Cooking Palooza: Cricket Flour Pancakes

Cricket pancakes?????

I know what all ya'll are thinking. And don't be haters.

It's interesting to see folks getting their knickers twisted in a knot over eating bugs, and yet not bat an eyelash over all the mystery meat scraps from dubious sources and marginal amounts of rat shit approved by the FDA found in the all-American hotdogs they like to chow down. 

Insects are eaten all over the world. They are a sustainable source of high protein. And adopting the habit of eating insects would have a positive impact on the environment as it would reduce the need for resources that are consumed and not easily replenished in large livestock farming.

Anyhow, I was looking for a source of high density protein to help fuel me through my long workday, where I easily go for 8 hours in between meals. So I set about researching what sort of high density protein was available. 

And I found Bud's Cricket Power 100% Pure Cricket Powder. (FYI: It's actually a dollar cheaper on this site than on Amazon.)

People have asked me how cricket powder (which is finely ground up whole crickets) tastes and what kind of texture it has. Just like the multiple sources online that describe the taste and texture of cricket powder, I can verily concur that it is extremely mild in taste, with a very slight nutty flavor. The texture is very fine, but not the sort of "fine" you would find in white flour.

The next step was to find a recipe that I could try, using the cricket powder. The Cricket Flour Pancakes and Waffles recipe seemed promising. So I decided to give that a go. It called for chia seeds, another source of high protein, and that was fine by me.

Let's get cooking!

The first part of the recipe called for whirring the eggs, chia seeds, cricket powder, ghee, and powdered cinnamon in a blender at medium speed until everything was blended into something that resembled a batter.

The next step was to let the batter sit for about ten to fifteen minutes to let the chia seeds congeal and do their thing. Because I didn't want to go through the hassle of cleaning out stuck-on chia seeds off the blades of my Vitamix, I poured the mixture into a small bowl, where it could sit for the allotted time.

(And while it was sitting, I was frying up some bacon in the pan, as well as some Bilinski's Organic WIld Mushroom with Italian Herbs Chicken Sausages.) 

Once the meat was all cooked up and removed from the pan, I had a nice puddle of bacon grease for cooking the pancakes.

The recipe mentioned that these pancakes cook up just like regular pancakes, but did not give any cooking times. Well, when regular pancake cook, you can see the bubbles rising to the surface that lets you know that it's time to flip the pancake. The chia seed batter is a bit too dense for that to occur. So I had to summon my inner Jedi and use the Force to determine when was the proper time to flip those buggers.

Mind you, these pancakes aren't going to cook up light and airy like a usual pancake. The recipe was for three servings, but it didn't mention how many pancakes that would make. I wound up making four fat pancakes, with the fourth one being a bit smaller than the others.

I put two pancakes on my plate and set the rest aside. 

Not being one who cares much for maple syrup, I was really looking forward to having my pancakes with St Dalfour Red Raspberry Fruit Spread, which I love because it contains no added sugar. (I found it, and other St Dalfour fruits spreads at my local H-E-B.)

Here's breakfast! 

(Blueberries were on sale at H-E-B for $1.77 for an eighteen-ounce container. I couldn't resist, so I bought two containers!)

Now for the moment of truth.

The pancakes were tasty. And they were dense as I expected. In fact, I could not finish my breakfast and had to pack it up to save for tomorrow morning.

Overall, this wasn't a bad recipe. And it's one that I may make again.

Cooking Palooza: Unusual Culinary Adventures On Thanksgiving While Flying Solo

For the first time in six years, I have Thanksgiving off. I was originally hoping to spend it with my daughter and her boyfriend. But due to logistical issues, plus COVID-19, I am flying solo.

The irony is quite amusing. And mind you, I am not bothered in the least. As much as I enjoy the company of my loved ones, I've also always been a lone wolf who's very much comfortable with just her own company.

I have an entire universe in my head, so I am NEVER lonely. (And it's also why doing this COVID-19 social distancing is incredibly easy for me.)

Having said that, I was actually quite ecstatic about embarking on a new culinary adventure for Thanksgiving ~ one that would have me deviating far away from the traditional New England style turkey dinner that I have been long accustomed to ~ and venturing into unknown culinary territory. 

(Dang! That was a long sentence!)

It's a good thing that Thanksgiving is not a sacred cow for me. That gives me license to play with my food. Booyah!

But enough said. Let's get cracking with the Cooking Palooza!

The star of the show is a Chili-Rubbed Turkey, which is quite the dramatic departure from the type of Thanksgiving turkey that I've known all my life.

It was a good thing that I read the entire recipe all the way through well before executing it, as this recipe required much preparation. The first thing I had to do was to make the chili paste on the morning before Thanksgiving.

Three cups of the chili paste was going into the brining bath, along with all those cans of Tecate. (And no, those cans were not for the chef. However, I did swill down one can last night to see how it tasted, and I was greatly relieved that it was much more passable than that weasel piss known as "Bud Light.")

The turkey is now happily swimming in its intoxicated and chili-ated briny bath. The next stage of the operation will take place well past midnight, when the bird gets a rubdown with the rest of the chili paste. 

After placing the brining bucket in the fridge, the next item to focus on was the Mexican Turkey Stuffing. This recipe called for tons of ingredients and required lots of prep. Just look at the mise en place for this undertaking!

Holy moly! I'm not even halfway through the mise, and already Big Bertha is starting to buckle at the seams!

Dayum!

Just look at all that food! I can now see why the Mexican Turkey Stuffing recipe said to give it a good stir halfway through,

and to not discard the foil after the first stirring!

And here it is!

I did give it a taste. (In fact, I had a bit for a light late lunch).

The verdict?

It's definitely "different," But not in a bad way. It's just that having grown up with the New England style savory stuffing, the flavor combinations in this stuffing are very unfamiliar.

Also, it didn't taste "Mexican" in the familiar Mexican restaurant sort of way.

I was hoping for a more savory taste. But with all the fruit, it's definitely more on the sweet side. But it's not bad.

But it's also not "Holy moly! I gotta make this again!" great either.

Who knows? Maybe I'll learn to love this stuffing. And believe me, this recipe made a lot of stuffing, so I'm going to get a lot of practice in learning how to love it!

We'll see how well it goes with the rest of the feast foods. Perhaps I'll discover that the sweetness is a nice counterbalance to the Chili-Rubbed Turkey.

Finally, finally, FINALLY the moment had arrived when the bird was done sitting in its intoxicated briny bath and was ready for the chili paste rubdown.

After rubbing it down ~ a really messy process ~ I put the bird in the fridge, where it was to chill overnight. And after finally getting out of my food spattered clothing, I was able to get into my sleepy clothes, and do my own chilling with a glass of wine and a good book.

Morning had arrived. I stuffed the cavity with onion, garlic, and fresh oregano. And I was thrilled to have on hand exactly the needed two cups of homemade turkey stock, which I used in place of the specified chicken broth (which was not as flavorful as my own homemade stock).

Into the oven you go, you dirty bird!

After I threw the bird in the oven to roast, I set about finishing up the Hatch Chili Cornbread Stuffing, which was another one of those "let sit overnight" recipes. However, because it is already past hatch pepper season, I substituted Poblano peppers for Hatch peppers. And as an afterthought, I also threw in three jalapeños. 

And dang it! This baby has heat! That's more like it!

No Thanksgiving is complete without sweet potatoes. And for this Southwest-inspired Thanksgiving, I made Chipotle Mashed Sweet Potatoes. 

I had some leftover black beans from the freezer and some leftover fresh corn. But dammit! I neglected to pick up some cilantro at the supermercado.

But have no fear! It's PC Willy's Green Chili Rub & Seasoning to the rescue! (Thank you, Ted!)

I wasn't planning on having just plain ol' spuds. But I happened to realize that I been neglecting these poor shriveling buggers. So into the pan they went, seasoned only with roasted garlic pink Himalayan salt and Nepalese Timut pepper.  

Ah! The eagle...

...er...

the turkey has landed!

Meanwhile, this reduction is taking forever!

It's the last thing that stands in the way of me enjoying my Thanksgiving meal.

Fuck it! I'm stopping at one an a quarter cups! I wanna eat! What's an extra quarter cup anyhow?

Finally! The moment of truth!

<making obscene noises of gastronomical satisfaction>

Don't forget to make room for dessert!

This pecan pie is the only menu item that I did not make.

And here I am, enjoying it with a splash of Appleton Estate Rare Blend Jamaican Rum, which I also did not make.

All in all, this was a very fine Thanksgiving meal. And whereas I was a bit worried about the Mexican Turkey Stuffing's sweetness, it was all for naught, as all of the dishes came together in a beautiful synergy of flavors that I would certainly not mind enjoying again!

Cooking Palooza: Pickle Cheesecake

Now don't all y'all be haters! 

Have an open mind, for goodness sake! Just because a recipe has the word "cake," or "cheesecake," in its name doesn't mean that it's strictly delegated to the dessert table. After all, have y'all heard of anyone serving crab cakes as a fine finish to a really amazing prime rib dinner?

No, Pickle Cheesecake is a savory treat that makes a wonderful first course when served with rustic crackers or toasted coarse grain bread. It would make a fine addition to a charcuterie board.

So, let's get started!

First of all, I had crush some pretzels and combine them with melted butter, and then press them into a springform pan (which I specifically bought for this recipe, as I've never made a cheesecake before). I had no idea no small the pretzel crumbs were supposed to be. But I did not want to pulverize them to the point where they were fine crumbs.

The next thing was to chop up the pickles. Because there is no such thing as a simple, ordinary pickle, I wanted to choose something that I knew to have a good taste, such as these Half Sours Fresh Deli Pickles that I picked up from Aldi. When it comes to choosing pickles, my first choice is something from the refrigerated deli section, as those pickles are of a much better quality, and don't contain the additives and artificial coloring in regular jar pickles in the supermarket aisle. 

The recipe called for two cups of chopped pickles, and I had no idea how many pickles that was going to take. After I finished chopping, there were only two pickles left in the plastic tub.

The next order of business was to mince up the garlic and finely chop the fresh dill.

I let the garlic remain in the curved chopping bowl, while I put the dill in a separate bowl, to which I added the rest of the seasoning ingredients: salt, red pepper flakes, and onion powder (which was hard as a rock, and which had to be broken up). And dammit! I forgot to added the Timut black pepper!

Now that everything was chopped, minced, and otherwise prepped, it was time to get down to business. I combined the cream cheese, goat cheese, sour cream, and a little bit of pickle juice in a large bowl, using a hand mixer.

Once those ingredients were thoroughly blended, I started adding the eggs, one by one. Next came the grated Parmesan cheese, half a cup of chopped pickles, the garlic, and the rest of the seasonings I had in that little bowl.

After the whole kit and kaboodle was mixed, I added half of it into the pan, on top of the crushed pretzels. Next came a layer of one cup of chopped pickles. Then that was topped by the rest of the cheese mixture. And into the oven it went.

The recipe specified to bake at 325 degrees F for forty five minutes to an hour. But I had to keep it in the oven an extra eleven and a half minutes in order to get the center of the cheesecake to set. (OK, OK. It was actually an extra nine minutes and ninety-nine seconds ~ 9:99 ~ as I'm obsessed with pressing identical repeating numbers on the timer keypad. That's just one of my weird quirks.)

When it came out of the oven, the cheesecake was already quite fluffy that it reached nearly to the top of the pan.

But as it cooled, it contracted. (Not typically being a baker, this was a new learning experience for me.)

After the cheesecake cooled down enough, I covered it with foil and placed it in the fridge to chill overnight.

The next morning, I uncovered the beast, released it from the springform pan, and topped it with the rest of the chopped pickles and dried dill. (I would have preferred to have used fresh dill, but didn't feel like running out to the store again.)

Now comes the moment of truth.

I spread a bit of the Pickle Cheesecake on top of a small piece of toasted Food for Life Genesis 1:29 Sprouted Whole Grain and Seed Bread.

The verdict?

It was pretty damn tasty! And that's a very good thing, because I still have the rest of that cheesecake to finish!

Cooking Palooza: Chili Con Carne ~ AKA Old School Chili

 

While it may be August and in the midst of the dog days of summer (at least in this hemisphere), my taste buds were hankering for some chili ~ not some ground beef chili that's easy to stuff into a can and then heat up, but some honest to goodness chili con carne. And the best place to go for a recipe that's guaranteed to be the bomb is Chili Pepper Madness. I've never had a single fail with Mike Hultquist's recipes!

Whenever preparing a dish with multiple steps, it's always a good thing to do your prep first. (It's all part of what the French call "mise en place.") After all, you don't want to be at a critical point in the recipe, where timing is important, only to realize that you need to finely mince ten cloves of garlic.

(I still had my gloves on from chopping up the hot peppers earlier.)

(Dang it! I didn't have any ground pepper! So I had to go "old school" with a mortar and pestle.)

The beauty of this recipe is that it gets its flavor not from chili powder, but from actual peppers. The key to flavor lies in the dried guarillo and ancho peppers that have been lightly toasted, then soaked in hot water, and then processed in the food processor with some of the soaking water.

While the peppers were soaking, I cut up the boneless chuck into small bite-sized pieces, and added the seasoning as per the recipe. However, instead of adding regular paprika, I decided to use smoked paprika instead, as I love its smoky flavor, and I thought that would work well with this recipe. I also omitted the brown sugar, as I try to avoid any kind of sweeteners (though I am not always successful).

In addition to the jalapenos and onion, I also included a couple of habaneros (because I like to make it rain) and three hatch pepper (because it's hatch season in these here parts). 

All the meat, onions, and peppers get thrown into a large pot and browned for six or seven minutes, after which I add the garlic and cook a minute more.

Remember those dried peppers that I toasted, soaked, and processed? Well, this is where they come in! 

Bring on the flavor!

After cooking this mix for five minute comes the next step ~ adding the beef broth. In this case, I used my own homemade and heavily collagenated bone broth that I made from the collection of beef and pork bones that had been taking up space in the freezer. I only added about half a quart, as I did not want this chili to be too soupy.

At this point, reduce the heat and allow this beast to simmer for a couple of hours. 

Believe me, once you give this a taste, you'll never want to go back to ground beef chili in a can!