My hunger is not mild, but I trainеd it not to kill
Tonight ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rushthatspeaks and I tried to make mămăligă and it failed on a level I have never in a lifetime of grits, cornbread, and hasty puddings experienced: within seconds of thickening, it burned so badly to the bottom of the pot that blackened skins of former porridge were coming up in the stir and then it exploded. Researching after the fact, it looks as though the culprit may have been the electric stove in the sense that since we needed to reduce the heat from a boil to a simmer, we should perhaps just have moved it to a different burner. In the meantime we made a substitute of grits and ate them with a variation on Julia Child's hamburgers—extraordinarily delicious—and an improvised pan sauce. I have since cleaned the stovetop of volcanic activity. We watched the next couple of episodes of One Piece (2023), which I am continuing to enjoy all the more as it is explained to me that the show is successfully compressing hundreds of chapters of manga into an hour at a time of TV, and it occurred to me that Alexander Maniatis, at least with his black hair slicked back and his serious round glasses and his hands weaponed like a cat's claws, could have played Lackadaisy's Mordecai.
rushthatspeaks and I tried to make mămăligă and it failed on a level I have never in a lifetime of grits, cornbread, and hasty puddings experienced: within seconds of thickening, it burned so badly to the bottom of the pot that blackened skins of former porridge were coming up in the stir and then it exploded. Researching after the fact, it looks as though the culprit may have been the electric stove in the sense that since we needed to reduce the heat from a boil to a simmer, we should perhaps just have moved it to a different burner. In the meantime we made a substitute of grits and ate them with a variation on Julia Child's hamburgers—extraordinarily delicious—and an improvised pan sauce. I have since cleaned the stovetop of volcanic activity. We watched the next couple of episodes of One Piece (2023), which I am continuing to enjoy all the more as it is explained to me that the show is successfully compressing hundreds of chapters of manga into an hour at a time of TV, and it occurred to me that Alexander Maniatis, at least with his black hair slicked back and his serious round glasses and his hands weaponed like a cat's claws, could have played Lackadaisy's Mordecai.
no subject
I grew up on gas and I have SO MUCH to say abotu trying to adjust to the crappy electric stove in the apt I shared with WD. my current electric stove is much better but all electric stoves have the issue of changing heat levels far less quickly than gas does. I do miss my fire.
ALSO you reminded me of being nine and catastrophically burning Jamaican cornmeal porridge in a similar manner (that being another stirred cornmeal dish) because I forgot to turn down the heat. I had to 1) throw the pot in the sink 2) take a shower 3) put burn cream on my chest 4) come back and clean the stove and kitchen 5) have a good cry. ahahahahah
no subject
We have lived in this apartment for almost a year and it is still difficult for me to cook an array of normal things without extreme care because it seems impossible to fine-tune the heat casually or sometimes at all. It's an interesting experience and I understand it may be the unavoidable and environmental wave of the future, but at the moment it remains a slight but actual barrier between my exhaustion levels and cooking as I have done all my life for fun. And I am still under doctor's orders not to eat anything that isn't home-cooked by me or my family, so, wheee.
I had to 1) throw the pot in the sink 2) take a shower 3) put burn cream on my chest 4) come back and clean the stove and kitchen 5) have a good cry.
No meal should involve burn cream!
*hugs*
(What does one put in or on Jamaican cornmeal porridge?)
no subject
Yeah, AFAIK electric stoves don't have any provisions for cooling from a certain heat setting except for natural cooling down, which makes them far less responsive than a gas stove. I have miniscule energy issues compared to yours and I still do sometimes feel like it's too much trouble to deal with adjusting my cooking to the electric stove. I hear you.
Ah, Jamaican cornmeal porridge. It is seasoned with sweetened condensed milk and often cooked with a cinnamon stick, and sometimes served with cream crackers. I grew up eating corn products in sweet ways for the most part. The first time I met polenta I felt as if someone had put tomato sauce on cornflakes (obviously I did not say so to my host)
Yeah, rereading my account I feel a little sorry for my tiny past self. But I think I would have said, "if I'm going to get hurt at least it was on my own terms and I learned something."
no subject
That sounds delicious. I used to make rice pudding with condensed milk (and sometimes condensed coconut milk). Almosst nothing can be harmed by throwing in a cinnamon stick.
The first time I met polenta I felt as if someone had put tomato sauce on cornflakes (obviously I did not say so to my host)
I grew up with savory corn products in the form of grits, which were always with butter or cheese, but sweet ones in the form of what used to be called Indian pudding. Whether the cornbread in our family is sweet or savory depends on which of my parents is making it and I believe represents an actual regional distinction, in that while my father enjoyed very little of his childhood time in the American South, he seems nonetheless to have picked up several of its foodways. (He has strong opinions about fried chicken and chicken gravy.)
But I think I would have said, "if I'm going to get hurt at least it was on my own terms and I learned something."
Some people get the Salmon of Knowledge, you got corn porridge.