Budget cooking: another day, another chitlin dish

Alright, so the wontons/dumplings/whatever-the-fucks turned out really well, so what's next on the chitlin journey? You guessed it: it's pasta time, bitches!

After inspecting the rest of the chitlins I boiled before making the wontons (I've got most of them frozen and am thawing/boiling them in batches), I dredged them in flour seasoned with salt and black pepper. I'm doing the extra inspection because it's my first time doing all of this process, and I'm finding little bits of membrane that I didn't get off pre-boil; they're a lot faster to pull off once it's all boiled.

Luckily, I had plenty of my wonton filling left over, so I didn't have to do any veggie prep. Just dredge the chitlins, boil the pasta, and prep is done.

I fried the chitlins in butter and olive oil, probably about a tablespoon and a half to two tablespoons of each. Remember, the meat's already cooked, so this was more just to give a nice crispy texture to the meat. Once they were browned on one side, I flipped them.

Shortly after flipping them, I went ahead and added in my veggie mix, mainly just to heat them up and melt the butter that had congealed throughout it. I also added a little white wine to scrape up what little shit there was on the bottom of the pan. Not literal shit, flavor shit. I need to be careful talking about shit when I'm cooking colon...

Anyway, after the wine simmered down a bit, I poured in my cream, grated some asiago into the pan, and cracked a bit of black pepper in for good measure.. Got that all mixed up and things were looking, smelling, and tasting good, but not quite right. I had to use my cheat code: capers. I dumped in a handful of capers (and also added a little bit of the brine from the jar), and that took this sauce from a 6 to an 8.5 in a hurry.

After the sauce was finished with a little more butter, I added my noodles in, gave it a mix, and scooped some out for dinner. I added a little slice of asiago on top because I fucking love cheese. The texture of the chitlins was a perfect little crunch, and the flavor was remarkably balanced by the capers, which helped it to blend with everything else. All in all, another chitlin win.

Comments

Restaurant week: My new Mexican restaurant

As I mentioned the other day, my Mexican restaurant closed down. Luckily, they opened up in a new space a couple of months later. Great new look, new name ("Lopez Grill"), they've got a bar, staff is expanded, and the place is always packed. Business seems to be going great. Now, this isn't just a rehash of my post about the 'Dolo. While the menu is largely the same, there have been a few changes, plus I'm going to share a few things I've learned eating there. On my first visit to the new location (which was opening day, right when the doors opened; yes, I was standing in line outside with the other faithful), Señor Lopez brought me a bowl of their new salsa. He called it "guacamole salsa," but it's a jalapeño-based sauce. It's got an almost creamy texture, but is dairy-free (I asked for my vegan friend). Being a jalapeño salsa, it's got some heat, but not nearly as overbearing as some capsaicin-phobes may fear. It is perfectly bala...

Restaurant week: Polish food truck tasting

Due to a strange combination of circumstances, I recently found myself at a menu tasting for a soon to open Polish food truck called Halinka's Polish Eatery . I'm about 99% sure I was the only person in attendance who wasn't already personally known to the owner/chef, Magda, but it was a good time. Got to meet some nice folks and eat free food, but then I had to give feedback in public in front of other people, so that kind of sucked. Like, really fucking sucked. Pretty sure my face my was red the entire time. This is the price we pay for food sometimes. Our first course was a cabbage and mushroom pierogi with a side of beets. Apparently when the food truck gets going, the pierogis will be steamed, then finished either on a grill or in a skillet with some butter. However, due to facility constraints where we were trying the dishes, Magda had to serve them just steamed. Anyway, to the food: the cabbage and mushroom pierogis were fucking amazing. There was a tremendous depth ...

Stream recap: pseudo-bougie dinner party

This past Sunday (1/18/2025) was my second cooking stream of the New Generation of ODG Cooking Streams. When I was trying to come up with a "theme" for the afternoon, I was thinking a lot about those fancy-ass restaurants where they serve you three bites of food on a fucking plate five or six times and, even though you're somehow full, it still doesn't seem to quite justify spending five million dollars just to eat there for two hours while everyone around you looks at you condescendingly because you didn't wear a goddamn tie. Fuck those people. Anyway, I decided I wanted to figure out a way to do that kind of fun, small plate, presentation-centric food at the house without having to break the bank. My first course, as a direct theft from The Bear , a show I absolutely love, was the mirepoix broth. I started the stream by starting a light stock, which means you don't roast the bones beforehand, using some pork and beef bones. For the mirepoix broth, I finely ...

ODG Eats

Search This Blog