‘BEST IN SHOW’ COMMENT
We’ve left no stone unturned to find the best of the bunch on the forum boards. Fascinating foodie facts, diverse opinions and useful advice – not to mention personal food memories and a generous portion of raves and rants; choosing the best comment or thread was a delicious challenge. You can see the winning entry below.
Posted 12-04-08 by Fruitylicious
I remember havin to take minced beef, tinned carrots n instant mashed potato to a cookery lesson. The result was a Shepherds Pie nothin like my mother would make, n somethin I would avoid for many years!
We just didn't have time to make things from scratch, n things haven't changed in schools now.
My daughter is doin 'Food Tech' for her GCSE n had to create n develop a bread for 'a multi cultural society'. Wonderful, except that from start to finish (includin the 'leave to rise' stage) she had a ONE HOUR lesson!
We re-made it properly at home, which is how both my girls have learned to cook, n how I, myself learnt.
I cook mostly from fresh ingredients n it is very much appreciated by my daughters, n their friends!
My Shepherds Pie these days is absolutely delicious, with not a tin nor a packet in sight!! :)
Posted 25-03-08 by jaybil
Having only a limited travel profile I can't say much about breads from too many countries apart from say, France and Italy. In my opinion genuine French baguettes are far superior to anything made in England and the Italians do have some superb breads too, but I find that most good supermarkets here do a good substitute. Our local Sainsburys, Tesco and Morrisons do some excellent Italian-style breads. But in all truthfulness, there's nothing that quite compares to our own freshly-baked bread; we have a famous bakery where I live - Elizabeth Botham's; their products are available via the internet (no I don't work for them!) All a good bread needs is a lavish spreading of Lurpak - can't beat it.
Posted 10-02-08 by professor
My son does a "Special" potato
Excellent -- maybe for adding to my previous menu
E-Mailed him for recipe
IS as Follows
For the hassleback potatoes
8 Maris Piper potatoes, large new potatoes or baking potatoes
25 g fresh thyme, finely chopped
½ garlic clove, finely chopped *** Amendment *** --By Prof ---Garlic should "ALLWAYS" be Crushed, not chopped ( trawl through my previous postings -- or "ask")
Salt and freshly ground pepper
40 g butter
75 ml dry white wine
Prepare the hassleback potatoes. Peel the potatoes and slice off the base enabling them to sit flat.
Push a skewer through the centre of each of potatoes lengthways, 1cm up from the base.
Using a sharp knife, slice each potato vertically 12 times, cutting down to the skewers.
Preheat the oven to 200C, 400F, Gas 4,
Sprinkle the thyme, garlic, sea salt and freshly ground pepper over a roasting tray. Place the potatoes on top, dot each one with butter and sprinkle over the white wine.
Roast the hassleback potatoes for 40 minutes until golden and cooked through.
enjoy
Posted 18-01-08 by jaybil
For years there have been claims that one food or another is either bad for us, or has health-promoting properties. How do they actually prove their claims? Everyone could eat the same foods and they could claim to feel differently. I've eaten probiotic yogurts for years and can't say I've noticed a difference in my 'gut'. I just eat them because I enjoy them. I'm a firm believer in a little bit of what you fancy does you good, and I buy what I enjoy, not because 'they' say it's better for me.
As the saying goes "you can fool some of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time"!
Posted 03-11-07 by bookbrain
You can blame Pani for this - she inspired me !
SMELLS LIKE LURPAK . . .
January smells of snow and bills brought through the post -
It's time to get the Lurpak out to cheer my tea and toast.
February smells of rose and Valentine's Day dinner -
Whatever I put on my love's plate, with Lurpak it's a winner !
March smells of wet wellingtons ranked in the hall to dry:
It's time to get the Lurpak out for a warming chicken pie.
April smells of daffodils, and spring cleaning indoors,
Lurpak on the rolls for tea, and polish on the floors.
May brings the smell of new-turned earth across the countryside:
In the kitchen, Lurpak's out - new recipes are tried !
June smells are full of flowers beside the garden wall:
The Lurpak's out for baking - now's the time for friends to call.
July smells of warm candyfloss and ice-cream at the fair,
Lurpak and cool cucumber - the perfect sandwich pair.
August smells of frying fish and salt air by the sea
And Lurpak on my chip butties - my mouth waters in glee !
September smells of ripened fruits: apple, berry, plum;
With Lurpak in the crumble mix, everyone's my chum !
October smells of Hallowe'en and leaves blown down to die.
It's time to get the Lurpak out to make a pumpkin pie !
November smells of gingerbread, and woodsmoke by the lake.
It's time to get the Lurpak out to make the Christmas cake.
December smells of cinnamon spice, and ice formed in the gutter,
And snug at home, the Lurpak's out to make the brandy butter.
So all the year's a happy one, as full as full can be
With family, friends, delicious smells - and Lurpak for my tea !
Enjoy . . . :)
Posted 29-10-07 by lgw
I have visited butchers by the dozen searching for a tasty and tender steak to serve as a weekend treat only to be dissapointed every time.
After a trip to Mexico and one of the most delicious Steaks in the world, the chef let me into his secret: marinate the steak in pure pineapple juice for two hours prior to cooking, dry well and dip in olive oil and griddle cook ,grill or bbq.After cooking drizzle with pure (lurpak Of course) butter ,black peppercorns and a clove of crushed garlic.
now pass me the champ and mushrooms
Posted 04-09-07 by bandmember
Roadkill can be delicious so long as you know it's fresh. Twice a week do a 6 mile drive to band practice on narrow country roads. I've never hit a rabbit or a pheasant myself but if I notice that on my return journey there's a corpse beside the road. So I get out, have a look and if it is fresh and not squashed,I take it home in a plastic bag, get a friend to skin or pluck,(I'm too squeamish) and make a savoury casserole. Fry the bird/rabbit joints in Lurpak, add apples (windfalls are good in autumn) and a few plums, a chopped onion and a can of cider, cook slowly in the oven for one and a half hours. Scrumptious and I don't feel guilty as I didn't kill it, and it had an instant end (I hope).
Posted 26-08-07 by Fruitylicious
'Twas a day back in June when I fancied some bread,
Opened a new Lurpak and read what it said,
"Enter this code and become a big winner!"
So I submitted, with trust in luck for a beginner.
When I had done that, I clicked "Forum" to see
What other Lurpak fans on this site there may be.
I found dozens! and my! they all seemed to have fun
In chatting and joking and guessing who's won.
There were "one-post wonders" with a penchant to moan
About the behaviour of others, which they couldn't condone.
I saw recipes given with a great sense of pride
And warnings 'bout fads that may take you for a ride.
There was seriousness, cheekiness, questions and wit.
Debates about GM I could see were a hit.
Then there's the regulars who I have grown to adore,
With their to-and-fro banter. But I wanted more!
So I registered, logged-on and chose my screen name
And dared to reply to a post, for a game,
Then checked every hour to see if someone replied
And after a day, decided I'd died....
But yay! eventually was accepted at last
and comments to my offerings came through thick and fast.
I've said things I wouldn't dare say to a face!
And rattled off nonsense at fairly a pace!
I've talked to Jaybil, VER and Mummybma
And TheEricPollard too, what more can I say?!
I feel that I've made some friends I hold dear
And oh how I miss them when they don't visit here!
It is great to absorb everybody's ideas
And see how many times an avatar appears.
So to Lurpak, the makers of really best Butter
I'd like to say Thanks! From your number one Nutter x
(now can I have a toaster?);)
Posted 15-07-07 by treats ahoy
Superfoods - hmmm even the name seems suspicious, feels like a marketeer could have been let loose in someones allotment to me. Upon further research I have definitely decided that this may be the case. How some lucky fruits like pomegranates, acai and blueberries have risen to the giddy heights of superfruit stardom is all down to a thing called ORAC - Oxygen Radical Absorption Capacity. It is an assay that measures the antioxidant activity of a substance, and it is true that blueberries, pomegranates and acai are all high in antioxidants - however so are plums, grapes, blackcurrants and blackberries. Also the ORAC test is only one type of assay, it only highlights one aspect of the fruit. How do we not know that the humble apple isnt full of other interesting ingredients besides those that are picked up through ORAC? Surely we haven't been banging on about an apple a day keeps the doctor away for nothing? I suppose if there is a gaggle of marketeers behind all this, it is essentially doing people good in the end and anything to get people to 5+ a day surely must be ok. However I would hate to think people are disregarding other fruits because of all this. Maybe more common fruit need a turn in the limelight also.
Posted 10-06-07 by Wytchie
I personally don't pay an awful lot of attention to best before dates, but will take more notice of use by dates, particularly on products which I know can be high risk.
Having said that, I think instead of blindly relying on such dates, it would benefit many to be given more education about food safety. To me, such dates are a useful tool but should not be relied upon alone; as a few previous posters have said, it does happen that food within use by dates can be off, and although many have said that it is common sense that allows them to tell whether this is the case or not, I don't think this is entirely true; I do think it is more a case that we have been educated to know when food is good to eat and when it isn't. Because most of us were lucky enough to be taught when food looks or smells a certain way it isn't good to eat when we were younger, does not mean that this knowledge is entirely "common sense", it is just "old knowledge", and something which I feel is in danger of not being passed on to future generations, as we develop an over-reliance on "authority" of one form or another making all of our decisions for us.
Increasingly, people are relying not just on such dates but on pre-packaged, "ready-meal" type foods. I think yes, convenience does have a part to play in this, but that a lot of the time, it is also that people are unable to make the dishes they like from scratch, so choose the easier alternative. People don't understand enough about food ingredients or food preparation, and whilst such dates can be a useful tool to many, they should never be used to replace, or cause us to forget the importance of, genuine knowledge about food.
We should be encouraging people to learn and understand food better, rather than spoon-feeding people advice and thinking that this alone is enough. Use the dates, but use them with some personal knowledge to back it up.
Posted 11-05-07 by Fra
Ancient wisdom is "De gustibus non est disputandum" (that means "one man's meat is another man's poison" as to say there's no point debating about personal taste), but I'll ignore it for a while and I'll tell my opinion about what Good Food is because it's not only a matter of taste but safety and health too.
Before doing that, I've checked on the dictionary what "Organic Food" exactly means[1].
Ok, I recognize that definition as Organic Food, and I also discover many interesting facts, for instance a US 2006 study on schoolchildren showed that "levels of organophosphorus pesticide exposure dropped dramatically and immediately when the children switched to an organic diet", and this should be true for most/any pesticide and herbicide.
This really seems to be a scientific fact.
They also mention that "A 2001 study by researchers at Washington State University concluded, under judgement by a panel of tasters, that organic apples were sweeter."
Well, that could be questionable, but I agree about the taste: I've grown for years vegetables and fruits in my garden, as my father does, following an organic standard, and based on my experience and I am sure that Organic grown food can be healthier and tastier than conventional food, I just think at tasty meaty beef tomatoes, as an example.
I followed organic standards because, for example, in order to avoid buying insecticides to protect tomato plants (that can be very sensible), other plants planted amongst them, can be used to fight pests: Mary's Gold (Tagete [2]) near the tomato plant will keep away nematodes and aphides, Basil will keep away whiteflies, Nasturtium will keep away aphides.
Since it seems there's also scientific evidence that Organic is better (safer, healthier) than conventional food, my opinion is "yes, Good Food has to be Organic" not mentioning all nice features of "Organic Food" I like, as being made by "Sustainable agriculture", just to name one.
If Good Food has to be Organic, it doesn't mean that I am a fanatic who must have only Top Good Food 24 hours a day.
Despite Organic food sales in UK "increased from just over £100 million in 1993/94 to £1.21 billion in 2004"[3], Organic Food (vegetables and meat) is still quite expensive, or, at least me, I can't afford to buy only organic, and I don't have my own garden right now.
My strategy now is to buy organic food and conventional food depending on what I'm going to cook, i.e. there are some dishes where the difference between free range eggs and just fresh eggs is not stark, and yes... it's not the case of zabaglione! :-)
[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_food
[2]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagetes
[3]: http://www.organic.aber.ac.uk/statistics/index.shtml
Posted 04-04-07 by sallym
ready meals are as ready as you make them. Just cook double what you need and freeze the rest, if you do this for a couple of days you have healthy home made food as easy as microwaving a ready meal.
It is just as quick if not quicker and you also know exactly what it is you are eating - and its cheaper!
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