Pictures

It just occurred to me that I should be taking pictures of the finished product for each recipe. I will try and update past recipes and be good about keeping up with future ones.

Sweet Potato and Squash Soup

I made a potato and leak soup from a recipe last year that was terrific and gave me a working knowledge of how to make a creamy potato soup. A cold, rainy October day when I had sweet potatoes and acorn squash on-hand provided the motivation to give this a try.

Ingredients:
3 large sweet potatoes
1 large acorn squash
1 large onion
6 cups chicken or vegetable stock (one 49.5oz can)
3T butter
1/4t kosher salt (or 1/8t table salt)
1/8t fresh ground pepper

Steps:
1. Heat butter in a dutch oven over medium-low heat. If you don't have a dutch oven, use a 6qt pot.
2. While it heats, dice onion into 1/2" pieces. Cut squash in half, clean out middle, than cut into 3/4" slices. Then you can cut the rind off of each slice and cut into 3/4" cubes.
3. Stir onions into the butter. Stir occasionally for 10-15 minutes until onions have softened and have a mild onion flavor. (This is called sweating. It softens the flavor of the onion without letting them caramelize which would give them a sweet flavor.)
4. While sweating the onions peel the potatoes and cut into 3/4" cubes (tougher than it sounds, sweet potatoes are much harder than regular potatoes).
5. Dump potatoes and squash into pot. Pour the stock over them and bring to a boil over high heat.
6. Bring to a hard boil then turn down heat slightly so that the boil continues without getting out of control. Boil for 20-30 minutes until the potatoes and squash are soft enough to easily cut with a spoon. Add the salt and pepper and remove from the hot burner for a couple minutes.
7. Using a plunge blender, puree the soup. You will need to start about an inch deep then push down to the bottom, doing this all over the pot. Once you have gotten most of the chunks, blending around the pot about 1.5 inches below the surface should get the remaining chunks. Stir the soup with a spoon to find any remaining chunks and blend them in too.
8. The soup should be quite thick, if not put the pot over medium-low heat and stir constantly for a few minutes, then remove from the heat again (if you don't stir you will have a major mess on your hands). If it is too thick add some milk or stock then blend a bit more to thin it.

My rating: 9/10
Potential rating: 9/10

Notes:  This soup is easy, delicious, and pretty tough to mess up. Only have 2 sweet potatoes and 2 acorn squash? No problem, just use them. Only have a spaghetti squash? Nobody will know the difference. Have some extra pumpkin meat after baking that pie? Yum. No squash at all? You'll lose some flavor but it will still taste good with just sweet potato. The toughest part is going to be getting the amount of liquid correct. I found that after adding the stock, a couple shakes of the pot let the vegetables settle just below the surface. If you aren't close to that, adjust your liquid before it start boiling.

Quick and easy marinara sauce

I whipped this marinara sauce up in about 15 minutes to refresh some leftover pasta that was a little dried out. It turned out to be a pretty good basic marinara, like what you would get as a dip for mozzarella sticks or over spaghetti as a side at Italian restaurants. This recipe should also scale quite well. As stated it would be good for about 1/2 pound of pasta, but doubling for a full pound should work fine.

Ingredients:
1 14oz can plain diced tomatoes
1T butter
1/4 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced (about 1/2 teaspoon)
1t sugar
1/4t kosher salt (or 1/8t table salt)

Steps:
1. Heat butter in a saucepan over medium heat.
2. While it heats, drain excess water from tomatoes and put in food processor. Process until tomato is finely minced, but not completely pureed, about five 1-second pulses.
3. Once butter has melted and foaming subsides, stir in diced onion and turn down heat slightly.
4. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onion has softened.
5. Stir in garlic, cook about 30 seconds until fragrant.
6. Stir in tomatoes, sugar, and salt. Bring to simmer over medium-high heat, then continue simmering uncovered over medium heat until excess water has evaporated off, about 10 minutes.

My rating: 8/10
Potential rating: 8/10

Notes:  Like I said, nothing fancy, but it fulfills its intended purpose quite well. I don't think I would change a thing. If you are looking for a heartier sauce that would be the centerpiece of a meal, I wouldn't attempt to use this as a base.

Caramelized Onion Goodness - Take 2

Switched to using a chuck roast this time like I suggested. I can't really recommend it, either. Looks like ribeye is probably the way to go. I also pretty much doubled the recipe this time.

Ingredients:
3 lbs chuck roast cut in 1" cubes
4 medium to large yellow onions (white or red onions to make it more savory)
1 lb broccoli florets
2T butter (life is too short for margarine)
1/2c red wine (or beef or chicken stock)

Steps:
1. Heat a dutch oven or large skillet over medium-high heat. While pan heats season the beef with salt and pepper. Cut the onions into quarters then 1/4" slices.
2. Add half of the beef cubes to the pan, spaced apart from each other. Let them sear for a few minutes without moving them. Once browned, turn them over and brown the opposite side.
3. Remove the first half of the beef cubes and reserve in a bowl. Pour off the rendered fat, but try and keep any beefy bits. Sear the rest of the meat, and reserve it in the bowl. Pour off the rendered fat again.
4. Add the butter and wine to the pan. Once melted add the onions. Stir for a few minutes until the onions start to turn clear, then stir in the beef. Reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Simmer for 80-100 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the beef is tender.
5. Dump the broccoli on top. Cover and continue cooking for 5-10 minutes, until broccoli is tender.
6. Stir the broccoli in and serve alone or over egg noodles.


My rating: 4/10
Potential rating: 10/10

Notes: Using the chuck instead of sirloin this time did solve the dry beef problem, but the increased cooking time required to make the chuck tender completely liquified the onions. The onions lost their caramelized sweetness and it just became more of a stew. Not bad, but after having the first version, losing that sweetness is not an option. Next time I will use the original recipe but substitute ribeye for the sirloin, I think that will solve both issues. Keep in mind the fattiness of the ribeye will probably requiring pouring off the fat and eliminating the oil like in this version.

Basic Omelet

Everyone has their own way of making an omelet, but watching Julia Child turned me on to this method that elevates an omelet from a sheet of scrambled eggs to a 5-star dining experience. I have this broken into a lot of steps, but once the pan is heated it only takes about 4-5 minutes, and most of that is cooking the onion.

Ingredients:
3 eggs
1T butter (not margarine)
1/4 medium onion (or a whole shallot)

Steps:
1. Heat a 10" pan with sloped (not vertical) sides over medium heat.
2. While pan heats, dice the onion into 1/4" pieces. Make sure you separate the pieces from each other, you don't want them sticking together.
3. When the pan is hot, add the butter and swirl it around the pan until it is completely melted.
4. Add the onion and stir or toss so that the onion is coated in butter.
5. Cook until the onion is softened and the butter is foaming, stirring or tossing occasionally. If you let it go too long after the butter foams you will start burning the butter. If the butter is turning brown, start step 6 right away. While the onions are cooking break the eggs into a bowl, season with salt and pepper, and beat vigorously with a fork until they just start to foam.
6. Read step 7 completely, you have to work fast and the whole step only takes 60-90 seconds. Shake the pan to evenly distribute the onion in the bottom, then pour the egg into the pan evenly, don't just dump it in the middle.
7. Immediately start shaking the pan front to back as hard as you can without splashing the egg out. Use a spatula to constantly scrape the cooked egg up from the bottom so the liquid egg can get to the pan surface. Don't break up the cooked egg while doing this, just move it around. Once there is no more liquid on the top surface of the egg, but it is still soft and uncooked, shake the pan to get an even layer of egg then cover for about 30 seconds. Fold the omelet (into thirds looks much classier than in half) and slide onto a plate. Let sit for a couple minutes before serving.

My rating: 9/10
Potential rating: 10/10

Notes:  Try this at least once without anything else added so you can really taste what a difference the butter and shaking of the pan make in the taste and texture. Then you can easily jazz it up by adding different things to the omelet. Mushrooms and green peppers work great, just dice up a similar amount to the amount of onion you use and add to the butter along with the onion. Breakfast meats should be precooked, broken into small pieces, and sprinkled on top of the egg before covering the pan in step 7. Herbs and cheese can also be added before covering in step 7.

Thai Fish Curry

This is the third time I've made this, but I have never written it down so it has been different every time. This wasn't the best version, but the notes have some ideas for improvement.

Ingredients:
   Curry paste:
1/2 medium onion
1t minced or 2 cloves garlic
1T minced ginger
1T lemon grass, very finely sliced
jalapeno pepper (1 pepper without seeds for mild, 1 pepper whole for medium, 2 peppers whole for hot)
2T chili powder
1T cumin
1t coriander
1t turmeric
2T sesame or vegetable oil

    Everything else:
1 lb tilapia fillets, cut in 1" squares (any white fish that won't fall apart should work. flounder maybe?)
4 medium potatoes, cut in 3/4" cubes
1 cup sliced carrots
1/2 medium onion coarsely diced
3T fish sauce (you can use 1.5T soy sauce, but if you want to cook Thai, you need fish sauce)
1 can coconut milk (don't use lite. Chaokoh is the best brand i have found)
milk

Steps:
1. Preheat dutch oven over medium heat.
2. Puree all curry paste ingredients in a food processor. If you only have a blender, add the fish sauce to the curry paste to help thin it down so the blender can turn.
3. Add curry paste and onion to dutch oven. Stir for about 1 minute. Shake the can of coconut milk vigorously, then open and add. Fill the can with regular milk and stir it in.
4. Turn heat to high and stir in the potatoes and carrots. Once simmering, reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Stir in the fish, then continue simmering for 10-15 minutes, until the fish and potatoes are both cooked.
6. Serve in bowls over rice.


My rating: 4/10
Potential rating: 9/10


Notes: This was probably my worst version of this dish, but I realize now that I left a lot out. The curry paste should have an extra tablespoon of lemon grass plus 1T lime juice and 1t shrimp paste. The carrots were entirely out of place and should be omitted. For vegetables, a bag of good stir-fry mix, preferably green bean free, should be used. Snow peas would also work ok. Vegetables should be added with the fish, not the potatoes, unless you are using a very hard vegetable that requires lots of cooking. This can be really fabulous with the right ingredients, but was pretty lackluster in this version.

Slow Cooker Pork and Okra

I know, I already lost you with the title. I was skeptical myself when I put it together, but it actually turned out pretty fabulous.

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs country-style pork ribs
1 jar roasted red pepper with juice
1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, drained
1 bag frozen okra
1 can diced tomatoes, drained
1/2t crushed red pepper
1t kosher salt (or 1/2t table salt)
1/4t black pepper

Steps:
1. Add ingredients to slow-cooker in the order they are listed.
2. Cook. I used 4 hours on high. My cooker automatically switches over to warm at the end of the 4 hours.
3. Serve alone or over rice.

My rating: 7/10
Potential rating: 8/10

Notes: The ribs were the highlight of this dish. Fall apart tender and very moist. The smoky flavor of the roasted peppers and tomatoes also really livened things up. I suspect the dish would suffer if it didn't have the smoky flavor, but I also think just the roasted pepper would be sufficient if you used 2 cans of regular tomatoes. There was a lot of grease from the fat on the ribs, so you can get around that by trimming the fat before adding the ribs or just serving with a slotted spoon. Fat does equal flavor, so I recommend just using the slotted spoon. The only thing I didn't like was that the vegetables were completely cooked down so there was no texture in anything but the pork. I think low heat would be best for this dish, so that hopefully there is a little texture.

Caramelized Onion Goodness

This is the recipe that convinced me to start this blog. It wasn't perfect, but is too good a start to not write it down somewhere. Make sure you read the notes, I don't recommend using sirloin.

Ingredients:
1.5 lbs sirloin steak cut in 1" cubes
2 medium to large yellow onions (white or red onions to make it more savory)
1 lb broccoli florets
2T butter (life is too short for margarine)
1T + 1T vegetable oil
1/2c red wine (or beef or chicken stock)

Steps:
1. Heat 1T oil in a dutch oven or large skillet over medium-high heat. While pan heats season the beef with salt and pepper. Cut the onions into quarters then 1/4" slices.
2. The pan is hot when a couple drops of water sizzle energetically when dropped in the oil. If they pop and splatter, turn down the heat. Add half of the beef cubes to the pan, spaced apart from each other. Let them sear for a few minutes without moving them. Once browned, turn them over and brown the opposite side.
3. Remove the first half of the beef cubes and reserve in a bowl. If the brown bits in the pan are burning, deglaze the pan with 1/4c of wine, scraping up the brown bits. Add the other 1T oil, sear the rest of the meat, and reserve it in the bowl.
4. Add the butter and remaining wine to the pan. Once melted add the onions. Stir for a few minutes until the onions start to turn clear, then reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Simmer for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onions are very soft.
5. Stir the beef into the onions then add the broccoli on top. Cover and continue cooking for 5-10 minutes, until broccoli is tender.
6. Stir the broccoli in and serve alone or over egg noodles.


My rating: 6/10
Potential rating: 10/10

Notes: Sirloin was not a good choice for this dish, because it tasted dry. A fattier cut of meat would be better, like ribeye steak or chuck roast. If using chuck, add the beef after the onions turn clear, before the long simmer. Using ribeye should not require any modifications.

Welcome

I like to cook. I am not a creative person, in fact I am the opposite, an engineer, but put me in a kitchen surrounded by ingredients and I suddenly get inspired. This blog is my effort to keep track of dinners I have thrown together for posterity. I will generally only include my own improvised recipes, but I might include a link to an online recipe I like every once in a while. I would be honored if anyone wants to try out my recipes, but be advised I keep a pretty unusual collection of ingredients in my kitchen, so expect a trip to the grocery store (or Asian market). The good news is that I use almost entirely frozen or shelf-stable ingredients, so you won't have to worry about using up the leftovers of some strange ingredient before it goes bad.