Food Glorious Food!

[wildeabandon]

You know, I don't think I've talked about food on here for a while, at least not more than in passing. That can't possibly be right. Talk to me about food, people! Actually, I know, I can have a poll - not only will it allow me to indulge my curiosity, but I can use it for reference when you come to dinner.

[Poll #1161910]

And finally, if you're so inclined, give me your favourite recipes, tell me about wonderful meals or give me anecdotes about hilarious food mishaps.

Comments

[kotenok.livejournal.com]

One of the best recent food mishaps was the night of my 10-strong dinner party back in November, where I'd asked my kitchen-helper to put the beans on to cook, and hadn't put any water in the pan (and they hadn't realised)

Ten or so minutes later we had some rather charred beans!

[numberland.livejournal.com]

The last partly because it might help with getting food into me when that's hard, otherwise toss up.

[emperor]

How much I cook depends on how often atreic is home - typically she cooks and I wash up on work-nights (because she hates having to load the dishwasher after dinner). When cooking for myself I tend to be very perfunctory about it (this is something I should probably fix), but I like cooking for other people.

I'm not a great eater of puddings, but I make a fair range of them, and really like making them. My tiramisu is a thing of joy. Sadly, this has rather turned me into a pudding snob - I'm more likely to be disappointed by a restaurant pudding than any other part of a meal.

I like sharing meals with friends, and don't really care what they cook for me - I'd rather a dinner host cooked something they liked cooking rather than trying hard to do something they think I'll like. I appreciate this may be a little paradoxical :) I think this may be a hangover from the fact that my parents didn't cook very much at all, so "proper" meals still seem like a bit of a treat!

My LJ has "food" tagged entries as appropriate. My most embarrasing cooking blind spot is white sauces, which I just can't do. Sometime I should spend an afternoon conquering them.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

What goes wrong with them?

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

Puddings are the bits that I'm not terribly good at. I can bake reasonably well, but don't do it nearly often enough.

[meihua.livejournal.com]

Can I add "sakē" to your list of matched drinks? Important for good Japanese food and surprisingly good for dim sum.

[ninevrise.livejournal.com]

Made "collard greens" the other day -- soooo good. I used spring greens, 'cause I could find them here. Bacon (or other pork meat) browned in the bottom of a large pot; a little bit of sliced onion, sauteed until transparent; add chopped garlic clove; greens removed from the stem and cut into slices, then thrown into the pot immediately after the garlic, with a dash or two of vinegar, a dash of salt, a dash of sugar, and a sprinkling of Tabasco. Put the lid on and wait for the greens to become mostly tender, stirring occasionally. To be served with Tabasco to taste.

OMG greeeeeeens.

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

Omnomnomnomnom.

I usually do greens stir-fried with a mixture of garlic and fresh ginger and a dash of soy sauce, but I shall have to try that.

[simont]

I feel as if I cheated on the last question.

[vardebedian.livejournal.com]

Mm, me too. If I had to give up faculties in order everything would go before sight adequate to read and the rudiments of cognition, but since "touch" was included in the second option I wrote it off with barely a thought. Not that one could really appreciate food without being able to register its consistency, but still.

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Once we (Laura, Liz and me) made this cake that wanted whipped egg whites in it to hold it up. Only, the recipe didn't say at the start "the main thing giving the texture of this cake is whipped egg white", it just had a list of steps. So not realising how critically important it was, I gave the egg yolks to Laura to whip by the time honoured method of putting fork and jug in her hand and saying "X's testicles*" whenever she stopped. (This was before I got my mixer.) It was not actually as flat as one might have expected...

*where X is somebody heartily disliked by her and many others

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Hilarious cooking mishap wasn't one of mine, but one of my exes poisoned me on Valentine's Day by cooking a chilli without sufficiently soaking the kidney beans (he stopped eating after a mouthful because it "taste[d] funny"; I kept going out of politeness).

[alcina2.livejournal.com]

A recipe that doesn't sound as if it is at all nice but is surprisingly wonderful. It is also the most tiem consuming and fiddly thing in the world:

1) Get a leg of lamb, a large one. Peel some garlic and cut each clove longways into about 3 strips. The get a long, thin knife and stab the leg of lamb. Insert one strip of garlic into the whole so it's completely hiddden. Repeat until the whole leg of lamb has had garlic added. This usually takes 1-2 bulbs of garlic in 100+ little holes.

2) Roast the leg of lamb as per usual.

3) Chop a massive pile of peeled mushrooms very fine 1-2 large supermarket containers full. This is very tedious and it's amazing how mush chooped mushrrom results; make sure you have a damn big bowl!

4) Put a LOT of butter (3 ounces or so) in a flying pan. Chop 3 shallots finely and fry lightly. Start adding the mushrooms. That huge heap of mushrooms WILL fit in the frying pan once cooked, as they shrink enormously. You will almost certainly need to add butter. Keep stirring all the time and don't turn the heat too high.

5) Put your mushroom mix to cool down. Ditto your leg of cooked lamb.

6) Put the leg of lamb so the side with most meat is uppermost. Cut several straight, deep cuts across, then pack each one with the mushroom-mix.

7) Grate half a pound of parmesan (just when you thought you'd done the tedious bits!). Melt 3 ounces of butter in a pan and then turn off the heat and mix in the parmesan to make a paste. Spread this paste over the lamb.

8) Return to the oven to brown the cheese mix slightly anhd heat the lamb up

Serve with the left over mushroom mix and some very bland vegs and carbs (plain boiled potatoes or mash is best) because the main is so rich you'll be sick otherwise.

Although this dish is a LOT of work, it has one brilliant advantage for dinner parties: it is essentially a ready meal. You have to do steps 6 and 7 while it is cool, and then put it in the oven to heat it up. This measn you can get it ready before your guests arrive and have no real work to do one they are here.

[alcina2.livejournal.com]

To answer your poll question about the best meal I ever ate, see this post http://alcina2.livejournal.com/223358.html?mode=reply for the details. The recipe above was the main meat course.

[angoel.livejournal.com]

But I only make much effort if I'm cooking for other people.

There's a basic level of caringness about cooking which generally takes place regardless (unless I'm pushed for time) which is sufficiently internalised that I characterise it as minimal effort. Making more effort when cooking for other people characterises itself as changes in presentation, addition of deserts and starters and more considered ingredients rather than changing the attention paid to the main course.

[hilarityallen.livejournal.com]

I'd happily lose touch.

My second best meal was in a restaurant in France in Fontevrault. Just an average looking place, but I had guinea fowl that simply melted off the bone. Fantastic.

I love food, and I love having it cooked for me, and cooking it. I'm best at cakes and pastry. I was going to say 'gourmet' food, but then I love a proper squishy burger and slightly crispy chips, which isn't exactly poncy. I don't really have the money to eat out a lot, but I love to cook for people!

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I'd happily lose touch.

:-o

The differences between people are fascinating sometimes. I'd give up taste AND smell and possibly one or two of the others before I'd give up touch.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

Alcohol with a meal has a lot to do with relaxation for me, which means tea makes a good substitute :-)

[andyravensable.livejournal.com]

With regards to the final question, I'd certainly like to live with all five senses, but the loss of sight or sound would mean a severe change in occupation and lifestyle, so rank higher than taste or smell.

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

That seems fair enough. Also, on the theme of food, we haven't had lunch for ages. Shall we?

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I have a FAQ on this (http://atreic.livejournal.com/156514.html). Does that make me sad or practical?

[meihua.livejournal.com]

shortcipher wrote: Difficult one, but probably one of Susan's. A recent favourite is her satay stir-fry thing. A recent favourite is her satay stir-fry thing.

Awesome. Good to hear that recipe's getting good use. :D

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

Okay, you can't do that without telling me what the recipe is! Omnomnom satay.

[squiddity.livejournal.com]

I'm a fair bit of a food nut, I'm afraid.
I'll get you round for an Indian dinner soon and can demonstrate my favourite Dal and Pulau and Masala.

[wildeabandon.livejournal.com]

That would be shiny - Helen has mentioned how wonderful your food is. Perhaps you can suggest when? My diary is a bit hectic, but frees up from late May onwards - http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=elise%40wildeabandon.org

[hazyjayne.livejournal.com]

*waves*

Hello! I have worked out who you are now. :)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

I barely have a sense of smell anyway, so losing the rest of it wouldn't phase me much.

It's never occurred to me before now to wonder if this is why I don't get the whole 'eating as a sensual experience' thing. Maybe I'm ill-equipped for appreciating good food.

[robert-jones.livejournal.com]

Gosh. That would be a very strange way to live. Smell and sensuality are very closely linked in my mind.

[geekette8.livejournal.com]

I've not got much sense of smell anyway, so wouldn't be fussed about losing the rest of it.

Two worst cooking-related mishaps: the first was a long time ago when I was a student. I made Jif a black forest gateau as a special birthday present. Unfortunately the chocolate cake base was a flourless recipe from Delia and it just didn't set at all - when I opened the sides of the springform tin it just schlooped out. Luckily I had realised it was gloopy and had it on an appropriate plate with deep edges. I dumped the whipped cream and cherries on the top and we ate it with spoons; it tasted fine but I've had to endure jokes about my black forest soup ever since. :-)

The second one was related to the lack of sense of smell - I was cooking some chicken in a wok, and didn't realise it was off. I'd just added a load of other ingredients when Jif walked in and went "EURGH, what's that SMELL?". Whoops. We threw it away.

Oh, and another: Jif has a real hang up about offal, and especially kidneys. In France one time we were trying to get a quick meal in a "Flunch" (quick and cheap but reasonable food chain restaurant) and he picked something that was called "rognons de porc". We didn't know what rognons were and assumed it was like medallions of pork or something. He ate one bite and was nearly sick, then asked me to look it up in the dictionary but NOT TELL HIM any details if it was any form of offal. Yep, kidneys.

hilarious food mishaps.

[strangederby2.livejournal.com]

I make good bread almost every week without the use of a bread maker but I lack the cake making gene. Worst time? I once baked a cake that looked fine until I went to cut somebody a slice and liquid poured out from inside.

[strangederby2.livejournal.com]

Also,for me this is the best recipe book ever written.

http://www.theppk.com/nomicon.html

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Snowflake on the wine/beer question: depends very much on the food. And I find that some fruit juices and posh non-alcoholic drinks do just as well, though again it's good if care has gone into them.

(Even though I am drinking a bit again, I still need to organise that teetotal dinner party at some point, trying to match good non-alcoholic drinks to the food as though it were alcoholic.)