The Bastard Chef

I appeared as the guest chef in another blog!

Eat What's On Your Plate!

There may be a connection between myself and the author. Just sayin.' I love that my name for the purpose of her blog is The Bastard. This amuses and please me greatly. Additionally, I'll be watching Eat What's On Your Plate from behind the scenes a bit to see if perhaps moving The Bastard Chef to tumblr might be something worth doing.

Speaking of which, hopefully I'll be posting to the Bastard Chef more often as time marches on; I'll be cooking more and more often very soon. For example, Rib-Off 3: Insert Witty Name That I've Already Forgotten Here is coming this summer! Communication has already begun (sputteringly so, but nevertheless).

Also, I need to make a link list here to my friends food blogs. Unfortunately, I can only remember one other; hey cobie, can you give me the link to yours again? And does anyone else have one? ...Bueller?

Finally, to round out this update (which is already twice as long as any post my actual journal has received in weeks), I'm making a list of all the food/entertaining related projects and goals I've got running through my mind.

- The Drunken Bastards Cooking Show, with The Fantastic Mr. P
- The next Foodening with skeets
- learning more about Middle-Eastern, Mediterranean, Chinese, and Japanese cooking and flavor profiles
- the next Bake-Off
- the next Infusion Party
- I swear to god I had more of a list in my head when I started typing this.

Set the oven to 'warm.' or the lowest setting it'll allow. 150 - 200.

For the sake of the recipe, we'll say you're serving three.

Cut a store-bought flat-iron steak into thirds, season very lightly with garlic salt, pepper, and your favorite chili powder rub and grill for three, three-and-a-half minutes on each side, just one the high side of medium. Put in the oven to keep warm.

In the same pan/griddle you made your steaks in, melt butter, bleu or Gorgonzola cheese, udon noodles, a splash of balsamic, and scallions or diced green onions. At the last minute, add bean sprouts. Shallots would also work, if you stagger the additions; butter and shallots, saute, cheese, then finally the bean sprouts. Cook and/or melt everything together into a beef and cheese sauce. Strain the solids from the sauce, and you have your side. Take the steaks out, plate, and cover with the sauce.

Optional; cook everything as above, but don't strain. Cut the steaks into strips and mix it all together. Serve.

Trying to figure out how much marinade I'll need before actually buying my ribs is vexing.

I am now armed with a recipe for chicken-fried bacon with gravy.

You know I'll have to make this at least once.

( I know how to make a dessert! Just the one, but still... )

With all the change this year has brought, I will admit to a couple regrets and missing a few things. Normal, natural, and to be expected.

But dammit, I miss my kitchen.
 

Apples (halved or wedged), cloves, and rosemary baked in Guinness (base) and honey.

Possible alternatives;
add onions (halved or wedged)
poach instead of bake (I'm still really touchy on poaching, so I would probably refine baking them first)

( As in the last post, Allrecipes.com is my friend. )

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, keep it simple. Complicated and intricate can always be a fun challenge, but if you want to eat good, cheap, gourmet-quality food, keep it simple. When I went shopping for all this, my shopping list was only seven or eight items long, and it cost $35 - $40, over half that being the lamb. I can't remember the last time a Valentine's day dinner, homemade or restaurant, was that cheap.

Probably the best part of the entire experience, however, was making the meal. See, this dinner was supposed to be my valentine's gift to Kat, since we didn't have enough money for me to go out and get her flowers, or something shiny, or take her out on a night on the town. So I'd been planning my menu for awhile (although everything I ended up making was picked the night before).

When it came time to cook her dinner, she asked if she could help. I was initially a little hesitant (this was to be her gift, after all), but I said yes, and the two of us cooked together, made dinner for each other, together.

One of, if not the, best Valentine's Days I've ever had.

The dinner I plan on making once back in PDX this Sunday eve;

Wrapped Salmon

Asparagus  Wrapped in Crisp Prosciutto

There'll be a whole lotta wrappin' going on. (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

Still need a third course/second side. Any suggestions? Despite appearances to the contrary, wouldn't necessarily have to be 'food-wrappped-in-other-food,' but I could possibly get theme points if I pull off the trifecta.

So, it's sort of hard to see from the crappy phone picture, but yes, that image below is bacon and brownie mix. I didn't want to go from scratch until I knew if it would taste at least decent. The pig, though, is uncured apple-cinnamon bacon, diced by hand, from ye olde New Seasons.



I felt a few of you would appreciate this. Sorry the journal-style is cutting the pic in half. I'll keep you updated on how it comes out.