Text 21907, 62 rader
Skriven 2007-10-28 20:39:40 av Daniel Prather (2612.cooking)
  Kommentar till text 21906 av Carol Shenkenberger (1:261/1466.0)
Ärende: Rice 329
================
  Re: Rice 329
  By: Carol Shenkenberger to Daniel Prather on Sun Oct 28 2007 07:44 pm

 > Ok!  One thing about me growing up, was my Mom (lovely woman, still is) was
 > not much of a cook.  Oh we got fed healthy, but she didnt learn to spice
 > foods much until long after i moved out.  We ate a very repetitive
 > baked/boiled set of meats with frozen veggies and no sauces for most meals.
 > The meals were hot and on time with plenty to eat and healthy so cant
 > complain!  But I moved out from home not knowing how to do more than brown
 > ground beef, dump a can in a pot and heat it, or boil a frozen block of
 > veggie.  My repitiore (sp?) of things I had eaten was quite small.

My mom was somewhat similar.  She could cook all sorts of things, some of them
very, very well, but she didn't do a whole lot with seasonings.  However, I was
always full, and the stuff she made was healthy, so I was quite happy.  I
didn't discover all the other spices, herbs, etc., that could be used until
after I moved out, when my wife and I (before she was my wife) started cooking
on our own.  That's not to say I didn't like what my mother cooked, because
there are still lots of things she makes today that I love, but I learned how
much more you can do if you're a little adventurous.  Sometimes it turns out
really well, other times, not so much. :)

 > I took to a trick.  Everytime i went to the store, 'get something new'.  It
 > didnt have to be expensive and at first, it was really simple things like
 > I'd never had honeydew melon so got one.  I'd never had split peas so
 > looked at the bag and figured I could manage that and tried it.  Different
 > things each trip but within budget.  Radishes were new and I liked them.

My wife and I do similar things.  Until about a year ago, neither of us had
ever had a pomegranate.  We'd also never had starfruit, pluots, or... heck,
tons of other types of produce.  We also hadn't done too much with various
curries until recently either, and have discovered how many neat flavors you
can get when you mix some of the stuff together.  It's amazing what all is out
there.

 > That was in 1978.  As you can guess, I've tried lots of things now.  As I
 > had no ingrained cookery skills, I learned to match what 'felt right' and
 > that honed down skill almost 30 yeas later is why I'm a pretty prolific
 > 'new recipe' adder here.  I'm not tryping something out of a book, but
 > making up something new 'off the cuff' more often than not.

That's how good food is made!  Someone had to do that very thing to get those
recipes in the book to begin with, :)

 > Got something new today.  Fenugreek.  I'll have to look up ideas but it
 > smells lovely!  Greenly nutty if that makes sense?  I also got some Zatar
 > which I think is a blend and it seems to be a good component for a dry rub.

I've not cooked with it by itself, but it's used in some of the curry powders
I've purchased over the years.  They also use it in artificial maple syrup, I
think, to give a maple flavor.

 > Often I'd try 'something new' and not like it the first time and not go
 > back for years, but there were enough 'oh this is good' to keep me looking.
 > Many of the things I didnt like first try, were due to not knowing what to
 > do with the item <g>.

I hear that hehehe.

-- Daniel
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