Food threads on BBI always result in some good recipes, so let's hear it... what is your signature dish? if you would like to share, the recipe as well.
And yes, I am sure some of you make a mean SpaghettiOs...
2lb cut up chicken, put in crockpot salt and pepper
cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup hot sauce or more depending on how spicy you want it
cook on low for 4-6 hours
add 2 tablespoons of sour cream
8 of shredded mozzarella
1 table spoon of ranch dressing and blue cheese.
stir then turn off crockpot
cook past in boiling water for 8-10 mins, drain and mix the misure and pasta
Dredge shanks in seasoned flour and brown in olive oil.
Remove shanks to a baking dish.
Saute chopped onion, celery, and carrot in the same pan until softened. Add two minced cloves of garlic. saute another minute
Add one 14 oz can of chopped tomato. Scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle a tablespoon of flour over vegetables and cook for a few minutes then add 1 cup white wine and one cup chicken broth
Add thyme for seasoning. A couple of sprigs, if fresh. A couple of teaspoons, if dry.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Pour all of the pan sauce and vegetables over the shanks.
Cook covered in a 250 degree oven for 2 hours.
I've been cooking it since college. My girlfriend at the time had me try it. It was delicious. I didn't eat spinach then and I still don't other than this dish. 1 Pot cooking.
Cheese Tortellini with Cream of Spinach. Boil both in the same pot. Drain and toss together. Try it, you will be surprised.
A young lady once called this dish "orgasmic", much to the chagrin of my fiance at that time.
1 box (1 lb) Barilla no bake lasagna egg noodles or fresh home made (preferably spinach or buckwheat) egg lasagna noodles, enough for 4 layers in a 13 x 9 in glass or ceramic baking dish.
1.25 quarts bechamel well seasoned with fresh grated nutmeg, fresh grated black pepper, 3 bay leaves and 6 bushy springs of fresh thyme, sieved
1.5# fresh button Crimini mushrooms
1# thinly sliced fresh shitake mushroom caps (both sliced thinly)
2 oz dried sliced porcini soaked .5 hrs simmering water
4 shallots and 4 cloves garlic finely chopped.
You MUST saute the mushrooms in a 50/50 mix of sweet butter and EVOO a long while over high heat until all their water is driven out and they are lightly but evenly caramelized...
This is the key step to the whole shebang. Only then one adds the minced garlic and shallots and sautes everything just a few minutes more, to release the pungency of the shallots and garlic.
10 oz Italian parmesan (Grana Padano or Reggiano) and 5 oz Pecorino (or other aged sheep milk cheese like Manchego), grated and mixed together
10 oz crumbled Feta (sheep's or goat milk, NOT COW MILK)
8 oz soft goat milk cheese, like Lezay or Bucheron logs, sliced into thin discs
1/4 to 1/2 cup minced fresh fines herbes (chives, tarragon, parsley and chervil) or just chives and fresh picked thyme leaves
Oil the baking dish with EVOO and spread a thin layer of bechamel below the first layer of lasagna. Then make 3 layers with the seasoned bechamel sprinkled liberally with the fresh herbs, 1/4 of the grated parmesan and pecorino, 1/3 each of the Feta and goat cheeses, and 1/3 of the sauteed mushrooms with garlic and shallots.
The 4th layer, the top, has just the bechamel, parmesan, and Romano cheeses. The baking dish will be full... Bake for 35-40 minutes in a pre-heated 375F convection or regular oven, until evenly golden brown on top and bubbling hot. Let rest 20-30 minutes before serving.
My current favorite though...and it’s awesome..comes from 2 stolen recipes. Kenji's sous vide pork belly Bao with hoisin mayo and quick pickles and a stolen steamed bao recipe...basically a bread dough variant that’s steamed. Google it. Try it.
But detest feta. Wonder if ricotta salata might be a good substitute.
Also I find dried porcini more trouble than it's worth, curious on your thoughts- maybe just more fresh cremini?
Better than subbing in ricotta would be just increase the other 3 cheeses in proportion to the subtracted weight of feta, or substitute grated Italian Fontina for the feta.
The fish needs a strong flavored cheese to replace the feta to keep it's original intensity of character.
The dish is way better with fresh wild mushrooms like porcini, chantelles, hedgehogs, blewits, oyster mushrooms, etc than with dried porcini. But those aren't always available...
Here iin Northern CA I'm fortunate to have a few options. Appreciate the suggestions.
If you're anywhere near Berkeley, your foraged wild mushrooms options should be extensive at produce markets like the Berkeley Bowl or the Monterey Produce Market.
I don't have a signature dish but a couple compliments I had made me feel pretty good.
1. I made candied bacon aka Pig candy on the smoker last 4th of July and one of our guests was a 5+ year vegetarian and she said that looks and smells so good I'm going to try it. She loved it. My wife says she's no longer a vegetarian. I feel some weird sense of accomplishment about that for some reason. Sort of like when Elaine on Seinfeld thought she could "switch" the gay guy to hetero or conversely when George made Susan switch the opposite way (LOL).
2. My chili. 2017 Super Bowl party at my house, our neighbor took me aside and said "you cannot tell my husband this because he'll kill me, but yours is the best chili I've ever had."
but I'm more of a typical male dad "chef", all my "signature dishes" come from my smoker, my grill, my crockpot, my blackstone griddle, or are in some other way football related (chili).
I have had people request for me to bring my sweet & sour meatballs to their parties when I ask what I can bring.
but have recently been trying to cook more and came across this dish. It's very easy (one pot) and very good. I add some coconut milk and carrots but other than that I follow the recipe as is....definitely recommended! African Peanut Butter Stew - ( New Window )
Ingredients:
2 lbs chicken breast, pounded, and cut into about 2in x 2in pieces
.5lbs hot Italian sausage
.5lbs sweet Italian sausage
1/2 cup peppadew peppers, quartered
12 garlic cloves, whole
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
2 tsp rosemary, finely chopped
2 tsp oregano, finely chopped
4 cups water
1/4 cup Kosher salt
1 Idaho potato
all purpose flour
salt & pepper (to taste)
Prep:
Place chicken in bowl of cold water with salt. Brine for 30 minutes. Once complete, drain and pat dry.
Bring a pot of water to a boil and poach sausages for 3-5 minutes until the sausages just start to get firm. Place the sausages on a plate and let cool. Take quartered potato and add it to boiling water. Cook for 5-7 minutes, drain and set aside.
The Sauce:
Add one cup of oil to a large sauté pan and heat over medium-low heat. Toss in whole garlic cloves and roast, constantly moving them around to ensure they do not burn. Cook until the garlic cloves have a nice brown color and are soft. Drain garlic and oil and reserve.
Take cooled sausage and cut into 1 inch pieces, about 4 sections per sausage. Place in sauté pan (which should still have a little bit of residual garlic oil left over) and fry in batches until sausages are caramelized around the edges. Reserve sausage.
Add potatoes to pan and cook for about 10 minutes, mixing occasionally so they do not burn. Once potatoes are crisp on all sides, take them out of the pan and reserve with sausage.
Add shallots and chopped garlic to the pan and sauté for 1 minute until fragrant. Add chicken stock, white wine, and lemon juice, making sure to scrape up any bits from the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste and then lower heat to low and simmer until reduced by half.
Add in peppadew peppers, rosemary, and oregano and continue to simmer on low heat until your chicken is ready, about 30 minutes.
The Chicken:
Pour oil in a separate skillet (cast iron if you have) so that it fills about 1 inch from the bottom. Heat on medium until it reaches 350 degrees.
Take chicken and lightly coat each piece with flour.
Working in batches, gently place chicken into skillet and cook on each side for 3 minutes. Make sure that it is nice and brown (not pale) before flipping over. I recommend placing 1 piece of chicken in the oil to make sure the oil is hot enough. If oil bubbles feverishly (small bubbles) around your chicken, it is hot enough. I always find it takes one or two piece to find your groove.
When chicken is brown on both sides, place on a paper towel to let drain and continue the process until all chicken is cooked.
Bring it all together!:
Take chicken and place into the large sauté pan with sauce, making sure that each piece of chicken gets coated. Add sausage, whole garlic cloves, and potatoes and mix to incorporate. Cook for about 10 minutes just to make sure that everything is warmed through and melds together
a difference between my signature dish and an actual recipe. I do most of the cooking in the family, while my wife handles all of the baking. She's got a ton of great recipes and signature desserts.
But I do excellent barbeque pork. But I don't consider rubbing a piece of meat, putting it in a smoker for hours and then doing a scratch-made sauce as a signature dish, even though I'm making the rub and sauce on my own.
But that and my texas-style chili are the two dishes that people really like.
I cheated a couple of weeks ago, and picked up a box of fresh lasagne sheets from the "New York Ravioli Co.' I've got some left in the freezer, so this may be my Sunday dinner.
I've made it enough that I don't use a recipe anymore.
I usually get boneless skinless thighs and some tenders and you cube them.
Place in a skillet with a pad of butter and some EVOO. Salt, pepper, and curry paste (they sell it in my supermarket).
Cook the chicken thoroughly. Remove from skillet and put in a bowl.
Now in the same skillet, a small onion (diced) with more butter. Add two cloves of minced or pressed garlic. Add some fresh ginger (I cheat and use the little tube you can buy). Salt, pepper.
Cook until the onion is translucent and just starting to carmelize.
Add a small can of diced tomatoes (15oz, I think?). Add more curry paste (like a tablespoon). Add just a bit of lemon juice.
Simmer that until the tomatoes are nice and hot. Add a small container (5oz?) of plain greek yogurt. Add about a qtr cup of Half and half or cream. Add more butter (this is butter chicken). Stir and heat until it's bubbling (it's gonna look weird here).
Put it in a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend it until the sauce is smooth. Pour back into skillet, add chicken and let it cook on low for 10 mins or so.
Serve over Basmati Rice with some heated Naan. I usually steam green beans to go with it. I've even used Cauliflower rice to drop the carbs and it works well.
I make this at least once a month. The fam loves it.
but I made a Timpano last week. I have been wanting to do this for 20+ years, since I saw The Big Night.
Complicated and time consuming, but fun and delicious.
I did the same last year after watching the movie. Wasn't worth it. I'd rather just make a baked ziti with meat.
Timpano, that is one hell of an undertaking, more like a signature construction site, instead of a recipe. BTW PorkChop - great job! It looks fantastic.
Just an aside, the movie 'The Big Night' was filmed in my hometown, the exterior shots anyway. I remember watching the scenes from outside the brothers restaurant being filmed.
I'd say recently its probably the slow cooker beef chili I've been making. Doesnt sound exciting but is the best chili I've ever had. A bit labor intensive as I trim and cube the 3lb chuck roast myself but its worth it. Got the recipe out of William Sonoma's slow cooker cookbook.
It's a side dish that I got from Rachel Ray but people give me credit for it. I had vegetarians eating it a few Thanksgivings ago. They admitted to knowing the sprouts were cooked in bacon fat but ate them anyway. Brussels Sprouts with Bacon - ( New Window )
and it's also making me want to throw on the games tomorrow, get knee-deep in a good bottle of red wine, and do some damage in the kitchen.
I'm not a gourmet by any stretch, but I've always found cooking to be a mentally healthy distraction, and I don't get to do much of it these days (4YO, 2YO, one more on the way).
to do a Timpano - but it is more out of the philosophy I have towards cooking. I like to cook to create something new - not necessarily to follow a recipe or a construction. I like eating at those who do as they put the work in and I get to enjoy!!
Everytime I've done a dish with a lot of prep or things that have to be painstakingly monitored, I've failed. And I know why - I have no desire to make caramel or an architectural work.
I draw the line at spatchcocking and making my own bracciole.
A good kitchen shears is worth its weight in gold and bracciole only takes rolling up meat and twining it.
I have a handful of things my wife and kids ask me to make, Â
* My (hot Italian) sausage lasagna
* My very spicy chili (unless you're not an "extremely hot food" person, do not attempt). Very tasty, also made with hot Italian sausage, but dangerous.
* My bacon/corn chowder (ever year as a Thanksgiving side - folks request that we deliver containers to their homes, true story)
* My potato/leak soup - a new one I just attempted a few months ago. Found a recipe in a magazine, then (of course) doctored it to personal tastes in the family. About time to give it a second go.
* And of course, my chicken parm, which on Day 2 leads to chicken parm subs, is somewhat legendary. :)
Asian dishes, but no matter what I try - including shopping at Asian food markets, talking up the very patient folks there, trial and error and getting semi-close for a white guy - I just have not been able to hit on any of the attempts, just right. I'm relegated to order takeout when I have a real hankering. Dammit.
Cubano recipe last spring. Woke up one day thinking, I need to make Cubanos tonight. Researched it, made a couple small adjustments (as always), and it worked out really well.
2lb cut up chicken, put in crockpot salt and pepper
cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup hot sauce or more depending on how spicy you want it
cook on low for 4-6 hours
add 2 tablespoons of sour cream
8 of shredded mozzarella
1 table spoon of ranch dressing and blue cheese.
stir then turn off crockpot
cook past in boiling water for 8-10 mins, drain and mix the misure and pasta
Sounds great but what kind of chicken? Chicken breast? Shredded (like from a rotisserie)? Thx
RE: I have a handful of things my wife and kids ask me to make, Â
* My (hot Italian) sausage lasagna
* My very spicy chili (unless you're not an "extremely hot food" person, do not attempt). Very tasty, also made with hot Italian sausage, but dangerous.
* My bacon/corn chowder (ever year as a Thanksgiving side - folks request that we deliver containers to their homes, true story)
* My potato/leak soup - a new one I just attempted a few months ago. Found a recipe in a magazine, then (of course) doctored it to personal tastes in the family. About time to give it a second go.
* And of course, my chicken parm, which on Day 2 leads to chicken parm subs, is somewhat legendary. :)
Bacon/corn chowder seems right up my families alley. Care to share the recipe?!
- Roast corn directly on gas burners (or do it on the grill, I prefer to do inside as my grill is natgas and I don't get much of a flame to really put some char on the corn)
- Finely chop a red onion (I find about 1 onion for every 4-5 ears of corn is a decent ratio)
- chopped cilantro (optional)
Combine corn / red onion / cilantro.
~ 2 tbsp olive oil
~ 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
~ a few generous pinches of kosher salt
~ grind in some freshly ground black pepper
~ a few small shakes of ground cumin
~a few healthy shakes of ground chipotle powder (adjust to preference, this can add a lot of kick quickly)
Mix it all up and ideally let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour or two (the sitting time really makes a difference).
Adjust as you see fit. Some people like black beans in there, but my wife LOVES this salsa and HATES beans.
Open up a bag of your favorite tortilla chips and watch it all disappear.
It's super basic, but people rave about this whenever I make it.
is really from the hip. I saw a recipe years ago in a magazine or online (can't remember now), and I altered things to taste.
Here's what goes in. I make a large pot and have at LEAST 4-5 decent sized Tupperware containers to deliver to friends/neighbors. So you can scale as you like.
* 3-5 pounds of bacon (I cut it into half-inch pieces, fry that all up, then drain the grease).
* A 5-pound bag(ish) of potatoes (I clean them and chop them, bite size, skin and all)
* A pound and sometimes more chopped carrots.
* I throw in about 3-4 canned corn (regular, no jewels), then I will add a couple cans of cream corn to get a little texture going.
* I could chop a clove or two of garlic but I'm usually lazy so I'll get a good-sized jar or minced garlic, drain the fluid, and dump her in.
* I get chicken broth - usually buy 4-5 containers (the plastic ... Swanson is one brand I recall).
* I'll put maybe 1-2 cups of milk in with the broth.
* Whatever seasonings to have/like ... we use Goya like we own stock.
I will usually put all the solid ingredients in the pot (no heat going yet), and see where I am with volume, then start to add the chicken brother. If I buy 5 containers, I find I will usually have at least 1 extra to put in the pantry for later use.
Once the fluid if in, I get the heat going. I heat it quickly, then turn it way down. Give yourself a couple inches of leeway at the top because like with any soups, if you happen to walk away and someone comes along (ahem, Mrs. Beez, one example) and thinks it needs to be turned up a bit, you could end up cleaning the stove top. lol
I usually let the "soup" simmer on a low heat for 3-4 hours. Be sure to stir pretty often.
Sauce/Gravy/Whatever:
- 2 oz Veg Oil
- 1 Lb bone-in country style pork ribs
- 1 can tomato paste
- 3 fat cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 28oz cans Wegman's Organic crushed tomatoes
- at least 28 oz beef broth
Big pot. High heat, get oil going, brown ribs on both sides.
Remove ribs from pan, cut heat to low, give it a couple of minutes to cool so the garlic doesn't burn.
Garlic goes in for about 30 seconds.
Add tomato paste, deglaze bottom of pot with it, scraping the bits off the bottom. Work quick so garlic doesn't burn.
Tomatoes go in, all of em.
Add 28 oz beef broth, put the ribs back in.
Bring to a boil, lower heat and let it cook at LEAST 8 hours. If it gets overly thick, add more broth.
After an hour or so, begin seasoning to taste. I prefer to keep it simple, salt, pepper, oregano. Long sauce with all that pork and eventually meatballs will have plenty of flavor.
MEATBALLS:
- 4 slices white sandwich bread (no crusts)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 lbs ground beef/pork/turkey (I prefer all beef)
- 1/2 cup GOOD parmesan cheese
- 3 tablespoons minced FRESH parsley
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 small cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
- Vegetable oil
- Red Wine
Pour fat glass of red wine. Start drinkin'. :)
Use a food processor to make bread crumbs from the bread slices (no crusts).
In a large bowl, or better yet - Kitchen Aid Mixer bowl - add bread crumbs.
Add buttermilk to bowl, stir. After 5 minutes, bread crumbs have fully absorbed buttermilk.
Add egg yolks, parmesan, chopped parsley to bowl. Add meat, salt, pepper.
Roast ONE of the garlic cloves - in a frying pan, skin on for a few minutes.
Mince both the fresh and roasted clove - both go into the bowl.
If you have the Kitchen Aid, fire it up. Easy peasy. If not, wash your hands and go to town mixing it all well.
1/2 cup of meatball mixture per ball. Wet measuring cup works great. Shape each ball, put em on a large platter or pan, refrigerate for at least a half hour so they hold their shape better when you fry them.
Add 1/4" of vegetable oil to a cast iron pan. (Cast iron has mojo) Medium-High heat. Fry in smaller batches, no more than 8 or 9 per or you wind up with too much liquid, boiled balls instead of fried. I use 2 wooden spoons to turn. If there IS too much liquid, drain it, add and heat more oil and continue with the next batch.
When all balls are cooked, deglaze the pan with about a 1/4 cup of the red wine. Scrape browned bits.
IF what is now in that pan looks and smells delicious, add to the pot of sauce. If instead, it looks and smells like black, cigarette ash carbon, throw it out.
When there's about an hour til' dinner, put the balls and any other meats you want (cooked sausage, pepperoni, pork chops) into the sauce. Flavors both meat and sauce.
Fresh pasta is better.
And make sure you've got a loaf or two of killer Italian Bread.
Enjoy.
RE: I have a handful of things my wife and kids ask me to make, Â
cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup hot sauce or more depending on how spicy you want it
cook on low for 4-6 hours
add 2 tablespoons of sour cream
8 of shredded mozzarella
1 table spoon of ranch dressing and blue cheese.
stir then turn off crockpot
cook past in boiling water for 8-10 mins, drain and mix the misure and pasta
Remove shanks to a baking dish.
Saute chopped onion, celery, and carrot in the same pan until softened. Add two minced cloves of garlic. saute another minute
Add one 14 oz can of chopped tomato. Scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Sprinkle a tablespoon of flour over vegetables and cook for a few minutes then add 1 cup white wine and one cup chicken broth
Add thyme for seasoning. A couple of sprigs, if fresh. A couple of teaspoons, if dry.
Salt and pepper to taste.
Pour all of the pan sauce and vegetables over the shanks.
Cook covered in a 250 degree oven for 2 hours.
Serve with rice, orzo pasta or polenta
Cheese Tortellini with Cream of Spinach. Boil both in the same pot. Drain and toss together. Try it, you will be surprised.
1 box (1 lb) Barilla no bake lasagna egg noodles or fresh home made (preferably spinach or buckwheat) egg lasagna noodles, enough for 4 layers in a 13 x 9 in glass or ceramic baking dish.
1.25 quarts bechamel well seasoned with fresh grated nutmeg, fresh grated black pepper, 3 bay leaves and 6 bushy springs of fresh thyme, sieved
1.5# fresh button Crimini mushrooms
1# thinly sliced fresh shitake mushroom caps (both sliced thinly)
2 oz dried sliced porcini soaked .5 hrs simmering water
4 shallots and 4 cloves garlic finely chopped.
You MUST saute the mushrooms in a 50/50 mix of sweet butter and EVOO a long while over high heat until all their water is driven out and they are lightly but evenly caramelized...
This is the key step to the whole shebang. Only then one adds the minced garlic and shallots and sautes everything just a few minutes more, to release the pungency of the shallots and garlic.
10 oz Italian parmesan (Grana Padano or Reggiano) and 5 oz Pecorino (or other aged sheep milk cheese like Manchego), grated and mixed together
10 oz crumbled Feta (sheep's or goat milk, NOT COW MILK)
8 oz soft goat milk cheese, like Lezay or Bucheron logs, sliced into thin discs
1/4 to 1/2 cup minced fresh fines herbes (chives, tarragon, parsley and chervil) or just chives and fresh picked thyme leaves
Oil the baking dish with EVOO and spread a thin layer of bechamel below the first layer of lasagna. Then make 3 layers with the seasoned bechamel sprinkled liberally with the fresh herbs, 1/4 of the grated parmesan and pecorino, 1/3 each of the Feta and goat cheeses, and 1/3 of the sauteed mushrooms with garlic and shallots.
The 4th layer, the top, has just the bechamel, parmesan, and Romano cheeses. The baking dish will be full... Bake for 35-40 minutes in a pre-heated 375F convection or regular oven, until evenly golden brown on top and bubbling hot. Let rest 20-30 minutes before serving.
Wish I could recall how to insert a photo here...
My current favorite though...and it’s awesome..comes from 2 stolen recipes. Kenji's sous vide pork belly Bao with hoisin mayo and quick pickles and a stolen steamed bao recipe...basically a bread dough variant that’s steamed. Google it. Try it.
Also I find dried porcini more trouble than it's worth, curious on your thoughts- maybe just more fresh cremini?
Also I find dried porcini more trouble than it's worth, curious on your thoughts- maybe just more fresh cremini?
Better than subbing in ricotta would be just increase the other 3 cheeses in proportion to the subtracted weight of feta, or substitute grated Italian Fontina for the feta.
The fish needs a strong flavored cheese to replace the feta to keep it's original intensity of character.
The dish is way better with fresh wild mushrooms like porcini, chantelles, hedgehogs, blewits, oyster mushrooms, etc than with dried porcini. But those aren't always available...
Fill glass 3/4 with ice. Then Tito’s that motherfucker till you don’t feel like it anymore. Serve to face immediately. Repeat often.
Marinate the steak overnight in salt, pepper, and a little bit of olive oil.
Sautee the onions and peppers the night before, together with minced garlic.
The next morning, fire up your grill, throw the steaks on, and heat up the onions and peppers in an aluminum pan with a little olive oil.
Make sure you cut the steak diagonally, both left to right and top to bottom.
Lay out the provolone in a hard Italian roll.
Insert steak and onions and peppers.
Stuff your face.
If you're anywhere near Berkeley, your foraged wild mushrooms options should be extensive at produce markets like the Berkeley Bowl or the Monterey Produce Market.
Complicated and time consuming, but fun and delicious.
1. I made candied bacon aka Pig candy on the smoker last 4th of July and one of our guests was a 5+ year vegetarian and she said that looks and smells so good I'm going to try it. She loved it. My wife says she's no longer a vegetarian. I feel some weird sense of accomplishment about that for some reason. Sort of like when Elaine on Seinfeld thought she could "switch" the gay guy to hetero or conversely when George made Susan switch the opposite way (LOL).
2. My chili. 2017 Super Bowl party at my house, our neighbor took me aside and said "you cannot tell my husband this because he'll kill me, but yours is the best chili I've ever had."
but I'm more of a typical male dad "chef", all my "signature dishes" come from my smoker, my grill, my crockpot, my blackstone griddle, or are in some other way football related (chili).
I have had people request for me to bring my sweet & sour meatballs to their parties when I ask what I can bring.
African Peanut Butter Stew - ( New Window )
2 lbs chicken breast, pounded, and cut into about 2in x 2in pieces
.5lbs hot Italian sausage
.5lbs sweet Italian sausage
1/2 cup peppadew peppers, quartered
12 garlic cloves, whole
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 cup white wine
1 cup chicken stock
2 tsp rosemary, finely chopped
2 tsp oregano, finely chopped
4 cups water
1/4 cup Kosher salt
1 Idaho potato
all purpose flour
salt & pepper (to taste)
Prep:
Place chicken in bowl of cold water with salt. Brine for 30 minutes. Once complete, drain and pat dry.
Bring a pot of water to a boil and poach sausages for 3-5 minutes until the sausages just start to get firm. Place the sausages on a plate and let cool. Take quartered potato and add it to boiling water. Cook for 5-7 minutes, drain and set aside.
The Sauce:
Add one cup of oil to a large sauté pan and heat over medium-low heat. Toss in whole garlic cloves and roast, constantly moving them around to ensure they do not burn. Cook until the garlic cloves have a nice brown color and are soft. Drain garlic and oil and reserve.
Take cooled sausage and cut into 1 inch pieces, about 4 sections per sausage. Place in sauté pan (which should still have a little bit of residual garlic oil left over) and fry in batches until sausages are caramelized around the edges. Reserve sausage.
Add potatoes to pan and cook for about 10 minutes, mixing occasionally so they do not burn. Once potatoes are crisp on all sides, take them out of the pan and reserve with sausage.
Add shallots and chopped garlic to the pan and sauté for 1 minute until fragrant. Add chicken stock, white wine, and lemon juice, making sure to scrape up any bits from the pan. Add salt and pepper to taste and then lower heat to low and simmer until reduced by half.
Add in peppadew peppers, rosemary, and oregano and continue to simmer on low heat until your chicken is ready, about 30 minutes.
The Chicken:
Pour oil in a separate skillet (cast iron if you have) so that it fills about 1 inch from the bottom. Heat on medium until it reaches 350 degrees.
Take chicken and lightly coat each piece with flour.
Working in batches, gently place chicken into skillet and cook on each side for 3 minutes. Make sure that it is nice and brown (not pale) before flipping over. I recommend placing 1 piece of chicken in the oil to make sure the oil is hot enough. If oil bubbles feverishly (small bubbles) around your chicken, it is hot enough. I always find it takes one or two piece to find your groove.
When chicken is brown on both sides, place on a paper towel to let drain and continue the process until all chicken is cooked.
Bring it all together!:
Take chicken and place into the large sauté pan with sauce, making sure that each piece of chicken gets coated. Add sausage, whole garlic cloves, and potatoes and mix to incorporate. Cook for about 10 minutes just to make sure that everything is warmed through and melds together
Dig in! Great the next day as well.
But I do excellent barbeque pork. But I don't consider rubbing a piece of meat, putting it in a smoker for hours and then doing a scratch-made sauce as a signature dish, even though I'm making the rub and sauce on my own.
But that and my texas-style chili are the two dishes that people really like.
I usually get boneless skinless thighs and some tenders and you cube them.
Place in a skillet with a pad of butter and some EVOO. Salt, pepper, and curry paste (they sell it in my supermarket).
Cook the chicken thoroughly. Remove from skillet and put in a bowl.
Now in the same skillet, a small onion (diced) with more butter. Add two cloves of minced or pressed garlic. Add some fresh ginger (I cheat and use the little tube you can buy). Salt, pepper.
Cook until the onion is translucent and just starting to carmelize.
Add a small can of diced tomatoes (15oz, I think?). Add more curry paste (like a tablespoon). Add just a bit of lemon juice.
Simmer that until the tomatoes are nice and hot. Add a small container (5oz?) of plain greek yogurt. Add about a qtr cup of Half and half or cream. Add more butter (this is butter chicken). Stir and heat until it's bubbling (it's gonna look weird here).
Put it in a blender (or use an immersion blender) and blend it until the sauce is smooth. Pour back into skillet, add chicken and let it cook on low for 10 mins or so.
Serve over Basmati Rice with some heated Naan. I usually steam green beans to go with it. I've even used Cauliflower rice to drop the carbs and it works well.
I make this at least once a month. The fam loves it.
Complicated and time consuming, but fun and delicious.
I did the same last year after watching the movie. Wasn't worth it. I'd rather just make a baked ziti with meat.
Quote:
but I made a Timpano last week. I have been wanting to do this for 20+ years, since I saw The Big Night.
Complicated and time consuming, but fun and delicious.
I did the same last year after watching the movie. Wasn't worth it. I'd rather just make a baked ziti with meat.
Timpano, that is one hell of an undertaking, more like a signature construction site, instead of a recipe. BTW PorkChop - great job! It looks fantastic.
Just an aside, the movie 'The Big Night' was filmed in my hometown, the exterior shots anyway. I remember watching the scenes from outside the brothers restaurant being filmed.
Same here.
I'd say recently its probably the slow cooker beef chili I've been making. Doesnt sound exciting but is the best chili I've ever had. A bit labor intensive as I trim and cube the 3lb chuck roast myself but its worth it. Got the recipe out of William Sonoma's slow cooker cookbook.
Brussels Sprouts with Bacon - ( New Window )
I'm not a gourmet by any stretch, but I've always found cooking to be a mentally healthy distraction, and I don't get to do much of it these days (4YO, 2YO, one more on the way).
keep those recipe's coming!
Everytime I've done a dish with a lot of prep or things that have to be painstakingly monitored, I've failed. And I know why - I have no desire to make caramel or an architectural work.
I draw the line at spatchcocking and making my own bracciole.
A good kitchen shears is worth its weight in gold and bracciole only takes rolling up meat and twining it.
* My (hot Italian) sausage lasagna
* My very spicy chili (unless you're not an "extremely hot food" person, do not attempt). Very tasty, also made with hot Italian sausage, but dangerous.
* My bacon/corn chowder (ever year as a Thanksgiving side - folks request that we deliver containers to their homes, true story)
* My potato/leak soup - a new one I just attempted a few months ago. Found a recipe in a magazine, then (of course) doctored it to personal tastes in the family. About time to give it a second go.
* And of course, my chicken parm, which on Day 2 leads to chicken parm subs, is somewhat legendary. :)
This spruce recipe is a good one.
Spruce Shrimp Etouffé - ( New Window )
Definitely a "baseball season dinner."
cream of chicken soup
1/2 cup hot sauce or more depending on how spicy you want it
cook on low for 4-6 hours
add 2 tablespoons of sour cream
8 of shredded mozzarella
1 table spoon of ranch dressing and blue cheese.
stir then turn off crockpot
cook past in boiling water for 8-10 mins, drain and mix the misure and pasta
Sounds great but what kind of chicken? Chicken breast? Shredded (like from a rotisserie)? Thx
* My (hot Italian) sausage lasagna
* My very spicy chili (unless you're not an "extremely hot food" person, do not attempt). Very tasty, also made with hot Italian sausage, but dangerous.
* My bacon/corn chowder (ever year as a Thanksgiving side - folks request that we deliver containers to their homes, true story)
* My potato/leak soup - a new one I just attempted a few months ago. Found a recipe in a magazine, then (of course) doctored it to personal tastes in the family. About time to give it a second go.
* And of course, my chicken parm, which on Day 2 leads to chicken parm subs, is somewhat legendary. :)
Bacon/corn chowder seems right up my families alley. Care to share the recipe?!
- Finely chop a red onion (I find about 1 onion for every 4-5 ears of corn is a decent ratio)
- chopped cilantro (optional)
Combine corn / red onion / cilantro.
~ 2 tbsp olive oil
~ 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
~ a few generous pinches of kosher salt
~ grind in some freshly ground black pepper
~ a few small shakes of ground cumin
~a few healthy shakes of ground chipotle powder (adjust to preference, this can add a lot of kick quickly)
Mix it all up and ideally let it sit in the refrigerator for an hour or two (the sitting time really makes a difference).
Adjust as you see fit. Some people like black beans in there, but my wife LOVES this salsa and HATES beans.
Open up a bag of your favorite tortilla chips and watch it all disappear.
It's super basic, but people rave about this whenever I make it.
Here's what goes in. I make a large pot and have at LEAST 4-5 decent sized Tupperware containers to deliver to friends/neighbors. So you can scale as you like.
* 3-5 pounds of bacon (I cut it into half-inch pieces, fry that all up, then drain the grease).
* A 5-pound bag(ish) of potatoes (I clean them and chop them, bite size, skin and all)
* A pound and sometimes more chopped carrots.
* I throw in about 3-4 canned corn (regular, no jewels), then I will add a couple cans of cream corn to get a little texture going.
* I could chop a clove or two of garlic but I'm usually lazy so I'll get a good-sized jar or minced garlic, drain the fluid, and dump her in.
* I get chicken broth - usually buy 4-5 containers (the plastic ... Swanson is one brand I recall).
* I'll put maybe 1-2 cups of milk in with the broth.
* Whatever seasonings to have/like ... we use Goya like we own stock.
I will usually put all the solid ingredients in the pot (no heat going yet), and see where I am with volume, then start to add the chicken brother. If I buy 5 containers, I find I will usually have at least 1 extra to put in the pantry for later use.
Once the fluid if in, I get the heat going. I heat it quickly, then turn it way down. Give yourself a couple inches of leeway at the top because like with any soups, if you happen to walk away and someone comes along (ahem, Mrs. Beez, one example) and thinks it needs to be turned up a bit, you could end up cleaning the stove top. lol
I usually let the "soup" simmer on a low heat for 3-4 hours. Be sure to stir pretty often.
Hope that helps!
How much milk?
- 2 oz Veg Oil
- 1 Lb bone-in country style pork ribs
- 1 can tomato paste
- 3 fat cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 28oz cans Wegman's Organic crushed tomatoes
- at least 28 oz beef broth
Big pot. High heat, get oil going, brown ribs on both sides.
Remove ribs from pan, cut heat to low, give it a couple of minutes to cool so the garlic doesn't burn.
Garlic goes in for about 30 seconds.
Add tomato paste, deglaze bottom of pot with it, scraping the bits off the bottom. Work quick so garlic doesn't burn.
Tomatoes go in, all of em.
Add 28 oz beef broth, put the ribs back in.
Bring to a boil, lower heat and let it cook at LEAST 8 hours. If it gets overly thick, add more broth.
After an hour or so, begin seasoning to taste. I prefer to keep it simple, salt, pepper, oregano. Long sauce with all that pork and eventually meatballs will have plenty of flavor.
MEATBALLS:
- 4 slices white sandwich bread (no crusts)
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 2 lbs ground beef/pork/turkey (I prefer all beef)
- 1/2 cup GOOD parmesan cheese
- 3 tablespoons minced FRESH parsley
- 2 large egg yolks
- 2 small cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground pepper
- Vegetable oil
- Red Wine
Pour fat glass of red wine. Start drinkin'. :)
Use a food processor to make bread crumbs from the bread slices (no crusts).
In a large bowl, or better yet - Kitchen Aid Mixer bowl - add bread crumbs.
Add buttermilk to bowl, stir. After 5 minutes, bread crumbs have fully absorbed buttermilk.
Add egg yolks, parmesan, chopped parsley to bowl. Add meat, salt, pepper.
Roast ONE of the garlic cloves - in a frying pan, skin on for a few minutes.
Mince both the fresh and roasted clove - both go into the bowl.
If you have the Kitchen Aid, fire it up. Easy peasy. If not, wash your hands and go to town mixing it all well.
1/2 cup of meatball mixture per ball. Wet measuring cup works great. Shape each ball, put em on a large platter or pan, refrigerate for at least a half hour so they hold their shape better when you fry them.
Add 1/4" of vegetable oil to a cast iron pan. (Cast iron has mojo) Medium-High heat. Fry in smaller batches, no more than 8 or 9 per or you wind up with too much liquid, boiled balls instead of fried. I use 2 wooden spoons to turn. If there IS too much liquid, drain it, add and heat more oil and continue with the next batch.
When all balls are cooked, deglaze the pan with about a 1/4 cup of the red wine. Scrape browned bits.
IF what is now in that pan looks and smells delicious, add to the pot of sauce. If instead, it looks and smells like black, cigarette ash carbon, throw it out.
When there's about an hour til' dinner, put the balls and any other meats you want (cooked sausage, pepperoni, pork chops) into the sauce. Flavors both meat and sauce.
Fresh pasta is better.
And make sure you've got a loaf or two of killer Italian Bread.
Enjoy.
Trying not to picture the "leak" part...
Thank you!