Tinfoil Chef

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I have, over the years, had a lot of great sandwiches from Subway. Generally speaking their stuff is pretty good (even if a bit pricey) and it’s been consistent for years. Then in recent months we’ve had occasion to revisit a local Subway after a pretty long dry spell in between and There’s something that my wife noticed right away that I still can’t figure out.

They now make their sandwiches upside-down.

That’s right. The sandwiches are still great, made to order and so on. They’re just upside down. The meat items are now placed on the “top” half of the bread and the “toppings” are now placed on the bottom. We asked the person making the sandwich why they were doing it that way and they could only shrug and say that was the way they were told to make them. Which is what bugs me.

You see, Subway has always made a big deal about how their people have to be trained in detail how to make the sandwiches. In fact, the sandwich makers are called “Sandwich Artists”. Given their specialty, I’d think that Subway would get the construction order right. I mean, they’re called “Toppings” for a reason, they go on top.

I realize that a lot of people will say that it doesn’t really matter, so long as all the right stuff is on the thing and to a point they’re right. However, when I get out a sandwich and unwrap it, I expect the “Toppings” to be on the “Top” of the sandwich. When it’s not built right, there is a much higher chance of the meats, toppings, or condiments managing to escape the confines of the bread, making a mess.

So I’ll ask that any Subway employees who read this please pass this on to the higher ups. Sandwiches are supposed to be built a certain way. If they’re not, they cease to be sandwiches and turn into messes waiting to happen.

Technorati Tags: subway, sandwiches, sandwich making, sandwich mess, messes

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Hard Boiled eggs are not only a great snack and side dish on their own, they are also useful in many recipes. I was recently asked, “can you hard boil eggs in the microwave?”. I honestly didn’t think it was possible to do this.

When faced with a question like this that just won’t go away, it’s time to put on the headphones with some Beethoven playing and spend some time searching. After searching a while I found that yes, you can actually hard boil eggs with a microwave oven.

There’s two ways to go. One is by using a microwaveable egg cooker that you can find at Amazon and most kitchen appliance stores and following the directions that come with it. The other way do microwave hard boiled eggs involves a few easy steps.

Start by coating a microwave safe container with a non-stick spray.

Then gently crack the eggs and pour them into the container. Be careful to keep the yolk intact.

Next cover the container with a paper towel and cook for 45 to 90 seconds.

If the eggs aren’t done, put them back in for 15 seconds at a time until they’re done.

Technorati Tags: recipe, microwave oven, eggs, hard boiled eggs, microwave egg

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I was going to do another one of the cooking terms posts but then I ran across something that made me decide that the term “Boil” deserved a bit broader treatment than as a one of many in a list of several items.

First I’ll start out defining the term. To boil is to cook something in water or other liquid that’s been heated until it’s bubbling vigorously.

The misconception is that anything being cooked in heated water is being boiled and that the more intense the boiling action, the better. However simmering and poaching are related to boiling and are actually used a lot more often.

What I’ve learned is that boiling is often a technique that is best avoided. Most foods, for example meat and seafood, are better poached instead. The reason is that boiling meat and seafood can leave them dry or stringy and the liquid will be left greasy.

Poaching is to cook in liquid where the temperature is held just below the boiling point so that it shimmers slightly on the surface.

On the other hand, there are some foods that are best cooked at a rolling boil. For example rice and pasta cook more quickly and evenly in boiling water. Green vegetables are often cooked uncovered in a large amount of boiling salted water. The large quantity of water keeps the vegetables from lowering the temperature of the water and slowing the cooking process. It would also cause them to lose their bright color.

The salt also helps the vegetables retain their green color. As soon as the vegetables are done you should immediately drain them in a colander and then either plunge them into ice water or quickly rinse them under cold tap water until they’re completely cool. This technique of immediately chilling the drained vegetables so they retain their flavor and color is called refreshing or shocking.

Technorati Tags: terminology, terms, food terms, food info, cooking terms

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I have a bad habit of getting into a hurry when cooking. The reason I consider this a bad habit is because while it’s true that you can “hurry things along” with some recipes or prep techniques, there are others that if you try to hurry them, all you’re going to do is stand a real big chance of ruining something.

For example, recently I was making something that required an onion to be diced up and sauted until it was mostly caramelized. In order to saute something right, you have to work with no more than a medium heat. Turning the heat all the way up isn’t going to allow time for the moisture in the onion to come out and the onion bits themselves soften and turn clear. It’s also a good way to burn them rather than caramelize them.

Instead, use the medium heat along with frequent stirring to prevent sticking. Try to plan ahead so that you’ll have the time to saute something right. In my example of onions I’ve found that it can take ten to fifteen minutes to do it right without either burning them or having a lot of them turn out only partially cooked and still crunchier than they should be.

Technorati Tags: time, heat, tips, cooking tips, hurry up, saute, take your time

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One of the great things about Spaghetti Sauce is that there’s really no carved in stone way to make it. Everybody ends up with their version of sauce that suits their tastes and the ingredients they have available. For at least a year or two now we’ve had one primary way of making the sauce when we want to have spaghetti. Once in a while though, everybody discovers that they’re out of something that they always use in a particular recipe and that’s when they either decide to do something else or make some experimental changes to the old recipe.

That’s pretty much what happened to us this time. We’re also blessed that it turned out as good as it did because I “fowled” something up and there was a few moments when we didn’t know if it was going to work out ok. Thankfully it turned out pretty good, though I’m not going to run out just yet and order a truckload of promotional pens or aprons or anything else just yet. My head’s already big enough as it is. Isn’t it nice that it gets deflated every once in a while by a near-disaster? Ok, it’s not exactly “nice” that near disasters happen but since they do, the least we can do is benefit from them.

In this particular case we had talked about another variation on the sauce recipe that we were going to do sometime soon, and the variation we were going to use this time. I managed to mess things up by including a pound of ground turkey in this batch that was supposed to be saved for the next time. Here’s the recipe that we ended up with.

It’s called “kitchen sink” because you pretty much put everything into it but the kitchen sink. The idea is to use whatever ingredients you have available. We started with some frozen grilled chicken breast patties along with a frozen “Pecan Chicken” (chicken breast with a pecan breading). The original plan was to get them cooked up and then use the food processor to chop it up into small bits and use it as the meat in our sauce. I made the mistake of not only doing that, but including the ground turkey as well.

As the chopped meat heats up in a skillet coated in olive oil I chopped up an onion and added that to the meat along with four heaping teaspoons of minced garlic. At one or two green bell peppers and three or four stalks of celery chopped up into the meat as well if you have them.

When this mixture is heated through it’s time to add a couple 10oz cans of diced tomatoes and two 29oz cans of spaghetti sauce. After you pour the sauce from the cans, use just a bit less than half a can of water to rinse the last bit of sauce out of both cans and add that to the pan. If available, add some Italian seasoning or pizza seasoning.

Stir everything together and let it just start to boil and turn the heat down to low and cover it. Let it simmer like this for two or three hours, stirring every 20 or 30 minutes. If you have it, another great addition to this is spinach. Take about six to nine ounces of spinach, chop it fine and stir it into the sauce. It’ll give the sauce more body and flavor, as well as the extra nutrition of having some “greens” added.

Once it was added to the spaghetti, we had enough for supper tonight and put away enough leftovers for two more meals.

Technorati Tags: kitchen sink, spaghetti sauce, foul up, grilled chicken, pasta sauce, recipe, pecan chicken

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Here’s a good all purpose marinade that’s good for use with grilled meats.

Start with 3 cups of dry white wine, add a half teaspoon of cayenne pepper, a teaspoon of onion powder, a half cup of soy sauce, and a half teaspoon of garlic powder

Mix everything together and then let the meat soak in it for three to six hours. The marniade also works as a basting sauce while the meat is cooking on the grill.

Technorati Tags: marinate, basting sauce, recipe, grilling meat, marinade, grilling

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I think that the basic casserole is to everyday home cooking what picture frames are to photography. You could do without it but that would leave a big gaping hole in your recipe collection because there’s a lot of dishes that are technically a casserole, yet have managed to go that extra bit farther.

This is one of those recipes that you have to take a few minutes to put it together the night before. Mix together 8 oz of uncooked macaroni, 4 chopped up hardboiled eggs, 2 cups of chopped up cooked chicken, 2 cups of milk, a half pound of Velveeta or your preference of cheese and one can each of cream of mushroom soup and cream of chicken soup.

Cover the mixture and refrigerate it overnight. Take it out 1 hour before cooking and allow it warm so that the cold dish won’t break in the oven. Then bake for an hour at 350.

Technorati Tags: main dish, overnight, chicken, casserole, recipe

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Here’s a dessert treat that is sure to have people wanting more. Although it’s a good idea to be careful about how much of this anyone has at one time. Otherwise you’ll end up with everybody in the house needing some serious treadmill time to burn this goodie off of where you *know* it’s going to eventually settle.

First start with the fudge sauce. Combine 1 1/3 cup of evaporated milk, 2 cups of powdered sugar, 6 oz of chocolate chips and 2 tablespoons of butter. Cook until it’s thick and then allow it to cool completely.

While that’s cooling you can work on the next step. Crush about 20 to 25 Oreo type cookies, save about 1/4 cup of them for a topping. Spread 1/4 cup of butter in a 9×13 baking dish and sprinkle the cookie crumbs over the butter and pat them down.

Cover the layer of cookies with 1/2 gallon of ice cream and freeze. When fudge has cooled, pour it over the ice cream. Sprinkle at least a cup of peanuts on top of the fudge and freeze.

Spread a Cool Whip style topping on the peanuts and fudge. Sprinkle remaining cookie crumbs on Cool Whip and it’s back to the freezer. Once it’s frozen solid cut it into bars and you’re in business. If you can, it’s best to make something like this when nobody’s around so that not only can you surprize them with it but there’s also a shot at being able to make more than one batch so that they’ll last a few minutes longer anyway.

Technorati Tags: peanuts, dessert, cookie crumbs, frozen dessert, fudge, recipe, whipped topping, fudge bar, buster bar, ice cream

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Tomato sauce and by extension pasta sauce, pizza sauce and many others that are based on a tomato sauce. They’re all great, however there is one drawback for some people. The Tomato is basically an acidic plant and sauces maded from it are going to be acidic. While this isn’t a problem for most people, there’s plenty of people that have indigestion or Acid Reflux that’s aggravated enough by the acid content to seriously cut into their enjoyment of the meal.

I spent a bunch of time over the last several days searching out ways in which to cut the acid and learned a few things. A few of which will help.

The first thing I found was a suggestion to add a couple teaspoons of sugar to the sauce as it cooks down. This is one that I’ve tried recently and regretted doing so. Sugar MIGHT cut acid a little but mostly what it does is add sweetness to the taste and a sweet pasta sauce is not something I ever want to make again. I honestly don’t think that sugar actually gets rid of any acid, it just tries to mask it with the sweet taste. Not good in a tomato sauce.

Another suggestion was sodium bicarbonate, also known as baking soda. When the sauce is near the end of the cooking process and most of the juices are gone, add a VERY little bit, Just enough to fit on the point of a steak knife. Stir it into the sauce. You’ll see a lot of small white bubbles all over. They are caused by a chemical reaction that actually nutralizes some of the acid in the sauce. When the bubbles subside taste the sauce to check both for acidity and any change to the taste. If you need to add a bit more baking soda you can but caution is the word of the day. Best to do this in very small steps because once you add it in you can’t take any of it back out.

The third idea is one that as a cheese lover I kinda like. Add grated cheese. Parmesan cheese (the real stuff, Parmigiano-Reggiano) or a little Pecorino (a very strong cheese), even ricotta cheese will reduce the acid in tomato sauces and add their own flavors. This works because cheese contains calcium which has a chemical reaction with the acid that nutralizes some of it.

A suggestion I read somewhere on discusscooking.com was to add a whole potato to the sauce while cooking it and remove before serving. I’m not sure how this would work but it’s probably got something to do with the starches in the potato. Another comment on that site suggested adding a carrot to the sauce. Someone else suggested adding a bit of vinegar, though I can’t see how vinegar which is more acidic would help cut acid from tomato sauce

Technorati Tags: tomato sauce, nutralize acid, sodium bicarbonate, reduce acid, calcium, parmigiano reggiano, pecorino, tomato, cheese, baking soda

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Pies have been a basic staple for desserts for a long time, there’s also the several varieties of meat pies, pot pies and other recipes that require pie crust at some point.

*Note* With most cooking it’s ok to kind of approximate or ‘eyeball’ a lot of ingredient measurements and still have the finished product come out just fine. This is NOT true with baking. Because of the chemistry involved it’s necessary to be as accurate as you can be with ingredient measures. (hmm. I ought to write more about that sometime ‘eh?)

Measure 2 cups of sifted all purpose flour into bowl. Use a fork to mix in 1 teaspoon of salt. Then add two thirds cup of lard OR three fourths cup of shortening and mix it in coarsely.

Sprinkle in ice water one tablespoon at a time, mixing lightly with a fork just until all of the flour is dampened.

Press the dough together firmly into a ball. Use as directed in recipes. This recipe makes enough dough for two 9-inch crusts or a one double crust (top & bottom)

Technorati Tags: baking, dough, baking, basic pie crust, dessert, pastry, pie crust, pie dough, crust

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