My mother was not a brilliant cook but she had her staple dishes that were her signature: a classic German potato salad that she gleaned from her mother-in-law (my strict German grandma), bangers and mash (she was English, by the way), a classic Yorkshire pudding, a rich rigatoni dish and a date nut bread. Honestly, that's what I remember most. She wasn't a keen cook and preferred to spend her time pursuing other more interesting ventures.Strangely and despite of the lack of inspiration, I've always enjoyed cooking. When I was growing up,I nagged my mother to impart cooking skills to me. She wasn't very good at doing so despite her best intentions. I'm more self taught than anything, my efforts borne through trial and error. Yet I did retain the most important thing of all: the recipe for a classic bechamel sauce. My Mom taught me this recipe one day when I was ten years old and I never forgot it. This is the X-factor of sauces which beg a myriad of ingredients to simply transform a dish. Who knew it would become the best basic in my repertoire?
It's nice to have something in your back pocket.
7 comments:
Nice, C&W. Sadly, I have yet to master any of the important French sauces. I should get to work on that!
Let it cook a bit longer and you have a beautiful roux for all the gumbo & jumbalaya.... Now that's impressive.
Hey, sdcrawford, I lived in Lafayette for seven years. I miss dat good Cajun cooking. Are you having a deep-fried turkey for Thanksgiving?
Yes, but Crawfie--a roux is better made with good old American lard than butter. You know the old blocks of lard in the generic green and white waxed boxes? There's something about this that makes the best roux ever.
Do I have white trash written all over me or what?
CW, I am totally down with the lard.
C&W, you are white trash if white trash wears manolo blaniks! ;)
I KNEW Jen would be digging on the lard! Go, GIRL!
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