Is this the kind of vanilla wafers you mean? I’ve looked up a stick of butter, and see that it weighs 4oz. Key limes are a challenge. I’m not sure where you can get them in the UK.
Yes, those look like vanilla wafers. And yes, a stick of butter is 4 oz in weight, or 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) in volume.
Key limes can be hard to find here too, but bottled key lime juice is pretty readily available, and that’s what we always use. I wonder if it’s possible to order it, without paying too much, in the UK? (A Quick Look at A Certain Vendor indicates it is.)
Thanks for the recipe @Nick Tamen -- we get Key limes (Citrus aurantifolia) here from sub-tropical KwaZulu-Natal (along with Thai makrut limes, Tahiti or sweet limes, and finger limes) and there is a lime tart I make with yoghurt, condensed milk and crushed ginger snaps or tennis biscuits. I'd like to try it with meringue before the summer is over.
Thanks for the recipe @Nick Tamen -- we get Key limes (Citrus aurantifolia) here from sub-tropical KwaZulu-Natal (along with Thai makrut limes, Tahiti or sweet limes, and finger limes) and there is a lime tart I make with yoghurt, condensed milk and crushed ginger snaps or tennis biscuits. I'd like to try it with meringue before the summer is over.
Hope you can.
Tennis biscuits are a new one to me. What are they?
Thanks for the recipe @Nick Tamen -- we get Key limes (Citrus aurantifolia) here from sub-tropical KwaZulu-Natal (along with Thai makrut limes, Tahiti or sweet limes, and finger limes) and there is a lime tart I make with yoghurt, condensed milk and crushed ginger snaps or tennis biscuits. I'd like to try it with meringue before the summer is over.
Hope you can.
Tennis biscuits are a new one to me. What are they?
Tennis biscuits are popular coconut tea biscuits (very slight coconut flavour) made since 1911 in South Africa. The name 'tennis' is unclear. Suggested alternatives would be Voortman Coconut Cookies (US), Wibisco Shirley Coconut Cookies (Caribbean but also available in the UK), or Verkade Nizza coconut cookies (Netherlands). I'm not mad about the coconut flavour but the texture is good.
My local grocery store has been re-organizing and changing their product offerings. Walking through yesterday, I was amused to see someone had placed pilot biscuits front and centre in the cookie section.
Pilot biscuits are ship's biscuits, or hard tack. Someone purchasing them as a sweet would be surprised.
I made a rather nice risotto with duck and mushrooms
We were waiting on for a train earlier this afternoon, heading off to coffee (too hot by far to walk). A solitary rabbit in the station garden brought thoughts for dinner - rabbit ravioli or risotto, lapin linguini, bunny bolognese, fluffy fettucini. Any others come to mind?
There's lemonade, and there's lemonade. One kind is the mostly non-sparkling drink made with real lemons, the other kind is the stuff that is basically heavily sugared fizzy water with a nod to the flavouring and wouldn't sour anything. Not sure how it is elsewhere but it is often like that here.
I am the designated scone maker for the parish, and was taught the fizzy lemonade technique by a country cook when I was principal of a small school.
4 cups of SR flour, 375ml fizzy lemonade [ 1 standard Australian can] and 300 ml cream.
Combine ingredients until they come together as soft but not sticky dough, adding more flour if required. Pat out the dough on a floured pastry board and cut your scones, place on a baking tray. Brush with milk or egg wash. 15 mins at 200degC. Serve with butter or jam and cream.
To make date or fruit scones substitute ginger ale, to make cheese or other savoury scones substitute soda water. Easy to remember, easy to cook, great to eat.
I suppose you could make a sweet bread with lemonade. Why don't you try it? Or perhaps ginger beer?
I have made it with sparkling cider I was just looking to see what other things I might try. I am guessing lemonade would be sweeter than I would like but ginger beer is an idea indeed I might try next.
And then there's Vietnamese fizzy lemonade, which is usually (but not always) made with limes.* And sugar, and sodar water--right before you drink it. Nothing else, not canned.
I love that stuff.
The Vietnamese word for both fruit is chanh, so if you need to differentiate, you probably say something like "green chanh" or "big yellow chanh".
That lemonade sounds delicious LC. My mother in law also makes her scones after the fashion that BA uses, they are delicious and I remember her commenting on how much quicker and easier that technique was.
I had not managed to get the details from her, so I appreciate BA sharing their recipe here. I have kept it for future reference!!
@Huia, I find the key difference is the texture of curly parsley versus flat-leaf parsley, sometimes known as Italian parsley. But when cooked, the curly parsley is milder and the flat-leaf works better for me in white sauces, soups or stews. I don't use that much. Enjoy your chicken soup.
No Gee D, I hadn't, simply because I had only seen it in the supermarket once, when I wasn't actually looking for parsley.
@MaryLouise, Given that it doesn't seem to be very available here and I make a lot of soups and stews I might try growing it next spring, although it not being very available might be because it doesn't grow well here.
Some years ago when I was interested in the cultivation and growing of herbs I remember reading that parsley would "only grow in the garden of a virtuous woman." I never put either the saying or myself to the test.
I have friends who grow a lot of foodstuffs in their garden in Auckland, and they have no trouble with flat-leaf parsley: so maybe it is OK to grow in Christchurch too?
Then again, my friends are very green-fingered and seem to be almost self-sufficient in some things. In comparison I am only good at growing weeds!
Parsley does grow easily in my unvirtuous garden (good-enough soil, sunshine, regular watering) but is short-lived in my experience. I can't think why flat-leaf parsley should cost so much more when the taste of curly parsley is very similar.
Flat parsley is more common in my part of the world than the curly sort. It's fairly capricious to grow - it likes a shady spot but you need to find the exact one for it to be happy.
Did savoury kidneys for dinner. Notice a) the 50+year old cookbook I used has quite a few kidney recipes and b) you rarely see them for sale even in butcher's.
Yes, my organic delivery doesn’t have kidney. I often get chicken livers - nice lightly fried with cream. And the chicken hearts are lovely and sell out really fast.
Offal is still widely available and considered to be a delicacy here. We had calves' liver with parsley (flat, FWIW) and lemon zest a couple of days ago. I think it qualifies as my favourite meat.
Offal is still widely available and considered to be a delicacy here. We had calves' liver with parsley (flat, FWIW) and lemon zest a couple of days ago. I think it qualifies as my favourite meat.
Could you expand on that? Our local butcher does calves' liver.
Offal is rarely seen in butcher shops these days ( in Sinny @ any rate). My eldest ( who works in hospitality & knows about such stuff) tells me that offal is tossed aside at most abbatoirs when carcasses are broken up; it is a rare butcher who requests it. Only 30 years ago it was possible to ask your butcher to grab some veal liver or kidneys. Lamb kidneys & livers were easier to buy but not now. A halal butcher would be your best bet.
@Firenze husband en rouge was in charge of the cooking, but essentially I think you melt some butter and gently fry some garlic for a couple of minutes before adding the liver (get the butcher to cut a slice per person) and frying for a few minutes on each side. Keep pouring the butter over the top and be careful not to overcook it. It should be firm but still pink. Once it's done, season to taste and top with finely chopped parsley and grated lemon zest. Serve with mashed or pureed potatoes.
Where I was brought up pork products were widely eaten, so if I cook liver I never think of getting anything but pig's. I've never had trouble getting it from the supermarket, but not so easily from the butcher's shop (back when we had one). We don't have liver very often, but I have taught Mr RoS to enjoy a liver, bacon & onion casserole - and I do fry a couple of slices before making the casserole, so that I can treat myself to a hot liver sandwich.
The butcher here didn't sell hearts of any kind, either, and I never saw kidneys there. Not that I would have bought kidneys - a favourite with my father, but just the smell put me off. If kidneys were included in a fry-up my mother had to cook my food before the kidneys went into the pan, because they 'tainted' everything else!
Other offal memories from my childhood are brains (sheep's I think), cooked, mashed with boiled egg and served on toast, faggots, and chicken giblets. Back then chickens came from the butcher still with their feet on, and the innards either still in situ, or later, in a plastic bag and popped back in the cavity. Sometimes, in pre-plastic-bagged days the odd shell-less egg two were still inside the bird.
Oh what childhood food memories have suddenly been unlocked!
One thing that disappeared with BSE was 'lamb bones' - the vertebrae essentially. A tray of those roasted and eaten with the fingers until the grease got on to your ears - ah!
What happened to kidney chops? Those pork chops you could sometimes get that had a portion of kidney in with them.
Liver used to feature fairly regularly. Always calves; the others were stronger and tougher. I still like chicken livers sometimes. Lamb hearts were quite tough to prepare but good casseroled.
I've had tripe and didn't like it.
It's a shame offal has gone out of fashion. If you're going to eat an animal, there are parts that shouldn't be wasted. Brains of course went off the list after BSE.
I've not eaten tripe.
I used to feed it to my cats, but the smell of it cooking put me off ever trying it myself. I would probably eat it if someone else cooked it and it was disguised by a sauce.
I have cooked and pressed ox tongue a couple of times, but many years ago - another that you don't see in the butchers window these days. In fact I can't remember the last time I saw any on the cooked meat shelves of the supermarket either.
Considering other things that became uneatable after BSE, I am surprised that oxtail is still available. I love an oxtail stew, especially sucking the bones, but Mr RoS is too finicky for that so I have to pick it all apart and only put the meat on his plate.
My dad was Lancashire born and bred and would occasionally drive from Luton to Manchester to buy tripe, visiting elderly aunts on the way. He said you couldn’t get decent tripe down south. My mother used to serve it with vinegar and onions.
I thought it was vile.
The organic company which does my weekly delivery occasionally has ox tongue and Mr Heavenly has cooked and pressed it for the Boxing Day tea.
I've a feeling my mother poached tripe in milk flavoured with nutmeg. It was only the once. I was a child who read too much and I only had to say something like "what's tripe" or "what's tapioca pudding" for my mother to explain and offer to cook it, and idiot child would say "ok."
I wouldn't think you could get it now, except at a few specialist markets. There's one in Birmingham that sells all parts of animals - trotters, heads, tails, feet, internal organs and all. It's gruesome looking around, especially when the heads glare at you, but if anyone sells tripe they would have it there. They also do a good line in the sort of interesting fish that you wouldn't see in the supermarket - Caribbean and other kinds.
I once had a summer job in a pig-processing plant. Free half pound of saussies with your wages! But delivering the post of a morning took you past the bay where the heads were spiked on a rack waiting collection. Very Lord of the Flies.
Meanwhile I did incredibly fiddly schnitzel last night: paper-thin veal lined with even thinner slices of Parma ham and shavings of manchego, egged, crumbed and fried. And very nice too.
Comments
Key limes can be hard to find here too, but bottled key lime juice is pretty readily available, and that’s what we always use. I wonder if it’s possible to order it, without paying too much, in the UK? (A Quick Look at A Certain Vendor indicates it is.)
Tennis biscuits are a new one to me. What are they?
Tennis biscuits are popular coconut tea biscuits (very slight coconut flavour) made since 1911 in South Africa. The name 'tennis' is unclear. Suggested alternatives would be Voortman Coconut Cookies (US), Wibisco Shirley Coconut Cookies (Caribbean but also available in the UK), or Verkade Nizza coconut cookies (Netherlands). I'm not mad about the coconut flavour but the texture is good.
My local grocery store has been re-organizing and changing their product offerings. Walking through yesterday, I was amused to see someone had placed pilot biscuits front and centre in the cookie section.
Pilot biscuits are ship's biscuits, or hard tack. Someone purchasing them as a sweet would be surprised.
We were waiting on for a train earlier this afternoon, heading off to coffee (too hot by far to walk). A solitary rabbit in the station garden brought thoughts for dinner - rabbit ravioli or risotto, lapin linguini, bunny bolognese, fluffy fettucini. Any others come to mind?
I don’t but have been assured that the result is satisfactory.
4 cups of SR flour, 375ml fizzy lemonade [ 1 standard Australian can] and 300 ml cream.
Combine ingredients until they come together as soft but not sticky dough, adding more flour if required. Pat out the dough on a floured pastry board and cut your scones, place on a baking tray. Brush with milk or egg wash. 15 mins at 200degC. Serve with butter or jam and cream.
To make date or fruit scones substitute ginger ale, to make cheese or other savoury scones substitute soda water. Easy to remember, easy to cook, great to eat.
I use buttermilk (easily available in supermarkets here in Oz); very good raising agent for scones
I have made it with sparkling cider I was just looking to see what other things I might try. I am guessing lemonade would be sweeter than I would like but ginger beer is an idea indeed I might try next.
I love that stuff.
The Vietnamese word for both fruit is chanh, so if you need to differentiate, you probably say something like "green chanh" or "big yellow chanh".
I had not managed to get the details from her, so I appreciate BA sharing their recipe here. I have kept it for future reference!!
Thanks.
Had you not noticed the difference? Shame on you..........
No Gee D, I hadn't, simply because I had only seen it in the supermarket once, when I wasn't actually looking for parsley.
@MaryLouise, Given that it doesn't seem to be very available here and I make a lot of soups and stews I might try growing it next spring, although it not being very available might be because it doesn't grow well here.
Some years ago when I was interested in the cultivation and growing of herbs I remember reading that parsley would "only grow in the garden of a virtuous woman." I never put either the saying or myself to the test.
Triple the price of the ordinary, but you do have bells ringing and whistles sounding as you buy it.
Then again, my friends are very green-fingered and seem to be almost self-sufficient in some things. In comparison I am only good at growing weeds!
Bring back offal I say.
Offal is still widely available and considered to be a delicacy here. We had calves' liver with parsley (flat, FWIW) and lemon zest a couple of days ago. I think it qualifies as my favourite meat.
Could you expand on that? Our local butcher does calves' liver.
The butcher here didn't sell hearts of any kind, either, and I never saw kidneys there. Not that I would have bought kidneys - a favourite with my father, but just the smell put me off. If kidneys were included in a fry-up my mother had to cook my food before the kidneys went into the pan, because they 'tainted' everything else!
Other offal memories from my childhood are brains (sheep's I think), cooked, mashed with boiled egg and served on toast, faggots, and chicken giblets. Back then chickens came from the butcher still with their feet on, and the innards either still in situ, or later, in a plastic bag and popped back in the cavity. Sometimes, in pre-plastic-bagged days the odd shell-less egg two were still inside the bird.
Oh what childhood food memories have suddenly been unlocked!
One thing that disappeared with BSE was 'lamb bones' - the vertebrae essentially. A tray of those roasted and eaten with the fingers until the grease got on to your ears - ah!
Liver used to feature fairly regularly. Always calves; the others were stronger and tougher. I still like chicken livers sometimes. Lamb hearts were quite tough to prepare but good casseroled.
I've had tripe and didn't like it.
It's a shame offal has gone out of fashion. If you're going to eat an animal, there are parts that shouldn't be wasted. Brains of course went off the list after BSE.
I used to feed it to my cats, but the smell of it cooking put me off ever trying it myself. I would probably eat it if someone else cooked it and it was disguised by a sauce.
I have cooked and pressed ox tongue a couple of times, but many years ago - another that you don't see in the butchers window these days. In fact I can't remember the last time I saw any on the cooked meat shelves of the supermarket either.
Considering other things that became uneatable after BSE, I am surprised that oxtail is still available. I love an oxtail stew, especially sucking the bones, but Mr RoS is too finicky for that so I have to pick it all apart and only put the meat on his plate.
I thought it was vile.
The organic company which does my weekly delivery occasionally has ox tongue and Mr Heavenly has cooked and pressed it for the Boxing Day tea.
I wouldn't think you could get it now, except at a few specialist markets. There's one in Birmingham that sells all parts of animals - trotters, heads, tails, feet, internal organs and all. It's gruesome looking around, especially when the heads glare at you, but if anyone sells tripe they would have it there. They also do a good line in the sort of interesting fish that you wouldn't see in the supermarket - Caribbean and other kinds.
Meanwhile I did incredibly fiddly schnitzel last night: paper-thin veal lined with even thinner slices of Parma ham and shavings of manchego, egged, crumbed and fried. And very nice too.
Tonight relapsing to ready-prepped chicken kiev.