What are you making for dinner?

C_J

We also love the cafe at the Garlic Farm. If I close my eyes, I can smell it now

I was supposed to be making crab and red chilli linguine for tonight, but there is lots of the veg curry left over from yesterday and I have zero room in the freezer so we'll have to finish that off instead. Shame, as I really fancied the crab linguine

I have fabricated a made up pudding, to use up various bits and bobs which needed to be used. It may even be a real, recognised pudding, who knows?  I made a base with crushed digestive biscuits, dessicated coconut, grated ginger and melted butter. Then a layer of thick fresh egg custard. When that has cooled, it will be topped with whipped cream mixed with drained tin of crushed pineapple. I may even grate a little dark chocolate over the top for an added flourish. I'm very devil-may-care today.

Brie

considering making some rhubarb and custard cake.  I've made it before and it's lovely but the recipe calls for roasting the rhubarb first which is a faff.  i would agree it needs to be cooked but is there any reason why it needs to be roasted rather than merely cooked in a pan - much easier to wash up in my opinion.

C_J

Perhaps the rhubarb is wetter when it has been cooked in a pan, and that might make the cake soggy? I’d still cook it in a pan but would drain it well.

I’ve certainly given up oven roasting things as per recipe instructions, as it’s expensive to switch on the oven for something like that - the aubergine in last night’s curry was supposed to have been roasted, but I chopped it and pan fried it (and the curry was lubbly).

Brie

Good to know it's not just me being lazy and/or cheap!!!

goldfinches

I made these brie, fig and pine nut pastries a week or so ago from one of my recipe books and managed to take a couple of photos to demonstrate the difference that the oven shelf height made to my results so thought I'd pop them up here for others to see.
My oven is electric, non-fan and I use an oven thermometer to check the temperature before putting my trays in.

Top shelf pastries.


Middle shelf pastries moved to top shelf for an extra five minutes.



Interestingly there wasn't as much difference in the taste and texture of the pastries as I'd expect from their appearance. I can't find an online version of the recipe I used but it is included in this book Small Batch Baking: 60 Sweet and Savory Recipes to Satisfy Your Craving eBook : Kline, Saura: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store which is free if you have kindle unlimited.

Brie

Interesting that they turn out so very different.  I find that muffins need to be turned as the back cooks slower than the front - but that's a fan assisted.  I haven't notice much difference from one shelf to another.

Off to consider the chicken and whether there's enough salad.  

kerri_gt

I am debating joining the Air Fryer club so i don't need to use the oven much. The only thing is that we'd need to lose the microwave aa that's the only convenient location in the kitchen it would go.

Brie

@goldfinches

Heres (hopefully) a berry I'm sending my mom for her birthday. And another pic I did today.

JIL

Brie said:

considering making some rhubarb and custard cake.  I've made it before and it's lovely but the recipe calls for roasting the rhubarb first which is a faff.  i would agree it needs to be cooked but is there any reason why it needs to be roasted rather than merely cooked in a pan - much easier to wash up in my opinion.

I've made that cake and I used tinned rhubarb, it worked really well and my mother in law wouldn't believe I had made it myself. She was convinced it was bought.

Tonight we are having fake nando's, piri piri chicken, rice, salad and halloumi.

C_J

Lovely artwork, @Brie !

We have been having conversations about joining the Air Fryer club too, but I haven't had the time to research this properly yet. I'd be very interested for people's opinions please