Delishytown

Hard Root Beer Braised Brisket

This was a delicious experiment. Traditionally, red wine is used when cooking brisket. I’ve used beer before, mostly IPA’s, when slow cooking meats, and it always comes out yummy. So, I recently bought a six pack of the “Best Root Beer Ever” hard root beer, to make fancy, alcoholy, root beer floats, (so good). We still had a bunch of cans leftover, so I decided to try the hard root beer in this recipe to see if the sarsaparilla spices would give it a mysterious savoriness. It worked great! This was pretty dang delicious.

This is easy, cooking time is about 4 hours, with 20 minutes of prep. You could easily crock pot this and have dinner ready when you get home from work or school. 

Sear salted and peppered meat in butter and a small amount of bacon grease, or vegetable oil. Let it cook until browned, browning on all sides. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, 2 tbsp olive oil, 3 big garlic cloves, chopped, 1 med chopped onion, 1 large chopped shallot, 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 can hard root beer, 1 Meyer lemon, juiced, 2 tbsp ketchup, 3/4 cup hot water, 1 tsp beef base, 2 tsp Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, and 1 or 2  bay leaves. Stir it around and let the sugar dissolve. Place the meat in a roasting pan, pour the aromatic mixture on top of it, and scoot some underneath. Cover tightly and bake at 325 for 3 to 4 hours. (For a crock pot version it would be about 8 hours, on low, I think.)

Slice against the grain, serve on a crusty roll and garnish with fresh slaw and jalapeño slices if you like it hot. For easy fresh slaw: Shred 1/4 of a small cabbage and 2 carrots, dress with a mixture of 1 tbsp mayo, 2 tbsp plain yogurt, 1/2 cup milk, juice of 1/2 lemon, sprinkle of salt, pinch of sugar or honey, a fresh grind of pepper, 1 fresh chopped shallot, and a sprinkle of fresh or dried dill. Yum!

Tarragon, Garlic & Meyer Lemon Roast Chicken

 Happy weekend Tumblrs. I made this yummy chicken yesterday. This was sweet, tangy and amazingly delicious. This is a perfect weekend dish. You can make it for dinner today, and have leftovers for sandwiches and tacos tomorrow. That makes life easy.

Here’s how I made this: Chop tarragon, rosemary, cilantro, parsley, thyme, and 4 large garlic cloves. Mix with Meyer lemon zest, softened butter, a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and the juice from the lemon. Rub it all over chicken, add more salt and pepper. Put the lemon halves inside along with a cut up onion and herb stems. Add a little white wine or water to the bottom of the roasting pan, 3/4 cup or so. Roast at 350 for 1.5 to 2 hours until cooked to 165 degrees in thickest part of the thigh.

The herbs and citrus I used for this dish were from our back yard. The heirloom onions are growing in the front yard. The Meyer lemons are so good this year, and they’re all over our neighborhood. I love citrus season. Vegetable gardening in the winter is easy and delicious. I need to get out there and plant some more seeds while it’s still cold out. Peas, favas, and more greens and shallots are some of the things lacking in my garden just about now. But we do have massive amounts of arugula, rosemary, strawberries, lots of Meyer lemons and leeks and onions. The blueberry plants are starting to flower, I might plant a couple more of those. I also cut back my thornless blackberry and am hoping for a good harvest this spring. Our apple tree still has apples and they are delicious. 

Goat Cheese, Roasted Red Pepper, & Sun-dried Tomato Chicken Sandwich

This sandwich is easy and so delicious! I used leftover herb roasted chicken from dinner the other night. Start with everything French bread (toasted) spread with plain Goat cheese on the bottom, chopped sun dried tomatoes on the top, (the kind packed in olive oil), the cooked chicken, lots of sliced roasted red peppers, (char under the broiler, cover and steam, then peel and chop), mesclun greens, a drizzle with Balsamic vinegar de Modena (this stuff is delicious!) and garnish with peperoncini, and my favorite Castelvetrano olives. Yum!

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese with Sausage and Peppers

This was our delicious dinner last night! Yum. My husband said that I’m an awesome chef. This creamy mac and cheese is sweet and amazing with just a hint of nutmeg for a delicious Fall bite. Here’s how to make this:

Cut a butternut squash in half, drizzle with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Place it in a roasting dish, cut side up, bake at 375 for 45 minutes until fork tender. Set aside until cool enough to handle.

While the squash bakes: Saute 4 Italian sausages in a skillet. Add 2 tbsp olive oil, 1 chopped sweet onion, season with salt and pepper and cook until the sausages start to brown. Add 4 cloves finely chopped garlic and 2 bell peppers cut in large slices. I used red bell but you can use green or red, whatever you like. Once the sausage is mostly cooked, add 1 can of whole peeled tomatoes, blended with a stick blender or cut roughly, whichever you prefer. Season with 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning or 1/2 tsp dried basil, 1/4 tsp sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer the tomato sauce on low until it bubbles and the veggies and sausage cook, about 15 minutes. 

Boil salted water for pasta. Cook any macaroni you like according to package directions, make sure not to overcook cause it will cook further in the oven. Scoop the cooled squash out of it’s shell, add to a food processor or bowl, add 3/4 cup milk or cream, 2 tbsp butter, salt and pepper, 1/2 tsp fresh grated nutmeg and puree until smooth. Grate some cheese, whatever you like. I used about 1 cup of grated sharp cheddar and white cheddar, with a little Parmigiano Reggiano for nutty sharpness. The butternut squash makes the creamy base for the sauce so you can go easy on the cheese, or not. It’ll still comes out great even with a little bit of cheese. I love cheese, so I used a good amount. Stir in by hand the grated cheese. If it’s too thick, you can thin it with 1/4 to 1/2 cup more milk, water or chicken or veggie stock. Toss the cooked pasta in the squash and cheese mixture. 

Scoop some of the sausage, pepper tomato sauce to the bottom of a buttered baking dish, top with some of the squash macaroni and cheese, add a little more cheese on top and bake for 10 to 20 minutes until bubbling and ridiculous. The time in the oven depends on how big your baking dish is. If you put it all in one big casserole it will take about 20 minutes. I like to use 3 or 4 of these individual dishes so it cooks quickly because I’m always starving. Have a great weekend Tumblrs! 

Smokey Andouille Red Beans and Rice

This sausage and two bean stew is delicious. I used small dried red beans that are sold in bulk or in a bag, and 1 can of organic red kidney beans. The small red beans are creamy and amazing when they cook down, and the kidney beans have a nice meaty bite. This is delicious and cheap and tastes even better the next day. This recipe makes a lot of stew so you can share it with your friends. We used smokey andouille sausage to build the flavor. If you don't eat meat, use veggie sausage or just omit it. It's easy to build flavor with paprika, chili powder, celery salt and fresh veggie stock. From the garden we used parsley, fennel, celery, and our first poblano pepper in this dish. Fresh garden vegetables have the best flavor. 

Wash and sort dried red beans, cover with water and soak overnight. Soaking overnight helps them cook faster. Make veggie stock by simmering onions, celery, carrots, fresh fennel and garlic for 40 minutes or so. Strain stock and set aside. Or use a carton of purchased veggie or chicken stock. Or use both. 

Sear sausage in a heavy bottomed stew pot and set aside. In the same pot sauté chopped veggies: 1 small sweet onion, 1 bell or poblano pepper, 2 celery stalks and 5 cloves of garlic in 2 tblsp olive oil. Rinse the soaked beans and add them to the pot with about 3 or 4 cups stock, 1 can of rinsed, drained kidney beans and the sausage. Season with 1 tsp smoked paprika, a little chipotle chili powder, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1/4 tsp cumin, and fresh ground black pepper. Turn heat to low and cover to simmer.

I don't salt at the beginning of the bean cooking process because I've read that it makes the beans take longer to cook. Once the beans soften a bit, after about 1/2 hour or 45 minutes, add celery salt to taste. Continue to cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until the beans are creamy and the gravy is thickened. Serve with parsley rice. 

I cook rice in an unconventional way and it comes out almost perfect almost every time. I cook it sort of the way you cook pasta, in lots of water, then quickly strain and cover to steam. Rinse 1 cup Basmati rice in a sauce pan a few times until the water runs clear. Add 4 or more cups cold water and 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat to medium low and keep an eye on it. After simmering for 6-8 minutes or so, taste a few grains for texture. Once the rice is al dente, drain in a mesh strainer, add it quickly back to the pot with 2 tblsp chopped parsley and a little butter or olive oil and cover to steam. To make the fancy rice & beans presentation, ladle the bean stew into a soup dish, press the rice into a small bowl sprayed with olive oil spray, then turn it over on top of the bean and sausage stew. Yum! 

J. C.'s Shepherd's Pie

We made these delicious Shepherd's Pies yesterday for my Dad's Cookbook. I'm getting close to being done with cooking and photography for this project, but I still have to layout all the pages and export the files to go to the printer. I'm going to be working on it all week. It's a lot of work, but I like working on big projects. These recipes are all coming out great, I think my Dad is going to be really surprised to get a recipe book of all his dishes for a birthday present.

This was delicious and easy. Here's how to make J. C.'s Shepherd's Pie:

Make mashed potatoes by boiling 5 or 6 potatoes in salted water, drain and mash with 1/4 cup milk and 1 tblsp butter. Set aside while you make the filling.

My Dad's version has ground beef, but You can easily make a vegetarian version of this by sautéing the veggies, maybe add some garbanzo or kidney beans, and then make veggie gravy the same way as described below, with flour and butter or oil, and veggie stock. 

Heat oven to 400

Brown 1 lb. Grass fed ground beef seasoned with celery salt & pepper. Drain away any fat. Add chopped vegetables, 1 onion, 2 carrots, 3 stalks celery and 4 crushed garlic cloves. Cook until fragrant. Remove all the veggies and meat from the pan and add 1 tblsp butter and 1 tblsp flour. Cook for a minute or two and whisk in 2 cups beef stock, and 1/2 bottle of beer, drink the other half. Whisk until it thickens up and add back the other ingredients. At this point add 1/2 cup corn, 1/2 cup peas and a big handful of chopped green beans. Season with celery salt, a little more pepper, big pinch of dried basil, a sprinkle of cinnamon, and 1 tablespoon Hungarian paprika or smoked paprika.

Cook the strew until it thickens up a little, about 10 minutes. Spoon into casserole dishes, top with some of the the mashed potatoes and swirl the top around to get crunchy bits, top with cheddar cheese if you want. Bake for 10 minutes until the cheese melts and its bubbly and hot.

Yum!

Smokey Carne Asada Tacos with Pomegranate Seeds

These Tacos were so delicious!  I used grass fed rib eye for this recipe. The grass fed beef is seasoned with a mixture of coriander powder, Ancho Chili powder, smoked salt, celery salt, Spanish smoked Paprika, Freshly ground black pepper, cumin, garlic powder and onion powder. I mix together a 1/4 tsp or so of each spice and then sprinkle the mixture on the sliced pieces of steak before searing in a very hot cast iron pan for about 3 to 5 minutes. Serve on warm corn tortillas. and garnish with your favorite taco garnishes. I like to garnish tacos with chopped avocado or guacamole, hot sauce, cilantro, chopped tomatoes,  pickled peppers, shredded lettuce, crumbly Mexican cheese.  I also experimented with some pomegranate seeds because we have so many pomegranates that our friends gave us from their tree. The pomegranate seeds gave the tacos an unexpected crunch and tartness. Yum!

Chicken Pot Pie

 I love autumn, turning on the oven, and baking something good. My husband loves to say that. I'll ask him "What should we make for dinner?" and he'll say, "I don't know, something good. I don't want anything that is even remotely bad." 

 This chicken pie was so good. I used leftover chicken and some fresh veggies for the chicken stew. I cut the pie crust into stars because I wanted the picture to look pretty. If you're not going to take a photo of your pot pies, then just top it with the crust and poke some holes in it for steam to escape. It was fun cutting out the stars though and now I think I need more small cookie cutters in different shapes. I'm pretty sure I could spend a zillion dollars on cooking equipment with out any problem. I'll try not to.

You can make this with store bought pie crusts, but I like to make my own pie crust because it's easy, I use organic, non GMO ingredients, it's much more delicious, and saves a lot of money. 

Grate 1 stick of frozen butter into 1 cup flour. Mix with a pastry cutter or a fork. Add 1/4 cup or so ice water. Knead together, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Cut up leftover chicken, or bake some chicken, or buy an organic rotisserie chicken and cut that up.

Chop some onions, carrots, celery and potatoes. Saute them in 2 tblsp olive oil and 1 T butter, season with salt and pepper. Add the chicken pieces to the veggies and turn the heat down low. Scoot the ingredients to the edges and add 1 more T butter, add 1 T flour. Turn the heat back up a little & cook butter and flour together until the flour taste cooks away, about a minute. Add chicken stock, whisk and thicken into a gravy. Season with salt and pepper, dried or fresh tarragon and 1 bay leaf. Let the stew bubble and thicken for a minute. Cool the mixture down. If you put the cold pie crust on the hot chicken stew, the whole thing will turn to mush.

Roll out your pie crust and cut it into pretty shapes or not.

Spoon the cooled chicken stew into small buttered baking dishes and cover each one with some pie crust. Brush with egg wash and bake at 375 for about 45 min to an hour. Yum!

Spicy Shrimp Tacos with Sweet Avocado Cream

Happy Taco Tuesday Tumblrs! This was our delicious lunch today. The greens and herbs in this dish came from our back garden. It's getting hot here so I'm trying to use up the salad greens before they bolt. Salad greens like cool weather, and it was 100 here yesterday. I'm still going to try to grow some in the shade this summer. I bet it will work. I love our home grown garden salads. I especially love the Arugula! It's spicy and delicious and tastes so amazing fresh out of the garden.

Here's how to make these yummy shrimp tacos:

For the Avocado Cream dressing, blend 1 or 2 avocados with 1 cup plain yogurt, the juice of 1/2 lemon, 2 tblsp Cider vinegar, a small smashed garlic clove, a small handful of chopped cilantro, handful of chopped parsley, a drizzle of honey, and salt and pepper. (This dressing keeps in the fridge for about 5 days.) 

Heat a grill pan to high. Heat a few organic corn tortillas on the hot grill pan and set aside. 

Marinate the shrimp with 2 tsp coconut oil, the lemon juice from the other half of the lemon, a sprinkle each of ancho chili powder, chipotle chili powder, ground coriander, freshly smashed garlic or garlic powder, salt and pepper. Sear the shrimp on both sides until cooked through, about 2 to 3 minutes. 

Serve your tacos with salad greens and chopped tomatoes and the creamy dressing. Yum! 

Seared Tuna with Mango Avocado Relish and Frizzled Onions

This was our delicious lunch the other day. Yum!

Slice 1 sweet onion and reserve 1 or 2 tblsp for the mango relish.  Season the rest of the sliced onions with salt and pepper and dust with flour. Heat 1/4 cup oil in a cast iron skillet. Cook the onions in the hot oil until caramelized and frizzled. I used coconut oil and sunflower oil to cook the onions in this photo.

Chop the reserved onions into fine dice and toss with chopped mango and avocado. You can use tomato too, but I didn't have any. Season with red chili flakes, salt and pepper and dress with lemon or lime juice and olive oil. 

Discard the oil and wipe the cast iron skillet clean with paper towels. Add a little coconut oil and heat until hot. Season the tuna steaks with salt and pepper and sear on both sides for about 1-2 minutes per side. You don't want to overcook the tuna, it should still be pink in the middle.

Once the tuna is cooked, serve it with the mango relish, salad greens,  and garnish with the frizzled onions. I also added a little drizzle of sesame oil and organic soy sauce.

Delicious Veggie Fried Rice

This is a delicious way to use leftover rice, yum! It's easy to make, just chop up whatever vegetables you have on hand. I start with chopped onions in a hot skillet with a little coconut oil, chop and add the densest vegetables first. I used a bunch of fresh veggies from my spring garden including shallots, rainbow carrots, peas, and cilantro. I also used store bought sweet onion, garlic and asparagus. Season with 1 tblsp organic soy sauce, a little sesame oil, and some Chinese Five Spice, a little red chili flake or cayenne, and coriander powder. Add the rice along with a little stock once the veggies are most of the way cooked. Yum! 

Lemony Kale Spaghetti

This is delicious, easy, healthy, and very inexpensive if you're already growing kale and basil. You can swap out any garden greens, like chard or spinach, for the kale in this recipe. I used spaghetti, but you can use any kind of pasta you like.

Here's how I made this delicious dish.

Boil a pot of salted water for pasta.

In a separate skillet, saute 1 chopped shallot in a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Wash, stem and chop any kind of kale, I used curly kale. Add it to the skillet and sauté. Meanwhile, cook pasta according to package directions.

Keep stirring and cooking your kale until it's cooked to desired doneness, I like mine to be cooked, but not mushy, and still have a bite to it. So I only cooked mine for about 10 minutes total.

Squeeze the juice from 1/2 lemon over the kale in the skillet. Add a big handful of fresh chopped basil. Drain the noodles and toss them with the lemony kale. 

Serve with parmesan cheese, a drizzle of olive oil and lemon wedges. Yum!

Banh Mi Steak Sandwich & Potato Salad

This isn't a traditional Banh Mi, because I made it with beef instead of pork, and didn't garnish with pate or pickled daikon. I did make pickled cucumber, onion and carrots for a garnish. And I marinated the steak with Asian flavors. I was out of cilantro, so I used fresh basil from the garden instead. Well, I guess I changed almost everything from a traditional Banh Mi, so you could say this is a Banh Mi inspired steak sandwich. Anyway, Yum! Delicious! You will like this a lot!

Marinate steak with the juice of 1 tangerine, (or lemon or lime), 1 tblsp rice vinegar, 1 tblsp fish sauce, 1 tsp fresh grated ginger, 2 minced garlic cloves, 1/2 tsp red chili paste, fresh ground pepper, 1 tsp soy sauce and 1 tsp sesame oil. Cover and refrigerate for 2 or more hours.

For the pickled garnish: Slice cucumbers thinly, slice green onions, shred carrots and slice jalapeños. In a saucepan, heat 1 cup white vinegar, 1/2 cup water, and dissolve 1 tblsp sugar and 1/2 tsp kosher salt. Add pickling spices, I used 1/4 tsp coriander seeds, mustard seeds, dry dill and red pepper flakes. Cover the vegetables with the hot pickling liquid and refrigerate while you do the potato salad.

For the potato salad: Peel and boil 6 or so red potatoes until al dente. Dress with a mixture of 1/4 cup mayo, 1/2 cup greek yogurt, 1 tblsp red wine vinegar, 1/2 tsp dried dill, 1/2 tsp dry mustard, 1 small minced garlic clove, sliced green onions, sliced celery, celery salt and pepper.

Grill steak, let it rest for 10 minutes before slicing. Slice French Bread and dress both sides with a little mayo. Layer your ingredients, top with fresh torn basil or cilantro, and enjoy your Banh Mi! 

(Ok, autocorrect, I get it, you want me to call this a Bank Mi. I get it. No, Your ideas are good. Yeah it's great that you have opinions about fixing the stuff I write. Thanks autocorrect, thanks for stopping by.)

Greek Salad with Feta and a side of Dolmas

This was my delicious lunch today. I love Greek salad! It's so good. When I went grocery shopping today, the red bell peppers, cherry tomatoes, purple onions and cucumbers were on sale. I still had a small block of Goat's milk Feta from earlier this week, so I decided to make Greek salad.

Wash and spin romaine lettuce, chop red bell peppers, slice cherry tomatoes in half, slice 1/4th of a purple onion into slivers, chop feta cheese into small cubes, peel, quarter and chop hothouse cucumber. Place all the salad ingredients on a plate with some kalamata olives. Dress with lemon vinaigrette.

For the lemon vinaigrette: 2 tsp red wine vinegar, juice of 1 lemon, salt and pepper, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1 smashed open garlic clove (I just let it sit in the dressing to flavor it) and about 3 tblsp olive oil. Whisk and serve with Greek salad.

I didn't make the dolmas, they were sold in a can next to the Greek olives, so I bought them. I've been wanting to try making dolmas for so long, and I bought grape leaves and everything. I'm going to learn how to make them this weekend. But for today, these organic canned ones will do.

This was as delicious as any salad I've ever had! Yum!

Chicago Dog with Everything

This was our delicious dinner tonight. We were in Chicago last weekend and brought these poppy seed buns back on the plane with us. They don't make poppy seed buns in California. All our Chicago friends out here go crazy for "real" Chicago dogs. This was so good and worth the trouble of carrying poppy seed buns on the plane.

In Chicago this type of garnish is called "dragging it through the garden". The celery salt is a key ingredient here and adds to the fresh garden taste. 

Cook organic beef hot dogs in simmering water and dress with mustard, relish, chopped onions, sport peppers, (or your favorite pickled peppers), tomatoes, and celery salt*.   

* I was out of celery salt so I made my own by grinding celery seed with kosher salt in the mortar and pestle. Yum!

Turkey & Fennel Lasagna Bolognese

My neighbors had a beautiful baby girl this week! Yay! I made them a lasagna and some garlic bread so they wouldn't have to cook dinner when they came home from the hospital. When I was growing up, my Mom always brought dinner to neighbors who had babies, so, I'm carrying on the tradition.

I usually cook Italian sausage into my lasagna sauce, but it's spicy and I didn't want the baby to get indigestion from what her Mom was eating. So instead, I braised ground turkey with fresh baby fennel from my garden. It came out delicious and just fennel-y enough to taste like sausage.

In a heavy bottomed pot, add 1 tblsp olive oil, and brown 1 lb ground turkey with 2 or 3 chopped baby fennel bulbs, (cores and fronds removed), 1 medium chopped onion, about 10 brown mushrooms, and 2 chopped carrots. Season with salt and pepper, a sprinkle of cinnamon, a bay leaf, dash of paprika, pinch of dried basil, and some celery salt. 

Once the meat is browned add 2 cans whole peeled tomatoes, chopped or blended, 2 tblsp tomato paste, 1 cup wine or stock, and salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for 45 minutes or so while you prep all the other ingredients.

Mix 1 large container ricotta cheese, 1 egg, fresh chopped parsley and fresh chopped basil, salt and pepper and 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese in a bowl.  Place in the fridge until you're ready to assemble the lasagna.

Preheat oven to 375. 

Grate mozzerella, cheddar and parmesan cheeses. 

Cook lasagna noodles to al dente and rinse with cold water.

To assemble the lasagna, butter 1 large lasagna pan. Add 1 cup or so of the sauce to the bottom of the pan. Place noodles over the sauce. Drop ricotta cheese mixture by spoonfuls over the noodles and spread it into one layer. Top with some of the grated cheeses. Continue layering with the noodles, sauce, and remaining cheese mixture.

Bake lasagna at 375 (covered loosely with parchment paper or foil), until hot, bubbly and amazing, about 1 hour. Uncover for the last few minutes of baking to caramelize the cheese. Yum!

Betty Spaghetti Sauce

This is what I make when I don't have the time or inclination to go grocery shopping for dinner. We always try to have some sort of pasta and a can of whole peeled tomatoes in the pantry cabinet. The caramelization of the tomato juice is key for building flavor in this dish. 

Peel and mince 1 shallot. Saute in a little olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Add some crushed garlic, 2 - 5 cloves depending on their size.

Once the aromatics have sautéed for a minute, open a large can of whole peeled tomatoes and pour a little of the juice into the pan, about 1/4 cup. (This also helps so you don't have too much liquid in the can for the stick blender to get in there.) Let the tomato juice bubble and caramelize with the shallots and garlic for a minute. This builds the flavor quite a lot! Blend the can of tomatoes with a stick blender or food processor. You can also just chop them if you like chunky sauce. Add the rest of the tomatoes to the pan and stir. Season with a big pinch of dried basil and a little more salt and pepper.

Serve with any cooked pasta, (we used whole wheat spaghettini) garnish with grated cheese, (we used parmesan and cheddar) a salad, and maybe some garlic bread. 

Yum!