Friday, September 19. 2008
Farmers market; Thai Basil Beef
As you already know, I've got a freezer filled with beef, Tasha being the forward thinker, took out a steak earlier in the week for tonight's meal. After a early work day (7-4), T and I headed to the Groton Farmers market. Having skipped a week of shopping, we were low on just about everything. Which made me a happy farmers market shopper! We came home with heirloom tomatoes, corn, potatoes, watermelon, eggs, duck eggs, thai basil, sage, carrots, peaches, bagels, onions, chocolate chip cookies, and peach jam.
With all that bounty I was initially thinking steak, sage potatoes, and corn for dinner, but I couldn't get the smell of the thai basil out of my head. It's been one of my favorite flavors for some time now. When we returned home, I decided to make something using the Thai basil;
Thai basil beef
1 top round steak, sliced thin
1/4 white onion sliced thin
1 carrot Julienned
1 package of rice vermicelli
3 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 cup Thai basil
3 cloves of garlic diced
1 Serrano chili diced
1 lime sliced for garnish
Start a large pot of water for vermichelli.
Place chili, garlic, 1/2 the basil, a touch of course salt in a mortar and grind to a paste.
Heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet.
Saute paste until fragrant.
Season meat, and add to pan covering bottom in a single layer allow to brown a bit, then toss until 1/2 cooked.
Add onion, carrot, fish sauce, soy, sugar, then stir
Reduce heat to low, then top with all but a few sprigs of basil.
By this time the water for the vermicelli should be boiling, remove from heat and add noodles. Stir regularly, until al dente, about 6-8 minutes.
Drain the noodles add to a bowl, and pour sauteed meat and veggies over the noodles, and toss. If the stirfy was dry, and more liquid is desired; deglaze the pan with a touch of chicken stock. The goal is to finish the noodles in the liquid from the stirfry adding flavor.
Plate, garnish with remaining basil sprigs, and serve with a lime slice.
Sunday, July 13. 2008
Grillied Salsa verde
I was in the mood tonight to grill a few things. So, I whipped up a grilled salsa verde to be served on white corn chips.
5 medium tomatillos
1/2 vidalia onion
1 red pepper
2 ears of corn
Peel Tomatillos, cut an x on the bottom.
Cut pepper in 1/2 and remove seeds.
Cut your 1/2 of onion into 2 sets of rings, and put on bamboo skewer to keep from falling apart.
Cut ends off of unhusked corn. Pull of leaves of husk until only 2-3 remain.
Coat everything but the corn in a bit of olive oil, to enhance browning.
Grill all items over high heat until well browned.
The red pepper's skin should be easy to peel, the tomatillos should be blistered and peel able as well. The onion will get nice and soft and show good grill marks.
As the corn nears done, carefully husk the remaining leaves, and brown the kernels.
Peel red pepper, peel tomatillos, dice onion, and remove kernels from cob.
Mix and server. Can be refrigerated for up to a week.
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Saturday, July 12. 2008
Those tiny little french pancakes.
Crepezagna!
I made a batch of savory crepes this week, and combined them with some some of my favorite summer ingredients for a fresh summer dinner.
1 cup - all-purpose flour
salt
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tbsp melted butter
Add wet ingredients to a blender, slowly add dry. The batter should be thin.
Allow to rest 30 minutes while you prepare the other toppings.
Toppings:
1 tomato sliced thin.
7 leaves of basil - chiffonade
1/4 cup shredded cheese
1/4 cup sauted button mushrooms
1/4 cup goat cheese
3-4 table spoons of sour cream
2-3 table spoons of milk
Wisk the goat cheese, sour cream, and milk until smooth. May require more milk to make a spreadable mix.
When crepes come out of the pan, layer in a 9inch round cake pan, alternating layers of spread, tomatoes, cheese, mushrooms, basil. Pressing each layer to ensure a tight stack.
When all the crepes are stacked, refrigerate until thoroughly chilled (30 mins-1hr). Turn out onto a plate, and slice like a pie.
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Sunday, March 2. 2008
more Stuffin' stuff. This time with 100% more squash.
I made this for my Sister & brother in law tonight, in an attempt to have a healthy, one dish meal.
I improvised adding the apples and cranberries, which add a nice depth of flavor to the rice / stuffing, with out making it too sweet. Next time I might use ground turkey, as it's lower fat, and you can go a more turkey / cranberry / thanksgiving direction with the whole dish. I think it was good, and I didn't hear any complaints, but then again what kind of guest complains?
Stuffed butternut squash -
3 Acorn squash
2 cups wild rice
4 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup dried cranberries
2tbs butter
salt & pepper to taste
1 lb lean ground beef.
1 medium onion chopped
1/2 cup dried apples
1/2 teaspoon sage
salt and pepper to taste
Pre heat oven to 350.
add rice, stock, cranberries, butter and some salt and pepper to a pot, bring to a boil.
Simmer for 40-50 minutes to cook the wild rice.
cut squash in 1/2, removing stem, and scoop out seeds (set aside to make seeds later).
Spray with oo, and place cut side down in a 13 x 9 pryex dish, and roast for 30 minutes in the
preheated oven.
In a large skillet, brown beef, onions, sage, and dried apples. The apples should plump with the
moisture from the onions and meat.
When fully cooked, drain off any excess oil from the beef, then mix with rice when cooked.
Add rice and meat mixture to squash openings, place in a 13x9 pyrex, and bake in 350 oven till the
stuffing has started to get brown and crispy on top (15 minutes).
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Defined tags for this entry: acorn squash, apples, cranberries, fall, ground beef, healthy, hearty, m750, new england, recipe, rice, squash, stuffed, wild rice, winter
Wednesday, February 13. 2008
stuffed peppers - attempt 1
I normally have my recipes fairly well vetted before writing them up, but I figured I'd do something different with this, sort of go through how I work on evolving a recipe from idea / or google search to a recipe made to my tastes. This dish started with a recommendation from my lovely wife. I asked for a bell pepper for making fajitas, and she returned with three to my surprise... with the suggestion I stuff them. Great idea! I hadn't made them before, but I've certainly had them before so I had a basic idea where to start. Make some rice, brown some beef, sauce it up a bit, top with crumbs, and bake off... So, that's what I did. And these are my notes for future use, so I improve the recipe next time I try to make it. Please be sure to read the end note, where I make recommendations on how I think I can make this right, next time. This makes enough for two.
Stuff:
two peppers
1 cup chunky tomato sauce, chopped stewed tomatoes, or similar.
1 cup rice
2 cups stock / water
a few sun dried tomatoes
a few dried mushrooms
3/4 lb ground meat
2 green onions chopped
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup shredded cheese
Dash cumin
Dash chile powder
It's really straight forward. First preheat the oven. Cut the top off the peppers, and chop up the tops, deveined and deseed the bells. Preheat the oven to 350. Then make the rice.
To a small pot, add rice, stock, tomatoes, mushrooms, cumin, chile powder, some salt and pepper and place the lid on it. Heat till boiling, reduce heat to low, cook for 12-15 minutes until rice is cooked.
While that is cooking, brown the beef, when mostly done, add green onions, and chopped pepper. Cook till meat is finished, and peppers and onions have softened a bit. Drain off fat from meat.
Stuff peppers with a bit of rice, a spoon full of sauce, add some meat, more sauce, and top with ground meat. In the bottom of a pyrex loaf pan, mix rice, meat, and remaining sauce. Place peppers on top, then sprinkle with shredded cheese and crumb mix.
Bake for 30 minutes till crumbs are crispy, and brown.
So... how did it turn out for a no recipe meal? and how can I improve it? The pepper it self was way under cooked. I was glad they were not limp and lifeless, but I was hoping for a more cooked pepper. The topping was excellent so I would hesitate change the baking time to cook the peppers through. After checking other recipes, it appears that most recipes would parboil them, I'm going to say, if it's summer time, roast em on the grill at high heat, maybe broil them but only breifly, I still want the peppers to have some life left in them. I'd use a dry method, to concentrate the flavors, rather than boil them out. The second thing I'd adjust was the imbalance of meat to rice mix in the peppers when I didn't mix the stuffing. I liked the idea of layers inside the pepper, if only to make the presentation nicer, so, next time I would mix the meat and rice, and layer the pepper with rice / meat mix and sauce. Otherwise I was pretty happy for a first attempt. Now, I've got my notes, and a base recipe for next time...
AO
Sunday, February 10. 2008
Magic Mumford's Mac and Cheese
This is one of my all-time favorite recipes. This would be what I would request for my birthday meals. It is likely one of the first things I cooked on my own. I believe it's from a paper bound edition of the betty crocker cookbook.
Cook 1 1/2 cups macaroni (I always use pretty much a whole lb. box) in
boiling salted water till tender; drain. In saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons
butter; blend in 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and
dash pepper. Add 2 cups milk; cook and stir till thick and bubbly. Add
1/4 cup finely chopped onion (optional) and 8 ounces sharp cheddar
cheese cubed; stir till melted.
Mix cheese sauce with macaroni. Turn into casserole dish. Top with
buttered bread crumbs, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
boiling salted water till tender; drain. In saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons
butter; blend in 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and
dash pepper. Add 2 cups milk; cook and stir till thick and bubbly. Add
1/4 cup finely chopped onion (optional) and 8 ounces sharp cheddar
cheese cubed; stir till melted.
Mix cheese sauce with macaroni. Turn into casserole dish. Top with
buttered bread crumbs, and bake at 350 for 30 minutes.
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Defined tags for this entry: cassarole, cheese, family recipe, m750, mac and cheese, Mom, pasta, recipe, retro recipe, vegetarian
Saturday, January 5. 2008
How to make a homemade pizza.
Tasha and I gave my mother a bunch of pizza making related items for Christmas. 
We did not remember to write this up before hand, but we wanted to summarize how we make pizzas to give her a bit of an idea how to use all the new tools she has. Before I could put this together, she told me that she has already made some pizza with some good results, so I'm not sure she needs my advice, but I thought I'd write it up any way.
We did not remember to write this up before hand, but we wanted to summarize how we make pizzas to give her a bit of an idea how to use all the new tools she has. Before I could put this together, she told me that she has already made some pizza with some good results, so I'm not sure she needs my advice, but I thought I'd write it up any way.My tips on making homemade pizza:
I'm not an expert on the topic, I've learned by doing. Starting with some initial attempts with
Tasha on our early dates, to making pizza for 10 in sugarloaf, but not a whole lot has changed in my
ingredients, but I have learned a few key fundamentals that help make a darn good pizza at home. It starts with dough. I don't do anything special for dough, I actually do the opposite. I buy bags of
pre-made bread dough and use that with pretty good success. I'm sure fresh dough would
be better, but frozen doesn't seem to hurt the process. I've also had good success with trader joes
garlic herb dough.
Continue reading "How to make a homemade pizza." »
Saturday, November 24. 2007
Turkey TrashCanzini
This is my take on a 'Fabulous' retro classic, Turkey Tetrazzini. This is a great use for all the left over turkey we have. It's also a good change of pace from Mayflower sandwiches, and all the other Thanksgiving flavors. Also, check it out I've even got pictures.
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French Canadian torterrie and meat stuffing (aka Meat pie)
'tootkay' is a family tradition. It's something I've grown to love about the holidays. We'd usually have these pies around the house around thanksgiving, and Christmas. I apologize in advance, this is not for the vegetarian, or Kosher, but it is tradition with my family. Please note, as Tasha would like me to point out, you can make this without pork, and I plan it, so that my lovely wife can know why I enjoy this so much. Also, I have no pics, because I've yet to actually make it. Here is my Nana's recipe.
UPDATE: Photos available here:
Continue reading "French Canadian torterrie and meat stuffing..." »
van Es - Cream of Carrot Soup
This soup is a tradition in the van Es house for thanksgiving dinner. I'm not sure of the origin, but it's pretty tasty, and not too bad for you if you cut down the cream and butter. Note, I'm writing the recipe as it's found in the book, but I prepared it a little different which I'll explain below.
Continue reading "van Es - Cream of Carrot Soup" »
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Tuesday, November 13. 2007
Skillet Lasagna -
This is a recipe from a coworker. Unlike your traditional office environment where the guys talk sports or hunting, the support team at Endeca is filled with 'Chef's. So, are conversations often cover what did you make this weekend, would you use a bread maker or your stand mixer to make dough, or practical uses of foam, or agar agar in home cooking.
The recipe below is one that I asked for before, recieved, and never made. I hope after blogging about it, I'll actually make it, since it seems pretty straight forward, and good. However since I've never made it, I cannot provide pictures, nor can I comment on how good / easy it was.
Chow!
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Monday, November 5. 2007
Stuffed shells
This is a what I made for dinner tonight. I think it came out quite good.
1 box extra large shells
16 oz whole milk ricotta
1lb Ground beef
1/2 large onion
1/4 cup sun dried tomatoes
2 garlic cloves
basil
oregano
crushed red pepper
1/4 cup shredded cheese (Italian style)
1/4 cup shredded parmesan
1 jars worth of pasta sauce
a fresh mozzarella ball, sliced
The ingredients are a guess, I sorta make it up as I go along.
Start the water boiling for the pasta, salt it liberally. Preheat oven to 350. Cook the pasta al dente.
Over medium high heat, saute the onion, in a few tbs of olive oil, add the sun dried tomatoes and garlic cloves minced, lightly salt. Cook until translucent. Remove and set aside.
Over medium high brown beef, salt, add basil, oregano, and crushed red pepper. Cook thoroughly then drain.
When meat is finished, mix with parm, ricotta, onions.
In a 16x9 Pyrex baking dish, coat bottom of the pan with sauce.
Liberally stuff shells with mixture, and pack tightly into pan.
Top the shells with the shredded cheese and the mozzarella sliced.
Cover with sauce.
Bake for 35 minutes.
Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes to set.
Serve with Garlic bread, or salad.
Sunday, September 2. 2007
Chipotle Corn Salad
I made this salad for our labor day party. I made it the night before, and it turned out well, but I should have made it a little more spicy. The sweetness of the corn, and the sour cream do a good job of tempering this potentially spicy dish so even Tasha can enjoy it.
(recipe behind cut)
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Saturday, December 30. 2006
Penne ala Vodka
This tasty dish, can be prepared nearly completly ahead of time. The recipe comes from my sister in law, who made this for Christmas. I love the pink sauce! Not exactly low fat, but hey, it's pasta, what do you expect?
4-6:
- 2tbs olive oil
- 1 small onion (chopped)
- ts red pepper (more is you want it spicy)
- salt
- pepper
- basil
- oregano
- 3-4 cloved garlic
- 2 cans of diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup vodka
- 1/8th lb proscuiuotto (you can make it with out this)
- 1 pint of heavy cream
- 1lb of cooked penne
In a pan, coat the bottom with olive oil and heat. Add onion (chopped), a dash of red pepper (about 1/2 teaspoon), salt, pepper, basil, and oregano. Add garlic and sautee. Add 2 cans of diced tomatoes Simmer 20-40 mins. until tomatoes are soft and mushy Chop prosciuotto into small pieces and add to the mixture. Add vodka Simmer for about 20-30 minutes Remove from heat, and add 1 pint of heavy cream and heat through. Add sauce to penne.
Wednesday, December 20. 2006
Aunt E's rice crispy squares
These are a favorite holiday treat. Aunt Eva would bring these to most family events.
Serves not enough:
- 1c. sugar
- 1c light corn syrup
- 1c peanut butter
- 6c. kelloggs rice krispies
- 1 6oz nestles semi-sweet chocolate morsels
- 1 6 oz. butterscotch morsels
Combine sugar and syrup in 3 quart sauce pan. Cook over moderate heat, stirring frequently until mixture boils. Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter and mix well. Add rice krispies. Stir until well blended. Press mixture into buttered 13. x 9 pan.
Melt chocolate and butterscotch morsels together over hot but not boiling water, stirring until well blended. Remove from heat, spread evenly over rice krispie mixture. Cool until firm and cut into bars. Yield 48 bars. 2 x 1 in.
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