Thread 3 - TalkExiles: "The Planet Goes On Being Round"

[Kucingsparkles]

Continuation of previous lifeboat threads 1 and 2.

Gather here all ye refugees from the JTT Flat Earth Society, welcome to the reassuringly oblate spheroid of MN! Ye all already know the answers to the questions "How the heck do I format my post?" "Why can't I edit my typos?" "What do those acronyms mean?" and most importantly, "Where is everybody that I used to know?"

So really we're all here just to chat randomly.

Mushrooms and chick peas. I doubt it'll be amazing, but it's something a bit different. I'll do some roasties with it. My BFF sent me, amongst other things, a massive Xmas table cover, so she'll be expecting a photo of a massive spread I suppose! 😁

Well, ours is done. My wife was down for one job, making the Yorkshire puddings. As a result of oven space, I did the meat for 2pm, along with the roasties and parsnips. 2 O'Clock, I said.

At 1:40, she turned the oven up to 250 and took the spuds and parsnips out, which I discovered when I went to do something else. I put them back in, the Yorkies flopped. She wondered why I was pissed off.

Apart from that, it went fairly smoothly.

..... She has form for ignoring cooking instructions and spoiling meals!

We've just had a very successful Xmas dinner. Lamb shoulder, salted for 36 hours then cooked in the surviving duck fat for 12 hours, chilled yesterday then roasted to crisp it, and served with a sauce made by MiniPSB. All much much less work than the traditional Xmas meal, and more delicious.

There was so little to do, I was twiddling my thumbs this morning so darned a sock.

Tarte Tatin once we've opened the presents. MiniPSB and I drank a bottle of fizz, and a bottle of white last night, plus a whisky each. I felt OK this morning, until I dashed upstairs to get my Xmas apron, and felt very queasy...

My chicken has just gone in the oven. I have been looking forward to this for DAYS!

I cooked roast chicken for my mother and salmon with orange and lemon for me, roast potatoes, sprouts and carrots, plus some asparagus for me. It was good, and now I am making chicken stock. For a non-meat-eater, I do rather enjoy buggering about with carcasses!

We had mushroom and walnut pate, then herby roast spuds/parsnips/carrots, roast sprouts with almonds, and Persian 'nut roast' with apricots dates, hazelnuts and pistachios (although it was called nut roast it was rice based and really more of a pilaf), with cranberry and orange chutney. Then a pause before chocolate orange truffle cake. With more hazelnuts on top.

Quite nutty, overall, but very tasty.

@BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn - that sounds totally yummy.

It does, I love pilaf.

@SinnerBoy Nothing sadder than a flopped yorkshire.

Somebody said l tarte tatin.. one of my favourite desserts. Was thinking about making it the other day but ended up using the pastry for mince pies so I’ll perhaps have another baking session next week.

I’m considering getting a paneer curry as I think the local Indian takeaway is open.

The Persian nut roast sounds lovely.

It does - I'd like the recipe for that, please @BinturongsSmellOfPopcorn

My dinner is about to be ready - nut, cheese and breadcrumb base, leeks in bechamel on top. Melon before, apricot and peach trifle after. And wine - have been sober so far, but did have one chocolate this morning.

and tomorrow I will gorge on meat - don't let Christmas dinner trick you into thinking I'm vegetarian.

So far today I've had a couple of slices of dolly bread (a small seeded Warburton loaf that my friend Snoop once said is "like dolly bread", so that's what it's called now) with Primula cheese with "prawns" in. Not very exciting but my appetite is very meh and not interested in good food so I haven't wasted my money on more expensive things that I won't get the benefit of.

I seem to have gone a little backward today in terms of getting better but that's probably because I overdid it yesterday. I spent too long wandering around after the cinema because I was enjoying the atmosphere which wasn't wise given I knew I was nowhere near better enough to be doing that. I'll eat some more later. Oh, I might eat some After Eights as I got a box from Snoop!

Anyway, I'm glad that there are a lot of good Christmases happening and mine could be far worse. I'm warm and cosy, have all that I need and will watch some television throughout the evening.

@IReallyLikeCrows - thank you for talking about It's A Wonderful Life yesterday, because it inspired me to watch it again on Amazon Prime last night, complete with some Christmas chocolates and a glass of Bailey's. A perfect Christmas Eve combo, I thought.

Happy Christmas to all you exiles!

Carols from Kings was good - that piece by Warren(?) called Peace on Earth (again ?) was superb.

We had a family lunch with our scouse extended gang, the highlight of which was a somewhat frantic 12 days and a question as to how many things were given in total. I suprised myself with a rapid "twelve factorial" which I think is right but was rejected by the gang as being too-fucking-clever-by-half and had to do a charade as penance.

My top present for angelica went down well. It's a fine, light cashmere wrap in a marshmallow colour, a very pale pink/magenta. I thought £65 was pretty good. But disaster - my niece's big soft, daft golden retriever jumped up and laddered it very slightly. Nobody can see it, but I know that angelica can ....

So our son and I have found another - a lovely platinum colour - and we're going halves so she has a perfect one.

What a great day! Saw two of the grandkids this morning. Within minutes the 6 year old was assembling and painting the make-your-own-birdhouse we bought her, still wearing a frilly flamenco dress her gran brought from Spain in her size. Hard to beat a morning like that.

Happy Christmas again, you big bunch of awful bigots (and now, I note from today) homophobes. Per one of the usual suspects and apparently endorsed by JtS.

Do take it easy for a few days, Crows.

I'm afraid I can't provide a pilaf recipe, because we cheated and bought it from a local caterer.

Just seen the homophobe thing. Usual dickheads indeed. OTOH, it's increasingly hard to care, isn't it?

I like to use jasmine rice in pilau rice dishes. I don't know if this would be a pilaf or not, but

1. onions, garlic, lots of ginger cooked to near-brown in oil or ghee. Garlic added last so it does burn, and lots of ginger, no peeling needed.
2. veg - zukes, green beans, whatever you like, add (or meat - I sometimes use chicken thighs)
3. cashew nuts or almonds, add
4. 1 cup of rice, add
5. stir until rice is opaque
6. two cups of stock - i just use veg stock but chicken stock for sure if you used chicken
7. Turn to very low heat, cover tightly and don't open for 20m.

For fancier stufff, we sometimes cook some potato slices separately and stir them in. Fluff the whole thing up with what you like - sweet stuff apricots, raisins, splash of rosewater; more saltier nuts etc.

It certainly is, duc.

BTW did anyone watch the Motherland Xmas special? There's a massive thread on it, and many MN posters were Very Disappointed. I thought it was great meself.

For the love of God no one is to hand me a wafer thin mint.

I’ve been inspired by bint’s dinner and am making pilaf with harissa, saffron, rose petals and roasted veg. I might even top it with some pistachios. Just poured myself a glass of wine and about to chase Kasper with a feather while it’s cooking.

Arf at Bint's cheating pilaf - and there I was, in awe! I am super-cheating this evening with Iceland's finest frozen Christmas Dinner Kebabs! Turkey, stuffing and pigs in blankets on skewers. Plus their (equally frozen) red cabbage with apple. I only went in for mince pies.

Cyan, I regularly make paneer jalfrezi from this recipe, which is foolproof: maunikagowardhan.co.uk/cook-in-a-curry/easy-paneer-jalfrezi-with-spices-chilli-and-peppers-for-jamies-food-tube/

The only problem is getting decent paneer. I asked a veggie friend who said "Oh, we make our own .... er, I mean my mum makes it and keeps me stocked up when we see each other, once a week." Her mum lives about 75 miles away.

I love paneer. My local Indian takeaway puts it in any dish you like if you ask them nicely. You can get nice paneer in Waitrose and in the world food fridge section of Sainsbury’s (not Apetina, horrible). I’ve also made my own but it came out crumbly and was very messy.

I haven’t had much success with homemade curries but I’ll give that recipe a go, thank you! I like making chilli paneer which is pretty foolproof www.vegrecipesofindia.com/chilli-paneer-restaurant-style-recipe/

I can’t BELIEVE I didn’t buy After Eights. I bought Quality Street and ate all the strawberry and orange creams, also a box of cherry liqueur chocs and ate almost all of them, and I remember eyeing up a box of assorted Bendicks mints in the supermarket and got distracted. Now I crave After Eights. Dinner was grand and I’ve already put the carcass in the bottom of the Aga for stock. We have enough leftover chicken for a whole second Christmas dinner each tomorrow! Feels much later than it is, after an unaccustomed half bottle of wine think I’ll be in bed very soon, although have still got my unopened beauty advent calendar to binge on.