Buffalo Broccoli Done My Way

               It's hard not to want to chomp into a dozen or more small chicken wings; with soft meat inside covered by a hard crusty skin that's soaked in hot sauce. The only setback are these things are killers in the calories department and the amount of fats present in the skin and dripping grease inside the meat is too much to bear. With the NFL playoffs underway there's even more so reason to want to tear into some wings, so I got to thinking if there could be healthier alternative to put some spice in your mouth and fill your belly without taking years off the lifespan.

              The great thing about broccoli is that its very inexpensive, so if the "boys" are coming over and you gotta make a tray of wings, or even if you have to cater out - you're looking at anywhere from a sixty to a hundred dollar hit in the wallet, to be conservative. To feed the same amount of people using the broccoli, its only at a fraction of the cost, in the neighborhood of ten bucks. Most places serve buffalo wings with celery, carrots, and blue cheese(which is gross), to provide the illusion that somehow two sticks of celery is going to magically erase all the fat and calories from the wings. It's ridiculous, the way some people thing drinking a diet soda with a double-cheeseburger is going to lessen the fact that a double-cheeseburger had just been consumed. There are no shortcuts around buffalo wings, so the only solution is hard work through buffalo broccoli. The way a good singer needs instruments and accompaniment to make good music, broccoli needs some friends to make the dish more lively. In this case its going to be onions and fresh garlic cloves. In addition, you need sweet chili sauce(like the Chinese places use), salt, black pepper, and of course the hot sauce which gives that zingy "buffalo" taste.

               Speaking of Chinese, its best to cook this in a wok, if available, if not a flat frying pan will certainly do the job as well. Stir-frying broccoli isn't exactly the best way to get the most vitamins and nutrients out of them, compared to steaming for example, but steaming is a far cry from the absence of chicken meat, so stir-fry is the most reasonable middle ground. Even with frying it up broccoli contains essential cholesterol-lowering agents as well the fiber to help with the digestive tract. Also broccoli has been linked to reducing inflammation inside the body, which lessens cell damage, and naturally boosts out body's detoxification system that comes into play if beer is being consumed while watching the game. It's probably quite safe to say that traditional buffalo wings do the exact opposite of all that. Plus, if you're eating a wing with a cut on your finger or on your mouth, the burning sensation afterwards is sometimes quite painful. Eating food should be enjoyable, not painstaking. The only pain involved with buffalo broccoli is if someone accidentally cuts their finger while chopping up the vegetables. Only the bushy top part of the entire broccoli stem is needed, the rest of the trunk could be discarded. Some people use those leftover trunks for soup stock, but that's a different recipe for a different time.

              Once the broccoli, onions, and garlic are all chopped, sliced, and ready to go; heat up the wok and place a few small drips of oil and a few good tablespoons of the sweet chili sauce. Leo was watching to make sure I put in the right amount. The sauce contains the pepper flakes which will help provide some punch along with the hot sauce later on. When the sauce and oil start popping from the heat, then its time to dump in the onions and garlic. At this point do not put in the broccoli quite yet - only the onions and garlic! Putting in the broccoli too early will cause them to get mushy as well as it robs the body of those essential nutrients discussed earlier with each extra minute its in that wok(or pan). The garlic on the other hand needs to liquefy as much as possible and mix in with the chili sauce, while the onions have to cook down and act as a respectable co-pilot to the broccoli. After about eight minutes when the onions are browned and most of the garlic slices have disappeared, then its the proper time to bring the broccoli into the equation. Ease the broccoli in by lowering the fire to the minimum to prevent burning it. Sprinkle in some salt and black pepper to add flavor, and mix the broccoli around with the chili sauce while introducing them to their new friends - onions and garlic. Give it a good five minutes of mixing it around and letting it cook a little before adding that final ingredient. The broccoli needs to heat up and open those pores on the surface.

               Some other "chefs" like to put a crust on their "buffalo broccoli", which is another example of ridiculousness. The whole point of buffalo broccoli is to avoid the "skins", "crusts", "layers", etc. In that case might as well deep-fry them in batter and serve it at the local state fair. The much more sensible, and healthier, approach is simply pouring the hot sauce all over the broccoli and letting it cook in with all the other flavors. In fact, at the flower head part of the broccoli piece the hot sauce will stick along the bushy surface and provide the same spicy kick a crusted-head would contain, which again, is another reason why the crust is not necessary and is nothing more than an empty excuse to add calories. After a good sauce dousing, let the broccoli cook for another five to seven minutes, and keep stirring it until the reddish hot sauce isn't visible anymore. When those next seven minutes are up, or if you notice the broccoli getting too mushy or burnt, then its time to turn off the fire. The smooth curvy texture of the wok will allow you to plate the dish without leaving that valuable sauce behind. The next thing you know everyone will be asking to come over to your place for the big game.

               And not one cut finger or lip will be burned.....
      

 

Cornmeal Chicken Cutlets Done My Way

             Last night I came home from a Yankee game and I wasn't sure I wanted to eat for dinner. I was conflicted with either going to the diner and spending money, or cooking something at home and saving a few bucks, with a sink of dirty dishes as the only price. After nearly two hours of contemplating, I finally went with staying home and doing something with the chicken cutlets I had purchased many days ago. I figured 12:40 am was the ideal time to cook a meal and eat it.

             Usually when I make chicken cutlets I like to bread them, but this time I wanted to add a new wrinkle into the mix to make them that more interesting. To add taste and make the crust more crispy, I decided to bring corn meal into the fold. Starting out with my chicken cutlets which can be purchased from any friendly neighborhood supermarket, I brought out flour, bread crumbs, three eggs, oregano, herbs de provence, salt, lemon juice, cooking oil, and the star of the show: corn meal. For a side dish I wanted to boil up some spaghetti. Had it been earlier in the evening I would've also done a sauce, but due to the lateness of the hour, I was going to stick with keeping the pasta plain. Once I started getting everything together in the kitchen, Leo heard the stirring around and came in to see what all the commotion was. It's usually quite annoying to try to cook with Leo around as he makes many attempts to try to get at the food. I was going to lock him in the living room, but when I noticed he was quietly perched upon the kitchen radiator, I figured I would let him stay for the time being.

             Many people make the mistake of dipping the cutlets into the egg yolk as the first step, that's actually step two. What needs to be done first is coating the raw cutlets with flour; just pour some flour onto the cutlets and massage the powder on all exposed surfaces. Then take the three eggs and break open the yokes into a bowl. Once I threw the egg shells into the garbage, Leo leaped off of the radiator and peeked into the garbage to see what treasure I just had disposed of. With the floured-cutlets and egg-dip bowl ready, the final preparation is the bread crumbs. Pour some bread crumbs onto a dish, and then add dashes of salt, oregano, herbs de provence, and of course the corn meal. You can use a utensil or even your hand to mix up the bread crumb-corn meal concoction It's best to organize each dish and bowl in order like an assembly line. Starting from the left; there's the cutlets, the eggs, the bread crumbs, and to the right an empty plate to house the breaded cutlets. Again, you can either use a utensil or even you hand for the breading process. Take a cutlet, dip it completely in the egg yolk, then place in onto top of the bread crumbs (flip it over to cover both sides), and once covered by the crumbs, place in the plate. When all the cutlets have been breaded, this is when you can take the lemon juice bottle and give the chicken slices a few squeezes of juice for extra flavoring.

             With the cutlets ready to go, I poured some cooking oil onto my trusty iron pan and let it heat for about three minutes. That's when I took a folk to carefully place all four pieces of cutlet onto the hot pan. The initial sizzle noise from the chicken hitting the pan let me know it was officially game time!! Leo came over for a closer look to see how this phase of the cooking was panning out. Each side requires about ten to twelve minutes to cook, so I didn't want to start the pasta until the first side was done. I kept taking little peeks underneath the cutlets, and once I saw the dark brown grill lines from the pan, I knew it was time to flip them over. Leo was still curious about those discarded egg shells, but too bad for him the garbage cover was down. When the cutlets where on their other side, I poured the spaghetti into the boiling water and let the both of them race towards the finishing line. Leo grabbed a spot at the kitchen table in anticipation that he was going to join me for this meal. In about ten to twelve minutes, same as Side A, the dark brown lines from the grill where in clear view and the cutlets were ready to consume. In about this same time the spaghetti was nice and soft and I was able place everything onto my plate. Just as I hoped, the added corn meal kept the cutlet crust firm and in its place. Far too often with chicken cutlets, once you start cutting them with your utensils, the layer of bread crumb slips right off like a sock. That's definitely not the case when the corn meal is there to lend support.

             Adding corn meal to cat food might be a whole other story..........

Free Food at Fairway

             Not too long ago I was driving home at night with a friend and I needed to do some grocery shopping, which I put off from doing earlier in the day. It was around 9:30pm and the route we took home was going to pass by a Fairway supermarket. The latest I ever saw a Fairway open was around 8:30pm, so in my mind I figured there was no chance it would be open, but since it was on the way home, there was no harm in stopping by to check it out.

             When we arrived there it was about 9:45pm and the parking lot was completely empty, yet the Fairway store still had their usual fruit and vegetable stand stationed out front fully loaded as it would be during the day, so this gave me the impression the place might still be open. I drove deeper into the parking lot and headed towards the store to make sure. As we rolled by slowly in the car, we noticed the front entrance was shut, and looking inside the window there were no cashiers at any of the registers. There was also no sign of any other employees inside as we saw no movement. I turned my head several times to scan the entire parking lot, and my car was still the only car in the lot at that time. If there were employees in the store still, it's very likely one or more of their vehicles would be parked in the lot, but no cars were around. It's safe to assume someone responsible for closing down the store for the night isn't the type of person who is going to walk or take a bus home, especially at night. I kept asking myself; how can they leave this fruit and vegetable stand out front with nobody watching it and without at least putting some type of cover on it?

            Someone very easily could walk up to it with a bag in the middle of the night and do some shopping for free. There's tomatoes, peaches, kiwi, peppers (red and green), potatoes, onions, and apples, all ripe for the midnight picking. Even worse, someone could come by and spike it with whatever substance and it gets purchased the next day. Knowing the store was officially closed and not wanting to appear as if we were casing the joint, we left the vacant parking lot and headed back home. While driving I couldn't comprehend how Fairway just leaves the food out there like that. Perhaps its possible there is some guard in there of sorts keeping an eye out, but the probably some guard or guards can monitor every second of every inch of that stand all night long is extremely low.

             All I know is next time I shop at Fairway, I'm only buying the stuff that's inside the store...

Cheese Ravioli in Prosciutto di Parma Sauce My Way

            With a fresh batch of cheese ravioli to cook, I wanted to find a new variation of meat to go along with it instead of the usual meatballs or sausage. Taking a peek in my refrigerator, my answer was laying on the second shelf, prosciutto di parma. I purchased a quarter-pound of it sliced a few days earlier and felt this was a great opportunity to experiment. About seven or eight months ago I tried a slice of it and since then it's moved up to the top of my chart in terms of cold cuts meat. I never tried it cooked or heated before, so this was certainly traveling into uncharted waters.

             The sauce always has the most steps, so its the best place to start. Use three cans of tomato sauce with a can of paste to even out the texture. Next, pour in a few teaspoons of olive oil as well as balsamic vinegar to bring out a little sweetness. To add flavor to the sauce you can sprinkle in some garlic powder, black pepper, and crumble up a chicken bouillon cube with your fingertips. Don't put the prosciutto in just yet, the key is to keep the meat soft and tender, at this point its just about cooking up the sauce first. As that heats up for a good ten minutes, its time to move onto the pasta. The star of the show are the ravioli, so after boiling up a hot pot of water, sprinkle in a little salt, pour in a little olive oil, and dump in a couple of dozen ravioli so those can begin cooking as well.

            Remember to keep going back to the sauce every few minutes to give it a stir, otherwise it will burn at the bottom of the pot and have a clumpy surface up on top. Ravioli has a unique shape versus other pasta, this serves as a mjaor benefit because once you see them start floating up on the water's surface, you'll know they're just about done. This is the moment when you add the prosciutto. It's best to shred up the slices into tiny pieces and add it to the sauce. Stir it up for a few minutes, but only a few minutes, its important the prosciutto doesn't cook or get burned. By this time the ravioli should have been floating up top for a few minutes now, so its time to take those out of the pot by dumping them on a strainer to get all the water out. After a few minutes, everything should cool down a little, so then empty the ravioli from the strainer onto a plate, pour on a layer of the sauce with the prosciutto di parma shreds mixed in, and dig in!

            The best dishes are the ones you don't expect....

The Haitian Beef Patty War

            It had been close to a year since I last had a Haitian patty and last weekend the craving struck me so much that I had to make the journey to Jamaica, Queens to pick some up. With the lady away in Haiti for 2011, there's was nothing that would bring me to that area, so I wasn't having any patties at all. The patties were a normal weekend ritual and each time tasted as good as the first time I tried them. I was planning on brining Leo to the park that very same day, but the sudden craving forced me to call an audable, so I ended up brining Leo with me for a ride to Queens, and then after we would go to the park.

            Haitian patties themselves aren't expensive, but since I had to go over the bridge my appetite was adding an extra thirteen-dollars to the food. The place we always go to is called Le Bon Pain and its located on Jamaica Avenue off of 212th St.(you may require a degree in scientific engineering to understand a Queens street map). Typically when going there the line is nearly out the door, and the place is so popular there's cars double-parked all along the front street. Plus, there's the usual hustle and bustle of Jamaica Avenue with cars, livery cabs, dollar vans, police cars, buses, and in the summer, Mister Softee trucks, flying all over the place. When the traffic gets near the double-parked cars in front of Le Bon Pain, its a real demolition derby. Each time I approach the block I'm worried over losing a side-mirror or just having a bus cream me from the other side of the street as I make a left turn. There's lots of red lights on Jamaica Avenue, and everyone is in a rush to not get caught by one. As I made my approach this time towards the Le Bon Pain Bakery and was only a block away, I looked to my left and saw a big flag of Haiti that caught my attention. Taking a closer look, the flag was in front of another bakery I never saw before, the Abou Bakery. Like I said, it had been about a year since I last was around that area, was someone bold enough openly challenge Le Bon Pain?

             As usual there were cars crammed all over and finding parking was impossible, I ended up parking three blocks away on some residential street. Knowing Le Bon Pain was likely to have its typical long line and a fifteen minute wait, plus I had interest in seeing the new kid on the block, I had to worry about Leo in the car. Usually he just hides under the seat when he's in the car, but what if he panics that I'm gone so long and ends up going to the bathroom in the car? Or what happens if someone decides they want to borrow my car and end up adopting Leo too? There was certainly some pressure involved in the visiting of these two bakeries. I first went to the mainstay of Le Bon Pain, and as I expected the line was all the way to the entrance, in fact my back was pressed against the glass door. There were nearly twenty-five people on the line, but with two cashiers working the registers I was hoping it would go fast. Although the patties are their bread-n-butter, it is a full bakery that specializes in wedding cakes, regular cakes, breads, and all sorts of Haitian treats. I even saw red velvet slices of cake added to their menu, but I had to give those a break as it seems I'm eating red velvet every week. The wait on the line only came out to about ten minutes, and the patties I ordered were two beef(my favorite), one chicken, and one fish. The total for all four patties came out to a very modest three-dollars.

             Once I was outside I had to choose between checking on Leo in the car, or going to the new bakery first and then heading back to the car. I never seen inside the Abou Bakery before, so I had no idea if their line would be as long as Le Bon Pain's. I figured since the place is probably new, its likely they don't draw as many customers and I'll be in-n-out quickly, so I decided to head over to Abou Bakery. Once again my instinct served me well as there were only two other people inside when I got there. They weren't sure yet what they wanted, so I got to go first. I ordered one beef and one chicken patty. The girl behind the counter informed me they just ran out of the chicken, but luckily one of the cooks in the kitchen overheard my order and came out with a fresh chicken patty for me. The two patties came out to two dollars, whereas at Le Bon Pain I got four patties for three dollars. Now with a total of six Haitian patties in my clutches, I headed back to my car and happily saw it was still there. In fact, Leo had left his usual hiding spot under my seat and was walking around the inside of there car. As I promised, I brought Leo to the park for about an hour, we actually had to cut the event short because it was starting to get chilly. Also, I couldn't wait to get home and try the patties from each of these bakeries to find out who has the best.

            Since the patties were in the back seat of my car while I was at the park with Leo, they got a little cold(patties are served warm). I took one patty from each bakery, placed them in a plate, and heated them in the oven for a few minutes. To make it an even contest, I decided to use the beef ones from both so its similar flavors. First up was Le Bon Pain, I noticed they fold their patties higher which causes the insides to pour out a little. I took my first Haitian beef patty bite in a long time and it was as good as I remembered, it seemed Le Bon Pain hadn't lost its touch. Next up was Abou Bakery, compared to Le Bon Pain it seems they fold their patties more completely which covers the inside meat entirely, and gives it a longer look. I had a bite of Abou's, and I needed to take a second one immediately to confirm, it tasted nearly identical to Le Bon Pain's. I took another bite of the Le Bon Pain patty and it indeed they both tasted the same. Overall the Le Bon Pain patties seem to contain more meat inside and have a firmer pastry texture, plus turned out to be priced lower, but I have to say it would be very difficult to tell the difference if I was blindfolded. Customers are usually very loyal to their bakery, so despite the long lines and wonderful parking conditions out front, Le Bon Pain should have no problem maintaining their dominance, but they can't get sloppy otherwise the Abou Bakery can offer a patty just as good to attract the wandering stomach.

              With the six patties I bought from both bakeries, the real winner from this contest was me...