A Very Late Valentine's Breakfast

Don't you just love putting forward a quick effort in the kitchen and coming up with spectacular results?  Here's a breakfast recipe that is quick, easy and special enough to make you proud.

Fried Eggs & Breadcrumbs over Mustard-Creamed Spinach

Ingredients:

• 2 slices white bread trimmed of their crusts, cut into crouton-sized crumbs (to get the crumbs I diced each bread slice 4 cuts across then 4 cuts down)
• 5 tsp Dijon mustard, divided
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 9-ounce package fresh spinach leaves
• 3 tbsp half and half
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 2 large eggs

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Meanwhile, toss the breadcrumbs with 2 teaspoon olive oil, 2 teaspoons mustard and 1 teaspoon mustard seeds to coat. Place the crumbs on a rimmed baking sheet, make sure that the crumbs are space apart. Bake until crisp, about 8 minutes.


While the breadcrumbs are cooking, go ahead and prepare the spinach. Add just enough water to a large pot to cover the bottom. Add spinach and toss over high heat just to wilt, about 2 minutes. Drain then press out excess liquid using a wooden spoon. Add 3 teaspoons mustard, half and half, and chopped thyme to the pot and continue cooking over medium heat until thickened, about 3 minutes. Season with pepper and remove from heat.


Fry the eggs over-easy or sunny-side up. The recipe is better when the yolks are runny.


To serve, divide the spinach between two plates spreading out. Top the spinach with eggs and crumbs.

Comments:

In particular, I liked this recipe when using a stronger tasting Dijon mustard. Much of this recipe idea came from the magazine 'bon appetit'. 

    

Texas Style Braised Beef Ribs

The early cattle drives out of Texas immediately following the Civil War continue to define Texas culture. It's a rare Texan who doesn't want to lay claim to some cowboy heritage. Interestingly, the cattle drive period of Texas history lasted for a period of only about 20 years.

For a Houstonian, the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, is always the city's biggest cultural event. Attendees will usually arrive dressed in a western fashion ranging from the scruffy to the exquisite. In terms of dress, nearly everyone here can appreciate a fine pair of cowboy boots. You can add or subtract elsewhere but, for the sake of fashion, it all starts with the boots. Most Texans will own a pair of boots which are most likely a highly prized possession and the owner's most expensive footwear.

We fully recognize that we're not cowboys, or cowgirls as the case may be. We're urbanites yearning for a greater depth of cowboy heritage and, as a result, we end up corralled in a complex of guilt. We'll react to this guilt in a myriad ways. Some will spend a week's vacation trail riding into Houston for the rodeo. The ride culminates in a downtown parade. Others take to barbecuing with zeal. Here, barbecue enthusiasts are legion and, within that legion, many are inspired by the cattle drive chuck wagon; they often dream of turning pro. And, as a constant nag against reason, shouldn't we all become horse owners and expert riders?

What is your region like?

While this recipe won't give you a chuck wagon experience it will give you some very tender and tasty beef ribs. We'll use a slow-cooker as a stand-in for the chuck wagon's dutch kettle. It's not much of a relationship but we'll bring in the herd with it anyways!

Wine Braised Beef Ribs

Ingredients:

• 3 lb. bone-in beef ribs, sliced through to separate into individual ribs
• salt
• pepper
• 3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 2 medium onions, chopped
• 3 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
• 3 celery stalks, chopped
• 1 habanero pepper, minced
• 3 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup, ketchup
• 1 750-ml bottle dry red wine (think Cabernet Sauvignon)
• 10 sprigs flat-leaf parsley
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 1 Tbsp. mexican oregano
•  3 dried bay leaves
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 4 cups low-salt beef stock

Preparation:

Season the ribs with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large stock pot over medium-high. Brown the ribs on all sides. You may have to do this in two batches, about 8 minutes per batch. Transfer the ribs to your slow-cooker (also known as a crock pot).


Add onions, carrots, celery and habanero pepper to pot and cook over medium-high heat. Stir often, cooking until onions are browned, about 5 minutes. Add flour and ketchup, while stirring constantly cook for 2-3 minutes. Stir in wine, bring to a boil. Lower the heat to medium and simmer until wine is reduced by half, about 25 minutes.


Add flat-leafed parsley, rosemary, mexican oregano, bay leaves and garlic to the pot. Stir in beef stock. Bring to a boil then transfer to your slow-cooker combining with the ribs. Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 hours. If you're more comfortable cooking in the stock pot then just add the ribs back in, cover and cook on low for 2 1/2 hours.

Transfer the ribs to a platter. Strain sauce from pot into a measuring cup. If fat rises to the surface just spoon it off and discard. Season the sauce to taste with salt and pepper. The sauce serves nicely over potatoes or rice.

Comments:

Be sure to use a dry wine. If the wine tastes a bit sweet then use less of it. This is a deeply flavorful dish which will probably do just fine with dried herbs. The beef should fall off the ribs when done though serving bone-in lends an interesting rustic touch.

Additional Comments:

After the Civil War there were few railroads operating in Texas and it was the cowboy's job to drive the herd to where railroads did operate. Some of the first cattle drives went to Sedalia, Missouri. I t wasn't but a year or two before Texas cattle drives into Missouri were blockaded by local farmers because the Texas cattle brought with them disease carrying ticks. The long horned cattle of Texas were immune to the disease but other cattle weren't. The cattle drives then shifted their terminus westward to Abilene, Kansas (via the Chisholm Trail) and Dodge City, Kansas (via the Western Trail). These two trails, along with the Goodnight-Loving trail, which took Texas cattle into Colorado, are the most famous cattle drive trails. In their time, the trails were considered an awesome wonder. Eventually, the railway companies expanded their operations further into Texas and the famed cattle drive era came to an end.

Rice Grits - A Three Ingredient Treasure

I really like this recipe because of it's simplicity. It's also fairly fast and quite tasty! I consider rice grits to be a base recipe. Use rice grits to extend a protein source or use them as a side dish. Rice grits are a worthy substitute for mashed potatoe or pasta sides.

Rice Grits

Ingredients:

• 1 cup, rice
• 1 tablespoon, butter
• 1/4 cup, grated parmesan cheese

Preparation:

Pour 5-1/2 cups of water into a medium sized pot and bring to a gentle boil.

While the water is coming to a boil we will process the rice into uncooked grits. Grits are simply broken pieces of rice. I was able to get good results by placing the rice into my blender and zapping it at high speed for about thirty seconds. I rocked the blender every five seconds to ensure that the rice blended throughout. If you're more comfortable with pulse and shake every five seconds then do that!

To finish processing the rice we'll pour them from the blender into a fine mesh wire strainer. Shake the strainer a bit as we want the dust to fall out the bottom. The dust is waste and in my experience amounted to about 1 tablespoon. The pieces of rice that remain in the strainer are your uncooked rice grits.

Now, place the grits into the pot of boiling water. Return to a gentle boil and then simmer for 15 minutes.

At the 15 minute mark we'll drain the rice reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. The aforementioned wire mesh strainer helped to make this job easy. Return the rice and one cup cooking liquid to the pot, cook over medium heat while stirring continuously for 5 minutes.

At this time we stir in the butter and grated parmesan. Stir until the butter is melted and spread throughout. Let the grits cool slightly and serve!

Comments:

I kept the ingredient list to just three as I wanted to present rice grits as a base recipe. Of course salt and pepper to taste is recommended. I'd also recommend 1 tablepoon of lemon juice stirred in and spread throughout.

Rice grits are similar to mashed potatoes in that they'll hold their shape. Like mashed potatoes you will be able to form a well. With mashed potatoes that well is often filled with gravy though with rice grits I think we can be a little more creative. I'm thinking more along the lines of seasoned chopped tomatoes or green peas or cooked carrots. Scrambled eggs or nicely cooked shrimp would also be winningly served within the well of a bowl of rice grits. I do not recommend strongly flavored foods as this would overpower the prized parmesan flavoring. 

Some Like It Hot

The record setting Texas heat wave of 2011 is finally broken! In order to celebrate its end let's break out some hot chiles!

Dangers aside, I really like cooking with chile peppers. Caution must be followed when handling chile peppers. For instance, you will tearfully regret touching your eyes while handling chiles. Remember, there's a reason for police to use pepper spray. Chiles are hot because they produce the chemical capsaicin and that is the same chemical used in a pepper spray.

This recipe results in a flexible hot sauce that supplies two nice culinary attributes, spiciness and acidity. For a recipe featuring another method of chile preparation, check out this previous blog post: Mexican Meatball Soup.

Texas Heat Wave Hot Sauce

Ingredients:

• 10 habanero chiles
• 1 red bell pepper, halved, seeded, coarsely chopped
• the zest from one medium orange
• 4 tablespoons Triple Sec liqueur*, divided
• 2 tablespoons salt, divided
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 cup Champagne vinegar
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened, divided

Preparations:

Halve and seed chiles. Puree chiles, red bell pepper, orange zest, 2 tablespoons Triple Sec liqueur, 1 tablespoon salt, and garlic in a blender. We want to ferment this chile mixture for 12 hours, so, transfer the blended ingredients to a bowl then cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Don't refrigerate, just let it ferment at room temperature.

12 hours later . . . . combine the fermented pureed chile mixture in a blender with the Champagne vinegar, 2 more tablespoons of Triple Sec liqueur and another tablespoon of salt. Puree this mixture until smooth. 

Set a fine mesh strainer over a small saucepan. Pour the mixture into the strainer, pressing on solids to extract the hot sauce. Remove the strainer, discarding solids. Heat the hot sauce over medium-low heat. While the sauce is cooking, stir 2 teaspoons of cornstarch and 2 teaspoons of water in a small bowl until smooth. Whisk this cornstarch mixture into the heating hot sauce, simmer while whisking constantly, until thickened, about 2 minutes. Stir in 3 tablespoons of butter. Add more salt to taste if desired. Serve warm.

Comments:

Nice hot sauce. Don't be discouraged by the tartness of this sauce when tasted plain. When used atop any meat the tartness will tame down. This sauce would be a winner on chicken wings but also serves nicely with fish.. Leftovers can keep in the refrigerator for a good while and make a good sandwich spread.

* Much of this recipe idea came from one seen in the magazine "bon appetit". They used St. Germaine liqueur instead of Triple Sec. Both liqueurs are very sweet.

Le Pain de Royale

I suppose most everyone is a finicky eater when young. I could not bear the thought of pepper being used at any time in any dish. Sometimes, I turned dinner into an inquisition of sorts. In a demanding way, I'd quiz my mother as to the presence of pepper. The quizzing was also meant to serve as a stern warning; there was to be no pepper in King David's food! I'm sure my mother ignored me completely.

Certainly, zucchini squash was another item found on King David's lengthy list of forbidden foods. It made the banned food lists of my royal siblings too.

So, how is it that as adults we've come to enjoy a greater variety of foods? Can you specify a point of time in your life when you drastically shortened your list of restricted foods? Did the list shorten because of one food in particular? Do you still abide any unreasonable food prohibitions from your childhood? Can you seriously claim to like kale?

My family always had a prolific vegetable garden though we kids did not care to eat much of its production. It became my mother's challenge to get us to eat more of the garden's vegetables. Her many efforts would mostly go for naught as we kids rejected them without any real consideration. That all changed when one day our mother made some zucchini cupcakes slathered thick with sweet icing. The cupcakes could not be denied! And, if we were willing to eat zucchini cupcakes, shouldn't we then also accept zucchini in fresh made bread? Zucchini bread did become a mealtime summer favorite. Soon, our lists of forbidden foods became much less relevant to our lives. I don't think we were any easier to live with though, we were still royal pains!

Royale Zucchini Cornbread

Ingredients:

• 1 stick, unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 2 medium zucchini (slightly smallish)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup medium-grind cornmeal

Preparation:

Posittion an oven rack on the middle rungs and preheat to 350 degrees. Spray the interior of a 9x5x3" loaf pan.

Melt the stick of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook butter until the butter solids at bottom of pan turn golden brown. This should take anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes. Once done, scrape the butter into a medium bowl. Let cool for 5 minutes. Whisk in eggs and buttermilk.

Trim zucchini ends. Thinly slice three to five 1/16" rounds from 1 end of zucchini. We're going to use these rounds to garnish the bread just before baking. If you want more decorations, like you're seeing in the photo, then cut a thick slice of about 2 inches. Use the thick slice of zucchini to create julienned match sticks. When preparing the zucchini garnishes be sure to cut off most of the zucchini's interior. We want thin rounds and match sticks that are little more than zucchini skin. Reserve these cuttings.

Coarsely grate remaining zucchini. Add to bowl with butter mixture stirring until well blended.

Sift both flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a large bowl. Whisk in cornmeal. Add zucchini mixture folding just to blend. The batter will be very thick. Transfer batter to prepared loaf pan and smooth the top.

Decorate with reserved zucchini slices and julienned match sticks.

Bake the bread until golden and a tester inserted into center comes out clean. About 55 to 65 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.

Comments:

Nice! A super crust, a stand out design, a slight sweetness, and a buttery cornmeal flavor make for a great bread. It's also fairly easy to make. The leftovers can be refrigerated for 3 days and they'll make great open-faced sandwiches with ham or chicken.

Check out these beach recipes: Fish & Pasta Deluxe Dinner , Spring Greens & Calamata Olives and Showcase Lemon Pie.

Was it the Chicken or was it the Egg?

How was it that you came by your interest it cooking? What were some of your first recipes and do you still make them? Do you use the same recipes and techniques that your parents did? What are your go to cookbooks?

While I was growing up, my father's example of cooking was a very practical one. It was a rare supper that mom did not cook though there were occasions when dad was asked to try his hand at cooking. The result of dad's effort was likely to be a supper that involved milk, bread and all the leftovers thrown into a pot, peppered, then heated through. It wasn't entirely appealing to us kids. Dad called the results of his cooking effort "Graveyard Stew" and that was enough to spook all of us kids out of even trying it.

Dad's "Graveyard Stew" was not completely uninspiring, check out this recipe for leftovers: Throw It In There! Leftover Turkey Risotto

I was intrigued the first time my mother had me spin eggwhites into fluffiness. I learned that there was some magic in cooking! She also encouraged my interest by buying me some cookbooks. Oftentimes she would gift me with utensils and small appliances.

One cook book my mother gave me was James Beard's "Beard on Pasta". It's one of my go to cookbooks and was of help with the following recipe.

Souffle with Pasta and Leeks

Ingredients:

• 5 eggs, yolks and whites separated
• 1/2 cup dry orzo pasta 
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese (sub cheddar cheese if preferred)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon white pepper
• several dashes of Tobasco sauce
• 1 leek, thinly sliced into rounds (white and pale green parts only) 
• 1 bacon strip
• 1 tablespoon butter

Preparation:

This is a recipe which lends itself to multi-tasking. We need the orzo to cook and that takes about 9 minutes of boiling. We also need the bacon pan fried and this can be done while the pasta is cooking. Once the bacon is cooked to a crisp remove it to drain on a paper towel. Pour off excess bacon fat from the fry pan, but do not wash the pan. Put the sliced leeks into the same fry pan and cook over medium heat until soft, about 11 minutes.  We may need to add a 1/2 tablespoon of butter to the pan to help cook.


We want all of the above preparations to be somewhat cooled after they've cooked. While they're cooling, we'll be working with the eggs and also getting the oven preheated to 375 degrees.


In a large bowl, use an electric hand mixer to spin the eggwhites just beyond creaminess, the mixture should form soft peaks. If, when spinning the eggwhites, there is a presence of any egg yolk, then we will lose our ability to spin them to volume. Hopefully, we've managed to properly separate the yolks from the eggwhites! Once done spinning the eggwhite mixture to soft peaks, leave in bowl and refrigerate.

Now, in a large bowl, we'll use our electric hand mixer to spin the egg yolks until thick and lemon colored. This might take 5 minutes. If we've spun the egg yolks before spinning the eggwhites, then we need to wash the beaters before beginning to spin the eggwhites.

To the spun yolk mixture, stir in all the ingredients except the eggwhite mixture. Lastly, get the spun eggwhites from the refrigerator. Begin to incorporate the spun eggwhites into the yolk mixture in incremental amounts.  Add a large spoonful, mix a bit, then a cup's worth, mix a bit, then everything that's left, mix a bit. Use a rubber spatula when mixing, we want to use a light hand. So, fold up and over and lightly cut through to mix. We've worked hard to get volume and we don't want to repress that with over mixing or heavy mixing.

Pour the egg mixture into a buttered 12X12 cake pan and place into a preheated 375 degree oven. Cook for 20 minutes, slice and serve immediately.

Comments:
I suppose that this recipe might more properly be called a casserole. A typical soufle will be proportioned with nearly twice as many eggwhites as egg yolks. It will also have been cooked in a souffle dish rather than the cake pan which I used. Upon mastering the egg technique, the recipe is flexible for different ingredients. I've made this with mushrooms and was pleased with the result there too. This recipe can do nicely on its own though there is nothing wrong with putting a sauce over the top when serving. Any leftovers will tuck nicely into a corn tortilla the next morning.

For another recipe on this blog where the book, Beard on Pasta, was helpful, check out Fish & Pasta Deluxe Dinner

Yes, My Dumpling, Of Course!

Is it any longer that lovers might still refer to their sweetheart as a dumpling? I suppose the word dumpling implies weightiness and that such implications are perilous, but, does it really feel right to call your sweetheart a carrot stick?

This chicken stew recipe can stand on its own or be served over rice, or biscuits, or pasta, or dumplings. I suggest dumplings and on an earlier post I've blogged a favorite dumpling recipe, Parsley Dumpling, Mushroom and Leek Soup. I recommend the soup but, for this recipe, we're only interested in the dumplings. Skip making the soup, make only the dumplings, and I do fancy that you'll be calling your sweetheart a dumpling in no time at all! And, good luck to you!

Chicken and Carrot Stew with Parsley Dumplings

Ingredients:

• 2 cups 1/4-inch-thick rounds peeled carrots
• 1-1/2 thinly sliced leeks (white and pale green parts only; about two medium)
• 1-1/2 lbs. skinless deboned chicken thighs, cut into 2-inch cubes
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon smoked spanish paprika
• Sea salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup dry white wine
• 1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon Tobasco mustard
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley

Preparation:

If you've chosen to prepare dumplings, then do those first.

I was able to do this recipe using just one 8 quart stock pot. First, cook the carrots in boiling salted water for 3 minutes. At the 3 minute mark add the sliced leeks in with the carrots and continue to cook for another 3 minutes. Drain and remove the carrots and leeks to a large bowl. While the carrots and leeks are cooking, sprinkle the cubed chicken with sea salt and white pepper. Whisk flour, thyme, and paprika in medium bowl. Add the cubed chicken to the flour mixture and toss to coat.

Our stock pot is now emptied of the boiled carrots and leeks, and the cubed chicken is floured and ready for cooking. Now add the olive oil to the stock pot and heat over medium high. Add the chicken to stock pot and cook until browned, about 2 minutes per side. Add the wine and bring it to a boil for about 3 minutes. The wine will reduce by about 1/2. Add the carrots and leeks back into the pot laying them over the top of the chicken. Add broth, cover, and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 15 minutes. Uncover, add cream and mustard; stir until sauce thickens a bit, about 2 minutes. The dish is ready to serve though if you've prepared the dumplings you'll need to add those back in and rewarm for about 2 minutes.

Transfer to a large shallow bowl. Garnish with the chopped fresh Italian parsley.

Fessin' Up:

Much of this recipe idea came from the magazine "bon appetit". Their recipe called for a 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream and the use of fresh chopped thyme rather than dried. Also, they only asked that paprika be used whereas I used smoked spanish paprika. And, they called for a dijon mustard; I used a Tobasco flavored mustard.

Comments:

I enjoyed this recipe and it's preparation was not a time killer. Execute the recipe's timing and you'll end up with tender meat and nicely textured carrots. I had slightly better results when I deboned the chicken thighs though buying already boned chicken thighs is a time saver. You'll need to add bulk (hence, the dumplings) to this meal for it to be satisfying as it is rich and calorie dense. I took the richness down a notch by using less cream.