For the Love of Food

I have renovated this Blog so that it is easier to navigate. I have come to a point where I have too many recipe to display all at once, and it was feeling unorganized. If you have any suggestions, please send me a “comment” by clicking on the “comments” link at the bottom of this posting.

Chicken Wings
Ingredients:
8 Chicken Wings

Honey-Mustard Marinade: (for 4 Chicken Wings)
1 Tablespoon Yellow Mustard (from the jar)
1 teaspoon Honey
1/4 teaspoon Pepper
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/4 teaspoon ground Mustard Seed

Directions:
In a small bowl combine all ingredients and stir wel together. Coat chicken wings in marinade and place on a baking sheet in the middle of the oven. Broil/Grill at 275°C (552.6°F) for 10 minutes on the bottom side of the chicken wings, then flip over and brush the marinade on again and then continue to broil for another 7 minutes or until the wings are done.

Sambal Oelek Marinade: (for 4 Chicken Wings)
2 Tablespoons Sambal Oelek
1 Tablespoon Butter

Directions:
In a small sauce pan melt butter and sambal oelek together, do not boil. Remove from heat. Brush on chicken wings and place on a baking sheet in the middle of the oven. Broil/Grill at 275°C (552.6°F) for 10 minutes on the bottom side of the chicken wings, then flip over and brush the marinade on again and then continue to broil for another 7 minutes or until the wings are done.

Ingredients:
6 Eggs
1/4 Cup Mayonnaise
1/4 teaspoon Chili Powder
1/2 teaspoon Sambal Oelek mixed with 1/2 teaspoon melted Butter
1/2 teaspoon fresh Chives, diced
1/2 Cup Bacon chunks and drippings

Directions:
Hard boil the 6 eggs to desired doneness (I cook mine for 15 minutes). When eggs are done, remove from heat and cool in cold water until they are cool enough to handle. Carefully peel the shell off of the eggs and place in a safe location. When you are done peeling the eggs cut each one in half length-wise so that you end up with 2 “bowls” made of egg white. Scoop out the egg yolk into another bowl. Place the egg white bowls on a plate face-up.

Mash the egg yolks until there are only fine little crumbles, then add the mayonnaise and mix well. Add the chili powder, salt, sambal oelek and butter mixture, and half of the chives and mix well together. In a skillet cook the chunks of bacon until they are completely cooked and a little crunchy. Add the bacon chunks and the fat their drippings to the bowl with the egg yolk mixture. Mix well.

Spoon the mixture into each egg white bowl. Sprinkle the remaining chives on the eggs.

Ingredients:
1 medium-large Tomato
1 ball of fresh Mozzarella (125 g or 4.4 oz.)
6 fresh Basil leaves
Olive Oil
Red Wine Vinegar
Salt
Pepper

Directions:
Slice the tomato into 6 slices (6 rounds); slice the mozzarella ball into 6 slices and place one slice on each tomato. Place one basil leaf on each piece of mozzarella. Assemble salad on the plate you wish to serve it on. Drizzle some olive oil over the salad,then drizzle some vinegar over them. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Goes well with Ciabatta (a type of Italian bread) or a Baguette (French bread) sliced. Use the bread to soak up the vinegar and oil from the plate once the salad is eaten.

See recipes in folling posts: Deviled Eggs , Chicken Wings , Insalata Caprese

A nice warm dessert for an extra special occasion!
For step-by-step pictoral directions see: Cooking for Engineers

Ingredients:
1 Cup Whipping Cream (30% fat)
4 Egg Yolks
1/4 Cup Sugar
1/4 teaspoon Vanilla-Butter (this is the German version of vanilla extract in liquid form)
4 Custard dishes (small bowl or baking forms that are oven safe)
1 large Casserole Dish
Water
Propane Blow Torch or Kitchen Butane Torch
some extra Sugar

Directions:
Preheat oven to 250°F(121°C).
In a bowl beet sugar and egg yolks until smooth. In a small sauce pan heat the whipping cream until almost simmering, and let it cook for 1 minute. Then, add warmed whipping cream to the egg Yyolk mixture a little at a time and stir together. **If you pour the war whipping cream in all at once it will cook the egg yolks and it will ruin the whole recipe by making scrabled eggs.** Pour the mixture of the egg yolks, sugar, and whipping cream through a sieve into another bowl to catch any clumps. Mix in the vanilla extract after the mixture has run through the sieve. Pour the mixture into 4 custard containers.

Place the large casserole dish on the middle wrack of the preheated-oven and place the filled custard dishes in the caserole dish. Fill the casserole dish with enough water to be half-way up the sides of the custard dishes. Bake for 40-60 minutes. Then “check to see if the custards are done. We want them to be set on the outside edge, but jiggly (like jello) at the center. The easiest way to do this is to take a pair of tongs with food grade rubber bands wrapped around the ends to help grip the ramekins. Pick up a ramekin and shake to see if the centers jiggle. If the only the center jiggles a little, it’s done. If the whole thing is set, remove immediately – it’ll be a little over done, but still delicious. If it’s not done, just put it back in the water bath and check again in ten minutes. Once the custards are done, let them cool on a cooling rack to room temperature. This will let the custards finish cooking the centers on their own.”–Cooking for Engineers

Once cooled, place the custard dishes in a fire-safe location, such as on a metal table or a cutting board wrapped in aluminum foil, away from any objects that may catch fire, such as house plants, napkins, etc. Sprinkle some extra sugar over the custard in each dish until the entire surface is lightly covered. With the Blow torch, heat the sugar until it browns (don’t burn..turn black) by placing the blow torch over the sugar on the Custard until each location turns a light golden brown, then move to the next location. Pick up with oven mitts..it will be very hot! Then, enjoy!

*You may also make it a day ahead of time and refrigerate, this will make the Crème Brûlé a bit cooler since it has been chilled for a few hours, but it will still be good. I experimented with both eating it only 1 hour after cooking it and the next day after chilling it, and I prefere to eat it the same day when it is still warm all the way through.

Shrimp Cocktail
Ingredients:
400g (about 1/2Lb.) of uncooked Shrimp, shell removed, shell left on the tail
Water
a Vegetable steamer

Directions:
Place the vegetable steamer in a small to medium sized pot and fill the pot up with water to right bellow the bottom of the vegetable steamer. Place the shrimp in the vegetable steamer and turn the stove top on to the highest temperature. Cover the pot. Set a timer for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes check to see if the shrimp have attained their pink color, if not, depending on how much grey is left, let the shrimp steam for another 3 minutes, or until they are fully pink. Quickly remove them from the steamer at this point and place them in a bowl with ice water. This is make sure that the shrimp do not continue to cook and become rubbery.

Serve with some lemon and salt, or with cocktail sauce.

Beer Battered Shrimp & Onions
Ingredients:
400g (about 1/2Lb.) of uncooked Shrimp, shell removed, shell left on the tail
1 large sweet Onion, cut into large rings
Vegetable Oil for frying
1 Cup of unbleached Flour
Salt
Onion Powder

Marinade
1/4 Cup Worchestershire sauce
1/2 Cup Lemon Juice (Juice of 1 large Lemon)
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Pepper

Batter
700mL (24Oz.) of Beer *choose a beer with a strong flavor that you would not mind drinking; avoid light beers or “watery-flavored” beers
2 Cups unbleached Flour
2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Paprika

Directions:
In a medium-large bowl, carefully pour in the beer and makesure it does not foam too much (or you will be cleaning it off of your counter top instead of making bater with it). Use a sifter to pour the flour through to make sure that the flour does not clump up in the beer. Whisk in the four. Pour the baking powder through the shift to make sure it does not clump. Pour the paprika through the shift to make sure it does not clump. Whisk together. Place the batter in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Marinate the shrimp in the marinade for at least 30 minutes (in the refrigerator).

Heat the oil in a pot to 365°F. Make sure that the oil is at least 4 inches deep and that the side of the pot are about 4-5 inches higher than the level of oil in the pot.

Remove the batter from the refrigerator and whisk again.

Place the 1 cup of flour on a small plate. When the oil is hot enough for frying, remove 1 shrimp from the marinade and roll it in the flour on the plate, dip it in the batter, and then carefully place it in the oil. Let it fry for about 1-2 minutes and then remove it with tongs. Try this with only 1 shrimp at a time until you get the hang of it, then you can do 2 shrimp at a time. I know it sems tedious to only do 2 at a time, and if you have a larger pot, you can do more at a time, it just requires a lot of coordination and timing to take the shrimp out in time. Also, regularly scoop loos batter out of the oil to prevent it from burning.

Place fried shrimp on a plate with paper towel on it in order to soak up some of the oil dripping from the shrimp.

Onion Rings
Directions:
This recipe usues the same batter as the Beer Battered Shrimp; there should be enough for the shrimp and the onion rings.
Place the onions that you have cut into rings in the marinade from the shrimp (after you have fried the shrimp). Remove 1 onion ring and roll it around in flour, dip in batter, and then place carefully in the frying oil. Depending on the settings of your stove stop, the temperature of the oil may needto be lowered slightly to allow the onion within the batter to actually cook, or you will be eating raw battered onion rings. The onion rings need approximatley 7 minutes to completely cook, turning once within those 7 minutes so that each side browns.

Place fried onion rings on a plate with paper towel on it in order to soak up some of the oil dripping from the onion rings. Sprinklewith some salt and garlic powder.

*It is VERY important that you roll the shrimp and the onion rings in the flour before you dip them in the batter. The flour will allow the batter to stick to the shrimp/onion ring while it is frying. You can do a test to see what happenes if you don’tpre-roll them in oil. Basically, the batter fries off of the shrimp/onion ring and does not puff up.

Fried Pickles
Although not pictured above, you can make fried pickles similar to how you make the onion rings. Just use large pickles that are cut in half length-wise, roll the pickles in flour, dip them in batter, and fry them. Only allow them to fry long enough to toastthe batter becausethe pikle will start to disintegrateif it stays in too long.