Sunday, May 23, 2010

Sunday Roast-ess with the Most-ess

Story: In England, most pubs and restaurants offer a Roast that is only available on Sunday evenings. The "Sunday Roast" as it is creatively called usually consists of hearty food such as roast beef, rotisserie chicken, or a pork loin. The sides range from potatoes to broccoli to turnips. The veggies are traditionally prepared very simply with salt, pepper, and the drippings from the roasting meat.

The Sunday Roast first started when medieval squires provided their serfs with a meal on Sundays to reward them for a week of hard work. The meal would usually center around a roast boar or roast oxen.


So as this story goes, my roommate and I had a ridiculous work schedule this week. In the spirit of our English forefathers, I made my version of a Sunday roast in which my roommate took part.*

*In no way should this be directly construed as my roommate being my serf, however; if it walks and talks like a duck...

The Meal: My version of dinner starts with a spiral sliced ham. I didn't have time to prepare an entire ham myself so I took the short cut of getting prepared ham. This one was from Trader Joes (hopefully one day I can get them to sponsor me).


As far as my first side goes, I made a Hawaiian-style mac salad. Mac salad can be found all over the islands where they famously accompany sweet Korean short ribs. Tourists and locals alike
devour Hawaiian lunch plates consisting of a protein, a heap of mac salad, and a mound of white rice.

Cook farfalle pasta with boiling salt water. I prefer farfalle pasta since I think the dressing coats it better than elbow noodles. For some reason, a few recipes will tell you to "overcook" the pasta (or cook it longer than you would al dente) since the pasta seems to soak up the dressing better.

Once the pasta is cooked all the way through, rinse it thoroughly with cold water to stop the cooking process.

Once the pasta is cooled to room temperature, add the juice of half a lemon into the pasta.


Take a heaping spoon of non-fat sour cream and a spoon of low fat mayo into the pasta. Most recipes don't require sour cream but most people I know are weirded out with eating that much mayo (the non-fat sour cream makes this dish a tad bit healthier).


Add in salt, seasoned salt, pepper, and paprika into the mix.


Finally, throw in a handful of shredded carrots. The carrots add a sweet crunch into the dish that works well with the salty creaminess of the pasta.
Mac salad's close up.
Put your "salad" into the fridge. Here, the longer it stays in the refrigerator the better the dish. You should give the pasta a chance to soak up the dressing and for the pasta to firm up.

Asparagus

For my second side, I decide to make a roasted balsamic asparagus. This is a very simple dish.



Ingredients: Asparagus, olive oil, lemon, balsamic vinegar, blue cheese, salt and pepper.

A trick that I just recently learned. If you take the asparagus and snap it while holding it at both ends, the stalk will snap into two parts. The top of the stalk is edible and the bottom is the part you throw away.

You can use the snapped asparagus as a ruler to cut the rest of the asparagus.

Season the stalks with salt, pepper, and olive oil and put them into a 400F oven for 7 minutes.


When the asparagus start to slightly wilt take the asparagus out. Crumble some blue cheese and sprinkle balsamic vinegar onto the stalks.

Put the dish back into the oven for 3-5 minutes until the cheese is fully melted and the asparagus is done.


We hammed it up. This ham from Trader Joes was organic and nitrate free. I really don't know what that means but it sounds healthy.

Sunday Roast is done. I added a biscuit it seemed fitting.


Cheers!


Monday, May 10, 2010

Picnic with a Friend: A (Medjool) Date to Remember

Story: My friend and apparently an avid reader of this blog was passing through Charlotte so I decided to treat her to some "home cooking". The day before, I was at a Beer, Bourbon and BBQ festival. I enjoyed the weather and food so much that I wanted to spend as much time outside as I could for the remainder of the weekend. I thought that there is no better way to enjoy the outdoors and the company of a good friend than a picnic.

I picked up my friend from the airport on Mother's day. After "very little" searching, we found a nice, quaint spot to set up. I just tried to make things easy to eat and that would hold up well in the heat (so little dairy). Needless to say, I had a great time.

The Food:
One of my favorites foods in the world is bacon-wrapped dates. It's super easy to make, surprisingly tasty, and very versatile. There are several types of dates out there but I prefer Medjool dates since they usually have a good size and are widely available.

From Amicus Curry

Why did the banana ask out the prune?

Answer: Because he wanted a date!

From Amicus Curry

The experience of biting into a delicious and juicy date with a seed is the pits! Speaking of, be sure to take the pits out of the dates. It's as easy as taking a paring knife and cutting half way into the date and then digging out the seed.

From Amicus Curry

Take some good thick cut bacon and wrap it around each date. Use a toothpick to secure the bacon around the date. Make sure you soak the toothpicks in some water so that they don't catch on fire or char.

From Amicus Curry
Bake the bacon-wrapped dates in the oven for 15 minutes at 350F. Then turn on your broiler for 5 minutes to crisp up the bacon. Enjoy these little treats! I enjoy them because of the contrast between the salty crispiness of the bacon with the sweet, delicate texture of the dates.

Variations: You can stuff the dates with blue cheese or fruit marmalade. I prefer the blue cheese since the marmalade can make the dates too sweet. I didn't use blue cheese here since my guest doesn't eat moldy cheese (know your audience).

Pesto-Chicken Sandwich

From Amicus Curry
Grill some chicken breasts with some salt and pepper.


From Amicus Curry
After the chicken is 75% done- take them off the grill and let them rest for a bit. Dice the chicken into cubes and throw the chicken cubes into a pan with olive oil and browned garlic.

From Amicus Curry
Add some pesto to the chicken and turn off the pan. The heat should finish cooking the chicken, You really don't want to over cook or for that matter under cook poultry. Refrigerate.

From Amicus Curry
I decided to use snow pea sprouts, tomatoes, and roasted bell peppers to accompany the pesto chicken. Snow pea sprouts are a great alternative to lettuce because they are sweeter and are easily layered in a sandwich.

From Amicus Curry

After putting on all the veggies, place the pesto chicken (preferably refrigerated for a couple hours) on top.

From Amicus Curry

To Drink:

I took pineapple cubes and mango slices and soaked them in vodka. I put the mix into the freezer for a couple of hours.

From Amicus Curry

The pineapples and mango would act as "ice cubes" and keep the drink cold.

From Amicus Curry

When it was time to drink, I combined the pineapple/mango mix with an orange soda (I actually used a drink that was very similar to Orangina).

No picnic would be complete without dessert. I admit I don't have a sweet tooth so I really don't know how to make desserts. Because my lack of desserting diligence, I picked up a serving of banana pudding (or nana pudding as it was called) believe it or not at a local gas station. It was my first time ever having it and hopefully not my last.

All in all---a good first attempt at picnic-ing. Would love to do it again....in Hawaii.