Spurred on from recent successes in ad-hoc pasta sauces, I thought I could do more. Having watched “Ratatouille” recently, I felt like the mouse, like I could just “make up” recipes as I went along, and I would be guided by the “music”, sort of like lumines, but with food.
Unlike lumines, I’m less good at the food. The whole house smells terrible now, the food, time and effort, are all wasted. However, I’m spurred on. I believe my theory was solid. Let me explain:
I recently had a moroccan style salad. It was from coles, so you know, probably not authentic, but still. It had chick peas, red onions, peas, corn, a few greens, and herbs and spices, like cumin, chilli, basil, rosemary, etc. It tasted OK, but I thought I could do better.
I basically liked the way peas and corn go together, and that with lemon it sort of “worked”. I figured you could add carrots and mushrooms without too much trouble, add some small potatoes, serve with couscous.
So for the initial try, I decided to forego the couscous, and just see if I could get the saladey thing working. Threw it all together, put it in a fire, and waited.
The potatoes were my undoing. They take a lot longer to cook than anything else. I should’ve put them in the microwave first. I’m going to try this again once I get game. It will be awesome…
Paulo said about {{count}} hours later:
Carrots will also take a while, if you’re cooking them and want them to be soft. But I suppose as this is meant to be a salad you probably want some crunch in there somewhere – and raw carrots are a lot nicer than raw potatoes.
The smaller the size of the potato you are cooking the quicker it will cook. This is not always a good thing though. I like potato salads with larger chunks of potato rather than chickpea size chunks.
Also, for instant betterment of supermarket type produce, use FRESH herbage instead (such as fresh basil and rosemary – and then there’s fresh chilli and esp. fresh garlic).
Although, I’m not really sure if there is much of a difference between fresh and dried chilli, but I know that dried chilli is more concentrated.
I am growing basil and rosemary if you want some.
Red onion is a powerful flavour (but great in salads). This will always provide an instant kick! Same with chilli I suppose.