I wrote that entire post off the cuff sort since I am between series right now and thought the recipe might come in handy.  Plus, I wanted to warn everyone of the dangers (at least to my taste buds ) of over citrusing rice.  Anyway, the term she could “own the recipe” got typed without me consciously typing it.

Later, though, it hit me what I had written and I started to think about what I really meant to own a recipe.

What I have found from my personal experience and from talking with others is that when it comes to how people use recipes there is a range.  On one end is those who will follow a recipe exactly to the letter and on the other are those who look at recipes as a guide or a suggestion.  Then there are others who fall in between.

Before I get too far into these musings, let me say that being at either extreme or being somewhere in the middle is perfectly fine.  No one style is better than the other.  Instead, people who identify more strongly with one style approach cookbooks, food blogs, etc. differently than those who follow the other style.  It’s just a matter of personal preference.

Anyway, what I meant when I said Carissa was able to “own” a recipe is that I felt confident in her ability to take a recipe, make modifications to it, and have it come out good.  In the case of that particular situation (where we modifying the recipe), the ability to own a recipe is a good thing.  Had she followed the recipe exactly, it would have been okay… but like I talked about in my write-up, my fear is that she would have had really orange-y rice.

Part of the reason I wrote this post is that I want to know where you fall along the continuum.  I am always interested to know what my readers want from this blog.  If a bunch of you respond back that you follow recipes to the letter, that means that as a blogger I will start to be far more explicit about what I can do.

The other reason I mention this is that I know myself… and I know that when I am following a recipe to the letter, it’s because I am unsure of myself and my abilities  if I don’t.  (I’m sure you’ll be shocked to know that this happens A LOT when I am baking…)  Fear rules a lot of kitchens.  I know that at least some of you out there look at the recipes in cookbooks and on food blogs and you think “I can never make that…”  (Guess what…yes you can!)

One of the things I would love to do with this food blog, and it’s something I need to work on, is helping you, o hungry reader, fear less in the kitchen.  Whether you have cooked for years or minutes, I know you CAN cook.  Inside every hungry tummy is a brilliant cook waiting to burst forth.

If you do feel that way (the no I can’t feeling…) stay tuned to this blog.  We can knock those fears down.  I promise.

I know that was a strange tangent to go on: Orange Rice->Owning a Recipe->Fear of the kitchen, but I wanted to talk about owning a recipe and I wanted to make it clear there is nothing wrong with following my recipes exactly (that’s why they’re there! )  If that’s how you like to cook, great!  However, if you follow recipes because you think you’re not a good enough to experiment… balderdash!

Maybe a little learnin’ will help.  I have been paying attention to those little tricks I do when I cook and I am going to write them down in the pages of this blog so you can play around, too.  Be on the lookout.  I’ll be doing a series on it very soon.

Until then, however you cook, enjoy!

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Okay Carissa, you asked for it…

Egg Nog Bread Pudding with Tequilla/Orange Sauce

So the other night on Twitter, I got to talking with the abovementioned Carissa about egg nog bread pudding, which I promised I would write up the recipe for. True to form, it took me a few days to get around to it, but late is better than never, right?

I love this recipe. When I created it, I took a basic bread pudding recipe and decided to see how much I could gild the lily (to steal a term from Mario Batali). With egg nog only being available around Christmas time, I figured why not? This is obviously a holiday dish and why eat low cal for the holidays? Right?

So beyond using the egg nog, there’s bananas and raisins because they taste awesome in bread pudding and lots of cinnamon. However, the version in the picture above uses povotica, which is a Polish Christmas bread loaded with sugar and butter and all the things that make life worth living. (Unless your one of my vegan readers when I would highly suggest vegan banana bread, but that’s another recipe…)

No Rum Sauce? Why Tequilla/Orange Sauce?

Good question. Part of it goes back to the whole guilding the lily thing. I thought tequilla/orange sauce for bread pudding sounded really good. Plus, I was out of rum. However, rum can easily be substituted in the recipe below. (Hopefully that’s okay…)

Anyway, now to the recipe.

Egg Nog Bread Pudding

You will need:

3 eggs
2 cups of egg nog
1 cup of skim milk
3 cups of diced bread
1/2 cup of sugar*
1/2 orange, zested (optional)
2 bananas, diced
1/4 cup of raisins
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Handful of pecans (optional)

* The amount of sugar is almost totally dependent on the sweetness of the bread you use. For my povotica version, I used 4 tablespoons of sugar because the bread and egg nog are so sweet. Also, no matter what type of bread you choose, remember the egg nog has sugar, too.

This one is real easy, I promise.

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs until the are combined. Add the egg nog, milk, sugar and orange zest. Beat together until well combined.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir gently to combine.
4. Pour into a buttered 9 by 9 glass baking dish. Top with pecans.
5. Bake for 1 hour or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

Tequilla/Orange Sauce

Bread pudding is always better if it has a little sauce on top. Here’s the one I use. However, there is a caution flag on this one.

I really, really liked this sauce, but I like sipping tequilla. If that’s not you, cut down the tequilla or use a different alcohol.

You will need:

4 tablespoons butter at room temperature
1/2 cup egg nog
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons of corn starch
1/4 cup water
Juice of one orange
1/8 cup tequilla (or more )*

*If you are serving this to minors, you can use 2 tablespoons of rum extract for an alcohol flavor.

1. In a sauce pan over medium heat, melt the butter. Once melted, add the egg nog, milk, and sugar. Bring to a boil.
2. Mix the corn starch and water together and then add to the milk mixture. Stir constantly until the sauce thickens.
3. Reduce the heat to medium low.
4. Add the orange juice and the tequilla and stir for 3-4 minutes.

Pour on top of the bread puding and enjoy!

This is my holiday endulgence…now, what’s yours?

Bread Pudding Notes

1. If you want your bread pudding to turn out EXACTLY like mine, start off using a bowl with a crack in it until you get to the step about adding the bread…
2. If you still want to do it like I did, set the oven to broil and don’t realize it until after you start to smell burning and realize your pecans are a loss…
3. If you’re still with me, one thing I noticed was that the top of my bread pudding still looked wet.  It was not.  In fact, it had set first and just looked kind of glazed.

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If you like the idea, please create your own and leave me a comment so I can steal ideas see what you’re cooking.

1. Mango/chili powder sorbet
2. Cayenne Hot Sauce
3. Faux Short Ribs with Hard Bamboo Bones and Seitan
4. Fajita Skirt Steak (the real stuff, it’s a long story)
5. Mexican Flank Steak (Again, don’t ask)
6. Seitan in an Asian Plum Sauce
7. Silken Tofu Chocolate Cafe
8. Noodles like I get at Shogun
9. Miso Eggplant “eel” sushi
10. Vegan spicy tuna roll
11. Crab cakes with Match
12. Chiapas-style Seitan
13. Homemade rice pancakes (moo shu style)
14. Vegan gnocchi
15. Vegan nan (need a tandoori oven)
16. Aloo Gobi
17. Rucci Fry (my favorite vegetarian Indian dish, have no idea what’s in it except that it’s veggies, it’s red, and it’s FLAMING hot.)  Mmm…
18. Berry banana silken tofu shake
19. Vanilla/sugar sauted lobster
20. Dozen oysters with horseradish finished with citrus and a hint of watermelon
21. Seitan pepperoni
22. Seitan salami
23. Smoked tempeh
24. Tiger cry seitan
25. Vegan haggis (yes, I, too am puzzled by this…)
26. Vegan shrimp substitute
27. Vegan parmesan
28. Sweet mash (sweet potatoes and bananas)
29. Vegan hot dogs
30. Turducken
31. Cassoulet
32. A vegan version of Cassoulet
33. Vegan french toast
34. Cashew cheese
35. Cashew milk
36. Homemade soy milk
37. Lemon poppy seed cake
38. Mini carrot cakes
39. Kalamata olive bread
40. Vegan sun-dried tomato spread
41. Olive tapenade
42. Vegan ham
43. Barley risotto
44. Sweet potato risotto
45. Sweet potato ice cream
46. Vegan cookies and cream ice cream
47. Champagne risotto
48. Salad with nicoise olives
49. Pear puree soup
50. Strawberry/tomato bruschetta (thanks forfeng)
51. Jack Daniels glaze
52. Bourbon sauce
53. Margarita seitan
54. Chiliaquelles
55. Vegan alfredo sauce
56. Sugar grilled asparagus
57. Yu shiang asparagus
58. Sa cha eggplant
59. Dan dan noodles that don’t completely suck
60. Blazing noodles from Pei Wei (I’m close)
61. Seitan in a slow cooker
62. Tea marinated seitan
63. Tea smoked something
64. Green tea ice cream
65. Chipotle paste
66. Serrano ginger paste
67. Hard candy
68. Carmel scallops
69. Chinese pork bun
70. Chili paste
71. Mole
72. Good Brazillian polenta
73. Brazillian cheese bread
74. Seitan scampi
75. Collard greens
76. Profiteroles
77. Profiteroles stuffed with seitan
78. Vegan cheesy mashed potatoes
79. Vegan creamed spinach
80. Garlicky sauted spinach
81. Sweet Potatoe Souffle
82. Vegan coconut drop cookies
83. Vegan egg replacer
84. Frittata with tofu eggs
85. French-style omelet
86. Vegan feta
87. Flour tortillas from scratch
88. Chimichanga
89. Asian 5 Spice Seitan
90. Peking Duck
91. Stuffed portobellos
92. Mango relish that doesn’t taste like crap
93. Grilled stuffed peaches
94. Deep fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich
95. Fried cookie dough
96. Mochahete
97. Vegan sausage
98. Peach cobbler
99. Macadamia-nut encrusted cheese cake
100. Jamaican jerk sauce

So…what’s on your 100? 

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I have been really pondering why I don’t eat meat.  At first, it was a health thing.  Not so much that a meat free diet is healthier (it is, by the way) but because part of my ability to lose weight depends on being able to control food. Vegetarianism = controlling food.  Hence I became vegetarian.

But the more I think about it, the more I find that I don’t really need to kill things to eat well.  I’m not sure if its the murdering that I am really finding distateful or the fact that commercial meat is full of fun things like mad cow and salmonella, not to mention cholesterol, triglycerides, and other things which cause a host of diseases.  But there is something about killing to eat that I find unnecessary.

Citizens of developed nations do not need meat to survive.  As a species, all humans once needed meat to have enough food to live.  Even after agriculture came along, we still needed meat.  The problem is industrialized countries (and non-industrial countries if the Developed Nations spent less time blowing up their neighbors and siding with dictators and more time building infrastructure and rooting out corruption) have enough technology and understanding of food science that if they so chose, they could live without meat. 

And frankly all we are doing by eating meat is killing ourselves.  People die of contaminated food (and yes, people died from bacteria in spinach, but that was traced to a pig farm next door…) and people die of the diseases that meat cause.  At the same time, the American Cancer Association is pushing people to eat vegetarian diets because they are healthy and they extend life.

Ultimately, I feel that not eating meat is the logical next step in cultural evolution.  I think it makes us more human and humane to stop killing the “lesser” creatures that live on it.  Yes, God made us dominion over all the land and all the animals on it.  However, the way we use that dominion is akin to me giving you dominion of my bank account and you losing it on slot machines or thousand dollar trinkets.  Yes, you had dominion over it, but wasted it.

So, to my mind: we don’t NEED meat.  We probably SHOULDN’T eat it and there are BETTER alternatives.  To me, it just makes sense that we find a new direction.

I expect a deluge of feedback for anyone who reads this.  I don’t consider myself a militaristic vegetarian, but I do wonder what would happen if we looked past our epicurean ways and tried to live a little healthier.

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You will need:

• 4 tablespoons grapeseed oil 
• 2 tablespoons butter 
• 1 medium onion, thinly sliced 
• 2 pounds of meat, deboned, dark meat preferred
• 8 cloves of garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Cover the meat liberally with salt and pepper. 
2. Over a medium fire, add the butter and half of the oil.
3. When the butter is foamy, add the onions, carrots, celery, and a pinch of salt.  Cook until soft.
4. Remove vegetables, increase to medium high heat, and add the rest of the oil.
5. When the oil is piping hot, add the meat and cook four minutes per side.  If the meat is particularly fatty, as some victims…er… carcasses may be, the heat can be kept at medium and the fat rendered out.
6. Finish the meat in a 350 degree oven.   Meat should cook 5 minutes per pound for medium rare.
7. Serve atop the sauted vegetables.

Happy April 1!

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So from personal experience I can say that parties are expensive.  Buying food, wine, beer, and cocktails can cost hundreds of dollars before party favors or plastic china (you know, the good stuff).  These tips will help control the costs and make the party fun.

1. Do Not Be Afraid to Have a Liquor Potluck 

Unless the cook has a reputation as a wine collector or beer expert, she should not be afraid to ask others to bring the booze.  This eases the financial burden on the cook and scratches off at least one store from her errand list.  More importantly, it lets others take a role in the party.  Guests that enjoy wine or have a favorite beer or mix a great cocktail are more than happy to share their passion.  Also, having others share their liquor will broaden everyone’s alcohol horizons.

2.  Make the Expensive Items

While it okay to buy from the store, sometimes this is not always the best strategy.  If a home cook can prepare a dish more cheaply than it can be purchased (barbecued items are a good example) the cook should strongly consider making it rather than buying it.

3.  Leave Healthy at the Store

A party is a time to eat junk food, fried foods, and desserts; all of those things that most people eschew during the normal work week.  This means that the party host does not need to worry about buying the best organic produce, reduced fat cheeses, or leaner cuts of meat.  All of these things cost money though their absence will scarcely be missed by partygoers.

4.  Buy in Bulk

In larger cities, most cooks know someone who has a wholesale club membership or have one themselves.  Because the cook is preparing food for a large number of people, this is the ideal to use those memberships.  If such a store is not available, the cook should still try to buy things is as large of cans as possible to lower the per unit cost.  Lastly, depending on the store, the cook may be able to negotiate a lower price on a larger order.

5.  It is Okay to Limit the Wow

While it is generally good to have one or two signature dishes at a party, not everything needs to be made with filet, lobster, and shrimp.  Sometimes the best dishes are the cheapest.

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I do not want to give up my fried foods, though, so I have tried to find different ways to prepare fried foods without actually frying.  This gave birth to my wife’s and my oven fries recipe.  This recipe uses a two stage approach (baking and then broiling) to produce a perfectly cooked french fry suitable for the finest dijon ketchups.

You will need:

• 4 large potatoes, peeled
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of seasoning salt (optional, recommended)
• 1 tablespoon of garlic powder (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350. 
2. Cut the potatoes into your favorite fry shape.  We tend to use 1/2 inch by 1/4 inch by 2 inch pieces.  There is no rhyme or reason to the size, it is just what our family prefers.  Cut the potatoes into whatever size you would like, but remember the deeper the potato, the longer the cooking time and adjust accordingly.
3. Wash the potatoes to remove excess starch and pat dry.
4. In a large bowl, mix the olive oil and cut potatoes until the potatoes are covered in a thin coating of oil.  This will let them brown.
5. To really minimize oil usage, buy an olive oil spritzer and sprtitz the potatoes.
6. Bake the potatoes for 15 minutes or until the are start to dry.
7. Set the oven to broil and continue cooking until crispy.  In my oven this is 3-5 minutes, but depending on the strength of the broiler and the positioning of the rack, it could be less time.
8. Immediately after removing the fries, sprinkle the salt and any desired spices on top of the potatoes.

Serve with hamburgers or sloppy joes or hot dogs as normal.

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To do this:

1. Heat the skillet and add enough liquid to cover the bottom of the pan 1/8 to 1/4 inch high.  That should be less than a quarter of a cup.
2. Add the food and cook as normal.   

Now, the texture of the finished product will be different.  The broth or stock is not going to crisp up the food being sauted like an oil would, but it is going to be much lower in fat and, for many dishes, the cooking liquid will add flavor.

Other Tips About Oil

Whenever possible, cook with heart healthy oils like olive oil.  Olive oil contains a good amount of fat, but doctors have shown how the fats from olive oils can be good for the body when taken in small doses.  So no matter which oil is used,  keep the amount of oil to a bare minimum.

When eating out, ask the chefs to limit the amount of oil they use or eliminate it entirely.  One of my personal vices is Chinese food, but it is heavy and fatty, even the non-deep fried items.  I have taken to asking the chef to make the dishes without oil.  They tend to look a little puzzeled at first, but then prepare a dish that tastes almost exactly like the heavy, oily dish.

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Because I only posted three recipes, I wanted to follow up with a fourth post on unique spices.  For this post, I shall talk about file powder.  Pronounced FEE-lay, it is a term for ground sassafrass leaves and is one of two ingredients that work with roux to thicken gumbo (the other being okra) and is a flavoring spice in other cajun food.

File makes the gumbo broth dark and gives the whole dish an earthy, savory taste that is not present in okra-based gumbo.  In addition, file powder seasons the entire broth whereas the only thing that tastes like okra is the okra.  As an added benefit, file powder does not get slimy and chewy like okra that has been cooked to long.  Which is not to say that I do not like okra gumbo.  I make it a lot, I just prefer file-based gumbo.

So here is my challenge to you.  In the United States where I am at, the weather is starting to get cold and winter will soon be upon us.  Cold weather is the perfect excuse to try out a new soup or stew recipe, so if you have not had a file-based gumbo, give one of these recipes a try!

http://www.cooks.com/rec/search/0,1-0,gumbo_file_powder_ingredients,FF.html

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With her Southern belle smile, she announced she was going to make a pumpkin cheesecake.  While she had me at “Hey y’all,” I sat in rapt attention as she made this recipe.

I had never made a cheesecake before.  I made that cheesecake.

I can bake.  Who knew?

If you decide to try it, follow the baking instructions exactly.  That’s my best advice.  My second best advice would that next time I make the recipe, I am going to add a half cup more sugar and double the spice.  I like my pumpkin pies bold with big flavors.  Paula’s pumpkin cheesecake was good, but it did not explode with sweetness, nutmeg, and clove like I prefer.  That is not Paula’s fault.  Everyone else who has tried the recipe loved it and wanted more. 

And besides, it’s a Paula Deen dessert.  You know it has to be good!

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