Loco Moco for the Lazy Gourmand

It seems like a really long time since I've posted something, and I guess it has, 3 months is a pretty long time. Sorry I haven't really put anything up here for you readers. This is something quick and simple I thought of, and while it's nothing super impressive, it makes for some good comfort food. For me personally, loco moco ranks up there in terms of Hawaiian comfort food. For those of you familiar with it, you're probably wondering one of two things, first, what's a gourmand's loco moco? Second, how do I make it simpler than it is? For those of you unfamiliar with Hawaiian cuisine, loco moco is simply hamburger patties served over a bed of rice and then generously covered with gravy and topped off with a fried egg (sunny-side up usually). It's fairly similar to the idea of say something like pork chops served with mashed potatoes and gravy. You know you use the gravy for everything, so might as will just serve it over everything. I actually might have some people say that the word "gourmand" doesn't really belong in the same sentence as loco moco, as its beauty is kind of found in its simplicity. I once brainstormed this wacky idea of loco moco that was something like sirloin or kobe beef served on a bed of rice pilaf soaked in a demi-glace and topped with a duck egg. I was told flatly by someone that "that's not loco moco anymore". I had something kind of like that at this place called Hally K Ono in California, which apparently is now closed, minus the duck egg. Anyways, the concept here is based on loco moco, so here's the run down.

Ingredients:

Hamburger patty (1-2)

Rice

Can of hearty soup (recommend something like beef and vegetables otherwise French onion might be okay too)

Butter

Flour

Egg

Directions:

1.) Cook rice

2.) Cook hamburger patties

3.) Make roux by melting butter and adding flour

4.) Add soup to roux mixture and stir until it thickens

5.) Plate rice and patties, then serve gravy of soup/roux over patties

Optional: Fry an egg and top the whole thing off

Honestly, that's pretty much it. If you want to get fancier, you can fry the rice ahead of time, or season the patties. It's pretty straight forward, and you get some extras from the soup. Generally speaking, that would be how I would make the gravy anyways, using beef stock, onion, maybe mushrooms, and beef stock. Feel free to season to flavor, if you want something a little tangy maybe add some red wine otherwise just serve as is. I didn't do it with the egg, but you can also do the egg on top too. Additionally, I just used frozen beef patties, but if you want, you can make your own, or buy fresh ones. It's something easy to make, especially if you use a George Foreman grill.

Sloppy Joes

I realize I haven't posted anything here for a while and I apologize for that. I'm actually rather surprised that I haven't posted this recipe yet either, though it's not much to talk about. I remember sloppy joes used to be one of my favorites growing up in school, and I figure, it's pretty easy to make, and you can make it even better by adding a few quick things of your own as well. The base is simple and you can kind of amend as needed or desired. I apologize in advance for those looking for pictures because quite honestly, I don't have any, not of sloppy joes at least. Anyways, here goes:

Ingredients:
Ground beef
Vinegar
Ketchup
Sugar

That's pretty much all you need for a base for sloppy joes. I like mince in some onions and maybe throw in some chili powder or something for some flavoring.

Cooking instructions:

1.) Brown the ground beef, season to taste.

2.) Mix in ketchup, vinegar, and sugar until it reaches desired flavor

3.) Mix until desired consistency

That's it. Seriously, there's nothing more too it. This is where I would suggest you try to get creative, maybe try BBQ sauce instead of ground beef and you get a pulled-pork type flavor without the hassel of having to braise and pull the pork. Sure it's beef, it's different, but hey, it's faster and convenient, using ground pork doesn't work quite as well as ground pork has a tendency to be less cohesive after it's been broken up and so it doesn't really sandwich well onto a roll. Feel free to try various iterations, including perhaps an Italian sloppy joe utilizing tomato sauce or something, let me know what you come up with, the possibilities are limitless. I've also heard root beer and BBQ sauce make a mean pulled pork, okay, amend that, I know that root beer and BBQ sauce make a mean pulled pork, I just don't exact proportions, but hey, give it a go, it's fast and easy.

FYI: Ketcup, vinegar, and sugar are basically the components for sweet and sour sauce.

Fried Chicken Goodness

Hello everyone, I am not dead. No I am not. Sorry for the lack of posts here lately, well, more than just lately, like in, forever, or something along those lines. Anyways, I haven't really had the opportunity to come up with a lot of new stuff, but there's a couple of things that I discovered (or rather heard about) lately (and tried) and decided I wanted to share with all of you. Firstly, is this tip on frying chicken that I got from my friend. I have tried and verified this, the results are quite tasty. Oftentimes when chicken is fried it gets a little tough because you want to make sure it's cooked, and sometimes the insides get a little dried up. Therefore, to remedy this, it is recommended that the chicken be soaked in buttermilk, at least overnight. Then just batter straight from the buttermilk, no need to add egg to the chicken. It works quite well, the chicken ends up very moist and tender, while retaining the fried goodness. My next experiment would probably be to try it with katsu or something.