Saturday, July 17, 2010

carne asada and roasted corn taco with raspberry sour cream

Ingredients:
flank or skirt steak
frozen or fresh corn ( not canned)
1 yellow onion
2 cloves garlic
sour cream
raspberry jam
hot sauce ( I prefer Franks red hot)
worcestershire
cheese of some kind queso fresco works great
1T salt
1t pepper
1/2T cumin
1T chili powder
1/2 T garlic powder
1t paprika


mix your spices together and rub it into your meat. Bare in mind I am guessing on the amounts so you may need to adjust as you see fit. Grill it on high heat for 3-4 minutes per side, it is a thin cut and it will continue to cook as you leave it to rest. Tent it with tin foil and let it rest ten to fifteen minutes.

slice you onions thin season with S&P and saute over medium heat in olive oil. half way though the cooking process add in your minced garlic, a couple shots of hot sauce and worcestershire, continue to cook till you reach the amount of caramelization you want.

saute corn in a non stick pan with no oil don't forget to season with S&P.
cook till you start to get a little color on it and it smells a little nutty.

mix sour cream with a spoonful or 2 of raspberry jam. just try it! you'll like it.
slice steak fairly thin across the grain, assemble, and enjoy!
an alternative is to take your corn, onions, and meat combine them with some red enchilada sauce. Roll into flour tortillas in a baking dish top with more enchilada sauce top with cheese and bake at 350 till the cheese melts.
still top with your raspberry sour cream and it won't be your every day mexican.

it's time for some dessert


Well their is no name for this dessert yet but it is a recipe that will be sticking around for good.
Ingredients:
2 C berries
1/2 C sugar
2 T brown sugar
1/2 C coconut
1 chocolate bar
1 container sour cream
1/4 C cream cheese or mascarpone (softened)
citrus juice and zest
fresh whipped cream (optional)

start by cutting your berries up any size you like I left mine in bigger slices cause they looked nice. Then sprinkle 1/2c sugar over them to coat them. the amount of sugar will depend on you and your berries if they are very ripe and sweet you won't need much if they are not you can always coax them along with a little extra. keep in mind it doesn't just make the berries sweeter it creates a nice syrup along with it so use a little more than you think you need.

mix sour cream, cream cheese, zest, brown sugar (you may need more than the 2 T, sweeten to your desired taste) and citrus juice together and beat till smooth. Now I only said citrus juice with no amount for a reason. if you choose to use orange juice like I did you will need more than if you chose to use lemon or lime. add some then taste then add some then taste some more. a recipe will only get you so far you have to taste every step of the way.

with the coconut you can leave it plain or toast it. we have done this recipe both ways and we love it both ways. It will add a little nuttiness and a little more texture if you do. Another nice addition would be some type of chopped and toasted nuts, macadamia or slivered almonds are two I would suggest.

just layer your ingredients and shave on some chocolate. If possible use some good quality chocolate preferably semi-sweet to dark, you can get some from walmart for about $2 and you will find plenty of uses for the extras. Make sure to shave it off with a knife or a peeler it will melt in your mouth and won't get in the way if you do this, it isn't suppose to be a chocolate dessert it is only their to compliment not take over.

This dessert will make you look t sour cream a different way! p.s. try it in a crepe

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

carribean pork with black beans and rice




This is the first official food post. This was a first time recipe of mine that I adapted from a Caribbean jerk rub for ribeyes. I'm going to tell you a couple of things in advance first plan in advance what time you want to eat cause it is easy to hold this longer but you don't want to rush it early, second I used a boneless pork butt also known as a pork shoulder. this one was about 6 lbs but it would work for one any where 5 to 8 lbs if yours isn't boneless plan for about an extra hour give or take a little. I suggest going to Costco because it is $1.45 /lb and it comes sealed with two 6-8 pounders in the pack so you can use one to do this recipe and then freeze the other one to do a more traditional bbq pulled pork that your used to That's what I have planned for the extra one sitting in my freezer, I'll post it when I do it. OK now bear with me I generalize most things with my recipes but take a deep breath it will all be OK and if it isn't ok feel free to give me a call it makes me feel special. ( now I have to tell a side story from my mission that just came to mind.) So I had the opportunity to cook for several families on my mission cause it was a great way to get into their homes not to mention what better service for your members than to come cook their family a nice dinner and share a message with them. So on one occasion I cooked for a councilor in the relief society presidency and her family in Payson, AZ. I made them peach bbq chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, some veggies, and fried carmeled apples over ice cream for dessert. these happen to be some of my classic dishes and also some of the first recipes I made that were really mine. So any way the dinner went well and the next day my companion and I are at our apartment for planning morning and the phone rings and my companion answers then gets a strange look on his face and hands me the phone. Now this may not seem weird but nobody really calls and asks to talk to a specific one of us cause it doesn't really matter which one of us you talk to. Well it turns out it is one of the other members of the relief society presidency calling because they happened to have a presidency meeting that next day and the lady began to rant about my meal and pulled out the little bit of leftovers out of her fridge heated it up and gave each lady a bite or two of what was left and in turn I then had this call to get the recipe! this story still makes me laugh so trust me feel free to call. now on to the recipe.

keep in mind Capital T table spoon little t teaspoon I'll try and make sure and keep that straight.


1) take your pork but out and pat it dry and trim some of the large chunks of fat off but don't be too particular it won't matter much in the end.

2) take a gallon freezer bag and combine apple juice or cider ( I prefer cider), honey, molasses, brown sugar, and soy sauce shake to combine. (just make sure to get the honey and molasses to distribute.)

3) now add onion powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, ginger (fresh or dried), cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves (if they are whole cloves then break them up a little), and red pepper flakes or cayenne.

(now as for proportions of those things I'll give you some general guidelines. you want the total amount to be enough to cover the whole roast in the bag. but if you come up short just add a little more apple juice to fill. so the apple juice is your base so it will be the most. as far as the honey and molasses probably like a 1/4 of a cup. then maybe about that or a little more of brown sugar. some where around a couple of table spoons of soy sauce. about a 1/2T of onion powder, 1T garlic powder, 3T salt, 1T black pepper, 2t ginger, 1t cinnamon, 1t nutmeg, 1t cloves, 2t red pepper.) the big thing with the spices is that the , cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves should be about equal parts to balance cause they are strong flavors but it might take a little more than a teaspoon each just do what looks about right.

4) you also need an acid of some kind the best one would probably be a 1/4 cup of lime juice but if you don't have that then add 1/4 c apple cider vinegar.

5) put your roast in the bag and put it in the fridge over night if you forgot to plan in advance it is ok if it sits at least 5-6 hrs in the fridge. if you did do it overnight flip the bag in the morning. A tip for this put the bag in a cake pan just in case it leaks and put this towards so that if something tragic happens it won't get all over any other food in your fridge.

6) now for the cooking this is easy preheat the oven to 300- 325 depending on how your oven cooks. take the bag out and dump the whole thing marinade and all in a big roasting pot rough chop one yellow onion add it and throw it in the oven for 6hrs. with the lid on and if you don't have a lid cover with tin foil. ( side note the liquid should go about 1/2 to 3/4 the way up the roast if adjust by either adding more cider or pouring some marinade out. now you really don't need to look at this for 6 hrs but if you are like me and have to peek go ahead set the timer for 3 hrs and then take a look now that your satisfied put the lid back on and set the timer for the other 3 hrs. now the reason why I said figure out when you want to eat is because you need to pull this out and let it sit for a half hour just trust me it will make it better. if you are ahead of schedule drop the temp to 250 deg and leave it in till about 30-40 minutes before you are ready to eat but no matter what at the end take the pot out of the oven and remove your roast from the liquid and put it in a separate bowl and cover it with tin foil. don't shred it till after that half hour I know it will try and fall apart on you on the way to the bowl that's ok just use a big spoon and keep it in as big of pieces as possible. now this is the time that if you would like a really strong flavor like the Caribbeans than take and mix up a small batch of your dry ingredients from your marinade and sprinkle over the top before you shred it but it is totally optional I actually didn't because not everyone likes it as strong as I do then. take two forks and shred away feel free to ladle a couple of scoops of your braising liquid back onto your shredded pork.

now for the black beans: just take two cans of black beans drain and rinse them. put them in a pan over medium low heat and add 2T water or apple juice, 1T soy sauce, 1t garlic powder or two cloves of fresh garlic. salt and pepper to taste. simmer for ten or fifteen minutes the longer you go the more they are like refried beans

I cheat on the rice because me and rice just don't get along for some reason. but take about a tablespoon of butter and melt it in a pan and add half a yellow onion and saute till they start to turn soft and translucent. now follow your basic minute rice instructions on the box but instead of water use your braising liquid trust me on this one. then salt and pepper to taste before serving.
I forgot to mention I made biscuits as well I just used Paula Dean's recipe you can get it on food network.com they turned out good accept she didn't list a temp and I needed to do it a little hotter to get them to brown but I included a picture of my bread bowl I mentioned in my first post.

Thursday, February 25, 2010

me, my blog, and what's to come

I am a food lover! I don't know really how it started. I've been asked many times if it was my mom or my dad that taught me too cook, and as I think about it my answer is always neither. They both are good cooks and they each have something they make better than me for dad it is omelettes ( well really eggs in general) and for mom it is her pizza it is just something special. Of course I made cookies with mom when I was little but I don't ever remember them teaching me any of that. It started about freshman year I just started to like to cook so naturally I started watching alot of cooking shows and it seemed fairly easy to pick up on techniques or ideas and make my own stuff with it. I did finally get some instruction the summer before my senior year, working at a fly fishing lodge PRO Outfitter up by Ovando. Many people don't know the place exists and if you do know chances are you know how nice of a place it really is. Right on the North fork of the blackfoot river it is this lodge with a couple of ponds near by and a bunch of wall tents so the rich people that stay can feel like they went camping in Montana but I don't think it's camping if you have wood floors, heaters, and overstuffed feather beds. But anyway the real luxury was the four course meals we served they are meals I still talk about to this day in fact I was telling my wife about the herb crusted filet mignon with a blue cheese and horseradish cream sauce just yesterday. Well I started out there as a maintenance man and lawn boy but I told them I really wanted to cook and after coming in one afternoon after mowing the lawns I made better tart shells than the girls they had doing it (no offense girls) I got to be the afternoon baker and assistant chef to Michael Carlucci from New York. It started out with me prepping the meats and salads you know doing all the peeling and chopping and such to by the end of the summer I did most of the cooking and michael took the bow to the guests at the end of the night, but he sure taught me alot and I loved that summer. Since then I've continued to cook as much as I could. I have way more cook books than any 23 year old man needs but I'm always looking for more. Although I don't really know why Cause I can't even remember the last recipe I followed but they always give good ideas. I also have a thing for rolling pins and wood bowls I know that sounds weird but I do I only have one rolling pin but I have dibs in on a couple of peoples when they die. I do have a good wood bowl I bought. Nothing fancy I just decided everybody needs a good bowl to make dough by hand and I love it. Well that's enough ranting for now I'm really just starting this blog because I don't have a job and I am tired of feeling worthless because of it so I decided I needed something to do and I figured it would get me to make some of those things I've been wanting to make for a while. I'm going to try to post a couple of times a month but we'll see how it goes probably sometimes more sometimes less. I'll try and add recipes and pictures to the posts but just to warn you the recipes will be kind of vague. That's just how I work. Some times I will probably post about stuff I ate somewhere else or chime in my opinion on things but we will see I'm not real sure yet but I think it will be fun.