What are you making for dinner?

Brie

@Islandmaid
what's in the chicken casserole?  other than chicken.

I do a very flexible chicken casserole....it started out as a friend's recipe (very 1960s good housekeeping...) of breading the chicken in a mix of breadcrumbs and a packet of dried bolognaise mix, browned in a bit of oil and then cooked through with a lot of wine and/or stock.  Over the years I've used tomatoes and onions, garlic, sometimes mushrooms in it so it's more like a proper cacciatore.  Served with rice or potatoes or noodles or bread.  But it's fairly thick so could just be on it's own or be very healthy on a bed of spinach or with a side of other green leaves/veg. 

OH complains that I never make things the same way twice.  But who wants to do that????

kerri_gt

@Brie my casseroles are usually a go to vessel for using up sad veg and odds and sods. It's handy to use up cans of unloved lentil soup or oddments of pasta.

One thing I do like in casseroles is button mushrooms - it reminds me of casseroles my DM would make when I was little. 

 

Islandmaid

@Brie I do similar to @kerri_gt, odds and sods that need using up, today is leek, mushrooms, some swede, garlic, a stray carrot and a few sad new potatoes which I will pick out. Brown the chicken, leeks etc, cook down with a little white wine, sage garlic etc then add the chicken stock, cook off for a while till it looks right, I thicken mine with xanthan gum as I’m not good with wheat, season to taste, I’ll make some Yorkshires to go with theirs, and I’ll steam some sprouts as they sulking in the veg tray 😉 

My favourite casserole is Coq au Riesling from Nigel Slater, who I could happily House share with, him and Simon Hopkinson and little old me sat around a kitchen table chatting food - bliss…..  well that’s enough of my fantasies  😂 back to reality, the bins need emptying 😳

Brie

Islandmaid said:

My favourite casserole is Coq au Riesling from Nigel Slater, who I could happily House share with, him and Simon Hopkinson and little old me sat around a kitchen table chatting food - bliss…..  well that’s enough of my fantasies  😂 back to reality, the bins need emptying 😳

Ta!  And I do agree a coq au riesling is a mighty fine thing!!! 

If it came to house sharing with chefs I always wanted to get stuck with Sophie Grigson.  She had a show on years back about the same time as Delia Smith.  Delia was so precise and prissy and annoyed me immensely (great cake recipes though...).  Sophie was loud and chucked things in and would grab chunks of meat out of a pot with her bare hand to pop in her mouth to try.  A good party person I would have thought.  And being the daughter of Jane Grigson meant she had the cooking all the way into her bones.  Keith Floyd was also a grand show chef but I'm less certain about how long I could house share.  Too many empty wine bottles to recycle..... (OH still does his calves liver in cream with chives from a show he did from Jersey.)

JIL

We had quorn cottage pie, any calories saved from eating quorn mince were cancelled out by the mountain of cheese on top of the potatoes.  We had it with brown sauce and brussel sprouts.

Frith

Went Levantine tonight and made kebabs with pork, courgette and bits of halloumi and pineapple that I wanted to finish off, in a harissa marinade. Also giant cous cous.

Flapjack afterwards.

Islandmaid

Sausages and mash tonight for the family, buttered cabbage for me

Brie

@Frith - how do you do the giant cous cous?  I've tried to make it but it ends up a bit mucky like risotto rather than fluffy.  

Last night was a small lamb roast (thank your Mark & Spence!) with rainbow carrots and mashed potato.  

Tonight it's a thai chicken meal deal.  

Pleased also that this morning's weekly treat of breakfast out was a good as previously - there are new owners at the ancient caff.  Interestingly though - we were told by the staff that they weren't going to change things but there was a menu for a Caribbean place on all the tables and we couldn't figure out where it was located.  Same address it turns out!!  So it looks like it will be the same trad great breakfast place for the first part of the day and then be serving plaintain and curried goat into the evenings!  Odd body that I am I'm hoping there will be some shift of Caribbean items on to the breakfast menu too!!  OH will moan of course but that's not likely to stop me from enjoying myself.

summertime_2

Slow cooker chicken stew with dumplings,  (batch made so enough for meal tomorrow as well.)
then a slow cooker made Cinnamon Swedish Apple pud ( batch made yesterday)  portions warmed in micro, served with custard.

C_J

Special fried rice (aka "used up random things from the fridge") for us tonight.