GBU... Good Bad and the Ugly... La Vista and my Stir-fry

No recipes in this blog, just some food experiences.

Angela and I went to La Vista, http://www.fatbutter.com/ on Memorial right by Town and Country Wednesday. Before going, I was expecting a great view, maybe of the nice trees of the memorial area, but it got its name from a joke about the first location, off Fountain View. Located in a strip center with no view of anything, the waiter said it was named the asphalt lounge because of the lack of scenery.

The menu is pretty good, some creative entrees with creative items, pizza, sandwiches and salads. Their pasta dishes seem pretty standard. I had the coffee cinnamon cumin crusted pork tenderloin and Angela had the shrimp and grits. Both were pretty great! The bread with the meal is really good and you can bring your own wine for a $5 bottle corking fee. They do have outside seating which I think would be great once Houston gets into its 2 month pleasant weather period. One thing about this location is the crowd, its definitely more a memorial older crowd. There was one younger couple in there, but when we left just after 8, we were easily 10 years younger than any other customer in there. If that doesn't bother you and you live in the memorial area and want some good food to eat out with your $7 bottle of wine, definitely give this place a try.

Here goes the bad and ugly, I managed to capture both with a stir-fry dish. I bought a couple different veggies from the Asians grocery store and wanted to do a stir-fry for a healthy meal. The week got busy and I threw together dish last night. There was 5 veggies, small bok choy, carrots, yellow pepper, and sugar snap peas. I didn't feel like making a sauce so I tried to use a Paul Newman's Teriaki marinade. I basically cooked the veggies stir-fry style and then added the sauce. At the end, I didn't like the flavor, not sweet enough for a teriaki and I overcooked the veggies.

One thing about stir fry and cooking veggies in general, don't over cook them. They can go from fresh looking and tasting to discolored and mushy really quick.

I also tried to make baked sweet potato fries this week, which have elluded me since first discovering their fatting cousin from the south, the sweet potato fry deep fried. I went more with a steak fry cut this time and the flavor was good, but still not getting the crispness I'm wanting on the outside. My sweet potato fries have only know 2 stages in the past, mushy or burnt.

I told you I'd bring you experiences about food, even if they aren't great so there you go all 6 readers. I took the day off so I'm off to the next item on my agenda...

Solo...Heirloom Tomatoes

Let's talk about those funny looking tomatoes you see at the grocery store that are 2-3X more expensive than the standard romas, $4-6/lb. I saw these tomatoes for quite a while and the financial food side of my brain said, "these must be the Ferrari of the tomato world" but I was curious what they tasted like. The compassion side of me thought about how the other tomatoes must make fun of them for having random bumps and ridges and a mixture colors. I'm a big fan of Tyler Florence's cooking and he talked about these tomatoes in one of his shows so I finally gave them a try.

I did a little research and there's not much of a standard to qualify tomatoes as heirloom tomatoes. However, in general, they're a variety of tomatoes that have been around for a long time, such as 50 years or more. In the "good ol' days", they would have been passed down through families. Apparently, there's hundreds of different types, with funny names like Green Zebra and Mortgage Lifter tomatoes.

I'm sure there's some great recipes out there for these but I haven't looked for them. I think I've only had these one way, sliced up, on a plate with salt and pepper and a little olive oil. Its simple, quick, can be used as a side, an appetizer or a "while you cook" starter. Another "while you cook" starter is a beer or glass of wine. I'll usually slice them about 1/4" thick so you have something to stick a fork in. If you have some fresh herbs, like basil, dill, oregano or thyme, add a little on top. They have different flavors depending on the type.

Next time you're at the store, pick up a couple of these, just get a couple small tomatoes if you don't want to make the commitment. In the first batch I ever bought, one looked like a little round watermelon and the other one was a blended yellow and red color. Heirloom tomatoes might be the outcast of the tomato world, but they are beautiful in God's eyes and I love them.

Quickie... Post-run peanutella pita

So you've just ran 6 miles at memorial park, you come home hungry and you need to get ready for the next item on Saturday's agenda. Let's face it people, you don't always have time for a full stack of Buffalo Grille wheat pancakes filled with ___(madlid: fruit) after your run even though I wish I did. So what do you do to recover from the run and curve off hunger until dinner? I turn to the good old standby, the peanutella pita.

I can never eat a whole pack 6-8 pack of pita when I get a hummus craving for a day or two. I'll throw the left overs in the freezer for a later day. Just need to thaw it out for 20 seconds in the mi-cro-wave. A good zip lock and sucking the air out will help them stay in better shape in the freezer.

Ingredients:
1 6,8 or 10" whole wheat pita
2 tbsp nutella
2 tbsp natural peanut butter (I have skippy natural creamy but use what you like)

1-2 servings depending on the size of the pita

Spread half on the pita with nutella, the other half with peanut butter and stick together. Fold again if you like for easier handling while you head to the shower.

Here's the damage. I've taken note that this hits the post-workout 4 to 1 carb to protein ratio recommended by a trainer at the gym, most effectively absorbed if eaten with 45 minutes of your hard workout. Calories: 530, Total fat: 28g, 7g sat fat, Carbs: 61g, Sugar: 25g, Fiber: 9g, Protein: 15g.

Next Saturday, tie on your Asics, hit the trails and refuel with the peanutella pita.

Quickie... Pasta and Cream Sauce

Mind of out the gutter and you know who you are. Here's a quick late night snack I put together with a few leftovers recently. I made this for 1 so live it up single people. I didn't measure any of it so I'm guessing about how much of each ingredient I put in.

Ingredients:
1 serving of angel hair pasta
2 tsp butter
3 tbl green onion, sliced thin, white end
< 1/4 c heavy cream
2 tbl grated Parmesan
salt and pepper

Make the pasta to directions. I made homemade angel hair a day prior so it took 2-3 minutes to cook. Drain and set in bowl.

Heat pan to med-high, add butter, throw in onions, mix around and keep an eye on them for maybe a minute. If butter starts to turn brown, pour in cream. Oh, for this, you can't substitute milk. Based on experience, only heavy cream will hold up to the heat. Add salt and pepper, let mixture get hot for maybe a minute. Pour in parm and stir. Take off heat and pour on top of pasta. Top with a little more pepper if that's the sort of thing you like to do.

Here's what this quickie will cost you in nutrition. I've estimated amount of cream and the nutritional value for the amount of pasta I made. Calories: 503, Total fat: 36g, 23g sat fat, Carbs: 25g, Sugar: 1g, Fiber: 1g, Protein: 12g. What's the point... this quickie might be good and fast, it'll cost you in the long run.

Sorry for the sloppy looking plate, I'll try much harder next time Mom.

Master of My Own Plantain

Every once and a while, I'll have something out and want to make it at home. Okay, maybe this happens more than every once and a while. After having soft sweet cooked plantains at El Rey, my challenge was set.

Plantains are like lots of guys, early on, we are colorful, firm with a hard outer peel. As we and plantains get older, we tone down, turn softer, but we get sweeter. I learned after research, that plantains have different stages as they ripen and you use them in different ways. You'd use a green or yellow plantain to slice thin and fry up to serve in place of tortilla chips with salsa or chimichuri. Or you'd have dark plantains to fry to have as a side item or maybe dessert.

There are some things that when I try to re-create, they really challenge me, plantains became my nemesis. My first attempt was covered with oil and grilled which was not good. Months later, I tried frying them 2 times in the same week and both were horrible. I didn't know then that my yellow plantains, cut into chunks and shallow fried in butter or oil where still too starchy for what I was trying to achieve. I bought the darkest HEB had and tried again with just oil and it was much better.

For this recipe, you need dark plantains, completely brown or even black. I've found that HEB doesn't have them normally but have found them at 99 Ranch Market (asian market) and heard they have them at Fiesta. You can buy them ahead of time and let them darken but it seemed like that takes plantains for eeeevvvvveeeerrrr.

Oh, I don't like deep frying, its too much mess and too much fat, but I tried other ways and its simple no bueno.

Ingredients:

1 ripe (brown/black) plantain

canola oil

Put enough oil in pan to come up half the side of the height of the plantain. Heat on med to medium-high, about 300 degree. If this is too high, I found myself burning them, but my attention might have been on cooking something else at the same time.

Peel plantain and cut plantain in half length-wise and once width wise. You can make these in chunks like triangles (called on the bias) if you want to. I think the chunks is more traditional from what I've seen online.

Place in oil, move just slightly after setting in oil. Don't move them around too much. My co-workers from Tobago verified that they'll just break apart if you move them too much. Brown on first side and then flip. Brown on other side. Remove from oil and place on paper towel. Sprinkle with salt and/or sugar. I tried with honey, guava nectar and nutella on top, I think guava was pretty good of those, but I still heart nutella.

Here's the bad news, estimating the amount of oil soaked in the plantain is 1/8 cup which is probably on the high side, Calories: 400, Total fat: 20g, 1.4g sat fat, Carbs: 62g, Sugar: 28g, Fiber: 5g, Protein: 2g.

Line up your weekday chicks on Sunday

This isn't a strategy on dating (at least not for me), it's about planning to start off the week with chicken ready to use. However, this cooking technique is easy and consistant even if you're just cooking for one meal. The technique is a pan roast because you start cooking in a pan, then finish cooking in the oven (roasting). What this does is sears the outside of the meat to lock in the juice, then finishes cooking the middle. This technique can be used on pork and beef as well.

I'll do this on Sunday night with 3-5 chicken breast which I probably found on sale at HEB. This loads up my refridgerator with lean protein for at least the next couple days lunch and dinner. I've found that the chicken heats up well again and doesn't dry out too much in the reheating.

Ingredients:
- Boneless chicken breast (how ever many you can put in the pan or need to cook), usually 3 breast for a little over a pound
- seasoning you want to use, enough to coat the chicken
- 1-3 tbl EV (extra virgin olive oil)

You can start off with the chicken breast seasoned different ways. Make sure they get some seasoning on them, both sides please. If you're going to use the chicken for different types of food, a more basic flavor might be better. Here's a couple different ways to season:
- An off the shelf season salt, mixed blend, Tony C's, or Head Country rub
- If you want it pretty plain, go with salt and pepper
- Equal parts low sodium soy and orange juice
- Few tbls of fresh herbs(basil, thyme, or rosemary) with salt, pepper and about 1-2 tbls EV. (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)
- Half a lemon juiced, 1-2 cloves of smashed garlic, 1-2 tbls EV, salt and pepper.

Let the seasoning chill with chicks for maybe 20-30 minutes in the refridge, I wouldn't go more than an hour or two, especially if there's an acid involved like lemon juice.

Heat the oven to 350 degree F. If you don't have a pan that can go from the stove to the oven, put a oven proof dish in the oven.

Heat pan on the stove on med-high and pour enough EV to coat the bottom of the pan. A "coat" means enough to have some on the entire bottom but not so much it sloshes around. You'll need a big enough pan for the chicken to make contact with the bottom without too much crowding. My 10" pan can handle 3 chicken breast, 12" holds 4-5. A pan with at least medium thickness would be better than a thin bottomed pan. What can I say, I like pans with a little junk in their trunk to get this crunk.

When the oil just starts to smoke, take the chicken and slowly set into the pan moving it on the bottom of the pan just a little after putting down. If you have a wet marinade, let the excess drip off before putting the pan unless you enjoy that popping feeling on your arms. Let chicken cook for 3-5 minutes, until brown. Then flip to the other side and cook for 2-5 minutes until browned. Congrats, the pan part is done.

If your pan can go into the oven, move it to the middle rack. Otherwise, move the chicken into the oven proof dish. Leave in the oven for 12 minutes. Pull out of the oven. Remember, the handle is now hot unlike when it's used on the stove. I'm speaking from experience here. Congrats, the roast part is done.

I'll usually eat one for dinner the night I cook and use the rest for lunches or dinners towards the start of a week for a healthy start. Chop up the chicken and throw it on top of romaine with tomatoes and whatever else you like on salad. Eat it by itself with some steam rice. Dice it up, throw it into a pan on medium heat with some bbq sauce and serve on a hamburger bun. Or you can slice it up, heat it with some sauteed sliced onions and peppers and serve on a whole wheat pita or tortilla.

This same recipe can be used for a dinner with friends or maybe just one very special friend. I don't have pan sauces mastered but I've used the pan flavors left from the chicken to make a sauce to serve with the chicken. Add some steamed or sauteed veggies and steamed rice or baked sweet potato to complete the meal. You'll have guest happy and feeling healthy.

Stay tuned for my next post on Asian pastry roulette.