My Urban Pantry

Cherry Bomb!

March 1, 2014Leave a comment

A couple weeks ago I made Brunswick Stew. When I was grocery shopping for the ingredients I ended up all over town and then actually buying everything at the grocery store 3 minutes from my house. Such is life. In my travels across town I stopped in to Whole Foods to find some specific brisket. I didn’t walk out with any brisket but I did walk out with the following…

Bottled of cold brewed espresso mixed with Almond Milk – totally enjoyed that over multiple days
Best yogurt I’ve ever tasted – Noosa – Made in Colorado with Australian probiotics (sounds like the hippies won that one)
Most interesting yogurt I’ve ever tasted (and not interesting bad, Skyr Icelandic yogurt flavored with mango & jalapeno)
Cherry Bomb Peppers

So, outside of having a million other cooking projects I managed to pickle three pints of cherry bombs. Pickling peppers is probably the easiest canning that I have done. If you like jalapenos and want to try your hand at preserving I would actually really recommend it. It’s about the easiest thing and the super spicy chopped peppers will be great on pizzas and in Italian cold meat sandwiches (like Muffalettas.) This recipe is from Food in Jars website and if you have a mind to start canning it is a great place to start.

Harry & Larry’s

February 25, 20141 Comment

Our friend Karin has had a rough couple of weeks. You can see more about why on her blog. I urge you to go there actually and be either entertained or inspired or just engaged. She’s en route to Manila for work now. Z couldn’t go because the doctors didn’t think it would work for his health. He’s been kinda sick at home so I can’t imagine how he would’ve done but it tends to all work out one way or the other.

So, back to this. On Friday night Karin & I had been texting back and forth with what we could do and Z suggested Harry & Larry’s BBQ whose deep fried pickles Karin has been praising for months. Not their BBQ, but their pickles. Alright, a 40 minute drive later to what must be the other end of the state we hit Winter Garden. It’s kind of more old town central Florida. A walking community where people have lived there a while and are happy with their comfortable community. Harry & Larry’s is a tiny windowed storefront with a deep hallway of bright red booths. It looks kinda old but has only been around for five or so years While we were perusing the menu board outside I asked someone sitting outside with a big baskety pile of dinner what he was having, ‘Man Salad’ he said. So, I happily ordered that only slightly less ‘Manly’. A big old basket of fries (instead of lettuce) usually covered in beans (I skipped those) and then smothered in cheese and brisket just waiting to be sauced up by one of the three options, sweet, hot or XXX. I had the hot and had to switch to the sweet which isn’t my usual but I liked it a lot. Z had the XXX on his pulled pork sandwich and I really can’t imagine how that felt going down. A man salad. Awesome. It was fun to eat. No way I could finish. The meat was alright. I’m not ashamed to say i probably like 4Rivers better but the pickles. Karin’s right about them. They are so great. Dill pickle rounds dipped in some kind of cornmeally breading and deep fried served with some pinkish sort of sauce thing. They were so good. I was sharing or could have easily forked my way through there. It’s a fun local place filled with friendly staff and the prices are very fair. We shut the place down talking -although Winter Garden pulls in the sidewalks pretty early. You should go, even if just for the pickles and conversation.

**Oh, btw, that pig ride up at the top sits outside. I think it should be painted like a boar as it has tusks and looks fierce.

all pasta isn’t created equal

February 22, 2014Leave a comment

If you do any reading of food blog or magazines or watch more than one show on the Food Network you get some of the same mantras over and over ad infinitum. They include but are not limited to:

don’t cook garlic on too high a heat. It will burn and be bitter.
when zesting a lime or lemon only take off the thinnest colored part of the skin. The white pith is bitter.
use the best ingredients you can afford. I never know what that means. I think for me it is use the best I am willing to pay for.
Always think in a high pitched almost mock Italian when thinking about prosciutto, parmigiano or spagitti. (You know I know how to spell spaghetti.)

Giada De Laurentiis is a force. Food Network loves her and over the years she has kind of come into her own and become more like …herself. I don’t like to watch her so much as I feel like her falsetto Italian words are grating the edges of my soul. I do have one of her books however and we’ve made good work out of several recipes inside so I suppose I can’t complain about her too much. Maybe I’m just jealous. Z requested this recipe from everyday italian last week when he was sick with a sinus infection. His happy place in comfort food is noodles. Buttered noodles, ramen noodles, macaroni & cheese, Alfredo, etc. We had a package of Prosciutto in the freezer along with a bag of orechiette in the pantry from our last Trader Joe’s run in Sarasota. Combined with fresh wedge of parmesan we were off to the races. This book is nicely Italian in that it isn’t ingredient heavy. This is basically pasta, olive oil, bread crumbs, prosciutto & parm. All things we regularly have around even if nothing is waiting for their use. It’s a half hour type recipe. The ‘sauce’ for the pasta comes together while the water comes up to a boil and the pasta cooks. I threw in some steamed broccoli and a bottle of Lambrusco (also from TJ’s) to round it out. A side note about the TJ’s orrechiette-it isn’t my favorite. It’s a bit too cupped and even is a huge pot of salted water they tend to stick together into little stacks of hats which I don’t love. Sometimes you get what you pay for. The cookbook though, is an easy reader and the recipes come from that happy Italian place where they sit around the table every night to something luscious and comforting. Dinner is served.

Brunswick Stew

February 18, 20141 Comment

Well, here is some advice for you. Read the recipe. All of it. Including how many servings it makes. If you are not feeding a bunk house full of ranch hands you may want to hold back on this. I didn’t think about what I was doing before I made this recipe. I blindly bought ingredients. Blindly. Scroll it back a second. Four Rivers is a local smokehouse here in Orlando with a massive cultish following. People. Love. That. Place. It has brisket. It has smoked jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped in bacon. It has my favorite coconut cake. In fact, I want it right now. I bought the cookbook when it went on sale a few months ago after flipping though it and realizing it was most of the menu in writing. This is all developed by a regular guy who loves to eat things, particularly things topped with an onion ring. John Rivers is a good guy who sells good food and is doing well for it. His book is easy to read and follow…you just have to do it. Note to self.

He’s even opening a new chicken joint soon that I am more than excited about. So, in this quest to try new things and open my books I made a Brunswick stew recipe out of the book. I probably could have put thirty seconds of thought into it and realized that it would feed a small army (which we are not.) It is a BBQ sauced soup that is full of brisket, chicken (it called for smoked, I used rotisserie) and sausage alongside those cowboy staples corn, diced potato and baby lima beans. It made about 2 gallons. I’ve eaten it three times, Z twice and our lunchmates (X3) ate it today too. That’s eight servings and I estimate 6 or 8 left in the fridge. It is pretty dang good though, on cornbread (so I heard today at lunch) or with buttered yeasty rolls (my personal favorite.) The picture here is rather soupy. Only the first two bowls were soupy like that. The rest is fairly just spoonfuls of meat and vegetables in the savory sauce. I happily had a bottle of 4R hot on hand when I was cooking. The rest of the book beckons… I may just have to buy a smoker.

totchos

February 17, 2014Leave a comment

I know this is the second post from Pinterest in a row and I’ve actually legitimately made other things that I actually think were more…..worthy but here they are. Totchos. I saw them on Pinterest in a sponsored thing by Ore-Ida or someplace. Totchos = Nachos with tator tots instead of chips. I planned to have them as a side for dinner with steaks and salad. Z was sick and he was hardly eating and so, we just had totchos for dinner. Nothing real here. All faux food. They weren’t bad but we’ve done and will do better. I took the low easy road. There’s not even a recipe involved. Cook some tots per the package (and a few minutes extra to get them crispier. Meanwhile, fry some bacon lardons (matchsticks) to crispy. Meanwhile, heat some Fritos jalapeno cheddar in the microwave (Yeah, I said that) Pour cheese over tots, sprinkle on bacon and a dollop of sour cream. Green onions would be nice but I didn’t have any. Enjoy!