breakfast tatsoi

so, as a no eggs sort of guy, i can be out of luck when it comes to breakfast. see, more often than not, i like to have a savory breakfast, and so cereal and smoothies just won't cut it. but the key to good breakfast food is that you can make it quickly, so, while the coffee was brewing this morning, i made

chick peas with tatsoi
1 tsp minced garlic
1/2 can chickpeas, drained
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1/4 cup chopped mushrooms
1T soy sauce
1 tsp chili sauce
1 tsp grated ginger
2 heads tatsoi, separated and washed well

in a small nonstick skillet on medium heat, drizzle a minimum amount of olive oil and add the garlic. chop the onion and add it to the pan. start the coffee. chop the mushrooms and add them. add the chick peas, ginger, soy and chili. clean the tatsoi. add the tatsoi and stir. take the coffee off and pour a cup. sip while you stir, and take it off the heat once the tatsoi is tender. move it to a bowl, clean the pan while the food is cooling, and eat! the whole process took 11 minuets. a hearty, protein packed breakfast and quick.

p.s. tatsoi - i got it at the farmer's market this week. its a tender asian green with a nice cabbage flavor - check it out.

A Little Nod to the Carnivores in the Audience.

Blogger Jaden over at Jaden's Steamy Kitchen has a really great post about a cheap way to make the cheap steaks that are actually within our price range taste like primo super mega-amazing cuts of sweet, sweet, meaty joy.

How sweet? This sweet.

How is this magic achieved? Salt, and a hell of a lot of it. It's all in the timing, though, as she shows through a series of rather amateur but endearing MS Paint style illustrations.

We do love a good money saving tip, and god knows no one wants to eat a tough, crappy steak.


[Link]

marko hits the blog (with eggplant curry!)

aloha! so, in lieu of starting my own food blog, kate is letting me post on hers. i've got recipes and food pr0n and all that fun stuff. so, here's my creamy eggplant curry with seitan. in the future i'll put up my seitan recipe, but i'm too lazy to do it right now. in the mean time:

Creamy eggplant curry

One onion, sliced
One large carrot, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1T ginger, grated
One sweet pepper, chopped
3 oz seitan, sliced
¼ c soy milk
¼ c seitan broth
6 miniature eggplant, halved
1T vindaloo curry powder
1tsp cumin
1tsp chili sauce
Salt
Black pepper
2 bay leaves
1tsp black mustard seed
1 chunk crystallized ginger

In a non-stick pan with a tight fitting lid, add garlic and ginger on medium heat. Once it makes noise, add onion, carrot, and sweet pepper. Cook for 3-4 minutes (until onion starts to soften) and add curry powder, soy milk, broth, chili sauce, bay leaves, a healthy pinch of salt, mustard seed, a few grinds of black pepper, and crystallized ginger. Bring it to a boil, and add eggplant and seitan. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer with the lid on until eggplant is well done – about 20 minutes. Remove cover to reduce liquid slightly, remove bay leaves, and serve on top of rice with chutney and spicy pickle, or however you want.

Note – you may want to add more curry powder, ginger, and salt when the eggplant is almost done. Do it by taste.

Foodzilla #1: Taco Dogs

Warning: The following is an abomination of nature and if you value your stomach, should not be made by ANYONE. Also, it was originally posted over at my old food blog. "Foodzilla" is going to be a semi-regular feature - by which I mean "posted whenever I feel the need to punish people around me with terrifying foodstuffs from days best forgotten".

Without further ado, I give you: Taco Dogs.



It was decided that our first foray into culinary abominations of nature should be a baby step, mostly because it's Saturday night, and my good friend from Boulder ventured herself down to Denver and it's already 8:30 here...so suffice it to say that I don't feel like making something that needs to be chilled.

I got this recipe from "Parties from All Seasons: Adventures in Cooking Series" by Barbara MacDonald published by the Culinary Arts Institute, Chicago, IL in 1976. (ISBN: 0832605492)

Original Recipe:

Taco Dogs
-------------
12 Skinless Frankfurters
12 Taco Shells
1 Can Taco Sauce
1 1/2 c. Shredded Lettuce
1 1/2 c. Cheddar Cheese
1 1/2 c. Chopped Tomato


To assemble Taco Dogs, place frankfurters in taco shells; top with taco sauce, shredded lettuce, cheese, and chopped tomato.

WARNING: SERVES 12.

---

Even though I've lived most of my life in either Texas or Iowa (I'll admit to living in Texas, but only because it was only until I was 5), I have never considered the blasphemy that is the Taco Dog. But I found it in one of the 12 elderly cook books I bought for $10 today, so I decided that it would be a better jumping off point for my newly launched culinary experiment than, say, a lamb and mint jelly aspic. I don't want to scare my guinea pig...er, boyfriend...off quite yet. So we'll start simple, and work our way up.

But since this is an easy one, why don't we jazz it up a bit? I mean, lame taco sauce, lettuce and cheese??? That's all?

No. This will not do.

So, we're featuring our jazzed up recipe.

Funked Up Abominations of Nature: The Hungry Hipster Taco Dog



Step 1: Go get the yummiest hot dog you know of, and prepare it in your favorite way. If it's a beer brat, do it. Whatever. We got some yummy looking "Hot Links".

Step 2: Cut up a roma tomato or two, get together some spring mix lettuce.

Step 3: Cut up an avacado and mash it in a little bowl with some medium Pace picante sauce. I'm biased. I totally love that stuff. I was raised on it.

Step 4: Get out taco shells.

Step 5: Layer tomato and lettuce in shell. Put hotdog in shell too.

Step 6: Add avacado mixture, whatever kind of funky salsa you like (we used a spicy black bean one) and some fat free sour cream.

Step 7: Acquire stomach ache....I'm totally at this step now.

Seriously, this one's at your own risk. Yours, AND your intestines.


Just to be in the spirit of the venture, we took a picture oldstyle; the white balance was messed up. Retro food, here we come.

Review: Atomic Cowboy, Denver CO

Cowboys vs. aliens. You pretty much can't go wrong.

It's the theme of the Atomic Cowboy on Colfax, right in my neighborhood, close to Congress and City Parks. Admittedly, today's visit wasn't my first time at the Atomic, as it's one of the closest bars to our place. But today, after grocery shopping, I opted to check out the bar's menu.

Walking in the door, the first thing one comes across is a massive pile of board games - everything from Connect Four to Monopoly to Sorry, though sadly lacking is a good game of Pop-o-Matic Trouble. The decor is pure retro kitsch - large metal space age light fixtures arc above the bar, reminiscent of some alien craft. The highlight of the art is a tryptich featuring a wild west standoff between a cowboy and an alien straight out of Mars Attacks.

Sunday afternoons from 11 to 7 is half-price draft beer, so I got a Newcastle and perused the menu. There's a good selection of bar food (I have to say I've enjoyed the Mini Corn Dogs on more than one occasion), several burgers with a good choice of toppings, and a number of sandwiches, salads, wraps, and even fish and chips or macaroni and cheese.

I chose the Catfish Po'boy Wrap, and was very pleasantly surprised. I opted for onion rings from a choice of fries, garlic fries which I cannot recommend enough - though just make sure you aren't on a date, onion rings or potato salad. It wasn't busy, so my food arrived at lightning speed. The wrap was completely delicious - the fish tender, the sauce and breading just right. Lettuce and tomato completed it perfectly, and the onion rings on the side were delicious.

I am obviously partial to the bar's kitsch value, as well as their jukebox, which threw out both new Bright Eyes and the Dead Kennedys' Too Drunk To Fuck while I was eating. But for simple, inexpensive, tasty food served with a good beer in a good atmosphere, you can't go wrong with the wild west meets galaxy far, far away. Plus, after a night of rocking out at the Bluebird Theater a block down, you're going to be hungry and thirsty.

Details:
Location: Atomic Cowboy
3237 E. Colfax Ave
Denver, CO 80206
Price Range ($ -$$$) $
Service: Great when it's slow, good when busy, always friendly.
Food:
and a half (out of five)

Overall: Thumbs Up!

Alright, I lied again.

I've never done this video podcasting thing before and it is proving to be significantly more time consuming that initially anticipated. It's rather hard to record, provide lighting AND cook simultaneously. I did some lighting tests over the weekend and I really need to get a couple more lights in my kitchen before anything watchable is coming out of there. But it will be soon, as Marko is going to provide help and assistance in getting this off the ground (meaning one or the other of us will be holding the camera a lot).

Speaking of Marko, he's going to help out with contributing to this blog, keeping you updated on his culinary exploits - as soon as he figures out a way to get pictures off his cell phone and onto the interweb. He does a lot of really awesome primarily vegan cooking, so it's cheap and super good for you. Rejoice. Now.

I'm going to port the entries from my old food blog over to this one, so you have something to look at in the mean time - as well as working on new posts! Check back soon for more goodness.

ok, i ran my camera out of batteries already

So I managed to leave said new camera on while in a certain state of non-soberness....so I have to figure out the changing of the batteries before I can make anything. Apologies, loves. We have TEN, COUNT EM, TEN episodes all planned out for you folks. You're gonna love it. Zee illustrious Marko will be helping me out a lot. He's got some great ideas, so please, stay tuned, I promise episode 1 will premiere this next weekend.

LOVE!

Kate Kaos
katekaos@gmail.com
thehungryhipster.blogspot.com