Cookin' with the Kaptain

Fried Green Tomatoes & Drunken Spicy Shameless Shrimp (Dinosaur Bar-B-Que)

2011-10-10T16:42:00.012-04:00

Fried Green Tomatoes

Drunken Spicy Shameless Shrimp

So I woke up on Sunday morning after a night of cooking for the Schwartz family (next blog post) and decided to make some appeteasers for the football games. And what better than something from my Dinosaur Bar-B-Que cookbook.

I decided to make 2 of my favorite dishes from there, Fried Green Tomatoes with Cayenne Buttermilk Ranch Dressing and Drunken Spicy Shameless Shrimp with Brazen Cocktail Sauce. Both dishes are made with a Creole seasoning, which adds so much flavor to the meal and I now have a huge container of the seasoning that I can use for future meals. The Fried Green Tomatoes were really easy to make, but green tomatoes are really hard to find, especially in New York City. The tomatoes are sliced, sprinkled with creole seasoning, dipped in an egg mixture and then in a panko bread crumb mixture (panko crumbs, salt, cayenne pepper, black pepper) and then fried in a pan. The fried green tomatoes are then topped with Pecorino Romano cheese and served with Cayenne Buttermilk Ranch Dressing (mayo, buttermilk, red wine vinegar, minced garlic, chopped chives, lemon pepper, kosher salt, black pepper, and of course creole seasoning).

My plate of Fried Green Tomatoes & Shrimp :)

It was good...trust me!

The Drunken Spicy Shameless Shrimp were boiled in Budweiser, Cider Vinegar, Water, and (Old Bay Seasoning - thanks Susan Wanzer!). After they were cooked, the shrimp were tossed with minced garlic and creole seasoning. The sauce you see on the side (in the blue bowl and on the plate) is a combination of horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, lime juice, lemon juice, tabasco sauce, and Mutha Sauce. Mutha Sauce, I made from scratch by combining a ton of spices and ingredients. I have about 2-3 cups left over of the sauce and goes great with lots of food. To make it, I cooked chopped onions, green bell peppers, garlic, and a jalapeno. I then added the following (kosher salt, black pepper, tomato sauce, ketchup, water, Worcestershire sauce, cider vinegar, lemon juice, molasses, cayenne pepper sauce, dark brown sugar, chili powder, and all spice). After boiling and then letting it simmer, I added the final touch, LIQUID SMOKE - such a cool name. The shrimp and sauce were my favorite and I put the Mutha sauce on the fried green tomatoes too with the ranch dressing.

The final test was having my friend Kristin from The BIG EASY, New Oreleans do a taste test. And well....

Great SUCCESS!! Keep in mind, she was coming back from the Saints bar and they had just won, but still, I think my food did the trick.

If you like what you see, don't forget to follow my blog (over on the right side of this page) or Like my Facebook Fan Page (above this post).

CHEERS!

Mole-Rubbed Chicken with Mango-Avocado Salsa and Lime Cilantro Rice

2011-09-28T21:03:00.002-04:00

The first winner of the "Follow My Blog" and "Win a Dinner cooked by the Kaptain" was Alex Lindh. As the winner, Alex was served the above dish, a Mole-Rubbed Chicken with Mango-Avocado Salsa and Lime Cilantro Rice. If you are unfamiliar with mole-rub it is derived from the Aztec word for sauce and is the national dish of Mexico, as important as the Thanksgiving turkey is to Americans, but served more frequently. Unlike the American characterization of mole as a "chocolate sauce," the chocolate is almost incidental. Mole is essentially a red chile sauce with tomatillos that is thickened and enriched with nuts and seeds and augmented by various spices.

I made my mole rub with light brown sugar, chili powder, unsweetened cocoa, ground cumin, salt & pepper. As Alex calls it, the "cocoa mole chicken" smelled a little funky while cooking it but it tasted awesome. The avocado-mango salsa was my favorite part (and I'm not a huge mango fan with my meal). The salsa is made with lime zest, lime juice, honey, avocado cubes, mango cubes, quartered grape tomatoes, chopped red onion, cilantro, and salt. According to Alex, the salsa was "delectable" and he would recommend a nice dry white wine to accompany this flavor packed dish. On the side I made a lime cilantro rice (similar to one of my previous meals), which is long grain white rice, chicken bouillon, lime juice, cilantro and salt.

Overall, Alex's final words were, "This meal will leave your palate pleased. Delish or Leelish!?"

Who's next? Follow my blog or like my facebook page to be the next one in line for a Kaptainkosh meal!

I've had some request for recipes. If you'd like one, please just email me at Lee.Karchawer@gmail.com. I get most of my recipes from a few different sites online and sometimes combine different ideas I find.

Spicy Soba Noodles with Chicken in Peanut Sauce

2011-09-20T15:17:00.001-04:00

Monday Night Football was started off with some Spicy Soba Noodles with Chicken in Peanut Sauce. It tasted really good and was surprisingly easy to make. Soba noodles are buckwheat noodles and are a bit darker in color. To make this dish, I boiled chicken pieces in chicken broth (low sodium, fat free) and let it simmer for about 4 minutes and then another 20 minutes removed from heat. The spicy peanut sauce is a combination of chicken broth, peanut butter, ginger, soy sauce, honey, crushed red pepper, and garlic. I added some veggies to the meal also (carrots, broccoli, red peppers, and scallions).

For those who don't know, Soba is traditionally eaten on New Years Eve in most areas of Japan, a tradition that is still practiced today called Toshikoshi soba.

Another pic of the meal:

You can add dry-roasted peanuts to this meal too!

Pané Chicken with Sweet 'n' Spicy Red Pepper Sauce (Stuffed Mushroom Appeteaser)

2011-09-17T12:10:00.001-04:00

Blast on a plate (bad Jersey Shore reference...). This meal was really good! For those who don't know, Pané is a terminology given to meals that are dipped into a mixture of egg (diluted with milk and/or water) and then dipped into crushed up french toast, rusks or breadcrumbs to coat. The chicken I made was coated in egg (a little bit of water) and then dredged in a mix of breadcrumbs, garlic powder, oregano and seasoned salt. I had never seen seasoned salt before but it was strangely colored red. The chicken was then chilled for 15 minutes before cooking it in a pan with veg. oil.

The next part of the meal is the sauce, which really added flavor to the meal. The sauce is a Sweet 'n' Spicy Red Pepper sauce made with diced roasted red bell peppers, sugar, white vinegar, ketchup, crushed red pepper, garlic powder and paprika. The combination is boiled and then cooked on med-low heat for about 20/25 minutes. I made this meal with just simple white rice which was good with the sauce.

The side dish or as I like to call appeteaser, were one of my favorites, Stuffed Mushrooms. I made them a little differently this time than the previous "Garlic-Stuffed Mushrooms." To make this, I melted butter in a pan over the stove and then added finely chopped onions and green peppers as well as minced garlic. After that, I added cottage cheese and Worcestershire (pronounce that one if you'd like) sauce and let the cheese mix melt. Then I added Italian breadcrumbs and put the mixture into the mushroom caps. Once stuffed, I sprinkled paprika on each mushroom and baked them for 20 minutes. Once baked, each mushroom was topped with a little Parmesan cheese. Picture below is before they were baked:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-09-08T16:37:00.001-04:00

Raise your hand if you don't like chocolate chip cookies...that's what I thought...you didn't raise your hand, did ya! Well, these cookies were made with flour, baking soda, butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract, instant vanilla pudding mix and chocolate chips. The pudding mix makes them very soft and fluffy. I'm really excited about football starting tonight and you will soon see a number of meals, appetizers, and snacks for the weekly occasion. Back to the cookies, to be honest, these were not my favorite cookies but they were definitely hard to stop eating! Another picture below:

Cookin' with the Kaptain in the 80's:

Spicy Asian Noodles with Chicken and Snow Pea Saute

2011-09-07T11:57:00.000-04:00

My kind of meal...VERY easy to make. The noodles are rice sticks or rice flour noodles. The chicken is made with minced garlic, grated fresh ginger, scallions, cilantro, soy sauce (low sodium), rice vinegar, hoisin sauce and sambal oelek (chile paste). The chile paste is one of my favorites and used in one of my previous dishes - it's fairly spicy. I made this dish with sauteed snow peas which were made with low sodium soy sauce and garlic. The total cook time was about 25-30 minutes. If you like spicy asian food, you've come to the right place - hit me up for the recipe - Enjoy! -KK

Searching for Onion Goggles to Stop the Tears

2011-09-06T17:19:00.000-04:00

So yesterday, I went on a hunt to look for Onion Goggles. I wouldn't say I left my house with the goal of bringing back onion goggles but I was on my way back from lunch with my friend Steve Ryan and figured I'd stop into Kmart and see if they had them. I ventured up to the kitchen section and found a Kmart employee and asked her if Kmart carried onion goggles. She looked at me like I was crazy and then asked me for what? I told her that I recently started cooking and my eyes tear like crazy when I cut onions. She responded, "No, and that I should close my eyes." Hmm...cutting onions with my eyes closed? Don't think so.

At that point, an elderly coupled, standing next to the employee and listening to our conversation, turned to my friend Steve, who was standing to my left and said to me, why don't you just have him cut the onions for you as if to suggest we were gay partners and why wouldn't my generous boyfriend cut my onions for me... I was truly puzzled at this point, thinking that she believed that Steve and I were partners and he would be there in the kitchen with me to cut my onions. Plus, at this point, the Kmart employee is looking at me and I can tell she is thinking, "what a cry baby."

As the elderly couple was walking away, the woman told me to try putting the end of matchstick in my mouth while I cut onions. I did some research on this and I'm definitely going to try it. Apparently the sulphur in the matches neutralizes the onions. Here is a link to a blog: http://www.dustyandamy.com/2011/08/matchstick-miracle.html , where someone talks about the "Matchstick Miracle". I also read that you can try breathing through your mouth instead of your nose. Fun times.

Garlic-Stuffed Mushrooms

2011-09-02T16:14:00.000-04:00

Stuffed mushrooms are one of my favorites. I made this as an appetizer to the previous post of the Chicken in Mascarpone Mustard sauce. The mushrooms are stuffed with garlic, whipping cream, salt & pepper, and panko (japanese style bread crumbs). There are about 35-40 calories in each stuffed mushroom.

Enjoy!

Chicken in Mascarpone Mustard Sauce with String Beans and Fettuccine

2011-09-01T10:56:00.000-04:00

This meal took a long time to make but it was totally worth it! The chicken was marinated for 2 hours in the following mixture (Dijon Mustard, Sliced Shallots, Thyme, Black Pepper, Crushed Garlic Cloves and Bay Leaves). The chicken is covered with a Mascarpone Mustard Sauce, which is made with prosciutto, garlic, shallots, white wine vinegar, left over marinade, chicken broth, thyme, tomato paste, red pepper and mascarpone cheese. On the side, I made steamed string beans with parsley, salt and pepper as well as fettuccine combined with Asiago cheese. It took me a while to peel the shallots and I also didn't know if I'd like to eat them in full form like that, however, they turned out to be really good! Let me know if you would like the recipe!

Mascarpone cheese is the main ingredient of what popular modern dessert?

Cilantro-Lime Chicken with Avocado Salsa and Yellow Rice

2011-08-23T11:16:00.000-04:00

This is actually my second time making this meal - I wanted to make it again since it was SOO GOOD the first time. This is really easy to make - takes about 25 minutes or less. The chicken is marinated in lime juice, cilantro and olive oil and sprinkled with salt before cooking. The salsa is a combination of avocado, tomato, onions, lime juice, salt and black pepper. I make this with a side of yellow rice. Perfect summer dish! Enjoy!

Strip Steak with Ginger Butter Sauce and String Beans

2011-08-18T08:04:00.000-04:00

Thanks to an awesome gift from Nancy Wanzer, I used my new Recipe Book to make the above meal. The strip steak was seasoned with Chinese five-spice powder and black pepper and tasted really good. The ginger butter sauce was made with melted butter, grated fresh ginger and a little soy sauce. I added string beans on the side as well. I recommend boiling the ginger butter sauce for a minute or two and then letting it simmer until it thickens a bit. All in all, I'd give this meal a 6 out of 10. I'm not a huge steak fan but wanted to try it, plus as you've seen from my meals below, I'm down with the spices and this meal was a bit simpler...ENJOY!

This is the recipe book for anyone who's interested - seriously some of the best meals are in this book!

Spicy Tortilla Soup

2011-08-14T12:09:00.000-04:00

This soup was not short on ingredients...Everything you can imagine is in there. Chicken, corn tortilla strips, diced tomatoes, chopped red onions, jalapenos, corn, avocado, crumbled feta cheese, and cilantro. I forgot to add the lime juice, which was a mistake and I would have also enjoyed some rice in there so maybe next time...It wasn't as spicy as I would have liked it to be either. Also, I'm looking for onion goggles...I never realized how insane this cutting onions business is...

If anyone wants to send me a gift, lol....

Lemon-Lime Butter Flounder with Garlicky Roasted Potatoes and Steamed Broccoli

2011-08-11T09:42:00.000-04:00

My first official food critic, Deena Shanker, shared this meal with me, which was Flounder with lemon-lime butter with a side of potatoes and broccoli. When asked about the fish, Deena said, "The fish was cooked perfectly, but next time I'd bake it with the lemon and lime on top for a little extra zest." The flounder was marinaded with melted butter combined with lemon and lime zest and salt & pepper, which I zested myself (quite the experience). The flounder was topped with bread crumbs and thyme. Deena really enjoyed the potatoes, "The potatoes were perfect." I happened to find them a bit too crispy for my liking. The potatoes were made with garlic, lemon rind and parsley. I was a little lazy with the broccoli, buying the steamed broccoli in a bag and it showed...lol. "The broccoli was good, but could have been spiced a little," said Deena. Overall, I think I did a fairly good job with this one, although I do feel a little bad about eating something related to this little guy:

Adobo Chicken with Spanish Rice

2011-08-09T08:37:00.000-04:00

If you turn your head slightly to the left you can see the little character I made out of the food on the plate. It appears as if (s)he's trying to run off of the plate, however, I was too hungry last night to let that happen! Plus the meal was really good. The chicken was marinaded in a homemade adobo sauce which included onions, garlic, chipotle chiles, jalapeno peppers, and black pepper cooked and then boiled in chicken broth. After boiling, I pureed the mixture in a blender and marinaded the chicken. The rice is low in fat, only 188 calories and has onions, green bell peppers, dijon mustard, chopped tomatoes, tomato juice and black pepper. And lastly, I decorated the plate with avocado slices which went perfectly with the meal. If you like spicy dishes, this is the meal for you! Enjoy!

Fresh Mozzarella & Basil Pizza w/Fresh Mozzarella/Basil/Tomato Salad

2011-08-05T11:09:00.000-04:00

Really easy to make but tasted awesome...The pizza has Rao's Tomato & Basil Sauce (my favorite) with thinly sliced tomatoes, green peppers, fresh mozzarella, fresh basil and sprinkled with black pepper. The side salad is a fresh mozzarella base with fresh basil and tomato on top and drizzled with balsamic vinegar....

This is the tomato sauce I always use...it's so good!

Spicy Shrimp Noodle Bowl

2011-08-04T13:09:00.000-04:00

I made this very late last night. It was probably one of my quickest meals to date as well. Its an Asian-style noodle (teriyaki-flavored) in a teriyaki-chicken broth with Shrimp, NAPA cabbage, snow peas, carrots, scallions, and topped with cilantro. The spicy flavor comes from a spicy Szechuan sauce that i added. Sorry you can't see the carrots - but they're in there! Oh yea, Happy Birthday to me!

Here is the spicy Szechuan sauce I used:

Spicy Pork Parmesan Cutlets and Angel Hair Pasta with Broccoli & Veggies

2011-08-03T11:14:00.000-04:00

If you want to shake and bake in the kitchen, this is your meal...Pork Chops are topped with onions, garlic, pasta sauce, and red pepper (for that spicy kick) and Parmesan cheese. On the side, angel hair pasta with broccoli, zucchini, carrots, cherry tomatoes and Pecorino Romano cheese. Not too spicy for those who don't like spicy foods. Highly recommended by yours truly.

Sriracha-Glazed Chicken and Onions/Snow Peas/Broccoli over Rice

2011-08-02T09:49:00.000-04:00

This was absolutely one of my favorite meals! If you haven't cooked with Sriracha sauce (hot chile sauce), I highly recommend you start today. Very easy meal to make - Chicken, Broccoli, Snow Peas and Onions cooked in a Sriracha sauce over white rice. Perfect amount of flavor kicks with a mix of Sriracha, Ketchup, Hoisin sauce, garlic, ginger and curry powder.

This is the Sriracha sauce I used, which you can get at most large grocery stores or an Asian Grocery market:

Greek-Style Burgers with Feta Aioli

2011-08-01T16:43:00.000-04:00

I made these over the weekend and I have to say they weren't my favorite. The burger is stuffed with roasted bell peppers (you can add spinach as well), breadcrumbs, parsley, oregano, lightly beaten egg, garlic, salt and pepper. The burgers are topped with lettuce, tomato, onions, and feta aioli. The feta aioli is made with feta cheese, light mayo, fat free yogurt, black pepper and garlic. Not my favorite option if you decide to grill burgers... Check out this cool indoor BBQ grill too!

Grilled Pepper Poppers

2011-07-29T21:06:00.000-04:00

If you ever have a chance to grill, these are absolutely awesome! Filled with 3 cheeses (parmesan, fat free cream cheese and goat cheese) these jalapeno peppers will have you poppin! Stuffed also with sage, scallions, chopped tomato and topped with fresh cilantro - perfect, easy appetizer to make on the grill!!! Each pepper popper is only 40 calories.

JAMBALAYA with Chicken & Turkey Sausage

2011-07-29T19:18:00.000-04:00

Creole dish that's fun to scream! This Jambalaya dish includes a mix of chicken, turkey sausage, onions, green bell pepper, celery, diced tomatoes and topped with scallions. Only about 325 calories per serving.

Spicy Malaysian Stir Fried Noodles with Chicken

2011-07-29T19:08:00.000-04:00

Known in Southeast Asia as Mee Goreng kicked up a notch with some sweet bean sauce and chile paste with garlic. Throw in some baby bok choy and your choice of chicken or tofu and you have yourself a spicy meal! This is the chile paste I used:

Moroccan Chicken Cutlets with Wheat Couscous

2011-07-29T19:00:00.000-04:00

A combination of chicken chick peas, zucchini, and carrots with a side of wheat couscous. The vegetables are made as a stew in a chicken broth served over the chicken cutlets.