Fifty Plus (50+) - Is O/T about cooking allowed at this time of year?

To partially justify, yesterday I took off the mtb clip pedal off the left (broken leg) side of the utility bike and replaced it with a platform, clipped in on the right, and took a Christmas morning ride for about 25 kms for the first time since my Oct 30th accident.

And wow. I mean, we all enjoy bikes here. But wow. Sunny fresh morning, 7.00 am on Christmas Day, delightful stoker spouse alongside. Finished at the church to yell out some tuneless and heartfelt carols (someone had left my walker at the door so I could one-leg inside! - still not allowed to put any weight on the broken leg) - and then the pastor invited anyone who'd received a present to show and tell - charming as you can imagine, sweet kids with presents, lovely young ladies with clothes and scarves and music, handsome growing blokes with footballs.

Had to say - I'd got a bike ride!

Then I cooked roastie spuds and onions and a ribeye roast beef for 12. Red skinned spuds half peeled in stripes so they look like candy canes, cut golf ball size, parboiled 12 minutes, drained, back in the pan so the water evaporates and they're quite dry, sea salt, into a roasting pan with cold olive oil to coat all over with a lot of turning (cold is important, hot doesn't coat so thickly because of higher viscosity at lower temperatures), into oven at hottest possible, 15 minutes

Roll the ribeye in ground peppercorns, sea salt and herbes de provence - the good stuff has some lavender in the mix, and worth the premium. Into a rack on top of the spuds for maybe 10 of the planned spud 15 mins. Should sear and form a thinly carbonised coat, which means the meat will steam inside its crust and emerge lovely and juicy

Turn down to gas 6 or 350 F for maybe 70 minutes for 4 lbs or so. Don't interfere. Maybe at minute 60, turn the spuds over - they'll be lovely and golden where they touch the pan, and be ready to turn so on the upper side. (Don't mess with the spuds earlier - if you do so, you'll tear their browning but vulnerable skins off)

Wow. That was a lot of fun to cook. Only downside, I was hoping to bring the leftovers home to make a beef jalrezi this evening - and it all went. Nada di nothing left!

I'll take that as an ok

Recovery bike ride, couple of hours cooking which is one of my most favourite things to do, good company with friends who ate up everything I cooked, lovely daughter with us and a long teleskype with travelling boy later in the evening

I had a great day, and I truly hope you all did also

Nice work, and no, I don't mind the OT. I've always enjoyed cooking, but when I took a buyout from my newspaper two years ago, I really got into it. I was doing a radio show in the mornings, so I was off by noon and I'd go home and fix dinner three or four days a week. My wife loved it. Then I got moved to afternoon drive, 4-6, and it screwed up my timing.
What's a beef jalrezi? I want one...

My fondest holiday memory from my youth is pastachina. It's a layered lasagna-like dish with dime sized meat balls only made with mostaccioli noodles. We only had it on Christmas and maybe Thanksgiving. I think that's because it's so labor intensive to make.

Mrs Grouch made the sauce last weekend and we worked together to roll all of the meatballs this morning. Tonight or tomorrow morning we'll cook the noodles and assemble the layers. Everything that goes into this dish is cooked separately and then assembled and baked together. It's a good time to take inventory of your pots and pans because you'll heve every one of them out.

It wouldn't be Christmas without pastachina.

Tons of leftovers here including a delicious pork roast stuffed with fennel, fresh strawberries with whipped cream on angel food cake and an incredible Italian lemon merange pie. I love to cook and even more to eat. Time to get out and take a ride to work off some of that extra fat!!!

As I understand it, we all need fuel (food) to ride.

So, how in the world can cooking that food be considered off-topic??

You are not permitted to bear weight on the afflicted leg, but can you pedal at all with it? Around 1993 I became fascinated with one-legged bicycling during recovery from my second kneecap dislocation. I removed the left crank from my mountain bike to accommodate my rigidly splinted leg, dropped into the granny chainring, and tried a bit of riding. I did not cover much ground, but it was much more fun than the one-legged pedaling I had been doing on one of the YMCA's exercise bikes.

Nice work, and no, I don't mind the OT. What's a beef jalrezi? I want one...

Thanks.. What you enquire about is no more than a spelling mistake. I trust we're among friends here

A beef Jalfrezi (with different animal protein, could be a lamb/mutton, chicken, duck, goose Jalfrezi) is more dry than wet, more spicy than creamy, but not too overpoweringly spicy curry sauce. Ginger, tomato, red pepper, coriander, soft chilli but not too much, cumin and you're well on the way - but I hope that more expert people than me might chime in and tell us how wrong I am

Use any meat but Beware of Lamb as it can get greasy.


Chicken Jalfrezi - A Curry with Tomatoes and Capsicum)

Murg Jalfrezi

Mamta Gupta

It is a dry-fried chicken curry, with delicious mix of green peppers (also known as capsicum or bell peppers or Shimla mirch), onions, green chillies and tomatoes. It has a creamy, clingy gravy, though everyone in our house likes to have 'a bit of gravy'. Serves 4

Ingredients

• 500 gm. chicken pieces, skin removed and washed
• For marinade:
• 2 inch piece ginger, peeled and finely grated
• 3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and grated
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric
• 1 tsp. Garam Masala
• Salt to taste
• For cooking vegetable mix:
• 2 medium onions (approximately 200 gm), peeled and thickly sliced or chopped
• 150 gm or 2 green peppers, de-seeded and sliced or cubed (1" pieces)
• 1-2 green chillies, according to taste, chopped
• 2 large tomatoes (250 gm.) cut into medium wedges
• 2 tbs. oil or ghee
• Salt to taste
• For cooking the curry gravy:
• 2 tbs. ghee or oil
• 1/2 tsp. chilli powder, adjust amount to taste
• 2 tbs. tomato puree*

Instructions

1. Mix ginger, garlic, turmeric, garam masala and salt together.
2. Coat chicken with this mix and allow to marinate for 2-3 hours.
3. Heat oil or ghee in a wok or kadhai.
4. Add sliced onions, green chillies, green peppers and salt, fry for 10 minutes or so.
5. Add tomato wedges, stir fry until onions become translucent and green peppers and tomatoes are half cooked, approximately 10 minutes.
6. Lift out with a slotted spoon and keep aside.
7. Heat 2 tbs. oil or ghee in a pan, add marinated chicken and stir-fry for 5 minutes on high.
8. Add chilli powder and tomato puree and simmer on low heat, until chicken is cooked. At the end. stir-fry until excess gravy is evaporated and chicken looks well fried. The picture shows more gravy (our family style) than the traditional Jalfrezi. To reduce, boil briskly towards the end.
9. This dish can be prepared upto here a day before you need it. Before serving, follow next steps.
10. Add fried vegetables, prepared earlier, and stir-fry for a fe minutes, until heated through.
11. Turn heat off.
12. Sprinkle green coriander leaves.
13. Give it a quick stir and serve hot with Tandoori Roti or Chapatti.

Notes

• You can add a few more sliced green chillies to the vegetable mix.
• *You can add a couple of tablespoons of natural yoghurt or double cream at step 8, to make the dish more creamy.

And good work on the leg-- Just don't push it too hard or too soon.

Stapfam....I am ashamed to say I only associated you with sticky desserts. I stand happily corrected.

He probably stold the recipe from his lovely bride.

Stapfam, thanks for the recipe...the British have the best currys, IMHO , I used to be able to buy some British curry powders that were spectacular, But have not been able to find them lately. I have 20 or30 whole spices that I have been trying to duplicate them with, I am close , but not quite the same yet,,
Will try your recipe ,,Thanks
Bud

Hmmmm, when you talk cooking, I think eating.

Stapfam....I am ashamed to say I only associated you with sticky desserts. I stand happily corrected.

Here in the UK we have some fantastic Indian Take-Aways. This recipe is from our local one but at the quality of their food- I won't bother cooking.

But sticky desserts---Off to London today to see the christmas lights. (Pics may follow) But a cafe in Villiers street may be open. They do the most fantastic Apple and Cinnamon PIE. If they are open- pics of the PIE will follow but the taste of it you will have to imagine.