The downside to trying new dishes and recipes is, sometime the results aren't that great. Oh, not just the smoking mess that leaves everyone having a great time... at the Mexican restaurant. No, there are the dishes that are okay, but not great. Or not to some folk's taste.
For example, I made a tagine with beef, oranges, beets, orange blossom water, and pistachios. Involved thing, took plenty of work. And the results? Really don't care for it. At all. Some of the guests liked it, some didn't. Scratch that one off the do-again menu.
Since I couldn't find beets that were just the roots, I had a grocery bag full of beet greens. So I pulled out the Indian Home Cooking recipe book, and made saag paneer from scratch.
Peter liked it. As for me, well, I took about three bites, and found it too highly spiced.
Not spicy, not too hot, just... look, the dish called for frying 7 whole cloves, 7 green cardamom pods, and a bunch of cumin and fennel seeds, along with dried red peppers, in ghee before adding the greens. And when I bit into the greens, my stomach said "This is too high a density of spice to digest. Go get something bland, or you're really going to regret this in a few hours."
...then again, Peter grew up with Indian cooking. I did not. *sigh*
So, no recipe this week, either.
The exciting thing about being married to a good cook who's unafraid of new ideas is new food ideas. Not all work, but it's never dull!
ReplyDeleteI hesr you. Always tried to like indian food, to no avail. Dau and SIL took me to a great indian diner in palo alto this summer, and i came away with some great recipes. Newfound food love. I think i prefer trying things in restaurants before going to the work of making something i end up not liking.
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