Four.
DAYS!?
Heavens. I hesitate to make a pasta sauce that takes 4 hours!
I admire your drive and talents!
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One of the ingredients was 375 ml of beef stock. Which I made quickly by getting a brick out of the freezerā¦ from a batch I made in March that took four days to cook.
Anyway, to thicken a ragu alla Bolognese without putting gluck into it you have to reduce it a lot. But you donāt want it to boil at any point. So you have to keep it between Pasteurising point and boiling point, with the lid off, for days.
My sister admires a nice glossy sauce thickened by reduction to the point that it turns into a hockey puck if you put it in the fridge.
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Tonight my sisterās friends come to eat canneloni alla Bolognese. For a dessert I set the last of the summer fruit (raspberries, blueberries, pomegranate arils) in a jelly made of a Tasmanian riesling and lemonade-fruit juice.
The riesling is a cool-climate one with a little bit of residual sugar. Lemonade fruit are a hybrid of grapefruit and mandarins.
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Sesame noodles, sweet and sour veg, five spice pickled cucumber and carrot, and maple, ginger, and Szechuan pork.
4 flavours of popcorn. Spicy, chilli chocolate, coconut curry, and cinnamon+nutmeg.
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How did you make the popcorn flavours?
Iām still learning on that front.
Fails:
Melted butter mixed with spices. - too wet unless ovened after.
Too much topping - ouch on your tongue.
Successes:
All the flavour combinations were nice
Gentle oil spray followed by powder dust is the way to go.
Happy to share specific flavour combo ingredients if you want to know any.
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So, while no doubt delicious, not actually lemonade.
But I am certainly not going to pick a fight with a cook who approaches ragĆ¹ with the seriousness it merits.
Lucky sister (& friends)
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Take it up with the nurserymen who named the cultivar. But beware! They are Newzealanders.
The meal turned out to be a bit of an adventure. First my mayonnaise broke and I had to make it again. Then when I started the Mornay sauce I found that I didnāt have enough milk. One of the guests had parked me in, so I borrowed her car. It had a robotic driverās seat with controls on the door where I never thought to look and wouldnāt have seen them anyway. In reaching under the seat to seek conventional seat-adjustment controls I cut my finger on some unnecessarily sharp bits of engineering. Though the girl operating the cash register in the convenience store gave me paper towels I bled on the money, which she wouldnāt accept until I washed it. I ended up bleeding into the Waldorf salad and serving the canneloni fifteen minutes late and without the customary gremolata.
Fortunately the guests were sufficiently mellowed with champagne and riesling not to notice any shortcomings. My Waldorf is a revelation to people who have only ever had the simplified commercial imitation, the canneloni alla Bolognese was excellent, and the riesling and lemonadefruit jelly is one of those things that is both delicious and completely different from anything people might have tried before:
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Will be cooking for 7 adults and two kids on holiday. Any suggestions for easy meals to make - not too complex as donāt want to speak hours at the stove when I could be drinking in the sun! - that will not break the bank?
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Spaghetti Bolognese. Make it in advance, freeze it and take it with you. Add some salad and garlic bread.
Chilli - as above but with baked potatoes.
Curry - as above but with rice!
Have you got access to a slow cooker to do pulled pork?
Or Iāve got a good burger recipe
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I donāt think there is one there but I might take it with me!
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Another favourite of ours (but only if you can be by the oven all day) is slow cooked lamb shoulder.
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Lasagna? Most of the time is waiting for it to be cooked, rather than doing the cooking.
See also: shepherds pie
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Lasagna is already on the menu - the sauce is cooked and in the freezer!
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Fajitas is a good low effort meal that can scale up. Iāve done it and removed some filling before adding spicy seasoning for my kids who are chilli wimps.
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Yes we have to do that too! Fajitas is a good shout. Anyone know if gluten free wraps are any good (MiL is gluten intolerant)
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You can probably make a few extra yourself ? Corn flour is gluten free right? ā¦ it is a little harder to make them supple without gluten but I have made them myself. They can be made and frozenā¦ I would also guess it is possible to buy some made from cornflour and the taste is really great. Much more interesting than wheat tortillas.
Taco shells are gluten free
Itās probably best to check the label, though. Surprising ingredients get into commercial products. I just found today that the olive oil mayonnaise Iāve been buying has soy oil as well as olive oil . . .
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Iāve had old El Paso corn ones bought from the supermarket and theyāre good. A bit prone to cracking more easily as yashima says but still really tasty.
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