Feral Cooks

Good food shouldn't be tame

Deviled Eggs with Bacon  

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Nearly all foods are better with bacon, as are these deviled eggs. Besides, I’ve heard rumors that both the House and the Senate—since they have so much free time—are working on legislation requiring that eggs be served with bacon. No exceptions. Within that framework, these eggs would follow the new law to the letter. And yes, any food with egg as an ingredient would need to be served with a slice of bacon. I’m sure they’re working on the nuances of enforcement.

I’ve never made deviled eggs of any type before, but this recipe caught my eye as something to try. They turned out well, and next time I’d experiment with the sauces mixed in with the egg yolks.

What you’ll need:

  • 6 extra-large or jumbo boiled eggs
  • 3T mayonnaise
  • 2T sweet chili sauce (I used a basic Thai brand)
  • 1T mustard (honey mustard or Dijon may be good alternatives)
  • 1t Worcestershire sauce (I used Japanese Tonkatsu sauce, which is very similar, but with a smoother flavor)
  • 3-4 slices of thick, high quality bacon: cooked, and crumbled or sliced into small pieces
  • Salt and pepper, optional
  • Paprika or smoked paprika, optional

What to do:

Hard boil the eggs, cool them and slice in half, lengthwise.

Scoop the yolks into a bowl and work them into a fine crumble. If you’re using salt and pepper, add at this time.

Add the mayo, chili sauce, mustard and Worcestershire sauce and mix well.

If you crumbled your bacon, you could stir in about ¾ of it at this point.

Spoon the mixture into each of the egg whites.

Place pieces of crumbled or sliced bacon into each portion of the egg mixture.

Sprinkle paprika or smoked paprika over each serving—this tastes good and gives the eggs an appealing look.

 

 

Serrano Cheddar Biscuits

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I choose much of what I cook based on either the food’s appearance or the ingredient list. The photo I saw posted for these biscuits is what initially drew my attention. Then I read the ingredient list and knew that I wanted to make them. I’m glad I did, because they taste great.

Working with the coconut flour in the recipe led to a curiosity in using it for other foods, so stay tuned for that. The coconut flour makes these biscuits very low carb, but they are in no way a healthy food: there is tons of fat from cheese and butter. But if you’re trying to reduce carbs or control blood sugar, they’re a good snack.

I found the recipe for these here, but they were made with jalapeno instead of Serrano peppers. I find Serranos to be more flavorful, and they do pack more of a heat punch (which can be mitigated by seeding them), but the biscuits I made with them were not overly spicy. I can also imagine various cheese and pepper substitutions.

One difficulty I encountered while making these was mixing the ingredients. After the shredded cheese is further chopped up in the food processor, the “dough” quickly becomes too stiff for the processor blades to spin. Maybe if you had a high-torque machine, that wouldn’t be a problem. I solved the issue by throwing on a pair of nitrile gloves and finishing mixing the dough by hand.

What you’ll need:

  • ½ cup coconut flour
  • 6T unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 Serrano peppers, deseeded and chopped
  • 1 egg
  • 1.5 cups (170g) cheddar cheese, shredded or grated

What to do:

Put all the ingredients into a food processor and pulse until either the motor starts straining or the concoction is smooth, whichever comes first. Finish mixing by hand, if necessary.

Place the mixture on a piece of parchment paper and roll into a cylinder, from which you’ll later slice the biscuits. Try to make the ends, flat, if possible.

Refrigerate the cylinder for no less than 30 minutes, so the mixture becomes cold and firm. This will greatly facilitate slicing the cylinder.

Heat the oven to 350F degrees

Cut the cylinder into slices. I made them about 1cm thick, for a total of 15 biscuits out of a 6-inch cylinder.

Put the slices (not touching) onto a parchment-paper-lined baking sheet and cook for 20-25 minutes, or until golden.

Let cool, then eat!

Wehani Rice

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It all started with my first visit to the new discount supermarket, Winco. It is a kind of Aldi on steroids. However, in case you hadn’t realized, while your local Aldi relies on being understaffed with most shifts having no more than three or four employees in total, Winco has folks all over the place to be helpful.

I had heard rumors of cheap quinoa, so I stalked the bulk bins in search of a more reasonable price on this product. Ureka! What costs four or five dollars at my local stores can be found for $2.65 in Bulk at Winco! Their steal-cut oats were only $1,50 a pound. There’s gold in them there bins!

And so it was that I tarried a while and considered the benefits of chickpea flour for falafel. There will be more on that particular rumination in the following weeks. What really caught my eye was something that I had not noticed before – Wehani Rice. In fact, it was labeled Red Wehani Rice on the bin, but I understand that there is only one type, it is always red and its name is Wehani Rice.

This is the Wikipedia Entry:

Wehani rice is a variety of aromatic brown rice developed in the late 20th century by Lundberg Family Farms of Richvale, California. It is a registered trademark of Lundberg Family Farms, the only company that grows it, and is named for brothers Wendell, Eldon, Homer, Albert, and Harlan Lundberg.

Wehani rice was developed from basmati rice seeds from India. Its grains (sold in whole-grain form) are reddish-brown in color and slightly resemble wild rice. When cooked, the rice produces an aroma similar to that of hot buttered peanuts, and is slightly chewy.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 45 grams, Amount Per Serving: 0.3 cup, Calories 150 *Total Fat 1.5 grams 2.3, Saturated Fat 0 grams 0%, Trans Fat 0 grams, Cholesterol 0 milligrams 0.0, Sodium 0 milligrams 0.00, Total Carbohydrate 35 grams 11.7, Dietary Fiber 2 grams 8%, Sugars 0 grams, Protein 3 grams 6.0 Vitamin A 0%, Vitamin C 0%, Calcium 0%, Iron 2%, Vitamin D Potassium

* The % daily value is based on a 2,000-calorie diet. Your recommended daily intake may vary depending on your calorie needs.

Whole grain, gluten-free and reasonably low in calories. However, please note that a full 85% of those calories come from carbs – albeit those carbs are slightly mitigated by the two grams of soluble fiber. A further 13.5% of those calories come from fat. I have not been able to find glycemic information on this product, but I think that it is safe to assume that it must be similar to whole grain brown rice.

1/3 cup Brown rice, steamed: GI 50, Cal 150, GL 16

Color me intrigued.

Go figure. I love rice, but have become wary or carbs and food high on the glycemic index. However, I am willing to give most things a try – especially with the acquisition of an electric pressure cooker. I am going to use the pressure cooker and treat it like any other brown rice, except for the volume of liquid. Instead if the 1:2 ratio that I would use for regular brown rice, I am going to try the recommended 1:2.25, with .5 tsp of salt. Plain water for the liquid.

Here are the results.

These are probably a little overcooked. After the recommended brown rice setting on my pressure cooker (20 minutes), they we not quite done. I gave them a further 10 minutes and that may have been a little too much. They were still firm, but on the overdone side. Next time I will give them 25 minutes.

I say “next time” because the rice is delicious. It would lend itself to creole-style cooking, but this is worth trying. Firm, flavorsome and healthy.

Enjoy!