Posts by: alc28

I myself have never tried them but i found this recipe in one of my grans old hand written cook books if its any help:

Stuffed Heart Casserole

2 large **or** 4 small lambs hearts
4 oz fresh bread crumbs
1 medium onion finely chopped
3 tbsp melted butter
1/2 level tsp ground ginger
salt and pepper
2 tbsp seasoned flour
1 oz lard
1pt stock
12 small white onions
8 quartered carrots

Wash the hearts, make a slit in the top, remove any tubes/gristle and wash again.
Fill with the stuffing made from the bread crumbs, onion, butter, ginger and seasoning.
Tie the hearts firmly into their original shape with string.
Dredge with seasoned flour and brown quickly in the hot lard.
Place in a casserole dish with the stock and cover.
Cook in the centre of the oven at gas 4/180c for 2 1/2 hrs, basting and turning from time to time.
Add the carrots and whole onions for the last 45 Min's of cooking time.

As i said i have never tried this but it must have been good for my gran to write it down, let me know how you get on with it, i'm sure my gran would be happy to see one of her recipes being used all these years on ,D,

how about egg mayonnaise! i can't even remember the last time i saw that on a menu!
A melon cocktail with a marachino cherry for decoration ( i think thats a bit 70's though)
Or theres good old soup

to pickle samphire you will need:
900g/2lb of samphire
50g/2oz of cooking salt
1.2 litres/2 pints of distilled or dark malt vinegar

wash and dry the samphire, then place half in a bowl and cover with half the salt then place the rest in and cover with the remaining salt. cover and leave in a cool place for 24hrs.
drain the samphire in a colander and rinse well under cold water, drain and then dry thoroughly and pack in to warmed jars, bring the vinegar to the boil and pour over the samphire making sure its completely covered, cover and leave for at least a week befor using.

I think one of the reasons behind most produce being flown in is due to the fact as a nation we now want everything at all times of the year instead of being happy with what the seasons produce, there was once a time when having fresh strawberries in December was unheard of, but as air travel has developed the world has become smaller and more assessable.

Another thing i feel which has lead to things being flown in to this country is EU rulings of things having to be a certain shape and size, if you go to a FM you are pretty hard pushed to find all the onions the same size and perfectly round!

Maybe a (part) solution is if we all started to grown some of own own food, I'm not talking the proportions of Hugh Fearnly-Whittingstall but even a window box growing herbs and salad leaves is a start and that would help cut a few carbon foots prints surely?

oops forgot to add that red current vinegar is also great on salads and easy to make just substitute raspberry for red currents

I know that you don't want red current jelly but i make a raspberry and red current jam which is lovely and keeps for a long while, its sweet from the raspberries yet slightly tart from the red currents,

I also found a recipe for a cordial type thing called red current shrub, from what I've read its a Victorian recipe, they use to drink it diluted in hot water to help with sore throats and to ward of colds, you can use it for a sauce for sponge puddings, ice creams or rice puddings, you can even use it in sweet and sour dishes. It can be diluted in cold sparkling water of sparkling wine as well.
[link]
the above link is for raspberry shrub but you can substitute red currents for raspberries, the only down side to this recipe is that it will only keep for a few weeks but it can be made from frozen fruits as well as fresh.
Hope some of this helps if any

You should try to let chutney mature for at least 2-3 months being stored in a cool dark place,don't forget to label and date the jars, i always try to let mine mature for that time, once opened though if its kept in the fridge some of mine have lasted for a few months, it can't have gone off as i'm still here to tell the tale!

I did see then in waitrose if you have one near by

Chutneys are of Asian origin, it comes from a Hindustani word 'chatni' meaning strong sweet relish, they arrived in Britain at the end of the 17th century, the earliest one being piccalilli. As ever us Brits got hold of a good thing and did a bit of trial and error and came up with our chutney of today (a sweet and sour condiment) to accompany cold meats and cheeses and is really a good way to preserve fruits and veg through salt, sugar, vinegar and spice.

I do have a recipe some where for a courgette chutney which has orange in it, i suppose its a bit of mediterranean chutney, if you want it say and I'll dig out out then post it

I have just got a book called 'White trash gatherings' by Kendra Bailey Morris, it contains everything you could want to know on how to through your very own american white trash feast, as well as recipes it has some very funny tales from the authors youth, i haven't finished reading it yet but the half i have read is fantastic.

I already feel sorry for my hubby as every time a buy a new cook book i have to try every recipe in it and this book tells you how to cook everything from squirrel through to salads containing marshmallows! I think i may just have to try making buttermilk biscuits!

PS i don't intend to kill any squirrels in my pursuit of culinary fame

Does any body know where i can buy corn syrup in the UK? or a good substitute, i am wanting to make a Jack Daniels pecan pie and the recipe calls for dark corn syrup, it does say at the end of it that golden syrup doesn't make a good substitute so I'm a bit stuck.

Thanks

Did anyone see the series on bbc2 called 'supersizers go....', it was a food series where 2 people lived and ate what was available from that era IE: the Elizabethan period, i only managed to see the last 2 episodes and thought it was a fantastic program, does anyone know if they are going to be repeated or if they are going to make another series?

If you don't want to do all the prep yourself and have a large Sainsbury's near to you their deli counters do various platters of finger food at a reasonable price, for a BBQ/hot dish why not trying doing marinated butterflied leg of lamb, halloumi cheese is also great Bbq you could serve it with a rocket salad dressed with lemon and olive oil, a frittata/tortilla of some sorts (as its a special occasion it could be smoked salmon and goats cheese) would be a good thing as well as you can make it and serve cold if you wish as finger food.
Instead of plain old sausages try lamb/beef koftas, they can be made on or off the skewers for the 5 year old
For a desert you could do mini Pavlovas, you can buy meringues and then fill with whipped cream and freh raspberries and strawberries.
I shall have another think and see what else i can come up with

Maybe with the bad reviews about MK being posted on here the produces will do anything to draw viewers in to watching the program including showing a bit of cleavage

I love Christmas but hate the run up to it, i do make my cakes though in October but other than that i try to bury my head until the begging of December, then i turn in to an over active child (it drives my husband mad!) i will decorate the house, put Christmas songs on the stereo, White Christmas in the DVD player, drink far to much mulled wine (that could be the reason for me being over active ), run around the shops like a loon trying to find the right presents for everyone and all of this because its one day of they year that my family are able to get together from all the far flung corners of England and are able to sit down together to eat.
We don't very often have turkey, we normally try to have a cut of meat that we don't normally have or can afford, as turkey is so available through the year now it doesn't really seem like a treat.
Like every one we over eat on Christmas day but i do try not to buy to excess,

Has anyone else noticed that when they go food shopping for Christmas that people are over buying, the supermarkets are shut for one day of the year and you see people on Christmas eve with trolleys which have 6x 4 pints of milk, 10 loaves of bread, 4 bags of carrots, potatoes, sprouts and tins and tins of chocolate. I can bet you any money you will see the same people in there on boxing day buy more food, I can understand buying these qty's if you are feeding the british army, but, do people think there is going to be a mass disaster on Christmas day?

Venison (if in steak form) shouldn't be well done it still need to be pink as it is very lean it can dry out very quickly, is i have venison steal i like to serve it with a Cumberland sauce, there is a recipe for this on this site or a good one on the waitrose web site (the recipe is for a glazed turkey but the sauce is just as good for venison) and best of all there is no cream in it

I am pretty new to gardening and have just had my garden transformed from a scabby patch pf grass to a lovely place with flower beds (yippeee) and was wondering what veggies i can plant now to be able to crop in a few months a through the winter, any help would be greatly appreciated

I made her lemon cake this weekend and it is the best i have ever tasted, (it does make 2 loaves but they can be frozen,) the cake is so moist and zingy my husband and the guys who are doing my garden love it, they have gone through one and a half loaves of it!

To get the recipe go to the food network site and search for lemon cake

Oh dear Jamie36 i fear you may need to get out more, watching cats poop in your garden, what fun you have!

This is for any cat owners out there who wish to try stop their cats from making a mess in others gardens, always make sure you have an in door litter tray, the reason behind this (if people who have cats have any understanding of their pets will know) is cats like to poop where there is a bit of privacy (like most humans we don't like people to watch us do our business!) so the tray needs to be kept in an area where there is no high house hold traffic and easily accessible, also it needs to be cleaned out on a very regular basis as a cat does not like to do its thing in a dirty tray.

Sorry for the next bit being off the subject of gardening,

And as for the posts saying that cat owners don't love their pets as they let them out at night and don't care for their safety this is totally untrue, during the weekday i don't let my cat out as we currently live on a building site only on an evening and weekends does the cat go out, and he is never put out for the entire night, only when i get the cat in on a night do i go to bed, and i have had some very short nights sleep because of this. I have never had to swerve/brake sharply due to a cat in the road, maybe if people took a bit more consideration and time whilst driving they wouldn't have to either, the only time i have had to brake sharply for an animal is when a dog owner let it little dog off the lead and it ran out onto a busy roundabout near to my house, the place was kaos as the little rat ran riot with the owner trying to catch it.
It upsets me when people say that all cat owners are evil and irresponsible, taring us all with the same brush, it would be like me saying that all people who complain about cats are animal hating busy bodies, when i clearly know that is not the case.

Being a cat owner reading some of these posts i feel quite disgusted at some peoples views about cats, unfortunately cats can not be trained as a dog can be (as they do have a bit of intelligence, sorry to dog owners!), my cat is litter tray trained and (as far as i know) will only go in there, even if he has been out all day he still comes in and does his thing in the tray, which i have to say costs me a lot of money on litter but as i got a cat its an expense i have to pay,
None of my neighbours have complained that the cat mess' in their garden, if any thing he helps to keep other cats from messing in their gardens as it his territory.
Unfortunately (and i can hear the response already) cats are cats and they will do what they will, they are not animals which can easily be controlled like dogs, it very hard to put a lead on a cat and take it for a walk and pick up its mess, trust me i have the scares from trying!

Does any one have a good recipe for vanilla ice cream i have searched on line and there are so many i can't decide which one to make, i don't have an ice cream maker so any tried and tested ways would be very much appreciated

Thanks

Sorry maybe i was a little hasty with my response, i haven't used it befor and only posted by what i have heard, i have just done a bit of quick reserch on the matter on the internet and there is a big devide in wether or not to grease the bakeware, some people are saying there is no need (mainly sales people) then there are people who say you need to as when you take the cake out you can lose the thin browned outer layer if your recipie is low in fat content, also to add more confusion there are people which say that cakes etc have cook unevenly and need an extra few mins in the oven.
By the sounds of it i think it maybe a bit of trial and error to find the best way to use the equipment.
Sorry for not really being any help

When using silicon bakeware there is no need to do any greasing or buttering of the pans as they are 'non-stick'

Maybe Halumi cheese as it is salty instead of bacon (if it is the main part of a dish)