I could smell the bacon cooking all the way up here in Bastrop.
Smokey the cat had to hide my keys.

Typical summer meal here today. Marinated and grilled chicken breast, grilled asparagus from the garden and salads of lettuce and spinach from the garden. Made a batch of fresh celery seed salad dressing.

20200606_172347 by Brownrexx, on Flickr

I picked my first Swiss Chard today so I made Lemon Chicken and Swiss Chard. The sauce is made with chicken broth, butter, onions and fresh lemon juice and is very rich. Hubby just loved the taste of the sauce with the chard. Corn is from last year's harvest.



Lemon chicken and Swiss Chard by Brownrexx, on Flickr

Looks delicious. I love lemon.

I got up and steamed a big kettle of tamales this morning at 3AM.
They are for the guys at work.
Been pestering me for days.
I can smell them in my truck it's killing me.

Tamales a big success.
Guy from Ecuador got the biggest one.
It was a ghost pepper tamale.
More for lunch.

Fried fish three days in a row.
Tonight will be an addition of fried Jicama for the very first time.
I'm twice frying it and I must say very impressed so far.
Not anything like fried sweet potato which I dont really care for.

Interested in seeing how it comes out. Must say when I tried it I liked it, but I only ate it raw. I have one sitting on the counter now that will need to find a use for.

I made a variation of a recipe I found in Milk Street's new book, Fast And Slow, this one the fast version, in the Instant Pot, of Chicken Cafreal. But I cut the amount of chicken in half, and added a pound of diced kohlrabi, since I have all that kohlrabi to use up, and it turned out great! I also added some thickener at the end, probably necessitated by the water in the kohlrabi. I liked their method of saving half of that blended cilantro, chile, garlic, scallion, ginger, and spice mix, to add at the end. Next time, I'll use the same method, but all of the spices (there are 5 or 6 more) from my favorite cafreal recipe. I've noticed them shorting some of the Indian dishes on spices, trying to make them more compatible to the average kitchen.

I made some sorghum/WW flatbread to go with it, but I'm going to have to fool around with that, to get it right. Maybe much wetter, and pressed out, like corn tortillas.
The cilantro, chile, and spice mix of the Milk Street Chicken Cafreal. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Chicken Cafreal, with kohlrabi, from Fast and Slow by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Sue_CT wrote: ↑Thu Jun 11, 2020 9:50 pm Interested in seeing how it comes out. Must say when I tried it I liked it, but I only ate it raw. I have one sitting on the counter now that will need to find a use for.

Turned golden brown a little and still had an inner crunch, I thought they were very good.
Had them with the best gourmet sauce money could buy, (Ketchup).

Chicken Wings on the BGE. Might make some corn off the cob along with the wings. I’m pretty addicted to fresh sweet corn cut off the cob and then tossed in a skillet with some diced up bell and a jalapeño peppers. My meager G90 sweet corn crop, can’t have a bumper crop if you only grow 10-15 plants, is just right for this. The ears are small, not everything went according to plan with the corn, but no one will care when the kernels cut off the cobs.

Udon noodles with pork and garden vegetables.

I just sucked down a plate of homemade tamales and cheese enchiladas.
I ate 3 of the 5 enchiladas.
I make the enchiladas in the plate I'm going to eat them in and cook them in the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Porcelain plate good to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
I steam the com tortillas before making the enchiladas.
The hot plate is place on a metal trivet not on the cutting board.

Worth did you get any pictures of the fried Jicama? Did you bread it first?

Sue_CT wrote: ↑Fri Jun 12, 2020 5:45 pm Worth did you get any pictures of the fried Jicama? Did you bread it first?

No pictures too hungry.
Just cooked them like french fries no breading.

I made a delicious dish tonight, based on a Milk Street's July/August issue - Ethiopian Stewed Collard Greens. However, I used 4 different greens from the garden in my dish - Kohlrabi, Senposai, Red Bor kale, and some Kohlrabi greens. I also added some ground beef, which the article says is frequently in the dish, and I had to use up some from the freezer. I doubled the recipe, because I had so many greens to use, and made it in the CI wok - something it all fit in, once it wilted.

It started by browning some onions in ghee, then browned the beef, then this spice/garlic mix was added and cooked briefly, before the greens were added. At the end, the chilis and more ginger was added, along with some lemon juice.
Garlic and spices, plus the finishing chilis, for the Etiopian greens, from Milk Street July August. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Ethiopian greens, about half way through cooking. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

Finished Ethiopian Spiced Greens, from Milk Street. by pepperhead212, on Flickr

I also made a dish of millet and browned rice in the Instant pot, to eat it with, to soak up some of that liquid, since I didn't have any bread.

Hamburgers last night. Grass Fed 85/15, Aldi Brioche Buns toasted on the grill. Used 2# of meat for 5 patties. Wife made Hello Dolly’s for dessert.

Various Condiments offered on the side for a build your own burger. Interesting to see what people like. Had one big, over a pound, picture perfect and ripe Cherokee Purple sliced up along side a top gun and carmello. BIL was almost scared of the Cherokee Purple, picked the red tomato slices most distant from the dark tomato, like it was poisonous or something. Never had a Cherokee Purple either, just not a food curious person.

Today, it’s more tomatoes, yippee, no it actually sounds good. Pasta alla Norma, Eggplant and tomato pasta, Picked a Black Beauty eggplant perfect for this dish. That will be fried per recipe instructions and I’ll use fresh chopped tomatoes instead of canned.

Finished the Tomato hot sauce today after fermenting since last Saturday, or was it Friday? Dad gum, they all have turned out great. All decidedly different. One, the Thai, was not fermented, the last 2 were lacto-fermented. Fun and flavorful way to use up garden produce.

The Cowhorn sauce tastes amazingly and surprisingly like Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage. That sauce is my stepdaughter’s favorite. She is the one that nailed down the flavor profile, Not sure how the flavor managed to mimic sausage, absolutely no meat in it, must be some similarities in the spice blends. The Tomato sauce is a little hot, tangy and tart, Thai, forward heat with a bit of sweet.

I’m not sure I’ll do anymore of these this year. I ended up with 55 ounces of bottled sauce between the three. Somehow, I have only one partially full 5oz bottle of Thai sauce remaining. My buddy took one, he loves it. Stepson and my dad also each took one, they both demanded some. Now my stepdaughter wants a bottle of the Cowhorn. Stay away from my sauce! Jk.

I've always been a big, big fan of corn on the cobb slathered in butter. I don't know how most folks cook the corn, but I remember hating having to pick all the tassels off the corn after or before it is cooked/boiled. Many years ago, I learned a method which cooks the corn perfectly and removes the husk and silk totally in one quick step.

Place a large dinner plate in the microwave and fill it 3/4 full of water. Place one (possibly two) ear of corn in the plate and microwave it on high for three minutes. Turn the corn over and microwave it for three more minutes. Always remember, the corn is now very, very hot. Use a dish towel or tongs to handle it.

Lay the corn on a cutting board while holding the tassel end with a dish towel. With a large knife, cut the stem end off in the closest rows of corn to the stem. With the dish towel, start squeezing the tassel end of the corn ear until the perfectly clean ear pops out of the husk ready to receive it's baptism in butter. If it won't pop out, cut it again a little farther into the corn and squeeze it again.

Cooked the Pasta Alla Norma. Fantastic. Recipe called for canned chopped tomatoes, I peeled fresh ripe tomatoes. Look up pasta Alla Norma if you like wonderful, simple fresh flavors. Here’s the link.
https://food52.com/recipes/30722-pasta- ... mato-pasta