Where Does Your Taste Come From?

We have been taught in school about our five senses: taste, smell, touch, sight and hearing. Two of these work closely together and one is not far behind. First is our sense of smell. Yes, you begin to taste even as your raise food to your mouth. The aroma of food causes a reaction even before it reaches your tongue. Once your taste buds have a chance to decide if this is good or not, the sensation of texture finishes off your full experience. Sometimes your eyes may have a strong negative impact and the whole experience might be lost.

     Not only does our body tell us about taste, but our culture and upbringing also effect how we learn about food. The region where we spent the most time in during our formative years imprinted a certain flavor preference that can last a lifetime. 

     As babies, our mothers introduce us to one flavor or food at a time. Yes, they are testing for possible allergies, but also our tongue is learning about new texture and how to swallow solid food. But even babies will seem to reject certain items and accept others. Sometimes, while introducing a new food, a mother might inadvertently pass on a dislike for something that she does not care for. We love adding applesauce to the baby’s dinner, but sweet potatoes not so much.

     As the family matures we learn about family favorites that we can all love together. These become our comfort foods – and Mom knows what to cook when we need it. If we want to honor certain family member we ask what their favorite food is and prepare it in for them. Many times this was a birthday dinner. We also associate certain foods with individual holidays. It just wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce, etc.

     If you venture very far away to school in another state, relocate for a job or a new person in your life you encounter new and adventuresome flavors and foods. You don’t have to leave the US to experience a diverse spectrum of food. Flavors vary widely from East Coast to West Coast. North to South we see it and talk about how they cook. I grew up on the Southeast Coast and ate a lot of pork. To this day, pork loin roast is my favorite. When mother asked what I wanted for my birthday dinner it was pork loin roast, pork gravy, sweet potatoes, stewed apples and baby lima beans, plus yellow cake with chocolate icing for dessert. 

     Comfort food is just what it says it is. Food that gives you a good feeling. As far as I can tell, the most renowned comfort food is mac and cheese. Think about it: it’s is a warm yellow food almost smiling at you before your taste it, you can smell that wonderful cheese aroma before you put it in your mouth. Once in your mouth the warm smooth texture slides across your tongue and the full flavor kicks in. You can’t help but feel better and smile at the person who made it for you.

     As you grow and your taste buds mature you will have many opportunities to test your senses. Do not reject anything too hastily, but certainly your can approach with caution. One contentious food of late is cilantro. People like it or don’t like it, there doesn’t seem to be any middle ground. I recently read that if you are served cilantro in a very ground up texture the taste is softer and much more palatable. If you try it mixed in rather than just sprinkled on top you might find you would enjoy this flavor. I think it does add to the over all dish. Just like arugula. I did not like it at first but now enjoy it mixed in salads and have been growing it my modest garden the past two years.

            I’d love to hear your food stories and questions. Email me at patschat@livingston.net.

Cool Season Herbs

Not all herbs grow year round. Cilantro is one of the cool weather herbs. It thrives in the fall and lasts into mid-summer. When the heat starts taking its toll on the rest of us, cilantro will start to bolt. This means it will put up a thicker stalk and form a flower or bloom. Allow your plant to follow its natural course, so it can form seeds. To save the seeds, you must allow them to dry. Remove the bloom and place in a zip lock plastic bag. Do not seal it up until the plant is completely dried. Once dry, close and shake until all seeds drop. You now have next year’s crop.

Cilantro is an acquired taste, some never acquire it, but others really like it. We see it used in Mexican and South American dishes. Cilantro and parsley are hard to tell apart by just looking. A smart produce man will not place them side by side. If in doubt, just taste. You will know the difference right away. Cilantro has a sharper flavor than parsley.

Curly Parsley

Parsley will grow year round in our climate, but will slow down in the heat of summer. If kept in the shade during the hot months, it will survive. Italian flat leaf parsley is better for its culinary attributes, but the curly style is usually chosen for appearance to use as a garnish. Both will work equally well. Grow in pots so you can move it around in the summer months. Or plant it in your flowerbeds as a boarder. Its bright, fresh green color adds a nice contrast to low-growing flowers.

Italian Flat Leaf Parsley

Basil does well in the cooler weather, but if planted in the right light shade will make it through most of the summer. It must be kept well-watered. I have a couple of friends who harvested basil all summer. Fresh basil is a great plant to have on hand at a moments notice, because it is very tender and wilts rapidly once picked. Store-bought basil is often limp and withered. When tomatoes are available this herb adds zest to any dish. If you are lucky enough to have a bumper crop just keep picking and allow to dry. Crumble in your hands and store in small jars. This will be much fresher than anything you can buy. Just sprinkle over any store-bought pizza to kick it up a notch (as Emeril would say). Any tomato dish welcomes basil as an additive but green beans also like basil. Just toss a little in at the end of the cooking time. 

When picking basil, cut just above the lowest leaf cluster. This will allow the plant to form two new shoots on ether side. Do not allow the stalks to grow too tall as the leaves will mature and become strong in taste. If small flowers start to form pinch them off. Or, pick the whole top whorl of leaves and flowers and use for a garnish.

Two herbs that are pretty much foolproof are rosemary and oregano. If you are new to trying herbs plant these and you will feel good about your first efforts. They grow year round in our climate -- East Texas up to zone eight. For other climates, check with your local agriculture agent. They should have all the information you need. There are several varieties of each herb, just go to a reputable dealer or grower. I like to find someone who specializes in herbs. These people usually have the best plants and lots of advice for your area.

Get out there and clean out some pots or a space in one of your beds. I am looking forward to using sage I have growing in my Thanksgiving dressing and trimming some of the dishes with other fresh herbs.

Let me hear what you are growing! E-mail me at PatsChat@livingston.net.

    

     

Final Downton Dinner this Season

My friends and I gathered with much anticipation for the last episode of this exciting saga. We were both eager and sad knowing this would be the last until the release of season five.

From the previews we knew this would be an episode of revealing information and celebration. We chose to do it up right as best we could. Our meal was a smoked salmon quiche, with artichoke hearts, goat cheese and dill. We started off the evening with a blended white wine from Conundrum vineyards in Rutherford CA. We moved on to a Prosecco, a sparkling wine from Italy. Our dessert was fresh fruit marinated in port wine and sugar wrapped in a crepe. What a way to finish the season!

The recipes did not come from the Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook. The dessert was on the back of the crepe bag. Yes, they were store bought. Sometimes you just have to take a few shortcuts. The quiche is a combination of a recipe and my imagination.

This has been a lot of fun both planning and cooking around a central theme. To watch a show of this type and be able to discuss immediately the ins and outs of the progressions of the lives involved. We have enjoyed watching the fashions change both as the years pass and the social demands dictate. It has been somewhat of a refresher course on the history of the early 20th century.

Planning a meal is a wonderful way to have friends and family around, but to have a focus, something to be discussed at least part of the time, helps liven up the conversation. Whether your focus is a book or TV program or a cookbook based on a TV program, you are inspired to ponder new things and bring fresh discussion to the gathering -- not just the same old same old on what is happening around you. Think about this the next time you invite friends over.

Smoked Salmon Quiche with Goat Cheese and Dill

1 9-in. piecrust

3 eggs

1 cup half and half

1 can artichoke hearts, chopped

4 oz. smoked salmon, flaked

1/4 cup goat cheese crumbles

1 tablespoon fresh dill, divided

2 tablespoons fresh chopped green onion, divided

1/2 tsp salt

1/8 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/8 tsp Tabasco hot sauce

   

Bake piecrust in 400-degree oven for 10 minutes and allow to cool while preparing rest of quiche. Be sure to press edges to pan and prick with fork so crust will not draw in while baking. Use baking beads or other device to help hold crust shape. This pre-bake step will help insure a crisp crust bottom.

Combine eggs, half and half, salt, pepper and Tabasco sauce beat until eggs are completely blended. Sprinkle the flaked salmon in cooled crust, add artichoke hearts, crumble goat cheese, half of the fresh dill and chopped green onions.

Pour egg mixture over other ingredients and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Check during baking time and if the crust starts to get to brown protect with foil or other device. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a rack 10 to 15 minutes. This is important so crust will not sweat and be soggy. Sprinkle with remaining dill and green onion. The quiche can be eaten at room temperature if desired, so it makes a great bake-ahead dish.

The recipe for the fruit crepe was on the back of the prepared crepe package. I used strawberries, raspberries and dewberries I happen to have in my freezer.  By the way, just for you information, strawberries will not continue to ripen after picked. If you buy some that are still white or green at the tops around the stem they will stay that way. Some fruits do continue to ripen you just have to know which ones.

I hope you have enjoyed sharing this little adventure with my friends and me and I will be back on my regular food adventure quest next time. I can be reached at PatsChat@livingston.net.

Tea Time at the Abbey

Afternoon Tea, High Tea, and a Tea Party – is there a difference? We can thank Anna, the Duchess of Beadford for introducing afternoon tea early in the nineteenth century. Back in the mid-1800s, it was fashionable to serve dinner at 8 o’clock in the evening. To help fill the gap between luncheon and dinner, the Duchess came up with the idea of tea and a few small sandwiches or tarts to help pass the time. This was served around 4 o’clock and intended to hold you over till dinner.

About this same time in history Britain was embracing the industrial revolution and the working class began to work on a more regulated time schedule. Workers came home from a long hard day in factories and wanted a full meal with a pot of tea.

Afternoon Tea was served on low tables, maybe with a tea cart on the side. Guests usually sat on low parlor chairs or relaxed on garden furniture. The workers tea was served at a regular dinning table with high-back dinning chairs thus high tea. The working class households still call their evening meal “tea.”

A Tea Party is what little girls play with their dolls, friends and mommy or daddy. I know there is one more type of tea party on the horizon but I am not going to touch that one in this story.

Times have changed, habits and social interaction schedules have drifted. Dinner is now called supper in some parts of the country. Some travelers have embraced the idea of having tea and of course the hotels and commercial establishments are quick to step in and fill that need. Now places in the United States that serve tea mostly serve it from 4 to 5 p.m., but don’t let it go too late, because that would interfere with the cocktail hour.

In keeping with our quest to embrace as much of the feeling of “Downton Abbey,” my friends and I chose to have Afternoon Tea this week. Each was charged to prepare a selection of small crust-less sandwiches or other appropriate sweets. We made strong tea and served it with lemon, sugar and milk. Our historian, Bonnie, came up with the information that the proper order to dress your tea is sugar first, then lemon and milk last. This is so you get it the desired color and taste. We chose a suitable setting for our tea and enjoyed everyone’s offerings of tea sandwiches. We then retired to the TV and enjoyed another episode of “Downton Abbey.”

These recent cold afternoons have left a great opportunity to think about a nice cup of tea – nothing so fancy as described above. Just boil some water in the kettle or microwave, pop in a tea bag and wait for the magic. A couple of cookies will round out your impromptu tea service. You may have some Girl Scout Cookies on hand as they are “in season” this time of year.

A few tricks for making fancy sandwiches are first selecting sandwich-style bread. Trim the crust spread with any filling; cut the sandwiches into triangles or squares. Choose both wheat and white bread and mix to create a ribbon effect. For more artistic designs, cut the crust away and roll the bread flat before assembling. Your can then cut with a cookie cutter a simple round, half moon or other simple design you might have on hand.

I chose two simple fillings. One was egg salad, made of grated hard-boiled egg, a small amount of mayonnaise, softened butter, salt, pepper, and curry to taste. This was spread on an open-face sandwich cut as a triangle. Another simple spread was goat cheese with watercress spread on cut bread rounds topped and cut in half to form half moons. Let your imagination run wild on this.

Next week our little group plans to have dessert.  

I hope you are enjoying our efforts to share life across the pond. Let me know at PatsChat@livingston.net. 

Downton Abbey Dinner with Staff

As I announced last week, we will be eating with the staff this week. With all the activities going on around this big house I am amazed they could all sit down for a meal. Of course it was a much simpler meal, but Mr. Carson always observes protocol and sees that proper standards are upheld.

This is a sit-down service with everything on the table and passed around to each person. Choosing from the designated staff section of the Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook we prepared Bangers and Mash (page 194) as our main entree. We choose a celery and toasted walnut salad with Pecorino cheese (page 208) as a side and finished with a Treacle Tart (page 232). We couldn’t resist adding Bluebell Homemade Vanilla to the tart.

For anyone who is unfamiliar with the term “banger,” that means sausage. The recipe called for beef sausage. We tried to be true the English version, but I am not fond of beef sausage and will not use that if I ever make this again. During World War II, because of the lack of farm meat and rationing the sausages were stuffed with cereal and water and had tendency to hiss and pop when cooked over fires in the trenches; thus the name banger. This dish is popular today and can be found in many local pubs.  Of course, the “mash” is mashed potatoes. This is just another version of Shepard's pie without the lamb. Using mashed potatoes as a topping for a casserole can come in very handy for many meat and vegetable dishes.

From reading the cookbook, potatoes were a main ingredient in the staff diet. I am assuming there was a kitchen garden nearby. We have never seen or heard anyone talking about working a garden, but I feel certain there was one and potatoes were a main staple. The only garden talk has been about growing roses and the Dowager Countess seems to have the lock on that production. Today, we talk about being locavores, these people really put it to the test. What they didn’t grow on the place, local tradespeople delivered to the back door.

Dressing for Walnut and Celery Salad

2 small shallots, minced

2 Tbsp sherry vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)

2 tsp fresh lemon juice (best with fresh juice)

1 Tbsp walnut oil, optional

2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together and pour on salad right before severing.

Treacle Tart (Cockney slang for “sweetheart”)

Pastry

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp kosher salt

2 1/2 tsp sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cut into cubes

6 tsp ice water

Thoroughly mix flour, salt, and sugar, cut in butter with pastry blender until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add ice water one tablespoon at a time just until mixture clumps together. Divide into two parts, form two separate disks. Wrap separately with a little flour and chill for at least 90 minutes.  This a very delicate pastry, handle with care.

Filling

1 1/2 tsp lemon zest

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 cup golden syrup (1 part sugar to 1 part water)

2 Tbsp of fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix lemon zest, oats and ginger set aside. Mix syrup and lemon juice and set aside.

Remove one pastry disk from refrigerator; allow to set for 10 minutes. Roll gently and place into 9” pie plate. Place half of oat mixture in prepared pie crust, pour all of the lemon syrup mixture on top of oats, then add the rest of the oat mixture. Roll out the rest of the pastry and cut into strips to form a lattice topping. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Can be served hot or cold. Top with whipped cream.

This was a little scary for me with so little in the filling but it worked with a good topping. Remember those Ritz cracker pies? This has been a fun journey to share with friends. Next week we plan to have tea Crawley style.

Lets us hear from you about this adventure. I can be reached at PatsChat@livingston.net.