Mojitos!

Every once in a while I enjoy a nice cocktail in the evening. In the summer time I like a minty Mojito to cut the heat at the end of the day. I've had them in bars and I like them, so I decided to try and make it at home. In an experiment, I decided to combine ingredients so I didn't have to ready the mint, squeeze the lime ect. It turned out pretty well, so I'll share it here!

The first step is to make a simple syrup. There's all sorts of ways to make it, in a 1:1, 2:1, 1:2 ratio, and so on. All this means is a simple number of parts of Sugar to Water. I make mine in a 1:1 ratio, if you like yours less sweet, go for a 1:2 ratio.

Put your stove top to medium heat and stir constantly. In this early stage the Sugar will settle on the bottom and will scorch pretty easy. After about 4 minutes most of the Sugar will be dissolved in the water. Then we can move onto step 2.

Minty fresh!

This, is the Mint. Make sure there's no black leaves or discoloration on the Mint. Once you've determined the Mint is devoid of any blemishes, rinse and pat dry. Then step 3!

RAWR!

Crush said mint. This will bruise the Mint, and help extract the Mint flavor more easily. Just ball it up in your fist and toss the whole thing as is into the simple syrup. Then, step 4!

You've picked up some Limes, and they're looking pretty decent. If you want to, you can finely grate some of the green on the outside of the cleaned skins for some Lime oil in the mix. It's tasty, but you can omit this if you want. What we're looking for is on the inside of these green gems. They're small, but if the season is decent and you microwave (7 seconds on high ONLY) or the more physical rolling, you can get a LOT of juice out of these.

Just press firmly against the surface you're working with and roll back and forth several times. You'll feel the Lime is "squishier" to the touch. Cut in half and juice. Then step 5!

Add the juice to the Mint and syrup mix. At this point the mixture should be letting off a little steam. We're not looking for a boil, just a nice simmer. Let it simmer away for 8-10 minutes and sample with a spoon. If it's not minty enough, let it steep for another 5 minutes. Once that's done, you're ready to remove the mint from the syrup, and place in a container.

From there you can mix independently with some Club Soda, or add in your silver Rum directly to the container. Whichever way is your choice!


1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Water
1 package Mint (or a handful if you're growing it)
3 Limes

On medium heat in a sauce pan, combine Sugar and Water, stirring constantly for 4 minutes until Sugar and Water are completely incorporated. Clean Mint, crush and drop into syrup. Cut and juice Limes, add to the syrup. Steep for 8-10 minutes. Remove Mint from the syrup, and place syrup carefully in a pour-able container. Add alcohol of choice (silver Rum is recommended).

Hummus among us

I've read around for quite a while about something called Hummus. It sounds strange by name and looks pretty nondescript by itself. I'm not a huge fan of whole Chick Peas, but I wanted to give this a shot. After all, some of my favorite things I've tried were after taking a leap on a new idea. Lots of people wrinkle their nose at the idea, but have never tried Hummus, kinda like we were when we were kids. Broccoli? EWWWW!

I consulted a few folks that have had, or make their own Hummus for some ideas, did some searching and found a very good base that I cobbled together. This can be adjusted to your liking, but even this base is good by itself.

The ingredients! I have some Lemon juice (fresh lemons are better, but this was in the fridge and worked fine), Chick Peas (Garbanzo Beans), Salt, Pepper, Tahini (Sesame Seed paste), Olive Oil, Cumin, Garlic.

Hummus is about a nice balance. Each part helps compliment or balance with another ingredient. Drain the Chick Peas and put them into a blender or food processor, add in 2 heaping Tbsp of Tahini, 2 Tsp Olive Oil, 1/4 Tsp Pepper, 1/4 Tsp Cumin, 2 cloves Garlic, 1/4 cup Lemon juice (or 2 small juiced Lemons) and 1/4 Tsp Salt.

You will need to stop the blender or processor frequently to scrape down the sides and get the Chick Peas down into the blades to get this smooth. You will need to add some water, or more Lemon juice to help keep the process going. Use a little at a time to ensure your Hummus isn't watery.

I like to add in more Lemon juice than water as this works together, as I like a bit more of a sour tang to the dip. Also, as the dip is processing you can decide if you like a little more smoothness by adding more Olive Oil. It's a good oil for you, but I wouldn't go TOO nuts with it. Put in a little at a time like the water till you get to the consistency you want.

The dip looks pretty plain here, but I guarantee it's tasty! Packed with protein, fiber, and other nutrients just in the Chick Peas, this is a great dip to fill you up and keep you full for quite a while! You can sprinkle the dip with some Paprika, red peppers, Cayenne pepper, whatever you'd like to dress it up!

Now remember, this is a base dip. I've added more garlic, Cayenne pepper, whatever you'd like to the dip to adjust it to your tastes! I'm looking forward to finding some sun-dried Tomatoes to add into my next batch. This is traditionally eaten with Pita chips, but I've found Carrots and tortilla chips work great. Pretty much whatever you'd want to eat on a veggie or chip as a dip will work!


1 16oz can Chick Peas
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/4 Tsp Pepper
1/4 cup Lemon juice
2 Tsp Olive Oil
1/4 Tsp Cumin
2 Tbsp Tahini
2 chopped cloves Garlic
Water as needed

Add all ingredients into a blender or food processor. Blend and scrape down sides. Add Water or Lemon juice as needed to help blend or for taste.

Scotch Eggs

I saw a video a long time ago about an interesting dish called Scotch Eggs. At first I was wondering if they meant they were poached in Scotch whiskey? It seemed odd, so I watched and it wasn't at all what I originally thought.  I made a few the other night and decided to give them a taste. They're quite good, and darned near a delicious hand held whole breakfast. I couldn't find a way to incorporate the milk into the dish, so you'll have to supply your own glass of moo juice.


First, you'll want to hard boil your egg(s) and shell them. Just place however many eggs you want to convert into a pan with water covering the eggs, and boil them for 15-20 minutes. After that, cool the eggs until they're easily handled. Shell 'em. Then you'll want to pat them over with a little bit of flour. This helps the sausage stick to them.

The sausage I decided to use was some Jimmy Dean Sage, but if you have a personal favorite, go for it! Once the eggs were patted with flour and shaken to remove any excess flour, you pull off some sausage, a little larger than the size of each egg you will be working with. Press the sausage in your palm, almost like you're making a thin hamburger patty. Place the egg in the center of your sausage patty.

Gently work the sausage up, and over the egg. You want to work slowly on this, as the egg, while hard boiled, can still split open and ruin the process. Once you've worked the sausage around the egg, it should look like this:

From there, put the ball into an egg wash (1 egg with little milk, whipped together). Once the ball is coated in the egg wash, roll in some bread crumbs. I used plain crumbs, but if you want to flavor it up a bit with some Italian crumbs, go for it.

Now I did get a little creative and added something interesting in place of crumbs for one......

MAKE IT BACON BABY!

So yeah, I wrapped my hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage, with crumbled bacon.

This looks dangerously delicious!

Normally these are fried. For me, the sausage (and the bacon one) were already screaming at my arteries. So I decided to bake them. Oven safe pan, 425F for 15 minutes.

Quite good, though I will admit I had 3 and they were tasty. I think next time I'll limit myself to one, as they are filling!



Eggs (your choice on how many to make)
Sausage
Bread Crumbs
1 Egg
1 Tbsp Milk

Checkerboard Salmon

Ok, so every once in a while I like to cook some fish. Cod, Mahi Mahi, and sometimes Salmon. One day I was thinking of how I like Salmon, nice and juicy, but I was wanting something with a bit of a crust, a slightly crunchy feel to the meat. So, after a few experiments, I came up with this! I hope you enjoy!

First, your salmon. The amount doesn't matter all that much, just as long as you can fit it in one go into the pan. here I have about a 1lb whole fillet from my local grocer. 

Heat up your oven to 425F, and get an oven safe pan coated with non-stick spray ready. This dish will not be covered in the oven.

Don't remove the skin, as you'll need it to hold everything together. Take a long kitchen knife, and very slowly, and gently cut the salmon lengthwise all the way across, and about 90% through the salmon. You don't want to go all the way through, and you'll cut in about 1 inch strips.

Once that's done, turn the fillet 90 degrees and do the same in intersecting lines. You're going to basically make a 1 inch cube.

Once that's complete, sprinkle with about 1/2 tsp of salt. No other ingredients are going on at this point, they'll just burn. Spray your skillet liberally with some non-stick spray, turn your burner to medium high. You can also use some olive oil, but be careful as too much and you're looking at a potential grease splatter-fest as soon as you slap your fillet onto it. Once you barely start to see some smoke coming from the oil, quickly put your fillet meat side down and DO NOT MOVE IT. Don't poke it, don't stick your spatula under it NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU WANT TO! I know it's rough, but trust me on this. Just trust me. 

Now, as you can see in the picture above, the salmon will start to cook and you'll see the meat start to turn from orange next to the pan, to more of a pale white-orange. You may want to back down your heat to medium. This is fine, what we're looking for is the meat to be that pale cooked pink about half way up the fillet. This will take about 5 solid minutes. Once it's about half cooked on the sides, take your spatula (a pancake spatula comes in very handy here FYI) and press down against the pan and start to gently work it under the Salmon. You'll notice that it has some stick to the pan, but not really a whole lot. Remove it from the pan, and place it on some foil, or an oven safe pan and stick it in the oven @ 425 for about 20 minutes.

Remember when I told you not to mess with the fillet with your spatula? Notice that nice bronze crust on top of the Salmon? If you futz'd with it while it was in the early stages of getting this crust, it would tear, have an improper crust, or at worse burn from smaller pieces of meat being torn off and turning to charcoal. The Salmon will attach to the hot pan almost immediately, and as it cooks it will form a crust and start to remove itself normally from the pan, saving you a LOT of cleaning, and giving you some delicious crust for your efforts!

Once the fillet is out of the oven, sprinkle with Pepper and Dill. If you'd added them in earlier they would have blackened almost immediately upon contact with the pan. Not tasty.

1 Salmon fillet 1-2 lbs
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp Dill
Lemon (optional)

Chicken Noodle Soup

With cold and flu season already here, it's time to break out that elixir of health: Chicken Noodle Soup!

With the depth of flavor, warm brothyness (yes that's a word now) and just plain goodness, it's hard to go wrong with a bowl of piping hot Chicken Soup. 

First, the ingredients: Thyme, Pepper, Bay leaf, Salt, Chicken Bullion, and Chicken stock

I made a mirepoix of half a large Onion, 3 Carrots, and 3 Celery stalks, all diced. If you don't like Onion, just double either the Celery or Carrots.

Over medium heat, I sweated the mirepoix for about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. While the mirepoix is working it's magic in the stock pot, I cubed up 2 large Chicken Breasts. If you like smaller cubes, go for it. Tip: If you're having a hard time cutting flimsy chicken, freeze it for a few hours first. You don't want it frozen solid, just semi-frozen. It's easier to work with, just take your time when cutting.

Next comes 1Qt of Chicken stock:

Then the Spices, and Chicken:

2 Bay leafs in this pot please!

Once the Spices and Chicken are added, you can gage how much water or extra Chicken Stock you'd like to add. I personally put in 3 cups of water, as I like mine fairly soupy. Add more Chicken bullion for a stronger Chicken flavor if so desired.

Now, you may notice that after about 10 or so minutes, there's a white film on top of the bubbly soup.

Not to worry, just take your time and use a spoon to gently skim this layer off. Use a small bowl, and transfer the skimmed parts into the bowl to make more of a clear soup. It doesn't have to be perfectly skimmed, but you can see the difference between the two pictures.

After about 15-20 minutes on a slow boil, you can add in your noodles. Be careful with adding to many in! The noodles will soak up a lot of broth. If you like it noodly, knock yourself out. 

Now for the recipe:

1 Qt Chicken Broth

3 Cups Water

1 Tbsp Chicken Bullion

1 Tsp Thyme

1 Tsp Salt

1 Tsp Pepper

2 Bay Leaves

2 Chicken Breasts, cubed

1 Cup Noodles

3 Carrots, diced

3 Celery Stalks, diced

1/2 Onion, diced

Add Celery, Carrots, Onion into 5qt stock pot on medium heat. Allow to sweat until translucent, or about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add Chicken Broth, Thyme, Salt, Pepper, Bay, Chicken Breasts, and Chicken Bullion. If you have the squares of Chicken Bullion, just use one of the squares. Slow boil on medium heat for 20-25 minutes. Add Noodles and boil for another 10 minutes. 1 Cup Noodles is a fair amount, but if you like more, add in about a half a cup more. 

The Incredible Edible... Bean?

One of my favorite foods just so happens to be Beans. I'm rather partial to Pinto, and Black Beans. Packed with fiber, protein, and tons of other great nutrients, Beans often rank in the top 10 of healthy and tasty foods.

Beans themselves are quite plain. No flavor really at all. In this case, that's perfectly fine, because beans love to absorb flavors. Starting small and dried out that you find in the store, as they sit in whatever liquid, they readily absorb whatever you place in front of them, ready and able to be transformed!

Now, what you have to decide before you start is, what kind of bean do you want? Black? Pinto? Red? They are each best spiced with their own variations. Pinto is more of a rural, rugged bean from the old west. Black complements Mexican food greatly. Red is excellent in chili, and in Cajun food. I have memories from the past of having Beans, Cornbread and Ham for dinner. Ohhhh, delicious Beans!

Regardless of the bean chosen, the kind you start with is dry. You have to soak it. In the past, the soak was done overnight. You dump the beans into a wide pot, or a plate, pick out the bad beans (visible defects, half beans, rocks), rinse them a few times (a colander comes in hand here), then place them in a deep dish full of water overnight. You can speed up this process by heating the water to a boil, then cutting the heat. This will speed up the liquid absorption to around 4 hours.

If you notice in the above picture, I have some spices added. Me personally, I like to add in some flavors to the water. Onion powder, Garlic powder, Chili powder. Some folks may think this wasteful, but the water I covered these beans with didn't have any flavor, and the beans are absorbing the water, soooo... Also, you want several inches above your beans. These puppies will absorb liquid like mad and will expand greatly.

4 hours soak on the left, un-soaked on the right

Once soaked, drain the beans and rinse with clear water. Then comes the cooking part!

First, I start out with a mirepoix of 2 Celery stems, 1/2 of a medium Onion, diced, and 2 whole Carrots, peeled and diced.

Once the mirepoix has mingled for a few minutes, add into a large crockpot. Add your soaked beans, and about 4 cups of water, or better Chicken stock. Add spices, Pepper, Bay leaf, Garlic, Thyme.

 Hold off on the Salt till finished. Salt makes the skins on the beans less receptive to liquid, and a bit tougher. Once cooked, add Salt to taste.

2 Lbs  Pinto Beans

2 Celery stalks, chopped

2 Carrot, chopped

1/2 white Onion, chopped

2 Tsp Garlic powder

1/2 Tsp Thyme

1 Tsp Black Pepper

2 Bay leaf

Salt to taste

6 cups Water (or Chicken stock)

Sort beans, and soak overnight, or boil briefly for 1 minute, then sit for 4 hours. Rinse. In a sautee pan combine chopped Onion, Carrot, and Celery over medium heat. Sweat for 3 minutes. Once completed, add to a large crock pot. Add Beans, Garlic powder, Thyme, Pepper, Water/Chicken stock (enough to cover the beans with about 1/2 inch of liquid), and Bay leaf. Stir intermittently while cooking. Cover, set heat on crock pot to high. Cook for 8-12 hours in crock pot. Monitor and add 1/2 cup Water/Chicken stock as needed to keep beans slightly submerged with liquid. After 8-12 hours, check for tenderness. Add Salt to taste. Enjoy!

An afterthought here: I really like beans. They have good flavor, are versitle, and freeze well. A few years ago a person I met wanted to make a BBQ dinner for some folks, and brought along some tasty Pinto beans. I talked to him briefly, commenting that it tasted quite a bit like what I've had in the past, and asked him if he had any pointers. He asked me if I wanted to know the secret to "makin' a good bean." I replied yes, curious to what his experience could pass to me. His reply: "The secret to making a good bean is.... well you just gotta make it right!" I'm not sure if he was holding back, or if it was a family secret. I stood for a few moments waiting for something a little more tangible. He merely shook his head and said "Yep, make it right." 

From the Horses Mouth, Part 1: Angel Food Cake

I'm sure you've heard the term "hungry as a horse", but how hungry is a horse?

With some encouragement from the wonderful GF, and the brave constitution of Matt (the horse), we strive to find out the life question: How hungry is a horse?

The rules:
Matt gets 2 tries for the food. Often horses have to "sample" a piece of food and give it a second go to see if they like it. If after the 2nd attempt he turns his nose up, it's a failure.
Nothing blatantly obvious to be rejected, like a steak. He's a horse after all!
Matt's opinion is final on the food item given. No exceptions!

First try... Angel Food Cake!

Now, on with the show!

Thanksgiving casserole

Like a lot of folks, my favorite time of the year is the holiday season. And what better season for food than Thanksgiving!

For years my favorite side dish has always been Broccoli and Rice casserole. I've had many variations on this, most are fine, a few a bit off, but the original I've had (of course, the best) was taught to me by my mother and I've cooked it exactly the same over the years. I've tried variations, and this is one of the few recipe that is best in it's final form. It gets rave reviews across the board, so if you're looking for something to try, you can't go wrong with this. I like to make this a few times a year, so it's not just for the holidays. 

First, I chop half of a medium onion into a dice. Then... oh my, is that picture correct? Is that... Cheeze Whiz? Indeed, it is. Some butter? Oh man, you're singin my tune, and is that.... oh my! Cream of Mushroom soup? Is it that versatile? Answer: yes.

Ok, once you've realized what you're prepping for (oh my I almost forgot the Brocolli!) it's time... to start your engines! I melt the butter on medium heat, add onion and sweat. This will take about 3 minutes total, I'm not looking for browning. Browning in this recipe isn't desired, just cook the onion till it's semi-see-through. 

Now, from there I add about 3 cups of white rice (this makes a lot by the way) to the onion mix. I stir it around for a few turns, then add the 'Whiz, and Mushroom soup. Mix in for a few turns until the rice, 'Whiz and Mushroom soup is worked together.

Then I add in about a quart of milk, and 1 package of chopped Broccoli. This may seem like a lot, but that rice is thirsty, and will expand greatly. Now, make sure the heat is at medium, and stir constantly. I know you heard me but I must insist, STIR, CONSTANTLY! With this much dairy, if you leave this alone for longer than 2 minutes, the bottom WILL scorch. You DO have to baby this, but trust me, it's well worth it! Be sure to scrape along the bottom of the pan, because this dish loves to build a crust on the bottom and build a nasty scorched layer. If you have kids that are learning to cook and are reliable, have them stir it constantly. 

You may have to add more milk to the pot as it cooks slowly, this is fine as it adds to the richness of the dish. If it's not cheezy enough for you, add some Velveeta cheese, or some more Cheeze Whiz if you have some.

The dish may seem a bit loose at first when you take it off of the heat, but trust me, it will firm up after about 30 minutes away from heat. It re-heats VERY well, and is good if properly 'fridged for about a week. Long enough to enjoy with the 458 variations you need to think about for your Turkey extras! I love to eat this with some Cranberry sauce; delicious!

1/2 medium Onion chopped

1/2 stick Butter

1 pack chopped Broccoli

1 jar Cheese Whiz

1 quart Milk

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

3 cups white Rice

Sweat chopped Onion with 1/2 stick Butter. Mix 3 cups rice with sweat'ed Onion, add Cream of Mushroom Soup, Cheese Whiz. Mix for 30 seconds until incorporated. Add Milk. Stir CONSTANTLY. Add Milk as necessary. If extra "cheesyness" is desired, either add more Cheese Whiz, or 2oz Velveeta cheese. 

Marinara!

So, I've been looking for a long time for a good marinara sauce. I love the sauce that comes with the mozzarella sticks, and often I use the sticks just to get more sauce. It looks so simple, yet tastes like it was simmered all day in a vat of deliciousness. Depth, richness, and totally tomato.

So I looked up a recipe, and saw such variations that it made my mind hurt just contemplating the variances. So I gathered what I had, and I gave it the ol college try! I was missing a few of the "absolutely vital" ingredients, but I strove ahead anyways. What is exploration without a little chance right? So we strive ahead readers!

I started with about 3 Tbsp Olive Oil, and half of a diced Onion.

DICED! Your move!

I sweat the onion in the heated oil for about 2 minutes. We're not looking for carmelization, just sweating and translucence. Add some minced Garlic and let it mingle.

Onion + garlic = mingle heaven!

Once the Onion and Garlic have mingled together in the oil, it's time to bring some crushed Tomato to the party, and some SPICES!

Feel the mingling, FEEL IT!

Once the Tomato has been incorporated, turn the heat down and let it simmer. Small, slow bubbles are good, large rapid bubbles, not so much. Let everything mingle together. HEY! Consider it to be a slow dance. The Tomato has got to get to know the Onion and Garlic.

One the sauce is finished, I placed the Meatballs from the previous recipe into the Marinara sauce. Honestly, I had a picture of it, but it was so delicious that... I ate the picture too!

3 tbsp Olive Oil
1/2 medium Onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp Salt
1 Bay Leaf
1 heavy pinch black Pepper
1 can crushed Tomato
1 Roma Tomato, diced

Heat Olive Oil over medium heat, add diced Onion and Garlic. Sweat for 3 minutes. Add crushed Tomato, Bay Leaf. Add Salt and Pepper to taste. Simmer for 15 minutes.

From here you can add some Rosemary, Thyme, Basil or more Garlic. This sauce is really flexible, so put what you want in it. This is great with Meatballs, regular pasta, Mozzarella sticks, you name it!

Inspiration

So, where do you get your inspiration? I find it in a lot of places, some obvious, some obscure. I love to take trips to different areas, because it gives me new ideas for food. Recently, I went to Las Vegas. When it comes to food, I've been known to bend my rules and try just about anything for inspiration.

On my recent trip, I went to various restaurants and establishments to try what they had to offer. Some were amazing, and some were.... less so. In the Coke building, I had a beverage called "Beverly" (the clear glass on the left). Need I say, it was quite.... non-appealing. Considered an aperitif in Italiy (a digestion aid) it wasn't pleasing to the palate. Bitter, carbonated, and overall it made my stomach twinge. Others, more ispirational, like the mint bevvy on the right (it tasted like a cola while brushing my teeth, but in a good way).

Saint Delicious, I dubb thee!

Others were quite amazing. Vegas being a cultural mecca brings the best of the best of each nation to the strip, a focal point if you will: only the best arrive. If you're wondering what that is to the direct left of the straw, yes, that's a Twinkie. This was a Twinkie shake, and while absolutely absurd in calories, it was absolutely delicious to eat. Hey, I was on vacation, the waitress was lauding the shake, and I was intrigued. Let me say, it was so tasty, I was glad I didn't know the nutritional information.

Yes, this is a Kobe beef burger, with Blue Cheese and sauteed Oyster Mushrooms. Oh and the Fries were great!

While the trip was relaxing, I mostly enjoyed the various foods to be had. It opens ones eyes to new ideas and recipes to experiment with. Try a new food if you can! You never know what you might find to inspire you!