Late Christmas Gift Or This Is Why Jerky Ain't Cheap

This is literally a belated Christmas gift. I make this for my brother each year. Simple solution to the "what do I get. . ." dilemma. 

The assembled spices for the marinade. This is a low salt version. The interwebs has more marinade versions that you could possibly try in a lifetime.

A whole sirloin tip from a wharehouse club. Your regularr grocer probably has these but in the back for cutting into steaks and roasts. You want meat that is not too fatty whatever you get. The fat eventually turns rancid. 

The marinade ingredients simmering for a few minutes and then cooling while I prep the meat.

The meat with the fat and sinew trimmed out.

Sliced, an eighth too a quarter of an inch thick

Combine. marinate 24 to 48 hrs or whatever your recipe suggests

Ready to be dried. I don't have a fancy dehydrator. You can spend a lot of money on a dehydrator, but unless you intend to become a doomsday prepper (unlikely if you are reading my pablum) then go for an inexpensive model. I paid less than 50 bucks I think.

Dried product.

Ready to post. I recommend keeping it in the fridge. "No preservatives" = "Might mold" sometimes.

It's Not Really French

Breakfast, Tuesday January 10: French toast; peaches; bacon.

Seriously, its not French. AKA German toast, eggy bread (my favorate), or any number of other names, French toast should in fact more accurately be called Roman toast. The earliest recipe is from a collection of Roman recipes penned circa the 4th century. No matter what it is called, its original, and still relevant, intentional use was as a method for utilizing stale bread. Now that I think about it, the need or desire to utilize stale bread may have been bolstered by the Roman goverment. I seem tto remember reading that the citizens of Rome, the city, were given a sort of basic welfare of a ration of bread and olive oil. Olive oil has a long shelf life, especially if sealed away from any pesky oxygen. Bread, on the other hand, has a very short shelf life, stale in the first day and moldy within a week, depending on humidity and storge. 

Regardless of its origin, it is yummy and my 9-grain bread is fantastic as the base. It lends more tooth, the flax seed, whole and rolled grains give it interesting textures. Being denser however, it needs a bit more time on the griddle. Another trick that I have seen but never used is to transfer a hot (350, 375?) oven to finish. Finishing in the oven is also the way to cook really thick pieces. A couple of 2 inch thick slabs cut from a batard or challa looks great dusted with some powdered sugar and topped with a fanned strawberry.  The oven also has the advantage of acting as a way to hold the toast for company if you have guests trickling into the dining room. (Your sister could not possibly come to breakfast without "putting on her face.") Of course a cooler oven works if you just need it for holding, not finishing. 

Beans Are Good For You

Supper, Sunday January 8: speckled butter beans and pork; turnip greens; rice.

I know this is not much to look at and neither was the finished plate, but DAMN those beans were good. It looks like more pork than beans here but in fact it really was the other way around. The pork was from a smoked shoulder that a friend shared with us. I simmered the bone and its meat as well as some scraps with a little Mirepoix, (carrot, celery, onion). After the meat had begun to fall apart I separated it from the bone and mirepoix so that it would not be boiled to tasteless strings. once I had simmered the rest sufficiently (a few hours) I strained the broth, added soaked and cleaned beans along with the meat from earlier, and let that simmer until the beans were tender (another couple of hours). I only added salt and pepper. Sometimes it is just the simple combination of a few choice ingredients that can create an extrordinary dish.

Stock, beans, pork, salt, pepper.  Extraodinary.

Are They Enchiladas If You Use Flour Tortillas?

Breakfast, Sunday January 8: an assortment of small wraps (shrimp, bacon, feta, avocado, scallions, brie, habanero jack) .

This was for a to go breakfast. The idea, which worked quite well, was to send her to work with the roll-ups cold. She could then heat them in the microwave at work. I added a little fresh fruit and some salsa to round it out.

BTW, it is NOT an enchilada.

Pizza! Pizza!

Supper, Saturday January 7: Pizza (homemade crust,* Italian sausage, basil, onion, pepper, olives, mushroom, feta, parm).

*Crust. Everybody has a favorite. I'm not particularly picky, so I am not afraid to experiment. In this case I have a recipe for what I call 9-grain loaf. The recipe makes 2 loaves which is more than we need at once so either I freeze 1 or I use the dough for something else: focaccia; rolls; pizza crust. I may go throught the bread making process next time I make a couple of boules which may be in the next few days. 

Garlic, Shrimp, And Feta, A Match Made In Heaven

Breakfast, Saturday January 7: cheesy shrimp toast (toasted tuscan roasted garlic bread (say that five times bitches), shrimp sauteed with scallion in olive oil, parm, feta); fruit and yogurt with poppy seed.

For the toast, just assemble and pop in the toaster oven til melty and yummy. 

Carambolas are tricky. They are really tasty when fully ripe. until that point they are just "Meh." Edible but nothing to write home about. Up until that point however, they are very pretty. Starfruit, the fruit that looks like a star. Whoda thunkit? Well the executive chef in the sky has a slightly twisted sense of humor. When these things taste good is usually right about the time that all of the abuses they have suffered at the hand of man come out. Plus the shape that makes them so appropriate for a garnish makes those abuses appear doubly. The edges of the fruit get banged up and them as it ripens they turn black. So there is a window of about a day, maybe 2 if you are lucky, when they haven't turned black at the tips but are coming into their full flavor. If you want the full effect from these guys you just have to be flexible with your planning and use them when they are peaking.

Avocados have a similar problem. If you buy one in the store already ripe then it has been test mushed by other shoppers and you will likely end up with an edible but ugly fruit. Since I use avocado a LOT more than I use starfruit, I solve this problem by purchasing clearly greeen, rock hard fruit and allowing them to ripen unmolested with the bananas and plantains (another food that needs similar treatment.

Holy Crap I Haven't Posted In A While

Supper, Friday January 6: split pea soup (onion, carrot, celery, peas, smoked pork,* pork stock, pepper); chard and mandarins; sweet potato.

* I have a friend who bought a couple of smoked shoulders from his church during a fundraiser that they periodically run. Two whole shoulders were too much for his family really so he gave me a large portion of one of the shoulders. Now traditionally the recipe would be split pea and ham, but what is ham? The cured and or smoked rear leg of the pig. The shoulder is the front leg or the front shoulder region (Boston Butt). Not only is this a reasonable substitution with respect to texture and flavor the other advantage is that the shoulder was not salt cured. I could create a lower salt version of one of my personal favorite soups

Breakfast On The Run

Breakfast, Friday January 6: breakfast burrito (potato, jalapeno, bell pepper, red onion, dried cherry tomatoes, chili powder, egg, egg substitute, goat cheese, habanero cojack, tortilla).

Fine julienne the potatoes. A mandolin works best. Dice the other vegetables. Spread the taters out in a smoking hot skillet with a little oil in it. I like to sprinkle the other vegetables on top then they get to brown on the first turn. BE PATIENT, let the potatoes brown before turning. After the first turn add spices and stir occasionally until everything is browned.

Add the eggs directly to the pan. I also use some no cholesterol egg substitute. Do as you will. Fold these all together until the eggs are done.

I used some goat cheese on the warmed tortilla. I like to warm them by laying them on the spatter screen over the filling as it cooks.

Portion out the filling. Add some more cheese. Roll it up. Roll out the door.

Alexis got one. A co-worker got another.

Shrimp Are Good For Any Meal

Breakfast, Tuesday January 3: shrimp and avocado omelet; bacon; apple; baby turnip.

The omelet turned out to be a sublime combo. For the filling I sauteed a shallot and some green pepper in olive oil. A pepper with a little heat could be used but I didn't have that on hand. After the shallot had softened I added peeled and diced shrimp and a large pinch of boiling spices. Use your favorite crab/shrimp boil. Cook until the shrimp are just done then set aside. Now break some eggs and get them in your omelet pan. If you dont have one then put on some pants and go get one. Of course you should have had pants on already because you are cooking bacon. For the filling, once the eggs have set, lay down a layer of crumbled feta and shredded smoked gouda. I think a mils cheddar might work in place of the gouda. Over that place the shrimp mixture. Close that bad boy up, slide onto a plate then top with the avocado and cilantro. 

I Could Eat My Weight In. . .

Supper, Sunday January 1: snow crab; seared sea scallops; greens; beets; pineapple. 

Impulse purchase. We both like crab, but we eat it only occasionally as a special treat. 

A Great Southern Tradition

Breakfast, Sunday January 1: hoppin john; rice; greens.

The perfect way to start the new year. Depending on how you make it this is a meal loaded with fiber, vitamins, essential amino acids, etc. I have a little bacon in there for seasoning.  

Cheeky!

Breakfast, Saturday December 31: seared grouper cheeks; sauteed shrimp; grits; salmon and tuna cream cheese; sour rye; apple.

A bit of a fourway and yes, grouper cheeks. A grouper is about 40% head by weight. There's a lot of meat up front. One of the tastiest morsels is the muscle the works the jaw. I think it is the equivalent of the masseter and the temporalis in humans, Anyhoo, it is below and a little behind the eye. All the bony fish have a pair, it's just that in the grouper they are especially large because of that 40% thing. It is one of the reasons that when I buy grouper I have the purveyor clean and fillet the whole fish then "reassemble" it to take home. Once home I will remove the cheeks then boil the head and other bones until it is just cooked through. I remove some pretty big hunks of meat in the top of the head and in the back and under where the cheeks were. I use this meat in a number of things: fish enchiladas; gumbo; tacos; scrambled eggs; fish cakes. . . Most times I return the remaining bones, cartilage, etc to the pot add onunion, carrot, celery then simmer for fish stock. The cheeks are great seared like above or breaded like chicken nuggets.

We Indulge Our Love Of Seafood

Supper, Friday December 31: blackened salmon; seared scallop; baked potato; garden turnip greens.

The folks we buy seafood from when we are here have their own spice mix for boiling crabs or shrimp. It is fantastic sprinkled on fish that is then seared in a hot pan. I tried cooking the salmon skin like bacon. Needs work.

Wait, Where Am I?

Breakfast, Friday December 30: low sodium bacon, fried eggs, sour rye toast, Amish butter, fruit.

Change of venue. We have a modest beach condo. I do mean modest as we are by no means wealthy. We are a couple of lower tier professionals, a nurse and an educator who are a bit miserly in nature so we tend to have First World Problems. Nevertheless I keep a reasonably stocked pantry there so when we are at the beach meals are kinda like home with a lot of seafood added. You'll see.

Some would call this a "Traditional Breakfast" but they would be terribly mistaken, unless they were referring to only the last 90 years only as worthy of examination. The story begins with an advertising campaign cooked up un the 1920's by Edward Bernays. You can look him up so I will not belabor the story. Suffice it to say that he came up with the notion that one should start their day with a heavy breakfast. prior to this most americans ate porridge made from cornmeal or oats, meat and bread left over from the evening meal along with coffee if available. Also by the turn of the 20th century the consumption of breakfast cereal established, having first appeared in 1887 as a masturbation preventative by Dr. Harvey Kellogg. Bernays' brilliance was in getting thousands of physicians to agree that a heavier breakfast would be a better chioce. The rest is food history.