How Snobbery Helped Take The Spice Out Of European Cooking

tchy:

tchy:

A really cool article about one of my weird niche interests (ask me about Renaissance recipes sometime, they’re great).

Since I have my main cookbook right by me at the moment, here’s a small sample of some flavour profiles from Renaissance England, prior to the shift in European cooking styles that’s described in this article–all of them from savoury recipes involving meat:

Rosemary, currant, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, pepper.

Shallot, mustard, nutmeg, honey, white wine vinegar.

Onion, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, savoury, bay, parsley, pistachio.

Sage, shallot, mace, parsley, nutmeg, pepper.

Parsley, mint, sage, caraway, coriander, nutmeg, capers.

Fennel, savoury, rosemary, thyme, bay, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger.

Nutmeg, pepper, parsley, thyme, rosemary, cloves, grapes.

Hardly the plain boiled fare most people picture in traditional English cooking, right?

Renaissance food is awesome.

This has been intermittently getting a note or two and it’s awesome so I’m going to reblog it again. Everyone learn about one of my strange niche hobbies.

sausage & kale cassoulet – (…sorta. Kate does a lot of things differently with this one)

gruntledandhinged:

At one point I was intending to make this recipe as specified. But I have a small crockpot, don’t like tomatoes in soups, and frozen spinach is far superior to kale in any form.

SO.
-Two bullion cubes instead of one.
-3.5 c water (or until you accidentally fill the crock pot too much and have to scoop some out)
-adding frozen spinach (lots!) at the end instead of fresh kale.
-no tomatoes because meeeeehhhhh

Which, all together, results in a hearty bean and sausage thing that I love.

Vegan version:
-fake sausage! This worked out wonderfully when I did it. Also means you can be more impatient about cooktime. I just bought whatever fake italian sausage was cheapest.
-veggie broth

sausage & kale cassoulet – (…sorta. Kate does a lot of things differently with this one)

jaagutidrik:

Honey infused with herbs

leupagus:

pr1nceshawn:

I want that!

Now, with actual useful information!

Multipurpose dish-drying rack! (not exactly the same item but v. similar)

Pot and pan hangers!

Nifty Hinged Pan Thing!

Pig and Chicken Spoon Holder Things!

Drawer Dividers That You Can Buy Literally Anywhere!

Scoop ‘n’ Stack Ice Cream Scooper!

Literally hundreds of different laser thermometers, this isn’t new people!

Ugly And Not That Useful Appetizer Plates!

Flex-It Measuring Cups!

butterpoached:

sixyearsofcollegedownthedrain:

ofhorsesandwomen:

avannteth:

jazzumon:

classy-cocaine:

Another valuable life skill that school didn’t teach me but tumblr did!

WAAAAANT

reblogging for keeps

J

I was waiting for this to turn into one of those posts where a regular person tries to imitate it and it just looks ungodly

Hey! I did learn this stuff in school.

Of course, I did go to a Culinary Arts program, so that might be why…

No I’ve totally done these as an amateur! I mean i used premade pastry like a heathen but they looked and tasted good!

Oh man I love cinnamon rolls too! My favorite recipe is to make regular white bread dough (3 cups flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup water, 1 quarter-ounce package yeast), and then just put butter and cinnamon sugar on top and roll it up. When I bake the rolls, I put them in a cupcake tray so they don’t get all stuck together. Usually they bake for about twenty minutes (?) at 375 F.

loiewaulker:

annleckie:

This is a good recipe! Though I actually like it when they get stuck together, I’m an inside-cinnamon-roll kind of gal. (I also prefer the inside pieces of pizza. Do not look at me like that, I’m from St. Louis where we cut pizza in squares like Inanna intended.)

My only real complaint is that when I make them, they don’t come out as soft as the ones from the bakery. How do they get them so soft like that? I always end up with crusty cinnamon rolls. I suspect there’s something I could buy at, like, King Arthur Flour that would hold the secret, and very possibly it would mean more work than I want to go through even for a cinnamon roll.

A doomed cinnamon roll.

Try a potato dough, and consider letting the yeast digest the potato overnight?
I don’t make cinnamon rolls often (I do far more crusty breads, pizza crusts, scones and puff pastry) but when I made them, I recall that those two things made for the softest rolls.

Broke af?

avari20:

But still interested in feeding yourself? What if I told you that there’s a woman with a blog who had to feed both herself and her young son…on 10 British pounds ($15/14 Euro) per week?

Let me tell you a thing.

This woman saved my life last year. Actually saved my life. I had a piggy bank full of change and that’s it. Many people in my fandom might remember that dark time as when I had to hock my writing skills in exchange for donations. I cried a lot then.

This is real talk, people: I marked down exactly what I needed to buy, totaled it, counted out that exact change, and then went to three different stores to buy what I needed so I didn’t have to dump a load of change on just one person. I was already embarrassed, but to feel people staring? Utter shame suffused me. The reasons behind that are another post all together.

AgirlcalledJack.com is run by a British woman who was on benefits for years. Things got desperate. She had to find a way to feed herself and her son using just the basics that could be found at the supermarket. But the recipes she came up with are amazing.

You have to consider the differing costs of things between countries, but if you just have three ingredients in your cupboard, this woman will tell you what to do with it. Check what you already have. Chances are you have the basics of a filling meal already.

Here’s her list of kitchen basics.

Bake your own bread. It’s easier than you think. Here’s a list of many recipes, each using some variation of just plain flour, yeast, some oil, maybe water or lemon juice. And kneading bread is therapeutic.

Make your own pasta–gluten free.

She gets it. She really does. This is the article that started it all. It’s called “Hunger Hurts”.

She has vegan recipes.

Don’t have an oven or the stove isn’t available? She covers that in her Microwave Cooking section.

She has a book, but many recipes can be found on her blog for free. She prices her recipes down to the cent, and every year she participates in a project called “Living Below the Line” where she has to live on 1 BP per day of food for five days.

Things improved for me a little, but her website is my go to. I learned how to bake bread (using my crockpot, but that was my own twist), and I have a little cart full of things that saved me back then, just in case I need them again. She gives you the tools to feed yourself, for very little money, and that’s a fabulous feeling.

Tip: Whenever you have a little extra money, buy a 10 dollar/pound/euro giftcard from your discount grocer. Stash it. That’s your super emergency money. Make sure they don’t charge by the month for lack of use, though.

I don’t care if it sounds like an advertisement–you won’t be buying anything from the site. What I DO care about is your mental, emotional, and physical health–and dammit, food’s right in the center of that.

If you don’t need this now, pass it on to someone who does. Pass it on anyway, because do you REALLY know which of the people in your life is in need? Which follower might be staring at their own piggy bank? Trust me: someone out there needs to see this.

ineptshieldmaid:

k-loulee:

peroxidepirate:

lemonsharks:

flammentanzerin:

mynameiseyyyyyy:

officialgishwhes:

teambicycletouring:

Item 14. IMAGE or GIF. Is that…is that an edible Eye of Sauron? Yes, it is.

Presenting.. the Pie of Sauron
the one tart ring to rule them all

CONGRATS TO THE BRONZE SWISS CHARD!!!

I WANNA EAT IT SO BAD

Oh. The Eye of Sauron.

That’s… exactly what I thought first.

This is the most yonnic pie in the HISTORY OF PIE.

YES IT IS.

let’s be real here, the eye of sauron does look like the outside of a vagina. but so does this pie!

i think if they were aiming for a vagina pie (and why would you NOT?) it would have more red or pink fruit and also there would be an attempt at representing the clitoris. I vote for a raspberry, it would be most fetching.

Next time I visit I demand a yonnic pie

Curried Potatoes with Poached Eggs – Budget Bytes

gruntledandhinged:

These are ridiculously simple. I *really* like curry and this makes a lot of filling curry.

Adaptations because I am lazy and/or one person.
-I just use powdered ginger, about three shakes from a shaker. I don’t like ginger enough to actually buy the root.
-served over microwave rice, to stretch the meal even further
-I have a large bottle of freeze-dried cilantro. Everyone in my house hates cilantro except me, so when I buy a bunch of it, it dies and I feel guilty.

Makes roughly four meals if you pair with brown rice.

P.S. this whole blog is fantastic and highly recommended.

Curried Potatoes with Poached Eggs – Budget Bytes

Beginner’s Guide to Veggie Sushi

marleeyule:

Sushi felt like an intimidating thing to make, but once I experimented and did it a few times I realized it was one of the easiest and quickest meals to whip up (not to mention cheap)!

You can find all the stuff you need to make sushi in most grocery stores in the asian food aisle. The ingredients/tools you need are:

Sushi nori

Sushi rice (also called sticky rice)

Rice vinegar

Pickled ginger

Wasabi paste

Soy sauce

Sesame seeds (optional)

Fillings for your sushi (I like asparagus, carrot, cucumber, tofu and avocado. Shitake would be delicious too)

A bamboo sushi mat for rolling your sushi

A good sharp knife. I have a lovely Japanese carbon steel knife that my Dad brought me from Japan for Christmas, but if you don’t have the traditional knife just make sure you have a really sharp knife, otherwise you won’t be able to cut your sushi roll.

Cook your sushi rice according to the package directions. I usually make 3 cups of cooked rice, which makes about 4 sushi rolls. I use 1 cup dried rice and 1 2/3 cups of water. Make sure not to stir your rice while it’s cooking (it takes about 20 minutes). Make sure you let your rice cool to room temperature before making your sushi. Too hot and you will burn your fingers, but you also don’t want it to be chilled or it won’t stick and roll as nicely. When it is the right temperature, add one tbsp rice vinegar to the rice and mix well.

Prepare your veggies. Chop everything up into matchstick sized pieces (except asparagus, you can use that whole). Everything can be raw, but I usually like to steam my asparagus for about a minute to soften it a bit.

Make sure to press the water from your tofu for a few minutes. You can just use raw slices, I’ve tried marinating my tofu for sushi to see if it tastes better, but you can’t tell the difference.

4. Now you’re ready to assemble. Place a sheet of nori on the bamboo mat, shiny side down. Scoop a little less than 1 cup of rice into the middle of the nori. Wet your fingers in the bowl of water and flatten the rice on the sheet, leaving one inch of room at the top and bottom.

5. Lay the veggies vertically about 1/3 of the way up on the nori, making sure they are not too spread out.

6. Now you can start rolling. Roll the bottom part of the nori overtop of the veggies and press firmly down to seal them into the sushi.

7. Continue rolling a little bit at a time, pressing firmly down each time. When you have your sushi all rolled up, roll it back and forth a few times to seal in the end and make your roll circular. It’s ok if a few bits are sticking out the ends, they do this in restaurants too, it looks all artsy or whatever.

8. Now to chop. A tip to really get a good slice is to continually wet your knife, it will help slice through that nori.

And that’s it! Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve with as much pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce as you want! If you precook your rice, this meal takes about 10 minutes to assemble. What could be better than fresh, homemade, cheap and quick veggie sushi? Happy nomming!