Summer Vegetable Goulash

When I was in college a friend of mine used to love to cook late night after coming home from the bars.  He would invent dishes based on whatever he might have around the apartment.  The result, however, usually ended up some nondescript orange slop.  My hopes were that my invented dish would not suffer the same fate.  A little bit of editing, and sobriety, are important when cooking.  The tendency of some chefs is to keep adding ingredients.  But that often ends up rather muddled.

We had two summer squash fresh from the garden. I also had a vegetable tray at my office with celery, carrots, cherry tomatoes, and bright colored bell peppers.  I decided I wanted to make a dish to incorporate all these great vegetables.

I sautéed some sausage in my Dutch oven with Italian pepper seasoning.  Then I pulled the meat out and added in a combination of a mirepoix and the holy trinity of cooking (celery, carrots, onion, and bell peppers).  I’m calling it “The fantastic four”.   These ingredients are called aromatics.  I also threw in a bay leaf, some rosemary, fresh parsley, salt & pepper.  

After letting the aromatics sweat and cook a little, I threw in garlic and the squash and tomatoes. After cooking them together for a little bit, I added back in the sausage, a small amount of tomato sauce, and a little red wine.  I finished it with a little mozzarella and provolone cheeses to bind everything together.  I served that atop some spiral noodles and voila:  summer vegetable goulash.

It may not be the prettiest picture, but it wasn’t orange slop.  The house smelled wonderful, and we got a lot of vegetables.  I call that a success.

Pickled Peppers

You can call me Peter Piper because I just pickled some peppers!  This is my third foray into pickling.  I tried it earlier this summer with some jalapenos and red onions.  The first time it was as a topping for our taco bar, and the second time was for hamburgers and hot dogs off the grill.  Both times our guests really seemed to like them.  I actually got an e-mail from one of my out of town friends that said the pickled onions really made the burger something special.

This time our friend Eric gave me a bunch of red & green jalapeno peppers from their garden.  He asked, “How many will you eat?  Because I have at least this many more ready to be picked.”  I told him I’d take them all.  I said I would pickle and jar them so they’ll be available when he comes over to watch football at our house this fall.  Eric is a heat seeker when it comes to food. 

They are traditionally great with some nachos.  But like I said above, you can use them on tacos, burgers, hot dogs … heck, even pizzas.

There are so many different directions you can go with pickling.  It can be sweet, spicy, citrus-y (?).  The important thing is to get some quality non-iodized pickling salt.  It has also been suggested to use distilled water if you’re going to add any water to your brine.

But you can use white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, red wine vinegar, you name it.  And you can add sugar, or not.  Mustard seeds, garlic, bay leaves, coriander, crushed red pepper flakes, lemon or lime juice, and cinnamon are all suitable additions.  I say you tinker around with it and see what you like.

I sliced up the jalapenos with some fresh sweet peppers and rinsed them off quick to wash away some of the seeds.  Then I threw them into my boiling brine.  Let them go for a few minutes and then remove them from the heat.  Pour them into a jar and let them cool to room temperature before putting the lid on and throwing them into the fridge.  You can also preserve them for later; but I’m pretty sure they will be eaten quickly!

Home-Made Spaghetti Sauce

Me:  "Do you want to document this?"
The Mrs.:  "It just looks like spaghetti."

And she was right.  It wasn't a spectacular photo.  But I still think it's worth mentioning.  It rained 1.41" here Sunday -- which is amazing because we have had such an awful drought this summer.  But it also meant that we had a gloomy Sunday afternoon to be in the house.

The Mrs. decided to use some of the fresh tomatoes we got from our friends' garden.  She said she did it the old-fashioned way.  Cut an an X, boil them, throw them in cold water, remove the peal.  Then squeeze the seeds & juice out, cut them up, and toss them in a pan with diced onions and let them simmer.  Then add the seasonings of your choice.  We use garlic, basil, parsley, oregano, red wine, crushed red peppers, bay leaves, salt & pepper.

A few words of advice when it comes to pasta:  1. Salt the water.  It will add a lot of flavor.  2. Stop boiling the pasta just before it's done.  And don't rinse it. 3. Finish cooking the noodles in the sauce.  They will soak up a ton of flavor.

The house smelled amazing.  This is a time of year when a lot of produce is at it's very best ... and cheapest. So take the opportunity to make some deliciously fresh meals.  We also cubed up a round loaf of sour dough bread and mixed in green onions, garlic, provolone cheese, and melted butter.  Then throw it in the oven.  That was a nice side along with a lite arugula salad with a lemon vinaigrette.  It was delicious.

But not very photogenic.

Italian Pork Sandwich

I think an important thing for a home cook to keep in mind is that not every meal needs to be fine dining gourmet cuisine.  Sometimes practicality needs to take over.  Quick, easy meals are essential too.  Whatever keeps you from veering your car into some drive thru or grabbing a frozen pizza will do wonders for your wallet and your health.

Tonight I decided to use some leftovers for a quick meal without much effort.  I grabbed one of the breaded pork cutlets from the Milanese dish as well as about 5 inches of the Italian bread loaf.  You may want to pull some of the breading out of the middle of the loaf so it isn’t so thick.  In Mexico sandwiches like this are called tortas.

Then I popped the pork and the bread into the toaster oven.  I sprayed the bread with a little olive oil so it would get nice and toasty.  I covered the pork with some provolone cheese toward the end. (You could use Swiss or mozzarella too.)  Keep an eye on these so they don’t burn, though.  After heating it all up, I added some marinara sauce and some fresh parsley to complete the sandwich.  It ended up being similar to a meatball sub.  You probably want to put the marinara sauce underneath the pork and not on top of the cheese – otherwise the bread will slide right off.

I accidentally made mine upside down when I was trying to take a picture. Oops. It still tasted good.

Pork Chops Milanese

I may have to type this blog one-handed because I threw my shoulder out patting myself on the back.  This one is a keeper for sure!

When we got married the first thing I registered for that I wanted for myself was a power drill.  The next:  a Dutch oven.  And I got a bright red Mario Batali Dutch oven.  It came with a very small recipe book that I promptly filed away with all of our other recipe books and then proceeded to forget about for 14 months.  Well, I’m glad I stumbled upon that little gem.  It should come as no surprise that a Mario Batali dish is delicious.  But it’s also really easy to make.

Pound out some pork chops into ¼” cutlets.  This is a great way to relieve stress too!  I used the back of a skillet and started whacking away at them.  Dredge them in eggs and Italian bread crumbs and then fry them in a ¼ cup of olive oil with one tbsp of butter.  Let them sit for 5 minutes on one side and then carefully flip them over for another 5 minutes until they’re golden brown.  Pat them dry with a paper towel.

While they’re cooking, slice ½ lb. of teardrop tomatoes (we used heirloom) and throw them in a large bowl with a big bunch of arugula.  Add 3 tbsp of olive oil, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and salt & pepper and toss it all together.  Serve them together topped with some fresh chopped parsley and a lemon wedge on the side.  We also baked a loaf of Italian bread from the freezer isle to complete the meal.

The peppery bite from the arugula and the acid from the lemon vinaigrette cut really nicely through the richness of the pork cutlets.  This is one of the best dishes I have made … ever.

Creole Skillet Dinner

Chicken Broth

Whole Wheat Rice

Red Onion

Minced Garlic

Chili Powder

Ground Turmeric

Bay Leaf

Red Pepper

Green Pepper

Green Onions

Fresh Parsley

Dried Basil

Dried Thyme

Hot Sauce

Butter

Mushrooms

Tomato

Frozen Peas

Chicken Breast

Lemon Juice

Toasted Almonds

The cookbook calls this one “Creole Skillet Dinner” – I might call it an American Paella.  If you read the original description of this blog, one of the things we like to do is pick a labor-intensive dish to make on Sunday nights.  Today was a cool, crisp day that feels almost like fall.  So we decided to make something hearty.  Well, this dish is certainly that.

The whole house smells delicious after this preparation.  Chock full of fresh vegetables and rice, this dish is filling and satisfying while remaining really good for you too.  This would be a great dish to serve a hungry group on a cool day.  Plus if you like hot sauce, this will really warm you up.  The recipe actually doesn’t call for much heat, but we served ours with hot sauce to taste.  We just felt it should have some kick if it’s going to have Creole in the name.

It isn’t too hard to make either.  So I shouldn't scare anybody away by calling it labor-intensive.  I just mean that it has a lot of ingredients, and I did a lot of chopping fresh veggies.  But you get the rice going in the chicken stock along with the first group of ingredients and let that simmer for 20 minutes.  While that’s working, you can sauté the peppers and mushrooms with the second group of ingredients.  

Add all that together and let them marry while you cook the chicken in lemon juice.  Combine everything and top with toasted almonds and serve.  Invite your friends or family over because this meal fills a crowd. 

See what I mean by "American Paella"?  The chicken stock and turmeric give the rice that yellow color, much like the saffron does for paella.

Eggplant Parmesan

Now this is a labor-intense one.  I won’t lie about that.  But if you’re willing to challenge yourself a bit, it’s worth it.  This dish is fantastic.  We have actually made it several times.  In fact, we made chicken parmesan afterward and didn’t like it as much as this vegetarian delight!

We bought fresh eggplant from the farmer’s market.  The woman selling them gave us a little tip: the smaller the “hole” on the end of the eggplant, the fewer the seeds.  

Since this is a more involved dish, I decided to document a few steps along the way.  After you slice the eggplants into round slices, spread them out on a baking sheet and liberally sprinkle them with pickling salt.  This will draw out a lot of the moisture.  See all the beading?  Pretty crazy, huh?  You don’t want this to be wet when they go into the hot oil.  1. It will spatter.  2. They can turn out soggy.

Rinse them off with cool water in a colander and then dry them with a paper towel.  Create yourself a dredging station with flour, egg, and breadcrumbs.  The breadcrumbs should be seasoned.  We bought pre-seasoned Italian breadcrumbs, and yes they’re whole wheat.  The flour helps the egg coat the eggplant, and the egg helps the breadcrumbs stick.  Spread them all out and heat up your cooking oil.  Fry them for about 3 minutes, flipping once, in small batches.  If you overcrowd your oil, the temperature will drop and they won’t fry fast enough.

Blot off excess oil with paper towels after frying.  I like to fry them on the side burner of my grill outside so the house doesn't smell like frying oil.  All you'll smell at the end of this dish is deliciousness.  Yes, that's a word. 

Then layer them into a casserole dish along with marinara sauce, mozzarella & parmesan cheeses -- much like you’re building a lasagna.  Bake until the cheese has melted and turned a golden brown.

Fire Roasted Salsa

This could maybe be better described as “Salsa De Gallo” because it’s pretty chunky.  I did it that way on purpose.  You could always blend it up in a food processor.  But we happen to like pico de gallo. 

This is another application of some fresh produce courtesy of Farmer Eric.  (I only call him that because he’s the only person I know that has a good garden this summer during the worst draught in 50 years.)

I sliced tomatoes, yellow onion, and green pepper into large pieces.  I also cut a jalapeno pepper in half and took the seeds out (leave them in if you want it hotter).  We have an olive oil sprayer that we got from Crate & Barrel.  It’s pretty slick and it works great for grilling vegetables.  I sprayed one side of the veggies, hit them with salt & pepper, and then put them on the grill.  Then I sprayed the other side and seasoned that as well.

I let them get a good char and then flipped them over (carefully) using tongs.  Remove them from the grill and let them cool to room temperature.  Then slice into smaller chunks and add to a bowl along with chopped cilantro, minced garlic, and lime juice.  Stir and enjoy!

Chicken Quesadillas with Fresh Jalapeños

This is another relatively easy dish that we make often at our house.  I was a picky eater as a child, but I could always go for a cheese quesadilla.  As my tastes have evolved, so have the ingredients I put into this versatile dish.  This is the third meal we have made from the chicken breasts that were on sale this week.  (I feel a bit like Rachel Ray.)

I chunked the chicken breast and sliced up some fresh jalapeño peppers from “Farmer Eric’s” garden.  Heat a pan to just below medium.  You can use a quesadilla maker, which my mom bought me in spite of my insistence that I don’t need another kitchen appliance (thanks Mom, by the way).  Either will work fine.  But a word of advice, much like the in the pizza blog before, don’t overload your quesadillas.  And even more important:  keep the wet ingredients out of it.  If you like sour cream, salsa, or guacamole, wait to add them until after you have cooked it.  Your quesadilla will get soggy and it will likely seep out all of the edges – especially in a quesadilla maker that presses from both the top and bottom.

Lightly coat your first tortilla with butter or margarine and place it on the pan.  Then add your toppings.  Lately I have preferred to shred my own cheese in lieu of buying the shredded type.  It’s a little cheaper that way.  But the pre-shredded type works fine and I still use it often when I don’t feel like shredding my own.  This week I added chicken breast, sharp cheddar cheese, green onions, jalapeño sliced (de-seeded, sorry Eric), and some cumin.  Then butter your top tortilla and place on top.  Flipping can be a bit of an art form.  Wait until the cheese has melted so it will hold together better.  I have a wide spatula that I get underneath the quesadilla, then hold the pan over the top of it and quickly flip.

Once you’re done lightly browning both sides and melting all the ingredients together, slice and serve with your wet ingredients. 

*This is another time we substitute whole wheat tortillas.  With the butter and all the yummy additions, you can’t notice.   Now if you’re just having soft shell tacos, you will notice the difference.  Sadly, wheat tortillas just aren’t the same as a good old fashioned white flour tortilla.

BBQ Chicken Pizza with Fresh Mozzarella & Caramelized Onions

My wife loves tomatoes …and by association, tomato sauce.  So homemade pizzas is another dish we love to make at our house.  For those of you with kids, this is a great activity for the family.  Plus, everyone loves pizza and this way you can control what goes into it.  I have fond memories of my dad making pizzas when I was younger.

Earlier this summer I convinced my wife to let me make a pizza using BBQ sauce instead of a traditional tomato sauce.  She was not in favor (that is, until she tried it).  Now I have made her a believer.  This is a great idea for the summer.  In fact, I grilled it that first time. We used the conventional oven tonight and it was just as good.

It was her idea to find a way to use all the chicken breasts she cooked the night before.  We chopped that up and put it atop the pizza along with circles of fresh mozzarella and caramelized onion.  It was delicious.

Here is a tip for the crust:  We just use those instant add water types.  But I suggest baking it by itself for 10-12 minutes before putting any toppings on.  You can dust your pan with corn meal if you like, and I suggest poking holes in the crust with a fork to allow the steam to escape so it doesn’t bubble up. 

Now it’s time for the toppings.  You can go wild here – but only in the types of toppings, not the quantity.  Do NOT overload your pizza.  Trust me on this one.  It took me years to realize that my wife’s deft hand was the reason her pizzas always turn out better than mine.  I was overloading them with toppings.  So use them sparingly.

This is also a great way to incorporate fresh vegetables.  You can go for non-traditional toppings too.  I imagine you all have your favorite pizzas in mind already.  So why not give it a shot some night?

A Quick Note on Vegetables

*In the previous post my wife used frozen broccoli.  My friend once said to me in all honesty, "How do you cook vegetables?  I don't know how to."  He was trying to be healthier, but sometimes buying & cooking fresh produce can be a bit daunting.  Frozen vegetables are a very easy, and relatively inexpensive way to achieve this.  They are flash-frozen to lock in the maximum nutrients.  They are almost as good for you as if you had picked them that morning ... MUCH better for you (and tasting) than canned vegetables.

Apricot Glazed Chicken with Toasted Almonds

Mrs. Hawkeye Plate making a special appearance tonight. Chicken breasts were the sale of the week at the grocery store, so chicken is what we'll be eating this week. It was skin-on, bone-in breasts, but it doesn't take much time to turn them into boneless, skinless chicken breasts and usually for way less money. Knowing I needed to make something with chicken I went to my cookbooks. I found my inspiration in my favorite cookbook Gourmet Today. I have about 100 pages marked with dishes I'll make "some day". 

I wanted to find a sort of sweet dish for the ingredient remix you'll see later this week (spoiler alert), so I settled on Almond Apricot Chicken. It was basically just chicken roasted with apricot preserves, stone ground mustard, soy, and a few seasonings. It was topped with toasted almonds which is a small step that makes a huge difference. 

We just finished a week full of indulgence, so I went with an easy side - steamed broccoli that got mixed in with the apricot sauce. And just to bring a touch of reality to the blog, I burnt the rolls. They went from doughy to burnt in a just a minute. Seriously!

Dining Out – Vacation Meals

While it isn’t the premise of this blog, I thought maybe I would share a couple pictures of great meals we had on vacation.  The point of this blog is to document our cooking exploits, but none of our meals last week were photographed … and they weren’t all that fancy either.

We were in Garden City Beach, SC so I had to get a seafood boil.  This was from the Blue Crab in Pawley’s Island.  It had crab, mussels, oysters, clams, shrimp, kielbasa, corn, and red potatoes.  It. Was. Fantastic!  It was everything I had hoped for.  My suggestion when you travel is to take advantage of the local cuisine.  I once made the mistake of getting a beef tenderloin in Jamaica.  I’m from the Midwest!  What was I doing getting beef from the Caribbean?!   After that, I ate seafood the rest of that trip.

We also enjoyed oysters on the half shell from Russell’s in Murells Inlet.  This was our best experience yet.  The wait staff & owners were a hoot!  They really made the experience all that much better.  My wife ordered the soft-shelled crab that was caught that day.  I had the catch of the day (grouper), but grandma’s mahi mahi took the prize for best dish.  Their key lime pie was great too.

On the way home we stopped for lunch in Ascheville, NC.  My wife looked up on Yelp for good restaurants.  There was a BBQ joint that had a 91% approval rating from over 600 reviews.  So we had to check it out.  I got their award winning blueberry chipotle ribs, jalapeno cheese grits, and vinegar coleslaw.  I decided to try the Cheerwine soda too – because, when in Rome…

The Mrs. Got their pulled pork with corn pudding and mashed sweet potatoes.   This allowed us to try their four BBQ sauces:  jalapeno, vinegar, mustard, and sweet tomato.  They were all good.  The restaurant is 12 Bones, and it’s 5 miles off the highway and well worth it!  President Obama had his picture hanging on the wall along with a signed menu.  And as I said to my wife, I don’t think he just happened upon that restaurant.  Someone did their research.  And thankfully so did my wife, because this was possibly the best BBQ I have ever eaten!

Meals For a Crowd

I should apologize to any readers I may have.  We have been on vacation this past week, and I should have notified you all that I wouldn’t be adding any blog posts during that time.

We were staying in a beach house with 16 other relatives.  So the cooking that took place was nothing fancy – just meals for a crowd.  The first night we went to a staple of ours:  taco salads, along with soft & hard taco shells, and Spanish rice.  It was an easy crowd pleaser.

We had biscuits & gravy, bacon, and scrambled eggs for breakfast one morning.  But most others just consisted of cereal, muffins, or donuts.  We also made spaghetti with meat sauce one night, served with side salads, garlic cheese bread, and had fresh baked bread with olive oil, parmesan cheese, and cracked pepper as an appetizer.  This was a fun night.  I was able to teach my 10-year old cousin-in-law how to cook.  He really soaked it up.

We sautéed onions & garlic with olive oil and cracked pepper.  Then we added ground sirloin, and leftover sausage meat from the biscuits & gravy.  We added Italian seasoning, red wine, and a store bought pasta sauce and let it simmer.  He really enjoyed it.  Then we sliced open a loaf of Italian bread and coated it with olive oil, parmesan cheese, cracked pepper, and Italian seasoning and threw that in the oven.

Here’s a quick aside:  I told my wife I was going to sneak whole wheat pasta in on everyone.  This was caught by grandpa, to which he said “you’ve got to be sh*tting me!”  Then Uncle Doug said there was no way his daughter would eat it.  She’s very picky and she would notice right away because she only eats her spaghetti with butter & parmesan cheese.  Well, everyone ate every single strand of pasta.  Not one complaint!  And we got several compliments on how good everything tasted.  So give whole wheat pasta a shot if you have never tried it before.