General Food Talk

[Ellen]

Will do I have to pick up a few ingredients - I don't tend to keep kumquats in the house! Would the recipe suffer if I left out the red pepper flakes? I have to watch it with the spicy food? - I love it, but it doesn't love me!

It would still be just as tasty without the red pepper flakes. We like spicy -- and do okay with it -- but the turmeric and other seasonings provide plenty of flavorful yumminess. (A nice thing about my husband's recipes is that they are very "tweak-friendly." We tweak recipes all the time.)

The only other way I cook cauliflower - other than just steaming it in things - is an old family recipe involving dry mustard, mayo and shredded cheese. I should post it in the recipes thread. It's super-simple, but everyone I've given it to has loved it. One friend actually said she "test drove" the recipe before a big dinner and ended up eating the entire thing out of the pan, with some help from her husband!

That sounds delicious -- we'll have to try that. I love dry mustard (I use it in my lower-fat version of macaroni and cheese to amp up the flavor while dialing down the saturated fat), and hubby adores cheese. But we might substitute olive oil for the mayo.

[Bunny555]

Great blog Ellen! I'm always interested in healthier ways to enjoy food without losing any of the flavor, so I'll be a frequent visitor. Kudos to your husband.

[Critical]

That sounds delicious -- we'll have to try that. I love dry mustard (I use it in my lower-fat version of macaroni and cheese to amp up the flavor while dialing down the saturated fat), and hubby adores cheese. But we might substitute olive oil for the mayo.

Unfortunately, there's not really any way to substitute for the mayo, unless you do light mayo. I'll post the recipe in the Recipes thread

[Gutmutter]

Time to make you all jealous again - my daughter's home from her freshman year at culinary school (Paul Smith's). She heads for her summer internship at the Chanticleer in Nantucket in a week or two, and then on to Italy for her fall semester. In the meanwhile she's showing off her international foods semester to me. We started with a trip to the grocery store, buying ingredients I never buy myself... corchicons, capers, anchovies, heavy cream, fresh basil, dill, cilantro, etc. She would have gotten some special spices if they had been available, but no go. So tonight we started with capreze (forgive me if I spell things wrong)... fresh mozzerella, tomatoes, fresh basil layered and then drizzled with an aged (10 years!) balsamic vinegar. That was to keep us going while we prepared a salad of endive with a dressing of olive oil, wine vinegar, roasted sliced almonds and anchovies and garlic all processed in our Magic Bullet, shaken in a large zip bag and left to marinate while we prepared Greek eggplant sauteed and then sandwiched around feta cheese slices, dipped in a garlic pancake batter, and pan fried. OH. MY. GOD. So we ate that with the salad, cleaned up a bit and then made a sweetened hollandaise sauce with amaretto (egg yolks, sugar, simmered amaretto slowly whisked in) over perfectly ripe, deep red strawberries. I am in heaven.

[brunette trixie]

Color me green with envy, that all sounds delicious!

[CCL]

Time to make you all jealous again - my daughter's home from her freshman year at culinary school (Paul Smith's). She heads for her summer internship at the Chanticleer in Nantucket in a week or two, and then on to Italy for her fall semester. In the meanwhile she's showing off her international foods semester to me. We started with a trip to the grocery store, buying ingredients I never buy myself... corchicons, capers, anchovies, heavy cream, fresh basil, dill, cilantro, etc. She would have gotten some special spices if they had been available, but no go. So tonight we started with capreze (forgive me if I spell things wrong)... fresh mozzerella, tomatoes, fresh basil layered and then drizzled with an aged (10 years!) balsamic vinegar. That was to keep us going while we prepared a salad of endive with a dressing of olive oil, wine vinegar, roasted sliced almonds and anchovies and garlic all processed in our Magic Bullet, shaken in a large zip bag and left to marinate while we prepared Greek eggplant sauteed and then sandwiched around feta cheese slices, dipped in a garlic pancake batter, and pan fried. OH. MY. GOD. So we ate that with the salad, cleaned up a bit and then made a sweetened hollandaise sauce with amaretto (egg yolks, sugar, simmered amaretto slowly whisked in) over perfectly ripe, deep red strawberries. I am in heaven.

That's some good eating Gutmutter! I'm salivating just reading about it.

[Ellen]

Sounds heavenly, Gutmutter, and not so difficult to make. With the exception of heavy cream, we often buy those ingredients or have them around -- especially now with the farmers' markets in "full bloom."

[Gutmutter]

Not difficult to make at all! Any time she's home I wonder why I don't make more of an effort in the kitchen. I mostly have toast with nut butter for breakfast, yogurt and fruit for lunch, and something frozen or pasta for supper... and ice cream.

[Bunny555]

I'm salivating here Gut and as it's nearing lunch time that's not a good thing. What a lucky girl your daugter is too....a summer on Nantucket then off to Italy...Oh my!

[Missyboxers]

Gut, that sounds delicious, and Ellen, I just checked out your husband's blog and the recipes look great (and they sound so easy, which makes it even better).