Rosie Rises To Ticky's Challenge

If you recall, Ticky, in responding to Just Ask Rosie, challenged me to make a nice fried ass
Always being up for a challenge, I headed off to FoodLion yesterday to find me an ass.
Trust me, I found more than one.

As luck would have it, rump roasts were on sale.
And I saved a whopping $0.33!
And, Ticky, I do believe rump qualifies as ass.

Looks nice, doesn't it.
Just wait until you turn it over and see what every cut of meat at FoodLion
looks like on the other side.

Only about an 1/8 - 1/4 inch slab of fat that they leave on hidden underneath.

Here's Mr. Hawthorne cutting the fat off.

For a side dish, Mr. Hawthorne is preparing mashed potatoes.
This is the butter he used:

Last week when we left Danville, we stopped at Yoder's Amish Market in Yanceyville, NC
and bought a bunch of stuff including this delicious butter.

Here Mr. H. is adding milk to the mix. He wanted to add horseradish, but I asked him if he wanted the boys to actually eat any of the mashed potatoes, instead of taking a bite and spitting it across the room. So he wisely omitted the horseradish.
Hasn't this man lived with these children for 18 and 20 years?

Mr. Hawthorne prepared a light salad with onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, and dill slices with a dressing of rice vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Here are Mr. Hawthorne's seasonings which he's rubbed into his ass:
salt, pepper, onion powder, Adobo Seasoning, and Blackening Seasoning.

I came back and sprinkled sugar all over, which I rubbed evenly into the meat.

Now, Ticky, here comes the fried ass part.
We seared the meat on all sides in a combination of canola oil and butter.

Now, I just don't know what a dry fry is.
But I'm doing the best I can here.
Work with me.

After searing all sides, Mr. H. poured in some water and scraped up the goody bits.

He inserted a probe and cooked until the temperature registered 115 degrees.
After letting it rest, the temp actually went up to 129.
Notice, the meat is cut on a slant,
so not all will be as rare as I like it.

Five minutes before taking out the roast, he added
frozen asparagus we get from Schwann's which ain't half bad.

I steamed some broccoli until just tender.

Mr. Hawthorne!! What the hell are you doing?
At this point I had to grab his knife and take over.
If you look carefully, he's cutting the meat WITH THE GRAIN.
BAD Mr. Hawthorne.

Here's my plate:

I had some leftover (from Eggs Benedict last Sunday) gloppy Hollandaise Sauce which I spooned over the broccoli. Looked not too good, but tasted delicious.
A slice of fried ass.
An asparagus spear.
Mashed taters.
And cuke/mater/onion/pickle salad.

The next day I made an ass sandwich for lunch.
I sliced the fried ass against the grain, very thinly, put it on a toasted whole wheat bread slice, with smeared sour cream and horseradish.
And I savored this sandwich.

Hee. Dixie and Beau.
She just wants to be left alone.
He just wants to be close to her.
Ain't that the way it always is?

After a damn good meal of fried, then roasted ass, we had a lovely downpour.
WHOOT! I had just finished cutting the grass.

Thanks, Ticky, for your suggestion.
Hope this satisfies.

Hey Ticky! I Have A Question.

Ticky, You have given me this challenge for the Just Ask Rosie offer. Does rump roast count? Cause that's real close to ass. And I can do rump roast with my eyes closed.

Just Ask Rosie. And I Thank Notmuchofacook For Asking.

Just Ask Rosie.


And notmuchofacook did.


notmuchofacook asked...

Looks delicious, and I just took out some pork loins before I read your post! I don't have any tamari sauce. What can I substitute?

Very simple, notmuchofacook.
Tamari is soy sauce.

See here.

And here.

And, again, here.

So here's regular soy sauce.

And its ingredients.

Here's Tamari.

And its ingredients.

And the explanation that it's a premium soy sauce.

Just Ask Rosie.

Notmuchofacook did.

Thanks, notmuchofacook.

Just Ask Rosie. And I Thank Ken For Asking Rosie.

Ken posted a comment yesterday in response to one of my posts:

Ken said...

While those suggestions are hilarious, on a serious note perhaps you'd like to try Ina Garten's frozen berries with white chocolate ganache? I'd be interested to know if yours turns out the same way that mine did...

And Ken posted a link to her blog and her attempt at making
Ina's white chocolate ganache with blueberries:

The Adventures of Ken and McKenna.

Well, Ken, I tried to look up Ina's recipe for the white choc ganache and the blueberries, but it's one of those recipes that doesn't stay up for long.
In other words, it ain't there.

Hah! My dear friend Orchidgirl just emailed me the recipe.
Here it is:

Marilyn has Vagina Garden's book.
She scanned the recipe and sent it to me.


Ken, Ina specifically says NOT to use chips and to use "the good stuff."
This might have been part of your problem.




And I checked your blog, but you don't exactly have measurements there.
So, I'm on my own here.
Now, Ken, when I looked at your pictures of blueberries and white chocolate, something resonated with me. Something that needed fixin'.
You needed MORE.
More flavors and more textures.
So, I'm trying to do that and come up with a
better combination of flavors, textures, and visual appeal.

And, as luck would have it, I had all the ingredients on hand
and didn't need to go to the store.


So I googled blueberries and white chocolate ganache and got this:
Blueberry and White Chocolate Ganache on a Profiterole.

First up, my mise en place for Profiteroles.

I have :
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk and cream combo
1 cup flour
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 eggs

I poured the water, milk/cream mixture in a pan and added the butter.

Heat to a simmer.

Then add the flour all at once.

Stir vigorously until the dough comes up into a ball.

Nice dough.

Add the eggs one at a time.

Beating the entire time.

After 4 eggs, I decided the dough needed one more egg to make it a bit more loose.

Now, If I see ANYBODY get a Ziploc bag and scissors out
you are Dead.To.Me.

Spoon the pate a choux, while still warm, into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch plain tip and pipe onto a parchment lined baking pan.

Ooh. I'm excited.
My first piping being extruded.

Oooh Kaaaay.

All right.
I guess Ace of Cakes ain't gonna be knockin' on my door anytime soon.

I baked these in a pre-heated 400 degree oven for 15 minutes, then turned the temp down to 350 degrees, and baked for 25 minutes more.

Isn't this profiterole pretty?

You can see the butter oozing out.

And of course, you can see all the flavors, and,
if you're like my daughter, you can smell all the colors.

Cool on a rack.

Now for my white chocolate ganache and strawberry addition.

I have my mise en place:

For the ganache:
4 oz. white chocolate
1 cup heavy cream

(Edited to add: I had to make a correction in the amount of chocolate since I misread the recipe. Should have been 1/3 cup of cream.
My bad.

And for the strawberry glaze:
1 cup strawberries
1/4 cup sugar

Let's make the ganache.

Add cream in a double boiler.
Now, Ken, one reason your ganache didn't turn out like you wanted it,
texture-wise or taste-wise,
might be due to the type of white chocolate you used.
Technically, white chocolate is not chocolate at all, since it doesn't contain chocolate liquor.
A good white "chocolate" contains cocoa butter, milk solids, vanilla, and lecithin.
Inferior brands contain vegetable fat and no cocoa butter.

After reading all this, I immediately went to check the ingredients in my Nestles white chocolate.
No cocoa butter.
Palm oils. Always a plus. NOT.
Artificial flavors.
No vanilla.

I need to go to another store to find a better brand of white chocolate.
Obviously, Nestles ain't it.

So here, I've heated the 1 cup of cream to a simmer over top of a double boiler and I'm dropping a piece of white chocolate into the cream.

I gradually added the white chocolate.

I have it at a low simmer, stirring, and seeing that it's still not all dissolved.
And, my ganache is very, very thin and liquidy.

I go back to the recipe and realize that the recipe called for 1/3 cup of cream not 1 cup.
So I just tripled my white chocolate input.

Note to self:
"Self, read the damn recipe closer!"

At least I have extra ganache leftover, which freezes well
and I'll be able to try out more recipes.

Next up, my strawberries.

I had frozen strawberries on hand from when Mr. H. and I went to Currituck to pick them.

Add in the sugar.

Cook over a very low heat.

The smells are delicious.

Strawberry glaze is ready.

On to my profiteroles with ice cream, white chocolate ganache, and strawberry glaze.

I sliced apart a profiterole.
Added a scoop of ice cream.

Now, Ken, I did have to go out and buy the ice cream. That's just something I don't keep on hand. We have a convenience store 1/2 mile away, so I hopped in my son's little sports car - the first time I'd driven it. Wow, talk about fun.
(Now, Middle Hawthorne has had my truck for 2 weeks since his car was in the shop due to a
hit-and-run. Plus, he's been out of town. And we just got the car out the other day.)
Anyways, I zoom up to TJ's to find some vanilla ice cream - the whole time wishing this convenience store wasn't so convenient because I'm LOVIN' this car.
I haven't driven a straight gear in years.

So, I get there, and there's no such thing as vanilla ice cream.
It's all Ben & Jerry's.
I picked out Creme Brulee.
An excellent pick if I do say so myself.

This was beautiful.
Ice cream on top of the bottom half of profiterole.
Put the top half back on.
Pour the white ganache over top and add the strawberries.

I just had to keep shooting pictures from every angle.

Is this not beautiful?
Look at the strawberry glaze making a little river
in the melting ice cream and surrounding ganache.

Oh Ken, you must try this.
It was delicious.

Now, I noticed you put the white chocolate chips in the hot pan first and then added the cream.
I heated up the cream first, then added the chocolate.
Don't know if that has anything to do with it.

I think we both need to deal with premium white chocolates.

And I think you needed more flavors and textures.

Hope this helps, dear.

'nuf said?