Quick meal

Having ingredients on hand makes it easy to prepare a quick meal, a bowl of soup is nourishing in the fact that it  provides you with some liquid supplement instead of drinking just plain water along with the ingredients.

broth

shredded carrot

diced precooked duck meat

chopped spinach

ginger garlic paste

rice, (cooked previously)

chopped onion

smoked dried jalapeño peppers (Optional per bowl)

 

 

 

 

Focaccia with Rosemary and Onion

Not exactly, but just a slight change from this recipe,

https://recipereminiscing.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/focaccia-with-rosemary-and-onion-focaccia-med-rosmarin-og-lk/

Other focaccia type bread made in the past.

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2014/11/02/rosemary-and-garlic-fococcia/

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/06/01/bread-dough-focaccia/

 

White flour, sea salt, semolina flour, and the water/honey proofed yeast.

Flour by weight.

A  recent gift  I am learning to use, a new food processor, mixing the dough in this versus a mixer.

process the dry ingredients together

add the proofed yeast,

Just a couple of pulses and the dough comes together.

hand kneaded for about 5 minutes…

let rise in a bowl for about an hour

Pan roast some garlic

added some parsley (or whatever sprung from my parsley plant outside)

and some slightly ground rosemary

After an hour, the dough is very soft and flexible, stretch  and form into pan with depressions made with your  fingers.

Top with the garlic, rosemary, a bit of parsley, drizzle with olive oil.

Even though is was hot weather , just baked the dough in the oven, 375 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Though I baked it covered as the recipe indicates, I uncovered it for about the last 5 minutes of cooking.

It’s been a while since I’ve made a thick crust pizza. This focaccia was excellent The semolina gave it  a very soft crumb and crusty base. I would have preferred to have this run under the broiler for a bit of extra crunch.

Beer marinated smoke roasted chicken half

Back to the grille,   Tandoor oven

 1/2 of a chicken

Beer marinated smoked chicken….

 1 , 12 oz can beer, light American ale

Measured by eye

Rice wine,

rice vinegar

Parsley

Red peppercorns

Black peppercorns

Ginger garlic paste

Chopped onions

Water to top off

Place chicken in 1 gallon bag or suitable container.

Let rest several hours refrigerated.

Mesquite smoke pellets added periodically as necessary to charcoal embers some pellets soaked with water depending on smoker temperature. About 350-400 Fahrenheit 55 minutes.

The next day leg and thigh served with rice, shredded broccoli and Brussels sprouts.

with BBQ sauce.

green peppers stuffed with broccoli and rice.

Usually stuffed peppers contain some sort of meat, this time a cheesy rice with broccoli filling was used.

Other stuffed pepper recipes:

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/stuffed-peppers/

https://pmetro.wordpress.com/2013/04/19/stuffed-peppers-2/

Prep the broccoli (and garlic ! of course)

I chose to steam instead of saute.

I usually zap the peppers in the microwave a bit to soften them up.

cut off the top and remove the seeds and ribs (but you knew that!)

as you would prepare some rice, use stock instead water for a kick of flavor.

Prepare a bechamel sauce (butter and flour with milk or for a rich sauce evaporated milk), seasoned as you would prefer.

add the broccoli mixture to the sauce.

mix in the rice

Add some grated cheese, in this case Parmesan to complete the stuffing.

in a baking dish big enough for the peppers, fill the peppers carefully and put them in the dish.

need some bread crumbs ? I chopped up some pretzels for the topping

Into the oven they go ….

run up the broiler after the peppers are hot and bubbly to get the brown crunchy top.

Seafood and veggie pasta

A bit of seafood coated and fried, served alongside some veggies with home made pasta. 

Since I make pasta, I have usually stored some in the freezer for later use . It’s easier to store a batch for later use than make pasta for every dish.

   
Toss the seafood pieces with some cornmeal and slightly fry them in a small amount of oil.

Some bacon  and veggies, garlic and leeks with grape tomatoes prepped for the pan.
Sauté the leeks first, then the garlic… Add the tomatoes, of course after bacon is rendered. 

Finish with cheese……..

Add the boiled pasta….

Toss and serve.

Dark garlic…

What happens when you add a small amount of dark roasted barley (malt), with white all purpose flour with the bonus of minced garlic. 

Let’s see what happened…..

Since I didn’t get out the grain mill for such a small amount, the barley was processed with the food processor.

Sift out the large chunks ….
Add the sifted grains to a starter (poolish).. Yes we’re also going to make some plain white bread along side.

Also add some sourdough starter to the mix for interest.

Bubbling away….

The dough…

The baked loaf, next to the plain white.

A similar taste to pumpernickel bread with an garlic flavor. Different to say the least!

Eggplant calzoné

Sliced, salted and drained eggplant , with a simple tomato sauce with oregano and garlic. Add some mozzarella and a sprinkling of parmesean. Wrapped in the tipoOO flour based dough. 

The eggplant  was fried in olive oil, till browned slightly.

Ready!

Sorry didn’t get any pictures of filling when done, too delicious, they disappeared !!

But wait! Extra dough left over for supper the next night……

Chicken three cheese pizza, 1/2 chicken , 1/2 sauce and cheese. Parm, mozzarella,Romano.