Bacon-Wrapped Potato

This was from April 6, 2008. It has pictures. Beautiful, bacony pictures. Why on earth did I never finish it? 
Mayhaps I was in a post-dinner pork coma?

Does life get any better than this?



Marinated, grilled Gulf shrimp, a big, buttery, fresh-green-onion-covered grilled potato... did I mention that it's wrapped in bacon?!

Quickie Supper

We went to the Farmer's Market today... and despite living in a large city, this was an errand on the level of "expedition." First of all, it was in another city, an hour away. Secondly, I had completely forgotten that Earth Day was coming up, and that it might be celebrated more-conveniently by some today... right next to the Farmer's Market. Thirdly, we have kids. 'Nuff said.

I had pulled a flank steak out of the deep freeze yesterday, to "do something with" for dinner today. Yeah... never good to leave it so vague. By the time we got home, got things put away, and caught our breath, it was too late to start the necessary marinating for a chewable flank steak. Oops.
And with all my food allergies, just ordering pizza isn't an option.
The kids both had a light lunch and really needed something that would stick to their ribs... some protein. What on earth do I do?

I thawed some sausages (in hot water in the sink), made some rice, and threw together a salad.

Turned out to be one of the best dinners I've had in a while. And we eat good 'round here.

The sausages were duck, pork, and fig... French-style if not actually French. We love these... they are fabulous beyond reason. I first got some at Exotic Meats (which is local for us), but bought some on sale through a website . The Grill Geek grilled them... took about twenty minutes, during which time I tossed together a salad. I've mentioned before that we get local produce delivered every week, thanks to Greenling. Well, one of the lovely surprises this week was pea tendrils. I think they are simply the young shoots of the pea plant (cut off in it's prime, poor thing). They taste like... well... peas. Quite possibly the best salad I've ever had, which really isn't saying much, because I'm generally a very lazy salad-maker.

Pea Tendril & Spinach Salad with shiitakes and bacon

1/4-lb bacon
3 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3/4 lb fresh shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps quartered
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon red-wine vinegar
1/2 tablespoon coarse-grain mustard
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
4 oz fresh pea shoots
4 oz baby spinach leaves
1 bunch fresh chives, cut into 1-inch lengths
6 radishes, cut into matchsticks

Cut bacon into 3/4-inch-thick matchsticks and cook in a heavy skillet over moderately low heat, stirring, until crisp but still chewy, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to paper towels to drain.

Pour off fat from skillet and add 1 1/2 tablespoons oil, mushrooms, and ½ teaspoon salt. Cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until mushrooms are golden, about 8 minutes, then cool.

Whisk together lemon juice, vinegar, mustard, remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper, and remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large salad bowl until blended.

Add pea shoots and spinach to dressing and toss to coat. Add bacon, mushrooms, chives, and radishes and toss again.

I used a kohlrabi instead of the radishes, and didn't have any mushrooms... so just skipped that part. I also used some red leaf lettuce instead of all spinach. I'm not a big fan of spinach. It was so, so good!

Iron Chef Mom goes Hawaiian

This has to be my favorite failure ever.
I went way over on my time, thanks to not remembering to thaw my shrimp ahead of time, not delegating effectively to my sous chef, and getting too much "help" from the Little Guy. Excuses, excuses... I failed.

And that's ok. Because dinner was absolutely fabulously delicious beyond all reason. The secret ingredient was pineapple! Too fun!

The Menu:

Bacon-wrapped, rum-soaked pineapple slices

Spicy grilled shrimp

Thai stir-fried rice

Roasted pineapple and avocado salad

Tortuga Twister

Bacon Wrapped Rum-Soaked Pineapple

(does it get any better than this?)

¼ cup dark rum
1/2 pound (or so) thin cut bacon
Slices/chunks of fresh pineapple

Soak pineapple in rum, 15 minutes or so. Wrap pineapple slices with bacon and secure with a toothpick (or not... I didn't bother, probably should have). Broil in oven until bacon is browned and cooked (8 minutes each side worked for me.) It's like bacon candy. Seriously. Wow.

Spicy Grilled Shrimp

1 pound large raw shrimp, peeled

about 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
several hard shakes garlic Tabasco
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme

Marinate shrimp about 15 minutes... grill. Out of this world incredible!

Thai Stir Fried Rice and Pineapple

3/4 cup pineapple, in small chunks
1 teaspoon grated ginger
2 jalapeño peppers, chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried cilantro
¼ cup chopped onion
¼ cup red bell pepper, chopped
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon of fish sauce
1 tablespoon tamari (soy sauce)
½ teaspoon sugar
1 cup of cold, steamed Thai jasmine rice
coriander leaves as garnish

Put the pineapple in a bowl and add the jalapeño, ginger, and cilantro, mix and set aside. Add a pinch of salt to bring out the juice. In a wok, heat about a tablespoon of oil stir and fry the bell

pepper and onion about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and stir quickly, until it barely begins to brown. Add the rice and stir thoroughly. Add the fish sauce and sugar and continue stirring. When the rice is heated through, add the pineapple mixture and stir until thoroughly heated through.

I didn't expect to like the sweetness of pineapple in fried rice, but it was fabulous. The two peppers were just the right amount of heat for me... which means not all that much. I'm a weenie these days.

Roasted Pineapple and Avocado Salad

The creamy avocado really works magic in this salad. Once again, I was surprised by how much I liked the sweet pineapple in a dish I traditionally enjoy savory. I think the next time I make this (and, oh yes, there will be a next time) I will add crumbled bacon. I think that roasty, salty flavor
would make it perfect.

• About 1 cup fresh pineapple, cut into 3/4-inch chunks

• 1/2 teaspoon light brown sugar

• salt

• 1 1/2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

• 1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

• 1 Hass avocado, cut into 3/4-inch chunks
  

• 1 head red leaf lettuce

• Freshly ground pepper

• Lime wedges, for serving

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. In a medium bowl, toss the pineapple with the brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Spread the pineapple on a baking sheet and roast in the upper third of the oven for about 10 minutes, or until softened and just beginning to brown.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk the olive oil with the vinegar. Add the lettuce, season with salt and pepper, and toss. Sprinkle the avocado chunks with lime juice, to prevent browning. Transfer the salad to plates, top with the pineapple and avocado, and serve.

Tortuga Twister

1 oz white rum
1 oz Sailor Jerry (spiced rum)
1/2 oz Amaretto
1/2 oz Orange Curacao/Triple Sec
4 oz grapefruit juice, fresh-squeezed
splash of grenadine

Shake rums and amaretto with ice. Pour into a hurricane glass half filled with ice. Top with and grenadine. Garnish with a pineapple stick* and an umbrella or pirate sword. Arrrrr! (Tortuga!)

* a pineapple "stick" is merely a piece of the hard core, cut into a stick-ish shape, for garnishing goodness.

Soup, Salad, and Bread

The fridge was full of leftovers, my energy meter was low (thanks to accidental ingestion of coconut oil during lunch... in case any one is wondering, yes I am still pouting about that allergy.)
So, dinner needed to be easy. What was on the menu? "Iron Chef Mom." Nope, wasn't going to happen. Nuh-uh, save it for a better night.

Instead, leftover Leftover Leg of Lamb Stew, salad with balsamic vinaigrette, and some fresh soda bread. Not a typo, it was double-leftover stew. I saved the bone and chopped all the meat that was leftover (from Irish Heritage Day) into bite-size pieces, and stuck it in the freezer. Earlier this week, it became dinner with some onions, red potatoes, carrots, peas, and tomatoes. It seems to be a neverending soup, as we've still got some left. That leg of lamb was expensive, but... wow... it just keeps going.

I still love the soda bread. It's marvelous. This time I used traditional currants instead of raisins. Delish.

And... folks... if any of you are still buying bottled salad dressing, made with toxic canola and soy oils... I have to ask WHY?? Seriously, please leave a comment and tell me why on earth you do that to yourselves. Homemade dressing is so easy! You don't need to whisk things, you don't have to get all snooty French about it... buy some of those itty bitty Gladware containers. The ones with the blue lid that hold less than half a cup. (For what it's worth, the screw-top Ziploc containers that are a bit bigger suck. They are NOT liquid-tight!) Then you can just shake up your dressing, pour what you need on your salad, and stick the leftovers in the fridge for another day.
Here's how to make super-easy balsamic dressing:

Squirt a generous dab of Dijon mustard into your container. 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon, start with less and see how you like it.
Add 1-2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
Add a splash of apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar, to tone it down a bit, if you think that'd be good.
Add about twice as much olive oil... eyeball it... it's not rocket science.
Slap the lid on and shake it up.
Taste it. Too tart? More oil. Not tart enough? More vinegar.
Add salt and pepper, some fresh thyme or parsley if you've got it. A pinch of dried herb- any herb pretty much- is nice too.

Oh, and if you're feeling adventurous, use an egg yolk instead of mustard... but don't plan on keeping it in the fridge more than a few days.

Iron Chef Grill!

It was finally time for my husband, the Grill Geek, to join the ranks of the Iron Chefs. Cooks of culinary genius, specially-selected for their skills... or something like that. Yeah, he wanted in on the fun. I admit to delaying his debut because I was positively stumped as to what sort of Secret Ingredient I should get. But, finally, I put it on the weekly menu, I was forced into it. I had to think of something!

I got smart. I did a little research. I decided on my top three ideas and headed off the store.

Nada.

And shopping with a caffeinated, balloon-wielding three-year-old means mama don't go to Other Stores. That level of shopping is reserved for People Without Children. That's why I generally send the Grill Geek out for the shopping... the kids don't demand to go along with him.

Anyway, so I was stuck in a disappointing meat section (because of course the first Secret Ingredient will be meat!) and finally settled on the cliche of grilling... skirt steak. Ho-hum.

Well, that was the last time any "ho-hum" touched that meat.

I actually moaned with pleasure during dinner.

Several times.

Luckily the children didn't notice. They had wolfed down their boring ol' hot dogs and run off.

The Rules of Iron Chef Grill:
- 1 hour of active cooking time (like Iron Chef Mom, this first episode allowed 90, next he'll get 80, and so on.) This means there's time for marinating and unattended smoking.
- must provide something for the kids, but it needn't be the Secret Ingredient
- must be fairly original recipes (although I realize meat + fire has been done before)
- at least the main course plus 1 side dish must be entirely grilled

Now for pic goodness:

Chopping half a red bell pepper, for the Fajita Salad. He also chopped an onion, and threw that in a foil packet with the bell pepper. The poblano half went directly on the grill. Mmmm...

Once it was charry and delicious, it was diced, and tossed onto fresh Texan baby greens.




Now this... I can't tell you marvelously delicious a butter-rubbed, bacon-wrapped grilled potato is.

But I made noises.

I mean... the salty, crispy bacon and potato skin... I could happily eat one every day forever.

Hard to blog with visions of bacon-potatoes dancing through my head.

He sliced the skirt steak into almost-bite-size pieces (my one complaint...) and tossed it on the salad. The dressing, which also provided the marinade, was put on the grill to melt and meld and steal some smoky goodness.

The dressing/marinade:

½ cup olive oil, couple spoons bacon fat
¼ cup tamari
2 spoons chopped garlic
1/4 c. Worcestershire sauce
1/8 c. soy sauce
2 decent globs dijon
juice of 1 ½ limes
a little salt
1/8 teaspoon spicy paprika
teaspoon cumin

Om a-nom, nom, nom.

And then... dessert! Grilled Bananas In Orange Sauce.

2 Bananas
½ Orange, juiced
½ cup orange curaco/ Grand Marnier
1 tbsp butter
sugar
ground cinnamon

Cut bananas lengthwise. lightly stir all other ingredients together. Grill bananas for a couple minutes per side, chop into inch-long chunks, then place into mix. Let Pyrex cook up on grill for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve.

Soup and Salad

Yesterday's lunch. Yummy, and surprisingly, I wasn't hungry 5 minutes later. Maybe it's because I'm a Taurus, or perhaps it's due to being at least half Hobbitt, but I'm generally not convinced that soup and salad can, by themselves, comprise a meal. I grew up in meat-and-potatoes land. I think there's magic in homemade balsamic vinaigrette, though. Especially when it's accidentally too tart. It slams into the tastebuds so hard that your brain says "Ok, that's it, we're full!"

The soup was Potato and Leftovers Soup. Classy. But delicious. I won't bother calling it a "recipe", but the basic idea was: onions and celery in bacon fat until getting soft, some garlic and fresh-ground pepper, some chicken broth. Then a diced Russett potato and a small-chopped parsnip, simmered until soft. I put most of that in the blender, then back in the pot with some leftover steamed veggies and chopped chicken. Voila. Lunch.

Dinner last night was FIC: Fabulous Italian Creation. The nickname stuck a few years ago when I was planning the menu and didn't care specifically what would be served. The base ingredients were all the same. It's always pasta (rice pasta these days), with meat, marinara, sometimes a veggie, used to use lots of cheese, maybe pepperoni, mushrooms, and/or olives... pop it in the oven to meld together. Pretty fabulous.

Well... it was a lot more fabulous with cheese. But, it's still pretty good. Pretty Good Italian Creation doesn't have the same ring to it, though.

The greens there are mustard greens. I will never make mustard greens again as long as I live.

I love kale and collards and excel (if I may say so) in their preparation. I somehow went very, very wrong with the mustard greens. I didn't even finish them.