Cuke Veggie
2010
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Cuke Veggie
Redneck Cooking and Deep Fat Frying
You've noticed a theme by now: most redneck cooking is all about the hot oil treatment. Deep fat frying. whether you use sissy canola oil or the real Southern treasure, lard, it's not a healthy way to eat. Fortunately, there are lots of traditional redneck foods you can put together that don't involve bubbling fats.
Start with southern salads. Summer salad, which is primarily lightly-pickled cucumbers and onions, involves peeling and slicing up cukes and onions and immersing them for an hour in a 1:1 blend of white vinegar and water, with a half-cup of sugar and about a tablespoon of salt added. You can put other sliced watery veggies in as well if you like: peppers, small squash, and carrots are pretty good.
One specific region of the South has plenty of redneck pleasing dishes that do not involve deep frying: Louisiana. Cajun cooking, which involves primarily blending strong seasonings French style, is completely unique. Instead of deep-frying your chicken, get good cuts, dip them in egg and then bread crumbs with a generous amount of Cajun seasoning. Add a little extra cayenne pepper if you like it hot, and then bake your chicken until it's not pink on the inside. This goes great with your summer salad and some rice. And you can use the same breading technique for fish and pork chops.
Barbecue is a critical ingredient of redneck culture, it's usually greasy. You can't do anything to de-grease ribs, unfortunately; the fat's part of their deliciousness. You can, however, make pulled pork and beef much less fatty by slow-cooking it on low in a crock pot with a cup of water. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until you can pull strips of meat off easily with a fork. Drain, cut off any obvious fat, then shred with a fork and remove bones and any other fat you see. Put this back in the crock pot with enough water to cover it, and cook for about twenty minutes. Skim off the fat, drain, and add your barbecue sauce for a surprisingly low-fat barbecue treat. You can do the same with chicken, but look for boneless, skinless breasts and thighs so you start with the least fat to begin with.
You can't do without bread for your barbecue, but don't use buns or white bread. Instead, go for toasted or untested sourdough. It adds a nice zing to your sandwich, and it's one of the breads recommended for the South Beach Diet because its acid content forces your body to digest it better.
Get all your vegetables from the fresh produce section, or even better from your own garden. Tomatoes, green beans, okra, turnip greens, all make for a great redneck meal. Frozen and canned versions are seasoned and heavily salted, though you may not taste it, and are not only less tasty but significantly less healthy.
http://www.blueribbon-recipes.com
http://www.book-of-cookies.com
About the Author
Is cucumber enough when feeding the Otocinclus catfish?
My 2 Otocinclus have eaten all the brown algae, grassy waves of it, in a matter of days. Since then I've been attaching spinach or a slice of cuke to a veggie clip and they'll hang on these things until they're gone. Rarely, maybe once a week before tank cleaning, will I use an algae wafer because it disintegrates and fouls the water so quickly. My question: Should I give them more wafer? Am I effectively starving them by relying too much on the veggies?
I remember wildlife experts from an old college text feeding hay to deer, which they'd eat, but since they couldn't digest it like cattle they starved. This is what I worry about with the Otos.
Your powers of deduction are very good. Assuming that a fish that eats diatoms, a brown algae with a silica skeleton, could get by on other foods is a leap. Diatoms are very different, almost like something from an alien planet with their skeleton of what amounts to glass fibers. I have a couple dozen Otocinclus in my heavily planted 150 gallon tank that I got a long time ago from the local pet shop. It closed a few years ago but I still have the Otos. There does not seem to be any algae in the 150, but I have other tanks with no Otocinclus and the floating Brazilian pennywort can develop a coating of diatoms on its older leaves. I have some of those now ready for the Otos, and tonight or tomorrow I will drop them in the 150 and let them get cleaned off. I don't do this on a regular schedule, just when there is a plant with diatoms on it, and that may not be for several months, so I suspect the Otos are not totally dependent on Diatoms. I have driftwood in their tank, many plants, and I feed the fish decapped brine shrimp. quality flake foods and frozen bloodworms and Mysis shrimp. There is no way I would know which of these foods or tank qualities keeps the Otos going, or if I have exceptionally long lived Otos. Something appears to be working.
Veggie Tales-Minnesota Cuke and the Search for Samson's hairbrush part 3.avi
