July 2007 Archives

... or- "How The Pragmatic Chef™ Partied Down on His First Night of Bachelorhood since His Wife Went Out of Town to Visit Her Family for the First Time since they were Married."

I thought the second title was a bit long...

My wife left town to visit her family for a week yesterday, and I got wild and crazy.

I had a beer. Actually, a great beer. And a steak. A rare steak. And no veggies.

Ain't I wild?

A shot of the steak is in the extended entry. It's rare. Don't look at it, if you don't like looking at rare steak.

I warned you.

Nation's Restaurant News had a blurb about people losing their desire for the spicy stuff as they age. Do you think this will happen to you? I actually think it's more of a generational thing, myself. We have lots of Survival Spice™ fans that are well into the demographic group where theoretically they shouldn't be interested.

Durn it, this joke from Kathleen didn't post, and I thought it had. Sorry, my bad.

Better late than never, I s'pose. Hope you've had a great weekend!

John in Chicago sent me a link to a food blog that seems to be primarily focused on pork. Which is good.

There's currently a slide show of a pig being processed that's a bit graphic, so skip over that if you're a bit squeamish.

Thanks, John! Some good stuff there.

Chilebrown sends this report from the Bay. He's even got an oven in his back yard. Is there no end? Heh.

It was too hot to turn on the Oven in the house. I just happen to have a Portable Oven. It is only a couple of steps away from my Gravestien Apple Tree. I had to do it.

When life deals you blueberries, make blueberry pancakes...

Part of the fun of getting married (actually a month ago today), is having someone else come home with new things to play with in the kitchen. I tend to get into a bit of a rut with what's on hand, and though there are zillions of ways to combine them, eventually they start to resemble each other way more than they should. Sure, it's tasty and works out just fine, but it's generally not very blogworthy.

So when my new bride showed up with some blueberries last week, using them in pancakes came immediately to mind. So did things like making a blueberry demi-glace for some pork tendeloin, but pancakes seemed much more doable, with life being as busy as it is. Remind me to make the blueberry demi one of these days though, wouldja?

So here are the blueberry pancakes, with some crispy bacon on the side. Not a very original recipe, but I'd be glad to post it if you like. I would have used some buttermilk if I had it on hand, but regular ol' milk worked just fine.

There are a few tricks to great pancakes- don't overmix the batter, and let it rest, especially if you do. Lumps are fine, as long as they're not filled with dry flour if you break one open. Griddle heat is also key- a few dancing drops of water on the griddle is a good sign. You need a good amount of heat to activate the leaveners- baking powder, baking soda, and the eggs themselves, but too much heat will cook the 'cakes before they're done rising. Make some extra batter, so if you screw up a few you'll be covered.

Cook anything good this weekend?

Wecome to another addition of "Oh crap, I have an early meeting- let's throw up a quick joke" Funny Friday. Here's a short and sweet joke from Janella.

Though I'm short on time today, I'm long on having a great weekend- I hope you have one, too!

Thanks for reading, and for supporting Desert Island Foods®.com. By the way, if you don't get our free "monthly" newsletter yet, the latest edition, that includes a secret sale, is here.

(TPC's Grilled Carnitas)

As promised, here's a closer look at the carnitas I made over the weekend.

I like to double cook pork when it's a big piece like a shoulder or butt- a slow cook, to render fat and add a base flavor, then cooking it again on a higher heat to crisp it up. I've used this technique before- on the Masitas en Puerco I made for Cuban Night, and I do it for spare ribs occasionally.

I simmered a pork shoulder in orange juice and limes, along with some water and a sliced head of garlic, salt and pepper for a few hours until it was cooked through, then let it sit in the broth as I was prepping the rest of the meal. There's a picture of it just getting going below the fold, because some people are a bit squeamish about looking at raw meat.

After an hour or so, I took it out of the broth and sliced into pieces a little more than an inch thick, rubbing each slice with Survival Spice™. I grilled these pieces over some pecan smoke while I roasted a head of garlic and some jalapenos.

Wow. Just. Wow. It was a really great combination- pork simmered in a very Latin way, but with a great grilled flavor to boot.

Try this. I'm begging you.

(TPC's Twice cooked carnitas, grilled Basa, jalapeños and roasted garlic)

(Pickled red onions and corn tortillas)

Hiya gang-

Welcome to another fun-filled work week. While I'm back at my desk now, we actually a real day off yesterday, and man, we got the most of it. Hours in the pool, a day of cooking, and a killer taco party to boot with an old friend who happened to be in town.

Too many adult beverages, maybe, but it was well worth it.

I'll focus on individual dishes throughout the week, but here's a few pics to get your mouths watering.

How was your weekend? Email me some pics and stories, if you've got something to share.

Happy Friday the 13th! Beware of all the idiots around you that believe in that stuff.

I'm still not doing a lot of blog-worthy cooking yet while we settle into our married routine, but it's starting to ramp up again. I've never had much spare time to begin with, but apparently there's something called a "honey-do list"?

Haven't got a lot of feedback about a Food Fight yet, so I'll mention it again next week, I just need to come up with a twist. Any ideas?

With our newlywed status in mind, I thought today's Friday Funny was especially appropriate. It was sent to me by my new mother in law, I wonder if it was a hint...

Have a great weekend, friends. Cook up something good, willya? Thank you so much for supporting Desert Island Foods®.com.

Thanks to Steve for the email!

Update: Welcome, Neatorama visitors! Feel free to browse around, and use the search box to look for a recipe, or you can just scroll through the Recipe/Techniques archive.

Diana has thrown down the Gauntlet for another Food Fight.

Is is time? Leave a comment if you're up for it!

(Photo: Steve's Survival Seared Albacore and grilled veggies)

Here's a cool use for Survival Spice™, sent in by Steve while we were out of town:

The photo is tonights dinner. Seared Tuna w/survival spice rub, and grilled veggies. The picture isn't very good but the meal was great.

Looks good to me, thanks!

Happy Friday, folks! Mark has sent in a good 'un to help us laugh through the hot weekend.

Keep cooking!!! Email me pics of something you feel like bragging about.

I hope you all had a great Fourth of July!

My menu planning for yesterday was dictated by the 116º scorcher we had. You know me- I love to take a day to smoke a big ol' hunk of meat, but after a day outside sunnin' and funnin', the last thing I wanted to do was spend a lot of time over a hot grill.

So... with operating parameters set, what to make? On hand- shrimp, leftover brown rice, tomatoes, a red onion, cilantro and a globe eggplant. Easily obtained at the market- red bell peppers, anaheim chiles, lemons, and jalapenos. Aha! I have a plan...

I cut the eggplant in wedges, removing about half the skin and salting them fairly liberally, then cut the peppers into wedges, too. Into a one gallon ziploc bag they went with the red onion, with an obscene amount of crushed garlic, some Tibvrtini Olio Extra Virgene di Oliva, a spash of Tibvrtini Aceto di Vino Blanco, and some kosher salt and black pepper. I left them at room temperature to marinate while I tossed the shrimp into another bag with some more garlic (okay, a lot more) and plenty of Survival Spice™, which absolutely rocks on grilled shrimp.

All that was left to prep was to concasse some roma tomatoes, and clean some cilantro. Into a work bowl they went.

I built a hot fire with pecan wood, and let it settle down a bit. Once everything was marinated, I emptied the bag of veggies onto the hot grill, then went about getting some serious color on the veggies. The eggplant got special attention, blackening the skins and filling the eggplant wedges with tons of pecan flavor.

Once the veggies had great color, but were still between al dente and fully cooked, I took them off the grill, chopping them coarsely and adding them to the cilantro, brown rice and tomatoes already in the work bowl. I added a glug of Tibrtini Novello, about half a lemon's worth of juice, and seasoned to taste.

While that sat, I grilled off the shrimp at high heat just long enough to change the color, and squeezed some lemon juice on them before I took them off the grill.

Plated it up, and man did it hit the spot. Light, but huge flavors, and just the right temperature on a scorching day.

Try this technique with whatever you have on hand. It's the perfect summer meal.

... from Desert Island Foods™.com. I hope whatever you're grilling, it's got Survival Spice™ on it!

Email me your food pics, if you've got something good on the grill. I have no idea what I'm going to cook, with 116º temps forecasted for today, I hope it cooks quickly...

Bob, here in Phoenix, sent me a great link a while back to a site created by the Italian government to increase awareness in Italian products, not that we aren't aware of some of the great stuff there already!

Lots of great recipes, and an downloadable e-book that's easy to get lost in. And it's free. Which we love...