Text 14933, 90 rader
Skriven 2007-05-02 18:07:50 av Glen Jamieson
     Kommentar till en text av Carol Shenkenberger
Ärende: E: FALAFEL - 70502
==========================
 -=> Quoting Carol Shenkenberger to Glen Jamieson <=-

 GJ> been cleaned out, though.  I don't think canned spinach is sold here,
 GJ> as the fresh stuff is available year round.

 CS> Fresh is for me too but the cans are nice to have around when I'm so
 CS> lazy I just wanna dump in a can <g>.  Canned spinach is a comfort food
 CS> from home though I'll grant that fresh is much better.  I cant think of
 CS> many recipes that canned would be 'good' for except lasagna types (for
 CS> which steamed frozen is almost perfect).

My main canned ingredient is diced tomatoes.  I get through a couple a
week, mainly in pasta dishes.   When I was young the family vegetable
garden had "New Zealand spinach" and "Silver Beet" (AKA Swiss Chard)
as the only spinachy things growing.  I hated the grittiness of the
former and the taste of the latter, and it wasn't until years later
that I got to eat, and like, the ordinary spinach.  Somewhat later,
when living in tropical countries, I got to know and enjoy the huge
range of other green leaf vegetables from the Asia-Pacific region.

 CS> One of the Navy tricks is to use everything they have, in tasteful
 CS> ways, so the canning water from vegetables find themselves used for
 CS> where other recipes would use plain water.  The drawback of canned
 CS> vegetables is much of the minerals and 'good for you stuff' ended up in
 CS> the water so we use that to flavor things. You'll see I do that in many
 CS> of my recipes too and I learned that from Navy cooks.

That would certainly serve to keep as much flavour as possible in the
dishes made using canned vegetables.  I have sometimes wondered if the
liquid from canned kidney beans could be used.  Usually recipes call
for that to be drained.
 
 GJ> Eggplants are in season at present, so I cooked up a lovely mess of
 GJ> vegetables as a sort of pinakbet, with onion, garlic, eggplant, okra,
 GJ> bitter melon and alugbati ("Ceylon spinach"), flavoured with bagoong.
 GJ> Rather like the following:
 
 GJ>       Title: PINACBET (BITTER MELON & EGGPLANT/FRUIT) My Version

 CS> I see.  I have most of that in my home right now.  I lack the
 CS> tomatoes.  I have mentioned thats one thing the Japanese dont do all
 CS> that well.  The tomatoes here lack flavor as compared to what I am used
 CS> to in the USA.  Even the store USA ones with careful selection of type,
 CS> are much better. 

That is where I use such a lot of the canned diced tomatoes.  :)

 CS> I am pretty sure your 'eggplant' is the smaller (what I'd call
 CS> Japanese) one. This could cause confusion as the USA one is a varient
 CS> of that and radically larger.  The USA ones are also more 'bitter' and
 CS> seem to match how I see europeans prepare it.  The USA ones can be as
 CS> wide across as my hand.  The Japanese ones, I can often circle my hand
 CS> entirely around and meet fingers. 

I can get both types here.  The Asian ones I never peel, but just
slice diagonally for appearance.  The large, somewhat pear-shaped ones
I either peel and cube, or leave unpeeled and slice into disks for
grilling or frying.  If they are young and fresh they do not have any
or much bitterness, so don't need salting.   I can also get the small,
spherical, green, Thai variety.

 GJ>       1 lg Bitter melon (ampalaya)
 GJ>       2 md Asian eggplant (talong)
 GJ>     200 g  Okra, young and tender
 GJ>       2 md Tomatoes, sliced
 GJ>       3 cl Garlic, smashed & chopped
 GJ>       1 T  Bagoong - salted shrimp fry
 GJ>     1/2 c  Water
 GJ>      30 g  Dried shrimps

 CS> I'm out of dried shrimps but have plenty of bagoong.  I presume above
 CS> would be roughly equal volume of tomato, okra, eggplant, and bitter
 CS> melon? 

Yes, but you can vary the proportions to suit what you've got.  :)

 GJ>   This is not a fiesta food, but just a simple comfort food as served
 GJ>   home in many Filipino households.  The smell of fried garlic is an
 GJ>   indicator that lunch is on the way.

 CS> Looks good to me!  I presume the eggplants isnt peeled but the bitter
 CS> melon is?

Bitter melon isn't peeled, but just de-seeded and sliced.  I don't
pre-soak it to remove bitterness, as some recipes specify, as I _like_
the bitterness as a contrast to the sweetness of the tomatoes.
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