Foodie - The Food Thread - For Our Food Lovers!

jacksonbrown

I just moved from Portarlington so we ate our share in the last few months.
I'd steam them and throw in some cultured butter, lemon juice, rough chopped flat leaf parsley and shitloads of fine white pepper.
It makes a great, sauce and is my favorite way do do muscles. Tangy and spicy.
Just remember the Ciabatta.

punkin

I just remember when we were kids walking into Lake Maquarie behind our house and bring back clumps of mussels the size of footballs. We'd roll these to the edge of the fire in the yard and as we rolled them round a little, pick out smokey mussels as they opened.

Probably the best mussels i ever had like that, hoping i can recreate it.

jacksonbrown

I've had many meals like that.
Nothing will ever compare to the memory IMO.

punkin

Brined Pork Chops and mussels over the charcoal. It was great.

Malted

How do you stop the mussel juice coming out and extinguishing your coals? Were they childhood good?

punkin

They were tops. Yes did have coals dampened, but it was hot to start and it don't take much to cook a mussel.

Chicken stock this afternoon. It's only 2-3 times a year, but i make a large batch of stock and freeze it in take away containers. I can't cook if i have no stock.

jacksonbrown

Stock happens here every time we roast a chook. I vac seal it and freeze it flat.
Then you can organise it in the freezer with all the soups etc. like books on a book shelf.

Malted

Please talk me through your chook stock method gentlemen. I too use stock a heck of a lot and have made some from scratch at times as a by product but have never set out to make it. Chook soup and chook stock is pretty much same-same IMO. Am I on the right track? What do you blokes do?

jacksonbrown

Roast bones first if you want dark stock but otherwise give them a wash and put them in a pot with enough cold water to cover then simmer for a few hours. No more than six.
Boiling will make it cloudy and add mire poix and bouquet garni of you like. Never season the stock, only what you put it in.
We usually just put the frame of the roast bird in a pot after I've picked over it and simmer till we go to bed and then turn it off to cool over night on the stove.

Unsensibel

Buddies inaugural smoking:

Pork butt. Up next salmon, chicken and sausage

Smaug

@Unsensibel said: Buddies inaugural smoking:

Pork butt. Up next salmon, chicken and sausage

Nice. And a nice smoker unit too! Looks new?

I need to get something like that. At the moment I have a huge above ground pit. Can do 3/40lb pigs. But I haven't done that much at once in several years now and don't see myself wanting to any more.

punkin

@Malted said: Please talk me through your chook stock method gentlemen. I too use stock a heck of a lot and have made some from scratch at times as a by product but have never set out to make it. Chook soup and chook stock is pretty much same-same IMO. Am I on the right track? What do you blokes do?

I buy cheap cuts just for stock, wings, drumsticks or marylands. I don't like it roasted although i have tried. I use a ham bone or a smoked hock and about 1.5 kilos of chicken, couple of quartered onions, all the tops, roots and a few stalks of celery, 2-3 carrots and a bunch of parsley.
I add cracked pepper, a couple star anise, some bay leaves, szechuan peppercorns, teaspoon of sesame oil and some lancashire relish.

I boil lightly for 3-4 hours after skimming as it comes up to the boil, strain through a colander and put it in a dozen takeaway containers with 1-1.5 cups of stock in each.

Taken out of the freezer a whole container will do for say a stew or somesuch, where a half a block lightly defrosted for a few seconds and then chopped is good for tacos, currys, pasta sauce and other places where you'd use water.

It's really easy to make, although it uses a bit of freezer space. You could make smaller batches more often i guess.

Unsensibel

@Smaug yep, brand new. For a change, a cooking experiment gone right. Was about 15#s of meat and 6 hrs of smoking

jacksonbrown

Hey @punkin, trotters are really cheap and good to use too. We used to always throw a few in stocks at the restaurant to add heap of extra gelatin and they are relatively flavour neutral.
Another good tip for home is once you strain your stock put it back on the stove and reduce it right down to a concentrate.
Then freeze in in an ice cube tray and i takes up heaps less room in the freezer.
For soup you just add a few cubes and enough water to rehydrate.
It's also better if your making a pepper sauce or something for steaks etc. I used to do the same with demi glace.
It makes a good base to have on hand for cooking all sorts of magical things.

punkin

Salt and Pepper pork last night fried Flied Lice.

punkin

Peri Peri chicken wraps done over the coals.

jacksonbrown

Before...

Malted

@Unsensibel said: Buddies inaugural smoking:

I too have a MES. They have some limitations but are a convenient device. After a while they can get a build up of gunk/carbon on the element that bridges across to the smoker box. This causes it to short out and flip your residual current device or other leakage device.

I use an external smoke generator (smoke daddy - they have limitations too) rather than the smoke box. It is a cooler, cleaner smoke that tastes better, leaves less creosote and leaves the window clean enough to see through.

Unsensibel

@malted good to know. Don't think that it's going to happen though as he's totally OCD about cleaning.

punkin

Singapore Satay Pork skewers cooked on the charcoal. Hot peanut sauce, cucumber, apple and pineapple chunks and coconut kaffir noodles.

punkin

Don't look Michael. It'll spoil you're dinner.

Spoiler:

Lashed out on steak this morning. At $23 a kilo it's more than i wanted to pay but we don't eat steak very often.

Photo doesn't do these chops justice, they are over a kilo for the two of them. I'll sear them on the gas grill and then into the oven. We'll get two meals, a steak dinner tonight and a warm beef salad tomorrow night i suspect.

SDeurope

Yeah, that's mean, no beef & pork (or any kind of solid food) for me for a VERY long time now (at least for another 6 weeks). :((

punkin

It's in the pan now mate. This is a solid challenge for me. In the cooking not just the eating.

richard

Meat on this side (South Africa) is still relatively / comparatively inexpensive. Beef fillet (if you search a bit) you can get for approx. US $ 10/kg. lamb chops generally are about US $ 7 (I think highway robbery).

jez

Just made a fresh batch of chilli sauce

Smaug

@SDeurope said: Yeah, that's mean, no beef & pork (or any kind of solid food) for me for a VERY long time now (at least for another 6 weeks). :((

Your going to look fit as a fiddle on your new diet plan.

SDeurope

@Smaug said: Your going to look fit as a fiddle on your new diet plan.

Yes, 10 kg less and all will be good again. Just had a nice broccoli cheese cream soup for lunch. ;)

punkin

Caught it before it got heaped with salad. Just some fried onions and curly chips with a spoon of Dianne Sauce.

You better stay away from this thread for a while Michael.

punkin

clay pot lamb shanks and corn bread tonight.

frodo

Chicken Fajitas

3 boneless skinless breasts halves
375 for 45 minutes
while that is baking
chop
1 onion
1 bellbepper
5 jalapenos
add 1 packet of mccormick mesquite marinade
into a skillet, 1/2 cup water
put the lid on, stir till tender
cut up the chicken and add
eat on tortillas