Drunken Cranberry Quinoa Dressing

OK, maybe I'm back from the dead. Life has just been way to crazy to keep up with this blogging business. I have continues to create and experiment but I just haven't had time to blog about what I'm cooking. Also, we lost our camera this summer so all I have is the cell phone camera. I apologize for the lower quality of my photographs.

After perfecting the Beer Cornbread Dressing last year I decided to change this year and I am using quinoa as the starch base for the dressing.

Ingredients:
1 cup quinoa
2 cups of water or stock for cooking quinoa
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup rum/brandy
1 onion, diced
4or 5 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3" piece of double garlic/double smoked polish sausage, quartered & sliced
3" piece of spicy Hungarian sausage, quartered & sliced
1 apple pealed & diced.
4 slices bacon, sliced into pieces
1 tbsp poultry seasoning
1 tsp powdered chipolte pepper

The day before:
1. combine the dried cranberries and the rum. cover with plastic and let sit at room temperature.
2. bring water/stock to a boil and add the quinoa. reduce to simmer and cook fro 30-45 minutes

The Day of:
1. Fry the bacon to crisp and remove from the pan. If there is too much oil discard some of it.
2. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant, then add the onion and fry until soft. Add the poultry seasoning and chipolte powder and fry for a few more minutes.
3. add the remaining ingredients and combine well.
4. place in a casserole dish and bake in the oven until warmed through. 

My own review is that there was a slight bitter taste to the dressing. I think the proportion of quinoa was a little too high. I would reduce the amount of quinoa and probably use a blend of rosemary, thyme, sage and bay leaf to season the dressing next time. Also the addition of some nuts might improve things.

Roasted Tomato Vegetable Soup

It has been a while since I have posted here. I am still cooking like a fiend but I just haven't been able to update the blog. I bought a half bushel of roma tomatoes from the local farmer's market. It was great to be able to get locally grown romas. When I usually buy them I figure they are likely from southern Ontario. Over half of the tomatoes went to a batch of BBQ sauce, but that is another blog post.

The recipe has a serving of protein but is a little light on calories to make a full lunch. I suggest adding some grilled shrimp or braised wild boar as pictured here. I found the 3 jalapenos made it a bit more spicy than I was hoping for.

Ingredients	Calories	Fat	Carbs	Protein
3.6kg roma tomatoes	648	7	141	32
1 bulb garlic	45	0.1	10	2
4 sprigs rosemary	9	0.4	1	0.2
1 large onion (670g)	281	0.5	68	6
3 ribs celery (215g)	30	0.4	7	2
3 carrots (285g)	117	0.7	27	3
3 jalapenos	36	0.2	9	2
2 tbsp oil	248	28
1 litre chicken stock	346	12	34	24
salt and pepper to taste

Total Calories: 1759, Fat 49g, Carbs, 297, Protein: 70 Yield 10, 2 cup servings Per Serving: Calories: 176, Fat: 4.9, Carbs: 29.7, Protein: 7

Pre-heat the oven to 400F

Wash and slice the tomatoes in half and place in a baking sheet sliced side up. Finely chop the rosemary and garlic and sprinkle over the sliced tomatoes. Roast the tomatoes for 45 minutes.

Remove the tomatoes from the oven and allow to cool. Move the tomatoes to a bowl and deglaze the pan with water.

Dice the onion, celery, carrot, jalapenos, salt and pepper. Add the oil to your soup pot and put on medium heat. Add the diced vegetables and sweat until they start to stick to the bottom of the pan.

Process the tomatoes and deglazing liquid in a blender. Add to the soup pot. Add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil and let simmer for a few minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning.

Pasilla Spiced Pea Soup

This is an attempt to make use of the dried peppers I ordered earlier this year. Part of that order were some pasilla peppers.

Pasilla chillies are a milder pepper with a scoville rating of 1000-4000. Popular in Mexican cuisine. When fresh they are called chiaca. Although they are almost always encountered dried; in this state, it is referred to as a pasilla. The pasilla has a dark brown color and a smoky flavor. This is milder than the jalepeno pepper at 2500-8000. There is a good wiki page of pepper ratings here

Ingredients	Calories	Fat (g)	Sodium (mg)	Carbs (g)	Protein (g)
457g dried Yellow Peas	1577	12	55	277	101
2 med. Onion (202g)	85	0.2	6	20	2
2 med. Carrots (140g)	57	0.3	97	13	1
2 Celery Stalks (97g)	14	0.2	78	3	0.7
1 garlic bulb (37g)	55	0.2	6	12	2
2 pork hocks (yeild: 727g)	1818	124	7125	7	153
2 tbsp oil	240	28	0	0	0
5 dried pasilla chillies (45g)	146	3	41	31	5
1/2 tsp salt	0	0	190	0	0
Pepper to taste
1/4 c dried oregano	37	1	2	8	1
2 tbsp dried thyme
2 tbsp dried parsley
12 Bay Leaves
4 roasted red peppers	57	0.4	4	13.6	1.9
Totals	4086	169.3	7604	384.6	267.6
Per 12, 2c servings	340	14.1	633	32	22.3

The day before roast the red peppers, put in a sealed container to steam and then remove the skins & seeds and chop.
Also put the dried peas in a bowl and cover with water.

Dice the onion, celery and carrot. Finely dice the garlic or pass through a garlic press. 

In a your soup pot on medium heat add the oil, vegetables and garlic and the 1/2 tsp salt and pepper. Sweat the veggies with the lid ajar. When the vegetable begin to stick add the pork hocks, drained peas and enough water to cover. Add the bay leaves, oregano and pasilla peppers. Bring to a boil and simmer for 90 minutes or until the peas are cooked.

When the peas are cooked remove the pork hock and let cool. Remove the meat from the hocks. Dice the meat and add back to the pot.

Remove the bay leaves.


Remove the pasilla peppers and place in a blender. Removing the stems from the peppers. Add some of the cooking liquid or some water to the blender. Whiz up the peppers until smooth and add back to the pot.

Add the roasted red pepper and the oregano, parsley and thyme. Top up with water if needed. Bring to a boil again and serve.

Thoughts

• It did come out a bit spicy. If you don't like spice then cut back on the peppers. 
• I am surprised by the amount of sodium. Next time I would use only one pork hock. This would cut back dramatically on the amount of sodium.This would have cut back a bit on the protein but it still would have enough.
• The flavour seemed a bit thin. I should have used a home made chicken stock instead of water. I did have some store bought broth but it is also high in sodium. I guess I have to get off my lazy ass and make my own stock. Always better than commercial stock.
• After having another serving I can tell that the peas are not fully cooked. This is likely due to the salt in the pork hock. Another reason to use only one.

Enjoy!

Cola Braised Turkey Wings

One of the local grocery stores has been selling turkey wings split. I just couldn't resist - pterodactyl wings, Fred Flinstone here I come. Anyway the price was good so I loaded up on them.

I tried them a few times on the grill. I thought they would cook similar to a chicken leg with the back attached. The were a bit tough off the grill. Tougher than when I have a roasted turkey.

I thought they would lend themselves to a slower cooking method. I also had some regular coke laying around. No one here drinks the stuff. The coke it should lend itself to some Asian seasonings.

Ingredients
2 turkey wing parts, 1 flat & 1 drumette
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, diced
1 celery, diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
Chinese 5 spice blend
1 can coke
1/2 cup red wine
1/4  cup soy sauce
1 tbsp oil
Salt & Pepper


Season the wing pieces with salt & pepper and the 5 spice.
In a pot large enough to hold everything add the oil and heat on medium-high. Sear the turkey wings as best you can. They are very uneven and don't sear well. Remove and set aside.

Add the onion, carrot, celery, ginger and garlic to the pot and cook until the veggies are soft.

Return the turkey wings to the pot and add the coke, red wine and soy sauce. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours or more.

After 2 hours remove the turkey wings and place on a grill pan. Strain the braising liquid through a sieve and return the liquid to the pot. Bring the liquid to a boil and reduce. Meanwhile place the turkey wings under the broiler to crisp the skin. About 10-15 minutes per side.

Enjoy!

After the broiler. A little too crisp maybe?

Served with fried cabbage and pan roasted potatoes, sauce on the side

Chorizo Spiced Pork & Bean Soup

A nice spicy soup, very hearty with lots of protein to fill you up. Something to do with some raw pork I had.

Item	Calories	Protein
407g navy beans	1384	93.6
500g raw pork meat	568	112.3
4 tbsp chorizo spice mix
25g oil	225
4 leaks	390	9.6
4 cloves of garlic	28	1.2
2 tbsp dried thyme	15	0.5
2 L chicken broth	133	13.3
2 L water
600g red potato	534	13.8
12 bay leaves
salt & pepper
TOTAL	3465	248

Yeild 10, 2 cup servings.
Per Serving Calories: 346, Protein: 24.8


Dice the pork and combine with chorizo spice mix. Refrigerate over night.

Cover the beans with water and let sit over night.

Cut the leaks in half and  slice thin. Keep some of the leak tops for cooking with the beans

Combine the beans with the water add some of the leak tops and bay leaves. Bring to a boil and simmer until tender. Remove the onion and bay leaves and reserve the water & beans.

Saute the pork in the oil in a soup pot on medium heat. Remove and set aside. Add the leaks with some salt & pepper. Sweat the leaks & garlic while trying to scrape off any bits that stuck to the bottom.

Add the meat back with the beans along with the water they were cooked in. Add the potato and chicken broth. Simmer until the potatoes are tender

Maple Marinated Grilled Pickeral

This recipe was inspired by a discussion on the Food Network community forum about trying to reproduce the Loblaws Maple BBQ salmon.

I picked up some pickeral. I know it's not salmon but that is what I felt like having.The recipe is sized for four pickeral filets but I only had two. So I made the whole spice mix and used only half of it to make the marinade. I also used Cubeb pepper but you can easily substitute black pepper

1 tbsp cubeb peppercorns
1 tsp mustard seed
1 tsp hickory smoked salt
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp onion powder
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp soy sauce
½ cup maple syrup
2-4 pickeral filets (~4kg)


Combine the pepper, mustard seed smoked salt and granulated garlic in a spice grinder. Process in the grinder to a powder. Combine with the powdered onion and smoke paprika.

The spice mixture can be stored in a sealed container.

Combine the spices with the soy sauce and maple suryp.

Maple Marinade - Ready to go!

Coat the fish with the marinade and place the fish with the marinade in a plastic bag and refrigerate for 4 hours or over night.

Filets Coated with Marinate

Grill the fish over high heat about 4 minutes per side. I grilled the flesh side down first and then flipped the skin side down.

Finished dish

Here is it served with green beans and some pan fried potatoes with green onion.

Something in the marinade was over powering. Possibly the smoked salt. There was no sense of the maple syrup. So I will have to continue to improve the marinade.

Mashed Potato Cassarole

This is something I came up with for a pot luck dinner. I was and still am desperate to use up the bushel and a half of potatoes I bought last fall. Now that the weather has started to warm up they are beginning to sprout. I only need a few to seed the garden.

I originally mixed the bacon in with the potatoes but I found the bacon got lost in the rest of the potato. So, I suggest the bacon be kept to the side and served with the cassarole

The amount of potato is realy what ever it takes to fill the pan.

Potatoes to fill the pan

Item	Calories	Protein
500g bacon, cooked yeilds 125g	689	46.3
2.3kg potato with skins	1774	46.5
2c cheddar, 235g	1018	62.6
1c asiago, 97g	346	24.3
1/2c parmesan, 48g	188	17.2
500ml sour cream, 14%mf	833	16.6
1 tbsp peppercorn
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp granulated garlic

Total for dish: 4848 calories, 213.5g protein
Per 12 servings: 404 calories, 17.79g protein

1. Cook bacon until crisp and set aside

2. Cut the potato into pieces and boil in salted water until done

Boiled Potatoes

3. Grind the peppercorns, salt and garlic in a spice mill/coffee grinder.

4. In a stand mixer begin mashing the potato. Add the sour cream, 1/3-1/2 of the cheeses and the salt/pepper/garlic mixture. Continue mashing until all the ingredients have combined.

5. Spread the potato mixture into your baking pan and top with the remaining cheeses.

6. Bake at 375F for 45 minute to melt and brown the cheese.

Serve with the reserved bacon on the side.

Chicken & Lentil Soup

Just a quick soup for after a visit to the dentist. I tossed it together with what I had on hand

1 onion
2 carrots
3 celery stalks
1 tsp chili flakes
¾ cups of Black Beluga Lentils
4 cup water
1 litre chicken stock
1 tsp poultry seasoning
1 tbsp oil
½ tsp garlic powder
250 g raw shrimp
pepper
salt

1. add the lentils and water to a pot. Bring to a boil  and let simmer for 30 minutes

2. chop the onion, carrot, celery and chili flakes. Add to the soup pot with the oil and cook until the vegetable are soft.

3. Add the chicken stock, garlic, poultry seasoning and the cooked lentils and bring to a boil. Turn off the heat and add the shrimp. Let stand for 5 minutes and serve

It does go well with some crackers.

Gin & Tonic battered fish

Once a year I bust out and make battered fish & chips & onion rings. What better time to have fish than Good Friday!

I guess this is taking it to the next level. A beer batter is fairly common place. A few years ago I saw an episode of "In Search of Perfection" by Heston Blumenthal. In that episode he perfected the dish "Fish & Chips". His recipe uses equal parts of vodka and beer to make batter. Here a posting of his recipe

So I decided to take it up a notch and use gin in place of the vodka and tonic water in place of the beer. This recipe make a lot of batter and could be reduced and still make enough batter

200g all purpose flour
200g corn startch

1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp honey
250ml (1 cup) gin
355ml (1 can) tonic water
2 filets of haddock
2 slices of a large onion
1 large potato

Basic Batter ingredients

1. Combine the flours and baking powder
2. Dissolve the honey in the gin and add to the flour mixture. Add the tonic and fold in to combine.

Ready to go.

3. Remember to dust the fish with flour so the batter adheres to the fish.

Here are the final results. It does make a crispy batter

Braised Cabbage & Beef Soup

Cabbage: Is there  any better value for your money. It is a very low calorie food and contains a good amount of protein.

I bought a cabbage last fall. I don't know how much it weighted then but I have bee gnawing at it and I took off over 1kg for this recipe and there is still a significant amount of cabbage left

This recipe is based on the Braised Cabbage soup with beef from the book "best-ever SOUPS" by Anne Sheasby, pg 193. I found that recipe lacking in liquid so I added 2 litres of chicken stock at the end to create a more soup like dish

Ingredients

Ingredients	Calories	Protein
1.26kg cabbage, shredded	279	16.7
1 large onion, diced (495g)	208	4.6
1/2 cup apple juice	53	0
43g brown sugar	162	0
20g garlic (4-5 small cloves)	30	1.3
1/4tsp grated Nutmeg	0	0
1 tsp caraway seed	0	0
1/4 cup red wine vinegar	0	0
4 cups beef stock	125	18.9
2 litres chicken stock	133	13.3
750g extra lean ground beef	1613	139.4

Yield 9 two cup servings
Total calories: 2603, Total Protein: 194.2g
Per serving: Calories: 289, Protein: 21.6g

What remains of the cabbage!

1.126kg of shredded Cabbage

1. Pre heat the oven to 300F. Combine the cabbage, onion, apple juice, brown sugar, garlic, nutmeg, caraway, and vinegar. Put in a large roasting pan, cover and bake for 3 hours. Periodically stirring the mixture.

Cabbage after braising

2. Fry the ground beef in you soup pot. Adding some salt and pepper to season the beef while it cooks. Fry the beef until it starts to brown a bit.

3. Add the beef stock and de-glaze the pan. Add the braised cabbage and the chicken stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30min to allow the flavour to develop. Taste and season as needed.

Final pot of soup

A bow of Braised Cabbage Soup

I found the flavour reminiscent of borscht, without the beets. On the whole a good soup.

Classic Steak Dish - Steak Diane

Time to bust out and flambé something!

I am always looking to the classic dishes to test myself. I want to know that I can make the classics and then move on to my own variation of the dish. Here we are with Steak Diane. The recipe I used is based on recipe made bu Emeril Lagasse. You can find it on the Food Network web site here - Emeril's Steak Diane

I have used to thick pieces of beef tenderloin. I will leave them thick sear them and then let them continue to cook in the oven.

2 Beef Tenderloin Steaks - 8oz each
salt, pepper, granulated garlic to season the steak

Raw Steaks, seasoned

1 tbsp bacon fat
2 minced shallots (~3/4 cup)
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 cup mushrooms
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup brandy
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1/4 cup half & half
1/3 cup reduced beef stock
2 tsp Worcestershire Sauce
few drops of hot sauce

Put a pan over medium head and let it get hot. Add the bacon fat and sear the steaks on all sides to develop a nice brown crust. Remove the steaks and keep in a warm oven.

Add the shallots and garlic to the pan and cook for about 30 seconds. add the mushrooms and continue cooking. Add the water to deglaze the pan. When most of the water has evaporated add the brandy and ignite.

It was quite spectacular. This is where you need an assistant to wave a towel at the smoke detector. The following shows the dish when most of the flame had burned out.

Add the mustard, cream and stock and mix thoroughly.  Add the Worcestershire and the hot sauce and stir to combine.

This where I made my mistake. I forgot to return the steaks to the pan so they could continue to cook a bit in the sauce. As it was, some might say the meat was raw and wriggling. I plated the steaks and spooned the sauce over the steaks.

Here it is served with pan roasted potatoes and broccoli tenders.

Pork braised in cider

It's been a while since I have posted anything. Here is my interpretation of Braised Pork Shoulder by Cristine Cushing

The adaptation has more to do with what I had handy in the kitchen. I used a piece from the pork leg I bought a few weeks ago and de-boned. So the piece was from the other end of the pig.

Ingredients
3-4lb boneless pork roast
3-4 cloves of garlic
salt & pepper for seasoning the roast
2 tbsp oil
2 leeks, halved and sliced into 1/2" pieces
1 tsp whole cumin seed
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp whole coriander
1/2 tsp ground ginger
4" cinnamon stick
1 tsp hot sauce
1/2 cup sauvignon blanc
1 litre of hard apple cider
2 fuji apples, cored and sliced

Slice the garlic into slivers. cut slits in the pork and insert the garlic slits, randomly located around the roast

Heat the oil in a large pot. Sear the pork on all sides, remove and set aside

Add the leeks and cook until wilted and slightly browned. Add the spices and continue to cook for a few minutes. Deglaze the pan with the wine.

Add the pork back to the pot. Pour over the cider and add the apples. Bring to a boil and simmer for 2-3 hours.

Remove the roast from the pot and cover with foil to keep warm. Strain the liquid and return to the pot. Boil the liquid until it has reduces by 1/2 or more to make a sauce.

Serve with scalloped potatoes, roasted cauliflower and sauteed mushrooms

Scalloped Potatoes - My style
5 medium potatoes
1c grates cheddar cheese
1c grated asiago
1/2 c graded parmesean
granulated garlic
salt & pepper
skim milk - enough to fill dish.

Thinly slice the potato one at a time. Create a single layer of sliced potato in your casserole dish. Season the layer with salt, pepper and garlic. Sprinkle some of the cheese mixture over the layer. Repeat with enough layers to fill the dish. Make sure you have enough cheese for the top layer. Gently pour the skim milk into the dish until the level is a little below the top. Bake in a 400 F oven for 45 minutes. You will should place a pan underneath to catch the stuff that will drip out of the dish.

Sauteed Mushrooms
1 1/2 lb mushrooms, sliced
3 jalapeno peppers, finely diced
3-4 cloves of garlic, finely diced
1 tsp oil
salt & pepper

In a large pan heat the oil on medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms, peppers and garlic. Season with salt & pepper. Fry until the moisture evaporates and the mushrooms brown slightly.

A Plea for Better Haggis

During the last few weeks of January it seems every group that has a remote link with Scotland has some sort of salute to Robert Burns. This means that everywhere you turn someone is serving up haggis. More often that not the haggis is moderately awful at best. In an effort to combat the low quality of haggis on offer I am posting my version of the family recipe for haggis.

Some might say that there is no such thing as good haggis. That is like saying that after eating a hamburger from the local fast-food joint, there is no such thing as a good hamburger. There is a vast difference between the hamburger you fashion yourself from ground beef, well seasoned, fried and topped with some double smoked bacon and old cheddar`and the hamburger made from a frozen puck

The flavor of haggis is dominated by liver. If you don't like the flavour of liver, haggis may not appeal to you. However, the texture of liver has been eliminated by grinding it. So if the texture of liver turns you off, that is eliminated here.

The haggis should be peppery but not overly spicy. You are not trying to appeal to the palate of your Mexican  friends. You have to taste it as you add the seasoning. Keep in mind that the pepper will increase in intensity as the haggis is steamed. Also, you  are not trying to mask the liver, rather you are trying to complement the flavour.

The final texture will be determined by the type of oats used. In this version, I used a very coarse steel cut oats. The result will be a course texture. In the past I have used a finer Scotch Oatmeal which yields a finer texture haggis. Do not use rolled oats. Rolled oats have the wrong shape and would likely cook too fast. I have no idea how the end result would be. Experiment at your own risk.

Given the difficulty of obtaining a sheep stomach to act as the casing, I use cheese cloth to hold the haggis. It looks rustic and is still permeable to water. The haggis will need to be steamed where it will absorb some of the water.

The recipe is scaled by the size of the heart. The original recipe called for a sheep's heart. I have never seen a sheep's heart available an any of the local meat shops. A sheep's heart is about 1/4 the size of a calves heart. So, you could reduce the recipe if you can find a sheep's heart. The other option would be to only use a portion of the heart. The other option would be to use just beef, bu that goes against using the offal cuts of the animal that inspired the recipe.

For Haggis:
Ingredient	Calories	Protein (g)
1kg calves heart	1670	288.2
856g beef liver	1635	248.9
747g beef suet	6379	11.2
695g Steel Cut Oats (4 cups)	2685	110.6
4c beef stock	125	18.9
915g onion (5 med.)	384	8.4
1/2 cup whisky	307	0
2 tbsp peppercorns	33	1.4
2 tsp cayenne	11	0.4
1 1/2 tbsp salt
For Poaching:
2 litres water
2 onions
6 bay leaves

Raw Haggis ingredients, or deconstructed Haggis! For less than $20 you can make enough haggis to feed a small army.


Quarter the onions for the poaching liquid and add to the water with the bay leaves. Bring to a boil and add heart and liver. Simmer for 15-20 minutes until the liver and heart are cooked. Remove liver and heard and let cool. Discard the poaching liquid.

Meanwhile toast the oats in a 375F oven until well toasted ~20 minutes. The outer edges will brown faster so you will need to stir the oats part way through the toasting. Let cool.

Meanwhile, cut the onions down to a size that will fit in the feed tube of your food grinder. When the liver and heard is cool cut into pieces that will also fit into the feed tube of your food grinder.

Fit you r food grinder with the coarse die. Alternating onion, liver, heart and suet feed everything into the food grinder. Combine the ground mixture with the oats. Add the cayenne, pepper, salt, whisky and stock. Taste the mixture and adjust the seasoning if necessary. The mixture will be quite loose. The oats will eventually absorb much of the liquid. At this point refrigerate the mixture to allow it to firm up.

Lay a double layer of cheese cloth over a small bowl and portion the haggis into the bowl.

Tie up the corners of the cheese cloth.

 Here are for 500g balls of haggis

Now to cook the haggis! Place a ball in a steamer and allow to cook in the steam for 60-90 minutes. After it is cooked cut the cheese cloth and empty into a serving bowl.

The haggis can also be frozen. Just wrap the balls with plastic. It will keep for some time in the freezer. You will just have to add some time to the steaming process for it to thaw.

Enjoy!

Meatloaf no more

Continuing with my new years effort to cook some of the recipes in the wall of cook books I have. In my zeal to follow a new recipe I forgot the commandment around this house: Thou Shalt Not Make Meat Loaf! As a result, I am discovering that a definition of eternity is one person and a meat loaf.

This one comes from Emeril's book Prime Time Emeril. This is titled in the book Dad's Meat Loaf. I actually made my own Chili Sauce based on a recipe from the Bernardin preserving book.

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground pork
2 onions chopped
3 cubanell peppers
3 cloves of garlic
2 large eggs
1/2 cup half & half
1/2 cup Italian breadcrumbs
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp Emeril's Essence
1/2 lb chorizo sausage
1 cup chili sauce
2 cups beef stock
2 tbsp flour


Chop the onion & pepper and garlic. whiz up in a food processor to get the pieces fine enough.

Combine the beef & pork, chopped onion, pepper & garlic, bread crumbs, cream and bread crumbs.

Put half of the mixture on a roasting pan forming a 9x4 inch mound. Cut the Chorizo into 1/2 inch pieces and place on top of the meat mound. Top with the remaining meat mixture.

Coat with the chili sauce and bake in a 350F oven for about 1 1/2 hours. When done carefully remove the loaf from the pan. De-glaze the pan with the stock and thicken with the flour mixed with some water.

Server with some boiled potatoes. When you have finished the loaf, expect the second coming any time.

Chili Sauce

Make a spice bag consisting of 4" cinnamon stick, bay leaf, 2 tsp mustard seed, 1 tsp celery seed, 1/2 tsp whole clove, 1/2 tsp whole peppercorn

Chop and finely dice in a food process or 2 onions, 3 cubanelle peppers, 1 red pepper, 2 jalapeno peppers, 4 cloves of garlic.

In a pot, combine 1 28oz can of tomatoes, chopped pepper mix, 1/2 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 c white vinegar, 1/2c white sugar. Along with the spice bag. Simmer until it reaches the desired consistency.

Battle Pork Leg

The local Italian grocer is offering whole pork leg for $0.89/lb. How could I resist the opportunity to de-bone a pork leg? The total weight from the store was 12 kg or 26.5 lb

I watched a few youtube vidoes on how to debone a pork leg to try to help. Of course it is always more difficult than it appears. Here are the links to the videos

How to debone a pork leg: Part 1

How to debone a pork leg: part 2

How to debone a pork leg: part 3

In the beginning there was this leg of pork:

and from the other side:

Ain't it a beauty!

I think I eventually won the battle. I got the bones out and most of the meat was intact!

And from the other side:

Now what do I do? I cut off what I think was the heel portion and ended up tying that into a roast. I ended up rolling the rest and tying it off so I could portion it into 3 roasts with the skin on - sweet.

The bones were roasted with 3 onions, 5 carrots, 4 celery stalks and a whole head of garlic. Then boiled with a tablespoon of rosemary and a dozen bay leaves. The pan was de-glazed with a cup of white wine and added to the stock pot with 4 litres of water. This stock will end up as one of the best pea soups you can imagine.

I still have some skin to deal with. I will cut some of it into strips and roast with the pork tonight.

Boudin Sausage Ravioli with Pumkin Sauce

This dish was years in the making. I can't remember when I made the ravioli but I discovered them during an archaeological expedition into the fridge freezer. They were left because the ravioli did not meet with general approval.

I still have the recipe for the boudin sausage meat. This is based on a recipe from Emeril Live

Boudin Sausage Meat
3lb pork shoulder roast - cubed
3/4 lb pork liver
2 litre water
2 onions
1 celery
1 red pepper
4 cloves of garlic
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp cayenne
1 cup rice

Put the pork, liver, onions, celery, bell pepper and garlic with 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp pepper, into a pot with the water and bring to a boil and simmer for 1 1/2 hours

Cook the rice.

When the meat is done drain and let cool. When it is cool feed it all through a grinder. Combine with remaining spices and rice. Of course, season as you like. Since everything is already cooked you can taste the mixture.

If you like you can now use this to make sausages or use it to make ravioli.
I used a standard pasta recipe and put about 1 tbsp of sausage in one ravioli. They are quite large. Remember to seal the ravioli with an egg wash. Now freeze for 2 years before making the sauce.

Pumkin Sauce
2 cups pumpkin - (freeze for 2 years - optional)
1 litre chicken stock
4 cloves of garlic
1 onion
1/4 tsp cayenne
salt & pepper
1 tsp oil
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 tbsp dried parsley

Finely chop the onion & garlic. Fry in a large pan with the oil until it becomes translucent. Add the pumpkin, stock, thyme and parsley, cayenne, salt & pepper. Simmer until it thickens to your desired consistency.

Boil the ravioli for 5 minutes. Remove the ravioli and allow to drain. Combine with sauce. Grate some asiago cheese over top.

It is pretty good. You could probably cut the time down by a couple of years if you don't do the freezing step.

Getting Crusty with Chicken

This year I hope to take on some new recipes from the wall of cookbooks I have. This week I will be taking on a Pecan crusted chicken from the Prime Time Emeril book.This isn't a big stretch because I've done Cheerio Crusted Chicken before. Although, I didn't use the buttermilk soak.

I guess this is a bit of nostalgia for the good old days of the food network - Kicking food up to notches unknown to mankind! I have to say, this chicken is pretty kicked up.



Pecan Crusted Chicken with pan Roasted Potatoes

1 cup buttermilk
3 tbsp Emeril's Essence
2 tsp salt
1 chicken
1 cup pecan halves
3/4 cup flour

Combine buttermilk, 1 tbsp Emeril's Essence and salt in a plastic zip top bag. Cut the chicken into pieces and add to buttermilk. Refrigerate over night.

Preheat oven to 400. chop the pecans into a fine meal (Food Processor works good). Combine pecans, flour, 2 tbsp Emeril's Essence. Remove the chicken from the buttermilk and coat with the pecan mixture and place in a roasting pan.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, turn and bake for another 20 minutes. The time will depend on the size of the chicken.

Serve with the potatoes and the veg. of your choice.

This is pretty simple but it is here for completeness
Pan Roasted Potatoes 

3 medium potatoes, or as many as you like
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp dried thyme & parsley, or herbs of your choice

Wash and cut the potato into large pieces. I like 1/8ths. Place in a pot of salted water and bring to a boil. Simmer until the potatoes are just done.

In a large frying pan on medium-high heat, melt the butter. When hot add the potatoes and herbs. Fry until the potatoes develop some color. Done

Here is what it looks like when it is done:

I don't think I got the pecans quite as fine as I should have. However, it is very yummy.

On to the next cookbook recipe!

Beef Stock

This is what it is all about. There isn't much finer food that well made beef stock. Some of the stock you can buy is OK but it always contains ingredients I can't pronounce. The mass produced stuff just doesn't compare to what you can make at home.

Here is my current recipe for making my own beef stock.

4-6 lb beef soup bones
1 tin tomato paste
2 onions
2 carrots
2 celery
1 bulb of garlic, cut in half
1 cup of red wine
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp peppercorns
2 tbsp dried thyme
2 tbsp dried rosemary
2 tbsp dried parsley
3-4 litres of water


Preheat the oven to 425F

Put the bones in a roasting pan and roast for 10-15minutes

Then coat the bones with tomato paste as seen below and roast for an additional 15-20 minutes

Then add the onions, celery, carrots and garlic. Continue roasting for an additional 25 -30 minutes. See the results below.

After roasting move everything to a stock pot. Deglaze the roasting pan with 1 cup of red wine and add to the stock pot. Add about 4 litres of water along with the herbs, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and simmer for 4 hours.

Result: liquid gold