Food and Cooking

GAP’s Chili Recipe

by on May 1, 2011 @ 10:23 am

in Food and Cooking

Ingredients

2 tb EVOO (or canola oil)
2 tsp cumin
1 large onion, chopped coarsely
2-4 jalapenos, seeded and chopped coarsely
6 medium garlic cloves, chopped coarsely
2 lbs. 80/20 ground beef chuck
2 cups red wine (e.g., shiraz, merlot, malbec)
3 tb chili powder (preferably Penzey’s Hot Chili, Chili 3000, or Chili 9000 powder)
1/2 7oz can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
2 cups finely diced carrots
2 cups beef stock (preferably low-sodium or unsalted)
2 16oz cans of diced, unsalted tomatoes
3 16oz cans of red kidney beans (unseasoned or chili-seasoned)
1 8oz can of tomato sauce (optional, if you want more liquid)
1 6oz can of tomato paste
salt to taste
Fiesta-blend shredded cheese
Sour cream

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Recipe: Mediterranean Ham & Cheese Mini-Sub

by on May 10, 2010 @ 6:08 pm

in Food and Cooking

This is not a real Mediterranean recipe. I just made it up. I like it because it’s simple, easy to make, consists of just good meat, cheese and bread, and tastes good.

Ingredients

  • 1 mini-sub roll (a small, slender 6″ sub-shaped roll; I like Asiago cheese rolls)
  • deli-style, thinly-sliced smoked ham (Hillshire Farm is good)
  • pizza-style pepperoni, for some spicy kick (I like Armour)
  • goat cheese

Recipe

  1. Slice the roll in half lengthwise. Optional: Heat the roll in the oven at 350°F for a few minutes first until the crust gets a little crispy.
  2. Slather the goat cheese generously on the insides of both halves of the roll. It helps to let the goat cheese warm up a bit ahead of time as goat cheese can be really crumbly and hard to spread when cold.

    3. (Click to enlarge.)

  3. Put down an overlapping layer of pepperoni slices on the bottom half of the roll. The rolls I like are just wide enough for one row of pepperoni.
  4. Pile on 2-3 layers of thin deli-style smoked ham, say 6-9 slices. Don’t lay ‘em out flat, cafeteria-style. I like to twist or fold them for greater volume and texture.
  5. Put the top half of the roll on, and maybe slice the roll in half widthwise. Enjoy!

Recipe: Slow-Cooked Spicy Citrus Chicken

by on December 30, 2009 @ 1:22 am

in Food and Cooking

Ingredients

  • 1      6-oz can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
  • 1      6-oz can frozen pineapple juice concentrate, thawed
  • 1      cup  catsup
  • 4      tablespoons lemon juice
  • 3      teaspoons cayenne pepper (less if you’re a pansy, more if you like)
  • 4      tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
  • 2      2-inch stick cinnamon
  • 16    whole allspice
  • 8      whole cloves
  • 2      15-oz cans diced tomatoes, drained
  • 3-5  medium carrots, chopped thinly into disks
  • 3      pounds boneless chicken breasts, cut into small to medium-sized pieces
  • Hot, cooked couscous.

Recipe

  1. To make sauce, in a medium-sized bowl combine the juice concentrate, catsup, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and tapioca. Pour into 3.5-4 quart slow cooker.
  2. Make a spice bag by placing cinnamon, allspice and cloves in 100% cotton cheese cloth and tying the package closed with clean kitchen string. Beats having to fish the whole spices out of the finished product one by one when it’s time to serve. Put this in the slow cooker as well.
  3. Peel and chop carrots. Open and drain cans of tomatoes. Add to cooker.
  4. Prepare the chicken (thaw, clean, cut, etc.), then place in the cooker. Stir.
  5. Cover. Cook on low-heat setting approximately 9 hours, high heat setting approximately 4.5 hours. I find this dish tastes best when cooked on low for 9 hours. The chicken browns turns brown and absorbs all the flavors. It’s mouth watering.
  6. Discard spice bag. Serve over couscous. Optional substitution: Serve over basmati rice.
Slow-Cooked Spicy Citrus Chicken

(Click to enlarge.)

Recipe: Spiced Basmati Rice with Peanuts

by on September 11, 2008 @ 7:21 pm

in Featured Posts, Food and Cooking, India

Ingredients

1 cup uncooked basmati rice
2 tbsp vegetable oil or ghee (clarified butter) or combination
2 14oz cans tomatoes (I prefer one can diced, the other petite cut/diced)
1/2 medium onion, diced
5 medium cloves garlic, diced
1 jalapeno, diced
1/2 cup Planter’s cocktail peanuts
2 tsp cumin seed
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp garam masaala (Indian spice blend)
2-3 tsp lemon juice
Some fresh ground black pepper, half dozen to a dozen twists of the pepper mill or so – I don’t really keep count
1-2 tsp salt, or to taste
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped (optional, recommended)
1 carrot, diced (optional, for extra nutrition, doesn’t alter flavor)
1/4 cup moong dal (optional, adds texture and nutrition)
1-2 tsp or more cayenne powder (optional, if you need more heat ;o) )

Substitutions: You can substitute curry powder (another spice blend, not the same thing as Indian curry) for some or all of the garam masaala, maybe for the coriander powder as well (haven’t tried) but you probably shouldn’t use as much curry powder as the recipe calls for of coriander powder. Jasmine rice may substitute for basmati rice; I haven’t tried it. I tried half vegetable oil and half extra virgin olive oil (good for your health) today and it didn’t change the flavor of the final product noticeably.

Notes: 1) If you live in or near a decent sized city, you can probably find a local Indian store that carries all the Indian-specific ingredients. 2) I prefer canned tomatoes because they’re more consistently high quality than the fresh whole tomatoes you can get at a supermarket, tastier and they don’t disintegrate while cooking. 3) I usually seed the whole jalapeno, or half of it. You never know whether you’ve got a strong one or a weak one. If it’s a strong one, keeping the seeds (where most of the heat is) could make the dish too hot for you or your guests, and hard to eat. It’s better to play it safe. You can always add cayenne pepper to taste later if it’s not hot enough for you.

Penzey’s Spices is a nice store with an online website from which you can order a wide variety of common and specialty, high quality spices, baking ingredients, etc.

Recipe

1) Start boiling rice. A rice cooker or pressure cooker is easier and faster than a regular pot.

2) Dry roast the cumin seeds on medium-high heat until light brown and giving off wonderful aroma, then remove from heat and set aside. You can include them whole later (see below), but I don’t like to bite into a whole cumin seed so I use a coffee grinder to grind them to powder. Warning! Don’t use the same coffee grinder for grinding spices that you do for grinding coffee beans, or vice versa.

Optional: Moong dal. Rinse a few times. Soak in hot water for 10-15 minutes until softened enough that you can pinch them in half with your fingernail.

3) While the cumin is roasting and the moong dal soaking, dice the onion, garlic, jalapeno, and carrot (opt). Keep an eye on the cumin though. You don’t want to burn it.

4) Heat a 9-12 inch saucepan/skillet on medium-high. Put in the oil/ghee. Then add the onion, garlic, jalapeno and carrot (opt). Cook until softened and onion is golden brown. Then add in the peanuts and moong dal (opt). Cook for a few minutes more. Stir occasionally throughout. Chop the cilantro sometime while all this is cooking; don’t add yet.

5) Add the tomatoes. Lower heat to medium. Then add remaining ingredients (except rice). Cook until tomatoes are heated through, 5-10 min or so.

6) Add rice and mix well. Serve and enjoy!

Serves 4-6.

Serve Oversalted Burger to Cop, Go to Jail

September 10, 2007 @ 7:28 am

[Cross-posted at Let Liberty Ring.] Now does that seem like a(n) (ab)use of police power to you? Or doesn’t it? A young lady working at a McDonald’s accidentally spilled too much salt on some of the meat. She and a co-worker and her supervisor attempted to wipe the excess salt off before serving the meat [...]

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A Vegan Diet Is Not Natural

May 22, 2007 @ 6:12 pm

You may have heard about the vegan parents who were recently convicted for killing their baby with a vegan diet. Put simply, veganism is not natural. Adults may be able to get by on a vegan diet in the modern world thanks to a global market economy. Ironic, considering that many of them are probably [...]

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Recipe: Spicy Chole (A Chickpea Dish)

July 14, 2005 @ 9:40 am

There are countless versions of this dish. I’ll probably be posting more, but here’s Spicy Chole Ingredients:2 tablespoons vegetable oil1 medium or large onion, finely chopped3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely chopped1 fresh jalapeno, finely chopped1 tablespoon ground coriander2 teaspoons ground cumin1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper1 medium tomato, chopped or 1 [...]

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Recipe: Geoffrey's Bean & Salsa Chip Dip

July 14, 2005 @ 8:58 am

Here’s a tasty and easy to make chip dip that my family really likes. It can be made vegetarian or with chicken or ground beef. Geoffrey’s Bean & Salsa Chip Dip Ingredients 1 (16-oz) can refried beans 1 (8-oz) can tomato sauce 1 cup salsa (mild, medium, or hot) 1 medium tomato, chopped or 1 [...]

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