Norm Matthews

Our dinner tonight was chicken breasts with rice and a cilantro-lime cream sauce, green beans dressed with soy sauce and garlic, fried okra and a salad. Son put some okra in his salad and used them like croutons.

I have been doing some recipes from here. https://www.facebook.com/HispanicKitchen.HK?fref=nf

There is a recipe that my family really likes and I have made it often. It's Breast of Chicken, Martini-Style from chef Pino Luongo and it has you pound out the breasts until they are thin. Lately I usually butterfly the breasts instead. I am wondering if there is any culinary reason why the breasts should be pounded out instead of just cut thin? Chicken breasts don't need tenderizing and they are just as thin when butterflied as they are when pounding plus it's faster and doesn't wake anyone up.

I have a Watson cookbook but it was published in 1944. Mom bought it right after I was born and Watson was a herb & spice company. It was the only cookbook she ever bought. It was stuffed full of hand written recipes and ones clipped out of other publications.

I would think that while it is possible to copyright a photograph, it would be unlikely to be able to copyright the subject of the photograph.

After the Norman Conquest, the English ruling class spoke French while the poor people who did all the work spoke Anglo-Saxon. That is why the food "on the hoof" is called something different from the people who saw it on the table. Lamb- mutton, Deer-venison, pig-pork, cow-beef, etc.

Chicken fried steak. Take a piece of inedibly tough beef, 'tenderize' the crap out of it, hide the crime by breading it and then pan fry it and conceal the whole thing with a white gravy. Or call it schnitzel.

In a restaurant kitchen things might get wet and stay wet and warm all day which will allow germs to grow while in a home kitchen, it will dry out and cool off and germs won't survive.

I always clean and dry mine before I put them up. I find restaurant rules are for worst case possibilities where there are lot of busy and tired people using the kitchen all day and who don't know what someone else has done. They aren't likely to be a problem in a domestic kitchen with one or two people who use the kitchen once or twice a day.

I made tacos for dinner tonight. I used Cassie's recipe for guacamole but she said I used too much cinnamon. She uses a pinch. I might have used a bit more. I'm also pretty sure I used more seasoned salt than she does.

When I was in high school, I worked at a soda fountain at the drug store and people said I made good sodas and sundaes. Then when I graduated from college and was living alone, it was before microwaves and fast food places, at least in the small town where I was teaching. Frozen dinners had to be thawed and that took longer than making something from scratch. After a few weeks I thought I could probably do as good or better than they had at the restaurant and cafe in town. I knew I could eat cheaper if I made it myself. I started reading The James Beard Cookbook and the local grocery store let you buy things on a running tab so you paid for everything at the end of the month. I also started collecting recipes for entertaining from Playboy magazine. I watched The French Chef on PBS and mom could always be called for help when needed. People said they liked my cooking. Now that I am recalling that time, I remember the pizza restaurant was McMurphy's, had Tiki decor and the music was Stan Getz style jazz.

My knife block has vertical slots for the steak knives and horizontal slots for the rest. I store the steak knives sharp side up. No particular reason except I thought it would be nicer to the wood over time. When I owned a restaurant, the health dept. told us not to use a knife block but use a magnetic strip instead.

Cassie made dinner tonight. She said it was sort of a tapas dinner. There were poblano tempura, scallops, bacon wrapped dates and french bread topped with bleu cheese, walnuts and pears. She did a great job and it was pretty too.

The boneless watermelon reminded me of a time I was in a grocery store and was drawn to the meat counter to check out some strangely white packages beside the pork chops. Turned out it was pork fat (lard) and was labeled Pork, the other White Meat.

Thank you. We decided to put my old dishes out in the next garage sale and start using the dishes Cassie and Charles got as Wedding gifts.

The name of the recipe is "Garlic & Ginger Soy Caramelized Steak. I only said Malaysian because the cook who posted the recipe was from Malaysia. The steak itself may not be specific to Malaysian. It may have been presumptuous of me to think it was.

When I ask the kids for ideas for dinner, I always get nothing but if I give them a choice, they pick something. I gave them the choice of Seafood Enchilada Casserole, Cuban Sandwich or a Malaysian flavored steaks. They both chose the steak. It was supposed to be with rice but I wanted potatoes since we had rice a couple days ago.

The two I did recently were not refrigerated with a rub or brine. The only rub I used on both were salt and pepper and I did this within an hour of putting in the smoker. I liked this "Texas" style (Franklin) so well, i am tempted to never use a Southern style rub or sauce on them ever again. I find that they are the most tender and juicy at 204 at the point. I think this is a very good target for brisket. I generally wrap them at 175 or so. I have used foil for wrapping but next time, I am tempted to try parchment instead. I spritzed the first one with a mix of apple juice and vinegar. I forgot to spray the second one and I think the first one had a better crust than the second one because of that.

What kind of smoker do you have? The last brisket I smoked was also prime and it also came from Costco. We still have enough left for 3 or 4 sandwiches. If you click on the link at the bottom of my post here, it will take you to a log I kept during the last two briskets I smoked in my horizontal-off set smoker using charcoal and wood. One was on May 20, the other on July 31st. Other things you can do with brisket (usually just the flat and with the fat all trimmed off) is to braise it, corn it, and/or make pastrami. I've braised it with beer in the past.

No pictures but dinner tonight is going to be enchiladas made with leftover smoked beef brisket.

I made another brisket based on things mentioned in Franklin's book and videos. Cassie said it was the best one yet. Last time I used choice brisket, this time I used prime. This time, like Franklin, I had a temperature probe at brisket level and a little in front of it. I used mostly wood for this smoke, last time I used charcoal for heat and a little wood for smoke. It was a lot more labor intensive because a lot more fluctuation can take place in front of the brisket than behind it, but I was surprised how much less fuel I needed when burning wood instead of charcoal. I think this brisket was the same size or smaller but it took a little longer. I don't think I will ever put southern rubs or any sauce on brisket ever again. You have to look for whole briskets around here. Most places sell only flats with the fat trimmed off, but the book is right about the point: It is so much more flavorful because it is fattier. In between the two briskets, I had some burnt ends from Fiorella's. I so much prefer Franklin style point as it came out of my smoker.

I cut and served the brisket today. Cassie made a pasta salad and birthday cupcakes. I also made a green salad and roasted broccoli.

Thank you Shelby. We are going to have it for dinner today.

My son's birthday is tomorrow. His wife has invited some people over. I don't know what all she has planned but I spent all day with this brisket. It's USDA Prime and should go with anything she has planned. If it doesn't, well it will be good for several days to come. I won't slice it until ready to serve, whenever that may be.

Yesterday we had Korean style pork along with rice, store bought kimchi and a salad. [ URL=http://s262.photobucket.com/user/matthewsno/media/DSCN2774_zpstk0rnvng.jpg.html]