Food in Malta

   In December, 2012, the family took a vacation to Malta and London. Malta is a small island just 60 miles south of Sicily. Why Malta--well it is very old and a lot of different invaders took the island so there is a mix. The language is a semantic language related to Aramaic, Hebrew, and Arabic. The first full day there we went into Valletta, the capital city and a UNESCO World Heritage site. We had a great coffee break in the middle of the citadel and a lunch in a cave--pretty cool---

    Lunch at the Cave was great--Pizza and bruschetta was great--wood fire oven and cheap,  good wine. The portions were large--all this for only 30 euros--about $40.00

Simple steak, rice, and haricot vert

   An easy meal--NY strip steak in the sous vide at 142 deg for two hours ,  basmati rice, with butter and chicken broth and blanched haricot verte sauteed in butter. Simple and delicious and very little prep time. Good meal for a long day.

Chicken strips and cole slaw

     Real chicken strips! How many if you all cannot stand the so-called chicken strips in a lot of restaurants These are the strips that are made from 'mechanically separated chicken'. In other words it is made from chicken scraps. I used organic chicken breast and slicked them longitudinal. I dipped them in egg wash, than flour and dipped again in egg wash and finally in panko crumbs mix. he mix had oregano, salt, pepper, paprika, and panko crumbs. I fried them in the fry daddy for about 5 minutes until internal temp was greater than 165 deg.

   The cole slaw was made using homemade mayonnaise  I used grape seed oil and an egg yolk. Using an immersion blender, I slowly added grape seed oil to the yolk until it fluffed up. I added lime juice, slat and pepper to it and let it sit for an hour. In the meantime, I cut the cabbage and salted it to remove the moisture. I cut julienne carrots and crushed pickles. I rinsed and dried the cabbage and added the mayonnaise and vegetables.  I also added salt, pepper, and vinegar until it tasted great.  Kim and Logan loved them--Logan dipped the strips in ketchup.

Update...and New Food

Sorry all--been busy with work, and family. I continue to try new recipes and design some on my own, but I am slow to update this weekly--I will commit to do this at least once a week by Sunday. It has been an eventful fall and continues into the winter.

  Fall was the worst football season I have had since the dark days of 1998---My teams, Cal, Hawaii and the Raiders had terrible seasons, but the hometown Spartans were great--Kudos to San Jose State. Now off to the food and wine:

First dish was a sous vide of Onaga (Red Snapper)--I got an Onaga at Wholepaycheck and filet it (getting better at it). I made a mixture of lime juice, and sesame seed oil  and put the this and the filet in the sous vide bag.  I sous vide at 140 for 12 minutes. Prior to that I made glazed carrots a la Heston Blumenthal and served over potatoes. It was a light and delicious meal.

   This next dish came to me as I was thinking---what haven't had in a while. I made Mexican basamati rice, the traditional way--I took the rice and washed it in water. In the meantime, I sauteed onions and garlic. the rice was then first sauteed in butter after which I added the onions and garlic. I then added chicken broth with tomato sauce. I added Mexican spices (cumin, oregano, paprika  salt and pepper).  It simmered until the rice absorbed the liquid. The day before, I made refried black beans by soaking dry beans,and cooking them in chicken broth, spices, and a smoked ham hock.

      Lastly, to put it all together, I made homemade puffy tacos. I rolled the masa and using my corn tortilla maker made small corn tortilla which I deep fried to make them puffy. I In the mean time, I made chicken filling with chicken asada. Overall, sounds difficult, but really isn't. The beans and rice take time to cook, so this gives you time to prep. The rice was awesome, and I love black beans. The tacos had a nice fresh taste with manoa lettuce, and multicolored tomatoes.