Men Who Cook

Dinner Menu: Carne en su Jugo

/ TaMara / 1 Comment

mmmm-yummy1

I had big plans for cooking this week, which all went to hell by the end of today. So perfect time for a Men Who Cook/Guest Recipe.

Tonight we have a guest menu from my friend Alton Gunn, who has provided us with several good recipes.  It’s delicious, I’ve been lucky enough to have it several times (good are the friends who feed you).

On the board tonight:

  1. Carne en su Jugo
  2. Pico de Gallo
  3. Tortillas
  4. Margarita Melon Salad

Carne en su Jugo

  • ½ lb bacon, cut in 1-inch pieces
  • 1 lb sirloin steak, sliced thin and then cut in 1-inc pieces
  • 1 can (28oz) tomatillos
  • ½ cup cilantro, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • salt
  • 2 can pinto beans
  • sour cream for garnish
  • shredded cheese
  • chopped onions for garnish
  • fresh lime juice for garnish
  1. Brown the bacon in a large dutch oven. Add the beef and cook until brown (leave the bacon grease in the pot).
  2. Blend the tomatillos in your food processor and strain well to remove the seeds. Add about a cup of the tomatillo liquid back into the food processor and blend with the cilantro, and garlic.
  3. Add the tomatillo/cilantro/garlic sauce and the rest of the strained tomatillo liquid to the beef and bacon. Add salt to taste.
  4. Stir in pinto beans and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until beef is tender, about 1 hour.
  5. Ladle into bowls  and garnish with pico de gallo (recipe below),  fresh lime, sour cream.
  6. Serve corn or flour tortillas on the side.

Al’s Notes: I’ve made this with beef and pork. The basic sauce is good for stewing pretty much any meat. Will try chicken next.  Works well in the crockpot

Pico de Gallo

  • chopped onion
  • chopped tomato
  • chopped cilantro
  • splash of lime

Mix together 20 to 30 minutes or more before meal.

Margarita Melon Salad

  • 2 limes, juiced
  • 2 shots tequila
  • 2 tablespoons orange liqueur (I used Triple Sec)
  • 3 teaspoons sugar
  • ½ cantaloupe, seeded and cubed
  • ¼ honeydew melon, seeded and cubed
  • ¼ small watermelon, cubed

Many markets sell halved melons and wedges of watermelon, making it easy to prepare this salad closer to desired amounts.

Combine lime juice, tequila, liqueur, and sugar in a bowl. Add melons and toss to coat with tequila and lime. Serve in shallow bowls.

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Originally posted July 2010

Guest Recipe: Cilantro Lime Hummus

/ TaMara / 2 Comments

I have been so busy, I’ve barely been in my kitchen to eat, much less cook, and I’m holding onto several items to post, which hopefully I’ll get to eventually. But until then, once again Joshua D comes to the rescue with another recipe. Thanks Joshua!!!

This is an oldddd dust-off recipe from the long-forgotten files! It’s inspired by a restaurant in Spokane, Washington called Niko’s that serves great Greek food. If you’re one of those unfortunates for whom cilantro tastes like soap, just use Italian parsley. The effect won’t be the same, but I understand the why. This can also be spiced up with a chile if desired.

Cilantro-Lime Hummus

  • 1 can garbanzo beans, drained
  • Juice of 2 limes
  • 1 tbsp sesame seeds
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 bunch cilantro
  • 1/2 cup olive oil

Break up beans in the food processor. Add in lime juice, sesame seeds, garlic, and cilantro. Blend until well-ground. Pour in olive oil slowly through the feeding tube until it’s the consistency you want. A wonderfully different take on a Mediterranean classic!

Joshua De Mers

Not Turkey: Guest Recipe from Joshua D.

/ TaMara

This popped up in my mail just before Thanksgiving from Men Who Cook regular, Joshua D. I thought the timing was perfect since I always post not-turkey recipes after the holiday. So if you’re tired of turkey, Joshua has the perfect remedy:

This was an impromptu recipe too good to not share! One point: how much honey you will need will depend on the sweetness of your tomatoes. True it’s November but this is a good recipe to hold for summer plus if you have spare canned San Marzanos hanging around that will work beautifully!

PENNE POMODORO

(Note from TaMara, I changed amounts to serve 4)

  • 12 oz dried penne
  • 3 large ripe tomatoes, chopped (or two cans of diced tomatoes, San Marzanos preferred)
  • 3 large shallot, sliced
  • 2 -4 cloves garlic, sliced thin
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 1 tbsp basil, chiffonaded
  • 1 tbsp oregano, chopped
  • Few drops honey
  • 1 tbsp parsley, chopped
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 cup parmigano reggiano

Cook penne in boiling salted water) for about a minute under package directions. While pasta is boiling, cook shallots in a skillet over medium heat. After about 2 minutes, add in tomato with a healthy pinch of salt and pepper. Cook until tomatoes break down, about 4-5 minutes. Add in sliced garlic,wine and herbs and cook for another minute. Drop in honey and stir well. By now the penne should be very toothsome. Add penne to skillet (if water gets into sauce this is good!) and cook together until sauce thickens slightly and penne is done to your liking. Turn off heat and mix in most of cheese. Serve with slices of toasted ciabatta or your favourite bread. Top with more cheese and enjoy!

Joshua De Mers

Emeril’s Pan Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Crispy Pancetta and Caramelize Onions

/ TaMara / 3 Comments
Photo courtesy of Good Morning America/ABCNews

Photo courtesy of Good Morning America/ABCNews

With Thanksgiving coming up, I wanted to highlight some different sides besides the traditional. This one really fit the bill.

From Emeril Lagasse 

Emeril Lagasse’s phrase, “kick it up a notch” became famous for a reason—the New Orleans-raised chef raises flavors to the next level. This year, take your Thanksgiving to Emeril’s star status with his recipe for Pan-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Caramelized Onions and Crispy Pancetta.

Ingredients

  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 6 ounces pancetta, diced
  • 3 large yellow onions, thinly sliced (about 4 cups)
  • 1 ½ teaspoons sea salt
  • ½ teaspoon black pepper
  • 2 pounds Brussels sprouts, stems trimmed and cut in half lengthwise

    Robin Roberts and Emeril Lagasse

    Robin Roberts and Emeril Lagasse

Preheat the oven to 400° F.

In a large sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium heat. When hot, add the pancetta and cook until crisp, 5 to 6 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the pancetta to a baking sheet lined with paper towels and set aside. Add the onions, ½ teaspoon of the salt and ¼ teaspoon of black pepper to the pan and cook, stirring until the onions are caramelized, about 30 minutes.

In a large 14-inch sauté pan, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium high heat and when hot, add the Brussels sprouts and the remaining salt and pepper. Cook until the sprouts are golden brown on one side, 4 to 5 minutes. Transfer the pan to the oven and cook until tender, about 15 minutes.

Add the onions and pancetta to the Brussels sprouts, toss well, and return to the oven for 5 minutes longer.

Serve immediately.

Servings:4-6
Difficulty: Easy
Cook Time: 1-30 min
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Friday Recipe Exchange: Pumpkin Patch Edition

/ TaMara

pumpkin-bars1a

I made pumpkin bars by request a week or so ago for a friend’s birthday. You should always have whatever sweet treat you want on your birthday. That recipe is here.

It put me in the mood for more pumpkin. I don’t go crazy and want everything pumpkin flavored during the season, I generally stick to pumpkin donuts (Dunkin Donuts are my preferred and difficult-to-acquire style), pumpkin bars and the occasional pumpkin pie. I prefer the Pumpkin Cream Pie that is the featured recipe tonight, to a traditional custard style pie.

That does not mean I don’t have a bunch of pumpkin recipes at my finger tips. To see everything, click here and it will take you to the pumpkin patch, er, page.

Last week when I mentioned tonight might be pumpkin week, several people sent me links to recipes and these two caught my eye:  from Mnemosyne: Mini Pumpkin Pies (recipe here) and a savory, Roasted Pumpkin Soup from Emeril – click here – (sorry I couldn’t find who sent this to me).

Friend of blog, Tes from TesatHome.com posted a good looking and definitely unusual, Pumpkin and Coconut Curry (click here).

And on a non-pumpkin note, this week’s menu of Lemon-Nut Pork Chops and Raspberry Poppyseed Cake is here.

There you go, a nice mix of sweet and savory for your pumpkin cravings. So what are some of your favorite pumpkin recipes? And what’s on the menu for this beautiful fall weekend, food or otherwise?

We’re not done yet…there’s still pie: Continue reading →

Men Who Cook: Joseph Noble’s Pork Enchiladas

/ TaMara

DSC_2957 (Copy)

Photo by JeffreyW

Joseph posted this recipe link at my request over at Balloon-Juice during one of the recipe threads (Friday Recipe Exchange is cross posted there each week). I thought while I was away, guest recipes would be a great way to fill the void. 😀

These sound amazing.

From Joseph:

Joseph’s Savory Chipotle Pork Enchiladas

If you need a little wapow in your life, here’s one way to do it. These enchiladas are savory to the nth degree, which makes them one of my favorite recipes I’ve ever made. I suggest serving with white rice seasoned with some lime juice and chopped cilantro.

First, you need to caramelize an onion. Chop it up roughly, and saute it in some olive oil for at least 30 minutes. Keep stirring it!

While that’s happening, make some enchilada sauce. Don’t open a can! Here’s the recipe for that:

Red Enchilada Sauce

  • 4 Tbsp. vegetable or canola oil
  • 4 Tbsp. flour
  • 8 Tbsp. chili powder
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder
  • 1 tsp. salt
  • 1/2 tsp. cumin
  • 1/2 tsp. oregano
  • 4 cups chicken broth

Heat oil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add flour and stir together over the heat for one minute. Stir in the remaining seasonings (chili powder through oregano). Then gradually add in the chicken broth, whisking constantly to remove lumps. Reduce heat and simmer 10-15 minutes until thick.

I use dark chili powder, so my sauce came out really brown. I imagine using bright red chili powder will make it redder. But it doesn’t matter. This enchilada sauce is so good and easy, you’ll never buy it at the store again.

That’s actually a double batch, which is what I needed for all the enchiladas I was making. If you want to cut down the size of the recipe, just cut it in half. But this sauce stores well in the refrigerator, is all I’m saying.

Now you need to get the filling together. I based this on Emeril’s recipe at Food Network, but he had a sour cream sauce and used green chilies.

  • 2 pounds roast pork
  • Caramelized onion
  • 1/3 can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
  • 1/2 pound Mexican cheese blend

This is the easy part. Mix that all together. I chopped up the roast pork and then minced up the chipotle peppers. You can find these little cans in the Mexican food section of your supermarket. If you can’t, move to a town where you can! Kidding – I’ll send you some because they’re little.

Now to build the enchiladas. Wait! Put the rice on to cook first, then you can start this.

  1. Corn tortillas
  2. Pork enchilada filling from above
  3. Enchilada sauce from above
  4. 1/2 pound Mexican cheese blend.

Heat the oven to 450. Get you some baking pans to cook enchiladas in. I used 2 square Pyrex pans and one cake pan and got 22 enchiladas out of them. But use what size you have handy. Spray some Pam in the bottoms for easy cleaning later.

Now ladle some sauce in the bottom of the pans to cover. Take a corn tortilla and put 1/4 cup filling on it. Roll it up tight and lay in the pan seam side down. Keep doing that until you run out of filling.

Then ladle the rest of the sauce over the enchiladas. Use a spoon to make sure sauce has hit every square millimeter of tortilla. Then sprinkle the cheese over the enchiladas and cover it with foil.

Bake in a 450 degree oven for 15 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for 10 minutes more.

And it’s done! I got 22 enchiladas out of it and I was proud of myself for stopping after eating four. Now I have 18 to eat through the rest of the week. And I mean it when I say they are savory. They are power-packed – very rich and zingy!

Oh, you want nutritional information? OK…

Nutrition Facts

  • Serving Size 1 enchilada (5.4oz)
  • Calories from Fat 120
  • Calories 256
  • Total Fat 13g
  • Saturated Fat 5g
  • Cholesterol 42mg
  • Sodium 1000mg
  • Potassium 300mg
  • Total Carbohydrate 16g
  • Dietary Fiber 3g
  • Sugars 1g
  • Protein 18g

That sodium number is high! I used no salt added chicken broth for the enchilada sauce, so mine were actually a lot lower than that. But if you use regular chicken broth, that’s pretty much what they will be.

Thanks Joseph, feel free to share recipes anytime! – TaMara

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Friday Recipe Exchange: Mix and Match

/ TaMara

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Just when I needed some inspiration, it arrived via email. Frequent guest recipe contributor, Joshua D. sent along a terrific idea this week, so it will be the featured recipe tonight.

Next week I think I have a real treat in store, with some very, shall we say, unique recipes.

Until then, JeffreyW made some awesome looking slaw (ingredients pictured above) this week, with a some great photos and a simple recipe, click here for the whole show.

He’s also been harvesting his tomatillos and making some good looking sauce, click here and here. I love tomatillos and can’t wait to grow them again myself, because JeffreyW is making my mouth water with these.

And finally in between a busy week of work and helping friends, I posted this week’s menu: Grilled Salmon with Orange Glaze and Grilled Tomato and Bell Pepper Soup.

I haven’t forgotten about the gluten free recipes everyone sent me, either. I’ll be using those in an upcoming recipe exchange. Since most of the recipes involve baking, I thought I’d wait until the weather was a bit cooler.

How about you? Is it still to hot to cook? What’s your go-to meal when it’s too hot to be in the kitchen? And what are you looking forward to making  when the weather cools down? For me, it’s always soups. Cool weather means soup in my house.

Okay, now for Joshua D (you may know him as Yutsano):

After months of teasing…here it is! This is great for when you have leftover chicken and biscuits or bread in the house and need to use it up. Since this is a French-inspired dish there are two ways to enjoy it: either over toasted croutons or biscuits. Both are equally delicious! Italian kale is available in most supermarkets, but if you can’t get it use adult spinach.

Chicken Provence

  • 1 lb cooked chicken
  • 2 shallots
  • 8-10 crimini mushrooms
  • 6-8 leaves Italian kale
  • 2-3 cloves garlic
  • 1 Roma tomato
  • 1/4 cup dry white wine (I use pinot grigio)
  • 1 tbsp herbes de Provence
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 2 tbsp parsley, divided
  • Salt & pepper to taste
  • 4-6 biscuits or 2 cups croutons from day old French bread

Shred chicken and set aside. In a large saucepan, heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Slice shallots and mushrooms thinly and throw into the pan. Season with some salt and pepper and cook 2-3 minutes. While those are cooking, chop kale into 1/2 inch thick ribbons including stems, then add to pan. Cook another 2-3 minutes with another pinch of salt. While that happens, slice garlic very thin and chop tomato. Add garlic to pan and cook another minute, then add tomato and as much juice as you can that came out. Give one final pinch of salt. Sauté for another minute, then add wine, chicken, and herbs. Reduce until the wine is almost but not completely gone, then stir in heavy cream. Reduce for about 5 minutes, then test for final seasoning. You may need a bit more herb or salt at this point. Slice open biscuits and spoon sauce over the top. You can re-heat or toast your biscuits or croutons as you’re cooking everything else, it takes about the same amount of time!

Thank you Yuts! It sounds delicious.  If anyone else wants to share a recipe for the exchange, send me an email, I’d love to post them. See you next week.  Until then…

 

X-Posted at Balloon-Juice

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Friday Recipe Exchange: Enchiladas

/ TaMara / 1 Comment

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Quick note: I’ve been playing with the layout of the blog, so it may change several more times over the weekend. Please standby.

JeffreyW has been teasing with some impressive looking South of the Border treats lately, so I thought it would be a good night to focus on them. The featured recipe is an enchilada pie. It  is kid friendly and a breeze to put together. Perfect for an easy weeknight dinner.

JeffreyW makes a similar dish, called Enchiladas Montadas (recipe here), which is pictured above.

Also from JeffreyW, a quick and easy Chicken Enchiladas (click here), including his terrific photos.

From frequent visitor, Joshua De Mers (you may know his as Yutsano), his Pork Enchiladas (recipe here).

All of that should give you an idea how to create your own enchilada to satisfy your tastes. Hit the comments and share some of your favorite enchilada, nacho, burrito or other favorites.  And if you need more inspiration, click here for a complete photo gallery of JeffreyW’s enchilada creations.

Finally, tonight’s featured recipe:

Enchilada Pie

  • 1 pound ground beef
  • ½ large onion, chopped
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • ¼ teaspoon oregano
  • ¼ teaspoon cumin
  • 20 oz. enchilada sauce
  • 8 oz. tomato sauce
  • 10 corn tortillas
  • 8 oz cheddar cheese, grated

skillet & 8×8 glass baking dish, lightly oiled

Add beef and onion to skillet and cook until beef is browned and onions are translucent. Add spices and sauces; let simmer while you prep tortillas. Tear tortillas into strips and use some to cover the bottom of a well-oiled casserole dish. Layer a portion of the beef mixture and cheese on top, then repeat (tortillas, beef, cheese) to fill up casserole; finish with layer of cheese. Bake 30 minutes at 350°