Archive for January, 2010

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January 20, 2010

An introduction, and some chili!

Hi all, this is seth (sethhagler.wordpress.com). Jeff has agreed to let me add a bit to the blog, and I’m excited. I’m a guy, living in Nashville, who loves to eat, drink and cook. I’m engaged, but my fiancé lives about 2.5 hours away, so I get to claim my current living arrangement as living single. Look forward to writing and interacting, this should be fun!

Sunday, I found out my church was having a chili cook-off. Right up my alley, right?  So during the sermon, I made up my recipe, rocked Trader Joe’s for the necessary ingredients, plus some Yazoo Brewing “Sue” to make the process fun!, and got busy. While I don’t have pictures, I think I can portray the deliciousness appropriately.

Prep a large Vidalia onion, shredded nicely on my new mandoline, 2 large chopped shalots, 5 cloves of rough chopped garlic (I like mine chunky!) and seed and chop jalapenos, poblanos, serranos to taste.  Sweat these in a stock pot with enough oil to cover the bottom of the pan. Once appropriately cooked, remove veg from pot, leaving the oil.

Place 2 pounds of meat in hot oil. I used ground pork and ground chuck for a variety of flavors and fat contents. You can go leaner, but add more oil if so. Season heavily to taste with ground cumin, chili powder, onion powder, finely-ground black or white pepper, red pepper, and a small bit of salt. Brown this to just under done, as it will cook thoroughly by simmering and will stay juicy.

Once meat is browned, pour in one 12-oz. beer of choice, the darker the better. I used a Yazoo “Dos Perros” just because it’s local and great, but anything dark with chocolate or malt notes works well. Other options are Negra Modelo, etc. Heat to a simmer, and then add in the veggies and stir. Let this simmer, lightly bubbling for about 30 minutes to get the flavors married.

Next comes the bulk of the chili, the tomatoes. I prefer really spicy chili, so I use Mexican canned tomatoes, such asRotel with green chilies. Also, check out Rotel ”Chili Fixins”, a can with several ingredients. Pour in 2 undrained cans of diced tomatoes, I use fire-roasted for extra flavor, and two cans of diced Rotel. For extra flavor, pour in 1/2 bottle of Cholula Hot Sauce, great taste, not too much fire. You can add more or less if you like, but this is plenty hot. For thefinal ingredient, bear with me here, add one bar of good crushed chocolate, preferably with a high cacao content (75% or more). Stir well to combine and melt chocolate.

Let this simmer for 3 or 4 hours, stirring occasionally to keep the flavors blending. Then, serve, topping with crushed corn chips, sour cream, shredded cheese (pepper jack is best!), or whatever you like. I know this is a vague recipe, but you get the idea. Don’t be afraid to try your own variation, but I will say that this won the prize for best overall chili at the 2010 Second Presbyterian Church Nashville chili cook-off!

Enjoy!

Seth

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January 17, 2010

Blueberry Pancakes

Blueberry Pancakes are really easy to make.  I made them yesterday for lunch and they were awesome.  Here’s how you do it…..

I bought

  • store brand pancake mix (the “just add water” kind)
  • 1 small pack of blueberrys
  • jimmy dean sausage

You’ll also need

  • oil (i use canola or vegetable)

Mix your pancake mix in a big bowl – they usually tell you how much on the back of the box.  However, their definition of 5 pancakes and mine are a little different.  For instance, this box said 5-7 pancakes with 1 cup of mix; one cup of mix made 2 pancakes for me.

Pour an ample number of blueberrys into the mix.  DO NOT MIX ANY MORE THAN NECESSARY; pancakes don’t turn out well if you mix the mixture too much.

Start your sausage in another pan if you chose to add sausage.

Put oil into the pan you’re going to be cooking in, add a layer of oil to the bottom of the pan.  Allow the pan to heat on the stove until it’s warm (test by holding your hand over the pan).

Pour enough pancake mix into the pan to where you don’t overfill your pan and give yourself room to get the spatula under the pancake – thin is good.  Flip when you start to see bubble forming on the uncooked side.  Don’t burn but you also want to make sure the middle of the pancake gets done.

Serve with syrup.  So easy to do and easy to impress someone if you happen to be making breakfast for someone else.

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January 15, 2010

Green Pork Chili

My favorite food guy/traveler is The Travel Channel’s Anthony Bourdain.  Unfortunately, Comcast and the Travel Channel do not get along, but I can still view Anthony’s show on the internet (you suck comcast, make this happen).  Anthony likes to talk about the journey of finding a meal and that there’s a part where you just need to trust yourself and trust that you’re moving towards something great even if it may not look that way sometimes.

I was reminded of Anthony’s thoughts while I was trying to adapt Bobby Flay’s recipe for Green Pork Chili into something that I could handle in my own kitchen.  If you want to see his take, visit the Food Network site, but I’ll be showing you what I did below….

Ingredients

  • 2 red onions, chopped
  • 1 pound tomatillos, husked (peeled), rinsed, and halved
  • 3 jalapenos, stemmed, seeded and halved
  • 2 garlic cloves
  • 4 tablespoons canola oil
  • 2 pounds pork roast, cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 5 cups store brand chicken stock
  • 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, toss the onions, tomatillos, jalapenos, and garlic with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and spread on a baking sheet. Leave in the oven until soft and starting to brown, about 20 to 30 minutes, stirring twice during roasting.  I only left for about 20 minutes and I wish I had left for 30 so the vegetables were browned a little more.  Also, while chopping the onions, I started to tear up; I’ve never teared up when chopping onions.  I turned the microwave vent on, but still had a rough go of it….not that there’s anything wrong with crying.  If you don’t know this already, it’s very important that you don’t touch your eyes before you’ve washed your hands after messing with jalapenos and onions unless you’d like to enter a world of pain.

Meanwhile, in a large pot over medium-high heat, add the oil and heat. Brown the pork, in batches, until well-browned. When browned, add all of the pork back to the pan and cover with chicken stock. Add the roasted vegetables, cover the pan and turn the stove heat to medium. Cook until the pork is very tender, about 1.5 hours.  I wish I had let the pork get a little more brown as well, but honestly, I got impatient.  If you’re trying it or I’m doing it again, I recommend letting the pork get brown.

Toss cilantro into pork mixture and stir.  Let cook for about 5 more minutes.

Honestly, this was one of the best tasting dishes I’ve made myself.

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January 14, 2010

Blackened Fish

I used Tilapia for this recipe and it turned out great.  I used the Emeril Creole seasoning.  Here was the end result:

The recipe I borrowed this from suggested making what they called “compound butter”.  Here’s the mixture and the directions:

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 tablespoon Creole seasoning
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon black pepper

In a bowl, add the butter, Creole spices, salt and pepper and mix to combine. Melt the butter if you need to in order to mix ingredients together.

Pre-heat a non-stick frying pan.  Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Take the fish and cover both sides in creole seasoning (about 1/2 tbsp for each side).  Once the pan is heated, put the fish in the pan for about 2 minutes on each side until the seasoning is browned.

Coat a baking dish on the bottom with half of the butter mixture.  Place the fix on top of the butter mixture and let the fish cook for about 12 – 15 minutes (try not to overcook).  When the fish is done, place it on your plate and then add a spoonful of the leftover butter mixture.

Sides

I used a frozen “southern mix” with onions, red peppers, blackeyed peas and black beans.

I also made wild rice from a rice-a-roni box.

I wanted to use this recipe to illustrate something that was a bit of a cooking revelation for me.  When you get a craving for something and decide you want to make it yourself, you can go out and google recipes.  I’ve found though that doing this often results in getting some crazy recipe with 97 ingredients and all sorts of techniques.  In the past, this used to make me give up on cooking and just go buy some frozen food or take out.  I’ve changed my perspective though….

This recipe was adapted from this one at the Food Network.  As you can see, I didn’t use catfish but instead used tilapia that I had on hand, I cut out the lemons because I didn’t want to mess with it, and I cut out the chives because I didn’t think it would add much.  The point is, I adapted the recipe to what I had and what I felt like getting involved with and still turned out a delicious meal. Cooking shouldn’t be a chore, it should be something you enjoy so you can save money, eat well, and eat healthy.  For me, learning that I didn’t have to follow the recipe exactly and could make it my own has really helped to make it less of a chore and turn it into something I enjoy.

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