The Hottest Thing I Ever Ate

The Beef Vindaloo was hot and spicy but not even comparable to the food I ate in Chengdu in the Sichuan Province in China.  I had the opportunity to visit Chengdu a year ago.  Here's an exerpt from an email I sent home after lunch one day:

"Today our chinese colleagues took us to lunch for traditional Sichuan food which you may well know is very spicy. Whooooo Waaaaa! I can't put into words how spicy the food is. There is something beyond spicy, trust me. The first dish was fish with a yellow broth and red and green peppers on top. I thought, "avoid the peppers and I'll be okay." 

Not so much. First my mouth and throat are on fire, then as I eat more my nose and eyes start to run. You'd think this would stop me but no, I keep eating because the food tastes so delicious you can't help yourself. The next dish arrives at the table and its chicken and potato with a red colored pepper sauce and the "numbing" peppers. This is how they described the peppers. You are not supposed to eat them. Anything that comes into contact with the peppers gets infused with their essense. 

So we go straight from the fish to the chicken and 30 seconds later my lips and mouth are numb. Who knew! At this point they bring the rice to the table...ah sweet Guan Yin, have mercy on my mouth. After we move onto other dishes my mouth calms down, most of the feeling returns. I grab another piece of chicken in my chopsticks and pop it in my mouth. This time I get the full flavor of the chicken before my tongue goes back into the abyss of numbness.

Now we are back in the office 2 hours and several meetings later and I can still feel a slight numbing sensation on my lips even after washing them very well.  Ah, I love new experiences!"

I remember this like it was yesterday and would love to go back and eat it all over again.  The food was so intensely flavorful, it's worth the temporary loss of feeling in my mouth.  I now have a deep appreciation for the different between hot and spicy and how they can live harmoniously together.

Beef Vindaloo - A Success!

I followed Aarti Sequeira's directions exactly as stated in her recipe:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/goan-beef-curry-with-vinegar-beef-vindaloo-recipe2.html. 

I have a Mr. Coffee grinder that I use for a spice grinder.  I actually have two Mr. Coffee grinders, one for coffee and the other for spices.  I love fresh ground cumin but not in my coffee.  After you grind the spices in this recipe you'll understand what I'm talking about.  Grinding the spices enhances their flavors in my opinion so it's worth the extra effort. 

Here's a photo summary of the progression of the cooking process:

 

Getting ready

 

Toasting the cumin seeds, whole cloves, cinnamon bark, pepper corns.

Added the onion and Serrano pepper to the hot oil.

Brown the onions really takes about 12 minutes.

Added the wet masala (spice and vinegar mix)

Added the meat then 1 cup of hot water with the residual spices left in the blender.

 

This is what it looks like after 30 minutes.

It's ready to eat!

I served it with green beans, saffron rice, and naan; all intended to help calm the heat of the Beef Vindaloo.  It was delicious.  Just enough heat to make you sweat a little without distracting you from the intense flavors of the spices.  This one's a keeper!

Tomorrow - Beef Vindaloo

I recently watched an episode of Aarti Party on the Food Network where she made Beef Vindaloo.  It reminded me of the delicious Indian food I enjoyed when visiting Malaysia.  I'm going to try this tomorrow.

Here's the recipe:  http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/goan-beef-curry-with-vinegar-beef-vindaloo-recipe2.html

Today I picked up cumin seeds (I had ground cumin), beef, and serrano peppers.  It turns out I already had the rest of the ingredients in my pantry.  Woohoo!  I can't wait to try it.

Italian Sausage and White Bean Soup

We had a great bunch at a friend's house today and weren't very hungry at dinner time but I knew if I didn't eat something I'd be foraging in the kitchen later and then be disappointed about the junk I ate.  After taking a quick inventory of the pantry and the freezer, I decided to do something with italian sausage.  I went on Pinterest and found a recipe for Italian Sausage and White Bean Soup on this blog:  http://thenourishinghome.com/2012/03/italian-sausage-white-bean-soup-gf/ 

My version was slightly different and not gluten free.  I'll try to stick to that next

time but I couldn't resist modifying it.  My modifications

were:

 

- left out the celery because we didn't have any

- added Orzo because we had it and it sounded good
- I used Goya Chicken boullion to make the chicken stock
- I added about 2 extra cups of water due to the orzo

 

It was so good, I didn't even add crackers which I typically do when eating soup.
Sorry, no photos...too busy enjoying the soup.

 

Baked Potato with a twist

Today we tried a baked potato the way Stay Healthy Fitness recommended on Facebook with a couple minor modifications.  They recommend to, "Cut potatoes almost all the way through, drizzle olive oil, butter, some sea salt, and pepper over top and bake at 425 for 40 minutes."

We left the skin on, eliminated the butter, and cooked them for almost an hour.  Here's how they turned out.  Yum!

Tuna Casserole

I love taking recipes and adding my own touches.  It's been so cold recently I decided take one of my childhood favorite comfort food recipes and as Emeril Lagasse would say, "Kick it up a notch"! 

Here's my mother's original recipe:

Ingredients
1 can chuck tuna in water, drain the water
1 can of cream of mushroom soup
1 bag of wide egg noodles
1/2 stick of butter
1/4 cup of milk
1 cup of jay's potato chips crushed to crumbs
Salt and pepper

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees F.

Fill a 4 quart pot half full of water and bring to a boil.  Once the water reaches a rolling boil, add the noodles.  Cook as directed on the package.  When the noodles are done strain the water out and add the butter.  Mix until the butter is melted.  Add the mushroom soup and the milk.  Mix and add more milk if the noodle and soup mix is not creamy on the verge being runny. Add the tuna and mix.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Put the tuna and noodle mix in a greased baking dish.  Top with the potato chip crumbs and place in the oven until the potato chips are lightly browned.  Remove from the oven.

Here's my modified version:

Ingredients
2 cans solid white albacore tuna, lightly drain the water
1 can of cream of celery soup
1 bag of wide egg noodles
1/4 stick of butter
1/2 cup of milk
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp thyme
3 Tbsp capers (nonpareilles)
salt and pepper
1/4 cup of lay's potato chips crushed to crumbs (bread crumbs mixed with melted butter can be substituted.)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 Degrees F.

Fill a 4 quart pot half full of water and bring to a boil.  Once the water reaches a rolling boil, add the noodles.  Cook as directed on the package.  When the noodles are done strain the water out and add the butter.  Mix until the butter is melted.  Add the celery soup and the milk.  Mix and add the mayonnaise.  Add more milk if the noodle and soup mix is not creamy on the verge being runny. Add the marjoram, thyme, salt and pepper and mix well.  Add the tuna and mix.  Add the capers and mix carefully.  Put the tuna and noodle mix in a greased baking dish.  Top with the potato chip crumbs and place in the oven until the potato chips are lightly browned.  Remove from the oven.

Enjoy!

Texas Waffles!

Our wonderful niece bought us a Texas waffle maker.  Now we're enjoying Texas shaped waffles on the weekends.  These waffles are real easy to make.  We use Krusteaz Pancake mix and just add water!  While at my dentist's office recently, he told me about a restaurant called Yolk in Chicago (http://eatyolk.com/) that has bacon waffles.  Not bacon and waffles, bacon infused waffles!  So you know I had to try this. 

I cooked a pound of bacon.  I chopped up 4 slices and set the rest aside on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper in a 200 degree oven to keep it warm. I then mixed the batter and water, adding the chopped bacon and a couple tablespoons of bacon grease (for flavor).   Mix well and ladle the batter into a heated waffle maker and close the lid.  The process looks like this:

Ladle in enough batter to fill the shape.

 

Close the lid and cook for 3-5 minutes.  The longer the crispier.

Open the lid and use tongs to remove the hot waffle.

Add the waffles to the cookie sheet in the oven to keep them warm until they are all cooked.

Eat with a couple strips of bacon because you can never have enough bacon.

Enjoy! 

Shepard's Pie

Ingredients:  (all measurements are approximate)

1/2 yellow onion, diced

2 Tbsp olive oil

4 carrots

4 parsnips

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 lb ground lamb

1 lb ground beef

1 Tbsp rosemary

1 Tbsp thyme

2 tsp worcestershire sauce

1 can beef stock

1 can of Guinness beer

salt and pepper to taste

thickening agent (I call this a rue but its not a traditional rue which uses some sort of fat with flour.  I add about 3 tbsp of flour to a measuring cup and mix while adding enough water to create a runny paste) 

Mashed Potatoes (enough to cover the other ingredients in the pan)

And now the fun part, let's cook...

Start by sweating the onions in olive oil over medium heat for a couple minutes, then add the garlic and cook for another minute then add the carrots and parsnip cooking for about 5 minutes.  

In another pot, brown the ground lamb and beef together.  

Add the rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper, can of beef stock, to the pot with the onions, carrots and parsnips and cook for a couple minutes.

When the meet is all browned add it to the pot with the onion, carrot and parsnip mix.

Next add the Guinness and the Worcestershire to the pot.

Let it cook for about 10-15 minutes then add the rue.  Cook for about 5 mintues allowing the mixture to thicken.  Spoon the mashed potatoes on top of the pot and place in 350 degree oven for about 30 minutes or until the potatoes brown.

And 30 minutes later the pie turned out like this...

This wasn't supposed to happen.  The gravy leaked through the potatoes.  I'm not sure why this happened but it was delicious anyway.

Almond Crescent Rolls

I am always looking for a good Almond Croissant. Good Croissants seem like they would be impossible to make at home.  We were in Ocean Grove, New Jersey one summer and I had the best Almond Horn.  It was shaped like a big horn (go figure).  It was soft and deliciously almond.  That's when I realized its all about the almond not the baked good.  I can make my own almond goodies.  I bought cans of almond paste and almond cake/pie filling.

Macaroons
It turns out I only had one 8 oz. can of almond paste and the recipe called for 14 ounces so I tried to improvise with the almond cake/pie filling.  This resulted in a gooey mess with an intense almond flavor.

...Onto the crescent rolls
I had a half of a can of almond cake/pie filling left so I added it to Pillsbury Crescent Rolls and voila, they turned out great.

 Be careful, the filling is very hot when you remove them from the oven.  Enjoy!

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog.  I'm not a professionally trained chef. I just enjoy cooking and, more importantly, eating.  I learned the fundamentals of cooking from my mother.  She's a really good cook and very creative when the choices and supplies are limited.  I think this helped inspire some of my willingness to experiment with food.  I've also drawn inspiration from my travels and most importantly from my friends.  

When I first started learning how to cook the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book was my go-to book.  I would follow each recipe very carefully.  Today, I wing it. I usually go online and google a recipe or look on Pinterest and gleen ideas from a couple recipes for the same dish.  I usually eyeball ingredients and rarely measure.  This sometimes leads to disaster, especially when I'm baking, but usually this technique or lack of technique works out okay.  Reproducing a successful recipe is sometimes difficult but I always enjoy the challenge.