All posts in Other People’s Recipes

You Can Keep You Elephant Shoes AND Your Olive Juice Cause I Ain’t Got No Love For Ya.

It doesn’t seem hard, right? Get a big freakin olive, stuff it with your favorite savoriness and fry that mother up. It’s small and the directions are straight forward. Plus, Bittman said that anyone can do it. Well, I found someone that cannot do it. This gal.

I did two flavors: straight up mozzarella and an adventure of anchovie, fresh minced garlic and parmesan. I stuffed them, rolled em in flour, then egg, then panko bread crumbs (love panko, thank you japan) and deep fried those lil babies in canola. I was so excited. After 30 seconds in 180 degree oil, I took em out and rested them on brown paper bags which my guy tyler florence said is the best. We tasted. They were oily. Cheese fell out. The outside fell off. They were nasty. I was sad. Total failure.

But I didn’t give up, no siree bob. I said, lemme get all 1990s on this bitch and bake instead of fry. I was positive this would launch my new olive biness. This time, I chose a simple provelone. Then the flour, egg, panko, bake. Yeah… um, a bit better but not for company. B tore his up, but sometimes I suspect he does that just so I keep loving his ass.

I don’t know. What did I do wrong people? Please help a chick who strives to stuff her face with homemade skeelz but who has no money for culinary school.

More Porridge, Sah? Cheerio!

I been in england, so get off my back.

But, I got some goodies to share with yall. But before I get into it, I promised myself and my special brit traveling partner boy toy that no matter what shite I was served as a ridiculous excuse for a meal on the plane, that once home, I would recreate it into real food and serve that shit up lovely on Go Meat Yourself.

I was getting my england on even before leaving BK. Before boarding the death trap that has come to be known as an “airplane,” I was surprised with a special treat of english boozin called mulled wine. I realize that mulled wine comes from all over the globe, but since it was made by an english man, this is a damn english recipe.

Mulled Wine

1 cheap bottle of red wine
2 cinnamon sticks
1 tbs of whole cloves
1 cup of brown sugar
juice of 1 orange
Serves 4.

Pour the wine in large pot and keep on low. With a microplane, grate some of the cinnamon into the pot and then toss the sticks in whole. Add the cloves. Quarter the orange and squeeze the juice into the pot. Then add the squeezed orange pieces. Add sugar and stir until it dissolves. Heat the wine on low for at least 15 minutes – longer if your alcoholic ass can handle it. When your kitchen is sufficiently smellin like an old english farm house, pour the wine into mugs or wine glasses and garnish with the cinnamon sticks or orange slices. As you can see in this picture, we have a darling mini orange tree which we used special for the occasion.

On the plane, while trying not to think about my plummeting death, I was interrupted with the most wannabe pasta nosh. Fake food or not, I was excited to eat (ok, fine, I kinda like plane food). And I was excited to see what I would be recreating once safely back on the ground in BK where god intended me to be. And the wiener is: Manicotti! Stay tuned.

Now, jolly ol england has some fucked up eating practices. Baked beans for breakfast, along with roasted tomatoes and mushrooms. Now, I love me a good shroom and even some tomatoes here and there, but not with my scrambles, namean? Also, have you had marmite? A spreadable brown yeast? No thanks. You know what they put on their salads? Salad Cream. I know we did that here in the 80s, but now, a thick white jizz on my salad only makes me think of the most novelty of porn. Do you know they have something called black pudding, which is just fried blood and fat encased in intestines? Now that is fucked up. BUT. For all their ill conceived culinary delights, they really make up for it in a couple delicious ways. And I’m about to tell you how: bacon and steak flavored chips and pork scratchings at every bar.

Dude, it really tastes like meat. Kinda.

And on the luckiest of street corners, a bacon fairy will sell you a bacon bap, which is just a small roll with some “bacon” and by bacon, they mean ham. But thats ok. Its still a succulent slab of fatty pork on the way to the bank.

And for just a few quid, you can get some fried fish and chips in a crumpled up newspaper, doused in vinegar and a tiny little wooden spear. How angelas ashes is that!?

And if you are fortunate enough to make your way into the cutest area of the whole country known as cornwall, you can get yourself a cornish pasty. Not the kind you hang from your nips, although im sure you can find one or two there as well, but the kind of pasty that is a breaded pocket of savory goodness. The original and most common is steak with potato, carrot and swede. Yall have wolfed (or if you wont admit to wolfin, seen a commercial for) hot pockets, right? Same thing. A pasty in cornwall is like pizza in brooklyn, or sausage in vienna, or roofies on the jersey shore.

The flight home wasn’t very memorable. Mostly because I took as much sominex as I could without ODing.

Sheffin Other People’s Recipes: Soy and Citrus Sea Bass Over Couscous

I realize that I have been a fat ass in the making since I was little. On playdates, friends would come over and play cooking. All my first jobs were centered around food, from manning a bakery to making cupcakes (ok, i didn’t actually get PAID for that). Some of the funnest and most hormone-inducing jobs were always as a waitress. The fanciest and possibly the most deliciousest (?) restaurant job I had was at this bougie place in rochester ny called the rio bamba. Buttery and frenchy, this food was at a level of upscale tastiness that all Rochester restaurants would strive to be. But please.

Since moving on from the rio, I have made one of their signature dishes oh, maybe, 8, 9 hundred times. It’s too good, healthy and easy not to make this meal everyday. You should make this for someone cause they will think you are cool.

The original recipe calls for tuna, but I don’t eat tuna anymore (something really gamey to me, but by all means, go for it) so I substituted the fish with a sea bass – I know, so not politically correct. I have done this with swordfish before which I think is my fave. Also, chef made this with isreali couscous which is the same couscous you and I know, except it’s enormous balls instead of tiny ones. I prefer the standard couscous size cause it soaks up the sauce which is mamma’s milk foreal. Eat this.



Soy and Citrus Sea Bass Over Couscous

1/4 cup soy sauce or tamari (tamari is just the same as soy, just a higher quality with less sodium)
1/4 cup of fresh lime juice
1/8 cup of olive oil
1 leek
2 servings of Sea Bass, Tuna, Swordfish, or your favorite fish, but not salmon
2 servings of cooked couscous
olive oil or butter for frying
Serves 2.

Combine the first 3 ingredients. Slice the leeks and add to the sauce. Stir well. Heat your olive oil (or butter) in a frying pan. When hot, place the fish skin side down. When the fish can move a bit in the pan, it’s ready to flip. It’s done when you can stick a knife in it without any resistance. (Thanks, Bittman.) When the couscous is ready, plate, put the fish on top, add the leeks on top of the fish and pour the sauce over everything. So. Easy.