I hate buying vanilla extract. You get a teeny tiny bottle, it tastes so-so, and it costs way too much. That’s my stump speech for when I run for president. Needs work, right? Anyways, what to do about this dilemma? I mean if you do any amount of baking, you’ve come to appreciate how essential a bit of vanilla extract is–it seems to be in just about everything. Well here’s one small improvement to your grocery budget: make your own vanilla extract!
Of course, if you’ve ever bought vanilla beans from your grocery store, you might be questioning how on earth this could possibly save you any money (e.g. I often find ~2 shrivelly looking vanilla beans in a jar for about $10…yeah, wtf?!). This seems in line with vanilla being one of the top three most expensive spices in the world. A while back though, I had ordered a much larger quantity of vanilla beans for a whole lot less money
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Posted by mike on January 28th, 2009 in Dessert, Spices, dry rubs, and breadings
I absolutely love chili. Honestly though, who doesn’t? A meaty meal with lively south-western/Mexican inspired flavors are sure to please anyone. Winter brings out the chili cravings in me, but I’ve already shown you a fiery chili once before, so I thought I’d try to mix things up a bit and bring you a new twist on this favorite meal of mine. Rather than the usual approach to chili where the focus is on a variety of dried peppers, I opted to work with a large variety of fresh peppers (so be calm Texans, I know this isn’t an authentic chili!), and to make things a bit more interesting, I also chose to steer this to have decidedly Mexican flavors by working in the major components for a strong set of molé flavors. And so Chili Molé was born.
Now like I’ve said, I love chili, but this one gets a big wow! It beautifully met the goal of bleding the characteristics of
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Posted by mike on December 18th, 2008 in Beef, Main course, Mexican, Pork, Sauce, Soup & Stew, Spices, dry rubs, and breadings
My ongoing quest to more regularly eat fish continues, but like with anything, some times, you just have a craving for simple, strongly flavored dish, so this dinner was such a quickie. I was in the mood for something garlicky, so I decided to make a cream sauce that focuses on roasted garlic and poured it over breaded, pan-fried grouper.
Like chicken parmesan, this is simple and delicious. The fish has a nice, crisp, tasty crust with a tender, flaky inside. The sauce, despite its modest appearance, has a creamy, round, full flavor that just explodes with that delicious, nutty, roasted garlic flavor. Unfortunately, your breath won’t help you make any friends in the short-term, but everyone should go on a garlic bender once in a while, right?
- 1.25 lb red grouper
- Sauce
- olive oil
- 1 head of garlic
- 1 small shallot
- 3/4 cup white wine
- 1 cup heavy cream
- salt
- pepper
- knob of butter
- 1 cup bread crumbs (I used stale baguette)
- 1-2 Tbsp onion powder
- 2 tsp granulated garlic
- ground chipotle
- ground cayenne
- salt
- pepper
- 2 eggs
Begin
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Posted by mike on September 7th, 2008 in Main course, Sauce, Seafood, Spices, dry rubs, and breadings
Even if you’re iffy about eating fish, I imagine just about everyone is up for a fish fry. I mean what more is there to say about this? Don’t we all have a soft spot in our hearts for deep fried food? (Yes!) For this version, I made a Creole-spiced beer batter that was really strong, spiced, and flavorful, making for a very enjoyable indulgence in what is really simple, summery, Southern-styled comfort food.
I really enjoyed this–the fish was tender, moist, meaty, and fresh while the batter was zesty, spicy, crunchy, and just…well, really damn good! I used a good bit of coarse cornmeal so that the end result would have a really solid grit and crunch about it while the spices have a distinctly Creole flare about them. Underneath all of this is another major player in the beer batter: the beer! I chose to go with an IPA (India Pale Ale) as I love the hoppy, strong character
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Posted by mike on August 2nd, 2008 in Main course, Seafood, Spices, dry rubs, and breadings
We’re in the dead of summer and with July 4th right around the corner, barbecue should be on many a mind. Countless different images might come to mind when you hear “barbecue”–burgers, wings, pulled pork, etc–but if you had to pick any single one dish to represent this delicious style of cooking, what would it be? For me, it would have to be a smoked rack of ribs.
I used to be of the saucy ribs camp, but given everything I’ve heard about dry rubbed ribs, I thought it was time to give this a fair shot. I could never fathom it before–I mean after all, its just meat! Wouldn’t it be dry (”dry rub”–sounds dry!)? Wouldn’t it be bland? And so on. Ribs simply needed sauce.
Well now that I’ve finally tried dry rub, this is definitely the way to go. I love a good sauce, but keep it off of my ribs! You start with a light coating of mustard
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Posted by mike on June 30th, 2008 in Barbeque, Main course, Pork, Spices, dry rubs, and breadings
While I’ve professed the wonders of brining turkey to ensure a moist bird, I’d never brined chicken before. However, after seeing what Jeff did with some chicken thighs, it seemed like it was time to give this a try. So I brined, smoked, and glazed some chicken thighs with a tangy pineapple barbecue sauce.
This was absolutely delicious and very well suited to July 4th weekend (or any summer weekend) kind of grilling/barbecuing occasion. The effort is pretty minimal and the results are very flavorful. If you were to taste the sauce alone without the chicken, it will taste a little unbalanced as far as a barbecue sauce goes (in my opinion–it leans most heavily towards sweet and spicy), but when combined with the chicken as a glaze after being flavored with the brine and smoked with the spice rub, you get that full four-way flavor experience that is good barbecue (sweet, savory, spicy, smokey).
The chicken was crusty, sticky, smoky, tangy,
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Posted by mike on June 27th, 2008 in Asian, Barbeque, Chicken, Main course, Sauce, Spices, dry rubs, and breadings
