Fried Green Tomatoes September 9, 2007

I remember passing these over for breakfast and my grandparents’ house simply because neither of my parents were fans and so ruined me on them. It wasn’t until I was about 8 that I decided to try them again and there was no turning back from that point. Fried green tomatoes are one of the best seasonal vegie indulgences going. Here’s the recipe for my spiced up version that’s just a wee bit different from how grandma used to make them. It makes about 6 side dish sized servings.

Ingredients:

30 mid-sized unripe tomatoes
2 cups cornmeal
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 tbsp thyme leaves
2 tsp ground coriander
3 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
3 beaten eggs
1/4 cup vegetable or peanut oil

Instructions:

Cut the tomatoes into half inch thick slices. Set aside between paper towels in single layers while you prepare the breading. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat the eggs in another. In a large, heavy skillet, heat the oil until very hot. Dredge each slice of tomato through the egg then the breading and place them directly in hot skillet. Fry each piece about 3 minutes on the first side and two minutes on the second. As they finish move them to a paper towel covered plate to drain.

Serve immediately.

Corny September 5, 2007

Haven’t posted in a while but I thought I’d let you all know that we’re making the most of our favourite seasonal vegie:

Roasting corn has got to be the best way to have it. All it takes is a good soaking of the ears in cold water for a couple of hours (one is minimum) then tossing them on the grill (or fire if you’ve got one) for about half an hour. They come out with a sweet nuttiness that just isn’t achieved in boiling them plus the leftovers (if there are any) make a wicked chowder.

Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter July 13, 2007

A couple of days ago I acquired a triangle moose roast as part of my payment for creating business cards for a friend. I should preface the rest of what I’m going to say with the fact that moose is my favourite meat ever. I recognise that not everyone is in the same boat. Some find it overly gamey, greasy(?), dry, dense & tough. So many cooks want to cook the devil (thought I’ve never found the devil in moose; brave and noble creatures that they are) out of it – stews, pot roasts and chillis seem to be among favourite moose dishes. I tend toward embracing its inherent qualities beyond its meatiness like its texture, it’s darker flavour and its versatility.

The other night I decided to prepare the roast for the family but needed to cater it to their tastes as much as mine. A triangle roast, no matter what creature it comes from, is a meaty-flavoured hunk of flesh. Highly underrated, in my mind, but I’ve heard many complain about the density of flavour and texture of this cut many times so I treaded lightly and treated it with a game-subduing, tenderising marinade of my own invention.

First I cut the meat into 1 inch thick steaks. Moose is very dense, triangle cut is particularly dense as well, and my intent was to toss it on the grill and I was looking for something relatively quick to cook. I’ll get into the actual cooking method in a bit.

The marinade is as follows:

Juice of 3 limes
3/4 cup amber rum
4 cloves of garlic
2 tsp sage
2 tsp thyme
1/4 cup olive oil
4 tbsp chipotle adobo (it’s the sauce that surrounds chipotles we get in cans ’round these parts)
2 chipotles
1 pinch ground cloves

I just whizzed the ingredients together in a food processor and tossed it over the meat. The steaks stood in the marinade for a good 5 hours.

Note that there is no salt in this recipe. Where salt does the trick in degamifying (made up word; I’m allowed) the gaminess of wild game, it also dries it out to a point which I find unpalatable. Instead I chose the rum and the lime to perform this function and they did so marvelously though I’ve also used ground raisins, maple syrup, orange juice, brown sugar and molasses for the same purpose.

Sage and cloves will forever in my mind be perfect flavour mates of moose. I’ve rarely cooked the stuff without them.

When it comes to actually cooking moose meat it gets a little tricky depending on the tastes of whomever you’re cooking for. I tend to like red meat fairly rare (up to 2 minutes a side does it for me with the thickest cuts of beef) but moose doesn’t hold up well to not being cooked. I allowed the grill to get really hot before putting the steaks on then immediately turned it down to medium heat and let them cook, turning about 3/4 of the way through the cooking time for each steak. The steak I made for myself was on the grill for nearly 15 minutes and was still nicely pink on the inside, with the thinnest layer of grey on the outside and very, very tender despite the complete lack of fat on the steak itself. This was the product of all the marinading done prior to cooking. It would likely make a great marinade for deer too.

vacation eats and product endorsement July 10, 2007

It’s vacation time. In our world this basically consists of not being at work, tying up loose ends on the domestic front (I WILL get that bookshelf painted) and eating a lot of easy yummy foods.

15 minutes of prep time with everyone working for the better good produces a delicious breakfast of BBQ grilled tomato and mozarella sandwiches on pumpernickel and a simple spinach and blueberry salad.

Product Plug: Though ‘Asian Silk’ sounds more like something found in the boudoir, I’m happy to keep this stuff in my fridge. It’s a little spritzy bottle of salad dressing made by Hellmann’s and it’s pretty good stuff. All of the label lit is guaged in 10 squirt serving sizes but I’ve never needed to use that much and that it squirts rather than pours all over the place is genius as it gives coverage control and I’m notorious for getting distracted and over-pouring dressings.

BBQ fishies June 5, 2007

It’s barbeque season and we’re on it full throttle. We’ve been through two and a half tanks since April and are seriously contemplating getting the hook ups required for gas service. We loves our barbeque.

The general rule in this household is that if one thing is going to be grilled, everything might as well be grilled. Really it’s as much a challenge as a rule and I’ve definitely bombed out on a few things, but I’m pretty bloody minded about exploiting our tools and experimenting so it’s all good.

Last night it was marinated tilapia, corn bread bruschetta and spinach salad. Yum.

I’ve never worked with tilapia before and the daughter is devoutly anti-fish so it was a little intimidating but it came out lovely.

Tilapia marinade:

1/4 c liquid honey
2 tbsp soya sauce (just a word to the wise; if you’re going to add anything to honey to make it salty it might as well be soya sauce, no matter what other flavours you’re working with)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried chili flakes
2 tbsp olive oil

Shake all of the above in a bottle or whiz it in a food processor then dump over the fish fillets.

I let our little tilapia fillets marinate in this for a few hours because I had a few hours, but it really only needs about 30 minutes of marinating time. If you don’t have time to let them soak then this recipe also makes an excellent finishing glaze.

I scored a lovely cornmeal bread from the A&P – it’s not a true cornbread as it was obviously leavened with yeasty beasties, but it had such an interesting texture which immediately made me think ‘bruschetta’, so that’s what it became. I imagine this marinade would work well with local fresh water fish as well – pickerel and lake trout come to mind as they’re a little less delicate than bass or pan fish.

Bruschetta topping:

2 roma tomatoes, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small red onion (ok – I was lacking the red onion in last night’s batch, but I normally make it with red onion)
2 tsp dried or fresh oregano
1 handful chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup grated asiago cheese
cracked black pepper to taste

Mix all of that together and toss it on your favourite bread.

And here’s everything browning nicely on the grill:

Yes, again with the pizza stone. I tossed it on the grill as it heated up and basically used it like a frying pan for the fish. It doesn’t take away any of the grilled flavour but it prevents fish bits falling to the briquette gods and the need for a proper fish basket. The daughter loved it =)