The Yum Yum Factor

Because salt cod and I have a bit of a contentious relationship, I kind of assumed that I would have a hard time eating in Portugal because bacalhau (the portuguese word for salt cod) seems to be in every dish they make. It is said that there are over 1000 traditional Portuguese bacalhau recipes and I believe that might be an understatement. You can have it in stews, in fritters, in cakes, deep fried, grilled or braised. It's almost always cooked or served with potatoes, as is everything else there to be honest, and despite my initial feelings of distaste for this noble beast , I was certainly willing to try it before announcing that I still hated it. I am nothing if not opened minded. Bacalhau is to Portuguese cuisine what tomatoes are to Italian, despite the fact that they have to import it from Newfoundland, Norway or Iceland because cod is not native to their waters. Oddly enough, it's also the one fish that they never eat in it's fresh state. Once an inexpensive k...

What do you do with three cups of leftover risotto al nero de seppia ? Make arancini, of course. Although everyone in the house loves these crispy little risotto balls, I rarely make them because, frankly, I am still terrified of deep frying. The odd time I make them, I either bake them or pan fry them in a shallow pan with a bit of oil and although good, they aren't amazing. To really enjoy an arancini, you need the crispy crust that you crack to reveal the soft, creamy rice innards and you can really only get that crust by deep frying them. Now that I am 50, I have decided it is high time to face some of my fears in the face so I pulled out a small pot, a bottle of canola oil and my instant read thermometer and did what needed to be done. I am not going to tell you that it was a walk in the park, emotionally, but I buckled down and heated that damned oil all the way to 350F and deep fried these arancini like a boss. The panko adds a bit more substance to the coating but...

Dinner. It just doesn't ever go away. Every day you have to eat something and you have feed that kid something for supper. When you are feeding people on a daily basis, it can't all be risotto and homemade pasta because on most week nights, you are going to need dishes that are delicious, quick, nutritious and easy to throw together in a hour. I had some skinless, bone in chicken breasts that had to get used today and a bit of buttermilk so I settled on some sort of buttermilk marinated chicken. Doesn't take a brain surgeon to come to that conclusion, does it? From that point, it's all about what sort of spices and other flavourings you add to the buttermilk that separate the men from the boys. Regardless, I just wanted to make sure I was on the right track with my plans so when I found this really basic recipe on TLC and it didn't involve 19 kids and counting or american gypsy's, I knew I had found a good, solid base to work from. I didn't follow t...