Chicken & Winter Squash Stew

I have made this with store bought British style curry powder and with a blend of north African spices. This time I tried Punjabi garam masala from 660 Curries. It worked great. Something about the combination of chicken, squash and warming spices really works. Savory! I used a butternut squash but any winter squash would work. I used fire roasted tomatoes which are good but any canned tomato would work (and probably be cheaper). And finally, you could really use water instead of the stock. I made a quick stock with the skin and bones of the thighs and a couple of bay leaves, peppercorns and garlic cloves, smashed.

I used this recipe when experimenting with cooking with a Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin. Complete failure. Jack-o-Lantern pumpkin is flavorless and stringy.

Ingredients

8 boneless, skinless chicken thighs cut into 1 - 1 1/2 inch chunks
1 1/2 tablespoons garam masala
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
salt and pepper
1 butternut squash
1 tablespoon oil
1 onion, chopped
4 carrots, cleaned & sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 14 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes (with their juice)
1 quart chicken stock
Steamed rice for serving

Assembly

Combine the chicken, garama masala, turmeric, a big pinch of salt and pepper to taste in a bowl. Place in the refrigerator while it waits for its turn in the pot and absorbs those flavors.

Peel the squash with a vegetable peeler, halve, remove seeds and chop into 1 1/2 inch cubes. Heat vegetable oil over high heat in a large soup pot. Add onions and carrots and saute until beginning to soften. Normally I would have started with the chicken, removed it and sauteed the aromatics but I was letting it absorb that garam masala flavor in the fridge. Add chicken and continue cooking, stirring periodically, until the chicken begins to brown on all sides.

Add the tomatoes with their juice and stock to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until chicken is about tender (I believe I went about a half an hour). Add the squash chunks and enough remaining stock to cover. Taste the broth for seasoning and adjust with salt and pepper if necessary.

Increase heat and return to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer partially covered until the squash is tender. Taste (again) for seasoning and add salt and/or pepper if necessary. Serve with steamed rice. Yum!

Shrimp

Chorizo & Shredded Potatoes

Inspired by several Rick Bayless dishes, this simple preparation is far greater than the sum of its parts. The mild sweetness of the potatoes tames the heat and spice of the Mexican style chorizo. It's a tasty side dish  with just about anything Mexican or can be served with warm flour tortillas for wrapping. Mexican chorizo is an uncooked ground sausage which must be removed from its casing and cooked before eating. I used Cacique pork chorizo here. You can peel the potatoes for a less intrusive potato flavor.

Ingredients

1 10 oz. package Mexican chorizo
3 or 4 red skinned potatoes

Assembly

Using a box grater, shred the potatoes onto a clean kitchen towel. Wrap the towel around the potatoes and squeeze as much of the water out of them as you can.

Shredded Potatoes in Towel Waiting for Their Turn in the Pan.

Meanwhile, cook the chorizo in a skillet over medium-high heat, periodically breaking up the sausage with your favorite appropriate implement, until cooked. Mine usually takes about 8 minutes.

Add the potatoes to the skillet.

Cook, flipping contents over every few minutes, until potatoes are done to your liking. I go about fifteen minutes.

Enjoy!

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Turnip Greens with Ham Hocks

Greens with Sides of Ribs and Mac and Cheese

One of Michael Pollan's Food Rules is to "drink the juice". The juice is the cooking liquid from the greens. Full of vitamins they say but definitely full of flavor. This works with pretty much any green you want to long-cook. The turnip greens bag used to have a recipe similar to this. Now they're evidently focused on a light, fresh, healthy marketing strategy. The recipes on the currently bag are short sautes.

What you do is put your ham hocks (I had 2) and 2 quarts of water in a soup pot. Bring to a boil over high high heat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for as long as it takes for the hocks to get tender and flavor the water. Add the greens. I had 2 Cut 'n Clean bags. Simmer for 1 hour. Drain juice from greens and enjoy separately or together. The ham hocks can be pick for meat which can then be tossed in with the greens or simply munched on.

So, to sum up:

Simmer ham hocks and water covered for at least 1 1/2 hours. Add greens and simmer covered for another hour. Yum!

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Cochinita (Puerco) Pibil

Rick Bayless' recipe from Mexican Everyday calls for 1/2 a package of achiote seasoning. I had ground achiote so I had to source a recipe for an adobo online. I found this one that worked great. The blogger states that he leaves out the banana leaves now out of laziness. After trying this dish I would have to say that a non-banana leaf version would be lacking a special herbal note that they impart during the long cooking. This was truly delicious. I couldn't get the earthy perfume of the achiote and banana leaves out of my head for the rest of the day.

Ingredients (as cooked):

6 serrano peppers, chopped

1 head garlic, peeled and chopped

3 tablespoons ground achiote

2 tablespoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground black pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 cup orange juice

1/2 cup vinegar

4 tablespoons kosher salt

juice of 5 limes

2 2 foot sections banana leaves

5 pound pork shoulder

1 large white onion sliced

Assembly

Buzz the serranos and garlic in a food processor until minced. Add the spices, juices, vinegar and salt and process to combine. 

Line a slow cooker with banana leaves placed perpendicular to each other. Place the pork roast on top.

Pour adobo over the pork.

Sprinkle on the onion slices.

Fold banana leaves over the pork, cover and cook on low for 10 hours or high for 6 hours or until the pork is falling-apart done.

Remove pork from cooker to a serving plate. De-fat the juice and reduce in a skillet over high heat until it reaches the thickness/saltiness you like. My sauce was on the salty side so I pretty much served it as is. Serve the pork and sauce over steamed white rice.

Enjoy!

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2013 Work Potluck Chili

The thing about our work potluck chili competition is that your entry must be both lowest common denominator and creative and delicious plus have a fun name to have a chance at winning the $50. Using red onion adds sweetness so you don't need some kind of sweet component like raisins or honey or whatever to cut the bitterness of the chili powder. The annatto oil adds a certain "I don't know what" (as the French say) and a richer red color.

Millionaire's Choice Award Winning Chili:

2 tablespoons annatto oil
4 pounds chuck steak
2 red onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 bottle beer, dark and not hoppy
1 28 ounce can whole tomatoes with their juice
2 tablespoons to 1/2 cup of your favorite chili powder
1/2 teaspoon or more cayenne
salt

Assembly

Prepare grill for grilling. Season steak with salt and set aside until coals are ready. Grill steaks until charred on both sides. Doneness is not key because you will be long-cooking the meat anyway. The idea is to get some smoky grilled flavor in there. Remove from grill and cut into good chili-sized chunks. Place chunks in a bowl to catch any delicious meat juices that might escape.

Meat Hanging Out While Waiting

Heat the annatto oil over medium-high heat.

Add the onions and saute until soft. Add the garlic and cook, stirring constantly for a bout 30 seconds.

Add the beer and the tomatoes and their juice, crushing the tomatoes with your hand as you add them. Add the steak chunks and accumulated juices. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer until the meat is tender but not completely falling apart. Taste for heat and seasoning and adjust with cayenne and salt accordingly.

Enjoy!

Shrimp

edit: I placed

Serbian Stuffed Grilled Chicken Thighs

I just saw this on Steven Raichlen's Primal Grill on an episode dedicated to European grilling techniques. Mr. Raichlen used the side of a cleaver to flatten the thighs for stuffing. I use a big rubber mallet. I cooked it from memory so I left out the garlic salt.

Ingredients (as cooked, from memory, by me):

3 slices bacon, fried and crumbled
reserved bacon fat from the frying
4 boneless, skinless chicken thighs pounded to about 1/4" thickness
yellow mustard
about 1/2 cup diced ham
about 1/2 cup diced cheddar
salt and pepper

Assembly

Prepare grill for grilling. Lay chicken thigh flat. Spread thigh with mustard and sprinkle with 1/4 of the bacon, ham and cheddar. fold thigh over (width-wise) and secure with a couple of toothpicks or, like me, broken off bamboo skewers. I don't soak the skewers in water as they burn whether or not I soak them. Brush chicken bundles with bacon fat and season with salt and pepper.

Bundles Waiting to be Grilled

 Grill chicken bundles over high heat until done, turning once. Mine took about 5 minutes a side.

Remove from grill and serve. Yum!

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Leftover Fry-Up

Here is what happened to 3 leftover baked potatoes and some leftover cochinita pibil last night.

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil
3 baked potatoes, diced
11/2 cups cochinita pibil, shredded and browned
butter
4 eggs, cracked into a small bowl
1/4 cup shredded cheddar

Assembly

Heat oil over medium heat in a skillet. Add potato chunks and cook, stirring periodically until browned. Add meat and cook until heated through. Make a well in the center of the potatoes and meat, add a dollop of butter. When the butter is melted, add the eggs to the well all at once. Cover and cook until the eggs are done to your liking.

Slide the contents of the pan onto a serving plate and sprinkle with cheese. Yum!

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Basic Weeknight Curry

This is my simple weeknight curry. This would work with any simmerable meat: chicken thighs or legs, pork sirloin chops, chunks of beef chuck. I deglazed with water but it could have been a non-hoppy beer, broth or wine. Here's what I had on hand:

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
5 chicken thighs
1 yellow onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic minced
2 tablespoons garam masala
1 14 ounce can diced tomatoes
Salt

Assembly

Brown the Meat in 1 or 2 Tablespoons Oil on Medium-High

Set Meat Aside & Brown Onions

Add Garlic and 2 Tablespoons Garam Masala, Stir for a Minute

Deglaze with Water, add Can of Tomatoes & a Big Pinch of Salt

Reduce heat, cover and simmer until meat is cooked. Taste for seasoning and add salt if necessary. Serve over rice. Yum!

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Chickpeas with Lime Juice

This is an adaptation of a chickpea curry from 660 Curries. This is, once again, my go-to for Indian food. Not one recipe has failed me and they are very adaptable to what you have in the kitchen at the time. I might add that there are 660 of them. This one originally called for mango powder. I was out of mango powder and substituted lime juice.

Ingredients (as cooked by me):

2 tablespoons canola oil
2 teaspoons cumin seeds, 1 t. ground & 1 t. whole
2 cardamom pods (mine were green)
2 small cinnamon sticks
1 can diced tomatoes with juice
2 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, ground
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
2 cans chickpeas, drained
2 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro

Assembly

Heat oil over medium-high heat in a medium saucepan. Add the whole cumin seeds, cardamom and cinnamon sticks and cook until aromatic. The book says 15 seconds but it took mine a little longer.

Add tomatoes, lime juice, coriander, salt, cayenne, turmeric and the ground cumin seeds. Reduce heat to medium, partially cover and simmer until oil starts to collect at the edges. Add the chickpeas and cilantro. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer until flavors come together.

I serve this with steamed rice. It makes a great no-meat meal on its own or a side dish for an Indian style feast. Enjoy!

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Cheater Cuban Sandwich

Should Have Snapped a Pic Before Digging in

I have been using Alton Brown's Recipe for Cuban sandwiches substituting his grilled cheese method of using 2 screaming hot cast iron pans instead of the 500° fireplace bricks. Although this works great, last night I had neither the stuff nor the time for this method. I did have (this would really work with any combination of 1 each thinly sliced pork product, poultry product and cheese product):

Ingredients

Hamburger Buns
Thinly sliced (homemade!) Canadian bacon
Thinly sliced roast chicken breast
Havarti cheese slices
Common yellow prepared mustard
Butter

And an aluminum, non-stick stove-top griddle.

Assembly

I applied the mustard to the inside of the top half of each bun, layered the meats and cheese and added the bottom half of the bun. I buttered the top and bottom of the assembled sandwich with a silicone BBQ brush and toasted them, top and bottom, over medium-high heat on the griddle. This was surprisingly convincing and totally delicious!

Shrimp

Chili Chocolate Cheesecake

Work Potluck Photo of Last Slice

This recipe is based on Oreo cheese cake and chocolate cake cookies. It won first place in my work potluck creative chocolate dish competition (this is not an officially sanctioned competition).

1 box chocolate cake mix

1/4c oil
3 eggs
1t hot pepper flakes
1/2 package Oreo Cookies
1/2 stick butter melted
2 8oz packages cream cheese
1/2c sugar
1/2t vanilla
Cayenne pepper
Confectioner’s sugar
Cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine cake mix, oil, pepper flakes and 1 egg. Drop heaping tablespoons of mix on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350°F for 9-12 minutes. Allow to cool and break up to use as mix-ins. Crush Oreo cookies, combine with butter and press into the bottom of a 9" springform pan. Bake for 10 minutes, remove from oven and allow to cool. Lower oven to 325°F. Beat cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs; mix just until blended. Mix in chocolate cookie mix-ins. (you won't need all of the cookies, 4 or 5 should do) Pour into crust. Bake 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight. Before serving, sprinkle with cayenne pepper, confectioner's sugar and cocoa powder.

Enjoy!

Shrimp

Ratatouille

This is an allrecipes.com recipe that calls for a ton of Parmesan cheese. Being that I'm always trying to cook veggies in such a way that I don't have to count their points in Weight Watchers, I omitted the cheese except for a final sprinkling on the tomato layer. The result is a yummy Mediterranean style side dish appropriate with simply grilled chicken, chops or fish and maybe a nice cannellini bean salad. 

Ratatouille

1 eggplant diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
salt
herbes de provence
2 zucchini, sliced
1 onion, sliced
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
1 bell pepper, sliced
2 tomatoes, chopped
Parmigiano-Reggiano

Preheat oven to 350°F. Toss the eggplant with salt, olive oil and herbes to taste. Heat skillet over medium high heat. Ad one tablespoon (3 counts) of olive oil. Sautee until soft and beginning to brown.

Place eggplant in the bottom of an oiled baking dish.

Add the zucchini in an even layer and salt to taste.

Repeat with remaining veggies; onion, salt, mushrooms, salt, bell pepper, salt, tomatoes, salt. Finally sprinkle on a bit of freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano.

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour or until the zucchini is cooked to your liking.

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Orange Roasted Carrots

I found this recipe on Facebook here. This is a first for me, second in the organic Google results for the query "blood orange roasted carrots". Also odd is that there is not one Facebook ad on that page. Anyway, this one is really good. The orange peels add a tangy bitter note too the sweet caramelized carrots. I recommend it!

Orange Roasted Carrots

Carrots
Orange
Olive Oil 
Salt

Preheat Oven to 375°F. Peel and cut carrots into 1 inch chunks. Place chunks in a baking pan.

Halve the orange and squeeze the juice over the carrots. Slice the orange peel into thin strips and sprinkle over the carrots. Drizzle with oil and salt to taste.

Roast for 30 to 40 minutes until the carrots are done and the carrots and orange peels are caramelized.


Edit: After doing this recipe a few times I have come to the conclusion that covering the baking pan with foil for the first 1/2 hour, removing the foil and baking until GDB results in a more tender, less chewy carrot.

Yum!


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Bacon Wrapped Asparagus

2 lbs asparagus, tough part trimmed
olive oil
black pepper
8 rashers bacon

Preheat oven to 400°F. Toss asparagus in a bit of olive oil to coat and season to taste with pepper. Wrap about 1/8 of the asparagus in a rasher of bacon. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Place asparagus roll-ups on a rack over a sheet pan (you could use a grill pan). Place on middle rack in oven and cook until bacon is crispy and asparagus is cooked to your liking. Mine took 22 minutes.

Enjoy!
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Vetting the Brinkmann Smoke'N Grill

My friend Brooke recently lent me a Brinkmann Smoke'N Grill Charcoal Smoker and Grill. I am not a pit master. I enjoy grilling but I have never taken the time to begin learning the nuances of smoking...until now.

Here's where I am so far. Temperature is illusory. If you slowly bring a chicken thigh up to an internal temperature of 175°F with the smoker at between 250° and 300° (higher than the recommended 200° - 250° range but it's very hard to keep a lower fire going in this unit - also well within the Brinkmann's fascist thermometer's "ideal" range - I installed one with numbers on it) the meat and especially the skin have a rubbery appeal. The second time I did thighs I skipped the thermometer and gave them an additional hour (total of 4 hours). Perfect. Very smoky like smoked fish.

In order to keep the lowest possible temp and still keep the coals glowing I start with a smallish pile of coals (about all that will fit in the charcoal container). 8 or so coals get added every hour and soaked wood chips every fifteen minutes. It's a little fiddly being that involved in the process is part of the fun.

Some folks say that the food is done when the fat has melted away. I'm thinking this could be a good gauge for pork shoulder. On my recent attempt I went with an internal temperature of 150°. Again too high bit the fat didn't seem melted away at 145°. It also wasn't melted away at 150°. Next time I will go with the standard 1 hour and 15 minutes a pound and examine for fatmeltedawayedness.

The Brinkmann has a water container that sits over the fire and under the grills. I haven't done the research but I imagine this is to keep the temperature down and keep the dripping from landing on the coals and creating flare ups/off flavors?

The Brinkmann also serves admirably as an 18" kettle type grill as borne witness by the photo below in the grilling of a small rainbow of sweet potatoes;

If I have money to burn I imagine one of those big units with the fire chamber off to the side would be ideal (and less fiddly). But the Brinkmann is definitely a bargain and totally functional.

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Grilled Carrots

In the essential kitchen bible, The Elements of Cooking: Translating the Chef's Craft for Every Kitchen, Michael Ruhlman states that carrots are good for grilling. This did not seem obvious to me. I Googled a recipe and came up with this video from Weber. I like that his glaze doesn't have sugar. Carrots are already sweet. A variety of spices could have been used instead of nutmeg; perhaps curry powder, cinnamon or a citrusy dry rub in melted butter?

Grilled Carrots

Carrots, peeled
2 tablespoons butter
salt and pepper to taste
freshly grated nutmeg

Simmer your carrots in salted water for 4 - 6 minutes, until beginning to get tender. Meanwhile, heat the butter over low heat until melted and add the salt, pepper and nutmeg. Remove from heat. When the carrots are just tender, shock in cold water to stop the cooking.

Toss the carrots in half of the glaze. Reserve the other half for when the carrots are done grilling. Grill carrots over hot coals, turning often, for about a minute, until the carrots have grill marks and the glaze is starting to caramelize.

Carrots from Friend Elisa's Dad's Garden!

Remove to a serving dish and pour the remaining glaze over the carrots. Pretty and delicious!

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Italian Sausage Simmered in Store Bought Sauce

This is not so much a recipe as how I doctor up store bought sauce and simmer some Italian sausages therein. We serve it/them with spaghetti and topped with freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano. It's one of my family's favorite quick weekday dinners served with a salad and crusty bread.

If you grate your cheese in advance, it's better to use the small side of a box grater than a Micro-Plane. The box grater shreds will have less surface area and will lose less of the volatile flavors of the cheese.

Italian Sausage Simmered in Store Bought Sauce

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 package Italian sausage links
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup or so red wine
1 jar of the simplest (few ingredients, no sugar or HFCS) store bought spaghetti sauce
Italian herb blend
dry oregano
1 pound dry spaghetti cooked to manufacturer's directions
freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano

Heat oil in a medium frying pan over medium high heat. Add the sausage links and cook, turning occasionally, until browned all over.

Add the garlic and cook for a few seconds. You want the garlic to be aromatic but not burnt. Add the wine and cook for a couple of seconds. Add the sauce and herbs to your taste. I like about a teaspoon of each.

Reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes until the sausages are cooked through.

Plate the sausages and serve the sauce with the spaghetti. Sprinkle all with parmigiano-reggiano.

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