Trying something new, but since there are a lot of these recipes out there I want to get it down this morning before I forget. I made something at one point that was amazing and was told to make sure i make it the same way again and it was so simple I was sure not to forget...
and I forgot. of course. second time wasn't the same... close but not the same...
Fluffy, light, and easy-to-make, Cornmeal Pancakes are a tasty twist on classic pancakes. | One Bowl Recipe. No buttermilk. No need to whip egg whites!
Prep Time 10 minutes Cook Time 20 minutes Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4 people
Ingredients 1 cup finely ground cornmeal (5 ounces cornmeal; 142 grams) 1 cup all-purpose flour (4 ½ ounces; 127 grams) 3 tablespoons granulated sugar (1 ⅓ ounces 38 grams) 1 tablespoon baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 2 large eggs (out of shell: about 4 ounces; 113 grams) 1 cup milk (8 ounces; 226 grams) ¼ cup vegetable oil Nonstick cooking spray or vegetable oil for greasing the griddle
For Serving
Butter Maple syrup
Instructions
Make the Batter. Whisk cornmeal, flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt together in a medium mixing bowl. Add the eggs, milk, and vegetable oil. Whisk until smooth.\
Heat the Griddle. Lightly oil a nonstick griddle. Heat griddle over medium-high heat. P
Cook the Pancakes. Pour batter, approximately ¼ cup, onto griddle. Batter should sizzle when it hits the pan. Cook for approximately 3 minutes. Flip pancakes when bubbles appear all over the surface of the pancake and begin to pop. The pancake should begin to look almost dry. Flip and cook another 1 to 1 ½ minutes.
Serve. Serve with butter and syrup, if desired.
Keep Pancakes Warm: To keep warm, preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Place cooked pancakes on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
Major substitutions:
Butter instead of oil (melted in pan to cook em in then mixed in at last) Added vanilla added flaxmeal
Soaked the cornmeal in the milk overnight.
Doubled the recipe and used 5 med eggs
Also unlike other pancakes I make, I am going to cook them all up instead of save batter for cooking tomorrow. These are pretty fluffy and if put back in fridge I think the baking powder will lose the ability to make em fluffy and then that wouldn't be good.
These are pretty fluffy, and yeah, I put the sugar in. And no, I didn't use whole wheat flour, the whole grain corn felt like enough w/o using whole wheat.
I still kind of don't eat breakfast unless I'm going for a long ride before lunch.
Drink coffee, slowly wake up, get shit done. Eventually eat food.
Steve posted his skillet cakes and well that got me thinking and down the links to see if i had one up.
I have a handful up, current evolution? Nope.
Basic principles from here still apply, aka instructions and order and all that.
Quantities have changed.
Today's batch: 6 medium eggs
mix
1.5 cup whole milk (more later to get batter to correct consistency)
1 cup whole plain biodynamic yogurt
1/3 cup flaxseed meal
2 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
mix
1 cup rolled oats
mix (to get them started soaking up the stuff)
1.5 cups whole wheat flour
1.5 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cinnamon
mix well - adjust with milk if too thick
let stand while melting
6-7 tbsp butter (unsalted w/o natural flavor added)
mix melted butter in - adjust thickness of batter again with milk if needed
Add 1 cup chocolate chips (add after hot melted butter is mixed in)
cook em up.
--
Skillet cakes often are made with left over batter.
I'll take maybe 2 cups of that batter, add some muesli, frozen blueberries - a bit more milk then cook it up in a 12" omelet pan all at once.
if making skillet cakes up just as a single batch - 1-2 eggs, lately 2 medium ones, then milk and yogurt or just milk - some flaxseed meal and then whatever else a little this, a little that, nuts, seeds, frozen fruit, choco chips, muesli, whatever seems to make sense. Toss it in the pan, cook while getting bike stuff together, cut into quarters, bag uneaten sections to stuff in jersey pocket for the ride.
There are rules but that's kind of the thing, years and years of following the rules, understanding, paying attention to what it looks like, knowing what is critical, how if you deviate a bit in one direction it will impact the end result.
Also, don't start writing up the recipe while cooking pancakes, you're likely to over cook a few like i have this morning.
I was going to ride today - but it is raining, cold there is snow on the ground, and i don't want to work in the basement wearing wet clothes. And I don't feel so bad about that right now.
and hell it is hot enough might as well make some cool coleslaw...
I've put up a recipe before.... here's today's iteration
Finely slice (first in half and then from tip to roots so you have ribbons) 1 large vidalia (or other sweet or not sweet onion).
Put sliced onions in cold water, rinse and drain a handful of times while you finely chop (yes motherfuckers chop this shit yourself, get a knife and just fucking do it)
while you finely slice up on large head of cabbage.
head of cabbage goes in bowl. some salt, and today I actually poured about 1/2 cup of Grillo's Pickle juice in there as extra brine/flavor.
massage and toss well (with your hands)
peel and then grate 4 large carrots into the cabbage.
finely julienne one cubanelle pepper and then cut into about matchstick lengths.
now drain the onions and squeeze as much liquid out of them as you can and toss it in the big bowl you have everything else in. Yeah you'll need a big bowl for this recipe.
Massage it all together, a couple times, get the salt and bring and ingredients all well integrated....
dust the top of the veg with some celery seed (more if you really like it, less if not but always need just a tiny bit IMHO).
That can sit for now, or for days in the fridge before dressing it. Or you dress it NOW and do the same. shit, like i've said before, will keep for weeks in the fridge, but it won't last more than a couple days.
Dressing? Lots of variations here, but I really prefer the vinaigrette style slaw. that creamy shit just doesn't do it for me, far too sweet and yucky... and this way you can make all your vegan friends love you.... and proudly serve a gluten free dish....
which is all dumb, food has to taste good first, plenty fit into those two categories w/o needing the label, and yes i'm not disrespecting those who chose either of those two particular lifestyles, duh, just yeah i dunno what i'm doing.
Dressing: 1 tablespoon of some german mustard, 1/2 teaspoon of mustard powder, some balsalmic, rice wine and apple cider vinegar, close to equal portions totalling between 1/2 and 2/3 of a cup. Shake well (i use jars I have for this purpose). Then I double the vinegar volume plus a bit more using some extra virgin olive oil. Shake the heck out of it, dump it all on the coleslaw.
I make most of the ice cream we eat in this house, not that we eat much, not that I eat any, but organic milk and cream and sugar and vanilla? I dunno, pretty much that's all that goes in there, read a label of most of the stuff out there.... more than 4 ingredients I bet.
But I hadn't made coffee Ice cream in a while, the oldest requested it, but ran out of time last night, made it this morning.
searched for ratio, i'd made it many times once finding the secret. but i guess hadn't written it down.
The secret?
Good (in this case some hipster fairtrade) Instant Coffee. Yup. You heard me right. Instant coffee.
Why? well you can dissolve that shit in Milk and milk is the base for Ice cream (unless you have shitty low fat content heavy cream then milk is a diluter. Organic Valley's Heavy cream is heavier than anything i've tired (short of buying raw and separating it myself, haven't done that yet).
I mean I love milk fat but using the 2 cup cream to 1 cup whole milk with that stuff is like making sweet vanilla flavored butter.
So a million years ago I stumbled on the 1 cup OVHC and 2 cups whole milk.
to make the coffee ice cream I put 4 teaspoons of the instant coffee in the milk, and 8 tablespoons of sugar. Dissolve both in milk (shake, heat, whatever) once dissolved cool that milk back down in the fridge. When it is all ready (cold and dissolved) add one cup of the OVHC (organic valley heavy cream if you hadn't figured that out yet) and 2 teaspoons of vanilla (good shit, fancy stuff) and mix it up. Put in ice cream maker (the cuisinart one is pretty fucking badass and i've been using it for 15+ years w/o hitch).
And that's how you make coffee ice cream.
Chocolate? skip the instant coffee and dissolve 1/2 cup of cocoa powder in the milk...
keep the shit simple and shit tastes good with very little effort.
Also.... tag in for those following along. I am not sure if it is good to spend so much time alone with my thoughts building bikes. But, bikes means i'm less broke...
I searched here, found a good half-dozen+ favorites around this house that i've shared and written up here that use Kale.
Oddly the one dish I cook the most with it (outside of putting it in soups or making a raw salad with it) is super simple and i haven't written up it looks like. Unless my search was not complete.
I found one reference to 'hot salad' here. But it wasn't the current evolution of the recipe.
I make this with one bunch of the stuff, you can use more or less or all of it but the biggest key is to make sure you have oil salt and acid when cooking kale as a side dish that people won't avoid.
Granted, my wife won't touch it, or most anything green that isn't a normal salad. But my kids fight over it, literally.
unless i cook 3+ bunches of it there are no left overs.
And it actually is really good cold.
But it kind of is a litmus for health and palate. If you're all about sugar and can't do bitter (aka you don't drink black coffee, prefer ketchup over mustard... it may be a tough transition into liking it. But then you can only blame your parents. Once you pass the palate development point it is intensely difficult to make the switch from sweet to savory/bitter. But if you look around the savory/bitter crew struggle much less with their weight and all (insulin motherfuckers).
Now the recipe.
Take your Kale, any of the three popular varieties work for this, mix em for fun, red, green, or the lacinato variety (the one usually used in minestrone soup).
Cut the stem out, then cut them up the leaves into 1" squares. I like squares. Some people want them finely diced, some want strips. You do what you think you'll like, next time try something different.
Once cut up, i wash in a salad spinner. And just let it drain. NO spinning (you want the water on them for the cooking).
Pile some extra virgin olive oil in the pan (do not ever use "vegetable"/canola oils or really any of the seed oils- if you made bacon using the saved rendering is a good idea also). Once it is warm put 2-5 crushed cloves of garlic depending on your preference. get em nice and cooked but not brown. Before the garlic turns brown or just as it does - dump the greens in the hot oil and mix well.
Then put in 2-3 tablespoons of organic shoyu (i really really like the San-J stuff) and the same amount of a nice balsamic vinegar.
The acid helps break down the toughness and gets rid of some of the most bitter flavor profiles (chemically actually - helps break down the sulfur compounds... aka think brussels sprouts). More or less any time you're cooking cruciferous veggies you need an acid. Balsamic has a nice umami and flavor profile to go with it.
Cook it all down, on high, stirring until the Kale is cooked and the 'juice' has reduced.
Can't really overcook it.
Serve as a side.
Done.
I don't usually add any thing else to it but you could. Sometimes I'll use a Lemon if I'm using the lemon in something else for the dinner just to brighten the flavor, but then I'll cut back on the amount of vinegar.
This is actually the same recipe i use for collards, kale, or swiss chard. They are all distinctly different but the dish works equally well with all of them. Kale takes the longest to cook, and swiss chard the fastest.
there ya go.
Back to cooking stir-fry for tonight. Dinner isn't ready yet, nope. Not close.
Listed in order of prep:
85% Pineland Farm ground beef (about 1-1.5#s) mixed with
corn starch, ginger powder, shoyu sauce and hoisin sauce
let sit while chopping carrots
4 large carrots, peeled and diced pretty small into a pan with some olive oil, splash of toasted sesame oil and some saved beef rendering. After all warm a splash of shoyu or two, cook till caramelized over high heat.
While carrots are cooking
dice one medium onion,
dice one medium red pepper,
chop cabbage (roughly the same finished volume as the onion and pepper)
dice up one can of sliced water chestnuts
(mis-en-place)
de-skin (not peel) 2.5" of ginger and one turmeric root
super finely dice both of them (i have special technique developed over years and years of experimental practice - will share on another post perhaps)
dice one serrano pepper
put all that into a bowl with some olive oil, using a Zyliss garlic press add 4 large cloves to that mix, and mix it all up and set it aside for a while.
Once carrots look good in goes the beef (obvs you could substitute anything for whatever - and making this vegan would be easy), use the carrots as you're mixing to break up the meat and get it cooked, just as you get some maillard reaction on the bottom of the pan add the onions and reduce heat a bit until they are sweated and mostly see-through.
In goes the cabbage next, and once you get that incorporated in there (should release steam and help scrape flavor off bottom of pan, if not add a splash of water) make a spot in the middle of the pan and put the ginger garlic mix in there give that 30s or more until it becomes very aromatic but don't let it burn (it may stick and that's fine). Get that all mixed in. Then add the water chestnuts. Mix again (kind of stirring a lot yeah, but it ain't Risotto no need to constantly attend to it)
after that? well sauce it up!
deglaze with some white wine if you have some (mirin or rice wine or pinot g or whatever you have open) i used about a cup. Add more shoyu, some hoisin, some oyster sauce, get that all warm, add a bit of water to get the sauce to really get some volume. Adjust seasoning if needed... finally add the red pepper along with some nice purple daikon radish (the purple stuff in the snapshot) all diced into short sticks for texture.
mix, check seasoning, and serve.
as a variation to make it go a bit further increase the sauce volume and then add about 2 cups of cooked rice, I usually would use some brown basmati (because i like it - white rice ain't got no place in this house).
Toss some of that sofa king sriracha on there that Liz/Hannah shared if you want extra heat and more flavor.
We've been serving it in romaine heads, but you can put it in any lettuce, bib is more traditionally popular in the restaurants. I've used Iceberg in the past for its texture and extra crunchiness (but can be a pain to extract intact cup leaves).
Pretty simple, just a good bit of chopping, which if you aren't proficient at, just practice (this is good dish for that), but first get a good knife. For veggies that Santoku can't be beat, perfect for making transparent flakes of turmeric and ginger as well as dicing onions tear free.
anyway, food, from scratch, make it yourself.... choose better ingredients and your food will taste better. I'm pretty particular about my Shoyu sauce, only using the organic San-J stuff. And my hoisin, while a traditionalist departure it is the 365 branded organic stuff (who knows who makes it you can probably get it under a different label but - organic, and cheap and pretty fucking awesome hoisin flavors IMHO), Oyster sauce? I use the Lee Kum Kee Green Label Oyster Sauce. Olive oil? always and only (best price i can find for EVOO) The 365 stuff, it works for salad dressing as well as cooking and seasoning and flavoring and all the rest you might want to do with it.
2 tablespoons Dijon Mustard
half of a bunch (roughly 1/2 cup packed chopped) Cilantro
1 large green de-seeded Habanero (use two if you want it spicier this is milder than anticipated with just one)
2 egg yolks
Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
1/2 teaspoon salt
Blend that stuff until smooth-ish but don't over blend.
Then Turn blender on and SLOWLY drizzle 3/4 cup super good olive oil in (the slower the better for proper mayo)
Recipe says it'll keep for two days, I'm not sure how much will be left after tonight.
We're going to put it on some fish (cod) tacos
Fish is going to be at RT (room temp) and patted dry and coated with chili powder and pan fried in Bacon fat, served on Corn tortillas with:
bacon
fresh chopped tomatillos
radish slices
habanero mayo
caramelized onion rings
fresh cilantro
shredded swiss chard leaves
and for me some more fresh chopped (with seeds) Habanero peppers
so ya figured it out yet? well, the swiss chard is the "lettuce", and instead of tomatoes we're using tomatillos (kid doesn't really like tomatoes), and bacon, duh, this mayo, all piled onto some corn tortillas
If I can hold off enough after assembling a few of them i'll probably add that photo in here too... or just on the 'gram.
Cruising back final 8 min suffer session done, I felt awesome.
Felt good.
Just lost in the music, the pain, the inability to go more than 12 mph into the wind shelled kind of good.
And dancing. How do you dance when you're pedaling? with your upper body, and Tiesto's Club Life always has good danceable tracks.
of course i forgot that i had put A.C. Reed's 'These Blues are Killing Me' as an rest track between Metallica's 'The End of the Line' and Voodoo & Serano's 'Blood Is Pumpin' (Club Mix)'
oof
But man so much better. So it was only an hour, Three ~8 min sessions that i hope were kind of consistent, i haven't looked at the data yet, but I did record the data. It wasn't blistering fast but I was on the slow wheels on the black blue and there was a very light tailwind in one direction and well yeah the opposite in the other.
YES - i know terrible, doing intervals on the bike path. HORRIBLE. Except it had just rained, and super humid. And well, true to form the path was almost empty, a few very fit looking women intently running, a few dudes matching the same description, one clueless chinese couple, and a few other regular walkers and commuters. Not bad.
And it felt good.
And I came home and made a Tahini dressing for the salad for dinner.
1/2 lemon, juiced and zest microplaned off
1" ginger root (microplaned into pulpy deliciousness)
3 good size cloves of garlic
equal parts: Balsamic, Org. Apple Cider, Org. seasoned Rice Vinegars. (1-2 tablespoones each if i was going to guess)
2-4 tablespoons (until it looks good) of Organic Shoyu sauce
Fresh ground black pepper (1 teaspoon)
1/2-1 teaspoon of mustard powder (bind the oils with the other stuff)
Put all that in screw top container and shake the everliving shit out of it. I mean seriously Shake it until it is totally consistently homogenous.
then add
1/4-1/2 cup Tahini
and then add some kick ass olive oil (i am totally going for the best $/flavor and the 365 brand crushes it)
how much? Until the Tahini/oilve oil layer is about 60% total volume.
Put the cap back on the jar and shake the ever loving shit out of it again. And then do it again.
and serve over whatever you want, salad, chicken, steak, it will even make ditchweed the most delicious meal of the day. Don't take my word for it, try it yourself, or if you're culinarily challenged cut and paste the important parts and hand it to your designated cooking person and let them make some magic for you.
...
And yeah so much heavy shit coming down... in the midst of it I haven't been able to work on the collection from my Dad on the SEM/Nanoscape stuff, haven't been able to go for a long all day ride much less commute to work on the bike or even take the long way in, AND the TT is hanging over my head, gotta make that happen too.
That's what's probably getting to me most, that and phone totally absolutely fucking with me at the wrong times. It is working totally good when I don't really need it and when I need to rely on it (like picking up my daughter) it completely fucking flakes and that's just not cool, but fathers and daughters aren't supposed to have smooth good relationships between her age of what 14-24? or something? I dunno, just guessing. And the phone issues are definitely helping work on that.
The collection though. I have a few images that are scheduled to post on nanoscape tomorrow... more and more artist friends keep showing up with .net profiles... maybe .com ain't all it is made up to be, which means I need to find time to work on the page and get shit together.
When though? I dunno.
I never could juggle very well at least in the literal sense... but man, this performance of keeping all these objects from hitting the ground probably would impress the most cynical critic, but then probably not, because that's me and i'm kind of thinking i could do better.
Goddamn i'm gonna mix Fox, but he was right, David B has enough positive mental attitude to give Fox 50% of it and me 50% and still have enough left over to be the most positive motherfucker you'll ever meet. And that's not taking away anything from the intensely amazing GOLDBERG, and yes Cutler and all the single track between there and the Washington Square Tavern that day are probably still echoing me shouting 'GOLDBERG'
I am one lucky SOB, but the alignment of everything never feels like it... but that's probably me being a hyper critical motherfucker who's not willing to settle for this bullshit the establishment is pulling... or something.... but it doesn't matter, mostly because there was at one point the glimpse of perfection, the glimpse at everything lining up.... I saw what maybe could have been, could be, because i'm me, i had to be unselfish and was allowed to be exploited. To be honest another fear is the hope that my spidy senses are telling me something that isn't correct... but that's another tale for another day...
Bike pedaling is good, and while i was dancing to the tunes on the bike path after the rain... I realized....
I really like bikes, and I really like turning wrenches on bikes and I really like riding them... even if I completely suck and may never ever finish on the lead lap at nationals, if I ever finish another one.... Would have been kind of cool if the juiced up roid rage Feldman who hasn't made an appearance recently didn't lap me at the first one (how many did lap me? maybe just him, i was so traumatized by his abject assholeness hostility i didn't notice anyone else).
I should head over to Lucky's in EP and raise a pint in honor of Fox, and the waitress we had, but yeah that's not happening.
So I'm gonna wash the grime off and maybe just f'n sleep. Or not.
Maybe I'll write more tomorrow, or maybe not.
Who knows. I want to know what book it was I read, and then loaned to my HS gf with the words "this book is more me than anything I've ever read" which book? I dunno, but it was in the pile she gave me to put in the car just before she broke up with me on a day off... when I was working full days but with the commutes I was tied up 14+ hrs a day that summer... not good for social life I guess, or maybe there were other reasons (that i'm crazy and no one who actually gets to know me every still stays friends with me - but then that's probably a good thing - and some day I'll figure out how to deal with it.... maybe).
I don't bottle it up and pack it in very well do i. nope. but that's okay, lets have another beer, finish cooking the beans for the burritos tomorrow and maybe fall asleep way too late.... and not talk about any of this on the internet or in person ever again.
this weblog doesn't count as internet, not with as little traffic as it gets....
much later start to the morning than I'd planned, but it is what it is, I'll get done what I need to get done.
haven't hit on the right pandora station yet, keep jumping around, can't figure out which one to go with, switched to station number 4 just now. we'll see if this does the trick.
been having conversations in my head all night. had a very strange dream between being awakened by the dogs or myself. finally out of bed. coffee #1 consumed, coffee #2 just finished. electric moka pot thing (Il Primo) 16-18 grams of coffee ~400ml of water. Rich deliciousness.
Current music is hitting the spot. Metallica pandora station, duh. Should have started there.
Omelet pocket. what's that? well you make an american style omelet and wrap it in a tortilla. fuck your knife and fork eat with hands.
3 farm eggs, some cabot private stock cheddar, three garlic scapes diced, one large habanero diced (seeds, white stuff and everything but the stem), some cooked seasoned ground beef left over from sweet potato taco night, salt. Cook. Then warm up the tortilla, spread sour cream on it, pile a huge mass of arugula. Fold and eat.
So much flavor, spicey but not overpowering (for me which means for most people this would be way too f'n overpowering. Layers of flavor, harmoniously awesome and satisfying.
Time for coffee #2 to join in the shower and get on the bike and head to work. at least i'll get a ride in. and yes i'll probably hook up the trailer and grab some logs on the way home, if not on the way there, or grab some and get them out of the way and bring one close load back to the house before heading all the way in. Public service yo. Or something.
So I settled in, between the filing cabinets and teetering stacks of paper, and we talked about the finer points of kitchen design: how he, at his Madison, Connecticut, home, had a wall made of reclaimed barnwood on which most of the pots, pans, and other implements he used hung within easy reach. How one should, of course, have a gas stove but opt for the consistency of an electric oven, preferably placed high on the wall, to avoid excessive bending. How, contrariwise, a side-by-side fridge and freezer is a waste of space and the freezer as bottom drawer is preferable. How most gadgets are useless and fail the Closet Test—i.e. that anything you stick in one will never be used. How there should be good light, good music, and a good view, if possible, and a place for your guests to perch to drink wine and watch you work.
and cooking and sharing the creation of it with others
First half the onion, peel and de-stem it, then slice into slivers GeWilli style. Put those in a medium size bowl and soak in cold water, drain and repeat two more times.
While soaking the onions dice the pepper into small cubes. you could use a red pepper for color, but the cubanelle adds the tiniest bit of heat and a varation of green that looks good (I probably would have put a red pepper in with it but I didn't have one on hand).
Drain the water from the onions, add the peppers to that bowl and then add some apple cider vinegar and some rice wine vinegar, a bit of salt and some dried oregano. Mix and let marinate.
Peel the squash and the zucchini with a veggie peeler of if you're lucky a mandolin would work nicely for this. Goal is to make thin ribbons. Peeling and rotating after three or four ribbons seems to work. The seeded section of the yellow squash was not used (it was fed to the guinea pig).
These went into a larger bowl. Once all peeled I poured a tablespoon or three of extra virgin olive oil over the ribbons of zucchini and gently coated them all.
Just before serving I put the onion pepper vinegar mix in with the wide thin ribbons. And gently tossed it together. Added some black pepper, and a bit of balsalmic vinegar.
Fresh, light, very yum. Went well with the dry rub charcoal grilled chicken thighs covered in some smokey mesquite BBQ sauce for dinner.
Take a head or two, chop it up (yes even the stem) into smallish (bite size) bits. Spread on a sheet pan. Douse with olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss evenly.
Put in convection oven for 375-400F untill golden and carmelized. AKA cooked to perfection. This is pretty critical but on the plus side overcooking is far more desireable than undercooking. Undercooked and it is mushy, overcooked and it is brilliantly complex, loaded with umami. Downside of overcooking is reducing volume. But always, err on the side of overcooking.
Also keep in mind it can be held for a while once cooked w/o suffering in texture flavor of awesomeness.
Now here's the conceptual side/change.
Use the roasted Cauliflower (I used Purple today becuase, WF has purple, orange and white all at the same price and why the fuck NOT go with some cool fancy color?) Now use the roasted cauliflower in place of pasta.
Wut? Yup. You know you eat too many grain based foods. You know that shit is wikked bad for you. It is tolerable but finding things to replace it aren't so bad. No?
Okay, that clear Cauliflower is roasted and amazing and there isn't a millimeter size florette left at the moment after tonights dinner.
To be honest, I just checked, there are a few mm size florettes. That is it though. I think I'll probably be licking the sheet pan clean tonight.
Now how to say, is it a mushroom sauce, or is it a tomato based sauce with mushrooms?
Here's the break down, there were 4 portabello mushroom caps in there and 4 babby bellas (yeah I know they are just tiny portabello mushrooms but they needed to be used and well got added... so?) in the sauce.
The sauce, it is elaborate, complex and something I've been working on for close to 30 years. No Joke.
Think "Big Night" (1996) level history on the sauce.
This isn't a vegan sauce (although could be made just as awesome in vegan mode but I didn't), and this sauce isn't creamy or only mushrooms. It isn't your grandmother's/mother's can of cream of mushroom soup sauce. This is legit all alone. Sort of.
The foundations of Italian cooking are well documented. Watch some of the PBS chefs, read a few books, and practice and you'll figure it out.
Combine it with the Japanese awareness of Umami and you'll figure it out. Honestly that Umami this is the king pin, the ultimate tie that binds the best food together. If you lose the umami you lose the audience.
Umami rules all. Once you realize you've been hanging with the asshole sugar and the fake bullshit varnished but unsubstantial facade and discover Umami, your mind will be blown.
But hey. Don't mess with Professor Noakes, that guy is smart and knows his shit and is, yes, likely to agree with me.
TO THE SAUCE.
I'm not going to go through the depatures on how to make this vegan, although, my brother and pretty much any other vegans who cook brilliantly can figure it out and be considerate enough to understand my process and recognize the sequence required to make it vegan. Now that said: I'd be happy to have vegan house guests to cook this for, I am 100% confident I can make this as delicious for anyone. How's that for attitude and confidence? I have little confidence outside of the kitchen, please be nice, I'm a big guy but pretty fragile emotionally. Just as GEmoWilli.
0.75# of grass fed ground beef into a stockpot. cook until mostly brown.
Add some Fennel seed (whole) 1 tsp to 1 tblsp
cook and stirr
add a splash of extra virgin olive oil
add one diced onion
add one diced red pepper
sitrr and sautee and cook until onions are clear and peppers are soft and fragrent.
Add 1tsp-1tblsp of balsalmic vinegar and cook and stirr until evaporated
Now chop the mushrooms, in this case 4 portabello caps and 4 baby bella mushrooms.
Put them in the pot. Stirr.
Add a splash or two more of balsalmic vinegar.
Stirr.
Add 1 cup of red wine (cheap or not cheap, up to your budget, i used cheap)
Stirr and mix. Let it cook and simmer at med/med-low heat. Not blazing hot but not tepid temps.
Add some dried oregano and dried basil now. Mix.
Should be soupy a bit.
Now. Add two 28oz cans of organic crushed tomatoes. Yes, two. I could have gone with one but hey, this sauce is something you're going to want to eat with a spoon.
Mix that up, now add 6 cloves of garlic (with a Zyliss press), and then another cup of the red wine.
And some salt. Lots of salt. And fresh black pepper, and maybe a bit more oregano and basil.
Mix.
And let simmer at low heat.
and mix...
and simmer...
and mix...
and taste.
Adjust seasoning if needed.
And keep simmering until your patience wears out. Beacuse perfection in the kitchen can't be rushed. You must pay attention to every fucking detail. And consider all the vairables.
Cooking is in the details. The timing, the feel, the flavors, the smells, the process.
The end result is a rich smooth delicious mushroom heavy red tomato sauce served over the most savory and amazing veggie.
if I had a restaurant, this would be a signature dish. And I would have three sauces, no not four. One vegan, one mushroom free with meat and one like I made tonight. All served over the same thing.
I think for visuals maybe using a mix of purple, orange and white cauliflower would be pretty outsanding but in all honestly, it gets completely drowned in this sauce to the point that it could all be just boring white cauliflower. That said, it doesn't start off that way and the purple stuff roasts brilliantly.
So that's about it.
I'm probably accidentally omitting all the secrets of absolute timing i've taken for granted by constantly overthinking and perfecting the process these last 30+ years. And yes. First thing I started cooking was peanut butter cookies. Second thing? Tomato based sauce.
There's significantly more flexibility/forgiveness in tomato sauce than peanut butter cookies fwiw.
Dinner was delicious, K and I enjoyed it. Maybe this helps you to recreate it. Of couse and as always, please ask questions if something seems unclear, that's my gift, I can explain everything down to the minutia, and often glance over some details that seem insignificant to me but prove to be otherwise to others.
take this recipe with blessing and all my love.
That's why I cook. I pour my soul into the process to nurture those who eat my food. not quite "like water for chocolate" (1992 film) level, but can anything in real live be that passionate? We can only strive to provide as best we can for those we love.
This process is just an example, documentation of it...
Not a pre-meditated meal, just what was on hand. Hmm I have left over beans from making a black bean soup with the adzukis, and some chicken i needed to cook up or freeze. And collards were on sale this weekend so I had those.
But no plan to make this until tonight.
Starting with:
one smallish onion
one largeish green pepper
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 quart cooked Adzuki beans
2 chicken breasts (could sub any protein of choice or omit if you want)
1 1/3 cup long grain brown rice
two bunches of collard greens
chili powder
oregano
small can tomato paste
cooking fats (oil + saved bacon fat or other saturated cooking fats)
salt
pepper
stuff to make it taste amazing
Prep:
Start cooking the rice. put 1-2 teaspoons of chili powder in (make the rice dirty)
dice onion
dice pepper
de-rib and cut collards into 2-3cm squares (wash)
cut chicken breast, fist the thin part off then the fat part cut down so it is half the thickness (hard to describe maybe but this makes them all a consistent thickness - important to cook the breast through w/o drying out - if using thighs no need to cut), dry it completely with paper towel, then liberally coat with chili powder.
melt the bacon fat in the pan, add some extra virgin olive oil, once nice and hot stick chicken in there - keep moving it around so it doesn't stick (well seasoned pan is always best - whatever you cook it in make it heavy and make sure it is compatible with your heat source). If the pan is hot enough it should brown and crisp up, then flip, same thing.
When the chicken is finished pull it off and set it aside to cool (never cut into it while hot). Once cool then cut into small bite size cubes.
Into the pan the chicken was just cooking in put the onions and peppers, add a bit of salt, sweat them down. More oil if it looks like it needs it.
Once those are underway cooking, in a big tall sided stock pot put a bit of oil in and dump the washed (but still very wet) collards in, add a splash of vinegar (cider or rice is best) and a bit of soy sauce (salt and umami/aka depth of flavor). Let that cook down until they are completely wilted and soft and borderline becoming crunchy.
While the collards are cooking now you put in the garlic in the peppers and onions. Add more chili powder, dried oregano, cayenne, black pepper, salt (yes more salt - because the beans are just beans, nothing else, as is the rice). Then put the small can of tomato paste in there. Add water until it is still thick but more soup than solid (a little at a time), time for secret flavor touches. 1 teaspoon of mustard powder, 1 teaspoon cocoa powder, couple splashes of liquid smoke (more cayenne).
While the sauce base is simmering and developing flavor put the beans in with the collards and warm them up.
After sauce is close, add the rice in, add more water if needed to make it still more soup than solid. Then add the chicken to the sauce. Mix and taste, let it simmer a touch so the rice and chicken can soak up the flavor.
Finally transfer contents of sauce into the tall stock pot with the beans and collards. Gently toss and mix. Simmer (add water if too thick). Be gentle mixing so you don't smash all the beans. But make sure it is all well incorporated and let it hang out. Give it 5-30 min to mellow and mature (or longer if you want).
Then serve. Just like that. doesn't need anything else on top.
No no photos of it. Ate it all up. Gone.
belly happy
There a long list of potential subs and variations, and yes in usual GeWilli fashion i can go on at lengths about each one and weight the benefits and reasons and debate why this vs that...
Andouille Sausage instead of or in addition to the chicken would be brilliant. Heck stick some okra in there too.
It is a creol dish at the root, sort out the flavors that make sense.
A good pile of steps i guess, three dirty pots but not that much dicing, and each step is season to taste and adjust. Without the liquid smoke and cocoa powder it was a bit missing something, the bitterness and the smokiness made that final dimension work and enhanced the rest of the flavors without being identifieable or overwhelming.
Last night I got to thinking, well before I watched any movies.
I was thinking about cooking. How many meals have I prepared... How many years have I been working at the craft of cooking with a focus that goes beyond just eating and making something fit a cookie cutter pattern meal aka steamed potatoes, green beans and chicken breast. Something that takes tweaking, seasoning. Skill or iterations.
Gotta be well over 10k esp if you only count meals not mouths fed.
I'm not a Ben Lloyd of Salted Slate. But I've certainly not been working at meal preparation with any less focus or dedication. Most definately a narrower ingredient list. One thing that struck me as Yannis asked why i'm always just cooking veggies... (my reply was who wants to see a picture of a burger), is that I don't really cook fancy cuts of meats. The meat isn't ever the centerpeice of the meal with a few exceptions. It is everything else.
In the last few years I've added Indian spice/curry to the mental resources and spices on hand.
I started simply with Mexican and Italian. working those two over and over, add some chili some other stuff. I can see the journey very clearly for the most part.
A progression. But like everything else I do better being given a set of constraints than a blank slate. I've moved to simple ingredients, to the point of only buying dried beans instead of canned ones. Planning is easy, spending money isn't. How to feed a family of four on as little as possible is kind of the mantra lately. What's on sale, how to make that work in the meal plan, how to work it in to something everyone will eat.
Over think everything. Yes. Esp food. But food has this magical quality of making people happy, nourishing them, and for growing children providing both a dynamic palette but the building blocks for a healthy body.
Tonight, tonight's dinner is a result of a pork tenderloin being on sale. Not the most flavorful bit of stuff, but it is pretty flexible and fits into my potential aresnal w/o much trouble. Easy to screw it up but I think I'll get it to be palatable.
So what do I serve with the pork? What do I have in the fridge? Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Onions and mushrooms? Add a bit of a luxury item of fresh rosemary and I think I can make this work.
Peel and chop the carrots and sweet potatoes. Quarter (ish) the onions and mushrooms. Toss them all with a few splashes of red wine, some balsalmic vinegar, shoyu sauce, fresh black pepper, finely chopped rosemary, salt, bacon fat and olive oil.
Plunk them in a convection oven at 325 (cook through then carmelize, too hot and they'll be raw and burnt).
They are 10-15 min away from being ready to crank the heat up to carmelize and get a nice depth of flavor.
So while it is cooking i started writing.
The pork tenderloin went into a bit of marinate earlier today. Red wine, balsalmic vinegar, fresh ginger, shoyu sauce, splash of water, rosemary... cayenne pepper and some garlic powder (yes, using up some garlic powder as a flavor enhancer instead of fresh - in my book acceptable use of the powder).
Next up I'll get a pan nice and hot. Add some butter and olive oil (extra virgin, always and only), and sear the tenderloin before putting it in for the final 15-20 minutes in the oven at 400-450F.
Once the loin goes in the oven I'll cut the heat in the searing pan and add some collards and kale, shoyu sauce and balsalmic vinegar and sautee the greens (we call it hot salad around here). The hot salad is a special request from my 10 year old fwiw. I've still got enough Kale left over to do the tahini salad again for lunch tomorrow.
In the end my daughters and I should have a pretty fabulous plate of food to enjoy. With luck a bit of left overs for lunch tomorrow. And it was simple and easy, and fit into doing everything else today.
Life is this crazy thing. Make time for food. There is always time to cook food at home and get everything else done. If there isn't, make a change. It will be worth it.
Snow day number 3 in less than a week. I probably could have made it in on the bike, but it was sleeting and freezing rain by the time I had finished shoveling and there wasn't anything that couldn't be rescheduled and sitting on a pile of vacation days to use, well. I didn't suit up and try to ride to work dodging plow trucks and dealing with a nice coating of ice.
So I took a nap instead (okay more or less shoveled and then got horizontal in bed while the coffee kept me from fully dozing off).
Got up and well, for some reason I thought a tahini dressing over a Kale salad sounded perfect for lunch on a house bound snow day.
I don't usually (haven't ever) made a Tahini dressing but a million years ago the Antique Sandiwch Company in Tacoma was a place we spend lots of time. Step-father was either teaching classes in the rooms upstairs, or they were performing on stage. Or we were in between this place or that and would stop there for lunch. Everytime, same thing: Hot ham and cheese on wheat bread. A mountain on thinly sliced ham covered in rich melty tillamook cheddar cheese. The sandwiches all came with a side salad and an amazing thick and flavorfull tahini dressing.
That is one of my happiest emotional meals of my childhood. One of the most memorable.
I made some hot salad to go with dinner last night. Half green kale, half swiss chard, sauteed in olive oil, with some shoyu sauce and balsalmic vinegar. That's it. Incredibly simple, perfect balance and everyone devoured it.
I still had a large bunch of Kale, and the girls love getting the Seven Stars Bakery Kale salad, and so maybe I will make my own take. Rather than use my normal dressing I kind of multi-thread brainstormed and wound up thinking a Tahini Dressing would be pretty amazing paired with Kale.
And with the massaged (with a bit of salt to break it down a bit) Kale I decided to use the poor man's mandolin (veggie peeler) and create ribbons of carrots and golden beets to add color, texture and flavor to the salad. My 10 year old was very excited about this meal just hearing what I was putting in it.
Topped with some sliced almonds and sunflower seeds, the salad was both delicious and filling.
Okay, the Dressing. Everyone knows I like to make stuff from scratch. Canned pasta sauces are an offense in my book, inexcusable. And yes I know, lots of people use them and don't care. Salad dressings too. Who makes their own? Not enough people do honestly. It is so simple.
Get a jar with a lid. put the vinegar/water/herbs/spices/salt in first, lid and shake to mix. Then add the oil based (or just oil) (doubling or just a bit more than 2x as much of vinegar mix), put the lid back on and shake. With a simple mustard vinegrette if you get the powdered mustard in there it will stay emulsified perfectly. Literally a very few minutes to make from ingredients most everyone has laying around (or could after the next shopping trip).
Tahini dressing.
Start with jar and lid
3 cloves garlic (we all like fresh garlic so i tend to use a bit more than some people are used to)
2 cm long small knuckle of ginger root, peeled and diced very finely
1-2 tablespoons of Shoyu Sauce
1-2 tabelspoons Organic Seasoned Rice Vinegar
1 tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
Some diced Cilantro
cayenne pepper
turmeric
Close lid and shake until all is well suspended and mixed.
Then, add
about 1/4-1/3 cup of Tahini
1-2 tablespoons sesame oil
Olive oil to bring oil volume up to more than double the first half volume
close lid and shake.
Finished.
Disclaimer. I did NOT measure anything. But I feel pretty confident that the ratios are close.
eat well and cook for yourself and your loved ones.
heddwch G
So a while back (shit doesn't seem like that long ago but oct 2010 kind of is i guess) I posted a pancake recipe.
We don't make these more than once a week or so, usually eggs for breakfast or some toast with peanut butter or something else. But the batter i've settled on isn't the sickly sweet flavorless until you top with syrup white pancakes most people think about. And no, it is never acceptable to use non-butter if you're not vegan. No problem with vegan, none at all. But if you are not vegan and you're using something other than unsalted butter for these, ask yourself why. Also that butter better not have have "natural flavoring" aka chemical shit storm because the cream used is gross flavorless stuff from high production industrial cows. Kerry Gold Butter, and most organic unsalted butter are free of the flavoring (thing microwave popcorn taste). Most noticable when you haven't had that type of butter in years. Then you do and you're like "this shit tastes like chemical butter!" Because it is.
Ha, damnit. GeWilli got judgemental a bit. Well you know what? It is a blog. I ain't making you read it. Change the channel. Also I'm not targeting anyone in particular. This is blanket advice for everyone. Once the consumers realize they're not really tasting stuff they way it is, I think they'll get it. You lose the nuance of the flavors... the ingredients in your ingredients matter.
Even with pancakes.
or esp with pancakes?
So the original 1st gen of the recipe is linked above. I'm gonna take that - paste it here and make the changes as I currently make the 'cakes:
Single batch, actually this batter works great for waffles too for you crazy hupcake/belgian wanna be types. Pancakes are just a tad easier to make.
4 eggs (medium) 1 cup Milk 1 cup Yogurt 1 teaspoon vanilla 1-2 tablespoon flax 2 teaspoon salt
Beat the eggs till just blended, add the yogurt and get is smooooth, then the milk and rest of that stuff and blend together. (that vanilla better just be vanilla and booze, Trader Joe's Pure Bourbon Vanilla Extract is what is in my pantry).
Next on top of the liquid I pile up (yes I mean in same bowl and I mean on top of the liquids): 1.5 cups of organic all purpose Whole Wheat flour 1 cup of organic all purpose White flour (makes the pancakes just a touch lighter) 2 teaspoons Baking Powder (aluminum free stuff) 1 teaspoon Baking Soda 1 teaspoon-tablespoon of cinnamon
Putting the small dry ingredients on top of the dry stuff and then mixing it all in works really well for me. You could alternatively put the dry stuff in a different bowl, mix them and then dump into the wet stuff - or put the wet stuff on top of the dry. I like only having one bowl to wash and since I do the cooking AND the dishes it is something i think about.
Okay. Mix just until barely integrated. The less mixing the better the pancakes.
Now you should have the skillet warming up.
In that skillet put 6 tablespoons of butter to melt. Once the butter is just melted pour it all into the batter and fold it in gently.
Okay.
is the batter too thin? add a bit more flour...
too thick? Add some milk...
how do you know if it is one or the other? Experience.
There ya go.
At this point you can add some frozen blueberries, or chocolate chips before cooking (I totally pretty much put semi-sweet chocolate chips in there, because CHOCOLATE IS AWESOME). Add the chocolate chips AFTER the butter to avoid melting the chips into large chunks or dissolving totally (experience).
This is still one of my favorite variation: One nice variation is to substitute 1/2 of the milk with apple cider and add extra cinnamon and then grate an apple into the pancake batter (nice big slot grater).
-- You can use these for waffles (leave of the chocolate chips so you don't mess up the waffle iron), serve with a bit of butter (optional) and topped with some nice Grade B (or whatever it is called now) Maple Syrup.
I use extras as ride fuel/sandwiches. Slap some fresh ground peanut butter in the middle. Boom. instant yummy round "energy bar"
there is enough flavor in these cakes that you don't need the sugar stuff.
Why this why now? Cally asked for the current pancake recipe, and Russ posted a picture of a stack of cakes with a fried egg on top. AND it is sunday and I had a second or two between dishes, lunch, computer consultation about school project, and I felt like it. Remember, i'm not judging you or trying to make you feel bad about how you cook or what you bought last time, or everytime. I'm just trying to help, the little things do matter, and they all add up. Also, be sure you're going to be able to manage the insulin spike with appropriate activity after eating these. They are better than most and all that, but they still shouldn't be an every morning thing. Make them for dinner is better. But they are still grains and will still mess with insulin and those bad cholesterols... keep it all in mind i guess. Moderation isn't really the answer to be honest. But these are my opinions based on the primary lit i've been reading for the last few years. No more rambling.... and no tweeting of recipe, solobreak gonna have to find it himself heddwch G
Started with a meal plan and the agreement with the youngest that soup would be good to make. Add some twitter conversation to get me to write it up:
olive oil, White Yam, purple top turnip, carrot, celery, onion, parsnip, 3# butternut squash, 1 cup red lentils, garlic, ginger, and spices.
— GeWilli (@Ge_Willi) November 25, 2014
I use big caphalon pot to make the soup in, and just cook it all in at once. Starting with the celery carrot and onions first with the olive oil. I think that's a very important step for the soup making. Lots of people just put them in raw, but I feel that getting them in there first over some dry heat with the oil intensifies and deepens the flavors and overall the whole satisfaction of the soup. This could be vegan if you skip the fish sauce (and just use more soy sauce). I don't use stock with this soup because it doesn't need it. You most certainly could use a chicken stock or but making a veggie stock in a blended soup like this, with these ingredients doesn't really add anything. You don't need to blend it i suppose, but if i wasn't going to blend it i'd have to be very careful about the order of adding things and the size of the dice. Here since it will be made smooth (really how it should be eaten, and the design of it anyway) you just need to get the veggies cut up into roughly the same size peices. And yes you have to use the celery. Well no, you don't you can pretty much do what ever the hell you want, you won't taste the celery but you'll notice something will be missing if you don't use it.
Okay enough with the pre-amble. Here ya go:
3 stalks of Celery, sliced thin and pluncked into the pre-heated soup pot with a good 3-4 or more tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.
Got those sizzling,
then in went two big carrots, peeled and diced up
one sweet onion
a couple tablespoons of Organic Shoyu sauce
Then two medium to small purple top turnips diced all up
One peeled and diced parsnip
One smallish white Yam, peeled and diced
keeping the heat high and stirring pretty frequently...
Peeled and diced a 3# Butternut Squash (cleaned the seeds to pan toast in olive oil and serve as garnish)
Stirring a bit.
Spices went in now: turmeric (1-2 teaspoons), garam masala (less than 1 teaspoon), 1-2 tablespoosn of dried basil... a few splashes of fish sauce (just under teaspoon by eye).
Mix...
add four small cloves of garlic cut in half.
1/4 cup of organic seasoned rice wine vinegar...
cook till the vinegar is mostly reduced (by smell)
Add a bunch of water - how much? Not sure, but maybe a gallon?
then I put the ginger in, a 2 inch long bit of organic stuff peeled and sliced thinly
finally 1 cup of very well rinsed red lentils.
Cook till everything is soft, then using an immersion blender make it all smooth. Add salt to taste (needed a bit)
serve with toasted squash seeds (and sprinkle some cayenne pepper on top if you're me).
There was a definite lack of enthusiasm when my wife and oldest got home from a long run and ballet respectively upon hearing what I'd made for dinner. They walked in the door and asked "what did you make?" My reply of mashed potatoes, fried chicken and collard greens wasn't well recieved.
But I guess it is is probably nice to get home to find someone made you dinner no matter what it is.
The concept is super boring and lame and so american that it is cliche and man who wants that?
I was looking for something different too cook, Chicken was on sale last time I was at the wholefoods place so I bought a pile of it and used it in the meals for the past few days, a chicken stir-fry with peanuts, followed by some black beans, rice and topped with dry rub marinated diced chicken, and last night this classic of classics.
Best to keep them all simple. Potatoes just sliced and boiled russets, skins on, mashed with butter, olive oil, milk, salt and pepper and some powerderd sage. Simple. Collards? de-ribbed, cut into 2-3cm squares, sauteed in olive oil with a couple cloves of garlic a splash of soy sauce and some balsalmic vinegar.
the chicken? simple is best still.
breast, rinsed and set between papertowels to make sure they are totally dry.
one egg beaten in a bowl
panko bread crumbs, salt, pepper, powdered sage in another bowl
in a flat skillet equal parts bacon rendering and olive oil. just below the smoke point...
coat breast in egg wash, then cover in the bread crumb mix
put in oil/fat (should be a few millimeters deep in the pan)
turn down the heat a touch. cook for a bit, flip, cook till finished, remove and let rest on a rack in the oven at 200°F until all of the chicken is cooked (don't crowd the pan, one or two breasts per pan)
That's it.
The "dry" white meat breasts were moist and delicios and the flavors were simple but each ingredient was able to shine, the potatoes tasted like potatoes, the chicken was a moist and chickeny tasting bit of chicken and the pile of collards offered a good bit of umami to tie it all together. Served with a bit of german mustard to add a minor note of heat and flavor without masking anything and the simplest of simple was elevated.
Cooking takes practice. It is a skill. Something you have to do, but it does start with basic ingredients, use good stuff and you'll be rewarded. It can take time too. Time that is well worth spending even if you are only cooking for yourself.
