Cooking thread

Quote: Nareed

Have you thought about delving further into culinary history and reproducing Roman dishes?

Hamburgers come from ancient Rome.

Ancient recipes used spices because there were no refrigerators. Lavender oil is the best anti microbial agent known for potatoes, so its not much of a surprise that ancient recipies called for lavender leaves in potato dishes.

Garum? Why not? Give a squirrel an acorn and he stores it in the ground for awhile waiting for it to "go good". Much of our fermented foods are the same thing...using microbes and time to let the food "go good".

Does anyone know of a dessert recipe that uses marshmallows? Other than Smores and Rice Krispies squares (or any other kind of thing stuck in marshamallow goo). I got this ide aof using marshmallows, but I've no idea how or exactly what I want to do. Yes, I'm distressingly vague.

sweet potatoes with marshmallow and almonds casserole. Oops... didn't notice the "dessert" .

While I wait for my odd ideas to coagulate, I'll be giving beef stew another try next. The thing is I want to do it with lentils, because I have way too many right now. I'll add lima beans, too, for pretty much the same reason. I'm writign the recipe here as I think of it for future reference:

about 200-250 gr beef in cubes.
1 cup lentils
1/2-1 cup lima beans
1 large onion, half chopped, half sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
ground black pepper
cooking oil
1/2 cup red wine
2 carrots, diced small
some small red or yellow potatoes, (peeled?)
Worcestershire sauce
Bay leaf
Water

So, sautee the onions and garlic a bit and add the meat, cooking just the outside (as possible). Lower the flame to low and add the wine to deglaze. Add the carrots and potatoes and simmer until half the wine is consumed. Add the water, Worcestershire, lentils and lima beans. Cook on low until everything is tender. Add 1/4 cup of water with 2 tsp. corn starch as it's done, stir, cool and serve.

I'm not sure about mixing red wine with lentils. I guess we'll just have to see.

So what can I cook that is high in potassium (other than cocao powder or Vegemite)? Sesame seeds? Dried black currants? curry powder? Almonds?

Help. I'm cooking these "logs" of turkey or beef. I let them thaw for about two hours then put them into a 350 oven for two hours... yet they were all raw or half raw on the inside.
How do I calculate how many hours it will take to cook them?
And please don't talk about internal temperature... I ain't got no thermometers.

After doing some more research on ancient Roman cooking, I'm finiding it hard to emulate them. Some ingredients are hard to get, others plain make no sense to me (rose petals?). I'll leave this for people with more enthusiasm and time.

Instead I think I'll keep expanding my own repertoire to suit me. Assuming no nasty surprises for next weekned, I think I'll try something simple involving chicken and herbs.

Quote: Nareed

others plain make no sense to me (rose petals?). .

Flower petals are an important part of the diet in many cultures. You've heard of "anti oxidants" being touted on labels and high priced items; ain't nothin' more full of anti oxidants than fresh flower petals.

I made chicken in a garlic and herbs marinade, and also low(ish)-fat pasta in a creamy sauce (unfortunately I used too much pasta with mushrooms.

I took pictures, too. I'll post to the blog as time allows.

I got some limes about the size of a nickle. Anything exotic I can make with them?