Grub

The TV comedy-commentary show "The Soup" makes fun of various TV shows, and did a little bit on Iron Chef -- obviously, it was a non-foodie "outsiders" look at things, taken out of context, but this little bit was very funny. They basically accused the show of coming up with bad Asian stereotypes, and showed a few examples of it, and finished by playing the Iron Chef commentary on a chicken dish that used a sauce made of miso and honey... Miso honey... Oh dear. I saw that show, and never batted an eye.

Only slightly less known than Cinco de Mayo, there's Syttende Mai -- the Norwegian national day, May 17. And seeing that kjøttkaker (meatcakes) is the unofficial Norwegian national dish, I figured it'd be appropriate. The kjøttkake has a very gentle touch of spices that can include nutmeg, ginger or even allspice. I dropped the ginger, but added some paprika. It is served with boiled potatoes, veggies (carrots and peas are typical), melted butter with pan scrapings, or a thick brown sauce (again, with pan scrapings) and is typically served with sauerkraut or cranberry sauce -- or both. The dish is both served as a formal Sunday dinner, and a casual weekday meal -- one usually follows the others, as it makes for great leftovers. The recipe: 1 lb 10 % lean beef 1 tsp salt 1 tsp pepper 1 tsp paprika 1/4 tsp Jamaican allspice 1/4 tsp nutmeg 1 egg 2 1/2 tbsp flour 1/2 cup cream And for the sauce: 2 tbsp minced onions, 2 tbsp butter, 3 tbsp flour, 1 tsp paprika, dash Worcestershire sauce, salt & pepper for seasoning. When you mix the beef, add the cream gradually, to get the right consistency -- you don't want it to get too loose. The patties should be about 2-2 1/2 inches across, and slightly less than an inch thick -- think of it as the beautiful lovechild of a meatball and a hamburger patty. Yeah, baby. Uffda. Oh yeah, the most important thing about this recipe is to make a wild exaggeration about how much is likely to be eaten, and then quadruple it. These babies make awesome sandwich toppings: Drop a couple of lettuce leaves on a nice slice of bread, add half a kjøttkake, and -- if you're doing it warm, top off with the brown sauce, or some caramelized onions -- or if you're doing it cold, add a good mustard of your choice (but nothing too spicy, or it would overwhelm the gentle flavor). They're typically made in cast-iron pans, but a wok does the job too -- the main thing to avoid is a no-stick pan -- you want them pan drippings fer the sauce (besides, a wok reduces the splattering). If you're making a big batch, you can always pour the drippings off as you go and set it aside, to avoid over-browning it. The cakes were cooked over medium/med-high heat. The sauce was prepared in a separate saucepan, and pan dripping were occasionally added to it -- but after everything was cooked, I dumped the content into the wok, and finished the sauce there -- which is why the finished sauce is much darker. Voila, kjøttkaker i brun saus -- meatcakes in brown sauce. I need to check out the plating course, I know... My excuse is, this is simple food, so that fancy-pants French decorative nonsense has no place here! ::makes Mario Batali impersonation:: Didya know, the nickname for Merseyside Liverpoodlians, "Scouser" comes from Lob Scouce -- or Lapskaus, a stew spread around the world by Norwegian sailors?

I read in a cookbook once that it keeps "virtually forever" (a Deborah Madison one, I think). I have a tub in my fridge that I've had for 6 months (opened), and it still tastes ok to me. ← Thanks very much!

Thank you very much! I don't have a particularly low heat tolerance, but I thought exactly the same thing myself, because it has an excellent taste -- however, I'm not completely sure how it could be done... You'd have to create your own green chili paste (which is where the most of the heat comes from). I don't see any good way of eliminating the fish sauce (it doesn't have any heat on its own, but it has a really severe taste, but adds a lot to the meal, taste-wise). On the other hand, it might be as simple as reducing the amount of green chili paste. I guess I'll either do this, or try creating my own green chili paste, the next time. If I do, I'll be sure to add the resulsts here.

Just to be sure -- I didn't place the filet inside a foil pouch. I placed some tinfoil on the grill, away from the coals and oiled it, then I put the fillet on that.

"Wok & Stir-fry, Fabulous Fast Food with Asian Flavors" -- Green Shrimp Curry, p. 70. This is an amazingly quick meal, and has a fantastic taste, but you'd better be lovin' hot food, to wrangle with this one... This is a kinda "low production value" book. In the credit section, it states that the front cover shows "Crispy Chinese Spriing Rolls" (sic), but in spite of being the sort of book you'll find in the bargain basket, it has a lot of good recipes. Four comments: -- This one is VERY spicy, so I advice you leave the chilies on the side. -- I used a little extra coconut milk since the dish is so hot, but this left the green color of the sauce quite pale, and less appetizing. Can't be helped, I don't think -- unless I'm to add food coloring. -- The sauce was quite thin, and I might consider adding a cornstarch-water slurry to thicken it. -- I prefer to use lemongrass paste, rather than the actual stalks, which the original recipe calls for. 2 tbsp green curry paste 1 lb jumbo shrimp 4 shredded kaffir live leaves 2 tbsp lemongrass paste 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk 2 tbsp fish sauce 1/2 English cucumber, cut into thin batons (original recipe just calls for a regular cucumber, seeded -- but the English cucumber is far better, I think, and doesn't really need to be seeded). 10-15 basil leaves 4 sliced green chilies (I used two jalapenos and two small Thai chilies -- next time, I'll go all Thai, because they had a citrus-like flavor in addition to the heat, which really complemented to dish). A lime. 1. Start off by frying the curry paste. 2. Add shrimp, kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass, fry for a couple of minutes, until the shrimp starts turning pink. 3. Add coconut milk, and bring to a boil -- let simmer for about 5 minutes. 4. Add fish sauce, cucumber and basil. 5. Serve over rice, with chilies on the side, and a lime slice.

Fish steaks are said to be easier to grill than fillets, since fillets can fall apart a lot easier. But I've never had any problems with fillets, as long as I grill them over "indirect" heat heat -- that is, put the coals to one side, and place the fillets on tinfoil (well oiled), away from the coals, and put the lid on the grill. How did the panko play into your recipe, did you just satee them separately, and add lemon zest and rosemary to it, and drizzle it over the salmon after cooking?

I'm completely mesmerized by that dog's expression. It's so -- what's the word? -- forlorn? Poor pooch. That's a great picture...

Cod cakes with asparagus and creamed potatoes with chives. Also added some wasabi sauce and sushi-style pickled ginger to the cakes, in an inspired moment of fusion/confusion cooking... Turned out really nice. Edit: including the recipe, per request... It's from Land O' Lakes Treasury of Country Recipes, 1992, p. 216: "Codfish Cakes Wtih Green Onions & Dill," and the original recipe goes like so: 1 lb fresh or frozen cod fillets, thawed, drained 2 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs 1/4 cup chopped green onions 2 egggs, slightly beaten 1/2 tsp salt 1/4 tsp dill weed 1/4 tsp pepper 1 tbsp lemon juice 1/4 cup butter However, the first time I made it, I found the cakes to be too dry, and dense -- most likely because I used purchased breadcrumbs, and those things are NOT coarse. So I reduced this to 1 cup. Also, I used more dill, green onions and pepper than recommended (I mean, what effect is a freakin' quarter teaspoon of pepper going to have in all that stuff?), and also added a fair bit (teaspoon+) of cayenne pepper to give it a kick... I just think crab cakes/cod cakes should have a kick, you know? The recipe suggests that you should "...tear the codfish apart with a fork or mallet..." but as much fun as that was, the food processor did a much better job of it. Finally, to ensure a really crispy texture, I ran some corn flakes through the food processor, and dipped the cakes in that, just before frying them. Oh, and I used half olive oil, half butter. Question: Am I alone in defacing cookbooks with notes? Whenever I cook something, I jot down notes about how the dish was, warnings about mistakes I made, and suggestions on how to improve it.

Indian food. First curry I tasted, I thought the food was bad -- like, rotten. Refused to eat it. This was in college, and since students ate in cheap Indian restaurants all the time (the other alternative being English food at the student hall), I eventually grew to love it. Indian became my fave "ethnic" food, in all its wonderful variety...

That looks excellent! I've made similar things, but never considered making my own bread though -- very cool.

Oh dear. Well I'll that as good advice and avoid the semantics of it... (Maybe I missed something in the posting guidelines -- no religion, no politics, and no absolutely kebab terminology!~ Hehehe.) Let us know how it turned on -- and what kind of skewers you're using -- flat or round ones. Would very much like to know what recipe you're using.

A buddy of mine is a poster child for the Carl's Jr slogan, "Without Us, Some People Would Starve." He just can't cook -- he can't even grill/BBQ stuff. It's tragic. When he hooks up with a girlfriend, he gets homecooked meals. But other than that, it's fast food -- Carl's Jr. It struck me, that although most people can go without sex, none can go for very long without food. Why Cook? Because it's the difference between getting your nuts off with someone you love, and care about -- as opposed to paying for it, whether it's a high-priced Michelin star-graded hooker, or a cum-burping gutterslut fast-food joint.

Sish Kebab is of marinated chunks of lamb grilled on a round skewer, whereas Seekh Kebab is ground lamb, and generally much spicier than Sish -- and grilled on a wide, flat skewer. Marinated chicken chunks are grilled on the same skewers as Sish Kebab, but are known as Chicken Tikka Kebab. As far as keeping the minced meat on the skewer -- it's pretty tricky... But if you get some wide skewer, pack the meat on very hard, avoid too much liquid in the mixture -- and chill the kebabs before grilling them, it'll help. Also, make sure to let the grill heat up properly, AND to oil it, before putting the kebabs down.

Question: how long does this miso paste last? I got this a couple of months ago, used it once, kept in the fridge. There are no expiration dates on it. There's a clear "cling-wrap" seal (broken of course, since I've used it) over the top, in case that looks odd.

DL ain't demi-litre. It means deciliter, as in decimal -- one tenth. 1 dl is 0.42268 cups. 2dl = 0.85 cup, or a little more than 3/4 of a cup, like 6/7th. 1/3 cup = 0.79 dl Ain't youse all gone metric and stuff yet? Doh, I spent half an hour calculating stuff & trying to be clever, instead of providing a sensible answer. Oh well. I'm sure we'll all go metric one day -- inch by inch.

Murgh Makhoni (Butter Chicken) from Betty Crocker Indian Home Cooking. With "festive" rice, nan and limes. It was quite good, but not great. Good excuse to use some fenugreek leaves -- that bag is gonna last me a lifetime... The festive rice is just regular rice, but a few spoonfuls have been set aside and treated with red and yellow food coloring. The first time I did this, I screwed it up and ended up coloring all the rice with both colors, turning it deep amber -- but I still learned something from it: no one believed that it was regular, plain, non-flavored rice... I knew visual appearance is important in a meal, but I had no idea it could have such an enormous impact on how diners percieve their experience. It's a nice way to jazz up this fairly boring looking meal.

I know this is said in jest, but there's a LOT of truth to it... Having control of one's life (whether in significant, or as in this seemingly insignificant way) makes people happy. This salt issue is just a variant of Mongolian BBQ Syndrome -- the satisfaction people feel from being able to completely control what goes into a meal, makes them chow down on gruel that they'd otherwise revolt against, had they been served it off a straight menu. It's a total control issue. I don't mean to insult anyone by saying this -- I only realized this, because I used to create some pretty nasty plates myself... I think more bad dishes have been eaten in Mongolian BBQs around the world, than in all other restaurants combined -- and the customers were perfectly happy, too. By adding something to a meal, you ARE effectively criticizing the cook. (Whether the cook takes offence or not, is an entirely different issue. Eating sushi, I've broken more rules of culinary etiquette than Jeffrey Dahmer, but I've yet had anyone admonish me for it -- of course, that's a cultural issue, but so is MBS). Whether you're adding salt, pepper, or garlic -- or thickening up the sauce with some cornstarch doesn't really matter. You're effectively saying that this meal isn't to your liking, but your modifications will make it so. And that is perfectly fine, as long as you're willing to stand up and say that most restaurants do not salt their meals properly (as opposed to just bringing salt along, because of a "control issue.") Personally, I think that occasionally, a restaurant meal might not be properly salted. But it might as well be over-salted, as under-salted. So carrying salt around is only going to solve half of those problems. Furthermore, if there really is something wrong with a meal, the amount of salt isn't always going to be the problem -- there could be lots of other things wrong with it -- and again, carrying salt isn't going to resolve those problems. To salt every meal, is clearly a control issue. It's like going to concerts bringing your own cello, because in your opinion, symphonic orchestra just don't emphasize it enough... Oh, it needs more cow bell

Bob, I'm not certain, but this does remind me of something Bill Bryson would cover... Could it be "Made in America," or possibly, "The Mother tongue" ?

A recent episode of American Iron Chef had a lot of lively debate about a dish, and differing opinions during the tasting session. It remained civilized though, until someone said, "could you please pass the salt?" -- at which point the other judges collectively groaned, as if to express dismay with this far too cruel comment. The chef's shoulders just sagged. If a restaurant doesn't know how to prepare food to your liking, it must surely be a bad restaurant -- a cheap, crummy restaurant, I would think... Now, Iron Chef -- that's different. A good restaurant should be able to prepare a dish superbly, and thus "pass the salt" would be an insult. McDonalds supplies condiments, and well, it isn't a very good restaurant -- but anything beyond that, you'd think a reasonable eating establishment should be able to prepare a good meal that can be enjoyed "as is" ? I've just got bad memories of dining in Europe with a friend who'd never been abroad before, and had brought her own spice-mix, that she kept putting on every goddamn dish she ate. People though she had some sort of medical condition, or severe allergy, cause it looked like she was decontaminating the meal before digging in.

I never understood the restaurant-style super-hot method of cooking steaks, with 1000F+ temperatures... Last time I had a fillet mignon at Morton's it was charred like hell on the outside, and a lot less than medium-rare on the inside -- I mean, the outside bits were just unpleasant... When cooking a steak, why not just do it in a simple frying pan, over medium-high heat? Simple Steak au Poivre recipe comes out perfect every time this way, medium-rare.

How 'bout meatballs? Thai, Chinese, Italian, Swedish -- talk about international cuisine...

Go EASY on you? Good grief, that is fantastic; way beyond anything I've ever done (although I'm a newbie to egullet myself). That looks truly inspiring. Well done! What else went into those rolls?

Seekh Kebabs with yogurt-honey-mint-dash o' cayenne pepper-sauce, cabbage 'n red onions, nan.

While the Jeffrey Dhamers of this world may start out with cruelty to amimals, a kid poking a fish with a stick may be more the result of a lack of understanding, than inherent cruelty. That an animal can feel pain, and has emotions, and should be treated with consideration and respect can be every bit has hard to grasp for a kid who's never thought much about animals before, as it would be for a kid reared on Disney movies, to accept that it's okay to eat Bambi's mom, and that lions and tigers are dangerous, unpredictable animals... That Australian chew-toy tourist jumping the barriers at an Anchorage zoo to get a closer look at Binky the polar bear, and Linda McCartney (de mortuis nil nisi bonum, my anus) coming home for some tasty lambchops, but taking the family vegitarian cause she spotted some cute little lambs during their pre-dinner stroll -- shows a complete detachment from the realities of nature. Slaughter isn't every pretty, and is certainly shocking for someone who's never seen it before. But to botch it, obviously, there's no excuse for that...