Omelet - garlic, ham and tomatoes

Do you remember the tale of the Thanksgiving Ham?!

Well, I was not lying when I said we would be eating it for the next while - and don't forget that half of it was put in the freezer for Christmas.

Tonight I made a ham omelet!

I don't know if this is correct or not, but I like to cook some of my ingredients on their own prior to adding to the omelet. Mmmm, garlic, cherry tomatoes and the ubiquitous ham!

Et voila!

Home made Pork and Cheddar Quesadilla

Today I had a craving for quesadillas.  Reason being is that I went to my bank to lodge (or deposit as my American compadres say!) a cheque (check!) and it is directly across from Bad Boy Burritos.  Bad Boy Burritos is pretty popular here in Key West and I really don't know why.  As far as I can tell they should drop the Boy and just call themselves Bad Burritos.  Aside from their Quesadillas!!!  OMG their duck quesadillas are divine. 

So I was craving a duck and cheese quesadilla.  But I also didn't want to spend any money on food. Lol.  I sound stingy (or cheap as the Americans say).  No seriously, there is a ton of food in my fridge at the moment, it would be a sin to eat out.

So I went home and pulled out some pork from the back of the freezer and stuck it on a pan - low and slow to keep it soft and moist.

Mmmm!

I then placed a tortilla on a large pan.  Sprinkled the tortilla with shredded STRONG cheddar cheese. And then the pork.  Topped with another tortilla, I flipped it over in the pan.

I don't actually know if this is how you make a quesadilla but look it worked for me today!

Yum

Yum

Yummmmmm

Barbecue Tales part 8 Surf n Turf

We're eating these steaks (and shrimp) quite a lot.  I am not sure what they are even called...they come in packs of 6 and are thin little guys - good everyday strip steaks I guess.  They are so thin, in fact they take literally 3 minutes to cook.  One could argue the little shrimp take almost longer than them!
But like I said, a good everyday steak. With the remnants of wine left over from the weekend and some broccoli, onions and tomatoes grilled in a little foil parcel, a lovely dinner they make!

Barbecue tales Part 4 - Sausages

Today started well and ended well.  That is all.  I could literally lock up shop and sign this blog off now, but I do have some photos so I guess I will share these with you and some more information too.

Today was a celebration of some good news and I was treated to a fabulous brunch in the old Westin hotel, now a Margaritaville resort. Amazing seafood as pictured.  Not pictured are the bottomless mimosas, prime rib, french toast and bacon, lobster pasta, skirt steak, sushi, freshly baked pastries, smoked salmon, poached salmon, tuna steak, tuna tartar, meat charcuterie, cheese and more.  And the desserts! The desserts!

The good news was that I have a job! I am working in a cute (and  very beautiful) boutique hotel here in Key West.  I am working with a lovely group of people, and every day am meeting nice happy people who are on their holidays travelling down South from all over the USA.  So that's very exciting!


After the lovely brunch - which by the way we relaxed over for hours - we went for a nice stroll around the harbor/historic seaport of Key West. And then cycled back via Duval Street.  Duval was buzzing!  A really nice atmosphere, everyone just having the craic and enjoying the sunshine while having a few drinks.  On the subject of having a few drinks, that is pretty much what I did for the remainder of the afternoon, relaxed in the tiki hut with a little vodka cocktail.  Oh.  I did one other thing. There may or may not have been a bit of snoozing on the daybed going on *embarrassed face*

So after a fancy brunch of a LOT of food I really didn't need much for the rest of the day.

We made sausages on the barbecue.  Nice big flavourful Wisconsin pork sausages!  Here it is pictured on a Hawaiian bread roll with mustard, tomato and barbecued red peppers. I ate mine plain, no bread, with (French/grain) mustard and bbq sauce.

Last photo of a super day! Here is me at the barbecue (Look Ma, I'm cooking!!!).

I posted this on facebook and Instagram with the caption "And later tonight I shall be teaching my aerobics class down at the Y"
Bahahahahahhaaaa.  Yes I'm silly. I just think my outfit looks so 1980's lol!  Feck it, if you can't have a little laugh at yourself sure what is the point of it at all?
#LifeisShort

Barbecue Tales Part 3 - Chicken

Firstly, apparently I spell barbecue wrong.  Thanks for that point out reader!

Reader. I have a reader! Woohoo! *Waves to reader*

Secondly, the culinary adventures continue.  Tonight on the menu was plain old chicken which turned out to be anything but.  In fact, it turned out AWESOME! Interested? Read on my friends, read on!

Here are of some of the essential requirements for Amy's Awesome Chicken:

1. Red wine...rioja...I was never much of a rioja drinker in Ireland, preferring an (even more) full bodied grape such as Malbec, Syrah or if I was feeling wild a South African Petit Verdoh..
2. Green salsa brava hot sauce purchased from the local Mexican shop for $1.39
3. A red pepper chilli from same Mexican shop - 29c
4. Pam oil for the barbeCUE. Yeah it's cheap, and a little bit nasty, God knows what is in it but it gets the job done
5. Only the best "BBQ" sauce in the whole world.  Not too sweet and nicely tangy - dare I say it, even with undertones of HP brown sauce at times - this sauce is incredible.  Keep an eye out for you on your next supermarket visit; Stubbs Original Legendary Bar-B-Q sauce.
5. Frontera (red) salsa sauce

That's a nice little bit of heat there as you can see.  Eating and enjoying food with a sizzle in it is a skill of mine I picked up in the Navy.  Ok I think you know I wasn't in the Navy.  That's something I just like to say for fun.  Hmmm, probably sounds better when spoken.  Moving on.

It's true though.  I love hot food.  It's a taste I started developing way back when my friend was going out with a fella who owned a couple of Indian restaurants around town.  We were aged 20 and penniless and ate there a lot. Some days we used to eat the staff curry which was blow your eyeballs out hot #goodtimeswithTara&Amy
A couple of years later I visited India, and ever since then, as cliched as it sounds, the hotter the better for me.

I like to assemble all my cooking ingredients and utensils on the bar for the cooking.  Yes I have a home bar. Yes it's outdoors.  Yes I am not using it for the purpose intended.  I know, I know, old Amy who used loved nothing better than hopping behind a bar and whipping up a cocktail (crafting, I believe they say these days) or pouring a pint, is probably turning over in her grave back in Ireland.  But such is life, time moves on and ones interests change.  No doubt some day this bar will be used for entertaining, but for the moment it is a food prep area. I posted this photo to show you where the barbecue is set up in context to the bar, and I think you might agree it's pretty perfect.

Side note. If you would like to try out my recipe for my very popular at parties caiproska cocktail click here.

3 nice flat (more on that below) chicken fillets, broccoli left over from yesterday's dinner (Chinese), and tomatoes. 

I noted above that these fillets are nice and thin.  Different to the fat plump ones in Ireland.  

These are perfect for the purpose of barbecuing.

I whizzed the broccoli around in a small bit of olive oil and garlic.

When buying the barbeque, we had hummed and hawed over a couple of different models.  The fact that this one has a side burner for cooking in a pan or pot was one of the deciding reasons that we went with this one.

That's lovely strong sharp cheddar melting on the chicken! Mmmm

Doesn't the charring on the chicken look nice?

Someone was a little more sophisticated than I and  hadtheir chicken on a Hawaiian bread roll (lightly toasted on the barbecue) with some guacamole, tomatoes and bbq sauce. Along with the side of garlic broccoli.

Chicken a la Amy

Whereas I just went lunatic and dumped every since sauce known to man (or to our kitchen cupboard at least) all over my chicken.  Yes, I ate that chilli too.  Did I mention I like spicy food?

Keto buffalo chicken

I made KETO buffalo chicken and it could not have been easier!!!



And it could not have tasted nicer!  End result pictured above.

Ok so this is how I did it!

Just 4 simple ingredients.  5 if you count whatever fat you fry them in

NB! Do not use this type of chilli sauce, it's too high in carb.  Use Frank's hot sauce!

Egg and hot sauce whisked in a bowl.  After I made one test one I doubled the amount of hot sauce - I literally just threw an extra few dollops.  Go with your own taste for these.

NB. Remember - use Frank's hot sauce, not the one in this picture

This is what I fried them in.  But only because I had ran out of my pork lard.  You could also use coconut oil

Dip the chicken in the hot sauce & egg mixture

Into the almond flour

And back into the hot sauce!

This is the very first test (individual) one I made - I didn't want to ruin all the chicken if I didn't like it

How could I not like this??

I quickly moved on to cook all the rest of the chicken

So good!!!

A question for you all out there.

Have you ever made these?  Do you think I need to use the almond flour?? Is it just adding calories?  Or adding valuable fat?

What about if I just fry them in the eggy hot sauce mixture?  Or bake them in the oven in a tray of chicken covered in the chicken and hot sauce liquid??

Thoughts welcome please :)

 

And a final reminder.  Use Frank's hot sauce, not the hot sauce on the pics above - it's too high in carbs.  Frank's is much better.



Hasselback Potatoes

Hasselback potatoes - a success, but could be better.

First I cut them the potatoes into the "hasselback" shape. I need to buy myself a new knife - I did find this difficult to do, plus as you can see there were some casualtys!

I also got obsessed with the fact that some of the recipes I read said I needed to "fan" out the potatoes once cut.  And mine did not "fan" naturally.

As it happened, this did not seem to matter in the end so my advice is don't worry about that step.

Drizzled and rubbed olive oil into the potatoes - based on the end result I think I either needed more olive oil on them initially or should have added some more on half way through...

Good sprinkle of sea salt.

End result!

Definitely they looked good, and they tasted nice as well.  But I think the texture could have been "crispier" on the outside.  I think extra oil might have helped this.  Plus also I want to check in with my mother how she makes her roast potatoes - I may try a higher temperature next time.

Prawns Pil Pil

I adore Prawns Pil Pil so when I saw this recipe in a magazine I was just browsing through in a shop I quickly snapped a pic!

 

The recipe is by Chef Eric Mooney from Asador on Haddington Road.  Asador is very near my work and I pass it on my daily walk at lunch.  I always think there are fabulous smells coming from it.  This recipe and the lovely photo below makes me want to visit there to EAT!

 

This recipe looks very simple to make.

 

 

Final product (don't know why it is on it's side)