Cooking

[Blaise (imported)]

Cooking intrigues me. I have a wonderful book on the chemistry of cooking, but I enjoy just thinking about it.

This morning I saw a recipe that involved frying filet of catfish in peanut oil without any breading, The chef was from Atlanta. He chopped the filets into larges piece and fried them about three minutes. They were golden brown. Then he prepared a sauce of olive oil, lemon and lime juice, orange juice and minced garlic to pour over the catfish. This was then mixed with salad greens It looked fantastic. I guess you just try ideas.

There is a piece on public television just now about Indian cooking. Some kichens are 800 years old.

[Dave (imported)]

A light coating of flour and very hot oil is the trick. Salt and pepper to taste. Remove the fillet when cooked and create the sauce in the pan.

Each Christmas I fry up smelts that way. I don't make a sauce, but that doesn't change the fact that I could make a sauce. Actually, my niece and I do this on three skillets because smelts are so small we cook four or five pounds.

There is no reason the technique won't work with catfish. Also, you can slice the garlic into large slices or mince it into tiny pieces. It depends on if you eat the garlic or just want the taste.

[JesusA (imported)]

Each Christmas I fry up smelts that way. I don't make a sauce, but that doesn't change the fact that I could make a sauce. Actually, my niece and I do this on three skillets because smelts are so small we cook four or five pounds.

When my kids were still at home, whenever they had a new friend coming for dinner for the first time, their meal request to their mother was always the same –

A basket of fried smelt (head, tail, and all),

A large bowl of mashed Peruvian (deep purple-colored) potatoes, and

Steamed broccoli.

It was a very quick measure of the tolerance for adventure of the friend.

If the friend returned for a second meal, we knew that he or she would eat almost any of the exotics that we frequently have on the table. Just writing this is making me hungry….

[Blaise (imported)]

I do not recall eating smelt. I don't know whether I have had Peruvian potatoes. I love broccoli as long as one does not overcook it.

[Dave (imported)]

Smelts are small whitefish of rather indiscriminate breed. the longest is 6 inches and the shortest are two inches. They sell them (gutted, decapitated and de-tail-finned) frozen in pound bags. If you get a bad of 2 inchers, you fry forever and a day. I am allergic to all fish so these are the only fish I cook because I know what they look and feel like when cooked. Usually you have to taste food to cook it.

My family likes them without the spine. Personally, I would leave the spine. It's just crunchy.

I also know how to make the spaghetti sauce with stuffed squid and breadballs. I can't eat it because of the allergy but I know how to cook it. Most people call in calamari and rave over it. If I know that I got a squeamish sort, I hold out a handfull of tentacles and watch the silliness.

Years ago, I deep fried octupus (small, about 2-3 inch long) with garlic in olive oil. These are delicious, chewy antipasto snacks.

[Uncle Flo (imported)]

I am astonished! People eat octopus, squid, smelt and catfish. I would never have imagined it. --FLO--

[considering (imported)]

The range of what is consumed and how it is prepared is staggering. Many people enjoy a delicacy (to them) called "Cepes". This is a piece of wood as are bamboo shoots. I don't say they are without nutritive value but doesn't it conjure visions of Euell Gibbons?

At a fish fry in Georgia many years ago I asked what the oil was they were using and was told, "10-w-40". I stuck to the biscuits and the corn on the cob.

Growing up in South Africa one had to be very specific when asking for "beef" as the term was generally meant to mean any sort of meat from Python to Chicken.

Locally, many farm families swear that a good hand full of Oklahoma red earth is a "sovereign" cure for many ailments. Who knows? Folk cooking and medications predate Julia Child and the JOY OF COOKING by eons. If you grew up eating it, you will not understand the gag reflex in others when they refuse your kind offer of a meal of Flying Fox (Australia) or bat guano (New Guinea).

Perhaps this explains the mass acceptance of "fast food". Although when I grew up that same expression simply meant it had been too fast to catch it.

[Riverwind (imported)]

I really did not learn much about cooking until I was on my own. I love food, all kinds, I remember when I was in Thailand eating from one of those vendors with the rod over there shoulder with the stove on one end and the food on the other. I would stop this guy and he would take a banana leaf brush it off and start filling it. I love the stuff, to this day have no idea what it was but that and a coke I had dinner for 25 cents.

You can find great food just about anywhere if you just try it.

River

[Blaise (imported)]

I really did not learn much about cooking until I was on my own. I love food, all kinds, I remember when I was in Thailand eating from one of those vendors with the rod over there shoulder with the stove on one end and the food on the other. I would stop this guy and he would take a banana leaf brush it off and start filling it. I love the stuff, to this day have no idea what it was but that and a coke I had dinner for 25 cents.

You can find great food just about anywhere if you just try it.

RiverThat's true. I recall going to Baja Mexico and eating from street vendors. Never got sick.

There was a place in the Vieux Carre that served red beans and rice for about a quarter during the early seventies. He used to travel with the Presveration Hall Jazz Band when they toured. He would cook for those who attended concerts. He set up iron pots at Stanford University and served rea beans and rice during a concert.

[Paolo]

I've been intrigued by trying to make a low carb/no sugar cake, and perfect the recipe.

So far, it's not turning out too badly, but there's also enough calories, cholesterol, and fat in this sucker to kill a mule...

But by God, it's low glycemic, low carb, and sugar free!