Chillin' and Grillin' - Veggie Edition

Quick and Easy Veggies, No Prep Needed!

Corn-  there is a debate about husk on or off, and the use of foil.  I remove the husk and just throw the ears on there.  Getting some browning makes it good, I don't see the need to keep the husk on or use foil as if you need the corn to steam.  You can eat corn raw, like many other foods people don't think of.  Put it on there this way and it'll turn out nice.

Portabella Mushrooms-  just like the corn, all you have to do is put it on there.  Mushrooms really soak up the smoke on the grill.  A little cracked pepper is all you need if you feel compelled to put something on them.

Mixed Veggies-  I have a pan that I use on the grill.  It's scorched all over on the outside, I got it at the dollar store.  You can put any assortment of veggies you want in a pan like that and cover with foil so they steam in there.  Most recently I made bok choy this way.  Friday night I put a mix of chopped white mushrooms, onion, celery, green pepper and broccoli In my pan with some olive oil and butter.  I also used a small amount of the Aldi Poultry Grinder spice which has peppers and salt in it.  Uncovering them for a period of time to get the smoke is tasty!  (ok, there was a little prep on this one)

Roasted Garlic-  take a clove of garlic and put it on the grill until it gets mushy inside.  This goes great as a condiment.  To use just squeeze the cloves and the garlic is yummy gooey and comes right out.

Baba Ghanouj

Here’s what you’ll need to make your delicious eggplant dip:

• 2 medium or large eggplants, about 1 pound
• 1 small garlic clove, finely minced
• 2 tablespoons tahini  or sesame seed paste
• olive oil
• juice of 1 lemon
salt, to taste
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
• parsley (optional)

Grill the eggplants RIGHT ON THE COALS for about 15 or 20 minutes, turning then over until they are charred and slightly wrinkled. You can have wood chips smoking on the coals with them to get that flavor too!  They're going to look burned, but that's ok. Let the eggplants cool so you can work with them.

Next, split the eggplants and scoop out the inside part, separating it from the burned up skin. Using a fork, squeeze out excess moisture from the eggplants and drain the bitter liquid.

Mash the eggplants with a fork until creamy. Add the finely minced garlic, tahini, and lemon juice while mixing it together. Season with salt and add the ground cumin (if you want). Taste and adjust the seasoning as necessary.

Wait, back up...  what is tahini and where can I get it?  Tahini is a vegan sesame seed paste that contains  the seeds and the oil of the seeds.  Some brands may have other ingredients, shop around for one you like.  You can get it at the healthy grocery or neighborhood grocery if yours caters to Middle Eastern shoppers.

Dip chips, pita or veggies into your home made baba ghanouj.  Some veggie grilling links in another post...

Try Platanitos Chips

I was telling a friend about these chips so I took a picture of the bag to include in the email conversation.  Since I have talked about brands I like in this blog, I thought I'd share the joy of plantain chips with you!

They are not spicy, even though chili-lemon (I think they mean lime because there are limes pictured on the bag) sounds like it should be spicy.  They're kinda salty, but over all very tasty.  Give 'em a try.

Chillin' and Grillin' - Meat Ideas

Lots of chillin' and grillin' went on in the past two days in the fancy outdoor kitchen with my grill mates, the center piece of which is a table top Kingsford grill with two racks and a hinged lid.  It's wonderful to use and cost less than $40.  It can't be left outdoors though when not in use or it might rust.

So here are some easy ideas for spicing up your meats on the grill:

Chipotle Chicken Breast

All you need to make smoky and delicious chipotle chicken breast is the chicken and a pack of Weber Grill Chipotle Chicken Seasoning.  To prepare the seasoning all you have to do is mix it with some veggie or olive oil and rub it on your chicken.  Half of the package was more than enough for three chicken breasts.  The instructions tell you to marinate it for 15 minutes, but I always think the longer the better!  I marinated mine for a couple of hours.

Once the spice pack has time to get aquinted with the meat, it's time to start the grill.  I use a chimney starter to avoid the use of lighter fluid. That tastes yucky, and you CAN taste it in your food.  The fun smokey part in this chicken comes from the use of a few chunks of hickory, soaked for at least 1/2 an hour to prevent burning when placed on the coals.  Any kinda coals will do just as long as they don't have lighter fluid already in them.  

Dump out your lit charcoal in the grill making sure you have a hot zone and a cool spot.  Add the wood chuncks and get them smokin'.  Put your chicken on over the cool zone and close the lid.  Let the smoke do its thing and keep an eye on the meat so that it doesn't burn.  Temp it if you like to check for doneness.

Take 'em off the grill and enjoy!

Greek Sausage (Loukaniko)

This is about as easy as it gets.  I got a package of Greek sausage from the local deli by my house.  The package did not show an ingredient list, so I looked it up.  This is what's in Greek sausage:

• lamb trimmings
• pork shoulder
• ground red pepper
• garlic 
• ground coriander seed
• dried oregano
• fennel pollen
• cracked black pepper
• orange zest
• Retsina wine (or another Greek white wine)

Just put it on the grill with wood chips of your choice and let it get the smoke!

Spicy Baby Back Ribs

For this I used Weber Grill Seasonings Kickin' Chicken and Trader Joes Smoky Kansas City BBQ Sauce.

Marinate the ribs (raw ones, not the precooked) with the Kickin' Chicken and coat with a small amount of BBQ sauce.  After some time marinating put the ribs in a 300 degree oven for 45 minutes or so.  The oven can be cooler if you have more time to do the precooking.  You want the pork to be at least 160 degrees for safety.  I've seen precooking take place in a microwave, but to me that's just weird.

Set up your grill with the hot and cool zones and add hickory for smoke.  Put your ribs on there over the cool area and let them smoke.  Check for doneness with a meat thermometer and add more BBQ sauce at the end when it's less likely to burn.  You can get ribs at a very reasonable price at Aldi and they come out great on the grill.

Lamb Cheeseburgers 

The neighborhood grocery near my house sells lamb patties at the deli.  They have a few green onions and parsley on the top.  I haven't seen ground lamb at the major grocery store chains, so you may have some searching to do to get ground lamb.

The cheese I used on the burgers was also from the mom and pop grocery.  I chose chipotle smoked Gouda.  It was really good!

Throw your lamb patties on the grill preferably not directly over the coals.  Lamb is like an instant fire starter because it's such a fatty meat, be ready for the flare-ups and don't leave it unattended for a second!  Press out more oil with your spatula as they're cooking.  Keep them moving and monitor them so they don't burn.  If you happen to have wood chips on your grill that tastes really good, but is not entirely necessary.

When your lamb burgers are almost done add the sliced cheese to each burger and let that melt in.  Your burgers are done.

Fun grilled condiments include char blackened Poblano peppers, portabella mushrooms, roasted garlic and grilled onion.  Dijon mustard tastes excellent on there too.  Toast your buns on the grill... crunchy crunchy.  Lettuce and tomato top the perfect lamb cheeseburger!

That's the carnivore's grill tour...   Meow-appetite!

Welcome to My Kitchen

With all of my chatter about cooking things my way, it seems only right that I invite you to my kitchen!  Welcome.  Cooking is something that has been a great relief and comfort to me in the past year.  It's given me the opportunity to share food with people, and cook with them too!

Every chef should have an indoor and an outdoor kitchen.  Here are mine.

Wonderful grilling stories to come!  I'm very happy to share with you my time in the kitchen, thank you for reading.

MEOWS

Fried Tortellini! Whoa...

What you will need for this recipe is as follows:

• one package of tortellini

• three sausage links

• two russet potatoes

• olive oil and vegetable oil

• parmesan cheese

• oregano or an italian herb blend

The first thing to start with is a tortellini that you really like.  I used Pasta Prima 100% natural Spinach and Cheese Tortellini.  One package should be enough.

Second ingredient is your favorite sausage, one that will compliment or even contrast the pasta.  I chose Hillshire Farm Turkey Polska Kielbasa.  Three links of whatever kinda sausage you like!

Cook your pasta as directed, drain and rinse with cold water.  Set it aside for later.

Next you will need to get two russet potatoes and give them a rough chop.

Get a pan or I prefer to use my wok.  I use my wok for so many things, I couldn't live without it!  Put some olive oil and vegetable oil in the wok.  Blending the two oils allows you to use more heat without burning your oil.  Olive oil can't take higher temperatures, but it tastes good, so giving it a little help with the veggie oil works well.  Throw your potatoes in there to cook them.  You can add a small amount of water and cover them as they cook for part of the time to make sure that they are cooked through.

Turn up the heat in the wok to make sure you've burned off any excess water.  Get those taters a little brown!  Reduce heat and add some more olive oil.  I've been using Pompeian brand, it tastes ok.  When it's on sale I like Filippo Berio Extra Virgin, but when it's not on sale it's kinda pricy.  I bought the Pompeian with a coupon given to me by a friend with a coupon clipping shopping addiction.  I'm not laughing, it's an addiction for this individual.  Anyway...

So you've added some more oil.  Now it's time to throw in your cooked tortellini and let them meow with the potatoes!  Oh, I did forget to mention putting the  sliced sausage in with your taters after you make sure the water has been cooked off, then the pasta follows in shortly after the sausage.  Did I mention slicing the sausage?  Do that before it goes in the pan.

Fry them up until everything is lightly browned, we don't want that char broiled favor for this one.  Slightly crispy is also the goal.  Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and italian herbs to garnish.  If you got the Pasta Prima they give you a fun little pack of cheese and herbs so you're already set with that.  Pasta Prima has another variety of mushroom ravioli, which also comes with the cheese pack.  That might be another version of this recipe that could work well, especially with sausage.

Now it's time to plate your delicious and heart unhealthy fried tortellini.  Enjoy it, that's what frying is all about!

Makin' Healthy Popsicles at Home

I wanted to list some information about making your own popsicles at home.  One of the moms I know makes them for her children and puts all kinds of veggies and heathy stuff in them!

here's a link:

http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=healthy_homemade_popsicles

"...Why take the time to make your own freezer pops?
It's cheap!  Slushies can run up to $2.00 each and the ice treat truck up to $3.00 each.  Make your own for about 25-40 cents each.
No ice cream makers or special equipment needed...

You control what goes inside the freezer pops. No blue dyes, less sugar, plus added fiber or protein -if you choose.

Spending some time creating your own popsicles or frozen treats can be just as fun as family game night, and it's a great way to occupy kids on a rainy summer afternoon..."

Check it out, summer's not over yet!

Lentil Soup (Shorabat Addas)... the directions right on the package!

I used to work for a family in which the mother was vegetarian.  She made meat for the kids of course, but she had a real way of making things with lentils... delicious!  She also made homemade healthy popsicles for the kids.  If you can put spinach in a popsicle and make it taste good with mango, that's pretty awesome.

Back to the lentils.  What I made this recipe from was Ziyad Brand Red Lentils in a 16 oz. bag.  Like I said, you can follow the recipe on the back so you don't have to have crazy Mediterranean cooking skills!  I did add some more spice and changed a few things because I found the recipe as is, was a little, ok a lot BLAND.

Here's the ingredients you will need for the recipe listed on the package:

• Ziyad Red Lentils (measured dry), 2 cup
• Water, tap, 8 cup (8 fl oz)
• Cumin - ground (1 tsp), 0.5 tsp
• Turmeric or Paprika ground, 1 tsp
• Onions, raw, 1 cup, chopped  
• Garlic, 2 cloves
• Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 2 tbsp
• Lemon Juice, 1 lemon yields
• Chicken bullion 1tsp, 4 tsp- watch for MSG people!

The magic ingredient I found to use that made all the difference was Garam Masala.  You can get this at your local Indian Grocery in a big bag and it's a great addition to all kinds of things.  I didn't have paprika, so it wasn't in my recipe and if you're putting Garam Masala you can skip the cumin too, because it's in the Garam Masala.

Ok, you want to know what the Garam Masala is.  Here's what the SWAD brand contains:  Coriander, Red Chili, Cumin, Clove, Anistar, Mace, Fennel, Black Pepper, Bay Leaves, Cinnamon, Dry Mango, Salt, Clove Leaves.  You'll probably fall in love with it as I have!

Add more chili powder to your lentil soup as well for a spicier flavor.

The directions are as follows:

1. wash lentils use a small strainer because these are very tiny little beans.  you can also use a bowl and just swish them around.  If there's water left on them, they're going into a pot of water anyway so don't sweat it!

2. combine with broth and boil. Cover for 1/2 hour, stirring occasionally.

3. when lentils are tender, add dry spices and bouillon (optional) to the pot. 

4. saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until golden brown. Then add to soup. 

5. simmer for 5 minutes. Then turn off heat, add lemon juice and sit. 

6. garnish with parsley and paprika if you want, serve with lemon wedges on the side. 

Start out with the basics and follow the recipe as is on the package, lucky for you if you don't have a lentil soup recipe on your package of beans, you have a kitchen bitch to help you!  Play with the ingredients and add fresh herbs if you have them.  Parsley would probably taste good.  I like to put dill in almost everything, maybe you could try that here.  I'm sure cilantro would work too and go nicely with the spice powders.  

Also if you have a package of chicken broth, or a can, that would work, and I'm sure adding chicken to this soup would work out just fine too.  Go crazy with your bean self!

Slightly Indian Chicken Marinade

Here's the first marinade entry!  Wahoo...  So here's what you're going to need to whip this one together:

• annato
• cumin
• cinnamon
• garam masala
• chili
• adobo
• soy sauce 
• olive oil

The dry ingredients are all in powder form, you'll mix those together in a small bowl.  You can play with this one, like all of the other recipes mentioned, that's the point.  You're going to want to watch your usage of Adobo and soy sauce because you don't want an overpowering salty taste, or a heart attack!  Go easy with the cinnamon and add that slowly tasting as you go.  It's a strong flavor and you want the other flavors to have a chance.  You're looking for balance.

Focus on the garam masala flavor, you should definitely taste this.  The annato is typically a spice used in Mexican dishes, but the clever part is being able to taste it with the Indian flavor.  Chili powder is there to increase the heat, use it more or less to your liking.

Once you have the dry spices married just the way you like them add your soy sauce (one of those little packets is just about right) and mix in olive oil.  You don't want too much oil.  It should be an even ratio of oil to powder visually before you mix it together.

Put this on your chicken and let it sit refrigerated for at least an hour if not longer.  I like to let my meat marinade for hours while I do other things, sleep or go to work.  That doesn't hurt.  Make sure the spices and your chicken have fun together before they get scorched!

Trader Joe's Cabernet Beef Dinner

Yes, this starts with Trader Joe's Cabernet Beef.  It's a neat little ready marinated beef roast at a great price.  You don't need to do anything to the beef roast unless you want to.  I think I may have tossed a little bit of garlic and onion powder on it, but nothing is needed unless you feel like experimenting.

You need these to go with it:

• portabella mushrooms sliced
• carrots peeled and sliced or cheat with a bag of baby ones
• white onion roughly chopped
• chopped celery
• bok choy
• Franzia box of Cabernet Sauvignon

Ok, it's been a minute since the bitchez made this, so I might be forgetting the process.  I'll try my best.  The scrap of paper with this recipe on it is scribbled with lots of typos next to a courthouse address, but we're not going to talk about that.  Anyway, there aren't any directions so here's how I think it went.

Throw your onions, celery and mushrooms in a pan with a little bit of oil to sauté them.  In doing this you have to get your box of wine and make a reduction with your box wine.  The box of wine is best because if you're entertaining friends you should have enough wine to go around.  This might have something to do with the transcription problems of the hand written recipe.

Oh, I think you're going to braise your meat in the pan, then add the onions etc. and then make your reduction.  As I remember this all ends up in a baking pan, with the reduction poured over it.  You can add potatoes to your pan, easy enough.  What you don't want to do is add the bok choy to the pan too early.  It's delicate and cooks fast so put it in towards the end of the cook time.

To cook the meat simply follow the instructions on the package.  It will be in a baking pan along with the other things you prepared on the stove top and the carrots and bok choy.  This is pretty simple, maybe a little more labor intensive because of the braising and sauté process.  It's a meal all by itself, although you could add mashed potatoes or garlic bread as a side.

Enjoy MEOW!

Variation on Tater Carrots, but no Tots... WITH SAUSAGE

This little thing I cooked last night is like that tater tot casserole, except the spices are different and the taters aren't in tot form.  There's also sausage involved, as the title indicates.  Let me explain...

Here's what you need to start with:  (All amounts are approximations based on what was available when I cooked this.  Add more or less dependent on your personal taste!)

• 1 lb. bag of carrots sliced
• 1/2 of a white onion, you could definitely use more... that's all I had in the fridge
• 4 stalks of celery
• 1/2 garlic clove, chopped or you could use the pre-chopped stuff in the jar
• frozen broccoli... this just ended up in there and was good, I'd try fresh or another similar vegetable of your choice
• uncured pork sausage... we need to talk about the sausage

Lets start the sausage talk with the spices I added to Trader Joe's Uncured Pork Sausage:

• Weber Grill Seasonings Kickin' Chicken
• chili powder
• onion powder

Ok, even though I used the sausage mentioned above with the three powdered spices (about equal amounts of each, less Kickin' Chicken and chili if you don't want it to be very spicy) what I was thinking is that the Trader Joe's Jalepeno Sausage would be perfect.  It wouldn't need any spice powder at all, it's very spicy all by itself!  The sausage I used is simply what was in my freezer at the time.  Trader Joe's has a really great selection of pork and chicken sausage (for those who don't pork).  

One more thing to add to the pork discussion is that the pork I used had 23 grams of fat per pint sized link!  I was planning to add some olive oil and butter to the vegetables in the pan, but opted against it because I couldn't handle the idea of adding to the fat content of the dish considering the inclusion of a pretty fatty sausage.  Use your discretion...  It would be really good I'm sure with butter and oil.  Ok fine, I did put in some butter.  To keep my conscience clear I use Land o Lakes reduced fat butter.  It's not margarine, it's sweet cream just with less fat!

So your sausage should be sliced on the bias into semi-circles and sitting somewhere with the spices on it while you prepare your veggies.  Sausage doesn't need to be cooked before you put it in because it's cooked when you buy it.  You can brown it if you like.

Roughly chop the vegetables so that they aren't so small that they turn into mush in the oven.  Now you can use a little bit of oil to coat your baking pan.  I used a pan that was about 2 inches deep and 12 or so inches long, rectangular in shape.  It worked out well.

Throw your veggies in the pan and give them a sprinkle of Stonemill Poultry Seasoning. This comes in a grinder and can be purchased for $1.50 at Aldi.  It goes well on lots of things, and has a minimal amount of sea salt that doesn't make it taste like just salt.  

Get your seasoned sausage slices and strategically place them all around in your vegetables.  Remember this sausage has loads of yummy fat so stick them under the veggies, in between and on top.  Your pan should look like an even mix of all your ingredients.

Put it in the oven at 375 maybe 400 for about 45 minutes to an hour depending on how soft you like the carrots and potatoes to get.  I cooked mine for almost an hour and the big chunks of carrot were still slightly firm, they were good, not mushy at all.  Your frozen chopped broccoli is a different story, but it makes tasty goo all over the other stuff.  Fresh broccoli would have a similar but better effect I think!

I'll be updating this as I try it with a super easy home made pico do gallo in taco form.  Mixing all kinds of stuff together is a great way to come up with new ideas!  That's how I came up with Curry Chicken Tacos, which will be featured here as well at some point.  Anyway, enjoy your pork sausage casserole!