Culinary Experimentation: Sloppy Joes the Hard Way
Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2010 8:13 pm
Get your cooking equipment ready and put on your chef's hat: here we are with this week's voyage into the uncharted seas of culinary adventure!
Now, the first step is to buy some Mexican chorizo because some friends of yours who live in Arizona told you about it once and you're curious as to what it tastes like. Especially if you live in an area where there isn't much call for Hispanic foods, your local supermarket may only have a choice of one brand. But that's okay! The important thing is that you have a choice of quality within that brand. If one kind of package lists the ingredients as "pork", and the other lists in detail a number of miscellaneous non-meat pig parts, pick the first one. Even if there's no actual difference, you'll feel better thinking of it as pork.
Take the chorizo, crumble it, and cook it until brown. The color will be darker and a bit redder than you're likely used to with cooked pork, because of the chile pepper in it. When fully cooked, taste, and find that although the taste is okay, the texture bothers you, because you're a little funny about texture; it doesn't quite seem yielding enough for cooked pork, and you're not sure why.
Knowing that you're not going to eat it like this, spend about ten minutes trying to figure out what to do with it, and then put it in a container with about half a jar of tomato sauce, stir together, and then let sit in the refrigerator for a day or two while you studiously avoid it. When it becomes unignorable, take the mixture out and taste again. Surprise! The miracle of food chemistry has transformed it into something halfway between a meaty tomato sauce and sloppy joes!
Wondering what the hell you're going to do with something like this, (since you don't have any rolls to put the mixture on for a sandwich), dump over cooked pasta of your choice, or put on frozen pizza before baking. The results will be strange, but full of the satisfaction of knowing you've cleared another culinary experiment out of your fridge.
Till next time!
Now, the first step is to buy some Mexican chorizo because some friends of yours who live in Arizona told you about it once and you're curious as to what it tastes like. Especially if you live in an area where there isn't much call for Hispanic foods, your local supermarket may only have a choice of one brand. But that's okay! The important thing is that you have a choice of quality within that brand. If one kind of package lists the ingredients as "pork", and the other lists in detail a number of miscellaneous non-meat pig parts, pick the first one. Even if there's no actual difference, you'll feel better thinking of it as pork.
Take the chorizo, crumble it, and cook it until brown. The color will be darker and a bit redder than you're likely used to with cooked pork, because of the chile pepper in it. When fully cooked, taste, and find that although the taste is okay, the texture bothers you, because you're a little funny about texture; it doesn't quite seem yielding enough for cooked pork, and you're not sure why.
Knowing that you're not going to eat it like this, spend about ten minutes trying to figure out what to do with it, and then put it in a container with about half a jar of tomato sauce, stir together, and then let sit in the refrigerator for a day or two while you studiously avoid it. When it becomes unignorable, take the mixture out and taste again. Surprise! The miracle of food chemistry has transformed it into something halfway between a meaty tomato sauce and sloppy joes!
Wondering what the hell you're going to do with something like this, (since you don't have any rolls to put the mixture on for a sandwich), dump over cooked pasta of your choice, or put on frozen pizza before baking. The results will be strange, but full of the satisfaction of knowing you've cleared another culinary experiment out of your fridge.
Till next time!
