Peter the eater
-
Posts
2,616 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Profiles
Forums
Store
Help Articles
Posts posted by Peter the eater
-
-
More cooking with corn flakes . . .
Buddy down the road gave us some fresh haddock from his boat today. The chilled fillets were coated with chilled beaten egg then coated with a lightly seasoned flour and corn flake mix. Served with chips, greens and tartar sauce.
The cereal added a nice crunch and a little color. There's a good discussion on fish batter here which advocates beer or soda for a light and crisp batter. Nothing carbonated in my fridge, so I went the flour & egg route. I figured corn oil for corn flakes, although I find lard helps get a better golden color.
-
Actually, I used to eat the crumbs out of a box with milk. I liked them better than the whole flakes.
I like milk with the "end dust" from sweet cereals. Particle size greatly affects the results when you're frying stuff.
-
I get excellent water from our well that's been filtered and treated with UV light. I fill water bottles with this water for travel or just to have in the fridge. We test and shock the well once a year, so far so good.
-
I'm so pleased with a recent rack of lamb featuring Corn Flakes in the herb crust that I got to thinking . . . what else can I use from that row of big cereal boxes?
Rice Krispies squares are well known, maybe fried chicken batter with Cap'n Crunch? Count Chocula mole negro?
Real and imaginary concoctions are welcome.
-
I'm pretty sure I've had marlin in restaurants down south while on vacation, but I've never brought it home to cook. I found a nice looking blue marlin steak for a good price, applied some olive oil with salt and pepper then grilled it outside.
Wow. I was expecting something more like the decent tuna or swordfish we get around here, or even a generic shark steak. This experience was quite different, it was firm and resilient, clean-tasting and mildly sweet. Sometimes I like the center of a fish steak to be like sashimi, but this time it was brilliant cooked through.
I'm definitely feeling the call to protect this species from extinction!
I claimed the lion's share but this chunk fed the family, along with grilled russet slices, mixed baby greens and baked brown beans. My piece had Thai fish sauce and sriracha.
ETA: that's equivalent to $6.99/lb
-
Six months since the last lamb rack, where does the time go?
This 8-bone cut was seven dollars, frozen and from New Zealand. Chopped into four pairs and coated with olive oil, garlic, rosemary and salt, followed by a layer of crushed corn flakes -- I thought I had bread crumbs in the freezer, oh well, it worked out really well. Served with roasted beets and cauliflower, steamed wavy-cut carrots, and basmati rice.
We should all cook more with breakfast cereal.
-
Pork is totally versatile. Sweet and tart fruit sauces are always good -- apple, quince, cranberry, etc. Pineapple is classic. Coconut curry is great for boar, and mint is not just for lamb.
-
I have very little brand loyalty. I love finding a good deal -- the thrill of a thrifty purchase makes my day.
Substituting generics for established brands is one way to save. My preference is to buy bulk and avoid processed factory foods as much as possible. I despise unnecessary packaging.
-
Carrot juice is really, really useful for sauces, deglazing, soups, etc.
-
Off the barbecue: bagel, slab bacon, chipotle, creminis, and a soft surface-ripened cheese from Quebec whose name escapes me. . .
-
There will always be a special place in my heart for Thunderbolt Chili
I think I know from whence the thunderbolt is discharged.
A bit over-the-top, perfect for a Superbowl.
-
Below is what my local periwinkles look like.
Steam them for five or more minutes, depending on size, until they're dead and the little trap doors are open. Pick them out with a toothpick and serve them with garlic and bacon over pasta.
-
Luckygirl, thanks for those images. Those amandes de mer (sea almonds?) look like small hard-shell clams or cherrystones. The bigorneaux must be periwinkles. I wonder how those prices are set -- supply and demand I guess.
-
. . . As far as comparing sea snails to land snails, they are very different to me. I have an extreme dislike for land snails. I have tried them many times from those that were thought to be mediocre to those that were thought to be very good ones, they always taste intensely like dirt to me. They also just plain gross me out. I suppose sea snails should gross me out to but for some reason so far they haven't. Maybe if I saw one uncooked it would gross me out so here's a place where I don't mind being a little disconnected from the natural state of my food
I totally understand, land snails and sea snails seem worlds apart when they're food. I think the line between delicious and disgusting is so very fine with these creatures. Butter and garlic sure help.
-
I'd like a SousVide Supreme™ <click> for $399.
My chances are slim, so I'll prepare myself for the stocking full of weird condiments from around the world.
-
Heidi, I have market envy. Part of the gastropod's appeal for me is their position on the food chain -- eating snails is almost vegetarian, from an ecological point of view. I admire a food culture that recognizes the value of these creatures so marginalized in my own. Please share your snail experiences!
-
I'm on the east coast of Canada and there are plenty of marine mollusks around, but there's just no market beyond scallops, mussels, oysters and clams. There was an abalone farmer down the South Shore but he's gone tits up. At the markets you might see fresh periwinkles, maybe razor clams, Atlantic squid, that's about it. There are some canned imports from Europe, and dried stuff at the Asian market.
If I want other local mollusks, it seems I've got to get wet.
-
Mussels or oysters? Mussels or oysters? Hmmm...Oysters! I'm completely infatuated with their briney, minerally and slightly sweet flavors. Swear to god I feel like a strongman when I finish a dozen. Smoked, steamed, grilled, raw...love them!
And it would seem a certain Walrus and Carpenter agree.
Funny you should mention that -- I recently watched Alice in Wonderland (1951) with my kids and found that oyster sequence to be totally bizarre. Right up there with Porky Pig's hallucinogenic anti-smoking cartoon from 1938.
-
Lobsters are crustaceans in the phylum Arthropoda
Right, along with crabs and shrimp. Urchins and sea cucumbers are also not mollusks, they're echinoderms.
-
This year I discovered the "bulot" or sea snail. LOVE them.
Never heard of bulot, what are they like?
I looked them up, sounds like Prosobranchia -- the group including conch, cowries, limpets, periwinkles, etc. Google translates bulot as whelk. Does bulot refer to any sea snail?
-
An unexpected bonus: when the mussels are barely steamed until just opening, the little white nub adductor muscle (like a mini scallop) isn't overcooked and remains tender and tasty.
Here's what I'm calling the little white nub adductor muscle:
-
I’ve been experimenting with blue mussels recently and began to wonder about the other 93,000 species of mollusks. They’re a wildly diverse group of creatures, often bizarre in appearance, and occasionally delicious. From a culinary point of view, it’s probably not all that important to know which members of the Phylum belong to which Classes and Orders and so on, but it does help to sort them out in this way.
Some Mollusca101 facts:
- Most have shells
- They live on land and sea
- One quarter of known marine species are mollusks
- There are ten Classes, two are extinct and five aren’t important to cooks
- That leaves the Big Three: Gastropods, Bivalves, and Cephalopods
Gastropods, also known as univalves, are the biggest group accounting for 80% of all mollusk species. Insects are the only other Class with a greater number of species. Gastropods include: snails, periwinkles, cockles, barnacles, conch, abalone, whelks, arcs, frog shells, top shells, wavy turbans, tritons, cowries, limpets, and more.
Bivalves always have a pair of hinged shells. Some are good swimmers and some attach themselves to objects. This group includes oysters, scallops, soft shell clams, quahogs, geoducks, jackknifes/razors, mussels, etc.
Cephalopods include octopus, squid, cuttlefish, and nautilus - although I'm not sure if people actually eat the nautilus. I've read that the octopus is the most intelligent invertebrate, and that there are thousand-pound squids in the deep Southern Ocean.
What are your favorite mollusks, or molluscs?
- Most have shells
-
None of those pickled mussels failed from a flavor point of view as far as I can tell. The ones I liked best had liquid smoke, sriracha and fish sauce. The unadulterated control was adequate but it lacked pizazz, and the one with with port wine was surprisingly lame.
The pickled mussels were fine for a week or so in the fridge, they get less palatable after that and start to look like lab specimens. I was expecting the mussels to taste less like the fresh-steamed kind and more like the canned variety, all smooth and spreadable on toast. Not the case -- I imagine it takes a long time in a can for seafood to undergo that magical transformation.
An unexpected bonus: when the mussels are barely steamed until just opening, the little white nub adductor muscle (like a mini scallop) isn't overcooked and remains tender and tasty.
-
Holy cow Peter! That is a gorgeous picture and an equally gorgeous sandwich.
It's a wonderful fish for a toasted sandwich. I never by mahi-mahi because of cost, and the fact their population is suffering. I recall catching them from a boat while vacationing in Cuba as a kid. We cooked some at sea and ate them with fruit.
I think the red dish makes the pomegranates really stand out in the photo.
Using Breakfast Cereal As An Ingredient
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
I love to keep such things on hand for so many reasons. I know I should eat more grains more often, as whole and unprocessed as possible.
It's no wonder a typical grocery store has an entire aisle devoted to branded and processed boxed cereals. The ingredients are cheap and the market is huge.