Black-Eyed Pea Dip

So, to satisfy the southern tradition of eating black-eyed peas on New Year's to ensure good luck for the next year, I decided to make a dip for the party that we're going to this evening. It's really simple. First, take about 3/4 of a pound of bacon. Fry it until crisp or better yet, try this method of cooking bacon. Preheat the oven to 400 deg. Get out a cookie sheet and put a rack on it. Put the entire package of bacon on the rack and set it in the oven. It will crisp up in about 45 minutes. Then take two cans of black-eyed peas, drain them, reserving the pea juice, and throw them in a food processor and zap it. Add a bit of the pea juice to smooth out the dip. Then take out 2-3 chipotle peppers (to taste) and a little adobo sauce and put it in the processor and zap. You could leave out the sour cream, but, why? Throw in say 3/4 cup sour cream and zap again. Then add in the cooked bacon. Zap again. Season with salt and zap. Chop up 3-5 green onions. Zap a little just to mix. Chill it. Serve with Frito's. And have good luck!

Beef Bourguignonne

In honor of the movie, Julie and Julia, I'm making Saute de Boeuf a la Bourguiguonne or Beef Bourguignonne. It's pretty easy to make.

Here's what you'll need:

2.5 lbs of beef filet
3 ounces chunk blanched bacon
1/2 cup red wine
1/2 cup beef stock or bouillon
1 T flour
1 T butter
18 pearl onions
chicken stock
2 T chicken stock
1 herb bouquet (parsley, thyme, bayleaf)
1/2 lb. sliced mushrooms
3 T butter and a little lemon juice
Parsley and 2 T butter

1 10-inch saute pan
2 small saute pans for the mushrooms and the onions
A serving cassarole

Take some filet of beef and cut it into pieces. I'm using stew meat because it's way cheaper and it's already cut up (I am going to have to cook it longer). Saute the beef in oil and butter. Remove. Cook a chunck of bacon. I'm using turkey bacon slices because that's what I have. Pour out the fat. Throw in equal parts red wine and beef bouillon or stock, a clove of mashed garlic, some tomato paste and a little bit of thyme and slowly boil that down by half. Meanwhile prepare a buerre manie, which is equal parts butter and flour mashed together. Remove the wine and stock from the heat and whip in the buerre manie. Add some pearl onions that have been braised in chicken stock, butter and a herb bouquet. I'm using white onions coarsley chopped, because, again, that's what I have on hand. Add some sliced mushrooms that have been sauteed in butter and a little lemon juice. Correct the seasoning. Then season the beef, arrange it in a casserole with the sauce, bacon, Set aside until ready to serve.

Reheat on low for 3-4 minutes until heated through. Off heat stir in remaining butter, basint the meat and vegetables until the butter has been absorbed. Toss with parsley and serve.

I'm serving this over buttered noodles and with steamed broccoli. Yummy.

Faux Pork Mole

Again, continuing on my theme of getting things done ahead of time, this recipe is one that you can do all day and it will be great. It's adapted from Lynn Rosetto Casper's Splendid Table (splendidtable.org).

You'll need:
One Boston Butt (pork shoulder) bone in
Two ancho chilis
Some cocoa powder
Some garlic powder
Some salt
Some cayenne pepper
Some brown sugar

A dutch oven
Some aluminum foil

Some good tortillas
An avocado or two
A sweet onion, chopped
Maybe some cheese (mexican cheese would be best)

Cut open the chillis and remove the stems and the seeds. Then put them into a clean coffee grinder and grind them into a powder and put the powder into a small bowl. Add to that an equal part of cocoa and brown sugar. Then about a tablespoon each of garlic powder, salt and cayenne. Rub this all over the pork and let it stand for about an hour. Preheat the oven to 275 (yes, 275). Put the pork in the dutch oven cover it with foil. Then put foil over the top of the dutch oven and put on the lid. Cook for ever. 3-4 hours or longer.

Here's what I did. I put it in the oven at about 8 or 8:30. Then I put my oldest son to bed and fell asleep with him. I woke up at 4 in the morning and thought, "Oh, shucks!" (or something like that) "The pork is still in the oven!" I hustled downstairs and got it out of the oven. It was just fine. I let it cool. Then I shredded the meat (the shoulder bone just came out by itself). I haven't tried this but you could do this in the crockpot.

Assemble a taco with the tortillas, avocado, onion, maybe a little of the juice from the pork and maybe some cheese. Serve with refritos and rice and you're in heaven.

Crockpot Chicken (or Chinese Chicken, as Brett calls it)

So, recently I've been working late and getting home late. So, I was thinking about ways to make things either ahead of time or so they are ready when I get home. This one was really easy.

You'll need:

A whole chicken; take out the giblets and the neck and save them for stock.
A cup of brown sugar
8 to 10 cloves of garlic
About an inch of fresh ginger
1/4 Seven-Up
3/4 cup vinegar
1 T. soy sauce
1 t. cayenne pepper

Put the chicken in the crockpot. Mince up the garlic and the ginger. Throw everything in the crockpot. Turn it to low and let it cook for about 8 hours more or less.

That's it. You're done. However, you can kick it up a bit. When it's done, the meat will literally fall off the bone. So, carefully pull out the chicken and put it in a roasting pan and run it under the broiler for 20 minutes to crisp up the skin. Meanwhile, take the juice out of the crockpot and boil it down. Season it with salt and pepper and thicken it up with cornstarch.

Serve it with rice and roasted veggies (which you can do when you're crisping up the chicken).

I was thinking of some variations and instead of Seven-up and vinegar, just throw in some OJ and some orange zest. Maybe throw in some rosemary.

Banh Mi

So, I was looking a few weeks ago at an Austin Chronicle article on the best Banh Mi in Austin and I thought, "What the heck is banh mi?" Turns out that banh mi is a Vietnamese sandwich and it sounded delicious. I had yet to try out one of the recommendations made by the Chronicle when I happened across this Epicurious article on fast weekday cooking and a recipe for banh mi. It is surprisingly easy.

You'll need:
A 24-baguette or french bread
Sugar
Rice wine vinegar
Coleslaw mix with carrots. The Epicurious recipe calls for using daikon and carrots and slicing them in the food processor. The daikon at the store was about 3 pounds worth and I knew we'd never eat it. So, I bought the coleslaw mix. It worked great.
Some cooked chicken - buy a rotisserie chicken at the store or use some left-overs
Fish sauce
Soy sauce
Veggie oil
Liverwurst. Yes, liverwurst. Banh mi calls for using a sort of pork pate. But this is a quick substitute.
A couple of jalapenos
A sweet onion
Lettuce
Parsley or cilantro
Mayo

Here's what you do. In a large bowl, mix up upto a 1/2 cup of vinegar with a tablespoon of sugar until the sugar dissolves. Throw in the coleslaw mix and give it a stir. Let that sit for 15 minutes or so, giving it a stir now and then. Meanwhile, turn on the oven and put the bread in to get it crunchy. Chop the onion into thin slices; chop just enough to make a layer on the bread. Chop the jalapenos into thin slices; get rid of the seeds. Mix together a couple of teaspoons of fish sauce, veggie oil and soy sauce. When the bread is ready, cut it in half lengthwise. Brush both sides of the bread with the fish/soy sauce. After the slaw is ready, drain it. Spread the liverwurst on the bottom layer of the bread, then the onion slices, jalapenos, parsley/cilantro, chicken, slaw, and lettuce. Slap some mayo on the top piece of bread and put 'em together and you have an improvised banh mi.

This will feed like 4 people. The left-overs are delicious.

Quick and Really Good Cream of Tomato Soup

So, it's a rainy day here in Austin and I asked my wife what she wanted for dinner. She said, "Tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwich." For her that means american processed cheese slice on (thanks to my tutelage) sourdough bread, grilled. As for the soup, it's Campbell's Tomato Soup made with (shudder) water. I can't get her off of that (I also can't convince her to add a little grilled onion or tomato to her grilled cheese much less a little cayenne or herbs). It's Campbell's or nothing. Well, tomato soup and grilled cheese seemed good to me too, I just didn't want Campbell's. I also didn't want to spend an hour making soup. So, I dreamed up this little concoction. It's tasty and soothing; real comfort food. It's fast too. Not as fast as opening a can, stirring in a can of water and zapping for 3 minutes; but pretty close.

Buy a can of diced tomatoes. The store where I go has all kinds of flavors and I picked up some diced tomatoes with roasted garlic. Grab some cream, some chicken broth or stock if you don't have some at home, an onion, some garlic and that's it. Chop up half of the onion and a couple cloves of garlic. I used my stick blender with the chopping bowl attachment. Took 20 seconds. Then saute that in some olive oil in a medium sauce pan. After they are soft throw in the tomatoes (I had some grape tomatoes on hand and roasted them in a 450 degree oven with some olive oil and salt for about twenty minutes until they started to get brown and threw them in with the other tomatoes; this is entirely optional; I just had them on hand). Add some chicken broth, about a cup, maybe more, so that you have a real chunky soup. Let that simmer for 10 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Then add some cream and take the stick blender to it. Get it as smooth as you like it. You can strain it if you like, but I like it a little chunky. Add some more chicken broth or cream as you like. Salt and pepper to taste. And it is yummy. Basically 15 minutes from door to table and you're done. And it is so much better than Campbell's (with all due respect to Campbell's).

Habichuelas Guisadas

So, this year at Easter, I asked my wife what she wanted for Easter dinner.  She said, without hesitation, "Ham, asparagus, mashed potatoes."  Done.

The problem for me was not the dinner, it was delicious.  The problem was the leftover ham.  See it was just me, my wife and my two sons, one of which was just 8 months old and not a big eater; not an eater at all for that matter.  When looking for ham, basically you can buy a half a ham (8 pounds) for about the cost of a few ham steaks.  So, I bought the ham and cooked it, but had a ton of ham left over and I needed to find interesting things for leftovers.

The recipe I found was Habichuelas Guisadas or Bean Stew.  This is, apparently, a Puerto Rican or Caribbean dish.  It calls for sofrito, which is a mixture of vegetables and can include tomatoes, peppers, onions and herbs and spices.  This is the base for many recipes in the Caribbean and in Spain.  You can make it yourself or buy it in the store.  I chose the latter option.

The recipe is just terrific.  This is a hearty side dish, but we eat it as an entree with a salad and good bread.  If you can't find West Indian pumpkin, just use calabaza squash.  It's great.

Habichuelas Guisadas (Bean Stew)

Prep time:  30 minutes

Notes:  You can "kick it up" a bit if you like.  I like to add onions at the beginning of the recipe and saute them with the ham.  I have omitted the alcaparrado because I can't find it in the store.

1 T. olive oil

1/2 cup smoked ham, chopped

1 cup tomato sauce

1/4 cup Sofrito (I use Goya brand)

2 cups chicken broth

1/4 lb. West Indian pumpkin (calabaza), peeled, cut into chunks (about 1/2 cup) or more

1/2 cup alcaparrado, drained

2 cans red kidney beans

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil in a sauce pan on medium heat.  Add the ham (and onion if you use it) and stir for about 3 minutes.  Throw in the tomato sauce and the sofrito.  Mix and cook 5 minutes.

Add the broth and the pumpkin/squash and mix.  Bring to a boil. 

Stir in the alcaparrado and the beans, bring to a boil and season to taste.

Simmer for 15 minutes or so until slightly thickened.  

Serve over hot rice.

Smoked Baked Beans

I love barbeque.  I live in Austin, Texas, which has great barbeque in its own right.  The Salt Lick is wonderful.  Artz Rib House is terrific.  Iron Works is good and County Line is also great.  I live less than 30 minutes from what is arguably the mecca for Texas barbeque, Lockhart, Texas.  There you'll find Smitty's Market, Kruez Market, Chisholm Trail Barbeque, and Black's Barbeque, all within a mile of each other in downtown Lockhart.

I grew up, however, in Kansas City, Missouri, which, to my mind, is the epicenter for all barbeque.  The style is sweet and spicy and sloppy and to die for.  Now, this is not to disparage barbeque in Texas, but I cannot find beans like they make them in KC.  When I was growing up in KC, one of the treats that we'd have, usually on a Friday night, is Smokestack barbecue.  Our family would either pile into the station wagon and eat there out on Highway 71 or Dad and I would go get carryout. 

Now, all of the barbeque at the Smokestack is terrific, but what I really loved and love to this day is their Hickory Smoked Pit Beans.  They came in a little crock with bacon on the top and were creamy and smoky and sweet and sloppy, like all good Kansas City barbeque.

The Smokestack still lives, in better digs now, on 89th and Wornall Road, but I don't make it to KC as often as I'd like.  So, to save the cost of shipping or a plane ticket, I tried to make my own humble version of their great beans.  By all means, if you're in KC, eat Smokestack beans.  But if you can't make it to KC, give these a shot.

Smoked Baked Beans

Notes:  Use any kind of canned baked beans, Van Camps, Ranch Style, Bush's.  Just use a generic sort, nothing with say jalepenos in it.  Also, this is real variable.  Sweeten it, spice it up.  Make it yours.  And by all means, get yourself to KC for the real thing.  Use a smoker or a Webber or other grill using very low, indirect heat and wood chips, preferably hickory.

32 Ounces  Baked Beans

  2 Tablespoons  Molasses

  1 Teaspoon  Dry Mustard

  2 Tablespoons  Garlic Powder

  1 Cup  Ketchup

  1 Medium  Onion -- Minced

  1 Teaspoon  Salt

  1 Teaspoon  Cayenne Pepper

 1/4  Cup  Brown Sugar

  2  Tablespoons  Tomato Paste

  2  Teaspoons  Worcestershire Sauce

  5   Slices  Bacon

Mix first 11 ingredients together in large dutch oven.  Place bacon strips over top of beans.  Place pan in a smoker and smoke 2-3 hours.  Remove from smoker.  Dice bacon strips and return to beans.  Place beans on stove over low heat.  Simmer until thickened, about 15 minutes.

What's All This Then?

By way of introduction, I'm just doing this, this blog, for fun, and to put my recipes on the web so that I can find them easily.  Anyway, I'm no chef; I just enjoy cooking, some things more than others.  I'm wild about Tex-Mex and BBQ.  I love French cooking, Italian and Chinese and Thai.  Indian food is also high up on the list, although I don't eat it often.  

I am no idealogue when it comes to food.  If it tastes good, it is good.  A good dog at a ballpark or in front of the tube on opening day is as satisfying to me as pate de fois gras at The French Room in the Adolphus in Dallas.  Both, to me, are exquisite; wildly different, but terrific.  

Also on the idealogical front, I'm not a stickler for rules, i.e., red wine with meat (though more or less that's true), or use white pepper in a white sauce (which would ruin any self respecting cream gravy).  Short cuts are great, most of the time.  Sometimes, however, the longer process makes for much better tasting food.  

In any event, I'll be posting recipes that I've made up or, uh, borrowed.  Any readers (both of you) are free to comment, throw up their own recipes, share thoughts (as long as not terribly rude), and generally have fun.

TTFN