Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Food shmooze
No matter what topic we start with, talk will turn eventually to food (happens on Rex's xword blog, too). Mac's mentioning of Grünkohl, Dutch version, in the "Hope won!" thread made not only my mouth water, but also that of another reader (see the first comment). So, let's move the food talk to this new thread and continue with politics on the preceding one (eventually, we'll have to create a new political thread, too. But as long as the old one stays "above the fold", I don't see the need for starting a new one).
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99 comments:
@artlvr Lucky you. When I get wired, I eat and between work and politics, I've put on a couple of pounds, and since now I'm going to try to recreate (and eat a good deal of) Mac's boerenkohl, I don't expect things to get better.
@Ulrich, Didn't you have a German comfort food thread at some point? I'd like to know about similarities between German, Dutch, and for that matter American comfort food. I don't think there is anything similar in American cooking to what Mac described. Is there anything similar in German cuisine, and if there is, could we open that discussion here or post it under comfort food if that thread still exists. It's obviously a little off topic in the political discussion, where my thoughts first started thinking about buttery shredded cabbage embedded in creamy mash potatoes, just to die for.
@ulrich Anonymous was your wife, who still can't really manage the comment box very well. But as long as you opened Pandora's box, a couple of questions on the subject, Are there similarities between German and Dutch cuisine? Do the Dutch eat as many different kinds of sausages as the Germans? My mother used to make her own sausage? Does anyone out there even know anyone who still does this? What's a comfort food you remember from your childhood, and that's addressed to everyone. Mine was macaroni and cheese or even better, a fried baloney sandwich with mustard on Wonder bread accompanied by a tall glass of ice cold ginger ale.
@Mac Can you be persuaded to part with your cabbage recipe?
As a child, my favorite meal was Kartoffelsalat und Würstchen--potato salad and franks, basically, where the German version of franks (Würstchen is the diminuitive of Wurst) that I remember is tastier than the American ones I have tried (b/c of my allergies to meat, especially of the unidentified kind, I can't eat this stuff any more).
A fond memory from childhood: When we had this dinner, everyone got exactly one Würstchen. At some point, I expressed the wish that once in my life, I would like to eat as many Würstchen as I wanted. My grandfather, upon hearing of this request, footed the bill, and as far as I remember, I managed to eat four.
My Russian grandmother lived with us and was a fabulous cook. Any dish she prepared would deserve to be called a comfort food. If I had to choose, I'd nominate pirozhki, small baked yeast pastries filled with various savory mixtures and eaten as an appetizer or an acompaniment to soup. Some people fry these. Some bake them in puff pastry, which is what they did at the old original Russian Tea Room, but I consider that rather effete. Pirozhki should have a little heft.
Pronunciation: pee-rozh-KI. One is called a pirojok (pee-roh-ZHOK). but no one ever eats just one.
Speaking of the old RTR, they ran a contest in, I guess, the '70's. Entrants were to submit their favorite Russian recipes. My pelmeni recipe won! I received a whole $25, and the dish was on the menu for a limited period. I wish I'd kept or at least Xeroxed that beautiful golden yellow check bearing the image of the Firebird.
Pelmeni, BTW, are filled dumplings
Darn, I'm getting hungry again just thinking about those lovely foods. We had a sort of pedestrian dinner tonight: boneless chicken breast baked under a blanket of apricot preserves, mustard and yogurt; rice; and sort-of fried green tomatoes which I improvised. Afterward we had fruit, which we always have on hand in great variety. I bought a red pommelo the other day just so that I could candy the peel, which is so labor-intensive that I always regret undertaking the task at about the point of no return. This particular pommelo was delicious, which is not always the case.
Maybe I'll make stuffed cabbage in the near future.
Just occurred to me: Isn't that combination of mashed potatoes and cabbage akin to the Irish Colcannon?
Wow, everybody, our chance to talk about food without feeling selfconscious and guilty!
The kale recipe is very much like Colcannon: it's boiled and steamed dry russet potatoes, mashed with very finely chopped and cooked kale (2 lbs potato/1 lb chopped kale, but make no mistake, this is a huge bunch of kale), incorporating 1/2 stick of melted butter in 1 1/2 cup hot milk; add salt and pepper to taste. I serve this with a gravy made of braising beef, sliced, in butter. Salt and (white) pepper the beef, quickly brown in the hot butter, add about 2/3 cup of hot water, and let simmer for 1 1/2 hours. The Kielbasa sausage either gets cooked with the kale the last 15 minutes, or, when the dish is served later, you can take it out of it's plastic skin and tuck it into the mashed vegetables in an ovenproof dish, put on the lid and heat in a 350 degree oven for about 40 minutes. The mixture should be quite "zaftig", because it will dry a bit while re-heating, serve it with a little piece of beef, a piece of the sausage and a little gravy, traditionally poored into a little indentation in the mash.
In Holland we actually mash quite a few winter vegetables with potatoes, like any cabbage, sauer kraut, and a mixture of shredded carrots and onions (hutspot). I noticed, some years ago, a distinct difference in the focus of the meal between Holland and the U.S. When you ask an American woman what she is cooking for dinner, she will mention the meat, a Dutch one will talk about the vegetable.
@ulrich: I make a mean Kartoffelsalat, the one with broth, vinegar, a little oil, onion, parsley and very thinly sliced potatoes, which have to integrate for some hours on the kitchen counter. I could tell you some funny stories about the Kartoffelsalat and my mother-in-law from Sternenfels.... There they serve it for lunch with Fleischkaese.
@miriam, or should it be Miriam? I know exactly how you feel. I sometimes find myself kneedeep in ingredients for an elaborate dish on a day where I could have just sat and read a book, but, as you said, you reach a point of no return.....
The foodthread really inspired me because Gruenkohl is since a few years a favorite in or familiy as a Winterdish.
We now grow the cabbage in our garden and it needs some frosty days before we harvest,because the frost makes it richer in flavour and better to digest. I learned about Grünkohl when my daughter studied at the university of Bremen, because it is in Germany a regional northern dish. We like it the way an old ladychef who runs a little restaurant outside of Bremen, prepares it: you carefully select the leaves, remove the hard parts, the ribs, and blanche it in slightly salted water. You put it in a strainer and keep the liquid, and roughly chop the cabbage. Cut potatoes in small cubes and fry them in a very hot cast-iron saucepan with a fair amount of onions and baconbits until caramelised. Then you add your cabbage ,simmer it for about twenty minutes and season with salt, pepper and a dash of nutmeg. From time to time add some of the liquid to adjust the consistency.They serve smoked porkchops and a wurst with grits called 'Pinkel',blackpudding with grits (Tote Oma)-dead granny-
or a good old dutch roekwurst. In some regions they prefer a speciality named Bregenwurst (Brain). Another Name for Gruehnkohl is East-Friesian Palmtree, because with the lower leafs removed it stands in the bright wintersun like a minipalmtree.
I can hardly stop when talking about good regional food and I'm thinking of my grandmothers favourite dish, based on potatoes and onions aka 'Poor mans St.Martinsgoose', but that has got nothing to do with Groenkohl. yam yam!
Hi Mick,
Where are you located that you can get your hands on all these authentic ingredients, and where are you from originally?
The boerenkool was delicious, I'm having leftovers for lunch and am dropping off some leftovers to my German hairdresser.
@mac,Born and raised in Western Germany I travelled a lot at leisure and on the job and made friends wherever I went.I like to cook and also to eat and so I collected recipes from all around the world. The roekwurst goes back to Dutch friends I met in Australia in the mid seventies.I have friends in other parts of Germany, Europe, parts of the world and whenever I need something special, be it ingredients or information I have a ph.Nr.: or e-mail to contact. The northern german sausages BTW come from a friend from Oldenburg near Bremen , who is married to a russian wife. She added Pirozhki and Pelmini to our menue ; the latest aquisition is buckwheat kasha we learned about on recent tours through the Baltics.Our oven stands near the german-french border and we are often in France to buy all the stuff, we can't get over here. I liked the word zaftig!
@lareine, years ago, still living on a farm with our kids, we used to make our own sausage, a salamilike product, made from lambsmeat,delicious...
@Mick I really like the idea that someone is still making sausage. When I was a student, I did a lot of work on the American writer Willa Cather, who believed that paying close attention to the daily details of practical life was a way of making your life your own as opposed to letting it become mass produced by social trend or custom. So I loved how much attention you give to what you grow and how you cook. Can we hear more about the "Poor St. Martin's Goose" (I might be mangling that name; sorry I'm in a rush)
@Miriam B Might you post the recipe for the Russian Tea Room winner or is that a time consuming pain?
@Mac Is the recipe I have been salivating over made with kale or cabbage? I had assumed cabbage but you mention kale above, or am I confusing the Irish version with the original one you spoke about in the meal that ended in apple tart? (I think I have memorized that menu)
The next batch of mashed potatoes I make will have vegetables in it. What a great idea, but I think it's very uncommon in the U.S. The only ingredient I've ever added is garlic, after having garlic mashed potatoes in a restaurant.
An aside: In naming this thread, I shamelessly appropriated the title of a weekly (public) radio program. I selected the title b/c it seems to me that the Yiddish word "shmooze" must be related to the German schmusen (same pronunciation with an "n" added). However, the two words do not mean the same: to "shmooze" means mainly to talk, to chatter in a friendly manner, whereas schmusen means to cuddle or to snuggle, and it may include kissing; in other words, it's all action, and talk may be not on the mind of people who engage in it.
The word appears in the compound Schmusekatze ("cuddle cat"), which refers not only to an affectionate cat, but also to a person who likes to cuddle.
@Laraine: It's my pleasure to post this recipe. Here it is, pretty much as typed on a beat-up 3x5 card:
PELMENI MASHENKA (My recipe, as featured at the Russian Tea Room beginning Dec. 1978)
DOUGH
3 eggs
3 egg yolks
1-1/2 tsp. salt
3 cups all-purpose flour
Water as necessary'
Make firm dough and let rest l hour. Roll walnut-sized pieces into thin rounds 4" to 5" in diameter. Fill with Meat Filling, using 1 Tbsp. per dumpling, forming half-moons. Pinch edges to seal. Freeze in single layer on floured baking sheets. Repack for storage.
MEAT FILLING:
1 small onion, chopped
1 Tbsp. butter
2 cups finely chopped cooked ham
1/2 cup finely chopped cooked veal
1/2 cups chopped raw mushrooms
Salt and pepper to taste
Cook onion in butter to wilt.
Blend in remaining ingredients, moistening with water as necessary to hold mixture together.
To prepare, poach from frozen state in simmering water or bouillon 10 minutes, or until tender. Serve with cider vinegar, parsley and drawn butter. Leftover pelmeni may be sauteed in butter to reheat and served with sour cream. Smaller pelmeni may be made for use in soup.
NOTES
1. My grandmother's name was Maria, and she was usually called Manya. However, I decided to honor her memory by using yet another of those innumerable Russian diminutives for the title of the recipe, because it scanned well; pelMENi MASHenka.
2. For humane reasons, I stopped using veal years ago. Chopped cooked dark meat turkey seems a reasonable substitution.
3. These are not unlike Polish pierogi. They're a little more delicate and the dough layer is thinner. Their supposed origin is Siberia, hence the freezing step. I suspect that thawing before cooking would compromise the integrity if the dough.
I haven't made these in ages - must do so soon again.
@laraine: I definitely used kale, the German Gruenkohl. We do mash green, white and other cabbages with potatoes as well, but the meat dish with it would be very different. If you want to know the details, let me know and I will gladly oblige!
I love what you said about Willa Cather's opinion: I completely agree with you. I think you can use common sense, creativity and a sense of quality in EVERYTHING you do, every day. I have been trying to be creative in different media for my entire life, and landscaping, cooking, flower arranging are part of it. It's not about making money with what you do, it's about getting satisfaction out of doing every single chore and job right. Don't get me started on people who claim they don't cook and then invite you to a disgusting lunch!
@miriam b: I had a good friend in Hamburg who made the Southern German pierogi, Maultaschen, and when he had leftovers he would cut them in fours, beat some eggs and cook them together.
Oh, Laraine, do I have a recipe for you! It's from the restaurant Flic Flac in Blankenese, Germany, and it is potatoes mashed with sauerkraut, topped with a piece of steamed or poached cod, and the whole thing covered with a light mustard sauce.......
@lareine: the 'poor peoples St. Martin's Goose' is cooked from potatoes and onions, eggs and baconbits only.
recipe serwing 4:
1,5 kg peeled potatoes
4 onions
2 eggs
200 grs. bacon bits
......
grate the potatoes , pour them into a strainer and let the liquid rest for about 10 min. pour the watery part away and mix the white starch, that's left on the bottom, with a little bit of hot water back into the grated potatoes. Then you grate the onions and stirr them together with the beaten eggs and the potaoes.Add salt and nutmeg at your taste and heat a cast-iron roasting tray with your bacon bits, until they are crisp. Take the bacon out,add a little bit more frying fat into the tray pour the potatoe-mix in and add at the end the bacon-bits, stirring with a wooden spoon.
Put it in the preheated oven (180 degree Celsius) and cook for about 45-50 min.Probe the matter with a wooden toothpick and serve with cold apple sauce, as my grand mother did.
I add sometimes garlic and marjoram or origan and that's what makes my dish different from my granny's.
@miriam, I like you mentioning russian foodhabits and recipes from your family. With increasing numbers of Russian people immigrating to Germany we have now russian supermarkets and even in our regular markets you find shelfs filled with russian food. Last summer we made kwas and okroshka ,we even took a russian class and can read now cyrillic at least.A few phrases of course are not enough and far from satisfying..but there is still hope!
@mac:there is a different variety of gruenkohl in the north that turns brown when cooked, Braunkohl..same way of cooking and same trimmings.
@lareine:I forgot to give you the name of that dish : Döppekuchen-
Döppe is a slangword for pot and kuchen means cake.You should take 2kg. instead of 1.5 kg. of potatoes and if there are leftovers you can cut them into fingerthick slices and fry in a pan next day ,just like steak.
@mick: Your grandmother must be from the Rhineland as I am--in the town where I was born, Mayen, the dish is actually called Döppekoche--I consider it more dialect than slang.
I haven't had it for ages, but remember that it can go wrong: the center can fall in, and the pieces may not come out cleanly from the pot, i.e. stick to the side or bottom of it. But if they come out cleanly, the brown crust that forms where the mixture touches the pot is the most delicious part--for those who know Swiss Rösti: the crust is similar, while the inner parts remain very soft. And yes, it has to be eaten with apple sauce.
to prevent it sticking to the sides I sway the pot with the hot fat around so that a thin film of fat sicks on the sides, before filling in the 'dough' and to prevent sticking to the bottom the pot, after cooking it has to be closed with a lid and after about 10 minutes the 'döppekoche','I accept your different spelling' should slide easily out of the pot. To prevent the center from falling in we soaked a yesterday's dry 'Brötchen' in hot milk, squeeze some of the milk out and add it to the mixture.
It's very important, that the pot with the fat is very hot before filling.
For my grandmother it was also important to use rapeseed oil as cooking fat.
Small world,you are close with your guess about my homeregion: I was born and raised in a very small winegrowing village in the Moselvalley,left home quite early and live now in the Palatinate, on the border to Alsace/France.So I can pick the very best from both Countrys...
@ Laraine and all -- thank you! I'm enjoying the lurking here... great reading! I do cook often just for the enjoyment of the change of pace and the pleasure of having leftovers. Keep it up, please.
@miriam, mac and mick Thank you so much for taking the time to post the recipes and I have to ask, Mac, can you tell me more about the recipe from the restaurant Flic Flac, love the name. I laughed out loud at your annoyance over people who don't cook and then invite you to a terrible luncheon. I have the same reaction; I'm almost outraged.
And for all of you cooks, I give you M.F. K. Fischer, who, when asked why she wrote about food (I think the implication was Why do you write about food as if were a subject worthy of serious attention?) said "It seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love, are so mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of one without the other." Thank you all again for the wonderful recipes, and I suspect Ulrich thanks you as well.
Yea, right. I can already tell: There's a lot chopping, dicing, grating coming my way in the near future (my customary duty in the kitchen--I wield a mean knife!)
@Laraine: The recipe is really quite simple, although I sort of made it up after having tasted it at the restaurant. Boil 2 lbs. potatoes, steam them dry and mash them with a little hot milk and melted butter, salt and pepper, then mash with 1 lb rinsed and sauteed (butter yet again) sauerkraut. Keep warm while poaching or steaming the pieces of cod. For the mustard sauce: make a basic white sauce with milk, then add as much mustard as you like, I tend to like it pretty strong. Put a serving of the sauerkraut mash on a plate, put a piece of fish on top and drizzle some of the mustard sauce over the lot.
So sad to hear about Rex's cat, brings back the miserable time last early December when we had to put our Abbie to sleep.
@mac Thanks so much for the cod recipe. I'm putting this one on the table tomorrow night if I can get my hands on a piece of cod. I just read cod fish are becoming scarce. I grew up eating cod fish cakes almost on a weekly basis, and the idea that cod could be disappearing shocked me.
I don't even know Rex, although clearly I know of him, but reading about his cat and about Abbie made me sad. Those little creatures, and the bigger, tail wagging ones too, can really worm their way into your heart. My sympathies.
@mac: Here's a question re. white sauce: The German word for "roux" is Mehlschwitze ("flour sweat")--as is the case so often, the German term appears to be more graphic/to the point ("roux" isn't even English). I wonder what the Dutch term is.
BTW I just finished dinner served with a white sauce based on your recipe, involving chicken thighs instead of cod and no sauerkraut, but delicious nevertheless.
@Ulrich: I just checked my very basic Dutch cookbook, and we actually use the word roux in Holland as well; you would be surprised how many French words are used in Holland, it was the language of the upper classes and the diplomats, and we all had to study it, in addition to other languages, until a couple of years ago.
I just read a long article about the different kinds of thickeners the Dutch (and French and Belgians, I guess) use to thicken sauces. When the color is important, like with a fruit sauce, potato starch is used. A sweet sauce that has to be smooth and shiny, is often made with corn starch. Roux is made with butter and flour.
I love a good white sauce, with a little nutmeg and maybe some cheese, on many different meats and vegetables. The Dutch store in Norwalk (I was just there this afternoon to stock up on Pickwick tea and all the Dutch holiday treats I promised my clients) carries some instant sauces, including a white sauce, which I think works very well. You can omit the melting butter/cooking the flower stage, just mix the powder with milk and slowly bring to a boil, cook until the flour doesn't taste raw anymore.
When I arrived at the store on Washington Street in Norwalk, I took the parking space of a New Jersey driver with a licence plate that said "TULIP NL". People drive that far! The owners are friends of mine, they've had this shop for many years, and they also have a good catalogue. If you and Laraine (love that name, sounds like "the queen") ever want to drive down, I could meet you there. I have met Chef Bea there twice already. She's hooked on the Indonesian kits and spices.
Hope you found some good cod for tomorrow. I'm getting hungry again thinking of all this food; time for a midnight snack?
@mac:when it comes to transborder home cooking, we find definitely many similaryties between our countries beside potatoes and kale.
Matjes come to my mind: early summer, when young matjes are on the marked I'm getting kind of addicted; I eat them plain, perhaps with onions and a rye breadroll. Another favourite is Pikantje Gouda: a thick slice of cheese on a rye breadroll is
called 'halve Hahn'-half a rooster-, with mustard a popular snack in the Rhineland with a beer, must sound familiar to you, Ulrich.
BTW the french don't have the herringmania but old style cooking,la cuisine à l'ancienne, is very popular. In the finest Paris Restaurants and Brasseries you find increasingly dishes like 'calfs-head', 'beef tripe' and 'andouilette'(sausage stuffed with chitterlings), edible with lots of Dijon-mustard, very simple, no-frills. The favourite in the Gourmetbrasseries of Blvd.Montparnasse in Paris is Choucroute, a Sauerkraut-platter with different sausages and pickled pork.
BTW Good quality Cod is hard to find nowadays but the musselseason is on: last week we had friends invited for a musseldinner, the best fingerfood I can imagine.
@mick and mac (could be a comedy team): Old Gouda (and I mean really old, when it becomes deep yellow, almost orange, and slivers can be broken out by hand) is my absolutely favorite cheese. There's a store here where you can find it occasionally, but I'm sure the one in Norwalk will have an even better version.
@ulrich:d'accord,'Oude Amsterdam' is really a treat.
@lareine:I liked your quotation of M.F.K. Fischer, sounds like my very personal guideline.
@Ulrich and @Mick: We can get this cheese, Oude Amsterdammer, Vincent and Rembrandt even at Stop & Shop in Fairfield County, but your are right, the Dutch Store in Norwalk has more unusual cheeses, even the Leidse kaas with cumin.
I'm wondering why they would call the roll with cheese halve Hahn? I had a haring just a few weeks ago in Holland, just with finely chopped onion on it. I can't lift it and bite directly from it like some (Amsterdammers) do, I'm afraid I need a knife and fork....
I love the trend you are mentioning, back to the basic, fresh country cooking. My husband had an uncle from the Elzas (he was forced to change nationality several times) and I made him choucroute sometimes, and an Alsacian pork or veal pie he loved.
@mac: The origin of "halve Hahn" is unknown--and I'm from Cologne, where it is a pub staple, and should know. The main purpose of the name, it seems, is to confuse tourists who see it on a menu. BTW It goes extremely well with beer.
@ulrich: we have some funny names for foods in Holland, as well.
There is koffie verkeerd (coffee with hot milk, translated "wrong coffee"), broodje verkeerd, with 2 or 3 different coldcuts on them, although not as thick as an American sandwich, hete bliksem for a mixture of onions, apples and potatoes (never liked that one), broodje gezond (healthy sandwich) for a roll with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and a little dressing, etc.
I think both the Germans and Dutch are big on creating nicknames for all kinds of things. You don't even want to know what they call the new Opera House in Amsterdam..... In Germany I remember a building called the "compact and lipstick".
@mac: As far as I know, Kaffee verkehrt exists also in certain parts of Germany.
Your lipstick and compact is, in fact, the Emperor William Memorial Church in Berlin; or more accurately, the modern structures erected next to the burned out ruin of the tower of the original church, as it survives from one of the devastating bombing raids in WWII. My favorite: "pregnant oyster" (Schwangere Auster) for the Congress Hall built after the war in Berlin.
Hi everyone - just started reading everyone's great recipes. The Dutch store that mac introduced me too is great. I love the cheese with cumin. It would be fun for us to meet in Norwalk.
@mac I was invited to a ladie's house once for lunch and she served everything out of a can!!! The first course was soup which was clam broth served right out of the bottle garnished with a slice of lemon. The whole meal was awful.
@chefbea: Welcome to the food shmooze! You're on the spot for contributing a recipe:-)
@chefbea I second the motion about the recipe.
Also, since I appear to be dealing with serious cooks on this site, you probably already know about
diana's desserts
but just in case you don't, I wanted to mention it because I find both the recipes and the tips so wonderful.
@Laraine: I hadn't heard of Diana's Desserts, and in fact am not really a dessert enthusiast. Nevertheless, I do want to share a surprising method I've just tried, designed to retain the crispness of the crust of a pumpkin (or any custard) pie.
This is something developed by a food geek on the staff of Cooks Illustrated. I don't subscribe to the magazine, but I did find this method on the web. In brief, the secret is to introduce a warm filling into a hot crust, counterintuitive as that may sound.
While the crust is being prebaked until it starts to color, the pumpkin along with its spices is cooked until it's glossy and somewhat thickened. The MINUTE the crust comes out of the oven, the liquid - cream or evaporated milk - is whisked into the pumpkin and the eggs are pulsed in the food processor. Then the eggs are tempered with some of the hot mix, and finally the rest of the stuff goes into the food processor and is pulsed until it's uniform. The crust is still hot, we hope, so in goes the warm filling. It's a good idea, I find, to protect the fluted edge of the crust with foil or with one of those aluminum thingies. The whole business takes less time to bake than a conventionally prepared pie. This caper involves a sort of manic choreography the first time out. I had two timers going at once for a while there, and had to tell a daughter who phoned that I would call her back later.
Of course, like many foodies I know, I have the ill-advised habit of trying out new dishes or methods on guests or, worse, someone else's guests. It happens that my daughters and I were invited to my son and daughter-in-law's for Thanksgiving. My daughter-in-law had NEVER cooked a complete meal before in 8 years of marriage, but did quite well.
I had volunteered to bring pies, so I made an apple-cranberry, a strawberry-rhubarb, and one of the above-described pumpkin pies. After all, I had about a dozen people. ranging in age from 4 to 98, to poll as to the quality of that crust. It works. Even the most stringent critic of all - me - thought it was well worth the effort.
@ Miriam Thank you for this tip. This is another recipe I'd like to try, especially since Ulrich is a pumpkin pie fan.
Good that you aren't that interested in desserts. I just tried the link and sure enough it doesn't work. I'll have to figure out how to remove it.
Do you only cook strawberry rhubarb pie with fresh rhubarb? Or can I use frozen? I hope I haven't forever lost your respect by even asking the question.
@Laraine and @Miriam:
I love baking, but I don't really have a sweet tooth and not enough people around to finish the pies. I love pumpkin pie, but just the filling. So I make the pumpkin mixture (preferably the Martha Stewart Pie Book recipe with pumpkin (canned, better texture), half and half and maple syrup,eggs of course, mix well and pour it into small ramekins. I put these in a large roasting pan and fill that halfway up the dishes with hot water, put a piece of parchment paper on top, loosely, and bake. No crust to worry about, just my favorite part, the pumpkin custard.
I also love the mixture of strawberries and rhubarb, as a compote (put a little vanilla icecream on it), and I do think that rhubarb is one fruit that doesn't get hurt much by freezing.
@mac and Laraine: As I've mentioned, I don't have a sweet tooth (with the conspicuous exceptions of baklava and chocolate!), so I was happy to leave what remained of the pies at my son's house. The daughter who lives with me should lose some weight, so I don't tempt her with high-calorie foods.
I used rhubarb this time which I had grown and frozen. There was no problem that I could discern.
On the subject of that daughter: Susan's been mentioned before in this blog. She has autism and is an artist, painting in a unique primitive style. She's quite amazing in a number of respects. For instance, this was our first visit to my son's recently purchased house. It's a daunting route from south central Suffolk County, LI to Bronxville in Westchester, but she unerringly got us through all the twists and turns, relying on Mapquest and also in substantial part by her memory of a route my husband had taken to a nearby Westchester location in 1995, the year he died! She was unflappable despite heavy slow traffic conditions.
Her work has become popular in outsider art circles, and in fact will be featured in an exhibit next Thursday. If you're curious, you might want to look in on http://www.shield.org/pure-vision-arts/. If you browse around, you'll see that she has exhibited in Rotterdam. She was also represented in the first European Outsider Art Fair in Vienna this past spring. The link "About Pure Vision Arts" will take you to a video in which she appears. I also have a cameo rôle.
When Sue was a child, "experts" told us that she would never be able to take care of her own personal needs. They certainly didn't foresee that she'd be driving a car, traveling independently by train, managing her finances - in short, doing most of the things that neurotypical folk do. Her communication with others is unquestionably unusual. Small talk is a concept she just doesn't grasp.
OK, I started out with pies, but have drifted far afield. I'll leave it to you, Ulrich, to decide how to bifurcate this message. If I could remember in which thread I mentioned Sue before, I'd do the grafting myself.
I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving despite the continued turmoil in our poor battered world.
O.K. Here's my latest try to get those of you who are interested the link to Diana's desserts since Ulrich explained that my truncating the URL was the problem. If this one doesn't work, I may give up since the attention to detail involved in using these tags is almost more than I can bear, and it gives me a whole new and deeper appreciation for Ulrich's skill at this stuff.
desserts
@Miriam Thanks for letting me know that frozen rhubarb is fine, and I will check out the link to your daughter's work. What an amazing story.
@miriam b: I think we all can handle threads that contain some subthreads. For example, we've had digressions on art in political threads before w/o suffering lasting damage. It makes a thread more like a conversation where you also do not stay strictly on topic all the time.
If thread drift appears to become permanent, I'll start a new thread. Conversely, if you want to do this and do not find a "New topic" post, just send me e-mail.
Hi all -I know everyone had a great thanksgiving. I have been trying to think of a great easy comfort food but will post one when it gets really cold.
So here is a recipe that we can all make for the holidays - I make it every year to add to my tins of goodies that I give as gifts. I suggest you double the recipe cuz it is so good you will eat half of it while packing up the rest for gifts.
WHITE TRASH
mix
6 cups crispix(cereal)
3 cups cheerios
2 cups pretzel sticks - broken up
2 cups roasted peanuts
1 - 11-14 oz pkg of m&ms (i use the xmas ones)
Coat with 1 pound melted white chocolate (you can use microwave) Spread on wax paper. When set, break it up into bits and pieces. Store in airtight container.
bon appitite
Wow, that sounds sinful. It must be quite a sensation to get a bit of salt of the pretzel sticks in the middle of the sweet chocolate.
@chefbea: Can I leave the pretzels out? They're the one ingredient I'm not fond of--if I get a bag on an airplane, I always pass it to my neighbor. But the rest calls for a try-out.
@Ulrich Of course you can omit the pretzles. Just add 2 cups of something else - maybe another cereal or cashew nuts. But as Mac said there is nothing better than the salt mixed with the chocolate.
@chefbea: How about using salted roasted peanuts? That recipe really does look good.
@miriamb Sure you can use them...the more salt mixed with chocolate the better yummm
Let's liven up this food shmooz a little! Let't talk about real food. I served (after a day of sales) some Dutch vegetable soup, which entails some serious stock, then some stewing beef cut into quarter inch cubes cooked for about an hour, and as many vegetables as you can get your hands on chopped really small, added to the broth in order of how long it will take to cook, and when they (all 23) are in, I add some tiny meatballs spiced with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and some finely chopped parsley. This soup freezes well, and I store it and my winter's supply of pea soup.
@mac: That soup sounds perfect for coming home at the end of a cold day. We would have to forego the beef b/c of my allergy to meat from 4-legged animals, and the stock would have to be chicken or vegetable. We could perhaps add some turkey kielbasa for flavoring--would that work?
For meatballs, we discovered that turkey burger works well if you take care with the spices--mid-eastern spices work particularly well--Laraine does wonders with them.
I am making turkey broth as we "speak". After it cools I will put it in the fridge and skim off the fat tomorrow. I will then use some of it for my turkey soup -cut up turkey, onions,celery,carrots any left over stuffing and gravy and any other veggies I have left over. Its yummy. I freeze the rest of the broth in separate containers and use it for other soups.
Unfortunately I did not get to taste Mac's soup yesterday as I was there in the morning, but I did have a piece of delicious Dutch pastry!!!
@Ulrich: I don't think I would add turkey Kielbasa - the smokey flavor doesn't go well with it, but tiny meatballs made out of turkey or chicken would be perfect. Try putting some finely grated parmesan and chopped parsley in the ground meat before making the half-inch balls. Make sure the soup is at a boil when you add them, or they will disolve into a big mush!
I don't know if you know this product, but Maggi makes a liquid salty flavoring especially for soups, another product I buy in the Dutch store in Norwalk.
Funny word verification: slednest!
I don't think the trash can worked. Just in case it DID, this is the corrected message with the link to the entire site.
Calling all beetniks: Looky here:
http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/beets.html
I don't know how to make this link more accessible, sorry.
I bought some gorgeous beets the other day. The checker made a face at them. I told her, "The greens are great, too." She made another face. What can one do?
@miriam: You earned brownie points galore by finding this site. I never shared the derision many have expressed w.r.t. beets--after all, beet and (French) endive salad with walnuts and gorgonzola is a classic in Germany.
I'm very open to trying unexpected combinations of ingredients. Our current favorite amomg restaurants in New Haven, Barcelona, sometimes offers a salad made with watermelon (and some other ingredients that Laraine will remember) and a balsamic [yes!] dressing--unexpected and absolutely heavenly!
@Ulrich: I'm also open to new tastes. Things like strawberries with black pepper and balsamic vinegar appeal to me. Many Spanish and Latin American dishes seem to me to have Moorish influence in that fruits are often used in meat dishes, sometimes with vegetables as well.
I once worked with an Iranian woman who put salt on fruit - even oranges. I'd always done so with melons, but in fact a little salt does do something strange and wonderful for other fruits.
Beet brownies!!!! what could be better. If I had beets in the house I would make them right now for dessert tomorrow. Havent read the rest of the recipes - too busy preparing dinner.
My mother always put salt on watermelon. Its pretty good
I think a little salt or a little lime or lemon juice actually brings out the sweetness of fruit. My father-in-law always put pepper on any kind of melon.
@Ulrich: I know the salad and like it a lot. There are also versions on beet, potato and herring salads I've been served by German cooks, and how about Labskous? Now that is an amazing dish, that contains everything and kitchen sink! We should try to figure out the original recipe, if there is one!
Is the Barcelona in New Haven a tapas restaurant? I know the ones in Norwalk and Fairfield, especially like the one in Fairfield in the HIHO Motel just of the Merritt. They have a lovely terrace which can be used until late in the season because there are some heating lamps. That't the way I like to eats, lots of little different tastes!
@mac there is a barcelona tapas restaurant in greenwich. Two doors up from Myrna's
The Barcelona here is part of that chain, I think. But they do a whole lot more than tapas. One of the things we like to do is go to a movie on a Sunday afternoon across the street at the Criterion Cinema and then have dinner at the Barcelona.
@Ulrich and chefbea: If you really like Spanish food, Maigas restaurant in Norwalk is the best that we know of. Ignatio, the owner, is a charming fellow (we always discuss soccer with him, and wines) and he has a wonderful staff. Their partner-restaurant is Ibiza in New Haven, which might be closer for Ulrich and Laraine. Do give it a try, and have the suckling pig, it is great!
Boy did we have a great dinner tonight...thanks to Mac and the Dutch store. I had this little container of something called Rendang Vlees (mild sumatraans Rundvleesgerecht). I browned some pork chops then added this container of whatever with 200 ml of water and simmered for about 1/2 hour. It was sooo good.
Mac - what was this that I made???
@chefbea I'm hoping that all I have to do to the little container of spices I bought at the same store is add water. I ripped off the directions, planning to use google to translate and in the blink of an eye, I lost them. But I knew already that there was something about adding water in the directions. I'm just going to try 200ml and hope for the best. I don't know if you are a sweet eater but the Hazelnoot Zandjes I bought with the spices were to die for. I'm definitely planning a repeat visit.
@chefbea: you had beef rendang this evening. I usually serve it with broccoli and rice. It's normally done with beef, but pork should work as well, I guess. Glad you liked it!
Had a great dinner Friday night at our friend's house. Her name is Olga. Needless to say it was a yummy german dinner. Roast pork, dumplings, sour kraut, her famous onion pie which I have made and have the recipe if anyone wants it. For dessert: Stolen, and a variety of german cookies. She made it all.
I came over to see what the discussion was about on Krautblog, thinking it would be mostly political, and what do I find? Food talk! I just zipped through all the comments on this thread, and plan to go back and re-read. So, much to learn! I know much more about various mediterranean and French cuisines (and some New Orleans cooking because of my in-laws) than I do about German, Dutch and Russian, so this is wonderful! I love the ideas about freezing the Pelmeni Mashenka and then going from freezer to hot water, the idea about the filling into the warm pie crust, the veggies in the mashed potatoes, and many many more!
I have two problems these days where it comes to cooking-- one is time. I have such a busy schedule with a lot of travel, that I wind up keeping things simple except during the holidays, weekends and special occasions. And the other is that my husband has severe food intolerances primarily to gluten, but also to dairy and eggs. So, I have to be really creative. I can make whole meals that are allergen free, but once in a while I need to go back to cooking in the more standard way...Anyhow, it's lovely not only about the specifics but about everyone's love and appreciation of food.
Before she died, my mother did a wonderful thing: with a tremulous hand, she wrote down all her favorite recipes for us. I'm translating them and testing them whenever I can (because she says a pinch of this and spice to taste). I hope to pass them on to my kids.
PS.chefbea, I'd love to get your onion pie recipe. I used to make little provencal French onion tartes to serve as appetizers, but I've lost track of that. It would be wonderful to try a German recipe.
@foodie Can't seem to find the onion pie recipe so I asked my friend to give me another copy. Will send it as soon as I get it
@foodie: In the earlier version of the "Rules of the game", politics (and religion) was explicitly ruled out as a topic out of fear that it would attract the trolls and nutcases that blogs with this emphasis seem to attract. If you go back through the months, you'll see that the first openly political thread did not occur until the end of August--obviously in response to the need felt by some friends to discuss with like-minded people the events of the day as the election was heating up. So far, this has posed no problems, and I updated the Rules accordingly. We have to wait and see (not that I would discourage dissenting opinions--I love a good political debate among informed people with no personal axes to grind).
BTW The cuisine of Southern Africa was added to the ones we like during a recent trip to South Africa, Botswana and a corner of Zambia (Victoria Falls). It has a strong Indian influnece, but uses more tomatoes, ginger, and sweeter spices like cinnamon. It also needs less butter and cream, if any. So, your husband may be able to tolerate it, sans the rice. Laraine has gotten very good preparing this stuff--it's time-consuming, though.
http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/livingandhealth/ci_11250770
Don't know if this works but I'm trying to copy and past the link to an article in todays Greenwich times and Stamford advocate.
@chefbea: Interesting article and nice picture, but...Where's the lemon in the oookie recipe?
@miriamb there never was lemon in the recipe!! Don't know why Christina (the writer) added that. actually a little lemon zest would be good . Might try that the next time I make them.
@ foodie here's the onion pie recipe
1 1/4 cups fine saltine cracker crumbs
1/3 cup melted butter
2 1/4 cups thinly sliced onions
2 Tbls margarine
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs slightly beaten
3/4 tsp salt
dash of black pepper
1/4 cup shredded sharp cheddar
dash of paprika
combine cracker crumbs and melted butter and press onto bottom and up sides of 8" pie plate
Saute onions til soft in 2 Tbls butter til soft and put in pie shell
Combine milk,eggs,salt and pepper and pour over onions
Sprinkle pie with cheese and paprika
Bake at 350 about 30-35 minutes or til knife inserted it middle comes out clean
can be made ahead or frozen
@chefbea: What a nice photograph of you and the little girls! I had to laugh when I read about the beef with onion soup mix; when I first lived in England (I had never been to the U.S. yet) we spent a weekend with some American friends in the countryside. The woman told me that her family's favorite dinner was potroast, which she always made with dried onion soup mix! Can't believe I still remember it.
@chefbea: That onion pie looks wonderful. I'm putting saltines on my shopping list right away. Anything quiche-like appeals to me. I probably won't be able to resist putting in a little garlic. You don't see many vampires around my place.
@chefbea
THANK YOU, thank you! This comes just in time for the holidays, when I'll have company and get back to cooking with all the ingredients. It looks delicious. The sharp cheddar is a surprise! Makes me hungry to think of it.
And what a great picture with your grandchildren. It's wonderful to get a glimpse of you. And those little girls with red hair look adorable! I can't wait to do the same with my grand daughter.
@ulrich, thank you for the suggestion about South African food! I would have never thought of it! I shall investigate. Actually rice works for my husband, it has not gluten, even so-called glutinous rice. Gluten in in wheat, rye and barley (and sometimes in oats because of the way it's grown).
In general, your blog is such an amazing venue, with all these different threads. And I love "Word of the month". Usually they have a lot of associated imagery. Thank you!
@foodie: Thx for the kind words! I'll be trying to keep up the word-of-the-month, but may run out of promising candidates relatively soon: The most promising ones are already part of the English/American vocabulary (Gestalt, Schadenfreude etc)--we may revisit some of these, though
re. S. African cooking: This is the book Laraine uses (she got is used on the web): The African News Cookbook--African Cooking for Western Kitchens (Tami Hultman, ed.) Penguin 1985. It covers the entire continent, from Morocco through Ethiopia and Southern Africa. Laraine says that when it comes to S. African curries, butter and cream are less essential than in Indian cooking b/c the spices are less harsh.
Hello, all of you onion pie lovers. I had to come back to this thread because I love onion pie too and it is traditional food in the south and southwest of Germany.Onion pie or Zwiebelkuchen goes perfect in fall with young wine who, when fermentation is not over and it's still sparkling, is called Federweisser. This combination is perfect for digestion. The receipe is similar to chefbeas exept for the saltine cracker crumbs and cheese, we use baconbits instead and ground caraway. I love a french variety called tarte flambée, or flammkuchen. The dough is rolled out very thin, thinner as a regular pizza,sour cream, bacon bits and finely sliced onions on top and then for a few minutes in the preheated very hot oven until it's crisp.
Years ago I cooked for a week in an old friends pizzarestaurant in Spokane, we called the flammkuchen 'alsatian pizza', and it was quite a success. At the end when I returned home and with me the'alsatian pizza' my friend wrote me, that his customers preferred the rich american topping.
On my christmas dinner table this year we'll have a haunch of venison with red cabbage, german Rotkohl, and thuringian potatoe-dumplings.
@mick: With my allergies, venison is out for xmas--we'll going to have the traditional xmas goose with dumplings and red cabbage; Laraine is very good at whipping up a terrific gravy from the collected juices. An additional benefit: We get goose lard (Gänseschmalz), a requirement for real sauerkraut IMHO.
The dumplings are a problem, though: We have been using a German dry mix that has to soak in water before being formed into balls, which produces acceptable results in combination with Laraine's gravy, but it's not the real thing, of course. What are Thuringian dumplings? I've never heard of those.
@ulrich:Thuringian dumplings are made from 3 parts raw, finely shredded potatoes and 1 part cooked mashed potatoes. The variety is very important, you need floury potatoes, instead of the usual waxy ones. The raw potatoes are shredded into cold water, then put in a cloth and squeezed out thoroughly and the liquid is put aside to allow the starch to settle.Then you pour away the watery part and add the starch back to the dough.For additional binding, if needed use potato starch only, no corn starch.
Potatomash is beaten with hot milk and then added to the dough. Put the whole mix back on the kitchenstove ,season with salt only and stirr constantly for 2-3 min. After cooling down, the dumplings are formed with watery hands and laid in boiling saltwater.
Let it simmer for about 20 minutes until they rise to the top. A roast and a good, rich gravy make the dumplings a feast.
BTW the dry mix is widely used in Germany, but It does'nt exit to my knowledge for the 3/1 version..
@ulrich For years I always made duck for xmas dinner. Its so good. One year we decided to have a goose and it was good as well. Here is a good tip that I learned that helps with all the grease that come out of the duck. Take a brand new bar rag (they come in a package of three or four) -one that has never been washed - and stuff it in the cavity of the bird. It absorbs all the fat. When the bird is done just throw the yucky rag away.
One of my daughters is cooking this year so alas no duck. We are having beef.
I imagine you and Laraine got quite a bit of snow up where you are - we got around 6"
@mick: Thx for the recipe. I remember the dumplings now--when my grandmother made them, they were simply called "raw potatoe dumplings" to distinguish them from the ones made from cooked potatoes. I also remember that the grating and squeezing is time-consuming. But heck--I'm retired: We're going to try them this xmas.
@chefbea: It's winter wonderland out there--the only thing missing is the sun. Here's a shot of our "Hexenhaus" from an hour ago.
@ulrich what a great house!!!
wonder if mac will get off today. Not sure what time they are leaving but with all the mess of yesterday...
Mac didn't get off, is hanging around a hospital, still, with my brother in law still on the ventilator. The reports from the quite impressive doctors are positive, though, and I'm hopeful that we will be returning to CT on Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. My dream came through, and we've been invited to have Christmas dinner at Diana Barnes's, a wonderful cook, originally from Australia! I will have to round up some gifts, though. It helps that I know what kind of necklaces she has.....
@mac: We wish you all the best and a safe return to our part of the world--the current winter wonderland may be gone, though.
I have returned, and am now snowed in and ready to whield my wooden spoon! The brother-in-law is doing better, judging by his constantly trying to second-guess the doctors and the nurses.....
We usually have an evening of delicacies after a light dinner. I bought some fresh (little New Zealand) clams, some Italian whole babyclams in cans and garlic, hot pepper parsly. After that a green salad. We also have fresh oysters, tiny Canadian shrimp in a dill-sauce, herring in musterd sauce, Dutch bitterballen (from the Dutch store in Norwalk and a tiny key lime pie. Talking about bitterballen, I just found out that there's a fairly new Dutch restaurant (quick food) on 57th St and 6 Ave in NY. I looked up their menu online and they have croquettes with many different fillings, some sound a little odd, and they also have some Indonesian dishes. I'll try it out next week.
Tomorrow we will have another brother-in-law and a (girl) friend of mine for dinner. They are counting on the bitterballen, that's an annual tradition, and they will get some crab/avocado/lime/cilantro salad to start with, roast beef with little potatoes and haricots verts, horseradish sauce, and for dessert lemon tart with red currants. On Friday we start eating VERY DIFFERENTLY, I foresee a lot of clear soups in the new year.....
@chefbea: I also would like to know what a hoppin john is.
@mac: I'm happy to hear about your brother-in-law. And your dinner sounds really inviting: It seems to call for company--to pick at and comment on the delicacies...
We're also snowed in, basically. If need arose, we could drive (to my delight, I got our snow thrower to work--for the steep final part of our driveway that the guy who plows it normally doesn't want to touch). But it seemed more promising to stay home and spend the time cooking. We're basically going in the opposite direction and decided on a really involved duck recipe calling for braising/roasting in several stages. I had to produce 2 cups of fresh mandarin juice as base for the sauce and glaze and was surprised to see how many mandarins that took--it's now boiling, with sugar and red wine vinegar added, to produce a reduction. I just tasted it--boy, that flavor is intense!
Laraine will take over for the more complicated follow-up.
@ulrich boy that duck sounds delicious. I use to make duck for xmas dinner with a cherry orange sauce.
The hoppin john was delish!! It's a southern dish made for the new year (eating black eyed peas brings good luck) mine was a mixture of ham hocks, black eyed peas, rice, onion,red bell pepper, green pepper and cajun seasoning - which is spicy hot - and diced tomatoes with jalapeno peppers. if anyone wants the recipe I'll send the link. There is a recipe on the bag of goya peas but it didnt sound as good.
Happy new year to all
@chefbea: thx for the hoppin john info. Laraine got really interested and starts thinking about adaptations that take my meat allergy into account.
@ulrich Laraine could leave out the ham hocks. I think you can buy some kind of smoke flavored liquid in a bottle and it would give it the same flavor with out the ham.
@chefbea I would love that link you mentioned. I have a recipe but it sounds a bit bland and your description most definitely is not bland. The recipe also says it should be served with corn bread. Did you do that? In any case, I have the black eyed peas soaking and I'm going to give it a try tomorrow. I might just follow what you say previously and adjust the pepper, cajun spices, ham hocks for our taste and Ulrich's allergy.
Happy New Year!
@Laraine here is the link to the hoppin john recipe.
http://southernfood.about.com/od/blackeyedpeas/r/bl80308c.htm
I made my own cajun seasoning
1/4 cup salt
3 tblsp garlic powder
3 tblsp black pepper
1/8 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 tblsp paprika
mix all together
it makes a lot but you can use it for other recipes.
@chefbea: Thx--I was really the beneficiary of all of this.
Laraine mixed in some left-over meat from our duck, and that made it really special.
@Chef Bea. Thank you very much. Actually thank you for just bringing up the subject. I had read about "Hopping John" on and off and thought about making it. You gave me the stimulus to actually do it, and we both really like it. I've made and bought Cajun seasoning and no question, the home made is infinitely better.
I worry about finding tasty gluten free recipes as gluten has been linked to autism and I prefer to just avoid it all together. I’ve tried tons of different recipes and expensive “organic foods” from the stores but I recently came across this website www.RoseCole.com/HolidayCookBook . Rose Cole who is the nutritionist behind the site puts up all these great gluten free recipes in her Holiday Cookbook that are easy and affordable. I think I’m actually looking forward to cooking on the holidays for once. Lol
I found this great site with loads of Dairy Free Holiday recipes. I recommended it to my sister who has an autistic child and she loves it. There is also a cool video on the bottom of the page where Rose Cole (founder) is making one of her recipes www.RoseCole.com/HolidayCookbook
I found this great site with loads of Dairy Free Holiday recipes. I recommended it to my sister who has an autistic child and she loves it. There is also a cool video on the bottom of the page where Rose Cole (founder) is making one of her recipes www.RoseCole.com/HolidayCookbook
After one of my kids was diagnosed with Autism I have been trying to avoid dairy. I came across this site www.RoseCole.com/HolidayCookbook. Rose Cole is a godsend! Her recipes are so simple and affordable and best off DELICIOUS! Also, there is a really cool free video at the bottom of the page, which is really helpful showing her preparing one of her recipes. Happy Holidays!
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