Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

chris_m

Pyxis wrote: »

Well, at least there's no m in serf! :rotfl:

:D:D

Mind you, go back far enough and you might find some woad! :rotfl:

Got a way to go for that methinks - earliest birth year I have is 1540.

GDB2222

If I want to make vol au vents, does it make sense to buy some pastry and a suitable cutter?

Is puff pastry what I want?
https://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Jus-Rol-Puff-Pastry-Sheets-Frozen/81562011

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

If I want to make vol au vents, does it make sense to buy some pastry and a suitable cutter?

Is puff pastry what I want?
https://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Jus-Rol-Puff-Pastry-Sheets-Frozen/81562011

Yup. Puff pastry.
That's the vent in the vol, the way it all puffs up!



Made with short crust pastry, it wouldn't be a vol au vent, it would be a canapè.

GDB2222

Can you think of a nice vegetarian filling, please? Maybe creamy mushrooms with garlic?

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

Can you think of a nice vegetarian filling, please? Maybe creamy mushrooms with garlic?

Are you having a 70s night?




Having said that, I always liked vol au vents, especially if they were small enough to pop straight in the mouth. Saves biting into them and having half of it disintegrate down your front!

I would say, re. a filling, make sure it's got a strong flavour; so many fillings I've had have been very bland.

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

If I want to make vol au vents, does it make sense to buy some pastry and a suitable cutter?

Is puff pastry what I want?
https://www.ocado.com/webshop/product/Jus-Rol-Puff-Pastry-Sheets-Frozen/81562011

Who are they for, and how important is "perfect presentation"?

Yes, puff pastry.

But you can use "anything" to do the cutting bit, if you've something that's the right size.

Having said that, you can also pick up cutters for just a couple of quid if you do want them.

What you do is:

Cut out one circle, which will be the bottom
Cut out the top circle, then cut out a hole in it, which will be the hole for the filling.

So all you need is two round things with sharpish edges that can be used. e.g. a glass and a shot glass or sherry glass.

PasturesNew

GDB2222 wrote: »

Can you think of a nice vegetarian filling, please? Maybe creamy mushrooms with garlic?

That's all right for those that like mushrooms - but many veggies don't and/or are sick and tired of everything being mushrooms.

I'd let them starve... picky beggars.

"Anything you could bake in a veggie tart/quiche would be a good starting point". Depends how posh your people are.... roasted vegetables, roasted heritage cherry tomatoes with balsamic jus .... or wotsits with a squirt of primula cheese

Number of vegetarians matters too ... if you've one you have to think about the volume of ingredients going into what you're doing - and how you use up a "whole pack of ....".

Make something YOU will be happy enough to eat as you might be given the task of eating those leftovers for the next 3 days .... so only make veggie food that YOU would be prepared to eat.

I'd happily eat: curried egg mayo topped with half a cherry tomato ... posh people would probably be tweeting the Golf Club with a photo in horror!

Another thought on it - if you've one veggie ... you might not relish the whole "vol au vent" idea for theirs ... it might seem like "a lot of faff for all this nonsense" - so, instead, you can use the same pastry, but make mini tartlets for the veggies instead of vol au vents... "think jam tarts for size/shape + a filling".

Depends what you're trying to achieve really ... so long as there's "enough food" a veggie wouldn't moan there were no veggie vol au vents if there were plenty of veggie tarts ... in fact, "fewer calories/more filling and taste".

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

So all you need is two round things with sharpish edges that can be used. e.g. a glass and a shot glass or sherry glass.

I can think of far better things to do with glasses than using them to cut pastry :rotfl:

PasturesNew

If you want to "keep it simple" and shove something easy and tasty into a vol au vent, Linda McCartney does a nice red onion & rosemary veggie sausage. Some of that, chopped into attractive shapes, then mixed with a dollop of marmalade, or relevant chutney, could be nice.
http://www.waitrose.com/shop/DisplayProductFlyout?productId=344750

The trouble is, it's all about what people like at the end of the day though

And you can dream up all sorts of things, but if the person simply doesn't like XYZ then they'll just skip over them .... having said that, many meat-eaters are happy to plough into the limited veggie's offerings.

chris_m

PasturesNew wrote: »

I have a garden that is increasingly filling with sheets of white polystyrene.

It is a windy day and I have the usual "wind vortex" outside the patio door so I now have a collection of polystyrene going round and round and up in the air ... hopefully it'll clear the fence and land next door soon.

I take it that next door is from whence it originally came?