Nothing too exciting happening at our casa this past week. Tortellini with sausage, kalamatas, kale and mushrooms one night. Pizza with the dough grilled on the grill pan and then finished in the oven another night. Super Bowl snacks were pretty classic: Buffalo wings, simple deviled eggs, 7-layer dip with fresh-fried chips, jalapeño poppers coated with panko (my best batch yet) with plenty of beer and wine to wash it down and pie for dessert. Gee, I wonder why my husband had trouble sleeping.
As I wrote in the Food Lab thread, I highly recommend Serious Eats’ suggestion to steam eggs for 12 minutes to hard-boil them and then chill them in ice water for a while. They were really easy to peel, much easier than eggs started in cold water.
Today is another snow day for me today, so I finished completely emptying and cleaning the wonderful spice rack that my husband made for me a couple of years ago. Tomorrow I’ll hit up the local store that has really fresh and inexpensive bulk spices to replenish my supply, and maybe actually label them with purchase dates so I’ll know when to toss them.
Dinner tonight will be baked mac and cheese because we didn’t do enough damage with the fried snacks yesterday. Shredded Brussels sprouts will at least offer a bit of nutrition on the side.
Here’s the indoor grilled pizza from a few days ago:
It’s a freezer dive tonight to retrieve a container of frozen mole sauce I made for Christmas dinner. It was delicious on the day - which I was glad of as it was the most time-consuming recipe I’ve ever made. http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/puebla-style-fiesta-turkey-in-mole-sauce I hope it retains some of its wonderful flavour after being frozen.
Tonight I’m thinking of dumping the mole sauce into the slow cooker with a couple of chicken thighs and giving them a couple of hours to cook through. I’ve made some quick pickled onions to go with it (from here, another recipe I made for our Mexican themed Christmas dinner and decided they went well with the mole too http://m.gourmettraveller.com.au/recipes/recipe-search/feature-recipe/2011/8/puerco-pibil-yucatan-pickles-and-gorditas/ )and there’ll be rice. Apple cucumbers from the garden may be on the side if they’re ready.
WFD: ~ Stir-Fried Ho Fan with Beef and Yellow Chives, pg 117, from Phoenix Claws and Jade Trees. Chinese white rice wine (dry sherry); dark soy sauce; beef flank steaks (sliced organic boneless pork loin chop); ginger; fresh rice noodles; mung bean sprouts; yellow chives (banana shallot); soy sauce; white pepper; scallions.
~ Stir-Fried Cabbage. A concocted preparation with, lots of garlic, shredded green cabbage, S & P, and peanut oil. Spiked with a hit of crushed dried hot chilies.
Gung Ha Fat Choy !
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Cool. Like my name here.
You must win at Karaoke then! Enjoy your sofa and the Souvlaki* today (*in Greece is more often from pork).
Homemade mole is very time consuming with just a long ingredient list. I’ve done it but buy prepared mole paste. In Mexico they are fortunate to have lots of homemade moles at the mercado to choose from
Mole sounds wonderful, and you just reminded me of the mole paste I have in the freezer from a batch I made in the summer. It was a mash-up between Bayless’ recipe in Authentic Mexican and his more recent one in Saveur. Great stuff, but a huge mess-maker and definitely time consuming!
Aside from the pickled onions, will you serve rice or tortillas or anything? I’m usually stumped if I don’t make enchiladas. Chicken thighs in the slow cooker sounds like the perfect way to use it.
WFD was shrimp with a chill sauce and a splash of rice wine.
Deep fried aubergine, celery, green chilli, red chill paste, ginger, garlic, chicken broth all stirred fry with high heat and became : Fish-fragrant eggplant or Sichuan style braised spicy eggplant. A vegetarian dish, I don’t know why they called it “fish-fragrant”, if anybody has any idea, please let me know!
Not terribly good photos but here’s the meal with an additional starter of broccoli - or ‘broccoli mountain’ as the four year old calls it. Blanched and dressed with a couple of different Japanese sauces whose names I’ve forgotten.
The slow cooker approach with the chicken thighs in mole was partially successful. I did remove them once cooked and then turned the heat to high to reduce the mole slightly as it had become too liquid. I then reheated the thighs in the sauce just before slicing and serving and managed to keep them moist.
“Fish-fragrant” means the food is prepared using flavorings that are combined in traditional Sichuanese fish cooking: pickled chiles, garlic, ginger, and scallion.
I didn’t actually mean to have my post deleted - damn iPhone!
Anyway. Pork souvlaki came out great: very tender and flavorful. Whipped up some tzatziki, too. And managed to eat before my evening shift this time. Well… most of it. Had the leftovers when I got home later
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I left the roe whole so you could see it. Sichuan chili in oil on top. There are also preserved turnip bits in the beaten eggs. A simple beef shin broth with Maitake was being warmed up whilst I was making these photos.
