Kearby's Kitchen

Love Shack Denton ... Completing The Trifecta

2012-02-03T00:30:00.000-06:00

I'm a big fan of local celeb chef Tim Love. You've probably seen him all over Food Network, Top Chef, really anywhere that there's a camera. Hubby and I were fortunate enough to enjoy New Year's Eve dinner at his Lonesome Dove restaurant in Fort Worth a couple of years ago. We've been to the original Love Shack in the Fort Worth Stockyards, we've been to the Love Shack So 7 on Fort Worth's West 7th Street, and today I completed the Love Shack trifecta. I had a morning deposition on the north side of the square in Denton that concluded just in time for lunch and so I had an excuse to visit (alone, sadly) the newest Love Shack, located just east of the square.

I ordered my Love Shack fav, the single dirty love burger, along with an order of onion rings and an iced tea. The burger was yummy, although I think it was cooked slightly short of the medium doneness described on the menu, just a touch too pink for my taste, but very enjoyable nonetheless. Love Shack burger patties are made from a 50/50 combination of ground sirloin and brisket, and the dirty love burger is dressed with crispy bacon, melted cheese, a quail egg, the signature Love sauce, and the usual hamburger condiments.

The onion rings are the superthin kind that I love, well seasoned, and enough for an entire family. I took home the leftovers and snacked on them all afternoon. Although I'll never complain about an all-day onion ring snack, an individual serving size would be a nice menu addition.

Service and atmosphere are very friendly and Denton cool ... think Austin lite ... since it was weekday lunchtime I wasn't too out of place despite my dearth of ink and body piercings. When I asked for the check, my server offered a to-go iced tea. I know it's sort of a simple thing, but I love that considerate touch, when my server at lunch on a business day offers some carry-out caffeine to keep me awake through the afternoon.

Feel free to express yourself in the ladies room ...

Here's your chalk ...

Quirky and fun at this location is the graffiti-friendly bathroom wall. The lower portion of the wall is tile, but the upper portion is chalkboard and there's a box of sidewalk chalk in the bathroom so you can leave your "for a good time call" or "Kearby was here" on the wall without guilt.

Ensalada De Nochebuena (Mexican Christmas Eve Salad)

2012-01-31T10:56:00.001-06:00

Forgot the camera, so here's an iPhone pic of this yummy salad.

In many Latin American countries, the most festive Christmas celebrations occur on Nochebuena, or Christmas Eve (literally "Good Night"). Ensalada de Nochebuena is a traditional Mexican Christmas Eve salad. It's a great mixture of colors, flavors, and textures for Christmas Eve or any festive meal.

For The Dressing:
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 cup Mexican or Salvadorean crema (you can substitute sour cream if crema isn't available)
1/4 cup honey
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
Juice of one lime
3 teaspoons chili powder
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
Pinch of salt

Mix well, taste, and adjust seasonings to your taste. This recipe will yield enough dressing to dress a Nochebuena salad and have some left over to dress another fruit salad.

For The Salad:
1/4 to 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro (to taste)
1/4 cup roasted salted peanuts, chopped
Seeds of one pomegranate
Salad greens for presentation (optional)

And use any combination of the following ingredients, according to your taste:
2 tangerines or oranges, peeled, segmented, deseeded, and cut into bite-size pieces
1 medium jicama, peeled and julienned
20 oz. can of pineapple tidbits or chunks
2 bananas, sliced
2 medium-size cooked beets, peeled, cut in half, and sliced into "half moons"
2 small apples, cored and chopped
6-8 radishes, sliced thin

Toss together your choice of salad ingredients with the chopped cilantro. Drizzle enough dressing onto salad to lightly coat and mix well. If desired, line serving platter with salad greens. Spoon salad onto platter. Sprinkle with chopped peanuts and pomegranate seeds and serve.

Jonathon Erdeljac's Beer-and-Cheddar Soup

2012-01-30T22:19:00.000-06:00

I'm anxious to visit Jonathon Erdeljac's new Oak Cliff restaurant, Jonathon's Oak Cliff. In the meantime, I made his Beer-and-Cheddar Soup recipe, which has received the stamp of approval from my family. My version of this soup doesn't make the prettiest picture, as I sacrificed vanity in favor of flavor and used my favorite Cabot extra sharp white cheddar instead of yellow cheddar. I think this recipe has the perfect ratio of broth to cheese to beer, very savory, not cloyingly cheesy, no overpowering elements. We try to limit our simple carbs, so we didn't serve the soup with the garlic-rubbed toasts as the recipe calls for, but that would certainly be a great textural addition. And I didn't have a jalapeno handy, so I used a couple of pinches of cayenne pepper instead.

Jonathon Erdeljac's Beer-and-Cheddar Soup

2 large garlic cloves, minced
1 celery rib, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Garlic-rubbed toasts, for serving
1 tablespoon chopped thyme
1 large jalapeño, seeded and chopped
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
One 12-ounce bottle lager or pilsner
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 pound piece of slab bacon, sliced 1/3 inch thick and cut into 1/3-inch dice
About 2 1/4 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 pound sharp yellow cheddar cheese, coarsely shredded
4 ounces smoked cheddar cheese, coarsely shredded

1. In a large saucepan, cook the bacon over moderate heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is crisp, 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the bacon to a bowl. Add the celery, onion, jalapeño, garlic and thyme to the saucepan and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, 8 minutes. Add half of the beer and cook until reduced by half, 5 minutes. Add 2 1/4 cups of chicken broth and bring to a simmer.

2. In a small skillet, melt the butter. Add the flour and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Whisk this roux into the soup until incorporated and bring to a simmer. Cook until thickened, about 8 minutes. Add the heavy cream, cheddar cheeses and the remaining beer and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thick and creamy, about 5 minutes. Stir in the bacon and season with salt and pepper. Add a few tablespoons of broth if the soup is too thick. Serve the soup with garlic toasts.

Make Ahead: The cheddar soup can be refrigerated overnight. Rewarm gently and thin with additional broth.

Pernil (Roasted Pork Shoulder) For Christmas Eve

2012-01-12T18:30:00.000-06:00

Pernil is the centerpiece of the traditional Puerto Rican Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) meal. It's a delicious alternative to turkey or ham. Pernil takes a bit of planning and a long cooking time; however, it's easy to make and doesn't require much hands-on prep time and it's made with budget-friendly bone-in pork shoulder. Be sure to cook more than you need for the holiday meal so you can make Cuban sandwiches later.

Recipe For Pernil (Roasted Pork Shoulder)

8-10 lb. bone-in pork shoulder (you may also see the word picnic on the label)

For the marinade:
15 black peppercorns
18 cloves garlic, peeled
1 1/2 tablespoon dry oregano
4-5 tablespoons olive oil
4-5 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt for each pound of meat
Optional: I had some naranjas agrias (sour oranges), so I added some juice from them as well

Crush and mix the marinade ingredients in a pilon (mortar and pestle) or in a blender. Allow the flavors to marry while you prepare the pork.

Lightly score the surface of the pork skin in a criss-cross pattern, as you would an Easter ham.

Using a very sharp knife, carefully separate the skin from the top of the pork shoulder, starting at the large end, peeling it back toward the small bony end of the shoulder, stopping before you completely separate the skin from the bony end.

Use your sharp knife to jab deep holes into the meat all over, turning the knife to make the holes larger.

Reserve a bit of marinade for the surface of the skin. Rub the remainder of the marinade all over the pork, using your fingers to work it deep into the knife holes. Carefully re-position the skin back into place and use butcher's twine to tie it securely. Rub reserved marinade into the skin.

Place in ziptop bag. Either double-bag or put a tray underneath in case of drips. Refrigerate at least overnight and up to 2 days.

Pernils resting in the fridge, marinating for the big day. We made two Pernils so there'd be plenty of leftovers for Cuban sandwiches ... yummy!

One hour before cooking, remove the pork from the refrigerator, remove it from the bags, place it on a rack in a roasting pan, skin side up, and cover with foil. While pork is coming to room temperature, preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Place pork shoulder in oven and bake for 30 minutes per pound. Increase the oven temperature to 375 degrees, remove the foil, and roast until the skin is brown and crispy, about an hour. When done, the skin will literally sound crunchy if you tap it. While roasting keep an eye on the Pernil to avoid burning the skin.

Although the USDA now says pork is safe if cooked to 145 degrees, this cut needs to be cooked low and slow to allow the fat to tenderize the meat and I recommend a finished internal temperature of 160 to 180 degrees.

Remove the Pernil from the oven and let it rest for 15 to 30 minutes, tented with foil. Remove the butcher's twine and separate the skin from the meat. Carve and shred the meat. Cut/break the crunchy skin into bite-sized pieces. Serve the meat on a platter with the crunchy skin on the side.

Homemade Dark Beer Mustard

2011-11-08T22:08:00.000-06:00

This mustard is malty from the vinegar and beer, spicy from the horseradish, and with every bite the mustard seeds pop, flooding your mouth with their savory flavor.

1 cup malt vinegar
1 cup dark beer (a dark ale or stout works well)
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 cup brown or black mustard seed, toasted in a skillet until very fragrant
1 tablespoon caraway seed, crushed and toasted in a skillet until very fragrant
2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
pinch cayenne pepper
pinch cardamom
pinch ground mace
pinch nutmeg
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
4 teaspoons Steen's Pure Cane Syrup
4 tablespoons Colman's mustard powder

This recipe will make about 3 cups of mustard.

Sterilize a canning jar and lid.

Bring the vinegar, beer, and garlic to a boil in a small saucepan. Turn off the heat and let steep for 15 to 20 minutes, then strain the mixture and discard the solids. Bring back to a boil, then add the mustard seeds and caraway, turn off the heat, and let steep for 30 minutes.

Combine the vinegar/mustard mixture with the horseradish, coriander, cayenne, cardamom, mace, nutmeg, salt, and cane syrup. Whisk in the mustard powder.

Pour into the sterilized jar, put the lid on, and process in a water bath for 15 minutes. When cool, tighten the lid and make sure the jar is sealed. Place in a cool, dark place and let mature for 3 to 4 weeks before using to allow the flavors to marry and mellow.

Refrigerate after opening.

Two Must-See Programs For Foodies (Especially Texas Foodies) Coming Soon

2011-10-25T19:30:00.001-05:00

The new season of Next Iron Chef featuring two of my favorite chefs, Anne Burrell and Chuck Hughes, and an overall incredible cast of contestants, begins October 30th on Food Network. Don't miss it! Check out this link for more info: http://eater.com/archives/2011/04/19/the-next-iron-chef-lineup-includes-anne-burrell-spike-mendelsohn-and-marcus-samuelsson.php

And as a Native Texan, I'm anxiously awaiting Top Chef Texas on Bravo, which premiers on November 2nd. Check out this link for more info: http://www.bravotv.com/blogs/the-dish/top-chef-is-bigger-in-texas

Don't forget to set your DVRs for these great food competition programs!

Puerto Rican Carne Mechada/Cuban Boliche Hybrid Recipe

2011-10-17T23:06:00.000-05:00

All us good ole southern girls grew up with pot roast. Here's a Latin twist on our down-home favorite.

Puerto Rican Carne Mechada and Cuban Boliche are variations on a theme of succulent stuffed beef eye of round roast, with a savory sauce, cooked either on the stovetop or in the oven until tender. There are lots of recipes out there with varying ingredients and cooking methods. The following recipe combines my favorite elements from each version and was inspired by a couple of recipes, namely Carne Mechada -- Puerto Rican Stuffed Pot Roast from the blog Platanos, Mangoes and Me, and Cuban Boliche from the blog CDKitchen.

This is so yummy. Savoriness inside the roast, savoriness in the sauce, super yum. The roast is tender because of the pre-salting and the slow braising, even though it's a totally affordable cut. I hope you'll enjoy it.

Just a note: I had intended to cube up some potatoes and add them to the Dutch oven during the last 30 minutes of cooking and just totally forgot (probably because we're so in the habit of limiting our intake of starchy carbs). That would have been a really great addition, though, to soak up the yummy sauce, either that or a scoop of the fabulous white rice that Puerto Ricans and Cubanos are famous for. This recipe absolutely screams for some potatoes or rice to sop up all the crazy good sauce.

Puerto Rican Carne Mechada/Cuban Boliche Hybrid Recipe

3-4 lb. beef eye round roast
Kosher salt
3.5 oz. package Goya (or your favorite brand) Spanish chorizo (divided use)
2 oz. manzanilla olives with pimientos (divided use)
1 head of garlic, separated into cloves (divided use)
1 packet of Goya sazon seasoning
1/4 cup olive oil
4 cubanelle peppers or 1 green bell pepper
1 medium onion
1 tablespoon dry oregano
4 bay leaves
1 cup red wine (I used Merlot, but I think the best option would be Chilean Carmenere if I hadn't finished off that bottle last week)
2 tablespoons capers
15 oz. can of tomato sauce
1 cup beef broth (I had homemade chicken broth so I used that instead)
1 bunch of cilantro

Rinse the roast and pat dry with paper towels. Pierce a hole through the middle of the roast lengthwise. I used a bread knife because it's really long and the blade is the same width along its entire length so it can make a nice even hole. Rub the roast with a teaspoon of Kosher salt. Rub the salt all over the outside and into the hole you just pierced as much as possible. Let it sit at room temperature for about 2 hours.

While the roast is sitting and "salting," cut the chorizos into quarters lengthwise, peel away the casings, and slice the quarters. Drain the olives. Peel the garlic cloves and cut any large cloves in half.

Rinse the salt off the roast and pat dry with paper towels. Time to stuff the roast with yumminess. Starting with two chorizo pieces in each hand, insert them into the holes in the roast from each end until they meet in the middle, then insert a garlic clove or garlic clove half from each end, then an olive from each end. Continue inserting two chorizo pieces from each end, followed by a garlic clove from each end, and an olive from each end until the cavity is filled.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Sprinkle the sazon all over the "stuffed" roast and rub it into the meat. Let the stuffed, seasoned roast sit at room temp while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.

Dice the cubanelles or bell pepper and the onion. Mince the leftover garlic cloves. Cut the leftover olives in half. Drain the capers. Rough chop the cilantro.

Heat a Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add olive oil. Add roast and brown on all sides by cooking 2-4 minutes on each side, turning until it's browned all over. Remove browned roast to a plate. Reduce heat to medium low and allow the Dutch oven to cool until the oil isn't smoking.

When the olive oil in the Dutch oven has cooled a bit, add the leftover chorizo. Cook and stir a couple of minutes. Add the diced cubanelles or bell pepper and the diced onion, oregano, and bay leaves. Cook, stirring frequently, until pepper and onion is opaque. Add the leftover garlic and cook for a couple of minutes, allowing the moisture released by the veggies to cook off.

Add the red wine, stirring to deglaze the pan. Add the leftover olives, the capers, tomato sauce, broth, and cilantro. Bring to a simmer, then add the roast back into the pan. Spoon the sauce over the roast.

Put the lid on the Dutch oven and put it in the oven to braise for 2 hours.

Remove roast, slice, and serve with lots of sauce.

Kisir (Turkish Bulgur Wheat Salad)

2011-10-13T11:56:00.000-05:00

Kisir is a Turkish salad made with bulgur (cracked wheat). I'd never heard of it until my husband's coworker from Turkey told him about it. It's similar to Lebanese tabouli, but incorporates red pepper paste that gives it a nice tangy flavor and pretty color. This recipe is an amalgamation of what I found when I Googled-searched Kisir recipes. I can't tell you if it's authentic since I've never had it before, but it tastes really good. And it's loaded with fiber and nutrients, always a bonus.

Turkish bulgur and red pepper paste. Cool, huh?

Kisir Recipe

1 1/2 cup fine bulgur
water

6 green onions, white part and some of the green part sliced thin
2 Kirby cucumbers, seeded and diced
2 tomatoes, diced
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons chopped dill

3 tablespoons Turkish red pepper paste (there are mild and spicy versions; I used mild)
juice of 2 lemons
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
crushed red pepper to taste (omit if using spicy red pepper paste)
salt to taste

Put the bulgur in a medium-sized bowl. Add enough simmering water to just cover; that will be roughly 1 1/2 cups water. Let sit for 15 minutes to absorb the water. While you're waiting for the water to absorb you can prepare the veggies and herbs.

In a large bowl, mix the onions, cucumbers, tomatoes, parsley, mint, and dill. Add the red pepper paste, lemon juice, olive oil, pomegranate molasses, crushed red pepper if using, and a few pinches of salt. Mix well and let the veggie mixture sit for a few minutes for the salt to dissolve and the flavors to blend. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.

Pour the soaked bulgur into the veggie mixture, mix well, and serve.

Making Pesto With Morgan

2011-10-11T18:48:00.000-05:00

Morgan is a wee bit shy and doesn't like for me to post photos of her. I think she'll be okay, though, with this little pic of her presenting the yummy pesto that she made with me.

Homemade Basil Pesto

2 cups fresh basil leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup walnuts
3 peeled and roughly chopped garlic cloves
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese or a combination of the two
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Use the measurements as guidelines and adjust the amounts to suit your taste.

In a small saute pan or skillet, toast the pine nuts and walnuts over medium heat, shaking constantly, for a few minutes to give them a nice toasty flavor, but being careful not to let them burn ... the difference between toasted nutty goodness and blaring smoke alarm is, oh, about a second, haha. Let the nuts cool until they can be handled easily.

Put the basil, pine nuts, and walnuts in a food processor and pulse a few times to roughly chop. Add the garlic cloves and pulse a few times.

With the food processor running, slowly stream in the olive oil. Stop processing and scrape down the sides of the food processor with a spatula.

Add the grated cheese and pulse just to combine. Add a pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper and pulse to combine.

Let the pesto rest for a few minutes, especially if you're using Kosher salt, which has larger granules than table salt and needs some time to dissolve. Then give your pesto a quick pulse in the food processor, taste it, and add more olive oil, salt, or pepper if necessary.

Spaghetti Squash Casserole

2011-10-02T17:27:00.000-05:00

Spaghetti squash is a tasty, low-carb option to use in place of pasta. I'm not gonna lie to you, it absolutely does not have the same flavor and consistency as pasta; it is, however, yummy and satisfying. You can mix it with leftover tomato sauce and top it with cheese to make a great low-carb meatless casserole. This is a nice Meatless Monday kind of main dish if you're trying to reduce your carb or animal protein intake or cook on a budget. And a big bonus for my family is that our young'uns like it and every serving provides them a couple of their daily servings of veggies as well as some calcium.

I don't have exact measurements to give you for this recipe. I used two fairly small spaghetti squash, a few cups of leftover tomato sauce, and enough grated Mozzarella cheese to cover the surface of the mixture, and cooked it in an 8-by-8 baking dish.

For the tomato sauce, here's a recipe for a quick and easy weeknight tomato sauce or use your favorite recipe.

There are several ways to prepare spaghetti squash. You can Google "how to cook spaghetti squash" for info about different prep methods. I chose the method where you cut the squash in half lengthwise before baking. This requires a very, very sharp chef's knife or cleaver and some muscle; having a strong hubby to hack through the squash for you is highly recommended (muchas gracias, mi amor!). After you cut the squash in half, scrape out the seeds and pulp. If you're patient, it's worth separating out the seeds to roast in the oven, just like pumpkin seeds. They're super-yummy!

Line a baking sheet with foil and spray the foil with nonstick spray. Put the squash halves cut side down on the foil and bake at 375 degrees until you can easily insert a fork right through the skins and the flesh, about 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a while, then use a fork to scrape the flesh from the squash. The flesh will shred into spaghetti-like strands as it's scraped.

Shredded spaghetti squash

Mix the squash and tomato sauce and put it in a greased casserole dish.

Cover with a nice, thick layer of grated Mozzarella.

Bake at 375 degrees until the casserole is hot and the cheese is ooey-gooey melted, 20 to 30 minutes.

Broccoli Cauliflower Cheese Soup

2011-10-02T16:04:00.000-05:00

This twist on broccoli cheese soup is creamy, cheesy, and pretty darn nutritious. It has just a touch of butter and flour, only enough to allow the cheese to melt without separating, and it has milk instead of cream. The primary thickener is the cauliflower. Our gradually-becoming-less-picky kiddos like this soup, and it provides them lots of veggies and calcium ... winning!!!

For the cheddar in this recipe I highly recommend the Cabot extra sharp white cheddar available at Wal-Mart. I know, it's totally counterintuitive to think the best cheese comes from Wal-Mart, but this is our family favorite for taste, smooth melting, and reasonable price ... go figure.

One other recommendation, and it's about specialty ingredients. It's seldom necessary to invest in specialty ingredients. For instance, the cheapest black peppercorns will taste great as long as they're freshly ground and I love Lawry's seasoned salt more than any higher-priced version I've ever had. Once in a while, though, a specialty ingredient really makes the recipe, well, special. I think that's the case with this soup, where I used Penzeys toasted granulated onion (no, they don't pay me anything to tout their products; boy, don't I wish). You can of course substitute regular onion powder, but the results just won't be quite as toasty yummy good.

Broccoli Cauliflower Cheese Soup Recipe

3/4 pound broccoli crowns
1 head of cauliflower
cloves of half a head of garlic
2 cups stock (see note)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup lowfat milk
1/2 pound grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
2 teaspoons toasted granulated onion
salt and freshly ground black pepper
splash of Sherry (optional)

Note: The best stock for this soup is a smoky one, such as a stock made from smoked chicken or ham bones. Use the best stock you have available.

Procedure

Rinse and drain the broccoli and cauliflower. Trim away the very ends of the broccoli stems and any leaves. Cut the florets off the stems and roughly chop the florets. Set the chopped florets aside. Roughly chop the broccoli stems.

Cut the cauliflower head in quarters and cut away the stem/core and leaves. Rough chop the quartered cauliflower.

Peel the garlic cloves.

(Remember to throw all the veggie trimming "discards" in your freezer bag for making stock later.)

Veggies prepped and ready to fulfill their soup destiny

Fill a large heavy-bottomed stockpot with water, add a few big pinches of salt, and bring to a low boil. Add the broccoli stem chunks, the cauliflower chunks, and the garlic cloves. Boil gently until all veggies are very tender and can be easily pierced with a fork, about 20 minutes.

Once you have the broccoli stems, cauliflower, and garlic boiling in the salted water, bring the stock to a boil in a large saucepan, add broccoli florets, and gently boil while you complete the remaining steps.

When the broccoli stems, cauliflower, and garlic are tender, drain them through a strainer, reserving 1/2 cup of the cooking water. Put the heavy-bottomed stockpot back on the range; you're going to use it again. Process the broccoli stems, cauliflower, and garlic in a food processor or blender until smooth, working in batches if necessary, and adding a little of the cooking water if necessary.

In the heavy-bottomed stockpot, melt the butter over medium heat, add the flour, and whisk for a couple of minutes to cook the flour. Whisk in the milk and continue whisking until the mixture thickens like gravy. Add the cheese a handful at a time, stirring to incorporate.

When all the cheese has melted, pour in the stock with the broccoli florets, add the toasted granulated onion, salt and pepper to taste, and Sherry, if using. Simmer for a while before serving to allow all the flavors to blend.

Makes roughly (very roughly) 2 1/2 quarts of soup.

A Pause To Admire Nature's Beauty

2011-09-08T18:59:00.000-05:00

This beautiful anole took a stroll across our patio railing. Check out his beautiful scarlet throat.

Succulent Roast Chicken

2011-09-08T18:36:00.000-05:00

This is a simple recipe for roast chicken.

1 3-5 pound brined chicken
10 or more garlic cloves, peeled
1 lime, cut in half
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper
Spice rub of your choice

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Cover a shallow sheet pan with aluminum foil (for easy cleanup later). Spray both sides of a baking rack with oil (also for easy cleanup later), using your Misto sprayer or a Pam-type cooking spray. Set the baking rack on top of the foil-lined sheet pan.

Stuff the chicken cavity with the peeled garlic cloves and the lime halves.

Drizzle the chicken with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and plenty of your choice of spice rub.

Rub the oil/salt/pepper/spice rub mixture all over the chicken and under the skin. Truss the chicken. While this isn't absolutely necessary, it will give you a prettier, more evenly roasted chicken. I'm no expert on trussing techniques. Basically you want to pull the wings in tight to the body of the bird and tie the tips of the drums together. You can do a Google search for "trussing a chicken" and find some good instructional YouTube videos that can demonstrate far better than I can.

Place the trussed or un-trussed chicken on the baking rack and put it in the preheated oven. Roast for 30 minutes at 450 degrees, then lower oven temperature to 350 degrees and roast in 30-minute increments until done, checking the temperature of the chicken every 30 minutes with an instant read thermometer. The USDA recommends an internal temperature of 165 degrees for poultry. One of the great things about brining your poultry before roasting is that in addition to making it more flavorful it also allows it to retain tenderness and juiciness so you can easily roast it to a safe temperature without drying it out.

Morgan's Cream of Cauliflower Soup

2011-08-19T20:29:00.001-05:00

This soup received an enthusiastic seal of approval from my stepdaughter Morgan. I used homemade smoked chicken stock (made with the carcass of a chicken my hubby smoked) and Penzey's toasted, granulated onion powder, which gave the soup a smoky, toasty flavor and a golden brown color. Store-bought chicken stock and onion powder would make a really good soup too. Just use the best ingredients you have available.

This recipe makes enough soup for a starter course for 4 people.

Morgan's Cream of Cauliflower Soup

1 head of cauliflower
salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 cups chicken stock
2 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 cup half-and-half
big splash of sherry (optional)

Cut the cauliflower into quarters. Trim and remove the leaves and core (don't forget to toss them into a freezer bag for making veggie broth). Roughly dice the cauliflower quarters into chunks. Boil the cauliflower chunks in lightly salted water in a saucepot until very tender, about 10-15 minutes. Drain.

Meanwhile, as the cauliflower is boiling, melt butter in a large, heavy saucepan. Add the flour and cook and whisk for several minutes to cook the flour. Whisk in the chicken stock, several grinds of black pepper, and onion powder. Stir in the cauliflower. Simmer 5 minutes to marry the flavors.

Carefully puree the soup using an immersion (stick) blender. Alternatively, you can cool the soup for a while and puree it in a blender, then return it to the saucepan.

Add half-and-half and sherry and simmer another 5 minutes, then serve.

Chicken with Asiago, Prosciutto, and Sage

2011-08-19T19:23:00.000-05:00

This recipe is slightly adapted from this recipe from the blog Dinners for a Year and Beyond.

Chicken with Asiago, Prosciutto, and Sage

serves 4-6

2 pounds of chicken breast tenders, pounded to 1/4-inch thickness
flour
salt and pepper
4 tablespoons butter, divided
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/3 pound asiago cheese (shredded or sliced into thin strips)
1/2 pound thin prosciutto slices
2/3 cup dry white wine
2 teaspoons minced fresh sage
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
whole sage leaves (for garnish)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

First sprinkle chicken all over very lightly with salt and set aside for a few minutes while you measure and prepare the other ingredients.

Sprinkle salted chicken with pepper and dredge in flour, shaking off excess.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter with the olive oil in large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add chicken breasts and saute until brown, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Lay the chicken pieces in a rimmed baking sheet and set the saute pan aside; you'll be using the pan with any remaining drippings for the sauce.

Sprinkle or place most of the cheese over the chicken pieces, then drape prosciutto slices over each chicken piece, and finally top with the remainder of the cheese. Bake until the cheese melts and the prosciutto gets slightly crisp, about 5 minutes.

Meanwhile add wine, minced sage, and remaining 2 tablespoons butter to skillet. Boil until sauce is reduced by half, scraping up brown bits. Add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Transfer chicken pieces to serving platter. Top each with a sage leaf, drizzle pan sauce over, and serve.

Chicken Stir-Fry

2011-07-25T18:39:00.000-05:00

Most of us home cooks don't have the mega BTU output stovetops needed for truly authentic wok cooking. But with a little thoughtful ingredient prep we can create a pretty darn good replica. Currently I'm using a big cast-iron skillet on an electric stove, so this is totally a do-what-you-can-with-what-you-have kind of recipe.

When prepping ingredients, remember to cut them to a size that's convenient for eating with chopsticks (the only proper way to eat stir-fry) and prep them so that they cook in only a couple of minutes.

In this recipe I use velveted chicken, which is perfect for cooking quickly over medium-high heat. I salt the squash, then rinse and pat dry. This gives the squash some flavor, and more importantly removes a lot of moisture so that the squash can cook quickly into lovely individual golden bites and not turn into a mushy, gloppy, tasteless mess. I blanch the broccoli in salted water, and drain. That preserves the beautiful green color and perfectly prepares the broccoli for quick stir-frying.

Have fun experimenting with stir-fry ingredients. Prep veggies according to their textures. When you're prepping soft, high-moisture veggies (squash, zucchini squash, tomatoes), salt for at least 30 minutes, rinse, and pat them dry. When you're prepping firmer, tougher veggies (broccoli, green beans, asparagus), blanch in boiling salted water and drain. Quick-cooking ingredients like mushrooms, sprouts, green onions, and herbs don't need any special prep treatment; just add them to the skillet or wok toward the end of the cooking process. The objective is for every ingredient to be flavorful, cook quickly, and not leave a puddle of water in the skillet or wok.

Chicken Stir-Fry Recipe

1 1/2 pounds of velveted chicken pieces
1/4 cup peanut oil
1 yellow summer squash, cut in bite-size chunks
1 broccoli crown, cut in small florets
kosher salt
4 green onions, thinly sliced
1 cup bean sprouts
1/4 cup soy sauce
chopped basil and cilantro to taste

Prepare The Squash:
Place in a colander over a bowl and sprinkle all over with kosher salt. Let sit at least 30 minutes to allow the salt to draw the moisture out of the squash. Then rinse well, drain, and pat dry on paper towels.

Prepare The Broccoli:
Boil salted water in a medium-size saucepan. Drop the broccoli in, bring water back to a boil, and cook for 1 minute. Drain the broccoli from the water and cool in an ice bath or under cool running water to stop the cooking process.

Heat the peanut oil in a cast-iron skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Don't be afraid of heat here. You want everything to brown a little to develop the flavor and you're using enough oil and stirring constantly so nothing sticks. Add chicken and stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes, until it starts to brown. Add squash and stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes, until it starts to brown. Add broccoli and stir-fry 1 minute. Add green onion, bean sprouts, and soy sauce and stir-fry 1 minute. Turn off heat, add basil and cilantro, stir well, and serve.

Don't forget the chopsticks!

Velveting Chicken

2011-07-25T17:26:00.000-05:00

I recently discovered the technique of velveting chicken. It's sort of a parcooking method for chicken so that you can then stir-fry it in your favorite recipe without it overcooking and becoming dry. The results are surprisingly good and the technique is pretty simple, always a combination I like.

Whenever you prepare chicken, I recommend brining the chicken first to make it juicy, tender, and tasty. That holds true for chicken for stir-fry. It's not essential to brine, but the results are worth the small investment of effort and time. If you brine and velvet chicken for your next stir-fry, it'll be the difference between, "This chicken is good," and "Wow, how did you make this?!"

Velveting Chicken

1 1/2 pounds of boneless skinless chicken breast, fat and any other "icky" stuff trimmed away, cut into small bites or small strips for stir-frying (brined if desired), rinsed and patted dry
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 cups peanut oil

In a bowl large enough to easily hold the chicken, mix the egg white and cornstarch together. Add the chicken to the egg white/cornstarch mixture and coat well. The easiest way to coat well is to use the tools God gave you (your hands). Cover the bowl and place in the fridge for 30 minutes. Remove from the fridge, empty the chicken into a colander, and allow the excess egg/cornstarch mixture to drain off very well.

Heat the oil in a wok or Dutch oven to 275 degrees. Use a candy/frying thermometer to monitor the temperature, and heat the oil slowly as the oil gets to 275 pretty quickly and it's much more time consuming to wait for the oil to cool back down than it is to slowly bring it to temp in the first place.

When oil reaches 275 degrees, drop the chicken pieces in and stir gently to keep them separate and prevent them from sticking to the bottom of the pan. They just need to cook around 30 seconds until they turn very white. The color change will be really obvious and they'll also float up a bit. Remove with a spider and drain in a colander or on paper towels to remove the excess oil.

**You're now ready to cook the chicken in your favorite stir-fry recipe. Please note that after velveting the chicken will not be fully cooked and will not yet be at a safe temperature for consumption.**

One last note: Using 2 cups of peanut oil for a 30-second cooking process might seem wasteful; however, the oil will still be absolutely pristine after velveting the chicken, so after it cools it can be poured into a jar to save for another use.

Eye of Round Roast

2011-07-14T21:28:00.000-05:00

1 1/2 pound eye of round roast
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 head of garlic
1/4 cup capers
6 Thai bird chilis
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons olive oil
3 slices of bacon, cut in half
1/2 cup beef broth
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup armagnac or cognac

I went to one of our favorite Asian markets yesterday, Carrollton Plaza Supermarket, intending to purchase a beef tenderloin. Normally they have entire beef tenderloins at ridiculously low prices. They didn't have any beef loin; however, they had some eye of round roasts. I didn't really know anything about preparing eye of round. It looks pretty, but unfortunately that's probably because it's very lean and has no marbling. I just bought a small portion, about a pound and a half, so that we could experiment without too much investment.

After doing a fair amount of Google research I found recommendations that ran the gamut from fast high temp cooking with no liquid to slow low temp braising. Here's the technique I decided on. I butterflied the loin, then used a multi-blade meat tenderizer (http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-7032-Professional-Meat-Tenderizer/dp/B00004UE7Y/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1310694673&sr=8-4) to perforate the meat all over. I sprinkled the meat on both sides with the salt and let it rest at room temp for at least an hour.

Preheat your oven to 250 degrees.

While the meat was resting with the salt, I coated a cast iron skillet with the olive oil and cooked the bacon slices over low heat to render their fat.

Also while the meat was resting I peeled and diced the garlic, roughly chopped the capers, removed the stems from the peppers, cut them in half, removed the seeds, and very thinly sliced them, ground the black pepper and mixed all that together.

Now rinse the salt off the roast and pat dry. Put the prepared mixture down the middle. Either roll up or fold each side in, whichever works better with the cut, shape, and thickness of your eye of round roast. Then use butcher's twine to truss up your pretty little roast package nice and neat. Remove the bacon slices from the skillet and reserve them.

Increase the heat to medium high. Brown the roast all over. Add the beef broth, soy sauce, and armagnac to the skillet, bring to a low boil, and cook for 2-3 minutes.

Lay the bacon slices over the roast, put the skillet in the oven, and cook at 250 degrees for one hour. Turn the oven off and leave the roast for one hour without opening the oven. Remove roast from oven, cut away the trussing, slice, and serve.

Homemade Refried Beans, Ridiculously Easy Method

2011-07-06T00:26:00.000-05:00

1 lb. dry pinto beans
1/2 lb. bacon or bacon scraps
cloves of one head of garlic, peeled
1/4 cup reserved bacon grease

Rinse and sort beans. Soak for about 12 hours. Put soaked beans, bacon, and garlic in a slow cooker, cover with water by 1 inch, and cook on high power overnight.

Remove the bacon or bacon scraps. Use a spider or sieve to remove cooked beans from cooking liquid and place into a food processor. Process until smooth, adding some of the leftover bean cooking liquid as necessary.

Heat the bacon grease in a cast iron skillet over medium heat. Spoon the beans from the food processor into the skillet and cook and stir until the beans are very hot and all the bacon grease is incorporated into the beans.

Season with salt and pepper if needed.

Grownup Chicken Nuggets

2011-07-06T00:01:00.000-05:00

1.5 to 2 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breast
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
water and ice
1 bunch green onions, sliced and then chopped very fine
2 to 3 inch piece of ginger, grated
1 head of garlic, peeled and pressed through a garlic press
1 bunch culantro (preferred) or cilantro, finely chopped
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1/2 cup (approximate) panko crumbs
3 cups peanut oil

First brine the chicken breast. In a small amount of water over medium heat, dissolve the kosher salt and sugar. Let the salt/sugar brine cool. Meanwhile, rinse the chicken breast and place it in a ziplock bag inside of a large measuring cup or bowl. When the brine has cooled a bit, add several handfuls of ice cubes to it. Pour the brine and remaining ice cubes into the ziplock bag with the chicken. Seal the bag and refrigerate for a few hours.

After 3 to 6 hours remove the chicken from the fridge, drain off the brine, and rinse the chicken. Trim away any fat and other undesirable stuff from the chicken. Cut the chicken into large squares and place in the freezer to firm for 1-2 hours.

Meanwhile, prepare the green onion, garlic, ginger, and culantro or cilantro.

Remove the now firm chicken from the freezer and drop into a food processor. Pulse a couple of times to roughly grind the chicken.

Scrape the ground chicken from the food processor into a large mixing bowl and add the green onion, garlic, ginger, culantro or cilantro, and sesame oil. Mix well with your hands.

Put the panko crumbs on a tray or large plate. Use a tablespoon disher (recommended) or tablespoon to measure the chicken mixture into balls. Working with about 5 chicken balls at a time, place them on the panko crumbs, roll around to coat well, and place the finished balls on a platter. Continue until all the chicken mixture has been prepared into panko-coated balls.

Heat the peanut oil in a Dutch oven to approximately 300 degrees, measuring the temperature with a fat/candy thermometer. (Try to keep the oil temperature above 280 degrees and below 350 degrees.) Drop the chicken balls 10-15 at a time into the hot oil and fry approximately 4 minutes or until golden-brown.

Remove with a spider to a cooling rack. Continue until all chicken balls are fried. Serve with Homemade Teriyaki Sauce for dipping.

Chile Paste

2011-06-30T22:46:00.000-05:00

This chile paste is really versatile and will add that special something to your grilled or smoked meats. It can be rubbed on beef or pork as a marinade before smoking or braising, and it's also a great addition to the masa for tamales to impart color and flavor.

Ingredients:

2 dry guajillo peppers
3 dry pasilla peppers
1 dry ancho pepper

1/2 tablespoon annatto seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/8 teaspoon allspice berries
1/2 teaspoon coriander
3 cloves
1/8 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon oregano
1 tablespoon salt

3 cloves garlic
1 small white or yellow onion, roughly chopped
2 ounces (1/3 of a small can) tomato paste
1/4 cup juice of naranjas agrias (sour oranges) or a combination of orange and lime juice*

In a large skillet over medium heat toast the dry guajillo, pasilla, and ancho peppers, turning frequently, until they smell fragrant and start to puff. Add enough water to the skillet to cover the peppers, and bring the water to a simmer. Cover with a lid and turn off the heat. Allow to cool until the peppers can be handled.

When you can comfortably handle the peppers, remove the stems and seeds.

While you're waiting for the chile peppers to cool, in a spice grinder or coffee grinder devoted to grinding spices, grind the annatto seeds, cumin seeds, allspice berries, coriander, cloves, cinnamon, oregano, and salt to a powder.

In a blender or food processor, grind the garlic, then add the onion, tomato paste, and sour orange juice and process to a paste consistency. Add the ground spice mixture, and the guajillo, pasilla, and ancho peppers, and continue processing into a paste.

Refrigerate after preparing.

* The only place I've found around here that always has naranjas agrias is my favorite Carnival market at 3460 Webb Chapel Extension in Dallas. You should be aware that naranjas agrias aren't pretty. They kinda look like warty oranges.

Shishito Peppers

2011-06-30T20:34:00.000-05:00

I've read about the greatness of shishito peppers and finally found them recently at Central Market. The recipe is simple: Rinse and dry the peppers. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat, then add a little olive oil. Add the peppers and saute until they're blistery all over. Pour into a serving dish and sprinkle with sea salt or kosher salt. So simple ... so good!

p.s. These pretty peppers commanded a pretty penny at Central Market, and while they're well worth the price, I'm a big fan of finding good food at a bargain price. Well, I've found the same peppers a couple of times now at H Mart here in Carrollton. They were labeled only as "sweet pepper" and were very inexpensive. It always pays to examine the offerings at the ethnic markets.

Fresh Shishito Peppers

Mussels, Shrimp, and Chorizo in Garlic, White Wine, and Butter Sauce

2011-06-30T19:51:00.000-05:00

Recipe for Mussels, Shrimp, and Chorizo in Garlic, White Wine, and Butter Sauce

I think if you love to cook and have been doing it for a while, you develop an instinct for how food should be prepared, even if it's a food you don't really like. Case in point, I'm not a fan of custardy deserts; however, I can bake what I've been told is a right tasty pumpkin pie. Mussels is another one of those foods that I don't care for. I've tried to like them, I really have, like three or four times in different preparations, but I'm simply not fond of the texture of mussels. However, I absolutely love the flavor of the broth you get when you prepare them, and my beloved hubby does indeed like mussels. So this recipe is for both of us. It has mussels, a very rich-flavored broth, and shrimp for the non-mussel-lover.

As with most of my recipes the proportions are merely guidelines. Adjust the amounts to your taste.

Ingredients:

Olive oil to coat the skillet
Spanish chorizo, 6 to 10 ounces (we like Goya brand), halved or quartered lengthwise, and sliced
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 small red onion, diced
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 bulb fennel, white part, diced (you could also use some of the green fronds for garnish)
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 large or 2 small tomatoes, diced
Bulbs of 1 head of garlic, minced
1/2 of a .750 ml. bottle white wine, such as Pinot Grigio
20 mussels, cleaned (discard any that are open and don't close when you tap on them)
10 shrimp, peeled except for tail, and deveined

Heat skillet on medium-low. Add enough olive oil to coat the skillet. Add the chorizo and cook gently, stirring frequently, to let the chorizo release some of its fat and red color.

Increase the heat to medium, add the butter, and stir until melted.

Add the onion and bell pepper and stir until translucent.

Add the fennel and smoked paprika and cook for a few minutes.

Add the tomato.

Add the garlic and cook, continuing to stir frequently, for several minutes.

Add the wine.

Bring to a simmer and reduce by about half.

Add the shrimp and mussels.

Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover with a lid, and let the seafood simmer/steam for 5 minutes. Remove the lid and check for doneness. If the mussels are open and the shrimp is pink, it's done; if not, replace the lid and let it continue to simmer/steam for up to 5 more minutes. Discard any mussels that don't open.

Serve with plenty of crusty bread to sop up the juices.

Ceviche De Mi Suegra (My Mother-in-Law's Ceviche)

2011-06-05T00:53:00.000-05:00

This yummy, easy ceviche is my mother-in-law Cuqui's recipe. It's light and fresh, and it smells and tastes like a day at the beach.

1 lb. filets of Basa or other firm, mild-flavored fish
enough lime juice to cover fish, juice of about 8 limes
2-4 finely diced jalapeno peppers, to taste
1 small red onion, finely diced
1 bunch of cilantro, roughly chopped

Since ceviche is not technically cooked, but chemically cooked by the lime juice, be sure to select the freshest fish possible. Cut the fish into bite-sized pieces. In a shallow dish place the fish, cover with lime juice, and sprinkle with the jalapeno, onion, and cilantro.

Refrigerate the ceviche and let it marinate for at least 1 hour before serving.

Ramp and Sausage Risotto

2011-05-31T12:50:00.000-05:00

A couple weeks ago I found wild ramps at Central Market. If you watch some of the cooking shows like Top Chef you've heard chefs praise these tasty little oniony garlicky lovelies. It was only the second time I'd even seen them, and I'd never tasted them before. Through the magic of the iPhone Epicurious app, I found this recipe while I was still in the store, and purchased the ramps and other ingredients. This was my first taste of wild ramps, totally yummy, and my first time to make risotto, also totally yummy!

Ramp and Sausage Risotto

Bon Appétit
April 2009

by The Bon Appétit Test Kitchen

Yield: Makes 4 servings

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
1/2 pound hot Italian sausages, casings removed
12 ramps, trimmed; bulbs and slender stems sliced, green tops thinly sliced
1 cup arborio rice
1/2 cup dry vermouth
3 cups (or more) low-salt chicken broth
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese plus additional for passing

Preparation:

Melt butter in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add sausage. Cook until no longer pink, breaking up with spoon, about 5 minutes. Add sliced ramp bulbs and stems. Saute´ until almost tender, about 2 minutes. Add rice and stir 1 minute. Add vermouth. Simmer until liquid is absorbed, about 1 minute. Add 3 cups chicken broth, 1 cup at a time, simmering until almost absorbed before next addition and stirring often. Continue cooking until rice is just tender and risotto is creamy, adding more broth if dry and stirring often, about 18 minutes. Mix in green tops and 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese. Season risotto to taste with salt and pepper. Serve, passing additional grated cheese separately.

Kearby's Notes: I added the chicken broth more slowly than the recipe instructs and took longer simmering it into the rice. I used store-bought low-sodium chicken broth, but would definitely use homemade chicken broth if I had it. Risotto necessarily takes a long time to prepare, all of it hands-on, but it's really easy, just slowly adding broth and stirring frequently. Next time I make risotto I want to try a meatless recipe so the delicate, creamy flavor of the rice can shine through more.

Brining Chicken

2011-05-29T23:38:00.002-05:00

Poultry when brined before cooking is transcendent. Regardless of the cooking method you plan to use for your chicken or other poultry, soak it in a brine before cooking for amazing results. You'll get a tender, flavorful, and juicy bird.

The simplest brine is nothing more than water, salt, and sugar. There are plenty of recipes that call for brining your chicken in a stockpot or other large container placed in your refrigerator. I have very limited space, so here's my space-saving brine:

Simmer the following just until the solids dissolve:

1 quart water
1/2 cup kosher salt
1/4 cup sugar

Also needed:

Ice cubes

When the salt and sugar dissolve, remove from the heat and let the brine cool to room temp. Rinse your chicken and put it in a heavy-duty gallon ziplock bag. Add the room temp brine and enough ice cubes to fill the bag (and chill everything), press out the air, and seal the bag. I always put the whole thing in a second bag and seal it also (trust issues).

Put the ziplocked brined chicken on a platter or storage container and place it in your fridge or in an ice-filled ice chest for 2 to 24 hours before cooking, less time for boneless skinless chicken parts and more time for a whole chicken with skin.

This brine works beautifully with whole chicken or chicken parts. Trust me, if you've never tried brining your chicken before preparing it, you'll thank me. Brining turns budget food into gourmet!!!

Sesame-Soy Meatballs

2011-05-29T23:03:00.000-05:00

Pictures don't do justice to these succulent meatballs.

Gordon prepared these yummy meatballs based on a recipe in the budget cooking section of Cooking Light Magazine. They were absolutely delicious, and if you have a reasonably well stocked pantry they are indeed very budget conscious.

Note: To keep recipes budget friendly, make substitutions when necessary. We didn't have any chile paste (sambal oelek) on hand, so Gordon substituted sriracha chile sauce (you know, the Rooster sauce with the green plastic top).

Sesame-Soy Meatballs

1/2 cup minced green onions
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons lower-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons dark sesame oil
1 tablespoon chile paste (such as sambal oelek)
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 garlic cloves, finely minced
1 pound ground sirloin or other ground beef
Cooking spray

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Combine green onions, brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, chile paste, salt, and garlic in a large bowl. Add beef and mix gently to combine.

With moist hands, shape beef mixture into 20 (1 1/2-inch) meatballs.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add half of the meatballs to the pan. Cook 4 minutes, turning to brown meatballs on all sides.

Arrange browned meatballs in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray, or if using a higher-fat ground beef arrange browned meatballs on a baking rack set over a jelly-roll pan coated with cooking spray (so that more of the fat can drain off during the baking).

Bake meatballs at 400 degrees for 7 minutes or until done.

When Life Gives You (Meyer) Lemons ...

2011-05-19T02:45:00.002-05:00

I have the good fortune to have several Central Markets and Whole Foods Markets nearby, so springtime is Meyer lemon time! Try these recipes for preserving lemons. On the left, Moroccan Preserved Lemons from David Lebovitz's blog. On the right, Lemon Confit, from Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie. I haven't used the Moroccan lemons in a recipe yet, but they smell fabulous. I have used the confit'ed lemons in several recipes and they're a yummy addition to chicken marinades and pork loin stuffings. They add a really unique, bright flavor.

RIP Robert Rives

2011-03-15T19:28:00.001-05:00

On Ash Wednesday, the life of my beloved cousin (in-law) Robert came to an end far too soon, leaving an empty spot in the hearts of all who knew him. If you're a praying person, please offer up a prayer for Rob's family, friends, and his fiancee and my dear friend Amy.

If you suffer from depression, I beg you to see a doctor or counselor for help. Please don't suffer in silence. There is treatment and medication; you don't have to feel hopeless. I wish no one else would ever have to experience the heartache that Robert's family and friends are now experiencing from this tragic loss.

Robert's Obituary:

Robert Kenneth Rives, born in Elkhart, Indiana on June 27, 1974, passed away on March 9, 2011. He is survived by his grandfather, Chester A. Adams, his parents, William Kenneth Rives and Malinda Land Rives, his sisters, Kimberly Rives Miers and Jennifer Leigh Chandler, his brothers-in-law, Harris Wood Miers III and James Scott Chandler, his nieces, Megan Leigh Miers, Brooke Armstrong Chandler and Harper Leigh Chandler, his nephews, Harris Wood Miers IV ("Dru") and William Wyatt Chandler, his fiancé Amy Stover, many extended family members and friends. Robby was Director of Operations for Miers Group, LLC. He attended Cistercian Preparatory School, graduated from Duncanville High School in 1992 and attended The University of Texas at Arlington. Intellectually and musically gifted, Robby possessed a contagious sense of humor and indescribable strength. He loved music, the Texas Rangers, current events and above all else his family. Services will be held at The Episcopal Church of the Incarnation, 3966 McKinney Ave., Dallas, at 2pm, on Saturday, March 12, 20011. Graveside service will be at Laurel Land Cemetery in Dallas. In lieu of flowers the family asks that you donate to the Rives Education Fund at Bank of America, 5500 Preston Road, Ste B, Dallas, TX 75205, 214-559-6476. Pall Bearers are Chris Cash, Chris Dearborn, Jerrod Escalante, John Stamey, Joey Stewart and Dean Weaver. Honorary Pall Bearers are Derrek Adams Michael Ballew, Scott Chandler, Alli Dearborn, Harris Wood Miers III, Harris Wood Miers IV ("Dru") and Gordon Rives Jr. Ushers are Andy Gambrell, Pete Griffith, Matthew Allen, and Chris Bomberger.

Rives Education Fund:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rives-Education-Fund/169752313075933?sk=wall#!/pages/Rives-Education-Fund/169752313075933

Stuffed Chicken With Sherry Mustard Sauce

2011-02-27T15:46:00.000-06:00

Recipe For Stuffed Chicken With Sherry Mustard Sauce

(Very slightly adapted from this Food Network recipe)

Cooking spray
2 cups fresh broccoli florets
1/2 cup grated Gruyere cheese
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves *
2 teaspoons olive oil
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup evaporated milk
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup dry sherry
1 1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
4 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons Creole mustard

Preheat the broiler. Mist a shallow rectangular baking dish with cooking spray. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the broccoli and cook until bright green and crisp tender, about 5 minutes. Drain in colander and rinse under cold water until broccoli is cold. Drain well and pat dry with paper towels.

Chop the broccoli and toss in a bowl with the Gruyere and garlic. Insert a paring knife into the thickest part of each chicken breast to make a 3-inch deep pocket. Stuff each chicken breast with the broccoli mixture. Rub both sides of the chicken breasts with olive oil and thyme and season with salt and pepper.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until very hot, about 5 minutes. Put the chicken in the pan and cook until golden brown and just cooked through, about 6 minutes per side. If the chicken begins to brown too quickly, turn the heat down to medium to finish cooking through. Transfer to the baking dish.

Meanwhile, combine the evaporated milk and chicken stock in a small saucepan, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Stir the sherry and cornstarch together until smooth, then pour, whisking constantly, into the sauce. Cook until just thickened, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the Parmesan. Top each chicken breast with 2 tablespoons of sauce and place under the broiler. Broil until lightly browned, 2 to 3 minutes.

Whisk the mustard into the remaining sauce. To serve, spread mustard sauce on each plate and top with a chicken breast.

* For the juiciest, best-tasting results, brine the chicken breasts before preparing the recipe. Combine 1 quart of water with 1/2 cup Kosher salt and 1/2 cup brown sugar. Warm over medium heat, stirring constantly, just until salt and sugar dissolve. Remove from heat and add 1 quart of ice cubes. Put chicken breasts in a heavy duty zip top plastic bag, pour in the brine, and refrigerate for an hour or two, giving the bag a little shimmy-shake every now and again. Drain the brine and prepare the stuffed chicken recipe above.

Homemade Creole Mustard

2011-02-27T14:58:00.002-06:00

If I knew how well this would turn out, I would have made more!

Homemade Creole Mustard Recipe

(Adapted slightly from this Creole Mustard recipe on the Nola Cuisine blog)

1 cup white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (or regular crushed red pepper)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup brown mustard seeds, crushed
2 tablespoons freshly grated horseradish
pinch cayenne pepper
pinch ground allspice
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon Steen's Pure Cane Syrup
4 tablespoons Colman's mustard powder

Sterilize a small canning jar and lid.

Bring the vinegar, Aleppo pepper, and garlic to a boil in a small saucepan. Turn off the heat and let steep for 15 to 20 minutes, then strain the mixture and discard the solids. Bring back to a boil, then add the mustard seeds, turn off the heat, and let steep for 30 minutes.

In a small bowl, combine the vinegar mixture with the horseradish, cayenne, allspice, salt, sugar, and cane syrup. Whisk in the mustard powder.

Pour into the sterilized jar, put the lid on, and process in a water bath for 15 minutes. When cool, tighten the lid and make sure the jar is sealed. Place in a cool, dark place and let mature for 3 to 4 weeks before using to allow the flavors to marry and mellow.

Refrigerate after opening.

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce

2011-02-27T14:21:00.001-06:00

Poached Chicken With Teriyaki Sauce

Homemade Teriyaki Sauce Recipe

1 1/2 cups sake (one of those cute little bottles)
3/4 cup soy sauce
3/4 cup low sodium soy sauce
2-3 inch piece of ginger (to taste), unpeeled, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 cup mirin
1 cup pineapple juice
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
2 teaspoons sesame oil
1-2 teaspoons sambal oelek (to taste)
1 bunch green onions, white and green parts, thinly sliced

Simmer sake, soy sauces, and ginger over medium heat until reduced by about half. Strain and set aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Add garlic and cook until softened, being careful not to let it brown.

Increase heat to medium, add mirin, and cook until the alcohol smell is gone.

Add pineapple juice, rice vinegar, brown sugar, honey, sesame oil, and sambal oelek and simmer and stir until the brown sugar is completely dissolved. Add the strained sake/soy/ginger mixture. Add the green onions. Continue cooking at a low boil until sauce is reduced by about half.

Use as a dipping sauce, glaze, or marinade.

In Loving Memory Of My Daddy

2011-02-19T04:28:00.000-06:00

Sadly, my precious Daddy died in his sleep in the early morning hours this past Wednesday. He had defied the odds and the doctors' expectations for decades, since his first cancer diagnosis in 1967. His positive outlook and strong spirit were an inspiration to all who knew him. He was always a "glass half full" kinda guy. He used to share his profound philosophical observations, things like: Any day you're not six feet under is a good day, and, Don't sweat the small shit; everything is small shit.

He came from a humble and difficult background, but with his determination and the support of my Mother, he earned a college degree, became a business executive, and later a business owner. I can still remember being picked up early from school in the second grade to go to my Daddy's college graduation, after the many, many years that he had attended night school (in addition to working full-time) to complete his degree.

He was so smart, not just booksmart, but human nature smart. You couldn't pull anything over on him. You think you're going to leave the house on a date wearing no brassiere? Yeah -- no, ain't going to happen on eagle eye Daddy's watch!

He was the kind of person you couldn't help but like. He cared deeply about his family and friends, and his family looked to him for guidance. He was the one his nephews called for help when they were in trouble. He was the patient who'd only been at the nursing home for two months, but whose death moved many of the staff to tears. Even when he couldn't really communicate verbally, there was such a serenity about him that you couldn't help but be drawn to him.

He was the Daddy who left work early to come to the school parking lot and make my uncooperative car start before they locked the gates. He was the Daddy who showed me how husbands should treat their wives by the way he treated my Mother. As children we used to say, "Ooh, mushy," when he came home from work and they kissed and danced around the kitchen. As an adult I'm so thankful for the example my parents gave me of what a happy marriage should look like.

I'll miss my Daddy every moment of my life, but I'm so thankful that he's finally free of his earthly body and in heaven at peace.

My Daddy's Obituary:

Roy B. McDonald, 71, passed away on Feb. 16, 2011, after surviving treatment for brain cancer in 1991. Roy, a 44 year cancer survivor, was first treated for Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 1967 and again in 1989.

A Celebration of Roy's Life will be held at a future date.

Memorials: American Cancer Society or First United Methodist Church, 313 N. Center, Arlington, Texas 76011.

Roy was born June 28,1939, in Hunt County, Texas, to Eugene V. and Susie Fulenwider McDonald. He graduated from Mineral Wells High School in 1958 moving to Arlington in 1965 with his wife, Janna, after serving in the U. S. Army. He received his BBA from UTA in 1973. Roy was employed by Texstar Plastics for 14 years, IMI for four years, then in 1984 started a recycling company, R&D Plastics, selling it in 2003. Roy was a man of his word, a true gentleman, and a loving husband and father.

Survivors: His loving wife of 48 years, Janna, who cared for him in sickness as in health; their four children and spouses, Kearby and Gordon Rives, Alan and Ariane McDonald, Kate and Cliff Burgoyne, and Andy McDonald; grandsons, John Wisdom, Troy, Evan, Sean, and Ian McDonald, and Trey Burgoyne; granddaughter, Chandler Burgoyne; brother, Ed McDonald and wife, Loyce; brothers and sisters-in-law Pierce and Joan Chandler, and Donna and Timothy Honsinger; and many cousins, nieces and nephews.

Weeknight Delicious Nutritious Tomato Sauce

2011-02-11T00:15:00.001-06:00

Pasta or pizza sauce fortified with veggie puree is a great way to sneak nutrition into your kids' diets. I love to spend all day Saturday roasting veggies in the oven to make sauce; roasting gives veggies so much flavor. But let's be realistic, not everyone has a full day to devote to sauce-making and not everyone wants to spend their day in the kitchen. Here's a quicker, easier version that's still full-flavored and nutrition-packed. This recipe will make enough sauce for two to three lasagnas or pasta dishes, so freeze the extra for later. It freezes beautifully.

Weeknight Delicious Nutritious Tomato Sauce

2 medium onions, diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 large or 2 small carrots, cut into 4 or 5 pieces each
Cloves of 1/2 to 1 head of garlic, to taste, peeled
1 bell pepper, cut in quarters
1 zucchini, cut into 4 or 5 pieces
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
2 Tablespoons Italian seasoning (I like Penzey's Pasta Sprinkle)
1/4 to 1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
2 14.5-ounce cans of fire roasted diced tomatoes
1 29-ounce can of tomato puree or crushed tomatoes
3 bay leaves
Salt and pepper to taste
2 lbs. ground beef, optional
1/2 to 1 cup pinot grigio, optional*
Olive oil

Place a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add 1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the onion and celery and saute/sweat until translucent.

Place a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium-low heat and add canned tomatoes and bay leaves.

While onion and celery are cooking and tomatoes are warming, place the carrots in a food processor fitted with the metal blade and pulse until they're roughly ground. Add garlic cloves and pulse until roughly ground. Add bell pepper and pulse until roughly ground. Add zucchini and pulse until everything comes together into a thick puree.

When onion and celery are translucent, add garlic powder, Italian seasoning, and crushed red pepper flakes. Cook and stir for 5 minutes to "bloom" the seasonings.

Add the veggie puree from the food processor to the skillet. Reduce temperature to medium-low heat, and continue cooking, stirring often, for about 15 minutes, until the liquid cooks off and the veggies smell very fragrant. Be careful not to let them scorch.

Pour the veggie mixture from the skillet into the stockpot or Dutch oven with the tomatoes. Add salt and pepper and wine. Continue simmering over medium-low heat, tasting and adjusting seasonings as desired, and stirring often.

If you're adding ground beef, brown it in the skillet you used for the veggies. No need to clean the skillet in between. Pour meat into a collander to strain off the fat and add the meat to the tomato sauce. Continue simmering until the sauce is reduced to the consistency you want. Don't forget to remove the bay leaves.

* I like Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio for tomato sauce. You can usually find it for $10 or less per bottle. Although you can skip the wine if you want and still make a good sauce, wine and tomatoes "love each other," and the wine greatly enhances the tomato flavor. Alton Brown explained it all in a Good Eats episode.

Turkey Chipotle Meatloaf With Mushroom Gravy and Mashed Potatoes

2011-02-10T23:01:00.001-06:00

Although significantly modified, this recipe is inspired by "Jane's Chipotle Meatloaf" and "Mushroom Gravy" from the Reata cookbook.

Turkey Chipotle Meatloaf

1.2 lbs. 85/15 ground turkey
1/2 small onion, diced
2 green onions, sliced
small bunch parsley, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 canned chipotle pepper, minced
1/3 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1 egg
splash of Worcestershire sauce
a couple pinches of Kosher salt
a few grinds of black pepper
2 slices of bacon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

I suggest using disposable gloves for hand-mixing recipes with ground meat. Combine all ingredients except bacon until well mixed. The mixture will be soft and sticky.

Choose a dish that the meatloaf mixture will fit in comfortably; this will be a mold for the meatloaf. Line the dish with plastic wrap, allowing plenty of extra plastic wrap to extend beyond the dish. Spray the plastic wrap inside the dish with your Misto sprayer or other oil spray. Spoon the meatloaf into the dish. Refrigerate for about an hour to allow the meatloaf to become a bit firm.

While the meatloaf is refrigerating, parcook bacon slices over low heat until much of the fat has rendered but bacon is still pliable.

Place a baking rack over a sheet pan or roasting pan (if you line the roasting pan with aluminum foil, clean-up will be a breeze. Fashion a piece of aluminum foil the approximate size of the meatloaf and place on the center of the baking rack. Unmold meatloaf onto the foil piece. The baking rack allows the grease to drain away and the aluminum foil keeps the crumbly-textured turkey from falling through the rack.

Place the rendered bacon slices crosswise over the meatloaf. Bake for 60 to 90 minutes, until the exterior of the meatloaf is golden brown and crispy, then allow to cool for about 10 minutes before slicing.

Mushroom Gravy

Note: I didn't have chicken broth or veal stock on-hand, so I substituted chicken and beef bouillon. Homemade stock would be better (and obviously less salty).

2 cups chicken broth
2 cups veal stock
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1/2 to 3/4 pound fresh mushrooms, sliced
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1/2 teaspoon fresh garlic, minced
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided use
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Combine the chicken broth and veal stock (or substitute 4 cups of water and a chicken bouillon cube and a beef bouillon cube) and tomato paste in a large saucepan over high heat and bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and simmer to reduce the liquid by half.

In a large saute pan, combine the mushrooms, onions, and garlic. Add 2 tablespoons of the butter and cook over high heat. When the mushrooms have browned, remove from the heat and reserve.

In a large saucepan, add the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Whisk in the flour, a little at a time, to make a roux, and cook for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture turns light brown. Remove the roux from the heat and let cool. Return the reserved, reduced stock to a boil. Add the cooked roux to the boiling stock, stirring to avoid lumps. Reduce the heat and let simmer until the gravy thickens. Add the sauteed mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.

Place meatloaf slices over your favorite mashed potatoes and spoon mushroom gravy on top.

Pork Belly Futures ... Economics Of Pork

2011-02-10T22:42:00.000-06:00

Your initial investment ...

... yields dividends like these ...

... and these.

Don't worry, this isn't an essay about the stock market. Just a recap of our recent pork projects ... no, not a critique on wasteful government spending either, hahaha. With apologies to our friends in the financial sector, butchering and curing your own pork products is much more fun than analyzing the stock market; and with no apologies to bureaucrats, our charcuterie is very frugal. Nothing gets thrown away except a few bones that have already given up all their porcine goodness.

As posted here: Plunging Headlong Into Charcuterie ... Homemade, Home-Smoked Bacon, I was lucky enough to purchase three bone-in pork belly chunks recently. I weighed them after removing the bones from all and also removing the skin from one portion for pancetta, and weighed them again when finished. If you're lucky as are we to live near some good Asian markets, it's easy to find pork bellies with or without bones. Once we really master this process, I'd like to start ordering pork bellies from local, organic purveyors to get an even higher quality product, but we'll stick to the less expensive bellies while we're learning.

Trying to compare costs is a bit apples to oranges. The homemade bacon and pancetta is more expensive than crappy store-brands, but less expensive than gourmet market products. I think ours compares very favorably to the gourmet stuff. Plus essentially everything is used, bones, skin, and all, and you know exactly what's in your food.

Bone-In Pork Belly Price, $2.99/lb.

Beginning Weight of Pork Belly

#1 8.55 lbs. (final product peppered bacon)
#2 6.32 lbs. (final product regular bacon)
#3 5.57 lbs. (final product pancetta)

Trimmed Weight of Pork Belly

#1 6.18 lbs. (bones removed)
#2 5.6 lbs. (bones removed)
#3 3.62 lbs. (bones and skin removed)

Finished Weight of Yummy Pork Delicacies

#1 5.96 lbs. peppered bacon ($4.29 per lb. for the pork)
#2 5.41 lbs. regular bacon ($3.49 per lb. for the pork)
#3 3.17 lbs. pancetta ($5.25 per lb. for the pork)

Waste Not, Want Not. I braised the racks of ribs that I cut off the pork bellies, removed the meat from the bones, and made an al-pastor style filling for tacos and enchiladas. Even the liquid from braising the pork ribs was so tasty that I froze it to use for braising something else later.

I saved the skin that I removed from the pancetta chunk to be smoked along with the bacon and saved that and the smoked skin and excess fat from the bacon chunks to use for cooking beans or stews, just like you'd use fat back or salt pork, but much more flavorful than anything you can buy.

Although I have most of the cure ingredients on-hand already, there is obviously a small cost associated with the cure ingredients and for charcoal and smoking wood, which I haven't tried to quantify yet. The only unusual item you'll need for curing is pink salt, which you'll probably have to order online.

If you're the kind of cook who's considering doing charcuterie at home, it's likely that you already have the kitchen equipment and supplies you need. You need a really good, sharp knife, specifically a boning knife if you're working with bone-in pork. It's essential that every serious home cook have a good knife sharpener. You'll want to use a plastic cutting board so it can be sterilized in the dishwasher. You'll need heavy-duty 2-gallon zip top bags. You may want to use rubber gloves. Although it's not absolutely necessary, it's best to use a food scale for weighing the cure ingredients for accuracy. And last, but certainly not least, make the small investment in a really good instructional cookbook. I love Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn.

Al Pastor Style Tacos And Enchiladas

2011-02-03T00:22:00.002-06:00

This recipe transforms very inexpensive or "scrap" meat into something really special.  Although the total preparation time for the pork is lengthy, the actual hands-on time is very short. This recipe is well worth the effort and time because it's so yummy!

Traditionally al pastor tacos are made with pork that is marinated in some combination of achiote paste, dried chile paste, and/or pineapple or other fruit juice.  Following is a technique I used to prepare tender, juicy pork, which was then combined with an al pastor style paste to make a flavorful filling for tacos and enchiladas.

CARNITAS DE PUERCO (the pork meat)

There are several tender, fatty, flavorful cuts of pork that can become Carnitas de Puerco. This time I used the meat from the ribs that I trimmed away from the pork bellies that we made into bacon and pancetta. But any fatty, tender pork, such as Boston Butt, would work for this recipe also.

The little racks of ribs that I removed from the pork bellies were just too good to waste.  I sprinkled them with some yummy Penzeys spice rubs (use whatever spice rub you like) and let them sit uncovered in the fridge for about a day and a half. I then used a technique that I learned from my friend, Terri, braising the ribs in coffee.  I put the ribs in a Dutch oven, poured some leftover coffee over them, added a few peeled, crushed cloves of garlic, a thinly sliced onion, a couple pinches of salt, a few grinds of pepper, and a big splash of Marsala.

I covered the Dutch oven tightly with aluminum foil to seal in all the liquid, and then put the lid on. Braised the ribs at 250 degrees for six hours, checking and stirring only every two hours. After six hours, I removed the Dutch oven from the oven and allowed the pork to cool. Once cool, I removed the meat from the bones, although it was so tender it practically fell off the bones of its own accord. I refrigerated the braising liquid, letting the fat rise to the top so I could skim off and discard the fat. (I actually saved the leftover braising liquid after preparing the al pastor pork and froze it to use later because it was so flavorful.)

AL PASTOR PASTE/MARINADE

2 dry chipotle peppers
5 dry guajillo peppers
3 dry ancho peppers
2 Tablespoons braising liquid or water
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1/2 cup minced onion
4 minced garlic cloves
1/4 cup pineapple juice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 Tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Simmer the chipotle, guajillo, and ancho peppers in about 3 cups of water until soft and pliable. Drain and cool. Remove the veins and seeds from the peppers (use disposable gloves to avoid burning your hands). In a blender or food processor combine the chiles, braising liquid, kosher salt, onion, garlic cloves, pineapple juice, cumin, cloves, tomato paste, and cinnamon, and pulse to make a paste.

Warm one to two tablespoons of bacon grease (or other oil) in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the al pastor paste/marinade, and saute gently for about five minutes.

TACOS AL PASTOR

Stir a small amount of the al pastor paste/marinade into 1 to 2 pounds of carnitas de puerco and saute in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until pork is slightly crispy on the edges. Spoon pork into softened corn tortillas and top with your favorite garnishes, such as cheddar cheese, lime juice, diced fresh onion, and cilantro.

ENCHILADAS AL PASTOR

Leftover carnitas de puerco
Thinly sliced green onions
Bacon grease
Leftover al pastor paste/marinade
Corn Tortillas
Extra sharp cheddar cheese, shredded

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Add sliced green onions to shredded pork. In a skillet over medium heat mix leftover al pastor chile paste with bacon grease (or other oil). Spread a small amount of the chile/bacon grease mixture over the bottom of a glass casserole dish. One by one, dip corn tortillas into the remaining chile/bacon grease mixture in the skillet to soften the tortillas. Place about 1/3 cup of the pork/green onion mixture in the middle of each tortilla, followed by a sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese. Roll up the tortilla and place seam side down in casserole dish. When casserole dish is filled with enchiladas, pour the remaining chile/bacon grease sauce over the enchiladas. Cover the enchiladas with shredded cheddar cheese and sprinkle with sliced green onions if desired.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees until the enchiladas are hot and the cheese is bubbly and melted, 30-45 minutes.

If the tortillas appear to be getting too dry while baking, add 1/2 cup of chicken broth to the dish.

Basic Asian Soup Base

2011-01-31T19:11:00.001-06:00

Basic Asian Soup Base With Homemade Wontons, Shrimp, Mung Bean Sprouts, Green Onions, Cilantro, And A Sprinkle of Chili Oil

Here's a good base for making all kinds of Asian soups. This is not authentic to any specific Asian cuisine, just a nicely balanced mixture that I really like. Make the basic broth, then add whatever veggies, proteins, and noodles you prefer. The proportions in this recipe are for broth to use when making soup for immediate consumption.

This recipe also freezes well. If you're preparing this to freeze for later use, make it very concentrated in order to conserve freezer space. Use the same amount of water, but triple the proportions of the other ingredients. When you thaw and prepare the frozen soup, dilute it with three parts water (or to taste).

Basic Asian Soup Base Recipe

(Makes 2-3 entree portions, 4-6 starter portions)

3 quarts water
2 6-inch pieces lemongrass, bruised well with dull side of knife and cut in half lengthwise
6 green onions
2-inch knob of ginger, unpeeled, sliced
9 garlic cloves, unpeeled, crushed
1 or 2 Thai bird chiles (to taste), cut in half lengthwise
1 bunch of cilantro or stem ends from 2 bunches of cilantro
a few basil leaves
a couple of kaffir lime leaves *
5 white peppercorns
1/4 cup fish sauce

* Kaffir lime leaves can be hard to find. I found kaffir limes at Central Market a while back, bought a bunch of them, juiced them, and froze the juice in an ice cube tray. I used one kaffir lime juice ice cube for this recipe. You could also substitute the juice of 1/2 to 1 regular lime.

Bring all ingredients to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and simmer at least one hour. Strain through a fine mesh sieve to remove solid ingredients.

Plunging Headlong Into Charcuterie ... Homemade, Home-Smoked Bacon

2011-01-27T01:02:00.003-06:00

Check out this peppery, smoky, sizzling greatness!

I love all things salted, cured, and preserved ... and I love pork ... therefore, I love Charcuterie!

We've dabbled over the years at smoking salmon, chicken, and turkey, and in the more complicated and sophisticated realm of curing pancetta and curing and smoking our own bacon. I finally invested in this amazing cookbook:

I'm so in love with this cookbook. If you are enamored (as am I) with the art of salting, curing, aging, smoking, preserving food, this cookbook is your Bible, a must-have.

Although I like to consider home-curing and home-smoking bacon and other delectables to be so 2011, so avant garde, I remember my daddy talking about his youth, when slaughtering a pig was a routine part of survival in rural life. They would hang the various pork cuts in the smokehouse to cure, and they dropped pieces of the pork skin into hot oil, creating the treasured delicacy "cracklings," like what we call pork rinds or chicharonnes.

There's a Biblical passage in Ecclesiastes that says, "There is nothing new under the sun." No words could be more appropriate. When we smoke our own bacon, we're not reinventing the wheel, folks; we're simply getting back to our roots.

Yummo, look at all this beautiful pork belly just waiting to fulfill its bacon destiny!

I was lucky enough to find large, bone-in pork belly portions. And as a bonus I got to practice my meat fabrication skills. I think that's the culinary school term for having a lot of fun butchering meat, meat fabrication. I removed the rib sections from the pork bellies, reserving the ribs for another use, which I'll detail in a later post.

You only need a couple of specialized items to make your own bacon. You need pink salt, a special salt made for curing and preserving (look for sources online) and it's best to use a food scale for accuracy in weighing your ingredients (you can find very inexpensive food scales -- I found this one at Wal-Mart for around $20).

Basic Dry Cure For Bacon

1 pound/450 grams kosher salt
8 ounces/225 grams sugar
2 ounces/50 grams pink salt

Bacon

One 3- to 5-pound slab pork belly, skin on
Basic Dry Cure for dredging

Trim the belly so that its edges are neat and square. Spread the dry cure on a baking sheet. Press all sides of the belly onto the cure to give it a thick uniform coating.

Place the belly in a 2-gallon ziploc bag. Refrigerate for 7 days, flipping the bag over to redistribute the liquid that will accumulate every other day.

After 7 days, check the belly for firmness. If it feels firm at the thickest point, it's cured. If it still feels squishy, refirigerate it for up to 2 more days, checking it every day.

Remove the belly from the cure, rinse thorougly, and pat dry with paper towels. Let the bacon rest in the refrigerator, covered, for up to 3 days.

We made one slab of regular bacon and one slab of pepper bacon. For the pepper bacon, we pressed cracked black peppercorns into one of the pork belly slabs after rinsing.

Prepare the fire in your smoker and smoke the bacon with wood of your choice, such as apple wood, at a very low heat until bacon reaches 150 degrees.

The easiest time to remove the skin is while the bacon is still warm from the smoker. Be sure to save the smoky skin to flavor a pot of beans.

Both the regular and the pepper bacon are good, but the pepper bacon is probably the best bacon I've ever tasted.

Whole Wheat Applesauce Cranberry Muffin Recipe

2011-01-24T01:10:00.000-06:00

This recipe is from examiner.com. It's definitely kid-tested and kid-approved in our house. This super easy recipe is a great way to sneak a little healthy fiber into your kids' diets, and it's a nice, simple recipe for the kiddos to prepare with you. It's absolutely scrumptious!!!

Whole Wheat Applesauce Cranberry Muffin Recipe

1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I highly recommend Penzey's)
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk together the applesauce, oil, butter, sugar, and egg. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, wheat germ, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and stir gently with a spatula or wooden spoon just until the mixture is combined -- don't overmix or the muffins will turn out tough. Stir in the dried cranberries.

Spray a muffin tin with nonstick spray or line it with cupcake liners if you prefer. Fill each cup about 3/4 of the way to the top. Bake about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Beef Bourguignon Recipe

2011-01-07T20:36:00.000-06:00

I've seen the movie "Julie & Julia" four times now, and I look forward to seeing it again. I'm mesmerized by Julie Powell's story. The movie inspires me to cook and it inspires me to blog.

This recipe is from Ina Garten (The Barefoot Contessa). I think it's in the "spirit" of Julia Child's Boueuf Bourguignon, but slightly updated for us contemporary "servantless American cooks." My baby sister-in-law, Joann (who trained at Le Cordon Bleu Dallas, I should add), introduced me to this recipe and assured me that although it requires a bit of effort and time, the result is totally worth the investment. She is so right. This recipe is going into the "rotation" here.

I had reservations about using an entire bottle of red wine in the recipe, that the result would be a tannic, sour stew. Silly me! How dare I not trust Barefoot when she's channeling Julia. The wine helps to tenderize and flavors the beef during the cooking process and the result is a mellow, well-rounded, full-flavored stew. This is one of the best recipes I've ever prepared, so classic and such an upscale comfort food. I hope you'll give it a try.

When you prepare Beef Bourguignon, be sure to use really good quality bacon and beef, no mystery stew meat. I skipped the toasted bread at the end of the recipe as my beloved and I are always looking to reduce those carbs that inevitably just end up as cellulite (or as I like to call it here in North Central Texas, hail damage, hahaha) on my thighs. If "wearing" your carbs isn't a concern for you, serve this dish with the toasted bread or with egg noodles or mashed potatoes.

BEEF BOURGUIGNON

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon good olive oil
8 ounces dry cured center cut applewood smoked bacon, diced
2 1/2 pounds chuck beef cut into 1-inch cubes
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 pound carrots, sliced diagonally into 1-inch chunks
2 yellow onions, sliced
2 teaspoons chopped garlic (2 cloves)
1/2 cup Cognac
1 (750 ml.) bottle good dry red wine such as Cote du Rhone or
Pinot Noir (I used Mark West Pinot Noir)
1 can (2 cups) beef broth (obviously if you make homemade
beef broth, use it in this recipe)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature, divided
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 pound frozen whole onions
1 pound fresh mushrooms stems discarded, caps thickly sliced

For serving:

Country bread or Sour Dough, toasted or grilled and rubbed with garlic clove
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, optional

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven. Add the bacon and cook over medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the bacon is lightly browned. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to a large plate.

Dry the beef cubes with paper towels and then sprinkle them with salt and pepper. In batches in single layers, sear the beef in the hot oil for 3 to 5 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove the seared cubes to the plate with the bacon and continue searing until all the beef is browned. Set aside.

Toss the carrots and onions, 1 tablespoon of salt and 2 teaspoons of pepper in the fat in the pan and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the Cognac, stand back, and ignite with a match to burn off the alcohol.

Put the meat and bacon back into the pot with the juices. Add the bottle of wine plus enough beef broth to almost cover the meat. Add the tomato paste and thyme. Bring to a simmer, cover the pot with a tight-fitting lid and place it in the oven for about 1 1/4 hours or until the meat and vegetables are very tender when pierced with a fork.

Combine 2 tablespoons of butter and the flour with a fork and stir into the stew. Add the frozen onions. Saute the mushrooms in 2 tablespoons of butter for 10 minutes until lightly browned and then add to the stew. Bring the stew to a boil on top of the stove, then lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Season to taste.

To serve, toast the bread in the toaster or oven. Rub each slice on 1 side with a cut clove of garlic. For each serving, spoon the stew over a slice of bread and sprinkle with parsley.

Korean Pickles

2010-12-21T18:19:00.001-06:00

I'm always delinquent in updating the blog, but I think procrastination is part of my DNA. Just as an FYI, I was born long past my due date and I've been a top-quality procrastinator ever since!!! I could win procrastination contests. If there were a procrastination event in the Olympics I'd be a gold medalist for sure. I'm going to try to get caught up here because there has been some fabuloso food cooked in our kitchen lately that I want to share with you. Maybe this New Year's Day my resolution will be to post more often ... or maybe next New Year's Day ...

The following recipe is from singleguychef.blogspot.com . I've made these savory, crispy pickles twice now. When I made them I reduced the amount of sugar and increased the amount of salt from the original recipe because in my home we prefer a salty pickle as opposed to a sweet pickle.

The most important thing about this recipe is that you need to use Korean cucumbers if you can possibly find them. If not, use Kirby cucumbers (also called pickling cucumbers). Regular cucumbers just don't have the proper snappy crispiness for pickling.

Korean gochujang (hot chili paste) is available at most Asian markets. You may see it with different spellings, such as gokujang. I think it has something to do with the translation from Korean to English. If the word looks similar, you probably have the right thing. If you can't find gochujang, you can substitute a few squirts of sriracha sauce. You've seen sriracha even if you don't realize it; it's that sauce in the squirt bottle with the rooster on the label and the green plastic top that's readily available at most every grocery, even at Wal-Mart.

For the chili flakes you can use crushed red pepper flakes which are easy to find. But if you're lucky enough to have an Asian market nearby that stocks Korean staples, use mild or hot Korean red pepper powder, depending upon your taste. Korean red pepper powder is a lovely ingredient for recipes because it doesn't include the pepper seeds, so it gives you a nice, smooth texture.

These pickles are so easy and so full of flavor. My mouth is watering just thinking about them!

Ingredients

1 lb. Korean cucumbers or Kirby cucumbers
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon Vietnamese fish sauce
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon hot chili paste
1 teaspoon chili flakes

Cut cucumbers about ¼-inch thick (leaving on the skin) and sprinkle with kosher salt. Gently work salt through the cucumber pieces with your hand and let sit for 30 minutes. Then rinse quickly under running water and drain in colander.

In a large bowl, mix together sugar, vinegar, water, fish sauce, ginger, garlic, chili paste, and chili flakes. (If you prefer a pickle that is more salty and less sweet, add 1 teaspoon of kosher salt to this mixture and reduce the sugar to 1/4 cup.) Add cucumbers and then transfer everything into a clean mason jar.

Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Makes about 3 cups of pickled cucumbers.

My Catering Aspirations

2010-12-12T01:57:00.005-06:00

My sis-in-law Leslie and bro-in-law Andy gave me the opportunity to prepare the food for a holiday party they had for their friends in their beautiful new home. Andy was so kind to take these fabulous pics of the food.

Trio of Dips:

Sundried Tomato Dip (Recipe From Barefoot Contessa)
Tapenade and Feta Dip
Hummus

Baked Figs With Blue Cheese, Candied Bacon, Roasted Pecans, and Reduced Balsamic Vinegar:

Miniature Twice-Baked Potatoes Topped With Crispy Prosciutto:

Vietnamese Chicken Spring Rolls With Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce:

Grape Tomatoes Filled With Smoked Salmon Mousse, Served on Salted Cucumber Slices and Drizzled With Lemon Caper Vinaigrette:

Stuffed Mushrooms (My Photo):

This was a wonderful opportunity to prepare food for a party. I hope to have more catering opportunities in the future.

Time-Saving Double-Duty Prep: Recipes For Egg Rolls And Pot Stickers

2010-11-16T21:25:00.000-06:00

Both of these recipes are from "The Take-Out Menu Cookbook," by Carla Snyder and Meredith Deeds. It's one of my favorite cookbooks. It's a good jumping-off point for dabbling in ethnic cuisines. The recipes are easy to prepare and yield delicious results. I've posted the recipe for Fried Rice from this cookbook before. I recommend preparing the Egg Rolls and Pot Stickers at the same time because, one, they use many of the same ingredients so you can easily prep the ingredients for both recipes at once, and two, you can freeze the extras from both recipes to prepare later and have homemade Chinese takeout night anytime.

Don't let the long ingredient lists for these recipes deter you. Most of the ingredients are easy to find. Nowadays you can even find egg roll wrappers and dumpling wrappers at Walmart. You might need to visit an Asian market for a few of the specialty ingredients, such as oyster sauce or toasted sesame oil. Just go down the lists of ingredients for the two recipes, prepping each ingredient and portioning each into prep bowls. Then you're ready to begin cooking.

EGG ROLLS

2 tablespoons oyster sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Asian toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 (1-inch) knob fresh ginger, peeled and minced
3 garlic cloves, minced (1 tablespoon)
1 bunch green onions, white and light green parts only, thinly sliced
1 rib celery, minced (1/2 cup)
1 carrot, minced (1/2 cup)
10 shiitake mushrooms, stems discarded and caps thinly sliced
1/2 head of napa or Chinese cabbage, thinly sliced (2 cups)
1 pound raw shrimp, peeled, deveined, and diced
1/2 pound ground pork
1 (16-ounce) package egg roll wrappers
1 egg, beaten
2 to 3 cups peanut or vegetable oil, for frying
Chinese mustard, plum sauce, or sweet chile sauce, for serving

Combine the oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, sugar, and salt in a small bowl and set aside.

Heat the vegetable oil in a large skillet set over medium heat. Add the ginger, garlic, green onions, celery, carrot, and mushrooms and saute for about 3 or 4 minutes, or until they soften. Add the cabbage and saute for another minute or two. Add the shrimp and pork and cook, tossing and stirring vigorously, for about 2 minutes, or until they are cooked through.

Add the reserved sauce and toss to incorporate. Remove from the heat and set aside until cool to the touch.

Cover the egg roll wrappers with a piece of plastic wrap. Place 1 wrapper on a work surface with one point facing you. Spread 1/4 cup of the filling horizontally across the lower third of the wrapper. Fold the bottom point over the filling, tightening the wrap over the filling, and fold in the side corners. Brush the top corner with the egg wash and roll up the wrapper tightly, sealing the roll closed. Transfer the rolls as they are made to a parchment-lined sheet pan and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Fill the rest of the wrappers in the same manner.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.

In a wide, heavy pot, heat 2 inches of oil to 360 degrees over medium heat. Carefully add 4 egg rolls to the oil and fry, turning them with a slotted spoon after about 2 minutes as they brown on the bottom. Fry on the second side for another 2 minutes, or until they brown. Transfer the egg rolls to a sheet pan lined with a double thickness of paper towels. Fry the remaining egg rolls in batches of 4. When they are all browned, the egg rolls can be kept warm in the oven for up to 30 minutes. (Kearby's Note: When we prepared these, we heated 5-6 inches of oil to 360 degrees and deep fried the egg rolls. We fried them for about 4-5 minutes, until golden brown.)

Serve hot with Chinese mustard, plum sauce, or sweet chile sauce.

MAKE AHEAD: The egg rolls can be assembled but not cooked, covered, and refrigerated for up to 8 hours or frozen for up to 1 month. Thaw at room temperature for 3 hours before frying. (Kearby's Note: We have frozen, thawed, and cooked leftover egg rolls and they were awesome! Freeze in a single layer on the parchment-lined pan, not quite touching. Once frozen, remove to a ziplock bag, label, and return to the freezer.)

POT STICKERS

1/2 head of napa or Chinese cabbage, finely chopped (2 cups)
1 pound ground pork
1/2 green onion, minced (2 tablespoons)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons minced cilantro
1 (1-inch) knob fresh ginger, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh chives, plus more for garnish
1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry
1 tablespoon Asian toasted sesame oil
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 garlic clove, minced
1 (12-ounce) package dumpling wrappers or wonton skins, cut into rounds
1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil
1 cup chicken stock

Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 teaspoon minced fresh ginger
1/4 teaspoon chile oil
1 garlic clove, minced

In a large bowl, combine the cabbage, pork, green onion, soy sauce, cilantro, ginger, chives, rice wine, sesame oil, brown sugar, salt, pepper, and garlic. Work the ingredients with your hands until completely mixed. Heat a frying pan over medium heat and fry a tablespoon of the mixture to check the seasoning. Adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Cover the dumpling wrappers with a damp towel. Place one wrapper on a work surface. With a finger dipped in water, dampen the edges of the wrapper to help it adhere. Place about 1 tablespoon of the filling into the center of each wrapper and fold it into a half-moon-shaped pouch. Make 3 or 4 pleats at each edge to gather the dough around the filling, and then pinch around the top of the dumpling to seal it tightly. Arrange the dumplings on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Assemble the remaining dumplings in the same manner.

Heat a large frying pan with a tight-fitting lid over medium-high heat and add the oil. When the oil is hot, add the dumplings to the pan and fry them on one side until browned, about 3 minutes. Shake the pan to move them around during cooking and keep them from sticking. Add the chicken stock to the pan and cover the pan tightly so that the pot stickers steam and cook through. Cook for about 5 minutes, or until the liquid has evaporated from the pan.

(Kearby's Note: It's important not to overcrowd the pan during the frying/browning step. Fry in stages if necessary, removing any stuck-on bits from the pan and adding additional oil between batches if necessary. After all pot stickers have been fried, then return all to the pan and proceed with the steaming step.)

To make the dipping sauce: Combine the sauce ingredients in a small bowl. Let the sauce sit for at least 5 minutes to let the flavors blend.

Transfer the dumplings to a heated platter, garnish with chives, and serve with the dipping sauce.

MAKE AHEAD: The dumplings can be frozen, uncooked, for up to 1 month and cooked directly from the freezer. Any unused sauce should be refrigerated and discarded after 2 days. (Kearby's Note: Use the same instructions for freezing these as the egg rolls.)

Stuffed Mushrooms

2010-11-16T20:02:00.000-06:00

These are hands-down the best stuffed mushrooms ever, and once you make them for family and friends they'll be requesting them for every event! It's really easy to do most of the prep the day before, in fact you'll achieve the best results if you do.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds medium-size fresh mushrooms (all approximately the same size)
6 slices bacon
1/2 cup minced bell pepper
1/2 cup minced onion
6 ounces cream cheese
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
3/4 cup bread crumbs (homemade or store-bought bread crumbs or Panko crumbs)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

The Day Before Serving Day:

Put the bacon in the freezer to firm up. It's easier to dice that way. Remove the cream cheese from the fridge to soften.

Clean the mushrooms and let them dry well on paper towels. Trim off the very ends of the stems (throw the trimmings in your veggie freezer bag for veggie broth later) and separate the stems carefully from the caps. Line a gallon-size ziplock bag with a paper towel. Gently lay the mushroom caps on the paper towel in the ziplock in a single layer. Use more than one ziplock bag if necessary. Seal the bag and put the mushrooms in the fridge.

Finely dice the mushroom stems.

Remove the bacon from the freezer. Use a very sharp knife to dice the bacon.

Cook the diced bacon, minced bell pepper, and minced onion in a skillet over medium heat until the bacon is partly cooked but not crisp and the bell pepper and onion are crisp-tender. Pour into a strainer and drain off grease and liquid. Transfer bacon mixture to a storage bowl (with a lid), add diced mushroom stems, softened cream cheese, Worcestershire sauce, and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well while still warm. It's easiest to mix with a fork. Put the lid on the storage bowl and refrigerate the filling.

Serving Day:

Preheat oven to 300 degrees.

Remove mushrooms and filling from fridge. Arrange mushroom caps in a single layer on an oven-safe platter (not your final serving platter). Fill mushroom caps with the filling. The easiest way to fill them neatly and evenly is to use a cookie scoop.

Put the platter of filled mushrooms in the oven for approximately 30 minutes, checking them every 10 minutes. You'll be able to see and smell when it's time to remove the mushrooms from the oven. Their texture will look different, they'll release some moisture, and they'll start to smell like, well, mushrooms.

Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Increase oven temperature to 375 degrees.

Melt the butter. Stir the chopped parsley into the bread crumbs. Add the melted butter and mix well using two forks.

When the mushrooms are cool enough to handle, gently press a small palmful of the bread crumbs to the top of each mushroom, covering the filling with a mound of crumbs. Place the mushrooms on an oven-safe serving platter. Return to the oven and bake just until bread crumb topping is golden brown and crispy, about 5 to 10 minutes. Keep a close eye on them; the difference between golden brown and shrieking smoke alarm is about 2 seconds!

Note: If you want to prepare the mushrooms at home and serve them somewhere else, after putting the bread crumbs on the mushrooms, wrap the platter tightly with plastic wrap. At the serving location, remove plastic wrap and heat mushrooms at 350 degrees until the mushrooms are hot and the crumbs are golden brown and crispy, about 20 to 30 minutes. Again, keep a close eye on them.

And One More Note: We always intentionally increase the measurements of the filling ingredients so that we have extra filling left over. The extra filling is decadently good rolled up in an omelet.

Public Service Announcement

2010-09-20T02:06:00.000-05:00

This has no relation whatsoever to anything I regularly blog about, but I want to warn you about something that can pose a danger in your home. The furniture in the kids' bedroom here is constructed from unpainted wood. When it was purchased about a zillion years ago, I was instructed to apply boiled linseed oil to it from time to time to protect it and keep it looking nice. I've done that a couple of times. On Sunday, my stepdaughter and I used old cotton diaper cloths to apply linseed oil to the furniture in the bedroom. I left the linseed oil-soaked rags on top of the dryer to be laundered later.

After that, we all left home, had a meal at a restaurant, visited the Bass Pro Outdoor World (very cool place) for a while, then we dropped off the girls at their mom's house and returned home. We had been home quite a while when I started smelling very strong fumes of linseed oil, enough to make my eyes burn (which was really strange because its smell when it's applied to the wood furniture is totally inoffensive, it doesn't even necessitate any special ventilation during the application). After searching for the source of the odor, I went to the laundry room and found that the linseed oil-soaked cotton rags were very hot, fumey, sort of scorched-looking, and even smoking a little. I took them outside and put them on the concrete sidewalk, where they cooled off.

I Googled "linseed oil chemical reaction," and found this article about the dangers posed by linseed oil This stuff if left on a rag can spontaneously combust! We're really lucky that we were back home before it became a problem. I've used the linseed oil on the furniture before, albeit a long time ago, and didn't have any problem, so I didn't even glance at the label this time. The label does warn about this danger. Lesson learned: If you use boiled linseed oil, dispose of your rags in a metal can filled with water, and read the labeling on any product you're about to use.

Tips and Tricks and Helpful Hints

2010-09-17T01:17:00.000-05:00

When you use cabbage in a recipe, whether raw or cooked, salt it first for the best flavor and texture. I like to use the salad spinner for this process. As you slice, chop, or shred your cabbage, put a layer in the salad spinner and sprinkle with a large pinch of salt. Continue layering cabbage and salt. Mix the cabbage and salt with your hands or by tossing/shaking it in the salad spinner. Let it sit for 30-60 minutes. You'll notice liquid accumulating on the bottom of the salad spinner bowl (quite a bit with "round head" cabbage, a small amount with Napa cabbage). That's the water being drawn out of the cabbage by the salt. Add cold water to the salad spinner to cover the cabbage by an inch or two and swish the cabbage around. Let that stand for about 15 minutes. Drain and spin cabbage. The result is crisp, flavorful cabbage that won't "weep" liquid into your recipe.

Onion and Mushroom Soup

2010-09-09T23:42:00.000-05:00

If you have a mushroom addiction like I do, this is a great way to use up the leftover 3 or 4 or 10 varieties of mushrooms you have in your fridge before they "turn," and you can also finish up those last couple of onions and shallots you have in the basket. Use what you have on hand and season to your taste. This is a be-frugal-and-use-your-leftovers recipe, so no specific measurements, just use what you have and season to taste.

Slice onions and/or shallots. Put them in an oven-safe dish that you've sprayed lightly with olive oil with your Misto sprayer or rubbed lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt and very lightly with sugar. Roast uncovered in a 350 degree oven for a long, long time, checking and stirring every 30 minutes, until onions are beginning to caramelize. Let them get slightly brown, but don't let them burn.

Slice whatever mushrooms you have on hand, the more varieties the better. Saute tem in a couple tablespoons of olive oil and butter, sprinkled with salt and freshly ground pepper. Add a couple of garlic cloves pressed through a garlic press. When mushrooms start looking cooked, add a big splash of sherry and cook until liquid is reduced.

In a stewpot or large saucepan, simmer homemade beef, chicken, or veggie broth if available (or bouillon or canned or box broth if you don't have homemade), water, pinot grigio wine, a little soy sauce, freshly ground pepper, a splash of sherry, granulated toasted onion if you have it (I love Penzey's http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/results.html), and a sprinkle of cayenne pepper powder.

Add roasted onions and sauteed mushrooms to the broth and simmer a while to combine flavors.

To serve, if you follow a low carb diet, ladle soup into ramekins and top with shredded or thinly sliced gruyere, emmental, or swiss cheese. Broil in oven for a few minutes until cheese is melted and lightly browned. If you don't worry about carbs, ladle soup into ramekins, top with a slice of toasted baguette and shredded or thinly sliced gruyere, emmental, or swiss cheese. Broil in oven for a few minutes until cheese is melted and lightly browned.

Enjoy!

Southwest Spicy Compound Butter

2010-09-09T23:10:00.000-05:00

2 sticks salted butter, softened
6 cloves garlic, pressed through a garlic press
zest of 2 small limes
2 tablespoons chipotle pepper sauce
1 bunch of cilantro, finely chopped

Mix all ingredients well. Serve on top of steak, steamed veggies, etc. Roll leftover compound butter into a log shape in waxed paper and freeze for later use.

Are You Ready For Some Football?!

2010-09-09T22:46:00.001-05:00

In the category of other pleasures that make life splendid ... the NFL 2010 season kicked off tonight, and what a great opening game! Saints 14 - Vikings 9. I love sports and I've come to love football much more since marrying my honey. It's so much better when you can watch the games with someone who is as interested as you are and especially with someone who is much more knowledgeable about the game and can explain the intricacies of the game clearly. I'd have been happy no matter who won the game tonight. How could I not pull for the Vikings with Brett Favre, the QB who is almost as old as I am? The fitness and athleticism of this guy amazes me. And who wouldn't love the great story of undrafted Drew Brees becoming the QB for the Saints and leading them to a Super Bowl victory last year, giving a still-reeling-from-Katrina New Orleans a great reason to celebrate?

I'm not just excited for football, but also because football season marks the beginning of fall. I can't wait for open windows weather, the State Fair of Texas, Halloween, and Thanksgiving. When you live in a place where summer temps routinely climb above 100 degrees, fall is a welcome respite. I know this is also a very special time of year for those who love college football, which I really am trying to care more about, honestly ...

So the sports fan in me is ecstatic now as my FC Dallas soccer team is on a record undefeated streak, my Texas Rangers baseball team is handily leading its division, and my Dallas Cowboys football team looks so very promising this season. Can't wait for the Cowboys' season opener this Sunday. Go 'boys!

I hope everyone is enjoying this glorious fall season and I wish the best of luck to your favorite teams!

Roulade Meatloaf

2010-08-19T02:21:00.001-05:00

Start with ground beef mixed with some Montreal steak seasoning and dehydrated soup vegetables. Press the ground beef out flat in a sheet pan, like pastry. Coat with a layer of fromage fort or any spreadable cheese. Add chopped mushrooms (or leftover sauteed mushrooms), sundried tomatoes, chopped garlic, chopped spinach, chopped basil, really any flavorful ingredients you can think of. Roll up into a loaf. Place on a baking rack over a sheet pan. Bake at 400 degrees for 15-30 minutes to brown and crisp the exterior, then reduce to 350 degrees until done (use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature from time to time for doneness).

Here's the meatloaf before baking. Unfortunately I forgot to take a pic of the finished meatloaf.

Fromage Fort, A Beautiful Way To Turn Cheese Scraps Into Gourmet Cheese Spread

2010-08-19T02:02:00.000-05:00

If you love cheese, and if you have my weakness for cheese, you probably end up with plenty of "nubs" of cheese in your fridge. Fromage Fort is a beautiful way to use up your last bits of leftover cheese.

Just gather up your leftover little bits of cheese and dice them up. Throw them in the food processor with a clove of garlic and your favorite combination of cream cheese and/or butter and/or white wine. Process until smooth. You'll have a fabulous gourmet cheese spread made from leftovers. How cool is that?

Vietnamese Spring Rolls With Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce

2010-08-19T01:39:00.002-05:00

I first experienced Vietnamese food in 1987. My boss' boss at the time had come to Dallas from Vietnam. She took our group to lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant in East Dallas, so we had the benefit of a Vietnamese native to direct our choices. It was love at first bite for me. Vietnamese food is so fresh and healthy and such a beautiful blend of all the flavors. Vietnamese food has been among my favorites ever since. One of my very favorite Vietnamese foods is the spring rolls with nuoc cham sauce. Sometimes Vietnamese spring rolls are served with peanut sauce; however, I haven't found nor been able to develop a recipe for peanut sauce that even approaches the perfection of nuoc cham. I'll continue researching Vietnamese peanut sauces, but in the meantime here are some simple recipes to satisfy your Vietnamese cravings:

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Boiled and peeled shrimp and/or marinated cooked pork (about 12 shrimp or the equivalent weight in pork)
2 ounces dried rice stick noodles or rice vermicelli, cooked according to package directions
8 round rice paper spring roll wrappers (readily available at Asian markets)
1/2 cup mung bean sprouts, rinsed
16 Thai basil leaves
8 cilantro sprigs
1 small cucumber, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1/4-by-1/4-by-2-inch sticks
2 large scallions, trimmed, halved, and sliced into 3-inch lengths

Cut the shrimp in half lengthwise or julienne the pork.

Clear a work surface and place all filling ingredients in separate containers in the following order around the work surface: Rice paper wrappers, shrimp and/or pork, rice noodles, bean sprouts, basil, cilantro, cucumber, scallions.

Place a damp layer of paper towels on work surface.

Pour hot water into a wide shallow dish or large dinner plate. Submerge a wrapper until it is slightly soft and pliable. Remove from water and place on the work surface.

Working quickly, lay 3 shrimp halves or some diced pork in a row, just above the center of the wrapper. Layer a scant 1/4 cup of the rice noodles over the shrimp, followed by a few bean sprouts, 2 basil leaves, and 1 sprig of cilantro. Place 3 to 4 cucumber sticks and 3 to 4 scallion pieces on either side of the noodle pile. Fold the bottom half of the rice paper wrapper over the filling. Holding it firmly in place, fold the sides of the wrapper in. Then, pressing firmly down to hold the folds in place, roll the entire pile up to close the top. (Think burrito style.) Turn each roll so that the rice paper seam faces downward. Serve with nuoc cham dipping sauce.

Vietnamese Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce

5 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons water
1/3 cup fish sauce (nuoc nam)
1/2 cup lime or lemon juice (about 3 limes or 2 lemons)
1 large clove garlic, crushed, peeled, and sliced or minced
1 or more bird's eye or Thai chilies, seeded and sliced or minced
Sprinkling of finely shredded carrot

Whisk together the sugar, water, fish sauce, and lime or lemon juice in a bowl until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the garlic and chili and let stand for 30 minutes before serving. Decorate with shredded carrot.

Super Easy Recipe For Fantastic Homemade Beef Stock/Broth

2010-08-19T00:36:00.008-05:00

I won't dare get into the ongoing debate about stock vs. broth. This recipe uses wonderful beef bones as well as flavorful meat, so I guess it could be either a stock or a broth. It's based on a recipe that Alton Brown prepared on his Good Eats program. He used a pressure cooker to speed up the cooking process. We don't currently own a pressure cooker and we're not really concerned about making speedy recipes, so we used the oven to brown the meaty bones and the slow cooker (Crock Pot) to simmer the broth. There aren't any exact measurements for this recipe, just use whatever amounts your slow cooker can hold. You don't have to do a lot of cleaning/prepping of the veggies because you're going to strain everything later.

Beef shank, oxtail, and/or beef bones
Carrots, rinsed and rough chopped
Celery, rinsed and rough chopped
Onions, rinsed and cut in quarters
Garlic heads, cut in half horizontally
Homemade veggie broth if you have it
Any leftover herbs you have lying around
Salt
Pepper
Sherry

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Put the beef/beef bones on a baking rack, roasting pan, or grill pan, anything that will allow the heat to circulate well and allow some of the fat to drain off as it cooks. Roast for an hour to an hour and a half, checking regularly. You want the meat and bones to become very well caramelized to develop the flavor (the Maillard reaction), but you obviously don't want them to burn.

Remove beef and bones from oven. Start heating your slow cooker at high heat. Add the beef and bones, carrots, celery, onions, garlic, homemade veggie broth if you have it, several big pinches of salt, and lots of freshly ground pepper. Cover with water within an inch or so of the top of the slow cooker.

Cook on high heat at least 12 hours. The longer the better. Stir the mixture from time to time. If you notice any foam gathering on the surface skim it off. If you notice marrow in any of the bones, scrape it out with a spoon into the pot; it's a very flavorful addition to the stock. After 12 hours or so add any leftover herbs you have and continue cooking.

When the broth is cooked to your liking, turn off the slow cooker and let the mixture cool. When cool enough to handle, place a collander over a large stewpot. Drain the broth into the stewpot, removing the solids. Cook the broth on the stovetop over medium heat until slightly reduced. Taste and add more salt and pepper if needed. Add a healthy splash of sherry, also to taste. Sherry vinegar will also work if you don't want the alcohol. When reduced to your liking, place a mesh strainer over a large glass measuring cup or a mixing bowl, cover the strainer with a double layer of cheesecloth, and pour the broth through to strain it well. Refrigerate the strained broth. The next day, remove the fat layer that will have congealed on top of the broth.

The broth can be used immediately or can be frozen for later use. A really easy way to freeze broth is to pour it into a silicone muffin pan, freeze, then pop out the broth "icecubes" into a labeled zip-lock bag for future use.

This broth will be very flavorful and meaty-tasting. Although it's not quite demi-glace it has a lot of collagen in it. As it's beginning to freeze you'll see that it has the consistency of Jell-O. It's a great base for soups and sauces. It is amazing when heated, reduced slightly, and served over creamed potatoes. Yeah, just speaking from experience and daydreaming for a moment there :)

This stuff is beautiful. It takes a lot of of time to cook, but not a lot of hands-on time and it isn't a difficult recipe to execute. I hope you'll try it. It will give a professional touch to your soups and sauces.

Cooking With Cuqui, Installment 1

2010-08-17T05:38:00.007-05:00

I'm so excited to introduce the first regular feature on this blog, Cooking With Cuqui. My mother-in-law, Cuqui (pronounced Cookie), is originally from Puerto Rico, and has also lived in New York City, Carracas, Mexico City, and now in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. I'm anxious to learn to cook her native Puerto Rican food, which is my precious husband's childhood food, as well as some of the recipes she learned in the other places that she lived.

I'm so fortunate to have grown up in a family of great cooks. I was helping out in the kitchen from the time that I was old enough to stir a pot. With my mother and my grandparents, I learned to cook healthy, nutritious meals. My paternal grandparents were East Texas farming folks and my Papa (my paternal grandfather) also was a decorated soldier. In the time I spent with my paternal grandparents, I experienced a lot of good, old-fashioned southern "soul" food, the kind of food that is inexpensive to cook but so incredibly tasty. And when I say old-fashioned I'm not kidding. My Nanny Sue (my paternal grandmother) would have us prepare the food to feed the "menfolk" first, then the women and children were fed. That's just the way she grew up back in the day in a family of southern sharecroppers.

My maternal grandparents were well-educated city folk who decided to move to the country in search of a healthier lifestyle. They became gardeners and were interested in vitamins and nutrients long before it was trendy to care about such things. I spent a lot of fun times with them in their garden, harvesting fresh fruits and veggies. One of my biggest treats as a child was the weeks I got to spend with my grandparents in the summer, working in the garden, harvesting produce, and canning tomatoes.

At home we ate really well and really healthy. My mom is a great, nutritious, frugal cook. She's a very talented artist and she always taught us the concept that you eat with your eyes first. We learned that the food has to be pretty on the plate. You simply cannot serve a plate full of beige foods.

All this is to say that cooking is a family heritage that is important to preserve. A great part of the reason I began this blog is to collect all the recipes that my precious hubby, Gordon, and I cook, including our families' recipes, in a convenient way so our kids can access them now and when we're gone. My husband and I want to be sure that family recipes live on; therefore, it's very important to us to preserve the Puerto Rican cooking heritage of his family.

And now, without further ado, the first installment of Cooking With Cuqui: Bistec en Cebollado, Puerto Rican-Style Habichuelas, y Arroz Blanco (Steak with Onions, Puerto-Rican Beans, and White Rice)

One of the many reasons I love this type of cooking is that it's done very much by eye and by taste, my favorite way to cook. Please adjust measurements to your taste.

Bistec en Cebollado

3 lbs. cube steak
2 white onions, halved and sliced thin
1 head of garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
1 tablespoon sea salt (or to taste)
Couple pinches coarse ground black pepper
1/2 cup olive oil
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 lime
Olive oil for the frying pan
1 ripe avocado
Drizzle of olive oil for avocado
Sprinkle of sea salt for avocado

In a pilon (mortar and pestle) grind the garlic cloves with the sea salt, then add the black pepper, olive oil, vinegar, and juice from 1 lime. Rub this mixture gently into the cube steak and set aside to marinate for 1 to 2 hours.

Heat frying pan over medium heat and add enough olive oil to generously coat the bottom, a couple of tablespoons. When olive oil is warm, add the onion and cook, stirring from time to time, until the onion begins to caramelize, around 20 minutes.

Remove onions to a bowl. Increase temperature of frying pan to medium-high or high, add a little more olive oil, and add some of the cube steaks. (Cook in batches; don't overcrowd the pan.) Cook 3-5 minutes, then turn steaks over. Steak will release easily from the pan when ready to turn. Cook about 3 minutes on the other side. You want these steaks to be just cooked through but not overdone.

When all steaks are cooked, combine them with the onions in the frying pan. Serve warm with beans, white rice, and slices of avocado dressed with olive oil and sea salt.

Puerto Rican-Style Habichuelas (Beans)

Olive oil
1/3 cup diced ham
1/3 cup diced Spanish-style chorizo (such as Goya)
1 finely diced white onion
1 finely diced bell pepper
1 diced tomato
3 or 4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon salt
pinch coarsely ground black pepper
1/3 cup tomato sauce
1 large can of Goya red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1/3 cup sliced green olives
2 tablespoons capers
1 can of chicken broth (use the bean can to measure)
1 packet Goya sazon
1 or 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 small green plaintain, shredded on a cheese grater

Heat Dutch oven over medium to medium-high heat. Add olive oil to coat generously. Add diced ham and chorizo and cook for several minutes. Add onion and bell pepper and cooked until softened. Add diced tomato. Mash garlic with salt in a pilon; add black pepper and enough olive oil to pilon to form a paste. Scrape garlic paste into Dutch oven, adding a little water to pilon if necessary to get all the garlic out. Cook for several minutes.

Add beans. Add tomato sauce, olives, and capers and cook for several minutes. Add chicken broth, sazon, and vinegar. Simmer over medium heat until flavors are well combined. Bring to a boil and then add shredded plaintain, which adds flavor and is also a great thickening agent. Cook at a low boil for several minutes, then you're ready to serve.

Cuqui's Puerto Rican White Rice

White rice sounds like the easiest thing in the world to cook; however, there's something special about Cuqui's white rice, It's like a siren song to the family, beckoning everyone to visit whenever she makes it.

3 cups short-grain white rice
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 3/4 cups boiling water
3 teaspoons salt

Heat olive oil over medium heat (preferably in a Latin style caldero). Add rice. Cook and stir for several minutes. Let the rice cook enough that it develops a little toasty flavor. Add boiling water. Simmer rice until you see "tunnels" through the rice and until the rice stops making a lot of sizzling/crackling sounds. Sorry that this step is a little hard to describe.

Using a large spoon or spatula, turn over all the rice so that all the rice from the bottom of the pan is now on the top. Reduce temperature to lowest setting, cover, and cook for 30 minutes without peeking or touching. Then stir/fluff with a fork.

Recipe For Homemade Buttermilk Blue Cheese Salad Dressing

2010-07-20T01:05:00.000-05:00

I've read in more than one blog, "Never buy salad dressing. Make your own." I agree. The benefits of making your own salad dressing are numerous. It's easy to make, you can adjust the ingredients to your taste, and you know what goes into it. It's often, though not always, cheaper to make your own dressing. When it's more expensive it's only because you're using better quality ingredients than the bottled stuff. This is the recipe I made after looking at several different recipes to decide on the combination of ingredients I wanted to use.

Buttermilk Blue Cheese Salad Dressing

2 1/2 ounces good quality blue cheese
3 tablespoons buttermilk
3 tablespoons sour cream
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
2 teaspoons champagne vinegar (or white wine vinegar or tarragon vinegar)
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1/3 teaspoon granulated toasted onion powder (available from Penzey's -- you can substitute garlic powder)
Tabasco sauce to taste (a couple shakes)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

In a small bowl, mix the blue cheese and buttermilk together with a fork until the mixture is semi-smooth. Stir in sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, onion powder, and Tabasco until well blended. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cute Little Party Sliders With Puff Pastry Buns and Homemade Ketchup

2010-07-04T22:59:00.002-05:00

Sliders

2 1/2 pounds ground beef
5 slices bacon, finely chopped (bacon is easy to chop if you pop it into the freezer for a while first)
1/2 cup roasted garlic
1/4 cup sweated chopped onions
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
5 anchovy filets, mashed with a fork before mixing with ground beef
1/2 cup panko crumbs
1 egg
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
splash of worcestershire sauce
splash of tabasco sauce

Mix everything together with the tools that God gave you. Don't bother trying to mix with a spoon; it's a lost cause; get your hands in there!

Put muffin liners in a muffin tin. Press out part of the slider mixture, pastry dough style, onto a clean counter or a cutting board that can be sterilized. Use a cookie/biscuit cutter to cut equal/even sliders. Make sure that all sliders are the same thickness by judging according to the height of the cutter you're using. Place each slider into a muffin cup. As you fill the muffin cups, place new liners on top and continue filling with sliders. You can freeze any extra stacks of sliders to cook later.

To cook sliders: Heat a skillet to medium-hot. Sprinkle well with freshly ground black pepper. You don't need to add any extra salt to this recipe. Cook each slider for several minutes on each side. Serve on puff pastry "buns" with homemade ketchup and any other condiments you like.

Puff Pastry "Buns"

1 package of puff pastry

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

For the "buns," roll out a sheet of the puff pastry to a roughly 13" by 15" square. Use a cookie/biscuit cutter one size larger than you used for the sliders to cut round "buns" from the puff pastry. Place on a cookie sheet and cook until puffy and golden. Repeat with the second sheet of puff pastry.

When I prepared this recipe the first time I made some faulty assumptions: I used the same size biscuit cutter for the sliders and the buns, thinking that the sliders would shrink more than they actually did and thinking the puff pastry "buns" would shrink less than they actually did. I recommend using a biscuit cutter one size larger for cutting the puff pastry than for cutting the sliders.

When the puff pastry "buns" cool, you can easily slice them in half to form top and bottom buns for your sliders.

Homemade Ketchup

(This amazing recipe is from Jamie Oliver on the Food Network. It takes a little time to make, but it's not difficult and it's absolutely worth making as it adds that "something special" to your sliders.)

Bizarrely enough for a chef, I really do take my hat off to Heinz, who have become the global brand of quality in the ketchup world. It's such an everyday cupboard product that you've probably never thought to make your own. But if you're growing tomatoes in the garden, or you catch sight of some really beautiful ones at the market in summer, just think how much of a treat it would be to offer your family or guests homemade ketchup. It's great fun to make. And you can make different colors of ketchup using just yellow, orange or green tomatoes - simply exchange the cherry and canned tomatoes for the same amount of your chosen colored ones.

Ingredients

1 large red onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1/2 bulb fennel, trimmed and roughly chopped
1 stick celery, trimmed and roughly chopped
Olive oil
Thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
1/2 a fresh red chili, deseeded and finely chopped
Bunch fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks chopped
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 cloves
Sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound amazing cherry or plum tomatoes, halved plus 1 pound canned plum tomatoes, chopped or 2 pounds yellow, orange or green tomatoes, chopped
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/3 cup soft brown sugar

Place all the vegetables in a large heavy-bottomed saucepan with a big splash of olive oil and the ginger, garlic, chili, basil stalks, coriander seeds and cloves. Season with the pepper and a good pinch of salt.

Cook gently over a low heat for 10 to 15 minutes until softened, stirring every so often. Add all the tomatoes and 1 1/2 cups of cold water. Bring to the boil and simmer gently until the sauce reduces by half.

Add the basil leaves, then whiz the sauce in a food processor or with a hand blender and push it through a sieve twice, to make it smooth and shiny. Put the sauce into a clean pan and add the vinegar and the sugar. Place the sauce on the heat and simmer until it reduces and thickens to the consistency of tomato ketchup. At this point, correct the seasoning to taste.

Happy Birthday USA!

2010-07-04T14:31:00.001-05:00

Happy birthday to the greatest nation on the face of the planet. We're so blessed to live here. Fireworks, pool parties, and burgers on the grill, that's pretty good; living in a democratic society, free of governmental or religious oppression, now that's something to celebrate! Happy 4th of July, everyone.

Smoked Salmon Dip

2010-06-30T01:32:00.000-05:00

This is a great way to finish up any leftover home-smoked salmon you have, if you have any left over, that is. Purchased smoked salmon works too!

Smoked Salmon Dip

2 cups shredded smoked salmon
1/4 cup finely minced red onion or shallot
Juice of 2 lemons
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream
Tabasco sauce to taste

Mix all ingredients until well combined. Smoked salmon is very salty, so no need to add extra salt.

Serve with sliced baguettes, crackers, or veggie sticks. This dip is even better after it's been refrigerated for a couple of hours to let the flavors meld.

In the photo at the top of this post, the smoked salmon dip is served on flatbread crackers from Central Market, and sprinkled with a little Green Goddess dressing mix from Penzey's.

Smoked Salmon Recipe

2010-06-30T01:02:00.002-05:00

Don't you love Alton Brown's show Good Eats on the Food Network? He reaches out to my inner food geek with his brilliant analysis and explanations of the chemistry of food. We recently tried his recipe for smoked salmon, and it's terrific. It's sort of like a cross between the smoked salmon you get in the supermarket, which isn't truly smoked, but is actually cured, and warm smoked salmon that you make at home in your backyard smoker.

This should be made with salmon fillets with the skins on. We purchased some beautiful salmon to prepare this recipe and didn't realize until we unpackaged it at home that it didn't have the skin. I recommend using salmon with skin, or if you use skinless salmon reduce the amount of salt/sugar/peppercorn rub significantly because skinless salmon absorbs so much more of the rub.

So from Alton Brown's Good Eats on the Food Network, here's the recipe:

Smoked Salmon

Ingredients
1 cup kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon crushed black peppercorns
2 large salmon fillets or sides, pin bones removed

Directions
In a bowl, mix together salt, sugar, brown sugar, and peppercorns. Spread extra-wide aluminum foil a little longer than the length of the fish and top with an equally long layer of plastic wrap. Sprinkle 1/3 of the rub onto the plastic. Lay 1 side of the fish skin down onto the rub. Sprinkle 1/3 of the rub onto the flesh of the salmon. Place second side of salmon, flesh down, onto the first side. Use the remaining rub to cover the skin on the top piece. Fold plastic over to cover, then close edges of foil together and crimp tightly around the fish.

Place wrapped fish onto a plank or sheet pan and top with another plank or pan. Weight with a heavy phone book or a brick or two and refrigerate for 12 hours. Flip the fish over and refrigerate another 12 hours. Some juice will leak out during the process, so make sure there's a place for the runoff to gather.

Unwrap fish and rinse off the cure with cold water. Pat salmon with paper towels, then place in a cool, dry place (not thre refrigerator) until the surface of the fish is dry and matte-like, 1 to 3 hours depending on humidity. A fan may be used to speed the process.

Smoke fish over smoldering hardwood chips or sawdust, keeping the temperature inside the smoker between 150 degrees F and 160 degrees F until the thickest part of the fish registers 150 degrees. Serve immediately or cool to room temperature, wrap tightly, and refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Serve with the traditional salmon accoutrements: creme fraiche or sour cream, capers, diced hardboiled egg, diced red onion, fresh dill, thin lemon slices.

If you have any left over after a day or two, make smoked salmon dip. That recipe is next.

Mushroom, Leek, and Goat Cheese Phyllo Triangles

2010-06-28T02:22:00.017-05:00

I'm experimenting with lots of little yummies lately. I've always been partial to appetizers, tiny flavorful cuties. Along the same lines, I like the "small bites" concept and hope to experiment a bit with that, and I also like the "deconstructed" concept, reducing familiar foods to their individual components and showcasing the ingredients.

Sometimes I get inspired by the idea of a food combination that I think will be really tasty and I'll Google search the ingredients I'm interested in until I find some recipes that seem promising, then combine components of the recipes, hoping to create the masterpiece that I envision.  Of course, sometimes my idea falls flat; however, sometimes my inspiration produces exactly what I hoped to achieve and it's scrumptious.

I wanted to create an unctious, crispy appetizer featuring assorted mushrooms, leeks, and goat cheese wrapped in crispy phyllo dough to serve at a recent birthday celebration. I combined ideas from a couple of recipes and here's what I came up with. Everyone seemed to enjoy it and I hope you will too ...

Mushroom, Leek, and Goat Cheese Phyllo Triangles

2 pounds assorted mushrooms (I used creminini, shiitake, and oyster)
Oive oil to coat pan
2 leeks
2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh thyme
Healthy splash of sherry
8 ounces goat cheese
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Phyllo dough (number of sheets needed will vary according to volume of filling, but phyllo is typically packed in two bags per box and you'll probably not quite use up one of the bags)
1 stick butter

Clean up mushrooms. I know some people say to just brush them, but I prefer to gently rinse them. It's up to you. With a paring knife trim away the very ends of the mushroom stems. The exception is the shiitakes. Their stems are virtually inedible, so completely detach the stems from the shiitake caps. (Remember to put your mushroom trimmings and all your other veggie trimmings into a ziplock bag and pop it into the freezer so that you can simmer up some veggie broth later. It's liquid gold, I tell you.)  Roughly chop all the mushrooms.

Prepare the leeks. Look at your leeks and find the point where the leaves start "branching out." Cut just below that branch-off spot and toss the upper, darker-colored leafy leek parts into your veggie freezer bag. Trim away the root ends from the leeks.  Cut the leeks into quarters lengthwise. Put them in a very large bowl of cold water and separate them into individual leaves. Rinse very well, draining the water and refilling the bowl as necessary. Leeks can be very sandy and you need to be sure to clean out all the grit. Clean very, very well.

After draining the leaks, slice them very thin. Coat a large nonstick saute pan with olive oil. Heat to medium. Add leeks to pan, sprinkle with a couple healthy pinches of kosher salt (to help draw the moisture out of the leeks), and sweat until softened but not browned. Remove leeks to a sieve or collander placed over a mixing bowl. Place a bowl over the leeks in the sieve or collander and weight it down with a heavy can from your pantry to press the extra moisture out of the leeks.

While leeks are draining, again coat your saute pan with olive oil. Add chopped mushrooms to pan and sprinkle with a couple healthy pinches of kosher salt to help draw the moisture out of the mushrooms. Saute until the mushrooms are cooked through. Add a couple healthy splashes of sherry and several grinds of black pepper and continue cooking until all the sherry is absorbed. Remove from heat and add the fresh thyme.

Cool the cooked mushrooms a little, then transfer to a food processor and pulse to a coarse puree. Scrape the puree into a medium mixing bowl, add leeks, and add goat cheese. Mix well. Taste and add more salt and pepper if necessary.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Melt the stick of butter in the microwave or in a small pan over very low heat. Don't let the butter get hot. Prepare a couple of baking sheets or cookie sheets by wrapping them with aluminum foil for easy cleanup later.

Lay one sheet of the phyllo on a clean work surface. (I use my kitchen counter. I clean it well with antibacterial wipes, then clean away any soap residue with a damp paper towel, then dry with a dry paper towel.) Keep the rest of the phyllo covered with damp paper towels. Using a silicone brush or a pastry brush, brush the phyllo sheet with melted butter. Cut it lengthwise into 3 long, even strips. Place 1 level tablespoon of the filling in a corner of one of the strips, about 1/2 inch from the top. Fold the corner down to form a triangle. Continue folding the triangle onto itself, across and down, until you have a neat phyllo triangle.

Two tips: Using a "cookie scoop" makes measuring a tablespoon of filling easier. If you've ever folded an American flag Boy Scout style, that's the technique you want to use to fold the phyllo into triangles. It's also the same technique you used in junior high when you made little paper triangle footballs that you thumped over the student in front of you in class to "score" a touchdown.

Place the triangles on the baking sheet or cookie sheet. Brush the top of the triangles with some of the melted butter and bake for about 20 minutes, or until browned and crisp. Remove from oven and let cool slightly before serving.

This recipe is pretty simple, but produces an elegant little pastry. I hope you'll give it a try.

Baked Stuffed Shrimp With Remoulade Style Sauce

2010-06-18T20:59:00.001-05:00

These shrimp make a very tasty tapas-style appetizer.

Technique: when you devein the shrimp, then cut all the way through the middle of the shrimp, so that you leave a hole in the middle, then you can lay the shrimp out flat on a baking dish with the body of the shrimp lying nice and flat and the tail facing up for a pretty presentation. You can then "stuff" the body of the shrimp without the stuffing falling out of the shrimp.

Baked Stuffed Shrimp

25 fairly large shrimp, heads removed and shells removed except for last segment and tail, deveined and cut as described above
1/4 cup red bell pepper, very small dice
1 Korean pepper, very small dice (if you don't have Korean pepper available, just increase the amount of red bell pepper a bit)
1/2 cup shallots, very small dice
2 tablespoons garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
zest of 1 lemon (Meyer lemon if available) (use a microplane)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
1 teaspoon paprika (if you use only red bell pepper, then use Hungary half-sharp paprika; if you use a combination of red bell pepper and Korean pepper, then use regular paprika)
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 cup panko crumbs

Mix all ingredients with a fork. Place the prepared shrimp on a baking sheet. Scoop up the filling with a standard teaspoon, press it slightly with your hand into a ball, and place on a shrimp. Continue until each shrimp is "stuffed." Make sure each shrimp tail curves up and over the stuffing for a pretty presentation.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 to 30 minutes, until shrimp are pink and stuffing is golden brown. Serve with remoulade style sauce.

Remoulade Style Sauce

1 cup mayonnaise
Juice of 1 lemon (Meyer lemon if available)
1/3 cup spicy brown mustard
1 tablespoon garlic, minced or pressed through a garlic press
2 tablespoons shallot, very small dice
2 tablespoons capers, rough chopped
splash of port wine vinegar or red wine vinegar
splash of Tabasco sauce

Mix ingredients well and serve with baked stuffed shrimp or any other seafood.

I Love This Store!

2010-06-06T17:35:00.002-05:00

Are you someone who tries a new food not in spite of the fact that you've never had it before, but because you've never had it before? Do you buy something at the grocery simply because you don't have a clue what it tastes like so you want to take it home and start Google searching for recipes to use it? Well, then, ethnic groceries will ignite your foodie flame! I've always been a pretty adventurous eater, and since marrying my darling hubby I've tried tons of new foods. He's a great inspiration because he's lived in so many places and is so knowledgeable about the culture of food and he also likes to try new things. It's really fun to "discover" food finds in restaurants and stores.

I love, love, love shopping in all kinds of ethnic grocery stores. I love the exotic ingredients they stock, I love the fragrances, I love the product labels in foreign languages, I love the people watching, and I love the prices. A trip to a really good ethnic market is like a vacation to me. I'm so blessed to live here smack-dab in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex where I have easy access to stores catering to cultures from all over the world.

One of my all-time favorite Mexican groceries is the Carnival Food Store located at 3460 Webb Chapel Extension in Dallas. Here's a sampling of the "booty" from my last visit there:

Yes, the item at the bottom left of the pic is a bag of the famous and elusive Camellia red kidney beans. I hate to share my secret source, but I feel it's my duty as a food-lover :) They not only carry the Camellia red kidney beans, they also carry two or three other varieties of Camellia brand beans. And yes, I think these beans are deserving of the hype. They seem to be very fresh and tender.

I'm really fond of Goya brand items. Their products are consistently good quality and reasonably priced. Goya olive oil is the everyday olive oil of choice in our kitchen. We especially enjoy the Goya chorizo, which is the Spanish-style cured type chorizo rather than the Mexican-style fresh type chorizo. It's so good and so inexpensive. Carnival is the only place I can always count on finding the Goya chorizo. Do you think they laugh at me after I leave the check-out line for buying 10-15 packages of chorizo?

I was surprised to find Cento San Marzano tomatoes at Carnival. Pretty cool. Not to mention that Carnival and many other ethnic groceries have true butcher counters with cuts of meat you can't find at your local Kroger or Tom Thumb, and they usually have really good pre-marinated meat for the grill: chicken fajita, beef fajita, ribs.

I enjoy the opportunity to practice my extremely limited, extremely weak Spanish at Carnival or any Mexican market, but I haven't been to a Mexican market in the Metroplex where the employees didn't speak English, so don't be intimidated by any perceived language barrier.

Why I'll Never Be A Great Gardener

2010-06-06T16:32:00.000-05:00

For one thing, I let my herbs flower and go to seed. You're really not supposed to do that because you end up with "leggy" plants instead of nice leafy plants. But they're so pretty when they flower and it's really cool if you end up with "volunteers," my grandmother's term for plants that self seed from the previous year.

Parsley In Bloom

I also can't stand to remove the really cute critters from my herbs. The caterpillars that turn into Monarch butterflies love parsley. How could I possibly begrudge this little cutie-pie a yummy snack?

Monarch Caterpillar Feasting On Flat-Leaf Parsley

It's kinda funny, a few weeks ago there was a group of monarch caterpillars on the curly parsley. The current caterpillar gang is only eating the flat-leaf parsley. I guess even caterpillars have their favorite restaurants.

Kid-Friendly Wheat Bread (Kid Tested and Kid Approved)

2010-06-06T15:26:00.000-05:00

My almost-11-year-old stepdaughter, Morgan, and I made this recipe last weekend. We don't have a stand mixer, so we mixed the dough with a spoon until it got too stiff to mix and then kneaded it by hand. We decided that kneading dough not only makes good bread but it could also be a healthy way to work out frustration!

Look at Morgan bake! You go, girl!!!

The recipe is from Susan K. at allrecipes.com. Link: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Kid-Friendly-Wheat-Bread/Detail.aspx

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 (.25 ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
2 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk, room temperature

Directions

Measure the water into a large bowl, or the bowl of a stand mixer and stir in 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. Sprinkle the yeast over the top and set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes.
Add 1 cup of the all-purpose flour and 3 cups of whole wheat flour to the bowl along with the brown sugar, salt, vegetable oil and milk. Mix on low speed to blend ingredients. Continue to mix on medium speed, adding the rest of the flour 1/2 cup at a time, until the dough clings to the hook and cleans the sides of the bowl. You may not need to add all of the flour. Mix on medium speed for about 5 minutes. Oil the bowl and turn the dough to coat. Cover loosely and set aside to rise until doubled, about 1 hour.
Punch down the dough and place on a floured surface. Divide into two equal portions and use a rolling pin to roll each one into a rectangle that is about 16x8 inches. Be sure to press out all of the air bubbles. Roll the rectangles into loaves and pinch the seam together.
Place loaves seam side down into greased 9x5 inch loaf pans. Cut a few slits across the top of each loaf using a sharp serrated knife. Set aside to rise until your finger leaves a dimple when you press into a loaf, 30 to 45 minutes. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
Bake the loaves for 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Bake for an additional 30 minutes, or until loaves are deep brown. Remove from pans to cool on a wire rack.

Next time we'll be sure to brush off more of the flour so the loaves will be prettier. Other than that we wouldn't alter a thing about the recipe. It's yummy!!!

Yummy Homemade Lasagna

2010-05-25T00:22:00.002-05:00

Always searching for ways to sneak nutrition, namely in the form of veggies, into our very picky carnivore/carbivore kids, here's a recipe we've created for lasagna made with a tomato sauce that's filled with veggies. The flavor is incredible and the kids will never guess that it's healthy. Plus you can reserve part of the sauce for homemade pizza. This isn't a quickie recipe. You'll spend several hours in the kitchen. But for your effort you'll be rewarded with two super nutritious lasagnas, one to bake now and another to freeze or share, plus sauce for homemade pizzas. Feel free to adjust the recipe to your taste or to use what you have on hand. It's a great way to use up bits and dabs of veggies that are lingering in the veggie drawer in your fridge. And as always, don't forget to throw all the scraps and trimmings into a freezer bag to make veggie broth.

Recipe For Homemade Lasagna Plus Yummy Pizza Sauce
3 beets, peeled and diced*
2 zucchini squash, sliced into spears
2 onions, large dice
6 tomatoes, peeled, cut in half, and most seeds removed
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 pound mushrooms, cut in half
4 celery stalks, cut in chunks
2 carrots, cut in chunks
1/4 small cabbage, shredded
2 heads garlic, minced
2 teaspoons Italian seasoning (I like Penzey's Pasta Sprinkle http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyspastasprinkle.html )
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil for spraying the pan and olive oil for drizziling over veggies
2 pounds ground chuck
1 pound sweet Italian sausage (either bulk or removed from casing)
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
2 cups Pinot Grigio
5 or 6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 bunch of chopped basil, divided use
1 bunch of chopped parsley
1 bunch of oregano (leaves removed from stems)
2 1/2 pounds mozzarella (preferably whole milk which melts better)
32 ounces ricotta
3 large eggs
10 ounces parmesan cheese
2 packages of no-boil lasagna noodles (we like Barrilla) (you'll probably have some left over)

Use two cookie sheets or cake pans lined with aluminum foil. Spray with olive oil if you have a Misto sprayer or spray with Pam. Arrange prepared veggies over the two cookie sheets. Sprinkle with the Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper, and drizzle with a couple tablespoons of olive oil.

Roast in oven for 1.5 hours at 350 degrees. Stir veggies, return to oven, and raise temperature to 375 degrees. Roast for 1/2 hour to 1 hour, checking regularly, until there's no liquid in pans and veggies are just starting to brown and caramelize.

* When you're working with red beets be sure to use a cutting board that can be put through the dishwasher, rather than your best wooden cutting board, and wear gloves. Those things stain like crazy. Another option is to use golden beets instead of red.

While veggies are roasting, you can brown the ground chuck and Italian sausage together in a large cast iron skillet. Drain off the fat in a colander.

Allow roasted veggies to cool. Puree in batches in food processor and pour into a Dutch oven or other similar large pot. Add both cans of tomatoes, the Pinot Grigio, the oregano leaves, half of the chopped basil, and the 5 or 6 cloves of chopped garlic. Taste for seasoning and add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste. Cook at a high simmer/low boil until reduced to sauce consistency.

At this point reserve and refrigerate 1 to 2 cups of tomato sauce to use for homemade pizza.

To the remaining tomato sauce add the browned meat mixture. Simmer for a few minutes to meld flavors.

Shred your mozzarella. An easy way is to pop it into the freezer for half an hour and then shred in the food processor with the grater blade attachment.

Shred or grate your parmesan.

In a large mixing bowl combine shredded parmesan, ricotta, eggs, parsley, and remaining basil. Mix well.

Use 2 rectangular lasagna dishes, 9-by-13 or thereabouts. Ladle a small amount of tomato/meat sauce into the bottom of each dish and spread it out. Cover with lasagna noodles (probably 3 will cover the pan). Next add some of the ricotta mixture and spread as evenly as possible over the noodles. The easiest way I've found to do this is to use a small ice cream scoop, aka a cookie scoop, to put a little ricotta mixture on each noodle, then spread with a spatula. Next add a layer of tomato/meat sauce, spreading it as evenly as possible. Next add a layer of shredded mozzarella. Each layer should be minimal, just enough to cover the previous layer.

Continue layering noodles, ricotta, sauce, and mozzarella until you reach the top of the lasagna dishes, ending with mozzarella.

For the lasagna you wish to serve right away, cover tightly with aluminum foil and cook in a 350 degree oven for an hour, then remove the foil, increase the temperature to 375 degrees, and cook for about 30 minutes, checking regularly, until the cheese is bubbly and golden brown.

This dish freezes really well. You can freeze the second lasagna, tightly wrapped. When you're ready to bake, just thaw, and bake using the same instructions.

This Gringa's Take on Arroz con Pollo

2010-05-19T04:49:00.003-05:00

So I know kind of instinctively what arroz con pollo is all about, although I've never actually tasted the dish. I have seen it prepared on numerous cooking shows on TV and read so many recipes for it. My spirit, which imagines that it's Latina, although in truth I'm Scotch-Irish, German, and Native American, among other things, believes that it understands the essence of this quintessential Latin American dish. All this is by way of explanation that the following recipe, although absolutely scrumptious, if I do say so myself, makes no claims to be precisely traditional nor authentic to any Latin American region.

Arroz con Pollo

2 or 3 tablespoons olive oil to coat pan
3 1/2 ounce package Goya chorizo (Spanish style chorizo, not Mexican style), thinly sliced
1 tomato, diced
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 head of garlic, minced
1 to 1 1/4 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs, rinsed, trimmed of excess fat, and dried
1 cup homemade vegetable broth or water
18 ounces beer (1 1/2 cans)
2 Knorr chicken bouillon cubes
1 Goya sazon packet
2 ounces capers, rinsed and drained
14-ounce package Goya valencia style rice, rinsed and drained
2-3 ounces pimientos, diced
1 cup frozen green peas
3 ounces manzanilla olives, cut in half

Heat a large cast iron frying pan or traditional Puerto Rican-style aluminum caldero over medium heat. Add olive oil. Add chorizo, tomato, and onion. Cook over medium heat until onion is softened. Add garlic and then add chicken pieces, nestling each piece into the bottom of the caldero. Cook over medium heat until chicken thighs release easily from pan, then turn thighs over. Again cook until chicken thighs release easily from pan.

At this point add 1 cup vegetable broth or water, the 2 Knorr chicken bouillon cubes, 18 ounces beer, and 1 packet of Goya sazon, and stir to mix.

Bring to a simmer, then add the rice and capers and stir to mix. Simmer until most of the liquid is absorbed . Then using a spatula or large spoon gently fold over all the rice.

Add half of the olives, pimientos, and peas. Cover the caldero with a lid and cook at very low temperature for 20 minutes. Again fold over the rice with a spatula or large spoon.

Add the remaining olives, pimientos, and peas. Continue cooking at very low temperature with lid off about 10 minutes until any remaining liquid is absorbed and rice is tender.

Fish Tacos

2010-05-19T02:48:00.001-05:00

We prepared some very tasty fish tacos recently, which turned out to be un-tacos, I guess, because we didn't end up wrapping them in the tortillas, but they were darn good nonetheless. We fried up some tilapia fillets coated with a smoky, spicy batter, served them with fresh, crispy veggies, and drizzled on a citrusy dressing.

I read in a Cooks Illustrated magazine article that there's something that gives catfish and tilapia a "dirt" flavor. They said to soak catfish or tilapia in buttemilk to eliminate the problem. It seemed to work really well in this recipe.

Fish Tacos

Fish
3 tilapia fillets
enough buttermilk to soak the fillets (about 2 cups)
Peanut oil or vegetable oil for frying

Dredge
1/2 cup flour

Batter
1 cup flour
2 eggs
1 can or bottle of beer
2 tablespoons salt
1-2 tablespoons chipotle chile powder (depending on how much heat you like)
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder

Sauce
Zest and juice of 2 limes
Juice of 1 pomodoro *
Juice of 1 ripe tomato
2-3 tablespoons pomegranate vinegar *
salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste
Tabasco sauce to taste

Veggie Fillings
Shredded Cabbage
Thin Sliced Radishes
Thin Sliced Green Onions
Chopped Cilantro
Any other veggies you'd like with your fish tacos

Rinse your tilapia fillets and place in a shallow dish. Pour buttermilk over tilapia. Refrigerate and turn the fish over with tongs every few hours to be sure it's evenly soaked in buttermilk.

Get your batter station ready. Put the 1/2 cup of flour in one shallow bowl. Prepare the batter in another bowl by wisking the egg, adding the flour, spices, and beer, and wisking to combine.

Heat oil in a saucepan. I like to use a small saucepan so as not to use much oil and therefore I cut the filets into smaller portions. You can tell that the oil is hot enough when a sprinkle of flour "sizzles" in the oil.

Remove the fillets from the buttermilk. Cut your fish filets if necessary so they'll fit into the pan in which they'll be fried. Dredge each piece of tiplapia in the plain flour. Dip into the batter, then lift out of the batter and let the excess drain away a bit. Then gently lower into the cooking oil. Cook for a couple of minutes, until nicely golden brown, turning one or twice during the cooking. A spatter guard is a really good idea to help prevent "fried kitchen" when you're frying the fish!

* Frugality is the name of the game. Frugality doesn't necessarily mean cooking cheap, but it does mean cooking smart, using everything and not wasting anything. We love to cook and we enjoy searching for great ingredients. We're also blessed to live in Carrollton, Texas, which is in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and which is becoming a mecca for ethnic food markets. For us it's easy and frugal to have ingredients on hand that some cooks might consider exotic. If you don't have easy access to international markets or you don't cook frequently, substitute juice from an orange or grapefruit for the pomodoro juice and substitute red wine vinegar for the pomegranate vinegar. It's just a waste to spend big bucks and extra effort procuring specialty ingredients unless you'll really use them.

Beyond Ultimate Hummus

2010-05-19T02:11:00.003-05:00

I know I've posted about hummus a couple of times already. I'm kinda addicted to it. I've been trying to perfect the recipe and get a really smooth and creamy result. Well, my hubby watches some funny/interesting youtube videos made by this crazy, foul-mouthed Canadian cooking guy. We saw his videos about making hummus and I learned the secret for making the best, creamiest hummus. The secret is removing the skins from the garbanzo beans/chickpeas.

If you want to check out the youtube videos, here are the links. Warning, these videos are definitely NSFW (not safe for work) and not for anyone offended by adult language. Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZoRNfGgZM0 Part 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdu3xTbHHJg

You can use canned beans if you wish, but it seems to me that if you're going to the trouble of making the perfect recipe, why not do it all the way, you know. It's cheaper and it's not at all difficult to start with dried beans. You just have to plan ahead. If you use canned beans, ignore all the instructions up to rinsing them in a colander and removing as many skins as possible.
This recipe will make about 3 cups of hummus:

1 1/2 cups dry garbanzo beans/chickpeas
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
2 Knorr chicken bouillon cubes
6 tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
6 tablespoons tahini (ground sesame seed paste)
2 tablespoons garlic, pressed through a garlic press or finely minced
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoonn ground cayenne pepper
6 tablespoons olive oil (use more or less to achieve the texture you like)

Two days before you plan to serve the hummus, rinse and sort the garbanzo beans. Cover them with plenty of water (they'll swell to almost twice their size) and soak for 12-24 hours.

The next day drain off the soaking water. Put garbanzos in a heavy-bottomed pot with 2-3 quarts of water and the baking soda. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a very low boil and cook until you see a lot of the skins starting to come off of the beans. Be sure to check and stir the beans at least every 30 minutes while they cook, adding water if necessary. The cooking time varies greatly depending on how fresh your garbanzos are.

When you see lots of garbanzo skins floating in the cooking water, but while the garbanzos are still intact, remove from heat, drain beans and add cold water. Continue to drain and add cold water until the beans are cool enough to handle in the water. With your hands, swish the beans around in the water and rub the beans to get the skins to come off. Remove the skins from the water. The more skins you remove, the smoother and creamier your hummus will be. This step takes a little time, but it's so worth it for the finished product.

Return the beans to the stove with a small amount of water, just enough to cover the beans, and add the chicken bouillon cubes. Gently stir and simmer until almost all of the water has evaporated and the beans are falling apart. Remove from heat, allow to cool to room temperature, then pour the garbanzos and any remaining cooking water into a food processor. Add the lemon juice, tahini, garlic, cumin, and cayenne. Process until very smooth. With the food processor running, slowly drizzle in the olive oil until the hummus reaches the consistency you want. As you drizzle the olive oil, the mixture will sort of emulsify, similar to making mayonnaise, and the consistency will change and become creamier.

Transfer the hummus to a bowl, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with finely chopped parsley and/or cumin or paprika if desired. Serve with kalamata olives and pita chips, veggie sticks, or crackers.

Goodies From Jimmy's Food Store

2010-03-11T17:06:00.001-06:00

Paid a quick visit today to Jimmy's Food Store to stock up on Italian provisions. Got some speck, bresaola, pancetta, gorgonzola, canned piquillo peppers, canned San Marzano tomatoes, canned artichoke bottoms, pickled green peppercorns, and some cool varieties of dry pasta. If you're in the Dallas area, check out this terrific little grocery store and take-out deli, just east of downtown on Bryan at Fitzhugh. It's a treasure. Their Italian version of the Cuban sandwich is famous around here and for good reason ... they're terrific.

Oven "Fried" Salmon With Meyer Lemon Reduction, Buttermilk Creamed Potatoes, and Asparagus With Meyer Lemon and Texas Red Grapefruit Hollandaise

2010-02-28T17:19:00.000-06:00

This was our dinner Friday night. It's a bit more ambitious than my usual quick and easy cooking, but well worth the effort.

For the fish:
I intended to use trout for this dish, but evidently I had some miscommunication with the fishmonger and ended up with salmon. Oh, well, it's all good!

Leave the skin on the fish. Portion your fish into even serving-size pieces. Rinse and pat dry. Set up a breading station. First bowl, flour with plenty of salt and freshly ground pepper. Second bowl, one egg beaten with a splash of water. Third bowl, panko crumbs mixed with freshly chopped dill and parsley (citrus zest would be good in this too).

Hold fish with skin side up, dip in flour, covering all sides except the skin. Then dip in the egg mixture, covering all sides except the skin, and allow the excess to drip off. Dip in the panko mixture, covering all sides except the skin, pressing lightly to coat the fish well. Place the fish skin side down in a cast iron skillet coated with olive oil. Give the panko-coated fish a light spritz of olive oil with a Misto sprayer or Pam olive oil spray. Bake at 400 until fish is flaky. Time will vary greatly depending on type and size of fish.

For the Meyer lemon reduction:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/4 cup shallots, fine dice
1/4 cup fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice
1 cup chardonnay
1 cube Knorr chicken bouillon

Melt butter in skillet over medium heat, add shallots and saute until soft. Add lemon juice, chardonnay, and bouillon cube. Increase temperature to medium-high. Stir until bouillon dissolves. Cook at a low boil, stirring frequently, until sauce is reduced to a thick consistency.

For the creamed potatoes:
Scrub Yukon Gold potatoes and cut into thick slices. Put potatoes in large saucepan and cover with water by 1 or 2 inches. Add a tablespoon of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and cook at a low boil until potatoes are soft all the way through. Drain, cool slighly, and remove skins.

Over low heat mash potatoes with potato masher and add butter, buttermilk, mayonnaise, and freshly ground black pepper to taste. A little buttermilk ranch dressing mix or green goddess dressing mix is a perfect seasoning for these potatoes. I love the ones from Penzey's.

Use an immersion stick blender to process the potatoes until smooth and creamy. For a pretty presentation, spoon into a heavy duty plastic bag, snip off a corner, and pipe onto plate. Garnish with chopped fresh parsley and dill.

For the asparagus:
Rinse asparagus, trim the ends. In a skillet simmer 2 inches of water with a healthy sprinkle of salt and a big squeeze of lemon juice. Add asparagus in a single layer and simmer until crisp-tender. Remove asparagus and shock in cold water to maintain the bright green color.

For the Hollandaise:
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed Meyer lemon juice
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
pinch salt
pinch cayenne

Vigorously whisk lemon juice and egg yolks together in stainless steel bowl until thickened and doubled in volume. Place bowl over saucepan of barely simmering water. The water shouldn't touch the bottom of the bowl. Don't let the eggs get too hot or they'll scramble. Continue to whisk egg/lemon mixture rapidly while slowly drizzling in the melted butter. Whisk until sauce is thickened and doubled in volume. Remove from heat, whisk in salt and cayenne.

I whisked in a big squeeze of Texas ruby red grapefruit juice to the finished mixture. Next time I plan to make the Hollandaise with all grapefruit juice instead of Meyer lemon juice. There's a Gordon Ramsay recipe for Hollandaise made with grapefruit juice and olive oil that sounds interesting to try.

Easy Asian Noodle Side Dish

2010-02-28T15:42:00.000-06:00

Very quick, easy, and flavorful. I used rice stick noodles, but they're a bit sticky. I'll try it with sturdier noodles next time.

In a nonstick skillet, heat 2-3 tablespoons olive oil over medium to medium-high heat. Add a tiny splash of sesame oil, 2 or 3 anchovies that have been mashed with a fork, 2 or 3 cloves of garlic pressed through a garlic press, and a couple pinches of hot red pepper powder (I like the Korean version). Saute until everything is cooked through and well combined.

Add cooked Asian noodles, whatever your preference, and toss well. Garnish with a sprinkle of hot red pepper powder and chopped cilantro.

Like Christmas And My Birthday All Rolled Into One

2010-02-09T22:06:00.000-06:00

I'm so excited, I can hardly wait. At long last our kitchen is going to receive a much-needed improvement. We're replacing this 26-year-old number:

With this:

Well, not exactly this, but a nicely discounted one like it from the "scratch and dent store," our local Sears outlet. The flaws on the one we ordered should be hidden by our cabinets/counters.

Our old electric tract home/contractor grade range has been on her last "burners" for some time ... no really, only one burner on the stovetop still works right and in the oven only the broiler element still works correctly! It takes some serious planning to roast or bake when the oven requires an hour to preheat.

Of course I did valiantly do my part to preserve the life of the old range by using it only very infrequently until the last couple of years. It was hard work driving through all those fast food joints and placing all those orders for delivery, but I took one for the team. Papa John's and Chef Chu probably still miss me.

Seriously, though, my hubby is a terrific cook and now I've found out how much I enjoy it. Our family is committed to eating healthy, frugal, homecooked meals. It's going to be such a blessing to have the equipment to make it happen. I'm eagerly anticipating the yummies we can create with a properly functioning appliance. It's all gas, has two power burners, a regular burner, and a simmer burner, and also an oval center burner for use with a griddle or oversized stockpot, a warmer drawer, and convection oven whose self-clean feature hasn't been hopelessly destroyed by years of misuse.

Lots of tasty recipes coming soon :)

Gordon's Amazing Easy Chili Recipe

2010-01-29T19:04:00.007-06:00

This is my honey's time-tested crowd-pleasing recipe with a few adaptations we've made over the last couple of years. And yes, it has beans ... and yes, we're Texans ... you wanna make something of it?

2 1/2 pounds 80/20 ground chuck
2 1/2 pounds beef stew meat or beef roast cut into small cubes
2 cups of diced onion and/or shallot (whatever you have handy)
1 head of garlic, minced
1 46-ounce can of V-8 juice
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 packet of Goya sazon (whichever version you prefer)
1 beef bouillon cube (we like Knorr brand)
2 cans Bush's Texas chili starter*
2 dried chipotle chile peppers (more or less to taste)
Red wine such as Cabernet to deglaze pan

* Bush's chili starter has become almost impossible to find. You can substitute a can or two of chili beans, and add cumin and regular chili powder to taste.

In a Dutch oven brown the ground beef. Pour into a colander to drain off fat, but leave a little fat in the pan to brown the stew meat. Brown the stew meat on all sides in stages in a single layer in the Dutch oven. Pour into colander to drain excess fat, again reserving just a little fat in the Dutch oven to cook the onion/shallot/garlic.

Add the onion and/or shallot. Stir and cook until slightly softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Add a nice splash of red wine to pan to deglaze. After deglazing pan, return all browned stew meat and ground beef to Dutch oven.

Add V-8, tomato sauce, tomato paste, sazon, and beef bouillon cube and stir well. Add 2 whole dry chipotle peppers (or to your taste) and stir gently to avoid breaking the peppers so you can remove them before serving.

Remember that as the peppers simmer and rehydrate, the smoky spicy flavor will become stronger. Also keep in mind that you can always add more chipotles to make it more spicy, but once you go overboard, too bad, so sad. I recommend tasting the chili every 15 minutes or so to see if the spice level is to your liking.

Simmer the chili gently for several hours and let the liquid reduce. Add Bush's chili starter or chili beans plus cumin and regular chili powder to taste and continue simmering until chili is as thick as you like. Fish out the chipotle peppers.

This is nice served with all the fixings, Fritos, grated cheddar cheese, chopped red onion, sour cream, chopped cilantro, maybe a side of cornbread.

Planning Our Spring 2010 Garden

2010-01-25T02:38:00.002-06:00

We have just a tiny veggie garden space in a nice, sunny corner of the back yard. It's time to start planning what we'll grow this year. We've decided to plant only one tomato plant and only one or two chile pepper plants and plant lots of herbs.

The Love Of My Life has already said I'm not allowed to plant sunflowers in our little veggie garden space this year :) I know they're not really food plants for us, but they're like crack for the bees. And yes, they do reach 5, 6, 7 feet in height and start falling over and shading out everything else in the garden, but hey, they attract bees and birds, right? Okay, so I guess I'll plant some sunflowers in our front flowerbed instead.

If we plant tomatoes and/or chile peppers we'll have to devise some sort of protective cage around the plants to keep out the birds, squirrels, or whatever vermin stole all the fruits of our labor last year. It was like we were operating an all-you-can-eat buffet for all the wildlife in the area, and they were inviting all their friends! If I'm going to go to the expense and trouble to buy the plants, fertilize the plants, and water the plants, I want to harvest some of the peppers and tomatoes too!!! Seems pretty fair to me :)

We've had wonderful success with parsley, basil, cilantro, and oregano. We had such good results with parsley, basil, and cilantro growing from seed last year that I think we'll sow seed for those three this year and not bother with buying plants. I'd love to get some really strong rosemary plants going. I need to find some of the hardy ones that can make it through the couple of days or couple of weeks of cold we get here in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Shouldn't be too tough.

We're in Zone 8, so if anyone has any recommendations of easy-to-grow veggies or herbs, let me know. I love this time of year. It's warm enough that I can feel the promise of spring coming soon ... but not so warm that I have to move my sorry, lazy self from the couch and actually go outside to tidy up the patio and the yard and prep the garden. Life is good ... sigh ...

The Victory Garden And Beyond ... Frugal Cooking As Patriotism ... Cool!!!

2010-01-24T00:20:00.006-06:00

I saw this cool poster on the fabulous blog, http://gardengrocerygadgetgirl.blogspot.com/

Here's a link to a Web site that describes how our government has historically encouraged us to garden and be frugal in our cooking in order to help war efforts, http://www.fruitfromwashington.com/History/harvest.htm

Homemade Fried Rice

2010-01-18T23:39:00.004-06:00

I find the fried rice from Chinese takeout/delivery restaurants inedible. Try this recipe for homemade fried rice which is very tasty, easy to prepare, and has lots of fresh, nutritious ingredients.

Homemade Fried Rice

3 tablespoons canola or peanut oil
10 medium to large shrimp, peeled, deveined, and cut into small pieces
4 ounces ham, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup frozen peas, thawed
1-3 tablespoons soy sauce
3 large eggs, beaten
4 green onions, thinly sliced
pinch of salt
a few grinds of black pepper
2 cups cold leftover cooked white rice
1 tablespoon rice wine or dry sherry

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the shrimp, ham, and peas and cook for 1 minute. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons of the soy sauce and transfer to a plate or bowl to keep warm.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in the frying pan. Add the eggs, green onions, salt and pepper. Scramble the eggs in the frying pan. Once the egg mixture starts to cook, add the rice, shrimp mixture, and sherry or rice wine. Adjust the seasoning with additional soy sauce and salt and pepper to taste.

Tip: Use cold leftover rice. Freshly cooked rice will just make a sticky mess.

Adapted from a recipe in "The Take-Out Menu Cookbook" by Carla Snyder and Meredith Deeds. I highly recommend this cookbook for all home cooks who wish to replicate ethnic restaurant food at home.

Be Creative, Improvise, And Be Frugal

2010-01-10T23:25:00.007-06:00

I get so tired of hearing the cliche, "these tough economic times," but you know what, this economy is making almost all of us tighten our budgets and be cost-conscious. Be creative in your cooking, improvise, and let frugality work to your advantage.

My stepdaughters were here this weekend. They're pretty picky, but both love lasagna. We always put lots of shredded or chopped veggies into the sauce to sneak some nutrients into their diet, and we did that this time. We had leftover meatloaf that we made earlier in the week, using lots of shredded veggies and oatmeal pulverized in the food processor. TLOML chopped up the leftover meatloaf and added it to the lasagna sauce instead of plain old ground beef ... genius! The sauce was so healthy and nutrient-rich, but it tasted so good you'd never know it was good for you.

Normally we mix ricotta, shredded parmesan, and egg for the ricotta layer in the lasagna. When we started mixing up the ricotta layer we found that the tub of ricotta in the fridge was only half full and we only had about half a cup of ricotta, so we added some leftover cream cheese and sour cream, mixed in the shredded parmesan and an egg, and voila, an improvised ricotta layer that turned out to be pretty darn good.

Be frugal, be creative, use what you have on hand ... it's fun and yields surprisingly tasty results.

A Very Merry WHITE Christmas

2009-12-25T23:37:00.017-06:00

Okay, so I'm 45 years old and I've lived in the DFW Metroplex or not too far from it my entire life. Around here we're more likely to have shorts-and-short-sleeve weather at Christmas time than cold weather. Well, this year I experienced my first ever white Christmas!!! It started snowing here on Christmas Eve afternoon and the weather was cold enough that the snow was still on the ground on Christmas Day. It was such a beautiful experience, and since I'm statistically probably halfway through my life it's not really likely that I'll experience another White Christmas, so I cherish this amazing holiday.

Due to the weather we were "snowbound" for the night at the home of my beloved Mami-y-Papi-in-law after our Christmas Eve celebration, so I had another fun experience for the first time of waking up with my "extended family" and enjoying Christmas morning with all of TLOML's family, my stepdaughters, and my son. I'll treasure this day for the rest of my life.

So now on to the food. For Christmas Eve with my second family and for Christmas Day with my first family we prepared Roasted Rosemary Walnuts, courtesy of a recipe from http://www.chowhound.com/, www.chow.com/recipes/14260?tag=nl.e351:

Roasted Rosemary Walnuts Recipe
TIME/SERVINGS
Total: 25 mins
Active: 5 mins
Makes: 8 to 10 servings (5 cups)

Roasted Rosemary Walnuts
By Amy Wisniewski

Nuts and booze are a tried-and-true combination for any happy hour or cocktail party. Here the addition of rosemary and black pepper classes up the combo without getting too fussy.

Game plan: These nuts will last up to 10 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

This recipe was featured as part of both our Academy Awards Cocktail Party menu and our Bar Snacks photo gallery.

INGREDIENTS
5 cups walnuts
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup fresh rosemary, coarsely chopped
4 teaspoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

INSTRUCTIONS
Heat the oven to 350°F and arrange a rack in the middle.
Place nuts on a baking sheet. Add remaining ingredients and mix with your hands to evenly coat.
Bake until nuts are browned and toasted, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheet, transfer to a bowl, and serve.

These incredible tidbits and also the following wonderful Kahlua Spiked Pecans (recipe from www.desertculinary.blogspot.com/) http://desertculinary.blogspot.com/2005/05/kahlua-spiked-pecans.html were big hits.

I think the rosemary walnuts were slightly too oily and I'll decrease the amount of olive oil next time I make them. However, both of these treats were like holiday crack to me and I think to both of our families, absolutely fabulous recipes.

Kahlua Spiked Pecans (Adapted from Stop and Smell the Rosemary)

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 large egg white
3 tablespoons Kahlua
4 cups pecan halves

Preheat oven to 325

In a small bowl, whisk together sugar, cinnamon and salt.

In a large bowl, whisk together egg white and Kahlua. Add pecans and stir well to combine.

Sprinkle half the sugar mixture on top - mix well. Pour the rest of the sugar on top and stir until completely combined. Scoop the mixture onto a large baking sheet lined with foil and coated with nonstick spray. Spread the pecans to an even single layer.

Bake until pecans are lightly toasted and browned, stirring every 10 minutes - about 20 to 25 minutes total. Remove from the oven and scoop the hot pecans onto wax or parchment paper to cool completely.

Note: I used half white sugar and half brown sugar because I had a dab of brown sugar that needed to be used up and it worked perfectly.

We prepared the black bean dip we've made before, recipe courtesy of Erica at http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/, http://www.mycolombianrecipes.com/2009/06/black-bean-dip-dip-de-frijoles-negros.html . Everyone loves this stuff!

Black Bean Dip (Dip De Frijoles Negros)

Although it doesn’t look very pretty, this creamy black bean dip tastes absolutely delicious and is very easy to make. You can serve it with tortilla chips or Patacones.

Ingredients(About 2 cups)
1 (14 oz) can black beans, rinsed and drained
¼ teaspoon salt
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro, plus extra for garnish
2 tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon minced canned chipotle chile in adobo
½ tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Directions
1. Place all the ingredients in food processor until the dip is smooth and creamy, scraping the down the bowl as needed.
2. Transfer the dip to a serving bowl, sprinkle with fresh cilantro and serve with tortilla chips.

This dip is so, so good, and so healthy! As Erica says, it's not so pretty, but damn, it's tasty! I made it again with dried beans that I soaked and cooked, just because that's very inexpensive and we really enjoy preparing food from scratch as much as possible.

We also made a wonderful white bean-roasted red pepper dip, recipe also courtesy of www.mycolombiankitchen.com/

White Bean -Roasted Pepper Dip

I love beans! In Colombia we may eat beans two or three times a day. I never get tired of eating beans so I have a long list of bean recipes. This one is a delicious white bean –roasted pepper dip. It is great as a light and healthy snack with pita chips, as an appetizer for your next party or for that unannounced visit, as it is quick and simple to prepare!

Ingredients
1 can (15 oz) cannellini beans
1 roasted red bell pepper
3 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
¼ cup olive oil
Salt and black pepper
2 tablespoons chopped onion
Chives for garnish

Directions
1. Place all the ingredients in the food processor and mix until well combined and smooth.
2. Transfer the dip to a serving dish and top with the fresh chives. Serve with pita chips on the side

I used a can of rosada beans for this dip because I had one on hand, and it was really good.

We made the Cook's Illustrated hummus recipe again, with a few modifications, http://kearbyskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/10/homemade-hummus.html This time we made a double recipe and used a little more garlic, a little more olive oil, a little less sesame tahini, and 2 cubes of Knorr chicken bouillon. It turned out really good.

Also made the stuffed mushrooms that I've been making for 25 years that everyone seems to like. Recipe to be posted later.

And in other important Christmas Eve news, SMU defeated Nevada 45-10 in the Hawaii Bowl!

Christmas Lunch

2009-12-16T22:04:00.008-06:00

The court reporting firms I contract with had their annual holiday lunch on Monday. It was so great to see everyone, our office manager, the other court reporters, our videographer, and the owner of the Spanish translation service we use. Following are the recipes I prepared for the lunch:

STEAMED BRUSSELS SPROUTS WITH SUNDRIED TOMATO AIOLI

Brussels Sprouts

1 1/2 lb. Brussels sprouts, rinsed and bottoms trimmed off
1/4 lb. thin-sliced pancetta, finely diced (can substitute bacon)
½ cup finely diced shallots

Fill a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes and set aside. Using a steamer basket placed inside a medium saucepan with a lid or an Asian-style bamboo steamer, steam Brussels sprouts for approximately 10 minutes. They should still be a pretty green color and should still have slight resistance to a fork pressed into the base or into the middle of the sprouts. Remove from steamer and drop into the ice water to stop the cooking and maintain the pretty green color. Drain sprouts and place in serving bowl.

In a skillet over low to medium low heat, slowly cook pancetta. Cook until it renders its fat and becomes slightly crispy. Increase heat to medium low to medium and add shallots. Cook slowly until shallots are tender. Pour pancetta-shallot mixture over Brussels sprouts and mix well. Serve with sundried tomato aioli.

Sundried Tomato Aioli

¼ cup oil-packed sundried tomatoes, drained
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoon garlic, minced
1 ½ teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice
¾ cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Finely chop sundried tomatoes in food processor. Add egg yolk, garlic, mustard, and lemon juice and blend well. With machine running, gradually add oil through feed tube in slow, steady stream. Blend until smooth and thick. Season with salt and pepper. Blend for a few more seconds.

Notes:

I also added a little squeeze of anchovy paste to this recipe, about 1 teaspoon. It adds more flavor depth. If you have anchovy paste handy and like it, give it a try. If not, no problem.

Next time I make this aioli I’ll use only half the amount of sundried tomatoes so that the aioli will be a bit more subtle.

SIMPLE GARLIC SHRIMP

1 lb. medium (about 25 per pound) shrimp, rinsed, shells removed except for tail section, and de-veined
1 head of garlic
Zest of 1 lemon
6 tablespoons butter
3-4 tablespoons olive oil
Italian seasoning
Salt (if needed)

Separate the head of garlic into individual cloves. Remove root end and skin from garlic cloves. Divide the garlic cloves in half. Slice half of the garlic cloves very thin. Finely dice the remaining half of the garlic cloves.

Melt the butter in a large skillet over low to medium low heat. Add the olive oil. Add the sliced garlic and cook very slowly until browned. You want the garlic to give a nice toasty garlic flavor to the oil without burning. When browned, remove garlic slices. Add lemon zest.

Keep temperature at low to medium low. Add the diced garlic and slowly cook until garlic is soft. You don’t want to brown this garlic. Sprinkle the butter/olive oil/garlic combination liberally with your favorite Italian seasoning, 1-2 teaspoons.

Add the shrimp to the skillet in a single layer and keep the heat low. Shrimp cook very fast and you want to give them a chance to absorb all the great garlic flavor, so cook them very low and slow. After a few minutes, flip the shrimp over and continue to cook them in a single layer. When all shrimp have turned pink and curled up a bit they’re done. Taste a shrimp and the buttery sauce for seasoning. If needed, add a sprinkle of salt.

Mexican Market Fruit Salad

2009-12-08T00:42:00.003-06:00

I’ve always loved foods that feature combinations of the basic tastes: sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami. For instance, a sprinkling of salt is a great enhancement to the sweetness of cantaloupe. Years ago I was introduced to jicama by my now ex-father-in-law. He had discovered jicama and served it to the family with lime juice and chile powder, which to my understanding is a common Mexican snack. I think it’s a great flavor combination.

If you shop at the larger of our fabulous local Mexican supermarkets in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, you’ll find taqueria counters; islands serving aguas frescas (fresh waters), the wonderfully refreshing Mexican fresh fruit drinks; sometimes crema bars featuring cremas (similar to sour cream) from all regions of Latin America; and refrigerated cases featuring an assortment of fresh fruits and/or vegetables in single-serving sizes with chile powder and lime halves to squeeze over them.

The combination of fruits, cucumber, chile, and lime that you can find in the Mexican market is one of my favorite snacks. Those snacks were the inspiration for this tasty salad. I hope you enjoy this lively combination of flavors as much as I do:

MEXICAN MARKET FRUIT SALAD

1 small to medium cantaloupe, cut into balls with a melon baller*
1 small pineapple, peeled, cored, and diced
2 medium to large cucumbers, peeled, cut in half long ways, seeds scooped out, and sliced
1 large or 2 medium jicama, peeled and cut into matchsticks
1 small red onion, finely diced
1 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
Zest and juice of 2 limes
Chipotle chile powder to taste (careful, it’s yummy but spicy)
A couple teaspoons pomegranate vinegar to taste (can substitute apple cider vinegar)
A couple teaspoons agave nectar to taste (can substitute honey)
Salt to taste

Mix all ingredients, refrigerate, and allow flavors to mix for a couple of hours before serving

* Honeydew melon would probably be really good in this salad as well. I don’t include it because I don’t really care for it, but if you like it feel free to add some.

Guilty Pleasure ... Soaps!

2009-12-06T02:57:00.004-06:00

In the category of things that make life splendid, I love, love, love All My Children and General Hospital. I've followed both shows since I was a pre-teen.

The Love Of My Life and I have a happy, peaceful life together. I much prefer soap opera angst to real life angst.

Any other GH fans out there finding the new James Franco character very intriguing in a dark and mysterious way?

Braised Beef Shank

2009-12-05T18:53:00.007-06:00

1.5 to 2 lbs. bone-in beef shanks (also called bone-in beef hindshank)
2 large shallots, sliced
2 heads of garlic, cut in half horizontally and kept intact
2 cups thick-sliced mushrooms
1 teaspoon dry or 2 sprigs fresh thyme
2 teaspoons dry basil
1 bay leaf
3 cups vegetable stock
3 cubes beef bouillon
Salt
Pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
2/3 cup Port wine or Marsala

Heat veggie stock to near boiling in microwave or on stove top, add bouillon cubes, and stir until dissolved. Season all sides of beef shanks with lots of freshly ground black pepper and a light sprinkling of salt. Heat Dutch oven over medium-high until hot, add olive oil and heat for about 30 seconds. Add beef shanks and cook 2 to 4 minutes on each side until well-browned and crusty. Add the thyme, basil, and bay leaf. Sprinkle the shallots evenly around the pan. Add 1/3 cup of the Port or Marsala and gently shake pan. Carefully add the garlic halves and press down a bit so they stay intact. Pour veggie-beef bouillon stock over all. Cover pan, reduce to low or medium-low and simmer for 2 hours.

After 2 hours add mushrooms, then cook for 1 more hour, until meat is falling apart tender.

Check seasoning and add salt and pepper if needed. Add remaining 1/3 cup Port or Marsala and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes to reduce liquid slightly. Serve and enjoy!

Don’t forget to put the veggie trimmings in your zip-top freezer bag to make veggie stock!

If you don't make homemade veggie stock from your veggie scraps, well, first of all, you're missing out. But seriously, if you don't have homemade veggie stock, you can use any combination of water/broth/stock with bouillon cubes that you like to make 3 cups of flavorful broth for this recipe.

Note: If you're like me (and of course I'm sure you're not, gentle reader) and you fell asleep while you were simmering your homemade turkey broth on the first try and you permanently burned the broth into the bottom of your favorite Dutch oven, you can use your favorite stockpot for this recipe, just be careful to keep the temperature plenty low so as to avoid scorching.