Holiday baking season is right around the corner. I 'm trying to add some new cookie recipes to my repertoire this year and am looking for some ethnic favorites from other countries. Does anyone have any traditional cookie recipes from around the world?
I've loved to cook since an early age. I remember back when I was still in elementary school, I decided to try to create one of my Dad's favorite pies, pecan pie, for his birthday. It was the first pie I'd ever made on my own, but it sounded pretty easy. Got the pie crust done, the filling was in and I spent oodles of time getting the pecans to look just right on top of the pie.
Halfway through the baking cycle, I smelled the most horrible smell and entered a completely smoke-filled kitchen. My Mom and Dad kicked in from there and got the "pie" out of the oven. When the smoke cleared, we realized what I had done. I had used a pie tin that had originally house a pie purchased from the bakery that HAD HOLES PUNCHED IN THE BOTTOM OF IT! All of the pecan pie filling (except the nuts) had seeped right through the crust and had become a lump of charcoal completely stuck to the bottom of the oven.
Let's add insult to injury -- this was before self-cleaning ovens were available. Nuff said.
For ethnic food in NYC, I just love Plataforma. It's a Brazilian Churrascaria located at 316 W 49th Street (Between 8th & 9th Avenues). Lunch is around $30 and dinner is around $50. It may not be cheap, but is good value for the $. Trust me -- you won't eat for days after having a meal here!
Yes...it is horribly rude unless there is a medical condition (allergy, diabetes, etc.) or religious belief involved.
Before mastering the art of basic pastry dough, I attempted a plum tart. I made the dough, thinking all was well-and-good, and put it in the fridge to chill. Then, I made the plum filling with fresh greenmarket plums. It looked, smelled, and tasted wickedly delicious. But, when the time came to assemble the thing...the dough was horrendeous.
I ended up trashing the whole thing and making a lousy plum cake.
Drat!
Way back when I first started cooking at home, my wife and I made a recipe out of Fine Cooking magazine. It was a pretty simple pasta dish with cheese, crushed tomatoes, garlic, italian sausage, and pasta. Pretty simple stuff.
This time I decide I'm going to make it myself and surprise her after a hard day at work. I survey the recipe, make at the grocery list and procure the said items.
All fired up, I start measuring out all of the ingredients. Took the sausage out of the casing, get the water ready for the pasta, open up the crushed tomatoes, and mince four cloves of garlic.
So I'm mincing, and mincing, and mincing. True, I was very new to the kitchen so my knife skills weren't that good. Dude, this is taking forever! How do these old Italian women stand this? No wonder they spend all day in the kitchen, they're mincing garlic! I bet you this operation took an hour. My eyes are on fire, my fingers stink, and I'm wondering why I even embarked on this ill-conceived journey.
I finally get everything combined and it looks just like the picture in the magazine. With a bag of iceburg lettuce and the best frozen garlic bread $2 could buy, dinner was now served. My wife was pleasantly surprised by my motivation to cook dinner. We sit down and eat.
I take a bite.
She takes a bite.
"Whoah! What in the hell is that?" she said (and I thought).
"That's got some serious garlic in it! How much did the recipe call for?", she asked.
"Four cloves, and it took forever to mince.", I replied.
"What took so long?", she wondered.
I go over to the garbage I show her the leftover garlic skins.
"Oh, wait a minute.", I said
I will conclude this story by saying the whole dinner went in the trash and I now know the difference between a clove and bulb of garlic.
I've had my fair share of culinary disasters, but I really want to share my favourite family story, and that belongs to my Dad. Back in the early 90s when he couldn't cook, my Mum went away for the weekend.
Dad 'made' my sister and I quiche which he must have found in the very bottom of our chest freezer. It was rank... even after 30 mins in the over it was basically a pastry case with raw egg and bits of ham floating around inside.
Being just into my teens and newly aware of things like food poisoning and salmonella, I refused to eat it on safety grounds. My younger sister did likewise. My normally mild-mannered Dad had obviously had a hard day looking after the pair of us and blew his top, saying we always ate what Mum put in front of us (well yeah, that was cooked...!) and banning us from leaving the table until we'd cleaned our plates.
Terrified of dying due to consumption of runny quiche and unable to call Mum in the days before mobile phones, we sat there with tear streaked faces for two hours until Dad admitted defeat and sent us to bed.
The next day Mum returned and the second she got through the door I ran out and shouted: 'Mum, quiche isn't supposed to be runny, IS it?' Mum just turned to Dad, raised one eyebrow and said: 'What have you done now?!'
These days, my Dad is a thoroughly modern man who makes a mean spaghetti carbonara. But we like to remind him often of the worst weekend of our teens and 'the day he nearly killed us with his cooking' :o)
I was trying to bake Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Guiness Cake for an event at work. One of the steps is to cook the Guinness on the stovetop, along with butter and sugar. Unfortunately, I misread the recipe and made the rest of the batter in the pot on the stovetop. it started to cook, and after baking, the cake was filled with odd-tasting chunks. it was a total loss. Bad news.
OK..now we have something to work with. If you can do $25 per person for breakfast I wouldn't call that cheap.. You must go to Norma's, on 57th Street in the Parker Meridien Hotel..one of the best breakfasts/brunch spots in nyc. Have you checked out Cheap Eats yet? See what appeals and post back to see what people think of your choices..I still stick with Momofuku as a unique choice, they do serve Sake and Beer,not sure about wine.
choc_puddin, comments like that are one of the reasons people get bad impressions of vegans. Don't assume that you know what every omnivore's diet is like, nor that none of us ever have meatless meals. I rarely eat more than 4 ounces of meat a day, and often that's at one meal, and the other two are vegetarian and occasionally even vegan. But I don't enjoy beans, and I don't function well without meat (yes, I have tried). Trying to tell omnivores not to eat meat is just as obnoxious as omnivores trying to tell you to eat it.
$25 or less per person is cheap for us for breakfast, certainly for lunch. We'd like to stay around $100 - $150 for dinner for two. We're interested in good wine lists where there are interesting bottles are at reasonable prices, and good beer as well.
I would agree to that. Althought I live in PA now. I cook for gluten free. Some great recipes online using rice flour and soy flour.
I am sure I make some dishes that could be vegan but I was making them before there was a vegan and they are not vegan inspired.
My cousin once became a vegetarian and I abused her most willfully with our grandmothers meatballs till she caved in. My grandmother did make fabulous meatballs, ethereal, heaven in a ball.
I know what your thinking, oh gasp she is EVIL! Yes I am!!!!
Hot topic! Wow.
I was a strict vegetarian for a long time, but have welcomed back dairy and fish/seafood simply for practical reasons. But before that, my husband and I had a difficult time eating out together because it would always be either Italian or an Asian (Indian, Thai, etc.) selection -- not that those are in any way not tasty choices, but one does tire of the same thing all the time.
In the case of visiting friends, most of my friends and family know about my dietary restrictions, so I don't normally say. But recently, my cousin was stricken with a very bad case of celiac disease, so she had the unwelcome task of sharing with everyone 1. what it is, 2. how it affects her, and 3. what she cannot tolerate.
I have friends (and a husband) who cannot or will not eat certain foods for a wide range of reasons. Whatever the reason, it's not for me to judge. However, I no longer cook what I don't eat, but I will help out John and flip a pork chop for him once in a while. Just don't ask me to prepare fowl of any sort. Just can't do it.
So, Jerzee Tomato, we can host a party -- you can cook the meat/fowl and I'll handle the vegan fare. How about that? (I'm in Jersey, too!)
I grew up with the philosophy that if you are invited to someone's home for dinner then you eat what is served..even if it is something you don't like. I think that was my grandparents way of teaching me to be a polite guest.
These days, if I am invited to someone's for dinner and I don't think they know about my food allergies..then I say something as I would not want someone to spend time and money preparing something I could not eat. As for food dislikes, I don't say anything, but I have no problem with someone letting someone know about their food dislikes.
As for me being a host..I always ask if someone has any allergies or if there are foods they don't like. If I am inviting you to dinner, then I want you to enjoy the food. I am willing to accomodate a variety of things. When I have a large gathering, I offer a variety that should accomodate most. I generally let people know what I am serving so that if there are any issues, they can let me know. I had a party at the beginning of the summer with a pink theme, so I served shrimp cocktail as an appetizer and salmon for the main course. I was taken aback to discover that 2 of my guests don't eat shrimp or salmon. As they knew the menu, I wished they would have said something..I would have made something else for them (easy to do) and not to sound cheap, but the copper river salmon was very expensive and it went untouched on their plates! Of course, being the host of the party, I didn't make a fuss as I don't think it's polite to invite people to your home and treat them rudely. Next time, I will inquire about their dislikes.
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