Recent Delights Vol. 17. Hibernation over, time to eat.

Posted by Michael on Mar 23, 2011 in Recipes | 1 comment

Fried plantains for a breakfast.  Yum city.  Buy ‘em ugly – they’re at their best when they’re at their ugliest.  Simply spiced with ancho (but fiine on their own) and fried in olive oil, they make a great breakfast with scrambled eggs and a little salsa.

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Hey, everyone likes a little porn right?  Some chili I had for lunch one day, warmed up and topped with some leftover pizza cheese.  There ya go.

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More chili action, this time paired with some rice and beans and fresh cilantro.  I’ve got a video coming on the rice and beans.  Just hold your breath and I’ll have it right up.

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The beginnings of beef stew. A cheap beef shank is braised slowly for hours until fork tender, in the last hour, add some potatoes and carrots, season well and ram into face.  Easy stuff and delicious.

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Middle Eastern-spiced pork meatballs.  This was one of those nights when it was 5 pm and I wasn’t quite sure what to make for dinner.  I had some leftover tzatziki sauce from a couple nights earlier, some pitas I had made the night before and a big pork chop in the fridge that needed to be cooked.  I deboned it, then processed it fine in a food processor along with some spices like allspice, cinnamon and turmeric, then formed meatballs and fried them up.  Stuffed into pitas with tahini, tzatziki, tomato, onion and lettuce, they were just criminally delicious.  Holy cows good.

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Fresh egg noodles.  I don’t make them often enough.  They are 435 times better than any boxed pasta.  That’s quite a lot.

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Now we’re fancy wit da fotoggerphy.  Some hibiscus tea with some crusty bread and dipping oil at Soakology, a tea house in Portland, Maine. Absolutely thunderous, volatile, explosive stress relief in this place.

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Some bread with chocolate at Soakology, Lisa’s treat served with tea.  Disappointing though as it didn’t taste like feet at all.

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Street chili dog in Portland, Maine.  $2.50 plus a buck for a Coke.  Really good, an odd highlight of my four days of foodie junk in Portland.

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A typical lunch place in Portland.  Cheaper than chains and great, house-made food.  Very easy to find an awesome lunch in this city of 70,000 (sound familiar Saint John?) for $5 to $7.  Throw in a standard beer and you’re still south of $10 in most cases.  Loonie was at par too.  A bowl of chili with a bun here was $2.99.

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Oatmeal! New York Times columnist Mark Bittman recently went on The Today Show and explained how simple it was to make your own oatmeal, something that was apparently lost on the millions of people that cheered when McDonald’s started serving oatmeal in its restaurants a few months ago.  It is indeed super easy (half cup each of oatmeal, milk and water, pinch of salt, simmer for 10 minutes, add nuts and berries or whatever) and if you don’t have time in the morning to do it for yourself, get up 15 minutes earlier.  Geez.

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Rice and soy sauce.  It’s complicated.  A favourite of mine whenever I make rice in the middle of the day with the intention of cooling it for fried rice or something else later.

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Fajita chicken salad.  Fajita-spiced chicken given a quick toss with tomatoes, peppers and fresh cilantro.  Delicious!

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Lentil & coconut curry with rice, mango chutney and a fresh-made chapati.  A wonderful, simple lunch.

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Beef paratha.  Chapati Indian flatbreads stuff with beef curry.  Delicious with some yogurt and chutney.  This was actually my daughter’s lunch and she ate the whole thing, convincing me that it’s often not spices that turn kids off, it’s just how they’re presented.

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Cheers!