Milagai

Can you preserve them like lemons?

It's a form of classification based on the study of botany, which was then transcribed in Latin. Does the variance in classification of these edible plants not occur in Indian culture, Miligai? P.S. I should add that I don't completely "get it" either. I can catch some of the defined variances but then there are some things that escape the definitions somehow. So I don't worry about it but sort of place my trust in the botanists. Plus I really don't care how they categorize it as long as it tastes good to me, and for sure one really does not have to place rigid rules on whether a fruit or a vegetable (or even meat or fish for that matter) is suitable for one time or place in a meal based on someone else's definition, does one? A meal started with dessert sounds good to me. Maybe even a dessert made from carrots, a veg, not a fruit. Followed by something made from fruit for the main course. Finished by a braise of meat or a grill of fish for "dessert" or rather, I should say, to end the assortment of things planned in one time to eat in certain order. As a matter of fact, why do we need follow three courses? Why not all on the table at the same time? The only proscriptions against this that would be worthy of following, in my opinion, would be those of one's chosen religion. Certainly no botanist nor cookbook writer knows more than I do about how I want to eat. ................................................................ Sorry, Janet. Got a bit carried away there. ← I guess I don't know why botany treats some fruits and fruits and calls other fruits vegetables.... baffling... I would have thought it's the opposite. In Indian kitchen culture, there are words for fruits and vegetables, and they don't follow botany or any other form of logic either. It's the same confusion. A tomato or eggplant would be considered vegetables and a mango or banana a fruit..... In Indian cooking, there are plenty of "main dishes" made with fruits (e.g. mango something or other). My hypothesis is that most cultures end with a sweet dessert because sugar kills the appetite? And many cultures put a little smidgen of something sweet as one of the dishes of the main meal, and the whole 'course' thing seems European rather than other regions? Milagai

I love gazpacho for breakfast! Lately, I've been pouring myself a bowl of gazpacho, then making some soft scrambled eggs with a bit of bacon mixed in. I ladle the steamy eggs right into the center of the gazpacho, garnish with a few of my rice wine vinegar pickled cucumbers, then eat. The contrast between hot and cold works very well, and I get my veggies and protein all in one shot. My gazpacho generally contains tomatoes (a fruit, I know), cukes, green pepper and onion, plus garlic, vinegar and other seasonings. I generally keep a batch in the fridge all Summer long, so that I can have a serving of vegetables whenever I want it, without having to do any prep. ← Gazpacho any time of day or night is a great idea. Breakfast, late night snack, whatever... I also love to keep a blender full of gazpacho in the freezer and snack away on it.... Tomatoes are not the only 'fruit' on your list - the cucumbers and green peppers are also fruits.... I still don't get why some fruits are called vegetables and others are not... Milagai

aloe vera in food not very indian, but why not... surprised no one mentioned mango - e.g. mango daiquiri, etc... milagai

Also, what's the practical distinction between vegetables and fruits, when so many things we treat as vegetables are botanically fruits: tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, peppers etc. Basically anything holding the seeds..... If you draw a line connecting "western" cream of wheat and "Indian" sooji, then you open up the world of upma to which you can add diced tomatoes, potatoes, peas, maybe even peppers..... and can give as "western" a tweak as you want..... Milagai

In India: Jalebi: http://www.bawarchi.com/cookbook/rajasthan1.html Imarti: http://www.bawarchi.com/cookbook/sweet22.html (dal based rather than flour based; but basically fried dough dipped in sugar syrup) Shakkar para: http://www.indobase.com/recipes/details/shakarpara.php to name just three off the top of my head; there are surely more. Milagai

I don't know about butter, but ghee with rice is a good thing in Indian food.... Kids like plain ghee-rice, grown ups start with rice+ghee then add the spicy rasams, or dals or whatever. Ghee or butter on hot rotis is also blissful..... Milagai

Years ago, when we went camping in one of the US national parks which had a lot of bears, we got lectured on toiletries along with food for bear safety. The fruit smelling toiletries attracted bears same as food did.. so our soaps etc had to be stored in bearproof containers... I wouldn't care to encounter a grumpy bear, with a mouth full of soapsuds where s/he had expected coconuts and guavas! Milagai

I've heard about this rule, but never understood why it's bad form. I can see the logic behind many other manners rules (e.g. elbows on the table may crowd others, etc.) but what's the why of this one? thanks Milagai

I have come across this. Not sure waitrose would bother with it for their sausages, as they could use a mix of pork/sow/wild boar which would be far more cost effective. I'm actually really encouraged by the responses and i think its one of those grasp the nettle things, just go for it rather than wait for a response which will prob. be too late. Regarding sourcing, your local milk producers should have male kids to cull otherwise half their goats would be billys which is a: none too productive (flashbacks of king-pin bull milking argh!) and b: a sure recipe for horned chaos. ← An unrelated question, on your last point: I don't know anything about farming / raising animals in industrialized countries. But, I thought most animals were bred through artificial insemination (AI)? If that's so, then why not only (or mostly) use X carrying sperm and breed only (or mostly) females? Is that not feasible? My question also comes from the line of thought that when raising dairy cattle for milk, the male calves are "culled", killed, etc. Is that also true? So, if only females were birthed, then no need to kill these animals.... Thanks Milagai

I cannot drink coffee black. I must have milk and sugar. Temperature depends on whether I want to drink hot coffee or cold coffee (=iced coffee). If hot, then everything has to be really hot. Lukewarm would be awful. If cold, then everything has to be icy. I find that compared to others who drink coffee with milk and sugar, I take more than the average of both. That's just my personal quirk - I find strong coffee too harsh on my stomach. I prefer whole milk to half and half (I can't get accustomed to the idea of drinking that in large quantities). I don't care for skim milk, but if that's all there is, I'll take it.... The same goes for hot tea - I like it desi style with milk and sugar, and maybe spices if available. But the milk (like the water) has to be boiling hot. I can't stand the way most restaurants plunk down a mug of lukewarm water, a teabag, and some little packets of half and half in the name of tea. How hard is it for a commercial kitchen to provide boiling water? Milagai

Why is it not technically fast food (same question for the Chinese street food mentioned above)? It's super quick and it's food. It's not franchised nor is it a multinational globalglomerate, but you can drive up to it, walk up to it, have it delivered, made to order, supersized, drinks with it or not, etc... Milagai

so interesting! This parallels a North Indian style dish called Keema Matar (ground meat with peas; meat usually mutton I guess) Brown and drain cooked goat mince; then bhoono onion,ginger,garlic paste in some oil, add typical spices: bay leaf, all the garam masalas (coarsely ground black peppercorns; cinnamon, cloves, cardamom - black or green, nutmeg or mace if you have it); red chili powder, turmeric, cumin and coriander powder. When the onion ... paste is done, add the meat, and cook a while, add water if necessary. Salt sometime during the process. Add water when almost cooked. Texture should not be soupy though, just medium. Add peas (cooked or still frozen). Cook some more, serve hot, garnished with chopped cilantro and lemon wedges with rotis, sabzi and raita etc. May re-heat with a little more garam masala (powder) sprinkled in... Milagai

Unless you really want to try making paneer, get some from yr local Whole Foods, or Indian store, or Trader Joe's... Then make matar paneer as suggested. No need to deep fry the paneer cubes, stick them in a toaster oven to broil/grill instead. Turn them over after a while so they get evenly golden. Sundal is also a great and quick alternative for frozen peas, cook them quickly (steaming is best) with salt to taste and do a tarka of (for 4 cups cooked peas): 1 tbsp cooking oil, 1/4 tsp hing, 1/2 tsp mustard seeds, 1-2 dry red chillies broken in half OR 1 hot green chili minced with 1/4 inch chunk of ginger. Dump over the peas and mix, garnish with cilantro, a little shredded fresh coconut, splash of fresh lemon juice; if you can find an unripe mango, peel and dice finely and add to the mix. Literally takes 5 minutes to cook, eat it warm or room temp, great quick dish for picnics or any time you don't want to heat up the kitchen with cooking. Milagai

Yikes! Any of these can taste any way: chutney can be sweet, or savory, So can pickle. Whatever "relish" is, it can taste any of the same. There are: sweet pickles (meetha achar, in Hindi) pickles that are more salty, pickles that are sweet and sour pickles that are mostly spicy hot. (whatever the dominant spice note is). Chutneys can be the same way. Morabbas (something between a jam and a chutney and a pickle) can be the same way, though most morabbas I've eaten tend to be on the sweeter side, and I think these are mostly made with fruit). What the heck is a "relish"? Is that a loose translation of "chutney" (=something to be licked)? Milagai

Other than what Gautam said, in my mind, pickle is something meant to be preserved and eaten over several weeks or months. Chutney is made and eaten fresh. I don't know "relish", other than we relish our food with chutney and/or pickle... I know there's some chopped green whatever that people put on hot dogs called relish, but I don't know what it's made of. Milagai

Color me clueless, Milagai--I too have no idea what this means. There is a Cafe Borgia in the south Chicago suburbs that serves wonderful Italian food. ← The Borgia Popes (Renaissance period) were the most notorious, making their name a byword for debasement and debauchery. The first one, Alexander, set the standard, he and his four illegetimate children (including Lucrezia and Cesare) committed almost the entire gamut of crimes to enrich themselves: murder, looting, incest etc etc and almost plunged Italy into war. Poisoning really seems to have been their thing (arsenic , "cantarella", etc.) They were in/famous for bumping off their opponents by offering them glasses of wine in a special golden cup that when you pressed a jewel, released a little opening that emptied poison into the drink; or handshakes with a ring that cut the other person's hand and poisoned them that way, etc. Alexander himself died supposedly poisoned by his son by accident by wine intended for someone else; but Alexander and son both drank it. Father died, son survived. Even if some details fake, their historical record is incredibly lurid: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Alexander_VI So yes, I would not be inclined to accept a drink labeled "Cafe Borgia" or dine in a restaurant of that name... Milagai

^^^ Your son sounds so great! You've done a great job raising him.. On behalf of women everywhere (though the wonderful men I am around are poles apart from the *&^% you described) I applaud you and your son... Milagai

Wonder how many people are even aware of beriberi, in this age of fortified foods.... We had to learn about it in middle school somewhere: vitamins, and deficiency diseases (rickets, night blindness, etc.) A different blooper I saw years ago in a neighborhood coffee shop in Berkeley; (just before the era of Starbucks etc. sort of universalized the names of different versions of coffee). This shop had several Italian sounding coffee names and thought this sounded cool I guess: Cafe Borgia Did it come with a shot of poison? The disaffected youth behind the counter had no idea what the name meant...... Milagai

Having household help is more common in some countries not for "cultural" reasons (though it gets spoken of in cultural terms) but for old-fashioned "structural" reasons: large pools of people (usually women) with few skills, willing to work as domestic servants, for low pay. They have almost no other job options. Wealthier women hire them. This used to be the case in Western countries too, until the Industrial Revolution and the two World Wars ended those kinds of social and economic conditions. I also liked your point about how some families who have the $$ will not hire a full time personal chef because of the "servant" stigma, but housecleaners, nannies, etc. go under the radar. I've seen housecleaners, housekeepers, and nannies often asked to do kitchen related duites (make kids' meals, etc.) Milagai

I echo the request to "cut a little slack" sometimes. Here in the town where I live, is a person, who has no arms. Nothing from the shoulders down. He is well known in this area, and a very involved and active person. Runs his own garden maintenance business, operates all the lawnmowers etc. just using his legs. He's exemplary in how he lives very independently and looks after himself, is cheerful to his neighbors, etc. Obviously he's barefoot most of the time, as his toes must do the work of fingers. Every so often, there comes another exchange of newspaper letters about him, how he was dining (yes, with his feet) at a restaurant, and someone gets all offended at how "gross" they found it, and how he and others like him should stay home..... (Seriously, I am not making any of this up). OTOH, I loved the stories of the "restaurant killer", the lady who poured wine on the cigarsmoker's head, and the one about the man who took a swig out of the wine bottle because he was too impatient to wait to be served a drink.... Richly deserved retribution to those people..... Milagai

Depends on what you mean by "personal chef". If "chef" means : highly trained and skilled (and commensurately paid) person, and money was really no object, then I'd love to hire one for special occasions, time to time, depending on mood, etc. If OTOH, you mean someone with less skills and pay, to help tackle the humdrum aspects of daily home cooking - then yes, yes and yes. I'd love to have the kind of home help my mother had when we were young. Someone who comes in every day, does housework, does the bulk of the blah cooking (rolling chapatis, cutting vegetables, etc.). I wish I could afford such a person (pay them a decent wage to do this). Milagai

^^^^ Thanks Diva... The question is answered, but the curiosity continues, so we'll let it be at that. Re raita: there are lots of recipes for raita, so almost anything you concoct would work. Though garlic is pretty unusual (raw garlic would ruinously overwhelm other ingredients). And many raitas and salady dishes do include mint. Never parsley: it's just not an Indian ingredient.... Same for Thai food I guess, with the addition of basil Cilantro cultures vs. parsley cultures... Milagai

I'm curious: so you don't like cilantro in Thai, Indian, etc cooking? Even in dishes in those cuisines that incorporate tomatoes, garlic, chilis etc.? Milagai

Sounds and looks like you all had a great time. Much of this reminds me of a quote from a Dorothy Sayers novel: "I do not envy the head or the heart of youth, only its stomach"... Milagai