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Post by nana on Aug 29, 2020 14:56:24 GMT -5
Yes, literally that is what the recipe said: Green beans with Magic Sauce, but it would go well with many other things, I think. It has an Asian flair to it, although I don’t think it’s authentic anything. The only thing I did different was I sautéed the garlic with the green beans for the last minute or two because I didn’t want raw garlic, and I used a bit of Sriracha instead of red pepper flakes, and I didn’t add any extra salt, because I think the soy sauce adds enough. But I’m trying this again tonight on Swiss Chard, my husband’s least favorite vegetable, and if he cleans his plate, then it will really have proven itself as magic!
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Post by mach12 on Aug 29, 2020 19:17:30 GMT -5
I have that exact recipe from a Mediterranean cookbook and it had a different name. I think I kept that book out when I put the stuff in storage so we could move my mother-in-law in when she developed dementia. All I could think of when I saw the title of the post was magic mushrooms and I was worried that Nana had lost it. That'll be interesting to see how the sauce is on Swiss Chard. I really like Swiss Chard and it grows like crazy here so we have it all the time.
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Post by nana on Aug 30, 2020 7:32:46 GMT -5
I’m sad to report that although I liked it just fine on the swiss chard, it failed to charm my husband into eating more than his usual politeness portion.😕 Oh well, you win some and you lose some. It was fantastic on the green beans, though! That’s interesting about it being Mediterranean. The tahini would seem to imply that, but then the soy sauce says no, no. Some kind of fusion thing, maybe?
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Post by mach12 on Aug 30, 2020 10:20:42 GMT -5
I looked in the cookbooks I kept out of storage and didn't find it so will try to find it next week. We need to organize the stuff in storage and I've been dragging my feet on doing that since my surgery but the weather is cooling and it's time to get busy on it. I'll have to ask my wife how she does the chard. I know it includes bacon and after we put it on the plate we put lemon juice on it. Funny how there are some things she always cooks and some that I do.
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Post by nana on Aug 30, 2020 18:42:09 GMT -5
I could live on buttered noodles and swiss chard sautéed in olive oil with garlic, but I like the chard creamed, with bacon (of course!), mixed in with mac and cheese...pretty much any way. My husband will eat it mixed in with stuff, but he turns his nose up at just a plain chard side dish. I love him anyway.
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Post by mach12 on Aug 31, 2020 0:41:04 GMT -5
I'm that way with cooked broccoli (raw is fine). I used to like it but it's like someone flipped a switch and I can't stand it. I remember George Bush senior saying how he was the President of the U.S. and nobody was making him eat broccoli. I may not be the president but I stayed in a Holiday Inn Express once, so I don't have to either! People often just plain can't tolerate certain foods and they have no control over it. I've really learned that with my surgery. The left side of my tongue still isn't interpreting tastes right and some juices and stuff I normally love taste terrible. And water tasted horrible for the first couple of months but it's tolerable now. Sweet tea, which I've always loved, and the Tang powdered drink mix taste great. And Mango Kool-Aid. Who'd have guessed. I can sure understand something not tasting good to someone.
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Post by pooka on Aug 31, 2020 2:32:20 GMT -5
I've seen this talked about elsewhere, but Alton Brown did a show about this. Some minority of people have a genetic variation that results in a different mix of taste buds. Cooked broccoli is perceived at bitter to these people. They can't help it. It's genetics. It's chemistry & biology at work here. I've also read that our taste tend to dull with age. Also throughout our lives, our sense of taste can change markedly.
The show, Alton Brown's Good Eats, Season 11, Episode 16, If It Ain't Broccoli, Don't Fix It. You have to pay to watch it now, but there it a YouTube video of his roasted broccoli recipe. AS his show did a lot, It was about the chemistry of cooking. Depending on how you cook broccoli can enhance or mask the bitter flavor. I remember him saying that George Bush Senior might like broccoli if it was cooked differently. I don't recall, but it may have been the oven roaster. I'm not sure.
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Post by karitx on Aug 31, 2020 17:34:33 GMT -5
I'm intrigued by your magic sauce, nana! I bet it would be good on roasted Brussels sprouts.
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Post by nana on Sept 1, 2020 9:22:03 GMT -5
I’ve been making roasted broccoli lately that comes out great, a Test Kitchen recipe, of course. They have you preheat the baking sheet on the lowest rack in the oven as it preheats, to 500 degrees. Cut the florets off the stem and cut the crown into wedges so that each piece has a nice flat side, and peel and cut the stem into pieces, about 2-3 inches long and a half inch thick. Toss it in a bowl with olive oil, salt and pepper and a half teaspoon of sugar, (which aids in browning it nicely) and then quickly place the broccoli on the hot sheet, flat sides down, and put back into the oven for 9-11 minutes. The broccoli browns really nice in the high heat, but it isn’t in there long enough for the florets to get really charred, which was a problem I’ve had with oven roasting things before- by the time it’s done, certain parts are really more burnt than roasted. Just those few little tweaks of methodology make a big difference!
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Post by karitx on Sept 1, 2020 14:31:03 GMT -5
Thanks for the tip, nana - I will give that a try!
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