Unutterably Silly I love food porn! so...what are you craving?

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

My favorite neighborhood restaurant in Thailand used to have a waist-high tree stump mortar. The cup was only about a foot deep, but the entire unit was massive! Must have weighed 200lbs.


Stitchawl

And you once again make me want to go to Thailand.

Oh, incidentally to the topic, I am currently waiting on some low-cooking Beetroot Relish. No-one really needs to know this, but I just thought I'd mention it.

Cheers,
Marc

[Stitchawl]

Beets are far more popular in Oz, I think, than anywhere else. Don't you folks put them on hamburgers too? I guess they were a food staple in eastern Europe too, but for some reason, other than as Borscht, they didn't catch on in North America.

I didn't care for them as a kid, and I haven't tasted any in probably 40-50 years. I really should give them another try.


Stitchawl

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Beets are far more popular in Oz, I think, than anywhere else. Don't you folks put them on hamburgers too? I guess they were a food staple in eastern Europe too, but for some reason, other than as Borscht, they didn't catch on in North America.

I didn't care for them as a kid, and I haven't tasted any in probably 40-50 years. I really should give them another try.


Stitchawl

Aye, a couple of slices from a can of beetroot is a standard on a burger:



The recipe for beetroot relish I am using is somewhat based on a recipe link I came across somewhere for a "chili Aussie beef burger with homemade tomato ketchup, balsamic beetroot relish, swiss cheese and egg". It has recipes for the relish, the ketchup and the burger separate, and looks pretty good (and I've made the relish before as per the instructions, and it was good, but I changed it slightly this time). Next up I'll try the ketchup, which looks real nice too. If you want have a look at the recipes, the image-heavy link is here:

http://whatkatieate.blogspot.com/201...wnies-and.html

Cheers,
Marc

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

Excellent. Making your own curry paste via mortar and pestle can be a chore, and set against a source of good curry paste (we can get Spirit House, which is better than my own) not worth the effort. I'm not a dogmatic "must make own curry pastes" person but rather one who gets a lot of meditative and aromatic pleasure from using a mortar and pestle, whether curry paste, spice grinds or pesto. I'm not the one in the house that tends to do the most dinner-preparing, but pastes, sauces, pestos, jams/preserves, relishes & pickles are some things I like making. Oddly, now I think, I've yet to make any kind of chutney...odd, since a cheese-and-chutney or devon-and-chutney sandwich was a lunchtime staple and favourite while growing up, as well as one of the standard sides for Mum's curries. I must look into that.

Cheers,
Marc

ok, let's expand on what you do with curry. I recently picked up a jar of curry mostly because the ingredients made my mouth water. but... I haven't a clue what to do with it. this is I guess a "red" curry and savory. anything with coconut milk or any other kind of sweet gets immediately shut down in my kitchen

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

Beets are far more popular in Oz, I think, than anywhere else. Don't you folks put them on hamburgers too? I guess they were a food staple in eastern Europe too, but for some reason, other than as Borscht, they didn't catch on in North America.

I didn't care for them as a kid, and I haven't tasted any in probably 40-50 years. I really should give them another try.


Stitchawl

I LOVE beets! and as much as I hear people say they don't like them, they always are in salad bars. I never would have thought of putting one on my burger though!

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

ok, let's expand on what you do with curry. I recently picked up a jar of curry mostly because the ingredients made my mouth water. but... I haven't a clue what to do with it. this is I guess a "red" curry and savory. anything with coconut milk or any other kind of sweet gets immediately shut down in my kitchen

Ah, you see, we cook a lot of SE Asian stuff, particularly Thai, and so coconut milk features quite significantly. However The Loved One does a nice "Thai fish cakes", and soon also will experiment with a grilled/broiled version. They use the "red curry paste" I make. The accompaniments (sauces) tend to be a little sweet though (eg. include sweet chilli sauce). I can grab recipe though, if you're interested, and see if I can find more in one of our books.

I don't know if I have any of Mum's curry recipes (she learnt a lot of them in Malaysia, and they tend to the Indian style more), but I think they might be more what you're looking for. While condiments you might serve include some sweet (sultanas, sliced banana, chutney, roasted coconut), I don't know if you'd find the sweet more acceptable, able to control how much you add at the table. I might have to ask her about them though.

Do you have any preferences (eg. meat, known dishes)?

I LOVE beets! and as much as I hear people say they don't like them, they always are in salad bars. I never would have thought of putting one on my burger though!

Part of the tradition is eating a burger with sliced beetroot on it, and watching the beetroot slide out of the bottom of the burger, dragging the fried onion and sauce with it, to fall on your shoes or lap.

But it does taste quite nice. If you're okay with the sweet acidity of ketchup, you'd probably find a couple of slices of tinned beetroot okay too, if you can get past expectations (I put this last in because I could not get past "pumpkin pie" as a dessert - I tried it, I could see its appeal, but IT WAS PUMPKIN, IN A PIE, AS A DESSERT! Craziness. )

Cheers,
Marc

[phenomshel]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

Aye, a couple of slices from a can of beetroot is a standard on a burger:



The recipe for beetroot relish I am using is somewhat based on a recipe link I came across somewhere for a "chili Aussie beef burger with homemade tomato ketchup, balsamic beetroot relish, swiss cheese and egg". It has recipes for the relish, the ketchup and the burger separate, and looks pretty good (and I've made the relish before as per the instructions, and it was good, but I changed it slightly this time). Next up I'll try the ketchup, which looks real nice too. If you want have a look at the recipes, the image-heavy link is here:

http://whatkatieate.blogspot.com/201...wnies-and.html

Cheers,
Marc

That looks fantastic! I've done fried egg on burgers before (although I'm at complete loss as to why places north of the Mason/Dixon line insist on calling those Texas style, I'd never heard of such til I moved to Illinois) . My only question, looking at the finished product picture is "How on earth do you eat that?" You'd have to dissect it with a knife and fork to even be halfway neat, and even then it looks like it'd require disposable clothing and an immediate shower afterwards!

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

ok, let's expand on what you do with curry. I recently picked up a jar of curry mostly because the ingredients made my mouth water. but... I haven't a clue what to do with it.

Let's start with 'what country's flavoring' is this curry. The term 'curry' just means a group of spices and herbs. You can have Thai, Indian, Massman, Indonesian, etc., each with a VERY different flavor, and all using coconut milk![/QUOTE]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

However The Loved One does a nice "Thai fish cakes", and soon also will experiment with a grilled/broiled version. They use the "red curry paste" I make.

If those are the fried fish cakes that are sold in all the farmer's markets, covered with sweet but spicy chili sauce, you've got a real winner there!!!

Part of the tradition is eating a burger with sliced beetroot on it, and watching the beetroot slide out of the bottom of the burger, dragging the fried onion and sauce with it, to fall on your shoes or lap.

Don't you guys put a fried egg on your burgers too?

Originally Posted by phenomshel

That looks fantastic! I've done fried egg on burgers before (although I'm at complete loss as to why places north of the Mason/Dixon line insist on calling those Texas style, I'd never heard of such til I moved to Illinois)

It's funny... My first experience with tacos was in a little stand in Belleville, Illinois! I wonder if the Ilianai have a 'cowboy' fetish?!?

Stitchawl

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

That looks fantastic! I've done fried egg on burgers before (although I'm at complete loss as to why places north of the Mason/Dixon line insist on calling those Texas style, I'd never heard of such til I moved to Illinois) . My only question, looking at the finished product picture is "How on earth do you eat that?" You'd have to dissect it with a knife and fork to even be halfway neat, and even then it looks like it'd require disposable clothing and an immediate shower afterwards!

Squeeze hands and open your mouth really really wide (I want to say something salacious here about how I met The Loved One, but I'll restrain myself ).

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

...
If those are the fried fish cakes that are sold in all the farmer's markets, covered with sweet but spicy chili sauce, you've got a real winner there!!!

They're from David Thompson's book, Thai Food, described as "a comprehensive account of Thai Cuisine". I can't recall if he suggests they're the farmer's markets style recipe, but he has a less strict book (the recipes in Thai Cuisine can be religiously pedantic <---not a complaint) called Thai Street Food which we are yet to buy, and which is said to have a lot more approachable recipes.

Another high-end chef that has done this is Damien Pignolet who has a book called, simply, French, which is filled with quite detailed, and sometimes complicated, restaurant-style recipes. But he also has Salades which (obviously) concentrates on salads in many forms and far more approachable. We make from the book "a simple salad" that has main ingredients of roast capsicum, avocado and asparagus, and turn it into a meal with a couple of slices of toasted sourdough on the side and a softly poached egg or two on top of it to break over. Yum.

Don't you guys put a fried egg on your burgers too?
...

Yes, your average burger shop will put beetroot on most burgers, but if you see something labelled "Aussie burger" it'll almost certainly have a fried egg on it, and possibly bacon (likewise if you see "Aussie pizza").

Cheers,
Marc

[montsnmags]

Oh, and to the beet-lovers, a bridge too far?

http://www.channel4.com/food/recipes...ecipe_p_1.html

Cheers,
Marc (who intends to try this)

[Stitchawl]

The fried fish cakes certainly are a very popular street food, and you can always find vendors day or night around the bus depots and train stations selling bags full of them. Would you please post the recipe you use for it?

it'll almost certainly have a fried egg on it, and possibly bacon (likewise if you see "Aussie pizza").

...sounding rather like Japanese pizza. Hard cooked egg pizza, pineapple pizza, corn and mayonnaise pizza, Squid pizza, tuna salad with corn pizza, etc., etc., etc.!

Stitchawl

[kindlekitten]

Originally Posted by montsnmags

Ah, you see, we cook a lot of SE Asian stuff, particularly Thai, and so coconut milk features quite significantly. However The Loved One does a nice "Thai fish cakes", and soon also will experiment with a grilled/broiled version. They use the "red curry paste" I make. The accompaniments (sauces) tend to be a little sweet though (eg. include sweet chilli sauce). I can grab recipe though, if you're interested, and see if I can find more in one of our books.

I don't know if I have any of Mum's curry recipes (she learnt a lot of them in Malaysia, and they tend to the Indian style more), but I think they might be more what you're looking for. While condiments you might serve include some sweet (sultanas, sliced banana, chutney, roasted coconut), I don't know if you'd find the sweet more acceptable, able to control how much you add at the table. I might have to ask her about them though.

Do you have any preferences (eg. meat, known dishes)?



Part of the tradition is eating a burger with sliced beetroot on it, and watching the beetroot slide out of the bottom of the burger, dragging the fried onion and sauce with it, to fall on your shoes or lap.

But it does taste quite nice. If you're okay with the sweet acidity of ketchup, you'd probably find a couple of slices of tinned beetroot okay too, if you can get past expectations (I put this last in because I could not get past "pumpkin pie" as a dessert - I tried it, I could see its appeal, but IT WAS PUMPKIN, IN A PIE, AS A DESSERT! Craziness. )

Cheers,
Marc

I'm up for trying most anything. I figure that I can probably adapt recipes and leave out some of the sweeter appearing ingredients. I seem to recall a small place back in Boulder that had curries that weren't particularly sweet. I'd love to replicate that! I'm up for pretty much any meats except organ meat, and some of the squishier fish, ie; squid, octopus, etc. and I have not seen eel in the market here.


I can't handle pumpkin pie, either (although a good pumpkin bread can be yummy!) I usually keep some beets in the fridge that I chop up for a salad with walnuts, gorgonzola, ranch dressing, and a mix of lettuces. those are always fresh beets though that I bake, peel and slice. I'll have to think about it next time I have a burger. hold the egg though! eggs are yummy, but not on a burger! that's where chilies go!

[phenomshel]

Pumpkin in the US seems to have the "expectations" of it being sweet and used in sweet things, like pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, cookies, ooey gooey bars... what do you use it for in Oz that you weren't expecting dessert, Marc?

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Pumpkin in the US seems to have the "expectations" of it being sweet and used in sweet things, like pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, cookies, ooey gooey bars... what do you use it for in Oz that you weren't expecting dessert, Marc?

Pumpkin is an everyday veggie here. Served hot and savory, cold and sweet, even as tempura. Everything except pie! The pumpkins aren't the big orange things I used to cut up for Halloween in the US when I was a kid. They are grapfruit sized, more like squash.




Stitchawl

[kindlekitten]

savory recipes is what I would like to have. like I said in the never ever thread, I wish I liked more squash. the sweetness and oftentimes even the texture set me off

[montsnmags]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

The fried fish cakes certainly are a very popular street food, and you can always find vendors day or night around the bus depots and train stations selling bags full of them. Would you please post the recipe you use for it?
...

Fish Cakes (tort man pla)

Ingreditients:

• 300g fish fillets (recommends whiting or orange roughy - not sure of equivalents)
• 4 tablespoons red curry paste (separate recipe)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar
• 5 kaffir lime leaves
• 2 tablespoons finely cut snake beans or green beans (we can generally only get green around here)
• oil for deep frying

Method:

1. Wash fish in cold, salted water
2. Combine fish, curry paste and egg in a food processor and blend well, seasoning with fish sauce and sugar (can be done via slightly different method with mortar and pestle - The Loved One uses his food processor)
3. In a large bowl gather the fish purée into a ball and throw back into the bowl
4. Continue this slapping until the mixture becomes firmer and sticker (this aerates the ingredients and makes the cakes puff when deep-fried)
5. Mix in lime leaves and beans
6. Mould into small disks, then deep-fry in a wok with plenty of oil over a medium heat
7. Serve immediately (they toughen as they cool) with, David recommends, cucumber relish (separate recipe)

It is from this recipe we'd like to seek a grilling/broiling recipe. We have made another grilled/broiled tuna-cakes recipe (non-SE Asian), and might look into making a hybrid.

Originally Posted by kindlekitten

I'm up for trying most anything. I figure that I can probably adapt recipes and leave out some of the sweeter appearing ingredients. I seem to recall a small place back in Boulder that had curries that weren't particularly sweet. I'd love to replicate that! I'm up for pretty much any meats except organ meat, and some of the squishier fish, ie; squid, octopus, etc. and I have not seen eel in the market here.

I don't appear to have any on file, so I'll have to wait until Mum's up here again (don't worry, it's usually only about a month between visits). Then I'll sit her down and ask her about a few, and load them into my recipe software.

I can't handle pumpkin pie, either (although a good pumpkin bread can be yummy!) I usually keep some beets in the fridge that I chop up for a salad with walnuts, gorgonzola, ranch dressing, and a mix of lettuces. those are always fresh beets though that I bake, peel and slice. I'll have to think about it next time I have a burger. hold the egg though! eggs are yummy, but not on a burger! that's where chilies go!

We'd put eggs and chilies on. Anything goes.

Originally Posted by phenomshel

Pumpkin in the US seems to have the "expectations" of it being sweet and used in sweet things, like pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, cookies, ooey gooey bars... what do you use it for in Oz that you weren't expecting dessert, Marc?

If you think of definitions, "pumpkin" here includes a whole lot of different types of "pumpkins" (eg. "butternut pumpkin") that you might (according to Wikipedia) refer to as "winter squash".

None of it is (generally) associated with sweets here. Pumpkin bread is still a savoury bread here (for instance I've just been eating a pumpkin and pipita sourdough for the last few lunches, with cottage cheese, tomato and bread and butter cucumbers). We might make soup, especially in winter with some sourcream and some crusty bread. We'd particularly use it as one of the roast vegetables (eg. along with spuds and parsnips) alongside a roast meat like beef or lamb. Sometimes they're used on pizza (usually "fancy" ones ), or a grilled vegetable stack might include some in its ingredients.
Even when being made into pumpkin scones then, unlike normal scones, in my experience they're usually not served with strawberry jam and cream, but usually with just butter.

In Oz, generally, "dessert" is not a meal that comes to mind when talking about pumpkin. It'd be a toss-up between soup and a Sunday Roast taking that spot, and certainly "savoury" in broad terms.

Cheers,
Marc