What I learned today

[Jenise]

Today I learned that not everybody in these here United States call garlic parts 'cloves'. Here, from a recipe for lima beans:

"1/2 pound ham or seasoning meat
1 large onion, chopped
1 toe garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 tablespoon chopped celery"

Toes!!!

Meh.

That is Louisiana Lingo.

Back when I was in my 20s there was a Dungeons & Dragons group that met weekly for dinner followed by D&D. Participants took turns providing the evening meal, usually cooking up something simple. The dungeon master didn't know how to cook and usually took everyone out to a restaurant. But one time he decided to try his hand at spaghetti with meat sauce, which seemed simple enough. The recipe called for two cloves of garlic. When he went shopping for garlic, he assumed that the term "clove" must mean a whole garlic head, since that's how the stuff was sold. So the spaghetti sauce ended up with two heads of garlic in it.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Funny story, Paul. It's both amazing and amusing to consider what dangers lurk for the clueless. I posted something on Facebook about a young guy in his first apartment who's complaining about having to clean the oven after every use, and his friend is like no you shouldn't have to do that. And he says well I do because all the grease and stuff drips down. He was putting meat directly on the rack with no pan underneath--he thought that was 'grilling'.

OMG, that is just crazy, wonder what kind of home/family that young man grew up in? Reminds me tho of when we updated our kitchen. I had a huge harvest of tomatoes, waiting to be processed into tomato sauce and I could hardley wait for my two Dacor ovens to be installed. Once done, I prepped the tomatoes and two sheet pans went into the oven. What a mess the splatters made in the new oven and my contractor seemed rather annoyed with me, Why did you do that, he asked. It was then I realized I could have used our outside gas grill.....use it for all my tomato processing now.

OMG, that is just crazy, wonder what kind of home/family that young man grew up in?

Presumably, one in which Mom did *all* the cooking... and nobody watched her.

I recall a friend who made a dire mistake with a coq au vin recipe: it called for two oz of brandy but he was moving fast and didn't double-check and didn't think too hard about it... and added two cups of brandy. We considered igniting our portions but he wasn't actually amused.

That was some expensive coq au vin. More so if his house had caught fire.

[Jenise]

Today I learned that a 'witlof' is another name for Belgian endive. It was called for in a recipe, had to look it up.

Jeff, it still does. That's what I was referring to. We have a jar here leftover from Bob's 2nd degree burns when he dumped a hot pan of grease straight from the oven on his foot, which was wearing a sock, which soaked up the oil and sustained the burn. That's what the hospital used.

How horrible. I was fortunate to be able to wipe off the hot oil immediately.

The bandages came off yesterday. The new skin is red and tender and I'm still putting antibiotic ointment on it, but it has reached the point where there was more irritation with the bandages than without them.

-Paul W.

[Jenise]

Paul, that's good news. You know to be extra careful with that tender new skin, of course.

What I learned today that not even my Bullet Blender can blend lime peel well. I have been having smoothies for breakfast using my Bullet gadget I bought years ago. That thing is quick, and easy to use. I have a few limes given to me by my neighbor and they are simply delicious.. Along with blueberries, banana, fresh pineapple, I decided to cut up a lime and toss it in, peel and all. It ground it up but only into teeny little bits. It was delicious, but all those teeny bits found every nook and cranny in my teeth. Next time I will let it blend a little longer and see if that works.

Kaffir lime peel is one of the traditional ingredients in most Thai curry pastes. This is where a mortar and pestle comes in handy.

-Paul W.

Kaffir lime peel is one of the traditional ingredients in most Thai curry pastes..

Listened to a great podcast this weekend about Thai food in the US (https://gastropod.com/transcript-why-thai/), which talked about how LA-area Thai immigrants in the 1960s couldn't find kaffir lime in stores, but they found it at UC Riverside's citrus collection. So they would go to campus on the weekend and clip leaves to take home and freeze for cooking.

[Jenise]

Great story Rahsaan. A friend of mine up here had a kaffir lime tree for years thanks to a sunny/warm conservatory type room on the back of the house that helped trap heat. Unfortunately, bad weather here during one of their long trips away finally got to it, but it was a noble effort. Riverside, of course, has perfect citrus weather.

Today I learned that in Argentina there is another version of Argentinian chimichurri sauce besides the green one, and it's red. Paprika, red chile flakes, and black pepper combined with hot oil, cooled, then emulsified with vinegar. Got to try me that!

[Jenise]

Tonight: two-hour baked potatoes and avocado/iceberg salad. Anymore we never have baked potatoes except when they're the main event.

These days kaffir lime leaves are readily available from importfood.com. They freeze very well. When they're in season, importfood.com also has kaffir lime fruit. These are small and knobbly and even more aromatic than the leaves. The things are almost all rind--very little fruit and juice. As I mentioned, the zest is used in most Thai curry pastes. A lot of recipes call for the leaves rather than the rind because until recently you couldn't get the limes themselves. The zest does yield a slightly more aromatic curry paste than the leaves, but there's not really much difference. Unfortunately kaffir lime fruit doesn't seem to freeze too well.

-Paul W.

When they're in season, importfood.com also has kaffir lime fruit. These are small and knobbly and even more aromatic than the leaves. The things are almost all rind--very little fruit and juice.

Interetsing. I've been looking at buddha's hands, another citrus that is more rind than anything else. I'm thinking about candying it; supposed to be very good and I already like a lot of other candied citrus.

[Jenise]

Friends had us over for dinner the other night, BBQ they picked up locally which came with an order of fries. Of course, fries don't keep well, not enough was provided for four anyway, and they reeked of lard. So Dave got something out of the freezer and threw those in the oven to augment. Delicious! They're an Ore-Ida product called something like Fast Food Fries. Flavor and texture nails McDonalds, I kid you not. I would buy them!

Thanks to Larry’s discussion about cured meat I read up on sodium nitrite and nitrate. I mistakenly thought that the only function was for preserving color in red meats.

I hadn't realized that cured meats would be prone to botulism, but it makes sense--they are low in acidity and usually packaged in airtight containers. I checked the brand of "uncured" bacon that I buy and indeed it has nitrites added, but in the natural form of a celery seed preparation as opposed to chemical addition. Thanks, Larry, for pointing all this out.

-Paul W.

Aw, shucks.

[Jenise]

Today I learned that Trader Joe's Brooklyn Babka is the best store-bought dessert I've ever eaten, though it's not really dessert. It's barely sweet at all, mostly semi-sweet cocoa on an impossibly thin dough. Great with morning coffee!!

Today I learned that Trader Joe's Brooklyn Babka is the best store-bought dessert I've ever eaten, though it's not really dessert. It's barely sweet at all, mostly semi-sweet cocoa on an impossibly thin dough. Great with morning coffee!!

I don't know that one but babka, generally speaking, is yummy stuff.