What's cooking / VT cookbook merge

[Meath_Villan]

??

 

 

[peterms]

Anything other than a slow-cooked lamb curry would be a crime with that, surely.

 

Very well.  Poll has closed, curry it is.  And soup, of course.  I shall start gently cooking the mutton tomorrow, and finish it in a curry on Wednesday.

[Meath_Villan]

Take a few pics will you ....with a decent camera

[peterms]

OK, here's stages 1 and 2.

 

The mutton:

 

 

Tried some thin shavings, but it's not like Parma ham.  Not cured through, so the outer bits are quite hard and the inner bits partly raw.  The taste is also pretty undeveloped compared to cured ham - I suppose that's the difference in length of time it's been curing.

 

 

Trimmed the fat and rendered it.  Simmered the mutton as gently as possible for a couple of hours, with an occasional tiny bubble just breaking the surface.  Let it cool in the stock overnight, then cut into cubes for a curry, with the scraps chopped up to add to the soup.

 

 

And now the meat is marinading in vinegar, cinnamon, cloves, fenugreek, cumin, coriander, chilli, pepper, turmeric, cardamom, as the basis for a mutton vindaloo later.

 

[Meath_Villan]

Nice. .......thats not a global knife is it ?

[peterms]

It is.

[Meath_Villan]

Wont tell you what we call chefs with globals so :-D

[BOF]

I can almost smell it

Wont tell you what we call chefs with globals so :-D

You can tell me. He won't look.

[Shillzz]

Probably not of too much interest to the professionals, but I found Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food on BBC to be really good.

 

Have already pinched one recipe from the program and it went down a storm.

[peterms]

You can tell me. He won't look.

Yes.  I promise not to look. 

[Meath_Villan]

Probably not of too much interest to the professionals, but I found Tom Kerridge's Proper Pub Food on BBC to be really good.

Yeah hes good haven't seen the show tho .....only tv show im watching is the great irish/english bakeoff ...im pants at breads etc

 

Edited September 25, 2013 by Meath_Villan

[peterms]

OK, final pics of the reestit mutton jobby.

 

Mutton vindaloo

 

 

with Butter Chicken (oddly, I don't use any butter in my Butter Chicken).

 

 

veg curry

 

 

and garlic and coriander naan

 

 

 

And you don't need pics of rice, steamed in chicken stock.

 

The mutton was still really salty, even after bringing to the boil and changing the water.

 

I think if I used it again, I'd treat it like salt cod - soak it for several days, changing the water each day.

[Risso]

F*** me Peter, I could wolf that down about now.

[Meath_Villan]

on the lamb ...a bit of a waste of money for what you used it for as a dried meat (or ment to be) brined(salted water) and aged .....then you went and simmered the meat (rehydrated) and then smothered in spices ...for the average joe soap just use a good quality diced lamb.

 

But whats the point in cooking if you dont experiment

 

 

anyway the other chef at work started a sour dough "starter"

 

[Meath_Villan]

tell you what tho your flatbreads are nice ....like the ones we make in work the veg curry and butter chicken with out the butter (tikka) looks top as well 

[peterms]

on the lamb ...a bit of a waste of money for what you used it for as a dried meat (or ment to be) brined(salted water) and aged .....then you went and simmered the meat (rehydrated) and then smothered in spices ...for the average joe soap just use a good quality diced lamb.

It's not dried, though - not in the way that Parma ham is dried, which you certainly wouldn't cook with.  You wouldn't use it as a dried meat - I did try, and it doesn't really work, because it's not cured evenly and right through like a good ham.  So the recipes you will find do call for it to be boiled, in the same way that you reconstitute bacalhau before making a dish.

 

It might be the Shetland climate, which is too damp to dry any food properly.  It's just preserved, with lots of salt and originally the smoke from peat fires where it was hung in the rafters (reests). 

 

I've made that dish with lamb, and pork, and beef, and this is quite different.  Given the extra stages you go through compared to just using fresh meat, the question is whether it's worth it.  The byproduct is the salty stock, which I'm going to use for harira and maybe a lentil soup as well.  I don't think I'd seek out reestit mutton, because it's not quick or simple to use.  But interesting to have a go with.

[Meath_Villan]

I wonder would resting it in cold water over a few days ....changing the water every 6 hours have drawn the brine out a bit .....like when you do boiled bacon

[peterms]

I wonder would resting it in cold water over a few days ....changing the water every 6 hours have drawn the brine out a bit .....like when you do boiled bacon

 

Yes, that's what I said earlier - if I used it again, I'd treat it like salt cod and soak it for a few days in lots of changes of water.  Didn't realise just how much salt they'd used, but I suppose in a wet climate, you need more salt to preserve, because the air won't dry it.

[privateer]

Wont tell you what we call chefs with globals so :-D

 

As I have a set and am not a pro, I suppose that makes me even more of what it is that you call them. Or less? Dunno. I'm sure it's not a compliment.

 

Don't worry, you can say it. I bought them because they work for me and I'm not going to get butthurt at something insulting and start crying about post on poster. I suppose I might be setting myself up for a PM entitled "clearing in the woods" or "word removed", instead though.

[Risso]

I don't know what professional chefs make of Global knives, but I love them.  Had a couple snap over the years though.