What's for supper?

[The Poot]

There always was a great chippy van in Llanharry, a trip to the chippy van was a regular event if we were working in Llantrisant area.
You must remember Vesta curries in a box?

I do indeed and at the time, they didn’t seem too bad, in fact quite good.

 

[pargyle]

ah, that old trope rattled out by those with plenty of time and even servants to help.
If I recall, in the 'good' old days the wife was chained to the kitchen day in day out so had plenty of time to cook a decent meal whilst waiting for the water to boil to do the laundry.
My grandmother would spend the evening cleaning my father's boots so he wouldn't turn up for a shift with dirty kit (He worked for the NCB at the time, going underground most days collecting coal samples for the lab.)
My forbears also had to run the gauntlet of TB, polio and so on - thankfully that seems to be returning as well.

Both my father and mother worked .... my grandmother was a school teacher, my grandfather a self employed builder - yes, they had a daily maid/cook that did some of the basic cleaning and cooking between the two wars, as many middle class did, but they were not rich. The maid/cook was dispensed with during WW2 and they still cooked and kept house, despite working and grandad being an ARP Warden after his days work ended. They were not the 'good old days' by any sense of the word but when I look at some of the younger people I work with, saying that they don't have time to 'cook', so live off ready meals and takeaways - yet they only work 8 flexible hours a day, have a car to commute three miles to work, all the modern aids such as tumble dryers, cleaning aids etc and they spend their 'free time' watching rubbish TV and playing video games ... (I know - I overhear the conversations about what happened on Love Island !).

So your old trope may hold good for some of the rich people in the past but you can't direct it at the vast majority of working people who walked or cycled everywhere, tended allotments and gardens, did the weeks washing without a washing machine and bathed in a tin bath in front of the fire after boiling the water on an open range. You are a few years younger than me and probably missed the carryover of pre-war conditions that I saw as a youngster ... there's a real gap between those born in the early 50's and those born in the 60's - even my brother, five years younger than me is a generation away.

 

[ericbeaumont]

expensive to eat badly

Yes, and the expense will borne by the NHS in later life. In other words, the taxpayer subsidises food industry profit.

appalling eating habits

May have given the wrong impression, Murox: F&C is a treat once every few weeks but in-between, ready meals never enter the house and a takeaway is rare. Last one was in summer from Otis, who cooks Caribbean fresh from a converted horsebox in Narroway, central Hackney.

Porridge every day since I was a child, though my Dad's economy was too runny and we use the best Flahavan's Jumbo Oats. Tea is loose Yorkshire, marmalade home made (50/50 fruit to sugar) and otherwise we never buy sugar. Meat is occasional, fish regular. Fruit is always seasonal and from the allotment or local PYO farms. Veg is mostly organic from the farmers' mkt (with discount) and the big local greengrocer. Alcohol occasional: a bottle of Valpolicella Riserva will survive a week; pushed the boat out last night and had a bottle of Spitfire (long gone the teenage days of 6 pints a night).

Blood pressure and so on always impress the doctors and my adult weight has remained unchanged at 11st. Reading between those lines I'd guess it's high in fibre, high in activity, low in cholestrol. The only slight disappointment is that since cancer led to the removal of 30% of my bowel I cannot eat the usual vast amounts.

 

[JamezF]

Blood pressure and so on always impress the doctors

I think they were impressed with mine too. Not in a good way, unfortunately

James

 

[Erichalfbee]

. there's a real gap between those born in the early 50's and those born in the 60's

I was born in 51 my sister a year later. Both my parents worked. My father nights and my mother 6/2 and 2/10 shifts. From the age of around 8 were were latch key kids; totally illegal these days. I think the only fast food I ever had till I left home for university was fish fingers.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

ah, that old trope rattled out by those with plenty of time and even servants to help.
If I recall, in the 'good' old days the wife was chained to the kitchen day in day out so had plenty of time to cook a decent meal whilst waiting for the water to boil to do the laundry.
My grandmother would spend the evening cleaning my father's boots so he wouldn't turn up for a shift with dirty kit (He worked for the NCB at the time, going underground most days collecting coal samples for the lab.)
My forbears also had to run the gauntlet of TB, polio and so on - thankfully that seems to be returning as well.

Are we heading for the "have you stopped beating your wife?" territory now

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Are we heading for the "have you stopped beating your wife?" territory now

she usually gets the first punch in and ends the argument.

 

[Ely]

My daughter is good at pizza, but we've never quite managed to get a crispy base, despite using the heavy steel plate. Any tips?

Fish & chips tonight: Fish Special at £7 from Mickey's round the corner.

View attachment 41970

Was it a goldfish?

 

[ericbeaumont]

Was it a goldfish?

Almost: known as a Fish Special, aka a modest fish supper. There's a local competitor where a takeaway cod&chips is £14.30! They're upmarket but the chips are always undercooked and if you were to eat in the restaurant, a standard cod&chips would set you back £18.50.

 

[Ely]

Almost: known as a Fish Special, aka a modest fish supper. There's a local competitor where a takeaway medium+chips is £14.30! They're upmarket but the chips are always undercooked and if you were to eat in the restaurant, a standard cod&chips would set you back £18.50.

View attachment 41979

Blummin Eck. I like my chips quite well done and browned. Hard to find like that though. Our local is decent. The fish is about 3 inches thick and about a foot long. Nice firm chucks fresh from Lowestoft fishmarket. They're about 8.50 each and he sometimes throws an extra one in if he thinks it is slightly undersize! They're at least 3 x bigger than any other chipshop around here for the same price. Mr Chips in Gorleston

 

[RJC]

Almost: known as a Fish Special, aka a modest fish supper. There's a local competitor where a takeaway cod&chips is £14.30! They're upmarket but the chips are always undercooked and if you were to eat in the restaurant, a standard cod&chips would set you back £18.50.

View attachment 41979

love the vegan menu... and what an earth is battered banana blossom?

 

[ericbeaumont]

what an earth is battered banana blossom?

Send me £8.50 and I'll find out.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

anything like a battered Flanders poppy?

 

[The Poot]

love the vegan menu... and what an earth is battered banana blossom?

I think the vegan customer is called Blossom. He forgot to add a comma.

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

Blummin Eck. I like my chips quite well done and browned. Hard to find like that though. Our local is decent. The fish is about 3 inches thick and about a foot long. Nice firm chucks fresh from Lowestoft fishmarket. They're about 8.50 each and he sometimes throws an extra one in if he thinks it is slightly undersize! They're at least 3 x bigger than any other chipshop around here for the same price. Mr Chips in Gorleston

I've given up on bringing in fish and chips for an occasional treat - though I think it's the damage done by the packaging that puts me off, not the food itself. So I get frozen oven chips and frozen fish from the supermarket and cook at home.

What a party pooper comment!

 

[BeeKeyPlayer]

My daughter is good at pizza, but we've never quite managed to get a crispy base, despite using the heavy steel plate. Any tips?

I don't think I have. I'm happy with the pizza base cooked on a steel plate. It doesn't have the black spots from a stone pizza oven but otherwise is much the same. I wonder if your daughter removes the flour/semolina that she probably uses to dust the dough ball prior to stretching? I drop the dough ball in a plate of semolina, cover both sides of the dough, then on a flat surface, push out to the edges. Then I lift it and rotate it suspended over the backs of my hands to stretch it. While doing this, most of the 'dusting' flour falls off. I cook for about 2.5 mins, then switch the setting from oven to grill for a further 2 mins. I'm trying 70% hydration these days but it makes for a fragile dough!

The base is cooked and fairly crisp, but not at all liked the browned raised edges.

 

[Sutty]

I don't think I have. I'm happy with the pizza base cooked on a steel plate. It doesn't have the black spots from a stone pizza oven but otherwise is much the same. I wonder if your daughter removes the flour/semolina that she probably uses to dust the dough ball prior to stretching? I drop the dough ball in a plate of semolina, cover both sides of the dough, then on a flat surface, push out to the edges. Then I lift it and rotate it suspended over the backs of my hands to stretch it. While doing this, most of the 'dusting' flour falls off. I cook for about 2.5 mins, then switch the setting from oven to grill for a further 2 mins. I'm trying 70% hydration these days but it makes for a fragile dough!

The base is cooked and fairly crisp, but not at all liked the browned raised edges.

If you can find an aluminium plate it may be better. Aluminium has 5x the thermal conductivity as steel.

 

[JamezF]

If you can find an aluminium plate it may be better. Aluminium has 5x the thermal conductivity as steel.

I think it's "thermal mass" that's the desirable feature, so the base doesn't cool very much when it has a not-very-warm pizza dropped on it.

James

 

[Sutty]

I think it's "thermal mass" that's the desirable feature, so the base doesn't cool very much when it has a not-very-warm pizza dropped on it.

James

If it's specific heat capacity then aluminium is still better than steel.

 

[ericbeaumont]

lift it and rotate it suspended over the backs of my hands to stretch it. While doing this, most of the 'dusting' flour falls off

She cooks it on parchment paper to make it easy to take out when cooked. I suggested that the paper may insulate the base, and to try without, but then we'll need a pizza getter-outer slidey tool.