Great Ideas Ripped Off From Schmancy Cookbooks, a.k.a Support Whirled (Wasabi) Peas
These are much better than Shake n Bake on chicken sections
After four days of not-very-solid food, I had a major hankering for Real Grown-Up Food again. However, I was still very groggy from post-pull meds, and didn't want to spend too much time preparing something. Also, I spent my convalesence reading a lot of "easy to loook at" books that I hadn't picked up in a while. One was from a set of artsy design-coffee-tableish books that I had received as a gift--a massive, egg-carton packaged collage-art book filled with almost impossibly fanciful recipes that was done by a set of artists who wanted a "concept cookbook."
One of the recipes was a multi-step fish concoction involving several different sauces, layers, and other things that would make it unsuitable for anything except a Very Important Date or Entertaining the In-Laws. However, one component got me thinking--the fish had been breaded not in bread crumbs or panko flakes before frying, but wasabi-coated roasted green peas, a very popular Japanese snack.
Now, one of my dietary standbys is roasted chicken parts--usually a pack of drumsticks and thighs, or just thighs. So, instead of using my usual breadcrumbs, sesame seed blend, or Gilly's toasted or raw spice rubs (you know, the ones I ran out of the he promised me he'd make me more of? HMMMMM????) I picked up a pack of wasabi peas. I also picked up some broccoli-rabe and set up some brown rice to soak--I don't think I'd eaten anything with fiber in it since the Big Pull.
So, as I warmed up the oven, I poked a few holes in the pea bag with a fork so that it wouldn't burst, and started in on it with a can of salmon. When this dented the can, I used my Cooking Brick (picked it up at a demolition site in Dumbo--a beauty from the DePew Brick Works; got it out of a demolition dumpster). I stopped when every pea was at least cracked, but left lots of different size pieces. I made a simple breading dip of one egg loosened up with milk, and made sure that I buttered the glass pan that I was using to bake the chicken in. One 8-oz bag of peas was plenty to coat a 6-pack of chicken thighs. My favorite method is to dump the breading item in a plastic bag, and do a sort of home-made Shake n Bake setup.
The results were wonderful--the pea bits did NOT turn to buckshot, but actually softened up a bit from the juices of the chicken (about 40 minutes at around 350 degrees F, uncovered). Note that the original fancy recipe called for pulverizing the peas in a blender, but I didn't want to get another appliance dirty, and the results were just fine.
I will repeat the experiment with fried fish and oven-baked fillets as well.
So, has anyone else here been inspired by a too-fancy recipe or restaurant idea, and been able to sucessfully downscale it for a Real Life Recipe? Tell us, and help continue the tradition of Random Food Posts on Gilly's Blog.
Oh yeah, and Gil, I have the empties from your two spice rubs cleaned and dried here--they're ready for a refill anytime. *grin*
So, is this a legit item for a guy to carry, or a man-purse? Okay, this is something that I've been meaning to post for a while, but this is the first night where I'm not totally coughing my head off (I take that back, I AM coughing, but not as bad as yesterday) and/or managing fallout from the Wisdom Tooth Adventure (pix soon, I promise...). Anyway...
I almost always carry some sort of messenger bag rather than a purse, unless I'm going out clubbing to a place with NO coat check or doing something All Dressed Up Fancy. Between work, reading material, and gym stuff, it just makes more sense than being one of those women on the subway who is always juggling a purse, a separate tote for the gym, and a third bag for Incidental Other Stuff (one urban critic referred to those people as "Yuppie Bag Ladies" but I digress). For the past 3 years or so this has meant a custom-panel Timbuk2 bag similar to the one pictured above. Before that, it was a big-bellied LLBean behemoth.
However, I returned from Berlin with two very funky new bags to rotate in--for the curious, one with swappable top flaps and another one with funky fruit graphics on it.
So, I started to rotate these in to my routine when I got back to the office, much to the oohs and aahs of my more design-savvy co-workers. One slightly older guy, J., is always appreciative of all kinds of urban artsy stuff--his wife works for a major design house, and his office is full of fun and interesting chotchkies and pictures of the two of them wearing much cooler clothes in much cooler-than-office environs. He complimented me on both of my bags as I brought them in, expounded on their nice design, etc...when I noticed that he usually used an old-fashioned hard-sided briefcase.
So, I said, J., why don't you use one of the great bags from your wife's company, or something like one of mine? I went on to say that half the guys at the office have Timbuk2's, etc., and how much easier they are to carry, etc.
"No way, Jen, I refuse to carry a murse."
A what?
"A MAN-PURSE." That's what those are; they're purses for guys. I want to carry a purse, I'll take one out of my wife's side of the closet. I mean, your bags look really cool and all on YOU, but I really want to laugh when I see a guy in a suit with an oversized evening bag across his back. No murse for me!"
Now, I work in a pretty laced-up place, but neoprene messenger bags are a part of the corporate culture pretty much everywhere in Midtown, and everyone from day laborers to CEO's carry Timbuk2s on the N train.
So, dear readers, what do YOU say? Necessary urban storage tool for guys or a misplaced case of womb/containment envy? Tell us whatcha think!
