I had a dream about chasing people around a mall, begging them to put on their masks. Woke up exhausted.
Made BBQ breakfast. Pan-fried the bacon (should’ve oven-baked it in the BBQ) and eggs, toasted the bread directly on the grill. Was tasty. Will probably BBQ some sausages later (although not in my preferred way, which is to simmer them in delicious liquid, and then just BBQ them to caramelize them).
At least a dream fulfilled after that nightmare, or wasn’t BBQ breakfast on your bucket list? If I tell my partner, he’ll put it on his 
You know, it hadn’t been, but one of the upsides of the kitchen renovation has been the rediscovery of my BBQ and how much I enjoy trying things out on it.
Par example: next time I make bacon on the BBQ, I’m going to treat it like an oven (medium-low heat, baking sheet covered in foil, cooling rack on that, and then bacon laid out on that for 10-12 minutes). Doing it in my cast iron was fine, but didn’t really “add” much except speeding up the cook time nicely.
Also, turns out I love bread toasted on the grill. Have to be a bit more careful with the heat (these slices were done a little too much), and I’m still slightly undecided on the “toast, then butter” or “butter, then toast” debate.
But the eggs are delicious done this way, and I think I can probably come up with a few other novel uses for breakfast foods on the grill. I’m thinking “egg sammiches” for next time… toasted English muffins, slice of cheddar or smoked gouda, egg (fried in the cast iron), slice of tomato (maybe grilled as well, if I am very careful).
What is this madness?
I don’t have a grill, and have never really learned to use one. But a few year ago C introduced me to “fried bread,” which is made by melting butter in a skillet; dropping in bread slices; and halfway through, putting more butter on top and then flipping them over. I think it’s delicious, whereas I won’t eat standard toast at all. Now that C has renounced eating bread, I don’t have it often, but perhaps I should make it for myself sometime soon . . .
This works really well with ciabatta.
Doing it on just one side of a ciabatta roll makes for a good breakfast sandwich.
Does it? I don’t have a good sense for how absorbent ciabatta is, which I think would be the crucial point for me.
To me fried bread is a way of mopping up the fat left in the pan when you’ve fried something else. I like it a great deal, but the idea of setting out to make just that seems somehow self-indulgent.
Well, yes. That’s the idea!
I had three rolls about to go stale and it worked a treat. I do like ciabatta a fair bit to begin with so personal taste may have me too far out on the bell curve.
Fried potato scone is a bit of a Scottish delicacy and almost essential as a filling in a roll rammed with bacon and egg.
I bought a new ice-cream machine, but it was delivered during my sister’s cooking week, so she got to try it first — with a batch of fresh ginger ice-cream that we’re going to feed to my Frodoish¹ brother after dinner tonight. Unfortunately she used an American recipe that specified strange foreign ingredients, substituted Australian “double cream” for US “heavy cream”, and has ended up with a product with an off texture because it had too much butterfat in it to churn properly.
Translation note: US “heavy cream” = Australian & New Zealand “cream”.
Next week will be my turn: I plan to make pistachio ice-cream, and will show you how it turns out.
¹ I refer to my Middle Brother’s garden mulcher as “Gollum” now, but no-one here gets it.
I would never usually butter-then-toast bread in a regular toasting device, but it’s not that strange. A “proper” grilled cheese sandwich involves buttering the bread, and then frying it… and I’m pretty sure Alton Brown’s “Grilled Grilled Cheese Sandwich” recipe calls for pre-buttering before grilling (it also involves actually grilling the cheese, hence the name… and it is legitimately spectacular, in true AB style, but is very labour intensive for an ‘everyday’ grilled cheese).
I had an ex-girlfriend who was British and who introduced me to two things I had never encountered as a Canadian child of Italian-Argentine immigrants:
So am I.
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The very first time that C came to my apartment, she was still there at dinner time. So I made grilled cheese sandwiches: cheddar cheese on extra sourdough bread, fried in butter with a sprinkle of garlic powder. She still talks about it.
Just for the sake of completion:
(I’ve made it: Holy hells is it good. Like, jaw-dropping, eyes-rolling-back-in-head good. I used butter instead of olive oil and a propane BBQ because ain’t nobody got time/brainpower to properly charcoal grill in THIS househould, but yeah. So good!)
We finally got a grill for our condo after 18 months, which is absurd. I waffled for a long time over what to get, but in the end a compromise (multiple, as it turns out) was needed and for the second time in my life I’ve found myself settling for a portable grill (Weber Q). No real BBQ in this household, sadly, but the little football does a fine job if you play to its strengths.
The inaugural cook was a huge Flatiron steak cooked along with some peppers which were allowed to blister and char liberally. I know these are technically over-seared, but my tastebuds didn’t complain.
I used my patented beef rub (smoked sweet paprika, GOOD chili, liberal cayenne, fresh black pepper till your arms hurt, garlic and mustard powders, finished with a pinch of salt) and nailed my ratios down to the grain; flavour was outstanding! Sadly I also got distracted by the kiddo after a long rest session and when I went to carve, I chose the wrong side.
Thankfully I always cut on a bias, but talk about a kick in the pants nailing a cook-and-season like this only to bork a simple slice job.
Do any of you have favorite Dhal recipes you care to share with me? My own is real simple with tomatoes, red lentils and some spices plus whatever vaguely Indian ingredients I have at hand. But I would like to try for a little more variety 
I recommend adding paneer
Today, for lunch, I had a quart or so of leftover broth from cooking turkey thighs (it had been through three or four cycles, which made it quite rich) and a chicken breast that I had cooked in it two days before. So I cooked rice pasta, celery, and carrots in the broth, added cut up thin slices of chicken breast, and seasoned with basil, bay leaves, black pepper, marjoram, onion powder, parsley, and sage. (But no rosemary or thyme!) It came out quite rich and left us pleasantly filled.
