Marinated cucumbers I (p. 167) andMarinated cucumbers II (p. 167)

**Pop to the end for my new feature!**

As I mentioned before, I got a terrific deal on cucumbers and had to find a way to use them all. I thought Marinated cucumbers II (p. 167) would be a good start.

I layered peeled sliced cucumbers in a bowl, sprinkled them with salt to help draw out water, placed a weighted plate (I put a can of tomatoes on the plate) on top, and refrigerated it for a couple of hours.



Look how much water came out!



I poured all of the water out and rinsed the cucumber under cold water (get all that salt off!). I mixed dissolved a little sugar with a little water:



I added the sugar mixture, along with cider vinegar, to the cucumbers, along with some salt and black pepper and it was done!



If you like pickles, you will like these cucumbers. You aren't creating a true pickle--that requires fermentation--but these are pickle-flavored cucumbers.

Since I still had a ton of cucumbers left I decided to go ahead and make Marinated cucumbers I (p. 167). I mixed white wine vinegar and sugar in a bowl and then added sliced cucumber. I see now that I was supposed to cut them in half first but I don't think it affected the recipe at all.



Both cucumber recipes were very similar. The I recipe was slightly sweeter and the II recipe had an odd texture from being pressed but they were almost the same. I recommend salt and pepper for your cukes in the future if you aren't using it now. I love pickles, so I might fool around with these recipes in the future--I think they could be improved with some garlic and balsamic vinegar.

I love pickles so much that I have been complaining about wanting a subscription to the Pickle of the Month club for about a year. For Christmas, Josh bought me a six-month subscription for two jars a month! I'm so excited! Expect to see my reviews on those pickles.

New Feature!
I'm writing these blog posts incredibly out of order and I have recently found that I enjoy doing a little "Fun Facts" section while writing my alcohol posts (nothing special, just information that I've gleaned off of Wikipedia and the like). I've decided to continue doing it on all posts. Let me know your thoughts! They will always be at the end and in blue so you can skip it if you aren't interested.

Cucumber facts!

• Cucumbers are a fruit, not a vegetable (Wikipedia)
• Cucumbers and gherkins are in in the same genus but are different species (Wikipedia)
• Cucumbers lose acidity and gain sugar as they grow (On Food and Cooking, p. 334)
• The word "pickle" is from the Dutch word "Pekel"" which means brine (Wikipedia)
• The word "Pickle" alone in the US always refers to cucumber pickles--that is not the case in other countries (Wikipedia and personal experience)
  

Pork chops I: Sauteed pork chops (p. 504), Pan sauce with leeks, orange, and rosemary (p. 548), and Cooked cucumbers (p. 273)

Mom had pork chops on hand so I thought it would be a good to make a sauce and a vegetable to go with them. I really like gravies and sauces but I never make them--maybe it's time to start!

I also noticed that I had never officially made TJOC's pork chops, so I decided to make Pork chops I: Sauteed pork chops (p. 504).

I melted a combination of vegetable oil and butter in a saute pan:



I added pork chops and browned them for a minute on each side. I reduced the heat, covered the pan, and cooked the chops for another five minutes on each side:



And done!



Incredibly easy. This is pretty much a no-fail pork saute recipe. The chops were perfectly cooked and nice and tender. Don't overcook your pork!

I eyed the sauce recipes and Pan sauce with leeks, orange, and rosemary (p. 548) looked really interesting. I like leeks, orange, and rosemary so how could it go wrong? The recipe said it only made 1/3 cup of sauce which didn't seem like nearly enough. I decided to double it.

I added sliced leek to the fat already in the pan--but there was almost no fat in the pan, so I added a little butter. When you use leeks, make sure to soak them well. They grow in sandy soil and are always dirty.



I added orange juice and loosened up all the browned bits stuck on the bottom of the pan:



I added chicken stock, orange zest, and rosemary (off of mom's plant) and cooked it down until it was reduced by half:



I then added in butter (bit by bit):



And poured the sauce over the meat:



Neither mom or I were particularly impressed by the sauce on the pork. It was good but it didn't seem that special. I only stumbled on the wonder of the sauce when I started mopping it up with bread. It was sooooo good with the bread--buttery, delicate, delicious. It is an incredibly delicate sauce and couldn't stand up to pork--I don't think it could stand up to any red meat, it needs something with less flavor of it's own. Maybe chicken or fish?

I had stumbled upon the mother lode of cucumbers on the grocery store discount cart. I got seven cucumbers for $1! Perfect time to make Cooked cucumbers (p. 273). I've eaten a lot of cucumbers in my life and never had them cooked. Has anyone had cooked cucumbers?

I sliced the cucumbers lengthwise and boiled them for about five minutes:



I then seasoned the cucumbers with parsley, salt, pepper, and butter:



The cucumbers were surprisingly good. They had a nice, crispy flavor. They actually tasted similar to kohlrabi but better. The cucumbers were tender and juicy and the butter nicely complimented them. I think this is a good use for cupcakes if you get totally overran with garden cucumbers in the summer.

Sweet spice rub (p. 588) and Baby back ribs (p. 505)

I swear I already wrote this blog post but I can't seem to find it.

The meat in Iowa is SOOO much cheaper than it is in Colorado. I was flabbergasted when I spotted two racks of babyback ribs for $8! A great deal. I love pork ribs but I have never tried to make them (they seem difficult) so I was pretty excited to try my hand at them.

I decided to make Baby back ribs (p. 505) with a Sweet spice rub (p. 588).

The rub was simple--I mixed paprika, brown sugar, cumin, black pepper, and coarse salt in a bowl. I halved the recipe because these rub recipes make an enormous amount of rub.



I smeared (yes, smeared is the technical term) the rub all over the ribs:



If you plan on keeping some of the rub for the future, make sure not to contaminate it with your hands or whatever you are using to apply the rub--pour half of it in to another container before you start. You don't want to keep any rub that you've touched after touching raw meat--throw it away. It's better to make a new batch of spices than to get food poisoning.

I poured a bottle of beer in to the container (I used Miller High Life [the Champagne of Beers] because I really like the can):



Mom was pretty excited to use her "marination container" which she had received at a Tupperware party decades before and rarely used. I can't figure out why she bought it--my mom never marinates anything.



The ribs marinated overnight:



I covered the ribs with foil and cooked them for an hour and a half:



I slathered barbecue sauce on the ribs (homemade--based on TJOC's version but I fooled around with it quite a bit. I'm proud I've made it to the point where I can freehand things like barbecue sauce). They went back in the oven--TJOC recommends another hour but they only needed another thirty minutes.



The finished product:




Delicious! I love pork ribs and baby back ribs are my very favorite. It was exciting to make them myself and have them turn out so well. They were so tender, they pulled right off the bone (as evidenced in the following picture). If you like ribs and are afraid of making them, try it! They really were very easy.



My one issue--I didn't love the spice rub. It had a really, really, really strong cumin taste and it was too overwhelming for me. If you love cumin, this is the rub for you. If you don't, dial it down. The ribs were extremely flavorful but it would be hard for them not to be between the natural pork flavor, the sauce, and the rub.

Twice-baked sweet potatoes I (p. 302), Au gratin II (p. 961), Steak Diane (p. 475), Sauteed steak (p. 475), and Black pepper vinaigrette (p. 573)

On the second of January, Mom and I had our fancy New Year's meal (just one day late). Mom really wanted some sort of TJOC potato dish but I have made almost all of them. We decided to make Twice-baked sweet potatoes I (p. 302).

I baked three sweet potatoes and scraped out their guts:

I mashed the sweet potatoes with butter, hot cream, and salt.

I spooned the potato mixture back in to the potato shells, covered them with Au gratin II (p. 961) (which is breadcrumbs and dots of butter) and popped it in the oven:

Done!

Honestly, the twice baked sweet potatoes tasted pretty much like just like buttered baked sweet potatoes. Not really worth the extra steps, even though they were good. They heated up really well, which was great, because mom and I ate them for two additional meals. I did like the au gratin topping--TJOC says you can use au grain III, which uses cheese (I think that would be really strange on sweet potatoes).

The main dish was Steak Diane (p. 475). I had originally chosen against steak Diane because we didn't have brandy--I was going to make an orange, leek, and rosemary sauce for the steak. It was only after I was halfway through steak Diane that I realized I was making the wrong recipe--I'm not sure how that happened, the recipes aren't even in the same chapter. We still didn't have any brandy, so mom had to run out and get a small bottle.

The first step is to make Sauteed steak (p. 475). I seasoned a couple boneless ribeye steaks with salt and pepper and cooked them in a pan with a little olive oil:

After five minutes, I flipped the steaks:

Five more minutes and it was done! An extremely easy way to cook steak. I tend to broil all meat but this is a much better way to cook steak in the summer if you don't want to grill but don't want to turn on the oven.

Back to the steak Diane....

I cooked shallots in butter until softened:

I added beef stock, brandy, Dijon mustard, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper to the shallots.

I swirled in a little butter and added some parsley.

The sauce was poured over the steaks and it was done! The steak Diane was really good. I can't say it was anything amazing but if you like shallots, this is a great match for you.

I thought Black pepper vinaigrette (p. 573) would be a good match to the meal. I chopped up a garlic clove, added salt, cracked peppercorns, red wine vinegar, and a little bit of lemon zest. I slowly whisked in olive oil:

Delicious! This was a really great salad dressing. I love black pepper. I LOVE black pepper. So this was a great match for me. Vinaigrette is so simple that I don't know why anyone ever buys it--in fact, almost all salad dressings are so easy that you might as well just make them from scratch.

It was a pretty tasty meal (the salad was in it's own bowl):

It was a delicious meal and a good start to the year!

Hot crab dip (p. 74) and Broiled stuffed mushrooms cockaigne (p. 78)

Mom and I had this grand plan. I was going to go out on the town for New Year's Eve (that did occur), then come home on New Year's Day, make appetizers like we do on Thanksgiving, and then cook a tasty TJOC-inspired meal.

All of that happened except the last part. I went out, I made appetizers, the appetizers were so filling we were no longer hungry, and we didn't make the special dinner until the next day.

I'm almost out of TJOC appetizers (or so it seems) and I am getting down to the more strange recipes. There is nothing super odd about Hot crab dip (p. 74) but there is nothing that seems that amazing about the recipe either, which is why it never caught my attention. Plus, canned crab always seems so expensive.

I mixed cream cheese, mayonnaise, onions, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, and salt together in a bowl:

I added in a small can of crabmeat (which, bizarrely, mom had on hand):

And spread it in a dish. TJOC recommends a two-cup ovenproof bowl. I can't even envision what exactly that would be and I'm sure that mom doesn't have one.

It cooked for about 25 minutes:

We ate it with crackers. It was really good and even heated up well the next day. The crab dip was creamy and rich, with a nice spicy tang added by the horseradish. It wasn't overly fishy but make sure to use real crab and not imitation crab--I think it would taste "off" with fake crab. The dip seemed much fancier than most other hot dips.

I know exactly why I hadn't previously made Broiled stuffed mushrooms cockaigne (p. 78). It seems amazingly complex. That made it very unattractive as an appetizer.

I removed the stems from 24 button mushrooms:

I took the stems, a couple of extra mushrooms (chopped up), a shallot, and some garlic and sauteed them in butter:

Breadcrumbs, chopped walnuts, basil, and a little cream were added:

The whole concoction (which was hot and seemed dangerous) was added to a food processor (mom's tiny food processor was fine) and coursely chopped:

I stuffed the mushrooms with the breadcrumb mixture. For once, I must have actually used the correct amount of stuffing because I didn't have any left over when I finished. I sprinkled Parmesan cheese over the top and popped them in the oven.

Don't they look delicious?

The mushrooms were very, very tasty. They weren't very difficult but they did require quite a bit of active-time. I think these would be perfect hors d'oeuvres for a party since they look quite fancy. The stuffing was filling but didn't overwhelm the mushrooms. If you like mushrooms, this recipe will be a winner.

RSL-OfeC: One from each Chapter #1

Most of you know I have a Randomly Selected List, which I love. It forces me to make recipes that I would usually put off making. But I decided to go one step further--I'm going to make the Randomly Selected List 2--Electric Boogaloo. Wait--I mean the RSL2: One from each Chapter.

The rules of this list:

One recipe will be selected from each chapter.

I can't make a new RSL2 until the previous list is entirely finished.

I would like to have each list finished within three full months from the new list's introduction.

This list will not replace RSL1, it will be in addition to it. I have found that these lists keep me really motivated. I used random.org to generate the numbers, throwing out pages that didn't contain recipes.

I will update it with a link, the recipe chosen, and the date it was made.

Beverages--37: Kai, 3/7/11
Wine and beer--Shandy, 3/7/11
Cocktails and party drinks--65: Fish house punch, 1/16/11
Appetizers and Hors d'oeuvres--79: Stuffed raw vegetables, Stuffed celery, New potatoes stuffed with sour cream and caviar
Brunch, lunch, and supper dishes--100: Spicy seafood stew with orzo
Stocks and soups--135: Chicken rice soup (Asopao de pollo), Cock-a-leekie
Salads--159: Mixed greens with cheese crisp, Greek salad, Pita salad (Fattoush), Spinach salad, Spinach salad with grapefruit, orange, and avocado
Sandwiches, wraps, and pizza--182: English muffin pizza, 3/7/11
Egg dishes--198: Eggs with smoked salmon, Scrambled eggs II, Additions to scrambled eggs, Scotch woodcock
Fruits--216: Apple rings, Honey apples, Sauteed apples and bacon, Applesauce II, Seasoned applesauce I, Seasoned applesauce II, Seasoned applesauce III, Baked apples
Vegetables--280: Braised leeks, Leeks vinaigrette
Pasta, noodles, and dumplings--331: Chicken lo mein, Beef chow fun
Grains--360: Risotto (risotto in bianco), Risotto milanese
Shellfish--377: Fried clams, shrimp, or oysters with cornmeal coating, Fried clams, oysters, shrimp, or scallops with bread crumb or cracker coating
Fish--410: Fish and chips, Marinated deep-fried fish, Thai fish cakes
Poultry and wildfowl--428: Grilled lemon chicken, Jamaican jerk chicken, Tandoori chicken, Ash-roasted chicken thighs
Meat--501: Pork braised in milk, Braised pork with sauerkraut, Latin roasted picnic shoulder
Game--526: Braised marinated rabbit with prunes, Rabbit with mustard (Lapin ala moutarde), Casseroled rabbit and sausage
Stuffings--535: Corn bread stuffing with oysters, Corn bread stuffing with cumin and hot chile peppers, Dry dressing, Ham dressing for turkey, Parsley and bread crumb stuffing for fish
Savory sauces, salad dressings, marinades, and rubs--547: Pan sauce for wildfowl, herb pan sauce
Breads and coffee cakes--635: Muffins, Sour cream muffins, Lemon poppy seed muffins, Herb or roasted garlic muffins, Whole wheat muffins, Bran muffins
Pancakes, waffles, fritters, and doughnuts--646: Oatmeal pancakes, lemon pancakes
Pies and pastries--691: Fresh fruit kuchen, Blueberry and peach buckle
Cake and cupcakes--721: Oatmeal cake, Tomato soup cake (mystery cake), Banana cake Cockaigne
Cookies and bars--769: Pecan puffs, Sesame seed (benne seed) wafers, Flourless nut balls, Nutty dried fruit drops, Pecan lace
Icings, toppings, and glazes--799: Streusel topping, Honey-bee glaze, Glazes applied before or during baking I, II, III, IV, Glazes applied after baking I, II, III, IV, V, Translucent sugar glaze
Desserts--817: Chocolate terrine, Cold lemon souffle or Bavarian cream, Cold orange souffle or Bavarian cream, Cold lime souffle or Bavarian cream
Frozen desserts and sweet sauces--844: Hot lemon sauce, Hot lime sauce, Clear lemon sauce, Clear lime sauce, Cherry sauce
Candies and confections--873: Scotch toffee, Sesame seed brittle, English toffee, Buttercrunch
Jellies and preserves--934: Prickly pear jelly, Lemon jelly, Savory lemon jelly, Red red strawbery jam, Blueberry jam
Pickles and relishes--946: Sweet-and-sour spiced gherkins, Bread-and-butter pickles, Low-salt sweet cucumber slices, Pickled gherkins (cornichons)
Know your ingredients--1007: Quatre epices (spice Parisienne) I, Quatre epices (spice Parisienne) II, Ras el hanout

Shrimp tempura (p. 388)

I essentially make Shrimp tempura (p. 388) every year for Christmas Eve, I refused to make it again and not count it as "TJOTJOC made".

In our Italian-American household, Christmas Eve is meat-free. I think it's sort of a "Feast of the Seven Fishes" holdover, just with fewer types of fish. Christmas tends to be a Thanksgiving style meal (turkey or ham, sweet potatoes, mashed poatoes, etc.) while Christmas Eve has a pasta with a squid/crab/lobster sauce, fried shrimp/calamari/cauliflower, stuffed calamari, etc. It's one of my favorite meals of the year. Several years ago, the frying related jobs became my duty and I always use TJOC's tempura batter.

I peeled and cleaned the shrimp, leaving the tails. I dipped the shrimp in the batter, carefully placed them in the fryer, cooked them for a few minutes and drained them. Make sure all of your shellfish are as dry as possible--otherwise the oil will spit and it's really dangerous. I also recommend an apron.

The shrimp are on the left side of the picture:

Delicious, as always! I love this batter. It's light, crisp, and doesn't overwhelm the shellfish. If I had a deep-fryer that was less of a hassle to wrestle out of the cabinet, I would make these far more often.