Cooking tips and wonderful flavour combinations
- Thread starter baboon2004
- Start date
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Nice one, thanks. Always mnean to cook more with mushrooms, esp with shiitake as it happens, as they're awesome...
The puy lentil thing is brilliant for a side salad or for a main. Can prob add more things too, but the tomato/dill combo is the heart of it.
Edit: That's an amazing page you linked to. I don't really make bread, but gonna have to make an exceptionf or that black bread, as it sounds too good to pass up....
http://georgiantaste.blogspot.com/
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baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
Yeah, I'm tempted by that one, too...Edit: That's an amazing page you linked to. I don't really make bread, but gonna have to make an exceptionf or that black bread, as it sounds too good to pass up....
The page is by Debs from Smitten Kitchen which, if you can handle the "isn't it wonderful darling" lifestyle stuff and the random baby photos, is a great source of recipes - generally they're interesting enough that you feel like you're making an effort and trying something out but not so involved that you have to spend a whole weekend tracking down the relevant ingredients (the unused half of which then clog up the fridge for a week) and doing complicated things with five different stages of cooking per dish...
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
I finally picked up some sichuan peppercorns the other day, and actually used them for the first time last night.
I think there used to be a thread for 'experiences that you can't really describe in terms of other experiences', and nibbling on a sichuan peppercorn would probably fit in with that - at first you're surprised that nothing's happening, and then you begin to think that there's a slow burning heat that hits you well after you've finished the peppercorn itself. But as it grows, you realize that it's numbness, not heat, and it just keeps growing and growing and getting weirder for ages longer than an effect caused by a 3mm sphere has any right to do, and that unlike normal pepper heat, eating or drinking something does nothing to take the edge off.
This is probably old hat for a lot of you, but it was pretty exciting for a tuesday night in Cambridge...
I think there used to be a thread for 'experiences that you can't really describe in terms of other experiences', and nibbling on a sichuan peppercorn would probably fit in with that - at first you're surprised that nothing's happening, and then you begin to think that there's a slow burning heat that hits you well after you've finished the peppercorn itself. But as it grows, you realize that it's numbness, not heat, and it just keeps growing and growing and getting weirder for ages longer than an effect caused by a 3mm sphere has any right to do, and that unlike normal pepper heat, eating or drinking something does nothing to take the edge off.
This is probably old hat for a lot of you, but it was pretty exciting for a tuesday night in Cambridge...
viktorvaughn
Well-known member
Nothing like a nice bit of mala (numbing).
mistersloane
heavy heavy monster sound
I think it's just the ma that is the numbing bit? La is the chilli but haven't checked.
Another restaurant tip :
No 10 in Earls Court. Not even sure if it's still there but the reviews are good :
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/528886
Bettysnake
twisted pony ******
I'm thinking of buying some of these badboys to grow on our allotment; http://www.otterfarmshop.co.uk/collections/herbs-spices/products/szechuan-pepper
They're real purdy too;
Grow your own szechuan pepper - the pink peppercorns ripen in autumn and after a day or two drying in the sun carry a punchy, lemony flavour and an incredible aroma. The leaves can also be used to flavour. A hardy perennial that grows as a thorny bush - keep it small with pruning or let it grow huge.
mistersloane
heavy heavy monster sound
Could you let me know if they have them in stock? Have you tried growing them? I tried a few of the major garden centres in London but eventually got told that it wasn't possible to grow them over here, but I thought I was gettin mugged off, be nice to know how it goes cos growing them would be wicked. You have to take the seeds out though to cook with em cos they're gritty apparently.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Nochexxx, you grew up in Malaysia, is that right? Where laksa comes from? I had my first attempt at laksa over the weekend, and FUCK ME SILLY it was good (though I say it myself). I sort of cobbled it together from two recipes in this Rick Stein book I've got, and ad-libbed a bit too, so I'm not sure how authentic it was - but RS says there's no such thing as a canonical laksa anyway, just endless local and personal variations. Well whatever, it was lush. I made a spice paste by whizzing garlic, ginger, chilies, coriander leaf, basil, lemongrass, turmeric, some spring onion bulbs, sugar, fish sauce and lime leaves with 1/4 can of coconut milk to make a thick green goo. I poached sea bass and salmon (again, a bit dubious about the authenticity...) in chicken stock, then took the fish out, added the spice paste and the rest of the coconut milk and reduced it for about ten minutes. Then I added the spring onion stalks, the flaked fish, salt, more lemongrass and some lemon juice and cooked for another five minutes, then served it over noodles with extra basil and coriander on top. Aw hell yeah.
(BTW, anyone else here tried to use a Rick Stein recipe book? The one I've got has these gorgeous-looking recipes which look a bit complicated but basically doable, if you've got shops nearby that stock the necessary ingredients. Then you notice that one or two of the ingredients are in italics and say "See page 300" or whatever, and you go to the index and it's some kind of paste or sauce you're meant to have made already and which requires dried shrimps, pickled goji berries, Cambodian trumpweed, whufflegrass seeds and so on, and has to be left for six months in the fridge to mature. Some of these ingredients themselves required further ingredients that you've got to make yourself. Fucking fractal recipes!)
(BTW, anyone else here tried to use a Rick Stein recipe book? The one I've got has these gorgeous-looking recipes which look a bit complicated but basically doable, if you've got shops nearby that stock the necessary ingredients. Then you notice that one or two of the ingredients are in italics and say "See page 300" or whatever, and you go to the index and it's some kind of paste or sauce you're meant to have made already and which requires dried shrimps, pickled goji berries, Cambodian trumpweed, whufflegrass seeds and so on, and has to be left for six months in the fridge to mature. Some of these ingredients themselves required further ingredients that you've got to make yourself. Fucking fractal recipes!
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baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Fuck authentiicty! One of the silliest and most noxious concepts ever (at least, in most contexts, esp geographical). Recipe sounds great btw
Almost like a sort of salsa verde...
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Thanks for the back-up, I tend to think this way myself! It tasted 'right', put it that way.
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
I suspect that 'authentic' is assumed to be good because a lot of food in the UK has been quite awful for a long time, and 'authenticity', as well as implying fidelity to some possibly imaginary 'real thing' implies a certain level as quality, as well as meaning that the person making the food has put some effort into making it authentic and will presumably also have put some effort into making it taste nice.
Also, the search for authenticity tends to have a lot of positive side effects - it tends to lead to subtlety, diversity, complexity, attention to detail.[1]
It's just that at some point you have to say no, I'm making this call based on what produces good food, I don't care if it's not the authentic recipe or if I'm mixing up the Syrian and Lebanese traditions, I'm doing it this way because I think it'll be better.
[1] I find the same is true with folk music, come to that - most of the bands that interest me are fairly 'authentic' sounding, not because I believe in the vital importance of trying to recreate the sound of a village dance in 18th century oxfordshire, but because they normally have a lot more musical depth and subtlety than some arse with a couple of fairport records and an electric violin...
Also, the search for authenticity tends to have a lot of positive side effects - it tends to lead to subtlety, diversity, complexity, attention to detail.[1]
It's just that at some point you have to say no, I'm making this call based on what produces good food, I don't care if it's not the authentic recipe or if I'm mixing up the Syrian and Lebanese traditions, I'm doing it this way because I think it'll be better.
[1] I find the same is true with folk music, come to that - most of the bands that interest me are fairly 'authentic' sounding, not because I believe in the vital importance of trying to recreate the sound of a village dance in 18th century oxfordshire, but because they normally have a lot more musical depth and subtlety than some arse with a couple of fairport records and an electric violin...
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Interestingly, I get the impression (at least in part from Jonathon Meades, it has to be said) that British food actually wasn't that bad until relatively recently - the 19th century, maybe? - but acquired its now long-standing reputation for awfulness after British cooks started to disdain their own culinary heritage and fetishise foreign cuisines and their ingredients. Mainly French, but to an extent Italian and of course Indian due to colonial possessions. Hence you have abominations like fish mornay and chicken supreme, and watery 'spag bol' as a stand-in for proper ragu, while raised game pie sounds like something you'd only expect to make if you were following a recipe you heard about on Time Team. British food comes undone when it tries to ape other countries' food and ends up with a sort of bastardised compromise, though occasionally this works out quite well as in the case of the balti, for example. Also, I really want to try a parmo...
Edit: although the balti was created by British Pakistanis, I guess.
Edit: although the balti was created by British Pakistanis, I guess.
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baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Can anyone recommend a decent book on this? There's some book called the history of fish and chips and the working class of Britain, or something, which looks intriguing.
Yep, I think colonialism defintiely had a huge part to play, and the fetishisation of foreignness and disdain for 'ordinary' Britishness (ie the working class traditions) while simultaneously psychologically yoking the working class to the colonial project through racist ideologies of white superiority.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
Re authenticity, of course it's not bad per se, it's the veneration of authenticity that leads to awfulness, especailly in areas beyond food, obviously.... ie the idea that hybridity is inferior to 'authenticity'/purity .
Slothrop
Tight but Polite
I always thought it had a lot more to do with early industrialization and urbanization - generally disconnecting people from the seasons, from the idea of local produce, from knowing that the nicest apple isn't always the most regular shaped one, from having one pig and using the whole of it when you kill it, from using what's available at the time rather than expecting everything you want to be in the supermarkets and all that sort of thing. I mean, he's right about fetishizing foreign stuff to an extent, but that doesn't generally happen to countries that are self confident about their own cooking - you have to lose the game pies before you want to fill the gap with watery spag bol.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Yeah, absolutely, this is probably at least as important as the aspect I mentioned. Plus grizzelb's point, too.
What's weird is that we now have ian inversion (in the UK, I mean) of the standard pattern elsewhere in the world where poor people cook their own food because they have no choice while wealthy people employ cooks - cooking is (wrongly but widely) seen as something well-off people do in their leisure time, like play golf or go to the theatre, while everyone else eats chips or ready meals. Although this is off-topic and has been done to death, innit.
(That said, a hell of a lot of people in this country don't know how to cook anything, which is very sad I think.)