the takeaway secret

nykied

lexuslass wrote: »

Hi,

I stumbled across this thread on Friday last week.. ordered the book and it came on Tuesday.

I attempted some of the chinese recipes last night - I wasn't overly impressed...

I cooked the Beef Chow Mein, Sweet and Sour chicken balls, Prawn Toast and Crispy Shredded Chicken.

The 'tastes' were all there, the Chow Mein was nice but for everything that needed to be fried, I'm not sure I used the right oil.

Has anyone else tried any of these? which oil did you use for frying?

Thanks in advance

I made the crispy chilli chicken this week (my first attempt from the book) and I used olive oil as I didn't have veg oil. The chicken was lovely although it didn't have as much batter as it does at the Chinese.

The egg fried rice wasn't so nice though. I think I used too much oil as it was really greasy. I also didn't put it in the fridge overnight, which was the main downfall really. I cooked it, ran cold water through it and then fried it.

I'll know next time

lexuslass

nykied wrote: »

I made the crispy chilli chicken this week (my first attempt from the book) and I used olive oil as I didn't have veg oil. The chicken was lovely although it didn't have as much batter as it does at the Chinese.

The egg fried rice wasn't so nice though. I think I used too much oil as it was really greasy. I also didn't put it in the fridge overnight, which was the main downfall really. I cooked it, ran cold water through it and then fried it.

I'll know next time

my chicken didn't seem to hold on to much of the batter either.

After all the positive comments on here, I cooked the lamb doner kebabs last night - they went down a treat... so tasty - even my three year old DS wolfed them down and he's a bit fussy with meat!!

Will be attempting the sausage and egg muffins tomorrow morning!

So much for eating healthy and trying to lose a little timber before Christmas!!

anguk

I made a big batch of the basic curry sauce this afternoon and made Chicken Korma, Tumeric Rice and Naan Bread for dinner. Thumbs up again from DD and OH, I wish I could eat it because it looked soooo nice, the only thing I would change is the amount of milk in the naan dough it didn't need as much as the recipe said. The dough makes enough for 4 naans but they've only had one each so I've rolled the other 2 out and frozen the dough.

The rest of the basic curry sauce is cooling now so I can portion it up for the freezer.

I've got beef and pork mince in the fridge for the sausage patties and burgers, do you think it would be okay to prepare them in advance then freeze raw? It would be easier to make a big batch for the freezer then just take out however many I need.

lexuslass

anguk wrote: »

I've got beef and pork mince in the fridge for the sausage patties and burgers, do you think it would be okay to prepare them in advance then freeze raw? It would be easier to make a big batch for the freezer then just take out however many I need.

I was thinking the exact same thing... I got two packs of pork mince (they were on offer!) for the sausage thingies ... have used one of them and made 8 out of it!!!

I was wondering if it would be ok to freeze either the full pack of mince or freeze the sausage patties if I made them up... I seem to remember reading earlier on in the thread that frozen mince is a no go... or is that just the stuff you buy already frozen from the supermarket?

Mythi

Made the Texas barbeque pizza from the book tonight and its good! The only thing I did differently was to bake the base for 5 mins before adding the topping as we hate a soggy bottom

jaxx46

anguk wrote: »

The rest of the basic curry sauce is cooling now so I can portion it up for the freezer.

I've got beef and pork mince in the fridge for the sausage patties and burgers, do you think it would be okay to prepare them in advance then freeze raw? It would be easier to make a big batch for the freezer then just take out however many I need.

I've always do this with homemade burgers and now I do it with the sausage patties, as you say makes it so much easier. HTH

p.s I use my burger press for both.

Swan_2

I finally got round to cooking something from the book

I did the Doner Kebab (well, 3 of them ) & everyone loved it, & the sauces & salad, in spite of me putting the onions to soak in the fridge & forgetting to use them
we'll probably end up having kebab for breakfast tomorrow :rotfl: so they won't be wasted

the book's worth having for this recipe alone, excellent :T


PS ... I can't remember who advised halving the amount of mint sauce in the red sauce recipe, but many thanks for that tip, it was perfect

seafarers_wife

im just in the process of making the donner kebab. my house smells like a donner kebab so its going in the right direction did try a little nibble when i turned it over and its spot on. however the downside for me is that the tray im using is soaking in grease so i will try it with reduced fat lamb mince next time to see if it tastes the same.

going to try the spareribs tomorrow as i have a massive spare rib addiction.

Swan_2

seafarers_wife wrote: »

im just in the process of making the donner kebab. my house smells like a donner kebab so its going in the right direction did try a little nibble when i turned it over and its spot on. however the downside for me is that the tray im using is soaking in grease so i will try it with reduced fat lamb mince next time to see if it tastes the same.

going to try the spareribs tomorrow as i have a massive spare rib addiction.

I used Tesco value minced lamb, which has less fat than their 'normal' stuff & there was very little in the tray at the end of the cooking, & there was me with a rack all ready so it wouldn't be sitting in grease

tbh the meat was a little dry, although very tasty

so, I don't know whether it's down to me not being used to my new fan oven & I've overcooked it, or whether I need to use the fattier lamb :think:

it was really good anyway, hope you enjoy yours

Triker

These were in Home Bargains today for 69p a tub...bought a few as I thought they'd do very well for the powdered onion, just grind them up more for the recipes.