Did these sprouts come from Brussels?

It’s taken me some time to jump back on the cooking train- senior year of college is hectic. Plus, when your kitchen doesn’t have a dishwasher, it sure is hard to cook knowing you have cleaning ahead of you. So, as a suggestion, if you’re interested in cooking often, have a dishwasher in your home. I might be the only home this side of the Mississippi without one.

Anyway, the meal we’ll be exploring tonight is a mixture of a suggestion from a friend, and, conventional college eating. It delves into what vegetarians consider normal: filling, tasty, and healthy meals that do not involve meat. I have to involve meat though; I’m cooking for 4 of my friends who aren’t satisfied without protein.

The long overdue meal suggested by a friend was a concoction of Brussel sprouts. It is to be doused in an Asian sauce that tingles the palate’s senses. I learned how to make it righttt… here.

The ingredients to be used in making the Brussel sprouts are: salt, pepper, sugar, water, vegetable oil, fish sauce, garlic, shallot, lime, chili pepper, and, of course, Brussel sprout.

Prepare your kitchen area with a cutting board and knives, and, a garbage of sorts to keep organized (there will be many scraps). Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Crush and chop 2 cloves of garlic. Slice about 1 ½ chili pepper (depending on how much heat you want) evenly. Then throw that and about 1 tbsp. of sugar into a mortar. If you don’t have a mortar, no big deal, just use a bowl and the back of a sturdy spoon. Crush that together until it looks like you’ve done something right. Combine that mixture with ½ cup of water; add the juice of about half a lime and a tbsp. of fish sauce. Place it in the fridge to gather flavor.

Grab about 1 ½ pound of your sprouts and begin to cut the butts off of them, and then slice them once through the middle. Also, chop up 2 shallots. When you’re finished doing that, throw them into a pan and add salt, pepper and oil. Toss it around and that’s it. Throw it in the oven for about 1 hour, and, occasionally drizzle a few drops oil water into the pan to make sure nothing gets burnt.

In the meantime, you can get started on the protein of the meal. I’ve decided to make a guaranteed dish of chicken and bacon. It’s as simple as simple gets, but, it always keeps eaters happy. However, I added some of the same ingredients into this part of the dish so that there was similarity- not just two contrasting flavors.

To make this part of the meal, I used: salt, pepper, vegetable oil, fish sauce, lime juice, chicken breast and bacon.

Heat up a pan and pour a healthy amount of oil in. Then throw in your chicken. Quickly season the chicken with salt and pepper, if you have not already, so that the flavor blends in. Next: bacon. Fit in as much as you can and make sure to add pepper again. Let the meats cook together and, whenever you’re ready, add in small amounts of fish sauce and lime juice. Gently score the chicken so that it cooks evenly. I cut but meats into small, bite size pieces so that there was consistency in size between the meats and Brussel sprouts.

Hopefully, when you’ve finished cooking the meat, the sprouts will just be finishing in the oven as well. Make sure that the Brussel sprouts are not hard as soon as you take them out of the oven. If they are, throw them back in- your diners can wait.

Pour the sauce that’s been chilling in your fridge atop the sprouts and serve it as soon as possible.

Plate the two parts of your meal onto plates and see your diners enjoy a wonderfully delicious collection of flavors from smoky to zingy. Goodnight!

Old Timers' Chicken

Let's take it way, way back. Back when colonials put their meat over an outdoor fire and ground herb seasoning was the only flavor to boot. Back when people harvested their own meat. Back when conventional variety was hard to come by and simple potato soup connoted delicacy. Back when food was more so eaten as necessity than entitlement. 

Well, maybe not that far. My methods of cooking won't be so old-fashion -personally killing animals isn't part of my daily routine- but the meal I'll be making was a staple of colonial-America. 

The rustic chicken on-the-bone accompanied by potatoes, carrots and celery is a hearty meal that screams simplicity. 

I can remember eating this dish at many family occasions. It's so easily made so I understand why many prepare it. The only thing is I think I've had more terrible versions of it than good ones. Hopefully I can make it well. 

The ingredients I used for this meal were: olive oil, dry white wine, salt, pepper, cumin, rosemary, thyme, parsley, paprika, garlic powder, carrots, potatoes, celery, and chicken legs and thighs. 

First, take out a clean cutting board and utensils and wash the vegetables, then get prepared to work. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Dice ample amounts of carrot, celery, and potato. Season lightly if you'd prefer.

If you desire, you can boil the carrot and potato slightly so they are sure to not be hard after cooking in the oven. 

Disregarding exact measurements, mix the spices together so that they will cover the chicken entirely. Use salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme the most. Second most, throw in cumin, parsley, and garlic powder. Then, lastly, add in small doses of paprika for spice. Have your chicken in a large bowl and then rub in your spices so that it is equally portioned.

It would be very smart to score your chicken so that the inside meat is properly cooked. 

Throw your chicken and vegetables into an oversize pan, add in 1/2 cup of dry white wine and cover with tinfoil. Then, with mitts, place the pan into the oven for about an hour. 

In the last half hour, make sure to check on it every 10 minutes or so.

And that is all. A classic, simple dish is prepared for all to enjoy!

Entenmann's who?

After a long day of work, what's better than coming home to the people you love living with. I was at the library until 11 (#midtermweek) and when I arrived home I could tell everyone was in a deep #chillmode. No matter how tiring the day was, I could always muster up enough energy to bake chocolate chip cookies for them and myself. 

I drove back out to get a few key ingredients and the cookies were eaten not even an hour later.

This was the first time I'd ever baked; I'm not sure if I'd ever helped anyone else bake either. It's not that hard!

Here are the ingredients I used; it was a simple recipe: all-purpose flour, baking soda, butter, salt, brown and white sugar, vanilla extract, eggs and chocolate chips. 

It's widely understood that baking with a mixer is much more practical, but, I didn't have one. Initially scared that mixing the ingredients wouldn't work out, after a few minutes I saw that they did combine nicely. It is exercise though, so be prepared to have a tired forearm.

Anyway, all you need to prepare is your ingredients, 2 large bowls and a whisk. And, preheat the oven to 350°.

Start by putting 2 1/4 cups of flour and 1/2 tspn. of baking soda into a bowl. Mix it around- that's it. 

In the other bowl, put in 1/2 cup of white sugar and 1 cup of brown sugar. Then, and this is interesting because I didn't have a mixer, cut up 2 sticks of butter (1cup) and put it in the microwave for a few seconds so it softens, then put it in the bowl and whisk the ingredients until they become gummy. Then, add 1 tspn. of salt, 2 tspn. of vanilla extract, and 2 eggs. Mix that up for a minute or so and add in as many chocolate chips as you'd like. After, dump the other bowl's ingredients into the mix. Whisk to the best of your ability and your done. #Cookingtip: try out the mix! if it's delicious raw, it'll probably be delicious out of the oven.

Get out as many pans as you'll need, cover the bottom with foil and spray it with pam so the batter doesn't stick. Cookies take anywhere from 8 to 15 minutes to bake, so, keep an eye on it. If you poke the top of a cookie and it's solid- its ready; also, the color should be a light brown when ready. 

Make sure to use mittens as you take it out of the oven; let it sit for a minute to collect and solidify before you dig in.

Enjoy!
 

P.S Everyone knows chocolate chip cookies are best alongside a cool glass of milk so #dontforget to add it to the ingredients list.

A seasonal sandwich

The weather during the fall is peculiar. Sometimes it’s hot, sometimes it’s cold; sometimes it hails bricks and is sunny 10 minutes later. It’s like all the seasons are fighting for attention in a time of change.

But, as always, it gets cold and stays cold through the winter. 

And that’s what happened to the chicken salad I made today. It got cold, and stayed cold.

And, just like the weather which doesn’t have a constant state, the cold chicken salad was introduced to a warm and easy-to-make sandwich where each flavor fought for my attention.

I’d never eaten such a thing before, but after doing a Google search I saw that I had made a common BLT chicken salad sandwich. The ingredients I used were:  olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, scallion, celery, dried cranberry (Craisin), lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise, mustard, bread, bacon and chicken.

The chicken should be prepared before anything else. I must say cooking chicken is becoming second-nature; drizzle olive oil into a pan and once it gets hot add 4 cloves of chopped garlic. Then, place slices of chicken breast into the pan (I had 6). Add salt and pepper and flip it over a few times. When the chicken is getting crisp on the outside yet is still juicy inside, start to cut each piece into bite-size squares with a large fork and a sharp knife. When you’re finished, dump all of your chicken into a Ziploc bag, place it in a fridge and let it sit for a few hours. 

After the wait is over, go ahead and cut about 3 stalks of celery and 5 shoots of scallion. You can put all your chicken, celery, scallion and a small handful of Craisins into a large bowl. Then add 1 ½ cup of mayonnaise and 3 tsp. of mustard and mix it all around. That’s how simple chicken salad is. 

Set that aside and heat up a pan with olive oil. When it’s hot enough, place your strips of bacon in. You can add salt or pepper if you’d like, too. When there’s a nice crisp to your bacon strips, take them out.

Next, place 2 slices of bread into that same pan so it can absorb all those juices while it also gets toasted.

Make sure to have your finely cut tomato slices and lettuce ready, and that’s all for cooking; now you just have to construct your sandwich.

Whatever order you put it, a BLT chicken sandwich is a wonderful culmination of hot-and-cold ingredients worthy of any food lover’s palate.

Top 5 Protein Cuisine

Since we are entering the Baseball off-season, it's time to get off the field and into the gym. This time of the year is to bulk-up and prepare your body for the upcoming season. 

But there is way more than just lifting weights to get your body in shape. In fact, working out extensively is only part of the process. 

In order to reap the benefits of your hard work in the gym, you need to eat right. That is, to get proper nutrition on a daily basis. 

Now, of course there is the food pyramid to consider – the basis of healthy eating. Its been telling us for generations that we should be eating many grains such as bread, pasta and rice, regular servings of fruit and vegetables, a few servings of dairy and protein and very little additives such as fats, oils, and sweets. To maintain a healthy lifestyle, it is important to generally follow these guidelines. 

The diet of an athlete does generally follow the pyramid, too, but it does seem to include more. 

Because of the excess of calories burned and nutrients lost during training, athletes need to consume more. 

And, during the off-season, where the purpose is to get bigger, it's important to have more protein. So, to know which foods I'm getting the most protein out of, I've made a list in descending order:

5. Beans. From black to kidney to lima beans, they contain around 13 to 18 grams of protein per 100 grams eaten. Beans are typically low in sodium and high in iron.

 

4. Fish. Tuna, Salmon, Snapper and Halibut are about 22 grams of protein per 100 grams consumed. Flounder, Cod and Tilapia are each 20 grams of protein. 

3. Pork loin. Around 25 grams of protein per 100 grams eaten. Meanwhile, 1 slice of bacon provides 8 grams of protein. Extremely high in sodium and cholesterol. Although it's high in protein, it should not be eaten regularly. 

2. Chicken. Provides 30 grams of protein per 100 grams eaten. White meat yields greatest health-friendly statistics. 

1. Beef and Veal. Gives about 35 grams of protein per 100 grams consumed. A 20 gram beef jerky provides 7 grams of protein. High in fat, sodium and cholesterol.

All in all, you should know way you're consuming and what's going into your body. After all, you are what you eat. It's especially important in times when you're concentrated on creating a healthy and fit lifestyle. You will see positive results not only if you do work in the weight room, but if you combine that effort with an equally effective diet regimen. 

The Far East, courtesy of Chef Ramsay

Do you remember the show Hells’ Kitchen? It aired on Fox and featured world-renowned chef Gordon Ramsay as he would go around bashing people’s attempts at cooking. The show was entertaining because of Ramsay’s rage, rather than the food being prepared. I never enjoyed watching it, and, because of my laid-back personality, I was never particularly fond of Ramsay either.

But recently that has changed. Ramsay has an expansive YouTube channel where he posts videos of himself cooking elaborate yet easy-to-make dishes. He is not temperamental as I once perceived, but rather, he creates a gentle atmosphere where learning and fun are combined in the kitchen.

So, here’s to looking at you, Chef Ramsay. The dish I made tonight is a culmination of a few tricks I learned after watching your videos.

Here are a few cooking tips that Chef Ramsay preaches:

•   There's always something more to learn in the kitchen, whether it's ingredients or techniques.
•   If the meat doesn't sizzle when you put it on the pan, take it off. 
•   It is so dangerous working in the kitchen with a blunt knife; working with a sharp knife is 10 times quicker, more efficient
•   For a whole head of garlic, crush and shake in a bowl to take off all the skin, leaving only cloves
•   To get seeds out of chili pepper, hold it upright and rub in between your hands, tap it and continue to rub again. Then cut the top off and dump the seeds right out. 

Anyway, tonight I had the pleasure of cooking for a good friend, Mr. Jack Loftus. He’s a man with keen erudition and a palate open to all flavors. While cooking for Jack, I made sure to keep reminding him of how much longer it would take and, of course, how sorry I’d be if it didn’t turn out good. To this, Jack would reply, “Yonah, I don’t care, it’s free.” Now that’s my kind of customer. You can check out what Jack is up to over here: http://jdloftus.blogspot.com/

So what did I cook? Well, it is an Asian-influenced dish of ground beef and pork alongside white rice noodles. ‘Twas packed with flavor that flocks could smell for miles.
 

The ingredients I used were: olive oil, salt, pepper, ginger, garlic, lime, serrano, poblano and long hot peppers, scallion, sesame seed oil, fish sauce, brown sugar, white rice noodles and ground beef and pork.

Start by, of course, preparing.  If there is one thing I did differently tonight, I did not specifically measure out any ingredients. I'm at a point in my cooking career where I can tell how much flavor to add to chopped meat. It's basically a staple of easy cooking, so I've been cooking chili a little while. 

Chop up ginger; this is interesting because it's basically a piece of wood. Skim off the skin and make sure to practice #knifesafety. Continue to cut your garlic, pepper and scallions. 

Now, season your meat with salt and pepper and throw it in a pan filled with a tbsp. of olive oil. Cook it until it's well-cooked. Make sure to chop and mix continually so the beef is very fine. Then, take it out and use a filter to take out any liquid, then let it sit. 

Grab your noodles and, instead of throwing them into a boiling pot like you would regularly do, pour boiling water atop the noodles in a large bowl - make sure to have the noodles entirely covered. Let that sit for about 10 minutes, mixing time and time again. When you take the noodles out and drain, pour some olive oil on top to keep it from sticking together. 

In what should be a quick process, drizzle a dollop of sesame seed oil and olive oil into a hot pan. When it heats up, throw in your garlic, ginger and peppers. Next, add in brown sugar to caramelize the spices. Not too long after, grab your meat and dump it back into the pan. After a minute or so add in fish sauce, lime juice, and grate lime zest too. Lastly, add in your chopped scallions for flavor and crunch. Take the dish off the stove no more than 30 seconds later. 

I tried to prepare the meal in a way that finished together at the same time, I hope it works out for you too. I also put some fish sauce on the noodles because, as you'll see, they don't have much flavor. 

But, the ground beef had a wealth of contrasting flavors. The spices were very hot, but when the ginger and lime's tanginess come around, your mouth isn't too bothered. 

A very good meal, I must say; you could make it too!

#FYI

One of my favorite things to do nowadays is relax on the couch and watch the Food Network. The producers of its shows not only make cooking seem fun, but it’s informative too. My favorite show on the network is Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. The show goes around the country, and sometimes Canada too, and brings the audience into the kitchens of restaurants serving up high-quality housemade dishes.

It is hosted by the outgoing Guy Fieri who brings passion and experience into each kitchen he visits.

On the Wikipedia article written for the show, I saw that they were missing one cool component; they’ve neglected to record various celebrities who have made guest appearances on the show. Now, for me, it’s a very important element of the show because it allows you to see famous people enjoying the heat of the kitchen, messing around with Guy and simply being themselves.

So, I’m going to do some research and create a list of all the celebrities who have appeared on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.

Prior to my addition, there were only 5 “contents” on the page; now there are 6. My piece is now the 2^nd bullet-point under “contents”, entitled “Guest Apperances.”

Here's what I added to the DDD Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diners,_Drive-Ins_and_Dives