Roasting Peppers: A Video

Ahh, its a video of myself! Ugh, I have the most nasal voice in the world. I've been wanting to try a video blog for a while, but I'm no good at video editing, so I had to do it all in one shot. I hope you don't get motion sickness with this.

Roasting Peppers on Your Stove Top: At A Glance
Prep/Cook time: 5 minutes. Total Time: 15-20 minutes.

1. Turn gas burner on high.
2. Place pepper onto burner grate directly into flames.
3. Allow skin of pepper to char until it is completely black.
4. Flip pepper on burner to allow even heat to all sides.
5. Remove from burner once pepper is completely black
6. Place in a paper bag and allow to cool for ~10 minutes.
7. Peel skin away from pepper.

Bam, you've got a roasted pepper.

St. Patricks Day Grub, Corned Beef and Cabbage

A mandatory Chicago statute requires each citizen to spend the weekend of St. Patrick's day stinking drunk. We're not ones to break any laws here, so true to form, this past Saturday was spent in all day drinking binge downing all manner of green beer and Irish whiskey. Sunday awoke with a bit of a headache and an inability to think straight. Luckily for us, the traditional St. Patty's day meal of corned beef and cabbage is so easy to make, you don't need to think much. The Irish have made sure their holiday meal is perfect for those cooks who have a beer magnate in their hand and no control over their right arm. You just throw everything in a pot and boil it together. Yums.



Corned Beef and Cabbage

• 1 4-5 lb corned beef brisket
• 4-5 potatoes, cut into approx. 2-3" pieces
• 3-4 carrots, cut into approx. 2" pieces
• 1 cabbage
• water

Place your corned beef in a large soup pot. Cover with water until completely submerged. Usually the corned beef you buy from the store comes with a seasonings packet, which you can just add in. If for some reason yours doesn't, just add 4 or 5 bay leaves and peppercorns and a bit of coriander seed to the water.



Bring to a boil and reduce to simmer for about 90 minutes.

After 90 minutes, add the potatoes and carrots. Allow to cook for 20 more minutes.



Test potatoes. When slightly cooked but not completely soft, add cabbage. Just set cabbage on top so they are mostly sticking out of water. When we place the lid back on the pot, the cabbage will be steamed by the heat of the pot.



If you don't have enough room in the pot for the cabbage, check your corned beef. If its done, you can take it out and set it aside and finish cooking the vegetables alone. Place the lid back on the pot and allow to cook for 15-20 more minutes or until the cabbage is steamed and the potatoes and carrots are cooked.


Too hung over to style the food. Doesn't matter anyway because this isn't stylish food, but good peasant grub.

Slice the corned beef and side with a dollop of mustard. Smear butter all over boiled vegetables and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Serve and eat. Meat and potatoes is the perfect meal for when you're overhung. You can't get more Irish then this!

Scotch Eggs: A How To

"In a quest for foods which pair well with whiskey, I have become obsessed with the Scotch Egg. Concentric spheres of protein and fat form the cradle in which within my stomach, hardwood-aged corn liquor will rest." -From Scotch eggs, an ode

I love how this lyrical quote from Ira's blog, Being Totally Sweet In Chicago, is talking about how eating meat wrapped eggs is a great way to prevent a hangover. Its like lace curtains in the trailer. But these meat wrapped eggs made the perfect snack for the whiskey tasting Ira hosted here at the house last night. It was awesome! Ira got a bunch of people to bring tons of whiskey for me to drink, and he made all the food. I could get used to this!



I came home from work yesterday to an aproned Ira, hard at work in the kitchen. He had been busy researching scotch egg recipes, and was actively putting his knowledge to the test. Here's the recipe he came up with:

Ira's Scotch Eggs

• 1 1/2 lb ground pork
• 1/4 c. fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1/2 small onion, grated
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp powdered sage
• 1 tsp thyme
• 1/4 tsp Cayenne
• 1/2 tsp - 1 tsp salt
• 8 hard boiled eggs
• 1/2 c. flour
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 1 c. bread crumbs

Mix pork with herbs and spices.



Rolling out a patty of the spiced sausage, wrap around hard boiled egg.



Roll sausage wrapped eggs in flour, then egg, and finally in the bread crumbs.



Bake at 350 for 20 minutes.



They were successful at absorbing lots of alcohol because today I feel great. And, they were yummers!



**Notes: The eggs needed a bit of salt. I added in the recipe above some salt to the sausage. I might roll the egg in a bit of salt before I wrap in the sausage in an attempt to salt the egg a bit. I also think wrapping the eggs in bacon or prosciutto would be a great addition.

Wedding Presents and Potato Chips

Everyday I feel like my head is going to explode. Ira and I are getting married in two months and I've got so much stuff to get done, it's insane. Keeping up with my blogging has been a bit difficult but I've set a goal to post every three days, and by God I am going to do it. I could sit here and complain about all the stuff I have to do, but instead, I am going to talk about the positive side of getting married and that's wedding presents!



Last weekend, my sister hosted a wedding shower for us, and I, I mean "WE", got lots of amazing gifts. I am sure its not too hard to imagine what kind of presents people got us. That's right, kitchen and cooking stuff!! Our good friend Trish, gave us a mandolin, something I've been wanting for a long time, nothing makes slicing easier.

Last night, I finally got the chance to try it out and make some homemade potato chips. Our awesome new mandolin sliced through those potatoes in no time! I love this thing.



When I got done with the potatoes, I remembered I had some radishes which were on the verge of going bad, so I decided to slice them up too. I was on a roll, you need something sliced, I'll take care of it!


Frying potatoes on left and radishes on right.

We fried these up and sprinkled them with kosher salt and a bit of amchur, an Indian spice made of powdered mango. The amchur gives a slightly tart acidic flavor, which slightly mimics my favorite salt and vinegar chips.


Potato and radish chips

People tell me to think of how much I love Ira every time I get stressed out with all this wedding planning, but it doesn't seem to work. I'm gonna think about these potato chips and all the other awesome foods I'm going to make with my new kitchen stuff. That'll keep me motivated!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Do you ever have those days where you feel engulfed by an irrational depression? Nothing is wrong, but you find yourself looking at your life from a weird angle, and all of a sudden, you feel out of place. I'm totally there today. There's no reason for it. I haven't gotten laid off or anything, but I just feel off. All of a sudden the job I enjoy feels like a dead end. I don't make enough money. I'm not doing a good enough job self promoting, I need to be networking in the blogosphere more. Wah wah. Shut up!



I'm in a slump and I just want to not think about anything for a little while. So, I'm not going to. What am I going to do? Well, not to be too typically girly (something I usually avoid like the plague...does this show how low I've stooped?) but, I am totally going to eat a whole batch of chocolate chip cookie dough. Thats right, I am abandoning the Forkables for a spoonful of raw, sweet chewy dough. I don't care.

OK, I just ate a small bowl of dough. It was good, but now I'm totally feeling sick to my stomach. I think I might puke. I guess I'll just make the rest of this dough into cookies. I can eat them later.



Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
care of the Joy of Cooking

• 1/2 c. butter
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 c. + 2 Tbs flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda

1. Cream butter and sugar using mixer.
2. Add egg and vanilla
3. Mix dry ingredients
4. Mix together
5. Eat raw dough until you can't take it anymore and want to throw up.
6. Bake the rest of the dough at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes or until bottoms are golden brown

You can skip step 5 if you want.



Tip: If the bottoms are golden brown but the tops are super raw (raw is good: means chewy, but super raw isn't that awesome) flip the cookies over and put them back in the oven for 1 minute to cook the tops a little more. You end up with flat top cookies but thats OK. Its not a beauty pageant. You should see what these guys look like when you get done eating them. Its not pretty.

Left Over Remix: BBQ Pizza with Chicken and Jalapenos

Its a creative challenge sometimes to look at a bunch of left over ingredients and think how I can make them over into something new and exciting. Looking in the refrigerator, I had a bunch of bags of left over garnish materials from Chili night; there was chopped jalapeno slices, half a red onion, a bag of shredded cheese and chopped cilantro.



While I was thinking of what I could use them for, my eyes glanced on a bottle of BBQ sauce I've been trying to get rid of. With the little scrap of chicken breast I knew was lurking in my freezer, one of Ira's favorite pizza's came into my mind. Using my pizza dough short cut, I had a left over dinner on the table about an hour later.



BBQ Pizza with Chicken and Jalapeno

• Jalapeno slices
• red onion sliced
• cooked chicken breast
• cilantro, chopped
• BBQ Sauce
• shredded cheese

I quickly prepared my pizza dough and got it in the oven to rise.

Meanwhile, I gave the Jalapenos a quick saute in olive oil with some cumin seed to add a bit of flavor and cut down on the spicy heat of the peppers. If you like spicy food, you can skip this step, but I have to admit, I am a bit of a wiener when it comes to spicy peppers. What can I say, I am a gringo.



I also gave the chicken a quick saute to cook through, about 2-3 minutes over medium heat. Before putting into the pan, I quickly cut up about a 1/4 of a chicken breast I had defrosted and mixed with the juice of 1 lime and 1 tsp of cumin.

Once the dough was ready, I spread out the BBQ sauce on the dough. BBQ sauce is easy to make if you don't have any ready made in the fridge.



This is a quick mid week dinner not a BBQ competition in Kentucky, so Sweet Baby Rays or a BBQ sauce made with ketchup works just fine.



Layering the rest of the ingredients on the pizza, it was ready for the oven. 15-20 minutes at 400 degrees.



Eat up and enjoy not letting ingredients rot in your refrigerator. Barack Obama is proud of you.

How To Construct A Sorbet: Mango Salsa Sorbet

The antidote to too spicy food is diary. If you're mouth is burning off after biting into a pickled jalapeno, follow it with a chug of milk and you'll feel better. I love Tres Leche, a sweet moist cake soaked over night in a creamy milk sauce, to follow spicy dishes. We felt this would be a perfect dessert for Chili night, but needed something exiting to go with it to spice it up. I suggested garnishing it with a mango salsa and my sister immediately said make it a sorbet! The tart and spicy flavor of the sorbet would go wonderfully with the sweet creamy delicate cake.



For the cake, we used my sister's favorite Tres Leche Cake recipe from the Cooks Country magazine. As for the mango salsa recipe, I had to just wing it. I've never used an ice cream maker before, so I wasn't exactly sure what I was doing. It seemed simple enough. We just looked up a mango sorbet recipe. From this recipe, we extrapolated a general sorbet recipe consists of:

General Sorbet Recipe

• 3 parts fruit puree
• 1 part simple syrup, chilled

The simple syrup needed to be chilled before making the sorbet, so I did this first and allowed it to chill for about 2 hours.

From the ratio above, I prepared my fruit puree but simply making a mango salsa and processing it in the food processor. The ingredients I used were

• 4 ripe mangoes
• 8 small kiwis (they were very small. I would suggest 4-6 regular sized ones)
• 2 jalapenos, chopped
• 2 green onions, green tops only, chopped
• 2 Tbs chopped cilantro (leaves only, no stems)
• 2 Tbs lime juice
• 1/4 tsp salt

I processed them all in the food processor to form a nice smooth puree. Then, in a ratio of 1:1 I mixed the fruit puree and the simple syrup and poured into the ice cream maker. My sister's ice cream maker says to mix for 90 minutes.



After the 90 minutes, the sorbet was not completely frozen yet. We had four hours before our guests arrived, so we just removed the motor from the ice cream maker and placed the sorbet and machine core into the freezer. We removed it every hour and mixed it with the paddle for a couple of minutes, and by the time of the event, the sorbet was ready to be served with the cake.

We served the sorbet with the Tres Leche cake and garnished each dish with a shaving of lime zest.



**Notes: My sister and I felt the sorbet had too strong of a cilantro taste, so in the ingredients given above, I have cut the suggested amount in half and suggested only using the leaves, as the stems can have a stronger flavor.

Also I linked to a simple syrup recipe which uses a 1:1 ratio of water to sugar which I think might work better. We made our simple syrup with a 2:1 ratio water to sugar and this might have lead to the sorbet not wanting to solidify.