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osprey_archerIt’s been a good winter for cooking. Now that I’m no longer working at Starbucks (and therefore no longer surrounded by a selection of baked goods at all times) I’ve started baking again: brownies, lemon bars, vinegar bars…
The vinegar bars were simply lemon bars with balsamic vinegar instead of lemon juice, because I had been explaining to someone that in cooking you can usually substitute like for like - an oil for an oil, solid fat for solid fat, acid for acid - and I had just been making lemon bars and… voila.
They tasted all right - milder than lemon bars, which I hadn’t expected - but every time I opened the tupperware a smell like malt vinegar wafted out, like a fish and chips shop, which is a little disconcerting when you’re getting a dessert.
I also tried a recipe for ginger cookies, which came out nice and soft, but I’ve come to the sad conclusion that as much as I like the idea of ginger cookies and gingerbread, I will always find the real thing mildly disappointing. Although I have one more ginger cookie recipe to try, with lashings of dark chocolate on top, so maybe that will convert me.
On the savory side, I tried a new lentil recipe, which I introduced to Julie with the words, “Maybe it tastes okay,” which are not calculated to inspire confidence when spoken while the cook gazes doubtfully into a pot of yellowish porridge dotted with carrots.
But actually it was pretty good! Eating it made me feel like a French peasant (I mean this in a good way) having a good warming bowl of pottage on a cold winter’s day, thick with lentils, onions, carrots, rosemary, all cooked up in hard cider - a peasant from Normandy, probably. It was meant to have garlic too, but the final garlic clove had gone bad so I had to leave it out - but it would be even better with garlic in.
(There’s also supposed to be celery for a classic mirepoix, but I have never seen the point of celery.)
Other food discoveries I have made:
If over half the filling in a cottage pie is turnips, that is Too Many Turnips.
Carrots get sweeter if you roast them and make a good component in something else, although I’m still not won over by the idea of just sitting there eating straight carrots in the “meat and two veg” fashion.
In fact, it’s possible that all vegetables (or almost all) are improved by being merely a component in a larger dish instead of sitting there being Veg. Must contemplate this.
The vinegar bars were simply lemon bars with balsamic vinegar instead of lemon juice, because I had been explaining to someone that in cooking you can usually substitute like for like - an oil for an oil, solid fat for solid fat, acid for acid - and I had just been making lemon bars and… voila.
They tasted all right - milder than lemon bars, which I hadn’t expected - but every time I opened the tupperware a smell like malt vinegar wafted out, like a fish and chips shop, which is a little disconcerting when you’re getting a dessert.
I also tried a recipe for ginger cookies, which came out nice and soft, but I’ve come to the sad conclusion that as much as I like the idea of ginger cookies and gingerbread, I will always find the real thing mildly disappointing. Although I have one more ginger cookie recipe to try, with lashings of dark chocolate on top, so maybe that will convert me.
On the savory side, I tried a new lentil recipe, which I introduced to Julie with the words, “Maybe it tastes okay,” which are not calculated to inspire confidence when spoken while the cook gazes doubtfully into a pot of yellowish porridge dotted with carrots.
But actually it was pretty good! Eating it made me feel like a French peasant (I mean this in a good way) having a good warming bowl of pottage on a cold winter’s day, thick with lentils, onions, carrots, rosemary, all cooked up in hard cider - a peasant from Normandy, probably. It was meant to have garlic too, but the final garlic clove had gone bad so I had to leave it out - but it would be even better with garlic in.
(There’s also supposed to be celery for a classic mirepoix, but I have never seen the point of celery.)
Other food discoveries I have made:
If over half the filling in a cottage pie is turnips, that is Too Many Turnips.
Carrots get sweeter if you roast them and make a good component in something else, although I’m still not won over by the idea of just sitting there eating straight carrots in the “meat and two veg” fashion.
In fact, it’s possible that all vegetables (or almost all) are improved by being merely a component in a larger dish instead of sitting there being Veg. Must contemplate this.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 05:15 am (UTC)That lentil pottage sounds amazing, though, especially on a cold day. And your veg conclusion is one I have come to agree wholeheartedly with.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 02:16 pm (UTC)I cannot tell you how many time I've ordered risotto in restaurants only to remember three bites in that I only like about three bites of risotto, after which time I start pining for more variety in the eating experience. Every! Bite! Is the same!
no subject
Date: 2019-02-08 02:15 am (UTC)Duck is the restaurant thing that's always underwhelming to me. I like most meat! (I eat mostly vegetarian, but not 100% depending on the context.) I've had it a few times, and it just always tastes too fatty to me, even when what I'm having is objectively no less so; it's something about the texture, I dunno.
no subject
Date: 2019-02-08 02:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-29 05:41 pm (UTC)Your baking adventures sound fun, too! I have one gingerbread recipe I enjoy, and it's not very gingery, which is usually my problem with gingerbread type things.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-30 01:30 am (UTC)And I still hadn't gotten rid of All The Turnips. I ended up mashing the last few turnip cubes into some mashed potatoes, which seems to be rendered the turnips innocuous.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-30 05:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-01 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-02-01 01:55 pm (UTC)