A Long Time Coming

Ho boy have I got an update for you all.  Sorry to keep you waiting, but trust me, it was worth it.

So.  As you know, I had a few things in the works:  Beer battered chicken was the last one that I disclosed to you (I'm so full of surprises), plus I made my rendition of Mexican-styled Macaroni and Cheese (all home made) and I threw in some breakfast stuff just to round it all out.

So first, up, Chicken Thursday (it was actually Wednesday):

This is the beer battered chicken with homemade French fries care of a simple recipe my girlfriend found  Despite following the scooking directions and frying the chicken until the batter was golden brown, all  but two of the five pieces were quite undercooked.  Next time, it'll be chicken strips, not whole breasts.  This was my first attempt at deep frying, but it's pretty shameful nonetheless.

The fries were K's contribution and were actually baked in the oven.  Let me tell ya...They were incredible.  Screw New York Fries.  In fact - Sorry Dad, it's better than home-made deep fried (don't tell him I said that...).

Next time, as I said, I'll be cutting the chicken into strips.  I'll be staying with the same beer, Creemore Springs Lager.  It produces a nice, well-rounded almost fresh bread kind of flavour (well, it is a loaf in a can...) and I'll definitely be adding spices to the batter again.   Garlic powder and ground chipotle produce a most excellent flavour.

As for the fries, I'll be switching over to sweet potato, and I'll be serving that up with homemade chipotle mayo.  I'll actually be doing that tonight, so expect another mass post in a week or two.

Next up is the Mexi-Mac and Double-Salsa salad.

Okay, so salad first (that's how it's normally done, isn't it?).  Due to camera limitations, you can't see much of anything here, so I'll describe it:  Greens, tomato and reen pepper salse topped with cheese salsa.  All home made.  I used both in the Macaroni and Cheese, although the cheese salsa that I set aside didn't have jalapenos added to it, just some spices commonly used in Mexican cuisine.  This was because K doesn't like spicy all that much, so I wanted to reduce that in case the main dish was too spicy.  At least she'd have something.

So, this is it, my Mexi-Mac.  it's Macroni, ground beef, cheese sauce, tomato salsa with peppers, corn and black olives and, of course, macaroni pasta.  I don't think I added enough flavouring (I seasoned the beef with beer, lime juice and spices and I didn't want to go overkill), but K thought it rocked.  It either got better over days 2 and 3 or the vaporised jalapeno pepper acid was slowly leaving my tastebuds (I really couldn't taste or smell anything after making this guy).  After I put everything in the baking pan, I put it in the oven at 200 F for 20 minutes. 

To absborb some of the liquid, I added bread crumbs and parmesan cheese to the top.  The parmesan actually made little difference in flavour, it was that ooey-gooey cheesy good.

The downside is that because of all of the sauces, there is a lot of prep work involved here.  I admit that I didn't have to season the beef, but that took 10 minutes and it sat in the fridge for an hour, big whoop.  The whole thing took me about three hours to make, and the beef was the least time consuming element and tasted fantastic, so it's not getting cut.

It also fed me for 6 days.

Now, the next thing I made was a vegetarian salad, which was, I believe, last Friday.  I was feeling kinda crappy from eating so much heavy food over the course of the week that I decided to make something fairly light.

Now, this was fairly simple:  Pasta (tricolour fusilli and macaroni), cubed provalone, mixed greens, tomatoes, yellow pepper and mushrooms fried in olive oil with some garlic, thyme and basil.  The mushroom oil mix serviced as both an ingredient and a dressing, and it was okay.  A little bland.  From prep to plate, 30 minutes.

And finally, I tried my hand at remaking the fajita last Saturday.



So, this is it; steak, tomatoes and yellow pepper topped with old cheddar.  The space where I lay the meat and veggie mixture is first brushed with a fajita sauce that I made from tomato purée, lime juice, tequila and Mexican spices.  The meat and veggies get another coat of the sauce, the cheese goes on and I wrap it up.  After that, it goes in the oven at 200 for 15 minutes.

The end result:  Awesome.  I'm really starting to get the hang of Tex-Mex cooking; it's difficulty is about on-par with Italian cuisine, and frankly, it's just as delicious.  I was also really surprised by the meat, it was much more tender than I thought it would be; I cooked it in lime juice with the veggies for a few minutes, but I doubt that's what did it.

For next time, I will be showing off mine and K's elite chicken Paella-making skills and then some.

Now eat up, or no dessert.  Ever.