Some dishes cannot be improved upon

[mint]

There are some dishes that are just so completely perfect that you mess them about at your peril.

Let me give you a bit of background to my delicious brunch today.

Both the dog and I had had a rather restless night; what with OH being away and the dog kept imagining she heard him coming home and repeatedly demanding that I opened the front door for her to check[+o(]

So, as soon as I'd had a quick coffee, I took her out on a l-o-n-g walk with the intention of wearing her out so as not to have a repetition tonight.

It was perishing and I had to walk hard and fast to stop my fingers falling off inside my gloves and the permafrost forming on my brow.

When we came back, I had it, that dish that defied improvement.......[:D]

I made little cakes lightly dusted with flour from the creamy mash potatoes and carrots that were left over.  Then, some thin, smoked bacon rashes and two large, free-range eggs sunny side up.  Fried the lot in just the one pan (that's when it's nice cooking for one, especially when "the other" doesn't eat meat!). Accompanied  by some tinned tomatoes, zapped in the micro for a couple of minutes.

I was nicely hungry, the sun had warmed up the verandah by then (it was 22 degrees) so that it was a matter of laying the table quickly and setting to. I swear it was one of the most tasty meals you could wish to eat.

After that, a large mug of Lidl's filter coffee (I love the price of their coffee) and a couple of speculoos to share with the dog and I felt so agreeably full of food and the joys of spring that I decided to sit for half an hour in the sunshine doing NOTHING!

Of such delights is my life in Dordogneshire made!     

[Gardengirl]

That sounds delicious, Sweet! It was obviously the right meal at just the right time. I can imagine you on your sunny verandah, tucking in to it. I can't wait to get back to our sunny balcony - and maybe a similar meal after a chilly excursion! And I love doing nothing when I've just eaten a super meal of whatever kind! Happy New Year!  [:)]

[idun]

We called in on friends on the 27th just as they were tucking into a fry up and we had one the following day.

I know you have been 'good' recently S17, did it make it taste extra extra good?

I can cook fancy food and sometimes do, but I never under estimate the joys of simple old fashioned food. On the 23rd of December we had corned beef hash, well my version. Lovely and a complete contrast to what we were going to eat. And truthfully I enjoyed it as much as anything we had over the fetes. And another favourite is corned beef, beans and chips, with HP sauce and bread and butter, lovely.[:D]

 

[britgirl]

Ummm !! Sweets, sounds Yummy.

Sometimes there are 'comfort' foods that cannot be improved on.

Whenever I'm in France I always hope that 'confit de canard ' is on the menu. If nothing else takes my fancy, then (hopefully) that is the one dish that cannot be ruined.[:D]

Idun, Corned beef always used to be in the cupboard as a stop gap, but having seen the price of it lately, it seems to be a luxury item.[:-))]

[just john]

They all sound great comfort food, mine perhaps a tad simpler for when I'm cooking for 1; scrambled egg mixed with shreds of smoked salmon, um umm, or if the bits are in the fridge, split a muffin and toast lightly, spread a spoonful of hollandaise over each, plop a microwaved ball of frozen spinach on and top with a poached egg on each side - treble umm. I don't like the washing up after a greasy full english but recently enjoyed one complete with baked beans and black pud, for lunch out while shopping! great rush afterwards[:D]

ps, missed out the twix bar pour desert avec cafe [:$]

pps, 40 years ago I would have celebrated with a fag, strictly a no no since then, but I have been known to sneak a Mehari cigar once a year when no-one is looking; remember when everyone had a fag after breakfast in the cafe[:-))]

[Frecossais]

My comfort food  is a jacket potato filled with coleslaw. I might follow it up with fruit and custard, well I might if OH wasn't doing the cooking while I recover from my foot op.

Still, I'm sure that while I've been out of the kitchen, I've lost some weight due to his strict rules, (have you seen the size of a bowl of 30g muesli?), and insistence on smaller portions.

SW17, yes, I love the sound of your lifestyle.

[idun]

Just John your bagel thing is sheer luxory. I had some yesterday actually, no hollandaise but the rest, given away in Asda, which cannot be bad.

We have a full english breakfast as a lunch or even for dinner sometimes. A meal I prefer to eat at just about any time of the day but breakfast time.

 

It was a pity that cat food looked better and I suspect tasted better than the corned beef in France. Some french friends love it too and I would bring some back for them from England.

[NormanH]

What on earth are " free-range eggs sunny side up" ???

Please repeat in English..

[just john]

[quote user="Frecossais"]My comfort food  is a jacket potato filled with coleslaw. I might follow it up with fruit and custard, well I might if OH wasn't doing the cooking while I recover from my foot op.
Still, I'm sure that while I've been out of the kitchen, I've lost some weight due to his strict rules, (have you seen the size of a bowl of 30g muesli?), and insistence on smaller portions. [/quote],

C'mon Frec' rabbit food? never mind the regime, what is your self-cooked indulgence when on your own![;-)]

 

[mint]

Corned beef....that always brings back memories of Saturdays!  Why?  Because my first husband had this Welsh grandmother who must have been at least a hundred years old (well, she looked like a hundred) and she was "very CAREFUL" with the corned beef.

Saturdays were always spent at my in-laws after shopping and the old lady would prepare her Saturday Special! [:)]

She'd cut up a tin of corned beef (only always the one tin, mind) and she'd cook it in a casserole type dish with sliced onions and sliced potatoes with some sort of stock (I suspect it was an Oxo cube)!

That was it!  Supposed to feed 6 people!

Still, I loved the dish and I'd always try to get a bit more meat on my plate if I could wangle it!

Then, after we moved away from St Albans, where they lived, to the West Country, I'd try to re-create that dish and I'd think, oh, this would be sooo lovely because I'm going to put in a WHOLE tin of corned beef for just the two of us and that's got to be the ultimate pleasure!

But, would you believe it, it NEVER ever tasted as good as when Mam cooked it and it wasn't the same having great big, broken up pieces of corned beef instead of the little scraps that you had to hunt all through the pot for![:'(]

We're just contrary, us human beings......[I]

[just john]

[quote user="sweet 17"]  We're just contrary, us human beings......[I]

[/quote]

I vaguely recall Christopher Hitchens during an interview being 'confirmed' as a contrarian, his response was basically 'No I'm not!' - his breakfast of champions was Johnnie Walker Black Label [:D]

 

[mint]

[quote user="NormanH"]What on earth are " free-range eggs sunny side up" ???
Please repeat in English..

[/quote]

Sorry for the Americanism, Norman!  No wonder you needed a translation![:)]

Sunny side up is an egg fried without flipping it over in the pan, with the yolk which you cook by spooning hot oil on it,  served uppermost on the plate.  Personally, I like the oil quite hot so that the white has a little skirt of grilled bits all round.

Id, what you said about eating breakfast at all times of the day reminds me of a remark by Somerset Maugham which he must have made back in the 1950s.

By that time, Maugham had lived for several years in his villa at Cap Ferrat (I don't think he went back to the UK much on account of the homosexual laws which operated at that time) and so he would have been used to the best French cooking and restaurants in England, in those days, were still serving Brown Windsor Soup for starters and burnt lamb cutlets for mains.

Maugham said that whilst in England, in order to eat well, one would have to eat breakfast 3 times a day!  In other words, breakfast was the only meal that was properly cooked and to his taste![:D]

I, too, can't face a cooked breakfast first thing in the morning.  But, I don't mind if I'm staying in a hotel in the UK and it was cooked for me [:D]

[Racerbear02]

I was poorly the last few days so my partner made me a butter pie, if you are not originally from Lancashire, and more specifically the Preston area, you will probably not know this but...... did it ever cheer me up [:D]

Basically a wholemeal pastry base, must confess that is his variation on the pie, originally would be plain shortcrust ( hope this does not rule it out of this post) Then potatoes cooked almost completely, lightly fried onions, both coarsely mashed together with a wooden spoon a generous knob of butter, salt and pepper( NOT mashed potatoes or purée, too much like baby food  then) in a deep spring-form cake tin and into oven at 180C for 45 minutes, take out of tin, leave to stand as long as you can put up with not eating it because of the aroma, normally about 10 minutes then slice and serve with veg of choice, or a salad in summer.

For extra comfort foodness, pour a bit of cream over the top and cover with grated cheese.   MMMMMM

[idun]

Corned Beef Hash is potatoes and onions and corned beef. Or is it panhackerty, panhaggerty. My mother called it corned beef hash and I'm not sure of the name or how it's made by others. My mother made it simply in a frying pan. I have my way of doing it, I slice lots of onions and slice some peeled potatoes and cook in boiling salted water until 'just' cooked. I leave to drain and I make a cheese sauce. I layer the onions and potatoes and sliced corned beef and cover in the cheese sauce and bake. I like HP sauce on it, husband and son like HP guiness sauce on it. I use a tin of corned beef for the three of us. Makes a change and I enjoy it.

In Holland our dutch friends always have sliced corned beef along with other cold meats on the table at breakfast time........ along with the sprinklies.[Www]

And food in the UK, well, it is very very easy to get very very good food these days and not that expensive.

I like my breakfasts, at any time of the day but breakfast time.

[chessie]

- racebear02 -

Coincidence - I was watching the 'Hairy Bikers' the other evening;  they were concentrating on non-meat dishes.

One of the items they cooked was a Hominy Pie;  apparently based on a wartime recipe.   Exactly the recipe you describe with the 'modern' twist of some cream being poured over the pie mixture before topping with the grated cheese and then cooking.

Strange things coincidences !!!

Comfort food - this is the time of year when I really miss British food - all that lovely stodge - steamed syrup sponge pud to name just one.......

Chessie

[Gardengirl]

That's something I like too, although I know them as homity pies. I remember enjoying the glorious stodgy ones Cranks made, which I only ever had on occasional visits to London, although I'm told they changed to something not so delicious at a later stage than when I enjoyed them there.

I normally used to chop the potato into smallish chunks and lightly cook so they stay whole. Fry a chopped onion, add some leeks finely chopped. Mix together with a little olive oil and lots of grated cheese, mature Cheddar if possible, season, then put in to a shortcrust pastry case to cook; I prefer wholemeal.

A variation is to add finely chopped garlic to the frying onion for a few minutes and some sliced mushrooms, maybe some cream, plus parsley and some marjoram if there is some. Sautéed potatoes make it even better. It's irresistible when it comes out of the oven all bubbling with the cheese/cream shining on the top! That's decided me on what to cook for supper tonight, I think!  [:D]

[mint]

Thanks, guys.

Homity pie, that's OH's Welcome Home meal sorted.....[:)]

[Racerbear02]

Coincidences are indeed strange Chessie !!

I have just looked up the Hairy Bikers' recipe for Homity Pie, it is VERY similar to my partner's Butter Pie even down to the cream and cheese topping but with addition of garlic, herbs and spinach.  I had never heard of it, but a Google search gives loads of variations of it, fascinating stuff.

There used to be an old fashioned (read proper [:)] ) Butchers / Bakers in Preston which made the most wonderful Butter Pies, it was en route to one of my suppliers and we would always schedule a morning visit so that some of these could be bought  as we passed by.  You had to get the timing right as too early, and they were not out of the oven, too late and they were all gone, there would be a queue waiting for them as they came out into the shop from the bakery.  They were made by the mother of the then current owner and at times she was a bit forgetful with the meat pies which could have either no seasoning or twice as much according to her mindset that day, but she never got it wrong with the Butter Pies [:)]  These were made with a plain shortcrust pastry and they also had lids of the same, as compared to my partner's wholemeal version without a lid.

Another coincidence, I, being a big hairy biker who loves cooking, was approached by the production company who makes Hairy Bikers when they were starting preparation of the pilot show, having been recommended to them by a friend, nothing ever came of it however [:(] Such a shame, it could be me travelling the world cooking and being provided with a variety of new bikes to play with. 

Ah well, c'est la vie.

[idun]

Or you could just do a french pie for your husband's return, it's lovely a friend used to make it for us. Usually hers was with pate brisee.

http://mamina.over-blog.org/article-pate-aux-pommes-de-terre-50060218.html

 

Sounds pretty similar to some of the pies mentioned and my friend reckoned that les anglais left the recette during the guerre de cents ans.......my do the french have long memories[Www]

[mint]

That's a very good-looking pie, Id.

I like the pâte feuilletée because I don't make that myself so just buy the read-made and plonk it in the tin.  Yeah, guess I could manage that![:D]

[just john]

Something I use as an accompaniment for such dishes, Sformata di Spinaci is delicious and makes almost anything seem grand, especially if topped with  salsa-di-pomodoro- . . .

[Gardengirl]

That Mamina potato pie looks delicious; one for sometime next week, I think!

[Patf]

SW17 - I often do fried up mashed potatoes and carrots too. I make a lot the first day so that there's some left over to fry later.

Eddie likes to have brown sauce with it (I say yuk to that.)

[Rob Roy]

[quote user="sweet 17"]

Corned beef....that always brings back memories of Saturdays!  Why?  Because my first husband had this Welsh grandmother who must have been at least a hundred years old (well, she looked like a hundred) and she was "very CAREFUL" with the corned beef.

Saturdays were always spent at my in-laws after shopping and the old lady would prepare her Saturday Special! [:)]

She'd cut up a tin of corned beef (only always the one tin, mind) and she'd cook it in a casserole type dish with sliced onions and sliced potatoes with some sort of stock (I suspect it was an Oxo cube)!

That was it!  Supposed to feed 6 people!

Still, I loved the dish and I'd always try to get a bit more meat on my plate if I could wangle it!

Then, after we moved away from St Albans, where they lived, to the West Country, I'd try to re-create that dish and I'd think, oh, this would be sooo lovely because I'm going to put in a WHOLE tin of corned beef for just the two of us and that's got to be the ultimate pleasure!

But, would you believe it, it NEVER ever tasted as good as when Mam cooked it and it wasn't the same having great big, broken up pieces of corned beef instead of the little scraps that you had to hunt all through the pot for![:'(]

We're just contrary, us human beings......[I]

[/quote]

 

'Panakilty'! It was a recipe I got from 'Home & Freezer Digest' (anyone remember those in the 70's?) and I often did it for the family, using two large tins.[:)] When I can find large tins of corned beef here I still do it,using just one, for the two of us.

I cooked one of my comfort foods tonight - toad-in-the-hole, using Irish sausages brought over from Dublin by friends at Christmas; just the thing for a cold, wet, foggy night!.[:D]

[Gardengirl]

We had delicious variation on homity pie for supper. I made a wholemeal pastry case, and filled it with cooked, diced potato, fried onions and mushrooms. I mixed it together with some garlic, a beaten egg, lots of mature Cheddar cheese and seasoning, topped with more cheese. It was fairly light and very filling along with lots of broccoli. We followed it with Christmas cake and coffee - and I'm so full now!

I don't think it was a very balanced meal, but quite delicious; back to extra fruit and veg tomorrow, and maybe try out the hula hoop I bought today in Sainsburys sale!