Recipe and Cook's Corner

[Laurentia]

Hmmm. Why would somebody be interested in frying an egg in that peculiar manner?   

The conversation actually turned to strange food at the get-together without me having anything to do with it, which is how Toad in the Hole came up! I told a couple of Brits that I was intrigued by the "British" ready-made meals shelf at Sainsbury's, and they both leaned in with surprised looks on their faces, going "British food? What's that??". 
Except TitH, the dishes I could remember seeing there was Liver & Mash and Shepherd's Pie, and Steak and Kidney Pie seems quite common, too. Shepherd's pie sounds nice, I think, both the name and the actual dish (unless there's something I don't know about it...).

[Desecra]

ACK!  I thought Toad in the Hole was an egg fried in a hole in teh middle of a piece of toast!

Those are Egyptian Eggs, and very nice they are too!  [No doubt they have other names too].   Toad in the Hole is just sausages cooked in yorkshire pudding type batter.   Funnily enough, I just ate some today.

[chapeaugris]

We've tried making Toad in the Hole at home and it has always been a disappointment. We just can't seem to get the Yorkshire pudding to come out right no matter who's recipe we follow. Also, I don't think the French sausages are the ideal shape for it (comes in a long coil instead of links). But when my daughters were in primary school they liked to tell their friends, with deadpan faces, that the previous night they had eaten "un crapaud dans le trou" for dinner.

So Laurentia, have you eaten the okra yet? I made a fish curry tonight and we had the Brick Lane okra as a side dish. I forgot about gnash's okra recipe and just ended up sautéing them with onions, cumin seeds and green chilies.

That grocery has almost everything I could want for Indian cooking, but there are two things I have been searching for without success: screwpine essence and a live, potted curry plant. Some recipes call for curry leaves, which are from a plant with very pungent, almost bitter leaves. That grocery we went to usually has branches of fresh leaves but they were out of it when we were there. A friend of a friend in the States has a curry plant growing in a pot and since hearing about that I've been desperate to get hold of one. You can get dried curry leaves but it's like using dried basil instead of fresh.

[Laurentia]

The okras still bide their time in my fridge, but I'll have to use them today, they're starting to look less perky than when I put them there. I was going to make that curry yesterday, but I got home from school very late, had to go shopping, the sink was full of dirty dishes, Christoffer was ill (the flu or a really nasty kebab, we still don't know which it is), and it had been the first cold day of autumn, so I just made some hot, minimal effort soup instead:

Lentil Soup

2 small onions
2 - 3 cloves of garlic (or more, especially if you have a cold coming on)
1 tsp nice curry powder, add more later if you wish
1 cup red lentils, dried - you don't need to soak them or prepare them in any way
4 cups vegetable stock
a couple of bay leaves, if you have them
1/2 lime or lemon

Chop the onions and garlic and fry them lightly along with the curry. When the onions are soft, but before they brown, add lentils, stock (or, of course, water and stock cubes), and bay leaves. Boil until the lentils are done, along the lines of 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, add lime or lemon juice to taste (I squeezed half a lime over the pot and found it to be perfect), maybe some more curry, and serve with some nice bread.
This fills you up very gently and warms you, especially if the curry powder is on the spicy side. It's also extremely easy to make, costs next to nothing and is the kind of dish you don't need to plan or go shopping for in advance, since all the ingredients - except maybe the lime/lemon - keep almost forever and are widely found lurking in people's pantrys.

And if you know your Old Testament, you'll know that when Esau sold his rights as the first-born son to his younger brother Jacob, the price was a bowl of Jacob's lentil soup.

[Bobbie]

Hi folks, just wanted to let you all know that a DC area (DC, MD, VA) get-together is being planned for October 13 (Friday  ) and all are welcome.  Head over to the get-togethers thread for more detail...http://davecullen.com/forum/index.php?topic=9035.msg506042#msg506042

Bobbie 

[Ellen (tellyouwhat)]

^^^  aahh, well i eat the entire head so i guess i get it all in one bite. including eyeballs. the strange thing about shrimp is that they remind me of insects, and wonder, if we lived beneath the sea, would spiders and bugs be considered a delicacy?

thanks bobbie for the recipe for indian pudding. it seems very simple to make, like polenta, frequent stirring and whatnot. the molasses sounds like imparts a rich flavor too..

hmm, i'm craving those vietnamese crepes today... perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...

gnash, you're not serious!  I have never heard of this.  Are you kidding?  sorry to be a wimp.  My husband eats parts of lobster I won't go near, but I never heard of this type of shrimp eating, unless you actually ARE an ocean fish, in which case it is de riguer.

Depending on your answer to this, I wonder at your objection to cochineal (sp?)

[gnash]

^^^ ellen, it's called ama ebi (sweet shrimp) and most sushi houses serve it with the heads if you ask them. or sometimes they just surprise you and there it is, crunchydelicous, hot and sprinkled with lemon. i think i don't mind it because i can see what i'm eating. with the cochineal, i just think BUG WING and freak out. then again, it's probably a healthier red dye than LAKE #14 or whatever it's called... here is a picture of ama ebi, usually the raw shrimp is not pink, but a pale translucent white:





laurentia --- your lentil soup sounds sooo good. i will definitely make some, as i have all the ingredients on hand, including the lemon!

okay now -- toad in the hole -- i see this for sale at the renaissance faire, it's a sausage wrapped in dough and baked i guess, i've never tried one but it sounds like a hotdog, sorta.  the traditional dish baked wish sausages actually sounds kinda good, and i see online that there are special toad-in-the-hole batters marketed just for that dish.





heidi --- we used to make that egg in a toast hole dish (above) when we were kids -- we used a glass to punch out the round hole in the bread, and it would fry up very nicely.... the one pictured above looks gourmet, with bits of ham and cheese.  we also made fried bologna sandwiches, i remember being at the desoto's house and tony and i would laugh at how the baloney would puff and raise up in the skillet. we'd push it down, steam would escape with a hiss, and then it would puff up again. then we'd take the spatula and make little cuts around the edge of the round slices to flatten it out. we'd end up with pinwheel shaped processed meat, hahah.

gosh, i haven't had a fried baloney sandwich since around age 14...  if i shut my eyes, i can almost hear them sizzling, and smell them.  tony's parent's had one of those bizarre lamps with the statue of venus in the middle, it was illuminated and droplets of mineral oil slid down in regular patterns along a series of nylon strings encasing the statuette, i remember sitting on the sofa in their spanish revival living room after school with the brady bunch on TV, staring at the lamp and eating those warm sandwiches...

here's a recipe from www.kraftfoods.com. i'd probably skip the marshmallows and go for extra raisins or dried cranberries instead. hey, if raisins are dried grapes, what are dried cranberries called?    anyway, this sounds like a good snack to take camping or on a hike:





EASY TRAIL MIX CEREAL BARS

2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup peanut butter
4 cups Miniature Marshmallows
6 cups POST Fruit & Bran Cereal, crushed

PLACE butter and peanut butter in large microwavable bowl. Microwave on MEDIUM (50%) 1 min.; stir.  ADD marshmallows; toss to coat. Microwave an additional 1-1/2 min. or until marshmallows are puffed; stir until well blended. Add cereal; mix well.  PRESS cereal mixture firmly into 9-in. square pan. Let stand 1 hour or until firm. Cut into 20 bars to serve.

[chapeaugris]

Laurentia, I just finished off the tomato beans I made for my daugher last night. They looked exactly like the horrible canned  baked beans the English are so fond of, but were 100 times better. Next time I think I'll try preparing them with white beans I've cooked myself because the canned variety  turn to mush so quickly.

I've been meaning to post this fish curry recipe every since the discussion turned to eastern food. It also works well with chicken and tofu. It's the most delicious, fragrant curry I know and doesn't lose anything by reducing the chili, which I tend to do when serving it to French people.


Purée in food processor with a little water:
4-5 green chilis (if you don't want any heat, use half a green pepper just to get the green colour and a little flavour)
1 onion, chopped
1 tablespoon poppy seeds (the white kind but can use black if not available)
3 garlic cloves
1 oz cashew nuts (pref. raw unsalted)
3 cardamoms
1/2 blade of mace or 1/4 tsp mace powder
1/4 tsp fennel seeds

Purée in food processor:
1 1/2 cups coriander leaves (cilantro) and a few mint leaves

Mix with a little water to make a paste:
1 tsp coriander powder

Have ready:
1 tsp cumin seeds
3/4 cup coconut milk and 3/4 cup water
1 lime
turmeric

About 500 g  any kind of white fish

Before you start, mix juice of half a lime and pinch of turmeric and pinch of salt with a little water and spread over the fish.

Heat 1/3 cup of oil with the cumin seeds in a wide pan. When the seeds begin to fry, add the coriander powder paste. After 10 seconds add the spice paste and sauté for 5-10 minutes, stirring continuously. Add a little water if it starts to stick.

Add the pureed coriander leaves and salt to taste and stir. Add a tsp of sugar and juice of the other lime half. Add the coconut milk and water  and bring to boil. Put in the fish and cook until done.

If you eat this with rice, throw some turmeric into the water when you cook the rice to colour it yellow for a better presentation.

When I manage to get my hands on a lot of fresh coriander I made a big batch of the sauce and freeze what I won't need for that one meal.

[Bobbie]

--- we used to make that egg in a toast hole dish (above) when we were kids -- we used a glass to punch out the round hole in the bread, and it would fry up very nicely....

gosh, i haven't had a fried baloney sandwich since around age 14...  if i shut my eyes, i can almost hear them sizzling, and smell them. 

OH Jimmy, you've really brought back some memories for me too.  My (late) Mom made fried balony sandwiches for me on the weekends when she wasn't at work.  When she fried the balony,  it would look like a hat to me, so I called them "Mexican Hat" sandwiches.  Toast, balony, a  little mustard, glass of milk, and snuggling with Mommy....sigh, what a lovely memory!

I've never had the egg in a toast hole or even seen them made, but I do remember a scene in "Moonstruck" when Olympia Dukakis was making them for breakfast talking to Cher about her life...an excellent scene that always stood out for me.

B xo

[gnash]

FRUITY UPDATE: the snowfruit from my friend's cactus plants are still bearing their rosy nibbles. inside there's a translucent pale flesh that even looks like snow. the sometimes slimy (when it's really ripe) flesh tastes perfumed -- and it's crunchy because of the black seeds. it's like eating crunchy snow only it's not cold, and tastes sorta like those "violet" candies that come in the purple foil wrapper. i don't know any recipes for this fruit, so we just slice them open and eat them. it's called pitaya or dragonfruit, but ours don't have those curly things on the outside. you can read more about them and see the different varieties on wikipedia. below is the last of the kumquats! they're almost all gone from the tree, sadly, and it marks the end of summer. i posted a recipe for kumquat chutney earlier on the thread, but now there's so little of them it's just good to have a bowl handy for snacks, skin and all. notice the interesting four sectioned membrane inside. i guess because of their tiny size, that's all that's needed. they're the ultimate sour blast taste sensation!

[gnash]

OH Jimmy, you've really brought back some memories for me too.  My (late) Mom made fried balony sandwiches for me on the weekends when she wasn't at work.  When she fried the balony,  it would look like a hat to me, so I called them "Mexican Hat" sandwiches.  Toast, balony, a  little mustard, glass of milk, and snuggling with Mommy....sigh, what a lovely memory!

I've never had the egg in a toast hole or even seen them made, but I do remember a scene in "Moonstruck" when Olympia Dukakis was making them for breakfast talking to Cher about her life...an excellent scene that always stood out for me.

B xo

haha that's funny about the mexican hats.  we had them on white bread with mustard, mayo, and a little relish i think. maybe a slice of that processed cheese. i'll have to look for that scene in moonstruck, i missed that the first time around.

chapeaugris, your fish curry sounds reaaaally good. spicy, please! 

tonight i'm making chicken in a pot. i'm feeling very lazy. i just put a chopped up chicken in a big pot, brown it really well in some oil, with garlic and onions, then thrown in carrots, potatoes, whatever else, mushrooms are nice, parsnips, etc, two cans of chopped tomatoes, spices, and some water and garam masala, some white wine (why not? haha), and let it simmer for a couple hours.

[Laurentia]

Ah, how I love it when this thread has been busy overnight! There's so much to talk about!

gnash, I hope you'll like the soup - I found the recipe in an 80's vegetarian cookbook that's quite funny, because it's so extreme. In the 80's we hardly got any "exotic" ingredients or spices in Sweden, plus the vegetarian movement was obsessed with health and at the same time a little hippie-influenced. So no sugar, no salt EVER, forget the coconut milk and coriander and even the fresh basil; herbal tea instead of coffee, and instructions on how to make your own sauerkraut and tofu. And then the food photography of the time, with black china and greyish colours on the food. Anyway, I've made lentil soups according to other recipes, with tomatoes and potatoes and rice and things, but that evening I just felt like going basic, and it was easily the best lentil soup I've ever had.
As always, the spices are important. I used an unknown but nice-smelling Pakistani spice that my boyfriend's sister gave me - she's enormously cool, works for the UN and spent a couple of weeks inspecting refugee camps in Pakistan this summer. When she came back, she had bought several wonderful shawls for her mother and spices for me! She didn't have a clue what was in the spice mixtures, though, had chosen them for their nice colours. That's a little sad, because I'd love to be able to recreate the red one when I run out of it, it's so good.

The cereal bars look yummy! I made something similar a couple of weeks ago, but made the mistake of trying to hide my remaining Hemp Nibbles in them and their hard little shells ruined the whole thing. I'll probably try your version, it's very handy to be able to make them in the microwave!

chapeaugris, that curry sounds so incredibly good!!! I'll be trying it out very soon!

Speaking of which, I made the eggplant and okra curry the other day; the okras were still fine, luckily. I hadn't bought that many, though, since I didn't know whether I was going to like them. There was about a cup when I cut them up, I replaced the rest with green beans.
I loved handling them, they look so beautiful when cut through! I had expected them to be very much more slimy, like it would ooze out of them when cut    When ready, I found them interesting and definitely not unpleasant. I'll keep watching for okras - someday they're bound to make their way here!

[gnash]

laurentia ---- aah, you like okra! that's so cool.   and green beans are always good in a curry!~! mm mmm... one of my favorite and probably the least heathy way to eat okra is to bread them lightly in cornmeal after a dip in milk or water, and then frying them until crispy in hot oil. you can do this sliced, or whole, and either way it's fine. when we were growing up we'd have this along with fried smelt, those tiny fish 2-3" long, and eat those with a spritz of lemon juice, or ketchup. i have no idea where my dad got that recipe but sometimes he'd crave it and so we'd get the house all fishy smelling frying those things up.

the pakistani spice mixtures sound very interesting. sometimes i have no idea what i'm buying at the indian market, it says "curry" and if i ask the guy if it's for meat or vegetables he just waves his hand and says "good with everything!" and that is that.

i've never made saurkraut, but my mom used to make her own japanese style "korean saurkraut" all the time -- kimchee. i loved the effervescent quality of the lightly fermented cabbage. and since it was so fresh and lightly spiced, it wasn't as powerful as traditional kimchee. i remember she liked to use napa cabbage most of the time, which also gave it a fresher texture as well.

omg. tofu skin is like my new favorite thing. we found a tofu shop here that does a great tofu skin PHO (soup). it's amazing. apparently the tofu skin (there's a name for it) is what if formed as you boil the soymilk. they skim it off in sheets, and at this place they season it somehow, then roll it into little bundles and then throw that in the soup. it's your vietnamese grandmother's chicken soup! very very good and utterly healthy. it's especially good spicy, and i can't wait for the cold(er) LA weather and some rain, to get maximum enjoyment from a bowl of the stuff!

hmm.. there's no posts of beet soup borscht recipes are there? hot or cold, i love the flavor and the color of borscht, the earthy flavor of beets. i will roast them in a very hot oven along with parnips, carrots, and red potatoes, then dress them up with oil and vinegar, salt and pepper and fresh garlic.. yum. 

[chapeaugris]

Gnash, where's "here" for you?

I love borsht too, but don't have a favourite recipe. I looked at a bunch and just took elements from them. Besides beets, mine includes carrots, potatoes, red onions, garlic, a fistful of red lentils which give it a nice creamy texture when they've broken down, and to finish off a few drops of tobasco sauce, a twist of lemon and glug of apple brandy.

[gnash]

here? here in los angeles! and there are plenty of russians here so the borscht is flowing. i get it (oddly enough) at an armenian bakery/deli/hot counter, they have it hot or cold any time of the year. i do make it, but i like slipping over there for borscht and then of course a wonderful pastry from the bakery.

my borscht is like yours -- a handful there and this or that here, but never with lentils,, and never with apple brandy!!!!! i'll have to try that sometime.

i DO put apple cider vinegar on very hot chili tho, it seems to enhance the flavor and also cools the heat a bit. it's something learned at chili john's, a local chili establishment that's been in business for years,, i think fifty or more... and they have a super HOT chili, which is poured over a bowl of plump pinto beans, and that with sour cream and onion and a splash of vinegar...... perfection, and sometimes heartburn.