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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 9 of 9. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 27, 2013, at 21:38:40
I have a slow cooker!
And: I have an electric frypan!
And... I have... If i can be bothered packing up my stuff and so on...
Gas cookers downstairs.So now... My wish list includes: Spice / coffee grinder.
I think it will do both if I wash it out well between.
I want to learn to make my own spice blends. Indian cooking... Moroccan cooking... Any people who know how to make tasty vegetarian dishes have my respect! I want to learn how to make spice blends (and I'll go downstairs to use the gas to toast them, and perhaps even to use wine etc to deglaze since while i can soften stuff in the frypan i can't really risk creating a cloud of steam / smoke to set off the fire detector...)
Why not be a gormet? I mean, really... Seems like an interesting hobby... And, well, anyway I F*CK*NG LOVE FOOD! F*CK YEAH! NOM NOM NOM.
I've never had people over for dinner or anything like that (social pressure). But... Would be nice to know I could. Especially since one day I'll actually have more money etc etc etc...
Slow cooker seems to be the perfect opportunity to experiment with spice blends and beans. Chickpeas. Etc. F*ck yeah.
Best christmas present ever... Except for the game on Christmas day which was also best christmas present ever... I... I actually do have some good friends. They play happy puppy games sometimes, because they can't help themselves... But they are good people. Family. They are acquired family for me. Along with all the damned annoying things they do...
But they gave me what I needed / wanted this christmas, which was nice. Because I really have had some sh*t christmases over the years...
Spice blends... Anyone???? Don't tell me where you buy your amazing one (sure we don't have that store over here): Tell me how you make yours... Hopefully.... Grinding... Toasting... Etc.
I love chickpeas btw.
Next up:
Spice grinder (coffee beans, too) - or maybe I will get mortar and pestle
Wooden stiring spoon (only have metal weirdness)
Chopping knife (have a good serrated / vege / paring knife (assuming i don't ruin it in the meantime) - need a good hacker / chopper for root veges) and maybe for hacking chickens into parts to go into slow cooker...
Cheap chopping boards (one for veges one for meat etc etc)and the last 3 seem like a luxury so, whatever...
Posted by alexandra_k on December 27, 2013, at 21:44:34
In reply to herbs and spices, posted by alexandra_k on December 27, 2013, at 21:38:40
oatmeal... you guys call it. porridge, we call it over here... that can be done in the slow cooker, too. with steel cut oats (you guys call them). or 'rolled oats' according to us.
of course one needs to be careful not to make them a conveyer or sugar mmmmmmmmm.. or maple syrup mmmmmmmmmmm. etc... but a good winter breakfast you can make of them. with milk and some fruit.
i love food. it seems to be a sensible thing to waste ones time upon. food. gym. class... food that is... good enough to accommodate others. this seems to me to be a worthwhile (and enjoyable) investment of my time. And part of looking after myself, too...
Posted by alexandra_k on December 27, 2013, at 21:58:06
In reply to herbs and spices, posted by alexandra_k on December 27, 2013, at 21:38:40
I see...
Slow cooker has low wattage output so takes an hour... Or two... To gradually bring stuff to temperature. So... That adds to the cooking time, considerably...
And now I sort of kind of want to turn it down... But I don't... Becuase i want to see what happens... If I turn it onto 'high' before leaving for 5 hours of class...
Also... I have this mortal terror of burning things. Because when I was little my Mother would scream at me if I ventured into the kitchen when she was doing stuff. She would get upset that I would burn myself or whatever... So I have a mortal terror of burning things... But, of course, really, her worry was that I'd start talking... :-/ And she couldn't concentrate on what she was doing. With her driving, too...
I think...
I told my Mum that I'd been dx'd with Autistic Spectrum. That... Maybe she might want to mention it to the people who are seeing her. She's started seeing people from this new aged care mental health unit they have up at the hospital. I think... Maybe something like this was what was up with her, too. How she couldn't quite function with me (yakity yak yak in case you didn't know) as her kid... When she was (probably) struggling to function with the world... Anyways... If they prick up their ears and take special interest because... That would be good for her. Because... I always had the literal thing. Books and clothes for school. Nutritious food (in some sense) even though unpalatable (in the psychological)... My mother... She did her f*ck*ng best. I see, now. And she loved me. But, uh, incompetent in numerous ways, she was...
Don't get me wrong... I couldn't do what she had to, either. Raise a kid single handedly, I mean. No f*ck*ng way. If I had to... Better job she did. For sure.
:-(
Posted by alexandra_k on December 27, 2013, at 23:56:31
In reply to herbs and spices, posted by alexandra_k on December 27, 2013, at 21:38:40
3 small(ish) onions (roughly chopped.
lightly fried in butter / sesame oil until fairly transclucent. bottom of slow cooker. topped with 1/2 - 1/3 cup of white while (slosh slosh slosh, didn't have red)
3 medium sized potatoes (agaria - roasting / frying) chopped into around 1.5cm cubes
1.5 largish red kumara / sweet potato (chopped about the same with less cooking time)
1 green pepper / capsicum sliced then chopped roughly
1 tin chopped tomatoes / pureed tomatoes.
then: around 600g of beef blade steak. once i got most of the fat off / chopped it into chunks more like 500 or even 400 g.
added 2TBsp flour / 5grinds mixed peppercorns. two fingerfulls of coarse sea salt, 1/4 tsp paprika 1/4 tsp cumin (wasn't entirely sure what to do...) 1/2 large bay leaf. rolled it round for a while.
added to cooker (3.5 litre) with 1 cup beef stock. about 1 inch from the top...
put lid on...
high setting.
in 2 hours stir.
in 2 more hours stir.
1 hour later: done. yum.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 28, 2013, at 0:07:36
In reply to Re: herbs and spices, posted by alexandra_k on December 27, 2013, at 23:56:31
oops. around 3 carrots roughly chopped in with the root veges.
interesting... i would have needed to have added the root veges later if i was cooking via stovetop. this way... veges were perfect (according to me). meat was pretty perfect, too. though... i don't mind if the meat is cooked even more so it starts to disintegrate, either.
i think slow cookers vary a lot in their temperature settings / how long stuff takes... i think this will take some practice.
next up... chickpeas. chickpeas, pumpkin (butternut squash according to you) and coriander (cilantro). i think i'm going to grow herbs as pot plants about my room...
Posted by 10derheart on December 28, 2013, at 13:39:45
In reply to Re: herbs and spices, posted by alexandra_k on December 28, 2013, at 0:07:36
If you call what we call butternut squash 'pumpkin,' what do call a pumpkin?
Interesting as they look so different in size & color...if I remember they are all squashes anyway. It all sounds so delicious. I love stews, soups, all root veggies...but far too lazy to buy/chop. :-(
Inquiring minds....
I LOVE words....expressions...dialect...accents...if I had several extra lifetimes I would/should have gone into linguistics at an early age.
Posted by Poet on December 29, 2013, at 18:48:44
In reply to herbs and spices, posted by alexandra_k on December 27, 2013, at 21:38:40
Hi Alex,
I don't cook, but my husband does and we've substituted butternut squash for pumpkin in soup, and it does taste similar.
Unfortunately I don't know how to grind spices, so I can't be of help there. I do grow herbs in summer and love using fresh picked basil on pizza and rosemary on potatoes. The sage is buried under three feet of snow, so our Christmas turkey didn't get any fresh sage for the dressing. Sigh, I hate cold weather.
Poet
Posted by alexandra_k on December 29, 2013, at 20:56:29
In reply to Re: herbs and spices » alexandra_k, posted by 10derheart on December 28, 2013, at 13:39:45
> If you call what we call butternut squash 'pumpkin,' what do call a pumpkin?
we don't seem to have the halloween type pumpkins that you guys do. i guess we would call those halloween or jack o lantern pumpkins. you don't eat those - do you?
the one that is bell shaped... i think we do call that a squash... but butternut pumpkin is butternut pumpkin.
i just chopped up half a pumpkin (from a whole pumpkin) without a decent cleaver. had forgotten what hard work that was...
> I LOVE words....expressions...dialect...accents...if I had several extra lifetimes I would/should have gone into linguistics at an early age.
:)
i was never big on words in that way... i just liked novels and later plays and poems.
Posted by alexandra_k on December 29, 2013, at 21:02:43
In reply to Re: herbs and spices » alexandra_k, posted by Poet on December 29, 2013, at 18:48:44
> I don't cook, but my husband does and we've substituted butternut squash for pumpkin in soup, and it does taste similar.ooh. you guys do eat pumpkin, that's right. i made pumpkin pie with butternut squash and it was good. i didn't realize that you guys actually made it with those big pumpkins...
> Unfortunately I don't know how to grind spices, so I can't be of help there.I think you just grind them. in a coffee bean / spice grinder or by hand with a motar and pestle.
> I do grow herbs in summer and love using fresh picked basil on pizza and rosemary on potatoes.
yum. have you had potato pizza? It has very (very very very very) fine slices of potato. They might be lightly poached in a pan before being put on the pizza, even. so they cook. then olive oil that's had some fresh rosemary siting in it for a bit. you might like that if you like pizza and rosemary and potato (but hadn't thought to blend them). i know it sounds odd... but it is quite good.
> The sage is buried under three feet of snow, so our Christmas turkey didn't get any fresh sage for the dressing. Sigh, I hate cold weather.
aw. sage is one herb i'm not that keen on. perhaps i had too much of the dried stuff as a kid. actually... took me ages to get over an aversion to curry powder, too. bad, english ones. i found one today at the indian market... no additives or preservatives... just a bunch of dried and ground stuff... apparently such things taste a lot better if you freshly grind them yourself. nutmeg, too. hmm.... i wonder if i could do a lot with one of those cheese grater upright contraptions...
my stew turned out okay but the kumara / sweet potato was a bit of an odd thing out. i liked the green peppers a lot (forgot how much i liked them with meat and tomato based sauce) but the kumara was a bit sweet.
trying the pumpkin and chick pea coconut curry (got fresh corriander to put through at the end, too).
This is the end of the thread.
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