Froth Slosh B'Gosh

Drink Ban

Personally, I think a limit on the size of sugar-filled drinks, such as the one Mayor Michael Bloomberg wants to impose in New York City is silly, but it does give me an opportunity to rant. 

Why can't they offer a smaller size?  I don't eat much fast food, but even the so-called small sizes look to me like a sugar bomb tureen of soda and ice.  I do not need that amount of exposure to pop. Can't someone, anyone, offer an eight ounce or  ten ounce size?  I simply cannot drink that amount of liquid in one sitting, and sure, I don't have to consume all 24 ounces or whatever that passes for a small these days, but throwing the unused portion away is wasteful to me.

Dinner!

Tonight's dinner, chicken in a mushroom cream sauce, mixed fresh veggies, mac and cheese. Yeah, the mac and cheese is from a box, but that's the way I like it.

Mmmmm...Pancetta

A fettuccine carbonara with pancetta that I made recently.  If you beg, I MIGHT share the recipe!

Along with some Tuscan style white beans.  This recipe came out of my Joy of Cooking cookbook.

Birth Of A Zombie Lie

I don't know if you've seen the story flying about the intertubes, featured on Faux News and right wing radio about a preschooler in North Carolina who had her homemade lunch seized by government operatives and replaced with a "healthier" version that included chicken nuggets.

Guess what?  That story is pure bunk.  Nearly everything reported by Faux turned out to be false, a gross exaggeration, or misunderstanding.  The story originally appeared in a right-wing think-tank's monthly journal, was picked up by the right-wing noise machine, and spread to all the usual suspects.

So now that the debunking has occurred, do you think it will make a difference?  Of course not, no matter how many times you point out that the story is false (and it takes far more verbiage to explain why the charge is false than it is to make the charge), some low information voter months or years from now will vomit up the story of how the ebil democrat gubmit checks lunches and seizes ones that do not comply with the regulations.

A zombie lie is born.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I'm spending the evening with Mrs. Froth and the Frothling at our favorite restaurant, so enjoy your Valentine's Day!  Back tomorrow.

Paging Mr. Dickens, Mr. Charles Dickens....

Just when I think things can't get any more looney, along comes the New Hampshire GOP.  Now they want to eliminate lunch breaks.

Dim Sum

Here's something I made as an appetizer to go along with the roast on Sunday.  The nice thing about dim sum is that there are literally hundreds of ways to make it.  I just did a basic pork dim sum.

I took about a pound of ground pork and mixed it with chopped green onions, a tablespoon of soy sauce, a quarter teaspoon of ground ginger, and a little sesame oil. You can add anything else that you might enjoy, some garlic, bamboo shoots, chopped spinach, water chestnuts, etc.

I then spooned a bit of the mix on a wonton wrapper. 

I then wet the edges of the wrapper with a little water ( I just wet my finger in a small bowl of water, and then ran my finger along the edges of the wrapper), and sealed it up to make a little package.  There are many ways to fold dim sum, but I'm not terribly dexterous, so I do what works for me.

I then lined my bamboo steamer basket with cabbage leaves.  The leaves keep the dim sum from sticking to the basket.  You could use bok choy to line the basket, but bok choy is $2.99 a pound, while green cabbage is 59 cents a pound.  I'll use the cabbage, thank you.  I then covered the steamer, and placed it on a water-filled wok.  I like the water to just cover the bottom edge of the steamer basket, to keep the basket from scorching.  Cover the basket, bring to a boil, and steam for about 8 to 10 minutes.

Done.

 

Asian Style Beef Roast

I got this recipe off the series of intertubes (food.com, to be exact). We need:

About a 3lb roast

Salt and pepper

2 tbl veg oil

8 green onions, sliced

2 cloves garlic, chopped

about 2 tsp fresh ginger root, chopped

1 tbl soy sauce

1.5 oz chopped cilantro

2 finely chopped green chilies (I used serranos)

1 stalk finely chopped lemongrass

30 oz coconut milk

juice of one lime

I preheated the oven to 350 degrees, and then seasoned both sides of the roast with salt and pepper.

I then browned the meat on all sides in a frying pan with one tablespoon of oil.

I put the meat in a roasting pan.

The remaining oil went into the fry pan, along with the onions, garlic and ginger.  Saute until the onions soften.

Then, in with the soy sauce, half the cilantro, chili, and lemongrass. 

Add the coconut milk and lime juice, stir to combine.

Pour the sauce over the meat, cover, and put in the oven.  Roast for 2.5 hours, turning the meat every 30 minutes.  When nice and tender, remove the meat fromthe pan, and let rest for about ten minutes.  While the meat is resting, you can reduce the sauce down in a saucepan.

Slice the meat, put it in a serving dish, top with the sauce, and you're done!  Served this up for the family for Sunday dinner, along with homemade dim sum, rice, and stir fry style veggies.  I'll show you how I made the dim sum tomorrow.

 

 

After The Chicken Picking

You might recall from my chicken stock post that you can pick a considerable amount of meat off the bird once the stock is done.  What to do with that meat?  Well, I made chicken enchiladas!

First, I put the meat in a bowl.

I then added two diced jalapeno peppers. (stupid little camera)

I then mixed in a little store-bought enchilada sauce.

 
A little of the meat mixture and some cheese on a 6" tortilla.

Roll it up and tuck in the edges.

Put 'em in a pan.

Cover with more enchilada sauce and cheese.  I then baked them in a 350 degree oven for 35 minutes.

And they're done!  Yum!

Clarifying Beef Broth

This is not easy to do, it took me a few tries to get the technique down to make a nice looking broth, and as I mentioned in yesterday's post, I don't think its really necessary. I got the technique from James Peterson's Splendid Soups.

We will need the following, 1.5 pounds of ground beef, three egg whites, a carrot, an onion, and half a stalk of celery, all finely chopped.  We'll also need a bit of garlic, thyme, and parsley.

Put everything in a mixing bowl and mix it up with your hands.

You should wind up with something that looks suspiciously like a raw meatloaf.

You then want to put the meat in a pot, and whisk in your beef broth.  Bring it to a slow simmer, and use a spoon or spatula to make sure nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pot.  Then slide the pot over so that about 1/4 of the pot is over the heat source.  Boil gently for ten minutes, then turn the pot 1/4 a turn, and boil gently for another 10 minutes.  You'll do this a total of four times, so each quarter of the pot gets about 10 minutes over the flame.  By this point, you should have a goo of meat and congealed egg whites floating on top of the broth.  Center the pot over the heat source.  You should see broth bubbling up through cracks in the scum.  If you don't see broth bubbling through, poke a hole in the center of the crust, and continue gently simmering for ten minutes.

Line a colander with cheesecloth.  CAREFULLY poke a hole in the froth big enough for a ladle, and ladle the broth through the cheesecloth into a second pot.  If you accidentily break up the egg/meat mixture, you'll wind up clouding the stock.  When you get near the bottom, you'll have to carefully pour off the remaining broth.

Not the best picture, but we now have clarified broth.  I gave the hamburger/vegetable mixture to my dogs as a treat.

Like I said earlier, this is a time consuming and somewhat labor intensive process.  Probably not worth the effort for everyday cooking.