Category: recipe

Bhutanese Red Rice Hash

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I think of this dish as my version of the garbage plate, albeit one with a slightly lower fat content perhaps! A marvelous hodgepodge pile of my fridge excavations crowned with a golden, runny egg, this dish in some incarnation is my day-to-day sustenance. Bhutanese Red rice, the base grain of this particular version, has a wonderfully nutty flavor and chewy texture– but it is the color that really impresses. Tossed with a vibrant veggies, this colorful meal is akin to stir fry/fried rice but the addition of the egg reminds me more of breakfast hash.

  • olive oil
  • broccoli and purple onion, either fresh or roasted
  • roasted red pepper
  • yellow squash, fresh or pickled
  • garlic clove
  • Huy Fong Sriracha Chili Garlic sauce
  • Bragg Liquid Aminos (or soy sauce or salt)
  • white navy beans, pre-cooked or canned
  • Bhutanese red rice, cooked per package directions, about a half cup per serving
  • egg, one per serving
  • shredded lettuce
  • cheese (I used blue)

Rough chop the veggies.

Saute veggies in olive oil till tender. Add beans, hot pepper sauce, and Braggs to taste.


Add rice to pan, toss occasionally till everything is hot.

Serve topped with shredded lettuce, crumbled cheese and an egg fried to your liking.

Brenna’s Fried Chicken

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Fried Chicken

As my mother’s first-born, I am the only one of my siblings who has any substantial recollection of the cabinets in our childhood home aflame, my mother literally tossing my sister into the grass of the yard, and the neighbor dragging the garden hose from the yard, through the living room and into the kitchen to extinguish the danger before the sirens even arrived. Which is why, for me, fried chicken is a tad anxiety provoking despite its claim as the trademark of wholesome, down home, Southern hospitality.

Fortunately, my sister, perhaps a whopping 30lbs at the time, has no memory of flying through the air out the front door. Nor does she suffer from the same qualms about deep-frying in home kitchens.

Which is fortunate because fried chicken still always feels like a feast. And, I must admit, is steadily transforming into a symbol of sisterly generosity and the heroics of neighbors.

Brenna’s Fried Chicken

  • 1 (3 pound) whole chicken, cut into pieces
  • Italian bread crumbs
  • salt to taste
  • ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 teaspoon paprika
  • vegetable oil for frying
  1. Season chicken pieces with salt, pepper, and paprika. Roll in bread crumbs.
  2. Add about 3/4 inch oil to a large, heavy skillet. Heat to approximately 365. Place chicken pieces in hot oil. Cover, and fry until golden, turning once, 15 to 20 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder

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Although I am an unabashed fan of pork, this recipe is just about the biggest bang you can get for your buck: an inexpensive cut, little preparation, utterly delicious. Homesick for Savannah, Georgia, I served this beast with collard greens and corn muffins. Leftovers make terrific pulled pork sandwiches and carnitas taco filling.

1 bone-in, skin-on fresh pork picnic shoulder (mine was 8.5 lb)
1 head garlic
1 tablespoon coarse salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground Cheyenne pepper (or seasonings of your choice)

1. Rinse pork and pat dry. Score skin in a crisscross diamond pattern, making 1/8-inch-deep cuts about 1 inch apart. Separate and peel garlic cloves. In a mortar and pestle, crush garlic, salt, and pepper into a coarse paste (or mince garlic, then mix with salt and spices). Rub garlic paste all over roast. Set roast, skin side up, on a rack in a roasting pan, preferably on a rack.


2. Roast in a 450° oven until deep golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes.

3. Reduce oven temperature to 225° and bake until a thermometer inserted through the center of thickest part at bone reads 170° to 175°, 8 to 9 hours

Sunday Brunch

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This weekend I had the privilege of being served undoubtedly the best breakfast potatoes I’ve tasted; crispy on the outside, supremely garlic-y with bits of grated Parmesan fried to crunchy perfection– simply delicious. Served with eggs scrambled with hunks of steak and homemade orange juice, they were barely the star of this amazing meal.

Matt, the gracious host and kitchen gadget affectionado, kindly offered these tips for achieving hash brown perfection:

The key to good home fries, and most things that are sautéed, is consistency in size. Potatoes take a while to cook, and the different sized chunks will cook at different speeds. I like to cut mine into small (1-2 cm) cubes to help them cook fast and thoroughly.I used to hand chop, now I rough cut them and use a chopper ( a la Slap Chop ) to streamline the process. I first bought a table top chopper about 6 years ago ( I think it was a Cuisinart ) and honestly didn’t use it much. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of dicing and when I stumbled across a Farberware chopper still in the box at a secondhand store I spent the 4 bucks and took it home. The choppers make short work of dicing most anything to a uniform size in seconds flat.
Putting my chopped potato cubes, diced onion and garlic ( again, all in the chopper ) into a very hot pan with 2 tablespoons of hot olive oil swirled around to coat the pan. I cook on high heat to get a good brown and stir or shake the pan to get a good even crust. Add seasoning to taste ( I like paprika, chili powder, black and white pepper from the grinder and a bit of cayenne to taste.)  After the outside has a bit of color, I turn down the heat to about halfway add a tablespoon of butter and let the potatoes sit and cook through for about 8-10 more minutes, getting a nice crust in the process. about a minute before the potatoes are done, I sprinkle in a healthy dose of fresh grated Parmesan cheese to stick it all together.
These work well for me, but different pans and ovens may give different results (another key to good cooking – good pans) the best advice I can give you is: experiment, and write down what works for you. Bon appetit!

Most Versatile Non-Recipe Ever: Roasted Veggies

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For the inaugural post on this brand-spankin’ new blog, it made sense to share the latest manifestation of my main source of sustenance: the throw-everything-left-laying-around-the-kitchen-into-a-really-hot-oven recipe.  The components of this mixture are based entirely on the season, what I find at the green market, and sales at the grocery store. Usual suspects include some kind of squash, something green, and a variety of root vegetables.  Eaten as omelet/fritatta filling, in soups, or in grain or green based salads, this mix is the base for nearly every meal I eat for the following several days.  Flexible, seasonal, economical, easy, healthy and delicious… in short, Ideal.

Potential Ingredients:

butternut squash, acorn squash, zucchini

bell peppers, onion, broccoli, brussels sprouts, asparagus, mushrooms

sweet potatoes, Yukon Gold potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips

Herbs (preferably fresh, but dry will do: thyme, rosemary- be creative!)

Olive oil

Vinegar, citrus juice, or wine

Method:

Heat oven to 450°

Prepare the veggies: wash, peel, trim, and cube/cut into bite-sized pieces

Toss with a glug of oil, vinegar, seasonings

Spread on foil-lined sheet pans for easy clean-up

Roast until tender