Monday, May 30, 2011

Herbed Grilled Flatbread, for easy reference

Hey All,

So way back when, when I was young and ambitious, I used to read just about every periodical I could get my hands on regarding herbs, herbalism, aromatherapy, and all my other favorite complimentary therapies.

Among those, was a really simple recipe for Herbed Grilled Flatbread (The Herb Quarterly, Summer 2006, with my adaptations). It looks complicated, but trust me, I have yet to screw it up, so it can't be even remotely hard. So here we go:

1 package (which is 1 1/2 tsp from the jar) yeast
3/4 cup warm (I get the yeast where you can be quite hot...I prefer a hot to the touch water as the yeast perk up quicker and produce more yeasty flavors)
1 tsp sugar
2 cups flour
1 Tblsp fresh herbs. You can do it with dry, but cut that down to 1tsp then. Conventional wisdom is 1/3 the amount of dry herbs when a recipe calls for fresh.
1/4 tsp fennel seeds, lightly ground. You can skip the fennel seed, but I contend it makes this stuff taste the way it should.
3/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp (or a couple good cranks of your grinder) Black Pepper
1/4 cup olive oil, plus oil for brushing. USE OLIVE OIL! I've tried substituting other oils and it just doesn't taste right.

Activate the yeast by mixing the yeast, water, and sugar in a small dish.

Mix the flour, herbs, and salt together. Add the olive oil and mix. Then add the active yeast, bring the dough together and knead until smooth and elastic. Um, I'm not sure how else to describe this. If you've ever made good bread, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Its one of those you just know with experience. So if in doubt, you can overknead this recipe and it will be fine.

Coat the dough and let it rise for at least 1.5 hours until it doubles. Then divide the dough in half, and each of those halves into 3 pieces, so you have a total of 6. Roll these to 1/4" thick, coat with oil and grill on a low flame (or on the edges of the grill where it isn't so intensely hot), about 5-7 minutes per side. The big thing is don't burn them...

And Viola! Serve them warm, or if you must, wrap them up in foil or plastic wrap to keep them pliable.

One of my favorite things to do with this is a pita type affair with ground beef that has been seasoned beyond recognition with Mediterranean herbs, cucumber yogurt dill sauce, and salted/sugared onions.

Today, I'll be adding a bit of lavender (white grosso, so the flavor is quite subtle) to the bread and making my lavender-apple chicken. The chicken was this thing I made one evening in Wyoming when I wasn't sure what to do, so I let fancy be my muse. I think I talked about it in the post before this one. If you need a more formal recipe, be sure to comment or get hold of me and I'll provide some better guidance. On this one, we'll be doing caramelized onion with a sprinkle of bacon...YUM!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Summer Steaks, marinading ideas

Hey All,

So its springtime in SL,UT and very soon, once these clouds roll over us, it will be full on summer. That means its time for barbecues on the patio and lighter fare that doesn't involved an oven.

I wasn't planning on entertaining today, but alas, I found the bug. Been sitting on the porch drinking Wasatch's Jalepeno Cream Ale and enjoying the temperamental weather. Its been a great day of reconnecting with old friends, enjoying the geekery the Husbear and I share, and just enjoying life. My big projects at work are at least out of my hands for the moment, no audits are going on, and quite frankly it is nice just to sit here and look at the beautiful (although not complete) garden I've created.

So that's the jist of my personal life; let's talk food!

One of my favorite ways to prepare steaks for grilling is to marinade them in a vacuum sealed package. Tonight, I just sprinkled them with McCormick's Spicey Montreal Seasoning and then added about 4Tblsp. each of balsamic vinegar and Worcestershire sauce. I sealed that up (the sealing really helps the flavors penetrate) and we'll cook here in a few hours.

Really you can do almost anything with the half/half balsamic/Worc blend. Add a bit of sugar, tomato paste, and garlic and you've got a BBQ flavor. A bit of ginger, soy sauce, and cilantro and you've got a Thai BBQ flavor. The possibilities are literally endless.

I'm going to roll a bit of sushi to go with it for a nice summer dinner. Friends are bringing snacks and salads, so it should be a good meal. And I should mention if you are doing a dinner and plan sushi as an appetizer, make sure your guests know that. I exhausted myself a few weeks ago with a dinner where sushi was supposed to be the appetizer but it ended up being the main course.

Another favorite I'm going to bring out this summer is my lavender apple chicken. Its another sealed up marinade you might like to try. Take boneless chicken boobs with lavender, garlic, and a bit of sugar sprinkled liberally on them. Seal those up with a dose of 50/50 apple cider vinegar and sherry. Grill it and YUM!

So welcome summer and happy times with friends! Now, I'm gonna go nap a bit on account of high octane beer.

Friday, May 13, 2011

Oh, that public record thing....

Hey All,

So just to follow up so you aren't freaking out. That thing I couldn't talk about was an FDA General Compliance Audit at work. It went well, I think it posts in the public record in 30 days, so if you are into that sort of thing, knock yourself out.

And in other news, Blogger was down for maintenance last night, so you got to miss out on my opinions on an article about sushi I read a while back. One of my favorites, and last night's dinner selection was Simply Sushi Downtown. Yes, its all you can eat, yes, its pretty generic fare, nothing out of the ordinary, but guess what, THEY DO IT WELL! As a matter of fact, they ARE ONE OF THE BEST!

That is all, stay tuned for the weekend :)

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Star of India.....lots of dining out

Hey All,

Its been a week of dining out, and doing it reasonably affordably. Dinner for two the past couple of nights hasn't exceeded $35, with tip, and yes, I usually tip at least $5 as a base.

Some stuff is going on that I'm not sure I can talk about in a public forum, well at least not until it becomes public record. No, no divorce, I'm not going to jail, or anything like that.... I'll explain once its over.

So last night we went to Star of India. My boss turned me onto this place when we were in the old location, as it was only a quick jaunt down the hill to have what he tells me is "real Indian food, not mislabeled Pakistani food". I'll have to trust him on that one, as up until moving to SLC, my exposure to Indian cuisine was minimal. Another one that gets high marks, although I haven't eaten there recently is Bombay Grill up in Ogden. We discovered this one on a lark, and my co-workers of Indian descent consider it to be the best...in fact one and his wife often schedule date nights to make the trek up there.

Ok, enough blather about that. I had shahi paneer and keema nan...YUM! I found this recipe over on Manjula's Kitchen. I've been a huge fan of hers for some time now, and finally get to link her :) So anyway, Star of India does theirs with almonds and a touch of raisin....delicious. The light sweetness of the dish went amazing with the Keema Nan. If you've never tried Star of India, I give it a high recommend for good food, afford-ability, and their awesome lunch buffet.

Tonight we wandered over to ESTE Pizza's Downtown Location. I'm not sure if I'm becoming picky or if I continue to be underwhelmed. Another coworker turned me onto this one, but I haven't found the same lust/desire/craving for it I do other places in the valley. Perhaps its that I'm not a huge Italian cuisine fan, save gnocchi, I think its the German and Irish blood in me; I simply adore dumplings of any sort. So not super high on my list, but not one that makes me run away in terror either....

This weekend we'll be hosting the "Mongolian Hoard"....ok, no, just quite a few friends for grilling. I'm also using this as an excuse to continue practicing sushi....not sure how much I'll document, but expect at least one or two pictures.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Fore! And somethig witty that Husbear said...now I forget

Hey All,

So here it is, a drizzly evening in SLc, UT and I am worn out. This, of course, is in a good way, not like Friday when I came home and swallowed about 6 bottles of wine and slept all day Saturday....but that's another story for face-to-face time. Today was up bright and early for a quick 9 with Lushus and Killer (we finally found him a nickname, YAY!). I really wish I knew what it was about a good round of golf (shot a 44, and had a birdie in the mix too!) that is about the best drug on Earth! Not even marathon sex can leave me that worn out and buzzing....but you don't want to hear about my dirty laundry, and well, if you do, we need to do that face-to-face thingy....

It wasn't needed, but if your local links are anything like some of ours, you'll want skeeter scoot and lots of it. I've gone the natural route with great success.

Here's a couple of blends:

Skeeter Scoot 1
1 part Eucalyptus Citriodora Essential Oil
1 part Siberian Fir Essential Oil

Skeeter Scoot 2 (aka Nosler's secret blend....yes, its also one of my signature colognes)
1 part Eucalyptus Citriodora Essential Oil
1 part Lavandin (no need for a spendy lavender here) Essential Oil
1 part Patchouli Essential Oil

So it was supposed to be a lazy afternoon; a bit of maritals, a nap, and easy dinner. Well the nap never happened, but a really yummy dinner came together quite quickly.

Lately, I've been playing with making my own sushi. Its amazing what one can do very afford-ably with a good Asian market nearby. Here's one of my first Kalifornia Rolls and a Cucumber Roll.

I wish I had good advice to give. I had to enlist the help of a dear friend who spent quite a bit of time in Japan to give me a quick tutorial.....I've been practicing and getting better everyday.

Tonight's dinner was nothing fancy, but I need to keep those sushi skills coming along, so I pulled out some Oshinko (pickled radish) and made a simple roll with Oshinko, green onion, and pickled ginger. Needless to say, it tasted great!

Also, the steaks, nothing fancy, but this never fails me. 2 or more hours before grilling, soak them in 1 part balsamic vinegar and 1 part Worcestershire sauce. Lately I've been adventuring with some Malbec I turned into vinegar, mixing it half and half with the balsamic. Its just short of divine. When I grill them, I also sprinkle them generously with McCormick Spicy Montreal Steak Seasoning. An easy trick to cooking I learned from Nigella Express on the Cooking channel is get that grill HOT and then 4 minutes on each side.....perfect, EVERYTIME!

So we served that with some leftover baked beans and coleslaw from the chicken dinner the other night.....yes, it was store bought, some vices I just can't give up that easily.

Here's the final plate:

Oh and its strange, I know, but this is what I've been listening to tonight.

And a quick tip if you don't eat all the steak. I only ate half, so here's what I'm doing for lunch tomorrow: slice the steak as thin as you can, mix with 1tsp balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp sugar, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a sprinkle of garlic powder, and mix with enough ketchup to get it to stick together. I'll nuke that and serve it on a bun....best BBQ beef sandwich ever!