Four Culinary Things

A Friday Hodgepodge

1. Living in Boston and homesick for fried green tomatoes, I ended up being able to perfect my recipe for them, thanks to a friend who was growing tomatoes at home and an impending frost.

Wanting to make these a few times recently, but unable to get my hands on green tomatoes, I tried eggplant instead, and it turned out great.

So I guess I now have a recipe for fried eggplant.

2. One recipe I won't be trying anytime soon will be "rosin potatoes," also known in some parts of the South as turpentine potatoes since, I believe, the rosin used to bake the potatoes is a waste product of turpentine production.

I ran into this via Hacker News, where two intelligent comments -- one informed by history and the other not -- pretty well summed up why I admire the recipe, but won't be making it myself.

One person noted the hard-to-procure rosin, extremely difficult dedicated outdoor setup, and 90 minute cooking time -- and stated correctly that it would compete poorly with his running water and indoor cooking facilities. (And it doesn't help that you can't eat the skins.)

Another noted that the slaves who cooked potatoes this way didn't have such conveniences, and that this was a very creative way to cook them. (And the coated skins permitted some measure of preservation and portability.)

Cracker Barrel used to have these on the menu, but no longer serve them due to "concerns" -- regulatory or legal, I do not know -- about the safety of using rosin for cooking.

3. While I'm on recipes, I'm looking to expand my crock pot repertoire, so I saved a link to five crock pot chicken recipes that popped up on a news site I sometimes visit.

Feel free to point me to anything you have made yourself and like.

Image by Kanko, via Wikimedia Commons, license.

4. Back to potatoes. A commenter at the Hacker News thread on rosin potatoes pointed to a very funny Reddit rabbit hole -- You have been warned! -- about someone who was dragged by a coworker to HR over how she snacked on potatoes at her desk.

As with many amused, but sympathetic people there, I had no idea people ate potatoes that way and plan to try it myself some time.

-- CAV