If you've kept an eye on your local PBS listings, you might have been able to catch an episode or two of Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie. The show's been on somewhat sporadically here in Austin, but I've been able to watch almost all three seasons through iTunes. (I write almost because some episodes are still waiting to be viewed.)
One particular episode from the show's second season I think should be watched by anyone curious about or fostering a love for Indian food. Its focus is on South India cuisine, and watching it makes me want to hop on a plane and take a culinary tour. I dare you to watch it and not get hungry, Gentle Reader.
(The nifty picture included with this post I found on Turmeric Indian Restaurant and Bar's Web site. If you're ever in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Gentle Reader, stop in for a feast!)
...will someone in Africa send us some blessed rain to Austin?
It's dry as a bone here, and I'm sick of the little black ants that come out in droves when the earth is this parched. Yo, El Nino, what's the hold up with the moisture already?
Perhaps inspired by the heat and bone-dry conditions of home, I dug up a recipe I bookmarked several months ago and finally gave it a whirl.
African Chicken in Spicy Red Sauce*
2 chicken breast halves, skinned (about 1/2 lb.) 2 chicken drumsticks, skinned (about 1/2 lb.) 2 chicken thighs, skinned (about 3/4 lb.) 3 T fresh lemon juice (1 lemon) 3/4 t salt, divided 1 1/2 C chopped onion (2 medium) 1 T minced garlic 2 t Berbere 1 T butter 1 T minced peeled fresh ginger 1/2 t ground nutmeg 1/2 t ground cardamom 1/2 C dry red wine 14 oz. fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth 6 oz. no-salt-added tomato paste 2 T chopped fresh cilantro 4 lemon wedges
Place the chicken in a shallow dish, drizzle with lemon juice, sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt, cover and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 min.
Heat a Dutch oven over medium heat, and coat it with cooking spray.
Add the onion and garlic and cook 5 min. (do not brown), stirring frequently.
Add 2 teaspoons Berbere, the remaining quarter-teaspoon of salt, butter, ginger, nutmeg and cardamom, then cook 1 min.
Add the wine, broth and tomato paste, stirring until well blended.
Add the chicken mixture.
Bring the mixture to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat and allow it to simmer 50 min. or until the chicken is tender, turning it occasionally.
Stir in the cilantro.
Serve with lemon wedges.
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 3 oz. of chicken, about 1 cup sauce, 1 lemon wedge and 1 teaspoon of Berbere)
*Now do you get the title of the post, Gentle Reader?
Nutritional Info Calories: 373 Fat: 9.8 g Sat fat: 3.6 g Protein: 53.2 g Carbs: 17.3 g Fiber: 3.6 g Cholesterol: 175 mg Sodium: 848 mg
The Faudie's Futzings After learning more about the cultural heritage and history of Indian food, I've wanted to try some Ethiopian cuisine. Even though Austin has two or three such restaurants, including one that's just up the road in Pflugerville, I've get to get my arse to one. So when this recipe, originally published in the October 2006 issue of Cooking Light, came in an email from MyRecipes.com, I knew I had to try it--eventually. How could I pass up a recipe described thusly: "This flavorful Ethiopian-inspired chicken stew uses Berbere, an Ethiopian spice blend."
And when the time came, I futzed. Oh boy, did I futz.
For the chicken thighs and legs. I used three boneless chicken breasts I'd bought just a few hours before at HEB.
The chicken wound up marinating for probably 50 minutes because I was not only making supper, but I was also preparing some of the chicken breasts I'd bought on the Foreman grill for the husband to use over the next few weeks on his and the boy's Tuesday night pizzas. (The bags of fully cooked, reduced-sodium, lightly seasoned breasts are just too expensive.)
Instead of peeling and mincing ginger myself, I got out my bottle of ginger paste and glopped about a tablespoon of the stuff into the Dutch oven (not Chive).
Speaking of that Dutchie, I didn't spray it with cooking spray after it had warmed up. No, I poured a bit (maybe a teaspoon) of olive oil into the pan and heated it. I'm not a big fan of spraying stuff into a heated pan over the open flame of Lumpy. That's just...it seems needlessly dangerous. (Which begs the question: Is something ever needfully dangerous?)
Having failed to thoroughly read the recipe before I started preparing it, I cut up the three chicken breasts into much smaller pieces--but did not cube them--to reduce the cooking time. I had hungry males to feed, and they sure as hell weren't going to wait 50 minutes for the pot to simmer and the chicken to cook, although I sincerely doubt chicken breasts need that much time to cook. I think I ended up simmering the stuff for just about 20 minutes, maybe a tad more because the boys weren't back yet from the plasma donation center at the time when I figured the chicken was probably ready to be eaten.
Lemon wedges? Yeah, right.
In deference to the boy's arch hatred of cilantro, I only stirred in about half a tablespoon of the stuff.
While the recipe recommends serving this concoction with basmati rice, I instead cooked up a big batch (more than 2 cups) of long-grain brown rice. I was jonesin' for some brown rice, and I thought this meal would be a great opportunity to polish off the bag I had so as to make space for bread-making ingredients in the pantry. The boy, being the cantankerous epicure he is, pitched a fit upon laying eyes on the brown rice. He was so enthralled in his tantrum about the brown rice that he never said a word about the presence of the cilantro. Go figure!
As for the flavor of the final product, the husband and I agreed that it tasted somewhat similar to a chicken curry I've prepared before--Garam Masala Murghi, perhaps--but with a tad more heat. The similarity of the flavor profile to that of a chicken curry is not surprising since so many of the same spices are used.
And what spices are used, you ask, Gentle Reader? Well, here's the recipe for Berbere, which Cooking Light kindly provided for those folks who can't find it at a local ethnic grocery (or at Whole Paycheck or Central Markup, and I was surprised to be unable to find it at either store).
Berbere
2 T ground red pepper 1 T freshly ground black pepper 1 t ground ginger 1 t ground cinnamon 1/4 t ground cloves
You get a quarter-cup of the spice blend from this recipe. I had a small spice bag I'd saved from a previous bulk spice purchase, and I just dumped the ingredients into it, sealed it and shook it up to blend them all together.
Speaking of those ingredients, I took to heart the freshly in freshly ground black pepper. Part of the reason the chicken marinated so long was that I spent a good 15 minutes grinding black peppercorns in my pepper mill to get that tablespoon needed. Talk about a good late-afternoon workout!
If you don't know much about Ethiopian food, Gentle Reader, you might be interested to know that it's traditionally eaten, like curry in Indian, using morsels of bread in lieu of utensils. While I do have a package of naan in the 'fridge, I instead pulled out to big-ass pitas from a bag we'd bought from a local bakery. I popped them into Lumpy's warming drawer, but they weren't quite warm when it came time to finally sit down and eat. I don't think the pitas were a good pairing with this dish, so you might want to acquire some naan or even some traditional Ethiopian bread should you make the dish yourself, Gentle Reader.
And just for the hell of it, here's Toto with "Africa."
Porknoun (1) The fresh or salted flesh of swine when dressed for food (2) government funds, jobs, or favors distributed by politicians to gain political advantage verb, slang To have sexual intercourse
Sometimes, Gentle Reader, I'm at a loss for witty, attention-grabbing ways to open posts. I mean, how many different ways can you introduce another story about a recipe gone wrong?
On our last Monday of freedom from the boy, pork chops were on the menu. Last Friday, I bought a family pack super-cheap at HEB for meals later on, but I had a recipeI really wanted to try and seeing as I how I was having chicken fatigue...well, Monday night here at Chez Boeckman-Walker was all about pork--the noun, not the verb (probably much to the husband's disappointment).
Honey and Spice-glazed Pork Chops
1/4 C honey 2 T Dijon mustard 1/2 t ground ginger 1/4 t ground cinnamon 1/8 t ground cloves 4 4-oz. boneless center-cut loin pork chops, about 1/2" thick 1/2 t salt 1/4 t freshly ground black pepper
Combine the honey, mustard, ginger, cinnamon and cloves in a bowl.
Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat.
Sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper.
Cook the chops 2 min. on each side or until browned.
Reduce the heat to medium-low, then add the honey mixture.
Cook the chops 10 min. or until done, turning them once.
Yield: 4 servings (serving size: 1 pork chop and 1 T glaze)
Nutritional Info Calories: 321 Fat: 12.1 g Sat fat: 4.1 g Protein: 34 g Carbs: 18.7g Fiber: 0.3 g Cholesterol: 92 mg Sodium: 557 mg
The Faudie's Futzings Surprisingly, I didn't futz with this one at all. I will say this: I'm not sure if my chops were center-cut or not, and I'm not sure how it could possibly matter, except perhaps for nutritional considerations. I don't know enough about pork cuts to know for sure.
I also only thawed three chops since I'd bagged up the family pack into four or five three-chop portions for freezing. Because I only had three and perhaps because they might have been a bit smaller than 4 ounces each, I had a lot of glaze. Not that I'm complaining! It was absolutely delicious and would probably make a great glaze for chicken. Very flavorful and very easy to make--my favorite kind of "extra touch" to make yet another chicken breast a little different.
Of course, my taste buds might be too unworldly to really judge this dish. For many folks, some condiment combining honey and Dijon--or ersatz versions thereof--probably is well known to them, so this dish might be nothing spectacular for those people. I myself never have consumed a honey-mustard preparation: not as a dipping sauce for pressed-chicken-meat-particulates nuggets, not as a sauce atop a burger or a steak or as a dressing for a salad. Yes, I know, Gentle Reader, I really need to get out more and try new things. But I prefer to do that at home, where I'm in control of the ingredients and have a lot better idea of what's going in to the foods I eat.
To accompany the pork chops, I whipped up a batch of jerky couscous, sans the chicken (obviously). Since I wouldn't be adding chicken that had been dosed with jerk seasoning, I added a tablespoon (might have been two) of it to the chicken broth before boiling and a tablespoon to the spicy vinegar-olive oil concoction ya pour over the cooked couscous. Delicious!
And now to close the post, here's another fun pork-related bit of pop culture. Enjoy!
You don't have to like bacon (Canadian or otherwise) to get a laugh out of these "kitchen essentials": Yes, that's right, Gentle Reader. If you cut yourself or burn yourself while working with bacon, you can cover your ouchie with a bacon bandage. As an added bonus, the tin of bandages comes with a free toy to "to take your mind off...the excruciating pain."
Wow, those bacon Band-Aid makers think of everything, don't they!
And just because I haven't put it in a post in a while, enjoy a little MST3K!
We're cheap--no holiday cards sent via the post office this year. Instead, we're torturing you with one of them high-techie Internet video cards. Oh yeah, that high-techie Internet video card features the boy--that's the real torture!
By the way, if you really want a laugh or love when popular movies--particular of the type featuring beloved characters from Batman--collide with real-world stuff, check out another entry from this particular video collage maker person.
Halloween is the holiday here at Chez Boeckman-Walker, and I wanted my blog entry to reflect that. I mulled over a few ideas then realized I didn't have time to do any of them to my satisfaction. Sorry, Gentle Reader, but I've been busy trying to earn some money and trying to unclog my body.
Nevertheless, today is Halloween and I want to do something fun. So I present to you, Gentle Reader, a few fun Halloween memories.
Here's me and my older sister getting ready to head out for trick or treating in 1978. At least I'm pretty sure it's '78. I know it's not '79 because that was the year I was a cheerleader and LaDonna was Sylvester the cat, we'd just moved to Bumblefuck, but we returned to our former stomping grounds to go trick or treating in the old 'hood and to see the release of Sleeping Beauty (still one of my all-time favorite movies, thank you very much). I wound up getting hives that night, which made for an interesting movie-viewing experience.
Anywho, given how old I appear in that photo, I'm pretty sure this was from '78. Ain't I just the cutest little white kitty ever? This is the first Halloween I remember clearly. I remember Mum taking out her eye liner pencil to draw the whiskers on my face. I still have the kitty hood she made. Those white tights--long gone.
Now, flash forward 25 years....
Our first Halloween with the boy. Ain't he just the most adorable little monster!
The boy didn't just appear in one movie that Halloween. He found time for a sequel.
And the obligatory outtakes reel....
Happy Halloween, tout le monde! Stuff yerselves stupid with candy!
After putting it off and putting it off, here at long last is a video of the kitties from almost two weekends ago. If I were more ambitious, not so lazy (and weren't using MS Movie Maker for the first time), I'd take the time to find just the right background music (the fabulous--and now cliched--bit from the big fight from "Amok Time" seems appropriate). But I'm lazy. So just enjoy the kittens at play and hum something to yourself.
Just adorable, aren't they?
Sadly, in the past week one of the grays has disappeared. We're not sure if it's Sambar or Rasam, but since last Saturday, Momma's only been showing up with two kitties. What's even sadder, I suppose, is that the remaining gray has grown so much that we're having a hard determining if it's Rasam or Sambar. But at least we have pictures and video to remember our M.I.A. kitten by!
In other (less depressing news), I had my first interview yesterday. (But now on to the depressing stuff.) It went well, I think, but I doubt I'll be extended an offer, not because I wouldn't be a good candidate for the work the team needs done but because the...particulars of the position aren't right for me. I've been spoiled by my last job because I'm wanting a fair amount of flexibility. The human residents of Chez Boeckman-Walker are at a point (and moving every day closer and closer to a point) at which having two adults working outside the home a fair distance from home just isn't.... Well, I hesitate to use the word convenient here, but that's part of it. Practical is another word that might work well but doesn't tell the whole story.
During the hour it took me to get home yesterday from the interview, I realized that I'm going to have to work a lot harder--push myself a lot more--to get freelance gigs because I'm becoming more and more convinced that sort of work situation is going to offer me the flexibility I want so that I can continue to pursue my interests (i.e., keep working out the way I do, play in the kitchen whenever I want) and, once the kiddo starts school, be home for him so he doesn't have to go to after-school care. This realization hit me kind of hard because, well, being a successful freelancer (i.e., contributing in some meaningful way to the family's income) means I've got to learn to market myself, and that's completely outside my comfort zone. And the FSM forbid I leave my comfort zone!
Yet as I'm realizing this and working through my panic over the self-marketing thing, I'm also realizing that I'm not helping myself at all during this unemployment time by not pursuing the opportunities that have come up. Okay, granted, being accepted to write for eHow.com is hardly anything to cheer about because the open topics are for tasks I have no experience with or knowledge of. But I've been sitting on the contract for suite101.com for a few weeks now. Why? Because I'm scared I won't be able to churn out 10 articles every three months. I keep telling myself that's really not that much work given the production time frame. Yet still I can't bring myself to start. So how in the world am I going to survive as a freelancer if I can't bring myself to do this little thing?
Ah well, life's a learning experience. Trial and error and frustration and success, right? Roll with the changes, woman.
Our feline family grew by four at some point in the preceding...four to six weeks, I'd estimate--all without our knowledge. "How?" you ask (probably not, since no one's reading this thing). Well, Yowling Gray Skittery Cat, who started showing up at Brother's bowl around 9 PM (to drive Bucket crazy) and to yowl at the northeast-ish corner of the house at 6 AM (to drive me crazy), was apparently pregnant (as I'd suspected the last time I got a good look at her, which was difficult given how skittery she is). And has birthed her brood under our shed. Ahh, the miracle of secret births!
Anywho, I came home yesterday from the gym, glanced out the bedroom window on my way to the shower and--holy cow!--see some fuzzy-wuzzy widdle kitties romping and playing in the overgrown, dry grass in the backyard. Being the big sap that I am for fuzzy-wuzzy widdle kitties, I dashed to get the camera to record their presence for all who were absent at the time.
Here's a video of them for all to enjoy. So, uh, enjoy amateur video of kittens shot through a bedroom window. Yeah, high-quality entertainment....
Idlihead is the kitten with the white belly and legs. It reminds me of Muffinhead. Since Greg declared over the weekend that idli (a thick, steamed rice and lentil pancake from India that we dined on twice at Madras Pavillion over the weekend) was a great name for a cat (I swear, he has such a unique sense of appropriate names--and yet I'm the one who wanted to name the kid Spike), we decided to name the newcomer Idlihead.
We haven't decided on names yet for Idlihead's litter mates. Perhaps Spike can come up with something...unique once he gets a chance to see them. (Although I doubt he can top Nickelbucket, but ya never know.)
If you've kept an eye on your local PBS listings, you might have been able to catch an episode or two of Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie. The show's been on somewhat sporadically here in Austin, but I've been able to watch almost all three seasons through iTunes. (I write almost because some episodes are still waiting to be viewed.)
