A Couple Of Good Omelets

After learning about our  previous oyster-a-thons, good friend David asked to come to the next one and even offered to buy the oysters – an automatic invitation for sure.  His wife Peggy came and this time, we had raw, char-grilled, and Rockefeller (Peggy's favorite) - I had a small bowl of the spinach topping left over, which sounded like a great stuffing for an omelet.  We ate the entire box of oysters though - they we small ones from the Texas gulf coast.

For my omelet, I warmed the oysters Rockefeller topping in the microwave and let some of Cathy’s (Wives With Knives) seafood remoulade come to room temperature.  I cooked the eggs with a lid to help the top set then added the spinach mix and some crumbled Feta cheese before folding.  I topped with a little remoulade and sided with an toasted English muffin and a couple slices of Canadian bacon (more on this later).

A few days prior to his one, Bev had made an omelet stuffed with some leftover sautéed mushrooms and onions and steamed broccoli.  She topped it with some chopped tomato and smoked Gouda cheese.

Both were delicious and I’d love either one again but I should have omitted either the bacon or the muffin from the first one - couldn't eat it all.

I'm now responding to your comments and hoping you will stop back by - photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/8 & 1/16/13 meal dates

Kentucky Hot Brown Revisited

It’s been awhile, and Bev has been craving a Kentucky hot brown, so she bought some sort of turkey roll that contained both white and dark meat rolled up in a net.  I added a little dry rub to the outside and oven roasted it to an internal temperature of 165* which was perfect for the white meat but the dark meat could have used a little more.

I recalled that Chris, from Nibble Me This, had recently posted a great looking version so I headed over to his site to check it out and especially to get his Mornay Sauce recipe:

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp shallot, finely diced (we used sweet onion)

1 clove garlic, whole slightly crushed

1 Tbsp all purpose flour

1 1/4 cup half and half

1/2 cup mozzarella shredded

1/4 cup pecorino romano (we used Parmesan)

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

1. Melt butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and saute until the shallot is tender, about 4 minutes. Whisk in the flour, stirring constantly to form a blond roux.

2. Whisk in about a quarter cup of the half/half and whisk until well blended. Add some more, repeat. Then add the remaining half/half. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened, about 10 minutes.  Remove the garlic clove and discard.

3. Whisk in the cheeses in small batches and stir until well blended. Season with salt and pepper. Sauce should be thick.

The classic version has two slices of bacon crossed on top of the sandwich. 

This makes for a nice presentation but makes it harder to eat and get bacon in every bite, so we diced the bacon, fried it crisp, and drained on paper towels.

Our assembly was: Slice of French bread, turkey, tomato, bacon crumbles, Mornay.

Broil until sauce begins to brown, top with chopped parsley, and enjoy.

It was very good and I really liked Chris’ kicked up Mornay sauce.  The changes I’ll make next time are use only breast meat, smoke it if I have time, put the bacon on the bread first so it will stay on better, and make more sauce.  Even picky eater Madison ate one and a half of them.

I'm now responding to your comments and hoping you will stop back by - photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/9/13 meal date

Pork Lo Mein

I’m not sure I ‘d ever had this dish, but Madison ordered it the other day in a restaurant and our friend Ashley wanted to make it for us before returning to Purdue, where she’s working on her PhD.  She used a recipe from her America’s Test Kitchen Cookbook, but she opted for making fresh noodles.  While Ashley prepped for the dish, Bev whipped up a batch of pasta using the recipe from Mario Batali.

Here are the pasta makers at work - the Rowoco machine seems to do a good job.  After rolling it out to a thickness of 5, we ran it thru the linguini die.

Ashley got all of her ingredients prepped prior to beginning to cook and as best I can tell we should have invited the neighborhood – she made double the recipe below. 



Ashley used the cookbook, but I found a slightly modified version on the web at Laine’sRecipe Box so I didn’t have to type it from the book.  I made a few changes to Laine’s version to make it more like the cookbook.

Pork Stir Fry with Noodles (Lo Mein) - Serves 4

Ingredients:

3 T. soy sauce

2 T. oyster sauce

2 T. hoisin sauce

1 T. toasted sesame oil
1/4 t. five-spice powder
1 lb. boneless country-style pork ribs, trimmed of surface fat and excess gristle and sliced crosswise into 1/8-inch pieces
1/4 t. liquid smoke (optional)
1/2 c. low-sodium chicken broth
1 t. cornstarch
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press (about 2 t.)
2 t. grated fresh ginger
4.5 t. peanut oil
4 T. Chinese rice cooking wine (Shao-Xing) or dry sherry
1/2 lb. shiitake mushrooms, stems trimmed, caps cut in halves or thirds (about 3 c.)
2 bunches scallions, whites thinly sliced and greens cut into 1-inch pieces (about 2 c.)
1 small head Napa or Chinese cabbage, halved, cored, and sliced crosswise into 1/2-inch strips (about 4 c.)
12 oz. Chinese egg noodles (fresh) or 8 oz. dried linguine (we had 19 oz. of fresh pasta)
1 T. Asian chile garlic sauce

Directions:

1. Bring 4 quarts water to boil in Dutch oven over high heat.
2. Whisk soy sauce, oyster sauce, hoisin sauce, sesame oil, and five-spice powder together in medium bowl. Place 3 tablespoons soy sauce mixture in large zipper-lock bag; add pork and liquid smoke, if using. Press out as much air as possible and seal bag, making sure that all pieces are coated with marinade. Refrigerate at least 10 minutes or up to 1 hour. Whisk broth and cornstarch into remaining soy sauce mixture in medium bowl. In separate small bowl, mix garlic and ginger with 1 teaspoon peanut oil; set aside.
3. Heat 2 teaspoons peanut oil in 12-inch cast-iron or nonstick skillet over high heat until just smoking. Add half of pork in single layer, breaking up clumps with wooden spoon. Cook, without stirring, 1 minute. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, 2 to 3 minutes. Add 2 tablespoons wine to skillet; cook, stirring constantly, until liquid is reduced and pork is well coated, 30 to 60 seconds. Transfer pork to medium bowl and repeat with remaining pork, 2 teaspoon oil, and remaining 2 tablespoons wine. Wipe skillet clean with paper towels.

 

4. Return skillet to high heat, add 1 teaspoon peanut oil, and heat until just smoking. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring occasionally, until light golden brown, 4 to 6 minutes. Add scallions and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until scallions are wilted, 2 to 3 minutes longer; transfer vegetables to bowl with pork.

5. Add remaining teaspoon peanut oil and cabbage to now-empty skillet; cook, stirring occasionally, until spotty brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Clear center of skillet; add garlic-ginger mixture and cook, mashing mixture with spoon, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Stir garlic mixture into cabbage; return pork-vegetable mixture and chicken broth-soy mixture to skillet; simmer until thickened and ingredients are well incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes. Remove skillet from heat.
6. While cabbage is cooking, stir noodles into boiling water. Cook, stirring occasionally, until noodles are tender, 3 to 4 minutes for fresh Chinese noodles or 10 minutes for dried linguine. Drain noodles and transfer back to Dutch oven; add cooked stir-fry mixture and garlic-chili sauce, tossing noodles constantly, until sauce coats noodles. Serve immediately.

This is it in the bowl ready to serve but I didn’t get any plated shots.

We all enjoyed the dish but had differing reactions to it.  Bev thought it needed something and added crushed pepper to hers while I thought the spice/sauce mix overwhelmed everything else, so it is obviously very eater dependent.  One thing we all agreed on was the fresh homemade pasta was outstanding.

I'm now responding to your comments and hoping you will stop back by - photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

1/2/13 meal date

photo posting

I've gotten several suggestions about helping the with picture posting and responded to your comments on the previos post.  To insert a phot this is what I do (Have done)

1. I click on the insert image icon from the "compose" toolbar on the "new post screen" and a new window opens
2. In the upper left of the new window, it says "Select a file" but it may used to have said "Choose a File"  and it used to after a "browse" icon across the top of the window from there but it is gone.
3. Under the "Select a file" are the following"

    Upload (in red)

    From this blog

    From Picasa web album

    From your phone

    From your webcam

    From a URL

Across from the word "upload", it tells what kind of files I can upload.
In the lower left, just as before, it gives me icons for "add selected" and "cancel"

But nowhere does it give me a way to get to my computer files and I can't find the words "choose files" on either window.  My workaround has been to upload them to the online Picasa then import them from there, but it's an extra step and I'm now wondering if the issue is because I use Picasa or did I just click on a wrong something at some point.



Any help appreciated.  Thanks.  Larry

Look Mom - No Eggs & Blogspot Help

This is a breakfast from leftovers that Bev fixed me over the holidays - see I don't have an egg on everything.

Blogspot Question - When I want to post a photo, I click the little icon next to the "Link" word and it brings up a "Select A File" box which, until the other day, always included the word Browse on the upper right which allowed me to go to my computer picture files and select a photo. The browse word is no longer there and I don't know why - any suggestions?

I'm now responding to your comments and hoping you will stop back by - photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

12/31/12 meal date

Oyster-A-Thon 2012

Recently I’ve posted a couple of times about oysters (11/21 & 11/28) and the decision my buddy Joe and I made to eat more of them.  He’d repaired my computer and came over to return it and I promised him oysters and margaritas in return.  When I went to buy them, they were $36 for the four dozen I’d planned to get or I could buy a box of 100 for $55 – no brainer for an oyster lover as they will keep about a week (55 cents each vs. 75 cents each – they were a dime on the half shell first time I had them at a FL oyster bar.)

So on Friday, we had char-grilled oysters, raw oysters, and oysters Rockefeller (a Bev favorite) and used about 65 of them.

Then on New Year’s Eve, Joe and his wife Carol came over for a traditional Southern good luck meal of black eyed peas and collard greens, but we started the event with some more oysters mid-afternoon.  While Joe and I prefer ours raw, Bev and Carol only eat them cooked and for Carol they must be fried.  We found the following recipe from Emeril and since we has the masa, we gave it a try.

Ingredients:
1 cup buttermilk

1 tablespoon Essence, plus 1 tablespoon

16 freshly shucked oysters, about 1 pint, drained

1/2 cup masa harina

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups vegetable oil, for frying

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine the buttermilk with 1 tablespoon of the Essence. Add the oysters and marinate for 20 minutes.

2. Combine the masa harina and flour with the remaining Essence in a shallow dish.
3.In a deep-fryer or a medium, heavy pot with high sides, heat the oil to 360 degrees F.
4.Dredge the oysters in the flour mixture and shake the pieces in a strainer to remove any excess. Carefully add to the hot oil in batches, and cook, turning occasionally, until golden on all sides, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the oysters with a slotted spoon, drain on paper towels, and serve immediately.

We fried up a couple dozen and served them with three sauces: Seafood Remoulade - from Cathy at Wives With Knives, Tarter Sauce and Cocktail Sauce both from Ina Garten.

We all liked this coating for the oysters and all three of the sauces were delicious and will be our go-to versions.

After the fried ones there were about a dozen left for Joe and I to eat raw and the box of 100 was gone.

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Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

One Year Ago:

Two Years Ago: 

Larry

12/31/12 meal date

Grouper In Caper Sauce

Bev wanted fish in lemon-butter-caper sauce and we usually use lake caught crappie for it, but I had a piece of grouper I wanted to try.  We had some store bought asparagus in the fridge and decided to cook it in the same sauce as the fish, in hopes of giving it a little flavor.

I got the melted butter into a skillet along with some minced garlic and lemon juice and dusted both sides of the fish with Emeril's Essense. 

Since the fish was pretty thick, I started it and the asparagus at the same time - normally would have added the fish later.  This is after flipping and the addition of the capers.

Here it is on the serving platter with some garlic bread - this was also Bev's bread day. 

The grouper worker very well in this dish, but it is hard to beat it battered and deep fried.

I'm now responding to your comments and hoping you will stop back by - photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

12/23/12 meal date