Month: February 2013

Wing It! – Asian Spiced Chicken Wings

Published by platefodder

Sooo… did you all do your homework and read yesterday’s post about sorghum syrup? good… let’s move on. I’ve always had this funny thing about chicken wings. Not particularly because we ate them all that much at home. I mean… they came attached to the chicken, but buying a package of wings? That never happened. A package of minimal meat anything had no place on the table…. We were human vacuums. Feeding us a pile of wings for dinner just meant that we’d be raiding the fridge later that night for some else to eat. Jane hated it when we raided the fridge and made damned sure we were suitably filled with protein so that didn’t occur. But, I remember an episode of Galloping Gourmet.. I guess from the late 60’s… (so you know, it was on in the daytime, so that meant we had to be home sick from school, or spring break, or summer vacation… so it wasn’t an all the time kind of thing) where he made this chicken wing dish. I’ve tried …

Locally Grown – Sorghum Syrup

Published by platefodder

Generally speaking, it’s a Southern thing. Although over the years it’s been produced across the country as far north as Minnesota. Sorghum syrup is to the South like baked beans are to Boston. And let me be clear, this isn’t anything like maple syrup. Sorghum originally came to the South in the pockets and packs of the slave trade, and quickly became a favored feed stock because of the drought resistant qualities of the canes. Unlike sugar cane which does best in moist, rich soils, sorghum thrived in the oppressive heat and humidity of the deep south. Sorghum syrup is made from the pressed canes of the sweet sorghum plant. It is similar to sugar cane in sweetness but far more complex in flavor. By the mid 1800’s sorghum syrup production totaled close to 62 million gallons a year. It was the primary sweetener in the southern states. However, syrup production was hard work. The canes had to be cut and stripped by hand, the presses were either livestock or man powered, the canes had to be continually fed into the …

Kale Tart

Published by platefodder

I’ve been playing around with the Strong Greens Tart we did back in December. Because?Well, even though it was uber (don’t you hate that word?) tasty – I wanted to see how it would work with a different set of flavorings…. and some different textural components. I’ve been a kugel fan for a long time. Ever since the first time I ate at the now defunct Sydney’s Just South. .. So, if you’re from around here, you’ll know how long that’s been. There’s something about eggs and egg noodles that’s almost as comforting as a big bowl of peppered buttered elbow macaroni. So, to bolster this recipe, I’ve augmented the raisins and pine nuts for walnuts and dried cranberries, switched out the broccoli greens for kale, and added a heaping cup of egg noodles to the mix. You know… I like it just as much as the original.… and that’s not just the noodles talking. Kale TartMakes 1 9″ TartIngredients 1 – 9″ Pie Crust2 Cups of Cooked Kale – Chopped3 Eggs1 Cup Milk3 Strips Bacon1 …

A Little Tail…

Published by platefodder

Oh, I could expound on the glory, the finger licking and bone sucking – near orgasmic feat in devouring ox tail… But that would just be cruel. Ox tail is, and always will be, the completely misunderstood cut of meat. Tough, stringy meat? … sure Fattiness cubed? … but, of course Bizarre weaponized bone structure? …. absolutely! But, throw all that together in a long, s l o w cook – and you have something that not even your favorite Jewish grandmother’s brisket can beat… except for that “back half of the cow thing.” Ox Tail – it is the only muscle in a cow that is constantly on the move. All that perpetual swishing creates some serious dense musculature, fat and connective tissue. The only way to make it palatable is to stew or braise it. I’ve chosen to braise. And, I’ve chosen to do it with little to no added liquid. I’m telling you – get the extra wet naps ready… it’s going to be epic-ly messy. Braised Ox Tail Given the rather large knuckle of tail bone holding everything together …

Vacations Past & Seafood Veracruz

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Sometime well before The Gulf Cost of Mexico became a slightly more garish version of Panama City, you could grab a $150 flight with an ID and a promise that you were a US Citizen, bribe a taxi, and be on the beach somewhere in the vicinity of Campeche just before the sun started to set. I used pack a case of books, an industrial sized bottle of Hawaiian Tropic (back when we all got as brown as cocoa beans) and make my way there whenever I could. It’s not that there weren’t tons of things to do. I’m sure that if I were in the adventurous mood, I could have kept myself busy doing all types of exciting activities. But for me – There was the beach, there was the cold water flat, there were the waves that lapped dangerously close to my lodgings at night.. and down the beach, across 200 yards of scorching sand, was a hut that served my dinner every night – grilled fresh fish veracruz and cervezas. Those trips were some …

Super Bowl – that’s football, right?

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Okay, I’m not what you call sporty. I’ve never been really big into any real sport… golf doesn’t count, does it? And I’ve never – ever been able to keep the complicated rules and regulations and e n d l e s s mind numbing statistics in my head. It’s just not my thing. I was in the band for Pete’s sake – and I’m not talking drum corps or brass section, either. So I don’t do the whole Super Bowl snacks and parties Although if you wanted something that shouldn’t be made into a dip recreated into a multi-layered explosion of bad taste… I’m sure there are people out there doing just that for you. More power to them. However – I did make a ridiculously easy pulled pork. And I guess (if you were so inclined) you could pile it high on some crispity, crunchy torpedo rolls and serve them up next to the 15-layer burrito bowl … with those unnatural red tortilla chips. Plate Fodder Pulled Pork Serves 10 to 15 Ingredients …