Soul Food Kitchen - What's on Your Menu?

[renata101]

I’ve always considered soul food as a general concept, maybe closer to “comfort food,” which could mean something specific to your family, your ethnic origins (native or adopted), your local cuisine or maybe even what your best friend’s mom used to cook when you were growing up.

So what's on your menu? What's your soul food of choice?

Recipes welcome. 

For me, lately it's anything with apples because they're in season where I live. I think I would bake things with apples just to have the smell wafting around my kitchen.

[pandoraharper]

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@Renata S wrote:

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@Pandora H wrote:

Sometimes, you just can't beat a greasy burger and fries.

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Okay, it's like eating poutine when it's -37ºC?  Nothing beats that. 

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Welllll...I can't say for certain, but thats the basic idea. See...food crosses all cultural boundries, heh.

Personal note: not a fan of poutine, but I HAVE tried it 🙂

[colettelewis]

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@Renata S wrote:

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@Nichola L wrote:

What I want right now is a big Mac with French fries and salad on the side. I am too lazy to jump in the car and drive 12 miles to get it.

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You're too lazy for fast food? And don't you live in France where they have real food as a viable alternative? I'm confused.

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What do you mean? Big Macs ARE real food - 100% beef (15% fat) in glorious French bread rolls and a fresh green salad on the side? And oh the French fries - well - McCann fries -  who the hell cares? They are delicious. 

But just to comfort you  -  tonight I had  lean 0-fat turkey, jazzed up a bit with garden-grown garlic and herbs and garden-grown spinach and carrots and with a few mushrooms picked (heart-in-mouth - I am not an expert) while walking my woofer. I guess the mushrooms were OK as I am still capable of writing.

Well it wasn't bad as meals go - but the cravings . . . talk later - I may have to drive the 12 miles.

[renata101]

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@Nichola L wrote:

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@Renata S wrote:

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@Nichola L wrote:

What I want right now is a big Mac with French fries and salad on the side. I am too lazy to jump in the car and drive 12 miles to get it.

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You're too lazy for fast food? And don't you live in France where they have real food as a viable alternative? I'm confused.

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What do you mean? Big Macs ARE real food - 100% beef (15% fat) in glorious French bread rolls and a fresh green salad on the side? And oh the French fries - well - McCann fries -  who the hell cares? They are delicious. 

But just to comfort you  -  tonight I had  lean 0-fat turkey, jazzed up a bit with garden-grown garlic and herbs and garden-grown spinach and carrots and with a few mushrooms picked (heart-in-mouth - I am not an expert) while walking my woofer. I guess the mushrooms were OK as I am still capable of writing.

Well it wasn't bad as meals go - but the cravings . . . talk later - I may have to drive the 12 miles.

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Nichola, you didn't mention the French rolls. That would make a huge difference to a burger experience. And yeah, you got me about their fries. They are delicious. If you could get them with aioli, I think I'd be willing to drive 12 miles too. 

I like the sound of the garden grown herbs and garlic though. You reminded me that I have to bring in my rosemary before it gets frosty. 

And I think the secret to health is to eat what makes you happy -- at least some of the time. Or most of the time if you can get away with it. 

[marc_compte]

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Renata S wrote:

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@Nichola L wrote:

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@Renata S wrote:

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@Nichola L wrote:

What I want right now is a big Mac with French fries and salad on the side. I am too lazy to jump in the car and drive 12 miles to get it.

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You're too lazy for fast food? And don't you live in France where they have real food as a viable alternative? I'm confused.

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What do you mean? Big Macs ARE real food - 100% beef (15% fat) in glorious French bread rolls and a fresh green salad on the side? And oh the French fries - well - McCann fries -  who the hell cares? They are delicious. 

But just to comfort you  -  tonight I had  lean 0-fat turkey, jazzed up a bit with garden-grown garlic and herbs and garden-grown spinach and carrots and with a few mushrooms picked (heart-in-mouth - I am not an expert) while walking my woofer. I guess the mushrooms were OK as I am still capable of writing.

Well it wasn't bad as meals go - but the cravings . . . talk later - I may have to drive the 12 miles.

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Nichola, you didn't mention the French rolls. That would make a huge difference to a burger experience. And yeah, you got me about their fries. They are delicious. If you could get them with aioli, I think I'd be willing to drive 12 miles too. 

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Best sauce ever, and my sister makes a mean one. With just garlic, a pinch of salt and oil, she prepares the thickest aioli you've seen. And no electric appliance, it can not get more traditional than that.

We eat it in our barbecues or with fideuà ... or with snails. Yummy.

[renata101]

@Marc C That looks wonderful. How does she prepare it?

[marc_compte]

It is very simple, but it is easier to see it in a video:

Basically, crush the garlic with a pinch of salt. Then add the oil very, very slowly and never stop working it while you add the oil (you need both hands or some help).

[m_terrazas]

YUM!!
We make it like mayonnaise, but with huge amounts of garlic and a bit of parsley.

[marc_compte]

Yes, the "fast-food" version of it is the mayonnaise with garlic. We do it like that, too. Doing it the traditional way takes some time, so we only do it on special ocasions. 

And I'm not sure if parsley is in the original recipe, but we also add it sometimes, it gives it a nice extra kick.

[pandoraharper]

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@Renata S wrote:

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And actually, the Le Creuset one is lovely (almost sculptural). However, I need the mansion with the properly sized kitchen to house it first. 

 

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Ah, one of THOSE, heh. My mistake. That, whatever is in that pot, looks good though 🙂 Wonder of that's lamb....yummmmmm lamb.

Dang I just lost my appitite for the dinner I had planned. 1 fried egg, a container of yogurt, a Thomas engish muffin, and a glass of Orange juice. No taters, no meat. (Simply out of either). Yawn.

[sivavranagaro]

I made myself some tangerine - coconut flour cake - pics. I would never expect such mix could give a nice taste. 

It's recipe is about 5-6 tangerines (juice), 2 eggs, 100 g coconut flour, 100 g butter, 100 g all purpose flour, sugar (100 g or per taste), salt (pinch), baking powder (teaspoon). Mix dry ingredients. Mix liquid. Put all together and into an oven for next 20-30 min, 180 celsius.

[renata101]

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@Vesna M wrote:

I made myself some tangerine - coconut flour cake - pics. I would never expect such mix could give a nice taste. 

It's recipe is about 5-6 tangerines (juice), 2 eggs, 100 g coconut flour, 100 g butter, 100 g all purpose flour, sugar (100 g or per taste), salt (pinch), baking powder (teaspoon). Mix dry ingredients. Mix liquid. Put all together and into an oven for next 20-30 min, 180 celsius.

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Hi Vesna,

Thanks for translating the recipe from Croation to English. Now I just have to translate it from metric to imperial because that's what my kitchen is set up for.  The baking temperature is about 350F. And I have metric measuring cups, so I'm pretty much set. 

[mwiggenhorn]

My comfort food/ soul food is red beans and rice (which is a Monday tradition in the South US) and/or gumbo made with chicken and smoked sausage.  Or a baked potato with butter and cheddar cheese and lots of salt.

[renata101]

It's high time this thread was resurrected. I'm currently browsing at all manner of wonderful Easter bread recipes.  And I'd love to hear what anyone else is eating or baking. 

This is a Greek Easter bread called

tsoureki

 from a blog called the Periodic Table:



http://aperiodictableblog.com/?p=5649

[craiggabriel]

I did very little cooking until the last 2-3 years. Just simple stuff. But in recent times I've taken up cooking as something of a hobby, albeit only an occasional one. But for the first time in my life I've made things like pizza, cakes, pies, etc. totally from scratch. I've surprised myself at how well just about everything I've tried has come out.

One thing I do that I really like is once every few months I'll make a huge pot of seafood gumbo, enough to where that's just about all I'll eat for a couple days or so. I put in lots of spices to make it hot, chop up maybe 25 different kinds of vegetables, add several kinds of fish, shrimp, crawfish, crab meat, and whatever other kind of seafood I happen to pick up at the store, cook it up, and serve it over white rice. Good stuff.

[moutcom]

Hi folks,

today is friday, so my food is this:

Couscous

Bon appetit 🙂

[allergywriter]

If I were at home, I'd be busy making bunny cakes, hot cross buns and dying Easter eggs for the family. But I'm at the mountain house, it's just hubby and I and I won't be doing any of that stuff.

But, if you want deviled eggs that will impress...boil your eggs, peel, and then cut them in half. NOW it's time to dye them!  Let the dyed eggs dry and then stuff with your deviled egg recipe.

Easter past

[renata101]

Does anyone have a favourite recipe for this? 



https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Giant_pot_-_Valencia,_Spain_-_23_March_2013.jpg

There's another one here that looks good too. 
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:PaellaGigante.JPG

[florydev]

I don’t have a pan that big

[vsalinitro]

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Mark F wrote:
I don’t have a pan that big

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Shame on you!

[martina_plaschka]

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Mark F wrote:
I don’t have a pan that big

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Shame! I believe it comes with 5 spanish people to carry it, but then you need to let them live in your house...

[purplepony]

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Mark F wrote:
I don’t have a pan that big

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Almost spit my coffee out, Mark. Thanks for the laugh!

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[sivavranagaro]

I'm doing some spinach bread, in accordance to Upwork's colors, haha, .... yea, keep fingers crossed it ends up well. 🙂

[mwiggenhorn]

Years ago, I would make hot cross buns this time of year.  They were wonderful but I haven't worked with yeast for years and it's kinda scary now.

[pgiambalvo]

Crawfish etouffee and cornbread. Can't beat it.

[renata101]

Ooooh. I just found a picture of that. If you're prone to those little French accent thingies, it's known as étouffée, which appears to mean "smothered." 

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/etouffee-vs-gumbo#etouffee-vs-gumbo-what-are-the-differences

[mwiggenhorn]

Technically,  your picture is shrimp etouffe.  Crawfish (sadly) have little bitty tails.  Both are wonderful.  So is crawfish bisque but it's so time-consuming to make.

[renata101]

@Mary Since you mentioned it, I've been reading about crawfish. I don't think I've ever had them. The flavor is described as sweeter and less salty than shrimp. Or maybe halfway betweeen lobster and shrimp.

I think I need to drop in for a food tour.

[mwiggenhorn]

Any time.  Crawfish season is right now, although it's coming to an end.  Crawfish are hard to describe, especially since they get drenched with herbs and spices.  You would never eat a plain boiled crawfish - the boil itself is full of spices, lemons, sausage, corn, garlic heads, potatoes and anything else you feel like.  Served whole, poured out on a table covered with newspaper, eaten with your hands and lots of ice cold beer.

[pgiambalvo]

This just brought tears to my eyes with very fond memories. Now I just order the frozen tails online and have them shipped from Lousiana. Pricey but worth it.

[pgiambalvo]

I recently made crawfish bisque and it was awesome!

[mwiggenhorn]

And for Good Friday, the old timers make gumbo z'herbes.  No meat, just greens.  Pretty wonderful but I've never actually made it.

And, if anyone cares, true gumbo has fish, sausage and or meat, the holy trinity (celery, onions, bell peppers) and no other vegetable except okra.

[m_terrazas]

I don't have a favorite food, I eat everything and I like everything, but "patatas bravas" is something that I love.
With mayonnaise and a very spicy tomato 😊
By the way, with Marc's alioli sauce they are also exquisite.

[m_terrazas]

To correct myself, it won't let me edit the post.
They are "patatas bravas", not "patas" 😂

[kochubei_valeria]

Maria,

We limited the amount of time people have to edit their comment after posting it to one hour. We did it to address some security/spam issues. One hour should be sufficient in most cases where members need to edit their comment for typos or to add something they think of shortly after posting the comment. If they need help updating their comment later than that, they can use Notify Moderator button. I'll go ahead and correct your comment. 

Also, to make my comment more relevant to the thread. Here is my "soul food" and my lunch today - a huge pot of borscht

 

 

[m_terrazas]

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Valeria K wrote:

Maria,

We limited the amount of time people have to edit their comment after posting it to one hour. We did it to address some security/spam issues. One hour should be sufficient in most cases where members need to edit their comment for typos or to add something they think of shortly after posting the comment. If they need help updating their comment later than that, they can use Notify Moderator button. I'll go ahead and correct your comment. 

Also, to make my comment more relevant to the thread. Here is my "soul food" and my lunch today - a huge pot of borscht

 

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Hi Valeria, I wasn't complaining, I know it's because too much time had passed 😁
That has to be good, beetroot soup? I like the idea.
I have always eaten cooked beets in a salad.
Apart from beets, what other ingredients does it have? 

[kochubei_valeria]

There are all kinds of vegetables that go into it - cabbage, potatoes, onions, carrots. And it can be with meat or vegetarian or even vegan. I think, like with a lot of traditional dishes, there isn't one standard recipe and each family would have their own version of borscht that's slightly different and unique. 

[m_terrazas]

Valeria, look what a coincidence. She had never heard of this meal and today it appears in the digital newspaper.

[m_terrazas]

Sounds delicious.
And yes, there are traditional recipes that always have the touch "just like mom did" 🙂

[renata101]

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Maria T wrote:

Sounds delicious.
And yes, there are traditional recipes that always have the touch "just like mom did" 🙂

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Hmm. How do I say this? I never liked borscht until I found a recipe that wasn't "just like mom did it." 😂   (She did make amazing bread though.)

I found this recipe (a vegetarian version) because I ordered an organic vegetable basket once, and the one that was delivered was filled with beets and cabbage. 

I've never added caraway seeds because I don't particularly like them. If you don't have sour cream, yogurt will work. 

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/85517/russian-cabbage-borscht/