Friday, December 01, 2006

I am crazy busy, so haven't been able to post.
Yesterday I made Portebello Mushrooms in Porcini Cream Curry, Beef Shortribs in Cinnamon and Red-Wine Curry, Cilantro Mint Chicken Curry, Grilled Coconut Kale and Chapattis. It was so exhasting to actually follow the recipes exactly how they were written, (they are from Vij's Indian Cuisine, a recently published cookbook).
I started cooking the Shortribs around 3pm, the rest of dinner around 5. We didn't eat till 9:30. Normally, cooking that many dishes would be an afterthought. I cannot remember a time when I have HAD to follow a recipe. Usually I look at the ingredients, take into consideration the nationality of the dish for cooking techniques, then put it all together. I add whatever seems lacking, or take out what seems not quite right.
But why follow the recipe so closely, you ask?
Well, you will just have to wait and see.

And thank you to those who came by to help me eat all that food!

11 Comments:

Blogger Underground Baker said...

ok, is it really tacky to start your own comments?
I just wanted to say that I forgot to take pics!
Sorry folks.

10:33 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

No it's not tacky to start your own comments. But it's incredibly insensitve to not only not post photos but to cook food without inviting us all! Sounds delish, I love Vij's restaurant.

11:39 AM  
Blogger Karen said...

I guess my invite got lost in the mail...?

1:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hee hee.

Um, Vij's has a snazzy website...

http://www.vijs.ca/index_in.htm

4:26 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why such good food on a Thursday night?

Ever pick local porcini's?

5:21 PM  
Blogger mister anchovy said...

Short ribs are among my favourite foods. I braise them in a Dutch oven, and sometimes I smoke them in the green egg out back. Either way, they rock!

9:17 PM  
Blogger Underground Baker said...

Short ribs are lovely...I over cooked mine, can you imagine?

The new family hobby, or hopeful hobby is to become a gang of mushroom pickers. I have not picked local porcini, but hope to, plus morels, and any other FOOD mushroom we can find. I have no public opinion on the other well known coastal mushroom varieties.


Candy, thanks again for your little additions. I will get this happening on my own one day. I am now going over to read "I told you so", top to bottom.

10:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Local morels and boletus(porcini/cepes) are amazing. Join the Vancouver Mycological Society if you really want to learn.

8:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Every mushroom is good once.

(in Ontario I have spent many happy weekends up north picking chantrelle and porcini...then all evening preparing them, and pickling or drying them. Eating them. Yum)

10:57 AM  
Blogger mister anchovy said...

I once went camping with an old hippy friend of mine, who found some mushrooms and pondered, "Are these the ones that kill you or are these the ones that make you high...." I think he was seriously considering trying them out.

Wild mushrooms are amazing things. I wish I knew more about which ones were edible. I think learning and picking would be an excellent hobby. A couple years ago, I was off chasing trout on a stream north of Algonquin Park. I found a trail to the river and started walking. It had been drizzling for a day and everything was wet and the light was remarkable, and the forest was alive with the most marvellous mushrooms, colous and shapes I hadn't imagined existed.

My father used to tell a story of going mushroom picking with a buddy. They hiked and hiked and hiked, and finally, just as it was getting dark, they found a few chanterelles, and decided this was the place to set up camp, which they did - in the dark. It turned out the mushrooms they found at dusk were the only ones for miles - and they set up camp in the middle of a poison ivy patch. Ouch!

7:42 PM  
Blogger Underground Baker said...

That is a great mushroom story!

I can't wait to join the Mushroom Society, (I hope they don't make me say Mycological Society). I know the kids will love tromping through the woods, as will we.

It also appeals to the closet survivalist in me to be able to find/eat more food from nature. Maybe that would temper my need to bring ridiculous amounts of food camping - not that anyone has ever complained.

1:40 PM  

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