Cookin again

Lenten dinner: shrimp and cavatappi

The sauce is Dave’s Gourmet Organic Heirloom Tomato sauce, augmented with minced green onion and garlic, black pepper, parsley and oregano, then topped with shaved parrano cheese.

(IMHO, Dave’s is good enough you could use it straight if you had to.)

Not pictured: the steamed Brussels sprouts our houseguest volunteered as a side. They made a very nice counterpoint to the pasta- I’d strongly consider that combination as a go-to.

Air fryer chips and open egg burger in brioche bun.

Not to exciting but all take aways are closed.



Not quite the same as Saturday night takeaways.

Next amazing trick. F'rozen Pizza.

How do you like the results of your air fryer?

Dannyalcatraz said:

How do you like the results of your air fryer?

Click to expand...

It's great for frozen things like chips, hash browns, roast vegetables.

Also good for chicken tenders, patties, things like that.

We don't really fry much the old fashioned way. Eggs are about it with spray on oil in a Teflon pan.

Well won't be starving to death in my South Pacific police state.

Basic throw togather meal. Chicken, rice, added aioli and sweet chilli.



And my wife's efforts. Spicy chick peas in the air fryer.

These Cinnamon Rolls turned out really well. I was impressed with the texture, despite the recipe only calling for quick-rise yeast.

A basic recipe for meat with a pan sauce.

BASIC PORK CHOPS WITH PAN SAUCE

1. Pre-heat an oven to 300F
2. Season boneless pork chops generously on both sides with salt and pepper.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of oil or butter in a stainless-steel skillet over medium-high heat (or a little higher).
4. Add the pork chops and sear on both sides. Probably 2-3 minutes per side.
5. Remove the chops to an oven-safe dish with a rack, and place in the oven.
6. Add about 1 diced medium shallot to the pan. Cook until soft and translucent, about a minute or two.
7. Turn off the flame, if you’re using a gas cooktop, and add ¼ cup of whiskey to the pan and scrape well (in other words, deglaze).
8. Return pan to heat, add ½ cup of chicken broth and about ¼ tsp of Worcestershire sauce to the pan, stir.
9. When that is starting to boil, add 2 tsps of dijon or brown deli mustard and whisk in, then whisk in ½ cup cream.
10. Whisk constantly until it starts to thicken, somewhere between 7 and ten minutes.
11. Adjust seasonings in pan sauce with fresh-ground pepper, lemon juice/vinegar, and a little salt.
12. Remove pork chops from oven, pour any drippings into the sauce (they’ll be salty, which is why I suggest you undersalt the sauce a little in step 11). Whisk the sauce, then put the pork chops in and turn over.
13. Serve.

Notes:
If you can see your way clear to letting the pork chops sit a while with the seasoning on them, they’ll taste a bit better, as the seasonings have a chance to penetrate and do their good work throughout the meat.
You can probably use a cast-iron skillet if you want. I personally don’t like them much, but that’s mostly me. Non-stick is a non-starter, because there won’t be anything in the pan to build the sauce on.
OXO make silicon-rubber roasting racks that come in pairs and can be used as trivets as well. I use one of those at a time, in a 7x11-inch Pyrex baking dish.
Bourbon will work well in this, as will slightly-peaty Scotch.
If you want, you can replace the shallot with half a medium onion.
Works well with chicken, too. I usually use soup base (like Better Than Boullion) to make broth, and I can usually find pork broth to use for this (I use chicken broth for chicken, obviously).
You can change out the liquor, if you want (I use vodka a fair amount, as well as brandy or occasionally rum).

Because I'm replying to comments elsewhere about steak, I give you steak:

What you'll need
Ingredients
1 ½ - 2 pounds of steaks. Strip and rib-eye work, and probably so would fillets or blade steaks. Thicker is better, and you want to keep from having to crowd your skillet.
1 tablespoon butter
2-3 shallots, finely chopped
¼ cup bourbon
½ cup beef stock
½ teaspoon Pickapeppa sauce (or Worcestershire sauce)
2 teaspoons brown deli mustard
½ cup heavy cream
Salt
Freshly-ground black pepper
Lemon juice
Frank’s hot sauce

Equipment
A large steel skillet (12”)
A spatula
Tongs (or something else to turn the steaks)
A holding plate
Aluminum foil

What you'll do
1. Season the steaks liberally with salt and pepper
2. Heat the skillet over medium-high heat. Add the butter.
3. When the butter is foaming and has covered most of the skillet bottom, add the steaks. (Here, you’ll probably want to deploy the spatter guard.)
4. Cook for about 3 minutes, or until the bottoms are nicely browned.
5. Flip the steaks and cook for about another 3 minutes.
6. Transfer the steaks to the holding plate and cover loosely with foil.
7. Reduce the heat to medium.
8. Add the shallots to the pan and cook, stirring, until soft, about 1 minute.
9. Remove pan from heat and add the bourbon; scrape up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
10. Return the pan to the heat, and add the stock and the Pickapeppa (or Worcestershire) sauce. Bring to a boil.
11. Whisk in the mustard, then the cream.
12. Simmer, whisking, until the sauce is reduced to a syrupy consistency, about 2-3- minutes. Season sauce to taste with salt, pepper, lemon juice and Frank’s.
13. Return the steaks to the pan, spoon some sauce over them, and rewarm for about 1 minute.
14. Serve immediately.

Glorified heat and eat.

Chicken tikka Masala with spices



Eating in my South Pacific Police State

I was prospecting in our main freezer for things to cook in the near future and realized I had barely touched my stockpile of homemade Louisiana hot sausage. So I’m probably going to get some out and either do a moussak-ah’yee or a lasagny’all.

But tonight? Tonight was a big ole salad with shredded turkey.