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Raph's Kitchen take 2

Started by Raphaella, October 15, 2008, 01:07:09 AM

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LMNO

I think the only other person who enjoys meat-flavored cardboard is Mr. Suu.

Raphaella

Some people just don't appreciate the... urmmm... Yeah over done meat sucks.  :| His eating habits could be worse though. I dated a guy once that would not eat tomatoes, onions, any strong tasting herbs, and meat with bones in it. Now that one I left to make his own chicken nuggets!

Anyway Here is the post/pictures from yesterday!

Chicken and Rice:
I went to the farmers market today! Got some fresh veggies, but they did not have whole chickens, or the chicken breasts that they normally have so I had to get bone in leg quarters.  They should keep us in chicken and rice for a good three meals. (made separately)  So first I started the chicken so I could use the broth for my rice.  I went and worked on another project while the chicken was cooking.  That done, I took about 2 cups of the chicken broth to start my rice, I added the saffron and turmeric first and then one cup of rice and set it to cooking.



While the rice cooked I let the chicken cool enough to handle and then I started on my veg. I wanted to do a balsamic glaze so I started reducing that shit and my eyes! Oh god my eyes! They make some tasty balsamic glazed onions at work so I thought I would try this at home... See at work they have huge hoods and lots of room, so I never once smelled this stuff reducing.  Shit smelled like hot sweat socks, or really tangy vomit! I downsized my plan to cover all the veg. in the glaze, but I had gone too far to scrap it so I did the onions only. I reduced it to about half, adding a drizzle of honey here and there.

I sautéed up the pepper, portabella and broccoli with just a little olive oil and a dash of sea salt, because I knew the glaze would be a powerful flavor.  When the rice was done I added some fresh cilantro, a dash of rice wine vinegar, and a tiny bit of olive oil also I added all the meat I pulled off the chicken having been careful to remove any little veins because the Mr. really hates that shit.   
The glazed onions turned out awesome!! They had a wonderful sweet balsamic flavor and went great with the rest of the meal.


The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and terrible OZ

The Dark Monk

Damn. I want a Jones cream soda.
I thought this is all there is,
but now I know you are so much more.
I want to upgrade from my simple eight bits,
but will you still love me when I'm sixty-four?
~MIAB~

Mesozoic Mister Nigel

Hot damn, Raphaella, you can COOK! That looks fabulous. Also your avatar cracks me up every single time.
"I'm guessing it was January 2007, a meeting in Bethesda, we got a bag of bees and just started smashing them on the desk," Charles Wick said. "It was very complicated."


Raphaella

Thanks Nigel! And that snail makes me laugh too.

Concerning Jones Soda, I wish I had some more but my grocery store has stopped carrying it.  :cry:  I bought the very last case and it was the firs time I tried it. Shit's good and has no sugar. It's the only soda I have had in months which is a feat of will for me, having to work at a restaurant let me tell you. 
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and terrible OZ

Raphaella

Black Iron Prison Bars: aka Coco Peanut Logs.
I love this recipe because it's easy and really, really, did I say really? FUCKING GOOD. The Mr. is usually the one who makes the sweet stuff, he can bake a mean cookie. This recipe came from a cook book his mother gave him from her church. I modified it for health reasons, but if you are not watching your sugars then you should use the good shit.

I have been making a huge effort to change the way I eat for the better these past few months.  Refined sugar is something on my "avoid if at all possible" list. (This also includes high fructose corn syrup.) After a month and a half with no sweet stuff I got to looking for some sugar free chocolate what I found was low glycemic index chocolate which, to my great surprise and delight was very tasty! There is some sugar in this product, but not enough to send a diabetic into a coma and that's good enough for me. Only problem this shit is like $3.89 a bar. (I got three.)

I also found some peanut butter with no sugar, it's the natural style with the oil on the top, and some organic brown rice puffs. Also cost and arm and a leg! $6.50 for the puffs and another $6-$7 for the peanut butter! That is the cost of craving sweet chocolate peanut butter goodness when you don't want to eat too much sugar.

On to cooking these things, I made two small batches. I chopped up one and one half chocolate bars and tossed em into a metal mixing bowl. I boiled a little water and held the bowl over it. The chocolate melts fast, so armed with my mixing spatula I stirred in a large glob of peanut butter. I removed the bowl from the heat and stirred in my puffed rice about two cups and then another handful because it was too wet.









The next batch I threw in a few handfuls of that damn coconut that still haunts my kitchen.  I spread that mix in a glass baking pan and stick it into the freezer. I forgot to grease the pan this go round, but I'll remember next time. (I hope.) I really meant to take a picture of them when they were done, about 20 min latter, but I forgot that too.
The Mr. loved them! He went through the first batch and I only got ONE!!! The second went pretty fast too so the picture there is all I have left and I'm sure it will be gone soon too.

The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and terrible OZ

Sir Squid Diddimus

pssst.
if you need florida oranges there's a tree in my yard.
take em.


also, trees in neighbors yards.


free oranges

before the squirrels cut em all down and leave rotting mush piles in the lawn to run over w/ the mower, collect ants and step on, stink and mold, you get the picture

Raphaella

Thanks for the orange offer! I have a tree here too but it got hit by lightning before we moved in and now the oranges taste bitter and like crap.
The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and terrible OZ

Raphaella

So I wanted to try LMNO's cheese pocket meat loaf, or rather the Mr. just really wanted meat loaf. I have made it no secret to him that I HATE meat loaf having repeatedly stating that meat should never be made into a loaf. This however, does not seem to stop him from requesting meat loaf for dinner constantly.
I gave in this day and prepared the meat loaf, but not just any meat loaf! This I christen FAIL LOAF.  I attempted to follow LMNO's recipe as close as I could but I was missing some things and had to improvise. Most notably I had to use beef and not freshly ground venison, I was also missing the pepper and I really don't like fennel seeds.  Also I don't have tiny meat loaf pans so I had to use just one big one.
Well I mixed the beef with the things I did have: egg, bread crumbs, minced onion, ect. Then placed half the mix in the pan and covered it with cheese. I used much too much cheese and while I did well not to bring the cheese all the way to the edge I still used far too much.





I then covered the cheese with the remaining meat and set it to bake. I most likely overcooked it though it's hard to tell as I did not set a timer and all. When I did take it out of the oven I noticed that the meat loaf was swimming in a sea of oily fat. (YUCK) Some but not all of the cheese had managed to escape the pocket too.



Over all it was not bad, but it most certainly was not the culinary masterpiece that I sought to recreate. I had an obligatory two slices and the Mr. wolfed down the rest. He liked it, but then again he also likes 'meat flavored cardboard' so.... Meh.  Looking back I'd say that perhaps my inherent hatred for meat loaf unconsciously sabotaged this attempt, but really I think it was just incompetence.   :?


The sun shall be turned to darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and terrible OZ

East Coast Hustle

don't be so hard on yourself.

I tried the cheese-pocket meatloaf also, and failed spectacularly.

I think the trick is to let it cool completely before atempting to slice it, or all the cheese will leak out one end. and yeah, meatloaf ended up in about three inches of oil when I took it out of the oven.
Rabid Colostomy Hole Jammer of the Coming Apocalypse™

The Devil is in the details; God is in the nuance.


Some yahoo yelled at me, saying 'GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH', and I thought, "I'm feeling generous today.  Why not BOTH?"

LMNO

1) use leaner meat (90% or so)
2) use more bread crumbs (helps absorb the fat).
3) use less cheese.
4) what kind of cheese was it?  some cheeses release a lot of fat when melted. 
5) that salad looks good.  what's in it?
6) lol, book of mormon.

Eve

Less cheese?  :cry: Was kind of hoping to try this recipe and smother it in cheese. Wah.
Emotionally crippled narcissist.

East Coast Hustle

Quote from: Rabbi LMNO on October 24, 2008, 02:13:19 PM
1) use leaner meat (90% or so)
2) use more bread crumbs (helps absorb the fat).
3) use less cheese.
4) what kind of cheese was it?  some cheeses release a lot of fat when melted. 
5) that salad looks good.  what's in it?
6) lol, book of mormon.

1) good call.

2) can't. GF is a glu-tard. we use diced potatoes instead of breadcrumbs, which actually makes the regular meatloaf a thousand times better, but doesn't seem to work for this recipe.

3) what?

4) Muenster. Which is, admittedly, fattier than the fontina you mentioned in your recipe.

5) agreed.

6) probably hollowed out to hide the dope stash.
Rabid Colostomy Hole Jammer of the Coming Apocalypse™

The Devil is in the details; God is in the nuance.


Some yahoo yelled at me, saying 'GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH', and I thought, "I'm feeling generous today.  Why not BOTH?"

LMNO

Re: 3... I should have been more specific.  3 related to 4, in that if you use an oily cheese, you shouldn't use as much.  cuz of the oil.

I used fontina, it melts like a dream.  Mozzerella would also be good.

Diced potatoes?  Sounds cool, but chunky.  Would rice flour work?

East Coast Hustle

dunno. I'm not a big fan of rice flour, actually. I prefer chickpea flour and/or corn flour. usually mix the two to approximate the properties of wheat flour. Ad for the potatos, you just have to dice them really small. Shredding them would also work.
Rabid Colostomy Hole Jammer of the Coming Apocalypse™

The Devil is in the details; God is in the nuance.


Some yahoo yelled at me, saying 'GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH', and I thought, "I'm feeling generous today.  Why not BOTH?"