FOOD FOOD FOOD. Post me some things you like to make or created!

[deanb]

Isn't barbecue cooking over an open flame and therefore one of the oldest forms of cooking there is? Or is this one of those English versus English moments and it means something totally different in the US?

 

Also had a look at this Crown & Anchors menu (do love it when pubs have websites, and PDF menus), it looks decent grub. Not all is traditional pub grub mind, but beyond your allergies what exactly was vomit inducing (apart from the prices, but that's London for you)?

 

edit: Unless you went for Brunch. Just noticed they do a full English, and I know black pudding can be a major turn-off for folks with weak disposition towards food.

[WTF]

I wonder if we should share recipes maybe eventually.

 

Technically I love baking but rice is sort of essential. One of the good things about living in England is the ample supply of Basmati Rice 10kg for 10 quid does seem like a bargain and you can always find a good source (that said I hope I don't jinx myself by saying that). It's sort of essential since once a fortnight I do make Biriyani, not as much quantity as my mother would but sufficient to feed 3 people for 6 meals.

 

There's this dish that my mum taught me which basically is Cauliflower Manchurian (aka Gobi Manchurian). The one thing I find hard to make is a good dosa since I don't have the right tava for it. The one I have is just good for the various flatbreads that me and my partner make on occasion. If I'm feeling lazy it's always a pasta bake since that's something easy.

 

When I'm home on weekends though we end up making carrot cakes, coffee cakes or even spice cakes. The most easiest recipes though just require puff pastry and feta if you're having a sleep in. Shredded Parathas and scrambled eggs with mild spices also makes for a good dish.

 

A good dessert would be Umm Ali which is a middle eastern sweet that's not too hard to prepare if you've got pastry sheets but is delicious. Also biscuit pudding.

 

The key thing to most dishes is spices though, which requires you to have a good nose. It's a lot like chemistry really.

 

Although a personal annoyance is wtf do people here mean by fricking 'Keralan' there's no such thing as Keralan cuisine but rather Malabar cuisine and Malayali/Nadan cuisine (based on my experiences living for a few years in that state).

 

Oh and speaking of pubs, it's nice living in the city when you have a wide choice of decent pubs. I generally do like the Harvester chains and I'm always close to a Wetherspoons wherever I move for some reason.

[deanb]

If we want to do recipes then here's one Ursus-Veritas shared a while back http://www.nigella.c...nness-cake-3086* I passed it on to my mum and she's made it quite a few times. Very dense and moist, but so fucking gooood. It's getting rather popular at parties.

 

I also have the recipe for "Grandmas Smiths Curry". My step-dads side of the family spent quite a bit of time in the middle-east (step-grandad was an army engineer) so got bit's of that. I've not made it yet because it has no measurements, which is sort of the point I guess. All she knows is what goes in it, not really any specific amounts. When you're making it for several decades I guess it doesn't matter. Also her taste buds are shot so I have a sneaking suspicion it has substantial more punch to it than it did when she first started making it. It's not spicy, just very..peanuty.

 

 

The one thing I find hard to make is a good dosa since I don't have the right tava for it.

Translation?

 

 

*For Americans this is Nigella Lawson

 

She once caused a goose fat shortage.

[TheRevanchist]

Isn't barbecue cooking over an open flame and therefore one of the oldest forms of cooking there is? Or is this one of those English versus English moments and it means something totally different in the US?

 

It is the same thing as that, but there are many techniques that you would not think about unless you BBQ regularly. I watch BBQ University on PBS quite regularly (actually the replays on the Create channel, which is essentially PBS). You learn new techniques and methodologies and philosophies of BBQ. Most vary by region. It's an artform that everyone can do, and it's a good time with friends to just relax and have a cold one.

[Battra92]

Isn't barbecue cooking over an open flame and therefore one of the oldest forms of cooking there is? Or is this one of those English versus English moments and it means something totally different in the US?

 

Barbecue (at least what Americans call BBQ) is more cooking with indirect heat and smoking it low and slow. Cooking directly over an open flame is grilling. It is usually treated with a rub first although in other parts of the country people use a BBQ sauce (which is blasphemy down south IIRC)

 

Up here in Upstate New York, barbecue to us is Cornell Chicken (which is quite delicious)

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/cornell-chicken-marinade/

 

Paired with Syracuse salt potatoes and some sweet corn on the cob and you have the perfect summer meal.

 

Also had a look at this Crown & Anchors menu (do love it when pubs have websites, and PDF menus), it looks decent grub. Not all is traditional pub grub mind, but beyond your allergies what exactly was vomit inducing (apart from the prices, but that's London for you)?

 

Everything was so ... bland! I got a chicken sandwich and it tasted something akin to a boiled piece of chicken thrown on a bun. It was just barely edible ...

 

Haché burgers in Camden Town was great, though. There was another place in Euston we liked that served a kind of spicy chicken. It was delicious but I had a reaction that night ;;

[Battra92]

*For Americans this is Nigella Lawson

Oh were well aware. My wife and I both agree she's hot.

[BrainHurtBoy...2]

Translation?

It's a griddle.

Plain and simple.

A dosa is basically a savory crepe from South India.

But, really -- you're English and you don't know what a Dosa is??

 

WTF: Are you Indian, an Indophile, or just enjoy the food?

I'm from Kerala, by the way, and 'Keralan' is a totally standard thing to say. There's some variation within Kerala (my dad's from the North Malabars, so I'm best at making Malabar stuff), but it's similar enough to group it all together. The term 'Keralan food' is prevalent all over India, it's only within Kerala that you'll see people distinguishing between regional cuisines.

I mean -- if we're picking nits, I take issue with people saying "Karnatakan", "Rajasthani", "Maharashtran" or "Tamil" cuisine.

My point is, "Keralan food" is used all over the world, and it's kind of weird to take issue with it being called as such.

 

Anyway, more stuff I make.

I got thinking of South India, so I love me some rasam, just in a cup, to drink, puli inji, puliyogare (Iyengar style), olan and tindora.

My father started teaching me to cook when I was seven or eight, and I often cooked for the family.

It's one of my favorite things to do.

My range extends far outside of Indian cuisine, though! I'll post here, again, later with stuff from other parts of the world.

[Thursday Next]

You can have corn bread and southern fried chicken, but there is no way Americans are laying claim to the barbeque. There's too many variants and too many other colonies that use the various methods for outdoor cooking for any one to say that they gave the world that cuisine. Australians are stereotyped as putting anything edible on a barbie and South Africans have a "braai" to name just two others.

 

I don't for one minute adhere to the stereotype that "all American food is processed junk", there's a wealth of different and very good food available, clam chowder in sour-bread rolls is a fantastic "American" dish (in that I associate it with San Fran), it's especially welcome when the weather is colder.

 

By the same token, not all English food is bland, and many French wines are utter crap. In short badly prepared food is bad. Go anywhere and you can find crap food, no country has a monopoly on it.

 

America doesn't do its food image many favours though, the whole renaming (Belgian) "French Fries" as "Freedom Fries", the fact that many see McDonald's as the blue-print for US cuisine, the perception that American food is about piling tonnes of artificial flavoured, heavily processed "meat". The shady labelling of "Cheese Products" all conjur up a poor image of American cooking.

 

As to English cooking, aside from proper bacon, some regional dishes like Haggis and Cornish Pasties and the Roast dinner, I think that we tend to assimilate and adapt other cooking styles. Chicken Tikka Masala being a good example.

[WTF]

@BHB I'm 1/8th Indian which is pretty diluted (nothing about me gives it away interestingly enough, except when I use certain food terminology). However if you've even remotely got one side with some remote Indian-ness to it, you know how it goes with extended families. I did spend a few years there but that was ages ago. However I'm pretty disjoint from that side and am more closer to my Euro-side. Long-winded story.

 

I've also never really come across it being called 'Keralan' out there to be absolutely honest. It's a bit weird. And yeah @Dean a Tava is a type of griddle. However a dosa is basically what you could call it rather an a crispy crepe but it's a savoury. Also I do agree with not calling it Karnatakan cuisine because technically most Kannadiga food isn't the best outside of Udupi or Mysore. Tamil cuisine is a mixed bag really since there's far too many varieties that I suppose it becomes that way but Keralan was never a word till recently was it? Also really, I've never come across the cuisine being called Keralan outside of that annoying Indian food made easy woman and currently M&S.

 

I'm familiar with some of the stuff you've mentioned from the few years that I spent there. However I would say that the Payasam dessert is pretty good as well as that uh dessert you make with what's called Ada (not entirely sure what it is but I presume it has rice flour as do a lot of things there).

 

@TN is absolutely right about the UK, people assimilate cooking out here. It does work both ways though to be honest. Some new dishes are created such as the Chicken Tikka Masala which basically isn't even Indian cuisine but rather a fusion created in a restaurant (if QI is to be believed). People here are generally quite open to varying types of food. However that being said specific types of specialist cuisine is something that people here can confuse a fair bit. For instance a shawarma is not a doner kebab, a lot of people who haven't been to the Middle East make that mistake. The meat can be done in the rotisserie (the lamb shawarmas are similar but the chicken shawarmas are nothing like a chicken doner to be honest) but the bread used and the sauces used are totally different and that's what actually makes these things different.

 

Turkish cuisine is pretty good and you often get good pide and Lahmecun here. Also pub food in England is really good provided you're at a good pub. I'm also often amused by my friends who visit from the US and find that most of our fastfood restaurants don't look terrible when compared to there. I've also heard the reverse wheree they're scared to enter certain fast food restaurants out there. In the EU, McDs underwent a sort of rebranding to resemble chic cafes (though the people who're in there are still eh at times) but there's free wifi which can be tempting at times - though I prefer starbucks or caffe nero for a meet with wifi.

If you've been to London though you can always catch a quick bite at any Pret or Eat - they're not the best or the worst but sometimes they have some awesome seasonal specialties. Ponti's still do good gelato but I think some of their menu has gone a bit downhill. Btw these aren't remotely fancy restaurants just quick places to eat which are decent. I'm interested in heading out to the Danse Le Noir but at the same time not too keen on eating stuff in the dark. I do like to see the colour of my food.

 

Speaking of Cornish Pasties, their fudge and ice cream are pretty delish. I still think the worst thing I've eaten is a seafood pizza at a fancy place in Cannes. Ugh that was disgusting :/ It is interesting to note that sometimes the best example of a cuisine is found outside that particular country.

 

As for things to cook, this weekend if I have time I'll be doing a layered beef and flatbread dish. It's pretty good. One thing about living in the UK is you can easily become a breadie even if you weren't and there's an abundance of decent cheese which isn't processed at reasonable prices.

Edited December 2, 2011 by WTF

[TheMightyEthan]

So I looked it up, and when I said "barbecue" apparently I was unknowingly referring to Kansas City-style barbecue specifically.

 

Being from Kansas, it makes sense that that's what I would think of.

[MasterDex]

One of my favourite dishes to make is a Tuna and crab meat pasta dish. It can be done both on the cheap using tinned and packet sauces or made with fresh ingredients and it's great either way.

 

Cheap version:

• 3 puck-sized cans of Tuna
  
• 1 puck-sized can of white crab meat
  
• A packet of Tuna Napolitana sauce
  
• Tomato Purée
  
• Cheese of your choice
  
• Onion
  
• Pasta.
  

1. Make up the sauce from the packet
   
2. Boil the pasta in water with some olive oil
   
3. Dice an onion
   
4. Use cheese and purée to thicken and flavour the sauce to your preference
   
5. Add a dash of white pepper
   
6. Let the sauce get hot
   
7. Stir in the onion
   
8. Stir in the tuna and crabmeat, breaking it up so it's not in big chunks
   
9. Remove from heat, drain the pasta
   
10. Serve on a plate with a garnish of cheese.
    

It's quick and easy. The fresh version is essentially the same except you're making the Napolitana sauce yourself (basically a tomato and herb sauce - Oregano and rosemary work well), using freshly blended tomatoes, chopping up the meat, etc.

 

It also works well as a pasta bake, just make sure the sauce is good and thick.

[BrainHurtBoy...2]

I've also never really come across it being called 'Keralan' out there to be absolutely honest. It's a bit weird. And yeah @Dean a Tava is a type of griddle. However a dosa is basically what you could call it rather an a crispy crepe but it's a savoury. Also I do agree with not calling it Karnatakan cuisine because technically most Kannadiga food isn't the best outside of Udupi or Mysore. Tamil cuisine is a mixed bag really since there's far too many varieties that I suppose it becomes that way but Keralan was never a word till recently was it? Also really, I've never come across the cuisine being called Keralan outside of that annoying Indian food made easy woman and currently M&S.

http://mumbai.burrp.com/listing/rice-boat_bandra-e_mumbai_restaurants/15049059

http://www.kaayal.in/aboutus.htm

Two of my favorites in Mumbai and Bangalore, respectively. I believe the one in Bombay has since shut down, though.

Also, I disagree regarding Kannadiga food. Coorg has some of my favorite food in India.

Now, I'm a stickler for this kind of thing, and my entire family from the area prefers the term 'Keralite'.

But, in terms of what it's called within India itself, hell, outside of all areas except Kerala, it's called 'Keralan' food or 'Kerala' food.

That's just the way it is. I've been there quite often, and I just spent three months in Bangalore this summertime.

Anyway, payasam is delicious, but I prefer it North Indian style (kheer), like my mom used to make.

[TheMightyEthan]

You can have corn bread and southern fried chicken, but there is no way Americans are laying claim to the barbeque.

Sorry, just read this. Yeah, when I said "barbecue" I didn't realize what a wide variety of foods that actually covers. I was (apparently) referring specifically to Kansas City barbecue.

[WTF]

http://mumbai.burrp....urants/15049059

http://www.kaayal.in/aboutus.htm

Two of my favorites in Mumbai and Bangalore, respectively. I believe the one in Bombay has since shut down, though.

Also, I disagree regarding Kannadiga food. Coorg has some of my favorite food in India.

Now, I'm a stickler for this kind of thing, and my entire family from the area prefers the term 'Keralite'.

But, in terms of what it's called within India itself, hell, outside of all areas except Kerala, it's called 'Keralan' food or 'Kerala' food.

That's just the way it is. I've been there quite often, and I just spent three months in Bangalore this summertime.

Anyway, payasam is delicious, but I prefer it North Indian style (kheer), like my mom used to make.

Never been to either. I've not visited India properly in ages though I'll probably be heading next year for business. I'll be on the road so I'll definitely check it out. Though I have friends in B'lore and I'm sure they're bound to suggest something . Thing is I like the Mysore Thali a fair bit. I mean all those dishes put together makes it awesome. Not really fond of Kheer per se but I do love Gujarati sweets though technically the yellow Laddoos are the same everywhere but their orange laddoos are much better than any other state. With the exception of the lovely Sri Krishna sweets which exists even in the Middle East now.

 

Now Keralite, that's something I've heard. I've not really come across Keralan though I have heard Kerala cuisine which is still better than adding the n to it since technically you don't call someone who comes from the state that afaik. I prefer my mother's vermicelli payasam to be honest since the thinnest of the vermicelli makes for really nice ones. Bah I suck at making that dish though.

[deanb]

British food is very much dictated by its melting pot history, much like US. But different history and different people in the melting pot lead to us having tikka masala and you guys having soul food. British food is generally functional; be it for good grub working down the mines, something that'll last on a ship voyage, or maximizing left overs due to rationing. I'd certainly agree British food is not as fancy as you'd get in France n the like. Food has never really been regarded as an artform over here. At the least it's sustenance and the most it's a social gathering. Many of our dishes are things that can easily scale up to bulk depending on how many people are coming. Faffing about is not prized. If it comes out bland that's up to the cook. Stuff like a sunday roast over-boiling the vegetables can be an issue for example (though you can steam them instead). We have access to plenty of herbs, seasonings n spices so adding a bit of a punch is rarely an issue. For example if I'm making a bolognese I'll usually add a bit of everything for an added kick. (If cooking for others I stick to the usual garlic, basil etc)

[Battra92]

America doesn't do its food image many favours though, the whole renaming (Belgian) "French Fries" as "Freedom Fries", the fact that many see McDonald's as the blue-print for US cuisine, the perception that American food is about piling tonnes of artificial flavoured, heavily processed "meat". The shady labelling of "Cheese Products" all conjur up a poor image of American cooking.

 

Well, the French Fries thing was a joke that got out of hand. Most people I know call them just plain old fries. On a side note, French refers not to the origin but to the cut (aka the Julienne cut*.)

 

*The French didn't so much invent everything as they did name everything.

 

It's interesting that you mention Clam chowder too. New England gets the credit for American chowder but there are those (like my sister) who are die-hard Manhattan clam chowder fans.

 

Well, barbecue (that is, to dig a pig and cook by smoke) actually goes back to pre-Columbus America in the West Indies. The Spaniards brought it back to the old world and then it spread to the Southern colonies where it took hold. Southern style barbecue is wholy different from barbecue up north and even Texas is different from say Georgia BBQ. In New York BBQ chicken almost always refers to the Cornell Chicken I referred to above.

 

Tonight I'm making pork chops, a tossed salad and mashed potatoes. I found it interesting that in the UK mashed potatoes are simply called "mash." We think of mash as something else.

 

 

 

[deanb]

mash is just shorthand. But it's contextually understood to be mashed potatoes if say..on a menu.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I always say mashed potato. The only time I would say just mash is in the phrase 'bangers* and mash'. That's the case with a lot of people I would imagine.

 

*bangers are sausages.

[TheMightyEthan]

<ridiculous falsetto>Who wants a banger in the mouth?

 

Oh, that's right, you Yanks call it a "sausage in the mouth".</ridiculous falsetto>

[Battra92]

<ridiculous falsetto>Who wants a banger in the mouth?

 

Oh, that's right, you Yanks call it a "sausage in the mouth".</ridiculous falsetto>

 

And you should always read the labels ...

 

Oh and ...

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Has anyone ever made these? They look awesome but would like to know if they're worth the extra hassle (excuse the pun!)

 

[deanb]

home made chips? My gran does them loads. Experiments with different potatoes too. Yam once as well, they weren't too bad, bit..earthy/woody.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

uh, that's not a chip! More like a fancy baked potato.

[deanb]

err crisps even. Stupid americans.

[TheFlyingGerbil]

It's even less llke crisps, lol