The Cookery Thread

[Biscuit]

I love this. - my type of cooking - whatever happened to the galloping gourmet?

Biscuit

[giraffe]

His horse collapsed because he'd eaten too much and the horse couldn't cope with the extra weight?

[Bunnylump]

Stupid thing is when I was first sent it I thought it was a real one (didn't read it)! Good job I didn't buy the ingredients eh?

[gill216]

Before I forget what I did!!!

This will do just as well in the micro but what I was trying to do was get the chocolate fountain flowing.

All cooking chocolate.

2 bars of white, 1 plain and 2 milk. melted in the micro with a standard sized mug of vegetable oil and stirred well to mix.

Half the mix for just table dipping.

The big discovery is that if you freeze the leftovers in ice cube trays it is to die for- and it's not necessary to defrost it before eating.

Next time I will pop some nuts or dried fruit into the ice cube trays before I add the left over chocolate mixture- and the fountain is heading for the bin

[evilkeen]

Ooh that sounds SO delicious... [why isn't there a 'mouth-watering' smiley?]

[LAT]

Right, I'm off to buy the ingredients for lunnybumps Christmas cake, I feel I have to give that one a go.

And if I'm quiet this afternoon you'll know why.

[Bunnylump]

[kathlyn]

Recipe for Duck with Christmas Spices

One 2kg duck will serve 4 people easily and if you have a crowd for lunch you can easily roast 2 or 3 ducks at the same time. I’ve used parsnips, carrots and sweet potatoes here but any root vegetables will obviously work well. Duck is quite a forgiving meat and will still be succulent even if you overcook it slightly.

Serves 4-5 people.

1 x 2kg Gressingham duck
2 clementines
2 large red onions
1 stick celery
50g mushrooms
3 large parsnips
6 large carrots (or as preferred)
3 large sweet potatoes
6 bay leaves
2 sprigs parsley
2 sprigs rosemary
2 large sprigs thyme
6 black peppercorns
1tsp juniper berries
1 tsp all spice berries
2 cinnamon sticks
Grating of nutmeg
5 cloves
1 fat clove garlic
2 tbsp sea salt
Half a lemon
1 litre chicken stock
200m port
2 tbsp flour

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and remove the giblets from the duck. Strip the needles from one of the sprigs of rosemary and the leaves from one of the thyme stalks and chop finely. Zest one of the clementines and crush half the peppercorns with the juniper berries and allspice berries in a pestle and mortar to a fine texture. Add the clementine zest, chopped rosemary and thyme, a good grating of nutmeg and the sea salt and mix together.

2. Pat the duck dry with kitchen towels, prick the skin all over and rub with the spiced salt mix, ensuring the whole of the bird is covered. Halve the zested clementine and place inside the cavity of the duck with the cloves, cinnamon sticks, two of the bay leaves, clove of garlic and remaining sprig of rosemary. Place the duck on the bars of the oven shelf and place a deep-sided roasting tin on the shelf beneath to catch the fat as it drips through.

3. To prepare the root vegetables for roasting: scrub the parsnips and carrots (reserving two), peel the sweet potatoes and cut into large chunks. Par-boil the carrots and parsnips for 2 minutes in boiling salted water then drain, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

4. To prepare the vegetables for the gravy; peel and halve the red onions and halve two of the carrots and the celery stick then when the duck has had 40 minutes cooking quickly remove the tray from the oven pour the oil out into a dish and place the onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms and duck giblets into the roasting tray and return to the oven shelf underneath the duck.

5. Cook the duck for a further 40 minutes then remove the roasting tray, tip out the gravy vegetables and giblets and replace with the parsnips, carrots and sweet potato chunks. Drizzle 2 tbsp of the reserved duck fat over the roasting vegetables and return the tray to the oven beneath the duck for a further 40 minutes.

6. To make the gravy heat 2tbsp of the duck fat in a large saucepan and when hot add the flour, stirring to make a roux. Gradually add the chicken stock and port then add the gravy vegetables (discarding the giblets at this stage) with the sprigs of parsley and the remaining bay leaves, thyme and peppercorns. Simmer gently for about half an hour until reduced and slightly thickened then strain the gravy, discard the vegetables and herbs, add the lemon juice and season to taste.

7. When the duck is cooked remove from the oven, place on a carving board, cover loosely with foil and allow to rest for at least 10 minutes before carving. Serve the duck on a platter with the roasted vegetables and the remaining halved clementines for guests to squeeze over their meat.

[Bunnylump]

That sounds wonderful, Kathlyn. I'll definitely be trying that one.

[gill216]

Does anyone have a european gas oven?

In fact- does anyone know the difference (I didn't, but I do now). I've inadvertently got one and I hate it.

I really need comments on this -and help if it's available. I'm having a tussle with comet right now and my guarantee runs out in April..

[giraffe]

Have you tried speaking French to it? or if that doesn't work German?

[gill216]

Italian is more appropriate- seriously!!!!

I will eventually tell you all why.

Right now I need to know if anyone has one, knows the description, or knows its cooking abilities and has/knows of any problems.

[giraffe]

No, but I bought a cooker once that I couldn't get to cook anything. The timings were way out. After 3 months of trying to cook with it I contacted the place I bought it from and they asked if I had the guarantee card. So I got out the guarantee, only to find it was filled out with someone else's name and details. They had obviously returned it as it didn't work and it had be resold to me as a new cooker! The shop were quite stroppy and couldn't understand why it had taken 3 months to work out that it was not working. I had assumed that it was me that was a dreadful cook.

[MBH]

Our cooker (oven) is electric, and if it were examined by anyone in authority it would be condemmed Rubber seals all falling off (which means the kitchen gets more heat than the food does). Everything takes 30% longer to cook and needs a higher setting than it should.

NO cash to do the kitchen, which is what is needed - so I carry on cooking in it

[Bunnylump]

Our gas oven isn't European (as far as I know (it's a Cannon) but I DO know that if you replace yours, Gill, that I WOULD NOT recommend one of these. It's absolute rubbish. Doesn't cook things reliably, and needs to be dismantled every time I clean it. And when I say "dismantled" I mean as in getting the screwdriver out. The only reason we got this one is that our kitchen is so small we are really restricted as to what size cooker we can have.

[Biscuit]

We have a naff oven - its electric and the door handle has fallen to bits so we now prise it open at the edge

We also have two naff gas hobs which only 1 burner works - so i cook everything on one ring.lol.

Also naff dishwasher which sometimes works, sometimes doesnt, sometimes takes 6 hours to do a single wash and just when i go to call the menders in it will do a good wash.

wouldn't recommend Neff

Biscuit

[gill216]

I eventually got the result I wanted from Comet so I'm now looking for a new gas cooker. Does anyone have any experience of BEKO products? I keep returning to one model but because its at the lower end of pricing brackets I'm a bit wary.

[Bunnylump]

My Mum's got one, but it's very difficult to light the oven. It was the cheapest one of the range though. (Actually she doesn't use it - I went to all the trouble of getting it for her just as she discovered the wonders of Waitrose ready meals in the microwave! )

Having said that we have a Canon one and it's rubbish. It's got this stupid double glass on the front of the grill and the oven which gets stuff running down between it because it's not sealed properly and unless you dismantle the door you can't clean it.

[maisie ladybird]

We've not got a BEKO cooker, but have got a fridge/freezer and washing machine - we've had the fridge about a year now and it basically does what it's supposed to do, and we haven't had any problems with it.
I had to have a new washing machine about 2 months ago and read quite a lot of reveiws of different models, but the BEKO, as well as one of the best priced, also had brilliant reviews (I couln't find a single bad one) and so far I'm very happy with it.

[Bunnylump]

I've just been given loads of QUAILS' EGGS. Anyone got any recipes? I'm not sure quite what to do with them...they're so dinky it's not worth boiling them!