Anything good in your fridge at the mo?

[Blue Jam]

Got some more White Sugarloaf Pineapple too. It was reduced. My dentist won't be happy when I finally manage to visit her for my now-months overdue checkup.

[Sebastian Cobb]

There was a load of fresh pasta on sale in Co-op so this week I ah be mostly eating delicious and stunningly simple dishes with proper pasta. It's not homemade pasta but it kicks the living shit out of the dried stuff I have been eating for close to half a century.

I have some tagliatelle and penne left. You can just cook this stuff up, drain it, crush up some salt and pepper, chuck on some olive oil, lob in some olives and tiny posh tomatoes, plus some fresh basil and and CUSHTY PUCKA, just like that you are on the Amalfi coast getting fingered by a waiter that you just fell in love with.

I bought a big bag of paccheri without really considering I had no idea what to do with it. I used half of it on a carbonara, bad move. Now the rest just sits in the cupboard taunting me.

[kilgore]

fresh pasta

I eat a lot of pasta, and always buy fresh. I get two 500g bags for £2.50 in Morrisons. It tastes much better than the Co-op stuff.

I hope you live near a Morrisons and that this is a good price for you. I don't want you to have to eat dried pasta ever again.

All I do with the pasta is add a decent sauce, smother it all in parmesan and go balsamic. It's always delicious but I am not losing any weight.

[Sebastian Cobb]

The advantage of dried pasta is that it keeps forever and you usually have enough other shit to be able to knock something edible up without going to the shops.

I guess if you have a deeper relationship with pasta dishes than that fresh makes sense.

[Blue Jam]

Like the arrogant bastard I am, I am now feeling stoned on my own cooking. Drunk on too much pork. FNAAAAARRR.

Definitely doing this again. Paprika crackling? Paprika crack more like.

Also made some parsley bread, which is basically garlic bread minus the garlic and with a fuckload of fresh parsley. Why isn't parsley bread a thing? It would be perfect for when you're on a date or going for lunch at werk and have good reason to not want to reek of garlic afterwards.

[Jittlebags]

Leftover beef from tonight's Sunday dinner. Enough for a beef and mustard (+ dash of mayo) sandwich for lunch, then enough for an evening risotto.

[Gurke and Hare]

There's fuck all wrong with dried pasta.

[touchingcloth]

There's fuck all wrong with dried pasta.

Absolutely. I always found the good bronze extruded dried stuff to be as good as any fresh I've ever had, and I heard once (in a Nigella book, most likely) that the Italians don't drown on the fresh stuff and/or that many decent restaurants use it as well and I've never bothered with fresh since, unless it's something like ravioli or cannelloni, but you can get good dried tubes for the latter.

Also made some parsley bread, which is basically garlic bread minus the garlic and with a fuckload of fresh parsley. Why isn't parsley bread a thing? It would be perfect for when you're on a date or going for lunch at werk and have good reason to not want to reek of garlic afterwards.

I've never understood the aversion to garlic breath. It's one of the finest tastes and smells I know, so if I catch a waft from someone I usually just thank them. If two people are on a date and each enjoying a garlicked meal, who has been harmed if they go home to bump uglies while blowing garlic into each other's faces? I'll tell you who has been harmed - no one, they've just both had lovely garlicky sex.

[Barry Admin]

Had eight litres of semi-skimmed, two or three nights ago. Three left now.

Eight ffs, lol.

[Dex Sawash]

America's favorite dead turbo-nonce chef Jeff Smith says don't bother with fresh pasta.

[canadagoose]

America's favorite dead turbo-nonce chef Jeff Smith says don't bother with fresh pasta.

Maybe dried pasta makes you a nonce.

[Blue Jam]

Got a kilo of really good Scottish strawberries from Lidl for £3.29. Got some cookies'n'cream flavour protein shakes. Got some almond butter. Been having "healthy strawberry shortcake" smoothies for breakfast all week.

[Neomod]

C O C K L E S

[Buelligan]

I know someone whose going to have a Coelodonta antiquitatis in there soon if I have anything to do with it.

[Shit Good Nose]

There's fuck all wrong with dried pasta.

America's favorite dead turbo-nonce chef Jeff Smith says don't bother with fresh pasta.

You'll find that VERY few Italians bother with fresh pasta - it'll just be your keen home cooks, old mamas in the hills and some restaurants.  Pretty much everyone else will go for dried because it's such high quality (and, as noted, it keeps forever - fresh pasta spoils quickly and easily).  8 or 9 times out of 10 it'll be De Cecco, the other 1 or 2 times it'll almost certainly be Pastificio Liguori (which is what a lot of high-end restaurants in Italy use [there are those who go as far as saying this stuff is better than even the best freshly made pasta], and it's available over here in Sainsburys).

Absolutely nothing wrong with dried pasta.

[pancreas]

I have opened a jar of cuttlefish ink I found in Waitrose. It doesn't actually taste of very much, but you can make your food black, which is something.

[Bazooka]

Dried pasta became a thing because poorer Italians could make fresh in bulk and then dry it so it could be stored for months ahead. 

[Blue Jam]

A load of pineapple chonks and a bottle of Liquid Smoke. Just made some pineapple barbecue sauce. Well chuffed with it. Going to enjoy it with some chicken fajitas later on.

Hmmmm. How carcinogenic is Liquid Smoke, exactly?

[wooders1978]

A load of pineapple chonks and a bottle of Liquid Smoke. Just made some pineapple barbecue sauce. Well chuffed with it. Going to enjoy it with some chicken fajitas later on.

Hmmmm. How carcinogenic is Liquid Smoke, exactly?

I don't think it's as bad as cigarettes

[Blue Jam]

Well, it is actually made out of smoke. Think it's made by bubbling hickory smoke through water. I imagine it's fine as an ingredient but I'm not about to go chugging it from the bottle or bathing in it or anything. Magic ingredient though. Up there with MSG.

I got it during a little shopping trip to Lupe Pinto's Mexican Deli on Saturday, along with some ancho chillies, fajita seasoning and some nice little flour tortillas. It's been nice to support them during these trying times, but sadly I was there because I was trying to recreate the Illegal Jack's fajita experience. Still no signs of life from Illegal Jack's and I am concerned that they won't reopen. I think my fajitas turned out really well and my pineapple barbecue sauce was surprisingly close to the stuff they used to make in-house but nothing beats the real thing.

[Shit Good Nose]

Well, it is actually made out of smoke. Think it's made by bubbling hickory smoke through water. I imagine it's fine as an ingredient but I'm not about to go chugging it from the bottle or bathing in it or anything.

Magic ingredient though. Up there with MSG.

If you're a fan of MSG you don't need to worry too much about the carcinogenic properties of liquid smoke.

[Blue Jam]

I haven't cooked with MSG for ages, might have to pop down to one of the South East Asian grocers and pick some up. It's probably a million times safer than Liquid Smoke, or even salt, tbh.

[Blue Jam]

Just roasted two duck breasticles in the pineapple BBQ sauce along with some fresh pineapple chonks and a sprinkling of Chinese five spice. Served all that with some butternut squash roasted with cayenne pepper and spring onions roasted in a bit of soy sauce. Vaguely Chinesey thing, fucking ace.

I will never, ever get fed up of pineapple BBQ sauce on everything.

[Hand Solo]

There Is A (Fridge) Light That Never Goes Out

[Hand Solo]

I had a load of beetroot to get through before it went bad so I came up with beetroot burgers. Beetroot mashed up and mixed with mince beef. They were actually really nice and provided enough flavour and acidity that they didn't need ketchup. Would have again.

Looks like they're actually a thing, but most of the recipes use the beets to make vegan burgers taste more meaty and juicy.

[Blue Jam]

Is that houmous on the bottom of that burger? Dear lord.

[Hand Solo]

Is that houmous on the bottom of that burger? Dear lord.

It's from a telegraph article for vegan beetroot burgers, they've got avocado, red cabbage and beansprouts on the bap as well, it's like veggie Salo.

[Sebastian Cobb]

This thread reminded me I had cheese so i got myself a treat of cheese and biscuits while I begrudgingly got out of bed because I remembered I needed to put dal and kidney beans in to soak overnight for my lunch tomorrow.

[bgmnts]

Is that houmous on the bottom of that burger? Dear lord.

It works.

[Blue Jam]

It's preferable to m*y*nn**s* I guess, but still wrong.

I saw duck burgers on offer in Lidl the other day. Minced up duck meat with spring onions. Works in theory but in practice? *boke*