Margaret Pilgrim
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Posts posted by Margaret Pilgrim
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Anchovies. I just never use that many in a given time span, but they add so much to the savoury dishes in which I do use them . Why can't they sell then in some easily frozen format?
Won't anchovy paste in tubes do the trick for you?
Or anchovies in olive oil. They seem to last "forever", for better or for worse.
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I agree with Jaymes & annabelle, it's better to ditch old herbs and spices rather than use them. Taste a pinch of each, and if it's faded and dusty, throw it out. Perhaps the powers that be might be willing to spend some extra money & replenish your spice rack just this one time? It sounds like it will need it.
Green herbs, like dried oregano and thyme, taste faded even after 6 months. To best preserve herbs and spices, keep them in jars in a cool, dark place, like a cupboard. Spice racks on the wall are handy, but if the herbs and spices are exposed to heat and light they will expire even faster.
I couldn't agree more, but am also realistic on the expense of replacing a spice/herb collection. I remember being in a ski cabin and buying a small bottle of dried tarragon and having the other aa4 couples practically go on strike because of the unnecessary expense. Or the shock of stocking the kitchen when we bought a week-end place. It's not a small expenditure.
Maybe replace very basics, several each week?
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I agree with most of what you write, Chris. But trust in food sourcing is not too different from trust in most other sellers. The antique guy tells you that something is 18th Century. You believe him? Why? Or why not? You have a sense of his integrity.
You get a sense of the integrity of foodstuffs from certain growers, even certain areas. And one has a personal choice in deciding whether or not to consume factory farmed animals.
Perhaps honesty is the wrong word. There must certainly be honest factory farmed animals. But I need to make a conscious decision as to whether or not to eat these chickens or factory pork.
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Interestinly, just made it yesterday for husband's lunch. Had to pull out a book to re-enforce "how to". Was told to fry the cooked rice, then add separately scrambled egg and top with green onion. Worked quite well.
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I guess my question is "Bought what?" If it's cooked, then I really have to take the market's or producer's word for what's in it. It I put it together myself, I have better sense of what I'm eating or serving. Of course, unless I grow it myself, which I don't, I have to trust someone's certification as to where it is grown and whether it was grown with pesticides.Sheesh. I guess if you bought it at the market, it's dishonest food?
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We do.Do they locally source their firewood?
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For me, honest can be defined by my daily compost contributions: unusable skins, peels, pits, etc. I cook from scratch. Honest food, to me, is that that is created without resort to anything prepared, packaged, canned, frozen, precombined...you get the picture. Stuff that came off the plant or animal or from the udder. Secondary stuff we made from the bean or bone or the milk or...
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As someone who grew up on the California central coast, garlic is synonymous with Gilroy. If is ain't from Gilroy, it ain't garlic. I am deeply insulted by Chinese garlic and refuse to buy it on both socio-economic and quality bases. I regularly go to produce managers and ask where the garlic was sourced. If China, I walk and tell him why, insisting that they return to local garlic.
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I would guess that "no flavor" and "taste(s) good" are in the cultural tastebud of the beholder.Why would one make something with no flavor? If you're going to make something for the texture, why not make it taste good in the process?
It also seems odd coming from a cuisine that uses pretty bold flavors most of the time.
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If quality is your issue, as in "this is good enough to give my kids", you can't buy preserves with more integrity than Pim's. Small batch, extraordinarily well sourced produce, and a perfectionist at the stove. Cannot buy better.
Someone else I trust and have bought lots from is Eva Gates on Flathead Lake in Montana. Amazing wild hucklebery jam. FYI, blackcap is like a blackberry. Also, sigh, amazing.
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I can't resist our midnight desperation solution from the era before we learned the words " heartburn" and "insomnia": onion puffs. Cut the crusts off Wonder bread. Chop up several slices of onion. Mix with mayo. Spread on bread. Broil until bubbly. Cut into squares and enjoy.
Oh, the joy of youth!
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I will vouch for your recipe, Jaymes. It's a stunner. I used to make it with either Grand Marnier or Frangelico, both lovely. Thanks for the reminder.
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When you come right down to it, you can make salted butter caramel sauce in under 5 minutes, assuming you have sugar, butter and cream or even canned milk in the house. Ice cream and you're in big business. Bananas and you're sinful.
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Brilliant comments, Jaymes. I've been cooking for many decades, but when I am cooking for a group, dinner party, etc., I avoid like the plague anything that requires cooking at the last minute, other than just finishing off a dish that is well under way. Your best friends are braises or bakes, etc.
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Plain baked sweet potatoes are hugely popular in our house.
Indeed! And as mentioned before, excellent reheated for breakfast. My favorite farmer's market treat used to be a hot, baked sweet potato...until the board of health made my adorable seller stop bringing them because he didn't have a license to sell cooked food.
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Here is a really over-the-top instant dessert from David Lobovitz: Gruyere double cream on meringues. Only problem is sourcing the cream and having the meringues on hand. But once you find the one, it behooves one to stock the other.
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Toasted coconut sundae?
Spread out some flaked coconut on a baking sheet and broil for about half a minute. Move to a shallow bowl. Roll a scoop of vanilla ice cream in it. (If you can wait that long, move it to a nice dessert dish. If not...) Drizzle with decent or even Hershey's chocolate sauce.
I mean, this is FAST.
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Cut into wedges. Brush cut edges with olive oil, salt and pepper. Grill in grill pan or barbeque until somewhat colored. Serve with gribiche sauce.
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How about pumpkin lasagna? I'd heat some chopped garlic in oil, add some crushed sage, then mix in the pumpkin. Layer with lasagna noodles (vegan), drizzling each layer with browned "butter" (vegan margarine), ending with noodles. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and browned butter.
Or Thai-seasoned pumpkin soup: Saute some onions and garlic in oil, some Thai green curry paste, add pumpkin, heat and thin with coconut milk and vegetable broth (cubes or powder or your own). Serve with croutons, cubes of sauteed tofu and cubes or slices of sauteed sweet potato.
(In your shoes, I'd try to turn all (scrubbed) vegetable trimmings into broth.)
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....post the menu on a chalkboard and had the diners sign in until there was no more room at the inn....more than that, well they were welcome to the peanutbutter and jelly.
What a sensible solution to the "guess how many are coming to dinner" dilemma. It also gives the finicky the opportunity to join in on palatable sounding menues or forage for themselves.
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I have several times created separate and appropriate dishes to suit a diner's special "needs" at dinner parties only to have the person with restrictions ask for a "just a spoonful" of the majority plate "because it looks so good".
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This column really brings into very sharp focus for me a huge difference between young people today and those of several decades back. I don't know, I'm probably generalizing, and probably even wrong, but I doubt the percentage of people with genuine food issues, like celiacs, etc., has increased that much. But what has clearly increased is the percentage of people that adopt whatever food trend is currently in vogue. I remember a time when cooking for college kids meant one thing - did you make enough.
And you cooked for the group. If individuals didn't like this, or wouldn't eat that, or decided some other common ingredient was "poison" or "immoral" or "whatever," they were free to ignore it and move on. If they felt like nothing on offer was ever suitable for their consumption, and that they were somehow entitled to have everyone cater to their whims, they'd be left to their own devices.
Boy have times changed. Now everyone has demands and feels perfectly entitled in insisting upon them and getting upset and insulted when others don't see the brilliance and moral superiority of their culinary choices. And anyone that foolishly offers to help fulfill those choices soon finds themselves in the same thankless position as a short-order cook.
I'm really really happy that's not me. As I've said elsewhere, for at least twenty years, I routinely cooked for groups from 20-90 on a more-than-weekly basis. Naturally, I always made sure to have something for anyone that I knew had some sort of legitimate food issue, like an allergy, or religious dietary restrictions (see my thread about entertaining Iranian fighter pilots).
But catering to a bunch of picky eaters and entitled prima donnas would never have been manageable for me.
Amen, Sister!
FWIW, here is a recipe from the classic "Diet for a Small Planet" that has pleased even carnivores for decades, a casserole of brown rice, black beans, green chiles, ricotta, jack cheese, etc.. Wish I had some now...
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Oh, my! You take me back to Girl Scout camp where we dropped dollops of Dromedary gingerbread mix (prepared by instructions on the back of the package) into simmering applesauce. Can't remember what we called it, but I'm sure there was some camper name....And I love to just use applesauce over gingerbread, with or without additional whipped cream or ice cream, to make 'sundaes'.
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Aplets. That is the recipe I used because it simply called for unsweetened applesauce. I used 3/4 cup of walnuts instead of the called for 1/2 cup and when I make it again, I'll use a full cup of walnuts. Also I rolled the finished squares in confectioner's sugar with added cornstarch. Three hours later the squares are still dry and presentable.
Delicious. Well worth making. I'm really pleased with them.
Thanks so much for this treat from my childhood. Just last year I wandered into a Harry and David shop and asked the early 20-something salesclerk for Applets and Cotlets and was met by a stare of incomprehension such as one would get asking a Safeway butcher for a dinosaur steak.
Ingredients you always have...
in Food Traditions & Culture
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