A very different Lamb dish

Beet Stew with Lamb Meatballs

If you like lamb and love beets check out this recipe.
It's stupendously good! I made a couple of modifications.
The recipe calls for a half pound of ground lamb. That didn't sound right for a 'serves 4-6' recipe so I used a whole pound. I also added about 2 tablespoons of Matzo Meal (Bread crumbs will work) and browned the meatballs first instead of putting them into the simmering stew raw.
 http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Beet-Stew-with-Lamb-Meatballs

Chicken and Yam Tagine

I made a 'Moroccan' Chicken dish last night. A Tagine I guess.




1 1/2 lbs Boneless chicken breast and thigh meat
1 medium yam cut into large bite sized pieces
1/4 Pine nuts
2 large carrots peeled and cut up
1/4 Cup Golden Raisins

1 tsp each of ground cinnamon, ginger, ground chili* (or paprika) and  coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 Tbs finely chopped or pressed fresh garlic
1 1/2 Tbs honey
Salt & pepper taste
Extra virgin olive oil
2-3 Cups Chicken stock

Season chicken with salt, pepper and coat with some olive oil.
Brown the chicken pieces thoroughly then remove from the pan and set aside.
Then add carrots, onion slices and pine nuts into the same pan and brown a good bit.
Next the chicken stock gets added. Be sure to scrape up all the good browned stuff that stuck to the pan so that it becomes part of the sauce. Lots of flavor there.
When carrots are half done put in the yams, raisins and spices.
When the yams begin to soften  add about 1 Tbs of lemon juice.
As the yams soften the sauce will begin to thicken. Add Chicken back to the pan near the end and allow all to return to a simmer before turning off the heat.
Served with Couscous** of course.

*The ground chili is the same as what I used with the Oven Fried Potatoes with the Buffalo Burger recipe.
** Follow package directions for cooking the Couscous.

Pork Brisket?

Hi folks. Sorry about the long delay since my last post. Been kinda busy and this recipe stuff is very time consuming. With this in mind I've realized that full recipes are not always needed. Here's what I did last night.

I recently found a cut of pork at Costco that I've never seen anywhere else. The package is labeled Pork Brisket Grillers. These are extraordinarily lean pieces of pork.  they come in a package of 4 packages each containing 3 briskets. For us the 3 briskets are just right for a family of four. This package of four meals runs only $12-13.  Such a deal!

When it comes to cooking I've been treating them kind of like you would a beef tri-tip. Last night I marinated them with my BBQ rub mixture and a splash of cider vinegar diluted with water (or some orange juice works nicely as well). I pricked each piece with a fork all over the surface before marinating. I like to marinate something like this in a ziplock bag for 2-24 hours. Grill them just as if you would a nice steak. I get them up to an internal temperature of about 140 deg F. For last night's dinner I served some cut white corn and a simple salad along with slices of the pork brisket.

For the rub check this out.    http://www.barbecuen.com/recipes/basicribrub.htm
I used some of my favorite ground chill in place of the paprika and I added some brown sugar as well.

Enjoy!

Buffalo Burger for dinner tonight, dinner tonight..... dinner to....

We recently discovered the availability of ground Bison either prepattied or in a one pound package. We love making burgers with it and find it very digestible, leaving us feeling much less stuffed than when we have beef burgers. (See the nutritional comparison chart at the end of this post.)

Another innovation that we've adopted is to put the cheese on the inside of the burger instead of on top. We learned about this on one of those Food Network shows. We call them Juicy Lucys or Outside In Burgers.

I often make Spicy Oven Fried Potatoes to go with the burgers. I always get the potatoes completely done before I put the burgers on to cook.

Outside-In Buffalo Cheese Burgers

Ingredients:

• 1to 1.5 pounds of ground Bison/Buffalo.
• 1 to 1.5 cups of shredded Sharp Cheddar Cheese or other flavorful cheese. I think Jalapeno Jack would be great.
• Salt, Freshly ground Black Pepper, Garlic powder.
• Burger Buns of you choice.

Procedure:

1. Portion out the burgers or defrost preformed patties .
2. Fold a piece of film wrap over both sides of the portion and flatten out to a pretty thin patty.
3. Sprinkle some of the seasonings on the up side of the patty and place a mound of the shredded cheese in the center.
4. Now bring up the edges of the patty to enclose the cheese and gently pinch together forming a ball again.
5. Bring the film up over the ball and re-flatten back to a nice size burger.
6. Season the outside of the final patty.
7. I Usually put the burgers into the freezer for about 20 minutes while I'm prepping the potatoes. This firms them up and makes them easier to handle when putting them onto the grill or into a pan.
   
8. Cook them on the grill or in a pan* when you are ready to.
   

____________________________________________________

Spicy Oven Fried Potatoes

Ingredients:

• Yellow flesh potatoes
  
• Lots of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, Ground Chili**,Ground Coriander, Celery Salt
• Juice of 1 Key lime or half a Persian Lime. If you don't have limes on hand a little vinegar or lemon juice can be used instead.

Procedure:

1. Put a sheet pan in the oven and preheat to 410 degrees. (Convection ovens work especially well for this. Set temp to 380 degrees for convection ovens.)
   
2. Cut potatoes into wedges.
3. Place the potato wedges into a large mixing bowl.
4. Add a liberal amount of the Extra Virgin Olive Oil and toss around. They should be well coated with the oil. (You can use Canola or some other oil if you want but in my kitchen E.V.O. rules)
   
5. Add all of the seasonings plus the lime juice. Sorry no measurements here. you just gotta use your instincts. Think BIG flavor. The only thing you want to be careful not to overdue is the salt. You can always add some when they are all done if you think it's needed.
6. Toss all this very thoroughly.
7. Very carefully remove the very hot sheet pan from the oven. Sprinkle some more olive oil into the pan then dump on the potatoes . Spread out the potato wedges to a single layer.
8. Put the pan back into the oven.
   
9. Once you see the potatoes begin to sizzle a bit you can pull the pan out briefly to move the wedges around and rearrange them a bit. You'll be doing this about every 10 minutes until they are done. Each time you rearrange them make sure all sides of the wedges have a chance to be flat against the pan surface. This will assure even browning.
10. Continue cooking them in this way until the look very crispy. Near the end of cooking you may want to switch over to the broiler mode to crisp them up. Be careful not to forget about them. I usually stand right there to keep an eye. Not everybody likes burnt edges.
    

(The bottle of Guinness Stout that you see in the middle picture goes into the cook not on the potatoes.)

*On this particular night I char grilled the burgers but I often pan grill them in a good skillet on the stove. I think they come out juicier from the pan. The downside is that your stove is a filthy mess when you are done.

** I've been buying this particular brand of 'mild' chili from Alejandro's Market in Tucson's South side. I doubt that it can be found in many places elsewhere.
It's the best I've ever come across. If anyone out there is interested I can ship some to you. It's a few bucks per 8oz container plus shipping.

NUTRITIONAL COMPARISON Bison to other meats Per 100 GRAM SERVING - COOKED MEAT

SPECIES	FAT GRAMS	CALORIES KCAL	CHOLESTEROL MG	IRON MG	VITAMIN B-12 MCG
Bison	2.42	143	82	3.42	2.86
Beef (choice)	18.54	283	87	2.72	2.50
Beef (select)	8.09	201	86	2.99	2.64
Pork	9.66	212	86	1.1	0.75
Chicken (skinless)	7.41	190	89	1.21	0.33
Sockeye Salmon	10.97	216	87	0.55	5.80

The Art of Guiso

Pronounced gee'-so. Guiso is a Spanish word loosely define as a Stew but not as soupy.
You'll hear this term in kitchens of many Mexican households. Although some will prepare a Guiso from scratch I generally make one from leftovers. I'm Mexican by marriage and have learned about Guisos from my wife Lucia and Mother in-law Lucy. I'll tell you about the one I made last night and then talk about the range of possibilities.

Guiso de Steak with Potatoes and Peas

Ingredients:
1 Left over NY Strip steak at least 8 oz
2 cups left over roasted potato wedges. (roasted with lots of EV Olive oil, Garlic and Rosemary)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 ripe tomato
1 small onion
Extra Virgin Olive oil
Some ready made bottled Salsa. I buy Herdez brand found in the Mexican section of the grocery. It comes in three heat levels. Mild, medium, and hot. Your choice.
Some ground Chili (Not the Chili Powder (spice blend) you'd find on the spices shelf at the grocery but real dried and ground Chilis)
Garlic powder, dried oregano leaves, salt, pepper.
Tortillas of you choice. 'Corn or flour?'

Procedure:
Dice or slice the onion into pieces no thicker than 1/8th of an inch.
Cut up the steak into thin slices or small bite chunks.
Cut the potatoes into 1/2 inch pieces
Cut the tomato to same size.

Heat up a large skillet to medium high temp and pour in some oil.
Put the meat into and fry until nice browned and crispy on the edges.
Remove the meat and set aside.
Now put the onions into the pan with some fresh oil and saute until slightly browned.
Now add the potatoes and toss around. Cook until the potatoes develop a little some new browning.
Next add the chopped tomatoes and frozen peas.
Now you can add the seasonings and salsa to taste.

Serve it up with some warm tortillas!
Sometimes we have same Cottage Cheese on the side. I don't know where this came from but it's good.

Variations:
Any kind of steak, pot roast, roast beef.
Carnitas (aka Braised Pork Shoulder or Pulled Pork) with cut corn instead of steak and potatoes.
Green beans are great in a Guiso as long as they are cooked long enough .
Left over pork chops, or chicken are also great in a Guiso.
Zucchini squash, Chayote or Mexican green squash and carrots are also nice veggies to use.
Corn in place of potatoes is good, or go ahead use both.
Of course the veggies can be leftovers as well. Just adjust you cooking

If you start from scratch just cook the meat first and set aside. Same with potatoes if you are using them. Then proceed as if they are leftovers.

White Sea Bass (Corvina) w/ Chinese Blackbean Sauce

A few days ago I had no clue as to what to cook for dinner that night. I decided to p0p into the 17th Street Market in Tucson. It's an international market with fantastic produce and seafood as well as products and ingredients from around the world with a very extensive Asian section.

I went to the produce department first. It's basically a huge walk-in fridge which is a great place to be on a day when its 110 outside. The Baby Bok Choy immediately caught my eye. I've yet to figure out where in the heck they get this stuff. Probably trucked in from California. I can't imagine anybody successfully growing it nearby in this climate. Anyhow, I grabbed a pound or so and ambled on to the fish counter.

Mahi Mahi, Jewel like Bluefin Tuna, several varieties of Salmon, nice looking Red snapper, Rock Cod all looking pretty darn nice. Then I saw this Corvina aka White Sea Bass line caught in Mexico. Beautiful big thick fillets looking extraordinarily fresh. Translucent and glistening. I immediately flashed on this Sea Bass with Black bean sauce that I had several times at Creasian restaurant in San Leandro California. I bought a pound and a half, picked up some fermented black beans in the Chinese section, reviewed in my head what else I might need and what I knew was at home in the pantry, and moved on.

Menu
Corvina with Chinese Black bean sauce.
Braised Baby Bok Choy
Steamed Jasmine Rice

Ingredients:

• 1.5-2 lbs of filleted Corvina (White Sea Bass) with skin removed and cut to portions of approximately 6 oz each. (Other firm white fish such as Grouper, Chilean Sea Bass, Halibut etc. can be used) .
  
• White rice flour for dredging the fish and thickening the sauce. (Corn starch can be used but the rice flour is much better)
• Sesame oil
• Canola oil

Sauce

• 1/3-1/2 cup Chinese Fermented Black Beans (depends on how much you love these salty little gems)
  
• 1/2 cup Chicken Stock (unsalted)
• 1/4 cup Chinese Rice Wine 'Xiao Xing' or Dry Sherry
• 1 Tbs. Light Soy sauce
• a dribble of Rice wine vinegar
• a few drops of Sesame Oil
  
• 1 Tbs very fine julienne of Fresh Ginger
• 1 Tsp Chinese Chili Garlic sauce (Lee Kum Kee brand is very good)
• Fresh whole garlic cloves for sauce and Bok Choy

• 1-1.5 lbs Baby Bok Choy or similar green. Make Freshness the priority.

• Jasmine Rice

Procedure overview.

Cut the bottom 1/2 inch or so from each head of Bok Choy so that the leaves separate. Rinse thoroughly and set aside in a colander.

Slice lengthwise 3-4 cloves of garlic and set aside.

Put the rice up to cook. Follow cooking directions on the bag. a Rice cooker is by far the best way to cook it but a good covered pot will due as well but keep an eye open for when it's done.

While the rice is cooking make the sauce then set it to the side in a warm place.

You will Start cooking the fish once the rice is done.

Start the Bok Choy once the Fish has started cooking.

Procedure:

Black Bean Sauce:
Soak and rinse the Black Beans at least 4-5 times.
After final rise let them soak in just enough water to cover for at least 10 minutes.
(do not discard this water)
Put the Black Beans and all other sauce ingredients plus about 2 cloves of garlic chopped very fine or smashed through a garlic press.
Bring to a simmer for at least 10 minutes.
Carefully add some of the rice flour by sprinkling in about a teaspoon at a time followed by thorough mixing (a Small whisk is ideal for this). Do this until the sauce thickens to a syrupy consistency. Neither gloppy nor too watery.
Give it a taste. You're looking for an extremely savory flavor with almost chocolaty undertones and some tangyness on top. you may want to add a few drops of the vinegar at this point to add that bright tangy note. Very big flavor but balanced.


The fish:
Put some Rice flour into a pie pan or deep plate, dredge each portion throroughly in the flour.
Pour just shy of a 1/2 inch of Canola oil into a deep skillet. add about a traspoon of the sesame oil. Turn on burner to a medim high temp. Bring up to frying temperature (you'll see the oil start to ripple. You may want to test the temp with a crumb of the flor that has stuck together.)
Add each portion to the pan (shake off the excess flour before placing in the pan).
Fry the first side to a nice golden brown and you can see the cooked lin about a third of the way up the side of the portion.
Carefully flip each piece over and cook to the same exten if the pieces are fairly chunky you can cook on the remaing sides as well until the fish looks nice and cruchy all the way around.
Remove all from the pan and blot btifly on paper towels to take off excess oil then put each portion on a plate.

The Bok Choy:
If you are an adept kitchen multi-tasker you can have this cooking at the same time as the fish.
If not, I suggest you do it before you start the fish and then set it aside in a covered serving dish.

In a deep saute pan or wok heat up about a tablespoon of Canola oil with a few drops of Sesame oil added. Heat up to the ripple point and add the sliced Garlic. Let it sizzle for a few seconds than add all the Bok Choy leaves. Toss around thoroughly and repeatedly for a few minutes. add a little bit of salt. Sauce for the fish is quite salty so you'll want to keep it down on the other dishes in the meal. When eaten in concert together nothing will seem under salted.
Once you see that all the green part of the leaves has started to wilt give a splash of the Rice Wine and a few splashes of chicken stock. Now cover the pan or wok and set to very low simmer for about 5 minutes. You'll cook this to the extent that the green stays vivid and the white of stem does not turn mushy. In other words don't over cook. Al dente as they say.

Now Plate up!
Ladle a nice ribbon of the sauce across the fish so that it pools onto the plate but does not completely blanket the fish.
Serve with a mound of rice and some Bok Choy on each plate.

Enjoy!

ps
I'll make this again this week and shoot some pictures to add to this post.

What this is about

OK. Yesterday we went and saw the movie Julie Julia. Loved it and left the theater inspired.
Said to myself 'Hmmm, I think I'll blog my daily dinner cooking process'.
Why? you may ask. Well, I cook and I'm good at it. I used to do it professionally but now only for family and friends. I rarely use recipes verbatim or at all. I'm somewhat of an improvisational cook. Sometimes I'll look up a recipe to get the framework or ingredients for a dish. I draw from my knowledge of methods from what I've learned in the profession and what I'm constantly learning from books, magazines, food TV, etc.

Nearly everyday I cook dinner (and other meals) for my family. Sometimes I'm not really feeling up to it or have a clue as to what I'll cook that day. But, I've got to do it. It's a big part of my end of the deal in our domestic arrangements. Inspiration eventually comes by way of rummaging through the pantry and fridge, a trip to the grocery store, thumbing through Gourmet or Saveur magazines or just out of thin air. If I think of something I've heard about or had at a restaurant but not sure of how to make I'll Google it and end up on epicurious.com or one of the twenty thousand other food sites.

I've often thought to myself or received suggestions from others that I ought to write a cookbook, teach a class, or do something totally insane like open a restaurant.
So, being a rather impulsive and not particularly well organized creature, I've decided to start this blog.

My aim is to not only share my 'recipes' but to share the process so that others may enjoy cooking and nourishing their families in this fairly unplanned and whimsical manner.

Bon Appetit!

Now, what the H am I gonna fix for dinner tonight? 7 hours to go and counting.......