Fellas have you ever thought, is it possible to make quinoa more manly?
I asked a mate at work who I respect a lot and he said no. Well, that is, he said no after I thought I had made a decent attempt to make quinoa more manly.
I should say up front I do like quinoa. It has an interesting taste and I like cooking it and seeing the bright ring form that shines nicely when I’m focusing my lens on it. I also like it’s taste when it’s mixed with lemon juice and cooked in beef or chicken stock.
The other thing I like about quinoa is the toilet brush effect it has on my bowels. Every morning after a bowl of quinoa I feel cleaned out. I feel like it helps my irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Oven baked salmon coated in panko and chilli flakes served with avocado on a bed of quinoa with brown onion gravy | NIKON D7100 with 24.0-70.0 mm f/2.8 at 40mm and f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 400
So what did I do to try to make a man of my quinoa? I added some brown onion gravy. Doesn’t it look amazing? NOT!!!
I was watching My Kitchen Rules while blogging and coincidentally the entrée from the blonde butchers was being referred to by a lot of tweeps as a turd on a plate. A tweep from Melbourne took a similar view on my meal and called it dog vomit.
Tonight I was cooking a lump of salmon and used a plastic bag to coat it in flour and seasoning.
I realised as a lazy cook, the plastic bag really is super helpful and convenient and reduces the washing up of bowls, plates and utensils. Plastic bags also reduce the waste of eggs and milk when crumbing (or breading as my friends in north America might say).
So tonight I took my lump of salmon from the refrigerator. The supermarket delicatessen sales assistant had placed the lump of salmon in a plastic bag before wrapping it in paper. Rather than waste plastic and dirty any other cooking utensil I poured a little oil into the bag and massaged my lump of salmon through the plastic bag. I then added a little flour, Panko bread crumbs, some sea salt crystals, curry powder, chilli flakes, and ground pepper. I massaged the lump of salmon through the plastic bag and let it rest while I heated up my frying plan. While my lump of salmon was cooking I added a halved tomato and made a quick coleslaw to eat with the fish.
You can see the salmon has a nice coating of panko bread crumbs and the chilli flakes and pepper are pretty obvious. What isn’t obvious but to which I can attest is that I slipped with the sea salt crystals and the salmon was a little more salty than I like. That said, I finished my dinner and wished I had another piece.
For the lazy cook, a plastic bag can be used for all sorts of proteins to be coated. I like using it for chicken pieces whether they have skin or not, diced bits of tough beef for browning before slow cooking, lamb cutlets and I suppose you could do tofu this way too 😉
Maple syrup flavoured bacon is a well known flavour combination, especially with pancakes, waffles or French toast.
What about adding maple syrup to spam?
I like a salad that has a little sweetness to it and tonight the only ‘dressing’ was some lemon juice and the cooking ‘juices’ from the oven cooked spam and bacon.
I really like the photograph. The colours came out nicely of the maple syrup flavoured bacon and spam salad. I did a bit of retouching in Adobe Lightroom.
If you click on the image you will be taken to an attachment page. Under the image on that page if you click on 2048 × 2048 you’ll be brought to the original image. Now if you have a nice big monitor, if you click once more on that image you’ll see a full resolution version and the detail is lovely.
Maple syrup flavoured bacon and spam salad NIKON D7100 with 40.0 mm f/2.8 at 40mm and f/8, 1/80sec, ISO 400
Maple syrup flavoured bacon and spam salad
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: Gary Lum
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
Spam with real Hormel® Bacon
Streaky bacon
Beetroot coleslaw
Avocado
Fried shallots
Lemon juice
Maple syrup
Pepper
Instructions
Dice the bacon and spam and put into a baking tray
Pour over the bacon and spam some maple syrup
Cook the bacon and spam in an oven at 220 °C for 20 minutes
Prepare a beetroot coleslaw and add some avocado and lemon juice
When the spam and bacon are cooked add to the salad bowl and mix
Shoot a photograph
Eat the meal
Wash the dishes
Write the recipe
Blog (verb)
3.2.2925
Tonight I used the Spam Bacon NIKON D810 with 90.0 mm f/2.8 at 90mm and f/8, 1/15sec, ISO 80
Tonight I went back to an old favourite, delicious roasted chicken Maryland. Oh how I love the crispy skin and the succulent dark meat of the thigh and drumstick.
What could be better than some Lilydale organic roasted chicken? I’d purchased some Maryland pieces from the Belconnen markets on the weekend.
I also had some quinoa and some salad vegetables with a beetroot coleslaw.
Tonight I went back to an old favourite, delicious roasted chicken Maryland. Oh how I love the crispy skin and the succulent dark meat of the thigh and drumstick.
Course:
Main Course
Cuisine:
Australian
Servings: 1
Calories: 1000kcal
Author: Gary Lum
Ingredients
1piecesLilydale organic chicken Maryland pieces
1cupQuinoa
1cupBeetroot coleslaw
¼cupPanko bread crumbs
Instructions
Bring the chicken to room temperature and dry the skin
Dry the skin out by adding salt and then after half an hour remove the extra moisture with paper towel
Add some panko bread crumbs and spray with a little olive oil
Cook the chicken in a slow oven (120 °C/248 °F) for 90 minutes
While cooking the chicken prepare the quinoa and beetroot coleslaw
I cook the quinoa in chicken stock and then refrigerate immediately so I can add it to the coleslaw
Make sure you rest the chicken for 25 minutes to keep the chicken meat succulent
Plate the dish
Shoot a photograph
Eat the meal
Wash the dishes
Write the recipe
Blog (verb)
Hope that people will enjoy the post and try to emulate the recipe and that the recipe will be popular
Recipe Notes
What could be better than some Lilydale organic roasted chicken. I’d purchased some Maryland pieces from the Belconnen markets on the weekend.
I also had some quinoa and some salad vegetables for a beetroot coleslaw.
Photographs
3.2.2925
Chicken Maryland ready for some salt
I dried the chicken by adding a little salt, letting it sit for about half an hour and wiping off the moisture with some paper towel.
Chicken Maryland with some panko bread crumbsChicken Maryland with some panko bread crumbs sprayed with a little olive oilChicken Maryland with some panko bread crumbs sprayed with a little olive oil in the baking trayQuinoa about to be cookedQuinoa cooked and ready for the refrigerator
I cooked the quinoa in chicken stock and added a little butter at the end.
Chicken Maryland pieces out of the oven
Chicken Maryland served with quinoa mixed in with beetroot coleslaw and capers | Close
Questions
What’s your favourite cut of chicken?
Regular readers know I love the cloaca roasted nice and crispy, but failing that, my favourite meat is the dark thigh meat. Having a drumstick on it to make a Chicken Maryland is okay too but it’s really the thigh meat. I also like chicken wings, roasted in a hot oven.
Besides oven roasting how else do you like cooking chicken?
When making chicken curry, I like using a slow cooker and making a nice full bodied curried chicken.
Skin off or skin on?
Is that a serious question? I love chicken skin. One of my favourite things is deep fried chicken skin as a snap with dip. I seriously like fried chicken and crispy chicken skin. One of my favourite Chinese dishes is a boiled chicken that has had boiling fat poured on it to crisp up the skin. It’s amazing.
Why does everything taste like chicken?
Well, it doesn’t really. Beef tastes like beef, lamb like lamb and pork like pork. I’ve eaten crocodile and it didn’t taste like chicken.
So how did you spend your Sunday and what are you watching on the television tonight?
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