Text 30749, 87 rader
Skriven 2015-09-09 11:41:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Alaska mistastes 215
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Swisher makes a mean hog jowls and black-eyed peas - his secret #1
is to use almost as much pork and onions as vegetable; secret #2
is to chicken out at the last minute and substitute white beans (I
have expressed disdain for the starchiness and dirty green taste
of black-eyed peas). With a good half teaspoon of red pepper
flakes (he doesn't buy the stuff, but it comes in takeout orders
from the pizza parlor) and a shake of Tabasco, it was quite good.

Also, to use up the last pound of 90/10, he mixed it with onions,
garlic, a small dose of Mexican chorizo, and some refried beans
to make a reasonable filling for tortillas and omelets. At second
thought he decided it wasn't spicy enough, so he added a few shakes
of Tabasco, which made it a tad sour and less nice than it had been.
At least it was spicy enough (for him) now. You could almost not
detect the 90/10, though some gristle did get caught in my teeth.
You do realize, don't you, that a substantial portion of the beef
in that grind comes from the shin, which even ground up does not
cook up particularly well rare.

I got on his case about not having cayenne in the house, which
presence would have preserved the taste balance of the taco
filling.

-

Today I had a whole box of Whoppers for supper. Boy do I
feel weird. This will not stop me from doing the same again
some other day. Felt truly like crap in the morning. This
will still not stop me from doing the same again some other
day.

-

Simple Truth organic chocolate soymilk is one of the more
tasteless versions I've had; not unpalatable though with a
bit of a green soybean taste that drowned out the chocolate
taste. It was a little better with a shot or three of
"Hershey's syrup genuine chocolate flavor" and better still
with a shot of whiskey. By the way, Hershey's ingredients list
is: high fructose corn syrup; corn syrup; water; cocoa; sugar;
contains 2% or less of potassium sorbate (preservative);
salt; mono- and diglycerides; xanthan gum; polysorbate 60
vanillin, artificial flavor. Eaten alone it tasted rather
like corn syrup with a hint of other flavors from chocolate
to medicine. I wonder what the original formulation was and
how it has evolved over the years. It could be faulty memory,
but this syrup tastes less like chocolate than did Gantrisin,
a medicine that used to be given to me when I was in the lower
single digits - the first and perhaps only chocolate-flavored
medicine I've ever had.

I made the mistake of tasting Fairbanks Sherry straight (this
is a brand I use for cooking). It's a barely sweet liquid, not
actually unpalatable, with what Dirty Dave would call a "pong"
of oxidation - useful for adding that taste to sauced dishes
but not great for drinking. Speaking of which, I have become
reacquainted with the delights of Milwaukee's Best, which
you can get at the Brown Jug for 50c a can in the convenient
30-pack. Very grainy, a barely sweet liquid with an estery
component, not alcoholic enough where you can get intoxicated
before the flavor turns your stomach. Ah, well, the price is
right and the company is good.

I brined some chicken breasts because they were 1/3 price and
thus only about $2 a pound for boneless skinless, cheap protein
considering it's Alaska. Sliced some up, pounded them lightly,
and did an egg-crumb breading, twice. Two mistakes. I cooked
them on a nonstick with cooking spray, to assuage any fear of
caloric overload; this made them crispish but not as crisp as
if I'd used sufficient oil. Two, I trusted Swisher's breadcrumbs,
which were just on the border of inedibly rancid, because even
though he keeps them in the fridge, they have a whole wheat flour
component. I am distrustful of whole wheat unless it is very, very
fresh. These crumbs were not very, very fresh. Anyhow, I boiled
up some of the Swisher apple butter with some of the sherry and a
dash of garlic powder and sauced the collops with that, adding a
sprinkle of melted cheese to his. It was decent.

On the side - I found some frozen Brussels sprouts in the archive
and sauteed them in butter. Unfortunately I should have squeezed
out the excess liquid before doing so, because the result turned
out a bit too wet. A splash of sherry and we had a satisfactory
but not really good vegetable.

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