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Old 18-08-2015, 19:13
Tellystar
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my family , children and grandchildren complain I am unadventurous, and my cooking is bland because I don't use loads of herbs and spices, and am not fond of risottos , favouring pork chops, stews, casseroles with veg , fish with parsley sauce , pies etc.
In other words I like traditional food., and can't see anything wrong with that!
They llike dishes with quorn, butternut squash, Thai curries, etc , and no red meat.
What can I make for them that is simple tasty, and interesting, and change their opinion?
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Old 18-08-2015, 20:47
CBFreak
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Hmm I'm the adventurous type myself.
How about making a vegetarian version of something like Cottage Pie?

Or what about Beef Wellington? Follow it up with an Apple crumble and try and make the custard yourself?

Or go wild and try and cook Guinea Fowl or Quail or pheasant or Rabbit?
Rabbit is quite traditional.
I've never tried it myself and would be excited to see that on a plate.
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Old 18-08-2015, 21:22
WombatDeath
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A Thai stir fry will surprise them and is very easy.

- Make some rice. While that's cooking:
- Dice some meat into bite-sized chunks
- Finely chop a few cloves of garlic and as much chilli as you like
- Dice some veg (a salad pepper works well, though not traditional)
- Take an empty bowl and add a teaspoon or two of each of the following: light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and fish sauce (adjust quantities to suit the number of portions - you want to coat the other ingredients, not drown them).

When the rice is ready:
- Stir-fry the meat (very high heat) for a couple of minutes until sufficiently cooked.
- Then put the meat to one side and stir-fry the garlic, chilli and veg for a minute or two (keep the veg nice and crunchy)

Then add the meat back in and immediately do all of the following:
- Mix in the sauces that you combined at the start
- Add a handful of fresh basil leaves
- Mix briefly (take the pan off the heat first, the basil doesn't need cooking and will wilt nicely in the residual heat)
- Serve with the rice

Very traditional (in Thailand, at least). Very quick, and hard to get massively wrong, as long as you remember that stir-frying should be fast and vigorous. Cook the rice while doing the prep, so that you can focus on the frying undistracted. Google "thai basil" for a hundred billion variations on the same recipe.
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Old 18-08-2015, 22:12
poshbloke
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Chicken Adobo is really good, easy to make and something which not many people have had before.

I use a slightly modified (less vinegar) version of this recipe. The dish also works well with pork.

If the no red meat thing isn't an absolute requirement then a Beef Bourguignon or a Goulash (loads of recipes around on the net) might go down well too.
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Old 18-08-2015, 22:54
Jellied Eel
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They llike dishes with quorn, butternut squash, Thai curries, etc , and no red meat.
What can I make for them that is simple tasty, and interesting, and change their opinion?
well, I think you're doing it wrong! Sounds like a perfect opportunity to get them to do some of the cooking so they can 'show you how it's done'. May be more useful with the grandchildren and possibly too late for the children..

For quorn, it's impossible to make it tasty or interesting. Well, ok, that's just me. Would they define birds as 'red meat'? If not, maybe pigeons, pheasents, goose, duck or birds more flavorful than chicken and turkey. For butternut squash, try this?

https://nowathome.wordpress.com/2013...-south-africa/

Some S.African friends made me something like this, so kinda stuffed squash.
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Old 22-08-2015, 13:03
pugamo
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You could make butternut squash soup and add some fresh red chilli for a kick. I'm sure you're used to making soup so it wont be too far out of your comfort zone.
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Old 22-08-2015, 19:46
molliepops
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Don't feel forced to change I say, we seem to be a dying breed these days, the plain nourishing English cooks. I refuse to change how I like to eat they either enjoy it too or cook for themselves.
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