Carnage du Jour - 17 April 2013

It was inevitable, really. The main question is why it took so long for this to happen.

Ah.

Let me back up and bring you in closer to the beginning.
I am, as most regular readers here would know, a fan of the meatloaf.
In fact, I consider myself a veritable meatloaf maestro, what with all the varieties and styles that I've made over the years.
Still, every now and again, a new meatloaf comes into being that is simply what always should have been.
A few examples:

• the bacon-cheddar meatloaf
• the mashed-potato-frosted two-layer meatloaf
• the spinach and mashed potato jelly-roll style meatloaf

The list is nearly endless, and yet, a new meatloaf - a true Detroit classic in the making - was ushered into this world on the 17th: the Coney Island Meatloaf.

How it came to me was fairly simple. I was casting about for meatloaf ingredients when I noticed a can of chili in the pantry. "Oh," thought I, "I should get some hot dogs when I go to the market so we can have some coneys." In that moment I could imagine a cartoon light bulb standing over my head as I realised: "I can put chili and hot dogs inside my meatloaf!"

The loaf itself was a fairly standard model; I simply split the raw mixture into two parts, hollowing out the bottom half and loading in a couple dogs and chili, then covering the whole with the rest of the meat. Pinching it together to avoid leakage, I tossed it into the oven for its 350F ride.

Tasty? You bet. Delicious doesn't even begin to describe.

Highly recommended.

Carnage du Jour - 05 April 2013

At Last!
The weather had decided that it was time for me to break out the Weber grill. I hesitated not one bit, because this also meant I could try my new chimney-type charcoal lighter!

I grabbed some nice multi-grain buns and got the other ingredients out of the refrigerator.
For the burgers I mixed 2 pounds of ground chuck, a few tablespoons of extra hot horseradish, and a teaspoon or so of sesame oil.
Before making up the patties, and while the fire got started, I let the mixture sit in the bowl so all those flavours could meld together.

mm mm good. No, that's not just for soup anymore.

As to the chimney-type charcoal starter: well, now that I know how it works, it's going to be great.
I was waiting for the flames to die down before dumping out the flaming charcoal - just as I would have waited for the flames to die down a bit before putting the meat on the grill.
It turns out that the flames are pretty much the indicator that it's time to dump it and let the fire settle in the grill.
A lesson learned.

R.I.P. Jonathan Winters

Wow.
One of the funniest men of all time has shuffled off this mortal coil.

Jonathan Winters, premiere improv artist and all-around comedian, has passed on at age 87.
He and his humor will be greatly missed.

R.I.P. Margaret Thatcher

She was a principled leader at the right time in Britain.

Perhaps some will realise what they've abandoned, now that she's gone.

Carnage du Jour - 20 March 2013

Jerk!
Oh, please don't leave, I was talking about the spice mixture, not you! You know that lovely Jamaican stuff with some heat in it, right?

Anyway, we had a beautiful piece of salmon just begging for the Caribbean treatment, so who was I to deny it?
I took a few tablespoons of jerk seasoning, made a paste with a tablespoon or so of canola oil, and rubbed it all over the salmon, letting it sit a bit to get the flavour really packed in there.
A quick sear on that spiced side first, then a flip to skin-side down and the pan hit the preheated oven.

Ah, but what to have with it? Why, coconut rice, of course.
I had a bottle of coconut extract in the pantry, and a jar of a great rice mixture, so that was what we did. The Royal Blend rice mixture (white, brown, red, and wild rices) is a quick-cooking product, so into the 2C of water I added a heaping 1/4 t of coconut extract and about a T of butter along with 1C of rice. Once it hit the boil, it simmered - loosely covered - until done. That's about 5 minutes at a guess.
I did add an extra 1/4 t of coconut extract and a scant 1/4 t of vanilla to the rice as it finished - there just wasn't quite enough of the coconut scent for my liking.
I added a pile of blanched peas and some diced cocktail onions to the rice as it finished as well. After all, one can't simply have protein and starch, right?

At any rate, the rice was delicious (it wanted a bit of acid, so a squeeze of lime juice is highly recommended), and the salmon was excellent as well.

It was like eating in Kingston, mon! (OK, I don't really know if it was like Kingston, Jamaica. The only Kingston I recall visiting is in Ontario. It's a very nice place, but I doubt that coconut rice and jerk salmon are high on the list of the local cuisine.)

Enjoy! (we did)

Carnage du Jour - 10 March 2013

What could be better on a sunny Sunday morning that a big pot of chili? OK, maybe you shouldn't answer that.

At any rate, that's what was being served after church - a cadre of crock pots lined up in the great hall for the fellowship hour sent great gusts of savoury scents congregation-ward.

So, what was in my pot?
As usual, I had a blend of beef and lamb, a variety of beans (sorry, Texas, that's the way I roll), sautéed onions and celery, a couple cans of spiced tomatoes, a can of green chiles, a bottle of Guinness, and a variety of spices to be named later.

Here is a brief synopsis of the preparation:

• 1# of stewing beef was diced and browned - ah, but before hitting the oil, the meat was coated in a mixture of cornmeal and cocoa powder, and it smelled wonderful as it cooked.
• 1# of ground lamb was browned in the now-flavoured oil, along with the diced onions and celery.
• Into the mix went a can of diced tomatoes with chipotle, and another can with green chiles, one can each of black beans, kidney beans, and black-eyed peas, and a can of green chiles. Oh, and a bottle of Guinness stout.
• Somewhere around a teaspoon of chipotle powder went in, along with a couple tablespoons of freshly roasted garlic, and another teaspoon of some home-grown chile powder (cayennes and other peppers, dried and powdered in our very own blender!).
• The final touches were some a bit of cider vinegar (it was too dark a flavour, it wanted a bit of brightening), a bit of Cholula hot sauce, just because it's delicious, and some cinnamon (probably only half a teaspoon, but I wasn't really measuring).

The whole thing worked for well over 12 hours from stove to crock pot, and the result was delicious. I'm sorry there wasn't more left for home use.

RIP - Stompin Tom Connors

Yes, the singer of that good old hockey game song and the one about tomatoes from Leamington has passed on to the great stage in the sky.

Stompin Tom was one of a kind; he will be missed, but now he's really been everywhere, man.