The Fun Kitchen

Shredded Chicken and Black Beans

2010-05-18T11:33:00.000-05:00

This is the good stuff. I make it all the time. Super cheap, super easy and super fun.

Here is what you need:

1 lb dried black beans, prepared according to the directions on the package
1 32 oz can diced tomatoes
2 big chicken breasts
1 green pepper
2 jalapenos
1 cup frozen corn
1 bunch cilantro
1 onion
butter to fry in
salt, pepper

The first step is browning the chicken. This gives you flavor and flavor is fun. Melt the butter over medium high heat in a big skillet and then brown the chicken for about four or five minutes on both sides. You do not need to cook it through.

Turn down to medium heat and add the can of tomatoes and then the onions, green pepper and jalapeno all chopped. Bring this to a simmer and cook covered for about twenty to thirty minutes or so, you want the chicken to be quite well cooked.

It's done when you can relatively easily break the chicken up w/ a spatula:

At this point, I generally let it cool, uncovered for about twenty minutes. It just makes it easier to shred. Though if you want, you can go ahead and shred it w/ forks right away.

I don't much worry if it's perfectly shredded just get it into nice bite-size pieces. Nobody is going to complain. Once you're at this point, you can serve this stuff over rice and it's great but I prefer the more protein-centric rout and mix it up w/ a package worth of cooked dried black beans. I also add a handful of frozen corn and a bunch of chopped cilantro.

At this point you'll want to put it over medium heat to bring it back up to serving temperature. Season w/ salt and pepper and you're good to go. I just plop this unceremoniously into bowls and eat it up.It's not fancy, it's fun!

Fun Stock

2010-05-11T15:48:00.002-05:00

About a week ago, stocks dropped about a thousand points and then jumped back up by five hundred in the course of five minutes. I wish I could get that much stock action going in a short period of time. The kind I make takes hours and only drops by about a quarter of it's original volume when all is said and done. Homemade stock is awesome though so it's all worth it. Fun cooks should always make sure to save their leftover bones to make stock out of. It is easily five times as good as canned broth. Easily. And it's easy to make. There is no real recipe just a procedure.

First step is to collect bones and keep them in bags in your freezer. Once you have enough to fill about half of your largest pot, throw them in there, no need to thaw first:

I do it in a 12 quart kettle. In the interest of full disclosure, it is not my largest pot but unless a lot of you are into canning or homebrewing it is probably somewhat larger than your largest pot. Make do w/ what you got. There are economies of scale timewise w/ larger batches so that is what I prefer.

My bones are most chicken bones but I normally wind up w/ a few pork rib bones, t-bones, &c. They all work. It is helpful to have at least some uncooked chicken bones because they provide a lot of collagen which helps make the stock thick. Bear in mind that the method of cooking you use will affect the flavor. I normally throw on a chicken whenever I break out the smoker so my stock winds up w/ a smokey flavor which I love but some people might not like. You really don't wanna get too much skin and fat in there. You want a mild meaty flavor but greasy broth is kinda gross. Also, don't salt your broth. Salt the final dish. You will have more control that way.

Cover your bones w/ water and throw in an onion or two, a couple big carrots and some bay leaves:

Cover and turn that burner on all the way up. If you have a big pot, it can take quite a while for it to get to boiling, at which point, turn it down to a simmer. I simmer mine uncovered to allow extra water to evaporate off. Top it off again if it gets to low. I like a more concetrated stock as my freezer has only limited space. You gotta cook this business about three hours, longer if you have time, and when it's done the carcasses should be falling completely apart.

OK, now is the crappy part which also happens to be the hardest part and the part I forgot to take pictures of. You need another pot that is at least about half the size as the pot you made the stock in. Then you need a colander. Put the colander in the small pot and pour the stock from the large pot into the colander. This is how you separate the bones from he stock. You will wind up w/ something like this:

Take this junk and put it in small containers and freeze the heck out of it. It will keep for longer than you can possibly hope to keep it around. Once you start using homemade stock in your soups and stews you'll never want to use a crummy can of broth again. (Of course, if you are like me, you still will out of necessity.) There are variety of ways to clarify the stock and get the excess crud out of there. I say the crud builds character so I leave it in.

Butter Onion Pasta Fun Sauce

2010-04-11T18:07:00.000-05:00

I don't normally follow recipes too specifically for pasta sauce but I found this recipe that's been circling the world of food blogging for some time, I admired its simplicity and had to try it. Three ingredients and absolutely delicious. What could be more fun?

Here's what you need:

1 28 oz can of whole tomatoes
1 onion peeled and chopped in half
5 tablespoons of salted butter

The only change from the recipe posted above is I used salted butter and hence did not have to add any salt. The recipe I followed was apparently originally from Marcella Hazan. All you need to do is chuck this stuff in a pot and let it simmer for about one hour.

It starts out like this:

And then ends up like this:

Keep an eye on it as it simmers, stir occasionally and crush the tomatoes against the side of the pot as it cooks. Remove the onion before serving. I served mine up in a bowl w/ some spiral pasta and a glass of beer.

The beer is Green Flash West Coast IPA. It's a really nice, fresh-tasting IPA. Possibly not the best choice for pasta but great for a warm spring afternoon. Let us know what beer you drink w/ pasta in the comments.

Chard, Goat Cheese and Olive Pizza

2010-04-05T12:06:00.000-05:00

There is no limit to what you can do w/ pizza. You can put anything on it though probably what you put on it should be edible. Just a tip from the Chicago chapter of TFK!

This particular pizza is made w/ goat cheese, rainbow chard and olives.

The crust for that is basically, my semolina pizza dough recipe made using 100% all purpose flour. I am still perfecting it but just roll w/ that for now. You will need a batch of that, some olive oil and then three ingredients up there in the title of this post: chard, goat cheese and olives. Since our audience here at TFK is abnormally intelligent, I can probably just leave you go from there but our audience also has a lot of free time so I will go on.

First make up a batch of doug and let it rise for about an hour. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit during this time. You will also need to prepare the chard during this time. You can substitute any kind of greens you want though or even use something like broccolli if you are feeling like having some real fun. I used rainbow chard because that's what I had.

It is pretty but pretty much just tastes like chard.I chop the colored stems out o fit anyway and then fry it up w/ some salt in a little olive oil:

Yum! This only takes a minute. You don't want it to get all soggy. Set this aside and chop up some good olives (note, the olives in that can you've had in your pantry for six months are not good). I just used a handful, no need to measure.

Okay, now at this point, you are pretty good to go. You gotta spread the dough out over a well olive oiled cookie sheet and poke some holes in it w/ a fork. I didn't bother w/ the dusting of cornmeal I typically do. This just doesn't seem like that kind of pizza. Take some soft goat cheese and spread little bits evenly across the surface of the pie.

Sprinkle w/ salt and pepper and then add the rest of the chard and olives.

You might be tempted to eat this just as it is, raw dough and all but, trust me, you should cook it. 450 Fahrenheit for about fifteen minutes or until it looks awesome.

Chop this up and serve w/ beer. You must have beer. There is no other option. If anyone has any other pizza recipes featuring greens let us know about it in the comments.

Cake Donut Holes

2010-03-27T02:55:00.003-05:00

I was quite satisfied with my chocolate donut holes (previous post), and my frying oil was still hot and ready to make some more donut holes. So that's exactly what I did! These are just plain old vanilla ones, but they are still very delicious.

By the way, they are called cake donuts because baking powder is used to make them rise.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Cup Flour
2/3 Cup Sugar
1 tsp Baking powder
pinch of Salt
1 TBSP Melted Butter
2 TBSP Plain Yogurt
1 Egg
1 tsp Vanilla (vanilla paste will make it even tastier!)
Oil for deep frying

What to Do:

Start heating oil for frying to 375 degrees.

Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt

In a separate bowl, mix melted butter, plain yogurt, egg, and vanilla until blended.

Slowly stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Keep stirring until everything is good and mixed in. The dough is pretty thick, so you might want to use your hands near the end.

Either coat your hands in oil, or put some flour on them. Then rip little balls of doughs to form your donut holes.

Put the holes into the 375 degree oil. It takes about 3 minutes for them to cook. They will be medium brown when they finish.

Take them out of the oil and put them on something to help drain the excess oil.

Just like with the chocolate donuts, I feel these are delicious enough and sweet enough to enjoy without any sort of glaze or extra sugar. Plus they're just less messy that way. Although I think they would be great with some lemon or orange glaze.

So now the next time you go on a picnic, you can bring two delicious kinds of donut holes! But I also give you permission to enjoy them them in a more traditional donut eating spot.

Chocolate Donut Holes (cake type donut)

2010-03-27T00:50:00.006-05:00

It's cherry blossom season here in Tokyo, and I was invited to a picnic tonight. I decided to make some Japanese fried chicken, and maybe some more American-like fried chicken. I wanted to make some cookies too since they are very portable and individually sized, but I don't have an oven! Since deep frying was on my mind, donuts were the logical second choice. It's not a traditional picnic food, but once you have donuts on your mind you really can't think about anything else. Besides, people are always impressed when you make homemade donuts. But I don't really have room to roll out the dough, so I made donut holes.

Makes about 18 large donut holes

Ingredients:
1 Cup Flour
1/3 Cup Cocoa Powder
2/3 Cup Sugar
Pinch of salt
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 TBSP melted Butter
2 TBSP Plain Yogurt
1 Egg
1 tsp vanilla
Oil for deep frying

And if you are messy like me, you should put your apron on.

What to Do:

Start heating your oil to 375 degrees.

Stir together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, salt, and baking powder.

In a separate container mix the butter, yogurt, egg, and vanilla until the egg is well blended.

Slowly stir the wet ingredients into the dry dry ingredients. If it happens to be a wet day, you might need to put in a little extra flour but the dough should be kind of sticky. It might be easier to mix with your hands at the end.

Put some oil or flour on your hands, and then pull off little balls of the dough. The finished donut will be about twice as big as the ball of dough you pull off.

Drop the dough balls into 375 degree oil. After about a minute and a half or 2 minutes, give them a little nudge to flip them over. They should be finished in about another minute or so. You can't really tell if they are done by color with chocolate donuts, but you can try pushing them against the side of your pan with a kitchen utensil to see if they feel like they are cooked all the way through. If they are still really squishy feeling, they need to cook a little more.

Take our of the oil and put on some paper towels or other oil absorbing paper.

You can dip them in glaze or roll them in sugar, but they are good as is. The outside is a little crunchy like an old fashioned donut. These are best to eat the day you make them.

German Potato Salad

2010-03-22T14:13:00.000-05:00

Regular potato salad is gross and that amount of mayonnaise is known to the State of California to lower your IQ. No thanks! Intelligent people are forced to find an alternative path to potato salad glory and, luckily, the Germans have laid it all out for us. Instead of mayonnaise, you use bacon. Brilliant!

Here's what you need:

6-8 potatoes depending how hungry you are
1 large onion
3 stalks of celery
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup water

2 tbsp sugar
salt, pepper and dill

I used red potatoes for this guy. Usually you use some sort of waxy potato like red or Yukon gold but if you only have russets, go nuts and have fun. They work just fine. First step is to cover the potatoes with water and bring to a boil. Just leave the skins on you will peel them of later.

You need to boil them about twenty or twenty-five minutes. When they are done they will be tender, slide of the fork a when you poke them and they will have split skins like this:

Drain the water and let them sit for a few minutes until they are cool enough to handle and peel off the skins. They should come right off if you cooked them long enough. Don't worry about a piece or two of skin on there. Builds character.

Then you chop 'em up into potato salad sized bits:

While they are boiling, you will have a chance to chop up the onions and celery. Good times.

You will also want to fry up six strips of bacon in a big pan. This is going to be the same pan you make the potato salad in ultimately so make sure it's got enough space to fit the potatoes in. Put the bacon in the pan, cold and put over medium high heat. Starting off gold helps keep the bacon from curling.

Cook it until it is browned to your liking and chop it into bits:

Oh yeah. That looks nice. Do your best not to eat the bacon. You will eat some but people will get mad at you if you eat it all. Really mad. People love bacon.

Leave the heat on medium and reserve two tablespoons of bacon grease. Drop the potato bits from earlier into the pan and add a quarter cup each water and vinegar, along w/ sugar and allow to simmer for about five minutes to reduce a bit. Salt and pepper to taste and add some dill. I'd imagine I don't use more than about a teaspoon or so of dill. I like it w/ just a hint. Some people add a bit of flower to thicken the dressing but I find it thickens just fine w/ the starch from the potatoes. Serve on plates w/ some sausage or roast pork and enjoy!

If you like mayonnaise or are otherwise unfit for public office, let us know about it in the comments!

Burrito Breakfast

2010-03-17T10:25:00.000-05:00

Breakfast burritos are fun but that's not what this is. This is a breakfast, made out of leftover burritos. It is something like chilaquiles only w/ scrambled eggs mixed in.

All you need is some left over burrito, some eggs and a little bit of milk. Start w/ your burrito. It doesn't matter what's in the burrito or who made it. You just need some burrito. I had a pork one and some of a chicken one left over and that is what I used:

Chop that burrito up into little pieces.

And then throw it in frying pan on medium heat w/ some melted butter in it. While it heats, mix a couple eggs w/ a couple tablespoons of milk and season w/ salt and pepper and a little bit of hot sauce if you like. Once the burrito bits start getting a little warm, push them off to the side and scramble the eggs on the other half of the pan.

Once they are cooked through, mix 'em in w/ the burrito and serve on some plaints. If you have any left over (I didn't) dump some salsa over the top of this mess.

It's not pretty but it's a tasty hot breakfast done quick and if you do things like we do here at TFK a lot of times burritos are something of a late night snack and often the morning after you are not much in the mood for cooking anything too complex. If you have any better ways to reuse burritos, let us know about it in comments!

Whole Wheat Tortillas

2010-03-16T04:24:00.007-05:00

In Tokyo if I want to eat tacos, I can order something called taco rice that tastes like ground pork mixed with ketchup put on top of rice. Or I can get on a train and go to a fancy, upscale grocery store to buy way over priced Ole El Paso hard taco shells. Or I can walk 3 minutes to a normal grocery store, buy flour, and then make flour tortillas. Flour tortillas are actually quite simple to make, and when I went to the store today they had whole wheat flour so I decided to make whole wheat tortillas.

This is a small recipe, so if you are feeding more than 2 people or have a particularly large appetite you will want to double it.

Ingredients:
1 Cup Whole Wheat Flour
1/3 Cup Water
¼ tsp Baking Powder
¼ tsp Salt
1 TBSP Oil

What to Do:

Mix flour and water. Whole wheat does not absorb water as easily as white flour, so it’s good to let the flour and water sit for by themselves for a while. This will help prevent your tortillas from having a cardboard texture.

Stir in baking powder, oil, and salt. The dough should form a ball.

Knead for a minute or two. This is a small recipe so it doesn’t take the dough long to get nice and stretchy. It’s also really easy to do because there’s so much oil in there.

Let the dough rest at least 15 minutes.

Divide the dough up into balls. I made 6, which were a little on the small side.

This picture does a pretty good job showing just how tiny my apartment is. Usually I'm a little more careful about it with my pictures.

Anyways, roll out the dough into as circular of a shape as you can. It should be pretty thin, but thick enough to withstand anything you might be filling it with later. If the dough keeps retracting as you roll, that means you should let the dough rest a little longer and then try again.

Heat an ungreased frying pan to medium high. Then put in a tortilla. It only needs to cook about 30 seconds on each side.

Wrap the fresh tortillas in a towel to preserve their softness.

Slow Cooker Corned Beef

2010-03-15T10:56:00.000-05:00

Fake St. Patrick's day was celebrated this weekend across the United States by people drinking tons of cheap beer dyed green and shots of poor quality Irish Whiskey. Whether or not you chose to participate in such a debacle is your own business but for real St. Patrick's Day, which is celebrated March 17, you might want to consider celebrating by coming home to a hot pot of corned beef stew.

The great thing about corned beef is you can cook the bojangles out of it and it's still good.The meat just gets more and more tender as it goes on. This stew is prepared from a store-bought corned beef but I suppose you could corn your own if you got the time and salt. Here is what you will need for mine:

1 corned beef of whatever size
4-6 potatoes peeled and quartered
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into large chunks
1-2 onions peeled and halved
1 can beer

First thing you wanna do is open the bag of corned beef and drain off all the salty liquid in there. Some people rinse it too but I fear losing too much salty goodness. I chuck that in my slow cooker along w/ the seasoning packet of spices that comes w/ it. My quantities on the veggies is a little vague because I basically just peel and chop until I have the rest of the pot full.

Good times! But we're not done yet. There is one more critical ingredient:

It doesn't have to be Hamm's but it has to be beer. Some people use Guinness, operating under the erroneous assumption that it is good beer and that it is Irish. Well, some of it is Irish, the extra stout and that is a good beer but a bit too bitter to be used for cooking in my opinion. The stuff that comes in cans and bottles w/ the little widget to make that thick white head is made in Canada and tastes like Budweiser mixed w/ coffee and vomitus. Avoid! I think cheap, tasty beer like Hamm's, Stroh's or Pabst works well in this situation. Nice mild beer flavor to compliment the meat. So just let your corned beef chill w/ a can of brew.

So here is where we get to the extremely difficult part: you have to turn your slow cooker on low and let it sit for about six or so hours while you go ahead and do whatever else you do. Corned beef is kind of like pulled pork where you actually want to overcook it to make it tender and, like pulled pork, it should be shredable once finished. A lot of people say that it's more tender if you cook, let it sit overnight and reheat for the next day and, it's true that corned beef makes for some of the best left overs in the world, but the real reason it's better is that the process of reheating further overcooks the meat and let's it get super tender. The only thing you want to avoid is cooking the potatoes until they turn into complete mush.

Serve it up on a plate and reserve any left over juices to use as a base for another stew or another corned beef sometime. A lot of times the corned beef will just tear into pieces w/o even having to use a knife:

If you are a fan of black Budweiser that smells faintly of vomit and think such a thing is authentically Irish, let me know about it in the comments!

Cheesesteak Pizza

2010-03-12T12:21:00.000-06:00

Pizza + Cheesesteak = Fun! Now there's an equation you don't learn in school. I am posting this mostly as a illustration of using my semolina pizza crust to make a giant sheet-style pizza. This has a pretty thick crust and features a good amount of sauce, steak and grilled peppers and onion. Good stuff and just a bit different from you standard pizza toppings.

Here's what you need:

Semolina Pizza Crust
1 lb steak
1 medium onion
1 small green bell pepper
8 oz pizza sauce
1 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese (not the kind in a can)
salt, pepper, olive oil, cornmeal, butter to fry in

Preheat your oven to 500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Make up the crust only instead of splitting it into two sections once it's done rising, roll it out on a cookie sheet grease w/ olive oil. I like to lift up the edges and sprinkle some cornmeal underneath there too. Poke some holes in it when you're done.

Leave this to rise an additional twenty to thirty minutes or so. While it's rising, you are gonna wanna sprinkle both sides of of two thin steaks and fry them up in butter. Just give them like two or three minutes on a side. Don't worry if they are a little rare. It'll cook in the oven. Chop 'em up into bite sized pieces.

Once this is done, chop up an onion and a green pepper and fry those in what's left in the pan after you cooked the steaks. Add some salt and pepper here too. The salt, especially, helps the onions to caramelize a little.

Spread some pizza sauce over your crust and then sprinkle the steak, onions and peppers evenly over the top and cover w/ about a cup and a quarter of Parmesan cheese. I like Parmesan as it's got a strong enough flavor to compete w/ the steak and melts nicely. Sprinkle w/ some salt, pepper and basil.

Cook this at 500 degrees Fahrenheit or until the cheese is nice and brown. Cut into slices and serve. This is kind of a sloppy pizza w/ all the big chunks of stuff.

The olive oil really helps the crust to brown nicely too:

This stuff is really good cold the next day too. I am eating some right now as I type this. If you are eating pizza, cold or otherwise, let us know about it in the comments!

Bacon Potato Soup

2010-03-08T11:17:00.001-06:00

Potatoes and bacon are some of the most fun foods available to most unlicensed persons. Combine them and you always come up w/ a bowl full of wonderful. Or, at least you do when you make this fun potato soup.

Here's what you need:
8 potatoes
8 strips of bacon
1 large onion
~20 oz chicken stock
1 cup milk
salt and pepper

First thing you want to do is start frying up the bacon. I just chuck them right in the pot I'm making the soup and turn the heat up to high.

I don't worry about making sure they don't stick together or lay perfect flat or anything like that. You just cut them up into bits later. They are done when they look about like this:

While the bacon is cooking chop up eight potatoes and an onion. I chop the potatoes into inconsistently sized chunks. The small bits dissolve and make a rich, thick soup while the large bits remain intact and add variety and texture.

Remove the bacon and chop into wee bits. Try to eat less than 90% of it during this process. Drain all but about two tablespoons of the rendered bacon grease from the pot and save for later use. Throw the chunks of potato in the pot under high heat. You want to get them browned a little. Don't worry about cooking through.

Pour in your stock now, enough to just cover the potatoes. A little bit of water to top off doesn't hurt.

This is a recipe where I feel the quality of the stock matters. I used some (my last, sadly) I made from turkeys that I smoked and that really emphasized the bacon. Most people don't have that laying around but do at least try to use homemade.

Put this on high heat until it boils and reduce to a simmer. Cook about twenty to thirty minutes until all the potatoes are soft and the stock is nice and thick. I normally leave the lid off for part of to make sure the soup is nice and thick but leave it off too long and you'll end up w/ overcooked mashed potatoes. Add about a cup of milk. You can use cream too but I don't think that adds much too this already very rich soup.

Add salt and pepper to taste and there you have it, bacon potato soup. There are endless variations on this, I kept it simple for the sake of this recipes. Try substituting some other root vegetables in for the potatoes. Parsley root is an especially good one and adds a real nice spicy flavor. Beets give it a wonderful purple color. Let us know how your experiments turn out in the comments section.

Sloppy Spaghetti Bread

2010-03-07T11:26:00.001-06:00

Left over pasta sauce, especially if it is nice and chunky like TFK's super beefy pasta sauce, can be used to make a tremendous and powerful open faced sandwich:

All you need is:

1 cup pasta sauce
1 sub roll or bread of some sort
handful of shredded cheese
basil, garlic or whatever herbs and spices you might like.
butter
salt (if using unsalted butter)

First, spread butter on the bread and toast in a toaster over. During this time you will want to heat the sauce in a small saucepan on the stove or in a microwave. Once the bread is hot and done toasting, sprinkle the basil and whatever seasonings you like over. Dump the sauce over the bread and then throw a handful of cheese on there. It is kind of like a meatball sub w/o the meatballs. Good times.

Fun Roasted Brussels Sprouts

2010-03-04T11:24:00.002-06:00

For some reason, my whole childhood, I was lead to believe I was supposed to hate Brussels sprouts. Possibly, they are considered too healthy to be good. They are totally fun though and make for an easy side dish which you can roast in your toaster oven while preparing the rest of dinner.

I am not even going to bother listing the ingredients on this one. Drizzle some Brussels sprouts w/ some olive oil, sprinkle w/ salt and cook in your toaster oven at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for twenty minutes. Simple! These Brussels come out a bit firm but that's how I like them. If you have a better amount of time to cook them, let us know in the comments.

Fundon Broil

2010-03-03T10:35:00.003-06:00

Steak is great but it can be expensive. For those who want greatness w/o the expense there is the London broil. Here is a blurry picture of it:

Blurry is delicious and don't your forget it!

Here's what you need:
2-3 lbs flank or round steak cut such that the muscle fibers run the length of the cut of meat
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup soy sauce
black pepper
butter

The cut of meat is absolutely critical. It is a cheap cut. It is naturally tough and as such it needs to be cut correctly. You want the grain of the meat running the length of it. This allows you to cut diagonally across the grains when you serve it, which severs the fibers, and makes the meat come across as much more tender than it actually is. A lot of times grocery stores will label just any old round or flank steak as London broil or sometimes even flattish pot roasts. Don't go by the label, go by what you see.

First step for this guy is to marinade. Go for four hours at least of overnight. It use a simple mix of soy sauce and red wine. Lots of people would add herbs or maybe some garlic here but I think this marinade overrides just about everything but black pepper. It is plenty salty so don't worry about adding more. I do this in a shallow casserole.

I don't worry about covering the whole thing, just flip in the middle. I sprinkle the top w/ black pepper and after I sprinkle the other side, I sprinkle it. You will want to leave this out for an hour or two before you cook it to bring to room temperature. Starting w/ your meat at room temperature is extra important for a recipe like this that is a rather thick cut of meat being cooked over high heat. You don't want the outsides burning while the inside is still cold.

Cook this on a cast iron pan or otherwise the thickest pan you have. You want a pan that retains heat well. Let it heat up for a good five or ten minutes before starting. Take the meat out of the marinade and pat it dry. Once the pan is hot, throw some butter in there.

And once that's melted, you throw the meat in. Cook on both sides at super high heat for three minutes. After that, reduce heat to medium and cook and additional six to ten minutes, flipping halfway. It is kind of a judgment call at this point depending on the thickness of your London broil. You really, really only want it medium rare or it gets tough fast. You might think you like your steak well done but you are wrong. Alternatively, if it bothers you to pan fry something called a broil, you can throw it in your broiler for ten to fifteen minutes or however long it takes to get to medium rare.

Here's what it looks like when all is said and done:

This wasn't the best cut for this dish. I had to separate it into sections before carving and serving.

Still worked though. Goes great with duck fries or your favorite potato dish. Slice up for sandwiches or serve cold in a salad the next day. This stuff is no good to reheat. You will overcook the heck out of it.

If you like your steak well done or otherwise wish to let us know something about you, let us know in comments!

Fun Lasagna

2010-03-01T10:46:00.006-06:00

I started making this lasagna based my Italian grandmothers recipe who, according to my mom, actually got it from her Irish mother in law. Only in America!

Over time, I have worked hard to increase the fun level of this recipe until it has become the sloppy mess you see above. That's how we do it at TFK, folks, big and saucy.

Here is what you need:

About a gallon of pasta sauce (seriously, I use a lot)
1 package lasagna noodles
1 15oz package ricotta
3 cups shredded cheese
1 egg
handful of fresh parsley
2 tbsp olive oil

The pasta sauce I used here is my super beefy pasta sauce. I used nearly all of it from the recipe to give you an idea. You will need two or three big jars of store bought sauce to make this stuff if you chose to go that rout. To me, part of the fun of making the process of making lasagna is it takes all day. Put on some tunes, relax and have some fun. Make your own sauce. It's worth it.

First thing is to begin boiling the lasagna noodles as per the directions on the package and set the oven to preheat to 350 degrees Fahrenheit if you are cooking it that day. While the water heats, in a large bowl combine the ricotta, about a cup of the shredded cheese, one egg, a couple tablespoons and a handful of chopped parsley. This will become the gooey cheese layer.

The original recipe specified two to three eggs. I just use one. I don't know why I changed that but sometimes I just roll w/ these things and don't really worry about it. You don't have to use any at all. The great advantage of that is that you can then taste the cheese mix without fear of contracting horrible egg disease.

You will probably be done w/ this well before the noodles are cooked but once the noodles are cooked, lay them out on some waxed paper so they don't all stick together. That gets us to the part I always used to need to refer to the recipe for, the order of the layers:

First a layer of sauce then some noodles:

Then spread the gooey cheese layer:

You need to do this layer sideways. Trust me. From here you add a layer of shredded cheese and some sauce:

And there you can see the beginning of the next layer of noodles at which point you repeat this process from the gooey cheese layer on. I always forget how many layers there are. Just fill the tray. That's how I keep track. Make sure to use plenty of sauce for maximum fun.

When you're done, it'll look like this:

A lot of people like to add another layer of cheese at this point but it's my considered opinion that if you have not gotten enough cheese in there yet, there is no helping you, so I just leave it topped w/ sauce. Make sure to get a good layer on there though to keep the noodles from drying out. It also helps to cover w/ foil. At this point you can either put it in the fridge overnight and save for the next day or cook it right away. Cooking times kind of vary on this. If you are using fresh hot sauce you just made, it takes only about thirty minutes. If you refrigerated overnight or used cool sauce that you prepared before hand it can take an hour or more. It should get to 160 degrees Fahrenheit internally (which you can check w/ a meat thermometer) to cook the egg. If you put a layer of cheese on top, take off the foil for the last fifteen minutes.

And there you have it, Fun Lasagna, the best lasagna on earth. If you are the kind of person who likes a layer of cheese on top, let me know about in the comments, though I doubt you will do anything but embarrass yourself w/ your poor grammar and spelling.

Super Beefy Pasta Sauce

2010-02-28T10:42:00.010-06:00

This pasta sauce is super beefy in case you were wondering why I named it that. It is not at all any kind of traditional Italian recipe or any of that. In fact, it is practically chili. Look at this stuff:

Now that's super beefy! And super fun to make.

Here's what you need:

1.5 lbs ground beef
2 x 28 oz cans diced tomatoes
2 x28 oz cans whole tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 green peppers, chopped
1 tbsp red pepper flakes
1-2 tbsp basil
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp salt (or to taste)
4 bay leaves
1 cup red wine (I used Cabernet this time)

First thing you need to do is brown the ground beef. Try to make sure to get it fairly finely chopped--though part of the appeal of this sauce is it's so chunky so do what you will. If you want to make it a giant hamburger that sits at the bottom of the pot, that will probably taste pretty good anyway. Once it's done, you are going to want to drain the fat. I try to do a good job of this but I am not super cautious to get every last bit of fat. Normally, winds up looking about like this:

Don't worry if it's a little pink. You are gonna simmer this stuff for hours. It'll be fine. While you're browning the meat chop the green peppers and the onions up. Add them along w/ everything but the wine, turn up to high heat, bring to a boil and reduce to simmer. Simmer at least one hour and up to about three. The longer you simmer, the more the tomatoes will break down and the smoother the sauce will be. Here it is after a couple hours:

I like to add the wine about fifteen minutes before I'm done cooking. Generally, I allow it get a little thicker than I'd like because, as you would expect, adding liquid thins this a bit. I feel the wine is pretty much essential in this recipe.It brings out the sweetness and fruitiness of the tomatoes and just adds that little bit extra to keep this from tasting like you got it out of a can. When I used to make pasta sauce, I used all kinds of herbs in it--basil, oregeno, thyme, you name it. Now a days, I stick w/ one per batch but change it up. I feel like the flavor, rather than becoming more complex from using multiple herbs, just become muddled. I'd rather just use some good basil and really let it shine than have fifteen hundred things in there that you can barely taste. If your sauce is a little runny, go ahead and add a can of tomato paste to thicken it a bit. That happens sometimes when you make pasta sauce from canned tomatoes rather than from crushed tomatoes or sauce.

I served this up over linguine as seen above. My favorite for a sauce like this is rotini and I even like those green and red vegetable flavored ones like people make pasta salad out of. I used the most of this for a big tray of super beefy lasagna which I will post in a few days. If you make this, let us know how you served in comments! We at TFK are constantly looking for new things to pour sauce over.

Thin Semolina Pizza Crust (and a Fun Times Bonus Pizza Recipe)

2010-02-25T10:41:00.001-06:00

I am a freewheeling pizza maker. People just take this crap too seriously. They go about making sponges and god knows what else. Sometimes, I don't want to dicker w/ the intricacies of bread making. I want a gorram pizza! The semolina flour is a real nice touch which to me makes it much more like pizzeria pizza in texture.

Here is what you need for two of the above pizzas. They are maybe twelve to fourteen inches in diameter. Big enough for two people unless you are trying to put on weight before football tryouts.

1.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 cups semolina flour
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp yeast
1 tsp salt
~1 cup warm water
2 tbsp olive oil
parchment paper

As I said, I am a freewheeling pizza maker. I barely measure this stuff. People act like bread baking is this intense science. It's not. It's a craft like all other kinds of cooking. You need to do it a lot to get the art and feel of it down. As I mentioned, this is all a pretty quick rise and I don't think it's necessary to go about making sponges and any of that. Just throw the dry ingredients in a bowl and stir together.

If it looks like a bunch of flour mixed up w/ some other things, you are on the right track. Next step is to add the water. I use the hottest tap water I can get. It helps things get rising faster. Use about a cup but you really wanna get a feel for the texture. It should be stretchy and fairly light but not sticky.

Now it is time to knead the dough. Most recipes call for you to do this on a flat surface. I do it right in the bowl. One less thing to clean up and it helps to incorporate that last bit of flour on the side of the bowl. There are a bunch of guides on how to properly knead. I just go at it. The longer you knead, the more chewy the dough. Use a consistent technique, whatever it is, and you will eventually get a feel for how it affects your crust. I knead mine for only about two or three minutes these days. I used to knead for up to eight. I am just starting to like a lighter crust is all.

Once you've finished kneading, drizzle a couple tablespoons of olive oil over it and in the bowl. Make sure the bowl gets a good coat. Mine looks about like this when I'm done.

Let the bread rise right in the bowl you made it in. This is another dish saved and really has no ill effect as far as I can tell. Cover it w/ a damp towel and put it on your stove while you preheat it to the very hottest setting possible (500 degrees Fahrenheit on mine). High temperature gets you the best and crispiest crust. I let it rise for about an hour. It takes almost this long for my oven to get to that temperature anyway. When the crust has risen, to about twice it's normal size, it's ready.

I forgot to take picture until after I pushed it down a bit when I was seperating it out into to balls but here is my crust after I let it rise:

For these pizzas, obviously, I divide this portion into two. That is a good size for me. It works w/ my pizza peel and my pizza stone. If you want you can make this all one big pizza on either once of those bigger pizza pans or any old cookie sheet. If you do use a peel and a pizza stone, I have a trick that makes life much easier: place a piece of parchment paper on the peel first and the pizza will slide right on and off.

Just plop the dough in the center and roll it out w/ a rolling pin. This rolls out to about 12-14" which is about as big as my peel. Most pizzerias use cornmeal to allow the pizza to slide off. That works too but every now and again it sticks. W/ the parchment paper, though, I never have a problem.However, I do like the texture the cornmeal adds so once it's rolled out, I sprinkle a little under there. I do it one half at a time like so:

So that is pretty much it for the crust. If you just want a flat bread, bake it at 500 degrees for about ten minutes. But who wants flat bread when you can have pizza?

Spread some sauce on it. I use maybe four tablespoons worth. You don't need a thick coat. That will just burn your mouth and make the cheese slide out.

This is actually a little more than I normally use. I had a very chunky homemade pasta sauce on hand that I used which made it a little hard to get a good coating w/o using a bunch.

Depending on what toppings I use, a lot of times I like to get them kind of mixed in w/ the cheese. I used some sliced up Italian sausage on this one. My favorite cheese for pizza is Asiago or maybe Parmesan but I use all kinds of stuff. On this one, I just had a bag of shredded mozzarella and that is a perfectly acceptable alternative. One mistake I think a lot of home pizza makers make is to use too much cheese. I know you like cheese and that's all in good fun but you don't need to have a quarter inch coating of it all over on a thin crust pizza. You should at least see the sauce over most parts of it. Because I used so much sauce, I used a little extra cheese on this one too. The key is balance.

Here it is in the oven:

I think the pizza stone does wonders for the crispness of the crust. If you don't have one, don't sweat it. I still make larger pizzas on cookie sheets all the time and they turn out just great. The super hot oven and the crust will get the crust nice and crispy and the cheese wonderfully browned in about ten to fifteen minutes. Watch it like a hawk through the glass after about eight minutes though. Pizza can go from beautifully brown to charred pretty quickly.

This one didn't turn out half bad. The cheese is browned:

And the bottom of the crust is just a little crispy:

Probably would have had better results on the crust had I know used so much cheese and sauce (which seems to act as sort of a heat sink) but this was a very fine pizza indeed. Make up a couple yourself and let us know what you put on them in the comments.

Chocolate Coconut Milk Pudding w/ Cardamom

2010-02-23T10:15:00.001-06:00

Everyone likes pudding, especially chocolate pudding. This one contains no dairy and has a bit of cardamom to make sure everyone's having fun.It's super easy, super rich and super thick. You can't go wrong w/ this as a dessert in a pinch.

Here is what you need:

1 13.5 oz can coconut milk
1/4 cup corn starch
1/4 cup sugar
2 squares bakers chocolate
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cardamom seeds ground

As I said, this is a real easy one. Throw this junk in a pot like so:

Turn that sucker up to medium heat and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Keep simmering for about five or ten minutes. I hate stirring constantly during this portion but you really should to make sure all the corn starch gets broken up. An immersion blender is nice to have here. It can really smooth things out if things get lumpy.

This pudding is really thick. To me, the texture is almost like ice cream, only not as cold obviously. Use half the cornstarch for a more traditional soupy pudding. This stuff is hardly liquid at all.

If you don't like fun, substitute in a teaspoon or so of vanilla instead of the cardamom. If you got a favorite recipe for coconut milk pudding (or any pudding) post it in the comments. I bet it won't be as good as this is though.

Beef Stew à la Mommel

2010-02-17T20:37:00.000-06:00

Here at the Chicago chapter of TFK, it is universally accepted that my mom makes the best beef stew. However, when I asked her how to make it she mentioned things like onion soup and brown gravy mixes and other things I don't keep around the house. Over time, I developed a recipe that substitutes some vegetable broth in for these things though I have used beer and red wine instead to equal success.

Here's what you need to make this lovely beef stew:

2-3 lbs beef
4 russet potatoes
4 carrots
2 large onions
2 bay leaves
14 oz vegetable broth
1 tbsp oil or butter
~2 tsp salt
~1 tsp pepper
2 bay leaves

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

You start out w/ a hunk of meet like this. I bought this sucker labeled as a london broil but the grain of the meat was all wrong making it a perfect candidate for stew.

Trim excess fat and cube into pieces about one inch to one and half inches per side. I like nice big chunks that you have to cut w/ a knife and fork before eating.

You'll want to brown these chunks in about a tablespoon of oil or butter until they look about like this:

Use a cast iron pot or other oven safe one. This is the same dish you'll make the stew in. You want to get all the little brown bits in there. Brown bits are a fun ride to flavor country. I use an enamalized cast iron dutch oven. It wasn't free but it's great.

In the meantime peel and chop the carrots, onions and potatoes to about this size. Again, I like to keep them pretty big.

Chuck all this into the pot w/ the browned chunks of meat, pour in 14 oz of vegetable broth and add bay leaves and salt and pepper to taste. The ingredients don't need to be covered in liquid. As it cooks the beef will release juices and make more broth. Cook for about an hour to ninety minutes. Fun chefs go by their nose on this one. Once the house starts smelling great, give it about ten minutes and check to see if the potatoes and meat are cooked. Check every ten minutes after that if it's not. This is one dish that can be a little overcooked so don't worry. The meat will just get falling apart tender. The end result is quite soupy but I still serve it up on a plate. When mom's not looking, I slurp the juices out.

It's not pretty but it's delicious. I do a lot of variations on this. Frequently I use other root veggies like parsnips and turnips and generally I add some celery too. Red wine mixed w/ water is great substitute for the stock as is beer as I mentioned. If you use beer, you can be creative as long as you don't use anything too bitter (no IPA, no American Pale Ales or big stouts). Belgian beers work great and my favorite might be big, malty German bocks. I normally stick w/ just salt and pepper and let the veggies and cooking liquid shine but herbs and spices are also an excellent addition. Have fun and post a comment to let us know how it turned out if you cook it.

Japanese Braised Pork (Chashu)

2010-02-08T07:11:00.000-06:00

Now I can officially become TFK Tokyo, with a Japanese recipe cooked in my micro kitchen. Chashu is fatty pork braised in sweetened soy sauce. If you've ever had the chance to eat non-instant ramen, the sliced pork they put in it is chashu. But it's delicious on its own. You can also chop it up and put in fried rice, and it also makes a great filling for steamed buns.

The key to this dish is getting a fatty cut of pork. The Japanese fruqently use pork belly, but unlike most Americans, they don't mind eat huge pieces of fat. I've actually come to appreciate a good piece of fat melting in my mouth, but I prefer this recipe with a cut of pork where fat is more well marbled. In these pictures, I actually use both types. And even the official Japanese taste tester liked the marbled pieces better.

Ingredients:
1 pound pork
2 TBSP sugar
1.5 cup water
3 TBSP Soy Sauce
2 TBSP Mirin
3 TBSP Sake
1 TBSP Miso
3 cloves garlic
1 inch piece ginger
1 leek or a couple of green onions

Note: You might not regularly have mirin (sweet cooking wine, get "hon mirin" instead of "aji mirin" if you can), sake, or miso in your kitchen. But there's some flexibility in this recipe.
-If you leave out mirin, you might want to add extra sugar and sake.
-If you leave out sake, put in more mirin. Or in a real pinch, you could probably put in some vodka or just leave it out.
-If you leave out miso, just put in more soy sauce or MSG.

What to Do:

Turn your stove on high and heat up your pan. Meanwhile, cut your pork into pieces that will fit into your pan. Then sear your pork on all sides and remove it from your pan.

Turn the heat down. There should be a decent amount of fat in your pot, stir the sugar into it. It should kind of dissolve into it and start turning a little brown. Be careful not to burn it!

Next throw your meat back into the pan along with the water, soy sauce, mirin, sake, and miso. Give it a good stir to make sure the miso doesn't just sit there in a clump. Depending on your pan size compared to amount of meat, you might need to tinker with the liquid amounts. The liquid doesn't need to cover the meat since you'll be putting a lid on the pot, though.

Then put in the garlic, ginger, and green onion. Cover and let it simmer,flipping the meat over occasionally. If you a more aggressive simmerer, you might finish in about an hour. I let it go for more like 2 hours, but I was a pretty passive simmerer today.

Once it seems very tender apon being poked, it's done. Take it out and slice it along the grain. It tastes great as is, or you can serve it with some simmering liquid on top.

Bonus:
Tired of instant ramen? Heat up some homemade stock with a ladle full of the brazing liquid, and you have a quick version of shoyu ramen (soy sauce based ramen). It's even better if you can serve is with some fresh ramen noodles. You can garnish with some thinly sliced green onions and a few slices of the chashu.

You can also save the brazing liquid and use it in future stir fries.

Chicken Tacos with Green Salsa

2010-02-08T02:46:00.000-06:00

TFC Toledo has become TFC Tokyo. It's almost the same except "led" has become "ky." Anyways, I made these tacos right before leaving Toledo. They are very limey because I love limes, and I knew I wouldn't be able to get them as easily in Tokyo. Plus Japanese tacos are hard to find, and even then they taste like they are made with extra sugary ketchup. This recipe fed 3 people.

Chicken Taco Filling

Ingredients:
2 Large chicken breasts
1 TBSP Lime Juice
1/4 Cup chicken stock
1 Lime
Jalapeno
Couple Cloves of Garlic
1 Small Onion
1 tsp Coriander
1 TBSP Cumin
A little black pepper
Cilantro
Olive Oil

What to Do:

Get out your crock pot, or prepare to use a pan on low on your stove.

Put the chicken stock and lime juice into your pot. Sometimes with slow cooking all the flavor gets cooked out of things like lime or lemon juice, but for some reason it made me feel better to put a little juice into the crock pot anyways. For long lasting lime flavor, take a whole lime, poke a few holes in it with a fork, and then put the whole thing in the pot.

Next put in the cumin, coriander, pepper, garlic, onion, and jalepeno. You can actually just leave the garlic and onion whole or in large pieces, and you can put in the spices in the seed or corn format. Once again, slow cooking can make spices lose flavors so it can be better to leave everything whole. I just strain everything out later on.

Put in the chicken and turn your crock pot on. On high it takes about an hour and a half to cook, low would probably take closer to 3 hours.

The meat should be pretty tender when it's done cooking, and you should be able to shred it a bit with forks. If you used whole spices, take the chicken out of the cooking liquid before shredding it. Then strain the cooking liquid.

Next take your shredded chicken and the strained cooking juice and put it back in your crock pot on high. Throw on some oregano and olive oil. You can taste everything, and adjust the seasonings as you wish. If you like spicy things, you might want to add some cayenne pepper or chili powder. If you do this part in a crock pot, you don't need to put the lid back on. I actually did this part on low on the stove, but that was because I still had seeds and stuff stuck in my crock pot. The main purpose of this is just kind of heating things back up again after shredding everything, and to get the tasty cooking liquid back on the chicken.

When everything is nice and hot, sprinkle in some fresh cilantro. Then serve in anyways you enjoy eating tacos. Personally, I like these on a flour tortilla with some green salsa.

Green Salsa

Ingredients:
About 10 tomatillos (or more if they are exceptionally small)
1 or 2 jalapenos
Big Handful of fresh cilantro
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
Squeeze or lime juice
salt and pepper

What to Do:

Husk the tomatillos and cut them in half. Heat up a frying pan on high, then throw in the tomatillos and let them get a little black on the outside. I'm not actually sure if this is necessary, but I feel like at some point in my life someone of the Food Network told me this was a good idea, like maybe it brought out the sweetness a little.

Put tomatillos, jalepenos, cilantro, and garlic into a food processor and process away. I make it pretty smooth, but it's up to you how chunky you like it. Then add lime juice, salt, and pepper to your liking. I'm a fan of sour things, but if you're not you could add a little bit of sugar.

Put this on your limey chicken taco and you will be very satisfied! Or stick it in a festive bowl and get out the tortilla chips.

Chicken and Parsnip Fun Pie

2010-02-02T15:51:00.000-06:00

What good is a pot pie crust w/o pot pie filling? Well, it is actually a lot of good. It is a potential pot pie. That is better than most people achieve in a lifetime and it's just a bunch of butter and flour mixed up. After all, do you think you could ever be as awesome as this?

There is almost no chance. What we have here is pie full of chicken, parsnips, turnips and other assorted delicacies. While you might never be so delicious yourself, you can always make it. Here's what you need.

6 Chicken thighs w/ bones and skin

1 qt stock

4 parsnips

2 turnips

1 large onion

2 stalks celery

salt pepper

2 bay leaves

4 tbsp corn starch

1 pot pie crust

First things first, season the chicken thighs well w/ salt and pepper and roast at 400F for about forty five minutes. You can use boneless if you want or an equivalent amount of chicken breasts or legs but bone-in thighs are cheap and delicious and you can save the bones to make stock later.

Let those cool for a minute and then they should be cooked enough that you can pretty much just pull the meat off w/ your fingers. I like to leave it in fairly big chunks.

While the breasts are cooking cut up the turnips, celery, parsnips and onion. Throw them in a pot w/ the shredded chicken once done and top up w/ your best stock, probably need about a quart. If you don't have enough, just top up w/ water and don't tell anyone. Throw in a couple bay leaves and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer and cook about twenty or thirty minutes, just until the veggies begin to get soft. At this point, you'll want to add cornstarch to thicken. This is one thing it's best to judge case by case. It will change depending on your stock. Sprinkle in a tablespoon at a time, stirring vigorously until the soup takes on the consistency of a light gravy. Be careful not to use too much, it thickens as you cook. Add salt and pepper to taste. You'll end up w/ something like this:

Now for the fun! Dump that sucker into the bottom half of the pot pie crust. Be careful not to splash. I did not pour from as high as it looks in this picture.

Put the top crust on and then bake at four hundred about twenty minutes. Won't take a terribly long time, just cook until the crust is nice and brown like this:

Serve as carefully as possible but don't worry about it too much, pot pie is supposed to be sloppy.

Got any favorite pot pie fillings? Let TFK know in the comments.

Pot Pie Crust

2010-01-31T15:25:00.000-06:00

There's fun and then there's pot pie fun. They are about the same thing but one involves a pot pie and how could you not want that?

This is a pretty standard butter pastry crust w/ no sugar and works great for pot pies and the like (hence the name). It is a simple recipe and pretty hard to screw up. All you need is:

2 sticks butter, cold
2 1/2 cup flower
1 tsp salt
ice water

This makes enough for a pot pie in a fourteen inch round pan.

So I said this was hard to screw up but if you are going to screw up one part it's this. You need to add the flower and salt to a bowl and mix thoroughly. Then add the two sticks of cold butter. W/ a pastry blender or a fork, you need to combine this stuff. Here is where you need to be careful. If you want a nice, flaky texture, you cannot mix it too much. You want to have big visible chunks of butter left. If it is a throughly mixed paste, you have gone to far and your crust will turn out a bit dense but still good.

Right like that is about how you want it. Don't worry if there a couple big chunks, they will get broken up as you work w/ it later. Once you got it here, you need to add about a half cup of ice water until you can get it all to stick together (not the cubes, just the water). Again, don't overwork it. Form the ball into two roughly equal sized chunks:

You need to cover these and place them in the fridge for an hour or two. From here you need to roll it out. If one of the balls is bigger, start w/ that as this will be the bottom crust. Use a rolling pin or a big beer bottle:

This will need to be about sixteen or seventeen inches across. Measure w/ your pan and it needs to be a bit larger so it can cover the sides. Then you are just gonna wanna place it in a lightly greased pan:

This is a pot pie, it's supposed to be a bit rustic so don't go worrying it's all completely geometrically perfect. As you can see, I had to patch it up a bit w/ extra dough, that is no big deal either. After this, roll out the other chunk to a slightly smaller diameter. Add your pie filling and then place the other crust on top forming a seal around the edges as best you can. Then put a few slits in the top to let steam out.

From here, I place in an oven at about 400 F for twenty minutes until the crust is nice and brown. If you have a favorite pot pie filling, let us know in the comments. Here at TFK, we are constantly looking for new things to stuff in crusts.

Pigtail and Mayacoba Bean Soup

2010-01-30T15:08:00.000-06:00

Cooking w/ pigtails is a blast and a half! I used them to make a rich, smoky soup w/ myacoba beans.

Here's what you need:

1 pkg mayacoba beans

1 lb smoked pig tails

1 large onion

1 clove garlic

2 bay leaves

2 turnips

2 large carrots

2 stalks celery

1 can beer

salt, pepper

water

1/4 cup louisianna hot sauce

Myacoba beans look like pinto beans w/o the spots on them and taste pretty similar. Feel free to substitute w/ pintos or your favorite bean. You can substitute ham hocks or smoked pig knuckles for the pig tails too, which are some might weird looking meat hunks. If my mom didn't read this blog, I'd make some comments on what the bottom one looks like:

Your first step is to soak the beans. Either cover them w/ water and let them sit over night or bring to a boil and let them sit for about an hour. Drain the bean, add pigtails and cover w/ water again. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for about one hour until the beans are soft.

While you wait, dice up the onion, garlic, carrot, turnip and celery. After the beans are soft, toss them in the pot along w/ two bay leaves.

By this time, a lot of the liquid will have evoporated. Top up w/ enough beer to cover. See my recipe for pork and power kraut for the beer of my choosing for such things. Bring back to a simmer and cook about twenty minutes or until the veggies are soft. Remove the pigtails. If you want, you can try to cut up what little meat is on them and add it back to the soup. At this point, you will want to add some hotsauce. I used Louisianna Hot Sauce, which has a lot of chile flavor and just a touch of vinegar but use whatever you have around. It takes a lot for all these beans, about a quarter cup. Add a good teaspoon or two of black pepper and then salt to taste. You can serve this as a soup or pull out the beans and veggies w/ a slotted spoon and serve over rice.

Now that's some fun stuff! If you have a favorite bean or pork tail recipe, post it in the comments.