Can we start a thread about all our unanswered food Q's and recipes?

[fallenempires]

I'm hoping that the collective culinary wisdom of MN might solve some of those mysteries!
I'm still searching for a recipe that replicates Nandos spiced rice.
What food q's do you need answering?

A foolproof quiche recipe. I can make a pumpkin pie, a lemon tart, a bloody eight stranded plaited loaf. But every quiche I've ever made has either overflowed, been tasteless, or turned out like rubber.

Also it seems like such an enormous faff! Chop, cook and season filling, blind bake tart, egg mixure, bake quiche...I wouldn't mind all the work if it turned out gorgeous and silky and wobbly but it never turns out

Am I using the wrong tin? The wrong pastry? The wrong ratios? Wrong oven temp?

Which recipe are you using?
I use Delia's from her bible.Never fails.I bake it in a ceramic quiche dish in a fan oven.
I'm very impressed with your baking skills though....an eight stranded loaf!

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A)I haven't got one but have cooked on one,so I'd say yes but possibly finish them off in the oven.
B)Another mystery!
C)Another mystery!
D)Fool proof cheese sauce
50g butter
40g plain flour
1pt milk
Melt butter over low heat.Take off heat and beat in plain flour.Place back over low heat and allow to gently cook for 2 mins.Slowly add milk bit by bit constantly whisking until you have a smooth sauce.Season and add some nutmeg.Add cheese(and mustard if you like).
This always works for me but iirc there was a thread a while back about making perfect cheese sauce in the microwave.Did you give that a try?
HTH

So, yesterday I bought a potato ricer.

Wtf do I do with it?

On the cheese sauce I think it makes a massive difference if you heat the milk in the microwave before adding it. I struggled for years but now it comes out perfect every time

honest try my cheese sauce - it's sooooo easy

Ingredients
2 tbsp sauce flour (in the flour section of supermarket)
1/2pt milk
As much cheese as you like Handy Hint
Method
Put half a pint of cold milk in a jug, add 2 dessert spoons of sauce flour (near cornflour in supermarket) and however much cheese you want

Stir a few times.

Pop in microwave for 1 min, stir, put in microwave for another minute, stir, put in microwave for 1 more minute, stir - you should have a lovely smooth thick cheese sauce.

TSC

B) buy jasmine rice and follow the instructions on the packet. TA DAA!

I think that sticky rice is a type of rice thats different from basmati or whatever.

However, I make sticky rice the lazy way. No measuring faff. I just put the rice in and fill the saucepan about 3/4. Add some salt to the water and cook it until the water is gone.

It is then sticky. Probably because I dont wash the rice and it absorbs too much water. But DP loves it.

I want to know how to roast a chicken that turns out as nice as a tesco rotisserie!

mine are never that juicy or tasty. Should I be injecting them with chemicals or something?

Xposts.

Jasmine rice!

Strong cheese, pepper and nutmeg and basic sauce much as above. I never weigh it, but about 1oz each flour and butter (not Marg, olivo etc, they do work, but butter is much easier because you get a paste that cooks out the flour more easily).

Quiche far too much faff

Nado's rice just tastes like instant packet stuff (not that matters, I like both)

ExitPursuedByABear

put your potatoes in it!

Apparently you can boil them skin on too and the skin stays in the ricer, but that sounds like hard work. Just boil your spuds and put them through the ricer. Add a shit load of butter and salt for perfect mash!

LowLevelWhinging

I rub abit of butter under the skin sprinkle whole top with salt

and I always add a few tablespoons of water to the cavity - it sort of steams the meat - leaving it lovely and moist

that's a good idea Furball

How to do meringue ? I've tried but fail every time

Whats up with it Wheres? Best thing I found is to make it night before, and when its done leave it in oven, turned off, with door closed. It needs to cool really slowly.

So the ricer is just another way of mashing?

I leave my meringue on the top of the Aga to dry out.

I whip the eggs in a clean bowl but instead of it going all glossy and shiny it goes like foam. I thought maybe I over whipped so I went gentler the next time and it happened again. When I bake it doesnt go hard it is just browned soft foam

LowLevelWhinging I often break down a knorr chicken stock cube with some olive oil to make a paste which is smeared all over it and stuff a whole lemon up it's jacksy!
Startail Nandos rice is nothing like that batchelors stuff!

Meringue needs whipped in a spotless bowl. Any grease or residue in the bowl and the eggs wont whip. Same if theres any yolk in there. Plastic bowls and meringues dont go together.

Add some cream of tartar to prevent over whipping and then whip until you can turn the bowl upside down without the meringue falling out.

Oven temps and times depend on the type of meringue you want really.

How long are you whipping when it goes like foam?

It takes a good 7-10 mins with hand beaters to get it stiff. Maybe even more.

Wheresmycaffeinedrip do you whisk to soft peaks then gradually add your sugar?
I don't know whether this has any bearing on how my meringues turn out but I mix mine in the kenwood which has a metal bowl.

Maybe that's it. I tried it with the whisk attachment in my blender. And by hand in a plastic bowl.