February 4, 2010
This blog has been closed but to view magic mushroom omelette being cooked – click on the below link.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Ace%27s+magic+mushroom+omelette&search_type=
visit http://smallerportions.wordpress.com for more recipes and Manic Mushroom Month – coming soon.
January 28, 2010
I have been told that my blog should cater for ladies as well as Bigboys, and that its title seems almost sexist.
I have also been accused of being verbose and uninteresting in my writing.
Some have said even my recipes are long-winded.
Time for a new start, especially since tummies are bulging after Christmas.
To coincide with my new eating regimen which is being monitored by The Valley News staff, and includes loads of different mushrooms in my dishes, I have decided to start afresh, from the 1st of Feb, with a new blog – http://smallerportions.wordpress.com
Please visit that blog – It is quicker to read, understand and act on – Some speedy recipes will even be shown on YouTube!
January 12, 2010
Firstly, if mushrooms are going to be the mainstay of my recipes for a month, I have created a basic roasted melange of mushrooms which can be cooked in bulk, easily stored and then quickly adapted to make up soups, pates, pie or omlette fillings, souffles, pasta dishes or thickeners for stews or gravy, as needs demand. Once made, this roasted melange can be portioned, lightly coated in walnut oil infused with a few chilli flakes and crushed black pepper – NO SALT – and then refridgerated inside a sealed container with a paper towel under and above the mix to absorb any excess moisture.
Slow roasting as opposed to fast frying tends to enrich and enhance the flavour of the mushrooms and provide a yummy reduced gravy or jus in the bottom of the pan. However, if you are in a hurry, you can flash fry the melange very lightly coated with rapeseed or groundnut oil, in a very hot frying pan – Do not use olive oil because it will burn too easily!
Groundnut, rape seed, walnut or olive oil can be used in the roasting – rape seed is quite fruity and nutty but groundnut and walnut are deliciously nutty and tend to give the mushrooms a more meaty taste and crisper texture.
Pine nuts also really add a lot to the overall flavours, as do walnuts.
Depending on personal taste preferences, different herbs and spices can be used, but always gently warm up (do not burn) whole, crushed or powdered spices in a little oil of your choice, before adding to your creation.
Fresh, dried or flaked chillies as well as Sambal can be used to heat up the dish.
Mushrooms work exceptionally well with chopped fresh ginger root, star anise, mustard seeds, lime leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, fennel, dill, coriander, thyme, parsley, and bay leaves. However, always use in moderation because you do not want to overpower the flavour of the mushrooms. Finely diced mild shallots or sweet onions can be used and garlic should be either cut in half and rubbed onto the pan you are using to cook in, or used whole. Garlic only becomes strong and sometimes bitter if diced or crushed.
Butter can be added, though I prefer not, but if it is, only unsalted.
Salt makes the mushrooms sweaty because it brings out the moisture in them. Therefore only add a little coarse sea salt to mushroom dishes at the end of the cooking, just before serving, otherwise your mushroom mix will be watery, limp and unappetising.
Goat’s cheese, as well as wilted spinach or watercress are a joy with any mushrooms.
Dried porcini mushrooms are wonderful once soaked to re-hydrate and always keep the soaking stock for extra taste.
Try using as many different kinds of mushrooms you can because their tastes are so different and exciting.
Only collect wild mushrooms with experts because some fungi are very poisonous indeed. In fact lethal!
How to Prepare A Roasted Melange of Mushrooms – Basic Mix for Many Mushroom Dishes.
Add enough groundnut, rape seed, walnut, or olive oil to brush over the base of a pan.
Rub a garlic clove which has been halved, into the pan and oil. Once the base of the pan has been infused with the garlic, remove it from the mix.
Slice the various mushrooms roughly – not too finely – and add to the pan.
*Alternatively, you could put the sliced mushrooms and a teaspoon of oil into a plastic bag and shake it all well together before adding the mix to the hot pan infused with garlic*
Add a good sprinkling of pine nuts and stir around the medley of oil and mushrooms.
I usually also add plenty of chilli flakes, loads of black pepper, a star anise, a little finely sliced fresh root ginger, half a teaspoon of sweet hot oak smoked paprika, a couple of lime leaves, 3 whole cardamom, half a teaspoon each of crushed mustard, cumin and fennel seeds to create that final aniseed back drop I like so much.
HOWEVER add your preferred spices and herbs until the taste seems right for your own palate. Remember do not overdo the quantity of oil or spices because mushrooms absorb flavours far more readily than you imagine.
Cook in a hot oven until browned and crispy but do not over-cook. 10 minutes should be about right.
Remove from oven, discard lime leaves, star anise and cardamoms, and then stir in lots of freshly chopped parsley, a little coarse sea-salt, crushed black or mixed pepper corns and a drizzle of walnut or rape seed oil.
Once you have prepared this basic roasted melange of mushrooms, try using some in this simple meal:
Place half a wholemeal roll inside one of my portioners, dribble a little olive oil onto the surface of the roll with some coarse sea salt, add a good heaped spoonful of the melange of roasted mushrooms onto the roll and then top with a poached egg, black pepper, more chilli flakes and a tiny sprinkling of sweet oak smoked paprika.
Next week I will explain how to use the melange in my favourite dish:
Mushroom Lasagne.
Then the following week, my unbeatable Mushroom Soup with goat’s cheese croutons.
January 6, 2010
Here are the images which will help explain the different mushroom recipes I have created.
I will be editing the number of images and adding the written descriptions of the recipes later this week.
The recipes include a spicy mushroom based blitz which can be used, and easily adapted when necessary, to help make up different pates, soups, or pie fillings. There is also my personal favourite – Mushroom Lasagne.
January 6, 2010
Finally the snow has arrived, giving me time to start showing the different recipes I have been creating over the Christmas holiday.
These recipes are mushrooom based because I feel that fungi, in general, are not used enough in our daily diet.
Here is a feature I have recently written about their merits and how I am going to try to prove their health giving benefits:
‘I usually take editorials on the ‘health’ pages of national newspapers with a ‘pinch of salt’, though I am told too much of that is not good for me. However recently something really caught my eye about the health benefits of mushrooms. They of course come in many shapes and sizes and as long as you only eat the ones that don’t kill you, it is claimed that they may help with your blood pressure, bad cholesterol, weight loss or even, as the British Journal of Urology suggests, reduce the size of cancerous tumours. They are protein based and rich in minerals and vitamins and can apparently help keep your skin and other bits of you in really good condition as well as boost your immune system.
Under the supervision of everybody at The Valley News, for which I write the occasional feature, for one month, I am going to only eat the following: Mushrooms – All edible varieties. tomatoes (also good for you), water buffalo (low in fat and cholesterol) meat burgers and free range chicken, salad and green things (especially the delicious water-cress from Broadchalk), dry-cured bacon, the odd home-made sausage, fresh free-range eggs from Home Close, Teffont, goats’ cheeses and yoghurt, porridge, blueberries, honey, skimmed goats’ milk, soya milk, soya spread, apples and oranges, wholemeal or spelt bread, plenty of water and the odd glass of wine will wash it all down.
So after 4 weeks of this strange but suggested healthy diet, let’s see if my coat is thick and shiny at the end of it! Watch this space!’
December 23, 2009
Merry Christmas to you all, and a prosperous, as well as healthy, New Year.
We are celebrating it with a rib of water buffalo on Christmas Day instead of turkey.
How different is that!
I have taken a break from the bigboylighter blog to build up a following on my other blogs (Click on the Roving Reporter link and others when you visit – acedrummond.wordpress.com ) and I am waiting for the New Year before I start more postings with recipes and updates.
This holiday, like for most of you, will probably be spent eating and drinking to excess.
Enjoy it as I will, because January will come with much less of everything passing through our mouths, when we take up using Paul’s Portioner again!
Email wilki000@googlemail.com for more information,
December 7, 2009
I have been creating new recipes to use with your Paul’s Portioner and have been very keen to exploit the health giving benefits of mushrooms.
More coming soon!
If you would like a Paul’s Portioner please kindly email wilki000@googlemail.com
For news and events in the area around Tisbury, in Wiltshire, UK, please click on the Roving Reporter link or view: acedrummond.wordpress.com
For cricketing news in the county of Wiltshire, UK, please look at the blog – villagecricket.wordpress.com
For news about Fonthill Park Cricket Club and its beautiful grounds, please look at the blog – fonthillparkcricketclub.wordpress.com
If you want some fun in your life and you are in your 60s or over, why not join The Nothy Club – It is free – nothyclub.wordpress.com
November 25, 2009
Here is one of the healthiest salads you can make (providing you are not a vegetarian!):
Luxury iron-enriched protein packed lamb’s liver salad with soft minted onions and chillies.
The lamb is from our local friend Robert and is simply delicious, having been gently reared by grazing on only the finest Wiltshire grass.
I gently fried, until soft and golden, some sliced onions in a little olive and then stirred in some mint jelly, chilli flakes, salt and black pepper. I then added some fresh mint at the end.
I quickly fried the slices of lamb’s liver in a little oil with some more chilli flakes, cracked black pepper, sea salt, and finally adding some chopped rosemary. It was drained and allowed to rest.
(A good hint for cleaning sliced liver and kidneys is to soak them in milk over night in the fridge after first washing and drying the slices on a paper towel).
The salad was tossed cos lettuce, tomatoes, very thinly sliced fresh fennel, sweet red peppers, cucumber, fresh chilli pieces, celery, fresh basil, mint, lime juice and a little olive oil. Salt and crushed mixed peppers were added to taste. Totally divine!
Paul’s Portioner is a trademark. Patent applied for. All designs, copyrights and intellectual property rights are reserved.
November 25, 2009
Quickly seared Water Buffalo steak and potato, with steamed vegetables tossed in a little olive oil, a few crushed dried juniper berries, black pepper, sea salt and nutmeg. Don’t forget a generous spoonful of horseradish sauce!
Water Buffalo meat is absolutely incredible and some very good friends of mine farm these wonderful beasts in a slow sustainable, natural way.
The taste is of really top quality beef but it is softer, lighter, more flavoursome and much better for you.
It is rich in flavour with 40 – 60% less cholesteral, half the calories and a third less saturated fat than beef. Also, very importantly, it contains more protein and minerals as well as being rich in B vitamins and iron.
I will post a full page about their glorious water buffalos (Bubatis Bubalus) during next week.
Paul’s Portioner is a trademark. Patent applied for. All designs, copyrights and intellectual property rights are reserved.
November 25, 2009
You will have noticed that the size of the meals seem quite large on the plate but remember there is only a limited space in Paul’s Portioner which will hold the protein and if need be, a few carbohydrates.
After a while, your craving for protein will exceed your craving for carbs, so your eating pattern will change. Protein gives you energy for a longer period than carbs and you do not get those terrible sugar rushes and the highs and lows experienced with carbs. Besides which, there are always greens or fresh salads surrounding the contents of Paul’s Portioner and this is terrific because they are so good for you and very nutritional – the more the merrier.
This first week of using your Paul’s Portioner is one of experimenting with different fillings to sit inside it, as well as getting used to creating interesting green and salad foodstuff to surround it.
You will notice how much more appealing your meals look when displayed on the dish once you have removed your Paul’s Portioner and because part of the pleasure of eating is the visual attraction of what you are about to put in your mouth, then each meal you prepare becomes a pleasure to look at and as a consequence, a sense of occasion to enjoy. Your brain tells you that if the grub looks terrible it is likely to taste awful!
Here is my Fiery Spiced Meatballs Recipe:
Ingredients:
1. 500 grms of 100% lean beef (preferably minced by yourself or by a good butcher under your watchful eye – no unknown junk added).
2. Large Spoonful (LS) of very hot chilli paste (sambal) and one LS of sweet chilli sauce.
3. LS of tomato ketchup and Small Spoonful (SS) of balsamic sauce or sweet jam (red current or red berry jam or jelly is excellent).
4. Large finely chopped onion (red is sweeter) fried until soft in a little rapeseed and olive oil mixed. (You can add some finely chopped and fried bacon as well for extra taste).
5. Pleanty of sea salt and crushed pepper as necessary to suit your own palate.
6. One large egg as a binder.
7. LS Chopped fresh herbs or dried ones (Parsley or Thyme are excellent) and you can try spices as well, like crushed fennel or coriander seeds.
6. Finely diced fresh or dried flaked chillies for extra ooomph if needed.
7. LS of low fat creme fraiche.
8. SS of hot oak smoked paprika.
9. Put the lot in a bowl and use a knife to ‘cut them in well’ or mix them together with your hands.
10. Shape into small balls or larger ones if preferred.
11. Shallow fry ina little of the oil mix.
12. You can use the juices from the fried meatballs as gravy or, as I often do, use Ikea’s delicious Graddsas (miss out the addition of cream) which is a yummy spiced fruit and veg .based garvy.
13. Finally after plating up, add a LS dollop of plum or red berry jam (Ikea’s lingonberry is excellent).
14. Enjoy your meal but eat it slowly, savouring every mouthful. Do not rush it and always eat while seated at the table – it helps with the digestive process and makes eating a pleasure.
By using different meat or poultry you can vary the Meatballs: Grated apple is nice with minced pork with some apple sauce added. Finely chooped fennel or dried fennel seeds or freshly chopped tarragon are all brilliant with chicken. Lamb with mint jelly and plum jam is wonderful. Diced stem ginger (balls in syrup) is great, finely diced in minced duck or game, with a little marmalade. Fresh salmon fillets, flaked with finely chopped smoked salmon, diced prawns and monkfish or skate wings all minced roughly together with a little soft goats cheese are amazing with chopped dill . . . . and so on! Try your own favourite combination.
The addition of chillies speeds up your metabolism so when possible use them – They really can help!
Meatballs, providing you know exactly, and can control exactly, what goes in them, are terrific because once cooked, they can be easily frozen and then quickly defrosted and warmed when needed for a fast meal or snack. One of the best ’standbys’ to have!
I look forward to your comments and perhaps you would be kind enough to send me your ideas for Tasty Meatballs.
Paul’s Portioner is a trademark. Patent applied for. All designs, copyrights and intellectual property rights are reserved.
