Mexican Style Corn

I've been thinking about it for a while.  I'm hoping to actually take some pictures of tonight's dinner.  My hope is that I'm going to find some really lovely corn that I can add fresh garlic, salt, pepper, butter, and cilantro right before we serve it.  Thinking of taking off the cob, but the kids won't be happy about it.  On the other hand I might just make a garlic, salt, pepper, butter and cilantro compound butter.  Just need to remember to get the butter soft but not too soft before I put it in the food processor.  So what to make for the rest of the dinner is the problem.  I have two bogo(by one get one free) California chuck roasts in the continual marinade.  Didn't add anything to the marinade yet, but I will an hour before cooking.  Just more soy, sugar, ginger, garlic and some kind of juice or wine or something.  That's the whole point just see what is laying around. 

The real question is what other sides and what starch will I serve.  I know it's kind of boring but that's the way our family eats.  One half of the family runs on a freakishly high metabolism and the rest of us are genetically challenged Eastern European meaning not skinny and definitely not a high metabolism at all.  It's a battle for that side of the family to stay thin.  We are typical Americans.  Not too over weight but not at the weight we should be at either.   The fun part of this equation is going to the store.  Can't really decide until I say what's fresh, what's on sale, what's in the super cheap shelf that can be used.  Like tomatoes which can be saved by cutting out the bad part then grilling or broiling with a topping or not.  Eggplant kind of similarly can be used all kinds of ways after getting rid of the part that isn't so good, things like ratatouille.  I've also bought beets recently that were marked down to six for a dollar or so.  That became incredible roasted beets with fresh garlic, dried basil, dried oregano the juice of two lemons, salt, pepper and a little e.v.o.o. and blamo a great tasty side dish and nibble for the next day. 

I think sweet potatoes are the way to go for the starch.  If I can find some that I like.  Hasn't been easy recently.  I think I'm going to make a grated fresh ginger, fresh grated onion (Vidalia if possible), rice vinegar, ketchup, sugar, oil, kosher salt and pepper.  Should be heavy on onion flavor.  Don't go light on the ketchup.  No there aren't any measurements here.  If you need them let me know.  If you make your own dressings you should have more than enough info. 

Time to go to the market for some inspiration.

New Adventures in Marinades

So I've started a new adventure.  I made a marinade of brown sugar (handful), soy sauce, fresh pressed garlic, fresh grated ginger(Try the smallest holes on a box grater.  Reach in with a knife and make sure you scrape everything off the wall of the box grater.), one to two teaspoons of fish sauce, couple of shots of bourbon, and a little bit of apple juice to make just under two cups of marinade depending on how much sugar and soy you like.  Soak anything in for however long you like.  Overnight will be good but strong for beef, pork, and chicken.  Haven't used it on fish yet so I don't want to vouch for its effectiveness in that environment.  After marinading your protein or veggies grill, bake, fry, or broil until charred a little and done.  Whatever marinade is left over needs to be boiled for a few minutes to make sure all the raw proteins in the marinade are cooked.  It can then be used as a sauce for the finished product or put in the fridge to be a sauce that can be added to over and over even when putting different things in it.  Tofu would be great I think.  Need to try that for sure.

I started making this type of marinade for pork or dark meat chicken.  Something with enough intrinsic fat to let the marinade really sing after a bit of charring occurs.  Then I realized that it would be good on veggies meat etc.  As thing soak in the stuff they give off a little of their own flavor that we finish by cooking the new marinade down for a few minutes.

If you were in a bind and wanted to make a quick stir fry just add a little of this sauce from the fridge to the mix if sweet works and tah dah tasty stir fry.  Start the stir fry with fresh pressed garlic and fresh grated ginger or some other spice mix that you like.  Sesame oil wouldn't hurt either.  I bet it would be good on corn mixed with a little butter.  Kind of that kettle corn thing with added flavors.  Finally is spicy is your thing then put some clean heat in there like an Jalapeno or Habanero if you like.  My family couldn't deal with that so I'm not doing it currently.

Still eating the last of my mangoes gleaned from the ground around town.  Gonna be a long wait till next years crop.

Marketing is hard to do. (Yes that's Neil Sedaka your hearing if your an ancient)

I'm not sure why it's so hard but marketing products or anything for that matter is still an art.  Even in the days of social networking, guerrilla marketing, pay per click advertising and the like.  I've been trying to help a family member market a new dried food product they've created.  I've already eaten hundreds of these little goodies.  Very addictive little tropical banana goodies.  They stay fresh for a very long time in the fridge.  So back to the problem. 

The first problem is that they hold better in the fridge than on the shelf.  Different texture depending on the storage choice.  If left out they are a bit chewy.  I happen to like them that way, but if kept in the fridge they have a satisfying crunch.  So if they could be dried using something other than a standard food dehydrator maybe they would hold crunchy on the shelf.  Otherwise they would have to be sold out of the fridge.  That cuts down on impulse buying at the checkout counter and these little goodies are definitely an impulse buy. 

Now for the bigger marketing problem.  I've been searching for help with a health food crossover product of this kind for a while now.  No matter how deep I go into the matrix I simply can't find what I want, at least on the internet.  We need help with packaging and possible with presentation.  The little nuggets aren't uniform at the moment.  I think we could make them uniform while keeping them raw and basically unprocessed, other than the drying.  I know it seems strange but you don't want people stealing your idea so taking it to someone becomes an issue as well.  Just getting a legal document made is expensive but worth it in the end.  The only reason I have a sense of urgency on this particular item my brother makes is that I can't find them anywhere.  I look for a product like it all the time and still haven't seen one yet.  My brothers company is Our Marvelous Garden.  Check them out on Facebook or the web.  If you have any advice on marketing I'd love to hear it. 

It's funny once his company solves the marketing problem he'll have a new problem to deal with mainly making a lot of an artisinal product.  Luckily he comes from a family that was self employed so he should be able to deal with the challenges of growing a private business.  If not he can lean on the family at least.  Check out his products and if you're not getting enough fiber and vegetable matter in general into your diet get some of his products.  If you don't like green foods but eat fruit get some of his fruit and vegetable leathers.  They taste great and they're incredibly good for you and raw.

I will be posting some general recipes or at least items I've made at home recently.   Still trying to remember to take pictures of the stuff.  I'll get there.