Follow the Litre...of Cola

Well, I told you I made sausage all day on monday.  I don't know how many more times I am going to do that all by myself.  it's a little bit of an undertaking.  I think I spent about 4 hours doing all of it (20 lbs!).  I did get quite a bit of kielbasa and linguica out of it though. Don't get me wrong, I love sausage more than anything. It's just that after doing that much, I'm over it for a while.  Good thing I bought that freezer...

To the foods:  The sausage dish is German meal revisited (aka, the Reitz stuff).  Wife was telling me that I would have been pals with her gramps.  They used to invite everyone over and make tubs full of sausages, which makes me agree wholeheartedly.  The other dish is a variation on my teriyaki bowl.  Since it is glorious blood orange season, I decided to make a little blood orange teriyaki sauce.  This particular bowl has some flaked salmon, sauteed snow peas, and collard green chiffonade.  I have really been digging the collard greens lately.  Most times, you just think of braising them or whatever, but I have been trying to get the most out of them.  This way was a pretty big hit.  Topped the bowl with some segmented blood oranges, it was a nice finish to round out the fatty (that's good fat, fools!) salmon. serve it over jasmine rice and digs.

other newsworthy news:  I added a "follow this blog" tab to the page.  So, sign up...all the cool kids are doing it.  

DISH recommends:

Cuisinart 4 cup rice cooker.  I know, it's kind of an extravagance, but I like having a rice cooker, dagnabit!  also nice that it has a warming feature so you don't make krispies...around 50 smackers.  www.cutleryandmore.com

Blood orange teriyaki sauce:

juice of 2 blorange

2-3 tbs oyster sauce

couple healthy dashes soy

1-ish tbs sugar

combine all this glorious stuff in a bowl, and mix well, then reduce in a very hot pan until desired consistency achieved.  try it, you won't regret.

Because sometimes I make sausage all day long...or EUREKA!...I...um...forgot...

Weekend eats. Tasty treats. We were so cold and hungry on saturday night. Needed something substantial to ward of the frigid briskies (also my band name, don't even think about stealing it, hipsters.) Steak was the solution. booyah achieved. Sunday morning around our house means breakfast. We take sunday morning breakfast pretty seriously. This time, it was Croque Madames. Wife had a great idea to make a smoked gouda bechamel. It turned out great. I liked it quite a bit. A Croque Madame is basically a grilled sandwich with an egg on top. I suppose you could put whatever you wanted in the layers, but I usually do some ham, bechamel, and cheese. the top gets a little more bechamel, cheese, broiled in the oven until melty and finally an egg (and you better make that over easy, over med. at max!:). ok, so you won't find it on any Weight Watcher's menu, but sometimes you have to treat yourself. Everything in moderation, man. Oh, we usually don't eat lunch on sundays, just a snack or something.

Notice the beautiful egg yolk on that pic. If you haven't given free range eggs a go, you really should. In this country, chickens are treated like animals (oh, ...wait a minute), I mean, well, they're treated very poorly. take comfort in the fact that these get to actually have beaks and run around doing chickeny stuff. It makes a difference. If you don't believe, then I will give you some of mine and you can do a side by side taste-off with your stodgy old beakless birdy eggs. Also made some authentic chicken tortilla soup. I did this because I had some free range chicken to use up and I had wanted to make this for a while. I did it the old school way, with epazote, roasted ground chiles, thickened with charred corn tortillas. excellent. It was as good as any I have had. If anyone's interested in the do, let me know, I have to go make 20 pounds of sausage now. no, seriously, I am. Either I am a fool, or just someone who is up to my deeps in pork butt...or both...foolishly up to my deeps in butt. pieces.

DISH recommends

LeCreuset Stock pot. I think that mine is a 12 quart. Not quite sure, but I don't want to go look right this minute. It's bomb proof. and can hold enough to feed a militia. usually around 60-99 clams.

EGGLAND'S Best Cage free eggs. Super Creamy,dark, velvety egg yolks can be expected when you cook up one of these conveniently packaged treats. Highly recommended. A little pricey, but suck it up. don't buy so much soda or something, quality only hurts once, or in my case, about every two weeks.

"Fox in the Snow" or "The Big Schlep!"

Wife and I had been craving thai food.  However, since we have committed to dining out once a month, we had to figure this one out on our own.  I had tried to recreate this dish from our favsies place, but had never succeeded.  I called up my cousin Lyndi (who was born and raised in Thailand) for some tips and was quite pleased with the outcome.  My main problem was that I wasn't using enough Oyster sauce.  The dish turned out really well.  The veg was a tad overcooked, but that was my fault (I forgot wife was going to do Pilates after work:)  

Snidenotes, I mean sidenotes:  We took a hiking photog trip to the platter river on saturday afternoon.  We made sure to bundle up as it was ridiculously cold.  Snapped some sweet shots.  I know marth will get the chops reference, I mean fox reference, anyone else?  I thought the railroad shot was pretty cool.

DISH recommends:

Nikon D40 SLR:  My camera of choice.  For the avid snapper (photos, not the flaky to firm whitefish) this is a pretty sweet beginner's slr.  I will be upgrading to a different lens soon, but I have been more than pleased with the quality of my pics.  Around $500, stores everywhere.

Thai do's:  serves 4ish 

1 lb meats (chicken, pork or beef, or tofu) (I used chicken thigh meat)

about a cup or so of broccoli florets

5-6 scallions, cut on the diagonal in 3 inch pieces

2 cloves garlic, sliced thin (goodfellas thin)

handful of snow peas

 ""mung bean sprouts

dry pint of mushrooms. quartered.

1 cup chiffonade collard greens

1/3 cup oyster sauce

couple dashes fish sauce

about 1/4 cup stock

1-2 tbs soy sauce

splash white vinegar

sprinkling of sugar

heat up a skillet and put in some veg oil.  add your scallions, garlic, and mushrooms.  saute for a couple of minutes.  add your broccoli, and go a little longer. now add your chicken, collard greens, oyster sauce, fish and soy sauces.  once this has all incorporated, add the snow peas, stock, vinegar, and sugar.  cook until the chicken is done and thickened as you like.  add the sprouts 2 minutes before serving.  you can always add a little more stock to thin out.  serve over jasmine rice. or you could do noodles too.  I like rice, it's twice as nice.

The mysterious dinner sillies

Maybe it was the fact that we both love tostadas.  Maybe we had both had really long days.  whatever the case, tostada night turned into a laugh factory.  I don't remember how it started but we started laughing and couldn't stop.  I call this a case of the dinner sillies.  They come out of nowhere, sometimes in public, hopefully in private.  guard yourselves...

anyway, yeah tostadas rock.  these were flank steak. I usually try and make them out of some type of leftover meat, but we were really craving them, so I just made them right out.  notice my proper drinking etiquette...nice.  it looks like wife's aim is off on that bite:)

here's your do:

get a cast iron really hot and add some thinly sliced peppers and onions, garlic, olive oil to the pan.  season with cumin chili powder, coriander, salt and peps. add the chosen meat (not necessarily a meat selected by a higher power, just what you are hungry for:) and saute until starting to brown.  add a small can of tomato sauce, some stock (matching your chosen meat), and let reduce until thick as you like.  adjust seasoning if necessary. at the last minute throw in some cilantro.  top with avocado, sour cream, shredded cheds, salsa, and cilanch.  pieces

DISH recommends:

cast iron skillet by lodge.  usually under 20 clams.  These will outlast you, cockroaches, and even keith richards.  You can usually even pick one up at a garage sale or the Teej.  the best part?  you don't have to clean them.  after you are done, just rinse with hot water, throw in some kosh and wipe it around with a paper towel.  sounds gross?  not hardly, squeemsters.

Hey, who are ya? H.R. Puffandstuff?

Sorry, Sorry...I meant to post a while back, but I have just been busy with my new exercise/life schedule.  I started doing yoga on non-lifting days and it seems to eat up a lot of time.  However, I like it quite a bit.  It's pretty intense.  I'm usually pretty drained by the end.  So, on to the food.  Last saturday at work, we made some prototypes with our new puff pastry recipe.  things turned out pretty well. (from left)  We made a cherry turnover, blue cheese and walnut crisp, I forgot how to spell this (sounds like pom-ee-ay), and apple basket thingy. as you can see they all have pretty technical names:)  they were pretty delicious.  we thought that the cinnamon was a little strong in the apple thing, but otherwise they were really good.  hopefully we can get a more permanent thing going with them.  The two dishes pictured here are the elk stew from last week and "chicken Madeline", a dish I came up with for our friends. the chicken dish is really tasty, recipe below.

ps. don't you think that the apple thing looks like a "luchador" mask?

Dish Recommends:

Cuisinart Chef's classic 12 in. skillet w/ helper handle.  www.cutleryandmore.com.  I use this thing a ton.  It's got perfect weight and really nice and even heating.  Mine has been going strong for about five years now.

Chicken Madeline: serves 4

1 pound boned and skinned chicken breasts

2 crowns broccoli, cut down into bite sized pieces

salt and peps

chicken broth/stock

couple splashes heavy cream

1 shallot diced small

1 clove garlic, thinly sliced

cut the breast meat in half lengthwise (like a butterfly cut, but go all the way through) and then into thirds (so you end up with naked chicken strip looking things).

season with salt and peps and then saute in olive oil until browned on both sides (but, not necessarily all the way done). remove from pan and set aside.  in the same pan, add a little more oil and then add your shallot and garlic, and let them just start to brown.  Add your broccoli and saute until starting to get really green.  add a couple of splashes of stock and then keep cooking until tender/crisp.  return the chicken to the pan, add a bit more stock and then the heavy cream. let reduce until thickened (about 4-5 min).  If you are having trouble thickening the sauce, you can always remove the chicken and broccoli with a slotted spoon and just have the liquid in the pan.  Sometimes I throw in some grated parm.  this dish is great with roasted tates, but would be equally good with pasta or rice.  have some friends over and enjoy.  food tastes better with friends. make them bring dessert.

It's a one set of "footprints" day.

I'm pretty pressed for time today so I am not going to write very much.  I will try to post tomorrow with recipes and stuff.  We had a fry-up last week, which is pretty unusual for us.  I figured that we fry things about once a year, so that's my justification.  We did onion rings and some blue whiting.  I used a beer batter from a really flavorful ale that martha gave me.  It was pretty delicious.  the pork picture is a chop with an apple cider gastrique.  I served that with some braised kale. I also made cookies last week.  They were delicious.  I have so much to do today.  will write more tomorrow. pieces.

what's yours is "Minestone"

I had never made minestrone before.  I was planning out the menu for the week (you do that too, right?, of course you do.) and came across this recipe from Martha Stewart.  It was magically delicious.  There are so many "good things" in here.  Red onion, celery, carrot, pasilla peppers (my addition), tates, cannelini beans, cabbage, peas, tomatoes, and pasta (I used penne).  Made some sourdough croutons for supreme crunchiness, OH SNAP!

so, back to the menu thingy.  You really should give it some consideration.  wife and I have committed to dining out only once a month.  There are a few reasons for this.  The obvious one being that it saves a lot of money.  Number two reason:  It makes going out special.  We have a certain dollar amount that we set aside for things, i.e. going out to eat, etc.  by saving this money up for a month, we can afford to go somewhere really nice and not just a lot of really craptastic places.  the other obvious reason: It makes me a better cook and it makes me think about what we are putting into our bodies.  So....back to the menu...again...sorry, I got sidetracked there for a bit. every sunday, I make a menu for the week.  You might think that this a pain or you don't have time for this, I say phooey to that!  if you have time to watch tv, you have time to do this.  get together some cookbooks and just go through them and pick out some recipes you want to try.  arrange them into a week's worth of meals, being conscious of not serving similar things two days in a row, and then VOILA!  you have your grocery list.  remember what I said about saving money?  Well, you only need to buy things for what is on your menu.  You can eat leftover's for lunch that next day (because your dinner was so tasty, you'll be looking forward to a rerun), so your pretty much covered for the week.  Don't forget to pick up healthy snacks and fruit and veg.  

otherworldlynewsworthy news:

I am going to be a baking machine today.  cookies, galettes, and pie crust dough.  but first, I need to take mbf on a walkies and work out. pieces.

DISH recommends:

Making a Menu:  have you picked up the theme for todays post?  try it for one week, if you hate it, well, then you're probably a little bit stupid, but you can come up with some other inferior method:)  here's the menu for this week at my house:

Sun: Minestrone w/ sourdough croutons

Mon: Pork chops w/ apple gastrique, roasted potatoes, and braised greens

Tue: Spaghetti Marinara w/ snow pea salad

Wed: Shepherd's Pie w/ sauteed Broccoli

Thur: Ale-Braised Cornish hens w/ roasted root veg

Fri: Teriyaki Salmon Bowl

Sat: Rustic Elk stew

"Hey, Moses...give me a break here, we've been eating quail forever!"

Let me just say, for the record, I love chicken.  However, I need a break.  we've been eating chicken all week long.  I made some chicken salad with the rest of my braised chicken leftovers, and last night I made chicken normandy.  My version is sauteed chicken breasts instead of the dredged and fried stuff.  the normandy sauce is basically stock, apple cider, and cream.  pretty tasty.  I served it on top of some pureed potatoes.  The potatoes were actually almost a disaster.  I was going to just make mashed potatoes, but somehow all the water in my pot (lid slightly ajar) had evaporated and the potatoes were just starting to brown on the bottom.   I added a little water and scraped up the browned bits and then just pureed them with some of the normandy sauce.  nice save.  sauteed zucchini rode shotgun and it was all over from there.  here's your do:

chicken breasts

apple cider

chicken broth/stock

salt and peps

olive oil

in a med. skillet, heat a tablespoon of olive oil.  add your seasoned chicken breasts and brown on both sides.  as soon as they are browned, add about 1/4 cup of stock to the pan, scraping up the bits with a wooden spoon.  this will reduce and get thick, I promise.  when it does, add about the same amount of cider.  let this get thick again, and add a little more stock.  on the last time, instead of cider, add a couple of splashes of heavy cream.  by now, your chicken should be done and juicified.  slice chicken on the diagonal and top with sauce.  serve with raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

DISH recommends:

Gerber's all natural "amish raised" chickens.  No hormones, additives, or science junk.  just chicken.  all tasty. all the time. I think they even let them have beaks, OH BOY!

A Colon One

So, the other night I used my new pot to braise a chicken.  I forgot to take a picture.   Just know that it was crazy delicious.  I had a ton of meat left over and was wondering what I was going to do with all of it when I thought that making a galette would be a great idea.  My sister in law made one over the holidays that was pretty tasty.  her version was leeks and mushrooms.  Mine...well I wasn't sure what mine was going to be so I just kind of played jazz.  A couple of skee bop's and a shoobady doo later, I had made a pretty tasty filling. shredded chicken, caramelized onions, feta cheese, cottage cheese, eggs, spinach, salt and peps.  it kind of reminded me of spanikopita.  Also, I forgot to mention that I made the crust from a "Gourmet" magazine recipe.  I picked up a cookbook a while back on Gourmet magazine's best of the last 50 years or something.  they claimed that this crust recipe was especially delicious.  However, as usual, I had to improvise because their recipe was a little wonky (one version too small, one too big).  I did like that they combined both butter and shortening.  It made for a very flaky, tender crust.  will definitely use it again.  I would post some sort of recipe for this since it was so good, but I'm not even sure what i did really. hmmm...the world may never know. (ps...I hated that kid on the tootsie pop commercial.  I didn't like that smug owl either...not one bit.) 

Other newsworthy news:  ok, so I know a couple posts back I briefly mentioned a total body cleanse.  I never really followed that up did I?  that's what I thought.  well, the other day at work Martha said, "hey, have you ever looked up those testimonials on colon cleansing?"  My response was no, and I have to admit, I was more than intrigued.  I looked them up when I got home and they were pretty horrifying.  disgusting. etc. etc.  well, it really made me think, "wow, what if one of those terrible half jump rope half gila monster petrified turds is lurking in my deeps?"  I figured I had nothing to lose (well...) so I went to whole foods and bought this total body cleanse deal.  I was a little reluctant to try it, but so far, I feel better than I have in a long time.  it is supposed to clean your liver, kidneys, colon, etc.  I haven't had any CYE car wash moments yet, but we'll see what happens.  I still have a couple of weeks to go.  yeah, yeah.  I realize some of you might grimace or wince, but come on, you know what they say "death starts in your colon."  Or is that "death lurks in your colon?"  Hmmm, I'll have to get back to you on that one.

DISH recommends:

Yerba Prima Men's Rebuild Internal Cleansing.  They also have a women's version.  because you could swallow pipe cleaners, but there's no guarantee you'll get them back.

pps. I oiled my cutting board.  doesn't it look nice?

Just call me Aaron Burr...

I broke down and spent some christmas dough.  We went to omaha yesterday to exchange some things that wife had bought for me (which, by the way was a total loss because the JCrew store in omaha stopped carrying men's clothing!?!).  We did make a couple of extra stops at whole foods and sur la table.  oh, and also world market, which I had never been to.   I picked up an oval "Coq au vin" pot made by staub. It was 50% off! I couldn't believe it.  It is the yellow one in the picture on the left.  The picture to the right is my new pot and pan setup perfected by wife.  There was some serious organization going on yesterday (by her, not me:).  

speaking of what do you use a "Coq au Vin" pot for, it has come to my attention that there are people out there wondering just what to cook in a dutch oven.  Well, I guess my answer to that would be, "Lots of stuff."  I use mine for soups, stews, risottos, curries, roasts, etc.  The main thing I do with them is braise.  you cannot beat the performance of these for braising something.  here's your do:

take a whole chicken and cut it up into six pieces (you can also buy a cut up chicken if you are not hip to the breaking down of whole birds).  Season how you like (I like salt and peps, lemon zest, some herbage, and maybe some minced garlic) and brown in olive oil (in your dutch oven of course). you're using medium-low heat right?  you bet you are!  after browning, remove chicken pieces and set aside. (do not let the bottom of the pan burn, that means you have the heat too high.  you want a nice golden brown color on the bottom, this is called "fond" and adds lots of flavor to your final product)  at this point, I usually add some diced onion and whole garlic cloves, diced celery, and a bit more olive oil.  let these soften, then deglaze (pour liquid into hot pan, scraping up the browned tasties) your pot with your choice of liquid.  I would use something other than water, like stock/broth, beer, wine, vermouth, etc. then add the rest of the veg you want in there.  I would recommend some of these: carrots, potatoes, celery root, turnips, parsnips, tomatoes, mushrooms, etc.  season your veg liberally with salt and peps, and then add your chicken pieces back on top.  liquid should come up 3/4 of the way, so supplement if it does not.  throw this into a 350 F oven for about 1-1.5 hours and grab a chair, you'll need to sit down after the flavor explosion.

ps. you can separate the broth from the finished product and thicken it up with a roux or cornstarch slurry, if you'd like.  sometimes I do, if I am feeling like more of a gravy than a broth.  

DISH recommends:

Staub "Coq au Vin" 6 qt. Oval dutch oven.  Sur La Table. Omaha, Ne.  135 clams.  50% off.  Where are you going to find another deal like this??? Nowhere!  so get out there and get one!

Unlike blue jeans, TA gines, are not self-cleaning.

well, a lot has happened since last post.  Major kitchen revamp, a fruitful trip to o-town, and total body cleansing.  what????  oh, yes, it's true.  let's start with the food.  I made some pepper steak a few days ago.  always a quick and tasty dish.  I used sirloin steak, but really, I just use whatever is on sale.  basically, you get a cast iron super hot and throw in some veg/olive oil, (the veg oil raises the smoke point so you can add the olive, but not without the veg) thinly sliced onions and peppers (red, green, pasilla, whatever you have), garlic, super thin slices of beef, salt and peps, chili powder, cumin, coriander, cilantro, a little balsamic, and a little can of tomo sauce.  this will reduce quickly, and when that starts happening, I add beef broth, (splashes).  throw in some rice, and then just keep reducing and adding more broth.  yumsters.

Also, some get well soup was made for wifeshow.  she was feeling a little under the weather. that's whole wheat sourdough, not a baked potato.  Last night I used the new tagine for the first time.  We made a veggie tagine with potatoes, celery root, carrots, and cauliflower.  The sauce was sauteed onions, garlic and tomatoes, pureed with cumin, cinnamon, coriander, and curry powder.  it turned out pretty excellent.  I am pretty excited to cook a chicken in the tagine, but alas, that shall be another post.

DISH recommends:

Staub tagine: amazon.com???  I really couldn't find a match for the one I bought.  I got mine from TJMAXX.  duh.  anyway, I think I paid about 40 clams.  a great way to cook, things stay super moist and delicious.  highly recommended.