Peasant food

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
I'll give it a go. There are quite a few Brazilian shops in north-east London, so might venture into one of those for a look around, cos I'm generally clueless about South American food.

Never tried oxtail, mostly because I rarely go to a butcher rather than the supermarket (a habit I should definitely change). I should try more stew-type things, for definite
 

Bettysnake

twisted pony ******
Spaghetti with Sardines, Lemon, and Anchovy Breadcrumbs

was going to describe this but thought i'd just post a link, so good and so easy (use panko breadcrumbs).

yes. I endorse.

We got a slow cooker (with removable pan so you can brown things on the stove) and I'm obsessed. It makes cheap ingredients like lentils and bacon and stuff taste delicious and also –rice pudding.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
Spaghetti with Sardines, Lemon, and Anchovy Breadcrumbs

was going to describe this but thought i'd just post a link, so good and so easy (use panko breadcrumbs).

http://racheleats.wordpress.com/2010/04/06/oh-crumbs/

p1060602.jpg

just been to the supermarket to get the stuff for this tonight, cheers for the tip.
 
Quinoa, food of the Andean peasants. Does anyone know why it's lauded for it's high protein content when gram for gram pasta has triple the amount? As much as I like the stuff T'interweb isn't convincing me of the science.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Can't sell pasta that expensively though.... There's something about it being a good source of 'complete protein' too.

Have to admit I find quinoa pretty grotesque stuff to eat. Like finely ground couscous, very nothingy and the texture's not great either.
 
The trick is to put a tiny amount of vegetable, chicken, whatever stock into the water- you'll probably see it in a different light. Put Much less stock in than you would with, say, risotto, as quinoa somehow magnifies the strength of it till the grains get horribly salty. If you make this mistake adding a bit of orange juice can mask the taste a bit.

In any case it's meant to be ethically dodgy now. The market price of it has sky-rocketed so it's no longer the diet of the farmers who grow it (they make more money selling it- they are instead starting to eat the same processed shit we in the West do. Though theoretically quinoa could be grown all over Europe if we didn't use up all our land for cattle rearing and building crap industrial/ housing estates.
 

Benny Bunter

Well-known member
another andalucian classic for ya I learned from my girlfriends mother. This is a typical ´de la abuela´ stew, cheap to make, simple and satisfying as fuck

lentejas andaluzas

lentils (pre-soaked for at least a couple of hours)
1 onion
2 carrots
2 potatoes
1 green pepper
1 large tomato
1 1/2 tbsp of paprika
2-4 of those little dried chillis (piri piri or cayenne) to taste
4 inches or so of chorizo sausage
1 whole head of garlic (still in skin, to be removed when cooked)
salt to taste

chop everything up into large chunks, sling into the pot and barely cover with water. Cook for 50 mins to an hour, until its at your preferred consistency and the lentils and veg are cooked. Serve garnished with vinegar (preferably sherry or white wine based)

If you need to add more water, make sure its hot you put in.

You can also remove the chilis, cut down a little on the paprika and use cumin.
 

Leo

Well-known member
that's not my first thought on the topic of peasant food, but ok.

in my continuing struggle (mentioned in some other thread a year or two back) to find a reasonably healthy lunch option, I've really been getting into hummus. my wife makes a version that's good but slightly boring (sans garlic, which she can't eat), but the local market carries about 10 varieties with great seasonings and extras (white bean, taco flavored, roasted red pepper, etc.). I toast two slices of whole wheat bread, spread on a thick layer of hummus, put 4-5 slices to cucumber on each, salt/pepper, with plum tomatoes and sometimes carrots on the side, fast and easy.

I'm still open to other healthy lunch options. used to eat tuna sandwiches everyday but worried about mercury, then turkey sandwiches but processed meat is pretty bad for you too.
 

Numbers

Well-known member
in my continuing struggle (mentioned in some other thread a year or two back) to find a reasonably healthy lunch option

Hear, hear. The best solution, I discovered, is to cook yourself: cook slightly more than necessary and bring the left-overs to work. The social pressure to not bring something completely unsightable to work improved my cooking considerably. The NYTimes Cooking section has a wonderful mailinglist sending weekly good recipes for bright, colourful and rather healty weeknight cooking.
 

Leo

Well-known member
thanks...yeah, my wife is a faithful NY Times Cooking reader, she makes dishes from there all the time. I should have clarified that I work from home, so I don't have the "social pressure" of colleagues judging the looks of my homemade lunch, LOL!
 

Numbers

Well-known member
thanks...yeah, my wife is a faithful NY Times Cooking reader, she makes dishes from there all the time. I should have clarified that I work from home, so I don't have the "social pressure" of colleagues judging the looks of my homemade lunch, LOL!


Well, rather than real outspoken judgements, its very much an internalised pressure on my behalf. :)

Faithful is well-chosen word to describe the relevance of that Cooking section. I have to admit I became myself as well an acolyte of the stuff they put out. Which is rather intruiging to many in my environment, because the idea of faithfully following American cooking advice is apparently still for many Europeans a complete non seguitur. It clashes too strongly with our self-indulgent conviction that Americans do not know any good food.
 

Leo

Well-known member
there certainly is the stereotype of "American cooking" and the country's dumbed-down tastes. but the thing is, America is a country made up of immigrants, so many of the recipes in the Cooking section are actually European
 
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