Perfect for a rainy day

Chocolate milk and instant coffee = nice home made cafe mocha.

Set up a double boiler. I used a egg whisk. Heat and whisk non stop until the bubbles get very small and very glossy. 

Remove from heat and pour up for enjoyment. The higher the milk % the creamier the Mocha. I used almost one mug of 25 chocolate milk and one TSP of instant coffee for this. Reason I used less milk then a full mug is I wanted room for my mocha foam I formed.

Fallow up

Did Honey Earl Grey Tea muffins.

Yip.

I was wondering how it would taste, so I made some at work. Half oz per muffin.

Chili Hot Summers

Nothing like my mothers home chili amd a Dr. Pepper.

Mmmm the other white meat.

.

Beer O Clock.

Bacon Fat = Gold

Ok. So I am having a birthday party ( it's my not so big 3 0 ). So I wanted to do something special. I am having a BYOB party. ( Bring Your Own Bacon ).

Now I want to have a conversation with everyone. Bacon grease is a very viable replacement for oil and butter.

Butter Per Ounce ( unsalted )

Olive Oil

Now Bacon

Notice how close olive oil and bacon grease are in scores. Only off by 3 calories. I would like to say they are the same in fats, but there are less saturated fats in Olive oil, by a 36%, which is in reverse for trans fats. Which has to be expected as one in plant fats and the other is animal fats. ( What ask Mary had to say on the differences "Ask Mary" ).

Alot of people replace butter with bacon grease one to one ( bacon grease has the higher calorie count on this one.) For frying and also in baking... yes baking, such as short bread cookies and ginger bread cookies being the most common. Also a nice for braising cabbage in with some onion, blue cheese, touch of cream, and MORE BACON.

Bacon fat can be stored in a air sealed container in the fridge for 6 months, or in the freezer for 6-9 months. after that the flavour starts to break down as does it's usefulness.

Later I will be posting a few things I made from the bacon grease for my gathering. So far as a hint, one if booze and the other has to do with a very common sandwich spread.

Sol Bady.

Did a panko crusted sol sided with Quinoa grian vegetable pilaf. (Wanted to try something other then rice and seen a bag of quinoa my girlfriend had bought and said "why not"). I have to say I love the type of texture I got out of it. I used less water then the packaging asked for as I always do with my full grain rice, as I find the industry standard in my opinion us to mushy. Rice should have texture and give to it. This grain did not disappoint.

I also used some raspberry almond tartar sauce I had sitting in the fridge I made awhile back. Worked great on the sol.

Gumbobalaya

To clearify a few things this is my Gumbo recipe, BUUUT I was out of okra so it's Jambalaya.

Getting the cut's ready, and a million bowls as Robyn ( my better half) would tell you I always use, as I try to Mise En Place when cooking.... but never do as I start half way through. Habit of a line cook.

I small dice the onion ( doing onion first as most of the nutrition and benefits of onions best come out of cutting and resting the onion for at lest 10mins. )

I put about 1 and a half cups of frozen small shrimp on water to loosen the tails.

Some celery for the mirepoix (well we are doing tasty stock with yellow peppers.)

med diced like the onion.

To give you an idea of the cut I made.

More mirepoix work.

I slice down the bottom of the garlic to make it very easy to peel. Just pull back taking off one full side of peel, then going back for the rest.

Hope you didn't toss your vegetable peels and scraps. We toss those into a pot of water with two more cloves of crushed garlic and bring to a boil. Once at a boil turn in min and ignore it. ( make sure you still have room in your pot for double of what is in there, you'll learn why later.)

Cooked off some crab last night fresh from the sea ( cooks have their sources after being in the industry for a few years, where to get fresh, fresh, fresh product ) in sea water. ( place an inch of sea water into boiler then live crab. bring to boil and time for 12mins. take out and shock in ice water. Rip off lag and toss body.)

RAWR!!!

Melt 1/4 butter in large pot, then turn on min.

Time to learn how to quickly get your crab meat. Stab peering knife into leg.

Turn up and push blade down.

You have two halves. If you can't figure how to get the meat out now send your crab to me, I'll eat it.

For claw, pull the movable pincer up and pull out.

I use my large chef knife to crush into the center of the claw and cut through it. ( my knives are kept VERY sharp.)

SAVE YOUR SHELLS!!! They are getting tossed into that butter you just melted. Along with the shrimp tails you just pulled off all your shrimp. ( if you get fully shelled shrimp de-shell them and use the full shell, MORE FLAVOR!!) Turn up to med, add a touch of water from your veg stock you are working on, just a touch to get steam and plunk a lid on that pot.

Mmmmmeat. 

Cut up some lovely fresh parsley for the mirepoix.

Remember the bacon in my last blog, well some survived to today. Diced fine for the mirepoix -cough- I mean tastie stock.

mmm Tastie stock..

What's this... sexy chourico sausage. 

Quarter diced.

Chicken breast. If you had a roasted chicken the day before I'd use that, better flavor, AND you'd have a chicken carcass to roast off and make chicken stock out of, oooo.

That's sexy.

Not that your shell has been steaming in the butter to add flavor get your tongs. Pick all of those shrimp tails and shell out and place them in your veg stock (see told you you'd need more room). Add water to your veg and now shell fish stock pot, just enough to cover what is in it. Bring it to a boil then reduce heat to simmer.

Now see how there is a build up on your large pot. Let's fix that.

White wine baby. Bring your pot up to a med heat before added. When you hear it start to sizzle. Then hit it with the wine ( just enough to cover the bottom ) and scrap the bottom with your tongs.

Sexy no?

another 1/4 cup of butter. I used salted, forgot to say.

When that is melted toss in your chicken and sausage till the chicken is cooked.

Once the meat is cooked, toss in your tastie stock mix and cook till your onions are translucent.

Pot strainer. Buy one.

Time to add your other stock you made. Mmm HOT!.

Notice your pot isn't full? Add enough chicken stock to bring it up 2 inches form your stock pot.

Some bay leaf.

Pepper, chili pepper, basil ( my favorite herb.) and honey. ( if you want a spicy smoky taste add chipotle power, which I would have if it wasn't being cooked for my in-laws. They are not a fan of hot hot foods.)

Add in 2 cups of rice and soften. This will help thicken your stock. Once soft add your shrimp and crab. I was out of okra otherwise I would have added it now too, but I didn't... so I was sad. Thicken abit if the rice and okra wasn't to your liking with abit of rue. (melt butter in pan, slowly add flour till you have a nice paste, then add to soup.)

I then turn off my Gumbo and ignore it for a few hours. (I started this at 11am and it was finished at 2:45pm the point where I ignore it.) Then heat as you need it. The ignoring part is to allow for the flavors to meld. This is one of those things best left for a day in the fridge before eating. Or hell, bottle it up.