10 July 2009

Cooking up a Storm

Greetings,

Once upon a time, kitchens contained an oven with a stove top, a couple of saucepans, a frying pan and a kettle, and that was all you needed for every cooking need.

But that was then, this is now.

The Love of My Life and I were recently wandering through the electrics section in one of our larger department stores when I was drawn from his side by the Call of the Wild. It was a spruiker announcing yet more End of Financial Year Specials. Following the sound, I rounded a corner and saw before me a cornucopia of small appliances.

"Look!" I declared, "Here's an electric popcorn maker ... and a hot-dog maker ... and a pizza maker ... and a donut maker ... and a waffle maker ... and an egg poacher ... and ..." The LoML eventually had to lead me quietly from the shop as I enthused incoherently and ever more hysterically over the myriad electrical gizmos no modern kitchen can be without.

Those of you who've been with me for any time know about my cookbook collection, what you may not know is that I also collect (and use, I hasten to add) pots and pans and things for cooking and serving food.

Cooking is something I enjoy, as well as being something I do to keep my family alive and well, so it's like a hobby but one I share with anyone who happens to be around at meal times. And I believe if you're going to cook a Japanese meal, for example, you should have one of those natty little Teppanyaki grills (which I have) and some lovely Japanese serving dishes (ditto).

Likewise, if you're cooking Moroccan, you need a tagine (absolutely brilliant pots that use a low, slow heat for cooking food in its own juices) and some nice platters for serving.

Chinese food isn't the same unless it's cooked in a wok and served in rice bowls with chopsticks.

And French country-style cooking demands (absolutely demands!) an enamelled cast-iron pot that can start on the stove top and finish in the oven. Now up until now, I haven't possessed such a pot, which has meant that my Coq au Vin necessitates lots of washing up as we start cooking in a frying pan, then transfer everything to a casserole dish for its final hours in the oven. I've baulked at the cost and try as I might, I couldn't justify the couple of hundred dollars price tag.

But rejoice with me, dear reader, for last week I found one on sale for a price even the LoML thought was reasonable! So as winter makes its presence felt out here, we'll be tucking in to delicious casseroles, soups and stews all cooked in my flash new French Oven pot.

It must be the approach of the colder weather that has made me more susceptible to the bargains to be had in cookware, because a few days before bringing home our new French Oven, I chanced upon another item that has since become an essential item in my culinary arsenal. It's a bench-top convection oven ... one of those big glass bowl affairs that cooks the most amazing roasts.

The instruction booklet stated that the temperature control light would blink on and off as the thermostat kicked in and out ... what it neglected to mention was that the light in the oven itself also comes on and off, but far from a gentle "blink," this thing is like something that would give solace to sailors lost in a storm around the Inchcape Rock!

But just between you and I, despite the mind-numbing light show, I'm still in love with this cooker, and last night's roast chook was voted the best ever by the men in my life.

Ah yes! You haven't succumbed to that postprandial stupor ... I can see your rapier-like wit is as alert as ever and ready to pounce on sloppy grammar!

Because (of course) the correct form is "...between you and me." Between is a preposition, and as we all know, a preposition is always followed by the objective case (me, him, her, whom, it, you, them). You often hear people who think they know their grammar use 'I' when they should be using 'me.'

This week's Little Something Extra is a hodge-podge of information on different things we've chatted about today.

This week's quiz:

I heard a couple of radio announcers talking about the recently released list of the 10 most commonly misspelled words, so thought you might like to see how many you get right. Choose the correctly spelled word from each group:

1. definately, definitly, definitely

2. buraucracy, bureaucracy, beuracracy

3. indite, indicte, indict

4. broccoli, brocolli, broccolli

5. sacrilidgious, sacrilegious, sacriligeous

6. predjudice, prejudise, prejudice

7. flegm, phlem, phlegm

8. uneccesary, unnecessary, unecessarry

9. accidently, accidentaly, accidentally

10. refrigerator, refridgerator, refrigerater

And here are some of those words that really should exist ...

FRUST (frust) n. The small line of debris that refuses to be swept onto the dust pan and keeps backing a person across the room until he finally decides to give up and sweep it under the rug.

PEPPIER (peph ee ay') n. The waiter at a fancy restaurant whose sole purpose seems to be walking around asking diners if they want freshly ground pepper.

LACTOMANGULATION (lak' to man gyu lay' shun) n. Manhandling the "open here" spout on a milk container so badly that one has to resort to the 'illegal' side.

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Last week's quiz:

pusillanimous, sequacious, tatterdemalion, perfervid, recalcitrant, macroscian, rident, pertinacious, oscitant, pococurante

1. person in ragged clothes - TATTERDEMALION

2. stubbornly resistant to authority - RECALCITRANT

3. unthinkingly following others - SEQUACIOUS

4. one who casts a long shadow - MACROSCIAN

5. stubbornly unyielding; holding resolutely to a purpose, belief or opinion - PERTINACIOUS

6. lacking courage; timid - PUSILLANIMOUS

7. yawning, gaping from drowsiness; inattentive, dull, negligent - OSCITANT

8. laughing; cheerful - RIDENT

9. indifferent, apathetic, nonchalant - POCOURANTE

10. extremely or excessively passionate - PERFERVID

Now a story about something we've all experienced at some time in our lives ...

A woman walks into a vet's waiting room. She's dragging a wet rabbit on a leash. The rabbit does NOT want to be there. "Sit, Fluffy," she says. Fluffy glares at her and sopping wet, jumps up on another customer's lap, getting water all over him.

"I said sit, now there's a good Fluffy," says the woman, embarrassed. Fluffy squats in the middle of the room and pees. The woman, mortally embarrassed, shouts, "Fluffy, will you be good?!"

Fluffy then starts a fight with a Doberman and pursues it out of the office. As the woman leaves to go after it, she turns to the rest of the flabbergasted pet owners and says, "Pardon me, I've just washed my hare, and I can't do a thing with it!"

A Little Something Extra

Here's a little smorgasbord of things we've touched on today ...

Test yourself with some more of those commonly misspelled words here

Robert Southey's poem made the Inchcape Rock lighthouse famous around the world ... see how this engineering marvel was built here 

Recipes you can try in your French Oven that's been sitting in its box since you were given it as a gift all those years ago! here and a Moroccan lamb shanks recipe for your tagine or French Oven here

This site has lots of recipes, just type in a search for the name of the recipe or a main ingredient to get plenty of ideas.

Some delicious Japanese recipes here. Try the Okonomiyaki ... this is one of our favourite Sunday night dishes ... as well as being perfect for weekend breakfast.

And a couple of dishes to try in your new tagine  here

Word of the week: Fustigate (vb) to cudgel, beat; punish severely; to criticise harshly; castigate.

You can fustigate with a weapon or with words ... the damage is similar.

This word comes from ... wait for it ... Latin! The word fustis means 'cudgel.'

Oxymoron of the week: Instant slow cook base

And a Latin phrase to ponder ...

Aquila non capit muscas

[ah-KWEE-lah NOHN KAH-poot MOOS-kahs]