What's for dinner tonight?

I use a VERY simple recipe that probably makes a mockery of the true dish, but the girls LOVE it.

My favorite was the cauliflower, I kicked it up a notch or two and it was awesome.

 

Actually the best recipe I have ever tried is very simple. I make a marinade of cayenne and tomato sauce and refrigerate the chicken in it over night.
1 lb of chicken
2 tbs butter (ghee or clarified butter)

Marinade
1 cup tomato sauce
1 tbs cayenne

For the sauce:
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp cumin seed
2 whole cloves
1 cup chopped onion
3 chopped jalapenos
2 tbs butter

Melt butter and add spices stir frying for 2 or 3 minutes. Add onions and jalapeno and clear cook.

In cast iron skillet melt 2 more tbs butter and brown chicken pieces on all sides.

Pour the marinade into the sauce a little at a time until there is enough pepper to taste. Add salt and black pepper to taste. Add chicken and simmer until chicken is done.

Serve over Basmati rice and with Naan or Chapatis

I also like cauliflower, but ether as pakoras or as part of Aloo Ghobi Masala. I usually shred some cabbage into the masala.

 

Schwein Schnitzel Paniert

Or German breaded pork cutlets

2 or 3 very thin cutlets of pork
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup bread crumbs
Salt and pepper to taste

Beat the egg in the milk then dip cutlet to cover all over
Dredge in bread crumbs

In shallow oil fry the cutlets until golden brown. Serve as is with your choice of potatoes

Or

Make a Jeager mushroom sauce. Saute 1/2 cup chopped onions in butter, add mushrooms. Brown a little flour and add mushroom liquor. Add enough wine (1/4 cup) to thin sauce. Serve with Schnitzel. I prefer new potatoes with parsley and butter.

 

Dinner today is Duck Vietnamie, roast duck with an orange basting sauce made with orange juice, soy sauce and a little corn starch to thicken the sauce.

1 4 or 5 lb duck

Sauce:
3/4 cups orange sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
1 level tbs corn starch
Mix well and cook on low until sauce thickened.

Rub a mixture of salt, coarse black pepper with a little cayenne to taste all over the duck.
In the hollow I put one or two small onions or 1 large onion cut in half to fit and 2 cloves of garlic. Heat oven to 350.
Roast breast down in an open roasting pan until the back is well browned. Turn duck over and roast on its back until done. Remove duck and pour out the melted fat and gravy. Return duck to roaster. Pour orange sauce over duck and return to oven. Take the liquid from the duck and spoon off most of the fat. Add a bit of roux mix, 1/2 cup chopped green onion and 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley. If needed add a little chicken broth and cook on low until the gravy is thickened. Serve with rice.

 

I LOVE duck, any time, any way, breakfast lunch or dinner.

 

Thursday is duck gumbo, which I will make from the carcass and left over meat. That is my favorite part of the duck, providing I have some fresh hot French bread and butter.

In a dutch oven, 1/2 cup medium hot melted drawn butter. I am not supposed to use butter any more but for this I make an exception. Add 1/2 cup flour. I stir it with a spatula to make sure I am constantly moving everything on the bottom of the pot so it won't scorch. When it is almost as brown as a Hershey Bar I turn off the flame and add 1/2 cup of chopped onions, 1/2 cup chopped sweet pepper and stir fry it as long as the pot is still hot. I add 1 tbs chopped garlic and then stir in between 1.5 and 2 quarts of water and any left over gravy after removing as much fat as possible. Butter is bad enough, I don't need to duck grease too. Bring the mixture back to a simmer, but do not ever bring it to a rolling boil. Add the duck carcass and simmer for about 1.5 to 2 hours. I don't put sausage in my duck gumbo or my seafood gumbo unless I am cooking New Orleans style gumbo, which is another animal altogether. About 10 minutes before serving I add 1/2 cut chopped green onions and 1/4 cup chopped parsley and I let folks add their own, salt, hot peppers and file' at the table. I like it hot, my wife likes it mild; to each his own. My favorite peppers are the tiny Thai peppers finely chopped and added a little at a time. Serve with a little rice and beaucoup chaud pain Francais.

 

Tomorrow is fried catfish. We have a cafeteria style restaurant in town which has all the catfish you can eat for $12 with all the fixings and usually a really good peach cobbler for desert. I do get my moneys worth.

 

Sunday dinner is smoked sausage, fresh baked sweet potatoes, green beans with a nice garden salad with German Vinaigrette.

 

Mtuze wa samaki:

1lb tilapia fillets
1 large onion, sliced
Juice of one lime
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 Tablespoon crushed garlic
1Tablespoon curry powder
1 cup coconut milk
1Tsp salt

Sprinkle tilapia fillets with salt and lime juice, let stand for 20 minutes, pat dry. Brown in a little bit of oil. Saute onions and garlic until tender, cover the fillets in the pan, Sprinkle with curry powder, then pour over coconut milk and bring to a simmer for 5 minutes and serve with ugali, rice or chapatis.

 

Braised beef short ribs with carrots
Mushroom Risotto
Crusty bread.

 

Sounds good to me. I'll have to try that next time I prepare fish.

 

We were going to have some weird German dish that I've never cooked before but after baking off and on all day (Christmas gifts) I'm a bit tired and so instead I'm going to whip up some Asian stir fry dish off the top of my noggin . . . because I can do that sort of thing in my sleep.

But about forty minutes ago the wife informed me that we needed one more batch of either English style tea scones or a Madeira cake for a last minute client added to the gift list. I just finished putting together the batter from scratch and shoving the cake into the oven. In about thirty minutes I'll pull them (the batter was enough to make two loaf style cakes) from the oven and then the instant they cool off a bit drop almond flakes on top of them and then drip honey on top of those.

Tomorrow I get to return to baking more gifts; but first I will have to run to the grocery store and purchase more butter. I use real sugar and real butter just as the baking muse of cholesterol originally dictated. You might die early from eating much of my baked goods; but you'll die with a smile on your lips.

 

Most dietary experts will tell you that foods containing cholesterol are not as bad for your cholesterol level as some other oils which cause your body to create cholesterol. For stir frying I usually use canola oil unless I am doing Italian, then I use olive oil, but while you are at it, bake me one of those cakes

 

Get back in line, please. Any cake with booze in the name must be good.
Can you bake without sugar and butter? Must be awful. I rather eat a less than use fake stuff I can't pronounce.

 

Hah! I can't figure out why you're supposed to drink Madeira wine with this cake. I mean . . . it doesn't make me want to reach for the bottle. One of life's little mysteries.

 

When cooking -- as opposed to baking -- I've gotten where I will flip between four oil types, canola, olive, peanut, and sunflower. The last two are for Asian style cooking. I use canola oil when I don't want an identifiable oil taste attached to the food.

About the baking, the odd thing is that I do a fair amount of baking but very little eating. I enjoy producing it more than I do consuming it. About the only thing easier than producing a batch of scones is whipping up a Madeira cake, which is why I've been churning those out this past week. But as soon as Christmas is over I'm going to switch to other types of baking.

 

Home made burritos are on the menu today. I don't like the typical ground meat chili and I prefer pork chili to beef chili.

1 lb of stir fry cut beef/pork, preferably loin or rib eye meat cut into small slices.
1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped sweet pepper
1 or more chopped jalapeno to taste
2 tbs chunky salsa
2 tbs chili powder (or 1 tbs cayenne + 1 tbs paprika)
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp organo
salt and black pepper to taste (I like coarse ground black pepper)

In a little oil (canola or olive) I brown the meat all over with the spices, then add the onion and peppers and cook on low until onions are clear cooked. I add the salsa, cover and cook on very low, thickening with roux mix if not thick enough. I like my chili hot (piquante) but my wife does not so I add a hot red pepper relish to mine.

I shred some lettuce and cut up some tomato to add to the chili in the wrap (flour tortilla) and sometimes add some sour cream. I serve it with:

Mexican style rice.

1 cup raw rice
1 tbs drawn butter
2 tbs thick and chunky salsa
1 tsp cumin seed
2 tbs chili powder
1/2 tsp salt

In oven proof pan or skillet I melt the butter add all the ingredients but salsa and stir fry until rice turns a little yellow. Then I mix the salsa and water for a total of 2 cups of liquid and stir it into the rice, cover and lower temperature to barely simmer, cooking it until all of the liquid has been absorbed by the rice and the rice is cooked. If testing shows the rice is not quite cooked add a tbs water, mix in and cook on very low until tender.

I don't put beans in chili, but I do like a bag pinto beans cooked with the same ingredients as the rice with enough liquid to cook the beans leaving some liquid unabsorbed to eat with the burritos and rice.

Sometimes I use all of the chili ingredients without the meat making a kind of vegetable chili but with more liquid so it is a somewhat thick sauce. I pan fry in drawn butter filets of fish, pouring the sauce over the fish just before serving. Pescado Mexicano.

My mother liked that sauce on steak. Grilled or pan broiled rib eye steak with the sauce poured on the steak just before serving. We have a set of sizzling steak platters with bake lite holders which I put into a toaster oven to get very hot on which to serve the steak.

 

You can make that red rice recipe with hot pork sausage and add peeled raw shrimp at the end.

 

I agree, especially the shrimp.

 

We had grilled pork chops for dinner, with baked sweet potatoes and oyster dressing. I baste the chops with a little butter as I cook them to keep them moist. for the dressing I stir fry onions, sweet peppers, and a little celery, then stir fry the white part of the French bread, adding 1 part oysters to every 3 cups of dressing, and moisten it to how I like it before baking. I leave to salt and pepper to the individual because some of my kids don't like salt. I used to get fresh oysters but on an occasion I could not get any I used canned oysters. No one could tell the difference. Now when I get fresh oysters I eat them and use the canned oysters to the dressing.

 

Junior mints and an apple

 

Lechón asado

 

I lived in Madrid for a few years. One of my favorites was the whole roasted baby pig. Especially at Botins, a restaurant in the caves at Plaza Mayor.

 

Went to the commissary this AM and they had some fresh baked baguettes so we had ham Po Boys for dinner.

 

Crock pot pork roast with cranberry orange sauce.

2 Tbsp. oil



1 flat boneless pork loin roast (4 lb.)



1 can (14 oz.) whole berry cranberry sauce



1/2 cup KRAFT Classic CATALINA Dressing


1 Tbsp. less-sodium soy sauce


1 Tbsp. cornstarch



1 tsp. zest and 1/4 cup juice from 1 orange



HEAT oil in large skillet on medium-high heat. Add meat; cook 4 to 5 min. on each side or until browned on both sides. Transfer meat to slow cooker.

MIX cranberry sauce, dressing and soy sauce; pour over meat. Cover with lid.

COOK on LOW 4 to 5 hours. Remove meat from slow cooker, reserving liquid in slow cooker. Cover meat to keep warm. Whisk remaining ingredients in small bowl until blended; stir into liquid in slow cooker. Cook, covered, on HIGH 10 min. or until thickened.

SLICE meat; place on platter. Drizzle lightly with sauce. Serve with remaining sauce.

Don't turn your crock pot on high heat.