Big Beef
I do love a deal And when the local butcher had whole bottom rounds for a mere $1.49/lb, I had to grab one - all 13 pounds of it!
Armed with my trusty knife, I went to work. Within minutes it was reduced to steaks and cubes for brochettes.
It actually took longer to vaccuum seal it all than it did to cut it! And now it resides in the freezer, awaiting another culinary feat!
Pork Chops with Asian Peach Salsa
I had some beautiful bone-in pork chops that were just screaming to be grilled tonight! Of course, I didn't want just plain ol' pork chops... I decided Asian was the ticket!
I made a marinade of:
- soy sauce
- garlic
- sriracha sauce
- sesame oil
- black pepper
- black sesame seeds
and marinated the chops for about an hour. Onto a hot grill they went.
Meanwhile, I made an Asian-Inspired Peach Salsa, similar to what I made for the Peach Iron Chef Cookoff.
- 3 Peaches, diced
- 1/4 Red Onion, diced
- 1/2 tsp Sambal Oleck (Chili Paste)
- 1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
- 1 Tbsp Rice Wine
- 1/2 tsp Sesame Oil
- Cilantro, chopped
- Basil, chopped
Dice peaches and onions and place in bowl. Add remaining ingredients and lightly mix. Chill until ready to serve.
I topped the pork chops with the salsa, plated some rice and voila! Dinner was served!
Scallops and Black Rice
Our friend Dorrie was down visiting from Boston and we've been eating well since she arrived! Dinner last night was no exception!
Dorrie had never had Black Japonica Rice before, so I decided we needed to showcase it. Into the freezer and out came New England Scallops. (How apros po!)
I started the rice and while it was cooking, made the scallops... I just kinda threw this together so amounts are approximate...
- 1 lb scallops, trimmed and sliced in half
- 1/4 lb pancetta, diced
- 1/2 onion, minced
- 1/4 cup brandy
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds
- 2 cups peas
- 2 tbsp butter
- Fresh basil
Saute the onions and pancetta in the butter. Add the brandy and reduce a bit. Add the cream and reduce a bit. Add the peas and heat through. Add the scallops and simmer a few minutes until cooked. Stir in the almonds and some fresh chopped basil. Taste for seasoning and serve over black rice.
It was yum!
Peach Cobbler
We went ot a BBQ at our neighbor's house this afternoon. A fun time with lots of food and drink. I got to bring dessert!
For the 4th, I wanted something slightly traditional, but with a bit of a twist. Enter Tim's Peach Cobbler!
I marinated the peaches overnight in Cointreau... Into the dish they went with a bit of sugar, cinnamon, corn starch, and allspice.
For the topping I took a scone recipe and twisted the concept a bit. I flattened it out, brushed with melted butter and then sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon. I rolled it up cinnamon-roll-style, cut, and put on top. Into the oven for about 20 minutes and dessert was served!
It was yummy!
Here's the scone recipe I used for the topping:
Preheat oven to 400°F. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in large bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles fine meal. Gradually add 1 cup cream, mixing until dough comes together. Pat to 1/2-inch thick rectangle.
Spread with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon. Roll, slice, and place on fruit.
Bake at 400° about 20 minutes or until fully cooked.
Simplicity-and sooooooo good!
A Simple Grilled Cheese Sandwich
Toasted bread and melted cheese... What could possibly be better?!? Using two types of cheese and adding salsa and olives is a start!
I did these under the broiler because I wanted them quickly... I drizzled a bit of olive oil on one side of the bread and lightly toasted it under the broiler.
Then came a slice of Jalapeno Jack and Salsa on one slice, and Havarti with Dill and Caramelized Olive Spread on the other. Back under the broiler until gooey, and then put together, sliced, and consumed.
It was a great taste sensation! :)
We do not do boring sandwiches at our house! (Okay... that is completely untrue - I just don't write about them!)
Iron Chef Barbecue
Kenny's leaving - being transferred to Ardmore. This is a tough good-bye. Kenny started our Iron Chef competitions. While it's a good move for him, it shall leave a void in our Culinary Competitions unless someone else steps up to the plate right away. I am bereft. I have never won one of the competitions, but I've always walked away with a full stomach and a lot of ideas.
His last day with us is Thursday, July 3rd, so, in honor of his last day, we're having Iron Chef Barbecue. The rules of the past competitions don't apply this time. It's a wide-open dish-has-to-come-from-the-grill-event. I'm ready.
Today, I made sausage. A bit of an Asian-inspired recipe. Victor's mom - the consummate Italian Mother - was over as I was boning the pork and starting the marinade. She could not believe I was actually putting soy sauce and other Asian-type ingredients in the marinade. She thinks in terms of Italian Sausage. Mild or Spicy. Certain foods are sacrosanct. (She wouldn't touch the Amaretto Pizzelle's I made years ago, only to begrudgingly say they were "okay" when I made them again the following year.) But I digress...
I bought an 8 1/2 pound bone-in pork shoulder and boned and marinated it in:
- Soy Sauce
- Chinese Rice Wine
- Sriracha Sauce
- Fish Sauce
- Black Pepper
I ground it up with:
- Onions
- Peaches
- Cilantro
- Black Sesame Seeds
And then stuffed it into casings.
I'm heading out to the grill right now to cook some up for dinner at Victor's brother's house.
Lookin' good.
And they taste GREAT!!!
Excellent Enchiladas
We've been cooking up a storm at work, recreating all of the recipes submitted for the recipe contest. It has not been an easy task. We actually received too many good recipes! (okay - so everyone should have such a problem!)
And the tastes linger well after leaving work and coming home...
One recipe today did just that. It's a Chicken and Blue Cheese Dip. The flavors mixed well and the tasting panel really thought it would make a great filling for something like crepes, or even whole wheat tortillas (besides its original intent as a dip!) In our personal cooking, we don't limit ourselves to a few ingredients, and the ideas were flying - crisp steamed vegetables folded in and rolled into a crepe was one of my favorites. I think it's a sign we're all pretty serious foodies (or totally nuts - you be the judge!) when the first thing out of our mouths is what else we could do with something...
So I got home tonight and started thinking about dinner, and thought that a chicken and blue cheese enchilada would be the ticket!
The only actual ingredient I had at home from the original recipe was the chicken breasts. But did that stop me?!? Of course not!
I poached the chicken breasts in water. I added garlic powder, turmeric, cumin, and chipotle powder and let the chicken stew.
Into a bowl I crumbled a bit of roquefort cheese and sour cream. I added a bit of cheddar for body and balance. I have some Calypso Hot Sauce (really, really hot!) and added a few drops for heat.
I made an enchilada sauce from a half-jar of Salsa Autentica, a can of tomato sauce, and a bit of the simmering chicken water.
I rolled the filling in corn tortillas, topped with sauce, and baked at 350° for about 20 minutes. I also made rice and served it all with sour cream and a quickly-prepared uacamole.
Dinner start-to-finish was about 45 minutes.
And I am pleasantly stuffed.
Salad For Dinner
'Tis the season to eat salads! I love 'em!
Tonight was a clean-out-the-refrigerator-salad. My favorite kind.
I started off with the greens and then added two types of plums, peaches, and strawberries. Then there were the blue cheese and/or garlic-stuffed olives... avocados... tomatoes... grilled chicken breasts... and a creamy dressing...
It was a definite stomach-smiler!
Pugliese Rolls
Well... that biga from a few weeks back has been taking up space in the 'fridge, so I decided I had to do something with it,. today. This is such a totally easy bread to make, I have no excuses.
I followed the direction exactly as stated with the original recipe but made it into rolls instead of loaves. I baked at 450° for about 20 minutes.
And then - because I now had these fabulous rolls, I had to make sandwiches for dinner!
I marinated chicken breasts in Dale's Marinade, pounded them, then grilled. On the rolls went Duke's Mayonnaise (which is as good as I was told! It's my new favorite!!!) and then avocado, tomato, and roasted peppers. The sandwiches were total messes! It took me 4 napkins to get through - and it was worth every one of them!
I'm stuffed. I've been doing some serious eating all day.
And there's still Peach Upside Down Cake in the kitchen.....
Hot Taco Dip
I don't often make the items we serve for Demos at home. By the time we've tried it, tested it, and served it for several days, I'm usually looking for something else. There are, of course, exceptions. I would like to introduce you to one!
Jessica and I were working on Saturday and we were trying to come up with something to serve the week of July 4th. We have our July 4th weekend covered (recipe contest winner) but we needed something right before that. We were thinking July 4th weekend party food, and I said "Hot Taco Dip." We have the ability to cook from raw, now, so ground beef was an automatic ingredient. We al;so have wanted to feature our new Corn Chip Dippers - totally yummy Frito-like corn chips that are not only organic, but downright yummy! We spoke back and forth for a few minutes and Jessica disappeared. She reappeared not long after with one of the best damn dishes I have tasted in a long time! It is just wonderful.
I made a batch for lunch today and Victor was swooning! This will definitely be going to my next party - and most likely become part of the lunch/dinner rotation. It can be changed by using different cheeses and different salsas. But here is the perfect original:
Hot Taco Dip
- 1 lb ground beef, cooked
- 1 container whipped cream cheese
- 1/2 jar Salsa Autentica
- 1 cup Shredded Mexican Cheese Blend
- Corn Chips
Cook beef. Stir in cream cheese, salsa, and about 3/4 of the shredded cheese. Place all in an ovenproof dish or bowl and top with remaining cheese.
Heat at 350° until heated through.
Serve with Corn Chips and enjoy!
I ate way more than I should have. My stomach is smiling!
Peach Upside Down Cake
We have peaches! And for the first time in a long time, we seem to have good peaches! My stomach is smiling!
But after all the savory peach dishes a few days ago, I thought it time to revisit an old favorite - Peach Upside Down Cake.
Pineapple may be the more traditional fruit, but absolutely anything can be used in an upside down cake. i have used everything from Apricots to Grapes, Peaches, Apples, Bananas... You get the picture. They all work.
I use a 12" cake pan because I have a 12" cake pan! Otherwise, I'd use a 12" skillet like my mother used to do.
Peach Upside Down Cake
The Topping (or bottom...)
Melt between a half to 3/4 stick butter and pour into pan. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of butter. Arrange fruit in pan to look nice when you take it out of the pan. Don't crowd the fruit - you want the batter to reach the bottom of the pan.
The Cake:
There are Bisquik recipes out there, sponge cakes, boiling water cakes, all sorts of things for upside down cakes. I suppose any of them wopuld work. It's what you're used to, I guess.
I make a basic yellow cake and replace the vanilla with whatever flavoring I'm making the cake. If you don't have a cabinet full of flavorings, just use vanilla. If you've never baked a cake from scratch before, this is a really easy one to make. Or... use a mix. BUT... choose a mix that does NOT have partially-hydrogenated fat in it. (Almost all of them do...)
- 2 cups cake flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1 cup sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tsp vanilla (or flavoring of choice...)
- 3/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 350°. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Add vanilla or flavoring to milk. Slowly add flour alternately with milk. Don't overmix, but batter should be smooth.
Carefully pour over fruit and bake 30-35 minutes or until cake is done.
(You can also use this recipe as a layer cake! 2-9" pans, greased and floured, and bake about 20-25 or so minutes.)
It really is that simple!
Niçoise Salad
Elizabeth brought a recipe into work the other day for a simple Niçoise salad as a possible demo. We looked at it, studied it, thought about it, and decided, It doesn't have potatoes in it - it's not a real Niçoise... We decided against it.
But since then, it's been on my mind...
So... today was the day to take care of it! It's a fairly basic salad. And really good. I had a couple of swordfish steaks in the freezer and used them in place of the more traditional tuna. And the olives were a combination of stuffed olives we already had in the fridge, as well.
Niçoise Salad
Dressing:
- large clove of garlic
- 2 tbsp red-wine vinegar
- 1/4 olive oil
- bit of anchovy paste
- salt and pepper, to taste
Mince garlic, add vinegar and then oil and anchovy paste. Season with S&P to taste.
Salad:
- small red potatoes cookes, sliced and cooled
- green beans, blanched
- diced red pepper
- 1/2 small red onion, slivered lengthwise
- Niçoise olives
- capers
- slivered fresh basil leaves
The Fish
- fresh lemon juice
- swordfish steaks
The Toppings:
- chopped hard-cooked eggs
- tomatoes
Marinate fish in a bit of lemon juice and olive oil, salt and pepper. Grill to desired doneness.
Cook potatoes, blanch beans and cool to room temperature. Place in bowl and add remaining ingredients - except chopped eggs. Add swordfish (or tuna) and dressing and mix lightly. Top with chopped eggs and enjoy!
We had enough left over for lunch tomorrow!