I am one of these people who are highly susceptible to the marketing ploy that are flavored condiments. To give you an example: right now in my fridge there are seven different kinds of mustard, each flavored with different spices (there’s horseradish mustard, honey mustard, tarragon mustard, and so on). If you look further you’ll see a bunch of oils (rosemary oil, chili oil, garlic oil) and right next to the oils, there are the vinegars (raspberry vinegar, apple vinegar, pomegranate vinegar…). You get the picture. Put anything flavored and nicely packaged in front of me and I’ll compulsively buy it. But, in the meantime, I have a vague feeling that I am being scammed. The husband just raises his eyebrows when he sees me putting yet another olive oil or vinegar in the shopping cart while explaining frantically why I really, really need to buy them. (Sometimes I sneak them in when he isn’t looking and make an innocent face at the cash register when the cashier rings it up). I think he thinks I’m an addict… a flavored condiment shopaholic. He’s right. So, in order to appease my addiction without feeling like a gullible advertising monkey, I decided to make my own herb-flavored olive oil. And let me tell you, I was shocked, shocked by the outcome. It was as easy as can be.
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I am going to make a bold statement: Cod is my most favorite fish in the whole world. Halibut is a close second, followed by albacore tuna (but only sashimi style) and salmon (but only sashimi style or smoked, and if smoked, then only in a particular way, from one particular place in Poland)… and on a related topic: I hate herring, always have and probably always will. All this to say, that for the moment being, you will not see any herring recipes on this blog but you will see plenty of cool fish, like cod, tuna and salmon. Also, I do realize that I’m weird and I will make a serious attempt at branching out fishwise or, at the very least, I will provide you with as many delicious and varied cod/halibut/tuna/salmon recipes as humanly possible. Although after eating this particular roasted cod with tomatoes, onions, red peppers and orange zest, I must say that my branching out incentives are pretty slim.
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February 25, 2010 in
soups
I come from a country where beetroot soup is sacred. We call it “barszcz” but the name has been internationally butchered and bastardized and you may know it as “borscht”. We usually eat it for Christmas with little mushroom-filled dumplings, which we call “uszka” (meaning “little ears”). Barszcz is probably my favorite childhood soup and, understandably, messing around with other beet soup recipes feels like a sacrilege or a betrayal of sorts, not to mention, it could get you disowned by your grandma… but when I saw this recipe in yet another cookbook gifted to me by my awesome parents-in-law, I knew I had to try it, if only because there is almost a whole year till next Christmas.
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