Picky cooks

Kimberly said:

I don't like the texture of onions, but I love the flavor, so I use them
alot...as well as green onions and shallots and leeks.

My ex-girlfriend didn't like the texture of onions, but she liked the
flavor. So she'd run them through a grinder to get rid of the texture.
Similarly, lots of curries start out with onions; when Cook's Illustrated
did an article on curries about 10 years ago, they mentioned liquefying
onions in a blender with a bit of water to get the flavor without the
texture.

Quoted message said:

I will not use mushrooms, and you'll never find them being served in my
house unless they're in a dish someone else brought, and most anyone who
would bring a dish to my home would know better 😉

Is this a texture thing (like someone else wrote about), or a flavor thing?
If it's just the texture, you might like Tony Bourdain's recipe for mushroom
soup, where the soup is puréed both to extract the maximum flavor and to get
rid of the rubbery texture. I can type up the recipe if you'd like it.

Quoted message said:

There are other things, like olives (which I do like green olives, just
not in anything where they're hot...eww)

I like this recipe from Rachael Ray:

Chicken for Almodovar
Rice:
3 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads, 2 pinches
1 1 /2 cups white rice

Chicken:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 medium pieces chicken breast, 6 ounces, each breast cut in half across the
breast
Salt and pepper
4 cloves garlic, cracked away from skin and crushed
1 medium onion, quartered, then thinly sliced
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
2 jarred pimentos, drained, halved and sliced
1/4 cup, 2 handfuls, golden raisins
1 small tub, 1 cup, Spanish jumbo green pitted olives, coarsely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons butter, chopped into pieces
1/3 cup, a couple of handfuls, flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup sliced almonds, a few handfuls, toasted

In a medium sauce pan bring stock and butter to a boil. Add saffron and
rice. Cover pot, reduce heat to low and simmer 18 to 20 minutes. Fluff with
fork.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, brown chicken seasoned with salt
and pepper in 2 tablespoons oil, about 2 - 3 minutes on each side. Remove
chicken and add another tablespoon olive oil and turn the pan to coat with
the oil. Add garlic and onions and sauté 2 minutes to begin to soften them.
Stir in bay, pimento, olives, raisins. Add wine and cook 1 minute, picking
up any pan drippings. Add stock and bring liquid up to a bubble. Whisk in
butter until melted. Return chicken to the pan and reduce heat to simmer.
Cook 15 minutes.

Serve chicken over saffron rice and garnish with lots of chopped parsley and
a generous topping of toasted almonds.

[BOB'S NOTE: I use boned chicken thighs instead of breasts, and I don't need
as much oil.]

Bob

Janet Puistonen <[email hidden]> wrote:
: Thelma Lubkin wrote:
:> Janet Puistonen <[email hidden]> wrote:
:>> I'm the cook, so I don't cook with things I don't like. I hate olives
:>> (except in tapenade), lima beans, and liver (Except in pate. I love
:>> pate.) My tolerance for mussels is very low these days. Olives in
:>> particular just permeate and destroy almost anything they are added
:>> to. [shudder] I'm assuming that disgusting things like canned peas
:>> and canned asparagus don't count as "normal" ingredients?
:>
:> So far our tastes in food are such exact diametric opposites that
:> I will boldly predict that you cook soups and stews with celery.

: No, Thelma, I don't. I hope this partially restores your faith in me! <G>

Oh, but I *want* people to have different tastes in food. Otherwise
we'd never have such abundant choices

...and I'm sure that I'd love your chocolates.

--thelma

"Bob Terwilliger" <virtualgoth@die_spammer.biz> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Heather said:

Do you cook with something you don't like because you know it should be
there or because people like it? Do you avoid at all costs a seemingly
normal ingredient?

I don't like caraway, so I don't include it in anything I'm cooking. If
I'm cooking for other people, I *still* don't include it. Even in Reuben
sandwiches.

Bob

cannot stand the taste of coriander/cilantro leaves...takes like soap to me

LadyJane said:

The Bubbo said:

Do you cook with something you don't like because you know it should be there
or because people like it? Do you avoid at all costs a seemingly normal
ingredient?

I don't cook with things that I hate... unless given sufficient cause.
My theory is that you can't have EVERYTHING your way in the kitchen
whether you're the cook or just a passive consumer. My dad and brother
hate mushrooms but I love them and mama would eat them, so sometimes
I'd use them but leave them in big pieces so that the mushroom-haters
could fish them out and leave them on the plate. My brother hates
cauliflower so we didn't use it much but when we did I just didn't
dish any for him. My mother hates garlic, so we indulged her for
years but then my brother said 'we have to start using it', and we
weaned her onto it very gradually, never putting enough into the dish
to make her say 'ewww, garlic!'
I never had to cook most of the vegetables I hate, because the rest of
the family didn't like them either (mostly brussel sprouts,
eggplant...) but if I did have to use them I'd just eat around them or
not put any on my plate... I've developed a taste for some of the
foods that I used to loathe, like olives. I don't eat seafood except
fish, and DH is deathly allergic so it's not an issue, but if he
wasn't and he really wanted me to I'd make him some.

Janet Puistonen said:

I'm the cook, so I don't cook with things I don't like.

That's my rule too. :-)

Quoted message said:

I hate olives(except in tapenade),

Pity. I hated them until I was in my 30s. One day I had a bad case of the
munchies and tried one and found out how good they are. I really like them, but
I get them at the deli counter, not in a can or a jar.

Quoted message said:

lima beans, and liver (Except in pate. I love pate.).

I can understand the dislike for lima beans. I love pate and I have had liver on
a couple of occasions where it was delicious. The other times I had it I was not
impressed. It was more the texture than the taste.

Quoted message said:

My tolerance for mussels is very low these days.

I used t like mussels until the day my wife got sick on them and it reminded me
too much of ht time I had a bad bout of food poisoning. It turned me right off
them. The thought of eating something that could make me that sick is just too
much to deal with. I realize that it was probably a bad one that did it to her,
and that anything else could do the same sort of thing to me, but being that
sick can have an odd effect on you.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Dave Smith said:

Janet Puistonen said:

I'm the cook, so I don't cook with things I don't like.

That's my rule too. :-)

Not mine...

I have and will cook separate meals for my father based on what I know
he likes. To not do so I feel would be selfish, especially if he
specifically requests something he wants that I don't care for. Salmon
is a classic example.

I don't have to eat it, I make myself something else that _I_ like. ;-)

I have found that farm raised salmon is actually pretty good. Milder in
taste, more similar to lake trout.

Wild caught salmon is just nasty no matter HOW I prepare it.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I hate olives(except in tapenade),

Pity. I hated them until I was in my 30s. One day I had a bad case of the
munchies and tried one and found out how good they are. I really like them,
but
I get them at the deli counter, not in a can or a jar.

I love olives almost as much as I love shrimp!
A trip to an olive bar can be enlightening. There are ever so many
different preparations! As much as I like olives, some of them are vile.
<G>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

lima beans, and liver (Except in pate. I love pate.).

I can understand the dislike for lima beans. I love pate and I have had liver
on
a couple of occasions where it was delicious. The other times I had it I was
not
impressed. It was more the texture than the taste.

Liver needs to be served medium rare at most. I prefer it slightly more
rare that that. Otherwise both flavor and texture suffers.

I hate lima beans.
Dad has never requested them, so it's cool. ;-)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My tolerance for mussels is very low these days.

I used t like mussels until the day my wife got sick on them and it reminded
me
too much of ht time I had a bad bout of food poisoning. It turned me right
off
them. The thought of eating something that could make me that sick is just
too
much to deal with. I realize that it was probably a bad one that did it to
her,
and that anything else could do the same sort of thing to me, but being that
sick can have an odd effect on you.

I've never liked mussels.
The flavor is way way way too strong.
They are very "fishy".

I've tried........ and may still try again, just try a different way of
preparing them.

Prep. seems to be the key. Some foods, prepared wrong, are gross.
Done right, they are delicious! Therefore I still keep to my rule of at
least trying/tasting something before turning my nose up at it, even if
it's a food I normally cannot stand.

The one exception is bell peppers! I have yet to ever find a way to
prepare those where that nasty flavor is not overwhelming. :-(

Dad likes them raw, and they have to be ripe. Red only, no green.
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a [censored]"
-- Jack Nicholson

In article <k3ekg.3578$oE3.1002@trndny04>, [email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

I'm
assuming that disgusting things like canned peas and canned asparagus don't
count as "normal" ingredients?

Along with velveeta, "parmesan" cheese in a cardboard can, and fish
sticks.

--
Peter Aitken
Visit my recipe and kitchen myths pages at www.pgacon.com/cooking.htm

In article <[email hidden]>,
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

cannot stand the taste of coriander/cilantro leaves...takes like soap to me

This one is apparently genetic - there's a sizable minority of people to
whom cilantro tastes soapy.

Otherwise I am quite surprised at how many people have these strong
specific dislikes. I can't think of any I have except for quality-
related ones. I don't strongly dislike any particular food or spice but
I do dislike poor quality food.

--
Peter Aitken
Visit my recipe and kitchen myths pages at www.pgacon.com/cooking.htm

The Bubbo <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Do you cook with something you don't like because you know it should
be there or because people like it? Do you avoid at all costs a
seemingly normal ingredient?

I have a reverse problem. There are so many foods/recipes I haven't
tried, Something to do with scaling great recipes down for serving one
or two people, complex food prep or dietary issues. *sigh*

I sit here staring at my 24 spice rack I bought a year ago and only half
of them have the cap seal removed. Funny that, and I spend most of my
time at home in the kitchen!

I don't touch lima beans either. They made me puke as a kid everytime.

Andy

Bob Terwilliger said:

Kimberly said:

I don't like the texture of onions, but I love the flavor, so I use
them alot...as well as green onions and shallots and leeks.

My ex-girlfriend didn't like the texture of onions, but she liked the
flavor. So she'd run them through a grinder to get rid of the texture.

Same here. I don't care for the texture of onions (or celery, either, for
that matter). But I find they don't bother me if I do a very fine dice
rather than a course chop. They also need to be cooked soft.

Jill

OmManiPadmeOmelet said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Dave Smith said:

Janet Puistonen said:

I'm the cook, so I don't cook with things I don't like.

That's my rule too. :-)

Not mine...

I have and will cook separate meals for my father based on what I know
he likes. To not do so I feel would be selfish, especially if he
specifically requests something he wants that I don't care for. Salmon
is a classic example.

I think it's wonderful the way you cook and take care of your father 🙂

Quoted message said:

Wild caught salmon is just nasty no matter HOW I prepare it.

I find salmon to be highly overrated. It's a nice enough fish, I guess, but
I don't go out of my way to look for it on a restaurant menu. Costs way to
much, for one thing.

Jill

"MG" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

cannot stand the taste of coriander/cilantro leaves...takes like soap to
me

Ditto, this is a cilantro-free household. Other than that, don't even
think of cooking liver, even next door. Just don't cook that foul
stuff and we'll all get along. (laugh)

nancy (lives in a calves liver free neighborhood)

On 15 Jun 2006 10:16:01 -0500, "Bob Terwilliger"
<virtualgoth@die_spammer.biz> wrote:

re mushrooms...

Quoted message said:

Is this a texture thing (like someone else wrote about), or a flavor thing?
If it's just the texture, you might like Tony Bourdain's recipe for mushroom
soup, where the soup is puréed both to extract the maximum flavor and to get
rid of the rubbery texture. I can type up the recipe if you'd like it.

For me, with mushrooms, it's the *flavour* I can't take. If you pureed
them it would make whatever you were cooking much, much worse. At
least if they are whole you can pick them out.

Jo Anne

jmcquown wrote on 15 Jun 2006 in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

Bob Terwilliger said:

Kimberly said:

I don't like the texture of onions, but I love the flavor, so I use
them alot...as well as green onions and shallots and leeks.

My ex-girlfriend didn't like the texture of onions, but she liked
the flavor. So she'd run them through a grinder to get rid of the
texture.

Same here. I don't care for the texture of onions (or celery, either,
for that matter). But I find they don't bother me if I do a very fine
dice rather than a course chop. They also need to be cooked soft.

Jill

When I stirfry quartered almost tender crisp onions are a must

--
-Alan

"Bob Terwilliger" <virtualgoth@die_spammer.biz> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Kimberly said:

I don't like the texture of onions, but I love the flavor, so I use them
alot...as well as green onions and shallots and leeks.

My ex-girlfriend didn't like the texture of onions, but she liked the
flavor. So she'd run them through a grinder to get rid of the texture.
Similarly, lots of curries start out with onions; when Cook's Illustrated
did an article on curries about 10 years ago, they mentioned liquefying
onions in a blender with a bit of water to get the flavor without the
texture.

I use my ceramic blade mandolin to slice onions very thinly or else I mince them
before using them most of the time. I've grown accustomed to them these days, and as
long as they're not in large pieces, it's all good.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

I will not use mushrooms, and you'll never find them being served in my
house unless they're in a dish someone else brought, and most anyone who
would bring a dish to my home would know better 😉

Is this a texture thing (like someone else wrote about), or a flavor thing?
If it's just the texture, you might like Tony Bourdain's recipe for mushroom
soup, where the soup is puréed both to extract the maximum flavor and to get
rid of the rubbery texture. I can type up the recipe if you'd like it.

I'd be interested in that. I like the flavor in some instances and with some types. I
abhor the texture.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

There are other things, like olives (which I do like green olives, just
not in anything where they're hot...eww)

I like this recipe from Rachael Ray:

Chicken for Almodovar
Rice:
3 cups chicken stock
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads, 2 pinches
1 1 /2 cups white rice

Chicken:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
6 medium pieces chicken breast, 6 ounces, each breast cut in half across the
breast
Salt and pepper
4 cloves garlic, cracked away from skin and crushed
1 medium onion, quartered, then thinly sliced
1 bay leaf, fresh or dried
2 jarred pimentos, drained, halved and sliced
1/4 cup, 2 handfuls, golden raisins
1 small tub, 1 cup, Spanish jumbo green pitted olives, coarsely chopped
1 cup dry white wine
1 cup chicken stock
2 tablespoons butter, chopped into pieces
1/3 cup, a couple of handfuls, flat leaf parsley, chopped
1/2 cup sliced almonds, a few handfuls, toasted

In a medium sauce pan bring stock and butter to a boil. Add saffron and
rice. Cover pot, reduce heat to low and simmer 18 to 20 minutes. Fluff with
fork.

In a large skillet over medium high heat, brown chicken seasoned with salt
and pepper in 2 tablespoons oil, about 2 - 3 minutes on each side. Remove chicken
and add another tablespoon olive oil and turn the pan to coat with the oil. Add
garlic and onions and sauté 2 minutes to begin to soften them. Stir in bay,
pimento, olives, raisins. Add wine and cook 1 minute, picking up any pan drippings.
Add stock and bring liquid up to a bubble. Whisk in butter until melted. Return
chicken to the pan and reduce heat to simmer. Cook 15 minutes.

Serve chicken over saffron rice and garnish with lots of chopped parsley and
a generous topping of toasted almonds.

[BOB'S NOTE: I use boned chicken thighs instead of breasts, and I don't need as
much oil.]

Bob

Thanks for the recipe! It sounds just like something my husband would love!

kimberly

"Jo Anne Slaven" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On 15 Jun 2006 10:16:01 -0500, "Bob Terwilliger"
<virtualgoth@die_spammer.biz> wrote:

re mushrooms...

Quoted message said:

Is this a texture thing (like someone else wrote about), or a flavor
thing?
If it's just the texture, you might like Tony Bourdain's recipe for
mushroom
soup, where the soup is puréed both to extract the maximum flavor and to
get
rid of the rubbery texture. I can type up the recipe if you'd like it.

For me, with mushrooms, it's the *flavour* I can't take. If you pureed
them it would make whatever you were cooking much, much worse. At
least if they are whole you can pick them out.

If anybody ever gives you some truffles or truffle oil as a gift, e-mail me,
and I'll tell you my address. I'll pay the postage.

;o) Rich

The Bubbo said:

Do you cook with something you don't like because you know it should be there
or because people like it? Do you avoid at all costs a seemingly normal
ingredient?

I will use olives to keep the integrity of a dish, but try as I will,
I've never developed a taste for them, although I can tolerate them if
they are chopped as part of something else. Lord, I wish I loved them
like everyone else does! I hate, and will not use "because it should
be there" cilantro (aka soap powder), oysters and cottage cheese.

Funny how our tastes differ so much. I read a lot of posts in this
thread for lima beans (a true comfort food for me), and liver and pate,
which I think are sublime.

Sandy

In article <[email hidden]>,

jmcquown said:

OmManiPadmeOmelet said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Dave Smith said:

Janet Puistonen wrote:

> I'm the cook, so I don't cook with things I don't like.

That's my rule too. :-)

Not mine...

I have and will cook separate meals for my father based on what I know
he likes. To not do so I feel would be selfish, especially if he
specifically requests something he wants that I don't care for. Salmon
is a classic example.

I think it's wonderful the way you cook and take care of your father 🙂

He's my buddy... ;-)

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Wild caught salmon is just nasty no matter HOW I prepare it.

I find salmon to be highly overrated. It's a nice enough fish, I guess, but
I don't go out of my way to look for it on a restaurant menu. Costs way to
much, for one thing.

Jill

I like catfish fillet' best.
He likes it too so of all the fish available, that's the one we eat the
most of.
--
Peace!
Om

"My mother never saw the irony in calling me a Son of a [censored]"
-- Jack Nicholson

"The Bubbo" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

When I was making my curried potato salad this weekend and I was chopping
the
green onions I had a moment of "what the hell!"

I hate onions, I always have. As a kid I remember the fierce battles to
get me
to eat them (and mushrooms and olives). I've come to a semi-truce on
onions...must be green onions, cooked, small quantities. Anyway, I cook
with
onions all the time even though I don't like them. I put them in things
because they belong or because I know I'm serving it to people who like
onions. The one thing I can't do is use mushrooms. I just can't. Mushrooms
are
one of the vilest edible substances in this arm of the galaxy.

Do you cook with something you don't like because you know it should be
there
or because people like it? Do you avoid at all costs a seemingly normal
ingredient?

Interesting question...but there are so few things that I dislike that it's
not an issue. There are things that I wouldn't go out of my way to eat, but
they're usually not critical ingredients.

But if there was something that someone else liked and I didn't, I wouldn't
have a problem cooking it for them now and then. But that's probably easy
for me to say...if I was truly disgusted by something, I might have a
different answer.

Donna

Mr Libido Incognito said:

jmcquown wrote on 15 Jun 2006 in rec.food.cooking

Quoted message said:

Bob Terwilliger said:

Kimberly wrote:

> I don't like the texture of onions, but I love the flavor, so I use
> them alot...as well as green onions and shallots and leeks.

My ex-girlfriend didn't like the texture of onions, but she liked
the flavor. So she'd run them through a grinder to get rid of the
texture.

Same here. I don't care for the texture of onions (or celery,
either, for that matter). But I find they don't bother me if I do a
very fine dice rather than a course chop. They also need to be
cooked soft.

Jill

When I stirfry quartered almost tender crisp onions are a must

Which is why I don't tend to stir-fry 🙂