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I have only recently discovered the delights of shakshuka, in various forms.

A wonderful dish.
I discovered it in a Jewish cafe on holiday in Krakow, of all the random places to have it. Delicious.

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Today, I prepared a nice, warming noodle soup with ginger, chilli, chicken stock, scallions (French onions), shallots, cherry tomatoes and peas. Plus, of course, noodles.
 
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And yesterday, I prepared a somewhat similar - nice, warm, spicy, soothing noodle soup/broth:

Chicken thighs, (skin and bone attached for enhancing depth of flavour) simmered for around an hour and half in chicken stock, plus: Ginger (a thumb, roughly chopped), a whole chilli, (roughly chopped), five fat cloves of garlic (roughly chopped), lime leaves, lemongrass, brown sugar, Thai fish sauce, (around a generous dessertspoon of each of the latter two ingredients), and sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Into this simmering delight were added: Roughly chopped shallots, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and a large mug of peas.

Then, noodles were added to the simmering pot - which was brought back to the boil - a few minutes prior to serving.
 
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A dessert spoon of fish sauce? Wow. Mine is very strong. A few drops is all I dare put in!

Sounds delicious though. Totally agree with skin on and bone in chicken thighs.

There was a lot of liquid in the stock pot, - a large pot - as it contained the chicken thighs and would play host to noodles, as well, later on; plus, there were plenty of other strong flavours (chilli, ginger, garlic, lemongrass, lime leaves), none of which predominated, but which the Thai fish sauce didn't - and couldn't - overpower but was able to complement nicely; interestingly, the dish seemed to need a similar amount of sugar, rather than the one or two teaspoonfuls I would more usually use.

Oddly enough, the flavours balanced each other very well, and the dish was very tasty.
 
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This is really delicious: Minute Maid Zero Calorie Lemonaid. Now tell me what’s wrong with it? :)
Note, it a newish product and for online images, all I could find was this older version of the product. The new one is identical packaging but says zero calorie.

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Habaneros and scotch bonnets hulled out and filled with semi-firm salted caramel and bathed in milk chocolate then dark chocolate. Delicious.

Note, it a newish product and for online images, all I could find was this older version of the product. The new one is identical packaging but says zero calorie.
FDA regs allow them to have enough calories under the prerequisite and legally still label it as zero calories. Also that product contains aspartame and acesulfame potassium. Two artificial sweeteners.

If it were sweetened with stevia or a sugar alcohol, it would be non-artificial. If you want to go into semantics, even raw brown, large crystal sugar is heavily processed to get to your table, even under the natural and or organic labels under USDA and EU regulations.

My recommendation? Pick or buy your own lemons, squeeze them with or without pulp, and find a really high quality stevia sweetener. I usually advise against people playing with sugar alcohols because they can be expensive and you need to give your gut some time to adjust to the sugar. Otherwise both options are great and don't feed bacteria in your mouth. They do in a method, but it kills them over time.
 
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Habaneros and scotch bonnets hulled out and filled with semi-firm salted caramel and bathed in milk chocolate then dark chocolate. Delicious.


FDA regs allow them to have enough calories under the prerequisite and legally still label it as zero calories. Also that product contains aspartame and acesulfame potassium. Two artificial sweeteners.

If it were sweetened with stevia or a sugar alcohol, it would be non-artificial. If you want to go into semantics, even raw brown, large crystal sugar is heavily processed to get to your table, even under the natural and or organic labels under USDA and EU regulations.

My recommendation? Pick or buy your own lemons, squeeze them with or without pulp, and find a really high quality stevia sweetener. I usually advise against people playing with sugar alcohols because they can be expensive and you need to give your gut some time to adjust to the sugar. Otherwise both options are great and don't feed bacteria in your mouth. They do in a method, but it kills them over time.

Good to see you back, and posting, as you don't seem to have been around for a while.

Here, perusing recipes.
 
Seconded. I am intrigued by the chocolate chili peppers...where did you find them??

Actually, I have come across chocolate flavoured with chilli - usually from one of those small, specialist artisan producers of high quality chocolate.

But, in general, I prefer dark chocolate when it comes complete with flecks of citrus - lemon or Seville orange.
 
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Habaneros and scotch bonnets hulled out and filled with semi-firm salted caramel and bathed in milk chocolate then dark chocolate. Delicious.


FDA regs allow them to have enough calories under the prerequisite and legally still label it as zero calories. Also that product contains aspartame and acesulfame potassium. Two artificial sweeteners.

If it were sweetened with stevia or a sugar alcohol, it would be non-artificial. If you want to go into semantics, even raw brown, large crystal sugar is heavily processed to get to your table, even under the natural and or organic labels under USDA and EU regulations.

My recommendation? Pick or buy your own lemons, squeeze them with or without pulp, and find a really high quality stevia sweetener. I usually advise against people playing with sugar alcohols because they can be expensive and you need to give your gut some time to adjust to the sugar. Otherwise both options are great and don't feed bacteria in your mouth. They do in a method, but it kills them over time.
Welcome back.:)

Oooh, chocolate covered Habaneros? I would skip the caramel unless they were baby sized chilis myself. Sounds great though.

I love chocolate and chili peppers, going back to the chocolate jalapeño ice cream I had 25 years ago.
 
Welcome back.:)

Oooh, chocolate covered Habaneros? I would skip the caramel unless they were baby sized chilis myself. Sounds great though.

I love chocolate and chili peppers, going back to the chocolate jalapeño ice cream I had 25 years ago.

But salted caramel is something else entirely. Simply sublime.
 
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Habaneros and scotch bonnets hulled out and filled with semi-firm salted caramel and bathed in milk chocolate then dark chocolate. Delicious.


FDA regs allow them to have enough calories under the prerequisite and legally still label it as zero calories. Also that product contains aspartame and acesulfame potassium. Two artificial sweeteners.

If it were sweetened with stevia or a sugar alcohol, it would be non-artificial. If you want to go into semantics, even raw brown, large crystal sugar is heavily processed to get to your table, even under the natural and or organic labels under USDA and EU regulations.

My recommendation? Pick or buy your own lemons, squeeze them with or without pulp, and find a really high quality stevia sweetener. I usually advise against people playing with sugar alcohols because they can be expensive and you need to give your gut some time to adjust to the sugar. Otherwise both options are great and don't feed bacteria in your mouth. They do in a method, but it kills them over time.
I told the story the bag of lemons provided by a friend. They made incredible lemonaid. 😍 Alas, I don’t have a lemmon tree. 😞
 
This is one thing I love about Southern Europe...

Likewise, likewise.

I remember the first time I ever saw oranges growing on trees; it was in southern Croatia (en route to Dubrovnik) in early 2000, a country where I observed three elections in a row.

The very sight (and scent) sent me into transports of sheer delight - and my interpreter into gales of laughter, - as she remarked that everyone she had ever worked for who had come from northern Europe reacted the exact same way when they saw orange trees in bloom, heavy and laden and colourful with fruit, and an aroma to die for.
 
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You may just die from sheer excitement of the citrus groves here then. Many of our neighbors have citrus trees. Trees that have been around for decades and bear some of the best fruit. Rarely do I bother buying citrus from the grocery store due to this and our own trees. Blood oranges and certain species of grapefruit are the only citrus I'll buy.
 
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You may just die from sheer excitement of the citrus groves here then. Many of our neighbors have citrus trees. Trees that have been around for decades and bear some of the best fruit. Rarely do I bother buying citrus from the grocery store due to this and our own trees. Blood oranges and certain species of grapefruit are the only citrus I'll buy.


Whimper. Whimper. Whimper......
 
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Ok, I’ve learned several times now, that when frying eggs in beacon grease, that if the intent is to make them over easy, that total focus must be applied to the eggs, no multitasking, no buttering toast at that moment of flipping the eggs, count to 10 and then remove eggs from skillet, unless you want hard fried eggs. The question is how many more times will I learn this? ;) 😛
 
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