How's it Taste?

Stuffed Red Bell Peppers, Two Ways (Part I)

2011-12-26T17:53:00.009-06:00

So the other day, The Cohort** and I were hanging out at my home-away-from-home, K&S International Market, when we found some sweet-looking red bell peppers. I needed to get a couple anyway since I was planning on making some rad Moroccan Sunset Salad, but then she casually mentioned how it'd be cool to make some stuffed peppers with them. Maybe have a 'Throwdown,' or something. Right then and there it's like something inside of me just snapped. I got this wild Charles Manson look in my eyes, stretched my arms out wide and said, 'Girl, you don't know who you be messin' with! Oh, I'll throw down with you, alright! I. WILL. DESTROY YOU!!' Then I heard somebody say something about 'Call 911,' so we quickly left and got our peppers elsewhere. Anyway, the important thing is that we did get them, because these two recipes are pretty damn good, even if I do say so myself. Not that I need to, since Amy will vouch for mine, and I'll vouch for hers. I think she knew I was impressed when, after a couple bites, I got out my camera and started taking pictures. Yeah, I was impressed. More than that, I was nervous. After only a couple bites, I was pretty sure I was going to lose this one. However, I managed to bring it to a draw. Yes, we were the only judges, but we're both pretty fair and honestly concluded that they were both equally good.

We started off on a pretty much level playing field, since neither one of us had ever made them before. (All I had was vague memories of only seeing them as a child- I never could bring myself to try one, even though I liked stuff cabbage. Something about that pale green, overcooked pepper...) We both agreed that we'd use ground sausage, instead of beef, as the base of the stuffing. She mentioned something about using rice as well. I went along with it, even though I had other plans...

So the way it worked is, because we have only one kitchen, and it's a small one, we had to go one at a time so we wouldn't copy or be influenced by each other's recipes, especially since we both had a secret ingredient or two in mind. She went first, but because she's out of town for Christmas, I'm posting mine here first. I kept track of everything I added and all that, just in case it turned out good enough for me to decide to post it here. And surprisingly, it did. (I say 'surprisingly,' not because I didn't think I could come up with something good in this area, but because whenever I try to come up with an actual recipe for something, it's never as good as when I just freestyle it.) So here's my concoction:

3 red bell peppers
1 lb ground sausage (Jimmy Dean, regular)
2 oz ea. minced garlic/shallots (At first, that much seemed like a lot- too much, even- but I ended up going with the whole thing.)

(All spices/herbs listed are dried)

1 can diced tomatoes (Hunts, no salt added)
1T Hungarian paprika
1 T Sriracha
1 3/4 t basil
1 1/2 t ground sage*
1 1/2 t ground rosemary*
1 1/2 t sumac
1 1/2 t onion powder
1 1/4 t oregano
1 t ground coriander
1/8 t nutmeg
1/8 t cayenne
Several grinds of black pepper (assumes you're using a grinder. If not, probably just a pinch or two.)
pinch of dill

*I originally used 1 T each of whole sage and rosemary, but ground them myself, resulting in approx. 1 1/2 t each.

Boursin Cheese

200 ml whole oat groats
375 ml water

Let's start with the oat groats. I discovered them about a year and a half ago or so. Long story short, I made some rice and beans with them, mistakenly thinking they were brown rice. Turned out to be the best rice and beans I'd ever had. Oat groats are like a combination of brown rice and pearl barley- nuttier and chewier than regular rice. They cook up the same, though, so whatever recipe you follow for regular white rice should work the same for the oat groats. I made mine in a rice cooker, and because I figured the groats would absorb some liquid from the tomatoes and whatnot, I cut back slightly on the water, using 375 ml instead of 400. I used Bob's Red Mill brand for this, which should be available pretty much anywhere, but any grocery store with a halfway decent bulk foods section should have some too. Otherwise, there's always Amazon.

While that's going, cook the sausage about halfway, add garlic and shallots and cook until browned. Deglaze with a splash of balsamic vinegar (you may need to drain the fat off first; I was planning on it, but found it unnecessary). Then add in the tomatoes and all the spices. Let simmer on low heat while you blanch the bell peppers.

As far as the blanching goes, I brought some water to a boil, turned it off, and then dropped in the peppers for one minute, after which I dropped them in some cold water. After they came out of the oven, they definitely still had some crunch to them. Not that I consider that underdone, but I guess underdone would be better than overdone. However, if that's not your thing, I'd probably go an extra 30 seconds to 1 minute on the blanching, or keep the water boiling instead of turning it off.

Now let's talk Boursin cheese.

It's a very soft, creamy, spreadable cheese. I'd actually never heard of it until a few months ago at work. (Walmart lists it on their website, so apparently it's available pretty much anywhere.) Fortunately for me, I had some on hand, leftover from a catering event at work. There's other flavors available, but this is the one I used. Not knowing how it would all play out, I decided to make three slightly different versions of my peppers- one with everything but the Boursin, one with the Boursin on top, and one with the Boursin mixed in. (The Boursin is the one thing I didn't really measure out, but it was approximately 2-3 teaspoons for the two that got it.)

From left to right- cheese on top, straight up, cheese mixed in.

For some reason, I mixed up the order for this photo- L-R - cheese mixed in, cheese on top, and straight up.

I also forgot to note how long I put them in the oven for, but it wasn't long- maybe 15 minutes at 350 F. All the filling is cooked already at this point so you're basically just bringing the whole thing up to a hot eating temp, as well as maybe finishing off the peppers.

I really liked all three, but my favorite was definitely with the cheese mixed in. The Cohort also liked all three, but said the one with the cheese mixed in tasted like it should be wrapped up in a tortilla and eaten like a burrito. I can see her point. Maybe I'll even do that sometime.

So this is my version. The Cohort's is up next. Ours are a bit similar (I find it interesting that we both, unbeknownst to the other, used sumac as a secret ingredient) but different enough that it's worth making both versions.

** The Cohort, aka Amy Housewine, aka Amy Crowe, is my friend and roommate. She'll be posting here occasionally, as well as helping me come up with new stuff to make. If you want to get a feel for her writing style, her page is here- The Unicorner of Vengeful Atrocities. (I know, right? She's weird. And she has a thing for unicorns. Plus she's just weird. But she's pretty cool too.) The writing over there is definitely R-rated. She likes to write, and speaks her mind when she does. But that's her blog, and this is mine. Obviously very different, not just in content and style, but in language- i.e. mine's more PG. Yes, it's going to stay that way.

Cranberry Awesome Sauce

2011-12-20T20:12:00.003-06:00

Yeah, I know Thanksgiving is almost a month gone now and most people don't typically eat cranberry sauce except around then, but this ain't no regular cranberry sauce- it's a cranberry Awesome Sauce!

First off though, I have to mention that all recipe credit goes to my friend and cohort, Amy Housewine*. We went to a large Thanksgiving get-together last month and she wanted to bring a cranberry sauce to share, so she just whipped this one up, very spur-of-the-moment. First time she'd ever made it. And it turned out so good that she decided it was just too good to share, and she didn't bring it! And I agree, it is that good. I'll admit though, as a kid I used to love that gelatinous stuff from a can, and even until recently (like just before I tasted Amy's) I still used to kind of like it. But no more! Hers is just way too good to mess around with anything store-bought. And it's a cinch to make- just 5 ingredients!** As soon as I tasted it, I knew we had to post it here, so I asked her to email me the recipe. She did, and here it is in its entirety:

1 cup orange-pineapple juice

1 cup white sugar

12 oz cranberries

1/2 tsp (or to taste) Saigon cinnamon

Heat juice and sugar on med heat until sugar is dissolved. Add cranberries and cook until they start popping. Add cinnamon. Keep cooking till it's whatchoo want, yo. then put it in a bowl or something.

Dead simple. I love it.

**But she forgot to mention the candied pecans she added. It was something like half a cup or so. Just add them in towards the end of the cooking (or earlier if you want them less crunchy). The pecan flavor goes really, really well with the cranberries. The candied pecans Amy used that day were ones I'd gotten from work; I wrote the recipe down, but lost it (probably for the better, since they likely wouldn't want me putting it on the internet anyway) but as I recall, it's just heavy cream, brown sugar, and pecans; maybe some cayenne pepper. Then toasted in the oven, probably on 250 F or something. No egg whites, like most of the recipes I've seen on various recipe sites (Allrecipes, Simply Recipes, Epicurious, etc). If you don't have, or don't feel like making, candied pecans, regular toasted ones would probably still be just as good.

And of course, like I almost always do, I had to tweak it. Only a tiny bit, though. For starters, I pulsed mine a bit with the stick blender, whereas Amy left hers untouched. It's just a personal preference- I don't like mine too chunky or too smooth.

I figured since we were going to be using candied pecans, I'd cut back on the sugar by 1/4 cup. I've since made it again without the candied pecans (it's better with, in my opinion) and still cut back on the sugar by 1/4 cup. Her original recipe isn't too sweet, I just like sweet things that are a little less sweet than 'normal. I also add a pinch of kosher salt to mine. Pretty much any time I make anything that has a fair amount of either salt or sugar, I always add a pinch or two of the other, for 'balance.' Maybe it's all in my head, but it seems to taste better that way.
Then I made another batch with regular o.j. instead of the pineapple-o.j.- I think it's better with the pineapple-o.j. The difference is subtle, and may have been due more to the brands we used (the pineapple stuff was Dole, the regular o.j. was just a store brand), so more testing is in order, but for now I'm planning on sticking with the pineapple-o.j.

A couple other tweaks/additions to try:

Ground black pepper- a friend of mine adds it as a 'secret ingredient' and says it's wonderful. I tried it, but I think I went too light (2-3 turns of the grinder, set to fine) since I couldn't really taste any difference. I may also try ground pink peppercorns.

Cardamom- One of my favorite spices. Definitely goes well with cinnamon, so I'd imagine it'd fit well in this sauce.

Forget about that whole 'Cranberry sauce is for Thanksgiving' thing. And forget about that cranberry-flavored-crap-in-a-can... This simple, 5-ingredient recipe really is a cranberry Awesome Sauce. Depending on how thick you cook it, it could go great as a syrup over waffles, or spread on biscuits with butter. Just the other night I mixed some in with some Greek yogurt (The Greek Gods brand- it's as thick as cheesecake, and pretty damn awesome), and I have to say, if you want to get fat, that's probably a good way to go about it.

Thanks for an awesome recipe, Amy!

*probably not her real last name.

Update to the previous post

2011-12-07T19:24:00.005-06:00

I forgot to mention a couple things in the last post about hummus. The main one being this stuff:

Sumak! Or more commonly spelled, Sumac. No matter how you spell it, it's great stuff. And it goes especially well with this sweet potato hummus. If you're not familiar with sumac, it's very tart (which is why it goes so well with this hummus- it adds a great balance to the sweetness) and has just the slightest hint of heat to it. And I do mean slightest; on a scale of 1-10 for your average non-chili-head person (1 being Bell Pepper, 10 being Call An Ambulance Before I Die) it's probably a 2. Maybe a 2 1/2. So don't worry if your taste buds can't handle anything much spicier than mashed potatoes- you'll be safe, I promise. Sumac has about the same look and color as your average chili powder, and is very common in Middle Eastern cooking. More info can be found here, and on Wikipedia. It's becoming more and more common here in the States, and if you live in a decent-sized city with a good Asian market (or better yet, Middle Eastern grocery stores) you're definitely in business as far as finding it. But even if you live out in the middle of nowhere, it can be easily found online, and for not a lot of $$. In general, it goes for around $13-20/lb. but can be had for much less. I think I paid around $4.50 for this 7 oz. jar at a local store, and even have a 12 oz. bag of a different brand that cost around the same. (I'm trying out various brands I find, just to compare. So far, this Indo-European brand, at about $10/lb. compares favorably to Penzey's, at around $22/lb. [+ shipping, if you don't have a local store.] But Penzey's is generally more expensive than other places anyway.) But even at $20+/lb. it's still worth it- a little goes a long way, so a pound is a whole lot.

Bottom line: it's freakin' delicious, and you should try it out.

The other thing I forgot to mention is this weird hybrid of sweet and white potato that I found. It looks like this:

That's the outside. The inside looks like this:

I saw them one day at my (old) local asian market and picked up a few, not really knowing anything about them. So I popped one in the oven and baked it. It tasted like a weird mix between sweet and white potatoes. The white part tastes like your average white potato, and the purple part is sweet. It's an oddly interesting mix when you eat one baked (the potato, I mean). But what I found out is that it makes a really, really good sweet potato hummus variation. You just use the same recipe, but use these instead. Honestly, it doesn't look all that appetizing once it's all blended up- it's actually almost gray-colored- but man does it taste fantastic. It's like regular sweet-potato hummus kicked up a couple notches. Definitely different, and definitely good. These pots are probably a bit hard to find, unless you live in a decent-sized city, though. (No, that wasn't a typo- working in a commercial kitchen for a living, I generally call potatoes 'pots,' at least when it comes to writing/typing the actual word.) I first found them in St. Paul, MN, a town of a few hundred thousand people or so, and I can still find them here in Nashville, but in both cases, generally only at Asian markets. Also, I can't seem to find a standardized name for them. Often in St. Paul, and even around here, they're unlabeled. But sometimes they're labeled as Purple Yams, so I don't actually know what sort of variety of potato they really are. But if you can find them (and they're generally kinda pricey- I think I pay twice what regular white or sweet pots go for) they're totally worth a go. I always use them to make hummus, but even baked (or for whatever) they're really different, and really good.

And one last thing I didn't actually forget to mention in the last post, but have since found out, is that instead of using fresh, minced garlic, try out roasted garlic in the hummus instead! It makes a subtle, but tasty, difference.

Ok, friends, over and out, but before I go- up next we have a really sweet (as in kickass, but also sweet flavor-wise) cranberry sauce, a really kickass new Banh Mi recipe, and a couple other tasty treats. Stay tuned!

Hummina-hummina hummus, II

2011-11-25T21:44:00.004-06:00

(As I mentioned in the previous post, me and a buddy got together recently and came up with some hold-on-to-your-hat-they're-so-good recipes. This isn't one of those- they're next- but it's pretty damn good, and one I've been wanting to post for awhile.)

So, a long time ago I tried making hummus for the very first time and found out I was actually pretty damn good at it, and have been hooked on it ever since (well, mine anyway. Maybe I'm biased, but whenever I try somebody else's hummus, I always compare it to mine, and mine always comes out on top). So one day awhile back I came across a recipe online for sweet potato hummus, which I had surprisingly never thought of doing before. I gave the recipe a brief scan just to get an idea of what was in it and then quickly thought to myself that I've got to give this a try, except that mine will be even better. And it is. What's more, I'm even willing to admit that I have never actually even made that hummus recipe, and I still think mine's better. Oh yeah. That's right. Sure, she's got cooler/sexier photos, but whatever. Mine calls for coconut milk, which automatically makes it better than any other sweet potato hummus that doesn't. For real.

Here's the actual recipe:

1 1/4 lb baked sweet potatoes
1 lb garbanzo beans, drained + 1/4 c of the juice (homemade is preferable, but canned will work just fine too)
1 1/4 c coconut milk
1 t ea. kosher salt/pepper/crushed red pepper flakes
1T lemon juice
1T fresh minced garlic
1T cumin

Don't forget- this is hummus; don't feel like you have to follow the recipe exactly. I usually like a little more cumin/salt/garlic/lemon in mine, but when I'm making it for other people, this is one of the few recipes that I do try to stick to. But even when I just whip it up on the fly, without actually following the recipe, and I think it's 'just ok,' or 'not as good as it usually is,' folks have still raved about it to me. Maybe I just happen to hang around a bunch of yes-men, or crazy people, or whatever, but I think this recipe is pretty kick-ass and definitely worth your time (especially since it's super quick and easy to make). It goes great on homemade flatbread, but is also good on veggie sticks or whatever. I've even been known to eat it straight out of the bowl with a spoon.

crappy cell phone pic, because my camera's main lens died :(

As you can see, it's not very orange-colored, as you might expect. The coconut milk really lightens it up, yet the coconut flavor is not too strong. I find it to be quite subtle, in fact. If you like hummus- or maybe even more so if you don't- give it a go. I think you'll be surprised.

Stay tuned, friends!

2011-10-25T19:53:00.003-05:00

Whoa boy! Hold on to your hats, amigos! I'm on the second day of a two-day eating/drinking collaboration with a foodie friend of mine and we've come up with a couple doozies for recipes that you will *not* want to miss out on! He's got a kickass Drunken Noodle recipe that I can't wait to share with y'all, and we put our noggins together and came up with a super-duper kickass new Banh Mi recipe. My old recipe is pretty damned good, but I think this one (we're still tweaking it as of tonight) will blow that old one out of the water.

So don't go nowhere, 'cause I/we have got several good, good, tasty dishes in store for ya's, and soon.

Thai Sticky Rice With Basil And Chicken

2011-09-03T20:52:00.008-05:00

Let me just come out and say it at the beginning here- this dish Kicks. Ass. It's definitely one of the Best Things Ever and you owe it to yourself to make it. I've been wanting to post it for a long, long time. This is one of my top favorite dishes of all time, something I could eat daily and not get tired of for a very, very long time. I figure now that I'm finally down here in Nash Vegas and mostly moved in and such, what better way to kick off the first post here in my new town/new life than with such a worthy, tasty dish as this.

The name 'Sticky rice' is slightly misleading; it's not really sticky in the sense that most of us think of when we think 'sticky rice.' While it does stick a little to the cloth when it's done cooking, it's not at all like somebody overcooked their rice and it's just a big pile of sticky, starchy goop. I think 'Chewy rice' would probably be a more accurate title for it.
It's a fairly easy dish to make and most everything is easily obtained. If you live in a smaller town somewhere, you might not be able to find Thai basil (if not, it's definitely worth growing your own) but regular basil is awesome too. Not quite as awesome on this dish as the Thai kind, but pretty damn good in it's own right. Anyway, here's a rundown of what you'll need:

Main Dish:

Boneless chicken parts, small-to-medium dice (breast, thigh, doesn't really matter; whatever you prefer)

Thai Sticky Rice (also known as Sweet Rice or Glutinous Rice. It comes in a purple variety, and probably others, but go with the the white kind for this recipe. The other kind cooks different, in my experience, and I haven't been able to get the same texture for it). You'll also need either a bamboo steamer or a colander, along with a cheesecloth or cloth napkin, for steaming the rice. Cooking it on the stovetop, or using a rice cooker, will not work. I tried it once just to see how it would come out, and it didn't. At all. It has to be soaked and steamed.

Some type of adult beverage (not for the dish, but for the cook. Cooking's always better/more fun when you're consuming some type of beer/wine/booze)

Marinade:

Fish sauce
Soy sauce (a good kind, not LaChoy, which is not even a real soy sauce)
Teriyaki sauce
Rice vinegar
Fresh lime juice
Dried basil
Fresh minced garlic
Fresh minced ginger
Sugar
Kosher/sea salt
Pepper
Crushed red pepper
Szechuan peppercorns, toasted (those are the things in my header photo. If you don't have a good international market where you live, they can be obtained from Penzey's and other online spice merchants.
MSG (optional, I guess. I always use it, though. I think the whole anti-MSG thing is a bit overblown and I highly recommend the stuff)

The list above is just what I currently typically use. I have no set recipe or list of ingredients or anything like that. If you have other Asian ingredients like Maggi, Soba, or Oyster sauces, they'd probably go pretty well too.

Garnishes:

Fresh basil, preferably the Thai variety

Sriracha, aka Rooster sauce or Cock sauce

Chopped dry-roasted peanuts

Fresh lime juice

Bean sprouts

Making it happen-

Rice-

The rice has to soak for a good 8 hours or so, so you'll want to get that out of the way first. I never bother to measure it out, but when I cook for just myself, I typically use about 1 cup/8 oz. dry rice. I try not to let it soak for more than 10 hours, so if I start it the night before, when I get up in the morning I'll usually just drain the water off and leave it like that until I'm ready. It also doesn't have to soak in the fridge, though I usually put it in there if it's going to be sitting for awhile after I drain the water.

Marinade-

While the rice is soaking, get to work on whipping up some Asian-flavored goodness to marinate that chicken in. Get yourself a good sized metal mixing bowl, toss in a big pinch of salt and a bigger pinch of sugar, add in some hot water to help it dissolve quicker, and mix until it's completely dissolved. Then, little by little, add in splashes of the ingredients listed above until it tastes the way you want. Remember to add more water as necessary (you'll need at least some, so it's not too overpowering) and possibly more salt and sugar. I also typically add the most of the ingredients that are near the top of the list, and go down in volume from there- so more fish sauce than soy, more soy than teriyaki, etc. Go light on the szechuan peppercorns, though. If you're not familiar with them, they're not actually peppercorns, so they're not 'hot' like regular peppercorns. It's hard to describe them, but they have a citrus-y smell and flavor, and if you pop one in your mouth it'll make your tongue kind of tingle and feel a bit numb. That's a good thing. Just be careful not to overdo it; they can be quite strong and I've damn near ruined a dish by using too much. A pinch is all you need to start with. Also, if you don't happen to have any fresh minced garlic (which I don't for this particular batch), the granulated kind is better than nothing.
The main thing to remember is that there is no right or wrong way to do it, and that what you're shooting for is something that's savory and has a good blend of Hot, Sour, Salty, and Sweet (light on the Sweet, but that's just me. Mostly I just use the sugar for a bit of balance. Plus, the lime juice, rice vinegar, and basil add their own bit of sweetness too). That's my main objective whenever I mix this up. If you're not sure because you've never done it before and you don't have much experience with Asian flavors or whatever, don't sweat it, it's easy. E-Z. Taste it often as you go and add whatever you think it might need more of. It won't be the exact same every time, but that's part of the fun of making and eating it. If you're feeling cautious about it, you may want to actually measure stuff out instead of just adding it in random splashes. Also, you may want to start with fairly uniform and equal measurements of things; say, for example, 1 T each of (almost) everything, and then adjust from there. The main reason I don't have an actual recipe for this is because every time I try and come up with one, it never works out. I'm always adjusting and fine-tuning the marinade as I go, and it's really, really hard to keep track of every little dash of whatever sauce I'm adding, and it always seems to come out vastly better when I don't even try, so I finally gave up on that and now I just focus on tasting as I go, adding more of whatever I think it needs here and there. And it never fails to come out awesome.
Once your super-amazingly-awesome marinade is up to your standards, toss in the chicken and let it soak a bit. Depending on how much lime juice you put in, you could probably get away with 20 minutes or so, but I think an hour is good. Two is too, but if you let it go more than four hours, call a physician. No wait, that's something else. Anyway, you get the point.

Also, I was planning on doing a little video clip of me mixing up the marinade, just so you'd have some sort of reference point, but my Flip cam has suddenly disappeared, even though I just had it a few days ago when I originally started writing this post and was planning on doing it then. If it turns up at some point, I'll do the video and then update this post with it, but for now I got nothing.

Cooking the rice/chicken-

When you're ready to start cooking the rice, you'll need to drain and rinse it thoroughly. Like, put it in a fine-mesh colander and rinse it underneath the faucet until the water starts to run clear. When it's ready, put it into your cheesecloth-lined colander or bamboo steamer and set it on top of a pot of boiling water to steam. Make sure it's evenly spread out and that there's not too much- depending on what you're using and how big it is, you're probably going to have to keep it to 2 cups (dry) or under. Cover it with another cloth and then set a lid on tightly to keep as much of the steam in as possible.
In the past, I used to use one of the more traditional style conical bamboo steamers-

But I don't really like the way those cook. This is a fairly decent sized basket, big enough to cook for 4-5 people, but unless you're cooking only a small amount, like enough for 1-2 people, the cone shape tends to cause the stuff at the bottom to be overdone while the stuff at the top isn't even close, and probably won't ever be. I found this out the hard way while trying to cook for several friends. So now I've switched over to the round kind, which typically has 2 steamer baskets and it's own lid. You see them at Bed Bath and Beyond for 20 bucks or so. I got mine at Williams-Sonoma for about $15. It's a large one with only one layer. (Maybe a bit too large, since I currently don't have any pots that big around, but I make it work.) I like this style a lot better, since it allows for much more even cooking, so you can fit more rice in for more people. Depending on how much rice you're cooking, it usually takes about 20-25 minutes to steam. When you're getting close to that time, just lift the lid and scoop out a small amount with a fork (or a long pair of tongs, if you have them) to test for doneness.
While the rice is cooking, get out your wok and turn that thing on high high high. Let it get super scorching hot. Like, to the point that it starts to smoke. Make sure your chicken has been thoroughly drained, since the liquid will cool the pan down considerably, and the chicken will still throw off some more liquid anyway. Do not do what you might be tempted to do, and what most people probably do, and add oil to the pan. You do that and then when you drop the chicken in it's just going to splash up and burn you in the face. You don't want to be blinded or horribly disfigured, do you? If you're already blind and horribly disfigured, then do whatever you want, but for your own safety, either hold off on the oil until after you add the chicken, or toss the chicken in a little bit- just enough to coat it- before you add it to the pan. Either way, it's not gonna stick (if you're using any kind of decent cookware, that is. Cheapo pans that don't conduct heat well might give you some problems, but use a good wok or cast iron skillet and you'll be golden). If you use no oil at all, then it may stick a little at first, but the super high heat will sear the outside nicely and then the chicken will start throwing off juice, and then that will loosen things up. If you saved any of the marinade (always a good idea, just in case) you could add some of that after a bit to help it along too. The chicken won't take long at all to cook, under 10 minutes easily, so try and time it so that it's done around the same time as the rice, because Thai sticky rice doesn't keep for very long at all. It dries out quite quickly. If you're not sure when to start, just remember the chicken will probably hold for much longer than the rice so if the chicken's done first, not a big deal, you can just hold it warm in a 150 degree oven or whatever.
Make sure you have a large plate or bowl ready for when the rice is done. When it's ready, cut the heat and lift the lid (and top cloth, if you're using one); as soon as the steam clears enough for you to grab the cloth napkin or whatever you're using, grab it by its corners and quickly turn it over onto the plate or into the bowl. The cloth will still be wet enough that you can easily remove it from the rice and then lay it back down as a cover, without much, if any, of the rice sticking to it.

From there, just break off as much or as little as you want and spread a layer of it on a plate. I typically sprinkle some fish sauce on top of that layer, then cover it with a layer of my freshly-wokified chicken, then cover that in a fairly thick layer of Sriracha, fresh Thai basil leaves, fresh lime juice, crushed peanuts, and sometimes bean sprouts (when I'm brave enough to buy them. I've just heard too many horror stories about them. Going to have to start growing my own just to be safe).

It usually ends up looking something like this:

This is what Awesome looks like

Prepare to be blown away when you take a bite. Especially if I happened to make it for you.

I love my new job.

2011-08-03T14:02:00.002-05:00

So still getting settled in here in town, but I was lucky enough to land a job at the Two Twenty Two, located inside the Country Music Hall of Fame, within two weeks of arriving in Nashville. Check out their menu, and especially their catering menu, and you'll see why I love my job. There really is nowhere else in town I'd rather work.

Another reason I love my job is because of some of the equipment we use, such as this steamer-

That's right, it's a Cleveland Steamer.

(Still got a few more weeks of transitioning to do, then we've got some new stuff in the works. Stay tuned.)

Road Trip/Moving/New Stuff

2011-06-22T21:09:00.003-05:00

Going to be busy for a bit while I move...

But then I got some tasty new stuff coming- Thai Sticky Rice, a cool Hummus variation, Muhammara, and a Buffalo Chicken Quesadilla; maybe some video versions of stuff like The Tacos (they're way, way quicker and easier to make than the post might lead you to believe).

Going to have a blogging partner too, so she'll probably have some cool recipes to share as well.

Good Times.

Rockin' the Burrito Casbah, Part Dos.

2011-05-16T15:13:00.010-05:00

(updated, May 19. See * at the bottom.)

This, in my opinion, is the be-all, end-all of burritos. It pretty much does not get any better. Maybe, possibly, somewhere in a remote town in Mexico, there's a 10th generation Mexican granny who's been making the original burrito recipe that's been passed down through the family of the actual creator of the burrito, and that one might be better than this one- but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure that one bite of this one and that granny would be furiously rewriting the recipe. Luckily for us though, you don't even need a recipe. It's dead simple. Here's pretty much everything you need:

Meat (beef is good, but I almost always use chicken nowadays)
Cheese
Black beans
Onion
Lime
Your favorite hot sauce (I prefer a homemade vinegar-based jalapeño type, but for store-bought stuff, Cholula and Valentina are both excellent)

Flour tortilla dough
Jalapeño-lime spice mix

Let's start with the last two first: Flour tortilla dough recipes abound on the internet. Some list baking powder as an optional ingredient. It makes the tortillas a little puffy, more like the ones you find in the store. I never use it. I like mine not-puffy. They're super easy to make from scratch, so don't waste your money on the store-bought ones-- these are infinitely better. Also, the recipes are flexible so don't feel like you have to follow them exactly; the other day at work, I forgot to bring in a dough ball I'd made at home, so had to make one there instead- but I don't have easy access to the internet at work, so had to kind of go from memory. Technically, the recipe I made was 'wrong,' but it still came out fantastic. There's a recipe here if you want to use that, but this is more or less what I used at work:

Flour Tortilla Dough

2 cups flour
1/2 - 1 t kosher salt
1/4 c or so of fat (whatever I've got on hand. I've used butter, olive, and canola oil. They all work just fine.)
1/2 c or so of water

Mix the flour together with the salt, then add the fat and mix it all up with your hands until it's all nice and crumbly. Add some water and mix it up until you've got a slightly sticky dough ball going. Knead it a bunch of times, then cover it with a damp cloth and let it sit awhile.

And that's pretty much it for the tortilla. When it comes time to make it, if you've got a scale, a 3 1/2 - 4 1/2 oz ball will give you a pretty decent-sized tortilla when it's all rolled out nice and thin.

Jalapeño-lime Spice Mix

There is no specific recipe for this, nor is one needed. Here's what you do need-

Jalapeño powder
Granulated garlic
Kosher salt
Lime juice powder

Start with the Jalapeño powder as a base, and just keep adding the rest of the stuff to it until you think it's ready. I like a lot of lime flavor in mine, followed by the garlic. You won't need a whole lot of salt, but don't skip it altogether either. Jalapeño and lime juice powders can be found Here and Here, among other places.

*****

Alright, here's how you make a totally kick-ass burrito...

Take your meat of choice and dice it up pretty small (as I've mentioned before, way easier if it's partly frozen) then douse it liberally with your jalapeño-lime spice mix.

As you can see, there's a lot of spice mix sitting on the bottom of the bowl. That's partly because the chicken was still a little frozen when I doused it, and the spice mix doesn't stick quite as well like that. But also because I might have gone a little overboard on the spice too (well, not overboard for me, but for some people. My general rule of thumb is: use a LOT). No matter, once the chicken thawed a little more, it all got absorbed. Let it sit like that for at least a couple hours. Overnight is even better. A couple days is really good. When you're ready to make it, the chicken will be thick and goopy, and not very appetizing-looking:

Forget about what it looks like. Think about how it's going to taste. And it's going to taste like the best damn burrito in the world. Also, see that little fan in the right part of the photo? You're going to want a lot of airflow when you start cooking this. Either that, or hold your breath for however long it takes to make. Seriously, use your stove's hood fan, your ceiling fan, and get a couple more from down in the basement. Once you start cooking it, the jalapeño powder really messes with your ability to breathe.

Fire up your pan, add a little oil and let it get hot for a minute or two. Add the chicken and give it a couple stirs, then let it sit for a bit. Stir it up some more, but know that the spice mix will start to really stick to the pan:

That's good. You want that. Let it burn, but keep the heat at about medium so it doesn't totally scorch. Once the chicken is all the way, or at least mostly, cooked, squeeze in a little lime juice to help deglaze the pan. Maybe some white wine. A squirt of water will work, if you've got nothing else. But not too much. Now is when you also add the black beans, along with some of the juice from the can (or cooking liquid if you made them yourself). Let that cook for a minute and it'll dissolve all that baked-on flavor and then you can easily stir it into the rest of the mix:

Once you get to this point, turn it down to low, or even off, and fire up your tortilla-cooking surface. All I've got is a wok, unfortunately, but it does the job.

Set it on about medium-high and let it get pretty hot. Toss your tortilla in/on the pan, and when it starts to bubble up all over, it's ready to flip. It won't take long, so keep a close eye on it. As soon as you flip it, add your cheese. (But if you forgot to shred it, like I did, not a problem, just scramble to try and get it done before your tortilla burns, which you probably won't be able to do in time at this point, so just pull your tortilla from the fire when it's ready and then add the cheese. It'll still be one kick-ass burrito.) Don't let it sit too long on the heat, though. You should probably pull it from the heat before the cheese is even mostly melted; leave it on too long and it'll become brittle and break as soon as you try and roll it.
It's probably easiest to just put the tortilla right on the plate and then add the meat/bean mixture and your diced, raw onion, because then you can just roll it up right there and be done with it, but if your tortilla is too big for the plate before it's rolled (like mine usually are), not a problem- it rolls up easy. If you're not really sure how to properly roll a burrito, it goes kind of like this-

Lay all your stuff in the center and fold over the two sides:

Then take the bottom edge and fold it almost the entire way over to the other side (probably even a little more than what's shown here), tucking it in under itself as best you can:

After that, just tuck in the sides and roll it the rest of the way:

Grab your lime, a big-ass beer or two (that's a 24 oz. in the pic) and a big-ass bottle of decent hot sauce (34 oz. here)...

...and prepare to be blown away by the awesomeness of it.

Yeah, you're welcome.

(If you use steak instead of chicken, lettuce and tomato also go especially well with it too- but not iceberg. Go for something crunchy, like romaine.

*Also, almost forgot! If you make the steak version and want to put a salsa on it, use this one, instead of something else- the two were made for each other!)

My Badass Meat Cleaver

2011-05-13T18:57:00.002-05:00

I was going to do a post today on the most awesome burrito in the world- my Jalapeno-Lime Chicken Burrito... But I spent so much time running around town buying booze and weaponry that I probably won't be able to finish it tonight, so in its place I'd like to just show off my new kitchen axe-

The blade is about 7 1/2" x 4" (with a total length of 13"), and it weighs just a hair under 2 1/2 lbs. This will come in mighty handy should I decide to butcher an entire cow, or if I need to chop down any trees. And when the apocalypse comes and I need to fight off the zombies, I will be prepared.

I'll be sure and keep it close by at all times-

(I'm going to work on the burrito post tonight and try to have it up on Monday sometime. If you like burritos, then you'll want to check this out because I'm of the opinion that you almost certainly have never had a burrito as good as this one. Ever.)

My new favorite cooking show

2011-05-02T23:58:00.003-05:00

Epic Meal Time.

"Ain't no cookin' show exists like we exist."

Better than 99.9% of anything I've seen on Food Network.

Breakfast: It's not just for breakfast anymore. (Updated)

2011-04-14T19:10:00.007-05:00

(updated)

Sometimes it can be the soup of the day.

The other day at work, I was trying to think of some sort of new soup I could come up with to possibly do for the soup of the day. They already have a bunch of decent recipes, but sometimes you just want something different. Plus, I just like being able to play around with food, especially when I'm not the one buying it. So, out of the blue an idea popped into my head for some sort of 'breakfast' soup- the original idea involved hash browns (with bacon, onion, and green pepper) eggs, biscuits (or pancakes) and maybe a touch of maple syrup to finish things off. Then I was thinking maybe skip the maple syrup and use salsa instead- sort of a southwestern feel to it or something. I'll admit, at first glance they both sound a little weird, but that's how new, great recipes are made: you play around with your food and do weird stuff to it. Mix flavors that you wouldn't necessarily think would go good together (soup/breakfast). So anyway, today I made a small test batch, and ended up skipping both the salsa and the maple syrup (though I'll probably try them both out later when I make more). And the result? It was excellent! I was actually kind of surprised. It sounded pretty good in theory, but when I actually started making it, I got a little nervous. Then again, since I was at work, using work's ingredients, I didn't really care.

Naturally I don't have a recipe, but thankfully I made a small enough amount today that I was able to somewhat keep track of what went in it. No photos, either, but I'm hoping to get one or two when I make a larger batch next week. Here's the rundown-

2 medium baked potatoes
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 green bell pepper
1/2 a large onion
5 strips of bacon, diced
3 cheddar biscuits
3-4 slices of American cheese (y'know, to class things up)

(the following amounts are approximate)

1 Tbs garlic powder (I prefer granulated, but restaurants seem to like the powdered stuff better for some reason)
1 Tbs black pepper
1 Tbs dried thyme
2 Tbs Cholula hot sauce
2 qts chicken stock

Fry up the bacon in a large soup pot until it's mostly done. Add in the pepper and onion (diced, or whatever) and cook for a few minutes more. Add the eggs and scramble it all up. When that's ready, toss in your spices and Cholula. (This is probably a good time to add the cheese, too, even though I waited until after I added the chicken stock). Mix all of that up good and then add the chicken stock, and the baked potatoes and biscuits (just coarsely crumbled with your hands. Leave the skin on the potatoes, too; no need to make more work for yourself). Let it get hot and simmer for a minute, then blast it a couple times with an immersion blender.

And that's how it went down today. As I was making it, I realized I should probably add the biscuits and potatoes first and blend those up with the stick blender, and then add the veggies and bacon, but in the end it turned out alright. As far as those biscuits go, this being a restaurant, we use premade frozen ones (which aren't that bad, really. These ones, anyway), but if I was going to make this at home or whatever, I'd definitely make mine from scatch. But for amounts purposes, those restaurant biscuits are small, and I figure two are about equal to one that you'd make yourself. I hope to have a more expanded recipe for this next week, one that includes trying it out with maple syrup, and salsa (but not together) as well as photos. I took one today with my cell phone, but it wasn't anything, so it's not going up.

***

4/25

Apparently the boss didn't like the stuff at all when he tried it the following day, so he dumped it out. Dang. So I probably won't be making any more of that at work then, and since I have none of the stuff on hand (yet) to make it here at home, it might be awhile before pics are taken. But dammit, I liked the stuff, and I do want pics for here, so I'm going to go out and buy the stuff to make it again, I just don't know when. Sometime.

4/29

Ok, so I went out and bought the stuff to make it here at home. Well, most of the stuff. I forgot the onion and pepper, but did remember to pick up the maple syrup. And I don't have Cholula, so I used Valentina instead (awesome stuff, by the way). So here's my updated recipe, and review-

1 medium baked potato
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 strips of bacon, diced
2 biscuits
2 slices of American cheese
Shredded sharp cheddar (couple ounces or so, I didn't really measure it)

(the following amounts are approximate)

2 Tbs or so minced fresh garlic
2 Tbs Valentina hot sauce
1 Tbs Italian seasoning
1 tsp black pepper
2 qts chicken stock

Ok, so putting it all together is basically the same thing as the original. I didn't have any Thyme, so I used some Italian seasoning that I have instead (it's got all the usual players in it- thyme, basil, oregano, etc... all that stuff).

So, to be honest, I liked the first batch better, even though it's basically the same thing. Maybe it was the onions and peppers, or maybe it's just because our bacon at work is just really, really good (it's made by Hormel, which is what I bought today, but the stuff I got still wasn't as good, even though it was their 'Black Label,' whatever that's supposed to be). Overall, it's a pretty good soup, but really, it just tasted like a spicy, potato-and-bacon soup. So... not really worth the extra effort of adding in the eggs and biscuits. And even though it was pretty good, it's not something I'd rave about to all my friends and talk about selling on the street from a mobile food truck, like I do with other things I've made (tacos). But that's ok, they can't all be winners, right? Plus, I've got a couple more things coming up that I think are good enough to rave about and sell from my food truck (which I'm totally hoping/planning to do).

P.S. I did try it out with the maple syrup, because, well why not? It was... different, as you might imagine. At first it almost kind of tasted like some weird instant oatmeal or something, but then it kind of seemed like it tasted like what you'd imagine it would have tasted like if you'd used sweet potatoes instead of regular ones (which I almost did). Anyway, stay tuned- better things ahead.

(Design stuff)

2011-04-05T20:24:00.001-05:00

I'm working on changing the design of this thing (I'm really tired of having to limit my photos to 400 px wide) so it's probably going to be uglier than usual for awhile while I get it all straightened out...

This is totally on my to-do list for the blog.

2011-04-05T19:42:00.003-05:00

Justin Bieber look-alike tries to make a grilled cheese sandwich, while drinking.

I actually had this great idea awhile back to do alcohol reviews here on the blog- mostly beer, some wine, maybe some occasional harder stuff. But since I don't really know critic-speak, I figured the reviews would be kind of boring ("It's good, you should buy it," or, "It tastes like turpentine mixed with piss; don't buy it.") - unless I was writing the review of the alcohol while drinking it. Then it might be could get a little interesting. But I quickly found out that that gets a little expensive, since I was mostly interested in reviewing decent quality beers, not the cheap, mainstream crap that everyone's already familiar with. So then I figured maybe I'd start out with the good stuff, then switch over to some cheaper stuff to stay just intoxicated enough to actually be able to write a review. It didn't really work out. I was always either too sober, or too drunk. But I'm not giving up! Sometime this summer, I'm hoping to get myself a video camera, for the times when I come up with something decent in the kitchen but absolutely cannot work out a recipe for it- I figure I can always film myself making it, that way I can at least show people what it was I did, even if I can't work out an actual recipe for it.

And since I'll be having a friend help me out with the blog this year too, we can film ourselves drinking and cooking and reviewing different boozes.

Excellent.

Stir-fried chicken & barley (or, chicken & barley soup)

2011-03-04T21:07:00.002-06:00

So I just whipped this up for dinner tonight, and it was way, way too easy to be as good as it was. I've been messing around with barley for lunch at work a lot lately because we've got a ton of it and hardly ever use it for anything. So since I had to skip lunch at work today, I brought part of it home with me and threw this together-

Super, super simple. No exact measurements were used or are needed here, but this is what I used for ingredients:

Cooked barley
Cooked, shredded chicken
Fresh spinach (hopefully E. Coli-free. I'll find out tomorrow, I guess)
Diced yellow bell pepper
Fresh ground coriander & cumin
Sun-dried tomato paste
Kosher salt
Granulated garlic
Cooking sherry
Extra-virgin olive oil
Chicken stock (optional, but tasty)

Heat up your fry pan nice and hot, splash in a couple glugs of the oil and saute up the bell pepper. After a minute or two, add the spinach until it starts to wilt, then add the barley and chicken and cook for another minute or so. Push it all to the outer edge of the pan and let it get really hot again, then douse it with the sherry and give it a couple good stirs to thoroughly mix it all together. Sprinkle on a hefty dose of coriander, cumin, and the garlic (fresh garlic would have been ideal, but I was too pressed for time to chop any, so I went with the granulated), add a couple pinches of salt, and you're good to go. Sun-dried tomatoes (or paste, in my case) add a nice touch of flavor. I think preserved lemon would have been tasty too, but I was already planning on adding the chicken stock and I wasn't sure if it would clash or not, since this was leftover stock from when I made Pho Ga the other day, so I held off on it. (I think I'll try it next time.) Even though that Pho recipe needs a little tweaking, in my opinion, the broth from it goes really well with this barley dish-

Very good stuff. And it's pretty quick to make, too- since I had the soup stock handy, and the barley and chicken was already cooked and the pepper diced, it took less than 10 minutes to dish this up.

Definitely worth making again.

Bubble Tea...

2011-03-01T18:19:00.007-06:00

I first discovered bubble tea about 15 years ago or so when I was living in Chicago, right around the time I also discovered Pho, Sticky Rice, and Pad Thai. Bubble tea kind of throws some people off, but I always did like it, as well as some of the many variations on it that include fruit, and a bunch of other weird, jelly-like... things (the Asian version of gummi bears, I guess). Anyway, bubble tea has kind of exploded in popularity over the last several years, and you can find places that sell it almost everywhere nowadays. Problem is, it's kind of pricey. No more expensive than your average latte-type drink at Starbucks, I guess, but those are overpriced too as far as I'm concerned. Luckily, though, it's pretty easy to make at home. Oh wait, you say you don't like bubble tea? Or even regular tea? Well read on, cretin! Because this drink can be made just as easily (easier, actually) without tea or bubbles, and is in fact a tasty and refreshing beverage all on it's own. And who doesn't like tasty and refreshing beverages? Especially ones that become all the more tasty with the addition of alcohol?

I first tried my hand at making bubble tea about 5 years ago. And while what I made was certainly drinkable, and was made with tea and boba (aka tapioca pearls, or the 'bubbles' in bubble tea), it was really kind of plain and ordinary. Certainly nothing I'd recommend to any real fan of bubble tea. But then awhile back, my brother gave me a bag of dried lemongrass that he'd had in his pantry and no longer wanted. I didn't really have any recipes for it or know what to do with it, so I started experimenting with making some sort of lemongrass tea with it, and before long, I came up with a really, really tasty beverage- very good all on it's own, but it also makes a good base for bubble tea too. Here's the basic recipe:

6 c water
6 T dried lemongrass*
4 star anise
1 T cardamom seed, ground*
1 or 2 cinnamon sticks (approx. 2 inch)
1/2 oz (approx.) fresh ginger, sliced
5-6 T brown sugar, not packed
Coconut milk, to taste

Ok, I haven't worked it all out to the point where it's scientifically the best-tasting possible configuration of cooking time and heat level and all that, but generally, for the non-bubble, non-tea version, here's what you want to do: put everything but the sugar and coconut milk in a pot, bring just to a boil then turn down to a slow simmer for about 5 minutes or so. At this point, strain- or let it set for another 5 minutes or so, whatever- and then add the sugar (more or less, according to how sweet you like things) and as much coconut milk as you like. It doesn't have to be coconut milk, of course, but you're probably going to want some sort of creamer in there, be it soy milk, half and half, or whatever. When it comes to coffee, I always drink mine black, and tea- always straight, nothing added. But this drink is different. I've tried it straight and to be honest, it doesn't really taste all that great. It kind of needs sugar and coconut milk (or whatever. I just think coconut milk blends super well with the flavors of everything else that's in there.) Oh, quick tip on the coconut milk- you want to add it when the 'tea' is just warm- no longer hot, but not cool either- say, around 105-125 degrees F. If the tea is too hot, the oil in the coconut milk tends to separate, and if it's too cool, it tends to not really emulsify. Could just be the kinds of coconut milk that I've been using, but that's been my experience so far. As far as straining the stuff goes, I typically use 'hops' bag (a small fine mesh nylon bag with a drawstring; can be obtained at any homebrew supply store for cheap); everything goes in there before being tossed in the pot. Makes for super easy straining.

So that's my base recipe. Goes great hot or over ice, and has a nice coolness to it from the anise. Very tasty. Very refreshing. But if you want to make an actual bubble tea drink with it, the process is slightly different (only slightly). First off, when it's done brewing, don't add the sugar just yet. Once the tea blend is done and at the correct temp for your type of tea, start with that. And this varies depending on the kind of tea you're using- black tea, you can probably just throw in with the rest of the stuff while it's boiling (I don't know the specifics of it, I'm not a black tea drinker) but green tea is a little more temp-sensitive: you don't want to boil it, for sure. Different varieties of green tea vary in their optimum time/temperature requirements, so follow the instructions on yours accordingly. Black teas, from what I understand, take around 5 minutes, but for the stuff I drink, I usually go with a temp of around 170 degrees F. and steep for 2-3 minutes. So once the lemongrass blend has finished simmering and the heat is off, I remove the hops bag and just let the tea sit until it cools down enough that I can add in my jasmine tea. Obviously a thermometer is in order when using green/white/oolong tea, but if you're a serious tea nerd you already have one anyway. When the tea is done steeping, strain that out and then add about 1/2 the sugar. The other half goes in the water that you cook the pearls in. I really don't have any specific amounts for that- just remember that a little bit of boba goes a long way, so add as much or as little as you think you might want and cover with about an inch of water. Generally, following the instructions on the bag will give you decent results, but I've seen some that say to boil them for a half hour or an hour, which seems way, way too long to me. For the kind I use, I put them in a pot of water, bring it to a boil, then shut it off and cover for 5 minutes and then strain. But don't drain the cooking water- just strain out the pearls and save the water to add to the rest of the bubble tea; the tapioca pearls themselves add a really nice flavor to it. And remember earlier when I mentioned the addition of alcohol? Well, I've found that a good-sized shot of bourbon added to this drink (with or without the boba) adds a really, really nice touch (almost too nice). And I'm certainly no bourbon connoisseur, but Knob Creek was a really nice surprise for me. Long story short, due to a couple really bad experiences with Jack Daniels several years ago, I swore off all whiskey altogether. Couldn't drink it if I wanted to- even the smell of it was too much to handle. But then recently a friend of mine introduced another friend of mine to Knob Creek, and since I happened to be standing right there (and probably had had a couple of drinks of my own already) I asked for a taste of it, and was instantly hooked. It's very smooth and has a nice carmely finish to it. So that's my recommendation for adding alcohol to this. A lot of people swear by Maker's Mark, but I've tried it side-by-side with Knob Creek- and I'm sticking with Knob Creek.

So- you could make yourself a glass of bubble tea and add the bourbon to that, and it would be very delicious just like that; but what I do is when I strain the pearls after they're done cooking, I rinse them briefly under cold water- not long enough to cool them entirely, just for a few seconds or so until they're no longer hot, but still quite warm- and then put them in a bowl or glass and cover them with the bourbon. That way they soak some of it up, which really adds to the flavor. Very good, indeed.

So there you have it- a very tasty drink, with or without the tea and/or bubbles and/or alcohol (though I think it's best with all three). And again, it goes great hot or iced.

* Note on lemongrass and cardamom: for cardamom, I've used whole and ground- I think ground gives you more flavor, but if you don't have a fine mesh bag to strain everything with, there's the sediment you have to deal with. Whole seeds minimize that, but you'll need more to get the same amount of flavor, and considering how expensive the stuff is (on average, around $45-50/lb, though Great American Spice has it for under $35/lb, last I checked) I'd just recommend picking up the fine mesh bag and going with ground (assuming you grind it yourself, too). As for the lemongrass, the stuff I've been using is from Penzey's, but I think I'm going to find someplace else, since they seem to have changed the cut size to something much, much finer- almost to the point of being a powder. The original bag that my brother gave me was cut very coarse- it looked like cut grass, or a loose-leaf regular tea, almost. (Kind of like this picture, from Great American Spice.) So when I ran out of that, I went back and bought 1/2 lb. more, and the difference was striking. Even using the fine mesh nylon bag to strain it, some still gets through. But if you don't have one of those bags and instead use a fine mesh strainer, then a considerable amount of it is going to come through.

One final word on the tapioca pearls themselves- the quality can vary quite a bit, and price isn't always a good indicator. Generally, the pastel colored ones are always quite good, if a bit more expensive. But when going with the standard black/brown pearls, if possible, try pinching one of the pearls through the bag- it shouldn't break or crumble. If it does, I'd avoid those. I bought a large bag once awhile ago, and after I cooked and drained them, I noticed that most of them were falling apart in the strainer. I thought maybe I'd just overcooked them or something, so I made some more and saw that they were breaking apart right in the pot before the water even started to boil! So I poured some straight from the bag into my hand and found I could crush them as easily as if they were just crackers or something! I ended up throwing the whole bag out (over 5 lbs.) Decent quality pearls will not fall apart so easily. It should be extremely difficult to crush one between your fingers. In my experience, the good quality brown/black pearls look like tiny little chocolate donut holes, covered with powered sugar. The lesser-quality ones are a lighter brown color and don't have the 'powdered sugar' coating (in my experience, anyway). If you can get a direct recommendation from somebody, all the better.

Bánh Mì

2011-02-04T18:16:00.005-06:00

Bánh Mì- I think it's Vietnamese for 'Amazingly Delicious,' or something along those lines.

I've only had two kinds of Bánh Mì- one I bought a couple years ago at a Vietnamese Bakery, and my version. Thankfully I knew better than to judge all Bánh Mì by the version I had back then, because it was just ok- not bad, but nothing to go off and tell all your friends about. So after awhile, I started poking around online to get an idea of just what comprises a Bánh Mì Sandwich, and then came up with my own version, which is far superior to the one I had at the Vietnamese bakery that day. At least one person, after eating one of mine, is reported to have said, 'That's the best thing I've ever stuffed in my face.' She may have been exaggerating, I don't know, but I do know that mine is a mighty fine Bánh Mì indeed.

Typically made with a crusty baguette (which this one is obviously not, but that was mostly due to the need for efficient prep and serving at work- this was just the easiest choice. I prefer baguette, but it was still amazing), pork or other meat, carrots, pickled daikon, cucumbers, and mayo, along with various other things. It's hard to get too specific- it's like asking what a Subway sandwich is typically made with- the variations are pretty numerous. But you can find plenty more info about Bánh Mì, as well as lots of other recipes, here: Battle of the Bánh Mì.

Here's my version:

Gather up the following:

For the sandwich-

Baguette or hoagie bun
Your favorite lettuce
Mayo
Boneless chicken breast
Chinese 5-spice powder
Cilantro

For the Asian slaw:

1/4 c each fish sauce, sugar, rice vinegar
1/4 c + 2 T water
1 t or so kosher salt
Juice from about 1/2 lime
1 T or so minced garlic
A pinch of crushed red pepper
Some red onion, carrot, and jalapeño

Start with the Asian slaw- to speed things up a little, I usually start with hot water to dissolve the salt and sugar quicker, and then just add everything but the veggies. For those, there is no specific amount. Just grab a red onion and slice it as thin as you can, shred a carrot or two on the small holes of a box grater, and slice up the jalapeño into little matchsticks (seeds or not, according to how hot you like things). Toss all that into the mix and set aside to marinate for a couple hours or so. (I've let it go overnight before, but it loses a bit of its fresh taste. It's still good, just not as good.)

As a side note, I'll often use this recipe as a starting point, but never quite follow it exactly. I always tweak it as I go, adding more of one thing or another. If you want to want to play around with it a bit, but aren't quite sure which direction to go in (or maybe you wrote it down for later, but lost it somewhere), a good rule of thumb for this type of thing is that you want a fairly even balance of Hot, Sour, Salty, and Sweet. There's even a pretty good book by that name on this sort of stuff.

While that's marinating, start in on the chicken. Think Subway sandwich again, in that however you prefer to cook it, it'll be good, but for my Bánh Mì, here's how I do it-

Take a couple of chicken breasts, 10 oz. total or so, whatever you think you might need, butterfly them if necessary just so they're not overly thick, and then cook them in a simple salt/sugar brine on a sheet tray in a 350 degree F oven until they're done. I forget what all the science behind it is, but something about a little bit of salt and sugar in the water helps keep the chicken juicier. Most brine recipes that I've seen seem a little strong to me, like 1/4 c each per quart of water, or something like that. I just use a couple teaspoons or so per quart of water, and it always turns out fine. Anyway, when the chicken is done, let it cool a bit, but not completely, and pull it into shreds. Toss in as little or as much 5-spice powder as you like. (Ever had cinnamon sugar on your toast in the morning? That's about the color I go for with mine.) And 5-spice powder goes quite well with orange, so I'll often mix in a little O.J., or granulated orange peel or zest. Let that sit for an hour or so for the flavor of the 5-spice and orange to meld a bit.

That's pretty much it- now you're ready to build. Get your bread of choice all toasted up and crusty, slather it heavily with mayo, then the lettuce; throw on a handful of the shredded chicken, some slaw (drained a little, but not totally), and top with cilantro.

Pretty simple, eh? Yet amazingly tasty. The combination of all the different flavors is really something special.

Oh, and since my last post was a Thai chicken soup, and now this one, maybe you're in the mood for a good Bubble Tea drink for dessert or something? Well, I have one! I was going to post it tonight onto the end of this, but it's late and I don't have time. Possibly tomorrow (Tuesday) but maybe not. If you don't see it here tomorrow, then in a couple weeks (going to be out of town next week). I'll may just add it here at the end of the Banh Mi post, but I may also just do a whole new entry for it, we'll see.

Tom Kha Kai (aka Thai Chicken Soup)

2011-01-18T10:31:00.002-06:00

I could've swore I posted this here a long time ago, but I guess not. Well, better late than never, I suppose...

Anyone who knows me, or has ever been cooked for by me, knows that, man, I really love Thai food (anything with an Asian feel to it, really.) And I tell you what, I love me a giant bowl of Tom Kha Kai.

Being that this is a soup, there's any number of ways to do it. Here's my way:

(Those chunks of chicken-nugget-looking things are the galanga)

What we have here is the following:

Galanga
Lemongrass
Garlic
Thai bird chilis
Kaffir lime leaves
Scallions (white parts)
Ginger
Sea salt
Black pepper
Brown sugar
Fish sauce

Specific amounts, you say? Recipe? Why, I have no idea what you're talking about; I just eyeball the amounts. If it looks right, it is right. And if it's not right, I'll know it when I taste it, and adjust accordingly (I'm generally, though not always, of the opinion that recipes are for cookbook authors and culinary scaredy-cats).
So, cook this down in a little bit of oil, just until soft, you don't want to brown it. Next, add some coconut milk and chicken stock (I used the low sodium kind for this) and let simmer for about 10-15 minutes. (For the total volume of soup, I used approx. 32 oz. each of coconut milk and chicken stock, and added a little less than half each for this part.)

Afterwards, strain out all of the liquid into another container, dump the veggies, and return the liquid to the pot. Add the rest of the coconut milk and chicken stock, taste and add more salt, pepper, brown sugar, fish sauce accordingly, then add the diced (raw) chicken.

(Helpful tip: chicken, beef, etc., is so much easier to slice and dice when it's partially frozen!)

I think I used about 1 1/2 lbs. or so for this batch. Chop up some mushrooms of your choice- I used fresh oyster mushrooms, but most anything will do- and add those to the pot. Add in some bamboo shoots- I was lucky enough to have some fresh, thinly sliced and slivered ones on hand, and used about a pound. I'm sure water chestnuts would be delicious, but I didn't have any this time (except for that one small can down in the basement, but I didn't feel like bothering with it). Also, at this point I added a couple tablespoons of crack (aka MSG) because I really like the stuff. Apparently, though, some people have issues with it. I'm glad I'm not one of those people. Let simmer until the chicken is cooked all the way through, and then dish it up, adding copious amounts of cilantro and Thai basil as a garnish-

Although, I think copious means something different for me than it does for other people- I practically have a salad on top of mine:

This was the first time I've used Thai basil with this soup; before, I'd always just gone with cilantro (mainly because when I used to make this for myself before, I didn't have easy access to the Thai basil). I highly recommend it. This particular batch was Out. Standing. Fairly easy to make, and make consistently good. Pad Thai, for me, is always hit or miss- sometimes great, usually just ok. But every time I make this, it always ranges from Very Good, to I Want To Marry Whoever Made This. Substitutions generally work well, too. Where I used Thai bird chilis, if you can't get those, you could definitely go with crushed red pepper. I don't know of any fresh substitutes for Galanga, Lime leaves, and Lemongrass, but the dried versions are relatively easy to come by via mail-order, or even at a lot of co-ops and grocery stores nowadays, and are usually reasonably priced. Not as good as fresh, obviously, but better than nothing. When I can afford it, which is almost never, I prefer sesame or peanut oil for cooking the veggies at the beginning (coconut oil would also be excellent) but in this case I just went with canola.

Finally, it's not a recipe, but here are the approximate amounts I used for the ingredients listed:

Galanga- 1 medium finger/knob
Lemongrass- 1 stalk
Garlic- 2-4 Tablespoons
Thai bird chilis- 5-6
Kaffir lime leaves- 8 leaves, or so. (would've used more, but the rest had gone bad)
Scallions (white parts) - 1 bunch
Ginger- 1 medium finger
Sea salt- 1 T
Black pepper- 1 teaspoon
Brown sugar- 2 T
Fish sauce- 2-4 T
Coconut milk- 32 oz
Low-sodium chicken stock- 32 oz
Diced chicken- 1 1/2 lbs.
Oyster mushrooms- 8 oz.
Bamboo shoots- 1 lb.
MSG- 2 T
Cilantro, chopped- 1/2 C
Thai Basil, chopped- 1/2 C

Maybe it's just me, but...

2011-01-03T11:27:00.004-06:00

Do you notice anything really stupid about this picture (the main one on the right)?

I got a Williams-Sonoma catalog in the mail the other day, and set it aside for later. This morning when I picked it up to scan through it, that picture was on the second page in, and my very first thought when I saw it was not, 'Wow, a Vitamix, sure wish I had one of those!' (That was probably my second thought), but 'You gotta be f'ing kidding me.'
I get that it's an advertisement for their blender and all, and you kinda gotta show the front of the blender to people, but still, do you have to get a chef (or anyone) to pose behind the thing, looking like he's actually using it like that? Because I'm pretty sure noone who uses a $600 blender would stand behind it and give it the ol' reach-around treatment. I could be wrong about that, but I'm pretty sure that's the case. Who knows, though? Maybe I'm just jealous because I can't afford a $600 blender. Maybe if I had one I'd be posing shirtless with it, wrapping my arms lovingly around it from behind and looking into the camera like I'm doing a scene for some tawdry culinary soap opera? But unless Williams-Sonoma or Vitamix would like to sponsor that little piece of heaven by, I don't know, sending me a free Vitamix Pro or something, I guess we'll never know for sure. So I'm sticking with my original (and totally not bitter or resentful or anything) judgment that it's a stupid photo.

Hangover Relief Recipe

2010-12-29T20:04:00.003-06:00

Had a little too much to drink last night? Or maybe planning to have a little too much to drink one of these nights? Well my friend, I do believe I have the solution for you. And yes, it actually works. Or at least it did for me- like a freaking miracle- the one time I tried it (two nights ago). Obviously further testing is required, but I have enough experience with alcohol- with too much alcohol- to know quite well how it affects me. And it affects me pretty easily. I'm pushing 40 and have found that even just a couple beers within an hour of going to bed, even if I don't feel even a little intoxicated, and I'm at least looking at a headache in the morning. The ravages of age... However, through past experience, research, and just asking other drinking friends, I've found that one thing that seems to help alleviate a hangover pretty well and pretty consistently, is electrolytes. The stuff you get in Gatorade and other sports drinks that you're supposed to replenish after a strenuous workout (or strenuous night of drinking). Recently, coconut water has been making the rounds as a good hangover relief- supposedly it's got a higher concentration of key electrolytes in it than other electrolyte-laden beverages. And that may be true, but I can tell you that it's also a lot more expensive than those other beverages, and it's definitely an acquired taste. To me it tastes exactly like the milk that's left over in the bowl of a sugary cereal (like frosted flakes, or something). Exactly like that. But, small price to pay if it works, right? Well that got me thinking- if electrolytes are key (and my past experiences drinking Powerade the next day, as well as similar stories I've heard from other people tell me that this is in fact true), then what exactly are electrolytes, and how can I get more of them in me, short of drinking more Gatorade or coconut water? So I started looking around online and found that electrolytes include: sodium, magnesium, potassium, bicarbonate (from baking soda) and calcium. I don't know if sugar is considered an electrolyte exactly, but I know that you need a certain amount of it during intense workouts to keep your blood sugar level up and maintain performance levels. So anyway, I decided to try and come up with my own electrolyte drink using some of those ingredients I'd read about and loosely based on this recipe for a homemade sports drink. Here's what I came up with, followed by how well it worked for me:

1 can of 100% fruit juice concentrate + 4 cans of water
1T Epsom salt
1/4t kosher salt
...
1 Potassium Gluconate tablet (550 mg, 90 mg Potassium, i.e. 3% DV. Found in the vitamin aisle.)

First off, I probably don't need to mention this, but I'd stay away from o.j, or other high-acid juices. And you definitely want 100% juice, no added sugar. I used grape juice; nice and neutral. The Epsom salt is where you get the Magnesium. You could also take a Magnesium tablet instead, and I'll probably do that in the future, but I used the Epsom salt this time around because I just happened to have some on hand, so figured I'd save a few bucks by not buying the magnesium tablets. In any case, Potassium and Magnesium tablets are fairly inexpensive- around $5/100-150 tablets, so definitely way cheaper in the end than drinks like Gatorade/Powerade/coconut water. Also, I think the key here is in prevention- don't wait until the next day when you're already super dehydrated and hung over to drink this up- drink it after you're all done drinking for the night (or even during. Just try to get some in you before you pass out/fall asleep). As far as the taste goes, it tastes somewhat similar to, but still better than, Gatorade/Powerade. I'm guessing it's the Magnesium that does that, so if you went with the Magnesium tablet instead of the Epsom salt, you could probably eliminate that altogether.

So here's my experience: two nights ago, I ended up getting a little drunk. Actually, a lot drunk. Like really, really drunk. Started off with beer, then switched to vodka later on. And mixing alcohols like that is pretty much guaranteed to leave me feeling some regret in the morning. Plus, I stayed up until between 4 and 5 in the morning. A pretty heavy night overall. On the rare occasion when I do drink that much, I always try to drink plenty of water in between, and especially before I head off to bed, to try and stay at least a little hydrated. But I got sidetracked and had little to none that night. I also try to take a couple Ibuprofen before heading to bed to help mitigate the pounding headache I know I'll have in the morning. But that night I forgot that as well. I did, however, remember to take a few large swigs of this homemade electrolyte drink and take 1 Potassium tablet before I crawled into bed. I woke up approximately 8 hours later- no trace of a headache, no trace of nausea. Nothing. I was a little groggy still (probably partly because I'm not used to staying up till past 4 a.m.) but fairly clear-headed and I remember thinking that it just hasn't kicked in yet, but it surely will. Except that it never did. Not the pounding headache or awful retching the contents of my stomach out, anyway. The only real hangover effect I felt was that I was very, very tired, almost fatigued, and had to lay back down for a nap a few hours after getting up. That always happens to me anyway after a night of drinking like I had, but not having an extreme headache and nausea to go along with it definitely made it much more bearable. Though I would almost expect to be that tired (even after 8 hours' sleep) if I'd stayed up that late and hadn't had anything to drink. So that was my experience with this hangover relief recipe. While it could, possibly, have been just a coincidence that I woke up feeling relatively fine after all that drinking (I've heard of it happening sometimes with other people), my past experience tells me that that's highly unlikely. So while I don't very often get quite that loaded, I think I'm going to stick with what worked next time I have a night of drinks planned. (I may also add some calcium to the mix too, since that was also listed as a key electrolyte.) I'd be interested in hearing in the comments how well this recipe works for you if you try it out, or any other methods you've tried that work really well. (Just remember- drink it the night before! And also, get drink/get drunk responsibly! Don't be like the guy we had at work the other day who got too tanked and tried to go someplace he wasn't supposed to and ended up falling down a steep flight of stairs, punching a hole in the wall at the bottom with his head.

)

Rockin' The Burrito Casbah

2010-12-17T23:12:00.011-06:00

The humble bean and cheese burrito- mediocre convenience store freezer fare? Not when you make it yourself from scratch! Behold! The homemade tortilla, homemade refried beans, the homemade jalapeño salsa! One bite of this and even the girliest girl will slobber all over herself to get some more.

I humbly submit to you that I. Freaking. Rock.

*****

I had this for dinner last night and tonight. Both times I was freaking out at how delicious it was. And dead simple to make too (especially if you make up a large batch of tortilla dough and refried beans in bulk in advance, but even if you don't, only slightly more work; and the payoff is huge). I never, ever would have thought a bean and cheese burrito could be so good. Usually when I make burritos I go for chicken, or beef, or bacon, but I've had a huge bag of pinto beans lying around for awhile now and my pressure cooker just waiting for a chance to get used, so I finally made up a batch of beans and threw this thing together. It's almost too easy to make; you really can't do it wrong. As for the refried beans, there's recipes all over the place on how to make them, but I don't bother with any of them. Here's how I do mine- cook off a large batch using your preferred method. Mine would be the pressure cooker. If you don't have one, I can't recommend them highly enough. You can take unsoaked beans and have them completely done and ready to go in under 30 minutes! And that includes the time waiting for the water to come to a boil and build up pressure, as well as the slow method of releasing pressure (running the pot under cool water in the sink). So get yourself a large amount of cooked and slightly cooled pintos and throw them in the food processor. Add in a little of the cooking liquid, some oil, and whatever seasonings you think you might like in whatever amounts seem good. I tend to go very light on the salt since the salsa already has plenty in it, but here's what I tend to use:

Jalapeño powder
Granulated garlic
Mexican oregano
Lime juice
Epazote (a Mexican herb, kind of similar to oregano)
Black pepper
Cumin

and whatever else I've got lying around that sounds like it might be good. (Chipotle powder is excellent, and I've found that a pinch or two of cinnamon adds a really nice touch as well.) You'll want it just a little on the thin side, since it'll thicken up as you cook it. Whip it all up and then toss it in a pot with as much cheddar as you like (I recommend setting up some sort of double boiler so it doesn't all stick to the pan on the bottom) and then it's pretty much good to go. You definitely want the homemade tortillas for this. They're just so much better than store-bought. There's quite a few recipes out there for them, and they're all more or less the same. I tend to use this one a lot, but this one looks good too. I've never made them with the baking powder though, so I'm not sure what sort of a difference that makes. The dough freezes really well too- I usually make up a double batch and then roll them out into roughly golf-ball-sized portions and then freeze them on a sheet tray, then toss them into a zip top bag. As far as cooking them goes, an extra large cast-iron skillet would be great, but all I've got is a wok. Seriously. Works just fine, though. As far as the salsa goes, THIS recipe is where it's at! So, so good. I make mine slightly different, though- for one, I'm not a fan of serranos, so I use all jalapeños, and I don't strain mine, either. Seems like a waste. Once it's ready I just blend it all up with my stick blender and call it good. No, make that call it great, actually. I freaking love this salsa. If you decide you want to go with a store bought variety though, Valentina is pretty damn good, and Tapatio goes pretty well on burritos too.

Here are those links again-

Flour tortilla 1
Flour tortilla 2
Vinegar based hot sauce

Give it a whirl. I think you'll be surprised at how good a bean and cheese burrito can really be. I know I was.

Moroccan Chicken Sandwich

2010-12-06T10:59:00.019-06:00

Tasty!

I want to start off with a disclaimer: I've never been to Morocco, or even eaten at a Moroccan restaurant here in the States. I have no actual hands-on experience with 'true' Moroccan food whatsoever- just my own experiments at home that resulted from a whole bunch of hunting around online for Moroccan recipes. So if you ever find yourself ordering a sandwich at a Moroccan restaurant- if they even have sandwiches on the menu- it will probably be nothing like this one. But calling it a 'Moroccan-Inspired Chicken Sandwich' sounded kind of dumb. (And besides, it's made with Ras el Hanout which is a 'true' Moroccan spice blend, although this is my own recipe; more on that later). But none of that really matters, because this sandwich is good. Really, Really Good. You (and all your friends) will like it, of that I'm sure. I'm also sure that you've never had a sandwich quite like this before. You know how I'm sure? Because I googled 'Moroccan Chicken Sandwich' and found only a few things, none of which was even remotely like this. The closest one I've been able to find was this one, and while it sounds ok, mine's better. You'll see. It's also a whole lot messier. Easily one of the messiest sandwiches I've ever eaten (you'll need extra napkins, and a spoon wouldn't hurt either).

Here's the short list of what you'll need:
(specifics after the jump)

Boneless Chicken Breast
Cardamom Mayo
Ras El Hanout
Flatbread
Coconut Milk
Dried Fruit
Toasted Almonds

Optional, but totally delicous and recommended:

Preserved Lemons
Cilantro
Diced Tomatoes

Ok, let's start with the Ras el Hanout. After that trip down the spice aisle at Target that I mentioned in the previous post, I started hunting around online for Moroccan recipes, paying close attention to the spices used. I found a boatload of recipes for Ras el Hanout, a blend of spices that is used extensively in Moroccan cooking. And being a blend, there are about as many variations of it as there are people who use it. I never did try a single one of the ones I found, though; because while they're all similar, they're all quite different too- some called for cumin and paprika, while others left out the cardamom (!) or coriander. There wasn't really a whole lot of consensus, which is totally fine and makes perfect sense, so I took a bunch and tried to come up with my own, based on the whole of what I found. First, here are the ones (that I can remember) that I based mine on -

Cyber Kitchen
Kayotic Kitchen
Cannellette
Chow
The Epicentre

A few used saffron, which I would have liked to have tried, but it's just too expensive for me ($18/3 grams, or $106/oz. at Spice Barn, the cheapest place I've found). But I'm happy with what I came up with nonetheless, although I still consider it a 'working' recipe' (meaning that it works great for me, but I plan on tweaking it a lot in the future- maybe less pepper, definitely more cardamom). Here's my version:

Ras el Hanout

2T paprika, cumin
1/2 T (approx.) toasted fennel seeds
1T + 1t basil, ginger, turmeric, kosher salt
1T cinnamon, black pepper, garlic powder, ground coriander
2t white pepper, cayenne, allspice, cardamom
1 t nutmeg, cloves, mace

A couple notes: I generally recommend toasting cumin before using it; adds a nice richness to the flavor.
This particular blend is a little on the peppery side. It's not overpowering, but may be a little too much for people who can't handle such things. Also, I've since learned that the only difference between black pepper and white pepper is that there is no real difference- white pepper is just black pepper with the black outer covering removed (Spice Barn says 'outer and inner coverings removed,' and also that it's 'less pungent.' I don't know, but it's something to think about before shelling out an extra 40%, or more, for white vs. black).
For what it's worth, the garlic powder called for in this recipe is actual powder, i.e. not granulated. I almost always prefer granulated over powdered, but I first made this recipe at work, and at the time we didn't have any granulated.

So that's the Ras. Now comes the Cardamom Mayo! This stuff is just flat-out delicious. I have no idea how I came up with it or what, if any, inspiration I had for it. There must have been some rhyme or reason for it, but then again, maybe not; maybe I was just experimenting and got lucky, I really don't remember. I did try making it once with whole-milk yogurt, thinking that would be a little more true-to-style, but didn't really like it. Mayo is preferred (homemade mayo is especially preferred. I'll post a link at the end to a nearly foolproof homemade mayo recipe I found).

Cardamom Mayo

3/4 c. mayo
1T ground coriander
1T ground cardamom
Zest of 1 lemon, juice of 1 half
1T honey
pinch salt/pepper
sprinkle cinnamon/cayenne

Definitely don't skip the cayenne, but be careful about adding too much- the excess heat isn't the issue, it's just that the flavor of the cayenne overpowers and ruins all the other flavors. Less really is more.

Preserved Lemons

You can buy commercially made preserved lemons, if you don't feel like making your own, or need some in a pinch, but I've heard that they're very expensive. But they're so easy to make on your own, not to mention dirt cheap, that there's really no reason not to. Pretty much all you really need, besides lemons and salt, is time (they're ready in about 6-8 weeks). I'm going to skip the recipe here, but here are a couple links to recipes I've used:

Tony Tahhan

Sippity Sup

Tony's is the first one I used and it's dead simple. Sippity's recipe calls for adding some aromatics. I made a batch using the exact recipe, minus the bay leaves because I didn't have any; honestly, though, I didn't really notice a difference. Not that it's not worth doing, I just think I'd add more of everything it calls for. But one thing I especially like about the recipe, is that she has a photo of them sitting in a large glass jar, held under the juice with a small plate. It seems obvious now, but since all the other recipes I've seen call for using mason jars, if you've never made any before, then you might subconsciously conclude that you need a mason jar to make preserved lemons. Well, follow her example and use what you've got. I actually have several jars of the stuff in my fridge, but I also have a 1-gallon Rubbermaid pitcher of them too. It was a lot easier to make them- and it's also easier to remove them- but the downside is that I also have a 1-gallon Rubbermaid pitcher of them in my fridge, which is probably more than I'll ever be able to use. Seriously, a little goes a long way- 1 piece (1/4 lemon) is easily enough for 2 or 3 servings.

Flatbread

If you know of a decent store-bought kind that you like, go for it; if not, I found this one over at Allrecipes awhile back and have been using it ever since (I always skip the garlic, though). The flatbread you see in the photos was made with this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1/4 cup white sugar

3 tablespoons milk

1 egg, beaten

2 teaspoons salt

4 1/2 cups bread flour

2 teaspoons minced garlic (optional)

1/4 cup butter, melted

Directions:

1.	In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Let stand about 10 minutes, until frothy. Stir in sugar, milk, egg, salt, and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes on a lightly floured surface, or until smooth. Place dough in a well oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth, and set aside to rise. Let it rise 1 hour, until the dough has doubled in volume.
2.	Punch down dough, and knead in garlic. Pinch off small handfuls of dough about the size of a golf ball. Roll into balls, and place on a tray. Cover with a towel, and allow to rise until doubled in size, about 30 minutes.
3.	During the second rising, preheat grill to high heat.
4.	At grill side, roll one ball of dough out into a thin circle. Lightly oil grill. Place dough on grill, and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, or until puffy and lightly browned. Brush uncooked side with butter, and turn over. Brush cooked side with butter, and cook until browned, another 2 to 4 minutes. Remove from grill, and continue the process until all the naan has been prepared.

I don't know about the golf ball size measurement because I weigh mine out now. I've found that 3-3 1/2 oz. works really well for me. It's always tempting to make them bigger so I can have a bigger sandwich, but it never really works out in practice. You can only fill them up so much before everything falls apart and makes an even bigger mess than it otherwise would. Also, while an oiled grill on high probably works great, I get fantastic results from cooking mine in a dry wok on medium.

I hate when recipes call for yeast by the packet because I buy mine in bulk. I have a scale, so if they list the weight, it's not really a problem, but if you also use bulk yeast and don't have a scale, let me save you a step:

1 packet of yeast is approx. 2 1/2 t.

Putting it all together

Boneless Chicken Breast
Cardamom Mayo
Ras El Hanout
Flatbread
Coconut Milk
Dried Fruit
Preserved Lemons
Chopped, Toasted Almonds
Cilantro
Diced Tomatoes

(I don't have exact amounts for any of this, but figure that you're only going to be able to use about 3-4 oz. of chicken breast per sandwich.)

Start by adding coconut milk and water to a medium sized saucepan, over medium heat- use a 1:1 ratio, or even more, of water to coconut milk (say, 1-1/2 cans of water per can of coconut milk). It may seem rather thin now, but it'll thicken up a lot as it cooks. Add in as much or as little Ras el Hanout as you like. I like a lot. I don't even measure it- I keep mine in a wide-mouth jar and just shake a bunch in until it looks good. Taste it and see (note that it might seem like it needs a little... 'something;' sugar, maybe? That's where the dried fruit, and later on, cardamom mayo come in). When it's to your liking, add in your raw chicken, either sliced very thinly or diced, 1 piece of minced preserved lemon peel, and a handful or so of chopped dried fruit. I've used figs, raisins, dates, and apricots; each one adds its own unique take on the flavor of the final dish and I like them all. Raisins have the added benefit of being small enough that you don't have to chop them. (And in case you missed my last post- Walgreens, of all places, has really high quality, really cheap ($1/box) dried fruit. At least the one in my neighborhood does, but I'm pretty sure the rest have the same supplier.) You'll probably have to turn the heat down to low because the mix will thicken considerably and start to bubble and splatter a lot. Now would be a good time to spoon out a piece of the chicken and take a bite to see if it's done. No, I'm kidding. You should probably wait several minutes until it at least looks like it's cooked, then spoon out a piece and maybe set it on a cutting board or something, to slice it open and check for sure. And unless you're using really large, thick pieces (not recommended) it really doesn't take long at all, maybe 7-10 minutes. When you've decided that it is in fact ready, take a piece of freshly made/heated flatbread and spoon a bunch of the chicken/fruit mix into a line down the center of it (try to drain off most of the coconut milk beforehand; it's going to be plenty messy as it is without it). Add some diced tomatoes, a spoonful of cardamom mayo, a sprinkle of the almonds, and then the cilantro. In that order.

Fold it into a taco shape and prepare yourself for one of the tastiest, messiest sandwiches you've ever had.

Variation: If you're planning a bbq or something, or just don't feel like going the messy route, this will also make a great 'regular' sandwich- just make a marinade out of some Ras and oil and lemon juice/preserved lemon and then coat some chicken breasts with it and marinate for awhile before tossing on the grill. Goes great on a regular hamburger bun with Lettuce, Tomato, and Onion, and also the cardamom mayo, almonds and cilantro. Maybe a slice of Muenster as well.

This is a great recipe for homemade mayo that I found (you'll need an immersion blender). When I was getting ready to make it for the first time I remember thinking that there's no way this would work. No Way. But it did! In fact, it works fantastic! No more super slow drizzling of oil, no need for a food processor. Once all the ingredients are in your mixing vessel, it literally takes about 5-7 seconds to whip up a batch. Keep in mind, though, that room temperature ingredients are key. The only time this didn't work for me was when my egg was close to- but not quite at- room temp.

***

Yes, I realize there's no cilantro or tomatoes on the sandwich in these photos- that's because even though there's a grocery store only a mile and a half from my house, when you don't have a car, you have to learn to make some sacrifices. In this case, I sacrificed the cilantro and tomatoes. The sandwich was still awesome. In no case, however, should you ever sacrifice the cardamom mayo or almonds. They're an integral part of the sandwich. If you don't have any on hand, hold off on making this until you do. And if you're allergic to eggs or almonds? Well, it's worth whatever reaction you might have. If you're deathly allergic, however- well, at least you'll die with a smile on your face.

The plate's not as dirty as it looks. I swear.

Moroccan-Spiced Granola

2010-11-08T11:04:00.007-06:00

It all started with a trip down the spice aisle of my local Target store awhile back. I almost never buy my spices at the grocery store since they're so much more expensive than online (links at the end) or even at my local co-op (some of the grocery stores in my area have a decent bulk section where you can get spices a little cheaper than the spice aisle, but the quality isn't quite as good as what you'd find online, not to mention the selection far more limited). Anyway, as I was walking down the spice aisle, I happened to notice these little colorful cardboard containers of stuff so I stopped to check them out. One of them was called Moroccan Tagine. Sounded interesting, so I read the back of the package. It called for mixing the spice mix with stuff like chicken, coconut milk, dried apricots, diced tomatoes and some other stuff. So then I started reading the list of ingredients in the spice mix and was really happy to see that everything in it was actually listed, i.e. no generic 'spices' listing. I figured if I was going to pay too much for a packet of spices I at least wanted to know everything that was in it so that if I liked it I could try to come up with my own version for less. So I bought it and made the recipe that was on the back. It was pretty good and I've always planned on making it again using my own version of spices, but I've just never gotten around to it. I did, however, start looking around online for Moroccan spice blends and recipes. I found various recipes for Ras El Hanout and Preserved Lemons, but never would have imagined that that trip down the spice aisle at Target would have led to coming up with the salad that I posted about recently, or today's recipe. (Oh and stay tuned for the Moroccan Chicken Sandwich I have coming next month- it's freakin' delicious.)

Moroccan-Spiced Granola

This recipe is the result of only the third time I've made the stuff, but I tweaked it a little each time and I'm pretty happy with the result. I think at this point the only thing I might change overall is to add some more almonds to the mix. (It's kind of a long list of ingredients, but it's still a pretty simple recipe.) It's definitely a different flavor for granola, one that I don't expect to be seeing at my co-op anytime soon, but I like trying different things. If you feel the same way, give it a go.

1 c rolled oats (or wheat, or barley)
3/4 c chopped toasted almonds
1/2 c unsweetened shredded coconut
1/3 c sunflower seeds
3/4 c chopped dried fruit (I used 1/2 c apricots, 1/4 c raisins)
1/4 c granulated orange peel
2T paprika
2T sumac
1 1/2 T ea. cardamom/coriander/cinnamon (ground, of course)
3/4 t ginger
1/4 t cloves
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t cayenne

***

1/2 c honey
1T lemon juice
1T sugar
1/4 t kosher salt
1/8 t baking soda
1/2 preserved lemon
1T coconut oil

Mix all the dry ingredients thoroughly in a stainless mixing bowl. Combine the baking soda, salt, sugar and the wet ingredients in a small saucepan and heat to a simmer, stirring occasionally to break up the preserved lemon (I had good results just using a wooden spoon, but I'd imagine a wire whip would work even better. Or you could just chop them up with a knife beforehand, which I didn't think of doing). Should be ready in under 10 minutes, but I'm thinking letting it bubble away on low for a little while longer will really help infuse the honey with the preserved lemon flavor. Once you decide it's ready, just pour the honey mixture over the dry stuff and blend thoroughly. Spread out on a greased cookie sheet and bake on 225 F for about 20-25 minutes, stirring halfway through. It'll still be pretty soft when it first comes out, but I wouldn't go longer than 25 minutes, otherwise the fruit tends to harden. Once it cools, it should get nice and crunchy, but if it's not crunchy enough for you, you can always throw it back in the oven for a bit.
(I forgot to make a note of how many cups this ends up making, but I used the 11 1/2 x 11 1/2 tray from my toaster oven, greased with coconut oil, and it mostly fit on that- there was a little overflow, but mainly because the tray is only 1/2 inch deep.)

Pretty darn good as it is, but I've been eating it mostly as a breakfast cereal. Damn tasty that way. Probably good in yogurt and ice cream too.

Ok, some notes-

1. When I compare this recipe to other granola recipes I've seen- this one has a lot of spice mix overall. It's definitely not overpowering on the spices (at least, I don't think so) but there is kind of a heavy coating of the stuff; my recipe calls for only one cup of rolled grain with entire tablespoons of some spices, whereas other recipes I've seen call for 2-3 cups of rolled grain with mere teaspoons of spice. So if you're not sure about using so much, I'd recommend mixing up all of the spices separately from the oats, fruit, nuts, etc. the way it's called for and then start by adding half or whatever amount looks good to you. Me, I'm really happy with the way it came out and plan only minor tweaks and edits.

2. Sumac- I don't really know how to describe it's flavor other than that it's tart; it has kind of a vinegar-y, sourdough-starter flavor to it. If you can't find it locally, you can always get it at the spice links I'll be posting at the end. I hate to say that it's 'optional' but if you don't want to/can't buy any, it probably won't radically change the outcome.

3. Baking soda- I'm not really sure it's necessary. I just put it in there because when I've made nut brittle and similar stuff in the past it always called for it, so I figured it might help with the crunchiness factor a little bit. Up to you.

4. Cayenne- At only 1/2 teaspoon, I really don't think this is too much, even for your friends with wimpy taste buds. It really is a mild, mild heat. I highly recommend not leaving it out.

5. Preserved Lemon- I wasn't really sure about this at first, so I left it out of my first two attempts at making this, but now that I've tried it, I can't recommend it enough. It really, really adds a nice, unique flavor to it that you pretty much can't get any other way. They do sell commercial preserved lemons, if you happen to live in a large, ethnically diverse city, but last I checked they tend to be pretty expensive. They're dirt cheap to make though- all you really need is patience, since they take at least a month (but they last pretty much forever). The granola will be fine without them- but with them, it'll be on a whole new level.

6. Dried fruit- Any combination of your favorite dried fruits will work (probably not Craisins though. I don't think those should really count as dried fruit). I've used figs and dates as well. Oh, and if you have a Walgreens in your area (pretty likely unless you live in a desert cave somewhere) I've found that they have excellent- and I mean excellent- quality dried fruits. They come in little 4-7 oz. boxes for $1, and the brand is Deerfield Farms. Walgreens! Who'da thought, right? But the quality of the figs I've gotten from them absolutely blows away what they're selling (for a lot more $$, I might add) at my local co-op, and they're even better than the stuff I can get at work from US Foods (which I had thought was excellent). It's not just the figs, though; their dates and apricots are excellent too. Worth looking into next time you need some dried fruit.

7. Coconut Oil- I'm not sure it's necessary either; at least not in the honey-lemon mix. I've seen recipes that call for some sort of oil in with the honey/corn syrup/sugar mix, so I went with it. You could probably just as well leave it out. As for greasing the pan, I just went with it for consistency. Pan spray would do fine too.

***

Spice links-

I generally get my spices online from these guys:

Spice Barn

MySpicer

Great American Spice Co.

Spice Barn is my go-to place because their prices are good and so's the quality (on most things, anyway. I can't recommend their honey powder). I really like the other two as well, but be aware that MySpicer tacks on a service charge for orders under $30, in addition to shipping. I'd recommend doing price comparisons on most things for all three too because some have better prices on things than others; there isn't one place that beats out the other two on price for everything.

Fresh Thai Rolls (Spring Rolls) Made Easy(er)

2010-10-12T21:12:00.003-05:00

I love fresh Thai rolls. Love them. I could eat them as an entire meal for any meal of the day and be happy. But making them kinda sucks. They're not terribly difficult, and in fact it's probably the thought of making them rather than the actual process that sucks, since once I get going it never seems as bad as I thought it would be. Problem is, getting going is the hard part. (Kind of like writing new posts for this blog; I've got plenty of stuff in mind, but actually sitting down to do it never seems to happen.) Anyway, for me the hardest part about making them was always the spring roll wrappers- you dip them in hot water to soften them, but then they always end up folding over themselves or sticking to the work surface with lots of ripples in them, or whatever; basically the wrapper part was always just a pain in the ass. But then I found out one day that it was because I was soaking them for too long (too long being about 5-6 seconds, total). Seems pretty obvious, but for some reason I never caught on, and anytime I talked to someone else who made them, they always had the same problem. It doesn't help that a lot of the recipes you see out there tell you to soak them for too long anyway- I just saw one over on About.com that said to soak them for 30 seconds! Better to go with the one over on Allrecipes.com that says to just dip it in the water for 1 second. That really is all it takes- you basically just want to get it wet, because when you take it out and set it on the table, it's going to keep absorbing the residual water and soften up to just the right amount to make it easy to roll. And, since it'll still be somewhat stiff when you take it out of the water, it'll be completely flat when you lay it on the table, no wrinkles or ripples, no moving the edges around in an effort to get it 'right.' And that's pretty much all I'm going to say about that, because this post isn't exactly about how to make Thai spring rolls- it's more like how to make a Thai spring roll salad. That's right, sort of a cheater's Thai spring roll. I was making myself some one day, marveling at how much easier they were to make now that I wasn't over-soaking the wrappers, when it occurred to me to just mix it all up in a bowl like a salad- everything's exactly the same, just a whole lot quicker and easier to make! I haven't looked back since. I make this a lot now, far more than I ever made actual spring rolls. The following is the recipe that I came up with and tend to always use (I really like it a lot) but there's tons of Thai spring roll recipes all over the internet, so tweak away- there's no 'one' right recipe to make a spring roll. A lot of recipes I've seen call for bean thread noodles, but I like plain old rice noodles in mine; some call for shrimp, I use chicken (more work, but it's cheaper); I typically don't use cucumbers, but they go well in this. Whatever you like. If you've never made fresh Thai rolls before, this recipe should be a good start, though. I think you'll like it.

This is also kind of a large recipe, since we ended up putting the salad on our banquet menu at work. So I had to come up with something to be able to feed a lot of people, and this is it. (I admit it, I'm too lazy to bother sizing it down for just a few people. Usually when I make it for just myself, I don't even follow the recipe anyway, as far as amounts go- I just mix it all up until it tastes how I want. But for the purposes of this blog, and to make it easier for folks who've never tried making these before, here you go) :

Thai Spring Roll Salad

8 oz rice noodle (dry)
1lb boneless chicken breast
1lb chopped romaine (Napa cabbage is also good)
crushed peanuts
fresh mint
fresh basil
(cilantro is good too, but isn't part of the recipe)

Marinade/dressing

2t salt
3/4c sugar
1c rice vinegar
1c fish sauce
1c + 2T water
1-2 t crushed red pepper
1T fresh lime juice
2T chopped garlic
1 lg or 1 1/2 medium carrots, shredded
1/2 onion, sliced very thin

The way I typically do this is to use warm-to-hot water to dissolve the sugar and salt quicker. Then just add everything else to the bowl and mix it up good. Also, you may want to set some marinade aside for extra dressing for the salad.

Cook the chicken breast on a sheet pan in a 350 degree F oven in a sugar/salt water brine (just dissolve equal parts sugar and kosher salt in some water. I don't have an exact amount as I tend to go by how it tastes- just slightly salty/sweet- but I think 1/4 to 1/2 cup each per gallon of water is somewhere in the ballpark). When it's done let it cool a bit, but while it's still warm pull/shred it and toss into the marinade and let set for 1-2 hrs.

Soak the rice noodles in hot water (+/- 190-200 F) until soft (white) about 5-7 minutes, then chop them up as big or small as you like. (They tend to be pretty sticky, so I sometimes add a little oil to lube things up, but only a tiny bit- just the bare minimum.) Add to bowl with the romaine, drain the chicken, mix into salad, toss in mint, basil, crushed peanuts (in whatever amount you like. I didn't really see the point in trying to come up with an amount for this recipe. I like fresh herbs, so I tend to use a lot. Whatever works for you).

(pic taken with my cell phone camera...)

And that's pretty much it. Use the extra marinade as a dressing, if you like, but keep in mind that it tends to wilt the lettuce pretty quickly, so if you're making this awhile ahead of time you'll want to hold off on that (as well as be sure and really drain the chicken thoroughly).

Bon Appetit!

Moroccan Sunset Salad

2010-09-07T20:37:00.005-05:00

A friend of mine once told me that I'm really good at putting flavor combinations together (or something to that effect) - but I don't think that's true at all. I mean sure, I try and stick to using stuff that works good together- garlic, oregano, and various peppers in one dish, but leave the cardamom and cinnamon for something else. I know what sorts of dishes and flavors I like to eat, so I try and play around with some of my favorite foods and come up with my own sort of spin on them. That's kind of how I came up with this one. I came across a recipe somewhere (thought I had it bookmarked, but I'll be damned if I can find it anywhere now) for an orange-and-red-onion-and-kalamata salad. It consisted of: oranges, kalamatas, red onions, whole cumin seeds, and probably salt and pepper. It was very similar to this one, so it may have had feta in it too. I can't remember what, if anything, else. First time I tried it, it wasn't bad, but I wasn't excited about it, but a bunch of coworkers I made it for really liked it, so I tried it again a couple days later and liked it a lot more that time. This was right around the time that I happened to have some bulgur wheat at work left over from doing a party, so my mind was in salad mode. That, combined with my recent falling in love with cardamom, got me experimenting. The result is this salad. I'm calling it Moroccan Sunset (thanks to my friend Sally for helping me come up with the name).

I'm really, really proud of it, too- so many flavors and textures going on at the same time. It's easy to make, and everything in it is readily available pretty much everywhere.

Here's what you'll need:

1/2 c Bulgur wheat
1 c Orange juice
Orange segments, cut in half
Fresh red bell peppers, diced
Kalamata olives, pitted and chopped
Toasted almonds, chopped
1 1/2 t Ground cardamom
1 1/2 t Chinese 5-spice powder
Whole fennel seeds, toasted
Cilantro

I don't have an exact amount for most things, but it's a salad- kind of hard to mess it up. Generally, though, I use just one orange, 1 pepper, and a handful or two each of the olives and almonds However, since I planned on posting this here, I did try and come up with a workable ratio for the bulgur/o.j./spice mix. I think I succeeded. But before I get to that, let's talk bulgur- unless you have a brand in mind that you really like, I recommend Bob's Red Mill. I've tried the bulk stuff at the grocery store, and my local co-op, and both pretty much sucked. I'm not familiar with other brands as of yet. Once I run out of the Bob's I have on hand, I plan to try Arrowhead Mills, but right now this recipe is written with Bob's in mind.

So- grab yourself 1/2 c of bulgur and stir in 1 1/2 teaspoons each of ground cardamom and 5-spice powder. Stir in the cup of o.j. (watch out for the cinnamon in the 5-spice- it can clump up, but usually mixing it with the bulgur first helps minimize this). Set aside until the bulgur is completely soaked. Usually takes 1 1/2-2 hours at room temp. There'll be some o.j. that's not totally absorbed by the bulgur; I usually add it to the salad at the end.
And that's about as technical as this 'recipe' gets. The rest is pretty much, literally, just throwing it together. Pepper(s) chopped? Almonds toasted? Olives ready to go? Then here's pretty much what I do:

Drain the bulgur (setting aside the leftover o.j. in case you plan on adding it later) and toss it in a medium-size mixing bowl. Add in some of the chopped bell pepper, a handful of chopped olives, a handful of sliced-in-half orange segments. Mix it all up and see how it looks. Add more of whatever you think you need/want more of. I basically just try to have somewhat equal-looking amounts of stuff (yes, I suck as a recipe writer, I know. No cookbook-writing in my future, that's for sure). When it looks good to you, add in a handful or two of toasted and chopped almonds (stay away from those almond sliver things- the convenience is not worth the extra cost and total lack of flavor. Whole raw almonds go for about $5/lb. around here and take about 8-10 minutes in a 400 degree (F) oven). After that, sprinkle with toasted fennel seeds and chopped cilantro (the reason there's no cilantro in the photos is because when I made that particular salad, it was for family members who think that cilantro tastes like soap, so I left it out. But if you like cilantro even a little, you're going to want it in the salad, for sure). Grab yourself a big ol' spoon and dig in. Prepare to be pleasantly surprised and maybe even amazed. This shit's for real.

Homemade Tostitos® With Hint Of Lime

2010-08-10T19:43:00.005-05:00

Tostitos® With Hint Of Lime- pretty much my favorite chip ever (Keystone Snacks used to make a jalapeño tortilla chip back in the 80's- that was actually (gasp!) hot- that was my favorite chip ever, but seeing as they apparently no longer make them, and seeing as I've come up with my own jalapeño-lime variety, the Tostitos® With Hint Of Lime takes the top spot for me now. I hardly ever buy them anymore though, because if I do I have to eat the whole 13 oz. bag in one sitting. Can't stop myself like I can with most other chips (paired with a little Huy Fong Chili-Garlic sauce, which I buy by the gallon, on the side? Heaven). So I probably shouldn't have tried coming up with my own recipe to make them at home. But I did anyway. And y'know what? It's pretty damn good. Surprisingly, it came out on the very first try- no tweaking at all.

Here's the ingredient list:

3/4 c. sour cream powder
1/2 c. + 1T whey powder
1/4 c. + 1t lime juice powder
1T m.s.g. (Optional, I guess. But I really like the stuff, and haven't taste-tested the chips without it, so can't say what/if there's a difference.)
2t salt (I used kosher, as always, but ground it to a powder in my mortar and pestle.)

That's pretty much it- just mix up all of that and you're good to go. Quarter up some corn tortilla chips and deep-fry in small batches until they're done and douse liberally with the stuff. As far as I'm concerned, the taste is almost identical to the store-bought stuff. Other folks might not think so, but I think it's so close that I have no plans to try and tweak the recipe. The main difference that I notice is the texture. The texture of the chip is obviously different, being made at home and all. Not quite as crispy and brittle as the commercial ones, but I can't figure out how to get them that way (not that I care, I think they're fine the way they are). But the other main difference (besides the fact that the homemade ones don't have little green specks like the commercial ones do) is the texture of the seasoning. The commercial variety is more granular than what you'll get with this recipe. I prefer it that way myself, but until I can find a more granular sour cream powder (not likely) I don't see any way to change things. No matter, I'm happy with the result. If you happen to like the commercial variety, give these a try. I think you'll like them too.

Here's where you can find the stuff, if you don't already know:

Sour cream powder can be had at Perfect Pantry ($9/lb.)
Whey powder I got through MySpicer ($3.68/lb.)
Lime juice powder I got through Spice Barn, though The Great American Spice Company has it too, but it's more expensive ~$10/lb. vs. $7 at Spice Barn. The only difference that I can see between the two is on the ingredients list- GAS lists only 100% lime juice. SB lists 'corn syrup solids, lime juice, and lime oil.' I've tasted both directly from the container and can't tell the difference, so in the future I plan on staying with SB, as long as they're cheaper. (All prices were listed were current at the time of this writing.)

(This is the store-bought variety. See those little green specks? They kind of trouble me. What the hell are they? My lime juice powder is nowhere near that green. None of the ingredients listed on the bag say anything about 'green food coloring,' only red and blue. There's no parsley flakes listed. Nothing. 'Natural flavors,' maybe? Like what?! Well, no matter- I'll still eat them (occasionally). They're just too damn good.)

Peeling Garlic

2010-08-10T14:12:00.004-05:00

Ok, first off, let me just say that I've been told, numerous times, that I'm a little weird. I know it. I'm fine with it.

Second thing- my preferred way of peeling garlic is just to not do it at all- I like to buy those 1+ lb. containers of already-peeled cloves and just use those. Saves time, and you never end up with all those tiny little cloves that are too small to bother with in the first place (or if you do, so what? They're already peeled). But I just happened to have a sleeve of bulbs that I bought recently at the Asian store that needed using, so I thought I'd share my newest way of peeling garlic. You've maybe seen those E-Z garlic peeler tubes that sell for $6.99 (and could possibly double as a cheap sex toy for men, not that I would know anything about that)? Yeah, I've seen 'em too and I've heard they work really well. I wouldn't know, I'm too cheap to buy one. Plus, my old method for peeling a bunch of garlic was either just to do them individually by hand, or to put all the separated cloves in a stainless steel mixing bowl, cover with another bowl and shake it all like the dickens (my brother learned that trick off of Dinner: Impossible. It works ok, but unless you're doing a whole bunch at once, or just need a decent upper body workout, I'd just stick to doing them by hand). So anyway, having been doing some kitchen wares shopping recently for my new apartment, I was at Bed Bath & Beyond not long ago and saw that E-Z garlic peeler sleeve/sex toy contraption, and it reminded me of something- I just happened to have an old bicycle inner tube sitting around at home that I wasn't doing anything with. Actually, I had already hacked it up a bit for some other project I was working on, but I thought, 'Why not?' and so I gave it a try (after washing it thoroughly, of course). It probably would have been better if I'd not sliced it open lengthwise, but what was done was done, and I didn't have any more. But hey, it works! Generally only a couple cloves at a time, but but you just slap them on at the lower end, fold over the length of the tube, and slide up once or twice.

Once is usually enough, though. The skins are pretty well shredded off of the clove, and all you do is brush them off and throw away.

Again, if I hadn't sliced it open lengthwise, it would probably be even better, since you could fit in as many cloves as the length of the tube would allow and roll 'em like a rolling pin. Anyway, if you're weird and cheap, like me, and don't buy the pre-peeled cloves, unlike me, it's worth considering since an inner tube generally only costs about $2.50. Just remember not to slice it open lengthwise.

***

In unrelated news, do you like Tostitos® with Hint of Lime tortilla chips? I love 'em. So I came up with a recipe for making your own at home. They're really good. Hopefully that post will be up later today. If not today, then soon (sometime this week). Stay tuned.

How to kill fruit flies.

2010-08-03T10:40:00.002-05:00

See that? That right there is a fruit fly drowning pool. And that is how you get rid of the fruit flies in your home. Safe, cheap, easy, and fairly quick.

Here's what you do- take some small container (I used a 1/4 c measuring cup) fill it to just below the rim with apple cider vinegar (I like to use 50/50 cider vinegar and water- cuts down on the strong vinegar smell, but still attracts the flies like a magnet). Set the cup somewhere kind of nearby where the fruit flies are at, but still out of the way of stuff, and kind of away from wherever it is they happen to want to be (usually around the kitchen sink or trash can, in my case) - because remember, this will attract them, so you want to attract them away from a busy area. I set mine under the sink, near the trash can, which is where they happened to be anyway, but it was still out of my way. Anyway, once you've got it in place, take a bottle of ordinary dish soap and add just a single drop to the center of the cup. My bottle of dish soap is kind of big and tends to dispense way too much at one time, even when using it for doing dishes, so I filled a small pump bottle that works beautifully. Alternately, you could dip a toothpick or something in the soap and let a drop fall of of that into the center of the cup of vinegar. (I've actually tried coating a toothpick in the soap and then dipping it right into the vinegar, but I found that letting a drop fall in seems to work better for some reason.) What the soap does is break the surface tension of the liquid- fruit fly goes down to take a drink, falls in and drowns! Obviously it takes a little time for it to kill them all completely- depending on how bad your situation is, it could take several days to get rid of them all (or longer, if you've got it really bad like we do at work every spring). But generally I've found that after the first night of setting out the trap, I get well over half of whatever's flying around my kitchen, and then the other half is usually gone in the next day or two. I think I counted about 17 in this picture, and the trap was set out for less than 12 hours. I've seen a couple more flying around the kitchen area, but that's it. Fruit flies are cautious- but also stupid. If you set one of these traps out and watch them as they get attracted to it, generally what you'll see is that they hang around the edge of the cup for awhile, then walk on down to the edge of the vinegar to inspect, then walk back up to the edge of the cup, then walk around the edge of the cup and back on down to the vinegar. It goes on and on like that for awhile, but eventually they can't seem to help themselves, and even when it's obvious that a couple dozen of their buddies are clearly dead at the bottom of the drink, they'll still go on in for a taste, and end up joining their buddies. It's only a matter of time.

One of the (many) things I really like about this method, unlike using toxic chemical sprays to kill them, is that there's no dead flies lying around your kitchen waiting for you to clean them up later- you just dump them down the drain/toilet, lickety-split. Cider vinegar isn't the only thing that works, obviously. They really, really love balsamic vinegar (but even the cheap stuff is more expensive than cider vinegar, plus you can't see how many you've caught). Red or white wine work well too, but again, more expensive than cider vinegar. There are other, similar methods to this one that will work too- making a paper cone and setting it into a jar with cider vinegar in the bottom as bait, as described here and other places, but I much prefer this method- simpler, and they're already dead so you don't have to try and drown them yourself once you've caught them.

Curry Chickpea SoupStew (maybe with chicken, maybe not)

2010-06-14T22:41:00.003-05:00

So awhile ago at work I made a Curry Chickpea Chicken Stew, and it went over pretty well- I was asked for the recipe (even though I didn't- and still don't, really- have one) we sold a bunch, people liked it, I liked it. It was good. And the next day I came on here and wrote something about it and mentioned plans to actually do a post about it at some point in the next couple weeks. This was like 4 months ago. Today, after many starts and stops, I'm finally getting around to doing some sort of post about it. But it's not quite the same as the stuff I made at work that day. For the stuff I made at home, for this post, I didn't have any chicken thawed out, so that right there is kind of a big difference. I've made it a couple more times at work since, always without any kind of recipe, and so it's just different every time. I'm such a lousy food-blogger. Really, I almost never use a recipe when I cook, and when I do use a recipe, I can't stick to it- I just toss stuff in without measuring it. A lot of times I just go by sight when I add something, tasting it later to see whether it was enough or too much. Kind of hard to post recipes for other people to actually try out when that's your m.o. Which is why I call this blog How's it Taste? - because I generally don't use, or at least follow, recipes when I cook. I cook by how things taste when I'm throwing it all together. But for this dish I figured I'd at least try and write it down as I went so at the end I could somehow edit it together into a recipe that I could post here. Well, it didn't quite go as planned. Never does. For me, throwing something together in the kitchen, especially a soup-type dish like this, is... well, it's hard to describe. Alchemy is one word that comes to mind, but I'm not sure if even that's accurate. I do go by taste, of course, but for a few things I don't even bother- it's like I'm on autopilot; I just go by sight and experience, and taste it at the end. And more often than not, that works quite nicely. But when I actively try and put together a recipe, like I did for this one, it throws off my cooking mojo. Things just don't come together as smoothly as they should because I'm so focused on writing stuff down and creating a recipe that I can't really focus on just cooking. And I make so many minor adjustments along the way that it's kind of hard to keep up with myself sometimes. After adding several dashes and pinches and shakes of stuff, you tend to lose track of just how much of a particular ingredient you added. (Might be easier if I had a friend with a video camera who could act as my assistant and record me actually making something, but that's a long ways off.) I actually do have a (partial) recipe for this dish today, which I'll post (not that it's going to matter; you'll see) but from here on out, I give up on trying to actually come up with recipes for the stuff I make. If I've got one (and I do for a couple things coming up) I'll post it, but if I don't then I'm just going to write about whatever it is that I'm making/eating and how I went about doing it. Like I said, lousy food-blogger, but hey, I like to cook and eat, and I like to share it with others, and so this is one way for me to be able to do that, as well as being some sort of record for myself of what I was cooking/eating during a particular time period. But generally, I plan on posting 'recipes' pretty much the way I cook- here's the list of stuff, here's about how I did it, plain and simple. I realize that lowers my standing in the food-blogging world (what kind of food blogger doesn't post recipes? Hell, even the No-Recipes food blog is full of recipes.) Truth be told, I don't give a shit. I like to cook, and I think I (mostly) make good stuff. Not everything's a winner, obviously. And sometimes the stuff I make at work that I think is just 'ok' gets rave reviews, while the stuff I think is rave just gets ok reviews. Go figure. Oh, and photos too- I like photography but don't take nearly enough photos, so having food that needs to be photographed gives me an excuse to bust out the camera. Also, it helps me to improve my photo-taking skills, even if only very slowly. Take the following photo, for example-

I just noticed something about this photo the other day that for some reason I'd never noticed before in other, similar photos. Something that I really can't stand and that I think makes it a crappy photo. Notice anything? Sure, the colors don't really pop out, and the left side of the bowl is cut off, and you can see soup sloshed around the sides of the bowl. None of that offends me, at least not much. No, the thing I really hate about this photo is that damn spoon! I've done a bunch of photos like this in the past, and for some reason always felt the need to add in an eating utensil, like anyone would forget to use it if they actually made the dish and my photo didn't show one or something. I don't know why I never noticed this before, but the spoon does absolutely nothing good for the photo, and in my opinion actually takes a lot away from it. Maybe it's just me, maybe I'm doing something wrong, but I don't know- I just think the addition of an eating utensil really detracts from the photo, and I plan on never doing another photo like this on my blog again.

Anyway, let's make some stew.

Here's what I came up with for the recipe (feel free to skip it; I always do)

1 camote* (438mg for this particular one)
2 orange bell peppers
1 lg-ish onion (300-something mg, I forgot to write it down)
eyeballed the minced garlic (maybe 1/3 c.)
few pinches kosher salt
ground black pepper (1t, tops)
couple T coconut milk powder added to the garbanzo juice
2 heaping T turmeric
2 scant T grated ginger
1/4 (heaping) c. curry powder
1 T cumin
2 heaping T ground coriander

*camote = sweet potato, but I just like saying camote (cah-mo-tay).

So that's the basic recipe I started to come up with for the Curry Chickpea Stew I made at work that one day. Notice I forgot to write down garbanzo beans, even though I mentioned the juice. Now you see why I don't/can't use recipes when I cook? So let's just back up and start over here. If I was going to make this today, for me, for you, for the Soup of the Day at Sweeney's, here's how it'd go:

When I make Curry Chickpea (possibly with Chicken) SoupStew, it changes every time, but the basics are generally the same- got to have curry (duh) onions, garlic, orange or yellow bell peppers, garbanzo beans, and lemon-ness (usually in the form of ground coriander, but I also like to add fresh lemon juice, especially at the end). Other stuff that I usually (but not always) add are: ground ginger, cinnamon, diced fresh tomatoes, camote, coconut milk, chicken, etc.
So, assuming I'm just cooking enough for myself here, here's what I'd grab:

(I'm going to skip using specific amounts. Just go with the flow and adjust however you see fit.)

Diced onion
Fresh, minced garlic
Olive oil
Fresh ginger (or dry, if I didn't have fresh)
Cinnamon
Coconut milk
Cooked garbanzo beans (canned or homemade, both are good)
Ground coriander seed
Fresh lemons
Curry powder
Turmeric
Kosher/sea salt
White sugar
Cayenne
Fresh ground black pepper
Orange bell peppers, diced
Diced fresh tomatoes
Boneless chicken breast
Chicken stock
Garbanzo bean flour
Fresh cilantro (garnish)

I think that's it. Depending on what else I've got in my spice drawer I might add some other stuff, but I'm so disorganized right now that I don't even know what's in there. Everything's scattered. (Really looking forward to getting my own place...)

Putting it all together:

Heat up a large (6 qt. or so) pot, get the olive oil going nice and hot and toss in the garlic, (fresh) ginger, onions, and peppers. Hit it with a dash of salt and pepper and cook over medium/med-high until soft (don't brown). As far as the chicken goes, I do it different almost every time, depending on how much time/motivation I have. Sometimes I'll cook it in a simple salt/sugar brine in the oven and shred it into the soup later on, other times I'll dice it up raw and cook it right in the pot with the veggies, which is probably how I'd do it this time. (In which case, I'd rinse the diced chicken first in water, then toss it in the pot at about the same time as all the veggies.) Once the veggies have softened and the chicken is at least mostly cooked, I add a little of the garbanzo bean juice, turmeric, more s/p, lots of ground coriander seed, lots of curry powder, a squeeze of lemon juice, heavy pinch of sugar (for balance) cayenne, couple dashes of cinnamon, a can of coconut milk, and some water or preferably chicken stock. Stir it all up good, give it a taste (once the chicken, if using, is fully cooked) and adjust as necessary. (How simple is that!) At this point, I like to add a little more fresh lemon juice, and maybe some lemon zest to finish things off. If you want to thicken things up a bit, garbanzo bean flour makes a nice thickener. You can buy garbanzo bean flour (Besan) at most any grocery store nowadays- Bob's Red Mill is a good quality, if pricey, brand that's pretty much available nationwide. However, there are other options- I got a large bag of Besan at my local grocery store for less than the price of a similar amount of dried garbanzo beans, so if you live in a large metro area you're almost certain to be able to find similar deals.

Also, if you have any Middle Eastern or other Ethnic stores in your area, they'll likely have Besan fairly cheap. Otherwise, you can also take some dried garbanzo beans and put them on a sheet pan in a 350 degree (F) oven and bake for 20 minutes or so (might be longer, I can't remember exactly). After that, they blend up nicely in a coffee grinder. Lastly, Amazon sells just about everything you could ever want, so you can always check there.
Add cilantro for a wonderful, delicious garnish. Green onions are nice, too. Use both, if you've got them.

This stuff is delicious and easy to make. (Recipes? We don't need no stinkin' recipes, dammit!) So give it a go- vegetarian or otherwise; I think you'll love it.

Caaaaaaaaaaaaaake!

2010-05-25T21:59:00.004-05:00

Orange Sour Cream Cake with orange icing, to be specific. No, not my recipe, but I've been eating a lot of it lately, and it's really good but it needs a couple tweaks. Plus, I feel like if I don't post something now, I'm just going to keep procrastinating and then it'll be almost a year later before I post something again. It's not that I don't have stuff that I can write about here- oh, I've got stuff, alright; really tasty stuff. But I've been busy, and I procrastinate a lot. Hopefully once I get into my new apartment things will get better. And hopefully I'll have better lighting. The lighting here sucks. Anyway, back to the cake.

I took a couple photos of mine, which I'll add here later but not right now, but here's their recipe-

Orange Sour Cream Cake

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla
8 oz. butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup fresh orange juice
3 tablespoons fresh orange zest

Orange Icing

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. zest
2-3 tablespoons orange juice

Preheat oven to 350, prepare pans by greasing them and dusting with flour.

For the cake, begin by creaming together the sugar and butter. Slowly add the sour cream, eggs and vanilla until thoroughly combined. In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Slowly add dry ingredients, mix until smooth. Add orange juice and zest, mix to combine. Place into prepared pans. If baking in 1 pan, bake for about 1 hour or until cake tests done. If baking in 2 pans, bake for about 30-35 minutes or until cakes test done.

Not much need be changed, but my version ended up with an extra half-cup or so of sour cream by accident- not sure if it affected it for better or worse, but if anything, I suspect it was for the better. But the main modifications that I made were these-

Where it calls for orange juice- try substituting orange juice concentrate, instead. I made it according to the original recipe the first time (minus the zest, because I'm just not a zest fan, really) and while it was good, and orange-y even, it wasn't orange-y enough. Trust me, use the concentrate. Also, even though I left out the zest (well, I did add one orange's worth, which probably wouldn't even be noticeable) I did happen to find some dried orange peel that I bought awhile ago and forgot I had, so I added a whole bunch of that! I don't remember how much, maybe half a cup? Third of a cup? Something like that. Actually, I think what it was, was a quarter of a cup to slightly less than half of the cake mix- to compare one with and one without, I divided it into two cakes, one being larger than the other, and added the quarter cup to the smaller one; so it would've ended up being something like a half-cup total. Or something like that. It was a lot, that's all I know. And after comparing the two, the one with the dried orange peel was clearly the winner in taste. Much more orange flavor. I'm not sure how much flavor difference there is between dried orange peel and fresh orange zest, but I'm guessing the d.o.p. is a lot more concentrated. Not to mention a lot less work than the zest. So I highly recommend buying that and using it instead of the zest. Then again, I'm biased because I really didn't use (much) zest at all. Still, that's my game plan from here on out.

Orange icing...

Hmmm... what to say..? Again, I left the zest (and this time, also the d.o.p.) out of this one, so I don't know how much of a difference it would have made, but I gotta say, the recipe as they have it here- 1 1/4 cups of powdered sugar to 2-3 T o.j.? Waaay to overpoweringly sweet. I couldn't do it. Just couldn't do it. I tweaked it a lot and messed around with it aplenty, and in the end I just ended up going with 1. a bunch of powdered sugar, 2. a pinch of salt, 3. o.j. concentrate, and 4. fresh squeezed lemon juice (about half a lemon). Basically I started with the sugar in a bowl, added the salt, then kept adding the concentrate until it got to about the consistency I wanted. Then added some lemon juice for balance. It was pretty good too, actually. But I think next time I'm just going to try out some straight o.j. concentrate; maybe add a pinch of salt (and a pinch of baking soda to counteract the acidity) but not much else.

Overall, this cake is delicious and very much worth your time. And the author was right- it does make a perfectly good (great, in my opinion) breakfast. Give it a try!

My Big Food Blogger Rant

2010-04-13T12:05:00.005-05:00

(I was going to tack this on as part of another post, but I decided it warrants a separate post all on its own.)

I read a few food blogs regularly, and am always scanning for new ones, so I've read a great many food blogs over the last couple years, and one thing that completely irritates the pants off of me is the absolute overkill of step-by-step photos. You know what I'm talking about. And probably you already have in mind one or two food bloggers who do it constantly. You know, the photo showing the bowl of flour that you have to mix the baking soda into, with the teaspoon full of baking soda hovering over it waiting to be dropped in- 'Now I'm getting ready to add in the baking soda! Now I'm actually adding it in! [new photo, showing it falling in] Now I'm tap-tap-tapping the spoon on the edge of the bowl! [new photo showing the tap-tap-tap] Now I'm setting the spoon on the counter with the other dirty utensils! [new photo showing the dirty utensils] Now I'm reaching for the wire whip!' [New photo...] And so on, and so on, and so on, with one photo after another showing each. and. every. little. unnecessary. step; utilizing a dozen photos when one or two at most will suffice. Should some freak miracle occur and this post somehow finds its way to a food blogger or two who does that sort of thing, I would just like to say this:

Please. Stop.

It's unnecessary, at best. It hurts the readers' eyes. It doesn't add anything to the post. You can do better. You know who you are.

Lemon-Cardamon-Buttermilk Cookies

2010-03-29T11:06:00.005-05:00

...with lemon-buttermilk-vanilla glaze.

Dang, those just sound good, don't they? They do to me, anyway. Because I really, really like cardamom. (And they are good. I highly recommend that you try them.)

Basically this is a slight modification of the Buttermilk Cardamom Cookie recipe I found over on Sugarcrafter. As I mentioned in the previous post, I misread the recipe and thought they were lemon-buttermilk-cardamom cookies, and as a result, ended up with several pounds of Meyer lemons, one or two of which I ended up using in the recipe. I also used powdered buttermilk, instead of liquid for this recipe, including the glaze. Oh, and speaking of buttermilk, here's my understanding of it: buttermilk- the real kind- is the liquid that separates from the solid when you're making butter. It's not sour at all, like the stuff you buy in the carton at the store. That stuff is, as I understand it, cultured skim milk (I'm not exactly sure what kind of culture it is, though). And the powdered buttermilk is basically just that- the real buttermilk in powdered form. I haven't really used it a lot in baking or cooking, so I don't know how it compares to the liquid stuff, but I plan to use it a lot more whenever a recipe calls for the liquid kind, as it keeps for a whole lot longer. Most of the time when I've used the liquid stuff in the past, I end up throwing half of it out due to it being past the expiration date. Anyway, let's make some cookies!

Over on Sugarcrafter, she wrote that several people told her, “These are…different.” Now, when people say that I take it to mean that they don't like what they're eating, but they don't exactly dislike it, either. Mostly they're just not sure what to make of it. I haven't tried the recipe in it's exact original form, only my modified version, and I have to say, these are different, but in a really good way. I really, really like these cookies, and will definitely make them again (maybe even today or tomorrow) and would make them for friends too. They are, as SC says, 'soft and fluffy, almost cake-like,' which I didn't think I'd like at first because I prefer my cookies a little more crumbly, but after the first cookie, I really got hooked on them. They reminded me of some sort of fast food/gas station type of coffee cake pastry, only better, which led me to later try a sprinkling of cinnamon on top. The result? Success! (Makes me feel a little better about having forgotten the candy sprinkles.)

Here's the original recipe-

Cookie:

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Butter
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp buttermilk

Vanilla glaze:

2 cups powdered sugar
3 Tbsp buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

My main modification to the cookie part was that I increased the amount of cardamom. I just eyeballed it, but I think it was about 1 1/4- 1 1/2 t, and of course, the powdered buttermilk and Meyer lemon juice- so instead of 5 T liquid buttermilk, I used 1 T powdered + 1/4 c. Meyer juice, + 1 T water (I'm sure 5 T juice would've been fine, but since it was my first time making it, and using Meyers in general, I wanted to be a little careful. Looking back, it's not like 1 T is going to push things overboard, I know).
For the glaze, it just seemed like way too much for the amount of cookies, so I cut it in half. And in reality, if you make the glaze using the amounts in the original recipe, you will have a whole lot left over- but that's not a bad thing at all, since I found myself using what little glaze I had leftover to dunk my cookies in, all the while wishing I hadn't halved the recipe. So I don't recommend cutting it in half. But I did, and here's kind of how it went-

1c powdered sugar
1t powdered buttermilk
1 1/2T Meyer lemon juice
1t double-strength vanilla extract

You might be thinking that a whole teaspoon of double-strength vanilla could be too much for a half-order of the glaze recipe. You might be right. It's not that the vanilla flavor was too strong- I love that flavor- but the alcohol part of it was a little too strong. Don't get me wrong, I like my alcohol too, but it didn't really work in this case. So I had to do a little bit of reworking- not a problem really, I think this is where I'm best- adding and tasting, and adding again until it tastes the way I want it to. But of course that makes it hard to come up with an actual recipe to post somewhere or share with friends, since I don't really measure any of it out. I think I ended up adding about another tablespoon of buttermilk powder, and the juice of a whole Meyer. Possibly a little more powdered sugar too, I can't remember. But anyway, here's the thing- it's super easy to make and hard to mess up. Skip the actual recipe- just use it as a guideline:

Powdered sugar
Powdered buttermilk
Meyer lemon juice
Vanilla extract

Mix it all up in whatever proportion tastes right to you. That's generally how I do it, and that's what I plan on doing next time. One thing to note, and you can kind of see this in the photo, is that the powdered buttermilk, being sort of an off-white color, has the unfortunate effect of making the glaze look like a glaze of a whole different kind. It's especially bad when you have it all over your fingers after swirling your cookie in a plate of leftover glaze, but try and overlook this when you're eating these cookies.

By the way, here's a recap with my changes, along with the rest of the recipe:

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup Butter
1 egg
1 1/4 cups flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 1/4-1 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp powdered buttermilk + 5 T Meyer lemon juice

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add in the egg.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cardamom, and salt.
Add the buttermilk and flour mixture to the butter mixture gradually.

Drop on a lightly greased baking sheet and bake on 375 F for about 10-12 minutes, then let cool on a rack before adding the glaze/sprinkles (don't forget to try them with a dusting of cinnamon!)

Oh My(er)...

2010-03-22T20:42:00.004-05:00

All I wanted was a lemon. Just one. Just a regular one. It was for a lemon-cardamom cookie recipe that I'd found that I wanted to try out (Oh, and cardamom? I love that shit! I only recently started using it, but I now use it a lot. Got a couple cool recipes using it that I plan on posting on here, too). So today on my way home from a short jog, I stopped in the little grocery store around the corner from my house and as I was walking by the 'Reduced for quick sale' cart that was right across from the regular lemons, all it took was a split-second glance-

"Holy crap, are those Meyers? In the 'Reduced for quick sale' cart?" Why, yes. Yes they were Meyer lemons. Several bags of them, with several lemons each (7, I found out later) all for the unbelievable price of 79 cents per bag. I grabbed 3 bags right up without a thought. It's not like I needed them. But for that price, I wasn't going to turn them down. No way. Especially not after I bought over 2 kilos a couple weeks ago at another grocery store because they were clearly marked as being 99 cents/lb. but when I looked at my receipt the following week, after I had already cut them all up for preserved lemons, I found out that I actually paid $3.99/lb. Which was an average price, I guess, but I probably wouldn't have bought so much if I'd known that. Anyway, I've been really getting into preserved lemons a lot lately. They're all the rage these days. Haven't had a chance to try any of them out yet, but I've been making a lot of them. I already have a couple 'regular' jars-

...and a single jar of the spiced kind, plus two jars of preserved myers. Now I have about 20 more Myers that I need to use. No hay problema, I'll figure something out. Probably preserve them (in a big-ass pitcher, since I'm out of jars).

The funny part of this all is that if I'd actually read that cardamom-lemon cookie recipe at some point before leaving the house today, I'd have seen that it didn't even call for lemons- because it was actually for buttermilk-cardamom cookies! Well, I actually did read it (awhile ago) and she mentions lemon flavor a few times in it- from the buttermilk- so I guess I just remembered it wrong when it came time to go to the store. So, big oversight on my part results in big Meyer lemon windfall, yay! Here's the recipe that I used for the buttermilk-cardamom-lemon cookies. I modified mine slightly- added more cardamom, (because I love that shit!) used powdered buttermilk instead of the liquid kind, but also Meyer lemon juice instead of just plain water for rehydrating the the buttermilk powder. Also used Meyer lemon juice in the glaze. Haven't tried them yet. I'll report back here when I do.

My most favoritest chicken sammich ever.

2010-02-16T19:18:00.014-06:00

Oh hell yeah...

You see that? That's what a chicken sandwich should look like. Or a burger, for that matter. Pretty much any kind of sandwich. In fact, that's what a real sandwich does look like- messy; falling over; sesame seeds falling off; toppings spilling out. Not all perfect and cookie-cutter like the pics in chain restaurant menus and on tv. But whatever, we all know this already. So, let's talk about this sammich, shall we? I'm not sure who came up with it. But it's what we tend to eat at work most days. In fact, I eat it- on average- 4 days a week for lunch, and have been for at least the past year, and I'm not the least bit tired of it. Not even close. It's dead simple, too. So simple, in fact, that it doesn't even sound all that exciting or praise-worthy, or even worthy of a blog post. It almost sounds like an average chicken sandwich, albeit one with a little kick to it.

But it's not.

Ignore it at your peril. It's your loss if you do.

(check out that homemade bun action!)

But if you're interested, read on...

So like I said, I've been eating it an average of 4 days a week for lunch for at least the past year and am not the slightest bit bored with it. It's just so damn good. (Worth firing up the grill in the wintertime for, that's for sure!) And fairly quick and easy to make. All the ingredients are pretty much available anywhere. Homemade-bun-action is not necessary (I don't bother at work, but I've made them at home a couple times- I plan on doing a post on them here at some point). Ingredients are as follows-

Chicken breast
Lettuce, Tomato, Onion (LTO, as we say at work)
Nacho-sliced pickled jalapeños
Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
Mayonnaise
Hamburger bun (Duh, right? But I've used plain old white bread before- a 'decent' quality, of course- when I didn't have any buns, and I have plans to use hoagie buns next. Mostly because I need to use them before I have to toss them.)
American cheese

And that's it. Now, I know a lot of folks turn their nose up at the lowly American cheese. And I know that it's sort of 'ghetto' in the foodie world. But it really works on this sandwich. It really does. Don't believe me? Go on, then. Try it and see. You'll be surprised. (C'mon, one time won't hurt. You know you want to.) Oh, and full disclosure here, the cheese used on the sandwich in these particular photos was Muenster. Muenster is one of my favorites (you should totally try it on pizza instead of Mozzarella!) but in the case of this sandwich, I actually prefer the American, I must say. I just used Muenster because I had it, and didn't have any American. Muenster rocks the grilled cheese sandwich, but for this sandwich, trust me- use American. Ok, let's put it all together...

First things first, though. You should really marinate the chicken in some sort of marinade, or at least brine it to help keep it tender and juicy. As far as a marinade goes, I really like this one, even though it was originally meant for steak. I tried it once with steak and didn't think it lived up to its name, but then again, I'm not much of a red meat eater anymore. Most of the meat I eat nowadays is chicken, so I tried it on that and liked it very much. But if you don't want to bother with making that up, then a simple brine of sugar/salt water does wonders. I usually dissolve 4-6 T each of sugar and salt (kosher, of course) per gallon of water and allow the chicken to soak in that for about an hour. Now when it comes to cooking, the chicken is really best grilled. Grilled over an open flame, that is, be it gas or charcoal. But if you don't have a grill, or if it's wintertime where you live (as it is here) and you don't feel motivated to fire the thing up, I have cooked the chicken under the broiler in my oven, as well as on one of those indoor electric grills (though not the 'Foreman' type- a review is planned for the future). Both worked sufficiently well, though grilling over open flame is definitely preferred.

While the chicken is cooking, make up some delicious chipotle mayo (if you don't already have some. It keeps for quite awhile in the fridge, so can be made well in advance). Although there really is no specific 'recipe' for chipotle mayo- you basically just chop up the can of chipotles (or run through the food processor/blender) and mix with mayo until it tastes the way you want- the general ratio I use is one can of chipotles (~ 7 oz./200 grams) to 4 cups mayo. You can throw the whole mix in the food processor and mix it all that way, if you like, but I've found that mayo doesn't stand up to a blender very well. It tends to un-emulsify. Lately, I've just been using a knife to chop the peppers by hand, and mix them into the mayo with a wire whip.

Before I go any further, I just want to point out the obvious- not all brands of chipotle in adobo/jalapeño slices are created equal. Not by a long shot. At work, we use Casa Fiesta chipotles, and Pasado (or El Pasado, I can't remember which it is) jalapeños, both of which are excellent, but neither of which I've seen in stores around here. So these are my picks, based on what I've found around my area-

San Marcos jalapeños are excellent, as are La Costeña chipotles. However- and this to me is very weird- San Marcos chipotles are not so good (I'd use them if I couldn't find something else I liked) and La Costeña jalapeños are downright yucky. Totally mushy, no crunch at all. I took one bite and threw the can away. (I would not use them if I couldn't find something else I liked.) Other brands I've tried that suck are Mrs. Renfro's, and Bakers and Chefs (Sam's Club). No offense to either of those brands, I have no doubt they make other quality products, but their jalapeño slices are just plain yucky. If you're not sure, it's best to try different brands until you find something you like. Just buy the smallest size available, one or two brands at a time until you hit the jackpot. I like the San Marcos jalapeños so much that I went out and bought one of those #10 size cans of them (around 4 lbs./1.8 kg, I think).

***

Mmmmm.... homemade hamburger buns!

I'm trying out different recipes for homemade burger buns. This one was pretty good, but I've only tried it once or twice. I want to make it at least one more time, as well as try out some of the others I've found before posting a review about them.

There's really not much else to say here- melt the cheese on the chicken, spread a generous amount of chipotle mayo on the bun (preferably homemade) add the jalapeños, lettuce, tomato, and onion, and prepare for a flavor explosion.

Today at Sweeney's...

2010-02-11T18:24:00.003-06:00

So I made this Curry Chicken Stew today at work as part of the special. It turned out to be quite popular- we sold a boatload of it. The specials just flew right out the door. One guy even asked for the recipe (which I don't have, since I kind of just threw it all together as I went)! So I wrote down the ingredients and basic routine for putting it all together, and because it was so popular I plan on doing a post about it here, hopefully sooner rather than later, but for now this post is for that dude who asked for the recipe, on the off-chance that he may have stopped by (since I added the web address to the list of ingredients).

I left off one very important part- when you take the chicken out of the oven, save the cooking liquid and add it to the pot. It adds a very nice, and essential, chicken flavor to the stew, as well as saves you the step of either making your own chicken stock, or using a store-bought one. Also, it keeps the sodium level down (because even low-sodium chicken stock isn't really all that low-sodium). It really does make a difference. I found this out because I made approximately 3 gallons of soup (not un-typical for me) and so when it came time to replenish the soup-well, the second half was a little low on liquid, so I had to add more of everything to kind of even it out; except the only thing I didn't have was more of the liquid that the chicken was cooked in. And when I compared it to the first half, the difference was quite noticeable (to me, anyway). So, you don't want to skip that step.

And to any vegetarians who may have happened by here and want to try this out when the actual more-detailed post goes up- obviously, it can easily be made vegetarian (and still be great!) - just substitute with your favorite store-bought veggie stock or (I recommend) make your own- preferably with only veggies that are in the stew, or complement the ones that are (onions, garlic, celery, roasted red peppers, yellow bell peppers).

And... maybe, possibly (but not likely, in all honesty) I'll have this soup recipe-thingy posted around next week sometime : )

Leftover D-lite, II (also vegetarian, even)

2010-02-08T22:14:00.004-06:00

So I opened the bottom drawer in my fridge (actually, it's my brother's fridge, but it's 'my' drawer) and noticed that I had half of a sweet potato that I needed to use up. Also had a shallot in there. Was thinking that maybe I'd sauté them up together in some olive oil and a little salt and pepper and try that on for size. Once I got started, I decided to throw on a little ground coriander, since it was sitting on the counter from being used earlier in the day. Why not, right? Also out was my little jar of star anise (mostly pieces, at this point). Again, why not? Had some minced garlic in the freezer too, calling out to me. In it went. As it was cooking, I headed down to the basement to see what I had hiding. What I ended up bringing up was some cooking sherry and double strength vanilla extract. In they went (couple splashes of the sherry, 1/2 t of the vanilla). And y'know what? It was pretty darn good-

If I'd had some cloves, I probably would've added one of those, or two. Thought about adding some balsamic vinegar, but went with the sherry instead. Some onions would've been nice, but for some reason I held off. I considered slicing up a banana and tossing that in. Maybe a carrot? Some fresh squeezed lemon juice? Had some red bell peppers that I got cheap today (a buck each, approximately). Those didn't make it, though. I have other plans for those, which I'm going to write about here at some point (you'll want to read that post, I can assure you). Lots of stuff could have gone into this dish, and probably would've been very good too. The point is, why leave a perfectly good sweet potato sitting in the bottom drawer of your fridge, waiting until it goes bad and has to get tossed? Why just bake it like everyone else and eat it with butter and brown sugar (like everyone else)? Play with your food. Experiment. You don't need a recipe- this is how recipes get created! Specific amounts? Who cares? Just go with less than you think you need, and add more as you find you need it.

This is how I cook.

This is what I eat.

Not every single day, not all the time. But I've been really, really turned off lately by a lot of the store-bought processed junk I used to go with, and see everyone else eating all the time. I prefer fresh, simple, homemade stuff. Not exactly the guilty pleasure that eating a whole bag of pizza bites with Frank's Red Hot used to be, but hey, I'm losing weight and feeling better about myself, so it's all good.

Blade Envy

2010-01-19T00:19:00.001-06:00

I want one. Bad.

Too bad I don't happen to have an extra 3 grand handy.

Nut Goody Bars

2010-01-11T22:16:00.016-06:00

Dangerous. That's what these things are. Absolutely dangerous. For your hips, your waistline, your thighs... wherever. No place is safe when you take a bite of these. Heck, if your teeth don't rot and fall out of your head, they'll probably gain weight. But it'll be worth it- these things are rich and decadent and calling your name this very minute...

You want to make these.

You need to make these.

(photo credit: Kathie Jenkins/Pioneer Press)

And before I go any further, I'd like to say a couple things- first, the recipe comes from my local newspaper. I had to sign up for their Cookie-A-Day email newsletter to get it (though I probably could have found it in the archives later, but I didn't know that at the time and didn't want to take any chances on missing it). So they get the credit. I never would have come up with this on my own. However, having made it, and compared it to an actual Nut Goodie Bar, I have a couple slight tweaks to recommend, as well as a couple thoughts on the making process. But for now, the recipe, courtesy Kathie Jenkins, Pioneer Press Food Editor:

Makes 2 dozen (1-by-3-inch) bars.

1-1/2 pounds milk chocolate
1 square (1 ounce) unsweetened chocolate
1 cup butter
1 box (3.4 ounces) regular vanilla pudding mix
1/2 cup evaporated milk
1-1/4 teaspoons maple flavoring
2 pounds powdered sugar
1 pound Virginia peanuts

To prepare pan: Invert 10-by-15-inch jellyroll pan. Place length of aluminum foil, shiny side down, over pan. Using hands, press down on sides and corners of foil to shape it to pan. Remove foil. Turn pan right side up. Place foil in pan. Very carefully press foil in place in pan. Lightly butter foil. Set aside.

To prepare bars: Melt milk chocolate and unsweetened chocolate. Spread small amount of melted chocolate to cover bottom of jellyroll pan. Put pan in freezer.

To prepare filling: In small saucepan, combine butter, pudding mix and milk. Bring to a boil. (Note: Don't worry if mixture curdles, just keep stirring.) Remove from heat. Set aside to cool slightly. Pour mixture into large bowl. Using electric mixer on low speed, beat in maple flavoring. Slowly add powdered sugar. Continue to beat until combined and no lumps remain. Spread mixture over chocolate layer in jellyroll pan. Refrigerate until firm.

To finish bars: Stir salted peanuts into remaining chocolate mixture. Mix well. Spread evenly over powdered-sugar layer.

To cool bars: Refrigerate until firm. Remove from refrigerator. Cover with rack or cookie sheet. Invert. Remove pan and foil lining. Cover with cutting board or length of wax paper. Invert again, leaving bars right side up. Cut into 1-by-3-inch bars or, if using on cookie tray, cut smaller.

*****

Ok, some thoughts...

The recipe calls for Virginia peanuts, but I don't see why dry-roasted nuts wouldn't work (although, it does stray from the actual product, which in fact uses unsalted Virginia peanuts. Then again, they also use corn syrup, soy protein (wtf?) and invertase (whatever that is) which aren't in this recipe, so do whatever you like). In fact, I think they might actually be better, since they (I believe) are a little saltier. Because the recipe could use a little salt. I actually bought a Nut Goodie Bar from the store to compare the two, and these tasted very, very similar to the commercial variety (nice work, Kathie!). The main difference I noticed was that the commercial one was a little saltier (just enough, though). But before I even tasted the store-bought one, I knew from tasting the pudding/powdered sugar mix as I was blending it that it definitely needed some, and so threw in a couple pinches of kosher salt. Even that was not enough, in my opinion, once I tasted the finished product. So... couple pinches of kosher along with dry roasted nuts, or Virginia nuts with maybe a teaspoon (totally estimating here...) of kosher.

I also think it needs more maple flavoring than what the recipe calls for. I didn't measure it out, preferring instead to eyeball it, as is my habit when it comes to adding stuff to recipes, but I think I added approximately double what the recipe calls for. That's about what I was aiming for, anyway. Taste it as you make it to see what you think, but I think mine came out great with (approximately) double.

You'll notice that the recipe says, 'Don't worry if mixture curdles, just keep stirring.' Yeah, that's an understatement. She makes it sound like it might not curdle. Well, it curdled alright, and quite a bit. I was briefly tempted to throw the mix out and start over, thinking that I must have done something wrong, but I took her advice and just kept stirring, and it came out just fine. So keep that in mind when you're mixing the sugar/pudding mix. No matter how it looks, just keep stirring. Also, she says, 'Using electric mixer on low speed, beat in maple flavoring. Slowly add powdered sugar.' She makes it sound like you want to keep the mixer on low the whole time (and kind of you do- you don't want powdered sugar flying everywhere) but you'll see as soon as you start doing this that you'll need to turn the speed up at some point, and quite high depending on your mixer's power. There's a lot of sugar involved, and the mix gets quite thick. Low speed probably will not cut it for very long.

I don't have any pics of the actual cooking process, but I do have some pics of the results:

The ones on the left are mine, and the ones on the right are the store-bought. As you can see, both the top layer of chocolate and the middle nougat layer are quite thick in mine. A little too thick. But I was using some weird cake pan, unlike any other cake pan I've ever used before, with really thick high walls, so it was difficult to tell when I was spreading it all out just how thick I was laying it on. No biggie, though, they still taste phenomenal. I think maybe more nuts would be in order, though. Nuts and chocolate go together like, well, nuts and chocolate, and more is always better. At least until you reach some sort of equilibrium, say 50-50. (Mine is more 60-40, chocolate to nuts.)

Here's another shot, with some keys thrown in for perspective (hey, it's all I had handy at the moment) -

Ok, now get thee to a kitchen without delay- these things are still calling out to you and they don't like to be kept waiting!

(p.s. i know the title of the post is spelled slightly different than the actual product. not a mistake.)

Shifting gears

2009-12-11T23:19:00.003-06:00

I think it's about time I change things up around here-

I haven't been posting much lately- in fact, I think I went almost a year between posts at one point before coming up with a few new things. But I want to start posting a lot more stuff soon. Problem is, I don't often come up with new 'recipes' or items that are 1. my own, and 2. interesting enough to share. But I've noticed a gradual change in my eating habits over the last six months or so. I'm getting further and further away from store-bought, pre-packaged stuff and more and more into making as much stuff from scratch as is practical. Things like tortillas (both corn and flour) hot sauces, soymilk (and other non-dairy 'milks') bread, yogurt, mayonnaise... pretty much anything that isn't too complicated or expensive to make myself. I even checked out grain mills to see about making my own flour, but decided that that's not really feasible for me at this time (due to a variety of factors, cost being the among least of them). So probably starting sometime in January (December being the busiest month of the year for me) I plan to start posting about the stuff I've made from scratch. Nothing fancy, nothing schmancy, just the simple stuff I make on a regular basis for myself and anyone who happens to be near me and hungry. Not that I'll be posting a lot of stuff or anything- once, maybe twice a month on average- but if I've made something from scratch and liked it (as I did recently with flour tortillas) I'll write something up about it and post the recipe and any changes I might have made, as well as where I found the recipe (if it wasn't something I came up with on my own). I think it's going to be fun. I'm looking forward to it. Homemade is always better (and healthier and cheaper?) than store-bought, and it also doesn't always have to be time-consuming (Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day, anyone?) In fact, I'm somewhat of a lazy cook, anyway. It's not that I just want to get in and out of the kitchen in 10 minutes; I have no problem spending hours prepping and cooking, but I want to strike a balance between time and simplicity. I don't like making complicated stuff. I think the most complicated thing I've made were those tacos I blogged about awhile back, and those are actually quite simple- it only looks complicated when you read about it; actually making them is no big deal. So anyway, here's to making much more stuff from scratch in 2010. Also, I'm always eager to hear about anyone else's experiences, so if you make your own- whatever (doesn't even have to be food, really- I'm going to try making my own version of Burt's Bees Hand Salve pretty soon) please, leave a comment and/or a link to a recipe- I'd love to hear about it!

Cheers.

Leftover D-lite (vegetarian, even)

2009-11-17T20:33:00.006-06:00

(yes, also first posted at Friends of Rutabaga...)

Had some zucchini, yellow squash, and plain ol' spaghetti in the fridge, left from an experimental dish the other day, and was thinking about sautéing up the squash and probably throwing away the pasta (there was so little of it left, just a small handful). But here's what ended up happening:

I heated up the cast-iron skillet and melted some butter in it. Tossed in the squash, along with a pinch of salt, some chopped garlic, and crack (aka MSG). Cooked that for 2-3 minutes, then threw in the pasta. After a couple more minutes, in went a small handful of chopped cilantro. Stir, stir, smell, drool. Then came a squeeze of fresh lime juice. Taste test- oh yeah, how you doin'?
That would have been good enough, yes sir, but did I stop there? No I did not, because then I added a splash of soy sauce. Taste test- ooh, now you're talkin', baby.
And that would have been good enough, yes sir, but did I stop there? Oh no, I did not. That's when I brought out the big guns-

Oil Chili!

A little pricey (I paid 3.25 for a little under 10 oz.) but the stuff is crazy, sick delicious! Well worth it if you can find it. It takes whatever you use it on/in to the next level.

Final result:

(The color's not so great because my home has the worst lighting ever, but the stuff was D-lish! And easily configurable to whatever else you have in the fridge waiting to get used up.)

Cheers, mates!

A Magical Salad

2009-11-03T20:11:00.006-06:00

Hello kids, and welcome back to another delicious episode of How's it Taste? Today we're going to make a magical salad, and I'm sorry to say, but no, it's not that kind of magic. At least not when I make it. What you put in it is totally up to you. I won't tell a soul, promise. No, the reason I call it a magical salad is because it reminds me of a couple times when I saw some magician on tv do a really awesome trick and I thought, 'Wow, that was really great, but how the heck did he do it?' and then he proceeded to show the audience exactly how he did it, and then I'd think, 'Man, that was so simple. Why didn't I think of that?' Well, in this case, I did think of it, and I love it so I want to share it with whoever happens across this blog.

In an effort to start eating healthier and maybe even lose some weight in the process, I've been cutting out the potato chips with lunch 5 days a week, and substituting some fresh veggies or salad. Most of the time it was just romaine and tomatoes with some salt and pepper and a light dressing of some sort, but then one day at work I threw together the following:

cucumbers, seeded
tomatoes, seeded
avocado
kosher salt (sea salt is awesome too!)
black pepper (preferably coarse)
cilantro
rice vinegar

Magic! That's how good it was! You should totally try it, you won't be disappointed.

Normally I just throw it all together and go with it, but since I decided to post this here, I actually kept track of the cukes-to-tomatoes-to-avocado ratio, and ended up going with the following-

1 medium cucumber
2 largish roma tomatoes
1 avocado

(It's enough for one decent-size salad. I ate the whole thing in one go, but you could make a side salad for two with it.)

Peel the cucumber, if you like. I do those alternating peels you see on the cucumber rings at salad bars and stuff-

Seed the tomatoes and the cucumber, dice and mix up in a bowl. I think it's better to mix them together now before adding the avocado, so as to avoid mashing the avocado too much.

Dice up the avocado- here's how I like to do it:

In the skin, after you've removed the pit.

You just make a bunch of thin slices one way, then turn it 45 degrees and do it again, then you can scoop them all out with a spoon, lickety-split. I also recommend using a not-very-pointy knife, such as a butter knife or something similar, at least for the first couple of times until you get a feel for it. Using a chef knife, it's pretty easy to stab/cut yourself through the avocado skin.

Add a generous amount of salt and pepper and give a couple quick tosses with your fingers, then add some coarsely chopped cilantro and give a couple more. It's pretty damn good just like this, but you can take it to a whole other level by drizzling some rice vinegar over it too. I like it both ways, so I tend to eat half without, then add the vinegar and finish it.

It's Super good and Super healthy- you control the amount of sodium, and it's fairly low-fat. I'm not sure exactly how much fat is in an avocado, but since it's considered one of the 'good' kinds, I have no problem eating as much of this stuff as I like. Try it out and see what you think. Also, if you're not a cilantro fan, give it a go with basil, or your other favorite herbs. I haven't tried anything else out yet, but I imagine they're just as good!

Until next time- if there is a next time- Bon Appétit!

Curry Love

2009-10-27T19:31:00.008-05:00

Many months ago, I bought a bottle of curry powder at Sam's Club. I'd never really used curry before, but I'd been wanting to try it out and see how I liked it. So I promptly proceeded to let that bottle sit in my spice drawer for months, until a week or two ago, when I came across this awesome page of pumpkin recipes via Stumbleupon. One of the links was to a pumpkin curry soup recipe, so I tried it out at home and really, really liked it. Then I ended up making it for the soup of the day at work one day. Except I did what I usually do, and made way, way too much. Like gallons and gallons of it. (I tend to cook either just enough for one or two people, or enough for dozens. There is no in-between.) Not really a problem, I just threw the leftover soup in the freezer for another day. But then the next day I was thinking that I could take some of that leftover soup and mix it with some alfredo sauce, coat some chicken in the curry powder, and make a pumpkin curry chicken alfredo pasta for a daily special. Two birds with one stone- use up some of the soup, and have a new special to run. Sounded good to me! Well, I didn't end up using the soup, but what I came up with was pretty close, and maybe even better than the soup would have been anyway. It's a versatile curry-squash, hummus-like sort of dip, which I did use in the curry-squash-chicken-alfredo pasta, which came out super totally delicious! I don't have a specific recipe (though I'm going to try and come up with one sometime) only vague amounts based on what I remember doing. Here's how it all came about: when I went into the freezer to get out the leftover soup, I noticed that I had some butternut squash that was leftover from some butternut squash soup I had made awhile back. So I grabbed that as well, thinking I could use that up, too. And I also just happened to have some extra tahini and garbanzo beans in the cooler. Now, I know very little about Indian food, but those items seemed like they'd go good in whatever I was going to make, so I grabbed them and headed for the kitchen. Again, absolutely no recipe, but here's a list of ingredients-

Frozen butternut squash cubes
Tahini
Garbanzo beans
Curry powder
Olive oil
Coconut milk
Salt/pepper

Looking good, no? So basically all I did was just throw all that into a food processor and mix away. Sadly, I didn't record any amounts of anything. But look how simple the ingredient list is! Stuff that anyone can get nowadays, so all you have to do is pretend that it's all salt and pepper and just 'add to taste,' right? Ok, possibly an oversimplification, but that's basically what I did. But here are some vague amounts based on my weak old-man's memory, if you're interested.

Approx. 1 1/2-2 c. garbanzos
1/3-1/2 c. tahini
1-1/2 c. butternut squash
Squirt of olive oil (2-ish Tbs.)
1 can/2-ish cups coconut milk
Dash of salt and pepper
Curry powder to taste. I wasn't even trying to pay attention when I added that stuff, so I have no idea how much I used, but it was a lot.

The olive oil might not be necessary at all, I just added it because it felt like I was making hummus, and you always add olive oil to hummus. (Except that this was at work, so it was 80/20 soybean/olive oil. I hate that cheap stuff. I'd never use it at home.)

So that's the basic Curry Love 'recipe.' It's super, super tasty on it's own. And versatile too, because you can eat it straight (I sure did!) or with pita bread or crackers; you can add it to alfredo sauce (which I also did) and make some alfredo-curry chicken pasta. It has a slightly sweet taste to it, due to the butternut squash and coconut milk, so I'm sure it would go well in muffins or quickbreads. I have no doubt it would make an interesting pie. Sweet or savory, it's delicious either way. Try mixing it up and adding cloves, cardamom, nutmeg, fenugreek, turmeric, or whatever else strikes your fancy. Maybe try different types of curry powders. The stuff I used just said 'curry powder' and was the common yellow kind you see everywhere. Also, I used Tones brand, which I think is a pretty decent, though maybe not great, line of spices. I know I was really happy with this stuff, but I imagine I'd really be loving it if I'd used, say, Penzey's, or had taken whole spices and ground them myself.

At some point (when I get around to it) maybe in a day or two, I'll add the alfredo recipe in here that I used. It's pretty simple and easy to make, and is way better than most stuff you'd get out of a jar- though I'm not exactly an alfredo connoisseur, so I don't know how it compares to other recipes out there, but I think it's pretty decent.

Until next time- if there is a next time- Bon Appétit!

Tom Kha Kai (aka Thai Chicken Soup)

2009-09-29T17:16:00.005-05:00

Haven't posted here in a long, long time... and it might be awhile before I do again; if I come up with anything new, I'll post it here, but there's only a handful of stuff I like to make, and so I just keep making those same few things over and over. This is one of those things, and I think you'll like it.

(and if you somehow wandered over here from Friends of Rutabaga... yes, I just brought this over from there.)

Anyone who knows me, or has ever been cooked for by me, knows that, man, I really love Thai food (anything with an Asian feel to it, really.) And while not my absolute favorite Thai dish, I still love me a giant bowl of Tom Kha Kai.

Being that this is a soup, there's any number of ways to do it. Here's my way:

(Those chunks of chicken-nugget-looking things are the galanga)

What we have here is the following:

Galanga
Lemongrass
Garlic
Thai bird chilis
Kaffir lime leaves
Scallions (white parts)
Ginger
Sea salt
Black pepper
Brown sugar
Fish sauce

Specific amounts, you say? Recipe? Why, I have no idea what you're talking about; I just eyeball the amounts. If it looks right, it is right. And if it's not right, I'll know it when I taste it, and adjust accordingly (I'm generally, though not always, of the opinion that recipes are for cookbook authors and culinary scaredy-cats).
So, cook this down in a little bit of oil, just until soft, you don't want to brown it. Next, add some coconut milk and chicken stock (I used the low sodium kind for this) and let simmer for about 10-15 minutes. (For the total volume of soup, I used approx. 32 oz. each of coconut milk and chicken stock, and added a little less than half each for this part.)

Afterwards, strain out all of the liquid into another container, dump the veggies, and return the liquid to the pot. Add the rest of the coconut milk and chicken stock, taste and add more salt, pepper, brown sugar, fish sauce accordingly, then add the diced (raw) chicken.

(Pro tip: chicken, beef, etc., is so much easier to slice and dice when it's partially frozen!)

I think I used about 1 1/2 lbs. or so for this batch. Chop up some mushrooms of your choice- I used fresh oyster mushrooms, but most anything will do- and add those to the pot. Add in some bamboo shoots- I was lucky enough to have some fresh, thinly sliced and slivered ones on hand, and used about a pound. I'm sure water chestnuts would be delicious, but I didn't have any this time (except for that one small can down in the basement, but I didn't feel like bothering with it). Also, at this point I added a couple tablespoons of crack (aka MSG) because I really like the stuff. Apparently, though, some people have issues with it. I'm glad I'm not one of those people. Let simmer until the chicken is cooked all the way through, and then dish it up, adding copious amounts of cilantro and Thai basil as a garnish-

Although, I think copious means something different for me than it does for other people- I practically have a salad on top of mine.

This is the first time I've used Thai basil with this soup; before, I'd always just gone with cilantro (mainly because when I used to make this for myself before, I didn't have easy access to the Thai basil). I highly recommend it. This particular batch was Out. Standing. Fairly easy to make, and make consistently good. Pad Thai, for me, is always hit or miss- sometimes great, usually just ok. But every time I make this, it always ranges from Very Good, to I Want To Marry Whoever Made This. Substitutions generally work well, too. Where I used Thai bird chilis, if you can't get those, you could definitely go with crushed red pepper. I don't know of any fresh substitutes for Galanga, Lime leaves, and Lemongrass, but the dried versions are relatively easy to come by via mail-order, or even at a lot of co-ops and grocery stores nowadays, and are usually reasonably priced. Not as good as fresh, obviously, but better than nothing. When I can afford it, which is almost never, I prefer sesame or peanut oil for cooking the veggies at the beginning (coconut oil would also be excellent) but in this case I just went with canola.

Finally, it's not a recipe, but here are the approximate amounts I used for the ingredients listed:

Galanga- 1 medium finger/knob
Lemongrass- 1 stalk
Garlic- 2-4 Tablespoons
Thai bird chilis- 5-6
Kaffir lime leaves- 8 leaves, or so. (would've used more, but the rest had gone bad)
Scallions (white parts) - 1 bunch
Ginger- 1 medium finger
Sea salt- 1 T
Black pepper- 1 teaspoon
Brown sugar- 2 T
Fish sauce- 2-4 T
Coconut milk- 32 oz
Low-sodium chicken stock- 32 oz
Diced chicken- 1 1/2 lbs.
Oyster mushrooms- 8 oz.
Bamboo shoots- 1 lb.
MSG- 2 T
Cilantro, chopped- 1/2 C
Thai Basil, chopped- 1/2 C

¡Buen provecho!

Cranberry-Lime Muffins (AKA Lemon-Blueberry Muffins, part II)

2008-12-07T16:41:00.027-06:00

As you can guess from the title, this is not really a new recipe. But I think it's an important update, worthy of a brand new post. Since coming up with the lemon-blueberry recipe, I've been making them pretty constantly and have made a couple slight refinements. I've also learned a couple things about muffin-making; the main one being that the Cranberry-Lime muffins that I'm going to write about are by far the best muffins I've ever had. Even better than the original Lemon-Blueberry muffins that up till that point were the best muffins I've ever had. On average, I make these twice a week, every week.
Cranberry-lime muffins for breakfast every day! My family is so jealous. I don't share anymore; they're too good. Of course, they could just ask me for the recipe and I'd happily share it with them, but I think they're leaning toward holding me hostage and locking me in the kitchen to make them their cran-lime muffins every day instead. Seriously, you should see the look on Nathaniel's face when he knows I'm making these.

Ok, the recipe is mostly the same as the original, but after making these muffins a few dozen times, I've made a couple small tweaks and slightly streamlined my process for making them. Also, I learned something very useful that I never knew before, but always wondered about. Suppose your batter mix is too wet and you need to add more flour to it (or you just want to add more to increase the amount)? If it's only a tiny bit, then no problem, but if you're adding say, 1/4 cup, then obviously you'd want to increase the amount of baking powder as well, right? But by how much? Well, I was listening to The Splendid Table and they had the author of the new book Bakewise on. She said that the ratio of powder to flour is 1 tsp to one cup. More than that and you're asking for trouble. So 1/4 cup of flour, obviously, equates to 1/4 tsp of baking powder. I never knew that before. Very handy to know. She also said (and I'm grossly paraphrasing here since I can't remember exactly how it went) that how light and fluffy your muffins will be depends on how much air you whip into the butter. The baking powder doesn't react with an acid in the mix to form a gas and raise the muffins; basically it releases the air that's been whipped into the butter/sugar mix to raise the muffins. So you want to whip the butter/sugar mix very well before adding the egg because once you add that egg, the air intake basically stops right there.
Also very handy to know. Ok, on with the show...

Cranberry-Lime Muffins

1 3/4 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1/2 stick unsalted butter (softened)
1 large egg
1/2 c whole milk yogurt
1/2 c mayo
1 3/4 tsp baking powder
pinch of kosher salt
juice from 1 1/2 limes
cranberries

Here's my routine for putting it all together (and if you check out the original recipe for L-B muffins, you'll see that this one is basically backwards from that one, which is good. I'm learning, I'm learning...)

Start by chopping the cranberries. I still don't have an exact amount, but generally use about 2/3 of a 12 oz bag. Also, if you're using just a knife and cutting board: they're much easier to chop when frozen. When they're thawed and you cut them, they tend to 'pop' and fly off the cutting board and table. They stay in place much better when frozen. (If you have some sort of kitchen-gadget chopper or are using a food processor, thawed is probably better. But I like the simplicity of just a knife and board, myself.)

Next, mix the mayo, yogurt, and lime juice in a bowl and set aside. (When you first open the yogurt, if you're using one of those large-size containers be sure and mix it well first, as the cream tends to sit on the top of the yogurt- don't want to use it all up on the first batch and then be left with a bunch of low-fat yogurt for the next round. That just wouldn't do at all.)

In another bowl, beat the sugar and butter thoroughly (remember, lots of air). I went out and bought a small electric hand mixer just for this purpose. Half a stick of butter and half a cup of sugar is not very much, and even doubling the recipe it wasn't enough to be able to mix very well in my brother's Kitchenaid stand mixer. And my arm was wearing out doing it by hand. I also recommend using a small bowl with steep sides, or even a small saucepan. Makes the mixing much easier, since the butter/sugar doesn't have much room to move around. Once it's as light and fluffy as you'd like it to be, mix in the egg, and then mix thoroughly with the yogurt/mayo/lime.

In another bowl, mix together thoroughly the flour, baking powder and salt. Next you're going to add in the butter/sugar/mayo/yogurt/lime goodness and the cranberries too (being careful not to overmix) but before you do that, I want to point out that the volume may vary due to the amount of juice in the limes. So you may want to hold back on adding it all at once so as not to end up with an overly wet batter. I definitely wouldn't cut back on the lime juice to just one lime. Just try 1 1/2 to start with on your first time, and tweak it from there. (I suppose if I was really devoted I'd just measure out the lime juice so I'd know exactly how much to add every time and wouldn't have to worry about it. Someday. Maybe.) Also, when I make these, I add about 1/2 the liquid and then 1/2 the cranberries, then more liquid, then more cranberries, so it all gets mixed in at the same time without getting overmixed.

(Oh, something else I learned in the process of making these is that if you forget to add the egg to the sugar/butter mix, your muffins will be totally fine- I almost couldn't tell the difference- but mixing the sugar/butter into the mayo/yogurt mix is much more difficult and does not look good at all. The butter doesn't want to emulsify and the whole thing looks like curdled milk. But don't worry, you'll likely not notice a difference in the way the final product tastes. Still, better just to not forget the egg in the first place.)

That's all there is to it. Bake on 350 until a knife comes out clean. Makes 6 large crazy-delicious muffins.

The four types of coffee drinkers

2008-10-21T23:40:00.005-05:00

Well, it's food-related... sort of. Anyway, this was a paper I wrote for an English class about 11 years ago. Not the best stuff I've written (that was lost to a corrupt floppy disk shortly after school ended for me), but not bad either. Anyway, I keep losing this and finding it again, so I want to put it up on the internet somewhere so it won't get lost permanently like my other, better stuff. And this blog seems as good a place as any.

The Four Types Of Coffee Drinkers

There's an old saying that reads "I like my coffee like I like my women: strong and black," and that pretty much holds true for me. Sort of. I won't get into the part about the women, but the coffee part of it is pretty much accurate.

When it all boils down, there are really only four types of coffee drinkers: the strong-and-black, the cream-only, the sugar-only, and the cream-and-sugar type.

Let's start with the first one: strong-and-black. This is a type of person who is confident and bold; sensitive, yet manly. He projects an image that says "I drink coffee that's so good I don't need to add any of your "flavor enhancing" preservatives. To do so would only announce to everyone that either I'm a wimp who can't handle real coffee, or that I'm drinking really bad coffee that needs to be doctored up in order to be drinkable. This type of person is well-respected by others.

Then there's the cream-only type. This is a person who's really not sure of himself. He doesn't want to look like a wimp in front of his friends by adding sugar as well, but he's not confident enough to take the bold approach and go the strong-and-black route, so he compromises and takes a middle-of-the-road stance, trying to maintain a shallow image of respectability with other coffee drinkers.

The sugar-only type of coffee drinker has no credibility at all, in my opinion. They're mentally unstable. Nobody in his right mind would drink coffee like that, so insanity is the obvious explanation. If you do a background check on a person who's given to the sugar-only way of drinking coffee, you'll find that most of them have been committed to a mental institution at least once in the recent past.

Lastly, we have the cream-and-sugar type. This is the worst kind of all. These people have delicate tastebuds that can't be offended at all by the slightest hint of flavor. This type of person is usually over-sensitive and can't deal with raw truth. Everything must be sugar-coated and smoothed over to be acceptable to him. He tends to be immature and regressive in personality.

There you have it- the four basic types of coffee drinkers. Now if you'll excuse me, I believe my herbal tea is done brewing

Tacos de Pollo (Dun Dun Dunnn!!)

2008-09-02T18:26:00.047-05:00

I had to add that cheesy fake sound effect in the title in order to give a tiny little sense of urgency to this post. If I could have found a way to add in some floodlights and a dark stage awaiting a mega rockstar with thousands of screaming fans, I would have done that too, because the title Tacos de Pollo just doesn't quite communicate the awesomeness of what lies ahead. But I thought that "Holy-hell-these-are-so-amazing-that-I-will-totally-kick-Bobby-Flay's-butt-in-a-showdown-and-also-blow-away-the-judges-on-Iron-Chef-with-them" was a little bit much. Even if it is more accurate. So prepare yourselves...

...for a Taste Sensation.

And also for lots of me gushing and ooh-ing and ahh-ing about these tacos. About how awesome they are. About how they're in my top 3 of all-time best things I've ever eaten. About how if I ever found myself on Death Row, these are what I'd request for my last meal. But hey, don't just take my word for it- check out some actual comments they've recieved from real people who've tried them:

"...the best tacos I've ever had."

- my mom

"They're phenomenal."

-Ryan, who works at Sweeney's

"Wow, do you do breakfast, as well?"

- Some hot chick who came in to Sweeney's for lunch on Sunday, when I usually do these for the Daily Special.

" "

-Beth, my boss.

Ok, granted you could argue that my Mom is biased. You'd be wrong in this case, but you could still argue it.
And I think it's quite fitting that Ryan actually used the word "phenomenal," since I was originally planning on using that word myself, but thought it might be a little too much. But, hey, since he used it...
And lastly, I know Beth never actually got back to me about whether she liked them or not, but I'm pretty sure that's because they left her speechless. Yes, they're that good.

(Oh, and that comment by the hot chick? I totally made that one up. But that's the only one, I swear!)

Ok, enough jibber-jabber. Let's get cooking!

First, a rundown of Everything You Will Need. (And I'd like to emphasize the word "need". For the full experience, nothing here should be considered optional.) It's a big list, but don't be intimidated- it goes together easily and will be more than worth the effort. This recipe can be broken down into 3 basic parts- the chicken taco mix, the taco sauce, and the toppings.

Chicken Tacos

Boneless chicken breasts
Jalapeño peppers
Fresh, minced garlic
Kosher or Sea salt
Fresh cilantro
Vegetable/olive oil
Fresh lime juice

---

Soft corn tortillas

Taco Sauce

Regular mayo
Chili powder
Garlic powder
Canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
Guajillo peppers
Apple cider vinegar
Fresh, minced garlic
Fresh lime juice
Vegetable/olive oil
Cumin
Paprika

Toppings

Tomatoes
Avocados
Black beans
Fresh limes
Colby jack, or cheddar cheese

Now, let's break it down a little more. First, the mix. I don't have specific amounts for any of this, but it's no big deal. For the mix at least, you can get a pretty good idea just by looking. I'll detail that a little more later, but first...
Take 1 or 2 chicken breasts and dice them up. They don't have to be minced (although that would be fine, too) but you do want a small dice. (Quick kitchen tip here: raw chicken is much, much easier to slice and dice when it's partially frozen.) Add in some finely chopped, seeded jalapeño, some minced garlic, and fresh, chopped cilantro. Sprinkle on some kosher salt, give it a squirt of vegetable or olive oil and a squeeze of lime juice, and mix thoroughly.
When I make these at home for myself, I tend to use 1 large-ish chicken breast, (8 oz. or so) 2-3 jalapenos, and 5-6 cloves of garlic. It's actually pretty difficult to use too much jalapeno, cilantro, and garlic. You want a good, even mix of green and white. If you're seeing mostly green, then you may have used too much cilantro/jalapeno, but it's not likely that'll happen. Also, with the garlic, your nose can give you a good idea of whether or not you have enough. Don't skimp, though. You want to add lots of flavor. Also, keep in mind that the heat of cooking will mellow the flavor of all of the above, so even if you do go kind of overboard, it's not like using too much salt- your tacos will still be fine. With the salt however, all you really need is just a pinch. Maybe a heavy pinch, but play it safe if you're not sure, as you can always add more later. As for the lime juice, maybe 1 wedge per breast? I find that 1/2 a lime can handle a couple pounds of mix, but it also kind of depends on how long the mix will be sitting before you cook it. Mostly you're using it to marinate the chicken, but it also contributes some flavor. I find that about 1 hour before cooking is good. If you think your mix may be sitting much longer than that, say 4 hours or more, you may want to use less, or even none at all. On the other hand, if you're going to be cooking it immediately, feel free to get a little more liberal with it. And as for the vegetable/olive oil, it's mostly just to lube the mix, make it less sticky and easier to mix in the bowl, and also possibly saving you from having to oil the pan when you cook it.
Before I move on to the Taco Sauce, I just want to comment on the use of the corn tortilla for this dish. Do not, do not,
DO NOT say what I think you're about to say. Don't even think it. As I mentioned before, nothing in this recipe should be considered optional. Nothing. Especially the corn tortillas. I don't care if you're allergic to them; this dish will cure that real quick.* So don't go substituting any stinking flour tortillas in their place. That is the quickest and easiest way to absolutely kill this meal. It's the equivalent of putting ketchup on a steak-

"¡No lo hagas!"

Once you have all of that prepped up and ready to go, I've found that 4 ounces of mix is just about the optimum amount for one serving. Or, depending on your appetite, maybe only 1/2 serving. Or maybe two. In any case, it will give you just enough for 3 tacos, which will fill an average person up.

Now the Taco Sauce.

There's kind of a lot of prep involved in this, due to the use of the guajillo salsa, (in effect, you're making two taco sauces) but it's really not as bad as it sounds. (And even if it was, it's worth it.) So let's start with the guajillo salsa first. Guajillos are becoming more and more mainstream. If you live in or near a large city, you should be able to find them at either your local grocery store, or a Co-op/Natural Foods store. And if not, they can be easily obtained online. Penzey's is a well-known outlet that carries them (although they're a little pricey there). I'm pretty sure Spice Barn and Gourmet Sleuth offer them too, (links to both are over on the right) at a reasonable price. It's worth the extra effort, it really is. The guajillo salsa is the one I blogged about earlier. There's a tag for it if you want to read that post, but I'll recap it here. This isn't meant to be a specific recipe, but more of a general formula-

1 dozen guajillo peppers, stemmed and roughly chopped (keep the seeds!)
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp crushed red pepper
1/4 c fresh, minced garlic
1/4 c olive oil
1/4 c apple cider vinegar

Add the peppers to a pot on the stove and cover with about an inch of water. Bring to a boil and then let simmer for about 15 minutes or so. You want the water level to go down by about a third, to boost the flavor of the liquid, as you'll be adding some of it to the salsa. Remove from the heat and let cool. Drain the liquid, but don't discard it. Add the peppers to your blender and add about half the reserved cooking water. Add the salt, crushed red pepper, garlic, oil, and 2-3 T of the vinegar. Blend it all up nice and smooth and give it a taste. You shouldn't need to add more oil at this point, but tweak the rest according to taste. I usually find I need to add the entire 1/4 c of vinegar and a little more of the cooking liquid, (it's for flavor as well as adjusting the consistency. I usually go for thick-ketchup-like) as well as more salt and crushed red pepper. None of the flavors should be overpowering any of the others. You want a good dose of the guajillo coming through up front, and an even blend of salt and vinegar right behind that, followed by the garlic and crushed red pepper. (I hate to sound all food-critic-like, but that's just what comes to mind when I taste this.)
Ok, that was probably the most difficult part of this whole project, and that wasn't even that bad. So just set that salsa aside, and let's get started on the rest of the taco sauce!
The only real "recipe" part I have for this is the Chipotle Mayo. I use it as the base for the rest. Chipotle Mayo in and of itself is very, very good. I never used to like chipotle flavored anything until I tried this. It goes very well on turkey burgers/sandwiches, as well as pretty much any other kind of burger or sandwich. To make Chipotle Mayo, simply take one can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (they're usually 7-7 1/2 ounces) and mix it with 4 cups of mayo. You'll want to either do this in a food processor or chop the peppers first either by hand or in a blender. If you blend all of this together in a blender, the mayo tends to separate, leaving you with an oily mess. (At least, that's been my experience. Not good.) So now you have Chipotle Mayo. And before we go any further, I realize that it may sound a little odd, using mayo in any form, on tacos. Banish that thought from your mind right now. Seriously. Do whatever it takes to make yourself believe that it's not really mayonaise, but taco sauce, that you're putting on your tacos. Have someone else make it for you and then lie to you if you must, but do not not use chipotle mayo. I tried it once using lowfat yogurt, and added some mashed up avocados to add a little fat, as well as flair, and the results were no good. No good at all. So hazme caso and just use the (chipotle) mayo.

Ok, just a recap on the ingredients, since the list at the beginning was for all the individual ingredients, including what was needed for the guajillo salsa.

-in no particular order-

Chipotle mayo
Guajillo salsa
Fresh lime juice
Chili powder
Fresh, minced garlic
Cumin
Paprika
Cilantro, chopped

The m.o. here is the same as always- start with the chipotle mayo as your base and add the rest according to taste. You may be thinking, "How will I know if I got it 'right'? Why can't you just make a stinkin' recipe for it? How hard could it be?" (That's what I'd be thinking, anyway.) But when I first made this, I had no recipe. I just threw a bunch of stuff in a bowl and stirred it all up, and a masterpiece was born. I never use a recipe when I make this. I like the idea of it being slightly different each time. But there's also a little bit of wiggle room in there too- even if yours tastes noticeably from mine, it'll still be great. In fact, I submit that any reasonable combination of the above ingredients will yield fantastic results. So just take a cup or so of chipotle mayo, toss in a tablespoon or two each of fresh minced garlic and chili powder, a few tablespoons each of guajillo salsa and cumin, (preferably toasted- just heat in a skillet over medium until nice and fragrant) a couple hefty pinches of finely chopped cilantro, and a couple squeezes of fresh lime juice. Maybe even a little bit of black pepper, even though it's not on the list. Blend it all up nice and well with a wire whip or other such utensil, and taste for doneness. Add more of whatever you think it might need, according to taste. You'll also want to let it sit for about an hour before using, to let the flavors really meld. And because this uses fresh garlic and lime juice, you also don't want to make up too much at one time. Partly because of the limited shelf life, but also because the garlic really sharpens up after a day or so. Some people like that, but if you're not one of those people, this is something to keep in mind. I briefly considered using garlic powder for large batches, but came up with a better idea instead. What I do at home is to just make up a large batch of chipotle mayo, which will keep just fine for quite awhile, and then just draw from that and add the rest to make the taco sauce as needed.

Time for the toppings...

Here's a recap-

Colby jack, or Cheddar cheese
Tomatoes
Avocados
Black beans
Fresh limes
Fresh cilantro

Personally, I think Colby-jack works much better than Cheddar for this. It seems to have a cleaner, less greasy taste to it, but I've used both, and both will fit the bill. As for the black beans, canned or dried, doesn't really matter. If you use canned, though, I recommend the less-is-more approach. Try to avoid the kind with lime juice/peppers/spices/tequila/etc. and go with just black beans, water and salt. There'll be plenty of flavor from the chicken and taco sauce to go around.
For the limes, you won't actually need more than one- just a wedge or two to squeeze some juice on the finished product. Avocados- when I first started making these, I would use thinly sliced avocado, then I switched to diced. Now I'm considering using mashed, with a little salt, lime juice, crushed red pepper, and a lot of black pepper mixed in. Sort of a guacamole, but I guess not technically one. I've been using that a lot lately on sandwiches anyway, and it just seems like it might be easier to work with on these than diced. Well, maybe not as easy to apply, but it might sit better in the shell, and not fall out so easily when I overload it, which I always do, no matter how many times I tell myself I won't do it anymore.

Alright, so you've got your mix, taco sauce, and toppings all ready to go. Let's get started. There's a couple different ways you could go about this. The ideal way would be to get yourself a huge flat-top grill like you find in commercial kitchens, so you can easily do everything at once in one spot. But those are very large and extremely heavy, and cost several thousand dollars, and don't run on electricity, so they probably aren't very practical for most people. So scratch that idea. You could try cooking the chicken, tortillas, and black beans all at the same time on your regular kitchen stove, timing it so that they're all hot and ready at the same time and all you do is throw it together. But I find that to be too much of a juggling act. So here's what I do. Throw some black beans in a covered, (and vented!) microwave-safe container and pop them in the reactor for a couple minutes. They'll be hot, but not too hot. They might need another 30 seconds or so later on, when everything else is done. Grab two non-stick pans (I prefer cast iron) one for the chicken mix, and one for the tortillas. Set one of them over about medium-high heat, and the other one over medium-low. The med-low one is for the tortillas. After a couple minutes, when the medium-high pan is nice and hot, drop in the chicken mix and start it cooking. After it's been thoroughly seared, turn the heat down to about medium and continue cooking until it's mostly done, (about 80-90%) then turn down to the lowest heat setting. Now you start on the tortillas. Make sure you've got a thin, flexible, metal spatula. The thinner the better. I picked one up at Target for about $5 that's basically just a heavy-duty piece of tin foil with a handle. It works great! It's sturdy, but flexible. (In fact, it was designed for delicate foods, like crepes and eggs.) Give the pan a light shot of pan spray, and then grab your first tortilla and run it under some cool tap water for a few seconds. Just long enough to give it a thorough soaking, soften it up a little. Shake off the excess water, and set it lightly in the pan. Lightly. You do not want to press it down with the spatula. Keep a close eye on it, and when it looks dry (no longer shiny) and a little puffy, that's the time to flip it. Immediately sprinkle on a thin layer of your cheese, and wait. When the cheese is soft and melt-y, it's ready!
A couple quick notes before we move on to the next step- you may have to experiment with different heat settings, as well as different tortilla brands, to find the combination that works for you. As far as heat goes, I've found med-low to be the optimum for my home kitchen, but at work, where we have totally different, commercial equipment, it's medium. And as for tortillas, I've noticed a big difference in quality with different brands. Some tend to fall apart way easier than others. I've thrown away many tortillas that just fell to pieces in the pan. It tends to happen when you go to flip it for the first time. (Which is why a thin metal spatula is key.) If you find you're having issues, here's a couple things I've found that help- using medium-high heat, drop the tortilla on the pan for just a couple of seconds before sliding the spatula quickly underneath it. You don't want to flip it yet. The idea here is just to sear it quickly, and then briefly lift it off the pan before it can stick. Then wait until it looks dry and a little puffy before flipping it. Another thing I've tried that can help, is to leave the tortilla on for a little bit longer before flipping it. The top part will start to peel and flake, but the bottom will toughen up, making it hold together better. You want to do this over medium-low. That's not my preferred solution, though, if I'm having problems, because I do want the tortilla shell to break apart easily- but in my mouth, not when I'm cooking it! If you try all of the above and still are having problems, don't give up! Experience helps, and your efforts will be greatly rewarded. If all else fails, just stop by Sweeney's in Saint Paul, and I'll be happy to make some for you!
Ok, next. Assuming you're doing these one at a time, you could just wait until you have all three shells with their melted cheese ready and then build them from there, but I have a really hard time doing that. As soon as one is ready, I make it and devour it before the next one starts. Sometimes I'll get the shell going while I'm eating the first one, but rarely can I hold myself back until all three are ready. Whatever you decide, here's the build process:

This exact order is very important. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I've worked on these endlessly since day one, getting everything absolutely perfect, and this is it right here. (Ok, maybe not really, but just try it once this way before striking off on your own. It'll make my day.)

Lay down a thin layer of chicken first. I like to try and make everything in a line, since you're just going to be folding the shell in half anyway, in the traditional store-bought hardshell shape, to eat it. Just kind of makes them a tiny bit less messy. Next come the black beans, in a line on top of the chicken. (Make sure they've been drained, at least a little.) On top of that go the diced tomatoes. Next is the diced avocado. Then comes a line of taco sauce. On top of that goes a hefty pinch of fresh chopped cilantro. And then top it off with a squeeze of lime juice. Mmmmmmm.......

They taste best with a beer, but if that's not an option, Fresca works nicely too...

*****

This will be my last post until I-don't-know-when (right when I'm getting ready to buy a good digital camera, too! No more waiting until the roll of film is all used up to get just a couple specific photos). Mainly because I've run out of recipes and ideas. Unlike a lot of food bloggers, I don't actively try and come up with new things, (with the exception of the muffins, maybe) and a lot of the things I have come up with have been basically accidental. I play around a lot with food or recipes, and every once in awhile I'll hit on something I really like, as was the case with these tacos. But it doesn't happen very often. I hope to be back with more good stuff to share, but who knows when? Since it could be awhile, I wanted to finish with a really good item. If you make nothing else I've posted about, make these tacos. And you really should make the muffins for dessert or breakfast, too; they're really good. Especially if you sub full-fat (8 grams per cup) yogurt for the sour cream. Ohhh yeah.
Anyway, thanks for reading; thanks for commenting. And maybe consider subscribing to the RSS feed and check back once a month or so to see if there's anything new going on here.

Chow, baby ; )

jb

Lemon-Blueberry Muffins

2008-08-12T13:43:00.024-05:00

"If you want something done right, you've got to do it yourself."
That's my philosophy. But so is, "Why do something today, when you can put it off until tomorrow." Along with, "Tomorrow never comes." Kind of an odd mix, I know. But after countless attempts at finding a decent muffin recipe, I finally decided that tomorrow does come after all, and that tomorrow would be the day that I would at least attempt to come up with a muffin recipe that I really like and will want to make again, and can recommend to other people. That was two days ago, and I actually followed through, so last night I tried my hand at making Lemon-Blueberry Muffins.
I like to bake, but I'm not a baker; meaning, I really can't come up with recipes of my own for baked stuff since I tend to just throw stuff together based on how it looks and tastes, and you really can't add things like baking powder according to taste. But I gave it a shot, and I think I hit a near bullseye. I say "near" bullseye, because the recipe that follows isn't quite perfect, but it's damn close. Still needs some slight tweaking, but even as is, especially when they first come out of the oven, they are excellent. Best muffins I've had in a very long time. I can't believe this was my first attempt.

Based on past experience with muffin recipes, most standard recipes I've used or seen call for 1 T baking powder to 2-3 c of flour, and a cup of some sort of dairy, so that's the template I used. Here's what I came up with:

Lemon-Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 c flour
1/2 c sugar
1/2 stick unsalted butter
1 large egg
1/2 c sour cream (For the love of Henry, not low-fat)
1/2 c mayo (See above)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of kosher salt
zest from 2 lemons
juice from 1 lemon
blueberries
vanilla (optional)

mix together thoroughly flour, salt, and baking powder

In separate bowl, cream sugar and butter, then add egg and zest and beat some more. (Add vanilla if you're using it.)

In yet another bowl, mix sour cream and mayo with lemon juice, let sit for 5-10 minutes. Add to butter/egg/zest mix, then add to flour. Be careful not to over mix.

Add in blueberries. Bake on 350 until a toothpick comes out clean.

Notes:

Notice I didn't say how much vanilla or blueberries to use. As for the vanilla, it's because I forgot to use it, so I really don't know. I'm not even sure if it would go well in these muffins or not, but I like vanilla in almost everything, so I plan to try it again and find out.
I'd say 1/2-1 teaspoon.
As for the blueberries, I used about 1/2 pint. I just add them in until it looks like a good amount.

This recipe also ends up with kind of an odd amount of muffins. I used one of those large muffin pans and got a scant 6. So realistically, you'd end up with 5 large or ?? regular size. I just didn't want an empty spot in my muffin tin so I filled them all, even though I couldn't fill them all.

As for the tweaking I mentioned earlier, I'm going to try cutting the mayo and sour down to 6 T (1/4 c + 2 T) and see how that works. And maybe not grease the muffin tin with butter this time. But, as I also mentioned earlier, even just like this, these muffins are the best I've had in a long time. I'm sure you'll love them too. (If you try them out, please post a comment with your thoughts and any suggestions/tweaks.) Enjoy!

(P.S. Sorry I don't have any photos to post- still waiting for my digital camera- but they look like, well, blueberry muffins.)

(Tonight I'm getting ready to try Cranberry-Lime! : )

*Update*

I've tried, and can highly recommend, making these as Raspberry-Lime muffins! The recipe is the same with a couple slight changes- 86 the lime zest, and use the juice of 1 1/2 limes.
I suppose you could use the juice of two limes. But the way I've been doing it, with excellent results, is 1 1/2.
Also, I've tried it with the lime zest, and I think it's far better without.

"Talkin' Dirty To Me" Crêpes

2008-08-11T11:53:00.021-05:00

I tried and tried to think of a catchy and/or funny name for these crepes because they are sooooooo good and I wanted something appropriate for the title in order to get peoples' attention and have them at least read the post so they'll hopefully try the recipe. I'm not sure I've succeeded with the catchiness, but at least it's accurate. Remember that shampoo/conditioner commercial (I can't remember the brand) where the where the woman is in the shower washing her hair, but sounds like she's, well, doing something else? I had auditory visions of that in my head as I was eating these things.
I think you will too.
(Oh, and if you think crepes are difficult to do, or require a lot of prep, think again. The hardest part about these is refraining from eating most of the white chocolate mousse before the crepes are ready. I've only been marginally successful.)

A lot of foodies like to toss around the term "food porn"; my photos don't live up to that label, but since I've got the recipe, who cares? And trust me, once you get your lips around these things you'll feel like you're in the video.

The script is as follows:

Crêpes

1 1/4 c flour
pinch of salt
1/4 c sugar (superfine, if you have it)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/4 c milk
2 T melted butter

-------------

White chocolate mousse

3 T water
3/4 tsp unflavored gelatin
8 oz. white chocolate
1/2 c heavy cream, plus 1 c

Place 3/4 t gelatin in 3 T water- let stand 5 min. to soften

Place 8 oz. chopped white chocolate in medium mixing bowl

In small saucepan, bring 1/2 c heavy cream to boil, stirring constantly

Remove from heat, add gelatin. Stir for 30 seconds to dissolve, immediately pour over chocolate and whisk until smooth. Refrigerate chocolate mix until cold and thick enough to fall from spoon in a heavy ribbon.

Beat 1 c cold heavy cream until it holds a firm shape, then fold into chocolate mixture.

-------------

Strawberry Sauce (or raspberry, or dark cherry, or a 3-way combo, if that's your thing)

This one I don't have a recipe for. I usually start off with about 1 c chopped fruit, 1 T sugar, and fresh lime juice, adding more of each to taste. Cook down in a small pan until it's to your desired consistency. Most recipes I've seen call for lemon juice, but I'm a huge fan of limes, and use them in place of lemons for almost everything that calls for lemons.

The Action:

Put flour, salt, and sugar in a bowl, making a well in the center. Pour the egg and some of the milk into the well. Whisk the liquid, gradually incorporating the flour to make a smooth paste. Whisk in the butter, then the remaining milk until smooth.

Add a few drops of oil to a hot frying pan or skillet (cast iron works well) - just enough to coat lightly. Pour a little batter into the pan, tilting until the base is coated with a light layer. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until the underside begins to turn golden. Flip and cook for 30-45 seconds, or until golden.

This is how I made them the first time, because that's how they had been made the first time I tried them (except the fruit sauce was on the side). But I've since found out that they taste just as good, if not better, and are much easier to make if you don't try and fill them with the cream filling...

Mmmmmmm.....

Some notes and thoughts-
I like sweet stuff, but not too sweet, so I usually cut the sugar in the batter down to 3 T, to help offset the sweetness of the white chocolate mousse. Also, even though the recipe calls for beating 1 c heavy cream, I usually do 1 1/2 cups; partly to cut down the sweetness of that too, but also because I usually buy the heavy cream by the pint, so I'd just end up with a half cup of cream left over, with nothing to use it for until I buy more for the next batch of crepes. In any case, I like the taste and texture of the extra half cup in the mix. It's a nice balance of creamy sweetness- not overly creamy or overly sweet. Also, with the white chocolate, you want to use something of halfway decent quality, not those artificially flavored baking chips. I used Baker's and it came out great.

You owe it to yourself to try these crepes. Even if you're on a diet of some sort- take a day off. Just make sure you've got the willpower to get back on it, because these things will fight hard against you.

After you've made these a few dozen times, you may want to experiment with different flavors of mousse- today I tried it with some Andes mints chunks instead of white chocolate, and sprinkled on top some of the fresh mint I've got growing. I think maybe it was a little too mint-heavy, and I really missed the fruit sauce, but I think maybe I'll try adding just a little of the Andes candy in with the white chocolate next time, or maybe just sprinkling some of the fresh mint on top. I also have plans to try it with a little dark chocolate.

P.S. I got the recipe, with permission, from Paula, who doesn't have a website or I'd link to it. I'm not sure if she's the originator of the recipe, but I'm going to assume she is.

Basil-Tomato Soup

2008-08-05T00:15:00.033-05:00

Ok, first of all, I finally, finally got around to changing the "about me" section to something that I think sums this blog up better. And it's shorter too, which I think is usually better. I tried many times before to come up with something I liked, but never could. Until now.
Yay, me.

I'm actually a lot more excited about the photos in today's post than I am the soup. Don't get me wrong, I love the soup, and it's very good indeed, but lately it seems that every photo I take, no matter what it's of, has been just plain crappy. Most of the time they need heavy Photoshop treatment just to look somewhat presentable. But these photos of the basil and oregano came out beautiful! No editing required! (Other than to resize.) All of the basil and oregano used in today's soup came from my little container garden out on the front porch. I also planted about 4 dozen tomato plants this summer (slightly too much), so there's a few of my very first tomato, too. The photo quality on those isn't so great, but I put most of the blame on the ISO 400 film I used.

Ok, since the recipe is pretty short and sweet, let's do that first, then the lovely basil/oregano photos.

Supplies:

Canned tomatoes (crushed, filleted, diced, shaken, or stirred. Whatever floats your boat.)
Half and half
Unsalted butter
Fresh oregano
Fresh basil
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Crushed red pepper
A lemon
Fish sauce

Now what I normally do is just throw it all in a pot and keep adding stuff according to taste (like most recipes tell you to do with salt/pepper, right? ). Well, except for the lemon- you're only going to need that for the zest. But tonight I actually came up with sort of a recipe for this one. As always, think of it more as just a list of ingredients to play around with, than an actual recipe to follow. But it goes like this:

1 28 oz can tomatoes (I like taking diced tomatoes, and partially whipping them up in the food processor. Some people like their basil-tomato soup chunky, others like it smooth. I'm in the middle.)
3/4 stick unsalted butter
Half and half (I don't have an amount on this one- not only did I forget to measure, but I didn't even have any half and half, so I used heavy cream and 2% milk. But it really doesn't matter, since you just add until you reach your desired lightness of color. Oh, and unless you really don't like dairy or whatever, I'd really recommend not skipping this part. Milk or cream isn't something I use in regular tomato soup [i.e. canned], but it works quite nicely in this.)
2 1/2 cups (pre-chop) fresh oregano
2-4 cups (pre-chop) fresh basil
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Crushed red pepper
Fish sauce
Zest of 1 lemon

Add the tomatoes, butter, and half and half to the pot, salt, pepper, and crushed red pepper to taste. (I used about a teaspoon each), a few dashes of the fish sauce (I never measure that stuff), and all that wonderful oregano. It seems like a lot, I know, but I really did use that much for this. It might have even been closer to three cups. Fresh oregano is a beautiful thing. Dried will work for this soup too, if that's all you have, but whatever you do, don't used dried basil- it's just not the same. While that's simmering away, chop up the basil and zest that lemon. I tend to go very heavy on the basil, myself, which is why I call this Basil-Tomato soup, instead of the other way around, like most people. Add the basil about two minutes before you pull the soup from the stove, and the lemon zest just after. I have to say, the crushed red pepper and lemon zest were not originally my idea- I read about a marinara recipe on somebody else's food blog awhile back, (at least, I think it was a marinara recipe- I can't remember), and that's what she did. So I tried it with this soup, and have been making it this way ever since. If I could remember who's food blog it was, I'd surely name it here, but I can't. I'd probably remember if I heard the name, so if that person happens to be reading this, let me know and I'll give you proper credit.

On to the photos!

and my first tomato...

The final product...

I don't know exactly how much basil I used for that garnish, but I really do use that much- it wasn't just for the photo- and was it ever tasty! : )

P.S. I wish I had the photos I took of the oregano when it first sprouted- you wouldn't believe how small those things are! (I took several pics, but for the life of me, can't find them anywhere.) Makes it challenging to water them, as the water tends to flatten the tiny sprouts- even using a spray bottle on fine mist. Normally I'd have watered them from the bottom, but I planted them in a self-watering pot that was about 7 inches deep, and I found it easier just to top-water them. The seeds themselves are so tiny you almost need a magnifying glass to see them. As I remember, they're about the size of the period at the end of this sentence.

Taco Seasoning

2008-07-23T18:04:00.007-05:00

Just a quickie here. I remember when I was a kid, tacos were one of my favorite meals. And these days, they're one of the favorite meals of my two nephews. Maybe you loved them as a kid, or have kids of your own who love them now. I say ditch those little yellow packets of taco seasoning mix that you get at the store for $1 and make your own. It's just as good (I think it's better), quick and easy, and probably cheaper since you can make it from bulk spices, all of which you probably have lying around already.

You will need:

1/2 c chili powder
1/2 c cumin
1/4 c garlic powder
1/4 c 1/4 c dried onion flakes
3 T crushed red pepper
2 T kosher salt
2 1/2 T pepper
2 T onion powder

Frank's Red Hot
Fish sauce

Simply mix up all the dry ingredients thoroughly, and you'll have enough spice mix to handle 10 lbs. of ground beef. Make as you normally would, except that I highly recommend the addition of a little Frank's and a few drops of fish sauce, depending how many people you're feeding. Add Frank's to taste, but as for fish sauce, I make 10 lbs at a time at work and use maybe a tablespoon. (Depending on how thoroughly you drain your hamburger, you may have to add a little vegetable oil and/or water. I try not to drain it all the way, myself; fat is where the flavor is, right?)

No, I'm not kidding about the fish sauce. You won't taste a few drops, but you'll know it's there. I love the stuff anyway, but the other day I was listening to The Splendid Table, and they said adding a dash to different foods adds Umami. So now I've been using it in just about everything, not just Asian dishes. (Even before I started using it all the time, I was of the opinion that fish sauce could rightly be called a liquor. It really can be intoxicating, in a way.)

As I said, I used to love these as a kid. I rarely eat them like this anymore because I have a chicken taco recipe that is almost beyond words, so I try and eat those as much as possible.
That recipe is coming soon. You don't want to miss it, trust me.

Ooey Gooey Caramel Kisses

2008-07-07T21:35:00.014-05:00

This recipe comes from my grandparents so you know it's going to be excellent. I mean, have you ever eaten something that was made using somebody's grandparents' recipe and not loved it? Well, even if you have, it wasn't one of my grandparents' recipes (remember the pickles?) and it most definitely wasn't this one.These things are good. Really good. And best of all, there's not a lot of ingredients and they're a cinch to make! (Simple stuff usually is the best, isn't it?)

Gather up:

3/4 lb butter
2 c white sugar
2 c brown sugar
1 16 oz bottle dark Karo corn syrup (light should be fine too)
1 16 oz can sweetened condensed milk (not evaporated)

Optional: 1 c chopped walnuts

Easy enough so far right? Let's keep going!

Melt the butter in a large pot (6-8 qts) add the sugars and corn syrup and cook over medium for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the condensed milk (and nuts, if you're using them). Cook until a candy thermometer reads Firm Ball. Remove from heat and pour into a
10 1/2 x 15 1/2 pan (or a mixing bowl that you can eat it out of with a spoon in front of a movie later...)

And that's about it! I mean, there's more to the actual recipe, but it mainly involves waiting until the caramel cools and cutting it up and wrapping it in wax paper, but that's a lot of work. A lot of unnecessary work. I mean, why wrap it up just to unwrap it again? It would make sense to do that if you were going to be giving some away to somebody, but you won't be doing that, trust me. You're going to keep all of this ooey gooey goodness to yourself. Not only that, but the way my grandparents' recipe reads, they actually say the yield of candy is between 250-300 pieces! I don't know how the hell they came up with that number- I got about 15...
I suppose if you really want to give some away or something, you can probably figure out the wrapping in wax paper part on your own. I just left mine in the pan and scooped it out by the spoonful. Like I said, simple=best. A couple notes, though: the original recipe says to grease the pan that you're going to pour the caramel into with butter. I did that, but found it to be unnecessary, especially in the summertime. Also, on my candy thermometer it says "firm ball" is 245-250, so I shut the heat off right at 245 and poured it into the pan. Well, the caramel turned out pretty gooey (hence the name). Perfect for eating with a spoon, but maybe a little difficult to eat with fingers. I was thinking that maybe next time I'd try heating it to a few degrees higher, when I noticed on the recipe that it said in parentheses after firm ball, (248).
(Probably should have read the entire recipe before starting, eh?)

P.S. I took some photos of my batch of ooey-gooey-ness. If any of them turn out, I'll post one or two in the next few days when I get my film developed.

Goody Goody Gumdrops. Er, Gumbo.

2008-06-02T23:01:00.013-05:00

I remember when I was a kid I used to hate Gumbo. Hate it. Which doesn't make sense to me now, since I'd never even had it. I think I just hated the name. What kind of name is Gumbo, anyway? Sounds kind of like Dumbo. But at least Dumbo was an elephant that could fly, whereas Gumbo, well, that's just a dumb ol' soup. Well, that's what I thought, anyway. Thankfully I've smartened up a little and no longer judge a food by its name, else I never would've started messing around with making my own gumbo, which, as it turns out, is way better than any gumdrops I've ever had.

Like a lot of the things I've come up with that end up here, this one started at work. We had some andouille sausage and some shrimp on hand that we weren't going to be using for anything else, and I needed to come up with a soup of the day, so I got out the Professional Chef cookbook that we have on hand to see if they had anything I could use. Luckily, they happened to have a gumbo recipe that called for shrimp and sausage. (On a side note, I don't find that book to be very interesting at all. Seems very "clinical" to me, and the recipes aren't all that special.) Now for the record, my recipe is not theirs or even at all like theirs, as I think you'll see. I just read theirs over quickly to get an outline of what to do, then struck off on my own, like I usually do. Also, it seems there are as many ways to make gumbo as there are people who like it, so I highly recommend taking my recipe (for lack of a better term) and using it like I used the CIA's- just a rough guide, something to get your own ideas going, then head off on your own. I'll also post a link at the end for a great site I found for all things Cajun. It's absolutely mouthwatering.

Alright, let's get this party started. The first thing you'll want is a very, very large pot. Gumbo just seems to expand when you make it. You think you're only making enough for 1 or 2 people and next thing you know, you end up with enough to feed the neighborhood. Y'know, it seems like it was that way with my Pozole too. I guess now that I think about it, maybe it's just me and the way I cook. I'd still get a large pot, though. Gumbo is very tasty and you'll wish you'd made a lot. As for ingredients, it can vary widely. I say use whatever you think of when you think "Cajun", but here's a list of some stuff I like in mine:

Definitely Peppers, and several varieties. The more, the merrier. For my last batch I used Poblanos, Anaheims, and Jalapeños, as well as some green Bells. I plan on using those and several more the next time I make it. Canned roasted red peppers work well, too. And if you're feeling really motivated, you could take half (or more) of whatever peppers you're going to be using and roast them yourself on the grill. Yeeeeaaaaah, baby. (On another side note, if you take some jalapeños, sliced lengthwise and seeded, and grill them over open flame until they're mostly charred, mix in some kosher or sea salt, garlic powder, a dash of pepper, and a generous dose of fresh squeezed lime juice- totally delicious!)

Onions
Celery
Canned diced tomatoes (fresh will work, too, of course, but since they're getting stewed anyway, I just found the canned kind to be faster and more convenient)
Garlic
Shrimp
Sausage (andouille, chorizo, or whatever else you like)
Chicken
Ham

That's the bulk of it right there, for me anyway. A couple other things you'll need are flour, oil, chicken stock*, and Cajun seasoning (either a good store-bought kind, or something you made up yourself.) As far as the Cajun seasoning goes, what I've been using, and can highly recommend, is Chef Paul Prudhomme's Poultry Magic. First off, I know it's not considered a "Cajun seasoning" but I started using it because it's what we had on hand at work- we use it for chicken, blackened burgers and, occasionally, wings. And honestly, I didn't like the stuff at all. I'd had it on chicken before, and had tasted it straight from the container and was not at all impressed. I know some people think that it's mostly just salt, but I didn't find it to be overly salty- just not particularly good-tasting. But- then came the day that I made the gumbo and ended up using it because it was quicker and easier than making something from scratch, and lo and behold, the gumbo turned out fantastic! And the last batch of gumbo that I made, I couldn't find any at the store, so I ended up buying this stuff instead. Now that is mostly salt! Mouth-burning table salt too, apparently. Of course I tasted it before actually using it, so it never made it into my gumbo, but I did have to try and whip something up from scratch, and even though it wasn't bad, it was nowhere near as good as the Poultry Magic. Maybe I should have done an internet search for "Cajun spice". I might have found this Poultry Magic clone recipe. (I haven't tried it yet, but I'm planning to. I want to see how it stacks up.)

Alright, once you've got your veggies, protein, and Cajun spice ready to go, the rest is pretty simple. Take some flour and spread it in a thin layer on a baking sheet, then pop it into a hot (400-450 degree) until it's a nice dark-cinnamon-brown color, giving it a stir every once in awhile. Should take about 20 minutes if I remember right. As for how much- I'd do a lot. That way you can have extra on hand for the next time you make it. But as for how much to use in the soup, it's hard to say. Depends on how much soup you're making, and how thin you want it to be (or not to be). While the flour is browning, add your chopped fresh veggies to the pot with some oil and cook until soft. If I'm using andouille, what I usually do is cook that up first, and then use the fat from that to cook the veggies in. I know it sounds unhealthy, but don't be fooled- anything that adds that much flavor to the pot has to be good for you. When I use shrimp, I usually go for the raw kind and just cook it directly in the soup. If you're lucky enough to be able to find some smoked shrimp, they add some good flavor too. (Yes, I am aware they look like nasty cockroaches.
Nasty, tasty cockroaches, hehe.) Just simmer them in the chicken stock and strain out before you add it to the pot. If I use chicken, I usually cook that off separately and add it to the soup when it's done, but I suppose you could just cook it in the soup as well- I do that when I make Tom Kha Khai and it's always tasty. Either way. As for the ham, I actually just use either a very meaty hambone, or a couple hamhocks- again, straight into the pot for a long simmer.
Back to the veggies- once they're nice and translucent add in some of the flour until they're well coated. You may need to add more oil to the mix so it doesn't get too clumpy. Add in some of the Cajun spice. (Be generous with it- it's good stuff. Also, if you can find some smoked paprika, it's very good. I got mine at Spice Barn). Now, along with the meat, you can add your canned tomatoes and chicken stock and just let simmer for awhile. (There's no Right amount on the tomatoes, stock, or anything else, for that matter- "whatever tastes good to you" is my rule of thumb.) If you find you need to add more Cajun spice, you can probably just add it straight to the soup with no problems, but if you want to add more flour, it's probably best to mix it in with some oil first to avoid clumping. (I believe they call that a roux.)

That's pretty much all there is too it. A lot of people like to serve it over rice, but I like it straight.

*As far as chicken stock goes, you could buy it ready-made, but I think it's far better to just make your own. Besides, the ready-made stuff seems to have gotten pretty expensive, so it's not even really cost-effective.

Ok, for some real gumbo recipes, as well as lots of other drool-worthy Louisiana and Cajun recipes, music, and culture, check out the Gumbo Pages- a goldmine of Bayou goodness!

The Foodie Blogroll

2008-06-02T15:14:00.004-05:00

I've added this little link thing-y called The Foodie Blogroll- it's over on the right, underneath the archive. It's a pretty cool way to find new food blogs, or if you have one of your own, to maybe get noticed by other people looking to find new food blogs (Stumbleupon being the other great way). Speaking of Stumbleupon, I just stumbled across this food blog called Laylita's Recipes (It's over there in the links section). An instant favorite of mine. If you like Mexican or any type of South of the Border food, this is the place you want to go. I totally love it.

Ok, I'm planning on a new food post tomorrow. Not sure what yet, but probably a soup recipe of some sort. I was hoping to get one up sooner, but it's been a really, really long last couple of weeks. Also, don't forget- I have a chicken taco recipe in the works that will completely blow you away. You and anyone within 15 feet of you. I think this is my new favorite food ever. I eat them an average of 4-5 days a week.

Stay tuned, it's going to be worth the wait.

jb

Blades of Glory- Addendum

2008-05-19T23:26:00.015-05:00

Ok, I thought I'd share my recent experiences with a couple chef knives that I've tried out recently. The first one was the Mac Mighty 8.5". Mac lists it for $155 on their website, others sell it for about $120, and I paid $95 for mine through someplace or other. Northwestern Cutlery, I think was the name. Anyway, here's what I think, in a nutshell- I'd say it's over-rated. Not that it's not worth buying- maybe it is, for some people. But Mac knives have gotten a lot of hype that I just don't think they live up to (at least not this model). The main thing for me was that it went dull after about a month of normal usage, which seemed rather quick. I don't mean that it just lost its edge and needed a good honing; honing did nothing for it at this point and it needed to be actually sharpened. Which my brother was kind enough to do for me on his 3-sided oilstone even though I have a Chef's Choice sharpener for asian knives that I've been wanting to test out. (Oh well, I think he just wanted to give his stone a workout.) On the plus side, the knife was apparently easy enough to sharpen. Also, I wish the handle was a little bigger- I thought it was pretty small, overall. Smaller, even, than the handle on my cheapo Farberware blade. Overall, I'd probably give this knife a B-. Maybe a C+. Somewhere in that vicinity. Wouldn't say it's a bad knife overall, but probably not something I'd recommend to someone.

Next up we have the RH Forschner Victorinox 40521 Fibrox 10-in. Chef's Knife. The good folks over at Cook's Illustrated (the Consumer Reports mag of the food world) did a knife review back in 2002 and gave the Victorinox 8-in. knife an Editor's Choice. And on their website you can find the following quote,

"Update: January, 2007 During the last two years, we have published or updated four reviews of chef's knives. During this time, our recommended knife has been and continues to be the Forschner Victorinox Fibrox 8-inch chef's knife."

Which leads me to believe that the good folks over at Cook's Illustrated are a bunch of baloney-eating chumps.

I read the original article when it first came out, but being that it was about 6 years ago, I don't really remember much about it, so I don't know exactly what their testing methods were, but I'm pretty sure that they were not very much inline with "real world" usage.
I've been working in commercial kitchens for about 8 or 9 years now, and most kitchens use knives that are very, very similar looking to the Victorinox. Same type of handle, same style, same feel; pretty much the same knife, except with a different name. And typical restaurant knives tend to be pretty crappy in quality- they go dull in a couple days or so, are hard to sharpen, etc. They're like that because most restaurants are not in the business of offering a dining experience to their customers, as they would have you believe- the fact is, most restaurants are in the business of being penny-pinching tightwads, and they'll often do whatever it takes to maintain their death-grip on those copper Lincolns. And one of the most common ways to save some scratch is to get the cheapest knives they can. They don't say Victorinox on the handle, but they look and feel almost exactly the same. And I knew that before I bought mine. I knew I was taking a chance. But I figured, "Hey, it's only 30 bucks; if it works, great. If not, chalk it up to experience." And now I'm more knowledgeable and experienced than before, and it only cost me $30! (I'm going to try and return it, by the way, but I'm not sure if Amazon will let me- it has scuff marks on the blade from the constant honing I had to do.) Now, I can see why the guy over at Cooking for Engineers rated it pretty well because he described exactly what he did to test the knives. His tests were pretty good at guaging out-of-the-box sharpness, but don't really address real-world constant use conditions. Fair enough, he never set out to do that. But the good folks over at CI have been recommending the Victorinox for years (and still do!). Surely they have enough experience by now to know that that knife is a piece of crap. I'm serious- I knew in about an hour of light-duty use that this knife was not going to cut the mustard (and I almost mean that literally; it does not hold an edge. At all.). And I thought the knives we use at work were bad- at least they stay sharp for about a day and a half. Maybe two. (One hour with the Victorinox was all it took for me to know!) I still really hate those work knives. But my choices are limited, as I explained in the previous post- I want a 10-in. blade, at least 2-in. wide, no bolster, large handle. Basicially, I want a knife like the ones we use at work, but one that will stay sharp for a little while. Not that easy to find. I did come across this custom knife maker in Canada, but being custom-made, you know they're going to be pricey. I'm just not ready to spend $400+ on a knife. (I don't know that they actually cost that much, but I'm guessing it's at least that much.) I don't know, I'm seriously considering buying a bench grinder and just bringing a knife home from work each night or two to sharpen it myself (which I do not recommend anyone doing, ever). They may only stay sharp for a day or two, but seeing as how we only send them out for sharpening every two weeks, it'd be a big improvement. The search continues...

Hey, stay tuned for some good stuff coming up- it's been a busy, busy week for me with work and stuff, so I'm behind even more than usual (I normally try and post about every two weeks) but I do have some tasty stuff in store, including a chicken taco recipe that will
Knock. Your. Socks. Off.
Don't like tacos? I don't care- you'll love these. (I don't care if you're allergic to tacos- these will cure that allergy with just one bite.)

I can't say for sure when that post will be going up, but hopefully pretty soon.

P.S. Thank you so much for taking time out to read this.

Blades of Glory (Part II)

2008-05-06T11:16:00.035-05:00

Since this post is going to be about chef knives, I tried and tried to think of a cutting-edge joke or jokes to throw into it, but it was a bust. Nothing. My wit is just not very sharp, dammit. Sorry.

Anyway, about that chef knife you're considering buying. Sure can get confusing, can't it? The choices are almost overwhelming. And it seems like there are more and more brands popping up all the time, especially with Food Network stars coming out with their own labels or endorsing some such brand or other. So where to begin? Which one should you invest your hard-earned cash in? Well, I can't decide that for you, but I have done a little research, as well as having a little experience of my own, having worked in commercial kitchens for quite some time now, so I think I can offer some general guidelines here to help you decide.

It's quite simple, actually, which means that it's often overlooked- you really have only two things to consider- Blade, and Handle. You want a good, sharp, quality blade to handle the business end of things, but you need to make sure the handle is comfortable in your hand too, or else you either won't end up using your knife, or you'll use it, but probably wince in regret every time you do. So basically, do not buy a knife at all without having previously handled it at some point, either in-store, or having used a friend's. Pretty much any kitchen store will have a cutting board for just such purposes and will allow you to slice and dice your air-vegetables. I was seriously tempted one time to ask the salesperson if they'd let me bring in some carrots or something to actually cut up, but I decided not to. Chopping invisible produce at the store is certainly better than nothing, but not the same as actual use. If you've got your eye on a particular knife and know someone who has that same one, definitely ask to try it out. Besides the hands-on, you can also get their opinion of the knife and what they like and don't like about it.

Different people hold their knives in different ways when using them. I tend to hold mine with my hand choked up on the handle, like this:

(not my hand)

How you hold your knife is something to keep in mind when considering the handle. (And the blade as well- if you often hold your knife like that, you want a blade wide enough to allow for that without having to decide between cramped or cut fingers.) I've found that most people who work in commercial kitchens, (whether you call us cooks, chefs, or just the greasy, sweaty grunts who serve up heart attacks on a plate) tend to hold their knives in this way. And what that tends to do is cause blisters and calluses on your hand, because the knife makers, with their hundreds of years of knife making experience and tradition, always decide to make the back edge of the blade nice and square, with rigid corners. And while that might look nice, especially when referring to my chin, it doesn't feel very nice on your hands. So one custom knife maker that I recently read about makes his knives with rounded edges on the back. And while a custum-made knife is not necessary for most people, you can customize whatever knife you do decide to go with by using some fine-grit automotive sandpaper from your local auto parts store. (The back edge of your blade probably won't end up being nice and glittery-shiny like it was when you bought it new, but if you tend to hold your knife in the manner described and are tired of the calluses, I think it's a trade-off in your favor. Your hands will thank you. Not to mention your significant other.)

Ok, so the handle aspect is pretty much taken care of- basically you want something that fits well and is comfortable in your hand- now on to the slightly less simple aspect of the Blade.

Knives can generally be categorized into two main groups- German-made, and Japanese-made. (There are others, of course, but these are the two biggies.) Now, from all the online reading and poking around I've done, the general consensus is that while German steel is good, Japanese steel is far superior. Which makes sense when you think about it. Take movies, for example. Who gave us the Samurai movie? The Ninja movie? The Japanese, of course! Now I haven't seen every single ninja movie ever made, but I'm pretty sure that in every single one somebody gets cleanly sliced in half from top to bottom with one fell swoop of the sword. One fell swoop! Clearly the Japanese take their steel very seriously. What do the Germans got? Das Boot? I haven't seen that one, but I'm pretty sure that noone gets cleanly sliced in half from top to bottom with one fell swoop of the sword. Noone. I doubt if there's even a sword in the movie. Possibly a knife, but no sword.

Score: Japanese 1, Germans 0

But maybe things aren't quite so cut-and-dried. Or maybe they are; I don't really know, since I haven't tried every single brand of knife out there. But I have done a lot of reading and poking around on the internet, and the general consensus of people who are really into knives is that:

Score: Japanese 1, Germans 0

(or actually, more like Japanese 5, Germans 1)

Plus, if you're of the opinion that you get what you pay for, and that more expensive=better quality, then clearly the Japanese win this one. I've seen prices for Japanese knives as high as $1,275.00 for a 270 mm (just over 10.5 inches) chef knife. (And that was on sale!) Ok, so those knives are all hand-made. Probably not a fair comparison, but as far as I know Misono knives aren't all hand-made and they have a 10.5 in. for $240.30. Yikes, this is starting to sound expensive, isn't it? Well, I'm generally of the opinion that you get what you pay for, but that doesn't mean you can't get a really decent chef knife for 100 bucks or less.

First off, a couple quick thoughts on Japanese knives. Many of them use Damascus steel (or at least Damascus-style steel) It has a distinctive pattern that looks like this Katana, by Calphalon. Apparently it rusts more easily than "regular" steel. Not really a problem if you take care of your knives anyway, and don't leave them wet or lying in a wet sink, but it does require a bit more attention to care. Also, I did try out a Shun knife at my local Williams-Sonoma store, and my first thought was that the blade felt a little brittle. Supposedly that Calphalon "Will not chip, crack or peel", but it's something to keep in mind when considering which knife to buy. Obviously, noone wants to drop their knives, but sometimes it happens- and if that blade is a little more brittle and does end up chipping, that can be a very expensive "oops". Other Japanese knives, like Mac and Global, do not use the Damascus-type steel.

Now, something very important to consider when deciding on a knife is:

Bolster? Or no Bolster?

What's a bolster, you ask?

I've highlighted it here- it's that extra thick part of the blade that connects to the handle. Not all knives have them. Many do. Why? And what difference does it make? Well, I'm not sure why knife makers add them- they're not necessary at all. A selling point, is my guess. They tell you things like it adds weight and balance to the knife to get you to think it's a good thing to have. Well, the knife makers at Global will tell you that a knife can be perfectly balanced without a bolster. And if the weight of my entire bronze-tanned, well-chiseled right arm pressing down on that blade is not enough to accomplish the task at hand, then I don't know what good a couple extra ounces of steel is going to do. But I know of something else that it will do, and that is hinder sharpening, as well as offset the curve of your blade when you do sharpen it. I admit bolstered knives do look nice, but the manufacturer must believe that you're never going to have to sharpen that knife, even once. Here's what Holley Knives has to say about bolstered knives:

"Nearly all forged German branded knives have a bolster that extends all the way to the blade. This is not a good thing for those of us who have to sharpen them. Every time your knives are professionally sharpened, the bolster must be ground back to the level of the knife edge. Some professionals skip this step. We don’t. Fixing the bolster can take as much time as sharpening the knife itself and if not done properly it will mar the knife or worse, interfere with it in use."

Indeed. Here's a photo of a bolstered knife I own after a couple sharpenings on an electric sharpener:

It's got that little groove in the blade now because the bolster gets in the way of the guard on the sharpener and the knife can't be insterted all the way in. Not as much of a problem if you sharpen by hand on a stone, but you still have the issue of that bolster not being in alignment with the rest of the blade- you need to grind that down as well, in order to keep it's edge even with the edge of the blade. Otherwise you'll have the same situation you see in the photo. It's not just a matter of appearance. If the edge of the bolster extends further than the edge of the blade, even slightly, then it will interfere with your cutting and chopping, and in a big way. Most people don't realize this. And of course, the knife makers aren't about to tell you. They want you to buy their pretty, shiny, "well-balanced" knives.

Just something to consider when considering a knife.

Something else to keep in mind is blade length and width. A minor issue, but maybe not for some. The average length for chef knives seems to be about 8 inches. Not sure what the width is, but I think the standard is slightly less than 2 inches at the widest point. For most people that works fine. But not everyone. Like me, for instance. The average 8 in. chef knife works well for me at home, but when I'm at work, I really, really need about a 10 in. blade. And it has to be a minimum 2 in. wide. Not 1 7/8. A full 2 inches. 2 1/2 would be best, but those are tough to find. Usually if you do find one they end up being the cheapo ones that you get in restaurant supply stores that go from razor sharp to butter-knife dull in about a day and a half, and are difficult to sharpen as well. Again, this is where some hands on usage proves invaluable. If you have very little knowledge about what you really need or want in a chef knife, something you may want to consider doing is buying one of those $10 restaurant supply store knives- just to try it out at home for awhile and get a feel for what you're really looking for in a good chef knife. And what you're looking to avoid.

Ok, time for some useful links, and then my final summary.

Cooking for Engineers tested and rated 11 different chef knives. It's an informative read. You get an idea of what's out there for knives and how they stack up against one another. Surprisingly, Henckels and Wusthof rated fairly low in all tests, never breaking out of the Serviceable category. Seems pretty objective, but I wouldn't rely solely on their results. Remember, hands on.

The eGullet Forums have a great page on Knife Maintenance and Sharpening. Covers the basics of Steel, Knife Edge, Sharpening, and Maintenance. Very thorough, but a very easy read.

And then for pretty much everything you ever wanted to know, and more, about all things knives, there's BladeForums. Very exhaustive. Maybe a little too exhaustive. Or maybe just exhausting. There's a lot of info there.

Ok, final thoughts.

Do some research. Check out reviews online, ask salespeople and friends what they use and recommend. Especially ask people who cook for a living what they use and recommend, as well as what they don't recommend. And ask why.

Try before you buy. (Unless you've got money to burn, because you might get burned if you don't.)

Generally, you get what you pay for, but more expensive doesn't always mean better. Depends on what your needs are. Note how well the $30 Forschner knife did in the Cooking for Engineers tests, not to mention that Cook's Illustrated (the Consumer Reports of cooking magazines) gave it high marks (Editor's Choice or some such thing).

Decide what it is you're looking for in a knife, and how you're going to use it. 8-in. chef knives are fine for me at home, but tend to hinder me at work.

Bolster? Or no Bolster?

Here's what I think- arm yourself with all the information you can, and in the end, when you decide you're ready, if you go with a reputable brand, at a reputable retailer, and pay a decent amount (not too much, but not too little either) - you'll be just fine.

Thanks for reading.

Blades of Glory (Part I)

2008-04-21T11:28:00.029-05:00

Our topic du jour in this installment of How's it Taste is knives. Ask any cook, professional or otherwise, and they'll tell you that the single most important item in the kitchen is a good quality knife. Ok, I just made that up. I actually have no idea what they'd tell you. I certainly wouldn't tell you that. I mean, a good knife is important, to be sure, but what good is the best knife in the world without a cutting board to go with it? Your "blade of glory" would get dull in no time flat, and then where would you be, Mr. Smartypants? And what about some good pots and pans to put the food in once it's ready to cook? Or a stove to cook it on? Or, or, or...? Uh, anyway, I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that while there really is no MVP in the kitchen, a really good knife is important. Very important. You really don't want to skimp on quality here. But have you checked out the knife section of your local Bed Bath & Beyond lately? The choices are almost overwhelming. How are you supposed to know what to buy? You could do a little online research. But be careful- there's a ton of information out there; some good, some bad, a lot of it conflicting. So I've done my own bit of research and I'm going to offer my-2-cents-worth here, and hopefully clear some things up a bit. More likely, I'll just add to the confusion, but whatever. Going to give it a shot anyway.

The first thing I want to look at is the ever-popular Knife Block Set.

Don't get one.

Seriously, do not waste your time or money on buying one of these things. They're popular because they're relatively cheap- if you were to buy each item individually it would cost a lot more than the entire set at once. So it seems like you're getting a good deal. In reality, though, it's like that old Andy Griffith episode where Aunt Bee went out and bought a freezer's worth of food that neither she nor anyone else would eat, just because it was so cheap. The key selling point here is "if you were to buy each item individually..." But you wouldn't buy each item individually because most of them you really don't need. And even if you did buy each one separately, you wouldn't need to get all of them from the same brand name. Let's take the OXO Good Grips Professional 14-Piece Knife Block Set for example, found on Amazon for about $80.

Includes:

8-inch chef knife
8-inch slicer
3-1/2-inch parer
5-inch utility
4-inch Santoku
8-inch bread
sharpening tool
6 steak knives
wood block

For starters, you should avoid those wooden knife storage blocks anyway because, while convenient, they're very unsanitary. Sure, you clean the knife before you put it in the block, but that doesn't mean dust and dirt and germs can't get in those little slots anyway. Just how are you supposed to clean inside of them? There are better, cleaner ways to store your knives- magnetic knife racks, knife sheaths, or even just in a large plastic container (like an open silverware tray) in a separate drawer, away from curious kids' hands.

Now let's look at the knives. Man, where do I start? In this set you have six distinct knives, plus six steak knives. Would you seriously need to buy all of these, separate or otherwise? Let's set aside the steak knives for a minute; I've worked in commercial kitchens for 7 or 8 years now, and 99% of the time the only two knives we've ever needed were a chef knife and a bread knife. Granted, commercial and home kitchens have different needs, so let's look a little more closely, starting with the top of the list.

8-inch chef knife. You do need one of these. For some people, like me, this is probably the only knife we'll ever need. Count this one in.

8-inch slicer. What exactly are you going to be slicing that you can't slice with an 8-inch chef knife? Count this one out.

3-1/2-inch parer. Do you make a lot of apple pies? If so, do you peel the apples? If you answered "yes" to both you can probably say "yes" to this knife, but- do you really need to pay more for an Oxo Good Grips 3-1/2-inch parer? Probably not. You can probably find something decent at the dollar store.

5-inch utility. What, exactly, are you going to be cutting, chopping, dicing, de-boning, etc., that you can't cut, chop, dice, de-bone, etc., with an 8-inch chef knife? Unnecessary. You can safely count this one out.

4-inch Santoku. This one is doubly useless. I honestly don't see why Santoku knives are so darn popular. I tried one once- hated it. The only good reason I can think of for their popularity is the hollow-ground edge, but guess what? They make hollow-ground chef knives too. You need a good curve on the edge to be able to rock the blade. Generally, the edge of a Santoku blade is too flat to do any real dicing or chopping (Oxo's isn't bad, but 4-inches? That's a toy, not a knife). Santokus are better for top-to-bottom slicing. But I don't want to slice. I want to rock. Can you imagine if Dee and the boys had sung "I wanna slice", instead of "I wanna rock"? I can't either. Y'know why? Because it's unimaginable, that's why. And so is using a 4-inch Santoku.

8-inch bread knife. Surely you need one of these, right? I mean, didn't I say myself we use them in commercial kitchens too? I guess I did say that. But- the main reason commercial kitchens use bread knives at all is because they generally use the absolute cheapest quality knives they can find- you can easily cut bread, even the crusty baguette kind, with a good, sharp chef knife. But restaurants don't often use good, sharp chef knives, so they need bread knives to help out. But do you, in your home kitchen, really need a bread knife? Do they even make bread that's not pre-sliced anymore? I'm pretty sure it comes that way, straight out of the oven, nowadays. Ok, so maybe you go for the good stuff, the artisan kind. Or maybe you're a rebel and make your own. Again, do you really need a bread knife? Wouldn't you rather get all primal and just tear it apart with your teeth?

(NOM-NOM-NOM!)

Or you could do like Jesus and the disciples and break that shit.
Ok, so the bread knife is a possibility. But even if you do decide to "buy it separately", you probably don't need to go for same quality as for your chef knife. Again, dollar store to the rescue.

Sharpening tool. Ok, just to clarify, it's actually a honing steel. Or honing tool, if you get the ceramic kind. They don't actually sharpen knives, they just realign the edge. You do need one of these. But not one from the dollar store. Mainly, though, because those are too short. You want one that's at least 12 inches long. (12 inches referring to the length of the steel, not the total length.) Oxo has one on Amazon for $15. It says the overall length is 18 inches, so I'm guessing the steel is actually 12, with 6 for the handle. Check out this 5 1/2 minute youtube clip with Alton Brown that covers the basics of sharpening and honing. Just don't believe his lies about the best knife being the one that's the most comfortable in your hand. Normally he's pretty right on, but he really missed the mark on this one. You do want a comfortable handle, but you also want quality steel. And you can have both, for a reasonable price. (I think it's worth noting that he happens to use and recommend Shun knives on his show. I'm sure the handles are comfortable, but I've seen others that I think are more comfortable and cost less. And since Food Network never showcases brand names, what do you want to bet that he also didn't pay for his Shun knives?) When I hone a knife, I do it the way they show here, rather than the way they show in the video. I'm just a little nervous about sliding a knife towards my hand, slowly or not. (Oh, and you can sharpen knives yourself at home, despite what he says.)

Lastly we have the 6 steak knives. And again, you don't need to buy the best quality when it comes to steak knives. The dollar store may be a little too cheap in this case, but you can get a decent set for not a lot at your local department store. So what are we left with that you will actually need?

8-in. chef knife -- $??
Honing tool -- $15
Storage tray --$1
Set of steak knives -- $10

(Optional)
Bread knife -- $1
Paring knife -- $1

Minus the chef knife, you can get everything you really need (plus a couple extra you probably don't) for $28, leaving you about $50 for your chef knife. Even Oxo only charges $20 for theirs. So by not buying them in the block set you not only save money, but end up with more counter space and less clutter in your kitchen. The price difference is even more pronounced if you decide to go with a higher end knife set like this $350 18-piece "gourmet" knife set by Wusthof. Separately, their chef knife goes for about $100. So $128 instead of $350. (And c'mon, do you really need a separate knife for your sandwiches? And tomatoes? Hey, at least their Santoku is 6-1/2 inches. Incidentally, I've seen some sets that include a "boning" knife. Now when was the last time you found yourself saying, "Dang, now where did I put that boning knife of mine?").

Oh, remember when I said you should avoid those wooden knife blocks altogether? This one might be an exception worth making.

Coming up in Part II I'll have my thoughts on chef knives, as well as some useful links on knives and knife sharpening.

Southwest Steak Sammich

2008-04-08T12:34:00.013-05:00

Mmmmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about this. It's super tasty! (Of course it is, otherwise I wouldn't post it.) Not surprisingly, it's also made with our old friend the guajillo. I think of the guajillo as the Hugely Underrated Actor of the chile world. Think Jeff Daniels, John C. Reilly, or Bill Pullman, or whoever else you think is awesome but not nearly as famous as they should be. That's the guajillo. I think I've mentioned before that I think it's going to explode on the scene in a big way, though. Pace has come up with a salsa that uses them. However, I've been told it's not as good as mine. No surprise there. They really should have consulted me for advice first. No surprise there, either, though; nobody ever listens to me.

Anyway, let's get this Sammich show on the road, shall we?

This came about as a result of one of those happy accidents. I was experimenting at work, trying to come up with I-don't-know-what; something. I ended up with a sort of salsa. It wasn't bad by itself, but not good enough to use solely as a salsa. It needed some support. So I had this idea that I'd marinate some steak in it overnight and make sort of a Philly cheesesteak sandwich. Which I did, and it was excellent. The original was just the marinated steak, onions, mushrooms, mayo, and mozzarella on a hoagie bun, but with some input from some of my coworkers, it evolved slightly into what it is today. You're going to love it, trust me. There is a little bit of prep involved, namely the marinade, so it's not like you can just throw this together in ten minutes, but it's super easy to do, and you can make up the marinade in bulk and freeze it, and once that step is out of the way, it will take about 10 minutes to do! I've only tried this with steak, but I'm sure it will go well with any other meat, and maybe even tofu, if you're the vegetablearian type.

On to the marinade!

I do have a recipe for this, just not with me right now, and even though I know you don't need one because you've been reading this blog and you know that recipes are for jerks, I'll come back and post it in a day or two anyway. If I don't forget.

But for now...

bunch of guajillos, stemmed
salt
brown sugar
lime juice
water

That's it! Just chop them up roughly and cover with a couple inches of water. The chopping part isn't exactly necessary, I just do it so they'll sit better in the pan- Guajillos are kind of long and tend to stick out of the water in all sorts of different directions if you leave them whole. Add a couple pinches of salt, a small handful of brown sugar, and the juice of one or two limes. Once the salt and sugar are dissolved it should have sort of a raisin-y taste to it. Adjust as necessary. Then just cook until you think it's done. I usually reduce it by about half. Next, blend it in your blender, or in the pot with your handy-dandy immersion blender. (If you don't have one of those things, you need one. Trust me.) Sometimes at this point, I'll throw in a jalapeno or two, but it's your sammich today- make it however you like! Now your marinade is done! Make sure it's cooled down (actually, you might want to do that before you add it to the blender- could end up with a big mess, otherwise.) and add the protein. This stuff goes a looooong way, though- 2 Tbs will easily cover a pound of meat. Let it marinate overnight, or at least 6 hours, and then gather up the following players-

Hoagie bun
onions
mushrooms
colby-jack cheese
chipotle mayo
anything else you think would go good on a Philly-style sandwich

First off, about the chipotle mayo- I'm sure they sell commercial stuff, but I wouldn't waste my money. It's too easy to make on your own (not to mention most likely cheaper) using your favorite regular mayo and a can of chipotle peppers. Simply take one can of chipotles in adobo sauce and add to 4 cups regular mayo. You can chop up the peppers by hand with a knife and then add to the mayo, or just blend the whole thing in a food processor. I'd avoid using a blender- it can easily break down the mayo into oil. At least, that's what happens to us at work. Then again, our blender only has two speeds- super fast, and supersonic. I'd still avoid the blender. Also, I found a recipe for chipotle mayo from scratch awhile back, but haven't gotten around to trying it yet, so I won't post it here right now, but it might be worth looking into. A quick search on the Food Network's website should turn something up. Even if you don't want to bother with all that, just using a good quality regular mayo, mixed with the chipotles is really, really good. I used to really not like the flavor of chipotle at all, until The Amigos at work started making this stuff and one day just for the heck of it I tried it. Now I love the stuff.

Break out the fry pan, melt some butter, add the steak and veggies and a pinch of salt and pepper and cook until done. (Normally I don't like well-done steak, but in this case med-rare doesn't seem to cut it for some reason.) Toast your bread, slather on the chipotle mayo, add the meat and veggies and cover liberally with cheese. Lots and lots of cheese. Then pop the whole thing in a hot oven for a few minutes to melt said cheese. Alternately, you can just add the cheese to the steak/veggies mix while it's in the fry pan. We do that a lot at work, and it works well. Except we cook ours on a flat-top, not in the fry pan, but you get the idea.

It's quite messy, so have plenty of napkins handy.

I kind of like to eat mine with a knife and fork. However you choose to do it, I think you'll agree...

this one rises far above the level of "sandwich".

Truly, once you've had this one, you've had yourself a Sammich.

Thai Peanut Sauce

2008-03-21T18:20:00.026-05:00

Boy howdy, have I got the goods for you today! This is it right here, folks. This is The One. I'm fairly certain that no matter what I happen to come up with after this, even if I live to be a hundred, it will not be as good as this stuff. And it's not so much the peanut sauce itself, although it is excellent, as what you're going to do with it when it's ready. More on that later. For now, though...

It all started one day many years ago when I was living in Chicago...
Ah, y'know what? Never mind all that. Let me just sum it up-

Years ago, I discovered Thai Peanut Sauce (and sticky rice!).

And for a long time I used store-bought peanut sauce. This stuff, to be exact-

And it's actually very good. The only downside is that it's quite expensive- $4+ for about 11 oz. So after awhile I tried looking online for a recipe to make it at home, but I really couldn't find one. I mean, I found a bunch, but none of them sounded any good. Try it- do an online search for "Thai Peanut Sauce" and see what comes up. I think you'll be as disappointed as I was. Not to worry, though, you've come to the right place this time! And I even have an actual recipe for it, although as always, I encourage you to use it as a guideline only. The only reason I even worked one up is because at Sweeney's, where I work, they have a Thai Chicken Pasta dish- basically just chicken and linguine tossed in a peanut sauce- yeah, I know, "Thai" in name only. Anyway, shortly after I started working there, the boss tried my peanut sauce and liked it much better than the one they were using (no surprise there) so he told me to come up with a recipe that we could use at work, or else he'd fire me and I'd have to go back to working in those culinary coal mines known as franchise restaurants (yes, I'm thinking of you specifically, Ruby Tuesday, with your pre-cooked chicken!*). Ok, he wasn't quite that blunt about it, but I didn't want to take any chances, y'know? Sweeney's = good, franchise chains = coal mines in the 1800s.
So anyway, here's the recipe we use at work:

10 T garlic
10 T ginger
12 c coconut milk
12 c peanut butter
1 3/4 c packed brown sugar
1 1/2 c fish sauce
chili garlic sauce
juice from 3 limes + 1/2 c tamarind juice

Ok, let's break it down a little. First off, I know this is a lot. But I didn't resize it for several reasons- 1. I'm really bad at math. (And it took me a really long time to come up with those measurements specifically for work so I figure since I put so much effort into it, it should stay as is, y'know?) 2. You'll want a lot of this stuff on hand, believe me. 3. It keeps for quite awhile in the fridge, but even better, it freezes well, so you can just make a whole lot at once and not have to worry about it again for awhile. There's a few more reasons too, but that should suffice for now.
Ok, remember, this recipe should only be used as a guideline. At work we need a recipe for the sake of consistency. And because I can't really get the guys there to grasp the idea of "this is how it should taste, so just keep adjusting it until it tastes like this". It never seems to work out very well. So we use a recipe. (Or, they do. I do it my way, which is better.)
To start things off, I usually use more garlic and ginger than what's called for; usually around 12 Tbs. Also, at work we use water instead of coconut milk (that's what I used originally, but coconut milk is sooo much better. Don't skip it if at all possible.) Mince up the garlic and ginger nice and fine (make sure to use fresh garlic, not the stuff in the jar!) and heat it in some oil over medium- sesame oil is best for this. But you don't want to saute it- i.e. don't cook it till it's brown, just till it's nice and fragrant. Then add the coconut milk, fish sauce, peanut butter, chili sauce, and brown sugar. Heat over low. And I mean low. Peanut butter will overcook very easily, and when it does the oil separates and it looks all nasty and can't be made to look un-nasty, so take your time with this. If you're using an electric stove, be sure and set it on the lowest setting. Also, if you use a wire whip to stir it, it will blend up nice and smooth in no time. Just keep cooking over low until it's as thick as you'd like it to be. It doesn't take long at all. I usually make mine to about the consistency of a thick ketchup. (Keep in mind that you'll be adding lime and tamarind juice at the end.)
About that chili garlic sauce... I use, and highly recommend, this stuff-

made by Huy Fong Foods. It's fairly readily available, even in small-town stores. How much you use is totally up to you. I didn't include a specific amount in the recipe because at work we use crushed red pepper, but I really, really recommend that you don't skip using this. It's too good. (I buy it by the gallon.) Luckily for me, I live in a town with one of the largest Hmong populations in the U.S. so Asian food stores are more common than Starbucks around here.
As for the brown sugar- when the recipe says "packed", it means packed- as tight as you can get it in there. And here's a tip- just pack it once and then weigh it out, then next time you make it you don't have to bother with all that cramming into the measuring cup! (I believe 1 3/4 c weighs about 14-16 oz.) I also prefer dark brown sugar to light.
As for the fish sauce, the main thing to look for is a minimum of ingredients- water, fish, salt. A lot of brands have sugar added, but in my experience, it's not very noticeable in most. The online Asian store ImportFood.com mentions 4 they like a lot. I found Three Crabs brand to be very sweet. I'd avoid using it, at least for this recipe. I personally don't like it at all (supposedly it's quite popular, though) and it's pretty expensive which is another reason I don't use it. I've used both Squid brand and Golden Boy a lot and can definitely recommend both.
Once you get the peanut sauce to the thickness you'd like, turn off the heat and add the juice of 3 limes plus 1/2 c. tamarind juice. How do you get tamarind juice? Chez Pim has a tip near the bottom of her post on pad thai. In a nutshell, you take a block of Tamarind Paste-

and soak it in 4 cups of hot water until soft, then strain. If you have to, in a pinch you can use cranberry juice- it's taste is pretty darn close. Just don't tell Pim I said that- she's kind of a purist and all and might rip me a new one. Actually, now that I think about it, maybe you should tell her. After all, she's kind of a big name in the food blog world and if she rants about me on her blog... (even bad publicity is still publicity, is all I'm sayin'.)
Also, I find that adding just a little o.j. to the mix at the end really adds a nice touch.

I think that about sums things up. If you can't find any of the ingredients in your area, ImportFood.com has everything you need, and there are other online Asian stores as well.

Now, on to the real star of the show- sticky rice! If you've not had this before, you really need to add this to your list of Things To Do Before I Die. And then get to it ASAP. Not just any ol' sticky rice from any ol' asian restaurant, though. Try it my way first. Seriously, if you could scoop up all of Heaven and plop it in a bowl to eat, it would taste like this. I am not lying or exaggerating. Not even a little. The name "sticky rice" is kind of a misnomer, though; it's not really "sticky" in the sense that you think of when you picture regular rice that's been overcooked. "Chewy rice" would be a more accurate way to describe it. But I guess that doesn't sound as cool, does it? Yeah, let's stick with Sticky.

I'm going to try and sum this up quick. (Or you can look Here. I swear I'm not trying to plug ImportFood.com- it's just a convenience for me, since they're the main one I'm aware of, but there are other Asian food sites online to order from as well. I encourage you to check them out.)
Sticky rice is also known as "glutinous rice" and "sweet rice". When it's dry, it looks kind of like a smaller version of puffed rice cereal-

When cooked, it becomes more translucent-

(it won't have that pinkish hue- that's just from the light in the room,
and I never got around to correcting it in Photoshop)

You don't have to cook it in a bamboo steamer, or if you want to get really food-nerd about it, one of those sticky rice steamer baskets (which I have, of course). You can use a regular colander and pot. You will need some sort of cheesecloth-type fabric to line the basket with, though. I've found regular cheesecloth to be too porous and flimsy, so I use a couple cloth napkins that I got at Target or something for not a lot of money.
My instructions are basically the same as those on the other site, but slightly rearranged- I soak mine first- for a solid 8 hours. You might get away with 6, but in my experience 8-10 is better. Then I rinse the rice, usually more than the 2-3 times they call for. You want the water to run fairly clear (it probably won't get totally clear, though). Also, I don't think it takes 45 minutes like they say- mine's usually ready in 25-30. Once you've made it a couple times you can usually tell by looking whether it's done or not, but you can always taste it while it's steaming to find out. You'll know when it's done. It won't separate too easily with a fork and will be nice and chewy (and translucent). When it's done, if you take it off the stove and immediately flip the whole thing over into a large mixing bowl, most, if not all of it, will just plop right out of that cloth and into the bowl, leaving a nice easy-to-rinse-clean cloth. You'll want to cover it though, so it won't dry out. Now comes the fun part- take as much as you want and put it into a very large bowl- (I tend to just leave it all in that same stainless mixing bowl and eat out of that) then add the following-

peanut sauce
fine grain sea or kosher salt
granulated garlic
chili garlic sauce

the order isn't super important, but I usually go wet before dry- makes it much easier to mix. Even the amounts aren't all that critical. I once made this for a friend and added by sight only- didn't taste even once to test it before handing her the bowl. The result? Success!

Heaven. In a bowl.

That's what you've got right there, my friend. Heaven in a bowl, I kid you not.

*To my knowledge, Ruby Tuesday no longer uses pre-cooked chicken. It was a short-lived, failed experiment. But that's their M.O., anyway. Along with all the other franchises.
Cheap bastards, I hate 'em.

Olé! Pozolé!

2008-02-26T21:03:00.060-06:00

Grab your sombrero and break out that bottle of Cabo Wabo that you've been saving for a special occasion, 'cause it's time for some Pozolé! Er, is it "Posolé"? Or "Pozole"? Or "Posole"? Maybe it's "Mexican Chicken Soup"? Or "Mexican Pork Stew"? Ah, who cares? Call it what you want, just don't neglect to make yourself some, and soon. (Hat and tequila optional.) This stuff is not to be missed! It is soooooo gooooood! In fact, if I were somehow forced to limit my soup choices to only one kind for the rest of my life... well, it wouldn't be Pozolé, actually, it would be Pho. But if I could have two choices, then it would definitely be Pho and Pozolé, that's for sure! I love Mexican food, and Pozolé has in it all the flavors that I associate with good Mexican food- white corn, jalapeno, tomato, cilantro, lime, and cumin, just to name a bunch. It's like Mexico in a bowl, or something. In fact, if it's not the national dish of Mexico, it should be. Somebody get me Felipe Calderon on the phone, we'll straighten this out right now.
I got my first taste of Pozolé awhile back at work. One of the guys happened to bring some in that he'd gotten from one of the many Mexican stores/restaurants in the area. I didn't really like working with that guy. I'm glad he's not there anymore, to be honest, but when he brought that soup in that day and offered me some, he certainly caused me to overlook a lot of the reasons I didn't like working with him. I'm still glad he's gone; but I'm glad he worked there, too. Anyway, I'd never had it before, and didn't even know what it was, but when I got home I did some looking around on the internet and managed to find a recipe for something that sounded like it might be it. So I asked the boss to order some hominy so we could try it out, and a couple days later I brought the recipe in to give it a go. Now at Sweeney's, where I work, we have a Soup of the Day, which we sometimes offer as part of our daily special. So we have to make sure we have enough on hand to get through the day. And since this is Pozolé we're talking about here, I knew we'd need kind of a lot; I don't know, maybe 20 servings or so. But if you look at the recipe, it's only written for 4 servings. Hmm.... So this is going to entail math or something? Jeez, I just wanted to make some soup here, not calculate Fermat's Last Theorem. So I pretty much just gave the recipe a quick read-through to see what it called for and get an idea of how to do it and then tossed it aside. (I really do have a hard time following recipes.) I posted the link above mainly as a reference. You really don't need it. Pozolé is just one of those foods that are really flexible and kind of hard to make wrong. So let's get to it, shall we?

Ok, as I said, Pozolé is really flexible- meaning there's lots of different ways to make it and still call it Pozolé. So some of these ingredients can be considered optional, and you can use others that may not be called for in a particular recipe. I'm just going to list a bunch here that I think would be good, not that I would necessarily use all of them myself. Think of it as an ingredient smorgasbord. Some ingredients, obviously, are not optional, like the hominy. The recipe link I posted above says that if you can't find hominy you can substitute frozen corn kernels. I wouldn't go that far, myself. The flavor is too different, not to mention the appearance. (If you've never had hominy, it's flavor is like that of corn tortillas.)

Hominy
Pork, shredded
Chicken, shredded
Celery
Onions
Chicken stock, preferably homemade
Various chilis
Garlic
Cumin
Salt
Cilantro
Lime juice
Oregeno
Chili powder
Cayenne
Mushrooms
Diced tomatoes
Black pepper
Avocado
Paprika

Did I miss anything? I know on the Pozolé wiki page they mention cabbage, lettuce and radish as garnishes also. I listed pork and chicken for the meats- my understanding is that it's commonly made with either. My first taste of it was with chicken, but when I make it for myself I usually go with whatever's cheaper, since I'm kind of broke. It can also easily be made completely vegetarian and still be just as awesome tasting.

Chances are, you'll have to go with canned hominy, instead of dried. It's pretty hard to find, for some reason. Some people think the dried might taste better than the canned- I'm not so sure. (I know that when I make that Hummus I posted about earlier, canned chick peas taste exactly the same as the dried.) But I do happen to have some dried hominy, so one of these days when I get around to trying it out, I'll post an update here with my opinion on the matter. In the meantime canned will do just fine- however- brand does make a difference! At work we've been using Bush's- the same brand that makes the baked beans- and it's been very good; very tasty. But I happened to have a can of Juanita's on hand at home-

so I made a batch with that. Noticeable difference in quality, with the Juanita's being not nearly as good as the Bush's, and not very good in general. Sorry Juanita, but it's true.

Now as to the putting-together of it all... easy as pie! Actually, it's even easier than pie. Here's what I do...
I start off with either the chicken or pork, whichever I happen to be using, and cook it off in the oven; but I don't just cook it as is, although you could and it would still be good. I like to marinate mine in that guajillo salsa I told you about in a previous post. Oh yes. Major tastiness right there. Just coat it all up good in that stuff, place it on a pan or in a dish, add a little water or chicken stock, and cook on 350 F or so until it's done. It won't take long. You may want to avoid getting on the internet, though, or doing whatever it is you might be addicted to, while it's cooking. You might just forget about it like I did, hehe...

(I used it anyway; it was fine.) While that's in the oven, this would be the time to get the other stuff going. Heat up a large pot- like a stock pot- trust me, this stuff is good good good, and whatever amount you happen to make, you'll wish you had made more, so you might as well go for a lot right off the bat. (Incidentally, it doesn't do terribly well in the freezer, but it'll get eaten long before you need to freeze it anyway.) Add your oil, or butter, or whatever fat you happen to like cooking with. I'm currently using canola since I bought one of those industrial size containers of it at Sam's Club, but I think corn oil would be the obvious choice here. Add whatever veggies you're going to be using (except the diced tomatoes and hominy), along with the chilis and spices, and sauté away. I'd avoid adding the avocados at this point- they're meant as more of a garnish on the finished dish. Here's what mine looks like-

If it looks like I just threw the spices at the pot without so much as even a glance toward any sort of measuring device, well, that's because I did, pretty much. I can't be bothered to go over to my cupboard or drawer, look for the cups and spoons, then come back to what I was doing and evenly and accurately measure stuff out! Who's got time for such nonsense? Not me, that's who. (Hence the name of my blog. Who cares about recipes and such- How's it Taste? Don't worry, it'll be totally fine. This stuff's hard to mess up.)
Anyway, normally my Pozolé is not this red, but I had some smoked paprika that I've been wanting to try out, so I loaded it on.
Once all the veggies are cooked to the desired tenderness level, add the chicken stock and diced tomatoes. Bring just to a boil-

then turn down

way down low

almost off

but not quite.

[Ok, that was just an inside wink to a friend, so maybe not quite that low. Just down to a simmer, then.]

While that's simmering happily away, go check on the protein situation, if you're using any. If it's ready, shred it up. (Assuming you've let it cool enough to handle. Now that I think about it, you may want to take care of this part a little further in advance of the actual soup making part.) At this point, add the meat and hominy, and cook for about 10 minutes more. Right at the end is when you want to add the lime juice and cilantro. Now it's ready!

Garnish with additional lime juice, cilantro, cayenne, avocado, and whatever else makes your mouth water.

Olé! Pozolé!

p.s. Deborah over at Taste and Tell recently posted a recipe for Green Posole, (and I saw another new one somewhere else) - I swear I'm not ripping hers off- (hey, mine's red, hers is green! ; ) I've had this post planned since the very beginning; it just takes me awhile to get around to taking care of business.

Filler Material

2008-02-21T17:15:00.007-06:00

Looks like Robert Irvine is a big fat liar! (Well, maybe not fat, but he's definitely big.) If you've ever watched the Food Network at all, you likely know who Robert Irvine is (or thought you did, hehe...) but just in case you don't know about him, he has a show on there called "Dinner: Impossible", where he "travels the world on culinary assignments" and must produce an entire meal under seemingly impossible, or at least very tough, conditions. It's mildly interesting, I guess. My brother likes it a lot; I'm not a fan. Anyway, apparently he made up a lot of the stuff in his bio, like in his book and elsewhere when he claimed to have worked on the wedding cake for Prince Charles and Princess Diana-

"It was an English fruitcake that weighed over 360 pounds," he told the Toronto Sun. "I worked on these elaborate side panels, which told the history of the royal Windsor and Spencer families in icing!"

True?

"I was at the school when that was happening," he said. "They made the cake at the school where I was."

Did he help make it?

"Picking fruit and things like that."

Mmm-hm.

Anyway, I first read about it here. There's another article here. And this is what he looks like.

Sour Grapes

2008-02-12T18:38:00.019-06:00

This post isn't really about sour grapes- I just thought that made for a better title than "Sour Pickles". Plus, I don't really like calling these "sour", even though I suppose that's what they are. Call them whatever you want- just try them out. You won't be disappointed. They're super easy, low-fat, low-calorie, they don't take long at all, and are only a little bit addicting.

First, the original recipe, handed down from my grandfather-

PICKLES IN A CROCK.

1 gallon crock
8 cups vinegar
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dry mustard
cucumbers.

mix dry ingredients, add a little vinegar at a time until well mixed, then add remaining vinegar and place in a crock.

wash and dry pickles, put in crock, add a small piece of alum for crispness.

Now as I said, that's the original recipe. My family has made it many times over the years and it always goes over well with everyone who tries it. I highly recommend trying it as-is, not only because it's very good, but also to use it as a sort of flavor reference point for when you start messing around with the ingredients, like I do.

I made these for the first time in a very long time a few months ago, and as I was dissolving it on the stove I tasted the vinegar/spice mix and decided it was a little too vinegar-y. So I added a little more of each of the dry ingredients, not measuring anything out of course, until it tasted about right. A week or so later when they were ready, I tried them out and thought they were pretty much outstanding. So I brought some into work for people to try and they were a big hit. Gave some to my folks one day too- that turned out to be a mistake. My dad loved them, so he gave me some money to buy stuff to make more for him, plus went out and bought some english cucumbers for me to try out as well. I was not expecting all this extra work. I got the recipe from him, after all. Couldn't he have just gone home and made some himself? Maybe asked for some pro tips? The lesson to be learned here is this: whenever you make something that is so good and you know people are just going to love it, make sure you have a recipe on hand to give to them when they ask you to make them some. "Can I make you some? I'll do you one better! Here's the recipe! Now you can make them anytime your little heart desires!" It doesn't matter if you don't actually have a recipe- make one up. Keep it on hand for just such occasions. If you do have one, but it's a "top secret" recipe that you don't want to share with anyone, just give them a fake recipe, something that looks similar, but is actually not at all the same. Then when they try it out and it's not nearly as good as yours they'll think you're just the shit and you'll build up a reputation. Of course, if simply handing them a recipe won't do, like say if they're your parents or something, and trying to brush them off with just a piece of paper will make you look rude and ungrateful for all the cooking they've done for you, there is another option: just don't share your stuff with them. If they don't know you got the goods, they won't know to ask for them, right? Of course, then you'll have to keep the knowledge that you are, in fact, the shit, to yourself, but hey, we all have to make compromises somewhere, right?

Alright, moving on... check out these fine looking cucumbers I picked up at my local Asian grocery store for 75 cents a pound!

Apparently they're in season all year-round, at least around here anyway. The photos don't really do them justice- they really looked like they were fresh from somebody's garden in the middle of July. But as a matter of fact, I bought them January 21st!

Now, the recipe calls for a "small piece of alum" for crispness. Some people say you shouldn't use alum, that it's bad for you or whatever. I think I read somewhere that if you ingest a couple ounces it will kill you. I don't know. I do know that it's FDA approved, for what that's worth, and that 2 ounces is a lot- accidentally ingesting that much would be like something along the lines of accidentally ingesting an entire bottle of aspirin; it's just not going to happen. If you're still not sure, I'd just recommend doing a little online research and getting all the info you can, then you can make the decision that's right for you. As for me, I use the stuff. (Then again, I also use and love MSG and aspartame.) I've made pickles with and without it, and the difference is huge. Without, they're super soft. Disgusting, in fact. I threw a whole bunch out because of it. With the alum, they're super crunchy, and stay that way for a good two weeks or more. As for a "piece" of alum, the only alum I've been able to find is granulated, and the label doesn't give much in the way of instruction on how to use it. It usually just says "follow the recipe". From my own online research, the consensus is that you shouldn't let the cucumbers (or whatever it is you happen to be pickling) just soak in the alum solution the whole time. A short soak, followed by a rinse, then pickling is what's recommended. So when I make pickles, here's my procedure:

dissolve 1 teaspoon alum in 1 gallon of water.
add rinsed whole cucumbers and let soak for 1/2 hour, then rinse and dry.

For some reason though, the 1/2 hour usually turns into an hour. But that's just me. I'm easily distracted.

As far as the rest of the recipe goes, usually I start off the same as the original recipe- 8 cups vinegar, 1/2 c. each of the dry stuff, but then I just keep adding a little more of each of the dry ingredients until I like the way it tastes. I heat mine on med-low in a pot on the stove- makes the dissolving much faster and easier. Note that if you do it this way, you really need to cool the mix down to room temp (or lower) before adding the cucumbers, or they probably will get mushy, even with the alum. I say "probably" because that's what I've been told repeatedly by my mother, and as any mother will tell you- mothers are never wrong. So I figure better safe than sorry. (I usually use the cool-down time to slice the cucumbers anyway. I used to slice them into rings, but now I prefer spears.) It's hard to say exactly how much extra of the dry stuff I add. I did write it down one time, and I'll post it here, but please don't follow it exactly; you're far better off tasting as you go. (Another reason to keep the heat on med-low- I just dip my finger directly into the mix on the stove and taste it like that. If you find yourself adding more dry mustard, it may clump if you add it directly into the vinegar, but if you sprinkle it on very lightly, it usually mixes in fine. Alternately, you can mix it with a little salt and/or sugar and it will dissolve much easier.)

8 c. white vinegar
8 c. apple cider vinegar
1 1/4 c. dry mustard
1 1/4 c. sugar
1 1/4 c. salt

This recipe will get you two gallons of pickles. I do like to mix apple cider vinegar and white vinegar half and half. It's fun to experiment with different types to see how the flavors differ. I like the flavor profile I get from white vinegar, though, so I always use at least half white. As for salt, they make pickling salt, but I use kosher. My understanding is that pickling salt dissolves better, leaving a less cloudy brine, but the dry mustard will cloud it up anyway, so I say use whatever's cheaper. Dry mustard can be expensive, but most stores have a bulk foods section and you can get it much cheaper that way. As for the container, pretty much anything non-reactive will do fine. Those large Gladware/Rubbermaid/etc. things would probably be great. Me, I recycle the one gallon mayo containers we get at work:

Just stuff it full of cukes, and pour the vinegar mix over and you're pretty much all set. These don't need to cure in the fridge. Room temp is fine. At room temp, they should be ready in about 4 days. At cooler temps, like your basement in the wintertime, or the fridge, it'll take about a week or so.

You simply must try these pickles. They're quick, easy, and delicious!

(And only a little bit addicting.)

Crouts

2008-02-04T19:13:00.000-06:00

Quick and easy, crunchy and delicious. You are going to want to make these.

Here's what I use:

butter
brown sugar
white sugar
cinnamon
nutmeg
salt
cayenne

hoagie buns (any sturdy white bread will work. french baguette would probably be better, but ours are usually frozen and I never plan far enough ahead to thaw them out in time.)

I mix in white sugar with the brown to keep it a little more free-flowing, but other than that, there's no particular "way" to do it- just mix up the dry ingredients in a bowl and ask yourself this-
"How's it taste?". Maybe you like a lot of nutmeg. Or none at all. Perhaps you'd like a little ginger, or cloves? Go right ahead! I personally go heavy on the cinnamon, light on the cayenne, and very light on the nutmeg. Don't skip out on using the salt, though. If you're watching your sodium intake, just use a little less, but it really goes well in this. If you're using a coarse-grain salt, I'd recommend grinding it up a little in your thai granite mortar and pestle. (You do have one of those, don't you?) Once you get the mix just the way you want it, cube up that bread and coat it well in the butter you melted earlier. (A plastic squeeze bottle makes a great applicator, by the way.) Then simply toss in as much of the dry mix as you like (I like a lot) and bake in the oven on 300-350 degrees until they're all nice and crunchy. Keep an eye on them, though; all- that sugar can easily burn.

That's pretty much all there is to it! You won't believe how good they are. Sheesh, just writing about them right now makes me want to make some.

A little addon to the B.S. post-

I've heard that apple slices added to the soup as you cook it go very well with it. Haven't tried it as of yet, but it's on my to-do list.

Up Next: Pucker up, baby!

V.A.W.

2008-01-31T19:20:00.000-06:00

What does V.A.W. stand for?

Vegetarian. Assault. Weapon!

Here we have the V.A.W. pictured with three average-sized tomatoes...

Ok, so the average-sized tomatoes are really just average-sized cherry tomatoes. But that's still one big-ass carrot!

Here is a normal carrot...

And here is a normal carrot pictured beside the V.A.W....

I found it at work the other day. Was going to make some soup with it, but then realized it's potential for fending off intruders, so I brought it home instead.

Damn thing weighs over a pound and a half.

B.S.

2008-01-29T15:42:00.000-06:00

B.S. - It stands for (well, you know), right? Wrong! It stands for Butternut Squash! And what do you do with Butternut Squash? You make soup with it, of course. Tasty Butternut Squash soup. With Brown Sugar cinnamon croutons! Mmmmm, tasty! And that ain't no B.S., if you know what I mean.

B.S. soup is ridiculously easy to make. It's so simple that I almost didn't want to post it here because that would be like writing a post about how to boil a pot of water; seems too obvious. But obvious or not, here it is, and it really is so easy, and so good, and it doesn't take long to make at all. And the croutons are a great snack by themselves! Holy cow, not only could you eat them like cereal for breakfast, but they'd also make an awesome stand-in for popcorn in the evening.
Now, for some strange reason, almost every B.S. soup recipe I've ever come across is made with chicken stock, which I don't get. Why use it? I know, I know, you want a savory liquid of some sort to be added to the mix, but why is chicken stock the hands down favorite choice? I'm not saying poultry and butternut squash don't go together, just not in my B.S. soup. (I think Emeril's even got a version made with sausage, which, not surprisingly, I've heard is not very good.) Maybe I'm just weird or something, but I don't even use veggie stock.
Here's my roster (in no particular order of amount or importance):

Butternut Squash
Butter
Fresh ginger
Salt
Cinnamon
Honey
Brown sugar
Heavy cream
More butter
2% milk
Cayenne

I think that's everything. (I made it one time with sour cream for some reason, but didn't really notice much difference, so I figured I'd leave it off the list.) Nutmeg, allspice, cloves- all probably very tasty too, but I usually opt out on those. Definitely worth experimenting with, though.
Ok, first the extremely short version- pretty much all you have to do is mince up some ginger...

and heat it in lots of butter in a big 'ol pot until it's fragrant...

and then throw everything else in...

until it tastes the way you want it to. Which is pretty much how I do it. But let me break it down just a little bit more.
As you can see in the photos, I use the frozen cube kind of squash. Mainly because that's what they give us at the restaurant. At home, if I had time, I'd go for the fresh stuff and carve it up myself. (I haven't actually done it yet, so I'm not sure, but I think you'd get better carmelization in the oven when you bake it than with the little frozen cubes.) The bags we get are 2 kilos each (4.4 lbs) and I use 3 bags per batch. It really is not as much as it sounds like. Usually works out to around 2 gallons of soup (which also is not as much as it sounds like!). Ok, so I take that 6 kilos of squash and spread it evenly on two sheet pans and pop it into a 500 degree oven. Takes around 30-40 minutes, I think. Whenever it gets all soft, and the bits around the edges of the pan start to get brown and burned, like this...

While that's doing its thing in the oven, I get out the big-ass pot. I think mine's a 5-gallon job- more than I need, but in my kitchen it's either too much or not enough. Throw in a bunch of butter (I use unsalted 'cause that's what we have on hand, but I don't think it matters much) and toss in the ginger. In the first ginger pic up top, that's something like 6 tablespoons. Possibly a bit too much, but I liked it anyway. Heat it until it's nice and fragrant, but don't saute it- you don't want it to brown like the squash in the above pic. Check on the squash in the oven to make sure it looks all pretty, like this-

When it's ready, take some and put it on a spatula and try to get artsy with it, like this-

Then toss it all in the pot and start adding the rest of the goodies, like this-

As you can see, I used a fair amount of butter- that's about a half-pound showing, but I think I added more later. As for how much to add of what, there really is no magic formula here. I use heavy cream because we always have a lot of it on hand, and I use the 2% milk to cut it down a little bit. (I'm sure half and half alone would work great, but we usually only have that in those little teaspoon-sized single serving disposable cups, and I'm not about to open dozens and dozens of those!) I never measure anything, really. Just eyeball it. And I usually don't even taste it until I've added a little of everything!

And somehow it all turns out delicious.

But here's the main guideline I try and follow- be careful about going overboard on stuff. I love cinnamon (and butter and cream and salt...) but when I make this, I want the flavor of the squash to be the star of the show, and everything else to accent it. So I just try and go kind of light on everything, at least at first. You can always add more later. Usually I add the cream first, then the milk. Then comes the honey, salt, and cinnamon. Then more butter. I have brown sugar and cayenne on the list, but a lot of times I don't bother to add them. If I do, it's only very little of each. I find that most of the adjusting I need to do is with the milk and cream. I want it creamy, but not too rich; thin, but not watery.
You can use your immersion blender on this one if you like, but it mixes up so easily that a regular old wire whip will also do the job no problem.

Then, when you get it exactly to your liking and it tastes sooo perfect that you just can't stand it and you really have to eat it now or you'll get cranky and hit somebody- pour some into a bowl, bust out those croutons you made earlier, and dive in...

or pose it for a photo, like this-

(It helps if you have a cool looking wire table to set it on.)

Ok, about those croutons...

I'll post about them at a later date, but they're very simple to make. Here's a list of ingredients I use:

White bread (a sturdy kind, like a hoagie bun)
Brown sugar
White sugar
Butter
Cinnamon
Nutmeg
Salt
Cayenne

Enjoy!

Hmmm...

2008-01-22T21:19:00.000-06:00

*Note* - although I think the photo qualifies as SFW (no nudity), I know some people who would argue that any image of Rachael Ray would be definitely NSFW.

I find this to be disturbing and exciting at the same time. Disturbing because somehow it just doesn't seem right; exciting because somehow it also does... (She did 5 pics. Links to them can be found here. If you're into that sort of thing, I mean; which I highly doubt, but you never know.) I tell you what, though- if I ever hear Alton Brown is posing in Cosmo or some other such magazine, I think I'm going to have to deny ever having liked both him and the Food Network.

(FYI- FHM = For Him Magazine)

(And what's going on with her teeth in that photo, anyway...?)

Slow and Low, that is the Tempo...

2008-01-16T20:40:00.000-06:00

Ok, so... I want to pretty this place up a little bit with some pics, but being about 7 years behind the times on the technology front, I still use a film camera (and what a fine one it is. Definitely way more camera than I can handle. But it is still a film camera). So I have to buy the film, take between 24-36 shots, get it developed, then cry because all my photos suck, then repeat, hopefully with better results. All of this takes time. Actually, buying the film takes the longest. I don't get out much. I actually just ordered 10 rolls from Adorama because I figured it'd be faster than me going to the store to buy it. True fact. So things might be a little slow around here until it comes in and I can get some photos taken. But I have some good stuff planned for when it does: gumbo, peanut sauce, pozolé, butternut squash soup, and a few other things. And maybe some totally random reviews of kitchen products that I use too.

Also, we both know you want those chips. I just need an address to send them to. Doesn't have to be yours, but it probably should be that of someone who doesn't like spicy food. Otherwise there might not be any left when you go to get them. Seriously. I can't even make them at home anymore when my brother is around. I swear he's one of those Transformers, except he turns into a vacuum cleaner. His hand, looking like a backhoe, scoops up more chips than seems possible, and then into the Hoover Black Hole they go. It really is a sight.
(It is safe to use your own address, though; I promise to send chips and not spam.)

John's Addiction: A real-life fairy tale

2008-01-13T19:47:00.000-06:00

Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away, there lived this kid. Let's call him John, just for story's sake. John lived in a boring little town, in a boring little state, where he ate boring old food. Actually, the food wasn't old, it was just boring; had no kick, you might say. One day, John decided to take a break from his boring routine of doing whatever it was he did, and head down to the local general store- Gordon's Market, it was called- and poke around inside, see if there was some junk food or something he could buy. At some point or other, whether it was on his way in or out I don't know, he happened to look down at the chip rack near the door and noticed a small red bag of something new. Something he hadn't seen before. Something called... "Hot Jalapeño". But because he'd had no prior exposure to the Spanish language, he utterly and completely wrecked the pronunciation of "Jalapeño", pronouncing the first half like the word "gallop", but with a "j", and dropping the tilde off of the "ñ" - resulting in "jallopeeno". (This was a very long time ago, though, and he has since learned his lesson and continues to laugh about it to this day.) "Hot Jalapeño", he thought. "Intriguing." (He knew they must really be hot, as there were little red flames coming off of the word "hot" on the bag.) Now, keep in mind that due to his surroundings and what-not, his tastebuds were the equivalent of that ninety pound weakling who gets sand kicked in his face by the bully on the beach in those old Charles Atlas ads. But, he was still young and foolish enough to not be aware of this. Plus they were only 99 cents! So he bought himself a bag and went on his way to wherever the heck he ended up going that day. Along the way, he started in on the chips, but got no further than two or three in. All of a sudden,
his mouth was on fire! And he was in love...
Fast forward nearly 20 years. Hot Jalapeño chips have been MIA for well over a decade, and John is now a tired old man, embittered by years of searching for a suitable replacement. Searching, but never finding. It's just been one disappointing wannabe after another. Either no heat, or crappy flavor, but mostly a combination of the two. Sure, there's those Tostito's with Hint of Lime, which are really quite tasty, (addicting, almost) but even they can't compare with the legendary Hot Jallopeenos.
Fast forward a couple more years. John had previously played around with making his own version of Hot Jalapeño by taking some random packet of ground peppers he'd gotten hold of and, borrowing a page from Tostitos' cookbook, mixed in the spice packet from a Shrimp-Lime Ramen noodle package, and then sprinkled that on some chips and baked them in the oven. Not all that great. But they did have potential. It was at this point in time that Fate smiled upon John. And so he smiled back and asked her what she was doing later that night. She slapped his face and called him rude, saying that she was just trying to be polite, but that if he must know, she had a date. With Destiny. (It figures...) So with that, John cashed in what little karma he had saved up, bought himself another beer, and headed home to plot his next move. On the way home he happened to run into Fate's younger half-sister, Luck, with whom he'd had an on-again, off-again relationship for years. Taking a chance, he smiled at her. And... and she smiled back! And thus began...
a new legend...

John's Addiction

Award-winning Jalapeño-lime tortilla chips.
(scroll down about 1/4 of the page. I'm under the snack/sweet heading)

Ok, first off, I really do put that much spice mix on my chips. I like 'em with flavor and I don't skimp on it the way all the commercial chip makers do. I didn't add more just for the photo, nor did I spend all day with a professional photographer getting just the right shot, and then fixing it up even more in Photoshop. This is how they look every time I make them. Personally, I think these chips are pretty much unbelievable. And I think you will too. I've already shared them with all my friends locally; now I want to share them with my out-of-town friends. So if you're on my mutuals list over on Stumbleupon and would like to try them, just contact me in one way or another and tell me where to send them, and I'll ship 'em on out! (On me, of course.)
Plan on it taking me about 3 weeks to mail them.

If you're not on my mutuals list, well... better luck next time? No... just contact me with an offer that I can't refuse; I'm sure we can work something out.

Of Knuckle Sandwiches and Hurts Donuts

2008-01-07T09:57:00.000-06:00

Me and my buddy Nathaniel (a.k.a. "Buster!")

Now here's a guy who loves his food. He ain't fat, but he's big.
And strong. And he makes for good wrestling practice. Knowing how much he likes to eat, I'll often say something like "Hey Nathaniel, you look hungry. I've got a couple knuckle sandwiches with your name on them..." To which he'll often reply, almost under his breath, with something like "I'll give you a hurts donut..."

And then I proceed to pound him into the floor.

He really seems to like it, which leads me to believe that he's letting me win. And even if he's not, he's only 8. Sure, I can take him now; but what about when he's 12?

I think that's going to be a whole different story.

The Olive Garden

2008-01-06T19:01:00.000-06:00

"The McDonald's of Italian food."

That's pretty much all I have to say about that.