Thursday, January 21, 2010

Tongue in cheek?

This week the Helf family has been traveling ALL OVER Flavor-town, USA. Last weekend we had another fish fry and invited my dad, step-mom, and little sister over to help us polish it off. Dad brought some jalapeno hush puppies and an amazing coleslaw. They made the mayo from scratch, and it had all sorts of yummies in it including red onion and spinach.
Monday also happened to be my mother's birthday, and we visited her beautiful home and enjoyed some fantastic and beautiful cake from Chuck's Cake Shoppe.
Mom got a new apron and a slicer attachment for her Kitchen-Aid among other things.
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Tuesday night was probably our most extreme flavor adventure of the week... Cold Pickled Tongue sandwiches... Sounds TOTALLY disgusting, right? WRONG! It was DELICIOUS! Beni cured the tongue himself for ten days in a special brine, then boiled it Monday night, trimmed it, sliced it up, and refrigerated overnight for us to have the next day. Granted, coming home Monday night and hearing:
"The boys and I already ate the salivary glands, but here, taste this"
was a little disturbing at first, but as soon as I tasted the meat, I was converted. It was like the most flavorful corned beef I've ever had, and more tender than any cut of beef ever. Tuesday night we served it on hoagie rolls with horseradish, cheese and cabbage. On the side is a greens mix from Wynn's Tomato Ranch winter market topped with an avacado and corn salad; the perfect cooling compliment to the spicy horseradish.
Beni was very pleased at how it turned out... And the boys LOVED it!
Last night we FINALLY polished off the last of the Dauphin Island fish in one of Beni's most pleasing creations; Smoked whitefish salad. This fish that he drove all the way to Alabama and caught, cleaned, and brought home made its way from the freezer into a smoker fired by some Arkansas hickory. Beni then chopped the fish and mixed it with celery, onion, dill, and some other magical ingredient and served it on buttered rye bread with provolone, and salt 'n' pepper chips and a pickle. A important key in making this fish salad is to keep it fluffy! This was another meal I would have been ecstatic to be served at any deli.
My last meal for this post is tonight's dinner... Lamb Chops and roasted potatoes with fresh green beans. Oh yeah.
The new potatoes were roasted with carrots and spiced with garlic and oregano...
...and the lamb was seasoned perfectly, grilled, and finished with balsamic vinegar, which gave it the most wonderful lingering taste.

Thanks for reading! Hope everyone has a great weekend. Stay tuned to find out how the latest chunk of meat curing in my fridge turns out... Home-made corned beef! (Regular cow parts this time... no tongue. =)

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