Month: September 2019

Everyone knows that English originated in England and after some exploration and generations, the language took a U-turn to form the basic English we speak here in the states -with some leeway considering that not all people call a water fountain a bubbler, or a shopping cart a buggy, things like that.

As a matter of fact, I’m part English from my great-grandmother. She probably had different names for some things in her fridge. Some names might have come from being next-door neighbors to European countries, like calling an eggplant an aubergine. That’s French. Most things just come from what they do or look like for example cling film is plastic wrap.

I have an idea for a game. See if you can guess what these things are in the US from their UK names. If you can’t tell by the word alone, I’ll give you a clue.

Broad Beans-            These are usually pale green and come in a can.

Black Treacle-          This is a sticky sweet goop that’s popular down south, and in Harry Potter’s favorite dessert.

Chips-                       They don’t come in a bag. More like on the side with dipping sauce.

Fairy Cake-              If it’s for a fairy, it must be small.

Courgette-               Long, green and full of seeds

Coriander-              Not the Indian spice! Think Spanish herb.

Gammon                 This looks like the French word “Jambon”

Powdered               Like a POWDERED doughnut.

Maize                      Spanish word again. Direct translation

Marrow                  It’s kind of round and colorful vegetables

Muesli                     Usually it’s in cereal.

Pilchards                The fish that squish close together in a tin.

Kippers                    Smoked gray other kind of fish, associated with Jews.

Rasher                    Usually cooked in strips

Runner Beans       Long skinny beans

Sarnie/Butty          Filled with jam, or maybe cold-cuts lettuce etc.

Squash                    This one you don’t actually eat, so grab a glass.

Most of the answers are HERE

Tell us how you did. Tell us any other names for food that you know. It’s handy to build up your vocab for when you crack open a new culture’s cookbook. Some say that words are fun

With all of the hot humid summer days we had in July, we knew it was a perfect time to pick some fruit from this little gem in the capital area NY, Bohman’s Orchard. We were brought down by trolley from raspberries to blueberries to peaches. It really is a treat to go pick your own produce right off of the plant. You never have a big enough container for all that you see and want to eat. Licking the juice off of your fingers, crawling under branches and bushes and reaching up for that one on the tree just out of reach are things you will never do in a typical grocery store.

How do you share a bag of peaches among friends evenly before they rot? Make a peach cobbler! We found a recipe online and decided to give it a try.

We didn’t exactly follow ALL of the directions to a T. We lowered the sugar down by half. Come on, butter cookies take less sugar than that and peaches have natural sugar to them too! Why so much? The recipe we found called for two whole cups of sugar!!! I know for baking you need to follow the directions almost to a T, but I couldn’t quite abide by this. Peaches have a lot of sugar in them anyways.

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We piled up a cup of chopped peaches and folded in some blueberries. While we let the peaches and sugar stew in a pot (the recipe called for the peaches to be softened by boiling them – I added some extra water to help it along) we made the batter. This was very similar to your standard cake batter. This is kind of where we noticed something seemed off. Normally a cobbler doesn’t come out with THAT MUCH to it. While it tasted good (I mean come on, you put in that much sugar, and it will taste good a-priori) there just seemed to be tooooo much for that teeny tiny amount of fruit that they called for.

You need some serious grease on these pans to keep things from sticking around here! I have messed this up several times (and almost ruined a few breakfasts at that). The key is to make sure you grease the pan, no skimping here. We added the stewed peaches and the blueberries and poured the batter on top. Then it was plopped into an oven preheated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit for roughly 40 minutes.

Our batter came out pretty nicely if I do say so myself for a first time. I felt like a little southern belle putting in my 2 cents here and there helping him spread and pour from flour to 2% milk. I noticed as it was cooking that the batter seemed to seep underneath and immerse the fruit while baking. It seemed to come out very cake like, and not so much like a cobbler… Next time, I think we cut down the batter or use a different recipe altogether. But I suppose that is how we learn, eh?

To be honest, we’ve never even had a taste of peach cobbler before, so we need some talk about how to improve the recipe. Doesn’t he look handsome over a hot pot of stewing peaches?

I love you too, darling!

 

 

 

The shortfin mako shark or Isurus oxyrinchus is truly a marvel. Clocking in at 35-80 kilometers per hour, these guys are sharp predators with a heat-exchange system and a high metabolism to keep warm underwater where the males grow to be 3.2 meters long, and the females at 3.8 meters long.  These are the fastest and largest pelagic sharks in the world! We got a chance to try some at home from the same monger who showed us the blowfish. Remember?

Hunting these creatures is a toss up. Sharks like this one are dangerous to humans. It’s what organizations like the National Marine Fisheries Service call “Managed” in the Atlantic and Gulf waters. They don’t reproduce quick at all. Not all sharks are edible, but Mako is the one most hunted. It’s more popular eating shark in Australia, but the shark here are endangered. CITES even have new laws protecting Mako sharks from trade, unless it’s proven that trade will not harm their chances at survival. The juicy details are all in this article describing the meeting in Geneva. HERE

This is a BIG no-no for pregnant women! Fish have mercury naturally, then get eaten by bigger fish so on and so forth until they are eaten by sharks. Thus, sharks sometimes have insane amounts of mercury in them. If mercury poisoning is detrimental to non-pregnant people, it’s twice as bad if you’re an expecting mother.

As for cooking a piece of Mako shark, you treat it the same as a steak. You may want to use a rub and set it down in a puddle of oil on the stove-top, or try your hand at the grill. We haven’t tried grilling yet, so we can’t give any advice on that yet. I like to use the pan because it’s easy to clean while we listen for the oil to warm up and give us a roaring applause as we set the meat down. 

*CRUCIAL TIP: SHARKS PEE THROUGH THEIR SKIN, SO PLEASE SOAK THE MEAT FIRST!*

I may have loved Shark Week as a kid, but this shark didn’t leave a good feel in my mouth once it got onto the plate. It was mealy to me kind of like swordfish. I’m not a typical fan of that unless it’s cooked PERFECT.  Shark was more like cornbread than meat, so the texture was an unwelcome surprise. I don’t take points of for flavor, but this consistency scored a big fat 0 in my book. Needless to say, I won’t be eating shark again.

I thought the same way about the consistency, but I would compare it to chewed up oatmeal. I kind of liked the fish-flavor, but the thing we didn’t include is a good sauce. A thick sauce instead of a thin salsa is just what this dish needed. Alton Brown suggests using a salsa verde or a remoulade on his new edition of “Good Eats”. You can find it on the Food Network. He’s fast, but accurate and goes over every last important detail in full about how and why to do things a certain way, with science.

When all is said and done,  I won’t order a shark dish either. I have conservation guilt and would fret over how they’re going to serve it. You can eat at an expensive place, but if it isn’t worth bragging, it isn’t worth your money. I mean, this one wasn’t even worth taking pictures, so you KNOW it’s not up to our standards. Here’s an informational video about Mako shark instead…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd8AlQvsOTY