July 3, 2013

Smoked trout

A quick and easy fish to smoke, smoked trout is becoming all the rage at many of the high-end resturants popping up in the SF area. Making your own is fast & easy, especially if you have a dedicated smoker with easily controlled heat like mine (although after some time with it, I’d have been happier with the identical, but cheaper unit without the glass door & remote. Remote is handy, but the glass door is hard to clean, plus another seal that can deteriorate/fail over time, and you really can’t see anything it there when it’s cooking).

June 21, 2013

Lemon Caper Chicken Breast

A light, tasty summer treatment. And, if you want, you can make this whole thing sans oil, for those of you (oh, come on, no one reads this site except me) who don’t like to marinade things in oil. Once or twice a year I do a short sort-of cleanse. Low-fat, low-carb, low-everything, lots of water, no alcohol. A few challenges I toss in, little to no use of oils or fats, very lean meat, which increases the difficulty of getting moist and flavorful results.

June 17, 2013

Beer Can Chicken

Moist chicken, every time. For some reason, I’d never tried this. Perhaps because I generally drink bottled beer? Finally gave it a shot, and it’s now my favorite way to cook chicken! The beer can really just provides fluid to make sure the chicken doesn’t dry out, and it results in a super-moist bird in about 90 minutes on the grill. In fact, you can buy sturdier cylinders that provide better stability, which is the way to go if you also fall in love with this method of cooking.

June 10, 2013

Wine braised shortribs

There’s nothing quite like slow cooked meat. Similar to Boeuf Bourguignon, veggies, meat, wine, broth, time. Prep time: 10-20 minutes Cooking time: 3 hours Ingredients: 2 lbs Beef shortribs (preferably bone-in) 1/2 cup of flour 2 cups red wine 2 cups beef, chicken, or veggie stock 2 slices of bacon 4 cloves of garlic, diced 1 medium onion, diced 2 medium carrots, rough cut 1 stalk celery, rough cut 1 tsp salt 2 tsp pepper 1 tsp thyme (or 1 sprig fresh) 1 tsp rosemary (or 1 sprig fresh) I’ve found shortribs at the store available a couple ways, one is bone in about 2″ long (my favorite cut), one is bone-in about 4″ long, and boneless strips, which you can just cut into 2″ sections.

May 5, 2013

Foie Gras stuffed Jalapeños

Jalapeno poppers, with an upscale twist! Wanted to make one of my favorite spicy appetizers, but wanted to do something different than the usual cream cheese or regular cheese fillings. I had some Foie Gras mousse in the fridge, so bought some pancetta to add a little more elegance to the filling, and came up with this! Prep time: 10-20 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes Ingredients: As many Jalapeños as you like Foie Gras (I used the really tasty foie gras mousse from D’Artagnan) Thinly sliced Pancetta Cheese (I used cheddar and jack) Directions

March 29, 2013

Five by Five Chili

5 meats, 5 chilis, all delicious. Add, remove, or substitute your favorite meats and chilis… Prep time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 3-8 hours (this is an ideal slow-cooker dish) Resting time: 24 hours Ingredients: 1 lb chuck roast, cut into 1/2″ cubes 2 Lousiana hot links 2 spicy italian sausages 1/2 pound ground beef 3 strips of bacon 4 jalapeno peppers, roasted, (optionally deseeded) and roughly diced 4 serrano peppers, roasted, (optionally deseeded) and roughly diced 3 tomatillos, roasted 2 anaheim peppers, roasted, de-skinned and roughly diced 2 pasilla peppers, roasted, de-skinned and roughly diced 5 garlic cloves (or more if you want!

February 24, 2013

BLAT Wraps

My favorite BLT variation is the BLAT, adding avocado to the classic blend. But, if you’re doing the lower carb thing like I am, what to do? Couldn’t be easier. Just put the lettuce on the outside, and don’t use bread! Asian lettuce wraps are something I make occasionally, and I also enjoy the Protein Style In-N-Out burger, wrapped with lettuce. Why had I not thought of this before? This is more of an assembly than a recipe, get some sturdy, not-too-big lettuce leaves, I put some mustard and/or mayo on it, slice up some avocado and tomato, and top with a piece of bacon or three (hey, change the order up, whatevs!

December 23, 2012

Hot Caramel Cheetos

A little unusual, I generally avoid processed food. But, it’s the holidays, and there are many parties to attend, and I wanted an unusual, but somewhat festive dish. A friend, Brenda Schuett (@brendajos on Twitter) shared this recipe, which at once had me thinking “oh, that’s gonna be weird”, and “humm….” So, I tried it. I used flaming hot Cheetos, because when I do eat this crunchy bit of artificial flavor, that’s my favorite.

September 16, 2012

Smoked salmon

I make this using a dedicated smoker, but you can achieve the same thing by using a grill as a smoker. The key is keeping a constant low heat (150-160). Any fatty fish does well in the smoker, so trout and mackerel also make good choices. I prefer using lighter fruit woods to smoke fish. I don’t want the smoke to overpower the flavor of the fish. Time: Active prep: 15 minutes Inactive Prep: 26 hours Cooking: 3 hours Ingredients:

August 14, 2012

Gambas Al Ajillo (Shrimp with Garlic)

OK, so anything cooked in butter, olive oil, garlic and hot pepper is good. Shrimp, scallops, snails, very small rocks. Still, this is a delightful appetizer and the leftover liquid is perfect for soaking up with bread, if you’re into that kind of thing. It’s also really, really, really easy to make. Ingredients: 12 large shrimp (1 lb or so) 1/4 cup unsalted butter 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 Tbsp hot pepper flakes 4-8 cloves of garlic, chopped (depending on if you’re a garlic fan, or psycho fan like me) 2 tsp paprika 1 tsp coursely ground salt 2 ounces (4 Tbsp) lemon juice Directions: