Category: Cookery

‘Homemade Chinese Takeaway: Orange Chicken.’

This looks very promising. And I have pretty much everything that I need, except the orange and maybe some more grapeseed oil.  And, heh: ‘everything I need’ includes ‘a pot that you can fry things in that won’t shatter halfway through.’  My GOD, but that was a spectacular kitchen disaster. It’s a miracle my wife didn’t dive for the floor for the next six months, every time she saw me pick up a spatula.

OK, I admit it: got pleasantly surprised by SteelFire Kitchen & Bar.

I needed somewhere to eat dinner – babysitter tonight, thank goodness – and I assumed that SteelFire Kitchen & Bar would have a steak. Nope: it’s essentially an artisanal burger joint. Perhaps excessively so, in fact. But put me in overshoes and call me a duck if the bacon cheeseburger wasn’t remarkably good, despite it being made of this:

Continue reading OK, I admit it: got pleasantly surprised by SteelFire Kitchen & Bar.

And now, for a matter of some importance: tomato sauce seasonings.

I’m throwing together something from scratch (and a can of tomato paste), and I need some spice thoughts. Oregano/basil/a little sugar, sure, but: anything else?  Garlic, pepper, what?  I’m already tossing in some scallions and red peppers already.

The oil’s heating now for sauteing the scallions and peppers, so this is a matter of some urgency.

A cooking deboning bleg.

I deboned some chicken thighs for a stew that I was making today, and I left far too much meat on the bones. Is this the optimal method for doing it, or should I be trying to partially cook the chicken first? I mean, I understand why you’d want to debone like this if you’re trying to get the meat to look like it wasn’t shredded, but this was chicken and rice stew.  It was going to always end up being blobs of meat.

 

[UPDATE: To clarify, I care about efficient and fast, not aesthetics.]

Tweet of the Day, These Advanced Gravy Techniques Intrigue Me edition.

Although we’d need a gravy separator.  Which is something that my wife has been apparently contemplating picking up for some time, so that’s not really an obstacle.  Truthfully, gravy has been one of those things where my culinary kung fu has been weak: my parents could make pretty much everything except gravy. Eventually we gave up and went with store brands.

So this is of interest.

Carnitas! Revisited.

They came out pretty well. Spicy, though; I took advice from comments and upped the spicing a bit. Oddly, my wife minded the spices more than I did, which is weird. Then again, I took the precaution of eating this stuff along with a beer, which is of course what one drinks when eating carnitas.

I also took a nap after putting this stuff together, so I can say authoritatively that they taste just fine cold. Continue reading Carnitas! Revisited.

Carnitas!

We were brainstorming what to do with the pork tenderloin tomorrow; and my wife stopped, and said “carnitas.” Which is, of course, brilliant. Now I’m debating whether to adapt this recipe.  It promises crispy and slow-cooked, admittedly by working at it a little, but my wife is dubious about the process.  Then again, my wife isn’t the one cooking this.

Thoughts?

Moe Lane

PS: I’m also to pickle a red onion tomorrow in the fashionable style.

Out on the edge! Making pork and beans without a net!

I looked at all the suggestions, recipes, disputes, heresies, prophecies, formalities, familiarities, dissents, allegations, collaborations, corroborations, correspondences, lunacies, revelations, explanations, and Just Plain Wrong arguments — and then I said ‘Let’s go GONZO’ and just started cooking this stuff up.  Somebody had to have made the first pork and bean mixture, after all. I can cook. I understand the principles of cooking. I have to learn to trust my abilities.

…Fortunately, it smells good, so things are probably going well.