Egg rolls with "A Sauce"

Ok I make my stuff my OWN way.
So I made BEEF eggrolls and Pepper Cottage Cheese eggrolls.
THE SAUCE is the special thing.
I start with Mango Amchar, which in and of itself can be used as a side but a lot of people don't really find it THAT appetizing.
So I changed it into a chutney by boiling the amchar in water with sugar and garlic.
I also add Apple Jelly for an exotic type flavor.
It is soo good. I like my chutney jus slightly runny, but thick enough that it stays on the eggroll when you dip it.
That is what we will have for lunch today! :)

The Holiday Food

We cooked early so we could sleep in tommorrow hahahah
The turkey is done.
We seasoned it UNDER the skin and in the cavity yesterday with a special seasoning mix that we made.
We baked it with the foil on the breast to seal the juices in and when we were all done, the meat was falling off the bone.

We made the christmas pastries stuffed with seasoned ground beef and raisins...YUM

The Stuffing is also done.
Although it looks a little dry, we did that on purpose because tommorow we add turkey drippings and reconstitute it! hahah

Of course our fried eggplant is ready and waiting.

Sis is making the chocolate cake (low carb be hanged for tommorow)

The vegetables, we will do tommorow.

Today for lunch and dinner we may have salad and fish :)

Fried Eggplant

This is a really good way to cook eggplant.
When people don't really care for eggplant that much and you want to cook for them but have something you like yourself, then fried eggplant is the way to go.
Cut the eggplant into thin strips (1/4 inch thick), salt them and leave them to drain. The salting and draining I did for one hour but longer is ok too!
I wash off the salt quickly then squeeze each of the strips to get excess liquid out. You will see a lot of liquid coming out, looking a little brown in color.

They crumple but don't fall apart.
Dip into a seasoned egg wash and some breadcrumbs (VIGO BRAND) and fry till golden brown or a little past that.
They get all crsipy and goooooood.
One eggplant (large) serves 4 people

Of course the shake

With Irish Cream and Ben and Jerry's neopolitan icecream :)
Yeh it's goooooooddddd

The Cream of Irish Creams

I know that everyone likes Bailey's Irish Cream. That is all we ever really hear about. So I decided that I wanted to be different and try O'connor's Irish Cream.
I tried it and it is JUST as heavenly as Bailey's.
It's 17% alcohol by volume (hahahahha)
AND most importantly..a FRACTION of the cost of the same size bottle of Bailey's.
It was 8.99 for the O'Connors and 21.99 for the Bailey's!!!!!!!!!
Guess branding really makes a difference. :(
So for future reference everyone, here goes.
I highly recommend O'Connors for Taste, Alcohol content, and price.
YEAH!!!!!!!!

Six Moments that Changed my Foodie Life in 2006

Thanks Nikki (Trinigourmet) :)

Guidelines: My thought in this meme is food items or events that changed your foodie life. Not some “oh, it’s the first time I didn’t put jelly on a peanut butter sandwich and used bananas instead” sort of change, unless you truly feel that affected you profoundly. That’s the key - it affected you profoundly, in some manner. A moment you can look back at and say “that was a defining moment”.
The questions are simple, the answers might be harder - an item, person, event, or place that had that effect on you, and why.
They don’t have to be big splashy things - sometimes it’s something very small and simple that changes the way we view the world - the famed “butterfly effect” (and I’m not talking about the Aston Kutcher movie). So, to those who want to participate, copy this and pass it on (and, if you’re so inclined, do a trackback to the originating post). Here are your categories:

1. An ingredient
2. A dish, a recipe
3. A meal (in a restaurant, a home, or elsewhere)
4. A cookbook or other written work
5. A food “personality” (chef, writer, etc.)
6. Another person in your life

1. An Ingredient
Ok I discovered this in the Dollar store and it is an absolute all purpose seasoning. You can use it in Fish, Meat, eggs, rice, anything savory!
It is Clover Valley Soul Food Seasoning. I highly recommend this.
I have it always in stock, and at 50 cents a bottle, I can always buy in bulk. I always use this to season meat, to add to boiling, bubbling dishes etc.

2. A dish/ recipe
Well since I started my Low carb Lifestyle I would say any low carb casserole including Eggplant. Eggplant gives that Umami that I really enjoy.

3. A meal
One day I went to Carrabas (italian restuarant), before I started to low carb.
I had some pasta meal but the bread and dipping pil with the seasonings...O. M. G.

4. Cookbook...
I like Jamie Oliver's mainly because they show him in prep stages.
A good cokbook to me means great pictures and Jamie's book delivers.

5. A food Personality
GORDON RAMSAY..Stressful but fun to watch.
I really like him a lot hahahh

6. Another person
I would say Bear.
He enjoys food so much and is so willing to try new things, that it inspires me to try out different recipes.
He even had me do a booklet for him so he could follow the low carb lifestyle! YEAH!!!

The process

The dough (easy buy at Publix)




The Sweet Peppers (Tip: you can freeze what you don't use, till you are ready for it)
The Sauce (secret we use medium heat chunky salsa and a dash (one TBSP) of sugar/honey)



The Pineapple (get the smaller bits. These chunks are large so we have to cut them further)



The Cheese (a mixture of cheeses..very cheap)











The sausages (This is a hot and spicy smoked sausage I use from the breakfast meat section)

Quick Dressing

If you don't know how to cook, and you are making a salad on your own, here are a couple ideas.

Marsha's Sweet Tart Dressing
Makes One- Two servings

2 Tbsp (6 caps full) Lemon Juice concentrate
2tbsp canola oil
1 tbsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp chili powder
1tbsp sugar or honey
1/2 tsp black powder

Mix thoroughly by whisking all ingredients in a small bowl. Ingredianets should all blend in thoroughly. Taste to see if needs a pinch of salt.
Pour onto salad.


Modified Sweet Tart
Replace 1tbsp Lemon juice concentrate with 1 tbsp of blasamic Vinegar

Pizza is EASY

Once you can buy the dough at publix and roll it out at home hahah.
Add the tomato sauce, hot spicy sausage, sweet peppers and pineapple!
Voila!
A great pizza.
That you can't eat much of because you are doing a low carb lifestyle hahahah

BAOZI

We call it POW in Trinidad, so when I looked it up, there was nothing to be found.
I asked Nikki (The Trinidad Gourmet) and she is writing it all out for me and promised to have it on her site by midnight. I have only ever eaten ONE BAOZI ever in life. I love it but nver wanted to buy it very often because it looked a little bit unappetizing.
It is so white that it looks like uncooked dough from afar.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
It is like a steamed bread with a filling which can be meat or vegetables or anything you could possibly want really.
I want to try to make it.
I am still low carbing so I may not eat much but I stilll want to try it.
The Trini way is different of course.
The POW/BAO/BAOZI looks like bread, not dumplings. More like the second picture.


THANKS NIKKI!!!!!!!

Pow
1 pkg dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp salt
about 3 1/4 cup all purpose flour unsifted
melted margarine

Filling
1 1/2 lbs meat cut into 1/4 - 1/2 inch cubes, season with 2 cloves crushed garlic, 1/2 tsp minced fresh ginger, 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp soy sauce.
Fry meat and seasoning in 1 tbsp oil over high heat (about 8 minutes), add 1 chopped onion and cook 2 minutes. Stir in Cornstarch mixture (see below) and cook stirring until sauce thickens.

Cornstarch Mixture
Combine 2 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp cornstarch, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp sherry or 1/2 old oak rum and 1/2 water and 1/4 up water

Method
1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in water
2. Blend in sugar, oil and salt
3. Let stand in warm place until bubbly (15 min.)
4. Add flour and mix until dough holds together
5. Place on lightly floured board and knead until smooth and elastic (8-10 min.)
6. Place in greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour or more)
7. Meanwhile prepare filling
8. When risen, turn dough on a lightly floured board and knead for 1 minute
9. Divide into 12 equal pieces
10. Roll each in 4 1/2 diameter, with outer edges slightly thinner
11. Place 2 tbsp filling in centre of each circle. Pull edges around and twist to seal
12. Place each bun on a piece of foil. Cover and let rise until puffy (30 min)
13. Cover and steam for 12-15 minutes. If a steamer is unavailable use a colander over boiling water.
Serve warm or cold.
Freeze if desired.

Winery

We had the Linden Reisling.
It was so very good, so sweet, so tart, so smooth, so wonderful.
The winery itself was rustic yet modern. The bathrooms were like magic hahah
I loved that experience.

The beer that taste like Chocolate

I was really surprised at this beer. I am not a big beer drinker but I was asked to try it.
It tastes like beer but when you swallow its dark chocolate. Sweet dark chocolate. In the back of your throat, so you want more and more. :)
The beer is surprising, very good, and costs about 6.00 US per bottle in the gourmet food store beer section.
It's called Trappistes Rochefort. I highly recommend it.

Easy Low Carb Entree

This is a salad.
Choc full of cooked peas and carrots, whole cherry tomatoes, artichokes (vigo brand rinsed) grapes, raisins, blackbeans, and cooked spicy sausage, in a light cream dressing.
I love this meal.
Fills me up.
Low carb (corn is starchy), and delicious. Yeh the lighting in my kitchen sucks.

Artichoke

The best artichokes to use for cooking, or in salads is the Vigo brand.
Packaged in brine, it doesn't have that sharp acidic taste like other brands and it is not oily.
I swear by this.
That is my tip for the day.

When you are in the US for a while you long for all things Trini.
Bear took me to a caribbean store that he found on line and we went through all the isles.
I described everything to him and he listened intently and asked questions. He bought everything I recommended to try.
He even drank a can of Trinidad Orange Juice and loved it.
Although I found out later that he didn't reconstitute it. I thought that was funny because when I was growing up, that juice had to stretch!!
We made two big jugs from one can!
I saw SOLO!
I saw Chubby
I saw Peardrax! I love Peardrax. Bear asked me why was it called drax. I said because it was carbonated. He wanted to know why DRAX. I thought for a while and made up an answer that didnt make sense..then told him I wasn't sure...Why do they call it drax?
We saw cow heel and sweetbreads and other innards. They also had black pudding which I described, and Bear announced he didn't think it would be a good idea to eat that. Thankfully I stopped eating that years ago, so I didn't crave it.
Who knew that grocery shopping could be so exciting!

Caribbean Food and the Americans Who Eat It

Bear was very interested in tasting all that I have ever tasted, so we found this store and went crazy in there so he could taste everything. He liked the doubles and the Jamaican patties a lot. He liked the chow mein (we went carb happy for one day), and the curry goat and white rice. We got Kurma, sweet red plums, Mango amchar, kuchela and pommceyterre chow. His favorite was the tamarind balls.
He despised the pommceyterre chow. He took one bite and said "No! This is not for me!" and promptly tried to stuff it back into the bag while he was driving.
I was laughing so hard with my mouth full of chow and trying to get him to stop!
Then I realized that the chow was NASTY..there was a bitter aftertaste that would not quit (preservatives I think). They really go crazy with the potassium sorbate in Trinidad.
The chow went into the garbage bag.
He also wanted to try the provisions, the green banana.
I advised against it. He insisted.
He ate one piece and decided it had to go. He asked sweetly (after his face showed utter discontent with what he had just consumed) if I wanted to try it, and I shook my head no!
The provisions went into the garbage bag, along with his mouthful of the black cake.
We also had channa. The only things that went into the garbage bag after that were the empty wrappers.