Thursday, June 21, 2007

Naan Dawgs

What to do after work to feed the family, on the first (nice) day of spring? I want to fire up the grill. A stop at the local Trader Joe's found a nice thick Indian Naan in the bread section. Later, a pass by the sausage section- culinary serendipity!

The "Naan Dawg" is born.

Now, you can use any sausage you want, but I found a really nice chicken Mushroom Asiago that was tasty and low fat. Very tasty...

You know the drill. Put the "dawgs" on the grill (medium heat). As you turn the "dawgs" to finish, place the Naan on the grill to heat. You want to get the bread nice, warm and pliable (not crisp) to accommodate the sausage.

Place "dawgs" and Naan in foil to keep warm and ready to serve. Finish with your favorite garnishes! I like Dijon mustard, a little Ketchup and diced dill pickles (relish).




K says: "They're great! Come on! I've never had something as great as that! My whole family eats them."



Seriously. Try this on the grill. You won't be disappointed...


Sunday, June 17, 2007

Father's Day German Feast

I'll just take the solo, no introduction, exposition or explanation- that's how I roll, daddy-o.

German Family Father's (Land) Day. It sounds a little ominous, doesn't it? Well it's delicious... I realized this year that about this time of the season, like the solstice, we start to hunger for some GERMAN FOOD. Around the time of my father's birthday and Father's Day we find our way to the German butcher for some treats. This year, we wandered to
The Edelweiss Sausage & Delicatessen, our neighborhood German butcher located in "Historic Brooklyn", just off of SE Powell at the Ross Island Bridge. This place has been here for many years, and since I grew up in a German family in Portland, I'm certain my folks know the owners.

Taking a number at the counter, I searched my childhood memories for menu ideas. Father's Day: blood sausage and calves' liver spread for the men (Blutwurst und Kalbsleber). Cervelot (a cured German tar-tar salami) and Lappi (a Finnish cheese) for the girls. With Bavarian dark rye and "hunter's bread" (Jaegerbrot) from
Neumann's German Bakery, Inc for all.







Blutwurst with onions. My first appreciation of this was in the Old-Dusseldorf brewery Uerige...








And now for my own Father's Day potato salad experiment. Fried potatoes, adding prosciutto, onion, garlic and vinegar for my Northwest take on warm German potato salad.









Crisp up the prosciutto in olive oil. Set aside in a bowl.









Onions cooked crispy in olive oil (don't burn the oil...). Set aside.









Add oil and garlic as a starter for the potatoes. Let the garlic release it's essence, don't brown or overcook!








Add the potatoes. Coat liberally with olive oil. The key is to seal the potatoes in a semi-crispy shell while slowly cooking the inside. I forgot to mention that these potatoes need to be sliced about 1/4" by 1", thin enough to cook through in a pan of oil (without pre-boiling).

Add kosher salt, pepper, basil and dill to taste while cooking.









As the potatoes are finishing, add the prosciutto ham and onions back for flavor. Mix thoroughly and add white wine vinegar to taste (I used about 1/3 cup).


Kill the heat, cover and let stand until ready to serve, or chill. The dish can be served warm but if you chill it and serve cold the flavors meld nicely and produce a respectable picnic potato salad.









And now for the grill: wieners, beer sausage and weisswurst (white sausage).









To top off the meal I opened a Hip Chick's Do Wine 2003 Riesling, dry, citrus with nice acid (not overly sweet).









Schmeckt!

Mr. Kaos





edited with love for readability by CamiKaos xoxo

heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeere's kaos

I know you won't believe this but Mr. Kaos is sitting next to me right now with his laptop (next to my laptop cause that's how we roll). What's he doing on his laptop? Well normally I'd be suspicious that he's logging into work on his day off but not tonight. Not right now.

How do I know?

Because, I just got him all set up to take the reins here at "Kaos Family Kitchen".

That's right babies, he's posting as I type.

Of course I had to hold his hand and make it so...

and then set up all the pictures for him...

and then tell him how rockin he is...

I think he's hoping for some pity action, but that ain't my thing...

Without further ado here are the food stylings of my man...