Tag Archive for 'garlic'

Almond Crusted Halibut

Published by Hal on June 22, 2008 in Fish Fry-day and recipes. 1 Comment

When we were on vacation a few weeks ago, we got a phone call from Stacie’s brother, Donnie. Donnie is currently in the military, stationed in Fairbanks, Alaska, and I’m sure you can imagine what kind of adventures one can get into when you’re in Alaska. This particular weekend, he went fishing and managed to catch some halibut. Thirty pounds of it.

Donnie wasn’t sure what to do with it, so he did the first thing that came to his mind–he shipped it home to his parents. Which was funny, because it’s really just his parents at home, with the occasional kid popping in for the weekend–hardly the crowd to feed thirty pounds of fish to! But, that’s okay, because Stacie and I benefited from two pounds of this easy to cook fish.

I made the first pound on Thursday, and it was definitely a treat. What’s great about halibut is its versatility and its mild flavor. I paired it with some crushed almonds, pan fried it, and served it along side some garlic and shallot snow peas.

Almond Crusted HalibutIngredients

  • 1 pound of halibut, cut into two pieces
  • 1/2 cup crushed almonds
  • 1/2 cup of flour or plain breadcrumbs
  • salt & pepper
  • vegetable oil

Directions

  1. Generously season the fish with salt and pepper.
  2. Combine the flour and the almonds, then dredge the fish in the mixture.
  3. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a skillet, over medium heat and add the fish.
  4. Cook the fish for 5-7 minutes on each side, until the fish is cooked through. Serve immediately.

To make the garlic and shallot snow peas, simply heat some olive oil over medium heat in a skillet, and add a clove of chopped garlic and a chopped shallot. Cook until both are translucent, but not caramelized. Add the snow peas, and cook until heated through–but not too much, because you still want them crunchy.

That’s it–easy, simple, and great for tonight’s supper!

Chicken and Biscuits Florentine

Published by Hal on April 6, 2008 in recipes. 1 Comment

So, what’s the worst thing a food blogger could do (besides not cook, or write about it)? Not have batteries in the camera to take a picture of the food s/he is writing about. Ooops.

Well, anyway, I don’t have pictures to share, but I thought I would provide the recipe anyway, just in case I forget (because I am prone to do that, now). I came up with this because I needed to use up a lot of things: I had a can of cream of chicken soup that we bought for some reason, and I had a ton of vegetables in fridge that were calling out to be eaten. I thought I might could do a chicken primavera, but then I didn’t haven’t enough farfalle pasta. I thought linguine would be too much. So I opted for rice. But as I was eating this with the rice, I realize that the chunkiness of the veggies and the sheer volume of the spinach was calling for something else–a biscuit! So, there you have it.

Ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely diced
  • 3 carrots, diced
  • 3 ribs of celery, diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
  • 4 chicken tenders, cut in to bite sized pieces
  • 1 can condensed cream of chicken soup
  • 1 can of milk
  • 1 box of frozen spinach, thawed and very well drained
  • 1/2 green pepper, diced
  • 1/2 red pepper, diced
  • salt and pepper

Procedure

Heat the oil over medium heat in a large saucepan. Add the onion, celery, and carrots, and a dash of salt and pepper, and cook until the vegetables are tender. Add the garlic and chicken, stirring just until the chicken is nearly cooked, about 5 minutes. Add the soup and milk and stir to combine. Then, add the spinach and stir to evenly incorporate everything. Once the mixture has come to a bubble, add the peppers. Spoon over a split biscuit and serve.

One final thing to note: I upgraded my WordPress installation tonight–if something doesn’t look right, please contact me at blog [at] commonculinarian [dot] com.

burn, baby, burn

Published by stacie on March 3, 2008 in technique. 0 Comments

I set a bulb of garlic on fire tonight.

Because Hal has been working a little later during this busy season, I have been making dinner some nights.

Cooking is bad for me. Oftentimes Rachel Ray’s 30 minute meals take me more than an hour. When I cook, I usually feel as though I am running a marathon — and I cannot cook without a recipe!

Tonight we realized that we had an eggplant that needed to be cooked, so I set about making a roasted eggplant pasta dish. This dish included, among other things, an entire bulb of roasted garlic. This is just the kind of dish we like!

Now, I have a terracotta garlic roaster. We got this awhile ago. I have a long-time love for roasted garlic, one that first began at Andriolla’s restaurant — a now-closed FABULOUS Italian place in Erlanger. The restaurant had a antipasta that came with many cloves of roasted garlic to spread on bread (or just eat whole, which I often did).

So I dug our garlic roaster out of the cabinet (thankfully, it wasn’t in the closet like most of our kitchen stuff). Unfortunately, I have no idea where all of our directions are. We have them somewhere, but I didn’t feel like looking for it.

I prepared the garlic like I was supposed to and put the thing in the microwave. Now, you CAN put these things in the microwave. I remembered that to cook them in the over, it took about an hour, but in the microwave, like everything in the microwave, takes a lot less time.

I set it for 10 minutes. Then I checked it at 3 minutes. It wasn’t finished. So I left it in the microwave and sat in the dining room.

At the 7 minute mark, I smelled a bad smell and noticed smoke. I opened the back door quickly (we have a very sensitive smoke alarm) and approached the microwave.

Burning garlic stinks. I didn’t see flames, exactly, but the garlic bulb was very burnt and stinky. The whole roasting pan was giving off dark colored smoke.

Thank goodness I caught it or I would have had to use the fire extinguisher!

Spaghetti with Three-Tomato Sauce

Published by Hal on February 11, 2008 in recipe reviews and recipes. 0 Comments

After purchasing Everyday Food over the weekend, I was eager to try something from the book. I settled on this simple, rustic-style spaghetti dish and made plans to make it Sunday. Of course, life got in the way, and Stacie and opted for Fazoli’s instead (and, might never opt for it again, but that’s a different story for a different time).

We have been notoriously deficient at being able to keep our pantry and refrigerator stocked, but I had enough staples on hand that this recipe wasn’t a problem. The end result was a delicious and not so saucy take on a simple spaghetti with tomato sauce that will be sure to please. And, after thinking about it, this could be a perfect Valentine’s Day addition to your dinner table–it’s simple, delightful, and–most importantly–it’s red! Coincidence? I think not. 3tomspaghetti04

Spaghetti with Three-Tomato Sauce

From Everyday Food: Great Food Fast

Ingredients:

  • Coarse salt and fresh ground pepper
  • 1 pound spaghetti
  • 1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, chopped, oil reserved
  • 4 garlic cloves
  • 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 can (28 ounces) whole peeled tomatoes
  • 1 pound cherry tomatoes, halved

Procedure

  1. In a large pot of boiled salted water, cook the spaghetti until al dente according to the package directions. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the pasta water; return the pasta to the pot.
  2. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons sun-dried tomato oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the garlic and red pepper flakes; cook until fragrant, 30 seconds. Add the canned tomatoes (with juice) and sun dried tomatoes. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally and breaking up the canned tomatoes, until thick, about 15 minutes.
  3. Add the cherry tomatoes; simmer until soft, about 10 minutes.
  4. Add to the pasta. Season with salt and pepper. Toss, adding pasta water as desired. Serve immediately.

The book says this makes 4 servings, but between my plates and the reheat-able containers, I got 7. The box of pasta says this should actually be 8. Your mileage may vary.

As you are aware, I have a tendency to look at a recipe once and think I’ve got it down. I never do, because I also want to do something the recipe doesn’t call for or I omit a step. So, what did I do differently here? Well, I thought I needed to roast the cherry tomatoes, so I did. Then I checked the recipe. Then I remembered that I forgot to pick up fresh garlic and I didn’t haven’t any pre-minced stuff*. So, I used about a teaspoon of garlic powder added once I added the tomatoes.

Beyond that, there wasn’t much else for me to screw up :) Even still, I think roasting the tomatoes added a nice smoky flavor to the dish–and there just wasn’t enough garlic flavor (we love garlic–it’s yummy-licious!). We served it up with a store-bought baguette, and it was good. Try it and let me know what you think!

—
*As a matter of practice, I don’t buy the pre-minced garlic anymore. Sure, it’s, convenient, but you’re pay a large mark-up on something you can easily do yourself. Plus, fresh just tastes better. 

Chicken & Corn Chowder

Published by Hal on January 29, 2008 in recipes and rotisserie chicken. 2 Comments

I went to a training today that made me realize that I really should have a privacy policy for this site. Initially, I didn’t because I didn’t think I collected any information about the visitors to the site, but then I realized that’s not so–I use Feedburner for my feed stats and Google Analytics for my site stats. These two programs tell me who is clicking on my material and how they got to this site. So, consider yourself disclosed :) I don’t know exactly who you are, I just know that someone from some where is coming here using some key words typed into Google.

So, the point of telling you all that wasn’t so much to give you notice as it was to share some really interesting things about how it seems you guys are coming by this site. Three of the most popular searches are for “how to chop basil,” “how to cook pin oats,” and “recipes with a rotisserie chicken.” Hating Paula Deen is up there, too, but since I actually like Paula Deen, I’m choosing to ignore that ;)

This tells me that I need to write more “How-to’s” (thinking about what to do next), find a recipe for pin oats besides oat meal (I’m working on it–it’ll probably be a cookie), and write some recipes with that crazy rotisserie bird. Who knew it would be so popular?

Well, I can satisfy one of these needs tonight. My wife and I picked up one of these little guys at the store yesterday for dinner last night, but we got side tracked and made something else instead (hopefully I’ll be able to tell you what in a few days). My wife is also not feeling too great, so I needed to come up with something with some nutrients and simple. Chicken soup came to mind–but, wait, I have all these root vegetables (including little potatoes), some whole milk I’ll probably never get to finish, and a shiny new saucier. Chowder-time!

Before tonight I was thinking that most chowders were potato based, but in doing a bit of research, that doesn’t seem to be the case–rather, it’s a thick soup, with heartily cut ingredients, made from whatever a cook had available. We associate it with clams and seafood in the US because of New England, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be so. In fact, I say this dish epitomizes the idea of chowder, since I took what ever I had on hand, threw it in a pot, and called it dinner!

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 celery rib, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 5 small potatoes (1 1/2″ diameter), halved, then quartered
  • 1 cup shredded chicken (from a rotisserie chicken)
  • 2 cups chicken stock
  • 1/2 cup frozen corn
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon fresh black pepper
  • 1/2 cup of whole milk

Procedure

Combine the oil and butter in the bottom of a 2 1/2 quart saucepan, over medium to medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted, add the onions, celery, and carrots. Cook until the onions are just starting to caramelize, then add the garlic and the potatoes. Cook until the potatoes begin to show color at the edges, stirring occasionally.

Add the chicken, chicken stock, corn, bay leaves, tarragon, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and allow the chowder to simmer for about 30 minutes, until the potatoes are fork tender and begin to fall apart. Add the milk to the chowder, then stir to combine. Serve immediately.

Initially, I thought I was going to need to make a roux, but then I remember I was cooking with potatoes. Potatoes have enough starch in them to be a good thickening agent for whatever your cooking, especially if you cook them until about when they fall apart.

This recipe is really as simple as putting the ingredients in a pot and calling it dinner. What I loved about this is that it takes almost no effort, and the payoff is huge! This makes a delicious chowder, and feeds about four. Trust me when I say you don’t need anything else but a bowl of this for your dinner.

Frugal Friday: Making Something From Nothing

Published by Hal on January 25, 2008 in Frugal Friday and recipes. 0 Comments

I came home from work and working out the other night and needed something dinner. Unfortunately, my wife had already eaten with some of her friends, so I was on my own. Rather than revert to a TV dinner, I decided to see what I had on hand. I was feeling something Asian inspired, but it needed to be healthful–so no General Tso’s chicken for me, though it’s actually really easy to make!

No, instead I settled on stir fried (from a skillet, if that’s even technically possible) chicken with a soy-sauce glaze and yellow rice. There’s no reason for me to have yellow rice, and it’s kind of a cheat on saffron rice (which is also yellow)–I just like the color and it’s different than standard rice. You can use saffron, though that’s expensive and probably not a good use of such a premium ingredient for something you’ll just whip up; I just used 1/4 teaspoon of turmeric–hardly any flavor, but lots of color.

To just whip something up, the first thing I needed to do was take an inventory of what ingredients I had. We had just gone to the grocery store the night before, so we had a pretty full refrigerator and pantry; but, some things were off limits because I had other plans for them. I did have plenty of root vegetables which make a good base for any dish. I couldn’t use any of the fresh meat we bought, but I did have some frozen chicken tenders in the freezer. So, chicken and vegetables it was going to be.

Second, I needed a plan. I took a few minutes to think about what I was going to do. I knew it needed to be quick, since it was already 8 p.m., so I opted to dice my vegetables and cut the chicken into bite sized chunks. But, I also needed to season the food somehow. There was some soy sauce, rice vinegar, and rice wine in the fridge from when I made General Tso’s chicken a while back, and I had some sugar on hand, so I thought I whip up a quick glaze from that.

Next, I set to work defrosting the chicken, dicing the vegetables, and sauteeing everything. While I let the vegetables work, I started the rice. Once everything was started and working, I prepared the glaze.

Finally, everything came together and I enjoyed my dinner. I made enough for two so I could have some at work the next day. Now, I’m sharing this recipe with you so you might be inspired to experiment in your own home.

Ingredients

  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 1/2 medium onion, diced
  • 1/4 green pepper, diced
  • 1 rib of celery, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, smashed and chopped
  • 1 large (or 2 regular) chicken breast, cut into bite sized chunks
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 1/2 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon rice vinegar

Procedure

  1. Heat the oil in a medium skillet, over medium heat.
  2. Add the onion and cook until soft.
  3. Add the green pepper, celery, and garlic and continue to cook until the onion begins to caramelize.
  4. Add the chicken and cook until all sides have turned brown.
  5. In the meantime, combine the water, sugar, soy sauce, and rice vinegar.
  6. Pour the glaze over the chicken-vegetable mixture and reduce by about 25%.
  7. Serve over warm rice!

Deutsche Nacht!

Published by Hal on January 24, 2008 in recipes. 1 Comment

My wife has very German heritage. That doesn’t really mean anything when it comes to food, but we like to pretend it does. We had the opportunity to travel to Germany and Austria this summer and discovered that some of the food that we liked to eat on a regular basis was actually traditional Münchener Gaststätten fare :)

What could I be talking about but Wurst mit Sauerkraut und Kartoffeln? I think that I had the absolute best sauerkraut ever when we were in Munich–very different from the sauerkraut that I’ve ever had (or made) here in the States–it was sweet, but not too, and complimented the Kleinewurst perfect. Paired with pillowy, cloud-like mashed potatoes, and we were in heaven! And, it was like a little taste of home.

We make variations of this at home all the time, so I thought I would share with you what I made the other night. It’s not terribly healthful, but I did lighten it up some with turkey smoked sausage, so remember that it could be worse!

Brown Sugar Pan Sausage

Ingredients:

  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 medium onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 8 ounce package of smoked turkey sausage, cut into 1 inch pieces and sliced on a bias

Procedure:

  1. Melt the butter in a medium skillet; add the onions.
  2. Cook the onions just until they begin to caramelize, stirring occasionally.
  3. Once the onions have caramelized, add the garlic and continue to stir.
  4. Add the brown sugar and the water.
  5. Add the sausage and cover the pan.
  6. Once the sausage has browned on one side, turn it over and allow it to brown on the other side.
  7. Serve warm, with your choice of side!

A taste of our German/Austrian trip, after the cut (warning, it’s picture heavy! AND, bonus points if you can translate my German–that, it’s not that hard, looking at the context): Continue reading ‘Deutsche Nacht!’

Recipes: Roasted Red Pepper Mashed Potatoes

Published by Hal on January 5, 2008 in recipe reviews, recipes and technique. 4 Comments

I got a potato ricer for Christmas, so my in-laws wanted to see it in action. I decided to make some roasted red pepper mashed potatoes, and they turned out pretty good. Basically, you take your standard mashed potato recipe and add some roasted red pepper puree and there you have it. The most challenging thing for me was roasting the red peppers.

This recipe was inspired by this post at Culinary Therapy, which only fed two people. I expanded it to make six generous servings, and thought it to be very easy. There are a million and one ways to make mashed potatoes, and I thought this one did a decent job cutting back on the “bad” ingredients. At the end of the day, each serving only gets less than 3 tablespoons of sour cream and butter combined. I also up’d the proportion of red pepper puree to potatoes, because I didn’t think the flavor could come through enough.

Ingredients:

  • 6 medium russet potatoes
  • 3-6 cloves of garlic
  • 1/2 cup of sour cream
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter
  • 1 1/2 cup of chicken broth
  • 3 roasted red peppers, pureed

Directions:

  1. Roast the red peppers in the oven, under the broiler, until the skin is black and blistered.
  2. Once the peppers are roasted, place them in a plastic zip-top bag for 15 minutes to steam.
  3. Meanwhile, skin the potatoes and cut them into cubes.
  4. Place the potatoes and garlic in a large pot and cover them with cold water.
  5. Cover the pot and bring the water to a boil.
  6. While the water is coming up to a boil, run the red peppers under cold water to help peel the skin.
  7. Remove the seeds and the ribs from the peppers and puree.
  8. Boil the pototoes until they are fork tender, then drain.
  9. Mash the potatoes (or run them through a ricer).
  10. Add the sour cream, butter, and pepper puree to the potatoes.
  11. Stir to combine, adding the chicken broth until you have reach the desired consistency.
  12. Salt and pepper to taste.

These potatoes are really tasty, and relatively easy. If you make them ahead and you aren’t ready to serve them, you can put them in a double boiler to keep them warm.

Enjoy!

Wholesome Wednesday: 127 Foods That Fight Fat

Published by Hal on December 19, 2007 in Wholesome Wednesday. 5 Comments

Greetings! You’ll notice I changed the title of the Wednesday segment. Since this blog is about food, and this segment is about how food interacts with your body, I thought it was more appropriate that the segment title deal direction with food. Thus, Wholesome Wednesday was born.

Yahoo Health has a great article on 127 foods that fight fat. Problem is, they don’t really break it down in an easy to read format. Plus, if you want to learn math, this isn’t the article for you: I only count 54 foods, or food types.

I’ll cover these foods and my thoughts on them over the course of the next two weeks in a multi-part Wholesome Wednesday segment. Today, we’ll begin with the first 4 sections of the “Any Time List.”

Fruits and vegetables
All fruits and vegetables—raw, cooked, fresh, frozen, canned—belong on the Picture Perfect Anytime List. Avoid any packaged fruits that have added sugar. Otherwise, the more fruits and vegetables you eat, the better.

I think this is very sound advice. Fruit has countless benefits: it provides fiber for your body, provides antioxidants that fight aging and cancer, and generally fills you up without making you uncomfortable. I heard on the radio the other day–and I’ve heard this more than once–that those folks who eat an apple before each meal ate something like 300 calories less, on average, than those who didn’t. And, it had to be an apple–apple sauce, apple juice didn’t work.

Soups
You’ve heard of value for your money. Soups give you very good value for the calories. They are filling; a bowl of soup can be an entire meal. They are satisfying. For many people, they are more satisfying than raw vegetables, while many give you all the benefits of veggies (if you choose the soups chock full of vegetables). They are inexpensive, convenient, easy, and quick to make. Soups don’t make you feel like you’re on a diet. Above all, soups are versatile. They can serve as a snack, as part of a meal, or as a cooking ingredient.

The idea here is to fill yourself up on food that’s got high volume but low calories. This works in most soups because they are broth based and broth is mostly water. However, you need to be careful not to mistake this advice for cream based soups. While tasty, and a delicious occasional treat, cream based soups are loaded with fat and calories–and I think they defeat the purpose of eating a soup before a meal. Incidentally, I’ve heard the same thing about eating a broth-based soup before a meal as I have about eating an apple before a meal. Maybe we should all try it–we’ll be healthier as a result, at least!

Sauces, Condiments, and Marinades
Put the following items at the very top of your shopping list. They’re invaluable for adding flavor, moisture, texture, and versatility to every food and every meal.

  1. Salad dressings: oil-free or low-calorie (light or lite)
  2. Mayonnaise: fat-free or light
  3. Sour cream and yogurt: fat-free, plain, or with NutraSweet (or low-fat nondairy substitutes)
  4. Mustards: Dijon, Pommery, and others
  5. Tomato puree, tomato paste, and tomato sauce
  6. Clam juice, tomato juice, V8 juice, and lemon or lime juice
  7. Butter Buds or Molly McButter
  8. Cooking sprays (such as Pam) in butter, olive oil, garlic, or lemon flavors
  9. Vinegars: balsamic, cider, wine, tarragon, and others
  10. Horseradish: red and white
  11. Sauces: salsa, cocktail sauce, tamari, soy sauce, A1, Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, ketchup, duck sauce, chutney, relish, and others
  12. Onion: fresh, juice, flakes, and powder
  13. Garlic: fresh, juice, flakes, and powder
  14. Herbs: any and all, including basil, oregano, tarragon, thyme, rosemary, marjoram, dill, chives, sage, and bay leaves
  15. Spices: any and all, including cinnamon, cloves, ginger, cumin, nutmeg, coriander, curry, paprika, and allspice
  16. Extracts: vanilla, almond, peppermint, maple, coconut, cocoa powder, and others

I think this is a fun list. However, I do not have a lot of these items, which goes back to the well-stocked pantry debate. Only use from this list what makes sense for you. Line-by-line:

  1. Salad dressings: Definitely, have some salad dressings on hand. However, only buy what you’re going to use and what you can’t make easily. We have ranch dressing on hand, but we can just as easily whip up a vinaigrette as we can pour processed soybean oil from a bottle.
  2. Mayonnaise: Only have mayonnaise if you’re going to use mayonnaise. We will use maybe 2 cups in a year for anything, so we only have like a 10 ounce jar.
  3. Yogurt & Sour Cream: Yogurt is a good thing to keep on hand–it’s a good snack, and there are studies that demonstrate the importance of having a low-fat source of dairy in your diet for promoting a healthful weight. We only buy sour cream when we need it, and we splurge–have you looked at the ingredients list on most sour creams? Non-fat milk and emulsifiers? No thank you. Go for Daisy, if your grocer carries it. 100% real sour cream, no additives. And, it holds up better than that emulsified crap.
  4. Mustards: Mustards are good. You can make a Dijon crusted pork chop, or use some as in emulsifier in your vinaigrette!
  5. Tomato products: Yep on tomato products. These are common in Italian style cooking, as well as Middle Eastern cuisine. You can make something delicious and tasty in no time. And, for the men–Lycopene, an compound with links to reduced rates of prostate cancer.
  6. Clam juice, tomato juice, lemon & lime juice: Hmm. This doesn’t seem like something the common cook would use very often. Buy your lemons and limes fresh if you need the juice. Unless you’re making margaritas for the Titans.
  7. Butter flavored sprinkles: I say no to butter flavored compounds. Use the real stuff, just go easy. And I’m serious–use butter, not spread, not margarine. Your tastebuds will thank me.
  8. Cooking sprays: I also say no to cooking sprays. The chemical propellant is a disaster with non-stick surfaces. Get a Misto and go to town. It’s much better, and your cookware will thank you.
  9. Vinegars: I agree whole heartedly–have a variety of vinegars on hand.
  10. Horseradish: This depends on how much you’ll use it. I’ll tell you what–American horseradish is something awful to me, but when we were in Austria over the summer, the horseradish they use with their sausages was delectable! It was sweeter and milder than American horseradish. Get some, if you like sausage.
  11. Lots ‘o sauce: I have three of these: ketchup, soy, and Worcestershire sauces. The rest you can make or buy as you need them.
  12. Onions: Definitely have some onion powder and fresh onions. You can dice them really small and grate them for their juice. Don’t waste your money.
  13. Garlic: See number 12
  14. Dried herbs: Only have as much as you’ll use, or use what you have. Herbs don’t really go bad, but they do lose their potency after a while. You can always plant fresh, too. I think this will be my spring project (but it will have to be a window garden, cause we don’t have the space!).
  15. Spices: Same as number 14. Spices do the same thing. They just taste so much better when they are fresh, anyway.
  16. Other aromatics: I have vanilla extract and cocoa powder. Vanilla is the most versatile plant, because it goes with almost everything.

Dressings and Dips
I recommend fat-free or light dressings and dips. The light category—low-fat, reduced-fat, and low-calorie—is midway between totally fat-free and regular, and it’s often more pleasing to the palate than fat-free. Dressings can be used as all-purpose condiments, dips, toppings, even cooking liquids. They already contain a mixture of ingredients, so just slather them on vegetables, seafood, and pretty much anything else. Or cook with them to make up for the lack of butter or oil. I recommend keeping several varieties of dressings and dips on hand, including at least one creamy version. Try brushing a light creamy dressing on seafood, then broiling; the dressing adds moisture and flavor.

I agree, but we also discussed this in number one above. I think a more fitting item here is to keep soup and dressing packets on hand, to mix with your sour cream and/or mayonnaise. Plus, you can use the packets for other recipes, as well. I think that’s the more frugal choice.

Check back next week when we look at the next four categories in this article. (And, of course, check back daily for other features here at the Common Culinarian!)

Recipes: Bourbon Pork

Published by Hal on December 10, 2007 in Hal's Hint and recipes. 2 Comments

I love bourbon–it’s actually one of my favorite liquors. I’d love to style a restaurant with bourbon as the key ingredient. Keeping that in mind, I looked for a bourbon glaze that I could us with some pork chops we picked up from the grocery the other night. I found one here, that I modified slightly to fit my particular available ingredients.

Bourbon Pork

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup bourbon
  • 3 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup onion, grated
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar (light or dark–I used light; the recipe above called for dark)
  • 1/2 cup butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 4-6 boneless pork chops, trimmed and cut into about 1 inch cubes
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • rice
  1. Combine the bourbon, garlic, onion, brown sugar, butter, and honey in a large bowl. Whisk together.
  2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat.
  3. Add the pork to the skillet and allow to brown (Hal’s Hint: Take the meat out of the fridge at least 10 minutes before you put it in the pan. Once it’s in the pan, LEAVE THE MEAT ALONE! Let it hang out for about 5 minutes before you attempt to turn it. If you don’t, the meat might stick and tear or won’t brown as quickly).
  4. Add the bourbon glaze and allow to come to a boil.
  5. Stir until the glaze is reduced by about half.
  6. Serve with cooked rice.

(Hal’s Hint: I like to add spices to my rice to make it more aromatic. I added a stick of cinnamon and three small bay leaves to this batch of rice, making it a little sweeter and full of flavor. Remove these before serving.)

Bring the glaze to a boil and reduce by half.Serve along side aromatic rice.Another view.

My thoughts: My wife really liked this. I thought it was a pretty good interpretation of a bourbon sauce dish you’d get at a Chinese-American restaurant, so I call this “Carryout at home.” However, it was too sweet for my tastes. My wife and I suspect this is because I used 1 cup of sweet stuff (1/4 cup of honey, plus 3/4 cup of brown sugar). I did this because I needed more liquid to carry the flavor of the bourbon and I didn’t want to grate another onion–I had grated one, plus the half of one from last night’s dinner. In hindsight, I probably could have done without, used water, or added something savory (like diluted soy sauce–1 tablespoon soy sauce to 3 tablespoons water).

Regardless, I thought it was tasty. It was just too sweet for me usually. I have another bourbon glaze I’d like to try, but it’s more like a barbecue sauce so I’ll need to wait until I have a brisket or some ribs. Plus, my wife doesn’t like barbecue sauce much, so I’ll need to a new guinea–I mean, taster :).

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