Cooks' Corner

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks for all of those John, the outside of the market pictures look like some big corporate building rather than a market. Does it have the same atmosphere inside as a market would?

[johnw]

Lesley - The market does look a little too slick but it's the same old market on the inside. Now that several of the larger booths are now in shops on the exterior street side the congestion has been relieved aqnd it feels the same old market.  It's a very long narrow building, the site of the former Pier 21. Pier 21 was the longest pier in North America and I remember the old Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth both docked bow to stern (Halifax was the founding home of the Cunard Line).  As a child we'd run down there when we'd hear a ship's horn, the immigrants would throw foreign coins to the kids on the pier while docking. Great fun, now you'd never hear a ship's horn over the din of traffic. What a change!  Next week I'll photo the place in action from the upstairs.

johnw

[Maggi Young]

Maggi - brace yourself.

johnw

 Brace myself? Good grief, John, I've been breathing into a paper bag half the night, trying to regain my composure.
Just as well there was some of Ian's AGM birthday cake left or I'd have been eating the wallpaper.
What a sumptuous selection of delectable scrumptiousness! I am much impressed.

[Arykana]

let, see, I usually go to the market at Saturday............

[Brian Ellis]

Maggi - brace yourself.

johnw

 Brace myself? Good grief, John, I've been breathing into a paper bag half the night, trying to regain my composure.
Just as well there was some of Ian's AGM birthday cake left or I'd have been eating the wallpaper.
What a sumptuous selection of delectable scrumptiousness! I am much impressed.

Maggi I believe the secret is to be much impressed but not tempted.

Personally I have always failed abysmally 

[Lesley Cox]

I'll look forward to more pictures John. Wow! QE and QM both at once! I don't think we ever saw either in NZ.

[mark smyth]

shock horror    since buying Jamie Olivers 30 minute Meals  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Jamies-30-Minute-Meals-Jamie-Oliver/dp/0718154770/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290622458&sr=8-1 I have made three different dishes 

[maggiepie]

Good for you, Mark.
Which three did you make?

[mark smyth]

today - tray baked chicken with baby tomatoes, lemon, rosemary and garlic, baby squashed boiled then fried with olive oil and rosemary and fried leeks.

last week - pork chops with half roast apples with squashed baby potatoes with mustard

first - thai chicken with noodles

tray baked chicken is my favourite so far. No way I can do it in 30 minutes excluding dessert.

[Lesley Cox]

After seeing an episode of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution with kids in the USA, I doubt if I'll ever eat anything of Jamie's again!

Short on inspiration, I made scambled eggs on toast last night. Roger said they were the best he'd ever eaten and they were. 

6 large eggs
2 tbsp milk
1 cup or a bit less (1 cup for 8 eggs) of cream
Salt and pepper
Handful each of chopped spring onions and fresh parsely

Melt a dab of butter in a frypan. Slide in the eggs etc, all beaten together but not so much beaten that they're frothy. Using a wooden spurtle or something with a square end, drag the eggs from the edge to the centre continually and stirring about the pan until they are lightly cooked and very soft. The secret is in very slow cooking on a low heat. NEVER let them get hot enough for a bubble to form in the pan. Serve on buttered toast.

This recipe, (written differently) came from the great gourmet and amateur chef, Nero Wolfe, from the crime novels of American writer Rex Stout.

[Lesley Cox]

My sister always does excellent scambled eggs but her late husband always comeplained that "You can't make them as well as my mother does." One day Elizabeth let the pan get too hot and the eggs leaked that watery fluid of overcooked eggs. "Ah," he cried, NOw you've got it. Just like my mother makes." The marriage ended in divorce.

[Paddy Tobin]

Lesley,

Cut smoked salmon into slivers, steep in cream for about an hour in advance and add to the eggs when they are about half cooked. Delicious!

Paddy

[maggiepie]

Lesley, that is almost exactly how I make my scrambled eggs, except I do mine in  double boiler and use chives instead of spring onions.
Don't use any milk either. Is there a reason for the two tblspns of milk?
A sprinkle of celery seeds over it is good too.

Paddy, I have my smoked salmon with the eggs, is a lovely christmas morning brekkie.
Croissant and fresh orange juice.
Used to have it with champagne in my younger days.

[Lesley Cox]

Only because I was ashamed to say I ONLY used cream Helen, and guilty about it too.

The smoked salmon is a good idea. I'll do that.

[maggiepie]

Only because I was ashamed to say I ONLY used cream Helen, and guilty about it too.