Kitchen

[Sooner]

When I was reading Christopher Kimball's new Milk Street magazine he was talking about incorporating spices and herbs, cookware and techniques from other cultures and countries in cooking.  He seems to think we don't know about this.   It made me think how diversified our own kitchen is now, so I wanted to know if many of you feel that way about your cooking now.

He mentioned Yotam Ottolenghi, and I've had his Jerusalem cookbook for a long time now along with Indian, Moroccan, Italian, Middle Eastern and other cookbooks.  We try to follow a lot of the Mediterranean "diet."  We use cumin, coriander, feta, yogurt, curry, lemongrass, ginger, Mexican cheese, and in the last 10 years have added a fairly large herb garden to our property.  We have a Tagine, we have a mortar and pestle, and many Indian spices that if nothing else we use in spinach and put yogurt in it.  We have a pasta roller.  We have brown rice, Arborio rice, jasmine rice, and several kinds of lentils.  We make pizza crust from 000-style Italian flour.

We have a wok and always do our own stir frys, because they are better than the restaurants have.  We use miso and tofu and several kinds of Oriental noodles.  We drink loose leaf green, white, oolong and black teas from around the world. 

So what things do you have in your kitchen that you might not have had 20 years or even 30 ago?  

[qualitygal]

I'd bet I'd be really interested in watching you cook for a day. I don't eat that way at all, but variety is the spice of life they say. I've thought of the Mediterranian way of eating before, but it's not happening either. I'm all cooked out. Now if I could be all hungried out....

I'll be interested in the cooks on here responses.

[Sooner]

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@qualitygal wrote:

I'd bet I'd be really interested in watching you cook for a day. I don't eat that way at all, but variety is the spice of life they say. I've thought of the Mediterranian way of eating before, but it's not happening either. I'm all cooked out. Now if I could be all hungried out....

I'll be interested in the cooks on here responses.

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You might be disappointed!  LOL!!!  It's not that we make authentic dishes every day, but for example when we have sauteed or steamed spinach, I'll add a little yogurt (gets rid of the grittiness) and a little of an Indian spice mix (Penzey's Balti is good) to the spinach to give it a little different flavor.

I'll add isome Indian or Mexican spices to beans or veggies, etc.  I cook with olive oil and have for the last 10 or 15 years.  I'll use some dried apricots and dates or prunes and Middle Eastern spices in a "stew" of chicken or pork and veggies.  I just have added more flavors and use veggies in newer ways than I would have 25 years ago, and it's normal for us now.  

I'll bet if you think about it you probably do too:  Even small things like using more lemon juice or zest, or adding lime juice or may cumin to a dish.

[Snowpuppy]

I'm with Qualitygal, I'd be disowned. Sorry, we have no sophisticated tastes here. Ethnic dishes appear at the holidays. 

Trying to introduce changes to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners was a disaster. Why spend all that time, effort and $ when they only want mashed potatoes?  And everyone was happier!

My time in the kitchen is spent learning how to make a better meatloaf or making meatballs that aren't hockey pucks. I also bake my own bread & biscuits.

I could care less what a 7 figure "celebrity chef" says I should have in my kitchen.

[Sooner]

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@Snowpuppy wrote:

I'm with Qualitygal, I'd be disowned. Sorry, we have no sophisticated tastes here. Ethnic dishes appear at the holidays. 

Trying to introduce changes to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners was a disaster. Why spend all that time, effort and $ when they only want mashed potatoes?  And everyone was happier!

My time in the kitchen is spent learning how to make a better meatloaf or making meatballs that aren't hockey pucks. I also bake my own bread & biscuits.

I could care less what a 7 figure "celebrity chef" says I should have in my kitchen.

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I don't look at it that way as doing something because someone says I should.  I look it as an opportunity to find some new tastes and dishes we love. 

We incorporate new spices and herbs  into our favorite foods and make something that isn't the same we've eaten for 20 years.  We can have chicken three nights in a row and it's a different flavor combination,maybe Indian, Mexican and Middle Eastern, every night. It makes that old boneless skinless breast a real treat.

We love trying new things, and find that it's easy not to get bored with food.

[jaxs mom]

What do I have in my kitchen that I might not have had 20-30 years ago? 

An immersion circulator for sous vide cooking and a grain mill.  Oh and a proofing box for proofing yeast doughs. Although I used to use the wood stove for that in winter. 

I grew up in a house where my mom cooked and baked from scratch and we canned from the garden. I still do those things but I also pressure can which my mom never did. I do cook more international cuisines than I grew up with though. We cook a lot of Mexican ( and I don't mean tex-mex), Indian, Middle Eastern, Moroccan and Greek foods. My daughter cooks a lot of Asian, specifically Japanese. I bake a lot and make most of our own breads. 

I'm very happy I married someone that also loves to cook and that it's been handed down to my kids. 

[jaxs mom]

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@Snowpuppy wrote:

I'm with Qualitygal, I'd be disowned. Sorry, we have no sophisticated tastes here. Ethnic dishes appear at the holidays. 

Trying to introduce changes to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners was a disaster. Why spend all that time, effort and $ when they only want mashed potatoes?  And everyone was happier!

My time in the kitchen is spent learning how to make a better meatloaf or making meatballs that aren't hockey pucks. I also bake my own bread & biscuits.

I could care less what a 7 figure "celebrity chef" says I should have in my kitchen.

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I personally don't consider Chris Kimball a celebrity chef. I don't think he's ever worked as a chef in a restaurant and he didn't go to culinary school. He's more a food science geek and food writer. If you've ever watched any of his cooking tv shows he never cooks himself, he just hosts and tastes the food that the staff chefs cook. 

[Sooner]

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@jaxs mom wrote:

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@Snowpuppy wrote:

I'm with Qualitygal, I'd be disowned. Sorry, we have no sophisticated tastes here. Ethnic dishes appear at the holidays. 

Trying to introduce changes to Thanksgiving or Christmas dinners was a disaster. Why spend all that time, effort and $ when they only want mashed potatoes?  And everyone was happier!

My time in the kitchen is spent learning how to make a better meatloaf or making meatballs that aren't hockey pucks. I also bake my own bread & biscuits.

I could care less what a 7 figure "celebrity chef" says I should have in my kitchen.

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@jaxs mom  About that meatloaf. . . want to share a recipe?  I LOVE meatloaf!!!!

I personally don't consider Chris Kimball a celebrity chef. I don't think he's ever worked as a chef in a restaurant and he didn't go to culinary school. He's more a food science geek and food writer. If you've ever watched any of his cooking tv shows he never cooks himself, he just hosts and tastes the food that the staff chefs cook. 

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@Snowpuppy

Chris always whined about not liking anything hot or spicy--not he's acting like he discovered the world of spice and is going to alert the world!  LOL!!!

I saw a picture of his new cast somewhere on the web and it is just bizarre!  They are clones for the old cast!  One even looks very much ike Julia.  There are three or four women as I remember and one guy that looks just like the young man with glasses on ATK.  I don't think it is the same guy, but I guess could be.  

It is almost creepy seeing how much he is duplicating the magazine and now the tv show.  I thought he would come up with something very different.  I find that fascinating that he's just trying to clone what he had.

I love Martha's cooking demo shows because she's just showing you how to do something--which is always what she has done best!  PBS has a lot of good shows now.

[jaxs mom]

I wasn't the one that posted about meatloaf

I saw his new magazine at Costco yesterday and flipped through it and yes it has a very similiar format to Cooks Illustrated magazine. 

ATK/CI often makes arbitrary assumptions about what people want that do not coincide with my taste. I do love some of their recipes though. 

[sabatini]

Count me in, @Sooner!

My kitchen sounds like yours!

When I was young & married with children, I used to have to go to the library to find cookbooks from other cultures, then seek out ethic grocery stores, etc.  It's terrific that as the years have passed, it's become so much easier to experiment w/ spices and different foods as they've become more & more available. Love it!

 So,  @Sooner, ITA with you. Cooking ethnic foods is like traveling the world, and not leaving home.