Sum Cookin'
"If the wine had been as old as the turkey,
and the turkey had been as young and fresh as the wine,
and the turkey's breasts had been as nice as the waitress'...
the meal would have been WONDERFUL."
-Duncan Hines,
Food critic and namesake of the cake mix
Hey, Chefs!
I don't really want to do this alone. If anyone wants to contribute a recipe, do so. It doesn't even have to be original. If it's a long standing and proven favorite, we will consider putting it out for all to try.
Maybe you know of something exotic, like baked roaches....they ARE a delicacy SOMEwhere in the world. Honestly, I don't CARE where on this earth they are enjoyed. I ain't gonna eat 'em.
The organization of this page has no plan, so far. As a matter of fact, if anyone wants to step forward with efforts toward any aspect of all this, feel free to. Otherwise, I'll just put up ideas as they hit the desk, right down the page. Just like with Sumshee's on Preston St., many cooks CAN make an interesting soup.
So, let's get some oil on our hands and flour under our nails.....
HOME-MADE BREAD
I’ve been making bread lately, folks. It’s pretty easy.
Ya have to follow some basic rules but from there, you have a lot of latitude to experiment.
I look at it this way:
You have some dry ingredients and some wet ingredients...mix ‘em together and start playing in the mud.
I will do it in a soup pot but you can start out directly on the counter, too...just dump the stuff out and start mixing.
Wash your hands real well. Take about six cups of basic white, unbleached flour and for that amount of flour, add two level tablespoons (maybe a little more) of dry active yeast. I say maybe a little more, ‘cause you MIGHT end up adding enough flour in the process to merit a little more yeast, proportionately. You’ll understand in a bit.
Throw in about a tablespoon of salt and a tablespoon of sugar. The sugar gives a little something for the yeast to feed on...helping it rise. The salt DOES affect the chemical reaction but it’s more important for flavor. Ya don’t want bland bread.
Mix all those dry ingredients well. That’s why I like the soup pot. It keeps the flour from getting all over the place. A whisk is nice for mixing the dry stuff.
The very first time I made bread, I experimented and it came out great. I figured that if ya need some wet stuff, why stay with water or water and milk....get some flavors into it. I took a can of cream of mushroom soup, thinned it with a coke-size can of V-8 juice, heated it to 120-130 degrees (no more), got it mixed real well and dumped it into the pot. This is where the playing in the mud comes in.
(BEFORE YOU START THIS, HAVE A MEASURING CUP, HANDLE UP, IN THE BAG OF FLOUR)
Dig in and start mixing it ‘round, getting all the dry stuff off the bottom and sides and corners, too.
The mixture is gonna probably be kinda wet and sticky with the proportions you have. (If not, add some water) If it’s still wet and/or sticky, grab some more flour and start dumping it, maybe1/2 cup at a time, into the mix, still mooshing. Go ahead and let it moosh between your fingers...make a mess...it’s fun. You’ll think that it’ll never come off your hands, but the magic starts soon. As soon as it’s no longer runny or real wet....just sticky as hell, get as much as you can out of the pan, right onto the counter...a big messy lump.
Throw some flour in the pan , get it on your hands, start rubbing it around and the flour sucks up the moisture and
you can just let it roll into dry-ish balls, sort of like rubber cement....how it can just roll off of a surface, your hands, etc. Drag all that stuff out into the mess on the counter.
Keep adding a dusting of flour, a little at a time. Throw a little around on the counter, rub your hands in it, rub your hands together....get the dough off your hands that way. It just kinda “picks up” all that sticky shit off your hands, the counter....cleans everything up.
As needed, throw more flour onto the counter to get the ball of dough to a consistency where it isn’t sticky.
Knead it for 5-10 minutes by pushing it away from you with the heels of your hands, fold it from the back, toward you, onto itself and keep that up, turning it regularly so as to get all portions kneaded sufficiently.
Cut the dough into four parts, reshape into balls, dust lightly with flour, set on a baking sheet, cover with a clean towel, place in some sort of warm place and let it rise about 35-45 minutes. (You should be heating the oven by now, so set it on top of the stove) The loaves should approximately double in size.
Toss the risen loaves onto the counter and knead them a little bit. This reduces the size again, getting some of the gas bubbles from the yeast out but it’ll rise again in baking.
If you want to put the loaves into baking pans, you can, but I like to just re-shape into elongated and slightly flattened balls and bake them “free-range”. If you use pans, the pans should be only about 1/2 full...they are gonna expand again. You can shape them any way you like... maybe long skinny loaves like french bread. The thicker the mass, the longer it needs to bake, overall.
Bake for thirty minutes and slide one of the sheets out, turn one loaf over and look at the bottom. When it starts to darken, it’s about done. (That’s one of the reasons I like baking on sheets. In a baking PAN, it’s sometimes harder to check for doneness) Another sign of done-ness is to thump the bottom and if it sounds hollow, it’s probably done.
Don’t keep them out too long to check on them. If they AREN’T done, you need to get them back in to finish.
Experiment with spices, herbs...other flavors you already might have around....garlic powder, Italian Seasoning, paprika....chili powder. Why not? Where d’ rules.
I usually throw the seasons in the liquid to really mix it homogenously. You might even try heating Velveeta in a double boiler with enough milk and water to thin it out a LOT...enough to be the wet ingrdient that you use in the flour. Just make sure that you cool it down to 120-130 degrees before mixing with the flour/yeast mix. Otherwise, you might kill the yeast.
You can use, as some of your flour, some whole wheat or other type of flour, too... maybe 1/4 of the mixture. Those types of flour don’t have as much gluten which is the “gooey-er” aspect of flour. It helps keep the bubbles from the yeast from escaping, making stretchy little pockets that trap the bubbles.
Once you get the simplicity of all this into your experience, you just might be making bread a couple times a week.
God!, it’s good.
Clove Chicken and Rice
This is really easy. Even Britney could do it.
Cook the desired amount of rice for whatever size baking dish you're gonna use. You wanna have enough to provide a nice 1-1/12" bed in the pan, onto which you're gonna lay out the chicken.
(With rice, the rule of thumb is two parts water for one part rice and bring to a boil, then simmer till all the water is absorbed.)
Throw some lemon pepper and Italian seasoning in the water. Don't be a freakin' woosie, dump some in. Get some flavor goin'. Experiment! If ya fuk up, you will have learned something for the next time...right? In other words, season to taste. (That's a good cop-out way to say it)
I suggest a big cast iron skillet....a nice BIG one.
If you don't have cast iron in your kitchen, get some in there. Otherwise, you're just going through motions as a "cook". Screw glass casserole dishes. They are for looks. They're bull. Go iron...be a winner.
We're almost done, actually...Not much more....FOCUS, COURTNEY...FOCUS.....lay out whatever kind of chicken you like to use.
Personally, I get a big tray of skinless, boneless thighs at Sam's...really convenient. (Summie always DID like that dark meat)
Whatever!
Lay that chicken out on the bed and soon it will be hot, hot, hot.
Sprinkle a generous amount of finely ground cloves and some paprika over the the whole arena.
Don't TOTALLY cover the dish so much that you can't see the sub-structure but get some on there.
Snugly cover with foil and bake at 325 -350 for an hour to 90 minutes.
Holy shit, it tastes good!!!
Ya'all come back now....Y'hear?
How About Sum Cookies?
Cookies are SO easy to make and with the basic proportions of the ingredients in mind, you have a LOT of lattitude to elaborate and vary the outcome.
I use Bisquick. The basic recipe is:
1/2 cup butter (I melt it first)...1 cup of brown sugar...1 egg...2 cups of Bisquick...1/2 cup of chopped nuts...and 1 6oz. pack of chocolate chips.
And those will be good.
But you might want to try some variations...again, with the basics in mind.
If you are out of chocolate chips, squirt in some chocolate syrup. Or if they don't HAVE to be chocolatey, dump in some preserves...or butterscotch syrup...whatever: different flavor, but good.
Butter is great but I was short of it once and substituted another oily-based ingredient: mayonaisse! The "grease" was in but it worked and gave the cookies an interestingly different flavor.
If you don't have any nuts, (no laughs, please) break up some small pretzels. Now THAT was a neat change...a little salty with the sweet. And I threw in some Grape Nuts cereal....lotsa little crunchies!
I even tried carrots once. DON'T LAUGH! Have you never heard of carrot cake?
How about apples or pears.
My dad once made a comment when he found out that I had put a big can of cashews in a big pot of my famous soup: "WHO ever heard of putting CASHEWS in soup?!", he said.
Why do you have to have HEARD of something for it to be good?
The "sugar" content seems to control how well the cookies hold together. The less you have, the more they break apart. That can be nice, if you want a more delicate product but they CAN be harder to handle.
Instead of trying to mix in a bowl with a big spoon and all, I just clean a good-sized area of a counter and, literally dump the parts in the middle and start playing in the mud: just squishing it through the fingers to mix it up. Once it becomes homogenous, if it's too sticky-to-the-fingers...too wet...add some more Bisquick, maybe a 1/2 cup at a time and re-mix. It's about right when, as you roll and smear and knead it, the dough kinda starts "picking" itself off your fingers and the counter and staying in a big lump. It'll get to the point where you can roll it back and forth, forming a "log". The counter and your hands will still be greasy but big deal.
Lay our teaspoon to tablespoon sized chunks on a baking sheet and cook for about 7-9 minutes at 350 degrees.
Blasts From The Past
I'm not sure exactly WHEN this was first published...I'm thinking the thirties or forties.
============================
QUICK AND SNARFY CHILI
Ingredients:
1 pound ground turkey breast or very lean ground beef,
1 large sweet onion,
1/2 red pepper,
1/2 yellow pepper,
1/2 green pepper,
4 peeled and sliced garlic cloves,
4 cans of chili hot beans,
2 cans of diced tomatoes with peeled tomatoes in chili juice (2 cans of diced tomatoes
with green chili peppers will also do),
3/4 tablespoon of stevia (or 2 tbsp.sugar),
1/2 cup of beer,
3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil.
1)Sautee peppers, onion, and garlic on medium heat in a skillet lined
with 1/4 cup of the olive oil, until they're translucent.
2)Combine the chili beans and tomatoes, stevia, and beer in a kettle or
large sauce pan, then add the sautéed onion, peppers, and garlic.
3)Add the remaining 1/2 cup of olive oil to the skillet and brown
throughout that self-same ground meat.
4)Stir well and cook on medium heat for at least 15 minutes, then snarf
the chili gustily, in combination with your favorite crackers and a bottle
or ten of your favorite beer.
5)Should you possess a modicum of self-discipline or ate a bucket of KY
Fried less than an hour previously, the chili will taste even better if you
simmer it for an hour or so, that the flavors of the ingredients may marry.
But then it becomes Not-So-Quick-But-Even-Snarfier Chili
==========================
Think about THIS regarding salt in your diet!!!
Over the years, since the first “medical/scientific” reports started coming out about how “bad” salt is for us, used in overabundance, everybody got on the bandwagon to reduce salt.
OK, that’s all fine and well, but there is a negative side to how this has panned out in practice. As with so much in society, things tend to be taken to extremes...often without a lot of intelligent thought.
Restaurants AND individuals in the home thought, “OH, if too much salt is bad...then let’s just cut out ALL salt and let everybody salt their food to their own taste right there at the table!”.
Good idea, right?
Not necessarily.
Think about it. Salt is one of those additives which “awakens” other flavors... as well one which CAN be overpowering...making something TASTE salty. Unless you WANT something to TASTE salty, use it sparingly and the other flavors come alive, preventing a bland eating experience. Cool!
But IF we allow salting-at-the-table to be the norm, there can easily be a back-fire!
OK! You are at the table...at home or in a restaurant. Your food, usually hot, has been set before you. Why? Because you are about to eat.
Why? Because you’re hungry.
You taste the food and feel that it needs a little salt.
Do you really want to play out this following scenario?: add some salt...mix it well...wait...taste it...if it’s not enough, do that again?
No, you don’t.
You’re hungry and ready for food NOW.
So, you throw some salt on it and if you taste a little of that need-for-salt-relief, you eat it.
Now, think some more. To dig in right away, you are tasting the saltiness that is “available” to you.
By that, I mean that salt is a bunch of little rocks that dissolve to give up their taste. If you don’t let them dissolve ALL THE WAY, you don’t have the full magnitude of how salty the dish will be. Dissolving completely takes time, albeit not a LONG time, but usually longer than most of us want to wait when we sit down to chow. You are tasting the saltiness of the “outside” of that little rock as it is STARTING to dissolve, not the full impact of the saltiness... i.e. the salt CONTENT...of what you just sprinkled on your food.
You eat, think it tastes fine (which it does), satisfy your hunger WHEN you are hungry (the main idea of eating), WHILE it is fresh and hot... and you go on with you day.
AFTER you have swallowed the food, you are USUALLY ingesting more salt than you tasted, because a lot of that salt sprinkled onto your food, never hit your taste buds. You never knew what hit you. Very often, it is in your belly before it has given up it’s entire saltiness.
So, very often, in trying to reduce our salt intake, we end up consuming MORE salt than if the salt had been added prudently during the cooking process.
If you have any concern about this situation, you might want to try one or more of the following remedies.
One is soy sauce. The salt in soy sauce is in solution...it’s already dissolved. In that case, all of the saltiness is out on the table...so to speak. Douse a little on and a quick mix reveals the flavor.
Some folks don’t like the soy taste. There might be some other salty “sauces” on the market. Honestly, none come to mind right now. But you can make up your own solution: some salt in an old “shaker” bottle. Keep it around as with a regular salt shaker.
Just a few helpful thoughts...
-Sumshee
THIS PAGE IS ALWAYS COOKING, SIMMERING AND BEING BASTED. CHECK IN REGULARLY TO SEE WHAT'S TASTY.
All material in this website (aside from the material which is obviously NOT mine)
is
Copyright © by Sumshee Kirken