Cooking with Spices

Spices for taste

Spices are what make food better tasting and the mixtures and results are the science portion of culinary art. There are so many flavors, sweet and salty, the mixtures and concoctions of blends are endless.

Wikipedia has a nice description of spices:

A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, leaf, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for the purpose of flavour, colour, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth.^[1]

Many of these substances are also used for other purposes, such as medicine, religious rituals, cosmetics, perfumery or eating as vegetables. For example, turmeric is also used as a preservative; liquorice as a medicine; garlic as a vegetable. In some cases they are referred to by different terms.

In the kitchen, spices are distinguished from herbs, which are leafy, green plant parts used for flavouring purposes. Herbs, such as basil or oregano, may be used fresh, and are commonly chopped into smaller pieces. Spices, however, are dried and often ground or grated into a powder. Small seeds, such as fennel and mustard seeds, are used both whole and in powder form.

Tonite on Today's Menu was Sri Lankan Beef Curry. The blends of the spices coriander, cumin, fennel, tumeric, black pepper and salt made for a savory beef with a nice texture and heat added with the coconut milk and minced jalapeno's.

Recipe from myrecipes.com

Yield

8 servings (serving size: about 2/3 cup beef mixture and 3/4 cup rice)

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground fennel
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 4 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 1/2 pounds boneless sirloin steak, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2-inch cubes
• Cooking spray
• 3 cups chopped onion (about 2 medium)
• 2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 red jalapeño peppers, minced
• 3 cups light coconut milk
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 2 (1 x 3-inch) lemon rind strips
• 6 cups hot cooked basmati rice

Preparation

Cook coriander, cumin, fennel, and turmeric in a small saucepan over medium-low heat 7 minutes or until toasted, stirring occasionally.

Combine toasted spices, black pepper, salt, and beef in a large bowl. Cover and marinate in refrigerator 1 hour.

Heat a large saucepan over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add onion, ginger, garlic, and jalapeños; sauté 3 minutes or until onions are tender. Remove onion mixture from pan. Recoat the pan with cooking spray. Add half of beef; cook 6 minutes, browning on all sides. Remove beef from pan. Repeat procedure with remaining beef. Return onion mixture and beef to pan; stir in milk, vinegar, and rind, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 2 hours or until beef is very tender. Discard rind. Serve over rice.

Enjoy!

Comfort Food

Comfort food comes in many forms

This night it was Meat Loaf, Mashed Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli

Always good for the family

Soup's On

Fall Weather, Time for Soup

On Today's Menu (last night) we made homemade Oriental Hot and Sour Soup that was cooked in the Crock Pot all day for 8 hours. It's simple to make and very delicious.

4 cups Chicken Broth
1 8oz can Bamboo Shoots (drained)
1 8oz can sliced Water Chestnuts (drained)
1 6oz can sliced Mushrooms (drained)
3 Tbsps quick-cooking Tapioca
3 Tbsps rice wine vinegar or vinegar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tsp sugar
1/2 Tsp pepper
1 8oz package frozen peeled and deveined shrimp
4oz tofu cubed
1 beaten egg

In a 4 quart Crock Pot combine broth, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, mushrooms, tapioca, vinegar, soy sauce, sugar and pepper. Cover, cook on low heat setting for 8-9 hours or set on high heat setting for 3-4 hours. Add shrimp and tofu cook for 50 minutes more. Pour egg slowly into cooker, stir til egg cooks and shreds. Makes 8 appetizer servings.


To go with the soup I also made Chicken and Lemon Pot Stickers with Soy-Scallion Dipping Sauce. Here's the description of the ingredients: Ground chicken, bok choy, and Asian aromatics nestle in pleated wonton wrappers.

Make the filling and sauce a day ahead, but assemble the pot stickers just before cooking. They're just as good at room temperature as they are when warm. Sprinkle the baking sheet with cornstarch to keep the bottoms of the pot stickers crisp.

The pot sticker recipe can be found HERE

Ingredients

Ingredients

Meats, herbs, spices, sauces, broths, oils and more are what make up the every day meals we eat.

The above ingredients were for a recipe for Oven-Roasted Sea Bass with Couscous and Warm Tomato Vinaigrette. (missing from the photo is the bass)

It's amazing how many things go into a food creations

Purple Place Burger

The Purple Place

Went to the Purple Place last week to try their burger that has won a few "best of" contests.

I'd been here years ago, but since then its changed ownership and the entire place upgraded. There's a really nice menu now that consists not only of bar food basics such as hot wings and nacho's but they also serve seared sea scallops, pot stickers and more. For their entree's they range from scallop risotto (which I can't wait to try!), prawns, new york steak, ribs, tacos and a line up of burgers, sandwiches & panini's.


I tried the cheeseburger with cheddar with the works along with garlic fries. It all was very tasty and I look forward to going back to The Purple Place to try some of the other items on the menu.

Located at 363 Green Valley Road, El Dorado Hills
http://www.purpleplacebarandgrill.com

Party-Que

BBQ'ing for a Party

I was asked to serve as chef at a friend's 60th birthday party on Saturday, so being the wanna-be-chef that I am, I said heck yes! It was a party for about 50-70 people, the hostess I think planned for more because she prep'd a lot of stuff - I cooked enough food for an army (we could have easily served 100).

I cooked up a dozen kielbasa and a variety of other sausages on one grill that I had going (see photo above), and on the main grill I cooked over 100 skewers that had; chicken, pineapple, zucchini and mushrooms that I basted with Mr. Yoshida's teriyaki marinade (which is very good). Ideally the chicken should have been marinated the night before and some seasoning's added but I didn't know what I was cooking until I got there, otherwise I would have brought some good seasonings to add.

That was the first time I've cooked for that many people and I found it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to cook in quantity, the most important part was just making sure everything was done properly (especially the chicken), but not over done (can't stand burnt, hard, over cooked meats or soggy vegetables).

We also put together a bunch of side dishes, desert and more, there was food of all kinds and lots of it.

I must have done something right because everyone kept thanking me for the good food and at the end of the night the hostess informed me that 75 out of 100 skewers had been consumed, that was pretty good considering all the other kinds of food that was also available.

That was the best kind of payment I could have ever wanted.

Happy 60th Birthday Chris!

Urban Dog and Sausage

Urban Dog & Sausage

Located at 424 E. Bidwell in Folsom, this restaurant specializes in hot dogs, sausages, burgers and beef.

This place has got a festive industrial meets neighborhood ambiance with plenty of tables and a very friendly staff. You select your dog off the chalk board, place your order at the counter and select your table and wait for one of the most tasty hot dogs you've ever had. Beer and wine is also available, including one of my favorites on tap: Shocktop

Below are a few selections from the menu, many of these are very creative concoctions. All dogs are the best brand on the planet - Vienna Beef.

The Chicago Dog $3.39
Frankfurter, yellow mustard, onions, neon relish, tomatoes, pickle, sport pepper, poppyseed bun, and celery salt

The Coney Dog $3.69
Frankfurter, meat sauce, yellow mustard, onions, poppyseed bun

Da Capone $3.79
Frankfurter, pastrami, yellow mustard, pickle, poppyseed bun

Barbie Dog $3.49
Frankfurter, barbeque sauce, smoked bacon, fried onion strands

Folsom Bulldog $3.39
Frankfurter, mustard, grilled onions, tomato, jalapeno-lime aioli, cilantro

Royale with Cheese $4.09
Juicy stuffed double stuffed burger, grilled onions, lettuce, tomato, yellow mustard

Maxwell Street Spicy Polish $4.19
Hickory smoked beef sausage, yellow mustard, grilled onions, sport Peppers, poppyseed bun

The Govna $4.19
Beer bratwurst, Dussledorf brown mustard, grilled onions or sauerkraut, Steamed roll

The Balboa $4.19
Mild Italian pork sausage, marinara, fresh mozzarella, steamed roll

424 E. Bidwell St. Folsom
(916) 984-1003
http://www.urbandogandsausage.com/

Chicago Donuts

Chicago Food
Part 3

I haven't been to a donut shop in years, seriously, but while in Chicago, I took the kids out one morning for a stop at the local Dunkin' Donuts.

We ordered some coffees and a few donuts and we all enjoyed the sweet sugar bomb treats for breakfast. Gotta love a fresh made glazed donut

Breakfast of Champions

Chicago Pizza

Chicago Food
Part 2

The very first thing my son asked for after being in boot camp for two months, was Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.

I did some research on Chicago pizza a few weeks before going there, and this placed named Gino's kept coming up (coincidentally, it was also recommended by a couple of friends). So for dinner we had to check it out and drove to nearby Libertyville and went to Gino's East.

The restaurant was nice, it had a good neighborhood/friendly ambiance, and it was packed. We were seated in a booth and after reading the menu, we ordered; Fettuccine Alfredo, House Salad and a Deep Dish Pizza with pepperoni, olive, mushrooms and sausage (the kid's favorite toppings).

The salad was really good and huge and full of fresh green lettuce, tomatoes, onions, olives and more , it was the kind of salad you sincerely enjoy. It also came with a really good house Italian dressing. Cassie liked her fettuccine and ate as much as she could until she was full.. and still had a lot left over, their servings were very good.

The pizza was your typical deep dish style, it had a decent crust and the toppings were good, but I have to admit, the version we have available locally here in Folsom at Chicago Fire Pizza... actually tastes better then the "original" we tried out there. Coincidentally that's the last restaurant my son went to before shipping off to boot camp, the tale of two pizza's has come full circle now.

Chicago Italian Beef and Dogs

Chicago Food

Earlier this month, we flew to Chicago for our son's graduation from Navy boot camp. It was a very nice ceremony and he got some time off so we headed into Chicago to check it out. There were a lot of great sites to see and we got my Uncle JD, who lives there, to show us around. We went to Millennium Park, The John Hancock Tower, Lake Shore Drive, The Aquarium and more.


But my favorite part was going to one of my uncle's favorite old lunch joints in the Italian district in Chicago where he took us to a place called Al's #1 Italian Beef.


The place was small, no tables, no seats, just walk in the door to the counter to order your food and take it home or eat at a shelf by the windows where there was room to set your food down and eat while standing.

The kitchen was right behind the counter and included a charcoal pit for roasting sausages. The menu was small and simple and to the point, everything on it looked good (see photo above). It was very interesting to see and read the walls covered with memorabilia all the way from Jimmy Durante, to Anthony Bourdain and there were lots of signed dollar bills pinned to the walls. There was a lot of interesting old history in this place.

We had the Vienna Hot Dogs done up Chicago style with the works, an Italian beef sandwich and I had to try the packaged tamales...gastronomical nightmares but oh so good going down.

Manderes

Manderes

One of my favorite beer joints / restaurants in Folsom is a small pub and grill at 402 E. Bidwell called Manderes. They have a motto that says "No Crap on Tap" and they mean it. This place is just like Cheers. Brent (pictured above) and Dave, the owners, along with Avalon, Lindsay, Tim and the rest are super friendly and always make you feel welcomed in their "home"

Manderes only serves the best of the best beers and wines, and their food is very good.

Some of their great beers include my favorites: Alagash, Leinenkugel, Anderson Valley, Deschutes, Lagunitas and at least 100 more choices between on tap and bottled.

I've had a lot of fun going to this place over the past 1.5 years since they opened and once a month they host a really fun beer tasting event that always packs the house. They usually showcase a brand or style of beer each time that includes a tasting of the best selections along with an entree' for $18. It's held on the 2nd Wedensday of every month

If you're ever in the Folsom area, I highly recommend you all check out this restaurant and bar.

They have daily food specials consisting of grilled salmon, pork chops, and more, and their regular menu consists of such tasty dishes as Chimay Glazed Chicken, Korean Bulgogi (which you know I like) and they do up a really great steak, ribs, shrimp and more.

Be sure to try their cheesecake blintz dessert sometime too!

Another thing to note about this great little place, they've won many awards since opening: They're in the list of Draft magazines Top 200 bars in the NATION, they were ranked in Sacramento Magazine as one of the best things to do in the Sacramento area. They won KCRA 13's Best Beer Selection in Sacramento, and they have won several times for Best Bar in MyFolsom.com's Best of Folsom selection.

Check out Manderes at:
http://manderes.com/
402 E. Bidwell Street
Folsom, CA. 95630
(916) 986-9655

Time for some updates

Life's been very busy this past month and I haven't had time to update this site but I have been taking notes and photos and have lots of material to post - stay tuned for some new posts soon!