[SarahBell]

bendybogle, on 06 April 2012 - 02:56 PM, said:

onions in already and i get enough sugar via the pop!

Well just close your eyes then.

[tiremola]

Squid ink?

[tiremola]

The classical meal in black may interest you, if you want some ideas. It occurs in J K Huysman’s novel A Rebours, [1884]: -

“….While a concealed orchestra played funeral marches, the guests were waited on by naked negresses wearing shoes and stockings of cloth of silver besprinkled with tears.

The viands were served on black-bordered plates: - turtle soup, Russian black bread, ripe olives from Turkey, caviar, mullet roe, Frankfurt smoked sausages, game dished up in sauces coloured to resemble liquorice water and boot-blacking, truffles in jelly, chocolate-tinted creams, puddings, nectarines, fruit preserves, mulberries and cherries. The wines were drunk from dark-tinted glasses,--wines of the Limagne and Roussillon vintages, wines of Tenedos, the Val de Penas and Oporto. After the coffee and walnuts came other unusual beverages, kwas, porter and stout.

The invitations, which purported to be for a dinner in pious memory of the host's (temporarily) lost virility, were couched in the regulation phraseology of letters summoning relatives to attend the obsequies of a defunct kinsman.”

[winkie]

...can I suggest black pudding for desert, should finish it off nicely.

[chronyx]

Roobios tea

[okaycuckoo]

Add pureed spinach - adds lovely deep flavour.

[Son of Taeper]

By coincidence, I have one on the go at the moment.
I was thinking about making mine lighter as I was too lazy to put much more effort into it.
I tend to use yogurt cream coconut , to make it lighter.
Chuck it in at the last minute.

As the man said, Guinness will get it darker, I think it may leave an aftertaste though.
Mackeson stout works well for me if I want a deep flavour but I only use it in stews
I would stay clear of the gravy recommendation as well.
If you must trash a meal you spent hours on just to get it darker, I would slice up an onion and throw a bit of sugar in half way through cooking.
Let it catch a bit, but keep a very good eye on it.

The other option is to use other stuff to make it look right.
Chuck in a bit of red or green peeper at the last moment along with a handfull of wild rocket or anything green that does not need a big cook.
Toms work if you don't have red pepper, just chuck it in.

If you want my blitz them out curry recipes I could post in another thread maybe..
I learnt long ago that the base of a curry was the sauce, the other stuff is just junk from the fridge or larder.

[Son of Taeper]

Wow,
In the time it took to drop my reply out there are so many replies to the op.
I think Sarah Bell gets my top vote though.
Sure, there was reference to beetle in the posts, but that is kind of fact.

[Son of Taeper]

awake_eagle, on 06 April 2012 - 03:23 PM, said:

Why? When it comes to food you should be primarily worried about nutritional value, then taste. Looks really don't matter much with food (unless it looks completely disgusting like Bridget Jones blue soup ).

I'm thinking you have no teeth and own a liquidiser. Visual impairment as well?
I could cook for you some time maybe and you can count and comment on the nutrients .

My eyes aren't too good anymore, and my teeth are pretty shot up on one side.
I don't count the nutrient as my first port of call though every time I take a meal.
That would be like weighing yourself before and after a poo.

[bankfeeder]

Marmite is always perfect for this.

[Ascii]

winkie, on 06 April 2012 - 02:59 PM, said:

....what about some dark soy sauce...

Yeah, dark soy - would need less than a teaspoon at a guess. Quite often use it to darken gravy.

[bewildered_renter]

If you just want a richer red, then a smallish amount of paprika would do the job without affecting the heat or overall flavour balance too much (even hot paprika is more of a warm spice than hot like chilli.)

Some "toned-down" versions of notoriously hot recipes use a paprika/chilli mix to get depth, warmth and colour without the excessive burn.

Tamarind concentrate is very dark and gives a pleasant sourness, more gentle than vinegar or sour juices. One to add a little, taste, little bit more, taste, stop when happy.

When you at the starting from scratch stage, Sarah's onion darkening suggestion is good.

I do that with Burmese curries, slowly frying the pureed onion and spice mix until it turns into a kind of deep brick-red jam. They'll often get a little boost from tamarind at the end too.

[bendybogle]

thanks for the tips. sandwich pickle is today's challenge.

[bewildered_renter]

bendybogle, on 07 April 2012 - 11:05 AM, said:

thanks for the tips. sandwich pickle is today's challenge.

Used to be a no-brainer for me - Pan Yan. Was Branston Pickle's minority rival. Branston bought them out and, oddly enough, the Pan Yan factory got burned down, so you can't get it anymore.

A friend at work suggested using Patak's Brinjal pickle on cheese sandwiches. That was surprisingly good.

I'm using a lot of Rishta pickles and chutneys for my Indian food at the moment. I might well try those with cold-meat, cheese, sandwiches. Their Chili-carrot one could be sneaky way to get a chili hit and claim your cheese sandwich is one of your 5-a-day.

Baxters Albert's Victorian Chutney is pretty good too.

[winkie]

bewildered_renter, on 08 April 2012 - 04:49 PM, said:

Used to be a no-brainer for me - Pan Yan. Was Branston Pickle's minority rival. Branston bought them out and, oddly enough, the Pan Yan factory got burned down, so you can't get it anymore.

A friend at work suggested using Patak's Brinjal pickle on cheese sandwiches. That was surprisingly good.

I'm using a lot of Rishta pickles and chutneys for my Indian food at the moment. I might well try those with cold-meat, cheese, sandwiches. Their Chili-carrot one could be sneaky way to get a chili hit and claim your cheese sandwich is one of your 5-a-day.

Baxters Albert's Victorian Chutney is pretty good too.

Chutney is one of the easiest things to make yourself......if you like it and use it often you should try making it, seriously.