Sortatash Version 2–Hot Sautéed Corn and Squash Side Dish

I’ve worked on this recipe a few times, tweaking it a bit each time. The last time I tried using it as a less wet alternative to salsa in the Yakisoburrito.

This time, I decided to make it completely a side dish, good for accompanying grilled meats and whatnot, and overall I am pretty satisfied with the result.

I replaced the rather thin wax pepper with a much meatier cousin, the pasilla pepper, and spiked everything with a bit of habanero.  The result is a satisfying, toothsome dish that will fill many a belly quite nicely.

Before I continue on with the recipe, please let me shill an awesome project again briefly. Tiffany Simmons is writing a cookbook themed around tabletop gaming, and it is going to be awesome. Yes, I am taking part of it as a recipe tester. And if you’re in the Northern California Bay Area and are free on September 8th, you should consider joining me in San Rafael for a gaming and recipe testing/tasting event, I’ll be cooking up a storm! Just check out the Secret Passage reward level!

Ok, now back to the sortatash recipe.

I Hope You’re a Big Flan of Asparagus Custard.

Actually, I’d understand perfectly well if you were not, I won’t be offended really. That said, if you’re into asparagus, custards, and are adventurous enough to see what the bizarre love child of mingling the two would be, I would suggest you consider this admittedly somewhat out there recipe.

Ah, yes, by the way, this week’s theme is asparagus, not custard, but no one is keeping score I don’t think.

I originally had intended on doing something a bit more commonplace, such as roasted asparagus, a regular favorite in the household, but it being a challenge I decided to challenge myself. A tickle in the back of my head reminded me that there was something one could do with asparagus and eggs that was mentioned in Michael Ruhlman’s Ratio so I took a look and there it was, Asparagus Custard.

A bit taken aback, I had to beg my family to allow me to foist this upon them.

Molding issues aside, it had a really nice green color at the end of it. Oh and don’t worry, this isn’t a dessert at all, but it is certainly cooling. Read on if you haven’t been scared off!

Take Time to Fritter Away the Day.

Week 4 of 52 weeks of cooking, and the theme is pan frying. In case you’re wondering what happened in week three, it’s best not to dwell on it. Actually, maybe you can if you like. I’m going to take two birds our with one stone here by also using one of the formula’s from Michael Ruhlman's Ratio, fritter batter. Another down, maybe 27 more to go.

Fritter batter’s ratio is a pretty simple one, and very versatile to use. Two parts flour, two parts liquid, one part egg. A little bit of baking powder to help with leavening, a bit of salt to bring out the flavor. This is the foundation through which a huge array of garnishes can be pulled together with different flavor combinations for an easy snack.

Light and Tangy Honey Mustard Coleslaw

I’m going to be honest here; growing up, I actually somewhat liked Kentucky Fried Chicken’s coleslaw. My mother seemed to have a bit of a fondness to it, and I could handle small bites of it from time to time when I wasn’t focused on the mashed potatoes and gravy, further proof of my lack of good taste in youth.

It wasn’t until later (much, much later) that I realized that coleslaw could be elevated to something far beyond a very sweet mayonnaise laden mass of limp vegetables.

After a bit of research and tinkering, this is my version of a slightly sweet and tangy coleslaw. Clear measurements at the end of the post.

First thing you need for coleslaw are the vegetables. Cabbage, onion, celery and a carrot are required. Green bell pepper (not pictured) is not, but a welcome addition. Unless you have a friend who is highly allergic to it. Which I do.

I’m just making a modest batch of coleslaw this time, so I only needed about a third of that cabbage and half the onion pictured.

Beyond the vegetables, you need flavor of course. Paprika, apple cider vinegar, honey mustard, olive oil and ground white pepper are what I use to bind everything together, along with an optional certain something. More on that later.

Yes, my family keeps white pepper in the black pepper container. We’re very frugal around here.

How to Make Your Kids Eat Their Veggies: Roasted Broccoli!

In the common experience of many former vegetable avoiders, one trend seems particularly: A mother who does not know how to maximize the deliciousness of the ingredient she has been given. While I have never truly hated broccoli, for a long time it was simply a vegetable I was forced to eat, and nothing I really looked forward to.

This recipe makes broccoli something I could almost make an entire meal out of. And sometimes I do.

For the recipe, I used two cloves of garlic, a tablespoon or so of olive oil, pepper and salt, and a three pound bag of broccoli from Costco, though you can certainly just buy a head of broccoli and use the stems too.

First preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Then cut the broccoli into medium sized pieces if you’re using a head, and any oddly huge pieces from a bag if you find any. Place pieces on a baking sheet.

Mince the garlic cloves and toss onto broccoli.

Sprinkle a tablespoon of olive oil onto the broccoli. Add a bit more if it won’t be enough to coat the pieces.

And finally sprinkle some salt and pepper on. You want each piece to have some flavor, but don’t go overboard. If you need a measurement, then a scant teaspoon for three pounds should be plenty. Then a good shake of pepper, a scant half teaspoon.

Place the tray into the preheated oven and roast for at least twenty minutes, tossing at least once halfway through. Once the broccoli takes on some brown around the edges you are set.

If you’re feeling particularly decadent, toss in some grated parmesan cheese! It’s still delicious without it though.

Just a Sunday Dinner with Friends

Friendship is a wonderful thing, and manifests in many forms. Chums, associates, buddies, pals, pirate crews, fellowships, bowling leagues, partners, lovers, acquaintances, barflies and comrades to name a few such relationships. To have friends is to have fellow human beings (and pets) with which to combat those hours of solitude together, hopefully pursuing constructive activities with one another. Though being lazy with friends is perfectly fine too.

One of my favorite ways to spend time with friends is preparing a group dinner. One of these past weekends I was able to visit some friends who are just a month into their marriage. It is really strange to think of it that way actually, I mean they’ve been together forever, but now they are actually married!

It almost makes me feel self conscious of my enduring bachelorhood. Almost.

Stuffed Summer Squash–Autumnal Eats

With the Halloween come and past, now is a good a time as any to focus upon some comfort dishes that folks associate with these generally cooling months, or really cold depending on your location (or maybe hotter if you’re on the other side of the equator.)

So it is either very appropriate or weird that the featured ingredient of the first post focusing on this theme is summer squash. By the way, the word summer in summer squash however is more of a reference towards the short shelf life compared to the more durable winter squash.

These are the lovely squash I picked up at the farmers market last week, and they’ve been waiting patiently in the crisper for me to get to them. Two green pattypans and five sunburst squashes to be precise.

Though a little bit small, I thought these would be great to make stuffed squash.

You say tomato, I say tomato. Let’s call the whole thing a great project: Oven dried tomatoes.

My aunt successfully planted a nice little crop of tomatoes and generously shared some with my family. They seemed to be about the right quality for a project I’ve wanted to pursue for a while: oven-dried tomatoes.

Oven dried tomatoes you ask? Yes. Such tomatoes are basically a substitute for sun dried tomatoes, and can be used in all the same recipes, but with a slightly different flavor. Perhaps less earthy but still has that nice depth of tomato flavor.

The process is simple. All you need are tomatoes (one pound is good), salt, olive oil and two cloves of garlic. A bit of forewarning, this is not an instant satisfaction recipe. The “cooking” takes six hours, then you need to wait a couple days after that. But the results are great, and you’ll have a versatile ingredient once you’re done!

First preheat your oven to 200 degrees F. Clean your tomatoes as per usual.

Remove the stems. I like to slice it in a circular fashion avoid waste.

Then lay them cut side up in a foil lined pan.

Next, generously sprinkle with salt. Be less generous with table salt, but more generous with kosher salt and other less potent salts.

Then place the pan into the oven, and let it go for 6 hours.

The end result shall look dry and shriveled but when touched, will still have quite a bit of squish to them. They’re not going to turn into cardboard by any stretch. Let them cool off a bit.

Once they’ve cooled to room temperature we can proceed! Get your olive oil and garlic cloves ready.

I had a rather monstrous garlic clove, so one was fine for this purpose.

Cut your garlic cloves into halves. Or quarters if you have monster cloves like me.

Place the tomatoes into a clean container. Glass would probably be best. Then toss on the garlic pieces.

Then cover with olive oil! Put into the refrigerator and wait at least two days before using. This will keep for a couple weeks at least.

My next post will be a recipe that uses some of these delicious tomatoes! Look forward to it!

Cream Cheese Stuffed, Bacon Wrapped Jalapeños

Also known as Atomic Buffalo Turds, Armadillo turds and all sorts of other animals that need to do various things. By the by, this is my first time trying to blog using the Windows Live Writer so hopefully this post won’t stand out terribly, but if so, you know why!

The process for making these are probably just what you’d imagine it to be. But I need a reason to show off some pretty pictures right? I recommend wearing some food quality plastic gloves for this process by the way. Here are the ingredients I’ve used. Cream cheese, jalapeños, bacon. I think you can use whatever white cheese you’d like, but something milder would probably work better. Pepper jack might actually be interesting, but probably redundant.

Slice the peppers in half.

Remove the seeds.

And stuff with cheese of your choice! Cream cheese is advantageous in terms of ease.

Wrap each pepper half in half of a bacon slice. Or a whole slice if you’re feeling particularly sumptuous. Spear with a toothpick to secure the bacon. Do a better job of me with covering all of the cheese with bacon if you’re going to be grilling and need to turn it over due to overly hot temperatures in the case you don’t have full control over the charcoal.

Grill or baking the stuffed peppers. If grilling, I’d recommend indirect heat if possible, covering and keeping an eye on it, checking it say, every 5 minutes until cooked. As I didn’t have that option I actually had to flip it onto both sides to cook the bacon. If baking, it is 10-15 minutes in a 450 degree oven.

Once finished, have a cold beer or perhaps a glass of milk ready and enjoy!

Pizza Can be a Little Healthier if You Try!

Summer, a time to be totally lazy. That's why this post is a blatant recycle of previously blogged posts with a slight difference. At any rate, eating more vegetables seems to be popular among health circles, so I figure a great way to eat more vegetables is to put them on pizza. Broccoli in particular works great on pizza, along with the staples of mushroom and red bell pepper. Observe.

Mushrooms, bell pepper and broccoli are sliced up into appropriate pieces. Mushrooms and bell peppers have are pretty forgiving in terms of thickness, but the broccoli should be sliced thinner in order for the heat of the oven to brown the florets and soften the stems. Ideally, the broccoli will seemingly melt into the cheese. 

(Note: this is assuming an oven temperature of 500 degrees F or higher. The oven I use goes up to 540.)

Toss everything into a boil with a liberal dousing of olive oil, a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Assemble the pizza  as per usual.

And enjoy your pizzas. These pizzas would have been completely vegetarian if not for some ham, which was requested by one of the fussier eaters today.

Is this really all that healthy? Well, it cuts some of the fat of the more luxurious meats, so healthier, but I wouldn't go all the way to call it a health food. But that's not the point of pizza is it?