Tacos de Pescado

Fish tacos, a Baja-area Mexicali favorite, are an awesome (and healthy) alternative to the standard beef or chicken variety that we Arkansans are used to eating. Since the fish taco originated  in the Baja area, it doesn't adhere to the standard "tex-mex" flavor profile.  Instead, it contains a combination of  the fresh coastal flavors of the west coast. For some reason, however, the mere notion of substituting grilled fish for the usual taco meats causes some folks to draw back in horror.  I have trouble getting many of my friends to even try one.  I'm not sure why this is, but I think it's because people figure the fish is swapped in for the traditional meat and everything else is left as is. This is not so. Fish tacos have a flavor profile all their own due to multiple ingredients you just won't find on traditional tacos.

Good fish tacos always start with quality fish. I used cod, but mahi-mahi, tilapia, or even catfish work as well. The fish can be grilled or battered and fried based on your preference. I prefer fried, but grilled is still delicious and much healthier. Don't treat the fish like regular taco meat - overseasoning is not a good idea here. All one needs is salt, pepper, and some oil. After 3-4 minutes over med-high heat, your fish should have a crisp exterior and be flaky and tender on the inside.  The fish will provide a fresh "coastal" taste when combined with fresh pico de gallo, cabbage, and important fish taco ingredient #2 - the sauce. The baja sauce is crucial - good fish tacos become great when the sauce works in harmony with everything else on the taco. It should be tangy and light with a little bit of heat and typically starts with a mayo-yogurt and citrus juice base. I've included one recipe here, but try out other ingredients to make it your own. Adding chipotle would be a great start. 

I hope that this post will open up the minds and stomachs of those of you who currently shun the notion of a fish-filled tortilla. Give it a try. You'll be hooked (pun intended) after the first bite.

Baja Fish Tacos

Ingredients:

• 2lbs light, flaky fish fillets (mahi-mahi, cod, tilapia, etc.)
• salt, pepper, canola oil
• For pico de gallo: 
• 4 medium tomatoes, chopped
• 1 white onion, chopped
• 2 tbsp chopped jalapeno peppers
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, lightly chopped
• juice of 1 lime
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• for baja sauce:
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 jalapeno pepper, minced
• 1 teaspoon minced capers
• 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon dried dill weed
• 1 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 10-12 tortillas (flour or corn)
• 3 cups shredded cabbage or coleslaw mix

In a large bowl, mix all pico ingredients together. Cover and set aside for one hour to let flavors combine. Mix ingredients for baja sauce together, cover and set aside for one hour to let flavors combine.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Wrap tortillas in aluminum foil and place on middle rack. Cook for 10-15 minutes or until tortillas are soft.

Season fish fillets with salt and pepper and coat lightly with canola oil. Cook on the grill or a grill pan over medium high heat until fish is flaky and tender, 2-3 minutes per side. Cover fish and allow to rest for 5 minutes. Serve tacos family-style. Assemble starting with fish on the bottom, then pico de gallo, then cabbage, and top with baja sauce.

Easy Pot Roast

I'm back, and with me I bring another delicious dish from the slow cooker. During my weekly grocery run I found Boston butt (pork shoulder) at a deep discount at Kroger. I've used this cut before, but I've always prepared it BBQ-style. I wanted go with a more southern, "roast-style" flavor this time around, so I seasoned the shoulder with salt, pepper, and some McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning and placed it in the fridge overnight. The next morning I put the shoulder into the slow cooker along with a couple of cups of beef broth, a little Worcestershire sauce, and some chopped veggies, set the heat to low, and let 'er cook all day while I was at work. When I got home I skimmed the fat out, threw the shoulder bone to the dog, pulled the meat out of the slow cooker and put it in a pan in the oven at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes to tighten the meat up a bit. While the meat was cooking I took some of the broth mixture from the cooker and made an au jous by boiling over high heat with some white wine, salt, and pepper until it had reduced by 3/4ths. Side note - if you have an immersion blender, you can add some of the fat and vegetables in with the broth and puree it smooth. It makes the au jous quite a bit tastier. I served the meat topped with the au jous and alongside mashed sweet potatoes. This was good stuff - real comfort food that was even better after a long day at work.

Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 8lb Pork shoulder
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 Onion, sliced into quarters and separated
  
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 5 fingerling potatoes, halved
• salt & pepper
• McCormick's Montreal steak seasoning
• For mashed sweet potatoes:
• 3 sweet potatoes
• 2 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup milk 
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp cinnamon
• 2 tbsp nutmeg

Season exterior of pork shoulder with salt, pepper, and McCormick's seasoning, wrap with plastic and place in refrigerator overnight. The next day, place shoulder into slow cooker along with beef broth, Worcestershire, carrots, onions, and potatoes. Set cooker to low and allow to cook for 6-8 hours. Turn off and remove meat. Pull away loose fat and place in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes. While meat is cooking, take 2 cups of leftover broth and bring to a boil along with 1/4 cup white wine, 1 tsp salt, and 2 tsp pepper. Allow to simmer until mixture has reduced by 3/4ths. Remove meat and serve topped with au jous.

Perfect Mashed Sweet Potatoes:  Preheat oven to 400 degrees Clean sweet potatoes, pierce with a fork all over, and cook for an hour or until insides of potatoes are soft. Remove potatoes from oven, peel off skin, and puree along with butter, milk, brown sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Serve topped with butter and a dash of cinnamon.

Cajun Cuisine

As I mentioned awhile back, I resolved myself to bring a different dish to Bill and Sandra's Wednesday night small group each week for the duration of this semester. I wanted to try to make something different but delicious each week, forcing me to venture outside my culinary comfort zone a bit.  Some weeks were easier than others, but I have enjoyed the challenge and have gained a new love of preparing food for large groups of people. I was under the impression (incorrectly) this week that we were in our last session for the semester, so I figured that I'd swing for the fences and go to a place I had never been before. This week's dish was a true Cajun classic straight from the bowels of Louisiana: gumbo, served on white rice with a side of Cajun butter and cornbread.

Since I knew nothing about Cajun cooking, I decided to do some research before I tried making a pot of gumbo. The last thing that I wanted was to spend a lot of time and money putting the dish together only to end up with some subpar slop. I went to YouTube and watched a classic episode of Good Eats entitled "Bowl o' Bayou."  I love Good Eats, because the host, Alton Brown, goes above and beyond simply reciting recipes and preparing food. Alton explains the science behind the meal. I really like this because knowing why things do what they do in the bowl or oven helps me understand how to take my food to the next level - I come away knowing what to add and/or take away to make the dish my own. After my research was completed I went to the store for supplies.

Gumbo is traditionally a one-pot soup, but not just any pot will fit the bill. A cast iron dutch oven is basically mandatory because lighter aluminum or metal pans will not provide the even heat needed to make the roux come together and cook the soup evenly. I'd been looking for an excuse to go buy a good dutch oven anyways, so I went to TJ Maxx and found a nice Cuisinart model for 60 bucks. Armed with my new cast iron pot, I returned home to get started.

There are several important elements to a delicious, rich gumbo, but two stand out as crucial. Crucial element A is the roux.  A roux is a traditional French thickener made from flour and fat. A roux will vary in flavor and thickening capability based on how long it is cooked and isnamed based on its color. For this application I needed a brick, or dark brown roux.  I could have cooked the roux on the stovetop, but that ran the risk of overcooking and burning. Instead, I followed the aforementioned Alton Brown's advice and cooked it in the oven at 350 degrees. Using the indirect heat of the oven takes longer, but it provides even heat throughout which prevents burning. Once my roux was nice and brown, I transferred the pot to medium heat and started adding ingredients. In went the onions, celery, bell pepper (the "holy trinity"), garlic, and corn. After a few minutes, I added andouille sausage and my spices. A few minutes later the chicken broth was added.  I brought everything to a boil and then backed the heat off to a simmer and left the gumbo alone for an hour, stopping in a few times to stir. Next came the chicken. I cubed up a pound of chicken breast, seasoned them with Tony Chachere's, and added them to the gumbo. The heat from the soup cooks the chicken with no problem. After the chicken was added, I let the gumbo simmer for another 2 hours, returning every 15-20 minutes to skim fat off the top and give it a quick stir. After 2 hours, I dropped in the shrimp, stirred in the file(don't skip it!), and killed the heat. The residual heat easily cooked the shrimp within a couple of minutes. Crucial element B, as you probably guessed, is time. The gumbo took me about 4 hours to make, but all that cooking time is necessary to produce the rich, flavorful taste of the broth. As a side I made a batch of cornbread and whipped some butter with honey, cayenne pepper, and Tony Sachere's to spread on top.

The gumbo was served over a bed of white rice. I was really happy with how it came out. The flavors were rich and full, spicy but not overwhelming. The Cajun butter tasted great on top of the cornbread as well. It was a full-on Louisiana dining experience well worth the time it took to create. 

Chicken, Shrimp, and Sausage Gumbo

Ingredients:

• 1 lb Andouille sausage, cut crosswise into 1/2 in slices
• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 in. cubes
• 1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 7 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup okra, preboiled for 5 min
• 1 cup onion, diced
• 1 cup celery, diced
• 1/2 cup corn
  
• 1 cup bell pepper, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 bay leaves
• 6 oz vegetable oil
• 6 oz AP flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp cayenne 
• 1 1/2 tbsp file powder
• Tony Chachere's or other cajun seasoning
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place flour and vegetable oil into 5 qt dutch oven and whisk to combine. Cook mixture for 1 1/2 hours, whisking every 30 minutes, until roux is the color of chocolate. Remove pot from oven and place over medium heat. Add in onions, garlic, celery, and bell pepper and cook for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Add sausage, bay leaves, spices, salt, and chicken stock, stir to combine, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 1 hour, stirring occasionally. Coat chicken with Cajun seasoning and add to pot. Add okra and cook for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Skim any fat off the top of the gumbo with a spoon and discard.

After 2 hours, add shrimp and turn off heat. Allow shrimp to poach for 2-3 minutes, then add file and stir to combine. Allow gumbo to sit for at least 10 minutes. Serve over white rice with bread on the side.

Upcoming posts

My sincerest apologies to the thousands of people who read this blog (HA), but I've been a little behind on the updates lately.  I have several things to post, including a gut-busting but delicious gameday sandwich and the forthcoming final Wednesday night small group dish. This one marks the end of my dish-a-week challenge, so I am considering it my opus magnum, if you will. No further hints, but it's gonna be DEEEEE-lightful, I do declare! Stay tuned!

Small Group Dish of the Week

 This week's dish for Bill and Sandra's small group came out of necessity - I forgot to plan something before I went to the grocery store for supplies. I had to scour my cabinets, see what I had, and make something out of what was handy. I'd grabbed some cream cheese while it was on sale a few weeks ago and had a good supply of butter, so I decided to prepare a gooey butter cake.  Despite having one of the dumbest (yet most accurate) names for a dessert ever conceived, the gooey butter cake is decadent, creamy, rich, and completely delicious. It's also really easy. The "crust" is made from a basic yellow cake batter. There's no reason to waste your time here - just go buy a box of yellow cake mix and save 30 minutes. I'd also recommend letting your sticks of butter and cream cheese sit at room temperature for 45 minutes or so - this will soften them enough to mix smoothly. Remember to keep a close eye on the cake while it's cooking. The crust should set up, but the middle should still be gooey (hence the name), much like a custard. This cake can be served after an hour of cooling, but I like to let it set up overnight and serve it at room temperature. By the way - no calorie-cutting stunts here, please. It's not called gooey margarine cake or gooey I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Butter cake.  Look on the bright side....butter doesn't have all those hydrogenated oils and trans-fatty acids that fill butter substitutes and cause heart disease.  So...an extra notch on the belt or triple bypass?  You decide.

Recipe courtesy Paula Deen, Foodnetwork.com

Ingredients

• For crust:
• 1 box yellow cake mix
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 1 large egg
• For Filling:
• 1 8oz pgk cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 cup (1stick) butter, softened
• 2 large eggs
  
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 16 oz confectioner's sugar
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine cake mix, egg, and butter in a large bowl and beat on medium until combined. Butter a 9x13 pan and press cake batter into pan to form a crust. Set aside. Combine cream cheese, butter, and eggs in bowl and mix until smooth. Work in vanilla and confectioner's sugar, mix until completely combined. Spread filling onto crust and bake for 40 minutes. Turn off oven, crack oven door, and let cake cool in oven for 5 minutes. Remove cake to cooling rack and allow to cool for at least an hour or overnight. Cut into squares and serve.

Chili

I suppose it's due to the recent onset of cooler weather, but I've been on a soup kick lately.  There aren't many things that can beat a hot bowl of soup on a cold and rainy night. This week I was hankerin' for a hearty bowl of chili.  I've actually been making chili for a couple of weeks now, but I never felt like I got the recipe quite right....until last night.  Chili is really versatile - it can be prepared bare-bones simple all the way to borderline gourmet. I prefer the simpler chili recipes - after all, chili was conceived as a poor man's dish, and making it with $100 of ingredients just seems wrong. So, bearing this in mind, I went to the store and grabbed $20 or so in supplies - ground chuck, ground pork (on sale - $1.79/lb!), tomatoes, black beans, corn, and various other supplies.

All good chilis have one thing in common - time. The longer you can allow a batch of chili to simmer and cook, the better it's going to turn out. The flavors will be fuller and will have melded together nicely, and the spices will have a nicer kick. Some people only use ground beef, and this is certainly acceptable. I'd probably have gone this route if the pork hadn't been so cheap at the store.  Start by prepping everything - dice up the veggies in advance so they can be added quickly. Brown the meats 1 pound at a time in the pot you will cook the chili in so that you can deglaze the cooked fat later on. Now you'll notice that my chili contains an ingredient that might be somewhat...well...controversial for some folks. To me, the beer has to be in there - it adds a flavor that just can't be replicated. However, I don't want to be the "stumbling block" to anybody, so omit the beer if you must. Leftover coffee would probably be a suitable substitute. If you decide to include it, rest assured that the alcohol will cook off and that nobody will be staggering around the room after having a bowl.  It's sometimes desirable to use an immersion blender blend up the spices and tomatoes to get a smoother, more soup-like texture before adding the beans, meat, and corn. I skipped this step because I prefer a chunkier chili. After everything is in the bath, let it simmer for at least 30 minutes. After a half hour, add in some crumbled tortilla chips - they thicken the chili and add flavor - and let it simmer for 20 minutes more. This chili is even better if  you make it up ahead of time and let the slow cooker do the work - 6-8 hours on low would be perfect. Either way, you're going to end up with some tasty chili. Top it with cheese, sour cream, a pinch of cilantro, and a dash of paprika and serve.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 lb ground chuck
• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 can corn, drained and rinsed
  
• 3 medium tomatoes, diced
• 1 white onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, diced
• 2 chipotle peppers, diced
• 3 tbsp adobo sauce (sauce from chipotle peppers)
  
• 1 bottle dark beer
  
• 1 10oz can tomato sauce
• 2 cups low-sodium chicken stock
• 2 cups crushed tortilla chips
  
• 2 tbsp ancho chili powder
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp whole cumin seeds, toasted (cook in skillet over med heat until seeds start crackling)
  
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tbsp ground mustard
• 1/2 tbsp red pepper
• salt and pepper

Season meat with salt and pepper and brown in the pot you will cook the chili in, 1lb at a time. Drain meat and set aside, reserving 2 tbsp of fat from meat. Cook onions and garlic for 2-3 minutes or until tender. Pour in beer, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until beer is reduced to about 1/4 cup. Add chicken stock, chopped tomatoes, chipotle peppers, adobo sauce, and tomato sauce and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Add spices.  Blend smooth with immersion blender if desired. Add corn, beans, and meat and simmer for at least 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add crushed tortilla chips, simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve topped with fresh cilantro, sour cream, cheese, and/or corn chips.

Comments appreciated

Hey guys. I, as all bloggers tend to do , sometimes wonder who (if anyone) is reading my musings. I appreciate comments of all kinds, so let me know what you think. Feedback about the recipes in particular is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Dinner and Bill's

Catch-up time!  I haven't posted in awhile, but I'm back with Tuesday night's dinner and the weekly small group dish. Recipes are at the bottom of the page.

After an extended stretch of "whatever" eating, I decided to try to get back to the healthier foods that helped me lose 20lbs at the beginning of the year. I opted for a chicken-based dish. Chicken is one of the mainstays of lean cooking, and for good reason. It's relatively low in fat and bad stuff, and it's versatile enough to work in multiple dishes. I went the Italian route Tuesday night and made chicken farfalle with fresh mint, basil, and arugula.

Chicken, even more so than most meats, has a very small window with which to work. If you don't cook it long enough, bacteria will make sure you don't have another dinner guest for a long time. Cook it too long and it turns into an leathery, barely edible hunk of meat.  Therefore, your best friend when cooking chicken is a meat thermometer. Chicken has to be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees in order to kill off any salmonella-carrying bacteria that might be floating around inside. If (like me) you don't have a good thermometer, cook over med-high heat for 3-4 minutes on each side. This will get the chicken to the desired internal temperature while not overcooking the meat.

After I cooked up my chicken, I cooked the farfalle pasta to al dente and drained it. I sauteed some onions and garlic for a few minutes then combined everything in the skillet and cooked over low heat until the arugula was nicely wilted. I topped everything with some shredded Parmesan cheese and served it up. This dish was nice and light but definitely full of flavor. An added bonus is that it tastes just as good when cold, so it made a great lunch the next day. I'm enjoying it as we speak....err...type.

For small group I made a quasi-casserole dish called upside-down pizza. I got the recipe from a lady at church a few years ago, made it a few times at home, then forgot about it,  probably because it has a massive amount of calories. Since my conscience concerning these types of things gets muted when multiple people are eating, I dusted the recipe off and made it again. And really, this dish is perfect for large gatherings. Everybody can have a small portion and enjoy it without overloading too much.

This dish comes about as close to "out of the box" cooking as I like to do.  It uses store bought pasta sauce, crescent rolls, pre-shredded mozzarella, and packaged pepperoni. In this application, those ingredients work well - thats the beauty of casseroles.  It assembles pretty easily and is done in about 30 or 40 minutes. The meat sauce in the bottom keeps the dish surprisingly warm for an hour or more. As for meats, I go with the "supreme"combo - sausage, hamburger, and pepperoni, but any traditional pizza ingredients will work just as well. I think this is really a fun dish - it has all the familiar pizza flavors in a new, group-friendly package. Try it out at your next gathering, party, or potluck.

Recipes

Chicken Farfalle with arugula, basil, and lemon dressing

Ingredients:

• 1 lb boneless, skinless chicken breast or tenderloin
• 1 pgk whole wheat farfalle pasta
• 1 cup arugula, tough stems removed
  
• 1/4 fresh basil, chopped
• 2 tbsp mint, chopped
  
• 1/2 cup onions, diced
• 2 tomatoes, diced 
  
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 tbsp EVOO
• 8 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese

Coat chicken with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Cook chicken on skillet or grill over med-high heat for 3-4 minutes on each side. Cover and set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil over high heat. Sprinkle water with salt and add pasta. Cook pasta for 13 minutes, remove, and drain. In a large bowl, mix together the remaining 6 tbsp olive oil with lemon juice, 1 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp pepper. Set aside. 

 In a large skillet, heat 2 tbsp oil over medium heat and sautee onions until translucent. Add garlic and sautee for 1 minute. Add in tomatoes, basil, mint, chicken, pasta, and arugula and cook until arugula wilts. Cover with lemon dressing and stir to coat. Top with parmesan cheese and serve.

Upside Down Pizza

Ingredients:

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb Italian sausage
• 8 oz pepperoni
• 16 oz pasta sauce of choice
• 2 tomatoes, pureed
• 4 oz. tomato sauce
• 1 white onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 8 oz sour cream
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
• 2 cans refrigerated crescent rolls
• salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Brown beef and sausage and drain, reserving 2 tbsp of oil. Sautee onions and garlic until onions are translucent.  Stir in pasta sauce, pureed tomatoes, pasta sauce, and meat.  Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Spoon meat sauce into 13X9 pan and top with whole pepperoni slices. Top pepperoni with sour cream.  Cover sour cream with mozzarella cheese. Roll out crescent rolls and place on top of cheese, overlapping so that no cheese is visible. Brush crust with olive oil. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes or until bubbly and crust is golden brown.

Slow Cooker revisited

As I have said on these pages before, the slow cooker is one of my favorite tools to use in the kitchen. Nothing beats throwing a few ingredients in before I leave for work and coming home to a finished soup or chili for dinner. Monday, I made up a chicken tortilla soup. I threw in some leftover chicken from the night before (precooked rotisserie chickens from Kroger are a cook's best friend) along with an assortment of veggies, spices, chicken stock, and beans. I set the cooker to low and walked away. I returned home later that day to a fragrant house and a delicious batch of chicken tortilla soup. I toasted off some corn tortillas in the oven and topped the bowl with some sour cream, cheese, and cilantro. Presto - warm, delicious, dinner in less than 10 minutes.

  

Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla soup

Ingredients:

• 1lb cooked chicken meat, shredded
• 6 cups chicken broth (pref. low sodium)
• 1 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
  
• 2 tbsp jalapenos, diced
• 8 oz uncooked black beans
• 1 bag frozen corn
• 1 14.5 oz can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
• 2 tbsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
  
• corn tortillas
• sour cream, cilantro, chopped avocado, or other desired toppings

Combine chicken, stock, vegetables, and spices in slow cooker. Set cooker to low and cook for 6-8 hours. Before serving, coat tortillas with thin layer of vegetable oil, cut into strips, and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until crisp. Serve alongside tortilla strips and topped with sour cream, cheese, cilantro, and avocado.

Pulled Pork Sandwiches

To me, the slow cooker (aka the Crock Pot) is one of the greatest tools in the kitchen. It can transform large cuts of meat or pots of soup into succulent dishes with very little effort. When it gets cold I like making chili, soup, cheese dip, and even oatmeal in my cooker, and I used it Wednesday to prepare some pulled pork for Bill's small group.

This dish really couldn't have been any easier. I bought an 8lb pork shoulder from Kroger, gave it a rub with some Rendezvous seasoning, and tossed it into the slow cooker. I covered about 3/4 of the meat with some beef broth, mixed in a little coffee, hot sauce, and worcestershire for flavor, and closed the lid. I cooked the meat all day on the "low" setting. When I say this couldn't be easier, I'm not kidding - I put everything in before I left for work and came back to a finished pork shoulder. After a quick shredding with a pair of forks I put the meat in a cast iron skillet, covered with some homemade bbq sauce, and cooked it for 30 minutes at 350 degrees to firm the meat up and cook the sauce in a bit. I whipped up some slaw using the leftover chipotle mayo from the Football Feast and served the meat and slaw inside some storebought dinner rolls. Simple and delicious. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of the finished product. Trust me though...it was good.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 1 8lb pork shoulder 
• 1/4 cup rub of choice
• 1 can beef broth
• 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp hot sauce
• Neely's Kansas City BBQ sauce:
• 2 cups ketchup
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup water
• 5 tbsp light brown sugar
• 5 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1/2 tbsp onion powder
• 1/2 tbsp black pepper
• 1/2 tbsp ground mustard seed
• 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp lemon juice, freshly squeezed
• slaw of choice
• Dinner rolls

For meat: Coat all sides liberally with rub, wrap in aluminum foil, and place in refrigerator overnight. Place meat in slow cooker, fatty side down. Cover meat with beef broth, coffee, Worcestershire, and hot sauce and set dial to "low." Cover and cook for 6-8 hours.  Meat will be tender when done. Remove meat from cooker and transfer to tray or cutting board. Using two forks, remove fat and separate meat with the forks using a pulling motion.  Place pulled meat in a cast-iron skillet, cover with BBQ sauce (recipe below) and cook at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes until meat firms and sauce cooks into meat. Serve on dinner rolls or buns topped with extra bbq sauce and slaw.

For sauce: Combine all ingredients in a saucepot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 1 hr 15 minutes.

A Football Feast

Joey and I combined forces yesterday to prepare a gameday meal for the ages.  We used to do this all the time during football season, but this was our first combined effort for this year.  As is usually the case, we made way too much food...I'll be eating leftovers for a week. It was well worth it, however, because all that food came together to create a legendary feast. I made my first attempt at smoking a rack of ribs and was very pleased with the results. The ribs took 6 hours of constant maintenance and monitoring but the results paid off in a succulent and delicious fashion.  In addition, Joey made a great potato salad, southwestern cornbread, and slaw. We also prepared Cajun mini burgers with honey chipotle mayo, pork steaks,  and stuffed mushrooms.  To wrap it all up I made up another fruit pizza for dessert.  There was enough food to end hunger in Africa for at least a week.  Once everything was prepared, we sat down with full plates to watch the Hogs play. They might have let us down, but the food sure didn't. Here are a few shots from the feast:

What a meal we had. Unfortunately, meals like these have caloric consequenses, so I will now leave my keyboard to lock myself in the gym for a week to make amends for this act of gluttony.

Joe's Low-n-Slow Smoked Spareribs

Ingredients:

• 1 Rack St. Louis style spareribs
• Joe's Sweet Rib Rub:
  
• 8 tbsp light brown sugar
• 3 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp chili powder
• 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1/4 tbsp Old Bay seasoning
• 1/4 tbsp onion powder
• 1/4 tbsp black pepper
  
• 1 cup bbq sauce (for mopping)
• 1 handful hickory wood chips
  

To make rub: Combine brown sugar, salt, chili powder, and spices and place in a shaker. Set aside.

Clean ribs and pat dry.  Shake rub liberally onto both sides of ribs and pat down. Wrap ribs in aluminum foil and place in refrigerator overnight.

Preheat grill or oven to 250 degrees. Soak wood chips in water for at least 30 minutes. Mold some aluminum foil into a "basket" and fill with wood chips. Place chips over heat. Place heatproof pan with 1 cup water on lower rack, right beneath ribs. Cook ribs meat side up for 3 hours, monitoring heat to make sure it stays around 250 degrees. After 3 hours, turn ribs over and cook for another 3 hours. Ribs will be done when meat draws back on the bone and bone can be slightly twisted. Transfer ribs to hot grill and cook for about 1 min on each side, basting with bbq sauce. Cover and cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Fruit Pizza Pie

It's Wednesday again, and that means it's time to whip up another appetizer for Bill's small group. I had been holding this one in my back pocket for a few weeks, so in honor of summer's end I made up one of the season's greatest desserts: the fruit pizza. I've found that sometimes the simplest dishes are the best and tastiest, and this one was a perfect example.  It was eaten faster than anything I've brought to Bill's so far.

Fruit pizzas consist of a "crust" made of sugar cookie dough, a sweet "sauce," usually made of cream cheese and other sweeteners, and a grab bag of fruits for toppings. I made up a sugar cookie dough, used cream cheese and a jar of marshmallow creme for the sauce, and lots of brightly colored fruits to top it off.  Quick tip...the crust is the most important part of this dish.

Make the batter just like a normal batch of sugar cookies, then spread it out on a pan and mold it into a pizza crust.  It should take about 10 minutes to cook at 400 degrees, but monitor it closely. It'll be done when it takes on a nice brown color. Remove it from the oven and move it to a cooling rack to stop the cooking process.  Let it cool for 15 minutes or so, slather on your sauce, and then top with the fruits of your choice.  After an hour in the fridge it'll be ready to serve. The end result is bright, colorful, and delicious...a fitting send-off for the season of flip-flops and shorts.

Joe's Fruit Pizza

Ingredients

Crust:

• 2 3/4 cup AP flour
• 2 tsp cream of tartar
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 pinch kosher salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 eggs

Sauce:

• 1 8 oz. package cream cheese, softened
• 1 7 oz. jar marshmallow creme
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Toppings:

• 1 pgk strawberries, sliced
• 1 pkg blueberries
• 1 can mandarin oranges, drained
• 1 can pineapple chunks, drained and chopped
• 4 kiwis, peeled and sliced

For the crust: preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine flour, cream of tartar, salt, and baking soda in a bowl and sift to combine. In a separate bowl, cream the butter, shortening, and sugar for 2-3 minutes until fluffy - it should resemble mashed potatoes. Mix eggs in one at a time until well combined. Stir in flour mixture in three parts until well combined. Grease a cookie sheet (or pizza pan depending on the desired shape) and mold the cookie dough onto the pan until it resembles a pizza crust. Bake for 10 minutes or until crust is brown. Remove to a cooling rack and allow to cool for 15 minutes.

For the sauce: combine the cream cheese, marshmallow creme, and vanilla in a large bowl and mix until well combined. Spread onto crust using a rubber spatula. Top pizza with sliced fruits. Chill for at least 1 hour or until ready to serve.

Grilling

To me, there are very few things better than grilled vegetables. Quick, easy, and delicious, they're often my favorite part of whatever meal they're a part of, and every time I use my grill I have a vegetable of some kind cooking with the meat.  Last night I made some grilled salmon filets with grilled asparagus, zucchini, and yellow squash.  The salmon, which was of the prepackaged frozen variety, was okay, but the veggies were spectacular. I chopped the zucchini and yellow squash into 1/3 inch slices, coated them with olive oil, seasoned salt, and some pepper, and wrapped them in a "boat" of aluminum foil. I similarly seasoned the asparagus and wrapped them with foil as well. The great thing about cooking the veggies this way is that they're pretty much foolproof. Just set them on the grill about 10 minutes before your meat and let them cook....no turning or extra attention required. The foil will allow them to cook evenly, and they still pick up that "grilled" flavor through the opening at the top of the foil boat. I cooked the salmon and set it aside, then pulled the veggies off a few minutes afterward. I had made two separate packets so Tiff and I both had one, but I could have eaten them both myself.  The foil keeps the veggies warm and doubles as a neat serving vessel.

Crab and Artichoke dip

It's Wednesday again, and that means it's appetizer time!  The bread bowl was a big hit last week, so I decided to stick with the dip theme again and prepare a warm crab and artichoke dip.  I also made some seasoned saltines and bread for dipping vessels.  Normally one would see this dish pop up around the holidays, but since the weather has been cooler (kind of) I figured it would be a good choice. After a grocery run I was ready to go.

I made the dippers first. My mom makes the seasoned saltines during the holidays, and I knew they'd taste great with this dip.  They're really easy.  Just mix a cup of oil, a package of ranch dressing mix, and some red pepper together and pour over saltine crackers. Shake to combine and cook at 350 degrees for 4 minutes to set the oil mixture. Set aside to cool. The bread is a sourdough baguette I coated with oil, seasoned with salt and pepper, and toasted in the oven.

I used a lot of ingredients for the dip, but they all came together really nicely. I loosely chopped the artichokes and crab meat and put them in the food processor. After a few quick pulses, I added everything else in and ran the processor until the dip was well mixed.  I put the dip into my pan and cooked at 350 for about 20 minutes until it was brown and bubbly.  I topped the dip with some mozzarella and provolone and cooked under the broiler until the cheese was melted and browning.  A dash of paprika finished everything off.  The dip came out nice, creamy, and delicious. I'd definitely recommend this dish for your next gathering of family and friends...but don't expect any leftovers.

Ingredients

Seasoned Saltines

• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 box (4 pkgs) good saltine crackers
• 1 tbsp red pepper
• 1 pkg ranch dressing mix
  

Prehead oven to 350 degrees.  Mix oil,  ranch mix, and red pepper in a small bowl. Place crackers in a plastic bag or large bowl and pour oil mixture over them. Shake to combine, place on baking sheet, and cook for 4 minutes.

Crab and Artichoke Dip

• 1 8oz pkg cream cheese
• 1/3 cup mayonnaise 
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 can artichoke hearts
• 8 oz crab meat
• 1 tbsp fresh chives, chopped
• 1 tbsp prepared horseradish
• juice of 1 lemon
• 2 tbsp Cajun seasoning
• 1 tbsp Cavender's seasoning
• 1 cup shredded Provolone
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Drain and roughly chop artichokes and crab meat. Pulse in food processor 5-6 times. Add cream cheese, mayo, sour cream, chives, lemon juice, horseradish, and seasonings and process until combined. Pour into baking dish and bake for 20-30 minutes until brown and bubbly. Remove from oven, top with cheeses, and cook under the broiler until cheese is melted. Serve with toasted baguette slices and seasoned saltines.

Pizza Pie

While the rest of the country was posting Facebook messages and Tweets waxing poetic about their memories of 9/11, Tiff and I were celebrating 10 months together. To celebrate, I cooked a big dinner. I've been wanting to do a grilled pizza for awhile now, so this was the perfect opportunity.

Pizza is an all-encompassing dish...it effectively covers the culinary gamut from inexpensive and pedestrian to rustic and delicious.  Diners can find versions of 'za everywhere from McDonald's to Mesa Grill and everywhere in between. Seeing as this was a special occasion, I decided to try my hand at a savory chicken pesto pizza. On the side was a Mediterranean pasta.

Now I've tried to make pizza dough from scratch before and found out that I'm not very good at it. So this time, I played it smart and let the pros make it for me. I called Jim's Razorback Pizza here in Maumelle and asked them if I could buy some uncooked dough. They supplied me with two large mounds of their classic wheat crust which I took home and put in the fridge. After a quick trip to Kroger for supplies, I was ready to start. 

I prepared the pasta salad first, since it needed to be chilled before serving. I got the recipe out of my latest Food Network magazine. It's a pretty simple: cook and drain the pasta, chop vegetables, prep vinagriette, and mix. After the pasta was prepared and moved to the chill box I moved to the pizza.  I started by making the pesto and grilling up a few chicken breasts and some mushrooms I planned to use as toppings. Once they were ready I covered and set them aside. Time for the dough.

After a quick review of pizza dough how-to on Youtube, I got to work. Shaping pizza dough is a time-intensive task.  I quickly found out that my initial plan of doing one large pizza was not going to work out due to my lack of a pizza peel. I changed course and molded out two personal-sized pizzas of about 8 in. each. I wasn't brave enough to attempt the pizza spin, but they came out pretty well. I liked the rustic look that hand-forming the dough gave them. After the crust was shaped, I coated it with olive oil and transferred to the grill.

Ever wonder why those brick oven-style pizzas are so great? I'll tell you why: heat. Most brick ovens hold a temperature of around 900 degrees.  This molten-hot cooking environment results in a crispy, yet still chewy crust and perfectly melted cheese. You can somewhat mimic these results with a pizza stone and hot oven, but the grill is far better suited to high heat cooking. Therefore, the grill makes a great pizza oven. I fired my grill up on high and let it warm for 5-10 minutes before cooking the crust. I precooked the crust for about 2 minutes on each side, then added the toppings and cooked for another 4 minutes to melt the cheese. The pizzas came out with a great rustic look. I really liked the pesto as a sauce. It didn't look or taste anything like your run-of-the-mill Domino's variety. And that was a good thing.

Ingredients:

Mediterranean pasta (courtesty Food Network):

• Kosher salt
• 1 pound tricolor pasta, such as bow tie or fusilli
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 to 3 teaspoons dijon mustard
• Freshly ground pepper
• 2/3 to 3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/3 cup diced sun-dried tomatoes
• 1/4 cup fresh basil, julienned
• 1/4 cup diced onion
• 2 large pickled pepperoncini peppers, diced
• 3 tablespoons halved black olives
• 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
• 1 1/2 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
• 1 1/2 tablespoons grated romano cheese 

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook until al dente; drain, then rinse with cold water to cool.

Meanwhile, make the vinaigrette: Whisk the vinegar, mustard, 1 teaspoon salt, and pepper to taste in a small bowl. Gradually whisk in enough of the oil to make a smooth dressing; season with salt and pepper.

Combine the sun-dried tomatoes, basil, onion, pepperoncini, olives and oregano in a bowl. Add the cooked pasta, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper. Add the vinaigrette and both cheeses and toss. Chill until ready to serve.

Joe's Chicken Pesto Pizza

• Pizza dough
• 2 Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• white mushrooms
• 1 red onion
• mozzerella cheese
• olive oil, for coating
•  basil pesto

Coat chicken and mushrooms with oil, salt, and pepper, and grill until cooked. Cover and set aside. Punch down dough to remove air bubbles and hand form into pizza crust. Coat crust with olive oil and lightly season with salt and pepper. Transfer to hot grill and cook 1-2 minutes per side.  Slice chicken, onions, and mushrooms. Top crust with basil pesto, mushrooms, onions, chicken, and cheese, and grill until cheese is melted, about 4 minutes. Allow to set for 3 minutes before serving.

Cheesecake Challenge

 

As mentioned in my last post, I made up a cheesecake to take back to Paragould for our Labor Day gathering. I've never attempted a cheesecake before, so I was going on a wing and a prayer, hoping it wouldn't turn out to be a disaster. Joey recommended Chef Tyler Florence's Ultimate Cheesecake recipe, so that's what I went with.  I made two glazes - strawberry and savory blueberry - to serve as optional toppings.

Cheesecakes aren't difficult so much as they're very time consuming.  Preparation involves lots of waiting around for the cake to do its thing.  I suppose one could cut corners here and there, but the end result wouldn't be nearly as creamy and rich. Keep in mind that the "cake" portion is essentially a custard, and is prone to cracking and uneven cooking if not prepared correctly.  Do yourself a favor-do everything from scratch, follow the recipe closely, and don't cut corners. Your patience, as a great chef once said, will be rewarded. 

Ingredients:

• Crust:
• 2 cups crushed graham crackers (30-40 squares)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• Filling:
• 2 (8 oz.) packages cream cheese, softened at room temp.
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 pint sour cream
• zest of 1 lemon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• Strawberry glaze:
• 1 pkg fresh strawberries, crushed
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 4 tbsp cornstarch
• Lemon-Blueberry glaze
• 1 pkg fresh blueberries
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
  
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp cornstarch

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and get some water boiling on the stove. Grind the graham crackers in a blender or food processor until they're a fine dust. In a medium bowl, combine the cracker crumbs with melted butter and cinnamon and mix with a fork until combined.

Empty into a prepared springform pan (don't even try this without one) and use the bottom of a measuring cup to flatten the crust and push the crumbs up the sides of the pan. Just rotate and press until the crust covers the bottom of the pan and goes about halfway up the side. Place the pan in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes.

While the crust is firming up, place the cream cheese in a mixing bowl and beat on low for a minute or until smooth. Mix in eggs, one at a time, until well combined. Add sugar and beat for 1-2 minutes until creamy. Add lemon zest, sour cream, and vanilla and mix until just combined, being careful not to overmix.

Remove the pan and crust from the fridge and pour the filling into the pan. The filling should come to or just above the crust on the sides.  Wrap the outside of your springform pan with an inner layer of plastic wrap and an outer layer of aluminum foil and place in the middle of a large roasting pan. Pour the boiling water into the roasting pan - the water level should come about halfway up the side of the springform pan. Bake for 45-55 minutes. The cake is done when the outsides are mostly set but the middle is still loose. Cool the cake in the oven by turning off the oven and leaving the door slightly cracked open. Cool your cake for 2 hours. Loosely cover with a paper towel to absorb any remaining moisture and cool cake in the fridge overnight.

Now, the glazes. For strawberry, bring water and sugar to a boil then reduce to a simmer, stirring until sugar is dissolved, Add crushed strawberries and allow to simmer for 3-5 minutes. Add cornstarch until desired consistency is reached.  For the blueberry glaze, combine sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and blueberries in a saucepan and simmer until berries begin to break down. Add cornstarch to thicken if desired. Allow glazes to cool completely before serving. Glazes can be spread on top of cheesecake or served as an optional topping.

 

The delicious fruits of my labor

Weekend in Paragould

 

I love Labor Day weekend. In fact, it may be my favorite weekend of the year. Football kicks off, grills light up, and appetites are gorged on mountains of meat, bread, desserts, and countless snacks in between. With any luck, a quick nap can be grabbed after the eating is done. I spent part of Labor Day weekend this year with my family back in my old hometown of Paragould, AR. Mom managed to coordinate things so that all of us kids would be there at the same time. Sleeping logistics aside, we had a great time. And of course, there's always a feast to be had at Mom and Dad's house. This time around was no exception. 

 

Saturday morning, Mom and I got up early and made a grocery run. I had forgotten how slowly people tend to move in smalltown Arkansas...even those who are paid to quickly expedite shoppers from the checkout line at Wal-Mart.  Our cashier, who proudly displayed a badge on her apron congratulating her for 20 years of service, moved with all the enthusiasm of a sedated turtle. An hour and a half later, we were on our way back home with a truckload of supplies. I handled breakfast duties and prepared my quiche along with maple-glazed sausage links and pancakes. After we ate our fill, the girls went shopping, Dad fired up the grill, and I crawled under the Exploder to fix a faulty spark plug. Before long, the rest of the family started showing up and it was time to get ready for lunch. 

 

Dad has been grilling for a long time, so he has the technique reduced to a science. He has a large pull-behind rotisserie grill which could feed a small army with no trouble. On the menu today were St. Louis ribs, chicken, ribeye steak, and burgers, along with grilled corn on the cob.  Mom and I prepared some sides while Dad finished grilling. Everything was prepared and a spectacular buffet was laid out before us. I'll just let the pictures do the talking.

 

 

    Grilled corn on the cob - served with my "sweet heat" honey butter

 

Twice baked potatoes

 

 Rolls

 

Mom's fresh garden salad with strawberries

 

 

Big pile of hamburgers 

 

I tested the physical limitations of this styrofoam plate.

We had enough food to feed a group twice our size, and there were 15 people eating. After a short break, dessert was served. I brought a homemade cheesecake with blueberry and strawberry glazes, Aunt Amy supplied a gooey butter cake, and Mom made a chocolate sheet pan cake and cherry pie with sweet cream cheese filling. 

 

 Ultimate Cheesecake

 

Mmmm....calories

 

Well, it would be an understatement to talk about how good the food was. I'll be running for a few weeks to make up for the weekend, but it was worth every bite.