Internets; today I present, not one, but two dishes. But before I begin, do you remember this song? Luv 2 Luv Ya I do. (What happened to Magoo, Timbaland? What happened to Magoo?)
Without further ado:
Citrus Sriracha Cod with a Salad on the Side (a Salad on the side!?!???!!??)
Raws:
Fresh Cod
Orange
Lemon
Lime JuiceSalt & Pepper
A Hot Sauce that is manufactured in
Mix green salad
Mixed nuts
Dried Bacon
Prepare:
Simple prep: salt & peppered the cod and cayenned it.
The citrus part was that I juiced an orange and a lemon plus sugary water with a hit of sriracha for a sauce/juice for the fish and salad. I pan fried the cod with about 2-3minutes on both sides (one side on high; the other on middle high setting; to make sure the fish wasn’t overcooked).
The salad components were the oranges I peeled and cubed, mixed nuts, and dried bacon. Something simple, something easy.
Finished Product:
Afterthought:
I was going for a citrus and spicy taste for the fish (which I think I over salted) and a salad dressing/sauce/juice to join both the salad and fish. The fish was tender, a little spicy with the cayenne and citrus juice should’ve been less sour (less lemon, more orange needed). I don’t really like salads but the surprising thing about it I realized I like mixed nuts (hey!!!!, chew some orbitz!!!). Overall, I thought it was pretty good for something I thought up while at lucky’s. Also notice, the salad is not on the side. The wine is the greatest; more on that below.
I need a bridge to the next dish, courtesy of the “Dice Dance” : (OH SCHIMDT, shake that…….)
See that dance; that is a Signature Dance. Along that same line, I believe this is my Signature Dish. This beats my fried rice, fried rice with Chinese sausage, and Mexican Lasagna. I present:
Inspiration from Mill Valley: Pork Chops with Mashed Potatoes.
The origin of recipe is from a Tyler Florence recipe, who is from Mill Valley, with modifications by me.
This will be the 2nd time I made this and I’m still working on the sides to complement it.
Raws:
Pork Chops (bones or de-boned, it’s all gravy train)
Cayenne
Salt & Pepper
Fried Chicken flour batter
Chicken Broth
Potatoes
Milk
Butter
Onions
Hint of Lemon
I’ll split this into two parts, Meat and Mashed Potatoes.
First and foremost; the pork chops must be dried with a towel so it can accept the batter more readily. In a Ziploc bag (foreshadowing, oooohhhhhhhhhh), mix the fried chicken batter, salt, pepper, and cayenne. With the pork chops, I smothered them in the batter and seared the chops until the outer surface was golden. After searing, I popped the chops in the over for ~ 30 minutes. So, while I waited for the chops to be done; I took whatever batter I had left over and chicken broth to make gravy (foreshadowing again?)/ sauce for both the protein and potatoes. About a 3 to 1 ratio of broth works well. The difficulty is keeping the batter from clumping up and to stir it in solution and to make the sauce more thick rather than soup-like. I transferred the sauce into a bowl and used the residue sauce in the pan to satuee some onions.
Mashed potatoes:
This is my first attempt ever making non store bought mashed made from scratch potatoes. And I failed. I added too much milk thus it wasn’t that starchy and was runny. Nothing special here; I wanna move along.
Finished Product:
Looking at the sauce, I wanna just put that on anything fried. French fries, fried chicken, country fried anything. Cayenne gives it a kick, and the batter just screams “Mix me with meat”. Sorry, I got off track. The meat; tender, juicy, moist, just damn good. Mashed potatoes needs to be starchy but that sauce made up for it. The wine is great. But I feel as if I need something else. So in hindsight; I would’ve made this orza-pea side I got from a lady at work. It’s pretty soft; for that reason I think a contrast would be better (like carrots) or something fancy (i.e. not “rustic”; i.e. something I don’t know how to make) veggie medley with maeby (ha) cranberry reduction sauce or veggie to cleanse the pallet.
Wine
I am not a wine connoisseur, but this is the BEST DAMN wine I ever had. 15% R-OH content, tart, slight spice and more important “rich of polyphenolic antioxidants”. Yes, it’s all about the “polyphenols”. Pintia Toro Cosecha 2004 from Castilla y Leon. Export from
As a side note, my wine goes by the name Corona de la Mexico Cerzeza.
Cool kids unite.
Did you know that:
All Tequilla is Mezcal but no all Mezcal is Tequilla. Why? According to Three Sheets with Zane Lampery, Tequilla must be made from the Blue agave plant; which looks like a cactus but is not a cactus more of a weed (no water retention); while Mezcals are made with regular agave plants. Which brings me to another point; agave is a natural sweetener with a low glycemic value. Meaning, it is sweet but it doesn’t drastically spike your blood sugar. Moreover (just wanted to use it, I haven’t used Moreover it a while) the difference between “All-Natural” and “Natural” is that All Natural must use natural mediums to extract the component from it’s source while Natural can use non-natural materials. For instance, if the natural ingredient needs to be filtered that filtered has to certified natural as well to be called “All Natural”
Now let’s go Ghostride a Volvo; because the A’s makes me sad.
Linkin Park Luv 2 Luv Ya, screaming on Rock Band 2, has a “Steve McKenna’d” shirt, whistling to Young Folks by Peter, Bjorn and John getting caught singing at work, and just sitting down. Also, he wishes he could tell the differences between a woodsy and spicy wine. He would like to know how to make some type of desert like a sorbet medley or brownies or just some from-scratch cookies. Lastly, did Padma just throw up food on Top Chef?
