About these ads
Home

The lost weekend and breakfast burritos

February 29, 2012

The Ranting Chef Breakfast, Mexican, Recipes , , , , , , , 8 Comments

As indicated in prior posts, I’ve not been at home a lot lately, so my cooking (and grocery shopping) have taken a bit of a hit. So today’s post is a variation on a theme from yesterday’s: breakfast burritos.

I am a big fan of breakfast. I love it. I’m not talking about a bowl of soggy cereal or a doughnut and coffee. I’m talking about breakfasts that must be cooked. Pancakes have promise. French toast is even better. Eggs? Nirvana. Corned beef hash? fantastic. And as my children will attest, bacon is the perfect food. Is there something better than waking up to the smell of fresh cooked bacon? I’m not so sure.

I am also the kind of person that once I am up for the weekday, it is time to get moving. I just cannot sit at the breakfast table as I am already thinking about the things I need to get done. I would much rather get to the office and grab something quick there but unfortunately buying more than a daily bagel can get expensive rather quickly. The solution is the home-made breakfast burrito.

Like the lunch burritos in my last post (Call me Mr. Chipotle), the idea is to cook once and eat many times. While there are many variations you can employ, here is what I did.

  • eggs (1 per burrito)
  • milk (to mix with the eggs prior to scrambling)
  • burrito sized tortillas (8)
  • pre-cooked turkey sausage crumbles (leave this or the cheese out to make kosher)
  • 1 T of olive oil
  • diced red pepper (1)
  • diced onion (2/3)
  • sliced mushroom
  • diced jalapeno (1)
  • shredded Mexican cheese (leave this or the sausage out to make kosher)
  • foil

Break the eggs into a bowl and mix with about 1/2 cup of milk. Pour into a preheated pan over medium high heat. Scramble the eggs and remove from heat. Add oil to the pan and after the oil is hot, add the peppers and onion. Saute the mixture until the onions start to become translucent. Add the mushrooms and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from heat.

Place a sheet of foil down, then tortilla and start adding your ingredients. I made 8 burritos and found the assembly line worked well for me.

Wrap them up and put them in the freezer. This morning, after 2 minutes in the microwave, I had a delicious REAL breakfast while sitting at my desk and reading email.

About these ads

Call me Mr. Chipotle

February 28, 2012

The Ranting Chef Mexican, Recipes , , , , , , , , , 11 Comments

I lived for many years in Southern California and developed a love for the flavors of Mexico (and Asia). Chilies…fish tacos…carnitas…guacamole…love them. I could eat Mexican food every day (of course I say that about Italian, Chinese, breakfast foods, etc…). I think that is why when I was browsing a number of the Webpress food blogs, the idea of making your own “work lunch” ready burritos caught my eye. (I did not bookmark the post and have looked again for it, but to no avail. I apologize for not giving props to the original post.)

While the concept didn’t have to come from a rocket scientist, I certainly hadn’t thought of it before: pre-make a handful of burritos on the weekend and freeze them for a handy lunch. Before I left my weekend at Mom’s place, I decided to try the concept out and leave her a few ready to eat lunches.

Scouring her pantry and refrigerator, I was able to assemble the following:

  • burrito sized tortillas
  • a large can of chicken
  • Southwestern spice mix
  • a can of black beans
  • a bag of instant brown rice
  • a red pepper or two
  • some onions
  • a can of salsa (can? really? salsa in a can?)
  • some canned green chilies
  • some shredded mexican cheese

The first step was to dice the onions and peppers and saute them in a small amount of olive oil.

Next, I drained the beans and as much fluid out of the salsa as I could (a can? really?). I mixed the chicken with about 1 T of the southwestern spices and heated up the rice bag. Time now to assemble.

A sheet of foil, a tortilla and a scoop (large for chicken, beans, rice and peppers/onions and small for salsa and chilies) of each item. Add a sprinkle of cheese on top.

Roll the contents and fold in the sides. Roll the burrito in foil, again wrapping the sides. The process yielded eight burritos (one in the fridge and seven destined for the freezer).

To reheat the frozen burrito, remove the foil, sprinkle with a very little water, cover and microwave on high for 2-3 minutes.

So delicious and easy to make.

Scalloping along

February 27, 2012

The Ranting Chef Recipes, Seafood , , , , , , , , , , , , 6 Comments

It is always interesting to cook in someone’s kitchen other than your own. Appliances, pots and pans, utensils and staple ingredients are all unique to a kitchen.

This weekend I spent over at my mother’s place and had the opportunity to make several meals there. It has been a while since I’ve cooked over a gas stove and it didn’t take long to remember how great it is. Turn it on, and it is instantly hot. Turn it off, no longer cooking. Minute changes are easy to see. Someday I might replace my (relatively new) stove, but I’m not holding my breath until then.

Friday night I decided to make scallops. It wasn’t until about five years ago when I had my first scallop. I am so thankful that it was at a quality restaurant and the scallop was delicious, as I have really enjoyed them since.

That decided, I needed some sides. I love scallops on a bed of pasta. I knew my wife wouldn’t eat any (see Carb Loading for Lent) but cooking for mom gave me a ready excuse to have some linguine. I found some asparagus in the fridge, so that was another easy side. My second side (or third for Mom and I) was my Appetizer on the Side (most recent post).

If you haven’t purchased scallops before there are two key things to look for. First, look for dry packed scallops. Dry pack are as they are from the sea. Wet pack scallops are soaked in a solution of preservatives and other item that may alter the taste, color and artificially increase their size. If the vendor you purchase them from doesn’t know if they are wet or dry pack (like my experience Friday afternoon) ask to see the packaging. Second, ask to smell them. If they smell fishy, like any fish purchase, move on.

I found some beautiful, never frozen, dry pack colossal sea scallops. I sprinkled both flat sides of the scallops with salt and pepper.

The asparagus would take the longest, so I preheated the oven to 450 degrees, spread the spears on a griddle pan (you can use a cookie sheet), sprinkled with salt and pepper and drizzled with a little olive oil.

The asparagus went in for 12-15 minutes. The thinner the spears, the lower the time. Next I cooked a bit of the pasta according to its directions, drained, added it back into the pan with 2T of butter and a small sprinkle of garlic powder.

Time for the scallops! I heated a pan over medium high heat and then added about 1T of olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of the pan). I then added the scallops and let them sit for about 3 minutes. The larger the scallops (mine were huge), the longer they will need to cook. You can tell they are ready to turn as the color on the side of the scallop will be less pearl and more white as it cooks. When it is white almost half way up the side, time to turn. CAREFULLY work your spatula under the scallop (it may try to stick and you don’t want to tear off that nice sear) and turn them. Another 3 minutes and pull them out of the pan.

I then added the prepared sauce (see recipe) and reduced that while scraping any bits from the bottom of the pan.

Meanwhile the asparagus was done, so I removed it from the oven, gave it a quick sprinkle of lemon juice over it and topped it with a few sunflower seeds (pine nuts would have been my go to, but found these in the pantry instead).

I plated the pasta, scallops went on top, sauce over that and asparagus on the side. Beautiful and great eats.

Sautéed Scallops with White Wine Reduction

Prep Time: 5 mins | Cook Time: 5 mins | Servings: 4 servings (serving size: 3 ounces scallops and 2 tablespoons sauce) | Difficulty: easy

Ingredients:

  • 1/3 cup dry white wine
  • 3 tablespoons water
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh onion
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 pound sea scallops
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons light butter
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

1. Combine first 6 ingredients; set aside.

2. Sprinkle scallops with salt and pepper. Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Add scallops; cook 2 minutes on each side or until done. Remove scallops from pan; keep warm.

3. Pour wine mixture into pan; cook over medium-high heat, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Bring to a boil, and cook 1 minute or until reduced to 1/3 cup. Remove from heat; stir in butter. Spoon sauce over scallops; sprinkle scallops with parsley.

Appetizer on the side

February 26, 2012

The Ranting Chef Recipes , , , , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

I have a challenge with side dishes. While I have a large number of recipes that I draw upon for main dishes, I find I return to the same old standbys for side dishes. This challenge becomes greater in low-carb land. No rice, no potato, no pasta and no bread. While I generally have some steamed or roasted vegetable as a side, to round out the plate I often look for a third item.

Friday night I was faced with such a challenge. While spending time away from home, I was shopping for dinner and needed a second side that was low carb. My solution? Make it an appetizer.

While this is not necessarily inventive or unusual, it was for me. I settled on the following:

Cheese: a wedge of blue, a wedge of a Merlot flavored hard cheese and mozzarella.

Tomatoes: Both some grape tomatoes with the mozzarella (drizzled with a little olive oil) and some sun-dried ones

Fruit: Mango cubes and red raspberries (not very low carb but ok in moderation)

A stylish tray indeed. If I make a tray like this in the future, what other items should I be sure to include? Send me a comment with your favorite choices.

The Ranting Cheese Maker

February 25, 2012

The Ranting Chef Cheese, Recipes, Tools , , , , , , , , , , , , , 11 Comments

On January 18th of this year, my culinary interests grew dramatically after reading an article, of all places, in the Wall Street Journal. (Like here for subscribers of WSJ) The article, The Latest DIY Craze? Say Cheese (and Other Dairy) sparked my interest in trying to make cheese. Until reading that I thought that to make cheese you had to be Amish, a dairy farmer, from Switzerland or at least live in Wisconsin. Regardless, I envisioned lots of equipment and time, specialty molds and strange ingredients. What I found, at least for basic Mozzarella cheese, it is a piece of cake (cheesecake?).

What do you need to make cheese?

Milk - This is a no brainer, but the type of milk is important. I thought you needed some organic thing, but what really matters is the level of pasteurization. Ultra-pasteurized? Not good milk for cheese. Pasteurized at a high temperature? Also bad. Here in the Cleveland area, Smith’s Dairy (look for the yellow jug), works well as it is pasteurized but at a lower temperature. And get the freshest milk you can.

Heat – I’ve got plenty of that

Enzymes - Here is where it sounds odd, but it really isn’t. In order for the milk to curdle, we have to “undo” some of what was done in standard milk processing (homogenization and pasteurization). The milk needs to curdle at some point. The enzymes (rennet, citric acid, calcium chloride and flaked salt) are easily found on the intranet and inexpensive.

I performed a quick search for the enzymes and found that one of the best places to buy them is Leeners. Leeners is primarily an online store that specializes in helping home chefs make a wide variety of items from cheese and sausages to beer and wine. Their one physical location is right here in the Cleveland area. So I drove out one of the few snowy nights we’ve had here this year and walked in 30 minutes before they closed. A great shop, and a fantastic lady who talked to me quite a bit about making cheese. She even told me where to buy my milk. One mozzarella making kit later, I was out the door. I have not tried other sites, but I strongly recommend Leeners as they are reasonable and so helpful. Even their website has quite a bit of educational information.

Making the cheese

There are plenty of step by step guides on the Internet, so I won’t recreate them here, but I will give you a sense of how easy it is.

Step 1 – Slowly heat the milk. Do not rush this step. The second time I made cheese, I rushed it and the taste was not nearly as good. The milk needs to get up to 88 degrees (Back to the Future anyone???).

Step 2 – Add enzymes and wait. You have to let the milk separate into curds and whey.

Step 3 – Little Miss Muffet moment – Separate your curds and whey. Gently drain as much whey (liquid) from the curds as you can. If you are not gentle you may lose some consistency. Heat the curds. Drain. Heat the curds.Step 4 – Stretch the cheese – This gives it the traditional mouth feel of Mozzarella. It looks like I am pouring batter, but it is soft cheese being pulled by the spoon.

Step 5 – Shape, wrap and cool. I made mine into a log (vs the traditional ball of Mozzarella you see), as I was planning on slicing it. The one gallon of milk make a “brick” of cheese that is 1.1 lbs.

Step 6 – Cut the cheese (yes…I am a middle school boy at heart) and EAT. The cheese is so creamy and milky. It is not the rubbery cheap stuff you get in the grocery. I made a crostini out of a baguette by slicing on the diagonal, rubbing it with garlic and butter and toasting it. A 1/4″ slice of fresh Mozz, a 1/2 basil leaf and a slice from a Roma tomato. Caprese salad on crostini. Yum.

The kit cost me $25 but included a good low temp food thermometer (which you need) and all the enzymes. You have enough to make 10 bricks and won’t have to re-buy the thermometer. I estimate that I didn’t save any or it won’t cost me any (after multiple bricks) than buying it in the store, but the quality was so much higher.

Older Entries

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 6,151 other followers