Welcome to series 3 of the Culinary Alphabet A-Z…Where the middle letter is H…

Nothing is as it seems here…this new series is the brainchild of Chel Owens who writes at A wife, My Verse, and Every Little Thing…my followers are so good to me they think up all sorts of permutations of the Alphabet for me to blog about…not sure if they want me to call it quits or what they will come up with next…Chel like Pete was, however, will be called on to make her contribution every two weeks…they don’t get off scot-free…so I hope you have started brainstorming Chel…haha x

So what’s in store? In this series the A, B, C, etc will be the middle letter, for example, Aga, Cabbage, and Yucca… how easy that will be who knows I am sure some of the letters of the alphabet could cause the grey matter to rebel or implode…haha…I also don’t want to use plurals to form a word as I may need that word for another letter and its sort of cheating I think…unless of course I really get stuck…which I am sure will happen…

Today it is words where the middle letter is H...not quite as easy as the previous letter..it taxed my brain somewhat…Thanx Chel xx

Let’s go and see what I have found…

Anchovy…

What are they?…they are tiny little saltwater fish often available in tins and jars they add a salty, umani flavour to sauces and dressings.

Beechnuts…

Tasty, nutrient-dense nuts produced in the fall by beech trees…Historically, they were a popular food source in both Europe and America, but these days hardly anyone’s ever heard of them. That’s mainly because they’re difficult to harvest mechanically,..but a lovely treat for foragers…

In the US beechnuts are mostly considered a foragers delight or a survival food these days, in Europe beechnuts are still used for cooking.  The french press out the rich oil for flavourful salad dressings. 

Cornhusks…

Cornhusks are the outer covering of an ear of corn. They are dried, to be used in making tamales or encase foods to be steamed.

Cashews…

A kidney-shaped bean from the cashew tree is a tropical tree native to Brazil but now cultivated in various warm climates around the world, especially rich in unsaturated fat. They are a great source of magnesium and manganese.

Popular in Indian cuisine they are used in many sauces and gravies…they are also my new favourite …I love chicken and cashew nuts and have recently used them to make an Indian Cashew Nut Curry which was delicious…

Chokecherries…

Chokecherry fruits are too astringent to eat raw (hence their name), but make delicious jellies, jams, sauces and pies. Native Americans used them as an ingredient in “pemmican,” a meat-based winter staple, and brewed chokecherry bark to make tea.

Doughnuts…

The Official Dictionary Spelling of the word in question—is “doughnut.” The expedited, simplified, Americanized spelling of “donut,” as Grammarist tells us, has been around since at least the late 19th century.

Forget the fancy doughnuts…Mine is a Jam one, please…

Eggshells…

Please tell me that you don’t throw away your eggshells…I dig them into my garden soil and over time they break down and make the soil calcium-rich. This is especially helpful for vegetables like tomatoes and peppers that suffer from blossom end rot, which occurs when there isn’t enough calcium in the soil.

I use them as little seed pots and just plant the seedlings straight out into a pot or the garden where the eggshell then rots away…Female birds especially loved baked eggshells as they provided much-needed calcium…

To bake the eggshells… place them lightly on a cookie sheet at 250 degrees until dry, but not brown. This sterilizes them and makes them brittle. You can crumble them into bite-sized bits and spread them on a patch of bare ground, a rock, a platform feeder, or your deck railing…the birds will love you…

Crushed and placed around the perimeters of your garden they keep away the slugs and snails…they even add a healthy boost to your bone broth…so please tell me that you don’t or won’t ever throw eggshells away again…

Pho…

Vietnams National Dish…a dish of broth, rice noodles, herbs and meat which is often chicken is served in households, street stalls and restaurants everywhere not just in  Vietnam but around Asia very popular here it is eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner…

Dahls…

Spelt daal, dal or dail is a staple in Indian Households…there are so many variations of this simple, nutritious bowl of lentils…This hearty dhal is a meal in itself but can be served with a little rice or warm naan bread for mopping up the delicious sauce. This dish happens to be vegan too.

Lychees…

Small fleshy fruits. The outside of the fruit is pink-red, roughly textured, and inedible, covering sweet flesh which can be eaten raw or used in sweet desserts or savoury dishes.

Pilchards…

A small oily fish often found canned in oil, brine or tomato sauce…Many species of small fish may be called sardines but once grown to more than 15cm long a number of these species are likely to be called pilchards. Whatever their origin, they’re a delicious, oily fish that’s undoubtedly undervalued.

Fresh pilchards or Cornish sardines may be lightly poached, grilled or baked and although there’ll be a definite oily whiff in the air it’s considerably less if cooked in water. The Scottish habit of cooking herrings in oatmeal works well with pilchards. Their robustness makes them suited to curries and fish stews of all styles and cuisines.

Stargazy pie was supposedly created in Mousehole, Cornwall, filled with potato, egg and variable other ingredients but always topped with pastry through which emerged the intact heads of skinned and boned pilchards, the oil of which was expected then to drain into the main filling during the cooking. It’s not commonly found these days.

Yoghurt…

Put simply Yoghurt is created by the bacterial fermentation of milk…it can be a wonderful thing or a sugar-laden highly processed pot of nothing that is good for you…What is really in your Yoghurt?

That’s all for today for the letter H…

Thank you so much for your visit I hope you have enjoyed the read…See you tomorrow for another episode of made from scratch… Love Carol xxx