T.F. no offense that's a mean looking wok of something tasty but it ain't chili!!!! I SEE A BEAN!!!
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T.F. no offense that's a mean looking wok of something tasty but it ain't chili!!!! I SEE A BEAN!!!
Just teasing you boss. My interpretation of chili was learned from losing MANY chili cookoffs against straight off the ranch westerners. I learned the hard way. Make it simple, make it hotternhe!! and red beans on the side. I'll try putting together the recipe for you this week. Hmmm, it's soup and chili season. Good call T.F.
I've been here over a year now. Just picked up a standard, hooded bbq. Had the neighbors over the other night.
Starters:
Zucchini rounds stuffed with mushrooms and bacon
Prawns on rosemary skewers basted with butter and garlic, served with mango chunks
Roasted garlic and crackers
Dinner
Roasted root veggies w/onion and thyme
Grilled broccoli and cauliflower with red peppers and garlic
Leg of lamb. (Marinade: red wine, mint, rosemary, garlic, same baste as the shrimp)
Dessert
yogurt cheese (lemon zest and rose water...only a touch of sugar) with chopped strawberries and shortbread.
Wine
An Argentinean chardonnay and an Australian Pino Grigio... we had some reds in the house, but for some reason we stuck with the whites.
No photos, my hands were too messy from the bbq to handle the camera
The rosemary skewer trick it tops. Anyone else molest their rosemary plants for grilling?
This is a recipe that has been around since forever. It is straight up chuckwagon chili. Working cowboys served it with red beans on the side. Use a heavy cast iron pot or equiv. for best simmer.
Cook your red beans simple with a little olive oil and salt to finish nothing fancy. A ladle of chili and a ladle of red beans on a plate, BOO YAH it don't get no better. I've got sources for outtasight N.Mexico chili if anyone wants it. Alter this in anyway and it will suk. Trust me, keep it pure and simple. *There are not "secret" ingrediants. This is a pure old school recipe.
Bowl of Red
(6 to 8 servings)
6 to 12 dried ancho chilies, or 6 to 12 tablespoons ground chili powder
3 pounds lean beef cut into chunks
Cooking oil as needed
1/8 pound beef kidney suet or bacon fat
1 teaspoon oregano powder (the BEST are dried whole oregano sold in the "mexican" aisles....looks terrible and has a wonderful strong flavor...get it)
1 tablespoon cumin seeds, crushed (and toasted you fool!!!)
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper (don't substitute this has the right bite)
1 or 2 use habeneros diced
2 or more cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons masa harina
If you're using whole dried peppers, wash them and remove the stems and seeds. (Don't touch your eyes during this operation, and wash your hands thoroughly afterward.) Boil the pods in water to cover for about 30 minutes or until the skins can be removed. Then grind, chop or run through a colander the remaining skinless, seedless, stemless pods. Reserve the peppery water to use for liquid in the chili. (Doing this yields the best flavor)
In heavy cast iron sear the beef in oil until it is gray in color not browned. To a large pot, add the beef, rendered suet, if using, add ground or chopped chili pepper pods (or ground red chili pepper, if using). *Add water and/or the peppery cooking liquid to a depth that covers the beef by about 2 inches. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes. *This ain't rocket science.
Remove from the heat and add the oregano, cumin, salt, cayenne pepper, hot pepper sauce and garlic. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes, keeping the lid on as much as possible. Stir only if necessary. Add more water or the peppery cooking liquid only if the mixture would burn otherwise. *Don't let it boil or burn pls.
Remove from the heat and skim any accumulated fat. If desired, thicken with 2 tablespoons masa harina, first mixing it with water. Return to the heat and simmer for another 30 minutes, or until the meat is done. Taste and adjust seasonings if needed.
Serve with red beans on the side and for g-d sakes make it hotternhe!! becuase anyone worth your time should love it that way!!!!
Enjoy, Josh
I'll have to try that chili TT, thanks...
Tonight, we celebrated the conclusion of our family's 7 day battle against swine flu with pork chops over a blackberry sauce. The chops are rubbed with dried sage, thyme, salt and pepper and then cooked 5x2 in melted butter and olive oil in a covered pan. Remove chops to warmed oven and add seedless blackberry jelly (any seedless jelly will do), orange juice and white wine vinegar to pan, boil and thicken for 2 minutes. Spoon onto plate and top with chop, garnish w/fresh thyme. The jasmin rice isn't creative but is my wife's favorite and cooks almost as fast as minute rice. Steamed zucchini equally boring but fast and the kids eat it.
Turd that looks delicious. Did you get sick too?
thanks shino, it was great.
all 4 of us were sick. The kids were sick last weekend with some carryover into this past week, the wife and I got hit mid week and we are still rollercoastering with it. We'll feel better for a while then start to ache again and heat up. Thursday and yesterday were brutal...
Bummer man, not what you wanted for cx season I'm sure. Hope you feel better soon.
T.F. bonus points for the quick sauce. Hey FWIIW I've won the battle over quick cooking grains vs the good stuff. I use a hojirushi rice cooker. Set it, forget it.
we were considering a rice cooker but we are really good at making it because we eat it so often that's money I can spend on tires. Timing saucepan rice to finish with the rest of the meal is second nature now.
This jasmin rice is super easy: bring 2 parts water to boil, add 1 part rice, reduce to simmer and in 15 minutes you're done. It isn't bad, just not very exotic.
Too Tall's recipe should be very good...however this is the easiest way for a rookie to get it right. Buy some beef, cube it, saute it, add the Wick Fowler's and forget about it.
http://www.luzianne.com/wick-fowlers...-p-1710.html?=
And just remember never cook the beans in the chili.
The showdown...
I had to have a beer and a pizza...
Go Pats!
Legit :) That looks killer.
bought half an organic lamb at the organic market Sunday.
Pre kebab, put some of the cubed forequarters to marinate in red wine, olive oil, bay, garlic and oregano when I got home.
Then made baba with roasted garlic and mint, and a white bean hummous followed by beet salad with OJ and garlic-scape dressing,
Standard grilled veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, potato, onion, carrots)
Neighbors brought a couple nice wines and a lovely cheese.
No photos. The photographer was cooking.
[QUOTE=.
Then made baba with roasted garlic and mint, and a white bean hummous followed by beet salad with OJ and garlic-scape dressing,
Standard grilled veggies (broccoli, cauliflower, potato, onion, carrots)
Neighbors brought a couple nice wines and a lovely cheese.
No photos. The photographer was cooking.[/QUOTE]
Ginger making Baba...I bet it was very good!
I guess I can throw this one in:
crawfish étouffée on saturday. the real thing, not no Cleveland pale imitation.
The grill got a workout this past weekend. Saturday night, the grilling crew came over and we ran stuff over the heat for a while. There were some oysters, then some grilled squid with a really nice miso-ginger dipping sauce. Some sweet corn made it on there as well. I did up some boneless pork loin chops that we cut up and dipped in the Tom Kellogg Carolina Mop Sauce. The chops were a hit, due mainly to the sauce. Some salmon steaks found their way to the grill - done simply - garlic salt pepper and lemon. We also made up a grilled veg salad with cactus, maui onion, feta and asparagus - the latest attempt in the ongoing cactus experiment. This all got washed down with Sapporo, Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA, Thunderhead IPA and Sam Adams. Last night the wife wanted something grilled, but not leftovers, so I did some swordfish fillets, just grilled with salt and pepper, with a lemon wedge on the plate. Backed up with some green salad. Light but a nice sunday night dinner. She is a little bit timid on seafood still, but getting better. She likes swordfish now.
since I don't often get past the general discussion page and this first post was a little unplanned, didn't have a camera, and it's a pretty tough recipe to duplicate, seeing as I had flown up 3 sacks of crawfish (that's 120 lbs!) to Cleveland back in the spring from which my peeled tails and reserved stock were drawn... and I never make the recipe the exact same way anyway, but I'll try from memory. as the saying in Louisiana cooking goes.....
first you make a roux
seriously, you do. since étouffée has a tomato base and tends towards hearty (i.e. not delicate) I tend to make as dark a roux as I my patience or smoke alarm allows, with about 1/3 cup of flour and equal or just a bit less oil. Saturday I also threw in some butter for some of the oil, but it burns more easily than oil, and not recommended for roux-making newbies. I also carmelized some of the onions on the side to develop a little more flavor. I also broke a rule by throwing in some genuine Louisiana andouille which gave it some heat & smoky flavor--normal in a gumbo, but not for an étouffée. other than that, it was a standard étouffée--and you can substitue shrimp (more easy to source) for the mud bugs (which don't travel or freeze that well). here's a standard recipe from memory:
start your roux in a heavy pot. 1/4 to 1/3 cup flour + oil to make it thin enough to brown (just like a béchamel/white sauce, only you cook it much longer), it will go from pale/straw to a deeper and deeper color. it gets easy to burn the closer you get to the end, and if it gets burnt specks, you've blown it. throw it out and start over. it's not that hard, you just have to watch it. I like to do my roux while I'm chopping veggies, stirring every couple of minutes, then when all chopping is done, turn heat up and finish it off, when it's the right color, throw veggies in and inhale--it's a magical odor of nuttiness.
so here's the more schematic recipe:
1-1.5 lbs. seafood (shell fish: crawfish, shrimp)
2+ onions (about a cup or so)
2 ribs celery
1 bell pepper (the above 3 vegetables are known as the holy trinity in LA cooking)
when roux is at right color, put veggies in the roux pot, lower heat to low then bring slowly back up to medium and cook 5-15 minutes until soft. add a little stock if the mixture is sticking to your pot, then when the vegetable get glazed and soft, add about a quart of stock (seafood, chicken, maybe a touch of beef) and a small can of tomato paste, plus spices (cayenne & black peppers, tabasco or other red pepper sauces, salt [but only if the stocks are low in salt], the usual spices you might use in a tomato sauce--basil, thyme, bay leaves, oregano--we had some fresh oregano, thyme and basil still lingering from this summer. garlic is optional--for some of us, at least). simmer for an hour or two. I usually simmer uncovered and cover it when it gets to the consistency I like, usually reduced by a third or so. if you like mushy, overcooked seafood, put it in now, but if you know better, add the seafood about 20-30 minutes before serving (when you start your rice), cover, and turn the heat off or to low (the heat of a big cast iron pot will be plenty to cook through shrimp; crawfish and some bags of shrimp will be pre-cooked anyway). it's pretty common to throw in some chopped green onion tops and parsley at this point too. Étouffée is great to make a day ahead, if you stop right before adding the seafood/onion tops and just bring it back up to temperature the next day and add the goodies.
serve in a bowl over a mound of rice. french bread on the side for dipping, and an assortment of red pepper sauces on the side for individual tolerances
I'll steal someone else's pic to illustrate.
notes: not an easy wine match, what with the tomatoes and spice. anything from a gewurz or reisling to a full-bodied zin. but nothing light or delicate. the picture is pretty much exactly the same as mine, minus the lemon garnish. I guess some folks use it to add a bit more piquancy but I prefer red peppers to the acidity, or some Tabasco/Crystal hot sauces. finally, the consistency should be more like a stew or thick soup than seafood covered in a sauce....
ok I changed the pic for one that doesn't have a lemon anyway (the lemon pic was high res/too big, but can be found at the link below. they also did the green onion at the end routine, not found in the pic here in thread):
http://www.cajuncrawfishpie.com/crawfish-etouffee.jpg
Giordana93 - You are completely and totally redeemed. That is a fantastic story / recipe. This is how I learn to cook. Listening to folks who can speak about their food with passion and tradition. Well done.
Just finished cooking my veggie dishes for the week.
Spinach and Cauliflower in a South Indian Coconut curry
Chana Masala, Garbanzo Beans in a Spicy Tomato curry
Yellow Dal
Saag Paneer, Sprinach and Cheese with a Northern Indian Curry
I gave you ten and here is a picture of all the dishes, with some roast turkey. In the middle is rice with Raita (nonfat plain yogurt and cucumber, topped some coriander chutney)
Paired the plate with a nice dry Nader Alsace Rielsing
wow, i gotta catch up on this here thread.
so. my bro grew his own gobbler. baked it, then smoked it.
i got the carcass.
i made a stew of the leavings. it's a cajun thing.
eating now. pretty good.
recipe for tt and other concerned citizens of vs:
leftover homegrown turkey carcass (with a pound or two of meat left).
boil/simmer until the meat peels off pretty easy. give the bones and fatty stuff to the dogs. (see dogs do happy dog dance)
add fresh carrots, celery, bell pepper, onion, garlic.
plus salt, black pepper, red chile powder, etc.
simmer until potatoes are done.
serve with bread, crackers, or over rice.
and beer.
cheers.
and here--i'm feeling generous--great "secret" flavor/mouthfeel enhancers for chile/stew type dishes are: coffee, cola, molasses, and honey.
not all at once.
let your taste decide.:blink1:
wp
No pie for us this Thanksgiving. My silly girlfriend came home with a huge case of fresh berries which she scored for only six bucks. I dug out the best French pastry book ever by Gaston Le Notre ( given to me by my mom,) and we made a killer tart au fruit with orgasmic vanilla pastry cream.
Thanks Wade. I've got mental scars deep as a canyon is wide from losing chili cook offs because I DID NOT know that!!!
Shino-san, yummm. Hey I have the same tart....pan ;) Seriously.
This is a favorite for this time of year.
French Onion Soup
combination of ideas from "Main Line Tracey" at chowhound.com and Mark Bittman
3 Tbsp butter
4 large yellow onions (sliced thin)
2 Tbsp flour
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp pepper
3 cups beef broth
3 cups chicken broth
3 sprigs of fresh thyme (1 teaspoon dried thyme if fresh not available)
⅓ cup dry red wine
home-made croutons (see Bittman's How to Cook Everything p.82)
1½ cup grated Gruyere
chopped fresh parsley (optional)
1. In large saucepan, melt butter.
2. Over medium heat, cook onions until fully brown and caramelized (30-40 mins).
3. Stir flour, salt& pepper and cook for 2-3 mins.
4. Pour in broths and boil.
5. Add thyme and red wine.
6. Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for about 15 min.
7. Preheat oven to 400F.
8. Remove thyme sprigs (may prepare soup in advance up to this point).
9. Place bowls in a roasting pan and ladle soup into bowls and top with bread, then cheese (parsley).
10. Bake for 10 min or until the cheese melts.
Don't skimp on the caramelization. It takes a while, but it makes SUCH a difference in the richness of the soup.
TT, I know, I know. No pics. I've already done one set of 10. It was just so tasty I was distracted.This is a regular dish for me and I'll post pics very soon.
I remember when you used to complain about that place when we were 16 years old going to Zero Gravity. Back then, mexican food was a novelty for me. You, however, were spoiled! I still remember having supper at your house when your mom made mexican and even pressed her own tortillas. No wonder you have such a fine pallet! Is she still such a great cook?
Mom still cooks well and I was the one pressing dough.
there was PORK FAT and it was good.
Last night:
Cut up 1 duck. Take the legs and separate drumsticks from thighs. Cut off the wings and separate in half. Cut the neck in half. Take all skin and fat you can get off the carcass and reserve the breasts/carcass for whatever you like. Take 10 to 12 oz of Pork Belly boneless and skinless cut into 1 inch chunks. Put the Duck legs, wings, neck, skin, and fat, along with the pork belly in a bowl along with 1/4 cup dry white wine, 1 tsp crushed coriander seeds, 1 long strip of orange zest, 1 fresh bay leaf, two garlic cloves cut in half, and a good amount of fresh ground pepper into a bowl and mix well. Let marinate overnight covered in the fridge.
This morning:
Woke up at 7:30am and put the mixture into a large oven proof saute pan or dutch oven, and place in a 250 degree oven for 3 hours, stirring it all up after each hour, untill everything is falling apart. Pour into a fine mesh seive or a collander lined with cheese cloth and let the good stuff drain out. Put the meat into a bowl and let it cool till you can pull it with your fingers. Put the juice into a measuring cup and set aside. Pull all the meat off the bone and get the bay leaf and strip of zest out. Go through everything with your fingers so there is nothing but shreds of meat and fat with no sinewy bits or gristle. Separate the juices from the fat in the measuring cup and pour 1/4 of the juices into the meat mixture to make it good and moist. Zest the rest of the orange finely into the meat and squeeze a couple teaspoons into it and mix well. Pack the meat into ramekins or clean glass jars or any little vessel like that but make sure to leave 1/4 inch on the top. The back of a spoon works well to pack it firmly. Put the jars in the fridge for a few minutes to firm up, and then fill each jar up with the fat you separated. Each jar should be sealed with fat and placed into the fridge. Let em sit for 2 or 3 days to let all the goodness meld together and then spread on toast. They'll keep for 2 months if you don't break the fat seal, when you break into one eat it within a week.
It's difficult to look at the 8 little jars in the fridge without grabbing one and eating it now! This recepie came from the best cookbook i've ever read titled Fat, An Apreciation of a Misunderstood Ingredient, with Recipies by Jennifer McLagan. I'll post pictures in a few days when I break into them!