Corn Chowder--Vegan Style

2 large russet potatoes

2 cups corn kernals 12 cup diced sweet onion 1 clove garlic, minced 1/2 tbs red pepper flakes 1 tsp spanish paprika 2 cups vegetable stock 12 ounces silken tofu salt and pepper to taste.  Peel and dice the potatoes. Cook them quickly in boiling water (just until you can pierce the pieces with a fork, but not all the way done). Drain, and add the corn, onion, garlic red pepper flakes and stock. Cook for ten minutes on medium heat.  Now cut the mixture in half. Puree one half with the tofu. Then add it to the rest and simmer for 5 minutes. You now have vegan corn chowder!

Ribs!

I'm still learning to grill, but I am very proud of my ribs. They're awesome. And I'm going to share the recipe. My beloved's been working out a lot and eating really well, and on Saturday he said, "can we have ribs? Please? Pleaaase?" So we took a break from the quinoa and grilled chicken and got some pork spare ribs.

Here's what you need:

2 racks St-Louis cut pork spareribs (2 to 3 pounds each)

For the rub:

1/2 cups brown sugar

1 tbs chili powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1 tbs. garlic powder

1 tbs onion powder

1/2 tbs smoked paprika

1 tbs kosher salt

1 tbs of your favorite mustard

1/4 cup canola oil

mix the sugar, oil, and mustard together and rub it on the ribs. then rub them with the dry ingredients. They will look like this: 

Let it sit for an hour while you make the sauce. Now, you can make your own sauce, or you can buy it. I made it, but I'm particular:

2 cups ketchup

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup cider vinegar

1/2 cup apple cider

1/4 cup honey

1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

1 tbs soy sauce

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

8 tbs melted butter

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

1 tablespoon chili powder

2 cloves garlic, minced

Whisk it all together and simmer over medium heat (about 20 minutes). Please adjust the sauce to your taste--if you want it sweeter, add more brown sugar or honey. If you want it spicy, add chili powder. Honestly, you cannot screw it up. 

After you heat the grill (you can use a smoker or smoke pouch, if you want. I used a smoke pouch with applewood chips) place the ribs meat side up on the grill and maintain a 250 degree (approximately) temp. Mop the ribs every 30 minutes with some apple cider/vinegar mixed together. Grill for 3 hours. Remove them, then brush with sauce and wrap them in foil and grill for another 2 hours, brushing with sauce every 30 minutes.

Uncover the ribs, toss the foil, and grill for another 30 minutes or so, or until you can slide a dull knife into the meat very easily. Remove them, sauce them again, and let them sit until your friends can't stand it anymore!

Sesame Bread

Saturday morning, my beloved wanders into the living room while I'm reading something mindless on Reddit and sipping a molten hot cup of coffee.
 "Can you bake something today?" he asks, rubbing his eyes and stretching.
"What do you want?"
"You haven't made bread in a while."
"You're right! I haven't, that could be fun! What kind?"
"I don't know. Something with sesame."
 And, lucky for both of us, I happened to have half a bag of Indian Black Sesame seeds that I bought from Penzey's a few months back in order to make bagels. So I made some bread!

 
 Here's the recipe. It's really simple, and I love it.
 4 cups Bread flour
 2 teaspoons instant yeast
 1/2 cup sourdough starter
2 teaspoons salt
1 tbs sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 and 1/4 cups warm water (100 degrees)
 3-4 tbs sesame seeds

 Just add the yeast, oil, salt and sugar to the water, stir and let sit until it foams. Stir in the 1/2 cup of starter and then start working in the flour. You can knead by hand, but I used my dough hook on my kitchen aid mixer. I added some of the sesame seeds while kneading to make sure some got inside. Knead until you've made a smooth, elastic dough. Place the dough in a lightly greased bowl, turn to coat, cover, and allow it to rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Gently deflate the dough, and then form either one big loaf (as I did) or divide into two equal pieces and roll into logs. over the braid and allow it to rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until it's almost doubled in size. Beat an egg white and brush the top of the bread, then sprinkle on the rest of the sesame seeds. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.

It's so easy to grill! My beloved told me he wants to lose weight. I can help him with that, because not all tasty food has to be high fat, high calorie food. So I made a grilled sweet potato, grilled zucchini, yellow onion, portobello mushroom and summer squash, and grilled chicken (marinated in lime juice, 1 tbs vegetable oil, cumin, salt, black pepper, garlic powder). Anyway, I microwaved the taters for 8 minutes while I heated the grill. Then I grilled the chicken for 8 minutes on each side on medium. Take the chicken off the grill and put it in foil in the oven on warm. Grill the veggies for 10 minutes. While the veg is cooking, put the taters on the top part of the grill (to get the crackle and the smoke flavor). Take the veg off, take the chicken out of the oven. Serve the chicken with the juice it releases into the foil. Serve the squash, mushrooms and onions on the side. Put the potato next to it, serve with butter if desired.

Perfect Black Bean Dip

When I was in graduate school, I taught a cooking skills group for schizophrenic adults. It was interesting, especially since they got to use knives. One day we had a party and I brought a black bean dip. I was very proud of this dip, a recipe I had devised from basic ingredients I found in the Mexican store a block from my apartment. One of the patients, Albert, was a small, turtle-like man who rarely spoke and could never remember what year we were in. He was convinced it was 1982 and he was still a sports journalist, not a broken man with frequent fungal infections on disability. He had the dip and was very happy, and three months later, when I left the job to move on to my next internship, he shook my hand and said, "I remember you. You're the one who made the bean dip." So there you go. This dip will stick in your brain when even the current year won't.

Start with one yellow onion, three roma tomatoes, one tomatillo, one anaheim chile, one serrano chile, and two jalapeños. Clean the seeds from the chiles well and soak in cold water for about 20 minutes. Pat dry and dice. Roughly dice the onion and chop the tomatoes and combine with the chiles. Heat 2 tbs of vegetable oil in a pan until shimmering and add the veggies:



Cook until very soft and almost melting on medium heat, about 20 minutes. Here's where you add the beans. I've found that canned beans are just fine, but make sure you rinse them first to get rid of excess sodium. Add two 16 oz cans of beans to the pan.



Add a splash of vegetable broth and a diced garlic clove and simmer for another 5 minutes. Now add some spices. I like to use 1/2 tsp of ancho chile powder, a pinch of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp of good cumin, 1/2 tsp black pepper and salt to taste. Start mashing the beans with a large fork or a masher.



For those of you with a food processor, you can puree the mix now to make it smooth. If you want it a little chunky, you can just keep mashing in the pan, but I like to puree it.



Up to now, it's all vegan. You can adjust the recipe from here. Return the mix to the pan but take it off the heat. Squeeze in the justice of one lime, stirring well. You can now add 1/4 cup of sour cream for texture and extra flavor. When you serve it, you can melt an ounce of cheddar or queso fresco across the top. However, this dip tastes great as a totally vegan option for your friends.

Grill Pan!

So this past weekend, we went to Bed Bath and Beyond to get new sheets and serving stuff for our upcoming party. There, I found the Grill Pan. It was four dollars.



This is the best investment I've made in cooking since my Kitchen Aid. I sliced portobello mushrooms, sliced Vidalia onions, and fresh spring asparagus, and added 1tbs of olive oil and 1 tsp of sea salt, a pinch of celery salt, and a hefty dose of black pepper, garlic powder and red pepper flakes. Toss and let sit 10 minutes.



Grill on medium high for 9 minutes, tossing ever 3 minutes or so...



Now for the steak...



Take two 1.5 inch ribeyes and sprinkle them with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper, garlic powder, dried lemon peel, and dried sage. Rub them like they're your true love and let them sit for 5 minutes. Sprinkle them with a few shakes of soy sauce and a few shakes of Lea&Perrins. Let sit at room temp for 30 minutes.



Get the grill hot and add the steaks. Cook for 5 minutes on high (propane, 450 degrees F). Flip and cook for 4 minutes on the opposite side. Using a meat thermometer, check the temp. If it's 145, remove it immediately and wrap it in aluminum foil. This will make it medium-rare. Let it rest for 10 minutes and then enjoy!!

Chicken Cacciatore

okay, so, tonight my beloved asked for something with tomatoes, shrimp, chicken, wine and vegetables. I thought for a moment, and then I came up with Cacciatore. True, Cacciatore doesn't include shrimp, but I thought I could do a basic chicken Cacciatore with shrimp added at the end! In Italian, Cacciatore means “hunter." In cuisine, alla cacciatora refers to a meal prepared “hunter-style," which basically means rustic and hearty. This is not a fancy dish! My recipe:




1 lb chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch pieces and dusted with flour
(Note: I think this works better with chicken thighs, but since the bf doesn't like them, I used breasts)
1 strip bacon, diced
1 tbs diced fresh garlic
1 tbs olive oil
1 cup carrots chopped
1/2 cup yellow bell pepper chopped
2 cups tomatoes, diced
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup medium-bodied red wine

For this dish we picked a red wine from Lisbon that's a blend. It's awesome! Behold Lab Red!



Add bacon to a hot pan and cook until it starts to sizzle. Add the olive oil and swirl until it gets hot, just before the smoke point. Add chicken quickly on high heat in batches and remove until all are browned. Add garlic. Add onion. Cook for 5 minutes on medium. Add wine. Cook for 5 minutes on high. Add broth. Cook for 10 minutes on low and slowly add the tomatoes, pepper and carrots. Stir and cook on low for 20 minutes or until chicken is done.

While pasta is cooking:

Add shrimp and cook for two minutes while sauce is still bubbling!

This shrimp was fresh and had to be cleaned and deveined, but you can get pre-cleaned ones at the store (it's just costlier).



Don't cook the shrimp too long! Remember, this is a hunter's stew, modified to meet certain tastes! Don't cooke the shrimp for more than 5 minutes....