High fat, high cholesterol hand grenades

[erictank]

Sounds like the way my Grandma would cook most vegetables. Boil them into a slimy mush, and then force them on the kids. Found out I actually liked the vegetables, just not that manner of cooking, years later.

Sounds like my family, taken just a LITTLE farther than Mom would go.  The veggies weren't reduced to mush, but they WERE cooked until all hint of crispness was removed.  I learned to hate cooked vegetables as a child (exceptions - corn, starchy types like potatoes and rice), although I've always been a big fan of salad and assorted raw vegetables.  One of the things my wife did for me was teach me how to cook vegetables in ways that DIDN'T render them into not-quite-slime - I've found I can tolerate cauliflower quite handily, and I *LIKE* broccoli, carrots, and snow peas, for example, when properly steamed.

Still don't care for asparagus, though. 

ETA: I've also learned to really enjoy beef cooked to less than medium-well, quite thoroughly, and will no longer make or order it cooked that much.  Don't see myself taking things on that front to Mom's level ("Pass the steak over a candle once per side and bring it to the table."), though.

On the topic of Scotch eggs - they look QUITE tasty.  As my wife's food allergies include eggs, though, I don't make them much. 

[K Frame]

One of the most satisfying things I have experienced in my life over the last several years is teaching my Mother new ways and methods of cooking.

For example, roasted asparagus, instead of steamed. She loved them. Another thing I introduced to her was Balsamic Vinegar. She's now absolutely nuts for the stuff. But, we're German, so we're nuts for just about all kinds of vinegar.

She taught me cook the way she learned from her Mother. Mom was a good cook, but not really spectacular. Mom and I work REALLY well in the kitchen together. That's one of the things that I really miss about being in DC, I don't get to see her as often as I like, and I don't get to cook with her.

Some years ago Mtnbkr introduced me to Alton Brown. I started watching him, and it really opened my eyes on new ways to cook the same things that I had always been cooking, especially vegetables and some meats.

Simple things like slicing a London Broil on the bias so that it's tender. Not flipping the burgers every 15 seconds and smashing them with the spatula so that they turn out dry.

One good thing about Mom, though, is that unlike so many of my friend's Mothers is that she was never afraid of using spices. Eating at some friend's homes was always an exercise in bland. You'd see maybe 5 spices.

It was sort of like where Marge Simpson went to the church craft fair and found a spice rack with 12 spices. "12 spices? Some of them must be duplicates.... ORE-EEEEE-GONE--OH? What the hell?"

[Iain]

Lack of any understanding of spice/flavours is still disappointingly common here, despite my protestations about the jokes, there is definitely a basis in reality.

I was talking to a friend recently about diet. Have to admit that I pretty much live on stirfried turkey/beef with vegetables and some form of noodle. She said that she liked stirfry but had to put cheese on it otherwise it has no taste. Eh? says I. Turns out that her idea of stirfry is oil, meat, veg. Serve. I use ginger, lemongrass, soy sauce, toasted sesame oil and fish sauce and still thought that I'm probably pretty conservative.

[lupinus]

I never have figured out how a country who colonized so much of the world, and who has many communities of those colonized peoples, has such bland food.

Just about every country I can think of that was so far reaching imported a lot of the food traditions to some extent.  Several of the Italian city states for example like Venice.  Lots of flavors you would never think of as being Italian.

[Iain]

We don't really have that bland a diet. The traditional meat and two veg probably hasn't been too greatly influenced by the empire, although obviously the potato...

There is a lot of food choice in this country, and those cuisines have seemingly maintained a kind of separate identity within British food. That can be a little deceptive, the allegation is that a lot of what is called Indian food in the UK is an invention of Indian chefs working in British restaurants. The chicken tikka masala for example, although I don't know how much of that is urban myth. Bit like General Tso's chicken, which is something I just learned from wikipedia.

Queen Victoria liked a curry. For breakfast. There are also pretty old recipes for British dishes heavily inspired or plain ripped off from India in particular - kedgeree, mulligitawny soup. There's also Coronation Chicken which is clearly a kind of very British curry thing.

[lupinus]

damn you Iain, you had to say tikki and put it next to massala.  Though I prefer the lamb to the chicken.

Now I am hungry again.

[Chuck Dye]

Terrific Scotch eggs for parties can be made with quail eggs.  To ease production, chill the sausage and put the egg into the sausage ball rather than attempting to put the sausage on the egg.

Mike, wrap the asparagus in prosciutto or culatello before roasting.  Yummy stuff!

[LadySmith]

Terrific Scotch eggs for parties can be made with quail eggs.  To ease production, chill the sausage and put the egg into the sausage ball rather than attempting to put the sausage on the egg.

Out of curiosity, where do you get quail eggs? I've only ever seen the basic brown and white chicken varieties in stores out here, and if you go upscale you can get organic.

[K Frame]

Quail eggs aren't something you're going to find in your local Gulp 'N' Blow.

Speciality stores carry them around here, as do ones catering to the sushi making crowd.

NOT cheap.

[Chuck Dye]

Quail eggs are fairly common on the west coast in Asian groceries.  Last time I did Scotch quail eggs, 100 of them, I bought the eggs in Tijuana.  Sold by the kilo, as were chicken eggs, they were about half again the cost of chicken eggs.

[K Frame]

You could also probably use very small chicken eggs.

[roo_ster]

You could also probably use very small chicken eggs.

From pygmy chickens.

[K Frame]

No, just peewee or small chiken eggs will do. They can be kind of hard to find, though.

[LadySmith]

Hmmm...teeny bite-sized Scotch eggs sound yummy.

Now you guys have got me looking at hummingbird nests sideways. 

I can go hit up some Asian markets next time I run errands, but before I do, what do quail eggs taste like?
I have a plebian palate that hasn't gone much further than basic beef-pork-common fowl foodstuffs.

ETA: Before some smart-aleck says the obligatory "they taste like chicken"  , I was just wondering what I might expect if I bit into one.
I'm getting a disturbing visual of mini-balut for some reason. 

[erictank]

Hmmm...teeny bite-sized Scotch eggs sound yummy.

Now you guys have got me looking at hummingbird nests sideways. 

I can go hit up some Asian markets next time I run errands, but before I do, what do quail eggs taste like?
I have a plebian palate that hasn't gone much further than basic beef-pork-common fowl foodstuffs.

ETA: Before some smart-aleck says the obligatory "they taste like chicken"  , I was just wondering what I might expect if I bit into one.
I'm getting a disturbing visual of mini-balut for some reason. 

You HAD to bring up balut - where's the barf icon, again? 

A guy I used to work with at the power plant used to bring balut in on rare occasions.  Fortunately, he was on a different shift than I was, so all I got to do was hear about it.

[Nick1911]

You persuaded me to try it.



Kind of a pain to make, but oh so delicious!  I've never had these before.

[Werewolf]

Still don't care for asparagus, though. 

Try it this way:

Saute' in butter, lemon juice and coarse ground black pepper until the skin just begins to caramelize.

Ummm...
Ummm...

GOOD!

[Chuck Dye]

Quail eggs are noticeably richer than chicken eggs but not really other-flavored.  Sort of in the way that some whiskeys and rums are more flavorful than others or like the difference between chicken and turkey.  You will not be stretching much at all.