How 'fusion' do you cook?

[htuttle]

Ever thrown fresh ginger into a Tex-Mex chili? Ever used arrowroot powder to thicken a marsala sauce? Is America the culinary melting pot it could be?

The way I cook chili is a good example. I used to brown the meat, then saute some onions and garlic and peppers, then I'd toss in the tomato sauce and beans. Now, after I've been cooking a lot of Indian food, I start with the onions (in ghee!), then the garlic and jalapenos/seranos (and ginger!). Only THEN do I throw the meat in, then the spices, tomato paste/diced tomatoes and beans (but first chicken stock, and sometimes beer...) for a long simmer...In other words, I make chili like it's a curry.

Anyone else noticed a blending of cuisines/techniques in their dinners?

[Duer 157099]

1. Sort of, but it's more out of practical concern

although I do admit to using ghee instead of butter for sauteeing these days - in fact just tonight I did that with some mushrooms.

I also used to brown the meat first, but I think it was so that I could drain the fat off. I ran into this quandry the other day where I did the garlic and onions (in ghee) and spices and then the meat, but then I worried about how to drain the fat, which of course would have all the flavor by then.

So, lol, I ended up not draining it - it was a bolognese sauce (turned out awesomely too)

[Warpy]

2. I've thrown curry powder into spaghetti sauce since I was

in my teens. The trick is to use enough to change the flavor of the sauce, but not enough that people know what you did. It makes first day spaghetti sauce taste like it's been left to marry the flavors for an additional day.

The few times I tried instant mashed potatoes, I did the same trick with cumin. Those prefab mashed spuds fooled everybody into thinking I'd been peeling potatoes all day.

If you've ever gotten Chinese takeout (or eat in, for that matter) with chopped yellow onion in it, you're eating fusion. The real thing doesn't use foreign onions, which is what they call yellow onions.

I've always managed to come up with off the wall seasoning and combinations that somehow work. I guess I've always been a fusion cook.

[Arkansas Granny]

3. My daughter in law has really blended cuisines/techniques since she came to the US.

She is a very adventurous cook and is blending Asian and American foods with some interesting results. She has added ingredients to traditional American dishes that I would have never thought of such as raisins in potato salad (surprisingly tasty), broccoli and carrots in spaghetti sauce (not so tasty) along with Asian seasonings to flavor her dishes. We have some Asian markets in town where she can find the ingredients she is familiar with and has treated us to some really authentic Vietnamese cuisine.

[NashVegas]

4. The "F" Word

Oh how I hate it. Not the techniques, but the word itself.

I hate it because "Fusion" restaurants seem to be exploding in my town and it strikes me the word is little more than a marketing term.

Now I'll get back to my apple-filled omelet.

[hippywife]

5. ...

:rofl:

[htuttle]

7. LOL! I hate the term too

Too trendy, and too often trying too hard.

It's struck me that it's hardly a new thing, too. For centuries, cuisine has followed empires and migrations and made new combinations -- like Jamaican food, for example, being influenced by the curries of Indian servants, or Goan food (in India) being influenced by Porteguese traders. Legend has it that spaghetti was invented in China and brought back by Marco Polo (it probably wasn't...but it's a good story).

I was just wondering if other people sometimes cook out of key and try combining things from different parts of the world. All praises to Google for making this so easy!

For example -- tonight, I baked Saag Paneer (with a few eggs added, along with some besan flour), in a phyllo dough crust as if it was a spanakopita. Turned out GREAT, and I'm probably going to go on another phyllo binge as a result...

ps. I hope you added some cayenne and ginger to those apples! :D

[catnhatnh]

6. With egg roll wrappers....

I love deep frying and I love those crunchy little wrappers....perfect for portion control, they freeze well and microvave like a dream from the freezer. Two of our favorites here are jamaican egg rolls with the filling based on that used in jamaican patties and sweet and sour dipping sauce and egg roll reubens with swiss cheese corned beef or pastrami and sauerkraut with thousand island for a dipping sauce. Tex-mex is the recipe I'm working on now.....kinda like "it's a small (egg roll) word after all".