Alright, I think it is about time for some crazy Vittles and Mangia posting time. To start us off, I'm challenging all y'all in making either a soup or stew and posting it. It's the Soup Stew Challenge. So come on, lets see what you got. Soups are easy to make, or at least some are. Put your veggies and meats together and try to beat this stew that I just made last night.
I made this not really having a plan ahead of time. I just started chopping and ended up making really too much. The largest pot in my house was filled to within a half inch of the rim.
Here are my ingredients.
1 onion
2 potatoes
1 large zucchini
4 cloves garlic
1 green bell pepper
2 ear corn, fire roasted
1 whole chicken
3 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
1 inch cube fresh ginger
1 Tablespoon Pho paste
1 Tablespoon cumin
1 Tablespoon black pepper
salt
water
cilantro
1 lemon, juiced and zested
oil or butter
I had all these ingredients at home before starting except the chicken. I ran out to the store, grabbed the chicken and was ready. I wanted to give the chicken a little more flavor, so I put it on a baking sheet, greased up the skin with oil, and rubbed on a healthy dose of kosher salt. I put this in the oven at 400 degree. My aim was to get the skin all crispy and golden before tossing into the soup. While the chicken baked, I prepared all the veggies. With the corn, I have a gas burner and so I was able to slowly turn the corn over the flame and get it nice and roasted. I chopped everything up, and sauteed them in a couple tablespoons of butter with some salt to help them along. All in all this took about 30 minutes. The chicken was just about done so I pulled it out and let it cool. I added enough water to make it soupy, rather than stewy. I added the seasoning as the soup heated up. I didn't add any more salt because I knew the chicken would be pretty salty. If you need more salt, you can always add it right before it is served. Once the chicken cooled, I sliced off the breasts and chopped them into cubes. I removed the wings and drumsticks and put them in the soup, bone in. I would have added the thighs and the rest of the meat but the soup pot was too full, so I just put them back in the oven to finish cooking and then pulled it and put it in tupperware.
The soup stayed on the heat for another 30 minutes. Right before serving, I juiced a lemon and added the zest. I also chopped some cilantro and put that in my own bowl. Cilantro looses a lot of it's flavor when it cooks so it is best to put it on right before eating.
So yeah, that's my soup contribution to The Soup Stew Challenge. I don't expect people to try to replicate this exactly. And there isn't really a way to taste all the soups and judge them to see who's is best. There will be no contest. This is just a challenge. Make some soup or stew. Ring the Bell.
I tried my hand at a new dish, and though I made some major changes to the original recipe, it turned out really good. And yes, I know I am a king at plate presentations.
6 chicken drumsticks
1 large onion
2 potatoes
3 carrots
(1 red and 1 green bell pepper, but only if you have room in your pot, which I did not)
1 and 1/2 cups basmati or long grain rice
3 cups water
14 oz can diced or chopped or whatever Tomatoes
3 Tbsp Canola oil (or really any type of cooking oil is fine)
chopped Cilantro
1 jar Patak's Biryani curry paste. (the most difficult but most essential ingredient)
You will want to use the largest pot you have a top for, or cut the portions down. I started by chopping up all the veggies into similar size pieces. I put the oil in the pot and tossed in all the veggies and the chicken drumsticks setting the burner on high. I let these cook for a bit while stirring it down. I also added some salt to help it cook down. After about 10 mins, I added the can of tomatoes, rice, water and the whole jar or Biryani paste. I mixed that up and turned the heat down to medium. I put the top on and and let it do it's thing. I still opened it and stirred it every once and a while, once every 5-10 minutes so the rice on the bottom didn't burn. Once it all got real hot and bubbly, I turned down the heat. Essentially it is like making a jambalaya. It seems pretty wet at first but the rice ends up absorbing it all and it thickens up. This all cooked for about 30-45 more minutes. Now at this point it was probably done, but I had to go do some other stuff. To keep it hot and just to make sure the chicken was cooked all the way through, I turned on the oven, let it heat up, then turned it off and put the pot, with the top on into the oven. I left it here for about an hour and a half. When I took it out it was really hot still. Actually after it sat out for another hour, the rice was still steaming when I dug through it with the spoon. Who'da thunk rice with all it's starch held onto heat all that well. The final step is to add some chopped cilantro to the top.
So I don't really know if the last 2 hours of being in the warm oven did much, but it turned out really good. The rice was nice and sticky, the veggies were all soft, and the chicken was tender and moist. I would probably do things different next time however. I would decrease the portion size, by a lot. I might increase the veggie ratio to get more of that flavor, specifically on the onion. And finally, the chicken, while having perfect texture didn't really have a lot of flavor. I might try grilling it up first, or maybe marinating it in plain yogurt and tandoori paste.
So my roommate, Michelle, bought some stuff for spaghetti puttanesca, but she has been working a lot recently so I asked if I could make it. It is a real simple recipe. If you ever find yourself with a tin (or two) of anchovies, capers, and olives, this is the dish you want to make.
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
4 cloves garlic
1 tin anchovies (or two if you want it to be rich and salty), drained
1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes
Small can of black olives, diced
3 Tablespoons capers
32 oz Marinara, or crushed/diced tomatoes (maybe more if you want more sauce)
Black pepper
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley (optional if you have it. I didn't.)
1 lbs Angel Hair pasta
salt
In a large saute pan, saute the garlic, anchovies and red peppers in the olive oil. Make sure the garlic is all soft, the anchovies should become a past (if not mash them around with a spoon or spatula), and use enough red pepper to make sure you can get some heat. Puttanesca is suppose to be spicy, yeah. Then just dump in the olives, capers, tomatoes, and black pepper. I let this simmer for about an hour with a top on it so it didn't reduce too far down. If you don't have a top, just add water to keep the consistency nice.
With the pasta, I put a good 1/2 cup of salt in the water before it started to boil. This makes some damn good pasta. Give it a shot.
If you have the parsley, put it in right before mixing it with the pasta. I mixed this all up and put some good Parmesan on top to serve.
In the pic above, you can also see some nice crusty bread. I was pretty pleased with this so I'm including it in the post. The bread was a small loaf of artisan bread from the store. I took a few Tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and sauteed up some garlic. I then spread that garlic oil on the bread and put it out on a pan. I topped it with a good bit of fresh ground black pepper, Parmesan, and baked it in the oven at 400 for 5 minutes. I then topped with some fresh chopped basil. Good stuff.
So this is my first meal I made after moving to Portland. It is fairly simple because we didn't have many supplies to use and pretty much all of the utensils were still packed up.
Tzatziki Sauce
Small container of Greek Plain Yogurt
4 garlic cloves, chopped
3-5 inch chunk of cucumber, chopped
Dill weed
olive oil
tsp. vinegar
salt pepper
I would have used a medium/fine grater on the cucumber but couldn't because I didn't have one. So I chopped the cuc up until it was really fine. I then squeezed as much liquid out as I could using a paper towel. Everything else I just mixed up in the yogurt until it tasted good
Salad
Lettuce
Spinach
Green Beans
Caesar dressing
We went to the Farmers Market to pick up some produce. I found a small head of unspecified lettuce, a bunch of spinach, and green beans. There was a bunch of other stuff as well but I'll save that for other Vittles And Mangia posts. I briefly boiled the Green Beans and chopped the rest.
The steak was seasoned by Tarrin using various spices we found in my roommate Michelle's spice rack.
I didn't have any spatulas or tongs and only one fork in the whole house, so that is what I used to flip the steaks and pull the green beans out of the water. While eating, Tarrin and I had to pass the fork back and forth to eat our salads and steaks. Good times.
These were my contributions to the slider party.
1 pack chicken breasts
1 box Japanese style Panko bread crumbs
4 Tablespoons flour
milk
baking soda
salt
pepper
oil
1 pack Hawaiian Sweet King rolls
Hamburger style dill pickles
A handful of stolen Polynesian Sauce packets from Chick-fil-A
With the chicken breasts, I cut each into 4 chunks; however, this made for very large sliders. I would recommend slicing some of the thicker cuts in half horizontally to make them more manageable. I then salted the chicken and made the dredge and breading
For the dredge, I mixed about 4 Tablespoons of flour with about a Tablespoon of baking soda in a bowl. I then added milk while stirring briskly until it was the right consistency. Just enough to coat a dipped finger.
I poured the box of panko into a bowl and added some more salt and a good dose of black pepper.
I dipped the chicken in the dredge, then sat them in panko. In order to get as much breading on as possible, I let them set covered in panko for about a minute before pulling them out of the second bowl.
I only had vegetable oil on hand to cook with, but peanut oil is always best for frying. I used a smallish put with about 3 inches of oil heated until it was about 350 F. This is a hard number to hit when you don't have a thermometer or stand alone deep fryer. The first few pieces I tossed in got too brown on the outside while the inside was still raw. Once I got the temp right, it took about 3 minutes to cook the chicken all the way through and at 350 F, the panko was just able to get nice and golden.
To keep the chicken crispy, it is important to not but them in an air tight container. Just set them on some paper towel to let the oil drain off and as they cool they will stay crispy.
I split the Hawaiian King rolls in half, placed a single dill pickle slice on each, set down the chicken, and drizzled on some Polynesian sauce. I found that each packet would cover about 2 1/2 sliders.
Here are some pretty good slow cooked chicken tacos I made last night.
3 chicken breasts
1 can diced tomatoes
1 small can tomato paste
1 chopped jalapeno
1 can chopped Serrano peppers
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp brown sugar
corn tortillas
chopped lettuce
chopped onions
chopped cilantro
salsa
refried beans
cheese
I put the chicken into a pot that was just big enough for them each to have their own spot. I poured in the canned tomatoes and peppers and the sugar and cumin. It came most of the way up the side of the chicken breasts. I put a lid on this and heated it on low for 3 hours. I had just enough heat for it so be right on the verge of boiling the whole time. You will know they are done when they fall apart really easily. I pulled them out of the sauce they cooked in, ripped it all up, and then put them in a bowl with whatever was still chunky from the sauce. I then poured some of the sauce onto the chicken just to the point where it coated everything and added a little moisture.
I then heated the corn tortillas on a cast iron skillet for about 10 seconds on each side. After the meat, I topped it with lettuce, onions, cilantro and salsa. There was a side of beans with cheese as you can see in the picture.
My mom made this Beef Marsala tonight, but had me post it.
2 Bottom Round Steaks
1 can Beef broth
1/4 cup red wine
8oz fresh chopped mushrooms
1/2 onion
1 tsp garlic
3 T butter
Brown Gravy Mix package
1 package egg noodles
We had a salad for a side, but it wasn't anything special.
Since the Bottom Rounds are a really tough cut of beef, we braised the steaks in about a 1/2 of a can of the beef broth and the 1/4 cup of red wine, keeping it on a low heat for 1 1/2 hours.
We pulled the meat out and set it aside and using the braising liquid we made the brown gravy.
In another pan we sauteed the onion, garlic, and mushrooms in the butter. Once soft, we put them into the gravy. My mom added the rest of the can of beef broth to spread the gravy out some to feed all of us. She sliced the steaks into strips perpendicular to the grain. After the braising, they were already pretty soft, but just to make sure, the perpendicular cuts helped it to break apart easily.
We cooked up the noodles and served it all up.
The red wine and mushrooms were the main flavoring agents. Without either it would have been pretty off.
Yes, I stole this recipe from the Food Network, but I pretty much steal everything I have from others.
Roasted Tomatillo Chile Salsa:
1 pound tomatillos, husked
1 white onion, peeled, sliced, quartered or whole
4 garlic cloves
2 jalapenos
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/2 lime, juiced
Enchiladas:
Extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups chicken stock,
storebought Chopped cilantro leaves
1 deli roasted chicken (about 3 pounds), boned, meat shredded
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
10 large flour tortillas
1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
2 cups sour cream
Chopped tomatoes and cilantro leaves, for garnish
Spicy Black Beans, recipe follows
Yellow Rice, recipe follows
Guacamole, optional
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
For the salsa: On a baking tray, roast tomatillos, onion, garlic and jalapenos for 12 to 15 minutes. Transfer the roasted vegetables and any juices on the bottom of the tray to a food processor. Add the cumin, salt, cilantro, and lime juice and pulse mixture until well combined but still chunky.
Enchiladas: Meanwhile heat a 2 count of olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and caramelized - this should take 5 to 7 minutes. Add the garlic and cumin then cook for a further minute. Sprinkle on the flour and stir to ensure the flour doesn't burn then gradually add the chicken stock to make a veloute. Continue stirring over a low simmer until the flour cooks and the liquid thickens. Turn off the heat, add half of the roasted tomatillo chile salsa, some additional fresh chopped cilantro and fold in the shredded chicken meat. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.
Change the temperature of the oven to 350 degrees F and begin assembling the dish. Take a large baking dish and smear the bottom with some of the reserved tomatillo salsa. Now take the flour tortillas and briefly flash them over the stove-top flame (or put them briefly under the broiler if using an electric stove). Using a shallow bowl, coat each tortilla lightly with the reserved salsa mix. Put a scoop of the shredded chicken-enchilada mix on top of the tortilla followed by a sprinkle of the shredded cheese. Fold the tortilla over the filling and roll like a cigar to enclose it. Using a spatula place the tortillas in the baking dish and continue to do the same with all the tortillas. Finally pour over some more of the salsa and top with the remaining shredded cheese. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes until bubbly and cracked on top. Garnish, cilantro and tomato.
Serve hot with Spicy Black Beans and Yellow Rice, the remaining tomatillo salsa, sour cream and fresh guacamole, if desired.
Spicy Black Beans:
2 cups (about 1 pound) dried black beans, picked over, soaked overnight
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf Kosher
salt
freshly ground black pepper
In a large pot, soak beans overnight covered in water by 2 inches. Drain and set aside.
In the same pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onion, jalapeno pepper, garlic, and bay leaf and cook until the vegetables begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the beans and cover with water by about 1-inch. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover, and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, or until the beans are tender. Remove the bay leaf and discard. Taste the beans and season with salt and pepper.
Yellow Rice:
2 cups long-grain rice
4 cups water
2 cloves garlic, smashed
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 bay leaf
Put all the ingredients into a heavy-bottomed pot, stir well, and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook over low heat until the rice has absorbed the water, about 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let sit, covered, for 5 minutes. Discard the garlic and bay leaf, fluff with a fork, and serve.
Okay. This makes A LOT of food. Enough to feed probably 8 people. The rice is the biggest portion here. I would suggest cutting down the recipe down by half or even a forth. The beans were a good portion, and the enchlades you might want to cut in half as well.
I made some alterations to this recipe when I made it. My family doesn't like the texture that flour tortillas produce in dishes like an enchilada when they soak in juices. We substituted yellow corn tortillas wich are much smaller than the flour tortillas called for. Instead of using 10, we ended up using just under 30. For the black beans we used canned. We have found that these often will have a very dirty taste to them but that can be avioded if you rinse them in a strainer under cold water for a few minutes.
Those are the only adjustments I think we made, but if we did it again (and I hope we do because they are freakin' good) we would also cut the recipe size down big time.
This is one of my favorite lasagnas. You can always change the filling to match whatever you interest is for the evening. The real prize is the sauce.
Sauce:
1 lb. Ground beef (higher quality)
3/4 Pork sausage
2 garlic cloves
3 6oz. cans of tomato sauce
2 6oz. cans of tomato paste
2 tsp. sugar (you can also use honey as a sweetener)
1 tsp Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Cheese filling:
3 eggs
3 Tbsp parsley ( I use dried)
3 C. small curd cottage cheese (4% milk fat is the best)
8 Oz ricotta
1/2 Parmesan
6 slices of provolone
9 cooked lasagna noodles
In a large pot cook the ground beef and sausage. Drain grease. Add remaining sauce ingredients. simmer at least one hour.
Combine eggs, parsley, ricotta, Parmesan and cottage cheeses.
preheat oven to 375 degrees
In a 13x9 pan spread 1 cup of sauce, layer 3 noodles, then provolone, 2cups cottage cheese and 1 cup mozzarella. Next layer 3 more noodles 2 cups of sauce and remaining cheese mixture, and 1 cup of mozzarella.
Top with remaining noodles, sauce and mozzarella.
bake for 50 minutes covered. uncover and bake an additional 20 minutes.
let stand for 10-15 Minutes and enjoy!
This next portion my own additions to the original recipe
- use and extra can of tomato sauce and paste, with extra sweetener and Italian seasoning
- Use fresh ground Italian sausage, or spicy sausage for a more of a pepper taste
- Use a disposable extra large lasagna pan
- add a handful of mozzarella to your cheese mixture
- I use around 8 cups of mozzarella ( I like cheese lasagna)
Well if you try this I hope you enjoy it
~T
Whenever I go out to a Latin American restaurant I always find myself hoping to find Maduros, or fried plantains, on the menu. These slightly sweet banana/potato fruits are one of my favorite things to eat. I have seen them in the grocery store before, yet I've been afraid to cook any up because I was sure to cook them the way I've had them in restaurants would require some secret recipe that I did not posses. But I finally bit the bullet and made the suckers.
For the full meal, we had rice-a-roni and my families grilled shish kabobs.
The plantain were extremely easy to make:
1 fully ripe plantain (brown to black peel, using green plantains is called Platanos and that requires some mashing and extra stuff)
1/4 cup oil
Salt
Just heat the oil up in a frying pan. Peel and cut the plantain diagonally. On medium to medium high heat, fry the plantains on each side for 1-3 mins. Apply salt immediately after taking them off the heat. After cooking lay them on a plate with a paper towel to soak up the excess oil.
The shish kabobs are also pretty easy:
1 large red onion
1 8oz packet whole mushrooms
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 sack of cherry tomatoes
2 large boneless stake
garlic powder
oil
salt
pepper
Cut the mushroom into small wedges, bell peppers into equal sized bits, and the stake into wedges, and leave the mushrooms and cherry tomatoes whole. Using 10 inch rods, skewer ingredients randomly. Mixing them all up allows for the flavors to mix and mingle when you cook them. If you put each ingredient on each skewer separately it might not come out as nice. Once they are all prepped, drizzle or brush on a little oil and add the salt, garlic, and pepper (or other seasonings if you want). The oil will help the seasoning to stick. Grill on high heat for 10 mins, rotating half way.
The rice-a-roni is just from the box, but it rounded out this dish just right in my opinion.
2 eggs
3/4 c. milk
2/3 c. saltines
1/2 c. onion, chopped
1 t. salt
1/2 t. rubbed sage
dash pepper
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 c. ketchup
1/2 brown sugar
1 t. worcestershire sauce
In a large bowl, beat the eggs. Add milk, saltines, onion, sage & pepper. Add beef & mix well. Sahpe into an 8 1/2 in. by 4 1/2 in. loaf in an ungreased loaf pan Combine remaining ingredients; spread 3/4 c. over meat loaf. Bake at 350 degrees for 60-65 minutes or until no pink remains; drain. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with remaining sauce.
