Grub

Here's my effort: I built upon the variations made previously. Shredded cabbage was good, but could have used a little something else (I was planning on using a little roasted sesame seed oil, but forgot it) -- rice would probably have been just as good though. It seemed like a good idea. I used soy sauce, water, honey, brown sugar, corn starch, ginger and garlic -- and a couple of dried chili peppers for the sauce. Came out very nice. The pork cutlets tend to get bent out of shape a lot when sauteed, so I was considering cutting it into strips and stir-frying it -- which I still think might be a good idea. I'm not entirely sure what the author thinks of such variations/bastardizations of the original recipe, but I am really happy about this string of pictorials. Great stuff, wonderful inspiration.

Been having a real bad stretch recently, and just didn't feel inspired -- couldn't really think of anything I wanted to cook at all... But then, a very simple, yet very classic dish came to me: pasta alla carbonara. It's so simple: pasta with a butter-cream-egg sauce, parm cheese stirred in, and crisp bacon and parsley. No brainer. Then the sauce just completely curdled on me. I don't know if I heated the sauce too much, or added too much cheese, or what. I have no idea. I was so distressed I didn't even think to take a picture of the mess, which bummed me out even further -- I couldn't even post a picture of it for a laugh. Augh.

Would that be rødspette -- a plaice righteye?

Hiya Waaza, I don't know if you keep an eye on these threads, but thanks for the advice on the rice. Sorry for not getting back to you on this before, but I move back and forth between different cuisines. Thanks a bunch for the advice on rice -- I've taken it to heart... While I still probably make more plain rice than flavored, I have managed to find a good mix of flavoring for my rice now -- although I must admit it came to me through a friend who was given a styrofoam cup with the needed ingredients by a friendly cook at a nearby hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant. I start off with some thinly sliced onions (as you describe), and add a bay leaf and 2 black cardamom pods and a tea-straining pod with about ten cumin seeds and peppercorns, and a clove (for easy removal). This results in a slightly darkened, "dirty" color -- not unappatizing or anything, but sometimes I'll add turmeric or paprika for added color. I've been doing a lot of European things lately, but my friends have been bugging me about making "my" now-famous vindaloo again, which I certainly will... But if you have any other great recipe to share, I'm all ears.

That is something I have thought about more than once myself ... nothing about raw chickens has changed ... or has it? Is it possibly that the food processing is done less cautiously today? ← I believe something HAS changed about the chickens we eat today. The way they are bred and slaughtered may produce a less sanitary product, than in earlier generations. This was mentioned in another thread, where I asked about this specifically, after reading about an indicent in Afghanistan where American special forces solders were living amongst the locals, and had adopted their customs and habits -- but someone committed a grave social faux pas when he was served a chicken that wasn't cooked all the way through, and sent it back, asking for it to be cooked further... It's a sad thing to consider that althoug we enjoy a far higher living standard, an Afghani chicken is a superior product to our mass-produced things...

I wouldn't say that this is incorrect, but while this type of bravado might inspire elite soldiers, it wouldn't be a good "selling point" for the average volunteer. The uniforms of those days (prior to accurate rifle fire) were brightly colored and decorated mostly to attract young, impressionable men who wanted to look good. A friend of mine bought me a toque just recently... I rarely wear hats as it is, but wearing one while working over a hot stove seemed to make even less sense to me. Still, I did find a hair in a meal I prepared (my own, thankfully) and I've got a sense of humor, so I put the stupid thing on... I felt like the chartered accountant in the Monthy Python skit -- he wanted to be a lion tamer, and when John Cleese asked him what his qualifications were, he explained that he had a lion tamer hat, with "Lion Tamer" written on it, which lit up so it could be seen at night, so he could tame them when they were less stroppy... Well, long story short -- the thing wasn't hot at all. And it absorbed sweat extremely well -- it was a very hot day and I had a big pan of pasta water going, a sauce, things sauteed etc. I would normally had to dry my forehead a number of times. That thing felt comfortable, and seemed downright practical. Of course, tennis sweat band would do the same job. But now I'm really liking my toque. I'm thinking of ironing it. I'll get a lion tamer hat next, I'm sure.

Oh dear... That sounds like something Alton Brown would do...

As far as I understand, they are the same thing. It is said that although Wiener Schnitzel (Viennese schnitzel) was popularized in Vienna, it originated in Milano were it was called Cotoletta alla Milanese (source). In Argentina, the term Milanesa is used to describe a schnitzel made from veal, but also beef and chicken (source).

The cooking scenes are minimal -- it occurs after a dramatic confrontation where the mother chastices her daughter and demands that she has to learn how to cook proper meals, "both meat and vegetarian!" This is where the line comes in, "But mom! Anyone can cook Aloo Gobi -- who can bend a ball like Beckham?" It has a funny part where the main character starts doing soccer stunts with a head of cabbage. You certainly cannot learn how to cook anything from that bit -- the aloo gobi cooking is in the Special Features section of the DVD, of course.

Well, whatever channel Sara Moulton ends up on, I'll be watching. What a novel idea -- just a nice person showing you how to cook some good food... Imagine someone pitching that crazy idea on the Food Network: "Ah hell, that'll never fly! We need catchphrases! We need gimmicks! We need women with huge hair, humongous cleavage and great big insincere pearly-white werewolf-smiles and lots and lots of beautiful friends who can come to dinner and gush over the food. We need lots of gushing; lots of it. And we need to talk to the audience like they're a bunch of lobotomized teletubbies."

Eh, etymological nerd-question here -- I seem to remember that Baked Alaskan was originally a French dish, going by the name Norwegian something-or-other? But was revived in the US, with that new Alaskan name? Would that be a Norwegian Omelet? But to stay on coarse, I dunno if this qualifies, but I occasionally make a dish that I've seen go by the name Salmon Wellington -- obviously no beef, but salmon instead, no pate/foi gras, with spinach on top of the salmon, wrapped in puff pastry... There's also another dish named Salmon Coulibiac, and although it called for eggs and possibly a few other things, maybe that's a more accurate name. Authentic or not, it's good eats, and kinda impressive.

Yes, it certainly does have pictures. While I don't remember off the top of my head, if chop vs mince is specifically shown, there are plenty of pictures that describes techniques and methods -- how a sauce should look, how to hold things etc. America's Test Kitchen's Best New Recipies is also very good, but the copy that I have (not ring bound) doesn't have much in the way of picturers per se -- they use illustrations instead; ink drawings. Also, it contains far more information than Better Homes and Gardens. I think cook books lean towards one of two different camps: How-to books, and Why-books. How-to books contains loads of recipes, but less information about why things are done a certain way. Why-books contain fewer recipes, but loads of info on exactly why things are done a certain way -- the physics, chemestry and mechanics of cooking, if you will. Alton Brown and the Test Kitchen books lean towards the Why camp, while the Better Homes and Garden is slightly more towards the How-to camp. Now, it totally depends on the temperament of a new cook, as to what they like (patience, attention span, focus, nerdy tendencies) but generally, I think a new cook might like a how-to book first, just to be able to cook a few dishes successfully -- and then move on to the why-books...

This one is very good: Better Homes and Gardens' New Cook Book. It is ring-bound, which makes it very practical. It contains a great range of dishes, all categorized and organized. These recipes are all true and tested up through the years, updated with each new release. Pretty much fool-proof. Out of all the different books I have gone through, this is the one I wish I could have started out with. It would have made my cooking experience that much more enjoyable, educational, and -- well, I would simply have progressed that much faster, and been a far better cook today...

Oh, I'm afraid I must beg to differ... First off, lets make sure we agree on what cognitive dissonance actually entails: behavior, opinions or beliefs that are completely incompatible. It was originally coined to describe the behavior of cult members who saw the date of a prophesied event come and go with no apocalypse or UFO landings whatsoever -- yet they continued to believe, in many cases even more fervently. Cognitive dissonance might be to oppose the killing of animals for food, yet eat meat -- clearly a completely irrational stance. To eat meat while being uninformed about what slaughter exactly entails, is something entirely different. The article descibes the act of eating bacon while petting your dog as cognitive dissonance, and that is clearly incorrect. Some people eat certain types of animals, but for a variety of reasons, avoid others. This does in no way entail cognitive dissonance. Proselytizing vegetarian like to throw that term around like a five dollar word, but they don't actually understand what it means -- big surprise there. It's like, "Timmy ate his carrots, but he won't touch his Brussel sprouts! He's being cognitively dissonant again!"

This is excellent advice. I've been guilty of mint abuse in the past; I didn't know any better. I tried this tonight, and it made a significant difference. I'd long since figured out things like simple syrup, but not the mint bit. I crushed it up real bad -- I mean, I crushed it up brutally to get ALL the juices out, and then filtered it out so I didn't end up with a bunch of mint leaf fragments in the drink. But rubbing a leaf against the inside of the glass makes a huge difference. Not just because of what Alchemist describes here -- it also makes a huge difference because the mint oil is RIGHT by your nose when you take a sip of the drink... Smell is a big part of your taste, and the minty oil by the lip of the glass is essentially right under your nose. Very clever.

Oh dear... That's not good. As they say, Been There, Done That -- and 'Nuff Said: It involved a ceiling fan and mashed potatoes.

Ah yeah, genre-wise, Baji on the Beach is really a stereotypical chick-flick -- it's drama/comedy, but the focus is basically on relationships. But while nearly all the major characters in Bend it it like Beckham are female, and there is romance, conflicts and relationships, these elements (just like Aloo Gobi) are no more than a backdrop to the main story, which is one of inspiration. It's the story of someone who follows their dream, against the wishes of their family. Sort of Rocket Boys (the true story of a 1950s West Virginia coal miner's son who wants to be a rocket scientist -- based on Homer Hickam's autobiography October Sky, starring Jake Gyllenhall.) Oh dear, I do carry on... Actually, what I wanted to say was this: Kerry, if you (well, or if anyone else) intend to cook Aloo Gobi from the DVD's recipe, beware that the recipe that is included in the DVD's Special Feature section is not entirely accurate -- it doesn't accurately reflect exactly the way Gurinder made it in the cooking special feature segment... So I ended up watching the cooking segment over and over again, and wrote down my own recipe. I'm not guaranteeing that this is a perfect interpretation of it, but I think it might be helpful, if you print this out and annotate it while you watch the cooking segment -- it is certainly more accurate than the recipe provided on the DVD. (By the way, when I list ingredients in parenthesis, it means I will place them in the same bowl after prepping them, and thus that they will both be added into the cooking process at the same time). INGREDIENTS 1 large onion, chopped 1 large cauliflower, cut into small pieces 3 large potatoes, chopped into same size pieces 1 bunch cilantro, separated into stalks and leaves, roughly chopped 1 tin whole, peeled, grated tomatoes. 4 chilis, chopped 1 inch fresh ginger, peeled, grated 4 cloves chopped garlic 1 tbsp cumin seeds 2 tsp turmeric 2 tsp salt 2 tsp Garam Masala PREP 1. Chop (3 potatoes, 1 cauliflower). 2. Chop (cilantro stalks, 2 tsp salt, 2 tsp turmeric), (cilantro leaves). 3. Grate, chop (tomatoes, 4 chilies). 4. Chop (1" Ginger, garlic). 5. (2 tsp Garam Masala). 6. (2 tbsp cumin seeds). 7. Chop (1 onion). COOK 1. Cook cumin seeds for a few seconds – careful not to burn. 2. Add onion, cook till translucent. 3. Add cilantro stalks, turmeric, salt. 4. Add chilies, tomatoes. 5. Add ginger, garlic. 6. Add potatoes, cauliflower (optional 1 tbsp water), cook for 20-30 minutes. 7. Add Garam Masala. 8. Let the dish rest for as long as possible, before serving. 9. Sprinkle with cilantro, serve.

Zero days, as far as I know. The rule I've hear is four hours...

Jackal10, I gained a lot of Hollandaise knowledge from one of your sauce primers. So when I saw this one, I hoped maybe I could finally figure out how to make some proper, fluffy mashed taters. I had some problems... If they were under-cooked, or done with a hand masher, they tended to be lumpy. If they were over-cooked, or done with an immersion blender (an electric whisk would make a LOT more sense), they'd be gluey. Using a hand masher, and cooking the taters a lot still created a liquidy result, so I tried steaming them -- reasoning that immersing them in liquid got them water-logged. That seemed to help, but it still wasn't right. Then a friend of mine made some excellent, fluffy mashed taters -- and I was extremely impressed, asking how he'd done it... Well, it turned out his secret was simply just a damn ricer! I've been obsessing with mashed taters for a while (just like I did with Hollandaise), and I'd tried a lot of different combinations. It really bugs me that a ricer could make such a big difference. I mean, a potato masher serves only one single purpose -- a ricer, at least you can do a few other things with -- so why the hell would anyone ever buy a potato masher? So, with that in mind, I went ahead with your recipe -- not because I needed mashed taters, but just as an experiment. My mashed potato attempt was a failure, but as an experiment -- like any -- it was a success: I learned something. Maybe it was the type of taters I used (pretty old, getting to the bottom of the bag sort of deal), I don't know. But the potatoes didn't cook through. I examined them with a thin knife after both simmer session, and they seemed done after the second one -- however, the picture you captioned, "Drain, and allow to dry and cool for a few minutes. Note how the slices have begun to break up" should have been a warning to me -- I could slide a knife through very easily, but they had not began to break up at all. Once I started mashing them, it became clear that they weren't done -- well, they might have been done, but not ready to become fluffy mashed potatoes. The result was lumpy -- uncooked lumpy bits. Obviously, since others have reported great success with this recipe, the result wasn't due the recipe. So this isn't meant as a critique, but merely as a constructive observation. Maybe it was the potatoes I used, or my electronic thermometer was off (I stayed by the stove and continually adjusted the heat, and managed to keep it within 2-4 degrees of the mark the entire time) or who knows, humidity or crop circles. But it didn't cook through completely. So constructively, if I could suggest something that might be added to this excellent primper, I'd say that if the slices have not begun to break up after the second simmering period, they need to simmer some more, until they do. Now, since this produced a lumpy result, I tried an immersion blender to see what that would do to it. It didn't exactly turn gluey, but it became a helluva lot less fluffy. My conclusion from this experiment is that steaming significantly reduces their water-logging tendencies. You're two-step, slow-cooked simmering method does it even more. But you still need to ensure that the taters are properly cooked, and have started to break up before you go at it. The final observation is slightly depressing: that a ricer has a far greater impact on the fluffy-ness of the end result, than an hour-long, two-step, carefully monitored cooking process -- or steaming them. A final note is that I really hate the notion that I need such a special piece of gear to properly cook something. So I will surely repeat this experiment a few times yet -- and I'll report back. Oh and thanks again for a great primer.

They might well have been fired in real life, but this was a competitive TV show. In real life, if Tiffany were to take part in a cookoff where she stood to win fame and fortune, she would never have picked these two people to assist her... And then again, in real life, if she had not been competing against these two people in a series of earlier cookoffs to win the top prize, she might never have behaved in the same way towards them in the first place (although I might see how she just possibly would).

Very cool; I'm sure you'll enjoy it. The director has made quite a few other movies. You can view a list and description of them on her page on IMDB.com here. Her future/Pre Production projects are also listed there, and includes some pretty amazing things, like a remake of I Dream of Jeannie, and a film version of Dallas that claims to be in negotiations with John Travolta and Jennifer Lopez -- very cool that she's having such success and able to rub elbows with the big stars. Of course, these things change a lot -- the Jeannie thing seems to be on hold for now. The only other of her flicks I've seen is Baji on the Beach. It is also a female orientated comedy but it didn't seem as light-hearted as Bend it, at least to me. Your milage may vary.

Sorry to bump such an old post -- but it's such a great topic. I too, made the director's Aloo Gobi. There's a very good Indian restaurant nearby, and I'm not sure if I like theirs better or not, but my friends prefer the one I make, from this recipe over the restaurant's. That's high praise for this recipe, I think. The DVD's special feature where the director cooks this, is great. I like the film a lot in its own right, but that segment where she cooks it up, with her mother and auntie nattering on in the background is a lot of fun, and also quite endearing. I peel the potatoes and the ginger as well -- but hey, I also grate the tomatoes, no matter how much of a mess it makes. This is the closest I've gotten to having a couple of genuine, old-fashioned Indian women teach me how to cook the same stuff they've made for so many years for their own families, I feel I just HAVE to follow their instructions to the exact letter. Gurinder Chadha should do an entire DVD with Indian cooking, in this format. Hey, she did say that part of the reason she did the Aloo Gobi special feature was because she always dreamt of doing a cooking show...

The link "Produsenter" takes you to this page, which lists the various farms, by county. The first one being BUSKERUD, which I believe is near Oslo. Unfortunately, I do not know which of the other counties might be near Bergen or Kristiansand. The web site is incidentally written in "New Norwegian" which uses a spelling that reflects the local accents of people living in the more rural areas of the country. This might be troublesome for any web-based, automated translation attempts. But the words in the table's column means Etternamn: Surname Fornamn: Given name Adresse: Address Postadresse: Mailing address (that is, zip code and town/area -- this would be what you should try to look up to determine location) Telefon: Phone number Drift: What cheese they produce (Ku-cow; Geit-Goat; Brunost-Brown cheese (goat cheese style, but may also be made from cow's milk); Blåmuggost-Blue mold cheese; Kvitost-White cheese. There's also the very smelly cheese Pultost, which I think means something like "Desk cheese" and the ultinate in smelly cheese: Gamalost-Old cheese. Oh, and Smør-Butter. Mattilsyn: Government body that I assume oversees quality control etc. Autorisasjon means authorization, but I do not know if this means they have been authorized, or if they are waiting to be. Godkjenning literally means good-recognized which seems to indicate something that has been authorized also. Sorry. Rå / past: Raw / Pasturized. Heimeside: Homepage, web site.

Your impressions are mostly correct, with a few caveats. The desire to be self-sufficient is not universal. The country has consistently had one of the world's highest living standards in the world for many decades now, but it used to be one of Europe's poorest. Many families existed as tiny, self-sufficient farm units with a similar living standard to the rest of the population, whereas today they need subsidies in order to do so. The WWII self-sufficiency argument is considered mostly a marginalized scare tactic today (obviously, it carried more weight just after the war). Norway is a very mountainous region with only about a 4% arable landmass, so there are many who argue that the country should focus on its natural strengths, rather than weaknesses. There is also the argument that these small farms represent a cultural heritage. The funny thing about this is that the worse certain harvests are, the more they can buy of the cheap, foreign stuff instead. So for the state, crop failures are like "whoa, we're making bank this year!" There is definitely a social engineering thing going on there, with bad things being taxed, and good things being subsidized (anyone who's done any amount of travelling -- business in particular -- learns to always stock up on your quote of tax-free booze and tobacco, whether you drink or smoke, or not). This in turn lead to a culture of binge drinking, as well as moon-shining (which seems particularly odd for a society with such a high living standard) as well as alcohol smuggling . Oddly enough, since wine (and spirits) are sold by a state monopoly chain (you can imagine the negotiating power you have, as a buyer who represents an entire country) they have a really excellent range of wine, at (comparatibly speaking) very low prices -- since the social engineer types want to move people onto wine, ala the French model. This lead to a rise in popularity of boxed wines since they stay "fresh" a little longer. You can imagine the "We know what's best for you"-bureaucrats tearing their hair out, trying to change the beer-and-moonshine-swilling Scandihoovians into suave Frenchmen, only to end up with them falling in love with boxed-wine instead. Now, the last thing, re. obesity -- that's definitely not due to the cost of food! Supermarket prices vary a great deal -- if you do your grocery shopping Oslo's city center, you'll be paying completely different prices compared to other locations. Norwegians have a very active lifestyle, and like most Europeans, tend to walk most everywhere. You don't need a car to live there (in fact, cars are very expensive). Compare that to California, where having no car practically means you're homeless and destitute -- that's a helluva lot of calories burnt off just in a regular day of living...

What absolute, utter fucking twaddle. The use of a phrase like "cognitive dissonance" while taking the side of a cult like Peta is highly ironic. The only cognitive dissonance I see here is that any reader with a a few neurons left bouncing around in their noggin will realize that the only ethically and intellectually valid response to this article is to hunt down the moron author and beat him senseless with a frozen T-bone steak -- but what we'll actually do, is just roll our eyes and hope that the nadir of our mass media has finally been reached.