What's for Dinner?

[Sundae]

Chris you have me swooning.
Blimey.

Monday night I cooked for Mum and me.
Baked salmon marinated in garlic, ginger and soy sauce, served with salad leaves on a bed of lemon, mint and parsley couscous. Mum wasn't that keen on the couscous ("the grainy stuff"), but didn't leave anything. I overcooked the salmon by my standards, but I know Mum is paranoid about anything undercooked. So I found it a little dry around the edges, but she declared the fish perfect.

Last night I had spelt with roasted red pepper and onion. I had intended to eat it for two meals, but it was so good I polished it all off in one sitting. Greedy guts. Checking the nutritional values it wasn't too bad - not like having two roast dinners or two Big Mac meals for example. And still within nutritional guidelines for losing weight.

I will buy it again. Perhaps when I am cooking for Mum again. So that way I can't trough the lot without scratching and biting.

NB, there was a supermarket discount on Ainsley Harriott (UK TV chef) dishes. They're good stuff. 'Cepting that they are generally packaged for two, which makes it hard to resist an eat-a-thon.

[orthodoc]

The salmon on couscous sounds fantastic. Ditto for the spelt dish. I haven't tried it before. Still eating salads and microwaved veggies. I plan to cook things and then don't have enough energy at the end of the day.

Going to go and have some berries and then fall into bed. Maybe tomorrow I'll cook something.

[BigV]

giant salad (made with real giants! j/k), toast with butter and jam,

didn't feel like cooking.

[fargon]

We are having Crock Pot BBQ Beef, with roasted vegetables, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, and parsnips. YUM YUM.

[Chocolatl]

Originally Posted by orthodoc

I plan to cook things and then don't have enough energy at the end of the day. .

Sounds like a call for a crock pot!

[orthodoc]

Good thought! I have to get organized enough to put things together in the morning. I even have a vegan crockpot cookbook.

[footfootfoot]

I had Marinated venison backstraps, mashed pertaters, and frozen corn that I heated up.
That was last night, I think. I may not eat tonight, I had a late lunch.

[limey]

Ortho, don't forget that you don't have to brown anything or even thaw anything first. Just fling it all in there and forget about it for the day. I love crock pot dinner days!

Sent by thought transference

[footfootfoot]

Not to put too fine a point on it, but you are British, Limey. The name, for a start, is a dead giveaway.

Stick to beer and leave the cooking advice to the French, Italians, Chinese, Indians, Mexicans, well, pretty much any other country.

[Sundae]

Hey, be nice!
Limes is talking specifically crockpot here, and I'm sure I've heard the same from Merkins. Only reason I don't have one is that it's just not economically viable for a single person.

Anyway, am going to document our trip to Borough Market tonight or tomorrow.
We have foodies too.

I've found myself correcting people who think American food is popcorn, McDs, Domino's... High fat, high salt, processed etc.
I'd like to think some Merkins here would correct people who think The British Isles are all about bad teeth and nasty food too.

[DanaC]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_cuisine

British cuisine is the specific set of cooking traditions and practices associated with the United Kingdom. British cuisine has been described as "unfussy dishes made with quality local ingredients, matched with simple sauces to accentuate flavour, rather than disguise it."[1] However, British cuisine has absorbed the cultural influence of those that have settled in Britain, producing hybrid dishes, such as the Anglo-Indian chicken tikka masala."[2][3]

Celtic agriculture and animal breeding produced a wide variety of foodstuffs for indigenous Celts and Britons. Anglo-Saxon England developed meat and savoury herb stewing techniques before the practice became common in Europe. The Norman conquest introduced exotic spices into England in the Middle Ages.[4] The British Empire facilitated a knowledge of India's elaborate food tradition of "strong, penetrating spices and herbs".[4] Food rationing policies, put in place by the British government during wartime periods of the 20th century,[5] are said to have been the stimulus for British cuisine's poor international reputation.[4

An ancient set of islands with several nations, many regions and millennia of continuous habitation, having at one time held sway over half the world and having acted as a magnet for migrants for thousands of years. Of course our cuisine is varied.

Romano-British agriculture, highly fertile soils and advanced animal breeding produced a wide variety of very high quality foodstuffs for indigenous Romano-British people. Anglo-Saxon England developed meat and savoury herb stewing techniques and the Norman conquest reintroduced exotic spices and continental influences back into Great Britain in the Middle Ages[4] as maritime Britain became a major player in the transcontinental spice trade for many centuries after. Following the Protestant Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries "plain and robust" food remained the mainstay of the British diet, reflecting tastes which are still shared with neighbouring north European countries and traditional North American Cuisine. In the 18th and 19th centuries, as the Colonial British Empire began to be influenced by India's elaborate food tradition of "strong, penetrating spices and herbs", the United Kingdom developed a worldwide reputation[7] for the quality of British beef and pedigree bulls were exported to form the bloodline of major modern beef herds in the New World.[4] Developments in plant breeding produced a multiplicity of fruit and vegetable varieties, with British disease-resistant rootstocks still used globally for fruits such as apples.

There was, amidst the long haul of British history, a relatively brief period during and after WW2 where continued shortages and rationing led to a decline in the quality and variety of British cuisine.

Modern British (or New British) cuisine is a style of British cooking which fully emerged in the late 1970s, and has become increasingly popular.[citation needed] It uses high-quality local ingredients,[citation needed] preparing them in ways which combine traditional British recipes with modern innovations, and has an affinity with the Slow Food movement.

It is not generally a nostalgic movement, although there are some efforts to re-introduce pre-20th-century recipes. Ingredients not native to the islands, particularly herbs and spices, are frequently added to traditional dishes (echoing the highly spiced nature of much British food in the mediaeval era).[citation needed]

Much of Modern British cooking also draws heavily on influences from Mediterranean cuisines, and more recently, Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian and Southeast Asian cuisines. The traditional influence of northern and central European cuisines is significant but fading.

The Modern British style of cooking emerged as a response to the depressing food rationing that persisted for several years after the Second World War, along with restrictions on foreign currency exchange, making travel difficult.[citation needed] A hunger for exotic cooking was satisfied by writers such as Elizabeth David, who from 1950 produced evocative books whose recipes (mostly French and Mediterranean) were then often impossible to produce in Britain, where even olive oil could only normally be found in dispensing chemists rather than food stores. By the 1960s foreign holidays, and foreign-style restaurants in Britain, further widened the popularity of foreign cuisine. Recent Modern British cuisine has been very much influenced and popularised by TV chefs, all also writing books, such as Fanny Cradock, Clement Freud, Robert Carrier, Robert Irvine, Keith Floyd, Delia Smith, Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson Simon Hopkinson, Nigel Slater and Jamie Oliver, alongside the Food Programme, made by BBC Radio 4.

We're a pretty foodie nation these days. Yes, there are swathes of the population who won't deviate from their chicken nuggets and chips, but the average British town these days creaks under the weight of gastro pubs and experimental restaurants.

[DanaC]

And yes, I know it was a flippant remark :P But ya know...I like things to be clear...

I am not much of a foodie myself. Used to be. Used to cook. Used to have stacks of cookery books and watched the more instructive cookery shows for inspiration, then made my own creations.

These days...ahhhh...I know what I like. And cooking for one in a teeny tiny kitchenette with a cooker that slopes slightly, so pans occasionally slide off the hob and therefore have to be monitored constantly (even more so since Carrotchops' arrival) does not inspire creative or elaborate cooking.

So anyway...I very nearly broke my McD-free streak today. Was sooo hungry. had very little time, didn't fancy anything at cafe ritazza...was walking towards McDs when I noticed there was a massive queue. Now...a massive queue at that McDs doesn't mean much. They zip through proper speedy usually. But it made me pause for thought...so I carried on walking and got a breakfast pannini at Starbucks. Yes they're the debil and don't pay proper taxes, but it was less toxic than what I'd have eaten in McDs.

I'm finding it hard to not eat heavily processed food and choccy bars and cakes and sweets. It's like my sugar and fastfood addiction has exploded this last year. I haven't managed to cut it all out. It's still a rare day that doesn't include at least one or two chocolate bars. But I'd effectively started replacing meals with this trash. Because whilst I can eat any amount of it without feeling full, I have a really tiny appetite (even without the trash) whenit comes to real food.

I think I've probably cut down on the heavily processed ready meals, fast food, chocolate and assorted stuffs by about three quarters. Having better fingerfood available in the cupboard and fridge helps a lot. If I'm going to graze, and four decades experience of being me says I will, better to graze on some deli ham, fruit pieces and cheese, buttered wholemeal breadroll with cream cheese and smoked salmon, giant 'queen satsumas', little tins of pear halves. And no-fuss, easy to make instant porridge tubs: pour on hot water and add a little sugar to taste.

[footfootfoot]

Good lord. Once known for their sense of humor, you Brits seem a little touchy about my joke about your cuisine. I'm sure some of your food is quite palatable. But I have seen photos of what you call pizza.

[Sundae]

I know, I know...
But when you're making an effort to eat right, and have all the food necessary to do so, it stings a bit to be lumped in with the suet n' lard crowd.

And I'm just tetchy anyway.
Not enough suet or lard.

[chrisinhouston]

Well I have been pretty good with my new no-meat/vegetarian/fish diet for the past 6 weeks but my wife still craves a little red meat so yesterday morning when I stopped by the grocery near by to get another fix of raw tuna poke for my lunch I noticed they had some really nicely trimmed lean beef tenderloin fillet marked down. So I bought it, 4 small pieces, really still quite fresh and it said it was from The Big Island which is nice as it is locally sourced and not from some lonesome cow in Nebraska. I also figured that since it is really lean it is a really lean source of protein I would break my diet.

I Goggled some recipe ideas and found one from Jamie Oliver and adapted it for grilling instead of the oven. First I sliced some white mushrooms into thin slices and browned them in a bit of butter in a pan and let them cool. Then I rolled the meat in a some of Herbs de Provence and a mix of salt and pepper. I smeared the top side of the meat with some wasabi from a tube I got for sushi experiments. I wanted that beef Wellington kind of feel mixed with the idea of roast beef with horseradish. Then I shingled the meat with the cooled cooked mushrooms. I laid out 2 slices of prosciutto overlapping and put the meat with the mushrooms down right in the middle and then rolled it up with the ham. I put it on a hot grill for 2-3 minutes and rolled it over and finished cooking it. Served it with some small potatoes roasted in the oven and a side of carrots and a nice glass of Zinfandel red wine. My wife insisted I get a few pictures with my phone camera, here they are.