Impromptu Chili Cheese Fries

Hey again food blog readers! Our massive chicken taco project is still in the works, but fear not, it's going to be here soon. In the mean time we've made quite a few delicious things that need to be shown to the world. A few weekends back I was craving something to snack on while spending an unnecessary amount of time playing video games (the original SNES version of Lufia and the PC game Septerra Core, for anyone who is interested in that sort of thing). I knew I wanted something involving potatoes, but wasn't feeling like chips, so I decided to whip up some chili fries with the potatoes we had sitting on the counter.

Halfway through, I realized we didn't actually have any chili, so I had to improvise. What I ended up with was wedges of potatoes seasoned with chili powder, garlic powder, and red pepper flakes. I cut up strips of red bell pepper and threw on green onion and "mozzarella" flavored rice cheese (basically tastes like slices of American cheese). When it popped out of the oven I knew I was onto something and we decided to make it the basis of an another meal later that week.


For a meal based around the oh-so-delicious, not-exactly-nutritious chili fries we wanted to ramp it up a notch and make it worthy of a food blog. First Megan seasoned chicken thighs (way more tender than breasts) and broiled them. After pulling them out she cut them up into thin slices to put on top of the home made fries.


As with last time we also baked red pepper and green onions with the potato wedges. This time we didn't bake the cheese on, as we wanted to have a sort of assembly line where everyone could add whatever they wanted on top.


Here's all the various ingredients to put on the fries and the side salad. There's avacado, chicken strips, shredded cheddar and mozzarella, hard boiled egg slices, tomato, mandarin oranges, cucumber, sour cream, and hot sauce. For anyone wondering why that isn't Cholula - well, we ran out and I wanted to try something different. Tapatio probably won't be replacing Cholula for me, but it is significantly spicier and has a nice kick.

Here's the first layer of the fries with a dollop of chili and a generous handful of chicken strips tossed on top.

To finish off my plate of fries I put sour cream, sprinkled cheese, and then threw on a whole lot of hot sauce.


Here's the finished meal with my salad, using tomatoes, eggs, avocado, and some more of the chicken. It's not pictured here, but I topped it off with green goddess dressing.



That's it for this week! Check back soon for our latest creation (impromptu or planned - who knows?) and the soon to arrive "War in heaven chicken taco" videos! For anyone who missed them, you can see the original teasers for the chicken tacos at here, here, and finally here!

Shrimp and clam Po Boys

All the voice overs have been recorded for our upcoming first video blog, and now all the video is being spliced together for our amazing take on chicken tacos. You can check out the first two teasers for the upcoming video here and here if you haven't seen them yet. Just to keep you hooked a little bit longer, here are two more photos from the recording:





Trust me when I say the final product will be well worth the wait! Now onto the purpose of this week's blog: fried shrimp and clam Po' Boys! I'd been craving seafood and wanted to try something a little different, so we went the route of making sandwiches with them. To get started I put together the coating for the shrimp and clams, which consisted of tempura batter and a few other spices.


Megan and her siblings frequently get me new seasonings for gift giving occasions, and one of them was an all seafood themed seasoning mix. The "South Seas" seasoning has a great savory taste, and it works for things other than seafood as well. I tossed in a liberal sprinkling of South Seas and cayenne to give the batter a little kick.


Next up was trying to figure out how to shuck clams. It only took us all day, but we did finally find a kitchen store that had clam shucking knives. My first attempt was a disaster, but I got it down pretty quick. The secret is to use the entire length of the blade to find the best point of entry, instead of trying to use the tip. Once the knife is in you can then twist it around from vertical to horizontal to pop open the shell. Here's me on my first try, about to gash open my thumb:


After pulling the tails off the shrimp and getting the clams out of their shells I dipped all the seafood in milk and then coated it in the batter.

Because they are so small, the shrimp and clams only take about four or five minutes to fully fry in the oil.



The condiment is the most important part of any sandwich, and I wanted this Po' Boy to be something spectacular. Instead of using any of my standard mustard or horseradish concoctions, I put together a spicy remoulade sauce. The sauce is made by blending together mayo, garlic, capers, Chalula hot sauce, horseradish, pickle juice, coarse ground mustard, and a few spices.


A couple of layers of remoulade sauce and some lettuce top the sandwich, and then we are ready to start adding on the seafood.





For a little more zest and tang, I squeezed fresh lemon juice all over the shrimp and clams.


Here's the finished sandwich, with a heaping helping of curly fries.