Biscuits and Gravy

Prepare to have an all day food coma from this one.

Biscuits:
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs butter
2 tbs shortening
1 cup buttermilk

Gravy:
1/2 lb pork breakfast sausage
3 tbs flour
1 1/2 cups milk
Salt and pepper

Side dish:
More sausage, of course

Combine two cups of flour with 4 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt. Use a pastry cutter or two forks and cut in 2 tbs butter and 2 tbs shortening. Hurry up, you don't want them to melt. Stir in up to 1 cup of buttermilk, but avoid over mixing. Once it comes together, put it on a floured board and fold it together a few times.

Roll or pat it 3/4 inch think. Cut into 2 1/2 inch circles. You'll get about ten. Put these into a 9" cake tin. You want the edges to touch. Bake at 450 for 20 minutes.

The gravy is incredibly easy. Cook 1/2 lb crumbled pork breakfast sausage. Once done, add in three tbs flour. Keep cooking until the flour starts to brown. Add about 1 1/2 cups of milk. Keep cooking and stirring until it thickens. Season with salt and lots of pepper. Proceed to drown the biscuits in it.

Beef Stroganoff

This is one of those dishes that I hated when I was a kid and absolutely love now. Mushrooms used to completely gross me out, but the last four years I can't get enough of them as long as they're cooked. Especially in wine. Go figure. I tend to make this with ground beef, but it's easy enough to substitute a similar amount of beef cut into 1/2 inch pieces, you just need to cook it in more butter to make up for the fat content of the ground beef. Here's my version:

Ingredients:
4 tbs butter, maybe more
1 lb ground beef
3 chopped garlic cloves
3 chopped shallots
12 ounces mushrooms
2-4 tbs flour
1 cup white wine or vermouth
4 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 cups of milk
Salt and Pepper
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 lb egg noodles

Heat 2 tbs of butter in a deep skillet. Brown 1 lb of ground beef. Here's an important tip: this can't run out of grease. If you cook it too long and it soaks back in, or if you use super lean beef, you have to keep adding in a couple tbs of butter here and there. It will not work if it's dry.

Once it's almost cooked, add 3 large chopped garlic cloves and two large chopped shallots. Fry for one minute, making sure the garlic doesn't burn. Add in 12 ounces chopped mushrooms. I usually use crimini, but tonight I'm trying it with portabellos. Try to avoid using the boring white button ones. Yawn.

Once the mushrooms start to shrink, add 2-3 tbs flour, enough to soak up the grease from the butter and the beef. If it's a crazy amount of grease, scoop a bit out. Think the consistency of a roux. Cook until the flour starts to turn color, stirring constantly. If you haven't noticed yet, your arm might be a bit sore after this one.

Add 1 cup of white wine, one bay leaf and four sprigs of thyme. Use dry vermouth for a stronger flavor. Next time, I'll let the thyme and bay leaf sit in the wine when I start it. Stir, scraping the bottom of the pan. Cook for a bit to lose the stong alcohol flavor. It will be thick from the start, but let it go for at least a couple of minutes, then pull the bay leaf and thyme stems and add 1 1/2 cups of milk. Heat through, still stirring, it will get thick almost immediately. Taste it, add salt and lots of pepper. I used about 1/2 tsp of salt and about ten grinds of pepper. I love lots of pepper in this. Pull off the heat and stir in 1/2 cup sour cream when you're ready to serve.

While this is going on, cook 1/2 lb of egg noodles. Add salt and pepper, lots of butter, and serve the stroganoff over the noodles.

Carne Asada

This is one of my all time favorite dishes. So simple and tasty. Here's the marinade for two pounds of meat:

2 garlic cloves crushed
1 tbs oregano
1 tbs thyme
1 tbs paprika
2 tsp salt
1 tbs black pepper
1 tbs white pepper
1 tsp ancho chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1/2 small onion sliced
1 cup lemon juice

Mix this all together and then throw in the meat. Marinate at least an hour then grill it quickly over high heat. Tada!

Shrimp with orzo, asparagus and feta

Boil a pot of water and throw in 1/2 lb of chopped asparagus. Cook for two minutes and then put into ice water. Add 1 1/2 cup of orzo and cook for ten minutes. Save some cooking water and drain it.

Shell and devein 3/4 lb of shrimp and season with salt and pepper. Add 4 tbs of butter to a good sized pan. Once it's hot, add the shrimp with one chopped garlic clove and cook until the shrimp is pink, then pull out. Throw in the asparagus and saute a bit, then pull out.

Add in 1/2 cup of white wine with 1 tsp oregano and cook down, scraping the bottom. Add 1 cup of chicken stock, a bit of the reserved cooking water and the orzo. Cook on high for two minutes then add the shrimp and asparagus.

Stir in 2 tbs chopped fresh parsley. Serve and top with crumbled feta.

When I did this, I did the asparagus and orzo ahead of time and prepped the shrimp and just set to the side until I was ready to cook, which totally worked. I love a meal I can prep ahead cook in ten minutes.

It did need a bit of salt, as my stock is much less salty than the canned crap I'm used to. A bit of pepper made it pop. I loved this dish.

Lazy Garlic Pasta

This is a good one when I have no time and want something garlicky and simple. And I'm

always down for some pasta. Cook enough spaghetti for one. While it's cooking, smash one garlic clove into a bowl. Chop up about four basil leaves fine into said bowl. Add in a couple pats of butter. Once the spaghetti finishes up, scoop out about two tbs of pasta water. Drain the rest, add it to the bowl, then stir it all up with the reserved pasta water. Add parm. Enjoy.

Spinach Feta Pasta

This is one of my oldies but goodies. It's sooo easy and it's super yum. And it's about 3000 degrees outside, so it works perfectly.

I have a leftover chicken breast from chimi chicken that I chopped up to add in. I made 1/2 pound of rotini pasta. I tossed that in vinaigrette for a minute to keep it from drying out and to get some flavor.

Here's the sauce:
1 cup spinach 1/2 cup vinaigrette (I was lazy, usually I would make my own, today I used Trader Joe's red wine. Boring.) 1/4 cup good feta

Throw the spinach in the food processor until it's tiny. Add vinaigrette. If it's TJ's, add about 1/4 cup of oil to offset the water content. Add the feta and blend until just past chunky. Pour this over the cooked pasta, add the chopped chicken and a bit more feta.

Done. Love it.

Chimichurri and dinner

I knew this was coming. It always happens when I'm bored, I get hungry, I go shopping and all of a sudden I want to make fifteen different things. And that is today. I went with chimichurri - I did this recipe a while back, it's a recurring favorite whenever I see red peppers or parsley.

I like my chimichurri chunky and far from that bright green crap you see on tv. I use my food processor, but if you chop by hand, just make sure everything is a super small chop. At the same time, if you use a food processor, make sure it doesn't turn into a puree. Although this time I did it a little finer than usual and it turned out pretty rockin. Better marinade and easier to use as a dip. Yum.

Chop together 1 bunch parsley (save most of the stems for stock), 1 seeded tomato, 1/2 seeded red pepper, 1 smallish onion, 3-5 garlic cloves. Add 1 tbs oregano, paprika and coarse kosher salt and 1 tsp black pepper. Stir it well.

1/2 hour later add 1/4 cup red wine vinegar and 1/4 cup water. Tonight, mine was super moist - maybe the parsley got rained on at the market right before I picked it up? So I left out the water. 1/2 hour later, add 1/2 cup olive oil. Golden.

Dinner tonight is super simple. Chimi chicken, a can of black beans heated with a tbs of chimi in it, and pseudo Spanish rice. I sauteed about a tbs of onions, added 1/2 a cup of rice to the saute, then added a cup of chicken stock and about 4 oz water. Cook that for 20-25 min and you're good to go.

On a related note, rice is one of my culinary nemeses. I can't cook it for shit most of the time. Tonight is no exception. I put the heat a little too low, and it's been going for 45 minutes in a crunchy, watery mess. Fuck rice.