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Food Thread: Scotch Eggs And A Special Guest [CBD]

Scotch Eggs are perhaps the quintessential bar food, but we rarely see them in this country, except at the occasional British pub and every now and then at bars with kitchens that are trying something out of the ordinary.

But they seem simple to make, so I don't understand why they are not ubiquitous. Egg, sausage meat, some breading. Here's a recipe from ardent leftist lunatic Jamie Oliver. It's straightforward, although I wonder how soft and runny the yolks really are. Anyone have a technique for peeling raw eggs? That would be great!

Last night, barely 24 hours after the cowardly Islamic terrorist attacks in Paris claimed the lives of so many innocents, I experienced something that was both reassuring and oddly disturbing. I was eating with family in a French bistro in Manhattan (a good one. If anyone wants the name I will e-mail it) when, half way through the meal, to a packed restaurant, one of the waiters, a late-middle-aged woman, climbed the stairs to the second floor and belted out an excellent rendition of "La Marseillaise," the French national anthem." All of the patrons stood, and many joined in to sing with her. I was pleased that even in the heart of liberal, accommodationist America we can still recognize patriotism and understand the need for unity with and support for one of our allies.

But....I am troubled that we in the West have become so soft that we have replaced steadfast belief in ourselves, and the determination to defend Western culture, with emotional responses that, ultimately, do nothing. It is one thing to sing La Marseillaise...it is quite another thing to support a long, painful war against an adversary that will give no quarter and whose goal is the utter and complete destruction of our way of life.

I have never heard of this cocktail, but the addition of the lemon and orange peel during mixing is interesting. Anyone ever try one?

The Deshler
Ingredients

• 1 1/2 oz rye whiskey
  
• 1 oz Dubonett
  
• 1/4 oz Cointreau
  
• 2 dashes Bitter Truth Creole Bitters
  
• large lemon peel
  
• large orange peel

Instructions

Stir all ingredients with ice.
Strain into a cocktail coupe.
Garnish with an orange twist.

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Our very own "artisanal'ette" is, as everyone has noticed, an accomplished and inovative cook. She has graciously offered to share some of her secrets with us, and this first installment comes at the perfect time. The holidays usually mean making foods with recipes that are unfamiliar, from cookbooks that are strange, and in amounts that we are unused to.

"artisanal'ette"

Measurements and Conversions

There are times when you need to convert certain food stuffs from ounces to grams, or teaspoons to ml, inches to cm, or Celsius to Fahrenheit, etc. I find myself doing this more and more as my recipe library expands. I also have had instances where the measurement in the cookbook just didn't look right. Many of my cookbooks will show imperial and metric numbers juxtaposed next to each other {for example 1 cup (7oz/220g)}, and sometimes they do not look like they match up. I've found a lot of errors like this, when a European or Asian (or other) cookbook was translated for Americans.

Also, for tarts, quiches, pies and casseroles, there are handy pan and dish conversion tables.

Usually, I can get away with just typing out my conversion in Google (not for pan sizes though, just basic weights and volumes), but sometimes I need a bit more. I like where I can put in, for example, "mushrooms, sliced" and convert measurements that way if need be. Sometimes recipes can be very particular.

I always cross reference a couple different charts, especially with cake pans.

The ones I use the most if I'm not doing a quick Google "convert 205ml to,,," for ingredient conversions are:

convert-me.com and The Metric Kitchen

Some others I found:

onlineconversion.com and whatscookingamerica and food.com and epicurious.com

Pans & Dishes

cooksinfo.com (see handy links at the bottom of page, too)

joyofbaking.com

thebakingpan.com

Others I found:

almanac.com and whatscookingamerica.com and allrecipes.com
 

Food Substitutes

When I'm cooking informally, I use whatever I have in the house, versus running out to the store for one ingredient that I may not have for a particular recipe. Sometimes I'm not sure which pepper works best as a substitute, or which cheese, or a particular spice, etc.

Here are a couple of my go-to sites for this:

Cook's Thesaurus: foodsubs.com

Gourmet Sleuth: gourmetsleuth.com
 

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And why not continue to one of "artisanal'ette's" recipes!

Strawberry Cinnamon Muffins

If you have leftovers (which I sincerely doubt!), store them in the freezer. Use resealable bags, in order to be able to take them out one by one. For a quick breakfast, simply reheat the strawberry muffins in the oven at 350F/175C for 10 minutes.

Ingredients

• 2 eggs
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup plain yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 stick butter, melted and cooled
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 cups strawberries, hulled and cut in chunks

Directions

Preheat oven to 375F/200C. Grease muffin tins or line with paper cups.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar until light. Add milk, yogurt, vanilla, and melted butter. Gently whisk.

In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Add to milk mixture and stir just until flour disappears. Gently stir in berries.

Spoon thick batter into muffin cups to the top. Bake about 25 minutes, until tester comes out clean.

Invert and cool on rack.

Serves 12

This strawberry muffin recipe was taken from Totally Strawberries Cookbook.