Friday, May 28, 2010

Limeade: Part Deux

I'm channeling David.

I used:
1 cup fresh lime juice
~1/2 Tbsp lime zest
3/4 cup sugar
3 cups water

Combine the sugar, zest, and 1 cup water, and bring to a boil... stir and remove from heat, your sugar should be dissolved.

Combine lime juice and the other 2 cups of water in a pitcher, and strain syrup into it.
Chill and/or serve over ice.

Keep in mind that this is just kind of a guideline.  I figure I'm sweet enough, so I only put in 3/4 Cup of sugar... others I know put in a full cup.  Course, a lot depends on how tart the limes you have are.  So make sure you taste as you go along.  Just as if you were cooking... season and taste, season and taste.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Spaghetti with White Clam Sauce

I'm totally clammed out... but Dad wanted to use up the clams...
And what do you know? I ended up eating a bit more!

For this recipe you're supposed to use:
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
2 Cloves Garlic, Minced
2 Tbsp Butter
1 Tbsp Parsley
1/2 tsp Garlic Powder
1/4 tsp Dried Oregano
1/4 tsp Dried Basil
1/4 tsp Black Pepper, ground
2 cans (6.5 oz) Minced Clams
1 Pound Spagetti
2 Tbsp Romano Cheese, Grated

And that's all good. But I can't say that I exactly followed the recipe.

We controlled ourselves with the pasta and cooked it according to the package's directions.

And we browned the garlic in the oil, except that we doubled the garlic. I mean... c'mon. Two cloves?

Here's Dad with the butter, clams, clam nectar, and seasonings. We added this to the garlic and oil and heated everything through.

I should mention, we did our own thing.
We steamed our own clams, and also used fresh herbs instead of all the dried herbs.  Fresh herbs make a big difference. Fresh clams do too! (not canned)
The quick and dirty rule of thumb for substituting fresh for dried herbs is 1 tsp dried becomes 1 Tbsp fresh.
Just for reference... there's 3 tsp per Tbsp.

And once you've drained your pasta, just toss the spagetti with the clam sauce, and top with Romano cheese. A little bit of good bread to sop up that sauce doesn't hurt either.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Moroccan Chicken

I haven't posted to this blog in a while... so here goes. I pulled this recipe off of The Stir

 Like most every other good recipe, this one starts with olive oil (~2 Tbsp), onion (1 large, sliced), and garlic (3 cloves, diced). I thought of pressing the garlic, but I actually did dice it eventually.

Notice the food is on a glass cutting board. It's good for holding stuff, but it's the absolute worst "cutting" board to have. If you care about your knife's edge, even a little bit, do NOT cut on glass. Get yourself some wood. Wood's #1. And plastic is ok too, especially for raw meat, since it is easy to run it through the dishwasher.

 Anyway, heat the oil (medium heat) and then throw in the onions and garlic. Cover and cook until onions are soft... about ten minutes.

 K, while the onions are cooking, you need to grab up some spices. Here we have:

1 Tbsp Sweet Paprika
1.5 tsp Salt
1 tsp Turmeric
1 tsp Coriander (Ground)
1 tsp Fennel (Ground)
1 tsp Black Pepper (Ground)
.5 tsp Cumin (Ground)
.5 tsp Ginger (Ground)

Now, set these aside, we'll use them in a minute.

 Just a quick note on the ground spices...
Consider grinding your own. Get yourself an old coffee grinder and use it... or use the old standby, the mortar and pestle. Just trust me on this one. There's nothing else like it.  You'll love it.

 We're also going to need the juice from 1 lemon.

 And yes, I know. The emergency room Doctor said I wasn't to be allowed "sharps", but hey... that was in IDAHO, I'm in Washington now! And let me tell ya, that lemon juice wakes you up when you get it in the cut on your fingertip that somehow magically appeared last week after you forgot your gloves and yet you were out there on the beach anyway, shucking oysters! (Genius)  I mean, what's the worst that can happen right? But, I digress...

 Crap. Speaking of digressing, I went to get the chicken for this recipe and realized I still have clams that need eatin' up!

Hey wait. Did you see that?

 Just sitting around with my siphon hanging out.

 Ok, so I really need to get this back on track. Where was I? Oh yes, once the onions are soft drop in your spices and stir for about a minute. Then you want to dump in water (1 cup), the Lemon juice from above, and some diced tomatoes (~14 oz). Bring this to a boil, and then add your chicken (1 lb, boneless thighs are what I used). Spoon some of the sauce over the meat and then reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for about 15 minutes. Then turn the chicken over and simmer some more, another 15 or 20 minutes.

 Now this was listed as "optional" in the original recipe, but since I'm an "optional" kind of guy and had three small eggplant in the fridge, I went for it. While the chicken is simmering, cut the eggplant (1 Large) into 1 inch chunks. I then tossed them in a bag with some olive oil and tossed it around to coat the chunks. Out onto a baking sheet with parchment paper, and we're in business. I baked them about 20 minutes at 350, and they were soft and brown.

 Once the eggplant and the chicken is cooked, grab yourself some fresh mint. The recipe says 1 bunch, chopped. But I just grabbed it out of the yard and tore it up. Throw it in with the eggplant, and olives (1 can) if you like olives. Just let this simmer for a few minutes until everything is heated through.

 And while you're doing that last bit of simmerin', you should probably toast your Almonds that you're going to top the Chicken with. Now I know it's easier to just throw them on and not take the time to toast them, but just like with the spices... trust me. It's worth it. Until you've toasted your nuts and ground your own spices, you're missing the second and third best things in life.

 And finally... we eat!
(I served mine over rice, you can do whatever you want.)

Monday, May 10, 2010

Ribs for Dinner



So I was thinking it was time to bust out the barbque and it was a toss up between Beer Can Chicken and Ribs... Ribs won.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Mothers Day Pie

Mom (melissa) and I made pie yesterday. And then today we ate it.



I Like Pie!!!

Here's the recipe:
Crust:
4 cups all purpose flour
1 cup shortening
3/4 cup butter
3 Tablespoons white sugar
2 teastpoons salt
1 egg 1/2 cup water

1. in a large mixing bowl, combine all purpose flour, shortening, sugar and salt. Blend together with a pastry cutter until crumbly.

2. In a small bowl, mix egg with water. blend into flour mixture. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use

Rhubarb middle goo stuff:
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 and 1/3 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 pie crust

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 C)

2. combine sugar and flour. sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Then sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. dot with small pieces of butter. cover with top crust.

3. Place pie on lowest fack in oven. bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 C) and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Dinner















So for dinner tonight, I wanted something simple. I ended up with potatoe rolls, double cream Brie, Salami, Medjool Dates and oil cured Olives. Topped it off with a Big Red Monster... I must say dinner was delicious.