amarbledesk.com
often pious almanac
« Older Entries | archive for 2010 | Newer Entries »
Pseudo-scratch dressing
15 Jun 2010 22:13 EDT
(Dressing, Not stuffing. Don’t cook bread inside of a wet bird.)
Anyway, this is a half-cheat where you use some Stovetop Stuffing but you extend it. Like ‘Semi-homemade’ but I’m uglier and more sober than Sandra Lee.
Ingredients:
- 1 box Stovetop “Traditional Sage” instant stuffing mix
- 6 cups well-dried cubed bread (white, wheat, or sourdough)
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 carrots, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 2 water chestnuts, diced (1/2 a can)
- 1 apple, diced
- 1 small box raisins
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1 Tbsp vegetable oil
- 6-8 cups chicken broth
- 1 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp ground oregano
- 1 tsp crushed sage
- 1 tsp chopped parsley
- Salt to taste
- 1 egg, beaten
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a greased baking dish, combine the bread cubes and the box of Stove Top. Set aside.
In a saute pan, melt the butter with the oil and saute the onions, celery, and carrots until the onions are transparent. Add the apples, water chestnuts, and raisins and saute until everything is well incorporated and heated through. Pour over the bread cubes in the baking dish and mix well.
Into the saute pan used above, add the chicken broth and the spices. Heat through until steamy but not yet boiling. Pour over the bread cube mixture in the baking dish and mix well.
Finally, combine the beaten egg with the bread cube mixture and mix very well.
Bake at 350 for 40-45 minutes.
Chili verde salsa (roasted green New Mexico chile sauce)
15 Jun 2010 22:00 EDT
This is a spicy chile verde sauce made with New Mexico peppers that we grew in our Ohio garden and roasted in our barbecue. New Mexicos are long, deep green, thick-skinned peppers with an intense pepper taste and a medium-hot amount of spice. The finished sauce is great for enchiladas, burritos, or quite frankly just snacking with soft corn tortillas. It’s a unique alternative to either red chile colorado sauce or to green tomatillo-based verde sauce.
Ingredients
- 30 green-ripe New Mexico chili peppers, prepared as described below
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
- 1/2 large sweet white onion, diced
- 3 Tbsp flour
- 2 c chicken broth
- 2 large cloves garlic, minced
- generous dash of cumin
- generous dash of salt
Preparing the peppers
Directly over hot coals (no flame), roast the peppers until the skin is charred black, turning as needed to roast all sides. Place the still-hot peppers into a paper bag. Keep them in the bag until cool. You can then refrigerate them if you want until you’re ready to cook later. When cool, remove the skins, which should slide right off. Also remove the stems and the majority of the seeds. The more seeds you leave in, the spicier the sauce will be.
Chop the skinned, stemmed, seeded chiles roughly into a medium dice. It should make about 2 cups of diced peppers. Now you’re ready for ….
Making the sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until transparent and soft. Add the flour and stir well. Still stirring, add the chicken broth. Stir continuously until all lumps are gone and liquid is smooth.
Add the peppers, the garlic, the salt, and the cumin. Stir well. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring often. Finally, run a stick blender in the sauce for only about 4-5 seconds, just enough to thicken it a little but still retain the chunky goodness.
Makes about 3 pints.
Kansas City-style barbecue rub
15 Jun 2010 21:43 EDT
If you’re new to dry rubs, I recommend this one first. This is absolutely FABULOUS on pork ribs, but it will work on anything, even chicken or lamb. The trick to KC style barbecue is a combination of dry rub and wet sauce: dry rub for cooking, and wet sauce for serving. It works either with or without smoke, which makes it more flexible as well. This recipe makes about 12 cup, enough for 2 full racks of baby back ribs.
The rub:
- 1/4 cup paprika
- 2 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 3/4 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
- 1 teaspoon cayenne
- 1/2 teaspoon celery salt (this is the kicker here)
Tips for a successful rub:
If you’re cooking pork ribs, it’s best to remove the membrane from the inside of the ribs: either rip the membrane end-to-end clean off the bones, or score the membrane against each of the rib bones. This is true for lamb as well: be sure to remove any membrane before rubbing. If you’re cooking a loin or other cut with a significant layer of fat, leave the fat on the meat but score it deeply with a knife in a a cross-hatch pattern. This will let the rub penetrate more deeply into the meat.
Rub with your hands! Get messy and knead the rub in like a deep tissue massage…really work it. You can let the meat marinate in the rub as long as you care, at least a half hour up to two hours or so.
Cook the meat dry. When done, serve the meat with a KC-style barbecue sauce on the side. Don’t baste the meat with barbecue sauce.
People do seem to like this rub.
Murgh kali mirch (Indian black pepper chicken)
15 Jun 2010 13:11 EDT
ingredients
- Juice of 4 lemons
- 1 Tbsp ground black pepper
- 2 Tbsp minced fresh garlic or garlic paste
- 1 Tbsp fresh ground ginger or ginger paste (not the dry powder if you can avoid it)
- 1 small minced hot chili pepper or red pepper paste
- 1 Tbsp peanut oil
- 1 medium red onion, chopped
- 1 Tbsp butter
- Salt to taste
- Additional black pepper
- 1 whole chicken, cut into pieces, bone-in, skin-on
directions
Combine lemon juice, black pepper, garlic, ginger, chili pepper, and peanut oil. Brush the entire mixture over all surfaces of the chicken pieces. Let marinate for 1/2 hour.
In a dutch oven or large stirfry pan with a lid, place the chicken pieces skin-side down. Add the chopped red onion on tp of the chicken. On medium-high heat, cook the chicken on that side, uncovered, until the skin just begins to get golden. Turn the chicken pieces over, brush the skin with a little bit of butter, add salt and pepper to taste, and cover the lid. Cook on medium-high heat until the chicken is nearly cooked through, 30-40 minutes (this depends on how big the pieces are).
Turn the chicken pieces over one last time and cook, covered, under medium-low heat until the skin turns a darker golden-brown. The golden-brown, almost crispy skin is what really makes this dish “pop”.
Serve over rice.
I exist forever.
08 Jun 2010 23:03 EDT
I exist forever.
There’s a concept in the physics of relativity called a “world line” or a “world sheet”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_line
As you move from here to there through the three dimensions of space, you also move through the fourth dimension of time. Of course, your travel through time is much more constrained than your travel through space. You can move as fast or as slow as you want through space, in any direction. But you are traveling through time at the speed of light (it’s true) in the futureward direction, and there’s really nothing you can do about that.
So as you describe your journey through space, you are really describing a journey through a 4-dimensional universe. For a person, the path of You in your successive positions from your birth to your death looks something like this:
Credit: George Gamow, One, Two, Three, Infinity)
http://www.leptonic.com/skip/WLMblog/WorldLine-3.jpg
I call this path a World Worm (not to be confused with a wormhole). My World Worm started when I was born and will end when I die … right? Well, sure, from the limited point of view of another one of us poor humans. All that any of us can see is a single instant in time, and we can only remember the past. So someday You and I will no longer exist. Unless of course we step outside of the 4 dimensions and look at things from a timeless point of view.
From outside the 4 dimensions, the World Worm is simply ‘there’. It is there, was there, and will always be there – if one looks from outside of time. The diagram above shows a World Worm as it ‘is’, and will remain there whenever you care to go back and look at it.
You’re the same way, and so am I. Although we were born and will die, our existence is, has always been, and will always be a fact.
I exist forever.
Corn and kielbasa chowder
06 Jun 2010 22:53 EDT
ingredients
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 yellow bell pepper, diced
- 1 1/2 tbsp garlic, chopped
- 1 lb. kielbasa, sliced into thin disks
- Salt (sea salt)
- Pepper (Cameroun 3-color peppercorn blend)
- 1 bay leaf
- 4 potatooees, peeled and diced
- 2 qts. chicken broth
- 1/2 head Savoy cabbage, julienne
- 1 can cream corn
- 1 1/2 c whole kernel corn
- 1/2 c heavy cream
directions
Melt oil & butter. Add onions, garlic, peppers; season to taste. Saute until onion is transparent. Add
kielbasa, saute until just starting to brown. Add 1/2 the broth, bay leaf, and potato. Bring to a full boil.
Lower heat and simmer 20 minutes. Add cabbage, corns, and additional chicken broth as needed. Cook until
cabbage turns bright green. Add cream; check for seasoning.
Enjoy and relax. Yummy.
Pastilla
06 Jun 2010 22:05 EDT
ingredients
- 1/2 c chopped fresh parsley
- 1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
- 5 Tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 chicken, in pieces
- 1 sweet onion (Vidalia or similar), chopped roughly
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 pinches true saffron, crumbled
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 stick cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp ground ginger
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup blanched peeled almonds
- 2 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1/3 cup powdered sugar
- 6 sheets phyllo dough
- 1 stick melted unsalted butter (not margarine!)
directions
To prepare:
1. Combine parsley and cilantro.
2. Pour oil into large skillet (one with a cover). Add chicken pieces, onion, garlic, saffron, salt, pepper, cinnamon stick, ginger, and 1/2 of the parsley/cilantro mixture. Cook, covered, over medium heat for 45 minutes, turning occasionally. Your house will now smell like heaven.
3. Combine almonds, 1/2 the powdered sugar, and 1/2 the powdered cinnamon in a food processor. Process until well mixed but still crumbly.
4. Remove chicken pieces from skillet and put in refrigerator to cool. You will be pulling the chicken meat later.
5. Strain the reserved cooking juices to remove large pieces. Re-heat the skillet with the cooking juices to medium heat. Add the 3 eggs to the cooking juices and beat until soft-scrambled. Remove and set aside/refrigerate.
6. Let the chicken meat cool sufficiently. If you let it sit overnight in the refrigerator the flavor will blend quite deliciously. Pull the meat from the bones, and chop the meat roughly.
7. Assembly. Get a lasagna pan and butter it well, then assemble in the following layers:
i. 3 sheets phyllo dough, each sheet brushed with butter
ii. 1/2 of the almond mixture
iii. chicken meat
iv. remaining parsley/cilantro mixture
v. 1 sheet phyllo dough, brushed with butter
vi. scrambled eggs
vii. other 1/2 of the almond mixture
viii. 2 sheets phyllo dough, brushed with butter
8. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown.
9. Remove from oven and immediately sift remaining powdered sugar over the top of the pie. Dust lightly with the remaining powdered cinnamon.
10. Serve hot or cold with harissa (Moroccan hot sauce).
This was a big hit! It’s like a combination of Baklava and Chicken Pot Pie. All three boys ate it up amid various yummy noises, and with my picky boys you know that means it’s a hit. A bit of work, but well well worth it. We served it with couscous and peas. Even my mom loved it. Yowzah!
Taquitos
06 Jun 2010 21:12 EDT
Taquitos (aka flautas) the Beadles way isn’t fast food, but nice…and…slow…. El pollo es la llave! (The chicken is the key!)the chicken
- 2 whole chicken breasts, skin and bones intact
sofrito
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 1/2 yellow onion, dice
- 1/2 green bell pepper, diced
- 1 Tbsp garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
- 2 Tbsp tomato ketchup (got this tip from Ingrid Hoffman)
- 1 10-oz can Ro-Tel or equivalent “Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies”
- 1/2 Tbsp adobo seasoning
- ground black pepper to taste
- 1 whole dried guajillo chili (if you like a hotter chili, use it!)
Set a large crockpot to its highest heat level. Add the sofrito ingredients (butter, onion, bell pepper, garlic, cilantro, and ketchup) to the pot. Let them heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted and coats the vegetables.
Season the chicken breasts with pepper and adobo, and add to the crockpot. Pour in the contents of the can of tomatoes and chilies, along with the whole dried chili. Cover and cook in the crock-pot about 6 hours, literally until the meat is falling off the chicken.
Cool the chicken in the refrigerator for a little while until cool enough to pull. Pull the meat from the bones and set aside.
[Bonus: remove the skins, bones, and chili stem from the remaining liquid, and blend it all up until smooth. Save this delicious sauce for your next recipe.]
the taquitos
- 1 cup grated Colby, Monterrey jack, and Cotija (tajo) cheeses
- Buncha flour tortillas
- Vegetable oil sufficient for deep-frying in your favorite pan. We use a cast-iron skillet.
- Chicken, from above
Heat your oil in your favorite frying thing. Place a bit of chicken and a bit of cheese into a tortilla, roll as tight as you can, and put in the pan. Repeat until pan is full. Fry until golden-brown on both sides, turning only once. Place on paper towels to drain the oil. Repeat until you’ve cooked as many as you want.
the meal
Serve fresh, hot taquitos with your favorite condiments. Ours include:
- Salsa, pico de gallo, or picante sauce
- Sour cream
- Frijoles refritos
- Lettuce
You may have a lot of pulled chicken left over. This is good. Put it in the fridge and it’ll be even better the next day!
Texas-style barbecue rub
06 Jun 2010 20:52 EDT
This is a mustard-based rub for beef or pork. It’s not Tex-Mex spicy, rather it’s got a nice peppercorny bite to it. It works best for large cuts of meat that are barbecued with smoke for a few hours. We used hickory smoke.
ingredients
- 1 1/2 Tbsp sea salt (or kosher salt – anything non-iodized)
- 2 Tbsp mixed peppercorns (eg green/white/black/red), medium-coarse grind
- 2 Tbsp garlic powder (not garlic salt)
- 4 Tbsp brown sugar
- 2 Tbsp Colman’s mustard (or other dry mustard)
- 1 Tbsp Hungarian paprika
- 1 Tbsp ground cumin seed
The above amounts were for a 4-lb pork loin. Adjust the amounts in the same proportions if you use more meat.
Wings
06 Jun 2010 20:40 EDT
ingredients
- 2 dozen uncooked chicken wings, thawed (you can buy them frozen in 4-lb. bags like breasts)
- vegetable oil spray
- sea salt
- ground black pepper
Buffalo Sauce
- 1/4 cup Trappey’s Red Devil hot sauce
- 3 Tbsp unsalted stick butter
- 1 clove garlic, finely minced
Teriyaki Sauce
- 1/2 cup Kikkoman soy sauce (I use low-sodium)
- 1/2 cup orange juice
- 1/8 cup Heinz ketchup
- 1 Tbsp rice vinegar
- 1/8 cup brown sugar
- 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1/2 tsp fresh ginger, shredded
directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Take any excess feathers off the wings. Coat the wings with vegetable oil spray. Salt and pepper to taste. Bake the wings on a cookie sheet for about 45 minutes until crispy and golden brown.
Meanwhile make the sauces.
Buffalo sauce: Melt the butter over low heat in a saucepan. When butter is melted, remove from heat. Add hot sauce and garlic and stir very well. Pour into a medium sized bowl and set aside.
Teriyaki sauce: Combine all ingredients in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the sauce just begins to thicken. Remove from heat, pour into another medium sized bowl, and set aside.
When the wings are cooked, remove from the oven. Put 1 dozen in the Buffalo sauce, 1 dozen in the teriyaki. Mix each batch very well until completely coated in yummy sauces.
Serve HOT with celery and blue cheese. Probably beer, too.
about mark beadles
I write the things you read here. Polymath renaissance redneck. I build software, stories, and young men. More...on the desk
around the web
in the vault
-
