Ethnic crossover

Subject: Ethnic crossover
From: Den
Date: 27 Jul 99 - 10:25 PM

This came to me tonight as I was preparing one of our favourite meals. We have it at least once a week. Now I have to mention at this stage that I'm not talking about musical crossovers such as the Chieftains and just about...well, everybody. No I'm talking food. I come from N. Ireland and I have to admit that our diet can be pretty bland, we don't have the ethnic diversity of the USA or Canada eg so for us, and all you people from Ireland that had cooked ham, lettuce and sliced boiled eggs (locally known as salad)... please stand up.

Every Sunday at (depending on ethnic diversity) 5:30 pm (times may vary) we had cooked ham, lettuce and sliced boiled eggs, to be polished off with ...the Angelus, at approximately 6:00 pm.

Until the advent of the Chineese immigrant. They made curry. Yes Chineese immigrants making curry. Now I don't know all the details behind this particular phenomenon but I do remember my brother and I discovering for the first time curried chicken and fried rice after a night in the pub which involved copious pints of stout.

The local chineese beckoned and we ordered the delicious meal...heaven.

If your still with me at this stage...good. I have been ever since a lover of spicy food. As I stated earlier it has become a staple for our family. Once a week we have curried chicken and rice and a vegetable such as peas or corn. Even Frank the dog (late of the Mudcat Tavern Act 1) loves the leftovers.

I was back in N. Ireland a couple of years ago and discovered that the ethnic crossover had married the chip (french fry to our N.American friends) and curry sauce...ohhh double heaven. you gotta try it. When we came back to Canada my wife and I craved for weeks on end that taste.

Any way I throw it open...ethnic food diversity? yours still missing curried chips, Den

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: alison
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 02:24 AM

Hi Den,

Yes I agree, chips in curry sauce was a great invention. My dad (typical Irish) "it's not a meal unless it has spuds" claims he has eaten chinese.. he has had chips and gravy!!

Don't forget the good stuff... big plates of champ, Ulster fries, black pudding, potato bread, soda..... and real pasties .....yum.......

I miss them in Oz. I was from Belfast. What part where you from?

PS.Our salads were slightly more adventurous than yours.. we had a quarter of a tomato too. My dad still whinges all summer about having to eat rabbit food for tea on sundays!!

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: bseed(charleskratz)
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 02:53 AM

One of my favorite recipes is for curry (I make huge amounts so we can freeze some for a few more meals). I start with lots of chopped yellow onions (four or five of the largest I can find) which I sautee in a cube of butter. I add several tablespoons each of chopped garlic and ginger (I buy these in small bottles (4 oz?). I also add several tablespoons of curry powder (I used to make it from scratch), a tablespoon of cinnamon, and a couple teaspoons of salt, plus a teaspoon or so of cayenne pepper and then grind black pepper over it. Then I brown three or four pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces, add these to the onions and spices, add a couple of cups of water, and let cook on low heat for an hour or so. Then I add a half pound or so of baby carrots, a pound of red potatoes cut into 8ths, skins and all, a pound of apples cored and cut up like the potatoes, and another cup of water. Another half hour of cooking and I add a cup of plain non-fat yogurt and about half a cup of flour shaken in a bottle with a cup of water. I leave on low heat until the rice is cooked (I use Japanese style rice, rinsed, two cups of rice brought to a boil in three cups of water, then reduced to low heat for 16 minutes. Japanese rice is sticky--my wife is Japanese so that's the way we eat it.

We serve it with shoga (pickled ginger), kimchee (spicy Korean pickled nappa cabbage), Major Grey chutney, and if I'm really ambitious, white raisins, chopped walnuts, and shredded coconut, all in small bowls or a divided serving platter. I usually make a green salad, but sometimes my wife makes a yogurt and cucumber salad (w/salt and garlic).

We just finished off the last batch I cooked, so I've got to get back at it.

--seed

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Ana
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 03:01 AM

And then if you go to India, great efforts are made to accommodate the tastes of Europeans (invariably vaguely poor backpackers). Menus in the many eating houses can be seen to proclaim such things as "all our meals are cocked up", or "cooked children" (meaning chicken, though my kids didn't grasp that one immediately) and "scrabbled eggs".

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Ana
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 03:46 AM

and then if you visit India - the land from where curry was first corrupted - you will find great efforts are made to pander to the tastes of the European (usually scruffy and vaguely impoverished packpackers). Some menus I spied at eating houses included "all our meals are cocked up", "scrabbled eggs" and "cooked children" (meant to be "chicken"). My kids took a while to be convinced of the latter. In one place we asked if the chicken was really fresh - we were assured of this when the waiter ran through the eating area with a flapping chook under his arm, into the cooking area; sounds of the execution then followed. It was a somber meal that night.

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Ana
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 03:51 AM

ohmigod - sorry guys - when I checked, my 1st message didn't show - so yes, you guessed it - I rewrote it! People will now look at the submissions and think "oh...that must be a scintillating thread...6 messages!" but it's only anaanaana - what an ego huh ..meglomanic etc etc.

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Den
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 08:43 AM

Hi Alison, I lived for quite a while on New Bonn street (in the markets just off Crummick street) which sadly has made way for ...progress I suppose. New Bonn street is no longer there.

I have to agree with you though on pasties Barney Gee's on Crummick street had the best pasties in town. I used to go to Nora's right by the corn market for my Ulster fries. If you go up the coast to Newcastle they have the Mourne fry, every bit as good and every bit as likely to stop your heart. Den

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Bert
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 08:52 AM

I was making steak & kidney Pie one time. My second wife, who was raised in Opelousas, LA. decided to help me. It finished up with green peppers, hot sauce & cayenne pepper in it.

Good though!

Bert.

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: MMario
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 09:01 AM

My family still talks about the "United Nations" dinner my mother served once...

Spanish rice and sausage, made with Polish sausage,Portugese bread on the side served in an Italian-american home to a Japanese guest.

MMario

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 09:02 AM

since Chinese and Indian entrepreneurs have taken over many local fish 'n' chip shops (including my own local one), the enhanced range of dishes on offer allows for much creative mixing.
I remember being in the queue behind one eclectic soul who had a bag of chips, a saveloy, a pickled gherkin, a spring roll, all topped with curry sauce.
I'm glad I wasn't behind him later...

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: alison
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 09:14 AM

Hi den,

I lived in East Belfast for most of my life, (Shandon Park), before having a few years in Castlerock, then I moved to Australia.

Have to disagree with you... best pastie supper..... definately The Castle on the Castlereagh Road *grin*

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Den
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 09:25 AM

Hi Alison, Castlerock, thats interesting this is a long shot but did you happen to know any McLoughlans there? The reason I ask is because I used to play in a band with a guy here in Canada who was married to a girl from Castlerock her name used to be McLoughlan. Apparantly she came from a big family, lots of brothers and sisters.

The castle well I never had a pastie there so I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Did you ever have a burger from Ken's? Great stuff. Gee I'm getting hungry and its only 10:30 am. Better get back to work. Den

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Margo
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 09:32 AM

Did you know that curry was an English invention? The British in India needed strong spices to camoulflage the taste of not so good meat.

From my family comes an all time favorite: Eggplant salad. If you like vinegar and oil type marinades or dressings, you'd love my eggplant salad.

Margarita

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 09:49 AM

Cookery is a branch of folklore that's never been covered adequately in the literature. If Mucat Chefs would like to, we can keep a useful and entertaining thread foing on recipes---particularly regional variants.

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: alison
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 09:55 AM

I knew McLoughlans in Belfast, none in Castlerock.

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Den
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 10:04 AM

Great idea Dick the Mudcat cookbook. Den

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Rana
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 11:05 AM

Hi,

News article on what is now the "cuisine of Britain" the other week mentioned how the chains were jumping on the band wagon. Apparantly Burger King have a "Curry in a Hurry" and a friend confirmed McDonalds have a McKorma and Nan.

Reminds me also of a BBC documentary when visiting on History of British Cuisine. The one on Indian restaurants told of the louts coming in after the pubs closed for a curry. They spiced it up depending on how obnoxious the customer was. Apparently for one bad one they put in at least 4x the peppers for a vindaloo than they would normally and then watched as he was too proud to admit he couldn't take it.

Actually, when I go back I'll stick to curries at home and go out for a nostalgic Fish n' Chips - oh the days of 6 pennyworth of chips! One thing to avoid at chippies (especially north of Hadrians Wall are deep fried frozen pizzas and deep fried Mars bars in batter.

hungrily (but still an hour from lunch) Rana

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 11:22 AM

Perhaps I was being obnoxious when my sister-in-law put a tablespoon full of chilipowder instead of a teaspoon full in a chilli con carne. "Well Roger's eaten all his" [and Sid's and Bill's..".-bbc wireless joke-], though no-one else finished it, but I couldn't taste anything else for some time afterwards. My mother-in-law calls me the human dustbin (I think it's a compliment) "Roger'll finish it up" is the family cry, and then they say it's the drink that makes me fat!
Tara a bit
RtZ

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: M
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 11:22 AM

Here's one… my grandfather, who was born and raised in what is now Karachi, Pakistan, (and had a British father and Irish mother, though he looked an awful lot like Ghandi in his later years), made the SPICIEST (traditional) curry around. He and my mother were the only ones who would eat it. Not my grandmother, who was from Burma, not my aunt. And not me, as a child. Probably not even the dog. My earliest smell memory is of his piquant curry wafting through his house on campus at Vassar College (in New York state). I have never smelled that particular blend of curry spices since. My mom said he used to friends send him back spices. (deep inhale) I miss it.

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: WyoWoman
Date: 28 Jul 99 - 10:19 PM

I would contribute to and buy a Mudcat Cookbook.

I grew up in the American South, where they don't let girls outdoors until they've learned to make a decent gravy. The first thing I learned to cook was fried chicken with gravy, then roast beef with gravy, ham with red-eye gravy, fried pork chops with gravy served over rice, and Swiss steak with gravy. And biscuits, of course.

Then I moved to New Mexico after my kids' dad and I divorced and I felt as though my tastebuds had just been born. Red chile, green chile, homemade tamales, chicken enchiladas ... I became friends with an old, old family there and hung out in the kitchen, learning to make authentic carne adovada and bizcochitos. Nummie.

Then I moved to Wyoming three years ago and my tastebuds have been lonesome ever since. I've found a couple of Mexican places here that actually serve a pretty tasty chile, but ... well, it's just not New Mexico.

Food and music are very tied together in my consciousness. Probably those early memories, learning to cook with my two sisters, my mom and me in the kitchen, singing every second.

ww

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: harpgirl
Date: 29 Jul 99 - 07:05 PM

for years our family Sunday night dinner was boiled beef and kidney with lard dumplings...a splendid (NOT!!!)recipe from Blackburn England where my rum running granddaddy grew up...harpgirl

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Bryant
Date: 29 Jul 99 - 07:58 PM

WyoWoman,

I'm down in Albuquerque (been here nearly all my life) and have long been an unabashed, dyed-in-the-wool green chile addict. So I can understand your fond memories for the local cuisine. I'm going to be moving to Portland OR in a month or so and I'm worried about how I'll get by without my fix of eye-waterin', belly burnin' green chile and all the other great stuff you mentioned. I have absolutely stopped ordering "Mexican food" from places when I'm away from NM. Sometimes it's ok, but it's never like home. Anyway, there's a lot I'm looking foward to leaving behind when I head up north (like this damn 100 degree weather), but the smell of roasting green chile on a cool October afternoon is not one of them. Nor is coming home on a February evening to the smell of a crock pot full of green chile stew that's been simmering all day. Ahhhh, viva la chile verde!

Bryant

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 29 Jul 99 - 10:12 PM

Bryant, in Portland you will get to discover Asian cuisine. Aaaah! I fell in love with Thai food a long time ago.

(Tried Sushi when I lived in Miami, but it was $$.)

Only in America:

Hawaiian pizza barbecue pizza taco pizza shrimp pizza

My Grammy (WASP to the core) used to make a little well in her flour bin, throw in salt and baking powder, then some water, roll it until it was the right consistency, then plop it out, roll, cut, and biscuits!

When I moved out West, I found out they think the pioneers invented it: they call them flour barrel biscuits, but once upon a time, it's the way biscuits were made ...

MAG

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jul 99 - 10:30 PM

ahh, the arguments you can get into about how to cook/spice/serve/garnish "X"

Imagine my surprise when I first moved to Wash DC from Kansas, and asked for a BBQ beefsandwich at a little diner..(not really expecting it to be 'excellent', but hoping)..and the guy plops a BIG scoop of coleslaw right on top of the meat!...arrrgghhhhh....(even the 'good' local BBQ and Mexican places just do NOT follow tradition...I asked at a Mexican restaurant why I could not get HOT sauce, only sauce with more ONION..(yuck)..and they told me they tried it, but the eastern taste buds were not adapted, and not enough people would eat it)...I am used to BBQ and Mexican food that cleans the pores!

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Jul 99 - 10:38 PM

MAG,

My dad used to make those kinds of bicuits for Sunday morning sometimes. We always just called them baking powder bisuits....really original, huh?

BUT, I went to a friend's house once and proceeded to put butter and sugar on my biscuits and they thought I was nuts! They'd never ehard of it and instead used gravy.

Later on I met someone from way down South who said they did the butter & sugar thing, too and my dad and I concluded that since a lot of his family was from Virginia, maybe that was where it got passed down from.

Even later, when I moved to New England, I found out they did the same thing, so now I am really confused:-). None of it seems really logical or tied to one geographical spot, so maybe it's just each family? Either way I love those biscuits.

When we moved to New England, those of the family who drink coffee had to be sure to order it black, if they didn't want cream & sugar 'cause just ordering coffee would get it with both as a matter of course.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Bill D
Date: 29 Jul 99 - 11:01 PM

and I used to drink mostly tea!...and I almost had a fight or two with those who were bound and determined to serve me tea that was half milk!..I can understand people growing up doing it 'their' way..but WHY do they almost demand that I do it their way/

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: MAG (inactive)
Date: 29 Jul 99 - 11:09 PM

Well, my Gram was from West Virginia; the other side of the family was Maine, mostly we food the Maine way ...

as my Mom STILL says: You can tell a man from Maine, but you can't tell him much ... never in front of my dad, oddle enough ...

MAG

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Jul 99 - 11:35 PM

Ah....so you're descended from a bunch of Mainiacs! Somehow, I should've known!**Big Grin**

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: WyoWoman
Date: 29 Jul 99 - 11:50 PM

Bryant -- I made the move from SAnta Fe to Portland for one year. I suffered for chile -- honestly -- and for posole. Oh, my, how I love posole with red chile...

What I finally did was pay friends to send me care packages. If I were you, before I moved out there, I"d make sure I had a "connection" to provide red chile and dried posole. The only way you'll get green chile, unless things have changed since 1990, is to have it fedexed to you on dry ice -- and that either takes a commercial operation or a really good friend.

But I agree that Thai food will certainly keep the tastebuds happy -- it's not the same sort of happy as fiery green chile stew, or carne adovado burritos, but enough to distract you.

I have now seen frozen green chile up here in our local supermarket, so maybe there's a movement afoot to expand the loveliness of chile throughout the country.

KAT -- I'm ambi-biscuitrous. I eat 'em with gravy, but also with butter and sugar. Or -- best of all -- butter and wild honey. mmmmm.

WW

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 12:11 AM

WW: LMAOWROTF! That's a great turn of phrase, better post it to that thread! Ambi-biscuitrous, indeed!

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 09:58 AM

..."and it's pans of biscuits, bowls of gravy,
....pans of biscuits, we shall have"...from a Hedy West album...

NOTHING bettern' biscuits 'n gravy...'less it's biscuits 'n honey....or is it the other way 'round?

(Rita and I were driving from Texas to Wash DC years ago, when we approached breakfast and Memphis about the same time...we drove past various fast food places, and 'something' told me, so I started down a side street, and made a few turns at random until....THERE!...a little store-front restaurant...went in and found it family owned and run, Grammaw cookin', granddaughter waiting tables...and PANS OF BISCUITS & BOWLS OF GRAVY!!...lawsamercy!...(this was sausage gravy, browned bits of sausage in a perfectly mixed gravy, served in a crockery bowl, so one could dip, spoon it over biscuits or drink it right from the bowl.....

I 'spose there are lots of places like that, but I don't get south much...

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: harpgirl
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 10:10 AM

...Bill, I have been looking for a recording of that song!!! What album is it?? harpgirl

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: WyoWoman
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 10:53 AM

Sounds like the kitchen of my home when my kids were around!

I've often entertained the idea of opening a tiny hole-in-the-wall restaurant in which I would serve only those dishes I make that people have said feel so much like home -- mainly my soups and breads, but also chicken-fried steak and fried pork chops, etc. The only items I'd serve for breakfast would be breakfast burritos and/or scrambled eggs with sausage gravy, biscuits, butter and lots of wild honey.

Any venture capitalists out there just aching to bankroll a restaurant that would never make a pence, but would make people so very happy? (I love feeding people. I've missed my calling...)

WW

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Bryant
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 12:19 PM

WyoWoman -- I will most definitely set up a "green chile pipeline" to Portland before I go. However, it's encouraging to hear you've come across some the frozen stuff up there. Maybe the cat's out of the bag and the folks down in Hatch will start expanding the market.

I agree -- Thai's a pretty good alternative if you're looking for a belly burn. But it is a different heat. Kinda like the difference between a beer buzz and a wine buzz.

Bryant

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Llanfair
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 12:48 PM

How exactly do you make your American biscuits. They sound really good and versatile. If you like, I'll exchange it for the recipe for Yorkshire pudding, which can also be eaten with gravy or syrup. I am not a great lover of spicy food, particilarly since I stopped smoking, but I love a good Chinese meal. Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 12:57 PM

Bron,

My dad always just threw together some white flour, a teaspoon or two of baking soda stirred in really well, then took shortening (like Crisco, although some probably use lard) and cut it in with a fork, add a little milk to get them the right consistency to be rolled out.

He always put the pan in the oven with a little bit of Crisco in it to be melted.

Then he'd cut the biscuits out using a glass (usually one that was left over form having chipped beef in it, as it was a good size).

After that, he'd take the pan out, hold it with a hot pad, take each biscuit, pat one side in the melted shortening, then the other side and put it in the pan. He did that with each biscuit, then baked them until golden and risen.

When I get a chane, if someone doesn't do it before, I'll look inmy odl cookbook and get you the exact amounts, though we never measured.

kat

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Penny S.
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 02:33 PM

Ah ha, scone dough, but different baking method, so they would work like yorkshires, which also depend on hot fat - read very hot fat. I'll leave the recipe to Llanfair.

Can you tell us about this magic gravy?

Penny

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Alice
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 02:48 PM

pan gravy, from sausage, pork chops, or chicken or turkey drippings.
Cast iron skillet works best. After frying the meat, add enough white flour and mash with a fork to absorb the fat. (Drain off some fat if there is too much.) Scrape the pan to include the bits of meat stuck to it, and make sure the flour is all mixed with fat (avoids lumps that way). Slowly pour in milk as you whisk the fat-saturated flour with a fork or wire whisk. Add enough milk or milk and water to get the right consistency, then simmer while stirring until it tastes 'right'. Add salt and pepper as needed. If you get too much salt in, slice a potato and add some slices to absorb the salty flavor, removing before you serve. Pour over biscuits, pork chops, mashed potatoes, etc.

Here's an 'ethnic' recipe from the way a friend in El Salvador showed me how to make her version of guacamole.
Mince half an onion. Mash one ripe avocado, gently to keep the color from darkening. Mix with fresh lime juice and a bit of heavy cream (not sour cream). Add picante sauce if you like it spicy (that could be tobasco, here), salt and pepper, and if you want, diced tomato.

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Llanfair
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 03:40 PM

Well the gravy's much the same, except that we use stock instead of the milk. Penny's right, that recipe is the same as our scones, we have them with jam (jelly) and whipped cream. Yorkshire pudding is plain flour, a few ounces, with a pinch of salt. Break an egg into a well in the middle and mix round so that the egg picks up some flour each time round. When it gets very thick, start adding milk, until the mixture is the consistency of thick cream. Leave to stand in the 'fridge for at least half an hour. Put a little oil or beef dripping in the bottom of each space of a patty tin, the ones you cook jam tarts or mince pies in, and put this into a very hot oven until it is smokin'. A tablespoonful of mixture in each one, and put in the oven for 10-15 mins. The batter will rise very high at the edges, and leave a hollow in the middle if you have done it right. Fill the hollow with gravy or syrup, or whatever. Who says the British have boring food.!!!! Hwyl, Bron.

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Jul 99 - 04:47 PM

Okay, even though I've been a vegetarian for umpteen years, I am now doing some chicken and fish. BUT, there is a recipe you all might like that I used to make...learned it from mom. The gravy made me think of it.

Pork Chops & Apples

brown the chops in a skillet on the stove, cast iron is best

make a gravy as mentioned above with the drippings

place chops in a baking dish

halve some apples and clean out the cores. put brown sugar and a raisan or two in with the sugar

pour the gravy over it all, so that the chops are covered and at least some parts of the apples

bake in the oven until the chops fall off the bone or the apples are soft when you poke them with a fork

it all should just melt in your mouth!

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: WyoWoman
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 01:06 AM

I am now officially starving. I had a nice salad and some broiled fish for lunch, thank you very much, and a glass of Carnation Instant Breakfast for dinner -- have this figger to protect, don'cha' know -- and now, I want a big ol' bowl of gravy in the absolute worst way.

When I lived in Santa Fe, home of more beautiful, wonderful, exquisite restaurants than you can imagine -- every cuisine on the planet represented there, just about -- and I was living with Michael the Chef, who absolutely insisted on "splendid" food on our table -- some days, I'd just get so hungry for REAL food. So I'd go to the Zia diner for lunch and order two sides of mashed potatoes with gravy -- and of course a spinach salad because I felt I SHOULD. I hardly ever really get a hankering for sweets, but good ol' potato-based home cookin' -- I simply die for it sometimes.

Here's an "ethnic" recipe completely unrelated to biscuits and grave:

Carne Adovada

*Get a pork roast or chopped pork stew meat (If you make it with beef, call it Carne Asada) *Rub all over with chopped garlic (I want someone to do this to me some day...) *Dump in a package of dried red chile powder (or crumble up dried red chile pods, if you happen to have a ristra -- that's actually what they're for, rather than decoration) *Pour water over the meat. *Salt a bit *Put in the fridge *Baste with the garlic/red chile/water mixture off and on for at least a day. *Put in oven on low heat -- 300 degrees F. *(Or in crock pot) * Cook slowly for hours and hours, basting periodically, until the meat is so tender it falls apart. Serve on hot tortillas, with a side of sour cream so your guests can cool the chile if they need to.

The best red chile comes from New Mexico -- the tastiest is from the Chimayo valley in Northern New Mexico. Green chile is a specialty of Hatch, N.M. If anyone is seriously committed to the Carne Adovada Project, I can help her or him score some chile.

Salud! WW

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: katlaughing
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 06:08 PM

To those who insist on lighting their palates on fire!:

Using WW's clues, I went to Yahoo, typed in Hatch new mexico red and green chile and the first that came up was this southwestern chile co.-Hatch, NM Looks like they do it all, including shipping. There was another company that came up, but I stopped with this one.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: WyoWoman
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 09:43 PM

Oh... MY .... GAWDDDDD...

I have bookmarked this site. I am so completely thrilled to find this. This winter when I think I might die if I don't get some good Hatch green chile stew, I'll order some and think warm wuzzy thoughts of you, Ms. Katlaff. (Havin' a daughter who's a vegetarian, I"ve even learned to make some pretty good veggie green chile -- maybe you'll join me?)

Bryan, are you taking notes?????

WW

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Bill D
Date: 31 Jul 99 - 11:25 PM

ahhh..harpgirl...if you are still reading this thread...sorry I am slow answering, it has been a busy week, and I am going out of town for most of NEXT week..

but, the album I got "Pans of Biscuits" from is just called 'Hedy West'..old Vanguard album from late 60s..it has been thru a lot with me...if you don't have access to it, I could maybe coax a tape from the poor old thing..*grin*....email me so I don't forget after I get [e-mail]....(I still owe someone else a tape I promised...so..)

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Andres Magre
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 06:26 AM

A small contribution: if you like beef, go to an argentine butcher (at least in U.S. there are many) and ask him for a piece called BIFE DE CHORIZO (it's like T-bone but cut in another way, without the bone), about 2 inches thick. This is the star of the argentine meat, even when the cattle is not from the argentine pampas. Trim fat, cook beef at the bar-b-q carefully avoiding direct flame, always use wood charcoal, first close to the heat to obtain a brownish surface by both sides, then more slowly and not so close, to keep juices inside the crust. Add salt at the first heating. Burn two or three $5.- beefs until you get the exact point, but never cut the beef "to see if it is cooked" because it ruins the poor thing.

And if you come to Argentina, you may be disappointed by those country restaurants where they serve "asado criollo" because you will be served half meat and half fat, this is the way that traditional gaucho cooks: natural juice lost, tons of greasy taste and 2 inches of fat. "Achuras" are the most incredible internal organs, guaranteed cholesterol-full. You may ask for a cup of detergent in place of wine, it will go better.

Instead, try fine restaurants in downtown or the less expensive small restaurants at Montevideo and Sarmiento streets in Buenos Aires. When asked how you prefer it, "bien cocido" is brown, almost dry; "medio" is brown-red and very juicy, "a punto" is reddish, and "semi crudo" is raw meat.

For the wine, you have an enormous variety (this is a wine-exporter country), but if you want a not very expensive and marvelous wine, ask for Don Valentin Lacrado. Best regards - [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Penny S.
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 10:58 AM

I'd just like to add to Bron's Yorkshires recipe that the proportions of flour to egg can be critical. After believing myself to be incapable of cooking a decent one, following a supposedly infallible cookbook, I was told that the quantities are one-and-a-half ounces of flour to one egg (half the flour in the recipe I was using). And if you cook them in the real dripping from meat, unclarified, so it still has the meaty flavour, they are particularly good. Though not with syrup.

The scones with jam and whipped cream - what you really need is clotted cream, which has body, and flavour, and richness, and cholesterol, and cholesterol ... Why is it that our favourite ethnic foods are so darned fatty?

Signiong off, thunderstorm approaching, and I'm in a house with a history of strikes.

Penny

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Alice
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 11:30 AM

OK, Andres' message makes me want to tango down to Buenos Aires for some steak.

My friend in El Salvador is married to an Argentine who was the Capitan of the Sultan's Table at the top of the old Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas. They had met and married in Las Vegas, and were building their retirement home on the coast of El Salvador. She told me the story of going to Argentina to meet his family. She was a tiny thing that ate mostly fruit and vegetables. The entire day was spent around a dining table, with a half of barbecued beef, course after course of food, and the Papa playing his concertina and singing, telling stories. The sight of it was too much food for her, she had to go lay down to take breaks from the all day feast.

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: WyoWoman
Date: 01 Aug 99 - 06:22 PM

I felt that way when I went to visit my roommate's family in Mississippi when I was in my early 20s. We were both skinny little things and her mother was determined that in our week home over Christmas break, she was going to move us up at least one dress size. I have never felt so uncomfortably full in my life. At the end of the week I felt that if one more plate of ANYTHING had been offered me -- and the food was absolutely delicious -- I would hurl.

But the Andres' Argentine posting made my mouth water.

:-}

WW

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Andres Magre
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 03:27 AM

>But the Andres' Argentine posting made my mouth water

Ha! That was the intention. (slurp) :))

[e-mail]

Subject: RE: Ethnic crossover
From: Bryant
Date: 02 Aug 99 - 12:22 PM

Thanks katlaughing! Now I'll be able to have greenery and green chile. Misty skies and watery eyes. Mmmmm!

Kinda weird that a "Contacts in Oregon" thread showed up over the weekend. Synchronicity.

Bryant