wfi@unc.UUCP (William F. Ingogly) (05/26/85)
I just returned from a week's vacation and read my net.cooks, and
guess what! Another flood of utterly fascinating, fabmost articles on
BOILING WATER! Boy, what a treat. How utterly, utterly, too too much.
And all these wet blankets telling you to move this conversation to
net.physics or some other real boring group because it's not, like,
relevant, you know what I mean? After all, the human body is mostly
water, right? And so is most of the food you eat. And how many recipes
have you seen that have water in them?
There's obviously a crying need for a newsgroup having to do with
water and cooking, judging by the number and intensity of the
responses we've seen here in the last few weeks. I therefore propose
we start a new subgroup, net.cooks.water, so the killjoys and commies
who keep whining about our intellectually stimulating discussions of
the history, physics, sociology, and symbolism of water and related
substances won't have to read them. Spirit of compromise, eh what?
To get the ball rolling, here are a couple of old family recipes I
thought you might enjoy:
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This is a real summertime cooler that's easy to make and will be
enjoyed by the whole family:
WHITE WATER COOLER
chilled tumblers
ice cubes
large bottle of Perrier
water
sprigs of mint
Place tumblers in freezer for five minutes to chill them.
Put two or three ice cubes in each tumbler, and splash two
jiggers of water over them. You should use a real flavorful
water; my own tap water, for example, has a rich and complex
aroma redolent of the swamp and with a high bitter tang of
the best quality chlorine. I sometimes add a couple of drops
of green food coloring to enhance the sensation that I'm
paddling through the Dismal Swamp. Fill the tumbler with
Perrier, and garnish with sprigs of mint. Serves 4. [Note:
for an elegant variation, try a Perrier and soda.]
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My great uncle brought this recipe back with him from Taiwan. It's an
authentic northern Chinese banquet dish of ancient origin (some think
it may date back to the last ice age).
GRANDMA CHANG'S STIR-FRIED ICE CHIPS
3 cups fresh ice chips
1 cup scallions, sliced on the bias
1 cup water chestnuts, diced on the dias
1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
1 garlic clove, minced until it's silly
1 Tbsp. fresh ginger, also minced
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/2 cup dry sherry
1/4 cup gin
Place the peanut oil in a wok and heat until it's barely
smoking. Add the scallions, water chestnuts, ginger and
garlic and stir like crazy for a little while. Throw in
the ice chips, then add the soy sauce and sherry stirring
the whole while. Drink the gin. Serves 4 if you're lucky.
Unfortunately, I haven't gotten this recipe to work right
for me; the ice chips keep melting before they're properly
browned. I think it's a matter of heat; you need to sear
the chips like a steak to keep the juices in. For my next
attempt, I plan to try a solid titanium wok and a miniature
ram jet to see if I can get those little suckers to brown.
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I sincerely hope no :-) is necessary.
-- Good eatin', Bill Ingogly