Things wot I Made Then Ate: November 2007

Combining the few things for a pancake takes about the same time as opening a box of pancake mix, reading the instructions, assembling the the ingredients as you would without the mix, milk egg, oil, etc. So what's the point in having the mixes when those few elemental ingredients provided in the box can be used in so many other things?

dry
3/4 C shifted flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
wet
1/2 C + few Tablespoons milk
1/2 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla

drop in frozen blueberries, whatever, once the batter is in the pan.
put anything you want on top; honey, maple syrup, preserves, jam, powdered sugar, icing.

If you mix the blueberries with the batter then the blueberries will bleed. That color bleeding can be controlled. It can also result in an unattractive blue mess but it doesn't have to be that way. Swirls are good.

Aglio e olio

* burro
* formaggio parmisiano reggiano
* fiocchi del peperoncino (habañero, realmente)
* basilico * sale e pepe

Chicken breast

The breast is pounded so that it fries evenly and relatively quickly and not to turn the breast into a pancake or to see how thin it can go.

The chicken breast is patted with flour, the excess flour patted off. This lightly coats the chicken and helps the batter adhere. But the batter isn't made yet.

Milk added to seasoned flour to make a batter. The excess batter is drained off, pulled off, flicked off, or shaken off in a wire basket before being dropped into preheated hot oil. The thinner the breast is pounded then the thinner the batter coating otherwise the chicken will be lost in the fried coating. I learned over time that very little batter goes a long way. I pull it off manually using my fingers as a squeegees to get most of the batter off.

A trace amount of this baking powder will lighten the batter, say 1/4 teaspoon or so. Too much baking powder will foam and that is undesirable for batter. You can also lighten the batter with beer, or not lighten the batter at all.

Fried rice

casualty

ingredients

Blueberry pancakes

Pour le dîner.

les ingrédients

avec des noix de pécan↓ sucre brun↓, miel↓

Frozen egg rolls, miso dipping sauce

This takes distressingly long to make -- 22 minutes in convection oven.

The dressing is a salsa.

A dipping sauce is prepared with with miso and sesame oil, tamari or soy sauce, sugar, and ginger powder.

Carry forwards

Leftovers:

white beans with ham hoc
scalloped potatoes
roasted duck

All carried forward into a 2 minute meal. That's minute as in 60 seconds, not minute as in tiny.

Breakfast burrito

Where breakfast occurs at 1:00 a.m.

* Leftover scalloped potatoes
* Baked beans that started out white beans but turned reddish brown along the way.
* green chili, which is actually more red than green, made from Hatch chiles.

Chicken broth, broad noodle

* Roasted garlic from the duck.
* Spinach
* Potato
* Pasta cut with the bench scrapper

* No onions this time.

Chicken broth miso

Homemade chicken broth. It makes a world of difference.

Salmon macaroni salad

* discard cheese packet in box of macaroni.
* not pictured: pecans and raisins and Dejon.
* salmon simmered in chicken broth with herbs and roasted garlic.

Toast, Volunteer sourdough bread

Breaded pork loin

* frozen pork loin pounded just to even.
* pasta left over from previous day, dried on the counter
* tomatoes
* spinach
* overdid it with chili powder, this loin was hot.

Spaghetti pesto pecans tomatoes

The pesto came in a tub.

Duck Fredo

I love it when a plan comes together.

Roasted duck

The duck was brined and roasted on low for hours until meat began to pull away from bone. Finished on med high heat.

Honestly didn't know what we were doing so simply roasted it unstuffed over water -- the water to collect excessive oil if there was to be any. No vegetables, no herbs, nothing but the brine which contained a large amount of dried herbs, chiefly rosemary, and a piece of ginger.

This plate of duck pieces might not look like much heaped unartistically, but I tell you the flavor is addictive right past it becoming cold. It's very hard to keep off it. I'm already imagining a bunch of things to do with these pieces starting with eating them straight up. Cold. Right out of the refrigerator. Using fingers. Right now.