Friday, September 23, 2005

Chocolate covered french fries.

What can I say?

They are sponsored by Jimmy Neutron, but there's no trace of them on the Nickelodeon site any more, just a server error, and there's no trace of them on the Ore-ida site at all. I found this link on a Heinz site, but the link on that goes to a server error, too.

This is a wee story about them. I fancied the kool blue flavour!

I may add them to the degustation dinner as a dessert along with that legendary Scottish delicacy, the deep-fried Mars bar! Here's the recipe, if you are feeling brave.

Friday, September 16, 2005

Beer Sorbet: Lite Beer Rant

Someone, who has to remain anonymous, brought a case of Coors Light to LittleBigGuy's birthday {Thanks anyway. It's the thought that counts ;)}.

I assumed it was for the kids, but SheWhoMustBeObeyed put me right on that. Well, I don't know what she thought would happen to it, because I wasn't going to drink it. She even put the cans in the fridge, taking up valuable real estate reserved for a real beer, such as my usual, the Pale Ale from Sierra Nevada.

I was getting desperate. I tried to drink one, but could only manage half before I felt sick. Maybe that's the whole "Lite Beer" concept; to make people sick before they get drunk. That way when they fell awful and drive home they aren't toasted. Great plan! Maybe they put Campral in it. I even tried Sam Adams Light once, well twice actually, because I was convinced the first bottle had to have been a bad one. It wasn't. It's just an awful tasting beer. That shocked me, because the normal Sam Adams is a fine beer.

When I was looking around for recipes for the degustation dinner I came across this one for Beer Sorbet. HA! Maybe I'd found a use for the "beer" in the fridge. So I tried it and to me it tasted like sorbet. Quite nice. TheBoss said it tasted really like beer, but I didn't notice it.

I'm thinking it'll make an appearance again, otherwise I'm going to have to find another use for the cans in the fridge.

Any suggestions?

PS: Just went to Albertsons (mmm Patricia Heaton), and they are discontinuing Chimay, and it's all half price. I picked up a bottle of the blue for tonight. Woo-Hoo! It is Friday after all....

Chicken curry


Chicken Curry
Originally uploaded by TeamStewart.
Simple Chicken curry with steamed white rice last night.

The chicken was really good. It benefited from the brining process I used. The same as when I prepare chicken for BBQ. Soak the chicken in a pot of water for a few hours. Not just water, but I add a lot of salt, some sugar, and some garlic powder

You can't have curry without beer, and the Red Hook ESB, from Seattle, WA is about the best around here.

I was once in a hawker centre in Singapore having a curry and a nan with a nice big Tiger beer, and the guy at the next table said he'd never seen anyone eat nan with beer before. I think it is safe to assume that he'd never been to London!

I use the S&B roux packages from Japan to make the curry sauce, and some other bits and bobs to give it effervescence ;)

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Lost Time (Was I taken by Aliens?)

The other morning the alarm went off (scheduled for 6:00 am) and the first thing I noticed was that it was still very dark, and I thought that was odd. I noticed the time on the microwave at 5:58. I'd had to search for my cell phone, becasue that's the alarm we use, mainly because LittleBigGuy took out all the clocks on our nightstands.

Don't anybody send us another one, because LittleWeeGuy is just at that height now and has the same opinions of nightstands as his brother. I lost half a bottle of red wine finding that out. It's not exactly lost, since it soaked into the bed sheets, and of course won't come out, so I still see it every now and again.

But we digress.

I found the phone, killed the alarm, and also noticed that LBG hadn't awoken. He's been waking at around 5am and coming upstairs to lie with us and watch his DVDs (Both The Lion King and Dinosaur are extremely annoying at 5:am, I can tell you,). He has also progressed from nightstands to opening doors, so we are having difficulty keeping him in his room.

I went back to bed, dosed for a few seconds, heard LBG open his door and run upstairs and looked at my watch; 5:30! Now either my watch, the sky and LBG's sleep patterns were correct, or the clocks on the microwave and my cell phone were correct.

I was confused. The only possible explanation is that I was taken by aliens, and put back half an hour later. TheChief reckons that would explain lots of things, but I'm not sure what she means by that. I reset my watch and it's kept perfect time since, so it couldn't have been the watch battery.

Anyway, TheBoss was late for work, so we know that it was all my fault. But then again, I can't think of any circumstances where it wouldn't have been all my fault anyway.

Baked salmon


Baked salmon
Originally uploaded by TeamStewart.


Just a little bit of salmon baked in foil with butter and garlic. I cooked it on the grill. Quite nice. Served with baby red potatoes in mint and asparagus with hollandaise sauce. I have to admit that I used Julia Child's recipe for hollandaise and not my mother-in-law's. I may get into trouble for that.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Kofka Korn Kebabs

Tonight we went Middle Eastern. I made up some kofka meat balls (to my own recipe) and flattened them to about 1" thick and 2" in diameter. I cut some corn the same thickness, added some veggies and made kebabs. They cooked for around 15 minutes on my lovely, lovely grill, which I got for Father's Day from the WeeMen.

The rice was cooked in chicken stock with some chopped onion, then when done mixed with a can of garbanzo beans (the most widely consumed legume in the world!, and totally left on the side of MyBetterHalf's plate) put in a greased oven dish and covered with some sliced tomatoe. That was then heated in a medium oven for 10 minutes to cook the tomatoes.

I served it all with some steamed broccolli, slightly sauteed in butter with a little garlic.

I loved the kofka. It tasted great and gave me inspiration for the big dinner!

Stinking Bishop lives in fear of Wallace & Gromit

Here's the story

I wonder if I can get some for the degustation dinner!

It looks pretty good.

Monday, September 12, 2005

Crab Souffles and "Birds without Heads".

The Great Provider has decreed that we are having an immersion degustation (tasting) dinner in October, and we'll only be able to speak French. So I have to come up with a 12 course French dinner that follows these rules, apparently. Of course, it won't, but we have plenty of time to argue about that. I'm thinking of tempting fate and having 13 guests and serving 13 courses.

I whipped out my French cooking book (1-7405-285-2), peeked into the freezer and came up with a couple of ideas for dinner to practice. By the way, it must be a great book, because it's ranked #616,933 in Amazon's best seller's list. What could possibly be No 1?

I'd never made a souffle and don't have a souffle pan, so the choice was limited to CRAB SOUFFLES, cooked in the little ramekins, that we have 2 of. I think it worked, so we'll need to get more! Individual as well, so easy for the degustation menu. I say seemed. I'd never eaten souffle before, so it was kinda hard to tell. They rose beautifully, were light and fluffy, browned on the top, and didn't collapse. I guess that means I did it all right.

I also went for VEAL PAUPIETTES. Appetisingly nicknamed "birds without heads". That might work well. Although it tasted great, and the sauce was lovely, I had difficulty in slicing them into nice pieces. I reckon I'll have to go with bigger pieces of veal. So I'll need to start searching for a decent butcher in Santa Monica. Maybe I'll try Gelsons Market.

Saturday, September 10, 2005

Baked Blue Cheese Halibut, Without Blue Cheese

Well, I did it. And it turned out pretty well. SheWhoMustBeObeyed seemed to like it anyway.

I didn't quite follow the recipe (surprise surprise). I used feta cheese instead of blue, and about double the quantity. It still didn't overpower the flavour of the halibut.

I did cut the red onion a bit thick, however. They were still a bit raw and strong tasting, imho.

I served the fish on a bed of garlic mashed potatoes, of my own recipe, with some steamed broccoli for decoration.

The pics are up on flickr now (1, 2), so you can almost see for yourself. White sauce over white fish on top of mashed potatoes. Not so good for photography unless one is Ansell Adams. And he never had a cheap digital camera that he won at the Pig & Whistle in Osaka.

Most ingredients were purchased from Costco in Culver City, CA. The rest from Albertsons on Lincoln Blvd, Santa Monica.

I had a glass of quite cheap shiraz with it, and it went well, although anathema for you purists!

That's it from me.


Hugs, Rob

Friday, September 09, 2005

Dinner tonight

Here's the plan/recipe for tonight's dinner.

BAKED BLUE CHEESE HALIBUT


I'll take a pic and post to Flickr later, and maybe TheGreatProvider can provide us with a review.



Rob.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Since I get abuse for not sharing my recipes, I'm going to change the blog a bit and talk about my dinners, and food in general. Maybe even restaurants too, if I ever get out to any again.

I have a bit more time on my hands now that LittleBigGuy is in pre school from 9am till 2pm every day.

That just leaves me LitteWeeGuy to look after, dinner to cook for TheGreatProvider, an MBA to study for, laundry to do, a house to keep tidyish, and WW1 model aircraft to build.

Some of my other dinners can be seen on Flickr.

See ya.