| Baked Potato Bliss |
Warning: South Beach UNFriendly content ahead!
Sometimes, you just have to. I am an absolute sucker for a perfect jacket potato. I think I must have eaten at Spud-U-Like in the shopping centre more than any other fast food chain. With delicious butter, sour cream, or some tangy melty Irish cheddar, there's nothing like a baked potato.
Consequently, preparing this root vegetable is a bit of an obsession of mine. Having experimented with almost every conceivable method - steaming in the microwave, toaster oven, poking holes in them - and have finally honed my chosen preparation to perfection. This is so good it's been adopted by my mother, the semi-original Evil Housewife!
You will need:
Good baking potatoes. I like Yukon Gold.
Olive oil
Sea salt
Preheat the oven to 350. Scrub the potatoes down well to get rid of potato dirt. Pat dry.
Rub the potatoes with some olive oil. Do not punch holes in your potatoes. They will not explode unless you decide to stuff them with gunpowder (not recommended). Roll the oiled potatoes in sea salt.
Place directly on the oven rack and bake for one hour.
When ready to serve, cover potato with a clean tea towel and give it a good thump with your fist. This releases the steam quickly and makes for a lighter, fluffier result! Serve with butter, sour cream, cheese, chili, or whatever your heart's delight is.
They can quickly become the centerpiece of your meal! |
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| Late night kebabs |
Where I grew up, late night drinking was followed by a late night trip to the diner and a huge order of cheese fries with gravy. This is probably a contributing factor to the current state of my waistline.
The British equivalent of this institution is the kebab. Served hot, in a pita, from any number of semi-grotty cookshops, it is late night heaven and a heck of a lot more calorie friendly than a plate of heaving, congealing gravy loaded carbs.
Unfortunately this just isn't something that has caught on in the US. While we remain on the quest to find the perfect kebab shop (the closest one we know of at the moment is in Boston and they're certainly not open very late), I am on the quest for the perfect kebab.
Kebab shop kebabs are marinated in some sort of yoghurt based marinade, and I found this recipe on RTE. I've modified it somewhat to better approximate a kebab shop style.
It's a heck of a lot easier than kidnapping a kebab shop owner, at any rate.
You will need some decently trimmed chicken breasts for this, and some bamboo or metal skewers.
Marinade:
250ml natural yoghurt
Juice of 2 limes
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon Garam masala
1 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon Turmeric
Start by chopping the chicken into 2" x 2" cubes and threading onto the skewers.
Combine all of the marinade ingredients and stir together.
In a glass or plastic dish, pour the marinade over the kebabs. Cover and chill until you are ready to cook them. I meant to marinate for four hours and it wound up closer to eight, which seems to have worked reasonably well.
Place on heated grill and cook for 5 minutes per side or until chicken is no longer pink in the middle.
I served this with couscous, another ridiculously simple whole grain. Boil water, pour on couscous, let stand, fluff, done. How much easier can you ask for?
These came out as a reasonable approximation of what we've been missing. I love using yoghurt as a marinade base, it gives an awesomely tangy flavor! Until we can get to Boston or back to the UK, this recipe passes muster.Labels: chicken, expat food, Moroccan, whole grains |
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| Outside the Box |
Mondays. Who needs them?
Mondays are the day I like to get my grocery shopping for the week done. This assumes I've been a good little worker and gotten myself organised with some menu planning and cookbooks.
Grocery shopping is probably one of the biggest differences between the places I've lived. It's a mundane household chore, and it's surprising to see how different it is all over the world. As a socially-conscious Evil Housewife, I like to be able to buy local items, particularly meat and produce. This is something I've noticed isn't as easy here in the US as it was elsewhere.
Since it's springtime, cold, and rainy, my time in Ireland springs to mind. There were a few things about grocery shopping in Ireland which made keeping the "green factor" in the lists was much easier.
The first thing to notice is that the Irish haven't yet given up a localized way of life in exchange for convenience. There certainly are a good number of Tesco's and Superquinns, but they haven't yet overtaken the likes of local butchers and produce markets. In fact, the local Tesco's where we lived had a butcher's shop inside it. Was it kind of a pain to have to go to the butcher, then to a separate shop for produce? Sure; plenty of times I ignored those options in favour of a ready meal from Marks & Spencer. However even living relatively rurally in America, it's still much more difficult to find local items unless you really know where to look.
The second thing I noticed is that even when you are shopping in a supermarket, local items are emphasized. Our Superquinns, for example, had the origins of the produce down to the name of the farm that shipped it in. The meat was packaged with this information (possibly due to a few disease outbreaks, but I'll take what I can get!) so I could choose between the cow from up the road and the cow from Argentina. Yes, there is a difference!
The last thing, and this is fairly important, is the lack of high fructose corn syrup. This goes for pretty much anywhere I lived apart from America! Sure, the jury is still out on whether HFCS is the Great Evil; what I *do* know is that I was two and a half stone lighter when I lived there, and it's not down to lifestyle or any real diet changes.
So those are the thoughts that were in my head as I was grocery shopping, and pining for the old country, as it were. Then I came home and set to making the marinade for tonight's dish - sweet soy marinated steak.
You will need:
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1 tablespoon granulated brown sugar substitute
1 tablespoon sugar substitute
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 sirloin steaks
In a shallow glass dish, combine the soy sauce, brown sugar substitute, sugar substitute, and the garlic. Add the steak and turn to coat well. Let stand for at least 20 minutes or refrigerate for up to 4 hours, turning once.
Since this is a sugary marinade, take care that you don't char the steak! Sear the meat over high heat and then reduce and continue cooking until the inner temperature is at 160 F.
I served this with simple steamed carrots and fresh bread rolls. Not carb-healthy, but yum!Labels: beef, marinades, observations |
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| Bad weekend |
Even evil housewives can fall victim to emotional eating, and eat I did. I don't think a single morsel crossed these wicked lips that wasn't loaded with salt, sugar, and fat.
Getting back on track is going to be interesting. It certainly is something that happens to the best of us. After all, I'd have to say that most of the issues people have with diet is adapting to the lifestyle change. Had I been home, I probably wouldn't have fallen victim so easily, but the weekend was spent shuttling back and forth between the barn so food, or food preparation, was out of the question for a very drained me.
Ah well. Your Evil Housewife will return tomorrow, hopefully with better words!Labels: fail |
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| Meatloaf - The Arch Enemy Revisited |
Ahh, meatloaf. Staple of the 20th century housewife. It's a delicious, comforting food just like momma used to make.
Or so I'm told.
Meatloaf is the arch enemy. No matter what recipe I use, it always comes out as a gloppy mess which the minions bravely eat. I've tried vintage recipes, modern recipes, recipes off of the internet. Meatloaf defeats my super powers and doesn't even pause to wipe.
This meatloaf recipe has evolved somewhat, and may possibly be slightly more successful than my other versions. At the very least, it's in one piece after cooking.
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1/2 green bell pepper, diced
1 medium onion, diced
1 cup salsa
1/2 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 lb. lean ground turkey
1 egg, beaten
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
Preheat the oven to 350°. In a small skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, red, and green peppers and saute until tender.
In a medium bowl, combine the turkey, beef, egg, garlic, and salsa. Mix until uniformly gloppy, then add the cooked rice and the vegetables.
Pour into a shallow baking dish and shape into something vaguely loaf-like.
Cook for 45 minutes.
While this came out okay and certainly tastes just fine, the texture still doesn't please me. I remain on the quest to hunt down and conquer an actual, successful loaf. Damn you, meatloaf!Labels: defeat, meatloaf, the arch nemesis |
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posted by Gwenneh at 
