Tuesday, January 09, 2007
My Cooking Sucks
Yeah I know, I didn't post all Christmas season. I got some nice stuff, but nothing really worth posting pics of. And I had an excellent and relaxing vacation up north, including a night out in Boston with Rachel and Steve. Against that, a couple of my local friends seem to have forgotten how to call back. And with that as a segue that will make vague sense only to me and one of those two, I'm also reading Dog Days, by former Wonkette Ana Marie Cox. Only a couple chapters in, but let's just say that the appearance of Washingtonienne had me laughing out loud and not in the way the author wanted. I'll reserve judgement until the end, but sofar it's threatening to make me put it down for all the same reasons I never wanted to get involved in that scene to begin with.
Anyway, the cooking. I took a steak out of the freezer yesterday with a vague plan to cook it on the Foreman grill with some broccoli on the side. Then today I got to thinking cheese sauce would be good on the broccoli. Google brought me a simple-looking recipe that called for butter, milk, flour, and mustard powder in addition to grated cheese.
Now, my whole point was to use up the cheddar that I haven't been eating, so I wasn't going to go out and buy grated cheese. This was just part of my downfall, with the others being that I only have unsifted whole wheat flour, no sifter, and--it turned out--no cheese grater. I still think I have one somewhere but by the time I realized I didn't know where it was, I needed something fast. Fortunately, there was something to hand: some shredded parmesan left over from last week. It worked--sort of. You start off by melting the butter and adding flour, then stirring in the milk. This is more or less how you make cream of wheat, and that's exactly what it looked and smelled like. After adding the cheese, it looked and smelled like parmesan cream of wheat. The taste ultimately wasn't terrible, but a far cry from the queso-like sauce I had been picturing. I think the problem was too much flour, but I put in exactly what the recipe called for. Finally, to add insult to injury the steak--something I'm normally pretty good at--was dry and mostly taste-free. That's disappointing after marinading it in BBQ sauce and frying with extra virgin olive oil. I guess it's back to the drawing board, or at least to marinading all day in the off-the-shelf lemon pepper stuff.
Anyway, the cooking. I took a steak out of the freezer yesterday with a vague plan to cook it on the Foreman grill with some broccoli on the side. Then today I got to thinking cheese sauce would be good on the broccoli. Google brought me a simple-looking recipe that called for butter, milk, flour, and mustard powder in addition to grated cheese.
Now, my whole point was to use up the cheddar that I haven't been eating, so I wasn't going to go out and buy grated cheese. This was just part of my downfall, with the others being that I only have unsifted whole wheat flour, no sifter, and--it turned out--no cheese grater. I still think I have one somewhere but by the time I realized I didn't know where it was, I needed something fast. Fortunately, there was something to hand: some shredded parmesan left over from last week. It worked--sort of. You start off by melting the butter and adding flour, then stirring in the milk. This is more or less how you make cream of wheat, and that's exactly what it looked and smelled like. After adding the cheese, it looked and smelled like parmesan cream of wheat. The taste ultimately wasn't terrible, but a far cry from the queso-like sauce I had been picturing. I think the problem was too much flour, but I put in exactly what the recipe called for. Finally, to add insult to injury the steak--something I'm normally pretty good at--was dry and mostly taste-free. That's disappointing after marinading it in BBQ sauce and frying with extra virgin olive oil. I guess it's back to the drawing board, or at least to marinading all day in the off-the-shelf lemon pepper stuff.
# posted by Stacy McMahon @ 7:16 PM 
Comments:
<< Home
How do you feel about goulash or stroganoff? I haven't had either of those in years, but they're both excellent ways to cook ground beef. As is sloppy joe, which is something I actually do a pretty good job of making from scratch (then again, it's hard to mess up sloppy joe)
Post a Comment
<< Home
