Wednesday, November 30, 2011

CRABBY BUSINESS

a good while ago i made tuna patties inspired by something i saw on my favorite tv station. since then i decided to try making crab cakes and just never got around to doing it. until recently that is. i didn't have all the exact stuff i needed, but i decided to give it a try anyway. how far off could it be right?


well i started off with some multigrain crix,


crushed with my newest professional rolling pin made by guinness. (i got rid of the other one)


i used this crab meat in the tin that i had there. not exactly what i wanted, but it would have to do. it was a now or never kinda thing.


so i put the meat into a bowl with the crumbs, chive, shadon beni, onion, garlic, rosemary, thyme, parsley, a lil mayo and yellow mustard.


then seasoned it up with these dudes here.


the mix looked like this. i was thinking about making it a little firmer, but i decide to rock with this.


next, i spooned some patties into some hot oil. some very hot oil.


this skillet heats up reaaaaaally quickly, so the oil was too hot. flipping them was a scene.


EPIC FAIL!! flavour was real good. but... well... look at them.


however, an important commandment in these parts is THOU SHALL EAT THINE MISTAKES. so i put the broken up patties on some whole wheat toast and had a time. none of this animal goes to waste.


meanwhile, i sprayed some foil with cooking spray and made some more patties with the remaining mixture. defeat me?? never!! yuh doh wanna fry? well i'll bake yuh then! shoulda thought about doing it this way first. the healthier option i think.


put them in the oven until they cooked through, then put the fire on top to brown them up for the nice visual.


looked so nice i shot them twice.


and they tasted nice with some sweet chili sauce next to lentils over basmati rice. next time i want to get the chunky crab meat that they sell at pricesmart to mix in there for a different texture. but this did just fine.

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

HEADS OR TAILS????

a few people told me that they come to the blog to get ideas when they aren't too sure what too bubble. that's cool. glad to be of service. me? i use my indecisiveness to try out something different. i documented this one to share so you have even less reason to flip a coin when you're in that zone.


well this one involves pigtail, so swine haters beware. this one is pure swine and nothing but the swine. bbq pigtail to be exact. something i sampled some years ago and can't get enough of. until i made it myself that is. on this occasion, i wanted to see if it could be done minus the bbq pit.


basically, i put some pig tail in the pressure cooker with some spice and let that bubble like soup. the object here is to get that salt out and try to infuse some additional flavour into the pigtail.


while the pressure cooker was covered and doing its thing i started making a sauce. some sweet red chilli, jack daniel's honey dijon...


and some of this huge budwiser honey bbq that i got in pricemart. one of them impulse purchases that only manifests its insanity when you take it out of the car at home. "all this? but i don't own a restaurant! why did i buy this again? oh... because i was in pricemart being bitten by the it's-probably-cool-to-buy-this-massive-thing bug."


i put that in a pot with some sauteed garlic, onion, shadon beni, ginger, pimiento and thyme, then gave it a little heat for the flavours to come together.


not too long after that came the end of round one for the pigtail. round one is usually about 20 minutes, designed to cut a lot of the salt out. pigtail is a salty thing.


drained off that first water...


and added some more then put the tails back under pressure.


so at this point, there's still a lil salt in it. not overpowering, but enough to let you know that you're eating pigtail. i pressure mine to get it extra tender. that's just a preference though.


next move, into that sawse!


then onto a baking tray. heavy on the sauce. i mean... the sawse!


fire on top fuh dat!


we're just looking to get the sauce to darken up a bit to give it that bbq finish, so it doesn't take that long.


and a flip was necessary to get at the other sides.


and boom. that was it. my quick fix oven bbq pigtail. i sacrificed that smoked goodness you get from coals and wood, but to be able to drop this down without wheeling out the grill is worth it to me.