REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Best meals ever

POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Sunday, October 18, 2015 23:00
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Saturday, July 4, 2015 11:38 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Been expanding my family menu repertoire, and I made a few new things that turned out GREAT!

Falafels
Soaked chickpeas processed with onion, garlic, cilantro or parsley, cumin, coriander, cardamom, salt, and pepper. Cooked meatball-style. Recipes usually call for frying in oil until done; I was a little uncomfortable with all of the oil being soaked up but I found they can be steamed until cooked thru, then lightly deep-fried in grapeseed oil until golden. YUM!

I served it with

Caponata. It's like an eggplant/tomato relish. Cook together tomato paste, eggplant (Japanese eggplant from the garden), garlic, olives, basil (Thai basil from the garden), olive oil, balsamic vinaigrette, and currants. Normally you add pine nuts, but my experience with look-alike Chinese pine nuts - which left a metallic taste in my mouth for 2 weeks- has sworn me off.

Rogers's Green Stuff-
I really don't know what to call this, but it's the best condiment/cooking/marinade ingredient ever. It's so great, I'm passing on the entire recipe:

5 jalapenos
5 serranos
1 Anaheim (long green) chili
1 passilla chili
1 bunch cilantro
small onion
3-4 large cloves garlic
2 limes, juice
2-3T olive oil
1 t salt


Clean, seed, and rough-chop the chilis (caution, use gloves, or do not touch eyes or any sensitive spot for several hours afterwards). Rinse and remove stems from cilnatro. (sigh) Peel and rough-chop onions and garlic. Juice 2 limes. Toss everything into a food processor and pulse until very finely chopped, but not juiced. Tastes great on everything from ham and eggs to falafels to chicken (as marinade).

-------------

Chicken gumbo

1 pound turkey sausage, sliced
a couple of large pre-baked chicken breasts, baking juices reserved, cubed
A few shrimp if you like them or prawn if you can get them, cooked, deveined, removed from shell

about 1 c each chopped
celery
onion
tomato
okra
cooked corn
chopped peppers (bell or hot, your choice)

3-4 bay leaves
any leftover stock water from cooked vegetables that week, or pan juices from cooked meat
4 cloves garlic
cumin (~1/2 t), cayenne (to taste), salt (to taste)

1/4 cup olive oil

sautee onions and celery with bay leaf in oil until tender, add remaining ingredients, bring simmer, and simmer until vegetables are tender.

YUM!




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Saturday, July 4, 2015 10:09 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Love a good falafel.

I associate them with street fare here at markets and the like. Usually served in flat bread with salad and a garlicy youhurt sauce. Yum.

I do also prepare them myself, but often take the cheats route of buying the dried mixture. I find they cook okay on baking paper brushed with oil in the oven, but can be ldryer than if you deep fry them.

I go through cooking stages. It's winter here, and I'm back on the vegetarian wagon which means finding alternatives to meaty stews and casseroles. I'm quite relieved as they tend to be heavy and heavy on the wasteline as well.

I've discovered that I quite like kale, after initially being disgusted. It's good to make a more solid winter salad. The secret is to chop it finally, salt lightly, leave for 10 minutes and rub. Yes, you heard right. Rub those leaves, it makes them tenderer. I add all sorts of things to the salad, usually some other vegetables, steamed greens or roasted (baked?) root vegetables, and some lightly toasted seeds or nuts.

For the dressing, I use tahini and lemon, or a feta and oil, or sometimes something pesto. I currently have a bottle of caramelized balsamic vinegar which can be served on its own.

The kale holds it own with warm vegetables, doesnt go limp or soggy. One of these salads is a meal in itself, or if you want extra protein, serve with fish or chicken or some other grilled meat.

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Sunday, July 5, 2015 2:02 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Regrettably, my best meals have been in restaurants. While I like to think I'm a better than average home cook, I've had restaurant meals that were phenomenal. And I'm not talking about 5-star places. One of the best meals I ever had was in Bronco Linda's Cafe, in Grand Junction Colorado, and it was hot black coffee, and biscuits and gravy. But it was literally the best coffee, biscuits and gravy I've ever had.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Sunday, July 5, 2015 3:54 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


If I ever get back to the States there is a ton of food I want to try. Biscuits and gravy is one of them. From what I understand, biscuits are essentially what we call scones, only we eat them with jam and cream for afternoon tea.

My favourite meal to eat out is normally breakfast or brunch. I love how that has become a sunday tradition, with really good coffee (not your american shite), sour dough toast with smashed avocado, perfectly poached eggs, smoked salmon, hollandaise sauce, pan fried mushrooms and tomotoes. Often outdoors, and at this time of year outdoors under heaters.

The other type of food I enjoy eating is Asian street food, especially dumplings. But also a huge fan of bahn mi, and rice paper rolls. Hoisin sauce with anything is my creed.

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Sunday, July 5, 2015 10:26 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


MAGONS, I'd love to go on an eating tour with you!


My perfect meal:

A medium-rare rib eye steak (yep, a steak-lover. I crave meat, sometimes nothing else will do.)
Pan-fried potatoes
A crisp green salad with something bitter in it like arugula, tomato, avocado, red onion, and other stuff with a garlicky blue-cheese dressing
Strawberries on piping hot drop biscuits, with melted tub butter, and lots and lot of lightly sweetened whipped cream. (People ask me what my favorite dessert is, and I say "whipped cream". They say, "You mean whipped cream and ....?" and I reply "No, just whipped cream".)
A glass of white wine with the meal (yeah, I know- supposedly doesn't go with steak, but I don't like red wine) and a sweet desert wine or port with dessert.

But then I also like pierogi and bao. Chili and cheese tamales. A really good meatball stroganoff, czarnina (duck blood soup), and of course anything with decent Alfredo sauce.

My home menus are really quite a bit more prosaic (and healthful).
Yesterday, we had beef stew (chuck, onion, celery, carrot, potato, bay leaves, white wine, mushrooms) on shiratki noodles with asparagus on the side.
Today, it's turkey burgers with Italian green beans and beets.
Tomorrow, bbq pulled pork and cole slaw
After that, chicken marinaded in/cooked on Roger's green stuff, and salad.
Eventually, by the end of the week, I'll roll around to ham and bean soup.
I like to serve at least 3 salads or cole slaw in summer, so I don't have to cook so much!

KIKI I know what you mean about biscuits and gravy! Went to visit an acquaintance in Alabama once, and got treated to all of the southern features: hominy, fried catfish, country ham, "greens" (I think they were turnip greens, and they were good!) but the best was the biscuits and gravy. I have no idea what they made the gravy from. "Pan drippings and bits"? Anyway, it was wonderful!

BRENDA, got a favorite recipe for jambalaya you would like to share?




--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Sunday, July 5, 2015 3:16 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


I was invited to a friend's house - twice - for large family gatherings. Once for Thanksgiving and once for a family reunion. The family heritage is Southern black, but her mom made the best lasagna I've ever had in my life. And as for the "greens" for Thanksgiving - I don't know if this is what you had Signy, but they make a traditional greens mixture - turnip, collard, kale, spinach, and I don't know what else - cooked with nothing but butter added (no bacon, no onion). And before that I never liked cooked greens. But those greens changed my mind, and they were the best greens I've ever had in my life.


SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Monday, July 6, 2015 7:50 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
If I ever get back to the States there is a ton of food I want to try. Biscuits and gravy is one of them. From what I understand, biscuits are essentially what we call scones, only we eat them with jam and cream for afternoon tea.

My favourite meal to eat out is normally breakfast or brunch. I love how that has become a sunday tradition, with really good coffee (not your american shite), sour dough toast with smashed avocado, perfectly poached eggs, smoked salmon, hollandaise sauce, pan fried mushrooms and tomotoes. Often outdoors, and at this time of year outdoors under heaters.

The other type of food I enjoy eating is Asian street food, especially dumplings. But also a huge fan of bahn mi, and rice paper rolls. Hoisin sauce with anything is my creed.

What we get which is called scones has no comparison to biscuits, AFAIC.
When here, go to Popeye's Chicken for the biscuits - you will find the good stuff. Buttery. My friends don't bother with anything else on the menu, we just get dozens of biscuits, and they even reheat well. They should be very soft and fluffy.

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Tuesday, July 7, 2015 7:53 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


scones




3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons superfine sugar
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons soft vegetable shortening
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 egg, beaten, for an egg wash (optional)
1 large lipped baking sheet or half sheet pan
1 (2-inch) biscuit cutter, preferably fluted

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/buttermilk-scones-re
cipe.html?oc=linkback


biscuits


Ingredients

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/southern-biscuits-recip
e.html?oc=linkback



seems pretty similar to me





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Tuesday, July 7, 2015 3:43 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


I'm an adequate cook. But some people really are gifted. And also, if you're cooking from scratch, you definitely are at the mercy of your ingredients. Sometime the tomatoes are sour and have no flavor, the onions cook up watery and bitter, the peppers have no heat, the potatoes are dry and mealy, the kale tough ...

As an example about gifted cooks, I made chili and it was - ok. I can say even reasonably tasty. And it was nutritious, the proportions were good, the ingredients were fresh and high quality, the cooking timely - nothing was overdone or underdone. I just thought it lacked a depth of flavor. But my one sister, who unlike me has a phenomenal sense of smell, had come to visit and I asked her to 'fix' it while I was busy. I remember her rummaging through my spices and asking questions - do you have sage? no. ohh ... do you have cinnamon? no. ohhh ... I don't know ultimately what she added. But she took a good chili and made it phenomenal and memorable. Yes, it was 'the best' chili I've ever had.

And, as for the coffee and biscuits and gravy cattle-drive breakfast ... seriously, no one knows how to do biscuits, and I've had plenty for comparison over the years. The closest high quality biscuit to Bronco Linda's I've had was a restaurant in Hawaii where I had large chunks of fish and mixed seafood in a lightly lemon-herbed Hollandaise sauce spooned over a fresh, fluffy, piping-hot split biscuit. But otherwise you can count on them to be small, lukewarm, gummy, soft, pale, and bitter from too much baking powder. The one at Bronco Linda's Cafe was none of those. It was large, hot, fresh, lightly browned and slightly crispy on the outside, and fluffy-tasty on the inside. And people don't know how to do sausage gravy either. It's often pale, sweet, thick and flavorless. But the gravy at Bronco Linda's Cafe was full of the savory flavor of breakfast sausage, with lots of brown bits and sausage crumbs, a light grinding of fresh black pepper, and I swear they went out back and threw in a punch of fresh sage. As for the coffee - over the years I'd hate to think how MUCH coffee I've had. I do think I can recognize a good cup that stands out from the usual.

I've had phenomenal food in the most unexpected places - like on an airplane when I was dog-tired and all I was thinking of was finally, finally getting home. It was also the second best cup of coffee I've ever had after Bronco Linda's. And in a restaurant in Cleveland near the end of a cross-country drive. (That meal was also one of my sister's 'best meals ever', and unknown to each other, we both tried to recreate it several times at home over the next half-dozen years. It was that flavorful and memorable to the two of us.) And at my friend's house (as the only white face) in the midst of a very large number of people I didn't know - a stressful situation for me as I tried to figure out how to fit in - where particular items really stood out from the general experience.

So, yeah - I think I know what I'm saying when I say something was the 'best ever' in my personal experience.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Tuesday, July 7, 2015 7:42 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


"You do notice that you preface much of your food descriptions with place and people descriptions, right?"

At first, it was to point out it wasn't my cooking, or at expensive places. I made that point explicitly here: "Regrettably, my best meals have been in restaurants. While I like to think I'm a better than average home cook, I've had restaurant meals that were phenomenal. And I'm not talking about 5-star places. One of the best meals I ever had was in Bronco Linda's Cafe, in Grand Junction Colorado ..."

But THEN it was in response TO YOU and your ASSUMPTIONS that I can't distinguish circumstances from foods. And to point out TO YOU that your assumptions about me are plain wrong - that - unlike your assumptions - these memorable dishes weren't at special events, happy times, in favored company, or at expensive places. Rather they were complete surprises in wildly divergent sets of circumstances.

"Even the name 'Bronco Linda's' seems to have talismanic powers for you." It was a hole in the wall, and rather than confuse people (like you?) by talking about a place in Colorado, a place in California, a different place in California - I tried to attach specifics to each one I was talking about.

And I could tell you the names and places of pretty much every other memorable meal I've had. Ceviche in Bistro, Saint Augustine. The place in Cleveland - East Side Mo's. Best prime rib I ever had - Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel. That great airplane meal - Northwest Airlines. A fantastic New Mexico-style stew of beef, Anaheim chilies and potatoes, Luna Linda in Dallas, Texas (a dish I've successfully reproduced at home). I remember them because the food made them memorable, not the other way around. I couldn't tell you about any of the other innumerable airplane meals I've eaten. Or the many other restaurants both expensive and modest I've been to in Ohio, Florida, Colorado, Hawaii, California, Texas, New York, Georgia, Illinois, and several places in Ontario, Canada ... Or the many family parties - my own family or others - I've attended.

And I've had a great time in great company in Chicago, but I couldn't tell you which restaurants and breweries and jazz clubs they were, though by reputation they were high quality. And I've had deeply happy, and deeply sad events at restaurants - weddings, funerals, christenings and so on - and I couldn't tell you the names of the places or the menus. (Except my one cousin's wedding dinner - the place was a notorious Mafia hang-out that I already knew by that reputation. The food was a long time coming. But they kept our water glasses filled and the bread baskets full. And my other cousin, who was sitting at the same table, said - 'oh, we're getting bread and water. I know what this place is.' And I remember the place, and the bread and the water - but not much else.)

So, you had a point that * I* can't tell the difference between foods and circumstances? You failed to make it. I definitely can tell when the food is of such quality that it gets my attention, and imprints the experience on my memory. The thousands of other meals, in equally forgettable or memorable circumstances, all equally fade into the blank forgotten past because it was completely forgettable food.

ETA: As an EXAMPLE* of some of the finer places I've been to, Loews Santa Monica is a 5 star restaurant where I've dined several times. And prime rib wasn't the only thing I've had there. But of the salads, pasta salads, cooked vegetables, side dishes etc - the only thing I remember about them was thinking 'I could do better at home'. So, no - I haven't spent my life eating at stuff-your-face cheap diners, or wallowing in good home cookin' swill. But quality isn't dictated by dollars.
* EXAMPLE - including, but not limited to

Also, sometimes you're stuck with the food quality at your local stores. It seems to run by harvests. If all I can find are bad onions at one store, chances are that's what I'll find elsewhere, because they're coming from the same region and same harvest cycle. Plants grown with too much or too little water, or not enough or too much sunshine, or harvested too early or too late - are inferior. There's a reason why top chefs keep their suppliers close and see what's good THAT DAY - because they know - even if you don't - that cooking techniques go only so far in trying to accommodate inferior ingredients.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Wednesday, July 8, 2015 9:04 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Quote:
Originally posted by G:

Crazy that Nigella, an English women, would consider those scones. I think anything sourced from the Food Network is suspect. Funny too that the English also call what we call cookies, biscuits. Is that what scones look like in Aus.?


Yep, that's scones here. Sometimes made savoury with cheese or pumpkin, sometimes with sultanas, but mainly plain and served with jam and cream. It's the simplicity of scones and jam and cream that make it special. The scones have to be fluffy and flaky and high, the jam should be home made and the cream, fresh and lightly whipped NOT from a can, (I'm looking accusingly at you, Americans)

Cookies are biscuits
Candy is lollies or chocolates
Soda is soft drink
Sidewalks are pavements


I could go on....



Quote:

Plenty of shite coffee in the US for sure, but like a lot of things about the US, there isn't only one thing that defines us. Kind of on account of there being so many of us... eye roll ... so like the amazing craft beer movement we've been enjoying for the last 20 years, coffee too has many hipster mad scientists who have got all up in it and investigated the many ways to brew and roast the many kinds of beans. Pour over, drip, cold brew (my new favorite) - you name it you can find it, and these days usually in abundance. It's a pretty big deal here.


Melbournians are coffee snobs. We drink espresso because of all the Italian migrants. None of your filter stuff makes the grade.

Quote:


3 words: N Y C - not sure if you have ever been but it has it all food-wise. A tad expensive, oppressive, exciting, amazing, addictive, one of my favorite places on the planet to visit.

Definitely on my must do list, but I'm also interested in the regional US food. German influenced in Pensylvania (cant spell it), Cajun and Southern cuisine, Cuban and mexican....




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Wednesday, July 8, 2015 3:26 PM

KPO

Sometimes you own the libs. Sometimes, the libs own you.


Buffalo curry in Pokhara, Nepal. In a pretty dingy, tackily decorated place, that I only sat down to eat in because I was bursting for the toilet and so had no choice but to duck inside.


It's not personal. It's just war.

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Wednesday, July 8, 2015 11:40 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


I vastly appreciate the recipes and tips!

I've been on the lookout for a better way to make coffee. I keep telling my coworkers ...we are all chemists ... that if someone can make coffee taste as good as it smells, they would make a fortune. I know that "sun tea" tastes better - to me- than regular, it never occurred to me to try a cold brewing technique with coffee.

SCONES! BISCUITS! whatever you call them, I'm going to try out that recipe in the very near future.



--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Friday, July 10, 2015 2:30 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Kiki - I always think it's funny when people think of a meal or a food as "best ever." ...
If cooking isn't a mystery you realize that those "best ever" moments are about much, much more than the food. Place, people, timing, head space, where you are in your life... SO MANY THINGS BESIDES THE FOOD MAKE FOR THOSE GREATEST EVER MEALS. Your example is perfect - you even start off by describing the atmosphere, one WITH WHICH YOU WERE OBVIOUSLY ENCHANTED.


Geez - I wasn't doubting your personal experience (you don't have to take everything as a contradiction or an attack, k?). I WAS TRYING TO EXPLAIN how MULTI-DIMENSIONAL that perception can be, not just "great biscuits".


... (you must have) EATEN AT PLACES THAT VALUE CHEAP OVER QUALITY ... YOUR BAD EXPERIENCES MAY HAVE SET THE BAR LOW enough that WHEN YOU HIT A GOOD PLACE IT REALLY STANDS OUT ... gobsmacked by flavor QUALITY COSTS MONEY, NOT A LOT BUT MORE THAN A DOLLAR MEAL


You see 'G' - it's not enough for me to say 'in my experience'.

You just HAVE to tell me ... over ... and over ... and over ... that I'm so simple I'm confused between good food and circumstances with which I was OBVIOUSLY ENCHANTED - like being inflight - sigh - yet again. And I'm in need of your wise instruction on distinguishing between the many biscuits in the many places over the many decades that I've eaten - and the so terribly confusing MULTIDIMENSIONAL PERCEPTIONS that confuse me between a gummy bitter biscuit and a light tasty one. And that I'm so provincial and low-class in my impoverished lifetime of eating at DOLLAR MEAL PLACES THAT VALUE CHEAP OVER QUALITY that I must be so GOBSMACKED by a GOOD PLACE IT REALLY STANDS OUT.

Let's take coffee. Have I had genuine Ethiopian home grown coffee traditionally prepared by an Ethiopian chef? Check. Swedish? Check. Percolated? Check. Drip? Check. French press? Check. Egyptian (courtesy of my Egyptian friend Sanna)? Espresso? Cambodian? Thai? Italian? Check. Check. Check. Check. Check. And for the coffees I'm sure I missed ... Check. Or do you think I'm some rube? That must be it. Because OBVIOUSLY I'm only familiar with home swill, 'ignoring the wide range of coffees and styles'.

You have done everything to say that I'm too ignorant, confused, provincial and low class to be able to discriminate the genuinely good food I've experienced. You pretend to know my thoughts - and repeatedly say that I myself don't.

So let me point out that you're the one who's made this personal.

You are the one who decided to try and invalidate my opinions - and me - by making dismissive, belittling personal comments. You have no idea what I've eaten, or where, and what my range of experience is beyond the little I've shared. But you think you can judge.


You're a putrid but pretentious meal. And you've let us amply sample that by your actions here.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Friday, July 10, 2015 4:13 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


BTW Magon's - unfortunately, while there are many places here that serve American classics like biscuits and gravy, jambalaya, fried catfish and corn pone, or other regional or regional foreign favorites, it's probably harder to find great versions. But then, if you're looking for a genuine American experience, the average American restaurant meal is probably it.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Friday, July 10, 2015 6:25 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by 1kiki:
BTW Magon's - unfortunately, while there are many places here that serve American classics like biscuits and gravy, jambalaya, fried catfish and corn pone, or other regional or regional foreign favorites, it's probably harder to find great versions. But then, if you're looking for a genuine American experience, the average American restaurant meal is probably it.
MAGONS, you can save yourself the airfare and visit your local McDonald's. That's a genuine common American experience, and you can visit it right at home!

--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Friday, July 10, 2015 7:08 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM: I keep telling my coworkers ...we are all chemists ... SIGNY
Please keep your chemistry out of my food! You sound like one of the "chefs" at Monsanto. -G
Wow, in a thread about FOOD - of all things- you bring your nastiness and "humor"??? You can't stay out of "attack dog" mode long enough to share a near-universal experience of eating and enjoying food? So, FYI, Monsanto (in its GMO-mode) isn't about "chemistry", it's more about "biology". Not that that's any better.

Quote:
Chemistry is responsible for ruining a lot of great food, so while you might be able to use it to understand hot v cold brewing (why one extracts less acid)
What I would say is that cold brewing might lose fewer volatiles ... but that's just the chemist in me talking.

Quote:
I wouldn't want to use it to "make food better."
Chemistry has played a huge part in food preservation techniques including cooking, drying, salting, sugaring, pickling (in vinegar), canning, freezing, and ... my personal favorite ... distillation. Also freeze-drying. OTOH, we can also credit biochemistry and biology for fermentation (yay for beer, wine, bread, saurkraut/kimchee, and cheese!)

Quote:
That's what Big Food has done for decades and we have very little good to show for it and plenty of bad.
No, alas, we have Big Business using chemistry to make foods more profitable. There's a difference. There are also chemist chefs who look at the chemistry and physics of cooking. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molecular_gastronomy But I know what you mean: I avoid foods with a lot of chemicals in the ingredient list. (Also shampoos and other cleaners.) I NEVER heat or long-term store my food in plastic. Canned food is also essentially cooked and stored in plastic, since they line the (metal) cans with plastic. Almost every liquid-food is stored in one kind of plastic or another. It's near-universal, and the source of many chemicals in commercially-prepared food. I keep telling our DD (who somehow doesn't believe that there are "vitamins" and "ingredients" in natural foods, unless they appear on a label) that a wide variety of pesticide-free, minimally-processed foods is the BEST that she can do for her health.

Quote:
Cold brewing coffee produces a very different tasting coffee (much, much less bitter), so I wouldn't say "better" just fyi. It's also meant to be consumed cold, not hot, but I heat mine up anyway because it's what I like.
Since my coffee-maker just gave up the ghost I have a container of fresh ground coffee beans. Let's see if I can wrest it from the family to try the cold-brewed method.

Quote:
For most people Taste in general is "I know what I like."
Maybe more like "I know what I'm familiar with". I've managed to eat some really unusual foods (like balot) because they "tasted like" something I ate as a child.

Quote:
The 5 kinds of tastes on our tongue/palate are dead to any emotion, so they just ping our brain with quantitative feedback (how much sweet, how much bitter..). Our brain decides good and bad, and making that final decision is not just a y/n proposition. It looks like some people think it's a mathematical formula, crack the code and you have it down, repeatable for forever.
Actually, MOST of our "taste" involves smell for most people. I used to be able to smell silk .. yep, actual silk ... from 4 feet away. Did you know that when you smell whiskey (or anything, for that matter) you'll detect a lot more if you "smell" with your mouth open? That's because the volatile chemicals need to go up into your nasopharynx and where the patches of aroma-detecting nerve-endings reside, and hopefully stay there long enough and not just get snuffed into the lungs.


http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Taste_and_Smell.aspx


Anyway, as air pollution chemists, one of the fascinating things that we look for is fragrance, because fragrances are in fact volatile (air pollution) chemicals (if they weren't, you couldn't smell them, because they need to volatilize in order to reach your nose). So, in no particular order, are the names of SOME of the chemicals (with specific molecular formulas, not some uncharacterized naturally-derived magic boojum-juice, but real actual chemicals with CAS numbers attached)

vanillin
cinnamaldehyde
limonene
pinene
linalool
geraniol
cumene
lilyall

Now tell me you don't know where these come from!

http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/

Quote:
I could put 10 different coffees in front of you and one of them you would judge as the best one, but I doubt you would respond enthusiastically that it was the best coffee you had ever had. Emotion is at least half of the eating experience - in a cold lab environment it's just not likely to happen, even though it could be the exact same coffee that you end up gushing about because you had it on a rainy day at a little empty cafe while in Paris with your best friend. "It was the best coffee ever! And we can never recreate it at home... why-o-why?!"
I guess I'm a more objective than that! But that's part of the fun: figuring out the "what" and the "how" of flavor.


--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Friday, July 10, 2015 8:49 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Yes Kiki, you described a culinary world of watery onions and bad tomatoes etc, so an obvious conclusion - from your own words - is that you are unknowing when it comes to food.-G

How does that indicate that KIKI is "unknowing" of food, since she is detecting differences in ingredient quality? If anything, that indicates to me a knowledge of basic ingredient qualities.

If I may reiterate what KIKI said: Yes, it's possible to have watery onions and bad (bland) tomatoes. You can "know" about poor ingredients without being able to avoid them. (Unless you want to buy processed foods where additives and factory-farming make all product standardized!) As KIKI alluded to, a lot has to do with the local growing conditions: too much rain, not enough sun. Plants need sunshine to make sugar, so cloudy conditions will develop bland fruit (including tomatoes). Too much rain will make vegetables watery, and too much npk will make vegetables flavorless (not enough trace minerals). OTOH, lots of rain makes for sweet milk, which is why CA milk is so sour-tasting.

Quote:
But then, if you're looking for a genuine American experience, the average American restaurant meal is probably it.- KIKI

MAGONS, you can save yourself the airfare and visit your local McDonald's. That's a genuine common American experience, and you can visit it right at home! - SIGNY

First: my gawd you 2 are thin skinned.Second: That is much worse than anything I said! You want to send Magons to a MacDonalds... god forbid. In a thread about FOOD of all things, you can't help but run out you America hatin' - even at Magon's expense. Shameful and very selfish.
Well, do you have any recommendations where MAGONS could reliably find good AMERICAN food? Heck, the oldest fast food restaurant IS in America!

It seems to me that the most significant American contribution to the food experience was the introduction of FAST FOOD, commodity crops, and GMOs. So, do you have any alternatives? I know KIKI could recommend Bronco Linda's, so what about you?

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Friday, July 10, 2015 11:01 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Given that the average American restaurant serves up average American food, I think it would be difficult for a visitor to randomly select a place and end up with a better than average selection. I think it would be better to read reviews and guides, or best, to know a few people in the place you're visiting, in order to focus on the better places and the better dishes.

Yanno, maybe if Magon's is planning a visit the more knowledgeable among us could make up-to-date suggestions about what's good where.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Friday, July 10, 2015 11:25 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


wow - a double serving

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Friday, July 10, 2015 11:26 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


First: my gawd you 2 are thin skinned.

You mean you didn't make every post to me personal? Then how did I get all those denigrating quotes to me you scattered over this entire thread?
Oh that's right - now you're doing what you always do. When confronted with facts you can't deny, you attack rather than admit a truth, especially if it makes you at fault.


Yes Kiki, you described a culinary world of watery onions and bad tomatoes etc, so an obvious conclusion - from your own words - is that you are unknowing when it comes to food.

That's dumb. First of all, I didn't say EVERY ingredient was ALWAYS bad. So how could it be a 'world' of 'watery onions and bad tomatoes etc'? But there are times, especially with produce that's out of season, when the quality is poor. Are you saying you hadn't noticed? Jeez, what kind of 'expert' are you? And second, how does knowing when the ingredients are inferior make me 'unknowing'?


Second: That is much worse than anything I said! You want to send Magons to a MacDonalds... god forbid. In a thread about FOOD of all things, you can't help but run out you (sic) America hatin' - even at Magon's expense. Shameful and very selfish.

Are you saying that MacDonalds ISN'T food as American as ... apple pie? That it ISN'T a daily average American experience? Or that to recognize that fact is somehow America-hating? What world do you live in?
But my point was that by definition, average food is commonly available, and higher quality places take some sussing out, because, by definition, they are more rare. Your chances of randomly stumbling into one are smaller.
Oh that's right. In your world there's no such thing as MacDonalds in the US, or average restaurants either, apparently. Those are scurvy America hatin' lies!


SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Saturday, July 11, 2015 9:10 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Wow, and you're so thin-skinned (on 'Murica's behalf) that you just can't resist slagging the PEOPLE who post here, can you?

I guess you didn't know that MAGON'S fine hometown resisted an American fast-food joint (and everything that it represents)? So, does that make her "anti-American"?

------------

Tomatoes are coming in. Eggplant is producing, and the avocado tree is raining avocados. I see eggplant Parmesan and avocado salad in the very near future (like, this week). Going to reprise that chicken and sausage gumbo, it was a hit with the family.

Unfortunatley, I can't recommend any specific restaurants for good experience because we haven't been to any in a long time. This thread made me realize that deficiency. I'm going to have to get out the blasting caps and move the family to do something different.

As far as the cold coffee is concerned, that idea lasted until our first potential caffeine withdrawal, which was the first day we both had off from work. So in desperation we made "cowboy coffee" until our replacement coffee-maker came in. Except for the pain-in-the-assedness (because we didn't have a good filtration setup) it tasted better than drip. Which brings me to another question:

BEST household coffee preparation method- drip, perc, or cowboy? (Forget the French press, Keurig, or espresso. Either too expensive, or not enough coffee, or both.) And why?


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Saturday, July 11, 2015 1:13 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


'G' =

A troll.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Saturday, July 11, 2015 1:27 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Signy

I take it you don't like the French press (or I guess the individual drip) because you have to make each cup or two fresh, which involves letting it 'steep', which takes time?

Well ... some of the most consistently good coffee I've had is percolated, from one particular place. But I couldn't say what about it makes it so consistently good. I've had a lot of that exact same coffee made elsewhere and it's been mediocre at best. So the place that has it where's it's good - is it their particular percolator? Is it percolators in general? Is it their water? The grind? - which does have some effect. I wish I knew.

But the biggest difference I can think of is that the place where the coffee is good percolates it, which almost no one does nowadays, and the place where it's mediocre uses a drip maker. FWIW

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Saturday, July 11, 2015 9:48 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Don't understand - Cold brew has plenty of caffeine. I suspect you 2 are mistaking acid for caffeine.


I suspect they are understanding the time it takes for it to be ready and the time it takes to get to a caffeine withdrawal headache.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Saturday, July 11, 2015 9:50 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


'G' =

A troll.


Kiki ... If cooking isn't a mystery you realize that those "best ever" moments are about much, much more than the food. Place, people, timing, head space, where you are in your life... so many things besides the food make for those greatest ever meals. Your example is perfect - you even start off by describing the atmosphere, one with which you were obviously enchanted.

Apparently I'm too ignorant (cooking must be 'a mystery' to me) and my experiences too few to be able to make adequate comparisons between biscuits, gravy and coffee ... and lasagna and greens.

Sounds to me like you've dealt with a lot of bad ingredients in your own cooking (bland tomatoes), maybe some novice techniques (watery, bitter onions), and eaten at places that value cheap over quality. So yeah, your bad experiences may have set the bar low enough that when you hit a good place it really stands out.

On top of that I'm drowning in a lifetime of bad ingredients and cheap food. Quality has been entirely absent and that's why my evaluations are so wrong, wrong, wrong. (Gotta add - 'G' seems to think caramelizing onions makes up for poor quality, and thinks they belong in every recipe.)


... do you have just one cup in mind? ... that would ignore the wide range of coffees and style ...

Poor ignorant provincial trailer-trash me. Despite my many decades of life, my many travels, and my many foreign friends eager to share their cuisine, I've only ever had one kind of coffee in my entire life, except for that ONE MAGICAL CUP !!


Yes Kiki, you described a culinary world of watery onions and bad tomatoes etc,

Yes, I said it was my entire world. (irony, btw)


Statements like this are what lead me to think you're an all star rubezilla.

Yep. Sticking to the topic too, and avoiding any kind of personal attack, like usual. (also irony btw)



SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Saturday, July 11, 2015 11:47 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Quote:
Don't understand - Cold brew has plenty of caffeine. I suspect you 2 are mistaking acid for caffeine.
No. Cold brewing took too long. Drip only took a few minutes, and cowboy coffee took only a few minutes longer.

So, using the same coffee (fresh burr-ground light roast whole beans) cowboy coffee definitely tastes better.

We're going to get a percolator too, just for a taste test. I'll let you know what I find out. All of the BEST coffee I've ever had (besides home coffee) was percolated. I'm interested because I'm in nominal charge of the coffee club at work, and when our coffee-maker bit the dust, I looked into getting a percolator and did a survey. People were not ready to try something new, so they opted for a drip-maker, and it works OK and the coffee tastes OK, but I think it could be better.

Really, there's no mystery- or there shouldn't be any- about making coffee. It's a matter of extraction time, water temperature, and water quality.

--------------
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Sunday, July 12, 2015 3:34 AM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


I have had a lot of examples of bad American food here, was hoping that I could get a different experience.

I'm not against fast food per se, lots of cultures have the equivelent of food you'd buy as a snack that may be greasy or oversweet but damn satisfying, lots of differernt types of stall food in Asian cultures which I love. I dont much care for the corporations (mostly American)that produce food and have contributed a kind of homogenization of food culture throughout the world, but last time I complained about American cultural imperialism I got yowled down on this board so lets not go there. Suffice to say I was in opposition to the McDOnalds opening locally, but tough shit, hey, it's here.

I watched Stephen Fry in America a few years ago and I thought he did a fine job. I liked how he could be in awe of some aspect of American life and then appalled a few minutes later. I guess that's down the the diversity. He gained a huge amount of weight on the show, as he seemed to eat his way through the states.



Speaking of chemistry and food, have you ever come across Heston Blumenthal? I love what he does, more of a theatre than a feast, or perhaps a bit of both. For about $500 per head you can have a meal in his UK or Melbourne Restaurant.

You can catch some of his videos on YouTube. I recommend his christmas feast.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2005/apr/16/foodanddrink.shopp
ing4



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Sunday, July 12, 2015 12:34 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


I just want to point out that while the Bialetti looks cool, it also - looks aluminum. Which I confirmed ... "Aluminum, stovetop espresso maker ..."

I really don't recommend coffee and aluminum. It's like tomatoes and aluminum, you can just taste it. I think stainless steel, or glass/ stainless steel would be preferable.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Sunday, July 12, 2015 12:47 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Magon's

Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I think people here would give you local 'good restaurant' suggestions for the areas you intend to visit or the cuisines you intend to try.

Western New York and Chicago have excellent Polish and Italian food. And while you can't find Polish or Italian here in Los Angeles, there's all sorts of Asian and Mexican food. New Mexico has it's own take on Mexican food. New Orleans is not like any southern cooking you'll find - though it's located in the south. And so on.

So maybe we all can come up with suggestions for you.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Sunday, July 12, 2015 1:22 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


"It squats over the Europe of my being... and will last a thousand years"

HAHAHAHAHA!

Nein!, Stephen, nein!. Bad boy!

... but so funny!

--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Sunday, July 12, 2015 7:33 PM

MAGONSDAUGHTER


Brenda, normally I like fresh produce simply cooked... kind of my motto, but I think Heston would be a once in a lifetime experience. A theatre production of food.

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Sunday, July 26, 2015 12:28 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Ok, THIS was the best (home cooked) meal in a long time:

Falafels served with chile-cilantro-lime salsa
Cucumber salad with yogurt-feta-garlic dressing
Caponata of eggplant cooked with tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, and currants, sprinkled with fresh basil and pine nuts
Commercially-prepared jalapeno burgers
Iced tea

I fussed over the meal more than usual. It turned out great!! And I'd be happy to share the recipes if you want.

-----------

But I'm kind of in a cooking rut. Gumbo, ham and bean with chard or greens, bbq pork and cole slaw, burgers and salad, spaghetti and turkey meatballs with greens or broccoli, beef stew and noodles...

Seems like I kind of have to think for a long time ... What am I going to cook NOW???

Hubby refuses to eat fish, and he's not too crazy about chicken.

Any ideas? What do YOU like?









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You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Sunday, July 26, 2015 1:10 AM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


I'm going to try out a sweet potato shepherd's pie. As usual, my meals are adjusted to lower the carbs and salt, and up the vegetables. So I'm thinking 2 pounds each celery (finely diced and sautéed till bright green), 2 pounds sweet potatoes (coarsely cubed and braised, reserve about 1/4 lb of the cooked sweet potatoes) and 2 pounds onions (coarsely cubed and braised) mixed with 2.5 pounds organic ground beef, browned and drained, rubbed sage, thyme, some fresh ground black pepper and a smidge of sea salt. Mash the reserved sweet potatoes and spread over the top, broil to crisp them a bit. Serves 12: 20 grams protein, 23 grams carbs and a half-pound of vegetables per serving.

I think you already have my 'hash' recipe where a large portion of the potatoes is substituted by cubed, baked eggplant.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Sunday, July 26, 2015 2:29 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Oh that sounds delicious!

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Monday, July 27, 2015 8:53 PM

JEWELSTAITEFAN


Quote:
Originally posted by Magonsdaughter:
scones


Quote:


3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cream of tartar
2 teaspoons superfine sugar
4 tablespoons (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
2 tablespoons soft vegetable shortening
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
1 egg, beaten, for an egg wash (optional)
1 large lipped baking sheet or half sheet pan
1 (2-inch) biscuit cutter, preferably fluted

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/nigella-lawson/buttermilk-scones-re
cipe.html?oc=linkback


biscuits


Ingredients

2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
1 cup buttermilk, chilled

Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/southern-biscuits-recip
e.html?oc=linkback



seems pretty similar to me

Those both sound like biscuits, and look it too. I have not found a "scone" served in America that looks like that, so light and fluffy looking. Here scones are quite dense, more solid. That is why I tried to include that contrast in my post.

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Monday, July 27, 2015 11:53 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


Those both sound like biscuits

The biggest difference is the sugar in the scones, plus the tartaric acid instead of baking powder. So the scones would be sweet, and you'd put jam on them. But they certainly don't look like the things you get in the US called scones.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Tuesday, September 29, 2015 7:48 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Bored with my own cooking, I've been trying various recipes. Here are a couple of good ones that I just tried, with some ideas on how to make one better,

I hated chard. Yes, it's green. Yes, it's a vegetable. Yes, it's good for me. I just couldn't stand the taste, it's like mud plus something sharp. This one makes chard taste GREAT!

SWISS CHARD WITH PARMESAN
1 bu chard. (I like to buy rainbow chard, but read will do)
2T butter or marg
2T olive oil
1 T (or more) minced garlic
1/2 small red onion, diced
1/2 dry white wine
2 T lemon juice and zest of 1/3 lemon
1/4 c parmesan

Rinse chard, cut stalks out of leaves and slice. Coarsely ribbon (1/2") leaves. (sigh)
in pan, melt butter add oil.
Sautee onion and garlic.
Add wine and sliced chard stems, cover and cook 7 minutes or so
Add leaves, lemon juice, and zest and cook until tender.
Add parmesan, stir and serve.

I can't think of a way to make this better, its great!

-----
This is expensive, there are some things I would definitely change. But it's really good!

SHORT RIBS AND CRAFT BEER
8 bone-in short ribs
1 t salt
1 t fresh ground pepper
1/4 c butter
1 T olive oil
3 garlic minced
3 large red onion, thin sliced
1 T flour
1 t chipotle chili powder
2 T dark brown sugar
1 c beef stock (commercial is fine)
1 t worcestershire sauce
16 oz dark ale (stout)
1 t dried thyme leaves
2 bay leaves
1 T apple cider vinegar

Sear short ribs to brown in butter/oil, remove
Add garlic and onion, cook until very soft
add flour, chili powder, and 1 T of the brown sugar
add beef stock, w sauce, stout, thyme, bay, and salt.
Boil.
Add ribs.
Cook in dutch oven over low heat at 325 until very tender (I used a pot on the stove) .
refrigerate, defat.
Just before serving, add apple cider vinegar and remaining sugar.

Ok, the problems with this recipe is that it calls for short ribs. Not only are the expensive, and bony, and fatty, but they are tough. At least, the ones I got were! (I've never cooked with short ribs before.)

So I had to cook, and cook, and cook, AND cook the ribs until they were at least a LITTLE tender! (4 hours+) By the time the ribs were cooked, I felt that some of the flavors were well-past "blended" and had gone on to "disappeared", especially the stout. It left the thyme and bay leaves too prominent. Instead of using short ribs, next time I'll use big chunks of chuck roast.

Add the cider vinegar with at least an hour of cooking time left. If you add it at the last minute, it just tastes sour. If you cook it for a while, it will react with the meat and taste sweet.

It made too much gravy, which needed another 3-4 T of flour to thicken enought o serve with noodles.

If you're going to defat it anyway, why use butter? I know you need fat to cook, but I'd use margarine instead.

This recipe is good enough to make again, and good enough to try with all of the modifications that I mentioned!

I served the chard (wine) and short ribs (stout) with noodles and yam. But if I had made them BRANDIED yams, I would have hit the trifecta of cooking with alcohol (beer, wine, spirits)!

--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Sunday, October 18, 2015 8:54 AM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


So, the short ribs and craft beer DEFINITELY went better with chuck roast. I cut the roast into rib-sized pieces, and didn't use any beef broth at all, and since it cooked in a shorter time the flavors were preserved better. Also, it was a lot less expensive.

-------------

So, I found another recipe that was just awesome. Hubby doesn't like it as much, but for me it's even better than the beef ribs.

ZUPA TOSCANA

2 pkg (about 5-6 links each) spicy Italian sausage. (I used mild Italian turkey sausage)
3 slices bacon, diced
2 T oil (can be olive oil or any good cooking oil)
1 c diced onion
5 finely diced garlic cloves
1 box low-salt chicken stock
3 medium potatoes, chunked into approx 1.5" pieces
about 1/2 lb kale (more if desired)
about 1/2 c cream

Rinse kale, cut out the stalks and cut the leaves in 1/2 lengthwise, then ribbon across about 1/2".
Bake until brown, or pan-brown the sausage. Cool and slice, deglaze pan with about 1/2 c chicken stock, reserve
Cook diced onion and garlic in bacon and oil in large pot or saucier until onion is very tender and lightly browned.
Add sausage, and remaining chicken stock
Add potatoes and kale and cook until tender
Turn off stove, add cream and large grinding of fresh black pepper.
Add dash of cayenne if desired
Serve immediately

This is such a simple recipe, but it's SO GOOD. Perfect for a cold winter's day!


--------------
You can't build a nation with bombs. You can't create a society with guns.

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Sunday, October 18, 2015 10:51 AM

WISHIMAY


No meal will EVER beat crab legs, carcasses piled, salty garlic butter poured over and eaten in one big, squishy, orgasmic bite!

Man, it's a long way to Valentines Day..........
May have to hit up the one on New Years at the local buffet this year...

Drooling.

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Sunday, October 18, 2015 12:25 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


All of these recipes are adapted to be about 20 grams protein, 20 grams carbohydrates, and 9 grams fat per serving, a minimum of 2.5 standard servings of vegetables, and are low sodium.

I admit, these are not the 'best meals ever', partly because I'm not that talented a cook, partly because I've adapted them to conform to specific and pretty stringent nutritional requirements, and partly because I'm using standard-quality supermarket ingredients. But they are reliably delicious and satisfying one-pot meals you can readily make at home.


I make a seafood tomato soup that's tedious and expensive (seafood!) but awesome.

2 boxes low sodium cream of tomato soup
6 pounds cherry tomatoes, pureed, simmered with ~ 1T olive oil about 1 hr to remove the raw flavor and make the lycopene more biologically available
2 lb diced onion, sauteed just browning
1 lb @ 21-26 shrimp; mixed seafood (scallops, calamari, clams, mussels, crab, and/or prawns or crayfish if you can find them)
2 lb sole
4 T olive oil
FRESH thyme
FRESH ground black pepper
water
makes 12 2 C servings

Everything gets cooked separately then mixed together and heated through. I like to put one large shrimp and a piece of sole in the bottom of every bowl. If you're not watching your carbohydrates, it's delicious with rice.


For people who like meat and potatoes there's pork, cabbage and potato stew, which is tasty, as the individual flavors shine through, and is probably not at all what you might expect (bacon and/or gravy is optional)

1 lb bacon optional browned, drained and crumbled
3 lb gr pork - baked into small meatballs, drained (I use ground pork because it's most readily available here and cheap, but any good pork in stew-sized pieces will work)
1 lb @ carrot celery onion potato in stew-sized pieces
4 lb cabbage in stew-sized pieces with 3 bay leaf, about a teaspoon of caraway seed, and a pinch of oregano
FRESH ground black pepper to taste
makes 12 2 C servings

This is another recipe where the vegetables are individually braised and the bacon and pork cooked separately, then everything is mixed together - since growing variations in carrots, potatoes and celery especially can alter their expected cooking times and make it hard to cook a mixture where everything is just done. Be sure to cook the cabbage just till softened and still bright green.

You can take the pork drippings and make a standard gravy.


For people who like things spicy, I adapted a beef and chili stew recipe from Luna Linda Cafe in Dallas. Their recipe uses Anaheim chilies. But Anaheim chilies need to have their skin removed because it gets VERY TOUGH with cooking. A combination of green bell and serrano chili has the same flavor without the work. I also recommend 100% grass-fed beef, as it has a better flavor.

2.5 lb raw beef chuck, in stewing pieces, braised in
5.5 lb bell in 1" pieces plus .5lb serrano, sliced and ~1C water
when done add
2 lb cooked Yukon gold potatoes and cook an additional half hour - the potatoes will give it a nice, hearty-stew texture
makes 12 2 C servings


And, once again for people who like things spicy - hot chili oil (cooking oil and condiment)
DRIED ORGANIC habaneros, and other chilies like DRIED ORGANIC anaheims, chipotle, pasilla, Thai etc
2T sweet paprika powder
stable oil like coconut oil

Never! ever! use fresh anything to make a flavored oil - not peppers, garlic, herbs or anything. Fresh produce may contain botulism spores. When the moist produce is submerged in oil it's kept away from air. A moist, low oxygen environment is just the right condition for botulism to grow.

Use organic dried chilies if possible, since you don't have the opportunity to wash them off.

Tear, crack or cut your dried chilies into about 1' pieces
fill a jar about half way with your chilies
add about 2T sweet paprika powder - it gives a great color as well as flavor
fill the jar with oil
let sit at least 1 week, though flavor develops over many weeks.
You can refill the jar 2 - 3 times before you have to dump out the expended chilies and start all over.

This oil is great for frying eggs; in egg, tuna and salmon salad; drizzled over rice and stir fry; added to hot and sour soup, etc.

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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Sunday, October 18, 2015 10:17 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.


Hmmm... now I want a nice couple of crab cakes drizzled with hot pepper oil, a chunk of lobster with lemon-butter sauce, a bowl of greens and white wine!

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Sunday, October 18, 2015 11:00 PM

1KIKI

Goodbye, kind world (George Monbiot) - In common with all those generations which have contemplated catastrophe, we appear to be incapable of understanding what confronts us.


I was getting hungry reading about all the tasty food.

I've had Zuppa Toscana in a restaurant and it was very good! But ... darn ... it doesn't adapt well to my nutrition formula.

I've made quite a lot of progress teaching myself to cook over the last seven or so years (beyond the basics) and I'm proud of my progress. I've done chicken sous vide and even done pork confit. But since I started eating my homemade food, my preferences have changed. I now find most restaurant and pre-prepared foods far too ... salty, greasy, starchy, sweet and flavorless; without the natural nuances of the ingredients able to shine through. I think if it were made at home, Zuppa Toscana would be even better than the restaurant version. I bet yours is really tasty! Now, if only I could figure out how to prepare it my way ...

SAGAN: We are releasing vast quantities of carbon dioxide, increasing the greenhouse effect. It may not take much to destabilize the Earth's climate, to convert this heaven, our only home in the cosmos, into a kind of hell.

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