What's on your menu today

-pops- wrote:

If my Actifry arrives early enough (Amazon are delivering up to as late as midnight tonight) I will be having haddock and chips. If I'm Actifry-less at dinner time, I'll have the haddock anyway but with CURLY FRIES which I bought yesterday. With mushy peas.

Are they Aldi curly fries?

I tried the Aldi curly fries and was less than impressed with them, any tips on cooking them ?

malcolm wrote:

I tried the Aldi curly fries and was less than impressed with them, any tips on cooking them 

Oven as on the bag. We love 'em

There is no Aldi near us. I think they are Tesco or McCains.

We have never had any success with oven cooked chips. My wife, in a lifelong quest for low calorie foods,  has bought them including the Aldi curly ones once upon a time on the recommendation of her sister - but like all the others - they disappointed.

We have yet to find anything to beat McCains home fries, cooked in our deep fat fryer, for 7 minutes at 190C in sunflower oil.

It is my belief that anything that increases the surface area of a chip compared with its volume - like thin ones, crinkle cut or curly cut - increases the amount of oil and calories delivered to the plate.

Pops - I look forward to reading your road test of the Actifry

Brunch today was panini with M&S thick sliced bacon inside.   

Dinner will be trout - from which I'll remove the bones before they are pan-fried in a small amount of butter. 
They will accompanied by new potatoes boiled in their skin, then tossed in herb butter before serving.  Also, greens - maybe broccoli, green beans or spiralized courgette.  Finally, I will make some leek sauce for moisture.  Naturally, all will be washed down with the inevitable bottle of you-know-what.  

Is it oven ready or do you have to pluck it?

I bought our turkey crown from Aldi months ago for £4.99 it has been in the freezer since and will be cooked on New Year's Day for lunch and then sliced for one of a few cold meats served up for our family guests on January 2nd

Well, the Actifry arrived at exactly the same time as friends paying their annual Christmas visit.

It seems churlish to ignore our visitors while we play with our new toy so that will have to wait until Monday.

Xmas day before the rest of ya apart from Dman!

sat around all day waiting waiting [we always eat late down under!] and then finally

deep- fried mackerel - free
lobster - already cooked
prawns on the barbie
egg plants sliced and on the barbie
yellow capsicums 9 inches long roasted on the barbie
asparagus o0n the barbie

mixed salad plata topped with blue berries

keep it simple stupid!

eh forgot the bourbon and ports and erhm erhm forgot the rest!

rice -optiomal

this is what we do down under!

Beef curry today with the odds and ends pieces of the beef fillet we had earlier.

Roast [pink] beef. Yorks puddins. roast and boiled potatoes, carrots swede, sprouts, parsnips and plenty of gravy.....yesterday, and the very same today !!

off to the local beach resort for smorgasbord breakfast 9-11 [old English style] - we sat and watched the sea roll in and the few hardy beachcombers and yarned about our life events and how things were going now. then a tour of some old haunts and home to Thai delicatees that we both could not face!

a few more coffees and the odd beer and then we had finished for the day