By nando, on January 2nd, 2011%
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I love breaking with tradition and doing my own thing, and my eclectic cooking style is as much a testament to that as anything else I’ve ever done in my life. I love to take traditional and established recipes and play around with them a bit and see what I can come up with. In this case, I opted to switch up a few ingredients in a chicken marsala recipe and was very happy with the results.
I’d never attempted to make chicken marsala at home but I figured it had to be better than the bland, often mushy versions that I’ve had in many restaurants. Usually, I’m so disappointed in the flavors and textures of restaurant chicken marsala that I’ve stopped ordering it altogether, leaving me no option but to make it at home if I ever want to have it again. I toyed with the idea of using other cooking wines (such as sherry, or even making an “Asian” version with rice wine vinegar and saki) but settled on going the Italian route and using balsamic vinegar instead. Since balsamic tends to be a much stronger flavor . . . → Read More: Chicken and Mushrooms with Balsamic Reduction
By nando, on December 27th, 2010%
Don’t let the picture fool you, it’s a perfect medium rare standing rib roast. It might look like it’s cooked to medium because of the way I had to photograph it (I had to use the flash because it was way too dark in my kitchen, even with added light), but it’s really not.
For the second year in a row (do I smell the start of a tradition?), my wife and I had rib roast as our Christmas dinner. Most people would call it a Prime Rib, but if the meat isn’t Prime grade (and I bought a Choice Rib Roast), it should be called a standing rib roast. Whatever you call it, a roast by any other name is still delicious. It takes a long time to cook, but that’s part of the experience since you get to smell it for 3-4 hours as it gently roasts in the oven.
The idea came from watching an episode of Alton Brown’s Good Eats more than three years ago. I took the ideas he spoke of in that episode and made them my own since I didn’t have the materials he speaks of in his show. The . . . → Read More: Christmas Dinner: Prime Rib
By nando, on December 16th, 2010%
I was in the mood for take out Chinese food but not really in the mood to drive and pick some up. I had a bottle of Trader Joe’s General Tso’s sauce in the pantry for such an occasion and decided that this was as good a time as any to try it. I also didn’t feel like battering and frying some chicken pieces so I scoured the Internet in search of a “lighter” version where battering and frying wasn’t necessary. I came upon this recipe from Martha Stewart and thought it was as good as any.
The chicken was very crispy when it first came out (I cooked it in batches) but it was just barely crispy by the time I had coated it in the sauce and heated it for 2 minutes. It wasn’t bad, just not as crunchy as you would expect from a battered piece of chicken.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 15 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: I used store-bought sauce but you can make your own by following the recipe I linked above. Feel free to use either white or dark meat chicken (3 breasts or 4-5 thighs should be enough).
Ingredients:
1 lb chicken meat, cut . . . → Read More: General Tso’s Chicken
By nando, on December 10th, 2010%
. . . → Read More: Cuban Black Beans
By nando, on December 6th, 2010%
Pasta is a comfort food in my house. It’s a quick way to make a satisfying meal that my wife and I can enjoy while not making much of a mess. I prefer to use fresh pasta (the kind you find in your grocer’s refrigerated section) since it cooks quicker and has a more appetizing texture than dry pasta. It’s a bit more expensive but well worth it.
I normally just settle on a quick red sauce, usually out of a jar, but sometimes I like to make something a bit more labor intensive. In this case, I took my marinara sauce and added vodka and cream to create a wonderfully delicious and comforting sauce. The marinara recipe I just linked to is enough for one pound of pasta but if you don’t want to make it, you can purchase a pre-made marinara from your grocery store and just add the vodka and cream.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 4-5 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: You are going to want to have the sauce prepared before you drop the pasta in the water. If you’re using dry pasta, cook it for 7-9 minutes and then add it to the vodka . . . → Read More: Pasta alla Vodka
By nando, on December 1st, 2010%
Even a casual reader of my blog knows that I love food that you can eat with your hands. Since I’m such a huge meat guy, I decided to try to make a simple, yet different burger than what I was used to. I racked my brain and tried to think of toppings that would enhance the burger and help break up the routine of eating my burgers with bacon and cheese (not that there is anything wrong with bacon and cheese). I figured a destination burger (based on a cuisine or country) was my best bet and Spain was the first to come to mind.
My wife and I went to Spain a few years ago and one of the things we remember most was that we were always served a bowl or plate of mixed olives whenever we sat down at a restaurant or bar. That inspired me to use an olive tapenade (black olives, capers, anchovies, garlic, olive oil, and lemon juice). The other two things that came to mind were Manchego cheese (a sheep’s milk cheese from the La Mancha region in Spain) and Jamón Iberico, (Iberico ham – a very expensive prosciutto-like . . . → Read More: Hamburguesa (Spanish Hamburger)
By nando, on November 9th, 2010%
The title isn’t a literal translation. I opted to not call it a shrimp stew because the shrimp don’t actually stew; rather, they cook quickly in the tomato sauce. It’s prepared as many other Puerto Rican stews would be, and with basically the same ingredients (though I opt to trade bell peppers for celery and add carrots for sweetness) and is probably best when served over white rice with some amarillos or maduros (fried ripe plantain).
This recipe calls for red wine to be added. You can skip it, but keep in mind that it won’t taste the same. Tomatoes have quite a few alcohol-soluble flavor compounds and you just won’t get the same depth of flavor if you do not use the wine.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 35-40 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: I use No Sodium Added tomatoes in my recipes. If you buy tomatoes that have sodium added, make sure to adjust the amount of salt in the recipe accordingly.
Ingredients:
1 lb raw medium shrimp (21-30 will do), peeled and deveined.
1 small onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 Serrano chile, diced
1 large or 2 small garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp honey
10-12 pimento-stuffed olives
15-20 capers (about 1.5 tbsp)
1 tbsp . . . → Read More: Shrimp in Red Sauce (Camarones Guisados)
By nando, on November 5th, 2010%
We were walking though the Durham farmers market the other day and I found these:
With it being as cold as it it, it’s the perfect time to eat a hearty, stick-to-your-ribs meal that will not only warm you up but make you feel good in the process (bison is healthier than beef). Bison is quite lean, but since you’re cooking it low and slow you should still end up with tender and flavorful meat.
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 5 hours
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: None
Ingredients:
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 10oz can beef consommé
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp each minced garlic and ginger
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp toasted sesame seed oil
1/2 red onion, julienned
1 carrot (half diced small, half cut into rounds)
2 lbs bison short ribs
1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (for garnish)
1/2 tsp flour
1 cup cooked white rice
Procedure:
Pour the soy sauce, consommé, garlic, ginger, sesame seed oil, and brown sugar in a bowl and whisk to combine. Check your bison ribs and make sure that you remove as much of the silver skin from the meat side as possible (mine had plenty of silver skin, for some reason). It’s OK to leave the silver skin on the bone side as this will help to . . . → Read More: Asian Braised Bison Ribs
By nando, on November 2nd, 2010%
This recipe was inspired by a cheese sauce recipe I found on Serious Eats (you can find it here). The author of the article was trying to make a nacho cheese sauce but I thought I could adapt it to a cheese sauce that would taste great on pasta. The hot sauce is barely noticeable and can be left out if you really want, but I think it adds a bit of depth and balance.
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 20 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: None
Ingredients:
8 oz Elbow macaroni
6 oz Evaporated milk (not condensed)
5 oz Cheddar cheese, grated
1.5 tbsp Butter
1 tsp Frank’s Red Hot (or your favorite hot sauce)
Procedure:
Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box, then drain and set aside. Place the butter in the bottom of the hot pan you just pulled the pasta out of and allow it to melt over medium-low heat. Once it’s completely melted, add the pasta and the evaporated milk and the hot sauce, stir to combine.
You’re going to want to melt the cheese slowly to ensure it remains creamy and doesn’t get clumpy. To do this, make sure you start with the pot off the heat and add the cheese, about . . . → Read More: Creamy Mac and Cheese
By nando, on October 18th, 2010%
Codfish stew is a very typical Puerto Rican dish and can be found in almost any Puerto Rican cookbook. As with the Italian immigrants (known as baccalá in Italian), the dish became popular in Puerto Rico due to the main ingredient being very inexpensive. Typically, these recipes called for salt cod to be soaked for a long time in order for the fish to be edible. To simplify my recipe, and to save time, I opted to start with fresh cod fillets that had not been previously salted (feel free to use salt cod if that’s what you can find).
I also opted to quick-poach my fish in order to get it to flake easier. It also helps to identify the “tough” parts of the fish, that is, the flesh that is closest to the skin. Sometimes, this part of the fish can get too tough when cooked and so if you poach it before flaking it you won’t end up with those pieces in your finished stew.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 45-60 minutes
Difficulty: Easy
Notes: Feel free to use any root vegetable you’d like. I chose potatoes because of they are easy to find, but my grandmother would typically use . . . → Read More: Codfish Stew (Bacalao Guisado)
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