Andrew Zimmerman Is My Role Model
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Have you ever watched the Travel Channel's show "Bizarre Foods"? I watch it every chance I get. Then I go online and watch the shows over and over again. I just can't get enough of Andrew and the things he will try. I like to imagine that given the same chance I would try the same things. Thus we arrive at a "mini" Bizarre Foods night with my family and friends.
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Above is a picture of the main course for the night. And if you look close you can probably guess what it is. But if you can't, well I'll tell you. That my friends is pan fried chicken feet. It would end with a BBQ sauce to make it a little more appealing to my less adventurous siblings.
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You can usually find chicken feet in a Mexican grocery store. And for this cut of meat you can expect to pay around a dollar to a dollar fifty a pound. But to me you can't really beat the price for something you most likely will not find in a Mexican restraint. And the adventure of cooking them is even better for the price.
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The following video will explain how to prepare the chicken feet.
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I think chicken feet taste great. They don't really have much meat on them but they do have a good crispy skin if fried. And the meat that you get is just as good as chicken wings in my opinion. You just have to get use to snapping off toes to get at the rest of the meat.
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The other sorta main dish was a simple baby octopus risotto made with mahogany rice cooked in goat butter and a mixture of spices. The herbs used were savory, saffron, tarragon, and lovage. I used these to help bring out the flavors of the rice and the butter. All were also selected to help complement that sea food flavor one can expect from fresh baby octopus.
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Now I will be the first to admit that the little guys aren't the cutest little buggers. But they are rather tasty. In a way they aren't that much more fishy than jumbo shrimp. However they are much harder to cook. After all you don't want them to be too chewy and you really don't want sushi when you aren't planning on making it.
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So that is why I steamed the rice and then added it to the pan after searing the cut up octopus. I went just under three minutes before removing the meat from the heat of the pan so as to stop the cooking process. And for me, that was a perfect time frame for a pound of octopus.
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The dish tasted great and ended up being one of the most well received amongst the bravest of the foodies (my mother and I). However my brother and sister found it to be rather hard to swallow simply because of those little suckers and curly tips of the tentacles. I thought that the goat butter did a great job of keeping the meat on the tender side. And the flavor was better than most rice dishes I have gotten at high end restraints... most likely due to the exotic rice mixture.
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Some of the sides were just as bizarre if I do say so myself. However I had already had most of them when I cook for myself at home. But anyhow they were a little different and yet oddly everyday foods in their own ways.
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First their was Ugli fruit. And from the outside it is rather ugly for a tropical citrus fruit. Yet it tasted great... somewhat like and orange actually.
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Next was the goat milk kefir which I was certain my family had not tried. And of course, my sister hates all things goat, it didn't go over well. But it may have very well have helped them prepare for the food that was still to come.
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I actually used goats milk to saute some yucca root and taro root then made a mash out of the two. With an addition of some goat butter and the flavor was complete. All it needed was some pepper and salt to bring out the subtle flavors of the two roots.
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Now for the meats that I left for the side dishes.
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Frogs are by far one of my latest favorites. They just taste so much like blue gill fish. And the tender meat is so easy to cook. You just toss some butter in the pan and let it melt then toss the meat in. Wait, flip, wait, and flip again. Once the meat is firm to the touch you are ready to eat. It is just as simple as that.
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Then there was the squid cooked in ink sauce. Or should I say calamari? Anyhow, it tasted good to me. I mean the ink sauce was a little less flavorful when used on the squid than it is when used to make pasta. But the dish tasted great.
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But for me their is nothing that says bizarre here in the Midwest than escargot. After all, we don't typically like the idea of eating bugs. And snails are not only bugs but are typically snot covered bugs. And that turns a lot of people off. Yet it makes me hungry just thinking about them.
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These were store bought and tasted great. Got them at my local Marsh. And the herb butter in them made the snails taste amazing to me. I alone ate about half of these while my brother and sister could hardly finish one.
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And in the end we all had a good time. Even if the other two in the picture above were about to run to the restroom, I ate till I could eat no more. So I would encourage you to find some local bizarre foods the next time you venture out to the grocery store. It is always a great way to be a little more adventurous with your food.
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As Andrew Zimmerman always says, "if it looks good, eat it."
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