That's a spicy meatball!

Well, not really spicy persay, but tasty? In the words of Mr. T. : I pity the foo (that doesn't like these meatballs)!

I always wanted to make meatballs. Before we'd always just put ground beef in the sauce and it was quite good, but I wanted something that stood out. I'd never made meatballs, but I'd had them before. Some were good, most were old "family recipies" that just fell too short in the taste area, tasting like cooked meat without spice. So I wanted to make my own, and I did last week!

I took 1 cup Bread Crumbs, 2 Eggs, 1.5 lbs ground Beef, 1 tsp Salt, 1 tsp Garlic powder, 1/2 tsp Pepper.

So after combining the ingredients, I started to work with the greatest tool ever invented for food preperation: the Hand. From there, I combined, by hand, the ingredients until they were all integrated equally. While this was a bit dry, I did add in bits of beef stock as needed, about 1/2 cup or so, it depends on how much moisture your meatballs desire. You're looking for all the bread crumbs to get worked into the meatballs. If you still have some crumbs hanging out in the bowl, use a bit more stock/water until it's worked together.

Once everything is integrated, it's time to roll by hand. I took a decent chunk, about a golfball in size or so and rolled it in my palms until it was roughly round. From there I placed the meatballs in a greased pan. You can use some olive oil, or merely nonstick spray.

I left a decent space between each meatball so they could cook on all sides. I used 2 pans here, as I ran out of room in the first.

Once each pan was lined up, I popped these babys into a preheated oven @ 350 for about 25 minutes.

They came out beautifully, nice and firm on the bottom with a slight crust, fully cooked all the way through. Don't worry, I'll show you next post what I did with them the following day (OMG Yes I waited till the next day to eat them, I still don't know how I resisted!).

1.5 lbs 85/15 Ground Beef (you can use 90/10, I chose a slightly higher fat content for moisture)

1 cup Bread Crumbs 

1/2 cup Beef Stock (varies on how much you'll need)

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Garlic Powder

1/2 tsp Pepper

2 Eggs, beaten

The Meatballs your grandmother made were delicious because of the amount of bread crumbs she used. Meat was a scarcer resource back in the day. Breadcrumbs hold onto moisture, making Meatballs more tender, so don't skimp on the crumbs and add more meat in. 

Combine all above ingredients into a large bowl. Add Beef Stock in at bit at a time until all the bread crumbs are thoroughly mixed in with the meat. This will take about 2-3 minutes of constant kneading and adding stock. You can add more pepper/garlic as your tastes permit. Once combined, pull of about a golf ball sized bit of mix, and roll between your palms. Place in a greased pan with 1/2 inch between each Meatball. Bake in an oven @ 350 for 25 minutes. Don't stir the meatballs! They'll develop a delicious crust on the bottom of the Meatball.

From there the applications are great. Add to a tomato sauce for Meatball subs, add to pasta for mega Meatball pasta. Drizzle with an Alfredo sauce for creamy goodness. I'll show you later how I applied it to a marinara sauce I stumbled into. Enjoy!

Cooking thoughts

Just an informative post, hopefully to motivate readers to start cooking, or expand your cooking realm. While I've not been professionally trained to cook, it follows in my heritage. Actually, it follows in everyones heritage. Cooking was an absolute necessity in every walk of life up to, and current in the world. While it may not have been fancy, your ancestors cooked, you've cooked. And why shouldn't you cook? You know what goes into what you're making. You put the parts together, you're feeding yourself and potentially your family. Why not cook?

People ask me all the time, where did I learn to cook? While the passion was always with me, I was never formally trained. I had the chance to go to professional cooking schools, which I hope to find the time to attend in the future. But my recipes and ability came from one simple thing: trial and error. I read a recipe, and I attempted it. The first trials weren't pretty, but I strived to make better food.

I look at recipies as merely basic templates. Some people consider family recipies to be the end-all-be-all of recipies. While that recipie may have been perfected over generations, how did they get to that point? It wasn't just attempted one day and amazingly good. It was made, and re-made with different variations over the years. What's stopping you from trying different ideas? That's what your mother and grandmother did most likely. I love to take recipies and tinker with them. It makes for astounding differences, and each persons tastes vary. So experiment! Have fun!

My solid advice is: start with good ingredients, have an open mind, and if all else fails, try, try again!

Blackened Chicken

As I'm sure you can tell thus far, I like food. I like good tasting food, and I don't like to add a lot of unnecessary fat or calories to food if I can help it. If it tastes just as good with 1 tbsp butter vs 4, why use 4? So I started dabbling a bit in one of my favorite Cajun dishes, blackening. I will expand more as time goes on, but one dish that struck me was one I've had while in Waco Tx for a while at a restaurant called Buzzard Billy's. It was here I first discovered Blackened Chicken Fettuccine, and boy was it good! So I started trying to make Blackened Chicken. While this may not be traditional, it's quite tasty!

First, I take some olive oil (about 3 tbsp) and 1 tbsp butter and mix the two in a pan

My chicken breasts (bone in works quite well here as well) are already seasoned with Blackening seasoning, available in just about any major grocery store. What kind you use, is up to you and your personal tastes. If you're looking for a hint, try Emeril's, or Zatarans. 

Now, normally in Cajun cooking, folks like to get a thick cast iron pan red hot, slap the butter into it quickly followed by your meat or fish. I consider this to be more of an easy, or "poor-man's" way of doing it, minus the whole potential for fire and burning down your house. Once the butter and olive oil are fully integrated (takes about 3 minutes or so, you'll notice when the butter is gone and you start to get a "foam" from the butter) add the seasoned chicken.

Now, one of my friends asked me once about fried foods that she was mangling in the pan. When she thought the food was done she would try and pry it up from the pan, resulting in the food being mangled and not looking all that pretty. Here is kind of the same idea, along with grilling that I passed on. When you place something down to be grilled, fried or pan fried, let it sit for a while where it is. This helps develop crust (ohhhh so tasty!) and more flavor. If you try and pry up your item, it will come to pieces and look very amateur. You can give it a gentile push with a fork or spatula. Once it is ready, the item will fairly easily come up on it's own time.

I'm seeing double noms!

So, you've probably noticed that the chicken here, while delicious, cannot possibly have been finished after 3 minutes on each side. You would be correct! From here, I pull the chicken and place it in a 425 degree oven for 15-20 minutes covered with foil. 

After it's been in the oven for 15 or so minutes, I cut the thickest part of the chicken and make sure it's done.

Now, from here you can eat it as is, add some more blackening seasoning, cut it up and add it to a salad, pasta, coffee (it's that good... well maybe not with coffee).

1 lb Chicken Breasts

Blackening seasoning (to taste)

4 tbsp Olive Oil (enough to coat the bottom of your pan)

1 tbsp Butter

Coat your chicken breasts with Blackening seasoning. Preheat oven to 425. Combine Olive Oil and Butter together in a thick pan (cast iron, calphalon or the like). Once oil/Butter mix is combined and starting to smoke, place chicken in pan. Be aware of potential splattering hazard, if you have a splatter shield, it wouldn't be a bad idea to employ it. Cook Chicken 3 minutes on each side without fussing with it. Move to another oven safe pan, cover with foil, place in 425 oven for 15-20 minutes. Enjoy!

Cottage Pie WITH CHEESE!

I'm sure we've all heard of Shepherds Pie. This is the beef version of it. Shepherds pie requires lamb meat, and since we're in the US, and more specifically, I'm in Texas, the beef version will suffice.

First, the topping. What better for a topping than mashed potatoes! Peel, chop and boil your potatoes until fork tender. If you like a chunkier topping, boil until slightly tougher, about 10 minutes or so.

While the potatoes are boiling away, chop 1 large onion and 2 carrots. In this case, I didn't have a carrot, so I used an orange bell pepper. I figured, what the heck, they're both orange right?

Once the potatoes are to your tenderness liking, add some milk and some butter, about 1 tbsp of butter along with a pinch of salt. Mash until your desired smoothness.

Sautee the onions, bell pepper and about 2-3 cloves of garlic together. We are aiming for a sauté on the mix, so stir frequently, and watch closely for about 5-7 minutes on medium heat. When the mix is sautee'd, add 1-1.5 lbs of lean beef to the mix and brown. Once browned, add some thyme, Worcestershire sauce, salt 1/4 cup of wine and cook for 1 minute. 

Once the sauté is done, prep 2 eggs with about 1/4 cup of milk. 

WHY ARE YOU STARING AT ME?

Drop the mix into a 9X13 pan. Here I've added some frozen mixed veggies, some Worcestershire sauce and red wine, and diced tomato right before I dropped the mix into the pan. 

Once in the pan, mix the egg and potato mixture together. With the potato incorporation, spread on top of the dish. 

Top with cheese and....

Extra sharp cheddar is recommended

Bake at 400 F for 30 minutes, and:

Very tasty I must say! You can add or mingle other ingredients to incorporate leftovers to make a larger dish. Experiment and have fun!

4-6 medium Potatoes peeled, and boiled to fork tender
1/4 cup Milk or Cream
1 Tbsp Butter

Boil the Potatoes till fork tender and mash. If you prefer Garlic, Onion, Cheese ect with your Potatoes, go ahead!

1.5 lbs Ground Beef, browned
1/4 cup Red Wine (optional)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)
1 Carrot (or orange Bell Pepper)
1 medium Onion
1 cup mixed Veggies
1 medium Tomato diced (optional)
3/4 cup shredded Extra Sharp Cheddar

Sweat diced Carrot and Onion, add to Beef. Brown. In a 9X13 pan combine the beef mix, mixed veggies, and tomato. Add Potato to top of dish and smooth over. Top entire dish with shredded Cheddar Cheese. Bake @ 400F for 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

Shrimp.... PERFECTION!

Well, while the "perfection" portion of the title may be a bit.... over zealous.... I think it's pretty darned tasty. Since this is a 2 parter, this will be a longer blog post as I made 2 dishes out of shrimp.

First! I made a Tempura batter. This is the same type of batter that Long John Silver's uses (not EXACTLY, but the type of batter is the same). Flour, an egg, and some milk. I put the flour, egg, and milk into a zip top bag and mix it with a fork. I highly love the idea of single dish, and low maintenance dishes, so less cleanup = greatness!

Here is our victim: the versatile, and delicate shrimp! Now, the ones I got were raw (ewwww) and with the shell on. It's incredibly easy to shell the shrimp. Just lift the carapace on one side over to the other, and work your way down the body. Easy peasy!

Deliciousness, in a small package!

Now, you may have a hard time seeing the peeled shrimp in the batter, but I assure you, inside of this baggy is some cajun seasoning, and the tempura batter. This batter is versitle in many ways. You can put chicken, fish, and just about anything in it and let it sit (1 hour minimum recommended) and it's ready to go! The egg helps the batter bind to the shrimp/chicken/fish ect. I leave my batter to work for about 4 hours usually unless I'm in a hurry. If you just make the batter and dunk it in, usually the batter will separate and not be good Noms.

Once the time has expired, place the shrimp in a pan of shallow oil. I prefer to use a mix of veggie oil, and olive oil. The olive oil helps keep the dish a bit on the healthier side, while the veggie oil helps keep the smoke point higher so the oil doesn't turn your shrimp into nasty blackened tastelessness. 

COOK YOU SHRIMPS!

Ohhhhh yeah, Noms bubbling away!

The finished product should be GBD (golden brown and delicious)! Shrimp cook really fast so prolonged exposure to high heat makes them chewy. As soon as the batter starts to turn golden, flip, wait 2 minutes, and remove. 

Ta DAAAAAH!

Now, the remaining shrimp!

The remaining shrimp, I decided to put in a pan with some Cajun seasoning, garlic, and about 1tbsp of olive oil.

SIZZLE MY PRETTIES!

The shrimp will be a gray color (if raw) before cooking. Once it starts to cook, it will rapidly turn to a reddish-orange color in about 90 seconds. Once this happens, flip to the other side, cook for another 90 seconds, and done! Here's the shrimp dishes side by side:

Sautee'd on left, pan fried on right.

Shrimp isn't hard to cook, it's just the timing that is hard. Shrimp cooks fast, if you're adding it into a dish, add it last. In soups, 2 minutes tops usually. Once the whole Shrimp goes orange, it's done. 

Tempura:

1/3 Lb of shelled and de-veined Shrimp

1 cup Flour

1 Egg

3/4 cup Milk

1 tbsp Cajun Seasoning

Mix in a zip top bag. The consistency should be like pancake batter. 

Sauté:

1/3 lb shelled and de-veined Shrimp

2 minced cloves of Garlic

1 tsp Cajun Seasoning

Mirepoix? But I hardly knew her!

Todays basic is a Mirepoix. While the word is a bit of a mouthful, it's a close relative of the "Holy Trinity" in cooking. This type of base is used in Cajun and French cooking quite often. It consists of carrots, celery, and onion. Sometimes you may hear it to be onion, celery + 1.

The basic idea is great! You take these 3 items, sweat them together in a pan to mingle their flavors, and put them in a dish like soup, beans, roasts and the like.

Here I chose my favorite, onion, carrot and celery. You can add more if you'd like your cooking to have more depth, but even a little bit of these items helps enrich lots of dishes!

Once your 3 chosen items are chopped up to however chunky or fine you'd like, just place a little bit of non stick spray in a pan, and set the top to medium low. We're not looking to cook these, just sweat them a little bit. The dish you add them to will soften the Mirepoix as it cooks releasing flavors as it does it's job.

This s the half way point. The onions are barely starting to lose their solid white color and are starting to turn a little translucent. This will take about 4 minutes total on medium low heat to sweat the Mirepoix. Once it's complete, just add it directly into your dish to be cooked and enjoy! 

1 Carrot chopped
1/2 Medium Onion chopped
1 Stalk of Celery chopped

Dilled Potatoes!

I was experimenting one day on how to make fries healthier. While I enjoy the crispy exterior, and fluffy creamy interior, I didn't enjoy the higher amounts of fat and calories that came with one of my favorite junk foods. The obvious solution was to bake the potatoes, but they often fell short of flavor.

Then I remembered an item my mother used to add to her fried potatoes, onion! For some reason onion and potato go together almost as well as potato and rosemary. After that I tried different other accompaniments, and finally stumbled on dill when I was making cod one day.

First, the potato!

TA DAAAAAAAAH!

Once your potato is skinned, you want to cut it fairly thick. No shoestrings allowed here!

Yep, that'll do.

Depending on the number of people, I cut up between 2-4 large russet potatoes. Don't pile them on top of one another unless you plan on shuffling them around every 5 minutes inside the oven. I recommend a single layer if at all possible, but if you have a lot of people who are going to be eating some of these, use a larger pan and stir them around every 5-10 minutes. 

Add a bit of salt, non stick spray to the pan and about 1/8th cup of diced onion, not much is needed, but if you want more you can definitely add more. 

Add some salt!

Once salted and in the oven @ 425, let them cook for 20-30 minutes checking on them for fork tenderness. Once done remove and sprinkle with dill.

Crispy, and tasty!

Dilled fries with chicken.

This pairs well with fish, chicken, steaks, burgers ect. Just about anything you would normally use fries with, it will work well.

2-4 Russet potatoes
Salt to taste
1/8th cup Onion, diced
Non Stick Spray
Dill

You'll Roux the Day!

Ahhh the Roux! A decidedly French concoction, designed to thicken sauces and add richness to them.

The Roux works well with virtually any cream or cheese sauce that you wish to have a thicker consistency. You'll see this item used a lot in Cajun cooking, and in French cuisine. The ratio is about 1:1, so 1 tbsp fat (butter usually) and 1 tbsp flour.

I started with about 3 tbsp butter, and flour on a medium-low stove top setting. Don't crank up the heat, as butter has a fairly low smoke point, and will rapidly turn from yellow Noms, to separated water and burned fat in no time on high.

Why does this look good already? Oh yeah, butter!

Now, once the butter is melted and the flour is stirred together, it will form the start of a blonde Roux. The longer you cook the Roux, the darker and nuttier smelling it will become. Also, the less thickening power it has. So if you want a thick sauce, keep it blonde. If you want nuttiness, depth and a looser sauce, slowly stir the Roux for a few minutes longer and it will start to turn a darker shade of brown. Remember, slow and easy does it.

Bubbly goodness!

Since this is a blonde Roux, it will bubble a bit to make sure the flour is cooked and incorporated, and should have a slightly loose consistency, like a warm pudding before it sets up.

Once this is done you are ready to incorporate it into whatever dish you'd like. May I suggest an Alfredo sauce? You can use cornstarch for thickening, but the Roux adds richness and depth along with the thickness. One last thing, like cornstarch, make sure once your Roux is added to your sauce, bring it to a boil to maximize it's thickening power.

Lasagna!

Ohhh man! One of my favorites! My mom used to cook this for us on special occasions, and we'd eat till we were about to burst! I was intimidated in making this at first due to the time commitment. Once I got used to the process it was easy.

First, some of the ingredients!

That's pretty much all the ingredients as far as spices, except for the wine. You can try just about any red, but I've found a Lambrusco to be the best. Merlot and Pino don't seem to give the depth I'm looking for. For this recipie I chose to use turkey. I'd add a little bit of oil if it's super lean, which turkey usually is. It will burn quickly if you're not diligent, so the 1tsp or so of oil will help buffer that.

After that are the noodles. I use a 9X13 pan, so it's usually 3 strips per layer. Think of how many layers you want and cook the noodles in a tall stock pot with salted water.

Next I prep the ricotta cheese. I use part skim. To me I can't tell a flavor difference. I add an egg to the ricotta and mix it together. It helps bind the cheese and sets it up better when you bake it. While melty cheese is great, runny cheese is not. if you have trouble spreading the ricotta, I recommend heating it in the microwave for 15-20 seconds (before you add the egg).

Once the meat is cooked, add the tomato sauce, paste, garlic, salt, and some wine. How much is up to you, I like to use 1/2 a cup for a single batch. Don't worry, the alcohol will steam off after a few minutes and it unlocks flavors in the garlic and tomato that can only be unleashed with the assistance of alcohol. If you're tempted, a glass for yourself wouldn't be a bad idea!

Folks sometimes ask me about the bottom of their lasagna burning. Just spoon some of the sauce onto the clean pan BEFORE you start doing any layering. It helps the noodles not squirm around, and keeps the noodles from sticking/burning to the bottom of the pan.

Soon to be delicious!

I add a layer of noodles, then ricotta cheese, then meat. Repeat! Hey that kinda rhymed....

Soon, you should have a multi layered beast just begging to be eaten! Don't worry, we'll bake this into even further destinations of NOMS! Make sure to cover the last layer with meat sauce completely. If any noodles are exposed without sauce on it.... well I hope you like blackened crispy noodles. Bake @ 425 for 30-45 minutes. Cheese is optional. YES OPTIONAL!

Noms! SOON YOU SHALL BE MINE!

SWEET VICTORY!

Notes: I'd cook this for 30 minutes at the minimum, 45 at max. If you go for less the flavors won't mingle as much, and the layers will fall apart and look sloppy. You don't want all your effort to slide across the plate onto the floor! Unless you're the dog, then you might.

1 lb meat

1 tsp salt (to taste)

1 tbsp garlic powder (to taste)

1/2 cup wine

1 can tomato paste

1 can tomato sauce

9-12 lasagna noodles

1 egg

1 container ricotta cheese (if you like a lot, get a larger tub, if not, the 1 pint tub should do fine)

cheese (optional, if you want it use mozzarella)

Brown meat. Add tomato sauce, paste, garlic powder, wine. Simmer for 10-20 minutes.
Boil lasagna noodles until tender (10-15 minutes)
Mix ricotta and egg together.

Layer the noodles, ricotta, and meat in thin layers. This should fit perfectly in a 9X13 pan. If you're cooking for more than 4, consider either a second pan, or a slightly larger one and measure your noodles accordingly.

Bake @ 425F for 30 minutes. If you're adding cheese, add it on in the last 5 minutes. The cheese should be bubbly, and hopefully slightly browned in places. Let the dish cool for at least 5 minutes before serving, as this is like molten lava if you try to eat it immediately. Enjoy!