Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

weezl74 · 28 February 2010 at 7:50AM

Bob and shirley's lunchtime pate test #1 :

500g pigs liver
300g onion
Gia garlic (I used 10g, but you may like more/less)

Salt and pepper

100ml oil

dry fry onion, garlic and liver and all the juices from the liver pack adding a tablespoon water if you need to to stop it catching. do this for approx 5-10 mins untill the liver is browned, this will take longer if your liver is in large pieces to start off with. You can chop it finer if you like, but some people don't like to handle liver.

when onions are soft and liver is brown, allow to cool, season and put in liquidiser, blitz for a minute or so and then drizzle in the oil, pulsing the blender a few times as you go. This should not be a stiff pate, as it will not be served with butter/spread underneath the pate, so you're aiming for a soft spreadable consistency, a little runnier than dairylea, for example.

enjoy!

ceridwen · 28 February 2010 at 8:28AM

weezl74 wrote: »

couple of interesting linkies about how the UK govt intends to take forward the food strategy in the UK between here and 2030.

http://www.dius.gov.uk/~/media/publications/GO-Science/UK-Cross-Government-Food-Research-Strategy

http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/food/strategy/

And from the first linkie, their desire to invest in research to achieve the following, with me having snipped bts out!

novel ingredients and novel formulations of ingredients – including ingredient replacement strategies."

I already feel that this thread represents a substantial action research contribution, particularly to the areas I've highlighted

Dear Gordon,

We have a little project which may be of interest to you.....

xxx

Well..thinking ahead...Gordon might be a little tied-up right now with HIS forthcoming event - ie a certain General Election. Maybes we think on beyond that and change the start of the letter to address it to David Cameron instead - wouldnt want to get the name wrong....:o

I did focus straight in on the phrase from your quote above Weezl - "novel ingredients and novel formulations of ingredients". Hmmm...they had all the right buzz words till that point....then I started going off wondering about the way they keep trying to shove gEnetically mOdified (capital letters should stop MoNSantos search engines-or-whatever-technology-it-is focusing in on us:);)) foods down our collective throats (at the moment restricted, as far as I can see, to trying to do it by stealth). Further thinking on to World War 2 "A nice bit of whale meat for you dear?"...bleugh....

Hmmm.....goes off reminding myself of Government's tendency to mouth a lot of the "right language" on the one hand - and slip things in by stealth on the other hand:cool::mad:

Of course - we could "hoist them with their own petard" and just quote back at them that "parcel of correct buzz words" they used:D....err..."sustainability" anyone?;)

weezl74 · 28 February 2010 at 8:43AM

novel ingredients and novel formulations of ingredients – including ingredient replacement strategies.

I guess by this I was meaning that instead of meeting this family's omega 3 requirements using oily fish as is currently recommended, we are using a novel formulation of ingredients, ie using 2/3rds of our oil unheated, which saves them 4% of the price of their monthly shop.

The use of powdered milk in the cooking is another example of this.

Does that make any sense?

I don't see it as being about GM foods etc, in this particular planner, so I think/hope we're safe there.

weezl74 · 28 February 2010 at 8:46AM

was anyone willing to try posting a 'what is your food non-negotiable, even if all else is unaffordable?' thread in discussion time

Similar to the poll I ran on old-style?

I'd be grateful, since people have said that this has unhelpfully skewed the data!

Sorry, I know I'm asking for a lot

ceridwen · 28 February 2010 at 8:48AM

weezl74 wrote: »

novel ingredients and novel formulations of ingredients – including ingredient replacement strategies.

I guess by this I was meaning that instead of meeting this family's omega 3 requirements using oily fish as is currently recommended, we are using a novel formulation of ingredients, ie using 2/3rds of our oil unheated, which saves them 4% of the price of their monthly shop.

The use of powdered milk in the cooking is another example of this.

Does that make any sense?

I don't see it as being about GM foods etc, in this particular planner, so I think/hope we're safe there.

Well - we're only doing what they SAY they are planning on doing - so...yep...:D

- and I've put a linkie you gave over on my foodgrowing blog (aka MSE homepage) for in depth perusal at some point.

weezl74 · 28 February 2010 at 9:12AM

Hi all again

, another question:

Since we're now trying to reduce the amount of cooked oil shirley uses, I wonder if anyone would be able to do a little research on an oil misting spray bottle/pump which she can buy to just very lightly coat the pan. I mean the kind that she fills herself from the oil she's bought.

I know lakeland do them but they are about £5 so I'm sure argos/tesco/asda etc sould come up with something cheaper for her.

Anyone willing to do some research?

And thinking ahead to plannner 2, I wonder if anyone has any ideas of how to de-egg the onion tart? It would need to 'set' the filling, like the egg does and give a little extra body to the dish.... All thoughts welcomed

edit: quick googlage shows people are trying to do this in a few different ways, often using egg replacers which are more expensive than eggs, so I thought I'd narrow it down by saying, tofu, egg replacer powder etc won't be possible sadly, but corn starch, gram flour etc may be a goer.. Hope that makes sense?!

ceridwen · 28 February 2010 at 9:16AM

Well - someone has had the chance to see if my suspicions about the Government food strategy for 2030 are correct - and done a response. You might be interested:

http://fifediet.co.uk/2010/02/24/gm-is-the-answer/

(I'm keeping very quiet about rapeseed oil - as I have a vague memory somewheres of g.m. being there in some/a lot of it - and make sure I dont buy it myself...but am thinking Shirley/Bob could always decide to go a coupla £s beyond the £100 set of the Plan and buy some other oil instead). Come to think of it - that could be one of the "non-negotiables" set of questions - "Would you buy food that has/might well have G.M. in it if you were desperate?". 'Twould be one of my non-negotiables - so rapeseed oil is out for me personally. Also an MSE staple of soya mince (FAR too high a chance that its been contaminated by G.M. - ie that "introduction by stealth" strategy of the Government).

EDIT: My memory was correct - "oil seed rape - one of the 4 main commercial G.M. crops".

ceridwen · 28 February 2010 at 9:32AM

Mind working properly this morning time:D

Just visited www.mysupermarket.com

and found that sunflower oil, for instance, is cheaper than that suspect rapeseed oil:

The cheapest rapeseed oil is actually organic - £1.82 (hopefully safe from G.M. contamination)
The cheapest non-organic rapeseed oil is £2.99 :cool:<confused smilie>

SUNFLOWER OIL
Cheapest is 93p - therefore cheaper (WAY cheaper) than rapeseed oil.

Errrrr.....why have we got rapeseed oil in the planner - rather than sunflower oil (even not bearing in mind rapeseed is suspect)?<confused smilie>

EDIT: Dont want us to unwittingly "fall into" the "trap" of going along with Government food planning strategies that I have a strong gut reaction about - telling me that the strategy boils down to "con the British public into worse-quality diet - G.M./etc/etc to help in feeding the teeming millions - rather than get to the root of the problem - ie dealing with overpopulation. For instance - that "Please stop at 2 (children)" campaign they should be running.

weezl74 · 28 February 2010 at 9:40AM

ceridwen wrote: »

(I'm keeping very quiet about rapeseed oil - as I have a vague memory somewheres of g.m. being there in some/a lot of it - and make sure I dont buy it myself...but am thinking Shirley/Bob could always decide to go a coupla £s beyond the £100 set of the Plan and buy some other oil instead). Come to think of it - that could be one of the "non-negotiables" set of questions - "Would you buy food that has/might well have G.M. in it if you were desperate?". 'Twould be one of my non-negotiables - so rapeseed oil is out for me personally. Also an MSE staple of soya mince (FAR too high a chance that its been contaminated by G.M. - ie that "introduction by stealth" strategy of the Government).

no need C, the asda vegetable oil is non-GM. You can check this by looking at the PLU code, which will begin with the digit 8 if it is GM.

Hope that helps

weezl74 · 28 February 2010 at 9:42AM

ceridwen wrote: »

Errrrr.....why have we got rapeseed oil in the planner - rather than sunflower oil (even not bearing in mind rapeseed is suspect)?<confused smilie>

We need it for the omega 3 content Ceridwen

Weezl's phase 1- recipe testing and frugalisation- come one, come all!

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