OT: Best Recipes

"He's cooking our garbage."

OK, I'll bite.  This is a recipe for linguine with white clam sauce. The quantities are a rough estimate, as I generally make this by feel.  Quality of ingredients is important with so few of them, particularly the parmesan cheese and noodles. 

Ingredients:

 - 2-3 cloves garlic

 - 2-3 teaspoons dried basil

 - 1/4 cup olive oil

 - 2 lemons, juiced (i.e. extract the juice from two lemons, throw the rest away...)

 - 1 bunch green onions

 - 2 cans Doxie minced clams (not chopped, but MINCED)

 - 4-6 oz linguine (this recipe is good for 2 healthy servings, so however much pasta you feel is appropriate 

 - one cup parmesan (Reggiano is best, but just so long as it isn't the Kraft stuff in a cylinder)

1) in a heavy skillet (gonna be some simmering in a bit, need even heat transfer), start heating oil

2) rinse and clean up green onions.  cleaning them involves pulling the nastier looking outer layer off and trimming off both the roots and the last 2 inches of the green end.  find the point in the onions where the white meat of the onion turns green and cut in half.  The white half gets sliced into  1/8 inch pieces (rounds), while the greens get set aside.

2) peel and slice garlic cloves, slice into 1/8" pieces.  when the oil is hot (not smoking hot, just reasonably hot), add garlic.  cook in oil until both side of pieces are a nice golden brown.  remove garlic pieces and discard, as cooking them removes the oil and you don't want the husks.

3) Toss the white onion pieces into the hot oil, let them cook a bit, then reduce heat to low to let oil cool a bit.  While you're waiting, open the cans of clams and squeeze the clam juice out into a bowl or measuring cup.  set drained clam pieces aside.

4) add the basil, lemon juice, and clam juice to the oil/onions in the pan, stir a bit, and let simmer.

5) toss the linguine in boiling water (with some salt in the water and a teaspoon of oil to reduce the foaming as it comes up to a boil), let cook to a nice al dente firmness.

6) while the pasta's cooking and your sauce is simmering, mince the onion greens and grate the parmesan, set both aside.  the key here is the temperature of the simmer on the sauce and it takes a little practice to get right.  the goal is to reduce the sauce by half, it's far too liquid when you add the lemon/clam juice initially, but you don't was to reduce it so much that you don't have enough sauce for the pasta. (hint, if you do reduce it too much, you can always add a little water...).  Ideally, the pasta is done right when the sauce is reduced just enough.

7) turn the heat off the sauce and stir in the clam pieces reserved earlier, that will reduce the heat some while heating up the clams.

8) drain the pasta (don't rinse) and add to a large bowl, preferably a porcelain salad bowl - wide is better than deep when you're tossing ingredients.  immediately add sauce, grated parmesan, and onion greens and mix thoroughly in bowl.

9) Divide onto two plates and enjoy.  remember that plating them will leave the good parts in the bottom of the bowl, be sure to spread them equally between the servings

This recipe scales up nicely, with the general rule of thumb being a can of clams for each person, and something like 3/4 of a lemon per person.  I like this with a nice crusty roll to sop up every. little. bit.  Also, if you know how to make a real ceasar salad, that pairs well with this.

We have a 60 X 40 garden. Yesterday it was finally dried out enough to work up and plant.  I planted onions, red beets, potatoes, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, green beans, carrots, lettuce, spinach, green beans, yellow wax beans,  zucchini, cantaloupe, watermelon, butternut squash and cucumbers...will plant sweet potatoes in a couple weeks. We raise our own beef and poultry and buy our pork custom butchered by half a hog. We eat/cook/bake from scratch...100%-always have. Last evening I cooked up a double batch of tapioca-real tapioca. When the grandsons come over this evening  I'll whip some cream, slice some bananas and fold it into the tapioca-and we will try not to eat ourselves sick. Real food is really good!

When I worked at BK I used to put a grilled chicken patty with mozzarella sticks, bacon, onion rings, pickles, bbq sauce and then optional fries/chkn tenders. I called it the artery clogger because you could feel it in the heart as you ate it. But it was delicious. 

1 box - Cinnamon Toast Crunch 

add milk to taste

serves: 1

3 oz vodka

8 oz bloody mary mix

celery salt, pepper, hot sauce

combine and garnish with 2 jumbo jalapeno stuffed olives, dill pickle spear and celery spear.  Bacon optional.

Serves 1, may make in quantity (still serves 1)

Spaghetti carbonara.

And really good red wine.

Followed by a spot on the couch.

Basically anything you can put in a cast iron skillet. In the off-season, it's a great substitute for the grill, and I'm finding it's really versatile for veggies too. A couple cloves of garlic, some fresh squeezed lemon juice, and put the lid on and you get perfectly steamed greens.

The whipped coffee (dalonga coffee) that’s all the rage at the moment is indeed a tasty treat.

1 tbsp instant coffee (best to use instant espresso, IMO)

2 tbsp granulated sugar

2 tbsp hot water

> blend with an imulsion blender for at least a minute (the longer you go, the creamier/stickier it becomes)

> spoon over the top of a glass of ice, whole milk and half and half 
 

pure yum

This one surprised me that it was such a hit, because it was an after thought. We had a farewell potluck at work and my coworkers started rationing my stuffed hot peppers so everybody could get some. The crowd down here was used to grilled stuffed jalapenos, but the tangy pickled hot peppers blew them away. Had to email the recipe to a couple people that day. I usually make it for game day gatherings. 

Take:

2 jars pickled hot peppers

1 log of italian sausage

1 block Philadelphia cream cheese

1 small wedge hard parmesan to grate

Bread crumbs

The filing should be roughly equal parts cheese meat and breading. I used half a crusty loaf in the food processor for crumbs this time. Used stuffing mix once, came out great. 

Cook and crumble sausage, combine in bowl with bread crumbs, grated parmesan, and softened Philadelphia.

Cut ends off pickled peppers, (cut some in half lengthwise if you want.) Stuff with cheese filling, put in casserole dish, bake at 425 for 30 minutes.

(If you use pepperoncini instead of hot Hungarian banana peppers bake them less because they're so thin, if you cut the peppers open face take them out after they get a crust like a Buddy's Detroit style pizza.)

Anthony Bourdain’s Beef Bourginon recipe is infallible 

Lately I've been making a lot of chicken thighs. No real recipe but I wish I'd realized sooner that they're almost impossible to screw up and taste incredible. I throw them in a bag with olive oil, salt, pepper, a little lime juice, some cayenne, garlic, onion, whatever I have around for an hour or two. Put a cast iron skillet or griddle over medium high heat, and throw em on there until they're done, and cut em up to throw in salads, over rice, maybe eat them plain. So good and so easy, never dry.

Crazy Sahadi chicken legs

(my buddy is a chef)

legs, not wings

apple wood chips in  a foil pan with foil cover poke holes, put under your grill grates. Heat medium low

package  of chicken legs (maybe 15?)

jar of kroger spicy garlic wings sauce

can of chicken broth

stick of butter

2 T McCormick Roasted garlic and herb seasoning

1T oregano

1/4 cup lemon juice

combine ingredients except for chicken, heat on low until combined

spend 2 1/2- 3 hours on the grill dunking the legs that are SLOWLY smoking over the wood chips over and over again rotating them around. They should slowly shrivel a bit as the fat renders out of the legs. Wings don’t have enough fat. Also turkey legs don’t either. We tried. 
if you keep the pan of sauce on the grill add some more broth but in the end it will reduce and you can pour it over the cooked legs. They are amazing! Even my girls clamor for them

I've been making sourdough donut holes on the weekends and the kiddos tear them up.

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup milk

1 egg

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup proofed sourdough

Mix it all together then roll little balls.  I'm anal and use a food scale to get the perfect size, which is 20 grams.  They puff up a lot when you cook them.  Put them on a greased cookie sheet and lightly spray them with oil and cover with plastic wrap.  Let them proof for an hour.  Deep fry at 350 until golden brown.  Usually takes 3-5 minutes.

About 5-10 minutes before they're done proofing I put 1/2 cup real maple syrup in a sauce pan and simmer to get a thicker consistency.  Once that's ready and the donuts are finished in the deep fryer I coat them in the maple syrup and either leave them like that to dry or while the syrup is still tacky roll them in coconut, cinnamon and sugar, or the kids favorite is to roll them in maple sugar.

Prime rib recipe

1 Prime rib (the weight is not as important as watching the temperature, so you'll need a meat thermometer). Do NOT trim the fat... yet.

Equal parts:

-rosemary

-thyme

-horseradish

-salt (sea salt preferred)

-pepper (fresh ground preferred)

-ground garlic

About 1/4 cup olive oil OR melted butter OR combination of both

Good sized potatoes or onions cut into quarters (I prefer the former)

-The night before you cook it (or if you REALLY want it good, do it 2-3 days ahead of time), take the rosemary, thyme, horseradish, salt, pepper, ground garlic, and oil/butter, and mix it together.  Spread it on the top of the prime rib to form a crust.  Take a baking dish (13X9X2 works well), put your quartered potatoes/onions in the dish, and lay the prime rib on top.  What you want is a rack that keeps the rib from sitting directly on the dish.

Turn the oven on to 350 degrees F.  

Put the meat thermometer in the prime rib (thickest central portion) and put it in.

When the temperature gets to about 125, remove it.  You want the middle to be rare.  Remember: a prime rib roast will continue cooking another ten degrees after you remove it, so don't worry about it being too rare. Personally, I love me the rare, but that's your call of course.

Take it out, let it set for about 10 minutes before cutting, and then place on a plate, with the potatoes/onions.  Cut and serve.  
 

NOTE: Make sure you don't eat the crust.  You can scrape it off yourself after taking the rib out of the oven, or just remind your guests to do so on their individual cuts.

I did this recipe for a progressive dinner that my teaching colleagues and I put together.  I'm pretty sure that, if there were any vegans or vegetarians at that party, they left having been converted to the ways of the carnivore.  

Yeah... it's that good.

nobody tell sopwith, but dear daughter just handed me a just-out-of-the-oven warm double chocolate chip muffin.  in a bowl with vanilla ice cream.  and some chocolate sauce drizzled over it.  

it is stupid good.