Help me make a tasty stew!

[Bum Grasshopper]

For long and slow cooked dishes one should start with a base of aromatics such as celery, carrot and onion. Garlic is a favorite of mine. Herbs such as parsley, rosemary, thyme and oregano can be added at the beginning of cooking, but a small addition of chopped herb at the end can add an additional layer of flavor. More delicate herbs such as tarragon, marjoram or savory must be added at the end.

 

Any kind of alcohol added even in small quantities will bring out additional flavor that water based solvents will not.

 

The cheaper cuts of meat do better in crock pots such as chuck, brisket, shoulder and shanks do better than the leaner cuts. Most fish will disintegrate except the very firm such as monkfish and shark. Surprisingly, some shellfish like scallops, shrimp, squid and octopus that toughens if cooked too long will get tender again if cooked for a long time.

 

I also find that adding a little acid such as lemon or lime juice just before serving will brighten up the sometimes dull flavor of crock pot cooked dishes.

[Taomeow]

You salt the eggplant to leach toxins and take out bitterness (though we need bitterness more and more in our diets). You can wash the salt off after salting for about 20 minutes if desired. Never use green flesh of eggplants!

 

I bet you've been told this by either one of the macrobiotics gurus or any number of their disciples. They have this thing against the nightshades, including eggplant... too bad nightshades didn't originate in Japan, so an aggressively popularized Japanocentric-vegetarian nutritional protocol simply HAD to smear them! If these "macrobiotic" "nutritionists" didn't keep turning alcoholics, diabetics, wife abusers, cancer victims and committers of near-infanticide (Michio Kushi's toddler grandson was rushed to an emergency room when he was dying of a "mysterious illness" -- as it turned out, vitamin B12 deficiency of life-threatening magnitude!), I would have more use for their nutritional wisdom.

 

But if I'm wrong and the source of your advice is an ancient hag who lives in a fragrant garden, doesn't know how to use a can opener, and has bewitched you with her cooking, I'm all ears!

 

In the "old country," I did indeed subject eggplants to all kinds of pre-treatments, usually baking and then leaving under a heavy weight overnight to get rid of the bitter juice, but I found this to be completely unnecessary when I deal with the US eggplants -- they don't have that bitterness, for whatever reason (and they are not as strong-tasting overall.)

[Guest paul walter]

I bet you've been told this by either one of the macrobiotics gurus or any number of their disciples. They have this thing against the nightshades, including eggplant... too bad nightshades didn't originate in Japan, so an aggressively popularized Japanocentric-vegetarian nutritional protocol simply HAD to smear them! If these "macrobiotic" "nutritionists" didn't keep turning alcoholics, diabetics, wife abusers, cancer victims and committers of near-infanticide (Michio Kushi's toddler grandson was rushed to an emergency room when he was dying of a "mysterious illness" -- as it turned out, vitamin B12 deficiency of life-threatening magnitude!), I would have more use for their nutritional wisdom.

 

But if I'm wrong and the source of your advice is an ancient hag who lives in a fragrant garden, doesn't know how to use a can opener, and has bewitched you with her cooking, I'm all ears!

 

In the "old country," I did indeed subject eggplants to all kinds of pre-treatments, usually baking and then leaving under a heavy weight overnight to get rid of the bitter juice, but I found this to be completely unnecessary when I deal with the US eggplants -- they don't have that bitterness, for whatever reason (and they are not as strong-tasting overall.)

 

Agree with the macrobiotic assessment--they are mostly anally retentive nuts- they even reversed yin and yang dynamics (don't know if that is just perverse Japanese control issues or secret knowledge of the ultimate wisdom)!? I suppose it's "ironic" that Japanese food culture includes a particularly yummmy eggplant dish. My "source" is my own body and it's reactions to nightshades based on (perhaps) deficiencies in my own past organ system (pain in heart area, used to get it from potatos too), which accords with the science of those nightshade 'nasties'--perhaps it was induced from reading about it? .

The Anciente Hag you mention could be an unconscious reference to my mother --meat and two veg for the first 15 years, one of which was always potato. Can you feel her presence?

 

As for nutritional advice and the "experts", I have a similar tale in relation to raw food--I'd love to be raw but I expect years of eating cooked food and all the rest has left my body ill prepared for it now--got quite sick on it after being recommended it by a highly trained nutritionist/doctor. He was studying off his own bat Chinese medical concepts and energy healing but didn't get the rather obvious correlation between stomach/spleen/liver deficiencies/imbalances and raw food as a no-no if that's the case.

 

As to Sichuan pepper recipes, I don't use the spice anymore (or any pepper). I'm off pungent spices too (like a good taoist) though have indulged in ginger and cinnamon during this rather cold winter. Also off the Five Grains+ (wheat, rice, both types of millet , sorghum, oats, soy, barley) Still eating beans though in moderation. Anyone who has thought of doing this I can tell you the 'spiritual' benefits are very apparent-incredible peace and stability coming I imagine from not having the pancreas/bloodsugar spiked all the time. You'd have to be aware of your nutritional needs though.

 

There is a cult Japanese show called 'Iron Chef' from the 90's that had a chef named Chen Kenichi ("the king of Sichuan cooking") who used Sichuan pepper in all sorts of ways/dishes. They grow it and use it a lot in the Himalayas. The pepper is often used with ginger and star anise in Sichuan cooking. What this combination doesn't achieve through body heat generation will be made use of to sterilize the bacteria content in the food it's prepared with I imagine! . Probably find some shows on youtube? Paul

Edited August 13, 2010 by paul walter

[.broken.]

Not exactly slow cooker recipes, but damn tasty

 

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/content/recipes/favourites/one-pot/

 

Enjoy!

[Mal]

One pot cooking, that's exactly how I cook. Pot or wok + rice cooker or oven

 

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9643/onepan-rogan-josh

 

that looks nice. I'd make it with brown rice.

 

I get 1kg of long-grain brown rice (I'm not a fan of the medium grains taste)

100g of wild rice (black) and mix them together.

Into the rice cooker (instructions will give you how to cook brown rice)

 

Very tasty.

[mewtwo]

ahh I love cooking alchemy in the making.

 

For spice is concerned i always love extremely hot stuff like so hot you start sweating. So i use pure cap.

 

http://www.hotsauceworld.com/purecap.html dont know if they ship outside the united states but there it is.

 

It looks like you have the rest covered well thought i would add my two cents in.

[Mal]

[Dainin]

This may be of interest:

 

The Book of Jook: Chinese Medicinal Porridges--A Healthy Alternative to the Typical Western Breakfast

 

Review

"Time honored combinations of any member of the grains, vegetables, meat, eggs, and/or Chinese herbs make porridge known as jook or congee. For most folk, they are breakfast foods. They are also easily made overnight in a crock pot, economical, popular among the elderly, nutritious, and delicious" -- Flavor & Fortune: Dedicated to the Art & Science of Chinese Cuisine, December, 1997

 

Product Description

These Chinese medicinal porridges - called jook in Cantonese and congee or porridge in English - can be a healthy alternative to the typical Western breakfast. Cooked in a crockpot overnight and combining specific grains, vegetables, meats, eggs, or various Chinese herbs, there are medicinal porridges for every type of ailment. Included are hundreds of herbal porridge recipes for both prevention and remedial purposes. This book is great for laypersons as well as professional readers.

[Taomeow]

Nope, it is known as "mala" spice made from Sichuan peppercorns.

Mala's spicy-numb contrast is probably my favorite flavor used in Chinese dishes. Like damnnnn it's GOOD! You just haven't had real good Chinese food until you've had real mala dishes (unfortunately not very available in the US, btw)!

 

OK, I found it at the local Asian market, and mysteriously too. There were all kinds of spices there in the allocated spot, but "mala," "Sichuan pepper," or anything else that looks anything like the above picture wasn't there. Frustrated, I was about to leave the aisle, and suddenly someone called my name! A Chinese woman I used to meet at my taijiquan class some three years ago... she now takes it on different days, and I'd never bumped into her by chance in all of this time... but some higher power or other obviously meant for me to have this spice and so sent us both shopping to the same place at the same time to accomplish the mission. I explained what I was looking for, and she led me to a different aisle, where inconspicuously tucked in a corner of the lowermost shelf were some plastic bags labeled "Dried Pepper Corn" (sic!) filled with the most beautiful... see picture above. Yippee!

 

So, I tried cooking with it, twice by now. Oh My God. I think I found a new addiction. Thanks everyone for making it happen!

[metal dog]

"According to Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking, second edition, p 429 (...) "they produce a strange tingling, buzzing, numbing sensation that is something like the effect of carbonated drinks or of a mild electrical current (touching the terminals of a nine-volt battery to the tongue). Sanshools appear to act on several different kinds of nerve endings at once to induce sensitivity to touch and cold in nerves that are ordinarily nonsensitive. So theoretically may cause a kind of general neurological confusion. "

 

Sounds like something quite useful to use on the end of my...."ladle".