So last night I tried to recreate a smashing success i had making homemade mac and cheese. It was a disaster. The first time I had a wonderful creamy cheese sauce, and last night I tried to make it again but using all non-fat ingredients. While it did taste pretty good, it had a weird gritty consistency which was just not at all pleasant. I am not sure how or why this was the case, all I can think is that because all of the ingredients were fat free the lack of fat caused the grittiness. That or I overcooked the roux. The grilled Italian sausage was delish though, so at least we did not go hungry.
I have also decided that I will also be including trips to various restaurants in my blog, so for those of you that live in or near Erie, you will get the average guy's opinion of local eateries as well as my own successes and failures in the kitchen. I believe our first stop will be Ricardo's on East Lake Rd. here in Erie. I have been driving by it for years but never stopped in, so we will be visiting it next payday! That is all for now! See you soon!
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Something Fishy
Sunday while watching "Triple D" and seeing several fish dishes my wife says to me, "I have a challenge for you. Make some fish that I will actually like." God love her, Karyn hates seafood. Somehow I have always managed to bring women into my life that hate seafood. I forgot to add that line in the screening questionaire. So for the most part of my married life, I do not get to have seafood.
Karyn also loves southwest/Tex-Mex/Mexican foods. So here are the things I knew going in. I needed a mild fish, and some kind of southwest flavors to pull this off. My first plan was to make tuna steaks. To go with it, I decided I wanted to try polenta, and serve it all with a salsa. I found inspiration on the internet in a recipe for pan seared tuna steaks, polents and an avocado mousse. After work on Monday afternoon I headed off to the local grocery store made my way back to the seafood counter, and had a mild stroke. Tuna steaks $19.99 a pound! Really? Filet is not even that much, even for the certified Black Angus.
I scan the counter, and Talapia is only 6.99 a pound, but we have not had luck with talapia in the past. besides I really wanted something a bit more meaty, my exeprience with Talapia is that it falls apart and is very light and flaky with such a mild taste, it really has no taste at all, just what you cook it with.
Finally after scanning the rather small selection of over priced fish I settled on fresh cod fillets which were large, meaty white fish goodness, for 12.99. Oddly, swordfish steaks were only 9.99, and if I were to do it again I would get those, just because I love swordfish.
Another product that I discovered I like a lot when Karyn did her basket was these Kellogg's cornflake crumbs. So i got some of those for a breading. I was concerned because while I knew cod to be a mild fish, I have never seen cod served without a breading, so I felt like I needed to bread it.
Next was the polenta. I found the ground corn meal and got some fat free cheddar cheese, as well as fat free sour cream. I also picked up a nice mango lime salsa to flavor both the fish and the polenta.
Now for those that have never eaten polenta, it is not grits, but winds up being so similar it might as well be. Polenta is made by boiling cornmeal until it turns into mortar which in my case was in about 2.3 seconds. The recipe I had said to "using your left hand whisk the boiling water while pouring the corn meal into the water slowly". With my left hand? Really? I happen to be very right hand dominant. So much so that I am not sure why I was given a left hand. It then went on to say continue boiling and whisking until all of the water was soaked up, as I said that happened right about the time I finished pouring the meal in. Wow it was thick. really thick. If you have ever seen the mortar they use to lay bricks...like that.
Back to the fish. I chose to do a marinade with soy sauce and brown sugar in equal portions, with salt, pepper, cumin and ginger. After the marinade I seasoned flour with salt pepper and cumin, made an egg wash (milk and eggs) and then completed my breading station with the corn flake crumbs. I took out the enormous cast iron skillet I bought for Karyn last Christmas and got it heating with some olive oil, breaded my first huge piece of cod. Into the pan it went and good things were happening. After about 4 minutes it was time to turn my first pieces, and this is where things first started to go wrong. The first piece turned ok, but the second kind of fell apart. Did I overcook it? maybe. As I have said before we do not do fish a lot. So I decided for the rest of the fillets to cut them into spatula sized pieces and bread them to prevent that problem. The smaller pieces worked out and I was able to serve some very nice looking pieces of fish. The breading did not stick to the fish very well though and began falling off some when removed from the pan and plating, which was unfortunate.
The final plating: I took a spoon full of the polenta/cheddar cheese mixture on the plate, topped it with the lime-mango salsa and a dollop of sour cream. I rested a nice piece of fish against the polenta, and to the side of that the avocado mousse which was simply avocado blended into plain greek togurt with salt and pepper. It was not the prettiest plate, but also not ugly, the colors from the polenta, avocado mousse and salsa were very bright and vibrant with the fish. The best part? I made a fish that my fish haters loved. Maybe next time i can get the breading to stick better or maybe skip the breading completely!
Karyn also loves southwest/Tex-Mex/Mexican foods. So here are the things I knew going in. I needed a mild fish, and some kind of southwest flavors to pull this off. My first plan was to make tuna steaks. To go with it, I decided I wanted to try polenta, and serve it all with a salsa. I found inspiration on the internet in a recipe for pan seared tuna steaks, polents and an avocado mousse. After work on Monday afternoon I headed off to the local grocery store made my way back to the seafood counter, and had a mild stroke. Tuna steaks $19.99 a pound! Really? Filet is not even that much, even for the certified Black Angus.
I scan the counter, and Talapia is only 6.99 a pound, but we have not had luck with talapia in the past. besides I really wanted something a bit more meaty, my exeprience with Talapia is that it falls apart and is very light and flaky with such a mild taste, it really has no taste at all, just what you cook it with.
Finally after scanning the rather small selection of over priced fish I settled on fresh cod fillets which were large, meaty white fish goodness, for 12.99. Oddly, swordfish steaks were only 9.99, and if I were to do it again I would get those, just because I love swordfish.
Another product that I discovered I like a lot when Karyn did her basket was these Kellogg's cornflake crumbs. So i got some of those for a breading. I was concerned because while I knew cod to be a mild fish, I have never seen cod served without a breading, so I felt like I needed to bread it.
Next was the polenta. I found the ground corn meal and got some fat free cheddar cheese, as well as fat free sour cream. I also picked up a nice mango lime salsa to flavor both the fish and the polenta.
Now for those that have never eaten polenta, it is not grits, but winds up being so similar it might as well be. Polenta is made by boiling cornmeal until it turns into mortar which in my case was in about 2.3 seconds. The recipe I had said to "using your left hand whisk the boiling water while pouring the corn meal into the water slowly". With my left hand? Really? I happen to be very right hand dominant. So much so that I am not sure why I was given a left hand. It then went on to say continue boiling and whisking until all of the water was soaked up, as I said that happened right about the time I finished pouring the meal in. Wow it was thick. really thick. If you have ever seen the mortar they use to lay bricks...like that.
Back to the fish. I chose to do a marinade with soy sauce and brown sugar in equal portions, with salt, pepper, cumin and ginger. After the marinade I seasoned flour with salt pepper and cumin, made an egg wash (milk and eggs) and then completed my breading station with the corn flake crumbs. I took out the enormous cast iron skillet I bought for Karyn last Christmas and got it heating with some olive oil, breaded my first huge piece of cod. Into the pan it went and good things were happening. After about 4 minutes it was time to turn my first pieces, and this is where things first started to go wrong. The first piece turned ok, but the second kind of fell apart. Did I overcook it? maybe. As I have said before we do not do fish a lot. So I decided for the rest of the fillets to cut them into spatula sized pieces and bread them to prevent that problem. The smaller pieces worked out and I was able to serve some very nice looking pieces of fish. The breading did not stick to the fish very well though and began falling off some when removed from the pan and plating, which was unfortunate.
The final plating: I took a spoon full of the polenta/cheddar cheese mixture on the plate, topped it with the lime-mango salsa and a dollop of sour cream. I rested a nice piece of fish against the polenta, and to the side of that the avocado mousse which was simply avocado blended into plain greek togurt with salt and pepper. It was not the prettiest plate, but also not ugly, the colors from the polenta, avocado mousse and salsa were very bright and vibrant with the fish. The best part? I made a fish that my fish haters loved. Maybe next time i can get the breading to stick better or maybe skip the breading completely!
Round Two!
The second round of Chopped! in our house was Karyn's turn. I had so much fun doing my basket I could not wait for two weeks as we had originally agreed so I went and get the stuf for her basket the day after mine. I wanted to get stuff that did not naturally pair well to see how creative she could be. What she wound up getting was:
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Graham Crackers
Raspberry All-Fruit
Soy Sauce
I figured these would be an odd mix of ingredients. She took it in stride and off to the store we went. I will let her share the rest, but all I can say is wow!
Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
Graham Crackers
Raspberry All-Fruit
Soy Sauce
I figured these would be an odd mix of ingredients. She took it in stride and off to the store we went. I will let her share the rest, but all I can say is wow!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
Chopped! Round One
So, for my first article, I want to share the weekend we had. Karyn and I have recently become quasi obsessed with the show Chopped! on the Food Network. We decided we would go about implementing our own Chopped! challenges in our home, although with some slight modifications. The modifications are necessary because we do not have the pantry they have at their disposal (if you see the show you will know what I mean), and we do not have a kitchen with 2 ovens and a massive 6 burner range. So the actual cooking would be next to impossible in the home.
Here is how we changed it:
1) After receiving your basket we go right out the door to the local grocery store. We have 30 minutes in the grocery store to buy all of the ingredients we will need to complete our meal.
2) there is only one round, or goal and that is to make dinner with the ingredients in the basket, no appetizer - entree - dessert round.
3) you have one hour to cook the meal, from beginning to end. Set up is allowed, in that you can get water boiling if needed (they have that on the show) you can get bowls, pans, utensils and so on out, but as soon as you handle the food, time starts.
Now, you might think having watched the show that an hour is a long time. I assure you it is not, and having completed one basket each we can attest to how amazing it is that the chefs on the show make anything in 30 minutes.
Now, round 1 was my challenge and it went like this. I opened my bag and found the following:
Ground Bison
Lime Juice
Whole Milk Mozzerella
Avocados
Sweet and Sour Pickled Beets
My trip to the store, my purchases were Vigo Yellow Rice (love it!) pablano peppers, a spanish onion, and whole grain tortillas.
Now, there is an additional challenge here because, due to my wife's diet, I have to try to keep everything as low fat, low carb as I can while still delivering the protein.
The final result of my basket was a Bison Taco with a sweet and sour pickled beet salsa, homemade guacamole, and a mexican take on a caprese salad served in an avocado shell with lime balsamic dressing.
Taco meat:
3 lbs of ground bison
1/2 Spanish onion
3 tbsp minced garlic
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Ground Cumin
Place about 1/4 cup olive oil into a large skillet. Heat until it starts to smoke. Add in onion and garlic and saute until they start to get nice and brown. Add in Bison, and seasonings, to your taste, chop up as fine as possible while browning. *Note: The bison is a very lean meat, so there is not a lot of grease or liquid and alone it can be dry. It was my intention to make a lime/greek yogurt sauce for the tacos to combat this, but time did not allow. They were delicious anyway. You could certainly use this same preparation for any meat and it would be just as good.
The Salsa:
~ 20 Sweet and sour pickled beets (from our Giant Eagle, I am not sure where else you could get them)
2 pablano peppers, chopped
1/2 spanish onion, coarsely chopped
6 Garlic cloves, chopped
Olive oil
Lime juice
3 tbsp Fresh Cilantro, chopped
Cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
For this salsa, heat a skillet with olive oil, then add the onions, garlic and pablano. They should just start to turn brown before removing from heat. Pour into a good sized mixing bowl. Dice the pickled beets and mix into the onion/garlic/pepper mixture. Splash lime juice over the mixture and stir. Add the chopped cilantro, some cumin, salt and pepper to taste. The color of this salsa is amazing, and the beets makeup for the lack of tomatoes with their sweetness and tang from the pickling. Everyone in my house loved this salsa even the youngest that will not eat veggies. Served on the taco the flavor was just perfect.
The Guac:
3 avocados peeled, pitted and sliced or diced, does not matter they will be mashed anyway.
Lime Juice
Dried Cilantro
Olive oil
Ground cumin
Nothing special here, mash the avocado, sprinkle with lime juice (about 2 tbsp), salt, cumin, and pepper and about 1 tsp chopped dried cilantro. Mix well. Add Olive oil to improve the consistency of the Guacamole, I used about 2 tsp. What I will say is I will never buy Guac again, Homemade is light years better, and fairly cheap to make in comparison to store bought.
Mexican spin on Caprese Salad
Avocado peels (from Guac) for plating.
1 lb of Heirloom grape and cherry tomatoes
Whole milk Mozzerella (about 1/4 to 1/2 lb will do)
Lime Vinagrette dressing (store bought, kind of a copout on my part, but time constraints made anything else impossible)
Fresh Cilantro
Caprese Salad is an italien thing, and as you can see in the picture above a beautiful dish. I wanted to keep the pretty colors while using my ingredients, so this is how I made it. Cut 1 Handful (7 or 8) of the grape tomatoes in half. Cut an equal number of roughly 1/2 inch cubes of the mozzerella (about 16 cubes for the mathematically challenged, balance is important.) Mix the tomatoes and cheese cubes together and place in the avocado shell. Drizzle lightly with the lime vinagrette (normally a Caprese is drizzled with balsamic, but I chose the lime to go with the overall theme of the meal). Coarsely chop some of the fresh cilantro (A real Caprese would have basil leaves) and sprinkle on the salad and serve.
So assembling the tacos went like this, a nice sized spoon of the meat in the middle of the tortilla, followed by a spoon of the red beet salsa, a swish of the guacamole and some of the mozzerella shredded right onto the taco. I will admit that the Mozzerella was a bit lost in the taco, but I think it was made up for in the Caprese, which also went on the plate next to the taco and rice.
The whole meal was served with a helping of yellow rice, not because it needed it, but in our house we do like to have a starch with our dinner.
Next Post: Karyn's First basket!
Here is how we changed it:
1) After receiving your basket we go right out the door to the local grocery store. We have 30 minutes in the grocery store to buy all of the ingredients we will need to complete our meal.
2) there is only one round, or goal and that is to make dinner with the ingredients in the basket, no appetizer - entree - dessert round.
3) you have one hour to cook the meal, from beginning to end. Set up is allowed, in that you can get water boiling if needed (they have that on the show) you can get bowls, pans, utensils and so on out, but as soon as you handle the food, time starts.
Now, you might think having watched the show that an hour is a long time. I assure you it is not, and having completed one basket each we can attest to how amazing it is that the chefs on the show make anything in 30 minutes.
Now, round 1 was my challenge and it went like this. I opened my bag and found the following:
Ground Bison
Lime Juice
Whole Milk Mozzerella
Avocados
Sweet and Sour Pickled Beets
My trip to the store, my purchases were Vigo Yellow Rice (love it!) pablano peppers, a spanish onion, and whole grain tortillas.
Now, there is an additional challenge here because, due to my wife's diet, I have to try to keep everything as low fat, low carb as I can while still delivering the protein.
The final result of my basket was a Bison Taco with a sweet and sour pickled beet salsa, homemade guacamole, and a mexican take on a caprese salad served in an avocado shell with lime balsamic dressing.
Taco meat:
3 lbs of ground bison
1/2 Spanish onion
3 tbsp minced garlic
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Ground Cumin
Place about 1/4 cup olive oil into a large skillet. Heat until it starts to smoke. Add in onion and garlic and saute until they start to get nice and brown. Add in Bison, and seasonings, to your taste, chop up as fine as possible while browning. *Note: The bison is a very lean meat, so there is not a lot of grease or liquid and alone it can be dry. It was my intention to make a lime/greek yogurt sauce for the tacos to combat this, but time did not allow. They were delicious anyway. You could certainly use this same preparation for any meat and it would be just as good.
The Salsa:
~ 20 Sweet and sour pickled beets (from our Giant Eagle, I am not sure where else you could get them)
2 pablano peppers, chopped
1/2 spanish onion, coarsely chopped
6 Garlic cloves, chopped
Olive oil
Lime juice
3 tbsp Fresh Cilantro, chopped
Cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
For this salsa, heat a skillet with olive oil, then add the onions, garlic and pablano. They should just start to turn brown before removing from heat. Pour into a good sized mixing bowl. Dice the pickled beets and mix into the onion/garlic/pepper mixture. Splash lime juice over the mixture and stir. Add the chopped cilantro, some cumin, salt and pepper to taste. The color of this salsa is amazing, and the beets makeup for the lack of tomatoes with their sweetness and tang from the pickling. Everyone in my house loved this salsa even the youngest that will not eat veggies. Served on the taco the flavor was just perfect.
The Guac:
3 avocados peeled, pitted and sliced or diced, does not matter they will be mashed anyway.
Lime Juice
Dried Cilantro
Olive oil
Ground cumin
Nothing special here, mash the avocado, sprinkle with lime juice (about 2 tbsp), salt, cumin, and pepper and about 1 tsp chopped dried cilantro. Mix well. Add Olive oil to improve the consistency of the Guacamole, I used about 2 tsp. What I will say is I will never buy Guac again, Homemade is light years better, and fairly cheap to make in comparison to store bought.
Mexican spin on Caprese Salad
Avocado peels (from Guac) for plating.
1 lb of Heirloom grape and cherry tomatoes
Whole milk Mozzerella (about 1/4 to 1/2 lb will do)
Lime Vinagrette dressing (store bought, kind of a copout on my part, but time constraints made anything else impossible)
Fresh Cilantro
Caprese Salad is an italien thing, and as you can see in the picture above a beautiful dish. I wanted to keep the pretty colors while using my ingredients, so this is how I made it. Cut 1 Handful (7 or 8) of the grape tomatoes in half. Cut an equal number of roughly 1/2 inch cubes of the mozzerella (about 16 cubes for the mathematically challenged, balance is important.) Mix the tomatoes and cheese cubes together and place in the avocado shell. Drizzle lightly with the lime vinagrette (normally a Caprese is drizzled with balsamic, but I chose the lime to go with the overall theme of the meal). Coarsely chop some of the fresh cilantro (A real Caprese would have basil leaves) and sprinkle on the salad and serve.
So assembling the tacos went like this, a nice sized spoon of the meat in the middle of the tortilla, followed by a spoon of the red beet salsa, a swish of the guacamole and some of the mozzerella shredded right onto the taco. I will admit that the Mozzerella was a bit lost in the taco, but I think it was made up for in the Caprese, which also went on the plate next to the taco and rice.
The whole meal was served with a helping of yellow rice, not because it needed it, but in our house we do like to have a starch with our dinner.
Next Post: Karyn's First basket!
Welcome!
Welcome Welcome Welcome!
I am an average guy who believes a man's place can be in the kitchen too. Women, god love them have been tied to home cooking for too long. Does anyone else think it odd that women are expected to cook in the home, but more chefs are men? We can cook, and we should cook to relieve our loved ones once in a while. Pull our weight so to speak. Recently I have found a renewed passion for cooking in the kitchen, on the grill and anywhere else I can. Here on this blog I will share my adventures and my wife's as well as we travel this strange road called life! So tell all your friends, come hang out, and share your adventures as well!
E. J.
I am an average guy who believes a man's place can be in the kitchen too. Women, god love them have been tied to home cooking for too long. Does anyone else think it odd that women are expected to cook in the home, but more chefs are men? We can cook, and we should cook to relieve our loved ones once in a while. Pull our weight so to speak. Recently I have found a renewed passion for cooking in the kitchen, on the grill and anywhere else I can. Here on this blog I will share my adventures and my wife's as well as we travel this strange road called life! So tell all your friends, come hang out, and share your adventures as well!
E. J.
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