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

First time I met coriander, in a salad, I thought it had been sprayed with air freshener. But it doesn't when you get used to it. Odd.

I find that it lifts a dish. Put a few sprigs on top of any curry and .

I sometimes use it in curry. A good handful with Pad Thai. Likewise in pico di gallo (tomato salsa) and guacamole. With lots of chopped onion, on potato tacos.

Falafel sounds yummy; will give it a go asap.

I think cumin could be a sustitute of coriander, they are "cousins"

Last night I did mushroom cream. I wonder what you, PC, use instead of cream.

I read time ago that flour of chickpeas can be used as egg to prepare omelttes.

Today, beans
I´ll prepare caldo gallego. You put cabbage, potato, pimentón, onion, bayleaf and chorizo, morcilla and bacon.

I did an ommelette of artichock last night too. I put a ton of parsley and garlic on it.

Cumin would work in place of coriander seed, but Mexican food uses cilantro, which is the leaves. I don't get the same flavor from cumin seed as from cilantro. But it can't hurt to try?

Instead of cream? If it can be a light cream, I use soy or rice milk. If it's supposed to be heavy cream, whipped silken tofu. And in place of sour cream, silken tofu whipped with a bit of cider vinegar and a twist of lemon juice to sour it.

And yes, I have used chickpea flour as egg substitute. Also ground flax seeds. Chickpea flour and arrowroot powder are the main components in most "commercial" egg replacers, like Ener-G.

I haven't tried but I bet smooth tofu and a bit of chickpea flour, with some nutritional yeast, would make an omelet of just the right consistency. Crumbled tofu with turmeric makes a nice scramble.

I love artichokes. And cabbage.

Yes, I was thinking about the seeds. I´m wondering now about how could taste the seed of another of their cousin, parsley. And the leaves of cumin?

I´ve reminded now a recipe I learnt at the Libanesse family.
Separate the leaves of cabbage, put inside rice, basmati or any other that takes little time to boil, we put fried mince meat and seasoned the mix with ??? I forgot! well, roll the leaves, pinch them with wooden stick and put to boil in a tomato sauce.
Delicious.
::
Rice milk is an excellent idea!!

My dad used to stuff cabbage leaves with meat and rice and simmer in tomato sauce, too. It's a common Eastern European dish. I'm going to have to try it with some seitan or tempeh sometime.

I use rice milk in my coffee, too- since it's from brown rice, it's got that lovely whole-grain fiber!

You can leave out the meat and do it with chopped mushrooms and dill.

I could try that- though I like mushrooms *in* things but don't typically like the mushrooms to be the "main" stuffing, if you know what I mean... they seem to be growing on me, though, since I recently had couscous and mushroom stuffed bell peppers.

I meant mushrooms and rice.

Ah- but mushrooms, rice and dill sounded loverly, too.

K packed my lunch today- leftover bean pie from last night's dinner, an apple, and twelve little veggie-friendly "gummy bears". The gummy bears are color-coordinated; there are four of each color. He thought I'd like them better than way. How very sweet and thoughtful.

I meant mushrooms, rice and dill in the first place.


WARNING: *Never* google 'gummy bears'. It can lead you into an 'interesting' subculture.

I've learned the hard way never to google anything related to "bears" from the office. I invariably wind up at sites I shouldn't be seeing.

Since I've learned how good for you mushrooms are (provided they're not drowning in oil), I've been eating a lot more of them. We've been buying a pound or so of crimini and shiitake every week. Tonight I'm making sukiyaki, so we'll have shiitakes. Unless the store is sold out of them, in which case I'm going to be annoyed.

Shiitakes are delicious. And very good for the immune system.

My favourite dish with them involves slicing them and stir-frying with shredded cabbage (preferably white, but green works too), tofu, a sliced red chilli and tons of garlic and ginger. Then add a tablespoon of rice vinegar, cover and steam a little.

Yum!

I also like them sauteed with green kale, garlic, and a little sliced onion, with a splash of Bragg's (tamari). Goes nicely with tofu scramble and brown rice.

I take a shiitake and maitake supplement every day, for immune system support. Can't find maitake mushrooms for sale anywhere!

Oyster mushrooms are , though- too stemmy. And as much as I would like to love them, I have a hard time with portabello (which is weird, since I love crimini). Unless they're sliced and marinated and grilled, I can't take the rubbery texture.

Speaking of grilled veggies, I want to get a grill pan. Should I go with Lodge, or Staub? Cooking.com has a sale through tomorrow, and a 10" round Staub grill pan is $80... but Lodge can be gotten for under $20, apparently. I don't do non-stick, so wouldn't one cast-iron pan be as good as the other? (All my other cast iron pans are enameled Le Creuset ones, but I don't want enamel for such high-temp cooking...)

"I like mushrooms ... they seem to be growing on me" Some sort of anti-fungal cream may be in order PC

I meant a substitute for coriander leaves but I don't like ground coriander either. Ground cumin is equally icky and I hate the taste of nearly all "indian" curries; "thai" curries would be nice but for the coriander; "chinese" curries are

Coriander, for me, has a singular taste and I can't stand it (and I have read that people who find it very objectionable have an intolerance to a compound in the herb .) But I also can't stand the taste of cucumber and melon so perhaps it's just the taste I don't like. Mind you, I don't like the taste of water and people keep telling me that water doesn't taste of anything so what do I know? I hope I'm not distracting your threads with coriander PC.

My advice on the pan would be that I can't see why one cast-iron would be better than another so go for the $20 one and see how it behaves given how often you use it. If it stands up to the task then and if it doesn't then you've only lost $20 and it'll be worth spending more on a better pan in the future

Ah. You're what's termed 'a picky eater.'

>But I also can't stand the taste of cucumber and melon so perhaps it's just the taste I don't like.

You may be right- K dislikes cilantro/coriander, cucumber and melon, too. Also celery, though to be fair that does have a very distinctive taste so I can sort of understand.

Other than that I avoid all animal products, I'm actually not very picky at all, but when I was a kid, the list of stuff I disliked was longer than what I did. I suspect a lot of those dislikes were the result of being forced to eat something I hadn't yet acquired a taste for; if my mother liked it, we *had* to eat it, like it or not.

One thing I'll never eat, though, is raw mushroom. I'm sorry, but no matter how well you clean them... they grow in poo!

As for the pan- I think I'll take van's advice and look for a less expensive one. On a couple of cooking forums, a number of people have commented that Lodge stuff is just fine. No sense paying four times as much if there's no noticeable difference in quality. You're right- I can always get another someday if need be.

Edward is right in that I am a picky eater (I'd better write a journal entry to make it clear how fussy I am) but cucumber and coriander go beyond fussy imo. When my mum made packed lunches when I was a kid, I could taste the cucumber on my tomato if she'd used the same knife to cut the cumber for my sister's sandwiches before the tomato for mine; and I couldn't eat my sandwiches. The smell of cucumber still makes me feel sick but I've kinda got used to it. Coriander doesn't smell too bad but it stops my jaws in their tracks as soon as I taste it And don't get me started on mushrooms! I love homegrown celery but the stuff in the shops just tates of chemicals to me

Have you got your pan yet PC? I forgot to say that you may have to pay more if you want a pan that you can use on the stove and put in the oven but it didn't sound like you wanted it for that.

Van (Happy Valentine's )