lazy dinner

I may have mentioned before that stir fry is one of my go-to easy to make dinners… as it is with many people, I know. Tonight was no different (last night my go-to easy dinner was quesadillas). Here we have my stir fry prep. I am incredibly lazy. I hate using the grown up chef knife unless I have to, so a small paring knife was used to cut everything in this photo. The items you see here, plus the knife and one pan, are all I used to make dinner. In fact, I am SO lazy, instead of “marinating” the meat, I just poured cooking wine and soy sauce directly over the cut up meat on the cutting board. Yup.

In the little silver cup there’s a little cooking wine. In the bottle we have soy sauce. The broccoli was stir fried with oyster sauce. I know health code says we should always separate our vegetable chopping boards from our meat chopping boards but I say 1) I chop the veggies on the board first 2) I’m chopping beef on the board and 3) Everything is going to be thoroughly cooked anyway, I promise. Even the beef, because this is stir fry.

So here is the one pan method. I do not have a wok (much as I do not have a frittata pan), but I do have a slope sided skillet. Heat a little oil in a slope sided skillet and toss in a few pieces of garlic. Once hot, toss in your beef and turn the heat up to high. Get out your wooden stir frying apparatus and stir fry until the beef is good and cooked. Remove beef, set aside. In the same skillet, heat a little more oil over medium heat, add more garlic. Add all that onion (three sweet onions from Central Market- they have huge onions!). When they start to sizzle, add a little water and a little soy sauce. Stir fry until onions are soft and brown. Add back the beef and heat through. Remove beef & onions, set aside.

In the same skillet, heat some more oil and remaining garlic. Toss in the broccoli (carefully, don’t splash any oil, now). Add about a half a cup of water and slosh in some oyster sauce. Turn up that heat to high and let that water boil. When the water is hot, mix up the broccoli. You want the broccoli to be just cooked, not mushy, but cooked all the way through. Option: If you have more beef, or if you didn’t have quite as many onions as I did, you could always have beef & broccoli as well. I had so many onions I had to use all my beef for my onions to keep the proportions right.

Here’s the finished product. Total time start to finish, eating, cleanup, photo upload & post: 2 hrs. Serve with rice:

pimento cheese

Pimento cheese. Pretty tasty. Hard to go wrong. But, everything’s better when you make it from scratch, right? Bonus: you can make this drunk. Try not to get any on your going out clothes, but being a bit tipsy makes squishing the cheese around that much more fun.

pimento cheese

Half a pound each white cheddar and yellow cheddar, grated. Mix with almost a cup of mayo, 7 oz chopped pimentos, pepper, salt if wish. Squish around until well mixed. Serve, I like with chopped jalapenos on top.

frittata

Problem: well meaning mother in law buys a dozen eggs with which to bake a cake without realizing a dozen eggs are already hidden in the back of my refrigerator.

Solution: frittata!

I do not own a frittata pan. Nor have I ever made a frittata before. No matter. I believe wholeheartedly in the power of delicious ingredients, lots of eggs, and hungry boys at breakfast. In this instance, I had some leftover asparagus, various cheeses, some chorizo, and 3 (yes three!) hungry boys to feed. This is a recipe for success.

frittata frittata frittata

Beat approximately seven eggs in a bowl. I started with six and kept adding. I may have ended up with eight, I don’t remember exactly. Add some leftover cooked veggies, cut into bite size pieces – I had asparagus – add meat – in this case, thinly sliced and chopped chorizo, and add cheese. I grated a block of smoked cheddar. Heat oil in the bottom of a pan. Thinly slice onions and brown in the oil. Add egg mixture to onions (my idea here was to create a layer of carmelized onions on the bottom of the frittata. It sort of worked. It was tasty, and did not stick to the pan, whatever). Cover pan and cook on medium until eggs are mostly set, about 6-7 minutes.

Top with some more cheese, broil until eggs are completely set and frittata is browned. Slice and serve with toast.

Lankford Grocery & Market

Date of Visit: 03/17/09

Location: Houston

I’ll admit that I’ve been to Lankford Grocery & Market before. On this previous visit, the 88 Dennis street location was incredibly difficult to find, the shabby setting was a letdown, not charming, and my dining companions and I decided to eat somewhere tried and true rather than risk disappointment. After all, we were hungry, frustrated, and tired, and this somewhat sad looking grocery front did not look promising.

So when my boss said, “Hey what’s that place supposed to have really good burgers? Let’s have lunch there.” I was all over it. I wanted to make amends. And make amends we did. This is a family run operation. Our order was taken by a 10 year old girl whose little sister followed her around telling her “Momma doesn’t want you takin’ orders.” I wouldn’t recommend going against momma’s direction, as we weren’t sure if we would get what we ordered – but it all came out fine. Every last bit.

Meatloaf was the meal of the day, and rib stickin’ is putting it mildly. The mac ‘n cheese was swimming in grease, but holy cow, the mashed potatoes was the icing – deliciously home made, with perfect gravy. Home cookin’ at its finest. Of course we had to try the burgers. And they did not disappoint. These are double fist burgers – hold on tight and have lots of napkins handy. They come with all the fixins’ so you better specify if there’s somethin’ you don’t want on your burger. Otherwise, just enjoy, because they’re deliciously juicy, perfectly charred and greasy as hell. The onion rings are a perfect accompaniment.

Recommended: Burger, onion rings, mashed potatoes.

Price: Under $20 for the meal of the day w/2 sides, iced tea and a burger with onion rings. But you have to pay at the register and because of that we forgot to tip!! Don’t you make the same mistake!

Rating:
Food – 4/5 bacon slices. Rib stickin’, fillin’, drop all your g’s food. Darn good burgers.
Atmosphere – 3/5 bacon slices. What atmosphere? Unless you’re into that sort of thing. Then it’s super fun.
Miscellany – This is a real family joint, and cash only. Lots of regulars, and I hear the breakfasts are great too. Make it a tradition, they decorate for the season, and oooh. It’s just so fun. I can’t wait to go back.

Little Big’s Burgers

Date of Visit: 03/07/09

Location: Houston

Any new restaurant from the people who did Reef will make my ears perk up. I can’t wait for the next time I get to go there… but there are other restaurants on my list to try first (Rainbow Lodge… Voice… Feast…). A late night came around, the opportunity arose, and I suggested Little Big’s for sliders and milkshakes.

At the location of the former Ming’s, how could things possibly go wrong? Late night parking, for starters. Half of Ming’s parking has been sabotaged for Little Big’s new and improved patio- and while it’s nice to sit on, it sure makes it a pain when circling the block for a place to put the car. I felt like I was going to South Beach, not stopping for a bite to eat. But no matter… it wasn’t too long before I found a spot. I’d hate to be there at midnight on a Saturday, though – this was around 10:30.

Little Big’s big thing is the 1/6 lb slider, freshly ground and on a fresh baked roll, topped with carmelized onions and cheese if you wish. “Order in threes” they say, so I did, with fries, and a vanilla shake. A compatriot got the butterscotch shake – boy, I’m glad I didn’t. It tasted like… maybe I just don’t like butterscotch. The shake was good, but I’d rather go to Katz’s, just a block down, for a shake. The fries, “worth the 4 minute wait” were actually quite worth the wait. The problem was that I kept waiting, and like an imbecile, kept jumping up whenever anyone’s name was called, whether or not it was mine. I’m not good with systems where my name is called because I tend to forget I’m supposed to be listening for it and then worry about whether I missed it. Starbucks might be an exception because I can watch them making my drink so it doesn’t matter whether they actually get my name right or not.

On to the much anticipated burgers. Maybe I was just stuffed from fries (my order and half of someone else’s by this point) and half a milkshake, but the burgers were just okay. I’d rather have one big burger rather than three sliders from Little Big’s – and I’ll tell ya from where (review coming!). The carmelized onions didn’t have much carmelized flavor to them, more char than anything, and the burger tasted too upscale, if that makes sense. I want a burger to ooze greasy, and this was too prim.

In conclusion, I will keep looking for late night spots to eat, and Little Big’s…. good fries, but misses otherwise. I still love Reef, though.

Recommended: fries! Patio seating was nice.

Price: Under $20 for 6 sliders, one milkshake and one order of fries. Very reasonable. I hear the alcohol is very well priced as well.

Review:
Food – 3/5 bacon slices. Man, I wanted to like this place. But man cannot live on fries alone.
Atmosphere – 4/5 bacon slices. The patio is really nice!
Miscellany – If it were really late and I really wanted fries and beer or fries and a milkshake because I was tipping drunk, this would be perfect. But I wouldn’t come for the burgers, and that’s supposed to be the whole point.

Madras Pavillion

Date of Visit: Often

Location: Houston

I absolutely die when I see the Madras Pavillion web site because it’s nothing less than what I would expect from this cash-driven enterprise, not quite but almost a hole in the wall. In the five years I have been dining at Madras, few things have changed. Bussers and owners have stayed the same, menus, chairs, tables, and decor has not budged. Thankfully, neither has the stellar cuisine.

Madras serves solely vegetarian Indian food – a revelation for those used to nothing but tandoori chicken and palek paneer (not that I have anything against those wonderful dishes). Here you’ll dine on huge dosas filled with curried potatoes, deliciously simmered curries with lentils and vegetables of every kind, lightly fried cauliflower in tomato based sauce and more. Be sure to try the channa batura, an amazing light puffy bread served with a side of chickpeas. The portions go further than you’d expect, and desserts are a step beyond the usual rosewater rice pudding.

To sample their excellent variety, stop by the lunch buffet. Along with the sampling of buffet dishes, each meal includes a made to order masala dosa.

Madras has been such a standby for me for so many years I feel compelled to stick a little plug in. If you haven’t tried it yet, do so now. As I was leaving lunch last week, the owner acknowledged that this was hard times for him, and I would hate for this unique Houston treasure to disappear.

Recommended: Masala Dosai, Channa Batura, Vegetable Korma, Ghobhi Manchurian, Malai Kofta.

Price: Very reasonable.

Rating:
Food – 5/5 bacon slices.
Atmosphere – 4/5 bacon slices. Service can be slow, but parking is ample and free.
Miscellany – You know it’s good when half the patrons are Indian.

Outback Steakhouse

Date of Visit: 02/25/09

Location: Houston

Although I’ve had their Bloomin’ Onion (takeout!), I had never eaten at the Outback. So when we had the opportunity to dine there relatively free of charge thanks to some Christmas gift cards, it seemed like a great chance to give it a shot. Their TV ads look good…

When we got there, the restaurant was dead. The drinks menu looked really good, but we decided to opt for a Bloomin Onion and two Teriyaki Sirloins. Unfortunately the restaurant was out of the Teriyaki Sirloin. Yikes. Bad sign. You should never be out of something that’s essentially everything else on your menu, with a different sauce on it. Can you say prepackaged!?

Instead, I got some grilled steak cubes and grilled shrimp with rice and pineapples. What a terrible, horrible, sad state of food. The shrimp tasted like it had been brined. The Bloomin Onion had so much salt I couldn’t even taste it. The steak was so old I could smell the refrigerator it had been in. You know the way steak smells after you mean to cook it but you’ve worked late a few days? Yeah, that smell.

The only saving grace was the server, who was a sweet as pie.

Recommended: No

Price: Don’t do it.

Rating:
Food – terrible. 0/5 bacon slices.
Atmosphere – mediocre. 1/5 bacon slices.
Miscellany – that server should be working somewhere else. She’d make a lot more money at taste of texas or saltgrass!

what it do

After an especially frustrating afternoon, I came home and began rummaging through the freezer. As I tossed things onto the counter, opening containers, throwing various things out and adding other things into pots, generally woeful about the state of the world, Matt asked me what I was doing. I paused, glanced at a mysterious piece of chicken, and tossed it into a pot. “Making stock.” He nodded sagely. “I guess this is your version of drinking.”

I’ve been collecting drippings from my cooking for weeks, so this was as good a day as any to make cornbread from them. The state of the cornbread is yet to be determined – I’m a bit concerned about my ability to transcribe a recipe right now and I think it may be a bit dry and lumpy. The stock should be good, as I’ve been saving pieces from whole chickens for months, including necks and wings, and a random chorizo sausage that I didn’t think we’d have any other use for.

What I’m really pleased about, though, is that for dinner I managed to make ancho spiced short ribs and found a recipe that wouldn’t kill anyone. The last time I attempted ancho spiced short ribs, I had the entire dinner table in tears. “No,” they protested through pained gasps, “this is really quite good.” Perhaps it would have been good… if anyone’s taste buds could have been salvaged.

This recipe is very similar to the one I used that time – except I toned down the chipotles in adobo, didn’t save the chile water, and pumped up the tomato paste. The molasses is a fantastic touch, and I served it with vinegar and molasses glazed carrots (I used red wine vinegar instead of sherry vinegar). For some reason I always have red wine vinegar on hand.

Cooking always makes me feel better.

adobo potochop (shamelessly stolen)

I stole this recipe from expat Jen, now formally exploring culinary adventures in sunny California. She’s supposed to be a baker, and what is this business about vegginess when I spy tasty chicken recipes on her blog?!?

My copy of her recipe differs in only one respect- having no rice vinegar, I substituted red wine vinegar and upped the amounts of water and sugar a tad to compensate. Served with a side of my greens of the moment: kale sauteed with a splash of vinegar, a pinch of sugar, lots of pepper and a dash of salt.

Adobo Potochop
From shiubox.blogspot.com

Marinate a pound of chicken parts in 1/2 cup each soy sauce, red wine vinegar, and water. Add 4 T brown sugar, 2 bay leaves, and a head or so of minced garlic. Add ground pepper. Marinate as long as you have time – 30 min at least. Bring all to a boil, cook until chicken is tender. Sauce is tasty boiled down and thickened!

Now here’s my variation on the adobo potochop:

Adobo Potochop in a Tortilla
aka late night hunger food

Shred that chicken breast and mix it up in the adobo sauce. Top a soft tortilla with mexican rice, sauteed kale, and shredded chicken. Drizzle with some more adobo sauce and sprinkle with cheddar and jack cheese. Microwave till hot. Repeat!