FoodB

I did so well last week. I was drinking a lot of Mountain Dew so I guess all that energy had to go somewhere.

I grilled up some homemade carne asada on Monday night and made taco from that and some grill onions and peppers. I tried to make it a sweet marinade because Jenn can't take spicy food. The result was okay and I just didn't feel inspired yesterday to write about it.

Last night though Jenn made her spaghetti. She made me promise not to divulge the recipe and since she goes to sleep after me at night and I don't want to wake up with a knife over me I've decided to agree to those terms. She make a damn good sauce in my opinion and I could eat it without the noodles if I felt so inclined. I told her once that based on her sauce alone that I would never leave her and I pretty sure she thinks I should just marry the damn sauce.

Tonight I am going to cook up some chicken parmesan with the leftover sauce from last night. Chicken parmesan is one of the easiest meals I know how to cook and ever since I learned that I just can't order it at restaurants anymore. Here's how I prepare it:

Take 2 pieces of boneless skinless chicken breasts and tenderize them with a meat hammer thing. You want them to be flatter than they come but not thin so go easy on the whacking. Cut each of those pieces in half lengthwise. Scramble about 4-5 eggs in a bowl and prepare a bowl of breadcrumbs (I use Progresso's Italian bread crumbs). Take each strip of chicken and dip them in the eggs and then dredge it in the breadcrumbs. I always double coat so I put it in the eggs again and dredge once again to get a thick coat on the chicken and then put it aside. If you have a deep fryer you can fire that up or heat about 3 cups of oil in a frying pan and cook each piece until it is a golden brown.

Get a baking dish (I use a square 9 x 9 dish) and put a little spaghetti sauce on the bottom. If you don't have leftover sauce the stuff that comes in jars is okay for this recipe (I prefer the Newman's sauce, most of the other stuff has to much sugar in it). Put the chicken on top of the sauce and sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top of the chicken. cover it all with sauce and top the sauce with a lot of mozzarella cheese. Bake that at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes and serve. I usually just put it on top of left over noodles from the night before and make a side salad.

Seems like a lot of work but once you get used to making it, it only takes about 30 minutes all together. It's also one of the few things that I have made for my wife that she remark how amazing it was. Of course I blew the whole deal by showing her how easy it was to make but for those few hours I was on top.

Posted by Gordon at 10:12 AM | Permalink

Last week I found country style pork ribs were on sale for about $0.80/lbs and having never cooked country style pork ribs I figured what would it hurt if I lost my 3 dollars. I've cooked a lot of ribs in the past (mostly beef ribs) and never heard country style rib cut so I had to do a little research. The cut is located closer to the shoulder of the pig which is a very fatty area and has some odd bones that make eating difficult. Below is an image I found of where the ribs come from which helped me decide how to cook them.



The recipe I used called for an extended sit in a rub that consisted of about every spice we had in the cupboard. After that I threw it on the smoker for 3 hours and basted it with BBQ sauce every 3 hours.

They were edible which was to say they were unremarkable. I don't think the cut of meat lends itself well to slow cooking or BBQ'ing in general. When I was growing up, my mother used to cook this cut of meat in the oven probably around 400 degrees plus and smothered in BBQ sauce. She used to call them spare ribs which until a few years ago I thought spare ribs didn't have bones in them just a lot of fat. So my little experiment with another cut of pork didn't work out as well as I hoped but it was only 3 bucks and I am getting two meals out of it so I'll have more money for comic books.

Posted by Gordon at 09:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

I knew that after trying to make the soup that I was going to spent as far as making anything the next night so I generally make something the next night that requires as little prep and cook time as possible. One of my old standbys when I don't feel like cooking and need to eat is good old knockwurst.

We buy the Hebrew National beef knockwurst which are more like hot dogs than real knockwurst but taste much better than hot dogs. I also topped out my BBQ time for the week so I jsut went ahead and pan fried them, which if you do it at a lower temperature is just as good as grilling can be. It was really nice to be able to have some free time to read last night instead of worrying if the damn soup would be good.

Tonight I make pork chops. I've never grilled pork chops before so it should be a fun experience. I plan on brining them and making some kind of dipping sauce or maybe a glaze of some kind.

Posted by Gordon at 08:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

After watching it done on TV I got the grand notion in my head that I should make Chicken Noodle soup. Man was I way out of my league on this one.

First thing was I had to make the broth. Cutting up the chicken was pretty fun. I've never used our meat cleaver for what it was intended and I have to say that it's somwhat theraputic to take your agressions out on a piece of meat. Broth usually takes about 6-8 hours to create but the recipe I had sped that up by frying the chicken parts first to help them release their juices quicker. I saved the breast because that was going to be the meat in the soup. After about boiling the chicken for about an hour we had a hefty amount of broth.

After straining out the spent pieces and removing the fat after it settled, I added some vegetable and the chicken breasts that I had reserved. Last thing was adding egg noodles and spicing it to taste. The entire process took about 3 hours and we had a really late dinner on Tuesday.

I'm not posting the recipe because I was very underwhelmed (yes, I'm on a Sloan kick at work). The broth was okay and needed a lot of salt to help the flavor. After all of that work I think I was expecting to much because once I ate the first bite I tought that I could have saved 3 hours by just opening a can. Next time I plan on trying the old tried and true method of cooking the broth for 6 hours instead of trying to shortcut it.

Posted by Gordon at 09:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

3 updates in 3 days! I must either be feeling really good or just to lazy to work.

In buying food for Jennifer's Shrimp Thermador, apparently I purchased the wrong kind of shrimp. Jenn wanted the Ultra-Jumbo shrimp and I bought just regular old normal sized shrimp. Having seen a few episodes of Hell's Kitchen, I was expecting a spatula upside my head and a few choice words but Jenn somehow forgave me and went to the store to get the proper sized shrimp.

That left us with a pound of shrimp and with what I paid for them we were definitely going to be eating them. So I turned to the (almost) always trustworthy Americas Test Kitchen and found this recipe:

Pan-Seared Shrimp with Ginger-Hoisin Glaze
Serves 4 (More like 2 to me)

Ginger-Hoison Glaze
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons water
2 scallions , sliced thin

Shrimp
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 1/2 pounds shrimp (21/25 count), peeled and deveined
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon granulated sugar

1. Stir together hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, water, and scallions in small bowl. Set aside.


2. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in 12-inch skillet over high heat until smoking. Meanwhile, toss shrimp, salt, red pepper flakes, and sugar in medium bowl. Add half of shrimp to pan in single layer and cook until spotty brown and edges turn pink, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat; using tongs, flip each shrimp and let stand until all but very center is opaque, about 30 seconds. Transfer shrimp to large plate. Repeat with remaining tablespoon oil and shrimp; after second batch has stood off heat, return first batch to skillet along with hoisin mixture and toss to combine. Cover skillet and let stand until shrimp are cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes. Serve immediately.

Both of us really enjoyed it even though the portions were pretty small. Next time I make this I plan on doubling the recipe and serving it over rice, which would have been perfect together.

Tonight is knockwurst which means that I don't want to prepare something with more than 3 ingredients.

Posted by Gordon at 09:11 AM | Permalink

Saturday I got to BBQ. I had my heart set on making some lamb chops that I had a recipe for but when I went out to buy them all they had were the little lamb loin chops. The recipe called for the larger steak size chops. Finding a good selection of lamb seems to pretty difficult here in California and if anyone knows any markets that stock lamb send me an e-mail.

So I went to the store and settled on making a pre-marinated pork roast. My mom turned me onto those prepackaged pork packages (alliteration rules) that they sell in the meat section about a year ago and I've been meaning to try them again. I didn't have time to marinade my own meat (yes I said it) so it was wither that or make hamburgers.

The pork needed about 45 minutes to reach 160 degrees (the safe temp for pork) and was really good once sliced. The marinade was an onion/garlic liquid that went really well with the roast.

As a side dish I made the Creamy Squash And Sweet Potato Parcel from Rob Rainfords show License to Grill. Here is the recipe:

Ingredients
1/2 cup of cream
2 tablespoons of dry white wine
1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
Half a stick of butter
1 tablespoon of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons of brown sugar
1/2 a pound of sweet Potatoes, cubed
1/2 a pound of squash, cubed
1 onion, finely diced
2 large pieces of tin foil

1. Combine the cream, wine, cheese, onion, butter, parsley, nutmeg, cinnamon and sugar in a bowl.
2. Combine the sweet Potatoes and squash in a separate bowl. Double the foil pieces by placing one large piece of foil on top of the other. Empty the vegetable mixture into the center of the foil and season with salt and pepper. Spoon the liquid cheese mixture over the vegetables. Fold the sides of the foil up to create a parcel and seal the foil shut.
3. Preheat to grill to 350ºF/175ºC.
4. Place the foil package on the grill and cook with the lid closed for 30 minutes. Cook until the contents are soft.

This was pretty good and I might have messed it up a little by forgetting to add butter. Other than the butter I thought it could use a bunch more brown sugar. I think there aren't too many things better that brown sugar and squash together.

Posted by Gordon at 01:26 PM | Permalink

Jenn wasn't feeling well this last week so I was in charge of keeping the house running, which is exhausting on top of 8 hours of work. Luckily we have a good assortment of cookbooks to resource from and I wasn't a complete idiot when it came to cooking this week.

On Tuesday I made tacos, which is something that isn't to difficult to make just time consuming. When I was growing up, my mom would generally just fry up some ground beef and spices and we would have tacos from that and life was good. Then I got married and Jenn introduced me to the whole Lawry's taco mix and new taco flavors were presented to me. Now that I am becoming a food snob, premade mixes are okay in a pinch, just not prefered. So when one of my favorite food shows, Americas Test Kitchen, tackled making tacos, I decided I would have to try what they suggested.

Here is the recipe:

Beef Tacos
Makes 8 tacos, serving 4

Beef Filling
2 tbsp vegetable oil or corn oil
1 small onion , chopped small (about 2/3 cup)
3 medium cloves garlic , minced
2 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
Table salt
1 pound ground beef
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup chicken broth
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tsps cider vinegar
Ground black pepper

Shells and Toppings
Taco shells
Shredded cheddar cheese
Shredded iceberg lettuce
Tomatoes, diced
Sour cream
Avocado, diced
Onion, diced
Minced cilantro leaves
Taco sauce

1. Heat oil in medium skillet over medium heat until hot and shimmering but not smoking, about 2 minutes; add onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 4 minutes. Add garlic, spices, and 1/2 tsp salt; cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add ground beef and cook, breaking meat up with wooden spoon and scraping pan bottom to prevent scorching, until beef is no longer pink, about 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce, chicken broth, brown sugar, and vinegar; bring to simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, uncovered, stirring frequently and breaking meat up so that no chunks remain, until liquid has reduced and thickened (mixture should not be completely dry), about 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.
2. Using wide, shallow spoon, divide filling evenly among taco shells; place two tacos on individual plates. Serve immediately, passing toppings separately.

The recipe was really good and I noticed it took about as long as the mix would have taken so I'm going to throw all of that stuff away. Also I have to beg everyone not to buy premade taco shells. It may seem scary making your own shells but it is so worth it. I don't have a cool taco shell maker yet so I still make mine with a pair of tongs and a fork. Just keep the heat around medium so you can control the splatter and you will really notice the difference when eating fresh shells as opposed to the stuff you buy. Or you could just go with flour tortillas if you are strapped for time.

Posted by Gordon at 10:50 AM | Permalink

We've been getting pretty lazy the last few weeks and eating out a lot more than usual. Lucky for me though because I am the one that does the dishes.

One of our new favorite sushi eateries is a small little place called Maru Sushi. Jenn and I have driven by it on several occasions being as it is only a few lights away from our house and every time we tried to eat there, they were closed. We heard from other people in the area that the place was really good and finally decided to go there on a Friday before we went to a Throwrag concert that we went to.

Ever since we moved from Oregon we have been trying to find a good sushi place. Our favorite before we left was right down the street from Jennifer's parents house, Sagami Tai's. It is a Tepan and Sushi place that is kinda hard to find and is always packed with folks from the surrounding neighborhood. We went there a couple of times a month and really missed it once we left (until we found I love sushi in Beaverton). After we moved back we went back and I guess the original owner sold the place. They still had the tepan and sushi but it had become an all you can eat place and they had changed the menu and gotten rid of a lot of my favorite rolls. So for the last year we have been trying other places but haven't been overwhelmed with our options.

Maru is like a mix of I love Sushi in Oregon and the Sagami Tai that I remember. The rolls are enormous and the prices are reasonable. Most of the rolls come out to 10 or 12 pieces each, which if you know sushi you are lucky if you get 8 at most places. They have a deep fried California roll as well as a really good unagi (freshwater eel) roll which are my favorite rolls to get and most places don't serve. When we ordered sashimi we literally got a pile of about 16 pieces, again most places your lucky to get 6. Both times we have been there we have walked out stuffed and only paid around $40 which is a miracle if you not at an all you can eat place like Todai. We are very happy that we found this place and finally can tell people that we know of a good sushi place in Orange County again.

Also we decided to get out of the house another day because it was just to beautiful to waste. Since I hadn't eaten I got to choose where we got to eat and settled on Smokin' Mo's BBQ in Huntington Beach because I knew of it and had heard good things. Generally when I go to BBQ place I judge them on their brisket because I know what it takes to make a good brisket (also how to mess one up) and most every other meat on a BBQ joints menu are pretty easy to fake. Brisket when done right is a thing of beauty and you can really tell the skill of the cook behind it. That being said Smokin' Mo's is more of a St Louis style BBQ place so there is more emphasis on pork and all they had for beef was a shredded beef sandwich. I settled on the sampler plate which was a crapload of food but I figured that was the second best way to test how well the cook knew his BBQ. The sampler consisted of Shredded Pork, Chicken and Spare Ribs.

The ribs were pretty good but someone needs to tell them that if they are going to be a St Louis style BBQ place that they need to cut the ribs St Louis style. Spare ribs have a flap of meat that hangs over the bone that contains a lot of bone bits as well as chunks of gristle which is never good to bite down on. The St Louis style cuts that portion off and usually is thrown in with the beans to add flavor. They were cooked really we and slid right off the bone when I ate them. The chicken was okay but I have never really been much of a fan of smoked chicken. The meat on smoked chicken seems not to cook all the way through and feels mushy to me. I think they smoked it half way and grilled it the other half which eliminates a little of that but I still prefer straight grilled chicken. The shredded pork was good as well but I wasn't saying wow when I finished it. There seemed to be a lot of water in the meat so I think they were keeping the meat in a heating dish. Not bad BBQ, but for the prices they were charging I was expecting more. Also their side dishes were really lacking. With all of the meat I didn't have much room for side dishes but an eight of a cup of beans and coleslaw made me feel like I was getting ripped off.

So next time I am craving BBQ I'm just going to have to head out to Lake Forrest to Texas Pit Bar-B-Que because I can get good brisket there and I feel like I am getting my money's worth. Not that Smoki' Mo's was bad, just disappointing.

Posted by Gordon at 02:55 PM | Permalink

Ugg. Wanted to post this yesterday but got busy in the morning and sick in the evening. I gotta say that it sucks to get sick at the end of a work day because you don't get to skip work and the time you have at home is marred by feeling like shit.

I was dead set on BBQ'ing this weekend. It has been over a month since I last fired up the 'que and I feel like they're going to take away my BBQ'ing license if I don't get out there and start burning things. Hell I cooked more on the grill in winter than I have so far this summer. So I went back to where I started when I was expanding my BBQ repertoire (yes I had to look up how to spell that) and consulted Steve Raichlen's BBQU website. I settled on making his Pancetta Grilled Scallops because a) it seemed easy, b) it was different than the usual chicken/steak that I usually cook on the grill and c) I ain't ever cooked shellfish before on the grill. So off to the market.

The scallops were kinda expensive but since I was experimenting I wasn't worried about that but finding pancetta seemed a little tougher. Instead of trying every deli I could find I just went straight to the only Italian deli I know in the area, Lucci's Deli. They were able to slice it as thinly as possible and I was able to pick up some frozen gnocchi while I was there for a dinner to be named later. In addition to the scallops I decided to make some chicken yakitori as well just in case the seafood didn't work out and some corn because I always try to grill vegetables when I get the chance.

Getting the scallops prepared was the most time consuming part of the whole day. Basically it was like trying to wrap a wet piece of paper around a wet piece of soap. The pancetta was prone to tearing at the slightest misstep and made for some interesting looking scallops. After that I rested and waited for our guests to arrive because it would only take a few minutes to cook everything.

After the coals were fired up, I set my $10 Weber kettle together and threw on the corn. Once the corn was on I knew I had a problem because they took up about half of the grilling area and I had a lot more food on the way. So I fired up the propane grill and threw the corn on there. Found out sometime later that I was out of gas so they got moved once more to the oven inside. With the charcoal grill free I threw everything else on. The scallops were really temperamental on the grill and were very tough to control. The pancetta sent a lot of fat onto the coals which caused a significant amount of flair ups and I don't feel like they came out as good as they sounded on paper. If I ever decide to do wrapped scallops again I plan on just pan frying them and skip the open fire portion of the show. Much easier to control heat in a pan than on a grill.

The chicken though was nice. Instead of brushing the sauce on the chicken while cooking I would really suggest marinating them. The sauce doesn't stick very well because of the mirin and it would just add a lot more flavor. I really enjoyed them little sticks of meat though and over the last year I have grown a new respect for chicken thighs.

The corn was my favorite of the meal which I think is funny because it was also the cheapest. I threw some BBQ rub as well as some salt and pepper in the foil pack before I cooked them and thought it really helped change something that I am so used to into something else. I'm going to try throwing some lime juice and cilantro on next time and see if that helps any (I saw Emeril do that one).

So it was an okay BBQ experience. I'm definitely leaving the scallops to the professionals from now on and am already starting to think about what I can cook next weekend after seeing the Packers take Phillip Rivers out for the year.

Posted by Gordon at 01:09 PM | Permalink

Jenn had a whole chicken that we were going to roast in the oven last week and due to thawing issues we ended up having to postpone our chicken baking for a few days. By the time Sunday came around Jenn had changed her mind and was craving fried chicken instead of roasted, which was perfectly fine by me because I am always down for fried food even though I try to eat healthy. She has tried a few times to fry a chicken with recipes we have found online and have had mixed results. This time she wanted to go to a source she knew would deliver on the goods, her mom. We invited Rita over to teach her how her Grandmother used to fry up chicken and we had a nice little Sunday dinner. As well last week we were supposed to make fried polenta earlier in the week and always forgot that we needed to let it sit for 2 hours before making it. Prep work that requires sitting time is pretty difficult during a work week and we usually end up skipping recipes that require it. So Sunday was a journey through a couple of fried foods, one familiar and one foreign to us.

The fried polenta was very interesting. It's really hard to describe because I don't think I have ever had anything like it. My first taste made me think I was eating warm corn flakes, which now that I think about it I kinda was. Basically it is cornmeal and butter that is cut into strips with parmesan cheese over and you dip it in marinara sauce. We just used store bought marinara sauce and I thought it would have been great as an appetizer for one of those times that you don't want to make the usual finger foods for a party. It wasn't a hit with Jenn, but Rita and I loved it and nearly finished it all ourselves (the recipe makes about 30 finger size sticks). Here is the recipe if you are curious: Fried Polenta

The chicken was a pretty easy recipe as well basically all Rita did was add salt, pepper and paprika to flour and shake it in a bag with the chicken parts. Then she cooked the chicken pieces in about 1/4 a cup of vegetable oil until all of the sides had a nice golden crust on them. Seems to easy I agree, but it made for some tasty chicken. Next time we make it were going to try adding some things that we like and see if we can make a recipe that is ours.

Tonight we are having the Beef and Cheese Manicotti I was going on about last month again. Jenn is going to try the recipe this time with ground veal instead of ground beef and we shall see what the results are. We use ground veal for some of our recipes and it seems to add a lighter flavor that regular ground beef does to recipes. It costs about a dollar more per pound but sometimes it's worth it.

Also this weekend I get to BBQ again. I found an old Weber kettle on Craiglist a few months ago for $10 and have only have chance to fire it up once now. They're going to take away my BBQ license if I keep neglecting my 'cues like I am. If you're keeping score at home, I now have 3 grills. 1 Propane based grill, 1 charcoal kettle, and my R2-D2 looking smoker.

I haven't decided what I want to cook yet on the grill but I might try these Pancetta Grilled Scallops with some vegetables. They look pretty easy to cook and I've been meaning to throw some shellfish on the grill for awhile now.

Posted by Gordon at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)