Roger's View of the World, Love and Seafood Gumbo!
Seize the Day! Put no trust in the morrow! — Horace
I can’t help but wonder why anyone listens to some of the advice on line on how to raise your children. Everyone seems to have a purpose that doesn’t have anything to do with making your children into better, smarter people or supporting the family. Here are some of the issues that I think everyone has to wrestle with on one level or another.
I am constantly surprised by the young people I meet who don’t know how to cook? How do they live?? There is an exciting world out there of culinary discovery that can not be found in a restaurant with arches or without, because it is what you create yourself!
So, unlike IRONMAN, most budding cooks must walk before they can run and this means starting at the basics. Here are a few suggestions:
1) give them a very very simple cookbook… Better Homes and Garden has a great one for less than $20 at Amazon.com. B.H.& G. is an old line cookbook — now in it’s 15th edition — that is a wonderful gift to anyone starting out. The recipes are simple, economical and with few ingredients and step-by-step guidance.
2) Translate your fun meals into even simpler ones for the new cook. The meal above contains three ‘ingredients’ (actually, three packages ingredients): one whole chicken ( they can be purchased without it’s natural ‘stuffing’), an Uncle Ben’s precooked rice package ( many contain a nice mixture that will appeal) and a little seasoning over the top of the chicken ( many pre-blended shakers available: salt, pepper and garlic powder is popular).
Bake 375 degrees F. for 2 hours and 20 minutes
Doesn’t get much easier than this!
3) Encourage the new cook to seek out a teacher… someone who can get them to the next level. After mastery of the simple cookbook, you can gift them with specialty cook books in which they may have an interest: cookies and desserts, fondue, and celebrity chef’s books ( they only look hard, in reality, their recipes have only a few steps and simple commonplace ingredients… This is key to selling a cook book ).
4) Practice — there is no substitute for experience.
Bon appetite
Roger
Today, I cookie day, I used to make many… but, alas, they disappeared far too quickly. Nowadays, I make just a couple types… Shortbread is today.
Yum
In a letter to Marie Bonaparte, close to his death, Sigmond Freud wrote:
“Die grosse Frage, die nie beantwortet worden ist und die ich trotz dreißig Jahre langem Forschen in der weiblichen Seele nie habe beantworten können, ist die: Was will das Weib?”
a very rough translation would be:
“The big question that has never been answered in spite of my nearly thirty years on the subject is what do women want?”
With a wife and three daughters, this is the question that haunts me at birthdays, anniversaries and, yes, at Valentine’s Day!  When I first met Laura, we were both 17 and her favorite cuisine was pop tarts washed down with a slug of Tang. Well, she was 17. Since then we have discovered many interesting foods from around the world that she has favored, but to find one is a challenge… and on Valentine’s Day, it’s important to get it right.
The answer came by following the fusion example of South Africa and combining a few worthy items. Laura loves scallops and pasta. She has also become fond of a South African curry sauce I make with Peri Peri and about a dozen spices that make the curry. Fortunately this was relatively dietetic as well and delicious!
So, women may not be so simple in reading their desires as in reading the hopes and wishes of men, but when in doubt… ask them! 😉 … or fix them a South African gastronomic experience worthy of connoisseurs!
Roger Freberg
A while ago I wrote about the challenges of marination and tenderizing meats. The tougher the meat, the more important this process is for producing a result that everyone might enjoy. Lamb has always been one of my favorite dishes… but not Laura’s. I always wondered why? Not long ago, I realized that she hadn’t tried it since she was young and was served a very chewy piece. So, I decided to produced a nice lamb sandwich to reintroduce her to this wonderful meat.
The marination process is important and I thought I’d throw the kitchen sink at this task by using Kiwi fruit, pineapple and Papaya! Can we have some now? I love a sweet marinade with a bit of a bite, so here is what I used:
Sherry, Soy Sauce, and Olive Oil, lime juice
honey
garlic, green onion
basic spices: cumin, pepper, chili, salt, cinnamon, coriander, cardamon, fenugreek, turmeric, fennel, cloves, ginger
Part of the challenge for making a great lamb sandwich is in slicing the lamb thinly prior to marination ( most people know that a thick piece of meat seldom allows the marination to reach the center of the section of meat). Many cooks will say that after the marination, take the lamb to the grill!!! Interestingly enough, placing your marinated lamb on a ‘George Foreman” grill gives great temperature control and perfect results.
… and Laura changed her mind, she loved her Lamb sandwich. Next, whole lamb on a spit!
Roger