I like using these canned curry pastes for all sorts of things, but especially seafood and chicken. They are like a hot little party in a can, with all that good stuff like lemongrass and chilis and ginger and fish sauce, all the work done for you. Tonight, grilled chicken in massaman curry sauce (massaman curry paste is milder than red or green curry, just right for this white girl's palate).
1 small can curry paste
1 curry paste can full of water
2 lbs chicken breasts, cut into strips
Make a slurry of the water and paste and soak chicken strips in it. Then thread them on skewers and grill.
In the meantime, put the sauce in a pot and reduce it a bit, after adding a couple of spoonfuls of sugar and a few squirts of soy sauce. Use this to baste the chicken while it's on the grill. After it's cooked you can decorate it with toasted (unsweetened) coconut and serve with
peanut sauce, or get the ready made stuff
Serve with Bhan Pho (those rice noodles used in pad thai and such)that have been cooked in Tom Yum broth (you can get
Tom Yum boullion cubes at Asian markets or from ImportFoods and cabbage cut into chunks and served raw. Yum. y'all.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Friday, April 27, 2007
Beer beer beer beer...
I'm not a huge beer drinker, tho I will occasionally have (what my husband affectionately calls)Mexican Horse Piss, and the microbrewery where we used to live makes this amazing apricot brew that I loved. However, I do like to cook with it, making cheese dip and bread and other fine things.
What I want- is your favorite beer recipe.
What I want- is your favorite beer recipe.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
The Most Requested Meal at My House
is...spaghetti, a catch all word meaning tomato based sauce, long skinny pasta, and homemade focaccia. I've made pasta from scratch exactly twice, and believe firmly that, while it's tasty, it's not really worth the effort.
Sauce:
1 large can each of petite diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 lb hamburger, browned and drained
1 large onion, peeled and cut in quarters (explanation later)
as many cloves of garlic as you can possibly stand (I use 6 or 7), minced
Fresh basil, parsley, oregano, rosemary, all chopped fine (alot, like, 1/4 cup of each except less of the rosemary)
salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes to taste
A good dollop of red wine (Cabernet, or merlot)
Mix it all together in a big pot and simmer for an hour or so. Then fish out the onion and throw it away. This gives you oniony flavor without having chunks of slimy stuff in your sauce. (Thanks to Bro. Scott for telling me that trick)
Focaccia
1 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
Mix it all together and let it sit 10 minutes. Then stir in
2 cups of all purpose or bread flour
Mix this good then add 1 more cup of flour
If your lazy like me, you'll fix this in a stand mixer, and let it do the work of kneading. If you're a Back To The Earth type who believes handling food is like getting close to God (me, sometimes, if I've been into the merlot for the sauce), dump the dough onto a well floured countertop and pummel it like it's your neighbor's yappy-assed little dog. Do this for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and satiny. Then coat it lightly in olive oil and put it in a bowl, covered, in a warm spot for an hour to double in size.
Lightly oil a cookie sheet, or a jellyroll pan, if you have one. Pat the dough out so it covers the pan, then use your fingertips to dimple it all over. Sprinkle with kosher salt, cracked pepper, chopped rosemary, or anything else you think would be good. Maybe sundried tomatoes and basil leaves, or parmesan cheese. Then drizzle lightly with some more olive oil, and let rise for 20 minutes.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Cut into squares or rip it apart like a barbarian, it's up to you.
Sauce:
1 large can each of petite diced tomatoes and crushed tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 lb hamburger, browned and drained
1 large onion, peeled and cut in quarters (explanation later)
as many cloves of garlic as you can possibly stand (I use 6 or 7), minced
Fresh basil, parsley, oregano, rosemary, all chopped fine (alot, like, 1/4 cup of each except less of the rosemary)
salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes to taste
A good dollop of red wine (Cabernet, or merlot)
Mix it all together in a big pot and simmer for an hour or so. Then fish out the onion and throw it away. This gives you oniony flavor without having chunks of slimy stuff in your sauce. (Thanks to Bro. Scott for telling me that trick)
Focaccia
1 cup warm milk
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons olive oil
Mix it all together and let it sit 10 minutes. Then stir in
2 cups of all purpose or bread flour
Mix this good then add 1 more cup of flour
If your lazy like me, you'll fix this in a stand mixer, and let it do the work of kneading. If you're a Back To The Earth type who believes handling food is like getting close to God (me, sometimes, if I've been into the merlot for the sauce), dump the dough onto a well floured countertop and pummel it like it's your neighbor's yappy-assed little dog. Do this for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and satiny. Then coat it lightly in olive oil and put it in a bowl, covered, in a warm spot for an hour to double in size.
Lightly oil a cookie sheet, or a jellyroll pan, if you have one. Pat the dough out so it covers the pan, then use your fingertips to dimple it all over. Sprinkle with kosher salt, cracked pepper, chopped rosemary, or anything else you think would be good. Maybe sundried tomatoes and basil leaves, or parmesan cheese. Then drizzle lightly with some more olive oil, and let rise for 20 minutes.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Cut into squares or rip it apart like a barbarian, it's up to you.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Comfort food
We all have our favorite, that one dish we turn to when we're sick, or blue. For me, it's whatever's really really easy, like peanut butter sandwiches (strawberry jam, please)or, if I don't have anything better to do, hummus.
Here's my hummus recipe, made some just yesterday and ate it with wheat thins.
2 15 oz cans garbonzo beans (chick peas), drained and rinsed
juice and zest of 1 big lemon
handful of fresh parsley
2 cloves of garlic
2 big spoonfuls of tahini (sesame paste)-probably about 1/4 cup
olive oil
Whiz everything but the oil in a food processor until it's a fairly fine paste. Drizzle in olive oil (while the processor's going)until you've added 1/4 cup or so, and the texture of the hummus softens. Taste and add salt as you think it needs.
Now wasn't that easy!
So what's your go-to recipe when you need some homemade (or storebought) love?
Here's my hummus recipe, made some just yesterday and ate it with wheat thins.
2 15 oz cans garbonzo beans (chick peas), drained and rinsed
juice and zest of 1 big lemon
handful of fresh parsley
2 cloves of garlic
2 big spoonfuls of tahini (sesame paste)-probably about 1/4 cup
olive oil
Whiz everything but the oil in a food processor until it's a fairly fine paste. Drizzle in olive oil (while the processor's going)until you've added 1/4 cup or so, and the texture of the hummus softens. Taste and add salt as you think it needs.
Now wasn't that easy!
So what's your go-to recipe when you need some homemade (or storebought) love?
Friday, April 20, 2007
Too Good for Children!
That's a saying we have in my family. I remember I'd see my mother eating something intriguing, and she'd turn away while saying "this is too good for children." And now I do it, usually when fine chocolate or frying is involved. Fried Okra, when made in small quantities, is Too Good for Children. So is dark chocolate and vodka.
Does your household have any sayings about food?
Does your household have any sayings about food?
Monday, April 16, 2007
Coming soon to a Kitchen near you!
SD has informed me that the regional cuisine of Brmnghm, UK is highly underrated. He has declared that the astonishing dish cleverly named "mushy peas" is a Very Good Thing, Indeed. I am sure I will be experimenting with recipes before long, using his tastebuds as a judge and jury. Posts on the subject will be forthcoming.
Every region has it's cuisine. I posted a bit ago about country ham and biscuits with red eye gravy. Others around here are fried green tomatoes (trust me, properly made they are DeelishUS!), fried okra (mmm), and deep fried chitlins. Not so mm there. I think you have to be raised on them to truly appreciate them.Pretty much, if it's any good, it's either fried or made into a cobbler here.
What's your regional favorite?
Friday, April 13, 2007
Boiled Bacon!
It's the weekend! Wheee! Except that tomorrow around noon SD will be getting on an airplane and flying to England, where they Boil Everything. And not London, either, where one might hope to get a good meal, but to Birmingham, where they Boil Everything. He has been cautioned to take a box of granola bars with him.
So...what's your favorite boiled food? If you were going someplace where the food had a bad reputation, what would you take in your suitcase, for emergencies?
So...what's your favorite boiled food? If you were going someplace where the food had a bad reputation, what would you take in your suitcase, for emergencies?
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Spicy Peanut Noodles
I love Thai food. It's creamy, crunchy, cool, spicy and complicated blend of all sorts of flavors. It has stuff Not The Usual Thing 'round these parts: fish sauce, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, sweet soy sauce, and the curries! O! The curry pastes! Today, I'm not dealing with curry paste. Maybe later.
Last night I was trolling the cookbooks, looking for something to do with chicken breasts. In The Joy OF Cooking, a recipe for Spicy Peanut Sesame Noodles caught my eye. It suggested grilling and shredding chicken breast to make it heartier. I can live with that. And, I absolutely LOVE peanut sauce! Love it! And my kids love it! So, here's the recipe from The Joy Of Cooking. Items in parenthesis are my own substitutions, to due lack of something.
Spicy Peanut Sesame Noodles
Thoroughly blend in a food processor:
2 cups smooth peanut butter (1 cup chunky, 1 cup smooth)-JoC recommends all natural salt free peanut butter, but at $6 a jar, I'll use Jif.
1/2 cup rice vinegar (1/3 cup lime juice, add rice vinegar to make 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons sweet soy sauce (if you don't have it, don't bother, just add a bit more sugar))
2 tablespoons roughly chopped garlic (5 good sized cloves)
2 to 6 serrano or fresh chilis, seeded and cut up (3 tablespoons Louisiana Hot Sauce, 1 tablespoon green jalapeno sauce. Any red hot sauce that's not as hot as Tabasco will do, Sriracha is ideal, if you can find it)
3 tablespoons sugar (I used 2, because the peanut butter is sweet, and the sweet soy sauce, you can increase to tase once it's all mixed)
After this is all good and mushed in the food processor, add
1/2 cup toasted sesame oil (WHOA NELLY! Try a tablespoon instead! It's strong, and expensive)
2 tablespoons chili oil (didn't have any, added a couple more squirts of hot sauce)
Gradually add in 3/4 cup of freshly brewed black tea. This thins it nicely and the tea is an interesting flavor.
Cook a pound of Chinese egg noodles or spaghetti. Drain and toss with a couple of teaspoons of sesame oil.
To serve, put the noodles in a big bowl, top with all the sauce, grilled chicken breasts, a peeled and seeded cucumber in julienne strips, some cilantro and maybe a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
For the chicken:
Make a marinade of 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice vinegar or lime juice (or combo- I never have enough limes)4 cloves of garlic chopped fine, 4 scallions, sliced very thin. Mix all this up and our over the chicken. Let it sit for a bit, then grill, bastng with the marinade. Cut or shred the chicken and throw it on top of the noodles.
Even though it looks like you're using an obscene amount of hot sauce, the peanut butter really puts the kibosh on the heat, so you get great hot pepper flavor, without the pain.
Sweet soy sauce is this thick stuff, akin to molasses, with a soy sauce flavor. It's used in making Pad Thai (the Thai version of Leftover Casserole). It keeps forever, so if you ever find yourself in an Asian market, get a bottle (it's cheap)and keep it for when you're making a sauce or marinade that you want to sweeten up a bit. It's great for grilling, because the sugars caramelize and make the meat pretty.
Sriracha is a Thai hot sauce with garlic in it. It's pretty hot, not as hot as Tabasco, but hotter than, say, Texas Pete's. It's a good multipurpose hot sauce, and makes awesome guacamole.
Rice vinegar is a very mild vinegar, far less acidic than regular white vinegar or wine vinegars. If you don't have access to some, you can use lemon or lime juice, or dilute some regular white vinegar 1:1 with water.
Fish sauce was not in this recipe, but I've used it before in peanut sauce. It's...well. It's stinky and gross, and if you smell it you wonder why you'd ever use it, but in very small amounts (like, a tablespoon in the above recipe) it adds a depth of flavor that is remarkable. I like Squid brand, and it keeps forever. I found out how they make it: They load a barrel up with little fish, sugar, and salt, and then set it aside and forget about it. Later they come back, put a weight on the contents, a bucket under the bunghole, and collect the squeezings. Ewww! But, it really does add something, if you don't use too much.
Last night I was trolling the cookbooks, looking for something to do with chicken breasts. In The Joy OF Cooking, a recipe for Spicy Peanut Sesame Noodles caught my eye. It suggested grilling and shredding chicken breast to make it heartier. I can live with that. And, I absolutely LOVE peanut sauce! Love it! And my kids love it! So, here's the recipe from The Joy Of Cooking. Items in parenthesis are my own substitutions, to due lack of something.
Spicy Peanut Sesame Noodles
Thoroughly blend in a food processor:
2 cups smooth peanut butter (1 cup chunky, 1 cup smooth)-JoC recommends all natural salt free peanut butter, but at $6 a jar, I'll use Jif.
1/2 cup rice vinegar (1/3 cup lime juice, add rice vinegar to make 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 teaspoons sweet soy sauce (if you don't have it, don't bother, just add a bit more sugar))
2 tablespoons roughly chopped garlic (5 good sized cloves)
2 to 6 serrano or fresh chilis, seeded and cut up (3 tablespoons Louisiana Hot Sauce, 1 tablespoon green jalapeno sauce. Any red hot sauce that's not as hot as Tabasco will do, Sriracha is ideal, if you can find it)
3 tablespoons sugar (I used 2, because the peanut butter is sweet, and the sweet soy sauce, you can increase to tase once it's all mixed)
After this is all good and mushed in the food processor, add
1/2 cup toasted sesame oil (WHOA NELLY! Try a tablespoon instead! It's strong, and expensive)
2 tablespoons chili oil (didn't have any, added a couple more squirts of hot sauce)
Gradually add in 3/4 cup of freshly brewed black tea. This thins it nicely and the tea is an interesting flavor.
Cook a pound of Chinese egg noodles or spaghetti. Drain and toss with a couple of teaspoons of sesame oil.
To serve, put the noodles in a big bowl, top with all the sauce, grilled chicken breasts, a peeled and seeded cucumber in julienne strips, some cilantro and maybe a sprinkle of sesame seeds.
For the chicken:
Make a marinade of 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup rice vinegar or lime juice (or combo- I never have enough limes)4 cloves of garlic chopped fine, 4 scallions, sliced very thin. Mix all this up and our over the chicken. Let it sit for a bit, then grill, bastng with the marinade. Cut or shred the chicken and throw it on top of the noodles.
Even though it looks like you're using an obscene amount of hot sauce, the peanut butter really puts the kibosh on the heat, so you get great hot pepper flavor, without the pain.
Sweet soy sauce is this thick stuff, akin to molasses, with a soy sauce flavor. It's used in making Pad Thai (the Thai version of Leftover Casserole). It keeps forever, so if you ever find yourself in an Asian market, get a bottle (it's cheap)and keep it for when you're making a sauce or marinade that you want to sweeten up a bit. It's great for grilling, because the sugars caramelize and make the meat pretty.
Sriracha is a Thai hot sauce with garlic in it. It's pretty hot, not as hot as Tabasco, but hotter than, say, Texas Pete's. It's a good multipurpose hot sauce, and makes awesome guacamole.
Rice vinegar is a very mild vinegar, far less acidic than regular white vinegar or wine vinegars. If you don't have access to some, you can use lemon or lime juice, or dilute some regular white vinegar 1:1 with water.
Fish sauce was not in this recipe, but I've used it before in peanut sauce. It's...well. It's stinky and gross, and if you smell it you wonder why you'd ever use it, but in very small amounts (like, a tablespoon in the above recipe) it adds a depth of flavor that is remarkable. I like Squid brand, and it keeps forever. I found out how they make it: They load a barrel up with little fish, sugar, and salt, and then set it aside and forget about it. Later they come back, put a weight on the contents, a bucket under the bunghole, and collect the squeezings. Ewww! But, it really does add something, if you don't use too much.
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
My electric mixer is vintage 1960's, from a summer cottage in Maine. This is what they used to get into town for replacement parts when the outboard motor broke down. I was serious enough about cooking for Mrs. Lizotte to leave it to me, among other kitchen genies. What follows is her whipped cream rough guide; what works in creating desserts the Antiprincess describes as having "accent marks and curlicues, an underbite, and an idiot hemophiliac nephew who's next in line for the throne."
Go visit my pal Bimbo for aforementioned rhapsody on whipped cream - and here's why; this part here, where she goes:
I don't know if I'm really this passionate about whipped cream. I am about cooking. Really, the most important thing in any dish is to respect the ingredients, the process and artistry, and through that, the people you're nourishing.
Amen. Preach on, sister.
Go visit my pal Bimbo for aforementioned rhapsody on whipped cream - and here's why; this part here, where she goes:
I don't know if I'm really this passionate about whipped cream. I am about cooking. Really, the most important thing in any dish is to respect the ingredients, the process and artistry, and through that, the people you're nourishing.
Amen. Preach on, sister.
Monday, April 9, 2007
How to Win Friends and Influence People
or...a recipe for disaster.
This recipe starts in your refrigerator, 4 days before payday and 2 weeks after you bought Big Groceries. First, channel the spirit of my Scottish grandfather. Become grumpy and parsimonious. Then
Chop 1 onion and put it in the bottom of a large pot with some oil. Cook the onion until it's soft.
*this step is to fool bystanders into thinking you're making something amazing and delicious, because nothing smells better than a frying onion.*
Go into your fridge and take out everything that isn't a condiment or an uncooked egg. I mean EVERYTHING. That little cup of tuna salad, the boiled egg, the custard cup of fruit cocktail, the sad leftover half cubed steak. Rice, pasta, potato salad. 3 green beans, a quarter head of lettuce, and the bottom scrapings of the jar of pesto you can't bring yourself to throw away. Dump it all in the pot. Do not think twice, you are pretending to be my Scottish grandfather who never threw anything away. Dump it all. If you have a ketchup bottle with just an inch in the bottom, throw that in as well. BBQ sauce, sprouting garlic, a wrinkled potato. It all goes in. Chop up the big stuff.
Then add a large can of diced tomatoes, and a can of kidney beans.
Allow this delicate melange of ingredients to simmer and meld into the flavor of the stuff in the bottom of the garbage disposal. Don't taste it. Just trust me...don't.
Now is when you season it. Add as much black pepper as you think you 'd like, then add some more. Add some red pepper for heat, and paprika because it excels in hiding the flavor of tuna salad.
Then, feed this to your family for an entire week, telling them that they won't get anything else to eat until it's all gone.
This is the defining recipe of my childhood.
This recipe starts in your refrigerator, 4 days before payday and 2 weeks after you bought Big Groceries. First, channel the spirit of my Scottish grandfather. Become grumpy and parsimonious. Then
Chop 1 onion and put it in the bottom of a large pot with some oil. Cook the onion until it's soft.
*this step is to fool bystanders into thinking you're making something amazing and delicious, because nothing smells better than a frying onion.*
Go into your fridge and take out everything that isn't a condiment or an uncooked egg. I mean EVERYTHING. That little cup of tuna salad, the boiled egg, the custard cup of fruit cocktail, the sad leftover half cubed steak. Rice, pasta, potato salad. 3 green beans, a quarter head of lettuce, and the bottom scrapings of the jar of pesto you can't bring yourself to throw away. Dump it all in the pot. Do not think twice, you are pretending to be my Scottish grandfather who never threw anything away. Dump it all. If you have a ketchup bottle with just an inch in the bottom, throw that in as well. BBQ sauce, sprouting garlic, a wrinkled potato. It all goes in. Chop up the big stuff.
Then add a large can of diced tomatoes, and a can of kidney beans.
Allow this delicate melange of ingredients to simmer and meld into the flavor of the stuff in the bottom of the garbage disposal. Don't taste it. Just trust me...don't.
Now is when you season it. Add as much black pepper as you think you 'd like, then add some more. Add some red pepper for heat, and paprika because it excels in hiding the flavor of tuna salad.
Then, feed this to your family for an entire week, telling them that they won't get anything else to eat until it's all gone.
This is the defining recipe of my childhood.
Saturday, April 7, 2007
Once A Month Cooking
This is contributed by JerseyChick, excruciatingly busy mother of 3. I can testify to the tastiness of the recipes, because I did it before #4 was born, to have homecooked meals whilst juggling a newborn and 3 preteens. I'm pretty sure if you ask nicely she'll share.
Here is a culinary adventure: Make 28 entrees in one day. Put most of them in gallon freezer bags (5 went in casserole dishes) and every night for the rest of the month, all you have to prepare is the pasta/rice/couscous/starchy and green veggy sidedishes. 20 minutes, tops.My sister-in-law gave me the book 6 or 7 years ago. We did it for 2 years, took time off, and have done it sporadically over the past year. Amazingly, they do fit in a normal top freezer. Side freezers probably take more coordinating. The variety is great- want Chinese tonight? Indian? Mexican? BBQ? Beef? Fish? Chicken? Vegetarian? Low fat? It's all in there.Yesterday was chopping veggies, cooking and dicing chicken, frying ground turkey, and shredding cheese. Today was assembling the dishes. The girls helped a bit, we dirtied and washed every mixing bowl in the house (twice), and voila! Done in 6 hours. I bribed Mr. Wonderful to clean the kitchen with extra egg rolls.$225 got me all our dinners and sides for a month. Mr. Wonderful likes every one of the entrees. Yeah, it's weird, but it works for us.
Here is a culinary adventure: Make 28 entrees in one day. Put most of them in gallon freezer bags (5 went in casserole dishes) and every night for the rest of the month, all you have to prepare is the pasta/rice/couscous/starchy and green veggy sidedishes. 20 minutes, tops.My sister-in-law gave me the book 6 or 7 years ago. We did it for 2 years, took time off, and have done it sporadically over the past year. Amazingly, they do fit in a normal top freezer. Side freezers probably take more coordinating. The variety is great- want Chinese tonight? Indian? Mexican? BBQ? Beef? Fish? Chicken? Vegetarian? Low fat? It's all in there.Yesterday was chopping veggies, cooking and dicing chicken, frying ground turkey, and shredding cheese. Today was assembling the dishes. The girls helped a bit, we dirtied and washed every mixing bowl in the house (twice), and voila! Done in 6 hours. I bribed Mr. Wonderful to clean the kitchen with extra egg rolls.$225 got me all our dinners and sides for a month. Mr. Wonderful likes every one of the entrees. Yeah, it's weird, but it works for us.
Friday, April 6, 2007
Strawberries...
...are in SEASON!
Who's got a good strawberry recipe? All I ever to with them is eat them straight from the carton as soon as I leave the store.
This lady (I have no idea who she was but she was certainly gregarious) pointed into my buggy at the boxes of strawberries and said "If you get you a box of AngelFood Cake mix and mash some berries up in the batter it's real good. Your cake's all pink and pretty." Other than my aversion for AngelFood cake it sounded good.
Who's got a good strawberry recipe? All I ever to with them is eat them straight from the carton as soon as I leave the store.
This lady (I have no idea who she was but she was certainly gregarious) pointed into my buggy at the boxes of strawberries and said "If you get you a box of AngelFood Cake mix and mash some berries up in the batter it's real good. Your cake's all pink and pretty." Other than my aversion for AngelFood cake it sounded good.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Biscuits
Biscuits- everyone has their favorite method. Here's mine.
2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup shortening (or lard, if you like to live dangerously)
1-1/4 cup buttermilk
Mix the dry stuff together. Cut in the shortening so the mix looks like coarse cornmeal. Gently stir in the buttermilk, until there's no dry lumps. If the mix is a bit wet, sift in a dab of flour. If it's too dry and won't come together as a ball, add a dab of buttermilk. Try not to work the dough too much, as this makes the biscuits tough.
Pat the dough out onto a floured board until it's about an inch thick. Use a glass to cut out round biscuits, or just cut the dough into squares. Round's more authentic. Frankly, tho, square biscuits taste the same to me.
Put on a greased cookie sheet about an inch apart, and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until they're nice and golden brown.
You know that cream gravy recipe from earlier? Fry up some sausage and crumble it into the gravy, and serve that on top of a split biscuit. Yum, y'all.
Or, soak some thin slices of country ham in water about 10 minutes, then fry in a skillet. When the ham's got crusty bits on it, pour in a cup or so of coffee. Remove the ham and stir the coffee with a whisk to get the crusty ham bits up. This is Red Eye gravy, as I was taught to make it. Like anything, everyone has their own method. My mom puts raisins in hers, which is kinda good in a weird Rootie's Mom sort of way.
Country ham for the uninitiated is salt cured ham, and best eaten in very small doses.
2 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/3 cup shortening (or lard, if you like to live dangerously)
1-1/4 cup buttermilk
Mix the dry stuff together. Cut in the shortening so the mix looks like coarse cornmeal. Gently stir in the buttermilk, until there's no dry lumps. If the mix is a bit wet, sift in a dab of flour. If it's too dry and won't come together as a ball, add a dab of buttermilk. Try not to work the dough too much, as this makes the biscuits tough.
Pat the dough out onto a floured board until it's about an inch thick. Use a glass to cut out round biscuits, or just cut the dough into squares. Round's more authentic. Frankly, tho, square biscuits taste the same to me.
Put on a greased cookie sheet about an inch apart, and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until they're nice and golden brown.
You know that cream gravy recipe from earlier? Fry up some sausage and crumble it into the gravy, and serve that on top of a split biscuit. Yum, y'all.
Or, soak some thin slices of country ham in water about 10 minutes, then fry in a skillet. When the ham's got crusty bits on it, pour in a cup or so of coffee. Remove the ham and stir the coffee with a whisk to get the crusty ham bits up. This is Red Eye gravy, as I was taught to make it. Like anything, everyone has their own method. My mom puts raisins in hers, which is kinda good in a weird Rootie's Mom sort of way.
Country ham for the uninitiated is salt cured ham, and best eaten in very small doses.
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
and now, the anti-lentil-loaf! by Antiprincess
Who's got something to say about chicken-fried steak?
as in - what exactly the hell is one trying to accomplish when "chicken-frying" a perfectly good piece of steak? or is it a matter of trying to deftly camouflage a somewhat-less-than-virtuous hunk of beef?
Ordinarily I'd be acting out on my lentil loaf obsession, but I had a request from Antiprince, so I thought I'd ask y'all.
as in - what exactly the hell is one trying to accomplish when "chicken-frying" a perfectly good piece of steak? or is it a matter of trying to deftly camouflage a somewhat-less-than-virtuous hunk of beef?
Ordinarily I'd be acting out on my lentil loaf obsession, but I had a request from Antiprince, so I thought I'd ask y'all.
Lentil Loaf Smackdown Part the First
Antiprincess has issued a challenge. Bring on your finest lentil loaf recipe, with a prize for the most authentic, weirdest, and most edible.
The prize? dunno yet, perhaps it's the honor of having a publically recognized lentil loaf recipe. Perhaps I'll make a kitchen widget you can put on your blog, informing the known universe that you make a damn fine lentil loaf!
I swear I can feel my leg hair growing every time I say that.Lentil loaf lentil loaf. Yup. Almost braidable.
(Bad rootie for making fun of that staple of organic lesbian collectives everywhere) Anyway, I'm off to see if I can scare up Laurels Kitchen and her once-tried recipe for Lentil Loaf.
The prize? dunno yet, perhaps it's the honor of having a publically recognized lentil loaf recipe. Perhaps I'll make a kitchen widget you can put on your blog, informing the known universe that you make a damn fine lentil loaf!
I swear I can feel my leg hair growing every time I say that.Lentil loaf lentil loaf. Yup. Almost braidable.
(Bad rootie for making fun of that staple of organic lesbian collectives everywhere) Anyway, I'm off to see if I can scare up Laurels Kitchen and her once-tried recipe for Lentil Loaf.
Cookbook! by Antiprincess
I have a lot of cookbooks. Over 35, more or less. I got Betty, I got Moosewood, I got Silver Palate, I got The Campbells Soup Cookbook of 1968. I got French, Russian, Amish, Kenyan and Danish (in Danish). I got pies, soups, appetizers, garnishes and How To Cook His Goose (and everything else). Beautiful hardbound with luxurious ribbon markers and luridly appetizing pictures compete for shelf space with wirebound fundraisers and food manufacturer's pamphlets. I love them all equally, from The Cordon Bleu Handbook of Dessert Techniques to the St. James Episcopal Church Altar Guild Cookbook.
I try to pick up old cookbooks every chance I get. I prefer them used, well loved, grease stained, oh! and annotated I love annotated. A few weeks ago I had a tiny seizure of grief when I had to leave a delightfully splotched and scrawled 1972 edition of the Bloodroot Lesbian Feminist Bookstore and Cafe Collective Vegetarian Cookbook - the price just barely eclipsed the pocket money I had on hand. That would have been quite a prize. But I really can't resist any of them, no matter what shape they're in. I feel like I must give them all a home.
So, like, why? Why cookbooks? Short answer - Because once upon a time, after a freak accident involving an oven and some tupperware, my (now ex-) husband destroyed - DESTROYED - the five or six cookbooks which comprised my...er...dowry. To be fair, I did insult his mother (to wit, "what kind of idiot keeps her tupperware in the oven?"), but jeez...watching him tear up the pages of The Sixty Minute Gourmet, my medieval redactions cookbook, and, oh, my Horn of the Moon! my American Frugal Housewife! my friends, my oracles! all in piles of fragments of tatters of shreds. Well, that was then - this is now. You may thank that despicable sumbitch for my cookbook habit, which I am now delighted to share with you on this new website.
Anyone want to know how to make bokoboko?
I try to pick up old cookbooks every chance I get. I prefer them used, well loved, grease stained, oh! and annotated I love annotated. A few weeks ago I had a tiny seizure of grief when I had to leave a delightfully splotched and scrawled 1972 edition of the Bloodroot Lesbian Feminist Bookstore and Cafe Collective Vegetarian Cookbook - the price just barely eclipsed the pocket money I had on hand. That would have been quite a prize. But I really can't resist any of them, no matter what shape they're in. I feel like I must give them all a home.
So, like, why? Why cookbooks? Short answer - Because once upon a time, after a freak accident involving an oven and some tupperware, my (now ex-) husband destroyed - DESTROYED - the five or six cookbooks which comprised my...er...dowry. To be fair, I did insult his mother (to wit, "what kind of idiot keeps her tupperware in the oven?"), but jeez...watching him tear up the pages of The Sixty Minute Gourmet, my medieval redactions cookbook, and, oh, my Horn of the Moon! my American Frugal Housewife! my friends, my oracles! all in piles of fragments of tatters of shreds. Well, that was then - this is now. You may thank that despicable sumbitch for my cookbook habit, which I am now delighted to share with you on this new website.
Anyone want to know how to make bokoboko?
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Guess what's for supper!
Sometimes I don't feel like cooking. Hard to believe, I know! But, sometimes, I just...don't. Like today, for example. It's just the 2 of us, and the thought of hauling out pots and heating up the kitchen for just 2 people is not appealing right now.
So, I have a Code, to tell SD when I'm wanting someone else to do the cooking and cleanup. I don't use it often, because cooking is great fun! But I do use it occasionally and he's generally happy to oblige, given the alternative. It goes like this:
SD:"Hey, whats for supper?"
RT: "Tuna casserole"
SD: "so, where'dya like to eat tonight?"
So, what's your favorite recipe for Tuna Casserole?
So, I have a Code, to tell SD when I'm wanting someone else to do the cooking and cleanup. I don't use it often, because cooking is great fun! But I do use it occasionally and he's generally happy to oblige, given the alternative. It goes like this:
SD:"Hey, whats for supper?"
RT: "Tuna casserole"
SD: "so, where'dya like to eat tonight?"
So, what's your favorite recipe for Tuna Casserole?
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