h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I reckon that's my tea sorted out!

Must nip round to Safebury's and get some ricotta and herbs in. The advantage of living in my bit of London is the ridiculously cheap aubergines and peppers that the Turkish shops do, but for anything outside South-East Europe you tend to have to go to the supermarket.

Yeah, I'm lucky in that I can get a lot of ethnic stuff without going to the supermarket. In fact, we only shop the supermarket for soda and cat food. Even the kitty litter and TP come from the health food stores...

...but I digress. My neighborhood is wedged between a hispanic area to the southwest, a largely Korean area to the northwest, and the main Indian/Pakistani neighborhoods to the northeast. Just east of me is Wrigleyville (ok, this is good for the yuppie/health food shopping!), and just west is Middle Eastern. I can easily obtain darn near anything I need, even the more "interesting" fare, and fairly cheaply too. I recently picked up a gallon bucket of kimchee for $4- slightly less than a 12-oz jar runs at the grocery store.

I'd already picked up some scallions, red bell pepper, chickpeas, carrots, canned tomatoes, peanuts and golden raisins for a curry for tonight's dinner. Although it might wait till tomorrow night, as tomorrow's high is supposed to be only 80 degrees F as opposed to today's 97. Saturday's supposed to be nice and cool, too, and then things are to warm up to near unbearable just in time for the holiday.

South-east european food.....Camden?

Glasgow's gradually becoming more cosmopolitan - ever since the cooncil realised they could squeeze money out of central government by housing refugees in their unlettable housing. Nowadays you hear a lot of Kurdish being spoken and see a lot of *gorgeous* African women. Oh...and you can buy ayran and plantains etc etc etc if you know where to look. But, living in the 'burbs, I do miss the easy access to Indo-pak goods. Used to be that if I was stuck I could pop out for a bunch of coriander and make a decent curry out of whatever I had in. I resent paying the supermarket £1.39 for a smaller bunch than I could get for 39p.

Tonight it's minestrone. It's already cooked. We were meant to have visitors last night but they postponed (feeble pretext - elderly father rushed to hospital). I think I'll supplement it with a topping of fresh pesto thinned down with olive oil. The ingredients for the minestrone were all the things I had to use up before going on holiday on Friday. Random vegetables, basically.

I can get plantains down at the corner shop, if the man with the fruit cart doesn't push past my house early in the evening.

I've heard pesto is awesome- I can't have it because of my nut allergy. But it looks, smells, and sounds great! I've always loved minestrone, but the local restaurant uses beef stock to make theirs.

I have had a hankering for gazspacho for a few weeks now. Maybe we can go for tapas on Saturday. I've kind of had a taste for a glass or two of sangria, too. I ought to make some up at home, but I can't drink enough of it to finish it off before it goes bad.

Made a fab curry last week with diced potatoes, canned tomatoes, chickpeas, diced red bell pepper, and loadsa spices: whole cumin seed, cinnamon sticks, dried red chillies, whole cloves, turmeric, cayenne pepper, black cardimom pods, half a dozen cloves of minced garlic, and a big chunk of freshly grated ginger root. It was !!

Also had a go at some pineapple Chaat this past weekend. It was pleasantly different, the Chaat added a nice flavor to the sweetness of the fresh pineapples. We're going to get some more pineapples, if they're still on sale (normally $5 or so, down to $1.99 at the moment) and will have more Chaat. Yummo!

I'd love any or all ideas for preparing potato salad and pasta salad which can be served cold or at least cool-ish. Egg salads would be cool, too! Mmmm, and I think a nice tabbouleh or Jerusalem salad would be nice one day soon, too.

You could ask Lady Pennywhistle about tabbouleh & Jerusalem salad; since she lives in Jerusalem; i bet she has some real authentic recipes.

zdt

I'll imagine she would- hadn't thought of that! I'll have to ask her.

There's a really nice Israeli restaurant up the road a bit from my home, and they make wickedly good tabbouleh. And felafels to die for. I haven't made felafels in ages.

Oh felafela!! Yes! I made hummus tonight;(it's referred to round here as "le hummus formidable de terri") plus "macedoine", très bloody easy, just open tin of mixed diced veg & add mayo...though it must be said that France undoubtedly has the best quality tinned veg in the world & even the cheapest mayo is ; chuck in a couple of mini quiches (tomato & spinach) & green salad, the odd chunk of Camembert & fruit yogurt to finish off...food of the gods for summertime!

I do get the ultimate accolade "Oui, en general English cooking is merde *but* yours is different!" A bit like if someone says "all black people are no good except for my best mate Winston, he's different"

zdt

Back from holidays to find most of my garden burnt to a cinder. Various neighbours promised to water it the first week, but they went away themselves the second week – and that was when the heatwave struck. The slugs seem still to have been getting my gro-bag salads the second they sprout, my beetroot haven't done anything and my courgettes have been mysteriously quiet. Nevertheless – my cabbages seem to be coming along nicely and I've managed to salvage my first pickings in the form of some big Japanese radishes – too nippy for salads, so I plan to treat them as mooli and curry them. Also, last year I sowed some mustard as a green manure. This year it's come back as a weed with some big, succulent red/green leaves. Last night I picked it, cooked briefly like spinach in some olive oil and garlic, then added eggs to make a frittata.

Also – on holiday I came across a posh version of the great British chip-shop delicacy, mushy peas. (Chips and peas eaten with a wooden fork. Yum! Non-Brits don't know what they’re missing). In the posh version I was served, petits pois were puréed with the addition of a little cream. Lovely! Anyhows...this inspired me. In place of peas I used broad beans (frozen are fine) and added a little olive oil, fresh mint and salt and pepper. A revelatory accompaniment to my frittata (and new potatoes)

MMMMMM!! The frittata, "peas" thingy, and the new potatoes all sound absolutely heavenly.

I need to come round Bonobo Central for dinner sometime, I think.

Me too, Bonobo Central and Psychopadthai Cafe!

Mushy peas....



We found a great Indian restaurant in Poghkeepsie the other week...we have been hankering for that for ages They had a marvelous buffet on, and their chicken marsala was the best I'd tasted in a long time...yum!

I make a wicked chicken masala. But I won't eat any of it.

It's getting near time for me to dig up some new recipes for autumn fruits and veggies. I'm particularly interested in stuff I can make with squashes and pears. Not necessarily at the same time! Any ideas?

I have a taste for pears. They're not in season yet. Will have to find some sliced pears in juice at the health food store this weekend...

Hmmmm...."I have a taste for pears".....hmmm

Do you often get cravings for fruity things? *resists urge to make "pairs of what?" jokes*

I think i posted my savoury pumpkin pie recipe somewhere. If you can't find it, i can do it again.

Meanwhile i have loads of free bananas, i am a terrible example of a veggie, rarely eat fruit. I make a mean banana cake, but dont reckon it would freeze/defrost well. Don't drink milk so wont do milkshakes. Need something that would either freeze or (preferable) go into jars for the store cupboard; gonna go off & see if there's a yummy chutney maybe...

Oh Ed "mooli" long time since i heard that word, hey, they have them here & they are cheap....mmm....ideas! Sorry about the garden

zdt

The only kinds of foods I ever get cravings for are fruits and veg. Aside from radishes and pumpkin, there isn't a fruit or veg I dislike.

I have seen your pumpkin pie recipe before, and it sounds great, except for the part about the pumpkin!

I can't imagine not liking milk! But lots of people don't like *drinking* it. I don't, usually, I just use it in cereal and coffee and mac and cheese.

We just got about $150 worth of groceries, and nothing for me to cook. I just can't pull it off with us getting to bed and getting up as early as we do.

Got some lovely Havarti cheese with dill, mango tortilla chips and black bean and corn salsa, wasabi mayo, and ginger lemonade, amongst a bunch of normal foodstuffs. But nothing to cook.

Hopefully it will be cool enough for me to use the range within a couple of weeks, and we'll have some nice pears and squashes along soon.

Recipes a-go-go - oodles and oodles of 'em. http://flamingpiecafe.blogspot.com

Follow the link to my old site's archive.

I'm going to try each and every one of those recipes. Thanks so much for the link!!

It's finally back to the sort of weather where I can actually cook, without the aircon running continuously to compensate. Will have to have a go at one or more of those recipes this weekend, perhaps...

I'd love a nice recipe for lasagne...er..lasarnge...um...that pasta slices thing gum a bob... lasange...lasangea...gawd damn...I really didn't want to have to look that word up..thought I could figure it out..



lasanga?

lasagna?

It still doesn't look right to me....

Lasagne. Plural of lasagna.

Two for you:
http://flamingpie.memebot.com/Contents/Recipe17.htm
http://flamingpie.memebot.com/Contents/Recipe120.htm

I prefer the first.