Posted on 02/11/2015 6:01:42 PM PST by Jamestown1630
If you would like to be on or off of this Weekly Cooking Thread, please send me a private email.
-JT
Can someone ping me with a way to kick up a Cuban Sandwich with some good cheese selections? Other than the original, we have added, at times, bacon, spicy mustard, Southwest mustard and used different breads. Still looking for a better cheese or ?? Thanks
“I believe that anyone who has become seriously interested in food and the art of cooking has had a moment like that: the one meal that made you realize that there was a LOT more to eating and cooking than you had previously known”
Absolutely! For me it was gyros at a restaurant in (I think) Clearwater, FL. Twenty three years ago, I was 18 and amazed that food could taste that good...sorry Mom! Cooking is one of my favorite things to do and though I have yet to make anything as good as those gyros, I love when people enjoy the fruits of my labor.
Any thing I can learn about cooking chicken dishes will please my wife to no end!
I think I kind of over cook chicken especially in a tomato sauce and it ends up really dried out. Any advice?
One of our favorite restaurants served a dish called Pasta Putantesca. AKA; pasta as offered by the ladies of the evening.
We ordered it over and over until we figured out (and the cook confessed) what was in it.
It's a family favorite today.
“Any thing I can learn about cooking chicken dishes will please my wife to no end!”
My wife once called my cooking “disturbing”. Quote.
The ‘Gyro Revelation’ was a big thing for me, as well.
Then came the “Bulgogi and Kimchi and Chap Chae” revelation.
And the “Injera and Siga Wot” revelation.
The simple “Sweet and Sour Pork” revelation....(The first Chinese Food I ever had, was Egg Foo Young; it was my Dad’s favorite, after he had learned about Chinese food during his stint as a Marine in WWII, and after the war had been stationed in Californica.)
And don’t even ask about the first authentic Pizza restaurant that came into our neighborhood in the late 1950s; The pizzas they made were rectangular, with a very thin crust; haven’t had anything like it since. Their meatballs were wonderful, as well!
Food just goes on and on :-)
-JT
I think the anchovies are what gives the Pasta Puttanesca its name.
We made it once. Didn’t like it enough to make it again.
-JT
Anchovies are a wonderful ingredient, used wisely.
They’re excellent in a Caesar Salad Dressing; and we’ve used them in other recipes, as well. (NOT on Pizza, though.)
They add a depth and pungency, used sparely; and usually, you don’t even know that they’re in there!
-JT
The entire point is to make a dish that is quick, salty, and filling. Olives, capers and/or anchovies certainly fill the bill here.
The 'puttanesca' derives from 'puttanata' (stuff; garbage; something worthless), as supposedly originally conceived by the restauranteur Sandro Petti in the 1940s or 1950s at his place in Ischia. The tales about ladies of the evening don't really hold water, but are entertaining stories.
Thanks very much for sharing your knowledge. Perhaps I fell for the ‘whimsical’ bit.
We did try making it once; but we didn’t like it enough to make it again.
-JT
Have you tried the pizza recipe in the book, “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day”. It was so good and your authentic pizza sounds very similar. Living in a rural area I have to try to make the things I crave or want to try myself as we don’t have many restaurants to choose from.
I love fermented food but have yet to try Kimchi, I’ve heard too many jokes about it and can’t work up the courage!
Comiendo bueno, m'FRiend!
We like sautéed mushrooms on toast which has been spread with a little bit of anchovy paste. Great with steak or scrambled eggs.
Try first a ‘fresh kimchee’ recipe; do a web search. It doesn’t involve the fermentation, but you can get an idea of what it tastes like.
Fermented Kimchee has the value that it carries the kind of gut-goodies that yogurt, or sauerkraut, do.
(The Ethiopian bread ‘Injera’, made from Teff, has similar goodies.)
-JT
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