Text 14992, 96 rader
Skriven 2007-05-04 15:52:52 av Carol Shenkenberger (6:757/1)
     Kommentar till en text av Glen Jamieson
Ärende: Re: E: FALAFEL - 70502
==============================
*** Quoting Glen Jamieson from a message to Carol Shenkenberger ***

GJ> My main canned ingredient is diced tomatoes.  I get through a couple a
GJ> week, mainly in pasta dishes.   When I was young the family vegetable

I am not a major tomato fan so dont use them all that often, but when I do,
canned works fine.  At home in Virginia, I grow my own in the back yard.  Just
3 plants will provide far more than we can eat so I gift the neighbors with
the excess.

I've noted that with many dishes of the type *I* make, canned is a better match
than fresh ones.

GJ> former and the taste of the latter, and it wasn't until years later
GJ> that I got to eat, and like, the ordinary spinach.  Somewhat later,
GJ> when living in tropical countries, I got to know and enjoy the huge
GJ> range of other green leaf vegetables from the Asia-Pacific region.

Yes, we got much more into the fresh leafy things here.  I make something with
that probably 13 meals a week (we aint much into breakfast here).  Even Don
likes spinach (kangkoon) if I hide it in kimchee!  Hush, he's not aware I do
that so lets not tell him.  Unlike Steve's pork aversion, this one is just a
taste aversion and if he doesnt know it's in there, he's happy to eat it.  he
even secretly knows I do it but pretends to not notice in that one dish.

 CS> One of the Navy tricks is to use everything they have, in tasteful
 CS> ways, so the canning water from vegetables find themselves used for
 CS> where other recipes would use plain water.  The drawback of canned
 CS> vegetables is much of the minerals and 'good for you stuff' ended up in
 CS> the water so we use that to flavor things. You'll see I do that in many
 CS> of my recipes too and I learned that from Navy cooks.

GJ> That would certainly serve to keep as much flavour as possible in the
GJ> dishes made using canned vegetables.  I have sometimes wondered if the
GJ> liquid from canned kidney beans could be used.  Usually recipes call
GJ> for that to be drained.

I use the liquid from canned beans too but I dont often use canned beans.  I
make bean pots so often from dried, that this is not a needed thing for me. 
Recipes that drain the canned beans normally dont add much water right?  I'd
save the 'water' (bean juice really, should be a bit starchy looking) for a
thickener in something else, like the drippings from a roast to make a thin
gravy?  Would work with pork or beef.

Baby-crock was used just a few days ago for a sort of vegtable 'cream' soup. It
was carrots, water from 2 spinach cans (with a little spinach), 1 largish
potato, some older mushrooms minced up, 2 cloves of garlic, and a little
butter.  Tossed it all in, let it cook, and when all was soft, tossed it in
the Japanese blender (normal blender, just small sized).  Consistancy was like
split-pea soup and taste was very good.  I added spices but i forget which
that time came to hand.  MLoo would like it.  The minimal butter wasnt enough
to make him need a pill and the feel was very 'cream based' without any
lactose.

 GJ>       Title: PINACBET (BITTER MELON & EGGPLANT/FRUIT) My Version

 CS> I see.  I have most of that in my home right now.  I lack the
 CS> tomatoes.  I have mentioned thats one thing the Japanese dont do all
 CS> that well.  The tomatoes here lack flavor as compared to what I am used
 CS> to in the USA.  Even the store USA ones with careful selection of type,
 CS> are much better. 

GJ> That is where I use such a lot of the canned diced tomatoes.  :)

I was thinkng I'd do the same with that one.  That recipe would be better with
canned ones I think.

 CS> seem to match how I see europeans prepare it.  The USA ones can be as
 CS> wide across as my hand.  The Japanese ones, I can often circle my hand
 CS> entirely around and meet fingers. 

GJ> I can get both types here.  The Asian ones I never peel, but just
GJ> slice diagonally for appearance.  The large, somewhat pear-shaped ones
GJ> I either peel and cube, or leave unpeeled and slice into disks for
GJ> grilling or frying.  If they are young and fresh they do not have any
GJ> or much bitterness, so don't need salting.   I can also get the small,
GJ> spherical, green, Thai variety.

I havent seen the green ones outside Thailand.  Same here for the rest except
I've never found much use for the bigger ones.  Too hard to peel for starters.

 CS> I'm out of dried shrimps but have plenty of bagoong.  I presume above
 CS> would be roughly equal volume of tomato, okra, eggplant, and bitter
 CS> melon? 

GJ> Yes, but you can vary the proportions to suit what you've got.  :)

Of course!  ;-)  I'd advise those not used to bitter melon, to use 1/2 the
volume compared to the rest of the ingredients.  It's somewhat of a developed
taste.  Aso to use the non-bitter smaller eggplants or if they used the bigger
ones, and a ful measure of bitter melon, it might be a bit much.

                                       xxcarol

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