googling “when is ripe” in hungarian gave me a site with a chart (but not all the fruits and veggies i could think of) as the first link. im sure further links down the google results page would include the missing ones.
i will try making the water soapier. also, evaporation plays a problem if i leave it too long. but i want to get in the habit of cooking often enough that i wont have to worry about that. i remember i used to wash any stray dishes while waiting for water to boil. i have lots of tricks like that i seem to have to rediscover again and again. a couple years ago, i had an epiphany that soapy water made things clean, not soapy, and that helped for a while, until i forgot again. i mean, i never stopped using soap, and i used soap before that point, but there was a moment when i understood at an intrinsic level that the soap applied to a dish could be removed from that dish, and the dirt would be removed along with it, through the application of water, and that all dirty things could be made clean, that nothing was dirty beyond repair. whereas othertimes i remember that i don’t like the taste of soap and i sink into a vague suspicion that i’m just adding soap to the dirt and making soapy dirt and wonder what makes me so sure that adding soap to a spoon will make the food that later comes onto that spoon more edible. The manner in which I wash dishes doesn’t really change, but by mental approach to it changes from disgust at the wrongness on the dishes to delight at the opportunity to right a wrong.
Spinach canned. Hm, so it does. I’ll keep an eye out for it. My mental image of the aisle in the store that sells canned food mostly contains corn, peas, and beans, along with a few types of soup (mostly goulash soup, the one i like best), but googling in hungarian tells me there is indeed such a thing as canned spinach. i’ve seen it frozen, too, in small enough quantities that it could conceivably be eaten in one sitting. and i think frozen spinach would keep for at least a day in the fridge as well.
oh, the english wikipedia page for turnip shows something completely different. the dictionary I was using was wrong. I’m not really familiar with turnips, I guess. What I call white carrot is, according to wikipedia, actually parsley root, which looks somewhat like parsnips, but doesn’t taste like them. it’s not really carroty in flavour either, just shape. you put it in soups and stews, and chicken noodle soup should have at least one of them and at least one carrot as well.
the roasted squash sounds easy and good. i think i have a vague memory involving squash, zucchini, tomato and pasta with a creamy sauce. which sounds easy to make.
i’ll give leek another chance. :)
cream of broccoli soup is wonderful. i tried to make it once, but it wasnt very creamy when i made it, and i used too much broccoli (and therefore too much water and too much of everything else), but it was good.
I remember finding a recipe once online that if I took out everything that I was confused by/didn’t think I could get here/didn’t like, I was left lentils and water. i didnt like lentils and water all by themselves, and realised that anything i could add to it would be something of my own creation, not resembling the original recipe at all. it’s not usually that bad. usually it’s something like “capers” (which seem to be something pickled, but i only like pickled cucumbers) or “cheese-whiz” or takes an english cookbook off the shelf and flips through randomly “parmigiano-reggiano (a small handful)”, “radicchio”, “swiss chard.” The book was a present from my mother, but almost every recipe contains something we don’t have here, or something i don’t like, or something expensive. I’ve mostly given up on the cookbook as useless. :)
Capers are pickled flowerbuds, and can probably be safely left out of virtually anything. Parmigiano-reggiano is a cheese; you can sub parmesan or another hard grated/shredded cheese if you can’t find it. Radicchio and swiss chard are both leaf vegetables and could probably be reasonably substituted for others in that reference class. Cheez whiz is an abomination.
Also, now I want to try parsley root, but Wikipedia indicates it will be hard to find here! Rar!
Thanks for the information. :) I suppose that in general, then, “unheard of leaf vegetable that’s being suggested for a salad” can be replaced with “regular salad leaves” and “unheard of vegetable being suggested for pasta” can be replaced with “vegetable i like in pasta” and “some cheese that i dont know what it tastes like” can be replaced with gouda, which is good on everything.
I wonder if leaf parsley’s roots taste the same as root parsley’s. Wikipedia says they are smaller, since they’re not being grown for the root, but I think since it’s pretty much the same plant, it should taste at least similar. I don’t know if you garden, but if so, you might plant some regular parsley and when the time comes to dig them up see how much root there is. Otherwise, if you shop at farmer’s markets, you might ask the parsley-seller about the roots. Types of carrots (in Hungarian anyway) are sugar beets (called sugar carrot), parsley (called white carrot), and carrot (called orange carrot)
I suppose that in general, then, “unheard of leaf vegetable that’s being suggested for a salad” can be replaced with “regular salad leaves” and “unheard of vegetable being suggested for pasta” can be replaced with “vegetable i like in pasta” and “some cheese that i dont know what it tastes like” can be replaced with gouda, which is good on everything.
googling “when is ripe” in hungarian gave me a site with a chart (but not all the fruits and veggies i could think of) as the first link. im sure further links down the google results page would include the missing ones.
i will try making the water soapier. also, evaporation plays a problem if i leave it too long. but i want to get in the habit of cooking often enough that i wont have to worry about that. i remember i used to wash any stray dishes while waiting for water to boil. i have lots of tricks like that i seem to have to rediscover again and again. a couple years ago, i had an epiphany that soapy water made things clean, not soapy, and that helped for a while, until i forgot again. i mean, i never stopped using soap, and i used soap before that point, but there was a moment when i understood at an intrinsic level that the soap applied to a dish could be removed from that dish, and the dirt would be removed along with it, through the application of water, and that all dirty things could be made clean, that nothing was dirty beyond repair. whereas othertimes i remember that i don’t like the taste of soap and i sink into a vague suspicion that i’m just adding soap to the dirt and making soapy dirt and wonder what makes me so sure that adding soap to a spoon will make the food that later comes onto that spoon more edible. The manner in which I wash dishes doesn’t really change, but by mental approach to it changes from disgust at the wrongness on the dishes to delight at the opportunity to right a wrong.
Spinach canned. Hm, so it does. I’ll keep an eye out for it. My mental image of the aisle in the store that sells canned food mostly contains corn, peas, and beans, along with a few types of soup (mostly goulash soup, the one i like best), but googling in hungarian tells me there is indeed such a thing as canned spinach. i’ve seen it frozen, too, in small enough quantities that it could conceivably be eaten in one sitting. and i think frozen spinach would keep for at least a day in the fridge as well.
oh, the english wikipedia page for turnip shows something completely different. the dictionary I was using was wrong. I’m not really familiar with turnips, I guess. What I call white carrot is, according to wikipedia, actually parsley root, which looks somewhat like parsnips, but doesn’t taste like them. it’s not really carroty in flavour either, just shape. you put it in soups and stews, and chicken noodle soup should have at least one of them and at least one carrot as well.
the roasted squash sounds easy and good. i think i have a vague memory involving squash, zucchini, tomato and pasta with a creamy sauce. which sounds easy to make.
i’ll give leek another chance. :)
cream of broccoli soup is wonderful. i tried to make it once, but it wasnt very creamy when i made it, and i used too much broccoli (and therefore too much water and too much of everything else), but it was good.
I remember finding a recipe once online that if I took out everything that I was confused by/didn’t think I could get here/didn’t like, I was left lentils and water. i didnt like lentils and water all by themselves, and realised that anything i could add to it would be something of my own creation, not resembling the original recipe at all. it’s not usually that bad. usually it’s something like “capers” (which seem to be something pickled, but i only like pickled cucumbers) or “cheese-whiz” or takes an english cookbook off the shelf and flips through randomly “parmigiano-reggiano (a small handful)”, “radicchio”, “swiss chard.” The book was a present from my mother, but almost every recipe contains something we don’t have here, or something i don’t like, or something expensive. I’ve mostly given up on the cookbook as useless. :)
Capers are pickled flowerbuds, and can probably be safely left out of virtually anything. Parmigiano-reggiano is a cheese; you can sub parmesan or another hard grated/shredded cheese if you can’t find it. Radicchio and swiss chard are both leaf vegetables and could probably be reasonably substituted for others in that reference class. Cheez whiz is an abomination.
Also, now I want to try parsley root, but Wikipedia indicates it will be hard to find here! Rar!
Thanks for the information. :) I suppose that in general, then, “unheard of leaf vegetable that’s being suggested for a salad” can be replaced with “regular salad leaves” and “unheard of vegetable being suggested for pasta” can be replaced with “vegetable i like in pasta” and “some cheese that i dont know what it tastes like” can be replaced with gouda, which is good on everything.
I wonder if leaf parsley’s roots taste the same as root parsley’s. Wikipedia says they are smaller, since they’re not being grown for the root, but I think since it’s pretty much the same plant, it should taste at least similar. I don’t know if you garden, but if so, you might plant some regular parsley and when the time comes to dig them up see how much root there is. Otherwise, if you shop at farmer’s markets, you might ask the parsley-seller about the roots. Types of carrots (in Hungarian anyway) are sugar beets (called sugar carrot), parsley (called white carrot), and carrot (called orange carrot)
Yes, this.