Quinoa breakfast, and Friday off

Having been out of town the majority of the week, I promptly spent another evening out of the house watching the Tigers get thumped by the other Tigers (dammit all to hell, anyway) and consequently didn’t get home until midnight. And slept late this morning. And got up to find there is NO FOOD in the house because it’s been inhabited all week by a 19-year-old and more friends than I really want to think about.

But there was quinoa, an impulse buy at Whole Foods because I’d never tried it and figured I should. So I had my initial experience with quinoa this morning. With butter and brown sugar, it makes an interesting breakfast cereeal; of course, most anything is acceptable with butter and  brown sugar.

I’m off to buy a rice cooker today, I think. I had one once, and it passed on to its reward. But it’s a handy thing, and as much rice as I eat, it’d probably be a decent purchase.

And I need to figure out what to cook tonight. It’s mild and sunny out, and I’m feeling the lure of pork or beef on the grill, except I don’t have a grill yet. Is it grill-purchase weekend? I don’t know. Must contemplate that. Am also contemplating going back to the nursery to see if they have potted herbs yet. I want chives and basil and lemongrass and parsley and mint and cilantro and whatever else I can think of.

We may have a Latino theme brewing here. I have mole’ sauce. I have some gorgeous looking pork chops. I could pick up fresh corn to cut off and saute’. I could do a salsa fresca or some black beans or some such.  I could do avocado soup. H’mm. This is sounding potentially good, here.

Or Cuban….garlic, lime and cliantro with a bay leaf to marinate the pork chops. Sear ‘em and make an oniony sauce to finish them with.

Gonna lay out pork chops to thaw and contemplate this. Will check back with y’all this evening. You and y’mama ‘n ‘em have a good Friday.

UPDATE:

Well, it’s pork chops with mole sauce, and spicy fried corn. And I’m eating all by myself because the children, God bless ‘em, forgot they were obligated to go to a barbecue for somebody’s birthday. So I have opened a fairly acceptable Pepperwood merlot, and plan to drink a significant portion of it, eat a pork chop and some fried corn, put the rest of it in the fridge where it will serve as lunch a day or so this week for me and Child C, and then possibly make myself a cheese plate.

Went to Fresh Market, Easy Way and the grocery (Wal-Mart, regrettably, this time, because I needed conditioner and toothpaste and Advil and Carpet Fresh and that kind of stuff, and it’s so much cheaper there). Also picked up a new rice cooker, because my old one bit the dust a while back and I never got around to replacing it. So now it’s replaced.

Question. Does anyone out there know if one can cook quinoa and/or barley in a rice cooker? It would seem that one could; they both have similar cooking times to rice. Glancing over the directions for this baby, I see that it says to pre-soak brown rice for an hour before you cook it, and use 1/4 cup more water. We shall see. Not that I ever remember to start the stuff that early.

Anyway. The fried corn is one of my favorites, and a good change from rice with Mexican or Latino or Caribbean dishes.

Spicy Fried Corn with Chipotle and Bacon

• 4 ears yellow corn, husked and silked
• 4 slices bacon
• 1/2 medium onion
• 2 tbsp chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup water

Dice and saute bacon over medium high heat. Remove from pan, and drain off fat to leave 2 tbsp. Saute onions until translucent, stirring to be sure they don’t scorch. Add corn and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add chipotle sauce and salt; saute another minute or so.  Reduce heat to low, add water, and simmer, uncovered, until water is gone.  Add diced bacon, stir well, and serve immediately. If you need to hold the corn, leave it in the pan, turn the heat off, and then reheat before adding bacon, immediately before serving.

I’m telling you. You can’t beat it.

The pork chops, which are boneless loin chops about 3/4 inch thick, are presently marinating in a slathering of mole on the counter. Whenever I get the notion, I’ll pop them into a medium-hot skillet with a touch of oil, sear them good (3-4 minutes on each side) and then finish them in a preheated 500-degree oven for about another 4-5 minutes.

The cheese plate, should I get that far, will have goat’s milk cheese with herbs; manchego, boursin and something else that I forgot what it was. I even picked up fig preserves and black cherry jam to go with it. And there was a pretty cool recipe about using odds and ends of cheese in your fridge, whirling the hard ones in the food processor until they’re crumbs, adding the soft ones, and adding white wine, processing again. You could spice that, I guess, as well, but I don’t think I would. I’ve got some odds and ends of cheese in the fridge that are calling for that. And if I don’t do it tonight, I’ll do it tomorrow night.

Tomorrow night I’m back to Asia. Pork chops again (because I am from the South, and can easily eat pork chops two nights in a row), these being Vietnamese spiced; mung beans in coconut milk with spinach (that just sounded too weird not to try), and jasmine rice. Ya think?

I won’t report back tonight. I know both these recipes are good. Try the corn. The mole sauce is the recipe from back in January sometime.

Y’all have a good evening, and may all your teams win. Tell y’mama ‘n ‘em to come on down and have a pork chop.

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