Ratatouille

Ratatouille

Ratatouille is a French peasants’ dish.  The vegetables that are used are typically whatever is in fresh and in season.  The main ingredients are as follows but bell peppers are also commonly added.  This is a vegetarian dish but feel free to add chicken or andouille sausage.

20 min prep 30 min to cook

¼ cup olive oil and more as needed

¼ medium onion

3 cloves garlic

3 carrots

1 small eggplant

2 yellow squash

3 zucchini squash

1 large can stewed tomatoes

1 tbsp dried herbs (recommend poultry seasoning but can use any you like)

Salt and pepper to taste

In a large stew pot on medium heat add ¼ cup of olive oil.  Chop cloves of garlic and onion and add to pan to sweat (cook until onions are translucent).  While that is sweating chop carrots into large bite size pieces then add to pot.  Next chop eggplant into roughly same size and add to pot.  After adding eggplant you may need to add more olive oil as it will soak up most of it.  Let the carrots and eggplant cook while you chop yellow and zucchini squashes and add them to the pot.  Stir well to make sure everything gets a good coating of olive oil and let cook on medium heat for another 2 minutes stirring occasionally to make sure all vegetables are evenly cooked.  Finally add in can of stewed tomatoes and herbs.  Turn down heat to simmer and let cook for 30 minutes or until vegetables are to desired tenderness stirring occasionally.  Salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve as is or over rice, couscous, or some sort of hearty noodles.  Garnish with a little parmesan cheese.  

Pork Fried Rice

Pork Fried Rice

 I love asian food.  This is just a quick and easy fried rice.  This recipe makes enough for a large family or a lot of leftovers.

1 lb pork loin chops

4 cups prepared white rice

1 cup frozen peas

1 cup frozen corn

2 stalks celery

2 carrots

3-4 eggs

¼ cup soy sauce

2 cloves garlic

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp fish sauce (Found in the asian/ethnic aisle of your grocery store. It smells horrible but adds a ton of flavor in the end.)

2 tbsp worcestershire sauce

Green onion for garnish

Prepare 4 cups white rice.  After rice is done remove lid and let cool.  While rice is cooking prepare the pork loin.  Thinly slice pork loin into bite size pieces.  Put pieces in marinade of soy sauce, brown sugar, and 1 clove of chopped garlic.  If you like a bit of spice add some crushed red pepper flakes.  Let marinade for 30 minutes.  

Chop celery and carrots into small bite size pieces.  Thinly slice remaining clove of garlic. (I don’t mind getting a nice cooked piece of garlic while I’m eating but you can mince it if you don't.)

I use a wok to cook in but any large pan will work.  I would not recommend a non-stick coated pan as you will be using high heat.  Heat wok to a medium-high heat and add 2 tbsp vegetable oil.  Put in pork with marinade juices.  Be careful as oil will splatter a bit.  Cook pork until done, remove from pan and set aside.  Add carrots and celery let cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add frozen peas, corn, and last clove of garlic.  Let cook for another 2 minutes and add to pork that was set aside.  

There should be little to no liquid in pan.  If needed add a dash of oil.  Break eggs into pan and scramble.  After egg is done add pork, vegetables, fish sauce, and Worcestershire sauce into pan.  Carefully fold in rice.  You don’t want to break up the grains of rice as it will become mushy. Add more soy sauce, Worcestershire, and brown sugar to taste.

Top with chopped green onion for garnish.

Vietnamese Banh Mi

Vietnamese Banh Mi

So the wife and I have been watching "The Great American Food Truck Race" on Food Network.  So after watching Nom Nom win almost everything I decided that was going to be my next food adventure.  Then comes Guy Fieri with an Asian inspired meal including Asian street food sandwich (Banh Mi).  There are many parts to this so make sure to read through it all. 


I did chicken breast for the meat here but you can use just about any meat you would like. 

Marinade

2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp Worcestershire to taste

Let meat marinade at least 4 hours.  After done marinating grill until chicken is fully cooked.  Let stand for 10 minutes then slice thin.


Slaw

Julienne (julienne is to cut food into long thin strips) the following:

1 medium/large cucumber seeds removed
2 large carrots peeled


Marinade for slaw
1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar

In a medium bowl add all ingredients and let marinade for 5-10 minutes

Sriracha Mayonnaise
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1 tbsp Sriracha
Mix.

For this you will need a good roll.  It should be nice and soft inside but have a good chewy crust.  We got ours from the bakery in WinCo.

Slice and lightly toast the bread if you would like (we did it both toasted and not just depends on preference).  Spread Sriracha on both sides of bread.  Layer chosen meat, slaw, your favorite lettuce, cilantro, and end it with a squeeze of lime.

Variations can come in many ways.  Typically these are made with daikon radish in the slaw but we did not have any.  Instead of lettuce you can use cabbage.  Try it with lamb and instead of cilantro use a little mint.  This is a very easy recipe to get creative with.

Thanks to my wife for getting all the stuff marinading while I was at work so I could throw it all together and take credit for it. :-)  If you have any questions or comments let me know.

Biscuits and Gravy

Biscuits and Gravy

So here is a pretty easy one and a tastes way better than any packaged country gravy you can buy.

1/2 lb thick cut bacon (I like a pepper bacon)
1/2 lb breakfast sausage (I like Jimmy Dean All Natural)
3-4 cups of milk
3-4 tbps flour
Salt and pepper as needed

So for biscuits I cheat here.  I really like the frozen Grands buttermilk biscuits they have a great texture and you can make them light and fluffy or a little more dense just by how to bake them.

First start by rendering (rendering is to cook a high fat item like bacon or duck and use that fat for another cooking method like a roux or sauteing vegetables) down the bacon.  The bacon should be on low-medium heat and in small pieces so that it will render out the fat and get slightly crispy.  When the bacon is almost done add in the sausage and brown.  Once all the meat is done you want to remove it from the pan leaving behind as much of the fat you can.

Now add in flour and put the pan on medium heat.  This is a basic roux (pronounced ru cooked flour and fat, this is the basis of most thickening in french cooking in stews and sauces).  You want there to be enough flour to absorb all the fat and be slightly liquid still (this should be equal to the amount of fat/grease in the pan, if there is 3 tablespoons of fat then add 3 tablespoons of flour, I just eyeball it).  You want this to cook a little to cook out the raw flour taste.  I know when it is ready when the flour turns slightly brown and will have a nutty smell to it.

Now add your milk to deglaze (using liquid to dissolve the caramelized bits on the bottom of the pan to use in a sauce).  Use a whisk in one hand and add milk with the other.  The key here is to put in enough milk to get all the meat bits off the bottom of the pan and add it fast enough that the roux doesn't turn into a lumpy paste.  Now with a roux depending on how long the flour has cooked will determine how well it will thicken the gravy.  The longer it cooks the less the thickening power it has.  So add in milk and let it sit for a minute.  You want the gravy to coat the back of a spoon but still be liquid as it will thicken slightly when it cools to a consumable temperature.  Once you have the gravy to desired thickness add back in the bacon and sausage and let simmer for 5 minutes or so for all the flavors to meld together.  Make sure to taste the gravy here and add in salt and pepper as needed. 

Dish up and enjoy. 

Welcome

So I have been thinking about setting up a blog for mainly the cooking I do.  The point of the blog is to share recipes for some of the things I find interesting that I like to cook.  Also with an interest is photography I will try to have pictures of what I cook as well.  This isn't going to be 100% cooking related blog but that should be most of my post.  Thanks for your time and I look forward to sharing.