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Post by LunchAtNoon on May 26, 2014 22:57:08 GMT -5
So, cooking a lot of greek and Italian food I have found an assortment of seasoning sent from God. allrecipes.com/recipe/greek-seasoning-2/This goes well on Beef, Lamb, and Chicken That is BBQed Pleas share any other Recipies! Opa! |
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Post by maxgregor on May 27, 2014 5:35:20 GMT -5
Fresh product and olive oil improves this a lot. Source: mediterranean here! We catalans are most famous for making the most of our food. For example, the day after Christmas is a public holiday and the traditional dish are "canelons", a sort of lasagna, dim-sum, where the excess meat form the previous day is roasted, so nothing is discarded. Since you like BBQ, we have a delicious, healthy and very simple recipe to make the most of the embers once you've cooked your meat: ESCALIVADA. Ingredients: 1 eggplant, 1 red pepper and 1 onion, potatoes. You can use all of them or just the ones you like. Cover the potatoes in aluminium foil, peel the onions, roast all of the ingredients. When done, (about one hour) cover them with a clean kitchen cloth to let it sweat. Peel them (important) and cut into long strips. Discard the seeds, pour some extra virgin olive oil on top, thick sea salt and black ground pepper. You may smash a bit the potatoes, and garnish with a Cantabric anchovy. Like this, perfect for a light supper after a long BBQ party:  You can eat it hot and cold, the olive oil preserves it for up to a week in the fridge, perfect snack. |
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Post by LunchAtNoon on May 30, 2014 12:58:45 GMT -5
That stuff looks very good! Olive oil is necessary for any good Miditerranean food. allrecipes.com/recipe/tzatziki-sauce/A tasty Greek sauce that comes inside of gyros, or in any other greek dishes. |
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Post by maxgregor on Jun 3, 2014 11:25:05 GMT -5
Salsiki for me is more of a salad or a side dish. Very popular in Turkey and other Ottoman countries as well but I don't get it very much. Salty yogurt? thanks but no, thanks. Once you have some "escalivated" eggplants, you can make Baba ghanoush. I like very much the eastern mediterranean cuisine (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, ...) and there's some fine places to eat it in my city. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_ghanoushMashed eggplant with tahini, garlic, salt and lemon juice. |
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Post by LunchAtNoon on Jun 3, 2014 15:47:20 GMT -5
Salsiki for me is more of a salad or a side dish. Very popular in Turkey and other Ottoman countries as well but I don't get it very much. Salty yogurt? thanks but no, thanks. Once you have some "escalivated" eggplants, you can make Baba ghanoush. I like very much the eastern mediterranean cuisine (Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan, ...) and there's some fine places to eat it in my city. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baba_ghanoushMashed eggplant with tahini, garlic, salt and lemon juice. Does Tahini usually have honey added to it? I always see Tahini with honey at the grocery store. |
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Post by maxgregor on Jun 4, 2014 12:18:39 GMT -5
No, it's just a paste made from hulled sesame seeds.
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Post by LunchAtNoon on Jun 4, 2014 21:49:43 GMT -5
This is going to be a hard question.
-Where does the best olive oil come from?-
I say Greece
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Post by maxgregor on Jun 5, 2014 4:40:42 GMT -5
yeah, hard one, it's Spain, obviously.
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Post by maxgregor on Jun 5, 2014 8:21:40 GMT -5
OK, seriously, it's more important the producer, method, quality and acidity than the country. There are excellent olive oils in Italy, Greece and Spain, and very bad ones as well. If I had to discard a country, that would be Italy: their products, their country trade mark, is well known and appreciated, but their controls on production and appellation of origin are very doubtful. I know from first hand of italian producers buying low quality olive oil in Spain and bottling it mixed as Extra Virgin. That's because demand for italian products is high, they know how to sell as the french do. I don't know what can you find and buy in Texas, but this are important factors: * Highest quality comes from first cold mechanical press of olives on their best maduration: Extra Virgin. Acidity has to be equal or lower than 0.8º. * If there's any flaw, and quality is not the best, Virgin. Acidity must be under 1º. Very good oils, though. * Refined oil is what you get when pressing what's left of the first press, it is labeled as Olive Oil. You press it to the end, cherry stone included, high temperatures affect vitamins and other properties. When mixed with some Virgin you obtain different qualities. I use it to cook (deep frying) and making soap. * Lowest kind is olive-pomace oil, but then you better buy a good quality sunflower oil or no oil at all. My favourite olives for oil are arbequina (Catalonia) and picual (Jaén). I usually buy a 5 liter Extra Virgin for 25€. |
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Post by knapptime247 on Jun 5, 2014 15:47:41 GMT -5
Im hungry.
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Post by LunchAtNoon on Jun 5, 2014 17:29:17 GMT -5
What about olive oil from Tunisia? in Africa. It boarders the miditerranean sea. www.oliveoiltimes.com/country/tunisiaThat is interesting what you said about Italian olive oil, I never would have known, but like you said there are good olives and bad olives. What about rice varieties? |
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Post by maxgregor on Jun 19, 2014 12:09:49 GMT -5
Tradition is also very important. A 200 years old olive tree is far better than a 25 years old. I don't know about Tunisia, tough, but I've eaten good olives in the Magreb region. Rice!! One of my favourite dishes. Last two weekends I ate rice on Saturday AND Sunday. Four different and delicious dishes. Rice depends on what you need. Different varieties have different properties for different dishes. JAPAN: They wash and wash the rice to eliminate the starch, making it less glutinous. Eventough they have a glutinous rice for mochis. But the sushi rice has to be washed. Speaking of Japan and Sushi. You HAVE TO WATCH this documentary: Jiro dreams of sushi. I think it's available in Youtube and/or Vimeo. One of the best things I've seen in my life. And I don't like sushi. ITALY: Rissotto dishes are based on starch. The creaminess is starch, not cheese or other things bad cookers do. Arborio is the most common variety. My best: Bergamot orange rissotto in Reggio Calabria. INDIA: They like Basmati. It's a good rice, aromatic, but it does not absorb a thing, it's not fun. SPAIN: We like the bomba rice, from Calasparra or from the Ebro delta. It's perfect for the world famous paella dish: it absorbs very well all the ingredients and its flavours. There are infinite ways to cook rice in Spain, but there's only one authentic paella. My favourite rice is brothy (?) rice with Bogavante (european lobster). I had the last one in this very table, aaahhhh good life. |
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Post by LunchAtNoon on Jun 19, 2014 21:46:05 GMT -5
Yes, I should have specified. i cook a lot of different dishes and use many different rices.
- If I cook something Middle eastern/Miditerranean I will use Jasmine rice, It is aromatic as well.
- If I cook something Asian I will use "Calrose" rice from California, but I have also used plain white rice. (most Chinese restaurants nearby use it)
- If I make sushi I will use "Sushi rice". I rinse it very well and cook to just to the right consistency.
Personally I love a drier rice
Making sushi where I live is very hard because I can't get ahold of Sushi Grade fish. Instead I use Smoked salmon or Imitation Crab, plus avocados and cucumbers.
I saw that picture of the table and.....It looks heavenly! Where is that?
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Post by maxgregor on Jun 26, 2014 11:25:06 GMT -5
That's Sant Pol de Mar, Banys Lluis Restaurant. That might be considered like the beginning of the Costa Brava, one of the most beautiful coasts in the Mediterranean. www.google.es/search?q=costa+brava&es_sm=93&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=N0isU_KeEOSS1AWbqIDwDw&ved=0CAgQ_AUoAQ&biw=1280&bih=909#facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=VHbN37KsBS8vKM%253A%3BggR8I0D9_ONDOM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.deviajeporespana.com%252Fplayas%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2012%252F10%252FPlaya-La-Granadella-La-Costa-Brava-Autor-Carlosu7.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.deviajeporespana.com%252Fplayas%252Fplaya-la-granadella-la-costa-brava%252F%3B1280%3B960Rocky and small beaches, fresh and clean waters, lovely towns (Pals, Begur, Cadaqués, Calella de Palafrugell, Tamariu, ...), next to the Pyrenees mountain range and Girona and Salvador Dalí. |
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Post by LunchAtNoon on Jul 15, 2014 22:09:38 GMT -5
OK, seriously, it's more important the producer, method, quality and acidity than the country. There are excellent olive oils in Italy, Greece and Spain, and very bad ones as well. If I had to discard a country, that would be Italy: their products, their country trade mark, is well known and appreciated, but their controls on production and appellation of origin are very doubtful. I know from first hand of italian producers buying low quality olive oil in Spain and bottling it mixed as Extra Virgin. That's because demand for italian products is high, they know how to sell as the french do. I don't know what can you find and buy in Texas, but this are important factors: * Highest quality comes from first cold mechanical press of olives on their best maduration: Extra Virgin. Acidity has to be equal or lower than 0.8º. * If there's any flaw, and quality is not the best, Virgin. Acidity must be under 1º. Very good oils, though. * Refined oil is what you get when pressing what's left of the first press, it is labeled as Olive Oil. You press it to the end, cherry stone included, high temperatures affect vitamins and other properties. When mixed with some Virgin you obtain different qualities. I use it to cook (deep frying) and making soap. * Lowest kind is olive-pomace oil, but then you better buy a good quality sunflower oil or no oil at all. My favourite olives for oil are arbequina (Catalonia) and picual (Jaén). I usually buy a 5 liter Extra Virgin for 25€. I now can update this thread, I recently bought one of those no-name olive oils from Italy that "contains olives from Spain and Italy". It might be my bland/boring American tastebuds but the oil is pretty good. It has a good darker color to it and a almost nutty smell. *It is extra virgin, |
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