I have a suspicion that adding sugar in recipes may be an attempt to match the flavour of the processed version (alternatively it’s just for the same reason as the processed version that people feel far too much need for sugar) as it’s utterly unnecessary and personally it’s one of my biggest bugbears about
I learnt to make a ragu almost 50 years ago. My mother taught me and she was taught by an Italian chef. We all use(d) sugar.
I believe the sugar helps neutralize the acidity of the tomatoes.
Apparently the average Briton spends 20+ hours a week in front of the telly.
Watching cooking shows at that!
I put a flat teaspoon of sugar in my tomatoey pasta sauce, along with a glug of balsamic.
I'm bloody good at it (if I do say so myself) and it tastes more like restaurant food than Dolmio or whatever.
My mother taught me and she was taught by an Italian chef.
was the recipe lost in translation?
Dolmio is pretty tasteless, compared to a nice home made sauce IMHO. I'd rather have a simple spaghetti with a bit of olive oil, chilli, garlic and oregano tossed through it, than the jar of the lazy.
YMMV.
None for me either and baked beans make a very cheap and healthy addition to a veggi chilli once you’ve rinsed all that sugary salty sauce of them.
Can we just go back to this, can you not just buy a can of non baked beans and use that without having to rinse the sauce off?
The thing with the Guardian is that it’s for well-meaning snobs, they’re not saying “what are we eating?” No, it’s “What is Britain eating” and by “Britain” they mean, those poor, poor people who spend their weekend desperately searching the supermarket to see how many calories they can get for £1 to stop their kids starving – bullshit.
The only difference between Guardian readers and Telegraph readers is that the Guardian lot pretend they feel sorry for working class people because they’re burdened by being stupid and lazy.
The problem with shit food, be it processed or otherwise is that, once you’ve got a taste for it, it tastes nice – it doesn’t matter if it’s ethically sourced artisan cod, hand battered and served with triple cooked chips on a **** shovel or “large cod and chips mate” from the Fish Shop under the flats, if it’s all you ever eat you’re going to be in trouble.
Pretty much a conversation I’ve had with my g/f, who really can cook, because her mum, who she learned from while growing up in the pubs they lived in and ran, has a thing about ‘junk food’, whereas my s/o and I both feel that only an unvarying diet of heavily processed food with a high salt and sugar content will do you no good at all, whereas having a McD or Kentucky Chucky once in a while won’t cause any problems. Jo, my g/f, makes her own coleslaw, vinaigrette, spagbol sauces, and the only things on that list we have had in the house are Macvites Digestives, one packet in the last six months, and a couple of Warburtons loaves. She’s very insistent on having vegetables with meals, and mashed spuds means exactly that, no instant stuff, although there’s likely to be plenty of butter, possibly some milk, black pepper, and sea salt.
I’ve eaten better in the last five or six months since she moved in than in the last fifty-odd years! 😄
none of those in my house and I dont eat any of them
i cook almost everything from scratch and only ad suga to cakes - even then its usally about 1/2 pf what they suggest
can you not just buy a can of non baked beans and use that without having to rinse the sauce off?
yes you can even buy the bean most often used for baked beans [haricot ] but that is uncommon
I'm having a protein bar for mid morning snack. Can't decide if it's processed shite or not
Mid morning ? It's 8:30am !
I've just dug a Tesco Chicken Jalfrezi ready meal out of the freezer to have later on with a beer, when I get back home after doing some fast-paced living.
It's got marinated chicken in a tomato and chilli sauce, Basmati rice with spices, Bombay potato and an onion bhaji. All that and the only ingredients listed that aren't some sort of actual food are the raising agents, Disodium Diphosphate and Sodium Bicarbonate, and Paprika extract and curcumin for colouring. Microwaves in 7 minutes, and according to the label it's an implausible sounding 596 kilocalories.
Let's see you home chefing heroes make that for the £2 it cost me (OK, it was on offer!). No skimping on the 15 or so herbs and spices either!
I don't even have a TV.
Not where i am weeksy!
[i]CountZero wrote:[/i]
and mashed spuds means exactly that, no instant stuff, although there’s likely to be plenty of butter, possibly some milk, black pepper, and sea salt.
Do people really mean packet stuff when they're doing mash? It's so, so easy to do properly (personally I tend to just add butter, have stopped adding milk as it's not necessary, but I'm sure your g/f's mash is great)
The onions always go in first as they need to cook at the highest temperature. Then the garlic, then the mince.
Do it that way and the mince will boil rather than fry. No Maillard reaction there.
Let’s see you home chefing heroes make that for the £2 it cost me (OK, it was on offer!). No skimping on the 15 or so herbs and spices either!
Given that I buy spices in bulk from the Asian grocer, chicken thighs are cheap from my butcher and the only other things needed will be onion, tomato, garlic, ginger, I reckon I could beat £2 a portion easily.
Do people really mean packet stuff when they’re doing mash?
Apparently people buy Yorkshire Pudding mix too. Takes all sorts.
Do it that way and the mince will boil rather than fry. No Maillard reaction there.
Boil in what?
It's own juice.
I’m sure your g/f’s mash is great
Its brings all the boys to the yard
I have no idea what meat costs but the local asian superstore does 10 kg of onions for £1 and rice at about £ 50p per KG spices are massive bags for about £1 £ 2 spend on curry would make a fair few KG of veggie curry[ 10 servings?] - no idea how much chicken costs
but I’m sure your g/f’s mash is great)
She just does the spuds, she usually gets me to do the mashing up ‘cos she’s left-handed and that’s her weak hand after a brain haemorrhage, so I make absolutely certain it ain’t lumpy! I only put a small amount of milk in, and then only if I think of it, there’s usually a load of butter to make it creamy, black pepper, (lots), some chilli flakes, and sometimes grated cheese.
’Tis good mashed spuds, though... 😬