You Did What With That? (Episode 1-Ghee, Fennel, and Hoisin)

A new feature on Kitchen Monkey.

Anytime you see this little guy it signifies a new experiment with 1 or more ingredients. Sometimes the experiment will be a great success, born out of creativity and giving rise to a new menu favorite that will spread across first the nation, then the world.

More often it will simply be a result of me having some leftover ingredients from a past meal, or the need to make do with what I have when I don't feel like shopping, or, as with today, some combination of both. Sometimes they will be common ingredients, other times, as with today, they will be less common ingredients incorporated into common meals.

Click on picture of omelette basking in the morning sun to enlarge

Omelette made with Ghee

For breakfast I had an omelette and an english muffin. "Normal enough" you say? Perhaps, but this omelette was made with the leftover ghee I had from last Saturday's Indian Feast. It was, perhaps, the most perfect omelette I've ever eaten. I credit an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats for curing me of Chronic Bad-Omelette-Making Disease. I used to overfill them with loads of cheese and meat or vegetables. They never flipped right and more often than not they would acquire a half-burnt tan-colored crust. Blech. These days my omelettes are simple. Eggs, salt, pepper, butter. That's it. This time I used ghee instead of regular butter and it was dynamite.

Rating: A+

English Muffin with Hoisin Sauce

I was out of honey, out of jam, and I left my damned bottle of Marmite in Utah, and that stuff aint cheap. Although it does last a good while. So anyhow, what I did have was a jar of hoisin sauce leftover from the mu shu pork I made a while back, and I figured it has a taste and consistency somewhere between jam and marmite, so why not? Well, I'll tell you. While it wasn't awful by any means, it was because it has a taste and consistency somewhere between jam and marmite that it didn't work as a breakfast spread. Try it if you have an adventurous pallette.

Rating: C+

Tuna Salad Sandwich with Fennel Seeds

This was lunch today. I'm sure somebody has tried this before, but it was a first for me. The tuna salad was made from a can of "tonno in olive oil" by Chicken of the Sea, a tablespoon or two of mayo, and a chopped up bread and butter pickle. I took about a 1/2 tsp. or more of fennel seeds, crushed them quickly with the mortar and pestle, and mixed it into the tuna salad. It all went on some toasted whole wheat bread with a few slices of tomato. Very good.

Rating: A

If you have any ideas for these three ingredients, simple or complex, let Kitchen Monkey know in the comments.