Welcome To The Jungle
Ok so I'm pretty sure you all have heard of the shows Survivor Man and Man Vs. Wild. If not, these are shows on the Discovery Channel that show guys going into the wilderness and trying to survive. They are pretty interesting to see how someone can survive in the different environments. I haven't seen too many of these episodes, but for these, the biggest thing they say is that knowledge will help you survive. After watching one episode, one thing I know is that I'm pretty sure that I would die if I was stranded out in the middle of nowhere.
So I was flipping through the channels last night and came across Survivor Man. This time he was stranded on a deserted island in Costa Rica kinda like Tom Hanks in Castaway. He woke up after the first night and decided to go into the Jungle to look for a trail or something. It was just one guy, a knife and 55lbs of camera equipment he had to lug around. It was weird the way they do this show because it shows him walking around the jungle climbing around stuff, but the way the shots were done, he would have to put the camera down, walk back the way he came, and walked towards the camera again.
He was saying how hot it was in the jungle and how dangerous it was. It came to night and he had to sleep on a log and put the camera on night vision. This is very creepy in the middle of a jungle. Spiders the size of baseball mitts, snakes walking around and lines of leaf cutter ants walking in a line (I know leaf cutter ants are harmless, but VERY freaky at night). He tried sleeping, but couldn't because of the bugs crawling around.
The next day he was lost in the jungle again, he came back on and he was able to kill a small lizard for some food. He made a fire and BBQ'd the hell out of it. He broke up the little burnt pieces and ate it. At this point, I felt really sorry for him, being all alone eating small lizards; but I was hungry so I got some cake, put a little dollop of Cool Whip on it and got a nice glass of milk.
So as I was enjoying my delicious piece of cake, I was watching this guy wander through the jungle. He gave hints about keeping your body temperature low, and the importance of keeping hydrated. He ended up cutting his finger and said how bad it was that infection is the most painful experience out in the wild.
Eventually the guy made it back to the coast and spotted a small village so he made it out. I finished my cake by then and I was thinking about that, and I'm pretty sure if I was stranded out there like it, I would have most likely gone into the jungle and get eaten by wild jungle parrots or something. So it makes me feel lucky to live in California and I sure as hell won't plan on getting stranded on any islands. The main thing needed to survive is knowledge, so now I know, and knowing is what??? (I'll let you answer it)
MEAT!
Hey peoples,
I know it's been a little while so I decided to post about something simple. So the other day I was watching Tyler's Ultimate and he made a really good steak\potato dish so I decided to make it. It was a salt crusted, Ribeye over a baked potato hash brown topped with Bearnaise sauce. It looked easy to make and looked delicious.
We had some steaks in the freezer and I wandered to the store to get the stuff. I started with the steaks. The steaks were to be topped with whipped egg whites, folded with a blend of about 5 different herbs and a bunch of salt. Here is what the steaks looked like after being covered.
I know this looks weird and perhaps a little gross, but it's supposed to insulate the steaks and make a crust on the top. While these are all set up, I started on the baked potato hash browns. This starts with the something all things should start with. BACON! Bacon cooked down with shallots!
While this was cooking up, I had to shred the potatoes. One of these days I need to get a food processor or a mandolin, (or both muhahah) because using a box grater takes a while to shred them. After they are shredded, I put them in a kitchen towel and squeeze out the extra water. Man, I never realized how much water was stuck in a potato. It's kinda gross, but it makes the hash browns crispier.
Once the potatoes are done, they are mixed in a bowl, with Thyme, green onions, salt, pepper, one egg white, and of course the bacon and shallot. Even raw it looks good already.
Once all mixed up, it goes into the pan the bacon was in. (We can't waste any part of the bacon!)
Then it gets patted down and cooked until the bottom gets crispy. Next comes the hazardous part. I have to flip it over in the pan. Tyler did this all in one wrist flip, but I wasn't quite ready for that. I decided to take the safer route and put a plate over the pan, flip the thing over and then slide it back in the pan.
That was the plan to begin with, but as most plans go, this one didn't quite turn out (get it turn out). I started with the a nervous look,
Then the flip,
And finally the slide from the plate and ONTO the oven! Dammit, stupid potatoes fell down.
So half of the potatoes get flipped and the rest go into the oven. Soon after, the steaks come out with the crust.
While the potaotes finish up, I start with the Bearnaise sauce. Bearnaise sauce is basically a hollandaise sauce with a blend of shallots and reduced wine. So I start with the shallots and wine.
After the wine reduces, it goes into the blender with the egg yolks and then the butter!
With the completion of the sauce, the last things to do is to free the meat,
cut the meat,
Slice the potatoes,
and add the sauce,
So as always, a 40 minute recipe takes 2 hours to complete, a mess on the oven, but oh soooo worth it. It was phenomenal. The only thing that was a bit off, was the crust made the meat really really salty. So next time, I gotta make sure to scrape off more of the crust and do some major blotting. But all in all, this turned out really well and I'll have to work on the potato flipping thing. If you want to see a couple more pictures, I got them on the flickr thingy.
