I went to Penn Mac where many of our ingredients come from and got colby for it’s color, taste, and price.  I also got pancetta which is a little costly but is spread across a whole tray that feeds a dozen or more people.  I have never used pancetta before, but Eileen used it before in a tomato vodka sauce.  I prepped the ingredients by shredding the cheese and cubing the pancetta.

Those are pieces of the pepper seasoning in the pancetta, not dirt.  I then browned the pancetta until it was fairly crisp and added it to the mixture that was otherwise ready to head to the casserole dish.

After mixing everything together, I poured the mixture in a casserole dish and covered about a third in fresh chopped jalapenos then another layer of cheese.

Then bake at the magical temp of 350 for about 20-30 minutes.  I refrigerated this for a day or two and then baked so I went more toward the 30 minutes than the 20.  It was wonderful and I definitely went for the jalapeno side!

I didn’t write up a specific recipe for this since it is the same foundation as the other versions with a few extra specialties.  Check those out and be creative with your own tastes!

G

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We have decided to go with Lobster Mac n Cheese Pierogies for our entry!  A post of the rogies and event will follow.

For St. Patty’s day I made an Irish beer beef stew. Originally I wanted to make  stout braised short-ribs, but it turns out short-ribs were a little more pricey than I originally thought. We ended up purchasing a single bottle of Smithwick’s (an Irish red ale) and some beef shanks and enjoyed every bite.

I searched a few recipes online and got a basic of idea of how I wanted to make this and just sort of winged it from there. As such, my measurements and things may be a little off, if following this exactly, but it was so liberating cooking without a recipe! I loved it. More or less, here are the steps I took.

I chopped some fresh thyme and added it to some whole wheat flour and seasoned it with salt and pepper (all purpose flour would work just as well).

Meanwhile I added some oil to my Staub coccette and put it on low heat. Once that was nice and hot, I sauteed some onion and carrots (1 medium yellow onion and 2 carrots). 

Next, I wanted to sear each shank. In retrospect I could have done this in another pan or I could have removed the carrots and onion. What I did was move the carrots/onion mixture to the side so I had some surface area of the bottom of the coccette to work with. Once I was done searing a shank I would put it on top of the onions/carrots.

I seared them for about 1-2 minutes per side, just to get them browned (not to cook through).

Next, to get those nice brown bits off the bottom of the pan I poured in the bottle of smithwick’s. Any beer will do really.

Next, I added some chopped fresh parsley and rosemary and about 1-2 cups of beef broth (enough to cover all the pieces of meat).

I then put the lid on the Staub and placed it in a 315 degree oven for about 2 hours.

At this point I knew it was done!

I wanted to make a thick, rich gravy to pour over each serving. I poured the braising liquid into a saucepan and set it to high, allowing some of the water to boil off. 

We placed the meat over some roasted garlic mashed potatoes and poured the gravy over everything.

It was really delicious. Though there are several steps to this, it’s relatively easy. The low and slow cooking really does all the work for you and creates great flavor, tender meat, and perfectly soft vegetables. I highly encourage you to give this a shot!

-E

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This is usually what I would do with yellow squash and call it at that, saute with onion, oil, garlic, salt and pepper.  Once the squash started to soften, I added diced raw bacon.

Stir the bacon in and cook until about half way done.  Then add cubed or shredded bread and about a cup or so of chicken broth.  The bread should be moist, but not overly soggy so start with less chicken broth and add more as needed.

And a bit more mixed and moistened.

Then pour into a casserole dish and bake at the magical temperature of 350 for about 20 minutes.  I like a bit of a crust on top, so keep an eye on it to cook to your liking.

G

I started with a store bought corned brisket and sprinkled the seasoning packet on the meat and put it on the indirect heat of a charcoal grill similar to pulled pork or brisket.

After about 3 hours of indirect grilling with occasional turning, the beef was ready and taken off to cool and set.

You can see the fat jacket separating from the meat

That was it for the meat for a while until it was ready to be sliced using the meat slicer.  This was just the type of situation that I wanted to get the slicer for in the first place.

I sliced it pretty thin which is the great feature of this machine.

Now to assemble the sandwiches starting with multi grain rye bread and everyone’s friend, butter.

Get that grilling and load it up with sliced corned beef, homemade spicy Russian dressing, and store bought kraut.

The only step that wasn’t shown was adding swiss cheese before closing the sandwiches up and browning then on both sides.  They were a messy delight overflowing with plenty of grilled corned beef with gooey melted cheese, spicy dressing, and kraut.

G

View Homemade Spicy Russian Dressing Recipe

]]> http://starvingkitten.com/2012/04/10/twice-grilled-corned-beef-reubens/feed/ 0 Eileen IMG_5646 IMG_5607 IMG_5605 IMG_5618 IMG_5627 IMG_5629 IMG_5630 IMG_5631 IMG_5608 IMG_5633 IMG_5610 IMG_5634 IMG_5609 IMG_5636 IMG_5638 IMG_5641 IMG_5646 IMG_5647 IMG_5650 http://starvingkitten.com/2012/03/30/miso-soup/ http://starvingkitten.com/2012/03/30/miso-soup/#comments Fri, 30 Mar 2012 14:08:48 +0000 G & E http://starvingkitten.com/?p=4231 Continue reading →]]>

I LOVE miso soup! I found a great, easy recipe and was able to recreate one of my favorite restuarant dishes at home. It takes very little time to prepare and if you are considering throwing a sushi party any time soon, this would be a great way to kick things off.

Like making dishes from any ethnic persuasion, the most consuming task is shopping for the ingredients themselves. Once again I went to Lotus in the strip and was able to find everything I needed. The fist unique ingredient to me, was dashi.  Dashi is the basis of the soup broth and this version is instant- just add to boiling water. I boiled 4 cups of water and added 1.5 Tablespoons of the dashi, whisking to disolve.

Meanwhile, I prepped my seaweed.

A little dried seaweed goes a long way. Just a tablespoon of dried seaweed is needed for a full pot of soup (for 4). Place the tablespoon of dried seaweed in some water and let it reconstitute, which takes a few minutes.

Before… 

After…

 Another key ingredient here is miso paste. The Asian market had a good selection to choose from and I, knowing nothing, just selected this one. It worked out great and I enjoyed the flavor.

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In order to incorporate the miso paste into the broth, first mix it with 1/2 cup of the hot broth you have created with the water and dashi.

Next, you will want to prep the tofu. While tofu may not be essential, it provides a nice bite to the soup. I enjoy it a lot. I went with a firm tofu and cut it into little cubes.

Once you have the dashi broth going, you can add the seaweed and tofu.

Next, add your miso paste mixture.

At this point you are basically done! We have some very kind friends living in Japan who gifted us with some authentic Japanese dishes, including these perfect soup bowls.

Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with some sliced green onion.

Serve nice and hot. (So hot in fact, that most of your pictures are steamy).

Here is the link to the exact recipe I followed and some more information about the ingredients as well. Miso Soup.

I know you will enjoy this one!

-E

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I am so glad my taste for kale has returned, because it is such a delicious green and so healthy too! One of my favorite ways to have kale is in a cold salad, believe it or not. If I am feeling lazy, I’ll massage my torn-up kale pieces with some lemon juice, olive oil, salt/pepper and parmesan cheese. It’s quick, easy and quite tasty. Massaging the dressing into the leaves helps them wilt slightly and become much more palatable. This is a great option and all, but if I am truly inspired and have the ingredients on hand I make a fresh caesar dressing, which works perfectly with the kale and holds up to it’s bolder flavor and texture.

I have made this numerous times and finally decided to share it with you all. I don’t know what took me so long, really. As you can see my recipe here (from bon Appetit) has been well loved and used often. Essentially, this recipe is rather simple. Throw your ingredients in a blender, press start and a minute or two later you have yourself some perfectly lemoney, salty, tangy fresh, homemade dressing. What could be better?

Anchovies! Don’t be scared of them! This sounds vaguely familiar doesn’t it? A direct quote from myself in another caesar salad dressing post:

“Another key ingredient in the dressing is anchovy paste. You should be able to find it in your grocery store near the canned fish. Don’t be scared of it! It provides the saltiness in the dressing (no other salt is added) and does not have a strong fish taste. Once in the dressing you won’t taste any fishy flavor, it simply provides a nice deep salty flavor that you’ll recognize as caesar.”

In this recipe, instead of using paste I use the flat fillets. If you do not have a blender and are making this by hand you may prefer to buy anchovy paste. Either one will work so it’s up to you.

This recipe also calls for fresh garlic.

“good” mustard and freshly squeezed lemon juice

I know this is a lovely picture… everything into the blender. Stream in the olive oil as it blends.

Once it’s all nice and blended, pour everything into a bowl and add grated parmesan and black pepper (salt if needed).

Now just assemble your (insanely cheap) kale into a large salad bowl and pour dressing over top. Mix well. This can be served as is, or with chicken and pine nuts for an entree. Unlike typical caesar salad that uses romaine lettuce, this salad can hold up for a few days even after it has been tossed with the dressing, because of th strength of the kale.

I hope you try this one, it is one of my faves. Enjoy!

-E

I have had trouble with rice stick and other Asian noodles in the past.  Sometimes the directions are not translated well or even translated at all.  The main problem has been getting the noodles consistently soft enough without overcooking them.  These are the dry noodles in a bowl with boiling water from a teapot poured over them.  They sat in the water while I made the sauce and scallops.  Onto the sauce which started by sauteing garlic and ginger in chili oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and fish sauce.

Then add peanut butter.  Yep peanut butter straight out of the jar.

The sauce was basically done at that point and I coated the noodles with the sauce.

In the meantime, I seared the well dried and salted and peppered scallops.

Now it was time to assemble.  I turned the heat off on the noodles and mixed in fresh bean sprouts.  I didn’t want them to cook much and keep a bit of a crunch.

The rest of the toppings were prepped.  Crushed peanuts, which we shelled and crushed by hand, chopped cilantro, green onion, Thai basil and fresh sliced lime.

Then the final assembly of noodles and sprouts topped with seared scallops and the rest of the garnishes served around the bowl then mixed in.

Seared Scallop Pad Thai Recipe

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G

 I had this idea in mind for a while, and just in time a gift from the FiL arrived to secure the destiny of this dip coming to life.  He got us a a Clay Coyote Pot after my mentioning of an obsession with roasted garlic.  This was it’s first use.

It is awesome and has bright future!  Look forward to seeing the pot named after the 2nd most popular hockey team in this house roasting up garlic and friends in the future.  I added the peeled/squished garlic to 2 packages of warmed toward room temperature cream cheese.  Then the jalapenos and parmesan.

As if this wasn’t off to good enough of a start, add some melted butter.

I then blended until smooth with a hand mixer and added roasted split chicken breasts that were shredded.

Top with shredded mozzarella provolone mixture and cook at the magical temperature of 350 for about 30 minutes.

This was after about 20 minutes above and 30 below with a dash of paprika.

It was amazing and really captured the tastes of garlic parmesan wings with a kick from the jalapeno.Be a hit at your next event and help us make this our biggest post ever!

Recipe for Garlic Parmesan Wing Dip

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Starting from the very beginning by using this common yeast and mixing it with warm sugar water to activate.

After about 15 minutes the yeast was active and ready to move on to the flour.  Add the flour slowly while mixing, but it is a messy job no matter what.

Once the dough is formed enough, use well floured hands to move the dough ball to a well floured countertop (getting the well floured emphasis?).  Knead into one solid ball that starts to get smooth and almost a bit dry on the outside, but do not overknead or your dough will become gummy, difficult to work with, and generally bring the whole product down.

Split this large dough ball in half and place each in a bowl with a bit of olive oil.  Roll the ball around by spinning the bowl until covered with the oil and cover the bowl tightly with plastic or a lid.

Let the dough rise at room temperature for about an hour and a half.  It will about double in size as you can see in the above/before and below/after.

I took this picture of Maddie while waiting for the dough to rise and it just cracks me up so much that I had to share it.

Anyway, when using the premade frozen dough, we were never able to fully achieve this important phase of the soft, pliable, room temperature dough.  This was so much easier to work with and appropriately form….and even show off a bit as if you were the one tossing the pizzas in the streetfront window.

I preheated the oven to 400 and started to assemble the pizza on an aerated nonstick pizza tray.

My mom recently gifted us with a groupon for Donatelli’s Market in Bloomfield, the Little Italy of Pittsburgh.  So we went and quickly and easily racked up $50 of meats, cheeses, salads, and fresh and frozen housemade items. One of these was pesto which we used as the main sauce for this pizza.

Then sauteed baby bella mushrooms on top of Donatelli’s mozzarella.

Fresh sliced tomato

And some fresh basil.  I can’t wait for warmer weather and my own basil!  Then into the oven for about 12-15 minutes.  Better to check it too early than too late!

Cool.  Slice.  Parmesan.

Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

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