Combining the Best of Jamaica, Louisiana, and Belgium (The Ultimate Fusion!)

Some people might say that if you're making soup it would be best to use meats that have had the bones removed. To those people I say, "To heck with that!"



I cooked up a little red bell pepper, celery, and okra with some Old Bay seasoning until they were tender then I added the remainder of the oxtail that I made last week. I also added a generous amount of water as I remembered it being quite spicy.

In another pan I made a very dark roux then I thickened the concoction to make this makeshift gumbo. I also made some jasmine rice.

Leaving the bones in was an odd choice. For some reason I felt leaving the bones in would be more interesting, kind of like last year when I turned leftover osso bucco into osso bucco pie. The result was very good, but far spicier than I remember the original dish being, even despite cutting it with a lot water.



One of the bones reminded me of something so I zoomed in for a closer look. Then it hit me.



It looked just like the food that Link needs to buy in Legend of Zelda. Except instead of using this tasty little bit to bribe a Moblin into letting me pass I was able to eat it myself. I found this to be preferable.



For beer I was enticed to try this Stone Cali-Belgique IPA (or Stone Cali-België IPA) depending on if you believe the text on the bottle or the text on the website. Stone Brewing Co.'s website describes this as using a Belgian yeast to make an IPA.

I was intrigued by this beer because I generally don't like IPAs and I generally like Belgian beers. I was intrigued by how I could combine my least favorite and most favorite beer types into one beer. The result was extremely interesting and quite good.

If you ever turn Jamaican food into Louisiana cuisine I recommend pairing with Belgian beer. But you probably already know this. It's pretty common knowledge.

Chicken Thalad

Tonight, with Jen enjoying all the fine cuisine of Salt Lake City hotels, I returned home to a fridge full of odds and ends and leftovers.



I put together this chicken salad with the remaining beer can chicken, broccoli, peppadews, salted lime cashews, and Maille whole grain mustard. I've gotta say that this was far tastier than I'd imagined when I was hastily throwing it together for a quick dinner.



For beer I had Estrella Damm from Barcelona. This prompted me to walk around my apartment, all by myself, repeatedly muttering: "Barthelona." This is one of those rare occasions I've found that it's possible to annoy myself.

Beer Advocate only gives this a 'C' rating. This is surprising because I found this beer to be quite enjoyable. Of course, the type of people who would register on Beer Advocate and review a beer are bound to find fault in most things in life. Beer is only one of those things.

It's for that reason that I've joined Beer Advocate to review beers! Of course I kind of despise the review and grading system of any food or beverage, but this is more of a way for be to more easily catalog the beers that I've had.

If there's one thing I like it's the needless cataloging of events in my life. It's like mother's milk to me.

Beer Can Chicken

I've never made beer can chicken. That is until tonight. Beer can chicken is something I've always heard about and kind of wondered what the big deal was. So you stick a beer can inside a chicken and cook it. So what? Besides I never really knew how you did it? Did you leave the can full of beer? That didn't sound right, surely it would explode in the oven. Did you empty it? Then if you did that what was the point, couldn't it just as easily be regular roast chicken?



I learned that you were supposed to leave the can of beer half full. That, paired with the fact that I just picked up some canned beer that I wanted to try, sounded rather enticing. So I stood up a chicken on a half-emptied can of beer and seasoned it generously with cumin seeds, celery seeds, smoked paprika, chili powder, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and olive oil. I ground the spices together with a mortar and pestle before adding it to some olive oil generously rubbing the chicken inside and out.



The result was, as anticipated, a roast chicken.



The beer that I used was Elm City Lager from New England Brewing Co. in Woodbridge, Connecticut. So what better to enjoy with the chicken? I guess it's more traditional to use Budweiser or something but I just couldn't allow that to happen.



Overall this was pretty tasty. I can now see why it is popular. Cooking vertically shouldn't really add much but it does produce a slightly different chicken. The beer in the can helps to steam the inside of the chicken and the breast meat in particular was extremely moist.

It's more traditional to do this inside a barbecue but with sheets of rain and ice plummeting from the sky I just couldn't get myself psyched to use the grill this evening. While it was good with a baked potato and some steamed broccoli I think I will recreate this one in the warmer months (or at least the drier days of the colder months) and serve it with some nice fresh tomatoes and grilled corn.

This used up absolutely nothing from the pantry, freezer, or fridge. Everything was purchased specifically for this meal including the beer. That's okay though, it's Jen's last night in town before shipping out to Salt Lake City. Generally she likes nothing more than a roast chicken.

I will need to work extra hard in her absence to move through all of these leftovers and get back to tackling our swelling pantry.

These are a Few of my Favorite Things (and One of my Least Favorite)

On Sunday, while I was at work, Jen did an admirable job of using up items from the fridge and freezer.



She made this tasty-looking quinoa with cashews, edamame, sweet potato, and I can only assume peaches. I didn't get to try it. When Jen cooks and I am not around I usually only find out when I download pictures from the camera and see them. It's like a fun game where at the end I get a picture of something I won't be able to taste.

For dinner tonight I picked up some tilapia because it was on sale. I don't really like tilapia. I never have. One thing I do like, however, is a great bargain. There's also a little more bargain that I threw into the freezer.



I also like something that can use up yet more leftovers. I used this tilapia along with some diced tomatoes, garlic, and onion to use up the remaining kalamata olives and sardines. I simmered this with the tilapia fillets for a bit and served it with a loaf of sourdough bread for dipping.

The only thing I like more than bargains and using up leftovers is using only one pan to cook dinner. It looks like this was my lucky night.



The only problem with this dish, other than it not really using up much, is the photography. With all the extra accessories I've gotten for my camera I think my pictures have actually gotten worse. Perhaps it's just too much power. It could also have something to do with the fact that I've taken no action in the past two years to improve my photography in any way. I still essentially use my camera as a point and shoot.

Maybe I should take a class or read a book or watch some tutorials online. But I probably won't. No, I think my current technique of doing nothing and hoping that one day a guru will wander into my apartment at dinner time to start teaching me is going just fine.

It's only a matter of time.

Healthy Soups, Inebriated Monks

The battle for healthy healthier meals and the war against our pantry excess continues!



Thursday night I put together most of the leftover carrots and potatoes along with the remaining turkey stock from Canadian Thanksgiving to make this potato kale soup. I cooked some garlic and onion with carrots, potato, and dried thyme before adding the turkey stock and finally the kale.

On Friday we returned to our normal routine whereby I come home and must rush to prepare dinner before Jen returns to work. For Friday the plan was to use up the sardines and pizza sauce in the pantry. I chose to do this in the form of pizza. Unfortunately this meant I needed to buy additional ingredients but, I figured, as long as I don't have any leftover after the recipe I could break even.



I tried to completely cook the pizza before I left to pick up Jen at the train station. This was a little risky as this meant I had to be done precisely at 8:50 PM to be able to get there by 8:54 PM. The pizza was done at 8:50 PM but it did not have the brownness on the cheese that I would have liked to see. That is when I took the pizza and put it underneath in the broiler to brown it up quickly so I could still get to the train on time.



You can't really tell by this photo but the result was that it was a little too close to the broiler which wound up scraping off a top layer of cheese and burning the crust. Not my finest pizza moment. On the plus side the pizza was delicious once I cut off the small burnt pieces of crust and reapplied the melted cheese.



For beer I had the Merry Monks from Weyerbacher. Unfortunately Weyerbacher tricked me by not putting on the bottle that this was 9.3% alcohol. Had I known that I would not have made this my second beer of the evening. Once I discovered the alcohol content I extended it over two hours and I was able to not feel the effects.

No I understand why they interpret the monks as being merry. I think they were more sozzled than merry.

Inventory Update

Freezer

• ground beef
  
• chopped turkey from Canadian Thanksgiving
  
• flour tortillas
  
• coconut cookies
  
• macaroni & cheese from Canadian Thanksgiving
  
• turkey stock from Canadian Thanksgiving
  
• turkey stock from American Thanksgiving
  
• part of a baguette
  
• lemon bread
  
• Antiguan run fruitcake
  
• cranberry bread
  
• fudge
  
• Japanese noodles
  
• buttermilk bread
  
• stuffing from Canadian Thanksgiving
  
• bacon
  
• oxtail
  
• homemade bread crumbs
  
• edamame
  
• turkey curry
  
• rye bagel
  
• shortbread cookies
  
• puff pastry dough
  

Pantry

• pumpernickel bread
  
• panko
  
• cellophane noodles
  
• raisins
  
• dried cherries
  
• dried cranberries
  
• dried apricots
  
• dried chilies
  
• garbanzo beans
  
• canellini beans
  
• sardines
  
• anchovies
  
• sesame seeds
  
• cashews
  
• pistachios
  
• shredded coconut
  
• walnuts
  
• pecans
  
• semolina flour
  
• goldenberries
  
• forbidden rice
  
• candied cherries
  
• powdered dried porcini
  
• couscous
  
• Jamaican jerk sauce
  
• Jamaican rum cakes
  
• Jamaican hot sauce
  
• nori
  
• quinoa
  
• sherry vinegar
  
• purple basil vinegar
  
• red wine vinegar
  
• apple cider vinegar
  
• champagne vinegar
  
• rice
  
• assored dried pastas
  
• lasagna noodles
  
• tomato paste
  
• balsamic dressing/marinade
  
• relish
  
• chopped clams
  
• clam juice
  
• piccalilli
  
• fajita sauce
  
• cherry jellies for barbecue
  
• canned pumpkin
  
• pasta sauce
  
• croutons
  
• assorted flours for making brown bread
  
• pickled beets
  
• seafood stock
  
• beef stock
  
• basil pesto
  
• jarred roasted tomatoes
  
• smoked salmon
  
• stuffed olives
  
• Grand Marnier mustard
  
• Coco Haze spread
  
• twelve jars of grapefruit marmalade
  
• black cherry marmalade
  
• fancy plum jam
  
• Captain Redbeard's hot sauce
  
• salted lime cashews
  

Fridge

• eggs
  
• korma sauce
  
• sauerkraut
  
• dates
  
• shallots
  
• miso paste
  
• cranberries
  
• pickled beets (made by Jen's dad)
  
• white sweet potato
  
• potatoes
  
• carrots
  
• celery
  
• heavy cream
  
• cream cheese
  
• goat cheese
  
• cocktail sauce
  
• red pepper tapenade
  
• sauces, marinades, and condiments too numerous to list
  
• a million assorted beers