inanimate :: food

Basic Tomato Sauce:
Once you make your own homemade tomato sauce, you'll never want to buy sauce in a jar again. This will also be the starting point of many unique sauces so it starts off pretty simple.

Dice a medium sized onion to your preferred size (small is nice) and saute in a good dose of olive oil. As they soften and start to take on color, toss in a small tin of anchovies and cook them down to a paste. Anchovies may freak you out, but cooked down into the base of a sauce they add amazing body and don't really taste like anchovies. If you're really sensitive to the taste, add just a few fillets or half the tin. When the anchovies have broken down, add in a clove of minced garlic (mince it yourself you lazy shit). Let the garlic heat but don't let it burn.

Take a can of tomatoes (the big can). Best to buy a can from an italian grocery. They're usually roma tomatoes, peeled and whole in their own juice for very cheap. Get one with no horseshit in it. Just tomatos, and at most basil and/or salt. You can either crush those canned tomatoes by hand, or take a hand blender to them to break them down to a consistency of your choice. I like the hand blender pulsed for just a few seconds to a fairly smooth texture (no big chunky lumps but not smooth like soup).

Toss your crushed/blended tomatos into the pan and bring it back up to heat and simmer. Give it a quick swirl of honey for sweetness, a few chilli flakes for a touch of heat (use only a pinch. You can add more to your final sauce later), and a bunch of capers. You've got a bit of lattitude here. Add seasonings that you see fit but try to keep it simple as this is just your base sauce (basil is nice, a handful of capers, etc).

After simmering for 15-20 minutes, you have a great beginning to a tomato sauce. Freeze this in smaller portions and defrost it in the microwave when you need it. It'll taste amazing compared to anything you can buy in a jar and it's really rather simple. Finish the sauce on the stove with some sliced black or moroccan olives, some browned italian sausage or meat of choice and stir in your freshly cooked pasta.

the other salad

Being that it was summer, I wanted to make dawn a new summery salad for our lunch. So I took the concepts of the cranberry almond breakfast cereal and played with it.

Again I start with baby spinach because spinach is good neutral leaf. Throw some almond slivers in the toaster oven for a moment to bring out their oils and make them crunchy. I made a dressing by reducing cranberry juice to a light syrup, adding red wine vinegar and olive oil. It should still be both sweet, tart and tangy the way a real cranberry wants to be.

Toss your spinach in a few splashes of the dressing, toss in a handful of dried cranberries and mandarin orange slices (canned in juice, not syrup) and plate it. Top this with your cooled toasted almond slices. It's a tangy, fruity, fresh summery salad.

the salad

I was told upon serving this that it was simply "the best" but it still didn't get me the girl. Your results hopefully will vary.

The salad base is baby spinach. Just buy a pack of prepared stuff and save some time. Since I didn't have any maple syrup handy, I had to make a variation on sang's famous maple vinaigrette using honey, dijon, rice wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, salt/pepper, water and olive oil. Toast some walnut pieces and find a slightly underripe pear; I used a beautiful ren anjou, sliced thinly and dressed very lightly with apple cider vinegar to prevent premature browning. You'll also need some blue cheese, but since most people can't deal with blue well I used a very creamy mellow blue.

Toss your spinach leaves with the honey mustard vinaigrette. Add small chunks of your blue cheese, walnuts and pear slices, give it a shake and serve it up. If it's not one of the best salads you've ever had, you've done something wrong.

Chicken sammich

Pick your favourite cuts of chicken and roast them. I use my basic spice mix of paprika, salt, pepper, white pepper, and olive oil on chicken thighs (bone and skin included) and roast them for 35-40 minutes at 375F. Let them cool to room temperature before cutting and cubing the chicken into bite sized pieces.

Add a dollop of mayo, a touch of honey, salt and pepper to taste, a handful of quartered red grapes and thinly sliced celery and serve on your favourite bread. I found using a chewy ciabatta worked very well. You can also add some finely diced or sliced onions if you're into that.

The key to this sammich being most best are the grapes, the honey, and freshly roasted chicken instead of leftovers. Soy good.

more inanimate food : dijon seafood pasta
finely dice some onion, mince a clove of garlic, and clean and seperate a handful of enoki mushrooms. Start sweating the onions in a pan with a good pour of good olive oil. Add a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper along with the garlic.

After the onions are softened, add the enokis for about two minutes before adding a swirl of light cream (I use half and half) and a spoon of good dijon mustard. Let these combine and adjust the mustard to taste. The mustard should add some bite, but the sauce shouldn't taste like a hot dog.

Add your freshly drained pasta (I used spaghettini for it's more delicate texture) and toss it in the pan (heat off or right down to the bottom). Squeeze lemon juice over the top to taste, add a big handful of crab meat (freshly cooked or pre-shelled at the store or you can use shrimp, scallops, or any other seafood) and your choice of finely chopped herbs (tarragon or parsley will do well) or none if you don't feel like it. The heat of the pasta will heat the crab and herbs without cooking them. Plate it and shred a good amount of parmigiano-reggiano (good parmesan cheese) on top and a few more grinds of pepper (if you like pepper).

As you may notice, I don't measure when I cook so everything is done seat of the pants. But the sauce should just coat the pasta and there should be none pooling at the bottom of the plate or pan. Cream to olive oil ratio should be close and the sauce should have equally balanced (and moderately light) flavors of mustard, lemon, pepper, and the salty parmesan. The enoki mushroom adds an incredible slightly snappy/chewy texture to the softer pasta while blending into the noodlish shape. If you find your pasta is too dry, reserve a bit of the pasta water before you drain it and add a splash back to the pasta to rehydrate once the pasta has been drained off.

update: I skipped the enokis this time, used more cream and less olive oil, and chose parsley as the herb of choice. Finding this to be the most best, and defintely real crab over other seafoods as my choice.

Beef satays (soak that skewer!) seasoned in cumin, fennel seeds, (salt/pepper) grilled on the bbq and served with a lime juice, ginger, thai chilli and honey dipping sauce.

Duck breast, skin side seasoned in cinnamon, clove, sugar, black pepper, salt, pan seared and finished in the oven, drizzled with a fresh raspberry sauce (easy on the sugar), garnished with mint.

Known to be awesome are pork potstickers finished in chicken broth (brown the potsticker bottoms in a deep heavy pan, add chicken broth and cover til cooked) served with a spicy peanut sauce (natural peanut butter, soy sauce, chilli oil, sesame oil) and garnished with chopped scallions.

Chicken and Nuts
Chicken and peanuts go together like cock and balls, so get your favourite cut of chicken and season it up. Salt, pepper and your favourite base spice mix should hit the chicken first. Add a splash of sesame oil to give it another dimension. Mince a clove of garlic, toss it in give it a quick rub (ginger is an option as well). Peanut with a bit of heat is grand, so I splash it with a nice chilli oil to give it bite without affecting the flavor much. You can toss in chopped fresh chillis if you want to as well.

Take a few spoons of a natural peanut butter (like adams 100% natural - ingredients: peanuts, salt and no other shit) and rub it all over the chicken. You might want to splash in some olive oil to moisten the mixture as it can get a bit thick. Let it sit for an hour or two (in the icebox) but not too much longer as the salt will start drying the chicken after a while.

Cook the chicken in the oven as you would do any roast chicken (~35-40mins @ 185C for thighs, ~30mins for breasts, results vary by oven). I always roast skin down on a wire rack in a roasting pan for 20 minutes before flipping skin up to crisp. This lets the excess oil drain off the chicken and helps the skin crisp up more. You can also crank the heat for the last 5 minutes for more effect.

Garnish with a smattering of crushed peanuts and finely sliced scallions.

Then just sit your ass down and eat the shit out of that chicken.

An alternative recipe is to just create a peanut sauce to drizzle on top of grilled or roasted (seasoned) chicken. Mix the natural peanut butter with a bit of japanese soy sauce, sesame oil, chilli oil, (a splash of water to thin if needed) garnish like above and enjoy.

Best Pork Chops Evar!
Salt and pepper your pork chops while you heat the shit out of a good strong pan. Sear them quickly but don't let them cook.

Remove them from the pan and add in thinly sliced onion half moons and a whack load of diced apples (I used golden delicious + tablespoon of olive oil). Cook the onions and apples down until until they caramelize and soften (medium/low heat + pinch of cinnamon).

Add the browned porkchops back to the pan with a healthy splash of orange juice (I used dole orange peach mango). Cover and let simmer (stir a few times) until the chops are just cooked.

If you do this right you should totally score that night, even if it's just your numbed hand

update: adding diced dried apricots that have been rehydrating in apple juice makes for another tasty addition.

Ernie Bin Ribs
Salt and pepper a rack of ribs (both sides). Prepare a mixture of minced jalapenos, garlic, ginger, orange zest, olive oil, and a splash of japanese soy sauce. It should form a wet paste. Slather the paste on to the top of the ribs in a baking pan and add the juice of one fresh orange to the pan. (Let sit for 30 minutes if you can). Cover the pan in foil and bake at 200F for 2 hours.

Remove the foil, and drain the pan liquids into a saucepan. Brush the ribs with maple syrup mixed with a spoon of the braising liquid and place back in the oven uncovered at 400F. Brush more syrup on as it carmelizes (10 mins). Reduce the reserved braising liquid in a sauce pan and add a splash of cream with cornstarch to thicken it into a sauce. Pull the ribs out when the desired color is attained (30-40 mins), and serve with a little of the sauce drizzled over top.

Easy Roast Chicken
Rub a whole chicken with olive oil, minced garlic, rosemary, fresh black pepper and let sit for an hour or two. Rub coarse or kosher salt over it, stick it on a rack in a roasting pan and bake for an hour (+/- 10mins for size) at 375F.

Pull it out of the oven, and let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing. It's really that fucking easy and if you used enough salt, it'll taste great.

hint: When using the oven, try tossing a pizza stone, ceramic tile, or clay planter base on the bottom rack. This will help the oven retain heat and also keep the heat more even. Pre-heat the oven for a good half hour and don't open the thing any more than you have to.

Japanese curry wings
I melt down a few cubes of glico curry in the microwave with some olive oil. You only need enough oil to help break down the brick and form a paste. Allow the paste to cool.

Season chicken wings with white and black pepper, finely diced jalapenos and garlic. Salt the wings very lightly, and then rub the cooled curry paste over the wings. Finely slice half an onion into half moons and mix into the wings. Let sit for a while (whatever feels is good).

Grill the wings on the bbq, or bake them. The onions will likely burn off, leaving a smokey charred onion flavor on the wings.

That's good eats.

Stuffed chicken:
Simply lightly sautee spinach, let cool, and mix with crumbled blue cheese. Stuff this inside of marinated butterflied chicken (breast or leg/thigh) and bake at 200C. 30 minutes for breasts, 35minutes for thighs. Flip halfway through cooking. Depending on your luck, you may want to tie with string, or use a toothpick to keep the chicken from opening up.

A good marinade to go with this combo are olive oil, lemon juice and garlic since it lets the blue cheese flavor stand out. Remember to salt the chicken just before roasting it, and be mindful that the cheese will be a bit salty already.

My standard spicier mix of white and black pepper, paprika, hint of nutmeg and olive oil works well too.

Dinner tonight was:
Pork belly braised in soy sauce, orange juice, ginger and anise.

1.5lbs pork belly
1/2 cup japanese soy
1 cup orange juice
2 cups cold water
garlic
two bulbs of ginger, sliced
tbsp brown sugar
3 pieces star anise

I cut the pork into fairly large cubes as they will shrink quite a bit when they cook. For the health conscious, you can cut off the skin layer. Do leave a thin layer of fat though when doing this.

Combine all the ingredients in a saucepot and cook over low heat for two hours. Much of the fat should have rendered off, and the meat should be very tender. The remaining fat should melt in your mouth.

Serve over rice. You can skim the fat off of the braising liquid and drizzle it over the rice for additional flavor.

update: New techniques! Brown the pork belly in oil in the pot first, along with some leeks. When browned, add the water, orange juice, anise, ginger and garlic. Bring to a boil, then simmer for the two hours. The broth should be reduced partially under the meat level, if not just remove and reserve it into a bowl. Add the soy sauce and brown sugar and simmer for another 20 minutes.

Genmaicha Rice

Brew a pot of genmaicha (japanese green tea with roasted rice). Use this instead of water when cooking your rice as per usual. Planning on using crystanthemum tea next.

note: genmaicha imparts a strong roasted rice flavor which is interesting but not a far stretch from the flavor of rice itself. I'm thinking using a sencha green tea might be more interesting.

Carrots w/ raisins with a maple glaze

Sautee halved baby carrots with a tablespoon of olive oil and pinch of salt. Add a handful of moderately rehydrated golden raisins. When carrots are at a desired texture, add a splash of maple syrup and continue to heat until syrup has become a glaze.

Sausage and Pumpkin Penne

This is a spectacular autumn or winter dish

Ingredients:
Mitchell's Red Wine Pork Sausage (safeway)
500g of Penne
1 onion
i clove garlic
nutmeg
cinnamon
1 14oz can of pumpkin (fancy grade)
1 14oz can chicken broth (I use knorr or t&t brand)

I decase 4 sausages and cut and roll the meat into small pinkie tip sized bites. Brown them until they've taken on a crust. Reserve the oil.

I slice my onion into very thin half moons but you can dice if you like. I like the stringy texture of half moons in the final product. Carmelize the onions in olive oil with a pinch of salt and add the sliced or minced garlic near the end.

Add the can of pumpkin, followed by the can of chicken broth. Broth is preferred to stock for it's stronger saltier flavor. Add pinches of cinnamon and nutmeg to taste. Cook for several minutes to heat and combine the sauce.

Mix in the browned sausage and rendered fat to your heart's caution.

Finish with red chilli flakes to taste and a splash of light cream. Serve with al dente penne.