Patrick's Food Ramblings

I let my piima culture die over the winter, which made me sad. I have remedied the situation however, and now have not only a new healthy piima culture but some fil mjolk as well. I haven't tasted the fil mjolk yet, but it sets up very nicely at room temperature, and has a much sharper "buttermilky" smell than the piima. Both are room temperature "yogurt" cultures that come...

Yesterday I was reading an article on the NY Times about Hanukkah recipes, and decided to whip up some latkes for dinner, since even picky eater girl loves a good latke. I grated a couple of sweet potatoes, salt, pepper and cinnamon (Vietnamese cassia) and mixed with 3 eggs and maybe 1/2 cup of cottage cheese. They fried up beautifully on the cast iron griddle, and were a big hit...

I love leftovers. There are an infinite range of possibilities for reusing stuff. I surveyed the fridge last night, and decided to kill two leftover birds with one stone. I took the last of the kahlua pork and some leftover greens cooked in coconut milk and used them to stuff enchiladas. I drained the greens, and filled each enchilada with some pork and greens, rolled them up,...

I had some leftover kahlua pork, so decided to try some kahlua pig and cabbage, which is basically just that. Leftover pork with cabbage and onions in a little chicken broth. Very easy, a great way to stretch leftovers, and just the thing to go with kimchi. I had some from the store that was getting a little old, and yesterday I made up two big batches of napa kimchi with some...

...unless you happen to be veggie, of cource. :) Vikki has declared a Tiki Christmas this year, so I decided to start practicing for Christmas dinner and made my first batch of kahlua pork last night. It worked out super well. A while back I got gifted this "indoor BBQ" which is basically a big-ass crock pot designed to hold ribs. That seemed like the perfect vehicle for...

Last weekend I made some Viking-style snacks for another SCA vigil, and tried some new stuff this time. I made a big batch of skyr, and needed to make use of it, so I mixed some skyr with honey, then added some little dried prunes and hazelnuts fried in butter. This worked out really nicely, and includes ingredients common in the archeological record. It was quite...

I just got a copy of the recently released Sippin' Safari: In Search of the Great "Lost" Tropical Drink Recipes... and the People Behind Them and it's proving to be quite an excellent book. Jeff "Beachbum" Berry has authored three previous books on Tiki...