Kitchen Tip: Microwave "Baked" Potatoes - No Poking Required

 

"Potatoes in a Bin"
(Public Domain Photo) 

Do you use a microwave oven to "bake" potatoes? We went without one for a few years after the other one went kaput. Last year we finally took the plunge and got one at Costco. 

So a quick "baked" potato has become all the rage again, when hunger strikes and waiting for it to bake in a conventional oven is just not possible. It's not as great as a real baked potato, but hey...it is passable. 

One day I decided to change the preparation a bit. Instead of poking it with a fork in several places all over, I decided to make one cut with a knife.   

Here's how it works: 

1. Cut through the potato (lengthwise), almost to the other side, leaving about 1/4" to 1/2" uncut. Cutting it halfway will work as well. 

2. Place the potato in the microwave, with the cut side to the facing to the side. 

3. Cook as usual as per your microwave wattage.

Poking holes with a fork can sometimes be a pain, and you have to poke it in several places. That could be just me. When I poke it, I really poke the thing, and sometimes it's hard to pull the fork back out because of suction. 

Cutting it saves time and possible burns after cooking because all you have to do is open it up to add your favorite toppings, instead of cutting the hot potato. 

It cooks better too. I don't think I'm imagining that. I've done it multiple times.

So try it out next time you make a microwave potato, and let me know how it works for you. 

Happy Eating! 

A Banana Story: The Bananas That Drove Me Bananas

 Going Bananas

I have to share this banana story, because these were the best store-bought bananas I ever had. I bought them right around the time of the "Big Freeze" in Texas. I can't recall now if it was just before or just after, but when I bought them, the store only had green bananas available. I purchased a bunch that had 6 bananas, grown in Ecuador. I don't recall which company logo was on the sticker. (Dole and Chiquita  are pretty common here.)  

 

I assume the green bananas will not be a problem because they ripen so quickly anyway, thanks to human intervention. Well, someone was asleep at the switch for this shipment, and it yielded some wonderful results. 

The bananas I bought were hung on the banana hook on the counter. They hung there for a week, with no obvious change. So we bought some more bananas, and placed them near the green bananas to see if it would help. 

We finished the newer banana bunch, but the green bananas were still green. So the green bananas were moved into a paper bag and the bag was kept closed. 

Time passed. More bananas were purchased. There were daily checks on the green bananas. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Still green. 

The next time we bought a bunch, we put one of the bananas inside the bag with the green bananas. The newer banana ripened. The green bananas did not. 

Okay. 

I was ready to give up. I started wondering if the bananas would be any good at all even if they did ripen, or if they were just going to rot without ripening. 

Finally, over 3 weeks into this little banana adventure, they started to change color. A couple of them started to show signs of ripening. 

They didn't ripen all at once. They ripened one by one for the most part. I ate the first one that was ripe and it was simply delicious. It had a nice texture, a bit heavier than the usual banana. The flavor was more concentrated too. It was divine! 

The very last green banana (visible in the pic above) ripened over a month after the bunch was purchased. 

So...Wow! I wish this would happen more often. 

Bananas are harvested when they are still green, then dosed with ethylene gas once they reach their destination. Organic bananas are supposed to be exempt from this treatment, but I call BS on that because they ripen just as fast as "regular" bananas. Have I considered that they might pick them after they start to turn and are using a faster shipping method? Yes. I think they would cost a lot more if that was the case. There's not a huge difference in price between regular and organic. Anyway, if you know of a grocer who sources their bananas from a smaller banana trader that doesn't use ethylene gas, instead of one of the huge international companies...do tell! 

We used to have a grove of banana trees, but someone got a wild hair one day and cut all of them down (and dug up the rest). I don't know the specifics anymore, but I do miss the trees, because at least we'd have homegrown bananas from time to time. Looks like it's time to find some again. 

If you're interested, this link to the Food & Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has some interesting banana facts & figures. 

Unaltered Photo of Men Hauling Bananas With a Bike in Uganda
Emesik, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Taco Bell Enchiritos - The Original, Not The Sad Reboot

When Taco Bell had an actual bell on their restaurants back in the day 
(Public Domain photo)

If I had a time machine, I would travel to a Taco Bell like the one pictured above, and order an Enchirito. Maybe even two. I'm talking about the original Taco Bell Enchirito, not that lame version they brought back when they "revived" it. According to Taco Bell lore, the Enchirito first appeared around 1970. It was discontinued as a menu item in 1993, but they brought it back around 2000. Well, they didn't really bring it back. They brought back the shadow of an Enchirito. It was taken off the menu again around 2013, though there are rumors circulating that you can order it from the "secret menu," or order certain menu items for an Enchirito "hack." 

Okay...you can hack all the livelong day or try to order from the secret menu, but you will never get a true Enchirito that way. I do remember the year they took them off of the menu. We didn't have a Taco Bell very close to us but we'd go there from time to time when we drove to Katy or Houston for errands. I remember when they removed it and I was sad. Later, they added it again, and I tried it a couple of times, but it was never the same -- just like when Coke changed their formula and then supposedly changed it back after public outcry. It was never the same either -- (If you can get your hands on a Coke that is bottled in Mexico, it will come close, but even that isn't as good as the original was.) -- but that made it easier to give up an unhealthy beverage, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. 

Let's get back to the Enchirito though. I have thought about making my own copycat version, and I have made sort of a pseudo-version from time to time. Now I'm thinking about getting a bit more serious about it. I have looked through many copycat recipes to see if anyone is making the original version of the Enchirito, but I have yet to find one. 

Most of these copycat recipes use flour tortillas. That's what I always hone in on. The tortilla. I have also run across some recipes that use corn tortillas. Well, guess what? They are both wrong. 

The Enchirito tortilla was a hybrid tortilla, not flour or corn. Both. I remember the original tortilla, because the first time I tried the "reboot," it was flour, and it was disappointment. The Enchirito's tortilla had a unique flavor. It was absolutely not simply flour, and it definitely did not have the taste or texture of a corn tortilla. 

I know there will be people who want to argue about it, but just think about this: an Enchirito was supposed to be a cross between a burrito and an enchilada. If you use a flour tortilla, you have a burrito. If you use a corn tortilla, you have an enchilada. You MUST have the hybrid tortilla to have a true Enchirito. I trust my taste buds implicitly. 

But to bolster my case, I jumped on a search engine and found some vintage Taco Bell commercials and print ads. I am not going to post all of those here, obviously, both because of copyright issues, and the time it takes to add attribution links to the ones that are possible to use. 

I did find one nice one on Creative Commons though, and I'm able to share that one here. Note the color of the Enchirito's tortilla in the photo, just as I remember, and just as all of the others I viewed. It is off-white, a bit on the tan side. It's definitely not a white flour tortilla, and certainly not a corn tortilla. 

I will be going into the laboratory with my trusty sidekick, Igor, as soon as possible, so we can make the hybrid tortilla that a copycat Enchirito recipe deserves. Stay tuned! 

Original Enchiritos
("Enchirito" by mush m. is licensed under CC BY 2.0)

Stovetop Chocolate Steam Cake Recipe Review

 

Chocolate Steam Cake

You must try this cake recipe! It's great for those days when you are craving a piece of cake, but don't want a big hassle of dragging out all of your baking tools, and great for warmer weather when you don't want to heat up the kitchen by using your oven. And if you're thinking, "but I could just buy a piece of cake at the deli..." Pfffft!!! Forget about that over-priced nonsense that's overloaded with sugar! 

You don't even need to break out your mixer for this cake if you don't want to. A handheld balloon whisk works fine. 

What Should I Use For A Steamer?

I used an 8 quart stockpot with a reinforced bottom, and we just happened to have a round metal baking rack that fits in the bottom of this pot. We also have a lid that has a built-in steam vent. If you don't have a lid like that, you'll need to loosely cover your stockpot with foil. If you don't have a baking rake that will fit, you can use several balls of wadded up foil, or save up some tuna cans (or cans similar in size to tuna cans, with both ends removed, if possible), and use those instead. Canning rings are too short. You need about 1 1/2-2 inches of water in the bottom of your steaming pot. You might be able to get away with using a shorter pot (such as a 4 quart pot). Next time I make one I'll use one of those and report the results here. 

Here are the other tools that come in handy: 

2 mixing bowls

Handheld whisk

Spatula (for bowl scraping - not mandatory, but I'm picky, so I use one)

Kitchen tongs with silicone ends, 2 pairs, if you have them (for easy removal)*

8-9" cake pan or springform pan

Sifter (not mandatory but it does help)

Measuring cups (for liquid & dry measure)

Measuring spoons

Small bowl for egg inspection & egg beating (see "Breaking Bad With Eggs")

The Recipe

1 cup A/P flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

3/4 to 1 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

2 eggs (room temperature)

1/4 cooking oil (canola, vegetable, light olive oil, or coconut oil)

1/2 milk

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/4 tsp. instant coffee (optional) 

Spray release/oil spray (with or without flour)

Water for steaming (as needed)

Instructions

1. Prepare your steamer & start heating the water on high heat.

2. Coat inside of cake pan or springform pan with spray release.** 

3. Sift all dry ingredients into a mixing bowl, and whisk them until well combined. 

4. Mix milk, oil, and vanilla in a separate bowl.

5. Beat eggs & add to milk/oil/vanilla mixture. Mix well. 

6. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix well. 

7. Pour into cake pan. 

8. Check the water level in the pan. Add more (hot tap water) if needed. Water should be at least at a simmer at this point. 

9. Carefully lower cake pan into pot using tongs. 

10. Cover & steam on medium to high heat for 25-30 minutes. You can check your water level about halfway through the cooking time & add more if needed. I haven't yet had a problem with the water completely evaporating. It might be because we have that lid with the steam vent. I'll use foil next time and report the results here. 

11. Test the cake in the usual manner, (toothpick, slim knife, bamboo skewer), if it comes out clean, it's time to remove the cake. Also note if the cake has pulled away from the sides, that's another "tell." 

12. Remove the cake very carefully using the tongs. Put it on a cake rack to cool for about 10 minutes before removing from pan. 

13. Frost with your favorite frosting or dust with powdered sugar. It doesn't really need anything extra at all. It's very good just as it is. 

Just One More Thing (or two)

*About those tongs - I only had one pair on hand, so I used a long serving spoon as a wedge on one side of the pan, and the tongs on the other. If you don't have tongs at all, carefully wedge it out using 2 long serving spoons, and grab the edge with a pot holder when it gets high enough to grab. (I'm thinking there might be a 3rd option for a safe removal. I will try it next time and report the results here.)

**If you decide to use a springform pan, cover the bottom with foil, just as you would if you were making a cheesecake in the oven. 

The cake top of the cake will look a little strange because some water drops will be falling on it during steaming. It's just fine. Unless the top of the cake looks VERY wet, then you might need to make some adjustments next time so your foil vents the steam a little better. 

Use your favorite cocoa. I used Hershey's Special Dark cocoa in this recipe. 

Let me know what you think about this cake. Any issues? Just leave me a message in the comment section. 

Here's a pic from an evening when I got a little fancy and frosted the cake with whipped chocolate-cream cheese ganache and golden sugar crystals. 

Kitchen Pet Peeve: Breaking Bad With Eggs

 

Okay, I have an egg.....errr....I mean.....bone to pick with certain folks.

This is a HUGE pet peeve for me. It bugs me to no end. People who break an eggs and dump them directly into a pan or a bowl of ingredients, instead of breaking the eggs into a separate bowl and then adding them to the recipe. 

Don't do it. Just........don't! 

Why? Because...

1.

There could be impurities in the egg, especially fresh, "yard" eggs. Fun little things like blood spots or calcium deposits. We had a hen that had issues with that. The eggs were fine, but there were often calcium deposits inside her eggs. Not fun picking that stuff out. Sometimes just a little, sometimes a lot. She was an Araucana, and I don't know if they are more prone to that or not. She was on the same varied diet as the other hens and we didn't see that happening with the others anywhere near as often. 

2.

You don't really know how old the egg is. It might have been missed and on the verge of rotting. Imagine ruining a recipe (or your breakfast), by breaking an egg like that into a pan. There is a water test that can help determine the age of an egg before you crack it open, but if you get in a hurry and decide not to do the test, you might regret it.* 

3.

Pieces of eggshell might fall into your recipe if you don't break the egg in another bowl first. Imagine serving a lovely piece of cake to each of your guests, and one of them ends up stabbed in the gums from an errant piece of eggshell. Eggshell Roulette. Bad. Very bad. 

4.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention my grandfather's egg story. He was in the AAF (Army Air Force) in WWII. Shortages of some foods were common all over, even for soldiers. But they did have fresh eggs in the mess halls, when they could get them. Sometimes the eggs were fertilized eggs with developing embryos. So they had extra protein with their eggs on occasion. (I have no reason to doubt this story, because people were very careful about food back then. Nothing was wasted. Unlike today, when food waste is rampant.) So, if you're buying eggs from someone who keeps chickens, you might be buying fertilized eggs, unless they keep their roosters separate from the hens. I suppose that's possible, depending on the size of their operation. I just know that we always had a rooster in with our chicken flock, so we could raise more chickens to replace the ones we lost to critters that would break into the chicken yard on occasion. I assume others might do the same. Of course we kept the broody hens and their clutch of eggs separate from the rest of the flock, but it is possible that some people are careless about it. So imagine cracking a raw egg directly into your cake batter and it has a partially developed embryo. 😒

🥚🥚🥚

Think about it though. How much trouble is it, really, to use one extra bowl and crack your eggs into it for inspection before adding to the recipe? No trouble at all. One extra dish to wash. No big deal compared to what could happen otherwise.

This is one of the things that always drove me nuts on cooking shows. I don't watch those much anymore, but I do watch food videos on social media sometimes, and I find myself bracing for the addition of eggs. 

"Oh, but it looks so cool when I can break an egg open with one hand to add to the recipe," they might be thinking. Well, it will still look cool if it's done over an empty dish. No excuses! 

Here's a little summary...

Photo by: Alex Loup

NO!

Photo by Jordane Mathieu

NO!

Photo by Michelle Henderson

NO!

Photo by Klaus Nielsen

So in conclusion, if you are "Breaking Bad with Eggs," please break that bad habit!

🥚🥚🥚

*The Egg Test

I mentioned this test above, and in case any reader might not be aware of this tip, this is it. (Just remember, this test is in addition to your egg safety check, not "in lieu of."):

You just need a small glass bowl, or a cup wide enough to fit an egg when it's on its side. Fill it with room temperature water (or just directly from the tap), then put the egg in. If it stands up on its end, it is still okay to use. If it floats between the bottom and the top, it might be okay. If it floats all the way to the top, don't use it. 

If you are still uncertain, break the egg on a plate and look at the yolk. Fresh eggs have yolks that "stand up," and the white sits close to the yolk. Older eggs have yolks that don't look as tall and firm, and the whites are runnier. If you see that the yolk is flat or almost flat and the yolk is extremely watery, forget about it! It's no good. Run away from that runny egg!