What's for dinner?

[bjd]

Bixa, their family had a housekeeper when they lived in Sweden -- an Estonian woman. By the time the kids were teenagers, they lived in Beirut and had a local maid. Other days, like Sundays, everyone sort of coped on their own. By the time I met them, my father-in-law did the basic cooking, but all the kids had left home.

Yep, "eccentric" is a polite word for it.

[kerouac2]

everyone sort of coped on their own

I continue to be amazed at the number of people who have never cooked, don't like cooking, are terrible cooks, enjoy eating the same food every day, etc. So many people have reported for example that they ate at McDonald's every day during 4 years of university, and they found nothing wrong with it. But I shouldn't be amazed because people have eaten that way for centuries if not millenia. The big difference is that in the past people didn't have a choice, but now they do.

Anyway, last night was not very inventive (or healthy). I fried some Malaysian roti filled with grated cheddar and chopped onions.

[bixaorellana]

Your father-in-law sounds like a very decent man.

[whatagain]

Salade liégeoise tonight.

Base is beans (long ones), potatoes, ham (fat : lard / speck ?) onions and eggs. Pepper and vinegar.
I’ll take a pic.

[bixaorellana]

Kerouac & I simul-posted.

re: not cooking, not knowing how, not liking it -- My grandmother told me her mother didn't care about cooking because she didn't care about food. And yet from other things my grandmother said, it was obvious that the family ate regularly and meals that were well rounded. My grandmother was a wonderful cook & really liked cooking. No idea how she learned.

It always amazes me when grown women growl that they're retired now, so they don't cook. Why?

I'm living in an odd situation right now, with all my stuff packed up, my stove sold, & only one pot, one skillet, & a single electric burner to cook on -- just like a poor student. And yet I cook & eat because I know how & because it's nice to feed oneself.

A friend of mine who is my age literally doesn't get cooking and has never learned how. She says her mother worked when she was growing up, but surely someone in her family cooked. Maybe not, though. She once told me that she was an adult before she found out that potato salad is something people routinely make at home, that not everyone gets it from the deli.

[tod2]

I have no idea where or when my cooking skills were formed. I never stood next to my mother and watched how she did certain dishes. She had assistants and the food was always delicious and plentiful. Knowing my kind hearted mom she most certainly cooked far more than our family could eat just so that the people around her in the kitchen could sample the dishes being prepared.
I find it difficult cooking for just the two of us and don't even try....My vegetarian gardener gets the leftover veg and his mother gets a container with the meat he brings home. Any scraps go to my overfed but happy Staffie.

[whatagain]

My salad from liege was delicious. 

first the beans.  They were reddish when non cooked. 

The eggs and potatoes. 

Onions and speck 

Ready to serve.  Don’t forget the vinegar.  

[kerouac2]

Looks great to me but of course the seasoning is what counts.

I baked a couple of medium sized sea bream in the oven with coconut milk, garlic purée and Thai chillies. Even though I bought the fish (dorade in French) at the Chinese supermarket, I saw they were imported from Argentina.

[tod2]

Whatagain, is that called a Liege potatoes salad?

[kerouac2]

I saw that the Marmiton site gives the recipe and instructions for salade liégeoise, but theirs does not contain eggs.

www.marmiton.org/recettes/recette_salade-liegeoise_21337.aspx

[bixaorellana]

That green bean/potato salad is the kind of thing I love. A product that used to be common in US supermarkets was canned "German potato salad". I have no idea if it bore any resemblance to a traditional real dish, but it was rather nice -- bacon-y and vinegary. It has probably gone the way of Campbell's pepper pot soup, something that was getting increasingly hard to find back when I lived in the US.

The baked sea bream sounds luxurious, Kerouac, but did it include any kind of acid flavor -- lemon, tamarind, or the like?

[kerouac2]

The last time I was in Florida, German style potato salad was still a major item in the supermarket deli section. It will probably be kept available as long as enough of the elderly snowbirds are alive.

[kerouac2]

Aug 31, 2024 14:46:14 GMT bixaorellana said:

did it include any kind of acid flavor -- lemon, tamarind, or the like?

My "exotic" additional spice was carvi - caraway powder - Persian cumin.

[bixaorellana]

Aug 31, 2024 14:58:26 GMT kerouac2 said:

The last time I was in Florida, German style potato salad was still a major item in the supermarket deli section. It will probably be kept available as long as enough of the elderly snowbirds are alive.

But that was a long time ago, right?
I suppose since it was in the deli section & not a canned version, there was a chance of younger people trying & liking it, thus keeping demand for it going.

Aug 31, 2024 15:01:42 GMT kerouac2 said:

My "exotic" additional spice was carvi - caraway powder - Persian cumin.

I'm intrigued by the use of a warm flavor rather than an acidy one. Sounds lovely.

[whatagain]

Aug 31, 2024 11:49:39 GMT tod2 said:

Whatagain, is that called a Liege potatoes salad?

As K stated we call it salade liégeoise.
And as he says eggs are not mandatory but my wife likes it with it.
Also she usually adds some sour cream.
But again not necessary.

[onlyMark]

There was an Indian restaurant in Coimbra I just had to go to. The menu said they had pani puri. Getting that outside of India is akin to finding rocking horse shit. It can be had but I can count on the fingers of one finger when I've had it. It can be on menus but when you ask for them, suddenly they've run out.
I prefer street food than just having a curry and rice and in India I will virtually live on different street foods, which are rare to find in Europe, and apart from a Biryani which I love from time to time, I avoid the rice in India.
This is what I had.
Gobi (cauliflower) pakora (batter made with spiced chickpea flour) and four sauces ranging from mild, yogurty and minty to jeeesus chriiist -




Dahi Bhala/Dahi Vada - "soft lentil fritters soaked in creamy yogurt. Dahi is a Hindi word that means yogurt and Vada are deep fried fritters. These melt-in-the-mouth snack is topped with Tamarind chutney and Green chutney or Coriander Chutney" -




A raita is only as good as the yogurt it's made with. A good mixed raita -




Pani (water) puri (fried semolina or wheat flour) - "Potato, onion, chickpeas, coriander chutney stuffed inside crispy puri and drenched in sour and spicy mint flavoured water (pudina pani)" -




Kulcha prato - A leavened flatbread from the Punjab stuffed with any vegetable to hand, usually potato but mine also had onion, carrot and broccoli. Came with a chole (chick pea) masala (mixed spice gravy/sauce) -

[bixaorellana]

That looks like the kind of suppers probably served in heaven.

In what earthly realm are you right now?

[mich64]

I have never eaten at an Indian restaurant but that all looks delicious and dishes I think I would enjoy trying.

We had dinner at my brother and sister-in-laws home. Our dear nephew and his fiancé were here visiting. What a wonderful evening. I brought the Thai salad I made last week ( my brother enjoyed it) and an apple crumble pie. They made chicken breasts covered with pesto and tomato then broiled at the end with cheese. They had a mushroom rice and some butter glazed carrots.

[fumobici]

For years I thought Indian food was okay, but nothing great really. Then I moved near Vancouver, British Columbia where there are excellent (some say the world's best) Indian restaurants where I learnt it can be utterly sublime.

[onlyMark]

Portugal Bixa. Exiting to the north tomorrow into Spain.

[tod2]

Very tasty, very tasty Mark! My husband is the curry king....not because he can make curry (he can't) but loves lamb or beef curry. I had Butter chicken curry a few days ago and it was divine. The only unfortunate thing about it was they used chicken breast. I think it should have been made with thighs.
On weekends we sometimes go to a favourite restaurant that makes a lamb curry Durban style. Thick, rich and full of flavour and far too hot for me.

[cheerypeabrain]

I made a thick vegetable stew with chopped onion, leek, parsnip, celery, swede, carrot and potato cooked in a very tasty chicken stock, served with little herby dumplings.

Also made a bread and butter pudding.

[kerouac2]

I made lasagne from scratch, using a variety of diminishing cheese remnants from the refrigerator -- mozza, gorgonzola and emmental. I could have also finished off the last bit of a very ripe camembert, but that was enough cheese for tonight. I'll finish the camembert for lunch tomorrow.

[cheerypeabrain]

Pizza. After a fashion....home made base with pasatta, dash of balsamic vinegar sauce topped with grated mozerella, mature cheddar and parmesan, oregano, chopped lean ham..it was yummy. I had to take it out of the oven before the top was brown to serve Jeff's third, then the rest went back in the oven for the base to get nice and crispy for myself and Russell.

[onlyMark]

When our kids were smaller I used to use a base of flat Arabic bread then put out a selection of toppings and they could personalise their own. It saved a lot of complaints about too much cheese or too little tomato base or the wrong salami etc etc. They were also small enough we could have two each.

[cheerypeabrain]

A little diced squash, carrot, parsnip, swede, celery, potato, onion and a few lentils cooked in a red wine, tomato, oregano, butter and pepper sauce. Topped with cauliflower cheese. Nom.

[kerouac2]

Spicy pork, rice and raita. I think I make very good raita.

[whatagain]

One bowl of soup.
Not hungry.

[cheerypeabrain]

Everybodyis feeling pathetic so I found the M&S readymeals out of the freezer (sausage and mash with onion gravy) that I bought a while back for emergencies. They were quite nice actually.

[whatagain]

😹