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I'm not a wonderful cook but I do try to cook from scratch and don't buy that many ready made meals although I do admit to buying the odd ready made lasagne. I suppose that goes with working full time and being starving when I get in from work.
Being the end of the week I decided to celebrate with a take away for me and Beth. We decided on Chinese. I have lived in Penrith for nearly 20 years and it's the first time I've been in the local Chinese take away although Beth says she goes in for pork balls often on a lunch time

When I was married to my soldier husband in the 70s/80s and were on leave from Germany we used to visit the Chinese restaurants in Sunderland for a business man's lunch when shopping. Everything was £1.99. How things have changed! And not only the prices! When I ordered tonight, the very nice Chinese lady asked me if I wanted chips or rice. Now if I'd wanted chips, surely I would have gone to the chippie? I wanted authentic Chinese and not sweet and sour with chips. As it happens I had chicken chow mein and Beth had pork balls, which she seems partial to.

We ate our Chinese take away in front of the TV which was tuned into BBC2 and watched a programme about potatoes.

Beth wasn't watching, she was on her Blackberry.

According to the presenter, Greg Wallace, the Brits are becoming lazy about potatoes.
Greg Wallace is a green grocer and is a judge on Masterchef on the BBC.
Beth took her headphones off at this point to point out that Greg Wallace had recently married a young teacher from her school who he had met on Twitter. She popped another pork ball in and put her head phones back on and I continued to watch the programme.

So back to the Brits being lazy about potatoes. Greg reckons we, as Northern Europeans, are a nation of potato growers and as we don't grow rice we should stick to what we know best. He then gave me a couple of recipes for potatoes in the form of Dauphinoise potatoes and Potato Gnocchi, which looked very nice.
The programme also contained random interviews with people on Stupid Street saying their kids would only eat chips from the Chinese or pasta.

I like potatoes, rice and pasta. I like rice with my chinese, potatoes with my Sunday roast and pasta when I want something quick.

What do you prefer? Potatoes, rice or pasta?

Rice
Potatoes, then
.
.
.
.

Pasta.
In that order.
I like rice cooked in a particular way.
Remind me to give you my secret recipe some day

Living in a part of the world i.e. the ME where rice is a staple, I don't think some have much of a choice but to like it.

Personally they're all bad carbs. I like whole grain rice and pasta. and rice done in my rice cooker comes out best.

I've switched to sweet potatoes as they're much better for you.

To be honest after spending the last 1 1/2 weeks in China I wouldn't mind not having to eat white rice with every meal. Looking forward to getting back to Dubai / Accra for some decent nosh.

Chocoholic wrote:Living in a part of the world i.e. the ME where rice is a staple, I don't think some have much of a choice but to like it.

Personally they're all bad carbs. I like whole grain rice and pasta. and rice done in my rice cooker comes out best.

I've switched to sweet potatoes as they're much better for you.

There's no such thing as anything being bad for you Chocs, as long as it is taken in moderation. At least that's what I tell myself when having that second glass of Chardonnay!

Greg reckons there is a much vitamin C in a potato as in a glass of tomato juice, so that has to be good for you.
I'm not keen on sweet potato myself, it's orange and that just isn't right. Potatoes should be white and fluffy!

I like my rice cooked in coconut milk.

I eat rice, potatoes, or pasta once a month at most - although I have not had potatoes or pasta in ages

I like all three. With white rice I like chopped dill in it, brown rice with salt and pepper. Baked sweet potatoes first, then baked potatoes. Rarely do I make whipped potatoes. I don't call them mashed, because they are indeed whipped to where they are creamy and fluffy. Any one of those I will have maybe once a week. But having said that, I will be eating whipped potatoes for the next couple of days as hubby is having dental work done and he will be eating through a straw. Pasta: love egg noodles with butter and parmesan cheese (maybe 3 times a year), otherwise its whole wheat pasta two times a month.

Depends where are am. In Holland, when visiting my mother we always eat potatoes. Nothing fancy just plain potatoes. Always with a piece of meat, some vegetables and one glass of milk. Always the same, except of course the kind of meat and kind of vegetables change. Thats Dutch cuisine for you. . Often found it boring, but it also gives me some kind of nostalgic emotions.
I love pasta and rice. In Holland I also try always to go at least once to an Indonesian restaurant for their excellent rice dices.
Pasta/noodles I can eat everyday, three times a day. The best for me is a lot of pasta in soup. My favorite dish!

Baked Potatoes are my first choice, wash and feather the skin, smear with pork fat, butter or oil would do, then a liberal rub of salt and black pepper, wrap in tin foil, bake in the oven at 170°C for 40 Mins, raise the temp to 200, and finish without the foil for a dry baked skin and soft inner flesh, serve with soft garlic cheese and butter.

My favourite rice dish is to grease a casserole with butter, butter thin unleavened bread on both sides, the Arabic crispy bread is ideal for this, and create a single layer of bread on the bottom of the dish that continues for about 25mm up the sides of the dish, it’s better that the bread is uneven on the sides, put in the rice and flavourings of your choice to suit the dish you are serving, Cardamom, Sultana and saffron are favourites for me as they go with everything, add the water @ a ratio of 2:1, place a single sheet of tin foil on the dish and seal with the lid, middle oven at 180°C and cook for the required time according to the type of rice you are using, + 5 mins, the additional 5 mins is to caramelise the butter with the sugars from the rice and bread in the bottom of the casserole, allow to cool for 10 mins then turn out onto a serving dish, the bread now on top should be crispy, if required finish under a grill.

Thats very impressive Dillon. I can barely cook an egg myself.

Flying Dutchman wrote:Thats very impressive Dillon. I can barely cook an egg myself.

FD, I don’t believe THAT, anyone can cook! I had two choices in my early teens, learn to cook or go hungry, so I learnt to cook and I enjoyed it. I invented the omelette you know! While cooking a breakfast of bacon, eggs and mushrooms one Sunday morning I had already prepared the egg to scramble, but to save time, and washing up later, decided to fry the egg mixture with the bacon and mushrooms in the same pan , voila, a breakfast pie was born! Just then, a friend of mine called around as we had planned to go swimming, I asked if he would like some of my breakfast pie I had just invented, he looked at it and said, well that’s an omelette! I said a what! An omelette he said, some Frenchman invented about a hundred Years ago! I was devastated, beaten by the French again But you know every time I make one, in my head, it’s still a breakfast pie!



I just noticed in my previous post 'wash and feather the skin' should read, wash and pr1ck the skin.

Dillon wrote:I just noticed in my previous post 'wash and feather the skin' should read, wash and pr1ck the skin.

I did wonder what a Yorkshire man was doing using the term 'feather the skin'. It's not somethng I would imagine James Martin coming out with!
I thought you may be getting in touch with your feminine side Dillon.

Bethsmum wrote:
I did wonder what a Yorkshire man was doing using the term 'feather the skin'. It's not somethng I would imagine James Martin coming out with!
I thought you may be getting in touch with your feminine side Dillon.

Err, wash your mouth out BM and rid your mind of such polluted thoughts! (To be read in a baritone voice within your head) I don’t know who came up with that one? How on earth do you get feather from pr1ck it should be pierce or puncture, far more fitting… and masculine!

If you're not sure about sweet potatoes BM, have a look out for purple potatoes - those mashed or cooked in anyway just look wrong.

I love a good jacket spu, but don't go to half the effort of Dillon. Wash, score round, shove in the microwave until it starts to go soft, then finish off in the oven until the skin is crispy and the inner soft and fluffy. Favourite toppings are cheese and beans, philadelphia soft cheese, shredded bacon, tuna and sweet corn with mayo. Of course this all has to go on top of a good slathering of butter.

Chocoholic wrote:If you're not sure about sweet potatoes BM, have a look out for purple potatoes - those mashed or cooked in anyway just look wrong.

I love a good jacket spu, but don't go to half the effort of Dillon. Wash, score round, shove in the microwave until it starts to go soft, then finish off in the oven until the skin is crispy and the inner soft and fluffy. Favourite toppings are cheese and beans, philadelphia soft cheese, shredded bacon, tuna and sweet corn with mayo. Of course this all has to go on top of a good slathering of butter.

Errr! purple mash?

I just rub my jackets with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and shove them in the rayburn for a couple of hours, delicious!
Heinz beans and grated cheese would be my choice of filling. I cut a cross in the top of the potato and squeeze it and it looks well nice on the plate

I have to say though, I'm not a lover of sweet corn. I never ever eat it. I don't see the point of it. It comes out the other end looking exactly the same!

-- Mon Nov 21, 2011 10:44 am --

Dillon wrote:Err, wash your mouth out BM and rid your mind of such polluted thoughts! (To be read in a baritone voice within your head) I don’t know who came up with that one? How on earth do you get feather from pr1ck it should be pierce or puncture, far more fitting… and masculine!

Beware of what you write on DF, Dillon!

rice - staple food, always with some form of meat! i can live without it but my stomach can't.
potatoes - meh, used in stews in my recipes and also eaten with rice unless i am cooking steak/turkey/roast
pasta - not so much, every once in awhile for spaghetti, super quick chicken breast with mushroom sauce, chow mein

so yea its rice for me!