Fish Heads & Rice

One of our favorite lunches at home is what we call fish heads and rice.  We aren't actually eating fish heads.  It's just what we call sardines.  We try to eat them at least once a week.  Are you aware of how good they are nutritionally?

Sardines are so good for you!  

They promote heart and bone health, are packed with protein, and are one of the highest concentrated sources of omega 3 fatty acids.  I know several people who eat them straight out of the can for lunch on the go, but that's not for everyone.  It took me quite a bit of time to create the perfect recipe for a nice lunch when we're at home.

John loves rice.  He finds a way to incorporate it into several of our meals; even requesting I replace a different starch in my recipes with rice.  I used to be able to find an Asian Sesame Dressing in the local market, but like many of our favorite things to buy there, they stopped carrying it.  So then I had to research sesame dressings to be able to formulate my own recipe.  This dressing is the heart of the meal.  Without it, the rest is pretty bland and lackluster.

But lets really stop to think about rice for minute.  Most of the people I know are making instant rice or short grained white rice cooked in water.  This has got to be the fastest way to make a dish of rice that I do not want to eat unless you're serving it for breakfast with cinnamon, sugar, raisins, and almond milk!  Rice is very much like fresh mushrooms in the fact that they are ready to soak up so much flavor if you only give them a chance.  And unless you're making a large quantity of rice to make sushi - you shouldn't be using a rice cooker, in my opinion.  Rice is too easy to make to use a non multipurpose gadget.  And there is a plethora of rice types to choose from, that there has to be at least one you love.  Long grain, brown, wild, etc.  Try several types so you can get a feel for them and how the different ones would be better in particular recipes over another.  We usually stick to the sushi rice, it's pretty versatile.  However, there are occasions where a wild rice blend is preferable.

For two people, I use 3/4 cup of rice.  Figuring out how much fluid you need to properly cook the amount of grains you decide upon is super easy.  Simply double the measurement of your grains.  I fill up my 3/4 cup twice with my chosen fluid.  Depending on what I am serving with my rice will change what fluid I decide to use to cook the rice.  For this meal, I use vegetable broth.  Sometimes I use chicken broth or beef broth or turkey broth.  You get the idea.  But I pretty much never use water.  Sometimes, I will add a small pat of butter.  Again, it all depends on the rest of the meal.

Fish Heads & Rice

Serves 2

Total Time: 25 Minutes

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup Rice

1 1/2 Cups Vegetable Broth, measured out 3/4 cup at time

1 tea Sesame Oil

2 Cans Sardines

1 1/2 Tbl Rice Vinegar

1 Tbl Soy Sauce

1 tea Raw Sugar

2 tea Sesame Oil

1 Tbl Peanut Oil

1 Tbl Sesame Seeds

Set a dry pot over the burner and turn the heat to high.  Dump in the rice and toast the it for a couple minutes, gently swirling the rice in the pot a couple times.  Then, drizzle in a small amount of sesame oil and stir to coat the rice.  You only need enough oil to just barely coat the rice.  At this point, add 3/4 cup of vegetable broth.  It should come to a boil quickly.  Let it boil for a minute and then add the last 3/4 cup of broth.  Once it comes to a full boil, turn the heat to low.  Wait a minute and then cover the rice and set your timer to 15 minutes.

Now, start the dressing.  Combine the vinegar, sugar, and soy sauce in a small bowl.  Stir until the sugar is dissolved.  Add the oils.  

Open the sardines.  Depending on what brand you buy, you may need to remove the spines.  If you don't, they will be super hard and crunchy, and I'm not a fan of that texture in this dish.  Any other small bones are fine, you won't even notice that you've eaten them and they won't hurt you.  One can of sardines gets flaked into the bottom of a serving bowl.  Repeat the process into the second serving bowl.  When purchasing your sardines, go for the cans that have a smaller amount of fish in them as this will mean larger fish.  We typically buy the lightly smoked flavor, but packed in spring water or oil will also work.

Your timer should be about ready to beep at this point, and when it does you're going to turn off the burner the rice is on and remove the cover on the pot.  Give the rice a good stir and keep the pot over your hot burner even though you turned it off.

Take another small pot or skillet and put it over medium high heat.  Dump in your sesame seeds once the cooking vessel is hot.  Gently swirl the pot once in a while over the span of two or three minutes.  This is going to lightly toast the sesame seeds and add an element of depth to the dressing.  

Put half the rice in each bowl on top of the flaked sardines.  Then vigorously whisk the dressing to emulsify it.  Stir in the sesame seeds.  Drizzle half over each bowl of rice.  Stir it all up and enjoy!  We like this meal with a properly brewed cup of green tea, but that's a topic for another day.

If you make this recipe, snap a photo with #savoryeye!  I love seeing photos of food.

Yearning for a Childhood Staple

As we meandered through the market about a month ago, it was brought to my attention that John had never had a sloppy joe sandwich!  As a child of the 80's, the sloppy joe sandwich was a pretty regular occurrence on the home menu.  It was one of my most favorite meals.  So it was baffling to hear John say that he had no idea what a sloppy joe actually was.  I knew I had to resolve this issue immediately.  And to me, John never having enjoyed a sloppy joe sandwich was, indeed, an issue!

We ended up buying a can of sloppy joe sauce that day.  I'm not sure how it happened, because when I went to make the sandwiches I read the back of the can and saw a multitude of ingredients I didn't want to ingest.  Alright, I admit, multitude may be overkill.  But the high fructose corn syrup was pretty high up on the ingredient list and I hate that ingredient.  However, that topic is for another day.  Todays' topic is the sloppy joe recipe that I created so I could indulge in a childhood favorite meal and share it with my family without having to sacrifice our healthy lifestyle and diet.

This is definitely a recipe I will make over and over again now that I have found a way to create the flavor I want with good ingredients.  I hope you enjoy this healthy twist on an old favorite!

Sloppy Joes

Makes 6-8 sandwiches; Total Time is roughly 30 minutes

Ingredients:

1lb Ground Beef or Ground Turkey

1 Can Diced Tomatoes, Seasoned with Basil, Oregano, and Garlic

1Tbl Apple Cider Vinegar

2Tbl Worcestershire Sauce

1 1/2Tbl Brown Sugar

2Tbl Tomato Paste

2Tbl Grapeseed Oil

1/2Tbl Butter

1tsp Brown Mustard

1 Small Onion, Chopped

1 Red Bell Pepper, Chopped

Sea Salt

Black Pepper

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat the oil and butter over medium high and add the onion once the butter has melted.  Turn heat down to medium and sauté, covered,  until the onion starts to caramelize (about 8-10 minutes).  Add ground meat and brown.  Once the meat has browned, add the bell pepper.  Sauté, covered, stirring occasionally for five minutes.  Then add the can of diced tomatoes and stir until thoroughly mixed in.  Add the vinegar, worcestershire, sugar, mustard, and tomato paste.  Mix thoroughly and simmer, uncovered, about five minutes.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.  Serve on lightly toasted burger buns.

The Soaping Diaries - Book Review One

The Everything Soapmaking Book: 3rd Edition

I purchased two books when I decided I wanted to learn how to make natural soap, and this was one of them.  It took me some time between getting my books and actually making soap - but I am addicted to it now!

This book is the one I reference most.  Yes, it lacks nice images.  However, the other book I purchased is loaded with professional images and lacks a lot of content that I need.  This book is more comprehensive on topics such as cure time for varying processes, tools, and clean up procedures to considerations like how to package, putting together gift baskets, and why/when to consider selling product.  It even goes into using the knowledge you learn from the book to create your own recipes!

I by no means read this in order from chapter to chapter, though I did skim through it in order upon first receiving the book.  It is overwhelming that way!  I skip around to where the information I want is - there is a complete Table of Contents so you can easily find the information you want when you need it. 

I started out making cold process soap from a kit I purchased through Bramble Berry (which is the first supplier listed in the appendix for resources).  Then I moved on to Shower Steamers and Melt & Pour Soap.  I am getting ready to make more CP.  However, I am so happy for the Hot Process and Liquid Soap sections in this book since I really want to create liquid hand soap and body washes.  This book really does have everything you need to get started and stay going in the soaping hobby/business.

I'd say this is a must have for anyone interested in learning how to get started the right way.  The author even says to start small on your budget so that if it turns out you never want to make a second soap, you didn't end up investing a lot of money on something you won't ever do again.  Sage advice!

The Soaping Diaries

     Entry One : Monday, January 22, 2018

It was nearing the end of 2016 when my curiosity was piqued about the idea of making my own soap.  John and I had started veering towards a more natural lifestyle for a number of reasons that year.  Mainly due to how drastically we had to rethink the items we used in our home after bringing our boys into our family.

Let me elaborate.  Our boys are birds.  We are the proud parronts to a Platinum Lutino Cockatiel who we renamed Astraeus, and a Congo African Grey named Smokey.  Both of our boys are rescues.  

What most people are unaware of, is how highly sensitive birds are to toxins in the air.  Hence, taking a canary into the coal mines.  They breathe differently than mammals.  More efficiently than mammals.  But it leaves them more susceptible to dangerous inhalants.   Most aerosol items can kill a bird the size of Astraeus.  A single scratch in Teflon cookware can leach enough toxin into the air to kill a bird.  

We started to realize most, if not all, things that are dangerous to our boys are dangerous to us as well.  We just tolerate it slightly better than the typical family pets of dogs and cats.  (People are now coming to understand the dangers of some common household products around mans best friend.)  So I replaced cookware and I started making my own household cleaners as well as buying natural items that I could not make myself, like dish soap.  I also learned how to make my own laundry soap.  

I research and research.  I want to rid our life of all unnecessary chemicals and additives and hormones.  It's not only possible, it typically saves us money as well.

Soap.  We all need it and use it.  

It was when I started making laundry soap that I began to ruminate on soap in general.  To make laundry soap, you need soap.  And all the recipes I found and read about talked about what kind of soaps you would want to use.  Because, if you aren't looking to make laundry soap as an effort to rid your laundry of unnecessary chemicals, you probably were not looking into finding recipes on making it yourself.  So obviously, you would want to use soap that doesn't contain a lot of the things you are looking to rid your wash of!  Well, if I can buy soap that is pretty basic and without unwanted chemicals, then can't I just make it myself?  Then it would be more natural as well as handmade.  

So I bought a couple books on Amazon.  When they arrived, I was overwhelmed with what I read.  I needed to take so many things into consideration!  I needed to have the proper tools and space to make soap.  Can I do this in my home as a parront?  I set the books aside.  Time went by.  Substantial amounts of time.

I'm a creative.  This whole soap making thing sounded too fun to pass over.  It was nagging at me daily; this idea that I could be a natural chemist and make something good.  (Alright, I really fancied the term alchemist over chemist!  But lets consider the outcome and the century....no, maybe alchemist is realistic.  Handmade natural soap could be considered gold!)  I get giddy at the mere thought of the words apothecary and alchemy.  And in a way, the chemical reactions, even though explainable, seem to be magical all the same.  

So I started more research into soap making.  As longs as I took the proper precautions, I could make soap in my home.  So I started collecting the necessary tools and ingredients.   It took too much time for someone as impatient as myself.  But I'm proud to say that I did it.  

I made a two pound recipe of cold process soap on October 31, 2017.  It took five weeks to cure.  I tested its pH in secret.  What if I'd failed?

I was ecstatic and elated and every other positive word in the dictionary.  I was full of pride.  My soap was pH neutral and perfect for use!  I did it.  And I needed to do it again.  I was hooked.

I gave away bars of my soap as holiday gifts.  Then I decided I needed to make shower steamers.  You can make them and use them the next day.  I tried melt and pour soap, also able to use the next day.  After a few batches of shower steamers and another batch of the same cold process recipe, I am waiting on the final shipment of supplies/ingredients to make bath bombs.  They are going to be decedent.  

Since I am 100% passionate about this hobby, I am starting The Soaping Diaries.  I will share this journey and the knowledge I gain along the way.  I hope you'll follow along!