Pretentious moi ?

Lemon? Potatoes? Er ...what?

One of my pet hates. Chef's 'putting their 'twist' on classic recipes. That and smears, foam and anything 'deconstructed'

I agree. The last lamb we ate out was totally ruined by the OTT embellishment/herbs/Earl Grey smoking and added flavours. Yuk! The chef ruined a decent piece of meat. I like my food to taste like the food it is supposed to be.

I was trying to work out what microplaneing a lemon meant

Clare deconstructed cottage pie is a favourite in our house. It's called mince 'n' tatties.

deconstructed ...... as in ran out of time to let the elements cool, put them together and put in oven for an hour!

Then you get a helping of this new-fangled concoction that you could shove in your eye, it's so small.

its like those dishes which are adorned with a 'froth' of something !! We had a wonderful dessert at a great bistro pub but it was almost ruined by the froth of something totally uncomplimentary laced over it .

Oh dear all this talk of froth just reminds me of the Blackadder episode in the trenches....Baldrick's 'cooking'

microplaning

Quel?

Yuck!!

I hate these smears of 'jus' which just dirty the plate and unless you have mashed potato (sorry, 'mash', with something added to make it silly), you can't get it off the plate and actually taste it. What is the point?

It's nice with chopped chives though

Just too “Cheffy” for me. I panic to find something simple on the menu in the pubs and restaurants near me.

Assuming you mean mashed potato, Jalima1108, yes, it is, but I would prefer to have my potatoes boiled, cold, given some Hellman's mayonnaise and then the chopped chives added .

(This is why I am not losing weight a month and a half after Christmas...)

?

We went to a new gastropub that opened near us. My husband sat waiting for the rest of the meal to be served! We walked home (we'd intended to have a couple of drinks until we saw the price) and he was sniffing the air outside the fish and chip shop.

I've just seen a chef on TV cook 'duck with a gin foam'. My DH said 'what a waste of gin'

I think I'll skip the lemon mash, thanks!

Most pretentious newspaper recipe I ever saw was a 'using up leftovers' one, in the name of frugality.
I think it was in the Saturday Telegraph some years ago.

The writer's idea of frugally using leftovers was to take 6 lobster shells - which she just happened to have lying around (as one does, of course) and make some sort of broth out of them.

It did give me a good laugh, but IIRC that was one of the reasons we switched to the Saturday Times.

Witzend You are right that most people don't have lobster shells – six of them – just lying around. However, you can make a delicately flavoured shellfish stock from prawn heads and shells. It can be frozen for three months.

Yes have read this recipe and am puzzled as to what is microplaning. Does it mean finely slicing the peel or the whole fruit which seems odd to me? Then it's supposed to go on top of chicken.
Strange.

I've got a microplane. [grin[

It's a fine grater! I use it for all sorts of things- lemons, parmesan, nutmeg and anything else that needs to be finely grated.

Ditch The Times
Read the Sun
?

adorned with a 'froth' of something

In my rural life I'm afraid going to a restaurant and having something adorned with froth just reminds me the dogs may need worming.

Well, thank you for that delightful mental picture, merlotgran!! I shall try not to let it haunt me.

Lemon with mashed potato doesn't appeal to me. A possibility with a fish dish.