Nice People Thread Number 10 -the official residence of Nice People

PasturesNew

neverdespairgirl wrote: »

It's dead easy to make, I think - my mother makes brandy butter, rum butter and brandy cream, and says it's simple.

Not so easy to just make one tablespoon, to try.

I've had none of those.... just custard.

This brandy butter recipe is "easy" - except you need 3 tablespoons of brandy..... which means buying a whole bottle. So it wouldn't happen. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/brandybutter_2535

Same with rum.

lostinrates

Yorkie1 wrote: »

Ta all, might post on the Car board to see if they have any ideas.

And to top it all, I decided to have a go at the 5:2 diet (where you eat only 500 calories on 2 days per week and eat normally the rest of the time). It's the first day today and I'm HUNGRY :wall:

Its fabulous.

I sort of agree with on, it is good to make some of the 500 cal days exciting, but I tend to think good, exciting cuisine that feel indulgent, There have some EXCELLENT recipes in broadsheets.

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Not so easy to just make one tablespoon, to try.

I've had none of those.... just custard.

This brandy butter recipe is "easy" - except you need 3 tablespoons of brandy..... which means buying a whole bottle. So it wouldn't happen. http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/brandybutter_2535

Same with rum.

Its really easy to make one portion of rum or brandy butter, and the quantity issues really are the same for any one, as no family (well most) don't go through a bottle of either in a hurry! If you know which you like however, you can use them in recipes for ages afterwards. .

If you make too much rum or brandy butter you can use it for bread and butter pudding. (Which I'm not that keen on personally)

LydiaJ

lostinrates wrote: »

Its really easy to make one portion of rum or brandy butter, and the quantity issues really are the same for any one, as no family (well most) don't go through a bottle of either in a hurry! If you know which you like however, you can use them in recipes for ages afterwards. .

If you make too much rum or brandy butter you can use it for bread and butter pudding. (Which I'm not that keen on personally)

Except that PN doesn't want to buy a whole bottle of rum and/or brandy that she might not want to drink or cook with the rest of. Perhaps next time we have a meet up somebody should bring her a little bit of each in little bottles, so she can give it a go. Or better still, she could let us know some of the foods she'd be interested to try, and we could bring "tasting quantities" of lots of them, so she knows which ones she likes and can decide which ones are worth buying the ingredients for.

PasturesNew

LydiaJ wrote: »

Except that PN doesn't want to buy a whole bottle of rum and/or brandy that she might not want to drink or cook with the rest of. Perhaps next time we have a meet up somebody should bring her a little bit of each in little bottles, so she can give it a go. Or better still, she could let us know some of the foods she'd be interested to try, and we could bring "tasting quantities" of lots of them, so she knows which ones she likes and can decide which ones are worth buying the ingredients for.

Yep - you got it .... there's a whole raft of things that come in bottles that means you have to buy a whole bottle, to have a tablespoon in a recipe - and if you make that dish and hate it and will never make it again, you've then got to find another bunch of recipes to try to use up that bottle.... each of which probably come with other ingredients/bottles of stuff you've never had/don't have.

Wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar are often mentioned in recipes too ... loads of things in fact. Most recipes involve something where you're just using "a bit" ...

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

Yep - you got it .... there's a whole raft of things that come in bottles that means you have to buy a whole bottle, to have a tablespoon in a recipe - and if you make that dish and hate it and will never make it again, you've then got to find another bunch of recipes to try to use up that bottle.... each of which probably come with other ingredients/bottles of stuff you've never had/don't have.

Wine vinegar and balsamic vinegar are often mentioned in recipes too ... loads of things in fact. Most recipes involve something where you're just using "a bit" ...

Fwiw if you are ever wondering about a recipe I'm sure some of us will be able to recommend a substitution.

Balsamic is one of the few harder to substitute tastes, and worth trying because its quite definite. Sweet as well as sour. (Actually you get a few other fruity vinegars that do this with mixed success and price tags......I actually don't much like the really really expensive balsamics when they are over used)

I have loads of vinegars, because I swap them for dressings more than anything. In recipes I'm more happy to sub, especially quite basic recipes where I have a vinegari think will be nicer but also where I have something I think will work better.

Similarly, wouldn't sweat it if we didn't have malt in for fish and chips


I think the vinegar we use most is cider vinegar. I often sub it for white wine or normal vinegar and sometimes have a spoon of it alone or in water. DH likes that too, or a thing called honeygar, which is the same thing but with honey. I miss acid food.

silvercar

LydiaJ wrote: »

Except that PN doesn't want to buy a whole bottle of rum and/or brandy that she might not want to drink or cook with the rest of. Perhaps next time we have a meet up somebody should bring her a little bit of each in little bottles, so she can give it a go. Or better still, she could let us know some of the foods she'd be interested to try, and we could bring "tasting quantities" of lots of them, so she knows which ones she likes and can decide which ones are worth buying the ingredients for.

The answer is little bottles.

lostinrates

LydiaJ wrote: »

Except that PN doesn't want to buy a whole bottle of rum and/or brandy that she might not want to drink or cook with the rest of. Perhaps next time we have a meet up somebody should bring her a little bit of each in little bottles, so she can give it a go. Or better still, she could let us know some of the foods she'd be interested to try, and we could bring "tasting quantities" of lots of them, so she knows which ones she likes and can decide which ones are worth buying the ingredients for.

Ok so its a specific so I like rum or brand question?

I wasn't clear on that from the way it was posed I thought it was a ' a bottle is too much for a single' which I would dispute.


Even bringing bits to taste won't necessarily help because the taste vary as to brand and type. E.g. A white rum is huge different to a dark one. Someone might like one and not the other.


PN could have swigs of a variety when she next visits me, but then wouldn't be able to drive home. :rotfl:

The alcohol taste most often found or replicated in Christmas pudding is brandy.

Generic 'rum' might be 'rum and raisin' sort of taste.

vivatifosi

LydiaJ wrote: »

Except that PN doesn't want to buy a whole bottle of rum and/or brandy that she might not want to drink or cook with the rest of. Perhaps next time we have a meet up somebody should bring her a little bit of each in little bottles, so she can give it a go. Or better still, she could let us know some of the foods she'd be interested to try, and we could bring "tasting quantities" of lots of them, so she knows which ones she likes and can decide which ones are worth buying the ingredients for.

Or any of the time we fly anywhere, we can ask for a little bottle of spirits and keep them for her. As a non-drinking cook, that's how I stock up on Vodka for my vodka arrabiata sauce...

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

...

I've only had malt vinegar, for chips and mushy peas or pickled onions - and white vinegar for pickled eggs and putting down plugholes with bicarb