ways thanks to this quarantine/self isolation ...:D

Maybe just maybe... good can come out from this pandemic? My OH is hoping so...lol!

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Just a suggestion for your recipe, roast the chicken in a roasting bag. You don’t get a crisp skin, but the bird comes out very moist.

Also you should splay the bird’s legs open so the inside of the legs cooks evenly. I’ve developed a technique retying the existing elastic string to hold the legs open. I can’t really describe it, but is easily done.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

I know some people who would be sweating at the thought.


There is of course the good ´ol post war kitchen.
Strammer Max or Toast Hawaii, Nettle salat or cooked nettles, Dandelion soup or salad. Boiled Suede or other roots. Gruel and Grütze.
Falscher Hase on special days.

Armer Ritter. Panzerplatten or hard tack.
Or grandma´s speciality, newspaper cooked in flour pampe with a lump of Speck.

Sadly her mind was somehow lost in 1946 and she never found it again, so I experienced post war cooking first hand.



She also sent us kids out to forage, berries, mushrooms, I got quite good at finding champignons and forest mushrooms but that was always a bit dodgy, luckly we had a Pilzexpert in the village, the guy probably saved us from a lot of collywobbles.
She also wanted us to look out for roadkill but dad put his foot down on roadkill so we never got to try flat rabbit.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

You do get a crust actually. Might depend on the roasting bag. Did one last week, got one in the fridge to be done today.

I'm into doing whole chickens these days, it's little effort and I can create all kinds of stuff with the left-over. :)

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

My favourite way of cooking a whole chicken and to get it moist inside yet crispy skin, is to line a baking tray with tinfoil, place an opened can of beer in the middle and sit the seasoned chicken upright onto that can.

Bake it at 200°C for approx 45mins

On the risk to annoy people, below's the link to one of the FB Blogs I write, in its file section are many tried and tested recipes written by yours truly, as well as if you need some entertainement...a few hopefully humorously written....longer articles with recipes too.

Also, any questions in regards to cooking will gladly be answered asap by me


https://www.facebook.com/groups/1057050264371996/

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

My OH is planning to make risotto on Tuesday night with leftover chicken and mushrooms :)

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

I am still cooking and doing most of the things you list, minus foraging 'shroomies, but everything else! Happy that the wild garlic season has started and soon many other herbs and things will be ready to forage for

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

The bags I use, from the Migros, have a maximum temperature of 200c. Anything above that they melt. I usually cook them at 180c for a little longer - and they rarely turn out crispy.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Not too sure about wild garlic, there are too many similar but poisonous plants around to be sure with only my half knowledge.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

As soon as the 'bise' (east wind) drops, I shall be out there looking for morels (morilles, Morcheln, spugnole) - for sure :) in splendid isolation so no worries.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

tangan No. 34 (Migros). Put the oven to 200°C (correct, not more), have the bag not too loose (it will blow up anyway, in spite of the holes you've put in or the cornder you've cut off). Works like a treat, for years now.
To be honest I would never use this system if I had no crust.

An other thing that works is a "Römertopf" (clay pot). Doing it with that you must take the top off for the last part of the time, to get a crust. Still doesn't make a mess of your oven. Actually now that I mention this, I'll do the one today in that - no plastic. Remember to soak a clay pot before using and don't preheat the oven. In this case setting it at 180°C (after shoving the thing in the oven) is perfect.

Eet smakelijk as the Dutch say.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

What's wild garlic? Bärlauch? I don't think you will mix that one up with other plants - the smell is so strong, you can even keep it two meters from your nose. :D

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

the only one you can confuse with wild garlic is Lilly of the Valley- same shape and texture- but the smell test is 100% clear- wild garlic smells strongly of ... garlic, lilly of the valley (which is toxic) has no smell.

I am going through cupboards and freezer- and it is no good trying to follow recipes as I never have all the right ingredients. So I just go for it- a bit of this, a bit of that, and usually, it turns out quite nice, sometimes very nice- and once in a while, a disaster. Fun :)

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Only one should consider that ....when collecting wild garlic , your hands start to smell strong of garlic quite quickly...so there is indeed a possibilty that one could pick up a poisonous plant, smell it, but instead of smelling the plant....one has got the garlic stench of the hands in the nose......

Furthermore it is not just Lily of the valley, one could confuse ransom with, but also autumn crocus (Colchicum autumnale) that one can confuse wild garlic with. It is growing the leaves NOW and they look really very similar to wild garlic, the flowers only show, as the name says, in autumn.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

And I thought they said ... smakelijk eten

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

So what's the bise in Swiss German?

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Ah yes, autumn crocuses- colchiques- I have lots in our meadow- but have to say, never seen in woody wet areas where wild garlic grows. Then a good idea to check individual leaves for smell as you wash them, you just need to rub a little and it is then quite obvious.

La Bise, in German - keine Ahnung. Ostwind? or perhaps 'die Bise'?

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Simply .....in High German as well as Swiss German


Bise or depending on region occasionally also Biswind


.....and this my dears is my 2000th post!

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

both versions are correct

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

My favourite way to roast chicken is stuff with a handful of fresh tarragon, cut the ends off 2 lemons, heavily score along the lemons so the juice can run out, insert one in each end of the chicken and plug with with more tarragon. Roast breast down until the last 25mins, then breast up to crisp.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Now I wouldn't object a Dutch guy, but isn't smakelijk eten tasty food while Eet smakelijk! is "bon appétit","en Guete" or "enjoy your meal", saying it when starting a meal?

However, no idea why it crossed my mind in Dutch when I wrote it. Maybe my mind refuses to accept closed borders. :)

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

No, it's the same. Tasty food would be lekker eten.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

https://www.20min.ch/kochenmitfooby/...nline-21063305

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

I was at my Dutch GF's parents house just after we first met, and here mother (a wonderful cook) told me that Lekker means delicious. So I said "so i can say my GF is Lekker?"

Her mother went bright red and my girlfriend had to look away. Luckily her father is a little deaf and doesn't speak much English!

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

you would describe her as lekker to your friends, not to her mother...

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

And if a Saffa says that to you, watch your back ;) :D

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

I've always been a great one for making big pans of soup as it uses up any old veg kicking around, it's also great when you don't have a lot of spare cash to splurge. Last night we had spicy potato and leek. I also love using up leftovers as you can make yummy meals from them and I batch cook for the freezer. A slow cooker is great because you can use cheap cuts of meat.

We haven't really encountered any shortages of anything in Basel (although it wasn't easy to find liquid hand soap locally last week, eventually found some on Friday).

My thing at the moment is making things go a lot further even though there's just 2 of us. I grew up with parents who were married during WW2 and had to cope with all the rationing Britain had until the mid 50s. My mum was a cook in the WAAF and she taught me everything, so we've never starved. My Scottish grandmother had 9 children, my Northern Irish one 16 plus another 2 that died in infancy, they lived through WW1, The Depression and then WW2 but they survived on very little. In this difficult time I think about how they had to cope.

Luckily I have 2 pieces of Black Angus fillet steak in my freezer which I plan to cook on Friday as it's our 34th wedding anniversary and of course there is no place to go out to.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Have you ever walked by the bananas in the supermarket which are full of brown spots, possibly totally brown, with a reduced price and wondered what can you do with these? The answer is bake with them.

Ripe bananas are great to bake with. You can also mash them up and freeze them for later use.

I have no idea why there are very few baked goods with bananas in Switzerland. I have been making muffins for years. They are easy to make so your kids can help. I use a hand mixer but this is not esential. They freeze well (don't freeze them if the bananas were previously frozen).

The kids insisted I add chocolate chips. I also have mini muffin tins which I use sometimes.

Made 48 muffins today !

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Absolutely - only last time I went shoping there were no bananas. :msncrazy:
I like to half them, then fry them in a little butter. They caramelize nicely. I could eat tons of that - also good with vanilla ice-cream.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Cakes also allowed in this post?

If yes there's something very time consuming but I've been wanting to try since forever:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCtYMS-vYvI

Russian honey cake!

I have a thing for layers, but not a big fan of the crepe cake texture, and difficult to make Baumkuchen at home.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

I sometimes get a craving for toast and jam with sliced banana on top, read it's do do with low potassium levels.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Here's another easy, yummy recipe courtesy of the New York Times: ( I am copying as one needs a subscription to access it online).

Pork Chops With Dijon Sauce
JULIA REED

YIELD 4 servings
TIME 35 minutes

Pork Chops With Dijon Sauce

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
4 1 1/4-inch-thick center-cut rib or loin pork chops, bone in
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup chopped green onions or shallots
½ cup dry white wine
¾ cup chicken or veal stock
½ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard (or more to taste)
1 tablespoon chopped parsley (optional)

PREPARATION
Melt butter in the oil in a large deep skillet over high heat. Season chops with salt and pepper and add them, browning well, about 2 or 3 minutes a side, reducing the heat slightly if chops brown too quickly.
Remove chops to a platter and pour off most of the fat. Add green onions or shallots and cook over medium-high heat until softened, about 1 minute. Add wine and bring to a boil, scraping brown bits off the bottom. Stir in the stock and return chops to the pan. Bring the sauce to a simmer, cover and cook until chops are tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove the chops to a warm platter; cover with foil to keep warm. Raise the heat and boil pan juices to reduce by half, about 2 minutes. Add cream and boil 2 minutes more, until sauce reduces a bit and thickens. Remove from the heat and whisk in mustard and the parsley, if using. Taste and add more mustard if desired. Immediately spoon sauce over the chops and serve.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

How did you spice it? I’ve got a pot on the stove at the moment.

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

My goodness. Are the yanks ever going to discover the metric system. Sounds good, but ...

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

Haha! And I lived in London for over 10 years :D. I have this great measuring cup which has both the metric and US equivalents.

So here you go:

1/4 cup green onions/shallots is roughly 40 grams or so
1/2 cup wine/heavy cream is is about 120 ml
3/4 cup stock is 180 ml

Enjoy!!

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

It's funny you wrote that, because my mother also use to make a lot of Hamburger Helper and tuna noodle casserole. :p :msnsick: I remember once I left the house, I had no idea how to cook for myself. Then after moving here, and being forced to not rely on processed and pre-made foods as much as I was in the US, I began to learn new recipes (found online) and like you, I realized how nice it is to use more fresh ingredients. I love cooking now. :)

Re: Recipes Worth a try
 

I think it was that generation (and our large family did my Mom no favors in terms of meal preparation!). But everyone in the US was "sold" on ready made meals (filled with preservatives and garbage in the 70s and 80s).

This is gross and I shouldn't admit this but after my OH and I were first married, I was so hopeless in the kitchen that I used to serve Hormel chili from a can :msneek: over tortilla chips topped with cheddar cheese heated in a microwave. I cringe as I type this... I have come a long way but look at where I started. Ughh!