Stuff I make... Mostly food.

Sorry for the flood of pictures. Just realized I hadn’t posted any in a while.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:53:09 -0500

Sorry for the flood of pictures. Just realized I hadn’t posted any in a while.

Ribs!!!!

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:48:48 -0500

Ribs!!!!

Lamb chops!!! Like delicious meat lollipops.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:47:24 -0500

Lamb chops!!! Like delicious meat lollipops.

Steak, grits, asparagus, broccoli.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:45:19 -0500

Steak, grits, asparagus, broccoli.

New Year’s Day

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:44:01 -0500

New Year’s Day

Mine.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:42:11 -0500

Mine.

Red snapper, baked.

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:39:43 -0500

Red snapper, baked.

Photo

Thu, 21 Feb 2013 09:38:26 -0500

Did some cleaning/organizing in the Spice Matrix/pantry on Monday. Considered organizing my...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 13:18:07 -0500

Did some cleaning/organizing in the Spice Matrix/pantry on Monday. Considered organizing my spices…. GEOGRAPHICALLY.

So, what did you guys do this weekend? I’ll try to get...

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 00:31:48 -0400

So, what did you guys do this weekend? I’ll try to get some of the better pics from other people and detail the process soon.

No photos, cuz I was hungry and dumb...

Thu, 02 Aug 2012 12:24:00 -0400

Last night was a huge cooking night. Everything came together fairly well and CLOSE to the advertised time. Let’s talk about it…

It was a planned dinner party with 2 other couples plus El Roommate (7 stomachs total).

APPETIZER COURSE

Caprese Slider. I take some thin slices of baguette bread and toast it. On top of that, in order from bottom to top, sits fresh basil, tomato from the garden, mozzarella, some fresh black pepper, smoked salt and a light olive oil drizzle. (I broke open my new bottle of Olive Oil from Georgia for this.) I pop this in a hot oven for a few minutes to get the cheese a little bit melted and to warm the thing through.

SIDES

Roasted Cauliflower with Carrot Dust. This cauliflower technique I got from Michael Ruhlman’s ‘Twenty’ (a fantastic cookbook). Remove the leaves and cut out as much of the thick stem as possible without removing a finger. I drizzled olive oil into it upside down, then some more on top along with some salt and pepper. I put it WHOLE in my small cast iron skillet & into the oven (temp was 375 or something) for around 45 minutes. Ruhlman bastes his with butter midway through, but I did not this time. A little extra salt & when it was done. The carrot dust I learned from Thomas Keller’s ‘French Laundry’ cookbook. Not gonna bother praising him, he’s Thomas Freakin’ Keller. I took grated carrots and SQEEEEEEEZED as much juice out of them as I could. (Paper towels, cheesecloth.) I spread them on a plate and microwaved them on a lower power setting. Overall, it’s supposed to take at least 30-45 minutes, but I only do it 1-2 minutes at a time to prevent burning. You’re done when the carrots shreds are all bone dry. (A food dehydrator or low-temp oven could work, too.) Then I popped it into my spice grinder to get a fine orange powder that tastes like carrots. Super cool effect. The presentation is great on this, the whole cauliflower looks vaguely like brains, we decided. (I need some grey food coloring for a Halloween meal.) It’s easy to cut into wedges for serving.

Asparagus. Nothing fancy here, sorry. I wanted to sauté them, but ran out of cast iron and open burners late in the game. Salt, pepper, olive oil & garlic powder, then popped them into the oven for a while. Maybe 15 minutes. Could have been done a little faster, but there were a ton of them.

Purple Mashed Potatoes. No food coloring, I just use purple potatoes and they look awesome. Diced green onions and sautéed garlic went in, too. I made them fairly healthy with no cream, just a little milk and some butter. Needed bacon.

Grits with Cheese & Tasso. I started with one shallot and a little garlic, diced. Sauté, then add the water, grits. Grits take an hour. No matter what the instructions say. After 15-20 minutes I added in some finely diced tasso ham that I made and keep stocked in the freezer. After 40-45 minutes, some grated smoked gouda cheese was added. A little extra salt (cheese and tasso both added salt) and a generous amount of black pepper added. Fantastic.

Brussel Sprouts. Simple cast iron sauté with olive oil, salt and pepper over medium-high heat. They’re done when the green color deepens and some of the edges start to get a nice char. These went well with the corned beef.

MEATS

There are two because I was worried I wasn’t serving enough protein.

Corned beef. I’ve posted about this before. I still had some left in the freezer so I pulled it out and served it sliced. Still delicious. It’s just Michael Ruhlman’s recipe in ‘Charcuterie’.

Frenched Rack of Lamb. For a couple of hours, it sat in a brine solution with mustard, rosemary & garlic. I seared the outside in a cast iron skillet and then added a compote/smear/spread/whatever of olive oil, mustard, garlic, rosemary, lemon confit (lemons preserved in salt that I made), ancho chili powder, salt & pepper. Then it was popped into the oven for around 30-40 minutes. I think I messed up and had the temperature a little lower than I’d wanted, because I discovered they were a little more rare than I expected after slicing them into chops. Several guests expressed it was a little too much, so I threw the chops in the skillet to finish. The lemon confit was fantastic, really seeping into the fat.

Overall, it went really well. I can’t cook like this all the time, sadly, due to cash, calorie & time constraints. I need an eccentric millionaire to decide to retain me as his house chef. And maybe pay for cooking school. Or at least a bunch of cook books.

Actual Dadgum Recipes

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 12:40:00 -0400

I started this whole thing as a way to chronicle my cooking, since I tend to do a lot of improvisation and experiment and often have difficulty recreating a successful dish. It’s devolved into basically just random pics of meals, which is ok, but unfulfilling in the long term. Let’s see what I can do about that… If not full recipes, at least some guidelines on what worked.

MY MILKSHAKES BRING ALL THE BOYS TO THE YARD….

Grilled Peaches Milkshake. Try to plan 1 whole large (1.5-2 small) whole peaches per serving. Halve & de-pit peaches, hit it with cooking spray, maybe dab on a little cinnamon, place on grill. (I’ve often used a broiler as a substitute.) You want some good charring to occur, but not burn up the entire surface. Turn as needed, lower heat as needed. You would like the peaches cooked through. Remove and COOL. If not, they’ll melt the ice cream too fast. (Lesson learned.) Add to vanilla ice cream & milk, blend.

Chocolate Mango Milkshake. I’ve only made this once so far. I put the flesh of one large ripe mango along with two scoops of some Ghirardelli chocolate powder (I think it was for hot cocoa or something) in with vanilla ice cream and milk. This made 4 smaller shakes (could have been 2 large). I’d like to experiment with more mango flavor.

A SHRIMP RECIPE FROM A FLORIDAN… HOW ORIGINAL…

Pineapple Cilantro Shrimp with Sriracha. I prefer to use ‘head on’ shrimp, due to the extra fat/flavor/juice/braaaaains in the shrimp heads. I usually peel them, leaving heads & tails on. Any heads that fall off can be added to the skillet, no problem. I do try to pull off the long antenna/feelers, for better presentation. I soak the shrimp in pineapple juice with salt, pepper, shredded cilantro leaves, ground coriander powder added. (Plus some citrus zest, lemon or lime.) I guess the lower acidity of pineapple juice doesn’t ceviche the shrimp as fast as lemon/lime juice. I try to let this sit for a half hour. Cook these in a skillet with olive oil, adding some additional shredded cilantro and citrus juice near the end. Serve with sriracha for some heat. This is absolutely best with some sweet gulf Pink Shrimp. (They’ll be pink color and/or have a red dot on their side. Best shrimp in the world.)

A steak night meal. (I tend to not eat steak too often, but...

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 18:10:00 -0400

A steak night meal. (I tend to not eat steak too often, but usually photograph it when I do.)

Photo

Sat, 14 Jul 2012 18:07:01 -0400

Caprese salad. Topped with a little smoked salt, fresh ground...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 17:25:20 -0400

Caprese salad. Topped with a little smoked salt, fresh ground pepper & olive oil.

Pork shoulder (x2) and some baby back ribs. The shoulders were...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 17:22:11 -0400

Pork shoulder (x2) and some baby back ribs. The shoulders were on for close to 10 hours. The ribs were on 4-5, and could have been pulled earlier. They were awesome. Haven’t eaten the shoulder yet. (Gonna be pulled pork for a work event.)

Made hamburgers for 3 ladies last night. By their...

Mon, 14 May 2012 23:00:23 -0400

Made hamburgers for 3 ladies last night. By their instructions/desires, there was bacon INSIDE and ON TOP OF the burgers. Dainty lasses, they are not. Hell yeah.

Meat pies! Just a mixture of sautéed veggies and ground beef,...

Wed, 25 Apr 2012 16:21:20 -0400

Meat pies! Just a mixture of sautéed veggies and ground beef, wrapped up in some basic biscuit dough. Baked until awesome.

STEAK!!! First thing made on my new grill. This pic...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:47:15 -0400

STEAK!!! First thing made on my new grill. This pic doesn’t really show it, but I’m trying to really eat smaller portions of higher quality meat. One steak fed two people.

The potatoes, with chopped rosemary and sautéed shallots and...

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 15:42:52 -0400

The potatoes, with chopped rosemary and sautéed shallots and garlic.