On a Toothpick

08 Apr 2013 4 Comments

by ankoku1331 in Food Thought Tags: , , , ,

Boy did I have plans today. A post with questions from Invisible Girl and why I find sexual stereotypes interesting and at times funny was the plan for the blog. Work on both term papers.  Work on homework. Clean house up a bit.  Cook dinner.  However, my children decided that today was the day to push all of my buttons at the same time.  That is a lot of buttons pushed and one very irritated man.  I decided to cook some fun food for me instead of sitting around pissed off.  And of course I found out that I was out of one of the main ingredients.  Fuck!  All was not lost though, as I am a good cook with an understanding how stuff should, note the should, taste.

In FU! Crockpot there is a recipe called Sliced Killbasa.

Hardware:

  • 3 quart crockpot
  • toothpicks (for that authentic feel)

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound of beef kielbasa sliced thin
  • 1/2 cup grape jam/jelly
  • 1/4 cup steak sauce
  • 2 tbsp. yellow mustard or Dijon (Dijon has a better flavor)
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp. honey

Instructions:

Put it all into a pre-heated 3 quart crockpot on LOW for 2 to 4 hours or on HIGH for 1 to 2 hours.  Turn down to WARM or LOW to keep food at temperature.

Yep that is all there is.  This is a good thing to snack on for the day especially if you have more than you with.  Serving on toothpicks makes the experience more authentic…if authentic to you is chunks of sample sized meat on a toothpick-you know like the grocery store samples.

As good as this is today I made something BETTER.

I will call this BBQ Sliced Killbasa.

Hardware:

  • 3 quart crockpot
  • toothpicks (for that authentic feel)

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound of beef kielbasa sliced thin
  • 1/2 cup grape jam/jelly
  • 1/4 cup BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray’s)
  • 2 tbsp. white sugar
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 2 tbsp. honey
  • gherkins or dill pickle slices

Instructions:

I replaced the steak sauce with BBQ sauce, added more sugar, and got rid of the honey.  Barb won’t eat the original recipe, but she was eating these.  BIG SMILE!  My girl couldn’t stop eating them.  Cook exactly as the Sliced Killbasa.

Here are two variations and you can thank my girl for these.  Slice a gherkin and put the slices on top of a slice of killbasa slice.  Eat together.  I liked the gherkin better than what my girl really wanted which was regular old dill pickle slices.  Again, put dill pickle on top of a slice of killbasa and consume.

Hopefully after the kids get put to bed I will feel like finishing up my original post.

Super Spicy Sex Talk Chow Mix

27 Jan 2013 2 Comments

by ankoku1331 in Food Thought, Sex Thought Tags: , , , ,

As some of you may be aware once a night I sit in a lecture hall with a bunch of other students listening to one man educate THEM about human sexuality.  I love this class.  This is THAT one class for this semester.  Anyone who has been or is in college knows that there is usually one class a semester that you will make every effort to attend because the class, professor, students, or combination makes you happy.  This is that class.  Do I think that I will learn anything new?  Probably not, I haven’t yet, but while I may not learn any new information what I am learning is a new way to present myself and my topic de jour SEX.  In two classes watching the professor speak has reinvigorated me especially after the beating I took from a couple of professors.  Sex and Sexuality are not professional topics, SUCK IT.  I can now point to a professor who not only makes sex professional (not like that), but fun and comfortable.  That is what I will most likely walk away from this class with-how to talk about sex in a way that is more inclusive and hopefully cause less freak-outs.

Sitting in one place for two-hours can be problematic at times.  Most two-hour classes give a break.  He does as well, usually near the end of the class period and for no more than five minutes.  Given that the nearest bathroom is two minutes away the breaks are really just a chance to stand up, twist this way and that, look around, and then sit back down for the rest of the class.  I need energy to keep me focused.  I tried a drink the first class, that didn’t work, I can’t stretch out a drink for two-hours.  The last class I made a quick mix of some stuff I had: wasabi peas, banana chips, and chocolate chips.  This was good, and got me through the class, but I wanted more.  I got more.

This is my

Super Spicy Sex Talk Chow Mix

Preparation Time: However long it takes you to open packages and pour.

Cooking Time: None. Shake to mix.

In a large Tupperware bowl with a lid add all of the following ingredients:

  • 1 can of sriracha peas (4.9 oz)
  • 1 can wasabi peas (4.9 oz)
  • 1/2 bag banana chips (12 oz)
  • 1/2 bag pumpkin seeds (5 oz)
  • 1/4 cup peanuts or legume of your choice *
  • 1/4 cup chocolate chips *
  • 1/4 cup chocolate-toffee bits (found in baking section)*
  • 1/4 cup shredded coconut*

Once everything is in the bowl, put the lid on securely and shake vigorously to mix.  Then eat and enjoy.

* In the interest of full disclosure I didn’t measure a damn thing, I just dumped what I thought was a good amount into the Tupperware bowl, but if I were to measure I would start with a 1/4 cup.  :)

The longer this sits around and the more that this gets mixed the more the flavors mingle.  To me not much better in the middle of a lecture than a banana chip that tastes of banana, choclick, wasabi, and coconut.  If you don’t like spicy definitely avoid the sriracha and wasabi peas.

It Smells Like Something of Wonder…Ahhhh (updated)

07 Jan 2013 Leave a Comment

by ankoku1331 in Food Thought Tags: , , , ,

Pop QuizPop quiz.

Pop quiz, hotshot!

You have two choices an hour of Max and Ruby hell or flip to the food channel.  What do you do?

WHAT DO YOU DO?

If you are parents who have ever been forced to sit through even a half-hour of Max and Ruby you immediately grab the remote, ignore the shrieks of protests, and flip the channel without hesitation.  CLICK.

What normally follows is a maudlin display of “I don’t like this,” “This show is the Aquaman of shows,” “I hate this,” and “I’m going upstairs.” The kids just don’t get cooking shows.  Okay to be honest I don’t get most cooking shows either.

Rachael Ray, well I just want to have sex with her, I’m never convinced if she can cook, but she does look cute.  Cook like a restaurant chef at home?  What is that about? I have no desire to stand in front of the stove banging out meal after meal to people who won’t appreciate my efforts and in fact tip the person who brought them the food.  Don’t get me started on many of the other “chefs,” but I digress I at least understand the process of cooking and what most of what they are doing will actually taste like, so imagine my surprise when I hear, “dad that sounds good.”

“What?”

“What she made.”

“What did she make?”

“It had chocolate, milk, and something else coffee I think.”

“That sounds good to you?”

“Yes.”

My boy hops off the couch and says the same thing to his mother.  She hops on the computer and finds out that the recipe is from Melissa De’Arabian, now her cooking I get, but and I stress this her stuff rarely can be done for under $10 dollars.  I don’t know if they have changed the theme of her show, but that is what it started out as, cook this stuff for under $10-the first recipe we tried the cheese alone was $10, but it was damn good cheese. Again I digress, she finds the recipe, Mocha Granita and asks if the boy wants to make it with her.  He didn’t stop bouncing until the work started. During preparation my wife starts laughing at something my boy said, which was, “It smells like something of wonder…ahhhh.”

As of right now the dish is still in progress so I can’t tell you how it tastes, but what I can do is share the recipe with you.

Mocha Granita

by Melissa De’Arabian

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups of hot strong coffee
  • 1/2 cup of milk
  • 1/4 cup of sugar
  • 2 tbsp. of chocolate syrup

Directions

Mix hot coffee, milk, and sugar together until the sugar dissolves.  Then add the chocolate syrup.  Mix well.  Put into freezer and every 45 minutes stir until frozen.

Since I have no idea what it tastes like I will end this with a gentle reminder that if you have not looked at the monthly questions please take a look.

Update

The dessert is done.  I don’t like coffee or coffee flavored things, but I made a deal with my boy-he eats dinner without any hassle and I will try the desert he made-which is how I found myself with a mouthful of frozen coffee with a hint of chocolate.  This is not my cup of frozen coffee, but for anyone who likes coffee this should go over well.

Why Doesn’t Raj Eat Indian Food?

30 Dec 2012 1 Comment

by ankoku1331 in Food Thought Tags: , , , , , ,

If anyone ever tells you that you are doing your child harm by letting them watch The Big Bang Theory, you show them this post.  For long time readers you are well aware that my boy is an extremely picky eater. Here is his menu: chicken nuggets, nachos with nothing but cheese, pizza with nothing that he cannot identify even a speck of green will cause him to not eat, ramen, mac’n cheese (blue box only nothing else), spaghetti, spaghetti tacos, PBH (peanut butter and honey), a piece of steak, a shrimp and that is it.  He has over the years expressed interest in other foods, such as sushi-I was a very happy papa when he told his class that he wanted to be a sushi chef when he grew up.  That dream died on the vine when he discovered that to be a good sushi chef you have to eat the sushi.  Here is a good story:

We used to go to Sakura’s in Toledo during the time of troubles to celebrate everything.  The kids usually went with us, one time my boy said that the really wanted to try sushi, but only carrot sushi, as in a roll with nothing but carrot.  Because we were such good, regular customers, the sushi chef made a special roll, at no-charge, just for my boy…who took one bite of the neon orange roll and made a face.  Thankfully the only people who saw this were us.  A word of warning a sushi roll consisting of just carrot is not good.

So back to the tale, we have been watching a lot of Big Bang Theory, to which end I have gotten my children to play Talisman (one of the board games that they play), my girl to try out some Chinese food, and oddest of all everyone to try out some Indian food.  Again, regular readers know that I have been exploring cooking Indian food at home, but I have not had much success mostly due to a lack of recipes and a decided lack of ingredients up here.  Thankfully the ingredient issue was taken care of around the same time I got another Indian cookbook and then with most awesome timing we start watching Big Bang Theory and they eat Indian food, well everyone but Raj does.

Yesterday, I gave my boy the cookbook and asked him to pick out something and then to Barb.  Between the three of us (my girl can’t read well enough and the cookbook lacked a lot of pictures in case you are wondering why I didn’t give her the book), we picked out three dishes that complimented each other: New Bride Curry (was supposed to be a chicken dish, but I had pork thawed), Shredded Carrot Raita with Raisins and Walnuts, and Chapati bread.

We have never had any Indian food before, but were excited.  While I prepped the curry, Barb made the Raita and made the Chapati.  Yes, she made chapatti bread.  The New Bride Curry was billed as a sweet, sour, and spicy dish; personally I found the dish to be a near perfect blend of sweet and spicy.  My boy and my girl, both of whom had to try the pork curry before they got the option of other food, both ate one piece of pork with my boy declaring way to spicy, my girl followed suit and then ate two more pieces.  Barb ate about half, before the spiciness  was too much for her.

Here is the recipe for New Bride Curry, from 5 Spices, 50 Dishes by Ruta Kahate with my notes.

Ingredients:

  • 4 tablespoons canola oil
  • 2 medium yellow onions finely chopped
  • 3 medium tomatoes minced
  • 2 teaspoons or 4 large cloves of garlic grated (I minced)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cayenne
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
  • 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon sugar

Instructions:  Into a hot, large pan put the oil and onion over medium high heat.  Cook onions until brown.  While onions are cooking mix the garlic, cayenne, turmeric, and cumin with 1 tablespoon of water to make a thick paste (more like ball of stuff).  When the onions are browned add the mix and sauté for 5 minutes (on medium high heat closer to 2 to 3 minutes), then add the tomatoes.  Cook, stirring constantly, until the tomatoes break down.

At this point add your meat, the recipe originally called for chicken, but I used chunks of pork.  Stir, coat, and continue to cook for 5 to 10 minutes depending on the size of meat (example: I was using chunks of pork that took 5 minutes, but if you are using a whole chicken breast 10 minutes would be better).  If you need water, I did not, you can add one cup of HOT water.  Add the salt, apple cider vinegar and sugar, bring to a boil for 1 minute then reduce to a simmer until the meat is cooked.  Tasting often, adjust flavor with additional salt, vinegar, and/or sugar.  I ended up doubling the amount of apple cider vinegar and sugar.  The next time I cook this I will triple the amount of vinegar and sugar to bring out the sweet and sour component and tamp down the spicy side.

Singing Sushi

03 Dec 2012 2 Comments

by ankoku1331 in BALLS!!!, Daily Thought, Food Thought Tags: , , , ,

Yesterday my computer died as in dead.  ”Please insert floppy disk” flashed on the black screen before the “whhheeen whhheeen” noise sounded twice and then no more.  Floppy disk, what the fuck?  I had to explain the the children in my class what a floppy disk was and even draw a picture.  Suffice to say a lot of what the fuck stares from them.  I am old.

Tonight was my boy’s Christmas recital, where all of the second grade classes sang a few holiday themed songs.  He was in the front row and looked like he was about to explode with excitement.  Very proud papa moment.

And now onto the meat and potatoes of this blog or in this case sushi rice.  When people hear that I make sushi roughly once a month at home they always want to know how and when I tell them that making sushi is all about the rice I get a lot of confused or blank looks.  To most people sushi is what is in the roll, the rice is just to hold the “good” stuff together.  Alas this is a mistake.  The largest portion of any piece of sushi is rice.  If the rice is bad or off, the whole piece is off and you will know.  Thus the rice is the most important part of any sushi.  I have spent many years trying sushi rice recipes, some good, some bad, one horrible, and one that works consistently.  I am going to share with you the one sushi rice recipe that has always provided great results.  This takes some work, but if you are willing to put forth the effort, you will and anyone who eats the sushi you make will be very happy.

Dressing

The dressing is what gives sushi rice flavor and the characteristic shine.

2 tablespoons PLUS 1 teaspon of rice vinegar*

1 1/2 teaspoons sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

Directions: In a small bowl mix all three ingredients together BEFORE you start on the rice.  Let the mix sit until the rice is cooked.

Sushi Rice

1 cup sushi rice**

1 1/3 cup water

1 teaspoon mirin

Directions: Rinse sushi rice under cold water and drain.  Continue to rinse and drain the rice until the water runs clear. This can take anywhere from 3 to 10 rinsing.  This is an IMPORTANT step.  If you do not follow this step your rice will have a sticker, wetter texture.

After the last rinse, put the rice into your rice cooker with the 1 1/3 cup of water and 1 teaspoon of mirin.  Let this sit for exactly 30 minutes.  Do not turn on your rice cooker, you are letting the rice soak.

At the end of 30 minutes turn on the rice cooker and let the rice cook for 15 to 20 minutes or however long your rice cooker takes.  Make sure to check on the rice, primarily due to the smaller amount of water, the rice can cook faster than expected.

Cooked Rice

Directions: Take the cooked rice and place into a wooden bowl, a glass bowl will do fine if you don’t have a wooden bowl.  Stir the dressing one last time and then pour the dressing over all of the rice.  Take a rice spatula and cut the rice in half and fold over.  While you are cutting and folding the rice, you or another person should be fanning the rice.  Fold and fan until the rice is cool, there should be no steam rising, and the rice should be cool to the touch at best.  When the rice has been folded, fanned, and is cooled down take a moist white towel and drap over the top of the bowl.  You can leave the towel over the rice until you are ready to make your sushi rolls.

* rice vingear comes in two varieties; good for salads and one is best for sushi: I use Marukan Seasoned Gourmet Rice Vinegar.

** 1 cup of sushi rice usually gets up six to eight rolls and a few hand-rolled pieces.

Four-Year Old Food for the Tastebudless

26 Nov 2012 Leave a Comment

by ankoku1331 in Food Thought Tags: , , ,

I don’t if I should preface this with a warning or just let you discover for yourself…I think you should discover for yourself why there are times when all of us should wish that we were four-years old again and lack working tastebuds.  If my daughter had a cookbook this is a pretty good sample of what you would find inside.

With Ketchup

Ingredient: Ketchup

Directions: A large puddle of ketchup served with anything and everything.  Does not matter what the food is or was or will be, serve with plenty of ketchup and all will be well.  Trust me your guests will thank you because even if they don’t like ketchup on their food they can doodle in the puddle with their finger, spare fry, or piece of silverware.

Spoonful of Sour Cream

Ingredients: 1 large, heaping tablespoon of sour cream

Directions: Take one large tablespoon and scoop out the largest mound of sour cream that you can that still sticks to the spoon.  Then proceed to eat off of the spoon like ice cream.  I use a spoonful of sour cream as an appetizer to any meal that I serve.

PBH and P Sandwich

Ingredients:  2 tablespoons Peanut Butter (chunky if you like), 1 tablespoon of honey, four to six pickles, and two slices of bread

Directions: On one slice of bread spread the peanut butter, then cover in honey, and finally place pickles on top of the honey in a way to cover the entire piece of bread.  Any extra pickles can be consumed or stacked on top of other pickles.  Finally, place the other slice of bread on top.  The PBH and P Sandwich is the mainstay of my lunchtime diet.  I often serve myself and guests a PBH and P Sandwich with a side of pickles, ketchup, and spoonful of sour cream.

Oreos and Cheez

Ingredients: Two Oreo cookies, and 1 slice of American “cheese”

Directions: Remove one end from each Oreo cookie.  Fold American “cheese” slice in half and split into two pieces.  Take one American “cheese” half-slice and place on top of Oreo cookie.  Replace removed end and consume.  I serve these easy to make and healthy (American “cheese” duh!) as a desert with any meal that I make.  These are also great night time snacks or rewards for good behavior.

As a variation I share with you a secret of mine, I often scrape the middle off and then spread the middle of the Oreo onto the American  ”cheese.”  Roll the American “cheese” and Oreo middle stuff up and eat.  Unctuous.

And if those little tidbits did not horrify you enough or strangely enough got you interested enough to try out one or more of them allow me to share this little eating tidbit from my daughter.

A Drink Is Not Just For Drinking

The standard dining convention is that a drink, no matter what kind of drink, is only for drinking.  I am here to tell you that a drink is not just for drinking, but a flavor enhancer.  I use my drinks to enhance the flavor of everything I eat.  Take a bite of what you are eating and dip or dunk into your drink allowing the drink’s flavor to enhance your food before eating.  This is a tried and true method, chicken nuggets and pink milk equals culinary awesomeness that you will not find anywhere else.

Aren’t you glad you have tastebuds?

Coke Cure

19 Oct 2012 Leave a Comment

by ankoku1331 in Food Thought Tags: , ,

When I have a cold or feel a cold coming on this is my go to feel good drink.  This recipe is not mine, I found this recipe as a side bar in a cooking magazine that was filled with food porn and nothing else of substance.  The brief intro said that the person who wrote the recipe or submitted the recipe had seen hundreds of Chinese people drinking this drink while they were in China.  Odd I thought, but what the hell, the drink has Coke and lemons and I like both of those things.  As for the claims that the drink would put any cold to rest I was dubious.

Since that time I have made this drink every single time that I feel a cold coming on or have a cold.  I am not saying that the drink has cured me of anything, but I always feel a lot better and usually get better within a few days.  Since this cold caught me off guard I didn’t get a chance to get the ingredients.  I have fixed that.  Thus with a bowl of soup and a cup of Coke Cure I am hoping to feel a hell of a lot more human by the end of the night.

Equipment: A pan

Ingredients

  • 1 can of Coke, not diet either
  • 4 slices of fresh ginger, remove skin
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 4 slices of lemon, should be able to see through each slice

Instructions: Place pan on stove top.  Open can of Coke and pour into pan.  Add brown sugar.  Peel ginger and cut four thin slices.  Put ginger slices into pan.  Stir to mix.  Bring to a boil over medium heat for 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally.  Pour mix into a cup and add lemon slices.  I found the best flavor by placing a slice of lemon at the bottom of the cup before pouring.  The ginger can be left in the drink or can be removed depending on how much you like the flavor of ginger.  I tend to remove the ginger after pouring.

I am off to eat and drink.

Indian Lemon (ade) Juice Addendum

12 Oct 2012 Leave a Comment

by ankoku1331 in Food Thought Tags: , , , ,

I have been messing around with this recipe all damn day.  To recap, the recipe is here or just look below:

  • 1 tsp ground cardamon
  • 4 cups iced water
  • 3 lemons or 5 limes freshly squeezed
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Crushed ice to serve
  • Mix everything together, except the crushed ice, whisk until sugar is dissolved.  Pour into cups, add ice and enjoy.

Making the recipe as is 3 lemons, not 5, was a mouthful of cardamon with something vaguely lemon.  This cannot stand and must be fixed.  Follow the steps to see what we ended up doing.

  1. Added the juice of 1 lime and 2 lemons.  Still too much cardamon, not enough lemon flavor.
  2. Added 9 tablespoons of sugar, yes I know overload or so I thought, turns out this was a good amount to bring out the lemon flavor but still way too much cardamon flavor.
  3. Have Barb taste, she makes “ewww” face and proclaims to much cardamon, needs to be sweeter.  She takes a small amount and adds honey, this gets dumped into the sink soon after first sip hits tongue.
  4. We discuss, perhaps some sweet and sour drink mix and some Sprite or 7Up.  ROADTRIP!
  5. Determined not to let all of this go to waste we buy necessary ingredients.
  6. Add 1 1/4 cup sweet and sour drink mix.  WOW!  Tart is a good word.  Unpucker face.  Happy that the cardamon flavor is as close to a background flavor as cardamon is going to get.  Still needs something more.
  7. Fill a glass half-full of Indian Lemon (ade) Juice and half-full of Sprite.  Nice and bubbly.  Good tart flavor.  Cardamon still strong, but this is drinkable as in all of the mix will get drunk and not tossed down drain.

Okay this is better than the original, still the next batch is getting some adjustments.  The new recipe looks like this:

  • 1/4 tsp ground cardamon (see ground as in get the cardamon, then grind.  Sad chef)
  • 4 cups iced water
  • 5 lemons and 1 lime juiced
  • 12 tbsp sugar
  • Crushed ice to serve
  • Mix everything together, except the crushed ice, whisk until sugar is dissolved.  Pour into cups, add ice and enjoy.

Since I have a large pitcher full of drink, a few days might pass before I post the results, but I am determined to turn this into something that I will readily drink and give to others.

Chopsticks, and Indian Lemonade (Updated)

12 Oct 2012 3 Comments

by ankoku1331 in Food Thought Tags: , , ,

I have been working on this for seven years and today, of all days, my work pays off.  He used the chopsticks, with a little help from dad, for two bowls of ramen.  Picking up the noodles, bringing them to his mouth, slurping or sucking the noodles in with a little extra air to enhance the flavor, and using the chopsticks to guide the rest of the noodle into his mouth.  This was a very proud papa moment.  Chopstick use is something important to me.  Don’t ask why, just is.  Hopefully, he keeps using them and by the time he is set free upon the world he will impress his friends with his mastery of chopsticks and Asian cooking.

Sticking with the food theme, reading over my new Indian cookbook for the second or third time, the book is very small, I have learned that while I have spices, I don’t have spices.  My spices are not Indian cooking spices and most of them that are, are not a fresh as they should be.   Plus, I don’t have a lot of the common Indian spices.  Just haven’t needed them for anything that I cook, which seems odd when I read the basic spices section.  However, when I went to our local stores I realized why I don’t have any of them.  They are either not in the stores up here or are so over priced to cause me to choke and sputter in the aisle.  All is not lost, there is a Indian Grocery/Market…but the store is located an hour away, like everything else.  Gonna be a little while.

Until that trip, I did find something that really piqued my interest.  I love lemonade, not all lemonades; such as those sold at AppleMcFucksters which are all sugar syrup and no lemon.  Lemonade that I make tends to make other people’s faces cave in, what can I say I like the flavor of lemons.  Buried at the back of the cookbook are some drinks and one of them is a lemonade, Cardamon Lemon Juice to be specific.  Guess what part of the recipe I didn’t have?

If you said cardamon you were correct.  If you said fresh cardamon you really have been paying attention.  Oddly enough there was cardamon at the store, but…you guessed that right $13.00 for a bottle.  If a hand job, set of steak knives, or anything other than the kick in the groin that I was feeling came with the cardamon I would have felt a lot better about buying the cardamon.  Oh, maybe I should give you the recipe.

  • 1 tsp ground cardamon (see ground as in get the cardamon, then grind.  Sad chef)
  • 4 cups iced water
  • 3 lemons or 5 limes freshly squeezed (I will be going with 5 lemons told you I like my lemonade)
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Crushed ice to serve
  • Mix everything together, except the crushed ice, whisk until sugar is dissolved.  Pour into cups, add ice and enjoy.

Nice and simple, just the way I like the first few recipes.  Okay, I’m cheating a bit since I don’t have to cook anything, still this will be my first Indian recipe.  :)

Update:  Okay I made the Cardamon Lemon Juice as is and didn’t care for the flavor, to much cardamon, not enough lemon.   So I added the juice of two more lemons, one lime, and 3 more tablespoons of sugar.  My daughter tasted the new mixed and proclaimed it “yucky.”  I took a taste and like the flavor better.  Next time I make this, I will do everything above except the 1 teaspoon of cardamon which will be cut down to 1/2 or 1/4 a teaspoon.

Salsa Dancing

26 Sep 2012 4 Comments

by ankoku1331 in Food Thought Tags: , ,

Four days ago I had an abundance of tomatoes, plums, celery, peppers (a nice variety), cucumbers and cilantro.  Today I have none of those things.  I like making salsas.  I like eating salsas.  The fresher the better.  However, I am an amateur when making salsas.  I like most of what I make, but not too many other people do.  Then again, they tend to say that they don’t like salsas before trying one of my salsas.  I won’t bore you with every detail, instead I will focus on the highlights of the salsa making day.

The first batch was a mix of tomatoes, celery, cucumber and cilantro tossed into a blender.  Oh, the blender was brand new and that was an experience when salsa juice started flying out of the bottom because the seal wasn’t set right.  Ugh.  Okay, once the blender was fixed and everything chopped or blended or mixed or whatever you want to call the process, the next step was to reach into the basket of peppers.  I grabbed a jalapeno, chopped the pepper up and tossed into the blender.  First batch proclaimed mild by me.  Nice flavor, nice spice, but not great.

The wife does not like spicy.  I don’t like spicy for spicy sake either, I like spicy with flavor.  If you give me something spicy there had better be flavor.  This is why batch number one was not a favorite of mine, not enough flavor.  Since the wife doesn’t like spicy, I decided to try to make a cool (ing) batch.  Same mix as above only with more cucumber, she also doesn’t like tomatoes, and add some lime for flavor.  No spice at all.  This batch was like a good tzatziki.  Not in texture; a good tzatziki cools the mouth and keeps the mouth cool.  This salsa was just like that, a chip full of batch one followed by a chip full of batch two was heavenly.  Just enough spice for you to notice, then a wave of cooling to keep you ready for more spice.

Still I wanted something with lots of flavor and spice.  Thus, batch three is constructed as batch one, add some lime, some flavored salts, and then reach in grab a pepper, cut up, toss in and mix.  SHIT!  Was that…oh well, I will find out when I do a taste test.  Smelled good, looked good, but is the nacho on fire?  This doesn’t look good.  The first mouthful was pain, pure and simple pain.  From the gums, tip of tongue all the way to the back of the throat, nothing but spice burn.  Scotch Bonnet.  I put a whole scotch bonnet into the salsa and nobody other than a serious chili-head or the insane would eat a lot of this salsa.  As it was I could only have three or four nachos-full before my face said NO!  The cooling salsa did nothing.

Several glasses of milk later and I was in the mood for something different salsa-wise.  One of my favorite salsa is the Newman’s Peach Salsa.  I had plums, why not?  There is no reason why not.  Into the blender go a lot of plums, some tomatoes and the rest of the ingredients including a bunch of sugar.  The sugar was to bring out the sweet and tartness of the plums.  This was a success.  I ate the whole batch that day.  I kept trying the scotch bonnet batch, but I just couldn’t justify the amount of spice against the lack of flavor.

Here is the “recipe” for the Plum Salsa for those interested.  The instructions are simple, cut or chop everything, put into blender and blend together to a consistency that YOU like.  Also, after the initial mix, check the flavor to see if you want to add more sugar to the mix.  If you let this mix sit for a few hours the flavors only get better.

Plum Salsa

  • 5 plums, pitted and chopped
  • 2 stalks of celery, chopped
  • 2 large tomatoes, chopped
  • 1 small cucumber, chopped
  • 1 large bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped
  • 2 teaspoons of salt
  • 2 tablespoons sugar

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