Grub

Scott, it was the sauce that tasted bitter, not the meatballs. I'm always vary of ground cumin, because it seems like most recipes expects you to use pre-ground "supermarket" cumin, rather than grinding your own -- so I nearly always use less than what the recipe calls for. Freshly ground is just that much more potent. So in this case, when it called for both whole and ground (black), I decided to skip it. Maybe that was a mistake -- I'll be sure to use the ground stuff next time around. But I'm quite convinced that what created this bitter-ish flavor, were the green cardamom pods. Incidentally, the onions took on an odd green-tinted hue as I cooked them, which I also believe came from the cardamom. So I've decided to cut that down from four to one, next time. Re., onions, garlic and ginger -- yes, I think you're absolutely right. I've heard it said too many times to ignore now (about onion, garlic and ginger's cooking time), but there are SO many recipes that tells you to dump the three in at the same time, so I've just kept doing it. It makes perfect sense, that the onions should be cooking for about three or four times as long as the garlic and ginger. Why do so many recipes just dump them in at the same time? It bugs me -- makes cooking seem more like some kinda mystical, metaphysical mumbo-jumbo voodoo, than something that can be scientifically understood... If you spy a better kofta recipe out there, please let me know. And thanks for the advice.

Hear, hear! This is the culinary equivalent of the local news channel going "What you don't know about dust mites, and how it COULD be putting your CHILDREN at RISK! News at ten!" First time I heard about the dangers of teflon must have been at least 20 years ago, when this chemistry professor managed to convince everyone that cooking with teflon was pretty much the same thing as huffing Zyklon-B.

Thank you very much! Your mutton-kofthas sound very interesting -- any chance you could share your recipe for it? I'm always on the lookout for some really great Indian recipes...

I dunno... As one waitress sez in Waiting... "I don't understand what would compell anyone to be a complete bitch to a total stranger!" (let alone the substitute waiter's "I guess we should feel guilty, but you just don't fuck with someone who handles your food" after they all but defecated into the customer's order). I don't like open-mouthed, not-covering-your-mouth jawning. Is this just an abnormal dislike that only I suffer from? I think jawning like that is just very bad manners. It's like having dinner with a retarded, great white shark on quaaludes.

Murgh Kofta: There's an amazing Indian hole-in-the-wall place nearby, with really great food. No decorations, save some airducts running along the ceiling -- I think it's an abandoned auto repair shop or something. For a while, an elderly woman bussed tables with a black garbage bag tied onto her torso as an apron. The menu was really short, but they have lots of other stuff, that they don't put on the menu -- in particular, some really great ocra. My kinda place. Well, last time, I had the chicken kofta, and it was great, so I wanted to try recreate it. The only clues I got from the dish, was the whole black peppercorn and cloves that I found in it. It was sweet, so I thought it used coconut milk, but I later found out that the odd sweetness of the dish actually came from the spices. This was a fairly involved dish to make, but it was fun. The sidedish is just sprouts stir-fried with some curry sauce from a jar, and wasn't particularly noteworthy. I would have used regular plain rice, but I think that gets a little repetitive. This is the recipe I found online. It uses a LOT of spices, and I ended up leaving out the ground cumin for the sauce -- it uses both whole and ground, and I thought that would be too much. I'm not sure if I did the right thing or not. Meatballs: 500 grams of chicken mince 2 teaspoons ginger paste 2 teaspoons garlic paste 2 tablespoons roasted gram flour 1 teaspoon cumin powder 1 black cardamom(s) powdered 1 teaspoon red chilly powder 1 teaspoon fennel (saunf) powder 1 teaspoon curry powder or garam masala (I used both: a sweet, yellow curry powder, and a spicy garam masala) Curry sauce: 3 tablespoon ghee (used peanut oil) 2 bay leaves 2 cloves 4 green cardamoms 1 teaspoon black cumin seeds 1 teaspoon ginger paste 2 teaspoons garlic paste 1 onion grated 1 teaspoon red chilly powder ½ teaspoon turmeric powder ½ teaspoon cinnamon powder 2 teaspoons coriander powder 2 teaspoons cumin powder 4 large tomatoes pureed 4 cups chicken stock salt and sugar to taste 4 tablespoons fresh cream (used half-n-half, but more than 4 tbsp) Finely chopped cilantro for garnishing Making the meatballs is just a matter of mixing and forming them, and then refrigerating them. The sauce is simple, even if there are a lot of ingredients. - Fry the ghee/oil with the first four ingredients to bring their aroma out, 10 seconds. - Add onion, garlic, ginger, release liquid and brown, 10 min. - Add rest of spices, 2 min. - Add tomatoes, simmer for 10-15 minutes (I used chopped, canned tomatoes -- if you used pureed tomatoes it would take less time) -- I also used an electric handblender to smooth it out some. - Add chicken stock, salt, sugar, simmer 5 min or until combined. - Add meatballs, cover and simmer 20 minutes. I removed the cover and let it simmer for 10 min towards the end to reduce the sauce a little. - Add cream/half-n-half/milk - Garnish with chopped cilantro, serve. My thoughts on the dish: It was very good, but there was a sharp, bitter taste that struck me as slightly vinegary. There are so many spices in this dish that it is hard to discern what caused it, but I suspect the green cardamom pods. The seductive sweetness that I initially thought came from coconut milk was from the cloves, cinnamon and sugar. The dish had that really great curry aroma which lingered wonderfully in the kitchen. The leftovers smells fantastic too. The meatballs had a very solid texture. I was considering adding grated/minced (and drained) onions for additional flavor, as well as some finely grated breadcrums, but decided against it for the first try. Next time I'll definitely do that, because these meatballs can easily handle it.

Beeing mean, condescending, or just plain high maintenance to the waitstaff. It is said that a society can be judged by how it treats its weakest and poorest, and I think the same goes for a person. Oh, and eating with your mouth open or talking with food in your mouth. And most of all, if you've gotta yawn, cover your mouth -- doesn't matter if you've got food in your piehole or not; what are you, a goddamn horse? I hear neighing sounds when I see people do that. I've been tarred with the label "mean" merely for throwing stuff in a woman's mouth when yawning. All I was trying to do, is make her a better person.

London Broil is also a dish, rather than a cut. But supermarkets (at least here in California) sell cuts labelled London Broil. I've not seen cuts sold as Osso Bucco in regular stores, but I have seen it in slightly more upscale markets, and with some pretty hefty price tags.

Thanks for the links. The recipe I used, I have no idea about... It's so long since I did this, and I hadn't yet started keeping good records of source materials for recipes at that point...

Tom Yum soup with chicken. And noodles. Turned out really good, in spite of some mistakes. But man, this thing was downright traumatic to make. It seems other south east Asian soups get more attention than this thing, because I had problems finding a recipe for it. I only heard about it from some travel show from Thailand, where this soup was cooked by an old lady on a little boat who operated like some kinda street (river) vendor. It seemed so simple and fresh that I had to try it. I searched around for recipes, but this was a while ago, and I hadn't gotten into the good habit of taking detailed notes on recipes after trying them out... So this time, I was going by a recipe that was OBVIOUSLY incomplete, or incorrect. WAY too little liquid, so I had to add lots of water -- I had NO idea what I did the last time... I think this just freaked me out, because I was just completely on tilt after that. Forgetting all sort of stuff. Forgot to add kaffir lime leaves. Forgot the green onions. Decided to add bean sprouts to the recipe, and got the bean sprouts -- but forgot to add them too. It's a bloody miracle the thing tasted even half decent. Me and Bob Villa: happy freakin' accidents. Oh yeah, and I forgot the lime juice too -- remembered it after plating it, and added it then. And of course -- this being an Asian Noodle Soup cook-off, I guess I just couldn't resist screwing the noodles up too, so I cooked them way too soon, and left them around until they congealed into a massive, solid lump that I had to stab at like Norman Bates in order to get them into the soup bowls. I should have used red chilis instead of green, too... But seeing all these excellent soups here, I reckon I'll have another stab at an Asian noodle soup, though. Fantastic work.

If hotdogs really do represent, or reflect that whole "on the go"-aspiration, how come most fast food restaurants don't serve them? Edit: Heh, cool -- the Wikipedia entry on hotdogs sports a picture with this byline: "A deep fried, bacon wrapped "Jersey Breakfast" dog from Amazing Hot Dog in Verona, New Jersey. Photo courtesy of Jason Perlow (jason@egullet.org)"

I will never again feel smug about my superior choice of coffee, looking down my nose at my co-workers' plebeian tastes as they huddle around that gritty old coffee machine -- and not pay attention as I push down on my fancy-pants French press, after having ground the beans too fine so they clog up the filter... *CLOINK* *SPLOITSCH* and I'm all covered in coffee, and very finely ground, superior gourmet coffee beans.

I think I'd like a long, slow, multi-course dinner with Escoffier and Ron Popeil. Imagine the conversation. It'd rule. I think I'd want some Thai or Indian food for that one. Escoffier fiddled around with canning and suchlike I think, innovating thing. I would expect Popeil to show Escoffier that "Hair in a spraycan" thing he's got, to cover up bald spots -- I can visualize Escoffier declaring Popeil a genius over that one. And then a late night snack with Ingrid Newkirk and Hitler. Just some peanuts and celery sticks, I expect -- and we'd get stoned and watch Iron Chef together, and they could explain that vegetarianism thing to me.

Flay, Bighead, Rayray and Mario -- are you kidding me?! That's gonna be a fantastic episode!! . . . ... just as long as someone slips Mario some PCP before the show, so he goes insane and beats the other three to death with one of his clogs.

Coke & peanuts -- still do it to this day. It's weird, but there's something odd about the salt of the peanuts that does something...

Well, I'm in on this one! These cook-offs were one of the first things that really fired me up, when I discovered egullet, and I'm always kicking myself for not taking part more often. I'd love doing Tampopo's ramen -- but unlike Bend It Like Beckham, the DVD doesn't have a special feature with a little cooking show... I've never done Asian noodles before. How about some good recipes, please? I was planning on a Tom Yum soup this Sunday, but I'd much rather make it a noodle soup. And oh yeah -- what's the difference between Asian noodle soups, and Asian non-noodle soups (like Tom Yum)?

I think that's a great question. I realize that you might ask the rhetorically, and hold the opinion that slow cooked, smoked BBQ is NOT a waste of time -- but I do think that slow cooked, smoked BBQ COULD be a complete and utter waste of time... If I can get the same result in two hours, of COURSE I'll do that, rather than the 18-hour process! Even if the result isn't quite the same, the tradeoff for a shorter cooking time might still be well worth it. Imagine a Pepsi challenge -- a blind taste test. Everyone's got different tastes and preferences... Remeber that Iron Chef judge who said the fish was over-cooked -- only she didn't know anything about sous vide... Should your knowledge of the cooking method guide your likes and dislikes? I don't think so. That sounds like hype to me. And please correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand you need some kinda vacuum packing machinery to do this?! Yeah right -- I mean, that's an alarm bell going off right there, dude. I'm thinking, hey, make sure you pick something that matches the color of that fondue set in the back of the cupboard, so they'll look nice together. Unless Alton Brown shows me how to sous vide shit with ziplock bags and a bicycle pump, I think I'll wait that one out... Oh, and next time I overcook something, I'll shout that it's sous vide goddamnit, and why don't you fuck off and get a BigMac instead, you blinkered, Philistine pig-ignorant non-culinary garbage!~

This article seems to claim that women are twice as likely to lie about cooking than men. Methinks this observation might be somewhat flawed, seeing that there is still a greater expectation for women to be able to cook, than men... If no one expects us guys to be able cook, it's easier for us to admit we bought something. But I've never lied about that -- couldn't see myself doing it, ever. I HAVE occasionally bought starters or breads or even side dishes for a meal, but never had the urge to try take credit for it. At most, I've been annoyed if the purchased stuff turned out to be better than what I made myself, and then swore to figure out how to cook the stuff myself...

I read that the placement of the seam is an indication of its origin -- seam along the bottom: Cornish pasty. Seam along the top: Devon pasty. I have no idea about other differences between the two, but I've seen both in England.

Hey, thanks for giving us a wonderful insight into your line of work. When I started reading this thread, I thought it sounded like a dream job -- until I saw the words, "no one came home..." Whoa, that's gotta hurt. How often does that happen? Another thing -- why do kids and adults eat different meals? How much does that add to the complexity of the job?

Someone started a thread here not too long ago, about the delights of Jamaican beef patties, and where do you buy it? So I looked around for recipes, and made some, with beef and habaneros -- I guess that shoulda been Scotch bonnets, but it's been localized. As had the beef, I reckon -- on Jamaica that'd probably be goat. Fair enough. But when I finished the damn things, I looked at them and thought, "Wait a minute, those are Cornish pasties!" My wild guess is, Cornish pasties moved from England to Jamaica, adopted local ingredients, and then moved to the US, or started selling to the US market, and adopted ingredients that'd be more popular there. So uh, that's one: the Jamaican Beef Patty.

Sorry to butt in here, but do you know if these kind of records are kept (online) for other areas of the country? In particular, California (or the Sacramento area specifically).

Language is a work in progress. There are plenty of words that came into existance simply because of incorrect use -- but were later accepted as proper. Maybe McD is just on the liguistic cutting edge?

I've definitely made this dish with regular stewing pork, like you did. But I did cut it up, like I do with any stew. I prefer the pieces to be 1-bite sizes, or basically small enough that you can fit a piece of meat, and something else -- veggies, sauce, whatnot -- onto your fork. And I think my total cooking time would tend to be far closer to 3 hours, than 2. Between 3 and 4, in fact. Those are the two things (that I can think of) that may have attributed to the meat being tough. I'm confused how the water in the sauce could re-hydrate the meat... The meat shouldn't be de-hydrated at all, seeing that this is a braised/stewed dish. But the Vindaloo definitely CHANGES once it becomes leftovers, though. The flavors seem to mix together even better, and also, the spiciness mellows a lot. I've seen people say that it tastes better as leftover, and I would tend to agree -- except I did not like what happened to it, after I froze it... Oh, one thing about the sauce -- you said you had a lot of it? Well, that happened to me a few times also, so what I did, was to remove the lid during the end of the cooking process, to just let the sauce reduce and concentrate. Seemed to work very well. Just to be sure about the Bhuna business: there are four separate stages: - Add meat, cook till dry, uncovered, stirring. - Add marinade, cook till dry, uncovered, stirring. - Add cup of water, cook till dry, uncovered, stirring. - Add enough water to cover meat, cover with lid. At end of process, remove lid and let thicken. Stir occasionally.

What Chris said -- great post. I shudder to think of bacon at $80 a pound!

Sandgaw, thanks for the kind words! I'm extremely sorry that the meat turned out so tough -- perhaps we can find a reason why this happened, or if not, I'm sure that if chicken is used with the same cooking process, it will turn out better. First off, no, the wok doesn't weigh 45 lb at all -- that was a mistake on my part, but after a certain period (24 hrs I think), you cannot edit your own posts anymore on this board. In fact, I made TWO mistakes there -- not only is the weight completely off, I didn't even mean the wok -- I ment the mortar... Duh. The mortar is a Thai style thing (like Jamie Oliver's). The mortar/pestle probably weighs around 10 lb. The wok isn't particularly heavy at all -- just an average cheap, metal wok. Sorry about that. For the color of the sauce, I THINK that one of the important things, is to be real patient with the onions, and let them go TRULY golden in color. For me, this can take as much as 20 minutes, to get them truly dark and golden. The "mild-at-first" and then "sneaking-up-on-you" is very typical for good, spicy Indian food, I think. Thai grabs your attention from the first spoonfull, but Indian food just builds up slow. Don't get me wrong, I love Thai food, but this neat build-up of flavor and spiciness is something I really like about Indian food. It's subtle and complex. Now, the toughness of the pork, I'm somewhat at a loss about... The only thing that springs to my mind, is the lenght of the cooking process itself. I've used a few different cuts of pork for this dish, of various degrees of natural tenderness, and never had this problem. But the cooking process has tended to be pretty long -- about 3 hours in total. Effectually, you are braising the meat, in between the bhuna processes, and then you have a last cooking period after you cover the meat with water, that lasts around an hour, and all that cooking should make things very tender. Perhaps the size of the pork chunks had something to do with it? I tend to always cut it fairly small... Hope anyone else who've tried this can offer up some suggestions.