The Comeback King

Supper, Monday November 5, 2018: Meatloaf (ground beef, egg, spinach, rolled oats, pumpkin seed kernels, onion, minced garlic, salt, pepper); baked sweet potato; mixed pickle.

Way back in the day Alexis would cook. This was before we had established our roles as a couple. For me cooking is enjoyable. Usually I lose myself in the moment. This is a really helpful thing now that I have a chronic pain condition. For Alexis not so much. She can cook. In fact the dishes she has made were alway good, but for her the act is anxiety provoking. She will cook if she has to. I cook because I want to. 

One of the things that she made back in the day was meatloaf. She liked to make comfort foods. She stepped it up a notch by using an interesting recipe she found. It was spinach and pine nut meatloaf. I really liked it. The whole pine nuts added a crunchy texture and the spinach lightened an otherwise heavy dish. 

Since then I have made a number of variations on the original recipe. In this case I used pumpkin seed kernels instead of the pine nuts. This was borne out of necessity, we had no pine nuts. Here I used a little spinach but in the past I have used the leafy parts of chard or boc choy finely chopped. One other difference my version has it that I use rolled oats as the liquid soaker-upper. Again, this is a texture thing. I like the little toothiness that the oats bring. 

Comfort foods like this have made a comeback recently. The difference being that the recipes are like the one here. New takes on old standards. I like to think it is in great part due to the maturing of the american palate, at least in some regions. Take your favorite meatloaf recipe, sub oats for the breadcrumbs, add a small bag of frozen chopped spinach, and pine nuts or pumpkin seeds or almond slivers? Idunno, play with it. (Frozen peas? Diced parsnip?)

Oh yeah, thaw the spinach then squeeze the everlivin snot out of it. You need to get the excess moisture out. 

Well Since The Fryer Is Out. . .

Supper, Friday November 2, 2018: Fried oysters; fried taters; fried zucchini; fried mushrooms.

Sure that is a lot of fried food, but remember "everything in moderation including moderation." Live a little now and then. 

Lemme talk about breading. 

I'm persnickety about breading. 

1. My first rule is season the food not the breading. I want to have seasoned bread I will just get some herbs in olive oil and dip some crusty french pieces.
2. Flour the food. Coat the product, whatever it is, with plain flour. This is important because it gives the wash something to cling to.
3. Make sure the product is thoroughly coated in the wash. I like to use a wash that is half egg and half buttermilk. Some like one or the other. That's OK. There is one little quirk to my choice. When blending the egg and buttermilk together the egg often starts to gel. I think it's a ph thing. Whatever the cause it is reversed by adding just a little bit of water, an ounce or two depending on the amount of wash.
4. To transfer the washed food to the crumbs I like to handle as little as possible. If is is a large item like a piece of fish or a slab of green tomato I use a bamboo skewer. If it is a bunch of smaller things I use a spider.
5. Coat the food well by rolling and packing it into the crumb mixture. I like a 1:3 mix of flour and breadcrumbs. This is where I get really crazy. Plain breadcrumbs from the store are OK but they are too dense. The alternative then is panko, but I find it to be too greasy. So I literally bake french bread slice it dehydrate it and grind it in the food processor. The end result is crumbs that are a mix of sizes and shapes. A good second best is to buy day old french loaves at the grocery, slice them and let them dry out for a couple of days. finish them in a warm oven, 175 or so, then process.

That is why those mushrooms in the picture look like they are high end pre-breaded frozen.

See What Brown Can Do

Supper, Monday October 29, 2018, Fryday on Monday: fried chicken livers; fried sweet potato chips; cranberry beans w/ sour cream

and scallions.

This is an acquired taste if ever there was one. If you like organ meat however this is a cheap way to get your fix. It's also good for making dog treats. Seriously. A  one pound tub of these things is usually under two dollars.

Put them in a colander or strainer and rinse. The whole liver is comprised of two pieces held together by a ligament.  There is a larger piece that has three lobes and a smaller piece with two. I like to separate them by cutting the ligament out. So I go through the washed livers separating the pieces and inspecting for quality. 

The first thing to look for is any gall bladders. They shouldn't be there but sometimes they get missed. They are green and about the size of a butter bean. Cut them away carefully. They are full of bile (why they are green). It tastes horrible and will ruin everything it gets on. I have been told this and never tempted fate. 

There are sometimes livers that look like they were pulsed in a blender. I pitch these. I just don't like the look. Some livers will look anemic. I don't know the reason. I've not noticed a quality difference. It just may be a difference in the amount of exsanguination. (I love that word and there are so few opportunities to use it that are not really creepy.)

After clean up I sprinkle on some salt (or seasoned salt) and then black pepper. Depending on my mood I might do a full on egg wash and breadcrumb coat, or like this time, I just rolled them well in flour. Fry them at about 350 a minute or so after they are forcing out blood. (The tissue shrinks and eventually the fluid trapped inside gushes out. Or splodes) Be careful, these things can pop violently and spray oil. 

Yeah, you have to be a pretty dedicated carnivore to go through that.