This looks fucking awesome. I never quite grew out of my love of flaming drinks. It also looks absolutely devastating. Dilute your 3 parts wine with 1 part overproof rum? Don't mind if I do. Can you taste the murder in its heart though? I just can't imagine this tasting sweet and wholesome, but I'd love to be wrong.
I made a monster stromboli for the shindig at the beach yesterday. Everyone brought food but mine was eaten first. Validation, motherfuckers.
Here's a new appetizer I made for the bar last night. It's Tuna Tartare. The tuna is diced then mixed with sesame seeds, diced red onion, and a spicy garlic sesame sauce. It's then stacked on an asian slaw with a layer of avocado then more tuna and topped with pickled ginger. It's garnished with a wasabi cream sauce and a little more of the sesame garlic sauce. Enjoy. Spoilered for size. I can't resize shit on this mac. Sorry.
I'm trying to reduce my habit of eating processed carbs at night, but still have filling meals. Fairly happy with this one. Baked chicken and vegetable stacks, with roast vegetable salad. (This will serve 4 people that eat big meals. Those of you with normal appetites would probably get 5 or 6 meals out of it.) Chicken Stack Ingredients: 4 chicken breasts, quartered. 1 eggplant (aubergine for you guys?), sliced into 16 thin slices. 5 tomatoes, sliced. 4 red onions, sliced. 1 cup grated or sliced parmesan cheese. Oregano, salt, and pepper. Method: Pre-heat oven to 180c (350F). Line a tray with baking paper. Place slices of eggplant on the tray, followed by tomato, then onion. Apply oregano, salt, and pepper with wild abandon. Top each stack with chicken and cheese. Bake for 20 minutes (cheese will be golden brown and almost crispy, while chicken is moist and flavourful.) Good stuff. Roast Vegetable Salad Ingredients: 1 huge Butternut pumpkin, cut into bite size cubes. (Man, cubing pumpkin is an average way to spend an afternoon. Drink lots of wine and listen to soul music to pass the time). 4 large sweet potatoes, cut in the same way. (I know, I know, but I said processed carbs. Baby steps folks, baby steps.) 2 punnets grape or cherry tomatoes. Packet of mixed salad leaves. A little oil. A lot of salt and pepper. Dressing: 2 tbsp honey 2 tbsp red wine vinegar 1 tbsp oil Method: Pre-heat oven to 200c (400F). Throw your pumpkin, sweet potato, and tomatoes in a bowl, stir through with a little oil and a grip of salt and pepper. (Gangsta, yo.) Put on a baking tray and bake until everything is just starting to brown. While that's happening, mix dressing ingredients together. (I microwaved them for 20 seconds so the honey would actually mix). Once your vegies are cooked, let them cool, then stir through the leaves and dressing. *Note: if you're a better cook than me, there's probably a way to roast the vegies with a honey/vinegar glaze that would be awesome. But I don't know how to do that yet, so I leave it up to you. This way worked pretty well as is.* I was pretty happy with this meal. It's tasty, varied, and healthy, while still actually filling you up. Prep time is a little rough, but with a glass of red and Aretha belting out Chain of Fools it passes happily enough. Enjoy!
Thanks to everyone who gave advice about hot drinks to make, I have settled on a cross between the recipe CharlesJohnson posted and Jamie Oliver's mulled wine. The only thing is that I could use some advice from people who know more about mixing herbs and spices than me. The common elements between the recipes are the wine (I grabbed a few $20 bottles of sangiovese. I'm not sure if this was the best choice, but I was half cut at the bottleshop, they didn't have chianti, and this seemed like the next best thing.), oranges, lemons, cloves, and cinnamon. I'm also adding a shit ton of Rebellion Bay spiced rum. The differences: Jamie's recipe calls for nutmeg (awesome), vanilla (awesome x2), bay leaf and star anise (ehhhh). CJ's recipe calls for cardamom and allspice. My first thought was just to add them all (except maybe the bay leaf because what the fuck Jamie?), but will the combination just turn into some horrible overdose of spices? Should I pick one recipe and stick to it? I'm not familiar enough with cardamom or allspice to understand how they should be used. Can anyone help?
Sourdough bread boules to make into breadbowls with beef stew. Bread is ridiculously satisfying to bake.
Thanks to everyone who provided suggestions on how to make mulled wine! It turned out really well, everyone enjoyed it, and it disappeared in the opening 30 minutes. Ingredients: 3 bottles of red wine (I used a 'fruity, spicy' Sangiovese). Half a bottle of Rebellion Bay spiced rum. 300g caster sugar. 3 oranges 1 lemon 2 vanilla pods. 5 cardamom pods 3 cinnamon sticks 5 star anise Muslin cloth Cooking twine Put your sugar into a big saucepan. Cut up your fruit and squeeze the juice onto the sugar. Place a big square of muslin on your bench, and put the fruit and spices on it. Draw up the edges to form a bag and tie it off with cooking twine. Add it to the saucepan, and then just cover the sugar with wine, as little as you can get away with. Bring the mixture to a rolling boil and cook until you get a nice thick syrup. (The recipe I had reckoned 5 minutes for this, but took me closer to 30.) Once it coats the back of a spoon, drop the heat to minimum and stir in your wine and rum. Give it a little to let the flavours combine, remove the muslin bag and you are good to go!
Speaking of infusing vodka (mentioned in the 4th of july thread), I have a mason jar in my freezer that I keep replenishing with vodka and the peelings from whenever we use fresh ginger. There's only one ginger vodka cocktail I drink, because I haven't found another one I like yet. It's called Love Potion #9: 2 oz ginger vodka 1 oz triple sec juice from 1 slice lemon simple syrup (I just use agave nectar) In a martini shaker, combine all ingredients with ice and shake till frosty. Pour into a martini glass with a twist of lemon. ------- Also, every year I make my own peach brandy using local peaches. I bought some this week from the farmers market. I just pour a small bottle of brandy in a thermos, add peach slices, and keep in the fridge till it is all used up. Sure I can buy a bottle of peach brandy, but that doesn't come with the bonus of brandy-soaked peach slices that I can add to vanilla ice cream or just eat straight out of the thermos.
This one isn't fine dining, but it hits that sweet spot of reasonably cheap, healthy, and easy to prepare. It's also delicious. Adapted from a recipe I found on Jamie Oliver's site, although it's not by Jamie himself. Note: this will be a lot easier if you have a big pan that can be used on the stove top and in the oven. Baked Chili Beef with Eggs. 1kg low fat mince. 150g bacon, diced. (Recipe called for lardons but I'm disturbed by the thought of just adding fat to a meal, so I used actual bacon.) 3 onions, sliced. 2 red capsicums (bell peppers?), sliced. 2 green capsicums, sliced. 5 cloves of garlic, minced. 5 chilis, sliced. 6tsp chili powder. (I like it fairly spicy, just lessen the amount if you prefer a milder taste.) 4tsp cumin. 1kg tomatoes, sliced. 800g canned mixed beans. (Recipe called for kidney beans, but I prefer a mix) 2 bunches coriander, stalks chopped and separated from leaves. 4 cups cooked white rice. (Optional: if you don't want the carbs, feel free to leave it out. I was going for cheap and filling though.) 1/2 cup ketchup. 1 cup Water. 3 squares dark chocolate. Salt to taste. 8 eggs. Big handful grated cheese. Black pepper. Method. 1. Preheat oven to 180. In a big, preferably oven-safe pan, start frying your bacon. When it's mostly done, add in your onions, and cook till they are translucent. Then add your capsicum. When that's mostly cooked, add in your fresh chili, garlic, chili powder, cumin, and coriander stalks. 2. Add your mince to the mixture and brown. Throw in your tomatoes and fry until soft. Toss in the beans, the ketchup, the water and the chocolate. Add some salt, and let it all simmer for a few minutes until you lose some of the liquid. If using, add in your rice. Flatten the top of the mixture, making little depressions where you want your eggs to go. 3. Carefully crack your eggs into the depressions, then put the whole thing in the oven until the whites firm up. Pull it out, carefully, and top with grated cheese, black pepper, and the coriander leaves. Bake it until the yolks are the desired consistency and the cheese turns golden brown on top. The combination of bacon, egg, cheese, beef, and chili makes me ridiculously happy. So good.
The guys have requested healthier food with an emphasis on white meats. There goes my profit margin. Oh well. Anyway, today I made cornish hens with honey butter carrots and garlic potatoes.
Do you have a recipe for a Japanese or Thai style cucumber/onion/bell pepper salad in some sort of vinegar sauce? I have had a variation of this at several different restaurants and want to make it tomorrow. I am probably going to end up winging it, I have done some fierce googling and nothing that I turn up seems right. My mom makes a Southern style cucumber salad that appears different but it sort of in the same vein, but she puts way too much sugar in the vinegar, so I might go off that and see where it takes me.
I use a variant of this - Thai beef salad. Add in 2 lebanese cucumbers to the salad, and add 4 minced shallots and 2 birds eye chilis to the sauce and you're good to go. Oh, and make sure you use Thai basil and not ordinary basil or it doesn't work. I love this and would eat it every day if I could afford that much steak.
That looks lovely but is not quite what I had in mind. I may try that in the future though. Today I went ahead this morning and winged it: The stuff I've had out has been more colorful with red and orange bell pepper and red onion, but one of the dudes doesn't like bell peppers and I didn't happen to have a red onion on hand. The marinade is water, rice vinegar, sugar, cooking sherry, fish sauce, salt and pepper. It's alright but it tastes closer to my mom's southern style cucumber salad than the Asian style stuff. It will go fine with the other stuff I am making today though.
I can only speak for Thai, but that recognisable taste comes from a combination of chili, lime, fish sauce, and palm sugar. I like coriander, lemongrass, and Thai basil as well, but the first 4 are really the critical ones. Sherry I associate more with Chinese, but I also don't eat a lot of Chinese so might be way off.
I am ashamed to say I found this recipe on Pinterest, but I tweaked it a little and it was quite tasty. Once again, I don't really measure so these are kind of eyeballed. Lemon Dill Chicken 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, pounded thin 1/2 cup flour salt/pepper/garlic powder olive oil For the sauce: 1 small onion, diced 2 cloves of garlic, minced 1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped fine (I used two tablespoons and it sort of overpowered the dish, but if you're a fan, go for it) 1 cup chicken broth Juice of one lemon 1 tablespoon flour In a measuring cup, place the tablespoon of flour. Add the chicken broth, lemon juice and dill. Stir to combine. I whisked it to ensure the flour got into the liquid evenly. Combine flour, salt, pepper and a good healthy shake of garlic powder. Dip chicken into flour to coat. Over medium/high heat, pour enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of a frying pan. Brown the chicken on both sides. Remove from the pan. If there is no oil left in the pan, add a tablespoon or two to the still hot pan. Add onions, cook until translucent. Add garlic and cook until lightly brown. Do not let it burn. Add the chicken broth mixture. Stir with whisk until liquid thickens. Add the chicken back to the pan. Let the chicken finish cooking in the sauce - between 5-10 minutes. I served it with roasted broccoli and cheesy orzo.
Alton Brown has a podcast on Nerdist now: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.nerdist.com/podcast/the-browncast/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.nerdist.com/podcast/the-browncast/</a>
Anybody have a fantastic fish taco recipe? I have a shrimp taco one that I make but am in the mood to try something new
Here's one for you Mya. I start with mahi mahi, but you could easily substitute tuna as well. Cube up the fish into small pieces and season with either blackening seasoning, or sometimes I'll use Everglades fish seasoning if I don't want as much heat. Saute the fish in an olive oil/ butter mixture(just make sure you don't burn the butter). For the garnish I like to use cabbage(substitute lettuce if you don't like cabbage), red onion, cilantro, lime juice, avocado, and tomato. For the sauce I start with sour cream, the juice of one lime, diced fresh jalapeños,cilantro, salt, and white pepper. I put all of this in a food processor to make it smooth, but if you don't want the jalapeños and/or the cilantro just stir it up in a bowl. I use soft corn tortillas, but I'm sure flour tortillas work just as well. Oh, and if I feel like punching up the flavor a little more I'll drizzle a little Valentina hot sauce on the finished tacos as well.
I made a pot roast that my kids (1 of whom is ridiculously picky) actually devour. The best part is, it's incredibly simple: Take a pot roast, trim any large pieces of fat. Use sea salt and fresh ground pepper on it, and actually smack it into place. Sear all the sides in a cast iron skillet. Once seared, put it in a crock pot. Take about a cup of water and pour that into the skillet, scrape up any cooked on bits and pieces into the water. Then, pour that into the crock pot. Cover and cook for 8 hours or so.
I got to hang out and watch a competitive bbq pitmaster practice his craft yesterday, it was amazing. Cooking on a 10 foot long pit trailer with peach wood, he smokes ribs and pork shoulders with an intoxicating aroma of caramelized animal fat. Each piece of animal carcass has a thermometer in it to ensure proper heat. The ribs turned out almost candy apple like, with a sweet bark. The way they should be. Houston's in Atlanta brags about their rib loaf, essentially ribs steamed to the point that they fall apart if you lift them. But If you can eat your ribs with a fork and knife, it's overcooked. Sure you can congeal pork meat, but would you want to? This isn't spam, respect the animal.