I don't recall where I first heard about the idea of eating pronounceable ingredients but it's an idea that makes sense to me. A number of colleagues around me in the office are experimenting with the Paleolithic Diet theory and while I don't agree with it as a complete diet, I very much agree with removing chemicals and maximizing micronutrients in the food I make and serve to my family. I'm not saying that additives like Sodium Benzoate, Sodium Nitrate or Butylated Hydroxyanisole are health hazards; I'm not an expert.
However I do know that our bodies were able to grow and evolve for hundreds of thousands of years without needing those chemicals to do so. The fact is that we did consume animal protein and fats, wild fruits and berries. As a species we thrived just fine without monosodium glutamate. If I can cook decent (and tasty) meals without these ingredients, then why not? I understand their place in our diets and I appreciate the convenience they can provide us. As a culture we have busy lifestyles and food stabilizers make grocery store shelves cost effective. But at the same time, thanks to Nova Scotia Power, I have a freezer that is almost always on and I can take advantage of that infrastructure to prepare meals in advance. Meals that are high in nutrients and hopefully low in chemicals I have to think about to pronounce. Not every meal is completely organic and unprocessed, but as my skills increase I am trying to iterate closer and closer to that goal.
And besides, having a full freezer saves us money in power and on the grocery bills. How cool is that?
!Foodie
Monday, October 22, 2012
Saturday, October 20, 2012
Spicy Sloppy Joes
Sloppy Joes. A loose meat sandwich that is a great freezable, hearty, budget friendly meal that we enjoy here on occasion. The family grew up with Manwich based sloppy joes and I'll make that sometimes, but personally I prefer the more complex flavours of my version (which is a variation on how my mother made it for us growing up). Yesterday I made a batch using 4lbs of ground beef, the following is how I made this weeks version.
I start by browning the beef in batches with a little Olive Oil and then sweat a finely chopped large onion (about 2 cups) and 3 minced Jalapeños in the same pan and add the browned beef back in. I season to taste (hold back on the salt) and then add cans of Campbell's Chicken Gumbo soup (which adds some salt). 1 can per pound of ground beef. Turn up the heat and start bringing this mix to a simmer. From here you can add hot sauces (I added a table spoon of Sriracha sauce), a table spoon of mustard and a lot of ketchup. Start with a cup of ketchup and add more until it tastes the way you want. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Adjust the seasoning and serve on Kaiser rolls (or hamburger rolls, or just plain bread).
I start by browning the beef in batches with a little Olive Oil and then sweat a finely chopped large onion (about 2 cups) and 3 minced Jalapeños in the same pan and add the browned beef back in. I season to taste (hold back on the salt) and then add cans of Campbell's Chicken Gumbo soup (which adds some salt). 1 can per pound of ground beef. Turn up the heat and start bringing this mix to a simmer. From here you can add hot sauces (I added a table spoon of Sriracha sauce), a table spoon of mustard and a lot of ketchup. Start with a cup of ketchup and add more until it tastes the way you want. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Adjust the seasoning and serve on Kaiser rolls (or hamburger rolls, or just plain bread).
- 4 lbs ground beef
- large onion, finely chopped
- 3 Jalapeños, minced
- 4 cans Campbell's Chicken Gumbo soup
- 1 tbsp prepared yellow mustard
- 1 - 2 cups of ketchup
Friday, October 19, 2012
Homemade Chicken Stock
The other night I came across a post from a local Foodie Blogger whom I've started reading. She posted a video on making your own chicken stock (or broth) that was well made. For the last year or so I too have been making my own chicken stock that I freeze and pull out for dishes like risotto, chicken noodle soup, etc. I thought I would share my chicken stock process as I do things a little different than Suzie.
The biggest difference is that she used a whole chicken in her stock where my stock is waste protein only. When I have lots of chicken stock on hand, I will collect all the bones, skin and cartilage of chicken I break down for use or roasts we make. I toss them in a bag or wrap them in tinfoil and freeze them, I'm not worried about freezer-burn. I also keep a couple pounds of cleaned chicken feet from Shani's Farm in the freezer that I use. When I use onion, garlic or celery I scrub the skins before preparing and keep all the scraps and peelings in ice cream containers in the freezer as well. Any other veg scraps may work too, I'm not sure. The really important thing is to make sure it's clean, any grit brought in from the vegs may end up suspended in your stock.
When making stock, I try to start first thing in the morning. I'll start by broiling all the loose bones, carcasses and chicken feet until very brown on baking sheets or in a shallow roasting pan. Avoid burning but flavour seems to come from the roasting so I get them as dark as I can. As the pans of bones brown I put them in a pot, including the fat and lightly scrape the crusty bits as well. I usually have several "trays" of bones and carcass to roast before the stock making starts. I don't worry about adding fat or whatever to the pot before hand as I'll strain and skim everything out at the end.
All the frozen produce scraps go in the pot. Depending on how many onion skins and garlic scraps are available, I may add more (scrubbed) whole onions or garlic cloves. I'll toss in some bay leaves (not just one, I use a large stock pot) and whole peppercorns. That's about it. Fill it with water to just cover everything and bring it up to a simmer. Throughout the day I'll try to skim the "foam" off the top and give the whole mix a good stir.
A couple hours before the end of the day it's time to start wrapping it up. I remove it from the heat and start pulling bones, soggy chicken and produce out of the pot and into my salad spinner ("waste not, want not"). A quick spin gets a little more liquid out of it and I discard the waste. Some people may try to pull the edible chicken out here, I don't bother. Because I only use carcass and feet, any edible chicken is almost shredded and I don't have the patience to separate it.
The liquid goes through a fine sieve to remove as much solid particles as I can and then into empty ice cream containers. The liquid is usually steaming hot at this point so the containers get a lid and go outside on the deck to cool before being refrigerated overnight. Do not freeze it as it is, there is a very important step left to do tomorrow.
First thing next morning we need to remove the fat. As the liquid cooled overnight in the fridge, most of the fat in the containers floated to the top and you should see a white-ish greasy layer on top. I skim this layer off as best I can down to the pure stock beneath. You'll see the colour and texture change at the layer where the fat ends and the stock begins. I discard the fat but I suppose that could be used for something too if you wanted.
From here I start dividing the stock into its permanent homes, container size depending on how much I want to freeze together. You use anything from ice cream containers to ice cube trays. I often have to reheat it a little at this point because the consistency can be like a thick Jello thanks to the chicken feet.
It's a big job, but that's how I make my stock. Quality stock is expensive (not the boxed liquid, that's garbage), but mine uses literally the waste from other meals and from that I get about 6 litres of good stock.
!Foodie
The biggest difference is that she used a whole chicken in her stock where my stock is waste protein only. When I have lots of chicken stock on hand, I will collect all the bones, skin and cartilage of chicken I break down for use or roasts we make. I toss them in a bag or wrap them in tinfoil and freeze them, I'm not worried about freezer-burn. I also keep a couple pounds of cleaned chicken feet from Shani's Farm in the freezer that I use. When I use onion, garlic or celery I scrub the skins before preparing and keep all the scraps and peelings in ice cream containers in the freezer as well. Any other veg scraps may work too, I'm not sure. The really important thing is to make sure it's clean, any grit brought in from the vegs may end up suspended in your stock.
When making stock, I try to start first thing in the morning. I'll start by broiling all the loose bones, carcasses and chicken feet until very brown on baking sheets or in a shallow roasting pan. Avoid burning but flavour seems to come from the roasting so I get them as dark as I can. As the pans of bones brown I put them in a pot, including the fat and lightly scrape the crusty bits as well. I usually have several "trays" of bones and carcass to roast before the stock making starts. I don't worry about adding fat or whatever to the pot before hand as I'll strain and skim everything out at the end.
All the frozen produce scraps go in the pot. Depending on how many onion skins and garlic scraps are available, I may add more (scrubbed) whole onions or garlic cloves. I'll toss in some bay leaves (not just one, I use a large stock pot) and whole peppercorns. That's about it. Fill it with water to just cover everything and bring it up to a simmer. Throughout the day I'll try to skim the "foam" off the top and give the whole mix a good stir.
A couple hours before the end of the day it's time to start wrapping it up. I remove it from the heat and start pulling bones, soggy chicken and produce out of the pot and into my salad spinner ("waste not, want not"). A quick spin gets a little more liquid out of it and I discard the waste. Some people may try to pull the edible chicken out here, I don't bother. Because I only use carcass and feet, any edible chicken is almost shredded and I don't have the patience to separate it.
The liquid goes through a fine sieve to remove as much solid particles as I can and then into empty ice cream containers. The liquid is usually steaming hot at this point so the containers get a lid and go outside on the deck to cool before being refrigerated overnight. Do not freeze it as it is, there is a very important step left to do tomorrow.
First thing next morning we need to remove the fat. As the liquid cooled overnight in the fridge, most of the fat in the containers floated to the top and you should see a white-ish greasy layer on top. I skim this layer off as best I can down to the pure stock beneath. You'll see the colour and texture change at the layer where the fat ends and the stock begins. I discard the fat but I suppose that could be used for something too if you wanted.
From here I start dividing the stock into its permanent homes, container size depending on how much I want to freeze together. You use anything from ice cream containers to ice cube trays. I often have to reheat it a little at this point because the consistency can be like a thick Jello thanks to the chicken feet.
It's a big job, but that's how I make my stock. Quality stock is expensive (not the boxed liquid, that's garbage), but mine uses literally the waste from other meals and from that I get about 6 litres of good stock.
!Foodie
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
Review: Mexico Lindo
Mexico Lindo serves home-style Mexican cuisine. The first thing I always notice is the wonderful smell of spices permeating the air inside, a sign of the delicious Mexican meal to come. A bowl of homemade salsa and corn tortilla chips are brought to our table shortly after we're seated.
The decor is humble, with local awards for food and business displayed proudly on the wall. I can only describe the ambiance as honest; a small, local, successful business doing what they love in Fairview. My wife and I both love this restaurant for what it is. We're not experts in traditional Mexican food, we have not traveled around Mexico, we're not qualified to comment on what components of this dish or that are traditional or not.
With that being said, this is not Taco Bell or another Tex-Mex restaurant chain food. Once seated our first question is, as always, if there is any Aqua Fresca made. There is, today it is made with cantaloupe, our favorite. We order a pitcher before they run out of it and proceed to review the menu. My wife decides on the chicken chimichanga and I get the beef burrito meal. We start in on the tortilla chips and salsa. The chips themselves are nothing special, just round corn-based transportation for the salsa really. There are usually 4 different salsas available if you ask about them, Mild, Medium, Hot and Extra Hot. The hotter you can handle, the tastier it gets but because their target audience is Haligonians, I can't imagine they put out too much Hot and Extra Hot during the run of a service.
Our meal comes out, the food hot to the touch. The shell of the tortilla on the chimichanga is crispy, inside the shredded chicken, onions and green peppers are steaming. The diced onions, tomato and sour cream on top are still cool but warming very quickly from the rising heat of the deep-fried chimichanga. My wife comments the the green peppers seem fresh and flavourful and that the chicken is moist. No complaints there. I cut open my burrito.
One of the best things about Mexico Lindos is that they don't use ground hamburger. All the beef versions of dishes I've tried so far use pulled beef and my burrito today is no exception. The plate comes with Mexican rice and refried beans, the burrito is a large flour tortilla folded up and stuffed with seasoned beef and some more refried beans and topped with salsa and crisp iceberg lettuce. Like the chimichanga, the burrito normally has a generous dollop of sour cream but I request it without. I have to cut it open and let it sit for a moment, too hot to eat immediately. I try the rice and beans while I wait. The rice is moist but not mushy and the beans have the consistency of a nice oatmeal. They work really well together on a fork.
All in all, another delicious meal from Ana in the kitchen for a reasonable price. No surprise there as this is our favourite restaurant for a reason. We will be back soon, hopefully for lunch to take advantage of their lunch specials.
The decor is humble, with local awards for food and business displayed proudly on the wall. I can only describe the ambiance as honest; a small, local, successful business doing what they love in Fairview. My wife and I both love this restaurant for what it is. We're not experts in traditional Mexican food, we have not traveled around Mexico, we're not qualified to comment on what components of this dish or that are traditional or not.
With that being said, this is not Taco Bell or another Tex-Mex restaurant chain food. Once seated our first question is, as always, if there is any Aqua Fresca made. There is, today it is made with cantaloupe, our favorite. We order a pitcher before they run out of it and proceed to review the menu. My wife decides on the chicken chimichanga and I get the beef burrito meal. We start in on the tortilla chips and salsa. The chips themselves are nothing special, just round corn-based transportation for the salsa really. There are usually 4 different salsas available if you ask about them, Mild, Medium, Hot and Extra Hot. The hotter you can handle, the tastier it gets but because their target audience is Haligonians, I can't imagine they put out too much Hot and Extra Hot during the run of a service.
 |
| Chimichanga with Rice and Beans |
 |
| Beef Burrito |
One of the best things about Mexico Lindos is that they don't use ground hamburger. All the beef versions of dishes I've tried so far use pulled beef and my burrito today is no exception. The plate comes with Mexican rice and refried beans, the burrito is a large flour tortilla folded up and stuffed with seasoned beef and some more refried beans and topped with salsa and crisp iceberg lettuce. Like the chimichanga, the burrito normally has a generous dollop of sour cream but I request it without. I have to cut it open and let it sit for a moment, too hot to eat immediately. I try the rice and beans while I wait. The rice is moist but not mushy and the beans have the consistency of a nice oatmeal. They work really well together on a fork.
All in all, another delicious meal from Ana in the kitchen for a reasonable price. No surprise there as this is our favourite restaurant for a reason. We will be back soon, hopefully for lunch to take advantage of their lunch specials.
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