Text 21949, 134 rader
Skriven 2007-10-29 16:13:16 av Carol Shenkenberger (1:261/1466.0)
     Kommentar till en text av Daniel Prather
Ärende: Rice 329
================
 -=> Quoting Daniel Prather to Carol Shenkenberger <=-

 > 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.

 DP> My mom was somewhat similar.  She could cook all sorts of things, some
 DP> of them very, very well, but she didn't do a whole lot with 
 DP> seasonings.  However, I was

Mom used the occasional packets you get at the grocery store.  She grew up on
not very spicy foods.  I recall rare times when she'd make 'fancy' with nutmeg
or cinnimon but mostly we kids prayed for TV dinners <g>.

 DP> always full, and the stuff she made was healthy, so I was quite happy.

Same here, but I still liked the fancy stuff my friends had.  Michelle Groger, 
lived next door.  Her family was Jewish and they had some of the best food!

 DP> I didn't discover all the other spices, herbs, etc., that could be
 DP> used until after I moved out, when my wife and I (before she was my
 DP> wife) started cooking on our own.  That's not to say I didn't like what

I got a rude awakening the day I moved out from home and my new roomates
relegated me to bottle washer for the remainder of our time <g>.  They were 
fancy cooks and showed me quite a bit at that start time.

By the time I met Don, 7 years later, I was able to catch his attention on our 
first date by making him a home cooked meal with nothing but a Navy barracks
microwave and a single cassarole dish.  I made him a curried Jamacian style
adobo, braised green beans with butter and mushrooms, and some sliced fruit.  I
think that was what I made anyways <g>.  I made him dinner several times.

 DP> my mother cooked, because there are still lots of things she makes
 DP> today that I love, but I learned how much more you can do if you're a

Same here.  I have never been able to equal her annual beef stew pot and it's 
not just memory.  It really is that good.  I've even helped her make it but
cant
seem to get it that 'perfect way' on my own.  One of the important parts though
was it had to be a big batch in the stew pot (practically a lobsterpot but not 
quite).  She said it never worked right in smaller amounts.  She'd freeze up
tons of it and we'd have it all the rest of the year.

 DP> little adventurous.  Sometimes it turns out really well, other times,
 DP> not so much. :) 

Giggles, we all have our failures.  Don was worried I wouldnt like the first 
meal he made me (first night after I moved out of the barracks).  He made me
rice, sauteed mushrooms, and sashimi (Ahi tuna) with a 50/50 soy/worstershire
dipping sauce.  I fell in love with that meal.  Invited him to move in that 
night <g>.

 > 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.

 DP> My wife and I do similar things.  Until about a year ago, neither of
 DP> us had ever had a pomegranate.  We'd also never had starfruit, pluots,
 DP> or... heck, tons of other types of produce.  We also hadn't done too

Whats a 'pluot'?  Starfruit make wonderful soup garnishes BTW.  Very pretty.

 DP> much with various curries until recently either, and have discovered
 DP> how many neat flavors you can get when you mix some of the stuff
 DP> together.  It's amazing what all is out there.

Yup!  Everyone here is intriguged by trying something new.  You'll see it crop 
up over and over on something we tried out.  Even the resident 'eat' (Burton
Ford- claims he can't cook but he keeps cooks happy by EATING) likes to 
experiment and you saw me repost recently a MM rendition of mine on a creation
of his.  (If you saved it, look for Bert-wiches).
 
I did get a little tired of 'new' though at times in Sasebo, because so *much*
was new.  Of course, I learned favorites from those things too <g>.

 > 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.

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

Yup!  Looking at the volume, I have about 250 'xxcarol's' recipes and most of
them (200 at least) are genuine 'new'.  I have almost everything back now. What
little isnt here, arent main-line ones.
 
 > 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.

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

I looked and saw my inclinations on first scent were close.  It's used largely
with curry blends and all sorts of meats (shrimp wsnt noticed nor squid).  My
first thought was something with potatoes, curry, and ghee to make a sort of 
pan-fried potato curry.  If I make another duck, the duck fat will be perfect.
So would just a little brine from a green olive jar with garlic added to the 
brine so you get garlicy olives and slightly garlicy brine <g>.

Oh, if you arent sodium restricted and get olives, peel some garlic and add
that to the jar before you put it in the fridge.   Makes the cheap manzanillas 
much better.  Also save the brine.  It's very useful in cooking.

(side note, before putting any jar in the fridge, open it.  This makes it much 
easier than once the jar is cold).
 
 > 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>.

 DP> I hear that hehehe.

My first experience with squash was my mom cutting it, putting it in lots of
water, then boiling it 30 mins...  She did the same with unpeeled eggplant
once.
I got over the squash pretty fast and love it, but the eggplant took me until
sometime last year!
               xxcarol


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