Meat and Potatoes, Updated

I am seriously slacking...blah blah blah. How many times can you hear the same story? Basically, I'm working a lot right now on a major career change and although I've been cooking, it's been hard to sit down and write this blog, as much as I miss it. I made an effort this weekend and these are the results.

We had another BBQ this weekend, despite the threat of rain earlier in the day. I had been doing a lot of cooking over the weekend for a weekend long fiesta thrown by a friend of a friend for various celebrations. Might as well continue the trend, right?

Three friends joined us for our usual Sunday dinner, so I had to figure out a way to feed them all and not go broke doing it. New Seasons had a sale on bottom round roast, a cheap but decent cut of meat, and I went from there. First, I cut the roast in half to reduce the grilling time and the chance that we might burn the outside and have stone cold meat in the middle. Next I took the old meat tenderizer and beat the hell out of it. And finally, I marinated it for about 7 hours in a good old standby sauce I got from Epicurious.

What to go with our economy piece of meat? Sweet potatoes, of course! Since I am trying to eat healthier these days, I went with the sweet potato, which is has a lower glycemic index than a regular russet. (I used a lot of recipes from Epicurious. I'll list them below.) Tomatoes were on sale, as well, and we simply grilled them and added some salt, pepper, and fresh sage. The sage, once cooked, was nice, but I'm discovering that I'm not a big fan of fresh sage. To round things out, I had a ton of quinoa salad leftover from Saturday's BBQ, so I ditched my plans for grilled broccoli (sad, I know), and served it as a side dish. As an added bonus, it really developed a deeper flavor after sitting for a day. Wonderful when that happens!

Dessert was provided by Stacey, who had spent her Saturday morning at the Hollywood Farmers Market. We were treated to some delicious berries with marscapone and pound cake. If you're nice, maybe she'll share her recipe.

Grillin' grillin' grillin'...

Tomatoes with sage, before the fire

A lovely table set with delicious food and beautiful sunflowers from my honey

A nice summer plate

Dessert care of Stacey

Filipino-Style London Broil
Quinoa Black Bean Salad
Grilled Sweet Potatoes (the vinaigrette is quite tasty, but use sparingly...trust me)
Grilled Tomatoes with Sage (I cheated and used garlic powder since I was almost out of garlic--gasp!)

First BBQ of 2010

Sunday afternoon in Portland was so beautiful and warm (you can tell it's spring when I think 67 degrees is warm), we had no choice but to BBQ our dinner. I bought bratwurst from New Seasons since they were on sale, but needed a good BBQ side dish.

I went to my Best Light Recipes for a French potato salad recipe. It's a very simple dressing of dijon mustard, a little olive oil, herbs (chives, parsley, tarragon...there was no chervil at the store), and  shallots over red potatoes.

Since squash is still mostly from Mexico and expensive, I decided to try barbequeing broccoli. I prepared it the way I normally would when broiling it, just coated with some olive oil. I forgot the sugar, which I normally add a tiny bit of when doing a quick roast like that to caramelize it a bit. It really didn't need it--it was seriously the best part of the meal. When broccoli is charred in areas and just cooked, squeeze a bit of lemon juice over it as well as fresh-ground pepper and salt.

So ready for summer to get here, just for meals like this..

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Sunday Breakfast

Tonight I'm not able to make Sunday dinner due to some plans we have this afternoon. I decided I would document our Sunday breakfast instead. Due to my workout schedule, usually my only morning available for making a nice, big breakfast is Sunday. It's been a tradition since Shawn and I first started dating to make breakfast and listen to KMHD or jazz records on Sunday mornings. Over five years later and the tradition still stands strong.

This morning, I made poached eggs over a chilaquiles-type dish. It's not really authentic chilaquiles, but a close rendition of them. Here's how I did it...

5 corn tortillas cut into small squares (about 3/4 inch)
1/2 lb. Mexican pork chorizo
onion (optional)
Bacon fat (or vegetable oil)
Salsa (my mom uses the verde, but I just had a little bit of Emerald Valley salsa left)
Eggs
Avocado, if desired

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Cook the chorizo over medium-high heat until cooked thoroughly. Remove chorizo from pan and place onto a paper-towel lined plate, leaving some of the drippings in the pan. Place the plate in the oven to keep warm while finishing the dish.

Add the bacon fat, or oil, to the pan. When the fat has melted, add your tortillas and fry until slightly golden and starting to harden. Add the onion and continue to cook until the tortillas are pretty firm, but not fried through, and the onion is translucent. Add the salsa and coat tortilla thoroughly. At this point, I added a little water, too, since I was low on salsa. It doesn't take much to coat, though.

While tortilla is cooking, cook your eggs as desired. I poached mine since I had some farm fresh eggs from a friend again. To poach, bring a pan of water to a boil with 2 T white vinegar and 1 t salt. Reduce to a simmer. Add your eggs (recommended to crack them into teacups or small container that can be placed into the simmering water to reduce breakage), remove pan from heat, and cover for 5 minutes, less if you like it runnier.

When tortilla is ready and eggs are cooking, add chorizo from the oven to the tortillas and keep in the oven to stay warm.

Serve tortilla mixture with a sprinkle of cheese, such as queso fresco or I used some grated parmaggiano-reggiano, place eggs on top and serve with a side of avocado, as desired.

Buen provecho!

Easter Dinner: White Bean Soup

Since Easter dinner's guest list just included me and Shawn, I went a little simpler than I normally would. We had a lovely brunch with my friends this afternoon, so a light and easy supper was just what the evening called for. Being Easter, though, we had to have some ham!

I had a leftover ham bone that still had a lot of meat left on it from Christmas. I threw it in the freezer once I knew we couldn't eat any more and needed to use it up soon. I found a recipe on Epicurious.com that sounded perfect and helped me use up a few ingredients that were lingering in my fridge and cupboards.

Fast White-Bean Soup (adapted from Gourmet magazine)

4 large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 (14- to 15-ounce) can stewed tomatoes (chop up tomatoes to bite-sized pieces)
1 3/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 cup dried Great Northern Beans
1 ham bone* and about 2 cups of meat cubed
Black pepper
1 bunch of kale
Baguette, sliced on the bias
Parmesan (optional)

If using dried beans, sort and soak beans overnight. Cook beans as directed until tender.

Remove as much meat from the ham bone as possible, then throw leftover bone into a large pot with about 3 cups of water, or enough to cover most of the bone. Boil until flavorful (about 30 minutes). Defat the broth and set aside.

While ham is boiling, preheat broiler. Prepare kale by  removing stems and center ribs, toss with a little bit of olive oil, until just covered. Put kale under broiler until just starting to char and crisp. Remove from oven (ok if it gets cold). Leave broiler going and brush tops of baguette slices with olive oil and throw under the broiler until crisp (flipping once during cooking).

In same pot used for broth, heat olive oil over med-high heat until warm and throw in garlic. Cook garlic until fragrant (about 1 minute) being careful not to over brown. Add tomatoes with their juices to oil/garlic mixture. Mix together, then add broth, ham, and beans. Let stew for about 10 minutes. If available, throw in a parmesan rind for extra flavor. After 10 minutes, add the kale and simmer for an additional 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and serve with baguette slices and additional slices of parmesan and black pepper.

*If you don't have a ham bone, double the chicken stock.

I chose kale in lieu of arugula or romaine for its heartier flavor and texture. I also chose to use dried beans since they are cheaper and I can control the sodium content better, but if in a hurry, feel free to use canned.

2-Minute Sauce

Made this tonight to top some simple baked chicken legs*.

About 3 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
1.5 tablespoon soy sauce (low sodium)
1 teaspoon Rooster sauce
2 teaspoons fresh grated ginger
Sprinkle of garlic powder
1 teaspoon or so of dry sherry
Very small splash of sesame oil

Whisk together and brush top of chicken 10 minutes before finished cooking. Brush once more before serving. We had this with some rice and broccoli--delicious!


*Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush a little melted butter over chicken, season with salt and pepper, bake for about 45 minutes total. Best to use broiler pan, but make sure to layer bottom with aluminum foil like I didn't do. Poor Shawn was scraping burnt on chicken and sauce from that thing for about 5 minutes just to get it loose.

Pozole

Let's pretend it hasn't been over a month since my last post, shall we? I wish I had an excuse.

Last week, after a very successful 8k race in the 32nd Annual Shamrock Run (46:59...woot!), I came home to prepare one of my all-time favorite comfort foods: pozole.

Most of my menu planning for the week depends on what's on sale at New Seasons. It's not the cheapest of stores, but they sell great products and emphasize sustainable and organic foods, which are important to us. After much trial and error and finally a refusal to battle the crowds and craziness at the Interstate Fred Meyer, we figured out a way to shop at New Seasons each week--shop the sales. So what else is a girl to do with a whole fryer and $.59/lb organic cabbage? This version of pozole is different than the pozole verde I made last fall for the Annual Rice/Wrigomery Fall Fest. It's a lot simpler, straightforward version, but basically the same idea.

Start with a whole chicken (about 4-5 lbs) cut into pieces, skin on, enough water to submerge the chickadee, salt and an onion cut in half. I only had half an onion--I recommend a whole onion.

After about 15 minutes, remove the chicken breasts, shred, and set aside.
Leave the legs, thighs, and chicken breast bones in the water until
dark meat falls off bone (about 1 hour).

Mmm...fat. Now get rid of it. (Thanks to Michael for my fat separator.)

Add in the drained hominy (a large can) and a good portion of oregano
(Mexican variety preferred, but ordinary oregano works just as well).

Add the shredded chicken at the last minute, just to warm.

I bake my tortilla strips instead of frying. Just cut into smaller pieces,
coat with olive oil, and bake at 400 degrees until crispy.
Toss with a little salt at the end.

To serve, sprinkle with red pepper flakes for a little kick.

Serve very hot. Top with shredded cabbage, queso fresco
(we used cotija--couldn't find queso fresco), radishes, tortilla strips,
and if available and not too expensive, avocados. Be creative!

It's a very satisfying and filling dish that's really not too high in fat or calories. I apologize for my lack of good, non-blurry close ups of my food.

Buen provecho!

Steve's Famous Macaroni and Cheese

Last week, I had a mad craving for some really good mac and cheese, so I emailed my sister for her friend Steve's recipe. Gina made it for Christmas last year and since then, other recipes (even the Test Kitchen's) have just fallen flat. Steve's recipe has 4 cheeses in it: parmesan, romano, sharp cheddar, and mozzarella. I can't reveal much more, so here's a camera phone photo journal.

 

Whisking the bechamel

In goes the par-cooked pasta

All cheesy and ready to be baked in my I'm-not-sure-how-it-hasn't-fallen-apart-yet-there's-a-huge-ass-crack-in-it Le Creuset baking dish

 

Cheesy goodness

And with a side of roasted broccolini

Best. mac. ever.