In search of a chicken sandwich

Our hero is a dummkopf, there is no other way around it. 

There is food all around. Anything you can think of within walking distance even if you are in a wheelchair. In fact there are people in wheelchairs all around getting whatever food that they like. Hundreds of them all over the place. What does our boy do? Makes his own sandwich. Makes his own bread. 

His reasoning is this bread has butter and milk and eggs, it is what regular commercial sandwich bread is trying to be but without butter and milk and eggs. 

If you want it fresh you have to do it yourself. Now. 

And that is not very good reasoning. 

For you see, our society is highly specialized. 

Precisely to free us from such onerous daily burdens. And now these things are all done by experts. 

And here is our hero in reverse of all that civilization progress. 

Does he honestly think he can do better?

Better than professionals do? 

Yes, I believe he does think that.

And that's why he's a dummkopf. 

Or maybe he's just having fun.

You know how when you were four years old you stuck potato chips inside your sandwiches for crunch? 

For extra crunchy fried chicken coating use water instead of milk. This is a TOP SECRET TRICK !

So don't tell anyone. 

Fried rice

Fried rice is an exacting recipe developed over centuries.

1. You take any kind of oil heat it to high.

2. Flavor the oil with any kind aromatic at hand

3. Add any kind of vegetable seasonably available in stages

4. Add any protein you can manage

5. Finish with any sauce of your liking.

And never vary from this recipe. It's ritualized. Codified. It's like a religion. 

It's a trick! 

A magical trick involving water.

I meant to do that!

Nobody likes a perfect food dome. 

It's anal retentive and there you are thinking about anal things at the dinner table. Best to mess up the dome. 

Roasted poblano, Spanish rice and ham omelet

Three roasted poblano chiles with their deep New World flavor, much richer than bell peppers and less heat than jalapeño chile peppers. These are what should be used for stuffed peppers. There is nothing like them. They cannot be matched. 

The idea is for chile rellano in omelet form.

The egg will be the wrapper light and fluffy as scrambled egg goes with all of this filling rolled inside it.

Nothing is hot. There is nothing here challenging. There is no pork chile, hardly any capsaicin heat, just flavor, rich warm roasted chile flavor.

Aerogarden hack progress, rooting mint, rooting basil

Poor choice for location. The Aerogarden light pole extends 3X its length but the ceiling allows less than a foot from the top of the refrigerator. That means things must be short.

The track light in the overhead fixture is fitted for photography. 

It appears things will live. 

Roasted poblano chicken breast, Spanish rice, black beans

New World flavors like nothing you've tasted.

We're very anti sexist around here so we call these things chest of chicken or chicken chests. 

Dice ustedes poblanos no problema.

Two things happen at once. 

Rice is prepared and started to steam stovetop while these peppers are roasted under the oven's broiler. 

Don't let these photos confuse you. We're doubletasking over here. We're like Vishnu with four arms.

Cheat! Flavor cheat!

This chicken bouillon is awful, just awful. But it works well to boost flavor. Not that it's needed. The flavor of Jasmine rice is fine. 1/10 of this cube is scrapped off into the water for rice. 

Commercial seasoning included for its red color, achiote, another name for a red berry annatto. I cannot find it separately so I'm using this instead. I'm using this for its color. That's all. And that's not a very good reason. Beets will do that. 

The peppers are turned three times so all sides blister. We're burning the skin.

Say hey, Baby, have you heard the news?

Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove.

And now, My Friends, we experience a gap in the story, lacuna, if you like, in the narrative. The photographs suddenly stop. Then pick up again. Were they to continue unbroken then you would see the chile pepper's skin pull right off, a weak spot in each pepper exploited to get at the seeds and the resulting mess of charred skin and seeds and we have seen all this before. It's not so terribly bad. 

The fact is I was distracted and busy doing something else. So sorry, Uncle Albert, but the sunset was happening just then and we're so easily called away. 

Back to the peppers. What's the rush? We have all night.

The same seasoning in both bowls. 

Scant flour with spices, enough to dust the chicken chests. 

Here's the magic trick. 

Panko bread crumbs in the same bowl!

A savings of one bowl!

The switcheroo happens so fast, and I mean fast that you can barely see it. 

What? I thought you said you are dying to try it. 

What again? You say, yeah, but you're trying to diet? 

Fine then. No cheese for you!