It's Sysco-y

So every Sunday when I'm down at my dad's place on Bastrop Bayou down by Angleton, Texas, we listen to the Cajun Jamboree show on AM 560.

It's great, old time-y radio. Amazing that it's on a Clear Channel radio station.

Every week they go on and on about all kinds of great Cajun food. They keep talking about crawdad cornbread every week ... too bad Beaumont is so far from Angelton, or I would have long since had me some.

Anyway, so a couple of weeks ago, dad and I were sitting there and they got to talking about some restaurant. I think they were running out of things to say, because they said the best thing about they restaurant was the ketchup and crackers. I'm thinking to myself, how good can ketchup and crackers really be.

Then, the daugther of the host says that the best part of it is that they use that good Sysco ketchup.

Sysco ... the same company that supplies about every cheap little dive and food service operation on the planet?

I did find a thread that talks about what a great delicacy this is.

But still, seriously, Sysco? Can anyone tell me what the deal is with kethcup and crackers?

Back in Texas

Well, we're back in Texas and I'm no longer with MLive.com. I took a position at MySanAntonio.com, the website of the San Antonio Express News and the KENS TV.

I know San Antonio pretty well from my six years in Austin, but I'm just getting around to the smaller places. So far the food has been sort of hit and miss, but I'm learning.

I had a great carne guisada tacos from Carmelita's, calabaza y pollo from Patty's Taco House and some really nice, cheap snapper sashimi from Sushi Zushi.

Taco trucks seem in short supply down here compared to Austin. I'm just going to have to learn where they hide. Construction sites are always a good start ...

Anyway, more updates to come, hopefully with me actually doing some cooking.

Anniversary Dinner

You'll note by the use of our fine china that we were celebrating our anniversary for this meal. To keep me from spending all night in the kitchen I kept it pretty simple.

A spinach salad with some surprisingly nice tomatoes. They were somewhere between a cherry and a small slicer. Topped it off with some sprouts. I made a quick dressing out of canola, red wine vinegar, dry mustard, touch of sugar and fresh tarragon.

I cubed some potatoes, dressed them with salt and malt vinegar and roasted them at 425 for a half hour. I picked up some asparagus that was also surprisingly sweet for off-season. I sauteed these with some garlic and salt and pepper.

Amy wanted shrimp and I wanted steak. I sauteed the shrimp with salt, pepper, garlic and fresh tarragon again. I finished it with just a little butter.

I was after steak and picked up a Piedmont strip. It wasn't bad, but I should have picked up the prime strip. It was only another buck a pound.

I cranked up the heat on a cast iron skillet and put a serious sear on it, I then finished it off in the oven at 450 while the shrimp was finishing.

I plated it with a few shrimp because, well, I wanted some of those shrimp.

Nevertheless, it was beefy, just a little leaner than I was hoping for. We had a nice Rancho Zabaco Zinfandel to go with it.

Salmon with Green Curry

When I first started cooking one of the first things I wanted to try was a thai curry, but the recipes I saw were really complicated and called for making the curry paste yourself so I wrote it off and never went back to it.

So, I recently had a terrific curry at Lotus Thai here in Ann Arbor and decided to give it a go again.

Who knew it was so easy?

This is a great weeknight recipe.

1 12 ounce can of coconut milk
1/2 small can of curry, green in this instance
1 tbs honey

The recipe on the curry can said to use the whole can of curry paste, but a half-can provided plenty of flavor and heat. Combine and simmer for 15-30 min. I prefer it a little sweet so I added some honey.

I sauteed a couple of salmon filets and cooked a pot of rice. I spooned the sauce over both, liberally. I couldn't find any thai basil and my cilantro had turned so the color leaves something to be desired in these photos. But it's crazy delicious.

Snow Ice Cream

The people of Michigan, for all their bluster about huge amounts of snow and how winter is "snow much fun" don't even make use of the best reason to love snow.

Snow ice cream.

Growing up in Missouri this was one of the focal points of winter. My mother always made us wait until after the first snow because that cleaned the air out. We still adhere to that rule no matter how silly. Plus, the first couple of snow storms are usually wet nasty stuff that wouldn't be that great anyway.

This winter has already blessed us with 3 or 4 snow storms so we're well into snow ice cream season. It couldn't be easier. The most important thing you need is one big bowl. I have a giant mixing bowl that holds a huge amount of snow, which is good because the snow is going to collapse when you add the liquids.

So, that's roughly a cubic foot of snow. I make the same amount of base every time and ditch the snow that doesn't get used.

For the liquid:
2 C. Milk
1 egg (pasteurized eggs if salmonella risk is a problem for you)
1 C. sugar
2 tsp. vanilla

Combine in a measuring cup.

Pour into center of snow and fold snow into base inside out, pitching out excess snow.


Add happy kids, perhaps some chocolate, and you're done.

St. Louis report

We took our annual Thanksgiving trip to St. Louis this year, which was filled with the usual Turkey Day foodstuffs. One broadbreasted white, stuffing, cranberry sauce, etc. etc. I performed my only real food-related function of the weekend by disassembling the turkey. I do love the electric knife.

A few weeks before we left I started downloading the "Restaurant Guys" podcast. It's a radio show from New Jersey. They get terrific guests, strong opinions on food and great insights into the restaurant and food business.

I strolled through their older shows before we headed south and came upon their show from the "Big Apple Barbecue Block Party". Their first stop was sampling barbecue from The Salt Lick in Driftwood, Texas (about 20 minutes from where I used to live) which caused me a great deal of homesickness. They moved along and checked out a couple others and then ended up at Smoki O's from St. Louis. I grew up in Kansas City, and I was shocked that they even hard barbecue in St. Louis, let alone something that was so good they needed it in NYC.

Come to find out, the draw of Smoki O's is that they serve Pig Snoot Sandwiches. This, I had to see.

So, I was able to convince my brother-in-law and nephew to go along with me to what is, charitably, not the prettiest part of St. Louis and sample some snoot. I figure being in a lousy part of town is good sign, I do love Arthur Bryant's, after all.

So, we wandered in, ordered up snoot, rib tips and brisket.
That's the snoot in the foreground, the brisket off to the right. It came with bread and beans. I'm still trying to figure out what the cooking process is on the snoot. I believe it spends some time on the smoker, but it wasn't terribly smokey that I could tell. There was enough smoke in the restaurant that it might have thrown me off a little. But, after whatever pre-cooking method is used, they slice it thin and deep fry it, so it comes out crispy. The taste wasn't bad at all, much like pork rinds, which is a-ok with me. Here's a close-up, sorry my focus is a little off.

I thought the pieces that didn't have barbecue sauce on them were best. The sauce didn't agree with my tastes. It was as though it was sweetened with apple juice concentrate and had a strong kick of vinegar. I believe some tomato sauce or ketchup involved too. I'm not big on sauce anyway and when I use it I prefer a savory sauce like Arthur Bryant's or Gates from Kansas City. The brisket seemed fine, but it was smothered in the sauce. The rib I had was pretty good, it seemed like it may have been a different sauce, or perhaps it just complimented the ribs better.

All in all, I should have just driven across the state to AB's or my real favorite, Snead's in Belton. Snead's spicy sauce is the best of the best. But after more than my share of meals at Kreuz Market in Lockhart, Texas, you can just keep the sauce for all I care.

But I digress.

The best news I got while in St. Louis was the return of Guy's Potato Chips. They had shut down a few years back, but they were back on the shelves this year. Had to pick up a bag of the Green Onion chips. These chips are great because they don't use any faux dairy product, it's just onion flavor. I loathe cheese and sour cream flavored chips. Didn't see Tastee Mix though, the best snack mix of all time, there is no competition. I also picked up a sixer of Shiner Bock, which I can't get in Michigan. It's in Ohio now, just a short drive, so I should probably start bringing home Boulevard from KC or Schlafly's, which I understand is pretty good.

I somehow missed a trip to The Hill. I try to come back from St. Louis with a sackful of some of the terrific salame the meat markets down there have. Luckily, we get down there quite a bit, so I'll have plenty of opportunities.

Salmon with Tangelo Sauce

Here's a quick and easy Salmon recipe I made a while back, it took all of a half hour.

Ingredients
2 Salmon filet steaks
Juice of 2 tangelos, divided
2 TBSP Olive Oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 TBSP butter
Salt
Pepper

Marinate the filets in the juice of one tangelo for 15 minutes.

In a pan on medium heat add the oil to the pan and cook the filets until the sides of the filet have turned opaque nearly to the top, around 4 minutes depending on thickness. Flip and cook just shy of the amount on the first side. The goal is to keep the flesh in the interior of the fish still moist-looking and just the other side of translucent. Although, honestly, if the salmon is fresh I don't mind it nearly raw in the center.

After you remove the filets from the pan add the juice of the other tangelo and scrape the bottom of the pan.

Reduce the juice to about half and add the butter to finish the pan sauce.

Tilt the pan on its side and spoon the sauce out (leaving the garlic bits behind) onto the plated filets.
Easy stuff, turned out mighty fine.

Pizza night

Ever since we got the central air conditioning installed the girls have been demanding that we soon have a pizza night. They had been on hold since spring because the oven is required to be at 500 degrees for this and Michigan has been doing its best impersonation of southern Georgia this year, so we’ve been doing a lot of grilling.

The thing with pizza night isn’t really the pizza, it’s that the girls get to make their own, so it’s a huge hit with Savanna and Natalie and any friends they might have over.
The girls and their friends without fail request a cheese pizza, which I’m sure pleases the pizza purists out there. Amy, however, is a big fan of the much reviled/loved Hawaiian pizza, of which I am also a fan. I usually tend to fall more into the “let’s see what we’ve got and pile it on” school of thought. I like plenty of sauce and cheese, so purists might wish to turn away at this point.


All of that said, to me, the whole point of pizza is the crust. So, on pizza nights, I break out the Kitchen-Aid and we get to work. I start of with even amounts off water and flour. Tonight I wanted enough dough for 4 pizzas and 1 pie-shaped pan of bread sticks.



First, I use instant yeast from the bulk pack. I do a lot of bread baking and it’s just more cost-effective and fool-proof to buy the shrink packages of this stuff.

To start I use 2 cups of ~100 degree water. Temperature isn’t critical with instant yeast, but warmer seems to make it work faster. I keep it under 110 because much higher than that kills the yeast. I add 2 tablespoons of the yeast and let that sit for a couple of minutes, just so the yeast clumps dissolve. Then comes a big pour of olive oil, probably around 4 TBSP. Next, 2 cups of bread flour (not all purpose). I whisk this at high speed for 10 minutes to develop the gluten.


Next, I change to the hook and start adding more bread flour at ½ to ¼ cup intervals until the dough forms a ball and is pulling away from the sides of the bowl leaving only a minimal amount of moist flour on the bottom of the bowl.



Once the dough is where it needs to be I remove the hook, tip back the motor and watch the dough rise until it’s double in bulk, usually about an hour or 45 minutes depending on how warm the kitchen is.


I use just my basic tomato sauce recipe. One 24 ounce can of tomatoes, either diced, whole or sauce, depending on my mood and what I have on hand. Tonight diced was the winner by default. I’m sure at some point I’ll get the recipe out here, but mostly it’s just this. One can of tomatoes, oregano, basil, rosemary, a pinch of sugar and a couple of garlic cloves, crushed. Simmer that down and correct seasonings. Important note about the sugar, I abhor sweet tomato sauces, this is just to get rid of the tannins in the canned tomato sauces and to smooth out the flavor.

All there is from this point is to roll out the dough, top it with what you want and stick it in a 500 degree oven for 10-15 minutes.


The girls’ cheese pizzas are pictured here, Natalie went with a dog and Savanna’s was a bull … that girl watches a lot of rodeo.

My pizza, and I’m not just saying this, was truly the single greatest pizza I have ever made. I used jalapenos from my container garden in the backyard, some spring onions that have held well in the refrigerator somehow and smoke dried tomatoes from Boggy Creek Farm that my dear mother graciously shipped up here from Austin. Boggy Creek’s smoke dried tomatoes can be substituted for bacon in a lot of recipes and I was using it as one might use bacon or pancetta in recipe. But to say it’s a “substitute” is to sell it way short, in most cases they are far, far superior to bacon … and I am a committed carnivore. Using smoke dried tomatoes is like inviting a campfire into your food. It’s hard to put into words what they taste like, but my guess is that it must be what bacon would taste like right off the smoker instead of sitting in shrink wrap … and that’s still not doing it justice.

The crust turned out very well, it drove right down that thin, fine line between too thick, and too thin. I don’t want it to be cracker-like and I don’t want the bread to dominate the pie.

The results tonight were sublime.

SOP Chili

I'm in charge of dinner for a campout this weekend that includes 20 men and boys. I picked up some hot dogs for the non-chili eaters and I'm making a pot of chili to serve up. There's another guy in the group who's making another pot of chili so we'll see how the two compare. This is pretty much my standard operating procedure chili, I typically add various things to it to spice it up. For instance, my favorite additions are smoked sausage and roasted chiles, especially if I can get some Hatch, NM peppers.

Since I'm feeding a ton of guys, I double the recipe tonight, but you're getting the standard amounts. 6 qt. dutch oven will get the job done.

2 Pounds ground beef
1 Med. Onion
1 Bell Pepper
2 cloves garlic
1 24 ounce can pinto beans
1 24 ounce can diced tomatoes
1/8 C. Chile Powder, more if you use the store bought stuff

I make my chile powder by grinding up a blend (typically ancho and chipotles) dried whole chiles and whole cumin seeds that I usually try to roast in a dry pan before grinding. That didn't happen tonight. I have an old coffee mill that I use for spices. Here's a tip, after grinding, let it settle before taking the lid off, you don't want a cloud of chile dust up the nose.

Brown the hamburger in a skillet.

Place beans, tomatoes, chile powder in the dutch oven, bring it up to medium heat.

Add hamburger, reserve a couple of TBSP of fat.

Toss diced bell pepper and onion and crushed garlice cloves into the skillet on medium, let it saute' until soft. Toss that into the chile pot.

Salt to taste, add more chile powder if you need it.

More about chile powder.
I'm a little picky about the dried chipotles I use. I prefer the ones that look like they have tree bark on them. Here's a closeup. I use a blend because the chipotles can be really hot if you don't blend them with a milder pepper. I typically use anchos, which are dried, ripe poblanos, so they pack a lot of flavor and milder heat.

Update: Chili cookoff variation: To a doubled version of this recipe, add one pound of bulk pork sausage. I made my own, here's the recipe:
1 pound ground pork
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon paprika
2 diced smoked tomatoes (which I have shipped here from Texas)
1/2 tsp salt, more if you like
Mix it all up, form into balls and brown in a hot pan.

Braise one smallish (1.5 - 2 pounds) well-marbled beef roast.

After browning it in a hot pan, braise it in a dutch oven at 325 degrees in a malty -- not hoppy -- beer, Sam Adams Oktoberfest was what I used in this case. Cook for at least 2 hours, 3 is better, you want to be able to shred it. Carrots, celery and onion can be added to the liquid at the start if you want.

Once it's done, shred it and add it to the pot. The leftover liquid can be added to the broth to improve your depth of flavor.

Rainbow Trout with Blackberry Pan Sauce

Photos by: Savanna

The blackberry harvest continues ...

Quick, easy and attractive was the name of the game tonight.

No real measurements, this one's all about feel.

I had 2 nice, big rainbow trout filets harvested from the holy waters of Michigan's Au Sable River.

Actually, it's all catch and release up there, so these are from some trout farm in Canada purchased at the local Meijer's at a cut price. Nevertheless, it was a very attractive set of filets.

I salted and peppered the filets and saute'd them in a little olive oil, flipping them gently just as they released from the pan. Then I pulled them from the pan just as they released from the other side. Total cooking time, 5 minutes, tops. I set them on top of a bed of campenelle pasta.

Then, I added a some thinly sliced garlic to the pan, followed soon after by the berries (around a pint). I tossed the berries around for just a minute until they started to render some liquid. Then I added about a quarter cup of red wine and swirled it around untill the berries broke down some more. After that, I added a tablespoon of butter. Once that melted and was incorporated into the sauce, I poured it over the final product. The only thing I would do differently is next time out, I would crush the garlic and add it to the pan with the berries. The slices toasted instead of dissolved because of the high heat and the taste was a little astringent.

Blackberry time

So, with our new house came a lovely blackberry bush that seems to be putting off a ton of berries. More than we are ever going to eat and the birds and critters don't seem too interested either.


My oldest, Savanna, turned 10 this past Sunday and her request for breakfast was pancakes.

So, I got up extra-early and picked some blackberries to go in the pancakes. I put on coffee, bacon and warmed up the honest-to-goodness maple syrup and we were good to go ... and we weren't that late to church.


There's no secret to my pancakes except that I always use the good ol' Better Homes and Garden's recipe. Never fails.

Wild Mushroom and Goat Cheese Pasta with Wilted Greens

On the way out of work tonight I took pause to make obnoxious remarks to my vege co-workers. A little over-compensation for hiring back-to-back vegetarians. So, to cleanse my conscience I made a vegetarian meal tonight. At least what passes for vegetarian around here.

I made a pit stop at Trader Joe's on the way home from work the other night and picked up a few items, including the always-popular frozen wild mushroom mix and a log of goat cheese among other things.

I also had a bag of baby collard greens and young onions from a farm stand.

So, pasta it was for tonight.

Here's the recipe

1/2 pound of pasta

1 1 pound bag of frozen TJ's mushrooms

3 young onions, bulbs only

4-5 ounce log of fresh goat cheese

A couple of handfuls of greens, baby spinach would work -- although the baby collards were great if you can find them

Start the pot of at least a gallon of water boiling, salt liberally.

Add the pasta to the water depending on how long your past needs to cook. We were using angel hair, so I added it to the water when the mushrooms were almost done.

In a saute' pan set to med-hi add the mushrooms and a touch of olive oil. The mushrooms will put off a lot of liquid. Toss them occasionaly. Add salt to taste.


Slice the onion bulbs thinly across the grain.

When the liquid is about gone add two of the three onions.

Once the liquid is gone lower the temperature to medium and start warming up another pan for the greens.

Crumble the goat cheese and add it to the pan, stir it while it melts.

Add a tablespoon or so of olive oil and the remaining onion. Let the onion soften up just a bit and toss in the greens (if you only want to dirty one pan toss it all in the pan with the mushroom before you add the cheese). Cook just until the greens are soft, but not mushy.

Put the pasta in the pan with the mushrooms and toss to coat the noodles and distribute the mushrooms.

To serve place the pasta on a plate and dress it with the wilted greens.

Me at the grill 

Tacos al Pastor

Since we went to a burrito-big-as-your-head kind of place (not that there's anything wrong with that) for Cinco de Mayo the other night I decided to try my hand the next night at Tacos al Pastor, to go for some authentic Mexican eats.

All in all, the results were mighty fine. I found a basic recipe online that would have made about a gallon of marinade, so i reworked proportions for my needs. I very rarely use recipes, but I had no idea what makes a proper version.

My goals for the pork was getting the pink coloring around the edges, the sweet and sour tang, and the bite of pepper. I ate plenty of them in the taco stands and restaurants around Austin when I lived there. The best one I ever had was on the east side from a trailer in a bowling alley parking lot. It was sans the oft-seen pineapple chunks, served with a bright orange habanero salsa and grilled over charcoal.

So for my version, I decided to skip the pineapple and use the grill, but skip the habanero salsa because it’s not really family-friendly. Also, corn tortillas would get swapped for wheat because we have corn allergies in the house. Since I don’t have a giant spit (yet), I decided to give them the kebob treatment.

So, here’s the recipe:
2 pounds of pork, cubed

½ cup Apple cider vinegar

½ cup pineapple juice

3 large garlic cloves

8 dried chile pepper, I used 4 passilla and 2 chipotle, soaked in hot water for ½ an hour.

Pack of tortillas

Cilantro

Onion

Salsa fresca

Put the pork on metal or soaked wood skewers.

Run the vinegar, pineapple juice, garlic and chile peppers through a blender or food processor and pour it over the meat.

Don’t be alarmed by the smell, it seemed like way too much vinegar to the olfactory senses, but it turned out fine.

I let it marinate for about an hour and half and then grilled it up with a couple of bell peppers.

I served it up on the tortillas warmed on the grill with chopped cilantro and onions and the salsa.

It wasn’t an exact replica but considering it took a very little time (outside of marinating and chile soaking) it produced a solid end product.

Here they are on the grill

On the table ready to serve with the grilled green pepper.



On a tortilla with onions and cilantro.