Garlic aioli.. semi lazy style

I still have some corned beef left from this post, so it's sandwich time. But not any ordinary sandwich.. my supremely lazy take on Vietnamese subs (in the future, non-lazy Vietnamese subs. I promise.) The star of this sandwich is the garlic aioli, which gives it an intensely savoury flavour, plus a delicious smell that makes you want to rip into your sandwich even though you're sitting in the dentist's waiting room (I didn't).

Garlic Aioli
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp grainy dijon mustard (I use the President's Choice brand)
2 heaping tbsp mayonnaise - do not cheap out here, Miracle Whip and "Mayonnaise-style dressing" do NOT count.

Let's do it!
Peel the garlic and chop it finely. Transfer it to a mortar and pestle (I don't know which one is the bowl) and go to town with it. Mash it up really well. You want it to be a paste. Mix the garlic paste with the rest of the ingredients in a sealable container. I have no idea how long this keeps for, we usually use it up pretty quickly.


Sandwiches!
Some thinly sliced cucumber
Sliced canned corned beef
Fresh basil
Garlic aioli
Vietnamese sub bun (different from regular buns as it uses rice and wheat flour)

Let's do it!
I don't need to tell you how to do this, do I? Okay fine.

Cut the bun in half lengthwise and spread a thin layer of the aioli on both halves. Cucumber on the bottom, corned beef in the middle and basil on top. Now you have a garlicy, savoury and crunchy sandwich! Roll it up in some parchment paper and secure with a rubber band. Now you're good to go.

Basic soup stock

Do you ever find yourself at home in the evenings with nothing to do? No? Well turn off the TV, then. NOW you have spare time, don't you? Why not spend that time doing something really good for yourself, like making stock? (Don't worry about missing the latest episode of House. Here's the plot: Someone comes in with a mysterious illness. The team thinks it's one thing and give them treatment, the treatment makes it worse. House deduces that the patient is lying about something. Someone on the team is somehow emotionally involved with this case and disagrees. More treatments, the patient keeps getting worse. They break into the patient's house. The patient's lie is found out through a family member or friend. They still can't cure him/her. Something happens in House's life to set off an epiphany. The patient is cured.)

Why make stock? I realize that stock is really cheap in the grocery store, but it's also full of salt, preservatives and sometimes the dreaded MSG. When I'm cooking something, I save all of the bones (yes, ALL of them. My freezer looks like a fricking crypt) in a large freezer bag. When the bag gets pretty full, I get started. You can also do the same thing with veggies and fresh herbs that are almost on their way out. They won't retain their texture, but they will retain their taste.

Cooking time: 1 hour
Working time: 30-40 minutes


Ingredients:
1-2 Onions, roughly chopped
5 cloves Garlic, peeled and smashed
2 Celery, roughly chopped
2 Carrots, scrubbed and roughly chopped (I don't bother peeling for stock)
Leftover meat and/or bones (unless you're making veggie stock)

1-2 Bay leaf

10 or so whole peppercorns

Salt to taste

Optional: You can add other herbs depending on the flavour that you want. Thyme and rosemary go well with poultry and pork. If you want to make it sort of Thai style, you can also add in ginger, star anise and cinammon sticks. Otherwise, you can keep it simple and use the stock as a base for a variety of stuff.

Let's do it!

Place the meat/bones into the pot and pour in enough water to cover the meat. Bring to a boil and take it down to a simmer. Watch the soup and skim off any oil and gray/brown sludge from the surface. My mom bought me this oil/sludge skimmer from an Asian grocery store, and it works very well for this job. Keep watching and keep skimming until it's all gone. This should take maybe 20 minutes. Feel free to walk away for a few minutes at a time to watch your precious House on PVR.

Toss in the veggies and herbs, and more water if needed to cover everything. Put a lid on it and let simmer for half an hour to an hour. Apparently, at this point veggies no longer impart flavour, so it's time to get it all out. I usually take a large, fine meshed drum sieve and place it in another soup pot. Then I ladle all the meat and veggies out of the soup and into the sieve. (You only need to try pouring everything in the sieve from the pot once to figure out how bad of an idea that is) Press down to extract all the liquid. Toss out the meat and veggies. Pour the rest of the liquid in the pot through the sieve to get any small fragments, herbs, etc.

Simmer the stock uncovered until it cooks down to a concentration of flavour you like. Season with salt and let cool. If there's fat on top, skim it, but I usually find that the initial skimming gets everything out.

Quick tip: A lazy way to skim fat is to put the stock in the fridge overnight. The fat will all rise to the surface and congeal, where you can easily spoon it off. Remember, never pour fat down the drain. We pour it into a jar, and when the jar is full, pour that into a bag (always double or triple bag) and throw it in the garbage. Congealed fat will really mess up your plumbing.

At this point, I'll pour some of the stock into small freezer bags and sterilized 500ml mason jars (and do all the stuff you need to do to preserve soup). The ones in the mason jars will last a couple of weeks in the fridge, and the freezer bagged ones last a few months in the freezer, though I usually go through it all within a couple of months, particularly if I'm on an instant noodle kick.

There you have it! A delicious, healthful stock that you can use for soups, risotto, gravy, stews, etc. without all the sodium and crap in the grocery store ones!

Simple pasta in tomato sauce

This is one of my standards since it's reasonably easy to make, I usually have all the ingredients laying around in my kitchen and it's quite versatile.

Working time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: At least 20 minutes


Ingredients:
1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion
3 cloves garlic (or more if you're into that)
1 can of whole San Marzano tomatoes (yes, they cost 50 cents more, but they're worth it. If you want to save the 50 cents, make sure you still buy whole tomatoes, diced/crushed tomatoes have a tart flavour to them)
1 tbsp tomato paste

chopped up fresh basil

salt to taste

Boxed pasta (as opposed to bagged pasta)
Optional: olives, sundried tomatoes, chili peppers, chili flakes, cut up meat, chopped up veggies, leftover sandwich meat, really whatever. In the photo above, I put in chopped up olives from a jar, sundried tomatoes and chili flakes.



Let's do it!

Heat up the oil in a saucepan with a lid to medium low heat.

Chop up the onions and toss them into the saucepan when the oil swirls around the pan quickly. Give them a stir. Peel and mince the garlic and set aside.

Open the can of tomatoes and pour them onto a sieve, over a bowl. Pinch the individual tomatoes open to extract the juices/water inside. Tap the sieve to get all the water/juice into the bowl. Fill a separate bowl of water and rinse the seeds out of the tomatoes. At this point, you can either mix the tomatoes in with the juice and puree it in a food processor, or you can smoosh them with your hands before mixing them back into the juice, making for a chunkier sauce.

Quick tip: I always make sure I have canned tomatoes in my kitchen, they're quick, they're good and you can put them in a billion dishes like stews, curries, sauces and soups. Plus, they last forever which will be great after the rapture happens and you've already gone through all the food in your saintly neighbour's fridge.

Every once in a while, give your onions a quick stir and check to make sure they're not browning too quickly. If the stove is set low enough, you'll be able to work on the tomatoes while the onions are slowly cooking. When the onions are translucent, throw in the garlic and stir. Watch this carefully. Garlic burns quickly and will ruin your sauce. Sure, you could always start over with new onions and garlic, but let's not be silly. When the garlic starts to turn colour, throw in your tomatoes. Stir stir stir.

Now add tomato paste and let it simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. The longer you simmer, the thicker and mellower (less tangy) the sauce will be. The less time you simmer, the fresher the sauce will be.

Quick tip: If you find yourself with 4/5 of a tin of tomato paste leftover, spoon it all into a zipper freezer bag, push all the air out and flatten it. Stick this in your freezer and it will keep for months. When you need sauce, just break a piece off.

5 minutes before you're ready to finish cooking the sauce, throw in the basil. I don't measure a lot of stuff, so I'm guessing you can put in a handful. 

Salt to taste.

While the sauce is simmering, make the pasta, make sure you follow all the directions on the package! I recommend the Barilla brand of pasta. You pay a little more, but if you follow the directions exactly (I set my microwave clock timer to ensure I get it right), you get perfect pasta, instead of that starchy, soggy mess you get with the cheap stuff. The Barilla Rigatoni is my favourite type. When it goes on sale (88 cents at No Frills, last time), I stock up like crazy.

When you're packing your lunch, you can put all sorts of things in the sauce (see optional items above) for variety. I do this as a last step so I can change it up from one day to the next. This recipe will make enough sauce for 2-4 servings (depending on how much you eat). If you store it in a airtight container in your fridge, you can keep it for up to 5 days, but don't take my word for it. Do the sniff test every time. If you're not certain after sniffing, do a taste test. If you're still not sure, throw it out. No sense in making yourself sick to save a buck.

Lunch time tips


If you are like me, you get incredibly angry when your pasta is overcooked. Like.. really angry. Like getting called to HR angry.

To avoid being suspended for inappropriate behaviour, make sure you pack your pasta and sauce separately. To heat up the pasta, boil some water in a kettle or microwave and pour that over the pasta. Shake and strain. Heat up the sauce as you normally would. If you don't have access to a microwave, heat the sauce up that morning, then put it in a thermos. Also beware of heating things up in plastic, as the chemicals will apparently give men boobs, and make women's boobs fall off or something.