Kitchen Happenings: More With Less

Well, the restaurant reviews are still on hold. Just not that motivated to write about these places right now. But, I've been opening up my kitchen a little more lately. The current plan is to go old school. I've taken the food trends that we see on the Food Network, and have gone pretty upscale in what I eat. Let's just say that it's time to go a little old school and see what I can come up with using some cheaper and more accessible ingredients.

Last week, I made up my first batch of chicken noodle soup for the season. Still tastes awesome. I'm not sure how it would taste with just plain water (probably not bad), but I think that cooking down the chicken bones is worth it for the extra flavor. Particularly since chicken bones don't cost extra, and cooking down the bones is so easy (I'm not worried about making the clear broth - a little cloudy is just fine with me).

Also, last week, we had some biscuits left over from our Cracker Barrell run, so I just had to make up a batch of sausage gravy. So easy, and so tasty. Brown sausage. Add flour to soak up the drippings. Add milk to turn into gravy. Season to taste. Call cardiologist with a smile on your face.

Currently sitting in my fridge are pork sirloin steaks that are marinated with soy, siracha, sugar, sour cherry syrup, lime juice, garlic, onion, and my Asian spice blend (cinnamon, ginger, black pepper, Sichuan peppercorns, onion powder, garlic powder). These are also very tasty, and have satisfied my craving for Korean barbecue.

Projects on tap:

-I have some chicken thighs sitting in my freezer, which are begging to be cooked up. I'm not sure if I want to go the coq au vin direction, or if I want to get creative and try something completely different. We'll see about that.

-And I also have some very good soy-based braising liquid sitting in the freezer, as well, just begging to be used to create the classic Chinese cold appetizer plates that some of you may have had the pleasure of tasting. I'm thinking drumsticks, boiled eggs, honeycomb and tripe, and maybe some squid or cuttlefish.

-Also sitting in the freezer is some excellent broth for Italian beef. I think that I need to hit the Asian store to pick up some sliced beef soon. Some sauteed peppers and onions, some good bread, and some provolone, and I can probably feed an army.

-There's a butternut squash that has been on my counter for the last 6 weeks. And there are some apples that aren't getting eaten. It's time to roast those guys up, puree them, and add stock, cream, salt and pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and brown sugar for a nice fall soup. I think that I will probably use some of the sage that I have growing nicely in my herb garden, as well.

Anyway, that's what's happening out here in my kitchen. We'll see what works and what doesn't.

-foodgeek

How we eat

Well, apologies to both of our readers for the lack of authorship from Foodgeek of late. There are many reviews that are sitting in the Inbox, waiting to be written. But for now, here's a link to a NY Times article featuring one of my favorite marketing professors who does some awesome research on consumption.

-foodgeek

Kitchen Happenings: Herb and Renewal

One of the things that I lke doing is just looking over what I've got laying around and figuring what I can make out of it. So, recently, I've been playing around with my herb garden again. This time around, I've got the standard basil, oregano, sage, and thyme going. But I've added some peppermint and lavender to the mix. And of course, these two are the ones that are growing the best. So, I was doing a little trimming to the plants, and ended up with a bunch of peppermint and lavender that was too nice to just throw out. So, inspiration hits. Cook the stuff down in water to draw out the flavor and then add some sugar to make a syrup out of it. Perfect stuff for mixed drinks or even for starting a sauce or dressing out of. I was grilling over at my friend's place the other day, and I brought over a pitcher of mojito, made with more of the fresh mint, but also sweetened with the mint-lavender syrup. Stuff was awesome. Just a nice, mellow flavor that gave the drink a nice undertone.

The other thing that I was fiddling around was with a basil oil type of sauce. So, add a bunch of basil, some salt and pepper, some lemon juice, some mustard powder, and olive oil to a blender. Awesome. Light, sort of like pesto, sort of like a vinagrette, a little depth, a little tangy. The stuff would have gone great over some greens, as a dipping sauce for some warm, crusty bread, or as a sauce for pasta. Where I went with it was a little out there. Dipping sauce for king crab. It was pretty good stuff. I think that this new sauce could also go well with things like scallops or shrimp. We'll see if it makes the rotation in the kitchen.

Now, the most interesting thing that I've done in the kitchen lately was rediscover fresh ginger. Classic Chinese cooking uses a base of soy, garlic, and ginger as a starting point. And it's only been very recently that I've decided that I needed to learn to use ginger. It certainly adds a nice flavor to Asian-style marinades. But where I've neglected it until recently is with actually creating some tasty beverages. Making a nice ginger syrup is pretty easy. Cut up some ginger, and cook down the flavors. Strain out the ginger (you can really cook it down twice, I think, and get good flavor out of it) and cook down the liquid with some sugar to make your syrup. Again, great for mixed drinks, serving over ice cream, using as a start of a sauce, etc. But an even easier thing is to take the ginger water, without any sugar added to it, and using it as the water for lemonade. Basically, any can of frozen, lemonade concentrate will turn into a phenomenal drink if you use ginger water instead of normal water. You get this great ginger flavor that adds some body to the drink and then gives you that fun, spicy, peppery aftertaste that makes you want to drink more. And for those of you who need some alcohol in your summer drinks, some vodka and a sprig of mint makes this a really good hard lemonade.

Really, that's been the new and interesting happening in my kitchen. There are still a few restaurant reviews that need to be written. We'll get to them soon, I hope.

-foodgeek