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.

Broward County's Chinatown

I'm not sure how many people are aware of it, but there is kind of a mini Chinatown in Broward county.  It can be found almost in it's entirety in a long strip center just South of Commercial Blvd and 441.  There is a Asian bakery that has roll cakes, more than a dozen different types of buns baked and steamed, and all kinds of cakes filled with anything from custard to sweet red beans and bean paste.  Just a few doors down is a Saigon City Vietnamese restaurant.  If you go South in the strip you'll see a Vietnamese market that sells Vietnamese, Chinese, Japanese and other Asian staples, fresh produce, frozen everything and even a meat section that sells mostly offal.  If one keeps walking South in the plaza there is a store that sells prepared Chinese foods like a few kinds of dumplings, various types of rice pastes and other items that most of us don't eat.  Still a little bit farther South is the best Chinese cooked meat market around.  They have hanging ducks, whole crispy  pork hanging, three different kinds of chicken, Char Sui pork and of course spare ribs.  They have a few different kinds of buns and dumplings and a variety of offal of course for you to peruse and buy.  Very good value for the dollar.  The roast pork, duck and chickens are as good as your going to get in this area. 

But as always I would love to hear your opinion of these places.  Am I on the mark or have I swung and missed.  Just let me know.  I want the reviews to be as legitimate as possible.  Next up for the blog will be some recipes from my restaurants that are frequently requested and a quick discourse on meat purchasing.

Betty's isn't heaven, but it's close

For Father's Day this year we(but really me) decided to try Betty's on Sistrunk and 22nd Rd.  I had heard and read about it a few times.  One of the last bastions of soul food left in South Florida.  I don't know if things have really gotten that bad Soul Food wise in South Florida.  I think that the more real the place is the more hidden it becomes.  Whether that's due to location, general vibe of the place, it's patrons or any other reason that the fickle public can come up with for not liking a particular establishment.  So for of us white people sat down in four swivel chairs that are attached to little tables.  Exactly like Mickey D's has or used to have in many of it's establishments.  There is a beat up jukebox, and a counter with five or so soda fountain stools.  There is a nice mix of generally large(heavy) people in the place.  Betty would be the person behind the register that also answers the phone and runs into the kitchen to plate food or do anything else that's necessary.  I would hate to guess how long she's been running this establishment.  The base is quite busy and seems to be a little short staffed.  There is only one waitress for 40-50 people plus the phone and the counter.  She's good though so things go very smoothly.  Don't expect your food in five seconds if you order things other than breakfast.  We ordered chicken wings, side of grits and Pork Souse.  The wings were very good, the grits were excellent and then we get to the Pork Souse.  Now suddenly we turn into Andrew Zimmerman territory.  It's a bowl filled with a reddish broth that smells intensely of pork and something smellier than pork, offal.  There is a little bit of corn, but other than that it's offal and strange parts in a bowl.  I ate all the broth which tasted better than it smelled.  I ate about half of what was in the bowl and brought the parts I didn't like home for the dog.  We then ordered whole fried catfish, a vegetable plate, Eggs with a ton of bacon and hash browns, smothered pork chops, corn bread and biscuits.  The catfish is a 15 out of ten. There aren't even a lot of bones left when I'm done it.  One of the best things I've eaten in the last year.  The lima beans are also in the category.  Need to know what they do to them because they are addictive.  The candied yams are truly candied so don't eat them if you don't want to go into diabetic shock shortly thereafter.  The stewed cabbage and collard are greens are so aggressively seasoned that my mouth was numb by the time we got home.  It's too much salt for me but once in a while it's really good.  The fried okra wasn't my thing.  They don't use cornmeal and they weren't crispy enough for me, but they weren't bad.  Just not my style.  The green beans are excellent and not as heavily salted as some of the other veggies.  I got a side salad which hit the spot with french dressing.  Excellent portion for a side item.  The smothered pork chop was very good, but standard compared to the fish.  Breakfast was also excellent.  My son commented that it's nice to get hash browns somewhere other than Waffle House.  We also got an excellent slice of sweet potato pie and banana pudding with nilla wafers to go.  The pudding portion was huge and incredibly good.  Haven't had a chance to try the sweet potato pie yet.  I won't order that much food again and will be more careful about what I get due to the salt overload, but I'm already dying to go back.  This place has Soul to spare and great food.  I also really need to try the peach cobbler.  I'm kicking myself for not getting one to go.  It wasn't the cheapest place I've ever been but was a good value in my opinion.

Kid's are gone

Shipped two of my children off to Japan today.  That means we'll be eating dishes with a little more spice since they don't like hot food that much.  It also means I can experiment more since I will only be cooking for 2-3 people.  It also means that if there are leftovers I will need to eat them since the two children that are gone are my scavengers.  They eat anything not nailed down in the fridge. 

There are a few things that I'm trying to achieve here.  One of them is to answer questions when they're posted for recipe ideas or help with cooking anything.  I'm not the best baker so baking questions probably need to be asked of another blogger. 

I also wanted to mention that I am now eating raw dried foods that I don't think I would have been into even a few years ago.  One of my new favorites is a dried banana coated with shredded coconut.  Maybe one the best dried foods I've ever eaten.  The mango version of the product is very good as well.  The company that's making them is OMG(our marvelous garden).  You can find them on Facebook.  They make great dried products, fruit leathers and vegetarian and vegan products.  If you or your children don't like to eat vegetables, green veggies and things of that nature try one of their veggie and fruit leathers.  Tastes like fruit but loaded with vegetables.  Lasts forever, full of fiber and they taste great.  I didn't really like the one I tried with dandelion greens, it was a little strong, but all the other ones are great.  They even make a vegan chocolate product that's pretty damn good for vegan stuff that is.  I still prefer the real thing, but I'm not vegan in any way shape or form.

I will start putting some recipes in the blog sometime next week.  I think the first recipe that will need to be published is secret to Bourbon Chicken.  One hint would be it has nothing to do with Bourbon and everything to do with the type of chicken that is used.  More on that later. 

Simply Divine Flan

Went to dinner at Don Carlin last night.  The dinner was delicious, the red beans were as always a revelation, the rice was just right as usual.  Then after dinner came the flan that three of us would share.  It took all of my self control not to drink the caramel in the bowl when we were done with the simply divine flan.  It is one of the best things you will ever put in your mouth.  Get a cappuccino or a cafe con leche to go with it and heaven is right where you're sitting.  One of my teenage daughters got up this morning and said, "mmm.  Meat".  She couldn't wait to get to the leftover Churasco sitting in the fridge.

I didn't sleep well cause the beans really hurt me, but once every three months or so I have to eat a whole cup of them at Don Carlin.  Damn the pain and suffering that comes with it.  There are times I wish I could just sit in a chair and that flan till I couldn't eat anymore.  I don't the human body could survive such a viscous attack on its pancreas.  Good way to go though.  Or to water boarded but replace the water with the caramel juice/sauce from the flan dish.  Maybe interspersed with some just sweet enough cafe con leche.  What a way to go.  I'm ready for a really good dream one night soon, can't wait.