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.