[Hasu Cook]4: Morue à la Provençale (Cod) - Page 2

On May 02 2012 11:27 Newbistic wrote:
Conclusion

An interesting anecdote is that while I was growing up, raised in a traditional Chinese family, we always looked down on "Western" cuisine as rough and simplistic. My only contact with Western "cuisine" at the time being cafeteria food from school, I was inclined to agree. Steamed peas? Green beans boiled until they were turning yellow? Raw vegetable salads? These foods seemed so basic and flavorless compared to the stir fries of Chinese cooking which involved much washing, slicing, cooking, and saucing. And so I relayed these observations to my parents, who used these findings to reinforce their prejudices against western cuisine. To this day, many first-generation Chinese immigrants hold onto these same prejudices even after having lived in the United States for decades.

On May 03 2012 11:59 JingleHell wrote:
Have you tried just slapping together any recipes yet? Homebrewed recipes can be some of the best (and worst) experiences you'll ever have with food, but sometimes it will introduce you to flavors you'll almost never see in a cookbook.

Like nutmeg in a batter on basa fish. Just a tiny bit. Delicious. (Nutmeg is really easy to overdo, by the way.)

In retrospect, that would have turned out better if I hadn't tried to make up a batter from the ground up, but just chosen seasonings to taste, but hey. Live and learn.

On May 03 2012 18:06 Newbistic wrote:


A lot of my past blogs involve original or tweaked recipes.

I usually don't follow recipes exactly, but there is always a specific purpose when I do, which is usually when I am trying to learn about new ingredients, techniques, or an entire cuisine that I'm not familiar with.

In terms of homebrewed recipes, it's one thing to add peanut butter to your oatmeal and another to know exactly which type of wine would go even better with that new chicken recipe you're cooking up. In order for me to get to the latter type of experimentation and create truly unique recipes I must occasionally (more than occasionally, really) follow established recipes that are crafted by master chefs through the decades in order to truly understand how various ingredients and cooking techniques function.

It might sound boring to a lot of people, but yeah.

On May 02 2012 17:04 Disregard wrote:
Why not just substitute with a big can of nice chunk tomatoes?

On May 04 2012 06:18 Hawk wrote:
Looks real good.

I suppose that sauce would go good with a couple other white fishes, ya? I was thinking sea bass would be awesome with that. Though I've only had cod once or twice, so I don't know how that taste compares.

On May 05 2012 06:55 corumjhaelen wrote:
Nice recipe. For the title, cabillaud and morue are more or less the same kind of fish, we just don't use it in the same context. Here cabillaud would make more sense^^

If you have bad quality tomatoes it won't change much, if you have decent one, the flavor will be much better.
My mother does that kind of stuff very often, and while it's always pretty good for me, it tastes much better with good tomatoes too.

I'd say yes to your answer, but if the fish has more taste than cod, the sauce might smother its flavor a bit, which could be a pity.
Nice blog =)