Cheap Eaten

[karstopography]

The three of us gobbled down at least 4 pounds of homemade Buffalo wings last night. Chicken still is pretty cheap here. Ate a mountain of celery and half a mountain of carrots. Carrots and celery are cheap. Fresh made HV Ranch dressing to unite it all.

Daughter that instigated (me”what you want for dinner?” Her “wings”) the wing dinner in the first place was MIA, but she did leave behind some peanut brittle, barn builder eggs and blackberry jam she made. The brittle was great, she added some dried Cowhorn pepper flakes to the syrup of whatever it is that makes brittle. Sweet and salty then some nice heat on the finish. Seemed like the perfect thing to end the dinner with. Too bad she missed out.

[worth1]

Putting this here because if you went to a German restaurant it would cost a pretty penny.
First I have some homemade red cabbage sauerkraut with caraway and apple in the ferment.
In this I added homemade fermented onions and homemade bacon.
Plus slices of Pink Lady apple more caraway seeds, dill seeds and dark brown sugar
Put it all in a kettle simmered until apple was done.
Next is what I'm calling the Elgin Hot Gut Hack.
Elgin hot guts is an age old name for Elgin South Side meat market sausage.
The stuff is as fatty as can be.
Been eating it since I was in my early 20's.
It has caused many a BBQ grill fire it is so fatty.
What to do.
I decided to cook it the way I now do sausage.
In water no hotter than 150 degrees.
This way the fat doesn't cook out.

Last but not least is a mix of simmered red and Yukon gold potatoes.
Everything is ready but me.
Tasted the sauerkraut and it is to die for.
Pictures coming soon.
But here is a teaser of the sauerkraut before cooking

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[worth1]

Yummy

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[worth1]

That was by far the best way I have ever eaten this sausage.
Can't believe it took me so long to try it cooked like this.

[worth1]

Okay I have the pot of beans cooking.
The chili is made.
Now I'm toasting/ frying 4 cups of basmati rice in a cast iron dutch oven.
This will make 8 cups of cooked rice I can reserve for later in freezer bags.
Taking these three ingredients and putting them together for something later.
Something I dreamed up yesterday.
It's going to be good.

[worth1]

Since I used the giant Dutch oven to toast the rice it was heated up completely.
Drained off excess oil added a little over 8 cups of water a pinch of salt and a quarter pound of butter.
Brought water to boil turned down heat and cooked for 10 minutes.
This is 5 to 10 minutes less than recommended.
But the cast iron holds so much heat it will continue cooking for a good long time.
With ir off and on the stove it will give me an opportunity to leave the house or do something else.
Beans are on low slowly cooking with the cover now off and evaporating the remaining liquid.

[worth1]

Took a shower shaved took another shower got dressed and here is what I got after the lid was removed.
Kettle still hot but not too hot and no steam coming out.
Absolutely fabulous if you ask me.
It has a most distinctive nutty flavor.
I just dipped my front paw in and that's what you get.

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[worth1]

Not what's on the menu but the chef is starving.
Took some of the toasted rice freshly chopped jalapeño seeds removed the bean juice with a few beans to tide me over.

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[worth1]

Still not done more to come.
Beans with cured and smoked side meat.
Toasted rice.
Fresh jalapeño.
Chili.

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[worth1]

Made just enough cornbread mix to make fish and corn sticks in my cast iron molds.
1 cuo flour.
1 cuo yellow cornmeal.
Baking powder.
Salt.
1 egg.
Used powdered milk and water for the liquid.
Pre heated oiled iron to 400 put in mix and away we go.
Absolutely zero sticking.

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[MissS]

[mention]worth1[/mention] it looks like those Goldfish ate some seaweed.

[maxjohnson]

Stepping up my omelet.

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[worth1]

As if y'all didn't know i don't have an authentic recipe for chili.
What's the use if you can't switch things around.
Here is an example.
It started with a big tomato and what to do with it before it went bad.
Also had a giant jalapeño pepper i needed to use.
Here are the results.
About a pound of ground chuck.
Chili powder feiesta brand.
Ancho chili powder.
New Mexico chilie powder.
Cumin.
Garlic powder.
Oregano at the last as always.
Big tomato cut up in chunks.
Water.
Kosher salt.
Paprika.
No idea of the measurements.
But it's going on a baked potato with cheese and Greek yogurt.
And it's in a 10 inch cast iron skillet.

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[worth1]

As usual I almost never make chili without having some on pasta.
Pulled the skillet out of the refrigerator and it is heated up.
Got pasta water on to boil
Worked 12 hours today and didn't get home till 8 pm.
Been up since 1:30 am.
Not going to work tomorrow unless I'm needed but working Saturday.
It's nice to have leftovers.
But seriously can chili be called leftovers?
I think not.

[worth1]

Chili with linguine??
When and or why diii I buy linguine?
What was i thinking?
There's a first time for everything.
Oh yes it was for a seafood meal.

[worth1]

Bought 3 pounds of Texas gulf shrimp on sale.
Two pounds of Panko.
Tomorrow or actually later today will be an all you can eat shrimp day.
Got a few other surprises up my sleeve too.

[worth1]

I stand corrected it was 2 8 once sleeves of panko.
As far as I can tell panko is panko.
They have expensive panko and cheap panko.
What I want to do is make some with fried pork rinds.
Since I can't find any in the store

[worth1]

You're not getting a pound of fried gulf shrimp and a very nice one pound New York strip steak at any restaurant.
And for sure not cooked Ike this.
Plus a homemade dip I came up with.
It was mayonnaise chopped fresh jalapeños crushed garlic Gochujang juice of a lime and horseradish.
The other thing I did was take one of my grills and put it under the grill I can raise up and down.
Built a small pit in the middle and lit the coals.
This allows me to get right on to of the coals for a screaming hot heat.
This Santa Maria grill seems to get more versatile every day.

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[worth1]

Oh yes total cost about 22 dollars counting the panko crumbs.

[worth1]

The price for yesterdays meal dropped to 11 dollars because I only ate half of it.
That means it officially cost about as much as a burger fries and drink at a burger joint.
Or close to it.
So don't tell me you can't afford a steak and shrimp if you're eating out all the time.

Now for the panko bread crumbs.
At around 325F it only takes a minute to cook the shrimp in cast iron.
I cooked 6 to 7 shrimp at a time with the small cast iron kettle heated completely.
Anything longer and your bread crumbs will be too dark.
You can fiddle around and experiment but what you don't want is over cooked shrimp.
I like mine to pop with juices when I bite into them.
If you're used to over cooked shrimp you'll think mine are raw.
Trust me they aren't.
A good rule of thumb is when they float they're ready
I ain't died yet and I have probably cooked hundreds of pounds of shrimp..

A word on powders rubs and so on.
I like to do this after they come out of the hor fat not before
So as they come out toss them in your favorite spices.
I do it because I don't like burned pepper powder and spices.