Ghosts of rice past...

Do your pots have the ghosts of rice in them?  By this I mean the result of setting the rice on simmer and then forgetting to set the timer.  When you wander back just a leeeeeetle too late you find a sticky mess in the pan which is not only inedible (unless you like truly sticky rice) but it's also a scrub job.  I've done this a few times (by few I mean "more than five but less than ten, I think") and my Calphalon pans now have little outlines of rice grains on the bottom.  (NB:  this isn't crusted food, it's literally an outline of the grains...)

At any rate, the intrepid chef wannabee made another rice dish this evening.  Along with it I had SNOMG II, based on my hamburger creation mentioned below.  No snow in the forecast this time, and, the main changes I made to the hamburger were advanced spices and instead of one cup of water I used one cup of white wine (White Bordeaux as a matter of fact). 

Here is the rice dish I had alongside it.  It is called Orange Cilantro Rice.

Ingredients

2 teaspoons butter (I used EVOO)
1/2 cup diced onion
1 cup uncooked long grain white rice
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (I used the chopped garlic you find in little bottles)
1/2 teaspoon onion powder (after all that onion, why more?)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
salt to taste
1 1/2 cups orange juice
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions
Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Stir in onion, and cook until tender. Mix in rice, and season with cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, pepper, cayenne pepper, and salt. Cook and stir until rice is golden brown. Pour in orange juice and broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 20 minutes.

Remove cooked rice from heat, and gently mix in cilantro to serve.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Orange-Cilantro-Rice/Detail.aspx

(NUMBER EIGHT in 2010)

Don't fry chicken while wearing shorts

Well, I thought I'd give you an update. I had hoped this was going to be a triumphant post, one where the toddler finds she can run a marathon... but nooo, I had to go and burn my hand on hot oil!

So, my PSA for the day: DON'T WEAR SHORTS WHILE FRYING FOOD. AND CONSIDER WEARING GLOVES.

Sunday I was idly flipping through one of my many cookbooks (I actually own more than ten, can you believe it...) and came across what looked like an easy recipe for fried chicken. Well, it was easy, all apart from the hot burning oil, but I digress.

So, the recipe. It called for marinading the chicken in buttermilk for an hour or so and then the flour mixture has cayenne pepper and garlic powder in it. The treat was the honey/butter/pecan glaze you pour on top.

Well, my version didn't have pecans and it wasn't exactly a glaze, but it was good.

How the hell do you fry anything without splattering it all over? I'm sure a lot of this had to do with the heat of the oil - I had no idea what I was doing, so I just let it get good and hot and the first ones I threw in turned brown IMMEDIATELY - in fact you are supposed to let them cook 7 minutes on a side - I turned them over in about a minute and they were charred. I turned the heat down to low immediately and then put in the next batch.

Well, the first piece of chicken didn't want to unstick from my fork so, one hand was holding the big lid (so that the splatters wouldn't hit me) and the other one was gently trying to shake the chicken off, and somehow the oil came up - not splattered really, more like bounced, from the chicken piece - and a big glob hit the meaty part of my palm. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW! I'd say a quarter of my palm, the meaty part under your pinky, below the fold - covered in oil - it all happened really fast.

I immediately put it under cold water and held several ice cubes under this cold water - this was so the ice would melt quickly. I did that for a while and luckily, luckily, when I woke up this morning there isn't a lot of evidence anything happened last night - it is swollen a little but not really red.

It was shiny last night and pretty red (maybe in part from the icy water) and I was sure I'd see blistering. I don't know if it will blister eventually, but right now it's not as bad as I expected.

The chicken tasted good though.

Peach and Prosciutto Pizza, oh my

You heard it right. Peach and Prosciutto. On a Pizza.

This is yet another recipe from Sandi's estimable Whistle Stop Cafe cooking blog. And I can vouch for this - it's delectable. To me, the rosemary and prosciutto were the star of the show, with the bufala mozzarella and olive oil a close second. The peaches, to be honest, weren't noteworthy here, but, on the other hand, as it is October I had to use thawed (frozen) slices.

Here is her link:

Peach and Prosciutto on a Pizza

And here is her recipe in its entirety:

Peach & Prosciutto Pizza

1 pizza dough
6-8 slices prosciutto
2 peaches sliced
1/2 cup mozzarella
fresh rosemary
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Make your pizza crust, spreading the dough very thin. Brush the dough with oil, sprinkle generously with rosemary, salt and pepper. Top with slices of peaches and prosciutto cut into thin slices. Cover the top with a good mozzarella. Bake in a preheated oven at 350° 10-20 minutes- depending on the thickness of your crust.

And here is what I did with it:

First of all, I used frozen peach slices. I thawed them in the microwave (quelle horreur!)
Pizza crust, ready made.
I slopped on the EVOO.
I used a whole sprig of rosemary - all the leaves.
I liberally covered the pizza with cut up mozz cheese.

15-17 minutes on 350 and then I shut off the oven and left it in there another 5 minutes.

It was delicious and I have two lunches for this week, now.