Carne Asada

Mexican food is my first love and what I consider to be my native palette, if that makes sense.  I recently discovered fried plantains and have since fallen in love with them.  I keep making them any chance I get.  While at my parent's house this past week I cleared out the plantain supply at their local grocery store and fried up a big batch of tostones.  It was delicious.  My Mom had some super thin beef steak in her fridge so I dug around in her cupboards and found a can of chopped "chili ready" tomatoes and some carne asada seasoning.  I will try to replicate this at home using fresh ingredients and a homemade carne asada seasoning but in was so yummy I decided to go ahead and post a pic and give the basics of what I did.

Cut the beef into small chunks and sear in a skillet with some lard.  Remove to a plate and set aside.  Add a chopped onion to the skillet and saute until soft then add some garlic.  When the garlic has become fragrant add cumin, crushed mexican oregano and stir to coat the onions well.  Add the beef and then add a couple of tablespoons of carne asada seasoning.  Mix well then add the tomatoes and some broth until you have enough liquid in the skillet to just barely cover the beef mixture.  Simmer it covered for about 20 minutes then remove the lid and simmer for another 15-20 minutes or until the sauce is reduce by half.  Enjoy it with the tostones!

Pumpkin Beef Stew

I bought some beef shanks with the notion of using them in a stew at some point.  Yesterday I finally got around to it.  I bought a pumpkin and thought I'd use in a stew or in my omelette like I use butternut squash.  Well, needless to say I didn't like prepping the pumpkin.  It was more difficult than butternut squash but maybe I just love butternut squash more.  With the help of my Mom, which means I passed the work off to her, the pumpkin got peeled, seeded and cut into chunks.  I cut the meat off the shank bones and seared it in a skillet that had rendered bacon fat in it.  I also chopped an onion and sauteed that in the skillet.  I put the chopped bacon, onion, beef chunks, pumpkin and shank bones (with morrow) in a crock pot with beef broth, a bouquet garni and some sage.  I let it cook away until the meat was tender, the morrow melted and the pumpkin soft.

Beef Bourguignon

What to do with tough old stew meat?  Slow simmer it for hours in wine and herbs.  I pulled the old Betty Crocker cookbook off the shelf because it has all these standards in it.  And 'ol Betty done good.  The chunks of beef were super tender and had great flavor.  I was pretty pleased with it and it was really easy to make.  When I'm cooking all my meals for the weekend it's nice to have a couple of dishes that sit on the back burner while I busy myself with other recipes.

Beef Bourguignon

1 pound stew beef

1 1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 small bottle red wine (187mL)

1C broth

2 bay leaves

1t thyme

3/4t marjoram

1C mushrooms, chopped

5 carrots, cut into 1 inch chunks

3-4 strips bacon, chopped

1.  Add some fat of choice to a dutch oven and heat.  Add the beef and sear on all sides.  Remove from skillet and set aside.

2.  Add the onion and garlic to the dutch oven and saute until they just begin to soften. 

3.  Add the meat back to the dutch oven.  Add the wine, broth and herbs.  Simmer, covered for about 45 minutes.

4.  Add the carrots and mushrooms.  Simmer for 30 minutes or until the carrots are soft. 

5.  While the carrots are cooking, add the bacon to a skillet and cook until crispy.

6.  When the carrots are soft, turn off the heat and add the bacon. Stir to incorporate.  Serve!

Sabroso!

The other day I saw a pic for Chili Colorado on Everyday Paleo that got my tastebuds all revved up!  I had been avoiding Mexican dishes because I thought it would trigger a craving for homemade tortillas, Mexican rice, tamales, et cetera, et cetera.  Mexican cooking is home to me, it's what my taste buds were brought up on and living without everything that is the soul of Mexican cooking is what always brought me to my knees before.  I always wondered if I was really going to live the rest of my life without a taco and then I'd give in and be back to my old habits.  Well, this time I'm pretty sure I've made it past all the looming doubt and am satisfied with my choice but I've been avoiding anything remotely Mexican out of fear of failure.  I have taken a few baby steps like making Mexican Cauliflower (a riff on the rice dish) and I did eat at Chipotle the other day (salad, thank you).  So when I saw Sarah's chili colorado I had enough of avoiding my favorite cuisine.  I stopped at the store and picked up some stew meat, went to the pantry and grabbed my jars of chiles and spices and got with it!  I never really have a recipe when I'm making a chile sauce and I never knew the proper name for a red sauced beef dish is Chile Colorado.  But it's never to late to learn a few things and now I'll actually have a record of what I put in the pot.   While my sauce is a little darker due to ancho and negro chiles it's still tasty!  I've been eating it for breakfast in lieu of my standard bacon and eggs and I'm loving it!!

CHILE COLORADO

10 Pasilla chiles
2 Ancho chiles
2 Negro chiles
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, diced
1 small can Herdez salsa casera
Chicken stock
1T. cumino
2T. mexican oregano
1-2 lbs of beef stew meat

1. Stem and seed the chiles then put them in a pot with about 3-4 cups of stock.  When the stock begins to boils turn the heat down and let them simmer 10-15 minutes.
2. Meanwhile brown the beef in a dutch oven or pot then remove.
3. Add the onions to the pot and saute until soft then add the garlic.
4. Add the spices and beef back to the pot along with the salsa casera.
5. Add the chiles and liquid to a blender and puree.
6. Pour the chiles sauce into the pot and stir well.
7. Cook at a low simmer for about an hour so the sauce reduces and the meat is tender.
8. Serve with a big dollop of guacamole!

Bacon Free

This week, due to my still awful shopping skills, is a bacon free week.  Well, not entirely bacon free.  I did use the bacon grease I had been collecting to cook a few things in.  Although at first, I whined like a baby and wondered what I was going to make.  After awhile, when I realized no one was going to go buy some bacon I shut up and I started thinking about what I was going to prepare for my work weekend.  I usually prepare my dinners and breakfast at the beginning of  my work week so that I can just grab and go.  It works really well for me and being prepared is what keeps me Paleo.  I think I'm getting a little better about menu planning and I'm not ending up with two or three kinds of leafy greens to eat all week.  Now, if I just can remember to grab my lunch when I walk out of the house!  I've forgotten it twice in the past couple of weeks.  Thankfully my sister brought my lunch in yesterday thus saving me from the chicken strip, mashed potato, tater tots and corn extravaganza that was available in the cafeteria.  There was also the wilted salad bar and nitrate laden lunch meats.  Yikes, I was in for a long day but she came to the rescue!  Thanks Boo Boo!

So, here are a few food pics of what I'm eating this weekend.  First up is chicken and collards.  The bacon would have been awesome in this.  I pack this in a small container and have it for my midway snack/lunch.  I work twelve hours so I usually eat breakfast at home and then have a small lunch and supper at work.

Ingredients:

2 Chicken breasts, cut into strips
1/2 onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 bunch of collards
8-10 cherry tomatoes (I bought some sweet yellow tomatoes because they were cheaper)
white wine for deglazing
chicken stock or water for steaming

1. Sautee the onion and garlic in bacon grease until it caramelizes.
2. Add the chicken and cook.
3. Deglaze the pan with the wine.
4. Toss the collards in and add a little chicken stock or water, if needed.
5. Cover and let steam until the greens have wilted a little.
6. Add the tomatoes and cook a few minutes so they are heated through and starting to break down.

Next up is my dinner plate for a couple of nights.  I bought some chopped steak type of meat and just browned it in some olive oil.  I'm serving it alongside some sauteed zucchini that I paired with some leftover yellow tomatoes and some spicy chipotle butternut squash.  Here's the recipe for the butternut squash.

Ingredients:
Butternut squash, cubed (1 small)
1/2 onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 chipotle peppers with adobo sauce
1/2 can of fire roasted tomatoes
Cumin, to taste
Cilantro

1. Saute the onion until it's soft and then add the garlic.  Cook for a few minutes until it's aromatic.
2. Toss the squash in the skillet with some fat and let it cook.  I just go to the point that it's starting to brown up on all sides.
3. Add the cumino and toss it all around for a minute of two.
4. Blend the chipotles and adobo sauce with the fire roasted tomatoes.  Add this to the skillet with the squash.  Cover and cook until squash is soft.  (You may have to add a little chicken stock or water if it starts to dry out.  Basically you want the sauce clinging to the squash.)
5. Sprinkle with some cilantro and serve.

I shall think on you no more

One thing I like more than eating and cooking is watching movies.  There's something magical about a movie theater when the lights dim and trailers start playing.  Then the movie starts and you're transported somewhere else for two hours and the troubles for the day are long forgotten.  The cinematography, the soundtrack, the script...all of it, I love it all.  Lines from movies sneak in to my conversations and the best part in when someone recognizes it but too often  they don't. 

The other day I was explaining to someone the tenets of Paleo.  An incredulous response was returned and they stewed around on the thought of no grains.  That always gets people especially when they start thinking of all the stuff they make/buy with grains.  I just chuckle and confirm that it's all out.   I replied "I shall think on it no more" and then giggled to myself.  You see, that a line from a favorite movie on mine.  You guessed it, Rob Roy.  The original line is "you" instead of "it" but hey, I was referring to grains and not a person.  Don't you think Liam Neeson makes a more handsome highlander than Mel Gibson?  I have no qualms in admitting that I like Rob Roy much more than Braveheart.  Sorry, that's just the way it is.

Anyway, back to grains and Paleo.  I've been rather fortunate since switching over this time and haven't had any major cravings.  I think it's because I went cold turkey.  Now, that's not to say that I haven't spent thirty minutes thinking and drooling about Kuntz's Drive-In's steak strips or slightly gooey chocolate chip cookies.  I have.  One night I spent some time masterminding an ingenious plan of driving the two hours to Kuntz's without my family finding out.  I should tell you that it's probably been ten years since I had a steak strip from Kuntz's so why I spent all this time hatching a plan to sneak out there is beyond me.  The other time I obsessed over a food was when one of the docs brought chocolate chip cookies to work and left the huge container in the break room...unguarded.  I meandered to the break room to look at the Superbowl potluck and I spied the container on the third table.  My eyes locked on and I slowly made my way down the line, taking fleeting glances at the crock pots as I passed.  At some point I reached down and grabbed a carrot stick and approached the cookies.  I slowly walked passed them and, while crunching on that carrot stick, resisted the urge to take the lid off for a better view.  To remove that lid was pure danger and I knew it.  I made my way back to my desk and spent the next half hour thinking about the texture of those cookies in my mouth.  I snapped out of it when I had a vision of myself as Cookie Monster.   

I usually realize after a few minutes of obsessing over some pre-Paleo food that I'm doing nothing but undermining myself.  I make myself stop and one of the ways I do it is to think of that line from Rob Roy.  "I will think on you dead until my husband makes you so.  And then I will think on you no more."  Yeah, a little dramatic.  Plus, I'm not married.  And you can't really kill grains with a broadsword and I change the line a little bit but it's what I think of and it gets me through.  That and I think of how crappy I felt before.  Just do what you've got to do to get past the moment and think on it no more.  Just don't give in to temptation.

If you've hung with me this long I think you deserve a recipe.  What do you think?  Well, yesterday while hunting and gathering recipes I came across one that I was eager to try.  When you read the recipe it sounds like a lot of time for burger but it really does not not take that long.  The longest step was making the sweet and sour aioli sauce.  If you don't want to spend too much time in the kitchen, I suggest making the sauce ahead of time and storing in the fridge then make the burgers the next day.

Fire-Roasted Tomato Burgers with Aioli Sauce

Recipe by Scott Pampuch for the 2010 Muir Glen Tomato Vine Dining Tour
Makes 6 burgers

Sweet & Sour Sauce
1/4 c. juice reserved from canned tomatoes (below)
1/4 c. honey
1/4 c. apple cider vinegar

Aioli Sauce
1 pasteurized egg yolk
2 Tbsp. grated lemon peel
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 clove garlic
3/4 c. vegetable oil
Sweet & Sour Sauce (above)
1 Tbsp. reserved tomatoes (below)

Burgers
1 lb. lean (at least 80%) ground beef
1 can (14.5 oz) Muir Glen Organic or Meridian Ruby Fire Roasted diced tomatoes, drained, 1/4 c. juice reserved, 1 Tbsp. tomatoes reserved
4 oz. bacon, crisply cooked and chopped
1 egg
1/4 c. chopped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground black pepper

1.  In 1-quart saucepan, mix sweet & sour sauce ingredients. Simmer over medium eat about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until sauce coats back of spoon. Cool to room temperature.

2.  In food processor, place egg yolk, lemon peel, lemon juice, and garlic. Cover; process until blended. With the food processor running, slowly drizzle oil, and then cooled sweet & sour sauce through feeder tube until blended. Pour into small bowl and stir in reserved 1 Tbsp. canned tomatoes; refrigerate.

3.  In large bowl, mix ingredients for burgers; form into 6 patties. Heat gas or charcoal grill. Place patties on grill over medium heat. Cover grill; cook 8-10 minutes on each side or until meat thermometer inserted in center of patties reads 160 degrees F.  Remove and top with aioli sauce.

NOTES:  This was served on buns which I left out but the rest of the recipe is as printed.  It turned out really good but I think the next time I will reduce the amount of tomatoes in the beef or just increase the beef.  It seemed rather sweet to me but my sister thought it was fine.  I don't know if it's because I don't consume sugary sweets anymore and that's why it was sweet to me.  I would probably cut the honey back some the next time I make it.

The sauce makes way more than you need but that's a good thing because I kept thinking of other meats and seafood to serve it with.  I actually think that the sauce isn't something I would normally serve with beef but it was tasty.  My sister was having grilled shrimp for her dinner and she used the some of the sauce for her shrimp and absolutely loved it!!  Tomorrow we are getting swordfish, tuna or salmon steaks for supper so we can have the sauce with them.  We both agreed that it would also make a great sauce for pork.  Oh, I forgot to mention that I forgot to add the tablespoon of tomatoes to the sauce but I don't think it matters.

Here I Go Again

Have you ever been stalked by a song?  This happens to me from time to time.  A few years back it was that Partridge Family song I Think I Love You.  It just about drove me nuts, I couldn't stand that song.   Well, now it is Whitesnake's Here I Go Again which I actually like.  Don't laugh, I know that 80's hair metal can seem a bit cheesy now.  But that's my time period so I sort of like the stuff and I'm not too cool to admit it.  Anyway, I've been hearing this song quite a bit lately and not on Gen X radio (the 80s-90s station).  But places like the grocery store, clothing boutiques in abandoned strip malls and most recently in The Fighter (which I suggest you run right out and see...now).  Heck, it all started when (for some odd reason) I had a dream with David Coverdale in it.  He was dancing around and doing cartwheels a' la Tawny Kitaen from their video.  It's goofy but that's the best part about dreams.  So, that song is sort of my theme song at the moment, I admit that it pretty much dominates my playlist.

This isn't the first time I've blogged recipes.  Back when I first tried Paleo I had a little blog that I posted some of my recipes on.  It went through a couple of makeovers and name changes.  Looking back on it I probably wasn't very well suited for keeping up a food blog.  I wasn't really sure of what I was doing and I wasn't very good at being Paleo.  I think that's why I kept changing it and eventually doing away with it.  I've got a little more experience now in the kitchen, I'm a little smarter about shopping and I do a better job of preparing food for one and wasting less.  I've had a really strong first month of Paleo and maybe I can do a better job of keeping a food blog this time.  So, here I go again.

Stuffed Acorn Squash

1 pound ground meat of choice, browned and crumbled

1 acorn squash

5 small dried shiitake mushrooms (or other dried mushroom), reconstituted and finely chopped

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 small cauliflower, chopped to rice size with the food processor

1 small onion, roughly chopped

1 poblano pepper, skinned, seeded and diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 t ground cumin*

1/2 t paprika*

1/4 t cinnamon*

3 T  white wine

1 can fire roasted tomatoes

salt & pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Reconstitute the mushrooms according to package direction.  Save the water, you'll use it later.
3. Brown the meat and remove from skillet leaving a thin layer of grease/oil in the pan.
4. Saute the onions, garlic and poblano in the skillet that you browned the meat in.
5. Add the spices when the veggies are soft and let it cook for a few minutes.  Remove from the skillet and add it to the bowl containing the meat.
6. Heat a little oil in a skillet and add the cauliflower, mushrooms plus the soaking liquid and wine.  Cook until the liquid has evaporated.
7. Add the fire roasted tomatoes, veggies and meat to the cauliflower mixture and mix well.  Heat through.
8. Scoop the mixture into the squash and bake for 35-45 minutes.

Notes:  I nuked my squash in the microwave until they were partially done in order to reduce the bake time.  I figure the other ingredients were already cooked and I didn't think there was much need to have them roasting away in the oven while the squash cooked.  If you don't want to do that then extend the bake time to 45-60 minutes.  At any rate you should be able to pierce the squash easily with a fork when it's done. 

I think I would like to use delicata squash the next time because they are smaller.  I was only able to eat a 1/4 of the squash for a meal so this made 4 servings for me with a little meat mixture left over.  I believe next time I'll use half the cauliflower and reduce the filling mixture by half and use one delicata.

Feel free to wing it with the ingredients.  That's usually what I do when I find a recipe I want to try.

* The spice measurements are my best guess since I rarely measure my spices.  Sorry if this throws you off.  The main thing for me is cumin and then some paprika and just a smidge of cinnamon.