Christmas 2010 Part Deux

Pork medallions cooked with white wine, garlic, olive oil, kalamata olives and capers. Served with orzo with homemade pesto and blanched french green beans.

Christmas Day 2010

My son's homemade potato leek soup. He swirled a little olive oil on the top and garnished with fresh sage.

Home on the Range

And they say that only men collect "toys"...heh.

Bocadillo De Buenos Días

Bocadillo De Buenos Días (Good Morning Sandwich)
fried egg, sharp cheddar cheese, new mexico green chile, salsa, paprika on whole grain toast

Buon Appetito di Roma

Uno cappucc', per favore?

His: a Diavola (hot pepperoni-type sausage), una birra

Hers: an "Italia" pizza (arugula, parmeggiano, tomatoes), uno bicchiere di vino bianco...

Un caffè e il conto, per piacere.

And then...much later:

Gelatto, carìssimi!

I must say tho... this was not even close to the best pizza or the best gelatto I ever had. The first gelatto we had was better but I didn't take a photo. The espresso on the other hand........

Watermelon Art

A friend sent me these pics the other day. Pretty cool, eh?

My Son, the ..umm..Doctor?

Ok, Joel's been taking this class called "Meat Fabrication" which I assumed meant he was fabricating meat out of sawdust, twine and an old Barbie doll. Little did I know it meant that he was going to actually use knives. Is my son the next Top Chef or am I looking at Ed Gein II: The Sequel?

Please note the "Bovine" notes on the chalkboard in the background.

Creamy Cajun Lobster Bisque
One hour cooking time. 6 servings.
12-16 oz lobster tail chopped
3 tablespoon margarine (or butter)
2 stalks celery finely diced
1 onion finely diced
1 cup fresh tomato, peeled, seeded, diced
1 red chile pepper finely diced (or 1 tsp tobasco and 1tsp chili powder)
3 tablespoons (cloves) garlic
4 tablespoon flour
2 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (to taste)
1 pinch of dry mustard
3 cups chicken (or shrimp) stock
1 cup half and half (whip cream or non fat milk)
2 Tablespoons brandy
1-2 bay leaves
1 sprig of thyme (or pinch of dried)
1/2 cup fresh grated parmesean cheese (less for cream and more for nonfat milk)
salt and pepper (to taste)
Directions:
1. In a large saucepan, melt the margarine and add the onion, garlic, celery, tomato and pepper.
2. Cook until vegetables are softened.
3. Add to them the flour paprika, cayenne, and pinch of mustard.
4. Stir lightly.
5. Slowly pour in the stock, half & half and brandy, stirring until ingredients are combined well.
6. Drop in the bay leaf and thyme spring and increase heat.
7. Bring mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to a steady simmer for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.
8. Once broth is thickened, add lobster and simmer an additional 5-10 minutes until lobster is white.
9. Slowly blend in cheese until melted.
10. Taste and add salt and pepper as desired.
Garnish with your favorite fresh herbs and enjoy!

Virginia is for (Wine) Lovers

Since I'm the resident wine lush, I thought I'd share a link I just discovered that gives you more information than you could ever possibly want on the growing wine industry in Virginia. Enjoy!

http://www.virginiawine.org/wineries

SpiderCheese, SpiderCheese, Does Whatever a SpiderFromage Can

OK, I've decided it's time to kick it up a couple of notches and what better way to do it than by talking about -- and showing -- deliciously medieval French culinary traditions?

There are many examples of decidedly unsanitary but oh so terroir! gastronomic delicacies in this country and some of them are known throughout the world. This specialty is known by some Hungry Dimwits who received an email about it last year. I decided to share it with those of you who may not have seen it yet, and talk a little bit about how something like a cheese with spiders all around it can be possible.

According to the legend, these tiny spiders, a type of acarid ("artisou" or "artison" in French- where you can see the fine "powder") not only protected the cheese from drying out but it also helped it mature without going bad. The principle is simple: the little creatures eat their way into the cheese, forming a thick-ish crust which, after reaching a certain point, does not continue to grow into the cheese. The result, then, is a creamy but firm interior, with flavour that can range from the mild and somewhat fruity (the younger ones) to tangy and punchy and even kind of acidic at times.

Of course one is supposed to remove the crust before eating it, but there are people (ok, usually French) who will eat the crust, too, even while the spiders continue to move! Yes, because when you bring it home from the artisan cheesemaker wo/man-shop, they're still alive and moving. Exciting, non? Oh don't pull that face; if you eat oysters, this is easy.

After my initial shock (I was speechless for about 15 minutes, until someone filled my glass with wine) I tried a slice. Then another. We were drinking a cheap but good local red (Vin du Pays d'Allier- a sort of generic red from the Allier river region) and eating white crusty bread. The cheese was very good and I could not feel a single spider moving in my mouth (I had removed the crust - I wasn't brave or tipsy enough to go native, I'm afraid...) No but seriously, they're extremely small, though possibly a lot bigger than the ones that live in our pillows and mattresses.

I took this photo at the cheesemaker shop. The darker ones are older (and presumably positively teeming with artisons). Yum.

French Desserts: The Crème Brûlée

Last week when my cousin+1 were here they asked me what they should see/do. I had sent them a 10-day travel plan I originally wrote for my brother. But shock, horror, when they said "but what about the food? Have you got any tips?", and I did, but I had not written them down. So I did my best, considering I was dealing with a semi-vegetarian picky eater. I asked if they liked desserts to which the answer was an urgent yes. So this was my one "must-eat" tip: the ubiquitous crème brûlée, which they had never eaten.

Since I didn't make it myself, I think it would be cheating to post the recipe (easily found online anyway...) but here's a little poem I wrote (here's one I made earlier!), inspired by an email he sent me earlier, thanking me for everything and especially for having introduced them to this classic (lol)

Your smooth, homogenous interior

Hidden under that hard, crunchy shell

Equal only to your smell, superior

Divinely-inspired pastel

Present in all the best palettes

Degusted after delicate croquettes

Pleasing to all discerning palates

Delicious even from kitchenettes

Behold! The crème brûlée

Break its armor with a bayonet

You'll certainly be enchanté

Supplanting the need for a trebuchet.

Old Bay Seasoning

I had homemade potato chips last night sprinkled with Old Bay Seasoning. For those of you who have not experienced it on seafood (or potato chips), it is quite the delight. It should be part of everyone's kitchen spice rack. What's in it? Here's what the Old Bay web site has listed:

CELERY SALT (SALT, CELERY SEED), SPICES (INCLUDING MUSTARD, RED PEPPER, BLACK PEPPER, BAY [LAUREL] LEAVES, CLOVES, ALLSPICE [PIMENTO], GINGER, MACE, CARDAMOM, CINNAMON) AND PAPRIKA.

Parisian supermarket

This is in fact a misnomer. Supermarkets in the city aren't "super" at all; they're small and have a small number of each brand.

Monday I went grocery shopping with my cousin and his boyf; it is always fun to do that when you arrive somewhere new and don't know the products.

They took many many photos so I'll share a few here since this week I have no recipes to post, given I've been cooking the standard brazilian meal since they arrived (beans/rice/meat/veg).

These photos are back to front in terms of the order they were taken, but it's early and I'm lazy so I'll leave it like this. From bottom to top: shopping, going home, and view of the banister/stairs from my floor. Yes we went all the way up with those groceries. Rock hard legs.

My Descent into Tapas Madness

This week we had a potluck at work with the theme "international." Oh sure, I could have brought nachos or pasta, but I opted for Spain and tapas. Attached are photos of my concoctions, namely, grilled eggplant with tomato caper vinaigrette, roasted red peppers stuffed with tuna and kalamata olives and the ubitquitous deviled eggs (shall I point out that they had spanish paprika?). All were eaten so I guess they were a success.

PLAN B

PLAN B:

No real write up on this. I took the rice-cooked-in-chicken-goop and sautee'd it with a can of green peas as suggested in my preceding write up. Here served topped with a little parmesan, roasted red pepper, flame toasted tortilla triangles, and hot Italian sausage. I lucked out and caught a "manager's special" on the sausage - one pound package (6 sausages) reduced to $2.15. The red sweet pepper was the most expensive ingredient, and I'll get three meals out of this for under $1.50 a plate.




...and a note. I ate those chicken skin roll-ups for lunch with a Corona beer. Delicious, but it might be improved with a thin slice of pimento/roasted red pepper inside. "Maybe next time" ...; ).

CHICKEN THIGHS AND RICE

CHICKEN THIGHS AND RICE:

Prosaic, utilitarian "I don't know what to make" meal.


Materials and Methods:

~ four chicken thighs or two split chicken breasts. Here I used the thighs, on sale (of course) for $0.99/ lb. The four thighs cost $1.67.
~ 1/2 shot of olive oil
~ 1 tablespoon of freshly minced garlic (less if you don't like garlic)
~ 1/4 teaspoon of freshly ground thyme
~ 1/8 teaspoon of paprika and black pepper to taste
~ 1/2 shot of lemon juice
~ 4 tablespoons of barbecue sauce
~ 4 small to medium onions, peeled and quartered
~ 2 cups of cooked rice, your choice

1. season the skin side of the chicken with paprika, black pepper, and ground thyme.
2. in 9 in pan add the olive oil, garlic, a pinch of black pepper and a pinch of thyme.
3. sautee' the garlic briefly on high heat... about a minute.
4. add the chicken, skin side down
5. season the "up" side with pepper, paprika, ground thyme.
6. cook covered, periodically moving the chicken around so it doesn't stick.
7. flip the chicken when the skin side is browned to lightly charred.
8. drizzle the lemon juice and one tablespoon of barbecue sauce on each thigh
9. add the quartered onions, reduce the heat, cover and cook for 30 minutes with occasional stirring.

It should look something like this, only less burnt because YOU won't be trying to write this up, take photos, and cook at the same time:

10. remove the chicken
11. add two cups of cooked rice to the onions
12. increase the heat and lightly fry the rice with continuous agitation until all the chicken drippings are aborbed... and a little longer if you prefer a dryer rice.

OPTIONALS:

1. add a can of peas to the rice and serve sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

APPETIZER OPTION:

2. remove the chicken skins to make the following
appetizer using:

~ 1/2 teaspoon of hoisin sauce
~ 1/4 oz of cream cheese
~ two soft flour tortillas
~ the cooked skins from 4 chicken thighs or two breasts
~ a little slivered green onion/scallion. I had none on hand and used the raw cores from a regular yellow onion.

1. On high heat, place a tortilla directly on the gas burner.
2. keep it moving around a lot, tongs help.
3. you want it slightly toasted as pictured, do both sides.

4. slather the toasted tortilla with a little cream cheese and a little hoisin sauce
5. arrange the cooked skins evenly on one side of the tortilla
6. add a line of slivered scallions (here, slivered raw onions).
7. roll into a tube, let it sit a bit, then slice into appetizer sized pieces.

Showing Off Pressure Cooker 2: The Revenge of the Black Beans

Yes, I know Obi *just* posted a recipe with black beans but ... since I made this for Sunday lunch, and since there have been pressure cooker photo requests ... I decided to post it anyway.

Of course, you probably won't want to go through the trouble of cooking the beans yourselves if you can get perfectly tasty, canned beans instead, like the ones Obi uses. Therefore, I shall only post the seasoning for the beans and how it is prepared in my Republic. No, silly, not Brasil. The Republic of J&B ! (Ok, ok, and Brasil...sigh)

So, assuming you've bought (and opened) the canned beans:

Fry an onion and a clove of garlic in a medium saucepan until slightly brown. On high heat, add a ladleful of beans to the pan. Mash the beans a little with the back of the ladle; let it bubble a bit, then add the rest of the can of beans. Add salt.

If you want to kick it up a notch, you can add a spicy, smoked pork sausage to the beans, which should give them a nice aroma and some depth of flavour which would complement it well if you're serving it with white rice like I usually do.

I served it with some broccoli Sunday but any fresh green veg should be good with this -- collard greens, cut extremely finely and panfried in olive oil and garlic is the way to go if you have the patience (and time!)...

One can of black beans should be enough for 4 people if you're serving it with rice, sausage, and veg.

Bom apetite!

P.S. This is called a Feijoada in Brasil (feijão=beans); traditionally, it's the dish of the day Saturday; Caipirinhas are usually served as the apéritif, and an orange or a slice of pineapple for dessert.

Shrimp and Black Beans

Shrimp and Black Beans:

Shrimp on a budget. With rice and a salad this dish feeds four people nicely for about $2-$2.50 a serving depending on how much of a cheap skate you are. Since I'm currently wallowing in the flooded basement of the socio-economic strata, I tend to go CHEAP. In this case it meant cutting back on the shrimp, but still preserving enough shrimp to call it a shrimp dish.
I used cleaned, cooked and frozen 50 count shrimp which go on sale here for $12/ 2 lb bag. I used 16 shrimp, but the dish would profit from using twice as many and a larger grade (30 count shrimp or more). If you show up here for dinner, I'll do just that, but for "just me", 16 50-count shrimp are just fine.

Materials and Methods:
~ 16 shrimp, cleaned and peeled as noted.
~ 1 medium to large onion, peeled, cut in half and sliced 1/8th inch thick.
~ approx 1/8 a head of cabbage shredded to 1/8 inch slices
~ 1 one pound, 3 oz can of Progresso Black Beans with bacon. It was on sale. Normally I use the Goya black beans, but for a $1 a can I couldn't pass these up.
~ 2 heaping tablespoons of thinly sliced fresh ginger
~ 1/8 cup of dried cranberries
~ Two cups of cooked rice
~~not pictured~~:
~ two half shots of olive oil
~ minced garlic, about a tablespoon ...less if you aren't a garlic fan
~ 1/2 teaspoon of thyme
~ black pepper to taste
~ 1/2 shot of lime juice
~ 1/2 shot of teriyaki

1. Defrost and detail the shrimp, place in a bowl
2. to the shrimp add black pepper to taste, a drizzle of olive oil, a 1/16 teaspoon of minced garlic, the teriyaki and the lime juice ... agitate with some frequency and let the mix sit for 15 minutes or more.
3. In a frying pan or small wok, add the remainder of the minced garlic and one 1/2 shot of olive oil.
4. Heat until the garlic begins to "sweat"...i.e. turn slightly brown.
5. Drain the shrimp as best you can, reserving the fluid marinade.
6. High heat, add the shrimp. This should take about 3 minutes total. Move the shrimp around occasionally. The goal is to get a little bit of a brown char on them while not cooking them down to little rubbery bits. If you started with raw shrimp, you want them to look "opaque". Larger shrimp will take about one to two minutes more in toto. About two minutes into the cooking, remove the accumulated shrimp juice and add it to the reserved marinade. Cook another minute or so ...it should look like this:

7. Put the shrimp back into the marinade plus juice. This should halt the cooking process sufficiently so as to not overcook the shrimp.
8. In the same pan, add the second 1/2 shot of olive oil.
9. Add the shredded cabbage, thyme, and sliced raw fresh ginger.
10. Cook on high heat with frequent stirring until the cabbage is limp enough to bend easily and is getting a little translucent (about 5 minutes).
11. Add the onions and cranberries.
12, Continue cooking on high heat with frequent stirring until the onions turn translucent (another three to 5 minutes).
13. add the can of black beans, liquid and all.
14. Lower the heat to around medium and continue cooking with stirring... about 3- 5 minutes or more.
15. drain the marinade plus shrimp juice into the bean/onion/cabbage mix.
16. with continued slow stirring and medium heat, this should thicken up on it's own, but feel free to add a little roux or cornstarch to speed things up.
17. add the shrimp.
18. serve over steam cooked or fried rice.

Showing off Pressure Cooker

One of the best things I brought back from Brazil was a 3-litre pressure cooker my mum got me. It's the perfect size for two people and yet, should the need arise, it can hold enough food for six.

On my birthday I thought about having take away tapas but when we came back from the cinema I changed my mind and decided that what would really warm me up was a good, honest, old-fashioned pot roast. We stopped at the supermarket and bought a few carrots, 400grms of bourgignon meat (which is just plain stew meat) a couple onions, and 2 medium potatoes each.

I seasoned the meat with some cider vinegar and a mix of garlic/onion/salt/parsley (which can be dehydrated)/black pepper and rubbed it in the meat. I left it to rest while I chopped the onion, peeled the carrots, halved the potatoes, and opened the wine.

Browned the meat in very hot vegetable oil (not olive oil here though), added 2 whole bay leaves, and covered the meat with boiling water* and a little more. Left it on medium heat for 20mins, turned the gas off, let the pressure cooker release the pressure by itself- the meat carries on cooking; added the carrots, but not the potatoes. These were boiled separately, as they tend to turn to mush when added to pressure cookers, making the sauce too thick. If you want that, go for it, it's just as good!

Once the carrots were in, I left it for another 5mins counting from when the valve started to turn again.

Without the pressure cooker

Pretty much the same thing, except you'll need to cook the meat for at least an hour and a half in order to get the same texture (that is, melting in mouth). I know US meat is softer, so maybe you won't need that long. The important thing is that the water is hot and that there is enough salt, otherwise it tastes really unpleasant.

Serve it piping hot over the potatoes or simply with some crusty bread. A full-bodied red wine is best with this dish, in my opinion.

*The water must be hot otherwise the meat hardens.

Simple Apéritif

I like to make this apéritif in the middle of the week -- made it last night -- because it always makes it seem like the weekend, for some reason. It's cheap, quick, easy and very tasty, so I think it's the perfect kind of "recipe".

Four or five large fresh button mushrooms per person; a pot of Boursin or a similar cheese spread with herbs/garlic.

Peel the mushrooms, remove their stalk, fill them with Boursin. Put it in a hot oven (390 F) for 20mins - that's it!

I tried it with beer (a kind of strong-ish "abbey" beer) and red wine and much to my surprise, it's better with beer.

For Jaded, From Paris, Via São Paulo, with Love -- or, Sauces Part 1

This is almost a non-recipe, but it really does make a simple dish seem more sophisticated.

It is a kind of tradition for us to have fish on New Year's eve in my family (as well as the unwanted lentils for prosperity...) and last/this year, we had a roast salmon with this sauce. It's perhaps the easiest dish I've ever seen being made (that's right, I'd just gotten my nails done) and this might be the reason why it's so popular on New Year's eve, especially when there are over 50 guests and it is a "bring-a-dish" type of party. There are no photos of it because it was gone before I could find my camera...

For the salmon:

• 200grms (a little under half a lb) of salmon per person;
• Seasoning: freshly squeezed juice of half a lime, garlic, onion(s), salt&pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, fresh flat-leaf parsley.

For the sauce:

• a little jar of capers (100grms, about 3oz)
• juice of 1/2 lime or more if you like it tart like I do (growl) but my source tells me 1/2 should do it;
• olive oil (the amount depends on how much sauce you want to end up with; so for 4 ppl, about 50-100grams of capers, so about 2 shot glasses (obi's wonderful measurement!) of olive oil;
• optional: a teaspoon of butter.

Prep:

Mince together (preferably with a mortar&pestle or in a mixer/Cuisinart/blender-type thing) the garlic, onion, and lime juice. Rub the lot on the fish about 15-20 mins before putting it in oven. Salt&pepper to taste, but I think less is more here with the pepper. The parsley gets chopped and added, fresh, to the dish when it's ready to be served.

If you get the capers in brine, drain them well, then put them in a dry frying pan on low heat until they've dried a little. Add the olive oil, let it heat up a bit, then mix in the lime juice. Leave to cool.

Put salmon in oven (gas: 180°C - 360°F) about 20 mins per kilo (so 10-15 mins per lb), skin side down, aluminium foil on. When it's roasted for the amount of time indicated, remove aluminium foil, leave it for another 5-10mins max.

Those hoity-toity fan ovens are stronger so...probably half the time should do it, but don't trust me too much on this one, I've burned many a dish at the mum-in-law's due to the poshness of her stove/oven.

This dish is more fun/impressive if there are a lot of people and you get a whole or a half a salmon; it looks better when it's served whole/semi-whole. The sauce should be served, cold, on the side; if everyone likes it, add the whole thing over the salmon in the serving dish. As a side dish, something green and light, slightly bland. Maybe a broccoli purée or some plain green beans.

Sauteed Green Beans and Mortgage Backed Equity Salami:

This is a signature offering here at the Central Bank of Belongaobi. In the warmer months I grow my own green bean varietals and prepare this or some variation about three times a week. Winter months, the beans are from the store, of questionable quality, and outrageously priced from $3.75 to $4.00/ pound. Even so, the complete dish pictured below costs about $1.50 per person to make.

Materials and methods:











Three pieces of salami cut into 1/4 in strips
1/4 teaspoon of fresh thyme
1/4 lb green beans, cleaned and parboiled about
5 minutes or nuked 3.33 minutes on high
2 small or one medium onion cut into 1/8 in thick slices
2 medium mushrooms sliced about 1/4 in thick
1 tablespoon of thinly slivered fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon of minced garlic
1/2 a shot of olive oil
1 teaspoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of terriyaki sauce
pepper and salt to taste

1. add the olive oil and garlic to a wok with high heat
2. add the parboiled green beans, thyme, and slivered
ginger
3. cook rapidly on high heat with periodic turning. I like
my beans slightly charred so I let them sit a bit
between stirrings. Should take about 3-4 minutes.
4. add the lemon juice
5. temporarily remove the bean mix from the wok
6. add the onions, and black pepper. Sautee on high heat
until they turn brownish.
7. add the beans back and the mushrooms. Sautee an
additional 1-2 minutes and add the terriyaki with
stirring.
The end product should look like this:












Served here with herbed rice, two sliced hard boiled eggs with red roasted pepper garnish, and my ubiquitous triangles of flame grilled tortilla.

The Big Easy (and I'm not talking about me)

I had a friend take me out to dinner last night for my birthday (yes, it's the celebration that never ends) and we decided to go to a relatively new restaurant in downtown Norfolk called "The Big Easy." I had heard good reviews that it was authentic New Orleans cuisine and they had killer beignets. As we pulled up at the front of the restaurant, we were surprised to find that there was an ambulance there with lights flashing. Not to be dissuaded, I got out of the car while my friend valet parked, walked around the ambulance and into the restaurant. As I was standing waiting for the hostess to seat, a guy who I assume was the manager came up and said "it's probably not a good advertisement that a restaurant has an ambulance in front of it." to which I replied "well, it didn't seem to stop me, did it?" Come to find out that the adjoining condominium that was attached to the restaurant had an elderly person who was suffering chest pains.

Anyway, on to the food. We had a fried oyster appetizer that was served over what looked like Napa cabbage with lemon caper remoulade. Very tasty. My friend ordered the traditional jambalaya and I decided to get the bacon wrapped trout with fried green tomatoes. While the trout was delicious, the bacon ended up being stuck to the skin and so I didn't eat the bacon or the skin. Final course was peach cobbler with vanilla bean ice cream and a decaf coffee. All in all, a nice night. And oh yeah, as far as I know, the guy didn't die while I was stuffing my face.

Cake Balls: Sweet Confection or Snack Food of the Lord of Darkness

Recently I read an article that the latest rage in Texas and some other state that supported George Bush, was for a dessert called "cake balls." Naturally, I was drawn to the article mainly because I figure if you have the, well, balls to call something by that name, it better be freakin' tasty. Although not much of a baker, I have set a goal to make these orbs and report back on their plusses and minuses on the blog. May God have mercy on my batter.

Banana Test Three

...following Freeek's gingerbread crumbs and discovering that Jane used them all on a pie... ; (.

Brazilian Birthday Booze

It always surprises me how efficient citrus fruit are at cheering me up when it's cold and gray and -- shock, horror - I'm getting older.

This is The Brazilian Drink par excellence, and although everyone seems to have their own way to make it, there are a few rules that need to be followed, because limes behave slightly different from lemons in my experience, and because...well, I like rules.

My mother likes to make Caipirinha with lemons sometimes (pink lemons which we can find in Brazil -- so it doesn't really help us Dimwits much, but I digress...), but being the purist I am, I always make it with limes; to me, few flavours marry as well as these 4 ingredients which are:

1 lime per person (pp), with very thin, smooth skin

1 1/2 tbsp sugar pp

2-3 ice cubes pp

1 small-ish shot of Cachaça/Pinga (I use Pirassununga 51 brand but you can use any white, industrialized brand; stay away from the "aged" stuff, those are supposed to be had neat-YIKES)

Preparation:

• Remove skin from lime, every other "strip" (i.e. leave some on), cut into 4 wedges, remove that white "strip" from the middle, and put into cocktail shaker;
• Add the sugar to cocktail shaker and start to crush the bits of lime with the sugar (preferably with a wooden pestle or something similar; before I got that one you can see in the photo, I used a wooden spoon) until you get a thick-ish liquid;
• Add the ice, the cachaça, mix well, leave it for 2 minutes so the flavours can blend;
• Serve in a cold glass with the bits of lime and lots of ice.
• Enjoy it while taking a quiz on world politics.

Saùde!

PS: the same cocktail with vodka instead of cachaça is called Caipiroska; with rum - Caipirìssima.

Today's Cheese Fix

Quenby Stilton on whole wheat crackers, with fresh Bosc, D'anjou, and Yali pears.

1 large wedge Stilton
6 Assorted Pears of the same size(D'anjou, Yali, Bosc)
Whole wheat crackers

This particular English Stilton is not as pungent unlike some other Stiltons where the flavor seems to endlessly taint your taste buds. It has a nice creamy crumble, just the perfect amount of blue veins, and a subtle kick. It paired better with the heavier sweet tartness of the D'anjou pear rather than the sweet thicker textured Bosc, or crisp grainy lightness of the Yali.

Presentation
My round cheese board was visually sliced into pie thirds for presentation.


Cut one wedge out of both the Yali and D'anjou pears, and carefully slice two wedges exactly opposite each other out of the D'angou pear. Fit the three pears together like a zig zag jigsaw puzzle to create a fitted grouping of the three pears. Place the Pear grouping at top of board.

Slice and de seed the remaining pears into wedges, then recreate new pear halves by placing together wedges of alternating colors of pear, matching the created pear color order to that of the jigsaw grouping. My color grouping was red/green/yellow ( Bosc, D'anjou,Yali) so my new pear halves had repeating red/green/yellow stripes to pick up the design continuity of the large standing fitted pear grouping.

Angle the Cheese wedge pointing in to prevent errant cheese crumbles escaping the cheese board, be sure to leave ample room for slicing and your cheese knife or Stilton scoop.

I used whole wheat Triscuits and layered them in overlapping tiles set on the diagonal 2 deep, around the lower edge of the cheese board to give a braided zig zag appearance.

Obi's Post: Sovereign Greek Default Potatoes and Eggs

Posting this for him as he hasn't been able to sign in yet.

~~~~~~~~

Like Ejade, economics has forced a radical change in my culinary habits. I now cook in a style I refer to as "Economic Downturn Cuisine"... it's basically survival cooking to keep myself alive on my $200/ month food budget without sacrificing too much in the way of gustatory ebullience.

Materials and Methods*:

* all measures are approximate. I usually don't bother and add "by eye or momentary whim". I also don't cook with any added salt; so if you're a hypertensive addict, add salt to taste.

4 averaged sized New Red Potatoes

1 small to medium yellow onion

1/2 a red roasted pepper

3 slices of salami

3 eggs

1 oz (about a heaping tablespoon) of a can of diced chili

peppers

minced garlic, black pepper, and either oregano or thyme

to taste

Olive oil - about 1/2 a shot glass' worth.

1. slice the taters up: cut them in half and then into 1/4 inch thick pieces. Parboil about 10 minutes and drain well, or nuke on high for about 5-6 minutes.

2. Peel and slice the onion into 1/4 thick rings.

3. Cut the salami in 1/2 wide strips. Do them separately or they tend to stick together in the pan.

4. add the oil to a frying pan. I use a 10 in cast iron wok.

High heat ...add the minced garlic, the potatoes, and the other herbs. Cook with frequent agitation until the tater edges start turning a little brown. Three to 5 minutes usually suffices depending on what kind of pan you're using and how skilled you are at cooking over a roaring maximum blast furnace flame.

5. add the onions, cover and agitate frequently - you're going for turning the onions slightly translucent without turning the potatoes into cinders. About 5 minutes usually works.

6. add the salami strips, diced chilli's, and roasted red pepper. Cook covered and with frequent agitation until the salami is "sweating"...i.e. the salami fats are liquefying and joining with everything else. Usually takes 3 to 5 minutes on a low or medium flame.

7. Break three eggs on top of the cooking potato pile, break the yolks once, cover and turn off the heat; allowing the heat of the potatoes to cook the eggs. I'm not sure exactly how this works, but eggs done this way tend to be sweeter tasting than faster cooking methods.

Takes about 5 minutes... check the eggs periodically. You're looking for opaque whites and a little bit of a jiggle.

8. Briefly turn the flame on again and toss/fold the eggs lightly into the potatoes, etc. This should take about 30-45 seconds.

9. Serve.

This is a very strongly flavoured dish with a surprisingly high satiety value. And yeah, it looks like an accident, but it tastes pretty good. It feeds two normal appetited humans or four metro sexuals pretty easily. Good with a salad on the side, or as a side dish to sausage, pork, chicken, hummus, or grilled green beans.

Sprinkling with a little grated parmesan also punches it up a bit.

A nice variant is leaving out the roasted red peppers and replacing them with about 6 thickly sliced mushrooms. Swapping out the thyme/oregano for tarragon also works well with the mushroom variation.

In the photo I've served it with halved fresh grape tomatoes and a tortilla that's been flame toasted on an open burner and then cut into 6ths. Tortillas are significantly cheaper than pita... ;).

Well, since we're cheating....

I decided to include a few photos of what we made for Christmas dinner -- namely roasted duck with fig sauce (Joel), new potatoes with pancetta and dill (me!) and julienned yellow squash and zucchini (divine inspiration).

Sauces & Cheaters

Ok, this might be considered cheating but I decided to copy&paste an entry from my other blog here, only because it's about food and I think that most of the time sauces are forgotten, underrated, underappreciated.

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Ah! Belgium.

What a wonderful country. It manages to have big cities that feel provincial while providing all the things one can't find in a provincial town.

The first (and quite possibly the most important) of which is Beer.

They take their beer very seriously in Belgium, far more seriously than in Germany, I think; they think of it as the French think about wine or as the British think about...well, their sauces.

Ambrose Bierce, that incredibly witty American (yes, they do exist) contended that the sauce is

"The one infallible sign of civilization and enlightenment. A people with no sauces has one thousand vices; a people with one sauce has only nine hundred and ninety-nine. For every sauce invented and accepted a vice is renounced and forgiven."

in his The Devil's Dictionary.

One wonders if he meant something like "béarnaise" or "mayonnaise" or rather something like "catsup" or "A1". Either way, it is another thing the Belgians do well. Sauces.

During our stay there, we quickly became the Grote Markt's chip stand's most reliable customers and, once our (mine, I should say) incredulity upon looking at the list of sauces we could have poured over our thin, crispy chips, diminished, one could say we became rather more civilized than we were when we arrived in the city of Bruges last week.