huevos rancheros

to thank brian for being such an awesome roommate i decided to make him breakfast today. i told him he had his choice of omelettes, scrambled eggs with chicken mango sausage, or huevos rancheros. he chose huevos rancheros so that is what he got.

i had never made huevos rancheros before so i used a combination of the mark bittman and smitten kitchen recipes. mainly i used mark bittman's method but i embellished them a la smitten kitchen by using black beans instead of refried and adding in some fresh salsa and some guacamole.

i won't make you wait to ogle the deliciousness

for the salsa i used herdez salsa taquera which is one of my absolute favorite jarred salsas. i can make my own salsa but i am lazy and herdez is good and cheap. you can find it at pretty much any of the stores around here. if you feel like a more tomatoey salsa, go for the herdez salsa casera. i am a big fan of herdez in general.

as for the beans i got a can of black beans and threw them into some onions and garlic and thyme which i had been cooking until the onions got soft. then i softened them up a bit and added a bay leaf and some lime juice and salt and pepper. they simmered for a while.

then i just put it all together the way mark bittman says and they came out delicious and we put the fresh salsa and guacamole on top. i don't have a specific recipe for fresh salsa but it is really easy, you just chop up some tomatoes (i had some delicious ones from my uncle's garden and the farmer's market) and a hot pepper (from my garden this time) and some onion and garlic and cilantro and then mix it all together with some lime juice, a little white vinegar, and plenty of salt.

this is approximately what your fresh salsa should look like

you may as well make these huevos rancheros yourself because the only place you are going to find any that are even close to this good around here are at tucker's and they are only going to give you a tiny little speck of their fresh salsa. actually i am maybe lying, i bet take the cake does huevos rancheros that are even better than this. i don't know that for sure but it just seems likely.

what i did this weekend... i pickled

i don't really have a recipe, i just kind of loosely followed the recipes in the link in my previous posts on the topic of pickling (especially sierra's). you are just boiling up some brine + spices, throwing the veggies in a jar, pouring hot brine on top, letting them cool, then putting on lids and popping them in the fridge. my general proportions were as follows:

• 1 part salt
• 2 parts sugar
• 2 parts water
• 4 parts vinegar (i used a variety including white, rice wine, white wine, and tarragon)
• various combinations of the following herbs/spices: fresh dill, dill seed, turmeric, mustard seed, celery seed, coriander seed, black peppercorns, dried onions, fresh garlic. i just threw it in and did not measure how much.
• i used the following vegetables: carrots (blanched), cucumbers, green beans

first i made pickled carrots because i had a bunch of carrots laying around. i made way too much brine so i knew i was going to be making more pickles very soon...

oops

next i decided to do cucumbers, because it is traditional (and i love them), and green beans, because i love them.

pretty!

as if that was not enough pickles i had to go out to jungle jim's to get cucumber kimchee because i was seriously craving it after that post the other day. yes i bought it today and i have already eaten a quarter of the jar. yes that is a 32 oz. jar.

i have zero self control so i have already gotten into the pickled carrots even though i just made them yesterday. they are so delicious. right now i am cooking up a huge pot of rice in my rice cooker and i am going to eat all these pickles with the rice all week for lunch, with probably some beef bulgogi or grilled chicken or something. i am going to try to save a couple jars for more than a week so i can see what they taste like after that long but i don't know if i will make it.

food safety note: these are all refrigerator pickles. that means they only last for a few weeks and must stay in the fridge. you can make pickles that will keep in your cupboard if you know proper canning procedures, but i don't so just fyi.

eat this now: geeta's mango chutney and ning chi chili with garlic

i always seem to do my best cooking for myself, and cousin brian now that he lives with me. i think it is because i feel more comfortable just throwing a bunch of shit together and seeing how it comes out without worrying if it will be good. that usually leads to something really interesting and delicious. if i know i am cooking for other people, i tend to be less creative because i am concerned that things won't work and they will not enjoy their meal.

when i went to jungle jim's with my mom last month, i picked up lots of different delicious ingredients which i have been throwing into all kinds of dishes. today i had some leftover rotisserie chicken and wanted some curry chicken salad.

do not try to live one more minute without these condiments

let me just stop and talk about rotisserie chicken for a second because i have some strong opinions on the issue. first of all the only place in my opinion in cincinnati to buy rotisserie chickens is the fresh market. yes i know it is expensive to shop there but this is one thing that is worth buying there. their rotisserie chickens are usually $7-8 and i can get at least four meals out of them. unlike pretty much every rotisserie chicken i have had, which starts out tasting ok but gets a weird flavor and texture after being in the fridge, their rotisserie chickens still taste like normal chicken a few days later. also they are just more delicious from the start, and the skin is not all gooey and weird.

anyway so i had some leftover rotisserie chicken in the fridge. i was poking around and found geeta's mango chutney which i thought would be perfect with the curry. i am a big fan of mango chutney of any type but geeta's is just the shit. the flavors are bold and the spices in it are whole and potent. big chunks of mango and you can taste everything separately (the flavors do not all just blend together like other jarred chutneys). it is spicy and sweet and salty. so good.

i also wanted a little kick so i pulled out the ning chi chili with garlic. i have been absolutely obsessed with this condiment since opening it last week. i already liked the various chili with garlic variants that you can get (all those little plastic bottles with green lids and roosters on them or whatever) but this is just a completely different thing. first of all it has no vinegar or preservatives. it is literally just big ass chunks of garlic and super spicy chilis in oil with a little salt and sugar. it is so absurdly garlicky that really no one should ever eat it if they are going to be around other people but i do it all the time and make people suffer and it is so worth it.

here is my damn good curry chicken salad

anyway so i threw these in with the chicken and some madras curry and then some mayo and colman's mustard, and some chopped up pecans and dried apricots and shredded carrots. then i stirred it all up and put it on bread and it was delicious.

tuna taco nirvana

i have a lot of different things that i make with varying degrees of success, but the one thing that i am really amazing at making is tuna tacos. what i do is make grilled tuna, put it on some corn tortillas, throw on some salsa and red cabbage slaw and maybe guacamole, and then die of happiness.

here is my recipe for grilled tuna (scroll down). you can also find my guacamole recipe there too. for the corn tortillas, what you want to do is heat up a skillet really hot and put them in for about 1 minute per side to soften them up and cook the corn a bit. don't just eat them out of the bag, they will depress you. cooking them makes all the difference. you could also throw them on the grill with the tuna if you want.

a belated photo of the tacos

here is my red cabbage slaw recipe. this changes every time i make it. for example, today i added pomelo and shredded carrots and i used all lime juice (no lemon) and a little seasoned rice wine vinegar. other fun substitutions/additions are using orange juice or lemonade, adding raisins or chopped dried apricots or fresh pineapple or whatever you think sounds good.

so you just grill the tuna, heat up the tortillas, and then put a little salsa on the tortillas (today i went for herdez salsa taquera) and then the tuna and then the slaw. they are amazingly delicious. i like them so much that i hardly ever make them for other people. i feel like if you eat my tuna tacos then everything else i make for you will be disappointing. i make them for myself all the time though, especially on random days like today when the opportunity to grill unexpectedly falls out of the sky and lands in my lap. sorry i don't have a picture, i ate them too quickly and forgot until it was too late.

chinese new year dinner

on sunday my friend ben, who is an awesome cook (although reportedly not as good as his sister, who has won a james beard award... but still you can see what kind of cooking genes we are dealing with here. these people have cooking competitions when the family gets together), invited some friends over for a chinese new year dinner.

we had authentic japanese ramen with a 9 hour broth (ramen = not traditional for a chinese new year party but i am obviously not complaining), momofuku pork buns, a moosewood cookbook recipe for tofu with bok choy, lots of dumplings, wine, and dojo gelato (vietnamese coffee, coconut curry, and chocolate diavolo). it was awesome.

i did not take any pictures during the meal but here is a picture of leftovers which i ate for lunch the next day

ben did all sorts of interesting things for this meal including roasting pork belly, poaching eggs in the shell (it's so cool... you crack the egg and a poached egg slides out), and making his own pickled shiitake mushrooms (which are addictive as hell). obviously i had to get recipes so here they are from ben, via david chang, in ben's words:

pork belly

3 lbs of pork belly (skinless)
1/4 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar

yep. that's it. CAM's only has skin-on pork belly, so you'll need a sharp knife, a steady hand (remember why I had to wear that glove?) and a mental resolve that is comfortable with cutting a piece of meat that may have a nipple on it. (not. kidding). you can leave the skin on if you want a built in pork rind on top (that can be pretty tasty) but there are a couple of (in my opinion, potentially gross) pitfalls to watch out for. 1 is nipples - I'd cut them off. (ugh. i hate even TYPING that). The other is bristles, which can be apparently burned off by waving a blowtorch over the skin very lightly. (what do you mean you don't have a cooking blowtorch?!?)

If you got a nipple-less, bristleless piece of pork belly and have a hankering for some crackling, then I'd say full steam ahead. Otherwise, I'm afraid you'll need to slice the skin off on one end to make a flap you can grab with your hand, and then using a sawing motion cut the skin from the fat, being careful keep your hand outside the path of the blade. otherwise, you might cut through the skin and into, say , the knuckle on the middle finger of your left hand.

you could, also use the skin for crackling, but it requires boiling the skin in water to boil off the excess fat so your apt will smell like a pork sauna, putting the skin in a food dehydrator for 12 hours, and THEN deep frying it.

ok, so using the salt/sugar mixture, cover the meat with the sugar/salt mixture. you don't have to the entire 1/2 cup of seasoning, just enough to coat the top & bottom. put them in a baking dish, cover it with cling wrap and park it in the fridge for at least 6 hours, no more than 24 (otherwise you'll have bacon on your hands. which...is still pretty much OK.) That last step is important, otherwise you'll never dry out the outside enough to get a good crust and the meat won't be seasoned throughout.

Then, blast the belly, fat side up, in a roasting pan in a 450 oven for an hour, basting it with the fat at the halfway point. It should have a nice, brown crust.

then take the heat way down to 250 and roast for about an hour- 1:15. the meat should be pillow soft to the touch. reserve the fat for soups & meat juices as a kind of meat jelly if you're really into adding pork flavor to something.

If you want to cut it into neat slices for the ramen or for the pork buns, like I did, it's best to make sure the pork belly is completely cool (otherwise it will flake on you). then warm it in a pan before serving.

momofuku-style pork buns

To make the pork buns (i think you could call them "chinese white castles") I made, buy the steamed buns at CAMs (they didn't have the folded ones when I was there, but those are preferred). Steam the buns, cut some cucumbers really thin, coat the cucumbers to taste with the remaining salt/sugar mixture and wait 10 mins. put cucumbers on the bun with a smear of hoisin sauce and pork belly and eat. take it easy with the hoisin - a little goes a long way.

shiitake pickles

4 loosely packed cups (1/3 oz, or 1 bag) of shiitake mushrooms

1 cup sugar

1 cup usukuchi (light soy sauce)
1 cup sherry vinegar (I can't find this anywhere, so I just used rice vinegar)

2 3-inch knobs of fresh ginger, peeled.

Usukuchi is important for this one - just because normal soy sauce would be wayy too salty (usukuchi is the soy sauce on the right with the yellow cap). Since you're probably going to cam's to pick up the dried mushrooms, i'd pick up a bottle of the usukuchi as well.

put the mushrooms in a bowl. boil some water and pour over the shiitakes, enough to immerse them in water. cover the bowl with a plate & let steep for 10-15 min, until they are soft.

get the mushrooms out of the liquid, reserving 2 cups of the liquid for the brine. Chop the mushrooms into strips and set aside.

in a pot, combine the mushrooms, mushroom liquid, sugar, soy sauce, ginger and vinegar. bring to a gentle simmer for 30 mins. then dump the pickles into a jar or other container, using enough brining liquid to coat. store in the fridge & don't forget to check your blood pressure regularly.

homemade mayonnaise, and a recipe to use it in

as you guys know i got all obsessed with making butter a while back. well then liberal foodie told me she made homemade mayonnaise and i knew one day i was going to have to make that. then i also saw this recipe and the photo along with it in saveur and my fate was sealed.

i have been drooling over this photo for months

here is the recipe i used to make mayonnaise (modified from this julia child-inspired recipe):

homemade mayonnaise

Ingredients

• Round-bottomed, 2½ to 3-quart glazed pottery, glass or stainless steel mixing bowl. Set it in a heavy casserole or saucepan to keep it from slipping.
• hand mixer with either whisk or thin beaters attached
• 3 large egg yolks
• Large wire whisk
• 2-3 T. lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon dry or prepared mustard (i used colman's)
• 1 c. olive oil mixed with 1 c. canola oil (room temperature)
• 2 tablespoons boiling water

Directions

• Warm the bowl in hot water; dry it.
• Add the egg yolks and beat for 1 to 2 minutes until they are thick and sticky.
• Add 1 T. of lemon juice and the salt and mustard powder. Beat for 30 seconds more. The egg yolks are now ready to receive the oil.
• start adding the oil a little at a time, you must not stop beating until the sauce has thickened. Add the drops of oil with a teaspoon, or rest the lip of the bottle on the edge of the bowl. Keep your eye on the oil rather than on the sauce.
• Stop pouring and continue beating every 10 seconds or so, to be sure the egg yolks are absorbing the oil.
• After 1/3 to 1/2 cup of oil has been incorporated, the sauce will thicken into a very heavy cream and the crisis of potential curdling is over.
• Then, beat in the remaining oil by 1 to 2 tablespoon dollops, blending it thoroughly after each addition.
• When the sauce becomes too thick and stiff, beat in drops of lemon juice to thin it out. Then continue with the oil. Beat the boiling water into the sauce. This is an anti-curdling insurance. Season to taste.
• If the sauce is not used immediately, scrape it into a small bowl and cover it tightly so a skin will not form on its surface.

like buttah

so this mayonnaise came out delicious. i licked the beaters and the spatula, and i am not really a big mayonnaise person. avani tasted it and wanted to dip fries in it.

i caught you a delicious salmon

so then after i made the mayo i made the vladivostokian (is that a word) baked salmon, pretty much exactly like the saveur recipe:

Keta Zapechenaya pod Mayonezom (baked salmon with mayonnaise)

1 tsp. canola oil
8 2" × 3" skin-on boneless salmon filets (about 2 lbs.)
1 tbsp. plus 2 tsp. soy sauce
3⁄4 cup mayonnaise

1. Grease an 8" × 8" baking dish with the oil. Rub the salmon filets with 1 tbsp. of the soy sauce, then arrange them snugly in the prepared dish, skin side up. Rub the salmon skin with the remaining soy sauce; cover dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

chillaxin in the soy sauce

all greased up

2. Heat oven to 425°. Remove baking dish from refrigerator and set aside to let come to room temperature for 15 minutes. Spread the mayonnaise evenly over the salmon, spreading it out to the edges of the baking dish. Bake, rotating once, until skin is golden brown and salmon is cooked through, about 20-25 minutes. Remove the salmon from the oven and set aside to let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

the finished product... i can't believe how yellow my mayonnaise is

i know it may seem weird to make salmon with mayonnaise and soy sauce, but it was damn tasty. the picture from the magazine is what really sold me on this. it looked so brown and juicy and delicious. and it came out exactly that way. it was super easy to make and i got some really nice fresh, red salmon from findlay market. that plus the homemade mayonnaise really made the difference, but i think this would also be good with mayo from the jar.

the meal

avani came over and helped me eat the salmon and she brought roasted asparagus and a squash and chickpea salad with tahini dressing. i also made some brown rice. none of these things seem like they should go together but it worked. of course this is coming from the person who has been known to eat sushi rolls, caesar salad, and skyline dip in the same sitting. anyway we enjoyed our meal so that is what counts.

delicious kibby made by my beautiful sister

kibby is a lebanese dish that sitty makes. it is basically lebanese meatloaf... ground beef (or lamb) with bulgur wheat and spices. you can eat it raw (my absolute favorite... you pour melted butter on top and then eat it with slices of raw onion wrapped in syrian bread) or baked or fried. nobody ever made this as good as sitty until my sister annette decided to take on the challenge. readers, you heard it here first... annette's kibby is better than sitty's (don't tell sitty). she made it for me over christmas and it was the best gift anyone could have given me. here are some pictures.

annette is going to hate me for posting pics of her without makeup all over the internet

raw kibby

this is the filling (ground beef + onions + pine nuts) that goes between two layers of baked kibby

preparing the kibby for baking

it's almost ready to go in the oven

raw kibby (kibby nayye)

1 lb. very lean round steak (95% lean ground beef), ground 2-3 times (your butcher will do this for you)

3/4 c. fine cracked wheat (bulgur)

1 small - medium onion, ground or grated finely

1.5 t. salt

1/2 t. black pepper

1/2 T. ground cinnamon

1/4 t. allspice

soak wheat for 10-15 min in cold water. mix onions and meat together, add spices, mix (you are doing all this mixing with your hands, which you need to regularly dip into icy water to keep them cold). add wheat, mix (with a little cold water if necessary).

annette demonstrates what i want to do with that big lump of raw kibby

kibby stuffing (hashwah)

1 lb. ground lean beef

1 med. onion, finely chopped

2-3 T. butter (i think annette told me that this is too much so maybe less)

1/4 c. pine nuts

1/3 t. black pepper

1 t. salt

fry everything together except pine nuts. add 1/2 c. water if it's too dry and then drain it. add pine nuts.

baked kibby

grease 16 x 10 x 2 pan with 1 T. oil. spread a layer of kibby and then a layer of stuffing over the kibby, and then another layer of kibby (annette says that second layer of kibby is hard to do over the stuffing).

cut the kibby into 5 equal parts lenghtwise and 8 equal parts crosswise, then cut diagonally. pass a knife around the sides of the baking pan to release the kibby. put some little chunks of butter on the top (2 T.). bake for one hour at 350-375. put in the broiler for a few minutes if it's not brown on top.

the finished product

i like to eat my baked kibby with syrian bread and dip it into yogurt. but like i said my favorite is raw kibby. as long as you get the meat freshly ground from a butcher you can trust and make it right away, you will be fine.

boeuf bourguignon

a couple weeks ago, on the exact same day, two of my friends who do not know each other and live in different parts of the country decided to make julia childs' boeuf bourguignon (aka beef burgundy) and then posted about it on facebook. it was too much for me... i had to have it. but when was i going to find the time to make it? well due to the snow terror that hit cincinnati today, i got let out of work at noon. an afternoon free and nobody at the grocery store meant that the stars had aligned for me and the boeuf. the recipe is here in case you, like me, are too poor to invest in your own copy of mastering the art of french cooking.

the recipe is perfect and if it were not for my own personal issues (unreliable oven, lack of a deep enough casserole dish, being dumb enough to not realize that you can't put a plastic lid on top of a pyrex dish while it is in the oven) the dish would have been flawless. as it is, even with the overcooked onions and the disproportionate wine to beef stock ratio, my boeuf was the shit. i made garlic mashed potatoes to go along with it and it is the best meal i have made in a long time.

i don't have much else to add so here is the whole 5 hour ordeal in photos...

it came out delicious. it took forever but it was definitely worth it. and now i will have tasty boeuf for days.

my name is liz and i am a roast chickenaholic

happy halloween readers! i'm back, at least for the moment. what have i been doing, your inquiring minds ask? roasting chickens. my friends and i are currently all obsessed with roasting chickens. i have eaten a shitload of roast chicken in the past month, all delicious.

we are all fixated on ina garten's roast chicken recipes in her various cookbooks. we have experimented with ingredients, roasting times, putting bacon on top, etc. everything comes out delicious. before this month, i had never roasted a chicken in my life and now i am completely obsessed. it is so damn easy and awesome.

one of the many amazing chickens (pre-roasting) i have eaten this month, this one made by maggie and ryan

here is the template for my roast chicken, taken from here:

Lemon and Garlic Roast Chicken

Copyright, 2004, Ina Garten, All Rights Reserved
Prep Time: 20 min
Inactive Prep Time: --
Cook Time: 1 hr 35 min Level: Easy Serves: 3 to 4 servings

Ingredients

• 1 (5 to 6-pound) roasting chicken
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper
• 1 large bunch fresh thyme
• 4 lemons
• 3 heads garlic, cut in 1/2 crosswise
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1/2 pound sliced bacon
• 1 cup white wine
• 1/2 cup chicken stock

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Remove the chicken giblets. Rinse the chicken inside and out. Remove any excess fat and leftover pinfeathers and pat the outside dry. Place the chicken in a large roasting pan. Liberally salt and pepper the inside of the chicken. Stuff the cavity with the thyme, reserving enough thyme to garnish the chicken dish, 1 lemon, halved, and 2 halves of the garlic. Brush the outside of the chicken with the butter and sprinkle again with salt and pepper. Tie the legs together with kitchen string and tuck the wing tips under the body of the chicken. Cut 2 of the lemons in quarters and scatter the quarters and remaining garlic around the chicken. Lay the bacon slices over the chicken to cover.

Roast the chicken for 1 hour. Remove the bacon slices from the top of the chicken and set aside. Continue roasting the chicken for an additional 1/2 hour, or until the juices run clear when you cut between a leg and thigh. Remove to a platter and cover with aluminum foil while you prepare the gravy.

Remove all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the bottom of the pan. Add the wine and chicken stock and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat, and simmer for 5 minutes, or until reduced by half.
Slice the chicken on a platter. Garnish the chicken platter with the bacon slices, roasted garlic, reserved thyme and 1 lemon, sliced. Serve with the gravy.

maggie and ryan's chicken post-roasting

here are my tips:

• don't rinse the chicken. all that happens when you do that is that you are getting nasty ass germs and bacteria all in your sink. who cares, don't rinse.
• don't over-roast. just roast it until it is about 140 degrees internal temp. then put foil over it and let it sit for about 20 min. we live in america, you are more likely to die of salmonella from spinach than chicken.
• experiment with ingredients. i love using an herb mix of rosemary and thyme. holly made a chicken with grapefruit instead of lemons and substituted olive oil for butter. maggie and ryan stuffed one with apples and then crisscrossed bacon above and under the skin, and they injected it with squirts of ground up garlic mashed with limoncello. every chicken has been unique and delicious.
• try roasting it uncovered until the last half hour. i did this by accident once and it came out really good.
• you don't need a roasting pan and can do this in a casserole dish or whatever you want.
• put lots of vegetables under the chicken while it roasts. onions, potatoes, carrots, leeks, more garlic heads, etc.

once you get started roasting chickens i promise you will be obsessed too. the nice thing is that even if you are just making it for yourself there are so many ways to use it up afterwards. and it is way better than those damn grocery store rotisserie chickens (which i admit i buy whenever i am lazy and hungry and the smell of them overpowers me at the store... mmmm...)

publican chicken and roasted brussels sprouts

i haven't had much to blog about lately. i have been either eating out at places i have already blogged about, or else devouring all the delicious heirloom tomatoes i can get my hands on. my basil plant is going crazy so i'm going to need to make pesto soon. and i got the craving for caesar salad the other day so i whipped up a batch of my caesar dressing and some homemade garlic croutons and ate yummy salads for days.

i literally cannot get enough heirloom tomatoes

today i was on my way home from work and i was in the mood to cook. all of a sudden i was hit with a craving... the sweet and salty, crunchy, juicy chicken that i ate at the publican with lavine while i was in chicago over labor day. but i didn't have a recipe. what to do... i decided to hit the store and see what i could figure out.

i ate caesar salad for five days in a row and did not get sick of it

lavine and i had discussed the issue of ingredients in depth while i was visiting her and we had decided that we thought it was a brined chicken. we were pretty sure there was brown sugar and thyme involved. and it was crispy as hell on the outside and perfectly tender and juicy on the inside, so there had to be some sort of high heat/low heat thing going on.

once i got to the store it was time to do some improvising. no way in hell was i going to have time to cook a chicken whole so i got some mix of parts called "pick of the chick" which turned out to be two legs, two thighs, and two breasts (all bone in). of course, there would be no time to brine so i thought maybe i could marinate it for a bit in lemon to get the same effect (tender + juicy). light brown or dark brown sugar? i guessed and chose light brown. i also wanted some garlic although i couldn't really remember that flavor in the chicken at the restaurant.

here is a picture of how it looked at the restaurant...

at home i knew i had some dried thyme and fresh rosemary that i wanted to use. i knew there was no rosemary in the publican's chicken, but when i was eating it i remembered wishing it was there. i also have a big fat awesome rosemary plant that i do not use enough so i was looking for an excuse.

i got home and decided to google the recipe, just a shot in the dark. and guess what... it's on the ny times! clearly this was a sign. one of the keys to this recipe is the espelette pepper. i do not have that on hand (i had never even heard of it before) but i did happen to have some spanish paprika and i found that plus a pinch of cayenne to be a perfectly acceptable substitute. here is the recipe with my modifications in italics:

publican chicken a la liz

Time: 40 minutes, plus at least 1 hour’s marinating

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (i probably used 4 T. because i wanted it to tenderize quickly)

1 1/2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon Espelette pepper or Spanish smoked hot paprika (i used the paprika plus maybe 1/4 t. of cayenne)

1 tablespoon dried oregano (i don't care what this recipe says, it was thyme at the restaurant. i don't really like oregano so i used approximately 1 t. dried thyme and 1 T. chopped fresh rosemary)

2 cloves garlic, sliced (i used 5 cloves, smashed and roughly chopped)

1/2 teaspoon salt (i substituted with about 1/4 t. salt and 1/2 t. lawry's)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 3-pound chicken, backbone removed. (like i said i used "pick of the chick," aka 2 legs, 2 thighs, and 2 breasts, all bone in)

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine oil, lemon juice, brown sugar, Espelette pepper or hot paprika, oregano, garlic and salt and pepper. Mix well.

2. Flatten chicken and add to marinade, turning it until coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight. (i marinated one hour and it was soooo flavorful. overnight would be amazing i'm guessing.)

3. Prepare a grill, arranging coals or gas flame so it is hot on only one side. Place chicken skin-side down on unheated side of grill (so it will cook by indirect heat). Grill, basting every 5 minutes and turning chicken once about halfway through, until juices run clear when chicken is pierced near joint of thigh, about 30 minutes. (ok so what i had to do was actually turn on the unheated side of my grill to low for about 5 minutes total, about 10 min in, because i was scared it was not going to cook fully for hours. this worked fine. the skin was a little charred but i like it that way. you will need to mess with cooking times and temperatures based on your grill.)

4. Remove chicken from grill and allow to rest 5 minutes. Carve as desired, and serve.

Yield: 2 servings. (uh, more like 4 i would say)

this. came. out. awesome. oh my god. dare i say it? i think it was better than at the publican (i am waiting to get struck down as we speak). it was just even more flavorful and delicious than theirs. i know i sound full of myself but this chicken was crazy good. i think i am going to go pick on some out of the fridge right now.

ok i'm back. oh my GOD that was good. damn.

...and here is how it looked in my kitchen

to go with my chicken, i made some trader joe's garlic fries. yum. i also decided i had to have some roasted brussels sprouts. i have been messing around with recipes on this one for a while... it's really hard because i have an ornery old oven that refuses to stay at one temperature which is kind of necessary to the caramelization process of those thin little leaves that love to burn.

after lots of tries, i think i have perfected it. or as much as my oven will allow me to anyway. here you go. good luck.

liz's it's not crack it's brussels sprouts yo

1 lb. brussels sprouts
4 T. extra virgin olive oil
2 T. peanut oil
6 cloves of garlic, smashed
1 T. sherry vinegar
grated parmesan cheese to taste
salt and pepper to taste

rinse the brussels sprouts and chop off the little brown bit on the stem. soak them in cold, salty water for about 20 min. dry them off. slice them in half lengthwise.

heat up your oven to 400 degrees. meanwhile, heat up the oil in a cast iron skillet. when it is hot throw in the brussels sprouts and then the garlic. you will probably get splashed with little flecks of hot oil. sorry about that. cook the sprouts until they start to get brown, then mix them up and keep cooking. this will take about 7 minutes i'm guessing.

once they are browned on both sides, add some salt and pepper. then put the whole pan in the oven for about 10-15 minutes until they are really soft and caramelized. you will need to stir them a few times while they are in there. take the pan out and leave it on the stove for a few minutes until the sprouts cool off a bit, then add the sherry vinegar and mix and then grate the parmesan on top. you can also add more salt and pepper if you want. try not to eat all of the sprouts out of the pan immediately. serve.

fennel and jicama slaw

i found this recipe for fennel and jicama slaw on the hungry mouse and i became obsessed with it... hence the hunt for jicama. i love jicama and fresh fennel and i thought the combination would be delicious. tonight i grilled up some salmon and made the slaw. it was awesome. fresh, crunchy, sweet, tangy... perfect. mmmmm. i am getting hungry again just thinking about it.

as usual i had to mess around with it, this time mostly because i didn't have all the necessary ingredients, and also because i think i had a really big jicama and there was not enough dressing to go around in the original recipe.

liz's slightly modified version of the hungry mouse's fennel and jicama slaw

1 jicama
1 fennel
5 T. olive oil
4 T. seasoned rice wine vinegar
juice of one lemon
1/2 t. sugar (you could also use honey... i would probably use a little more in that case)
a few shakes of red pepper flakes
3 T. fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

peel the jicama and then cut it into slices and then sticks. cut off the ends of the fennel, cut it in half through the middle, then cut it into strips. save a few of the stalks. put the jicama and fennel in a large bowl.

put everything except the jicama, fennel, and cilantro in a jar. shake the jar until everything combines. pour the dressing on the jicama and fennel. chop some of the green feathery stalks of the fennel and then add it and the cilantro into the salad and mix it in. eat.

the slaw

i make no claim that my slaw is better than the hungry mouse's version, since i have never tried it. i think they would both be good. the main differences are that hers uses orange juice and green onions instead of the lemon juice and cilantro in mine. you really can't go wrong with citrus and fresh herbs though.

with this i made grilled salmon marinated in trader joe's island soyaki (which is just like soy vay island teriyaki and is much cheaper). it is a yummy and easy fallback marinade that i use a lot. i also tried my new bbq smoking chips (cherry wood, if you are wondering) on my grill for the first time and did not notice a huge difference in the way the fish tasted. maybe i am not doing it right. i did make sure to wait until the chips started smoking to put the fish on the grill so i don't know if i am doing something wrong. if you have any experience grilling with smoking chips and can help me out, let me know.

homemade caesar dressing update

ok readers, i think i have mastered it. thank you to everyone for the tips... you all helped me get here. i couldn't have done it without you!

liz's damn tasty but your breath will kill people caesar dressing

8 T. extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c. parmesan cheese, grated
2 eggs (boiled 60-90 sec. if you are scared)
3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 tin anchovies
1 t. dijon mustard
1/2 t. worcestershire sauce
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

mash up the garlic and anchovies with a mortar and pestle. i like to use my chirmolera. make it into a paste. put in bowl with lemon, mash it all together. crack in eggs, whisk them in. add worcestershire sauce and mustard, whisk more. then whisk while drizzling in the olive oil. stir in parmesan. taste and add salt and pepper and maybe a little more lemon. drizzle on top of fresh or grilled romaine and either croutons or grilled bread. sprinkle with more parmesan if you feel like it. die happy.

warning: this dressing is super crazy potent. mashed up garlic and anchovies = possibly the scariest breath you can have. just fyi.

homemade caesar dressing... i need help

i got into this thing recently where i really want to make homemade caesar dressing. like ranch, bottled just does not do it for me. one of the stops on the road trip i told you guys about a couple weeks ago was tijuana, where caesar cardini invented the caesar salad in 1924. of course i had to try the original caesar.

i can't remember the name of the restaurant we ate at, but they claimed that caesar had invented the salad there, which seemed kind of unlikely since it didn't seem like all that old of a restaurant. of course, i could be remembering wrong since not long after eating the salad, i got sick to my stomach and could not finish dinner and spent the night in pain and agony with the worst sunburn of my life.

i do remember the salad being damn good though. they mixed the ingredients in front of us and i remember it being the best caesar salad of my life. the other night i got a craving for it so i decided to try to make it on my own. i based my caesar off of the one in how to cook everything by mark bittman, and it came out ok but not great.

i used:

• 1 clove garlic
• 2 medium eggs
• 3 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 6 T. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 T. colman's mustard
• 1 T. minced anchovies
• dash of worcestershire sauce
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 small head romaine, washed, dried, and chopped
• homemade garlic croutons (cubed sourdough which i sauteed in garlic infused oil until light brown and crispy)
  
• 1/2 c. freshly grated parmesan cheese

i rubbed the inside of the bowl with the garlic clove then tossed it. then i boiled the eggs for 90 seconds and then cracked them into the bowl. i whisked them with the lemon juice, mustard, and olive oil. then i whisked in the anchovies and worcestershire and then tossed half of the dressing (there was way too much) with the lettuce. then i added the croutons and parmesan.

like i said, it was just ok. it was not zesty enough (even though i added extra lemon and the mustard) and it was too runny. so help me out. what should i do differently to make my caesar dressing really amazing? i am thinking i need more anchovies next time and maybe only one egg. do you guys have any other suggestions?

poached salmon on the grill and cold rice noodle and veggie salad

back in college my friend bryan and i got this great idea. we were going to go on a road trip after graduation. we saved our pennies (well actually bryan saved his pennies and i applied for more credit cards) and stocked up on camping supplies and snacks and off we went for a month out west in bryan's granny car with no cruise control, the phatty buick.

we hit up colorado springs, the grand canyon, las vegas, zion national park, san diego, tijuana, mesa verde, phoenix, and a bunch of other places i am forgetting right now. we spent the trip alternately having a hilariously awesome time and not speaking to each other because we were so sick of each other's shit.

my favorite place we stayed on the trip was at this crazy bed and breakfast slash farm place run by these two very gay guys in nowheresville colorado somewhere. the place was rustic and there were dogs and chickens and turkeys running everywhere, including in and out of the house. we went for drinks at the only bar in town and everyone stared at us. however beer was like $1.50 so we did not care. kind of like the west side.

here i am at the grand canyon. this was back in 2002 so nobody had a digital camera. in fact i am not even sure why i have this photo.

at another point in the trip we were in utah and sick of camping. we decided to get a hotel. well good luck if you are an unmarried guy and girl trying to get a room together in utah. one after another every hotel with a vacancy sign told us they were full. we swore up and down that we were not going to have sex, and in fact, if either one of us touched the other one we would punch them and then throw up, but to no avail.

finally after driving about an hour we realized that we could just tell them that we were married. it worked like a charm. the fact that we wanted separate beds did not even phase them. the next day we went to the local bar for drinks and were told that bars do not serve alcohol on sundays. don't go to utah.

one of our stops on the road trip was at my uncle james's house in santa fe. we loved it there because it was free and spacious and they fed us. james married a french woman a while back and upon tasting foie gras, he who hadn't eaten meat in 20 years took up consuming animal flesh with a vengeance. one night for dinner they made us the most amazing salmon. they had cooked it on the grill in a foil pouch with butter, soy sauce, lemon, and white wine. it was awesome and one of the best salmon dishes i have ever had. i made a mental note at the time to make it when i got home and then promptly forgot.

today i was wondering out loud to my coworkers about what i was going to grill for dinner and kieran said "salmon" and then rickell said "put it in foil on the grill." and then eric who just stopped being a vegetarian like a week ago said "i love eating dead animals." immediately i knew what i was making... uncle james's foil pouch salmon. it came out damn tasty.

poached salmon on the grill

all you do here is get some salmon and marinate it in whatever the hell you want for about 20 minutes. i used approximately equal proportions of fresh lemon juice, soy sauce, and white wine, and i also put in some lemon zest, garlic, and ginger.

get 2 sheets of foil and form one of them into a square bowl shaped thing (flat with edges). put the salmon and sauce in, cover it in some little chunks of butter, and cover the whole thing with the other sheet of foil. crimp all the edges so no steam gets out. throw it on the grill on low heat for about 8-10 minutes. pull it off the grill and let it sit in the pouch for another 10 minutes. open it up and eat.

i think i am going to go eat more of this right now

with this i decided i wanted something light and crunchy and flavorful so i invented the following salad.

liz's fresh and tasty cold rice noodle salad with veggies

8 oz. vietnamese rice sticks
6 oz. (or a package or whatever) sugar snap peas or snow peas
1/2 english cucumber, halved and then sliced thinly, or cut into strips
about 15 baby carrots, roughly julienned (i just wanted to say "julienned")
2 scallions, sliced into little circles
1/2 romaine heart, julienned (again!)
1/4 red cabbage, julienned (ok can you even julienne that?)
1/3 c. san-j thai peanut sauce (or maybe more than that)
1/3 c. seasoned rice vinegar
2 T. cilantro, chopped
2 T. toasted sesame oil
1 T. grated ginger
a few dashes of chili oil
a few dashes of fish sauce
a few squeezes of sriracha

put cucumber, red cabbage, and carrots in a bowl with the rice vinegar. mix and then let sit for about 20 min.

cook the rice sticks according to directions then rinse them in cold water. blanch the snap peas and then rinse them in cold water too.

add all vegetables except lettuce to the bowl. then add rice sticks. add sauces. toss together. add lettuce. toss a little more. sprinkle with cilantro. enjoy.

this was an absolutely delicious light summer meal and eating it brought back all kinds of memories of my trip, such as the time bryan ate a whole plate full of "navajo tacos" at some hole in the wall just to spite me because i thought they tasted like hell and refused to eat them. he then got the shits so bad that he had to take a dump in an outhouse in the middle of monument valley. i laughed my ass off and would have made fun of him except that we were not speaking at the time.

here is bryan on our second road trip in 2007. we were not speaking to each other but i still insisted on taking pictures "to document the journey." clearly he was thrilled.

can you believe that we went on another road trip together 5 years later up route 1 in california? it was a fun trip for a few days, and then in san francisco we got in a huge fight and stopped talking to each other. still, at least i got some good food out of it.

the most amazing fucking ribs ever

readers, i have died and gone to rib heaven. what is the secret, you ask? well i will tell you. i have discovered my new food guru... sam the cooking guy. i was introduced to sam by avani, who heard about him from her friend christina who lives in san diego. sam is on local san diego tv helping people to navigate their kitchens to culinary bliss.

sam is awesome because he is just like whatever. the dude sets up a video camera in his kitchen, opens his fridge, and makes something out of whatever is in there. meanwhile kids and dogs run in and out of the kitchen, shit is freezer burned, he substitutes like mad, and all his recipes have a very minimal number of ingredients and require no skills.

"sure liz," you say, "we have heard of 30 minute meals and all that, but that stuff is not actually that good of food." and therein, dear readers, lies the difference. at easter avani brought over this sweet "finger bread" she called it made with a recipe from sam the cooking guy. what she did was bust open a few cans of poppin' fresh, throw on some raisins and pecans, douse it in cinnamon and sugar, bake it, and then dump 2 sticks of melted butter on top. nothing special? you are wrong. it was one of the best fucking desserts of my life. i am sorry, i cannot stop saying fuck. that is how good sam's recipes are.

sell your soul good finger bread (unfortunately the recipe is not online)

i was already pretty sold on sam based on the online clips avani had showed me, but this finger bread convinced me completely that he is a culinary genius. everything is quick and easy and cheap and damn good.

a week or so after easter, avani told me that she had made sam the cooking guy's ribs for liberal foodie and her husband. the husband, who considers himself a rib connoisseur, proclaimed them "some of the best ribs i have ever had." i am a rib freak so knew i had to try this recipe. before tonight, i had never made ribs before, mainly because i was intimidated. wait that's not true, once i got some precooked and presauced from trader joe's and put them in the oven for a half hour but that doesn't really count.

anyway, i love them and making them at home is so much cheaper than eating them out but i just was scared. i wanted them to be fall off the bone tender and crazy flavorful and i knew if i made less than stellar ribs at home, i would be so disappointed that i might never try to make them again. friends had given me recipes before but nothing had really wowed me enough to get over my fears and try it.

today was the day, and it was all thanks to sam the cooking guy. i got the urge to grill at work and i knew it was my time. i headed to the grocery store and picked up some baby backs and sauce on my way home and set to work. two hours later, i was eating one of the most delicious meals i have ever made.

you simply cannot argue with this

i am going to list sam's recipe below, but as usual i had to mess around with it (specifically, the sauce). with the ribs i also made:

• my red cabbage slaw (with the recipe slightly altered to include fresh pineapple chunks and a few tablespoons of seasoned rice wine vinegar and less lemon juice)
• the hungry mouse's fiery chili lime rice (with the recipe altered to include no chipotle pepper, jasmine instead of basmati rice, and extra cilantro, and also i made it in my rice cooker instead of on the stove)

this meal was amazing. i kept saying "oh my god yum" as i ate. i sat outside (i eat all my meals outside lately) and my upstairs neighbor stuck her head out and laughed at me for being so enraptured over my food. and the best part is that i made so much food that now i have lunch for the rest of the week. yay!

sam the cooking guy's sticky sweet ribs (recipe and how-to video here)

• 2 racks pork back ribs, about 4 pounds
• 1 1/2 cups barbeque sauce, plain
• 1/4 cup pancake syrup
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons white vinegar
  

1. Mix sauce, syrup and brown sugar, set aside
2. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
3. Place ribs in their racks (I just mean do not cut them) in a large baking/casserole dish
4. Pour vinegar into dish with ribs and cover tightly with aluminum foil
5. Bake about 90 minutes or until very tender
6. Remove from oven and carefully lift off tin foil - watch out for steam
7. The ribs are now fully cooked and just need to be 'sauced' finished'
8. Heat bbq to medium and place ribs meat side down without sauce - but you can baste the back with the sauce
9. Cook until they start to develop grill marks, and turn over - now baste the top
10. You could stop here after they grill a bit on this side, or you could baste them a bit more and then give them a couple more minutes meat side down - that's what I do
11. Give 'em one extra baste them after they've been removed, but just before you serve them

as i said, and as you guys know by now, i literally cannot make a new recipe without playing around with it. i didn't believe sam that the ribs could be that good with a sauce of only bbq sauce, pancake syrup, and brown sugar, so i added a few things and it turned out delicious. however, after having eaten the ribs, i now have total confidence in sam and i can say honestly that i think his sauce would probably have been excellent on its own.

liz's rib lickin' good bbq sauce

whisk all of the following together:

• 1.5 c. sweet bbq sauce (my favorites are bone suckin' sauce and shum daddy's bbq sauce)
• 1/4 c. light brown sugar
• 1/4 c. pure maple syrup
• 2 T. soy sauce (i prefer tamari)
  
• 1 T. hot sauce (my favorite is melinda's xxxtra hot sauce)
• 1 T. grated fresh ginger or s&b prepared ginger paste in a tube which you can find at asian grocery stores (i am totally addicted to this)
  
• a few shakes each of garlic powder, chili flakes, and lawry's seasoning salt

dinner of champions

this meal was absolutely wonderful. i felt sorry not only for the hungry children in china but for all people everywhere who were not sitting in my backyard dining with me tonight (which would be everyone). anyone who has not eaten the meal i had for dinner has not lived. i was in food heaven, and i owe it all to sam the cooking guy. sam, you are awesome!