No Crap Cooking http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com Chef Charmaigne cooking in the real world. Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:51:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 All Trussed Up & Nowhere to Go http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=336 http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=336#comments Sat, 17 Jul 2010 20:51:19 +0000 Chef Charmaigne http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=336 Chickens ain’t what they used to be. My mother bought chickens that walked and ran and attempted to fly in their lifetimes…..they developed some muscle before they were sent through the head chopper machine.
  Her mother bought chickens from the butcher, who, in turn, had bought them from a farmer who had hired some workers to go out and chase them down in their big, outdoor pens, bring them to the chopping block and chop off their heads.
 And HER mother went out into her own yard, chased down the chicken herself, picked it up by its head and deliberately, gracefully and gratefully spun its body around until head and body were inexorably parted.
What does that have to do with cooking? Hang on, I’m getting there.  In those generations, we see the chicken losing ground (literally), in that their environs become smaller and smaller and their opportunities for movement, exercise, and muscle development, deteriorate, and, so, their fat content increases.
These days, chickens are raised in such tight environments that they never have a chance to move more than a couple of steps in one direction or another.
NOW the cooking part. Trussing. Tying up the chicken so that the thighs, legs, and breast cook evenly and are done at the same time. This was what was required when chickens had leg muscles, when they walked and squawked and ran and flapped wings around a yard or a pen or a coop. There was a time when the well-used legs and thighs would cook faster than the breast if you did not truss them up against the body and create one tight “chicken roast.” 
Trussing is obsolete. Unless you can, want to, have a desire to, have available, see the value in, and can pay accordingly for free range chicken, what you get in the grocery store is a chicken who has never moved and whose thighs, if human, would have huge saddlebags. Cooks slower. Repeat. Cooks slower. If you truss such a beast, by the time the big, fat old thighs are fully cooked, the breasts will be dried out.
So, let that chicken’s freak flag fly. Roast it on its back, legs out. Twist the wings over themselves and then under the shoulder so they hold. When is the bird done? When the thigh meat is at 165 degrees. Some chefs will say not to use a meat thermometer because it lets out moisture, but in today’s chickens there is enough fat in those thighs that you could not possibly dry them out. I would not test the breast meat, as was suggested years and years and years ago and still seems to be the chicken mantra, because you CAN damage that (for some people, most favored) part of the fragile would-be bird.
Then, when satisfied that the fatty thigh is adequately cooked, take that chicken out of the oven or the grill or the smoker, set it on a rack, cover it and let it sit for 10 minutes. Why? Because when a hunk of meat is cooked, the moisture retreats inward. When it then sits, the moisture expands from the interior back to the outer regions (same in roasts, steaks, chops, burgers).
Now you have a completely cooked, moist, delicious, chicken that will astound (okay, astound may be strong, but it will be a complete success) your family and guests.
And that’s No Crap Cooking.
]]> http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=336 0 Catfish, Hardheads and Hurricanes http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=332 http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=332#comments Tue, 01 Jun 2010 22:52:57 +0000 Chef Charmaigne http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=332 The last week at the windy beach.  Sitting nonchalantly in the tent, playing cribbage, as the wind kicks up a little.  We're not too concerned…..it's been 20-35 miles an hour the entire stay.  Suddenly, the SE facing tent poles bend in and we know there's trouble.  Frantically holding up the pole from the inside, we start to rescue our belongings, tossing them into the Jeep while fighting winds that eventually reached 62 miles an hour.  The top of the tent snaps and the tarp is now a parachute, trying to lift us and the tent across the estuary!

Fighting hard, we get the fly off and the tent down so it stays in place.  In the car, we check the weather on the net to see what's going on and how much worse it will get.  We read…."Light rain and 15 mile an hour winds."   You have to laugh at the ridiculosity of that, don't you? We look at the devastation and know that we just can't stay here and look at this any longer.  We're vulnerable, traumatized, shaking from the adrenalin, needing a beer.  That night we spend in a hotel, go to town the next morning, buy a new tent, and return to see what the damage is.  Snapped poles, twisted joints, ripped connections……but we saved all our gear and ourselves.

As we're cleaning up, Jo starts laughing and calls out, "Look over here, it looks like we have squatters!"  The waves had hit a retaining wall, sometimes 7 feet high blowing over it, and had deposited in our wreck of a tent, 40 feet away from the wall, some funny little crabs who were enjoying pools of saltwater that had formed.  They scampered about, looking for a safer place to be and I had to laugh.  It is what it is and it will all be okay.

We later caught some large hardhead….sea water catfish.  The local fisherman don't keep them, I guess, and I wanted to know why, so I filleted them.  These cat have much larger heads than channel cat or lake cat, so they have to be really large to get any good fillets from them.  That's one reason the locals throw them back, I guess.  Some people just don't like catfish.

I oiled them up and grilled them over mesquite, skin side down, without any spices or sauces because I wanted to taste them first.  The meat is very fleshy, almost like chicken or even pork,  with little flaking.  Very solid.  The taste is like channel cat, but milder on the fishiness. I liked it very much and the next day I skinned them and made sandwiches from the leftovers.  Very nice.  I would do it again, but I will never camp in a tent on the bay in Rockport, Tx again.  Hotel…maybe…rent a fishing guide, let them do all the work, take a nice mess of fillets home….redfish, flounder, sheepshead, grouper…hmm, sounds good. 

And that's No Crap Cooking.

 

]]> http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=332 0 Escape to the Bay for Windy Cooking http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=330 http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=330#comments Fri, 21 May 2010 00:24:22 +0000 Chef Charmaigne http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=330 Sitting on the bay, watching the Gulf waving in and out, Laughing Gulls, Pelicans and Great Blue Herons soaring overhead playing with the wind gusts and breezes, I'm wondering how on earth I'm going to cook dinner with no electric or gas burners, no firepit, and 30 mile an hour wind gusts.  It's going to be a charcoal thing, but keeping them lit until they're hot might be a trick.

We left caterpillar heaven (or was it hell), but not until the day after a torrential rain carried by a an enormous thunderstorm hit us overnight.  The tent pulled in a little water, but it wasn't too bad considering the river that was running through the campsite.  When I stepped on the tent floor, it was like walking on a water bed; the tarp had a few pools of water that eventually leaked into the tent; and anything we had on the ground got washed into the woods. 

Next day, waking up to a little lakefront property, we took everything to the laundry to dry out and packed it up.  I had no idea that caterpillars had started coccoons all over the place…..everywhere they found a fold in some fabric, or the tubular end of a tent post, any little hidey hole, we found coccoons.  Cleaning them out was not a pleasant task and we were shocked to discover that coccoons on tent nylon meant holes.  Tiny little holes.  I don't know if the caterpillar chewed on the tent or if the coccoon somehow damaged it, but there we are.  So beware of those evil little furry things.

So, back to the coals and the wind on the bay.  I put a pile way in the back of the grill and they did well.  Buried potatoes filled with slices of elephant garlic and a veggie mix of onion, bell papper, carrot and tomatoes from the produce stand.  Over a new pile of coals, even though the fire on them wouldn't go out, I seared and grilled pork chops with Cajun seasoning — sort of a blackened thing.  It worked out.

Last night, the wind stopped about midnight and we looked at each other in awe at the stillness, the silence.  About 15 minutes later, it came in from the oppostie direction at twice the speed and totally blew down my kitchen tent while I was wrestling to get it taken apart before it was destroyed.  So, I'll be cooking out in the open for a couple of weeks here.

That's not all bad.  It's fun to watch the gulls.  They seem to know when food prep is going on and several come and hang out, fight over territory, yell at me for scraps, creeping up from behind. As soon as everything's on the grill, though, they are gone to better hunting grounds, as if they were trained. Then I was laughing at them, as they laught at the world.

Tonight dinner's a cinch.  We went to a movie in town (Robin Hood..it was okay) to escape the wind for awhile (you know, the wind can make you crazy) and brought back popcorn.  No grilling, no setting up a kitchen in the wind, no fighting charcoals or Laughing Gulls.  Maybe I'll sit in the tent, listening to the poles grind, the tarp flap, the waves beating against the retaining wall, the saltwater spray hitting the front of the tent, and read a book by rope light, munching on movie theater popcorn.  LIfe is good.

And that's No Crap Cooking.

]]> http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=330 0 Too Much Catfish? Never! http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=328 http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=328#comments Wed, 12 May 2010 18:23:52 +0000 Chef Charmaigne http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=328 After having had some success catching the catfish (20", 23", 17", etc.), the two of us find ourselves inundated with fillets and without the proper equipment to freeze it.  So it's catfish crazy for a couple of days.

The river site where we sit for a couple of hours every day is quite beautiful.  There are cardinals, chickadees, tufted titmice, snakes, turtles, alligator gar, (a strange animal, shaped something like an eel with larger fins and a long, thin snout, full of teeth.  They just swin by casually, gracefully, and then open that big mouth and SNAP, five minnows gone from the river),  sun perch, hawks, caterpillars (of course), butterflies, and blue skies with big fluffy clouds to watch while waiting for that big one to come along and CHOMP on that sad little worm.  Nice thing about catfish…they don't care if the worm is dead, so you can keep it in the water all day if you want to.

We take the fish back to the campsite and I clean and fillet them.  We have a cleaver that works pretty well through that thick spine right behind the gills, so I can kill them quickly.  I don't want to HURT them, I just want to eat them. they're great tasting, easy to fillet, and don't have scales.  That part makes me happy when cleaning time comes.

SO, what's for dinner?  One meal is catfish grilled, skin on, with buried potatoes and carrots.  Cornmeal breaded and pan fried fillets with fresh hot cornbread (made in a skillet over the coals) and collard greens with balsamic vinegar and garlic.  Catfish en Pappillote (covered in paper and allowed to steam, but in this case, foil ), with Dijon onion coating, green beans with bacon and onion, and a fresh salad with avocado and shrimp.  Then, I guess we'll have to go fishing again.

Well, there's always catch and release.  After all, it's the process that really makes the day.  It's fun to take fish home and clean, cook and eat them.  I think it's the barbarian in me….ugh me like fish!  But I think I've had enough catfish fillets for awhile and am really anxious to get to that tenderloin I bought a couple of days ago.  Jalapeno Bacon wrapped, charred on the grill and bare,y medium rare..perfect.

And that's No Crap Cooking.

]]> http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=328 1 Spring, Sprung, Sprang http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=325 http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=325#comments Fri, 07 May 2010 21:52:26 +0000 Chef Charmaigne http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=325 It was a wet fall and winter in South Texas and now spring has brought some amazing things.  Nature is exploding.  Not just wildflowers like rainbow carpets covering the world, not just verdant greens in the grasses and trees, but more bugs than you might possibly imagine.  In addition to thousands of caterpillars crawling all over everything, there are scorpions, water bugs (rolly pollies we used to call them) so thick they cover anything with moisture in it, moths and butterflies and Palmetto bugs, june bugs, beetles of all colors, dragonflies of about 100 species, mosquitos, gnats, ants, and did I mention caterpillars?

It's a cornucopia of the smallest….well, except some of the spiders aren't so small….and although annoying at times, it is absolutely amazing.  All these critters make things a little more difficult when you want to cook, for sure, and being screened in helps.  The caterpillars, though, just go through in droves.  They seem to be drawn to dark things, like my shoes, the cooler, the tent.  We keep putting them on the trees, but they come right back down for the sheer pleasure of crawling on us.

It's so hot, also, that sometimes just the thought of cooking is daunting.  Lately, there have been dinner salads, smoked turkey thighs, brats, and , of course, the necessary and ever delicious visit to Dairy Queen.  We do the best we can to eat healthy, with bananas always on hand for the phosphorous we sweat out, melons and oranges for the vitamins, apples for the fiber, plenty of water and, when we can get them, fresh fish. 

Being outdoors often means you just have to go with the flow.  Cooking at home can be like that too.  Not every meal can be a feast or a gourmet delight, but there are always healthy and fresh ways to have a little fun with eating.  What's wrong, for instance, with cutting up some fruit and vegetables and serving them for dinner with a couple of dipping sauces?  It's a surprise for everyone, easy for you, and something you will love doing. Not every meal has to be meat, starch and vegetable.

RIght now I'm watching a pair of Bewick's wrens build a nest in the camp chair we left folded up last night.  It's too bad we have to move them out: they are beautiful little birds.  There is a male cardinal protecting his mate from an encroacher and I can hear two owls chattering loudly, fighting over territory. A group of butterflies are playing in the sun like a children's fairy tale and the smell of potatoes and onions cooking, buried int he coals, accents the very welcome breeze.

LIfe is good outdoors.

And that's No Crap Cooking. 

]]> http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=325 0 Caterpillars and Caterpillars and More, Oh My http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=323 http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=323#comments Mon, 03 May 2010 23:25:33 +0000 Chef Charmaigne http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=323
This is a beautiful park. A small lake offers walking trails, paddle boats, canoes, and fishing. The river runs through and there is the western-most stand of Palmetto trees in a small swamp surrounded by trails and green forest everywhere. The wildflowers are crazy this year, the skies are clear and blue every day and the nights cool and sweet.
All this….and caterpillars. That may not sound like much, but I have never seen the bugs like this before in my life. They’re cute and fuzzy, sure, and harmless..or so you think. They crawl around in the trees (until they fall out) and eat and poop. Then that poop dries into little hard seed-like pellets and drops from the sky like a light summer rain. It falls into the world below and takes over, covering the ground, the tables, the rocks, and precipitates a kind of personal possession protection mania.
Of course there’s an upside to all this. In October they will be tens of thousands of butterflies in this small space, making the world magical and new. And, I get a screen house for my travelling kitchen. It’s a lovely structure, 13×9 with an enclosed roof and doors front and back, and easy to set up. Will I fit it into the vehicle when we move again in two weeks? Maybe not, but then, for 35 dollars, I can leave it behind and but another if I have to. It’s worth it to not be attacked by flies, mosquitoes, caterpillar poop and bees looking for a new home in my Dutch oven.
So, slow grilled ribs in a covered (thank heavens) grill, with baked potato and glazed carrots. The trick with slow grilling is to use few coals and add a few gradually as the  foo ddemands more heat. The meat should not be browning in the process…if it is, the coals are too hot. If you keep the heat low, the ribs can stay on that grill for hours if you want them to and you can add wood chips and sauce at the end to get some browning and add the extra flavors you want.
Sitting in the new screen house, watching several pairs of cardinals flitting, two species of woodpecker fighting, hummingbirds coming in to see if we have the feeder out, the sun a gentle yellow in a sky so blue you can’t look at it, a bridal orchestra serenading and the light percussive caterpillar poop falling on the roof, eating ribs that leave sauce and fat all over my face and hands, potato slathered with butter and sweet carrots melting in my mouth. Heaven.
And that’s No Crap Cooking.
]]> http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=323 3 But My Kid Won’t Eat Anything Else http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=319 http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=319#comments Tue, 27 Apr 2010 21:08:20 +0000 Chef Charmaigne http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=319 In California, some counties are looking at trying to ban toys in fast food meals in order to make for healthier kids.  That's Crap.  They're not eating the TOYS….and they certainly didn't drive themselves there and order and pay for the fatty or sugary or cholesterol laden lovelies on the menu.  If there are toys that make kids fat, they're computer based games and television.

If your kid never eats at McDonald's, they won't want it.  If they don't have video stimulation to hypnotize them all day, they'll find other entertainment.  If you don't take them to BK, they won't get there.

What's wrong with parents taking some responsibilty?  Do we think we have to legislate every restaurant in order for kids to eat healthy?  What about the junk sold in grocery stores, advertised on television, served at school lunches, or given to kids every day at home?  It's no one's fault….it's everybody's fault.

Our kids are fat because we're fat.  They eat badly because that's what we give them.  They sit around inactive all day because we let them. They don't know what broccoli looks like fresh because we never taught them.  They don't know how to cook because we don't bother to teach them or we don't bother to learn.  They can get processed food cheaper and easier because we have killed the farm industry with our love for fast, convenient, and fatty.

Slow down.  Look at how pretty the fruits and vegetables are, Junior, wouldn't you like to take a bite out of that?  No?  You want to go to McDonald's and get a Happy Meal?  Ok, here are the car keys….drive carefully.  Oh, you don't drive?  You don't have any money?  Are you hungry?  Well, then eat this.  No?  Okay, see you at breakfast.

And that's No Crap Cooking

 

]]> http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=319 0 Hot Summer, Cool Food http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=316 http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=316#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 20:43:45 +0000 Chef Charmaigne http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=316 In Texas now, it's sometimes 80 degrees during the day, which is great for me because I like it hot, but hard on the ice supply in our coolers.  With a little ingenuity and some spending money, we have come up with a great solution.

Coleman makes a cooler with an electric cooling unit whose science is a mystery to me, but it weighs no more that a regular cooler, is a good size, and cools 40 degrees below the outside temperature.  When it gets hotter than 80, we put a plastic, lidded, container of ice in the bottom to help it out a little. Another issue is that it will frost when the temp is under 60.  The solution to that is a timer, set to turn the fan off and on every hour from 3am to 8am.  Very little ice, if any, is ever required.

The companion to that is a small, portable (26 pounds) ice maker which we plug in and leave in the tent.  It makes enough ice to keep all our drinks cold and for us to use in our drinks.  I think Emerson is the make we have.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.  These two things cost about 400 dollars with shipping and tax, etc., and will pay for themselves in about 2 months figuring how much we have been spending on ice. Maybe you don't need to go that far for your camping needs, but we've been out in the wild since September and will most likely still be here until winter, so it makes my life a lot easier.

So, what's for dinner?  Big, fat ham steak heated and browned over the coals and glazed with a steak sauce, Dijon mustard sauce.  It was very quick and the browning on it makes a great flavor addition.  I boiled some whole, skin on sweet potatoes until they were about 90% done, cooled them and cut them into about 1 inch thick slices.  I dipped them in melted butter with a little cayenne added and put them over the coals as well, basting again when turning them over.  Delicious. 

This was a very easy meal.  I nearly always whole boil potatoes before using them because it saves so much time and trying to cook them with coals is so unpredictable…no two fires are the same.  I make sauces based on what I have on hand, of course, but try to enhance flavors by using opposites (like sweet ham with acidic, tart, spicy and sweet potatoes with umami and spicy). This keeps capsite cooking from getting boring and keeps the taste buds happy.

By the way….I really didn't think about the fact that General Delivery is only used by the US Postal Service.  I ordered the machines I mentioned on line and then discovered that one dealer used UPS and one Fedex.  It took an hour and a half to find out which offices were holding our packages and over 2 to find the offices, do the pick up, and get out of town as fast as we could.  The map we used to get to UPS was….well…confusing once we got in the area and we got a little lost…..strange city, driving in the rain, industrial area, winding roads, roads with no street signs, roads that merge into one, change names, and then change names again, local people getting frustrated watching the tourists drive too slowly in their streets, making u-turns over and over again…..and then on the way to Fedex we hit Airport and rush hour traffic, didn't find it in the right spot, asked the locals (who had no clue), and finally saw it way back off the road, arriving 10 minutes before they closed.  It was a stressful day.  But successful.

That evening's dinner?  Ham sandwiches with lettuce, raw onion and Dijon mustard.

And that's No Crap Cooking!

The moral of that story is "General Delivery" is not an address

 

 

 

 

]]> http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=316 0 Over the Coals the Tenderloin http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=313 http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=313#comments Wed, 21 Apr 2010 19:27:03 +0000 Chef Charmaigne http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=313 A wonderful night at the campsite.  The weather is warm, the birds are going crazy because they, like me, are so happy to feel the sun again.  One of them (probably a cardinal) took advantage of my forgetfulness and feasted on the potato bread I left out on the table.  Don't blame him, it's good bread, and it has a long enough shelf life that we can get it eaten before it starts to mold.  What's for dinner?

Well, yes we went fishing a couple of times…once in the rain…but the fish have outsmarted us.

After being rained on for a couple of days, I'm really ready for something over the coals.  A couple of 5 oz. beef tenderloins sounds really nice.  I soaked two slices of bacon in  some water with a little lemon juice in it, and a lot of pepper.  These get wrapped around the tenderloins and I'm putting them over hot hardwood coals, the grill only about 2 inches above the heat.  They get nicely browned and cook to a perfect medium rare in a few minutes.

Meantime, a nice crunchy salad is on the way.  Spring onion, green bell pepper, navel orange sections, cucumber diced, and crisp iceberg lettuce.  I don't carry salad dressings in the cooler, so I will make one with Miracle Whip, mustard, lime juice, a little milk to thin it to the right consistency and some salt.  If I used mayonnaise, I would add a little sugar.  This is really a delicious dressing and you can use the ingredients in proportions that suit your own taste.

Now I have some cabbage that needs to be used, so I chop it and put it into the pan with some heated hot sesame oil (spicy), add some chopped onion, salt, and let it start cooking.  Later, I add a little beer to facilitate the braising, and diced apple.  I use Fuji apples with cabbage because they have a very nice balance of tart and sweet.  When the cabbage is done, this dish is delicious with the combination of sweet, umami, spicy, tart and bitter (cabbage).

I love this meal.  Simple, fun to eat, great tasting,

And that's No Crap Cooking.

]]> http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=313 0 Rainy Day Campsite Catfish http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=309 http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=309#comments Thu, 15 Apr 2010 20:50:14 +0000 Chef Charmaigne http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?p=309 I haven't been fishing in about 30 years and wasn't sure if I'd be any good at it, but I remembered everything and only got my jig caught in a tree once. Kind of like riding a bike.  It was a beautiful evening, we were facing west watching the sun set, listening to the loudest frogs I've ever heard (like a cross between a foghorn and a lovesick cow, with a little gear grinding as accent), and the strangest (like wood blocks knocking together in a bathroom), and getting worms perpetually nibbled off the hooks by tiny Bluegill.

So we'd catch the Blues and throw them way out in the lake so we could keep our bait for larger prey.  As it started to get dark, the catfish were biting.  It was exciting for me because you don't need a lot of expertise to catch cats: they pretty much do all the work for you.They hit the hook hard and start running (well, swimming) and once I pulled them in, most of the time I still had bait on the hook.

  I didn't have any gloves, so we used some small hand towels to keep from getting impaled. Once it got too dark to see anything, we came in.I was like a kid again….do we have to go in now?  Can't I cast just one more time?  It's like gambling: you're sure you will lose out on the big one if you stop.  I wasn't too sure how I would feel about the cleaning, but it was natural after all the chickens I've scraped out and the bass I've filleted. 

The hard part was that it was pitch dark.  Hooking up the trouble light was a great idea, except I hadn't taken into account how many bugs there would be wanting to share that light. I was pitilessly attacked by all until we sprayed the area and me with bug repellent. I used an oven mitt to protect from the bony protuberances the catfish would call fins. I won't go into further detail, except to say that it's amazing how long a catfish head will continue to breathe and stare at you accusingly while you dismantle it's body, it's snakey whiskers waving menacingly.  A little gruesome, but also very amusing. There's a song I barely remember from my childhood about rolly polly fish heads. And the largest Bluegill I caught was actually half head.  I guess you have to have a whole mess of them to make it worthwhile, but who wants to do all that cleaning for a couple bites?

It's a gratifying thing to catch and clean your own food.  I know where my fish come from and I liked having to work at it.  It's similar to the satisfaction I get growing vegetables and herbs for my kitchen (when I have one),but a lot messier.

Today, it's raining pretty hard, so frying is out.  I have hotplates in the tent, but I can just imagine spattering oil and the inimitable smell hanging in the air all night..or worse yet a flame up, which of course never really happens…so I have to be a little creative.  If I use a cast iron pan, preheated, lidded, I could bake the fish with an onion and mustard coating, some garlic, a little chipotle rub.

Add to that some fresh spring onion, boiled potatoes with garlice butter sauce, and an ice cold beer and I think we have a meal.  We'll sit in the tent and put on a movie (maybe Singin in the Rain), eating fresh spicy catfish, creamy and pungent, while the rain beats our roof, and we'll smile like the Cheshire cat with a dreamy look in our eyes.

And that's No Crap Cooking.

]]> http://www.nocrapcookingblog.com/?feed=rss2&p=309 0