Sheesh, it’s been a while since I’ve posted any cooking stuff here, hasn’t it? But it’s because Mike was sick, and then in the hospital, for so long, that I simply haven’t been doing any cooking.
The last recorded cooking incident is described in this post about the NuWave Oven. And that was almost a month ago!
While Mike was in the hospital, I didn’t have time to shop and cook for myself, because I was busy getting back and forth to see him. I lived pretty much on food from the hospital cafeteria and hot dog stands in assorted MBTA stations that I had to go through. However, I did treat myself to a nice meal at Jasper White’s Summer Shack, the one near the Alewife T station. I made the time for it, I so needed a treat.
While Mike was in the hospital, I made a stop at the Borders bookstore near the State Street station. He was complaining about running out of stuff to read. This is a really huge Borders store, with tons of magazines that you can’t find in most other places around here. The newsstand at the hospital left a lot to be desired…they had mostly celebrity gossip rags, and women’s magazines that contained advice about how to find the best acne pill.
At Borders, I found a few railroad magazines that I knew he didn’t already have, so I bought those. Also, on the bargain rack for $4.99, I found the book pictured above – Steven Raichlen’s Indoor! Grilling. I’m a fan of Raichlen’s PBS cooking shows (both Barbeque University and Primal Grill are currently airing locally). But I’m unable to grill outdoors at this time, so I’ve managed to convert many of his recipes for indoor grilling. But in this book, Steven has taken all the guesswork out of it for you, and includes instructions for the various types of indoor grills, rotisseries, and stovetop smokers. I was thrilled to see that he’d written such a book, and at $4.99, I had to grab it.
Tonight I’m actually doing his whole roast chicken recipe in the NuWave oven. What’s not done on a grill or rotisserie at all is the creamy caramelized onion sauce that goes with it, that has to be done in a pan on the stove. So if I adjust the cooking time for the chicken according to the instructions that came with the NuWave, it should come out just fine, and in less time.
I’m also going to try another recipe of his – “Wild Boar”. It’s designed to be cooked on a George Foreman grill, or other indoor grills. I have one of the newer George grills and I love it.
No, I didn’t go hunting, nor do they sell wild boar meat at Shaw’s. It’s simply boneless pork medallions marinated in red wine, red wine vinegar, and juniper berries, and grilled. Steven says that he was taught this little technique in culinary school, to make farm-raised supermarket meat taste more full-flavored, like game meat.
I’ve not been able to find juniper berries at Shaw’s, and we didn’t feel like driving all over to look for them. But that’s okay, Steven knows that we can’t all be able to get them, so he says to substitute some gin for the berries. After all, gin is made from juniper berries! So we stopped at Kappy’s and I got a couple of those little airline bottles of gin…I don’t need a whole big bottle, and I’ll never drink it. Of course, if we fall in love with this recipe, a larger bottle may be a good investment. But we shall see.
So there you have it for now…recipe reviews coming soon!
