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

And is that a rare Lady P sighting?

Ful.

With one of those eggs on top that have been cooked for ages and ages.

Aye, I am back.

And if that is material, just wait till you hear what we made for dessert(s) for the Seder yesterday!

I'm getting hungry!

But tell me what you had anyway. I'm a strong woman. I can take it.

I'd love to hear about them- especially anything made without egg, yogurt, milk, etc.

I've been on a bit of a stir-fry kick, though we did pick up dinner on Tuesday. Apparently K hadn't had enough hot dogs; we went to a place called Huey's and I had a veggie dog.

Mm. I assume you mean one of those lovely brown hard-boiled eggs we call 'Haminados' (because traditionally, they are cooked inside the 'Hamin', or 'Cholent', or one of any other dozen names for one of a dozen Jewish long-cooked meat-and-stuff dishes)... they can be made in a 'cheating' method by cooking them like you would a regular hard-boiled egg, but throwing some onion skins(!) into the water, to give it the nice brown colour, and somewhat of an extra flavour. Some people use tea, instead, but that's just yuk.

Righty-o, let's see...

The big masterpiece you would like, since it was almost vegan - pineapples, cut in half (including the crown! it's prettier that way), carefully emptied; then the meat was cut into little pieces, and caramelized - we used a little butter and plenty of suagr, here, but I'm sure you could replace the butter with something else, without serious consequences; then for serving, we re-filled the shells with the caranelized pineapple bits, put some wonderful coconut sorbet on top, and just to paint the lily (not 'gild' - ask Shakespeare!), garnished it with some browned candied coconut pieces.
Amazing.

Then besides that we had:
* Truffles. Sorry PC, those are for the dairy-eaters - they have cream, and butter (and coffee and whiskey, and chocolate of course, and cocoa powder on the outside).
* Chocolate chips meringues. Like these: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/02/two-fops-and-a-fix-it/ (that's a lovely recipe blog by the way). So simple to make, and os very good.
* The simplest ever almond crisp cookies - just mix one egg-white and about 3 tbs sugar with 400g almond flakes (in bunches, not all at once), put little bits on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet, and bake until browned.
* Homemade marzipan (PC, we put one yolk in our version, but I have seen countless others that don't use any egg, so this might be something you can make easily), and some other marzipan-related stuff - basically just the results of playing around with the marzipan, some pistachio paste, and dried apricots. Tried creating some recipe we saw in a Lebanese cookbook, called Shabakano, which is a sort of tri-colour roll based on these three things, and a bit hard to explain. Fun, but a lot of work, and not as good as the simple marziapan.

Oh, butter's easily substituted with a non-dairy spread (and the non-dairy stuff tastes so much better), and egg whites are easily substituted, too. I've made dairy-free turffles, but have never tried marzipan since until recently I was allergic to nuts (I no longer seem to react badly).

Stuffed pineapple sounds fantastic! When they come down in price this summer I'll have to try that!

I dunno, I usually don't like the 'pretend' stuff - I much prefer recipes that recognise their boundaries (kosher, vegetarian, etc.) and just go in a different direction, instead of trying to be 'Just Like X'. It usually isn't 'just like' it, after all.
Kosher is the prominent example, around here - restaurants that try to use margarine instead of butter, and make desserts with non-dairy cream, etc. (not to mention the travesty that is 'kosher shrimp' - a sort of bland tasting fish processed into a shrimp form, and then given some orange colouring to boot), tend to be so much worse than those that go with dishes based on oil instead of butter on desserts like sorbets and so on, that don't try to be 'like' but instead just do their own thing.

I react in a similar way when I see vegetarian/vegan (usually vegan) recipes that use very complicated processes to try and replace the forbidden stuff. In my opinion, if you don't want to use cream and butter and eggs, don't make truffles or meringues, and don't make 'just like truffles/meringues, but vegan'; make something else, that can be equally tasty, and be proud of it, instead of always looking up to something else.

I hope this makes sense...

My opinion exactly! Trying to make it "as good as" won't do, so make something that doesn't rely on those ingredients for taste.

I believe in "real" ingredients and using fewer processed foods, so those complicated chemical-infused substitutes aren't an option.

(With my very multinational Uni, I've found that being a vegetarian is handy when you invite people over for dinner. Nobody has to worry about what's kosher or halal )

...Looks like this thread is not a very good place to mention the wonderful lamb shanks we also made yesterday, huh?

Go ahead. I merely don't particularly like the taste of meat And I wouldn't eat a lamb, since I've raised so many with bottles. I'm a softie.

I wouldn't use butter even if it weren't unethical- it's saturated fat. Totally unhealthy. Why bother when there are things like olive oil, Earth Balance, or avocado oil that taste better and aren't bad for you?

I do like the occasional mock meat and tofu fried egg; I used to like meat and eggs and sometimes miss certain things, like chorizo or hot dogs.

Personally, in my experience, while I enjoy preparing lots of dishes that can be made without substituting, there are some foods I just can't do without and veganizing is a necessity. Cookies, cakes, etc. And I find that veggie versions of many things like corned beef, soy chorizo, tofu fried "egg", etc are even *better* than the real thing, taste and texturewise.

Oh, and egg-free baked goods not only taste better, but have better texture.

I don't mind people talking about meat in my threads- especially one about hot dogs- but it frustrates me when people who lack cooking skill or originality criticize those who are capable of preparing fantastic dishes and baked goods without the use of animal products (and usually without any more effort or "complicated" processes).

So I lack cooking skills and originality? Well, thank you.

Well, most of the things you describe sound delicious. But then you have shared recipes with me which substitute non-animal ingredients for animal ingredients and taste better for it: those refried beans, for example.

What I am saying is that people who can't fathom that a cookie can taste as good or better when using flaxseeds as a binding agent rather than egg whites, or a less unhealthy fat instead of butter, or that it's not possible to make a mock-meat that is as good as or better than meat, hasn't tried.

(Obviously if you don't like real meat, mock-meat is going to be a non-issue for you.)

I didn't mean to offend, in any way. Sorry if I did.

I definitely value originality, and that was just the point I was trying to get across; but I have also seen some absolutely dreadful recipes, that are dreadful because they try to be 'just like' something else instead of being proud of what they are, so to speak. Olive oil can be a wonderful substitute for frying, instead of butter, for instance; however, margarine is usually not a good substitute. Or for another exampple - over here, we often get puff pastry made with margarine instead of butter (to make it 'parve', i.e. okay to serve with meat), and it is simply not as good. And since you can't really make puff pastry with oil, as far as I know, I'd rather eat something made with a completely different dough (like a nice pate brisee, or maybe filo, etc.), and not a 'just like' substitute. Same thing with sable cookies - I have tasted wonderful cookies that use tahini instead of butter (they taste like halva! ), and I think they are much preferable to a margarine-based 'regular' sable. My whole point was to embrace the possibilities, instead of trying to force food into something it isn't.

As for the whole 'tastes better' thing, well, that's mostly a matter of habit, and of personal taste; I don't see a point in even arguing about stuff like that. My brother, for instance, despises fresh tomatoes, as well as most fruit. It makes no sense to me, but what can you do? He likes what he likes, and dislikes what he dislikes. Same as everybody else.


(And the reason I said I won't talk about the lamb is because it seems pointless, as well - there doesn't seem anyone around who'd appreciate a review... )

Not annoyed- honestly I was speaking in general and not toward anyone here specifically, not that we don't all know and like each other enough to occasionally annoy each other and move on anyway...

Tahini cookies? Now that sounds interesting!

The one thing I can't quite swing is most fake cheese. I even have a cheapie cookbook with recipes for mock cheese and cheesy sauces, and only one of them comes even remotely close. So, for example, I tend to order pizza without, except from one local joint that manages a good fascimile of mozzarella.

Oh and the Chicago Diner's soy cheese is pretty good, but they won't give up the recipe.

I don't use margarine because of the trans fats, but prefer say Earth Balance or canola oil for baking and frying with olive oil.

I'm going to make it a mission to make a butter-less puff pastry that doesn't suck. But you'll have to take my word for it if I pull it off, because it wouldn't survive the post.

Hmmmm, the frozen puff pastry here is all made with margarine...

It's really too bad that my mother has some cholesterol problems, so we buy the processed skim milk from the shops. Otherwise, the neighbour would supply us, like half the village

Though the cows are getting annoying. They've not been let out yet - the pasture is too wet - and they're standing in the barn screaming "I want a BULL!" all day.

Once the rain stops, we'll have a garden full of cows again - we let him use our back field, and since it's slightly higher than the house, they always stand there and watch us while we do things in the garden and orchard.

Lovely!
We have relatives in a Moshav who own cows - not free pasture like those you are talking about, but they seem quite pleased nonetheless. At least as far as I can tell.
The loud mooing does take some getting used to, as well as the smell... but for me, it always brings the memories of spending vacations in the Moshav with my grandma (RIP) and the rest of the family, so I like it.


And PC, I will definitely look up the recipe for you. We've made them once, and they're great. Do you know halva, by the way? Might be sold over there under the Turkish name, 'tahin helvasi' or something like that. It's very good - based on sesame paste, liek tahini, but sweet. Sometimes at home I make myself a little halva-like spread for my toast by mixing tahini (not the sauce-type, which is already diluted and seasoned, but good-quality crude tahini) with honey.