Poached

I needed a small-ish simple dinner tonight. I’ve been on a salad kick as of late, so salad it is. But what to put on it?

Cucumbers. Check.

Scallions. Check.

Tomatillos. Check. (Delicious by the way, much better than tomatoes).

(From www.panix.com)

Walnuts? Check.

But, it needed something else. Another protein. Something delicious and quick.

Something from the freezer? Chicken? Shrimp? Eh, both needs to defrost, then cook. Both somewhat boring. No working for me tonight.

Hopefully the refrigerator will help round out this meal. Eggs? Eggs!

The only questions remaining (there seems to be many questions for this dinner) is the preparations of said egg.

The best way, that how. Poached! I love poached eggs. That style is quickly becoming my favorite. The egg white just set, with the yolk still runny, but thick. And its dead easy too.

Take a wide, shallow pan filled with an inch or two of water. Bring to boil. Add a tablespoon or two of white vinegar. Crack egg into a small glass bowl. Lower heat so water is simmering, but not violently boiling. Slowly, gently, add the egg into the water. Then let it cook. Maybe 5-6 minutes, and its done. Remove with slotted spoon. Finished.

I did, however, manage to botch the retrieval of the egg from the pot. It got a little messed up. I really need to get a metal slotted spoon, the thick plastic one just doesn’t cut it.

Bon Appetit!

Grilled Potato Chips

I wanted to do something different as a potato side for my dinner. And I wanted an excuse to use this:

A Mandolin!

So, I took a potato and the ‘crinkle’ blade, and cut me some potato chips. It also helped that I had just finished watching a show on Food Network where she made chips in the oven. However, its summer, so the oven was out of question. To the grill we go! I coated the potatoes in olive oil and pepper. They got laid out on a grill pan as such:

With the grill preheated (my grill is either cold or hot, even though I paid a crap load for it), on went the potatoes (along with a burger). When I went to flip the burger, the moved the chips around (front to back, flipped them over). The back ones were starting to brown (well, blacken), but the centers were still not quite done. After a few more minutes, everything was done (mostly).

I coated them with some smoke sea salt I have (and absolutely love).

They were decent. Some were over-done, almost burnt. Others could have used another minute in the center. I think the grill is too uneven in the heat (and flames below) to cook them all evenly. Maybe they should stay being made in the oven. Also, if they could have been a 1/32″ thinner, they would have been better. But, alas, my mandolin (well at least the crinkle knife) doesn’t have an adjustment).

They were still tasty though. On the side was a burger on a delicious kaiser roll. I believe the roll is central to a good burger. I’ll have none of those 10 cent fake rolls people usually get. Only the best! With avocado too!

Now, I just need to figure out what to make for the fourth!

OMG. A Food Post! Oink Oink.

Finally decided to make something half-way decent for dinner. Nevermind I didn’t start until eight pm.

I was actually thinking Sunday evening and took out a pork loin that had been in my freezer since….? Um, yeah, time to eat it!

Since its summer, the best thing to do is grill it. But just putting a loin on the grill is boring. Enter the spice cabinet. Thank god for McCormicks. Love their stuff, especially the spicy Montreal steak seasoning. Well, I also have the Barbeque seasoning. A liberal coating of it on the pork, and out on the grill it went.

After that, I just sat on my coach and watch some Phillies (Go Phillies!). After 10-12 minutes, I took some asparagus (coated in EVOO and a asian-salt seasoning I have), flipped the loin and added the veggies.

After another 10 minutes or so, the pork reached that magical number (160 degrees!). Off the grill everything went, and into the kitchen for a minute or two to finish the meal up.

Now, what to do with this delicious looking food? Salad! Simple, heathy and easy! Bon appetit.

Haitus

Oops. Look at that. Sorry folks. Been awhile it seems.

I’ve been on vacation, then another vacation and in between, I was in vacation mode.

So, until I get back to cooking interesting things (mainly its been take-out, fajitas, and misc things on the grill), check out my pictures from my visit to Kennedy Space Center.

http://picasaweb.google.com/adambasner/NASATripSTS127Part1?feat=directlink

Fish and Broc

Well, another night, and late night (after 8pm), hadn’t eaten yet, and hungry. What to do, what do to.

Why do I keep doing this? It seems every night is like this anymore. When it gets this late, I have no desire to make anything. Don’t feel like prepping, waiting, cooking, cleaning. Just want to eat!

Anyways, I decided to make something dead simple. Just two (okay, not just two) ingredients, Broccoli and Fish (Flounder to be exact). Decided that it would be the oven for both. The fish was just something I had in the freezer (I know, horrors of horrors, frozen fish. Get over it). In the sink it went to defrost. Meanwhile, with the oven pre-heating to hot (450ish), I tackled the broccoli. Which really means cutting off a bunch of crowns (?), slice a clove of garlic, coat with olive oil and sprinkle with some asian-flavored salt I have.

For those interested, I use my stone baking sheet when making stuff like this. Its made of the same stuff the pizza stones are made of (porous stone material). Every time you cook with it, the stone is seasoned more. And since you can’t wash it with soap (A big no-no, the thing would just soak it up and thats just nasty), cleaning is dead easy.

As soon as the broccoli went in, the fish was defrosted. At first I couldn’t think of what to do with it (other than shoving it in the oven). I went snooping through the fridge and found some miso in a bottle. Perfect! I have no idea if its just miso or a mix of something (too lazy to go to the fridge right now), but its white miso. I mixed it up with a pinch of sugar and some water and soy sauce. The fish (after drying it off), was then smothered in it to marinade for a bit while the broccoli cooked.

With the broccoli being close to finished, the fish went in the oven also. After about 5 mintues (okay, fess up time, I should have taken them out after 5, but lost track of time and it was more like 8-9 minutes, making everything slightly over-cooked) everything was finished and out of the oven.

Have I mentioned I love the broccoli like this? The best way to have cooked broccoli in my mind. The stems are tender, and the tops are crunchy. Its not water logged and limp like the boiled/steamed broccoli I usually have. Yum. The fish was good too. It would have been better if I had fresher fish (and not as thin fish), but was good anyways. The miso glaze gave it a nice asian-style flavor, but not an in-your-face-asian flavor, but a very subtle flavor everyone should like.

Did I mention this was dead easy and quick? Two minutes to prepare broccoli, another 2 minutes for the fish. There was some waiting for the defrosting, oven preheating, the cooking. But freakin easy! And Tasty!

Sup-fast, Break-ner, Din-? What happens when its 8.30pm and you haven’t had dinner

As it usually happens these days, it was a weeknight and well past 8pm. I haven’t had dinner yet, and had no motivation to make anything. Though haven’t a bowl of cereal was tempting, it just wasn’t going to cut it.

Then I thought I’d make some eggs. But the boring-ness of just eggs was under-whelming me, especially with the absence of bread in the kitchen. But what about an omelet? I hadn’t made one of those in a long time.

But just omelets are boring (really, its just a large fried, scramble egg, right?). So I dug through my fridge and found a leek and one last portobello mushroom. I haven’t used leeks since the Easter dinner of a few weeks ago, but purchased one in hopes of making something with it. Its onion-y enough to work, I thought. The mushroom was a no brainer. Mmm, fungi.

Anyways, I sauteed the leeks over very high heat for 2-3 minutes until they started to brown. Be sure to keep them moving! Remember, brown is yummy, black is yucky. After the leeks were tender, the mushrooms were sauteed also, but over medium heat, about 5 minutes. While those cooked down, I mixed up the eggs.

I went with three eggs and a splash of milk, beat them until combined, added some salt and pepper, and poured them into the buttered omelet pan. Oh, and I mixed in a few pieces of pepper-jack cheese for kicks.

Normally, I would try and lift the edges and get the raw eggs on top to flow underneath to cook. When all the runny bits had vanished, I’d do the silly omelet dance of trying to flip it without ripping, which always ended up with a ripped/destroyed/mutilated omelet. But this time, I had an idea. The broiler! Oft forgotten, I remembered! After the bottom set and cooked a bit, it went under the broiler to finish. When it was almost done (just a hint of browning on top, and slightly puffy) I pulled the pan out and place the toppings on top. It went back in for another minute to get the topping warm again.

Man, it was yummy. It was also late and I was starving, so I may not have been completely objective with this appraisal. But, whatever. Finished off with a side salad, the dinner filled me up and was pretty healthy to boot!

And yes, thats ketchup you see. I covered it in tomato-vinegar goodness only Heinz knows how to make.