Gluten-Free Brownies

I've been playing around quite a bit with a brownie recipe that I found online recently, as I pointed out in our last post about brownies.  The recipe is credited to Katherine Hepburn, who is perhaps one of the most prolific movie stars of all time.  Well, was one of the most prolific movie stars of all time.  She passed away about ten years ago at the impressive age of 96.  She won four academy awards for best actress (a record that is still unbroken), and probably led the way for the 'modern woman' by way of being a strong and independent individual who dominated the public spotlight without conforming to the Hollywood standard for how a lady should act while simultaneously retaining her femininity.  Surely you must have heard of her, and even more likely you've seen her in one of her many roles.  So, what does this all have to do with brownies?

Absolutely nothing.  I liked the framework of the recipe because it uses simple, whole ingredients for the most part.  Real chocolate, butter, eggs, and not much else aside from sweetener.  The sweetener doesn't have to be processed sugar, as I established in my Jaggery Brownie experiments, and even the flour isn't a necessary component of the recipe.  You'll need some sort of flour-like substance, but given how little of the body of these brownies depend on the actual flour (1/4 cup for the whole recipe), the door is really opened for trying substitutions.

The substitutions that I made use of this time were of a granulated unrefined sugar (sucanat) for the prescribed sugar, and coconut "flour" and cocoa powder to replace the wheat flour.  This would also make the brownies free from gluten, which isn't an enormous concern of mine but is a very trendy food component to avoid these days as well as being an actual dietary concern for a small portion of the population.  More appealing to myself is the reduction or elimination of processed flour from our food.  I've been doing most of my roux with fresh spelt flour, which has a nice body and good flavor for that, but I didn't want any of that flavor to come out in these brownies.  I do use the term "coconut flour" rather loosely, as aside from being a fairly dry powder it does not perform admirably in any other format that I have tried it in thus far (thickening sauces, creating a roux, etc..)  I had heard that it was pretty decent for baking some quickbreads that don't need much body, so it seemed like a good choice here. 

So, gather up your ingredients.  The sucanat was a first for me.  It's not crystallized, but rather coarsely ground:

Much drier than jaggery, but still with a strong flavor of molasses.

 

 The chocolate was still some leftovers from my stash of unsweetened amazing chocolate brick, and the butter is grass fed from pastured cows milked during the summer months.

If I had a personal logo, this might be it.

The eggs, as always, are also pasture raised.  Let's just take a quick look at these gorgeous eggs.

Approaching the boundaries of food porn...I love it.

OK, enough with the somewhat unnecessary and almost completely gratuitous photos of my favorite ingredients.  Start off like before, by melting the chocolate with the butter (actual recipe is at the bottom of the page) and stirring the eggs, sucanat, and vanilla together.

Ingredient megaphoto...because I wasted all of that space earlier on egg pictures.

Also, be sure to preheat the oven and butter/flour your baking dish.  Ah, but these are gluten/flour free, so we don't want to actually flour the dish.  Coconut flour, right?  Heck no - I don't want the outside of these brownies to be covered in a chalky coating of dried out powdered coconut.  A much better idea is to dust the pan with some cocoa.

It's brilliant, really...more chocolate!

  Now, melt combine all of the ingredients (melted chocolate and butter, eggs/sucunat/vanilla, and coconut flour with a bit of sea salt) into a smooth velvety batter.  Again, use a small amount of the warm chocolate mixture to temper the eggs before combing completely to prevent a chocolate egg scramble.  (One of these days I'm just going to have to make chocolate scrambled eggs to see if they're even better than the brownies, and whether or not it pays to avoid making them at all.)

It's not completely melted yet if there's a chocolate island in your pan.

Chocolate island...my mind began to wander.  So, pour it into the prepared baking dish, bake it, and then let cool completely before cutting up the brownies for service.  Service, and lots of brownie photos.

Milk is a natural addition to this party.

Gluten-Free Brownies

• 1 cup Sucanat
• 2 eggs
• 8 ounces of butter
• 2 ounces of unsweetened chocolate
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup coconut flour flour
• 1/4 tsp sea salt (fine dry)
• Cocoa powder for dusting

1. Melt chocolate and butter in saucepan that is large enough for all ingredients.  Remove from heat.
2. Combine eggs, jaggery, and vanilla.  Temper and then incorporate into the chocolate and butter pan.  Whisk in the coconut flour and salt.  Stir thoroughly to combine all ingredients.
3. Pour into a buttered and cocoa-ed 8" x 8" baking dish and bake at 325F for 40 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool completely before serving.

Everyday Meals: Liver and Eggs

To begin by stating the obvious, it seems as though liver and other organ meats are no longer popular choices...at least not in the circles that I frequent.  I guess that's because something like liver is a serious piece of meat.  That is, it tastes like meat, and not like some bland carrier component for the other flavors in a dish (ahem, boneless chicken breasts).  It doesn't respond well to cooking for too long.  It can be a bit more temperamental than a roast or hamburger, and it certainly doesn't stay fresh nearly as long nor does it make particularly good leftovers.

It is extremely easy to cook, though, and it cooks up very fast.  It stores well frozen, it's less expensive than most other muscular meats (even 'ground meat'), and if you take the time to look at the vitamin content of even a meager 4 ounce piece of beef liver, it might just blow your mind.  This is a serious superfood.

The trick to thinking about liver preparation, if there is in fact a trick at all, is that you really have to accept the liver as the key player...the primary ingredient.  Even a small amount added to a sauce and served over pasta will make the flavor of the sauce liver-dominant.  That's fine - liver is also delicious if prepared well and served hot. 

My favorite preparation is to simply pan-sear the liver in some butter or tallow, plate over whatever greens we happen to have handy, and top with a pasture raised egg or two.  The egg yolk provides extra healthy fats to aid in the assimilation of the fat soluble vitamins from the liver (and also adds protein and nutrients of its own). 

Creamy Potato Bacon Soup

 This soup really is a heavily bastardized version of caldo verde.  I'm very familiar with this fact, as I started out a few years ago making caldo verde, and it has finally evolved into this slightly different version that you see below.  I like the play of the bacon to the potatoes more so than any sausage that I have tried, and a good quality raw cheddar cheese seemed like a natural topping for a soup that already tasted like a bacon stuffed baked potato.

To start, get yourself a big sack of potatoes.  I would highly recommend going with a gold potato or even a red potato, as baking or russet potatoes don't really lend themselves well to this recipe.  Below you'll see that I went with some beautiful yukon golds.

Yukon Gold, baby.

Due to the fact that I happened to be in the midst of making a chicken stock while preparing this soup, I scrubbed the potatoes very well so that I could save the skins to add to the stock.  I then set up a peeling station, because 5 pounds of #1 potatoes takes a while to peel.  Once peeled, I put the potatoes into a large bowl filled with cold water and some ascorbic acid.  I did this to prevent them from oxidizing while I was working on the rest of the ingredients (of which there really aren't many).  Some lemon juice in the water, or even just the plain cold water by itself would work fine if you don't have any ascorbic acid or vitamin C laying around.  I did.

My dad used to tell me how much fun he had peeling potatoes in the navy.

Once the potatoes were peeled, I then cut them in half lengthwise and then into 1/4" thick slices.  I returned the slices of potato to the large bowl of cold water.  After that, I chopped this marvelous 18 ounce pack of thick, apple-wood smoked bacon into a small dice.

Bacon has magical properties on the internet, right?

I then tossed the diced bacon into a very large pan and let it brown.

Looking Good

Looking Better.  We can just stop here, right?

After the bacon got crispy, I removed it and placed it in a small bowl to just hang out for a while.  I also drained most of the bacon grease out of the pan.  This bacon grease went into the fridge, where it is still performing feats of awesomeness, such as frying eggs or being slathered all over whole chickens before roasting.  I did leave a few tablespoons of the bacon grease in the pan, and to this I added the drained potato slices.

While the potatoes were frying in the bacon fat...hang on, let me just savor the thought...I poured the liquid that I had used to soak the potatoes into a small saucepan and reduced it in volume to roughly one quart.  I was going to need some extra liquid, and rather than just add water I thought that it would be much more sensible to use the water that was already full of potato starch and any other enrichment that may have leached out of the potatoes while they were soaking.  Once the potatoes had browned just slightly, I poured this reduced liquid into the potato pan.

I also added a quart of rich beef stock for a heavy dose of nutrients and some excellent background flavor notes.  Chicken stock would work very well, too. 

If I can put bone stock into something, I will put bone stock into something.

Once the potatoes were well established in copious amounts of liquid, I turned the heat down and let them simmer while I ate all of the bacon.  Just kidding.  I simmered the potatoes until they were very soft, and then blended them along with the cooking liquid until velvety smooth.  I incorporated the bacon pieces back into the creamed potatoes and poured the whole mess into my slow cooker in order to let the flavors meld together for a few hours at a low temperature.  You don't need to use a slow cooker, but I did so that I could just walk away from the whole operation without fear of having anything burn.

Just hanging out and getting friendly

At some point in time I think that I took a nap.  I undoubtedly wasted some time on the internet.  However, I'm sure that I took a large bunch of lacinato kale that I had washed and sliced the rubs out of the leaves before cutting leaves into fairly fine slices.  I used lacinato kale because it sounds much more pretentious than regular kale.  Regular kale is for chumps, right?  This is a blog about food, so I felt obligated to opt for the fancier version of this robust leafy green.  Feel free to use regular kale when you make your own version, but be sure to tell your friends and loved ones that you used regular old kale because you truly don't give a damn about them.  Meanwhile I will continue to use my fancy kale.

OK, the lacinato is also a darker color and is not as crinkly, so it does look a lot better in soups like this.  That's actually what drew me to it in the first place.  Anyway, shortly before it's time to serve, stir the sliced kale into the soup and just cook it for about 10-15 minutes at most.  It will turn a very mice shade of green and be soft without totally falling apart.  The soup is very rich and savory, and the sturdy green of the kale (lacinato or otherwise) juxtaposes this in a wonderful way.  I elected to top the soup with some freshly shredded raw cheddar cheese, which was very good, or you can omit the cheese and just enjoy it how it is.  I put it into a hot thermos and sent it off with Christa for lunch.

So, in summary:

Creamy Potato Bacon Soup

Ingredients:

• 5 lbs of yellow potatoes
• 16-18 ounces of good thick cut bacon
• 1 quart of beef stock
• 1 head of lacinato kale (or regular kale)
• cheddar cheese to taste (optional)

1)  Peel potatoes and place in bowl of cool water with some vitamin C (to prevent oxidation)
2)  Cut potatoes into 1/4" thick slices and return to water to continue soaking.
3)  Dice the bacon and fry until crispy.  Remove the bacon from the pan, and reserve all but 2-3 tablespoons of the bacon grease for other projects.  In this 2-3 tablespoons of grease, toss the sliced potatoes to brown.  Meanwhile, reduce the soaking water to roughly one quart in volume.
4)  Once potatoes are brown, add reduced water and beef stock.  Simmer until the potatoes are soft.
5)  Blend the potatoes in their cooking liquid until smooth.  Add the bacon to this and simmer for a few hours to meld the flavors together.  I used a slow cooker for this part of the process because it was just much easier than manning a pot.
6)  Shortly before serving, stir the sliced kale into the soup to cook.  It won't take long for the kale to turn emerald green.  Ladle into bowls and top with shredded cheddar cheese.

Carrot Soup

I like to make simple creamy soups our of root vegetables or squash combined with a meat stock base.  My go-to vegetable is butternut squash in chicken stock, but as Christa is not a fan of that particular gourd, this time I tried carrots for a similar effect.  The addition of ginger plays well with the roasted carrots, and the real cream turns the soup into a velvety meal.

To make this soup, you will need the following:

• 2.5 lbs of carrots
• 10 cloves of garlic
• 4 or 5 sprigs of fresh rosemary
• 1 quart of chicken stock
• olive oil
• butter
• 1/2 of a large white onion
• 1 cup of heavy cream (preferably non-homogenized grass-fed)
• 1 cup of ginger infused water*
• herbes de provence

1.  Peel the carrots and chop into large rounds.  Place them in a baking dish along with the garlic and rosemary.  Drizzle just a little bit of olive oil on top, and put them into a 375F oven for an hour to roast.  Discard the rosemary afterwards and put vegetables aside.
2. Dice the onion very finely and saute in a large saucepan with about a tablespoon of butter.  When the onion is very soft and translucent but not browned, pour the stock into the pot and add the roasted vegetables and herbes.  Simmer this gently until the carrots are soft and mushy.
3. Take an emulsion blender and begin to liquify the contents of the pot.  At this time, add the ginger water (it will help to increase the volume of liquid while you are blending).  Once the soup is smooth, turn off the heat and use the blender to incorporate the cream.

carrots, garlic, and rosemary all ready for the oven

After blending all of the ingredients, it's ready to serve.

That's all there is to it.  The soup is warm, creamy, and just a little bit sweet, however the sweetness is cut by the ginger which is in turn mellowed slightly be the cream.  Pack it in a hot thermos to take for lunch with a couple of hard boiled eggs, enjoy a steaming cup of soup on a cold evening, or just pour it on your lap.

-J


*Ginger infused water:  Take a finger of ginger, peel it, and dice if up into very small cubes.  Place it in a heat safe container (I like to use a thermos for this as it holds the heat longer) and pour 2-3 cups of boiling water over the ginger.  Let it steep for several hours.

I was thinking about using this for my desktop wallpaper...

Fried Shrimp

Fried shrimp...it might conjure up the image of some butterflied shrimp tails covered in breading and then deep fried in some frightening trans-fat laden vegetable oil and served with a lackluster side of mediocre tartar sauce and a lemon wedge.  Well, if that's the image that came into your mind before you saw the photo above, I'm here to set the record straight, because this is how you do fried shrimp. 

It's fast, it's easy, and if you have never had shrimp this way it will probably change your opinion on this humble crustacean.  The ingredients are few, but quality is especially important here.

Start with some large whole shrimp.  Whole shrimp!  Don't just buy the tails and call it a day.  The body is where all of the flavor is, so get about a pound (depending on how many you are serving) of very fresh whole shrimp from your local merchant of choice.

You'll also need some quality rendered leaf lard.  I render my own from a local farm that sells the hard kidney fat from their whey and acorn fed pigs.  The rendering process takes a little while, but it is very easy and you can produce a lot of lard and store it in the freezer for a long time.  Lard is excellent for frying because it is heat stable, does not impart any flavor, and makes food incredibly crispy.  In fact, I eat the entire shrimp when cooking them in lard (head, body, tail, shell, legs, eyeballs..everything).

Wash the shrimp under cool water and pat dry.  Toss them with seasoning of you choice (I used a paprika and celery based mixed seasoning from my favorite local spice shop for these, but salt and pepper are great as well).  Heat about 1/4" deep layer of lard in a stainless steel or cast iron skillet and add the shrimp carefully into the oil.  Take care not to crowd them; it is better to cook them in several small batches than to overload the pan.

Cooking time really depends on the size of the shrimp, but fortunately they have a built in cooking indicator.  When you see that the shrimp have turned pink just a little bit more than halfway up their sides, flip them over and cook for a few more minutes until the entire shrimp is pink and crispy.  The meat should be cooked through but not tough, and the shells will be so crisp that you can eat these whole (and I suggest that you do at least try it for full effect).
Simply remove from the oil and serve hot.  This is serious 'finger food', so keep your sides simple.  Some broccoli or even brussels sprouts would make a good pairing.

Everything on this plate is edible; from the crispy shells to the tasty guts

Cookie Dough

These aren't really cookie dough...if you bake them, they will not turn into cookies.  However, they taste remarkably similar to actual chocolate chip cookie dough, but are composed of fuit, nuts, and (gasp) some actual chocolate chips. 

This is way more than a serving size

I know that I got the inspiration for a date/nut based snack bar from somewhere on the internet that I cannot remember at this time and I apparently forgot to bookmark it.  However, I tweaked this one a bit, and I'm sure that the place that I first read about it didn't invent it, so I'm not going to lose any sleep over it. 

Ingredients are as follows:

• 2 cups whole medjool dates, pitted
• 1 cup whole almonds
• 1 cup whole pecans (or crushed if that's what you have; it really doesn't matter in this recipe)
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 2 Tbsp coconut oil
• 1/2 cup finely shredded coconut
• 1 tsp real vanilla extract

1. Put the dates, almonds, and pecans into a food processor and process them until they begin to look like a coarse paste.
2. As the mixture starts looking pasty, pour in the coconut oil, coconut, and vanilla extract
3. The contents of your blender should be a paste by this point in time.  Dump out into a bowl and stir in the chocolate chips.  It would be tempting to just throw the chips into the food processor and let your handy dandy kitchen gadget do all of the work.  Don't.  It will pulverize your chocolate chips, and the resultant heat of friction will also melt them and just make a big mess.  Yes, I am speaking to you from experience at this point.
4. Press the mixture into a baking dish lined with a sheet of wax paper.  It doesn't have to be a baking dish, as you won't actually be baking these.  It could be a serving dish, or a platter with high sides, a large tupperware container, a firm hat, or a pair of crocs...so long as you can easily remove the bars from the container once they have cooled down and become firm.  Once that happens, pop the sheet of "dough" out onto a cutting board and cut into portions.  I wrapped them in foil for easy transportation.

I'd sell out my own brother and sisters to a stranger in a sledge for a tray full of these.

Oh, so the chocolate chips that I bought happened to be organic.  Fancy, right?  I almost mentioned that in the ingredients list...like, "your chocolate chips must be organic, or this whole recipe will be a giant bowl of fail".   I don't really have a firm stance on the benefits of organic chocolate chips, as I have not done much research on the topic.  I didn't even buy organic chips to be hip and/or cool.  I bought them because they were available in the bulk bin of my grocery store, whereas I would have otherwise had to buy an entire bag of 'regular' chips.  Since this is not an ingredient that I keep on hand regularly, I opted to just purchase a cup of the fancy chips, which I'm sure I ended up spending as much money on as I would have if I got a whole pound bag of the non-organic.  /rant

-J

Sautéed Brussels Sprouts

Our meals might seem very animal-centric.  This is because they are; I make sure that Christa and I both eat a variety of wild game, fish, pasture raised beef and chickens, and most of their organs as well.  We eat soups and sauces made from bone stocks, and regularly enjoy good eggs, milk, yogurts, and cheeses. 

That's not to say that we don't have plenty of fresh plant matter daily - we do, both cooked and raw.  It's just not typically as glamorous, so I'm less apt to blog about it.  This post is about some vegetables.  Nice, leafy vegetables, cooked quickly that make a great side dish to just about any hot meal.

So, without further ado, here's a surefire method of preparing Brussels Sprouts.  (That's Brussels Sprouts, not brussel sprouts)

Ingredients:

• ~1 dry pint of Brussels Sprouts; cleaned and halved
• 4 cloves of garlic, sliced into coins
• 1 T of good butter
• 1 T of olive oil
• Salt and Pepper

1. Melt the fats together in a skillet that has a tight fitting lid (leave the lid off for now).  
2. Add the garlic and toss quickly.  As soon as it begins to brown, place all of the Brussels Sprouts cut side down into the hot pan.  Do not disturb them for 4-5 minutes while the cut sides brown.
3. Toss the pan to flip the sprouts over (they don't all need to flip, don't worry about that) and then pour just a small amount of hot water (roughly 1/8 cup) into the pan and put the lid on.  Steam the sprouts for another 5 minutes to cook them through until they are tender.  
4. Remove the lid, boil off the water, toss once more to coat everything and plate the garlic and sprouts in a warmed bowl. 

They make a fine summertime side dish for shrimp and vegetables.

Beef Stock

 

 

Rich, dark beef stock takes several days to make but is well worth it.

A good home-made bone stock is an essential base for so many sauces, soups, stews, and other dishes that it pays to be able to make your own.  By using good quality ingredients to make your own bone stock, you will have a delicious and nourishing medium full of minerals, vitamins, and incredible depth of flavor to utilize in more dishes than you might initially realize.  While the process is time consuming, most of it is inactive and can even be done while you sleep.

 

 

Ingredients

• Beef Bones - mix of blades and knuckles (this recipe used 10 pounds)
• 3 medium parsnips, coarsely chopped
• 2 large carrots, coarsely chopped
• 2 large onions, quartered with skins still on
• 1/2 of a bunch of celery, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup vinegar

1)  Take the bones and lay them out in a single layer in a roasting pan.

cold and unappetizing

2)  Place in a 350F oven for 45-60 minutes, or until the bones have browned nicely and the marrow begins to bubble.  You might steal some of the marrow for a quick snack at this point.  I'm certainly not going to judge you.

hot, roasted bones smell delicious

3)  Place the bones in a large stock pot (mine happens to be 16 quarts) and cover with cold water.  Add the vinegar to this water.

This doesn't look good...but it will get better.

 

4)   Bring this just to a boil and then down to a simmer.  Allow the bones to simmer alone overnight or longer, but no longer than about one day.  After allowing the bones to have their private time in the stock pot, add all of the vegetables and bring back to a boil.  

All the vegetables!

5)  Simmer this for another day.  The vegetables will have given up just about all of the flavor and nutrients that they have to offer after 18-24 hours, so it will be time to remove them.  Simply strain them out and discard.  The vegetables will mostly be at the top of the stock, while the bones stay on the bottom.  You'll also likely find that you have a serious layer of fat accumulating on top of the water. 

 While I don't encourage you to try to remove the fat at this point in time (we will defat later), if the layer is a good inch thick or so, it's easy to lift off plenty of nice clean fat at this point in time to save for cooking later.  In fact, you can boil the water out of the skimmed fat and then filter it to have some really excellent tallow, which is what I did below.

Pastured Tallow:  greatest byproduct ever

6)  Once the bones have simmered for 3 days, they're just about done and it is going to be time to finish off the stock.  You will likely have needed to replenish the water during this process routinely to keep the bones submerged; I had to add about 2 quarts per day.  At this time, you will have a large pot full of a dark brown liquid and some soft, spent bones.  It doesn't even taste very good because there is absolutely no salt in this. (It is important not to salt a stock, because the final product will either be cooked down a little, or in the case of a demiglace, quite a lot.  Salt the dish that you are making with the stock.) 

bones n' sludge

7)  Remove the bones from the pot, and strain into another large pot through a colander to get any large pieces out of the liquid.  Strain this again through a cheesecloth, and then I personally do one final straining through a paper towel or coffee filter in order to obtain a very clean and clear product.  Let the filtered stock sit overnight in the refrigerator, and any remaining fat will solidify at the top of the pot.  Remove this and reserve for future use before bringing the stock just to the boiling point one last time. 

This!  This is what we have been waiting and working for!

 8)  I like to store my stock in the freezer in quart sized glass canning jars.  I put it in the jars simmering-hot so that as it cools it forms a vacuum which sucks the lid firmly down onto the jar.  I then label the jars with some masking tape (most frozen things in a jar look awfully similar when you are digging through a dark chest freezer in a cold garage).  Note how rich the color is (and the flavorr, but I guess you can't really note that through your monitor...).  This stock came out with this intensity without any reduction after de-fatting. 

liquid culinary gold.

 That's it!  You now have a nutrient and mineral rich stock that is a powerhouse of flavor and the excellent foundation of so many dishes that your imagination will be the limiting factor.  It takes a while to make, but you can make quite a bit of it at once and put it away for future use.  

Now, I'm off to use some for a venison mushroom soup for a very special someone... ;)

Chicken Stock

Chicken stock is definitely a kitchen staple, and something that can be made with very little effort using only leftovers and a few extra vegetables.  A very versatile ingredient, this stock forms the base of many soups (like chicken, butternut, and carrot) as well as providing a more flavorful and nourishing cooking liquid for things like potatoes and quinoa.

We start with a large pot that looks like this...

Ingredients:

• 3 average sized chicken carcasses; picked free of meat
• 3 large carrots cut into chunks
• leaves and other leftovers from a head of celery
• 2 onions, cut into quarters
• 1/2 cup vinegar

1.  Save cleaned chicken carcasses (the leftover bones, skin, etc...from roasted chicken makes excellent fodder for the stock pot) in the freezer until you have enough to make stock.  In my 16 quart stock pot, I prefer to use 3-4 carcasses, but you can always make a smaller amount of stock from a single chicken.
2. Put carcasses in a large pot and fill with cold water and vinegar.  Bring this just to a boil and reduce to a simmer for several hours, skimming any scum that rises to the surface.
3. Add vegetables to the pot and bring back to a boil.  Simmer for another 18-24 hours before straining through cheese cloth.  Place the strained stock someplace cool in order for the fat to solidify.  Remove the fat from the stock, bring to a boil again, and then prepare for your recipe or for storage.  I like to store it frozen in pint and quart sized glass jars in my deep freezer.

...and after 24-20 hours of cooking, looks like this.  Ready to strain.

Green Smoothies

This is my go-to smoothie. On days where I'm short on time, I'll often throw the ingredients in my magic bullet and take it to-go. It's super customizable, too. You can add or subtract flavors, or substitute similar ingredients. I like to make mine with unsweetened, unflavored kefir. Check out my version below.

Green Smoothie

Ingredients:
1 frozen sliced banana
1 tablespoon all-natural peanut butter (just peanuts and salt)
1-1/2 cup unflavored kefir (adjust to achieve desired consistency)
1 tablespoon honey
a handful of baby spinach

Directions:
Blend all ingredients until smooth.

Makes 1 serving

Adapted from Iowa Girl Eats

BBQ Ribs

BBQ Ribs

When we go out to eat, there are typically two types of restaurants that we frequent:  sushi and BBQ.  Good BBQ is something that goes a bit beyond the means that we have to cook at home, as a smoker is not something that we have access to.  Sushi is fun to make (and we have), but the amount of extremely fresh ingredients required to put together a good sushi spread mean that it is often easier and even more economical to dine out when seeking that kind of experience.  Also, 'going out' to eat is a fun activity to engage in from time to time, no matter how much one enjoys home cooking.  It's an excellent way to get exposure to new ideas to try at home.


When we do go out for BBQ, Christa usually likes to sample a different dish each time we go, slowly working her way through the variety of cuts and presentations while accumulating more knowledge of the cuisine and (one day) trying everything that good smoky slow cooking can accomplish.  I, on the other hand, do not consider any trip out for BBQ complete without a rack of ribs.  I love ribs - it's an easy decision to make for me.  There's something wonderful about eating perfectly cooked meat right off of the bones that appeals in ways that brisket and pulled pork never will.

I'm getting hungry just looking at this

The idea of making ribs at home, though, seemed daunting.  As I mentioned before, I cannot smoke meats without a smoker.  However, the desire to make ribs something that we could enjoy on a more regular basis led me to try out a variety of methods involving braising them for long periods in the oven and judiciously applying some extreme heat just before eating.

The results, while not exactly the same as good BBQ, certainly fill that void and provide really tasty ribs anytime we would like them at home.  The method described below works for any cut of ribs, though baby-back are preferential for us.

Ingredients:

• two racks of pork ribs
• dry seasonings (either a rub or just good salt and pepper)
• three Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• BBQ sauce (make your own or find a commercial variety that suits the bill)

Raw Materials

 See the layer of connective tissue there on the back of the racks?  You can either try to remove it entirely, or simply score it with a criss-cross pattern using a sharp knife.  I opt for the latter.  Once the racks are cleaned and dried and prepped as aforementioned, lay them out on a large sheet of aluminum foil and season with the dry seasonings of your choice.  Pour the vinegar over the racks (to provide some initial moisture for the braising process), and then tightly seal the foil into a package around the ribs.  Pop this into the oven for 4 hours at 250F.  Don't open it up, just let it do its thing in there.  What we're doing is cooking them low and slow with lots of moisture in order to soften up the connective tissues and render them quite tender.  Once the ribs have cooked entirely through, open the foil packet and drain off the excess liquid that will have accumulated during cooking.  Turn the broiler of your oven on and brush the back of the racks with BBQ sauce; just a thin layer.  Run the racks under the broiler for no more than 10 minutes, or just long enough to sear the sauce onto the meat without burning it.  Pull the ribs out and brush another coat of sauce on and then broil again.  Flip the racks and repeat this process again on the 'front' of the ribs.  I recommend doing several application of the broiler with thin layers of sauce to really bake it in, as opposed to trying to glop the sauce on too thickly.  You can apply as many layers as you like depending on personal preference.

ribs, Ribs, RIBS!

Once the ribs are broiled to your own personal level of perfection, simply let them cool down enough to serve and enjoy.  The cleanup couldn't be easier as well, as you've cooked them in the aluminum foil (no dishes to do).

This recipe along with a side might easily serve 5-6 people, unless once of those people is me.

Roast Chicken

There's something about a whole roasted chicken that ultimately is just so much more than the sum of any of its parts.  Sure, we cook the breasts (boneless and skinless if we're not interested in pleasing the palate), chicken thighs/legs, and of course one of our favorite meaty snacks: buffalo wings.  However, when a whole bird with all of the bones and skin and connective tissue is allowed to come to perfection in a hot fragrant oven, something almost magical has happened.  The best part of all is that it really takes very little effort on the part of the cook to do this right. 

Pouring the cold brine over the raw chickens the night before

I like to plan in advance for roasting whole birds, as I am a proponent of brining overnight.  To do so, clean your chickens and remove any organs from the cavity.  Place them in a nonreactive vessel (glass or stainless work well enough for this) that is large enough to completely submerge them.

The brining fluid that I use is simply a base of 1/2c of coarse salt for every 2 cups of water, along with an acid component.  For these chickens, I added some lime slices and apple cider vinegar (about 3 tablespoons) along a generous pinch of whole peppercorns.  Into the fridge they went for about 10 hours.

Once the process of brining is complete, simply remove them from the water solution (which you should discard) and them pat the skin of the chickens dry.  It's important that the skin be very dry before you proceed, so I toweled off the birds and then let them sit uncovered in the fridge for another two hours to finish evaporating any liquid on the surface of the skin.

Butter and herbs blended together

During this time, I began to make a flavored butter rub to apply to the chickens.  To do so, I simply took a large pat of pastured Irish butter and melted it in a makeshift double boiler consisting of a small glass bowl within a larger bowl full of boiling water.  To the melted butter I stirred in dried herbes de provence, coarsely ground black pepper, and some grey sea salt.  I set this aside while preparing the assembly of the birds for roasting.

Everything laid out and ready to begin

Buttered up and stuffed...ready for the oven

I turned the oven on to 450 F and then set about prepping the birds.  I lined a large roasting pan with foil to make cleanup a bit easier, and then proceeded to loosely stuff cilantro into the body cavity of the chickens and brush the melted herb butter all over the skins.  The skin should be dry in order to facilitate the adhesion of the butter mixture, which will stick quite nicely when it solidifies on contact with the cold skin of the chickens.  The herbs inside should not be packed tightly, but rather left loose enough to allow heat to circulate freely while providing delicious aromatic flavors to the chicken.  Cilantro is what I chose here because I had it on hand, but rosemary is another classic herb that lends itself very well to this purpose.  The contents of the body cavity will be discarded when the chicken is done, either way,. but they will impart lots of flavor to the meat of the chicken while they steam inside of it.


Pop the birds into the 450 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes.  This initial high temperature will help to brown the nicely oiled dry skin.  After that, turn the temperature down to 350 and continue to roast for 20 minutes per pound.  As these birds weighed about 4 lbs each, they stayed in the oven for 80 minutes until the meat thermometer registered 165F in the thickest part of the chicken.

This method doesn't require any foil shielding or flipping (trying to roll a hot bird over right out of the oven is a hassle that I never want to deal with again).  The skin crisps up right away and seals in the moisture of the meat.  When you remove them from the oven, be sure to let the chickens rest for at least 20 minutes lest all of those juices run right out when you start to carve them. 

The smell doesn't make the resting period any easier.

While you can certainly enjoy a roast chicken for dinner as-is with a side, I like to reserve the meat for other dishes that I would like to put chicken in (like soup and pizzas).  Whatever you do, I would highly recommend saving the carcasses to make stock with!  We'll talk more about all of those things in a future post, though.

Roast Chicken

1. Clean the chicken.
2. Brine the chicken overnight in a solution of 1/2 cup coarse salt, 2 cups water, lime slices, apple cider vinegar, and peppercorns.
3. Remove the chickens from the solution, discard liquid, and pat dry. Let the bird uncovered in the fridge sit for about 2 hours to allow excess moisture to evaporate.
4. When the chicken is almost ready, melt butter and stir in dried herbes de provence, coarsely ground black pepper, and some grey sea salt. Set aside.
5. Preheat oven to 450º.
6. Stuff the bird with cilantro and coat generously with the butter mixture.
7. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until browned.
8. Bake at 350º for 20 minutes per pound. Internal temperature should reach at least 165º.
9. Remove from oven and let sit for 20 minutes.
10. Discard cilantro.
11. Serve or prepare as desired, reserving carcass for stock.