A Tasty Breakfast For One -or- How to Make Use of Leftovers

Every Kitchen Ruler should know how to cook for him/herself.

A lot of people use the idea of being alone as an excuse NOT to cook. I think being alone is a fantastic opportunity to play in the kitchen, especially when making breakfast. If you have eggs and a little milk, you’re halfway there to making a delicious frittata for yourself. If you don’t want to spend money that day, you’re in for a treat.

One of the good things about a frittata is that once you master the idea behind it, you can actually serve it for brunch (maybe even dinner) on a larger scale. Play around with the recipe below and let me know what you think.

The basic idea is quite simple: anything goes. This is a great time to open your fridge and see what you have in there. Look for leftover meats, look for leftover half-cut up veggies, look for some greens. That’s it. Use common sense in deciding what goes with eggs, but you will find that mostly anything goes. Except for saucy pasta. I don’t think it could work. Maybe you can prove me wrong.

What did I find? I had some leftover boneless buffalo wings, scallions, eggs and milk. Let’s make some room in the fridge and make you something tasty in the process.

What you’ll need:

• A small personal-sized skillet. If you don’t have one, use a medium one. Make sure it does NOT have a plastic handle.
• A small bowl
• A chopping board and a knife
• 3-4 eggs (depending on size)
• ¼ cup of milk
• Your other ingredients. For the sake of this recipe, we’ll assume you have (1) Meat and (1) Green. (Peppers, onions and other vegetables work really well here as well)
• 1/3 cup of finely grated melt-able cheese (Cheddar is better!)
• Olive Oil or Olive Oil Spray (see below)

Difference between olive oil and olive-oil-flavored spray:

I am not gonna lie to you: Olive oil is much better for you than any flavored spray you can buy. However, practically speaking, olive oil is much more expensive and doesn’t always work the right way. For cooking eggs, I thoroughly recommend the spray. Why? You can cover the entire bottom of the pan. It’s cheaper. It doesn’t distract from the flavor. But the main reason: it won’t pool up under the eggs preventing them from being cooked right on the hot skillet surface.

If you’re unfamiliar with olive-oil flavored sprays, this is the basic one to have in your cupboard. It lasts forever and can be a handy tool for any Kitchen Ruler:




Step 1:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.


Step 2:

Finely chop up your protein or veggie additives (in my case, the leftover boneless buffalo wings). Finely chop up your greens (in my case, scallions).


Step 3:

Generously spray your skillet with olive-oil-flavored spray. Put on low heat to warm.


Step 4:

Crack 3-4 eggs into a vessel. Add the milk. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Add a pinch of cheese. Throw in the protein. Mix thoroughly until the yolks are broken and the mixture is uniform.


Step 5:

Pour the entire mixture into your skillet. Turn the heat to medium-high and leave alone for 3-4 minutes. Watch for the bottom of the mixture to firm up while the top remains somewhat eggy.


Step 6:

Pour the remainder of your cheese on top of the mixture. Now pour the chopped greens on top.


Step 7:

Take your skillet off the stovetop and put it into the oven. Leave in there for about 5-7 minutes (or until the top begins to look crispy).


Step 8:

Take out and serve right off the skillet immediately with a side of a leafy green salad and maybe some hot sauce if you are into that. Here’s what the it looked like before plating:



Since you’ll be eating by yourself, feel free to serve it any way you like. (I prefer to cut slices, like it’s a pizza pie.)

Enjoy!

Simply Sexy Salad

Let’s say you have that “special guest” coming over and aside from your signature main course, you want to offer a nice and simple and sexy salad. You may think that referring to a salad as “sexy” is strange, but just follow me on this one.

You certainly won’t have much time to cook during your encounter with that special guest, so it has to be something you can easily prepare on the fly and with flair.

The key is preparing ahead of time. Check this out:


For the salad you’ll need:

(1) Medium bunch of arugula (about an inch diameter of the bottom stalks). Look for crisp leaves with no discoloration. Dirt is OK…discoloration is bad news: Arugula should be a deep green…not brown.

(1½ cup) Mixed greens. Avoid anything that looks less than fresh. Dirt is OK…discoloration is bad news

(1) Small chunk of Parmegiano Reggiano (Never accept any other Parmesan cheese as a substitute) If it’s less than $6.99/pound, it’s not the real thing.

(1) Medium red onion

(2) Tablespoons olive oil (not the cheap stuff—see below)

(3) Blood oranges (If you can’t find blood oranges, use navel oranges instead, but choose the best-looking ones)

(2) Garlic cloves (avoid ones that have ANY discoloration)


For the dressing you’ll need:

(3) Tablespoons lemon juice

(2) Tablespoons olive oil (not the cheap stuff—see below)

(1) teaspoon honey

Sea Salt and Crushed/Ground Black Pepper


A word about olive oil:

When you are making homemade salad dressing, your choice of olive oil will be key. There are a lot of opinions out there about what olive oil is good and what is bad, but what we can all agree on is that it is an expensive choice, no matter how you choose.

Some of the readers of this blog (two of my good friends that happen to be obsessed with Italy in particular) are probably better sources for a discussion about the nuances of olive oil producing regions and the effect they produce. Having tried a number of the common commercially-available bottles, I I think any Kitchen Ruler should have a bottle of Colavita Extra Virgin Olive Oil. It looks like this:



If you happen to live in New York, the same spice shop I recommended in an earlier post (one on 9th avenue between 40th and 41st street) has the cheapest price for a medium-sized bottle that should last you a month or two. I think it was somewhere around $16

As I wrote earlier, the more prepared you are, the better it is. So here’s the easy pre-recipe.


Step 1:

Wash the mixed greens in a colander (even though these are usually pre-washed). Wash away any dirt and watch for any discoloring: throw those greens right out. Dry the clean greens by wrapping them loosely in paper towels. After drying them, throw them in a large mixing bowl.


Step 2:

Chop off the stalks off the arugula. Put the leaves in a colander and wash EXTREMELY THOROUGHLY. Dry the clean arugula afterward by wrapping it loosely in paper towels. After drying them, set aside on a cutting board.

While incredibly tasty, this leafy vegetable is generally quite dirty when bought. A helpful hint: try to place all the arugula leaves uniformly throughout the colander so that the bottoms of all leaves are standing on the bottom of the colander. Then rinse the entire colander under running cold water (do NOT use hot or even lukewarm water) for about a minute or two. By the time you’re done washing, you should no specks of dirt on the leaves.


Step 3:

Chop the arugula on your cutting board. The idea here is to chop each leaf into thirds. Once you’re done, throw the cuttings into your large bowl with mixed greens.

You should now have something that looks like this:




Step 4:

Cut your red onion into thin slivers. Crush 2 garlic cloves and chop very finely.

Easy onion-cutting tip so you don’t cry before your date and look overly-sensitive when you greet your date at the door:

Use your sharpest knife. Chop off both tips of the onion. Run your knife along the outer edge of the onion to take off two layers. Now chop the whole thing in half, lengthwise. Pick out each half-core from the middle of each onion half with your fingers and throw it out: this is the bit of the onion that makes you cry like a baby.



Place each one on its flat side and cut thin slices all the way down. Break each slice with your hands to get thin half-moon slivers.


Step 5a:--If you're going to eat within 45 minutes

On medium-high, heat (2) Tablespoons of olive oil in a medium pan. When you see the oil surface shimmering, throw in your chopped garlic. After about 30 seconds, throw in your red onions. Mix thoroughly immediately and let cook until the edges of the red onion look burnt (about 5 minutes on medium heat). Turn off the heat and let cool for a minute or two. Pour the entire mixture over the mixed greens and arugula in your large bowl. Stir the entire contents immediately. Put in fridge until it’s show time.

Step 5b: If you're going to eat after 45 minutes

Follow step 5a 15 minutes before you're planning to eat.


Step 6:

You're going to eat in less than 10 minutes. Peel your orange and chop it into bite-size triangle pieces. Make sure to chop off any inner orange skin (the stuff that has that white fuzzy stuff on it). Throw this on top of your salad.


Step 7:

It’s time to make your dressing. Try to make it look easy. It actually is.

All you have to do is mix (2) Tablespoons of olive oil, (3) Tablespoons of lemon juice, (1) teaspoon of honey with salt and pepper to taste. I like to use a whisk for this step.

Pour this mixture over your premade salad.


Step 8:

Shave slices of Parmegiano Reggiano using your four-sided grater. Try to make them as thin and as uniform as possible. Generously throw these on top of the salad.

Helpful tip: If your slices are coming out too thick, feel free to break them up using your fingers. But there’s a technique to slicing thin slices off a chunk of Parmegiano Reggiano... practice makes perfect.

You should now be ready to serve. By the time you’re ready to do so, it should look something like this:

ENJOY!

Easy Breezy Spice Rub

Now that you have bought your basic spices, it’s now to put them to use and save you some money. The average price of McCormick Grill Mates® Spice Rub costs almost $4. It also contains ingredients such as silicon dioxide and maltodextrin. No one needs to eat that, especially not Kitchen Rulers and their guests.

Below is a very easy and tasty recipe that works great on chicken and pork. This recipe can be made in 2 minutes right before you need to grill something or roast something. Like any other spice rub, it can be adjusted based on what you like more, so feel free to play with the proportions.

You’ll need:

2 tablespoons paprika
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon ground black pepper
½ tablespoon garlic powder
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon sea salt

Mix all ingredients thoroughly. Work out all the clumps. By the time you’re done mixing, you should have something that looks like this:



This rub will cost pennies on the dollar, and it will be fresher, tastier and healthier. Leftovers should be stored in the freezer...a Ziploc® bag will work just fine. Enjoy!

Carnitas to the Rescue

I love Carnitas. I love them so much I cannot possibly write about them without capitalizing the word. Like many braised/stewed dishes, it’s THE ideal comfort food perfect to be consumed during the cold season.

What exactly are Carnitas? According to Wikipedia, it is “is a type of braised or roasted (often after first being simmered) pork in Mexican cuisine.” Also, according to Wikipedia, it usually takes 8-10 hours to make and is traditionally cooked using lard. We certainly don’t have that kind of time being busy modern-day people, and most of us are health-conscious enough to not eat lard. So as modern-day Kitchen Rulers, we must adapt: I have searched near and far for a good healthier recipe and after some tinkering in the cooking quarters, am very happy to bring you something that takes a quarter of the time and tastes incredibly delicious.

Now I know I just posted a recipe about for pork baby-back ribs…so don’t you go thinking that Rule Your Kitchen should be renamed Rule Your Pork. I promise to take a break from piggies after this, but I simply had to share this easy-to-make and yummy recipe. Warning: you will want to lick every last remnant of meat out of the serving platter.

I prefer to serve this dish either as a dish with rice and beans or as “make-your-own tacos” with the salsa/sour cream/guacamole route. You can also use this as a base for a burrito, a tamale or a quesadilla, although unlike other quesadilla combos, there is no real sense of using cheese with it, because it tends to take away from the incredible flavor of the meat.

So to feed 2 hungry people…you’ll need:

• 3—3.5 pounds of pork butt or pork shoulder. (“Pork butt” is not actually the booty of the pig….it’s actually the “shoulder” of the front quarters). See “Buying the Meat” below for more info.
• 2 cups (or more) of water
• 1½ cups of good orange juice with lots of pulp (unless pulp is not your thing).
• 10 garlic cloves
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon of grated orange peel (about 1 medium-sized orange)
• 1/3 cup of brandy
• 1 lime (optional)


Buying the Meat:

Like Alton Brown has said repeatedly on many of his “Good Eats” segments, it’s incredibly important to have a butcher that you know and trust. In my world, this butcher is A&S Foods, a fantastic Italian specialty food shop 6 blocks from my house. They always have good fresh meats that can be bought either “bone-in” (meaning “giant chunk of meat with the bone still attached” – not recommended), “bulk” (meaning “giant chunk of meat sans bone”) or “trimmed” (meaning “giant cut of meat sans bone cut into pieces of your specification with the fat trimmed off).

Simply put, “bulk” is better if you want to save some money and don’t mind doing the dirty work. “Trimmed” is better if you want the dirty work done for you and are willing to pay a little more. The first couple of times I made this dish, I asked the pros to chop up the meat. Whichever option you choose, ask to look at the meat before buying—it should be light pink in color with pretty heavy marbling and no visible discoloration.

3.5 pounds of "bulk" should look like this:



Whether “bulk” or “trimmed”, the end product you want to have is pieces no larger than 2 inches by 2 inches roughly cubed. Have only the giant pieces of fat cut off and discarded, but leave the rest of the fat in (we will need it to create flavor since it will cook off). If you’re dealing with a good butcher, he will know what you’re looking for as long as you describe it like I did above.

If you’re going to cut the meat up yourself, see “Cutting the Meat Up” below. Otherwise proceed to “Let’s Make Carnitas!!!” below.


Cutting the Meat Up:

This is easy stuff…pretend you have a block of cheese instead of a block of meat. Get your largest and sharpest carving knife. Cut the meat against the grain into 3-4 slices – about 2 inches thick each.

Now cut each slice cut into 2-inch cubes. The idea here is to maximize surface area.

Cut off big pieces of fat. (“Big pieces” are anything where the fat is a third or more of the individual cube.) Throw the excess fat away. You’re done!


Let’s Make Carnitas!!!

Step 1:

• Rinse the meat under cold water and pat dry. Place it into your best pot.

Step 2:

• WASH YOUR HANDS.

Step 3:

• Add (2) cups of water, (1½) cups of orange juice, (10) crushed garlic cloves, (2) teaspoons of salt, (1) teaspoon of black pepper, (1) teaspoon of cumin, (2) bay leaves and (1) teaspoon of orange peel into the pot. There should now be enough liquid in the pot to mostly cover the meat. If this is not the case, add enough water or orange juice to mostly cover. When you’re done, it should look something like this:



Step 4:

• Stir everything. On Medium-High, bring the uncovered contents of your pot to a boil. This will take about 15 minutes. It’ll look something like this when it’s boiling:




Step 5:

• Once the contents are boiling, bring the heat down to “Low-Medium” and cover the pot with a tightly-fitting lid for 1 hour and 45 minutes. During this time you can wash the dishes, have a couple of drinks and if necessary, add more water by ¼ cupfuls at a time to keep the meat submerged under liquid.

Step 6:

• Remove the lid and get the bay leaves out of the pot with a slotted spoon. Throw them out: they did their job well.

Step 7:

• Bring the heat to “High” and get the mixture boiling to get half the liquid boiled off. This will take about 15-20 minutes.

Step 8:

• Once the liquid has been reduced by half, pour 1/3 of a cup of brandy directly into the pot. Keep the mixture boiling, uncovered until most of the liquid is gone and the meat starts to brown. Stir gently and frequently enough to not let the meat burn (don’t be afraid to let it brown, though). You will notice that you will be unable to leave the kitchen now anyway because it smells too damn good! By the time you’re done you will have something that looks like this:




Step 9:

“Step 9” is really up to you. You can:
a) Heat up some hard or soft corn tortillas and build your own tacos alongside some pico di gallo, sour cream and guacamole.
b) Make and serve burritos with rice and beans.
c) Or you can serve it as my personal favorite—a platter with a simple lime garnish (with rice and beans and pico di gallo and sour cream!):



This is a great recipe for a home-style dinner for two people on a cold night. If you’re a fan of hot sauce, Tapatio is the way with this one. If you’re really daring, I suggest La Morena pickled jalapenos (they are actually not THAT hot). Here’s what the labels of both look like.






Leftovers can make a fantastic breakfast when paired with eggs in the morning or a nice homemade lunch that you can bring to work—it microwaves incredibly well as long as you stir it about a minute into the nuking.

I hope you enjoy!

Get Set….Ready…Go!

Through a bit of computer magic, Ruleyourkitchen.blogspot.com is now ruleyourkitchen.com!!!

Update your bookmarks…more recipes, tips and tricks and other culinary delights to come soon. Stay tuned!

A word of advice about spice (Part 1)

When you are building your kitchen kingdom, spices are in integral tool you must master and have in any cupboard. When properly used, they can make all the difference between a bland meal and one with flavor.

The main problem with spices is twofold: 1) there are too many to choose from and 2) they are usually quite expensive. So which ones should you get? Is it worth paying extra for brand names? Read below!

If you live in a major metropolitan area, I urge you to go out and find a spice shop. If you are in New York, I strongly recommend a shop located on 9th Avenue between 40th and 41st streets across from Port Authority. You will usually find the same spices you would buy in your neighborhood supermarket there, except they will be about ¼ of the price and you can buy a lot more of them since they are all sold by weight. Sure, they won’t come in neat little plastic containers with “McCormick” emblazoned on the package, but for the difference in price you can buy yourself a nice spice rack that will scream: “I know what I am doing!” And you’ll have extra when you run out. (More on spice storage in a later post).

So what basic spices should you have readily available at all times when you’re starting out? Here’s your basic list of spices you should ALWAYS have on hand:

• Oregano
• Crushed Red Pepper
• Garlic Powder
• Onion Powder
• Cinnamon
• Paprika
• Bay Leaf

Notice this list excludes Salt and Pepper. There is a reason for that.

Salt:
You should have at least two different kinds of salt in the house: sea salt and regular ol’ table salt. Why?

According to Wikipedia: “Gourmets often believe sea salt to be better than ordinary table salt in taste and texture, though one cannot always taste the difference when dissolved. In applications where sea salt's coarser texture is retained, it can provide different mouthfeel and changes in flavor due to its different rate of dissolution.”

So when you will actually be able to taste the individual salt crystals, the use of sea salt is advised. This would not be applicable if you’re making a stew, for example, where all the salt will be dissolved 5 minutes into the cooking process. Table salt will work just fine then.

It is this writer’s opinion that sea salt is also different from other “spices” in that buying it in bulk is generally not advisable. It does not store well for culinary purposes and responds poorly to slight changes in heat and humidity.

As a result, I keep a jar of this in my cupboard at all times. It has a perfect little grinder in its cap.

Pepper:

If you’re on a budget, buy the cheap stuff in a can: it’ll do the job. If, however, you feel you want to go for quality instead, I would suggest buying a pepper grinder. When you have a small kitchen like me, you may not have the storage room for the typical tall, awkward wooden thing that a waiter has to operate with both hands. Instead, I keep a handy jar of this in my cupboard beside my sea salt grinder (It also has a perfect little grinder in its cap):

You can find both grinders in the spice section in most supermarkets. Check out drogheria.com for more grinders that you can buy for specialized flavors.

The Kitchen Ruler’s Best BBQ Baby Back Ribs

I have searched near and far to find the best take-out joint to provide me satisfaction for my rib cravings. I found that nothing out there compares to the ribs you can make in your tiny kitchen. Here’s a fantastic recipe for 2 people that will leave you licking bones and wishing you had more:

What You’ll need:

• (2) half-racks of fresh baby-back ribs. If your butcher/store only has pre-packaged ribs, avoid ones that have been marinated, pre-cooked and the like. Buy a full rack if you have to, but split it up into neat halves before starting.

• (1) bottle of your favorite barbecue sauce. Avoid anything where the first ingredient on the label is NOT a tomato-based product. I like Jack Daniel’s and KC Masterpiece.

• (3) large cloves of garlic

• (1) Orange

• Salt and Pepper or your favorite pork rub.


Step 1:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Remove your broiler pan from the broiler and put it aside.

Step 2:

If dealing with a full rack of ribs: Split the ribs into two equal halves. Place your sharpest knife on top of the rack between 2 rib bones: this can be a bit tricky if you’ve never done it before, but fear not: just try to follow the edge of the bone until you get a clean cut all the way through.

Step 3:

Rinse the ribs under cold running water in your sink. Run your fingers along the bones and edges. If any bone pieces feel loose, pull them off and discard. This is a really vital step…don’t skip it even though you might not like doing it. WASH YOUR HANDS afterward.

Step 4:

Pat the ribs as dry as possible using paper towels. The easiest way to do this is by wrapping the ribs in several paper towels and applying even slight pressure along the rib. WASH YOUR HANDS afterward.

Step 5:

Tear off 2 pieces of aluminum foil, each about 6 inches longer than each half-rack. Spray some non-stick spray to one side on both. Place each rack of ribs meat side DOWN on each sheet. By now you should have this.



Step 6:

Very generously Salt-and-Pepper (or use pork rub) the bottom of each half-rack. Gently but firmly rub the mixture into the meat and crevices. Don’t worry if some of it falls off. If you’re using rub, you’ll probably have something that looks like this by now.



Step 7:

Squeeze out some BBQ sauce on the bottom of each half-rack and spread with brush. Make sure that the entire rib surface is covered. Pay special attention to the nooks and crannies of the rib…GET IN THERE with the brush!

Step 8:

Flip the ribs over. It should now be meat-side up.

Step 9:

Repeat steps 5 and 6 on the top portion of each half-rack.

Step 10:

Slice the garlic cloves thin and arrange them on top of the each half-rack. You should now have this.



Step 11:

Pinching the sides, fold the aluminum foil over the ribs tightly making a tight folded seam along the middle of each rack. Make sure the sharp bottoms of the ribs don’t pierce the foil: if they do, simply place the rib in another (looser-fitting) piece of aluminum foil. Fold the sides in overlapping triangles and fold those on top. See below for a show and tell of the wrapping technique.

Step 12:

Put the ribs on the center of the middle rack in the oven.

Step 13:

After 3.5 hours of roasting, remove the ribs from the oven.

Step 14:

Cut round thin slices of the orange.

Step 15:

Make a pan out of your own aluminum foil like shown below. Place it on top of your broiler pan. Fold the foil over on the corners to build walls. It doesn’t have to be super sturdy but it should allow for liquids to be contained, so make those corners tight!



Step 16:

Remove the ribs from their aluminum foil vessels by carefully tearing along the top crease. CAREFUL: the ribs will be HOT! Place the ribs meat-side up into the aluminum foil pan you just made.

Step 17:

Put the rest of the BBQ sauce on top of the ribs. Place your thin orange slices on top of the ribs. You should now have this.




Step 18:

Turn on your broiler.

Step 19:

Put your ribs into the broiler for no longer than 2 minutes.

Step 20:

Take the ribs out. They will gorgeous and be delicious! Serve as half racks or carve into a massive plate of individual ribs. The meat will be extremely hot and falling off the bone. Enjoy!