Grub

Over in the excellent Dinner! thread, there are a lot of amazing pictures of some truly delicious looking meals. I've contributed enthusiastically to the thread, with mostly so-so pictures, but one or two that looked quite good. And a whole lot more that that once I saw them posted, I just had to wonder what on earth I was doing, posting these gratuitous reminders of horrible culinary failures... I wondered if there was a more suitable thread for such pictures -- a gallery of regrettable foods, or a hall of shame if you like. And a couple of posters responded, saying that we should have such a thread. So here goes... Middle Eastern Lamb, with couscous and some mint-cucumber-yogurt-tumeric relish: The colors are just horrible. The cut of meat was supposed to be a simple lamb chop, but I ended up with some odd thing (shoulder, I think) that contained a big bone and some smaller rib-like bones. The yogurt-tumeric-cucumber relish was used to brush the meat with, during the cooking process, and made it look even worse. This just looks extremely nasty. It didn't taste nasty, but it certainly wasn't great.

I don't know if there's a better thread for this one, like a gallery of regrettable foods or a hall of shame, but oh boy, I just had to share this one... It's so bad, I'm feeling ill just looking at the picture. I'm a freakin' snuff food pornographer. It's a grilled, Middle Eastern Lamb, with couscous and some mint-cucumber-yogurt-tumeric relish. I always like to use cuts with bone, for grilling, but this lamb chop turned out to be horrible. Some kinda shoulder cut or whatnot. I didnt' even have the good sense to cut off that dingly bit with the rib-like bones in it. And obviously, I made no thoughts as to presentation until the last moment -- the colors are just unnervingly bad. If I'd thought about it, and at least gotten some tomatoes, it wouldn't look quite so horrible.

Hey, Ducksredux -- I came across a recipe on the beeb website, for a Duck Vindaloo, which made me think of you: Madhur Jaffrey's Duck Vindaloo with Spinach, Ginger and Green Chillies Of course, with the result I had with Waaza's Vindaloo recipe, I think I'd much rather try his Duck Vindaloo recipe, even over Jaffrey's -- but I think she knows her way around a kitchen too, heheh. At any rate, whatever you try, report back okay? Cheers.

I finally saw an episode of "Good Deal with Dave Lieberman" the other day, which really was quite good. No silly gimmicks or grating "personality" quirks like maniacal grinning or giggling or catchphrases etc. He occasionally sports a crooked, nearly leering smile, but I think that's just cause he's nervous during his first few shows... He would occasionally try to do something, and then give up, and perform the task in a different way, and even seem to space out and get sidetracked about things... This was really refreshing, because it made the show seem spontaneous and genuine. I like him. If he could just get a rolling pin and give rayray and Sandra Lee a good beating, I'd really love him.

Not the best looking picture, but this was extremely tasty. Salmon fillet brushed with a mixture of olive oil, orange zest, ginger, crushed green peppercorns and salt, grilled over coals -- with zuccini and squash. And some hollandaise sauce. Got some good grill marks, too. It's really strange how the sauce looks completely pale on the salmon, but much darker and red, on the plate... I guess that's what digital photography does for ya, uh?

With the food network's reality show -- The Next Food Celebrity Chef or whatever it was -- they focused on how a good food celebrity had to have a gimmick of some sorts... They had a really hot blonde who was acting like a complete ditz (because that's what blondes do), an obese, jovial (because that's what fat people are like), rapping black man (because black people rap, see?) but of course, being so radically original in their programming, they settled on two gay guys. Man, how DO they come up with these wild ideas? Uh, then I thought -- what would RR's gimmick be, if she was on that show? 1) She giggles a whole lot. 2) She can carry a whole bunch of stuff at the same time. Brilliant.

Cab Burger: I saw people on this board talking about a burger made with minced shallots reduced in some red wine, so I figured I'd give it a go... This is quite a decent burger, if you like your burger well done. I intentionally cooked it well done, because it's supposed to stay moist, even if well done. Well, it definitely stayed moist. (And uh, my foodporn sucks, so I'm kinda proud of that picture... Purdy, ain't it?)

. . . well???... How'd it taste?!

Pork Vindaloo & Aloo Gobi

First time around, I used pork sirloin and it held up fine. I'm not certain, but I think a chop basically contain mostly the same meat -- if it's like beef, where a t-bone contains mostly sirloin, with a smaller portion of tenderloin. I used pork shoulder the second time around, and I think that's an ideal cut to use (except it's much more work to cut it up, since it has some sizeable bits of fat). Uh, having a Homer Simpson moment here -- I never even consider to look for "stewing pork." Pre-cut. That'd take a lot of work out of the process. D'oh. Medium-sized would be baseball/cricket ball-sized, methinks. And for the record, you defintely want to make sure you have leftovers... The flavor is so intense, and so damn amazing, it's unbelievable. Hell, next time I'll just cook the thing a day ahead and leave it in the fridge and serve it as leftovers.

Finally made another Vindaloo last night... Bad news, it wasn't as good as the first one, but good news is, I know what I did wrong, so I can correct it the next time around. As they say, the only chess matches you can learn from, are the ones you lose. Besides, I figure if I post my thoughts here, it might be helpful to others, to avoid these pitfalls. Here's the dish -- I aslo made some aloo gobi (taters & cauliflower -- classic vegiterian dish) to go along with it, as I had a few more diners this time around (and wanted to stretch it out a little, so I'd have a chance to check out how the vindaloo would taste as leftovers, heheh). Well, here it is: A minor mistake is that I wanted it to be less hot than the last time, so I used seven chilies (dry ones, very strong) rather than ten. HOWEVER, since I also used considerably more meat (having more guests, and hoping for leftovers), this brought the heat down too far -- I'd guestimate that it was only about 1/3 as hot as the first one I made. A good vindaloo doesn't have to be super hot, but it has to have a certain heat to it, or else the whole thing just doesn't come through. This was a mild vindaloo. A slightly bigger mistake is that I didn't up the amount of onions enough, to compensate for the extra meat. As you can see from the picture, it is far drier than my first effort. A far bigger mistake is that I took a break from stirring at JUST the wrong moment, and the dish got burned. The recipe goes through four stages where it is simmering/braising in the liquids (first from water released from the onions, then in water released from the meat, then in the marinade, and finally in added water) -- but after each of these stages, it goes into the "dry" frying, or bhuna stage, and during those stages, you have to stir constantly... I left the pot just as it hit this bhuna stage, and it got kinda burned. Not enough to really wreck the dish, but it imparted a darker flavor, that was particularly noticable because of the lack of spiciness. So if you make this dish, pay attention to the evaporating liquids: when the water has steamed off, and the only liquids left are oils, keep stirring, stirring... A final problem was the timing... With the extra onions and meat added, the dish took considerably longer to cook, because it took longer to braise and steam off the water, and getting to the bhuna stage. Edit: I just realized I made another mistake... One of the bhuna stages in the original recipe says to "add some water," and the next to add enough water or stock to cover the meat. Instead, I basically skipped the penultimate bhuna stage, and jumped ahead to the last one, but didn't add anywhere near enough water to cover the meat. This definetely had an impact on the tenderness, the flavor, and the much drier end result. I'm even more impressed with this recipe, now. You need to be on your toes, and follow it precisely, because it is so perfectly balanced that if you miss anything or do things differently, it WILL have an impact. It's an extremely detailed recipe, but it needs to be so. Oh yeah, and damnit, I screwed up and forgot to add the cilantro (coriander leaves). Damnit! I hate missing those things. I even made a note about chopping the cilantro up much more than I did the last time. Ugh. Well, in spite of my obsessive self-critique, the dinner went off very well. People loved it, and ate unbelievable amounts of it -- I only got about a cup and a half worth of leftovers. Well, a cup and a half of the vindaloo -- there's tons left of the aloo goobi, so there was defintely a preference amongst the guests, hehehe.

I'm with SuzySushi on this one. Indian food uses a much more complex mixture of spices than any other food I've cooked. Wtih Thai food, you can make out the individual spices and flavorings that went into the dish (and that's perfectly wonderful, of course), whereas with Indian food, there tends to be a lot more spices, and they work together to create a unique flavor that doesn't make any single ingredient stand out... Indian food is like a complicated balancing act, and I think you need to be very good to be able to wing it. I certainly can't handle it.

I spent half a year in Dublin, and had quote a few pints of the black stuff -- but I perfered both Beamish and Murphy's over Guiness. I've tasted all three in the US, and the only time I found a half decent pint of this, it was Murphy's. But then again, there are many microbreweries here that can produce a better pint of stout, than that (not better than anything served in Ireland, mind you). All that being said, the best pint of anything, that I had in Ireland was the stuff at the Dublin Microbrewery named "The Porter House." Absolutely fantastic.

You're a sensible person, that's what gives. Guinness doesn't taste right, outside of Ireland. It's a marketing thing -- the stuff isn't brewed by the same folks, or by the same methods, in the US.

Salmon steaks with orange-pineapple salsa: I normally do salmon fillets, but I heard steaks were better for grilling, since they have more uh, structural integrity... I'm sure that's true -- but not if you skin and debone it, duh. The steaks separated into two separate pieces (which makes sense, if you look at a steak). I tied a butcher's twine around the steaks, as per instructions, and one held up fine, but the other would never have stayed together on the grill. So I used a barbeque grilling grid, which worked fine. The first side got some extremely nice, charred grill-marks, but it was getting dark outside, so it looked completely black to me... So I moved it from the high-heat, to medium-heat area, but ended up leaving it too long. So that white goo started oozing out -- nothing harmful, but looks unpleasant, and a definite sign of over-cooking. Ah well, every mistake you make, is a chance to learn something, I figure.

Awesome, I'm stoked you liked it! I'm eagerly awaiting for the summertime heat to die down here, so I can try it again. Couple of questions: what kind of vinegar did you use, and how did the color of your dish compare to mine?

Now that is a completely unfair comparison! If pro wrestling was anything like Sandra Lee's show, it would consist mostly of drunken midget luchadors lighting their own farts and telling knock-knock jokes. (Okay, that might not be such a good joke, seeing that there's probably a fair chance Vince McMahon has used this in a storyline at some point...) I still see Sara Moulton's show -- I thought that was supposed to be cancelled? Or are those just repeats?

Okay, now it's getting weird... The article doesn't mention the source, but just quotes "Researchers in the U.S." saying they uh, have the technology to create burgers and sausages from cells taken from cows, chicken, pigs, fish or other animals. I'd be rather dubious about eating this stuff (as I figure most people would be), but taking some pride and/or having a chip on my shoulder about being a logical, rational kinda dude, I'd hate to be a culinary luddite. So I guess I'd eat it... What about vegitarians and vegans, though? There was a thread about vegans and honey recently, that focused on the ethical reasons for veganism. I'm not sure what the predominant justification for vegan or vegitarian diets are -- health reasons, ethics, or just pure preference... But for those who have ethical qualms about eating meat, wouldn't such test-tube be a solution?

According to this Reuters article, Laura Bush has hired the White House's first female head chef, Cristeta Comerford -- who held the position as Assistant White House chef for the last decade.

Tuna (albacore) brushed with teriyaki sauce and grilled, scallions, rice and a peanut sauce (brown) and curry sauce (yellow). Interesting combination -- the recipe just called for the peanut sauce, but felt creative and I mixed together some blonde roux, cream, milk, sweet curry powder and some spicy paprika... Turkey burgers, stuffed with a blue cheese-basil (and a bunch of other stuff, I forget exactly what -- garlic, ginger, I think) -- hence the minimalistic approach with the garnishes -- tomatoes and spinach only. "Sezchuan" chicken. Marinated and grilled. Spicy red cabbage coleslaw, rice and roasted, crushed peanuts.

Love 'em. In salads, but particularly on pizzas. I read somewhere, that this was "the" original pizza topping... Great little fishies.

I read an article about US special forces soldiers in Afghanistan who in order to blend in, had abandoned their uniforms with local garb, and their MRIs for local cuisine. And then they inadvertently offended their host when they asked for a piece of chicken to be cooked all the way through, seeing that the center was completely raw. Their host just didn't understand what the problem was. Obviously, these guys are used to eating raw or partially uncooked chicken all the time. So I'm wondering, how dangerous is it really? Could it be that it's just your traditional, western food-hysteria at work here? Or could the (typcally factory-raised type of) chickens eaten in the west be more prone to being dangerous, compared to the ones eaten in less developed countries?

Dude, you inspired me... For some reason, what you said never registered with me -- but I DID notice that there were no hard-boiled eggs in your Cobb salad... I figured hey, maybe he doesn't like it. It's not as if you have to totally follow the recipe, anyhow. Right. Then, as I sat there, it just dawned on me -- I forgot the blue freakin' cheese! Argh! I mean, the salad is fine without eggs I'm sure, but the cheese, that lovely blue cheese, that brings a LOT to it. D'oh! Oh well...

Very cool, that sounds like a great idea. I used to experiment with this -- a lot. I found that the "snob" version with Cointreau instead of plain Tripple Sec had little effect, and even that using a "normal" tequilla worked as well as using a light/clear one. But I found a huge difference when I subbed the sour mix for a freshly squeezed orange-lemon mixture. LIIT: Mix equal parts of vodka, gin, rum, tequilla, tripple sec, freshly squeezed orange juice, freshly squeezed lemon juice in a shaker with ice, and shake violently. Pour into a glass filled with ice, and top with Coke. Stir gently. Then, have a friend pin a $20 bill and a note with your address on it, to the back of your coat. Wish for the best.

i find it odd that someone in the broadcasting business for that long would characterize someone as successful as Rachael Ray as "stupid". ← My thoughts exactly. ← While my objections mostly run along the lines of her being an annoying bint, I hardly think that success automatically proves that a person cannot be stupid.