Recently in SIDES Category

editors note: This image is from the back of the book, it was far cooler.

The little book is titled, The New Banana and it hails from 1931. Looks to be an introduction to this new fruit, national news, foreign news, scientific, daily menus for the week & recipes too!

Which leads me to the Bananas and Bacon recipe, no really. If'n you're interested in a scanned original from the book, please follow the link below.

Bananas with Bacon

6 Bananas
1/4 pound bacon

Roll half lengths of peeled bananas in strips of bacon. Secure with toothpick, if necessary. Broil under flame; or bake in oven-proof dish in a hot oven, 450 degrees F., about fifteen minutes, or until bananas are tender and bacon is crisp. Baste at least once during the baking ... Whole bananas may be wrapped in bacon and cooked in the same way.

xo, Biggles

This was and is completely unexpected, Country Fried Bacon.

Our internets has been going up and down, they were expected to come fix between 4 & 6pm. Didn't have anything planned for dinner, had the hankering for something deep fried.

Found enough oil, two bunches of asparagus, taters ... and bacon. Whupped up some beer, flour & salt. Dredged the "veggies" and deep fried at 360 degrees F.

Country Fried Bacon rules. So clean, so perfect, so not greasy and easy.

xo, Biggles

Easter, the aftermath. While I did state that I felt such gatherings were more for the people and the love versus attempting something new in the kitchen. I didn't mean we were going to feast upon crud.

Initially, I was going to grill. It's a simple way to add flavor and ease to a day of merriment. But after reviewing what I had in the fridge, it wasn't a match. I had a large beef tri-tip, a decent pork sirloin roast, a Fatted Calf stuffed country-style pork rib roast, pork steaks and Fatted Calf bacon. If I were to grill, it would mean a lot of tending to the little darlings to make sure it all came out right. If I fired up the smoker I would receive a far better result with tons less effort.

Considering how lazy I am, the smoker was clearly the way to go.

The job got done, perfectly. What I'd forgot was the fact that my family is in dear love with the Hot Sauce. I remembered this when I brought out a dozen little bottle of sauce for the wonderful pasta salad my sister made. I sliced up the smoked pork steaks, and applied various sauces and offered them as they were. It was perfect! Such a treat, very well received. All the depth of the sauces with the smoked pork marinated in salt was a perfect match.

Crackers are great, but can't hold a candle to smoked meat. This will continue.

xo, Biggles

ps - Here is the rest of the story for Easter 2009.

Last week I got a little delivery of some beef jerky, made by the people who contacted me. It was a gift and didn't have to post it. But damn, the stuff is good and well worth the post. Plus the pictures came out really well, I thought.

If you take a look at the Green Light Jerky Company and what they have to offer, you'll see it's different from what many other companies deliver. First off, they make it. They use local ingredients and attempt to make it as organic and natural as they can. There's no nitrates, no msg, no thickening agents, No food colorings. This is real beef jerky. I was sent their #18 Jamaican Jerk flavor, but they have a handful of others to try.

This version was of a medium thickness, on the dry and chewy side. Maybe 1" wide and 6" long. Once it hit the palate, the spices and herbs began to fly. Since it's "home made" one piece may have some different flavors from the others, and that's a good thing. On a finish, it was rich, nice and the habanero came in to play (heat).

If you're not going to make your own, then then these guys have it covered. I'm impressed, it's good jerky!

Biggles

Pretty, huh?

I know I'm behind the times, people have been tossing nearly every food product on the grill or in the smoker since the beginning. Yeah well, not me. I know this might sound a little odd, but I enjoy the contrast of the heavily smoked meat product, then the lesser beings (peasant food) to be cooked elsewhere, by others. Understand?

Luckily, Sunday morning found me at the local whatever mart shopping for the coming week's food. Wanted to grab a few racks of ribs so Zoomie could get her fill. I ain't payin' no 18 dollars for a damned slab of pork spares, so it was the country style for me. Almost 8 dollars for a huge mound of fleshy goodness, I picked the one with more fat in it.

I'm not sure what happened or why. But I wanted to go back to the lousy produce section and find me some citrus or a pineapple to toss in the smoker as well. As you can see, the p-apple made it in!

I sat and pondered the unfriendly feeling thing for a while. How to slice? Extra virgin? Salt? Chile pepper? Thin slices and get juice everywhere? Peel? Cut it's head off? I just love cutting the heads off of things. I opted for the simple approach, cut in half lengthwise and use some kosher salt on the inside. I knew the smoky goodness would not penetrate through the thick halves, but didn't want to deal with all these fussy little slices falling all over the place.

It was pretty fricken good, for a fruit. Warm, smoky on the outside, tender on the inside. The heat had broken down something molecular on the inside and tenderized the little dear. Slurp! Guess what? It was excellent cold the next day too. Slurrrphah !!!

Biggles

ps - I don't know how long it was in there, maybe a few hours or more, not less.

I'm dedicating this post to Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen. She recently put up a post about grilling bell peppers, simple & yet way easy. I made a comment about it being beneath her skill level and to take a step up, or something along those lines. She fired back a comment, "If it's so easy, how come I've never done it before?" Yes, I can be an ASS.

I found myself wondering throughout the day repeating her question to myself, over and over. All I could come up with is, "I don't know". And I didn't, I don't. Why don't we do it when it's so damned easy?

That evening I found myself standing at the open door of my bachelor fridge attempting to find something to make the boys for dinner. I'd just purchased yet another package of corn tortillas with 1.5 bags of stale ones still sitting behind the empty box of juice bags. If it's so damned easy, how come I don't make tortilla chips more often?

And that was that.

Ya know how you'll be reading your daily reads? And something passes before you and you point your finger and go, "That's it, that's the one."? This was one of those recipes and I did it last night, oh man did I ever. I had a really good idea as to what it was going to taste like, but it was even better when I actually got a mouthful. You, are, going, to, love, this, dish. Thank you Jerry of Cooking by the Seat of my Pants for having Ben Herrera as a guest writer from What's Cooking?.

Click on lovely to get.

Today's inspiration comes again, from beans. Am attempting to come up with a recipe for a green chile bean dish.

Wish me luck!

Biggles

Do I know what the hell I'm doing? Absolutely not. However, I am bright enough to know when the inspiration hits? Run like a 9 legged, 3 winged duck on acid. Yeah buddy, contemplate that one on The Tree of Woe.

I visted my favorite El Salvadorean market (Joya de Ceren) last night to pick up some tortillas for Tiny E's cheese & bacon burritos, Omar wasn't there though. I just couldn't leave without something else, had to find something. Turns out they got a bitchen selection of really great looking beans from El Salvador. I grabbed me a packge of the red ones!

The mighty Nick Lindauer of Hot Sauce Blog is hosting his 2nd annual Hot Wing competition. I didn't make it in last year, but this year is different. I got my act together and put this little recipe up.

Hmmm, I wonder if red savina chile pepper is hot-like?

25 minutes ago these fine specimens were connected to Mother Earth. Are you ready? Are you all set up for this coming Fall?

These are all volunteer pumpkins, we paid for nothing but water and my effort. Neat, eh?

xo

I'd like to lay down paragraphs all about the photograph that you see perched above us there. But I don't believe it's really necessary. However, I do want to make clear that I did slice the top off the bulb so the extra virgin could penetrate. Then, the bacon on top completes it.

Once done, smoosh over toasted, buttered, crusty breadses.

How did the bacon start out on the grill?

The bacon started out with this fine meal up on top of a tritip beef roast & pork loin roast. Once it renders down some, grill directly over a mellow fire. Once the bacon is getting close to how you like it, place on nestled garlic clove.

An evening in the life.

xo, Biggles

Once upon a time, at grillside many years ago, handfuls of corn hit the grill with surprising ease. Yet the flavors were something that not everyone includes in their corn meez. Come along my fairytale friend and we'll discover just what these ears crave.

"It's easy." said Jlee. All you need to do is remove that corn fuzz and leave enough of the husk to cover the budding kernals. Treat ear tips with a cone of foil to hold in place, set on grill for 20 to 30. That's Minutes there, son.

Before their time has come, lay down that bacon slice that's been smoking at grill side. Allow bacon sauce to enter the cornfolds ever so gently, quietly. Use time to make sure the corn slowly begins to smile. And when it does? Pull the husks back to expose your corn to the direct heat and let the colors turn.

Eat.

xo, Biggles

Monkey Wrangler of Sourdough Monkey Wrangler posted about an old family recipe back on the 4th. Something about wanting to recreate a rice torte that his great-grandmother had done years ago. Yeah, I dunno, it didn't stir anything in me so I passed.

It wasn't until Cookiecrumb of I'm Mad and I Eat decided to do her own version that I thought maybe I should jump in. What do you think? I know it's a vegetarian dish, but wouldn't it be nice to teach an old dog new tricks?

Been having this tangly urge for real macky cheese. The creamy, cheesy and just a little sparky roasted dish. You know the one, yup. I was perusing Kevin's Seriously Good and read that he and Cookiecrumb of I'm Mad and I Eat had partnered up for some cooking. The dish? You guessed it, macky cheese. I was in and yesterday was the deadline. I'm a day late and 2 pounds fatter. Oh well, what can you do?

While Biggles is off-planet for the moment, his good friend George steps in with General Tsou's Chicken. George and I go way, way, way back to the late 1980's. He's always been colorful character. Someone who maintained an operating computer retail storefront in an abandoned building to a guy who bought a shiny, metallic purple Thunderbird (the Purple Penetrator). We've kept in contact over the years and he's always had some tasty skills in the kitchen. I've offered to post a recipe of his anytime. Today is that day ... take it away George!

What the HELL am I doing wrong? While I truly believe it's the recipe's fault this time (shift the blame), why does my cornbread suck so badly? I'm talking so bad it separates and the center of the bread looks and feels like a gooey, yellow custard.

Check out the recipe though, it is kind of interesting.

That was a most outstanding meal and I had to share it with the world. Veggies and I have been at odds for years and I think cauliflower has won my heart over. I smile when I prepare this and can't wait for the roasty smells to start. If you search Meathenge you'll run in to this preparation method with a few different recipes and experiments. This vegetable dish is so good you can eat it as a meal and it's good reheated the next day. Plus it's easy and takes no longer than 35 minutes to cook. Here we go!

I have to admit, I'm a creature of habit. Some would say closer to your red bearded bucktoothed creature more than anything else. I require my wooden spatulas to be in that one red container, no spoons wooden or otherwise. My fry pans are returned to the place from which they sprung. My wood handled sandwich knife goes on the magnetic knife holder located on the right and at the lower position. If these items aren't there, they're in the process of being cleaned. I search for nothing. I bask in the warm glow that my items are just where I need them, when I need them.
What is it that I allow to vary? What is it that curls my toes when I find something new? What is it that calms my life long collection of psychoses?

It seems as though Mama's blood sugar is too high, doctor says so. She went to the library (free books) to see if she could find some cookbooks for diabetics, easy enough. She found a GREAT one and it turns out the guy cooks like I do. Ain't that somethin'? In any case, this caused Mama to do some grocery shopping and she came back with a load of green things, she calls them v-e-g-e-t-a-b-l-e-s.
"What are these, things?" asks Biggles. Mama's eyes roll as she turns and leaves the kitchen, leaving him alone in his bewilderment. Biggles returns his cleaver to his holster and grabs his 13" Sabatier carbon and decided to split these suckers open and see what's what. "Whar's the damned HEAD?" he grumbles. "Must be this twiggy thing, off you go then." And Biggles is off and slicing like a madman. Or in this case, a Norwegian Axe Murderer.

As I left today for work with my new borrowed book in tow, Mama said she wanted a picture of me reading this vegetable book (insert gasp here). I beat a hasty exit, stage left.
That's right, a vegetable book. And a darned good one too. I've been wracking my meat riddled mind for new things to try, do and experiment with. Up until this last weekend, I haven't been inspired enough to do anything, at all.
Friday evening Jlee offered up her Chez Panisse Vegetable book, yay!

Oh shaddap, yeah I know Alice is living in her own little world and gets a lot of flack for it. But this is an excellent book, even if I don't know anything about vegetables. I like it cause the recipes are arranged by vegetable and at each entry you're told what time of year to expect it. Very handy for us novices, I must say.
Wanna see my version of what Alice originally called, "Whole-wheat Pasta with Cauliflower, Walnuts, and Ricotta Salata?

I love scallions, green onions or spring onions. Whatever you call them, they're fresh, spritely and add fun to anything they're used in. Plus they're cool to look at when swimming in a sauce, cute little buggers.
So when I was over having a gander on Too Many Chefs and caught Barrett's Scallion Pancakes? I was hooked.

WAhoo! I cooked a vegetable! And I owe it all to Meg in Paris over at Too Many Chefs.
Honestly, I'm not sure what happened yesterday. There was something so inviting (easy) about her Braised Endive recipe she posted on the 18th (yesterday). Everything fell in to place so quickly, I knew my corner market had the endives. The deal was sealed, I was off on a mission.

Many moons ago I found myself taking pictures of food (meat). This started with film probably back in the early 1970's. Clearly things progressed, changed and happiness grew. In 1997 we found ourself in a really cool rented house with 2400 sq. ft. on a 1/4 acre for 850 dollars a month. Boy, talk about a playground ...

That's not my plate.

Mama gets the credit for making this one. I picked up a few goodies on the way home. And speaking of stopping by a local market to get some ingredients, what's up with grocers and where they decide things should go? If I can get away with it, I usually stop by Giovanni's Produce in El Cerrito. It's a smallish little neighborhood store with decent stuff and of course, Rick's Quality Meats. Okay, so we're talking just a few rows of canned/bottled/boxed goods here, not much. If you want tomato sauce you only have a few choices, which is fine. Okay, one of the things on my list was Red Wine Vinegar. That's an easy one, the vinegars are over here with the salad dressings, oils AND OTHER VINEGARS, right? Nope. No sir, ain't there. They got white vinegar and cider, but no red wine vinegar. Looks as though I'm going to have to make another stop, which I don't want to do. I'm weary from working all day and want to go home. At this point I remember some other things on another shelf on the other side of the store. I'll check there, just to see. Bingo! There it is, next to all the expensive balsamic vinegar and imported olive oils (2 kinds). GOLDANGIT MAN !!! Why the hell can't they put the vinegars with the damned vinegars !?!
Wanna see what's in the salad? Yes, there's red wine vinegar in it.

OoooOo, there's nothing earth shattering here. I was having such a good afternoon a few days ago. It turns out there is ONE thing on FoodTV that I found worth watching. Jamie Oliver's first season is being shown again. And before you go off on your Jamie hate spew (he deserves it), his first season rocks. He had the same production crew that the Two Fat Ladies used (I miss them SO MUCH). Anyhoo, Jamie was roasting sliced potatoes in a large roaster. I believe he was going to layer in some kind of fish situation. Man, that sounded like such an easy way to have Fried Potatoes. And it was, easy. And it was, yummy. Interested?

A few weeks ago I presented a Roasted Curry Cauliflower here on Meathenge. It was good enough for me to want to try some spice and cooking modifications. I was really interested in using some TexMex flavors and using a rack inside the roaster to set the florets on. And I wanted to see what non-organic cauliflower was like (probably not 11 dollars for two heads). I did it all.

Contemplate this on the tree of woe. The mighty cauliflower. I paid over 11 dollars for nearly 4 pounds (about 2 heads worff). Don't think we'll be doing Organic Cauliflower again, this I assure you. Even so, it's an interesting beast. Looks like white broccoli, it ain't. The little trees (florets they say) are far more uniform and sturdy. I aint' never cut one up, but after pulling the green fronds off it's butt, nature took it's course (along with my 10" Cook's knife) and it came to pieces readily. Why did I drag this thing to my abbatoire? Molly has been very helpful and kind in the wily ways of introducing the Biggles to a wider variety of vegetables. She offered up a Roasted Curry Cauliflower for me to try out. It looked easy enough for a Monday night. Off I went to El Cerrito Natural Grocery in a flash. Then to my local Indian grocery that opened up around the corner for fresher Coriander seeds (ours were old). I was READY. In the now famous words of Tommy Tang, Let's Get Cooking!

Macaroni & Cheese in one of its purist forms. That's cheesy love. Reminds me of the feeling I get while sitting in front of a fire during the coldest part of winter. You and the fire, you and the cheese. Eat half, it's okay. How could love be so wrong?

Over the centuries many artists have had their muses. This goes for painters, photographers, musicians & children. You find yourself standing before something that inspires one to drop everything to capture that moment in time. A feeling of inspiration strong enough to bring any knuckle dragging hillbilly to his or her knees. This is just that, Toponia's Jambon Persille. Which is near as I can tell are spots of ham in a pate or terrine atmosphere. The ham chunks are tender yet hold their place, only letting go under yer teefs. The aspic-like material holding the bright herbs & spices together is in harmony.
Yeah okay so I used a photograph of wonderful food to drive an entry. You have to admit though, it was worth our time. Don't you think?
Happy Holidays from all us at MeatHenge Labs to you'all.

Xo Xo

UPDATE!
Bright Happy Holiday Hammy with Herb Love

Phew, you almost missed out on this one. I found a decent looking pork tenderloin fer dinner. Figured I'd roast it and serve it with some leftover southern greens I made the night before. No big deal, nothing any of you needed to really know about.
However, I decided to heat up a cast iron skillet super hot and sear the sucker first. And when I saw the little wedge of lard melt, smoke waft and then the severe sizzle of the pork hit ... it was all I could do to get my camera & flash mounted.

My theory about Potato Salad: Nobody likes potato salad. The standard fare deli salads, unless you are lucky, are disgusting to say the least. I was an adult before I had potato salad that tickled my fancy. And now I'm fairly obsessed with it, and usually to my disappointment I'll try it wherever I go.

This love/hate relationship forced me to try my hand at it myself. There are a few certainties with my potato salad: no sweet things, and no eggs. I've had plenty of potato salads with eggs that I liked, but it is always my least favorite part, and in bad potato salads it is down right scary. And I'm just generally morally opposed of mixing sweet and savory on principal. There are always exceptions, but usually only with thai food, or quails stuffed with sausage and figs. So no sweet pickles PLEASE.

I'm not sure what inspired me to put together a 'scalloped' potato dish on a work day with not more than an hour and a half for prep and cook time. I know I know, "hey bone, scalloped potatoes aren't that tough." Yeah well, I added extra goodies and had to move pretty darned quick to get this on the table before everyone filled up on peanut butter & crackers. Keep in mind too that I have to take decent pictures and make mental notes along with everything else. Boy did my hard work pay off big time.
This dish was succulent, rich, savory & worth every bead of sweat.
Most of the ingredients make sense, onions, parsely, mushrooms, apple wood smoked bacon and fresh herbies. I decided to render up some pancetta to take it over the top. Yum.

Fat in the fridge. That's what I've been looking at all week. I pulled out a half cup of duck fat from the Fatted Calf's Duck Confit earlier this week. Three times I pulled it out thinking I was ready to make some corn bread. Each time I was thwarted due to lack of ingredients or inspiration. Yesterday late afternoon I had it all, ingredients & inspiration.

As near as I can tell, for many of you this meal is a semi-regular pot that you're all too familiar with. Some of us obviously live in a cave.
I clearly live in a cave.
The more I read the recipe, the more I fumbled with the recipe in the isles of the two grocery stores I had to visit, the more I readied the ingredients, the more I chopped and compiled, the more I watched the stuff boil, the more excited I got. Which means by dinner time I was a nervous happy wreck.

onward ...

A few weeks back I made a journey into Berkeley to visit a new charcuterie, Fatted Calf. They hang out at the Farmer's Market there selling fresh meat products. Well, with the holidays and bad weather it's been tough getting a hold of them and the meat love packages.
I scored big time today.
I showed up fairly early and they weren't there. That sucked. So Eli and I went up and visited Jan while she was working the Blue Bottle Coffee stall. We hung out for a bit then decided to see if Taylor and Kim had showed up. They had, and it felt like xmas all over again. My eyeballs were shaking as I went over the menu asking questions about the sausages and so forth. They were in a good mood and as they were loading up my order, Kim tossed in a salami and said "here, you try this".
And I did. Take a look at the picture again. The reason there is just a little nub of meat there is cause I ate it. Before my camera got to it. As I'm writing this ... there is none left.

I'm telling you. Give them a call or go by the Farmer's Market in Berkeley from 10am (give or take a few) to 3pm (or when they sell out).

Fatted Calf Charcuterie
Taylor / Kim
958 Illinois Street
San Francisco, CA 94107

v 510.301.9279
f 510.653.4327

www.fattedcalf.com

How many times have you made a gravy or pan sauce that ended up in the trash, a soup or made excuses for? More than once I'll bet. Well, if you start with a beef sirloin roast wrapped in bacon you'll almost be assured of victory.

Get yourself a nice sirloin beef roast, and see if you can find one with some fat on one side. Wash lightly and pat dry (oil and water don't mix and your browning will be spotty at best). Poke some fresh garlic into it, rub it with extra virgin olive oil, and rub with your favorite spicy rub. At this point you want to get some fresh herbs, rosemary is a nice hearty one, but thyme works nicely as well. Then find some applewood smoked bacon, nitrate free if you can find it. Lay a few strips over the top. Pick up the pieces of bacon and turn them over, leaving some of the oily rub on the bacon itself exposed to the oven heat. Which, by the way, is about 350 on the bottom rack. Please get yourself a trivet and roast it sitting on said beast. I have been doing most of my roasts of pork, beef and chicken in old cast iron skillets or dutch ovens. You can use what you want, just get the meat out of the swimmy goodness that will become your pan sauce. While your roast is roasting pull out a nice little shallot and dice it as finely as you can. Maybe a little fresh herbies as well. Set aside. Oh and find your corn starch along with a steel sieve.

Roast it until it looks like this, or until about 135 to 140 internal temperature. Pull it out, set it aside and let it rest for maybe 15 minutes or so. Do it.
Pull out the trivet and let the juicy goodness drip off, knock off any roasted goodness back into the skillet.
At this point any self respecting chef or book will tell you that you need two tablespoons of liquid in there. Well, I say that's crap. I'm going for max sauce/gravy and max flavor. If I have three tablespoons of drippings I'm damn well going to use them. If it turns out that you come up short of liquid, add some lard or butter. And here we go ...
Heat up the skillet under medium heat or so and get the fat & fond going. Toss in your shallots. Actually you could dice up mushrooms and/or sun dried tomatoes as well. But let's get the basics down first.
Now that you have the shallots rolling nicely, keep them moving. You don't want them to burn. Just let them go for a minute or two. They're small and the fat is hot. Grab a tablespoon of corn starch and sprinkling that in. You're looking for the corn starch to be absorbed and 'some' liquid left. Not a complete paste. For this roast I added some lard to the pan and got it hot before I tossed in the shallots. Then I ended up with two tablespoons of corn starch to make the sauce.
Slurry the starch and goodies around until you feel you have it right. Then grab some of your home made or organic/natural beef stock. Start with a cups worth and get the hot and cold to emulsify. Then add another cup or so. What you're looking for is a somewhat clear, dark brown, rich pan sauce that will barely yet smoothly coat the back of a spoon. Add a sprinkle of good salt and a grind or two of good pepper. Simmer a bit and pour through a steel sieve to remove bits. What you're left with is a SMOOTH, RICH, dark brown pan sauce that will cause you to smile. I'm smiling even now, just thinking of it.
Get to it !!!

made homemade bleu cheese dressing last night, cuz the grocery store ones bit the big one!

1/2 cup mayo
1/2 lowfat sour cream
3/4 tub of cumbly bleu cheese from Trader Joe's (all ingredients are from
TJ's actually)
dash of the following: pepper, italian herbs, parsely, garlic powder,
worcestershire, mustard
2 dashes of: red wine vinegar and rice vinegar (cuz I didn't have cider
vinegar)

yummy with carrots and veggie buffalo wings. heh.

this stuff rocked HARD. *never* buying store bought no more!
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This excerpt from an email from my sister. Thanks sis!

It was far better than this picture can ever possibly convey. And I"m sorry but I didn't make it and don't have the recipe or any secrets. But Eric did such an outfrickenstanding job of crafting this lovely soup I just HAD to install it here at MeatHenge. It deserves it, it's earned the right and dammit it was GREAT SOUP !!! Not one ingredient overpowered the other, each one had it's own place in the pot. I give this food stuff a rating of FACE IN MOUTH OPEN.

Here we see the beginnings of the jasmine rice being browned in butter. Grab yourself a nice heavy cast iron skillet. Melt a nice load of butter in it and toss into a cup of jasmine rice. Keep in mind, this does several things. First it turns normal boring rice into a nutty yummy gift of love. Secondly it gives your cast iron a nice shiny seasoned glow. The latter is very important, just so you know.

Look! Nutty brown buttery rice of love! Who knew white rice could look so good.

Oh my, who knew white rice could ever taste this good.