Garlic: From Dracula to pasta, herb reeks of history.
Hackensack (NJ) Record
Garlic makes it good! Just ask a garlic aficionado; there are dozens of festivals throughout the world that celebrate this pungent bulb. Over history, garlic has been reviled and revered. The patricians had disdain for the stinking garlic-eating plebeians; to enter the temple of Cybele, one had to pass a breath test; King Alfonso de Castille forbade his knights to speak for a week if they dared to partake of the “stinking rose”. It has fed the Israelites and slaves of Khufu who built the great pyramid. Even the evil ones who dwelt among us weren’t immune to its power, ask any vampire to enter a room where its braids are hung. It is also said that when Satan left the Garden of Eden, garlic grew from his left footprint and onions grew from the right. But today, over half a million pounds are grown annually in California; half of this total is exported worldwide.
Now, the most important question… when should garlic be added to a recipe? Some say don’t cook it too long or it becomes weak and bitter, so add it to the end of the recipe, some say it should go along with the mirepoix, some devotees say it should be introduced several times during the preparation. All I know is, if you’re cooking with garlic, don’t call me late for dinner.
What garlic is to food, insanity is to art.
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
If it ain't got okra it ain't gumbo...
I don't see how you can make tomato soup without tomatoes.I don't see how you can make gumbo without gumbo (okra). Edlin User (blogger)
If it ain't got okra it ain't gumbo. Rice and okra tie the Carolinas and the Louisiana swamps together - many crops that were grown in the coastal Carolinas migrated to La. & Texas after the Civil War. Okra came to the New World with the slave trade; it was such an important part of the culture, the seeds adorned the hairdos of the kidnapped people. As the slaves’ foods became part of the diet of the land, Native Americans began to use it to thicken their stews instead of ground sassafras root, which is known as file’. The West African word for the vegetable was nkruma, which became okra; Swahili name for the plant was “ gumbo” and so it became the name for stews using it in the southern U.S. The pod also traveled up the Nile and eastward on the spice routes where it is revered in Indian cuisine – curried, pickled or steamed like asparagus. Once considered a relative of the hibiscus because of its delicately lovely flower, it now considered as being in a genus of its own - Abelmoschus.
“So few people eat okra that it never even makes it onto the lists of Top 10 hated foods.”
Julia Reed
If it ain't got okra it ain't gumbo. Rice and okra tie the Carolinas and the Louisiana swamps together - many crops that were grown in the coastal Carolinas migrated to La. & Texas after the Civil War. Okra came to the New World with the slave trade; it was such an important part of the culture, the seeds adorned the hairdos of the kidnapped people. As the slaves’ foods became part of the diet of the land, Native Americans began to use it to thicken their stews instead of ground sassafras root, which is known as file’. The West African word for the vegetable was nkruma, which became okra; Swahili name for the plant was “ gumbo” and so it became the name for stews using it in the southern U.S. The pod also traveled up the Nile and eastward on the spice routes where it is revered in Indian cuisine – curried, pickled or steamed like asparagus. Once considered a relative of the hibiscus because of its delicately lovely flower, it now considered as being in a genus of its own - Abelmoschus.
“So few people eat okra that it never even makes it onto the lists of Top 10 hated foods.”
Julia Reed
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Ask it and so shallot be...
“Don't be too daring in the kitchen. For example, don't suddenly get involved with shallots. Later, when you are no longer a Lonely Guy, you can do shallots. Not now. If you know coriander, stay with coriander and don't fool around. Even with coriander you're on thin ice, but at least you've got a shot, because it's familiar. Stay with safe things, like pepper.”Bruce Jay Friedman The Lonely Guy Cookbook (1976)
Looks like garlic, tastes like sweet onions, must be shallots. Not to be confused with scallions, ubiquitous term for sprouted green onion, the shallot is different from the onion. From the outside, it is a bulb of the lilly family harvested before it is allowed to bloom, growing in clusters like its cousin garlic. When peeled, the bulb resembles a teardrop shaped onion, colors range from whitish grey to purply red, in over 500 varieties in between. Shallots are high in flavonoids, which improve cardiovascular health, lowering bad cholesterol levels and aid in cancer resistance, as well as increasing pungency and potency when compared to onions. Believed to have come from Askelon (from whence comes their name) in ancient Canaan, they grew wild from central to southwestern Asia; they were introduced to Europe during the Crusades. Wonderful in kebabs, Lea & Perrins insists they be present in their genuine Worcestershire Sauce, which was a failed attempt at reproducing a sauce from India; the original sauce itself a failure until it had been forgotten, festering and fermenting for two years, when voila!
Looks like garlic, tastes like sweet onions, must be shallots. Not to be confused with scallions, ubiquitous term for sprouted green onion, the shallot is different from the onion. From the outside, it is a bulb of the lilly family harvested before it is allowed to bloom, growing in clusters like its cousin garlic. When peeled, the bulb resembles a teardrop shaped onion, colors range from whitish grey to purply red, in over 500 varieties in between. Shallots are high in flavonoids, which improve cardiovascular health, lowering bad cholesterol levels and aid in cancer resistance, as well as increasing pungency and potency when compared to onions. Believed to have come from Askelon (from whence comes their name) in ancient Canaan, they grew wild from central to southwestern Asia; they were introduced to Europe during the Crusades. Wonderful in kebabs, Lea & Perrins insists they be present in their genuine Worcestershire Sauce, which was a failed attempt at reproducing a sauce from India; the original sauce itself a failure until it had been forgotten, festering and fermenting for two years, when voila!
Sunday, September 06, 2009
Is that an eggplant in your pocket...?
How can people say they don’t eat eggplant when God loves the color and the French love the name? Jeff Smith
There are great recipes with fantastic names in many cultures that pay homage to the eggplant: Baba Ghanoush, Moussaka, Escalivada, Melanzane alla Parmigiana and my personal favorite, Ratatouille. These dishes have been devoured for eons from their native Sri Lanka, after the collapse of the Guptas, appearing in the west with the growth of the Byzantine Empire and the spread of Islam. The eggplant grows on plants blooming out into two shapes: ovals and elongated. The ovals are preferred in the American South; the colors range from white to indigo: dyes from the pigment have been made to color teeth in ancient civilizations. Elongated varieties, such as Italian or Chinese, are popular in many throughout the world; colors range from white to pale green to deep purple. Baby hybrids of these shapes are readily available. So call it what you like: aubergine, brinjal, Guinea squash, metazoan, or mad apple, when you plan to serve it, just don’t call me late for dinner.
There are great recipes with fantastic names in many cultures that pay homage to the eggplant: Baba Ghanoush, Moussaka, Escalivada, Melanzane alla Parmigiana and my personal favorite, Ratatouille. These dishes have been devoured for eons from their native Sri Lanka, after the collapse of the Guptas, appearing in the west with the growth of the Byzantine Empire and the spread of Islam. The eggplant grows on plants blooming out into two shapes: ovals and elongated. The ovals are preferred in the American South; the colors range from white to indigo: dyes from the pigment have been made to color teeth in ancient civilizations. Elongated varieties, such as Italian or Chinese, are popular in many throughout the world; colors range from white to pale green to deep purple. Baby hybrids of these shapes are readily available. So call it what you like: aubergine, brinjal, Guinea squash, metazoan, or mad apple, when you plan to serve it, just don’t call me late for dinner.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
What the Kale?
“I lament the loss of the kale-yard.”
Neil Patterson
Well kale hearty fellow! Once the most popular of cabbages, kale has often been relegated to being just a pretty face, but it really is a wonderful curly, flat, spear-shaped, black, green, red, white, brown, purple, variegated, leafy vegetable. It was adored in ancient Rome as well as China, where kai-lin, also known as gai-lon, is the origin of our familiar word, which has also morphed into cole. Kale is a natural evolution of the mustard plant, possessing larger leaves; it is also resistant to many diseases that affect other cabbages. It is an extremely hardy green and rather enjoys harsh climates: like many cabbages, it becomes sweeter when subjected to winter freezes during its dormant period. It has also been a muse for some of English literatures great writers: J.M. Barrie and others of the Kailyard (kale-yard) school of writers from the Scottish lowlands, as well as Robert Louis Stevenson in Kidnapped.
Neil Patterson
Well kale hearty fellow! Once the most popular of cabbages, kale has often been relegated to being just a pretty face, but it really is a wonderful curly, flat, spear-shaped, black, green, red, white, brown, purple, variegated, leafy vegetable. It was adored in ancient Rome as well as China, where kai-lin, also known as gai-lon, is the origin of our familiar word, which has also morphed into cole. Kale is a natural evolution of the mustard plant, possessing larger leaves; it is also resistant to many diseases that affect other cabbages. It is an extremely hardy green and rather enjoys harsh climates: like many cabbages, it becomes sweeter when subjected to winter freezes during its dormant period. It has also been a muse for some of English literatures great writers: J.M. Barrie and others of the Kailyard (kale-yard) school of writers from the Scottish lowlands, as well as Robert Louis Stevenson in Kidnapped.
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