Like most of you, I've long wondered why no one has yet developed a squeezable bacon? I mean, we have the scientific know-how to fake a moon landing, for heaven's sake, why can't be put bacon in a squeeze bottle?
Well, happy days! I'm thrilled to introduce Squeez Bacon, the Swedish food sensation that will undoubtedly change the world's diet for good. Now, people in the most remote corners of the world can finally enjoy a delicious BTL.
I'm actually thinking of closing down the blog and becoming a Squeez Bacon salesman. Imagine the wealth and fame that will come from being in on the ground floor with this amazing new product. I sure hope this isn't some kind of internet hoax.
Cooking duck is surprisingly easy if you give up on the idea of cooking it whole. Sure that whole duck a l'orange looks nice on the magazine cover (except for that damn curly parsley), and your cookbooks are filled with seemingly simple roast duck recipes, but if you follow the technique shown here, you'll be enjoying duck at it's absolute best.
In the kitchen, a duck's breast and leg could not be more different. The legs need long, slow cooking to tenderize the succulent meat, while the breasts beg to be quickly pan-seared to a juicy pink. If you roast the duck whole, the best you can hope for is one of the two pieces to be okay, but usually what you get is a too-done breast and under-cooked leg.
I did this video for About.com a long time ago, but it just recently aired. I'll remind you again that I'm no longer able to embed my videos from their site here (also no podcast) - so when you click the video player below, you'll be taken to another window where the video will begin. You'll also get the ingredients and a complete transcript. Enjoy!
This video recipe for Trader Joe's meatloaf was produced for a few reasons. First, I like meatloaf, and Trader Joe's (a chain of great little grocery stores) has some wonderful ingredients that make this recipe easy and delicious.
Secondly, I would love to be hired as a sort of video spokesperson for them - showing off their products for the benefit of my foodwish faithful, as well as the benefit of my feeble checking account balance.
Since I really use and love their products, it seems to be a perfect fit. The only problem is I don't think they know about me yet. I have people working on this, but I thought their job would be made easier if I had a few examples they could refer to.
Regarding the actual cooking of this meatloaf; I've always told people to cook their meatloaf to an internal temp of 155 degrees F. I've begged them to get a quality meat thermometer and use it religiously. I've told them the cooking times given in meatloaf recipes are only an approximation that will vary greatly.
So, it's with some shame that I now confess I haven't followed my own advice. I feel like the cardiologist who gets caught buying fried pork rinds at the mini-mart… "They're… err… for my friend."
Since I usually use the same amount of meat (2 pounds) and fixings, I just cook my loaf for one-hour and ten minutes at 325 degrees F, and it comes out beautifully moist.
But, for whatever reason, when I removed this lovely loaf o' meat from the oven, I decided to pop in a thermometer to check. As you can see from the completely un-edited photo here, the final internal temp was…155 degrees exactly. Enjoy!
Ingredients: 2 tbsp butter 3 cup diced onions, carrots, celery 2 lbs ground beef 1/2 cup roasted tomato salsa 1/2 cup milk 1 egg, beaten 3/4 cup fine breadcrumbs 1 tsp dried thyme 1 tsp fresh ground black pepper 2 1/2 tsp salt pinch of cayenne 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce For the glaze: 1/2 cup roasted tomato salsa 3 tbsp brown sugar For the sauce: 1/2 the cooked veggies 1 tbsp butter 2 tbsp flour 3 cups beef broth salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste 1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
An old chef friend of mine sent me a link to this video, featuring the Dissident Chef, and his Clandestine Restaurant Movement. I thought I suffered from some serious delusions of grandeur, but this dude's in another league.
My favorite line: "It’s your choice whether you want to let the rest of the world know we exist - it's a great opportunity for a lot of people to really start to learn about what real dining is about." Take that, chefs that use your real names!
I'll resist the immediate temptation to "critique" this video, and its not-so-mysterious, sky-diving, cocktail-drinking, secret-password-giving chef/prophet mastermind - and will instead let you tell me, in your typically fair and balanced way, what you think of this.
By the way, since I'm assuming this video is really some sort of desperate cry to be outed, if you know the identity of Dissident Chef and his band of merry faux-foodie hipsters, please do tell.
As promised, here is my basic version of chilaquiles, a classic Mexican mixture of fried tortillas, cheese, and salsa verde, often made with eggs to produce one of the world's great breakfasts. Like all the great breakfasts of the world, it has been long touted as a superior hangover cure.
It's ability to revive the body, mind, and soul from the ravages of alcohol poisoning is reportedly second only to the famous Mexican soup, menudo. Since mendo takes much longer to make, and traditionally contains, among other things, brains, cheeks, tails, hooves, and other organs, I tend to prefer the chilaquiles as my remedy.
According to the extensive research I did regarding the name, and by that I mean the three minutes I spent on Wikipedia, the word "chilaquiles" is derived from the Nahuatl word chil-a-quilitl, which means "herbs or greens in chile broth."
I can't say how that particular recipe eventually became what you'll see here, but thankfully it did - I can't imagine a bowl of stewed greens in a chili broth would work as well after a late night out at Senor Diablo's Casa de Las Margaritas Grandes. Enjoy!
Ingredients for curing 2 hangovers: 5 eggs 3 corn tortillas 1/2 cup cheese 1/2 cup salsa verde vegetable oil salt and cayenne pepper to taste
Check Out These Other Great South-of-the-Border Video Recipes:
Here are three simple pieces of advice for turning that, "I'm so bored, please kill me," bowl of oatmeal, into something special.
First, use "steel-cut" oatmeal instead of those rolled oats. The difference between steel-cut and regular oatmeal is like the difference between a walk on the beach, and standing in line at the DMV. The superior texture and taste of steel-cut, with basically the same cooking time, makes this a must-try.
Second, find some grade "B" maple syrup. To me it tastes more maple-y than the standard supermarket grade "A." I get mine at Trader Joes, but you should be able to find it somewhere close. I had heard it was better tasting long ago, but never bothered to try it until recently. I'll never get those wasted years back.
Finally, put some real, unsalted, sweet, creamy butter on top. The thin slice of butter you see here (only 1/2 teaspoon), slowly melting into the hot oats, mocking you with its luxurious sheen, has exactly 16 calories.
Hey dieters, why turn a delicious breakfast into prison food to save 16 calories? It doesn't make any sense. Enjoy!
