Showing posts with label i. Show all posts
Showing posts with label i. Show all posts

Jerky Chicken – Because I just can’t call it “Jerked Chicken” and keep a straight face!

Sunday, May 11, 2014

The “Jerk” style of cooking comes to us from Jamaica. The term “Jerk” actually comes from the term “Jerky,” which comes from the Spanish “charqui” (Char-key), which is basically meat dried over a slow wood fire. Today “Jerk” doesn’t refer to the cooking method, but the fiery spice mix that is rubbed on the meat before it’s grilled. The key ingredients in this spice mix are Allspice and dried Scotch Bonnet peppers (one of the hottest peppers on earth!). Other common ingredients include Cloves, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Thyme. There are countless combinations, so I suggest you buy a high-quality pre-mixed Jerk spice mix (thats what I did – after carefully checking the ingredient list to make sure I was getting the real stuff). If you want to make your own Jerk mixture, you can certainly do a Google search and you’ll have a couple thousand formulas at your disposal.

The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity. It has just 3 basic ingredients and since the spice mix is so flavorful and intense, we don’t need to add much. Also, please note the trick I show before applying the “wet rub” when I “score” the chicken breast with the knife. This is a great trick for several reasons that I explain in the clip. By the way, I serve this tasty breast over my famous “12 second” coleslaw, which I will demo soon. I also mention garlic-infused oil which I used to sauté the chicken, and I will demo that soon as well. In the meantime, if you don’t have any garlic-infused oil, just add a couple crushed garlic cloves to the marinade.

Ingredients:
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
2 tbl Jerk spice mix (usually allspice and dried Scotch Bonnet peppers, cinnamon, nutmeg, and thyme)
1/2 orange, juiced
salt to taste
garlic oil to sauté
*if you don’t have the garlic oil, just add some fresh garlic to the wet rub and sauté in plain vegetable oil
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MY RECENT ENCOUNTER WITH TIGERS I mean tiger prawns Bagda ChingDi

Saturday, April 26, 2014

The other day after finishing a marathon Prawn cooking session, I washed and cleaned the whole mess in the kitchen and thought, it was time to eat one piece before my wife makes a head count.
I picked up one prawn and was about to put it in my mouth, when suddenly the prawn smiled at me and said...
"Hi!!! thank you, I am so grateful to you!! I am so happy!! I never received such a nice treatment from any one during my last 100s of births."
" Hey I never met a talking Tiger prawn before".
" I am not a Tiger , I am a Tigress prawn".
" Sorry dear, now tell me why you are so happy!!"
" You human beings are very cruel and ruthless, people pull and tear off our heads alive, peel our skin mercilessly, then pull out our guts, which you call veins. Imagine some one doing it to you!! "
" But why you are happy ?"
"You are very considerate and affectionate. You treated us very kindly and delicately. I have taken some photographs and see for yourself."
You bathed us and arranged very nicely 



You took out your Red handled scissors, which you used on me once in Vietnam and many times in Korea and Kuwait. You positioned the scissors at the right place and cut off the front part of my head gently. You Bongs are very fond of chewing our heads ( Chhele byala theke tomra parents der matha chibote abyastho).



You cut off the pointed middle part of the tail so that it did not hurt any one. You inserted a knife very carefully from the front and scooped out some unwanted material and you were very careful about not to spill my yellowish brain.


With your delicate move , you cut through my scale from the top all the way to the tail  with the red scissors. And with that sharp Korean knife you removed my gut ( vein as known wrongly). You kept my skin in place with a slit on top.

You put us one by one in boiling salted water for 30 seconds and took us out one by one.Wao!! we came out of that water in crimson red attire.Why you dont saute us some times in oil and instead you put us in boiling water ?."

"Well when I remove your head and scale I saute you in oil else I put you in boiling water to solidify your semi liquid brain to a yellow mass, so that it doesnt flow out . Your brain is quite tasty. Moreover it imparts that crimson red color to your skin. You look so pretty and  yummy!!! 
"How sweet of you !!! I pray  that in all my future births , God sends me to you only."
The Tigress continued with " You know dud, I was bit apprehensive about the recipe that you would use..you naughty guy, you know many ways of cooking us..but when you decided to use Sharmisthas recipe from COOKA DOODLE DO, I was so over joyed. It really makes us very tasty with that little variation she had used. Give our regards to her and we will drop by her kitchen in future. Now eat me quickly , cant wait any more".
So that was the recent encounter with the Tiger prawns.
IMPORTANT NOTE
I cook with head and scales some times, to make the dish look good. The head is kept for chewing, a delicacy for all Bongs. To cook the head, it must be well frozen and preserved and not spoiled.The heads degrade very fast and not fit for eating always.
The other important thing is, the typical prawn flavor comes from the scales and the head. I boil the prawn and keep the liquid as frozen cubes in refrigerator. I use it in Indian and Chinese dishes. If you are dressing the prawn at home i.e if you are removing head and scale at home, saute the skin and head for 30 sec in 1 tsp oil then boil them in water with  salt, few piece of ginger, onion garlic pod, and one or two green chili. Remove the head and skins and preserve the stock. You can use it later while cooking dressed prawn, Chinese or Indian. The flesh of prawn is almost tasteless and aroma-less.





THE RECIPE

We all know how to cook prawn in many ways. So I am not going into big details. I will make Malai curry. No matter how you cook prawn with coconut milk, gram masala , ginger, garlic onion etc , it will be alway great. This Malai Curry is a funny name. It has nothing to do with Malai. Prawn is being cooked with coconut in Malabar area  from time immemorial. Many say that the name has come from Malabar curry , which I dont think is correct. One popular theory is that the recipe was brought from Malay ( now Malaysia) by British to Calcutta then the capital of British empire. And over the years Malay curry has become Malai curry.
As shakespeare has said " whats in a name ? A prawn malai curry will taste like prawn malai curry no matter what you call"
I have many variations of Malai curry. But  I decided to use the recipe of Sharmistha  from COOKA DOODLE DO.  I had never used Tomato in Malai curry  before and also wanted to try out the  roasted garam masla powder and ghee as a post seasoning/ addition.
The variation that I had to do was to use the prawns with head and skin by the order ( not request) of my wife. Sharmistha has used dressed prawns.
INGREDIENTS
 Prawns (medium sized) -700gms ( undressed)
Coconut - 1/2 (cream and milk extracted as usual)
( I had to use packed coconut milk 150 ml, it must not be used in Malai curry , unless you get a thin Thai variety milk, not coconut cream.) 
*Onion - 1 medium size, finely chopped.
*Tomato - 1 medium- finely chopped
*Ginger paste - 1tsp
*Garlic - 1 tsp
*Bay Leaf - 1
*Whole Garam Masala - 3 elaichi; 2 cloves; 1 inch  cinnamon stick
*Haldi - 1 tsp
*Red Chilli powder - 1 tsp
*Kashmiri Chilli powder - 1tsp
*Salt - to taste
*Sugar - a pinch
*Roasted and ground Garam Masala powder - ( made from equal proportion of cardamom, clove and cinnamon) 1 level tsp
*Ghee - 1 tbsp
*Green Chilli - 4
*Potato - 1 medium - diced into small cubes  (optional, normally not used in Malai curry ), sauted  lightly in little oil.)
*Mustard Oil - 3 tbsp

PROCEDURE
*Clean prawn as described above by the Tigress.
*Take 3 cups of water in a pan, add salt, 2 green chili broken, 2 cubes of ginger 1cm X 1 cm. 1 small onion cut to 4 pcs, 4 puds garlic halved. (If you are sure , you wont use prawn stock for Indo-Chinese dish , then you can add 1 bay leaf, 2 cardamom, 2 cloves and 1/2 inch cinnamon ).
Bring to boil and reduce heat , add each prawn as soon as it is cleaned. ( This is to stabilize and solidify the brain and impart uniform crimson color.) and remove within 1 min. Material used here are in addition to the ingredients given above.
 NOTE: Preserve the stock frozen in cubes for future use in dishes where you use dressed prawns). This stock is generally not necessary when you are using prawns with head and scales.
*Soak in 3 tbsp water,   turmeric,  chilli powder,  kashmiri chilli , salt for 15 minutes and make a paste
*Heat Karhai and add mustrad oil.
* Add 1 level tsp sugar and caramalize ( will become light brown molten sugar)
*Add bay leaf and garam masala seasoning
* Add finely chopped onions and fry to light brown
* Add garlic paste , saute for 30 sec and add ginger paste.
*.Add the Masala paste and saute; add Tomato and keep frying till  the Tomato melts and oil comes out.


* Add the fried potato and stir for 3-5 minutes on low heat..
*Add the coconut milk and 3/4 cup of water. Cook on low heat till the potato is almost done.


*Add the prawns, mix well. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. If it is too thick add water to desired consistency 



* Add the green chillies slitted..
*In a skillet heat the ghee and put the roasted and ground garam masala and immediately put  it on the curry. Mix well and cover.




ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Sincere thanks to Sharmistha for this wonderful recipe. For details of this recipe visit
 http://cookadoodledo./2009/04/chingri-machhaer-malaikari.html
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Tour of Ireland Part I Dublin

Friday, April 4, 2014

Question: How many days does it take your body to recover from 7 straight days of binge drinking?

I left Ireland two weeks ago and yet Im still fairly certain my liver is working overtime to right the many wrongs I committed against it. But despite any damage I may have done to my internal organs, it was totally worth it to see the sheep (more on that in future posts), the landscape (ditto), and to drink unpasteurized Guiness (more on that in EVERY SINGLE POST I DO ABOUT IRELAND!).

The first stop on our itinerary was Dublin. We landed at 6 in the morning, Irish time, and immediately went to pick up our rental car. I then proceeded to scream in terror for the next 45 minutes during the drive to the city center. Irish roads are narrow as ish yall, and driving on the left side of the road is realllllllll trippy the first few times you do it. 

After battling morning rush hour traffic, we arrived at the Four Seasons. I was really excited to see our room, not only because I had never stayed at a Four Seasons, but because I needed to pee like, real bad.
The beautiful fresh flower arrangement greeting us upon arrival at the Four Seasons

Ill say this: the Dublin Four Seasons IS incredible, but the room itself was fairly modest. It was quite large, but the bed was "springy" and the TV was pretty out of date (not that we spent any time in the room watching it, of course). 

On the upside, however, I believe that any hotel worth its salt has great toiletries and a terry cloth bathrobe in the room, and in THAT way, the Four Seasons did not let me down. 
Both Kyle and I had been to Dublin before, so we did less sight-seeing than we did eating and drinking, however, we did manage to stumble upon a  real live bagpiping band...??? Is that a thing, what I just said? Ah, well, anywhere, here:
Both of us had done the Guinness brewery tour (which, btw, you must do, even if you arent a Guinness drinker), so this time we decided to take a tour of the Jameson Distellery. Iiiiiiiiiittttttttt...wasnt as good as the Guinness tour. Unless youre a big whiskey drinker DYING to see mannequin reenactments and a taxidermied farm cat (yes, really), save the 12 euro and just hang out at the bar and get a really well made Irish Coffee or Whiskey Hot Chocolate.
We also stumbled across a random farmers market which I OBVIOUSLY photo-documented wildly.
I dont care what luxury bread is; all I know is, I need it, and I need it yesterday!
The Irish may not be known for macarons or pain au chocolat, but they probably should be.
I even managed to find a paleo dessert amidst all the potatoes and beer!!
I was dying...DYING...to try this smoked goat cheese. I get the feeling it would be absolutely amazeballs in this.
On our last night, Kyle and I went back the The Pearl Restaurant, where we ate at on our first trip to Dublin. It was also the same night he told me he loved me for the first time. And in answer to the question youre asking? No, he did not propose to me. I know, right??? Oh, but anyway, the Pearl is fantastic French cuisine. Definitely go there and order the pumpkin risotto. 
I can only assume it was my stunning good looks that compelled the bartender to invite me behind the bar for a personal lesson on Guinness pouring.
Clearly, I now run the bar.
And when Im not running Irish shit, Im drinking their cider.

The next day, we had to leave Dublin, but we made sure to fill our bellies with some hearty Irish meals. Kyle had an Irish stew:

While I proceeded to CRUSH a seafood pie. Covered entirely by mashed potatoes.
Like I said...DOMINATION!

Next up, Galway!! See you there!


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Things I Bought That I Love And Other Things I Want to Copy From Mindy Kaling

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

{Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns, Mindy Kaling}

When I identify someone I deem to be the [fill in the blank adjective here] version of me, I immediately make up elaborate stories in my mind about what great friends we would be. 

Case in point: Oh, Chelsea Handler? Shes like the alcoholic version of me. Were great friends because we like to retell stories from our childhood using superfluous profanity and embellished "truths." Lady Gaga? Shes totally the musically-gifted version of me. Were really close because we share a love of glitter, acting like models, and gays. (I could say the same thing about RuPaul.)

So, when I learned that Mindy Kaling was writing a book called "Is Everything Hanging Out Without Me? And Other Concerns" I was obviously all like "holy hell! She IS me!!!" I mean, a quick look at the book jacket tells you pretty much everything youre in for inside: pink, a pensiveness that could be mistaken for insecurity, and a reference to Toddlers & Tiaras. Im sorry, have we met?? 

As I read page 143, I literally dogeared it, it was so me. Like, physically, folded the upper corner of the page over just for future reference, it was so dead on. It reads:
"The Internet also makes it extraordinarily difficult for me to focus. One small break to look up exactly how almond milk is made, and four hours later Im reading about the Donner Party and texting all my friends: DID YOU GUYS KNOW ABOUT THE DONNER PARTY AND HOW MESSED UP THAT WAS? TEXT ME BACK SO WE CAN TALK ABOUT IT!
I found my productive writing-to-screwing-around ratio to be one to seven. So, for every eight-hour day of writing, there is only one good productive hour of work being done. The other seven hours are preparing for writing: pacing around the house, collapsing cardboard boxes for recycling, reading the DVD extras pamphlet from the BBC Pride & Prejudice, getting snacks lined up for writing, and YouTubing toddlers who learned the Single Ladies dance. I know. Isnt that horrible?"
Oh, did you forget you werent reading my writing?? Yeah, I had the same reaction.

So for those of you who dont know who in the hell Im gushing about yet, Mindy Kaling is a comedy writer, actress, and occassional girl group Subtle Sexuality member. Put simply, you probably know her best as superficial, ditzy customer service rep Kelly Kapoor from The Office.

What I like about Mindys book (oh yeah, were on a first name only basis) is its construction. While she follows something of a linear storyline, beginning with her awkward chubby years in high school crushing on a mean Sengalese boy named Duante Diallo, following her through her college years at Dartmouth where she meets two of her best and perhaps most defining friends, and finally her present day gig as a big time comedy writer, she tells her story in more of a short story, essay, or her own coined-term pleist (a piece with a list-y quality) kind of way. I also love the titles of each chapter. Do you ever notice the titles of my blog posts?? God, I hope Im not pining over clever blog titles for 27 minutes-plus on average for no good reason. A title that encapsulates simultaneously what youre writing about and is also just obscure enough to further pique your interest is an art form in itself. "Revenge Fantasies While Jogging" and "Why Do Men Put Their Shoes on So Slowly" are personal favorites of mine.

Beyond all of that though, "Is Everyone Hanging Out With Me?" is just a fun read. I laughed basically every 4 and a half minutes. And when it was over? Im fairly certain I shed a single tear. And then I suffered a temporary, but no less devastating, bout of depression. But the good news is, I can continue to get my Mindy-fix right on her own very blog "Things I Bought That I Love," which is exactly what it sounds like. So in the spirit of Mindy, I thought Id share with you a thing I bought that I love: So Delicious Coconut Milk Egg Nog.
 I have The Paleo Project to thank for this find, and you can be assured that well be enjoying a grotesque amount of this spiked with rum during her visit this weekend.
 Its simple, really. Its delicious, it tastes like cows milk egg nog, and when sprinkled with nutmeg, youll be transported to a place and time where Christmas threw up.
So anyway, you should probably just buy the book. And then sip this stuff. And then weep and weep and weep when youve finished both.
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California Spring Rolls – I used imitation crab for real!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

I get the occasional request for a sushi demo. I usually tell the viewer (politely of course) to go out for sushi and leave me alone. Properly made sushi is an art and take decades of practice to master. Now, of course I could fake my way through a simple California Roll, which is just the basic crab, rice and avocado rolled up in a Nori seaweed wrapper. But, even that requires properly cooked short-grain sushi rice which is quite easy to mess up at home. So I came up with this idea to combine the components of the California Roll and present it in Spring Roll form. If you saw our Chicken Caesar Spring Roll clip, you saw how easy (and healthy) spring rolls are. They are fast, beautiful, and perfect for the summer, when you just don’t want go anywhere near the stove. These rice paper wrappers are found in any store that sells dry Asian noodles, which is every large grocery store. You’ve never seen them because you’ve never looked for them; they’re on the bottom shelf.

Regarding the imitation crab I used for this recipe clip. If you’ve never thought about using it, it’s time to give it a try. Imitation crab has come a long way since it hit the market many years ago. It used to be fairly low quality; a little bit of Pollock, a lot of vegetable starch and other fillers, and probably a dose of good old Red Dye #2. Well, these days there are some very good quality varieties to choose from. READ THE LABELS! As I show in the clip, while still made mainly from Pollack many are also flavored with many different “real” fish and shellfish extracts including scallops, lobster, salmon, etc. It’s also a fat free food!

You may be surprised to know that many Sushi Bars actually use this higher quality imitation crab in their California Rolls, as the real crab would be cost prohibitive. Trust me, if you’re paying $2.75 for that California Roll, you’re not getting fresh Dungeness crab! Can you tell the difference? I hope so. There is nothing like fresh, sweet crab. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t also use the imitation crab for recipes like this. It’s inexpensive, delicious, and if you read the label, pretty nutritious. By the way, stay tuned for the very simple Wasabi dipping sauce I used along side these. Enjoy!



Ingredients:
spring roll wrappers (aka rice paper rolls)
imitation crab (flake style)
ripe avocado
shredded cabbage
red leaf lettuce
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Heart and Sole err I Mean Tilapia

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

I received a very nice email, and photo, from Jhe. In it she said, "I only started cooking a few weeks ago and Im getting better by the day. Tonight, I made your recipe for Sole Dore but used tilapia instead. I also didnt have capers so I made a simple lemon butter sauce. I attached a picture so you can see. My husband LOVED it and hes not a big fish fan. ...Please continue doing what you do."

All my usual kidding aside, these are emails that inspire me to keep doing what I do. Thanks!


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The Last Week of the Big Spring Push I Hope

Friday, December 27, 2013


As usual, we hoped to be planting the last main crops in the garden during the first week of June. As usual, we are probably at least a week behind. Im not feeling too badly about it, though. Weve not felt too pressured and have been working at an easy pace compared to last year. Most of our being behind can be attributed to the amount of rain we have had, and holding back on planting some things because the nights have been too cool to make hot-weather crops like melons, tomatoes, etcetera happy. On the other hand much of our not feeling pressured for time can also be attributed to not having to water constantly, as we did last year.

Peas are starting to flower, so we are looking forward to peas within a week or two. That will be nice; this is still the time of year when we have the least from the garden. Last years onions, leeks, parsnips, carrots, etcetera are gone, as is the overwintered spinach. Asparagus has already come and gone for us. The rhubarb is still holding out. *winces a little.*



Lettuce is the main thing available right now, along with arugula and some Chinese greens (Baby Bok Choy and mustard). We put some lime (calcium) on the leaf rotation beds last fall, and the lettuce does seem to be doing a better this spring than weve ever seen it before. Of course, the cool rainy weather helps too.


These are some new experimental crops for us.

The leafier ones are chick peas. I probably put them in too late. I keep thinking of them as beans, which need to go in late (i.e. around right now) but they are much more like actual peas, which need to go in as soon as you can find some soil  under the snow. Alright, its a good idea if the soil is actually thawed out too. Still, they are looking not too bad. We shall see.

The other one is a cow-pea relative from Italy, called Fagiolina del Trasimeno. Its a quite tiny bean, used in its dry form although apparently it can be eaten fresh as well. The advantage to being tiny - not a quality I would have sought out myself - is that it cooks in 45 minutes without soaking. I got these trading with a friend, and Im quite excited about trying them. I was also impressed that they were pretty much all up within 3 days.


Theres the asparagus, quickly turning to a forest of ferns. The asparagus beetles, both striped and spotted are busy gnawing away, and laying eggs. The rhubarb is next to then, then some new beds which will ultimately be other perennial fruit and vegetable beds, but which will hold melons and some items we would like to go to seed, for saving purposes.


The wet bed area is living up to the name this year. Its been very squelchy and hard to get in to do the work. Peas went in early here, but are not looking great. I think it is finally too wet for them, and also a rabbit has been eating them. Mr. Ferdzy put out the live trap, and we took it for a drive in the country. One way. No doubt another will be along shortly but so far so good.


Speaking of pests, I think we have finally solved the riddle of the deer. This is also thanks to the wet spring we have had - we followed the footprints around through the trail of destruction and found one by this gate. Closer inspection showed that the netting between the posts was hanging loose. It looked okay at first glance, which is why we had missed it. Mr. Ferdzy attached it back, and added a few cross posts for good measure. The deer has not been back since. Co-incidence? We sincerely hope not.


We are using a somewhat disturbing quantity of petroleum based products in the garden this year, but I cant say I care much. They are helping so much. Row covers are the latest addition, and I think they will be required to make squash, melon and cucumber growing possible. The squash bugs and cucumber beetles are BAAAAACCCKKK! Not nearly as bad as last year so far, we hope, but enough to concern us. Weve planted our cucumbers and zucchini, covered them with row covers, then set an extra plant still in a starter pot out next to them. These are easier for the bugs to get at, so most of them have gone for them, allowing us to check them several times a day and remove then into the famous Jar of Death (water with a drop of dish soap).


The other thing we are starting to do is cover all the paths between beds with landscape cloth, which we will then cover with fine gravel. The hope is that this will save me from spending almost half my time in the garden cutting the grass surrounding the beds.

These are the leaf beds, looking very sparse. We are mostly planting brassicas for the fall in them, and we got a late start on getting them going. Oh well. There is always something that gets lost in the shuffle.


Early planted potatoes are looking very good. The ones at the end were the ones we planted last fall and they do look like they are still at least 2 weeks ahead of the early spring planted potatoes.

Hoops are over the next bed which is going to contain sweet potatoes and peanuts as soon as it warms up enough to plant them. We expect to need to keep them under plastic a lot this year, if the weather keeps on as it has started.


This is where the last of the regular potatoes are planted. They just went in, as these are the Russet Burbanks that we will keep as our main winter storage potato. As such, the later we can take them out, the better. Slowly we are learning how to stagger our crops. A few straggling self-seeded lettuces have been left in place to be pulled as needed.


Tomatoes were planted almost 2 weeks ago, and we have had to keep them covered with the hoop-houses quite a bit, as night temperatures have gone down as low as 3°C. They are looking okay though. Eggplants and peppers on the other hand are seriously pathetic looking. Something went wrong with our potting soil this spring, and things did not grow well at all. Real dirt will cure them, but no doubt our harvest will also be pretty diminished.

Next door, the cucumbers and a few assorted other cucurbits (melons, squash) are hiding under row cover cloth from the bugs. If you look closely, you can see the decoy plant sitting on a piece of paving stone by the tomatoes. Last years irrigation experiment still needs to be cleaned up (pulled out).

And oh! Those weedy onions in the foreground. Yes, there are some in there. I think they are doing okay, but its hard to tell with all those weeds. I hope I can get to them in the next day or so.


The garlic is looking good. Soon we will have garlic scapes. Holy cow, already?! Oh man, we are so behind... better get back to work. Beds to weed, seeds and seedlings to plant and water, trellises to put up, grass to cut...
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