Bok Choy & Chorizo

Chorizo sausage and sauteed Bok Choy.

I came home this weekend with some fresh chorizo sausage, and with a few spare heads of baby bok choy in the fridge. I cooked them up together, letting the juice leaking out of the sausage flavor and saute the greens. To enhance the flavor, I added a plentiful mix of chili flakes and chili powder.

This was an easy meal, which used the overpowering flavor of the spicy choizo sausage to play against the smooth taste of the bok choy. It ended up as a perfect balance of flavors and textures. Between the crunch of the greens and the chewiness of the meat, this meal was a savory blend of two different ethnic cuisines.

These are a few of my Favorite Things

16 ounces of Dry-aged, Grass-fed Beef. Rib Eye cooked perfectly.

A scrumptious stir-fry of Snow Peas and Baby Bok Choy.

Like Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music, I felt like skipping through mountain fields of flowers as I walked out of Whole Foods with some nicely marbled beef. Not really. It was just a Friday after three days of eating rice. This was my economic model in action: I saved up money for a few days, so I could blow it later. Oh, and I ate well.

This dinner was composed of a succulent stir-fry of snow peas and baby bok choy, and a full 16 ounce rib eye steak made with dry-aged, grass-fed beef.

I started stir-fry with olive oil in a hot pan, cooking bok choy and snow peas slowly, letting them soften up and absorb the sauces in the pan. I added in: soy sauce, some thickening/flavoring sauce made for stir-frys, chili flakes, and hoisin sauce. When the vegetables looked near completion, I cooked my steak just how I like it. You can find my steak recipe in my previous post, "Steak." It came out as I expected, with the juices seared in, tender and flavorful, and medium rare.

The dinner hit the spot, it was just what I needed after a long week.

Bacon and Pasta Make Great Mates

Fetuccini Carbonara - Savory blend of Bacon, Garlic, Romano, Egg, with fresh Italian Parsley

So my buddies from Jersey came up to visit this weekend, and so I had to make something hearty and delicious before our long night of festivities and catching up. Also, I wasn't about to toil for hours over dinner while they kicked back with beers. Enter Fetuccini Carbonara,  one of the most delicious and easy recipes out there.

This recipe was really simple. First, I used a saucepan with a flat bottom but high sides. The pasta will later be mixed into it. Heat it up, and start to cook some strips of bacon in it. Meanwhile, boil a large pot of water for your pasta. Next, As you throw the pasta into the water, toss some finely chopped garlic into the pan with the bacon. As the pasta cooks, whisk an egg or two in a cup and grate about a cup of romano or parmesan cheese. When the pasta finishes, strain it and dump it in with the bacon and garlic. Now pour your cheese and egg over the top and continually mix with the heat off, until the egg is just cooked (don't overcook the egg! If it's a little runny, that will add flavor). Put it in a bowl and top with fresh parsley. Done. Probably less than 45 minutes of cooking, and this dish is great.

Eat up folks!

Chris Takes a Cooking Shortcut

Veal Tacos, made extra spicy. I'm not going to lie, these are mostly from a taco kit.

That enormous batch of risotto filled me up with many days of leftovers. I also had a long day at work. So I cooked a semi pre-made meal tonight. But hey! I'm not here to make excuses, especially since this is my blog! I clearly went into this summer with the intention of cooking anything and everything that I had a craving for. I craved tacos today and I made them. They were delicious.

I guess it wasn't fully the conventional taco, so I'll let you in on my recipe. I picked up some taco shells and taco seasoning today, along with one of those pre-shredded bags of mixed cheeses. You know, those next to the cream cheese that look delicious but end up tasting like cheese powder. If we're going to do fake mexican food, we might as well do it the American way.

The shells crisped in the oven for a few minutes, while my ground veal browned in some olive oil. Next came the addition of some water and the packet of taco seasoning. As it simmered, I added a generous pouring of Mexican Chili Powder, and my awesome super-spicy chili flakes. These chili flakes were made last semester after regular chili flakes weren't spicy enough for me. I took a bunch of dried tiny Thai Peppers and ground them up in a food processor. BAM. Very spicy chili flakes with little flavor. Next fall I might attempt it with ghost peppers, but we'll see.

I finished the dish with the cheese mixture, freshly diced tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, and a generous helping of my favorite salsa picante. My best effort cooking? No. Delicious? Yes.

Saffron and Adobo, a Yellow Friday

Chicken Drumsticks baked with Adobo seasoning, freshly dried Oregano, Olive Oil.

Risotto with Carnaroli rice, and Saffron for color and taste.

A big 'ol dish worth of delicious cheesy-rice.

Today I picked up some expensive herb. No, not that herb - I'm talking saffron! Tonight was a theme of yellow-colored seasonings and herbs. To satisfy my need of meat, I decided to roast some drumsticks of chicken. For flavor, I tried out my roommate's bottled Adobo seasoning (found in large quantities in any ethnic supermarket). I had passed by her room too many times smelling deliciously seasoned poultry and shrimp. So, although it was less exciting seasoning from a pre-made mix, it paid off. But of course, I couldn't just have chicken for dinner. To make it a meal, I made a large batch of saffron risotto.

I'll start with the simple stuff- the chicken. To make it, I poured on the bottled adobo seasoning (again, you can find this at any supermarket) and added some newly dried oregano that my mom gifted me from her garden. I drizzled some olive oil in my cast iron skillet and over the meat, and I placed it in the oven at 350, for 45 minutes. Halfway through, I flipped the drumsticks and gave them an additional olive oil drizzle and freshly ground salt and pepper. That's it. The chicken was easy, but came out deliciously seasoned through to the bone, and juicy tender throughout. Perfect.

The risotto was a little more of a process. I got my recipe from the Joy of Cooking (go buy that book, it's the bible of cooking!). The important part of this recipe was both the saffron and the rice grain used. I used a traditional Italian Carnaroli rice which really worked out well with this recipe. The saffron was also important - being the most expensive spice in the world, hand picked from flowers that yield only a few stigmas each. Risotto was a very long cooking process that involved simmering rice with saffron, onions and chicken broth for hours. The chicken broth is added very slowly, as the rice absorbs it. Eventually, the mixture is extremely creamy even though minimal butter was used. In the end, you add a bunch of parmesan or romano cheese and it thickens up a bit more. Although work intensive, risotto is a very easy recipe that calls for few ingredients (but a ton of broth!). I cheated a bit by buying one box of very expensive chicken stock, and then using bouillon powder to make the other 6 cups of broth that the recipe called for.

I'm stuffed now, and satisfied by this delicious meal. It'll definitely feed a large family, or at least me for a couple of days. Happy eating!

Italian Inspiration

Capellini Pasta with fresh Greens and Herbs, tossed with a sauce of roasted Corn, Garlic, Cheese, and Lemon juice

So my weekend back in NJ was nice and relaxing. Of course, I had to pick up some cooking supplies while back! New in my kitchen are a nice set of measuring spoons and dry measuring cups. Furthermore, I sprung for proper salt and pepper grinders! So, atop my Capellini dish tonight is freshly ground black peppercorns and nice large flakes of pink Himalayan salt (haven't you always wondered what it tasted like?) Well pink salt tastes pretty good, a slightly richer version of normal table salt, with some extra minerals in it and a cool hue.

Back in my non-air conditioned apartment, I knew I had to make something summery to match the 'sunny' weather outside. Sunny is putting it lightly. What I made was a very fresh tasting pasta dish -  the best part being the raw green leaves mixed with roasted corn and garlic. The dish starts out with an oven roasting of the garlic (in foil with olive oil), and entire ears of corn in the husk at 400°. For the corn to cook perfectly, leave it in for 25 minutes and try to ignore the smell of burning husk - your corn is safe and juicy inside!

For the base sauce, I followed a suggested recipe using a bit of blue cheese, a bunch of mascarpone, and a dab of butter mixed with a quarter cup of grated romano cheese. This was mixed together with the second part of the sauce, a lot of corn, prosciutto,  some olive oil, a head and a half of roasted garlic, and the juice and zest of two lemons. Finally, this was mixed in with capellini pasta, and tossed with herbs and greens. For the herbs, I used plenty fresh basil, parsley, and chives. The greens were from a mixed batch I bought: a bitter mix including chard, radiccio, arugula, red romaine, spinach, and other goodies.

All together, this was an awesome supper. The mix of creamy sauce with roasted corn and ground pepper contrasted nicely with the sharp bitter crunch of the herbs and greens. If there is one dish you try for fun this summer - make it this one:

http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Capellini-with-Fresh-Ricotta-Roasted-Garlic-Corn-and-Herbs-242499
(Instead of ricotta, use 2 T softened unsalted butter, 4 oz imported mascarpone, dollop of gorgonzola, 2-4 T of pasta cooking water. Add at the end: 5 slices of prosciutto, cut into thin slivers)