I love to cook, and I'm sure there are fellow gourmets on this board. Share a favorite recipe of yours and perhaps we can all get some motivation! What I made last night: Braised lamb shanks Season the lamb shanks with salt and pepper. Pat lamb shanks with flour and put them in a dutch oven or large pot that you can cover over medium heat. Cook until browned all over, then remove shanks from the pot. Put several roughly chopped onions, carrots, rosemary, thyme and garlic and cook until onions and carrots are browned, 5-10 minutes. Put the shanks back in the bot, and pour about half a bottle of red wine into the pot. Cook the wine down until it is reduced about half. Put in water or stock to just cover the lamb shanks and bring to a boil. Then, turn heat to low and gently simmer, covered, for about 2 hours. The lamb shanks are ready when the meat is so tender it falls off the bone. Great with mashed potatoes!
been wanting to whip up a batch of this...so good. http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/sweet_potato_black_bean_chili.html Sweet Potato & Black Bean Chili
There actually is a science to making perfect boiled eggs. (and anyone knows what I'm talking about with overboiled eggs that turn greenish inside.) Voila, indeed. 1 Put the eggs in a single layer in a saucepan, covered by at least an inch or two of cold water. Starting with cold water and gently bringing the eggs to a boil will help keep them from cracking. Adding a tablespoon of vinegar to the water will help keep the egg whites from running out of any eggs that happen to crack while cooking, but some people find that the vinegar affects the taste. I don't have a problem with it and I usually add a little vinegar. Adding a half teaspoon of salt is thought to help both with the preventing of cracking and making the eggs easier to peel. Put the burner on high and bring the eggs to a boil. As soon as the water starts to boil, remove the pan from the heat for a few seconds. 2 Reduce the heat to low, return the pan to the burner. Let simmer for one minute. (Note I usually skip this step because I don't notice the eggs boiling until they've been boiling for at least a minute! Also, if you are using an electric stove with a coil element, you can just turn off the heat. There is enough residual heat in the coil to keep the eggs simmering for a minute.) 3 After a minute, remove the pan from the heat, cover, and let sit for 12 minutes. If you are doing a large batch of eggs, after 10 minutes you can check for doneness by sacrificing one egg, removing it with a slotted spoon, running it under cold water, and cutting it open. If it isn't done, cook the other eggs a minute or two longer. The eggs should be done perfectly at 10 minutes, but sometimes, depending on the shape of the pan, the size of the eggs, the number of eggs compared to the amount of water, and how cooked you like them, it can take a few minutes more. When you find the right time that works for you given your pan, the size of eggs you usually buy, the type of stove top you have, stick with it. I also find that it is very hard to overcook eggs using this method. I can let the eggs sit, covered, for up to 15-20 minutes without the eggs getting overcooked. 4 Either remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and place them into a bowl of ice water (this is if you have a lot of eggs) OR strain out the water from the pan, fill the pan with cold water, strain again, fill again, until the eggs cool down a bit. Once cooled, strain the water from the eggs. Store the eggs in a covered container (eggs can release odors) in the refrigerator. They should be eaten within 5 days.
Steamed Mussels. Ingredients 6 pounds mussels 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 shallot, minced 2 garlic cloves, shaved 4 sprigs fresh thyme 2 cup dry white wine 1 lemon, juiced and skin zested 1 cup chicken broth, 1 tomato diced 1/2 cup roughly chopped italian parsley 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 1/4 cup heavy cream. DirectionsRinse the mussels under cold running water while scrubbing with a vegetable brush. Discard any with broken shells or mussels that are open. Heat oil in a 6 to 8-quart stockpot. Saute the shallot, garlic and thyme to create a base flavor. Add 1st cup of Wine and boil for 5 minutes. Add the mussels and give them a good toss. Add 2nd cup of wine, lemon juice and zest, chicken broth and heavy cream cover the pot and steam over medium-high for 5 minutes until the mussels open. Toss in the tomato, parsley and butter, recover the pot, and steam for another minute and serve. I usually serve this on top of Angel hair pasta when I'm cooking for a date. Also, I add more wine and a little bit of heavy cream as well. So good.
for all you rice lovers out there, i stumbled on this rice recipe while making gumbo. in a rice cooker put: 1 cup rice 2 cups water 1/8 stick of unsalted butter or more if you desire 2 teaspoons of creole seasoning, i prefer the Tony Chachere's whatever will do fine. 2 cloves of garlic smashed then peeled hit the cook button and enjoy. great recipe for an easy side dish.
Roast Chicken: 1 3lb Free Range Chicken (such a simple recipe, it's important to go for quality ingredients, you'll taste the difference) Kosher Salt Pepper Fresh Thyme Butter Preheat oven to 450. Rinse the chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Season the outside and the cavity of the chicken liberally with salt and pepper. Truss the chicken (video here). Put it in a roasting pan or oven-proof skillet, and throw it in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour. Then just leave it alone til it's done. Make a salad and some mashed potatoes or something in the meantime. When it's cooked, add a pat of butter and the fresh thyme to the juices in the pan and baste the bird. Let it rest 10-15 minutes. Eat it.
Dessert anyone? Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars Yield: 24 bars Ingredients Crust Ingredients 2 cups white whole wheat flour 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 cup butter, softened, but not melted Filling Ingredients 3 (8 oz) blocks cream cheese, softened 3/4 cup sugar 3 large eggs 1 Tablespoon Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract Apple Topping Ingredients 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, & finely chopped 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 cup sugar Streusel Topping Ingredients 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup all-purpose flour 1/2 cup oats 1/2 cup butter, softened 1/2 cup King Arthur Flour cinnamon chips 1/2 cup chopped pecans Drizzle Ingredients 1/2 - 3/4 cup of your favorite caramel sauce Instructions Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cover a 9x13" cake pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray. For the crust: Combine the butter, flour and brown sugar, until mixture is crumbly and evenly distributed. You could use a pastry blender or forks to do this by hand. I used my stand mixer. A few pulses in a food processor would work, as well. Press into foil lined cake pan and bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned. For the cheesecake filling: In the bowl of your stand mixer, beat all the filling ingredients until smooth and creamy. Pour the filling over your warm crust. For the apple filling: Stir together chopped apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sugar. Spoon evenly over cheesecake mixture. For the streusel topping: I used my stand mixer, again, to mix all the streusel ingredients together, but it could just as easily be mixed with a fork. Sprinkle streusel topping over apple mixture. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and drizzle with caramel topping. Allow to cool and then set in refrigerator. (This is at it's flavor-best when served cold.)
Cleaning out the deep freeze, have a couple of extra venison backstraps & half a beef tenderloin sitting there doing nothing. Marinating Friday/Saturday, then my uncle & I are firing up the smoker & making a crap-ton of jerky on Sunday. Also found the wild duck to go with the homemade andouille, garden okra and cured wild ham (the chicken is still running around my grandmother's yard)....just need some cold weather and it's gumbo thirty. Also now have about 60 dove that need to be marinated, stuffed with jalapeno (which is stuffed with sausage/cream cheese/roasted pepper & onion), wrapped in bacon, and put on the pit.
Anyone here ever cooked with white wine? I came across this watching the food network the other day. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/...and-roasted-vegetable-penne-recipe/index.html Not a big fan of mushrooms, so I'm considering replacing that with broccoli.
Nothing better (or easier) than mussels steamed in white wine. Saute up some garlic and chili flakes in olive oil, pour in a bottle of white wine, bring it to a boil, add a couple pounds of mussels and cover. In 5 minutes or so you've got dinner.
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