Cooking with SAHD

Carnitas Tacos

2015-05-04T13:07:00.002-07:00

In honor of Cinco de Mayo tomorrow - I'll share these dynamite carnitas tacos. The pork is equally juicy and crispy and has a subtile "can't quite put your finger on it" note from the braising ingredients.

This recipe foregoes the traditional method of making carnitas, which is basically confit (to cook in a vat of pork fat) and instead braises low with just a 1/4 cup of lard to lubricate the meat and keep it moist.

I also cut a corner and rendered some of the pork shoulder's own fat to get the lard I needed for the recipe. You can use your own homemade lard of course, but I'd steer away from store bought lard as it has a lot of nasty extras added to it for shelf stability.

Carnitas Tacos

(adapted from serious eats here)

For the Carnitas:

3-ish pounds boneless pork butt (shoulder), cut into 2-inch cubes

1 red onion, quartered

1 medium orange, quartered

4 cloves garlic, smashed

2 bay leaves

1/2 cinnamon stick (about 1 inch)

Kosher salt and pepper

1/2 cup homemade lard (can sub any neutral oil, canola, vegetable, etc. but lard is the difference maker here) DIVIDED

Quick Onion Relish:

1 small white onion, diced

1 serrano chile, diced

1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped

1 lime, juice of

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

To serve:

Quick onion relish

1-2 avocados, sliced

1 bunch of radishes, sliced

2-3 limes, cut into wedges

1 cup crumbled queso fresco

12-24 corn tortillas (depending on if you like to double up the tortillas per taco or not)

Begin by trimming up your pork shoulder. This is much easier if it is slightly frozen, by the way.

I got most of the thick layer of fat from one side of it to use for my lard.

Save the fat for later.

Cut the pork into 2 inch chunks.

They don't have to be perfect.

If your shoulder came "bone-in" then the scapula will be in there. It's really tough to get all the meat trimmed off of it at this stage, so just do the best you can.

All the meat will come right off it after it's been cooked.

Toss the meat and shoulder blade into a large baking dish. I used a 9x13".

Season liberally with salt and pepper. Don't skimp here. Cover it.

Quarter the red onion

Orange

Nestle the orange and onion into the dish. Try to keep the onion quarters together as we'll be removing them after the braise.

Add the 4 cloves of smashed garlic, 2 bay leaves and 1/2 cinnamon stick.

I actually started my lard at this point, but you can do it first. I just like letting the pork get a dry brine from the salt for the 20 minutes or so it takes to render the lard.

For the lard:

Gather your fat trimmings.

Mince the fat as best you can.

Toss into a COLD cast iron pan or another non-stick pan that heats evenly.

Add a splash of water, maybe a tablespoon. This helps distribute the heat in the beginning of the cooking process.

Put over medium heat and give it a stir.

This takes as long as pan frying bacon, so 10-20 minutes depending on how hot you're cooking it at. You want to be gentle on the heat so it'll hopefully take more like 20 minutes to fully render.

When the cracklins are golden brown, drain and reserve the lard.

I had nearly a 1/2 cup from this small amount of pork fat!

Drain and salt your cracklins and eat them now, save for another use later or add them to the carnitas later. Your choice!

Anyway, after you have your lard rendered, you are ready for the braise.

Preheat the oven to 275F.

Drizzle 1/4 cup of your freshly rendered lard over the pork.

Cover tightly with heavy duty foil.

Cook for about 3.5 hours or until fork tender and the meat easily pulls off the shoulder blade.

Carefully remove the onions, oranges, bay leaves, garlic and cinnamon stick.

Nice clean bone:

Drain the pork to remove the excess liquid.

If you didn't get enough fat for another 1/4 cup from rendering the pork fat, you can skim the fat here and use it to add back into the pork in a second.

Discard the rest.

Lay out the pork chunks on a pan lined with foil.

(I started with parchment because I was having a brain fart. We're going to be broiling the pork next, so the parchment will likely burn. Foil is a much smarter choice for this and I realized it after taking the picture.)

Anyway, shred it.

You can add the cracklins back to the pork at this point too if you feel like it.

I also tasted for salt and re-seasoned here.

Also add the remaining 1/4 cup of lard.

Give everything a good stir. Re-check for salt. It should be just this side of too salty in my opinion.

Quick Onion Relish

You can make this relish while the pork is braising in the beginning of the day and let it sit. It's actually better by the afternoon, I've found.

Gather your white onion, serrano, lime and cilantro.

You'll need some salt and pepper to season it.

I've made this a bunch of times and I've found that the heat from a serrano is really subdued in this application. I used to seed it but I've come to use the whole thing, seeds and all. I really like the heat of a serrano and for some reason find the heat cleaner than a jalapeño.

Regardless, dice it fairly finely.

Add all of the ingredients to a container that seals well.

Give it a good shake to combine and taste for salt and pepper. It'll need 1/4 tsp to 1/2 tsp (Kosher) depending on your taste.

Shake again and toss this in the fridge until service.

==

A few minutes before dinner, you can prep your tortillas.

I've detailed this before, but you just want to lightly spray all sides of 12 tortillas with oil or cooking spray and stack them thusly on a sheet pan and bake for about 3 minutes at 350F to help get them pliable.

Stack them up.

Then cover with a clean towel to keep warm before dinner.

They'll be MUCH easier to work with this way and you avoid frying 12 tortillas before dinner, which I find intolerable.

When you're ready for dinner, fire up the broiler to high and let it get hot.

Broil for about 4 minutes or until you get some nice color on spots. Don't go much longer than 5 minutes or it may dry out on you. We want to keep it moist.

I rotate my pan every minute or so because my broiler heats really unevenly.

Gorgeous!

==

Dress your tacos any way you'd like! I like mine with some queso fresco, avocado, radish and the onion relish. Serve with some limes on the side and maybe some nice hot sauce for the chili-heads in the family.

I thought this recipe turned out great. I've made carnitas many times in the past but the seasoning from the orange, garlic, bay leaves and cinnamon really gave it a depth of flavor that I hadn't had before. Nothing is overpowering and you can't pick out "cinnamon" or "orange" as a flavor. It just blends well with the natural porkiness of the slow cooked pork and added lard to give a really pleasant tasting flavor.

Broiling the pork gives you the crispy bits that are important in traditional carnitas and allows the meat to remain moist.

Give it a try this Cinco - you'll have a hard time not eating all of it!

Enjoy!

Creamy Classic Tomato Soup

2015-03-27T12:49:00.000-07:00

I found this nice recipe for a shrimp curry soup that called for some prepared tomato soup, so I decided to make some soup before making a different soup.

I know.

Regardless, this turned out really good so I thought I'd just post it separately as to not be super confusing.

Creamy Classic Tomato Soup
(from here)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 medium onion, medium dice
Kosher salt
2 medium garlic cloves, minced or pressed
Pinch of red pepper flakes (optional)
1 (28-ounce) can tomatoes in their juices, preferably San Marzanos
1 1/2 cups chicken broth or water (as always, homemade is best)
1/3 cup heavy cream
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

==

Grab up a medium sauce pan and put it over medium heat and add the butter.

Toss in the onion and and some salt and pepper.

Coarsely chop or press 2 cloves of garlic.

Toss it in with the onions.

Cook for 7-10 minutes stirring occasionally so as not to burn them.

Once thoroughly softened, add the tomatoes.

The type (as in crushed, whole or diced) really doesn't matter as we'll be blending the soup at the end, so whatever you have on hand.

BUT, I will say, that when the tomato is the star and you can pull off canned tomatoes vs fresh tomatoes (like this soup or a tomato sauce or something) splurge the extra dollar and get San Marzanos. They really are that much better. They're sweeter, more tangy, and more complex. Trust me on this one.

Anyway, add the tomatoes to the onion/garlic.

Next, add your chicken stock.

Again, as I've discovered from my time in the kitchen, homemade chicken stock is both easy to make and yields FAR superior results vs the boxed stuff. The gelatin from the bones and the robustness of real vegetables gives everything you use it with a better body and complexity. It'll keep forever in the freezer so if you make a big batch you can portion it out and use it whenever you need it.

Sorry for the rambling.

Add 1 1/2 cups of chicken stock.

Let this come to a simmer, still over medium heat and cook for another 7-10 minutes. Longer if you have the time, say up to 30 minutes before you blend.

I started blending the soup with a stick blender but it didn't get that rich super-smooth texture I associate with tomato soup.

I switched to the blender and got MUCH better results.

Granted, it's more of a pain but it's much better.

Go ahead and add the 1/3 cup of heavy cream while the soup is blending to incorporate it. You can taste for seasoning here as well.

Definitely add some salt and pepper.

I ended up with about 5 cups of soup.

No need to re-heat it in the pan as it's pretty much ready to serve at this point.

Add some basil chiffonade and a bit of grated parm and you have yourself a very nice bowl of creamy tomato soup!

It's equal parts rich and tangy and hearty but still doesn't feel TOO rich. It would be great with some toasted baguette or of course, grilled cheese.

If you've got a little time and feel like some dynamite soup, give it a try!

Enjoy!

Santa Maria-Style Pinto Beans

2015-02-06T09:06:00.001-08:00

Versions of these beans are usually an accompaniment to Santa Maria Tri-Tip (which I've made several times before but have yet to take pictures of - someday!).

This particular recipe leaves out the tomato element which is popular (almost standard, really) in most other recipes. I can't say that I really miss it because when I make this dish, I make a salsa or pico of some sort for the meat and that balances out the need for tomato in the beans in my opinion.

Regardless, these beans are FANTASTIC. It doesn't matter if you are trying to follow the strict tradition of Santa Maria barbecue as these go with any grilled meat wonderfully.

If you're wanting for a different twist on refried beans for a Latin American dish or traditional baked beans for pulled pork or barbecued chicken, these will definitely do the trick.

Santa Maria-Style Pinto Beans
(from here)

8 ounces thick bacon, cut into 1/4-inch cubes (roughly 6-8 strips if you don't have a scale)
1 poblano or pasilla chile, seeded, de-ribbed, and diced (you can leave the ribs for some more heat)
1 medium Spanish onion, diced (I used half a very large yellow onion and it worked fine)
2 cans pinto beans, drained, rinsed and drained again (or if you go the dry route use 8 oz of dry pinto beans, cooked and drained to give you 3 cups of cooked beans)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

This recipe comes together pretty quickly if your beans are cooked already.

I actually almost always use dry beans because I have a pressure cooker and it's really easy to make beans with it and I don't know why, but I do think they taste batter than the canned version.

I will submit that using canned beans is much easier, so use what you have!

That being said, get your 8 oz of diced bacon in a COLD small/medium pot over medium heat.

I always add a splash of water to my bacon in order to distribute the heat evenly.

While that renders down (it'll take around 20 minutes) gather the remainder of your short list of ingredients.

Poblano/pasilla, seeded and diced

Pinto beans, 2 cans, rinsed (or 3 cups cooked beans)

I've used Spanish onions in the past but I didn't have one on hand. I used half a really big yellow onion and it turned out great. Just use what you have!

Regular dice

When your bacon is nice an frothy it's very close to done.

Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon of some sort, leaving the rendered fat in the pot.

Dry on a couple of paper towels.

Add the onion and chile to the bacon fat, still over medium heat.

Always season with a shake or two of kosher salt and a few grinds of pepper.

Give it a good stir to lubricate everything.

Cook for about 5-7 minutes or until the veggies are tender.

I actually like these broken down a bit so you can push it to 10 minutes. Just give it a taste and see if the texture is nice and soft. If it's al dente, give it a couple more minutes.

When your veggies are broken down to your liking, add the beans.

Go ahead and add the bacon back in, too.

Give everything a solid stir and season with more salt and pepper.

Let this cook over medium/low heat until the beans are nice and heated through and the flavors marry a bit, maybe 10 more minutes. Give it a stir every few minutes to make sure the beans don't stick on the bottom.

These beans are the business.

Smokey, creamy and salty with the onions adding a nice sweet element. They are like the best version of traditional frijoles you can get. Every ingredient works in tandem with the rest to produce a really nice side dish for any Latin inspired or grilled meal.

Enjoy!

Steak and Asparagus with Mushroom Truffle Oil Sauce

2015-01-14T21:23:00.001-08:00

I literally just made this and have to document it based on how good it was.

This won't be a normal post since I didn't take any pictures but I'll try to hammer out a recipe real quick.

Steak and Asparagus with Mushroom Truffle Oil Sauce
(adapted from here)
Serves 2

Steak:
1 to 1.5 lbs tri-tip, sirloin, or London broil steak (really any steak will do)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Mushroom Sauce:
8 oz Italian brown mushrooms, stemmed and sliced
1/2 stick of butter, plus 2 tablespoons (divided)
2 tablespoons truffle oil
2 sprigs of fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1/3 cup white wine, plus a splash (divided)
1 medium shallot, finely diced (divided)
1 clove garlic, crushed or minced
1/4 cup heavy cream
Salt & freshly ground white pepper to taste

Asparagus:
1 bunch of asparagus, trimmed
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon chives, for garnish

Generously salt and pepper the tri-tip.

Let sit as long as you can - a bare minimum of 1 hour up to 8 hours.

Combine ½ stick of butter and 2 tablespoons truffle oil in a microwave safe bowl.

Nuke until melted in 10 second increments

Stir well to combine and set aside.

Trim the asparagus and season with a glug of olive oil and a shake of salt and pepper.

Let sit until ready to cook.

I like to put it in a ziplock bag.

Slice the mushrooms thinly and add to a skillet over medium-high heat with ½ the diced shallot, 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 sprigs of thyme, a bay leaf, and a splash of white wine.

Season well with salt and pepper and cook until most of the liquid is released and they are well browned.

Set aside when finished.

In a small sauce pan, combine 1/3 cup white wine, ½ the shallot, 1 clove crushed garlic and bring to a boil.

Once boiling, cook for 60 seconds.

Add 1/4 cup heavy cream and drop the heat to medium and cook for 60 more seconds.
Toss the reserved truffle/butter in and whisk well to combine.
Add the cooked mushrooms to the sauce, removing the thyme sprigs and bay leaf and stir well to combine.

Keep over low heat until the steak and asparagus are finished.

Cook off your steak - grill or roast or pan fry - go for 135F and lay out to rest while the asparagus cooks.
Pan fry or grill the asparagus until slightly browned and tender, maybe 5-7 minutes over high heat.
Slice steak against the grain and lay over the asparagus.

Spoon mushroom truffle sauce over top.

Garnish with some chives.

Consume.

This was an amazing plate of food. Both my wife and I agreed that it was one of the best things we've had in a long time and we were fighting for the leftover mushroom sauce at the end of dinner.

The asparagus sliced right through the rich umami mushroom sauce just perfectly and the well cooked, tender steak combined with the sauce to bring everything to to a new level.

It was savory, creamy and surprisingly well balanced. I have to say the truffle oil (from Trader Joe's(!)) was the defining decadent touch.

I promise to make this again and document the steps - but for now, I just had to write it down!

Enjoy!

Parisian Gnocchi with Pea Pesto

2015-01-13T08:40:00.000-08:00

I've made gnocchi a bunch of times. There are basically two different kinds that I do. Potato and the French style using pâte à choux.

The potato gnocchi are more common in that you can buy them at the store and those are, admittedly, not terrible. Albeit a bit more dense than homemade, but not bad at all. The homemade ones are far superior in flavor and texture.

Parisian gnocchi on the other hand are never seen at the store. You can't really buy these outside of a restaurant but they are SO good! They're lighter and have a different texture than potato gnocchi and in my opinion have a more complex flavor.

Parisian gnocchi go well with a variety of preparations. Here, we're going to do a bright pea and basil pesto that's outstanding.

Parisian Gnocchi with Pea Pesto

(from here & here)

Gnocchi:

1 cup (8 ounces) water

8 tablespoons (1 stick, 4 ounces) unsalted butter

3/4 teaspoon (about .15 ounces) kosher salt

1 1/4 cups (6.3 ounces) all-purpose flour

1/2 cup (about 1 ounce) freshly grated Parmesan cheese

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon

1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives

Pea Pesto:

One whole head of roasted garlic

1 tablespoon fine lemon zest (from one whole lemon)

½ cup fresh basil leaves

½ cup fresh parsley leaves

1 cup thawed frozen peas (or fresh if you happen to have a garden)

1 cup olive oil or extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher salt

3/4 teaspoon black pepper

Begin by weighing out your pâte à choux ingredients:

1 cup of water (8 oz).

Add 4 oz of butter.

I actually used a mix of bacon fat and butter here as an experiment. I know it's "bacon sacrilege" to suggest otherwise, but using all butter for this recipe is actually better in my opinion. I think the solids in the butter give the finished gnocchi a little more body but this turned out perfectly good so feel free to experiment.

To the fat and water add 3/4 teaspoon (about .15 ounces) kosher salt.

(My scale only has a tenths digit so I went with about .2 oz)

Put this over high heat, going for a boil while you weigh and gather the rest of the ingredients. It shouldn't take too long to boil.

Weigh out your flour:

1 1/4 cups (6.3 ounces)

Next, weigh out 1/2 cup (about 1 ounce) freshly grated Parmesan cheese:

Measure out 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard:

Gather 3 large eggs. Let these sit at room temp while you cook everything.

And finally,

1 teaspoon chopped fresh parsley

1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon

1 teaspoon chopped fresh chives

Give them a good mince.

OK! Let's do this.

Once your butter/water mixture reaches a boil...

Dump the flour in all at once and get ready to stir with a wooden spoon or stiff spatula. I like the silicone ones.

(I should be stirring but I took the picture)

Go, go, go!

Once the dough becomes a bit more uniform, drop the heat to medium/low.

This shouldn't take more than 60 seconds.

Keep stirring until all the raw flour is gone. No little white bumps. The dough will pull away from sides of pot leaving a thin layer of dough.

Again, not more than maybe 60 seconds.

Evacuate to your stand mixer.

You can do this by hand, beating everything until uniform, but it's a huge pain. Use a mixer.

Add the tablespoon of Dijon mustard and the ounce of cheese.

Start the mixer with the paddle attachment over medium/low speed.

Really blurry but you get the idea.

After the mustard and cheese have been combined, add each egg one at a time.

Wait until fully incorporated until adding the next egg.

One!

Mix, mix, mix:

Two!

Mix, mix, mix:

Three!

Mix, mix, mix until completely uniform.

It'll be nice and satiny.

Finally, add the herbs.

Give it a final mix to incorporate them in.

Get a ziplock bag and invert the opening around your hand.

We'll be using this as a pastry bag.

Just fill it up and move the dough to one corner.

Squeeze most of the air out and let sit for 15-25 minutes at room temperature.

==

While the gnocchi dough rests, we can prep some stuff for the pesto.

We're going to roast off a whole head of garlic.

If you've never done this it's really easy and roasted garlic is amazing. Buttery, sweet, and sticky and only barely garlicky. It's really nice.

Just slice the top off of a head of garlic. Make sure you expose the tops of each of the cloves.

You're supposed to peel the excess paper from the head here. I forgot to. It worked out fine anyway.

Place the head in a small piece of foil that's large enough to completely envelop it.

Drizzle with a splash of olive oil (really just a little, maybe 1/4-1/2 teaspoon) and sprinkle a pinch of salt on it.

Cover with the foil and ensure the head is sitting cut side up.

I just put it in a small oven safe pan. You can do this on a baking sheet or whatever.

Bake for 40 minutes at 400F.

==

This meal can be pre-staged really easily so I started making the gnocchi while the garlic roasted off. They will keep until service just fine.

==

Get a gallon of water over high heat for a boil. Add some salt, 1-2 tablespoons, to season.

Get a sheet pan drizzled with olive oil at the ready. I used cling film to make clean-up easier because I'm lazy like that.

Measure out 1/2 cup of fresh parsley:

1/2 cup fresh basil:

We're going to blanch the herbs in boiling water, so you can do this with a small strainer or a large fine slotted spoon or something.

I have a fine mesh strainer that fits fairly well into my pot of water.

You can just boil them and dump the water if you want, but I was going to use the water for the gnocchi, so I didn't want to re-boil it.

Get an ice bath ready.

Place the herbs in the boiling water for 30 seconds.

Pull after 30 seconds. The herbs will have wilted considerably:

Shock immediately in the ice water.

I could fit the very bottom of my strainer in the ice water.

Once chilled, squeeze all the water you can from the herbs:

Very wilted.

Put the herbs into a blender and stand by.

==

Now that our water is boiling we can cook off the gnocchi.

We're actually par-boiling them since they will finish in the pan later.

Cut the tip off of the bag.

This opening is too small.

I took these pictures and didn't retake them as the process is exactly the same, but you want to cut about 1/4-3/8s inch off the end. This is a bit less than that and the gnocchi were like mini versions of themselves, which I fed to the kids.

Regardless of size, get over the pot of water (it'll be hot so be careful) and start squeezing.

Have a paring knife ready to cut at 1 inch intervals. I couldn't take pics of this because I needed both hands but just slice them off into the water and be mindful of splashing.

You'll get the hang of it quickly.

Cut as many off as you can in 60 seconds. This will allow them all to cook in time.

Don't cheat, you'll just get overcooked gnocchi!

They'll all sink to the bottom at first.

Once about 50% start to float, start your timer for 2 minutes.

I like how my kitchen is 103F while I cook.

They'll all be floating by the end of 2 minutes.

Fish them out with a slotted spoon or something and ready the next batch.

(these are the larger ones):

Place on the oiled baking sheet and make sure they roll around a bit to prevent sticking to each other.

This is the size difference between the smalls and the larger ones to give some reference.

Keep this process going until you are out of dough.

1. Cut as many as possible in 60 seconds

2. Wait until 50% are floating

3. Time 2 minutes

4. Remove

5. Repeat

Beautiful:

You can store these in the fridge until service.

Your garlic should be done by now.

Look how caramelized and delicious that looks.

To get the garlic out just squeeze the whole head!

Squeeze it directly into the blender.

You can thaw the cup of peas in warm water if you like to speed up the process.

Next we'll zest a lemon.

A microplane is invaluable for this!

Zested lemon.

Add the zest to the blender.

Next add 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 3/4 teaspoon black pepper.

Finally add the thawed (and drained) peas, 1 cup.

Measure out a cup of extra virgin olive oil.

==

Now some action!

Get the blender running at medium speed scraping down the sides until you get the whole thing going smoothly.

Up the speed to 75% and slowly drizzle the oil into the blender.

It'll get nice and lubed.

You can make this as coarse or fine as you'd like. It'll never be really super duper smooth and I think it's better with some texture to it.

Just get it thoroughly combined until it's the texture of a standard pesto.

We'll be serving this room temperature so you can save it for service.

Just pour into a bowl:

Drizzle a bit of olive oil over top:

Then, place cling film directly on the surface of the pesto, removing all air from the surface to prevent oxidation.

You can store in the fridge or on the counter, whatever. Just get it up to room temp before serving or it'll be too cold.

==

Ok, homestretch!

When you are ready to fire off dinner, get a large non-stick pan over medium heat and add a good drizzle of oil. I did two turns below.

You'll have a bunch of gnocchi so just fill up the pan.

This is roughly 2 servings.

Cook, shaking the pan frequently until they expand a bit and just start to brown.

I've overcooked these a few times in the past by going for "golden brown and delicious" but the texture is weird when they get too brown, almost chewy on the outside, not the best.

These will be ever so crunchy and still super light and smooth if you get them just browned.

Note: You can add a handful of peas here and should! I had these really nice fresh English peas all ready to go and totally spaced out and forgot to add them!

Just add the peas get them cooked through while the gnocchi finishes.

This whole process will take maybe 5-7 minutes.

You can add a final chunk of butter if you're feeling decadent to finish the gnocchi, but I didn't feel like it was necessary this time around.

==

To serve, just add a bit of the pesto to a plate (again, room temp) and place the gnocchi directly from the pan (oil/butter and all) on top.

Garnish with some shredded basil and some extra parmesan if you're feeling it.

==

This is one of my favorite dishes. It's a bit of work making the whole dish, but it makes up for it in the end.

The gnocchi are light, slightly crisp and salty and almost melt in the mouth. The pesto is nice and fresh and the acid from the lemon zest really cuts the fattiness of the gnocchi perfectly. The peas (if I hadn't forgot them) add a nice texture and pop of sweetness to the dish that's very nice.

I could eat plate after plate of this and would happily buy it at a restaurant.

If you've got a special occasion coming up, try this on. It'll surely impress!

Enjoy!

Shrimp and Grits

2015-01-08T11:36:00.002-08:00

Ok, full disclosure, This is really Shrimp and Polenta not real grits. I just think yellow cornmeal tastes better than grits. Gasp! I know. But you can make this recipe with grits just the same.

Now that's out of the way, we can get on with the recipe.

This is actually more of a Gulf Coast/Creole/Cajun recipe vs a "deep south" dish. I really prefer these flavors in this application as it's super bold and eats really well. It's kind of an étouffée because it's base is a light roux.

Shrimp and Grits

(adapted from Deep South Dish, here and Alton Brown, here)

Shrimp Stock:

The shells of 2 pounds of shrimp, heads too, if they came on.

2 ribs of celery, chopped

1 onion, chopped

handful of parsley

2 bay leaves

1/2 teaspoon dry thyme (or 2 sprigs of fresh thyme)

salt and pepper

Shrimp:

1 tablespoon of canola oil

1 cup of andouille or other spicy smoked sausage

2 pounds of small to medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

2 tablespoons of canola oil

1 tablespoon of butter

1 tablespoon of all purpose flour

1/2 cup of chopped onion

1/4 cup of chopped green bell pepper

1/8 cup of chopped celery

3 teaspoons of Cajun seasoning (I use Emeril's Essence)

1-1/2 cups of shrimp stock or chicken broth

1 tablespoon of unsalted butter

Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper, to taste

Red pepper flakes, optional

Sliced green onion, for garnish

Cheese ~~Grits~~...err Polenta:

2 cups whole milk

2 cups water

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 cup coarse ground cornmeal (polenta)

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

4 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 ounces sharp Cheddar, shredded

Grab up your shrimp - 2 pounds.

Start peeling.

I'm not sure as to all the different varieties of of shell-on shrimp out there, but I got the the "easy-peel" kind, which are deveined, headless with a slit down the back and are actually really "easy" to peel.

Whatever variety you have, just separate the shells from the shrimp and put the shells into a medium pot.

Put the shrimp in a medium bowl.

Seems like it's not a lot of shells but it'll work. If you have the heads, this'll be a lot more rich - but if not, don't fret, it's still very good!

Anyhoo, grab up your aromatics for the shrimp stock:

2 ribs of celery, chopped

1 onion, chopped

handful of parsley

Add in 2 bay leaves, 1/2 teaspoon dry thyme (or 2 sprigs of fresh thyme), and some salt and pepper

Fill the pot to cover or to max fill if using a pressure cooker.

In my case, using a pressure cooker, I cooked for 20 minutes at full pressure. If using a regular pot let this go for 2 hours or so at a simmer.

Done!

Strain the solids off.

Nice bright shells:

I always use a paper towel for my final strain.

Since this is almost fat-less, it strains down very well.

Not too much grime left.

Nice rich, clean shrimp stock.

==

Meanwhile, season your shimp with 3 teaspoons of Cajun seasoning (I use Emeril's Essence) and a shake of salt.

Give it a good stir.

Cover and let sit (in the fridge) until you're ready to cook. It'll be fine for a while.

==

When you're ready to cook, gather up some andouille sausage - 1 cup's worth, give or take. I just used 2 links.

Dice them up.

Add to a pan with a bit of canola oil or butter over medium heat.

While that renders a bit, prep your Trinity - 2 ribs of celery, one green bell pepper and an onion.

Dice them.

After about 5 minutes, remove the sausage.

Mine wasn't super fat heavy so there wasn't a lot of fat in the pan.

If it's a bit dry, add some more oil or butter (maybe a teaspoon or more) to lube it up.

Add the trinity and a generous shake of salt and pepper.

Stir well and let sweat for 7-10 minutes, stirring occasionally to get the fond from the sausage off the bottom of the pan.

==

At the same time, start your roux for the shrimp.

In a small sauce pan, melt a tablespoon of butter over medium heat.

Once melted, add a tablespoon of flour and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring quite frequently.

We're not going for a dark roux or anything, just a nice blonde one.

Your trinity should be broken down nicely by now.

Add the roux to your veggies.

Stir well - it'll tighten up quickly. Less than a minute.

Slowly add 1 1/2 cups of your shrimp stock to the pan.

Stir well and retain the medium heat.

==

For the grits/polenta, I didn't have any whole milk, but I had heavy cream so I decided to water it down a bit.

Instead of 2 cups of water and 2 cups of milk, I went with 3 cups of water and 1 cup of heavy cream.

Still 4 cups total, so we're all good.

Add the milk to another small sauce pan and season with 1 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt and a few grinds of pepper - maybe 1/4 teaspoon.

Grate your cheese - 4 oz sharp cheddar.

I recommend doing this over wax paper for easy weighing and transferring.

BTW, the cheese from a block is far superior to the pre-shredded variety. That stuff is coated with a powder that helps it to remain clump free in the package, but doesn't melt as well.

Just get a block and grate it.

Measure out a cup of polenta.

When your milk/salt mixture comes to a boil, slowly add the polenta.

Stir quickly and constantly to avoid lumps.

It'll tighten up very quickly.

Add a little shrimp stock to loosen it up if it gets tight on you. This also adds a nice complimentary flavor to the polenta.

When the texture in nice and smooth without being to tight, kill the heat and add 4 tablespoons of butter along with 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.

Add the 4 oz of cheese and mix well to combine. (Sorry I missed the cheese shot!)

==

Meanwhile, to finish your shrimp, add the marinated shrimp directly to your sauce.

Go ahead and add the sausage now, too. (I missed this picture, too!)

Stir well to heat through.

It'll only take about 4-5 minutes, max, to cook the shrimp though. The more you cook it, the tougher they'll get and the more watery the sauce will be. Check after 3 minutes and be vigilant.

==

Serve the shrimp over the polenta and garnish with some scallions or chives.

==

Overall, the grits (polenta) were amazing. The shrimp was also great but the polenta really stood out to me. Creamy, salty, sweet, and rich. Just awesome.

The shrimp, cooked well and seasoned with Creole spices really added a great texture and brininess to balance everything out on the plate.

This turned out to be a really nice plate of food.

If you have a hankering for a plate of the South, give it a try!

Enjoy!

Enchiladas Especiales Tacuba Style

2014-12-03T08:55:00.001-08:00

This is a really cool recipe.

It uses spinach and poblano chiles to make a creamy green sauce for some enchiladas.

It's easy to throw together if you have some leftover chicken or just use a rotisserie from the store. That's what I did!

Enchiladas Especiales Tacuba Style
(from Rick Bayless, here)

2 fresh poblano or pasilla chiles
1 cup (lightly packed) roughly chopped spinach leaves
2 cups milk
2 cups chicken broth
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) butter, or you can use vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 cup flour
Salt
3 cups coarsely shredded cooked chicken (a rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken works great here)
12 corn tortillas
A little vegetable oil for brushing or spraying
1 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
A little chopped cilantro, for garnish

==

Begin by roasting off your chiles.

I usually do this over my gas burner but you can do it on a grill or under the broiler.

You're looking for the skin of the chiles to blister and blacken uniformly. Any spot that isn't blistered will not come off the chile when we go to peel them.

Just keep them turning for even roasting.

Let cool until you can handle them. Most people do this in a paper bag.

Peel using a clean towel or paper towels to get a grip on the skins.

Split in half.

De-seed.

Give them a rough chop.

Toss into a blender.

Add 1 cup of loosely packed spinach leaves and stand by.

Now we can make the béchamel base for the sauce.

Start with 6 tablespoons or 3 oz of butter into a small sauce pan over medium heat.

While the butter melts, measure out 1/2 cup of flour.

Gather up some garlic. The recipe calls for 3 cloves but I usually double the garlic.

Next measure out 2 cups of milk.

To the milk, add 2 cups of chicken stock.

Once the butter has melted, crush or mince the garlic and add it to the butter.

Give it a stir for about 30 seconds to just bloom a bit.

To the butter and garlic, add the 1/2 cup of flour, little by little while whisking to avoid lumps.

I'm doing it one handed here, but whisk.

Go, go, go.

It'll form into a mass pretty quickly. You can switch to a spatula or wooden spoon here and keep pressing the mass until you can no longer see any white raw flour specks.

It'll happen fast, like 2 minutes tops.

Now, add the milk/chicken stock mixture the same way, gradually, whisking the whole time to avoid lumps.

Whisk, whisk, whisk.

Once incorporated, boost the heat to high and bring it to a simmer. It'll start to thicken considerably.

Once it's thickened (about 5 minutes at a simmer) drop the heat to the lowest setting and pour off 2 cups to add to the spinach/poblanos in the blender.

Pour it in.

Blend with a towel over the top and the access port open, the steam build-up may be dangerous if you don't vent it a bit.

Blend very well.

Pour this back into the béchamel.

Stir well to combine. Kill the heat completely.

Season with Kosher salt. Rick Bayless suggests 2 teaspoons. I suggest you add 1/4 teaspoon at a time and taste it as you go. I ended up towards the 2 teaspoon mark. His seasoning suggestions are normally pretty spot-on.

Now we can heat up our tortillas.

If you're familiar with corn tortillas, you know they are fragile. I usually opt for flour since they're much easier to work with, but I used corn this time around.

This is a nice trick to getting a dozen pliable pretty fast.

Pre-heat the oven to 350F and lay out 6 tortillas on a baking sheet.

Spray them with oil and give them a flip.

Spray the new side then stack 6 more on top of them.

Give those a spray, flip and spray again.

Toss them in the oven for 3 minutes.

While they heat up, measure out some chicken.

I had 12 ounces since my kids ate a bunch as I was breaking down the chicken.

Pour 1 cup of the sauce directly into the chicken and mix well.

I always weigh out my fillings for enchiladas so I can portion them. Remember to tare weight out the bowl.

When your 3 minutes is up, stack the tortillas.

Place a towel over them to keep them warm.

Pour 1/4 cup of sauce into a 9x13 baking dish.

Smear it around evenly.

Begin portioning the filling.

I weigh everything because I obsess like that.

I had 19.5 oz of filling and I wanted 12 enchiladas, so I went with 1.6 oz of filling each (not including the tortilla).

Lay them in as you roll them.

They fit!

Pour the rest of the sauce over top.

Nice and green

Shred or gather up 1 cup of Jack cheese.

Sprinkle over top and toss into your 350F oven for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, you can chop some cilantro for garnish if you're feeling fancy.

Pull from the oven and let cool for a few minutes, if you can.

==

These enchiladas ended up tasting great. The sauce was really rich and creamy thanks to the béchamel base and the spinach and poblanos added a real earthiness and a simultaneous brightness to it.

The juicy chicken filling was a great match for the sauce and we ate a bunch of them. Lay on some hot sauce to kick it up a notch.

Enjoy!

Cauliflower Soup With Bacon

2014-11-21T10:39:00.001-08:00

This is a great and easy soup to make for those chilly evenings. Bacon, cauliflower and scallions are perfect for each other in this dish. There will be no leftovers.

Cauliflower Soup With Bacon

(from Serious Eats, here)

10 oz bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1 large head cauliflower, cut into florets (around 2 pounds, can sub frozen cauliflower just fine)

1 quart homemade or store-bought low-sodium chicken stock

1 bunch scallions, white and pale green parts, thinly sliced, green parts sliced, separately

1 onion, diced (about 1 1/2 cups)

6 medium cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 cup half & half or heavy cream

2 bay leaves

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Begin by cooking down your bacon.

Use the trick from rendering lard by adding just a bit of water to the cold pot before cooking over medium heat.

This helps heat distribute evenly.

While that cooks down (it'll take 20 minutes or so) break down your head of cauliflower.

I usually just cut the florets into manageable chunks. We'll be puréeing this as a soup after all.

Mine weighed just over 2 pounds. You can use a couple bags of frozen cauliflower here too.

Give your bacon a stir while you get the rest of the ingredients prepped.

4 cups of chicken stock. Homemade really makes the soup here. All that gelatin from good stock gives great body to the finished product.

You can almost see it jiggle

Measure out 1 cup of heavy cream or half and half.

I usually water down half and half with some milk to cut some calories but it's not that big of a deal to use heavy cream.

Next, we can do the scallions.

Thinly slice the whites up to the pale greens.

Slice the greens for garnish. I just cut them roughly on the bias for a nice texture in the finished soup.

Dice an onion.

Gather your garlic.

Chop it roughly.

Your bacon should be foaming away by now.

Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon to some paper towels, reserving the bacon fat in the pot.

To the fat add the onion, garlic, and the white/pale green parts of the scallions.

Season with some salt and pepper and stir well to combine.

Cook over medium heat until nicely softened about 7 minutes.

We want it to look like this:

Add the cauliflower:

Then the stock:

Then the cream:

Finally, toss in 2 bay leaves:

Give it a good stir and season again with some salt and pepper. You always want to layer the seasoning in.

Cover and drop the heat to medium/low.

Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the cauliflower is nice and soft. Overcooking cauliflower is always better in this type of situation.

When the cauliflower is ready give it a blend.

Remember to remove the bay leaves.

You can do this in batches in a blender or food processor but an immersion blender is invaluable for this type of thing. If you use a blender/food processor just be careful as this is obviously very hot.

Blend until very smooth. It'll take a few minutes.

Give the soup a final taste and adjust the seasoning to your liking. I usually go pretty heavy on the pepper here, too.

Serve with the reserved bacon crumbles and the scallion greens over top.

==

Overall, this was a fantastic soup. It ate very hearty like a potato soup and the garnish of bacon and scallions added not only great flavor but a nice texture as well. It was creamy, salty and the pepper accented the bacon flavor well.

I kept going back for more and the kids loved it. Give it a try!

Enjoy!

Thai Chicken Meatballs with Red Coconut Curry, Baby Bok Choy & Shirataki Noodles

2014-11-19T11:02:00.001-08:00

I got a free week of Blue Apron meals last week and while they provide all the ingredients you need to make the meals, I thought anyone could make this particular recipe, so I decided to document it.

I make red curries all the time, sometimes with rice as the base and others using noodles. I love me some noodles but we've been cutting carbs from our diet and rice noodles are just too high.

Shirataki noodles are a great substitute and give you all the satisfaction of rice noodles with a fraction of the calories and carbs.

Thai Chicken Meatballs with Red Coconut Curry, Baby Bok Choy & Shirataki Noodles

(from Blue Apron, here)

Most of my meals serve 4 but this only serves 2

10 Ounces Ground Chicken

2 - 8 oz packs of wide Shirataki noodles, the tofu ones tastes the best

3 Cloves Garlic (divided)

1 inch Piece of Ginger (divided)

2 Scallions (divided)

1 Stalk Lemongrass

½ Pound Baby Bok Choy

Small handful of cilantro (divided)

2 Tablespoons Panko Breadcrumbs

2 teaspoons to 2 Tablespoons Red Curry Paste (to taste, will depend on how hot your brand is)

1 Lime

1 - 15 oz can of Coconut Milk (or 1/2 cup of Coconut Milk Powder & 1.5 cups of Water)

Assemble your ingredients. Mine were pre-packaged from Blue Apron.

I'm using these Shirataki noodles, though the thin ones would work fine.

I detailed the preparation of Shirataki noodles in my last post, but I'll include the steps here.

==

To start, get a pot of water on the boil and salt it.

1 gallon of water to 1 tablespoon of salt, just like regular pasta.

While the water comes to a boil, start rinsing the noodles.

They will smell really fishy out of the package, ignore it.

I like to rinse in a colander set over a matching bowl with warm water.

Get in there and agitate the noodles and when the bowl fills up, dump it out and let it fill again, agitating the whole time.

Repeat for 5 bowls of water. It'll take you probably 3 minutes of constant rinsing. It's ok, you can do it.

When your water comes to a boil, drain the rinsed noodles (notice the smell is virtually gone) and toss them into the boiling water.

Boil for 3 minutes.

Drain the boiled noodles well, try to get all the liquid off of them. No need to rinse.

Toss into a pan over medium-high heat for another 3 minutes, tossing well the entire time.

This will cook off any leftover moisture in the noodles and gives them a more traditional rice noodle texture.

Remove from the heat and set aside for now. It's ok if they get cold, the curry will warm them up.

Meanwhile, you can prep the vegetables.

Start with the ginger and garlic.

If you've never used a small spoon to peel your ginger you should give it a try. It's much easier than using a peeler.

Just scrape it along the ginger.

You want roughly the same amount of ginger and garlic.

Here I have about 1 inch of ginger and 3 cloves of garlic.

Then, we need to split the ginger and garlic in half.

Half for the meatballs and half for the curry.

Either mince very finely or use a microplane grater to get yourself a paste of both the ginger and garlic.

For the meatballs

For the curry

Next, slice the white parts up to the green parts of 2 scallions.

Mince these and toss into the meatball bowl.

Go ahead and slice the rest of the scallions and set aside for now. We'll garnish the finished dish with these.

Zest an entire lime.

If you don't have a zester or microplane grater (you should ask for one for Christmas), just peel the very top layer of the lime and mince it well. Avoid the white pith under the skin.

Add to the meatball bowl.

Cut the lime into quarters and set aside.

Get yourself a handful of cilantro.

Pick off the leaves and discard the stems.

Separate into 2 piles and mince one, save the other for garnish.

Toss the minced cilantro into the meatball bowl.

Next, prep the lemongrass.

I bend it and cut where it naturally cracks.

Trim off the end and peel the hard exterior layers until you see that nice, soft purple interior.

Mince this as finely as you can. Even though it's the tenderest part of the lemongrass, it is still very fibrous. I should have minced mine even more than you see below.

Make sure you have at least 1 teaspoon and up to 2 teaspoons - you don't need any more than that.

Toss into the meatball bowl.

Put 2 teaspoon of butter or oil in a pan over medium heat.

After the butter melts, add the minced aromatics and cook until everything has softened up, about 5-7 minutes, stirring every so often.

In the meantime, add the 10 ounces of chicken and 2 tablespoons of panko bread crumbs to the bowl.

After your aromatics are cooked, toss them back in.

Season with some salt and pepper. I go towards the 1/4 teaspoon mark with Kosher salt.

Mix everything well, but try to be gentle.

I had around 12 oz of meat mixture at this point.

You're going to want to make 12 meatballs, so you can weigh each one out if you are anal like I am.

Around 1 oz each.

Add to the same skillet over medium-high heat with a drizzle of oil, 1-2 teaspoons worth.

Cook until brown on all sides or 150F internal.

It's ok if they are a little under cooked, they'll finish in the curry and we don't want to take them all the way to 165F right now or they'll be a bit tough at the end.

Evacuate to a plate for now.

While those cook, prep the baby bok choy.

They tend to be pretty dirty under the leaves, so wash them well.

Just cut off the root end and separate the leaves.

Hold for now.

==

Ok, time to start the curry.

To the same pan you cooked the meatballs in, add a drizzle of oil and add in the reserved ginger and garlic.

Scrape up any fond left from the meatballs and cook for 1 minute.

Add your red curry paste. This is to taste and will depend on how hot your curry paste is. Different brands will vary but I'd start with at least 2 teaspoons and go to a maximum of 2 tablespoons.

This curry paste wasn't very hot, so I did 2 tablespoons.

Cook for 1 more minute, stirring well to incorporate the curry paste.

Add your can of coconut milk.

My kit came with coconut milk powder that I reconstituted in water. A can of coconut milk is way better as this stuff was a little watery. You can use light coconut milk, too.

Stir well and boost the heat to high for a boil.

Once you reach a boil, drop the heat to medium

Drop in your meatballs and let them cook for 5 minutes while the sauce reduces a bit.

Stir every so often to get them evenly cooked.

Next, drop in all the bok choy.

Stir well to get the hot curry to wilt the bok choy to just crisp tender - maybe 2-3 minutes.

To serve, drop your noodles into a bowl.

Ladle the curry over top, it'll warm up the noodles just fine. Garnish with the reserved green tops of the scallions and the whole cilantro leaves. Serve with the limes and maybe some Sriracha on the side.

==

This ended up being a great bowl of food. It satisfied my craving for noodles and ended up being heartier than I thought. The chicken meatballs were browned nicely and were tender, bursting with Thai flavors of lemongrass and ginger and garlic and worked great against the spicy red curry broth.

If you like red curry and noodles as much as we do, give this recipe a try!

Enjoy!

Preparing Shirataki Noodles the Right Way

2014-11-18T12:15:00.001-08:00

Ok, so maybe you're like me and you have an obsession with noodles. Like you cook pasta three times a week. Then let's say you are trying to cut carbs from your diet. Then what?

You turn to the only things you can, zucchini and shirataki.

To quote wikipedia, "Shirataki noodles are very low carbohydrate, low calorie, thin, translucent, gelatinous traditional Japanese noodles made from devil's tongue yam (elephant yam or the konjac yam). The word 'shirataki' means 'white waterfall', describing the appearance of these noodles. Largely composed of water and glucomannan, a water-soluble dietary fiber, they have little flavor of their own."

So these things are noodles without gluten and the tofu version (which are the only version I can get in the store) have only 10 calories, 3g of carbs and 2g of fiber per serving.

The trade-off here is that most people who haven't had them prepared correctly hate them. Usually this is because they smell fishy with you open the package. Others don't like the texture.

I've been cooking with these noodles more and more and have come to this conclusion as to how to prepare them. It's kind of a combination of methods (rinsing, boiling and dry-frying). Most people do two of the three methods, I do all three.

And best of all, it's super easy and yields great results.

I will premise my praise of these noodles by saying I've yet to try them in a Italian application. I've been using them solely in Asian dishes. Pad Thai, Pad See Ew, Ramen, etc.

I've been using zucchini noodles for the Italian stuff with great results.

==

Preparing Shirataki Noodles the Right Way

I used 2 packages of Tofu Shirataki, Fettuccine style, though the thin noodles are prepared the same way.
1 gallon of water
1 tablespoon Kosher salt
Colander and matching bowl
Non-stick frying pan

==

To start, get a pot of water on the boil and salt it.

1 gallon of water to 1 tablespoon of salt, just like regular pasta.

While the water comes to a boil, start rinsing the noodles.

They will smell really fishy out of the package, ignore it.

I like to rinse in a colander set over a matching bowl with warm water.

When your water comes to a boil, drain the rinsed noodles (notice the smell is virtually gone) and toss them into the boiling water.

Boil for 3 minutes.

Drain the boiled noodles well, try to get all the liquid off of them. No need to rinse.

==

As I said these noodles are great for Asian style applications. Their texture is more rice noodle than Italian semolina noodle, though I bet these would work fine in a simple preparation of garlic and olive oil or something like that. Their texture doesn't soak up sauce very well, so I'd leave the Bolognese for zucchini noodles.

In the end, I've made a few dishes with these so far and I'm telling you, the taste and texture is indistinguishable from a standard rice noodle so long as you prep them right, so give them a try if you're toying around with cutting calories and carbs but still love noodles, like I do!

Enjoy!

Shrimp Agnolotti with Coconut Tomato Cream Sauce

2014-11-13T11:36:00.002-08:00

This is one of those recipes that I kind of winged. I don't normally stray very far from a tried and true recipe because I hate cooking terrible food in the name of experimentation. It's expensive and annoying.

That being said, sometimes I have to substitute just like everyone else.

I wanted to make shrimp ravioli/agnolotti with a cream based tomato sauce but I didn't have any heavy cream, only milk. I really didn't want to drag the kids to the store for one thing so I thought I could substitute some coconut milk instead.

Turns out that the combination of the kind of garliky shrimp filling and a sweeter sort of note in the tomato sauce was a really good combination.

Shrimp Agnolotti with Coconut Tomato Cream Sauce

For the shrimp filling:
8 oz shrimp
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 clove of minced garlic
2 teaspoons butter
1/2 an onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
Small handful parsley, minced (about 1 tablespoon, minced)
1/2 up grated parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil

1 batch Thomas Keller's pasta recipe:
1 3/4 cups (8 oz) all-purpose flour
6 large egg yolks
1 large egg
1 1/2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon milk

For the sauce:
1 tablespoon coconut oil (can sub butter, but not olive oil)
1/2 an onion, diced
1 15 oz can of diced tomatoes
1/4 cup coconut milk
Splash of sherry vinegar, maybe 1/2 teaspoon (can sub balsamic)
Salt & pepper

==

I began by making the filling.

Thaw your shrimp.

Pop into a food processor.

Give it a couple of pulses.

Add 3/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp baking soda. This helps to season the shrimp but also gives it kind of a nice body - keeping it from getting mushy, even when pureed.

Also toss in a clove of minced garlic.

Dice half an onion.

Add a tablespoon of butter to a non-stick pan over medium heat.

Toss in the half diced onion and 4 cloves of minced garlic.

Give it a stir.

While that sweats a bit, grab a small handful of parsley.

Mince it up.

Toss it in with the onions and garlic and cook for 3 minutes. You want to keep this moving around a bit.

Add the shrimp paste to the pan.

Break up the chunks and cook for 3 more minutes.

It'll turn pinker.

Throw this mixture back into the food processor.

Gather 1/2 cup of grated parmesan. Mine weighed 1.7 oz but it's not a big deal.

Toss it in.

Season with a pinch of salt and a few grinds of pepper.

Pulse a few times.

Add a splash of extra virgin olive oil if it seems a tad dense.

Transfer the mixture to a ziplock bag.

Scoot it to one corner and seal it up.

==

To make the agnolotti, you'll need to prep a baking sheet with some flour to gather the finished pasta.

I didn't detail the making of the pasta because I've done it before and this pasta recipe in particular is very forgiving as it's very rich and awesome. I always use this recipe for filled pastas, though it makes perfectly good pasta in any form.

Just keep it in a ziplock bag so it doesn't dry out as you are making the agnolotti.

I work with half a batch at a time.

Have your helper at the ready!

Roll out a sheet and try to square it up a bit. You want it thin enough that you can read a newspaper through it, as they say. I take it to level 7 on my pasta roller.

Cut the tip of your bag of filling off and pipe a line down the bottom edge of the pasta sheet.

Fold up the edge until it just clears the filling.

Use your fingers to press each side of the filling in one inch segments.

Then, crimp-seal the edge using a pasta crimper.

I don't do the double fold over that's traditional with agnolotti because I find it wasteful so, sorry if you are offended.

Separate the line from the sheet.

Cut along your finger marks.

Use a bench scraper to help transfer the agnolotti to your floured baking sheet. They'll be fragile and moist.

Repeat until you're out of pasta.

I had quite a bit of filling leftover. Freeze it for next time!

==

To make the sauce, add the other half of your onion from the shrimp filling to a blender or food processor.

Here, I'm using a hand blender.

To it, add 1 can of diced tomatoes.

Season with salt and pepper, about 1/4 teaspoon of each.

Blend it up.

==

OK! When you're ready for dinner, get a large pot of salted water (1 tablespoon kosher salt to 1 gallon of water) on the boil and start your sauce.

Add 1 tablespoon coconut oil or butter to a large skillet. I tend to use a non, non-stick pan for pasta. Not sure why.

Anyhoo, put this over medium heat.

Toss in your tomato/onion mix.

Give everything a stir to combine.

Let this go until it comes to a boil, then drop the heat a touch to maintain a simmer.

We want to cook most of the liquid out since we'll be replacing it with coconut milk. It'll take about the time the pot of water takes to come to a boil.

Once you reduce the sauce, add the coconut milk.

Stir to combine.

Give it a splash of some sherry or balsamic vinegar to cut the richness.

Toss your agnolotti in the water when it's at a boil.

After it floats, give it 3 minutes to fully cook.

Scoot your sauce pan next to the pot and scoop the agnolotti directly into the pan.

This adds some pasta water to the sauce and helps get a nice emulsification.

Stir well (but gently) to combine.

==

This dish was a complete surprise to me. I kind of thought it would taste weird with the coconut milk added to the sauce but it was really good.

The filling had a great texture and the sweet, brininess of the shrimp worked really well with the tomato sauce and sweetness of the coconut milk. The acid in the sherry vinegar cut through the richness of the pasta and filling and tied everything together very well.

Overall, I was very happy with this and would make it again!

Enjoy!

Render Lard at Home

2014-11-10T08:30:00.001-08:00

I love lard.

Not only does it have a distinct and in my opinion totally different flavor than bacon fat (which I keep in a mason jar, too) it's not as bad for you as you think. There is a lot said about the benefits of lard on the internet so I'm not going to get too far into it. Right or wrong, it's best in moderation.

Without question though, home rendered lard is better than store-bought. Store bought lard is hydrogenated for long shelf life. Some have trans fats as well and many are treated with bleaching agents and other weird chemicals for odor control. Bad. I like to avoid all that.

When you make it at home, you don't have to worry about additives, shelf life or stability at room temperature, and you'll love the porky aroma.

You can definitely find better fat out there like from a farm or something, but I just use fatback from my grocery store (for a DOLLAR) and stash it in the freezer until I need to render some lard.

Render Lard at Home
(I followed this recipe)

1-2 pounds of pork fatback
1/4 cup of water

==

This particular pack was only a pound. I've done like 2-3 pounds before but this amount will fill up a standard 16 oz mason jar.

Depending on how well they cleaned the fat up, you'll see some lean meat there. You can trim it up if you want, but it's not that big of a deal. If you see a huge chunk of pink meat, cut it out. The goal here is to have the cleanest fat possible as the lean will darken the finished lard.

The recipe I followed says to get best results you should grind the fat.

I have a grinder and I have a food processor and I've tried both for this application. It's just too much work to clean them after! Every part is covered with a layer of grease and I find just taking a big sharp knife to it and dicing it up works out better for me.

Just slice it thinly and dice it up.

It works best if it's slightly frozen and your knife is super sharp.

You can mince this up for better results but I was being lazy.

A cast iron dutch oven works really well here. You can use a large cast iron pan or even a large non-stick pan. We're going to be cooking on the lower end of the spectrum so we're really looking for even heat distribution and nothing's better than cast iron for that job.

Add 1/4 cup of water to your lard in the COLD pot.

This helps distribute the heat evenly and avoids hot spots.

Fire up your heat to medium-low.

If you have a ton of time, low is best but I tend to rush these things. You can even do this in a crock-pot but I've never done it, so you'd have to research how long it'd take, but it will work.

Cook until the water has evaporated, stirring occasionally, about 1 hour.

Over the next 30-45 minutes the process will be much faster.

You'll see a bunch of the fat begin to render and you'll get those "soapy" bubbles you see when cooking bacon.

Keep stirring every-so-often for about 30 minutes. Even heating is crucial.

Some people like to pull it at this point.

I've done it both ways, stop now before the cracklin's (chunks of fat) are crisp, and I've waited until the cracklin's are golden brown and delicious.

It's kind of up to you. If you want the lard COMPLETELY white, stop now (before the cracklins turn brown), if you don't mind if it's got an ever-so-slight straw yellow tint to it, let it go.

The benefit of letting it go is that you get more fat from it. If you pull it early you get better looking lard but less of it. So that's the trade-off.

This is about as white as it gets while being "done":

I let mine go from this (which would give you a nice finished lard):

To this:

Which if you look at the finished pictures is just slightly yellow. In my opinion it's completely fine this way, so this is the way I've been doing it, but purists may scoff. So whatever.

Anyway, get yourself a clean mason jar or two just in case you go over.

You'll need a heat resistant bowl and a fine mesh strainer.

Strain the fat into the bowl.

Mash the cracklins so you get all the fat from them.

There's not much left!

You'll notice some sediment in the lard. It's fine to consume like this but I like to strain it again.

I have a cute little strainer that works perfectly for this type of thing.

Get a double layer of cheesecloth over your strainer.

Strain away!

Leftover bits:

Nice clean lard.

Notice that it's yellow. It'll cool to white.

Cool on the counter until you can handle it comfortably then store in the fridge.

==

You can eat those cracklins, btw!

I tossed them into a small pan to render out a bit more and seasoned with a touch of salt.

Drain on paper towels and serve with salads, on potatoes or whatever. They're kind of like bacon bits but not smoked.

==

After your lard as cooled it will take on that nice white hue.

As I said above, you can see that it's just ever-so yellow. I don't care because it tastes identical to the snow white kind and I wanted the most lard I could get from my fatback.

==

Anyway, I've talked enough about lard. I love it. I use it all the time. You can bake with it (pies, biscuits, etc) and you can add it to nearly any savory dish to add a real nice porky flavor.

I use it for roasted potatoes, sautéed veggies, beans, stir-frys, whatever.

It's not a lot of work to make and it'll last forever and I promise, you'll use it all the time once you taste it.

Give it a try! Get on the lard train!

That's some sexy lard.

Enjoy!

Homemade Butter

2014-11-07T12:00:00.001-08:00

You may be thinking, "But, why? Butter is butter, right?"

Store-bought butter is kind of a watered down version of "real" butter to improve shelf-life and durability. If you make it at home you don't have to worry about that so you can leave all that buttery goodness where it belongs.

I suppose you could spend an exorbitant amount of money on "artisan" butters at a farmer's market somewhere, but why, when you can make it yourself?

It turns out that making butter is both easy and fun and yields a very good product that beats most the butter you can buy at the store. Certainly the budget butter I buy.

This is also a fun recipe to do with the kids!

Homemade Butter
(from here)

16 oz (1 pint) heavy cream

1/4 cup buttermilk

½ teaspoon Kosher salt

So, I failed to get the first pictures here, but you just want to combine the pint of heavy cream and 1/4 cup of buttermilk in some sort of container with a lid. Not rocket science.

The buttermilk will cause fermentation in the mixture, which we are looking for. This is the "butter" flavor.

Once mixed, leave on top of your fridge or something for 48 hours. Don't bother it and don't worry about it. Let it do its thing.

After your 48 hours is up, give it a stir.

Mine had tiny yellow bits in it. I assume that's the bacteria from the buttermilk doing what it does.

Anyway, it'll be thick. Like pancake batter or cream cheese frosting or something like that.

Get your mixer out and ready an ice bath.

Pour the mixture into the work bowl.

Start at low speed on the mixer until it gets going.

Increase to medium.

We are going to whip it past the point of breaking.

If you've made whipped cream at home before, you know there is the soft peaks stage, then the stiff peaks stage.

We are going PAST that to getting the fat to separate from the whey.

Basically breaking whipped cream.

You will not be in doubt when it happens. The fat will completely separate from the liquid in the bowl almost all at once.

I shot a video to show when it happens:

This is butter! Congratulations!

Now we just need to get the butter separated from the whey.

Get the butter off of the whisk.

I used gloves for this. It's incredibly messy.

Like, really messy.

Anyway, gather the butter in your hands as best as you can. It should be pretty easy, but it was really hot here when I did this, so it was tough for me - hence the ice bath.

Toss it in the bath, best as you can.

Put this in the fridge for now to firm up a bit.

The remaining whey is buttermilk!

You can keep this or toss it. Some people drink it!

Maybe make a batch of biscuits? You've got a carton of buttermilk in the fridge anyway...but that's for another time.

Regardless, I just tossed mine since there wasn't very much anyway.

Once your butter has chilled a bit (maybe 20 minutes) you can work with it a bit better.

I put it into a container or bowl or something to work with a spatula.

Break it up and add your salt. 1/2 teaspoon. Kosher.

As you mix it, you should have some more whey getting released.

Pour it off and continue to mix/press it out.

You'll be left with a much drier butter.

You can store it like this for a week in the fridge or much longer in the freezer.

I decided to roll it up for easy portioning.

Just put it in some parchment and roll it up. Easy. Put it in the fridge to firm up.

I figure it's about the same amount as two sticks of regular butter.

Now you can slice it into rounds for consumption.

==

This butter is what butter should taste like. It's not a funky European butter, but very American tasting in that it is mild in flavor but just, more bold, for lack of a better word. It's creamy, has a great texture and really screams "butter".

I have had really good luck with this butter simply spreading it on toast, or english muffins, or sandwiches. It's great for simple consumption.

You can also cook with it just fine. I've made eggs with it and it's incredible in that application - either fried or scrambled it gives an extra level of flavor that really compliments the eggs.

Making eggs has probably my favorite way to use this butter so far, but a brown butter sauce or roux or finishing risotto would be great uses for this. Sky's the limit!

Give this a try if you want a fun recipe to do with the kids that will give you a greater appreciation for this humble spread.

Enjoy!

Carne Asada with Chorizo Black Beans, Sweet Plantains, Simple Guacamole and Pico de Gallo

2014-10-27T11:31:00.002-07:00

I've been searching for forever it seems, to find a good carne asada recipe. The traditional versions are very simple and in their own ways very good but - and as much as I hate to admit it - doesn't taste as good as the carne asada I can get from my butcher's counter. I've tried and tried but it's just not as good and it's not as easy as just buying it outright. I do hate not being able to control what's in the marinade so I kept looking.

I've been making a few of Rick Bayless' recipes as of late and they are all awesome. The man writes a killer, idiot proof recipe and I really appreciate that. I found a picture of this dish while searching and thought it looked good enough to try to recreate.

This is his "Oaxacan-style carne asada".

Credit to serious eats for the picture and to Frontera for the plate.

Beans, plantains, guac and carne asada? - YES PLEASE.

The recipe I used is kind of an amalgam of a couple of his recipes for carne asada. Not knowing all the nuances of the tradition in Mexico I am just looking for a recipe that mimics that store-bought carne asada I love.

This is about the closest I have come and it's really good. Although this is not how I normally make carne asada (usually it's thinly sliced flank steak or something like that) the marinade is solid.

I just used a London Broil that I grilled off and sliced thinly. It turned out pretty nice and I'm looking forward to trying this marinade on a more traditional cut of beef in the future.

==

Carne Asada with Chorizo Black Beans, Sweet Plantains, Simple Guacamole and Pico de Gallo

(adapted heavily from Rick Bayless' recipes here, here and here)

Carne Asada Marinade
2 jalapeños roasted, peeled, seeded
6 garlic cloves pan roasted
2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce
1.5 teaspoons Mexican oregano
1 Tbs ancho chile powder
2 Tbs fresh lime juice
1 Tbs white vinegar
1 Tbs cider vinegar
2 Tbs canola oil
1.5 teaspoons salt

2 pounds of beef - I used London broil but you can use skirt, flank or flap to make it more traditional.

Pico De Gallo
3 Roma Tomatoes
1-2 serrano peppers (omit for a mild pico)
1 jalapeño pepper (seed for a mild pico or omit all together if you are heat sensitive, though when seeded it doesn't add very much heat)
Juice of two limes
½ large onion, diced
handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
salt

Simple Guacamole
3 Avocados
Lime juice (1/2 a lime to start)
salt

Chorizo Black Beans
8 oz dry black beans
2 bay leaves
1 star anise
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock (can sub water but it won't be nearly as good)
4 to 6 oz Mexican chorizo
½ large onion, diced

Sweet Plantains
2 ripe Plantains (mottled black skin)
2 tablespoons butter
1/8 teaspoon Kosher salt, more to taste

Queso fresco and/or Mexican crema to serve

Roast off 2 jalapeños. I do them over my gas burner but you can grill them or put them under the broiler. Goal is to get them uniformly charred so you can peel off the skins easily.

While those are going, toss 6 garlic cloves into a dry pan over medium-high heat. We're going to get them nice and soft.

Peel, seed, and chop the jalapeños roughly and toss into a blender.

Keep the garlic turning until it's soft. Maybe 10 minutes total.

Peel the garlic.

Toss into the blender.

To the blender, add:

2 teaspoons Worchestershire sauce

1.5 teaspoons Mexican oregano
1 tbl ancho chile powder
2 tbl lime juice
1 tbl white vinegar
1 tbl cider vinegar
2 tbl canola oil
1.5 tsp salt

Blend until smooth.

Scrape down periodically until it's nice and smooth.

I used a big London broil cut in half.

Toss the beef and marinade into a bag.

Toss into the fridge as long as you can. I usually do this in the morning but you can do it the night before and it'll be fine.

I'd say give it an absolute minimum of an hour.

Do some chores while your child sleeps. Hooray!

==

Meanwhile, you can make your pico. This is also great to do in the morning as it gets better with some time.

Assemble:

3 Roma Tomatoes
1-2 serrano peppers
1 jalapeño pepper
Juice of two limes
½ large onion, diced
handful of cilantro
salt

Dice your tomatoes.

Halve and onion (we'll be using the other half in the chorizo black beans, below) and dice it up. Add to the tomatoes.

Depending on how hot you like your pico you have some options.

I really like the flavor of jalapeños but love the clean heat of serranos. I've seeded the chiles with good results before but I never seem to get enough heat for me.

This time I've added a whole jalapeño and 2 entire serranos for extra heat. After it had a chance to sit for the afternoon it was definitely spicy but not as hot as I thought it was going to be. I thought it was perfect.

Anyway, add your chiles to the mix.

Also add your handful of cilantro (chopped) and seasonings - the juice of 2 limes and salt to taste. I'd start with 1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon (Kosher) and taste after it sits for a bit.

Give it a shake or stir to combine.

Let this sit in the fridge until dinner. You can give it a shake every-so-often to re-distribute the liquids. It will break down considerably through the day and the flavors will deepen tremendously.

==

We can also do our simple guacamole now, too!

This is as simple as guac gets. This is actually a pretty traditional preparation in Mexico as well.

3 Avocados
Lime juice (1/2 a lime to start)
salt

Just score the avocados and scoop out with a spoon.

Add the lime juice and a pinch of salt to start.

I just mashed with a potato masher.

I think I did it about 3 times.

I wanted it to still have a little body, not smooth by any means.

Just stash this in the fridge until dinner!

==

The beans ended up taking the most time since I used dry beans. I always seem to have a pound in my pantry at all times.

Measure out 8 oz of beans and add 1 star anise and 2 bay leaves.

This flavor combination is outstanding, especially with chorizo.

Measure out 4 cups of water or stock. I had a bunch of stock that needed to get used. I think this was actually beef stock.

Cover, bring to a boil then drop the heat to a simmer for 2 hours.

When your time is up, check the doneness of the beans. It may take a bit more time, but it's ok if they're still a little tough since we'll be cooking them more with the chorizo in a second.

Strain and reserve the liquid.

I had almost exactly 2 cups.

In a big pan or pot over medium heat toss in your chorizo and break it up.

Use the other half of the onion from your pico and dice it.

Toss it in.

Give it a stir and cook for about 10 minutes or until the onion is nice and soft.

===BONUS RECIPE===

Congratulations for reading this far, here's a quick way to doctor up a boring can of refried beans.

SAHD's Doctored-up Frijoles

1 tablespoon fat, usually bacon fat or lard but butter is also very nice
1 can of refried beans
1/2 teaspoon of taco seasoning (yes, from the envelope from the store - keep the rest in an old spice container and use it freely)

==

Just add the fat to a small sauce pan over medium heat.

Dump in your beans.

Season with the taco seasoning and stir to combine. Just bring it up to temp and serve!

My kids devour these beans.

Back to the Chorizo Black Beans...

Add the cooked black beans to the onion/chorizo mixture.

If your beans were a little under done, as mine were, add a bit of the reserved cooking liquid to give some extra moisture and body to the finished beans.

Basically just cook until the beans are completely done and the liquid is reduced to a nice kind of sauce enveloping the beans then hold on low until service.

Onward to the plantains!

I love plantains, they add a great texture and flavor element to most dishes and I don't cook with them nearly enough because I love them every time I use them.

You want to get yourself some of the darkest skinned plantains that you can. Even completely black skins aren't overripe yet. These below were *just* ripe enough to be called sweet plantains in my book.

Like bananas, just peel them.

I cut off the tops and bottoms first.

Then just run a knife down the side using a shallow cut and peel.

Slice on the bias in about 1/4 inch slices.

Arrange on the biggest skillet you have (non-stick works best here) with 2 tablespoons of butter and cook over medium-high heat until they brown on the bottom, maybe 5-7 minutes.

If you want more dramatically sweet plantains, you can add a pinch (or more) of sugar to the pan but watch it closely as the sugars will burn if you have your heat too high.

While those are going, grill off your beef.

Flip the plantains when browned and finish on the other side.

Sprinkle with a dash of salt (to taste) before serving.

When your beef is done, let it rest for a few minutes as you set the table and round up the family.

For this, I just sliced it thinly and served with a shake of salt over top.

==

Even though there are a lot of components to this dish, I really think everything worked very well together.

Like I said before, plantains are always a great addition to a plate for Latin American food in general. The slightly starchy texture and crisp exterior pairs well with its sweetness and is a great compliment to the spicier and earthier flavors on the plate.

The guacamole adds a nice acid note and goes really well with the pico to give you a more "American" guac experience.

The meat was as close as I've come to getting a spot-on carne asada marinade. It's slightly spicy, but earthy, salty and with the ancho chile powder, it's got a nice smoky element that matches really well with the chorizo black beans.

Overall, this was a great plate of food and I was very happy to eat it.

Enjoy!

Southern Style Black-Eyed Peas

2014-09-20T09:22:00.001-07:00

I try to make a plate of Southern food once every few months in order to satisfy my craving for my adopted homeland. While I ALWAYS make some collard greens, the other elements of the plate can vary by what mood I'm in or what I have on hand.

I usually like to have a starch and black-eyed peas are a great side. Smokey and almost meaty, they are a great tie in to a smoky plate of pulled pork or barbecue chicken.

Most of my Southern style recipes have been borrowed from deepsouthdish.com. It's a great site filled with info and outstanding recipes. Sometimes I just browse and salivate.

Southern Style Black-Eyed Peas

(from here)

For the Ham Stock:
2 smoked ham hocks
Water to cover plus an inch
1/2 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, smashed

For the Peas:

1/4 pound of bacon, chopped

1 cup of chopped onion

1/2 of a medium green bell pepper, chopped

1/2 cup of chopped celery

2 cloves of garlic, minced

1 quart of Ham Stock (ingredients above)

8 oz of dried black-eyed peas, rinsed and picked through

1 jalapeño, ribs and seeds removed and chopped

Couple pinches of kosher salt, or to taste

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper, or to taste

1/4 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning

2 bay leaves

I do this recipe in parts. You can just basically toss everything into the pot at one time but I like to use the "ham hock stock" for other things, namely collard greens.

(This part is identical to my collard greens recipe)

For this particular application, I'm making the stock separate from the greens then combining them at the end.

So, for the stock, get your ham hocks into a pot. Frozen is fine. I used a pressure cooker. Please, ask for a pressure cooker for your next birthday, it's incredibly useful.

Cover by at least an inch or fill all the way to the line, generally 4-6 quarts.

Assemble an onion and 5 cloves of garlic.
(I'm not sure why I took a picture of just half an onion, you should use a whole one.)

Roughly chop the onion and smash the garlic.

Toss in the pot along with 1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning.

Cook at high pressure for 45 minutes or at a simmer for about 4-5 hours or until the meat on the ham hocks are falling of the bone.

Strain the solids and reserve your stock. You should have about 4 quarts.

If you're making both the collard greens and the black-eyed peas (recipe to follow), add enough water to give you 6 quarts.

It's ok. It's plenty rich.

==

For the peas, proper, get 4 slices of bacon or about 4 oz of end pieces.

Dice and toss into a cold pot and turn the heat to medium.

Add a splash of water to barely cover the bottom of the pot.

This helps to render the fat evenly and to keep it from burning in spots.

As your bacon cooks, prep your Trinity.

Just dice everything up about the same size.

Your bacon is done when it foams nicely.

Toss in the Trinity along with some salt and pepper.

Be generous.

Add in 3 cloves of minced garlic.

Stir and cook for 5 minutes or so.

==

Go ahead and prep your jalapeño.

Seed it with a teaspoon.

Dice finely.

This will just add flavor, no heat.

Go ahead and weigh out your peas, 8 oz.

Measure out 1 quart of your delicious ham stock.

After about 5 minutes of cooking the veggies, add the peas to the pot.

Give them a good stir for about a minute to get them coated with the bacon fat.

Add the quart of ham stock along with the jalapeño, 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of freshly cracked black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning and 2 bay leaves.

Stir well and bring to a boil.

Once you reach a boil, drop the heat to a simmer and cook for 1 to 1.5 hours depending on how tender you like the peas.

I like them tender, so I go towards the 1.5 hour mark.

Cook them slightly covered, thusly:

Remove the bay leaves when done and check for salt. It'll probably need a bit.

==

These black-eyed peas turned out nice and smokey, creamy and salty - a great side to a Southern plate.

I served mine with greens, mac & cheese and home-smoked pulled pork!

Enjoy!

Southern Style Collard Greens

2014-09-20T09:17:00.001-07:00

Being born in the North and raised in the South has me torn to identify with a specific regional tradition. While I do love some of the German and Eastern European food traditions of Wisconsin (and of course the cheese) I really identify more with the traditional dishes of the South. I try to make a solid plate of Southern cooking once every few months at least.

Whatever combination of protein and sides I choose, without fail, I make greens.

I love greens. I love potlikker. I could drink a cup of the stuff. I've made pot pies and noodles from it but the best are the greens themselves. Smoky, salty and slightly bitter. They compliment and bring together any plate of Southern fare.

They are an absolute requirement for me.

Most of my Southern style recipes have been borrowed from deepsouthdish.com. It's a great site filled with info and outstanding recipes. Sometimes I just browse and salivate.

Southern Style Collard Greens
(from here)

For the Ham Stock:
2 smoked ham hocks
Water to cover plus an inch
1/2 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning
1 onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, smashed

For the Greens:
2 large bunches of collard greens, cleaned rinsed and chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
3 quarts of Ham Stock (ingredients above)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning
Couple dashes of hot sauce
2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon bacon drippings or lard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon of butter

==

I do this recipe in parts. You can just basically toss everything into the pot at one time but I like to use the "ham hock stock" for other things, namely black-eyed peas.

For this particular application, I'm making the stock separate from the greens then combining them at the end.

So, for the stock, get your ham hocks into a pot. Frozen is fine. I used a pressure cooker. Please, ask for a pressure cooker for your next birthday, it's incredibly useful.

Cover by at least an inch or fill all the way to the line, generally 4-6 quarts.

Assemble an onion and 5 cloves of garlic.
(I'm not sure why I took a picture of just half an onion, you should use a whole one.)

Roughly chop the onion and smash the garlic.

Toss in the pot along with 1/2 teaspoon cajun seasoning.

Cook at high pressure for 45 minutes or at a simmer for about 4-5 hours or until the meat on the ham hocks are falling of the bone.

Strain the solids and reserve your stock. You should have about 4 quarts.

If you're making both the collard greens and the black-eyed peas, add enough water to give you 6 quarts.

It's ok. It's plenty rich.

==

While the stock cooks you can prep the greens.

They can be dirty at times so inspect and clean thoroughly. Usually it's jut regular dirt.

Remove the stem. You can cut it out like this or fold it over and strip it with your fingers, whatever works for you.

Stack the leaves.

Roll them tightly.

Slice at 1 or 1/2 inch increments. I prefer about 1/2 inch.

Put in a bowl for now.

==

Now we make the potlikker.

Dice an onion and mince 3 cloves of garlic.

In your freshly cleaned pot, add 3 quarts of the Ham Stock, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, 1/2 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning, a couple dashes of hot sauce and your diced onion and minced garlic.

Place over high heat for a boil.

For illustrative purposes, I put the seasoning mixture into a small bowl. You can just add this directly after you reach a boil.

2 tablespoons of sugar
1 tablespoon bacon drippings or lard
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon of butter

Once you reach a boil...

Add your seasoning mixture.

Drop the heat to medium/low and stir well.

Add the greens slowly.

Press down to submerge and cook from 45 minutes to 2 hours.

45 and they'll be done but have a lot of body. 2 hours and they are very mushy.

Cook to your taste. I actually go towards the 2 hour mark.

After the greens are done to your liking, kill the heat.

Scoop them out with a slotted spoon and serve alongside some home-smoked pulled pork, mac-n-cheese and black-eyed peas perhaps?

This recipe is outstanding in my opinion. The potlikker is sublime and the greens are chock full of flavor. This is a must-serve side for any Southern plate.

Enjoy!

Pad See Ew

2014-09-03T13:26:00.002-07:00

This recipe is from Cook's Illustrated and when I saw it on America's Test Kitchen I thought it looked really good. They tend to forego traditional ingredients and techniques in favor of a more approachable method. While I do normally try to do things as traditionally as possible, this is a very good combination of the traditional and the modern/western schools of thought.

Basically this recipe is broken into multiple steps and each of the cooking steps is fried hot and fast in order to mimic the extremely high BTUs of wok fried noodles. It's done in batches in order to maximize the effect and it really does work well.

Again, while this doesn't taste EXACTLY like take-out, it's a really good noodle dish, and I am a HUGE fan of noodle dishes, so I'm pretty critical. This really is good.

Pad See Ew

(from here)

Chicken:

1 pound boneless, skinless chicken (a combination of breasts and thighs is nice), trimmed and cut against the grain into 1/4-1/8 inch-thick slices

1 tsp baking soda

2 TBS water

Sauce:

1/4 cup oyster sauce

1 TBS plus 2 tsp. soy sauce

2 TBS packed dark brown sugar

1 TBS white vinegar

1 tsp molasses

1 tsp fish sauce

Stir-Fry:

8 oz wide rice noodles

10-12 oz broccoli, florets cut into 1-inch pieces, stalks peeled and cut on bias into 1/2-inch pieces

1/4 cup vegetable oil, divided

3-7 garlic cloves, sliced thin (depending on taste, but I always go heavy with the garlic)

3 eggs

Weigh out your chicken.

I had a crown of broccoli that was just at 12 oz.

Get some water on the boil to soften the rice noodles.

Prep on the noodles may vary from brand to brand. Just get them softened but not fully-soft.

Basically you want them like 75% soft before you start to stir-fry.

Break down the broccoli.

Peel and slice the stem into 1/2 inch pieces.

I usually get tenderloins from Trader Joe's so prep is really easy.

Just slice against the grain.

I do them fairly thin.

Do the same for the thighs.

This recipe is garlic heavy but you don't get blown away. Use the full amount here. 7 cloves.

Slice thin.

Weigh out your noodles.

You really don't want to go over 8 oz here. It's more than you think.

When your water is boiling, drop in the noodles and kill the heat.

Mine say to cook for 8-10 minutes.

I pulled mine at 6 minutes.

We'll cook them more in the stir-fry. If they are fully hydrated now, they fall apart really easy later.

Learn from my mistakes.

Drain and rinse well when done.

This will help them not stick together and halt the cooking process.

Assemble your sauce ingredients.

1/4 cup oyster sauce

1 TBS plus 2 tsp. soy sauce

2 TBS packed dark brown sugar

1 TBS white vinegar

1 tsp molasses

1 tsp fish sauce

Stir well to combine.

Next, we'll do the chicken.

This trick is really neat.

Basically the baking soda reacts with the meat to quickly tenderize it. It ends up very velvety when all is said and done. I've been doing this with pork and chicken in all my stir-frys recently.

Just combine 1 tsp baking soda with 2 TBS water in the bowl.

Stir well to combine and let sit for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes just rinse the chicken well to remove the baking soda.

As any stir-fry goes, have all your mis en place set before you begin.

You'll want a heat proof bowl as well since we'll be frying this in shifts.

Start with 2 tsp of oil in a wok or 12 inch non-stick skillet over high heat.

Toss in the garlic when the oil is up to temp.

Fry for a few minutes or until it begins to brown. You'll want to toss it around pretty much constantly.

Add the chicken and 2 tablespoons of sauce and flatten it down. Let this cook undisturbed for 4 minutes, at least. We are looking for some color on the chicken.

You'll see it basically cooked through on the top side:

Give it a good toss and push the chicken to one side of the pan.

Add the eggs to the clear side.

Gently break the yolks and stir-fry the eggs until just set.

Dump the chicken and eggs into your empty bowl.

2 more teaspoons of oil in the pan.

Add the broccoli and 2 more tablespoons of sauce.

Cover and cook for 60 seconds.

Give it a toss, re-cover and cook for another minute.

Repeat for 4 total minutes or until the broccoli is tender and getting browned.

Tip it into the bowl with the chicken and eggs.

2 more teaspoons of oil.

Add HALF the noodles along with 2 more tablespoons of sauce.

Stir well and cook, undisturbed for about 2 minutes.

Toss and repeat for a total of 4 minutes.

Tip it in.

Put 2 more teaspoons of oil (I promise, last time) in the pan.

The rest of the noodles go in along with the rest of the sauce.

Toss and cook undisturbed for 4 minutes, tossing half-way through again.

Now, add everything back into the pan and toss well.

Cook for 2-3 minutes or until everything is heated through.

Tip out onto a serving platter.

==

Overall, this was a really great dish. I've actually made this four or five times already. Cooking the components separately and at high heat allows the recreation of the super hot stove tops at Asian restaurants and gives the dish a very nice texture. Nothing here is steamed and soggy. It's got great body along with a solid flavor combination in the sauce.

The kids love this dish because there aren't any "weird" vegetables and all of the flavors are right in their wheelhouse.

I usually kick mine up with a healthy dose of Sriracha.

If you like Asian noodles, give this one a try!

Enjoy!

Summer Chicken and Corn Chowder

2014-08-30T08:54:00.001-07:00

Big winner today.

I over-bought sweet corn on the cob this week and was looking for a recipe to use it up. I've made a corn salsa and added corn to black beans so far but I still had corn leftover. This was a great way to use it up and was a HUGE hit with the family.

This soup ends up eating very well for a summer day. Not too thick or hearty but not light enough that you want for more after dinner. The topping of tomatoes, avocado, lime and cilantro really makes the dish. Please, don't leave it out!

Summer Chicken and Corn Chowder
(from here)

Soup:
4 slices bacon, chopped (about 4 oz)
1 onion, diced
3 tablespoons flour
1 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
6 cups chicken broth (homemade makes the soup!)
2-3 cups cooked chicken (from a standard rotisserie chicken - I used 6 bone-in thighs)
Kernels cut from 3 ears of corn (about 3 cups)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, more to taste
1/2 to 1 teaspoon Kosher salt, to taste

Topping:
3 roma tomatoes, diced
1 avocado, pitted, peeled, and chopped
1/2 cup loosely packed cilantro leaves
1 lime, cut into wedges

==

Gather your vegetables.

Then get your bacon. I buy bacon "end pieces" at the store. It's cheap and perfect for this type of application where you're just dicing it up anyway.

Weigh out about 4 oz. This is usually about 4 strips of regular thick-cut bacon.

Chop roughly and toss into a pot with a splash of water. This helps the bacon cook evenly.

Turn heat to medium. Also important to start with a cold pan as it helps the fat render evenly.

Cook until nice and crisp.

==

While that is cooking, prep your chicken.

I just used 6 bone-in thighs and poached them in broth (like this) and used that chicken for the soup and the broth (plus the bones and more veggies) for the stock. Quick and easy.

I also diced the chicken instead of shredding it because I prefer the texture of diced to shredded chicken in soup, but that just me.

You can use any chicken you want so long as it's 2-3 cups, cooked. A store-bought rotisserie chicken would be fine here.

EDIT:

I just made this again and used a rotisserie chicken (since I forgot the photo last time):

==

Once your bacon is crisp, toss in the diced onion.

Season with salt and pepper and give it a good stir.

Cook over medium heat for 7-10 minutes. I wanted the onions to get some color and sweetness.

Meanwhile, peel and dice your potatoes.

I put them in a bowl of water while I waited for the onions so that they'd stay fresh.

When your onions are turning light brown, add 3 tablespoons of flour.

You can even double this if you want a thicker soup, more like a traditional "chowder" consistency. This amount of flour gives body and texture but it eats more like a standard soup. Both my wife and I liked the consistency, but if you like a thick soup, you'll need to add more flour at this point but I wouldn't go more than 6 tablespoons.

Stir well to combine.

Keep stirring for 60 full seconds, don't stop.

Add the chicken broth. 6 cups.

Stir well and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally.

Blurry.

When you reach a boil, you'll notice it thicken considerably.

Add the potatoes (drain the water first if you did that) and drop the heat to medium to maintain a simmer.

Cook until the potatoes are just tender, about 7-10 minutes. Give it a stir every-so-often.

Meanwhile, prep the corn.

Shuck and just slice down the sides of each ear.

It'll make a mess, just do your best to contain it.

EDIT:

I have since just done this in a bowl and the kernels come off right into the bowl. Much less mess!

You can also prep some of your toppings quick - I saved the avocado for last because I didn't want it to turn brown while I waited for my wife to come home.

Dice 3 roma tomatoes.

Small handful of cilantro, about 1/2 cup - chop this up.

==

When your potatoes are tender add the chicken,

then the corn.

Stir well and bring to a simmer.

Once you reach a simmer, add 1/2 cup heavy cream.

This is optional but adds a bit of richness to the soup.

Season with salt and pepper.

Be generous here. It needs a lot of both. 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper to start.

Taste and add a bit more of each in small doses until you dial in the seasoning. I like mine pretty salty and peppery - I actually double this starting amount!

Simmer until it reduces just a bit, 5-10 minutes, tops.

We don't actually want this soup to cook for hours and hours since the potatoes will break down too much. We want everything to retain at least SOME of its form.

Right before service, cut your avocado and lime.

I do the scoring trick for nice big chunks.

Just cut into it with a butter knife...

and scoop it out!

Magic!

You can mix all of this together into a salsa type thing, but I prefer to keep everything separate for garnishing the soup. That way if you want more of an individual item you can just grab it.

Serve in a bowl and garnish with the tomatoes, avocado, squeeze of lime, sprinkle of cilantro and a dash of salt (this really makes the avocado "pop", for lack of a better word).

==

Overall this soup was fantastic. Sweet, slightly smoky, nice and rich but at the same time the blend of fresh avocado with the acid from the tomato and lime just perfectly cut through the soup and balanced everything out. It really made a heavy chowder into an almost light feeling meal without feeling hungry after.

This was a great soup and since it was such a big hit, it's going in our "regular" rotation around here.

Also, this makes enough for leftovers. I'd say 6 servings.

Give it a try!

Enjoy!

Avocado Cream Enchiladas

2014-08-20T11:26:00.002-07:00

This is kind of a riff on Enchiladas Suizas but with avocado instead of tons and tons of cheese to lend the richness.

This is a pretty quick recipe to put together and yields very good results. The filling is nice and creamy and hits that comfort food spot and the kids love it.

Avocado Cream Enchiladas

(from here)

Avocado Cream:

2 cups heavy cream (can sub half and half, but I wouldn't use milk)

1 cup chicken broth

2 avocados

1 cup fresh cilantro, unpacked

1 teaspoon cumin

2 cloves of garlic

Juice of one lime

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste

Chicken Filling:

1 tablespoon oil/butter

1/2 onion, diced

4 oz can diced Fire Roasted Hatch Chiles

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1/2 teaspoon cumin

4 cups cooked, skinned & shredded chicken meat (about 1 store-bought rotisserie chicken or 1.5 pounds of uncooked chicken - using a combination of thighs and breast is nice!)

salt and pepper to taste

To Finish:

1/2 to 1 cup shredded Mexican blend cheese, to taste

8-10 medium flour tortillas

Pour 2 cups of cream into a blender.

Add 1 cup of chicken stock (or whatever stock).

I keep mine frozen in 1 cup ziplock baggies in the freezer. Super convenient.

Add a cup of unpacked cilantro.

Add 2 avocados.

Finally, add 1 teaspoon cumin, 2 cloves of garlic, juice of one lime and 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt. You can always add more salt after the fact.

Blend, blend, blend!

I like to get it as smooth as possible. 1-2 full minutes.

So, it looks like about 4 1/2 cups of sauce.

==

For the filling, add a tablespoon of oil along with 1/2 an onion to a skillet and season with salt and pepper over medium heat.

Season with 1/2 teaspoon chili powder and 1/2 teaspoon cumin and sauté for 5-7 minutes or until very tender.

Add the can of green chiles.

Stir well and let the flavors combine, 5 minutes - then kill the heat.

I used a pound and a half of uncooked chicken for the filling. I always use a combination of thighs and breast so you get the best of both worlds - good looking chicken that isn't too dry.

Just grill or pan fry the chicken with salt and pepper until done. Nothing fancy here since it's going to be drowned in avocado cream sauce.

I like to dice it in fairly bite-sized chunks. I don't really like shredded chicken because it tends to turn into a paste when mixed. The chunks retain their form much better.

Add the onion/chile mixture to the chicken in a bowl.

Stir to combine.

Add HALF of the avocado cream to the filling.

Stir to combine.

Creamy.

Place 1/4 cup of the remaining filling to the bottom of a 9x13 baking dish.

Spread it out. This helps prevent sticking.

I used flour tortillas but you can use corn if you want. Just adjust the filling amount since they tend to be smaller.

I used 1/3 of a cup for each of mine.

Just roll them up.

Place in the dish.

Repeat for all of your filling.

Pour the remaining avocado cream sauce over top.

Spread as evenly as you can.

Top with about a cup of cheese. No need to over-load here. There's plenty of richness in the sauce.

Cover and bake for 20 minutes at 350F.

Uncover and bake for 10 more minutes at 350F.

==

These enchiladas ended up being really good. The sauce was a great alternative to a heavy, cheese/fat laden sauce as the avocados lend body and healthier fat to the equation.

The filling was great in that it was rich, flavorful and easy to eat. The texture was nice being diced and each bite was texturally well balanced.

The simple flavor of the chicken stood up well to the rich and slightly tart avocado cream sauce. All in all this was a great plate of food. Serve with a simple salad of shredded lettuce with sliced tomatoes and/or beans and rice. Very versatile and very comforting. Great dish. Give it a try!

Enjoy!

Ginger Soy Short Ribs with Miso Risotto

2014-08-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

This meal was inspired by a dish I had while in Missoula, MT at The Red Bird this summer on vacation with the family. We got some time to go out with some old friends to a nice place and get a nice meal. Very rare for us.

The original dish was bison two ways as short ribs and tenderloin. I really liked the short ribs, which were braised then smoked (or smoked then braised?) and the miso rice. The tenderloin was fine, but was too much for me on the plate. The short ribs were enough.

For this version, I'm skipping the tenderloin from the original and swapping the miso rice for miso risotto, since I thought the rice in the original was a bit dry.

Ginger Soy Short Ribs with Miso Risotto

(marinade from here, technique from here, risotto very lightly adapted from momofuku's miso risotto, here)

Ginger Soy Marinade:

3 lbs bone-in beef short ribs, each about 3 inches long

1 bunch green onions, chopped

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup honey

Juice of 1 lime

1 tsp. sesame oil

Miso Risotto:

(Please refer to my previous post about risotto to get a better idea to what's going on here)

3 tablespoons bacon fat or lard or butter

1 large (or 2 small) shallots

1 cup arborio rice

1/2 cup sake

6 cups Asian Vegetable Stock (or your favorite stock) at a strong simmer Recipe below

1/2 cup of peas

2-3 teapoons of shiro (white) miso, to taste

1/4 cup of grated Romano cheese

1 tablespoon of butter

Asian Vegetable Stock:

(I'm not going to pretend that regular, store-bought chicken or vegetable stock wouldn't work fine for this recipe, so if you're pressed for time, just use that - you'll need 6 cups, at a simmer for the risotto, BUT- if you have 20 minutes and a pressure cooker, go for it!)

4 cloves garlic

2 carrots

2 stalks of celery

1 onion, quartered

1 bunch of scallions, chopped

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons sake

A handful of parsley stems

A handful of mushroom stems (I didn't have any, but you should use them)

A handful of bonito flakes

1/4 piece of nori

4 quarts of water (may vary according to your pot)

For smoking the short ribs:

1 chimney of charcoal, natural lump works great

1 handful hickory chips, soaked for 1 hour

To finish:

12 oz sugar snap peas, trimmed

So, I began by marinating my short ribs:

3 lbs bone-in beef short ribs

1 bunch green onions, chopped

5 garlic cloves, minced

2 tablespoons fresh ginger, peeled and minced

1/2 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup honey

Juice of 1 lime

1 tsp. sesame oil

Just toss everything into a ziplock bag.

Let this go as long as you can, but an hour should suffice in a pinch. I usually do this type of thing in the morning while I drink my coffee and stash it in the fridge all day.

Next you can make your stock. This can be done ahead, too.

As said above, you can use store-bought chicken or vegetable stock for this and be totally fine. But if you want to go the extra mile and ramp up your risotto, do yourself a favor and go for the gusto. Making your own stock is economical, tasty and easy. It also lets you dial in any flavors you want to impart to your dishes. With a pressure cooker, it's quick, easy and outstanding.

Just add your veggies:

4 cloves garlic

2 carrots

2 stalks of celery

1 onion, quartered

1 bunch of scallions, chopped

3 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons sake

A handful of parsley stems

A handful of mushroom stems (I didn't have any, but you should use them)

Add a handful of bonito flakes and...

1/4 piece of nori.

Using these two ingredients really sends the broth to Japan. The bonito flakes add a smoky umami flavor as the nori gives it MORE umami punch with some flavors of the sea. Very nice.

Fill with 4 quarts of water - or to your max fill line.

Cook on high pressure for 15 minutes and let the pressure dissipate on its own.

Strain once or twice as you see fit. I always do it twice.

Meanwhile, empty the contents of the short ribs into a pot. Marinade and all. I turn the ribs bone-side up.

Add enough water to come half-way up the sides of the short ribs.

Cook at 300 for about 2 hours or until tender when poked with a fork.

You don't want them to be "fall-apart-tender" just yet but they will be tender.

Remove the short ribs and strain the liquid.

Sorry, didn't get a pic of the straining. Keep the liquid on hand.

Note that I lost some of the bones. It's ok.

==

Now the second part of this is the smoking.

It's not going to be very long as we're just going to impart the flavor and glaze that the smoke gives, as well as finishing off the cooking process.

Grab just an handful of hickory chips (or whatever wood you want) and soak them for about an hour - so they won't just burst into flames when they hit that charcoal.

Light a whole chimney of charcoal.

I use the "natural lump" because it's awesome.

When it's just starting to ash over the top it's ready.

Usually takes me 15-20 minutes.

Turn out the coals on one side of your grill.

Throw the wood chips on the coals.

Arrange the short ribs on the opposite side of the grill.

Cover and let smoke for 20-30 minutes.

After about 15 minutes:

Pull them when they get a nice dark bark - again, only 30 minutes.

Next, we'll do the risotto.

If you're time conscious, you'll have already started this before you started the ribs smoking. Just be aware that the risotto will take 45 minutes or so (maybe a bit less) so time your service accordingly.

I started with 2 tablespoons of bacon fat and 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium heat.

Peel and dice a couple of shallots.

Add to the fat.

Measure out a cup of arborio rice and 1/2 a cup of sake (in lieu of white wine).

When your shallots are translucent, after about 5 minutes, add the rice.

Give this a stir for 60 seconds - 2 minutes at the most.

Add the sake.

Stir until absorbed.

Add your super-fantastic-number-one-fun-time Japanese inspired stock, at a simmer, a ladle at a time from this point on.

Stir every-so-often until you get those nice little trails of starch after most of the liquid is absorbed then add another ladle. Repeat until al dente.

Again, refer to this post for much more detail on risotto making.

When your rice is just about ready, lower the heat to low, add the peas, a pat of butter and the miso.

I started with a teaspoon and ended up using three. It's up to your taste here. Start with one, add another and go from there.

Add your 1/4 cup of Romano.

Stir well to combine and remove from the heat.

Remember that strained cooking liquid from the short ribs?

Put that in a small pot or pan and add the 12 oz of peas.

Cover and bring this to a simmer over medium-high heat.

Cook for a 5-7 minutes until tender to your liking. Less time for more snap.

Plate with some of the sauce from the peas with the ribs, risotto and peas.

While this dish was inspired by a restaurant dish, it's much more approachable for a home cook. The Short ribs were outstanding. The ginger and soy added a nice sweet/savory element while the smoke really came through in flavor and texture as it created a nice sticky bark on the short ribs.

The risotto was creamy and very nicely flavored with the miso. Combined with the short ribs it paired really well as the peas added some texture and ruffage to the plate.

Overall, this was a fantastic plate of food. Everything was balanced and fulfilling. This is a really great dish if you are craving some Asian flavors and some good old-fashioned meat.

Enjoy!

Gazpacho

2014-07-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

I figured that now the weather is nice and hot, people would like a typical summer meal. I love this soup for dinner but it also works great for all those summer barbecue engagements. It travels well and doesn't need to be heated up!

This is a tried and true recipe from Alton Brown which I've made a bunch of times with great results.

Gazpacho

(from here)

1 1/2 pounds vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped

1/2 to 1 cup tomato juice (will vary depending on tomatoes, supplement with the bottled variety)

1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 red bell pepper, diced

1/2 red onion, diced

1 small jalapeño, seeded and minced

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 lime, juiced

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (can sub balsamic)

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon toasted, ground cumin

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chiffonade

We're going to start with a concasse of tomato. This is a fancy term for peeling, seeding, and dicing tomatoes.

I've detailed this process before in my Spaghetti all'Amatriciana recipe (which is one of my absolute favorites, btw).

We're going to start by getting a pot of water on the boil. No need to salt the water.

Weigh out a pound and a half of tomatoes. I like Romas for this, but any tomatoes you have will work.

The ingredients are very simple, just require a bit of knife work.

Start by coring the tomatoes.

Then cut a shallow "X" in the bottom.

Drop the tomatoes in the boiling water, three at a time or so.

Boil for 20-30 seconds. I actually go toward the 30 second mark, normally.

Evacuate to an ice bath.

Repeat for the rest of the tomatoes.

When cool, peel thusly:

Then cut in half:

Scoop out the innards with a tablespoon or by hand.

Save the innards in a sieve over a bowl. You'll get a lot of liquid from them.

Dice:

Repeat the steps for the rest of the tomatoes.

Lots of innards.

Put the tomatoes in a big resealable container:

Squeeze all the juice you can from the tomatoes.

I had just under half a cup! Way more than I thought I'd get.

Fill up the cup with store bought tomato juice.

Pour it into the tomatoes.

Next, peel a cucumber.

Cut in half. I also trim the ends.

Seed it with a teaspoon.

Dice the same size as the tomatoes.

Everything we cut will try to be the same size, btw.

Toss it in.

Red bell pepper.

Seeded:

Strips.

Diced:

(I ended up using the whole thing.)

Toss it in.

Only going to use half a red onion.

Diced:

Toss it in.

One jalapeño. It's not going to add very much heat, but good flavor. Even if you're heat sensitive, I suggest not skipping this.

Half:

Seeded. Wear gloves if you're sensitive.

Diced:

Garlic.

Smash it.

Mince it.

Toss it in.

==

Whew. Done with the knife work.

Now for the seasoning ingredients.

I actually toasted and ground my cumin. You can use ground cumin, but it really tastes different from the seed.

Give it a try, it's not that much more work.

If you've gone this far, go all the way.

Toss the cumin seeds in a hot pan and toast until you can smell it toasting.

You'll be able to tell.

Toss it into a coffee grinder used for spices only.

Very cheap and well worth having on hand.

I made more than I needed.

Measure out 1/2 tsp.

Toss it in along with the other ingredients:

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1 lime, juiced

2 teaspoons sherry vinegar (can sub balsamic)

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Make sure the olive oil is good and the vinegar is good since this is raw there's no covering it up.

Give it a good stir.

Transfer 1/2 cup to a blender.

Blend well.

Pour it back in:

Stir well to recombine.

Now we wait. This is much better the next day, so do it beforehand.

The next day:

Looks pretty much the same but all the flavors have married well.

I also made some bread with garlic oil.

1/4 cup or so of olive oil and teaspoon of grated garlic.

1/2 teaspoon crushed chili flakes.

Stir it up.

Bread at the ready.

I experimented and painted some with the olive oil and left some plain to dip with.

Broil until toasted on each side.

Yum.

We'll finish with a chiffonade of fresh basil.

Stack your leaves.

Roll them up.

Slice thinly.

Boom. Chiffonade. Fancy.

Sprinkle the basil over top and serve with bread and spicy garlic olive oil.

This is a great summer soup. It's got an incredible flavor from the good olive oil and vinegar and the fresh vegetables really shine through. Getting a nice bite soaked up in the garlic bread is divine. If you like it a bit spicier, a shot of Sriracha is a great addition.

Enjoy!

Thai Coconut Curry with Tofu and Vegetables

2014-07-16T12:30:00.002-07:00

This is a follow-up post to one of my most popular posts, "Striped Pangasius With Thai Coconut Curry", that was originally adapted from skinnytaste.com.

I've taken to making this dish a bunch of different ways, as I make it a couple times a month, at least. I've done it with chunks of fish, shrimp, chicken and tofu. Served it over grilled tempeh and tofu. Always trying different combinations. I've kind of settled on this tofu version, with the vegetables cut a bit bigger and with more added.

It's my wife's favorite dish and the kids love it. Pretty much the definition of a "winner".

Thai Coconut Curry with Tofu and Vegetables

For the Tofu:
2 (14oz) packages of FIRM tofu (extra firm is fine, but don't get the "soft" varieties)
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tsp coconut oil (can sub any neutral oil, just coconut goes really well in this dish)
1 tsp sesame oil

For the Coconut Curry:
2 tablespoons coconut oil or ghee (can sub as per above)
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tbsp fresh ginger, minced
5 garlic cloves, minced
2 red bell peppers, diced
1 bunch scallions, sliced (green and whites separated)
1 shallot, diced (can sub a small red onion)
1 carrot, sliced
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tsp red curry paste
1 tsp madras curry powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp fish sauce
1 (14oz) can light coconut milk
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro

For the tofu, we're just going to squeeze as much water out of it as we can so that it can soak up some soy sauce.

If you're super-duper short on time you can skip this, but it's not going to taste nearly as good.

On that note, if you think "tofu tastes bad" then you should give this preparation a whirl. It's streets ahead of just taking normal tofu and frying it up.

This also makes a great lunch for the kiddos.

Cut each block into 4 pieces.

I fit mine onto 2-3 paper towels (or tea towel) set on a cutting board, thusly:

Cover them with anther layer of paper towels (or tea towel).

Put another cutting board on top.

Weigh it down!

I use my dutch oven and another pot. It doesn't have to be overkill, but a couple cans takes too long. Maybe like four 28oz cans would be enough. Just use a heavy pot, it's easier.

Anyway, let it sit for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, the paper towels should be very wet.

Time to switch them out.

Pressed, but not enough!

Repeat the paper towel set-up.

Repeat the press.

This time for 20 minutes.

Much better.

Pressed!

==

Get a 7x11 dish or something that will fit the tofu.

I used to do this in a ziplock bag but they get pretty fragile when rehydrated with soy sauce. It's much more manageable using a dish of some sort.

Pour enough soy sauce to nearly cover the bottom.

Arrange your tofu.

Drizzle some more soy sauce over the top.

Go ahead and flip them.

Cover and refrigerate all day if you want.

Flip about half way through your time.

I usually do this in the morning and serve for dinner, flipping once.

==

Meanwhile, you can prep all the veggies.

Gather your garlic.

Ginger.

I peel mine with a teaspoon. Easy.

Grate it or mince it.

You want to try to have equal amounts of garlic and ginger, a generous tablespoon of each.

Your other veggies can be prepped ahead as well.

==

Chop your shallot.

It's doesn't have to be finely chopped. I like all the veggies about the same size. Maybe 1/2 inch dice.

Slice a carrot on the bias just to look nice.

Red bell pepper.

Again, diced about 1/2 inch.

Scallions.

Separate the greens and whites.

Slice them coarsely.

Add to shallot and red bell peppers.

Slice the greens.

Separate bowl:

Halve the tomatoes.

To scallion greens bowl:

==

When you're ready for dinner, check on the tofu.

Notice all the soy sauce is gone from the bottom of the dish! Sucked into the tofu. That's flavor.

Get a pan over medium/high heat.

Add 1 tsp coconut oil and 1 tsp sesame oil. I really like that combination for this dish.

Add the tofu when the oil is hot.

Cook for 5-7 minutes depending. Keep an eye on them and check for browning.

Flip and get the other side golden brown and delicious. A few minutes.

Evacuate to a cutting board.

You can dice the tofu but I like to make little triangles.

The kids love them this size - and we get to talk about shapes.

==

You can start the curry at the same time.

Add 2 tablespoons coconut oil and 1 tablespoon sesame oil to a wok over high heat.

Add the ginger and garlic and cook for about a minute or until very fragrant. Don't over cook it.

Toss in the shallot, red bell peppers, carrots, and white parts of the scallions.

Toss and cook for 3-5 minutes or until soft.

Add the spices:

2 tsp red curry paste
1 tsp madras curry powder
1/2 tsp ground cumin

Stir well and cook for a minute.

Next, add the wet ingredients:

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp fish sauce

Stir well and cook 2-3 minutes.

After about 3 minutes add the can of coconut milk.

Drop the heat to medium low and let this cook for about 15-20 minutes. You want to bring it to a simmer to thicken a bit but not to a full boil.

After your 20 minutes, add the scallion greens and tomatoes.

Give it a stir and add the tofu.

Let this go for another 5-10 minutes or until everything is heated through, the tomatoes begin to break down, and the flavors mingle a bit.

Just before service, toss in the cilantro and stir to combine.

==

Overall, this is a nice evolution of the original dish. Sometimes I still serve it the original way more as a sauce than as a stand-alone dish. This way definitely eats as a stand-alone dish. With the addition of the carrots and tomatoes, there are slightly different flavor elements going on, but they are all very complimentary. We've really grown to love this dish around here.

If you've never tried a red curry, it is at once a touch spicy (not too much for the kids) and sweet, salty and sour. Adding a squeeze of lime and some Sriracha compliments everything very well. The tofu stands up in texture and flavor to the curry and makes for a filling meal. No one will miss the meat in this dish.

I hope you give it a try. It's bound to impress!

Enjoy!

Homemade Chorizo Enfrijoladas and Black Bean Sauce

2014-07-15T12:09:00.001-07:00

I had no idea how easy it was to make homemade chorizo.

The stuff at the store is fine and all, but making it yourself is so quick, easy, and delivers great texture and flavor.

While tacos would be a great application for this chorizo, I ended up making enfrijoladas, which are just tortillas dipped in sauce (or in this case just topped with sauce and filled with chorizo).

I did a version of this as burritos that turned out really well, so I wanted to try it with homemade chorizo.

Homemade Chorizo Enfrijoladas and Black Bean Sauce
(yet another from Serious Eats, here)

Chorizo:

1 1/2 pounds pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes

2 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 tablespoon ancho chili powder

1/4 teaspoon ground achiote

3 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tablespoon)

1/2 teaspoon dried Mexicano oregano

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/4 teaspoon ground coriander seed

1/16-1/8 tsp ground cinnamon (to taste)

3 tablespoons red wine or distilled white vinegar

To Cook Chorizo:

1 tablespoon bacon fat (or lard or whatever you have on hand)

1/2 large white onion, diced (use the other half below for the Cilantro Onions)

1 poblano pepper, diced

Black Bean Sauce:

8 oz dried black beans

4 cups vegetable stock or water

2 bay leaves

1 whole star anise

Quick Cilantro Onions:

1/2 large onion, diced (use the other half above to cook the chorizo)

Handful of cilantro, chopped

1 lime, juiced

Salt, to taste

To Serve Enfrijoladas:

Black Bean Sauce (above)

Quick Cilantro Onions (above)

Tortillas (flour or corn)

Queso fresco

Mexican crema

A note on the achiote, if you can't find it, it is optional, but give a nice deep color to the chorizo. You may also find it labelled "annatto".

I used this kind in the Mexican section of my grocery store.

==

Simply combine all the spices in a medium sized bowl.

Stir well to combine.

Add 3 tablespoons red wine or white vinegar (I used red wine vinegar).

Stir well to form a kind of paste.

Add your 1 inch pork cubes.

Stir well to coat.

Stash in the fridge for at least 4 hours and up to 3 days before cooking.

I let mine go overnight.

==

Before grinding, you may want to freeze the meat a bit so it doesn't clump too badly on you.

If you have a meat grinder, grind this as you would any other ground meat product.

I used a food processor, so freezing the meat helps a lot.

Just let it freeze for about 30 minutes.

In batches, buzz it up.

I let it get pretty fine, as chorizo tends to be in really small chunks when cooked.

It's never going to be perfect in a food processor, so do your best. It'll still taste great.

Set aside until you're ready for dinner.

In the meantime, we can make the black bean sauce.

This takes about 2.5 hours, so plan accordingly.

Like I said, I've detailed this before in another post, so I just copied the photos from that one below.

==

Weigh out 8 oz of beans.

Grab 4 cups of stock or water or whatever you have on hand. I had some leftover homemade vegetable stock. Very nice.

Add the stock to the beans in a medium sauce pan.

Add 2 bay leaves and a star anise pod. If you have avocado leaves, use a small handful of them instead.

Cover and bring to a boil over medium/high heat.

Once you are at a boil, give it a stir and drop the heat to a simmer.

You'll notice the aroma of the bay leaves and star anise at this point. I thought it smelled amazing. It reminded me of sausage simmering on the stove.

Lid it up and cook for 2 hours or until they are soft.

When your beans are ready, strain them and save the liquid.

Discard the bay leaves and star anise pod.

Throw the beans back in the pot. We'll eat these separately or most likely just let the kids eat them.

I had about 2 cups of liquid left.

Add ¾ cup of the cooked beans and 2 cups of the cooking liquid to a blender.

Blend for 2 full minutes.

Pour the blended beans into a sauce pan and put over medium/high heat for a boil.

Once the sauce comes to a boil, drop the heat to a simmer until it thickens up (uncovered). It'll take 30 minutes at the least.

Your sauce is done when it's nice and thick.

Season with salt. I started with about 1/4 teaspoon but taste as you go.

If it gets too thick on you, dilute with some water. I had to. It'll still taste great.

You can cook the chorizo at the same time as you do the sauce or do it ahead and reheat it.

==

To cook the chorizo, add a tablespoon of bacon fat or lard (or whatever) to a large skillet over medium/high heat.

Dice up a poblano pepper.

These things are really under-rated in my opinion.

They add such a great almost smoky flavor to any Mexican dish you may make. Much better than a green bell pepper for example - deeper and much more complex.

Anyway, toss it in.

Dice up a big onion.

Toss HALF OF IT in the pan.

We'll use the other half in a second.

Cook for 7-10 minutes.

==

Grab a handful of cilantro.

Roughly chop it.

Add a tablespoon or so of lime juice.

Add some salt and stir well to combine.

This is a surprisingly awesome sort of pico condiment that goes really well on tacos. I make it all the time.

==

When your veggies are soft, add the chorizo.

Break it up and cook like you'd cook ground beef or whatever.

Cook until no longer pink.

==

To serve, just fill the tortillas with chorizo and fold over quesadilla-style. (Sorry, no pics!)

I poured the black bean sauce over top and sprinkled the cilantro onions, queso fresco, and some Mexican crema then hot sauce over that. Be generous with the black bean sauce!

Overall, the chorizo was very satisfying. The earthy spiciness of it was a spot-on flavor match to store bought chorizo, but the texture was better (there can be some odd bits in processed chorizo) and the flavor was just more "fresh" for lack of a better word. I also had WAY less fat rendered from this than from store bought stuff. That tends to swim in fat after it's cooked. This seemed much leaner.

I love the combination of chorizo and this black bean sauce, too. It's rich and almost soup-like. I also really like this way of serving. It's like the best parts of tacos and enchiladas. You get the textures of a taco but the sauce of the enchiladas. Really good.

If you're a fan of Mexican food, give it a whirl if you're sick of making the same things over and over!

Enjoy!

p.s.

You can also serve these with just the tortillas dipped in the black bean sauce and the chorizo spooned over top.

Both ways are excellent!

Spanish-Style Garlic Shrimp (Gambas al Ajillo) with Fresh Pasta

2014-07-12T15:26:00.000-07:00

Kenji over at Serious Eats never fails to impress. I've used his recipes a bunch of times and have always been happy with the results.

This particular dish was designed to be stand-alone as a tapas style dish. Served with bread and eaten as-is. While that sounds like a fine way to consume such delicious shrimp, I really love shrimp and pasta, so I decided to toss this over fresh homemade pasta with great results. The combination of the flavorful oil and pasta worked perfectly together.

This is very garlicky, so be warned. We love garlic over here, so it's no biggie for us.

Spanish-Style Garlic Shrimp (Gambas al Ajillo) with Fresh Pasta

(from here)

Shrimp:

12 cloves garlic (divided)

1 pound large shrimp, (cooked or uncooked is fine, just make sure they're peeled and deveined)

1/2 cup good extra-virgin olive oil (divided)

3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

To finish:

Pinch of red pepper flakes

1 1/2 teaspoons sherry vinegar

2 teaspoons sliced scallions or minced parsley

1/2 to 1 pound pasta to serve (1 pound for 4 servings) - fresh pasta is better! (below)

Fresh Pasta:

300g AP flour

3 eggs

pinch of salt

dash of olive oil

I've made pasta a bunch of times. I love it so much that I try to make it a few times a month.

I used to do everything by hand, but my laziness has gotten the better of me over time.

Since I was making bread tonight along with this shrimp pasta, I figured I'd just do it in the mixer.

Measure out 300 grams of flour.

Add 3 eggs, a pinch of salt and just a dash of olive oil.

Get it to mixing over low speed.

You'll see that a well is created very nicely.

Gently tap or scrape the sides until everything combines well.

It'll be shaggy.

Combine the shaggy bits together into a ball and knead, roll and cut as you would normally. I recommend a counter mounted pasta roller.

I lay my pasta on a sheet tray. No need for those pasta hanger things.

The pasta will dry out a bit before dinner, no problem.

==

When it's time for dinner get your garlic together.

We're going to be using 3 sets of 4 cloves.

Mince the first 4.

Add to your pound of shrimp along with 3 tablespoons good extra-virgin olive oil, 3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt, and 1/4 teaspoon baking soda.

I've made this twice already. Once with uncooked shrimp and once with frozen "cocktail" shrimp. Both versions ended up great. I don't think there's much of a reason to spend the extra money on uncooked shrimp.

Anyway, stir well to combine. The baking soda gives the shrimp a nice "snap" when it's heated through. Don't skip it.

Second set of cloves will be smashed.

Add the smashed garlic and a pinch of red pepper flakes to the remainder of the 1/2 cup of olive oil in a large pan.

Cook over medium/low heat until the garlic starts to sizzle, about 10 minutes.

Don't let the heat get too aggressive here, dial it back for a slow simmer with bubbles around the edges of the garlic cloves.

Cook until the garlic is light golden brown, not dark or burned.

Strain the garlic infused oil.

Last set of garlic cloves are to be sliced.

Try to make them even for even cooking.

Get a pot of water on the boil and add your pasta.

Fresh pasta takes about 5 minutes to cook, so time accordingly.

==

Meanwhile, return the garlic oil to the pan over medium heat.

Add your sliced garlic.

Cook until just starting to get light brown around the edges.

Should only be a couple of minutes.

Add the shrimp.

Cook for only 1 minute, if frozen - about 3-4 minutes if uncooked. You want to heat the shrimp through, not over-cook them.

Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of sherry vinegar.

Transfer the cooked pasta directly from the pot of boiling water to the pan.

Drop the heat in the pan to low.

Once transferred, give it a good stir to combine.

Top with some sliced scallions.

==

Overall, this was a really amazing dish. I loved the flavor of the garlic oil combined with the shrimp and putting it over pasta was a great choice. I made some bread that was a great accompaniment as the oil left in the bowl was perfect for sopping up with the bread.

This is a great summer dish and very easy to prepare.

Enjoy!

Super-Fast No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread

2014-07-11T14:05:00.000-07:00

I've made the "No Knead" Dutch Oven Bread recipe a bunch of times and I love that bread. It's really just amazing, but sometimes, I don't plan well enough or I really want some bread, TODAY.

There are some great variations of this recipe, but this one from thekitchn.com is outstanding. You can make this bread from start to finish in just a bit more than an hour. Which beats the pants off of waiting over 24 hours for the original.

Now granted, this bread isn't as good as the long form, but it really does a great job of filling the void when you REALLY want fresh bread for dinner.

Super-Fast No-Knead Dutch Oven Bread

(from here)

4 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast (2 packets or .5oz)

1 tablespoon sugar

10 oz water

3 1/2 cups bread flour

1 1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Spray oil

2 teaspoons cornmeal

First, add your yeast to a mixing bowl. 2 packets or 4.5 teaspoons or .5 oz.

Add a tablespoon of sugar.

Add 10 oz of water.

Let this sit while you grab the other ingredients.

Pre-heat your oven to 450F. If your oven runs hot, do 425F.

Put your dutch oven in while it preheats.

Weigh out 3 cups of flour. I got 381 grams from some website converter.

If you don't care, don't worry about the weight.

Add 1 1/4 teaspoon salt.

To your yeast, add the 3/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar.

Add the flour/salt.

Give it a mix to combine.

Let this go for about 2 minutes or until combined.

It should be a bit wet.

Add the last 1/2 cup of flour.

Mix for 7 minutes.

Grab a microwave safe bowl and spray some oil in it.

Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of cornmeal in the bowl and coat evenly.

This will help the dough release from the bowl later.

When your 7 minutes is up remove the dough from the mixer.

Drop it in the bowl.

Cover with a very wet towel.

Cover the whole thing with a dry towel.

Pop it in the microwave.

Heat for 25 seconds on high.

Let sit, IN THE MICROWAVE, 5 minutes.

WITHOUT OPENING THE DOOR, heat for 25 more seconds on high.

Let sit 15 minutes.

==

After your 15 minutes is up, you'll see the dough has risen well.

Sprinkle the other teaspoon of cornmeal evenly over the top of the dough.

When your oven is preheated, remove the dutch oven and un-lid.

Turn out the dough into the dutch oven.

Slash the top quickly.

Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on.

Remove the lid and bake for 10 minutes or until the loaf reaches 210-212F.

Let cool on a wire rack.

==

Overall, this bread is a really great alternative to the longer version and really does the trick for getting great bread in your belly in time for dinner. It's got a great crust and nice texture. Great for sopping up oil or slathering with butter. The balsamic vinegar adds a bit of tang to mimic the sourdough flavor and lends a great flavor to the bread. I'd use this for any Italian/Spanish/French sort of meal where a crusty bread is called for.

Give this a try when you have a hankering for fresh bread and just a bit of time.

Plus, leftovers make outstanding sandwiches!

Enjoy!