What's on your menu today

Cold Turkey , chips and pickles
Trifle and cream for afters

I will be testing the Actifry later today.

As its "correct" capacity is 1Kg of potatoes and there are only two of us, the grandkids are coming for dinner. We'll be having burgers (home made, of course) and baked beans with the chips.

On the subject of baked beans, what is your favourite brand? Mine, by a long way, is Branston Beans which are the renamed Cross and Blackwell brand. These are far richer flavour and better textures than any other baked bean that I know. I was put off them initially as I thought they were flavoured with Branston pickle (I'm not the only one that thought that) but they aren't. Heinz Beans in comparison I find bland and watery with a pallid colour. I think they are my least favourite even compared against most supermarket own brands.

Chicken and mushroom, prawn and broccoli and onion and peppers with Chinese spices garlic and cumin stir fry for us with fried rice.
I agree about the beans pops....I always add a pinch of salt and a pinch of sugar too !!

Duck legs in plum sauce,roast spuds,peas and sweet corn for us today.

-pops- wrote:

I will be testing the Actifry later today.

As its "correct" capacity is 1Kg of potatoes and there are only two of us, the grandkids are coming for dinner. We'll be having burgers (home made, of course) and baked beans with the chips.

On the subject of baked beans, what is your favourite brand? Mine, by a long way, is Branston Beans which are the renamed Cross and Blackwell brand. These are far richer flavour and better textures than any other baked bean that I know. I was put off them initially as I thought they were flavoured with Branston pickle (I'm not the only one that thought that) but they aren't. Heinz Beans in comparison I find bland and watery with a pallid colour. I think they are my least favourite even compared against most supermarket own brands.

We like the Branston ones,but also like the top of the range ones from Aldi,their cheap  ones are dreadful.

The Beast wrote:

Don't like baked beans!


Bubble and squeak with crispy pork chops......And the inevitable 'Shed load'of vino....

We love them.  I like baked beans andcloads of chopped onion in a buttered jacket spud.

Tonight we will have a Chinese take away.

Well, the Actify was a success! I didn't do the cooking myself (I was having a non-mobile day*) but the chips were very good indeed. Not quite like deep-fried chips, more like McCains oven chips - but none the worse for that. They were very crisp on the outside and soft in the centre We used King Edward potatoes as recommended on the machine.

The chips had the flavour of being cooked in fresh fat (which, of course, they were) which gave them added attraction (no oxidised or rancid flavour) and there was no chip fat stench pervading the house afterwards. There was, though, a smell of hot machinery when the fryer was first switched on but this quickly dissipated.

Meat & potato pie today. This is a layered concoction of minced steak and onions fried together and thin sliced potatoes. Start and finish with a layer of potatoes in a suitable dish, add enough stock to cover put a few dots of butter on top, cover and bake in a low oven for a couple of hours. Remove the lid, wind the heat up to brown the top. You can, of course add seasonings, herbs and other vegetables - whichever takes your fancy. We're having it with broad beans (from frozen).

*Some days my arthritic pains are severe enough to prevent me doing very much at all. Yesterday was one of those days.

Sound tasty.  I sometimes do that with diced lamb and onions, but with some added gravy.

I'm doing your M&P pie pops....I usually do a proper pie in pastry, but I'm doing it your way today.
Additions....half an oxo cube, small squirt of tomato purée and a pinch of cumin.

-pops- wrote:

Well, the Actify was a success! I didn't do the cooking myself (I was having a non-mobile day)

Glad you enjoyed the results of the Actifry, -pops-.  :;smile:

Very sorry to hear that you were having a bad day. 

Haddock and curly fries and mushy peas for us today

I'm dead chuffed with the Actifry - it will become a very important part of our regular batterie de cuisine I'm a bit unsure about using it for other, non-fried food though.

Thanks for the sympathy, Irene. These non-functioning days come and go seemingly without any reason or external influence. I'm OK today and was able to  get down the stairs, into the kitchen and make a cup of tea unaided. That was my lot, though, before I had to have a sit down.

Today we're having pork apples - and chips!

Pork apples are Bramley apples cut in half across their equator and middles scooped out (keep the skins fairly intact - they form the shell of the next part). Chop the apple flesh, discarding pips, toe-nail pieces and stringy bits and sprinkle with lemon juice to stop it going brown. Take an amount of minced pork about the same as the apple flesh and about half that amount of chopped onion, or to taste. Fry the pork to brown, add the onion and apple and fry until brown and cooked. Add salt, pepper and enough sage to taste. Bind together with some cider and pack into the apple skin shells. Place on a baking tray - the filling should be piled up out of the shell - top with a sliver of butter and bake until sizzling and done.

Reads a lot more complicated than it is in reality.

Brunch will consist of Smoked Salmon and Scrambled Egg, accompanied by toasted Wholegrain & Oat bread.

I completely missed any smoked salmon this year - even though there is a smokery down the road and I am particularly partial to it.

We'll be getting some later!