What’s your favorite cuisine? Got any recipes?
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BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Favorite cuisine? Just about anything someone else prepares!
Funny, that’s my wife’s favorite too.
I’m pretty much an omnivore, although my favorite cuisines tend to be Thai, Chinese, and Mexican.
One of my favorite recipes is potsticker soup. We buy bags of frozen potstickers at the local warehouse store. For each serving take about half a small can of chicken broth and bring it just to a boll in a saucepan. Lower heat to just below boiling and add 4-6 potstickers (whatever will fit into the saucepan and soup bowl comfortably). Don’t boil the potstickers! All you want to do is heat the potstickers through. Takes about 5 minutes, maybe a little longer if the potstickers are big. If you boil them they’ll fall apart. Add a few green onion rings for garnish and flavor, and serve with a dash of soy sauce if you like. Mmmm, mmmmm, good.
Stupid question? What’s a potsticker?
it’s basically a dumpling.
Pretty much. It’s a Chinese dumpling consisting of a small amount of filling (usually pork, chicken or shrimp-based) wrapped up inside a noodlish skin. They’re similar (maybe identical) to the Japanese appetizer known as gyoza.
Here’s a recipe page, complete with picture. The recipe shows how to cook them traditionally, but the soup is a lot easier to make.
Master Chef here…runs in the DNA.
Would you like to be my sous-chef? That’s the only way I’ll share, and only just a tad. I promised not to share my recipes but I’ll do the baking or cooking for you. I’m serious and…,selfish. A good chef never shares recipes! Never.
Favs:
Curried (Maine or Nova Scotia) lobster, in a sauce of fine herbs with freshly made coconut milk. Basmati rice.
Roast Duckling served with an orange liqueur, cassis and juniper berries sauce. Wild rice.
Rum and Raisin cake made with fruits pre-steeped for months in a marinade of fine spiced liqueurs.
wow! how about the duck please! transport is driving up the cost of lobster here on the west coast.
let me check my bookings. Hmm, looks like you’ll have to get to the end of the line….
Mmmm Man I love Indian food.
Anything Vindaloo the spicier the better. I want it to peel the paint off of the walls.
Unfortunately, my wife thinks Salt and Pepper are spices, so I don’t get to eat much spicy foods
The cafeteria at work used to serve saag paneer on more oe less a biweekly basis. Then they stopped and ever since I’ve been wishing they’d start up again. If you’d have told me about ten years ago I’d voluntarily eat creamed spinach with cheese, I’d have looked at you like you had three heads; but that was before I discovered spinach can actually taste good if you surround it with enough peanut sauce or . . . um, whatever gravy they use in saag paneer.
Just about anything from the Moosewood books & locally Greg Atkinson’s West Coast Cooking is beyond evil it is so good.
Quick recipe from another favorite: Jack Daniels Cookbook
FARMHOUSE COLESLAW (cause it’s nearly summer and all)
1 small head of cabbage, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 cup raisens or cranraisens for color
1 carrot, shredded
1-1/2 C vegetable oil
1/2 c sugar (orig called for more so you may want to adjust)
1/2 c white apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon salt
Combine 1st 5 ingredients. Set aside. Place remaining in blender or whisk by hand. Add to slaw, toss well. Cover & Chill. Toss before serving.
I know everybody here knows this stuff, but here’s a piece that should be passed on
http://article.wn.com/view/2008/06/16/Our_diet_of_destruction_z/
Non-Food Category:
A little note to us bloggers: Moi. big. guilty.
AP takes a stick to blogs
via The Carpetbagger
glad they relented. But I wouldn’t call the hatman Drudge Report a liberal blog.
Why, Iraqi food, of course! What else? Lebanese food is also good, and nothing can touch Syrian sweets. The biggest problem with Arabic food is that it is so labor intensive that you can’t really make it in the U.S. on a daily basis unless you are home all day and haven’t got much else to do.
I’m afraid I don’t know squat about Iraqi food per se. I do however like what I know of generic Middle Eastern cuisine: hummus, falafel, shwarma (esp. beef or chicken), shish tawook, stuff like that.
We used to frequent a Lebanese restaurant when we lived in Texas. One day we were contemplating the menu and got to wondering about the dishes they served, so we asked the proprietor, “What’s the difference between the chicken shwarma and the shish tawook?” He thought about it for a minute and responded, with a big grin, “Chicken shwarma, shish tawook, today they are the same.” That just struck us as funny, so ever since “today they are the same” has entered our vocabulary. “Yesterday’s leftovers, today’s leftovers, today they are the same.”
Okay, since you brought up hummus and felafel (both made from hummus – i.e. chick peas – and both Middle Eastern staples for sure, and most delicious), this brings up one of my small peeves. I HATE the way Americans pronounce both those words (not to mention most Arabic names and place names, including Iraq, which is not, contrary to popular American belief, a rack for eyes). So, here is a lesson in pronunciation:
It is not huh-muss. I can’t think of an English equivalent for the vowel sound, but it is closer to the o in home than the uh in huh. AND if you want to sound quite authentic, you must double the time you stay on the m. It is very important in Arabic that when you see a doubled consonant, you must hold it twice as long. In some cases if you do not it changes the meaning of the word. So, if you want to sound sophisticated when you order hummus, don’t say huh-muss, say something closer to hom-mos without any pause between the syllables.
And now to felafel. It is NOT fullawful. That sounds – well, just awful. If you pronounce the e’s as you would in the word fell, and the a as the a in cat, you will sound much closer to the correct pronunciation.
And please, please, PLEASE! If you are in the habit of saying eyerack and eyeran for Iraq and Iran, kindly stop it, NOW. That is irritating like fingernails on a chalkboard (do those even exist anymore?). The letter Iraq starts with does not exist in English, but if you pronounce the first syllable similar to ear in English that is close enough, and the second syllable should sound like rock. Earock – okay? As for Iran that starts with a ee sound, so the most authentic pronunciation would be eeron, but if you say earon that is good enough.
And another one that bugs me is the name Khalid. It is NOT kaleeed. Now, I don’t mind if you change the kh sound, which is difficult for most Americans, to a k sound, but the second syllable is id as in lid, not eeedd as in eeeek. So say kha-lid if you can, or ka-lid if you cannot manage that kh sound.
And it is KARbuhluh, not karBAWLuh.
MOsuhl (or if you are from there, MOOsuhl, not muhZOOL (do you see a z in there?!), or muhSOOL.
Bin (rhymes with in) LADuhn (rhymes with add), not bin LAWduhn (or worse yet, as I have heard on occasion bin LuhDEEN).
KerKOOK – not KeerCOOK (with the second syllable sounding like what you do in the kitchen).
OK, students, practice these, drill them until they become a habit, don’t make those mistakes again, and yell at the radio or TV whenever you hear a talking head, self-appointed expert, or government official mispronouncing these words. Oh yeah, and whenever you go to an Arabic restaurant correct everyone who says huhmuhs or fullawful. I KNOW they’ll appreciate it.
PS I forgot one of the most irritating.
Qatar is NOT KuhTAHR. 1) The emphasis is on the first syllable, not the second. 2) The first letter does not exist in English, and is difficult for most to pronounce, so a good substitute is k. I have noticed more on the radio and TV people are saying kuhter (rhymes with butter), but it still sounds all wrong with American pronunciation, so try to be a bit more crisp with the “t”, kind of like the British upper class “t”, and you will be about as close as most Americans can get to the correct pronunciation.
Worth a thousand words and a million drewls.
Oh Meat!
seafood…if it swims or lives in saltwater…l’ll eat it.
especially fond of shellfish: shrimp, crab, lobster, abalone, oysters [raw], clams, etc.
here’s a variation on one of my favorite shrimp recipes, it’s sim. to my particular version is quite a bit hotter:
bon appetit
I love shrimp fried rice, even though I have no business eating it. It’s not any one thing so much as that I tend to overdo it, and the rice is really really glycemic.
Is pizza a cuisine?
and well balanced.
FWIW
Al Gore opens his mouth and endorses Obama
He’s late. A non event
the link
Gore To Appear with Obama
I’m going to that rally tonight, and am super excited. I really hope it isn’t completely full by the time we get there!
I look forward to hearing all about it! 🙂 Hope you can take pictures.
You bet I’m going to try! I’ll report back later tonight or tomorrow morning 🙂
Story of his life.
A non-event.
AG
how’s it going for you AG?
I guess I never look, to tell you the truth.
How’s it going for the country?
Hmmmmm….
Obama’s in the lead; the Rats are starting their Swift Boating/Whitey Baiting campaign.
We’ll see.
If he wins big…we’ll see how real he is.
If he wins small…we’ll see Jimmy Carter all over again.
If he loses…I doubt that we will even see the next decade in our present form.
I guess that is how it’s going, idredit.
(I sneak a peek now and then.)
Later…
AG
But lucky for Al, his life didn’t turn out the way it was supposed to. Maybe he was just waiting to see if anything happened.
I think Al’s finished with the American political scene, and glad to be out of it.
If I were king of the forest, that’s exactly what would have happened to george.
what Omir said, plus Italian. I love any kind of pasta. If you have the newest edition of Joy of Cooking try “Canned Tuna Sauce” with spaghetti. Drink Chianti with it, definitely not any kind of California wine.
dailyKos is a surprisingly good place for food discussions. look for Asinus Asinum Fricat and YatPundit especially. I tried AAF’s yellow curry and it’s very good. This bbq diary makes me want to go buy a smoker.
Middle Eastern. It can include some spicy dishes but all in all, they’re more flavourful than ‘burn your guts to nothin’ kinda hot. I am your typical (formerly)Dutch person who did not grow up with spicy food and could not survive any curry or chili version were it not for the heapings of raita that coats my stomach, nay anything it touches inside my body!
Anyhow, I was in Saudi Arabia for a few years where I tried them all; phillipino/indian/pakistani/middle eastern cuisine, courtesy of the different expat friends. (what a lesson in diplomacy, feigning being full when another hot dish ends up in front of you with the ubiquitous “eat eat”!..
Middle Eastern, always!
Ingrid
Beware Cindy McCain’s recipes
some authentic ingredients may be missing, if it’s not exactly copied.
Cindy should have stayed with the cowgirl stuff, this is so beyond stupid. According to the article I guess this means that Hershey will be Obama’s opponent in the race?
Back to Iraqi food:
Of course, we have felafel, hommos, baba ghanoush, tabbouleh (be sure to hold the b double time when you say it), and dolma (aka stuffed grape leaves), and we have our own version of each. There is also an Iraqi dolma which is served hot, includes meat in the stuffing, and involves not just grape leaves, but stuffed onion layers (my favourite), small zucchini, small eggplant, sometimes green peppers (which I never do because I do not like green peppers), and tomatoes. Iraq has at least half a dozen types of Kubba (kibbe in Lebanese dialect), in different shapes with different ingredients, and different sauces, including one made with rice dough instead of dough made from burghal (bulgur). The most famous Iraqi kubba is kubbat Mosul (MOsul, not muhSOOOL), which is very, very difficult to make.
But Iraq’s signature dish is a fish dish called masgouf. It is made from a particular type of fish that is abundant (or used to be) in the Tigris. The fish are butterflied, and roasted on a spit in front of a fire made from a special wood, and served with a kind of salsa. There used to be masgouf restaurants all along the Tigris, especially on Abu Nuwas Street, but most of them have been forced to close for lack of business since shortly after 2003 when the Americans took over the area. Masgouf, properly done, is not just a fish dish, it is an entire experience sitting along the river, looking at the views, hearing music and other sounds, smelling the scents. It is part of what defines – or used to define – life in Baghdad.
Oh my, How I miss baba ghanoush and tabbouleh. I grew up just outside of Washington DC (Reston), now I live in Pennsylvania (The Alabama portion of it).
The thing I miss the most, is the food selection in NO VA, you could get ANYTHING within a 15 minute drive.
Favorite cuisine?
Mine.
Recipes?
Go to a really good food store. Buy the best greens that are available, preferably organic. Buy the best protein that is available. ABSOLUTELY either organic or wild-caught. (No farmed fish). And/or beans and good cheese. Or tofu. Or nuts. Buy…or have on hand…a good carb. I prefer brown rice. Some good root vegetables are OK too. Again…the fewer chems involved in their growing or preservation the better.
Good olive oil. Plus a good high heat oil. I like very peanutty peanut oil, myself.
Good onions and garlic and peppers.
Good mushrooms.
YOU know…the good stuff.
Think of what fresh herbs would go with whatever you have bought. Buy one.
Sauté, roast or stir fry, serve with properly prepared carb. Lightly salted + peppered, lightly hot spiced if you like.
My current fave?
High heat seared squid ($5/lb, all meat) in Thai red curry. (Cut the squid into small round, sear them in a hot, HOT pan for only a couple of minutes in a little peanut oil. Too long and they toughen up. If they do, then you have to steam them for an hour before they get tender enough to eat.). With stir fried garlic, onions basil, and a little soy sauce/sesame oil.
Brown rice.
Stir fried bok choy.
MMMMMmmmmmmm!!!! Cheap ‘n good.
Leftovers? Put ’em all in some brown rice. Add chopped raw scallions, maybe some white beans or an egg. (Once the mixture is really hot the egg cooks almost instantly.)
Fried rice for a day or two.
AG
P.S. Cut down on the chems.
You be bettah off.
Bet on it.