November 28, 2013

Green Bean Casserole

I'm  going  full bechamel this Thanksgiving!

Melt 2 tbs of butter in a skillet and 2 tbs in a sauce pot. Slice a package of mushrooms and a shallot and set aside. Keep on hand 2 cups of milk and 2 tbs of flour

Saute the mushrooms and shallots in the skillet with some salt and pepper

Make a roux with the melted butter and flour then add the milk to create a bechamel sauce.

Start preheating the oven and set aside a casserole dish 2/3rds full of your green beans. Im using frozen.

Once the bechamel thickens add your sauteed mushrooms and shallots

Stir sauce into the green beans and top with a mixture of parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs.

Make a beer batter for the onion rings

Pop the casserole in the oven and heat up oil for frying

Fry your onion rings

Drain rings on paper towels

Top casserole with rings halfway through cooking while eating the remaining oinion rings. After everything is heated through extract from the oven and enjoy

October 5, 2013

Texas Chili Flavored Bean Stew

  Home

Some of my friends tasked me with making my Texas chili vegetarian. After explaining how that was impossible I came up with recipe to give them the flavor they desired without the meat.

We will start by soaking some dried pinto beans. Though Texas chili usually doesn't include beans it just would be odd if we used some other type of bean as the base.

For aromatics I have chopped up two onions and a bell pepper. Don't worry the jalapenos come later.

Since I'm starting with dried beans I'm going to be using the family stew pot to give those a head start as we build the rest of the chili in a cast iron skillet.

Sweat a handful of onion and add your beans to the pot with some salt and pepper and just enough water to cover. Bring to a boil then simmer for a couple hours on the back burner.

This time around I'm going to broil and get some color on my jalapenos before adding them in.

Get all those onions and peppers sweating in the skillet with salt and pepper

After a few minutes I decided to throw some sliced mushrooms in there too.

As those cook start adding spices. Salt, black pepper, cumin, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, a bit of thyme and a ton of chili powder is the spice mix I put in all of my chili's.

Taking those roasted peppers I'm going to churn them up with a little bit of the cooking liquid from the beans and a can of tomato paste with more spice mix.

Add the love mixture into the beans. I had too much extra water from cooking the beans that I drained before doing this to make room for the flavor party.

For bean variety I put in a can of drained black beans

Add the spiced vegetation from the skillet into the pot.

Then I add enough beer (I prefer porters or IPAs) and water to get it to the consistency I like. Stir and simmer until you are ready to eat.

As expected, I love to serve my "chili" with fritos and cheese

Jambalaya

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Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya

Seattle

This is quite possibly the worst recipe write up I have ever done since I did it months afterwards rather than as I was making it. Apologies in advanced.

Jun 22, 2013

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cook some chicken thighs on the stove in your cast iron skillet.

Dice the holy trinity of onion, bell pepper, and celery as well slice a pound of sausage.

Evacuate the chicken and brown the sausage

Add the veggies as well as thyme, oregano, bay leaves, salt, and red and black pepper

Add back in the chicken, chicken broth and tomato paste. This is also when you need to add the rice.

Bake until the rice is done.

After its all done, fluff and serve.

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Lentil Soup

Home

Seattle

Vegetarian Lentil soup for when you get tired of eating beans.

Jun 7, 2013

 Chop up a medium sized onion, a few carrots, and a couple stalks of celery.

Sweat onions, carrots, and celery

Add a can of diced tomatoes and chicken broth

And lentils, a quart of water, and spices (cumin, cayenne, bay leaves)

Simmer for at least half an hour

Puree some of the soup to thicken it

Add the puree back in amd cook for 5 more minutes

Serve

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Pinto Beans

Seattle

This batch of beans is vegetarian. Typically beans are flavored with ham hocks or bacon but I didn't have any pork laying around today.

Apr 27, 2013

Sweat a diced onion and a couple jalapenos

Season with salt, pepper, cumin. Then add a few tablespoons of salsa and some beer if you'd like

Add 1lb. of beans that have soaked overnight

Cover with water and bring to a boil

Simmer for a couple hours until beans have finished cooking. Adjust seasoning of necessary