“Just because it can kill you doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it. Just feed it to your spouse… You can always get a new one.” The love of my life says, with a smirk. (His eyes, at this point, are a stormy blue, but when we go back outside they will turn back to sage green. He’s lucky for those eyes, keeps me from smacking him when he says things like this. I’m not that frickin’ replaceable.)

Then again, there’s the subject matter. He was talking about making chorizo for me. That’s a seriously beautiful thing. How many people have made you chorizo? I thought so. Besides, he’s a good guy. I trust him with my life.

I re-fell in love with chorizo while we were in Portugal. It was a beautiful thing to be able to walk into grocery stores that were filled with cured sausages and artisanal cheeses. I continually had to keep myself from doing happy dances as we gathered up both to pair with fresh baked bread and cold beer for our impromptu picnics. When we got home Marv decided that it was time for him to start playing with cold cured and fermented meats.

Cold curing is basically meat or fish that’s been cured with salt rather than heat and that’s more often than not smoked. Wikipedia says:

Salt inhibits the growth of spoilage, killing microorganisms by drawing water out of microbial cells through osmosis. As the unwanted bacterial population decreases, other beneficial bacteria, primarily of the Lactobacillus genus, come to the fore and generate an acidic environment (around 4.5 pH). The sugar included in the cure is used as food by the lactobacilli; generally dextrose is preferred over sucrose, or table sugar, because it seems to be more thoroughly consumed by the bacteria. This process is in fact a form of fermentation, and, in addition to reducing further the ability of the spoilage bacteria to grow, accounts for the tangy flavor of some cured products. Concentrations of salt up to 20% are required to kill most species of unwanted bacteria.

You can probably see where this all could go wrong. But really, it’s pretty simple; salt draws the water out of the cells, which the bad bacteria needs to live and grow, therefore killing them off. Then they get replaced by good bacteria which likes to eat sugar and leave behind a bit of an acidic taste.

Happily, my boy is brilliant, so it didn’t go wrong. Could have been a bit spicier (particularly if he had listened to me) but it was really good. He did his research and then decided to (mostly) follow a recipe for Cold Smoked Chorizo from Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Rhulman and Brian Polcyn. Tis a good book, explains a lot without getting overly techie for those of us who don’t really care about the life and mating habits of lactobacilli. I mean, I’d like to know enough not to kill folks, but I also have enough common sense to know when meat doesn’t look or smell right. As well as enough common sense to not eat it.

5# fatty pork shoulder
2.5 T salt
3/4 - 1 t pink salt
1 t pepper
2 T cumin
3 T chili powder
1/2 c milk powder
1/4 c apple jack brandy
3/4 c green onions, thinly sliced mostly white parts
sausage casings

Combine the dry ingredients and set aside.

Grind the meat in a grinder set with large die. Add in the spices, brandy and onions and mix until liquid is absorbed. Saute up a small patty for tasting. Taste. Adjust spices as needed. (At the time I said it needed more heat, again, he’s not so big on the listening.) Stuff the sausage into casings and tie off into links.

Refrigerate uncovered over night.

And now we get to the other bit of silliness; the smoking. For under $15 in parts Marv made himself a ghetto cold smoker.

Ghetto Cold Smoker

Wikipedia says, “Smoking adds chemicals to the surface of an item which affect the ability of bacteria to grow, inhibit oxidation (and thus rancidity), and improve flavor.”

Since summer is midway though summer stuff is on sale en masse. He picked himself up a hibachi for $8 and some heating duct parts. He removed the handle, popped off the little slidey vent cover and bent a duct wall connector to fit the hibachi and rivited it on. Then he took a duct that was the right size to fit to the wall connector and voila; a place to make the smoke. The other side of the duct then fits on his upright smoker’s vent and voila; a place to hang the sausage to be smoked.

Smoke for 2 - 4 hours, until they’re deeply colored.

Hang your sausage up in a cool, dry place for 3 - 5 days until the casings are a deep redish-brown color and have sunken in.

This is about 2 days in. You can see how they’re starting to get bumpy from sinking in.

Just as an aside here, thus far this sausage isn’t cooked. While it’s probably safe, you may as well cook it before consuming it just to be sure. Will last in the refrigerator for quite awhile, and in your freezer for longer. (How was that for a specific timeframe?)

Have fun. Eat meat.

A couple of days ago I hosted my first cooking Meetup. About a month ago, on a whim, I took over the What’s Cookin’ Minnesota? group. I decided for an ice breaker we should make pizzas on the grill and pair that with a beer tasting. I provided the crust dough, roasted tomato sauce and carmelized onions. Just to make things more Minnesotan, I asked people to source some local ingredients for toppings.

Of course, after inviting a bunch of strangers to my yard, then I had to learn how to make pizzas on a grill. I’m always really happy with the results of the pizza dough I photographed and wrote about in January, so I knew that would be the recipe I would use. It was pretty much just a matter of figuring out how to make it work for the grill. Turned out that two key bits for success were cooking both sides of the crust (rather than cooking it like you would in an oven) and moving it around quite a bit so that it wouldn’t get burned my grill’s hot spots.

The only other thing is to not loading up the crusts too much. (Although, this does become a bit difficult when people bring lots of tasty toppings.)

(Go ahead, take a bite.)

Grilled Pizza
pizza dough & roasted tomato sauce
toppings
cheese
herbs

Start the (propane) grill up, with heat on the lowest setting.

Sprinkle a pizza peel or the back of a cookie sheet with semolina flour. Flour the backs of your knuckles with regular flour and pull the dough outward in a circle to shape it. Toss dough down onto peel or cookie sheet and finish off the shaping.

When Marv and I were trying to figure out the best way to grill the the pizza we decided it needed some olive oil brushed on the side that would become the top of the pizza. Gave it a better flavor and kept the dough from drying out on fire. So, brush the top with oil.

Now comes the tricky part, this first step is a doozy. You need to flip the pizza onto the grill to get the olive oil side down. You can do this by quickly flipping the whole peel or by pulling the dough from the peel onto the grill. Close the lid of the grill if you can. (We had a bunch of pizzas coming, turning and going so we didn’t close it that much.)

Keep your nose on the crust. When you smell anything resembling burning, open the grill and turn away from hot spots. Or better yet, be proactive so it doesn’t burn at all.

When the olive oil side is all browned up, flip it over.

Then you want to add on your toppings, but do so sparingly. This is not your loaded down pizza here. My toppings were carmelized onions (about 8 onions, sliced, sauted in oil, sprinkled with salt, and then cooked over low heat for an hour or so), prochuttio, goat cheese, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil.

After you’ve put the toppings on, close the grill again and make sure to keep smelling for burning and turning when the bottom gets too browned until it’s all browned and the cheese has melted.

Happily, everyone’s pizza worked out and the only difficulties were deciding from the huge number of toppings and keeping the crusts off the heavy flames with the grill at full capacity.

Ken wrapped half of his up for later and said it was even still good cold.

As it turned out, it was a beautiful, temperate and mosquito-free day. The food was good, the company was better. Who could ask for more?

I’m probably about the worst person in the world to be writing about making tamales. I’ve never had one prepared by anyone other than Marv or myself that I’ve liked. Seems like every time I get them made by someone else, they’re either too wet, too dry, lacking flavor or just generally lackluster.

And yet, when Marv started making them at home several years ago, I loved them. Of course, Marv was playing with making sauces from smoked and dried chilies. He’s insanely good at these things. (He is also a lasagna genius. Two excellent reasons to marry a person, in my opinion.) The only problem is that once he figures out how to do something really well, he stops. It’s very unfortunate. But there’s not challenge for him, so he’s just done.

Then I have to take over. Oh well. I decided to do a little research. Turns out tamales aren’t even called that, they’re tamals, but we’ll go with it. The gist is they’re little sandwiches. Fillings can change, be different kinds of meat or veg, or they can go sweet filled with nuts and raisins. (I’m psyched to try this.) Seems war parties used to carry them a road food. I’ll have to remember this for our next road trip. (Hopefully, this won’t make me attack statues of war heroes. Oh, me and my warmongering ways.)

Anyhoo. Back to the tragic loss of my tamale maker. I am not he. I don’t feel the need to grind up re-hydrated chiles and whatnot. I opted for chile gravy more or less making a roux with powdered spices instead. Then I just cooked the meat over low heat for a couple of hours until it was falling apart. Rather than actually pulling it apart, I then chopped it up with a cleaver.

The only other thing that I do that may (or may not) raise eyebrows is that I really like the taste that comes from steaming the tamales in banana leaves rather than corn husks. They seem a bit brighter in flavor for some reason. Banana leaves are super cheap and you can get them frozen at Asian markets.

Pork Tamales

Filling


2 T butter
4lbs (about) pork shoulder, (or beef, if you prefer) cut into 1″ cubes
flour

3 T ancho powder
3 T brown sugar or honey
2 T chipotle powder
1 T cumin powder
1 t cinnamon
1/2 t nutmeg
salt to taste

Heat butter over high heat and heat until melted. Toss the pork in flour (until coated but not clumped) and cook in the hot oil until browned on most sides.

Reduce heat to low. Throw in ancho powder, chipotle powder, cumin and cinnamon and toss to coat. Add in broth and brown sugar. Tightly cover with lid and simmer for an hour or two, checking and stirring occasionally. Pork is done when it’s very tender.

When pork is done, transfer it from the pot to a cutting board and chop up into little bitty pieces with a cleaver. Have fun.

While chopping up meat, simmer gravy until quite thick. Mix the meat back in and set aside.

Masa Batter

1 c chilled lard or vegetable shortening
2 t baking powder
4 c coarse-ground masa for tamales
3 c chicken broth
2 - 4 t salt

Whip the lard with the baking powder. Add in masa in slowly, one cup at a time. When masa is is mixed in add in chicken broth 1/2 c at a time. The texture you’re going for is a thick spreadable paste. Add in salt 1t at a time and taste (sorry about it being raw and whatnot - but broths have different salt levels, so you do need to check) until it tastes the right amount of salty for you.

Assembleage

Cut banana leaves into 5″ pieces. And others into 1/2″ strips for tying. Smear masa in a rectangle shape, leaving 2″ on top and bottom and 1″ (or more) on the sides. Fill with meat mixture in a line from top to bottom at the center of the masa. Fold in sides. Fold over top and bottom. Tie with small tie.

Continue until done.

Steam for 1 - 2 hours, testing periodically for doneness. They’re done when they taste done. (I know that’s no help, but really, that’s the best way to tell.)

Serve with fixins.

Every now and again there’s a bunch of pork in the house. Then stuff needs to be made from it or it goes bad. (Bad pork, bad, bad pork!)

In the meantime, you get pulled pork. But not the pulled pork you would expect in the summer. No grills or smoke are in use. It’s been rainy and cold here - so I just braised it in the oven. (Although, you could easily braise on a grill.) But in an effort to try to pretend that it’s summer, I decided to play with one of my favorite sauces for pork made from equal parts of vinegar, yellow mustard and brown sugar. To work the sweet/tang taste, I braised braised in beer and mustard. Yummy. A bit of a taste of summer even if there’s no proof of it outside.

Pulled Pork Braised in Beer & Mustard

4lbs (more or less) pork shoulder
flour
2 c heavier sweet(ish) beer, like a wheat beer or amber ale
1 onion, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 1/2 c broth
1 t thyme
3 T mustard, good quality on the sweet/hot side
2 T brandy
salt & pepper

Heat oven to 275°f.

Heat a bit of olive oil over high heat until it’s shimmery. Pat pork dry. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Coat with flour. Transfer to pan and cook until bottom is dark caramel brown. Turn and cook each side in turn until they’re all browned. Transfer to a dish, pour off excess fat from the pan - leaving about 2T. Turn heat down to low. Add in onion and carrots, cook until tender. Add in beer. Simmer until beer is reduced by more than half, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom. Add in broth, 2T of the mustard and thyme. Return pork to the pan, cover and stick in the oven.

Braise for 2 1/2 - 3 hours. It’s done when it pulls apart easily. Transfer meat to a cutting board. In the braising liquid, skim off fat if there’s a lot of it. And if the onions and carrots are still chunky, you can blend them in an immersion blender or strain them out. Return the braising liquid to the stove and reduce it under medium-high heat. While the liquid is reducing, pull pork apart with a couple of forks.

When the braising liquid has reduced enough for your liking reduce the heat to low, salt to taste, add in brandy and last T of mustard. Add the pork back into the braising liquid, cover tightly and simmer for 5 - 10 mins. Turn of heat and let rest for 15 mins or so.

Serve on sandwich rolls or with mashed potatoes & slaw</a, or anything that just makes you happy.

I love creating something out of nothing. It’s funny, because one could reasonably argue that my life is about creating nothing out of nothing. When the power goes out, my work no longer exists. Perhaps that’s why I’m so partial to baking bread. It’s something out of nothing - that brings people joy. You don’t need much in the way of resources. Bit of flour, water, heat and time and you’re good to go. I’m convinced that if you have a warm loaf of bread all is right with the world.

It’s love… really.

Um, yeah. This worked quite well.

So, perhaps my work is not nothing out of nothing. If (by incredibly abstract extension from bread-making) it’s love, then it transcends medium. A case that may prove this point is Figs With Bri creator and author, Bri Brownlow. She is one of the many kindly people who has invited the world into her life through the words that she writes and the food that she eats. The grateful people who read what she writes have answered back. When Bri wrote about her recurrence of cancer they arose out of the nothing to help. Which means that, while all is not right with the world, it’s not crap either.

Along with the fundraiser there’s a CLICK photo contest, in honor of Bri. Photos are to feature the color yellow which made me think of my chubble bread. Bri made this recipe of mine (with her own modifications) a few months ago and talked about making a sweet version. I’ve thought about this as well and while a most appropriate version would have featured figs and brie, I chose to go with lemon, blueberry, pecan and mascarpone cheese. (It’s decidedly lighter and healthier than it’s predecessor.)

CLICK - that’s the zest. Zest is good.

The bread worked well. When it was done, we (Marv and I) decided it was good, but needed a bit of glaze to polish it off. Yeah… that was more good.

Please, join me in sending your best wishes to Bri and eating good bread.

Love, always.

MrsMarv

That’s right, when life gives you lemons - make bread.

Sponge:
1 t active dry yeast
1/2 c warm water 105°f to 115°f
3/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour

Sprinkle yeast over the warm water in a large bowl, whisk it in, and let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in the flour. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until very bubbly and doubled, about 45 minutes.

Dough:
1 t active dry yeast
1 c warm water, 105°f to 115°f
3 T olive oil
Sponge, above
1/4 c honey
1/4 c dried milk
3 1/2 - 3 3/4 c unbleached all purpose flour
2 t kosher salt

Sprinkle yeast over the warm water in a small bowl, whisk it in, and let stand until creamy, about 5 to 10 minutes. Using a heavy-duty mixer, add the dissolved yeast, honey, dried milk and olive oil to the sponge in the mixer bowl; mix in with the paddle attachment until well blended. Add in salt. Add in flour 1/4 c at a time - when you get to 3 cups add flour slower checking it until dough stops being very sticky and is only slightly sticky.

Change to the dough hook and knead at medium speed until the dough is soft, velvety and slightly sticky, 3 to 4 minutes. At this point you will be able to pull the dough up into peaks with your fingers. Finish by sprinkling 1 T of flour on your work surface and kneading the dough briefly. Transfer to a bowl lightly coated with olive oil and cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled 1 1/2 hours, or so.

Stuffs:

6 oz marscapone cheese, frozen then cut into small chunks
1 c pecans
1c blueberries
1/3 c sugar
zest from 2 - 3 lemons
3 T olive oil
1/4 t salt

Just before the rise is done, prep and toss together all stuffs ingredients in a large bowl. Coat the mixture with oil.

Stuffs & Second Rise:

Put a coating of stuffs in an empty wide bowl. Empty out bread on a non-sick surface. Shape into an flat rectangle, approximately 1/2″ - 1″ thick. Using a pizza wheel, cut loaf into inch wide strips. They do not need to be uniform. Then cut off one inch ends and put them into the stuffs bowl. Toss dough cubes into the stuffs mixture and gently coat them. Add in more stuffs periodically so that they stay separate.

Divide mixture into your baking pans. I generally do two pie plates but you can do loaves, cake pans or even muffin tins. Once you have dough in pans cover with plastic wrap and leave for second rise in a warm area. Let rise until doubled, about 1 hour.

Baking:
Preheat oven to 400°f. Brush top with olive oil and bake for 25-35 minutes or until golden brown. (If top starts to brown too much, place on top shelf of your oven.

Glaze
1/4 c powdered sugar
2 oz marscapone cheese, melted
1 T lemon juice

Whisk all together and drizzle over bread. Enjoy!

Let me count the ways… All right, there aren’t many ways, but I do love the falafel. The best falafel I ever had was in Austin, Texas. Ah, Austin, home of many vegan delights… Yes, it was silly - but we had driven from Minneapolis to Austin, and after Iowa it gets hard to find much to eat on the road besides meat. I needed a break, and it was so good. The little patties were crispy on the outside but tender, savory and flavorful on the inside.

Falafel made from scratch at home has always eluded me. But I’ve had to keep trying because the place by my house that has falafel on the menu serves up these mini falafel pucks that only serve to make me wish that I was in Texas. Or knew how to make it myself. It seemed that every time I tried the little beasts would explode or suffer from some sort of garbanzo bean plate tectonic syndrome. Soon there would be little fried bean bits floating and bursting into flames in hot oil, victims of the unfair and unstable universe on which they lived. And I didn’t have a clue why.

“It’s street food for crying out loud! It can’t be that freakin’ hard,” I’d cry to Marv who would just roll his eyes over my falafel incompetence. Then, while I was on a plane, I read a description of falafel that said it was a dough made from garbanzo beans and spices that’s fried in oil and served in pita bread with cucumber sauce and lettuce. A dough. Doh! All the recipes I had tried were basically bean patties with nothing holding them together.

Armed to the teeth with this new information - I had another go. And it worked beautifully. Yea! Falafel for me!

Falafel

1 1/2 c dried garbanzo beans
1 onion, peeled and quartered
2 - 6 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped
1/4 c fresh cilantro, oregano or basil, coarsely chopped
1 t baking powder
2 T sesame seeds
2 T cumin
1 - 2 T Old Bay seasoning
1 T cayenne
1/4 - 1 c whole wheat flour
salt and pepper to taste
oil for frying

Rinse the beans and remove all that look funky. Cover with water and soak for 15 - 20 hours, until tender. Drain the beans, and place them in a food processor along with the onions, garlic and cilantro. Pulse until the the bits are paste-like but still distinguishable. Transfer to a bowl and and stir in spices, baking powder and flour 1/4 c at a time until the mixture is dough (doh!) like and the mixture isn’t wet.

Heat about 1/2″ of oil in a pan. Meanwhile, roll dough into smallish balls and flatten them out. Set aside.

Once oil is heated to 350° or more, fry falafel patties about 5 minutes per side, or until nicely browned. Drain on paper towels and serve with something cucumbery (see sauce below and salad to come).

Tzatziki Sauce

1 8oz container light sour cream or Greek yogurt (if you can find it)
1 small cucumber, deseeded and and chopped into chunks
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1/4 lemon juice
1 T chopped fresh dill
1 T parsley, chopped fine
salt & pepper

Combine cucumber and garlic in food processor and pulse until coarse. Add in the rest of the ingredients and pulse until liquid. Serve with falafel or chicken or beef or whatever you like.

Several weeks ago, Marv made the observation that we never had a wedding cake. I really couldn’t believe that he didn’t remember the cake that he made, considering I clearly remember looking up to see the top layers slowly gaining speed as they slid off their base. Doing the whole wedding reception ourselves had seemed like a good idea. (We tend to do things like this.) For some reason, we also wanted to have it where we lived, in an illegal loft space in ghetto central, with bullet holes through the windows, prostitutes on the street and whatnot. We even briefly considered having a bbq out on the roof but there was no telling who or what would be wandering through the alley so we decided to have Sunday brunch inside. (Prostitutes, pushers and pimps generally sleep in on Sundays. Preachers have somewhere else to be. The street would be relatively hassle free for our people.)

Yep, this sign was in the alley. It is my all time favorite handmade sign. (This one is a close second.)

Regardless of our highly questionable logic, we did have the skills to pull this off. Marv had recently retired (at age 27) from being a chef. At his last cooking job he worked 80 - 100 hour weeks for almost a year at a bakery/cafe and had proven that he could cook brunch in his sleep - with a crazy woman screaming at him if need be. But not this crazy woman. I was running around getting everything else but food done. Oh, and it was 105°f out. I was having problems just wearing clothes, therefore generating more heat by screaming was absolutely out of the question.

Marv was a rock. Not only did he crank out a half dozen different kinds of muffins, several salads and sandwiches (on bread he baked, of course) but he also took on making a flourless almond cake he was going to make for a wedding while at the bakery. The wedding got called off, so he never made it and when we decided to do the reception ourselves, he said he wanted to make the cake that got away. My response was, “Dude, you’re doing the baking, make what you want.” Little did I know that chocolate ganache + 105°f = very slidey cake.

The cake got caught before sliding off completely, Marv slammed a knife into the center of it so that it wouldn’t go anywhere else and then I started forcing people to eat it. (It was really tasty, but it was just far to hot to eat anything.) And 13 years later, Marv has forgotten the whole thing. When reminded, all he said was, “That was a chocolate cake. Wedding cakes are supposed to be white.”

Fine, my love, I’ll bake you a cake. I’m not a cake person, though. I like pie. So, I wandered around the internet trying to find a recipe for a white cake that didn’t look horrible to me. I found a recipe for an Italian Wedding Cake It was packed with coconut and pecans in a nice buttermilk batter. Before making it I decided that even if I didn’t enjoy it I could enjoy decorating it, something I’ve never tried before. (Oh, and it was quite good.)

Ta da! It’s a decorated cake!  (I’m the penguin on the right.)

I found making these little curly qs very relaxing.

The other stuff I’ve been making of late is from the Minnesota Cooks website. The way I designed that website was to have photo collages on the left side which also work as the navigation. The problem is that this year, there weren’t many photos of the food available for me, which means that 1/3rd of the navigation is missing. I’m trying to fill in the navigation which means following some recipes.

For me, recipes are a guideline at best a hindrance at worst. On the other hand, I’ve also pretty much taught myself how to cook by following recipes and then trying to figure out what went right, what went wrong and why. So, when faced with the project of making completely random items, from totally disparate sources which have basically not been tested or edited there was a wide open door for something unexpected.

Jim Kyndberg’s Citrus Pound Cake with Blueberry Compote marched right through that door. Not only was it absolutely gorgeous, but the combination and density of flavors was really damn good. The cake itself was really light and airy with a lovely citrus flavor that didn’t hit you over the head. I highly recommend it.

I did modify the blueberry compote slightly, it was so close to the one I make that I just did it my way. The changes are very slight, I just substituted pomegranate balsamic vinegar for the port. And the only other, ever so slight change was that rather than crème frâiche I used crema agria (we had some in the frige.) Since I knew just how strong a concoction the compote is, I was startled by how well it complimented and contrasted with the lightness of the cake. I was a seriously happy cooker.

The second recipe that was unexpected was Lisa Durkee’s Rhubarb Raisin Walnut Scones. I’ve had enough experience working with recipes that use whole wheat flour with yogurt that I know what a delicate balance it is and genuinely expected these scones to be awful. Happily, they were good.

They were moist, flavorful and healthy without taking the health bit too far. Because of the way she used butter to treat the flour at the start, they even stayed moist for several days. The only thing that I changed was that I added in an extra egg to help them coagulate and stay moist. (I’m a little paranoid.) Good as they were, if I make them again, I would: a) use more rhubarb, b) scoop out 1/2 - 1 c of batter to make little rounds (they were way too big), and c) sprinkle the tops with brown sugar rather than white.

One nice thing about the recipe was that it has suggestions for changing the ingredients for what’s in season.

The last recipe I’m going to mention is Lenny Russo’s Mushroom Bisque with Garlic Chive Sour Cream it was really good, however, I modified the recipe a bit. I knew the recipe the way it was would be too rich for me, my stomach gets pissed off at such things, so I eliminated the the cooking butter for the potatoes and exchanged most of the cream for milk. Before serving I stirred in a 1/4 c of cream. It was a very nice soup. I wish I could say how it compares to the actual recipe - but I can’t. Sorry!

I missed the one bit of competitive cooking I do every year… but I still couldn’t get it out of my system. Hence, the overwhelming desire to dork around with a tuna noodle casserole. I could not resist. (Frankly, I don’t think you should either.)

I’ve changed it up from “tuna surprise,” to nice big chunks of tuna paired with edamame and bacon. The sauce is a bit sweet with the addition of some corn and topped with a bit of bacon grease tossed breadcrumbs for a nice crunch. And while it does take more work than the whole mix random stuff together and stick it in a pan bit, I think you will like it.

Tuna Noodle Casserole

3 smallish tuna steaks (or other firm fish)
3 - 4 oz bacon
bacon drippings
1 onion, minced
1 lg clove garlic, thinly sliced
2 T flour
3 c milk
2 T brandy
1 c corn, processed in a food processor
1 T sriracha

1 c edamame, cleaned and cooked
3 - 4 c cooked penne pasta

1/4 c parmesan, shredded
bread crumbs

Heat up olive oil in a saut´ pan until it’s shimmery. Place tuna steak into oil. When one the bottom side is seared (about 2 - 3 minutes.) Flip over and sear the other side. Remove tuna from pan. Put in bacon. When bacon is crispy, remove from heat and pour off all but 2T of fat. Add in onion and garlic, cook until translucent. Add in flour, a bit more fat and reduce heat. Cook flour, whisking consistently until browned. Slowly add in milk, whisking constantly until thick. Add in corn, brandy, sriracha and salt & pepper. Remove from heat.

Preheat oven to 375°f.

Cut tuna and bacon into bite sized pieces. Combine together with sauce, penne and edamame. Put into small casserole pan. Toss bread crumbs and parmesan in a couple of tablespoons of the bacon fat. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture onto the casserole and place into oven. Cook for 25 - 35 minutes or until top is browned and mixture is bubbly.

Insert rant about how easy it is to cook a fresh meal quick fast in a hurry here. Alright, so I misremembered and there really wasn’t much of a rant there. I’m just feeling lazy and unranty. What can a girl do?

I guess she can make dinner in about 5 minutes flat. Here goes.

Alabama White Sauce
1/2 c mayonnaise
1/4 c cider vinegar
juice from half a lemon
1 T honey
1 t salt
1 t pepper
1/2 t cayenne

Stir together sauce ingredients and place in refrigerator for 1 hour. This sauce can be made ahead and it will keep in your refrigerator for weeks.

Panko Breaded Catfish
Heat pan over medium-high heat.

Beat one egg in a shallow bowl. Add in some salt, pepper and whatever other spice you eould like. Coat catfish fillet in egg mixture.

Put some panko in a a shallow dish. Press catfish into panko firmly. Add some oil into the pan and then the fish. Cook until brown, flip, cook the other side until brown and fish is firm.

Serve with sauce.

Cooking for my mother can be tough. She’s picky. She’s very picky. But when she called me up in November and said, “I’m almost out of the good ones biscuits.” I knew exactly what she wanted.

When I had stayed with her while she was recovering from surgery in the summer - I had played around with biscuit recipes again. I have always made better biscuits than a girl from the North Shore of Chicago has a right to, but they weren’t enough to make my mother call in a panic. However, Lisa, the Homesick Texan’s are.

While I’d love to be able to say that I follow her recipe exactly, I can’t. But I don’t change it much. Really just the process a little teeny tiny bit. So, normally I would photograph the process to all hell and leave it be at that, but I like the way she writes too much, so I’m replicating the recipe bit here and telling you to go read the original entry.*

But biscuits alone, even though they’re filling up my mom’s refrigerator right now, aren’t enough to get my mom’s attention. I had to add some killer strawberries from the farmers market with a bit of sour cream mixed with honey and vanilla seed. Now, that’ll get you out of bed, right? (Oh yeah, so… right, maybe someone will serve it to you in bed.)

Homesick Texan’s Biscuits
Monday, April 23, 2007, http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2007/04/everythings-better-with-biscuits.html

Ingredients:
Two cups of flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of sugar (can add more to taste)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of butter, cold (8 tablespoons)
3/4 cup of buttermilk, cream or half-and-half

Method:
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.

Cut the stick of butter into pieces, and work into the flour mixture with your hands or a pastry blender until it resembles pea-sized crumbs.

Add the liquid, mixing until a bit loose and sticky.

Pour dough out on a floured surface, and knead for a minute. Dough should be smooth and no longer wet. You can sprinkle more flour on the surface if you find it’s sticking.

Take dough into a ball, and hit it with a rolling pin, turning it and folding it in half every few whacks. Do this for a couple of minutes.

Roll out dough until it’s 1/4 of an inch thick, and then fold it in half.

Using a round cutter (can use a glass or a cup if don’t have a biscuit cutter) cut out your biscuits from folded dough.

Place on a greased baking sheet close together (so they rise up not out), and bake for 15 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

Makes 10-12 biscuits.

The only thing that I change is that I do the mixing in a food processor. I add in the butter first and pulse until the butter is about pea sized, then I add in the buttermilk with the processor running. Once the dough is combined into one big lump, I pour it out onto the counter and kneed a bit. Also rather than throwing down more flour if the dough starts sticking to the counter I just put it on some parchment paper. Oh, and I use self rising flour. (I swear that’s all I changed.)

Balsamic Strawberries
1 pint strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 - 2 T sugar
1 - 2 t balsomic vinegar

Mix and chill for 30 min or more.

Sour Cream
1/4 c sour cream or yogurt
2 T honey
seeds from one vanilla bean

Mix and chill.

Assembleage
When the biscuits get out of the oven, do whatever you’d like with them, the strawberries, and sour cream. Then eat.

* Curses! After I wrote that I ended up changing it. I just couldn’t get the need to make a cheddar green onion biscuit out of my head. So:

2 cups of flour
1 tablespoon of baking powder
1 teaspoon of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1 stick of butter, cold cut into 1″ slices
3/4 cup of buttermilk
1/2 c cheddar cheese
1 - 2 oz parmesan, finely shredded
1/4 c green onions, finely sliced

Preheat oven to 450°f.

Process dry ingredients, except for cheeses and onions in food processor for a moment. Add in butter and process until it’s pea sized. While processor is running add in buttermilk and process until it’s one big lump. Turn out onto a piece of parchment paper. Press out with your finger tips. Sprinkle cheeses and onion over the top and kneed in a bit. Pound out in the manner described above.

Roll out to 1/4″. Fold 1/2 over and cut with a biscuit cutter or glass. Bake for 15 mins or until brown and done.

Enjoy.

Love always,

Mrs. Marv