Disaster Dish

Like I said, tonight I was going to do something with Chorizo and unfortunately it wasn't great. I decided to add some diced chicken breast, chopped onion, chopped jalapeños and diced red skin potatos. I first cut mt potatoes in half and placed them in boiling water for 15 minutes. While those were going I crumpled my Chorizo and placed it in a skillet, along with the chicken and browned it. After about 12-15 minutes I removed the meats and placed them on paper towels to drain off the excess fat. I poured off all the juices/fat from the skillet minus 1 tbs. I drained my potatoes and diced them into small cubes and placed them in the skillet with the onions and the jalapeños and browned them over medium heat for about 10 minutes. I put the meats and the cooked potato mix in a large bowl and grated Manchego cheese over it and mixed it gently. I served it with crumples of Cotija cheese (it's a mexican type feta), along with a salad. The dish reminded me of a hash. Although it tasted good, it was dry and lacked something. Probably good as a hash with some ooyey gooey fried or poached eggs, maybe a taco or burrito filling. Any suggestions?

Rigatoni & Mighty Meat Sauce

Uh oh! I'm doing it again. We've had red meat everyday since last Wednesday. I know what you're thinking, but it's so yummy. Tomorrow won't be much different since I'm going to do something w/ Chorizo, yes it's pork, but Chorizo is NOT the other white meat. The good news is that the meat has been organic.

Tonight I took Marios Basic Tomato Sauce, I love Mario Batali, his dishes are just amazing, because of their simplicity. Anyway,  I had made a huge batch of the sauce last weekend.  You should definitely try this sauce it's so simple and soooo good, but be sure to use the San Marzano whole tomatoes if you do it.  Anyway, to my sauce I added 1lb of sweet Italian sausage and 1/2 lb of ground beef that I had browned and drained off the excess fat.  I simmered the meat sauce for about 30 minutes to really mesh the flavors and I served it over Rigatoni and grated fresh parmigiano reggiano over the top.  Doesn't that look yummy? As Mario would say, "Buon Appetito".

Texas Toast Applewood Smoked Bacon & Boursin Cheese Burgers

The picture doesn't even come close to depicting the awesomeness of this burger.  It truly was just TOO much!  If you dare to try this  here's how I did it.  I took 1.5 lbs of 80/20 ground sirloin and seasoned it generously with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.  I formed them into 2 large patties.  Be sure not to work your meat too much, because it makes the burgers really dense.  I set those aside then I baked my very thick smoked applewood bacon at 375 for 20 minutes, removed and placed on paper towels to absorb excess fat.  I heated my grill pan on medium heat and began cooking my burgers.  I cooked the burgers on the first side for 5 minutes, reduced the heat to medium low and cooked an additional 2 minutes, I flipped them and cooked them on the other side for 7 minutes.  Half way thru the process I layered jalapenos, red onions, bacon and a slice of havarti cheese on the burgers and tented them with aluminum foil to help melt the cheese.  While those were finishing up,  I went ahead and baked my store bought Texas toast.  When the toast was finished I spread a layer of the Boursin Cheese on each piece of toast.  I placed the burgers on the toast and Voila you have a gourmet burger.  These are really decadent, so you might want to try making them as sliders.  We could each only finish half, so it looks like lunch is made for tomorrow.  Yummy!

Beef Stir Fry

I went to Jungle Jim's over the weekend and picked up some really great veggies and really nice sized beef tenderloin.  If you've never been there you should definitely go, but be prepared to spend at least 1/2 day and lots of money when you go.  Like I said I picked up this 7 lb beef tenderloin that had to be prepared by cutting off the fat, silver skin and just misc stuff.  I watched a video on you tube to learn how to prepare it.  Anyway, after cleaning up the tenderloin, I saved the leftover pieces for my beef stir fry.  Yes, we used about 1.5 lbs of beef tenderloin in our stir fry tonight.  Mmm!!!  First thing I did when I got  home was to place the meat in the freezer for about 15 minutes (makes it easier to cut  into thin strips).  I got my medium grained rice going (I usually use basmati, but I found that the medium grain rice cooks up really starchy and really absorbs the juices of the stir fry).  I've done many stir fry's sauces, but tonight I decided to go online and try this Basic Stir Fry Sauce.  I doubled the batch and also added to it 1 1tsp of honey and 1/8 C more of the chicken broth.  The sauce becomes very thick, so you'll probably need to add some extra water or broth.  For my stir fry I used green beans, sugar snaps, onions, mushrooms, red pepper, jalapenos, celery, carrots, and broccoli.  I stir fried the veggies in 1tbs of canola oil for about 5 minutes, removed from the wok and added my beef and stir fried it for until almost cooked thru.  I drained off the juices and added the veggies back into the wok with the beef, stirred it and stirred in about 3/4 of the stir fry sauce.  I continued to stir fry for about 5 minutes, removed from the heat and served it over the rice in these really cute little bowls that were made by a local potter that we got in Yellow Springs, OH.  I love how the chop sticks rest on the bowls.  BTW, don't forget to season your beef with S&P before you stir fry.  I forgot to season it and the flavor was rather bland.  Overall, it was good, but it would've been even better if I had seasoned the beef.  Bon Appetit

Fiesta Thursday!!

Who doesn't like Tex Mex, Mexican or Spanish flavors?  Well tonight I decided to play on those flavors for the 2nd time this week.  This is so yummy, easy and there's little clean up involved.  The other day I purchased a skirt steak that I marinated for 2 days in that GOYA marinade that I told you about in a previous post. I love that stuff and it's very economical, about $2.5 for 16 oz.  First thing,  I got my basmati rice going, I cooked it in 1.5 C chicken stock and added 1 tsp turmeric and some a tsp of kosher salt to it.  I preheated my grill to high. I wanted to do something different with the rice, so I took 1 can of black beans rinsed and drained,  2 jalapenos that I seeded and small diced, 1/2 red onion small diced, removed kernels from 2 ears of corn (not cooked), 1 handful of chopped cilantro, 4 cloves of garlic minced, the juice of 1 lime, plus some lime zest, 1 tbs of cumin, 1/2 tbs of paprika, about 1/4 C grated manchego cheese and about 2 tsp of kosher salt and I added it all to a large bowl and mixed it up and set it aside.  While my rice was cooking I placed the steak onto the grill and cooked about 5-7 minutes per side, we like our meat fairly rare as you can see from the photo. I removed the meat from the grill and let it rest about 10 minutes.  After my rice finished cooking I let it sit for about 10 minutes before I removed the lid, and then I added it the bowl of black beans, jalapenos and corn mix that I had set aside.  I mixed it up and created this really yummy rice, bean, corn dish.  Trust me it's good stuff you should try it.  Anyway, we served it up with some avocado, sour cream and more grated manchego over top.  Give it a try it's really good! Good Eats!!

Roasted Chicken & Potatoes with Steamed Green Beans

This dish is semi-homemade and semi-healthy.  I'm sorry to say that I steamed my green beans in 2 tbs of bacon fat and 1/4 C chicken broth w/ some S&P for about 25 minutes (that's where the semi-healthy comes in).  FYI,  Unless I'm using green beans in a salad or asian dish, I typically will cook them to the very, very tender stage ( not baby food).  I haven't brined chicken before, so I brined my bone in chicken breast for a day (see previous post for brining).  Not sure I'm totally sold on the brining poultry and roasting, because the chicken had an interesting texture that I didn't hate, but didn't love either.  BTW, I always use organic, free range chicken, so that's not a factor.  Began by preheating my oven to 425 on bake convection mode.  I took 1/2 C panko, 1/2 C italian bread crumbs, 1 pkg of french onion soup dry mix, 8 baby yukon gold potatoes quartered, EVOO, 2 bone in chicken breasts that had been brined. I mixed the dry ingredients in a bowl and set aside.  I took my potatoes and drizzled them with EVOO and then placed them in the dry mixed and coated the potatoes.  I removed them and placed them on a cooling rack that I placed on a sheet pan (I covered the sheet pan with parchment paper for easy clean up).  I  then drizzled EVOO all over the chicken and placed the breasts in the dry mix and coated them and placed on same cooling rack with potatoes. I put all in the oven and I let them roast for about 30 minutes. After 30 mins I removed from oven and let the food rest for about 5 minutes. At this point my beans are finished steaming and I sprinkled some bacon pieces on top.  That's it.  I personally didn't like the onion soup mix on the chicken, it gave it a sweet flavor, but Will really like it.  I thought that the it worked great on the potatoes.  I love the potatoes and green beans as is, but next time the chicken will done differently.  Do you have any recommendations for the chicken?  Would love to hear from you.

Something Healthy! Will You Try It?

Hey guys sorry it's been awhile since my last post, but most of the dishes I've made recently have been repeats.  This is a combination of several dishes using greens.  Do you ever use greens?  Well, you should because they are really good for you and they are loaded with vitamins, minerals and flavor. Kale is one of my favs and it sautes up so beautifully.  I don't cook them to death because I like for them to have some texture.  Anyway tonight we did a combination of the chicken w/ spinach and kale w/ mushrooms and asparagus.  I do a variation on this dish a lot because it tastes great and it's healthy.  So tonight I started with:  1 bag of chopped and cleaned kale, 8 oz pkg of mushrooms sliced, 1 bunch of asparagus cut into 1/2' pieces, 6 cloves of garlic minced, 8 slices of pancetta cut into small pieces, 1.5 lbs of boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into 1" cubes,  olive oil, aged balsamic vinegar, Cavendar's greek seasoning,  italian seasoning, S&P, crushed red pepper, and chicken broth, parmigiana reggiano. I started the process by getting my water boiling for my linguini.  I then got my mushrooms sliced, asparagus cut and my garlic minced.  I set all of this aside and in the meantime added some olive oil to a large skillet and heated it on medium.  Once that was hot I added my pieces of pancetta and browned, about 5-7 minutes.  While that was browning I cut my chicken into 1" cubes, placed it in a bowl and liberally sprinkled Cavendars greek seasoning and olive oil over it and with my hands and just worked the oil and seasoning all over the chicken. I removed the pancetta from the skillet and added my chicken and half of the chopped garlic to the skillet and I cooked the chicken through about 7-10 minutes or so and removed it and set it aside.  I added my mushrooms, asparagus and remaining garlic to skillet and sauted it all for about 5 minutes then I added the kale over top, sprinkled with S&P, crushed red pepper and italian seasoning and covered it.  I checked it after about 5 minutes and stirred it and covered again until wilted and added about 1/4 C of chicken broth and I let it simmer for another 5 minutes.  It probably cooked a total of 10-15 minutes.  Once everything was finished, I plated my pasta, added the kale, mushroom, asparagus mix over top, over that added some chicken, over that the pancetta, drizzled some balsamic vinegar over that, and topped it off with freshly grated parmegiano reggiano.  That's it.  Of course we had to have some bruschetta.  Very easy, very healthy and very tasty.  This probably made enough for 4 people.  Will you try it pleeease????