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eG Foodblog: NulloModo - One bourbon, one scotch, one beer...


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How do you usually prepare Spam? I haven't had it in a long time, but when I was growing up we'd pan fry it, and I remember really liking it. Now we just keep a can in the pantry....er....because every house needs a can of Spam, or something like that.

Edited by tejon (log)

Kathy

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne

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I usually pan-fry it till extra crispy and serve it up alongside eggs and etc.

Breakfast today was leftover pizza. Sorry no photo, but it looks a lot like it did yesterday.

Lunch: I'm feeling ambitious. I stopped by my favorite seafood hut on the way home from school and picked up a nice tuna steak. I am going to try to make a sort of sashimi roll with a side of seasoned bok-choy, I'll post more when it is done.

I also picked up a tub of crabmeat while I was there, I'm thining crabcakes are going to happen soon.

I have acquired some Broccoli Rabe. I've never cooked it before, but I hear it's tasty, so, look for that to make an appearance at some point as well.

Other than that I think I might be going up to King of Prussia Mall today, I think there is a kitchen store or two in there, perhaps I'll find something fun to play with.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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Wow, thank you for the offer Foodie. You are actually the second person who has offered to mail me dried chiles ;). I am blown away by the generosity of eG members. There are a couple local mexican grocers I want to check out that I haven't made my way to yet, they may have them there, I will have to check.

Lunch:

Tuna sorta-sushi handrolls:

egsashi.jpg

Fresh tuna, seared briefly on high heat for a little crust, mung bean sprouts, wasabi, fresh grated ginger, some sesame seeds I just toasted, and a dash of soy.

Served up like this:

egthlunch.jpg

The veggie is Bok Choy, sauteed with a little sesame oil, some ginger, soy sauce, and again toasted sesame seeds.

This is the first time I have tested grocery store wasabi, the brand looked fairly authentic, and I didn't even think to check the box before i tossed it. The Wasabi itself is in a little tube with only japanese lettering, so who knows, maybe it is authentic. It is certainly _very_ strong.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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I also picked up a tub of crabmeat while I was there, I'm thining crabcakes are going to happen soon.

what about crab imperial? it is an old recipe but i use the one from david rosengarten's "it's all american food". i think johnnybird actually likes this better than crabcakes.

edited to say that since this uses butter, egg and mayo only - no bread crumbs it should be in your diet regimen

Edited by suzilightning (log)

Nothing is better than frying in lard.

Nothing.  Do not quote me on this.

 

Linda Ellerbee

Take Big Bites

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And tonights supper:

egthsupper.jpg

I figured it was about time to bring the blog to the bay (heh, I just reminded myself of one of my favorite broadway shows... " The bong of the bell of the buoy in the bay,And the boy and the bride and the boat are away!" but I digress). Crabcakes are easy, fast, and delicious (some of my favorite things!).

My recipe is pretty par for the course with one obvious change, here is what I used:

1 lb blue crab claw meat (some swear by jumbo lump, I say not for crabcakes, I like the claw taste, and it is cheaper)

2 Eggs

2 tablespoons Mayo

1 tablespoon dried mustard powder

1.5 tablespoons old bay seasoning

3 green scallions chopped fairly small

1/4 cup powdered whole oat bran

So yeah yeah, traditional crabcakes use breadcrumbs instead of whole oat bran, but I had to make the one minor concession. And guess what: they come out just as unbelievably tasty, you just have to be careful when flipping. My roomate (who is chile-phobic and therefore refuses to eat much of my cooking, but is nothing if not a direct and blunt critic) even agrees that the oat bran does not change the overall effect from the breadcrumbs.

I served it up with some spicey horseradish roumelade, and broccoli rabe prepared super-simply: just boiled al dente in salted water with some crushed red pepper and garlic (pat of butter crumbled over for serving). This was the first time I've had this stuff, and I like it. Just a hint of bitter in the flavor, but nice and full taste, I will have to enjoy it again sometime.

King of Prussia was pretty cool too. I avoided the Williams Sonoma, just because there is one in the local mall and I can go there anytime. There is an overly crowded (but loaded with cool stuff) store called Kitchen Kapers there, however. I didn't really plan to buy anything, but I left with a new (bigger) Moka pot. So that makes two Moka pots in one week. They had a good price and I have been so into the great coffee coming out of my itty-bitty one that I have tended to drink it all as soon as the cup comes off the unit, standing right over the stove. The new one is a big bad voodoo Moka pot, so should give me enough of the good stuff to last me at least until I find a place to sit and enjoy it ;).

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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EXCELLENT idea to use claw meat for crabcakes! I love that flavor, too. I made crabcakes twice recently, first with jumbo lump and last week's batch with "special." I used much more seasoning, including Old Bay, in the second batch since the meat was of not such high quality. I never add Old Bay to anything I'm making with fresh jumbo lump crab meat, because I don't want to distract from that flavor. Well this fooled me... I liked the seasoned crabcakes better. I bet they would have been even better with claw meat. Now I'm eager to try that.

Life is short; eat the cheese course first.

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Susan - I have to say I am always blown away by your seafood (and other) dishes in the Dinner! thread. Let me know how the crabcakes turn out.

Breakfast today was non-existant, no classes today (they give the kids fridays off) so I slept in. The pot of Moka and playing video games till 3am last night aided in my desire to do this.

Speaking of Moka, here are the two pots next to each other:

egmoka2.jpg

The new one is aluminum, the first one (the smaller one) is stainless steel. I think I actually like the flavor of coffee from the first one better, but it could all by psychosomatic. I have heard that the aluminum ones need a breaking in period however, and I plan on doing this.

Lunch today was simple: burrito (was overstuffed) based on leftovers. Carnitas, fresh tomato, onion, fresh basil, havarti (out of queso fresco), crema mexicana, and some Valentina Salsa Picante. Oh, some chopped fresh serranos as well.

My tortilla is a green onion low-carb tortilla from La Tortilla Factory. These things totally rock: as long as you don't try to cook it, it is identical to a regular flour tortilla, taste, texture, the whole nine yards.

egflunch.jpg

I am in an ongoing battle to keep fresh basil in my kitchen. I absolutely love the stuff, but when I buy bags of it at the market, it goes rotten within a couple days. I say this thing at the grocery store however, that may be a solution. It is a huge bag of basil, roots and all, in a water tight sleeve. The idea is that you fill the bottom with water and just leave it out on the counter, and it should stay fresh for a long time. I hope it works.

Dinner tonight will be a tribute to Jeff Smith. I'll keep you posted.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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I love those tortillas. Really nice toasted with some cheese on top :-).

Kathy

Cooking is like love. It should be entered into with abandon or not at all. - Harriet Van Horne

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...mmm....things have been looking mighty good this week!

You know, for your basil, get a potted plant, keep it on the windowsill and just keep eating it...watering it and eating it.

If that's not practical, chop up the basil and cover w/olive oil. It's almost as good as fresh and will keep for a week or so. It never lasts too long around my kitchen so I'm not too sure.

blog on!!

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For storing basil, I stick it in a vase with water, cover the whole thing with a plastic bag and keep on the front of the top shelf in the refrigerator. It keeps for about 10 days that way.

"Some people see a sheet of seaweed and want to be wrapped in it. I want to see it around a piece of fish."-- William Grimes

"People are bastard-coated bastards, with bastard filling." - Dr. Cox on Scrubs

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Thanks for the basil tips everyone.

For supper tonight I thought it would cook up one of the Frugal Gourmet's recipes. In keeping in the spirit of Mr. Smith, I decided to do something for which I already had the ingredients: Beer and Cheese Soup.

egfsupper.jpg

I had to make two changed to the recipe: no carrots, and no flour. I figured no carrots was no problem, I don't particularly care for them, and I would just add some scallions for an extra layer of flavor.

The no flour didn't strike me as a problem either until I started to add the cheese and visions of Alton Brown suddenly popped into my head, whispering 'when you make fondue, you must add starch to the cheese to keep it from getting clumpy and stringy'. Well, thankfully this wasn't fondue, and perhaps enough starch cooked out of the onions into the broth to take care of my anti-clumping needs, because the recipe worked just fine. In fact, it worked more than fine, this is one of the tastiest things I have tried to cook in a while (IMO) I will certainly try this recipe again sometime.

Now, those little things next to it that look sort of like crabcakes, and sort of like burnt chop steaks, are neither. They are a result of a thought process that took too many side-steps combined with my inexperience at baking (err, frying breadlike substances in this case).

I wanted to make Irish Soda Bread to go with the soup, but I soon realized from looking at recipes that it just wouldn't work with the flour substitutes I had availible. No problem I thought, for I had found this recipe for Scotch Soda Pancakes that looked mighty tasty as well. So, instead of flour in goes the whole Oat Bran, and since there are Scotch Pancakes I figured a shot of Scotch Whisky would be a mighty fine addition to boot. Well, what flavor goes better with whisky than licorice? As it turns out the answer is: virtually anything. But alas, in had gone some star anise.

They weren't horrible, but they certainly weren't good. I ate one, and threw the rest out, as if I won't eat it, I'm certain my roomates won't.

At least the beer soup was good.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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Well, what flavor goes better with whisky than licorice? As it turns out the answer is: virtually anything.

This made me laugh. I'm going to trust your judgement rather than try this combination of flavors myself.

Stephen Bunge

St Paul, MN

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Nullo - nice blog. Surprised to see so many chilis from someone back East. I'm originally from Boston but went to high school outside of Baltimore, so I grew up on plenty of bland, white food. Fish chowder, potatoes, rice, bread, plain veg, etc. Been in Denver for 10 years now and can't imagine cooking without chilis. Love the fresh for heat and crunch. My favorites have to be roasted Hatch chilis from New Mexico. You can buy them freshly fire-roasted on the side of the road here when they're in season, freeze a couple bushels, and eat them all year round. Curious if they ever make it back your way? I haven't lived in your general area since '92, so I'm not sure how things have evolved.

Also - I've experimented with several dried chilis, but haven't found anything yet that really blew me away. (May well be my fault in preparation.) Any ideas to share about how to cook with dried chilis?

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Simple -

See, I would have never thought of Denver as a spicy town, I've always mentally categorized it into the midwest, even though I suppose it is more just 'west' in culture and atmosphere the more I think about it.

I have never heard of a Hatch chile, so, unfortunately I can't say I have enjoyed them roasted anywhere.

I use a lot of dried because they are easier to come by and store than fresh. I can easily get thai, serrano, jalepeno, habanero, anaheim, and poblano fresh, but other than that it starts to become a luck of the draw type of thing.

With regards to my tastes, I haven't lived out here for all of my life. I have been here for a number of years, but before that I resided in Alabama and New Hampshire. I suppose my taste for the spicey stuff developed from a neighbor who used to always come by my parents' house for big holiday meals, and would always bring a bottle of crazy hot-sauce with him. I think it started out as a macho or 'try to prove I don't have to sit at the kiddie table' thing, but I actually just grew to appreciate and enjoy the flavors.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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i WANT that beer cheese soup....and i'm at freaking work :angry: - for another two and a half hours :angry::angry:

but...

while doing my professional reading - online and dead tree- i came across this website you might enjoy:

http://www.spicy-cooking.com/

keep up the good cookin'

Nothing is better than frying in lard.

Nothing.  Do not quote me on this.

 

Linda Ellerbee

Take Big Bites

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Suzi - Thanks for that site. I have tons of stuff I have been wanting to cook this week, but I have been trying not to overstuff the fridge with leftovers at the same time... ah, that delicate balance. Sometimes I simply enjoy the cooking more than the eating.

Today the farmer's market will be open again, so I will go and see what I can pick up. I'm not sure about taking my camera there however as it is always a quite crowded, bustling place on a saturday, and I don't want to drop it or do anything else unsavory.

Also time for more swimming today. I'm up to a little over three quarters of a mile per session this week, which will get bumped a little higher for the next week. This morning was also my official weigh-in for the week. I have to say I was a bit worried as I normally don't eat as many faux-grains and low-carb convenience foods as you have seen me chow down on this week. However, Mr. Scale has me down another 4 lbs, so yay, I must've done something right.

Brunch is going to be Moka and leftovers today. Have to clear out some fridge space in anticipation of some produce from the market.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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So Brunch was:

Crabcake (almost as good as they were first-run)

Bok-Choy (not nearly as good as it was first time)

Herbed Chevre from TJs (mmmmm goaty)

More moka from the new pot. I think I figured out my problem. The aluminum pot can't be used over as high a heat as the other one, I did this pot at low/medium-low and recieved a much tastier cup of coffee than I Did when I tried medium/medium-high.

Edit to say I am not going to bore you with pictures of this one as you have seen all of these items in some incarnation already in this blog.

Edited by NulloModo (log)

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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Back from swimming and the market.

Before the advent of I-95, US Routes 40 and 13 were two of the main East Coast drags. Sitting around a mile mile their intersection, and a couple miles from the DE/MD border lies the Newcastle Farmer's Market. Screw the Mason/Dixon line, this is truly where North meets South. The Farmer's Market is a melting pot of all things white trash, ghetto fabulous, and spanish fly. I absolutely love it.

My main goal was to get my knife sharpened. My first stop was at the hardware store in the market, figuring they may have tools that do this sort of thing. They were unable to comply, but recommended me to the martial arts supply store (which they ever so tactfully pointed out was right next to the barber's shop, where I might want to get a haircut). So on to the martial arts supply store, where it is explained to me that they have had a falling out with their sharpening guy, and will be unable to take care of my knife. Dejected, I walk out but on a whim walk into a kitchen supply store I didn't even know was in the market. Inside I see a Moka pot incredibly similar to the one I bought the other day in KOP for $20, only this one is $8. Darn-it, I ended up paying sales-tax because I bought the other one in PA too. Oh well, this isn't my day I decide. On the way out I talk with the guy at the counter figuring perhaps they sharpen knives. Somehow (probably because he spoke very poor English, and I speak absolutely no Korean) he got it into his head that I was trying to sell him my 'sharp knife'. He offered me $15. Three strikes, and I was out, but not before picking this stuff up:

egfarmers.jpg

On the drive home a series of billboards for Eclipse gum entreated me to eat herring, curry, and brie and then to make-out with beautiful women. Unfortunately I can't do much about the latter this evening, but curry sounds mighty fine.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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Time for Chicken Vindaloo!

This is one of my favorite Anglo-Indian dishes. I know it isn't authentic, but it is darned tasty.

The question one must ask oneself is: can man cook, or enjoy, chicken vindaloo while sober? I don't intend to find out. Here is the spice mixture (non chile portions) and some selections of beverages my companions and I will be enjoying this evening:

egspice.jpg

And here are the chiles toasting before being ground, with a pot of cauliflower I just riced in the background:

egcaul.jpg

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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Hatch chilis:read about the festival here are actually Anaheims that are grown in New Mexico. Nothing beats a bag of freshly roasted Hatch chilis....take them home and use them in everything while they are in season. Freeze the rest. I have friends who buy 20 pounds every September and use them throughout the year.

They are addictive.

Looks like a field trip for you, Nullo!!!

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On the drive home a series of billboards for Eclipse gum entreated me to eat herring, curry, and brie and then to make-out with beautiful women. Unfortunately I can't do much about the latter this evening, but curry sounds mighty fine.

i'd volunteer but johnnybird might have something to say about that :biggrin:

ok , tommy - stop laughing :shock::shock:

Nothing is better than frying in lard.

Nothing.  Do not quote me on this.

 

Linda Ellerbee

Take Big Bites

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Suzi - It's the thought that counts ;).

One roomate decided to heat up a frozen pizza.

The other decided to enjoy some tasty Ramen noodles.

Here is my spread:

egsasupp.jpg

Chicken Vindaloo (based on the pepperfool.com recipe)

Saffron-Cardamom Cauliflower Rissoto (eh, it was going to be Cauliflower Basmati, but it sorta changed)

No naan, but a low-carb onion tortilla with some garlic and butter placed under the broiler is a nice sub.

Enough foreplay, dinner is hot, time to dig in.

He don't mix meat and dairy,

He don't eat humble pie,

So sing a miserere

And hang the bastard high!

- Richard Wilbur and John LaTouche from Candide

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