Guacamole Ole!

I make a DARN good guac. I made a big bowl of it once for my friend Steve and Perry. It lasted about 15 minutes. They forgot to share so I only got two bites of it!

The secret to good guacamole is ripe avocados. I pick Haas avocados, but the general rule for any avocado is this - pick one that has a little give. When you hold it in your palm and give it a gentle squeeze it should be a little soft. Think about the firmness of a ripe peach. It should NOT be hard. Avoid ones with bruises (aka spots where they got banged up and are a little too squishy in that area). When you slice into it, it should have the same give as room temperature butter. (See http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/how_to_cut_and_peel_an_avocado/ for how to halve, seed, and cut your avocados).

The guacamole can be made as hot, sharp, or as green as you like it. Feel free to experiment!

Guacamole
Serves 4 as a snack, or two ravenous men.

2 ripe avocados, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1/2 of a small sweet red pepper, minced (aka fine dice)
1/2 small red onion, minced very fine
1/2 jalapeno, minced very fine (your fingers may tingle after this so if you're sensitive, wear gloves)
1 clove garlic, minced very fine or paste (see: http://www.cuisineathome.com/main/videos/57-garlicpaste.php)
6 springs cilantro (as in individual thin stems, not 6 cilantro plants with the roots), minced
1/2 lime
salt and pepper to taste

1. Prep all ingredients as directed above
2. Get a large bowl.
3. Combine the red pepper, red onion, jalapeno, and garlic.
4. Add the avocado. Mash some of the avocado to create a finer paste, but leave some intact for texture. As you mash, mix with other ingredients.
5. Stir in cilantro
6. Squeeze the lime juice over the guacamole and stir to incorporate. The citric acid in the lime keeps the avocado from oxidizing and turning brown as well as brightens up the flavor. I use almost a whole 1/2 lime, but add little by little to make sure it suits your taste.
7. Add salt and pepper to taste. If serving with chips, keep in mind those are already salted!

Espero que lo disfrutas!

Rosemary Mashed Potatoes

Okay, I know that this is my second post today, but there is a method to my madness! After making the delicious meatloaf the other day, I decided that it was lacking potatoes. But what kind of potatoes?

Roasted? Eh.
Fried? Bleh.
Mashed? Aha!

On my way home from work, I stopped at my local Indian grocery store (Thanks for the tip, Suanne!) and picked up some red potatoes. Then I headed home to create my luscious masterpiece! (Do I over-hype my food a bit? I'm beginning to think so ...)

Anyway, once the potatoes were finished, I crumbled some of my leftover meatloaf in the bottom of a mini-casserole dish, then covered it with a layer of mashed potatoes and baked my impromptu shepherd's pie in a 400-degree oven until it developed a light, golden-brown crust. Delicious!

**Shout-outs: This recipe is born out of a variety of tips I've picked up from tons of sources over a number of years. The ones I can remember are Wolfgang Puck, Alton Brown, and, of course, my awesome mom.

Rosemary Mashed Potatoes
- 1/2 pound of red potatoes, roughly chopped
- 3 tbs. butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- Approx. 1/4 cup green onions, chopped (Keep the dark green and and the light green, separated. Discard the white parts.)
- Approx. 1/4 cup heavy cream (Guesstimate it!)
- 1 tbs. rosemary
- 1 tbs. basil
- Salt and pepper, to taste

1. In a larger pot than you think is necessary, boil enough water to cover the potatoes. Add the potatoes and cover. While those cook ...
2. In a small saucepan over very low heat, melt the butter and sauté the garlic and light green onions until tender.
3. Add the heavy cream, rosemary, and basil. Bring to a low simmer.
4. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove from heat.
5. Meanwhile, your potatoes should be about ready. You want to get them out of the water just as they start to get mushy. They should still be a little firm, but should mash when you press a fork down on one. Don't wait until they're soggy - that's too long!
6. Drain the potatoes into a colander and shake to remove excess water. Then, immediately return them to the still-hot pot. This will help to evaporate any leftover moisture.
7. Add about half of the warm cream and either whip or mash the potato mixture. Slowly add more of the cream until the proper consistency is reached. (You may not use all of the cream.)
8. You may need to add more salt, to taste. Your call.
9. Top with a sprinkling of the dark green onions.

Mmmm!

Mmmm ... Mmmm ... Meatloaf!

So, I haven't posted much lately - sorry to my co-author and all of our soon-to-be fans!

But fear not, my friends, for I bring you a new take on an old favorite (or not-so-favorite)! I've taken what can be a tired, boring, bland meal and turned it into a juicy, satisfying, filling comfort food.

It takes a little bit of work, but it freezes and reheats well. (I'm all for anything that freezes well: homemade food is so much better than TV dinners. Bleh!)

And now, without further ado, I give you one of the best meatloaves you'll ever taste!


Mmmm ... Mmmm ... Meatloaf
- 1 red onion, roughly chopped
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1/4 cup of carrots, diced
- 1/4 cup of celery, diced
- A splash of red wine (Either regular wine or cooking wine is fine.)
- 1/4 cup of green onion, chopped
- a handful of baby spinach
- 1/2 pound of ground turkey
- 1/4 cup pumpernickel crumbs (You can use any type of bread, but I like the flavor of pumpernickel. Also, bread that's more stale than fresh works better. Trust me.)
- 1 egg
- A few dashes of Worcestershire sauce
- 1.5 tsp. cumin
- 1/2 tsp. coriander

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Sauté the red onion, garlic, carrots and celery in a small amount of olive oil until they are tender.
3. Deglaze the pan with the red wine and let it reduce a bit.
4. Add the green onion and spinach. Cook until the spinach wilts. Remove from heat.
5. In a large bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients with the veggies and another splash or two of red wine. (Use your hands - it's the best way to mix it! Just be sure to wash them well both before and after.)
6. Press the mixture into a loaf pan and cover with foil.
7. Bake for 30 minutes, then remove foil and bake until a thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf registers 165 degrees Fahrenheit (about 15 to 20 minutes). There should be a nice crust on the top.
8. Once the meatloaf is cooked, remove from oven and let sit for at least ten minutes before cutting. (If you cut it immediately, all the juices will leak and the loaf will become dry!)
9. Enjoy!

Perry's Kung Fu (Kung Pao) Chicken Stir-Fry

Perry, my silent and deadly significant other, is very fond of his mom's Kung Pao Chicken. And like all ninja-girlfriends, I need to learn how to make his favorite foods so I can win his way to his heart through his stomach to fuel his iron fists.

Kung pao chicken is diced chicken with chili peppers and cashew nuts. Its pretty healthy and packs a good punch in the spice department! This version adds a serving of vegetables and a pinch of sugar. Serve over a bowl of fresh rice with a side dish of veggies.

Perry's Kung Fu Chicken
Serves two - about 15 or 20 minutes

Two chicken thighs or breasts, diced approximately into 1/2 cubes
3 tsp cooking wine
2 tbsp soy sauce
dash sriracha (because i feel like it, ok?)
2 tsp sugar
dash sesame oil
1 tsp cornstarch
two cloves garlic, smashed
one thin coin ginger
one large red pepper, diced into 1/2 cubes
1/2 tsp chili paste (adjustable)
one jalapeno, minced, no ribs or seeds if you're sensitive to spicy
one large scallion, sliced thinly
1/2 cup cashew halves, unsalted. (if you have salted, its fine but cut down the salt/soy sauce in the recipe)

1. Put the diced chicken in a large bowl. 
2. In another bowl, combine cooking wine, soy sauce, sriracha, sugar, and sesame oil. Stir well and then add the cornstarch pinch by pinch. Mix well until you have the consistency of a sauce (aka, you dip a spoon in and the marinade sticks to the spoon so that when you draw a line with your finger in the back of the spoon, it still shows after a few seconds).
3. Pour marinade over chicken and mix well immediately. You should not have a lot of marinade puddling in the bottom of the bowl - the marinade should be thick enough to coat the chicken so its not sitting in tons of marinade. Marinate for about 10 minutes.
4. In the meantime smash the garlic, cut the ginger, dice the onion and pepper. Wash and cook the rice.
5. Heat a wok or skillet on HIGH heat. Add a tablespoon of oil. Stir fry is awesome because things cook fast, and to cook fast you need a lot of heat. 
6. When the pan is hot (you see waves of heat off it or a drop of water spits and evaporates) toss the ginger in and fry for 20 seconds. Add the garlic and fry for a bit to season the oil. Add the jalapenos. 
7. When fragrant, add the chicken. Spread chicken out in pan in a single layer (up the walls of the wok). When the chicken is cooked and browned on one side, act fast and stir everything together, flipping the chicken over.
8. When the chicken is all cooked on the outside, add the red peppers and chili paste. Toss until cooked. 
9. If you have a lot of water accumulating at the bottom of your pan, you can do one of two things: 1- keep cooking on medium heat until the water evaporates or 2 - make a cornstarch slurry. 1/2 tsp cornstarch plus tsp of water mixed WELL. Pour little by little into the puddle of water in the pan and mix thoroughly with contents. Only use as much as you need or it will taste starchy! (this is similar to a roux).
10. Taste. Season. Add more chili paste or sriracha if its not as hot as you like. Make sure everything is cooked. Then add the scallion and toss. They don't need long to cook.
11. Right before serving, add the cashews and mix in. The cashews are meant to be crunchy and if left in the dish too long,will get soggy after an hour. If you are planning for leftovers, don't add cashews to the leftover portion - add the cashews always right before eating.

Enjoy!

Secrets to Tender Chicken: Simple Stir Fry

Its 9 pm - I walk in after a long day and want something hot and filling but will get me in bed sooner rather than later. Stir fry fits the bill exactly. My mom always said the secret to good stir fry (other than good ingredients) is cornstarch. Say wha?

Lets talk to about.com: "The starch binds together the liquid ingredients in the marinade and seals them to the meat, poultry or seafood being marinated.  This technique is particularly important in quick cooking stir-fry dishes as it helps give the food more flavor. When a Chinese recipe calls for cornstarch in the marinade, always add it last unless the recipe specifically calls for blending it with the other ingredients before adding it to the food being marinated."

Easy Chicken Stir Fry
serves one, 10 minutes

4oz chicken, diced, room temperature
splash of soy sauce, cooking wine/beer
pinch of cayenne, cumin
1/2 tsp cornstarch
5oz of your favorite veggie (green beans for me!)
1 clove garlic, smashed

1. Take the chicken and toss in a bowl. Add soy sauce, cooking wine, and spices. Mix thoroughly and add cornstarch. Mix well again and set aside.
2. Heat oil in your skillet, wok, saucepan, whatever. Wait until its REALLY hot. Then toss in the garlic and you'll hear it sizzle. 
3. When the garlic is browned and fragrant, add chicken. let it brown and cook thoroughly on one side first so that when you go to stir it, it should unstick by itself . Then cook the other sides.
4. Add the veggies after the chicken is opaque on all sides. If things are starting to stick too much, the veggies will release some water to "deglaze" the pan and keep things from burning. But if the veggies aren't enough, add a few teaspoons of cooking wine or water. Cover veggies and let cook for  a few minutes until they're bright green (assuming the veggies are green to begin with)
5. Stir and make sure everything is cooked through. Serve!

Breakfast of Champions: Fiesty Frittata

Frittata is an egg-based dish similar to an omelette or quiche, either simple or enriched with additional ingredients such as meats, cheeses, vegetables or pasta. It may be flavored with herbs.

When I had a 1.5 hour commute last summer, I had to leave the house by 7:15 am to get into the city on time. Getting up extra early means you run out of steam much earlier than lunchtime and you ed up regretting not eating something before hopping in the car! That's where this super frittata comes in - its like a protein brownie, filled with all my favorite things and sealed together with an egg. You can replace the ingredients for anything you like, so feel free to wing it. But DO have everything chopped and prepped before you turn the skillet onto the stove - trust me, there isn't enough time to chop or wash in between.

You will need one special tool - a non-stick oven safe skillet or saucepan with 2 inch (at least) tall sides. And a spatula that won't scratch up the pan!

Feisty Frittata
one hour - includes ALL prep and 20 minutes of baking
One nine inch skillet = 6 large breakfast portions

1 small onion, diced.
3 italian sausages. Squeeze the meat from the casing so you get ground sausage.
3 cloves garlic, minced

2 cups frozen spinach, microwaved and pressed out so there's no extra water
1.5 cups diced mushrooms (1/2 inch cubes)
1 tsp tomato paste
1 cup cheese

6 large eggs (8 small ones) , cracked in a large bowl and beaten (ie for scrambled)
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
1/2 tsp sriracha - optional
1 tbsp freshly minced parsley

1. Prep all your ingredients. Everything must be chopped, minced, squeezed and cracked before moving on. This takes the longest, but I guarantee its worth it!
2. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
3. Heat up your skillet on high. Add 1 tbsp of oil (canola in my case) and coat the pan AND the sides generously. everything goes in this pan and you do not want to be scraping egg off the pan at the end of the meal! Don't skimp here.
4. When the pan and oil are hot, add the sausage. Use the spatula and a spoon or something to break the sausage up so it crumbles like ground beef. This takes work. If you use bacon or diced chicken, its not as bad, but make sure the pieces are tiny - 1/2 inch cubes are good.
5. The sausage will take a while to cook through and things will start to stick. Add the onions and garlic here to deglaze the pan while you keep working at cooking the sausage through.
6. When sausage is cooked mostly through (no visible pink) add the mushrooms and spinach. Make sure the spinach is as dry as possible! Mushrooms and spinach give off a lot of water and you have to cook off all the water before adding the egg.
7. Add the tomato paste, salt, pepper, and hot sauce (if applicable). Keep cooking off more water. The contents of the pan will significantly diminish as the water evaporates. Lower heat to medium.
8. While you're cooking off water, beat the eggs in a large bowl and then add the milk. The milk helps make eggs fluffy! And we like fluffy :)
9. When you've cooked off all the water (the bottom of the pan should appear dry) you can mix in the cheese and parsley slowly, one handful at a time. Check the amount of stuff in the pan. The pan should be no more than 50% full (to the rim of the pan.) If you have more than that, scoop it out and serve that over rice or something. Scrape down the stuff from the edge of the pan to the bottom. If you leave stuff on the sides of the pan, it may burn when you bake the frittata.
10. Pour the egg-milk mixture over the sausage-spinach mix. The egg will fill the spaces between the mixture. Do not fill the pan past 75% up the side of the skillet! (The egg will rise cuz they're fluffy). Mix the contents of the pan gently - you don't want all the yummy stuff to be on the bottom of the pan, you want it to be incorporated throughout. Help some of the stuff get suspended in the egg. Let this cook on medium for about five minutes and make sure your oven has reached 350.
11. Pop the whole thing in the oven on the middle rack. If you don't have a oven-safe skillet, you can make everything in the pan first, transfer the stuff to a baking pan, and then top with the egg mix. Cook for 20 minutes until top is slightly browned and the whole frittata is cooked solid. Let the frittata rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.
12. Cut with a spatula that won't hurt your pan. Serve warm or cold, with a side of bread or salad.

Eggs to go!

I recently started a new project that transferred me to work in another office. It adds 30 minutes to my commute every day and they're a little stricter about being timely and hitting the ground running. AKA for me, no shredded wheat and yogurt at my desk at 9:30 am - I need to eat before I get there. (Getting up EXTRA early? Super bummer.)

As you may have figured out by now, I'm a big fan of poached eggs. Eggs make perfect breakfast foods because they are single small servings that are packed with protien that will keep you running through the day. I made a serving of bacon kale last night for this morning and splurged on buying turkish pide bread I found at my supermarket. But I wanted to have my egg and eat it too!

The microwave-engineers-that-be are one step ahead of me! http://www.whatscookingamerica.net/eggs/microwaveeggs.htm

Microwave poached egg

Grab a mug and fill with half a cup water. Mugs are perfect because they're deep and will make your egg the perfect circle!
Grab a fresh egg. Crack the egg and gently ease it in the mug. The egg will fall to the bottom. If the yolk is still whole, poke it with a fork. (The yolk can explode).
Cover the mug with plastic wrap.
Cook the egg on full power for 1.5 to 2 minutes.
If you're doing this for the first time, better to overcook when in doubt. If the egg doesn't looked completely done, let it sit in the water for another half minute and make sure the egg white is solid. (Mine took 2.25 min but I was also running the toaster for my pide!)
Pour out excess water slowly over a slotted spoon. Serve with a pinch of salt and pepper