SkinnyCook

Fried green tomatoes… not the movie, mind you, the delicious creation of southerners who were too poor to let anything go to waste. My grandmother made them every fall when I was a child. I didn’t like them then, but as you do as you get older, I’ve reconsidered much of her wisdom. So, when faced with a bowl full of green tomatoes from the last harvest of this fall, I called up Granny for her recipe. It turned out to be dead simple. As with many of my favorite foods, it’s all in the technique.

Secrets of your success

• Use an iron skillet

I don’t know if it’s really important or not, but it just feels right.

• Keep it medium, the heat that is.

The only trick to getting amazing results is to cook the tomatoes through without burning the cornmeal crust. You want them to be not too firm, not too soggy. Having the right amount of heat is key to getting them just right.

Recipe

1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
2 tbls. flour
green tomatoes, sliced 3/16″ thick
oil

Mix flour and cornmeal together on a plate. Dredge the tomatoes right before putting in the skillet. Fry each side for 7-9 minutes in a generous amount of oil. Resist temptation to turn them over to check for doneness. The more you turn them, the more the cornmeal crust will fall apart. Drain on paper towels and add pinch of salt on top before serving.

I served them with some good ole’ mayonaise-y slaw and some fried fish. Add a glass of sweet iced tea for southern’s idea of perfection.

Migas are the lovely Texan dish I first enjoyed in Austin at SXSWi. Here’s my quick and dirty rendition. This can easily be made vegetarian and gluten-free. This recipe is for one. Double or triple as necessary.

Recipe

2 eggs
1 tbl. of milk or water
2 corn tortillas
1/4 cup of salsa I prefer Herdez Salsa Casera for its freshness.

Extras
Add on any of these for extra deliciousness
chopped flat leaf parsley
black olives
grated cheddar
sour cream
bacon
sauteed zucchini
caramelized onion
peppers

Heat some butter, oil, or *ahem* bacon fat in a skillet. Tear up the tortillas into roughly 1 inch pieces and fry until crunchy. Scramble the eggs together with the milk and add to the pan. Stir until cooked through. Turn out onto plate and garnish with toppings to your taste.

Yeah baybeee!! You know you love a big steaming bowl of macaroni and cheese. I have a secret for you… There are four ingredients in it. Nix the box crap. This how I roll with it at my house. There’s no recipe this time because you don’t measure anything. I’ll give approximate amounts.

Step 1: Buttttaaahhh

It’s like this. You melt 4 tbsp. (half a stick) of butter in the pan over medium high heat. Start your pasta boiling with a big dose of salt.

Step 2: Flour

Put an equal amount of flour, 4 tbsp. into the melted butter and whisk. Stir it around occasionally for a few minutes. In French terms, you’re making a “roux.” In the South, we generally refer to this technique as “cookin’.”

Step 3: Milk

Quickly whisk as you add about 1/4 cup milk. At first, it will make a goofy, lumpy paste. Continue to whisk until smooth, then add more milk. Repeat this until you get a sauce a bit thinner than you want the final product to be.

Step 4: Cheese

Here’s the magic! mmmmm cheese! Use whatever cheese you like that melts well. If you have not already discovered this, not all cheese melts. Weird, I know. I recommend American, cheddar, fontina, colby, or monterey jack.

Step 5: Salt

So now you have a beautiful cheese sauce. I can’t understate the importance of salt. Pasta needs way more salt than you would think. Salt. Taste. Salt. Taste again. Err on the side of a bit too salty, since you’ll be adding the pasta later.

Step 6: Mix

The only thing left to do is mix it all together. Add your beautiful sauce to 1 lb. of cooked pasta. I added broccoli at this point for extra credit. Plus, it a bit healthier. Cheers!

Here’s a magical 10 minute wonder. If you have enough cooking skills to make a sandwich, you can make this light meal in no time. I recently discovered this wonderful thing called fromage fort at New Seasons. It’s a blend of cow, sheep, and goat milk cheeses with wine and herbs. How could this be less than unbelievable? I predict that this will never be missing from my refrigerator. A bowl of soup, perhaps a nice premade squash soup from Imagine Foods, would turn this into a more substantial dinner.

Components

fromage fort
good bread - French or whatever you like
perfectly ripe pear, sliced
extra bonus points
salad greens w/ dressing of oil and vinegar
** balsamic or sherry wine would be perfect
walnuts
white wine - pinot grigio or prosecco

Vietnamese Avocado Smoothie

You either think this sounds like the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard of or you’re saying to yourself, “mmm!” I hope to make you all in the second category by the end of this post. This avocado smoothie is such a calorie bomb, you can have it as a breakfast or light meal all by itself. I think I could live on these things alone!

In Vietnamese cooking, avocados and evaporated condensed milk are a very common flavor combination. I know we don’t usually think of it in that context, but the condensed milk accentuates the avocado’s lovely green flavor without covering it up with sweetness. Enough with waxing poetic… on to business.

Recipe

1 perfectly ripe avocado
1/2 can evaporated condensed milk, a.k.a. Eagle Brand milk
tiny pinch of salt
approx. 3/4 cup of milk (soy, rice, cow, goat… whatever does it for ya’)

Whir everything up together in a blender or food processor. Use enough milk to make it pourable. Drink. Oooh and aaaahh. This will make 1 to 1 1/2 tall glasses, depending on the size of the avocado. It will keep, covered, in the fridge for at least two days.

Day After Xmas: Eggnog French Toast

Yesterday was the enormous feast for Christmas Day with friends. Here in Portland, we were celebrating with the help of a 40-year snow, so many were stuck without a way to get back to family gatherings in far-flung locations. Being a loyal tweep, I invited any and all to come to my place. I was honored to welcome seven friends, both new and old, into my home. Nothing could’ve made me happier than having a houseful of happy faces.

But I digress… this post is about breakfast. What do you do with half container of leftover eggnog? Why, you make French toast, silly. It’s what God intended us to do with the stale bread accidentally left out on the counter all night because we were too lazy/hungover/despondent to actually clean up the mess from Christmas Day dinner.

Secrets of your success

• Use really good (stale) bread
  This could be any kind of bread. Think any Italian, French, sourdough. Get fancy with cranberry walnut, double chocolate, cinnamon, etc… go crazy. The only thing maple syrup and eggy-goodness won’t help would be some savory thing like olive bread.
• Soak it in the egg mix for at least five minutes
• Fry it up in butter
• Top with real maple syrup

Recipe

Serves 1-2

2 eggs
1/2 cup eggnog or milk
2-3 large slices of bread
1/2 tbl. butter

Whisk together egg and eggnog. Dunk the bread in it. Put the heat on medium-high for the skillet to get nice and hot. Wait five minutes. Perhaps have a mimosa. Fry. Pour on hot maple syrup. Eat.