A little more food

Better get this done before vacation this week. Haven't had much time to make exciting food with a job and the sheep going to the mountain. Mom made the better stir-fry broccoli. May have been better, but wasn't that great. Mostly just crunchy broccoli with a little sauce and red pepper flakes. The red pepper flakes did make it a little more exciting. Eat it with milk near by.

The other thing was pork tostadas. This one needs a retry. They were good and didn't take too long to make. We did eat at 8:45 pm, but it wasn't because they cooked for that long. It was just a long day. This was the first time we left out the secret ingredient though. I guess I missed the add chipotle powder part so they were a little bland. Flavor was good, but no kick at all. Even with my Tapatio sauce they were mild. Tapatio is a pretty mild hot sauce, but still should help some. So now we have to try again... with the chipotle. It sure smells good.

The diet should get more interesting now. The lettuce and spinach are pretty much done for, and the beets were kind of skipped, but the peas are ready to begin. We had the first six pods tonight and they were just how I like them. Small enough that when you bite down the peas pop a little. This is the reason for a garden. Get everything picked when you like them, not when someone else decides they are ready. Still haven't figured out the watermelon thing yet. They are either so green they taste like cucumbers or old and mealy. And the biggest one I had was about softball size. Forget icebox melons, I grow pop cooler melons.

And beginning another

On to March and April 2010, or the broccoli magazine- it has a picture of broccoli on the front cover. We need to keep moving. The day we started this one the Pepper issue came. Still three to go. The broccoli issue has much less exotic ingredients than the previous "sweet potato" issue. Dried chipotle powder is about as strange as it gets. Hopefully we find something to do with the sheep cheese and oyster sauce somewhere in one of these next couple issues.

The first we tried was the pan-seared chicken breasts, sub titled 'Exposing boneless, skinless chicken breasts to a hot pan often yields dry, leathery meat. But what if we did most of the cooking in the oven?' For us the answer was dry, leathery meat. I am sure it has more to do with our thermometer and interpretation than the actual process. At the end, rather than the 160 degrees suggested, they still read about 80. I better stick to the 'looks good' method. I did calibrate the thermometer to the ice point since that was the only temperature we know exactly, but as I learned at the lab, it is best to calibrate close to the point that will actually be used. Might have to use boiling water and just adjust for altitude. They were good, especially with the lemon and chive pan sauce, just a little on the tough dry side. I did take a picture of the dinner, but I am on the wrong computer so it will have to be put on later.

Next was beef stroganoff. This was good. A little more work than Mom's traditional hamburger stroganoff, but not too bad. It used tomato paste to enhance the flavor like the beef stew did and just a little sour cream. We will try it again with hamburger rather than the sirloin tips since we have all the hamburger we want while we have to buy sirloin tips. Still have enough of that to make the stroganoff two more times. We did leave the wine out so lost that "brightness" but it was good enough for us.

End of a chapter

We have reached the end of our first issue and those strange foods weren't that bad. Mom is a big fan of the Thai-style Chicken with Basil. And interesting note on that. We forgot the sugar when we made it and she thought it was really hot. I have lived with a Mexican long enough it wasn't that bad for me. Anyway, put a little sugar on it and turns the heat way down. The theory is that the "happy" caused by the sugar overpowers the "ow" caused by the capsaicin. May come in useful someday. We put it on some rice sticks that my sister-in-law gave to us. Maifun I think they are called, and they are fun. Drop them in hot oil and there is a moment of suspense, then suddenly they boil to the top. Worth making them just for the entertainment value. They don't taste like much, but then they are made of rice which doesn't taste like much.

The final trial was Cacio e Pepe, or spaghetti with cheese and pepper. This was the sheep milk cheese and since we want our sheep milk to go to lambs we had to buy $14/lb cheese. Fortunately not much. I personally liked the cheese, Mom almost spit it out. Tasting the finished product though she didn't mind. Mostly it tasted like pepper. No picture because it looked like spaghetti with pepper. Use your imagination.

The war edition

A little while ago Mom and I were book shopping at the local thrift store (my favorite book store), and found an old copy of "The Joy of Cooking: a compilation of reliable recipes with an occasional culinary chat" published in 1943. World War II for those who forgot their history. The "Occasional culinary chat" is quite entertaining. A whole column devoted to the story of how the king of France brought about the invention of puffed potatoes; he was late for dinner to make the story short. Also the section on the Calorie Chart, missing in the 75th anniversary edition. "A malediction on the first calorie counter (must have been a man)... It's fun to count other people's caloric intake. Make a game of it... Watch the calories mount. Yes, you may eat and grow thin. It isn't nearly as much fun as giving your appetite a free rein, but if you are inclined to take on soft, but unfortunately much-dated curves, a concentration on non-caloric food (with only an occasional indulgence) is advisable." And my favorite diet advice "Let your contours be your guide."

It was going to press about the time rationing started so some "emergency" chapters were tacked on: Sugar saving recipes for desserts, and Meat stretching and substitutes. And no cookbook could be complete without 'rules' on how to handle sweetbreads, brains, small birds (pigeon), frog legs, hare, and squirrel. As well as the new pressure cookers and varieties of baking powder. We did use one of the recipes for strawberry rhubarb pie which was the taste of spring in a pastry shell.

4 cups sliced strawberries and rhubarb
We used about 2 cups of each
1 cup sugar
9 Tablespoons flour

put in a 9 inch pie pan, with crust on top and bottom and cook at 350.

Simple, straight forward, and very good if you can find good strawberries. Should have taken a picture of that one. Very pretty too.