Link of the Day [12.14.13]

broderic on December 14, 2013

Tried my hand again on Arroz Caldo, chicken rice porridge. I used the chicken stock recipe as the basis for the soup. Although I extended it by using one more clove of garlic, a couple of dashes of patis, some pepper corn, and small pinch of dried red pepper flakes. It came out slightly more garlicky than I wanted, but other than that its pretty rich.

I simmered it overnight in my slow cooker. I couldn’t get 3 quarts into my small slow cooker, but I ended up with close to 2 full quarts of stock. I used 1 quart in the Arroz Caldo before adding in another 2-3 cups of water into the mix. Let the Arroz Caldo cook for about an hour before serving with a garnish of fried garlic and patis.

http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2013/11/perfect-uncluttered-chicken-stock/

Arroz Caldo

broderic on November 10, 2013

With winter coming, I turn to making a traditional Filipino dish: Arroz Caldo. I’ve asked my brother and mom about their recipe for it and they give it to me without actual measurements or time. My brother makes a chicken stock first, then makes the soup. My mom just gives me the steps: cook chicken with ginger, add water, add rice, cook until done. Not very many ingredients and not many steps. What can go wrong?

My mom left out let the chicken simmer into a stock!

SO YOU HAVE TO HAVE A CHICKEN STOCK.

And now my version doesn’t taste too well. Here’s how I worked my version.

I did use some of the chicken stock I made two weeks ago here. I also used 2 cups.

I take 3 chicken thighs and fry it with ginger, salt, and pepper. Cut the ginger into little slivers so that when you eat the soup, you’ll spend your time spitting out the ginger stalks.

When the chicken looks to be cooked through, add your chicken stock and enough water to cover. Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for twenty minutes. This is were my mom should’ve said to let it simmer for another 2 hours. Next time simmer for 2 hours.

Here add the rice which you should rinse until the water is clear. Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for another 2 hours.

Take the chicken out and shred. Add it back into the soup along with a heaping dose of patis.

Serve with scallions, fried garlic and more patis.

Bean Barley Soup

broderic on October 30, 2013

Right now on the stove is a concoction I threw together, Bean Barley soup. Hopefully, I’m making something that is tasty.

I made some chicken stock just for this. It consisted of chicken wings, onions, celery, carrots, and garlic boiled for 3 hours. Out of this came about 4 cups of stock. Some of it’s freezing in the fridge, but about 2 cups is the basis for the soup.

I threw this soup together because of all the left over vegetables I had. A bag of celery and a bag of carrots need to be used.

So how did I make? Three carrots, two celery stalks, and a half an onion fried together for a few minutes before a half a cup of white beans and a third of a cup of barley go into the pot. In goes 2 cups of the chicken stock followed by 4 more cups of water. It may not need that much. Bring it to a boil then turn down the heat to simmer for an hour. Throw in some parsley for good measure. After an hour add half a tablespoon of vinegar to make it brighter. Salt to taste. Fresh ground pepper to taste.

Let’s hope I’ll enjoy it. I’ve got a few cups to eat for the next few days.

Chili

broderic on October 19, 2013

I haven’t cooked anything in a while. It seems like years, but it’s getting to be colder again and that makes me want to have something good. Soup? No this time chili!

My mom lent me her slow cooker so it will be my first time using it and my first time making chili.

But how hard can chili be? You need some meat, tomato sauce, chili spices, and some chilis. Throw it all in the slow cooker and wait for it to all come together tomorrow morning. I just did that so I’m writing this blog post to remind me how I did it, because when tastes terrible tomorrow, I’ll know what I did wrong.

Let’s start with the ingredients.

First comes ground beef. I chose the 80% lean so that the fat will give it some flavor. Brown the ground beef in a tablespoon of oil with 2 pinches of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

Next (actually before browning the meat), I roast a jalapeño pepper on my stove top. I used my vegetable steamer over the bare flame as the roaster. I rub the pepper in some olive oil and blacken it all around. Place it in a container to steam so that the skin is easy to peel. It took about 5 minutes for it to steam. Let it take longer and the burnt skin should come off easy. Remove the seeds and chop it. Throw it into the browning beef.

One diced yellow onion and a handful of minced garlic cloves go in as well. Let that all cook together for a few minutes. I didn’t look at the time I just threw it all in the pan and watched the meat brown.

Then I added the spices. I have no idea how much to add so I measure out about a tablespoon each of ground cumin, paprika, and chili spices followed by half a tablespoon of ground black pepper. Throw it all into the pan and stir it good.

At this point, I plug in the slow cooker and start her up at high. For the liquid base, I throw in a can of beer. Yes beer because this Deadspin article says so. I’m apprehensive, but hope that it turns out well. Maybe using Sam Adams summer ale may not be the same as Corona.

I scrape the meat and vegetables into the slow cooker. Maybe I should’ve waited longer so that the spices mix up well. In also goes a small can of green chili and then comes the tomato paste. I also have some diced tomatoes but everything in the pot already looks good. I hold off on the diced potatoes. This could be my undoing.

I’m going to let it simmer on high for a couple hours then turn it down to low to cook overnight with fingers crossed.

“And I put aluminum foil on all my windows.” “To keep out the light?” “No, to keep them clean, only it doesn’t work.”

broderic on September 14, 2012

Link of the Day [9.13.12]

I need to move the prior blog posts moving. Yet, I don’t have anything to say. I could go on and on and on about the magical season the Baltimore Orioles are in the midst of, but just go watch ’em is all I want to say. I could complain about work, but I’m done there for now.

Who knows? Not me. I have nothing to say.

Here’s a link of the day.

Hmmmm. Yummo. Maybe I should start cooking again for blog fodder…

http://joythebaker.com/2012/09/baked-chili-cheese-fries/

1.. 2.. 3.. 4..

broderic on June 3, 2012

There’s supposedly a party today. It’s gonna be a swim party at my mom’s. What better way to have summer fun than drinking, eating, and swimming? And what drink? Rum punch!

So I made a pitcher of it following this recipe. I wouldn’t have to use a recipe if I can remember this old West Indies mnemonic, “One of sour, two of sweet, three of strong, four of weak.” The ingredients to this rum punch is one parts lime juice, two parts simple syrup, three parts rum and four parts orange juice. That’s it mix it all together and garnish with fruit.

The interesting part came when creating the simple syrup. I don’t have granulated white sugar in my house only sugar cubes. I do have dark brown sugar which is what I used to make the simple syrup. One cup dark brown sugar to one and half cups of water. Take this to a roiling boil and then simmer for ten minutes. It should reduce down to about one and quarter cup about 12 ounces.

For the lime juice, I squeezed 5 limes. I’ve got a sweet juicer that makes it easy. There’s a sixth lime, but that’s for the garnish.

For the rum, I used 1 part Malibu and the 2 parts the Captain.

Since it was dark brown sugar, the rum punch is a dark brown. It almost looks like an ice tea! Maybe Long Island ice teas next time!

Guacamole

broderic on May 23, 2012

Guacamole is easy to make even a non-cook like me can do it. I just fixed some up for lunch this morning here's how if you don't know.

I took the left over half an avocado I had in the fridge since Sunday and diced it. I took four plum tomatoes from the carton I have in the fridge and diced it. I took an 1/8 of the red onion I have in the fridge and diced it. Finally, I diced a few sprigs of cilantro. This all goes into a bowl, season with a pinch of salt and fresh ground pepper to taste, and some lemon juice from the squeeze bottle.

I don't own a mortar and pestle, so mashing it in a mixing bowl was slightly difficult. I used a spoon and just pressed everything to the side of the bowl. I did this until the guacamole was in a consistency I liked.

That's it! Simple right? It probably is better as your ingredients get fresher.

I'll have find some tortilla chips for dipping. The vending machine here at work only has Doritos.

The Deconstructed Salad

broderic on May 22, 2012

Tuesdays are meatless Tuesdays. Try cutting down on eating red meat, and eventually, try cutting down on any animal flesh for Tuesdays this summer (and maybe the rest of the year). So, in trying to honor Meatless Tuesdays, I planned to have a salad.

Unfortunately, I woke up later than I wanted to so I had only a few minutes to spare to make a salad. Not really, but I'm trying to get to work early to make these 11 hour days bearable: walk in at 7 AM and out at 6 PM a reasonable day! I have to put together a salad in a short time.

I start making the salad backwards. The toppings go in before the actual lettuce. First, comes plum tomatoes. I get a handful, wash them, then plop them into my salad bowl. Next, comes onions which I take 1/8th of a red onion and chop roughly. I had some fresh cilantro in the fridge, so I coarsely chop a small bunch of stalks and throw that into the mix. Finally, I break out some feta cheese and crumble it into the bowl. I salt and pepper this mixture then toss.

Now for the lettuce, I take and quarter a head of iceberg. I don't throw this into the bowl and call it a day, but wash it out, because I think that you need to wash your lettuce. I wash the quartered leaves spin them dry which breaks them into several big leaves. I stuff this into the bowl, and call it a day. I believe it took about few minutes to do this all.

So, it's a deconstructed salad; it hasn't been mixed up yet. The leaves of lettuce just sitting with the toppings mix which I will be mixed at lunch with some leftover blue cheese dressing from the buffalo wings last week. It maybe not a truly deconstructed what with the mixing of the toppings, but I'm just calling it that for fun.