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Jheenga (prawn) biryani. Now y’all might know about biryani as its pretty famous. But might not have heard of it with prawns. Its pretty special and I’ve had it maybe 5-6 times in my life and it hits every time.

Yeah frozen is an option but all our food is pretty much farm to table, so we’ve gotten it from another city a few times but it’s not particularly common.

Its more delicate in flavour and less spicy than mutton, beef or chicken biryani. Also no potatoes (pls don’t fight here over this folks).

But sea food is a winter thing and prawns aren’t common here. Also my mom claims to be allergic to fish (she isnt), she’s often had seafood and only later found out it included fish and just gone oh. She claims to be allergic after once 30 years ago she got sick after having fish at a wedding…

So the few times I’ve had it my grandma cooked it. But she doesn’t really cook so it’s infrequent and prawn prep is hell too.

If you can get this somewhere near you, absolutely try it!

• Maternal grandma died before I was born.
• Paternal grandma cooked a great roast beef and Yorkshire puddings. Incidentally, she would - and I’m sure this was deliberate - massacre Lancashire hot pot. The war of the roses raged on until the late 20th century, in her mind at least.
• Mum cooked a great schnitzel and cucumber salad with caraway seeds. The schnitzel was fried, I’ve never heard of a baked schnitzel before…
• Fiance cooks too many great things to choose just one

For me, there’s one thing that comes to mind that I often talk about.

New England boiled dinner. not the biggest fan of the cabbage, but it’s my favorite way to eat carrots, and the potatoes combined with fatty corned beef is just fucking heavenly. takes at least an entire day to cook if not more

Never really had much of my Grandma’s food other than her Christmas fruit cakes. My Mum would only ever cook out of necessity and never anything fancy. It was my dad that did all the nice cooking in my house.

Just some breaded pork chops. Nice and simple and good.

Mom’s veal schnitzel. They’re thin oven baked schnitzels but they’re always so tender and the crumbing is so tasty. Tastier than anything I’ve ever tried at any pub or restaurant

Funnily enough, the men in my family are the cooks, normally!

My step-grandmother, though… She knew how to bake. It didn’t matter what she decided to make, it would turn out delicious. She refined a Black Forest cake recipe from scratch, I’ve never had another one like it. The moistness of the cake, icing just rich enough to make a statement, cherries that were the perfect ripeness.

She ruined that cake for me. I know a part of it is the memories, all the time wrapped around when she would bake that, but if I had one wish, it would be to have one more slice.

I used to walk to Grandma’s every Wednesday after school for years. She made me my favourite every time: Beef tongue with green beans and mealy potatoes from her garden, all swimming in melted butter.

My mom makes the best bechamel, no mather what you eat with it.

My mom is an awesome cook, and I love pretty much every dish and dessert she makes, it’s hard for me to pick one. Perhaps her rendition of “bacalhau espiritual” (“spiritual cod”), which doesn’t have cheese nor the heavier bechamel sauce (has some other sauce instead) and has more vegetables like cabbage and spinach. It’s absolutely delicious.

My mom made this spinach and cheese casserole that I loved so much I’d ask for it instead of birthday cake.

My dad’s mom, her green beans side. They were blanched and then lightly pickled, then heated up in the brine and drained before serving. No additional seasonjng needed. Also her pigs-inna-blanket. I know a lot of people think of sausages for this dish, but she did it the Dutch way, with spiced pork minced completely enclosed in a puff pastry.

My mom’s mom didn’t cook much and when she did it was standard English cuisine. But she loved icecream and made a mean banana split.