How do you Hotdog?

Most of you know by now (if you follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or this site) when I get a craving I usually try to indulge in it, go for it,  or 'do it' the next time I get a chance.  For example one day last week I had Butterfinger Ice Cream for breakfast.  It's just that simple.

The newest craving I had that came on real strong was something I first learned about years ago (like when I was 16) when I worked at A&W Rootbeer or Restaurant (as ours was called A&W Family Restaurant).  But first I want you to know it was not one of those new modern A&W restaurants.  It was an old one.  Women working the 'car hops', a fireplace in the center of the dining area, little league/softball/baseball pictures hung everywhere from their sponsorship.  And we still made the Rootbeer syrup before linking it in with the CO2(soda machine for carbonation).  Yeah, 'back in the day'.

A good friend of mine from high school was working there told me I needed to try one of his favorite hot-dog combinations.  You melted American cheese on top of a hot-dog in a bun, then add chopped onion, pickles, ketchup, and mayo, then top it with coleslaw (the white coleslaw, not that ketchup or vinegar coleslaw).  I thought he was crazy, but the flavor combination really surprised me.  I loved it!

Slaw-dogs with cheese, onion, pickle, mayo, & ketchup.  For some reason that struck me yesterday and I really wanted to have it, so I did.  I bought the ingredients at the store (much cheaper) with a bag of Kettle Sour Cream and Onion potato chips.  Kettle chips are the greatest, all flavors are good...Crispy, thick, and crunchy.  And for dessert, I finished off with Caramel Caribou ice cream.  Delicious.

You're probably wondering what's wrong with me and why I didn't eat BBQ?  Why not make your own rules?  July 4th can still be a day of celebration no matter what you eat or how you enjoy it (even if it's your birthday)!

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Dutch Crunch Bread

Recently I tried my own Dutch Crunch Bread as I have had it several times and love it in 'loaf' and roll form for straight consumption or to build a massive sandwich!  What is it? You may ask...

The following quote is credited to Bacon Press, (as I try to keep it short and sweet here on my site for you) I find this paragraph to sum up its origin. ->

Like your typical sourdough loaf or baguette, Dutch Crunch didn't originate here, although the name probably did. In the Netherlands, it's known as Tijgerbrood and sold in the UK as "Tigerbread". It gets its name from the color and texture of the crust, which is striped with dark brown crunchy spots with light blond bread peeking out from underneath. The crust gets its flavor and texture from washing the top prior to baking with a mixture rice flour, butter, yeast, sugar, and salt. The final product is a mildly sweet, light, and fluffy white loaf with a somewhat crunchy, savory crust. ~ Bacon Press 

In addition, I find that Dutch Crunch Bread is a 'bay area' California thing and does not reach far out of this area...as in its prevalent in all our grocery stores and bakeries.  Supposedly the name originated from San Francisco when the bakeries there started making it.

My attempt to make it did produce a good tasting product, BUT I found two mistakes in my own rendition:

1. I made my dough too soft and I was not using a baguette pan, so my bread was a little 'flatter' in shape than I wanted. (but that's my own perfectionism kicking in)


2. After looking at several recipes I was led to believe I needed to coat the top of my dough with a much thicker coating than I thought was necessary for the 'Crunch' effect and taste.

I used my own Easy White Dough recipe and went HERE for the topping recipe.

*I researched Dutch Crunch Bread only to find most information about it was not referenced or researched extensively, so for that, I apologize in advance to my Dutchy friends if you find me in error!

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Basil Overload!

Here on my site and on Facebook, I posted my findings from my first 'Farm Fresh to You' home delivery organic food box.  Which was noted as having at least ten bunches of Basil in it!

Well of course even I couldn't use that much without getting sick of it!  So I cut the stems off and processed all the basil down with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and a few heads of garlic.  Then I scooped the mixture into a Ziploc bag and cut the corner off.  I piped the whole bag into two ice cube trays and put them in the freezer for future use!

I would have made pesto but I don't like what the freezer does to cheese (Parmesan) and nuts (pine nuts, or in my case I like to use roasted sunflower kernels, their cheaper too!) which are both ingredients of pesto.

Later when you want to cook something with a little garlic and basil 'zip' you just throw in a cube or two while cooking or sauteing.  They also use this ice cube trick with stock (chicken, beef, pork...) too, so if you are only cooking in small amounts you can throw a few frozen 'stock' cubes into the pan or food to meltdown and help the flavor.

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Make Ricotta Cheese: its easy!

Over at Stumptown Savoury, Gareth has an excellent blog that I enjoy.  He also has a post about making ricotta cheese at home, which is great because I can share it with you! (without having to write about it again myself)

I have tested doing it the way he says and it came out as good as his pictures show.  Here is the link  Home Creamery: Whole Milk Ricotta.  Come on people, it has four ingredients: Milk, Heavy Cream, Citric Acid, & Salt!

What can you make with Ricotta?  Lasagna, Manicotti, desserts...Gareth has already listed two more ideas on his site to go with his ricotta recipe. (just click Stumptown Savoury above)

Also, there is a link on his site for ordering citric acid which is one of the ingredients...But if you don't want to wait maybe this will do the trick for you:

I have had great success in finding Sour Salt (brand ROKEACH) in the Kosher section of Safeway food stores. Sour Salt IS citric acid, check the ingredients there is only one – citric acid.

About 5 1/2 ounces for $2.19 – plenty of cheese making citric acid.

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Pork Meatballs with Chorizo Seasoning

Anybody out there had Chorizo before?  Well for those of you who have and know what I am talking about, you can buy a packet of seasoning called Chorizo Seasoning/Spices.  Usually on the 'quick pick' rack of various seasonings not on the spice aisle in your grocery store, but on the international or ethnic aisle.  In the Hispanic/Spanish section - usually right next to the severely limited 'Asian' section - in one of those 99 cents bags.

So an idea came to me to use it with some ground pork for meatballs.  My wife is allergic to beef so I use different meats to create meatballs when we get the urge for a good meatball sandwich, with spaghetti, or some other kind of way.

Basically, for one pound of ground pork, I used 1 Tablespoon Chorizo Seasoning, 1 teaspoon smoked paprika, salt & pepper, a few bread crumbs, and fennel seed I had toasted then ground.

(next time I would add a minced shallot!)

I cooked my meatballs on top of the stove browning them nicely then finishing them in a 350-degree oven.  Sauteing some thick sliced 'baby Bella' mushrooms and adding in a quick marinara (combined in a processor) with fire-roasted tomatoes, a little tomato paste, garlic, and roasted red bell peppers...Later adding only oregano, salt, and pepper.  Then add the meatballs back into the sauce.

We had the meatballs and sauce over farfalle (bowtie) pasta.  I served basil and sundried tomato dip (basil also courtesy of the box) made with cream cheese with the fresh carrots and broccoli from the 'Farm Fresh to You' box.

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Farm Fresh To You

I recently found out about a service available to me here locally (Northern California - San Jose area) thanks to Brandi who enjoys good food as much as I do and of course us 'foodies' usually look out for each other.

Farm Fresh To You.  Here is a snippet from their site: 

Welcome To Farm Fresh To You

As people are becoming increasingly interested about where their food comes from and how it was grown, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is becoming a popular alternative for getting high quality food from a trusted local farm. Currently over 800 families are participating in our family farm's CSA, Farm Fresh To You. By joining our CSA these families are connecting directly to our farm and receiving regular deliveries of nutrient rich, mouth watering, organic produce delivered directly to their home or office. See how it works or why join Farm Fresh To You.

Some of the things I like about it is:

• I can cancel anytime


• Home delivery - choice of weekly, bi-weekly, monthly


• Customized your delivery


• Satisfaction guaranteed

Customer service seems to be 'on the ball' too...last night I emailed a request to have something added to my 'box' and received a reply first thing this morning!

We'll see how it goes and maybe take some pictures from 'the box'.  Produce changes as to what's available changes.  There are many choices for different types of boxes.

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Our goal is a weekly video post (or more) on simple "cookin" preparations for a variety of foods. We would love to hear from you! Email us at showtime@tyronebcookin.com

Ice Cream That Doesn't Melt?

Ice Cream That Doesn't Melt? - Restaurant News - QSR Magazine.

And it has Jello-O pudding flavors?

Cold Stone Creamery's Tastemaster, Ray Karam, has created a new form of ice cream, JELL-O® pudding ice cream.

What I don't like about this claim is supposedly when or if the ice cream melts at room temperature it turns into pudding.  To me, this seems like a gimmick.  When ice creams are made they are usually with dairy cream and/or  'custard type' base.  So why would it be a stretch to use pudding?  Pudding would be considered a 'fast food' cousin to the custard would it not?

So let's say I made some pudding, then used the pudding in my 'ice cream maker' to make ice cream...when my ice cream melts it will still be pudding right?

I'm not knocking the ice cream if it tastes good, but it's not exactly a new form of ice cream, is it?  The story says it was developed through "rigorous testing & tasting".  You be the judge.

Jalapeno Cheddar Bread

For this recipe, it would help to start by reading this post - Easy White Dough.

Then follow the pictorial by clicking on the first picture below, captions/directions will then show underneath!

Wine Pairing: a widget to help!

Have you bought a good wine and want to match food with it? Bought or made some good food and want to match a good wine with it within your budget range? Natalie MacLean has a Drinks Matcher on her website that you can also use as a widget on your website! I was going to put her widget on my site to help other people out who may visit but I think its much better to visit her site and use the Drinks Matcher there: Nat Decants

Why? Great information. Good recipes. Straight talk about choosing and drinking wines. Demystifying and bringing wine drinking down to our level (the non-snobbish foodies who think wine people are being pretentious). Books, articles, podcasts, free newsletters…

Who is Natalie MacLean? Watch her video and read the rest of her bio here:

To fund her late-night vinous habits, Natalie MacLean holds down day jobs as a wine writer, speaker and judge. An accredited sommelier, she is a member of the National Capital Sommelier Guild, the Wine Writers Circle and several French wine societies with complicated and impressive names. Funny, brainy and unapologetically tipsy, her goal in life is to intimidate those crusty wine stewards at fine restaurants with her staggering knowledge.

Help with your Doughs and Batters

Do you know who Michael Ruhlman is? He writes about many subjects in magazines and newspapers, but mostly in books and mostly about food, chefs, and cooking—issues also covered in his blog. His most recent book,

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking

as the title states – gives you many simple codes behind cooking. If you have no intentions of reading the book, or just want a sample of what knowing ratios can do, Michael has posted a PDF of the Doughs & Batters ratios that you can print and hang in your kitchen or put in your ‘cookbook’ to try your hand at…a word to the wise, the ratios are based on weight, so you need to have and know how to use a kitchen scale for this to be useful to you. But I promise you will become a better person by cooking/baking with a scale for precision.

Just click this link to his blog and look on the left hand side for the above picture and you can download his PDF for FREE! Black & White photos on the PDF are by his wife Donna, excellent!

[I don't link directly to the PDF because I think its fair that if he offers something for free, you can at least visit his site to get it...and of course permission, laws, and things of that nature tend to slow things down]

TX Smokehouse BBQ...in San Jose, CA?

I have tasted some BBQ here & there, of this and that...and it really just seems people want to cook meat any old kind of way and put some BBQ sauce on it, then call it BBQ.

At the Texas Smokehouse BBQ, it tasted like a real BBQ, which means the meat is cooked a certain way (at least to me, and I am from the South) and it's got to have an element of smoke or outdoor grill to it!

Here there is no valet parking, servers/waiters, reserved seating, or pretentiousness.

Nope, 2 parking spaces, 3 tables, and a fan outside to keep the 'smoke' from filling up the main restaurant area through the screen door.  Just the type 'Hole-n-Wall' place I love to check out.

Being in California this Texas BBQ place reminds me of back home...in Alabama.  So until I make it back home to visit in 'Sweet Home Alabama' I'll be stopping by to order, or call ahead to pick up my BBQ from here & any of the 'Down Home' style sides (that is, unless I am having/cooking my own BBQ).

You order you pay at the register, they are polite, and you WAIT if someone calls in order...they can only do so many things at once.  AND YES you are going to smell like smoke/a smoker if you are there for a while eating or waiting for your food.

Here is all the information and a copy of the menu: Texas Smokehouse BBQ

Comment and/or write about your favorite BBQ place, or let me know of another good one in the San Jose area.  I'll go check it out!

Thanks to Rudy R. for the photo!

Moroccan Style Sweet Potato Salad

Marius commented me on Facebook because I usually update about the food I am going to cook or am going to eat…

“Tyrone, I would be very interested in the Moroccan sweet potato recipe…”

or in this case the wonderful food my wifey made!

Ingredients

• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes


• 1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (or more if you like)


• 1 teaspoon cinnamon


• 2 teaspoons harissa or chili garlic sauce (you may improvise w/cayenne)


• 1 lemon, juiced


• 2 teaspoons honey


• salt


• 2 tablespoons coriander


• 1/2 to 1 cup sliced black Kalamata olives (you can use just the plain black, but where’s the fun & taste in that?)


• 1/4 cup capers (to taste)

Directions

1. Boil the sweet potatoes in just enough water to cover.


2. Stir in the ginger, cinnamon, harissa, lemon, honey, and salt and boil for about 10 minutes, or until the potatoes are cooked but not falling apart.


3. The sauce should be thick, almost syrup-like.


4. If it isn’t, lift out the potatoes and boil the sauce until it is thicker. (sometimes this takes a long time)


5. When the sauce is done, mix in the coriander, olives, and capers (and sweet potatoes if you had to separate them to thicken the sauce).


6. Cool and serve.

Tips/Opts:

• heat up/pan roast your coriander first to create a more in-depth flavor, if its whole coriander grind in a coffee grinder, spice mill, or beat it in a Ziploc bag with a small skillet!  If its ground coriander keep tossing it about till it smells like its cooking, looks like its smoking, & starts to get darker


• If you just want to concentrate on making the sauce without worrying about how mushy the potatoes are going to cook or fall apart, then bake the sweet potatoes whole a day or two before *(350 degrees for about 40 to 60 minutes, depends how big you bought them, poke them with a knife to check…pull them out as soon as they are real close), let them chill and get hard in the refrigerator then peel and cube and pour hot sauce over it and toss gently…this will help cool the dish down to room temp quicker too!

How about a  ‘regular’ potato salad made with sweet potatoes?  Anyone have some good recipes for that?  Keep the mail & comments coming…

Smartpower Duet...not a good Idea!

Since I am just like many of you and feel the tight crunch of getting the most out of every penny I went to Costco to get some items for the kitchen.  While I was there I found this combi blender mini-processor unit by Cuisinart and I thought, "I'll buy this to get by for a while plus it makes sense since I have such a small kitchen right now...".

Nope, never got around to trying out the mini processor because I could never get the blender to even make a frozen coffee drink.  The glass pitcher is too wide with little to NO taper, and once it does QUICKLY narrow into a smaller bowl the blades seem to sit halfway in this small 'bowl' area that the oversize plastic piece screws on to the bottom.  The blades just kicked the ice around like it was a never-ending game of dice.  If you ask me, terrible design.

Do you have one of these, does it work well for you?  It seemed like a good idea and price at the time...I took it back and just used the money to buy my favorite blender, the food processor will have to wait!  (I gave away everything I had in 2007-again!- before I went back to West Africa to work in 2008)

Restocking the 'choice' appliances has not been cheap.  But I expected as much and have the patience to wait for a 'sale' or two.