Crunchy Lemon Pepper Tilapia

I don't have a recipe for this or really very many shots, but I'm trying to keep my posting momentum going so I figured I'd share. Plus I got a couple decent pics and it tasted awesome. I whipped it up on the spur of the moment because I was trying to figure out what to do with this tiny egg. It was in a half dozen fresh farm eggs my brother gave me but it was too little for baking or scrambling or anything. So I breaded fish with it. The breading was just fresh crumbs, dry lemon peel, lots cracked black pepper and some salt. Basic flour, egg, crumbs deal, then I let it chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes or so. I've found that really helps it keep the coating. But then just a little oil in a hot anodized aluminum pan (perfect for this, I love those pans), fry, flip and lunch. A little homemade tartar sauce on the side and I was a happy camper. The only thing I was missing was some kind of side dish, maybe a salad of some stripe. Ah well, next time.

Speaking of upcoming times, I have a whole bunch of cool stuff to post about once I get my long post writing mojo up and running. My brother recently made eclairs, I've got a killer meatloaf and some mini shepherds pies to name a few. Maybe now that the heat is lessening I'll be less inclined to hibernate. Heh.

Mega Steak Mafioso Sandwich

This sandwich was inspired by the steak mafioso sub at Sabatino's, a pizza place that has several locations around Boston. It is awesome. But my version of the sub is, dare I say it, better. For one, cube steak is better than shaved steak. I mean, really. For another, if you're doing something this Italian provolone is a better choice than American cheese, I think.

Not that Sabatino's version isn't spectacular, it is. But, like I said, I think mine's better. Here is what you need for it. No recipe, no attempt at amounts. I'm feeling lazy today... er, I mean it's all a to taste thing. Right. So:

cube steak, sliced against the grain
sliced onion
sliced pepperoni
sliced salami
provolone
tomato sauce
oregano, basil, garlic powder (or fresh), salt and pepper to taste
sub or sandwich roll, toasted is delightful

First things first, fry up the pepperoni and salami a bit, just enough to get some browned edges and have them put out some fat. Mmmm, multiple sausage fats.... uh, hm. Excuse me. Next, onions. I like them nicely browned. Once they're about half done season the beef with the basil and all that, push the onions to the side of the pan and put the beef in a single layer on it.Once they're browned up on one side, flip 'em and let them almost finish up. Then, add everything back in, plus the tomato sauce.Mix it around a bit, let it sit for a minute so the flavors mingle and the beef finishes, cheese up a roll and then slap in on there. Now look at the sandwich and in your best cotton ball filled Marlon Brando voice make it an offer it can't refuse.

Simple, Easy and Freezer Ready Pizza Sauce

1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
2-3 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup diced onion
1/2 tbl balsamic
1/2 tsp dried basil
pinch of oregano
salt and pepper

Saute the onions over medium heat until transparent, add the garlic and dried herbs and saute until fragrant, ~30 seconds. Add the tomatoes and vinegar and let simmer over low heat for a half hour. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Freeze in ice cube trays and store in a zipper bag in the freezer.

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Normally when I make a pizza with tomato sauce (which is pretty rare these days, heh), I make a whole batch of sauce and then have a bunch of leftovers. But I had the idea to make some and freeze it in an ice cube tray for easy portioning, so I decided to act on it. See, this way if I want to make a pizza all I have to do is pull out a cube or two, defrost it and there it is. No need for making a whole pot of sauce just for one pizza and then having to figure out what to do with the rest. Plus this gives me the ability to add a little tomato flavor to all kinds of things, like stews or rice, all I have to do is toss in a cube.

Some of you might look at that sauce and think it's pretty spartan. And it is really, although it's lovely without any changes. But I wanted it to be more a base than anything else. Want more flavor for whatever you're doing? Add a pinch or two of fresh herbs to the cubes while they defrost and you can customize it to whatever you're making. Add some more basil and oregano for an Italian taste, some cumin and coriander for a Middle Eastern kind of thing, chili powder and cumin would Mexicanize it, you get the picture. The idea is freezing the sauce like this gives you a lot a of options to experiment without forcing you to use an entire can of tomatoes. I've shared the method, now go forth and saucify!

Huli Huli Sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 cup pineapple juice
2 tbls packed brown sugar
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced (I used candied, as that's what I had)
1/2 tbl rice vinegar

Mix everything together in a sauce pan. Bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer and let reduce until it's thick, about 20-30 minutes.

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"Huli!" the cooks holler (apparently), just before turning the ten foot long rigs laden with dozens of glazed chicken. The customers stand in the tropical sun, waiting for their sticky, sweet and garlicky lunch, smelling the woodsmoke and flower scented breeze. Or so I'm told.

See, I've never been to Hawaii. And between not being into beaches, fruity drinks, lava, giant bugs or tropical heat I've never been too interested in going. But now that I know there's a unique barbecue there to put in the "pro" column along with dancing girls I might just be into giving it a visit. Heh.

Huli huli is like a cross between barbecue and teriyaki sauce. I had never had it, but I read about it a while ago and was intrigued so decided to make some. I did a little research and it turns out there are tons of different ways to make it ranging from what looks like completely savory to sickly sweet. From what I've gathered it's traditionally put on chicken and huli huli apparently means "turn turn", "end over end" or something to that effect in reference to how it's cooked. So after being a schoolboy for a while I mixed and matched what I found and made this.

I don't usually do ingredient shots, but since there's only really one step to this I thought I would. You know, to pad out the post a bit.

Because all you do is take that stuff, put it in a pan and simmer it until it's thick. Then you use it like a sauce. What am I going to do with it? Well, you'll just have to wait and see, now won't you. Because I'm a mean man like that. Heh.

I liked it, although I can't vouch for it's authenticity. Who out there has had real huli huli sauce? If you have, what did you think of it?

Sort of Shakshuka

Have you heard of shakshuka? I hadn't until I read this post over at Smitten Kitchen, after which I went and read a bit about it over at Wikipedia. Seriously though, what did we do before that endless font of dubious information? It's priceless, if somewhat unreliable.

Anyway, shakshuka is like the Italian eggs in purgatory, eggs poached in tomato sauce (Michele at My Italian Grandmother has a recipe for that that looks wicked good), but spicy and with a more Mid-East/Northern Africa kind of thing to it.

I didn't have all the stuff that Deb had, like fresh anaheims or jalapenos, but I did have some of those jarred roasted green chilies that I've been enjoying so much lately. So I decided to Mexicanize it. I didn't take a single measurement I'm afraid, but if anyone wants I can try to figure it out. It's really a to taste thing anyway. Yeah, that's what we'll go with this time.

Anyway, I started by sauteing up some chopped onion. I had thought I had fresh garlic, but I didn't and wasn't about to run out to get some. This caused me some angst, but then I got over it and just used garlic powder. It was fine, but fresh would clearly be better. You would add it after the onions were lightly browned and saute it for around thirty seconds. Then I added the green chilies and the spices. That's garlic powder, chili powder, dried cilantro, cayenne, cumin and black pepper. It was wicked spicy. Anyway then I just tossed in one of those little cans of tomato sauce, since this was a single serving, and let it simmer over very low heat for about fifteen minutes or so.

While that was going I realized I needed something to eat this with. And since I've just gotta be me, I crisped up some leftover steak fries in the oven and plated them up. Then I cracked an egg in in sauce and forgot to take a picture. Sorry about that. Anyway, since I was being true to myself already I put some cheese on there to melt after the egg was mostly done. And that's it kids, other than plating. Mexicanized shakshuka. It was wicked good. I was a little leery of eggs and red sauce, but the creamy richness of the eggs balanced out the spicy and fairly acidic sauce really well. And the steak fries were perfect as the bottom layer, they soaked up juices but stayed crispy around the edges. I will definitely be making this again.

Oh and I had some of the cheesy sauce leftover the next day. So I heated it up and dipped some store-bought taquitos in it for lunch. Also wicked good.

Green Chili Chicken and Bean Enchiladas

It's weird, I've pretty much posted my complete pre-blog repertoire of recipes. In fact, I ran out of old recipes some time ago, like maybe a year or so. So everything I've posted since then has been brand new to me in one way or another, either I had never made it or never had it. Which is cool since one of my main reasons for starting a blog was that I wanted to force myself to try new recipes, methods and ingredients. Plus it means I have to write my recipes down, which I'm wicked bad at. But it was also my first time making enchiladas and I didn't feel like using a recipe. So, I just kind of made it up as I went along based on my memories of the enchiladas my mom makes.

See my mom grew up in southern California and has a deep love of Mexican food. She makes all kinds of awesomeness, including enchiladas. But she isn't really a recipe person. Well, that's not quite right, she loves recipes and has a substantial collection of cookbooks, not to mention the books of clippings of recipes from newspapers and magazines. But she doesn't usually follow them. She uses them as a guideline and just kind of works from there. So each time my mom would make enchiladas they were never exactly the same.

And since she's the one who taught me how to cook when I want to try something new my first reaction isn't to find a recipe that sounds good and follow it. It's to find half a dozen recipes, pull out what I think sounds good from all of them and see what happens.

Anyway, she has several themes for enchiladas and when I was a kid she would make two or three different kinds at a time. One of the ones she would make was a chicken one with green chilies and a white sauce and it was definitely my favorite. I remember when I asked her for the recipe, I got a fairly typical response to such a request. It pretty much went like this:

Me: Mom, what's the recipe for those green chili enchiladas?

Mom: Recipe?

Me: Yeah.

Mom: Oh you know, I cook the chicken with some spices...

Me: What spices?

Mom: Mexican ones. Cumin, oregano, garlic, probably cilantro... stuff like that.

Me: Er, proportions?

Mom: You know, some. More if you want. Then I roll them up, make the sauce, pour it over...
Me: Wait, roll what up? And what's in the sauce?

Mom: Roll up the chicken that you just cooked! Oh and shredded. And some cheese. It's white sauce. With a can of green chilies.Me: But what's in it?

Mom: White sauce stuff! Milk, flour, butter, whisking.

Me: But...

Mom: Then you put cheese on it and cook it.Me: At what temp?

Mom: Hot. But not too hot!Me: ... thanks.

And that's why we don't have that many family recipes. I'm pretty sure my siblings are like that too, although some of us are worse than others. I know I'm wicked bad. One of my sisters called me once to ask at what temperature I cooked a chicken dish (that I make all the time). My response was "... 350?".

So in short my excuse for not having a recipe for these awesome enchiladas is genetics. But next time I make them I'll write stuff down, I promise!

Here's pretty much what I did though. The filling is shredded chicken and beans. I braised the chicken until it was tender with some Mexican spices (cumin, oregano, probably cilantro... stuff like that), onions and garlic. Then I took out the chicken, added a can of rinsed pinto beans and let them simmer, covered, in the braising liquid for a couple hours. Then I added the shredded chicken back in, rolled it up, poured on some white sauce with maybe a quarter cup of some roasted green chilies my brother gave me and cooked it in an oven that was hot, but not too hot. Oh, with some cheese. They were wicked good.

I would also like to point out my awesome new La Creuset 9x13" pan, which I won from Danielle at Cooking for my Peace of Mind, that I made these in. Thanks Danielle!

Spaghetti al Amatriciana For One

1/4 lb spaghetti, cooked al dente
2-3 slices of bacon (or more)
3 tbls diced onion
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
1 8oz can plain tomato sauce
1 tbls grated romano cheese
1 tbl chopped fresh basil
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes or to taste
black pepper to taste

Cut the bacon into 1/2" pieces and brown it to your liking over medium heat. Move it to a paper towel lined plate and pour off most of the grease, leaving a tbl or so. Brown the onion in the skillet then add the vinegar, tomato sauce and red pepper flakes. Stir to combine, then add the cheese. Let it simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the basil and black pepper, stir, then add the pasta and stir to combine. Serve with more cheese.

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So, I'm afraid I'm not going to be doing step by step pictures anymore, at least not for the foreseeable future. I just don't have the space in my kitchen to get set up to do it right. It sucks because I enjoyed that a lot, but I have a total of three feet of counter space and it's broken up into one foot lengths. One foot by the stove and a foot on either side of the sink. It's simply inadequate for the job. But I'm hardly going to stop blogging altogether, I'm just going to simplify a bit.

In fact, not only am I not stopping blogging but I even have a new blog. Well, sort of new. I've been sitting on it for a while, waiting for the time and motivation to do something with it. But being currently unemployed I now have plenty of time. Heh. It's about houseplants, mostly ficuses. So, if you're into that, feel free to stop by. There's not much there as of now, but there will be more soon, I assure you.

And speaking of unemployment, want to show a dude some love? Make his stuff a little more visible? You could go to my page at Foodie Views and vote for my pictures. You don't have to register to vote there. If you really wanted to you could always favorite any of my pictures you like over at Foodgawker and Tastespotting. If you wanted. Heh. But anyway, that's all the self promotion I'm going to subject you to, here's the deal with the pasta.

This is my standard amatriciana, but pared down for one person. No, my girlfriend hasn't stopped putting up with my crap or dumped me because I'm a jobless bum, she just doesn't like this dish the same way I do. You know, spicy. So I usually wind up making it when I'm just cooking for myself. After a little trial and error I've gotten it just right. At least for my tastes. It's funny, when I started making this for just myself I never thought to do the math and cut the original by three quarters. And it's a good thing too, since this isn't a quarter of the original and it's really good as it is.

I've found you can use that canned pre-grated Parmesan instead of romano and it works ok. It's not as good, clearly, but it's totally fine. Same with dried basil instead of fresh. You could even use diced dehydrated onion, although I'd open the can of tomato sauce, dump in the dried onion and let it soak for a while before you started cooking. This is a great pantry meal, assuming bacon is one of your pantry staples. I know it is for me.

Steak Tips, Bow Ties with White Sauce and Peas

1 1/2 cups warm 2% milk
2 tbls butter
2 tbls flour
1 lb steak tips
2 tsps chopped fresh basil
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 tbls minced onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 lb mostly cooked bow tie pasta
salt and pepper


Cut steak tips into 1" chunks and season them with salt and pepper. Brown them well in a skillet, then set them aside on a ceramic plate tented with foil. Deglaze the skillet with the chicken stock and once all the brown bits are up and it's reduced by at least 1/2, pour it off and set it aside. Turn the heat in the skillet down to medium-low and melt the butter in it. Add the onion and garlic and saute for a minute or so, until the garlic is fragrant. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes. Slowly add the milk while still stirring, keep stirring until the sauce is thickened, about 3-5 minutes. Let simmer, stirring frequently, until it's reduced to around a cup then add the deglazing liquid. Season with salt and pepper as needed. Let simmer for another minute or so, stirring frequently, then add juices from the rested steak tips, the peas and pasta (and tips, if you want it all combined). Toss it all together and let it simmer for another minute or two, stirring occasionally, until the pasta has absorbed some of the sauce. Add the basil, stir to combine and serve.

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The other day my girlfriend came up to me and said, "I want steak tips. And bowties with peas."

I said, "Ok". And made this. She sat across the blue plastic tv tray we've been using as a table, eating it with a little smile on her face.

"Is it good?" I asked.

"Oh yes" she said, "it's exactly what I wanted."

That, kids, is my personal favorite response. Sure "I love it! ", "it's even better than I thought it would be" or an enthusiastic thumbs up because their mouth is too busy to talk are all great. But really, there's nothing better than craving something and getting just what it was you wanted. Well, when it comes to food anyway. Heh.

The icing on the whole deal here is that this is a surprisingly low fat dish considering how rich it is. I used homemade stock which makes a big impact with texture and richness, but was almost completely fat free. The sauce didn't taste chickeny at all, but you got the smooth, rich mouth-feel from all the collagen in the stock so I could use 2% milk and still have it be really creamy. Other than that it was just the two tablespoons of butter, perfectly reasonable for something that serves 4-6 people, and the tips. The tips weren't too fatty, although I did cook them in bacon grease. Because I could. I didn't get many pictures, but fortunately it's nice and simple. I don't see why you couldn't do this with something other than steak. You would just want something that leaves good fond since that's where most of the flavor for the sauce comes from. Next time I'm going to add a tablespoon or two of sour cream to it to brighten up the flavor a bit.

Speaking of the sauce, does anyone know if it's still a white sauce? Does adding the broth, fond and meat juices change it? I think it might, technically, be gravy. Not that I'd mind, of course. In fact if that were so I'd probably change the title of the post to reflect it. Heh.

Turkey Ball Sandwich

-turkey balls (recipe to follow)
-4 cups good tomato sauce
-kaiser rolls
-string cheese, cut in half (or block mozzarella, -cut into 2x1/2x6" planks)
-olive oil

Heat the tomato sauce and turkey ball in a medium sauce pan over medium-low and let simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring frequently.

Slice the rolls, brush the sliced sides with olive oil and either broil or fry them in a hot pan until browned and crispy. Set aside.

Heat up a nonstick pan on medium/medium-high (or use the one you fried the roll on) and put two pieces of cheese side by side on it. Let it sit for a couple minutes to brown. While it's browning put some turkey balls on half a toasted roll. When the cheese is brown flip it, brown side up, onto the turkey balls. Top with the other half roll and have at it.

Turkey Balls:
1 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1/4 cup chopped onion
2 tbls soy sauce
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper

Thoroughly combine everything in a bowl. Form it into ~2" balls and bake at 400 for 20 minutes. I suggest simmering them in a sauce of some stripe for at least 30 minutes.

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A recipe! Finally. Heh. Well, first things first: props. Neither of the main elements of this sandwich are my creations. The turkey ball recipe I got from my brother many years ago and the cheese is from Goldie over at Confessions of a Serial Baker. But lets do this in order, shall we? First, turkey balls.

This is one of those "simple is better" dishes. You'll notice there are few ingredients and practically no herbs or spices. They taste like ... well, turkey balls. Turkey is a big flavor, of course, a little onion and some soy come through. The rest is just kind of umami. Which makes them a great foil for sauces.

Tomato is awesome, clearly. But they would also take well to a Swedish meatball kind of gravy, a white sauce or a spicy barbecue kind of thing. In fact, I'm going to make them in a barbecue sauce kind of thing next time, that would be awesome. But, this time it was tomato.

No step by steps, I was in a rush when I made them. Heh, in fact all these pictures are from the next day. Meatballs in sauce are a rarity in the food photography world in that they look just as good as leftovers as they did when they were fresh. I simmered them in a simple tomato sauce, nothing that I measured out stuff for or anything.

While that was going on I fried my roll. I do suggest frying your rolls, if you aren't overly concerned about calories. Although since it's olive oil that makes it healthy, right? Well, I say it does and I'm on the internet and that makes me an expert. But doesn't that look better than toasted? You know it does.

Now, a burnt cheese puddle. When I saw that post I knew I had to have it on a sandwich. So I did, because I'm like that. It's browned cheese, really. As simple as that, but it makes the sandwich so much better.If you only brown one side the other side adheres to the turkey balls really well. Here's a better look at the joy. Browned cheese is good, I recommend it. What would you put a cheese puddle on?

Pan Seared Steak Sandwich with Horseradish Mustard Pan Sauce

Ok, I think it took longer for me to write the name of this post than it did for me to eat the sandwich. I mean look at that, how good does that look? It was also wicked easy, which is always a plus. All I did was pan sear a petite sirloin (they were on sale! Yeah!) after rubbing it with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder, make a pan sauce with the fond, slice it thin and serve it on french bread. Good frikking times.

I did use a little trick to get tons flavor into the sauce though. Since the steak was thick (~1.5") I covered it and reduced the heat for part of the middle period of cooking. This caused it to release a whole bunch of juices, which I then collected. The juices partly deglazed it before the final deglaze, which kept the fond from burning during the long sear. When the steak was done I deglazed the pan with some water and the juices, reduced it to about 1/4 cup, added a tablespoon of horseradish mustard and a pat of butter. This turned it into, essentially, gravy. Oh, I also added the juices from the steak after it rested. You've got to have those. But that's it and it was quite possibly the best steak sandwich I've ever had.

Also, the inimitable Joanne from Eats Well With Others gave me awards! Isn't she sweet? Kreative Blogger and Sugardoll awards, to be precise. If you don't already, you should check out her blog, she's a great storyteller and cook. Now I know I haven't been playing the awards game lately, but I do enjoy the ones with the trivia so I'll at least play along a little. Course, I can't even remember when the last time I gave a list of random tidbits about myself so if I repeat anything, I apologize in advance. I'm just going to do like Joanne did and list 10 things. However, unlike Joanne I'm going to be a spoilsport and not pass it along. Sorry kids, it's just how I roll. Now, let's see...

1) When I was in my early 20's I spent several years driving a forklift in a chemical plant. I enjoyed it at the time, but looking back it reminds me of nothing so much as Axis Chemicals from the first Michael Keaton Batman movie. Not a well maintained place.
2) I also worked for an independent record label in the warehouse when I was younger. Much cleaner and a lot more fun, since it was a big party atmosphere there. My memories of it are pretty... hazy. Heh.
3) I've only left the US once, just over the border to Canada, to get donuts.
4) I love old video games, especially 8-bit and Super Nintendo.
5) I also like ficus's and plan on growing bonsai when I have more room/sunlight.
6) I'm a big Godzilla fan. Not the crappy American one from 2000, but the Japanese ones. They are awesome.
7) Me and my girlfriend have been together for seven years, but this is actually our second time dating. The first was in junior high.
8) In the last ten years I have been to a movie theater twice and have no intention of going to another one ever again. I should be the only one making rude comments during the movie.
9) I used to collect gas masks, I still have maybe 8-9 of them.
10) I haven't had cable in over 10 years and I really don't miss it. All I ever watch is PBS anyway.