The food thread

Prawns go from tender to rubbery if overcooked, getting them right needs experience in fast cooking (like stir fry).
In a curry, a few minutes do not matter, as the temperature is lower.

Look up the popular Hyderabad dish 'Chicken 65", and its sibling 'Prawns 65'.
The prawns have to be really fresh, cooking time is short.
Somehow no other city gets that dish right.
 
As one of the World's Top and most Modest Scientists, I study anything that may prolong my Time on this Brief Mortal Coil!

So far, so good is my approach.

Imagine my delight on discovering that Hampshire, UK (Where Hurricanes hardly ever Happen!) is about the World's Healthiest place to live.

Why? Well, Watercress is our local favourite vegetable:

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Grows like weeds just up the road in the chalk streams of the Meon Vallley!

Extremely healthy:

https://scitechdaily.com/the-5-most...cience/?utm_source=pocket-newtab-global-en-GB

What with all the troubles of the World lately, we should consider eating more vegetables IMO.

Other greens I am considering include Spinach and Beetroot leaves. :D
 
Tried making chicken kiev for the first time last night, followed a recipe that called for fresh tarragon along with the parsley (and garlic/butter of course) and to be honest i think the tarragon would have been better left in the garden. Other than that it was quite good.
Next time……no tarragon!
 

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It grows wild all around my compost pile and pick it occasionally after a rain when it puts out new growth….the deer love it also.
I feel you put 2 and 2 toghether and make Venison?

Finally got a crop of chard out the garden that the rabbits haven't eaten. Not bad. Will grow it out the way of the little blighters next year.

The weather has made brambling tricky. Before I went on hols there were very few fruits, but then 2 weeks of rain means the first batch have all gone over and not worth picking. Got enough for a bit of jam though.
 
TBH, I am unresolved on a diet of dead animals or being a vegetarian living on a diet of vegetables!

Certainly our fellow dwellars on this planet seem far happier when we do not regard them as Dinner!

Sparrows on Scilly.jpg


Happy as Larks, IMO. Friendly as anything. This snap of happy sparrows was taken on the Scilly Isles off Cornwall, England. No foxes. Few Cats.

It's worth thinking about, IMO.
 
Around here some years back I was walking in a bit of woods and noticed there were no birds singing. Quite unusual I thought, until I noticed a hawk now lived in these woods. (There used to be a bounty on hawks, so they pretty much vanished from the area.)

Far more hawks around now but at least some bird noise in the morning. There was a young hawk in the neighborhood, it spent a bit of time watching the ducks. As they were much bigger than the hawk, it didn't do anything other than watch. (Kind of explains why the ducks tend to group together.)

However the hawk did go after new rabbits. I still find many holes in my lawn. Previously a bobcat had thinned the rabbit population. Only occasionally have deer in my yard. Interestingly I do not live in the sparsely populated country. Pretty much city old suburb. Used to be a train daily commute to work in the city center. Tracks are still in use but no more daily commuter train stop.
 
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I don't have a garden, I have an ecosystem :D. At my old house there was a large deer population that hung around the stately home and ventured into our garden at night. freaked me out a few times going out to the garage and 15 of them stampeding out.

Many raptors around here. The one I have yet to spot (but have heard) is the little owl. it's secretive mainly as it's a snack sized predator...
 
I can tell stories about Owls. In the South of France a particularly large one silences the night when it flies over. It is a "Stealth Owl", being designed to fly silently.

But somehow all the other smarter mammals and birds become aware of it. Called "Le Grand Duc" by farmers. We certainly noticed the spooky silence and felt a rush of air and darkness over our heads.

Back to food, everything growing well in the garden. We have apples, raspberries and the plums are just looking ripe:

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Why pay inflated prices for them? I understand an apple a day adds years to your life.
 
Most of the small birds have cleared off from my town garden lately. Finished nesting, one supposes. Thus gone to the countryside.

I am pretty good at Chemistry.

Aka, the Scientific approach...

I have recently run out of Salt. NaCl to us Chemists...

A useful Mineral, IMO. Roman Soldiers were often paid in Salt.

Alas, Tesco and Waitrose and Sainsbury's has run out of 40p cartons of the stuff.

Thus forcing me to buy Maldon Sea Salt at exorbitent £2.65 prices.

Maldon Sea Salt.jpg


Happily, I know that Sea Salt is a far superior product to cheapish Rock Salt. Packed with Healthy Iodine, Magnesium and Potassium.

Worth the money. And, if you examine the back of the pack, even wins that splendid accolade of Royal Appointment. :)
 
A useful Mineral, IMO. Roman Soldiers were often paid in Salt.
Hence the term salary.
Happily, I know that Sea Salt is a far superior product to cheapish Rock Salt. Packed with Healthy Iodine, Magnesium and Potassium.
Where do we even start?
Steve rock salt is sea salt. It all came from the ocean that originally all came from land, period.
There is nothing healthier about sea salt, nothing.
Neither of them is packed with any other than NaCl. The minerals you mention, along with a number of others, are in such trace amounts, so as not to count for anything resembling nutrition.
When you say magnesium, I think that's a typo, you mean manganese.
Iodine is not present in sea salt nor rock salt. Iodine is added to table salt. It is such an important element, it was decided years ago, the best way to get it into our diets was the salt shaker. Strange thing is, they strip the other elements from table salt before adding the iodine. Go figure.
to us Chemists...
Seriously?