Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
As long as your kids are small, you can have roast chicken on day one, chicken risotto on day two, and soup on day three (or for lunch).
Yeah risotto is one of the easier things to cook.
You can do risotto in the microwave, it's about the easiest thing to make.
How? You mean those packets of microwaveable 2mins rice?
Don't breathe a word of what you just said to @Cyclefree I'm guessing.
No, regular risotto rice. I think it's a Delia recipe. It's very easy and delicious.
Are you talking about "rice" which happens to be arborio rice?
A risotto and microwaving risotto rice might be different things.
Naah.
Fry onion till soft in a thick based pan, chuck in rice and dollop of stock and water, plus X, simmer without burning till cooked and liquid absorbed to taste. That's it.
Basic approach to kedgeree, risotto, etc. Paella too. Only difference is X.
Kedgeree - bit of curry with the onion. X = frozen peas and sultanas and (at end) separately boiled Finnan haddock and/or frozen NA prawns, and/or boiled egg.
Risotto - red pepper fried with the onion. X= mushrooms, peas, carrots, plus chicken, egg, prawn, whatever.
Paella - not too sure ...
Sounds like a Pilaf.
I tend to soften the onion in butter, stir in rice and turmeric and cardamom before adding stock, and soften, not fry, tomatoes in evol and tarragon in a separate pan.
so simple. The mix of buttery rice and grassy oil tomatoes creates a taste sensation.
I forgot to say we use arborio or 'risotto' rice for the risotto and Basmati for the kedgeree. What's in your pilaf?
Never risotto if using basmati and I defy anyone to do a real risotto in a microwave.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
I bloody love that "use the bones for stock" total bollocks from esp. TV chefs.
I doubt there are more than 10 people in the country who ever do that.
I tried to do it once. Didn’t work and have never bothered again.
The wife is quite keen on making soup from the carcass - remove all the remaining meat chunks, then boil the bones for an hour and then remove bones, add meat and hey presto. Even better with the Xmas turkey.
On the subject of food, yesterday I boiled some small potatoes (cost $1.50) for 30 minutes.
I then chucked them on a pan, crushed them a bit, and poured some cheap olive oil over then, before putting them in the oven to roast for 40 minutes.
I then took half a tin of anchovies, dumped it in a pan and added some crushed garlic. After that had combined over a low heat, I added some butter and let it simmer.
I then poured the garlic, anchovy butter over the crushed potatoes and added a small tin of tuna.
Total cost maybe $6/7. All eaten by my hungry kids.
Boris is trash. His speech was bullshit and the pretence that he isn't robbing the south to bribe voters in the north is no longer credible. Honestly, it's time for the toy party to pull the trigger and get rid.
Rubbish, the main reason the Tories have a majority of 80 and seats in white working class former Labour heartlands in the North and Midlands is down to Boris.
Anyway, even if the Tories saw a 10% swing to the LDs in the South in 2023/24 the LDs would still only pick up about 25 seats, which would still give a narrow Tory majority of 30 if Boris held the Red Wall.
Boris is the most successful Tory election winner since Thatcher and when they got rid of her it did not end well. The Tories then proceeded to lose 3 out of the next 4 general elections and even when they returned to power in 2010 it was without a majority
Careful now, tiger - dismissing me yesterday and @MaxPB today (both of whom, I'm guessing, voted Cons in 2019) is making your "who cares" work even harder.
What would Oscar say in such a situation...
I live in a three way marginal seat. If the Lib Dems prove themselves to be a serious party (stop laughing) by 2023/24 I know where my vote is going. If not I'll sit on my hands, I can't vote for the Tories led by Boris. The guy is a complete numpty.
I like and respect you hugely Max. Some principles, perhaps you can be one of the people who can put the Tories back into the mainstream, as a party I might vote one day vote for (again)
Unlikely given that I'm not in the party and tbh, I don't think I'll be tempted to join until the likes of HYFUD are made to feel unwelcome and move to some other party or go independent.
Given we are on 40%+ in every poll you will be waiting a long time for that, I am actually on the moderate end of the current Tory Party
Your pernicious hatred of Marcus Rashford makes you an extremist!
Ummm... if Coronavirus was designed as a weapon by the Chinese, wouldn't the first step have been able to treat it? Yet, the Chinese vaccines have been late and crap. Their case fatality rates have been five times those in the West. And they've had to go to extreme measures (welding people in homes) to stop it killing hundreds of millions of their own citizens.
Also, if you were going to design a weapon, the very last thing you'd want is something that could be hosted by over 200 mammalian species - because that basically guarantees you'll never be able to be rid of the bloody thing.
Edit to add:
There are certain characteristics you want for a good bioweapon:
1. You don't want a long period from infection to being able to detect it, because then you'll never be able to stop it entering your country. 2. You want a virus that isn't able to mutate, so that it won't be able to evade the vaccines you've prepared for your own citizens. 3. You want it to take out or disable the young, while (ideally) leaving the old to their own devices. 4. You want it to affect humans only.
Covid 19 is a *terrible* bioweapon, that culls the old from places with terrible dependency ratios. That is hard to keep from your country. And which is hosted by hundreds of other species, and therefore will never be truly eliminated.
Wouldn't that make such a bioweapon shit for other reasons?
(1) would mean that lockdowns and containment were far easier than for Covid, thus mitigating against spread and deaths, *and* (2) would mean - if you had - that other countries would develop their own vaccines inside a few months?
Bioweapons are crap, and you really need chemical weapons or nerve agents that kill quickly.
However, Covid is almost perfect for collateral economic damage, which is arguably more important than indiscriminate population fatality and will saddle the West with more problems than China.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
As long as your kids are small, you can have roast chicken on day one, chicken risotto on day two, and soup on day three (or for lunch).
Yeah risotto is one of the easier things to cook.
You can do risotto in the microwave, it's about the easiest thing to make.
How? You mean those packets of microwaveable 2mins rice?
Don't breathe a word of what you just said to @Cyclefree I'm guessing.
No, regular risotto rice. I think it's a Delia recipe. It's very easy and delicious.
Are you talking about "rice" which happens to be arborio rice?
A risotto and microwaving risotto rice might be different things.
Naah.
Fry onion till soft in a thick based pan, chuck in rice and dollop of stock and water, plus X, simmer without burning till cooked and liquid absorbed to taste. That's it.
Basic approach to kedgeree, risotto, etc. Paella too. Only difference is X.
Kedgeree - bit of curry with the onion. X = frozen peas and sultanas and (at end) separately boiled Finnan haddock and/or frozen NA prawns, and/or boiled egg.
Risotto - red pepper fried with the onion. X= mushrooms, peas, carrots, plus chicken, egg, prawn, whatever.
Paella - not too sure ...
Sounds like a Pilaf.
I tend to soften the onion in butter, stir in rice and turmeric and cardamom before adding stock, and soften, not fry, tomatoes in evol and tarragon in a separate pan.
so simple. The mix of buttery rice and grassy oil tomatoes creates a taste sensation.
I forgot to say we use arborio or 'risotto' rice for the risotto and Basmati for the kedgeree. What's in your pilaf?
Never risotto if using basmati and I defy anyone to do a real risotto in a microwave.
Rare point of agreement, Malc. Risotto in the microwave seems like an insult to Italians and doing it with Basmati is an insult to Italians and Indians!
Ah, but the reason why that has changed is nothing to do with the US ... and everything to with house price inflation.
If you are a lecturer in a leafy University town, you won't be able to afford to buy a house on a lecturer's salary.
So, the University has to promote you to a Professor quickly ... otherwise you will just leave and do something else.
Hence, you end up with Departments that are 100 per cent Professors.
In fact, in some leafy University towns, the new Professors still can't afford a house (though the older ones bought their houses 20 years ago and are sitting on massive gains)
This is misleading. There are 2 things that have changed in the past 20 years.
Firstly, UK universities have all embraced "personal chairs" (i.e. Professor as the highest rank/grade) rather than having a rationed number of named/endowed chairs. Many eminent scholars had ended their careers as Reader (the highest non-rationed rank) because the professor in the named chair for their field did not die before they retired. So, there are more "full professors" (i.e. rank of Professor) than before. I think this change was pretty much completed by the turn of the millennium, though I guess more people have become eligible for personal chairs (and it is likely the career stage is closer now to readerships in the "old" UK system).
Secondly, and separately, some UK universities have embraced American-style job titles. Hence, a lecturer or senior lecturer in old money is now Assistant Professor or Associate Professor. I've never met an academic who likes this change, but it is said to be something scientists wanted as they were upset when Americans thought they were "untenured" at conferences. The American-style titles are unhelpful, as assistant denies the fact that lecturers are researchers and course leaders in their own right; while Associate makes it sound like a deputy or affiliated staffer to a professor. But the Assistant and Associate Professors are paid at the same grade as under old titles: So not very relevant to house prices and salaries.
You are correct, but you haven't explained why the first change happened. Why did Universities suddenly appoint more personal chairs?
It happened because of house prices.
Let us take Oxford. A starting Lecturer salary might be 40 k. That means our Lecturer can borrow an additional 120 k. He has to find a house costing 180 k, or thereabouts
A three bedroom house in Jericho costs 695 k. Even a three bedroom house in Blackbird Leys -- where they hunt new Oxford University Lecturers with feral dogs -- costs 300 k. 😀
Of course not only do Oxford colleges have rooms on site, some also own houses across Oxford for lecturers too
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
Absolutely. With that chicken (£2.66 1.2-1.6kg - a "few days" for a family?!) you need some veg and some pots and pans and an oven and perhaps some spuds and some oil or butter and a chopping board and knife and some space and perhaps some herbs maybe not and some greaseproof paper or kitchen foil maybe even gravy. And then you need to stick the chicken in the oven at the right time for an hour or so and then prepare the potatoes and the vegetables and then cook those and then have it all on the plate for your family. And then do the same thing or differently for the next "few days".
You are an exemplar in that you think nothing of doing this and all that suffers is a few dozen posts you might otherwise enlighten PB with.
Not everyone is in the same position and the thought of "cooking" really is quite a psychological, physical and practical hurdle.
I think the issue is that British people have been conditioned to think of cooking as a chore when it isn't. It also doesn't help that British cuisine is generally pretty awful and tastes in this country have moved to prefer Asian or Southern European flavours which many find impenetrably difficult to cook for themselves. There was little motivation for a generation of Brits to learn to cook because all we had was British food, but now that the skills are lost it's difficult to retrain a society into cooking properly again. Hence shows like that stupid 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver or other shows that try and teach "tricks" of how to cook quickly etc...
Yes that's true but on another level, when I am feeling up and happy with life, I might think nothing of creating some great culinary feast, perhaps I'll try pork belly or slow cooked shoulder of lamb, using those once every six months herbs, and preparing everything in neat little bowls before I cook it all, perhaps with a glass of fino sherry to hand and listening to some nice music. Me time in the kitchen.
That is very far from every day for a family.
When I am knacked and have had a shitty day I think fuck that let's get a MickeyDs/Dominos/out to the supermarket for something that I literally have to think no longer than 3 minutes about.
And I would class myself as relatively (to the median income receiver) quite well off, etc.
When I'm knackered and had a shitty day then I'll typically be lazy and use frozen food. Prepared frozen veg, in the microwave. Frozen meat, pop that in our Airfryer. Frozen chips in the airfryer too. About 12-15 minutes for the airfryer to cook the meat and the meal is done.
Lazy meal, quicker, cheaper and easier than going out for any takeaway.
I have sympathy with your viewpoint (and in our family of four, we also can make a chicken, probably a bit bigger than the £2.50 one linked, last three days - one day roast, two days in a pie, with lots of other stuff - we normally work on three adult servings when using a recipe, so 8-9 adult servings equivalent).
But there is a valid point (Topping, was it?) about investment. Your air fryer sounds great, but I expect it costs at least a few supermarket ready meals to buy one and why would you if you don't have any idea what to do with it? We have a slow cooker which is great for easy and big batch meals (not 'quick', obviously!) and they can be picked up for £30-£40, but we only got one, despite enjoying cooking, when a relative bought one for us - we hadn't realised the possibilities before.
In our house, a quick really can't be arsed meal is omelette (bacon, cheese, mushroom) with spiced wedges and some frozen veg if there's nothing handy in the garden. Half an hour start to finish with only about ten minute of semi-intensive effort at the end. But an awful lot of people simply don't know how to do that and even using those few pans/trays can be a blocker.
It's very easy for those of us with a little know-how, a reasonably well equipped basic kitchen and cupboards/freezers filled with basic ingredients to rustle up something tasty in no time for very little money. But it's know-how and time. Before I had a work-provided laptop, my last four laptops were fairly recent thinkpads bought broken on ebay, repaired by me with the aid of the thinkpad hardware maintenance manuals and all for less than the crappiest laptops in Currys. But most people don't do that - they go to Currys and, if on a budget, get something 'cheap' that is both poor quality, won't last, is hard to repair and is expensive for what it is. It's the same with food.
What an excellent comment.
If you know what you're doing, and have a well equipped kitchen, it's easy to eat well cheaply: a portion of risotto is perhaps 40p, an omelette maybe only sightly more.
But most people don't know what they're doing.
Also, they can't be arsed - including me.
Weekdays: I go downstairs when I'm hungry and I want something instant, so I can carry on working, or so I can relax in the evening. And, no, I'm not going down the Huel road.
It's only on weekends I take the time to enjoy the preparation and ritual of eating my food.
On the subject of food, yesterday I boiled some small potatoes (cost $1.50) for 30 minutes.
I then chucked them on a pan, crushed them a bit, and poured some cheap olive oil over then, before putting them in the oven to roast for 40 minutes.
I then took half a tin of anchovies, dumped it in a pan and added some crushed garlic. After that had combined over a low heat, I added some butter and let it simmer.
I then poured the garlic, anchovy butter over the crushed potatoes and added a small tin of tuna.
Total cost maybe $6/7. All eaten by my hungry kids.
Ok - I'm on a 'fasting' day. Please desist from discussing such lovely food...
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
As long as your kids are small, you can have roast chicken on day one, chicken risotto on day two, and soup on day three (or for lunch).
Yeah risotto is one of the easier things to cook.
Also easy to make a rubbery mess of it as well, you have to get it just at the correct consistency or it is horrible.
Might I ask, what rice do you use?
Carnyx, always Arborio and slowly add broth till absorbed and it turns creamy. Add some grated parmesan at the end.
Boris is trash. His speech was bullshit and the pretence that he isn't robbing the south to bribe voters in the north is no longer credible. Honestly, it's time for the toy party to pull the trigger and get rid.
Rubbish, the main reason the Tories have a majority of 80 and seats in white working class former Labour heartlands in the North and Midlands is down to Boris.
Anyway, even if the Tories saw a 10% swing to the LDs in the South in 2023/24 the LDs would still only pick up about 25 seats, which would still give a narrow Tory majority of 30 if Boris held the Red Wall.
Boris is the most successful Tory election winner since Thatcher and when they got rid of her it did not end well. The Tories then proceeded to lose 3 out of the next 4 general elections and even when they returned to power in 2010 it was without a majority
Careful now, tiger - dismissing me yesterday and @MaxPB today (both of whom, I'm guessing, voted Cons in 2019) is making your "who cares" work even harder.
What would Oscar say in such a situation...
I live in a three way marginal seat. If the Lib Dems prove themselves to be a serious party (stop laughing) by 2023/24 I know where my vote is going. If not I'll sit on my hands, I can't vote for the Tories led by Boris. The guy is a complete numpty.
I like and respect you hugely Max. Some principles, perhaps you can be one of the people who can put the Tories back into the mainstream, as a party I might vote one day vote for (again)
Unlikely given that I'm not in the party and tbh, I don't think I'll be tempted to join until the likes of HYFUD are made to feel unwelcome and move to some other party or go independent.
Given we are on 40%+ in every poll you will be waiting a long time for that, I am actually on the moderate end of the current Tory Party
Your pernicious hatred of Marcus Rashford makes you an extremist!
I don't hate him, even though I disagree on free school meals in the holidays
Ummm... if Coronavirus was designed as a weapon by the Chinese, wouldn't the first step have been able to treat it? Yet, the Chinese vaccines have been late and crap. Their case fatality rates have been five times those in the West. And they've had to go to extreme measures (welding people in homes) to stop it killing hundreds of millions of their own citizens.
Also, if you were going to design a weapon, the very last thing you'd want is something that could be hosted by over 200 mammalian species - because that basically guarantees you'll never be able to be rid of the bloody thing.
Edit to add:
There are certain characteristics you want for a good bioweapon:
1. You don't want a long period from infection to being able to detect it, because then you'll never be able to stop it entering your country. 2. You want a virus that isn't able to mutate, so that it won't be able to evade the vaccines you've prepared for your own citizens. 3. You want it to take out or disable the young, while (ideally) leaving the old to their own devices. 4. You want it to affect humans only.
Covid 19 is a *terrible* bioweapon, that culls the old from places with terrible dependency ratios. That is hard to keep from your country. And which is hosted by hundreds of other species, and therefore will never be truly eliminated.
Wouldn't that make such a bioweapon shit for other reasons?
(1) would mean that lockdowns and containment were far easier than for Covid, thus mitigating against spread and deaths, *and* (2) would mean - if you had - that other countries would develop their own vaccines inside a few months?
Bioweapons are crap, and you really need chemical weapons or nerve agents that kill quickly.
However, Covid is almost perfect for collateral economic damage, which is arguably more important than indiscriminate population fatality and will saddle the West with more problems than China.
Wouldn't killing all the oldies, while leaving the young and the productive untouched do exactly the opposite?
But to me the killer point is the other mammalian hosts: it would be the very first thing you'd check, because it means there would be no way to ever eradicate the disease.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
As long as your kids are small, you can have roast chicken on day one, chicken risotto on day two, and soup on day three (or for lunch).
Yeah risotto is one of the easier things to cook.
Also easy to make a rubbery mess of it as well, you have to get it just at the correct consistency or it is horrible.
Might I ask, what rice do you use?
Carnyx, always Arborio and slowly add broth till absorbed and it turns creamy. Add some grated parmesan at the end.
Exactly - the classic way. Mistake to use other kinds. But basmati is great for kedgeree.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
Must be some chicken at 2.50 though, I thought you could get cheap one's for a Fiver but must be either a sparrow or radioactive.
My local Tesco always has this available at £2.50 with a clubcard. 🤷♂️
Don’t wave to toil the point, but that chicken provides 2300 calories. The idea it could ‘feed a family for days’ is a stretch, unless you are feeding Rishi Sunak and his leprechaun sister
On the subject of food, yesterday I boiled some small potatoes (cost $1.50) for 30 minutes.
I then chucked them on a pan, crushed them a bit, and poured some cheap olive oil over then, before putting them in the oven to roast for 40 minutes.
I then took half a tin of anchovies, dumped it in a pan and added some crushed garlic. After that had combined over a low heat, I added some butter and let it simmer.
I then poured the garlic, anchovy butter over the crushed potatoes and added a small tin of tuna.
Total cost maybe $6/7. All eaten by my hungry kids.
Ok - I'm on a 'fasting' day. Please desist from discussing such lovely food...
Sorry! Let's talk about tinned snoek and dried egg patties instead.
Boris is trash. His speech was bullshit and the pretence that he isn't robbing the south to bribe voters in the north is no longer credible. Honestly, it's time for the toy party to pull the trigger and get rid.
Rubbish, the main reason the Tories have a majority of 80 and seats in white working class former Labour heartlands in the North and Midlands is down to Boris.
Anyway, even if the Tories saw a 10% swing to the LDs in the South in 2023/24 the LDs would still only pick up about 25 seats, which would still give a narrow Tory majority of 30 if Boris held the Red Wall.
Boris is the most successful Tory election winner since Thatcher and when they got rid of her it did not end well. The Tories then proceeded to lose 3 out of the next 4 general elections and even when they returned to power in 2010 it was without a majority
Careful now, tiger - dismissing me yesterday and @MaxPB today (both of whom, I'm guessing, voted Cons in 2019) is making your "who cares" work even harder.
What would Oscar say in such a situation...
I live in a three way marginal seat. If the Lib Dems prove themselves to be a serious party (stop laughing) by 2023/24 I know where my vote is going. If not I'll sit on my hands, I can't vote for the Tories led by Boris. The guy is a complete numpty.
I like and respect you hugely Max. Some principles, perhaps you can be one of the people who can put the Tories back into the mainstream, as a party I might vote one day vote for (again)
Unlikely given that I'm not in the party and tbh, I don't think I'll be tempted to join until the likes of HYFUD are made to feel unwelcome and move to some other party or go independent.
Given we are on 40%+ in every poll you will be waiting a long time for that, I am actually on the moderate end of the current Tory Party
Your pernicious hatred of Marcus Rashford makes you an extremist!
Does he hate him? He made a bit of a crass comment about him, but I don't think he said he hated him?
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
Absolutely. With that chicken (£2.66 1.2-1.6kg - a "few days" for a family?!) you need some veg and some pots and pans and an oven and perhaps some spuds and some oil or butter and a chopping board and knife and some space and perhaps some herbs maybe not and some greaseproof paper or kitchen foil maybe even gravy. And then you need to stick the chicken in the oven at the right time for an hour or so and then prepare the potatoes and the vegetables and then cook those and then have it all on the plate for your family. And then do the same thing or differently for the next "few days".
You are an exemplar in that you think nothing of doing this and all that suffers is a few dozen posts you might otherwise enlighten PB with.
Not everyone is in the same position and the thought of "cooking" really is quite a psychological, physical and practical hurdle.
I think the issue is that British people have been conditioned to think of cooking as a chore when it isn't. It also doesn't help that British cuisine is generally pretty awful and tastes in this country have moved to prefer Asian or Southern European flavours which many find impenetrably difficult to cook for themselves. There was little motivation for a generation of Brits to learn to cook because all we had was British food, but now that the skills are lost it's difficult to retrain a society into cooking properly again. Hence shows like that stupid 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver or other shows that try and teach "tricks" of how to cook quickly etc...
Oliver's 15 minute meals is an absolute massive con trick.
Complete bollox for sure
Why? Is it one of those cookbooks whose timings are based on the assumption that you have already prepped everything?
I only saw it a few times on the telly. You would need a day to go buy the list of ingredients and then it was edited to hell as no way would it be done in 15 mins, lots of preparation etc. eg
Ingredients out • Kettle boiled • Medium lidded pan, medium-high heat • Food processor (bowl blade) • Large frying pan, high heat START COOKING Put the quinoa into the pan and generously cover with boiling water and the lid. Put the chilli, spinach, trimmed spring onions and coriander (reserving a few leaves) into the processor, tear in the top leafy half of the mint, then blitz until finely chopped. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with sea salt, black pepper, the allspice and paprika. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1.5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, or until blackened and cooked through. Deseed the peppers, cut each one into 8 strips and add to the frying pan, tossing regularly. Peel and cut the mango into chunks. Drain the quinoa and rinse under the cold tap, then drain well again and tip on to a serving board or platter. Toss with the blitzed spinach mixture, squeeze over the lime juice, add the extra virgin olive oil, mix well and season to taste. Sprinkle the mango chunks and cooked peppers over the quinoa. Halve and destone the avocado, then use a teaspoon to scoop curls of it over the salad. Slice up the chicken, toss the slices in any juices and add to the salad. Crumble over the feta, scatter over the remaining coriander leaves and snip over the cress. Serve with dollops of yoghurt.
Ahhh... You missed the code word "quinoa". That means it's not a real recipe, and can be ignored.
On which note, why is "quinoa" pronounce "kin-wah"? I mean he's not Ricky Bilb-wah.
On the subject of food, yesterday I boiled some small potatoes (cost $1.50) for 30 minutes.
I then chucked them on a pan, crushed them a bit, and poured some cheap olive oil over then, before putting them in the oven to roast for 40 minutes.
I then took half a tin of anchovies, dumped it in a pan and added some crushed garlic. After that had combined over a low heat, I added some butter and let it simmer.
I then poured the garlic, anchovy butter over the crushed potatoes and added a small tin of tuna.
Total cost maybe $6/7. All eaten by my hungry kids.
The hard-pressed hedge fund manager shows how it's done.
On the subject of food, yesterday I boiled some small potatoes (cost $1.50) for 30 minutes.
I then chucked them on a pan, crushed them a bit, and poured some cheap olive oil over then, before putting them in the oven to roast for 40 minutes.
I then took half a tin of anchovies, dumped it in a pan and added some crushed garlic. After that had combined over a low heat, I added some butter and let it simmer.
I then poured the garlic, anchovy butter over the crushed potatoes and added a small tin of tuna.
Total cost maybe $6/7. All eaten by my hungry kids.
Ok - I'm on a 'fasting' day. Please desist from discussing such lovely food...
Sorry! Let's talk about tinned snoek and dried egg patties instead.
Boris is trash. His speech was bullshit and the pretence that he isn't robbing the south to bribe voters in the north is no longer credible. Honestly, it's time for the toy party to pull the trigger and get rid.
Rubbish, the main reason the Tories have a majority of 80 and seats in white working class former Labour heartlands in the North and Midlands is down to Boris.
Anyway, even if the Tories saw a 10% swing to the LDs in the South in 2023/24 the LDs would still only pick up about 25 seats, which would still give a narrow Tory majority of 30 if Boris held the Red Wall.
Boris is the most successful Tory election winner since Thatcher and when they got rid of her it did not end well. The Tories then proceeded to lose 3 out of the next 4 general elections and even when they returned to power in 2010 it was without a majority
Careful now, tiger - dismissing me yesterday and @MaxPB today (both of whom, I'm guessing, voted Cons in 2019) is making your "who cares" work even harder.
What would Oscar say in such a situation...
I live in a three way marginal seat. If the Lib Dems prove themselves to be a serious party (stop laughing) by 2023/24 I know where my vote is going. If not I'll sit on my hands, I can't vote for the Tories led by Boris. The guy is a complete numpty.
I like and respect you hugely Max. Some principles, perhaps you can be one of the people who can put the Tories back into the mainstream, as a party I might vote one day vote for (again)
Unlikely given that I'm not in the party and tbh, I don't think I'll be tempted to join until the likes of HYFUD are made to feel unwelcome and move to some other party or go independent.
Given we are on 40%+ in every poll you will be waiting a long time for that, I am actually on the moderate end of the current Tory Party
Can you give examples that convince you are?
crushing SNP heads using tank tracks and nuking Spain doesn’t come across as moderate.
For example, where do you stand on using some form of dementia tax to fairly fund social care. The current government doesn’t seem to have a care policy at all?
And on house building. Build on green belt and build more council houses?
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
Must be some chicken at 2.50 though, I thought you could get cheap one's for a Fiver but must be either a sparrow or radioactive.
Forget culture wars, it's going to really piss a lot of people off - including Boris's base - if the Liberati do what I do whilst telling the great unwashed to eat fermented plant protein and algae.
Tories still defying gravity. I just find it mind blowing they are still on ~42% (as an average of the past 4-5 polls). Huge scandal of Hancock, COVID cases rising, all the divisive culture war stuff, and 44% in this poll.
The big thing in all these polls, Labour don't seem to be benefitting at all. I am guessing Stamer's approach of government are reckless, useless, waste of space, but I would basically do the same isn't helping Labour.
Boris is trash. His speech was bullshit and the pretence that he isn't robbing the south to bribe voters in the north is no longer credible. Honestly, it's time for the toy party to pull the trigger and get rid.
Rubbish, the main reason the Tories have a majority of 80 and seats in white working class former Labour heartlands in the North and Midlands is down to Boris.
Anyway, even if the Tories saw a 10% swing to the LDs in the South in 2023/24 the LDs would still only pick up about 25 seats, which would still give a narrow Tory majority of 30 if Boris held the Red Wall.
Boris is the most successful Tory election winner since Thatcher and when they got rid of her it did not end well. The Tories then proceeded to lose 3 out of the next 4 general elections and even when they returned to power in 2010 it was without a majority
Careful now, tiger - dismissing me yesterday and @MaxPB today (both of whom, I'm guessing, voted Cons in 2019) is making your "who cares" work even harder.
What would Oscar say in such a situation...
I live in a three way marginal seat. If the Lib Dems prove themselves to be a serious party (stop laughing) by 2023/24 I know where my vote is going. If not I'll sit on my hands, I can't vote for the Tories led by Boris. The guy is a complete numpty.
But he has an 80-seat majority...
I honestly don't see how the Tories hold on to Finchley and Golders Green next time. Unless they can make the Lib Dems and Labour fight it out the Lib Dems will walk it.
+1 - I don't see why Labour would bother fighting that sort of seat in London - if they don't already have it there are better seats to fight in the next election.
Chipping Barnet which borders on it will probably fall to the red team. My parents live in Enfield Southgate which is demographically perfect for the Tories as a leafy suburban area with average property prices in the high six figure range and an oversized proportion of City workers, it's now solid Labour, actually impenetrably so despite the MP being a complete joker.
Enfield Southgate may have high average property prices but it is also a Remain seat with lots of renters.
The most solid Tory seats now under Boris voted Leave and have high levels of home owners even if only average house prices ie more Harlow and less Enfield Southgate
Having seen how fat he has got again recently I am not surprised you need "the most solid Tory seats now under Boris" !
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
Absolutely. With that chicken (£2.66 1.2-1.6kg - a "few days" for a family?!) you need some veg and some pots and pans and an oven and perhaps some spuds and some oil or butter and a chopping board and knife and some space and perhaps some herbs maybe not and some greaseproof paper or kitchen foil maybe even gravy. And then you need to stick the chicken in the oven at the right time for an hour or so and then prepare the potatoes and the vegetables and then cook those and then have it all on the plate for your family. And then do the same thing or differently for the next "few days".
You are an exemplar in that you think nothing of doing this and all that suffers is a few dozen posts you might otherwise enlighten PB with.
Not everyone is in the same position and the thought of "cooking" really is quite a psychological, physical and practical hurdle.
I think the issue is that British people have been conditioned to think of cooking as a chore when it isn't. It also doesn't help that British cuisine is generally pretty awful and tastes in this country have moved to prefer Asian or Southern European flavours which many find impenetrably difficult to cook for themselves. There was little motivation for a generation of Brits to learn to cook because all we had was British food, but now that the skills are lost it's difficult to retrain a society into cooking properly again. Hence shows like that stupid 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver or other shows that try and teach "tricks" of how to cook quickly etc...
Oliver's 15 minute meals is an absolute massive con trick.
Complete bollox for sure
Why? Is it one of those cookbooks whose timings are based on the assumption that you have already prepped everything?
I only saw it a few times on the telly. You would need a day to go buy the list of ingredients and then it was edited to hell as no way would it be done in 15 mins, lots of preparation etc. eg
Ingredients out • Kettle boiled • Medium lidded pan, medium-high heat • Food processor (bowl blade) • Large frying pan, high heat START COOKING Put the quinoa into the pan and generously cover with boiling water and the lid. Put the chilli, spinach, trimmed spring onions and coriander (reserving a few leaves) into the processor, tear in the top leafy half of the mint, then blitz until finely chopped. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with sea salt, black pepper, the allspice and paprika. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1.5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, or until blackened and cooked through. Deseed the peppers, cut each one into 8 strips and add to the frying pan, tossing regularly. Peel and cut the mango into chunks. Drain the quinoa and rinse under the cold tap, then drain well again and tip on to a serving board or platter. Toss with the blitzed spinach mixture, squeeze over the lime juice, add the extra virgin olive oil, mix well and season to taste. Sprinkle the mango chunks and cooked peppers over the quinoa. Halve and destone the avocado, then use a teaspoon to scoop curls of it over the salad. Slice up the chicken, toss the slices in any juices and add to the salad. Crumble over the feta, scatter over the remaining coriander leaves and snip over the cress. Serve with dollops of yoghurt.
Ahhh... You missed the code word "quinoa". That means it's not a real recipe, and can be ignored.
On which note, why is "quinoa" pronounce "kin-wah"? I mean he's not Ricky Bilb-wah.
Peak Guardian article -
“ Quinoa, espresso and bruschetta: the foods getting your tongue in a twist Getting knees mixed up with your gnocchi? Even food buffs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jay Rayner trip up over unpronounceable eats that, in one fell swoop, can brand you an unsophisticated hick or a pretentious pedant”
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
Must be some chicken at 2.50 though, I thought you could get cheap one's for a Fiver but must be either a sparrow or radioactive.
Forget culture wars, it's going to really piss a lot of people off - including Boris's base - if the Liberati do what I do whilst telling the great unwashed to eat fermented plant protein and algae.
Years ago I took a house mate to Waitrose (he normally shopped in Sainsbury's). He bought his usual amount of chicken breasts to make his dinner. Was then amazed at how much chicken he had, as the Waitrose ones were not about 50% water...
Flip side - couple of times in recent weeks we've had chicken breasts from Waitrose that were substandard - very tough. We normally use the local butcher, and it was quite a shock.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
Absolutely. With that chicken (£2.66 1.2-1.6kg - a "few days" for a family?!) you need some veg and some pots and pans and an oven and perhaps some spuds and some oil or butter and a chopping board and knife and some space and perhaps some herbs maybe not and some greaseproof paper or kitchen foil maybe even gravy. And then you need to stick the chicken in the oven at the right time for an hour or so and then prepare the potatoes and the vegetables and then cook those and then have it all on the plate for your family. And then do the same thing or differently for the next "few days".
You are an exemplar in that you think nothing of doing this and all that suffers is a few dozen posts you might otherwise enlighten PB with.
Not everyone is in the same position and the thought of "cooking" really is quite a psychological, physical and practical hurdle.
I think the issue is that British people have been conditioned to think of cooking as a chore when it isn't. It also doesn't help that British cuisine is generally pretty awful and tastes in this country have moved to prefer Asian or Southern European flavours which many find impenetrably difficult to cook for themselves. There was little motivation for a generation of Brits to learn to cook because all we had was British food, but now that the skills are lost it's difficult to retrain a society into cooking properly again. Hence shows like that stupid 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver or other shows that try and teach "tricks" of how to cook quickly etc...
Oliver's 15 minute meals is an absolute massive con trick.
Complete bollox for sure
Why? Is it one of those cookbooks whose timings are based on the assumption that you have already prepped everything?
I only saw it a few times on the telly. You would need a day to go buy the list of ingredients and then it was edited to hell as no way would it be done in 15 mins, lots of preparation etc. eg
Ingredients out • Kettle boiled • Medium lidded pan, medium-high heat • Food processor (bowl blade) • Large frying pan, high heat START COOKING Put the quinoa into the pan and generously cover with boiling water and the lid. Put the chilli, spinach, trimmed spring onions and coriander (reserving a few leaves) into the processor, tear in the top leafy half of the mint, then blitz until finely chopped. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with sea salt, black pepper, the allspice and paprika. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1.5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, or until blackened and cooked through. Deseed the peppers, cut each one into 8 strips and add to the frying pan, tossing regularly. Peel and cut the mango into chunks. Drain the quinoa and rinse under the cold tap, then drain well again and tip on to a serving board or platter. Toss with the blitzed spinach mixture, squeeze over the lime juice, add the extra virgin olive oil, mix well and season to taste. Sprinkle the mango chunks and cooked peppers over the quinoa. Halve and destone the avocado, then use a teaspoon to scoop curls of it over the salad. Slice up the chicken, toss the slices in any juices and add to the salad. Crumble over the feta, scatter over the remaining coriander leaves and snip over the cress. Serve with dollops of yoghurt.
Ahhh... You missed the code word "quinoa". That means it's not a real recipe, and can be ignored.
On which note, why is "quinoa" pronounce "kin-wah"? I mean he's not Ricky Bilb-wah.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
Must be some chicken at 2.50 though, I thought you could get cheap one's for a Fiver but must be either a sparrow or radioactive.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
Absolutely. With that chicken (£2.66 1.2-1.6kg - a "few days" for a family?!) you need some veg and some pots and pans and an oven and perhaps some spuds and some oil or butter and a chopping board and knife and some space and perhaps some herbs maybe not and some greaseproof paper or kitchen foil maybe even gravy. And then you need to stick the chicken in the oven at the right time for an hour or so and then prepare the potatoes and the vegetables and then cook those and then have it all on the plate for your family. And then do the same thing or differently for the next "few days".
You are an exemplar in that you think nothing of doing this and all that suffers is a few dozen posts you might otherwise enlighten PB with.
Not everyone is in the same position and the thought of "cooking" really is quite a psychological, physical and practical hurdle.
I think the issue is that British people have been conditioned to think of cooking as a chore when it isn't. It also doesn't help that British cuisine is generally pretty awful and tastes in this country have moved to prefer Asian or Southern European flavours which many find impenetrably difficult to cook for themselves. There was little motivation for a generation of Brits to learn to cook because all we had was British food, but now that the skills are lost it's difficult to retrain a society into cooking properly again. Hence shows like that stupid 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver or other shows that try and teach "tricks" of how to cook quickly etc...
Oliver's 15 minute meals is an absolute massive con trick.
Complete bollox for sure
Why? Is it one of those cookbooks whose timings are based on the assumption that you have already prepped everything?
I only saw it a few times on the telly. You would need a day to go buy the list of ingredients and then it was edited to hell as no way would it be done in 15 mins, lots of preparation etc. eg
Ingredients out • Kettle boiled • Medium lidded pan, medium-high heat • Food processor (bowl blade) • Large frying pan, high heat START COOKING Put the quinoa into the pan and generously cover with boiling water and the lid. Put the chilli, spinach, trimmed spring onions and coriander (reserving a few leaves) into the processor, tear in the top leafy half of the mint, then blitz until finely chopped. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with sea salt, black pepper, the allspice and paprika. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1.5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, or until blackened and cooked through. Deseed the peppers, cut each one into 8 strips and add to the frying pan, tossing regularly. Peel and cut the mango into chunks. Drain the quinoa and rinse under the cold tap, then drain well again and tip on to a serving board or platter. Toss with the blitzed spinach mixture, squeeze over the lime juice, add the extra virgin olive oil, mix well and season to taste. Sprinkle the mango chunks and cooked peppers over the quinoa. Halve and destone the avocado, then use a teaspoon to scoop curls of it over the salad. Slice up the chicken, toss the slices in any juices and add to the salad. Crumble over the feta, scatter over the remaining coriander leaves and snip over the cress. Serve with dollops of yoghurt.
Ahhh... You missed the code word "quinoa". That means it's not a real recipe, and can be ignored.
On which note, why is "quinoa" pronounce "kin-wah"? I mean he's not Ricky Bilb-wah.
Peak Guardian article -
“ Quinoa, espresso and bruschetta: the foods getting your tongue in a twist Getting knees mixed up with your gnocchi? Even food buffs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jay Rayner trip up over unpronounceable eats that, in one fell swoop, can brand you an unsophisticated hick or a pretentious pedant”
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
Absolutely. With that chicken (£2.66 1.2-1.6kg - a "few days" for a family?!) you need some veg and some pots and pans and an oven and perhaps some spuds and some oil or butter and a chopping board and knife and some space and perhaps some herbs maybe not and some greaseproof paper or kitchen foil maybe even gravy. And then you need to stick the chicken in the oven at the right time for an hour or so and then prepare the potatoes and the vegetables and then cook those and then have it all on the plate for your family. And then do the same thing or differently for the next "few days".
You are an exemplar in that you think nothing of doing this and all that suffers is a few dozen posts you might otherwise enlighten PB with.
Not everyone is in the same position and the thought of "cooking" really is quite a psychological, physical and practical hurdle.
I think the issue is that British people have been conditioned to think of cooking as a chore when it isn't. It also doesn't help that British cuisine is generally pretty awful and tastes in this country have moved to prefer Asian or Southern European flavours which many find impenetrably difficult to cook for themselves. There was little motivation for a generation of Brits to learn to cook because all we had was British food, but now that the skills are lost it's difficult to retrain a society into cooking properly again. Hence shows like that stupid 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver or other shows that try and teach "tricks" of how to cook quickly etc...
Oliver's 15 minute meals is an absolute massive con trick.
Complete bollox for sure
Why? Is it one of those cookbooks whose timings are based on the assumption that you have already prepped everything?
I only saw it a few times on the telly. You would need a day to go buy the list of ingredients and then it was edited to hell as no way would it be done in 15 mins, lots of preparation etc. eg
Ingredients out • Kettle boiled • Medium lidded pan, medium-high heat • Food processor (bowl blade) • Large frying pan, high heat START COOKING Put the quinoa into the pan and generously cover with boiling water and the lid. Put the chilli, spinach, trimmed spring onions and coriander (reserving a few leaves) into the processor, tear in the top leafy half of the mint, then blitz until finely chopped. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with sea salt, black pepper, the allspice and paprika. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1.5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, or until blackened and cooked through. Deseed the peppers, cut each one into 8 strips and add to the frying pan, tossing regularly. Peel and cut the mango into chunks. Drain the quinoa and rinse under the cold tap, then drain well again and tip on to a serving board or platter. Toss with the blitzed spinach mixture, squeeze over the lime juice, add the extra virgin olive oil, mix well and season to taste. Sprinkle the mango chunks and cooked peppers over the quinoa. Halve and destone the avocado, then use a teaspoon to scoop curls of it over the salad. Slice up the chicken, toss the slices in any juices and add to the salad. Crumble over the feta, scatter over the remaining coriander leaves and snip over the cress. Serve with dollops of yoghurt.
Ahhh... You missed the code word "quinoa". That means it's not a real recipe, and can be ignored.
On which note, why is "quinoa" pronounce "kin-wah"? I mean he's not Ricky Bilb-wah.
Peak Guardian article -
“ Quinoa, espresso and bruschetta: the foods getting your tongue in a twist Getting knees mixed up with your gnocchi? Even food buffs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jay Rayner trip up over unpronounceable eats that, in one fell swoop, can brand you an unsophisticated hick or a pretentious pedant”
Angelique Kerber is the latest tennis player to pull out of this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo.
At this rate, some kid in the park is going to get an wild card entry.
I'm starting to think Andy Murray could win Gold - given that he has already had covid he would be the last player standing.
Don't rule him out. I suspect many/most of the other big names will rather win the US open and can do without the olympic bubble for however long it would need. Murray has the ability, not sure of his fitness, but then olympics is best of three (I think, with the exception of the final).
Ummm... if Coronavirus was designed as a weapon by the Chinese, wouldn't the first step have been able to treat it? Yet, the Chinese vaccines have been late and crap. Their case fatality rates have been five times those in the West. And they've had to go to extreme measures (welding people in homes) to stop it killing hundreds of millions of their own citizens.
Also, if you were going to design a weapon, the very last thing you'd want is something that could be hosted by over 200 mammalian species - because that basically guarantees you'll never be able to be rid of the bloody thing.
Edit to add:
There are certain characteristics you want for a good bioweapon:
1. You don't want a long period from infection to being able to detect it, because then you'll never be able to stop it entering your country. 2. You want a virus that isn't able to mutate, so that it won't be able to evade the vaccines you've prepared for your own citizens. 3. You want it to take out or disable the young, while (ideally) leaving the old to their own devices. 4. You want it to affect humans only.
Covid 19 is a *terrible* bioweapon, that culls the old from places with terrible dependency ratios. That is hard to keep from your country. And which is hosted by hundreds of other species, and therefore will never be truly eliminated.
Wouldn't that make such a bioweapon shit for other reasons?
(1) would mean that lockdowns and containment were far easier than for Covid, thus mitigating against spread and deaths, *and* (2) would mean - if you had - that other countries would develop their own vaccines inside a few months?
Bioweapons are crap, and you really need chemical weapons or nerve agents that kill quickly.
However, Covid is almost perfect for collateral economic damage, which is arguably more important than indiscriminate population fatality and will saddle the West with more problems than China.
Wouldn't killing all the oldies, while leaving the young and the productive untouched do exactly the opposite?
But to me the killer point is the other mammalian hosts: it would be the very first thing you'd check, because it means there would be no way to ever eradicate the disease.
No, because we've all been saddled with hundreds of billions of pounds of extra debt, massive education problems for the next generation and lots of lost jobs.
Angelique Kerber is the latest tennis player to pull out of this summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo.
At this rate, some kid in the park is going to get an wild card entry.
I'm starting to think Andy Murray could win Gold - given that he has already had covid he would be the last player standing.
That has to be a serious danger there are outbreaks of COVID among the athletes (just before or during) and that favourites across a whole series of events can't compete.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
Absolutely. With that chicken (£2.66 1.2-1.6kg - a "few days" for a family?!) you need some veg and some pots and pans and an oven and perhaps some spuds and some oil or butter and a chopping board and knife and some space and perhaps some herbs maybe not and some greaseproof paper or kitchen foil maybe even gravy. And then you need to stick the chicken in the oven at the right time for an hour or so and then prepare the potatoes and the vegetables and then cook those and then have it all on the plate for your family. And then do the same thing or differently for the next "few days".
You are an exemplar in that you think nothing of doing this and all that suffers is a few dozen posts you might otherwise enlighten PB with.
Not everyone is in the same position and the thought of "cooking" really is quite a psychological, physical and practical hurdle.
I think the issue is that British people have been conditioned to think of cooking as a chore when it isn't. It also doesn't help that British cuisine is generally pretty awful and tastes in this country have moved to prefer Asian or Southern European flavours which many find impenetrably difficult to cook for themselves. There was little motivation for a generation of Brits to learn to cook because all we had was British food, but now that the skills are lost it's difficult to retrain a society into cooking properly again. Hence shows like that stupid 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver or other shows that try and teach "tricks" of how to cook quickly etc...
Oliver's 15 minute meals is an absolute massive con trick.
Complete bollox for sure
Why? Is it one of those cookbooks whose timings are based on the assumption that you have already prepped everything?
I only saw it a few times on the telly. You would need a day to go buy the list of ingredients and then it was edited to hell as no way would it be done in 15 mins, lots of preparation etc. eg
Ingredients out • Kettle boiled • Medium lidded pan, medium-high heat • Food processor (bowl blade) • Large frying pan, high heat START COOKING Put the quinoa into the pan and generously cover with boiling water and the lid. Put the chilli, spinach, trimmed spring onions and coriander (reserving a few leaves) into the processor, tear in the top leafy half of the mint, then blitz until finely chopped. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with sea salt, black pepper, the allspice and paprika. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1.5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, or until blackened and cooked through. Deseed the peppers, cut each one into 8 strips and add to the frying pan, tossing regularly. Peel and cut the mango into chunks. Drain the quinoa and rinse under the cold tap, then drain well again and tip on to a serving board or platter. Toss with the blitzed spinach mixture, squeeze over the lime juice, add the extra virgin olive oil, mix well and season to taste. Sprinkle the mango chunks and cooked peppers over the quinoa. Halve and destone the avocado, then use a teaspoon to scoop curls of it over the salad. Slice up the chicken, toss the slices in any juices and add to the salad. Crumble over the feta, scatter over the remaining coriander leaves and snip over the cress. Serve with dollops of yoghurt.
Ahhh... You missed the code word "quinoa". That means it's not a real recipe, and can be ignored.
On which note, why is "quinoa" pronounce "kin-wah"? I mean he's not Ricky Bilb-wah.
You're writing in English and you're complaining about inconsistency in pronunciation, apparently without irony, about a word that likely originates in another language. Do you know anything about English?
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
Absolutely. With that chicken (£2.66 1.2-1.6kg - a "few days" for a family?!) you need some veg and some pots and pans and an oven and perhaps some spuds and some oil or butter and a chopping board and knife and some space and perhaps some herbs maybe not and some greaseproof paper or kitchen foil maybe even gravy. And then you need to stick the chicken in the oven at the right time for an hour or so and then prepare the potatoes and the vegetables and then cook those and then have it all on the plate for your family. And then do the same thing or differently for the next "few days".
You are an exemplar in that you think nothing of doing this and all that suffers is a few dozen posts you might otherwise enlighten PB with.
Not everyone is in the same position and the thought of "cooking" really is quite a psychological, physical and practical hurdle.
I think the issue is that British people have been conditioned to think of cooking as a chore when it isn't. It also doesn't help that British cuisine is generally pretty awful and tastes in this country have moved to prefer Asian or Southern European flavours which many find impenetrably difficult to cook for themselves. There was little motivation for a generation of Brits to learn to cook because all we had was British food, but now that the skills are lost it's difficult to retrain a society into cooking properly again. Hence shows like that stupid 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver or other shows that try and teach "tricks" of how to cook quickly etc...
Oliver's 15 minute meals is an absolute massive con trick.
Complete bollox for sure
Why? Is it one of those cookbooks whose timings are based on the assumption that you have already prepped everything?
I only saw it a few times on the telly. You would need a day to go buy the list of ingredients and then it was edited to hell as no way would it be done in 15 mins, lots of preparation etc. eg
Ingredients out • Kettle boiled • Medium lidded pan, medium-high heat • Food processor (bowl blade) • Large frying pan, high heat START COOKING Put the quinoa into the pan and generously cover with boiling water and the lid. Put the chilli, spinach, trimmed spring onions and coriander (reserving a few leaves) into the processor, tear in the top leafy half of the mint, then blitz until finely chopped. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with sea salt, black pepper, the allspice and paprika. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1.5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, or until blackened and cooked through. Deseed the peppers, cut each one into 8 strips and add to the frying pan, tossing regularly. Peel and cut the mango into chunks. Drain the quinoa and rinse under the cold tap, then drain well again and tip on to a serving board or platter. Toss with the blitzed spinach mixture, squeeze over the lime juice, add the extra virgin olive oil, mix well and season to taste. Sprinkle the mango chunks and cooked peppers over the quinoa. Halve and destone the avocado, then use a teaspoon to scoop curls of it over the salad. Slice up the chicken, toss the slices in any juices and add to the salad. Crumble over the feta, scatter over the remaining coriander leaves and snip over the cress. Serve with dollops of yoghurt.
Ahhh... You missed the code word "quinoa". That means it's not a real recipe, and can be ignored.
On which note, why is "quinoa" pronounce "kin-wah"? I mean he's not Ricky Bilb-wah.
Peak Guardian article -
“ Quinoa, espresso and bruschetta: the foods getting your tongue in a twist Getting knees mixed up with your gnocchi? Even food buffs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jay Rayner trip up over unpronounceable eats that, in one fell swoop, can brand you an unsophisticated hick or a pretentious pedant”
Great article! Must be very troubling for all the supercilious evangelical vegan/health nazis who make out that veganism is environmentally beneficial.
Boris is trash. His speech was bullshit and the pretence that he isn't robbing the south to bribe voters in the north is no longer credible. Honestly, it's time for the toy party to pull the trigger and get rid.
Rubbish, the main reason the Tories have a majority of 80 and seats in white working class former Labour heartlands in the North and Midlands is down to Boris.
Anyway, even if the Tories saw a 10% swing to the LDs in the South in 2023/24 the LDs would still only pick up about 25 seats, which would still give a narrow Tory majority of 30 if Boris held the Red Wall.
Boris is the most successful Tory election winner since Thatcher and when they got rid of her it did not end well. The Tories then proceeded to lose 3 out of the next 4 general elections and even when they returned to power in 2010 it was without a majority
Careful now, tiger - dismissing me yesterday and @MaxPB today (both of whom, I'm guessing, voted Cons in 2019) is making your "who cares" work even harder.
What would Oscar say in such a situation...
I live in a three way marginal seat. If the Lib Dems prove themselves to be a serious party (stop laughing) by 2023/24 I know where my vote is going. If not I'll sit on my hands, I can't vote for the Tories led by Boris. The guy is a complete numpty.
I like and respect you hugely Max. Some principles, perhaps you can be one of the people who can put the Tories back into the mainstream, as a party I might vote one day vote for (again)
Unlikely given that I'm not in the party and tbh, I don't think I'll be tempted to join until the likes of HYFUD are made to feel unwelcome and move to some other party or go independent.
Given we are on 40%+ in every poll you will be waiting a long time for that, I am actually on the moderate end of the current Tory Party
Can you give examples that convince you are?
crushing SNP heads using tank tracks and nuking Spain doesn’t come across as moderate.
For example, where do you stand on using some form of dementia tax to fairly fund social care. The current government doesn’t seem to have a care policy at all?
And on house building. Build on green belt and build more council houses?
The party supports refusing indyref2.
Even May scrapped a dementia tax.
Unlike Philip I want to build on brownbelt land first and minimise green belt construction
Boris is trash. His speech was bullshit and the pretence that he isn't robbing the south to bribe voters in the north is no longer credible. Honestly, it's time for the toy party to pull the trigger and get rid.
Rubbish, the main reason the Tories have a majority of 80 and seats in white working class former Labour heartlands in the North and Midlands is down to Boris.
Anyway, even if the Tories saw a 10% swing to the LDs in the South in 2023/24 the LDs would still only pick up about 25 seats, which would still give a narrow Tory majority of 30 if Boris held the Red Wall.
Boris is the most successful Tory election winner since Thatcher and when they got rid of her it did not end well. The Tories then proceeded to lose 3 out of the next 4 general elections and even when they returned to power in 2010 it was without a majority
Careful now, tiger - dismissing me yesterday and @MaxPB today (both of whom, I'm guessing, voted Cons in 2019) is making your "who cares" work even harder.
What would Oscar say in such a situation...
I live in a three way marginal seat. If the Lib Dems prove themselves to be a serious party (stop laughing) by 2023/24 I know where my vote is going. If not I'll sit on my hands, I can't vote for the Tories led by Boris. The guy is a complete numpty.
I like and respect you hugely Max. Some principles, perhaps you can be one of the people who can put the Tories back into the mainstream, as a party I might vote one day vote for (again)
Unlikely given that I'm not in the party and tbh, I don't think I'll be tempted to join until the likes of HYFUD are made to feel unwelcome and move to some other party or go independent.
Given we are on 40%+ in every poll you will be waiting a long time for that, I am actually on the moderate end of the current Tory Party
Can you give examples that convince you are?
crushing SNP heads using tank tracks and nuking Spain doesn’t come across as moderate.
For example, where do you stand on using some form of dementia tax to fairly fund social care. The current government doesn’t seem to have a care policy at all?
And on house building. Build on green belt and build more council houses?
@HYUFD a moderate - complete loss of self awareness
We are both in the same party but we are very different and not sure any conservative on here would align with your views
Though of course you are entitled to them but you are not entitled to think you speak for all the party
Ummm... if Coronavirus was designed as a weapon by the Chinese, wouldn't the first step have been able to treat it? Yet, the Chinese vaccines have been late and crap. Their case fatality rates have been five times those in the West. And they've had to go to extreme measures (welding people in homes) to stop it killing hundreds of millions of their own citizens.
Also, if you were going to design a weapon, the very last thing you'd want is something that could be hosted by over 200 mammalian species - because that basically guarantees you'll never be able to be rid of the bloody thing.
Edit to add:
There are certain characteristics you want for a good bioweapon:
1. You don't want a long period from infection to being able to detect it, because then you'll never be able to stop it entering your country. 2. You want a virus that isn't able to mutate, so that it won't be able to evade the vaccines you've prepared for your own citizens. 3. You want it to take out or disable the young, while (ideally) leaving the old to their own devices. 4. You want it to affect humans only.
Covid 19 is a *terrible* bioweapon, that culls the old from places with terrible dependency ratios. That is hard to keep from your country. And which is hosted by hundreds of other species, and therefore will never be truly eliminated.
Wouldn't that make such a bioweapon shit for other reasons?
(1) would mean that lockdowns and containment were far easier than for Covid, thus mitigating against spread and deaths, *and* (2) would mean - if you had - that other countries would develop their own vaccines inside a few months?
Bioweapons are crap, and you really need chemical weapons or nerve agents that kill quickly.
However, Covid is almost perfect for collateral economic damage, which is arguably more important than indiscriminate population fatality and will saddle the West with more problems than China.
Wouldn't killing all the oldies, while leaving the young and the productive untouched do exactly the opposite?
But to me the killer point is the other mammalian hosts: it would be the very first thing you'd check, because it means there would be no way to ever eradicate the disease.
No, because we've all been saddled with hundreds of billions of pounds of extra debt, massive education problems for the next generation and lots of lost jobs.
It isn't (just) about deaths.
I actually think the UK and US would do well to start a conversation about global permanent monetisation of virus debt a couple of years from now when we're fully on the other side of it. This isn't like WW2 where the economy contracted to such a degree that the bounce back from reindustrialisation wiped away the war debt within a few years.
Ummm... if Coronavirus was designed as a weapon by the Chinese, wouldn't the first step have been able to treat it? Yet, the Chinese vaccines have been late and crap. Their case fatality rates have been five times those in the West. And they've had to go to extreme measures (welding people in homes) to stop it killing hundreds of millions of their own citizens.
Also, if you were going to design a weapon, the very last thing you'd want is something that could be hosted by over 200 mammalian species - because that basically guarantees you'll never be able to be rid of the bloody thing.
Edit to add:
There are certain characteristics you want for a good bioweapon:
1. You don't want a long period from infection to being able to detect it, because then you'll never be able to stop it entering your country. 2. You want a virus that isn't able to mutate, so that it won't be able to evade the vaccines you've prepared for your own citizens. 3. You want it to take out or disable the young, while (ideally) leaving the old to their own devices. 4. You want it to affect humans only.
Covid 19 is a *terrible* bioweapon, that culls the old from places with terrible dependency ratios. That is hard to keep from your country. And which is hosted by hundreds of other species, and therefore will never be truly eliminated.
Wouldn't that make such a bioweapon shit for other reasons?
(1) would mean that lockdowns and containment were far easier than for Covid, thus mitigating against spread and deaths, *and* (2) would mean - if you had - that other countries would develop their own vaccines inside a few months?
Bioweapons are crap, and you really need chemical weapons or nerve agents that kill quickly.
However, Covid is almost perfect for collateral economic damage, which is arguably more important than indiscriminate population fatality and will saddle the West with more problems than China.
Wouldn't killing all the oldies, while leaving the young and the productive untouched do exactly the opposite?
But to me the killer point is the other mammalian hosts: it would be the very first thing you'd check, because it means there would be no way to ever eradicate the disease.
No, because we've all been saddled with hundreds of billions of pounds of extra debt, massive education problems for the next generation and lots of lost jobs.
It isn't (just) about deaths.
Except all the debt is to the Bank of England, and will therefore never be repaid.
It's quite a long game to try and screw the West over by giving people slightly degraded education for 15 months.
Tories still defying gravity. I just find it mind blowing they are still on ~42% (as an average of the past 4-5 polls). Huge scandal of Hancock, COVID cases rising, all the divisive culture war stuff, and 44% in this poll.
The big thing in all these polls, Labour don't seem to be benefitting at all. I am guessing Stamer's approach of government are reckless, useless, waste of space, but I would basically do the same isn't helping Labour.
Look forward to the header on this...!
Boris in polling collapse!
SKS in polling surge, Labour above 30%!!
You may only need to wait 2 days for a header like this.
On the subject of food, yesterday I boiled some small potatoes (cost $1.50) for 30 minutes.
I then chucked them on a pan, crushed them a bit, and poured some cheap olive oil over then, before putting them in the oven to roast for 40 minutes.
I then took half a tin of anchovies, dumped it in a pan and added some crushed garlic. After that had combined over a low heat, I added some butter and let it simmer.
I then poured the garlic, anchovy butter over the crushed potatoes and added a small tin of tuna.
Total cost maybe $6/7. All eaten by my hungry kids.
The hard-pressed hedge fund manager shows how it's done.
Move over Jack Monroe.
And a mere hour and 10 minutes to prepare. I can definitely see that being done after coming home from a 10 hour shift with the kids needing to get to bed.
The person who paid $28 million to join Jeff Bezos on a trip to space is unable to do so because they are busy, the private rocket company has announced.
On the subject of food, yesterday I boiled some small potatoes (cost $1.50) for 30 minutes.
I then chucked them on a pan, crushed them a bit, and poured some cheap olive oil over then, before putting them in the oven to roast for 40 minutes.
I then took half a tin of anchovies, dumped it in a pan and added some crushed garlic. After that had combined over a low heat, I added some butter and let it simmer.
I then poured the garlic, anchovy butter over the crushed potatoes and added a small tin of tuna.
Total cost maybe $6/7. All eaten by my hungry kids.
The hard-pressed hedge fund manager shows how it's done.
Move over Jack Monroe.
And a mere hour and 10 minutes to prepare. I can definitely see that being done after coming home from a 10 hour shift with the kids needing to get to bed.
But convert that to frying sliced potatoes boiled as (deliberate) excess leftover from the day before, and you can get that down to less than half.
Boris is trash. His speech was bullshit and the pretence that he isn't robbing the south to bribe voters in the north is no longer credible. Honestly, it's time for the toy party to pull the trigger and get rid.
Rubbish, the main reason the Tories have a majority of 80 and seats in white working class former Labour heartlands in the North and Midlands is down to Boris.
Anyway, even if the Tories saw a 10% swing to the LDs in the South in 2023/24 the LDs would still only pick up about 25 seats, which would still give a narrow Tory majority of 30 if Boris held the Red Wall.
Boris is the most successful Tory election winner since Thatcher and when they got rid of her it did not end well. The Tories then proceeded to lose 3 out of the next 4 general elections and even when they returned to power in 2010 it was without a majority
Careful now, tiger - dismissing me yesterday and @MaxPB today (both of whom, I'm guessing, voted Cons in 2019) is making your "who cares" work even harder.
What would Oscar say in such a situation...
I live in a three way marginal seat. If the Lib Dems prove themselves to be a serious party (stop laughing) by 2023/24 I know where my vote is going. If not I'll sit on my hands, I can't vote for the Tories led by Boris. The guy is a complete numpty.
But he has an 80-seat majority...
I honestly don't see how the Tories hold on to Finchley and Golders Green next time. Unless they can make the Lib Dems and Labour fight it out the Lib Dems will walk it.
+1 - I don't see why Labour would bother fighting that sort of seat in London - if they don't already have it there are better seats to fight in the next election.
Chipping Barnet which borders on it will probably fall to the red team. My parents live in Enfield Southgate which is demographically perfect for the Tories as a leafy suburban area with average property prices in the high six figure range and an oversized proportion of City workers, it's now solid Labour, actually impenetrably so despite the MP being a complete joker.
Enfield Southgate may have high average property prices but it is also a Remain seat with lots of renters.
The most solid Tory seats now under Boris voted Leave and have high levels of home owners even if only average house prices ie more Harlow and less Enfield Southgate
So despite all the criticism of the England football team, and their wokeness, the powers that be have still honoured the manager by naming a constituency after him?
Boris is trash. His speech was bullshit and the pretence that he isn't robbing the south to bribe voters in the north is no longer credible. Honestly, it's time for the toy party to pull the trigger and get rid.
Rubbish, the main reason the Tories have a majority of 80 and seats in white working class former Labour heartlands in the North and Midlands is down to Boris.
Anyway, even if the Tories saw a 10% swing to the LDs in the South in 2023/24 the LDs would still only pick up about 25 seats, which would still give a narrow Tory majority of 30 if Boris held the Red Wall.
Boris is the most successful Tory election winner since Thatcher and when they got rid of her it did not end well. The Tories then proceeded to lose 3 out of the next 4 general elections and even when they returned to power in 2010 it was without a majority
Careful now, tiger - dismissing me yesterday and @MaxPB today (both of whom, I'm guessing, voted Cons in 2019) is making your "who cares" work even harder.
What would Oscar say in such a situation...
I live in a three way marginal seat. If the Lib Dems prove themselves to be a serious party (stop laughing) by 2023/24 I know where my vote is going. If not I'll sit on my hands, I can't vote for the Tories led by Boris. The guy is a complete numpty.
I like and respect you hugely Max. Some principles, perhaps you can be one of the people who can put the Tories back into the mainstream, as a party I might vote one day vote for (again)
Unlikely given that I'm not in the party and tbh, I don't think I'll be tempted to join until the likes of HYFUD are made to feel unwelcome and move to some other party or go independent.
Given we are on 40%+ in every poll you will be waiting a long time for that, I am actually on the moderate end of the current Tory Party
Can you give examples that convince you are?
crushing SNP heads using tank tracks and nuking Spain doesn’t come across as moderate.
For example, where do you stand on using some form of dementia tax to fairly fund social care. The current government doesn’t seem to have a care policy at all?
And on house building. Build on green belt and build more council houses?
The party supports refusing indyref2.
Even May scrapped a dementia tax.
Unlike Philip I want to build on brownbelt land first and minimise green belt construction
I don't believe you are extreme, probably a little too much towing the (now quite extreme) party line, but to be claim you are not as extreme as Philip is a bit like saying you are less violent than Genghis Khan.
The person who paid $28 million to join Jeff Bezos on a trip to space is unable to do so because they are busy, the private rocket company has announced.
Bit like Mr J and the footie team. In fact maybe that is why he is so skint these days.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
Must be some chicken at 2.50 though, I thought you could get cheap one's for a Fiver but must be either a sparrow or radioactive.
Forget culture wars, it's going to really piss a lot of people off - including Boris's base - if the Liberati do what I do whilst telling the great unwashed to eat fermented plant protein and algae.
Years ago I took a house mate to Waitrose (he normally shopped in Sainsbury's). He bought his usual amount of chicken breasts to make his dinner. Was then amazed at how much chicken he had, as the Waitrose ones were not about 50% water...
Flip side - couple of times in recent weeks we've had chicken breasts from Waitrose that were substandard - very tough. We normally use the local butcher, and it was quite a shock.
Chicken thighs. OMFG. Free range corn fed chicken thighs, skin on and bone in. Superb meat for a laksa, way tastier than breast or wing or whatever
About a year ago we bought 4 frozen roast dinners for £10 from Iceland. Each one was enough for 3 people for their main meal of the day, with a few added vegetables. So that was about £1 per meal per person. That was unusual though because it was some sort of special offer.
Chicken, rice, veg, whatever. The secret is always to have a jar of MSG in the cupboard. Add it to everything. It cuts down the need for salt and sugar, makes basic ingredients taste delicious, and makes a huge difference to most sauces and broths (along with a dash of truffle oil).
Basically truffle oil makes sauces taste "posh", MSG makes them taste "yummy".
And all the health scare stuff around MSG is a myth.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
Must be some chicken at 2.50 though, I thought you could get cheap one's for a Fiver but must be either a sparrow or radioactive.
Forget culture wars, it's going to really piss a lot of people off - including Boris's base - if the Liberati do what I do whilst telling the great unwashed to eat fermented plant protein and algae.
Years ago I took a house mate to Waitrose (he normally shopped in Sainsbury's). He bought his usual amount of chicken breasts to make his dinner. Was then amazed at how much chicken he had, as the Waitrose ones were not about 50% water...
Flip side - couple of times in recent weeks we've had chicken breasts from Waitrose that were substandard - very tough. We normally use the local butcher, and it was quite a shock.
Chicken thighs. OMFG. Free range corn fed chicken thighs, skin on and bone in. Superb meat for a laksa, way tastier than breast or wing or whatever
Yes, I'm definitely a thigh man too.
Chicken curry done using thighs is a Friday night staple in our house.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
Absolutely. With that chicken (£2.66 1.2-1.6kg - a "few days" for a family?!) you need some veg and some pots and pans and an oven and perhaps some spuds and some oil or butter and a chopping board and knife and some space and perhaps some herbs maybe not and some greaseproof paper or kitchen foil maybe even gravy. And then you need to stick the chicken in the oven at the right time for an hour or so and then prepare the potatoes and the vegetables and then cook those and then have it all on the plate for your family. And then do the same thing or differently for the next "few days".
You are an exemplar in that you think nothing of doing this and all that suffers is a few dozen posts you might otherwise enlighten PB with.
Not everyone is in the same position and the thought of "cooking" really is quite a psychological, physical and practical hurdle.
I think the issue is that British people have been conditioned to think of cooking as a chore when it isn't. It also doesn't help that British cuisine is generally pretty awful and tastes in this country have moved to prefer Asian or Southern European flavours which many find impenetrably difficult to cook for themselves. There was little motivation for a generation of Brits to learn to cook because all we had was British food, but now that the skills are lost it's difficult to retrain a society into cooking properly again. Hence shows like that stupid 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver or other shows that try and teach "tricks" of how to cook quickly etc...
Oliver's 15 minute meals is an absolute massive con trick.
Complete bollox for sure
Why? Is it one of those cookbooks whose timings are based on the assumption that you have already prepped everything?
I only saw it a few times on the telly. You would need a day to go buy the list of ingredients and then it was edited to hell as no way would it be done in 15 mins, lots of preparation etc. eg
Ingredients out • Kettle boiled • Medium lidded pan, medium-high heat • Food processor (bowl blade) • Large frying pan, high heat START COOKING Put the quinoa into the pan and generously cover with boiling water and the lid. Put the chilli, spinach, trimmed spring onions and coriander (reserving a few leaves) into the processor, tear in the top leafy half of the mint, then blitz until finely chopped. On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with sea salt, black pepper, the allspice and paprika. Fold over the paper, then bash and flatten the chicken to 1.5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, or until blackened and cooked through. Deseed the peppers, cut each one into 8 strips and add to the frying pan, tossing regularly. Peel and cut the mango into chunks. Drain the quinoa and rinse under the cold tap, then drain well again and tip on to a serving board or platter. Toss with the blitzed spinach mixture, squeeze over the lime juice, add the extra virgin olive oil, mix well and season to taste. Sprinkle the mango chunks and cooked peppers over the quinoa. Halve and destone the avocado, then use a teaspoon to scoop curls of it over the salad. Slice up the chicken, toss the slices in any juices and add to the salad. Crumble over the feta, scatter over the remaining coriander leaves and snip over the cress. Serve with dollops of yoghurt.
Ahhh... You missed the code word "quinoa". That means it's not a real recipe, and can be ignored.
On which note, why is "quinoa" pronounce "kin-wah"? I mean he's not Ricky Bilb-wah.
You're writing in English and you're complaining about inconsistency in pronunciation, apparently without irony, about a word that likely originates in another language. Do you know anything about English?
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
As long as your kids are small, you can have roast chicken on day one, chicken risotto on day two, and soup on day three (or for lunch).
Yeah risotto is one of the easier things to cook.
Also easy to make a rubbery mess of it as well, you have to get it just at the correct consistency or it is horrible.
Might I ask, what rice do you use?
Carnyx, always Arborio and slowly add broth till absorbed and it turns creamy. Add some grated parmesan at the end.
Agree. My risotto includes white wine as part of the stock, parmesan, chicken, king prawns, bacon. So not that cheap, really. But then I'm one of the metropolitan elite (though we do use the disembowelled chicken to make stock for soup).
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
Absolutely. With that chicken (£2.66 1.2-1.6kg - a "few days" for a family?!) you need some veg and some pots and pans and an oven and perhaps some spuds and some oil or butter and a chopping board and knife and some space and perhaps some herbs maybe not and some greaseproof paper or kitchen foil maybe even gravy. And then you need to stick the chicken in the oven at the right time for an hour or so and then prepare the potatoes and the vegetables and then cook those and then have it all on the plate for your family. And then do the same thing or differently for the next "few days".
You are an exemplar in that you think nothing of doing this and all that suffers is a few dozen posts you might otherwise enlighten PB with.
Not everyone is in the same position and the thought of "cooking" really is quite a psychological, physical and practical hurdle.
I think the issue is that British people have been conditioned to think of cooking as a chore when it isn't. It also doesn't help that British cuisine is generally pretty awful and tastes in this country have moved to prefer Asian or Southern European flavours which many find impenetrably difficult to cook for themselves. There was little motivation for a generation of Brits to learn to cook because all we had was British food, but now that the skills are lost it's difficult to retrain a society into cooking properly again. Hence shows like that stupid 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver or other shows that try and teach "tricks" of how to cook quickly etc...
Yes that's true but on another level, when I am feeling up and happy with life, I might think nothing of creating some great culinary feast, perhaps I'll try pork belly or slow cooked shoulder of lamb, using those once every six months herbs, and preparing everything in neat little bowls before I cook it all, perhaps with a glass of fino sherry to hand and listening to some nice music. Me time in the kitchen.
That is very far from every day for a family.
When I am knacked and have had a shitty day I think fuck that let's get a MickeyDs/Dominos/out to the supermarket for something that I literally have to think no longer than 3 minutes about.
And I would class myself as relatively (to the median income receiver) quite well off, etc.
When I'm knackered and had a shitty day then I'll typically be lazy and use frozen food. Prepared frozen veg, in the microwave. Frozen meat, pop that in our Airfryer. Frozen chips in the airfryer too. About 12-15 minutes for the airfryer to cook the meat and the meal is done.
Lazy meal, quicker, cheaper and easier than going out for any takeaway.
I have sympathy with your viewpoint (and in our family of four, we also can make a chicken, probably a bit bigger than the £2.50 one linked, last three days - one day roast, two days in a pie, with lots of other stuff - we normally work on three adult servings when using a recipe, so 8-9 adult servings equivalent).
But there is a valid point (Topping, was it?) about investment. Your air fryer sounds great, but I expect it costs at least a few supermarket ready meals to buy one and why would you if you don't have any idea what to do with it? We have a slow cooker which is great for easy and big batch meals (not 'quick', obviously!) and they can be picked up for £30-£40, but we only got one, despite enjoying cooking, when a relative bought one for us - we hadn't realised the possibilities before.
In our house, a quick really can't be arsed meal is omelette (bacon, cheese, mushroom) with spiced wedges and some frozen veg if there's nothing handy in the garden. Half an hour start to finish with only about ten minute of semi-intensive effort at the end. But an awful lot of people simply don't know how to do that and even using those few pans/trays can be a blocker.
It's very easy for those of us with a little know-how, a reasonably well equipped basic kitchen and cupboards/freezers filled with basic ingredients to rustle up something tasty in no time for very little money. But it's know-how and time. Before I had a work-provided laptop, my last four laptops were fairly recent thinkpads bought broken on ebay, repaired by me with the aid of the thinkpad hardware maintenance manuals and all for less than the crappiest laptops in Currys. But most people don't do that - they go to Currys and, if on a budget, get something 'cheap' that is both poor quality, won't last, is hard to repair and is expensive for what it is. It's the same with food.
What an excellent comment.
If you know what you're doing, and have a well equipped kitchen, it's easy to eat well cheaply: a portion of risotto is perhaps 40p, an omelette maybe only sightly more.
But most people don't know what they're doing.
The not knowing what your doing is the main one but lets be honest if anyone wants to know what they're doing then its not difficult to find out. How to cook anything is easily findable nowadays on Google and YouTube.
You can learn pretty much how to do almost any life skill via YouTube alone nowadays.
That people are intimidated is a personal choice. If people wanted to learn, they could do so. That's not being judgemental, its just a fact that we have so many easy choices nowadays that even with the world's knowledge at our fingertips online, people don't feel the need to learn and don't particularly want to either.
Chicken, rice, veg, whatever. The secret is always to have a jar of MSG in the cupboard. Add it to everything. It cuts down the need for salt and sugar, makes basic ingredients taste delicious, and makes a huge difference to most sauces and broths (along with a dash of truffle oil).
Basically truffle oil makes sauces taste "posh", MSG makes them taste "yummy".
And all the health scare stuff around MSG is a myth.
It does give my wife migraines though. Not sure why, but maybe due to dehydration.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
As long as your kids are small, you can have roast chicken on day one, chicken risotto on day two, and soup on day three (or for lunch).
Yeah risotto is one of the easier things to cook.
Also easy to make a rubbery mess of it as well, you have to get it just at the correct consistency or it is horrible.
Might I ask, what rice do you use?
Carnyx, always Arborio and slowly add broth till absorbed and it turns creamy. Add some grated parmesan at the end.
Agree. My risotto includes white wine as part of the stock, parmesan, chicken, king prawns, bacon. So not that cheap, really. But then I'm one of the metropolitan elite (though we do use the disembowelled chicken to make stock for soup).
About a year ago we bought 4 frozen roast dinners for £10 from Iceland. Each one was enough for 3 people for their main meal of the day, with a few added vegetables. So that was about £1 per meal per person. That was unusual though because it was some sort of special offer.
There's always an offer on something though to find. You can tell people don't shop at Iceland or Farmfoods here because they have this idea that preprepared frozen food is expensive.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
Must be some chicken at 2.50 though, I thought you could get cheap one's for a Fiver but must be either a sparrow or radioactive.
Forget culture wars, it's going to really piss a lot of people off - including Boris's base - if the Liberati do what I do whilst telling the great unwashed to eat fermented plant protein and algae.
Years ago I took a house mate to Waitrose (he normally shopped in Sainsbury's). He bought his usual amount of chicken breasts to make his dinner. Was then amazed at how much chicken he had, as the Waitrose ones were not about 50% water...
Flip side - couple of times in recent weeks we've had chicken breasts from Waitrose that were substandard - very tough. We normally use the local butcher, and it was quite a shock.
Chicken thighs. OMFG. Free range corn fed chicken thighs, skin on and bone in. Superb meat for a laksa, way tastier than breast or wing or whatever
It is insane that people will pay a massive premium for chicken breast despite thigh being superior in almost every possible way.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
Absolutely. With that chicken (£2.66 1.2-1.6kg - a "few days" for a family?!) you need some veg and some pots and pans and an oven and perhaps some spuds and some oil or butter and a chopping board and knife and some space and perhaps some herbs maybe not and some greaseproof paper or kitchen foil maybe even gravy. And then you need to stick the chicken in the oven at the right time for an hour or so and then prepare the potatoes and the vegetables and then cook those and then have it all on the plate for your family. And then do the same thing or differently for the next "few days".
You are an exemplar in that you think nothing of doing this and all that suffers is a few dozen posts you might otherwise enlighten PB with.
Not everyone is in the same position and the thought of "cooking" really is quite a psychological, physical and practical hurdle.
I think the issue is that British people have been conditioned to think of cooking as a chore when it isn't. It also doesn't help that British cuisine is generally pretty awful and tastes in this country have moved to prefer Asian or Southern European flavours which many find impenetrably difficult to cook for themselves. There was little motivation for a generation of Brits to learn to cook because all we had was British food, but now that the skills are lost it's difficult to retrain a society into cooking properly again. Hence shows like that stupid 15 minute meals by Jamie Oliver or other shows that try and teach "tricks" of how to cook quickly etc...
Oliver's 15 minute meals is an absolute massive con trick.
Complete bollox for sure
Why? Is it one of those cookbooks whose timings are based on the assumption that you have already prepped everything?
That you have a sous-chef to do the prep for you.
The first couple of times my daughter cooked dinner we didn't end up eating until about 9pm. She was very careful when chopping an onion, say, and everything was unfamiliar, so took her much longer.
I can sympathise with people who find it intimidating. I remember what it was like when I used to try to follow recipes exactly - using exactly half an onion, etc.
They have a team of chefs doing the work and just step up now and again when the cameras are needed, all the real work is edited out.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
As long as your kids are small, you can have roast chicken on day one, chicken risotto on day two, and soup on day three (or for lunch).
Yeah risotto is one of the easier things to cook.
Also easy to make a rubbery mess of it as well, you have to get it just at the correct consistency or it is horrible.
Might I ask, what rice do you use?
Carnyx, always Arborio and slowly add broth till absorbed and it turns creamy. Add some grated parmesan at the end.
Agree. My risotto includes white wine as part of the stock, parmesan, chicken, king prawns, bacon. So not that cheap, really. But then I'm one of the metropolitan elite (though we do use the disembowelled chicken to make stock for soup).
Never thought of white wine. Must try that.
*shudders*
Good white wine is essential in a risotto. Let the rice soak it up!
Boris is trash. His speech was bullshit and the pretence that he isn't robbing the south to bribe voters in the north is no longer credible. Honestly, it's time for the toy party to pull the trigger and get rid.
Rubbish, the main reason the Tories have a majority of 80 and seats in white working class former Labour heartlands in the North and Midlands is down to Boris.
Anyway, even if the Tories saw a 10% swing to the LDs in the South in 2023/24 the LDs would still only pick up about 25 seats, which would still give a narrow Tory majority of 30 if Boris held the Red Wall.
Boris is the most successful Tory election winner since Thatcher and when they got rid of her it did not end well. The Tories then proceeded to lose 3 out of the next 4 general elections and even when they returned to power in 2010 it was without a majority
Careful now, tiger - dismissing me yesterday and @MaxPB today (both of whom, I'm guessing, voted Cons in 2019) is making your "who cares" work even harder.
What would Oscar say in such a situation...
I live in a three way marginal seat. If the Lib Dems prove themselves to be a serious party (stop laughing) by 2023/24 I know where my vote is going. If not I'll sit on my hands, I can't vote for the Tories led by Boris. The guy is a complete numpty.
I like and respect you hugely Max. Some principles, perhaps you can be one of the people who can put the Tories back into the mainstream, as a party I might vote one day vote for (again)
Unlikely given that I'm not in the party and tbh, I don't think I'll be tempted to join until the likes of HYFUD are made to feel unwelcome and move to some other party or go independent.
Given we are on 40%+ in every poll you will be waiting a long time for that, I am actually on the moderate end of the current Tory Party
Can you give examples that convince you are?
crushing SNP heads using tank tracks and nuking Spain doesn’t come across as moderate.
For example, where do you stand on using some form of dementia tax to fairly fund social care. The current government doesn’t seem to have a care policy at all?
And on house building. Build on green belt and build more council houses?
@HYUFD a moderate - complete loss of self awareness
We are both in the same party but we are very different and not sure any conservative on here would align with your views
Though of course you are entitled to them but you are not entitled to think you speak for all the party
You may have been closer to Boris than Corbyn BigG but on most issues now you are closer to Starmer than Boris.
You have just not admitted it to yourself yet but as you showed in 2001 you can vote Labour
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
I bloody love that "use the bones for stock" total bollocks from esp. TV chefs.
I doubt there are more than 10 people in the country who ever do that.
I tried to do it once. Didn’t work and have never bothered again.
How very odd. I boil up the bones, skin, fat and an onion and have great jelly-like stock for a risotto, with as many bits of meat as I haven't eaten, and/or scraped off thje carcass. Been doing it for decades. And I've never got beyond the Scottish bourgeois c. 1920 plus Delia Smith level.
Edit: but TUD has got in before me.
Anecdata, but as with Brexit, maybe the Scots really are different ... that '10 people in the country' is absolutely astounding. Do you think they mean the Republic of Sealand or something?
Likewise, I do it fairly regularly - how can you miss? Pile everything in a pot, simmer for a couple of hours??
Excellent. That's 4 out of the 10 already, 3 in Scotland. What was that abotu subsamples again?
My sister and my ex regularly make stock. 2 more
I make stock once a year, after Christmas dinner. Because it's part of the routine. It's nice to do, but from a purely cost/benefit assessment it's a massive use of time to get a product you could buy for almost nothing. If you quite enjoy it or get satisfaction from using everything, fair enough. I find it a bit of a pain in the arse, to be honest. My mum and my mother-in-law make stock, of course. That generation do. And my mum's cooking is, of course, the standard to which everything else I taste needs to aspire.
You would be very lucky to buy a stock that comes anywhere close to a real homemade one. They are mainly shit and full of salt and assorted crap.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
As long as your kids are small, you can have roast chicken on day one, chicken risotto on day two, and soup on day three (or for lunch).
Yeah risotto is one of the easier things to cook.
Also easy to make a rubbery mess of it as well, you have to get it just at the correct consistency or it is horrible.
Might I ask, what rice do you use?
Carnyx, always Arborio and slowly add broth till absorbed and it turns creamy. Add some grated parmesan at the end.
Agree. My risotto includes white wine as part of the stock, parmesan, chicken, king prawns, bacon. So not that cheap, really. But then I'm one of the metropolitan elite (though we do use the disembowelled chicken to make stock for soup).
Never thought of white wine. Must try that.
A wild mushroom risotto is one of my favourites to cook. Soak dried wild mushrooms. After frying the onions until soft, add chopped chestnut mushrooms and the drained/squeezed/chopped wild mushrooms (reserver the liquor), season to taste. Once the mushrooms are cooked add the risotto rice, stir and add a good glassful of white wine and reduce, then slowly add the reserved mushroom liquor. Finish with a nob of butter, grated parmesan and chopped parsley.
About a year ago we bought 4 frozen roast dinners for £10 from Iceland. Each one was enough for 3 people for their main meal of the day, with a few added vegetables. So that was about £1 per meal per person. That was unusual though because it was some sort of special offer.
There's always an offer on something though to find. You can tell people don't shop at Iceland or Farmfoods here because they have this idea that preprepared frozen food is expensive.
I do find this frozen food, budget chicken and making meals last conversation an amusing detour from PBs usual business class travel to a Michelin starred restaurant with a £700 bottle of wine discussions.
Ummm... if Coronavirus was designed as a weapon by the Chinese, wouldn't the first step have been able to treat it? Yet, the Chinese vaccines have been late and crap. Their case fatality rates have been five times those in the West. And they've had to go to extreme measures (welding people in homes) to stop it killing hundreds of millions of their own citizens.
Also, if you were going to design a weapon, the very last thing you'd want is something that could be hosted by over 200 mammalian species - because that basically guarantees you'll never be able to be rid of the bloody thing.
Edit to add:
There are certain characteristics you want for a good bioweapon:
1. You don't want a long period from infection to being able to detect it, because then you'll never be able to stop it entering your country. 2. You want a virus that isn't able to mutate, so that it won't be able to evade the vaccines you've prepared for your own citizens. 3. You want it to take out or disable the young, while (ideally) leaving the old to their own devices. 4. You want it to affect humans only.
Covid 19 is a *terrible* bioweapon, that culls the old from places with terrible dependency ratios. That is hard to keep from your country. And which is hosted by hundreds of other species, and therefore will never be truly eliminated.
Wouldn't that make such a bioweapon shit for other reasons?
(1) would mean that lockdowns and containment were far easier than for Covid, thus mitigating against spread and deaths, *and* (2) would mean - if you had - that other countries would develop their own vaccines inside a few months?
Bioweapons are crap, and you really need chemical weapons or nerve agents that kill quickly.
However, Covid is almost perfect for collateral economic damage, which is arguably more important than indiscriminate population fatality and will saddle the West with more problems than China.
Wouldn't killing all the oldies, while leaving the young and the productive untouched do exactly the opposite?
But to me the killer point is the other mammalian hosts: it would be the very first thing you'd check, because it means there would be no way to ever eradicate the disease.
No, because we've all been saddled with hundreds of billions of pounds of extra debt, massive education problems for the next generation and lots of lost jobs.
It isn't (just) about deaths.
I actually think the UK and US would do well to start a conversation about global permanent monetisation of virus debt a couple of years from now when we're fully on the other side of it. This isn't like WW2 where the economy contracted to such a degree that the bounce back from reindustrialisation wiped away the war debt within a few years.
I don't think it will ever be a formal monetization, I just think that the Fed and the BOE (and the BoJ, etc.) will just roll over pandemic era debt into perpetuity.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
I bloody love that "use the bones for stock" total bollocks from esp. TV chefs.
I doubt there are more than 10 people in the country who ever do that.
I tried to do it once. Didn’t work and have never bothered again.
How very odd. I boil up the bones, skin, fat and an onion and have great jelly-like stock for a risotto, with as many bits of meat as I haven't eaten, and/or scraped off thje carcass. Been doing it for decades. And I've never got beyond the Scottish bourgeois c. 1920 plus Delia Smith level.
Edit: but TUD has got in before me.
Anecdata, but as with Brexit, maybe the Scots really are different ... that '10 people in the country' is absolutely astounding. Do you think they mean the Republic of Sealand or something?
Likewise, I do it fairly regularly - how can you miss? Pile everything in a pot, simmer for a couple of hours??
Excellent. That's 4 out of the 10 already, 3 in Scotland. What was that abotu subsamples again?
My sister and my ex regularly make stock. 2 more
I make stock once a year, after Christmas dinner. Because it's part of the routine. It's nice to do, but from a purely cost/benefit assessment it's a massive use of time to get a product you could buy for almost nothing. If you quite enjoy it or get satisfaction from using everything, fair enough. I find it a bit of a pain in the arse, to be honest. My mum and my mother-in-law make stock, of course. That generation do. And my mum's cooking is, of course, the standard to which everything else I taste needs to aspire.
You would be very lucky to buy a stock that comes anywhere close to a real homemade one. They are mainly shit and full of salt and assorted crap.
Not true. Whole Foods on my high street does wonderful fresh chicken stock, or chicken bone broth, in a pouch, ready to go. I'd love to say I've had better home-made - but I haven't.
Might not be available in the wilds of Caledonia, mind
Contra to earlier reports, I think Boris just gave the most important speech of his premiership.
Despite the usual waffle, inappropriate asides, irrelevant detours, and awkward levity - he has in fact laid out the nature of the challenge facing this country and indeed the government’s high level response.
It has long been a near obsession of mine that this country is both the most regionally unequal *and* the most centralised than any comparator economy. Boris agrees, and goes on to note that East German GDP has now accelerated past that of the UK’s “not-South”.
It has been an astonishing failure of British policy making.
Boris’s remedy appears to be four-fold: 1. More devolution. Counties will follow metros. 2. Connectivity funding (transport and broadband) 3. Regionally focussed Industrial policy : Britain as “science” superpower 4. Quality of life issues: crime, education but also town centre investment.
To be honest, he gets it. It is obvious he has read and absorbed the literature.
Whether or not the govt can truly deliver, I am highly skeptical; it requires a revolution in Westminster’s mindshift which I don’t yet see.
Listening to Dimbleby Jnr talk about his food report. One thing that stuck out was basically him saying high quality meat such a steak and roast chicken is fine, but need to cut right down on processed cheap meat based products from our diets.
This highlights the crux of the problem.
I, as much of PB I would think, can and probably already do this. £6-7 for a decent steak is fine for my tea, but then we know that the richer you are now the less likely you are to be massive overweight, eat better etc.
Those on low income are never paying £30-40 for one family meal of decent steak or a good quality whole chicken, hence why its chicken nug nugs etc.
I don't know how you square that circle.
I don't see why chicken is an issue.
I can get a whole chicken from Tesco for £2.50, less than the cost of a single Happy Meal, and get a few days worth of meals from that chicken for the whole family.
Again it comes more down to the willingness, desire, inclination and ability to cook than it does the affordability.
You can get a ‘few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken?! Impressive. Also unbelievable
Yes I can. I don't know why you think I'd lie about that.
But even if you just get one family meal from a whole chicken, its just as cheap as buying crap food and far cheaper than buying a McDonalds or other takeaways.
I don’t know why you’d lie about this but ‘a few days of family meals’ from one £2.50 chicken is ridiculous
Let’s say a family is four hungry mouths. They will devour an entire roast chicken in one sitting, easily. And they might still be hungry
You’re then left with a few bones which you could boil down for stock (with vegetables) and make a HYUFDy hot broth which could furnish lunch I guess (with bread). That’s it
As long as your kids are small, you can have roast chicken on day one, chicken risotto on day two, and soup on day three (or for lunch).
Yeah risotto is one of the easier things to cook.
Also easy to make a rubbery mess of it as well, you have to get it just at the correct consistency or it is horrible.
Might I ask, what rice do you use?
Carnyx, always Arborio and slowly add broth till absorbed and it turns creamy. Add some grated parmesan at the end.
Agree. My risotto includes white wine as part of the stock, parmesan, chicken, king prawns, bacon. So not that cheap, really. But then I'm one of the metropolitan elite (though we do use the disembowelled chicken to make stock for soup).
Would this be about the time for football final infections to start feeding through, or is that a bit optimistic?
I would have thought a few more days yet. Normally ~5 days to start to display symptoms, then you need to think yes this isn't hay fever, actually go and get a test and then get the results back.
Comments
"I bloody love that "use the bones for stock" total bollocks from esp. TV chefs.
I doubt there are more than 10 people in the country who ever do that."
I then chucked them on a pan, crushed them a bit, and poured some cheap olive oil over then, before putting them in the oven to roast for 40 minutes.
I then took half a tin of anchovies, dumped it in a pan and added some crushed garlic. After that had combined over a low heat, I added some butter and let it simmer.
I then poured the garlic, anchovy butter over the crushed potatoes and added a small tin of tuna.
Total cost maybe $6/7. All eaten by my hungry kids.
(1) would mean that lockdowns and containment were far easier than for Covid, thus mitigating against spread and deaths, *and* (2) would mean - if you had - that other countries would develop their own vaccines inside a few months?
Bioweapons are crap, and you really need chemical weapons or nerve agents that kill quickly.
However, Covid is almost perfect for collateral economic damage, which is arguably more important than indiscriminate population fatality and will saddle the West with more problems than China.
At this rate, some kid in the park is going to get an wild card entry.
Weekdays: I go downstairs when I'm hungry and I want something instant, so I can carry on working, or so I can relax in the evening. And, no, I'm not going down the Huel road.
It's only on weekends I take the time to enjoy the preparation and ritual of eating my food.
But to me the killer point is the other mammalian hosts: it would be the very first thing you'd check, because it means there would be no way to ever eradicate the disease.
We are all a tad obsessive.
On which note, why is "quinoa" pronounce "kin-wah"? I mean he's not Ricky Bilb-wah.
Move over Jack Monroe.
crushing SNP heads using tank tracks and nuking Spain doesn’t come across as moderate.
For example, where do you stand on using some form of dementia tax to fairly fund social care. The current government doesn’t seem to have a care policy at all?
And on house building. Build on green belt and build more council houses?
http://www.millfarmorganic.com/
Forget culture wars, it's going to really piss a lot of people off - including Boris's base - if the Liberati do what I do whilst telling the great unwashed to eat fermented plant protein and algae.
SKS in polling surge, Labour above 30%!!
“ Quinoa, espresso and bruschetta: the foods getting your tongue in a twist
Getting knees mixed up with your gnocchi? Even food buffs such as Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Jay Rayner trip up over unpronounceable eats that, in one fell swoop, can brand you an unsophisticated hick or a pretentious pedant”
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/jun/10/quinoa-espresso-bruschetta-food-tongue-twist-hugh-fearnley-whittingstall-jay-rayner-unpronounceable
Flip side - couple of times in recent weeks we've had chicken breasts from Waitrose that were substandard - very tough. We normally use the local butcher, and it was quite a shock.
Antarctica/British Antarctic Territory Green watchlist – at risk of moving from green to amber.
Well that's buggered my holiday plans ;-)
*this* is peak Guardian.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/16/vegans-stomach-unpalatable-truth-quinoa
It isn't (just) about deaths.
Absolutely something you want to be betting on.
Edit: Michael Rosen was on radio 4 on this topic recently. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000xs03
Even May scrapped a dementia tax.
Unlike Philip I want to build on brownbelt land first and minimise green belt construction
We are both in the same party but we are very different and not sure any conservative on here would align with your views
Though of course you are entitled to them but you are not entitled to think you speak for all the party
Step 1: use an Oxo cube.
How to make stock for posh PBers:
Step 1: use a Knorr Stock Pot.
HTH.
It’s not.
It’s a trend.
It's quite a long game to try and screw the West over by giving people slightly degraded education for 15 months.
The PM said a government-commissioned review of the food we eat was likely to contain good ideas, but he did not want to impact "hard-working people".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57852513
Basically truffle oil makes sauces taste "posh", MSG makes them taste "yummy".
And all the health scare stuff around MSG is a myth.
Chicken curry done using thighs is a Friday night staple in our house.
Looks like the ANC are well on the way to making South Africa into a normal African country.
You can learn pretty much how to do almost any life skill via YouTube alone nowadays.
That people are intimidated is a personal choice. If people wanted to learn, they could do so. That's not being judgemental, its just a fact that we have so many easy choices nowadays that even with the world's knowledge at our fingertips online, people don't feel the need to learn and don't particularly want to either.
48,553 cases, 63 deaths
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-57846200
Good white wine is essential in a risotto. Let the rice soak it up!
You have just not admitted it to yourself yet but as you showed in 2001 you can vote Labour
Might not be available in the wilds of Caledonia, mind
Contra to earlier reports, I think Boris just gave the most important speech of his premiership.
Despite the usual waffle, inappropriate asides, irrelevant detours, and awkward levity - he has in fact laid out the nature of the challenge facing this country and indeed the government’s high level response.
It has long been a near obsession of mine that this country is both the most regionally unequal *and* the most centralised than any comparator economy. Boris agrees, and goes on to note that East German GDP has now accelerated past that of the UK’s “not-South”.
It has been an astonishing failure of British policy making.
Boris’s remedy appears to be four-fold:
1. More devolution. Counties will follow metros.
2. Connectivity funding (transport and broadband)
3. Regionally focussed Industrial policy : Britain as “science” superpower
4. Quality of life issues: crime, education but also town centre investment.
To be honest, he gets it.
It is obvious he has read and absorbed the literature.
Whether or not the govt can truly deliver, I am highly skeptical; it requires a revolution in Westminster’s mindshift which I don’t yet see.