Recipes Make Magic
Senior Cook
Even from just having been a member here a very short while, I've learned this forum obviously has a large number of very savvy cooks who've pretty much seen and heard it all in terms of a wide range of old and new recipes in numerous cooking categories, genres and methods or techniques, so it can be somewhat difficult to seriously pique your interest with recipes from a newbie like me that most of you have seen and used numerous times in some form or another.
Having said that, I thought it might be of interest to some of you to know a bit more about me, as regards the cooking sources, and modus operandi for the development of many of my recipes, some of which I've already posted here, and others I will additionally post over time.
First off, I'll start with listing the sources of my recipes, in no particular order:
- My Mother & her mother
- My Grandmother on my father's side (who was born, raised, and resided in France into late adulthood)
- My late first wife &/or her mother
- My current wife &/or her mother
- Any one of the more than 100 cookbooks I've accumulated over many years from here in Canada, the U.S., the Caribbean islands, Asia, & in particular Singapore & Hong Kong where I lived for a time, and from Mexico, France, Italy, Greece, & other cuisines/areas where I've visited once or more times, that escape me for the moment
- From a few restaurant chefs who were kind enough to share their secrets with me
- From our Singaporean amah
- From our Grenadian housekeeper
- Other sources that are also forgotten to this point
Another thing I feel you should know about me, if you haven't already figured that out, is that I love tinkering/experimenting with recipes, having done so with numerous recipes over the past 20 years or so - some to the point where I've tried out several or more variations until I was happy with the eventual taste and other results, and at times just for the hell of it (especially those where a good number of the test recipes have turned out to be a bit of a disaster - LOL).
Anyway, a large number of the current recipes I stick with, have been altered, either significantly, partly, or very modestly, from the original(s) obtained from one source or another.
I'm sure this type of behavior is not unknown to some you who do, or have done, this very same thing, perhaps many times too.
So, armed with this info, I would guess you've gathered that many, or almost all, of the recipes I post here will likely be somewhat removed from the recipe(s) you might know for a certain dish or dishes, in terms of ingredients or technique, or whatever.
To conclude, I'd like to list in general terms a number of areas where I've accumulated recipes that I quite like, so that if any of you have an interest in broadening your recipes library in any one of these kinds of dishes, please don't hesitate to say so, and I'll post a recipe, or recipes, of that category or type:
Meat dishes - examples:
-Authentic Indonesian Beef Satay with my sauce
- Beef steaks - grilled, oven-baked, or stovetop, with various sauces, such as whiskey or horseradish
- Chicken breast & thigh recipes - quick or more detailed - Kebabs - mexican oriented - e.g. authentic chicken enchiladas
- Pork in many forms, ribs chops, kebabs, S. & S. Chinese
- Lamb - rack, shanks or ground e.g. kebabs w/tomato tzaziki
- Seafood or fish dishes - quick & easy or otherwise - prawns, scallops, shellfish
- Pasta - lasagna, rigatoni & meatballs, other - mac & cheese
- Misc. e.g. Rice & Beef porcupines, quesadillas, quiches, other
- Hors d'ouevres & appies - many types
- Desserts - other than my since posted chocolate mocha torte - you name the type
- Other ? Please say so
I want to continue contributing to this forum, and hope that this alternative approach to doing so is acceptable to you, instead of my just posting any old recipe you have little or no interest in because you've seen it a hundred times !
Having said that, I thought it might be of interest to some of you to know a bit more about me, as regards the cooking sources, and modus operandi for the development of many of my recipes, some of which I've already posted here, and others I will additionally post over time.
First off, I'll start with listing the sources of my recipes, in no particular order:
- My Mother & her mother
- My Grandmother on my father's side (who was born, raised, and resided in France into late adulthood)
- My late first wife &/or her mother
- My current wife &/or her mother
- Any one of the more than 100 cookbooks I've accumulated over many years from here in Canada, the U.S., the Caribbean islands, Asia, & in particular Singapore & Hong Kong where I lived for a time, and from Mexico, France, Italy, Greece, & other cuisines/areas where I've visited once or more times, that escape me for the moment
- From a few restaurant chefs who were kind enough to share their secrets with me
- From our Singaporean amah
- From our Grenadian housekeeper
- Other sources that are also forgotten to this point
Another thing I feel you should know about me, if you haven't already figured that out, is that I love tinkering/experimenting with recipes, having done so with numerous recipes over the past 20 years or so - some to the point where I've tried out several or more variations until I was happy with the eventual taste and other results, and at times just for the hell of it (especially those where a good number of the test recipes have turned out to be a bit of a disaster - LOL).
Anyway, a large number of the current recipes I stick with, have been altered, either significantly, partly, or very modestly, from the original(s) obtained from one source or another.
I'm sure this type of behavior is not unknown to some you who do, or have done, this very same thing, perhaps many times too.
So, armed with this info, I would guess you've gathered that many, or almost all, of the recipes I post here will likely be somewhat removed from the recipe(s) you might know for a certain dish or dishes, in terms of ingredients or technique, or whatever.
To conclude, I'd like to list in general terms a number of areas where I've accumulated recipes that I quite like, so that if any of you have an interest in broadening your recipes library in any one of these kinds of dishes, please don't hesitate to say so, and I'll post a recipe, or recipes, of that category or type:
Meat dishes - examples:
-Authentic Indonesian Beef Satay with my sauce
- Beef steaks - grilled, oven-baked, or stovetop, with various sauces, such as whiskey or horseradish
- Chicken breast & thigh recipes - quick or more detailed - Kebabs - mexican oriented - e.g. authentic chicken enchiladas
- Pork in many forms, ribs chops, kebabs, S. & S. Chinese
- Lamb - rack, shanks or ground e.g. kebabs w/tomato tzaziki
- Seafood or fish dishes - quick & easy or otherwise - prawns, scallops, shellfish
- Pasta - lasagna, rigatoni & meatballs, other - mac & cheese
- Misc. e.g. Rice & Beef porcupines, quesadillas, quiches, other
- Hors d'ouevres & appies - many types
- Desserts - other than my since posted chocolate mocha torte - you name the type
- Other ? Please say so
I want to continue contributing to this forum, and hope that this alternative approach to doing so is acceptable to you, instead of my just posting any old recipe you have little or no interest in because you've seen it a hundred times !
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