Tag: Aunt Mary

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Curried potato salad

When I was a kid my aunt Mary got on all sorts of food kicks. She would discover some damn thing or other and be all over it for 3 months. There was a bleu cheese on lettuce thing, Welsh rarebit, I believe that dry roasted peanuts just came out and she was crazy for them, she just freaking loved Stouffer’s pre-made meals, then she started putting curry in potato salad. I loved that. Well, to be honest I liked all her crack-pot food fixations. For some reason, my mother did not, they annoyed her. I think that she felt competitive. If Mary liked something I ADORED it. Welsh rarebit? I’ll take 2. Dry roasted peanuts? Yes, please. And when I helpfully suggested that my mother add curry to her potato salad her response was something like, “Pfff, as if.”

Well, I still like it. I like my mother’s too, (just in case she’s reading this) and it’s usually what I make but this past weekend I made Mary’s curried version. It was delicious.

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Kofte, not hockey pucks

In the year plus that I’ve been writing this blog I’ve come to realize that I really grab onto various foods and food preparation methods and beat them to death. In the end, I either abandon them forever once I tire of them, or they become a part of my permanent repertoire. Things like tomato avocado salad, Judy Anderson’s BBQ, Karen Duffy’s vinaigrette, Italian sugu or pommes anna which are now all safely and happily ensconced in my world-renowned food repertoire (I have fans in France). My aunt Mary used to get on some food kick or other and beat it to death like this. Welsh rarebit, bleu cheese, stuffed mushrooms, come to mind food-wise but musically she went through an interminable Hawaiian music phase, followed by country music lite. She was an early proponent of the muumuu and transitioned to something she called a float which was like a muumuu but considerably more voluminous. I, myself, have on more than one occasion found that idea appealing. But I digress.

I really liked the kofte I made last week except that they were hard as hockey pucks. I thought I’d lighten them up with some bread crumbs. I may have overdone the bread crumbs. They were falling apart-ish. So you can count on a final post when I give it one more shot.

This whole process took under 5 minutes which I love. I had to grind up the walnuts (supposed to use pine nuts), garlic and I added goldfish crackers (don’t ask) to make a paste. Then I ground the parsley, mint and onion. And finally kneaded it all together by hand.

The little patties have to rest for an hour in the refrigerator but grilling takes 10 minutes max. They were excellent. But a little too crumbly. Working on that.