SO HEALTHY IT HURTS (HUMOR)

THIS IS NOT A REAL RECIPE.   Last year I did a April fools recipe and well I got wrapped up with stuff I forgot to do another one so here we go.  

 DEEP FRIED BACON WRAPPED BUTTER, STUFFED IN CHEESY BREAD!

INGREDIENTS!

2 Packages of Thick cut bacon.
2 Package of butter.
1 Block of Cheddar cheese.
 1 Block of Mozzarella cheese.
 1 Spinach Leaf Garnish.
4 Loaves of the white bread.
Cooking oil.
1 can of whip cream

METHOD OF INSANITY!

FIRST:
Melt two stick of butter on low in a deep cast iron pan. Lay bacon in butter and cook until crispy.
Set bacon aside and let dry and keep buttery, greasy bacon soup.    
Unwrap the other brick of butter and put on a plate.   Next open up the second package of bacon and wrap 4 strip around each brick.   Set aside.
 Grate both blocks of Mozzarella and Cheddar cheese, mix together in a large bowl, set aside.
Next take 3 of the bread loaves and dice them into small piece that look like croutons.   Put all in large skillet and pour 1 1/2 cups of melted butter and bacon grease over the top and turn stove top to Medium high and cook and stir till all is absorbed and the bread turns golden. Now mix in both of the cheeses.    Put in oven and keep warm.   
Have your deep fryer ready.   
With the last piece of bread, cut it into slices and wrap each slice around the bacon and butter, pinch the edges closed.  Drop in hot oil and cook until bread is toasted.   Repeat with the rest.  Mmmmm smell that deep fried butter.     Take out the cheesy bread mixture and place the deep fired butter on top.  Add the spinach leaf for garnish. And last but not least add whip cream to top.   

Yummy.   Either you in shock, or laughing.     
 

SAVE THE BROTH

Save the broth from the EASY COCONUT PABLONO CHICKEN WITH SUSHI RICE.

From one meal another can be created. 

Remove the boneless chicken, peppers and onions.  Pour all the liquid into a sieve and strain into a clean bowl as much as possible.  

You can skim off the fat or  put the broth in the refrigerator like I do and the fat will harden up and it easier to remove.

Note: This broth is very concentrated so add two cup of water to it is fine.

INGREDIENTS;
1 cup of Corn
1 cup of green beans.
1 potato cut into chunkes
2 carrots skinned and diced.
1 cup of broccoli diced.'
2 cups of water.   
If you have any left over rice it is fine to toss some in.
1 cup of shredded chicken.

Add all to soup pot bring to a boil and then let simmer until carrots are soft.  

And if you don't want to make soup, this make a awesome gravy.   

Yummy and super easy.

BASIC: SUSHI RICE

 Sushi rice is darn easy and who ever said you have to use it just for making sushi rolls.  You can use it just as it hot or cold.    Cold sushi rice with hot veggies and your choice of cooked meat is a real treat.  

2 cups of Sushi Rice.    I use a brand called Calrose.

 First wash the rice.  All that white stuff is starch, so rinse the rice about 4 to 5 times.

 About like this.  So the water is clearer than it was.   Now drain off as much water as you can using a sieve.  

This is one of my many sieve, if you don't have one of these you can also use a splatter screen, they work really well too.
 Put a clean dish towel under it and then spread the sushi rice over the top.  It take about 15 minutes for sushi rice to dry.   All you have to do is put something dry underneath the sieve to absorb most of the water.  It can be a bit damp, and not all the way dry.

  Above I put some extra napkins to absorb extra water.    And from the picture to the left you can see the rice spread out and drying.

  The dried Sushi Rice.

 Add 3 cups of water.  Turn to high with lid on.

 I love glass lids.   As soon as you see this, turn it down to low.    Or as soon as you see bubbles spitting out the side of a lid.

Next life the lid if you have to and look for the little holes with bubbles coming out of them, as soon as they look similar to this shut the burner off.     As you can see their is still some big bubbles.  Take it off the burner and let it rest 15 minutes more.

 8 Table spoons vinegar
4 Table spoons sugar.

 Bring to a light boil.  Little bubbles, not big bubbles.   Until the sugar is dissolved.

 After the 15 minutes is up. Pour the rice into a bowl and cut into it to release steam.   Do this for about another 15 minutes.  After that pour all of the vinegar mixture into the sushi rice and keep cutting and mixing it in.

 How to store sushi rice for later.   Cover with paper towel or napkins.

 Use water to damp the entire napkin or paper towel and then cover with a lid.   This way the rice will not dry out. And be sure to tuck the edges into.

If you do not do this you will have rock hard rice.  It dries out super fast.  

 You can use this for breakfast with hot eggs, lunch with tuna and dinner.  This amount of rice should last about three or four day.  

EASY COCONUT, PINEAPPLE & PABLONO CHICKEN WITH SUSHI RICE

EASY COCONUT PABLONO CHICKEN WITH SUSHI RICE

Sushi recipe will be posted in the next blog.

This a very simple and easy recipe
Note: This is a meal for two people, if you have a large family all you have to do is double or triple the recipe.
You will need a small soup pot or a large deep pan.
Please do not throw away the broth from this meal, you can use it for soup or gravy.  mmmmmm

INGREDIENTS:
4 Piece of boneless chicken.
1 cup of coconut milk
2 cups of water or soup broth.
1 White Onion
2 Big Pablono Peppers.
1 Table spoon cinnamon
1 Table spoon Thyme
1 Table spoon Paprika
1 Table spoon honey
Pineapple chunks.

METHOD OF PREPARATION:

Cut pablono peppers into thin strips, chop up onion,  put in pot or pan with chicken, spices, coconut milk, water and honey.   Bring to a boil, then turn down to low and cover with a lid, let simmer for 1 hour or more. 

 4 or 6 pieces.

 1 cup coconut milk to 2 cup water or broth,

Add onion, pepper and spices.

After an hour of cooking.  mmmmmm
In the picture above I served it on sushi rice or you can serve it on jasmine rice.

In my next blog I will post how to make Sushi Rice.
Save the broth, because I will also be adding a easy recipe for that too.  

ICE VIETNAMESE COFFEE

ICE VIETNAMESE COFFEE

Yes I am an addict and I can freely admit it and no I do not ever want intervention.   

This recipe requires a Blender. 

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups strong coffee
2 table sweeten condensed milk
8 ice cubes
sugar to taste or syrup (optional)






Boil water and pour water very slowly over coffee.  I used 4 tablespoons of coffee for this recipe.

 Cool coffee.   If you stir the coffee it helps cool it down faster. 

 Add two tablespoons of condensed milk to cooled coffee, stir well.

 Add 8 ice cubes to blender.

 Add coffee.

Plus the ice crush button till all the ice cubes are blended then pulse the blend button until the coffee is nice and frothy. mmmmmm





Enjoy your treat.  And if you want you can top with whip cream.

DIRY ORZO & CAULIFLOWER

What I blog looks so nice and uniform then I post it and it moves around and does it's own thing.  Oh well.

DIRTY RICE WITH ORZO & CAULIFLOWER

INGREDIENTS:
1/2 Head cauliflower.
1 white onion
1 cup of Orzo
5 cups water, broth, or mixed
2 bay leaves
2 Garlic
2 Tablespoon olive oil.
2 Teaspoons of each
Cinnamon, Oregano, Thyme, Basil, Pepper, Paprika, Cumin.
1 Packet of Mc Cormick Low sodium Taco seasoning.

METHOD OF PREPARATION


First chop up the Cauliflower into equal bite size piece.  













Uncooked Orzo   (it's a pasta)

In a pot I added some left over soup broth and added some extra water to equal 4 cups and add two bay leaves.  Bring this to a boil.
No I have not lost my mind by taking lot's of pictures of boiling broth. :)    I want to show you how you can use the starch as a timer.

Just added the Orzo.   This is on high.  At any time you feel that the water is going to boil over turn it down to medium low or even low.  And then turn it back up to medium high.  Stir occasionally.

Oh no it going crazy.  No not really.  But as you can see all the white foam is starch.

Here we go. See the little foam raft, this is the starch.  This is telling you that the pasta is almost close to being done.










Now take notice how the starch raft on the bottom is a lot thicker and less white.  All pasta starch rafts will look different, depending on the type of pasta.   ORZO when done with have very soft texture. 

Here is what cooked and dry Orzo look like side by side.   You can see how the cooked Orzo on the right is plump and a lot bigger.    It should have a very soft texture, almost like biting into a gummy bear.
Below have a colander ready to drain off the water to let cool, before you pour it down the drain.





















Dice up the onion

Cut up the Garlic

Add two table spoons of olive oil to a pan with onions, garlic and spices.  Turn stove top to medium high and saute.

 Cooked and mixed with spices.














                        
                      
Add 1/2 of cup of water or broth to keep food from burning the food.  Medium high.

 Add the Cauliflower and Taco seasoning.

 Mix in and add the rest of the 1/2 cup of liquid.  All we are doing now is letting it steam. So put the lid on and let it steam finished.   Stir occasionally.  Add another 1/2 cup of water if you feel the water has evaporated.   When the cauliflower is done steaming it should have a nice nutty and soft texture, not mushy.  

Grate a little cheese on top and dinner is served.

DIG IN.

BASIC: CAULIFLOWER

 HOW TO CUT UP CAULIFLOWER

Cauliflower the other white meat. :)  

First you want to take off the leaves as much as possible.  Take note that the leaves are totally edible.  So if you want you can add them to salads.  But try to use the bright crisp ones.

Stick the knife in to the stem as close as you can get it, work it in and pull down, the steam will snap off.

 Don't discard the steam, see the white part in the middle, that is what I like to eat, yummy.  Look for the little brown blemish that makes a circle, cut straight down and remove the leaves.

 Nom.   Crunchy.

 The small cauliflower on the cutting board is called a florets. Cut them at their stems.

 Here are all the florets and the rest of the stem in the upper left hand corner, do not throw that away.
You can steam this in a steamer or bake them. 

Minced Cauliflower.   Chop chop and chop, I use this method for when I use it as a substitute for meat.  
And you can use this method for salads too.  


My next post with be another version of Dirty Rice, but instead of meat and rice, it will be replaced with Cauliflower and Orzo.