Ballin’ on a Budget
02/27/11

What’s a Jewess to do when she and her hubby cannot afford the $225/per person ticket price for the Whole Foods tasting room at the South Beach Food & Wine Festival!?!?  She cases the joint until she spots enough celebrity chefs to feel like her job here is done.  And that, folks, is exactly how the husband and I spent this week’s Sunday Funday.  Forget the fact that we couldn’t really eat half the stuff that’s in there (eating kosher in the house and vegetarian outside of the house), but $225 per person is money out of the honeymoon pot (someday) so that wasn’t happening.  So instead, my sweet, patient husband walked around and around and around the pretty white Food Network tents until we saw something good. . . and I mean good.  The first chef we saw was Emeril Legasse.  Nice.  He was doing his thing at one of the main events so we caught a glimpse and heard a few things he had to share (being 5’10” and 6’1″ has its advantages–namely we can see over the chain link fence so we could actually see and hear everything that was going on in the main tent).  But, I have to say, the most exciting point of the day was spotting one of our favorite Top Chef contestants–Fabio.  Oh Fabio, how you make us laugh, make us cry, make us want to move to Italy and live off the land.  He was totally by himself, just checking out the joint and luckily, I hadn’t had my Sunday Funday margarita yet cause for sure, you could have counted on me jumping up and down yelling, “Fabio!! Fabio!!! Over here!! HI!!!!”.  Instead, I played it as cool as I could (I mean, lucky for him, we were on the commoner side of the chain link fence) while pulling on my husband’s hand and not so calmly telling him, “It’s Fabio. FABIO.”  He tried to get a picture but it didn’t really turn out.  Regardless, it was awesome and totally the icing on the ballin’ sundae.  Well, that and the two for one margaritas we ended up getting across the street as consolation prizes to ourselves for not being able to actually attend the festival.  Happy Sunday Funday!!

Sneaking a peak of Emeril. Shalom Emeril!

Happy just having the opportunity to be near the Food festival!

I couldn't get a press pass in via the Jewhungry blog. It's as if they've never heard of us!? WHAT?!

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No Buttermilk Here
02/26/11

Well, we finally got cable, which means the various channels that play cooking shows of all kinds have been having their fair share of viewing time in our house.  We recently discovered Man vs. Food and every time I watch it, my old treif taste buds come roaring back.  Sure, I’d like to sink my teeth into a Philly cheese steak, but I ain’t gonna do it–ever.  Luckily, there are some very tasty meat alternatives out there that allow us to indulge a little.  The most recent episode we saw featured some delicious fried chicken.  Yum.  I mean, YUM.  The secret to some good, Southern fried chicken is a solid 24 hour marinate in buttermilk.  But alas, that’s not happening in our kosher home.  But just because we’re not bathing our chicken in buttermilk doesn’t mean we can enjoy some ‘fried’ chicken.  So, this shabbat dinner I tried out some oven-fried chicken.  Now, Ina (a.k.a. The Barefoot Contessa) has an oven-fried chicken recipe but alas it calls for buttermilk so that wasn’t happening.  I scoured the internet for oven-fried recipes that didn’t include dairy and really didn’t find much.  I needed it to be dairy-free but also needed it to be juicy.  As a Southern woman, I find it difficult to think of making any kind of fried or oven-fried chicken without buttermilk but as a kosher woman, well, it’s out of the question.  Still, it needed to be juicy.  I can’t be the only person out there who has sunk there teeth into what looked like a nice, juicy oven-fried drumstick, only to find it so dried up you’re faking your yummy noises while asking for the water (“Mmmmm, soooo good.  Wow. Yum. Can anyone pass the water?”) . Finally, I settled on a recipe from the blog, The Hillbilly Housewife.  I mean hell, I gotta think that an oven-fried chicken recipe from a woman flat-out admitting to being a Hillbilly is gonna a) be delicious and b)gonna involve mounds of butter.  However, there was only a little and it was easily substituted for margarine and the result was very juicy.   I used some fresh bread crumbs made from some left over challah and cooked it for exactly an hour.  There was some thyme, there was some olive oil, there was some kosher salt.  It was all very delicious, if I do say so myself.

Ingredients

(I’m actually not going to put measurements as it really depends on how much chicken you’re making.  Just make sure your chicken is more than fully covered by the bread crumbs/seasonings.  All measurements will be based on your liking)

Cut-up chicken
Fresh bread crumbs
Thyme
Kosher salt
Pepper
Paprika
Garlic Powder
Olive oil – Enough to coat your roasting an
Margarine

Method

Pre-heat oven to 400°.

In an empty freezer bag, or in a shallow bowl, combine the bread crumbs and seasonings.  Put one portion of cut-up chicken in the bag and shake  or coat it in the bowl. Lay the coated chicken in a well oiled 9 by 13-inch rectangular baking pan.

After all your chicken is nicely coated and laid out in the pan, gently place any left over bread crumb/seasoning mixture on top of the chicken to get yourself a nice and extra crispy taste.  Next, put a dollop of margarine on top of each piece of chicken (more for the breast, less for a wing).  This will get it that nice and juicy taste you want.

Bake the chicken for about 45 minutes to an hour. Some people recommend turning the chicken over after it is half done baking. This is probably good advice, but I didn’t turn it over because I like the under sides to be a little more moist and a little less crispy.  I will leave the choice for turning the chicken up to you. You know it’s done when the chicken is a nice, golden brown color and the juice runs clear when you stick a fork in it.

Chicken - happy and coated in their roasting pan.

 

Post-oven and ready to be devoured.

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The Beverage
02/26/11

Prepping for shabbat in our household is almost as fun as shabbat itself.  Sure, there’s the normal mad dash to get everything done before shabbat comes in but we’ve split our duties up between household chores (the husband) and cooking (me).  The mad dash usually starts with some tunes put on the record player and each of us pouring ourselves a nice cold, adult beverage.  For me, its beer (I love beer).  For the husband, it’s a mint julip.  The man first fell in love with bourbon probably around the age of 5, when ever good Jewish boy takes a sip from his dad’s cup at kiddish, and he’s been in love with it ever since.  So much so that for his birthday this year, we toured bourbon county and enjoyed tastings at 5 of the biggest bourbon suppliers in the world. I still haven’t developed a taste for it even though I take the smallest sip every shabbat.  Luckily, my brother-in-law discovered sweet tea bourbon for the Southerner in me and now I can enjoy a little bourbon on my shabbat as well.

Mint Julip

Ingredients

  • 1  ounce simple syrup (or 1 heaping tablespoon sugar plus 1 tablespoon water)
  • 2 cups crushed ice
  • 2 ounces bourbon
  • Fresh mint sprig, for garnish
Method:
1. In the bottom of the cup or glass, put a tablespoon of simple syrup (or one heaping tablespoon sugar drizzled with 1 tablespoon water). Use more if you prefer a sweeter julep. Add the mint leaves and press lightly with the back of a spoon.
2. Crush the ice cubes in a clean, non-terry dish towel, using a hammer. The ice should be finely crushed. Fill the cup with ice to the brim.
3. Pour over the bourbon. Add more ice to fill the cup, garnish with sprigs of mint and plunk in a short straw.

Note: To make 1 cup simple syrup, bring one cup of water to a boil. Stir in 1 cup sugar and boil until the sugar has dissolved. Let cool before using.
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