Sally’s Kitchen & Stuff

Braised, not baked. This is real simple. All you’ll need is a frying pan big/deep enough to put everything. You could, conceivably, make this in a soup pot. For an alternative recipe, halve the garlic, and substitute mustard. To make it real fancy, garnish with mustard seeds.

Ingredients - serves 4 as an entree
6 pork short ribs (they’re about 12-14 inches long, and 1 1 1/2 inches wide) cut to 3 inch sections
1/2 red onion
1/2 head of garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
1 cup of water
2 TBSP honey
1 chicken boillion cube or equivalent chicken soup powder
Flour or potato starch
Garlic salt, pepper, EVO to taste.

Instructions
Sear the ribs, fat side down first, until browned on all sides. The idea is to fry the fat out of it. Put aside. Drain the pan of all but 1 TBSP or so of fat. Add a splash of EVO, pinch of salt & pepper. Sautee the onions until lightly caramelized.

Dissolve honey in water, add chicken cube. Add garlic salt if it’s not salty enough. Turn the heat to medium high, add garlic, layer the ribs on top, add the honey mixture, and close the lid. When it starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium low, and let it simmer for 25 minutes. Lift the ribs out and set aside.

Turn heat up to medium high. Add potato starch to pan sauce, a teaspoon at a time stirring constantly. You shouldn’t need more than 3. Let it boil, then simmer until sauce coats the spoon. Toss the ribs in the sauce, and serve.

Leftover sauce from this recipe is beautiful spooned over mashed potatoes.

Egad. I work in a music school, and students usually start pouring in at around 4 PM or so. By 6, the building is full of the sounds of kids playing violin slightly out of tune. Sometimes you hear a kid singing karaoke downstairs. Yesterday it was brass duets, but of course, nobody bothered tuning themselves after they’ve been mechanically tuned. Oh well, they’re just kids.

I hate Thursdays.

Oh garlic. Oh the great garlic. Oh the almighty garlic. Sorry. I’ve slaughtered many of your kind over the years. I must say I can’t live without you.

Contrary to popular belief, there is no need to mince garlic. EVER. Unless you want to taste chunks of garlic in your food, there’s no need for that. Most of the time, garlic flavoured oil will suffice. I’m not suggesting you make that at home; botulism will get to you. You can, however, flavour the oil right before you cook.

Take a clove of garlic, unpeeled. Just pull it off the head. Lay it flat side down on the cutting board, and put a flat side of a knife to it (make sure it’s a BIG chef’s knife), now push down and apply firm pressure until it cracks. The skin should come off easily enough, and you’ve crushed the garlic, releasing the oils. Now put a few cloves in the oil you’re going to cook with, and turn up the heat. You want to lightly brown the garlic, not fry it until it’s black. Dark garlic is BITTER.

If you really must mince garlic, go right ahead. I prefer the jar variety. Just make sure you don’t throw garlic in before everything else - remember that dark garlic is bitter. i.e. overcooked garlic is bitter. So if you add it first, it’ll be bitter by the time you’re done.

My grannie used to make this for me when I was a kid. *sigh* I miss her. This would be a western equivalent of a scrambled eggs with vegetables.

Ingredients
6 Eggs
2 1/2 cups frozen vegetables (I used long green beans and carrots)
4 cloves garlic
2 TBSP olive oil (or more, if you’re not using a non-stick pan)
2 TBSP light soya sauce
Chicken broth (optional)
1/2 TSP pepper (optional)
1/2 TSP salt (to taste)

Instructions - takes less than 15 minutes!
Peel and crush garlic. Heat olive oil on medium. Add garlic, sprinkle with salt and fry until ligh brown on both sides. Lift the garlic out, mince, and set aside. Add frozen vegetables, cook w/o lid for approx 8 minutes. If it gets too dry, pour in some chicken broth or water. Add eggs directly to pan, scramble and mix until eggs are lightly cooked - LIGHTLY! Add soya sauce and mix in. Remove from heat, add garlic to the pan, and put a lid on it. Wait 10 minutes, and voila! The steam finishes the cooking, and your eggs are light and fluffy. Now just spoon that over a bowl of rice and splash with a dash of hot sauce and some sesame oil and you’re in heaven.

There’s something magical about eggs cooked in broth with soya. It’s like…instant Chinese food. Mmmmm. Reminds me of home.

The repairs took 2 hours, but eventually the plumber found the right pipes. There will be cooking in my kitchen tonight.

We had KFC chicken and fries for dinner, with Coke. I’m really going to have to join that boxing gym to work all this junk off.

Apples - yes. There’s a lot of wax on apples.
Carrots - no. You’re peeling CARROT off of it.
Potatoes - no. It’s too much work. I’ve gotten away with making mashed potatoes without peeling them.
Pepper - roast. Put in bowl, cover with saran wrap. Wait a few minutes. Peel.
Tomatoes - yes. The stuff tastes like paper and catches in your teeth.

Here’s how to peel anything soft. Boil some water, and cook the tomato/pepper in it for roughly 30 seconds, max. Fish it out, and blanch in cold water. Slice open the top layer and it should peel very easily.

So I sat around for 3 hours waiting for the plumber to arrive. He didn’t show up. So I bought some vietnamese food, and the boyfriend threw a tantrum and didn’t eat it. Ok, so there’s raw beef in the stuff, but all you have to do to cook it is to pour that hot soup over it.

How to eat Pho Soup. (take out version)
1. Open soup lid. There’s a little hole on the top, usually 1/4 inch into the circle. Don’t put your thumb over that. It’d give you a steam burn.
2. Open noodle box.
3. Open little package with fragrant leaves and beanstalks. Pull leaves off the vine, spread on noodles. Sprinkle with beanstalks.
4. Pour soup over noodles generously. Fill it to almost overflowing. Close lid. Wait 30 seconds.
5. EAT. Don’t you know it’s rude to refuse food from a Chinese person?

So I stormed off to the bookstore and bought three books. I found a children’s book by Terry Pratchett based on the fairy tale of the piper. I also found a Murphy’s Laws reference manual. Then I fussed over the fact that there’s very little room left on my bookshelf. *sob*

I need those pipes fixed ASAP or I’ll end up having KFC for dinner tonight.

My kitchen sink is inoperative. The U pipe have rusted out, and I noticed it early Sunday morning. I was going to post a new recipe today from Sunday night’s experiement. But Sunday night’s experiment turned out to be Korean food downtown. I had meat bone soup (my favorite. I really ought to stop ordering the same thing everytime.) Stu had had pork on rice. When I remember the name of the place, I’ll definitely post it - we stuffed ourselves and the bill was $12, with tip, that’s $15. Not bad for an authentic Korean dinner with sidedishes.

Some things you just don’t know how much you’d miss until it’s gone away…such as smooth kitchen plumbing.

Me: (spots the last turtle.) May I have the last turtle, hon?
Stu: Sure.
Me: REALLY?
Stu: You can have my last anything, honey.

Now that’s true love.

You will need a steamer for this. My cookware set came with one, which is basically a pot with holes on the bottom that fit over another pot. Keeping that in mind, you can use a big collapsable steamer that fit over pots. You will also need a potato masher - an acrylic one will do, and you can get it at pretty much any corner store for $3 or less.

Ingredients - serves 4
5 white potatoes, chunked
2 cups water
1/2 TBSP salt
1 TBSP minced garlic
1 TSP chicken broth powder or one chicken bouillion cube
1/2 cup cream
1 TBSP margarine

Instructions
Steam potatoes on high heat. It should take about 20 minutes. if a fork go right through it, it’s done.

Remove the steamer from the pot, along with potatoes. Turn the heat down to medium high, and add the rest of the ingredients to the potato water. Once everything is mixed / dissolved, pour into a jug. Now turn the heat off, and put the potatoes back into the pot. Mash with a masher, adding the sauce as you mash. You should use up all of the liquid, and end up with a smooth, creamy, yummy pot full of mashed potatoes.

You can easily double this recipe, and use left overs for shepard’s pie.