Starting Monday I can stop using crutches to walk, and school ends May 3rd.

I am dying to get back into my kitchen.

Any requests or suggestions out there are welcome. What should my first dish be, now that I can cook again?

Between work and school, I am only home for dinner 3 out of 7 days of the week. We have also been eating a lot of the dishes already posted here. So, as soon as I have time and imagination enough to make something new, it will be here!

Thanks for stopping by,

Aaron

Whenever Ohio State plays Michigan, I like to make good food and invite Michigan fans over.  Why would a lifelong Buckeye want Michigan fans in his house?  Easy talking smack is what makes the game fun.

Menu for the game this year is:

Tacos

Carne Asada

Halibut

Refried beans

Mexican rice

Guacamole

Hot sauce

See bottom of post for complete recipe list.

The recipes for the beans and rice are both from Authentic Mexican, by Rick Bayless.  I cannot recommend this book more, especially for people who left California and can’t find Mexican food you like in restaurants.  I will still explain the process I used to make these dishes.

 

First, Carne Asada, or grilled steak if you prefer, is simple.  I prefer to marinate the meat for a couple hours minimum, for this preparation I marinated it for a day.

3 Skirt steaks is what I use here.  You can use any steak you like, here in Michigan it is difficult to find pre-marinated and thinly sliced meat, like Carnicerias in California offer.  So typically I try to find skirt steak, or I  cut a nice flank steak into thin slabs.  Thin is important, because you want your Carne Asada to cook fast, and if you have nice heat, it will develop a nice crust on the edges.

I cooked on a standard charcoal Weber grill.  I wanted a lot of heat, so I bought a second chimney charcoal starter, to have two chimneys of blazing hot hardwood charcoal.

I use 1/4 cup canola oil, the juice of 1 lime, chipotle, ancho, and garlic powder, a few cloves of fresh garlic smashed, fresh cilantro, and pepper.  Rub this into the meat, no need to be gentle about it.  Put in the fridge for as long as you plan, I try to flip the meat in its container, halfway through the marinating process.  It is also important to remove the meat from the fridge 30 minutes before you plan to cook, this allows the meat to come back up to room temperature.  The meat being at room temperature ensure more even cooking.

When your grill is ready, slap the meat down.  I went 4-5 minutes per side, but it really depends on the thickness of the meat.  At 4-5 minutes a side, I achieved nice crunchy edges, with perfect medium pink, in the thicker parts of the cut.  My wife prefers less rare meat.  The nice thing about Carne Asada is what you may consider overcooked, when eating a steak can taste awesome in a taco or burrito.

You could use chili powder, which is essentially: salt, chile powders, garlic powder, etc.  But by using separate chile powders, first you get to choose which chile powder you like, and you get to control the quantities of everything involved.

Halibut steaks for fish tacos.

Not everyone present liked fish, so I only bought two Halibut steaks (made 6-8 fish tacos).  The first order of business was to trim the fish.  I removed the skin and separated the meat from the bones.

Next, I seasoned the fish lightly with chipotle, cumin, and pepper.  Considering, I am not a master fish chef, I sautéed the fish on the stove, rather than grilling it.  I cooked it on each side for 2-3 minutes.  The fish was not really thick, so I tried for a little color on each side, and just cooking through the center.  It was a nice even doneness, with no drying out.  In the midst of my frantic cooking, I missed taking a picture of the fish in the pan.  Here is one of the finished product though.

 

Salsa Blanco and cabbage for fish tacos.

No recipe here, basically mix 2-3 parts yogurt or sour cream (I use yogurt), to 1 part mayonnaise.  I also add cumin, coriander, salt, and pepper.  For the cabbage, you just need to thinly slice some raw green cabbage.  Since fish tacos should be served on corn tortillas, remember the tortillas are smallish, so you don’t want pieces as long as the head of cabbage.  I typically quarter the cabbage head, then thinly slice down the side of each quarter (or as many quarters needed, for enough shredded cabbage).

Now lets talk beans, the more you eat the more…

There are really 2 bean recipes involved.  Both from Rick Bayless, first is brothy beans, basically the simmered beans.  These beans are delicious if you prefer whole beans, or do not want the added fat, from refrying.  The second of course is the refried beans, in which you use the brothy beans and the liquid they cooked in.

The Brothy Beans recipe calls for 2 cups dried pintos, I used 1 lb.

First I rinsed the dry beans discarding discolored and floating beans.  Then I covered the beans in cold water, about 2 inches above the beans.  They are supposed to soak anywhere from 4-8 hours, or even over night.  For this dish I had 4 hours while I was in class to soak them.

After soaking, drain and rinse thoroughly.  Now you can add 6 cups water, chicken stock, or any of liquid you want to simmer your beans.  I used 6 cups of water, 1 large poblano pepper halved, 1 large onion halved, 3 cloves smashed garlic, and a few cilantro sprigs.  The recipe calls for epazote, I did not have any, and they still tasted great.  I used a couple tablespoons of canola oil (lard is best, but I was out of manteca).  Bring the liquid to a boil and add your beans.  Let this simmer for 1-2 hours (1.5 for me), or until the beans are tender.

Time to refry our frijoles.

Again lard is preferred here.  I was out of lard, but I remembered I had bacon in the freezer, so I rendered 4 Tbs of raw chopped bacon, to get some fat in these beans.  Once the bacon is rendered add 1 medium onion diced.  Cook the onion until you start to get some nice brown color on it.  Once the onion gets some color add your beans, I also added some cumin.  Here you are supposed to use a potato masher/back of a spoon/Blunt device to mush your beans.  Being that I was cooking all this food during TV timeouts, so I wouldn’t miss any football, I was lazy (or was I smart!).  I broke out my stick blender, and started to buzz my beans, slowly adding some of the simmering liquid from the brothy beans, as needed.  Once I had a nice thick, but loose texture I threw a nice poblano on the burner to char the skin.  When nice and black throw it in a paper bag for a couple minutes, then 1 dry paper towel later, your pepper is skinless and ready to chop up.  Add the roasted, chopped poblano to the beans, stir it up, top with cheese, and serve

Rice

Sautee onion until soft, then add rice fry it for a minute of two (this will keep it from sticking and add a nutty flavor), add tomatoes (fresh or canned), add chiles, pour in liquid.  Once your liquid and rice mixture comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover.  Leave it like this for 20 minutes, do not peek.

 

Guacamole

This is my guacamole, there are some differences between it and traditional recipes.  The most obvious is no tomatoes.

The number of avocadoes depends on how many servings you want.  Typically, I find 3 ripe avocadoes to be sufficient.  I halve the avocadoes and scoop out the meat with a spoon, reserving the pits.  Next, I halve a lime and squeeze both halves over the avocadoes.  Then I use a potato masher to smash up the avocadoes.  You can use a fork/wooden spoon, or whatever you are comfortable with.  Now, I add 1/4 to 1/2 a finely diced white onion, 1/3 to 1/2 a bunch of fresh cilantro chopped, 1-2 cloves of garlic smooshed into a paste.  Remember to taste as you go on this, I tend to need to add more salt and pepper.  When my wife isn’t looking, I like to finely dice a serrano or jalapeno pepper, and add it too.

 

Hot sauce (Salsa Rojo)

Rick Bayless has great salsa recipes as well, but I freelanced on this one.

I used 5-6 Aji Rojo (Peruvian hot red pepper dried), 3-4 guajillo chiles, and 2-3 ancho chiles.  These were all put in a bowl of hot water to rehydrate, meanwhile I prepped my tomatillos, and opened my can of chipotle.  Once the dried peppers were somewhat hydrated (I did not keep track, but I would guess 1-2 hours in water, reserve the water), I put the rehydrated peppers and tomatillos on a half sheet pan, and roasted it all at 150º, for a little over an hour.  Keep an eye on this, because you do not want to turn the chiles black.  Once roasted, everything goes in a food processor, I added 1 large chipotle pepper and 1tbs of the adobo sauce the chipotle is packed in.  Buzz these ingredients up, add reserved rehydration liquid as needed, to reach the consistency you want.  This is on the spicy side, if you prefer mild, use less chiles and less adobo.  You can also use milder chiles as well.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures for this, but you can see the hot sauce in some of the other pictures of the table.

I cannot express how much better the steak tacos are with fresh fried corn tortillas.  My wife and I use a small frying pan to heat the oil, then cook one side of the tortilla at a time, using tongs to ensure when they harden a little they make a nice U shape.  Shredded pork and beef tacos, are the best with these fried corn tortillas.

 

Ingreient List

Carne Asada

3 nice skirt steaks (substitute flank, hanger, or any other steak you like)

Chile and garlic powder (any chile powder works, I like chipotle and ancho).

1 Lime

1/4 cup oil (canola, peanut, vegetable, etc.)

Few sprigs of cilantro

1 head of garlic (use as many cloves as you like)

 

Beans

1 Lb. of pinto beans

1 Large Onion (Brothy Beans)

2 Large Pobalno peppers

4-5 Cloves of garlic

Lard, bacon, or pork fat 4-5 tbs.

Few sprigs of cilantro

1 tsp. Cumin

 

Halibut

2 Halibut steaks

Seasonings of your choice

Oil for sautéing

Guacamole

3 ripe Avacodoes

1 Bunch Cilantro

2 Cloves garlic

1-2 Limes

1 Small white/purple onion

 

White Sauce (Salsa Blanco)

1 Individual container of plain yogurt or equivalent amount of sour cream

2-3 Tbs. mayonnaise

1/2 tsp. Cumin

1 pinch of coriander

 

Rice

1 Cup long grain rice (La Preferida)

1.5 cups water/chicken stock

1/2 15 oz can of diced tomato or equivalent fresh tomato chopped

1 chile serrano chopped fine

 

Hot Sauce (Salsa Rojo)

8-10 dried chiles of your choice

1 Can chipotle in adobo

1 Can tomatillos, or fresh tomatillos if you have them local

A friend of mine in Chicago mentioned how much he enjoys chicken limon.  Chicken picatta seems to the be similar if not the same, as the dish he likes.  Here you go JR.

Used this recipe, don’t ask me why an Italian recipe was under Southernfood.  Next go around I think I will try Giada’s version on Food Network’s site.  Although they are VERY close.

The spinach was done sans recipe.

1 package pre washed spinach

1 Clove of garlic smooshed and finely minced

Saute in 1 Tbs olive oil until it wilts and garlic is no longer raw, sprinkle some of the toasted pine nuts in, and toss.

A note about capers, everyone’s taste is different, but I do not care for the vinegar packed capers.  Tonight I bought the salt packed ones.  You absolutely want to rinse them, or the salt will kill your dish, but I really like these capers.

Personally, I liked this a lot, but my wife thought it was too tangy.  I’ve made Veal Picatta before and she enjoyed it a lot.  The sauce execution between the veal and chicken recipes I used, was different.  My wife does not care for spinach either, that is why there is so little in the pan.

 

 

 

 

This time being the first execution, I followed the recipe, except for the veal in the recipe, I replaced with more pork. Not because I don’t like veal, because I do, multiple stores in my area were out of veal.

Here is the link to Emeril’s recipe

The potatoes look soupy, because I added 1/4 cup more cream than specified, by accident, however they thickened nicely by the time they hit the table.  They were great.

The Reluctant Gourmet is where this recipe comes from.  My first execution was better, I wanted to use my new cast iron pot (it’s too small for this recipe, I know this now).  However, this time around still tasted great.  In the pictures you will see I used a New Castle beer, not a stout beer.  It is what I had on hand.  The first time around I used a Guiness Stout and it worked great.

I did not add Caraway seeds or hot sauce, and in the rub I added some ancho, chipolte, and hot paprika.

I found a sauce I love at a Bama tailgating recipe site, here is the

link.  I did not simmer or cook this sauce at all, and it was still great.  With left overs you can squeeze it over the meat before heating and it heats up nice.

The picture of the mustard container is my make shift BBQ vessel, for easy squeezing.  After I made the sauce, my wife mentioned it would be nice if we bought some of the clear plastic squeeze bottles.  Always willing to please, I emptied the rest of my good polish mustard, I bought for the sauce recipe, into my regular yellow mustard container.  Then filled up the squeezy polish mustard bottle with the Alabama BBQ sauce.

2 key things to remember here is, when you braise your pork, there is no SET time.  Depending on the size of your cut of pork, the time will vary.  It took 1.5 hours for 2 decent size country ribs.  This was enough for my wife and I to have dinner and a couple lunches. The other key thing to remember is always cool your braised meats in the braising liquid or the dry out.

I winged the coleslaw, but here is what I can remember.

1 head green cabbage, tough couple outer leaves removed, then shredded into a large bowl with a box grater.

3 Large carrots also shredded with a cheese grater.

The dressing for the coleslaw was part mayonaise, apple cider vinegar, a pinch of sugar, season to taste.

Pour dressing over cabbage and carrot mixture, then toss thoroughly.

 

Shout out for the recipe on this one goes to Lanning, a guy I work with.  I cannot find Lanning’s email with the recipe so I am linking the recipe, I believe he used  Jerk Chicken Since the recipe does not include the beans and rice I will explain those.

Rice was typical long grain rice cooked in salted water.  I used 2 cups rice to 3 & 3/4 cups water, with a generous pinch of salt.  Bring water to boil, add rice, bring back to a boil, reduce to simmer, cover, set timer for 20 minutes.  DO NOT TOUCH THE LID UNTIL THE TIMER GOES OFF.  Lifting the lid might ruin your rice, and lifting the lid can do nothing postive to your rice.  I used La Preferida rice.

Beans

I used 2 cans dark kidney beans, sauteed with a little canola oil, garlic, salt and pepper.  I would have added heat here, but the wife prefers I do not.  I made them from scratch in my jerk pork recipe, I will be posting that tonight as well.

When you follow the Jerk recipe, feel free to use all the heat, kick it up, or reduce it.  I left most out for my wife, but even she thought after we ate, it is better with the bite of the heat.  Some good crusty bread, along with the rice and beans, helps cut the heat.  Lanning and I both felt the “pie spices” (my wife’s term for them), were a little over powering.  I used half the all spice, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  I also substiututed brown sugar for the sugar in the recipe.

 

First find good fresh ingredients, I used:

1 – head of Nappa cabbage (wanted bok choy, but it was not available)

10 – 10-15 count shrimp, from fish monger.

2 – portions of Udon noodles dried (much better than the refrifgerated)

1 – lime

1 – small finger of ginger

1 – bunch of green onions

Cleaning the shrimp was the first order of business, since I needed the shells for my stock.  My stock pot was next to me, so I could toss the shells directly into the pot while I cleaned the shrimp.  Once cleaned, I added the juice of half a lime to the shrimp, along with salt, pepper, crushed garlic, and a few coins of ginger.  Typically there would be a spicy component to the marinade, but I am happiest when I do as my wife wishes, so no spicy ingredients.

For the stock, I added the ends of the green onions, the lime half used for the marinade, ginger, and garlic.  Typically I would have just added enough water to cover the shells, but I knew more liquid was needed to boil the Udon.  So I filled my pot to the bottom of the rivets (roughly double the liquid, if I was only making stock).  Bring the pot to a boil then let it simmer for 25 minutes or so.

This is a perfect time to prep the veggies.  Slice the green onions, chop the nappa cabbage (I pulled off the outer leaves, then chopped from the top towards the center, to get long pieces similar to shredded cabbage).  The funny thing is, I intended to add some finely chopped garlic, but forgot.  So prep some garlic too.

Once the stock is ready, drop your udon noodles in (mine took 5-6 minutes).  After the udon are in for a couple minutes, get a saute pan nice and hot.  Once the pan it near smoking add 1 tbs of sesame oil and enough peanut oil to just coat the bottom of the pan.  Put your shrimp in the pan (the number of shrimp (10) I used was not enough to overcrowd my pan, but be careful not to add so many at once it cools the pan down).   My shrimp took about 1 1/2 minutes per side.  When they have a nice crust and are nearly cooked through, remove them from the pan.  This will protect your shrimp, from turning to rubber from carry over cooking.  Add the garlic (if you remembered, better than I did), move it around a little, then add the onion and cabbage.  Toss the vegetables until they wilt , transfer your udon noddles to the saute pan (I used tongs and attempted to drain them.  A little of the stock in the pan adds flavor, a lot turns your stir-fry into soup).   Leave the noodles alone for a minute to caramelize a bit, this way when you toss them/stir the noodles, you do not break them up.  At this point add the ingredients for your sauce.  I cheated with House of Tsang Korean Teriyaki Stir Fry Sauce and a touch of Kim Lan dark soy sauce.  Toss to coat with sauce, then plate and eat!

P.S.

For those of you observant enough to have noticed the spring roll wrappers, I made spring roll/crab rangoons with the left over crab ravioli filling, from my last post.  My Asian market did not have the thicker egg roll wrappers, that I prefer for rangoons.   So, I thought I would try spring roll wrappers.  This did not work out well lol.

This was my first home made pasta adventure.  I learned that like pizza, bread, and pastry dough, pasta will take some practice.

Mario Batali being one of my favorite TV chefs, is where i looked for a fresh pasta recipe.  The recipe is fine, but my ability to follow directions and execute it was not apparently.  My pasta turned out a little tough and way too thick.

The thickness was hard to overcome, because I do not have a pasta rolling machine.  Another tip, teflon rolling pins have their uses, but I have yet to find one (need to buy a nice wooden one).

Other than tough pasta the dish came out great.  I improvised the filling and sauce and I was happy with both.

Crab Filling

1 lb crab meat, canned/fresh lump meat would be fine, but I found that buying $14.00 of Alaskan Crab clusters was cheaper.  Although you have to do all the shelling.  I ended up with more than a pound.

Zest of one lemon

Juice from half a lemon

1 block softened (I nuked mine for 1 min) cream cheese (goat, parm, or mascarpone would substitute nicely).

Toss this through without breaking up your crab too bad.  Place in refridgerator until ready to fill.

Sauce

I will be as accurate as I can be here, but really I used what was on hand and did not measure.

2 slices of prosciutto

1 tbs good olive oil

1 medium shallot

3 cloves garlic sliced thin

1/4 cup heavy cream

3 tbs butter

Juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup Chateau St. Michelle Riesling

First, render the prosciutto enough to get it nice and crisp (the dish needed texture).  Next, add olive oil to the prosciutto pan to use the flavor it leaves in the pan.  Cook the shallots long enough to soften, then add the garlic for 30-40 seconds, being careful not to burn either.  Now add the wine and let it reduce almost until the liquid is gone.  At this point I set my sauce pan on a trivet, so I could make the pasta.  When the pasta is ready put the pan back on medium heat and add your lemon juice.  I didn’t reduce the lemon juice, as much as I brought the temperature up.  This is when you add the cream, careful not to boil it.  Just before I dropped the ravioli in the cooking water, I added the butter to the sauce, off of the heat.  This way it thickens and does not break.

As the ravioli finish cooking (4 minutes for me), I removed them form the water with a slotted spatula and put them directly in the sauce.  Transfer the ravioli form the sauce pan to a plate and sauce to your liking.  Crumble the prosciutto over each portion and then mangiare!

Glazed beets

1 bunch beets

1/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

2 tbs raspberry preserves (honey, your favortie preserves can be substituted)

1 tbs Balsamic (I would leave this out next time, but I am not a lover of balsamic)

First steam your beats and prepare to dye your hands/utensils red.  I used a bamboo steamer for 25 minutes.  After 25 minutes stem, skin, and quarter your beats, then set aside while you make glaze. Combine the glaze ingredients in a small sauce pan and heat until it gets a thick glaze like texture.  Once the glaze is thick enough toss your beats in the glaze and serve.

Tonight’s dinner was easy, because the Chef at My Persian Kitchen supplied my Jujeh Kabob recipe.  The Taftoon recipe was created by SueL and found on Recipezaar, here is a link.

Basic ingredients are

Jujeh Kabob

Chicken

Middle Eastern Yogurt

Onions

Sadaf Chicken Seasoning

Lemons to squeeze over finished chicken

Rice

Polow home made of course, an earlier post details it’s preparation.

Taftoon

Yeast

Flour

Water

Oil

Please follow the links above for specific preparation and quantities.

Here’s the pictures..