Monday, April 30, 2007

Can-based Chicken A La King

2 cans cream of something (mushroom, celery, chicken, whatever. don't use two of the same unless you suck)
a pound of processed leftover chicken. I chop mine.
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can chickpeas
a big handful of parsley

drain all the veggies, remove all the soup, add to one large pot or pan or whatever the fuck. chop the parsley rough, then add it and the chicken. stir briefly and finish with fresh black pepper.

reheats well in the microwave. it's breakfast.

serve over whole wheat egg noodles.

Saturday, April 28, 2007

The Mother Sauce Rap!

Need I say more?

"Veloute is made with stock...."

Friday, April 27, 2007

Plans for this weekend

M-A-R-Y-L-A-N-D Day is Saturday, so I'll hit up campus for free nitrogen and Dairy ice cream and a journalism school notepad.

Then we fire up the grill and do some beer can chicken. I'm stoked.

While Googling for "beer can chicken" I found a link to a site called Cooking For Engineers, which amuses me in name only - that's rare. I'll have to check it out later - deadline is, as always, my main focus.

Pictures I've been forgetting.



This time we've got the rice noodle spaghetti (aka Clean Out The Fridge Pasta) and some skillet porn.

Sunday, April 22, 2007

Egg rolls - yum

So good, I didn't take pictures. But I did shoot one of my skillet after a scrubbing and good fry session - I can see myself in it.

The trick with these is practicing. Try it the way they show you on the box, then roll a few taquito-style, then fold the sides before you roll, then roll it like a...hand-rolled cigarette.

Oh yeah - it'll suck unless you use a thin skin - the ones that had a double layer were way too chewy.

The fried ones were done in a cast-iron skillet with vegetable oil high enough to go halfway up the egg rolls. I make fat egg rolls, apparently.

I also baked some in an oiled pan, and they turned out nice, but I flipped them too early. They require flipping to get GBD on both sides, but they've gotta be hard on the heat side to be worth flipping.

Monday, April 16, 2007

Cheesy Psuedokonomyoki

1 package rice noodles
leftover frozen baby vidalia onions, warmed through and chopped
1 block mozarella cheese, chopped half fine, half in 16ths.
butter
garlic
red curry paste.

when the noodles are boiled, throw them into a large pan that contains the rest of the ingredients, and combine with tongs. Eat immediately, or let cool, freeze, then microwave for a psuedo-noodle cake.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

I write about restaurants that haven't opened, too.

Like in this story, which is the first google hit for "diner-type restaurant"

It ran on the bottom left of that day's front page.

A1, yo. It's not about the steak sauce, cause the steak sauce sucks - it's about eyeballs.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Braised Drumsticks

I did this with smoked turkey drumsticks available at my local supermarket. They're cold-smoked, so they need to be cooked all the way, meaning this recipe could be done with a drumstick of pretty much anything. My inspiration was the Disneyland turkey leg, even though I've never had one.

Place two drumsticks in a pan. Fill the pan half way with a 6 parts to one mix of cranberry juice and good apple cider barbecue sauce. Cover with foil and put on the top rack of your grill or oven at 350. Check and baste every fifteen minutes because I'm too lazy to recook this one.

If you're using a grill, get extra drums and toss a few on the hot part with a little oil. Flip when you see the bottom golden, and cook half as long on the other side. Hold the bone with something head-resistent, and you've got a snack until your braised drums are done.

Wine Journal - Episode 1

If I keep drinking wine but not taking notes, I'll never remember anything, and what's more Web 2.0 than monetizing your brainfarts?

2004 Matthew Fox Merlot. California. Obtained from groovy lesbians who were moving out.

I drank it with leftover Ledo's pizza. (Go to Ledo Restaurant, not the ripoff bullshit Ledo's Pizza places) It was good. Tannins weren't too heavy, and the sweet Ledo's sauce danced nicely with the fruit.

I used a glass that had been left out for two days in a sauce, chronicled in the last post, and it was very noticable. This one definitely needs decanting and would be great in sangria.

Cleaning Out The Fridge Pasta

Boil smoked turkey wings in covered pot. (I can buy these, along with smoked necks and drumsticks (much better) at my supermarket. If you can't, ham hocks maybe?)

Cut up 1 knockwurst and 2 bratwurst, grilled and slathered with grainy brown mustard. saute the pieces until they get some color.

remove the sausage and brown a pound of ground beef.

when the wings are done, pull them out and put them in the freezer - they're too hot to work with just now.

Boil rice noodles in the turkey water after rinsing them - the gelatin in the water leads to clumpiness otherwise.

When you can hold the wings without severe pain, tear the skin off, grab them by the ends, and twist like you're giving someone an Indian burn. (each hand in opposite directions) peel the meat, bite off any nasty stuff at the ends, then chop to your desired consistency. I didn't beat it up too badly, but I love all things gummy and chewy. If you can't stand gummy and chewy at all, make this recipe with only a kielbasa for the meat and you'll be happy.

when noodles are done, drain them and build the sauce in the same pot.

1 can ragu four cheese spaghetti sauce
the meat
a big lump of sauerkraut
leftover sauteed onions and apples

stir together and serve over rice noods. i added a glass of leftover merlot and it worked nicely. no parmesean, amazingly, though now that i write that, i'm tempted to add it. there's sriracha in there too, like everything red i eat. habanero would be overkill, but a small dab at the beginning of the sauce-building would be great with the merlot - yay fruity.