Friday, January 28, 2011

The GOD of all hot sauces


Firstly, sorry my photography sucks, but it was taken with my phone while cooking, so a little blurriness is to be expected. Secondly, it's not even really doing this justice to call it a mere hot sauce, but srirachi thai chile sauce is an absolutely indispensable resource for any cook from the haughtiest fine dining spot to a simple home cook wanting to broaden his/her horizons. It's known by a few nicknames, such as the red rooster, or the kickin chicken because of the rooster on its' label (if you live in georgia, beware, kickin chicken also refers to wild turkey 101, which is not so food friendly). It's texture is more of a paste than the traditional hot sauce, but don't be scared away. It's hot, but not overly so, with a pleasant acidity and some good garlic flavor to it as well. It is so versatile....you really just need to have a bottle of it in the fridge for any occasion. I will lay out a few good ways to use it, but really just start subbing it in for hot sauce in your normal recipes and then just play around with it.

Srirachi Mignonette - for all the oyster lovers out there

1/8 c champagne vinegar
1 tsp srirachi
1 shallot, diced FINE (sub a 1/4 of a red onion if you don't have a shallot)
1 tsp honey
1 tsp fresh ground peppercorns
Juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp fresh thyme

1)Mix all ingredients together and let sit for 1 hour. Serve over chilled oysters and slurp away


Srirachi Aioli - delicious on anything

2 egg yolks
1 pinch salt
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup plus 2 tblsp olive oil
3 tblsp srirachi

1)add salt, egg yolks, garlic, and srirachi to blender. Puree till eggs are lightly frothy
2)SLOWLY, drizzle oil in to blender (while still running, sorry if that's obvious) until the mixture forms into a thick mayonnaise. ***Note:you may or may not need the 2 tblsp of oil, you will have to judge the thickness of your mayo

Use this as a dip for any fried seafood. Drizzle it over pork chops, smear it on crostini, make a sandwich with it. Like I said, good on just about anything

Srirachi Honey - the easiest recipe I will ever post

2 parts honey
1 part srirachi

1)Whisk together......like I said easy.

This sauce is amazing for the grillers out there. Brush it on shrimp, pork chops, chicken, steaks, scallops, veggies, or anything else you can cook on your grill. Just do it towards the end of the cooking process so that the sugars don't burn too much. It's also great as a dipping sauce for crab fritters, stuffed artichokes, or used as a sauce for a piece of swordfish perhaps.

Thai Chile BBQ Sauce - works great as a marinade or a completed sauce

1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
1 stalk lemongrass, pounded (just hit the stalk with the flat of a knife to release it's oil/juices)
1 cup brown sugar
3 tblsp molasses or cane syrup
1/3 cup srirachi
1 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup apple juice
6 oz coca-cola (NOT PEPSI :)
1 cup tomato paste
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tblsp worcestershire sauce

1)Combine all ingredients in a pot over medium-low heat and cook 60-90 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove lemongrass and use as mentioned above.


SIGNS THE RESTAURANT YOU’RE IN
SERVES REALLY SPICY FOOD


They have two seating
sections: “Foolhardy” and
“Flat-Out Crazy”

The waiter comes around
with a pepper mill —
as a joke

The hallway leading to
the bathrooms is a
designated fire lane

The food is free,
but water is $10 a glass

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Stuff my Basset will and wont eat

So, this is Tater. Actually, she is named Sweet Potato fully because she is the color of one and is oddly lumpy in places just like her namesake. She is a very sweet, thoroughly food obsessed animal who constantly surprises me with her culinary dos and don'ts. This post was inspired by this morning, when I dropped an ARTICHOKE on the ground and almost lost a finger trying to retrieve it (not really, she is very gentle, but she did scarf that freaking artichoke). So without further ado...the list

DOs

Beets - shaved, pickled, or just roasted and diced, she loves them
Artichokes - as mentioned above
Grapes - this one has a caveat, only when they are halved will she touch them, otherwise she just noses them around for a bit, then leaves them to surprise you at midnight when you're going to the kitchen for a glass of milk
Seafood - whenever I cook any seafood, especially tuna, she lurks about 3mm from my left ankle and just drools huge long strands of drool that almost touch the floor till she gets a taste. It's odd b/c she doesn't do this if I'm cooking a steak for instance.
Tomatoes - see the rules for grape eating
Fruit Pastilles - this is an english gummy candy (think a non-sour sour patch kid) and she is obsessed. I came home one day to find that my large (brand new, over 1 lb box) new shipment of these from across the pond was no more. Just paper bits, a couple of the yellow ones not eaten on the floor, and a bloated, slightly uncomfortable looking, but nevertheless happy basset remained. This was the first of many lost packets of pastilles and now we are forced to top shelf them.
Bananas - Loves them. Most dogs just sniff around at them, she inhales them.


All that being said, she does have her moments of finnicky eating. For example,

Loves bread, won't touch a tortilla
No Berries.....period
Blue Cheese, I know it smells, but it's still cheese
Whole wheat crackers from Costco with Flax seed...don't know what it is, but she backs away from them like they are spitting cobras

I'd love to hear about whatever weird things your dog eats or doesn't....or just any funny dog habits.

The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too. ~Samuel Butler

From the dog's point of view, his master is an elongated and abnormally cunning dog. ~Mabel Louise Robinson

A dog is not "almost human" and I know of no greater insult to the canine race than to describe it as such. ~John Holmes

Did you ever notice when you blow in a dog's face he gets mad at you? But when you take him in a car he sticks his head out the window. ~Steve Bluestone

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

"FOOD" FOR THOUGHT - cheesy I know, but c'est la, c'est la

So I know I usually end a lot of my posts with quotes that are relevent (or at least semi-relevent in my addled mind) to said subject material. That however is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO limiting. I can only do quotes about mushrooms, entertaining, gnochhi, or specific things. So, I am broadening the horizon for this one. The following is a list of quotes, mostly about food, some not, but all that I find inspiring, thought provoking, or funny.

Please add some that you love, or tell me what you think of mine.....even if you want to tell me that you think mine suck, are wierd, or disgusting.

A GOOD START

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity. ~Voltaire

Sex is good, but not as good as fresh, sweet corn. ~Garrison Keillor

Do vegetarians eat animal crackers? ~Author Unknown

Red meat is not bad for you. Now blue-green meat, that’s bad for you! ~Tommy Smothers

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating. ~Luciano Pavarotti

If only it was as easy to banish hunger by rubbing the belly as it is to masturbate. ~Diogenes


COURSE 2

You can say this for ready-mixes - the next generation isn't going to have any trouble making pies exactly like mother used to make. ~Earl Wilson

All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast. ~John Gunther
******I have tried using this as a defense to my weekend laziness, but, unfortunately guys, it apparently is trumped by the "honeydew" list (read HONEY DO)

A bagel is a doughnut with the sin removed. ~George Rosenbaum

It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato. ~Lewis Grizzard

I don't think America will have really made it until we have our own salad dressing. Until then we're stuck behind the French, Italians, Russians and Caesarians. ~Pat McNelis
***for the record, other than caesar, all these dressings suck, it's just a funny quote

Sleep 'til you're hungry, eat 'til you're sleepy. ~Author Unknown
***If only life were that simple.....it might be for my basset hound, but not I

We are living in a world today where lemonade is made from artificial flavors and furniture polish is made from real lemons. ~Alfred E. Newman
***Sad, but True


THE ENTREE

If God had intended us to follow recipes,He wouldn't have given us grandmothers.~Linda Henley
***my father is happy that this isn't actually true in our family.....creamed onions..AGHHHH!!!!

Rice is born in water and must die in wine. ~Italian Proverb

Nobody seems more obsessed by diet than our anti-materialistic, otherworldly, New Age spiritual types. But if the material world is merely illusion, an honest guru should be as content with Budweiser and bratwurst as with raw carrot juice, tofu and seaweed slime. ~Edward Abbey

Hey yogurt, if you're so cultured, how come I never see you at the opera - ANON
***now that's just funny

What is patriotism but the love of the food one ate as a child? ~Lin Yutang

Everything I eat has been proved by some doctor or other to be a deadly poison, and everything I don't eat has been proved to be indispensable for life. But I go marching on. ~George Bernard Shaw

A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch. ~James Beard
***Crass, but true.....kind of true to Beard although he is somehow sanctified by all

We load up on oat bran in the morning so we'll live forever. Then we spend the rest of the day living like there's no tomorrow. ~Lee Iacocca
***Not a bad philosophy actually

And I find chopsticks frankly distressing. Am I alone in thinking it odd that a people ingenious enough to invent paper, gunpowder, kites and any number of other useful objects, and who have a noble history extending back 3,000 years haven't yet worked out that a pair of knitting needles is no way to capture food? ~Bill Bryson
***For the record, this guy is just f'in hilarious. Everything he writes, but I chose this quote as a highlight.

Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside. ~Mark Twain

Did you ever stop to taste a carrot? Not just eat it, but taste it? You can't taste the beauty and energy of the earth in a Twinkie. ~Astrid Alauda
***This might be my second favorite food quote ever

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well - Virginia Wolfe
***This is my absolute favorite one

THE SWEET FINISH

Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first. ~Ernestine Ulmer

Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. ~Sandra Boynton

Without ice cream, there would be darkness and chaos. ~Don Kardong

Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not! ~Author Unknown

There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love chocolate, and communists. ~Leslie Moak Murray
***No offense Kenny...Oh wait, you're a MAN U fan, not a communist, I get the two confused :)

I prefer to regard a dessert as I would imagine the perfect woman: subtle, a little bittersweet, not blowsy and extrovert. Delicately made up, not highly rouged. Holding back, not exposing everything and, of course, with a flavor that lasts. ~Graham Kerr

Cookies are made of butter and love. ~Norwegian Proverb

Seize the moment. Remember all those women on the Titanic who waved off the dessert cart. ~Erma Bombeck
***Dark, but that's just funny

Man cannot live on chocolate alone, but woman sure can. ~Author Unknown

THE BIG FINISH

"Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon."Doug Larson

So, that's it. Hope you enjoyed some, were intrigued by others, and will post some of your own.