I'm doing proper cookery for my parents at the moment. And loving it.
Some of the recipes will need to be tweaked before I make them again, but it's a case of try it and see first time round.

They're all low fat, high in fibre and designed to squeeze in as many of our 5-a-day as possible (recommended portions of fruit/ vegetables for a healthy lifestyle).

So far this week we have had Nasi Goreng (needed spicing up), Turkey Meatloaf (more turkey, less courgettes) and Tandoori Chicken (take out of the oven sooner - dried out a bit).

Today's dinner is Mediterranean Fish Stew. And coming up this week is Chicken Goulash with Dumplings, Cheesey Leeks, Tuna and Sweetcorn Pasta Bake and Roast Pork Chops stuffed with Apple.

My Mum loves it. For the last 40 years she has been in chrage of cooking everything in this house, except on Friday nights and Saturday lunchtimes (Dad's domain). Yes, my Dad did his fair share when they both worked shifts, but that meant cooking for us while she was working, not cooking for her. Now she's getting meals which she knows are good for her, cooked from scratch, and I also plan everything out in advance and make sure we have all the right ingredients and as little as possible goes to waste. Oh and I cook very different things that she would, which is always nice.

It's making me feel very good about being here.

I'd like to make a low fat anchovy sauce for serving with fish, or maybe as a side to liven up rice. I'd rather not have it oil based, use a creme fraiche instead, but the only creme fraiche sauces I've found use anchovy paste - which we don't have - instead of anchovies in oil, which we do.

Lemon and a dash of Tabasco feature in most recipes - yup, have those too.

Any ideas on how to put it together?

Rinse most of the oil off the anchovies and mash the fishies up to make your own anchovy paste?

Or...could maybe try a little 'Gentleman's Relish' ? Not sure where you'd get it, but I think the supermarket fine foods section usually carries it.

I haven't had it for years (used to love it on toast) so I can't recall what else is in it, but I think it's mainly anchovy paste.



[eta] just checked wiki. It's also known as 'Patum Peperium'. It's a secret mix of herbs spices etc, but it's min 60% anchovy. Also though, maybe try a 'fish sauce' instead? or Oyster sauce?

That just sounds naughty.

You Brits and your food names.

Good plan Limey, thanks.

I know where I can get Gentleman's Relish Dani, I'm just trying not to buy in anything I don't need on a regular basis. You know what I mean - one Jamie Oliver recipe calls for powdered mustard and it doesn't go down well and then the tin sits in your cupboard until the end of the world, when you finally consider eating it with braised cockroach.

Wolf - my Mum was talking about head cheese earlier this week. It's a dish made from pig's head and trotters, that her Grandmother made. She understood the double entendre, she just didn't understand why I couldn't get over it. Every time she said it again, I sniggered. I was out of favour for a while after that - nostalgic family stories about food are nothing to be sniggered at.

We have head cheese here too.

We don't eat it either.

But you guys have spotted dick. Somehow we managed to escape that. Maybe it had to do with not having gone through a plague and a great fire? Well, we had our great fire, I guess (Chicago), but still no spotted dick.

Jeez, wolf, it's just raisins in the pudding, and most of the pudding seems to be farina.

It's just old is all - names and words and their meanings change.
I'm more worried about the Bowdlerisation of street names going on at the moment. If you happen to live on a tiny, ancient alley called Cuntbucket Lane, because prostitutes used it as a cut through to get to the Docks, you should be proud of the history!

Still, at least there's a trend of changing pub names back to the original, after the annoying '90s trend of comedy names - Frog & Nightgown, Slug & Lettuce etc.

Hee -- I'd drink in a place called Frog & Nightgown, particularly on nights with live Irish music by live Irish musicians. All the more so if their material ventures across the North Channel, aye, the Minch.

We went to the Goat and the Tricycle, when I was in Bournemouth...

This is a fictional pub in Achewood. Surprised flint didn't post it yet

http://cellar.org/2009/dudeandcatastrophe.jpg

cheesesteak here :D (back to the original topic and all)

Just made Spiced Apple Cake as a treat. Low fat recipe I haven't tried before, but I read through the ingredients (only had to buy apples) and the method and it looked just fine to me.

All was going great! Everything as it should!

Until...

Well you see I read the description a while back. And after all it is called Spiced Apple Cake. I checked I had the right sized tin, weighed everything carefully, couldn't see how anything could go wrong. In hindsight I should have rechecked the description, which says that this is a "biscuit style" cake. Then again, maybe the person who wrote the recipe should have advised you to ROLL the two layers out. Roll them out, cut them to size, place in tin.

Nope. I "spread" or in reality squash "less than a half" of the dough - and it is a dough, think cookies, although it is not called that, it is called a mixture - into the tin. Then add the layer of pureed apple. Now... oh. Add the rest to the top and smooth out gently. But I can't! It's sticky dough, not cake mix. It doesn't smooth out, especially on a fluid layer of apple. Had I really understood the recipe, of course I would have rolled it out and cut it to size and placed gently on top. But I was following a damned recipe! It's the reason people buy low fat recipe books!

I have cut the screaming and swearing out of this. But I do feel let down, and yet personally responsible. The worst of both worlds. Mostly, I laugh at culinary disasters. And if it's someone else's I can always find something to praise and to salvage. But this time I'm afriad self pity and pathos have kicked in. I peeled six cooking apples, all excited, thinking my parents would be really impressed with me. I rubbed in the marge (something I hate doing) and got gunk under my nails. And if ONLY it had made it clear it was a rolled out dough, not a spreadable one... ah well. Sure more experienced cooks would have got that immediately (self pity again - arrrgh).

Like every single other recipe from this book, it requires amendments before trying it again. I just don't think I can be arsed. I'll stick to brown rice with beans and low fat yoghurts in future. This is the nail in the coffin of enjoying cooking :mecry:

My only consolation - the house smells gorgeous. Apples and spice and baking.
There's that at least :)

Biscuit cake non-cake.
Lump of non-spreadable-on-apple dough on top.
Small spoonful out of left corner tasted okay. But how would you serve something like that? Apart from straight into the bin.

Don't worry, I have a review of my meds tomorrow.
And yes, that is my Slytherin mug. My Dad bought it for me (?)

lol...I'm sorry. Maybe it tastes good?

Eh, presentation, schmesentation.