I consider myself the definition of a sub-par and lazy cook, but I try to cook, at least a single warm meal, for myself every day.
Although I am very thankful for my mother being a hard-ass and putting me in front of an oven, while I was no older than 13-14, and teaching me the basics.
She always said that the reason for teaching me to cook was, that I could make dinner for the family once a week, thus making her day a little easier, but looking back now, I think she might be worried that I would be living off fast-food, if I didn't get some cooking skills drilled into me early.
I love sushi but since its explosion in popularity its hard to find quality. Lately ive been hitting up Robata houses for better Japanese cuisine.
This is going to sound rather weird, but the kroger stores in my area generally have a sushi bar, and they usually make good sushi at a reasonable price. (around 10 bucks for 12 roll slices)
The best sushi place in Lugo is a mart. They hired a local man who had a sushi catering service to work for them and make fresh sushi all day. Now that's become popular, they hired more people, all of them japanese experts. They only use the best ingredients from the mart. You have to take it home as it isn't a restaurant, but you can see them cooking it and know it is always really fresh.
They do better than the best and most expensive place where you can eat sushi in all the city. They have more variety, it is more autentic and they use better ingredients. Plus a much more affordable price. (About 4-5€ 6 rolls).
Granted, the best sushi in the area is at a place called Fusion: Japanese steak house but that is a hibachi grill, and I can't eat there whenever I feel like it, as it is rather expensive.
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There are no Japanese restaurants in Lugo, just a wok restaurant where chinese and japanese food is served, but it's very low quality.
XD when you said granted I thought I had opened the «corrupt the wish» thread.
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Today menu:
Beef paddies wrapped in bacon.
Baked potatoes with home-made spiced garlic butter.
Leftover peanut salad from yesterday.
Leftover peanut salad from yesterday.
How do you make peanut salad? Sounds interesting
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dice a bell pepper, one cucumber and 5-6 leafs of Napa cabbage.
shred a couple of carrots.
dice a bit of onion, some scallions or other oniony vegetable (I prefer scallions)
chop some fresh coriander leafs (as much as you would prefer)
rough chop a cup of peanuts (I use none-salted).
add some chopped chili if you like it spicy.
mix together with a tablespoon full of oil (I use sesame seed oil, but you could probably use other oils).
as a dressing I mix:
a couple cloves of crushed garlic, a bit of lime juice, a bit of rice vinegar (you could probably use other kinds of sweetish vinegar), a spoon full of honey, some chopped chili, a pinch of salt, some mashed pepper corns and three tablespoon full of oil (here I would use the most taste neutral you can get).
That sounds delectable!
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To be honest, I'm not much of a salad person, but I like the peanut salad.
Oh and the above is just for two persons, maybe three if you stretch it or have picky salad eaters like me ^^.
I love adding nuts and pine kernel to my salads, but never tried peanuts. Sounds cool.
"You can take Zealand and Bornholm, and we might negotiate about Funen, but Jutland will never surrender, to a comely gothic lady, with an oddly spikey headpiece"
*waves the rolled up jyske lov around Ineffectively*
Now, why would we want even more people who'd end up speaking the Scanian dialect?
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Now, why would we want even more people who'd end up speaking the Scanian dialect?"You can take Zealand and Bornholm, and we might negotiate about Funen, but Jutland will never surrender, to a comely gothic lady, with an oddly spikey headpiece"
*waves the rolled up jyske lov around Ineffectively*
Well they have to go somewhere, or we might have a rogue state on our hands!
Although a rogue state financed primarily by tourists, and harness racing, might not be the biggest threat to the international community.| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Okay folks, time for the big one.
Weird Swedish Foods 2: Surströmming
Surströmming (sour herring) is fermented herring. The process is: Take cleaned herring. Put it in salt water open to air. Let it ferment. The fish has enzymes that will start breaking down the tissue, along with growth of bacteria. As a result of this, there is a variety of intensely fragrant chemicals that build up from the sugars in the fish. The result is then put in large, wide tins for after-fermentation. Now, fermentation does keep the fish edible, and it's a process that has been used since time out of mind. The key is to use not enough salt to prevent breakdown, otherwise you get salted fish.
So how did that happen? Well, salt from the ocean is not an old thing, surprisingly. Salt was mined, and thus very expensive. In the 16th century in Sweden, there was a salt shortage, meaning people who tried to make salted fish ended up with fermented fish instead. If this is true, I have no idea.
It is produced mostly in the northeast of Sweden, and is a favourite mostly up there, but people do eat it all over the country. Sale of it starts the third Thursday in August, Surströmmingspremiären. It is worth mentioning that some people, while they buy the year's surströmming, they keep that until the year after and eat LAST year's surströmming because it tastes better.
It is eaten with hard or soft thinbread and usually butter and almond potato. Some newer components are raw or fried onion, messmör, sourcream, dill and tomato. (I will get back to you on messmör.) Drink is beer, schnapps, ale or milk.
Those who like it swear by it, having surströmmingsparties (always outside, for some reason...). There is just one more thing to discuss: The smell.
While it tastes salty, it smells like rotten poop. And not in a kind, soft way. It stinks to high heaven. The smell fills a house and STAYS there. Fat-containing things nearby start to smell the same way due to fat solubility of the compounds. Get close and take a whiff, and you don't smell much of anything for a few hours. This is how it gets tolerable.
Maybe you have heard the story, and maybe it is untrue. Legend has it that a swedish man had relatives who had moved to the US. Because they loved surströmming, he brought two tins for them and flew to visit. The swedish airport people knew what it was and let him take it. However, American airport security was not as understanding. Let's be clear about it: Those tins? Wide, low ones that START TO BULGE after enough fermentation. Security would be excused for thinking they were bombs. So they take them out against his frantic explanations, and take them to the bomb room... where they detonate them.
They had to rebuild that bomb room.
Anyways, stay tuned.
Weird Swedish Foods 2:
I'm nearly positive that this list could go on forever.
We have a few... but these two are the big ones.
Don't the swedes have some kind of fish that is poisonous until you ferment it? I'm thinking I'd heard that somewhere.
Edit: Found it, it's called Hakarl, and it's an Icelandic dish
Rest well, John!
Hakarl is often defined as the "worst tasting food on earth" Apparently only those who have grown up subsisting on it can stomach it.
of course, I want to know, whose bright idea was it to ferment a poisonous fish, and THEN eat it. I mean, yeah... It works, but WHY would you do that?
Homicidal/suicidal instinct?
I have to admit I am curious about all those fermented fish things.
What I love is most preparations that involve raw fish, from sushi, to smoked salmon to ceviche. I specially love smoked salmon.
Reminds me of the story that haggis wasn't allowed to be brought into the U.S. by immigrants because it wasn't considered fit for human consumption.
Haggis looks pretty bad and doesn't smell great either.
I've never been curious enough to actually taste it. :P
Somebody just gave me the worst potato chip I've ever had since the Sweet corn lays (witch are atrocious btw). It was a sweet potato chip The taste was bad and it lingered.
Maybe it was fried in old, used or burned oil. It happened to me a few times and the result is disgusting.
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(witch are atrocious btw).
And witches aren't atrocious!!!
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heh Which* lol but the sweet corn lays potato chips are!
I don't like Lays at all. They have all a subtle acidic taste.
One of the best ones I tried are from local brands.
Even if they are not exactly potato chips I also love Pringles. Spicy BBQ Pringles are great.
I sometimes fry my own potato chips at home. It's easy and they taste much better yhan many comercial brands. I sometimes add some spices to add flavor too.
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I make my own too. I use olive oil, salt, garlic salt, a bit of paprika , pepper, and finish them with Parmesan.
Nifty Ill remember that.
Granted, the best sushi in the area is at a place called Fusion: Japanese steak house but that is a hibachi grill, and I can't eat there whenever I feel like it, as it is rather expensive.
I think we had one of those where I used to live and it was good. At least the name was super close to that anyways.
I use diferent spices depending on the day.
I'm still trying to get cured ham flavored homemade chips as it is one of my favorite xomercial flavors. I think frying some ham so the oil acquires the taste would do it, but I don't know if it's worth wasting some good ham, as expensive as it is.
Edit: It would be wasting the olive oil too, and that one is 5-6 € a bottle!!!
Why would you have to waste the ham why not use the cooked ham for something too?
Deep frying cured ham is not the best. I'd use it to make ham with peas but it wouldn't be so good.
Oh your gonna deep fry it I see. Hmm how about cook ham and poor the grease into your oil. I don't know if that would even be good but its about all I can think of. I've never really had a desire for ham flavored chips.
You probably never tried them. I cannot decide if I like BBQ chips, ham chips or black pepper chips better,but these are.my favorite ones. Plain chips are close too.
I wonder if it is like pork rinds at that point.
You have given me an idea. I don't like the white parts of the ham and the one I have now has a lot of them.
I'll use the parts that I remove, like the grease, instead of the whole thing. The flavor will probably softer, as the red part is the one with the most flavor, but I won't be wasting anything (well, I'll have ham flavored olive oil, but I guess I can use it just for frying chips and fries)
But I don't cook the ham. Cured ham is usually eaten as it is (and it's the best way to have it).
Interesting I always cook mine usually fry it.
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Interesting I always cook mine usually fry it.
No. You cannot cook this. I forbid you ;-D
Huh I have never had ham come that way. makes me jealous of your non-prepackaged life style.
That kind of ham is very popular in Spain (it's one of our iconic foods, probably the most iconic one). But it's expensive. You can also buy it cut and packaged but it loses most of its flavor. Most people buy it like that but a lot of people buy too the full leg (which can cost about 80-100€ but you can have ham for a year). Dalindra's parents always buy the whole leg and share with us. So I always have my ham for free and best quality.
The way you cut it also changes the taste and texture. The thinner the cut the better.