Tabbouleh Disasterrrr! D:

[cimorene]

ARUUURGH FUCK.

I bought the ingredients for tabbouleh last Sunday, and I bought two bunches of parsley because I thought I remembered that that was the right amount. But when I minced the parsley and scallions I discovered I only had barely two decilitres of them put together, when I was supposed to have two and a half each. I went back to the store and bought four packets of parsley (brain failure, I guess) - but it turned out that just one of them made up the difference and provided plenty for the recipe. Then I stuck EXACTLY to the recipe's required amount of allspice and onion instead of doubling it like last time, and it's still WAY too much. And I already went to the store twice today, but then I ran out of lemon juice and only had half as much as it called for, which isn't nearly enough. So my tabbouleh is way, way, way over-spicy and over-oniony and under-lemony; it tastes mostly like allspice and cheap olive oil (which Wax keeps buying instead of Bertolli because she forgets even though I remind her that you can taste the difference whenever you use it for anything except cooking)! Argh, it's RUINED until I can go buy more lemon and scallions tomorrow and basically make an entire second batch of greens and bulghur to mix the mess into. ;__; I feel like my day is ruined because tabbouleh is like my favourite food and I was looking forward to it; and my mom is a tabbouleh maestro (although what isn't she a maestro at?), so failing at it makes me feel like an utterly unworthy descendant.

Mental note: 5 dL parsley&scallions / 2,5 dL dry bulghur / 1,5 - 2 dL lemon juice / ½ t allspice / less than ½ onion / 1 T sea salt / olive oil very cautiously to taste

Comments

[crowbars.livejournal.com]

I have a very thorough mental list of things to buy which have to be name-brand and others that can be the cheap store brand. There are some things, like Pepto-Bismol or Coke, where I don't take a risk on generics. Then there are things like, I dunno, marshmallows, where it doesn't matter at all. I have way too many rules and it is unrealistic of me to expect anyone else to remember them all, but I still get a little irritated on the inside when they don't.

[guinevere33.livejournal.com]

Some day, you are going to learn to make LISTS before you go to the grocery store.

...Wait, who am I kidding? :)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I make lists! Then I come home and remember three things that weren't on the list! However, in this instance, the problem was that I already had lemon juice and parsley, and didn't realise the recipe would make me run out of them.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't put Pepto Bismol on that list, personally. It's just ... pink chalk, basically. I mean, it's a pellet of whatever chemical, er, substance it is - bismuth something-salicylate. And I've never noticed a difference in it. (I used to buy the name brand because there weren't generics of the tablets you can swallow without chewing, but that changed in the last few years.)

I wouldn't have thought that olive oil would taste much different, actually, since it's just, you know, the oil from crushed olives, but perhaps it matters what olives you use, or how you refine it, because when I started using it more often as dressing for uncooked things I quickly noticed the difference.

[isilya]

< yuppie >

Olive oil is like wine, the difference in flavour is hugely marked. In fact, I had much rather go to an oil tasting than a wine tasting! Mmm, oil.

There are huge difference in processing, for example, first cold pressed extra virgin is going to taste strongly of real fruity/peppery/grassy olives and be cloudy with goodness the way heat-processed, chemically refined oil is never ever going to be.

Other factors in taste include the ripeness of the olives, the region of the olives and the olive variety all make massive difference.

Olive oil is the chemically refined, heat processed, mixed dregs of the good oil, that doesn't usually even taste like olive oil -- you may as well use veggie oil or canola.
Pure olive oil or "light olive oil" is the above, mixed with enough virgin oil to make it taste a bit like olive oil.
Virgin oil is oil that has not been chemically refined, but may have been heat processed.
Extra virgin is oil that has only been cold pressed and I think there are acidity regulations as well.
Terroir olive oil is oil (first cold pressing) all from the same olive grove, so that you get quite extreme regional variations in a way that mixed oil never does. It's usually cloudy, and the best varieties will be in dark bottles, since oil goes off relatively quickly.

I use peppery olive oil for salads, dipping bread with dukkah, and drizzling onto bruschetta. Fruity oils are great to finish off pasta, to make roast veggies, for salad dressing, or to enrich soups and stews. I'm not the world's biggest fan of grassy oil, but will happily eat it with balsamic or tossed through steamed veggies.

In practice, I usually have one big bottle of cold pressed extra virgin olive oil for everything, veggie oil for deep frying and baking, peanut oil for stir-frying and sesame oil for flavour.

I have been on the hunt for the perfect robust peppery oil, and when I find it I am going to buy it up and distribute bottles around the family, since we all love it but the slightly bitter taste seems to be out of fashion these days.

When I was having money difficulties in first year, and having to live on one sweet potato or piece of pumpkin for a week, I used to stand and agonise in front of the oil display, because it was torturous to have champagne tastes on beer budget (and yes, I realise having to buy the crap oil is an exceedingly yuppie problem to have). Now, I pick up extra work and buy the good oil!

Wow, was this more than you ever wanted to know about olive oil! < /yuppie >

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Without knowing those things, I knew to always buy extra virgin. There was very little selection where I grew up - I think Bertolli was the only option for extra virgin in town when I was younger. But the kind Wax bought is still extra virgin - but it's the store brand and doesn't taste nearly as good as, well, the good (goodish?) stuff. Possibly the difference is region or variety of grape and not quality or process.

tabbouleh disaster

[indolentncrazy.livejournal.com]

Can you get the equivalent of ReaLemon in Turku? It is lemon juice from concentrate in a bottle. It is just for disasters like that and rescues me from time to time. I just read in Cook's that the best-tasting brands of Extra V olive oils are Columela, Lucini Italia, and Colavita. Bertolli is in the next lower category.

Re: tabbouleh disaster

[cimness.livejournal.com]

I don't have Colavita at this (corner) store, the one that's a half block from me. I can get it downtown, if I remember to buy it on trips to the luxury/yuppie store.

And I ONLY use bottled lemon juice because I use a fair amount of it but not with any predictability - produce tends to spoil easily before I get around to it. But the containers I usually buy are only 1 dL (less than half a cup), because I usually only use a teaspoon or two of it at a time.