BS: Recipes - what are we eating?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 19 Sep 20 - 12:31 PM

I stand corrected on the rank and reason. The rest of the story stands.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion's brother Andrew
Date: 18 Sep 20 - 12:14 PM

Dad told me he was a leading seaman and doing extra duties for leaving something unsecured. He did his rounds with a rifle with its bayonet fixed, and the amusement largely came from the way he used the weapon to extend this reach for the fruit, which were in trees with biting insects (ants of some variety, as I recall, so likely a symbiotic relationship).

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 18 Sep 20 - 09:58 AM

My father, who served in the British navy during the Second World War, ate his first mango in 1943 at a shore station near Mombasa. Beached for a short time between a radar course in South Africa and his next ship, he took his turn as Petty Officer of the Watch, which meant supervising the base defence force. He chose to conduct his hourly tour of the perimeter sentry posts by way of the mango trees that grew all over the area, much to the amusement of the Kenyan soldiers who did the actual guarding.

I suspect that, after four years of war and Royal Navy rations, he would have stopped at little to get his hands on freely available fresh fruit.

When we asked how one eats a mango, he said, "First, take off your clothes and get into the bathtub."

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Sep 20 - 09:41 AM

That sounds like one excellent mango, Don! In her book Under the Tuscan Sun, Frances Mayes described eating some fresh Italian pears that were so good you "needed to eat them in private."

I find mangos purchased from stores where they sell a lot of them and sell to customers who really know their mangoes means I get the best mangoes. So I shop at the Asian or Halal market and they're usually much better (probably handled correctly and allowed to ripen properly). This usually means not storing them in a refrigerated space.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 18 Sep 20 - 07:08 AM

Should have said, low fat low flavour.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 18 Sep 20 - 02:32 AM

Low fat = no flavour.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 11:17 PM

Capriccio salad tonight, from thinned out basil plants (I put seeds in a pot a few weeks ago, and they're all about 4-6" tall now), some mozzarella balls I've been meaning to use, and some grape tomatoes. Drizzled with Balsamic vinegar. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: JennieG
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 09:53 PM

Here's a mango recipe idea from a cook book published by my son's primary school in 1988. I can vouch for it being very good.

Mango fruit dip:

Peel a mango, remove stone and mash flesh with a fork. Stir in one tablespoon or so of flaked coconut - preferable not shredded as it's too messy to eat. Stir in enough sour cream to make it runny. Cover and refrigerate overnight, it will be firmer when cold.

Serve in a pretty dish in the centre of a platter, surrounded by fruit for dipping.....whole strawberries, pieces of stone fruit (apricot, peach, plum), anything your little heart desires really. I have also served it dolloped on cut-up fruit salad.

Makes a pretty centrepiece for a table, when we can entertain more than two people again. I have served it as a Christmas table centrepiece.

Somehow, though, I suspect a mammoth mango might be a bit much for this!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 09:28 PM

Despite the black spot scourge on oranges from Florida there is a special naval orange called #1. They were the the best oranges in my life.

I admire the skill some people have acquired in the art of flavours and presentations of special dishes. I was never exposed to that discipline so luckily I am happy with fish and chips and bangers and mash.

I knew a girl Hanna who free loaded/lived on Maui for a year and she turned orange from eating almost nothing but Mangos off the trees.
I now understand the special diet.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 06:04 PM

I do not use bread crumbs or egg. Hmm. I do add fat... These were bison with chopped mushroom stems and minced garlic and onion, oregano and marjoram, hot paprika, and duck fat, barely mixed then plopped into the caps of the mushrooms. Slice of fresh tomato on top of each. Toaster oven at about 325, about a half hour. Ate out of a bowl as there was so much juice, it was delish, but the meat part between shroom and tomato was what I am working on.
Sometimes I make them outside of a tiny tomato each. They aren't *dry* but it is not the texture I am reaching for...

Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 05:31 PM

Use a mixture of pork mince and beef mince. Mix gently with your fingertips then roll into balls very gently - no squeezing - which are quite small, about as big as a cherry tomato. You can add whatever you like to spice them up, but you don't need egg or breadcrumbs. My current favourites are meatballs made as above but with caramelised red onion chutney added to the mix. These are fried for about eight minutes in extra virgin olive oil to brown them. Set aside and make a spicy tomato sauce in the frying pan, using top-quality tinned plum tomatoes, seasoning, fresh basil, chopped garlic and chilli. No onion. Once the sauce is made, throw the meatballs in and heat through for a good few minutes. Superb with your home-made oven chips or with good crusty bread. Use only free-range pork mince and beef mince that is at least 10% fat, preferably more. If you want rock-hard meatballs, squeeze them too much, cook them for too long and head for low-fat mince. Low-fat is a dirty word.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 05:16 PM

Mrrzy, do you put breadcrumbs in your meatballs? That's the traditional way to make them less like a hockey puck.

Donuel, I thought I had experienced Peak Mango with a large red specimen shipped to Canada from Jamaica, but your Mammoth Mango seems to have taken you to an even more exalted region of Fruit Nirvana. I shall look for that variety in the extra-special fruit'n'veg store the next time I'm in The Big City.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Donuel
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 04:41 PM

OMG...breathing heavily - whew.   I, I just had a religious experience,
and no, it had nothing to do with the bathroom.
It may be old hat to you but I just ate a fruit labeled Mammoth Mango.
It was as though I had never had a mango before. It was as wide as both hands thumbs to middle fingers and as tall as my wrist to finger tip. Each bite of cool 5cm. smooth deliciousness followed another. For 1/2 an hour I sat stunned afterward at how good it was. I don't know where its from since I only saw that one at the store. My senses are are still vibrant and colorful.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 03:38 PM

Ok help me with meatballs: I mix minimally, they are delish, but the texture is way too *hard* - every time.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 17 Sep 20 - 01:34 PM

Three quarters of a lemon, Steve? How in culinary heaven do I ream a quarter of a lemon, and how much difference would it make if I just reamed both halves of a smallish lemon?

That said, your pasta with fresh tomatoes and herbs looks like the answer to late-summer bounty. My oregano has already gone to seed, however, and the parsley's looking poorly -- we're tippy-toeing up to our first frost.

You have a greenhouse. The green-eyed monster has me by the neck!

Meanwhile, I have a pot of flanken (beef short ribs) braising in the oven (three and a half hours at 275 Fahrenheit), for dinner with The Out-Laws tomorrow. The entire house smells of beef and wine, and the deliciousness has only just begun. The pot will sit in the fridge overnight, and tomorrow I will take off the fat, strain and reduce the sauce, and serve with parsley, chives and lemon zest, and a hunk of polenta.

Himself still wants to know why I could not do this in the barbecue, but the on-line consensus of cooks is clear: flanken belong in a pot, nestled in plenty of mirepoix, and all but immersed in wine and stock. Not one barbecue recipe for them could I find, but literally hundreds of braising treatments -- add carrots, sweet potatoes and prunes, and you get tzimmes, which (I just learned) is traditional for the High Holidays.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 06:12 PM

Boy that sounds good.

Made my first successful gazpacho yesterday. I wonder if it was yummy because it took over 3 hours on the phone *and* chat with the kitchenaid people to get my new food processor to turn on, or because it was, actually, yummy. Farmers market onion, garlic, tomatoes, cuke, hot green pepper of some kind, and some parsley, slice of Wegmans bread, and dashes of store-boughten cumin, smoked paprika, oil, and vinegar. Added some extra chopped cukes and hot green pepper to the bowl. Ground some salt and pepper into the machine.

Then today I had my amazing asparagus crab corn soup.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 05:53 PM

I made an amazingly good pasta dish tonight in which the only non-raw ingredient was the spaghetti. Get a big bowl and chuck in the following, in any order you like. For two:

A big fistful of chopped fresh parsley
Half as much chopped fresh marjoram (or fresh oregano)
About 70g freshly-grated Parmesan
One clove of garlic, finely chopped
The juice of 3/4 of a lemon, along with all its zest
Three big glugs of the best olive oil you can lay your hands on
About 350g of the best, sweetest cherry tomatoes you can get. Don't do this recipe with shitty tomatoes. I have a glut of lovely Sungold in my greenhouse just now: they were perfect. Chop them roughly.
A pinch of salt

Everything is fresh and raw. Get your hands in there and mix it thoroughly.

You also need about 40g of unsalted pistachio kernels, which you blitz into a rough powder then set aside.

Boil up the spaghetti (250g for two) in salted water. When al dente, use tongs to transfer the pasta into the bowl with the sauce. You definitely need some pasta water, so don't be fussy about draining. In fact, I found I needed even more from the pasta pan. Mix the sauce and pasta and put into warm bowls. Sprinkle the pistachio powder on top. Cheers to Jamie Oliver for the idea, though I changed a few details. So fresh, so light. If any of those ingredients are only available to you dried, don't bother with the recipe. This is all about untrammelled freshness.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 04:38 PM

My mother collected cookbooks, a lot of them the free ones that came with product box tops and were handed out in the grocery store. She also had one that was a monthly subscription to categories of recipes, each month a new booklet arrived that was put into this huge binder book cover. It has some of the most bizarre recipes - it's the kind of book people look through and laugh and share recipes.

I keep a plastic file box (probably intended for the large 6" floppy drives) that all of my folded printouts fit into. When I find one online that works for me I print it with the URL on the page so I can find it again (because people do ask). I have my own set of favorite cookbooks, none of them particularly recent. And there is a little wooden card file that I was given as a child that I've continued to use for those family recipes I learned at home.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 03:32 PM

Too late for getting recipes from Mom. I do have her cookbooks, though. I should look through them more thoroughly.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 16 Sep 20 - 03:18 PM

Mrrzy, you should get her recipe.

Meanwhile, in another part of the forest (i.e., Stratford), it's Chutney Day, thanks to Himself, who chivvied me out to the organic farm shop up the road to buy fruit. I'm not sure why he's so anxious about it, but chutney seems to be very important to him this year.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Sep 20 - 02:37 PM

Some normal black tea.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Sep 20 - 10:34 AM

I'm pretty sure you have to use the leaves of Camellia sinensis if you wish to achieve a tea-smoked duck that tastes like the Chinese article. Vervain (aka verbena) is not even closely related, and I doubt that any flavour it would impart would be tea-like.

Did your mother use tea, or some other leaves, to smoke her chicken? I assume it was a smoked chicken ...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Sep 20 - 09:04 AM

Ah, thanks. Does it have to be black caffeinated tea? I have an absolute ton of verveine as Amazon sent me 12 oz when I ordered 1. I will eventually drink it all, but wondered about using it to smoke my next batch of duck legs.
The chicken mom made was divine.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 15 Sep 20 - 07:31 AM

I have tea-smoked a duck, Mrrzy. It was a messy business, but produced delicious results.

The rice in the smoker generates the bulk of the smoke. The tea is flavour.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Sep 20 - 03:42 PM

I have a Luhr Jensen Little Chief smoker that uses chips of wood. When I do salmon I typically use alder, since that what is used in the Pacific NW for smoking fish. When I do meat like chicken or turkey I often use mesquite, and for milder things like short time smoking of cheese I use some of the other woods like apple (they sell bags of chips).

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 14 Sep 20 - 02:19 PM

I have had a home smoker for many years, I've never used anything except oak sawdust or oak shavings, hot smoked seatrout is sublime.

Dave H

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 14 Sep 20 - 10:48 AM

Hey, has anyone here tea-smoked anything, like a duck? Recommendations? Why do recipes put raw rice in with the tea? I assume you don't eat that rice...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 14 Sep 20 - 09:09 AM

Excellent, Mrrzy. Waste is inherently bad.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 11:04 PM

No, I said I had taken all the rabbit out. Been eating that one's furry little ass all week.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 08:17 PM

That's right. I buy rolled brisket at about one kilo. That will do both us twice, once hot, once cold.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 02:28 PM

You don't have to have a whole brisket. Most is sold in smaller pieces.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 01:16 PM

Yesterday, I smoked beef ribs in our new Kamado cooker, to universal (well, Himself and the neighbours) acclaim. The process took six hours, not counting the time required to prepare the meat, and I must have dashed out the back door at least a dozen times to check the thermometer, even though I could see it quite clearly from the kitchen window.

The butcher was inordinately pleased to learn about this change in our cooking habits. “Brisket next?” he said eagerly, the gleam of opportunity in his eye. I rather doubt it; a brisket starts at four to five kilos, and we aren’t allowed to entertain a crowd big enough to eat all that.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 10:17 AM

I know that recipe, Jos; in Germany, where I cooked it, it’s called Hasenpfeffer. The blood is used to thicken the sauce, like the egg in an old-fashioned fricassée, and it’s handled just like raw egg — tempered first with a bit of the hot liquid.

Himself came home from market with a large packet of mysterious sausages, half a dozen ears of corn, too many tomatoes again, enough peaches even for me, and a report on the imminent availability of chutney ingredients, specifically Italian blue plums.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 13 Sep 20 - 04:51 AM

I did see a French recipe for jugged hare that included red wine and a lot of garlic, and the blood, but it was for a fresh hare. I suspect that the liquid after freezing would be rather different and I wouldn't use it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 12 Sep 20 - 08:53 PM

Whenever I thaw out any meat for cooking, there's blood that I always discard. I haven't read any recipes that say to use it. Dunno whether I'm right or wrong, but my instinct is to ditch it.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Sep 20 - 08:16 PM

We're all wondering now what he came home with!

I bought an asparagus cooker/steamer and it arrived this morning (via Amazon) so today I processed one jar of pickled okra. I only had enough okra for one jar and it would rot before I got enough for more; it's a slow year in a small garden. I'm also getting some nice cucumbers so I'll be doing single jars of cucumber pickles as well. If I do one jar a week until the first frost that might give me 7 or 8 jars of okra. Every little bit helps! Once the cucumbers get growing they produce pretty fast and I have a couple of more days before I start picking those. I do both processed and fermented cucumber pickles, and the variety I grow is recommended as best for pickling.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 12 Sep 20 - 11:08 AM

I’m with Jos on the rabbit issue.

I must confess to having done something very similar with duck blood and a small pan of gravy. Fortunately, the gravy was an after-thought nice-to-have, so I could bin it with only a small pang of regret and self-recrimination.

I sent Himself to the market again, and now I’m wondering what he will come home with.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 12 Sep 20 - 04:11 AM

What a waste. Even if you didn't fancy the sauce, the rabbit meat could still have been made into a lovely pie with a few tasty additions such as mushrooms, garlic, herbs ...

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 10:38 PM

Stilly, that is so exactly what I did.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 09:53 PM

Wow. That sounds like a difficult choice. And a mistake you'll never make again. I would probably put it in the fridge to think about eating it then end up tossing it all later.

I am getting okra from the garden but not fast enough to save up for a large batch of pickled okra, so I'm going to plan B. I've ordered an Asparagus steamer that includes a lifter, a tall narrow pot that will hold a single jar at a time. I'll make the brine for my pickles ahead and when I get enough okra for a jar I'll pick one of my peppers to add to it, use some of my home-grown garlic, and pack a jar to process. That pot will heat quickly and do the job (heating a stock pot takes forever and probably runs up the electric bill). This way I can do the "small batch" approach of even a single jar. One at a time in a deep large pot would be very inefficient. I'll also be making some pickles, both processed and fermented, as my cucumbers grow.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 07:35 PM

The juice from the thawed rabbit was partly blood — raw blood. When you put it in the hot stew, it cooked and, like raw egg, did so in a yucky fashion.

It should be safe to eat, but the texture leaves much to be desired.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 03:17 PM

Ok I made rabbit stew with some red wine and broth for the liquid. I had meant to add the juices from the defrosted rabbit but forgot. So I take all the rabbit pieces out, serve myself one with a bowl of sauce, then see the juice I had forgotten about and added it to the hot stew.
Baaaaaaad idea. The whole potful coagulated into something I am afraid to eat. It still *smells* tum, but looks like barf.
Do I have to throw the whole thing out? Can it be rescued? What happened?!?

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 11:26 AM

Excellent, Monique! I'm so glad.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Monique
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 10:57 AM

Charmion, I made your gingered tomato marmelade, it's delicious! (more fat on my hips!)

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Sep 20 - 10:05 AM

Ah, no, Mrrzy. This household already has a Little Red Dragon: Himself's car.

The kamado is also red, and it will belch fire if I open it recklessly, but so far it doesn't seem to be the kind of inanimate object that acquires a personal name -- not sure why. Its thermometer even looks a bit like the All-Seeing Eye ... but that's not a Good Thing.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 10:11 PM

Nicknamed the Dragon, I presume.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 12:23 PM

Thanks Charmion. If Mudcat had a like button, I take it I would have got a thumbs up.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 10:48 AM

Our new Kamado Joe barbecue arrived yesterday. The kamado is an egg-shaped charcoal-fired outdoor cooker that can be used for roasting, smoking and baking (notably pizza) as well as grilling. For us, it is definitely an insane luxury, but my book contract and giving up (because of COVID-19) all the expensive fun things we like to do in summer provided enough excess capital to allow it. Besides, after 20 years of chickens and ribs, the old gas barbecue had become tricky and unpredictable.

After a trip to Crappy Tire for charcoal, which is much more expensive these days than I remember, I took the Kamado Joe for a spin last night with a pair of chicken legs. They came out delicious, which encouraged me no end. But I can see that the Big Thing about kamado cooking is managing the flow of air through the top and bottom vents, which is how one controls the internal temperature.

YouTube is full of helpful (and not very helpful) videos, so I'm learning fast. For my next trick, I shall smoke some beef ribs, a dish that Himself loves beyond all measure, which will require something like five hours of cooking at about 250 degrees Fahrenheit. I wonder if I can resist constantly running out the back door to check the thermometer on the Dome of the Beast.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Charmion
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 10:27 AM

"Grok" is a Heinlein word, invented for his 1961 novel "Stranger in a Strange Land" to identify a degree of understanding that surpasses mere understanding, if you get my drift.

Subject: RE: BS: Recipes - what are we eating?
From: Jos
Date: 10 Sep 20 - 03:30 AM

Sorry, but what does "grok the fullness" mean?