Pantry Cooking...Sparked From Financial Sparcity

I wanted to write about a type of cooking that I have truely mastered over the years. It is a type of cooking that comes about due to financial sparcity. It is economical in the fact that everything sooner or later gets used. Leftovers don't go to waste, that extra can of green beans from Thanksgiving gets incorporated into a dish, even the heels of a loaf of bread have their place. This method of cooking I have deemed Pantry Cooking.
I found myself needing to call upon my skills of pantry cooking the other night. I was playing a video game and I was starving. I looked in the fridge and it was a baren wasteland. It reminded me of the movie Fight Club when all Edward Nortan Jr has in his fridge is condements. So here is what I had to work with...
1) Some cooked shrimp from a shrimp cocktail platter
2) Some corn tortillas
3) A few cheese slices
4) Some squeezable tartar sauce.

Here's what I did with it...
First I sautéd the shrimp in a little butter and garlic powder, just to warm up the cold shrimp a bit.



Next I laid out some tortillas on a pizza pan.



I then placed a piece of cheese, some shrimp, and a squirt of tartar sauce on each of the tortillas.



Next I covered the shrimp with another piece of cheese. I also drizzled some of the warm garlic butter over the top of the tortillas.



In a 400•f oven I baked the tortillas for 8-10 min. I folded the tortillas in half and enjoyed my Easy Shrimp Tacos!!!

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They Say It's Your Birthday!

First I like to say to my followers I'm very sorry for the lack of posts as of late. I'm getting ready to move so my posts may be sparse for a few more weeks.

It's that glorious time of year for me when I get made fun of for being one year older. I like the attention I recieve and enjoy spending time with friends. Even though all that is great, my real birthday love is Red Velvet Cake!
There is great debate about where it was discovered and I really don't care. I'm just happy that someone figured it out. So here is a pretty good recipe for this awesome cake!



Red Velvet Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup shortening
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons cocoa
1 1/2 oz red food coloring
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup buttermilk
1 teaspoon soda
1 tablespoons vinegar
Preparation:

Cream shortening; beat in sugar gradually. Add eggs, one at a time; beat well after each addition. Make paste of cocoa and food coloring; add to creamed mixture. Add salt, flour and vanilla alternately with buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Sprinkle soda over vinegar; pour vinegar over batter. Stir until thoroughly mixed. Bake in 3 8-inch pans or 2 9-inch pans for 30 minutes at 350°.

Cream Cream Cheese Frosting

Beat 8 oz. cold cream cheese (not rock solid, but it means you can use it straight out of the refrigerator) with 5 Tbsp. softened butter and 2 tsp. vanilla until combined. Gradually add 2 c. powdered sugar that has been sifted after measuring. Continue to add more sifted powdered sugar until you reach a consistency and sweetness that fits your taste.

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Superbowl Sunday...Need I Say More

The only better thing than attending a Superbowl party is hosting a Superbowl party.
I've done my fair share at attending as well as hosting.
Being in the military I have had the opportunity of living in many parts of the country. During the Superbowls that I wasn't out to sea for, I was always spending them with friends and family. The menu was always as diverse as the friends hosting them. I have had steamers in Connecticut, Buffalo wings in New York, fish tacos in San Diego, and Kahlua pork sandwiches in Hawaii. My Dad makes my favorite game time snack when we watch our beloved Broncos. He makes smoked salmon bits to munch on during pregame. I'll have to butter him up to get that recipe.
I'm hosting this year in Tucson and my main stars are Meatloaf sandwiches and my easy BBQ beans. Enjoy the following recipes.
Even though my team is not in the big show I have to shout GO BRONCOS!!!


Meatloaf Sandwiches

6 slices Brian's Bodacious Meatloaf (recipe in previous post)
6 slices provolone cheese
12 slices potato bread
1/2 cup mayonaise
1 tblsp garlic powder
1 tblsp smoked paprika
1 tblsp dry basil
1 tsp lemon juice

Preheat broiler
In a small bowl combine mayo, garlic, paprika, basil, and lemon juice ensuring to incorporate completely. Refrigerate mixture for 30 minutes to allow flavors to meld.
Layout 2 slices of bread. Spread 1-2 tsp of mayo mixture on bread.
Add 1 slice of meatloaf and 1 slice of provolone to bread. Repeat for remaining ingredients.
Put sandwiches open face on a sheet pan or cookie sheet.
Broil for 2-5 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
Put tops on sandwiches and cut in half at an angle.

Serves 6 or
Serves 3 Broncos Fans

Brian's Easy BBQ Baked Beans

2 28oz cans maple cured bacon Bush's Baked Beans
1/2 tub Loyd's heat and serve pulled pork
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/8 cup ketchup
1/8 cup diced green chilie
2 fire roasted red bell peppers diced
2 tblsp smoked paprika
2 tblsp garlic powder
2 tblsp ground mustard
2 tblsp black pepper
1 tblsp salt

In a large sauce pan combine all ingredients stirring to incoporate completly.
Cook slowly over medium heat for 45 minutes to 1 hour stirring occasionally.

Serves 6-8

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Rigsby's Chicken Curry

One of my best friends provided me with a wonderful Chicken Curry Recipe.
Gary Rigsby was a fellow SONAR technician stationed with me on our tour in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Living in the barracks is never fun so Gary visited my Ewa Beach home very often, sometimes for weekends at a time. One day, while discussing what we wanted for dinner, Gary offered to make his Chicken Curry. So in between turns on my Xbox 360 Gary prepared his creation. Within minutes of being placed in the oven, my Hawaiian home's ocean breeze odor was replaced by an exciting and appetizing scent of curry. The recipe is huge and yeilded a opportunity for a second round lunch. And with all curry recipes the dish got better with age!
The best aspect, other than the flavor, to Rigsby's Chicken Curry is it's simplistic preperation. It is also very inexpensive and yeilds a large amount of food making it perfect for a pot luck lunch or for a large family.

Rigsby's Chicken Curry

6 boneless chicken breasts
6 cans cream of chicken soup
2 cups shredded cheese
4 tbsp curry powder
3-4 cups prepared white rice

Preheat oven to 350•f
In a large pot add chicken breasts and completely cover with water. Over medium-high heat boil chicken for 20-30 minutes or until cooked through.
Drain and let cool completely.
Shred chicken.
In a large mixing bowl add chicken, cream of mushroom soup, cheese, and curry powder mixing enough to fully incorporate curry powder.
In a large baking dish add curry mixture and bake for 1 hour.
Serve family style over rice on a large serving dish.

Serves 6-8

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Did You Say Curry Or Did You Mean Chili powder?

Now I'm sure this will be brought up many more times in future posts but the best part of American cuisine is the multitude of cultural influences that have been added to it's evolution.
As we learn early in history class, America was built by immigrants. A land considered a melting pot of different cultures and ideas. Some cultures and nationalities were brought here against their will while others transplanted themselves here to search for a better life.
One of these nationalities are Indians (that's dot not feather). When talking about Indian cuisine with other food lovers two topics always arise, and somtimes are debated, which are the heat of Indian cuisine and curry powder.

There is really not a right and wrong list of ingrediants when it comes down to making curry powder. There are however, a few ingredients that seem to be main stays in traditional curry powder.
Widely used in Indian cooking, authentic Indian curry powder is freshly ground each day and can vary dramatically depending on the region and the cook. Curry powder is actually a pulverized blend of up to 20 spices, herbs and seeds. Among those most commonly used are cardamom, chiles, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, cumin, fennel seed, fenugreek, mace, nutmeg, red and black pepper, poppy and sesame seeds, saffron, tamarind and turmeric (the latter is what gives curried dishes their characteristic yellow color).
One very interesting item I found when researching what really made "curry" curry was how close chili powder was to traditional curry.
Chili powder really could be called American curry powder.The chili powder spice mix contains hot chilis and often mild paprika chilis as well, and other ingredients which usually include cumin, oregano, garlic powder, and salt. It may also include any or all of the following additional spices: black pepper, cinnamon, cloves, coriander, mace, nutmeg, and turmeric.

Indian food really has made a large leap in popularity since it's boom in the 1970s. By searching numerous sites I narrowed down a small list of the best areas to eat this wonderful food. The clear winner, followed closely by some regions in New York, was the San Francisco bay area. The areas in New York were Flushing in Queens and Jackson Heights in Brooklyn. Some notables were Edison New Jersey and suprisingly Charlotte North Carolina.
I really do promise Rigsby's Chicken Curry recipe will be in my next post!!!

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My First Mastery...Meatloaf!

One of the first things I learned to cook in my tiny kitchen was meatloaf. It came about because I needed a meal that would feed my 5 roomates without straining my wallet. It was not uncommon for me to make a 6lb meatloaf. After I moved from my Hawaiian kitchen, it was just me and my old lady so the recipe was reduced to 2lbs. The early recipe was not really all that bad, but I was striving to wow everyone I cooked for so I continued to tweak the recipe until it has become what I believe to be a restaurant quality meatloaf. Now I am not too fond of onions and my old lady absolutely hates both onions and bell peppers. So I was lacking the slightly crunchy texture that is present in classic meatloaf. Out of pure experimentation I found that diced carrots were a great substitute. They added the crunch I was after as well as adding an interesting sweet flavor that added a style all my own to the loaf. When I make the loaf for my friends, the onions and peppers are added or removed based on their tastes however the carrots are always included.
So without furthur ado....

Shown with Garlic Smashed Potatos and Brian's Skillet Corn
(Recipes to follow)

Brian's Bodacious Meatloaf

2lbs ground Chuck
3/4 cup ketchup
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
1/4 cup +2tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup diced carrots
1/4 cup diced onions (optional)
1/4 cup diced bell peppers (optional)
1 large egg
3 cloves garlic minced or pressed
2tbsp smoked paprika
2tbsp ground basil
4tsp worcestershire sauce divided by 2
1tsp salt
1tsp pepper
1tsp soy sauce
1tsp water

Preheat oven to 350•f
In a large mixing bowl fully combine ground chuck, 1/4 cup ketchup, 2tbsp brown sugar, carrots, 2tsp worcestershire sauce, 2 cloves minced garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, basil, egg, and onions and peppers (optional).
Add 1/4 cup breadcrumbs and fully incorporate. Slowly add remaining breadcrumbs mixing completly. The consistancy should not feel gritty and should be able to be formed and hold it's shape.
Place mixture in a large baking dish and form into a freeform loaf shape.
Bake at 350•f for 30-45 minutes until just cooked through.
While meat loaf is cooking...in a small bowl mix 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1/2 cup ketchup, 2tsp worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, 1 clove garlic minced, and 1tsp water.
Remove meatloaf from oven. Turn on ovens broiler.
Completly cover meatloaf with ketchup sauce reserving 2-3tsp.
Return meatloaf to the oven and broil 2-4 minutes until glaze has set.
Allow meatloaf to rest for 10 minutes.

For serving cut meatloaf into 1 to 2 inch slices. Plate 2-3 slices and drizzle remaining sauce over each portion.

Serves 3-4

For my next post...Rigsby's Curry

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The All-American Comfort Food...Meatloaf

Many people could give you horror stories from their childhood about Mom's meatloaf. I really never had this problem because my Mom's meatloaf was very good. I'm not too sure if her recipe was her own or if she got it from the numerous cookbooks that lined the top shelf of our pantry. In my opinion the meat loaf is a close cousin to the meatball. So many recipes vary by the ingredients that are combined with the meat, but the idea is pretty much the same. There are 3 major problems that lead to a meatloafs demize. The first is of course drying out. The major culprit of a dry meat loaf is the choice of meat. Ground beef is usually the pick of choice for the classic meatloaf however, ground turkey, ground pork, or even portabello mushrooms have surfaced in a health conscience America. To help combat dry meat pick a meat that is a bit higher in fat content than what you may use in a soup or casserole. I use ground chuck. The second culprit is the added ingedients. Many recipes that I have tried use too much breadcrumbs and not enough fresh vegatables. The final culprit is the cooking temperature. So many times I have seen people baking the meatloaf at 375•f. I have even seen that temperature all the way up to 425•f. I think 325•f-350•f is the perfect temperature for chuck but each type of meat has an optimal cooking temperature. So really lowfat meat+overly used dry ingredients+high cooking temperature=dry meatloaf.

A wonderful website, Foodtimeline.org had a great article that I wanted to share with you.
The raw, ground meat commonly used to make today's American meat loaf has a humbler heritage. In the 19th century, we know the Industrial Revolution made it possible for ground meat be manufactured and sold to the public at a very low cost. At first, many Americans were slow to purchase raw ground meat products and generally regarded them with suspicion. Lack of reliable home refrigeration may have played into this decision. Cooks continued to mince their meat (often already cooked, as was the practice for centuries) by hand. Companies selling meat grinders to home consumers at the turn of the century endeavored to change this practice by provided recipe books to promote their products. Some of these recipes were simple, others quite creative. A late 19th century recipe for "Meat Porcupine" instructs the cook to press her ground meat into an animal-type shape mold and decorate it with pieces of bacon to achieve the desired effect. Eventually, the American public began incorporating ground meat into family meals.
Since that time, meat loaf variations have been introduced and promoted by women's magazines, cookbooks, fairs, food manufacturers, diners and family-style restaurants. Meat loaf & gravy [often paired with mashed potatoes and canned green beans ] was very popular in the 1950s. This meal is still considered by some to be the penultimate comfort food. Did you know that "frosted meatloaf" is ground beef covered with mashed potatoes? Perhaps this recipe is a distant relative of shepherd's pie.

In my next post I'll share my meatloaf recipe.

Food time line

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